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[0:00] Got the air conditioning, everything's working. And also we have the first day of our summer schedule. So that's kind of nice, isn't it? You looking forward to that? Yeah, I know a lot of you are, so it's good.

[0:15] Let me see if I can get this working here. Ah, no, go back, go back, go back. Yeah, there we go.

[0:26] So we're going to be continuing our study in the Gospel according to Matthew. So if you have your Bibles, please turn with me to Matthew chapter 24. And we're going to be looking at a verse, verse 15.

[0:39] This is a very intriguing portion of Scripture. Remember, in Matthew's Gospel account, we're in the last week of Jesus' earthly ministry.

[0:49] And if you were down at camp last week, we read that Jesus had just left the temple complex. And he arrived at this place called the Mount of Olives.

[1:01] And it's at that time that his disciples asked him some questions about the end times. So this section here, it's known as the Olivet Discourse. And here we have our Lord's own description of the events leading up to his second coming.

[1:20] Isn't that special? Imagine just hearing the Lord Jesus talk about this. When you think about the Lord's return and the second coming, and you think about the future, you ever talk to someone about the future?

[1:36] You know, what kind of, they say all kinds of things. I think people tend to be optimistic. Would you agree with that? Yeah, yeah, they are. People, they'll say that, you know, things are getting better.

[1:50] Well, I'll tell you what, friends. Before things get better, we're going to read this morning that things are going to get a lot worse. Yeah. Jesus began his teaching on this in verse 4, where he describes in summary fashion, the first half of the future, this future time period that's called the tribulation.

[2:14] Essentially, he talked about how the future will see a continuation of human suffering, misery, conflict, natural and man-made disasters.

[2:29] And then Jesus began talking about something else. He mentioned birth pangs. Remember that? If you were down there, down at camp, we talked about that.

[2:40] That's, at that time, there's a clock that will start clicking. And the tribulation period begins. I believe that this time period closely parallels the first five seals that we see in Revelation chapter 6, beginning with those four horsemen of the apocalypse.

[2:59] You may remember, I called them deception, destruction, depletion, and devastation. I also believe that the church will not experience this.

[3:11] And that's because the rapture will have already taken place. And when that happens, that will result in a world in chaos and the Antichrist coming to power.

[3:23] Now, before I go on any further, I want to say that a lot of Christians disagree with how I read these passages. And that's okay, because we can disagree with these things.

[3:38] They're not what we call essential. But I would be in the classification of a pre-millennial dispensationalist. I'm also a pre-tribulationist.

[3:49] I'll explain later what I mean by that. But this morning, we come to this passage, Matthew 24, beginning in verse 15. And Jesus is going to begin, he's going to continue his teaching where he's going to describe a time in the future that's unlike anything that's happened before in history.

[4:11] Let's go ahead and read this verse here if we can. You may need to do that. Thank you, Anna. Therefore, when you see the abomination of desolation, which was spoken of through Daniel the prophet, standing in the holy place, let the reader understand.

[4:33] Let's go ahead and pray. Heavenly Father, we just pause this moment to come before your throne of grace. And we ask that through your Holy Spirit that we would understand these words and that they would be meaningful to us today.

[4:46] How special it is that your Son, our Savior, would describe this time, Lord, before his second coming. And we pray, Father, that we would leave here as a people that would be encouraged and strengthened and that we would be able to apply this to our lives today as we await for the glorious coming of our Savior.

[5:11] Thank you, Lord. We ask for this in the name of Jesus. Amen. So, this passage we hear, we see that something happens that's described as an abomination that brings desolation.

[5:28] and this was spoken, we also see, by the prophet Daniel. So, in order for us readers to understand this, I'd like to turn with, like to look at Daniel chapter 9, verse 24.

[5:43] Let's see if I can get this to work here. No, there you go. Thank you, Anna. If you have your Bibles, you can turn there with me too. I always think it's better to look at these passages in your Bible because you're familiar with your Bible and you can be reminded of it as you read it yourself.

[6:03] But as you turn there in Daniel, in 605 B.C., King Nebuchadnezzar and the Babylonians invaded the southern king of Judah.

[6:14] And he took some Jewish men captive at that time and he brought them back to Babylon. We see that in Daniel chapter 1. And among those men was included Daniel.

[6:26] Well, and then, of course, some 20 years later, this would be 586 B.C., the Babylonians came in and destroyed Jerusalem and destroyed the temple.

[6:37] That's the temple that Solomon had built. Now, getting back to Daniel, we all know how God used Daniel. He used him as a prophet and he actually served under several kings.

[6:51] Nebuchadnezzar, he served under Belshazzar, he served under Darius, the Mede it's called. God used Daniel to interpret dreams. You may remember studying Daniel about this statue with the head of gold.

[7:06] He also had this dream about the four beasts. There was this incident of the handwriting on the wall and then, of course, Daniel and when he was thrown into the lion's den.

[7:18] Well, 65 years later, and by this time, Daniel would have been probably just turning 80 at that time. He wanted to know the future for Israel and he asked God for that information.

[7:35] So God sent the angel Gabriel to give him a message. And I'd like to go through this if we could. And as we do, I'd like to point out 10 observations for us to see.

[7:47] If you could advance that here. And this is going to really tie into our passage and also last week's passage. So, verse 24, he says, 70 weeks have been decreed for your people and the holy city.

[8:07] This is Daniel, this is the angel Gabriel talking to Daniel. I want to stop right here. The first thing to notice, the Hebrew word for weeks there literally means sevens or groups of seven or units of seven.

[8:21] And that's, of course, that's a Hebrew way of thinking. They think in terms of sevens. That's the complete number. The main point here is that God allotted 490 years for Israel.

[8:37] And this is based on the Jewish Babylonian calendar, which is 360 days make up a year, not like what we use as 365. The second thing to notice, this, there was a decree for your people and your city.

[8:56] Now, Daniel was a Jew. And so, this is an obvious reference to the Jews and Jerusalem. Well, what's supposed to happen during these 490 years?

[9:09] Well, Gabriel lists six things here. Look with me here. He says, to finish transgression, to make an end of sin, to make atonement for iniquity, to bring in everlasting righteousness, to seal up the vision and prophecy, and to anoint the most holy place.

[9:26] So, the third thing to see, here we have God's kingdom timeline. And by this time, 490 years run their course, God will have completed six things for Israel.

[9:41] Now, these first three things have to do with the Messiah's crucifixion. Look with me here. The first one, finish the transgression. That's referring to Israel's ultimate rejection of her Messiah, which we saw in the Gospel of Matthew.

[10:00] Secondly, to make an end to sin. That's how the Messiah will put an end to that which separates Israel from a holy God.

[10:13] Now, you might want to ask this question, well, how will Messiah do that? Well, thirdly, notice, he will make atonement for iniquity. This is a reference to Jesus' sacrifice on the cross, which were right on the brink of covering in the Gospel of Matthew.

[10:30] Now, these next three things, they deal with the Messiah's kingdom. Notice, he will bring in everlasting righteousness. This is a reference to Jesus' millennial reign.

[10:45] Also, he will seal up the vision and prophecy. God's covenant with Israel will be fully realized in the kingdom. And lastly, he will anoint the holy place.

[10:58] This is referring to the enthronement of Christ on David's throne as king of kings, as lord of lords. That's God's agenda for Israel.

[11:12] So, if you would advance that here. Notice verse 25. So, you are to know and discern that from the issuing of a decree to restore and rebuild Jerusalem until Messiah the prince, there will be seven weeks and 62 weeks.

[11:28] It will be built again with plaza and moat and even in times of distress. The fourth point here to point out is that Daniel was given a starting point and that's to mark this 400, the beginning of this 490 year period.

[11:45] Notice, there will be a decree to rebuild Jerusalem. Now, there's several decrees in the Old Testament but the only decree that allowed the rebuilding of Jerusalem was made by King Artaxerxes and that would have been around 444 BC.

[12:03] So, there's our starting point. The next thing, the fifth thing to notice is that these are not consecutive years.

[12:16] This 490 year period, they're not consecutive but rather it's divided up in three segments. The first segment, notice verse 25, after seven weeks, that would be 49 years, Jerusalem will be rebuilt.

[12:34] There's a prophecy and according to Nehemiah chapter 6 verse 15, it tells us it only took 52 days to rebuild a wall but it would have taken decades after that to remove all the debris, to rebuild housing and to rebuild the plaza and the moat or in other words the streets and trenches.

[12:56] So, that's that first segment though. The next segment deals with the Messiah, the Prince. Look at verse 25, until Messiah, the Prince.

[13:08] arrives on the scene here. So here we have 69 weeks after this, seven plus 62 weeks after the decree, Israel's Messiah will make his official entrance into Jerusalem.

[13:26] And that's what occurred on Palm Sunday. We covered that in Matthew's gospel account. here's the point though. Jesus' entry into Jerusalem ended the 69th week.

[13:41] So, we have a final seven year period. I'm sorry, we have a seven year period, 49 years, and then we have a 62 week period, which is 434 years.

[13:55] that's a total of 483 years, 69 weeks. So, you might want to ask the question, where's the final week?

[14:07] Gabriel said, God has allotted 70 weeks, 490 years, where's the final week? Well, notice something here. Notice verse 26. But after 62 weeks, the Messiah will be cut off and have nothing.

[14:24] The seventh thing to notice here is that after this 434 year period, it says the Messiah is cut off. That's an obvious reference to Jesus' death.

[14:37] Notice, he says he will have nothing. We know that while on earth, Jesus received no royal glory as king.

[14:49] And that's because Israel rejected him. And because of that, it results in two things. First, the kingdom timeline stopped after the 69th week.

[15:04] His kingdom could not be instituted. You recall a couple weeks ago, we saw Jesus had told the chief priests and Pharisees, Anna, if you would advance that.

[15:17] Jesus had said in Matthew 21, speaking to the Pharisees, therefore I say to you, the kingdom of God will be taken from you and will be given to a nation producing the fruit of it.

[15:29] That leads to the second thing that happened. The first thing is that the kingdom timeline stopped and secondly, the church age came into existence.

[15:41] That's the dispensation of the church age, which Paul referred to as a mystery back in Ephesians chapter 5. This church age, this present dispensation that we're in right now was inserted into this timeline.

[15:58] If you could advance that there. Verse 26, notice, notice here, the temple in Jerusalem was rebuilt during Ezra and Nehemiah's time, but again now, verse 26, it's going to be destroyed.

[16:30] Now, when did that happen? This happened in 70 AD when General Titus, with a flood of Roman soldiers, came into Jerusalem and destroyed the city and the temple again.

[16:45] By the way, I want you to notice something. Notice the wording here that it's the people of the prince who is to come who came in and destroyed the city.

[16:56] Now, first of all, I want you to know that prince, that's not Jesus. That's the Antichrist. otherwise known as the beast. This seems to suggest that the Antichrist will somehow be connected to Rome.

[17:12] But we can talk about that later. It's all arguable. We'll talk about that. But let me ask again, when is that final week going to begin?

[17:25] We're in a church age. church age. It begins when the church age comes to an end, which I believe is the rapture of the church. And when that happens, Daniel's 70th week will begin.

[17:41] That's that final seven year period where God will once again be dealing with the nation Israel. Remember, friends, the key is that God is not finished with Israel yet.

[17:55] Here's another mystery. If you could advance that slide in Romans chapter nine, look at what Paul said. I want you to know, brethren, he doesn't want us to be uninformed about a mystery here.

[18:08] Lest you be wise in your own estimation, here's what it is. That a partial hardening has happened to Israel until the fullness of the Gentiles has come in, and thus all Israel will be saved.

[18:23] Just as it is written, the deliverer will come from Zion, he will remove the ungodliness from Jacob. If you could advance that here, look at verse 27.

[18:34] Getting back now to this prince who is to come, and he will make a firm covenant with the many for one week. That's where we get that final seven year period.

[18:48] At the start of the 70th week, the prince who is to come will emerge from the chaos, remember? And he will make a covenant with many nations for one week.

[19:01] Maybe you recall from last week, after the rapture, the first writer of the apocalypse comes to power. And what does he do? He has a bow, but he has no arrows.

[19:14] And that's because he deceives the nations. He will make a deal with the Jews, and he will allow them to rebuild their temple, and he will allow them to restart their sacrificial system.

[19:29] They're preparing to do this right now, brothers and sisters. This new world leader that comes on the scene, he will be their protector, he will be Israel's ally, but then the tenth thing that we see is that something happens three and a half years into this seven year period.

[19:49] Look with me, verse 27. But in the middle of the week, he, this is the prince who is to come, will put a stop to the sacrifice and the grain offering, and on the wing of abominations will come one who makes desolate.

[20:07] Here we see at the midpoint of this seven year period, an event takes place. This event is so horrific, it's called an abomination.

[20:19] In other words, it's something that happens that's utterly repulsive to God, and it results in a condition of desolation, ruination.

[20:31] What is that? Well, here's a clue. If you look with me in what Paul says in 2 Thessalonians, he says, he, this is about the beast, exalts himself above every so-called god or object of worship, so that, here it is, he takes his seat in the temple of God, displaying himself as God.

[20:55] Those are not my words, friends. Those are what our brother Paul says. But notice that this beast, his eventual destruction, is also decreed.

[21:06] Go back, next slide here, verse 27, even until complete destruction, one that is decreed, is poured out on the one who makes desolate.

[21:20] That's his finale. God will make him the one who makes desolate. Destruction will be poured out on him. So that's what Daniel's, what we read in Daniel's account.

[21:34] Given to him by God through this angel Gabriel. And that's what Jesus is talking about in Matthew 24, 15.

[21:45] If we could go to there again. Now we know, or we have a clue, about what the abomination of desolation means. We're going to go on in verse 15.

[21:57] Let me read it again. Therefore, when you, this is Jesus speaking, when you see the abomination of desolation, which are spoken through the prophet Daniel, standing in the holy place, let the reader understand.

[22:14] Verse 16. Then let those who are in Judea flee to the mountains. Flee. That's the word from that we get the word fugitives.

[22:28] When this desolation happens, the Jews are to flee to the mountains. And they must do this without delay. Notice verse 17.

[22:40] Let him who is on the housetop not go down to get your things out of the house. Verse 18. Let him who is in the field don't turn back to get your cloak. In other words, get out of town and do that immediately.

[22:55] Here are some warnings here. Verse 19. If you would advance that. Woe to those who are with child and those who nurse babes in those days.

[23:06] Verse 20. Pray that your flight may not be in the winter or on a Sabbath. Notice how Jewish these words are talking about the Sabbath.

[23:18] The instructions for the Jews at this time. Why? What's the big deal? Here's why. Verse 21.

[23:29] Here's the main point here.

[23:43] Midway through this seven year period there's this extremely perilous time that begins for Israel. It's called a period of great tribulation.

[23:55] If you had advanced that slide look at these verses from Zephaniah 1.15. The prophet Zephaniah describes it as a day of wrath a day of trouble a day of distress a day of destruction and desolation a day of darkness and gloom a day of clouds and thick darkness Jeremiah the prophet also described that time he said alas for that day is great there's none like it it is a time of Jacob's distress if you could advance the slide here Anna verse 22 Jesus goes on unless those days had been cut short no life would have been saved but for the sake of the elect those days shall be cut short!

[25:12] !

[25:43] do not believe him why? we're looking for the Christ right? no he says for false Christ and false prophets will arise and will show great signs and wonders so as to mislead if possible the elect behold I've told you in advance if therefore verse 26 they say to you behold he is in the wilderness do not go forth or behold he is in the inner rooms do not believe them we come to the seventh seal in revelation 8 that's the last seal and it's so bad that it begins with this interlude which is you could say it's like the calm before the storm in the seventh seal we have seven trumpets blown and that seventh trumpet it's the worst one and that's because it contains seven vials or seven bowls of wrath being poured out on the earth and then we come to verse 27 where

[26:51] Jesus describes his second coming for just as lightning comes from the east and flashes even to the west so shall the coming of the son of man be wow seven years have gone by and now we have Jesus' return how sure can we be that all of this is going to happen well Jesus ends this section here in verse 28 with a proverbial saying whenever wherever the corpse is there the vultures will be now in other words the Lord is coming for sure he's coming that's our passage for today and next week we're going to be picking it up in verse 29 is that right I believe that the tribulation period starts with the rapture and so

[27:52] I'm going to stick my neck out today I hope I have a head on my shoulders next week but I want to share my thoughts as why I believe in a pre tribulational rapture so I'm going give seven reasons seven reasons why I believe that the first thing go ahead Anna if you would you know most Christians believe in a rapture they do the thing that's in dispute though is when does the rapture occur and there's basically three different views there's the pre tribulation rapture that that's the view that I presented today there's also what's known as the post tribulational rapture and that that's a rapture where essentially the church is brought up to the Lord while he comes down to earth so you have the church escorting Jesus down for his second coming so you know that's another view and remember this is all disputed here and so we can talk about that sometime there's also a third view called the mid tribulational view or another name is pre wrath remember that it seems like halfway through that seven year period that's where really the wrath starts that's what this view says but

[29:19] I'm going to give seven reasons for a pre tribulational view okay the first one Anna if you could have answered that the rapture closes the church age and it finishes the work of the Holy Spirit in our present dispensation here's a verse where Paul is talking about he says for the Lord himself will descend from heaven with a shout and the voice of the archangel and with the trumpet of God the dead in Christ shall rise first then we who are alive and remain and are caught up together with them that's referring to dead in Christ in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air and thus we always that word there for caught up that's harpazo we also see that word in Acts chapter 9 verse 38 when

[30:19] Philip is with the eunuch and they're both in Gaza you've heard about Gaza these days here it says later that after Philip ministers to the eunuch it says that Philip is snatched away and he's taken to this place called Azotus that's another place where we see this word Paul says in verse 18 therefore comfort one another with these words so it closes the church age secondly we have a passage that's very personal where Jesus comes for his bride in John chapter 14 Jesus is speaking to his apostles and he says let not your heart be troubled believe in God also believe in me in my father's house are many dwellings if it were not so I would have told you I go to prepare a place for you and if I go to prepare a place for you

[31:20] I will come again and listen to this I will receive you to myself that where I am there you may also be what a deeply personal intimate thing to say to these apostles I learned as I studied for this sermon I learned something that I never really considered before all of Jesus appearances after he rose from the dead were to believers did you ever notice that it's as if the unbelieving world never really saw him and Jesus appeared to a lot of people but he appeared to believers and that's because of the deeply personal relationship that we have with Jesus thirdly if you could advance that the church comes to earth with Jesus at his second coming did you know we have at least three verses that talk about that that we will come with

[32:25] Jesus look at what Paul says in 1 Thessalonians so that he may establish your hearts unblameable in the holiness before God and the father at the coming of our Lord Jesus with all his saints again that's not me saying that that's brother Paul saying that he also says in chapter four of that same letter if we believe that Jesus died and rose again even so God will bring with him those who have fallen asleep in Jesus thirdly in Colossians he says when Christ who is our life is revealed!

[33:06] then also you will be revealed with him in glory so what great verses to help this idea that we're going to come with Jesus and his second coming fourth there's some contrasts that we see between the rapture and the second coming I'm just going to give you three here I want you to notice these in first Corinthians 15 Paul talks about in a moment in a twinkling of an eye at the last trumpet for the trumpet will sound and the dead will be raised imperishable and we shall be changed how does that compare to the second coming where we see not a twinkling of an eye but we see that every eye will see him even those even those who pierced him here's a second thing a second contrast Jesus can come in the rapture he can come at any time we would say there's no warning signs in fact his taking us home the rapture is called imminent

[34:22] Jesus says in chapter 24 we'll see this later on that of that day and hour no one knows well what do we see as far as the warning signs in tribulation about the second coming we see all of these warning signs that are going to happen but for the rapture that day and hour nobody knows again first Thessalonians they shall say peace and safety and then destruction comes suddenly like birth pangs where have we heard that before but you brethren are not in darkness that the day should overtake you like a thief notice again the suddenness of the rapture in contrast to the second coming where there's all these signs thirdly we already talked about this how the rapture starts a sequence of events the world plunges into chaos from the sudden absence of millions and millions of believers secondly the emergence of a deceptive world leader who promises to bring peace and stability

[35:37] Paul talks about him in his second letter to the Thessalonians the mystery of lawlessness is already at work only he who now restrains will do so until he's taken out of the way that's the Holy Spirit and then the lawless one will be revealed from whom the Lord will slay with the breath of his mouth and bring an end by the appearance of his coming in contrast to that the tribulation period ends after Jesus comes again here's let me go on we're almost finished here fifthly here's some verses about believers like us we will not go through the wrath three verses here first Thessalonians Paul says wait for his son from heaven whom he raised from the dead that is Jesus who what delivers us from the wrath to come remember that verse in

[36:41] Titus chapter 2 13 talking about our blessed hope the appearing of our glorious savior Jesus that's the blessed hope that Christians have you know it's a hope not going through a period of deception mourning hiding think about that imagine that during the tribulation time here's the third verse Revelation 3 10 this is actually written to the church of Philadelphia you have to remember that we're given these seven churches in the book of Revelation many people believe that this represents the church in different ages of the church age but in talking to the church of Philadelphia which I believe is the right on church look what Jesus says chapter 3 verse 10 because you have kept the word of my perseverance I will keep you from the hour of testing that hour which is about to come upon the whole world to test those who dwell upon the earth let me move on here next one

[37:49] Anna thank you there's some other observations in the book of Revelation we see in Revelation 4 John is speaking here I looked and behold a door standing open in heaven here you have a door open in heaven and the first voice which I had heard like a sound of the trumpet saying to me come up here and I will show you what must take place here you have the voice like a trumpet saying come up here and then notice it's after these things these things is what he had just talked about what happened before in the church age I'm sorry before the church age what we see here is that the church is described in those seven churches but after that in the book of Revelation there's no mention of the church why is that it's because we're gone seventh and the last one we have the writings of some church fathers there's a group of church fathers they're called kilialists that's from the Greek word kilo which means thousand years there were some church fathers who actually believed in a literal millennium a literal thousand years and here this next picture here

[39:21] I actually have some of their photographs I think this is from the paparazzi but let's meet the kilialists these are early church fathers they came immediately after the apostles died and they wrote before the church went haywire into you know the bad doctrine that we see today the heavy allegorizing and the spiritualizing especially of Old Testament prophets notice here if you can see I'm sorry that it's so small here but notice the dates that these kilialists lived very early on but three of them were not only pre-millennialists they believed in the rapture let's look at the first one here

[40:21] Irenaeus he lived between 130 and 202 AD look at what he says here when in the end the church shall be suddenly caught up that's that word harpazo and it is said there shall be tribulation such as has not been seen since the beginning nor shall be for this is the last contest of the righteous in which when they overcome they are crowned with incorruption some people say that nobody talked about the rapture until the 18th century friends don't believe that that's not true we have the writings of some of these church fathers now we don't believe that the church fathers wrote like the apostles did with inerrancy but they did write some of them even knew the apostles themselves here let's look at the next one a guy named tertullian look at this let me just go to this where underlined here for we shall according to the apostle be caught up into the clouds to meet the lord even the son of man who shall be in the clouds according to

[41:31] Daniel here's a guy again talking about the rapture and then last let's go to Ephraim of Edessa for all this and by the way here's where you find these written for all the saints and the elect of God are gathered when prior to the tribulation that is to come and are taken to the lord lest they see the confusion that is to overwhelm the word because of our sins so we can end right there here I made it just now a little after 1130 we'll be picking this up again in verse 29 next week but just to end on four quick things here remember the glorious hope that we have the appearing of our lord and savior Jesus secondly god is not finished with Israel Israel and Israel's land still have a future significance or else

[42:35] Jesus wouldn't have mentioned them right and they're still in need of fulfillment today thirdly notice the truthfulness of scripture do you realize Daniel was written some 500 years before Jesus walked this earth and here he talks about him the last thing it's just to be reminded of how should we conduct ourselves as we wait for the Lord so if I could ask the musicians to come up what great passages to study what a great lord and savior to take the time out to talk about these things with his close friends the apostles and that's because they will be starting the church age Israel has rejected the Lord but the apostles will be there to bring in usher in this time of the church age the age that we're in right now but there will be a time when that church age ends how glorious please stand with me you talk about a time of peace we can have that peace right now knowing that

[44:12]  Jesus is going to take us what a great thing that is