The End Is Near!!!

Mat 24:3As Jesus was sitting on the Mount of Olives, the disciples came to him privately. "Tell us," they said, "when will this happen, and what will be the sign of your coming and of the end of the age?" 4Jesus answered: "Watch out that no one deceives you. 5For many will come in my name, claiming, ’I am the Christ, and will deceive many. 6You will hear of wars and rumors of wars, but see to it that you are not alarmed. Such things must happen, but the end is still to come. 7Nation will rise against nation, and kingdom against kingdom. There will be famines and earthquakes in various places. 8All these are the beginning of birth pains. 9"Then you will be handed over to be persecuted and put to death, and you will be hated by all nations because of me. 10At that time many will turn away from the faith and will betray and hate each other, 11and many false prophets will appear and deceive many people. 12Because of the increase of wickedness, the love of most will grow cold, 13but he who stands firm to the end will be saved. 14And this gospel of the kingdom will be preached in the whole world as a testimony to all nations, and then the end will come.

Ever since we have first heard the good news, Christians everywhere have been longing for the return of Christ. We want our glorified bodies, our troubles to end, sickness to vanish....there’ll be no sorrow there....we all are (or should be) anxiously awaiting His return. As a matter of fact, it has been talked abut since Christ was crucified that His return was imminent....the disciples thought it was going to happen when the apostole John was an old man Look at John 21:20Peter turned and saw that the disciple whom Jesus loved was following them. (This was the one who had leaned back against Jesus at the supper and had said, "Lord, who is going to betray you?") 21When Peter saw him, he asked, "Lord, what about him?"22 Jesus answered, "If I want him to remain alive until I return, what is that to you? You must follow me." 23Because of this, the rumor spread among the brothers that this disciple would not die. But Jesus did not say that he would not die; he only said, "If I want him to remain alive until I return, what is that to you?" Peter thought he had some inside info, didn’t he? He missed the "if" and assumed that when John was an old man that Jesus could return at any moment. Jesus was just making a point here, wasn’t He? In other words Jesus might have said "tend to your business and don’t worry what My plans are with other people....you need to worry about YOU!"

It has become "old hat" for some believers nowdays. They will believe it when they see it (gonna be too late then!)...or they could be from the State of Missouri (Show-me). My wife is from that State, but she only uses that on me!!! She, like me, is looking for His return everyday. I want christians to realize the time is NOW! What a great time to live in.....it is very likely that no one here today will experience earthly death! What a truly blessed generation this is, even with all the troubles we deal with today! It in some ways is the worst of times...but in other ways it is the best of times. That is why I want to look at our text the way we do Bible study on Wed night.....(if you aren’t coming to it, you’re missing out!) verse by verse.

Mat 24:3As Jesus was sitting on the Mount of Olives, the disciples came to him privately. "Tell us," they said, "when will this happen, and what will be the sign of your coming and of the end of the age?" The first thing we need to see here is that even the diciples wanted to know exactly when He was coming......we ALL do. But the Bible says even Jesus doesn’t know the day or the hour. But Jesus DOES know what to look for in this world to know that His return is soon.....and we as christians need to know that too! Notice they still wanted it to be their own little secret (came to Him privately). So how does Jesus ansewr them? 4Jesus answered: "Watch out that no one deceives you. Isn’t this theme found throughout the Bible? What does Satan do best? He is the great deciever, isn’t he? Deception can take many forms....even can cause you to doubt your salvation...or to be decieved that Christ isn’t really coming anytime soon. WATCH OUT! That is a lie from the pits of hell! Matthew 24:44 So you also must be ready, because the Son of Man will come at an hour when you do not expect him. The first and most important sign pointing to Christ’s coming is deception. As we move closer and closer to the end, religious deception will be widespread affecting people everywhere. People will be out of control spiritually chasing whatever makes them feel good.