Review (Mk 13:1-13)
SPOILER ALERT! The Countdown of Final Events:
- ABOMINATION . (Mk 13:14)
- EVACUATION . (Mk 13:14-20)
- INDOCTRINATION . (Mk 13:21-23)
- DELUMINATION . (Mk 13:24-25)
- CORONATION .(Mk 13:26-27)
Sermon Notes (PDF): BLANK
Hint: Highlight blanks above with your cursor for answers!
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00:00-00:08
I used to work with this guy, and he was what we call a story topper.
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Do you know what I mean by a story topper?
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How many people know what I mean when I say a story topper?
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Most of you.
00:14-00:24
For some of you who don't know, this is the guy, and maybe you work with one, too, but this is the guy that no matter what your circumstances, his are always worse.
00:25-00:25
Okay?
00:26-00:32
And you can't say anything to this guy without him popping your story.
00:33-00:34
And I've worked with this guy.
00:35-00:42
And I would say, "Well, you know, I'm just really tired today." He would say, "Oh, you think that's bad?
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I haven't slept in 15 days." And you'd be like, "Well, I guess I'm just a little tired.
00:51-00:52
I've been working a lot lately.
00:54-01:54
Oh, you think that's bad. I haven't had a day off since Thanksgiving three years ago Like well, yeah, I guess I've been trying to put in some extra hours because money's been tight. Oh you think that's bad. I Have four cents in my checking account And it doesn't matter what you would say to the guy his was always you always follow up with oh you think that's bad And last week when we studied God's Word, we saw some pretty bad things were going to go down throughout history according to Jesus. And I guess to borrow a line from this guy that I worked with to start off the message today, I would say, "Oh, you think that's bad?" If you thought what we discussed last week was bad, wait until you see what Jesus says as he continues. So turn in your Bibles to Mark chapter 13.
01:58-02:34
And the title of this message is Spoiler Alert. And if you weren't here last week and you don't know what that is, if you get online to read about a movie or a TV show, a lot of websites will say at the top, "Spoiler Alert." What that means is we're going to be reviewing this movie and in our review we're going to be covering some key plot points so if you don't want to know what they are stop reading and Jesus in this passage in Mark chapter 13 is telling us about the end of the world.
02:36-02:41
Again quick review from last week the disciples said to Jesus what happens before you return?
02:42-02:44
What are going to be the signs of the end of the age?
02:45-02:47
And Jesus gave a timeline.
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You look on your insert at the bottom, we have the Old Testament era, and then we have the cross.
02:54-02:58
That was the days of Jesus leading up to his death and resurrection.
02:58-03:03
Well, last week we covered what's inside that white box, the church age.
03:03-03:10
Jesus said, "Here's what's going to happen in the church age." And just to review, Jesus said, "Well, first of all, He talked about the temple.
03:12-03:14
The temple's coming down, that happened in 70 AD.
03:15-03:26
And throughout human history, he said, you're going to see false Christs and wars and earthquakes and famines and pestilences and persecution and all of that happens in the day that we live in.
03:27-03:31
Notice that next box, says tribulation.
03:34-03:38
And that's the period that is yet future.
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that Jesus is talking about in this passage.
03:43-03:44
Look at verse 14.
03:46-03:58
Jesus said, "But when you see "the abomination of desolation," and you have to see that verse 14 is a shift in your Bible.
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Notice that Jesus moves from talking about general things that are going to happen through history The very specific things that are going to happen in the future.
04:10-04:11
Do you see that in your Bible?
04:11-04:18
He says, but when you see, meaning here's some specific things that are coming that you need to be looking for.
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General to specific, this tribulation period.
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Last for seven years, you're ready to do some math.
04:29-04:31
Math people in here, who's our math people?
04:32-04:35
OK, a couple of you who are the I hate math people.
04:36-04:37
Everybody else, OK.
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Now, I actually like got my calculator and worked on this this week, so we're going to do this together, OK?
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But these events are over a period of seven years that Jesus is talking about.
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Draw these references down.
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This is in Daniel, chapter nine, Daniel, chapter nine.
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Daniel prophesied.
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Seventy weeks, but these weren't weeks of days.
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What would be seven weeks of days?
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How many days would that be?
05:12-05:13
How many, 49, is that right?
05:13-05:15
Yeah, okay, 49.
05:16-05:17
That'd be 49 days, right?
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Seven weeks times seven days.
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This is 70 weeks of years.
05:24-05:27
So that would be, what's the math on that?
05:29-05:31
490 years, right?
05:31-05:33
70 times, Ken, am I doing this right?
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It's just back there laughing.
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Does anybody have a calculator?
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490 years.
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Thank you.
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So Daniel prophesied 70 weeks of years.
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And how was that fulfilled?
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Well in Daniel's day, Artaxerxes made a decree to rebuild Jerusalem.
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Okay, so here's the timeline.
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Daniel said from the time of that decree, until the anointed one is cut off, that period of time is going to be 69 weeks or 483 years.
06:21-06:24
This is one of the most incredible things about God's word.
06:25-06:30
From the time of that decree in Daniel's day, Artaxerxes said we're gonna rebuild Jerusalem.
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If you go forward in history, 483 years, do you know what you get to?
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The crucifixion of Jesus Christ.
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To the day it was prophesied exactly as God said it would be.
06:47-07:00
So those 69 weeks, those 483 years spanned Daniel's time from his prophecy until, as he said, the anointed one is cut off, meaning Jesus Christ, the anointed one, crucified.
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Okay, and you're like, wait a minute, you said there were 70 weeks.
07:05-07:16
Well, Daniel said that the 70th week, that period of seven years is beyond the 69 weeks.
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And that's what Jesus is talking about here.
07:21-07:22
What does that mean?
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Here's the short version.
07:24-07:31
There's a period of seven years that is yet future, that is going to be a time of tribulation.
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Daniel talked about that and Jesus talked about that and in the book of Revelation, that's exactly what John is talking about.
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Okay, so what we're talking about with this seven year tribulation, if you want the whole story, you have to read the book of Revelation.
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But the passage that we're looking at today, Jesus is giving the short version, okay?
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In other words, the CliffsNotes version.
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Are CliffsNotes still a thing?
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Are they still a thing?
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When I was in school, there were CliffsNotes, and CliffsNotes were these little yellow books that we read instead of reading the big book that we were supposed to read.
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It was just like a summary of the big book.
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Well, Jesus is giving the CliffsNotes version.
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Young people, do you know what I'm talking about?
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Yeah, do you know what CliffsNotes are?
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No?
08:22-08:23
That's because you have the internet.
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You know what?
08:24-08:26
When I was a kid, we didn't have the Internet.
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We had we had books and card catalogs and CliffsNotes.
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So I'm just I sound a little bitter about that.
08:40-08:42
OK, maybe I am.
08:43-08:46
All right, spoiler alert, this is the countdown of final events.
08:49-08:51
Jesus describing the seven year tribulation.
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So on your outline, we're counting down 54321, Jesus said, these are the last five events of history.
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OK, these are the last five events of history.
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These things are all in the future.
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Number one is abomination.
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Number one is abomination.
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Look at verse 14 again.
09:08-09:17
Kicking everything off in the tribulation, Jesus said, but when you see the abomination of desolation standing where he ought not to be.
09:21-09:25
And in parentheses, it says, let the reader understand what a pause.
09:25-09:26
Now, this is described out this time.
09:26-09:31
Revelation, chapter 13, describes the abomination of desolation.
09:32-09:32
What is that?
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Well, Daniel spoke of him three times in Daniel, chapter seven, Daniel, chapter nine, Daniel, chapter 11.
09:39-09:40
What does that mean?
09:41-09:44
Well, breaking it down, the word abomination means blasphemous.
09:47-09:51
All about things that God hates and desolation means destruction.
09:53-09:57
Meaning there is a person coming in the future.
09:58-10:02
That is destructive and he hates God.
10:04-10:16
All right, the scripture talks so much about this guy, Revelation six says that this man kicks off the end times, just as Jesus describes here, he's also known as the Antichrist.
10:19-10:21
Here's how blasphemous the Antichrist will be.
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Understand how I mean this.
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He's going to be Satan's version of Jesus.
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Like, what do you mean by that?
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He's going to be popular.
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He's going to, the Bible says he's going to have authority.
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The worst is the Bible says he's going to mimic the death and the resurrection of Jesus.
10:41-10:42
Did you know that?
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He's going to mimic that.
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But apparently, he's going to die, Revelation tells us, and he's going to raise from the dead.
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Is that real?
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Is that demonic?
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Is it fake?
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I don't know.
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But I do know this.
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He is going to emulate the death and the resurrection of Jesus and get the whole world to worship him, saying, "Everyone needs to worship the one who was raised from the dead." Does that sound familiar?
11:14-11:22
the message of the church and Satan is going to have his Antichrist. It's blasphemous.
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Getting people to worship the satanic version of Jesus, for lack of a better description.
11:34-11:45
This guy so much said about him in scripture, just like Jesus, I want to give you the close notes version and hopefully what's your appetite to read some more. But this man is going to be elevated as a world leader.
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He's going to be charismatic, okay?
11:47-12:00
When we hear Antichrist, we think of, you know, snidely whiplash and with the black cape and sinister laugh and he's not going to be like that, Church, he's going to be charismatic, everybody's going to love him.
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He's going to be a celebrity, okay?
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He's going to be on the cover of People Magazine and Time Magazine and he's going to, the whole world is going to love this guy.
12:13-12:34
Elevated as a world leader, the Bible says he's going to make a peace treaty with Israel and then halfway through the tribulation He's going to show his true colors That's where Jesus said When you see this Antichrist this abomination of desolation standing where he ought not to be. What does that mean?
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In the future Israel is going to rebuild the temple. Did you know that there's plans for that right now?
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They're working on that now.
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And they have the schematics for all the priestly robes and the temple and the furniture.
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They're working on that right now.
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And eventually that temple is going to be built and this Antichrist is going to set up his throne inside the temple.
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That's going to be his headquarters.
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That's going to be the place where he receives worship.
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That's what Jesus is talking about here.
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This Antichrist is going to be where he shouldn't be, which is in the temple.
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Okay?
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Last one is stuff.
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The Bible says he's going to slaughter God's people, Israel, and all who come to faith during the tribulation.
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The Antichrist is going to kill them.
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He's going to demand worship, and the Bible says that he's going to force everyone to to get his mark on them.
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He's going to force everyone, you have to get this mark.
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And if you don't have this mark, you can't buy or sell.
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Let's be honest, the generation before us, this would have been inconceivable.
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How could that happen?
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But in our day of everything having barcodes and everything tied to the internet and money transactions through PayPal and things like that, you know what I'm talking about.
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This would be real easy to set up.
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That's what he's going to do.
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Unless you take his mark, unless you swear allegiance to him, you're not gonna be able to buy anything.
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No gas, no groceries, no anything.
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Unless you take his mark, which is going to motivate a lot of people to take the mark.
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But notice that Mark says that This is for future readers.
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You notice that parenthetical statement?
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He says, "Let the reader understand." Mark inserted that.
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Why?
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Because the Antichrist was yet future.
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Some people think that the Antichrist came in the first century, and Mark here is making this parenthetical statement to say, "No, he hasn't come yet." But I'm writing this stuff down because someday people are going to be sitting in a middle school cafeteria talking about this, reading this.
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He goes, I want you people reading this throughout history to understand that this stuff is coming.
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The thing that kicks off the tribulation is abomination, the Antichrist on the scene.
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Secondly, write this down, evacuation.
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Evacuation.
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Jesus said, okay, so when you see this, you're gonna see this guy, this Antichrist, seated in the temple.
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So what should we do about that?
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He says, and let those who are in Judea flee to the mountains.
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But the one who is on the house top, not go down or enter his house to take anything out and let the one who is in the field not turn back to take his cloak.
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And alas, for women who are pregnant, for those who are nursing infants in those days, pray.
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It may not happen in winter.
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These events are described through Revelation chapter 12.
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This is an obvious urgency for those who come to Christ during the tribulation Jesus says is simply this, run.
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Remember last week, I believe it was in verse 11, Jesus said they're going to drag you before councils in the synagogue, you're going to be beaten, and you're going to give testimony And the Holy Spirit is going to give you the words and the gospel is going to go forth.
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Remember that?
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Not during this period, this isn't stand your ground, share the gospel, you know, try to win them.
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Jesus didn't say this was evangelism time, what did he say?
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He said, run.
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When you see this happen, he says, you have got to drop everything, don't turn back, you have to run.
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Because when they come.
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They're not coming to hear your story, they don't want to hear you talk about Jesus, they're not interested.
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If they show up at your house, it is going to be to kill you.
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That's why Jesus said, run, run, get out of there, don't look back, don't turn around, don't grab anything, get out of there.
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It sounds pretty intense.
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Look at verse 19.
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Jesus said, for those days there will be such tribulation as has not been from the beginning of creation that God created until now and never will be.
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Jesus said this period of time is going to be unlike anything that's ever happened.
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Did you think Al Qaeda was bad?
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See, al-Qaeda, that was sort of the evil flavor of the year.
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And then what came along after that was-- what's the thing now?
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ISIS, right?
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And next year, it's going to be something else.
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All of those are going to look like nothing.
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You hear ISIS driving people out of their homes and beheading children.
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That's going to look like nothing compared to this.
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Jesus said this period of history that's coming is unlike anything that's ever happened.
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It is going to be so horrific.
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Jesus said there's never been anything like it nor will there ever be anything else like it.
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Get out of there.
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In verse 20 he says, "And if the Lord had not "cut short the days, no human being would be saved." You see that?
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This period of seven years, Jesus said the reason that the tribulation is only seven years is because if it lasted longer, every one of God's people would be slaughtered.
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That's how horrific this is going to be.
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But then look at the next statement.
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He says, "But for the sake of the elect, whom he chose, he shortened the days." God's not going to allow this for long.
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But for the elect, for the saved, for the people that God chose, for the people that have received Jesus Christ as Lord and Savior, God's going to cut short the days and limit it to only the seven-year period.
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Jesus said, first of all, you're going to see an abomination, and then there's going to be an evacuation.
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Thirdly, this is going to sound very familiar, but indoctrination.
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Look at verses 21 and 22 with me.
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It says, "And then if anyone says to you, 'Look, here's the Christ,' or 'Look, there he is,' do not believe it.
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For false Christs and false prophets will arise and perform signs and wonders to lead astray, if possible, the elect." During this time of the Tribulation, There are going to be things like natural, quote unquote, natural disasters.
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Read Revelation.
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There's going to be death, and there's going to be pestilence, and there's going to be plagues, and there's going to be wars, and there's going to be global destruction.
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And obviously, during this time, you're going to have people all over the world going, what is going on?
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What in the world is going on?
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And people are going to be looking for answers.
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So it's gonna be a perfect time for these phonies to stand up and say, "You don't need to worry about it.
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"I am the anointed one.
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"I am the Christ, I can make sense of this.
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"Be a follower of mine, I can help you understand "and navigate through this time of turmoil." People claiming to be Christ, We talked about that last week right there. There's people running around the world today. I listed their names for you last week There are people running around the world today saying I'm Jesus. I'm the reincarnation of Jesus Christ and It's going to be happening more and more and more and just as those people I mentioned last week have followers During this period you're going to have all of these false teachers get up and get all of these people to buy into This garbage that they're selling.
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Jesus said, "Don't believe it." Don't believe it.
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Jot this down. When Jesus returns, everyone will know.
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Everyone will know.
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That's important because there are some cults today that teach that Jesus already came back.
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Do you know that?
21:55-22:02
There's some cults that say, "Oh yeah, Jesus came back like in the 1930s, And he was only here for a little while, but here's what he did.
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He went back to heaven.
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Like, why didn't I hear about this?
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And then you have these other people running around, so I'm the Christ and I'm return. Now, Jesus made it very clear that when he returns, literally everyone will know it.
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Every eye will see him.
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OK, so there's not going to be any guesswork.
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I wonder if that's Jesus, because spoiler alert, Jesus actually talks about that in this passage. You're going to know.
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Okay, you don't have to wonder if you like turn on CNN in a year like hey We think this guy is the Son of God. You don't have to wonder he's not Because Jesus said when he returns everyone is going to know for sure All right, so don't fall for this stuff Notice Jesus said that they're going to perform signs and wonders I've thought about that a lot of these fake signs are these like Magicians is this stuff that's demonic I Don't know But I do know The true believers are not going to fall for it because notice Jesus said to lead astray if possible the elect Is it possible to lead the elect astray? No everyone and their act is going to be pretty convincing.
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The elect aren't going to fall for it.
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People who know Jesus Christ are not going to fall for it.
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Look at verse 23, Jesus said, "But be on guard.
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"I have told you all things beforehand." Jesus said, "You can take this to the bank.
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In church, when we talk about God's Word, I understand a lot of the, it's a history book and a lot of it obviously took place in the past.
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Sometimes we can look at God's Word and have a much easier time understanding past history, right?
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Like here were the kings of Israel and here's what was happening in Daniel's day and these were the nations involved.
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We can look back at history and confirm it with secular history and archaeology and such.
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Like, oh yeah, I believe the Bible's true because everything, everything that's written records history.
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But sometimes I think we have a harder time with the future.
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Is it really going to go down that way?
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I mean, when Jesus is talking about that stuff, do you really think this is how it's going to happen?
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I would suggest to you that, first of all, was he right about the temple?
24:55-24:56
Nailed that one, right?
24:56-24:59
Not one stone left upon another, that was literally fulfilled.
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Okay, and then he said, after that, there was going to be a period of history that was full of disease and earthquakes and wars and persecutions of his believers.
25:10-25:11
Was he right about that one?
25:13-25:18
So when he talks about this period of future tribulation, do you think he's right about this?
25:21-25:25
I'd say looking at his batting average, you can take this to the back.
25:27-25:29
Everything perfectly predicted this is to.
25:30-25:38
Abomination, evacuation, indoctrination, counting down, number two, delumination.
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Delumination.
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Like, whoa, I'm not sure that's a word.
25:45-25:46
I wasn't sure either, but it is.
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It's actually slang.
25:51-25:52
What does it mean?
25:53-25:54
It means to turn off the lights.
25:56-25:56
That's what it means.
25:57-26:03
And Jesus said, that's the next time you're going to have the Antichrist show up and then this mass evacuation and all these false teachers.
26:03-26:06
The next thing is the lights are going to be turned out.
26:08-26:19
Jesus said, but in those days after that tribulation, the sun will be darkened and the moon will not give its light and the stars will be falling from heaven and the powers of the heavens will be shaken.
26:22-26:29
Joel, chapter two and three, talk about this, Isaiah, chapter thirty four talks about this.
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The Bible is crystal clear that before Jesus returns, he's going to turn out the lights.
26:37-26:39
Okay, talk about a grand entrance.
26:43-26:46
We're not just talking about flicking a switch on the wall.
26:47-26:56
He's going to flick the switch on the wall of heaven and turn off the sun, the moon, and the stars, rendering everything pitch black.
27:01-27:02
How intense is this going to be?
27:03-27:10
Studying this week, Luke chapter 21 and verse 26, it says that men will be fainting.
27:11-27:14
As I read the Bible, maybe you're like me, you kind of visualize what that looks like.
27:14-27:53
And I just, you know, you kind of read that men are fainting, like the lights go out, men are like, "Oh, catch me." But I did a little studying, and you know that word fainting, Luke 21, 26, literally translates "breathing out," or it could also be translated "heart failing." So when these lights go out, it's going to be so terrifying that the Bible says people are going to be literally scared to death.
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So these men aren't fainting, like get a, you know, get something to fan them in the smelling salts in a bucket of cold water.
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People are going to be having heart attacks because this is so terrifying.
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With all of these things going on, the wars and the pestilences and all of these people being slaughtered for their faith, people being beheaded and executed.
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And all of a sudden.
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All of the lights go out.
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In the heavens.
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The sun turned off, the moon turned off, stars not just turned off, but falling from the sky, people are going to be having heart attacks.
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Because this is so terrifying.
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Look at verse 26, Jesus said, and then and then and then, and that takes us to the last thing, right down coronation, the of the king. And then.
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And then they will see the son of man coming in clouds with great power and glory.
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And wait a minute, how are they going to see Jesus if he just turned the lights off?
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Not going to be a problem because the most brilliant dazzling light anyone has ever experienced is going to be coming from Jesus.
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Okay, when it says he's coming with great power and glory, that's what that's talking about.
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Here, the Bible says that there's no sun in heaven.
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Why?
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Because the Lamb himself, Jesus himself, is the light of heaven.
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He radiates light.
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So when he turns the lights off, everyone's going to see him come because he's going to be a blinding, dazzling light coming from the sky.
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Incredible, absolutely mind -blowing stuff.
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Notice that Jesus says that he will be returning as he left.
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It says that the Son of Man will be coming in clouds.
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Daniel talks about that in Daniel 7, 13, Acts chapter one, verse 11.
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Remember the angel said to the disciples, why are you staring into heaven?
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He's coming back the same way you saw him leave.
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What does that mean?
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You saw him leave into the clouds.
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He's going to be coming back in the clouds the same way that he left.
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Okay, it's not going to be some sneaky second coming that he came and left.
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He's going to be coming from the sky and everyone is going to see him.
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Then what's he going to do?
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It says in verse 27, and then he will send out the angels and gather his elect from the four winds.
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What's that?
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From the ends of the earth.
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It's just a saying.
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It means from the four corners of the earth.
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Meaning he's going to gather all of his people from all over, not just the earth, from the ends of the earth and to the ends of heaven.
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During that time, Jesus is going to gather all of his people together.
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The people that are in heaven coming with him.
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His people that are all over the earth.
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He's going to send his angels and say, gather them up.
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Let's gather everybody up.
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This day of the Lord.
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I want you to turn with me as we close to Revelation, Chapter 19, I just want to look at a couple of verses that describe the return.
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Like I said, Jesus gave the CliffsNotes version, but.
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I want us to look at the full version here.
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Revelation, chapter 19, verses 11 through 16.
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Is the full picture.
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John writes, Then I saw heaven open to behold a white horse.
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The one sitting on it is called faithful and true.
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And in righteousness, he judges and makes war.
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Understand that the first time Jesus came, it wasn't to judge.
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It was to what?
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To say.
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John says in the second coming of Christ, he's coming to do what?
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Judge and make war.
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"As his eyes are like a flame of fire, and on his head are many diadems." Those are crowns.
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"He has a name written that no one knows but himself." You know what that is?
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No, you don't.
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"He is clothed in a robe dipped in blood." When I read that, I thought that that blood had to do with the atonement, right?
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Being washed in the blood of the Lamb.
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We say, "I always thought that that blood had to do with the atonement." That's not.
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That's not his blood at all.
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Actually Isaiah 63 talks about this, that the blood on the robe is actually the blood of his enemies.
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The blood of the people who have hated him and rejected him, these people that he's coming to make war against.
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It's their blood.
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They cover his garments.
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The name by which he is called is the Word of God.
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The armies of heaven, arrayed in fine linen, white and pure, were following him on white horses.
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Who's that?
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Those are his people coming back with him.
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Those are the saints.
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Those are people that have received Jesus Christ, born again, and have died before this period of time.
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They're coming back with Jesus.
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It says from his mouth comes a sharp sword with which to strike down the nations.
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He will rule them with a rod of iron.
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He will tread the wide crest of the fury of the wrath of God the Almighty.
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On his robe and on his thigh, he has a name written.
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King of Kings, the Lord of Lords.
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On his robe and on his thigh, this name is written.
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I imagine this is sort of like a banner or some kind of a sash that he has that as Jesus is seated on the horse, it's draped over him and up over his leg.
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I imagine this is how John saw that.
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And you read that and you ask, is this terrifying?
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To think that Jesus is going to come back and the annihilation of his enemies is compared to making wine putting the grapes in the basin and stomping them out and the grape juice symbolizing the blood. That's what it's going to look like when Jesus comes back second time. Is that terrifying? It certainly is. As I close, the question is should you be scared? The answer is you don't have to.
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One of the questions as a pastor I get asked a lot concerning the Tribulation is this, people ask me, "Am I gonna be here for this?
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"Am I going to be here for the tribulation?
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"Am I going to have to, I mean, I've read Revelation, "am I going to be here to experience that stuff?" And I don't believe that we will.
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The Bible talks about a rapture, and if you get five pastors in a room to discuss the rapture, you're gonna get seven different opinions when it takes place, okay?
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I believe that the rapture takes place before the tribulation, and I wanna give you two reasons why.
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Okay, the first reason is this.
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In Revelation chapter three and verse 10, Jesus in these passages, he was giving messages to the churches.
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He makes a promise to the church in Philadelphia, it's really for all Christians who embrace his promises.
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He said, "I will keep you from the hour of trial "that is coming on the whole world." Jesus said, "There's a period of time "where there's tribulation or trial, "and it's going to be global." Has that happened yet?
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No.
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I believe he's talking about the tribulation in that verse, and he's saying, "I'm going to keep my people "away from that." That's literally what the text says.
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you're going to be taken out of that situation.
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There's another reason I believe that we are going to be raptured before the tribulation.
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And it doesn't have to do with what the Bible says.
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It actually has to do with what the Bible doesn't say.
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Okay, but what does that mean?
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Well, if you read the book of Revelation, Revelation chapters two and three, Jesus is talking to the church, the church, the church, the church, the church.
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You know, Thyatira and Smyrna and Philadelphia, The church, the church, he's talking to the church, the church, interestingly, with all this talking to the church, when you get to the part of Revelation that talks about the tribulation, the church isn't mentioned one time, not one time.
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Israel's mentioned, Revelation 7 and 14 says that God has 12,000 Israelites, each from the tribe, set aside that are going to evangelize during this time.
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That's how all these people are going to come to Christ during the tribulation.
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God's going to have 144,000 Jews sharing the gospel during the tribulation.
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Certainly unbelievers are talked about, and demonic activity, and all of these things are talked about in Revelation 6 through 19, but the church isn't mentioned one time.
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And if according to the New Testament, the church is the place where God is at work, where a body of believers, The Bible calls us the household of God.
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If the church is where God is at work, why wouldn't the church be mentioned at all during the tribulation?
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Unless, Jesus meant what he said to the church, when he said, "I'm going to keep you "from this hour of tribulation that's coming." So I believe, for many reasons, So those are my top two reasons I believe that the church is going to be raptured before the tribulation.
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But you know, God is going to judge all sin.
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And I want to talk, if there's anybody here today who doesn't know Jesus Christ, maybe you're hearing this stuff and you're like, wow, this is scary.
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I don't know. I don't know if I've received Christ. I haven't been born again. I haven't received the gospel I'd be remiss if I didn't tell you You know, the Bible says that we're all guilty of sin We're all guilty of sin Like I've never murdered anyone well sin is more than just what you do Sin is who you are You know why you have sinful thoughts?
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Because by nature you're a sinner.
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You know why you have sinful attitudes?
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By nature, you're a sinner.
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You know why you say simple things?
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By nature, you're a sinner.
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Why do you commit sinful actions?
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Because by nature, you're a sinner.
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The Bible says that all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God.
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So listen, I'm talking to somebody here who doesn't know the Lord.
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Listen, all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God.
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You're in that category.
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You're one of the all.
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And it doesn't matter what you've done.
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And I found the people going one of two sides of the extreme, they either say, well, I've never really done anything that bad.
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And then you have people that say, I've done things that are so bad, I don't know if I can be.
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Listen, all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God.
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I want you to imagine.
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Standing on the shore of New Jersey.
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For me, Jane Auer, one of our elders, and Ben Roethlisberger.
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And we each have a football.
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And our assignment is we need to throw that football across the Atlantic Ocean and hit Great Britain.
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And I throw my football, and it makes it out a few feet.
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And Ben Roethlisberger throws his football.
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He throws it 100 yards.
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And Jay Nauer gets up with his football and he throws his.
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He throws his football 150 yards.
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The question is who made it?
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Who made it?
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We all fell short, didn't we?
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We all fell short.
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We're like, well, Jay was a lot closer than Ben Roethlisberger.
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It doesn't matter.
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You see, that's how it is with sin.
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Whether you just committed a couple of little sins or whether you've murdered somebody.
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You're guilty of sin, you've fallen short of God's glory.
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Actually the Bible says that if you've broken God's law at any one point, you're guilty of the whole law.
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James tells us why, because rejecting the law is rejecting the law giver.
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Understand, if you're sitting here today and you're like, you know what, the only thing I've ever done in my life. One time I was 12 years old.
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I told a lie. Guess what?
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You're a sinner. And you're guilty of breaking all of God's law.
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And that's bad news. Because if you're a rebellious sinner, God's not going to let you into heaven.
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He's not because God is perfect and God is holy and he's not going to let.
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Any unholiness in his presence.
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But the good news is there is an escape plan.
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You know, just a few weeks we're going to be celebrating Christmas.
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See, this is the real celebration.
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It's the fact that God became a man.
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Why did God become a man?
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He became a man because he wanted to show his love for you.
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He wanted to pay your debt.
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So listen, it doesn't matter what you've done.
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It doesn't matter what you've done.
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There's not a person in this room, there's not a person on this planet that is too far gone from God's grace.
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If you feel that way, you have to evaluate, am I really saying that my sin is greater than God's grace?
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Am I really saying that?
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So for you, if you're not sure where you are with Jesus Christ, for you, I want you to recognize two things. That is this, first of all you have to recognize that you are a helpless sinner. What do you mean by that? You're helpless. You can't do enough good works to try to earn priority points with God. It's not going to be through your church attendance or saying the right prayers. You can't do it. You're helpless because you're guilty.
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You have to recognize that.
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But you have to recognize something else too.
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And it is this.
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God is a God of forgiving love.
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Here's the thing, you have to recognize both of those things.
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For the person that says, "Well, of course I'm a sinner, I realize that, but there's no way God will forgive me." then you've undermined the fact that God has forgiving love.
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But if you're a person that says, well, I know that God's a God of love, so I can just do whatever I want, now you're undermining the fact that you're a helpless sinner.
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The way that you receive Jesus Christ, the way that you can be born again into eternal life, you have to recognize those two things.
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I am a helpless sinner, but God is a God of forgiving love.
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You have to embrace those two truths and until you do, you're not ready to receive.
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You know, as we read this passage here from Mark, he describes a coming day of judgment and there's going to be a day that it's going to be too late.
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There's going to be a day that it's going to be too late.
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The best news is this, it's not today.
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Today is a day of grace.
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And if there's somebody here, as you know, I've known for a long time that I need to get serious about my walk with the Lord, and I just haven't.
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I've been putting it off, and I've been too focused on career or family or hobby, or I just, I haven't really stopped to think about the fact that I'm not going to be here forever.
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I'm heading somewhere eternally.
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Today's the day of grace.
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Can you bow your heads with me please?
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This terrible time of tribulation that Jesus described and this swift judgment that's coming upon the earth, you can be saved from that.
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The eternal hell that Jesus describes in other places in God's word, you can be saved from that.
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in heaven, only you know people's hearts. I don't know where people stand with you, God.
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But I do know that there is a real sense of urgency because none of us are going to be here forever, and time, every second that passes is another grain of sand through the And it's coming to an end and things are being prepared right now for these events to take place and your son is ready to return.
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Father, this passage is so terrifying.
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Father, I thank you for the truth of your word that we don't have to be scared of your Because Jesus took your wrath upon himself when he died for our sins.
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Jesus rose from the dead to give us the promise that we too will live eternally with you. Father I pray for anyone here today who either doesn't know you or they're not sure. Father I pray that you would not give them a second's rest.
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I pray that every time they close their eyes, they would think about these events that Jesus described and it would terrify them.
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I pray, Father, we bring them to the place where they would meditate upon the truth of your word, that you love us and the message of Jesus Christ is ultimately you saving us from yourself.
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You're delivering us from your own wrath that is coming.
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And you're restoring that love relationship that you intended to have with your people before sin came into the world.
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Father, might your Holy Spirit grab the hearts in this room who don't know you and wrestle with them and not let them go.
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they cry out to you and say, "Yes, I realize that I'm a sinner and I have rejected God.
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I realize that I can't save myself.
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I realize that I'm guilty." But your word tells us of this lavish grace that you've poured upon us through Jesus Christ.
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Your word tells us that you want to forgive me, you want to restore me, you want to adopt me as your child.
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that God you want what's best for me, but you're not going to drag me to heaven kicking and screaming.
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You have presented this gift before me and have pleaded with me to accept it.
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Father, we thank you.
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We thank you for your grace in Jesus Christ.
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May it never be a small thing in our sight.
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In Jesus' name, Amen.
Small Group Questions (Whole Group):
Read Mark 13:14-27
What are the 5 events Jesus highlighted describing the "end of the world"?
Reread Mark 13:23. Why did Jesus tell all of this beforehand? What does this mean to you as a follower of Christ?
Breakout Questions:
Pray for one another!