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Last week, we had the Harvest Service and so I preached a Harvest Sermon from the parable of the sower, but the two previous weeks we looked at the first four points of this long sermon that I am taking you through in Matthew 24.
There are 15 points total and to remind you the big idea of Matthew 24 is to anticipate the soon return of Christ and the first four practices how you are to anticipate the soon return of Christ are through looking at the prophetic certainty of what has already been fulfilled, taking seriously why Jesus provides end time details, through watching out for the appearance of many false prophets, and the fourth that we have seen is through observing an increasing number of global wars.
The third and fourth points were signs that Jesus gives that point to the reality that his return is getting closer. What we have seen is that verse 8 is a very important verse in understanding this chapter.
Each of the signs described is compared to birth pains. Just as the contractions of a pregnant woman increase in frequency and intensity as the birth of a child nears, so the signs of the end also increase in frequency and intensity as Christ's return gets closer.
And this morning as we continue our sermon series through Matthew we are going to look at points 5 and 6. These points are the third and fourth signs that Jesus gives that his return to this earth is nearing.
At this time I encourage you to turn in the Bible with me then to Matthew 24. Matthew 24 and here is the fifth practice how you are to anticipate the soon return of Christ. The fifth practice how is through experiencing a rise in natural disasters.
Experiencing a rise in natural disasters. This is the fifth practice how, but the third sign that Jesus gives. And we'll see this in the second half of verse 7 where Jesus says there will be famines and earthquakes in various places.
So the third sign that his return is nearing has to do with nature. What we know about weather is that God controls it. Every weather phenomenon that we see is under the control of God. And so these signs are going to play out under his sovereign control.
What Jesus says is that famines and earthquakes will happen in various places. In other words, various is different places. A famine of course is a lack of food and we read about famines all over the world.
We have plenty in America, but many places around the world experience famines regularly. Since COVID and the economic downfall the last couple of years we have seen a shortage of food and this will likely only increase.
I know we have preppers in the church. In fact, Julie Johnson led a class on prepping recently and how to think about this biblically. You're not crazy to store up food. It's wise to store up food in the event that there is a great shortage of food in the future.
There is wisdom in that. But famines happen for many reasons. It can be agricultural issues because of the environment. It can be economic. But whatever it is, Jesus is telling us that there will be famines and they will increase in frequency and intensity as the end nears.
Jesus also says there will be earthquakes in various places. Some in this church have seen the film The Coming Convergence. The focus of this film is to say that all the signs of the end are coming together.
All the signs that Jesus predicts are coming together at once. And there is a segment in this film where they talk about earthquakes and what they discovered is that the data shows that over time in the recent period of history, there has been an increase in earthquakes.
Not only in frequency, but also in intensity as time has gone on. The largest earthquake in history occurred in 1960 in Chile. On the Richter scale, it measured at 9 .5. When my family and I took a trip to Alaska in 2003, we learned about the second largest earthquake in history.
That took place in Prince William Sound in 1964. And this earthquake caused a tsunami and the fishing village of Seward, Alaska was destroyed by the tsunami and in other places as well. Some of you remember the great tsunami that hit Indonesia in 2004.
That was caused by an earthquake in the Indian Ocean that measured at 9 .1. Most recently in 2011, there was a large tsunami in Japan that was caused from an earthquake off the east coast of Japan that came from an earthquake measured at 9 .1 on the Richter scale.
What is interesting too is that Jesus says these are happening in various places. I mentioned that famines usually occur in poor countries where they don't have plenty. But with economic downturns, they can occur anywhere.
Including in wealthy countries as we see right now. As the end nears, we should also expect to see earthquakes in strange places. We live in an area that only has very, very minor earthquakes where we don't even know we have earthquakes because they're so minor.
Worst case scenario, your cupboard might shake and you might hear some dishes moving. But these large earthquakes will be felt everywhere. Now as Jesus mentions famines and earthquakes in the second half of verse 7, he is not just referring to famines and earthquakes, but the application here, the implication is that there's many effects of nature that will happen, that are happening.
There's not much data from before 1900, but if there were data available, we would be able to look at hurricanes, tornadoes, volcanoes, blizzards, droughts, and flooding. And what we would see is an increase in frequency and intensity in all of these natural disasters over the past 100 plus years.
But the greatest disasters will occur during the final seven-year tribulation. Once again, in keeping with the understanding of birth pains, as they increase and they are at their most severe point at the very end.
Revelation describes this. Once again, I said two weeks ago, some Bible students see these events in Revelation as happening historically. But when you look at the magnitude of the earthquakes we're about to see, one could clearly see that these are mammoth end times earthquakes.
When I read the book of Revelation, my understanding is that chapters 6 through 19 describe the period of the final seven-year tribulation. If you're wondering where we get this final seven years, where the Antichrist reigns and there are cataclysmic events happening on the earth, we get that from Daniel chapter 9, verses 24 through 27, which is known as Daniel's 70 weeks.
And I will get into detail more about that section of Scripture when we talk about the final one world ruler coming up here. But let's talk about the earthquakes that Jesus describes that will be most severe during the final tribulation.
Revelation chapter 6, verses 12 through 17 describes the first earthquake. This is the sixth seal that is opened. It says this, When he opened the sixth seal, I looked, and behold, there was a great earthquake.
And the sun became black as sackcloth, the full moon became like blood, and the stars of the sky fell to the earth as the fig tree sheds its winter fruit when it's shaken by a gale. The sky vanished like a scroll that is being rolled up, and every mountain and island was removed from its place.
Then the kings of the earth and the great ones and the generals and the rich and the powerful and everyone, slave and free, hid themselves in the caves and among the rocks of the mountains, calling to the mountains and rocks, fall on us and hide us from the face of him who is seated on the throne and from the wrath of the Lamb, for the great day of their wrath has come, and who can stand?
What we see here is many cataclysmic events happening at the beginning of the final seven-year tribulation. The first cataclysm is a massive earthquake that functions as the first domino in a line of natural disasters.
Then later on in the tribulation, when the two witnesses preach from Jerusalem, as Revelation 11 describes, for 1260 days, which is in the mid part of the tribulation, there will be another earthquake.
As these men preach, they were murdered, but after three and a half days they are raised to life and they are taken up to heaven. As they are taken up to heaven, their enemies are watching them, and Revelation 11, 13 describes a massive earthquake at this time, which says this, at that hour there was a great earthquake, and a tenth of the city fell.
Seven thousand people were killed in the earthquake, and the rest were terrified and gave glory to the God of heaven. But these two earthquakes that we have seen described in Revelation pale in comparison to the largest earthquake in world history, which is described in Revelation 16.
This earthquake comes from the seventh bull judgment. In Revelation you have the seal judgments, you have the trumpet judgments, and you have the bull judgments. So this is at the very end. The bull judgments are last.
This is the sixth bull judgment. Sorry, seventh bull judgment. Let's read this in Revelation chapter 16 verses 17 to 21. The seventh angel poured out his bull into the air, and a loud voice came out of the temple from the throne saying, it is done.
And there were flashes of lightning, rumblings, peals of thunder, and a great earthquake, such as there had been since man was on the earth. So great was that earthquake. The great city was split into three parts, and the cities of the nations fell.
And God remembered Babylon the Great to make her drain the cup of the wine of the fury of his wrath, and every island fled away, and no mountains were to be found. This earthquake described in Revelation 16 is a global earthquake unlike anything this world has ever seen.
This is what Jesus describes at the end of verse 7 in Matthew 24. He says these earthquakes will be in various places. We are used to earthquakes happening in places like California and Alaska, but this earthquake will be global as Revelation 16 19 says.
It says the cities of the nations will fall from it. These cataclysms in Revelation, these are all global events. Not regional, global. Just like the flood was global. These natural disasters will be felt everywhere on the face of the earth.
Earlier I mentioned that the largest earthquake in history happened in Chile in 1960. The earthquake measured at 9 .5 on the Richter scale, but that earthquake will seem small compared to this massive global earthquake that this text says causes every island to flee away, and no mountains to be found.
This earthquake will be so cataclysmic that the landscape of planet earth will be changed. One other thing that I mentioned earlier is that earthquakes cause tsunamis. Tsunamis of course we call tidal waves.
These are these giant waves that hit and cause enormous damage. As these earthquakes happen, as this big earthquake happens as Revelation 16 describes, there's going to be floods everywhere because there's going to be tsunamis everywhere, all over the face of the earth.
The mountains are going to disappear. There's going to be flooding, unlike anything this world has seen. As earthquakes and tsunamis happen, we can be sure there will also be volcanic eruptions. On planet earth there are 12 super volcanoes.
Now how big are these super volcanoes? The largest volcanic eruption in history occurred at Mount Tambora in Indonesia in 1815. These super volcanoes are 12 times as big as Mount Tambora. Twelve times as big.
The closest super volcano to us is a place maybe you've vacationed to, Yellowstone National Park. Geologists are concerned about Yellowstone erupting and one day it will. Some of you have seen Old Faithful.
Yellowstone is just a giant volcano. When we look at biblical prophecy, it is obvious to know when these volcanoes will erupt. They will erupt during the final seven-year tribulation. Some students of the End Times believe that this is how all the fish in the sea will die, as Revelation 16 3 describes.
This is also how the sun becomes darkened, as Revelation 6 12 describes. And Jesus too describes the darkness of the sun in Matthew 24 in verse 29. In that verse Jesus is describing the end of the seven-year tribulation.
At that point it may be that every super volcano has exploded on the earth and there is so much ash in the atmosphere that we will hardly be able to see the sun and the moon. They will be darkened, as Scripture says.
How else will it be darkened other than the ash is in the atmosphere? There will also be massive hailstones. This one is very interesting. Revelation 16 21 describes this natural phenomenon. And great hailstones, about 100 pounds, fell from heaven on people and they cursed God for the plague of the hail because the plague was so severe.
Do you hear that? How big is the hail? 100 pounds. We had golf ball-sized hail late spring and our roofs are going to get replaced because of the damage caused from golf ball-sized hail. I think the biggest hail I've ever seen is softball-sized hail.
These are going to be 100 pound sheets of hail that are going to fall on the earth at the end of the seven years of the final tribulation. And that's not the only thing that's going to fall from the sky.
Revelation 6 13 describes stars falling from the sky. These are asteroids that will also cause enormous damage on the earth. We can see at the table being set for all these things. There's these natural disasters that are going to happen at some point and the question is when is it going to happen?
And I submit to you it's going to happen at the very end because Revelation describes these cataclysms on the earth and this will all be God's judgment for mankind's wickedness. We might think that there's so much wickedness in our world.
When is justice going to come? It is going to come and it's going to be really bad for the wicked. But for the believer, as we see these cataclysms on the horizon, this points to the glorious day when Jesus returns to this earth.
As Jesus says in verses 29 and 30 of this chapter, as these natural cataclysms reach their conclusion, this is when Jesus is going to finally return to the earth. For the last 2 ,000 years there have been many famines and many natural disasters but during the final seven-year tribulation the world will experience natural disasters and famine unlike anything this world has ever seen and much of the world will die from this destruction.
When you do the math from the book of Revelation, it is estimated that three fourths of the world will die from this destruction. Three-fourths of the world. But here's the good news that I will sprinkle throughout this chapter.
I believe the scripture teaches that we are raptured before the final seven-year tribulation. So if you believe in Jesus, you won't be here to see the unimaginable horror through these cataclysms that will come upon the earth.
So the message when you read the book of Revelation is believe in the Lord Jesus Christ. If you believe in him, you will be spared. If you believe in him, he will protect you. He will take you to be with him.
That's one of the clear messages as we look at end times prophecy. Because we look at this, the Lord's not going to let evil go on forever. He is going to judge this earth and it's going to be ugly. There aren't even words to describe how horrible it is going to be.
But anybody who is allied with Jesus Christ will be safe and that is the message that needs to come out. So anticipate the soon return of Christ and the fifth practice how is by experiencing a rise in natural disasters.
And it's like birth pains. It happens throughout history. More earthquakes, bigger earthquakes, more famines, bigger famines, more natural disasters, bigger natural disasters. And all of this will reach its peak, its apex, during the final seven year tribulation.
And as we see things increase, it's a reminder. His return is getting closer. It's birth pains. Here is the sixth practice how you are to anticipate the soon return of Christ. And that is this. Through witnessing the rise of global persecution.
Witnessing the rise of global persecution. And it's the fourth sign that Jesus has given. That his return is getting closer. Verses nine and ten. Then they will deliver you up to tribulation and put you to death.
And you will be hated by all nations for my namesake. And then many will fall away and betray one another and hate one another. So Jesus is talking to his disciples. Remember this is the Olivet discourse.
He's talking to them as he's standing on the Mount of Olives in Jerusalem. But once again we know that more than just the disciples are in mind because of verse eight. Everything that we see in this chapter happens continuously down through history and increases in frequency and intensity as the end nears.
And what Jesus tells his disciples and all believers down through history is that you will be delivered up to tribulation and even put to death. And everyone will hate you. Not because of anything you've done.
Not because you've done anything wrong. But people will hate you for the sole reason that you are allied with Jesus Christ. So we see three things here. There will be hatred towards you. You will experience tribulation.
And Jesus says some will be put to death because of one's allegiance to him. Now the disciples who are listening to Jesus give this prediction lived this. They experienced all three of these descriptions.
Hatred, tribulation, and death. There was one who did not experience death and that was John. But his experience was not any better. He was exiled to the island of Patmos in the Mediterranean. So the disciples experienced hatred, tribulation, and death as Jesus said they would.
Once again what Jesus says comes true. He's telling them the future. This is what it's going to be like for you. This is going to happen. And this is precisely what happens to them. They would not experience death till decades later as church history records.
But their experience after Jesus left the earth and ascended to heaven was one of hostility from a hostile world. As we think about persecution we should understand the anatomy of it. What is persecution and why does it happen?
Persecution is mistreatment of some degree because of your relationship with Jesus. Mistreatment of some degree because of your relationship with Jesus. Now persecution has a spectrum. On the minor end it is receiving insults.
On the most severe end it is death. Now that is the what of persecution but let's answer the why. Why does it happen? Well as I explained it's because of your faith in Jesus. The persecutors say they are persecuting you for this and that but when it comes down to it you are persecuted because you are allied with Jesus and this world despises the biblical Jesus.
Remember this world put Jesus to death. We have to remember that. What did the world do with him? They killed him. But what is it about your relationship with Jesus that drives the opposition into hostility towards you?
As a Christian you are making the exclusive claims that only the Bible is the Word of God and only Jesus is the way to God. But our world doesn't like that and they don't like it because anyone not following Jesus is worshiping something else.
You must understand that about every single person. Every single person. Now some people worship hunting. I'm not saying today like everybody gone is worshiping hunting. I'm not saying that. But that's a big idol in our area.
Hunting and fishing. Work is an idol in our area. Alcohol can be an idol. Hunting in itself is not evil. But some things that are idols are evil in itself and some things are not. Sports is so important in our society.
Sports is a huge idol. Everybody is worshiping something. It might be God. It might be something else. And as we think about that, as the world worships and they worship something other than God, something other than Jesus, they have these idols that they hold on to tightly.
They give them their significance. They give them their happiness. And as a Christian, as you are making the exclusive claims that only the Bible is the Word of God and only Jesus is the way to God, but our world doesn't like that when you say that.
And they don't like it because anyone not following Jesus is worshipping something else. What you must understand is that everybody is a worshipper. Atheists worship. We're created in the image of God.
We are created to worship. And if we don't worship Him, the worship is perverted. In the first century, the great idols for the Romans were their gods. And the emperor who ruled them. These were the objects of people's worship, among many other things.
With this, you can see how persecution happened to the early Christians. The Christians did not submit to their gods, nor the emperor. And this made the Roman people hostile toward them. The Romans believed their gods gave them rain and sun for their crops and victory in war.
This worship was shown in different ways. One of the ways was through offering sacrifices to them. They offered worship to the gods in order to ensure a prosperous livelihood. They also swore allegiance to their king, the emperor.
The people needed to proclaim that there was one ruler, Caesar, and they needed to swear their allegiance to him. But of course, Christians of the first century would not offer sacrifices to their gods, nor say that there is only one king, Caesar.
Their allegiance was to Jesus and Jesus alone. He alone was their god and king. So you can see the friction here. You can see the hostility that arose toward them from the Romans. The early Christians not only received opposition from the Romans, but also from the Jewish leadership.
We've seen this throughout Matthew. The Jews were the ones responsible for the crucifixion of Jesus. They wanted Jesus dead and therefore they wanted Jesus' followers dead also. Jesus warned the disciples that because they followed him, opposition was inevitable.
It's going to come. John 15 verses 18 -20, if the world hates you, know that it has hated me before it hated you. If you are of the world, the world would love you as its own. But because you are not of the world, but I chose you out of the world, therefore the world hates you.
Remember the word that I said to you, a servant is not greater than his master. If they persecuted me, they will also persecute you. These are sobering words from Jesus. Jesus makes it clear. Expect opposition from the world.
Your message and way of life threatens the world. How do you threaten the world as a follower of Jesus? The world feels threatened by you because your message about believing in Christ and turning from your sin goes contrary to their beliefs.
You are actually going after their idols. You are calling them out and you're calling them to leave the things that they find their joy in behind. The Apostle Paul explains this in 1 Thessalonians 1 .9.
You are to turn from idols to serve the living God. In the first century, Jesus' followers told people to worship Christ, not the Roman gods, and to submit ultimately to Christ, not the Roman Emperor.
In the first century, Jesus' followers told people to leave their false Jewish works, righteousness system, this false religion that the Jews were involved in. This system was an idol that was keeping them from God.
Those are the idols of yesteryear. What are the idols of today? We need to ask ourselves, what are the idols of society? And how does Christianity go after those idols? We know the idols because the mainstream in our country pushes these idols.
The idols are equity, inclusion, diversity, and tolerance. You hear those words a lot. Now they sound nice, but biblical Christians need to understand what these actually mean. What these really mean is let's leave biblical Christianity in its timeless morality to establish a morality of our own.
They say it is not inclusive to say that Christianity is the only way. In this modern moral system, to say that other religions are false is considered immoral. In this modern moral system, they change definitions of everything.
They change definitions of love. They change definitions of racism. They change definitions of bigotry. If you look at a dictionary definition and then you look at their definition, it's actually different.
Which is very fascinating. It's something to point out to people. You're actually not following the true definition of things. The value system is different. It's about gay rights, trans rights, abortion rights.
They don't see any of these as sinful. They see them as moral rights, similar to the call for African-Americans' rights in the middle of the 20th century, which of course was a legitimate cry for equality.
But these modern cries for equality are of course false because these so-called values are contrary to biblical Christianity. But if you oppose them, you are said to be a bigot, a hater, and many more insults will be hurled at you.
There are many idols in American society, but this is where the persecution is coming from. And the hostility toward Christianity is not going away. Just this week, or the last several weeks, Kirk Cameron, his sister, Cameron, I think it's Burr, right?
Sorry, Candace Burr. She was criticized for saying that the network she's on holds to traditional marriage. And they're going to draw the line there. I mean, she didn't say it mean. She didn't go after anybody personally.
She just said, that's what we're doing. And then all the insults came in. Bigot. You're against us. You're unloving. And I mean, how do you come up with that? I mean, that's just nuts. But that's what she received.
Now, as time goes on, the opposition will increase in frequency and intensity. This satanic agenda in our society are the great idols that no Christian should submit to. But your obedience to Christ and opposition to a false morality is not seen as virtuous in our present world.
You are seen as the problem. You are seen as one who is against the progress of society, as against this utopia that they are moving toward. And as this world marches toward the end, Christians will be persecuted in large number.
And no Christian will be exempt from it. Mark and I were talking yesterday about how they're trying to kind of free up. I'm not trying to scare you here, but just understand this. They're trying to free up prisoners.
It's like they're trying to make room for different prisoners. You might end up in jail one day. I'm just telling you. I'm just putting it right out there. It sounds crazy. Why would a law-abiding citizen who's a good neighbor, who should be seen as a positive to society, why would that person be put behind bars?
We might ask that question. It's happened that way down through history. That's just always the way it's been. You're not in jail because of anything you've done. You are there ultimately because of your relationship with Christ.
That's really what they're against. And you won't hear that publicly. They'll say that you're a threat to society, that in some way you're causing problems. But really, that's the reason you would be there.
And again, there's a spectrum to persecution. It might be insults. And on the other end of the spectrum, the far end of the spectrum, it is death. But this is the opposition that Jesus tells his followers that you will experience.
You will be hated. You will be considered the greatest threat to the progress of this modern agenda. And we already see this. And what will come in greater hostility is only coming down the road. It happens all over the world and no place is immune from it, not even America.
In the future, when the Antichrist takes his throne and the kings of the earth follow him, at the forefront of his agenda will be to take out God's people. That's his focus. He wants to receive worship for himself and to go after God's people.
Revelation 7, verses 9 and 10, and then verses 13 and 14 describes the great martyrdom that will take place during the final seven year tribulation. John writes, There will be mass persecution and mass martyrdom during the final seven year tribulation.
But it won't just happen suddenly. This will build over time. And we know this because of verse 8. There was persecution of Christians in the first century. There has been persecution down through history.
There's persecution in the present. And there will be great persecution at the very end. And there's an old Puritan saying from the 17th century, when seas are calm, mend your sails. When seas are calm, mend your sails.
We need to be prepared for what is coming. Not just in places like Iran, North Korea, places that are hostile toward Christianity, where literally every day these people are wondering, am I going to get caught because of my Christian faith?
There's hostility not just in those places, but in the West, in a place that really Christianity built the West, if you think about it. But those days are gone. We live in a post-Christian world. And in a post-Christian world, Christianity is no longer seen as virtuous.
Biblical Christianity is seen as the problem. We need to be rooted in the Word of God, knowing the persecution is already upon us and will only increase. We do not have revival in this nation, nor should we expect to see a great awakening.
I think what we're seeing right now is I think we're seeing the judgment of God over our land. And it's because of our sin. It's because of the sinfulness of our nation that we see this judgment that God has brought upon us.
And it's not just here, it's all over the world. The judgment that he has brought upon us. But what God is doing is he's building a remnant. He's building a remnant that will be able to withstand the opposition of the world.
And one will withstand the opposition because one will hold on to their allegiance to Christ, even though they are told and intimidated not to follow Christ, not to continue with him. And by the grace of God, Eureka Baptist is among that remnant.
So we need to mend our sails to prepare for the increase of what will come. So this is the sixth practice how you are to anticipate the soon return of Christ. There will be mass persecution, and this is just evidence that Christ's return is getting that much closer.
And we need to prepare for this. It's really there. And it's not crazy. This is not crazy talk, okay? You must understand that. It's not. It is a reality. Jesus said it would be this way, and we should anticipate it.
I know it's not a message. We're not a church where we're just going to tell you what you want to hear, right? When you talk about three-fourths of the world perishing from natural disasters, that's what Scripture says.
And so we need to take it in and say, wow, this is actually what is going to come upon this earth. In our experience as Christians, this is what is going to come upon us. But the good news is, if you belong to Jesus, you have nothing to worry about.
You are safe in him. He will take care of you. And the day is coming when he will reign, and his people will dwell with him forever. That is the end of the story, and we always have to keep in mind the end of the story, which is a great and glorious ending.
Now next week, we are going to be looking at the seventh practice how. And just to give you a little preview here, it's noticing widespread disregard for God's law. And we'll look at that, and then we're also going to be looking at the final one world ruler, and also the spread of the gospel all over the world.
These three points all point to the return of Christ, and we'll look at those next Sunday. But this time, let's bow our heads in prayer. Father in heaven, we do thank you for this time to look at your word, to take it all in.
It's a sobering, sobering topic, as we talk about the end of the world. But that's where we are, and Jesus wants us to know about it. We're not left in the dark. He gives us clues as to how we can know that his return is getting closer.
What a Savior he is. What a Lord he is. And help us to cling tightly to what your word says, and get comfort from it, and that we'd be prepared. And that as we look at this, that we would long for his return, that we would not miss that.
So help us with this, and I ask this in Jesus' name. Amen.