The Second Coming of Jesus - pt. 1

Sunday Morning Bible Study

December 26, 2010

Introduction

· Thursday Night – Left Behind (Play clip)

· Friday Night – 6-10 pm – New Year’s Eve Party for whole family

· Israel Trip (play video clip). Sign up in back if interested. “Gift” coupons in back.

We’re taking a little break from the Gospel of John to talk about the Coming of Jesus.

Last week we talked about His First Coming – what we celebrate at Christmas.

We talked about the amazing prophecies that were fulfilled when He came the first time. Some estimate there were over 300 prophecies fulfilled when He came 2,000 years ago.

What some don’t realize is that there are over twice as many prophecies that are still unfulfilled, prophecies that detail out the events of His Second Coming.

We are going to take the next two weeks to talk about the Second Coming

The Bible is a reliable document.

When you see how carefully God fulfilled the prophecies concerning the First Coming, you can be sure that God will fulfill the prophecies concerning the next coming.

Today I want to lay out four major events that are coming our way…

1. The Church Age

The age of the Gentiles.

The prophet Daniel was given some incredible prophecies.

One prophecy in particular bridges this time period between the first and second comings of the Messiah.

Daniel lived during the time of the Babylonian exile, when the Jews had been carted off to Babylon for seventy years as a judgment for their sin. While praying and fasting, God sends the angel Gabriel to pass on some interesting information to Daniel.

(Da 9:24–27 NKJV) —24 “Seventy weeks are determined For your people and for your holy city, To finish the transgression, To make an end of sins, To make reconciliation for iniquity, To bring in everlasting righteousness, To seal up vision and prophecy, And to anoint the Most Holy.

This prophecy is called the “Seventy weeks of Daniel”. It is all about Daniel’s people, the Jews. It is all about winding things up for them, making things right, and the coming of the Messiah.

The key to decoding this is to know that each “week” is a period of seven years. Seventy weeks involves 490 total years.

25 “Know therefore and understand, That from the going forth of the command To restore and build Jerusalem Until Messiah the Prince, There shall be seven weeks and sixty-two weeks; The street shall be built again, and the wall, Even in troublesome times.

I won’t go into detail here, but this verse actually locates the date that the Messiah would appear. I’ll give you a hint, it points to the day that Jesus entered Jerusalem on a donkey and the people shouted “Hosanna”.

26 “And after the sixty-two weeks Messiah shall be cut off, but not for Himself;

At the end of the 69^th week the Messiah is put to death. It’s at His death that this seventy week time clock comes to a halt. There is still one “week” that hasn’t been accounted for.

For a period of time, God will put the nation of Israel “on a shelf” so to speak, and His main way of speaking to the world will be through the predominantly Gentile church.

Yet there will be a time when God is finished with the Gentile church, and God will once again be dealing with the nation of Israel.

26 And the people of the prince who is to come Shall destroy the city and the sanctuary. The end of it shall be with a flood, And till the end of the war desolations are determined.

The people of the prince to come were the Romans. They would destroy Jerusalem and the Temple in A.D. 70.

The prince to come is the antichrist. The antichrist wouldn’t destroy the city, but his people would.

27 Then he shall confirm a covenant with many for one week; But in the middle of the week He shall bring an end to sacrifice and offering. And on the wing of abominations shall be one who makes desolate, Even until the consummation, which is determined, Is poured out on the desolate.”

The “he” is the antichrist. This is when he will come on the world scene.

This last “week” is the final week of the seventy weeks.

This last week of 7 years is known as the Tribulation.

We’ll come back to this verse a few times more.

I believe this time break in the seventy weeks is the time during which God shifts His focus from Israel, to the Gentile church. Paul talks about God’s shift in focus:

(Ro 11:25–26a NKJV) —25 For I do not desire, brethren, that you should be ignorant of this mystery, lest you should be wise in your own opinion, that blindness in part has happened to Israel until the fullness of the Gentiles has come in. 26 And so all Israel will be saved…

Paul saw that there was blindness from the Jews toward the Messiah. He saw that this would change once the “fullness of the Gentiles has come in”.

I believe this means that there is a certain number of Gentiles that God is looking to save. When that number is reached, we will enter that seventieth week, the Tribulation, and God will once again work through Israel.

Peter writes:

(2 Pe 3:9–12 NKJV) —9 The Lord is not slack concerning His promise, as some count slackness, but is longsuffering toward us, not willing that any should perish but that all should come to repentance. 10 But the day of the Lord will come as a thief in the night, in which the heavens will pass away with a great noise, and the elements will melt with fervent heat; both the earth and the works that are in it will be burned up. 11 Therefore, since all these things will be dissolved, what manner of persons ought you to be in holy conduct and godliness, 12 looking for and hastening the coming of the day of God, because of which the heavens will be dissolved, being on fire, and the elements will melt with fervent heat?

How can we “hasten” the coming of the day of God?

By sharing Christ. By getting that last person saved. And then comes …

2. The Rapture

Listen to this fellow explain what the Rapture is all about:

Play “Rapture” clip.

Paul describes the Rapture like this:

(1 Th 4:13–18 NKJV) —13 But I do not want you to be ignorant, brethren, concerning those who have fallen asleep, lest you sorrow as others who have no hope.

“fallen asleep” is a way of referring to those who have died.

14 For if we believe that Jesus died and rose again, even so God will bring with Him those who sleep in Jesus. 15 For this we say to you by the word of the Lord, that we who are alive and remain until the coming of the Lord will by no means precede those who are asleep.

Those of us who are still alive when the Lord comes back won’t be getting our new glorified bodies before those who have already died…

16 For the Lord Himself will descend from heaven with a shout, with the voice of an archangel, and with the trumpet of God. And the dead in Christ will rise first. 17 Then we who are alive and remain shall be caught up together with them in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air. And thus we shall always be with the Lord. 18 Therefore comfort one another with these words.

We believe that the Bible teaches that when a believer dies, their physical body is buried, but their spirit goes immediately to heaven to be with Jesus.

When the Rapture occurs, those who are already dead will get a new, glorified body first.

Then we who are still alive on earth will be caught up in the clouds and receive our new bodies.

Paul makes is sound as if this will happen almost instantaneously:

(1 Co 15:51–52 NKJV) —51 Behold, I tell you a mystery: We shall not all sleep, but we shall all be changed— 52 in a moment, in the twinkling of an eye, at the last trumpet. For the trumpet will sound, and the dead will be raised incorruptible, and we shall be changed.

I don’t’ know how fast the “twinkling of an eye” is, but it sounds pretty quick to me.

What will it look like?

For the believer: One moment you are here on earth, then you blink, and you’re instantly in heaven.

For the unbeliever: One moment you are here on earth, and the next … your believing friends will be gone, and you’ve been left.

In the movie “Left Behind”, they portrayed the Rapture as people disappearing and their clothes remaining.

An area that Christians often debate over is when the Rapture will occur in relation to the other events coming up. Will the Rapture occur at the end of the terrible Tribulation period? Will it occur sometime in the middle? I believe it will occur before the Tribulation. There are a lot of reasons to believe in a pre-trib rapture, I will cut it down to 5.

Reasons for a Pre-Trib Rapture:

1. The Outline of Revelation:

This is by no means a conclusive argument, but I think it has some merit to it.

The Book of Revelation is broken down into three segments by the Lord. Jesus told John:

(Re 1:19 NKJV) Write the things which you have seen, and the things which are, and the things which will take place after this.

As you study the book, you find that the “things which you have seen” are the things that John saw in his vision of Jesus in chapter one.

The “things which are” are the things of chapters two and three, the letters to the seven churches. It is all about the church. In a sense it covers the history of the church.

The “things which will take place after this” refers to the things in chapters 4-22. The phrase “after these things” starts chapter 4:1, and is the exact same phrase in 1:19. The events from chapters 4-22 take place after the time of the “church” on earth.

I don’t think it’s a coincidence that the “after this” section that begins to detail the unfolding of the Great Tribulation begins with a sort of “rapture”, of John being caught up into heaven.

(Re 4:1–2 NKJV) —1 After these things I looked, and behold, a door standing open in heaven. And the first voice which I heard was like a trumpet speaking with me, saying, “Come up here, and I will show you things which must take place after this.” 2 Immediately I was in the Spirit; and behold, a throne set in heaven, and One sat on the throne.

I don’t think it’s a coincidence that the term “church” appears 18 times prior to chapter 4, and only once after chapter 4, at the end of the book.

The church isn’t the focus of those chapters because the church is in heaven.

2. Church and wrath don't mix.

The tribulation is a time of wrath

(Re 6:17 NKJV) For the great day of His wrath has come, and who is able to stand?”

God does not intend for His church to experience wrath. Jesus died for us so we would escape wrath.

(1 Th 5:9 NKJV) For God did not appoint us to wrath, but to obtain salvation through our Lord Jesus Christ,

3. The faithful escape

Jesus said,

(Lk 21:34–36 NKJV) —34 “But take heed to yourselves, lest your hearts be weighed down with carousing, drunkenness, and cares of this life, and that Day come on you unexpectedly. 35 For it will come as a snare on all those who dwell on the face of the whole earth. 36 Watch therefore, and pray always that you may be counted worthy to escape all these things that will come to pass, and to stand before the Son of Man.”

I believe Jesus is promising to keep the church from the Great Tribulation.

Old Testament examples:

Then Peter writes:

Kind of sobering, huh?

4. The Tribulation’s people

We’ve already seen that the Tribulation will be a time of God’s wrath on the earth, but it also will be a time aimed at bringing the Jews back to Him.

The Tribulation is that 70^th week of Daniel. Who were the 70 weeks for?

(Da 9:24 NKJV) —24 “Seventy weeks are determined For your people and for your holy city, To finish the transgression, To make an end of sins, To make reconciliation for iniquity, To bring in everlasting righteousness, To seal up vision and prophecy, And to anoint the Most Holy.

Who are Daniel’s “people”? Israel.

There are some people who say that God is finished working with Israel, and that the church now owns all the promised that God made to Israel.

But God isn't finished with Israel! Paul writes:

(Ro 11:1 NKJV) I say then, has God cast away His people? Certainly not!

The tribulation is for the nation of Israel, not the church.

5. The element of surprise

The Scripture talks about the suddenness of the second coming.

(Mt 24:44 NKJV) Therefore you also be ready, for the Son of Man is coming at an hour you do not expect.

Yet Scripture also tells us how to predict the day when Jesus will come back, tied to an event during the tribulation period.

(Da 12:11 NKJV) “And from the time that the daily sacrifice is taken away, and the abomination of desolation is set up, there shall be one thousand two hundred and ninety days.

How can there be a surprise, when it’s something that can be calculated?

The Rapture comes first, unexpectedly, and is not tied to events in the Tribulation.

The actual Second Coming, when we return with Jesus, can be calculated, 1290 days after the abomination of desolation.

We get the idea in Scripture that when Jesus comes back, the armies of the earth are gathered together to fight against Him. They are expecting Him!

If the Rapture came at the end, right before Jesus comes back, there would be no surprise, we’d all be marking our calendars.

Lesson

At any moment

Jesus said,

(Mt 24:42 NKJV) Watch therefore, for you do not know what hour your Lord is coming.

He said we were responsible to be “watching”.

It is a healthy attitude to be ready for your Master to come back.

Have you seen this commercial on TV?

Play “Party while Mom and Dad are away” clip

If you live your life as if Mom and Dad could come back at any moment, you might live your life a little differently, huh?

John wrote,

(1 Jn 3:3 NKJV) And everyone who has this hope in Him purifies himself, just as He is pure.

Some might ridicule us for continually teaching that Jesus could come back at any moment.

I personally feel it’s quite healthy to be ready.

3. The Magog War

There is a future war with Israel detailed in Ezekiel 38-39. A group of nations will come together to attack Israel.

Some of the players in this game are a little unclear. We believe that names like Magog, Rosh, and Meshech are related to areas in the former Soviet Union.

Some players are very clear, including Iran, Ethiopia, and Libya.

Pay attention to the rhetoric of these nations in the news.

(Eze 38:8–13 NKJV) 8 After many days you will be visited. In the latter years you will come into the land of those brought back from the sword and gathered from many people on the mountains of Israel, which had long been desolate; they were brought out of the nations, and now all of them dwell safely. 9 You will ascend, coming like a storm, covering the land like a cloud, you and all your troops and many peoples with you.” 10 ‘Thus says the Lord God: “On that day it shall come to pass that thoughts will arise in your mind, and you will make an evil plan: 11 You will say, ‘I will go up against a land of unwalled villages; I will go to a peaceful people, who dwell safely, all of them dwelling without walls, and having neither bars nor gates’— 12 to take plunder and to take booty, to stretch out your hand against the waste places that are again inhabited, and against a people gathered from the nations, who have acquired livestock and goods, who dwell in the midst of the land.

Some reason will come into the minds of these nations to gather and attack the nation of Israel.

13 Sheba, Dedan, the merchants of Tarshish, and all their young lions will say to you, ‘Have you come to take plunder? Have you gathered your army to take booty, to carry away silver and gold, to take away livestock and goods, to take great plunder?’ ” ’

Sheba and Dedan are in Saudi Arabia.

The Wikileaks release a few weeks back made it sound as if Saudi Arabia and the other Arab states surrounding Israel are more concerned about Iran than they are against Israel.

Tarshish – some have suggested that this group of nations would include England and “their young lions” might even hint at the United States.

These nations will object to the invasion of Israel.

What will happen with this invasion? God will step in.

(Eze 38:22–23 NKJV) —22 And I will bring him to judgment with pestilence and bloodshed; I will rain down on him, on his troops, and on the many peoples who are with him, flooding rain, great hailstones, fire, and brimstone. 23 Thus I will magnify Myself and sanctify Myself, and I will be known in the eyes of many nations. Then they shall know that I am the Lord.” ’

The movie “Left Behind” portrayed this attack at the beginning of the movie.

Play “Left Behind” clip.

There are different views as to when this next event might take place.

I find the last verse of Ezekiel 39 to be helpful:

(Eze 39:29 NKJV) And I will not hide My face from them anymore; for I shall have poured out My Spirit on the house of Israel,’ says the Lord God.”

I wonder if this isn’t connected with the transition when God is finished working with the Gentile Church, and again begins to work with Israel.

I think it’s possible that this event might happen close to the time of the Rapture.

4. The Tribulation

Seven years

It is the final week of Daniel’s seventy weeks. It will last for seven years.

It will officially begin with a seven year treaty between the nation of Israel and the antichrist.

(Da 9:27 NKJV) Then he shall confirm a covenant with many for one week…

It might begin right after the Rapture. It might begin a few years after the Rapture.

Antichrist

It is the time when the antichrist will come to power.

(2 Th 2:7–8 NKJV) —7 For the mystery of lawlessness is already at work; only He who now restrains will do so until He is taken out of the way. 8 And then the lawless one will be revealed, whom the Lord will consume with the breath of His mouth and destroy with the brightness of His coming.

I believe the thing that restrains the antichrist is the work of the Holy Spirit in the church. When the church is removed in the Rapture, the antichrist will step into his spotlight.

Judgment

There is a purpose of this Tribulation period – it is the time of God’s judgment.

(Re 6:17 NKJV) For the great day of His wrath has come, and who is able to stand?”

It is a time when God begins to right all the wrongs, but it will come with great difficulty.

This is the period of time laid out in the book of Revelation, chapters 6-18.

It is a time of wars, famine, and disease. It will be a time with incredible disasters with stars falling from heaven, seas and rivers turning to blood, and many, many people dying.

It is a time when God will bring an end to this corrupt world system.

We will look at a few more specific events that happen in the Tribulation next week.

Deception

(2 Th 2:9–12 NKJV) —9 The coming of the lawless one is according to the working of Satan, with all power, signs, and lying wonders, 10 and with all unrighteous deception among those who perish, because they did not receive the love of the truth, that they might be saved. 11 And for this reason God will send them strong delusion, that they should believe the lie, 12 that they all may be condemned who did not believe the truth but had pleasure in unrighteousness.

Be careful about thinking that you don’t need to accept Jesus Christ now. Be careful about thinking that you can just wait until after the Rapture.

1) You don’t want to live through the Tribulation.

You think life is tough now? You ain’t seen nothin’ yet.

Many believers will be put to death

(Re 20:4 NKJV) …Then I saw the souls of those who had been beheaded for their witness to Jesus and for the word of God, who had not worshiped the beast or his image, and had not received his mark on their foreheads or on their hands..

2) If you have been exposed to the truth now and you don’t believe, then you may find yourself being deceived by the antichrist.

Introduction

Do people see Jesus? Is the gospel preached? Does it speak to the broken hearted? Does it build up the church? Milk – Meat – Manna Preach for a decision

· Thursday Night – Left Behind (Play clip)

· Friday Night – 6-10 pm – New Year’s Eve Party for whole family

· Israel Trip (play video clip). Sign up in back if interested. “Gift” coupons in back.

We’re taking a little break from the Gospel of John to talk about the Coming of Jesus.

Last week we talked about His First Coming – what we celebrate at Christmas.

We talked about the amazing prophecies that were fulfilled when He came the first time. Some estimate there were over 300 prophecies fulfilled when He came 2,000 years ago.

What some don’t realize is that there are over twice as many prophecies that are still unfulfilled, prophecies that detail out the events of His Second Coming.

We are going to take the next two weeks to talk about the Second Coming

The Bible is a reliable document.

When you see how carefully God fulfilled the prophecies concerning the First Coming, you can be sure that God will fulfill the prophecies concerning the next coming.

Today I want to lay out four major events that are coming our way…

The subject of future prophecy can be a difficult one to teach.

Sometimes there are quite a lot of opinions as to how to interpret unfulfilled prophecies.

You may not agree with some of my ideas about how these things will play out, and ultimately, to be honest, we will find out when it happens.

We have a lot to cover, so I’m not going to take a lot of time to prove my points.

1. The Church Age

The age of the Gentiles.

The prophet Daniel was given some incredible prophecies.

One prophecy in particular bridges this time period between the first and second comings of the Messiah.

Daniel lived during the time of the Babylonian exile, when the Jews had been carted off to Babylon for seventy years as a judgment for their sin. While praying and fasting, God sends the angel Gabriel to pass on some interesting information to Daniel.

(Da 9:24–27 NKJV) —24 “Seventy weeks are determined For your people and for your holy city, To finish the transgression, To make an end of sins, To make reconciliation for iniquity, To bring in everlasting righteousness, To seal up vision and prophecy, And to anoint the Most Holy.

This prophecy is called the “Seventy weeks of Daniel”. It is all about Daniel’s people, the Jews. It is all about winding things up for them, making things right, and the coming of the Messiah.

The key to decoding this is to know that each “week” is a period of seven years. Seventy weeks involves 490 total years.

25 “Know therefore and understand, That from the going forth of the command To restore and build Jerusalem Until Messiah the Prince, There shall be seven weeks and sixty-two weeks; The street shall be built again, and the wall, Even in troublesome times.

I won’t go into detail here, but this verse actually locates the date that the Messiah would appear. I’ll give you a hint, it points to the day that Jesus entered Jerusalem on a donkey and the people shouted “Hosanna”.

26 “And after the sixty-two weeks Messiah shall be cut off, but not for Himself;

At the end of the 69th week the Messiah is put to death. It’s at His death that this seventy week time clock comes to a halt. There is still one “week” that hasn’t been accounted for.

For a period of time, God will put the nation of Israel “on a shelf” so to speak, and His main way of speaking to the world will be through the predominantly Gentile church.

Yet there will be a time when God is finished with the Gentile church, and God will once again be dealing with the nation of Israel.

26 And the people of the prince who is to come Shall destroy the city and the sanctuary. The end of it shall be with a flood, And till the end of the war desolations are determined.

The people of the prince to come were the Romans. They would destroy Jerusalem and the Temple in A.D. 70.

The prince to come is the antichrist. The antichrist wouldn’t destroy the city, but his people would.

27 Then he shall confirm a covenant with many for one week; But in the middle of the week He shall bring an end to sacrifice and offering. And on the wing of abominations shall be one who makes desolate, Even until the consummation, which is determined, Is poured out on the desolate.”

The “he” is the antichrist. This is when he will come on the world scene.

This last “week” is the final week of the seventy weeks.

This last week of 7 years is known as the Tribulation.

We’ll come back to this verse a few times more.

I believe this time break in the seventy weeks is the time during which God shifts His focus from Israel, to the Gentile church. Paul talks about God’s shift in focus:

(Ro 11:25–26a NKJV) —25 For I do not desire, brethren, that you should be ignorant of this mystery, lest you should be wise in your own opinion, that blindness in part has happened to Israel until the fullness of the Gentiles has come in. 26 And so all Israel will be saved…

Paul saw that there was blindness from the Jews toward the Messiah. He saw that this would change once the “fullness of the Gentiles has come in”.

I believe this means that there is a certain number of Gentiles that God is looking to save. When that number is reached, we will enter that seventieth week, the Tribulation, and God will once again work through Israel.

Peter writes:

How can we “hasten” the coming of the day of God?

By sharing Christ. By getting that last person saved. And then comes …

2. The Rapture

Listen to this fellow explain what the Rapture is all about:

Play “Rapture” clip.

Paul describes the Rapture like this:

(1 Th 4:13–18 NKJV) —13 But I do not want you to be ignorant, brethren, concerning those who have fallen asleep, lest you sorrow as others who have no hope.

“fallen asleep” is a way of referring to those who have died.

14 For if we believe that Jesus died and rose again, even so God will bring with Him those who sleep in Jesus. 15 For this we say to you by the word of the Lord, that we who are alive and remain until the coming of the Lord will by no means precede those who are asleep.

Those of us who are still alive when the Lord comes back won’t be getting our new glorified bodies before those who have already died…

We believe that the Bible teaches that when a believer dies, their physical body is buried, but their spirit goes immediately to heaven to be with Jesus.

When the Rapture occurs, those who are already dead will get a new, glorified body first.

Then we who are still alive on earth will be caught up in the clouds and receive our new bodies.

Paul makes is sound as if this will happen almost instantaneously:

(1 Co 15:51–52 NKJV) —51 Behold, I tell you a mystery: We shall not all sleep, but we shall all be changed— 52 in a moment, in the twinkling of an eye, at the last trumpet. For the trumpet will sound, and the dead will be raised incorruptible, and we shall be changed.

I don’t’ know how fast the “twinkling of an eye” is, but it sounds pretty quick to me.

What will it look like?

For the believer: One moment you are here on earth, then you blink, and you’re instantly in heaven.

For the unbeliever: One moment you are here on earth, and the next … your believing friends will be gone, and you’ve been left.

Reasons for a Pre-Trib Rapture:

1. The Outline of Revelation:

This is by no means a conclusive argument, but I think it has some merit to it.

The Book of Revelation is broken down into three segments by the Lord. Jesus told John:

(Re 1:19 NKJV) Write the things which you have seen, and the things which are, and the things which will take place after this.

As you study the book, you find that the “things which you have seen” are the things that John saw in his vision of Jesus in chapter one.

The “things which are” are the things of chapters two and three, the letters to the seven churches. It is all about the church. In a sense it covers the history of the church.

The “things which will take place after this” refers to the things in chapters 4-22. The phrase “after these things” starts chapter 4:1, and is the exact same phrase in 1:19. The events from chapters 4-22 take place after the time of the “church” on earth.

I don’t think it’s a coincidence that the “after this” section that begins to detail the unfolding of the Great Tribulation begins with a sort of “rapture”, of John being caught up into heaven.

I don’t think it’s a coincidence that the term “church” appears 18 times prior to chapter 4, and only once after chapter 4, at the end of the book.

The church isn’t the focus of those chapters because the church is in heaven.

2. Church and wrath don't mix.

The tribulation is a time of wrath

(Re 6:17 NKJV) For the great day of His wrath has come, and who is able to stand?”

God does not intend for His church to experience wrath. Jesus died for us so we would escape wrath.

(1 Th 5:9 NKJV) For God did not appoint us to wrath, but to obtain salvation through our Lord Jesus Christ,

3. The faithful escape

At the end of the 69^th week the Messiah is put to death. It’s at His death that this seventy week time clock comes to a halt. There is still one “week” that hasn’t been accounted for.

The Tribulation is that 70^th week of Daniel. Who were the 70 weeks for?