Discerning the Signs but Looking for the Lord
I do listen. As I get older, I forget more easily, but I do listen to people’s concerns. In the last several years, a number of devoted Christians have asked me some form of the following question: “Are we close to the return of Jesus Christ?” As with any Biblical teaching, we must be careful with this subject. In Matthew 24:36, Jesus said, “Of that day and hour knoweth no man.” Later, in Acts 1:7, He added, “It is not for you to know the times or the seasons.” Paul wrote in I Thesssalonians 5:2 that “the day of the Lord so cometh as a thief in the night.” Thus, date-setting defies God’s Word and dishonors our Savior. However, in Matthew 16:3, Jesus pointedly asks, “Can ye not discern the signs of the times?” We do not know and cannot know the exact time of Jesus’ Second Coming and the resulting period of the Tribulation, but we are told to seriously study the signs found in Scripture. (I will be using this opening paragraph for each of the brief messages in this series. The following material will change daily.)
A twenty-second sign of the end is the most important of all – and it occurred nearly 2,000 years ago, probably April 5, A.D. 33. In Matthew 16:4, Jesus says, “A wicked and adulterous generation seeketh after a sign; and there shall no sign be given unto it, but the sign of the prophet Jonas [Jonah].” This sign was Jesus’ victory over death, sin, Satan, and hell – His resurrection. He had said the same thing in Matthew 12:39 and in verse 40 added, “For as Jonas [Jonah] was three days and three nights in the whale’s belly, so shall the Son of Man be three days and three nights in the heart of the earth.” Jesus was precise in His predictions: in Matthew 16:21, 17:22-23, and 20:18-19, He said specifically that He would be attacked by the Jewish leaders at Jerusalem, beaten, crucified, and resurrected on the third day. The fulfillment of Jesus’ detailed prophecy is the core of Christianity and also assures us that all of the other predictions that we have been studying will likewise be fulfilled. God always keeps His promises.