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?
e. God has a Book with people’s names on it who will go to heaven!
Jews who read this of course should ask, “How can one’s name be written in the Book?” Does this passage give us a clue who the people are in the Book? In context, what is the one description about the people in the Book??
Verse 3 indicate that those in the Book will shine like stars! And what have they done?
f. The people in the Book of God led many to righteousness!
Righteousness means being right with a Holy God! Can one who is not right with God lead someone else to be right with God? – that would be like the blind leading the blind! The people in the Book of God are righteous to begin with; therefore, capable of leading others to righteousness. You can disagree with me with this but there are many other Bible passages which will indicate that
g. those who will be with God forever, therefore in the Book of God, are only those who are right with God.
For nonbelievers of God, Psalm 69:28 states “May they be blotted out of the book of life and not be listed with the righteous.” NIV
And let us note that Daniel 12:1-4 is talking about the end of the world after Jesus Christ has come to earth, died, was buried, and rose again to bring righteousness to people. This is why we read in Revelation 13:8, All inhabitants of the earth will worship the beast (not God) - all whose names have not been written in the book of life belonging to the Lamb that was slain from the creation of the world. NIV
Just because one is a Jew, part of Israel – God’s Chosen People, it doesn’t mean they will be in God’s Eternal Book, unless they believe in Jesus Christ. And a description of heaven in Revelation 7:9-10, After this I looked and there before me was a great multitude that no one could count, from every nation, tribe, people and language, standing before the throne and in front of the Lamb. They were wearing white robes and were holding palm branches in their hands. And they cried out in a loud voice: "Salvation belongs to our God, who sits on the throne, and to the Lamb." NIV
And so, whether Jew or not,
h. Only those who believe in, who belong to, Jesus Christ will be in the Eternal Book of God!
Is your name in the Book of God? Be delivered today! Believe and follow Jesus Christ and you will belong to Him and your name will be written in God’s Eternal Book!
And what can we note from Daniel 12:2?
i. Dead people will be resurrected and will either go to heaven or a place called hell forever.
And as we noted earlier,
j.Those who will be in heaven will shine bright forever!
Just think of this for a moment: there will always be light in heaven because that’s where God is; but people who believe in Christ will shine bright even in the light that is already there! Here’s a question: Will there be shadows in heaven?
If you think that’s mind boggling, how about Daniel? Poor Daniel was bombarded with all sorts of incredible visions which he couldn’t understand or even apply to him! What did God do?
k. God comforted Daniel by telling him to just to trust and rest!
Daniel was in God’s hands! Look at the ending verse of Daniel 12………
Let us end with this question: When do we know when the end of the world will happen? According to Daniel 12:13,
l. The end will happen when……… people are going here and there and knowledge has increased!
What time is it right now? People today are going to and fro, even with the price of gas! In High School I remember depending on the 52 books of the Encyclopedia Brittanica my father bought for the family! Today, we buy computers with Internet access for our families in order to keep up with all the information out there, plus Facebook! We are living in "The Information Age"! Even the most skeptical mind must admit that knowledge is exploding in all directions today. It is said that 80% percent of the world’s total knowledge has been brought forth in the last decade and that 90% percent of all the scientists who have ever lived are still alive today!
What time is it right now? We are living the future that God talked about in Daniel over 2700 years ago!!
A simple personal application from all of this: Do I truly believe that the end of this world can happen in my lifetime; therefore am I living for God eternal who is my only Righteous judge?
