We pick up from where we left off in The End of the Age (II): Tell Us, When Will These Things Happen (Part 2).
Returning now to our study on the
Olivet Discourse and let’s begin again with our outline which is the series of
questions that Jesus was asked, and the answers that He gave in this chapter
run accordingly. You remember the disciples, as they accompanied Jesus out of
the temple, heard Him make that remark that the temple would one day be torn
down. And so they asked Him to explain that set of circumstances. And while
He's at it, they said, “Can you also tell us about signs of the end of the age
and signs of Your second coming?” Or as we would call it, “Your second coming.”
What they meant was His coming into His Kingdom.
And as we saw, He began in His
response to those questions by adding an extra one on top of all of the ones
they asked. So Jesus began by explaining what are NOT going to be signs for the
end of the age, so we don't chase after the wrong things. And then next, He
began by answering question number three of their questions first rather than
to do them in the order that they asked. He moves the order around and began
with “What are signs of the end of the age”. That's what we studied in part 2,
principally, and as we did, we learned that an age in the Bible is a period of
history, often a very long period of history in which there is a beginning and
there is an end to that age.
According to the book of Daniel,
our present age, the one we're living in right now, began all the way back in
605 BC, which is a time marked by Babylon's conquest of Jerusalem. That was the
central change in world history that God used to begin a new age, an age He
called the Age of the Gentiles. That age continues until today. In fact, Daniel
says that age will continue all the way until the Lord's second coming, which
is when the Kingdom will be established here on earth, and that begins the next
age.
And as our present age comes to
its appointed end, whenever that happens, the Lord said in the answer that He
gave to His disciples that there would be signs, warning signs to tell us that
we're getting near the end of the age. And those signs would include things
like world wars or famines or plagues or earthquakes. And these signs, though
they are otherwise just ordinary events that we're used to seeing from time to
time, these signs would become recognizable as such because they would follow a
pattern of birth pangs, Jesus said. That is, over time, these events will
increase in severity and in frequency to the point where you can't ignore them
any longer.
And as we know from history, these
things - certainly, the world wars is an example - began happening at the
beginning of the 20th century and in the decades that followed and they've only
grown in severity and increased in frequency, just as Jesus said. So consider
yourselves on notice. We are approaching the end of this age.
And now we move to Jesus' next
answer. And the next answer that He gives is in relation to question number one,
the question “When will the temple be destroyed?” “Can you explain that to us,
Jesus?” And as Luke told us, there was a second part to that question. “Can you
give us some signs that would tell us that the temple is about to be
destroyed?”
Now that's what comes next in the discourse. But as we go to this question, we find another interesting quirk in the Olivet Discourse, and it’s this: Matthew does not record the answer to question number one. In Matthew's Gospel, the narrative jumps from the explanation of the end of the age - question number three - all the way to an explanation of the signs of Jesus’ coming - question number two. So Matthew just jumps from question number three to the one concerning His Kingdom. But Luke gives us the answer that we're missing.
Luke gives us the answer to
question number one. Let us go into the text to see how we know that that's
what's going on, because knowing this is important to interpreting properly what
Jesus says. We’ll have both Gospels side by side. We're looking at Matthew on
the one hand, and Luke 21 on the other hand. Now up to what we've studied so
far in both Matthew and the corresponding passage in Luke, they're both
tracking side by side. Both of those Gospels are talking initially about the
answer to question number three, that is, both Matthew and Luke tell us about
the answer to the question, “What are signs of the end of the age.” But then,
at that point in the two Gospels, there's a break, and Luke and Matthew go in
different directions.
In Matthew 24:8, which would be
where we left off, and then in verse 9, you see the next thing that Matthew
says is, “Then,” and he moves forward in time.
But if you go to the same place in
Luke's Gospel, in Luke 21:12, Luke doesn't go forward. Luke goes backward. Luke
says, “But before all these things.”
So in other words, Matthew is
moving forward in time in the narrative to move to Jesus’ answer - question
number four - concerning the signs of Jesus's second coming, while Luke at that
point moves backward to cover question number one, which is history now,
because question number one addresses how the temple will be destroyed.
And so now you see that this is
the order in each of the two gospels:
- Matthew goes from 3 to 4.
- Luke goes from 3 to 1 and what we’ve
numbered as 1A.
Now, when you actually look at the
two passages, notice the language of Matthew 24:9 and what follows, and the
language of Luke 21:12 and what follows - they're both extremely similar. They
both describe persecution happening to the saints.
And so if you're just reading it
casually and not noticing the details, you could easily assume that both of
these Gospels are describing the same moment at this point. After all, they've
been tracking together up till this point. It's natural to assume they’d just
stay in sync the whole way. And because they're so similar, it's easy to
conclude that.
But in reality, what you're seeing
in this is simply the fact that persecution happens throughout all periods of
history, that there is persecution for the believers in the first century, and
there will be persecution for believers in the last century. Persecution
happened shortly before the temple was destroyed, which is what Luke’s talking
about in chapter 21, and there will be persecution of the believers right
before the end of the age, which is what Matthew is recording in chapter
24.
Many have come to this passage and not picked up on the fact that these now diverge. And this is where you get some of the confusion that exist in the Church concerning the timing of events in the last days. Have you ever heard somebody suggest to you that tribulation began back with the destruction of the temple? While others tell you that that's something that is yet to happen in the future? And when you hear this, you might wonder, “How can Christians be so different in their understanding of something so basic?” Well, here's where you find your answer:
Some have gone to the Olivet
Discourse in Luke and assumed that Luke was describing the same period of
history that Matthew was describing, starting at this breaking point, when in
fact, they've gone in different directions. Knowing this is critical to
interpreting each passage correctly. And if you continue down the passage of
Matthew 24, you'll see clearly that Matthew is talking about persecution in
conjunction with end times events. And similarly, if you scanned down Luke 21
from this point, you can see very clearly that he's talking about persecution
in the context of the destruction of the temple, which we know happened in AD
70.
So by the context of each, it's
clear that they've gone in different directions. In summary, Luke gives us all
the answers - he doesn't skip any of the answers in these questions that Jesus
was facing. But Matthew, for some reason, decides to skip a discussion of
question number one. So if we want to find all the answers that were given in
the Olivet Discourse, what would we have to do? Well, obviously, in order for
us to get all of these answers, we would have to leave Matthew for a time, go
into Luke, study what Luke had to say about question number one, and then come
back out of Luke to Matthew to get to question number four. But we are currently
studying Matthew, so we’re not going to make that detour into Luke.
Instead, we’ll look at an abridged
version of that answer in Luke’s Gospel to question number one. First, when you
go there, Jesus says that the destruction of the temple, when it comes, would
be accompanied by persecution of Christian leaders in the days and years
leading up to that temple destruction, that the leaders of the church would be
dragged into synagogues, and that they would be dragged before governors of
Rome. And it would give an opportunity for them to give testimony. We see proof
of these things having happened in the record of the book of Acts. And Jesus
says this persecution of the Church in the first century would be an early sign
to the believers that the temple was soon to be destroyed.
And then, if you go a little
further, in Luke 21:20, Jesus says that there'll come a moment when the city of
Jerusalem will be surrounded by armies. And that, He says, will be the key sign
to the believer of that day, the believer of the first century, to know that
the end of the temple was about to come.
Now, that sign happened in AD 66.
In AD 66 the Roman general Cestus Gallus was sent
from Rome to put down an insurrection in the city of Jerusalem. Cestus Gallus
came with a Roman Legion, and he surrounded the city of Jerusalem. He blockaded
the Jews in the city. He couldn't get in because the walls of the city were
very difficult to penetrate. So He just set up a siege until he could figure
out a way to go further. And that siege eventually played out over about four
years, and at the end, the Romans breached the city walls, made it into the
city and destroyed the temple.
Now with the Roman Legion was a
man called Josephus. Josephus was a Jewish military commander who had been
captured by the Roman army in a previous conflict and made a slave, a captive
of the army of Rome, and he became a historian. His job was to record the
events of the Roman army as they went about conquering. And so he was there at
the fall of Jerusalem, on the Roman side, writing about what he saw take place.
And this is what he said:
“Now as soon as the army had no more people to slay or to plunder, because there remained none to be the objects of their fury (for they would not have spared any, had there remained any other work to be done), [Titus] Caesar gave orders that they should now demolish the entire city and Temple…so all the rest of the wall [surrounding Jerusalem]…was so thoroughly laid even with the ground by those that dug it up to the foundation, that there was left nothing to make those that came thither believe it [Jerusalem] had ever been inhabited. This was the end which Jerusalem came to…a city otherwise of great magnificence, and of mighty fame among all mankind.
And truly, the very view
itself was a melancholy thing; for those places which were adorned with trees
and pleasant gardens, were now become desolate country every way, and its trees
were all cut down. Nor could any foreigner that had formerly seen Judaea and
the most beautiful suburbs of the city, and now saw it as a desert, but lament
and mourn sadly at so great a change. For the war had laid all signs of beauty
quite waste. Nor had anyone who had known the place before, had come on a
sudden to it now, would he have known it again. But though he [a foreigner]
were at the city itself, yet would he have inquired for it.”
Josephus says that if someone who
had visited the city in prior days came upon it now in its new devastated form,
he would have said, “Hey, where is the city of Jerusalem?” It was that far gone
from what it used to look like. And Josephus tells us that in that attack,
somewhere around 1.1 million Jews died in that city. The temple was burned to
the ground. The city was utterly laid waste. Titus, who was the military
general at the end of that four years, who got credit for that military
victory, celebrated it by commissioning an arch that has relief pictures
depicting the battle and the celebration. That relief can still be seen today
in Rome.
Those are the signs that Jesus
gave His disciples in Luke 21 to tell them to know that the temple was soon to
be destroyed, and it played out perfectly, exactly as Jesus predicted it would
happen some 40 years earlier. It happened. And Jesus told His disciples at that
time, “Be on the lookout for these signs,” and those who heard Jesus' words in
that day and believed them, were able to save themselves from the destruction
that came upon the city in AD 70.
Jesus told them, “When you see
that army and it surrounds the city, that's your chance to get out. You better
do it while you can.” One would imagine that those who did not obey His words,
who did not either listen to them or remember them or understand them, they
would have stayed in the city thinking it's the safest place, they would have
died in that attack, and they would have been among the one million or so Jews
who lost their lives because of the Roman invasion.
Now, in that fact, you find
another interesting reason for why we study prophetic passages. But before that,
let’s review the reasons why Christians should study prophecy.
The first is that the study of
biblical prophecy is a study of our common future. And the more we study our
common future, the greater our Christian unity. You can think of it this way: gaining
a shared understanding of our future means bringing us a shared identity which
helps us unite for a shared mission. That’s reason number one.
Second reason that we study the
end times is because it's supposed to bring us comfort and hope, as Paul told us.
Your hope for the future comes from an understanding that your future in Christ
is glorious and that the events that come upon this world now and tomorrow and
at the end of the age - those events are not your future. That is to say, we will
all escape and overcome that. We know that believers will be spared from the
wrath of God and that the turmoil that God sends upon the earth at the end is not
for us.
So as you know those things,
having studied them in the Bible, you're in a better position to face the end
of the age with confidence and with anticipation even, and a hope that better
things are coming.
And now, the third reason to study
prophecy is because the Lord often shares future details with His children in
Scripture so that you will not become collateral damage. In the Olivet
Discourse, Jesus gave His first century disciples a warning. “Flee Jerusalem
when you see the Romans approaching.” And those who listened and learned were
ready to escape the city, because they knew the prophecy. Because they studied
prophecy, if you will, they were spared the Roman onslaught. But that's the
key. They had to have studied it.
Now, the ones who were there in
the city 40 years after Jesus died, many of them had been born in the years
after. They were not there when Jesus spoke these words originally. Somebody
had to provide them a copy or teach them what had been said. They had to think
about it. They had to understand it. It had to be a priority. They had to make
time to know those things. And by knowing them, they knew how and when to
escape the city.
And undoubtedly some listened and
some benefited, and others ignored and were caught up in the turmoil. We know
that happened. Obeying Jesus’ warning to flee Jerusalem, whether you chose to
obey it or not, didn't change your eternal future. Your salvation was not
dependent on whether or not you paid attention to prophesy. You didn't have to
know these things to go to heaven when you died. So knowing prophecy doesn't
determine whether you go to heaven but it might determine how and when you go.
So there is value in paying
attention to these things. If you don't understand prophecies about Jesus’ coming
for the Church, for example, or about how these last days will play out, that
doesn't affect your salvation. To be eternally saved, the person only needs to
believe in Jesus’ crucifixion to pay for his/her sins and His resurrection to
prove that He has the power of life over death. That's all that's required. If
you believe that, then when you die, you're ushered into Jesus' presence, and
you'll be with Him forever.
Studying prophecy is not about
being saved, but remaining ignorant of prophecy, well, that might bring you
more trouble than necessary. Like those believers in the first century, if we
ignore Jesus' words, we do so at the risk that we might get caught up in
difficult events that weren't intended for us. Or at the very least, if you
ignore prophecy, you might find it difficult to find hope and peace in the face
of things that God brings upon the world. And as a result, you might be
despairing unnecessarily.
Speaking of which, let's continue
in the next part of Matthew's discourse. We move now from question number three
to question number four, going forward in time from the signs of the end of the
age, now to the signs of Jesus' second coming. That starts in verse nine.
Mat 24:9 "Then they will
deliver you to tribulation, and will kill you, and you will be hated by all
nations because of My name.
Mat 24:10 "At that time
many will fall away and will betray one another and hate one another.
Mat 24:11 "Many false prophets
will arise and will mislead many.
Mat 24:12 "Because
lawlessness is increased, most people's love will grow cold.
Mat 24:13 "But the one who
endures to the end, he will be saved.
Mat 24:14 "This gospel of the kingdom shall be preached in the whole world as a testimony to all the nations, and then the end will come.
This is essentially an
introduction to the signs that will proceed Jesus' return and the appearing of
the Kingdom. They’re an introduction, because as we go after this passage into
the next, we'll get much deeper into the details surrounding the moment of His
return. But leading up to that, Jesus says, this is the backdrop. This is the
set of circumstances into which He will return, and notice there will be
tribulation, and there will be persecution once again like there was back at
the time of the temple's destruction. Here again, persecution is a backdrop for
Jesus' second coming. And He says, believers will be persecuted and martyred
and hated by everyone on earth because of their association with Jesus.
The signs we see here are likely
also going to follow something like a birth pangs pattern in the sense that
this is a new kind of persecution. And persecution has always been around, but
what we're seeing here now is one that emerges in a greater severity and a
greater frequency. It's everywhere. It's all the time. Before these things
start, persecution will run like it's always run, here and there, now and
again. It's always somewhere, but not always everywhere. But as we reach the
end of the age, and particularly the days before Christ’s second coming,
persecution will be the norm. Everyone will know it. Everyone will experience
it. It will be everywhere, and it will be intense, and it will lead to the
death of many Christians.
In fact, Jesus says in verse 10 this
intense persecution will be such that it will lead Christians to stumble, that
many believers will fall away, betraying one another and even hating one
another. Now to understand what He's saying here, you have to take a closer
look at the Greek language behind our English translation. The most common
Greek word you'll find in the New Testament that is translated as “fall away”
is the Greek word “apostasia,” from which we also get apostasy. It's this idea
of a repudiation of some previously held belief.
But that's not the word that
Matthew uses here. Matthew does not say “apostasia.” He uses the Greek word
“skandalizo,” and “skandalizo” means literally to stumble, to take offense. So
a better way to translate verse 10 might be this way, “At that time, many
believers will stumble.” That's literally what He's saying. And so He's not
talking about Christians turning away from their belief in Jesus but rather of
Christians stumbling, or we could simply say, sinning, in the face of intense
persecution. They will stumble into sin by betraying other Christians to their
enemies, probably to save their own skin, and even stumbling to the point of
hating other Christians.
Now that might sound extreme. But
if you think about it for a minute, that's not so hard to imagine. I mean, if
you take any two people on earth, even two siblings, or even a married couple,
for that matter, and if you put them in a life or death situation, one that is
pressure packed and scary, at times people will react badly in those
circumstances. Some may even turn on one another in ways that Jesus describes
here, and Jesus says, that's what will start happening at the end of the age.
In fact, in Luke's Gospel in Luke
18:8, a different area of Luke, Jesus says that when He returns, He will not
find much faith on the earth, which is indicative of what He's saying here.
It's not necessarily that people aren't believing. It's that people aren't
acting like believers, and the pressure of the persecution will be such that it
will trigger that stumbling.
And, of course, these bad behaviors, however they come about, are not going to change anybody's eternal future. That's not the point of this. Jesus is not saying they're less saved or that they're not going to heaven. We're all saved by our faith alone, the Bible says, not because we live a sinless life or anything close to it, and therefore no amount of sin that enters into the life of a believer can overcome the grace of God. Hallelujah!
Nevertheless, these believers will
leave the earth with a witness that's been compromised to a degree by their
fears and by their selfishness. And we wonder if these believers would have
behaved differently in that future day that's still to come had they understood
the prophecy of Matthew 24.
Think about it: Jesus is talking
about something that is still in our future. So the words we just read in
Matthew 24 that tell us this will come, well, we can read them today, and those
future believers, they'll be able to read them as well. But evidently some will
not have read them, and as a result they will stumble as they come into the
face of these troubling times, because they won't recognize them, they won't
realize what God is doing.
And so they will give in to the
worst of their nature, and they will do things that I think later they will
really regret doing. Would they have given into the temptation to hate one
another if they had recognized the true reason for that persecution as Jesus
explained it here? Would they have betrayed their fellow believers just to save
their own skin if they understood Jesus’ return was right around the corner?
Because these things are signs that He's coming?
Now you see the power of studying
prophecy. It helps you serve Christ well under difficult circumstances. And not
every believer is going to live through the difficult events that He's
describing here, of course. But some will, and the ones who live through them
will need to have an understanding of them, of the prophecies concerning them
if they hope to respond in ways that preserve their witness.
Now, returning to the passage,
back to what we've read already - Jesus now moves on to saying His coming will
be met by false prophets who will mislead many on the earth. And, He adds,
lawlessness will be increasing everywhere. Once more, false prophets, even
periods of lawlessness - these things, they're not unique. They come and go.
They've been around since the beginning of time, and they continue today as you
know. But as we approach the end of the age in the birth pangs analogy, we can
expect that false prophets and the lawlessness of life will increase. It'll go
from some places at some times, to all places at all times. Lawlessness will
become the new norm as society crumbles under the weight of hatred and pride and
depravity. And as a result of this general breakdown in truth and in society,
Jesus adds in verse 12 that people's love will grow cold.
Now as innocuous as that comment
may sound in passing, it’s probably one of the most frightening statements in
all the New Testament. And here's why: even in the best of times on earth,
humanity struggles to show love to one another - in fact, most of the time,
love is drowned out by selfishness and pride and jealousy and strife and malice
and hatred, and it’s kind of a rare thing when you see a true, selfless display
of love in our current world – so as rare as love is today, can you imagine a
day when love grows cold, which means it goes away ENTIRELY?
The Greek word translated “grow
cold” in that verse is a word that describes the fire dying out and becoming
cool to the touch, like a campfire. So that's the image Jesus uses to
describe the state of love in the world at the end of the age. Whatever little
bit of flickering embers of love we might know today, it's gone at a certain
point.
When you see how heartless your
world can be now, imagine how cruel it will become when there is no love at
all. How ruthless and destructive will people be. How frightening will life
become. How could anyone feel peace or safety under those circumstances.
And one has to assume that the
hopelessness that will be produced by this kind of change is a part of God's
plan to prepare hearts for Jesus' return. And a confirmation of that can
probably be found in verse 14 when Jesus says the Gospel will be preached to
the whole world in that time, and it will reach all nations as a testimony. He
says, “It'll be spoken as a testimony.”
Now that does not necessarily mean
that it's intended to save the whole world. In fact, that's why He says it's a
testimony. It will reach the whole world, and some will be saved by it, of
course, but many also will not receive it. And to them too, it is also a
testimony. Because, sometimes we give a testimony in order to persuade, but
other times it's given just to convict. And then verse 13, backing up one
verse, Jesus adds, the one who endures to the end of this age will be saved.
And that is a curious statement.
We know that enduring difficult
circumstances is not the means of personal salvation. That would be salvation
by works. And the Bible is clear on that. We’re not saved by works, but by
faith alone. And yet, Jesus is saying that at the times right before His second
coming, if you endure to the end, somehow that will have an impact on your
opportunity to be saved, on the opportunity for a certain group to be saved.
We know that Jesus is referring to
the book of Revelation and the book of Daniel. Because in those places in the
Bible, we learn that the end of this age and the second coming of Christ will
be accompanied by a seven-year period of history called the Tribulation - those
seven years that we're still waiting to see culminate the present age.
They're the last seven years of
this age, and at the conclusion of those seven years, Christ returns and the
New Age of the Kingdom will begin. All of those are things that Jesus has told
us, or the Bible has told us elsewhere, and the things we're studying here in
this passage in answer to question number four – all are referring to the
tribulation. All of the events we just learned about in this passage from
chapter 24:9 down, all of these things Jesus is describing, take place during
those seven years of tribulation.
The book of Revelation tells us
the tribulation is a period of great persecution for believers. We're also told
it's a period of great lawlessness. We're also told that there will be an
absence of love because there will be powerful false prophets that take the
world over and deceive the world concerning God. And then finally, at that
time, Revelation tells us that the Gospel will be sent out by God through
144,000 witnesses to all the nations as the last opportunity for faith, here
again matching what Jesus is saying now. All boxes checked.
And then, we're told, there comes
a moment at the very end of those seven years of tribulation when the Lord will
pour out His Spirit on all remaining Jewish people on earth. We learn this in
the book of Zachariah.
We learn in Revelation that as the
Spirit of God is poured out by God at the very end of tribulation, it will lead
to the Jews on earth confessing Christ, coming to faith in Him, crying out for
Him to return to them in the midst of the tribulation.
That's the moment Jesus is
referring to briefly here in Matthew 24:13. He's saying that's the moment all
Israel will be saved. Those Jews who manage to endure to the end, when the
Spirit is poured out, they'll be included in that moment of salvation.
So what verse 13 is telling us, along with everything else we've studied, is that all of these signs are a part of the tribulation period.
Summing up, the tribulation itself
is a sign that the second coming of Christ is right around the corner because
we know from Daniel the tribulation is seven years and that it ends with Jesus'
second coming. So if any of these signs are happening, and you're in the midst
of tribulation, you know you have seven or less years before Jesus' second
coming. You can time it to the start of tribulation. Tribulation, and all the
details within it will occur in a relatively brief period of history. Just
seven years. And all of those who live through that period of seven years will
see those signs, and they will be announcing to that worldwide population that
Jesus' return is imminent.
Now, by way of contrast, let's
just think about this in comparison to what we've already learned. Earlier, we
learned that the signs that would announce the end of the age - these signs
will take place over centuries. We know this because they started at the
beginning of the last century with World War I, and they continue now. They are
going to be witnessed by many generations. We're still here, and we're still
seeing them.
But the signs of Jesus’ second
coming - those signs only happen in a brief period of time, only at the very
end of this age, during the seven years of tribulation. And as such, they’re
only witnessed by those who live on the earth during those seven years. So as
the whole world moves to the very end, with Jesus’ coming right around the
corner, the signs will become increasingly intense for their sake.
In part (IV) of this series, we
going to study the rest of Jesus’ answers to these questions, all the way
through verse 35. And in that final section, Jesus gives us tremendous detail
on what the tribulation will include. As to how the church will be taken out of
the way prior to the onset of those signs of the tribulation - that has, in
part, being covered in the “The Coming of the Lord” series.
Paul reassures the Church in the
book of 1 Thessalonians that there is this difference between us and the world
when it comes to experiencing these signs of the end. Let us read this short
passage from 1 Thessalonians chapter 1. Paul says this in verse 9.
1 Thes 1:9 For they themselves
report about us what kind of a reception we had with you, and how you turned to
God from idols to serve a living and true God,
1 Thes 1:10 and to wait for His
Son from heaven, whom He raised from the dead, that is Jesus, who rescues us
from the wrath to come.
Paul says the Church waits for the
Lord to come from heaven, and to rescue us from the wrath of God to come upon
the earth. And you now have an even better understanding, perhaps another proof
text, for why it is that we can say the Church will not experience the
tribulation. And that's because the tribulation events fundamentally are signs
to the world that Jesus' second coming is about to happen.
But if the events of tribulation
are a sign to the earth that Jesus' return is imminent, then it makes sense
that the Church would not be on the earth to experience those signs.
And do you know why?
Because the Bible says, “When He
comes, we come with Him.”
We don't need signs to know that Jesus' second coming is about to happen, because we participate in the event. And the passage that confirms this in Revelation chapter 19.
This is the description of Jesus's
second coming, as told by John from a heavenly point of view. Looking down from
heaven, he writes:
Rev 19:7 "Let us rejoice
and be glad and give the glory to Him, for the marriage of the Lamb has come
and His bride has made herself ready."
Rev 19:8 It was given to her to
clothe herself in fine linen, bright and clean; for the fine linen is the
righteous acts of the saints.
(Then jump to verse 11.)
Rev 19:11 And I saw heaven
opened, and behold, a white horse, and He who sat on it is called Faithful and
True, and in righteousness He judges and wages war.
Rev 19:12 His eyes are a flame
of fire, and on His head are many diadems; and He has a name written on Him
which no one knows except Himself.
Rev 19:13 He is clothed with a
robe dipped in blood, and His name is called The Word of God.
(We all know this is Jesus. But
then notice verse 14.)
Rev 19:14 And the armies which
are in heaven, clothed in fine linen, white and clean,
(Remember who they are?
They're the ones up there above who are the righteous of the church saints.
Right? They’re us, you and me.)
were following Him on white
horses.
So, when Jesus returns, He will be
accompanied by His bride, the Church saints, who by that time have been
collected into heaven with Jesus. Meanwhile, right before this moment happens,
the Lord is giving the world signs that His Son is about to return. But
naturally, those signs aren't for us. We're not down there. We’re with Him, and
we're not going to need them.
So here again, why do we study
prophecies in the Bible? Because they help us prepare for what's coming. If we
know that wars and earthquakes and famines and pandemics and the like are signs
of the end of the age, then that prepares our heart and our mind for what comes
next. It helps move our eyes off of this world and on to the next.
Jesus said, “Let the dead bury
their dead.”
If you know that the signs of
Jesus' second coming, as terrible as they are, are reserved for tribulation and
for a world that does not know Him, then we can live in peace, knowing we're
not appointed to that wrath.
But at the same time, we should
feel some great urgency in this to speak to our unbelieving friends and
neighbors and family members and strangers, telling them about Christ, telling
them about these events. Because if you know that the end of the age is near,
and you do because you’ve seen the signs, and if you know that tribulation is
what happens at the end of this age, then you know it's soon to happen. And if
you understand what life in the tribulation will be like, and we're just
starting to get a sneak preview today, you know why it would be a horrible
thing for anyone to have to live through it.
And so, by our study of prophecy, we
have every reason to know and to act upon the fact that Kingdom work is our
priority right now. Preparing ourselves for what Jesus has said is coming, and
preparing others as well, is our mission. The signs are here. We don't know how
much longer it's all going to last, but we know that it won't be long, and we
certainly know enough to be faithful to our mission as ambassadors for
Christ.
Let’s not be worried or fearful about the world's descent into turmoil. Jesus said that was going to happen, and it's
going to happen. It's got to get there somehow. And neither should we make our
goal, strictly speaking, fixing this fallen world. We can do our part to
encourage love. We can do our part to encourage healing and to be a
constructive force in society, that's perfectly appropriate for every Christian,
but don't make your goal that.
There's a difference between
helping people in terms of what's going on in this world and making your goal
fixing the world. Those things are very different. We want to help the people
in it, yes, but the best way to help them is to rescue them out of it and to
prepare them for the next world.
No comments:
Post a Comment