R626 Clues to His Coming Pt.1

I saw a wonderful t-shirt the other day that said, Normal's not coming back, but Jesus is. Are you ready?

That's what we'll talk about today. This is The Encouraging Word with Dr. Don Wilton and today's message begins a two-part series on clues to His coming. Yes, Jesus is coming back.

Meet us online at www.tewonline.org and let's get connected. Now, Dr. Don Wilton. I have some exciting news to share with you. We're going to begin a new series entitled Until He Comes. I've learned many years ago not to dictate to the Lord what God wants to do concerning His business.

And any time we find ourselves worshiping the Lord, we stand at His good pleasure. But God has put in my heart very definitively this particular subject series, Until Jesus Comes Again. I've heard a lot of questions asked during these days. One of them has been, Is this the beginning of the end? The apocalypse, eschatological questions dealing with the doctrine of the last days.

Is this one of the signs of the times? I don't know that, but I do know this, that the Bible speaks very clearly when it comes to the coming of the Lord Jesus Christ and the doctrine of end times. How's this world going to end? How are we going to know when it's going to end? I want you to make certain that you have your Bibles with you because I have nothing to say on the subject.

I'd like to suggest that you get a little notebook. You can write on it until He comes because we're going to be talking about many, many things related to the coming of the Lord Jesus Christ. I wouldn't be surprised if we cover the subjects of the signs of His coming.

What does the Bible have to say? Is there anything in the world that we can look to or look at that would give us a clue as to the coming of the Lord Jesus? How long are we going to be on this earth? How many more generations will be around? Will there be people a thousand years from now preaching the same things, remembering those of us who lived in the dark ages?

For those of you who are not yet married, will you ever get to marry? Is there any reason why we should be excited about the second coming of the Lord and when He does come, what precedes His coming? What is the tribulation? Who, by the way, is the Antichrist?

What is he going to do? Where is he going to come from? Is there any kind of timeline that God gives to us in His Word?

Can we chart this? Can we pick dates and days and events, put them down and say, you see, there that is, the Word of God speaks about it and here it is. Do we have any hope for tomorrow? What do we do until He comes?

What does God expect of us? Where are we going when He does come? And when Jesus comes again, are we already going to be in heaven? Are we going to actually come back with Him? And if that's true, how many comings are there of the Lord Jesus Christ? Is He coming back just one more time or a number of times? When He does come, what is He going to do? And where are we going to be?

And how do we know that? You see, if you were to approach a Muslim today and you were to ask a Muslim how he would please his God, Allah, he would tell you immediately that there are a number of things that he would need to do to please Allah. And only then he would certainly still not know whether or not he has pleased the heart of Allah, because the first tenant of his religious faith and expression is encompassed in the phrase, if Allah wills it. What does God Jehovah have to say about this? Can we know that we know that we know for certain the fact that God's word gives to us and our part to play until He comes? Well, friends, we're going to do a tremendous amount of Bible study, and I'm very excited about it. I'm going to begin this morning in Matthew chapter 24. I'm going to read an extraordinary passage of Scripture, and I want to warn you right up front, I'm going to stop many times. So just keep your Bible open, and we're going to walk through this marvelous passage just to begin with today. I'm going to stop a number of times, because these things are very important.

I don't want us to miss anything. But here in Matthew chapter 24, Jesus speaks to his disciples. And what we discover in Matthew 24 is that Jesus answers three basic questions. Those questions have to do with the temple.

In other words, God's house, this building that was built in Jerusalem, the temple in Jerusalem. The second question has to do with his second coming, the signs related to Jesus coming back again. And the third one has to do with the end of the age. But when he uses the word end of the age, it's parousia, which means the time at which there is a complete completeness on the current order of things. The disciples are told these things by the Lord Jesus Christ, but in a certain context. And it's going to take us a time to be able to uncover these things, but I promise you, we're going to have a lot of fun, and I trust we are going to be inspired as we study God's word together.

So I'm going to begin to read in Matthew 24 and verse one, Jesus left the temple and was walking away when his disciples came up to him to call his attention to its buildings. Let's stop there just for a moment. Very important. We cannot just breeze over that first statement there. Here's the reason why.

Just get the picture. This is the last week of Jesus' earthly ministry. This was the last week that he was alive. And Jesus, it should not surprise anybody, spent a lot of time in the temple at Jerusalem. The temple was the house of God.

Very much so, and particularly for the Jews. Remember that back in those days, the temple even had a place called what? The Holy of Holies. And that was the place where God was, and only the high priest could go in there because he was the only one according to the Jews who had access to God, Jehovah.

And so here's the temple. Jesus and the disciples were there, and as they were walking away, can you just picture these disciples? Remember that they were Galileans, folks.

Now, Galileans were regarded as kind of the poorer people of Jesus' day. They were just fishermen. You remember Peter and Matthew and John and all the boys. They were just a bunch of fishermen. They kind of hung around the Sea of Galilee and caught fish and did a whole lot of nothing and sat around tables and built fires at night and just chatted together and had a big time.

They were the country boys of the day. Now, can you imagine these country boys had gone down to Jerusalem with Jesus? Now, we think, well, that's just not too far, but in Jesus' day, that was a long way.

I mean, they didn't have motorbikes and airplanes and helicopters. They walked, and it was a long way, and it was a difficult way. And so here they are in Jerusalem, standing there looking at the magnificence of the temple. To borrow a phrase, folks, they were blown away by the enormity and the magnificence of the temple.

That's the problem here. That's what they were going through. If you go into Mark's gospel, Mark actually reports what they said. Mark says that the disciples looked up and said, wow, Lord, look at this place. We can hardly believe that anybody could build a building as magnificent as this. You know, it's kind of like standing there looking at an incredible building and saying, wow, what a modern marvel. What an incredible thing.

Can you believe that they would build such a thing? And Jesus looks at the disciples and Jesus, who is the cornerstone, the master builder, the one who built the world from before the foundation of the world, constructed every sinew of the body of mankind, who understands the intricacies of things that boggle the minds of human understanding. Jesus, as always, looked at his disciples with great compassion and perhaps a little bit of amusement. And he saw this look of bewilderment upon their faces and he said to them in verse 2, do you see all these things? He asked, I tell you the truth, not one stone here will be left on another.

Everyone will be thrown down. The other disciples are looking at this incredible thing and Jesus turns to them and he says something that is rather remarkable. He says, I tell you what? The truth. Did you see that there in that verse? I tell you the truth.

Why would Jesus, who is the truth, have to say, I tell you the truth? That's why when someone comes up to me and says to me, pastor, I promise you, I'm going to do this. And I want to say in my heart, don't promise me, I believe you. You don't have to promise me.

You're putting your reputation on line. You say you're going to do it, just do it. Don't promise me. Just do it. I believe you.

I trust in you. Jesus said, I am the truth, but I'm also going to tell you because of your limit as a human being, I'm going to tell you that I am not only the truth, but what I am saying to you is the truth. And just to get your attention, I'm going to tell you something. See this incredible temple?

I wish I had times to go back and give you the dimensions of this thing, folks. It was a magnificent building. It was unbelievable. And Jesus turns to the disciples and says, boys, let me tell you something. There's going to come a time that not one stone is going to be left standing.

This whole thing is going to come crashing down. Yeah. But there was one little difference, folks. This was Jesus talking. You need to know about these things because if you don't know them, you're not going to understand anything about what Jesus was saying. But he doesn't just leave it there. You see, from that point, he makes this comment about the temple and then turns around and walks out. Look what happens here in verse three. As Jesus was sitting on the Mount of Olives, the disciples came to him privately and they said, tell us when will this happen? Now here's what happens.

All right, I want you to just picture with me quickly. I'm over here at the Temple Mount in Jerusalem. By the way, when you see it on television, you see that big old golden dome on television? It's a landmark and that's where the temple was right there. On the one side, on the eastern side of Jerusalem.

All right, now here's what happened. They walked out of the temple and they took a left and they went through the eastern gate. And then they went down the hill into the Kidron Valley, which runs around the wall of Jerusalem. When they got through the Kidron Valley, they went into the Garden of Gethsemane. You'll remember the disciples didn't know this because it hadn't happened yet that Jesus and the disciples were going to go into the Garden of Gethsemane and Jesus was going to pray and the disciples were going to go to sleep and everybody was going to come and arrest Jesus and Peter was going to cut the ear off one of the soldiers and Jesus was going to be taken and crucified. Well, they went up through the Garden of Gethsemane, past all those date trees and everything and went up onto the Mount of Olives where Jesus was ultimately going to ascend to be seated at the right hand of the Father. But the disciples didn't know that yet. And you can just imagine, here they are going through this walk all the way down the hill. It must have been almost a day.

It was an arduous task. And here they are walking down and these Galilean disciples, their minds are going. They're whispering to each other, what in the world did he mean?

Matthew's, Peter, come here, come here son. Listen, man, don't let the Lord hear me. But did you hear what he said about the temple? Now I've heard him say some stuff, but that's some stuff. What do you mean? It's just going to come all down. What's he talking about? There won't be one stone. And boy, I mean, they just talk.

I mean, they're having a lot. Finally, they get up onto the Mount of Olives and the Bible says Jesus was sitting on the Mount of Olives. Why was he sitting? Because that was one of the ways Jesus taught, but he was also resting.

He had had quite a little walk. And I can just see Jesus sitting there, maybe on a tree trunk or on a rock or a stone. And the disciples walk over rather gingerly.

And can you just see it? They say to him, Lord, could we have a private word with you for a minute? Sure, gentlemen, pull up a chair. Tell us when this will happen. They weren't questioning that it would happen. They wanted to know when it would happen.

These people, these disciples had been around Jesus enough to know that even when Jesus spoke of the impossible, it was going to happen. Forgive the interruption. We'll be back with the rest of Dr. Wilton's message in just a moment.

But he wants to remind you we're in a new year halfway through the month. Are you spending time in God's Word every day? We have a wonderful tool absolutely free. You can sign up on our website at www.tewonline.org. Click on devotional and you can receive the devotional either as a booklet that we'll send out to you quarterly or receive it every morning from Dr. Don Wilton.

Sign up today online at www.tewonline.org. Now back to today's great teaching with Dr. Don. Lord, when will this happen? But you see, they had had that entire journey through the Eastern Gate and down the Kidron Valley and through the Garden of Gethsemane and up the side of the Mount of Olives to the Mount of Ascension. And they'd got up there, they'd had all this time and those disciples, when they began to talk, they began to talk, folks. I mean, you know that Peter was one of the original talkers of the world. And they'd come up with a couple of other questions to accompany the main question.

Well, there were a number of questions. Number one, when will this happen? What is this? That's the temple, what Jesus had just said. Number two, what will be the sign of your coming?

And number three, when will be the end of the age? Now, we've got something very interesting going on here, my friends, because when the disciples said, what will be the sign of your coming? What was it that they had in mind exactly? They didn't know these things.

When they said, when are you coming? They weren't quite exactly sure what they were asking him. But Jesus knew what they were asking. They couldn't quite get it together. They weren't quite willing to accept the fact that Jesus had to die first and be buried in a grave and then appear to over 500 and then ascend to be seated at the right hand of the Father, followed by an entire church age, then followed by tribulation and the Antichrist before Jesus would come again. They had no idea. So Jesus was just about to help them.

Well, let's read the story. Jesus answered, watch out that no one deceives you, for many will come in my name claiming I am the Christ and will deceive many. You will hear of wars and of rumors of wars, but see to it that you are not alarmed. Such things must happen, but the end is still to come. Nation will rise against nation and kingdom against kingdom.

There will be famines and earthquakes in various places. All these are the beginning of birth pains. All right, let's just hold there for a moment. I want to ask all the moms here today, what are birth pains a sign of? Well, I think we can all tell one another with a certain amount of certainty that birth pains are a sign that baby is going to come, but not necessarily right away, right?

Sometimes it's shorter than others, sometimes it seems like it's almost immediately, but birth pains are nothing more than a key indicator to an impending delivery. Now listen to what Jesus is saying. Jesus said all of these things are the beginning of birth pains. Then you will be handed over to be persecuted and put to death, and you'll be hated by all nations because of me. At that time, many will turn away from the faith and will betray and hate each other, and many false prophets will appear and deceive many people. Because of the increase in wickedness, the love of most will grow cold, but he who stands firm to the end will be saved.

And this gospel of the kingdom will be preached in the whole world as a testimony to all nations and then the end will come. So when you see standing in the holy place, the abomination that causes desolation, spoken through the prophet Daniel, let the reader understand. Then let those who are in Judea flee to the mountains. Let no one on the roof of his house go down to take anything out of the house. Let no one in the field go back to get his cloak, how dreadful it will be in those days for pregnant women and nursing mothers.

Pray that your flight will not take place in the winter or on the Sabbath, for then there will be great distress, unequaled from the beginning of the world until now and never to be equaled again. Now here's what Jesus did. Here the disciples are on the Mount of Olives, they've gone through this temple experience and Jesus is about to tell us about three things. About the destruction of the temple, about the signs of his coming and about the end of the age, all major issues. And he turns to the disciples and he says to them, before I even start telling you about this, you're going to need to understand four things.

And I'm going to give you just the first of those four today. Number one, he says, you need to look at the Jews. If you want to understand what is going on, you need to look at the Jews. Now, who were the Jews? The Jews were the people that were the people of the Lord Jesus. Jesus was a Jew. The disciples were Jews. They lived among the Jews. They understood the Jewish culture.

They came out of the Jewish religious persuasive. Let me tell you something about the Jews of Jesus' day, folks. The Jews of Jesus' day knew their religion.

They were and still are a very deeply religious people. And there is one thing that you can say about the Jewish people, folks. They know their Bible. What is the Jewish Bible? It is the book of law, the Talmud.

It is the Old Testament. The Jews missed out on just one very significant life changing event. They never got beyond the Old Testament. They never got to Calvary. They never stood at the feet of Jesus. They never accepted the fact that this Messiah is the son of the living God who gave his life for us, who became sin for us, even though he knew no sin.

The Jewish people in all their religiosity, they couldn't see beyond their oppression and their suppression at the hands of the Roman intimidators. But they knew the scriptures. Oh, they knew the scriptures.

And time without number right through the Old Testament and the prophets. You read the prophecies concerning this one, the Messiah, the deliverance of the Jews, the one who is coming, the rise and fall of nations, even the tribulation. The Jews understood and believed it and they were looking for a Messiah. Jesus was telling the disciples, if you want to understand the answer to these questions and if you want to know some clues to my coming, you better begin to look at your own people. Well, what did the Jews believe? Number one, they believed that his coming, the coming of our Lord would be preceded by time of tribulation.

That's what the Old Testament says and Revelation confirms that. They believed in the second place that a forerunner would appear to announce the coming of the Messiah. Well, who was that forerunner?

What was his name? John the Baptist. John the Baptist.

John the Baptist, he came and he announced, he stood up there on his pulpit in between bites of locusts and honey and he said, there is one who comes after me for whom I'm not worthy to tie his shoes. They believed in the third place from the Old Testament that a Messiah would appear in person. They believed in the fourth place that nations would rise up against the Messiah. Go and read the oracles chapter 3 and 363 through 72 and you'll read about it in the oracles, the historical writings of the Jewish people that nations would rise up against the Messiah. Revelation tells us that.

Jesus will confirm that. They believed in the fifth place that these nations would be destroyed. Well, the book of Revelation shows us that and I'm going to show you that. Nations will rise up, they're going to come, the armies are going to march against the Lord Jesus Christ but the Bible says that the lamb will come riding on a white horse and he's going to march to the battle of Armageddon and he's going to defeat the nations of the world to the extent that the blood is going to flow up to the level of the bits in horses mouths. The Jews believed in the sixth place that Jerusalem would be restored.

That's exactly what happened. The Bible says that when Jesus comes again that he's going to set up his thousand year reign right there in the holy city. They believed in the seventh place that Jews would come back together again. Go and read about it in the prophecy of Jeremiah. Oh, how could you understand these things seeing the Jews scattered all over the world? Yes, we understand them now because of 1948.

We've read about the League of Nations and the United Nations organization. We understand that but the Jews could not see these things that they would come back together again but they understood it. In the eighth instance, they believed that Palestine would become the center of the world.

Oh, what an incredible thing. It's a small little drop in the bucket, it's a tiny nation and with our modern amenities, you can get in a motor car in Tel Aviv and go up to Haifa and across to the Golan Heights and down to Galilee and Jericho and the Dead Sea and back to Jerusalem, catch a plane out that night and you've been on a pretty good tour of the Holy Land. It almost seems incredible to think that the Jews would believe that Palestine would become the center of the world.

I've got to make an announcement to you today, my friends. America is not the center of the world, Palestine is. I'm going to tell you that there's not a thing that happens in Palestine today that does not make the entire world tremble.

Why? Because the Bible says Palestine will become the center of the world and these Jews had no problem believing that. But they also believed in the final analysis that a new age of peace would result. We know that and understand that because we've got the complete book that God has written.

We know that he's going to set up his reign forever. Jesus looked at his disciples and he said, gentlemen, I've got to try and explain to you what to do until I come. But in order to try and explain it, you better begin by looking to your own people, the Jews. What a powerful concept to being reminded that Jesus explained to his disciples and Jesus is ready to connect with you as well. You've been listening to Dr. Don Wilton as he's preached from the pulpit.

Now open your heart to what he wants to share next. Are you ready to give your heart and life to the Lord Jesus Christ? Why don't you pray this prayer with me right now? Dear God, I know that I'm a sinner and I know that Jesus died for me on the cross. Today I repent of my sin and by faith I receive you into my heart. In Jesus name. My friend, I welcome you today into the family of God.

This is exciting news. If you just prayed along with Dr. Wilton to rededicate your life or give your life to Christ, let us send you some free resources. Call us at 866-899-9673 and we'll put those in the mail to you today. That's 866-899-9673 or connect with us online at www.tewonline.org where you'll find great resources like this. My book, Saturdays with Billy, is about an extraordinary relationship with a precious man who impacted lives across the world. You don't want to miss this opportunity to be inspired by his life too. Join us again tomorrow as Dr. Wilton concludes this message and stay connected with us online at www.tewonline.org.