-When Linda saw that there were tornadoes heading this direction on Wednesday night, we cancelled our evening plans, we moved a few valuable and sentimental items to the basement, secured a few items outside and settled down in the basement and let the storm move on through
-Before 31 December 1999, many people were telling us that there would be a massive upheaval in our society and that we should make preparations by buying supplies just in case there were problems. We didn’t really go out and buy a bunch of extra stuff. However, just in case there were any problems, we decided to stay in that New Year’s Eve just to be safe.
-When the economy started to tumble, we made some decisions to try to insulate ourselves from the insecurity of the world around us. We moved on base to increase our physical security but also to decrease our expenses on gas and housing costs, decrease my commute times and decrease the complexity of our lives.
-Usually, when we see changes on the horizon, we react to them and make preparations so that we can make it through the difficulties ahead
-That is what Jesus is doing for His first century disciples and also for us
-Jesus alludes to the prophet Daniel and to “the abomination that causes desolation”
-That is from Daniel 9:24-27, by far one of the most difficult passages in the Bible to interpret
-I won’t get into all the possibilities with that text, if you are interested in looking at it, we’ll be examining it in my millennialism and prophecy bible study on Thursday afternoons in a few weeks
-However, at least one of the fulfillments of the text came when Antiochus Ephiphanes IV, a Seleucid ruler was in charge of Judea
-Onias III was high priest
-His brother Jason bribed Antiochus Epiphanes to be appointed high priest.
-Not long after, Menelaus, a Jew who was not part of the High priestly family, bribed Antiochus to be appointed high priest.
-Menelaus had Onias killed.
-Jason, his brother, ran off Menelaus and took over the job
-This incensed Antiochus who thought of the high priest as a political appointee so he had pigs sacrificed in the temple and ransacked Jerusalem. He banned sacrifices, feasts and festivals. Circumcision was outlawed. Scriptures were banned and statues to Greek gods were placed in the temple.
-This led to the great Maccabean revolt from 167-164 B. C. led by Judah Maccabee and later his brothers Jonathan and Simon
-The revolt was successful. The Maccabees used guerilla tactics to free the city. They ritually cleansed the temple and restored their worship practices.
-However, many of their followers were divided over whether to continue not just for religious freedom but to work for political freedom as well
-This would further divide the Pharisees and Saduccees as we see in the New Testament
-They did continue to fight the Seleucids and gained their complete independence in 142 B.C.
-It would not last long. In 63 B. C. the Roman general Pompey would capture Jerusalem.
-Jesus is here further preparing them for the devastation that would occur in these first century Jewish Christian’s lives – the destruction of the temple and much of the city of Jerusalem by the Roman general Titus in 70 A. D.
-Yes, today part of Jerusalem has been rebuilt but the temple has not been rebuilt
-Some believe that it will be and that temple sacrifice will be restored
-Muslims in Palestine and around the Middle East believe that will happen when hell freezes over
-I believe that now that Jesus, the one that the sacrifices have pointed to all along has come, there is no need for the temple and its sacrifices
-Remember this exchange from John 2
-18Then the Jews demanded of him, "What miraculous sign can you show us to prove your authority to do all this?" 19Jesus answered them, "Destroy this temple, and I will raise it again in three days." 20The Jews replied, "It has taken forty-six years to build this temple, and you are going to raise it in three days?" 21But the temple he had spoken of was his body.
-Even the religious leaders later got it
-In Matthew 27 it says, “ 62The next day, the one after Preparation Day, the chief priests and the Pharisees went to Pilate. 63"Sir," they said, "we remember that while he was still alive that deceiver said, ’After three days I will rise again.’ 64So give the order for the tomb to be made secure until the third day. Otherwise, his disciples may come and steal the body and tell the people that he has been raised from the dead. This last deception will be worse than the first."
-However, Jesus was also referring to a time to come when Satan will be released to deceive many and the church will be all but destroyed if God would allow that
-Fortunately, God promised that the gates of Hades would not prevail over the church
-And it has not
-We’ve seen the fragility of the church in the West with the practices of the Jimmy Swaggarts and the Jim and Tammy Faye Bakers.
-However, when the church was persecuted and had to go underground to survive
-It did in the former Soviet Union, in China and in places like Iran – Voice of the Martyrs
-They like Christians of old who endured persecution looked forward to the future when they were taken out of the difficult circumstances that they were in
-They did not look forward to the rapture – we brushed up against it a couple weeks ago but had to forego – we’ll look at it today
-The passage from 1 Thessalonians 4,
-I’ll read it. Paul writes, “ Brothers, we do not want you to be ignorant about those who fall asleep, or to grieve like the rest of men, who have no hope. We believe that Jesus died and rose again and so we believe that God will bring with Jesus those who have fallen asleep in him. According to the Lord’s own word, we tell you that we who are still alive, who are left till the coming of the Lord, will certainly not precede those who have fallen asleep. 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.”.
-These verses along with the passage from Matthew 24 are the two key passages for what some Christians believe to be the Rapture of the church before a great tribulation breaks out and Jesus returns to rule on earth from Jerusalem for 1,000 years.
-Those who believe in the rapture of the church believe that the one taken is the believer in Jesus and the one left is the one who does not believe.
-Please turn to Matthew 24:37-41
-It reads, “37As it was in the days of Noah, so it will be at the coming of the Son of Man. 38For in the days before the flood, people were eating and drinking, marrying and giving in marriage, up to the day Noah entered the ark; 39and they knew nothing about what would happen until the flood came and took them all away. That is how it will be at the coming of the Son of Man. 40Two men will be in the field; one will be taken and the other left. 41Two women will be grinding with a hand mill; one will be taken and the other left.”
-In this example the ones removed from the earth were those that did not believe in God
-It was Noah and his family that remained
-Interestingly, the word for “taken” is used to mean “seized” or “taken prisoner” like when Jesus was arrested.
-The word “left” can mean “to forgive” like in the Lord’s Prayer
-That is pretty clear.
-However, 1 Thessalonians 4 makes it more clear.
-16For 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. 17After 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.
-It doesn’t make sense that as the Lord comes down that He would turn around and go back up again. Why wouldn’t He continue coming down, especially in the context of the verses in Matthew 24 that refer to the same time frame and in light of Matthew 13 which I’m preaching on in the 1100 service.
-When Jesus explains the parable of the tares in verse 36-43.
-It reads, beginning at verse 40“As the weeds are pulled up and burned in the fire, so it will be at the end of the age. The Son of Man will send out his angels, and they will weed out of his kingdom everything that causes sin and all who do evil. They will throw them into the fiery furnace, where there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth. Then the righteous will shine like the sun in the kingdom of their Father.”
-You see the ones taken are the bad guys, the ones left are the good guys – us
-This is confirmed by Revelation 21:1-2 – “1Then I saw a new heaven and a new earth, for the first heaven and the first earth had passed away, and there was no longer any sea. 2I saw the Holy City, the new Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven from God, prepared as a bride beautifully dressed for her husband.”
-Are you prepared for the struggles ahead?
-Because of what Jesus did by struggling for us against Satan, you will be.
-Don’t fret – God will make sure you are prepared.
