Signs Of The Second Coming Of Jesus
10-12-2011 Vol. 5 Part 11a
Psalms 47:1-9 NKJV To the Chief Musician. A Psalm of the Sons of Korah. Oh, clap your hands, all you peoples! Shout to God with the voice of triumph! For the LORD Most High is awesome; He is a great King over all the earth. He will subdue the peoples under us, And the nations under our feet. He will choose our inheritance for us, The excellence of Jacob whom He loves. Selah God has gone up with a shout, The LORD with the sound of a trumpet. Sing praises to God, sing praises! Sing praises to our King, sing praises! For God is the King of all the earth; Sing praises with understanding. God reigns over the nations; God sits on His holy throne. The princes of the people have gathered together, The people of the God of Abraham. For the shields of the earth belong to God; He is greatly exalted. Father we praise your name, we give you all the glory. Jesus we ask that you bless us and keep us all healthy during this upcoming winter time. Give each of us the insight of what and how we are to prepare for the winter months. In Jesus name we pray! Amen!
Matthew 25:31 – 46
Matthew 25:31-46 NKJV "When the Son of Man comes in His glory, and all the holy angels with Him, then He will sit on the throne of His glory. 32 All the nations will be gathered before Him, and He will separate them one from another, as a shepherd divides his sheep from the goats. 33 And He will set the sheep on His right hand, but the goats on the left. 34 Then the King will say to those on His right hand, 'Come, you blessed of My Father, inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world: 35 for I was hungry and you gave Me food; I was thirsty and you gave Me drink; I was a stranger and you took Me in; 36 I was naked and you clothed Me; I was sick and you visited Me; I was in prison and you came to Me.' 37 "Then the righteous will answer Him, saying, 'Lord, when did we see You hungry and feed You, or thirsty and give You drink? 38 When did we see You a stranger and take You in, or naked and clothe You? 39 Or when did we see You sick, or in prison, and come to You?' 40 And the King will answer and say to them, 'Assuredly, I say to you, inasmuch as you did it to one of the least of these My brethren, you did it to Me.' 41 "Then He will also say to those on the left hand, 'Depart from Me, you cursed, into the everlasting fire prepared for the devil and his angels: 42 for I was hungry and you gave Me no food; I was thirsty and you gave Me no drink; 43 I was a stranger and you did not take Me in, naked and you did not clothe Me, sick and in prison and you did not visit Me.' 44 "Then they also will answer Him, saying, 'Lord, when did we see You hungry or thirsty or a stranger or naked or sick or in prison, and did not minister to You?' 45 Then He will answer them, saying, 'Assuredly, I say to you, inasmuch as you did not do it to one of the least of these, you did not do it to Me.' 46 And these will go away into everlasting punishment, but the righteous into eternal life."
In Mathew 24:3 the apostles came to Jesus and asked, “…. when will these things be? And what will be the sign of Your coming, and of the end of the age?" They got a pretty lengthy answer in Chapter 24, but they also got some words of wisdom as to what we are to be doing while we wait, in Chapter 25.
The two parables, one about the ten virgins and being prepared, and the other about the servants and that we are to use our God given talents while we wait, was probably more than what the disciples bargained for. Now Jesus is going one step further and telling us something else we are to be doing while we wait, and that is obeying the second greatest commandment. Matthew 22:39 NKJV And the second is like it: 'YOU SHALL LOVE YOUR NEIGHBOR AS YOURSELF.'
The two parables, one about the ten virgins and being prepared, and the other about the servants and that we are to use our God given talents while we wait, was probably more than what the disciples bargained for. Now Jesus is going one step further and telling us something else we are to be doing while we wait, and that is obeying the second greatest commandment. Matthew 22:39 NKJV And the second is like it: 'YOU SHALL LOVE YOUR NEIGHBOR AS YOURSELF.'
Verses 31tells us who is going to be sitting on the Throne and who will be judging all nations, and that person will be none other than Jesus Christ our Saviour. Most people think it will be God judging, but scripture tells us it is Jesus. John 5:22 NKJV For the Father judges no one, but has committed all judgment to the Son, …. It is throughout the whole Bible, it is stated who will be the judge, just take a few minutes and look up these verses. Joh_5:27, Joh_3:35, Joh_17:2; Psa_9:7-8, Psa_96:13, Psa_98:9; Mat_16:27, Mat_28:18; Act_10:42, Act_17:31; Rom_2:16; 2Co_5:10; 2Th_1:7-10; 2Ti_4:1; 1Pe_4:5. Did you know there are seven judgments in God’s word? 1) The Judgment of our Lord Jesus Christ at the Cross for our sins. John 12:30-31 NKJV Jesus answered and said, "This voice did not come because of Me, but for your sake. 31 Now is the judgment of this world; now the ruler of this world will be cast out. 2) The Judgment of Believers Works. 2 Corinthians 5:10 NKJV 10 For we must all appear before the judgment seat of Christ, that each one may receive the things done in the body, according to what he has done, whether good or bad. 3) The Judgment of a Believers Life and we should be judging ourself. 1 Corinthians 11:31 NKJV 31 For if we would judge ourselves, we would not be judged. 4) Judgment of Israel. Ezekiel 20:35-37 NLT I will bring you into the wilderness of the nations, and there I will judge you face to face. 36 I will judge you there just as I did your ancestors in the wilderness after bringing them out of Egypt, says the Sovereign LORD. 37 I will examine you carefully and hold you to the terms of the covenant. 5) Judgment of Fallen Angels. Jude 1:6 NKJV And the angels who did not keep their proper domain, but left their own abode, He has reserved in everlasting chains under darkness for the judgment of the great day; 1 Corinthians 6:3 NKJV Do you not know that we shall judge angels? How much more, things that pertain to this life? 2 Peter 2:4 NKJV For if God did not spare the angels who sinned, but cast them down to hell and delivered them into chains of darkness, to be reserved for judgment; 6) The Judgment of Nations. Matthew 25:32,33 NKJV All the nations will be gathered before Him, and He will separate them one from another, as a shepherd divides his sheep from the goats. 33 And He will set the sheep on His right hand, but the goats on the left. 7) The Great White Throne Judgment. Revelation 20:11 NKJV Then I saw a great white throne and Him who sat on it, from whose face the earth and the heaven fled away. And there was found no place for them.
The second coming of Jesus is immediately after the Great Tribulation when He comes on that white horse with Heavens Armies and the battle of Armageddon takes place. Heavens Armies will return with Jesus, meaning his angels, and His Born Again Saints dressed in fine white linen. After the battle of Armageddon is over there will be people that survived the battle and this is the judgment that will take place to rid the earth of evil and corruption. The people that are alive will be those that accepted Jesus as their saviour during the Tribulation and those that don’t believe and took the mark of the beast. This is the judgment, verses 32 – 46 is referring to. So don’t get confused and think this is the Great White throne judgment. That takes place right after the Millennial Reign.
This judgment will take place here on earth. Verse 31 states Jesus is returning and taking his place on the throne and that throne will be here on earth, and he will be seated on it during the Millennial Reign. Jesus will be the one sorting the people out like a shepherd sorts his flock at shearing time. This analogy that Jesus uses with the sheep and the goats of course represents sheep being his believers and the goats being those that took the mark of the beast.
Let me explain the difference between sheep and goats so that you can get a better understanding of why sheep and goats were selected in this analogy to represent God’s chosen ones and those that aren’t. If you have a farm background and know the nature of sheep, you can understand why we are considered sheep. If a sheep gets sick it will just lie down and die. Sheep need a lot of care and a constant vigilant eye of the shepherd to keep his flock healthy and out of danger of the enemy. If a sheep is attacked by a predator, they just go down without a fight. They have no defense mechanism. A goat on the other hand will fight for his life. He has a set of horns and can fend off one dog or a coyote. Many times a shepherd will put some billy goats in a flock for this purpose. A goat has the character of fending and living for themselves, where as a sheep depends on the shepherd for life. This is the same for believer and non-believers. Believers put their total faith and trust in Jesus Christ and live for the Kingdom of God, but non-believers haven’t come to that dependency state. They think they can solve all their problems on their own. They live for worldly things and self satisfaction of what the world gives them. They live for the kingdom of Satan who has free reign of this world at the present time. In fact Satan told Jesus he would give the world to him, if he would bow down and worship him. Luke 4:5-6 NKJV Then the devil, taking Him up on a high mountain, showed Him all the kingdoms of the world in a moment of time. 6 And the devil said to Him, "All this authority I will give You, and their glory; for this has been delivered to me, and I give it to whomever I wish.
The sheep are the elect of God, and true believers, they will go to the right of Jesus. They have the grace of God truly implanted in them. The sheep the Father gave to Jesus, are under his care and He is in charge of them. He is the good shepherd and laid down his life for us. His sheep know his voice and follow him in the way of his ordinances and appointments. His followers are comparable to sheep for their meekness and innocence, their simplicity and usefulness, and their harmless and inoffensive lives, and conversations. These Jesus will set on his right hand, as a token of his affection for them, and a mark of respect and honour shown them, and as a pledge of that exaltation and glory he will be giving to them.
The goats will be on the left, that is, the foolish virgins, wicked and slothful servants that bury their talents, graceless people, who, because of the impurity of their hearts, the filthiness of their lives, and their offensiveness to Christ, are compared to goats. These people are as a token of his dissatisfaction and non-affection for them. With a brand of disgrace upon them (the mark of the beast), and an allusion of honour they portrayed toward Jesus and what he did on the cross for them, they will become miserable in the condition they will quickly be in.
These different situations plainly pre-signify how things will go with each, that one will be acquitted, and made happy, the other will be condemned, and become miserable. Those on the right hand, are those that believe and have done well, their sins are forgiven, and those on the left hand are non-believers and have corrupt heart and are condemned to Hell.
I’m going to have to continue the explanation of the rest of the verses (35 – 46) next week. So until then keep Praising the Lord!
All have sinned and fall short of the glory of God!
Jesus replied, "I tell you the truth,
Unless you are Born Again, you cannot enter into Heaven, the Kingdom of God."
Bill
Last Week’s Trivia: What happened to the brass serpent on the pole that the Israelites looked at to be cured and saved from death after the serpent bites?
Answer: The Isrealite began worshiping the bronze serpent, they turned it into an idol. 2 Kings 18:4 NLT He removed the pagan shrines, smashed the sacred pillars, and cut down the Asherah poles. He broke up the bronze serpent that Moses had made, because the people of Israel had been offering sacrifices to it. The bronze serpent was called Nehushtan. The Isrealites did this time and time again in the Old Testament. Even today people still pray and worship statues, cattle, manmade saints, the stars, etc, instead of just praying and talking to Jesus our Saviour.
This week’s Trivia: After studying this right and left hand of God, was the thief on the cross that stood up for Jesus on His right side?
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