If you’re joining us this morning, we are in a series called Things to Come. We’re outlining the future as the Bible does. We have looked at the rapture, we have looked at the judgment seat of Christ, and this morning we’re coming to look at what the Bible calls the great tribulation. Then next Sunday morning, God willing, we’ll look at the rise and demise of the man of sin or the end time Antichrist.
But the great tribulation is addressed by Jesus in the Olivet Discourse. Matthew 24:15, “Therefore, when you see the abomination of desolation spoken of by Daniel, the prophet standing in the holy place, whoever reads, let him understand, then let those who are in Judea flee to the mountains. Let him who is in the housetop not go down to take anything out of his house, and let him who is in the field not go back to get his clothes. But woe to those who are pregnant and those who are nursing babies in these days. And pray that your flight may not be in winter or on the Sabbath, for then there will be great tribulation such as has not been since the beginning of the world until this time nor ever shall be.
And unless those days be shortened, no flesh would be saved but for the elect’s sake. Those days will be shortened that if anyone says to you, ‘Look, here is the Christ,’ Or ‘There,’ do not believe it, for false Christs and false prophets will rise and show great signs and wonders to deceive. If possible, even the elect. See, I have told you beforehand. Therefore, if they say to you, ‘Look, he is in the desert,’ Do not go out or look. ‘He is in the inner rooms,’ Do not believe it. For as the lightning comes from the east and flashes to the west, who also will the coming of the Son of Man be. For whatever the carcass is there, the eagles will be gathered together.” There we have a sobering description of the last days.
I like the story of the traveling salesman who arrived at his hotel room on the second floor late at night. He was pooped, he was tired, and so he plopped down in the bed and carelessly threw one of his shoes, that hit the wall and then hit the floor. Then he corrected himself realizing, hey, it’s late at night, I’m on the second floor. People are sleeping, I got to cut that out. And so he went a little softer and gentler when he removed his second shoe. He got undressed, got in his pajamas and plopped down into the bed. He was almost over when a rap came to the door of his room. He opened it and there stood a bleary-eyed hotel customer, who said to him, “When are you going to drop the other shoe? Because I’m trying to get to sleep.”
I think we can identify with that. And our story is a description of our world today, is it not? From country to country, continent to continent, people are anxiously awaiting for the shoe to drop. There’s a collective sense that something ominous is just around the corner. They look out on the world and they see the World Health Organization preparing for disease acts, which could be 20 times more potent than COVID. They look out on the world and they see the threat of a Chinese invasion of Taiwan, the threat of a war between Russia and NATO, and the threat of a nuclear Iran. Or the threat of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict spilling over into a regional war with worldwide implications.
Things are on the edge. They look out on a world where they see natural disasters on sea and on land, and they’re scared to death by the climate alarmists. They look out on the world and they see mass migration, countries struggling to manage it culturally and financially, and they think something’s got to give in terms of social upheaval. They look out on the world and they see technology such as AI, artificial intelligence, probably working more against man than working for man. And when they add all these factors together, when they calculate all these threats, they have a collective sense that another shoe’s going to drop, that something ominous is about to happen.
And I want to take that idea up because prophetically speaking, there is another shoe to drop. According to the Bible, the world is on a collision course with a divinely determined end. When we get to our passage this morning, Jesus is answering the question, what is the sign of your coming and the end of the age? Now the shoe to drop, prophetically speaking, is the rapture. That’s the next event on the prophetic calendar, and it will shock the world. Millions and millions of Christians throughout the world, according to 1 Thessalonians 4:13-18, will be called up into heaven. According to John 14:1-3 they’ll be taken to the Father’s house. And this event will change everything. And while the church is in Heaven, chaos and calamity will unfold on the earth below. According to Jesus here, there will be a time of great tribulation, unparalleled within human history, that will bring the curtain down. It will be a time where men’s hearts will fail them, for fear of what’s coming upon the earth, Luke 21:26.
Tommy Ice and Timothy Demme, in a wonderful little book on the tribulation, says this of that period, and it’s a broad stroke. “During these seven years, the Antichrist will emerge, persecution of new Christians and Jewish people will ensue, and the great battle of Armageddon will happen, and the second coming will transpire.” That’s the reality. The worst is yet to come. Spurgeon said that the world is more likely to sink in the pandemonium before it rises in the millennium. In fact, he’s right. Jesus taught that.
So let’s keep going in our series Things to Come. We have looked at the rapture, the review, now we’re looking at the rebellion. When the Antichrist will emerge – we’ll look more deeply at him next week – and the world will be in rebellion against God, which will bring about a battle called Armageddon, which will bring about the return of Jesus and judgment to reign as king.
Let’s put our verses 15 to 28 quickly in context. We are parachuting into what’s called the Olivet Discourse. Jesus has talked about the destruction of the Jewish temple, which triggered His disciples and raised all kinds of questions. Some of them prophetic and so they ask the Lord Jesus, “When will these things be? And what will be the sign of your coming and the end of the age?” And it’s my belief that Jesus kind of pivots, Jesus kind of springboards off their initial concern about the destruction of the temple and what that means for the nation of Israel. Jesus springboards off that to talk about the end days.
I believe that the words that we’re looking at and the bigger context of the Olivet Discourse is not focused on the immediate future and the destruction of the temple in A.D. 70 by Titus the Roman general, but it is looking to the end time, to a rebuilt temple, to the rise of the Antichrist, to an abomination of desolation. To a time of wars and famines and rumors of wars. To a time of false Christs and false prophets. To a time of increased persecution of the Jewish people as they flee Judea in the last days under the reign of Antichrist. That’s where we are at.
Jesus is describing a time that’s unparalleled within human history, that bumps up against his immediate return in power and glory. So we’re not looking at the events of A.D. 70 and we’re not dealing with the fulfillment of that time as an answer to Jesus’ words. So I believe we’re dealing with the future time, the end of days, those days that must be shortened and those days that lead up to Jesus coming in power and glory.
So let’s look at this passage under three headings, the extremity, the epoch, and the effects. The extremity of the tribulation, the epoch of the tribulation, and the effects of the tribulation. Now Jesus calls this period of time, verse 21, the great tribulation. And if you study the Old and the New Testament, you’re going to find it variously described. It’s called Jacob’s Trouble in Jeremiah 37, which alerts us to the fact that it is a time focused on Israel. Jacob’s just another word for the nation of Israel. It’s Israel’s time of trouble when God is going to purge them, humble them, bringing them to repentance, where they will look on Him whom they pierced, Zachariah 12:10.
It’s called Daniel’s Seventy Weeks. Daniel 9:24-27 talks about a period of 17 sevens, of 490 years, and we have seen most of that fulfilled except one week – we’ll get to that before we are done – it’s called the time of distress, Daniel 12:1. It’s called the great day in Revelation 6:17. Revelations 3:10 calls it the hour of testing that will come upon the whole world. We’ve always endured localized trials and tribulation, but there’s coming an hour that will test the whole world. It’s called the indignation in Isaiah 26:20. The great tribulation here in Matthew 24:21. And it’s called the day of the Lord in 1 Thessalonians 5:2. It’s a time of unparalleled terror and horror, a time of great distress.
So let’s look up what I call the extremity. The time of tribulation will be a period, according to Jesus, of severe suffering, both at the hands of man and at the hands of divine judgment. In fact, it’s unparalleled. You see that in verse 21, “For then there will be great tribulation.” What’s the then? When the abomination of desolation takes place. “There will be great tribulation such as has not been since the beginning of the world until this time, no, nor ever shall be.”
This is a sobering thought. According to Jesus, according to your Bible, the darkest page of human history has still got to be written. According to the Bible Knowledge Commentary, the awful character of the tribulation period cannot be fully grasped by anyone. I mean, just think about recent history. We have watched the carnage of two world wars, the slaughter of millions upon millions of people. And then, involved in that period of time, you had the Holocaust, the designed death of a 6 million Jews at the hands of the Nazis.
We’ve watched the reign of Hitler, we’ve watched the brutality of Stalin, we’ve watched the iron fist of the communist Chinese Mao movement. We’ve endured the killing fields of Cambodia. We’ve watched with horror the bloodletting of Rwanda. The medieval barbarity of ISIS in the Middle East. And yet Jesus is saying, just take this in, the worst is yet to come. Wouldn’t you think it can’t get much worse than that? But according to Jesus it will. In fact, that’s echoed back in Jeremiah 30:7 and Daniel 12:1, which talks about this unparalleled time, this great distress that will mark the last days.
Now let me pause and take a little bit of a sidebar because we’ve got to distinguish between the tribulation that you and I and the church goes through in any age, and this period of tribulation. Because I don’t know if you’ve heard, but some of our brothers and sisters in Christ would say something like this, “You know what? We are in the tribulation right now.” Now certainly, brothers and sisters across the world are experiencing a level of tribulation and trouble that you and I have not experienced. And Jesus warned us, didn’t He, in John 16:33, that once we side with Him in this world, you will have what? Tribulation. “But be of good cheer, I’ve overcome the world.” Paul tells us in Acts 14, I think, and 22, that through much tribulation, we, as disciples of Jesus, will enter that eternal Kingdom.
I get it. There will be cross bearing before there’s crown wearing. For sure. You and I are destined to experience a great suffering in life, but that’s not what we’re reading about here. Jesus is talking about great tribulation that’s unparalleled, that must be brought to an end, that will be brought to an end at the end. We’re not talking about sporadic suffering, we’re not talking about seasons of persecution of the church at the hands of Nero or Domitian or whatever.
So I would make an argument we’re not going through the tribulation. And if you listen to my message on the rapture, that’s for sure. Don’t forget, in 2 Thessalonians 2, Paul addresses this issue. Because some had told them, in Paul’s absence, that they were in the day of the Lord, which is a period of time that throws itself across all the events of the last days, and certainly includes the great distress or the great tribulation. And so Paul says, “No, that’s not true.” And he said that time can’t come until one, there’s a falling away. Two, the restrainer is removed. And three, the man of sin declares himself to be God in the temple of God. And none of that had happened. They weren’t in the tribulation because the church doesn’t go through the tribulation. Amen and amen. We’re not appointed to wrath. 1 Thessalonians 1:10 and 1 Thessalonians 5:9.
But let’s be honest, things are going to get a lot worse. Just frame your world with that theological understanding. The world is going to sink in the pandemonium before it rises in the millennium. Things are going to get worse before they get better. The world is not going to get easier to live in. Don’t be Pollyanna-ish about the future. Be realistic, be prophetically equipped to deal with the last days. Trouble and tribulation are not going to end until the end comes. We’re going to face extremity, or the world is, and it will happen gradually and then suddenly. Jesus talks about this as He addresses the times leading up to great tribulation. I might put these events in Matthew 24:4, following into the first half of the tribulation. But Jesus said, you’re going to see famines, pestilences, earthquakes. You’re going to hear about wars and rumors of wars. There’s going to be lawlessness. There’s going to be false prophets that will rise up and deceive many. But He wants you to know, and all these are the beginning of the sorrows.
The word there for sorrows is birth pangs or birth pains. It’s a woman who’s about to deliver and her contractions are now coming. And they’re coming gradually, and before the birth of the child they will come fiercely and suddenly as the child is born. I like what John MacArthur says about that image of birth pains. “Labor pains do not begin until shortly before delivery and they will occur with increasing frequency until the baby is born.” So parenthesis, when you see all this stuff, the end is near. It’s indicating that we’re at a strategic time, that as these things increase in frequency, it alerts us to the end.
He goes on in the same way, “The events connected with the Lord’s return will not begin until just before His return, and they will occur with increasing rapidity, building up to an explosion of catastrophic events. The same epoch is pictured in the book of Revelation as the seal judgments unfold over a period perhaps of years in chapters 6 through 8. Then the trumpet judgments over a much shorter period of time, perhaps weeks, chapters 8 and through 9 and chapter 11. And the bull judgments over a period of perhaps days or hours in chapter 16.” So it’s going to get worse, and when we enter the last seven years of human history, bumping up to Jesus’ return and the onset of the millennium, this horror will unfold gradually and then suddenly Jesus wants us to be aware of that.
I like the story of Snoopy. He’s sitting on his doghouse and he’s crouched over his typewriter and he’s beginning another novel. And he begins his novel with these words: it was a dark and stormy night. And if you know anything about Snoopy, he begins all his writings with those words. And Lucy happens to see this and she interrupts him and she scolds him with these words, “You stupid dog. That’s the dumbest thing I’ve ever heard. Who ever heard of a story beginning with such ominous words? Don’t you know that all good stories, the stories that people want to read, begin with once upon a time?” And so she leaves him to meditate on that thought and so he starts to type, once upon a time it was a dark and stormy night.
And I want to tell you something: although that’s a little funny, it’s a very serious point. Whatever way you cut it, the Bible keeps coming back to it’s a dark and a stormy night that will bring human history to a close. We’re not rising to millennium before we sink to pandemonium. Men will not destroy this world. The environment will not bring things to a close, God will, during a time of great tribulation. That’s the extremity.
Let’s move secondly to what I call the epoch. The epoch is a period of time within history, usually marked by notable events. That’s what an epoch is. And I can’t think of a better word to describe the tribulation according to the words of Jesus. It’s a set period of time marked by notable events. In fact, in our passage, Jesus says it’s a period of time marked by an abomination of desolation within the temple that leads to the persecution of Israel as the nation of Israel flees Judea and flees to the mountains.
It will be a time so severe that it must be shortened or you’ll watch the annihilation of all of mankind. There’ll be false prophets and false Christs, who will come in Jesus’ name with deceptive signs and wonders. There’ll be a great slaughter at the battle of Armageddon where the carcasses of mankind will lie and eagles will gather together above them. And then there’ll be that coming of Jesus like a lightning strike. That’s the epoch. Jesus talks here about days, verse 19, 22, and 29. He also talks about it being an unparalleled period of time with a beginning and a shortened end. And then He talks about a period of time that the prophet Daniel talks about here in verse 15.
In fact, that that’s going to trigger a little study here for a few minutes. This is a study in itself. I was kindly chastised by a few in first service that I should have gone slower at this point in the sermon, but there’s a lot of ground to cover, and I’m going to hopefully make a few things clear to you but encourage you to go deeper.
But according to most biblical scholars of a pre-millennial bent, this period of time, these days that will see such horrors, bumping up against the end of time, this period of time is a period of seven years. You say, “Pastor, where do you get that?” I’m glad you asked. And I think we’re triggered here, in verse 15, “Therefore, when you see the abomination of desolation spoken of by Daniel, a prophet standing in the holy place, then those in Judea need to flee.” So let’s go back to Daniel 9, in verse 27, where Jesus is referring to. In fact, we’re going to look at verses 24 through 27. This is what’s called the Seventy Week Prophecy of Daniel.
Let me just put it in context. Daniel’s been reading the prophecy of Jeremiah. Israel is in exile and they’re longing to return, and God promised if they’d repent, they’d return. In fact, Jeremiah said that the captivity of Israel would come at the end of 70 years. So Daniel is hopeful and he starts to pray, and he confesses his own sin and he confesses the sins of the nation according to verse 20 of Daniel 9. And as he’s doing that, the angel Gabriel comes and gives Daniel a prophecy.
Here’s a little sidebar, it’s a beautiful thing. Verse 21, “While I was speaking in prayer, the man Gabriel whom I had seen in the vision at the beginning, being caused to fly swiftly reached me about the time of the evening sacrifice, and he informed me…” Did you notice that God answered Daniel’s prayer while he was praying it and before he finished it? I love that. I hope God does that for you and He does that for me. A little study in prayer many years ago taught me God sometimes answers our prayers before we ask because He knows the things we have need of before we even ask. God answers our prayers before we ask, God wonderfully answers our prayers while we ask, and sometimes He’ll answer our prayers long after we have asked. That’s why we’ve got to pray and not to faint until we see an answer. But God wonderfully answers Daniel’s prayer and He answers it in a manner that Daniel couldn’t have imagined. Because I think what we’ve got here in verses 24 through 27, is a prophecy about Israel’s history and their final restoration at the end of history.
Now this is where we’re going to have to speed up, but I’ll be as clear as I can, I’ll try and help you think this out as we go along. And I’m going to give credit to my good friend Dr. Mark Hitchcock, who gives us 10 keys to understanding this prophecy. So follow along as you can. If you can’t write as fast as I speak, then you can always listen to this again.
But here’s the first key. This prophecy is about weeks of years. Look at verse 24. 70 weeks are determined for your people and for your holy city. “Hey Daniel, I’m going to tell you about the future for Israel and Jerusalem, and that the span of time is what’s called Seventy Weeks, are determined.” Now these are weeks of years. The Hebrew is 70 sets of 7. And if we do our math, that adds up to 490 years. That’s point number two. The total time being addressed in this passage is 490 years. That’s the entire period that Gabriel is helping Daniel understand. Number three, you’ll notice its Jewish character. This is not a prophecy related to the church. This is a prophecy tied to the nation of Israel. 70 weeks are determined for your people. Who was Daniel’s people? Israel, the Jewish people, the descendants of Abraham by lineage, and the holy city. That’s Jerusalem.
You’ll notice the purpose of these 70 weeks or these 490 years, there’s several purposes. To put down rebellion, to bring an end to sin, to atone for guilt. To bring an everlasting righteousness, to confirm the prophetic vision or seal it up, and to anoint the most holy place. Now, Jesus’ death on the cross at His first coming made provision for sin. Remember, He came at the end of the age to put away sin by the sacrifice of Himself. But Israel didn’t accept their Messiah, didn’t repent of their sin. That awaits the end of the 70 weeks in conjunction with the second coming. The last three elements here, the bringing of eternal righteousness, the confirming of the prophetic vision, and the anointing of the holy place, await the coming. Kingdom age and the second coming.
Number five, this is important, when does the clock start ticking? I mean, where do we place this period of 490 years? These 70 weeks of 7? Well, we’re told. “No, therefore,” Verse 25, “Understand that from the going forth of the command to restore and rebuild Jerusalem, until Messiah the prince comes, there shall be seven weeks. And 62 weeks the street shall be built again, and the wall, even in troublesome times.” So according to this, the clock starts ticking, the 490 years begin, at the command to rebuild the city of Jerusalem. That would be March the 5th, 444 B.C. when the Persian King Artaxerxes issued a decree allowing the Jews, or an element of the Jews, to return, under Nehemiah’s leadership, to rebuild the city of Jerusalem.
Number six. The 490 years are divided up or the 70 weeks of 7 years are divided up into 69 and 1. Look at our text again, “Know therefore, understand that from the going forth of the command to restore and build Jerusalem until the Messiah, the prince, there shall be seven weeks. And 62 weeks the street shall be built again.” The exact period of time would be 173,880 days. Better men than me have worked on this, and that’s a precise time. And it brings you from March the 5th, 444 B.C. until March the 30th A.D. 33. And we believe that’s the day that Jesus rode into Jerusalem during his triumphant entry, Luke 19, 20:7-44.
There’s an interesting phrase, by the way, that Jesus uses there. He talks about, you don’t seem to realize the day of visitation. What’s he alluding to? I think he’s alluding to the fact I’m here, just like Daniel said, after the 69 weeks, the 7 and the 62, “I’m here, and you don’t realize it that the Messiah has come.” And they didn’t.
That brings us to number seven. Mark Hitchcock calls it the gap. See, the first 69 weeks have already run their course. Israel rejected their Messiah, and so God temporarily suspends His plan for Israel. Remember, this is a prophecy about Israel, 490 years tied into Daniel’s people and the city of Jerusalem. This would be Romans 11, wouldn’t it? That God has blinded Israel and hardened Israel until the times of the Gentiles be fulfilled.
There’s a gap where God’s purpose for Israel has been suspended. And during this gap, the church comes into existence, there’s a gap between the 69 weeks and the 70th week. And during that gap, we see in verse 26, two things will happen: Messiah will be cut off, and the people of the prince who is to come, I believe that’s a reference to the Antichrist, and the people of that prince is the Romans, because the people of the Prince to come shall destroy the city and the sanctuary. So in this gap, at the end of the 69 weeks when Jesus has arrived, then the Messiah has come. The Messiah gets cut off, killed, and Jerusalem gets destroyed and ransacked and the temple burned, A.D. 70.
And so now there’s a gap. When’s this last week, this seven-year period going to be fulfilled? Well, we’re told the prophetic clock starts ticking again when we get to verse 27, “Then he shall confirm a covenant with many.” Who’s the he? The prince who is to come. The prince from among the people who destroyed the temple, the Romans. There will be a revived Roman Empire. We see that today in some form in the European coalition. And out of the midst of that revived Roman Empire will come the Antichrist. We’ll look at him next week.
But you’ll notice that this last week will come about, the fulfillment of this prophecy will come to a conclusion when that prince to come, the Antichrist, makes a covenant or a treaty with Israel for one week, for seven years. That’s Revelations 6:1-2. The first seal is this figure riding on the white horse in Revelation 6:1-2. Many believe it to be Christ. I don’t believe it to be Christ. I believe it to be Antichrist who will reveal himself initially as a peacemaker. He will bring to the Middle East what has eluded governments and presidents and princes. I mean, the peace process in the Middle East seems to be endless. When’s that peace process going to come to a conclusion? When a covenant is made by the prince who is to come of the people who destroyed Jerusalem in A.D. 70 during the time the Messiah was cut off. And he’ll make a covenant and he’ll bring peace, that will trigger the 70th week.
By the way, the rapture won’t trigger the 70th week. It’s the treaty between Israel and the Antichrist that will trigger it. There may be a short gap between the rapture and the beginning of the tribulation period, which will be signaled by this confirmed covenant. And by the way, how interesting that you and I live in a day when Israel is reborn, come back into existence in 1948, sanctioned by the UN. They didn’t steal the land from anybody, it was theirs because God gave it to them and it was recognized by the nations and there they are. And ever since the being there, the surrounding nations have tried to wipe them out and they’ve had no peace, and we’re watching the latest iteration of it on our evening news. And when is there going to be peace in the Middle East? And it’s going to be brought about, at least in a false manner, by the emergence of this figure we’ll look at next week, the Antichrist.
You’ll see this ninth key to understanding this prophecy is he breaks the treaty. That’s the ninth key. “Then he shall confirm a covenant with many for one week, but in the middle of the week he shall bring an end to sacrifice and offering, and on the wing of abominations,” That’s the abomination Jesus is talking about In Matthew 24:15, talked about in 2 Thessalonians 2:4, “When the Antichrist will declare himself to be God in a rebuilt temple.” That will be an abomination. You’ve already had a dry run with Antiochus Epiphanes, who slaughtered pigs on the altar of the Jewish temple and caused such an uproar among the people of Israel.
But he’s going to break the covenant in the middle of the week, which gives us an idea that the seven year period may see-saw at the middle point from three and a half years of tribulation to three and a half years of maybe greater tribulation. In fact, Jesus talks about tribulation in verse 9 of Matthew 24. But then he talks about great tribulation in verse 21. Could the breaking of the treaty signal greater sufferings at the hand of man and the terroristic reign of the Antichrist against people who don’t take the mark and his focused persecution against the Jewish people who he promised peace to? And then you’re going to have a ratcheting up of the seals, going into trumpets, going into bowls, back to MacArthur’s quote, that they all ratchet up and become more intense with greater rapidity. And then you have the end of the 70 weeks, when you have here what we call the consummation, even until end of verse 27, the consummation.
Okay, I may have scared more rabbits up than we were able to shoot. Hopefully not. But basically, that’s where you’re at. We’ve looked at the extremity and we’ve looked at the epoch, a seven year period at the end of history that will involve many, many things which you’re going to get to briefly here before we’re done.
Now, just quickly, did you notice about this seven year period, Jesus hints at the fact that it’s got to be shortened. It’s going to get so bad. In fact, when you do the math of the Book of Revelation, at one point half of the peoples of this world are annihilated. In one of the judgments, a quarter of the world’s population will die. And another judgment a third. When you add the quarter to the third, it’s a half. Think about that. Can you imagine that? Three and a half billion people slaughtered? Dead? This is a horrific time. Unimaginable. And Jesus said, “Unless it’s cut short, no flesh will be saved.” Verse 22, “But for the elect’s sake, it will be cut short.”
Now there’s a debate. I’m going to throw out a few ideas and maybe hint at where I lean. But it’s not a hill to die on. I think there’s better things to do than write a PhD on this issue, but have at it if that’s your thing. But here’s where basically we’re at. Interesting. John MacArthur has an interesting take. He believes that the shortening of that time will be the shortening of daylight hours, so that the Antichrist has to operate in periods of great darkness. Interesting, I just don’t see anything in the text that would suggest that.
There’s another idea. I think there’s some merit to this. Robert Gromacki, in his book Are These the Last Days? says, “Since the exact time of Jesus coming to the earth is unknown, and according to Him cannot be determined,” No one knows the hour or the day, he would make an argument, “He may come before the seven years are up in order to deliver His own from the persecutions of that period.” Or, and I would lean more this way, Ed Glasscock of Dallas Theological Seminary says that “The best understanding is that the number of days are set at a limit beyond which no more flesh will be destroyed. The issue is not necessarily that the number was reduced from the previous number, but was limited or shortened from a greater possible number so that the world would not be annihilated.”
Okay. The events. Let’s move quickly here, we’re out of time but we’ll squeeze this in. There’s a series of events… Or sorry, not the events, the effects. I skipped that thought for this sermon. The effect. What are the purposes? What are some of the outcomes? What are some of the unfolding events within this period of time that God will use to fulfill His purpose for Israel and His plan for the world? I mean, God’s always at work, even in the darkest hour. This will be the darkest hour of human history, but there will still be the light of divine providence, God working all things after the council of His own will. Ephesians 1:11.
Here’s the first fact or purpose: the purge of the nation of Israel. Remember, the focus of this 70th week, according to Daniel, is Daniel’s people and the city of Jerusalem, the holy city. Jesus picks that theme up because we read in Revelation 12:6 and 14, that during the rise and the reign of the Antichrist, when he has broken the treaty with Israel, he will persecute the woman who bore the child, which I think is an allusion to Israel, and they will have to flee to the wilderness, and God will protect them there for 1,260 days. That’s three and a half years. Does that ring a bell? Seven year period, maybe split into two halves. But the point is this: Israel will be humbled and harassed. Jesus talks about it here.
Judah’s going to have to flee when the Antichrist declares himself to be God in the abomination of desolation spoken of by Daniel the prophet, 2 Thessalonians 2:4. If you’re at top of the house, don’t go inside the house, go down the outside staircase and flee. If you’re working in a field, don’t go for your coat, flee. If you’re a pregnant woman, I pity you because you’re going to be slow and get caught up in what’s unfolding with great rapidity. I hope you don’t flee in the winter because it’s not easy to travel fast in the winter. I hope you don’t travel, says Jesus, in the Sabbath, because Israel tends to be at rest, and maybe the Antichrist will attack Israel on the Sabbath. Does that ring a bell? Yom Kippur, when Israel was attacked on the Sabbath and caught unaware. In fact, this latest attack by Hamas was on a Jewish holiday.
So Jesus is telling the Jewish people, they’re going to hate you. The nations are going to hate you. And again, this isn’t about the church, it’s about Israel. So when Jesus talks about the nations killing and hating, He’s talking about Israel. But God’s going to use this time of humility and harassment, He’s going to use it as salt to make them thirsty for Him. There will come a consummation, according to Daniel 9:27. Write down Zechariah 12:10, a very interesting prophecy, again to do with the last days. Zechariah 12, 13 and 14 is kind of marrying some of the stuff of Matthew 24. And God says this, “In the last days I’m going to pour a spirit of grace upon Israel and she will look to Him whom she pierced.” It seems to me to promise a revival in the last days for Israel. That would be Romans 11:25-27, wouldn’t it? That blindness and hardness of heart will happen to Israel until the times of the Gentiles be fulfilled.
Jesus talks about there’ll come a point when Jerusalem will be no longer in the hands of Gentile powers, be returned to the people of Israel. That’s all going to mark the end time. But when that time comes to an end, all Israel will be saved. That’s all the Israel existing after the purge and horror of the tribulation period. And they will look on Him whom they pierced and repent.
I’m in the middle of a book by Alan Deresiewicz. It’s about the October 7th attack on Israel. He says this, “The murderous attack on Israeli civilians on October 7th, 2023, and the responses to it have changed everything. Israel’s efforts to prevent its destruction by deterrent strength has been weakened. This has encouraged Israel’s enemies to redouble their efforts to commit politicide and genocide to destroy the state of Israel and kill its citizens.
It has exposed rampant antisemitism around the world, especially among university students, even before Israel responded to Hamas’s barbarity. It has changed the relationship between Israel and the United States, especially with regard to American pressure on Israel. It has required Israel to consider nuclear options with regard to destroying Iran’s nuclear weapons program and deploying its nuclear arsenal as a last resort to assure its survival.
It has revealed dangerous attitudes among America’s future leaders. On today’s college campuses, it has shown that antisemitism increases when Jews and their nation-state are victimized. It has clouded the future of peace between Israel and its Arab and Muslim neighbors, and has diminished the proposals for a peaceful resolution of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.
It has made predictions about the future of the region nearly impossible, except that increasing instability is inevitable. Nothing will ever be the same.” And then he finishes with these words and I want to tie it into my point and move on. “This is a new beginning and there is no assurance that we’ll have a happy ending.” That’s the words of Alan Deresiewicz, a liberal-leaning Jewish professor from Harvard. We’re witnessing stuff in the Middle East that’s changed everything. And for a time there won’t be a happy ending for Israel. This hatred, this antisemitism will increase under the future Fuhrer, the Antichrist himself. But there will be a happy ending when God pours a spirit of grace upon that nation and restores them to Himself.
Quickly, not only will it purge the nation of Israel, it will portray the diabolical nature of Satan. To the most of the world, the idea of Satan or evil is now a joke. Man is good, isn’t he, at heart? And if he’s not good it’s simply because the environment isn’t allowing him to be good. The whole idea of depravity and innate evil has been lost to our thinking. The devil is a joke. We’ve spiritualized him. We’ve psychologized him out of existence. But in the end, the joke will be on this world, as God gives Satan the floor, the removal of the restrainer, the rapture of the church, and the one who has the world in His lap, 1 John 5:19, will be put on full display. And his diabolical nature and the need for God’s judgment to fall on him and those who follow him.
The Bible tells us he’s a liar. Look at the last days. Antichrist, Antichrist, the false prophet, signs and wonders. He’s a thief and a murderer. Wars, Gog and Magog, Armageddon. The world will rise up to fight God. Murder and death will mark the last days. He’s a pretend God. Didn’t he rise up to call himself God according to Isaiah 14? And through his super man, the Antichrist, he’s going to declare himself to be God in the very temple of God. In a way, the tribulation is one big I told you so from God. There is such a thing as evil and sin and lawlessness and it’s going to be on full display, and God will indeed remove it and visit it.
I’ve told you the story about the boxer, bruised and staggering on his feet after a bad round, into the corner. And the trainer splashing water on his head and rubbing him down and sticking smelling salts up his nostrils and saying, “Rocky, you’re doing great. He’s hardly let a glove on you.” To which he replies, “Well, if he hasn’t, keep an eye on the referee because somebody’s beaten the living daylights out of me.” My friend, as you look out on the world, how do you explain… The world’s being pummeled by evil and tragedy and chaos. The Bible explains it. And it’s going to be on full display, which leads us to the third thought. It will prove the sovereignty of God because God will remove evil.
You ever think about the Lord’s prayer, quickly? Your Kingdom come. Later we’re taught to pray, deliver us from the evil one. And ultimately, that prayer of delivering us from the evil one will be fulfilled in the coming Kingdom, when God destroys Satan and visits earth-dwellers with his wrath and proves His sovereignty.
Do you remember one of the designations of this time? It’s the day of the Lord. In the midst of all the chaos, nothing’s ever out of control. It’s the day of the Lord. It’s a period He prophesied. It’s a time He planned and He will show himself to be sovereign. When Jesus returns as king of kings and Lord of lords and takes back the title deed of the earth because according to Revelation 5, He’s the only one worthy to take the scroll and open it.
Remember Exodus 5:10, when Moses goes before Pharaoh and says what? “Let my people go.” The Lord says it. And what does Pharaoh say? “Who is God that I should serve Him? Who is this God?” What follows? Plagues. Until Pharaoh’s humbled and is faced with the glory and the power of Israel’s God. “Who is this God that I should serve Him?”
I think the great tribulation is going to be that kind of time, as the world thumbs its nose at God, as Antichrist rises as Satan’s super man and establishes his kingdom of darkness and his reign of terror, and if you don’t take his mark, you get slaughtered. “Who is this God that I should serve Him?” And then comes what? The seals and the trumpets and the bowls, the plagues, the wars. God’s going to prove Himself sovereign.
And finally, it’s a time when God will punish the wickedness of man. And this is where I want to end. I want to challenge anybody that’s here today or listening to this broadcast that if you’re not in Christ, I plead with you to flee from the wrath to come and trust the one who can become your eternal refuge, who bore the wrath of God in Himself. Upon a cross shed, His blood that you and I might be redeemed.
God is long-suffering, my friend. And the wrath of God is being bricked up behind a dam of patience and mercy. But someday that dam will break and God’s righteous judgment will be visited on you and this world marked by lawlessness and wickedness. So while God is long-suffering and not willing that any should perish, He’s not so long-suffering that sinners will not suffer for their sin.
Jesus talks about, “He will come like a lightning strike and there be such carnage that the birds will hover above it and so that mankind will see the carnage that lies below when Jesus returns and smashes the nations.” According to Isaiah 13:9 and Isaiah 24:19-20, comes to make an end of sin and sinners. You look at the book of Revelation, this phrase appears many times, “That judgment is visited on the earth-dweller.” Those bound by this world, the things of this world. They’re bound by time, they’ve no thought of eternity. They focused on their bodies and temporal happiness and not their souls and eternal well-being. The tribulation will remind us that this world has forgotten that God is holy and He will punish sin. He’s not a campfire. He’s a consuming fire. And according to 2 Peter 3:10 following, there’ll come a time at the end of history when this old world will be burned up.
Let me finish with this. Listen to these words from Psalm 83:13. “Oh my God, make them like the whirling dust, like the chaff before the wind. As the fire burns the wood and as the flame sets the mountains afire, so pursue them with your tempest and frighten them with your storm.” That’s an image very close to home here in California. We’ve watched great fires light up the hills and chase people in their cars and chase people out of towns like Paradise, as this wall of fire consumes everything in its path. My friend, that’s what the judgment of God’s going to be like. It’s going to be like a California wildfire. It’s going to chase you down with the intent to consume in righteous satisfaction. And so we encourage you to flee from the wrath to come.
Psalm 83 talks about a storm. A storm is coming. The worst storm of human history. The clouds are gathering. You need to anchor your life to Jesus Christ. As we close, ever so quickly, what should be our response? I mean, this is a sobering message, certainly worth further study and deeper reflection. I wrote down a couple of quick responses. On our part, worship. Let’s join those in Heaven and worship God for our redemption. In Revelation 4 to 5 we have the church in Heaven. We have the 24 elders before the throne of God and they’re singing power and glory to Him. And we thank Him because we have been redeemed by precious blood out of every tribe, tongue, and nation. And they’re doing that on the eve of the outpouring of the wrath of the Lamb in Revelation 6. Seems to me, cue it up, that’s where you and I need to be. Worshiping, thanking God for our redemption, praising Him. According to 1 Thessalonians 1:10 and 1 Thessalonians 5:9, we haven’t been appointed to wrath. We’re not children of the darkness. We don’t belong to the day of the Lord and that terrible time.
At the end of 2023, June and I were on a flight back from Tennessee. And it was just before takeoff and all of a sudden the guy next to June, he was at the window – June was in the middle where she always is because I like the aisle – the guy grabbed June by the arm and said, “I don’t have cancer.” We are like, “What? What’s going on?” He says, “I just got a text from the clinic that I don’t have cancer.” And so we rejoiced with him, we shared the Word of God with him and encouraged him to praise God for His goodness in his life. I can tell you this, throughout that three and a half hour flight, once in a while he would just turn to us and say, “I don’t have cancer.” You know why? The relief. The sense of a new lease on life. Shouldn’t that be where we are at each and every day of our life? We haven’t been appointed the wrath. Hey, we haven’t been appointed the wrath.
Number two, we ought to watch. Jesus calls the final generation living in the final days of human history to watch. Matthew 24:44, Matthew 24:32-35, “Be ready. For in such an hour as you think not, the Son of Man comes, watch.” Now we’re awaiting the signless event of the rapture, which we covered a few weeks ago. But if we begin to see the shadows of the events that will mark the tribulation, how close are we to the rapture? And I think if you and I look out on our world, Israel has been reborn. Jerusalem is a cup of trembling. The nations are at war. There’s famines, there’s pestilences, there’s false Christs. The shadows are there. And by the way, when you see my shadow, I’m not far away. And when we see the shadows of the tribulation, how close is the tribulation and then how close is the rapture? So we need to be ready, we need to be watching.
And then finally, my friend, we need to witness. Jesus told us that leading up to His coming, the gospel will be taken into all the world. That mission is unaccomplished, will be finally accomplished by the 144,000 and the two witnesses. But in the church age, you and I need, with love and urgency, to take this message to our friends to flee from the wrath to come. In view of a coming storm, an awful time, why would we neglect to tell those we love, and even out of gospel impulse, those who don’t love us, our enemies, that they need to get ready because the storm clouds are gathering? And the currents of human history are flowing ever so fast in the direction of the coming of Jesus Christ.
The mighty Niagara river plummets some 180 feet at the American and Horseshoe Falls. Before the falls, there’s violent, turbulent rapids further upstream. However, where the river current flows more gently, boats are able to navigate. But just before the Welland River empties into the Niagara, there’s a pedestrian walkway that spans the river. And there’s a warning that’s posted on it, as in the sense that you don’t want to go past that. You can navigate around this part of the river. Once you get past this part, the currents are going to catch you and drive you over the Falls. So on that bridge, you’ve got these words, “Do you have an anchor? You might want to use it.” My friend, Jesus is an anchor. You might want to use them and flee from the wrath to come.
Father, we thank you for our time in the Word. As we continue to gauge a panorama of events leading up to the end of time and new Heaven and a new earth, we thank you that we are not blind. We thank you for a Biblical worldview that helps us make sense of what our eyes see and what our hearts feel. Lord, we thank you we have hope. But thank-you for the promise that we will not see this time, that we are not appointed to wrath. We thank you that Jesus is coming to take us to the Father’s house, and while we are in Heaven, chaos will unfold on the earth.
And Lord, we pray that we would be sobered by that. We pray that we would indeed watch with greater readiness for the imminent return of Jesus for the church. We pray that we would worship you and love you for our redemption and the fact that we are sin-free someday.
And Lord help us to witness. Help us to sensitively but wisely buy into the fear that stalks the human heart. Men look around, they’re waiting for the shoe to drop. They’re not sure what it is. Help us to tell them and show them and plead for them to embrace the love of God and the mercy of Jesus Christ. We pray it all in His name. Amen.