WHO'S IN CONTROL HERE?

Two days before Passover...                                       

The lambs are being scrutinized for defects – are they good enough for all those international visitors?(Matt 26:1-16)   

One visitor is certain of this much... 

“The Son of Man is betrayed to be crucified”                                           

Jesus, with universal authority as Son of Man, faces a Roman execution?? His disciples would think Him mad saying this!

Giving hands

Notice the stark contrasts here...

• Where are the chief priests, scribes and elders?  In a palace!    Where is Jesus?  In the house of a leper.
• Caiaphas the high priest leads a plot to kill Jesus - just not at the feast.  A nameless woman comes to honour Jesus.                                                         
• The ointment for Jesus’ burial is very precious. His disciples claim the poor are more worthy!                                                                               

Greedy hands

Now Judas Iscariote agrees to betray Jesus for 30 lousy pieces of silver – the price of a slave!

Yes, Jesus has deliberately come back to Jerusalem to be crucified like a criminal, He’s just been anointed for burial and now there’s a small price on His head, just as prophesied centuries earlier.                                                                                                          

So, who really is in control here?                                

Will Jesus really be crucified at Passover?

THIS KING MEANS BUSINESS!

Finally the Son of Man has come and sits on His throne of glory with all nations gathered before him.  (Matt 25:31-46)    

How will He judge them? Will the nations be judged as a whole or as individuals?  

The short answer is – I don’t know.  Let’s wait and see!             

We once ran merino sheep with cashmere goats and the best way to separate them was to force them into a corner – the sheep would escape to one side and the goats to the other. Maybe the nations will have been under so much pressure during the Tribulation that it will be obvious which ones have cared for the faithful Jewish witnesses.  

Haven’t we seen somewhat of a rehearsal of this during the last century?                     

Germany was torn apart after exterminating 6 million Jews, while nations like U.S.A. have prospered after giving Jews refuge. The British Empire and U.S.S.R. persecuted the Jews and are now just a distant memory.  

What we can be sure of is that the stakes are high:                
Eternal life or... eternal punishment! - everlasting fire prepared for the devil and his angels.

Yes, hell is real. This King means business!

WATCH!!

Jesus the Messiah has used ~550 words telling His disciples what’s going to happen in the End Times...             

• Beginning of the end                             
• Tribulation, then...                                      
• Great Tribulation                                          
• Second Coming

...then another 206 words for those who will live to see these events. The Olivet Discourse sure seems done and dusted with 756 words in total.                                             

Hang on...there’s more...much more!  (Matt 24:43 – 25:30)      

Now Jesus will speak... 

over 800 words of warning!

Pay attention guys, to these 3 parables because there’s a day of reckoning coming and the Messiah means business - there’s going to be ‘cutting in two’, weeping, gnashing of teeth, darkness, doors getting slammed shut... even eternal punishment!               

He comes as...                                                       

• the Master of the house             
• the Bridegroom, and...                                     
• the Man of business

Maybe we should be diligent, with lamps trimmed and using those rich talents He has given us ...WATCHING so closely, as if a thief was about to break in and steal!

Jesus still hasn’t finished yet... Finally He comes as King. (NEXT)

AS IN THE DAYS OF NOAH

The disciples have asked Jesus:                                    

“What will be the sign of your coming?”

Yes, the generation - alive today - that sees Israel revive after 14^th May 1948... WILL see a sign that the Messiah is coming.  (Matt 24:36-42)                           

Whatever will it be?

People will be carrying on with their lives – eating, drinking, going to weddings...all of a sudden...some people will disappear!                                                

Yes, it will be very decisive - some will be taken, while others will be left behind.                                                                    

Come aboard!

It is often claimed that those taken away will be headed for judgment but hang on a minute...  
In the example Jesus gave, who was taken away in the ark?...Noah and his family – after being invited by God to come into the ark.                                                                                                  

Who was left behind in the Great Flood?...those for judgment!                                                                                             

Left behind!

(Even the Greek words used support this...                             
‘Taken’ comes from paralambano: to take alongside to oneself; whereas ‘left’ comes from ‘aphiemi’: abandon/forsake)

It will be the disappearance of many people that will alert this generation that Jesus Christ comes soon.                 

“By faith Noah, being warned of God of things not seen as yet, moved with fear, prepared an ark to the saving of his house, by the which he condemned the world...”                                                        

If you must fit the Church into Matthew 24, this is where – the miraculous rapture. 

Blink and it’s history!

THE FIGTREE REVIVES!

The Messiah now changes tack to give his disciples a bonus – even telling them who will see that Great Tribulation!...(Matt 24:32-36)

Does He tell them they will see it in their lifetime?                No, He certainly does not.                                                   These disciples never saw the Great Tribulation (as Preterists claim) not even in 70AD, nor did they see the Son of Man return in glory.

Early that morning Jesus had cursed a fig-tree for not offering early fruit:                                                                 

“Let no fruit grow on thee henceforth for ever!”

The disciples would remember this refers to Hosea’s prophecy: “I saw your fathers as the first-ripe in the fig-tree at her first time...”  
(the fig-tree symbolizing peace and prosperity)

He has come to the temple and been rejected by the elders – there is no fruit because Judaism has become dead. It will however try to revive!

“Now learn...”    Learn what?                                                  
The generation that sees the fig-tree show signs of reviving by putting forth leaves will see it – the Tribulation, even the Great Tribulation and finally... ‘the Son of Man coming in the clouds of heaven with power and great glory’.

When did Israel begin to revive?

70 years ago, on 14^th May 1948 – after 1878 years!

Yes...

“It is near, even at the doors”.

What else will they see to signal the coming of the Messiah?...NEXT!

SON OF MAN TO THE RESCUE!

The Messiah sits on the Mount of Olives, painting the future in broad brush-strokes...          

...promising to return as Son of Man – as sudden and brilliant as lightning! (Matt 24:27-31)

‘All the tribes of the earth shall mourn and they shall see the Son of Man coming in the clouds of heaven’

Why does the Son of man come and why do they mourn?  

The eagles have gathered to the carcass - just like greedy relatives turn up for rich pickings at a death-bed.  
As they say: “Where there’s a will there’s a relative”!               

Yes, the nations will be assembled at Armageddon to finish off Israel, once and for all!

What has led up to this?                                     

• Deception, wars, famines, pestilences, earthquakes...               
• Then ‘sorrows’ (tribulation)...                              

Jews: ‘hated of all nations for my name’s sake’ 

‘gospel of the kingdom preached in all the world’
(No, this has not happened yet)

• Then... Great Tribulation!                                         

‘the abomination of desolation stands in the holy place’ 

’unless those days should be shortened, there should be no flesh saved’                                  

(Today the nuclear powers can wipe out all life on Earth but... that holy place in a Jewish temple does NOT exist just yet)

Who will then be summoned by the angels with trumpet?  

The elect from...                                                          

- The four winds: every corner of the compass on Earth, 

and from...                                                                      

- One end of heaven to the other

Who are these who come with Jesus Christ from heaven?

ALL HIS SAINTS IN GLORY!  

Everyone from throughout history who has put their faith in the Redeemer present to witness the Son of Man dealing with all of Israel’s enemies. 

Wow, what an event!

RUN FOR YOUR LIVES!

Notice how JEWISH this is...                                       

The Messiah is sitting on the Mount of Olives warning His disciples of grim times (Matt 24) ...but how far ahead? 

We know the marvellous new temple in front of them will be pulled down stone by stone but sometime later..... we find things will get much worse!                                  

We find birth pains begin (v8), even thlipsis (tribulation begins -v9):                

’ye shall be hated of all nations for my name’s sake’                                                                                        
When have Israelis been hated by all nations for their Messiah?  Not yet they haven’t, but... it gets even worse: ...thlipsis megas (Great Tribulation)!                      

Then it will be time to flee Judaea and hope that you don’t have kids with you or it’s winter-time or Sabbath.   

Guys... don’t stop to pack – run for your lives!

So what is the trigger?                                                 

‘The abomination of desolation, as spoken by Daniel the prophet, stands in the holy place.’                                        

Don’t you just love Matthew’s cute comment: 

“Whoso readeth, let him understand”         

(Guys, I don’t know what this will be like but maybe you do!)

Let’s take this slowly and carefully.... 

We learn from Daniel’s ‘70-week’ prophecy that after the Messiah is cut off  there is still 1 week (7 years) to run.  

“The people of the prince that shall come shall destroy the city and the sanctuary [Roman general Titus in 70 A.D.]...and the end thereof shall be with a flood and unto the end of the war desolations are determined....[Just how long is this gap?? Then...]  He [a Roman prince] shall confirm the covenant with many [the Jews] and in the midst of the week [of 7 years] he shall cause the sacrifice and the oblation to cease, and for the overspreading of abominations he shall make it desolate...”  

We have to look elsewhere for further clues but this at least tells us that the Jews will make a 7 year pact with the revived Roman Empire (EU?) which will be broken after 3 1/2 years, sacrifices will be stopped and some sort of abomination will stand in ‘the holy place’.           

What stood in the Holy of holies since Hanukkah – the purification of the temple in 165 BC? Nothing!...as Pompey found by storming into the temple in 63BC.  In fact, no ‘holy place’ in a Jewish temple has even existed for 1948 years since 70 A.D. so nothing can happen until that 3^rd temple is built on Temple Mount - which orthodox Jews are ready for right now!

How bad will things get? Without divine intervention ‘no flesh should be saved’!                                                

Never before in world history has it been possible for all life on earth to be eliminated like it could be now by nuclear war.

Did you see any mention of the Church in all that?

NEXT: Saved by the coming of the Son of Man