The Second Coming: Part 2 - Part A

I've told you before, the Bible, if you boil it all down, is essentially this. The Bible is all about one person and two events.

The one person, Jesus Christ. The two events, first coming, second coming. First coming to redeem the world from sin. Second coming to rule and reign with those who have been redeemed from sin. That is the bottom line of the message of the Bible.

One person, two events. Today on Connect with Skip Heitzig, Pastor Skip begins his message, The Second Coming Part 2, to show you that the Bible is all about Jesus and His coming to earth in two very different ways. Now here's more about this special resource that will guide you through the past, present, and God-ordained future for the nation of Israel. How have conflicts and wars in the Middle East set the stage for a future apocalypse? That's the question Ron Rhodes takes head-on in his new book.

Listen to this. What do you see coming in the next five or six years that might do injury to the church? And without hesitation, I said, I really feel like we're going to see an explosion of subjectivism, experientialism, and mysticism, along with occultism and some paganism. How conflicts and wars in the Middle East have set the stage for the end times. This new book by Ron Rhodes addresses issues such as understanding Islam, rebuilding the temple, and the annihilation campaign from the Antichrist.

Here's Ron Rhodes commenting on Middle East events. Did you know that in Revelation 2 and 3, we read about the church 19 times? And then in the discussion on the tribulation in chapters 4 through 18, you don't see the church a single time.

It is gone. In First Thessalonians 1 verse 10, we are told that the church is to be delivered from the wrath to come. That word delivered literally means snatched, snatched away from.

We are to be snatched away from the wrath to come, which is a reference to the tribulation period. With your gift of $50 or more to connect with Skip Heitzig, you'll receive a copy of this new book from Ron Rhodes. 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 with your donation. And we'll thank you with a copy of Ron Rhodes' new book, How Conflicts and Wars in the Middle East Have Set the Stage for the End Times.

That's 1-800-922-1888 or connectwithskip.com. All right, now let's turn to Revelation 19 and join Skip for his teaching. We are doing a series on the end is near question mark. We have sought to go deep. This is week number 19, doing this series on the end times.

And you can see by just the backdrop, there's newspaper clippings up there. We're looking at what the Bible has to say about the days in which we live, always seeking to answer the question, the end is near? Are we in the last days? And we are considering now Revelation chapter 19, the second coming of Jesus Christ.

So make your way. I hope you have a Bible with you. It's always good to bring a Bible to church because this is far more than an exercise of me just preaching from the Bible.

This is something where we study it together. And here's what I found. When you have a Bible and you open it up and you read it, you'll remember where it is when you need it next time. So I don't know how many times I've done this where I go, where's that verse at? I don't know. I know the book, and I know it's on the left side of the page, about halfway down.

Then I'll find it. And so that's the advantage of having a Bible that you carry with you, that you refer to often. We're in Revelation chapter 19, a passage we started looking at last time we worked together in this series. Last time, it was the second coming we talked about. Today, I have a very clever title for the message. It's called The Second Coming Part Two. Pretty good, huh?

Worked a long time in getting that one. The Second Coming Part Two, Revelation chapter 19. So back in the 1960s, a new branch of science was developed called exobiology. Exobiology is the study of UFOs, extraterrestrial life. Technically, it's the study of the possibility of extraterrestrial life, UFOs. Now, they don't call them UFOs anymore. They call them UAPs. I think really, do you have to change initials on us midstream. UAP is unidentified astral phenomenon or unidentified anomalous phenomenon.

It means the same thing. But you may have noticed that we're getting a little more serious about studying UFOs. Last week and the week before, there have been special hearings in Congress about what the military knows about these appearances in the sky, things they have tracked for a long time. And people are very interested in extraterrestrial life or UFOs or UAPs.

Well, far more important, far more earth-shattering, far more world-changing than any UFO. The ultimate UFO, the ultimate UAP, I'm here to tell you, is the second coming of Jesus Christ. He was able to move vertically up into heaven from the Mount of Olives. The disciples saw him.

He was received out of their sight. And the angel said he is coming back the same way that he left in Acts chapter 1. When he comes back, however, he will not be unidentified.

Everybody will know unmistakably that it is him, and I want to show you why today. We're in Revelation chapter 19. We're going to begin in verse 11 where we began last time. Go down to verse 16. Actually, read a few verses after that. Take us almost to the end of the chapter.

But I have a friend who was the president of Moody Bible Institute named Joe Stowell. And Joe visited a home, an institution, a facility for mentally handicapped children. He was very moved by the experience. As he was going through the corridors, he noticed handprints on the windows of this facility, and he asked the one giving him the tour what it was about. And the man said, the children here love Jesus and are so eager for him to return, they lean on the windows and look up to the sky.

And I read that, and I thought, if that's what it means to be mentally handicapped, may I be so afflicted. Here's children living their lives in the anticipation that Jesus Christ is going to come back. I've told you before, the Bible, if you boil it all down, is essentially this. The Bible is all about one person and two events.

The one person, Jesus Christ. The two events, first coming, second coming. First coming, to redeem the world from sin. Second coming, to rule and reign with those who have been redeemed from sin. That is the bottom line of the message of the Bible.

One person, two events. The second event, him coming to rule and reign, is described here in Revelation chapter 19. Let me take you to verse 11, where it says, Now I saw heaven opened.

Stop there. You know this is the second time in this book that heaven gets opened? First time is in chapter 4, verse 1. John said, I looked, and behold, a door was opened in heaven. In Revelation 4, the passage I just referred to, the door is opened to let the church in. Now the door is opened to let Jesus out. Not that he has to use the door, as we know from the gospel accounts, but symbolically, it is to have Jesus return to the earth. Back in World War II, one of our generals, Douglas MacArthur, was in the Philippines.

The Japanese were blockading the islands. He had to leave the first couple months of the war, and as he left, he said, I shall return. Two and a half years later, he did return to the Philippines, stood on Philippine soil, and said that famous line, I have returned.

We remember that because we have a leader who made a promise that at the time seemed almost impossible to fulfill, but he did it. Two thousand years ago, Jesus said, I will come again. Here in Revelation 19 is the fulfillment, where he will say, I have returned. Now, before we read our text all through and consider some things, last time we were together in the second coming part one, I gave you four features of the second coming of Christ. I just want to review those because I said, I'm going to give you four and then give you four later on.

Today you're going to get the second set of four. But let's let's review from last time. What I said was is that the second coming of Jesus Christ is anticipated by prophecy. And just to refresh your memory, I mentioned to you that 1,845 times the Bible speaks about, predicts, or mentions the second coming. That is one out of every 30 verses in the Bible speak about it or predict it. Next to the subject of faith, the second coming is mentioned more often than any other subject addressed in the Bible, so it is anticipated by prophecy.

Second, I told you that it is desired personally. John sure wanted it to come. At the end of the book of Revelation, he said, even so, come, Lord Jesus. And Jesus taught us to long for it. He gave us a prayer, our Father in heaven, hallowed be your name, your kingdom come, your will be done on earth as it is in heaven.

In that prayer is a longing for the return of Christ. The third thing I mentioned last time is that the second coming will be accompanied with glory because we read in Revelation 19, he has many crowns on his head. No rulers are wearing their crowns anymore. Jesus wears them all, telling all the politicians, move over, let me show you how it's done.

No offense to politicians, but none of them have done it right. And then number four, I mentioned that the second coming will be accomplished with authority. He is called the King of Kings. He is called the Lord of Lords.

He comes in full regalia and full authority to take what is rightfully his. Now today, I'm going to give you four more. So eight altogether, eight features about the second coming. I gave you four, I'm going to give you four. You're thinking, Skip, really? You got to give us eight points? I mean, couldn't you move on to the next eschatological subject?

You have to kind of drill down. You know why I'm doing it? Here's why. We're talking about the greatest event in human history by the greatest person in human history, Jesus Christ, second coming. So yes, it deserves, if it's the most addressed subject next to faith in the Bible, the church certainly should study it. So it's the greatest event ever. It is the culmination of redemptive history. It's the apotheosis of every event. I don't know what great events you've had in your life, but I could guess that probably the day of your wedding was probably pretty great.

I hope you still say that. The day of your birth was great, though you don't remember it. It was pretty great. You'd never have another great event were it not for that.

Your graduation day, you can think of great events. They all pale in comparison to this event, any world event. Personal, national, international pale in comparison to what is coming at the second coming.

In fact, did you know this? Newspapers have a font, a typeface they call, they refer to as second coming type. It is reserved for really big news events.

It's large, bold letters splashed across the front page of the newspaper for events like the assassination of JFK, landing on the moon, the end or beginning of a war, et cetera. The second coming face type. When I was going through our passage this week, I thought, I wonder what the newspapers and how big the typeface is going to be when the second coming actually happens. Well, we'll have to wait and see.

But let me give you the first, or this would be the fifth if you're counting from last time. It will be seen universally. Everybody's going to see this event. If you look at verse 11, John begins, now I saw. Verse 17, then I saw. Verse 19, and I saw. Now, you might be saying, yeah, but that's just John saying, I saw. John saying, I saw doesn't mean that John's saying, y'all are going to see.

It's just what he saw. But actually, in Revelation 1, verse 7, it says, Behold, He is coming with the clouds, and every eye will see Him. Every eye will see Him.

I looked it up in the Greek. You know what every means? Every.

Yeah, it means the same thing. Every eye will see Him. Every eye will see Him. How many of you think that when Jesus comes back that there's going to be a lot of freaked out people?

Yeah, I think that. In fact, listen to what the Lord Jesus Himself said in Matthew 24. Immediately after the tribulation of those days, we're dealing with that in Revelation 19, immediately after the tribulation in those days, the sun will be darkened, the moon will not give its light, the stars will fall from heaven, the powers of the heavens will be shaken.

So, end of the tribulation, total blackout. Then the sign of the Son of Man will appear in heaven, and then all the tribes of the earth will mourn when they see the Son of Man coming on the clouds of heaven with power and great glory, and He will send His angels with a great sound of a trumpet, and they will gather His elect from the four winds from one end of heaven to the other. Now, I'm guessing that when John wrote these words that I just mentioned in chapter 1 verse 7, every eye will see Him, he wrote it down, and then he looked at it and said, how's that going to happen? How is that possible, that every eye could see Him? Now, keep in mind, John was on Patmos, so he could not see an event happening in Rome or Jerusalem for obvious reasons. But today we read that, and if I were to ask you, well, how is it possible that every eye could see Him, you would answer and tell me what? Television, satellite television. We see events simultaneously around the world.

Boy, what a broadcast that'll be. Breaking news from Jerusalem, an unidentified flying object, soon to be identified. Erwin Lutzer, who has spoken here many times, writes this as a possibility. He said, perhaps the return of Jesus Christ is an event that takes place over a period of 24 to 48 hours, that He will appear in the sky and be seen by all as the world turns on its axis. Then as the rotation continues, Jesus is continually seen as coming closer to the earth until eventually He disappears for the rest of the world as He lands on the Mount of Olives. Possibility, that would be very dramatic, it would be unmistakable, and it would certainly include the possibility of those who don't have access to technology to be able to see the event.

Either way, every eye will see Him. Now, I'm going to throw something out at you you may not have known. Did you know that some people actually say, believe, that Jesus has already come the second time? You're going, that's news to me. He's come the second time. How come I didn't know about it?

Because it was a secret. That's what they say. So there is a belief system about the book of revelation called preterism. A preterist believes that everything written about in the book of Revelation has been fulfilled in the past. That's what the word preterist means, the past. So they'll say in the first hundred years, the first century, everything written about in the book of revelation was fulfilled with the fall of Jerusalem, the Roman Empire, Caesars, etc. That was just all done except the second coming of Jesus.

Well, there is a branch of preterism called full preterism or hyper-preterism that says everything in the book of Revelation happened in the past, was fulfilled in the past, including the second coming. But they'll say He came in a name in a secret coming. If you say, well, when did that happen and where did that? They'll just say, I don't know. It's a secret.

I know it sounds lame because it is. And it's not true. It's not true because every eye will see Him. Jesus said this, as lightning comes from the east and flashes to the west, so also will the coming of the Son of Man be. Does that sound secret to you?

Yeah, to me either. When Jesus left the earth, He left visibly. He left geographically.

They saw Him go up. It was from the Mount of Olives. It was outside of Jerusalem. The angel said when He's coming back, He's coming the same way, visibly to the Mount of Olives. Zechariah chapter 14 says, In that day His feet will stand on the Mount of Olives, which faces Jerusalem on the east, and the Mount of Olives shall split in two. From east to west, making a very large valley, half of the mountain shall move toward the north and half of it toward the south.

It's a wild prophecy, right? Well, did you know in 1964 a group of geologists discovered a fault line on the Mount of Olives? Right underneath the Seven Arch Hotel, the most prominent building on top of that little hill, Mount of Olives, they found a fault line.

And guess what? It goes from east to west. And that fault line is waiting for a very particular foot to touch it. And when it touches it, it will break into, move two different directions to accommodate the crowd that is coming with Him and the judgment that will take place there. It will be seen universally.

It is a global event. Every eye will see Him. Second, or number six if you're going from the first outline, it will end all hostility.

It'll end all hostility. Keep in mind, Jesus, when He comes back, comes back in part to end a conflict known as, I know you remember it, the Battle of Armageddon. Nations of the world, the beast, armies, leaders, converge in the Valley of Jezreel, Armageddon, moved down toward the Valley of Jehoshaphat outside Jerusalem, all throughout the land of Israel, making war against Israel and really against the Lord Himself. Now let me take you to verse 17 of Revelation 19. Verse 17, then I saw an angel standing in the sun and he cried with a loud voice saying to all the birds that fly in the midst of heaven, come and gather together for the supper of the great God. We didn't read it, but a few verses earlier in the chapter, there's an invitation to the marriage supper of the Lamb.

This is not that. This is the supper for birds. You know what birds eat? Flesh.

Verse 18, that you may eat the flesh of kings, the flesh of captains, the flesh of mighty men, the flesh of horses, and those who sit on them, the flesh of all people, free and slave, both small and great. And I saw the beast. The beast is who? Antichrist. The beast is Antichrist. The dragon is Satan. The beast is Antichrist. I saw the beast, the kings of the earth, the coalition that is with him, and their armies gathered together, watch this, to make war against him who sits on the horse.

Who's that? Jesus. He's the one sitting on the white horse called Faithful and True, Word of God, King of Kings, Lord of Lords.

So they gather together to make war against him who sat on the horse and against his army. That's Skip Hytech with a message from his series, The End is Near. Find the full message, as well as books, booklets, and full teaching series, at connectwithskipp.com. God wants us to know him deeply and intimately through study of his word. That's why we share these messages, to help you connect to God through his word and grow in your walk through an intentional relationship with him. And when you support this ministry, you keep these teachings available to you and to so many others around the world, so they too can grow and connect with God. Just call 800-922-1888 to give a gift today. That's 800-922-1888. Or visit connectwithskipp.com slash donate.

That's connectwithskipp.com slash donate. Thank you. We hope you'll return tomorrow to hear the conclusion of Skip's message, The Second Coming Part Two. I hope by now you can see there's a huge contrast between the rapture of the church and the second coming of Christ. That we're talking about two distinct comings separated by a period of time. At the rapture, Jesus comes for his church. At the second coming, Jesus comes with his church. Connect with Skip Hyten is a presentation of Connection Communications, connecting you to God's never-changing truth in ever-changing times.