This Same Jesus!
Prayer and salutation. Lord Jesus, I humble
myself in prayer to you this evening. I ask that my humble message today is
your words. I ask that your message is kindly received in the hearts of the
listeners in this church. I want to express my gratefulness to you Lord, for
the opportunity that you have given me to preach your glorious words. Let a
blessing flow to the hearers this evening, so that they can be blessed, and be
a blessing to others. I pray for the continued blessing of all of your saints
in the beautiful nation of Pakistan, and the entire region. I pray that your
grace will flow throughout the land, and that the hearts of Pakistan will be
opened to the wonderful Gospel of Jesus Christ, and the beautiful salvation
that has been offered to us. Even though we are all sinners, you have kindly
provided a way out of our sinful nature.
Give us the strength and courage to share this wonderful Gospel
throughout the nation of Pakistan, and to all the earth! We love you and give you praise and honor,
amen.
In Revelation 3:11. The verse says, “I come soon. hold on to what you have, that
no one will take your crown.” Also, in Revelation 22:12, “Look, I am coming
soon! My reward is with me, and I will give to each person according to what
they have done. Jesus said that He is
coming soon! Jesus is coming soon! These Two times in the book of
Revelation, Jesus said that He is coming soon! Isn’t that exciting! He said that He is coming for you and
me! If we are to look at the End Times, we have to look at the book of Mathew,
chapter 24, for this is the Full Mention of this subject. Jesus only tells His disciple about it
because they asked Him. The Bible says,
you have not, because you asked not.
Brothers and sisters, Ask! Ask Him! Ask Him for everything!
Like I just said, the Full Mention of the End of Times is in
Chapter 24, of the Book of Matthew. Entire books have been written on just this
one chapter of the Bible. But I will just give you a fast message on it. But
for us Christians, its just a warning, because we will be taken away before it
is all finished.
Matthew 24:1-2. The Temple destroyed. Here Jesus mentions the destruction
of the Temple to build up the curiosity of the Apostles. Some of the Apostles
were bragging to Jesus about the splendor of the Temple, and how beautiful it
was to them. Being country boys from
Galilee, I’m sure it was indeed very beautiful.
Jesus informed them that the Temple would soon be destroyed! It worked; this created a great curiosity in
the Apostles!
24:3-14. The Signs of the End of the Age. verse 3 the Apostles will ask for
more information about the End of Times. It says: “And as Jesus was
sitting on the Mt. of Olives, his disciples came to him privately, saying, tell
us, when these things will be? and what is the sign of your coming and the end
of the world?” The Apostles were here
asking Jesus for a sign.
They asked for a sign.
Jesus here gives them several signs! Here He gives the first one. Verse
4 says, Jesus answered and said to them, “Beware, let no man deceive you.
Why?
Well, verse 5 tells us. “For many will come in my name and will say that ‘I
am the Christ.’ And many they will deceive.”
Currently there are just a few claiming to be Christ, there is one in
Siberia, he has about 10,000 followers, one in Japan, one in Brazil, and from
what I hear, one in Israel itself. From
the warnings of Jesus, there are more coming in the near future! And they will
gather much more followers!
Verse 6 says, and you will hear of wars and rumor of wars. Is
this not the case today? Do we not hear of rumors of wars around the world! The
Chinese invasion of Taiwan? The Russians
threatening of the Ukrainians? The Chinese and the Indians? And of course, the
never ending Indian and Pakistani conflicts?
In the Aramaic it says, revolutions and rumors of wars. A revolution is
an internal political war. How many political revolutions does the human race
suffer these last decades? Even we Americans are having political problems! But what did Jesus have to say about it? “See
that you are not troubled: for all these things must come to pass, but the end
is not yet.”
Verse 9 say, “Then will they deliver you up to be afflicted,
and will kill you: and you will be hated of all nations for my names sake.”
This is going on right as I speak! Christians around the world are being
persecuted for the name of Jesus. This
is beginning to go on even in America now!
The olive tree is a miracle tree that produces a miracle
fruit. I’m not saying it’s a Godly
miracle, but it produces the olive. You can use eat an olive, many people
around the world cook with them, especially as a seasoning. People put them on salads. Many Americans eat them. I don’t, I don’t like them at all! But I can
dip my bread into it, it will make your bread soft and more enjoyable to eat.
But many people eat them. I have heard that olive oil is good with raw fish. I
don’t know, I like my food cooked. It is very good sprinkled on cheese. The
olive is considered one of the best skin moisturizers. Throughout the Bible
days, many of the people would rub the olive oil in the skin to protect it from
the sun. Men and women would put it in their hair to make it shiny, and easy
for brushing. Men can use it for shaving.
But, in order to get olive oil out of the olive, you must
press on it very hard. You have to push
the oil out of it. It will not come out on its own. You have to force it out before you can use
it! Oil is symbolic of the Holy Spirit. In these last days, God needs His Spirit
filled people to be out and about in this world. God has to push on us a little
to get us out and active and witnessing to others about Jesus Christ and what
He did for us on the cross. He needs to
press us a little to get us out of our comfort zone, to grow in the Spirit, to
be bold, so that we can proclaim the good news of the Gospel.
I
am speaking to you today, because God is pressing upon me, and pushing me. I
was happy being saved by Grace, and just being in church. But God pushed me to
Bible school. Then God pressed on me even more, and had me teaching Bible
school. Now, God is pressing me more, by having me speaking to my wonderful
brothers in Pakistan. How is the Lord pressing you? Because you are filled with
the Holy Spirit, God will be pressing His oil out of you as well! Be sensitive to the Spirit, be open to His
calling. Be active in witnessing to others around you. God wants all Pakistanis
to go to heaven to be with Him for eternity, and He will use you to get that
done!
Verse 12
says, “And because the growth of sin, the love of many will go cold.” We live
in a sinful world today, this we can all agree about. In different parts of the
world the sins may change. The sins of America may be different then the sins
of Pakistan, but sin is sin! Sin is growing all across the world! Every time I read the news, it’s all about some
sinful behavior! But let it not affect us brethren. Continue to love your
fellow man. Even though sinful people surround us, let us continue to share the
love of Jesus with the people around us. Let us to continue to share the
salvation of our Lord with others, so that their souls can be saved. We love others when we reach out to them with
the Gospel of Jesus Christ! The love of Christ is true love for our neighbors
and countrymen!
24:15-28 The Abomination of
Desolation. The
Apostles asked for a sign, here Jesus gives them another one. The Jews will
build their third Temple in Jerusalem.
When they do, here is another sign, the anti-Christ will sit in the
Temple and declare himself as God! At this stage of the Last Days, I believe
that God has called His Church to heaven. These signs will be for the people
left behind. Our God has always been a God of second chances! We see that throughout the Bible. Even Jesus
coming to die on the cross was a second chance for all of humanity. God is even
supplying signs for all those people left behind to see what is coming and
providing time for repentance of their sins.
We serve a wonderful God!
24:29-31 The coming of the Son of
Man. Jesus Christ
repeatedly referred to Himself as the “Son of Man.” Jesus did not invent this
title, He got it from somewhere. The Son of Man can be found in a vision that
the prophet Daniel had in Daniel 7:9-14. It’s a vision where God approves of
the Son of Man, Jesus Christ, and because of His work of salvation on the
cross, He is given dominion over the earth.
In these verses, Jesus returns with His saints, to judge the earth. We Christians today, will judge the earth
with Jesus Christ! We can also read more about this in Revelations chapter 19.
Revelation 19:7. “Let us
rejoice and be glad and give Him Glory! For the wedding of the Lamb has come,
and his bride has made herself ready. Fine linen, bright and clean, was given
her to wear. Then the angel said to me, write this: Blessed are those who are
invited to the wedding supper of the Lamb! And he added, these are the true and
great words of God.” What a blessing it will be for us to be at the great
marriage supper of the Lamb! Saints from
the past and from around the world will all be there. I will enjoy being there
with you, my Pakistani brothers.
Afterwards, we will all judge the
earth with Jesus Christ. Verse 14 says, “The armies of heaven were following
Him, riding on white horses and dressed in fine linen, white and clean.” This
world may persecute us, torment us, and fight against our Gospel of hope. But,
in the end we will follow our Lord back to this earth and judge the sinners living
here. Our God is a God of second chances, but soon the time will be up, and the
final judgement will be on hand. I thank
my God that I will help in the judgement, and not be the one judged!
There is an old saying in the
theater business, “when the author enters the stage, the play is over.” When Jesus Christ enters the world stage, man’s
play will be over. Because Jesus Christ is the author and finisher of our
faith.
Now, Jesus
doubles back in time to speak about Israel, to give us a time frame.
24:32-35 The lesson of the fig tree.
The Apostles wanted
a sign, here is another sign. Anytime a fig tree is mentioned in Scripture, it
is always symbolic of Israel. Israel won its independence in 1948. That is when the fig tree started to bud out.
When the fig tree produces figs, meaning, Israel will have a Christian revival,
and come to Jesus, that is when Jesus will return! Today, there is a strong
Christian movement going on in Israel as I speak. There are many Christian
movements in Israel now. One move that I will just briefly mention is called
“One for Israel.” It is an exciting
movement of Messianic Jews, and they are bringing Arabs and Jews together in
Israel in the belief and worship of Jesus Christ, not only as the Jewish
Messiah, but as the Messiah of the world! When these movements ripen, the figs
will be on the fig tree!
36-51 No one knows the Day or Hour. The Apostles wanted a sign, here is
another sign. This is very important. I have personally heard several preachers
give a date when Jesus will return.
Listen very carefully, we do not know when! I personally believe that
the rapture will happen between verses 14 and 15. But, again, let me repeat
this, no one knows of the day or the hour. We can see the signs that it is
close, which it is, but we do not know when.
But when He comes, He will come with a shout!
RAPTURE:
That brings us to the rapture. Let’s look at our coming rapture!
1 Thess. 4:16-17. “For the Lord Himself will descend
from heaven with a shout…” are my brothers in Pakistan listening for the shout!
“…with the voice of the archangel, and with the trump of God: and the dead in
Christ shall rise first.: then we which are alive and remain will be caught up
together with them in the clouds, to meet the Lord in the air: and so, will we
ever be with the Lord.” Why is the
Apostle Paul telling us this? The next verse lets us know. He says, “Comfort
one another with these words.” Brothers
and sisters, what a glorious hope we have in our Savior! All of the saints
of the past, our loved ones whom have passed away and us still alive will all
join the Lord, and we will all be together again in Glory!
1 Cor 15:52. About 7 years later the Apostle Paul
would mention the rapture again. “In a moment, in the twinkling of an
eye…” That is fast! Our rapture will happen very fast! “…at the
last trump: for the trumpet will sound, and the dead will be raised
incorruptible, and we will be changed.”
I still remember of an event years ago. I was sitting in a
traffic jam here in America. There are
probably no traffic jams in Pakistan. But in America, we have them. I
was sitting there stopped on the road. When everything went completely white!
And almost immediately I heard a load bang.
After a few minutes, I could see again. I looked over out the car
window, and about 15 meters was a round smoldering circle in the grass where
the lightning struck! The Lord protected me that day. But that is how fast the rapture
will happen! Two will be working in the fields, one will be taken, one left
behind. Two will be making bread, one will be taken, one left behind! It will
happen as fast as lightning!
Once we will be raptured up to heaven, and after the marriage
supper of the Lamb, we will be made ready to judge the earth with Christ. In
the Book of Revelation 19:7-8 it says, “Let us rejoice and be glad and give him
glory! For the wedding of the Lamb is
come, and his bride has made herself ready. Fine linen, bright and clean, was
given her to wear.” Fine linen stands for the righteous acts of God’s holy
people. Psalms 132:9 “May your priests be clothed with your righteousness, may
your faithful people sing for joy.” Christians today are the priest of God. Do
you have your spiritual fine linen on!
Acts 1:9-11. “And when he had spoken these things,
while they beheld, he was taken up, and a cloud received him out of their
sight. And while they looked steadfastly toward heaven as he went up, behold,
two men stood by them in white apparel; which also said, you men of Galilee,
why stand you gazing up into heaven? This same Jesus, which is taken up
from you into heaven, shall so come in like manner as you have seen him go into
heaven.”
This Same
Jesus!
This same Jesus that was taken up from you into
heaven shall so come in like manner as ye have seen Him go into Heaven!
This same Jesus is coming
back again to sit in the Kingdom of His Father!
This same Jesus that wore the
crown of thorns and was lifted up between Heaven and earth!
This same Jesus that hung
over there on Calvary, and now sits on the right hand of God!
This same Jesus that has
mercy on the poor!
This same Jesus that heals
the broken-hearted!
This same Jesus that gives comfort to the fatherless!
This same Jesus that rose
again on the third day!
This same Jesus that
sacrificed Himself to make our salvation possible!
This same
Jesus, This same Jesus, This same Jesus!
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