Sermon Tone Analysis

The Second Coming of Christ

Part 5: We Go Flying in the Sky

Matthew 24:36-44; 1 Thessalonians 4:13-18

Sermon by Rick Crandall

Grayson Baptist Church - July 15, 2015

*The great evangelist D.L. Moody often looked up when he prayed.

Someone once asked him why, and Mr. Moody replied, "Because Heaven is up, where my Jesus is." (1)

*Tonight we are looking up, looking for the rapture and the second coming of Christ.

And as we do, here are 3 good things to bear in mind.

1. First: We shouldn't invest too much in the debate.

*There is a pretty big debate over the Lord's return.

Part of it centers on the warning the Lord gave in Matthew 24:15-18.

And we have looked at this Scripture a couple of times, but I want to look at it one more time in context of the rapture.

*Starting in vs. 15, Jesus said:

15. "Therefore when you see the 'abomination of desolation,' spoken of by Daniel the prophet, standing in the holy place'' (whoever reads, let him understand),

16. then let those who are in Judea flee to the mountains.

17.

Let him who is on the housetop not come down to take anything out of his house.

18.

And let him who is in the field not go back to get his clothes."

*The timing of this abomination of desolation is in debate, and we have to go back to the Old Testament Book of Daniel to understand the disagreement.

In Daniel 9, the prophet was praying, confessing his sins and the sins of his people.

*In answer to his prayers, the Lord sent the angel Gabriel.

Please listen again to part of the angel's message in Daniel 9:24-27.

Speaking about the Jewish people, Gabriel said:

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.

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.

26.

And after the sixty-two weeks Messiah shall be cut off, but not for Himself (Thank God for the cross!); 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.

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.''

*These words were spoken to Daniel 500 years before Jesus was born.

And again, they are not talking about the church.

They are talking about the Jews.

[PIC 1] Here is a chart of the 70 weeks.

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*Remember that the weeks here are weeks of years.

The Book of Daniel is saying there will be 70 times 7, or 490 years, to the Kingdom of Messiah.

Verse 25 tells us when that 490-year period began "from the going forth of the commandment to restore and to build Jerusalem."

*In 445 BC the king of Persia issued a decree allowing the Jews to rebuild Jerusalem.

From that date, 7 weeks plus 62 weeks, for a total of 69 weeks or 483 years were to pass before the coming of Messiah the Prince.

*That left one week unaccounted for.

We know that the first 69 weeks ended when Messiah came, but the 70th week hasn't come yet.

And we know this for a fact, because in Daniel 9:24, Gabriel said: "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.

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*Of course transgression hasn't been finished, sin hasn't been ended, and the Lord is not sitting on His throne in Jerusalem for His thousand-year reign.

The 70th week hasn't come yet, and that's good for us, because we never would have been born!

*The last week is the 7-year period of the Antichrist.

Gabriel talked about it in Daniel 9:27, and said: "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.''

*There is the Abomination of Desolation Jesus warned about in Matthew 24.

So for the last 2,000 years there has been an unexpected gap for the church age.

And the church age will have an end, so that the last of the 70 weeks can occur.

But at what point will the church age end?

[PIC 2] -- This next chart highlights 3 possibilities.

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*The Pre-tribulation position is that the church will be raptured at the very beginning of the 70th week of tribulation.

The Mid-tribulation position is that the church will be raptured in the middle of the 70th week, when the Antichrist breaks his peace treaty with Israel.

The Post-tribulation position is that the church will be raptured at the end of the 70th week, when the Lord returns to defeat His enemies at the Battle of Armageddon, and set up His thousand-year reign on the earth.

Some Bible-believing, Jesus-loving people hold each of these positions.

*One of Dave Hunt's eleven reasons for a Pre-trib rapture has to do with the relative peace and prosperity that precedes the rapture.

We can see this truth in Matthew 24:36-42, where again Jesus said:

36.

"But of that day and hour no one knows, no, not even the angels of heaven, but My Father only.

37.

But as the days of Noah were, so also will the coming of the Son of Man be.

38.

For as in the days before the flood, they were eating and drinking, marrying and giving in marriage, until the day that Noah entered the ark,

39. and did not know until the flood came and took them all away, so also will the coming of the Son of Man be.

40.

Then two men will be in the field: one will be taken and the other left.

41.

Two women will be grinding at the mill: one will be taken and the other left.

42.

Watch therefore, for you do not know what hour your Lord is coming."

*Here Jesus tells us that the rapture is preceded by relative peace and prosperity.

In contrast though, the Second Coming occurs in the midst of the worst war the world will ever see, and following the greatest devastation this planet will ever suffer.

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*In Matthew 24:21-22, Jesus said:

21. "For then there will be great tribulation, such as has not been since the beginning of the world until this time, no, nor ever shall be.

22.

And unless those days were shortened, no flesh would be saved; but for the elect's sake those days will be shortened."

*In Revelation 6, John says:

12.

I looked when He opened the sixth seal, and behold, there was a great earthquake; and the sun became black as sackcloth of hair, and the moon became like blood.

13.

And the stars of heaven fell to the earth, as a fig tree drops its late figs when it is shaken by a mighty wind.

14.

Then the sky receded as a scroll when it is rolled up, and every mountain and island was moved out of its place.

15.

And the kings of the earth, the great men, the rich men, the commanders, the mighty men, every slave and every free man, hid themselves in the caves and in the rocks of the mountains,

16. and said to the mountains and rocks, "Fall on us and hide us from the face of Him who sits on the throne and from the wrath of the Lamb!

*That contrast between peace and devastation makes sense, but it's a little confusing, because remember that Daniel 9:27 talked about a covenant or peace treaty between the Antichrist and Israel during the 70th week.

So there will be at least a measure of peace at the beginning of the Antichrist's reign.

But he will break that treaty in the middle of the week.

*This Matthew passage then could also be used to make the case for a Mid-trib rapture.

The important thing is not to get sidetracked by the debate.

Issues like this can consume us, if we let them.

And right now as Christians, we have more important things to do.

*When the Apostle Peter talked about the end of the world, he stressed how confusing God's Word can be.

And in 2 Peter 3:15-18, the Apostle said for us to:

15. . .

Account that the longsuffering of our Lord is salvation as also our beloved brother Paul, according to the wisdom given to him, has written to you,

16. as also in all his epistles, speaking in them of these things, in which are some things hard to understand, which those who are untaught and unstable twist to their own destruction, as they do also the rest of the Scriptures.

17.

You therefore, beloved, since you know these things beforehand, beware lest you also fall from your own steadfastness, being led away with the error of the wicked;

18. but grow in the grace and knowledge of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ.

To Him be the glory both now and forever.

Amen.

*When it comes to the rapture and Jesus' second coming, some of these things won't be clear till the Lord returns.

So we shouldn't invest too much in the debate.

2. But we should be informed about the difference.

*The best I can tell, there is strong evidence for the rapture and the second coming of Christ being two separate events.

Dave Hunt gave eleven biblical reasons why these are two separate events.

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*For one example: At the Rapture, Christ does not return all the way to earth but catches believers up to meet Him in the sky, taking them directly to heaven.

We see this happening in 1 Thess 4:17, where Paul said, "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."

*In contrast, at the second coming Jesus returns to this earth to rule Israel and the world from David's throne in Jerusalem.

Zechariah 14:3-4 tells us: