[0:00] Good morning. It feels like we've had a full service already, the Bible lesson and everything.
[0:13] Welcome here. We are still going to have a lesson out of Revelations as well, and to continue this.
[0:24] My goal is to try to finish this series by the end of the month. Early September, so to work through it. We've been sitting for quite some time.
[0:36] Why don't we rise just for a minute again and perhaps greet our neighbor and just stretch, and then we'll resume. Last week, we started this chapter, chapter 19, and the introduction was the victory around the throne as they saw God bring about justice and punishment.
[1:10] Babylon the great, the harlot, was punished, destroyed. But then, secondly, and perhaps even more intriguing, is that we read and learned that the bride of Christ got married to the Lamb.
[1:34] And so we introduced that thought that we will be, as children of God, married to Jesus Christ. And marriage is for?
[1:47] Forever. And so our earthly marriages are a glimpse of the heavenly. And so we will be with the Lord forever, married to Him, in relationship with Him for all eternity.
[2:06] So that was the theme last Sunday. And so this Sunday, we want to continue the same chapter, the same theme, the return of Christ.
[2:21] I'll call it part two, where we look at the physical return of Christ. And when I first was introduced to this, way back, I was actually almost saddened, not knowing Scripture well, but to think that we're going to come back to earth, this is not a place I want to be.
[2:53] And when I get raptured, or when I go to be with the Lord, I don't want to come back. And yet, as we understand Scripture more fully, and that we're going to come back to be with the Lord forever, to be transformed into perfection, to not be living, with our children's story, with temptation anymore, we will be perfected.
[3:25] And in that sense, we won't have what we would think of as our human element. We'll be like Christ. And we will come and reign with Him.
[3:38] And so, my attitude has been modified since that day, as I've learned and grown. As we start this, did Jesus literally go to heaven after His resurrection?
[3:58] Okay. How do we know?
[4:17] He promised He would. The Bible says so. Was there eyewitnesses?
[4:28] There was. And Stephen, when he was stoned, looked up into heaven, and what did he see? He saw Jesus standing at the right hand.
[4:47] And Jesus stood up to receive him. And so, there is evidence God left eyewitnesses in Acts chapter 1 that Jesus literally went up.
[5:04] And if He is to come back down, He has to have gone up. That's like one plus one, right? Like, if He's up in heaven today, He has to come back down.
[5:19] And so, the reason I'm introducing this this way, there is a lot of mockery today that Jesus will not return physically.
[5:35] And even in Christians, we spiritualize and say, it means something different.
[5:47] Jesus is in heaven, but His Spirit is with us, and so He is reigning with us, and we are already in the thousand-year reign. And different variations of that.
[6:01] Not that long ago, I had some visitors at the door, some JWs, and they introduced the theme that Jesus came back spiritually in 1913.
[6:18] The start of World War I was the return of Christ. And we are in the thousand-year reign, and Satan is bound. And the church is becoming, making the world a better place.
[6:34] One word describes that. Deception. They are deceived. Peter, in 2 Peter, says in the last times, in chapter 3, mockers will come, saying, where is the return of Christ?
[7:02] It's not happening. It's so long ago, it won't happen. And, as believers, we need to rest firmly on the grounds that Jesus is coming back physically.
[7:23] And, furthermore, as a child of God, you will come back with Him. there's no maybe.
[7:39] This is a certainty as we understand Scripture in the literal context. As we work through this this morning, we'll see how far we get.
[7:53] There's a lot packed in, and I want to bring in quite a bit of other Scriptures to tie in the Bible from various aspects.
[8:06] And, so, we'll be turning the pages somewhat. The Scripture read for us, and I'll start in verse 11.
[8:17] Now I saw heaven opened, and behold, a white horse. Now when's the last time we saw a white horse, or we read about him?
[8:29] A white horse. Who remembers? In the beginning, in the seal judgments, right?
[8:40] And the first seal, a white horse was revealed, and the rider on it was given a bow, and the ability to conquer, and at that time when we were in that section, we discussed that that was not Christ, but it was the Antichrist.
[9:04] Conquering, maybe not physically, but people's minds and hearts as he seeks to gain popularity.
[9:16] prosperity. And, and we know that by the mid-trib period, he demanded worship. The rider on the white horse conquering people's hearts and souls demanding worship within three and a half years as he sets up an image to the beast.
[9:42] Christ. And, and so we have, we have a white horse there, but now, John, at the, at the end, he sees another white horse, and then, and he who sat on it, on him was called faithful and true, and in righteousness he judges and makes war.
[10:03] So we have different descriptions here. So, just going through them quickly, the second rider on the, on the second horse, he is called faithful and true.
[10:18] He is righteous in his judgment. His eyes like a flame of fire penetrating. On his head many crowns.
[10:31] He had a name that no one knows except himself. He's clothed with a robe dipped in blood.
[10:43] And his name is called the Word of God. Who is this? It is clearly Jesus Christ.
[10:55] And every one of the descriptions I just read are, have been used elsewhere in the book of Revelations. Either in chapter 1, 2, or 3.
[11:07] All these descriptions of Christ have been used and now are repeated here. All together. And so this is what the Apostle John sees after the marriage of the bride, of the Lamb.
[11:25] And he saw, sees heaven open and a white horse appear with a rider. Allow yourselves to picture this.
[11:40] Verse 13, or verse 14, And the armies in heaven, clothed in fine linen, white and clean, followed him on white horses.
[11:52] The armies of heaven, clothed in linen. Who are these armies?
[12:11] I'm hearing some whispers. Who are these armies? Who are these armies? Who are these armies? Okay?
[12:25] So here, with the description, we'll talk about angels a bit later, the armies of heaven are clothed in fine linen, white and clean, following him on white horses.
[12:41] And by the way, if you don't like riding horses, here you will. we don't know if this will be literally on horses, but it's a symbol of coming in victory and against our enemies.
[13:03] And we'll be following our leader, Jesus Christ. And in verse 8, the marriage of the Lamb to the bride, and to the bride, to her it was granted to be arraigned in fine linen, clean and bright, for the fine linen is the righteous acts of the saints.
[13:24] And so, it takes away all doubt, the armies in heaven that follow Jesus here is the church married to Christ. We are going to go into battle with the Lord.
[13:41] We'll be following him. Except, he is going to do the fighting. We are going to watch. There is no indication that any believer at this point will lift a hand.
[13:59] We're going to observe as the Lord destroys the enemies. Victorious. But we will observe what happens there.
[14:10] as we look at some details about his coming, scripture tells us he will come in the clouds.
[14:30] There's going to be clouds present, and as we read a few different passages, Matthew 24.
[14:41] If you have your Bibles, turn with me. Matthew 24. We're going to look at some details of his coming. Matthew 24, 29, and 30.
[14:58] He says, Immediately after the tribulation of those days, the sun will be darkened, and the moon will not give its light, the stars will fall from heaven, and the powers of the heavens will be shaken.
[15:12] And remember the last bowl judgment, all this happened. Then the sign of the Son of Man will appear in heaven, and all the tribes of the earth will mourn, and they will see the Son of Man coming on the clouds of heaven with power and great glory.
[15:30] glory, coming on the clouds of heaven with power and great glory.
[15:42] This is the way that Jesus will come back down. Acts chapter 1. I'm going to turn there as well. Acts chapter 1.
[15:57] Probably most of us know this off by heart or close. In verse 9, and so they're gathered for the great commission, the last instructions.
[16:10] And then in verse 9, when he had spoken these things while they watched. This is the eleven apostles. Judas is no longer Iscariot, and he has not yet been replaced.
[16:24] So it's the eleven. While they watched, he was taken up and a cloud received him out of their sight. And while they looked steadfastly toward heaven, as he went up, behold, two men stood by them in white apparel, who also said, Men of Galilee, why do you stand up into heaven?
[16:49] This same Jesus, who was taken up from you into heaven, will come in like manner as you saw him go up into heaven. So here we have two angels at the scene as Jesus arises, and as they're gazing, or maybe staring in wonderment as Christ disappears in the clouds, these men or these angels appear and said, why are you gazing?
[17:21] this same Jesus will come back in the same way. He'll come back in the same way on the clouds.
[17:42] I remember, just recount Sadie's grandpa, Dick, a number of years ago he was very sick, and we visited him in the hospital here in Grand Prairie, and we didn't think that he would pull through.
[17:58] He was a very thin, frail man, and he could barely stand, and yet at one point we were visiting with him, and he was standing and he was gripping the little serving table beside the bed, and he gazed up into heaven, and then he spoke these words.
[18:20] And he says, God has promised like he went, he will return. And I realized, this was a Sommerfelder pastor in full retirement, I realized this man knows the truth.
[18:42] He knows the truth. And he had a vision in realizing we will come back with Christ. And he shared that with us, and we were very blessed with that.
[18:55] So we have these promises, and we need to take them literally. If you want to read some more, passages about this, Daniel 7, verse 13, is another passage that talks about him coming in the clouds.
[19:20] And where did Jesus lift up from? Does anyone know? Where was he when he went up?
[19:31] On the Mount of Olives. And in like manner, the angel said, he will return. And so his coming will not be in Montreal or in Edmonton or in Grand Prairie.
[19:46] It's going to be in the Mount of Olives in Israel. We are told and promised that. And let's turn to Zechariah 14 and just to back that up further, the book of Zechariah.
[20:03] Zechariah. I'm going to read the first four verses here to get the context.
[20:24] The first five. Zechariah 14. Here the prophet says, Behold, the day of the Lord is coming, and your spoil will be divided in your midst, for I will gather all the nations to battle against Jerusalem.
[20:41] The city shall be taken, the houses rifled, and the women ravished. Half of the city shall go into captivity, but the remnant of the people shall not be cut off from the city.
[20:53] Then the Lord will go forth and fight against those nations as he fights in the day of battle, and in that day his feet will stand on the Mount of Olives, which faces Jerusalem on the east, and the Mount of Olives shall be split in two from east to west, making a very large valley.
[21:16] Half of the mountain shall move toward the north, half toward the south, and then you shall flee through my mountain valley, for the mountain valley shall reach Azael. Yes, you shall flee as you fled from the earthquake in the days of Uzziah, king of Judah.
[21:31] Thus the Lord, my God, will come and all the saints with you.
[21:42] So Zechariah also repeats the church, the believers, the saints, will come back with Christ as he comes back on the Mount of Olives.
[21:56] Now, twice already we have planned a trip to Israel as a church or as a brotherhood, and the first time COVID kind of knocked out, and then we set a goal for spring of 25, which is right around the corner, and we realized there's a lot of activity happening there, but this fall, we will be discussing that as a church brotherhood.
[22:31] Should we pursue? Are there people still interested and willing? And if so, we will make preparations to go next spring. And then, if that happens, you will have the opportunity to stand on the Mount of Olives and to look down on the eastern gate, just as is described here.
[22:55] down through the Kidron Valley and the Garden of Gethsemane at the bottom, all of that is there. And so this is where Jesus will come down physically.
[23:09] So on the Mount of Olives, he's going to come with the saints, as we looked, and with that, Jude verses 14 and 15 also talks about, well, let's turn there.
[23:26] Book of Jude. It's amazing how God ties Scripture together. Now, verse 14 says in Jude, now Enoch, the seventh from Adam, so before the flood, Enoch, who walked with God and was not, for God took him, he went up to heaven without dying, says Enoch, the seventh from Adam, prophesied about these men, saying, behold, the Lord comes with ten thousands of his saints to execute judgment on all, to convict all who are ungodly among them, and he goes on for judgment.
[24:15] And so even Enoch, from our time, 5,000 years ago, prophesied the Lord would come with the saints.
[24:28] And we are so much closer today to this becoming reality. But Enoch already knew. And so Jude writes about that as well.
[24:41] Okay, there was a mention of angels. And there's a few verses that talk about angels accompanying as well.
[24:54] Matthew 25, 31, it speaks about Christ returning with the angels. And I'll read that verse as well, Matthew 25, 31. And he will send his angels with a great sound of a trumpet.
[25:19] I'm in verse 20, chapter 24, chapter 25. When the Son of Man comes in his glory, and all the holy angels with him, then he will sit on the throne of his glory.
[25:35] And then the angels will gather the Gentile nations for the sheep and goat judgment. So here, the angels, their purpose in heaven will no longer exist.
[25:51] They will become ministering spirits here on earth to do the Lord's bidding, as Christ will dwell with his bride here on earth.
[26:03] And so the angels will be coming as well. Now, if we just pause there, have you ever tried to envision there are going to be believers, one-third of the Jews, that are going to survive the tribulation period, and they're going to populate the millennium.
[26:25] and there will be from the Gentiles, the sheep and goat judgment, the sheep will inherit the kingdom with the Jews.
[26:39] There will be Jews and Gentiles living physically like we are today in two of the thousand years. Then there's going to be the wife of Christ, the church, transformed, perfected, reigning with him.
[27:00] How is our relationship going to be with those people living? And then we have the holy angels present. it's going to be a very interesting scene.
[27:21] And it's going to be a glimpse of eternal glory where all of this will be together in the holy city, in New Jerusalem.
[27:34] And so just maybe, you know, as you leave here today, let your mind go there. What's it going to be like? It's okay to think about that, to try to picture that as we rule with Christ and we watch humans still living and making mistakes.
[27:58] Yet we will be beyond that, perfected. all right, so another aspect of his return, every eye shall see him.
[28:11] Every eye shall see him. And Matthew 24 verse 30, we read that, every eye shall see him. But Revelation 1 verse 7, let's read that one.
[28:25] Revelation 1 verse 7. Revelation Behold, he is coming with clouds, and every eye will see him, even they who pierced him.
[28:42] And the tribes of the earth will mourn because of him. Even so, amen. So when Jesus returns, the world will know.
[28:57] what's this book called? The Revelation of Jesus Christ.
[29:08] And what does Revelation mean? To reveal, to make known. And so as the Lord returns as king, it will be kind of the climax of his revealing.
[29:24] And every eye will see him. the whole world will know who it is. You know, in Philippians we're told, chapter 2, we're told that every knee will bow and every tongue will confess.
[29:44] Here, every eye will see and realize that this is Jesus Christ, the Son of God. No exceptions.
[29:59] Everybody will know. And it's going to be the utmost in the revealing of Jesus Christ. This is what it all is working up to, for the Father to reveal his Son in glory to the whole world.
[30:24] You might ask, how is that possible? Every eye will see him. We have a lot of technology today that we didn't 30 years ago.
[30:38] I don't have a clear answer what God is going to use, but every eye will see him. We're told that. It will not be a mystery.
[30:50] You know, you think of the rapture where Jesus does not come down on the Mount of Olives, but comes down to the clouds, and then the church is raptured to meet him in the clouds.
[31:05] Here, that will be secret. Here, it will be visible, and everybody will see and know. Whereas the rapture, it's going to be in the blink of an eye, and the world won't know what happened.
[31:25] The church has disappeared. It's the opposite in so many ways, and there's no physical return in the rapture. It's to meet in the clouds, but not on the Mount of Olives.
[31:38] So we have that aspect as well. And then as verse 7 in Revelation 1 said, and they who pierced him, even they who pierced him will see him, and the tribes of the earth will mourn.
[31:55] And with that, let's turn back to Zechariah 14. Zechariah 12, actually, we'll back up to chapter 12 in Zechariah.
[32:27] Zechariah 12, verse 10, 13, and I will pour on the house of David and on the inhabitants of Jerusalem the spirit of grace and supplication, and then they will look on whom they pierced.
[32:42] Yes, they will mourn for him as one mourns for his only son, and grieve for him as one grieves for a firstborn. turn. Now, they will look upon him whom they pierced.
[33:00] And we just talked about every eye will see him. You know, what did Thomas say? One of the twelve, what did he say? I will not believe before I see and put my fingers into his side and so on, where the spear went in.
[33:27] And after the resurrection, I believe it was the next Sunday, Jesus appeared with them and he said to Thomas, come here.
[33:40] observe my hands and my feet and put your hand in my side. This was solid evidence that this man was crucified and had been resurrected.
[34:04] And Thomas said in response, my Lord and my God. when Jesus comes back, the world is going to say, my Lord, my God.
[34:25] And for most, it will be too late. But they will recognize the one that we denied was truly the one.
[34:35] the chief priests and elders paid off the Roman soldiers. They paid them big money to go and tell a story of how the disciples came and stole Jesus away and the guards permitted it.
[34:58] They told big money to tell a falsehood to the world. You ask many Jews today about Jesus Christ, who He is, and they will acknowledge that He was a prophet used by God and that Jesus did all the miracles that are written in this book.
[35:29] And many Jews will acknowledge that He did it. But it stops short that He is the Messiah and that He resurrected from the grave and went to heaven.
[35:47] That they refused to believe. Now, if you think of that context, when the tribes, the Jewish tribes, will see Jesus returning, and they see His hands and His feet and His side, they will mourn.
[36:11] They will realize how we have rejected. For at this time, the Jews that see Him coming are all believing.
[36:26] They have come to faith, but they still are grieving. They're mourning as they visibly, physically see my Lord and my Savior, whom I rejected and hurt.
[36:41] And it will make them sad. mourn. Is that understandable? It says, all the tribes of the earth will mourn, many because they know the coming judgment that is associated with Jesus Christ.
[37:02] And so this is the last aspect of His return that I wanted to go into this morning. The rest of the chapter, in chapter 19, talks more than of the events that take place after His return.
[37:25] And the first one is Armageddon, the battle where He destroys the enemies that have gathered. Lord, and then it ends with the captivity of the beast or the Antichrist and the false prophet.
[37:46] And so I'm going to cut it off there and we're going to reserve the events that immediately follow His second coming here on earth for next Sunday, Lord willing.
[37:59] So in closing, closing, why don't we turn to 2 Peter and just read that passage. Maybe some of us have been tempted to doubt.
[38:26] Is Jesus going to come? Maybe we've had thoughts. But here, Peter is addressing these kind of thoughts that have crept into the church even in his time, which is almost 2,000 years ago.
[38:49] And I want to read the first 12 verses probably, just as a summary and closing.
[39:01] beloved, I now write to you this second epistle, in both of which I stir up your pure minds by way of reminder, that you may be mindful of the words which were spoken before by the holy prophets and of the commandment of us, the apostles of the Lord and Savior, knowing this first, that scoffers will come in the last days.
[39:28] what's a scoffer? a mocker? a mocker? someone who rejects.
[39:46] And when you scoff, you make light of, you make fun of, you put it, belittle it, put it down to nothing. And so Peter is saying, no, church, know this, that scoffers will come in the last days, walking according to their own lusts, saying, where is the promise of His coming?
[40:15] We are to live with this realization. That kind of teaching will be there. And they're scoffers.
[40:26] They're mocking the Word of God. Where is the promise of His coming? This is their reasoning.
[40:37] For since the fathers fell asleep, all things continue as they were from the beginning of creation. Time has gone on.
[40:50] Jesus isn't coming back. they're finding reasons, not knowing that God's time clock is different than a human's is.
[41:04] For this they willfully forget that by the Word of God, the heavens were of old, and the earth standing out of water and in the water by which the world that then existed perished, being flooded with water, going back to the flood.
[41:24] And we're told that Noah was a preacher of righteousness. He was met with scoffers. Because the Lord had said, I will send rain.
[41:40] I will flood the earth. I will destroy. And they scoffed. Why? They had never seen rain. That's not why.
[41:51] Because they were in unbelief. They were not bowed down to their maker. And because of that, while Noah is building for all those years, whether it's 100 years or 120, it's a long time, and they're scoffing.
[42:14] But then one day, the Lord closed the door on that boat, and you know what happened? It says, the earth then standing in the water and out of the water, Genesis tells us, the foundations of the deep broke loose and from on top.
[42:33] You had water coming from underneath, from the heart of the earth and the heavens. And they flooded the whole world in 40 days, to the tops of the mountains were covered.
[42:46] where were the scoffers? They died. They perished. It's sad.
[43:02] The scoffers here will perish as well. When the Lord comes, they're done. it puts an urgency on the church to share the gospel, to tell the truth, to know the truth and to tell it.
[43:33] Because that day is going to be just as final as when the Lord closed the door of the ark. And all the foundations broke loose.
[43:47] It's going to be a little bit different, but it's going to be just as final as they will see the Lord of glory coming down, the one whom we pierced.
[43:58] And they know this is it. See, we can pretend all we want that it won't happen.
[44:13] But that does not change the truth. And this is where faith comes in, believing because the Lord has said.
[44:29] May the Lord give us strength to walk boldly in these truths, to proclaim the end is coming.
[44:46] I want to read verse 8 and 9. But beloved, do not forget this one thing, that with the Lord one day is as a thousand years and a thousand years as one day.
[44:57] The Lord is not slack concerning his promise, as some count slackness, but is long-suffering toward us, not willing that any should perish, but that all should come to repentance.
[45:13] And so as his vessels, as the church, as his ambassadors, the Lord is waiting for more souls to come. Let us share the good news.
[45:26] Let's pray. again, Father, we thank you for your revelation, revealing such details of your second coming.
[45:46] We know that all prophecy in the past has been fulfilled right to the letter of what you said, and that all future will be the same way.
[46:01] Lord, it's comforting, and yet it's so final to those who aren't ready. I pray, Father, you would burden our hearts to continue to share the news of salvation in Jesus Christ with those around us.
[46:28] Not wanting anyone to perish, but to have everlasting life. Give us that boldness, Father, in your name we pray.
[46:39] Amen. Amen.