End Of The World Series

1 Thessalonians 4:16-18 read, For the Lord himself will come down from heaven, with a loud command, with the voice of the archangel and with the trumpet call of God, and the dead in Christ will rise first. After that, we who are still alive and are left will be caught up together with them in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air. And so we will be with the Lord forever. Therefore encourage each other with these words.

The Latin word for “caught up” is “raptura”, thus we get the term “rapture” when Believers of Christ are taken to heaven. How many of you were waiting for the “rapture” yesterday??

Open your Bibles to Matthew 24:36-41…………

The rapture of Christians can happen at any moment; the only warning you will get is the warning from the Bible!

I’ll be honest with you, I thought about the rapture yesterday!

But then again, I thought about the rapture the other day, and the day before, and the day before! All Christians should look forward to the rapture; but again it is in God’s time!

I didn’t plan this; I’m not that good, but, we are now near the end of our study of the Book of Daniel. Today in Daniel 12, we will see another snapshot of the future. Why do you think God gives us descriptions of the future from the Bible??

God gave us prophecies in the Bible so that:

- we will know that God is in total control

- we will not be surprised with what’s going to happen

- we will study the Word of God (God desires for us to hear Him daily!)

- we will know how to live since we know the future

- we can tell people about the Gospel of Jesus Christ

As noted from 1 Thessalonians 4, we are to encourage one another with the future! Why? – Because: The future is awesome for those who believe and follow Jesus Christ!

We’ve learned much already about God and His prophecies about the future from the book of Daniel. And of course there are many other Books in the Bible including the Gospels which speaks of the end times. Over 20% of the Bible speaks of the end times! In 4 verses alone from Daniel 12, we can learn much! But before reading these verses, take a glance at this chart which gives us a little perspective of how the world will end….

Let us together pray our commitment to God’s Word……

Read along with me Daniel 12:1-4…….

What can we note from this passage?

We note that it starts with “At that time…”

What time was God talking about?

We could go back and recall what was said in Daniel 11, but verse 2 gives us a clue of the time right? What time was it that God was talking about in Daniel 12??

a. Daniel 12:1-4 is about the end of this world before eternity.

And what can we say about the end of the world from Daniel 12?

b. The Prince of Angels, Michael will be involved in the affairs of the world.

We noted this before that the spiritual world is involved in the physical world. How are we doing in envisioning the spiritual world in our midst? We get up in the morning and what do we think about first?? Brush teeth, take a shower, coffee and breakfast, and what we have to do that day! Let us not be so blinded by the physical world that we miss out on the blessings from the spiritual world! Let us commit to starting our days with prayer, pray through out the day, and end the day with prayer.

Now, isn’t it interesting; President Obama just recently cited a country called Israel! How many of you know where Israel is?? There is a physical Israel but what are the people of Israel called??

The people of Israel are God’s Chosen People!

And so, we should not be surprised that

c. In the end, God will protect His Chosen People, Israel!

But will the end of the world as we know it be peaceful? What calamities has the world seen so far??

And what was the worst world calamity the world has experienced? – Except for 8 people, the world flood killed everyone in the world! But look again at the 2nd part of Daniel 12:1……

d. The end of the world will be worst than the worldwide flood!

There will be great distress in the end and God will protect Israel. But will all the people of Israel be saved just because they are Jews? God tells us that only those Jews whose names are written in the Book will be delivered! What can we note from this?