“Jesus When are you Coming Back?”
Matthew 24: 3-14
I hear recently of an older woman was on an airplane and she happened to be seated right beside a young businessman. After the in-flight meal she took out her Bible and starts reading. The businessman glances at her and said. Do you really believe all that stuff in the Bible is true?
"Well, yes, as a matter of fact I do." "the man sort of scoffed, "like... what's that guy's name, you know the one who got swallowed by a whale..." "You mean Jonah?"
"Yeah, Jonah, I mean, how do you actually survive for 3 days in a fish's belly?" "I don't know, but when I get to heaven I’ll ask him…" Feeling kind of smart, the young man said: "Ok, but what if he's not in heaven?” She calmly replied, well then maybe you can ask him.
We are beginning a brand new preaching series today. During the month of December I gave you the opportunity to submit some questions that you would like to ask God. All of us have them. And these are the ones you submitted. (Hold up sheet)
We are certainly not the 1st generation of Christians who have had questions for God. This week I have found 24 questions that were asked of Jesus while He was here on earth and also found that Jesus Himself asked 85 questions Himself, usually to make a point, not because He didn’t know the answers.
Some of these questions were meant to trap Him. The Bible gives us verses like this…”then the Pharisees went out and laid plans to trap him in his words.” Several verses later Jesus is found asking them, “why are you trying to trap me?”
Others were meant to tempt Him. They asked him to turn the stones to bread, they asked Him to jump off a high mountain to prove who He was. Jesus said “man does not live by bread alone” and then He said, ”get away from me Satan!”
Still others remarks were meant to test Him. Jesus was teaching in the temple courts and the chief priests came to him and ask Him, by what authority are you doing these things?” Jesus then turns it around and answered their questions with a question.
Then there were also questions posed to Him by believers who were searching and looking for answers. Just like this group we are looking at today. There is a difference between the kinds of questions asked by believers as opposed to unbelievers. The one today usually comes from a believer. Here it is. V. 3. Put simply, Jesus, when are you coming back? First of all we must be careful when we attempt to set a date for the return of Christ.
The scripture is clear about this…only the Father knows. At the same time, it is OK to ask. Jesus didn’t scold the disciples for asking the question. One of the first questions that comes up when we read this is why didn’t Jesus know when He is coming back? The answer is not simple but I do have one. The Bible tells us that one day God stepped out of heaven and became a man. And when He did we quickly realize that He also chose to place some restrictions on Himself. At least 3 that I see.
(1) He would now feel intense physical and emotional pain. We know that Jesus wept. We know that he prayed so hard that he sweated drops of blood. We know that his pain was so real while He was on the cross that He called out to God and ask why did you forsake me?
(2) He would now know temptation. In Matthew 4 we see that Jesus was tempted 3 times. And we have no reason to believe that these were the only times that He was tempted. This High Priest of ours understands our weaknesses, for he faced all of the same testing we do, yet….. he did not sin.
So could Jesus sin while He was here on earth? Absolutely. Did He? Absolutely not! But I believe that he could. If not then it becomes hard for me to believe that He can identify with how I feel when I am tempted.
(3) He could feel every emotion that we do. As I said, He wept, He experienced great physical pain and He also took all of the sin of mankind upon Himself. Now why would He do this? Simple actually. And get this if you don’t get anything else I say today. Jesus Loves You. We have said those words so often that I am afraid that for many people they really do not understand how deep His love is for us. And because He loves us He also wants us to be able to relate to Him. One of the things that AA has in common with other support groups is that in order to lead a group you have to have been in a group previously. You can’t help others unless you have already been helped. That’s because you don’t have any credibility with people if you haven’t been down the same path. God knows how we feel because He has already walked where we have walked.
So this is all why when Jesus was asked “when are you coming back?” that He said no one knows except the Father. Jesus had imposed limitations on Himself while He was here. But now here is the thing. Just because Jesus said we can’t know exactly when, doesn’t mean that we can’t know anything about His return. Look…..right here in this text, Christ gives us some signs that we are to look for that mark His return. You see when Jesus came the first time to be born of Mary, Jesus rebuked the people of His day for not recognizing the signs of the time that pointed to His birth. Do you see what I’m saying? Jesus was saying you do need to look at the signs! So that’s what we are going to do right now. Because there have been several things happen in the last 100 years that would indicate “the signs of the time”.
The first sign that comes to mind is an increase in travel and knowledge. Now where is this in the Bible? Look at Daniel 12:4. On the screen. It says that “Daniel was told to seal up the book until the time of the end; many shall run to and fro and knowledge shall increase.” We believe that about 6000 years have passed since God created Adam. And for all but the last 100 years of that time man either walked, sailed in a boat or rode by horses. In the last 100 years the changes are greater than all of those years combined.
The first patent was written for a car in 1886. The first version as I read this week went 2.5 mph. Wow. In 1914 the average speed for a car was 15 to 20 miles per hour. They were the fastest moving vehicle of any kind on the planet. When I was in college 40 years ago now, my friend said hey let’s drive home. Sure but its 3:30 in the morning. But we did. I fell asleep and I woke up at one point and I said aren’t you going a little fast? He said yeah I guess….I looked at the speedometer and he was traveling at 138 mph. Cyclone GT. It was 60 miles to his house from the college and we made it in 30 minutes. And that was years ago.
Sir Isaac Netwon said in the 17th century that in the last days there will be a new kind of travel where man can travel at speeds of 50 mph. People could not believe him. Took a lot of criticism. Today, rockets and satellites average 24,000 miles per hour. Our going “to and fro” has greatly changed.
Man has also had what we could easily call an explosion in knowledge. Google says that approximately 130 million books have now been published. Most of those of course in the last century. Travel and knowledge go “hand in hand.” This is one of the signs of the return of Christ.
The 2nd sign is the Prophecy concerning the temple destruction. Matthew 24:1-2. Right here we notice the disciples admiring the temple buildings and Jesus prophesied that not only would the temple be destroyed but that “not even one stone would be left upon another stone.” History tells us that in 70 A.D. the Roman army destroyed the city of Jerusalem and the temple. Not only was the temple destroyed, but get this…the soldiers noticed that large amounts of gold had melted and flowed into the crevices of the blocks of the temple during a fire that swept through. In order to get the gold, the Romans had to take the building apart stone by stone. One stone was not left upon another stone. Amazing.
For most of us when we feel like we are getting sick we go to the doctor. The doctor then finds out what is wrong by the symptoms you have. You have a fever. You may have an infection. In this chapter we also find 2 signs that are more like symptoms.
The 3rd I will call the Sign of Deception. Matthew 24:4-5,11,23-25. There has always been deception. Always been false teaching out there but there is so much of it today that we hardly notice it. They are everywhere today. Everyone has their own version of the truth. But there can be only one truth. A new cult or group springs
up in our nation almost every week. Mark it down, spiritual deception WILL continue to grow.
The 4th is the Sign of Wars and Rumors Of Wars. Vv.6-8. There has been around 15,000 wars (on record) in human history. Now Jesus said this was going to happen, but not to be alarmed because, “Such things must happen, but the end is still to come”.
So what He is telling us is that this is not the end but birth pains. That means it is actually the beginning. There is no doubt the birth pains have begun? Nations have risen up against nation. 15,000 wars. There has been famine. Famine is a logical result of war. There have been some catastrophic earthquakes over the last several years. Storms so severe that we have to invent new names for them like Tsunami. In 2004 the Tsunami killed over 230,000 people in 14 countries. Massive.
Jesus says in verse 33, “Even so, when you see all these things, you know that it is near, right at the door.”
There are also many signs concerning Israel. The Nation of Israel has been driven out and moved around almost like sheep being herded and yet God promises this nation that He will not forget them. In Jeremiah it is prophesied, “I myself will gather the remnant of my flock out of all the countries where I have driven them and will bring them back to their pasture.” Look at this.
In 1917 there were less than 25,000 Jews living in Palestine.
In 1945 more than 500,000 Jews lived in Palestine.
In 1948, Israel was again recognized as a nation. Today the Jewish population in Israel is over 5 million.
The only thing missing is the great spiritual awakening of the Jews calling upon the Messiah they had rejected. So watch for it.
Tim LaHaye and many other Bible scholars who study prophecy daily tell us this “The Rapture, the time when Jesus shouts from Heaven and all believers will be taken to be with Him, that is the next historic event to take place on God’s prophetic calendar.
Winston Churchill arranged his own funeral. There were stately hymns in St. Paul’s Cathedral. Impressive music. At the end of the service, Churchill had a very unusual event planned. When they said the benediction, a bugler high in the dome of St. Paul’s Cathedral on one side played Taps, the universal signal that the day is over. There was a long pause. Then a bugler on the other side played Reveille, the military wake-up call.
The bigger question than when this will take place must always be are you ready. We don’t know when it will be but the signs are there. The events for the return of Christ have been all laid in order. The stage is set, all the key players are in position, the cameras are rolling, the lights are beginning to dim and the audience is growing quiet and we are simply waiting for the Great Director to tell the angel to sound the trumpet and we will go home.
