End of Life, End of Times: Gathered Together in the Air.

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Good morning, welcome to the gathering of Eureka Baptist Church Today if you didn't know it's
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Palm Sunday So what a celebration this is and in the events of Holy Week.
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This is the day where Jesus went into Jerusalem and People waved the palm branches and they shouted
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Hosanna blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord? so happy Palm Sunday to you and And as you as you may know that we have
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Good Friday This Friday and we'll be having that service with Trade River through the web we'll be doing the service up in Trade River and Pastor Dale will be given that message and Also, of course next
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Sunday. We will have Easter Sunday through a video. So thank you again this morning for joining us
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And it's great to see every one of you from afar And I hope that this sermon today will be a rich blessing to you
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The corona virus has many people thinking about the end as we have talked about With death in the end of the world in people's minds
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This has led us of course to divert from Matthew and instead to do a mini sermon series titled end of life end of times
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Digging in to see what the Bible says about the end of one's life and the end of the world
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We have already seen end of life two weeks ago when we looked at what scripture says about your end times
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The day of your death then last week. We started looking at what the Bible says about how the world will end
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Last week we went way back to a prophecy in the Old Testament The prophecy known as Daniel's 70 weeks found in Daniel 9 verses 24 through 27
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This prophecy written in 537 BC predicts events in world history that took place over a period of thousands of years the first prophecy described the rebuilding of Jerusalem that was fulfilled when
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Artaxerxes gave Nehemiah permission to rebuild in 445 BC Then this prophecy described the completion of the rebuild of Jerusalem 49 years later
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Then the next prophecy fulfilled would take place 434 years later at the end of the 69 weeks when
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Jesus was crucified at the cross in 33 AD as the text said an anointed one would be cut off At this point 69 weeks were predicted but there is an event that was foretold that would take place between the 69th week and The 70th week and that is the temple destruction in 70
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AD. This is when the Romans came and pillaged God's holy place in Jerusalem And what
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I told you is the people mentioned in this passage the people of the prince is Referring to the
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Romans as history records, and so we know that a future prince would come from the
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Roman Empire In our day that would be modern -day Europe and some of the Middle East This is a future figure known in scripture as the
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Antichrist And he is called by other names like the beast and and the man of lawlessness
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What the text revealed to us last week is that he is going to come at a future time the 70th week
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Which is a seven year period the final seven year period that precedes the return of Christ What the text told us is that he is going to make war on the
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Saints and what I told you last week is that his war primarily is going to be against Israel and And the believers at that time and I mentioned the
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Antichrist and the false prophet We're gonna be talking about them two weeks from today Lord willing next week, of course is
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Easter Sunday So we will be talking about the resurrection But as I mentioned, I do not believe
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The church will be here during that seven -year tribulation when the Antichrist and false prophet are on the scene and this morning
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I am going to show you why? What I want to say right from the get -go is that there are three primary views on the rapture the timing of the rapture
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One view is that believers are raptured after the tribulation So Christ's second coming and the rapture are one event
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What proponents argue is that Christ gathers his people in the air and then what happens is that they come straight
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To the earth to reign with him The second view is that Christ will rapture his church halfway through the seven -year
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Tribulation and the argument of this is that the wrath of God that he pours out on the earth
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Takes place during the second half of the tribulation And so the church is only spared from the second half and not the first half of the tribulation
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The third view the view that I hold to argues that the church will be raptured at a time before the seven -year tribulation
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I Used to hold to a post -tribulation rapture view, but then I realized that there were some serious issues with it
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So I abandoned that that view a few years back And just so you know historically
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Eureka Baptist Church holds to the pre -tribulation rapture view So it's it's good that I hold to that too.
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And we are on the same page there I believe the pre -tribulation rapture best fits the whole testimony of Scripture So my aim is to show you that this morning
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You don't have to turn with me to a specific place in the Bible like we usually Do in fact in the sermon series a lot of times
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I'm kind of jumping around a lot But I do encourage you to write down the specific passages that I mentioned
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This sermon is titled gathered together in the air and our big idea is this
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Live with the expectancy that Christ can take you at any time. This is what it's calling you to do
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Live with the expectancy that Christ can take you at any time the
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Apostle Paul Describes the rapture event in several locations and the most clear description of this is in 1st
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Thessalonians chapter 4 verses 13 through 18, so I'm going to read that right now and we'll talk about that a little bit
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This is what he said as he's talking to the church in Thessalonica He said we do not want you to be uninformed brothers about those who are asleep
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That you may not grieve as others do who have no hope For since we believe that Jesus died and rose again even so through Jesus God will bring with him those who have fallen asleep
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For this we declared you by a word from the Lord that we who are alive Who are left until the coming of the
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Lord will not precede those who have fallen asleep? For the Lord himself will descend from heaven with a cry of command with the voice of an archangel and with the sound of the trumpet of God and the
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Dead in Christ will rise first Then we who are alive who are left will be caught up together with them in the clouds
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To meet the Lord in the air and so we will always be with the
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Lord therefore Encourage one another with these words this passage here in 1st
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Thessalonians 4 Shows the rapture being an event that will be quite a shock to the world
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If you think the corona virus has been a shock wait till this happens
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People will be taken from their daily lives to be brought immediately up to heaven
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Paul also writes encouraging words about this event in the following chapter in 1st Thessalonians 5 verses 1 through 11 in The last three verses of this this section in verses 9 through 11.
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This is what he says God has not destined us for wrath But to obtain
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Salvation through our Lord Jesus Christ who died for us so that whether we are awake or asleep
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We might live with him therefore Encourage one another and build one another up just as you are doing you'll notice that in both places
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He says the words encourage encourage one another so the rapture is meant to encourage us
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So, how could you not be encouraged realizing that the Lord could come at any time to take us to be with him
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Now that the redeemed are off the earth The floodgates of destruction will be unleashed during the seven -year tribulation
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Think of the planet after Noah and his family were in the ark Think of Sodom and Gomorrah When lot was pulled from there
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With the righteous gone God will not spare the earth like he does so often right now
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But the redeemed will be in heaven with the glorified bodies The redeemed are members of the global church
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This is every believer on planet earth from the time of the resurrection of Jesus Christ To the day when the last one believes right before the rapture that is the church
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Now the New Testament is full of passages that stress the expectancy of Christ's return to this earth
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Jesus says this several times when he's talking about the end times in Matthew 24 and 25 in Matthew 25 13
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Jesus said watch therefore for you know, neither the day nor the hour this passage and many others explain the
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Imminency of his return and my understanding would be that the get -ready verses in Matthew 24 and 25 are
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Generally describing the time around Christ's return With the rapture before the tribulation and those reading these passages during tribulation as they anticipate his second coming
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Jesus is talking to his disciples in Matthew 24 and 25 knowing that this would be written down And future generations would read his words
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Telling them no one knows the timing of these end times events, but we should live with expectancy
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Knowing that it will Come and of course, we should not listen to people who've set a date of when this will be
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We know that those are false prophets because Jesus says we don't know we don't know the time But what we do know is that it will come and we need to be ready for it to come
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There is a notable difference between the events following Christ's second coming and the events following the rapture
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So in some ways there's there's two comings here There's a coming before the seven years and there's a coming after the seven years
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And what I'm gonna tell you here is that there's a difference between what happens at both which shows that there is two distinct distinct comings
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At the second coming believers will begin reigning with Christ on the earth Revelation 5 verses 9 and 10 talk about these people from all tribes tongues and nations who will reign with him
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This is this is referring to the church at the rapture believers will go to the intermediate state
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Otherwise known as heaven as 1st Thessalonians 4 17 says, okay.
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So to clarify After this at the second coming when Christ returns, this is after the tribulation what's gonna happen is that Jesus is going to come to the earth and his people are going to reign with him on the earth
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But with the rapture it's going to be different because he's gonna take his people to be with him in heaven in What is known as the intermediate state?
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It's the place where people go to now when they die if they belong to Jesus Christ But we read here
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We've already read in 1st Thessalonians 4 that believers will be caught up with the Lord in the air
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And that says we will always be with the Lord as he takes believers to heaven We read above in 1st
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Thessalonians, but Jesus clues us into the rapture in a different place in John chapter 14 verses 2 through 3
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This is one of the key passages that persuaded me to hold to the view that the church will be raptured before the tribulation
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When I once held to the post -tribulation view, I didn't know what to do with this passage, but now I do because it makes sense
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So this is what Jesus told us disciples in my father's house are many rooms if it were not
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So would I have told you that I go to prepare a place for you? And if I go to prepare a place for you
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I will come again and will take you to myself that where I am you may be also
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This is a pre -tribulation rapture passage and before like I mentioned
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I didn't know what to do with it the place where Jesus is Describing is heaven the place where he is going after his resurrection when he ascended to heaven
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That's where he is right now He's describing for preparing a place for believers
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And if you hold to a post -tribulation rapture He takes you to earth and not heaven
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That's a problem But this passage is describing heaven the place that he went to prepare the place where he is now
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Where he's already preparing a place for everyone who will go to be with him there Jesus would not take one to a place and call it his father's house and describe rooms where one will stay if they weren't going
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To be there for a while This the description is of a place where they would spend a temporary period of time the period of time is seven years
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Jesus is telling them the place where I am going You will join me Just like he told the thief on the cross today.
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You will be with me in paradise. Paradise is heaven And he's telling his disciples members of the church if I return in your lifetime
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I will take you to the place where I am going and namely heaven and he says this not only to his disciples
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But he says it to every one of us who has a relationship with Jesus Christ who belongs to his church
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Now another passage Revelation chapter 3 verse 10 is another passage that describes the church being spared from the judgment coming on the entire world and I find this passage to be very persuasive as well
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These by the way, these passages make the post -tribulation view virtually impossible
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So this is what Jesus says in this verse he says because you have kept my word about patient endurance
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I will keep you from the hour of trial that is coming on the whole world to try those who will dwell on the earth in this passage a
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Specific church is mentioned the church in Philadelphia This is not talking about Pennsylvania and we're talking about Philadelphia in the in the old
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Roman Empire that that Jesus was communicating with the church in Philadelphia is
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Representative of all true churches all true believers in this age that we live this includes
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Eureka Baptist Church There has been much debate about two two Greek words in this passage now those words are
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Tero Two words you probably never heard of in your life But these are two Greek words Tero in English these two words mean to keep from or to keep out from Those who hold to a post -trib view argue that this means that the
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Lord will protect believers From his wrath that is poured out on the earth during the second half of the tribulation
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But there's a big problem with that the word Ek carries the meaning of from out from or away from the best way to take this is the
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Lord is going to remove his People from the period of trial that is coming on the earth not that he's going to sustain them through which would be the poster
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But he's going to keep them from out from this If Jesus intended to cause his people to endure through the tribulation period he would have said that he would keep them through the trial
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And he would have used a different Greek word And if you're listening to this and you happen to know any
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Greek the word he would have used is dia But he doesn't he does not use that The Greek does not say that but rather he said he planned to keep them out
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From the period of trial that period known as the seven -year tribulation Lastly 1st
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Corinthians chapter 15 verses 51 to 54 is another rapture passage in This text the
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Apostle Paul describes what will happen to the earthly body at the rapture He wrote behold.
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I tell you a mystery We shall not all sleep But we shall all be changed in a moment in the twinkling of an eye at the last trumpet for the trumpets will sound and the dead will be raised imperishable and we shall be
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Changed for this perishable body must put on the imperishable and this mortal body must put on immortality
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We see Paul Reveal an event that would be known that or sorry that would have been unknown to Old Testament Saints They would have known about a future resurrection as the
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Old Testament foretells that But they would not have known that the resurrection would happen in waves
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The mystery that Paul tells is that the first resurrection experienced by God's people is the bodily resurrection of those who belong to the church
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The resurrection after this our Old Testament Saints resurrected after the tribulation and those
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Israelites saved during the tribulation These people will go into the Millennium and they will be raised from the dead after Christ's 1 ,000 year reign on the earth so when the
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Bible mentions blessed are those in Revelation 20 of the first those who share in the first resurrection
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I Think this first resurrection comes in three waves before the rapture after at the rapture
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I should say after the tribulation and after the Millennium and These are the blessed who experienced this resurrection
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But of course the first resurrection is the resurrection of Jesus Christ the very thing.
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We're going to focus on next Sunday Christ's resurrection happened 2 ,000 years ago, and that's the first of the first wave
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We also know that Christ's coming has two waves from the Old Testament, right? He was predicted he came the first time and he's going to come
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Again, no one saw this in Old Testament times people thought he did one coming But his but his revelation is revealed over time
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We know more and what we what we what you have come to find out is that there's there's a lot of complexity to the story that God has written and God clues us into his glorious future actions that he will perform on the earth as more revelation is given now as I preach this
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I Have a little bit of sorrow in my heart because in the evangelical world there has been an effort to simplify the end times and to miss many of the details
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To say there is only one coming after the tribulation The post -trib rapture is to simplify the end to say there is no millennium
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Between the second coming and the eternal states, which is which is frankly even more of an out there view
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This is an effort to simplify the end The Bible has much to say and we should be diligent to see those details a
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Detailed eschatology, which is what the Bible teaches brings more glory to God a
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Fascinating story is more glorious than a basic one We know this from stories that we know from books We read from movies
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We see the books the ones that stand the test of time the ones that everybody delights in are the complex ones
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Not the not not the basic ones that where everyone can predict what's going to happen The story of the
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Bible is full of twists and turns and as God has given his revelation He's revealed to us what these twists and turns are
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The pre -tribulation view has fallen on hard times in recent years
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It was the dominant view in the church during the 20th century There are lots of people who frankly make fun of it because and and some of its because of the left -behind series these movies of course were
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Had actors Kirk Cameron in the 90s and then more recently Nicolas Cage That was the main character and in a movie that probably nobody remembers, but he will that's that actually happened
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These movies presented a pre -tribulation or understanding of the end And what
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I want to say to you is don't let anyone tell you that the preacher of Rapture is a modern fairy tale
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As I have shown you today it has biblical support In fact, it has stronger biblical support than any other view in my estimation
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And I have credibility when I say that because I'm not a Homer who's always held to the preacher of Rapture view
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I used to hold to the post review. I used to dislike the preacher view In fact,
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I I kind of look down on it just like so many others do because I was influenced by the wrong people but then
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I started to read the Bible and Carefully study the text of Scripture and what I'm finding is that it is by far the strongest position
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Most of the arguments I have heard against the preacher of Rapture are Strawman arguments now if you don't know what a strawman argument
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It's when someone builds up an argument against something and the person doesn't even believe what you just defeated
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So you didn't prove anything The strawman argument against the preacher of Rapture is that this preacher of Rapture views started from a man by the name of John Darby a
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Bible teacher in the 19th century This is a false argument
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There has been a book written several years back that has debunked this argument. Now the book is
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Titled dispensationalism before Darby and what this book shows is that Darby was working from a long tradition tracing back to the 1600s where where there were
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Baptists. Yes Baptists who saw the preacher of Rapture in Scripture and for most of church history
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What we must understand is that there wasn't much attention paid to a thorough study of the end times
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All they pretty much focused on is that Christ is coming back and there would be a resurrection
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And I don't fault people from church history like the Reformers for example I don't fault them too much because they were fighting for the gospel.
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They had bigger fish to fry But the end times is still very important and we should aim to get it, right?
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I'm troubled by how much vagueness there is with our understanding of the end times or how much little attention is paid to it
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We can be proud that Baptists just like the advanced believers baptism Advanced a biblical understanding of the end times also
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They were working off of those earlier in church history who saw in Scripture a future tribulation a seven -year tribulation
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With a future Antichrist who would reign on the earth for a short time Who would then be defeated by Christ at his second coming and then
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Christ would establish his earthly 1 ,000 year kingdom and again when people say that This understanding of the end times is a late
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Movement, let me tell you something. That's that really blows that out of the water There is a man by the name of Irenaeus.
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He was a 2nd century Christian He was discipled by Polycarp You know who
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Polycarp was discipled by the Apostle John who wrote Revelation the most prophetic book in the whole
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Bible and what Irenaeus believed is Mostly what
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I just told you he believed there was gonna be a future Antichrist He believed in a seven -year tribulation.
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He believed in the thousand -year reign of Christ and So as time goes on we people dig deeper into the scriptures and they learn more and that's what we've seen throughout history
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And and yes, it's true. There has been more advancements in an understanding of the end times in the last several hundred years
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But it's working off of what people have seen from the scriptures since the beginning
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Now as I mentioned I once held to the post -tribulation view and what I have come to see is that is that it is most
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Unlikely, it's the most unlikely view based on the passages. I showed you above And I think it's probably the one that's being held by more and more people today than ever than ever before and So if you're listening and you hold to the poster view,
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I encourage you re -examine it The mid -trib view is possible is that view says that the church will be taken out before God pours up his wrath on the earth
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But I think the preacher view is best because God's plan During the seven years is not the church but Israel This is the testimony of Scripture Jeremiah 37 describes the final tribulation period as as a time of distress for Jacob Jacob meaning
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Israel God's plan right now is the church in Romans 11 25
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Paul says a partial hardening has come upon Israel until the fullness of the
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Gentiles has come in The Gentiles coming to faith is referring to the church
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But Israel has been hardened over the last 2 ,000 years. So so his focus has been on the church since Christ Ascended to heaven and the day is coming when the focus will once again be on Israel where that hardening will be pulled and many will come to faith in Christ and We see this in our world today
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There are very few Jews who believe in the Lord Jesus and yet there are many many Gentiles Who believe and when this text in Romans 11 25 mentions the
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Gentiles? It's primarily referring to the church So you might be asking as I've thrown a lot of information at you when will the rapture happen?
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Well, the answer is we don't know and if I told you a date And you can call me a false prophet.
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We don't know when that'll be The answer is once the last member of the church is saved.
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That is when the rapture will happen and What is most exciting is that it can happen very soon and we should live in anticipation
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This is indeed a blessed hope as Titus 2 13 tells us what we've seen throughout the
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New Testament What we saw in the Beatitudes In Matthew chapter 5 is that the word blessed means happy This is a happy hope as we anticipate the return of Christ and we saw in first Thessalonians 4 and 5 that we should be encouraged
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With this hope that Jesus is coming back So meet me we at Eureka Baptist Church live with this hope and may it spark us to reflect him all the more in our daily lives
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Knowing that he can take us at any time Something that I've been thinking about is that our capacity for joy is greater if we hold to this view
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So there's a lot of the line here. There's more online than people realize Blessed are you as Revelation 1 3 says those who?
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Understand the words of this prophecy and live it out There's a lot on the line here We are there's a there's more capacity for joy if you hold to this view because you because you're gonna you're gonna anticipate his return
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I think I'm going after the push of you a lot right now As once as one who once held it
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The poster view they're not longing for Christ's return Because a seven -year tribulation has to happen before his return happens.
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There is a longing. Yes to be with the Lord at death But there isn't so much a longing to be with him at his return
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But if you hold to a rapture before the tribulation then yes There is a great longing for him to come and it could be any day it could be tonight
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When he returns and what joy Should fill our hearts And this should change the way we live if you knew that Christ was returning
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This evening or tomorrow won't that make you more diligent in the way that you you and I live
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So this should be an event that encourages us fills us with joy and makes us better disciples of Jesus that he may find us
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Faithful when he comes now next Sunday is Easter Sunday Of course and we will focus on the glorious bodily resurrection of our
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Lord and Two weeks from today as I've already mentioned We were going to look at the rise of these two world leaders these two villains the two greatest villains of human history
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The Antichrist and the false prophet and I look forward to going down this road with you but as I mentioned at the at the beginning, please tune in Friday at 630 as We will be doing a joint service with Trade River and I look forward to joining you again next
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Sunday. Let's pray together father in heaven, I Just I'd love to think that it could be today when
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Jesus returns There's a song in our hymn book that says It could be today and what a wonderful song that is and what a wonderful hope this is
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This truly is a blessed hope this truly Should fill us with joy
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And that's why the New Testament talks so much about the imminency of the return of Christ that he could come back at any moment and We should we should live in anticipation.
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We should live faithful lives Realizing that he could come back at any moment We should we should be alert looking for the fact that it could be soon
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And we don't know the day when it'll be but we should We should be looking at the signs as Jesus said to see when this will be to fill us with with more excitement
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At that day when he will come in and Lord with the coronavirus there. This is a sign
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This is a birth pain that we are experiencing And so may it give us may this season give us greater anticipation
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That he could come in any moment And Lord if anyone is listening to this who does not know Jesus Christ My prayer is that they would believe in him this day that they would find their refuge refuge in him so that they would not
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Be left behind and go through the world being pillaged with destruction but that they would be spared that they would be with you in the air and And go to be with you in heaven and be with you forever as as Jesus said
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That you would be with that we would be with him and as Paul said that we would always be with the
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Lord I pray that people who listen to this who don't have that would have it And I pray for all of this in Jesus name