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Tuesday, 29 March 2016

Is it really possible for Christians to do greater works than Jesus?

Question: "Is it really possible for Christians to do greater works than Jesus?"

Answer: 
In John 14:12, Jesus makes an amazing claim: “I tell you the truth, anyone, who has faith in me will do what I have been doing. He will do even greater works than these, because I am going to the Father.” How? Jesus says it will be done through the power of the Holy Spirit. In John 14—15, Jesus speaks often of “another Counselor,” the “Spirit of truth” (John 14:16–17), which we know the disciples received at Pentecost (Acts 2:4). The Holy Spirit is the mechanism through which Jesus said His believers “will do even greater works.”

And how exactly does the Holy Spirit operate? Jesus continues: “And I will do whatever you ask in my name, so that the Son may bring glory to the Father. You may ask me for anything in my name, and I will do it” (John 14:13–14). This is a fantastic claim, one that ought to inspire and terrify. We Christians can enjoy the power of Christ’s goodness on earth. Yet Jesus is not saying that our works will be greater than His in terms of power or majesty. After all, by definition, humans cannot surpass God’s omnipotence, omniscience, and omnipresence.

Rather, most scholars agree that Jesus means we will do greater works because there are many of us. Therefore, Jesus is acknowledging the collective power His followers can display in God’s Kingdom on earth. Jesus preached and healed and raised the dead in Judea only. Now, millions of disciples exist worldwide, and through their belief in Christ and the agency of the Holy Spirit, many more miracles occur today than did in Jesus’ time. 

After His resurrection, Jesus tells His apostles to make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit and teaching them to obey His commands (Matthew 28:19–20). He commissions them to go out because “all authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me” (Matthew 28:18), and He passes on that power and authority to His disciples through the Holy Spirit.

The Book of Acts provides early validation of the miraculous power Jesus promises (Acts 5:1–101513:11;19:12). Acts 17:6 describes those who proclaimed Christ as ones “who have turned the world upside down.” This turning of the world upside down is surely part of what Jesus was referring to when He promised that we would do “greater works” than He did. Many miracles were performed by His apostles and disciples, and many more would be, and are being, performed as the gospel of Jesus Christ spreads throughout the world. And the most wonderful miracle of all is that souls are being born again through the power of the Spirit.

"Does God still perform miracles?"

Question: "Does God still perform miracles?"

Answer: 
Many people desire miracles from God. They want God to perform miracles to “prove” Himself to them. “If only God would perform a miracle, sign, or wonder, then I would believe!” This idea, though, is contradicted by Scripture. When God performed amazing and powerful miracles for the Israelites, did that cause them to obey Him? No, the Israelites constantly disobeyed and rebelled against God even though they saw all the miracles. The same people who saw God part the Red Sea later doubted whether God was able to conquer the inhabitants of the Promised Land. This truth is explained in Luke 16:19-31. In the story, a man in hell asks Abraham to send Lazarus back from the dead to warn his brothers. Abraham informed the man, “If they do not listen to Moses and the Prophets, they will not be convinced even if someone rises from the dead” (Luke 16:31).

Jesus performed countless miracles, yet the vast majority of people did not believe in Him. If God performed miracles today as He did in the past, the result would be the same. People would be amazed and would believe in God for a short time. That faith would be shallow and would disappear the moment something unexpected or frightening occurred. A faith based on miracles is not a mature faith. God performed the greatest “God miracle” of all time in coming to earth as the Man Jesus Christ to die on the cross for our sins (Romans 5:8) so that we could be saved (John 3:16). God does still perform miracles—many of them simply go unnoticed or are denied. However, we do not need more miracles. What we need is to believe in the miracle of salvation through faith in Jesus Christ.

The purpose of miracles was to authenticate the performer of the miracles. Acts 2:22 declares, “Men of Israel, listen to this: Jesus of Nazareth was a man accredited by God to you by miracles, wonders and signs, which God did among you through him, as you yourselves know.” The same is said of the apostles, “The things that mark an apostle—signs, wonders and miracles—were done among you with great perseverance” (2 Corinthians 12:12). Speaking of the gospel, Hebrews 2:4 proclaims, “God also testified to it by signs, wonders and various miracles, and gifts of the Holy Spirit distributed according to His will.” We now have the truth of Jesus recorded in Scripture. We now have the writings of the apostles recorded in Scripture. Jesus and His apostles, as recorded in Scripture, are the cornerstone and foundation of our faith (Ephesians 2:20). In this sense, miracles are no longer necessary, as the message of Jesus and His apostles has already been attested to and accurately recorded in the Scriptures. Yes, God still performs miracles. At the same time, we should not necessarily expect miracles to occur today just as they did in Bible times.

Source:http://www.gotquestions.org/miracles-Bible.html

Only God Can Do Miracles – True, But So Can We

We all know that only God can do miracles. How then did Jesus accomplish His miracles in the Gospels? Yes, Jesus was and is God, but it is clear from scripture that when He was born of a virgin (in His Incarnation) He emptied Himself of His inherent divine outward powers, and surrendered His divine will to that of the Father. He was still fully God, but now He was also fully man. He ministered by the working of the Holy Spirit (Philippians 2:567891011). The scriptures are clear that He, thus acting as a man, could do no miracles.
Therefore Jesus answered and was saying to them, “Truly, truly, I say to you, the Son can do nothing of Himself, unless it is something He sees the Father doing; for whatever the Father does, these things the Son also does in like manner.” John 5:19
If only God can do miracles, Jesus would have had to momentarily transcend His humanity to accomplish them, and the above verse would not be true. If Jesus remained human during the miraculous, then there is a way for other humans to do the miraculous. Either this is true or the humanity of Jesus was somehow different from our humanity. In the Incarnation, He took on everything but our sin, and that He took on at the cross. He is both our example and our substitute, and as our example, He showed us how to walk in the supernatural. This is exactly what Jesus meant when he said:
“Truly, truly, I say to you, he who believes in Me, the works that I do, he will do also; and greater works than these he will do; because I go to the Father.” John 14:12
God is pleased to work through non-divine individuals, and He does this through the work of the Holy Spirit. Jesus actually told His disciples that it was more advantageous for the Holy Spirit to be in them than for Him, Jesus, to be with them and next to them.
“But I tell you the truth, it is to your advantage that I go away; for if I do not go away, the Helper (Holy Spirit) will not come to you; but if I go, I will send Him to you. John 16:7


This empowerment started on the Day of Pentecost and continued on through the rest of the New Testament. A believer’s work in the miraculous is the work of the Holy Spirit within them. We can now say what Jesus said during His walk on earth – “We can do nothing of ourselves, it is the Holy Spirit at work within us, He does the miracles.” Our walk of faith is intended to reproduce His walk of faith. Yes, only God can do miracles, but God does them through us.
Source; https://hopefaithprayer.com/only-god-miracles/

Christian its time to buckle up ur belt for this heavenly race.........

Christian its time to buckle up your belt for this heavenly race.........
President OBAMA vs The Revelation 13:15-18
666 = The Mark of the beast
Senate has passed the Obama Health Care' bill into Law. The implementation would commence soon. This bill would require all Americans to be implanted with a Radio Frequency Identification (RFID) chip in order to access medical care.
The device will be implanted on the forehead or on the arm. this is to fulfill the prophecy in the book of Revelation 13:15-18 concerning the Mark of the Beast!
The rapture is near!. Revelation 13 is being played out right before us. Many are still unaware.
1. why is the chip being implanted where the Bible says it would be? Why on the hand and forehead? Why not anywhere else?


2. Why is it being connected to your bank account? Remember the Bible says you won't buy or sell without the mark 666, and guest what? the chip is connected to your financial details. What breaks my heart the most is that many people in the church will not make it if Jesus comes now! Many are unaware that the end time is near. Don't tell me that is advancement of technology or development. If any area of your life is not sync with God's word Repent now and be converted. If you miss Hell ... think about it . Hell is not a pretty place, the worst part is that it is for eternity... please rather than post and forward senseless message on social medias. share to everone you know. Do the work of an Evangelist. Share this message with all your families & friends. Have you ever wondered what would have happend if we treat the Holy Bible the way we treat our mobile phones & Social medias? And we really can't live without it.
Only 7% will re-broadcast this message, Don't be among the 93% who will not share the message Satan said "I wonder how humans claim to love God and disobey Him, and claim they hate me yet they obey me"

Do not share later, share it now. May Almighty God grant success to every one who reads and share this message in Jesus name. If u believe and ready to share this message be the first to type a capital Amen and share!

Saturday, 26 March 2016

The Sign of the Son of Man

This morning, we come in our study of God’s Word to a very marvelous and thrilling passage for Christians, and so I invite you to turn in your Bible to Matthew chapter 24 as we look at verses 29 through 31.  A great text on the second coming of the Lord Jesus Christ.  Those of us who know and love the Lord, those of us who study His Word, are very much aware of the fact that the world will end, the world as man knows it, the world as man runs it, will end with the glorious coming of Jesus Christ to earth from heaven.  It is His second coming.  The first time, He came in humility.  The first time, He came to die on a cross.  Next time, He comes in glory and He comes to reign as King of kings and Lord of lords. 
The Lord wanted to instruct His disciples on the matter of His second coming, and He specifically spoke of it in these three verses in Matthew 24.  I want you to notice them as I read them.  “Immediately after the tribulation of those days shall the sun be darkened, and the moon shall not give its light, and the stars shall fall from heaven, and the powers of the heavens shall be shaken, and then shall appear the sign of the Son of man in heaven, and then shall all the tribes of the earth mourn, and they shall see the Son of man coming on the clouds of heaven with power and great glory.  And he shall send his angels with a great sound of a trumpet, and they shall gather together his elect from the four winds, from one end of heaven to the other.” 
There, in very clear, concise, straightforward, understandable terms, the Lord Himself tells us about the greatest event in anticipation of any believer, and that is the second coming of Jesus Christ.  He came once, He will come again.  In fact, as He was ascending, it tells us in Acts chapter 1, leaving the earth after His first coming, He ascended up into heaven, physically, bodily, taken away in a cloud.  And two angels came and said:  “This same Jesus who is taken up from you shall so come in like manner as you have seen Him go into heaven.”  In other words, as He went away, so will He return, physically, bodily, in clouds.  Just the way He went away.  The very same Jesus, in the very same way. 
And since that time, believers have had hearts filled with hope through all of the history of the church, looking for the coming of the Lord Jesus Christ.  In fact, the apostle Paul, in writing Titus, said in chapter 2 verse 11:  “The grace of God that brings salvation hath appeared to all men, teaching us that denying ungodliness and worldly lusts, we should live soberly, righteously, and godly in this present age, looking for that blessed hope, even the glorious appearing of the great God and our Savior Jesus Christ who gave Himself for us that He might redeem us from all iniquity and purify unto Himself a people of His own, zealous of good works.” 
What he said there is we who are saved should live righteously, soberly, denying ungodliness, denying worldly lusts, and looking for the glorious appearing of our great God and Savior, the Lord Jesus Christ.  In other words, as much as we are to live obedient lives, as much as we are to live righteous lives, as much as we are to live lives where priorities are set by God’s standards, so much are we to live lives that focus on the return of Jesus Christ.  We are to live in the light of the coming of Christ when this vile body, says Paul to the Philippians, shall be changed and made like His glorious body.  That is our hope.  That is our glory. 
Now, the world is very familiar with the circumstances and the features of Christ’s first coming.  The world is very familiar with Bethlehem, with the manger, with shepherds and wise men and a star and Herod.  The world is very familiar with Joseph and Mary and gold and frankincense and myrrh and the song of the angels.  They pretty well have that story all down pat.  But the world is far less familiar with the story of His second coming with all of its features and all of its attendant circumstances.  And yet the prophets have given us, including Jesus Himself, the greatest of all prophets, very clear instruction as to the character, the features, of the glorious second coming of Jesus Christ.  And in the three verses I just read to you, our Lord Himself describes His second coming.  Not all of the elements of it, but the very moment that it occurs.  The sign that it has arrived. 
And in that instruction, there is so much that in one session we could never cover it all.  As brief as His words are, typically, the Lord says very precisely and very concisely what He wants to say but has a way of opening up a universe of truth in the marvelous ability that He has to choose words.  And so while we can read what we can read and understand it, it is beyond our ability to grasp the implications of all that He says, and we feel like little children trying to understand complexity when we try to get all there is to get.  But let’s see what the Lord will show us as we look at these three incredible verses. 
Now, the best way to go through this is just to sort of hang your thoughts on some key words, all right?  The first key word is “sequence.”  The sequence of the second coming, verse 29:  “Immediately after the tribulation of those days.”  Now, you don’t have to be Phi Beta Kappa to figure that out; it’s pretty obvious.  People say:  “When is the second coming?  When is the second coming?”  It’s a very simple answer.  Immediately after the tribulation of those days.  That’s what it says.  A very clear chronological indicator for us that the Lord’s second coming in glory to set up His kingdom will follow immediately this time period called the Tribulation. 
Now, somebody says:  “Well, there’s a lot of tribulation.”  Tribulation is a Greek word, thlipsis, it means trouble, difficulty, tribulation, distress.  And you could say:  “Well, Israel has always been in distress and tribulation, and the church has always had distress and tribulation, and the world has always had distress and tribulation,” and that’s why Jesus said immediately after the tribulation “of those days.”  Not just any tribulation but the tribulation of those days.  You say:  “What days?”  The days just described in verses 4 through 28.  “Those” takes us back to some days that He has just described. 
What are the days He’s just described?  They are days of great tragedy.  In fact, they are so severe that verse 21 says this:  “For then shall be” – not just tribulation, but what? – great tribulation, such as was not since the beginning of the world to this time, no, nor ever shall be.”  It isn’t just any tribulation He’s referring to; it is the tribulation that is the worst tribulation the world has ever known.  He’s referring to a period of time which is the worst period of time the world has ever undergone. 
You say:  “What period of time is that?”  Well, it’s a period of time begun with a very special event.  Verse 15:  “When you see the abomination of desolation spoken of by Daniel the prophet stand in the Holy Place, whosoever reads, let him understand.”  And we talked about the fact that that event called the abomination of desolation, it is a desecration of that which is sacred, and it is a ruination of that which is dedicated to God that triggers this great Tribulation period. 
You remember what we said?  Israel in the end time will be in their land.  They will rebuild the temple.  They will be worshiping God.  They will be protected by the antichrist.  But in the middle of the seven-year period that Daniel says he makes a pact with them, in Daniel 7, he says in the middle – pardon me, in Daniel 9, he says in the middle of that period, the antichrist will break the covenant and he will abominate – that is, he will desecrate, he will blaspheme – the sacred place of the Jews.  He will tear out the altar to God and he will establish an altar to himself.  He will make himself the God of the world.  And this is described to us not only by the prophet Daniel but also by John in the Revelation.  And he becomes the one to be worshiped and therefore he desecrates, he abominates.  And when that happens, and he calls the whole world to worship him, then the signal has come that the Tribulation has begun. 
And the events of the Tribulation are generally described in verses 4 through 14.  It’s a time of deception.  It’s a time of war.  It’s a time of famine and earthquake.  It’s a time of persecution and hatred.  It is a time of false prophecy.  It is a time when evil is so rampant that many people who appear to be religious will defect from religion and abandon themselves to evil.  In other words, it’s going to be the worst time the world has ever known.  It’ll be a time, we see in verse 21 and following, without an equal.  And unless the days were shortened – that is, the time of daylight was condensed – no one would survive.  False prophets everywhere.  And terrible sinful corruption described like the carcass of a dead animal in verse 28. 
And so there’s coming on the world this time of tribulation like no other time.  A time of gross evil like no other time.  A time of murder, a time of slaughter, and antichrist is going to try to slaughter all the Jews, he’s going to try to slaughter all those who would name the name of Christ.  And that is why verse 16 says when you see this initiating event take place and the antichrist sets up his idol which is himself in the temple, then you better flee to the mountains, because Judea, where Jerusalem is, is going to be the center of his attack as he tries to wipe out God’s people, Israel and any believing people from among the Gentiles who happen to be there. 
So it’s going to be such a time like no other time.  You better run and you better run fast and hope you’re not pregnant and hope you’re not carrying a little baby and hope it isn’t winter and raining and hope it isn’t the Sabbath so you get stoned by some legalists for running.  You better hope you can get out because a slaughter is going to come like no slaughter in the history of the world.  And we’ve gone through all that detail in the last few weeks.  Now verse 29:  “Immediately after the tribulation of those days,” not just any tribulation, but the tribulation that we have seen discussed in verses 4 through 28.  Immediately after that, that is the time, that is the sequence for the coming of the Lord Jesus Christ. 
Now, remember that the disciples feel it must be very near because they know the Lord is the Messiah, because He has cleansed the temple, you remember, threw out the moneychangers and the buyers and the sellers.  Because He has promised that the whole temple will be torn down and not one stone will be left upon another.  They believe, then, that He is going to come and wipe out hypocritical, false Judaism.  He is going to wipe out the false religious leaders.  He is going to purge the nation.  And because they’ve already seen Him cleanse the inside by throwing everybody out and He has just predicted that the stones are going to be torn down, they believe His coming is very, very near.  And with very anxious hearts, they have sat down with Him on the Mount of Olives and they have said:  “Lord, how near is it?  And what is the sign we look for that You’re going to come into Your full parousia, Your full presence and be King?”  And they must believe it’s only a matter of days now before this is all going to happen.  And the Lord says I’ll answer your question, it can’t happen until immediately after this time period.  And they don’t realize that this time period is thousands of years into the future from where they are.  But our Lord makes it very clear that it isn’t until that time period after which the second coming occurs. 
Now, you remember that we said that there will be a terrible slaughter among the Jews and Zechariah says two out of three will be killed and only a third will be preserved.  God will save a third of them.  The rest are going to die in this terrible holocaust.  There will also be the saving of a hundred and forty-four thousand Jews, twelve thousand from every tribe, according to Revelation 7, so that they can evangelize the world.  And no matter how the antichrist tries, or anybody else tries, you can’t kill them.  Revelation 7 says they’re sealed and protected.  Also, in the 14th chapter of Revelation, read about them.  So the Lord’s going to spare some of those people but it’s going to be such a terrible time, unless there is supernatural protection.  In the case of the general group, it seems as though Michael – chapter 12 – is going to be the one who comes down to take care of them and to sweep them away into safety.  In the case of the hundred and forty-four thousand Jewish missionaries to reach the world, God Himself supernaturally protects them, but the rest are going to be vulnerable to disaster and death, and so they are told in verse 16 to run.  It won’t last long.  The period of Great Tribulation lasts how long?  Three and a half years, that’s all.  And immediately after that, the second coming. 
Now, let’s go to a second word.  The first word is sequence, the second one is setup – setup.  How does the Lord set up this event?  You could use the word scene, scenario, stage, but the Lord sets the stage for the second coming.  It is a marvelous thing.  Verse 29 again:  “The sun shall be darkened, the moon shall not give its light, the stars shall fall from heaven, and the powers of the heavens shall be shaken.”  I mean this is just incredible.  The whole universe as we know it, as we experience it, begins an instant disintegration.  In verse 25 of Luke 21, Luke writing basically on the same Olivet Discourse, adds more things that Jesus said.  Each writer sort of fills out the fullness of what the Lord said.  And Luke says there will be signs in the sun, and in the moon, and in the stars; and upon the earth distress of nations, with perplexity – terrible confusion – the sea and the waves roaring; men’s hearts failing them for fear, and for looking after those things which are coming on the earth, for the powers of heaven shall be shaken. 
Now, if you add Luke to Matthew, you’ve got a pretty dramatic scene.  It isn’t just the sun darkened, it isn’t just the moon not giving its light, it isn’t just the stars falling, it isn’t just the powers of the heaven being shaken as if the earth is detached from that, it’s also on the earth.  And the thing is so dramatic and so cataclysmic that it says men’s hearts will fail them for fear.  The Greek actually says:  “Men will expire.”  Men will expire and it’s just a simple way of saying they’re going to drop dead everywhere.  People are going to literally drop dead out of total terror.  Their hearts will stop – apopsuchō – which is to say to breathe out.  They will breathe out their last.  They’ll die.  When the Lord comes back in judgment, He will only slay with the sword that proceeds out of His mouth the wicked that haven’t already died of a heart attack or died in sheer terror so that their functions just shut down, the fear was so totally gripping. 
I mean it’s hard for us to understand this and to conceive it, but one key statement is at the end of verse 29 that sort of helps you with all of it.  “The powers of the heavens shall be shaken.”  Now, in the heavens, which encompasses the whole universe, everything is held together by power.  There is a control, a controlling influence.  In fact, we know what that power is because in Hebrews 1 it says that the Son upholds all things by the what?  Word of His power.  It is God Himself in the Son who holds things together.  Just as He created everything, He holds things together so that gravity doesn’t fluctuate, so that orbits don’t fluctuate.  And we can send off little things into space and clutter up the universe with all of our little Tinker Toys and we know where they’re going to go and where they’re going to stop and what they’re going to do in their rotation and what they’re going to do in their orbits.  And we can calculate all of that because of the unchanging, fixed powers of the heavens so that bodies move consistently at all times and they do what is predicted for them to do. 
Our scientists can even mathematically predict things, years, centuries, thousands of years into the future because they have such uniformity from the past.  The heavenly bodies are controlled by the upholding power of the Word of God.  But all of a sudden, the Lord lets go, and the powers that normally hold the universe together no longer do that and you have helter-skelter, chaos, with all of the heavenly bodies at random careening through space.  And the earth becomes a victim of this incredible breakdown of the whole universe. 
Now, specifically, He says, the sun goes black.  The implications of that are just staggering – staggering.  No sunlight.  And man, of course, cannot survive without that.  The temperature change is cataclysmic.  And then the moon doesn’t give its light, obviously, because it’s reflected from the sun.  The tides are instantly chaos.  The stars begin to tumble out of their places.  In Revelation, it says the heavens are rolled up like a scroll and the stars begin to fall like shaking overripe figs off of a fig tree.  The whole universe begins to fall apart, to disintegrate. 
I suppose a faint way of understanding this would be to read to you a section from a book by Velikovsky, who approaches some of the scientific phenomena relative to the earth.  And he says that if, for example, a heavenly body was loose in space and it happened to pass close to the earth and just cause the earth to tilt a fraction on its axis, here’s what would happen, and I quote:  “At that very moment, an earthquake would make the earth shudder.  Air and water would continue to move through inertia; hurricanes would sweep the earth and the seas would rush over the continents, carrying gravel and sand and marine animals, and casting them on the land.  Heat would be developed, rocks would melt, volcanoes would erupt, and lava would flow from fissures in the ruptured ground and cover vast areas.  Mountains would spring up from the plains and would travel and climb on the shoulders of other mountains, causing faults and rifts.  Lakes would be tilted and emptied, rivers would change their beds; large land areas with all their inhabitants would slip under the sea.  Forests would burn, and the hurricanes and wild seas would wrest them from the ground on which they grew and pile them, branch and root, in huge heaps.  Seas would turn into deserts, their waters flowing away.”  It’s inconceivable. 
The earth is held together by the power of the heavens, and when that power is not there, the chaos is going to be indescribable.  And how God can even preserve life for a few moments, or days, a few weeks, so that the kingdom can be established, is only by His supernatural overruling of the chaos of those natural forces disintegrating.  It’s something we can only imagine. 
Now, you say:  “In other words, the Lord is saying that just before Christ comes, this is going to take place?”  That’s right.  That sets the scene.  Now, this isn’t anything new.  I want you to go with your Bible to the 13th chapter of Isaiah.  Isaiah chapter 13.  And I want to show you something fascinating.  Many people believe that the Isaiah 13 passage should be related to Babylon’s destruction, that it is hyperbole speaking of the destruction of the city and the kingdom of Babylon.  But it has to be far more than that.  Yes, Isaiah is referring to Babylon.  Yes, he does predict Babylon’s destruction.  But, as so very often in the mind of the prophet, there is an historical fulfillment and there is a prophetic one as well, far into the future.  And Isaiah simply sees, in the destruction of Babylon for sin, a microcosm of what will happen in the devastation and destruction of the whole world in the coming of the Lord. 
Notice verse 6:  “Wail, for the day of the Lord is at hand.  It shall come as a destruction from the Almighty, therefore shall all hands be faint and every man’s heart shall melt.  And they shall be afraid.  Pains and sorrow shall take hold of them.  They shall be in pain like a woman that has birth pain.  They shall be amazed one at another, their faces shall be as flames.  Behold, the day of the Lord comes, cruel both with wrath and fierce anger” – here’s a very key thing – “to lay” – the Hebrew says – “the earth” – it isn’t just Babylon, it is the earth that is in view here – “desolate and He will destroy the sinners out of it.” 
Now, watch this:  “For the stars of heaven and the constellations thereof shall not give their light, the sun shall be darkened in its going forth and the moon shall not cause its light to shine.  And I will punish” – not Babylon, but – “the world for its evil and the wicked for their iniquity.  And I will cause the arrogancy of the proud to cease and will lay low the haughtiness of the terrible.  And I will make a man more rare than fine gold; even a man than the golden wedge of Ophir.”  In other words, there’s going to be worldwide slaughter as God judges the ungodly and the wicked.  The righteous will live, yes, but the ungodly will die and men will be more rare than wedges of Ophir gold. 
And verse 13 says:  “I will shake the heavens and the earth shall remove out of its place in the wrath of the Lord of hosts and in the day of His fierce anger.”  The earth is going to be like a chased deer, running helter-skelter all over everywhere, like a sheep that no man takes up, that is like an undomesticated sheep, a wild sheep, every man turning to his own people, fleeing everyone into his own land and everyone that is found who hasn’t died will be thrust through and every one joined to him will fall by the sword.  Their children shall be dashed to pieces before their eyes, their houses spoiled and their wives ravished. 
Now, the prophet sees an incredible day.  Look at chapter 34 of Isaiah.  And here again, the prophet Isaiah looks far into the future and says:  “Come near, ye nations, to hear and hearken, ye peoples.”  He’s calling the whole world to listen.  “Let the earth hear and all that is therein, the world and all things that come from it.”  So there’s no question about whom he has reference.  “The indignation of the Lord is upon all nations, His fury on all their armies” – all those armies that have gathered to destroy the people of God in Jerusalem in that great conflagration we know as Armageddon – “all those armies will utterly be destroyed, all of them will be slaughtered” – verse 2 says – “and the slain shall be thrown out, their stench will come up, their carcasses and the mountains shall melt with their blood.  And all the host of heaven shall be dissolved and the heavens shall be rolled together like a scroll and all their hosts shall fall down as the leaf falleth off from the vine and like a falling fig from the fig tree.” 
So you know where the Lord and you know where John drew their imagery, don’t you?  They drew it right from the prophet Isaiah.  And the Lord comes with a sword in verse 6, and He comes with a great slaughter, and it starts in the land of Edom.  The reason Edom is mentioned is because the southernmost place where that great battle is going to occur is in Edom.  Bozrah was the main city in Edom.  And the battle of Armageddon, it says in Revelation, is a 16-furlong battle, Revelation 14:2016 hundred-furlong battle, rather, and that’s 200 miles.  And if you measure 200 miles starting with Bozrah, mentioned here in verse 6 in Edom north, it takes you just past Armageddon into Lebanon, and that is the range of that final great destruction in the battle of Armageddon.  So the Bible is very, very accurate in describing what verse 8 calls the day of the Lord’s vengeance and the year of recompense; that is, when God pays back sinful man. 
Now, the prophet Joel speaks about the very same thing.  He sees in chapter 2 a locust plague which, in a way, blots out the sun and blots out the moon because of the tremendous billions of locusts that make the day dark and the night, they block out the stars.  And he sees those locusts flying in the sky and it’s as if the heavens are trembling and he sees them landing on the ground and it’s as if the earth is shuddering.  And that’s in the beginning of chapter 2 verse 10.  Later in the chapter, he sees that as an illustration of the ultimate shaking of the heavens and the ultimate shaking of the earth and the ultimate holocaust of divine judgment as he takes you to the final judgment in the 30th and 31st verses of Joel chapter 2. 
Haggai, the prophet – in chapter 2 verses 6 and 7 – describes the end of the world in the same terms.  And you remember Peter, preaching at Pentecost in Acts chapter 2, quotes the prophecy of Joel, doesn’t he?  The day will come when the moon will turn to blood and the stars don’t give their light anymore – the sun, rather, turns dark – all of those things are part of this coming holocaust.  And you find it also in Revelation 6:12 and 13, where we find that the sun goes dark and the moon goes out and the stars begin to fall and the people begin to scream for the rocks to fall on them and hide them from the face of the one who is coming. 
So the Lord’s imagery – back now to Matthew 24 – is consistent with the prophets before Him and even after Him in writing the New Testament.  So we see two key words:  sequence, immediately after the Tribulation, and the very obvious one, the setup.  Third word:  sign.  Verse 30, sign.  So important.  “And then shall appear the sign.”  Now go back to verse 3 of chapter 24.  He sat on the Mount of Olives and the disciples came unto Him privately saying, “Tell us, when shall these things be?”  What things?  “Oh, when is it going to be that You’re going to knock down the temple?”  “When is it going to be that You’re going to bring Your kingdom?”  They assumed all of that would happen at the same time.  They didn’t understand the destruction of Jerusalem in 70 A.D.  They were thinking it was all going to be the setting up of the kingdom.  “So when is it going to be and what shall be the sign of Thy coming and the end of the age?” 
Now, He gave them a list of general signs in verses 4 to 14.  He gave them the signal that’s going to start it.  But He still hasn’t given them the sign.  “What is the sign of Thy coming?”  Verse 30:  “And then shall appear the sign.”  The sign.  What is the sign?  Well, the old church fathers, they’re called the Patristic Fathers, they used to believe that it was a blazing cross that would fill the black heavens.  The universe is disintegrated.  It’s total blackness and all of the planets and heavenly bodies are careening helter-skelter through the universe, crashing into each other in total blackness.  And the early fathers – Chrysostom, Cyril of Jerusalem, and Origen and others – said that at that moment in time, there will be a blazing, flaming cross appear in the sky that the whole world will see. 
But I don’t see that in verse 30, do you?  I don’t see any cross there.  It’s a nice idea.  I don’t see it there.  And others said, “No, it’ll be the Shekinah glory.  It’ll be this blazing light.  And that’s closer to the truth, I think.  But you can’t have the Shekinah glory apart from the One from whom it emanates.  So I think if you just keep reading the verse, it’s very clear.  “Then shall appear the sign of the Son of man in heaven.”  It is a subjective genitive, the sign by which He reveals Himself.  Not the sign, objective genitive, to which it points.  The sign is the Son of man in heaven, in other words.  Then shall appear the sign.  What is it?  It’s the Son of man in heaven.  That’s the sign.  It isn’t a cross and it isn’t a light detached from the Son of man, it is the Son of man in heaven.  In the midst of this blackness will appear in blazing, infinite, unveiled glory, the Son of man.  In fact, at the end of verse 30, it says He will come not just with glory but with what?  Great glory.  Glory like the world has never seen.  The unveiled Shekinah.  So much so that Revelation 6 says people scream for the rocks and the mountains to cover them up and hide them from the face of the One who sits on the throne, the One who comes in blazing glory.  And I believe it’s none other than the Lord Himself. 
They received a glimpse of it, you remember, in Matthew 17 where it describes the transfiguration.  Jesus took James, Peter, John up to the mountain, pulled aside the veil of His flesh, and they beheld His glory, and they got a taste of what second coming Shekinah was like.  And it was only a small one and Peter never forgot it, and remember when he penned 2 Peter, he said we have not come unto you with cunningly devised fables, we don’t tell you lies invented by men, we were eyewitnesses of His majesty when we were with Him in the holy mount.  We got a glimpse of second coming glory. 
But that’s the best that men have had, really.  Adam had a glimpse of it in the garden when he walked and talked in the cool of the day with the presence of God.  The people of Israel had a glimpse of the glory when it dwelt between the wings of the cherubim in the Holy of Holies in the tabernacle and the temple.  They saw it as a pillar of cloud that led them by day and a fire that led them by night.  They saw also when the glory of God departed.  But the world has never seen the unveiled glory and the world will see it then. 
The sign then is going to be the glory of the Lord Jesus Christ coming in majesty.  He will be distinguishable, he will be recognizable, and yet He will be in full glory.  It also says, notice it, at the end of verse 30, that He will come on, is the right word, the clouds of heaven.  On the clouds of heaven.  In the same manner as you have seen Him go, Acts 1:9 to 11 says, He’ll come.  He went in the clouds, He’ll come in the clouds.  Daniel says He will come with the clouds of heaven,Daniel 7:13.  John says He’ll come with the clouds, Revelation 1:7.  Mark says He’ll come in clouds, Mark 13:26.  Luke says in 21:27 He’ll come in a cloud, and Matthew says He comes on the clouds of heaven here and later on in chapter 26 verse 64.  So all the writers agree that He is coming surrounded with clouds. 
You say, “What’s that point?”  I don’t know.  Maybe that’s their way in the vision of seeing this glorious Shekinah.  But there’s some kind of a cloud, a cloud of light, a cloud of glory.  And I think it’s kind of special, clouds.  You know, the Old Testament tells us that clouds are the chariot of God.  It’s a very vivid thing.  Psalm 104, do you remember what it says?  “Bless the Lord, O my soul.  O Lord, my God, Thou art very great, Thou art clothed with honor and majesty.  Who layeth the beams of His chamber in the waters, who maketh the clouds His chariot, who walketh on the wings of the wind.”  Very vivid, beautiful language.  And Isaiah 19:1 says:  “The Lord rides on the a swift cloud.” 
And so the scene is indescribable.  The world is in panic.  People everywhere are dying of sheer terror.  They’re in total blackness and only the Lord holds them together enough so that they can see the rest of these events.  And in the midst of that black chaos appears the glory of the Son of God in heaven, in utter majesty, an unveiled holy Shekinah presence and riding on the chariot of God – the clouds – appears in the sky.  And no doubt circles the globe because it says inRevelation 1:7:  “Every eye shall” – what? – “see Him.”  Every eye shall see Him.  That’s the sign. 
Now again, to compare an Old Testament text, turn in your Bible for a brief moment to Zechariah 14.  And in the English text, the translation of the Hebrew may not be quite as clear.  If we translate just out of the literal Hebrew, we really get a clearer picture.  Listen very carefully. Zechariah 14:6 – this is fascinating – says this and this is just going right through, basically, the very straightforward Hebrew translation.  “And it shall be in that day that there shall not be light.”  That’s exactly what Jesus said, sun out, moon out, stars out.  Zechariah said there won’t be light.  “The glorious ones will wane,” that’s the next phrase in the literal Hebrew, the glorious ones will wane.  Or you could say it this way:  The bright ones will fade.  Either way, it refers to the stars, the sun, and the moon.  All the lights go out. 
It says:  “And it shall be in that day” – it’s not a 24-hour day, it’s a prophetic day, it’s an era, it’s a period of time when the Lord comes.  We know it’s the time of the Lord’s coming because that’s what Zechariah 14 is about.  You just need to check verse 4 to verify that.  So no light.  Everything goes black.  Zechariah saw it, too, just like Isaiah saw it, just like Joel saw it, just like Haggai saw it, just like John saw it.  And then verse 7 – listen carefully:  “And it will be one day which shall be known to Jehovah.”  And what he’s saying there is nobody could ever describe this day.  Nobody could ever understand this day.  There is no scientific explanation for this day.  No human being could experience the full understanding of this day.  It is one day that only the Lord can explain.  It is one day known only to Him.  There will be no way to understand it. 
And then he further says in verse 7:  “Not day and not night.”  It’s not day and it’s not night.  It can’t be because there aren’t any heavenly bodies anymore, so there can’t be a sun, can’t be a moon, there can’t be stars, so there can’t be day and there can’t be night.  So it’s not day and it’s not night.  That’s why Jeremiah chapter 30 verse 7 says:  “Alas, for that day, for there is none like it.”  It’s a day that no man can know and no man can describe and there’s no explanation for it.  But – verse 7 says – it will be at the time of closing, the time of evening, the time of the end of that day, there will be light.  And at the end of that era, the end of that prophetic period, the light will come.  So Zechariah sees the same thing.  Everything goes black.  Nobody can figure out what happened.  There’s no human explanation.  God only knows.  It isn’t day and it isn’t night.  And then toward the end of that period of darkness, it is light. 
And what is that light?  It is the sign of the Son of man in heaven coming on the clouds of heaven with power and great glory.  Unveiled majesty – oh, the light of it.  You say, “How brilliant is it?”  Well, in Revelation 21 verse 23, Revelation 22 verse 5, it tells us that in the eternal city of Jerusalem, in the eternal abode of the redeemed, in the heaven of heavens forever and ever, there is no lamp and there is no light for the Lamb Himself is the light of it.  Now, if the Lord Jesus Christ will forever and ever light the eternal new heaven, that’s pretty bright.  That’s all you need.  And He will fill the heavens with the glory of His light. 
You say, “Boy, I mean I’d like to see that.”  I don’t blame you.  I want to tell you this:  We’re going to be raptured, I believe, seven years before this happens.  Now, don’t get too disappointed.  I believe the church is taken out before the Tribulation begins.  I believe we’ll already be with the Lord.  We’ll be having the marriage supper of the Lamb.  We’ll be having a time of rewards.  We’ll be with Him because Revelation 3:10 says we will be kept from the hour that comes to try the whole earth.  We will be preserved from that.  We will be delivered, 1 Thessalonians 1:10 says, from the wrath to come.  So I think we’ll be with the Lord, and there are many other reasons.  You say, “Well, you mean we won’t get to see it?”  Well, let me answer that question this way.  Turn in your Bible to Colossians chapter 3. 
Colossians chapter 3 verse 4.  “When Christ who is our life shall appear” – all right?  When He appears there, when He comes in His glory and He appears for the whole world – “then shall you also appear with Him” – where? – “in glory.”  Oh man, that’s a great truth.  When He appears, you who know Him and love Him, you who have been raised with Christ – verse 1 – you who are alive in Christ – verse 3 – you who know the Savior and He is your life, you will appear with Him in glory.  You’re not down here.  You’re already up there.  And when He comes in glory, you will appear with Him in glory. 
You say, “This is terrific.  I’ve got to get an outfit.  I’ve got to be properly dressed for that.”  You’re right.  Turn to Revelation 19.  You don’t have to go shopping.  One’s already hanging up there waiting.  In Revelation 19 verse 7, we have a picture of the marriage supper of the Lamb when the Lord is joined to His redeemed church, His bride.  It’s called the marriage of the Lamb.  The wife is ready and when the wife comes into the presence of the Lord, when we the church are raptured and taken into His presence, it says in verse 8:  “To her was granted that she should be arrayed in fine linen, clean and white, for the fine linen is the righteousness of saints.”  So when the church is taken into the presence of the Lord at the marriage supper, as we sit down with the Lord to fellowship with Him during that seven-year Tribulation time on earth, as we’ve been delivered from the wrath to come, as we’ve been saved out of the redemption that comes on – out of the damnation that comes on the earth, we commune with the Lord, we are rewarded, and we are robed in fine linen. 
Then, when He comes back, you go to verse 14:  And the armies that were in heaven, already redeemed souls – and I believe that includes the church and I believe it includes also the redeemed saints of the Old Testament who also are the invited guests to the marriage supper.  You don’t have to invite the bride; she’s already going to be there.  The bride – it is for the bride, but it is also including a guest list, verse 9:  Blessed are they who are also invited to the marriage supper, Old Testament saints.  So the Old Testament saints who are redeemed and all of the church is there, all robed in fine linen, white and clean, symbolizing their perfection in purity and righteousness, and we all come riding out of heaven.  You’ll have your own robe and your own white horse.  So you’ll be there, only you’ll be up looking down, not down looking up. 
Some people who weren’t ready when the Lord took His church, who weren’t redeemed, will be left here.  Many will die but many will be saved.  And many redeemed people will be looking up.  There will be those who are redeemed in that day who were saved out of the Tribulation and who weren’t killed by the antichrist and who weren’t killed by the persecutors and the betrayers and the haters of God.  And they survived, protected by Michael, protected as the hundred and forty-four thousand, protected by the mercy and grace of God.  There will be Jews and Gentiles, and they’ll be protected, and when they see Him in the sky, they will rejoice.  But the world will cry out in absolute terror and fear.  What a day, what a day.  And so we will return.  And there won’t be any more scoffers saying, “Where is the promise of His coming?”  There won’t be any more scoffers. 
Let me give you a fourth word:  strength.  Oh, what an important word this is.  Would you notice, just very briefly, verse 30 at the end?  He comes with power, that’s the word strength.  I mean can you imagine the power to just set the whole universe reeling, to set the whole earth rocking on its axis.  He has power over the whole created universe.  He has power over Satan.  He has power over demons.  He has power to slaughter all the ungodly Christ-rejecting unbelievers worldwide.  He has power to establish His kingdom.  He has power to redeem His elect.  This is power without equal.  Great power, great power.  No power like it.  He comes with the holy angels, comes to sit on the throne of His glory, chapter 25 verse 31 says.  Great power.  In fact, Isaiah calls it in chapter 63 the day of vengeance of our God when He treads out the winepress of His wrath. 
You know – just one thought.  As He comes, His power is so great that the things that have been devastated in the chaos of blackness and the chaos of the earth immediately are made right.  When His feet touch the Mount of Olives, Zechariah says, everything – everything begins to turn.  His feet hit the Mount of Olives, Zechariah 14:1 to 4.  Marvelous.  He comes right back to the very place He left.  That’s where He’s going to set up His kingdom.  And He comes with a sword out of His mouth, Revelation 19 says, and He kills all the people who are ungodly and rejecting who aren’t already dead.  He brings them to a great judgment, which we’ll read about when we get to chapter 25, and they’re sent into eternal hell.  And then He establishes the glory of His kingdom.  He finishes sin, Daniel 9:24 says.  He ends transgression.  He brings in everlasting righteousness.  He sets up His kingdom forever and ever and ever. 
But I just love to think about when He hits the Mount of Olives, because I’ve stood so many times on that Mount of Olives.  When He hits the Mount of Olives, it splits – it just – it splits.  And in Zechariah 14, it says the sea in front and the sea in back, which would be the Mediterranean and the Dead Sea, a channel is cut so the water can flow freely.  When we were over there, it was told to us that they’re trying to dig a channel now to bring water from the Mediterranean, a canal or a pipeline, to bring water from the Mediterranean to have water in the desert.  Well, if they’ll just wait, they could save an awful lot of money because that – the Lord has the same plan.  There – it’s pretty good planning, to be honest, because it’s the Lord’s plan.  You see, Isaiah 35 says the desert will blossom like a rose.  They’re trying to fulfill Isaiah 35 with a construction project. 
When the Lord comes, He splits the Mount of Olives, creates a valley, the Mediterranean empties into the desert, and in summer and winter there’s water all through the desert.  And since the Dead Sea area is so low, it will fill up – and it must become a huge lake – and all that area will have plenty of water for irrigation and there’ll never be a desert in the Millennium, in the kingdom.  A canal from the Mediterranean to the desert, that’s just one thing.  Lion lying down with a lamb, children playing with poisonous snakes and not being bitten, people living a long time, a restored earth – that’s power, that’s strength. 
Another key word:  sorrow.  Can you take a moment to look at that word “mourn”?  “Then shall all the tribes of the earth mourn.”  When He comes, there will be sorrow.  I already told you about the sorrow of the unsaved Gentiles.  For the most part, they’re just going to – they’re just going to be in sheer terror.  They’re just going to cry out to be hidden from this.  They’re going to not be repentant for the most part, but they’re going to curse God.  They’re going to scream at God.  They’re going to blaspheme God, it says in Revelation.  And they will, like Revelation 18 says, say:  “Oh, alas, alas, Babylon which is our worldly system is fallen, Babylon is fallen and there will be no more music, there will be no more records, there will be no more tapes played of music, no more instruments will be played.”  Music will all of a sudden stop all over the world because the terror will be so great, the fear will be so great, there will be no song to sing.”  So the Gentiles will mourn. 
But the Jews will mourn also.  And Zechariah 12 says:  “They will look upon Him whom they have pierced and they will” – what? – “mourn for Him as for an only son.”  They will realize that they’ve pierced their Messiah.  And then it says in Zechariah 13:1, a fountain – a fountain of cleansing will be opened to them.  Their redemption will draw near, and I believe it is at that moment when all of the work of the hundred and forty-four thousand and the fruit of the everlasting gospel preached by a supernatural angel is going to come together and they in that moment will see the One.  And it is in that moment that all Israel will be saved, Romans 11 says.  All Israel will be saved.  Their redemption will draw nigh and they will mourn that they have crucified their Messiah.  Some of them will mourn unto salvation.  It will be godly sorrow, godly sorrow unto repentance. 
And then the last word that we have time for today:  select.  Verse 31, very brief, select.  When He’s judged all and the mourning has taken place, the mourning of those who are dying in the eternal judgment, the mourning of those who are repenting, He will send His angels.  Angels, by the way, are God’s gatherers.  They are His collectors of men.  In the 13th chapter of Matthew, we find them in several of the parables, sent out to gather people for judgment, to bring them before God.  In this case, they’re not gathering people for judgment, they’re gathering them for glory. 
And by the sound of a trumpet, the familiar Jewish means of calling a convocation, calling an assembly, the trumpet is blown, the angels, the messengers of God, go and they gather together His elect, the redeemed who have been scattered all over during the work of the hundred and forty-four thousand going all over the earth and preaching, there have been those who have been redeemed.  And during the gospel preaching by the everlasting angel, there have been those who have believed.  And they’re still all over the earth, many of them still hiding from the terrors of the antichrist, and the angels go all over the world to gather them from the four winds, a colloquial expression similar to our expression “from the four corners of the world,” north, east, south and west, and gather them in from one end of heaven to the other.  Another way of saying from everywhere – nobody is left out.  The Lord sends the angels to collect all of His select, His select elect for His eternal kingdom.  And many shall wake.  I believe the bodies of Old Testament saints will come out of the grave to be joined with their redeemed spirits to enter into the glory of His eternal kingdom.  So the Lord will gather His people from all over the world to bring them into the kingdom. 
That’s the Lord’s own description of His second coming.  What a tremendous event.  Now, the disciples got the sign.  When you see the Son of man in heaven.  They didn’t live to see that.  And you and I, by the grace of God, if we’re redeemed, will be taken out with the church.  I don’t really care to live on this earth to see that because I don’t care to go through the Tribulation.  I’d rather be with the Savior than be here fulfilling my curiosity.  And if I’m so curious about the Tribulation that it changes my theology, I’m warped because I should long to be with Jesus Christ. 
I just say this to you, folks.  That’s how it’s all going to end.  It can’t be very far away.  And if we’re leaving seven years before it happens, we better get ready.  And you either are going to come to that point when you’re with Him in glory, when you enter into His kingdom, or when you either die of a heart attack, are cast out of His kingdom, sent to everlasting hell, as He says in verse – the end of chapter 25, the closing verses, where there’s weeping and gnashing of teeth and everlasting punishment.  The world is very much fulfilling God’s historical plan. 
And you have to ask yourself:  Where are you?  I mean this is serious stuff.  Your eternal destiny is at stake.  And this is just exactly how it’s going to end.  Are you going to be a part of the disaster here or a part of the glory there?  It’s your choice.  By God’s grace as the Spirit prompts your heart, I pray you will respond to the Savior.  Let’s bow in prayer. 

We, Lord, thank You for giving us so much revelation.  We don’t have to live in darkness, wondering what’s going to happen.  We know what’s going to happen because You’ve told us.  Oh, Lord, how responsible we are to live in the light of that eternity.  May we look for the glorious appearing of the Lord and Savior Jesus Christ, look for the day when we can be with Him and not have to live in fear of what may come because we reject the Savior, whose only desire is to give us His love and grace, forgiveness, peace, joy, and blessing.
source: https://www.gty.org/resources/sermons/2371/The-Sign-of-the-Son-of-Man

"The Coming of the Son of Man"

Rev. Carl Haak




What is your hope for the future?
I did not ask, What should be your hope? What is your hope? What is it that you have set your eye upon? What is it that your heart desires above everything else? And toward what are you preparing and directing your life today? Is it in terms of the good life, a good-paying joy, the ability to afford all that you ever wanted? Or is it in terms of personal goals: success, advancement in a certain field, honor, renown? Or, perhaps, it is in term of family: children, marriage, seeing your children and grandchildren doing well, happy, successful?
What is it that is your hope for the future?
The Bible says that when you take the Word of God as a knife and open up the heart of a child of God, you will find that in that heart there beats one great hope. That hope is the coming of the Lord Jesus Christ - the one, visible, final coming of Jesus Christ at the end of the world. That is the hope of the child of God.
David already had that hope in the Old Testament. In II Samuel 23:5 he says, "for this is all my salvation, and all my desire." He is referring there to the day that Christ would come, a morning without clouds, the day in which the Bible says God shall be all and in all.
We also read in the book of Revelation, as the Bible comes to its close, that the prayer of the church is this: "Come, Lord Jesus, come quickly."
The hope of the child of God is the coming of Jesus Christ. Christ comes once more. He comes not to establish any type of earthly kingdom on this earth. He comes in judgment. He comes at the end of time. He comes to judge the wicked world. He comes to raise the bodies of all men. He comes to bring His church home and to build for it the final kingdom, the new heavens and the new earth.
Is that your hope?
Jesus spoke of that hope and He spoke of His coming. He spoke of it especially in Matthew 24 and in Mark 13, passages that have been called the Lord's sermon on the end of the world, or the signs of His second coming. In Mark 13 He is speaking of the end of the world and of His coming again. His main object in the sermon is to establish His children in good hope. He tells us in that chapter of many hard and extremely difficult days of deception and persecution which lie ahead for the church. He says that His true believers will be hated of all men. They will be persecuted, and false prophets will constantly be trying to seduce them and draw them from the faith. The Lord says, It will appear as if my church and my gospel are all but defeated. My people shall appear to be scattered. On every side the false gospel and the evil world apparently will have the upper hand. But, He says, your courage must not fail. Even when you see the church scattered and the elect as if they are going to be swept off the earth and false doctrines being embraced, I am coming and My elect shall all be gathered to me in eternal glory. He says to us in that chapter, turn your eyes and set your hope and fix your heart upon My coming.
I would like to speak to you for a few moments on this glorious truth of the coming of the Son of man as Jesus speaks of it in Mark 13:24. "But in those days, after that tribulation, the sun shall be darkened, and the moon shall not give her light, and the stars of heaven shall fall, and the powers that are in heaven shall be shaken. And then shall they see the Son of man coming in the clouds with great power and glory. And then shall he send his angels, and shall gather together his elect from the four winds, from the uttermost part of the earth to the uttermost part of heaven." The Lord tells us that He is going to return immediately after the great tribulation of His church. We read, "But in those days, after that tribulation…." And when we compare it to Matthew 24, we read this: immediately after the tribulation of those days, that is, following close on the heels of that tribulation.
There is in the mind and will of Jesus Christ the need for His church to undergo great testing and trial on the earth. He will come immediately after that tribulation, but not until that tribulation has taken place. We read in Revelation 6:11 that the glorified saints who have been martyred for the cause of Christ are under the altar crying out, "How long, O Lord, holy and true. Dost thou not avenge our blood on them that dwell on the earth?" And the answer is this: "White robes were given unto every one of them; and it was said unto them, that they should rest yet for a little season, until their fellow-servants also and their brethren, that should be killed as they were, should be fulfilled."
The Bible teaches us that the measure of suffering appointed of God for His church must be fulfilled. The sufferings of Christ in us must be filled up. According to God's inscrutable wisdom, individually in your own life as a child of God, but also for the church as a body, there is a certain amount of sufferings which is necessary. We read in I Peter 5:10, "But the God of all grace, who hath called us unto his eternal glory by Christ Jesus, after that ye have suffered a while, make you perfect, stablish, strengthen, settle you."
The Bible says that the wicked are also filling up a cup, a cup of iniquity. "To fill up their sins alway: for the wrath is come upon them to the uttermost" (I Thess. 2:16). And from that cup they shall drink to all eternity. That iniquity of the world is measured in its depths, not by the outward, vile deeds that men commit, but especially in terms of a rejection of the Christ of God. "This is the condemnation, that light is come into the world, and men loved darkness rather than light" (John 3:19). The persecution of the church is motivated by the hatred of Jesus Christ. So when the suffering of the church is fulfilled, the cup of sin of the wicked reaches its brim.
We do not know when all of this will happen, that is, when that measure is attained. Scripture gives to us very clear ideas of the signs of the times, of the signs of the return of the Lord. There shall be the increase in wickedness. There shall not be a kingdom of Christ on this earth. No, there shall be an increase in wickedness. But we know this, that when it appears as if the true church of God is all but driven off the earth and man has turned his vengeance upon that church, and when the days, as Jesus says in this chapter of Mark, must be shortened for the elect's sake or there would be no flesh saved alive, it is then, immediately, that Christ shall come.
Because the coming of Christ is the great event toward which everything is directed by God right now, because it is the goal of God's eternal purposes in Christ, that coming of Christ will, therefore, be accompanied by the shaking of the creation. We read that Jesus said, "The sun shall be darkened, and the moon shall not give her light. And the stars of heaven shall fall, and the powers that are in heaven shall be shaken." The powers of the heaven refer to God's hand upholding the stars right now and the heavens in a regular way. The power which staggers man's mind, the power which keeps all things in existence, that power, that orderly power of God, shall be disrupted. And God, by His mighty hand, shall cast it all down. There shall be darkness. The sun and the moon shall be darkened, we read. There shall be the disruption of the universe. Stars shall fall and leave their courses. There shall be the great disruption of the creation by the hand of God because God will come in judgment. When Jesus comes, the world as it is now shall be destroyed.
The most frightening for a man without God is to see the world destroyed about him. Everything which he could use to turn from God is taken away. Everything that he bases his courage upon is taken away. And he must stand before God.
When Jesus comes, there shall be the great shaking of the created world. God shall shake it up and burn it in fire. And Christ shall create the new heavens and the new earth wherein righteousness shall dwell. Hear God's Word.
In our Lord's first coming, in the womb of the virgin Mary, when He took up His residence among us, He came meek and lowly. He came to perform the obedience to the divine law of God for us. That obedience took Him to the cross, where He suffered and died for our sins. He came the first time doing the will of the Father and, so to speak, there was not even a little twitch in the world. Apart from the heavenly angels over the fields of Bethlehem, and a handful of shepherds, no one took notice. The bustling crowds did not pause. Rome and Caesar considered it to be simply another day as usual. People ate, drank, washed, went to bed. The very Son of God, by whom all things were created and who holds all things in His hands, came into our flesh. There was only the mooing of cattle and the sighs and the groans of the virgin Mary in childbirth. And the world went on its way.
But when our Master comes again, heaven will be shaken, stars shall fall. The sun shall not give her light, earth shall be broken on her foundations and mountains cast into the sea. For He shall appear as the Lord of glory. And you shall know Him, the One who suffered and died and rose again and to whom you belong now by His grace. His eyes, though brilliant and bright, will smile upon you. You will rush out, amid all the terrors around you, into His arms. But, and hear the warning today, those who do not know Him as Savior and Lord and do not His will, they shall flee from Him whose eyes are as fire. And they shall cry, "Hide us from the wrath of the Lamb."
When Jesus comes it will be glorious. It is the moment for which you are being prepared. It is the moment for which we have been saved. We shall go out to meet Him and cry, "All hail! Glory, laud, and honor to Thee, Redeemer, King."
Jesus shall come personally and bodily. We read, "And then shall they see the Son of man coming in the clouds with great power and glory." Jesus speaks there of Himself as the Son of man, referring to nothing less than His own person, as the Savior. Remember the Christian doctrine. As the Son of man, He is the second person of the Trinity in our flesh. He is Jesus of Nazareth, the Son of man, who was sent of the Father to die and rise again the third day, the very one who offered Himself for us on the cross. He is the risen and ascended Lord in His glorified human nature. He shall come. In His glorified human body the Lord Himself shall descend from heaven (I Thess. 4:16). He is not coming in the last day in His Spirit as He came on the day of Pentecost. He is not coming on the last day through His messengers as He comes right now through the ministers of the gospel who announce His glad tidings. But (Acts 1:11), this same Jesus who was taken up from us into heaven, shall so come as they had seen Him go. The One who walked on the earth, who touched lepers, who wrestled in prayer, who was made like unto us in all things except sin, the One who was crucified, is risen, and is glorified and now at God's right hand - ruling over all! He is coming!
Are you ready?
It will be a public coming. Visible. Notice that up to this point in the 13th chapter of Mark, Jesus has always said, "You." "You shall be hated." "Take ye heed." "Pray ye that your flight be not in the winter." But now He says, "And then shall they see the Son of man coming…." Why does He say that? He does not just say, "Ye shall see Him." But "They shall see Him." Because all shall see Him. The church, waiting for Him, yes. But all shall see Him. "Then shall all the tribes of the earth mourn, and they shall see the Son of man coming in the clouds of heaven with power and great glory" (Matt. 24:30). "Behold, he cometh with the clouds; and every eye shall see him, and they also which pierced him: and all kindreds of the earth shall wail because of him" (Rev. 1:7).
There shall be the resurrection of the dead, both good and evil. All nations shall be gathered before Him. Mankind in its entirety shall be assembled. All shall see Him!
When He came the first time in Bethlehem, who saw Him? A few shepherds. God, so to speak, slipped His Son into the world unseen. But in the second coming who will see Him? All! Do you understand that? Does the Word of God say that when He comes only believers will see Him in the rapture? No. There is no such teaching in the Bible. That is the imagination of man. God will not take His church out of the world in secret, but as a great and glorious and conquering host in the presence of the foe. Assembled on the great day, Jesus shall take His church victorious. And He it is that shall tread down our enemies. He comes personally. He comes publicly. And He comes in great power. For all shall see the Son of man, said Jesus, coming in the clouds with power and great glory. What majesty shall be His! He shall come upon the clouds. The clouds in Scripture are often a symbol of the presence and majesty of God. You remember that God led Israel by a pillar of cloud by day and fire by night which He put between Israel and Egypt to protect Israel. It was the cloud which was a figure of His own glory as He descended upon the tabernacle.
Christ's coming will be majestic. Against the darkness of the sky - for the sun shall not shine - and amid the rubble of the universe, the Son of man in all of His beauty and power shall appear. That is why every eye shall see Him. They shall see Him in power, the very opposite of weakness. They shall see Him in glory, the outshining of all of His perfections.
No wonder Paul could say in Titus 2:13 that we look "for that blessed hope, and the glorious appearing of the great God and our Saviour Jesus Christ." No wonder he could say in II Thessalonians 1 that when Christ comes He shall be admired of all the saints. What is our hope? Our hope is not that we are going to be snatched away in some rapture when things get too hot. But our hope is this: I shall see Him for myself. Whether I am yet alive or need to be raised from the dead, I shall see Him face to face. The mighty and the terrible One, the risen Lord, the avenger of the elect, the Shepherd of His sheep.
So Jesus could say in Mark 14:62 to Caiaphas, that He was indeed the Son of God and "ye shall see the Son of man sitting on the right hand of power, and coming in the clouds of heaven." Think of it! All the toil and all the struggles that we have gone through will be recompensed and rewarded. The cross of afflictions and trials that we bear will be lifted by the Savior's own hands. He will wipe away all tears from our eyes. He shall brush the dirt of the battle from our clothes. And He will say, "Come with Me, My beloved."
Why does He come? He comes to gather the elect. Then shall He send His angels, we read. And they shall gather together His elect from the four winds, from the uttermost parts of the earth, even to the uttermost part of heaven. The elect, they are those whom God has chosen to their salvation. Yet they are scattered over all the earth. No matter where they are on the earth, God shall find them. He shall send His angels to take them to Himself. The focal point of salvation of the elect is when Christ comes and we shall be with Him. That shall be the day of final division. For the angels shall gather the elect. But they shall condemn all unbelievers to eternal hell. Every sinner marked out in his unbelief shall be destroyed. Every proud and indifferent sinner, every smug sinner, every "it doesn't make any difference - I've got tomorrow" sinner shall be destroyed. But every sinner, chosen of His grace, redeemed in His blood, brought to faith and repentance, loved of God shall be gathered to Himself. He is coming.
Today many people have opinions about Jesus Christ. Some say He is a good man. Some say, a noble leader. Others say, a myth. In that day when He comes, there will be just one opinion: He is the mighty Son of God, Lord of all. Today many ridicule His claims. They say, Prince of Peace, Savior? Look at the world with its wars and crime and unrest. He is a failure. But who ever said that He came to bring peace, earthly peace, on the earth? No, this is why He came: "And he shall save his people from their sins" (Matt. 1:21). He did not come to make this world a utopia. He came to be glorified in the elect and chosen, repentant believers. He will come to save His sheep. He shall establish the new heavens and the new earth in righteousness, where righteousness shall dwell. And in that day that He comes for us, He will make us perfectly spotless, raised with new bodies, without one blemish. And in those bodies, reunited with our souls, we shall serve Him day and night in His temple.
Is that your hope? Are you living in such a way that you are ready now? Then hear His word. Christ says, "I come. I come to be glorified in you. I will never forget you. I have chosen to dwell with you to all eternity. And soon, now, very soon, I come." Do you hear Him? I can't wait!

Let us pray.
Come, Lord Jesus. Yea, come quickly. Amen.