Snapshots Of The Second Coming

SNAPSHOTS OF THE SECOND COMING

Matthew 24:36-51, NIV

INTRODUCTION

A. HUMOR: WRONG IDEAS ABOUT THE BIBLE

1. Old Mr. Simpson was a constant thorn in the side of the PTA, with his steadfast opposition to innovation.

2. For one thing, he was vociferously against the introduction of foreign languages in the town’s junior high school curriculum.

3. Waving his Bible in the air he shouted, “If English was good enough for the prophets and apostles, it’s good enough for me!”

4. Of course the Bible was not originally written in English, but mostly Hebrew and Greek. Many believers have had wrong ideas about the Second Coming too, so we’re going to study that tonight.

B. TEXT

36 “But about that day or hour no one knows, not even the angels in heaven, nor the Son, but only the Father. 37 As it was in the days of Noah, so it will be at the coming of the Son of Man. 38 For in the days before the flood, people were eating and drinking, marrying and giving in marriage, up to the day Noah entered the ark; 39 and 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. 40 Two men will be in the field; one will be taken and the other left. 41 Two women will be grinding with a hand mill; one will be taken and the other left.

42 “Therefore keep watch, because you do not know on what day your Lord will come. 43 But understand this: If the owner of the house had known at what time of night the thief was coming, he would have kept watch and would not have let his house be broken into. 44 So you also must be ready, because the Son of Man will come at an hour when you do not expect him. 45 “Who then is the faithful and wise servant, whom the master has put in charge of the servants in his household to give them their food at the proper time? 46 It will be good for that servant whose master finds him doing so when he returns. 47 Truly I tell you, he will put him in charge of all his possessions. 48 But suppose that servant is wicked and says to himself, ‘My master is staying away a long time,’ 49 and he then begins to beat his fellow servants and to eat and drink with drunkards. 50 The master of that servant will come on a day when he does not expect him and at an hour he is not aware of. 51 He will cut him to pieces and assign him a place with the hypocrites, where there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth.” Matt. 24:36-51, NIV

C. THESIS

1. Peter says that we are now closer to His coming than we were when we first believed. How true!

2. Bryan Jay writes - "Often, when we speak of Christ's coming, we emphasize the particulars of the event, but forget the Person of the event. What makes the second coming so encouraging to us as believers is that it is JESUS who is coming.”

3. “If Jesus isn't precious to us...and his bodily presence means little to us, then we’ll miss” the central most important fact of His Coming back to Earth!

4. So tonight we’re looking at 6 facts about His Coming which, conveniently, all start with an “S.” The title of tonight’s message is “Snapshots of the Second Coming.”

I. HIS COMING SHALL BE SECRET (Mt. 24:36,42,44)

A. MANY WRONG PREDICTIONS OF HIS COMING

1. October 22, 1844. William Miller, whose followers were called the Millerites, taught Christ would come on Oct. 22, 1844. Large numbers of people sold their goods and got on housetops. It’s failure was called “the Great Disappointment.” His followers founded the Seventh-day Adventist Church and continue to expect a soon Second Coming but no longer set dates for it.

2. In 1874 Charles Taze Russell, the first president of the Watchtower Society of the Jehovah's Witnesses, calculated 1874 to be the year of Christ's Second Coming, and until his death taught that Christ was invisibly present, and ruling from the heavens.

3. 1988 was taught by a number of prophecy “experts” as the year Christ would likely return because of the nation of Israel forming in 1948 plus one generation of 40 years. This too proved false.

4. Mark Blitz, starting in 2008, began teaching that Christ's return would correspond with the September 28, 2015 lunar eclipse. His idea, known as the Blood Moon Prophecy, attracted widespread media attention.

B. THE PROBLEM WITH DATE-SETTING

1. What do these all have in common? They all claim some extra-biblical knowledge or revelation but their premise contradicts the Lord’s own teaching: