04-22-12 REVIVAL IN ISRAEL!!!

Matt. 24:4 And Jesus answered and said to them, "See to it that no one misleads you.

Matt. 24:5 "For many will come in My name, saying, 'I am the Christ,' and will mislead many.

Matt. 24:6 "You will be hearing of wars and rumors of wars. See that you are not frightened, for those things must take place, but that is not yet the end.

Matt. 24:7 "For nation will rise against nation, and kingdom against kingdom, and in various places there will be famines and earthquakes.

Matt. 24:8 "But all these things are merely the beginning of birth pangs.

Matt. 24:9 ¶ "Then they will deliver you to tribulation, and will kill you, and you will be hated by all nations because of My name.

Matt. 24:10 "At that time many will fall away and will betray one another and hate one another.

Matt. 24:11 "Many false prophets will arise and will mislead many.

Matt. 24:12 "Because lawlessness is increased, most people's love will grow cold.

Matt. 24:13 "But the one who endures to the end, he will be saved.

Matt. 24:14 "This gospel of the kingdom shall be preached in the whole world as a testimony to all the nations, and then the end will come.

Matt. 24:15 ¶ "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),

Matt. 24:16 then those who are in Judea must flee to the mountains;

Matt. 24:17 Whoever is on the housetop must not go down to get the things out that are in his house.

Matt. 24:18 Whoever is in the field must not turn back to get his cloak.

Matt. 24:19 "But woe to those who are pregnant and to those who are nursing babies in those days!

Matt. 24:20 "But pray that your flight will not be in the winter, or on a Sabbath.

Matt. 24:21 For then there will be a great tribulation, such as has not occurred since the beginning of the world until now, nor ever will.

Matt. 24:22 "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.

Matt. 24:23 "Then if anyone says to you, 'Behold, here is the Christ,' or ' There He is,' do not believe him.

Matt. 24:24 "For false Christs and false prophets will arise and will show great signs and wonders, so as to mislead, if possible, even the elect.

Matt. 24:25 "Behold, I have told you in advance.

Matt. 24:26 "So if they say to you, 'Behold, He is in the wilderness,' do not go out, or, 'Behold, He is in the inner rooms,' do not believe them.

Matt. 24:27 "For just as the lightning comes from the east and flashes even to the west, so will the coming of the Son of Man be.

Obviously we are going to continue

our study of Biblical prophecy this morning,

and we are going to do so

by returning to the passage we were looking at last week in Matthew 24.

Last week I suggested an outline for Matthew chapters 24 and 25

that helps me to better relate to what’s being said

and who its being said to.

We looked at the first 5 verses

of Jesus’ prophetic comments last week in Matt 24:4-8.

In those 5 verses we saw the Lord

presenting 5 signs that He called, ‟merely the beginning of birth-pangs”.

Those signs included:

• False Christs,

• wars and rumors of wars,

• increased tensions between people groups,

• famines,

• and earthquakes.

He was telling us that

as we see an increase in the frequency

and intensity of these signs

we can know that we are approaching

the beginning of the final events

that will ultimately culminate in the return of Christ.

Then we concluded last week

by looking at some statistics

that give strong evidence

that those birth pangs have begun.

Now, before we move on to the next section in this passage

I have to make a few comments

about what a truly Christian response is

to this birth pangs thing.

Prophecy is potentially an extremely dangerous area of study for God’s people,

not because it’s all that complicated

or confusing,

but because it seems to suddenly cause

the most amazing short-circuits in our thinking.

It seems to have the ability

to cause sane,

logical,

growing,

thinking Christians

to suddenly forget everything else they have learned about the principles

that govern the Christian life,

and plunge into some kind of a Star Trek fantasy land

that cuts them off from everything else they have learned.

Let me say this as simply and clearly as I know how:

the only way prophecy can be correctly understood

is to study it WITHIN THE CONTEXT

OF EVERYTHING ELSE WE ALREADY KNOW AND UNDERSTAND ABOUT OUR LORD.

If we find ourselves responding to what we are looking at with anxiety,

or concern,

or fear,

or a driving impulse to sell everything we own and move to the wilderness,

let me offer you two essential,

crucial questions

that must be applied

to any decision we make as God’s people.

#1. Is this consistent with who my Lord is and how He relates to me?

Matt. 28:20 ... and lo, I am with you always, even to the end of the age. "

Heb. 13:5... He Himself has said, "I will never desert you, nor will I ever forsake you,"

Rom. 8:38 For I am convinced that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor principalities, nor things present, nor things to come, nor powers,

Rom. 8:39 nor height, nor depth, nor any other created thing, will be able to separate us from the love of God, which is in Christ Jesus our Lord.

Matt. 28:18 And Jesus came up and spoke to them, saying, "All authority has been given to Me in heaven and on earth.

If prophecy is ever separated from the Person of Jesus Christ, it will become destructive in your life.

2. And the second crucial question to ask about any prophecy-motivated choice you make is will it work for the long term????

I believe it was John Wesley who, when asked what he would do today

if you knew Christ was returning tomorrow,

responded by saying,

‟If I was a gardener I would plant a tree.”

You see, if the knowledge of the imminent return of Christ

causes us to make changes in our lives,

then they should be changes

we should make

even if He does not return in our lifetime.

Now, let’s jump back into that amazing passage in Matt. 24

and see where Christ goes with it.

We began this morning

by reading a portion of the section

immediately following those 5 birth pangs.

I mentioned to you last week

that the comments Christ makes

in Matt. 24:9-44

are comments directed specifically to the Nation of Israel

concerning their life during the Great Tribulation.

In the remaining time we have this morning

I want to do 3 things:

1. I want to explain to you why I am convinced this passage is closed circuit

to the Nation of Israel.

2. I want to point out a puzzling question that needs to be answered.

3. And then, finally, I want to share with you the 1^st of two crucial missing pieces

that fit in between Matthew 24:8 and Matthew 24:9.

#1. Why do I say this passage is closed circuit to Israel,

rather than being open comments

to the entire Body of Christ?

I’ll just list several of the obvious clues I see in the passage we read earlier.

a.Matt. 24:16 then those who are in Judea must flee to the mountains;

In this verse He gives a special warning to the people who are living in Judea.

b. Matt. 24:20 "But pray that your flight will not be in the winter, or on a Sabbath.

He tells us that this is a group of people who are continuing to honor and keep the Old Testament Sabbath. Yet, for the body of Christ as a whole

the Sabbath observance died out

during the first few years of the Church.

c. In verse 24:27 we read,

"For just as the lightning comes from the east and flashes even to the west, so will the coming of the Son of Man be.

He refers to Himself not as the Lord, but as ‟the Son of Man”,

the Old Testament title He used to identify Himself to the Jewish people.

d. And in verse 24:15 we read,

"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),...

He tells us that He is talking to a people who’s life centers on the Temple, a people who are deeply offended

by some form of desecration brought into the Temple by the Anti Christ.

Now, there is no reason to assume that these are anything other than literal statements.

This is not symbolism with hidden meanings.

Everything he says suggests that He is talking about

a literal Judea,

and a literal Sabbath,

and a literal temple,

and a very real and literal desecration of that temple.

He is talking to the nation of Israel.

OK, so what?

So let me read the first verse in this section for us again.

Matt. 24:9 "Then they will deliver you to tribulation, and will kill you, and you will be hated by all nations because of My name.

Do you see anything that troubles you about that statement?

Why will the NATION OF ISRAEL be hated by all nations because of the name of Christ?

OK, I’ll give you three possible options:

a. Jesus was really talking to the Church as a whole

and His references to the Sabbath, and the temple, and the abomination of desolation, and Judea

were all just slip-ups on His part.

b. Jesus is really talking to the Nation of Israel

and His statement that they will be hated for their allegiance to Christ

was just a slip-up on His part.

c. OR, by the time we reach the point in history being discussed in Matthew 24:9

there has been a major, massive national turning of the nation of Israel to Christ

as the Messiah,

a turning so dramatic,

and so powerful,

and so revolutionary that the world sees Israel and the work and message of Christ as being virtually synonymous.

And I’ll give you a hint: Jesus never slipped up about anything.

Now, to help us with what Christ is saying here in Matthew 24

I’d like to take us to 3 other prophetic passages,

all of which can help us better understand what’s going on here.

The first one is two verses written by the Old Testament prophet Hosea.

In Hos. 3:4-5 we read,

For the sons of Israel will remain for many days without king or prince, without sacrifice or sacred pillar and without ephod or household idols.

And that’s where Israel has been

for nearly 2000 years - without king or prince,

without sacrifice or temple or nation.

But then the prophet goes on to say,

Afterward the sons of Israel will return and seek the Lord their God and David their king; and they will come trembling to the Lord and to His goodness in the last days.

...and they will come trembling to the Lord and to His goodness in the last days.

We have seen the Jewish people being restored as a nation

after nearly 2000 years.

We saw that take place in 1947.

But we have yet to see the nation of Israel

come trembling to the Lord and to His goodness in the last days.

Then, turn to a second prophetic passage

found in Romans 11:25-29.

And before I read these verses

a little background will help.

Paul wrote these words to a Church

made up mostly of Gentile (or non-Jewish) believers.

During the months immediately following

Christ’s resurrection

and return to heaven,

when the Christian church was just beginning,

those who responded were almost exclusively Jews.

But it wasn’t long before God made it clear to those 1^st believers

that the message of God’s grace and forgiveness through faith in Christ

was not just for the Nation of Israel,

but for the entire world.

Spearheaded by the outreach of the Apostle Paul,

there soon followed a massive response

to the message of Christ

among the Gentile world,

to the point that,

within a few years

the non-Jews far outnumbered the Jews within the early church.

In Romans chapter 11

Paul wrote to explain to these Gentile Christians what was happening and why.

Rom. 11:25 For I do not want you, brethren, to be uninformed of this mystery so that you will not be wise in your own estimation that a partial hardening has happened to Israel until the fullness of the Gentiles has come in;

Rom. 11:26 and so all Israel will be saved; just as it is written, " The Deliverer will come from Zion, He will remove ungodliness from Jacob."

Rom. 11:27 " This is My covenant with them, When I take away their sins."

Rom. 11:28 From the standpoint of the gospel they are enemies for your sake, but from the standpoint of God's choice they are beloved for the sake of the fathers;

Rom. 11:29 for the gifts and the calling of God are irrevocable.

Paul tells the non-Jewish believers

that there would be a period of time

in which a partial hardening of Israel

would take place

so as to push the Gospel into the Gentile world.

But then he says that, once the fullness of the Gentiles has come,

in other words, once God’s work among the Gentile people is completed,

He will once again focus on the Nation of Israel,

and all Israel will be saved; just as it is written, " The Deliverer will come from Zion, He will remove ungodliness from Jacob."

In other words,

he predicts a massive, national turning of Israel to Christ as their promised Messiah.

And if you’d like just one additional

confirmation passage,

I won’t take the time to read it now,

but I’ll give you the references

so that you can check it out on your own.

Rev. 7:5-8 talks about 144,000 Jewish converts who are sealed by God

for a special role during the last 7 years

prior to Christ’s return.

In Rev. 14:4-5 we are told that these are an army of celibate Jewish male evangelists who follow Christ

wherever he leads them,

and who walk blamelessly before Him.

Now, if 144,000 celibate Jewish evangelists

isn’t an indication of massive national revival in Israel, I don’t know what is.

Just picture 144,000 Jewish Billy Grahams.

It also helps to explain why

the nation of Israel is suddenly,

dramatically identified with the Person of Jesus Christ

and hated by all nations because of their Lord.

Now, that’s the first missing piece

between Matthew 24:8 and Matthew 24:9 - the return of the Nation of Israel to their God,

and to their Messiah.

The question, of course, then comes up -

what could possibly serve as a sufficient catalyst to wake Israel up to the truth about Christ?

Possibly it is simply the working of God’s Spirit within them.

But I believe Scripture talks about

one other essential piece in the puzzle

that may help explain this as well.

We’ll look at that piece as we move ahead in this study.