Be Prepared: Signs of Christ's Return

1. "We want you to come out. We want to be a witness to our community, and we also want to gather the people of God, the family of God, back together again. So it's kind of a two-fold thing. We're still connecting with our community, and we're still loving our God and worshiping Him. We're proclaiming the gospel, and we're building up one another. We're fulfilling all of our values in this one service. So we're looking forward to you coming out and joining us Sunday nights at 7 p.m. for Summer Worship Series Outside. God bless you." [19:24] (30 seconds) (Download raw clip | Download cropped clip)


2. "So Jesus here has taken us through this doctrinal dissertation, if you will, almost, like this doctrinal teaching of eschatology. He's taken us from the Temple Mount. He's told us the temple's going to fall, a prediction of 70 A.D. He's now taken us through all the signs that will continue to lead up repetitively over history. He's taken us through the persecutions that Christians will face. And he's led us up to the fact that we have to have proclamation, that part of our obligation is to take the gospel to the ends of the world." [44:45] (37 seconds) (Download raw clip | Download cropped clip)


3. "So what we have here is a snapshot. Again, I'm teaching this from a bird's eye view. Jesus is teaching us, not necessarily chronologically, but he's teaching us historically. And he's given us all the nuts and bolts, if you will. Of his second return. So when we look at it, he may jump around and he may say one thing and then jump back and be pointing and directing us back to see something he said earlier. And he's painting a picture. He's showing us eschatology, a study or a view of the end times. And he's playing it out. It will be repetitive. There will be cycles in which this will go through." [46:49] (37 seconds) (Download raw clip | Download cropped clip)


4. "So Jesus is saying, when you see this, when it's in the final season, when the fig tree is ready, it's like I'm standing at the door. He is near. He's about to step over that threshold. Just like in Revelation, and John writes to us in chapter three, it's saying that Jesus is at the door, and if we open that door, he will come into us. Jesus is near. So I want to talk in a duality here. One, we need to be prepared. When Jesus comes and these things happen, if we are the generation that sees his return, we will know, and it will be like Jesus is right on that threshold, ready to enter that door, ready to enter that gate." [56:04] (38 seconds) (Download raw clip | Download cropped clip)


5. "Generations. Jesus speaks of generations in this text. And Jesus is speaking of the disciples' generation or what's he's speaking of the final generation and here's where you get into the again you can pick out commentaries just like i can you can go online and you can look up things people are all over the place some people go like duh it's just the first century he's talking about 70 a .d some people say not even talking about that it's all the way about the end and the temple he's talking about it's not that temple but another temple later on and and people are all just all over the place with ideas on this and then some have a duality and again i've told you i fall into that pre -tribulational pre -millennial so i'm looking at this as jesus is talking about the physical temple and he's talking about the fall of jerusalem in 70 a .d and i believe that's kind of where things start to begin all these persecutions and signs and and all the things that jesus is speaking of i think we can trace back to like 70 a .d and go forward now as we're waiting for the end times to come and so i think we can see the building we can see the building block so i think we can see the building block and i think we can see the building block and i think there is a duality there is some talk that's definitely specific to 70 a .d but then there's stuff that's specific to in times alone so the generation he speaks to could it be both i think it's both i think jesus is telling the disciples there's going to be some of the stuff that i've talked to you about you're going to see with your eyes your generation will not pass and then the generation that faces the end of it that generation when this happens when this when this tree starts to bud that generation will not pass until all these things are fulfilled could we be that generation we could be we could be i don't know we should live like we're that generation we should live with that immediacy we should live with that urgency we should know just like the disciples saw the temple fall we should know that jesus would tell us that the other things that would happen just like 70 a .d happen these things will happen over time we should live with that urgency over time that and we will see the end of the age come the end of the age so it's not big somebody in the church age some church is going to experience that one generation one other generation come would come rickley i'd pray some thought that again this was about just the beginning of the seventy a .d but i see when you read it clearly jesus is not just talking about then at the disciples of that generation but also a future generation promo primeira my otheruden that when you look at this, this must have given the disciples then and the disciples of all generation great confidence. We know that God's got a plan. We know that he's moving through all of history, unfolding his eschatological plan, repeating these things. He's told us about the signs. He's told us about the persecution. He's told us about everything that's going to happen. He's told us about the proclamation. He's told us about, guess what? He's going to crack the sky. We're going to be raptured. We know about the great distress. We know about then eventually the glorious appearing. Jesus is making it clear that he's got a plan, and we should have confidence in that. Listen, the first century Christian, the disciples, they faced great turmoil. They faced great tribulation. They had great pain. It must have been encouraging them in the face of great suffering that they knew that there was an end game, that they knew that Jesus had a plan, and that Jesus was coming back. And now every generation since then, we've been able to look and know we're waiting for the return of our Lord. We're waiting for him to come back. And so what it does is it helps us when we face the persecution. We know Jesus told us. When we see the signs, we know Jesus told us about that. When we proclaim the gospel, We can have a sense of knowing we're taking the gospel to the ends of the world. That's the obligation our Lord has given us." [01:02:49] (60 seconds) (Download raw clip | Download cropped clip)


6. "So Jesus is saying, when you see this, when it's in the final season, when the fig tree is ready, it's like I'm standing at the door. He is near. He's about to step over that threshold. Just like in Revelation, and John writes to us in chapter three, it's saying that Jesus is at the door, and if we open that door, he will come into us. Jesus is near. So I want to talk in a duality here. One, we need to be prepared. When Jesus comes and these things happen, if we are the generation that sees his return, we will know, and it will be like Jesus is right on that threshold, ready to enter that door, ready to enter that gate. But here's what Jesus does in every generation, Revelation 3 .20. He is standing at the door of every human heart that's watching right now. Whether you're watching it live, right here in June, or whether you're going to watch it years later, or whether you're going to watch it hours later, Jesus will always stand at the door of your heart and knock. So here's a question you have to ask. Write what it says. Will you open the door? He's there. It's not he's coming. He wants to come into every single person's heart. Will you open the door so he can step across the threshold? Will you open the door so he can come into your heart? Will you open the door so he can be your savior and he can be your Lord? Because if you open it up, it says right here in this text, I will come in to that person. I will eat with that person, and he will eat with me. In other words, Jesus will sit down at a table with you, and he'll have a meal with you. You will be his brother. You will be his friend. He will be your Lord forevermore. He will be your savior and save you from your sins. So right now, whether Jesus is at the door coming back, and glory to God, if he has Maranatha, come Lord, come, quickly, come back, Lord. That's a great thing to have happen. But will you let him into your heart? If you have not already done, I want to encourage you right now. Say, Jesus, just come into my heart. Jesus, forgive me my sins. I open the door of my heart. I hear you knocking right now. I want you to come into my life, Jesus. Be my savior. Be my Lord. Be my friend. Be my brother. Can you do that? And if you've done that right now, write a comment down there. Say, I just gave my heart to Jesus. Say, I just opened the door of my heart. Can you write that down? I opened the door of my heart. So if you're out there and you watch us, write that in the comment section. Let us know so we can celebrate with you that you have just become a Christian and you've let Christ come into your life. So everyone, this door is about the Messiah's coming. We should live our lives, not only opening our hearts to Jesus, but as we see these signs and these persecutions and the proclamation and we see all these things moving forward, there's an immediacy. We should be ready." [58:35] (169 seconds) (Download raw clip | Download cropped clip)