29 “Immediately after the tribulation of those days the sun will be darkened, and the moon will not give its light; the stars will fall from heaven, and the powers of the heavens will be shaken. 30 Then the sign of the Son of Man will appear in heaven, and then all the tribes of the earth will mourn, and they will see the Son of Man coming on the clouds of heaven with power and great glory. 31 And He will send His angels with a great sound of a trumpet, and they will gather together His elect from the four winds, from one end of heaven to the other. Matthew 24.29-31
We’re going to start with a reading from the second chapter of the second letter to the Thessalonians. If you want to find that in your Bibles or it’ll be up on the board 2 Thessalonians chapter 2. I’m reading from verse 1. 2 Thessalonians 2:
Concerning the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ and our being gathered to him, we ask you, brothers and sisters, 2 not to become easily unsettled or alarmed by the teaching allegedly from us—whether by a prophecy or by word of mouth or by letter—asserting that the day of the Lord has already come. 3 Don’t let anyone deceive you in any way, for that day will not come until the rebellion occurs and the man of lawlessness is revealed, the man doomed to destruction. 4 He will oppose and will exalt himself over everything that is called God or is worshiped, so that he sets himself up in God’s temple, proclaiming himself to be God. 5 Don’t you remember that when I was with you I used to tell you these things? 6 And now you know what is holding him back, so that he may be revealed at the proper time. 7 For the secret power of lawlessness is already at work; but the one who now holds it back will continue to do so till he is taken out of the way. 8 And then the lawless one will be revealed, whom the Lord Jesus will overthrow with the breath of his mouth and destroy by the splendour of his coming. 9 The coming of the lawless one will be in accordance with how Satan works. He will use all sorts of displays of power through signs and wonders that serve the lie, 10 and all the ways that wickedness deceives those who are perishing. They perish because they refused to love the truth and so be saved. 11 For this reason God sends them a powerful delusion so that they will believe the lie 12 and so that all will be condemned who have not believed the truth but have delighted in wickedness.
13 But we ought always to thank God for you, brothers and sisters loved by the Lord, because God chose you as firstfruits to be saved through the sanctifying work of the Spirit and through belief in the truth. 14 He called you to this through our gospel, that you might share in the glory of our Lord Jesus Christ. 2 Thessalonians 2:1-14
Praise the Lord !
This passage speaks about an event called the second coming of Jesus Christ. I guess that, if you come here regularly, you’ve heard me speak about this before. But this is an event which is going to happen. Whatever you believe or don’t believe about it, it’s going to happen.
We can’t influence it, we can’t stop it from happening, or we can’t make it happen at the time we want it to happen. It’s going to happen in God’s time and in God’s way. It’s out of our hands, it’s out of our control, it’s under His control.
But, at some point in the not too in the distant future, as far as Paul was concerned when he wrote these words to the Thessalonians – but perhaps in the not too distant future as far as we’re concerned – an event is going to take place which is so huge, so mind-blowingly immense, that we can’t even begin to conceive of what it can be like.
Jesus is going to come again, not in the same form He came when He came the first time, when He came to fulfil the prophecies of the suffering servant / Messiah, to Bear the sin of the world, to die as a sacrifice for our sins on the Cross, and to rise from the dead as prophesied in the Book of Isaiah chapter 53. He’s going to come back the second time in a totally different form.
He is going to come this time as King of kings and Lord of lords with all the power of God at His disposal. He is going to come following a time of Great Tribulation on the earth which concludes with the sun and the moon and the stars going dark and the sign of the Son of man appearing in heaven.
I take that the sign of the Son of man is the brilliant piercing light of the Shekinah Glory of God as Jesus is seen coming this time as the Lord, appearing in power and Glory.
Matthew describes this in the Gospel chapter 24 of Matthew verse 29:
29 “Immediately after the distress of those days
“‘the sun will be darkened,
and the moon will not give its light;
the stars will fall from the sky,
and the heavenly bodies will be shaken.’30 “Then will appear the sign of the Son of Man in heaven. And then all the peoples of the earth will mourn when they see the Son of Man coming on the clouds of heaven, with power and great glory. Matthew 24:29-30
As a result of this the kingdoms of this world, in other words, the present world system which is in rebellion against God is going to come to an end. Revelation 11:15 says the kingdoms of this world, in other words, the present world system will become the Kingdom of our God and of His Messiah (Christ) and He shall reign forever and ever.
15 The seventh angel sounded his trumpet, and there were loud voices in heaven, which said:
“The kingdom of the world has become
the kingdom of our Lord and of his Messiah,
and he will reign for ever and ever.” Revelation 11:15
That’s going to happen. You and I can’t stop it. Mr Putin can’t stop it. Our government can’t stop it neither can we make it happen. It’s going to happen in God’s time, in God’s way, but it is going to happen.
It is prophesied also in many passages in the Hebrew Bible. The prophets speak about the Day of the Lord and, in Daniel chapter 2 it speaks about this and says that in the days of these kings, the god of heaven will set up a Kingdom which will never be destroyed. And the Kingdom will not be left to other people, it shall break in pieces and consume all these kingdoms and it shall stand forever.
44 “In the time of those kings, the God of heaven will set up a kingdom that will never be destroyed, nor will it be left to another people. It will crush all those kingdoms and bring them to an end, but it will itself endure forever. Daniel 2:44
So, it’s going to be a totally cosmic event and even those who have studied this subject for years as I have can barely get our heads around how awesome and earth-shattering this event is going to be.
The Messiah will come back with all power. He will bring an end to the present corrupt world order and He’ll set up the Kingdom of God. Then, the government will be upon His shoulder and of His kingdom there will be no end Isaiah 9:6.
6 For unto us a Child is born,
Unto us a Son is given;
And the government will be upon His shoulder.
And His name will be called
Wonderful, Counsellor, Mighty God,
Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace. Isaiah 9:6
In other words, the Messiah is going to be reigning in a Kingdom which will not come to an end, it will go on and on forever.
According to my understanding, it’ll be first a thousand years of the Messiah reigning here on the earth. After that, that will be the end of the world, and then, there’ll be a new Heavens and a new Earth in which the Kingdom will go on forever and ever.
When this happens, there’ll be no more democracies or dictatorships, no more human governments, no more wars, famines, disasters caused by human wickedness. People won’t be in fear of missiles falling on their heads or of a contaminated environment destroying us.
Satan will be bound and thrown into the abyss so he can no longer deceive mankind or influence the affairs of this planet. Only God’s influence mediated through the Messiah / Yeshua and His people, and the Holy Spirit indwelling believers will be at work.
In this time, the Babylon World System under the influence of Satan and the demons will be over forever, finito, kaput, finished. But that will not be the end of the world because there will not be another thousand years of the Messiah reigning.
It’s what the Book of Revelation tells us. Another event will take place according to 2 Thessalonians. That will be our gathering together to meet Him.
Some people get a bit uncomfortable when I talk about this. It is a bit controversial, a bit hard to believe but it’s there in the scriptures. There’s going to be event when ‘one should be taken and one should be left’ and there’ll be people who will be taken supernaturally out of this world to meet with the Lord as He comes in the air. Paul actually wrote a bit about this in chapter 4 of 1 Thessalonians. So, if you turn back a couple of pages from where you are in 2 Thessalonians, in 1 Thessalonians chapter 4 Paul said,
14 For if we believe that Jesus died and rose again, even so God will bring with Him those who sleep in Jesus.
15 For this we say to you by the word of the Lord, that we who are alive and remain until the coming of the Lord will by no means precede those who are asleep. 16 For the Lord Himself will descend from heaven with a shout, with the voice of an archangel, and with the trumpet of God. And the dead in Christ will rise first. 17 Then we who are alive and remain shall be caught up together with them in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air. And thus we shall always be with the Lord. 18 Therefore comfort one another with these words. 1 Thessalonians 4:14-18
I’m not going to go into the timing of the event but it’s going to happen either before, in the middle, or at the end of the Tribulation period. It’s going to happen and, basically, if you are a believer in Jesus, you have got something to look forward to. Because, at some point, you’re going to leave this earth and you’re going to be with the Lord.
You’re going to have a new body which will never get old and never get sick, and never die. And you’re going to be with Jesus forever. So, if I tell you a bit of bad news about what’s happening now, just keep that in your minds. Because the end towards which we’re going is that glorious resurrection life which we have with Jesus the Messiah.