The Second Coming Series

Jesus is coming again. The Bible makes this fact very clear.

Both the Old and New Testaments are filled with promises of the Second Coming of Christ. There are 1,845 references to it in the Old Testament, and a total of seventeen Old Testament books give it prominence. Of the 260 chapters in the entire New Testament, there are 318 references to the Second Coming, or one out of 30 verses. Twenty-three of the 27 New Testament books refer to this great event. The four missing books include three which are single-chapter letters written to individual persons on a particular subject, and the fourth is Galatians which does imply Christ’s coming again. For every prophecy on the First Coming of Christ, there are 8 on Christ’s Second Coming.[1]

The second coming of Jesus is a hot topic, and has been from the very beginning. The disciples ask Jesus:

Matthew 24:3 As He was sitting on the Mount of Olives, the disciples came to Him privately, saying, “Tell us, when will these things happen, and what will be the sign of Your coming, and of the end of the age?”

Our subject today is that very thing. The Second Coming.

Matthew 24:23–31

How many here today trust our various news sources without question? How many believe our mainstream media has a slanted and bias view of the world and the events they report? Have I got a newsflash for you – You ain’t seen nothing yet. Jesus tells us that fakes new will be on the increase.

Matthew 24:23 Then if anyone says to you, ‘Behold, here is the Christ,’ or ‘There He is,’ do not believe him.

This is the third time since verse 1 that Jesus makes this warning.

Look at verse 5: “For many will come in My name, saying, ‘I am the Christ,’ and will mislead many.”

Look at verse 11: “Many false prophets will arise and will mislead many.”

You think Jesus is trying to tell us something here? More and more I believe we must be questioning everything we hear coming from the world. Yet we have people that will believe anything someone will post on Facebook. Facebook is definitely not one of my major news sources.

Fake news is all around us. However there is one things you can believe, and that is the Word of God we hold in our hands, yet many are reluctant to read it. Everything I hear and see I process by the Word of God. For lack of a better word, I will call it my "Biblical Worldview." I must view the world through the lens of Scripture.

As time grows closer to the end, the truth will be harder to find. Jesus warns us. If someone tells us there is the Christ, don’t believe it.

Matthew 24:24 For false Christs and false prophets will arise and will show great signs and wonders, so as to mislead, if possible, even the elect.

We must question everything. Even Satan can perform signs and wonders from our viewpoint. The masses will be misled and if it were possible, even the elect, the truly saved. Why will the saved not be led astray? Because they have the very Holy Spirit of God by which we are given discernment. No so with the unsaved. Paul explains:

2 Thessalonians 2:9–10 that is, the one whose coming is in accord with the activity of Satan, with all power and signs and false wonders, 10 and with all the deception of wickedness for those who perish, because they did not receive the love of the truth so as to be saved.

The unsaved rejected the truth. They will be led astray by these signs and false wonders. Because they rejected the truth, Paul further explains:

2 Thessalonians 2:11–12 For this reason God will send upon them a deluding influence so that they will believe what is false, 12 in order that they all may be judged who did not believe the truth, but took pleasure in wickedness.

Jesus is giving us warning:

Matthew 24:25 Behold, I have told you in advance.

We must judge everything by the Word of God with the discernment given us by the Holy Spirit. Jesus further warns:

Matthew 24:26 So if they say to you, ‘Behold, He is in the wilderness,’ do not go out, or, ‘Behold, He is in the inner rooms,’ do not believe them.

Some of what Jesus says here relates to events in the 1st century. But even in our own times, we see the Jehovah Witnesses being led astray by the claims of a secret coming of Christ in 1914 in which Jesus supposedly appeared to a few. Jesus says don’t believe it. So what will be coming Jesus be like?

Matthew 24:27 For just as the lightning comes from the east and flashes even to the west, so will the coming of the Son of Man be.