The Problem of Christ’s Return - Part B

The good news is Jesus is coming back. The bad news is Jesus is coming back.

Yeah, it's both exciting and excruciating, and it depends on who you are. It depends on what decision you have made. It depends on where you are at in your life with God. Today on Connect with Skip Hyten, Pastor Skip concludes his message, The Problem of Christ's Return, and shows you why Jesus' second coming isn't good news for everyone. But first, here's a resource that will help deepen your understanding of end-time scripture. Here are some of the titles in the End is Near series by Pastor Skip Heitzig, Israel Must Survive, Rapture Ready, and Russia's Coming Invasion. Surely the Lord God does nothing unless he reveals his secret to his servants, the prophets.

So when God is going to do something, he warns his people, he sends a sign so his people will know that he's going to do something. Skip Heitzig's teaching series now has a companion study guide available to you. The End is Near guide covers all 26 messages that Skip recently presented. We can just look at the chessboard.

The pieces are all lining up in interesting fashion. The End is Near study guide includes notes, summaries, and questions for group or personal study. We need to understand the times and this study guide will aid in this effort. With your gift of $50 or more to connect with Skip Heitzig, you will receive a copy of the End is Near study guide from Skip's in-depth 26-part series. Your gift will support the production and expansion of the Connect with Skip broadcast. Call 1-800-922-1888 or go online to connectwithskip.com.

That's 1-800-922-1888 or connectwithskip.com. Okay, we're in Matthew 24 as we begin today's teaching with Skip. If you were to Google worst times in history, if you were to add or put in your little Google search worst times or worst moments in history, please don't do that now. It would yield a list including World War I, World War II, the Holocaust, the Black Plague of Europe, the bombing of Hiroshima and Nagasaki, the transatlantic slave trade. All of those times are nothing compared to the tribulation that is coming. And all you have to do is look at the book of Revelation which will detail that. You see judgments that come that are progressive and increasingly intense. They are represented by seven seals that are broken.

Think of wax seals on a document that reveals something. And the seven seals then usher in seven trumpet judgments that usher in seven bold judgments that are poured out upon the earth. So deception, tribulation, must happen. Number three, devastation.

Devastation. Go down to verse 29 of Matthew 24. Immediately after the tribulation of those days, get this, the sun will be darkened, the moon will not give its light, the stars will fall from heaven, and the powers of the heavens will be shaken. Then, then the sign of the Son of Man will appear in heaven. And then 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. If you were to turn, and we will in this series, to the book of Revelation where the tribulation begins, which is, I believe, Revelation chapter 6, John sees in his vision this weird stampede of four horses. They're called the four horsemen of the apocalypse. And the horses are different colors. The first one is white, followed then by a red horse, followed by a black horse, followed by a pale green horse. It's like watching a western on LSD. Not that I would know anything about that.

Just saying. The first horse, guy on the white horse, is a leader, it says, who comes conquering and to conquer. So he brings a temporary short-lived peace, but other horses follow. He brings with him war, famine, and death so that one-fourth of the population of the earth is destroyed. And that's just the beginning. That's just the beginning. According to Jesus in verse eight, all these are the beginning of sorrows. You have wars, rumors of wars. That's just the beginning.

Now I know you hear that and you go, really? That's just the beginning? How bad could it get?

Well, I'm glad you asked. Following those judgments in Revelation are seven trumpet judgments that include in Revelation chapter eight, hail and fire from the sky, the rivers on the earth and the springs of water being polluted, the grass and all the green things on the earth being burned up, followed by Revelation chapter nine where the bottomless pit will be open and out of that belches designer locusts, which are demons, the Bible says, that have the power to torment humans on the earth for five straight months. That is followed by a series of bold judgments, Revelation chapter 16, which include malignant sores on the body, water sources again poisoned, sun scorching the flesh of people on the earth and hailstones weighing 75 pounds apiece careening to the earth. That's devastation.

That's devastation. The power of the heavens, Jesus said, will be shaken. So we have deception, tribulation, devastation. Let me give you a fourth sign.

Has to happen. Proclamation. Proclamation. Go back to verse 14. And this gospel of the kingdom will be preached in all the world as a witness to all the nations and then the end will come.

You see that? Can't come until that happens. Worldwide proclamation of the gospel. Now I can't tell you how many times I've heard mission organizations absolutely butcher this text and they remove it from its eschatological prophetic context and they say something like this, look, Jesus can't come back till we get the whole world hearing the gospel. So hasten the day of the Lord as if you could bring Jesus back sooner on your own. Listen, Jesus will come back, but he will come back at the appointed time of the Father and not before. We can't schedule his return by telling people the gospel. And this is where I wish they would just keep reading to the end of the book, the end of the Bible, because it explains this worldwide proclamation quite readily. If you read Revelation chapter 11, we read about two witnesses that come to Jerusalem, but their activities are seen by everyone and heard by everyone on the planet.

It couldn't happen unless there were satellite technology. And then also during that time will come a preaching angel. Did you know this? There will be an angel that flies through heaven and gets the gospel out to everyone. Revelation chapter 14 verse 6, then I saw another angel flying in the midst of heaven, having the everlasting gospel to preach to those who dwell on the earth, to every nation, tribe, tongue, and people. You put that together with this promise in verse 14 and say, oh, now I get it.

That's how it's going to happen. And then the end will come. Let me give you a fifth sign, abomination, abomination. Look at verse 15. Therefore, when you see the abomination of desolation, that's a technical term from Daniel, spoken of by Daniel the prophet, standing in the holy place, and notice this, whoever reads, let them understand. Jesus anticipates somebody's going to be able to read this and go, this is that. It's happening. Then let those who are in Judea flee to the mountains.

Notice that nothing is said of Albuquerque so far, or Santa Fe, or Phoenix, or LA, or anywhere in the United States, or any other capital in the world. Then those who are in Judea flee to the mountains. Let him who's on the housetop not go down to take anything out of his house. If you have trouble understanding that, come with us to Israel and you'll get it.

And let him who is in the field not go back to get his clothes. But woe to those who are pregnant and to those who are nursing babies in those days, and pray that your flight, your fleeing, may not be in winter or on the Sabbath. This is a very Judeocentric prediction. It keeps in mind that it's taking place in Jerusalem, in Judea, at the temple. The abomination of desolation, spoken of by Daniel the prophet, standing in the holy place.

The holy place was a section in the temple, which no longer exists today. But there will be, the Bible predicts, a temple in Jerusalem in the future. According to Daniel chapter 9, Jesus references Daniel, according to Daniel chapter 9, a prince, a ruler, we know him as the Antichrist, will make a treaty with the Jewish nation for seven years. In the middle of that seven-year period, he'll break the deal. He'll renege on the treaty and set up some kind of abomination in the temple. You wonder, well, what could that be? Well, Paul the apostle fills in a little bit of the blank in 2 Thessalonians chapter 2, describing the man of sin who opposes and exalts himself above all that is called God or that is worshiped so that he sits in the temple of God to show himself that he is God.

So this guy is going to come in the temple, in Jerusalem, break the covenant of the Jewish nation and create this, what Jesus called the abomination of desolation, spoken of by Daniel, spoken of by Jesus, spoken of by Paul, incidentally predicted also by John. So that's five signs so far. Let me give you a sixth.

Let me give you a sixth. Salvation. Salvation.

Now, it's only hinted at here. It's then extrapolated and the detail is filled in later on by Paul, but I want you to look at verse 22. Unless those days were shortened, no flesh would be saved, but for the elect's sake, those days will be shortened.

It's going to be only a three and a half year period that those judgments take place in. Then if anyone says to you, look, here is the Christ, or there, do not believe it, for false Christs and false prophets will rise and show great signs and wonders to deceive, if possible, the elect. As if to say, it's not possible. The elect. Now, when you read the words elect, I know you think, well, that's me. I'm the elect.

I love you, but don't flatter yourself thinking that it's always about you or me. I don't think he's talking about the church elect here. He's talking to disciples. They had no notion of a church at all yet. Even though Jesus said he would build it, they didn't understand that. They're not thinking along those terms. I think what he's talking about here are people alive at the time who are Jewish believers in Jesus.

How do I know this? Paul the Apostle in Romans three chapters talks about the future salvation of the Jewish people. And he said, look, God sidelined them for a period of time.

But he said, if they're falling, made riches for the Gentile world, how much more their fullness? That's Romans chapter 11, verse 12. Then he continues, Romans 11, verse 25 and 26. Blindness in part has happened to Israel until the fullness or the full number of the Gentiles has come in. And so all Israel will be saved as it is written. And then he quotes Psalms and Isaiah. And you say, well, what do you mean all Israel will be saved?

Well, fast forward to Revelation. We're actually given the number of saved Jewish people. Anybody know the number? 144,000. 12,000 out of each tribe. And the tribes are listed.

Just so you have no mistake about this. 12,000 from each tribe saved and sealed by God. Now, there's going to be two different witnesses. Now, there's going to be two witnesses that appear on the scene, very powerful ministry in Jerusalem to the Jerusalemites.

There's going to be an angel flying through heaven. 144,000 Jewish people will be saved. Listen, have you ever seen one Jewish person who's saved?

They're very animated and very persuasive. When you get a Jewish believer, you know, imagine 144,000 Paul the apostles. The net result of the angel flying through heaven, the two witnesses in Jerusalem, the 144,000 saved Jews, the result of that will be this incredible multitude, it says in Revelation 7, a great multitude no one could number of all the nations standing before God's throne. I believe the greatest revival in history is yet to come, a time of unparalleled salvation during the most difficult time. So we obviously have a problem because over and over and over we said Jesus could come.

It could happen anytime. Get ready, be ready, be watchful. At the same time, well, this has got to happen first and that's got to happen first and all these signs have to be fulfilled first. So what is the solution?

That leads me to the third aspect and that is a principle that explains. How do we solve this problem of it could happen at any moment? It can't happen at any moment. Well, here's one solution that someone has come up with and that is to say Jesus cannot come at any moment.

Yes, there are people who say that in the church. Jesus cannot come at any moment because those signs have not yet occurred. One of the famous books on systematic theology years ago written by Louis Burckhoff states this, and I quote, according to the scriptures, several important events must occur before the return of the Lord and therefore it cannot be said to be imminent. Here's a guy saying Jesus can't come back at any moment.

He cannot come back at any moment. Well, if that were so, that would totally nullify the force of all those commandments to be ready, be ready, be ready, be watchful, could happen. You never know, it's sudden, it's unexpected, like a thief. I mean, why are we told to watch and be ready for something that can't happen?

That's like wait for it, watch for it, psych, it's not going to happen, not going to happen. That's contradictory, so I don't buy that explanation. Second solution offered by some is that these signs have already been fulfilled in the past in early church history during the Roman Empire. And you go, really?

So explain that to me. And they'll say, well, the gospel sort of went everywhere. And there was persecution during that time. And you could say that what Caesar, Nero, and Caligula, and a few other emperors did was like tribulation.

And there were some Jews who were saved. And that is a position called the Preterist position. Preterist is a Latin term that means the past. It's all fulfilled in the past.

R.C. Sproul, who is sort of a spokesperson for this position, said, and I quote, I'm convinced that the substance of the Olivet Discourse, that's Matthew 24, was fulfilled in AD 70. All these things were fulfilled. So they see the destruction of the temple as the abomination of desolation. And some of them even believe Jesus has come back. Now, I know you're thinking, did I miss that? Because I don't think I ever saw that. What they'll say is that Jesus came back, but it was a spiritual return, not a physical return. And my answer to that is, you've got to be kidding me. You're telling me the early church or these disciples endured to the end, verse 13, saw worldwide evangelism, verse 14, saw the abomination of desolation, verse 15, saw worldwide darkness and stars falling from the sky, verse 29? I don't think so.

I think what that speaks of are future Jewish believers who are going to see those things during the tribulation period. Okay, we still haven't solved the problem. What's the solution?

Let me offer you this solution. A two-staged coming. A two-staged coming. Number one, he's going to come for his church, not to the earth, but in the atmosphere somewhere. And then seven years later, return with his church to the earth at his second coming. So the first time that he comes for his church is an event that is preceded by no signs whatsoever.

None. It's a sign-less event. It could happen at any moment. That's what we're told to watch. Wait, be ready for it. Be eager for it.

It can happen suddenly like a thief in the night. But then he'll come with his church to the earth in glory. That is the event that is preceded by all these signs. Now that solves a lot of problems, including the timetable portion of the problem, which is the 70 weeks prophecy of Daniel.

We're going to take a whole weekend and look at that. So in the rapture, let's call it rapture versus return. At the rapture, Jesus comes for his church. At the return, Jesus comes with his church, Revelation 19. At the rapture, Jesus comes in the air, and we meet him up in the air, 1 Thessalonians 4, verse 17.

At the return, Jesus comes from heaven through the atmosphere, through the air, all the way down to the earth. At the rapture, that is an event that is sudden. It is unpredictable.

What Paul said in 1 Corinthians 15, in a moment, in the twinkling of an eye suddenly. So it's unpredictable. Whereas the second coming or the return is highly predictable, seven years after the rapture.

Let me be more precise. Let's just imagine that we are in the tribulation. I don't think we'll ever see it, but let's just say we are. Let's say this is the tribulation period, and we read the morning newspaper that somebody has set up an image, an idol in the holy place in a rebuilt temple in Jerusalem.

And you go, this is it. It's the abomination of desolation, spoken up by Daniel the prophet. I could say to you on that day, if you were to count 42 months from today, 1,260 days from today, Jesus is going to return to this earth. I could say that because it says that in the book of Revelation, it gives that timetable, 42 months, 1,260 days.

That is a highly predictable event. By the way, never are we told in the Bible to look forward to the tribulation period. The Bible doesn't say, watch for it, wait for it, be eagerly waiting, the worst time in the world. We are indeed, however, told to anticipate and look forward to His coming. So I believe then to end it all this morning, the next event on God's time schedule is the rapture of the church.

There's nothing that has to be fulfilled before that happens. No prophecy has to be fulfilled for that to happen. Once that happens, God's prophetic clock will resume in terms of Daniel's 70-week timetable, which I will explain to you in depth in the future. Once that occurs, the rapture of the church, then these signs, famine, pestilence, earthquakes in various places, worldwide deception, all happening like birth pains in intensity and frequency. So the good news is Jesus is coming back. The bad news is Jesus is coming back.

Yeah, it's both exciting and excruciating, and it depends on who you are. It depends on what decision you have made. It depends on where you are at in your life with God. Martin Luther said, preach as if Jesus Christ was crucified yesterday, rose from the dead today, and is coming back tomorrow.

I think we should live as if Jesus was crucified yesterday, rose from the dead today, and is coming back tomorrow. He could come at any time, because you know what? He could come at any moment. And there are certain things that Jesus said, when these begin to happen, lift up your eyes, because your salvation draws near. So he could come at any moment. And that's good news, but so bad news.

It's a problem unless your life is aligned with his. And if it's not, let it be so today. That concludes Skip Heitzig's message from the series, The End is Near. Find the full message, as well as books, booklets, and full teaching series at ConnectWithSkip.com. Right now, listen as Skip shares how you can connect more people around the world with the timeless truth of God's Word. If you're going to hold firmly to biblical truth, you've got to study the Bible. That's absolutely vital.

That's why we share these Bible teachings, to strengthen you in biblical truth, so you can stand on that truth. When you come alongside this ministry through your support, you do the same for countless listeners around the world. Now this year, I'm praying that God will open doors for these teachings to reach even more people in some of the major U.S. cities across our country. You can help make that vision possible with a generous gift. So please consider giving today. Here's how you can do that. Visit ConnectWithSkip.com slash donate to give a gift. That's ConnectWithSkip.com slash donate or call 800-922-1888.

800-922-1888. Thank you for your generosity and be sure to join us tomorrow as Skip begins a teaching from Revelation about one of the greatest mysteries of the future. God tells us about the future. Granted, not everything about our future, but he tells us what we need to know about it. One of my favorite verses is Deuteronomy 29, 29, which says, the secret things belong to the Lord our God. Those things that are revealed belong to us and to our children forever. Make a connection at the foot of the crossing. Cast all burdens on his word. Make a connection. Connect with Skip Hyten is a presentation of Connection Communications, connecting you to God's never changing truth in ever-changing times.