Weather is defined as the state of the atmosphere at a given time and place, with respect to variables such as temperature, moisture, wind velocity, and barometric pressure.
There are a wide variety of technological instruments and observing systems that measure weather. These include:
• ANEMOMETERS for measuring the velocity of wind
• BAROMETERS for measuring pressure
• SCINTILLOMETERS which measure temperature gradients
• THERMOMETERS which measure temperature
• RAIN GAUGES which measure precipitation
People have always been interested in the weather, because the weather plays such a big part in our daily lives.
Today, in the age in which we live, meteorologists with the modern equipment can safely predict the weather from day to day, and many times forecast the weather five days in advance.
This is helpful as we make our plans for those important things that we want to do throughout the day.
Humor: We do not have to depend on the aches and pains in Uncle Henry’s right knee joint anymore, we have more sophisticated ways of telling what the weather is going to do.
Humor: Of course, one of the best ways to get rain is to wash your car, it will almost certainly rain.
The people who lived when the Lord was here on earth were as dependent on the weather as we are today.
Because the weather was something they were familiar with, He chose to use the weather as a teaching tool to teach them about the signs of His coming.
There are two things in this life we will never know the answer too:
• We do not know the day and the hour we are going to die
• We do not know the day and the hour the Lord will return for His church
The reason we do not know either one of these is obvious. If people knew the answer to these two things, they would live their life in sin, and in their last few hours they would turn to the Lord.
These are two things we will never know, but the Bible teaches there are signs of His coming that we can look at, and we can know that it won’t be long.
This is why He gave them the PARABLE OF THE WEATHER. We can look at certain conditions and know if rain is coming or not.
In Luke 12:54-55, we read, “And he said also to the people, When ye see a cloud rise out of the west, straightway ye say, There cometh a shower; and so it is. And when ye see the south wind blow, ye say, There will be heat; and it cometh to pass.”
HOW GOOD ARE YOU AT READING SIGNS? There are some signs that are a good indication that it will not be long before Christ returns for His church.
Let’s look at some of the signs, but before we do we need to consider the -
I. SIGN SEEKERS
The people in Jesus’ day, like many today, did not believe that Jesus of Nazareth was the Messiah. They were always wanting Him to show them a “Sign” to prove He was who He said He was. It was not because they were dumb, it was simply because they did not want to believe.
In this parable, you can see the Lord’s displeasure with them. Look at verses 56-57, we read, “Ye hypocrites, ye can discern the face of the sky and of the earth; but how is it that ye do not discern this time? Yea, and why even of yourselves judge ye not what is right?”
The Lord referred to them as “Hypocrites”.
These are SIGN SEEKERS. No one, including the Lord, is going to convince them to be Believers. If the Lord had given them ONE SIGN, they would have demanded a BIGGER SIGN!
They are practical atheists. There is not that much difference between them and an atheist.
Illus: A man called in to Sean Hannity’s radio talk show on June 24th, 2002.
Sean asked him, “Do you believe in God?” He said, “No!” He stated that he was an atheist.
Sean, then proceeded to ask him how all these things we can see with our eyes came into existence?
The man said that it all came about through the process of evolution.
Sean then asked him where evolution came from. The man said, “From the molecules.”
Then Sean asked him where the molecules came from?
The man said, “From the Big Bang Theory!”
The man was getting exasperated with Sean because he began to feel like a fool, believing the way he did.
Finally, Sean explained to him that if he would trace the whole evolutionary process backwards, he would eventually have to conclude that SOMETHING CAME FROM NOTHING, and he said, “Only God can create something from nothing!”
Since the days of Christ, people have not changed a great deal.
For example, during the days of Christ, people were more interested in the signs than they were in what He was teaching.
These sign seekers came to Him one day. In Matthew 12:38-40, we read, “Then certain of the scribes and of the Pharisees answered, saying, Master, we would see a sign from thee. But he answered and said unto them, An evil and adulterous generation seeketh after a sign; and there shall no sign be given to it, but the sign of the prophet Jonas: For as Jonas was three days and three nights in the whale's belly; so shall the Son of man be three days and three nights in the heart of the earth.”
Later on, in Matthew 16:1-4 we read, “The Pharisees also with the Sadducees came, and tempting desired him that he would show them a sign from heaven. He answered and said unto them, When it is evening, ye say, It will be fair weather: for the sky is red. And in the morning, It will be foul weather to day: for the sky is red and lowering. O YE HYPOCRITES, ye can discern the face of the sky; but can ye not discern the signs of the times? A wicked and adulterous generation seeketh after a sign; and there shall no sign be given unto it, but the sign of the prophet Jonas. And he left them, and departed.”
The Lord refer to these “Sign Seekers” as HYPOCRITES.
In John 4:48, we read, “Then said Jesus unto him, Except ye see signs and wonders, ye will not believe.” In other words, He had to buy their faith with signs and wonders!
Illus: They thought of the Christian life as the television program called, “Let’s Make A Deal”. That is, “Lord you show me something GREAT, and I will believe in you.”
The “Sign Seekers” are always looking for a sign, but the Lord does not play this game with anyone!
The same thing happens today. A total stranger can come to town. He may have been married twenty-nine times, he may owe everybody in his hometown, and have a jail record as long as his arm, but he can advertise, “SIGNS AND WONDERS EACH NIGHT,” and the people will flock out to the meeting by the thousands.
You can put these “Sign Seekers” in a auditorium, and preach the Word of God to them, and they will begin to make excuses for why they have to leave. Many people are more interested in signs and supernatural phenomena than they are in the word of God.
Illus: These “Sign Seekers” remind us of women who marry a man for his money, not because they believe in Him and love him for what he is.
God never called us to be “Sign Seekers”, but He has called us all to be -
II. SON SEEKERS
The Lord is pleased when we, who believe in Him, want to see Him. We should never feel bad and think that it is wrong for us to want to see Him.
Illus: I like that song that says it this way, “Oh, I want to see Him and look upon His face.”
We who are looking for Him to return, can look at the signs that will precede His coming, and know it will not belong before He returns.
Look at Matthew 24:1-4, we read, “And Jesus went out, and departed from the temple: and his disciples came to him for to show him the buildings of the temple. And Jesus said unto them, See ye not all these things? verily I say unto you, There shall not be left here one stone upon another, that shall not be thrown down. And as he sat upon the mount of Olives, the disciples came unto him privately, saying, Tell us, when shall these things be? and what shall be the sign of thy coming, and of the end of the world? And Jesus answered and said unto them, Take heed that no man deceive you.”
Notice, the Lord was telling us that one of the things that we need to watch for before Christ returns for His church, is a climate of deception. He said, “Let no man deceive you.”
It can truly be said that this is the AGE OF DECEPTION.
Illus: We constantly hear of:
• Politicians who are deceiving their constituents that placed them in office
• Doctors who are deceiving the insurance companies, claiming they have done things they have never done, driving our insurance rates higher and higher
• CEOs of large corporations who are deceiving the shareholders of these companies and cheating them out of billions of dollars
And if all this deception was not bad enough, the biggest deception of all is found in religion.
Notice that the Lord shows us some of the signs that will precede His coming.
A. THE PREDICTED SIGNS
Look at Matthew 24:5-8 “For many shall come in my name, saying, I am Christ; and shall deceive many. And ye shall hear of wars and rumours of wars: see that ye be not troubled: for all these things must come to pass, but the end is not yet. For nation shall rise against nation, and kingdom against kingdom: and there shall be famines, and pestilences, and earthquakes, in divers places. All these are the beginning of sorrows.”
The Bible tells us that “All these are the BEGINNING OF SORROWS” that will precede the other signs which are to follow. These are the signs that will transpire before the Lord returns for His church.
The signs that will follow will be those that will take place after the rapture of the church.
We have looked at THE PREDICTED SIGNS that will take place before the rapture of the church. Now let’s look at -
B. THE PERSECUTION SIGNS
In Matthew 24, the Lord makes a distinction between the CHURCH AGE SIGNS and the TRIBULATION SIGNS.
Illus: Dr. J. Vernon McGee says this about the remaining verses: “Now the Lord begins to speak of the time of tribulation. You and I are living in the “Age of the church” or the “Age of the Holy Spirit”, as some like to speak of it. The Bible divides the world today into three groups of people: the Jews, the Gentiles, and the church of God (see 1 Cor. 10:32). In this age, God is calling out a people to His name from both Jews and Gentiles to compose the third group, the church. It is this third group which will be taken out of the world at the time of the Rapture. Then the Great Tribulation will begin, and I believe that verse 9 speaks of this beginning.”
The signs of persecution are much greater once you get into verse 9, when the tribulation period will start.
Look at verses 9-34, we read, “Then shall they deliver you up to be afflicted, and shall kill you: and ye shall be hated of all nations for my name's sake. And then shall many be offended, and shall betray one another, and shall hate one another. And many false prophets shall rise, and shall deceive many. And because iniquity shall abound, the love of many shall wax cold. But he that shall endure unto the end, the same shall be saved. And this gospel of the kingdom shall be preached in all the world for a witness unto all nations; and then shall the end come. When ye therefore shall see the abomination of desolation, spoken of by Daniel the prophet, stand in the holy place, (whoso readeth, let him understand:) Then let them which be in Judaea flee into the mountains: Let him which is on the housetop not come down to take any thing out of his house: Neither let him which is in the field return back to take his clothes. And woe unto them that are with child, and to them that give suck in those days! But pray ye that your flight be not in the winter, neither on the sabbath day: For then shall be great tribulation, such as was not since the beginning of the world to this time, no, nor ever shall be. And except those days should be shortened, there should no flesh be saved: but for the elect's sake those days shall be shortened. Then if any man shall say unto you, Lo, here is Christ, or there; believe it not. For there shall arise false Christs, and false prophets, and shall show great signs and wonders; insomuch that, if it were possible, they shall deceive the very elect. Behold, I have told you before. Wherefore if they shall say unto you, Behold, he is in the desert; go not forth: behold, he is in the secret chambers; believe it not. For as the lightning cometh out of the east, and shineth even unto the west; so shall also the coming of the Son of man be. For wheresoever the carcase is, there will the eagles be gathered together. Immediately after the tribulation of those days shall the sun be darkened, and the moon shall not give her light, and the stars shall fall from heaven, and the powers of the heavens shall be shaken: And then shall appear the sign of the Son of man in heaven: and then shall all the tribes of the earth mourn, and they shall see the Son of man coming in the clouds of heaven with power and great glory. And he shall send his angels with a great sound of a trumpet, and they shall gather together his elect from the four winds, from one end of heaven to the other. Now learn a parable of the fig tree; When his branch is yet tender, and putteth forth leaves, ye know that summer is nigh: So likewise ye, when ye shall see all these things, know that it is near, even at the doors. Verily I say unto you, This generation shall not pass, till all these things be fulfilled.”
These signs definitely apply to the period known as the tribulation period.
Conclusion:
Notice, the signs that the Lord spoke of for the time before the rapture, are mild compared to those that will take place after the rapture.
People that will not believe in the Lord now, will have to be convinced the hard way when these other signs begin to occur.
Which are you, the -
I. SIGN SEEKERS
II. SON SEEKERS
