In My Lifetime • Study in Prophecy

56:25 Teaching begins

Notes

We’ve just celebrated Christmas, and that’s when God sent His Son into the world in real time. People lived who were contemporaries of Jesus; they knew Him personally. His birth is a historical event. His death is historical. His coming back again will be a historical event.

I am more and more aware that I should expect Jesus to come back in my lifetime. I’m going to show you some of the scriptures that relate to this and compare them with current events that lead me to this conclusion.

I’m not trying to wind you up into an end-times frenzy. There is enough of that going on. I’m not setting a date for Jesus to return.

However, at the present time God is fulfilling prophecies made thousands of years ago. The fact that they were made so long ago might give the impression that they will never happen, much less in my lifetime. But they are happening now, so I need to keep this in mind: Jesus is going to come back, and I might live to see it.

Knowing about Jesus’ return will enable me to live rightly as I wait for Him, because He said, watch and be ready.

1. First, I want to sketch an overview of the last days scenario from the Bible.

A. We studied this prophecy last Friday night and it’s up on YouTube. Daniel 9:24-27 “Seventy weeks have been decreed for your people and your holy city, to finish the transgression, to make an end of sin, to make atonement for iniquity, to bring in everlasting righteousness, to seal up vision and prophecy and to anoint the most holy place. 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 sixty-two weeks; it will be built again, with plaza and moat, even in times of distress. Then after the sixty-two weeks the Messiah will be cut off and have nothing, and the people of the prince who is to come will destroy the city and the sanctuary. And its end will come with a flood; even to the end there will be war; desolations are determined. And he will make a firm covenant with the many for one week, but in the middle of the week he will put a stop to sacrifice and grain offering; and on the wing of abominations will come one who makes desolate, even until a complete destruction, one that is decreed, is poured out on the one who makes desolate.”

1. We noticed that the total is 490 years. 69 have already happened, that’s 483 years.

2. But the last seven hasn’t happened.

B. During the last seven years this prince will come and 3 1/2 years into a peace treaty causes the abomination that makes desolate, leading to the great tribulation, the time Jesus said would be the most disturbing, terrifying time there would ever be. Matthew 24:21-22 For then there will be a great tribulation, such as has not occurred since the beginning of the world until now, nor ever will. Unless those days had been cut short, no life would have been saved; but for the sake of the elect those days will be cut short.

C. 2 Thessalonians 2:1-4 Now we request you, brethren, with regard to the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ and our gathering together to Him, that you not be quickly shaken from your composure or be disturbed either by a spirit or a message or a letter as if from us, to the effect that the day of the Lord has come. Let no one in any way deceive you, for it will not come unless the apostasy comes first, and the man of lawlessness is revealed, the son of destruction, who opposes and exalts himself above every so-called god or object of worship, so that he takes his seat in the temple of God, displaying himself as being God.

D. Revelation 13:15 And it was given to him to give breath to the image of the beast, so that the image of the beast would even speak and cause as many as do not worship the image of the beast to be killed.

E. This seven year period and the great tribulation is about the nation Israel.

1. Jeremiah 30:7-9 ‘Alas! for that day is great, there is none like it; and it is the time of Jacob’s distress, but he will be saved from it. ‘It shall come about on that day,’ declares the LORD of hosts, ‘that I will break his yoke from off their neck and will tear off their bonds; and strangers will no longer make them their slaves. But they shall serve the LORD their God and David their king, whom I will raise up for them.”

2. Resurrection happens when Jesus returns. So this great tribulation will result in Israel being saved and Jesus returning to the earth.

3. Zechariah 12:10 “I will pour out on the house of David and on the inhabitants of Jerusalem, the Spirit of grace and of supplication, so that they will look on Me whom they have pierced; and they will mourn for Him, as one mourns for an only son, and they will weep bitterly over Him like the bitter weeping over a firstborn.”

E. This great tribulation that is coming is about God bringing the nation of Israel to submit in faith to their Messiah, Jesus. It is for the sake of the nation of Israel. They are the ones to watch.

2. The nation of Israel is a phenomenon that’s been unfolding for the last 150 years.

A. In the mid 1800’s Jews began wanting to live in what was then called Palestine. A steady stream of natives and immigrants began building settlements.

B. Hungarian-born Theodor Herzl (and others) got it into their heads that there must be a nation of Israel once again, and laid the foundation for it at the Basle Conference of 1897.

C. The British Balfour Declaration of 1917 endorsed the establishment of a National Home for the Jewish People.

D. After the Second World War, in 1947, the United Nations General Assembly voted for the establishment of a Jewish and an Arab state in Palestine. Britain would remain in Palestine until the moment of transfer, a date not yet decided upon, but no later than 1 August 1948. Arab opposition only grew in anticipation of the British withdrawal.

E. May 14, 1948 Israel declared statehood in order to defend themselves against attack from five independent Arab states. The Arabs have never accepted the offer of their own state. Israel has won every war against them because they have to. If they lose, they are destroyed. This is not about territory or land, it is about existence.

3. Prophecy about Israel’s restoration has two parts: physical and spiritual.

A. Ezekiel 37:1-7 The hand of the LORD was upon me, and He brought me out by the Spirit of the LORD and set me down in the middle of the valley; and it was full of bones. He caused me to pass among them round about, and behold, there were very many on the surface of the valley; and lo, they were very dry. He said to me, “Son of man, can these bones live?” And I answered, “O Lord GOD, You know.” Again He said to me, “Prophesy over these bones and say to them, ‘O dry bones, hear the word of the LORD.’ Thus says the Lord GOD to these bones, ‘Behold, I will cause breath to enter you that you may come to life. I will put sinews on you, make flesh grow back on you, cover you with skin and put breath in you that you may come alive; and you will know that I am the LORD.’”

So I prophesied as I was commanded; and as I prophesied, there was a noise, and behold, a rattling; and the bones came together, bone to its bone.

B. Ezekiel 37:9-10 Then He said to me, “Prophesy to the breath, prophesy, son of man, and say to the breath, ‘Thus says the Lord GOD, “Come from the four winds, O breath, and breathe on these slain, that they come to life.”’” So I prophesied as He commanded me, and the breath came into them, and they came to life and stood on their feet, an exceedingly great army.

C. Ezekiel 37:11-14 Then He said to me, “Son of man, these bones are the whole house of Israel; behold, they say, ‘Our bones are dried up and our hope has perished. We are completely cut off.’ Therefore prophesy and say to them, ‘Thus says the Lord GOD, “Behold, I will open your graves and cause you to come up out of your graves, My people; and I will bring you into the land of Israel. Then you will know that I am the LORD, when I have opened your graves and caused you to come up out of your graves, My people. I will put My Spirit within you and you will come to life, and I will place you on your own land. Then you will know that I, the LORD, have spoken and done it,” declares the LORD.’”

D. God has fulfilled the first part of the prophecy. Israel is back in the land, is a nation, is physically in existence.

E. The second part has not yet been fulfilled. Again, God will bring Israel to Himself spiritually during the last seven year period prophesied in Daniel 9.

4. This present war in Israel is different from all the other wars Israel has fought in the past.

A. It’s drawing in other nations. The U.S. bases in Middle East are being attacked. Russia is being drawn in. Syria, Lebanon, Qatar, Yemen, Iraq, Turkey.

1. It’s looking more and more like the situation we see in Ezekiel 38:1-9 And the word of the LORD came to me saying, “Son of man, set your face toward Gog of the land of Magog, the prince of Rosh, Meshech and Tubal, and prophesy against him and say, ‘Thus says the Lord GOD, “Behold, I am against you, O Gog, prince of Rosh, Meshech and Tubal. I will turn you about and put hooks into your jaws, and I will bring you out, and all your army, horses and horsemen, all of them splendidly attired, a great company with buckler and shield, all of them wielding swords; Persia, Ethiopia and Put with them, all of them with shield and helmet; Gomer with all its troops; Beth-togarmah from the remote parts of the north with all its troops—many peoples with you. Be prepared, and prepare yourself, you and all your companies that are assembled about you, and be a guard for them. After many days you will be summoned; in the latter years you will come into the land that is restored from the sword, whose inhabitants have been gathered from many nations to the mountains of Israel which had been a continual waste; but its people were brought out from the nations, and they are living securely, all of them. You will go up, you will come like a storm; you will be like a cloud covering the land, you and all your troops, and many peoples with you.”

2. We also see this in Zechariah 12:1-3 The burden of the word of the LORD concerning Israel. Thus declares the LORD who stretches out the heavens, lays the foundation of the earth, and forms the spirit of man within him, “Behold, I am going to make Jerusalem a cup that causes reeling to all the peoples around; and when the siege is against Jerusalem, it will also be against Judah. It will come about in that day that I will make Jerusalem a heavy stone for all the peoples; all who lift it will be severely injured. And all the nations of the earth will be gathered against it.

3. This is happening in our day.

B. There doesn’t seem to be a way to end this conflict.

1. Israel would cease fire to recover hostages but Hamas will not stop. They say we will do this again and again.

2. The two-state solution is useless because Israel’s enemies never wanted their own state, they want Israel destroyed. Now they are saying it openly.

3. They had their own state and they used it to make a tunnel system bigger than the London Underground with which to attack Israel. Israel can’t go back to Gaza they way it was. They’re having to eliminate targets on the West Bank. They are having to defend against Hezbollah in the north.

4. Iran is pushing for a nuclear weapon and the U.S. is allowing them to get it. Iran wants to use it. Once that happens, there’s no stopping the conflict. How will people survive once nuclear war starts? Jesus is going to intervene before all life is destroyed.

5. The U.S. so far hasn’t stopped this conflict, the UN can’t stop it.

6. If anyone could stop the conflict he would be hailed as great peacemaker. We know from Daniel 9 that a person will appear on the scene as a peacemaker. He’ll make a covenant, a peace treaty, that will impress people to say, “Who can make war against him?” He will enable Israel to build the temple and the Muslims will agree. Then this person will sit in the temple and announce that he is God, and the Jews will know they have been betrayed. This guy is not the Messiah, he is the antichrist.

C. This sets the scene for Israel to be saved. The antichrist will lead the world to finish off Israel. They will have no hope except the Messiah, who they will realize is Jesus whom they rejected. They will mourn for Him as for an only Son, and they will pray for Him to save them.

D. Jesus will return to the earth and save Israel.

1. Zechariah 14:3-5 Then the LORD will go forth and fight against those nations, as when He fights on a day of battle. In that day His feet will stand on the Mount of Olives, which is in front of Jerusalem on the east; and the Mount of Olives will be split in its middle from east to west by a very large valley, so that half of the mountain will move toward the north and the other half toward the south. You will flee by the valley of My mountains, for the valley of the mountains will reach to Azel; yes, you will flee just as you fled before the earthquake in the days of Uzziah king of Judah. Then the LORD, my God, will come, and all the holy ones with Him!

2. Here is a prophecy of Jesus’ return in Acts 1:9-12 And after He had said these things, He was lifted up while they were looking on, and a cloud received Him out of their sight. And as they were gazing intently into the sky while He was going, behold, two men in white clothing stood beside them. They also said, “Men of Galilee, why do you stand looking into the sky? This Jesus, who has been taken up from you into heaven, will come in just the same way as you have watched Him go into heaven.” Then they returned to Jerusalem from the mount called Olivet, which is near Jerusalem, a Sabbath day’s journey away.

E. Therefore, Jesus will be revealed as the Lord God Almighty.

1. Prophecy from Ezekiel 39:17-22 “As for you, son of man, thus says the Lord GOD, ‘Speak to every kind of bird and to every beast of the field, “Assemble and come, gather from every side to My sacrifice which I am going to sacrifice for you, as a great sacrifice on the mountains of Israel, that you may eat flesh and drink blood. You will eat the flesh of mighty men and drink the blood of the princes of the earth, as though they were rams, lambs, goats and bulls, all of them fatlings of Bashan. So you will eat fat until you are glutted, and drink blood until you are drunk, from My sacrifice which I have sacrificed for you. And I will set My glory among the nations; and all the nations will see My judgment which I have executed and My hand which I have laid on them. And the house of Israel will know that I am the LORD their God from that day onward.”

2. We see the actual return of Jesus in Revelation 19. The heavens are opened, Jesus is described, then: Revelation 19:17-19 Then I saw an angel standing in the sun, and he cried out with a loud voice, saying to all the birds which fly in midheaven, “Come, assemble for the great supper of God, so that you may eat the flesh of kings and the flesh of commanders and the flesh of mighty men and the flesh of horses and of those who sit on them and the flesh of all men, both free men and slaves, and small and great.”

3. Revelation 19:19-21 And I saw the beast and the kings of the earth and their armies assembled to make war against Him who sat on the horse and against His army. And the beast was seized, and with him the false prophet who performed the signs in his presence, by which he deceived those who had received the mark of the beast and those who worshiped his image; these two were thrown alive into the lake of fire which burns with brimstone. And the rest were killed with the sword which came from the mouth of Him who sat on the horse, and all the birds were filled with their flesh.

5. So what?

A. I know it’s a risky thing to ask, “What would you differently if you knew Jesus was coming back in your lifetime?” I asked myself, what would I do?

B. I want to be found by Him doing what I’m supposed to be doing. That is, allowing God to love me so I can love Him and others. Growing in love. Am I doing that?

C. I’m supposed to be looking forward to being with Jesus. I’m not looking forward to dying, I’m looking forward to laying hold on eternal life. I have to deal with fear by holding on to the truth. Am I holding on to truth?

D. I have to be aware of those things that compete for my attention. Jesus said I could be choked by pleasures and worries in this world. I find that I’m continually having to re-focus on Jesus and not this thing or that thing.

E. Serving the Lord and not getting weary. What does Jesus want? I won’t regret doing what He wants when He comes back. I’ll regret not doing it. So that really affects what I do now.

F. Let this grip you: Jesus could return in your lifetime. Whatever else happens in 2024 we are getting closer and closer to that. Be ready for that today.

Let’s pray.

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