The Second Coming | Matthew

Introduction:
What I will declare tonight, almost all of you will have heard before.
What I will declare tonight is not arresting because it’s something new to us.
It’s not arresting because I’m taking an approach to this text that is creative.
What I declare tonight is arresting for one reason.
IT’S ARRESTING BECAUSE IT’S TRUE.
These verses speak of something that we only know about because God revealed it.
They speak of something we can only imagine; we’ve never seen anything like it before.
They speak of a hope that we have that is entirely by faith.
These events will certainly come to pass.
And, if you believe that they are certain to come to pass, then your life will be changed.
You can’t believe these verses and remain the same.
You can’t believe these verses - really believe these verses - and waste your life.
What is described here is as certain to take place as it is certain that Jesus is Lord.
Because Jesus is the one telling us what will happen. If this doesn’t happen, then Jesus was a fraud, and Jesus was no fraud.
And so as certain as you were that when you opened your eyes this morning the sun would be in the sky, MORE CERTAIN THAN THAT (heaven and earth will pass away before His words pass away), is the fact that what Jesus describes here will one day be reality.
These things are not hard to understand. But they are things that men do not believe in as they should.
They are things that the natural man wants to deny or ignore.
They are things that a lukewarm church, a sleepy church, turns a deaf ear to.
Truths that the professing church has become numb to.
Because, if we really believe these things, then how should we live?
Jesus was asked about His coming kingdom. (vs.3)
ESV Matthew 24:3 As he sat on athe Mount of Olives, the disciples came to him bprivately, saying, "Tell us, cwhen will these things be, and what will be the sign of your dcoming and of ethe end of the age?"
They are asking about the end of the end. They are asking about Christ coming in glory and ushering in His kingdom and about the everlasting age that will follow.
Jesus answers both aspects of their question. He describes the times, and He describes the signs that will identify the times.
Jesus spoke of the time leading up to the great tribulation. (vs.4-14)
Jesus spoke of the sign that identifies the beginning of the great tribulation. (vs.15-28)
And now Jesus speaks of the time that follows the abomination of desolation.
We are talking about when Christ returns in glory - the glorious second coming of Christ.
• A TIME IS IDENTIFIED (vs.29) (A sequence of events)
So, when will this happen? What Jesus is about to describe will take place FOLLOWING the abomination of desolation, but it will take place DURING THAT SAME TIME PERIOD.
It is IN THOSE DAYS - in those days of tribulation.
ESV Mark 13:19 For in those days there will be such tribulation as has not been from the beginning of the creation that God created until now, and never will be.
It is AFTER that tribulation - at the end of it.
Seven years of tribulation, three and a half years in you have the abomination of desolation, and three and a half years later, the end of the end will arrive.
THERE’S A SEQUENCE THAT JESUS IS SETTING FORTH.
In those days, events will take place that will leave God’s people without a doubt about the true appearing of the Lord Jesus.
• COSMIC TERRORS ARE IDENTIFIED (vs.29b)
That last three and a half years will be horrific. And at the end of the unleashing of the worst experience of the wrath of God on earth, and the worst experience of the wrath of Satan on earth, the universe will begin to fail.
Matthew makes clear that there won’t be a gap of time.
Εὐθέως - “at once - directly.”