Wake Up! Jesus Is Coming!

WAKE UP! JESUS IS COMING!

Rom. 13:11-14

INTRODUCTION

A. HUMOR

1. I heard about these two men, Archie & Jack, who’d debated their whole lives whether Jesus was white or whether He was black. Archie was sure He was white and Jack was sure He was black.

2. As fate would have it, they died on the same day and rushed to the pearly gates and asked St. Peter, “Please tell us, we’ve been arguing our whole lives: is Jesus white or is He black?” About that time Jesus stepped up and said, “Buenos Dias!”

B. TEXT:

Rom. 13:11-14 And that, knowing the time, that now it is high time to awake out of sleep: for now is our salvation nearer than when we believed. 12 The night is far spent, the day is at hand: let us therefore cast off the works of darkness, and let us put on the armor of light. 13 Let us walk honestly, as in the day; not in rioting and drunkenness, not in chambering and wantonness, not in strife and envying. 14 But put ye on the Lord Jesus Christ, and make not provision for the flesh, to fulfil the lusts thereof.”

C. ILLUS. IT’S HARD TO WAKE SOME PEOPLE

1. My niece Missy had a hard time waking up when she was a college student. In some of her first jobs her mom had to spray her with water in the face to awaken her.

2. When she got on her own, she turned on as many as 6 alarm clocks, but still would sleep through them. So her Dad got her an alarm similar to a CAR ALARM, so that if she slept through the 6 alarm clocks, it would wake her up. But after a while she got used to it started to sleep through it. So finally her Dad got her an INDUSTRIAL YARD BUZZER like they used in giant plants to signal workers over a large space. When that went off, she reportedly ran screaming through her apartment to unplug it! (CAN YOU IMAGINE BEING ONE OF HER NEIGHBORS?) MAYBE WE NEED SOMETHING LIKE THAT TO WAKE US OUT OF OUR LETHARGY!

D. THESIS

1. We’re looking at NINE SIGNS OF THE SOON COMING OF JESUS that have never happened before. These are signs that, if we’re not braindead, ought to be like flashing lights or sirens wailing – warning us to “all-hands-on-deck” readiness for the Second Coming.

2. The title of this message is “Wake Up! Jesus is Coming!” Let’s look at the 9 signs, chronologically...

I. 1948 ISRAEL REBORN AS A NATION

1. In 1948, after over 2,577 years without a country, Israel was again “born” as a nation.* “In that day the Lord will reach out his hand a second time to reclaim the remnant that is left of His people” Isa. 11:11.

2. Even as Israel declared its statehood on May 14, 1948, five mechanized Arab armies invaded. The Jews had only 35,000 fighting men, no air force and only six tanks.

3. The Egyptian army alone had 40,000 soldiers, 135 tanks, heavy guns and an air force of over 60 planes, including Spitfires and bombers. The Jordanians had the Arab Legion, trained by the British and led by an Englishman, Sir John Bagot Glubb, along with 48 British officers.

4. Yet, against all odds, the Jewish fighters won against five nations! Several other wars have been won since then, just as miraculously! [*If you want to count the Maccabean Period as self-rule, it would be 2011 years without a country.]

II. 1965 CHINA: 200 MILLION MAN ARMY

1. Here’s another huge sign that we’re in the End-times. Never has there been an Asian superpower who could field and move an army of 200 Million – until NOW!]

2. “And the sixth angel poured out his vial upon the great river Euphrates … that the way of the Kings of the East might be prepared. And the number of the army … [was] two hundred million” (Rev. 16:12; 9:16).

3. Could China field an army of 200 Million? Time Magazine, May 21, 1965 [p. 35], quoted China as saying they could field an army of that size then! “To back up Lo’s bluster, Red China passed the word that its 200 million-man (and woman) militias had gone into serious training.”

4. Certainly, now, with 1.3 billion citizens, they could field an army of that size! They NOW have the largest standing army in the world and the second largest Navy.

5. China’s Belt & Road Initiative, begun in 2013, has set up bases and personnel in more than 150 countries. They have “police stations” in many countries, including the USA, to safeguard Chinese citizens who visit there.

III. 1967 JERUSALEM RETAKEN

1. In 1967, during war, Jerusalem was retaken and at last became a Jewish city again. Jesus said, "Jerusalem shall be trodden down... until the times of the Gentiles be fulfilled" (Luke 21:24). We must be nearing the “end of the times of the Gentiles!”