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Jack Brooks, teaching pastor.

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3/27/2018

Christ Teaches About the End-Times, Part 4.

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​Matthew 24:36-44.
“That day and hour” =
Which day and hour? Everything in 24:15-31? Or specifically 24:29-31?
“Nor the Son” = Does this little phrase undermine Christ’s deity?
  1. The phrase is in two of the oldest NT manuscripts, supported by many others, and quoted by many ancient Christian writers. Its authenticity is solid.
  2. It can’t undermine His deity since He calls Himself God’s Son.  Jn. 10:29-33.
  3. This gets us into the mystery of the hypostatic union.[1]
    1. E.g., Jesus’ divine nature was omnipresent but His human nature was not. His human nature could get tired, but His divine nature could not.
    2. He also subordinated the exercise of His divine attributes to the Father, when He became a man (John 5:19).
    3. Jesus, being fully man, didn’t know.
24:37-44 -- His “coming.” Parousia.
  • Christ says there is an analogy between Noah and this coming.
    • Normal human social activities will be on-going. 24:38.  
    • Noah enters the ark = Christ will gather believers to safety.
    • The flood = the outpouring of God’s wrath upon the world.
    • It’s interesting that God inserted a seven-day period. Genesis 7:6-10. This is an interesting parallel to a pre-tribulation rapture.
  • Christ introduces a new idea – an unknowable return for disciples only.
    •  There is a visible coming that can be known, to the day (Rev. 11:2-3, 12:6), and will be seen by the whole world.
    • But Christ begins prophesying a coming that cannot be foreseen, not even by believers (24:42, 44, 25:13; Mark 13:33-35).
Paul said the rapture of believers was a mystery, a previously hidden doctrine newly revealed by the Holy Spirit through Christ or the apostles (1 Cor. 15:51). So, there is nothing said about it anywhere in the OT


[1] Hypostatic Union is the union of the two natures (Divine and human) in the person of Jesus.

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3/27/2018

Christ Teaches About the End-Times, Part 3.

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Recap:
  1. Daniel predicted the rise of an evil world leader, at the end of this age, which he calls the “abomination that desolates”. Daniel 9:27, 12:11. This evil leader appears to be a continuation of Rome in some sense[1]. Christ re-affirmed Daniel’s prediction, Mt. 24:15.
Next:
  1.  The sun will go dark, the moon will not shine its light, meteors will shower down, and Christ will visibly appear in the sky. Mt. 21:29-30, Rev. 6:12-17.
    1. This language draws on Isaiah 13:6-16, which was originally fulfilled by the Persians against Babylon (13:17-22). The “big” Day of the Lord will be global and much worse.
    2. Evidently Christ’s words mean “the sun and moon will not shine in a normal way,” since Rev. 6:12 says the light of the moon will turn red, rather than go out entirely.
    3. “Stars” = meteors. “Stars” being used as an idiom, i.e., “shooting stars.” An actual star would incinerate the earth.
    4. The “sign of the Son of Man” is the Son of Man. E.g., the sign that is the son of Man. This is called an appositional genitive. He went up into the sky (Acts 1), He will return down through the sky.
    5. This will be a worldwide day of utter horror for the unrighteous.
  2. Christ’s angels will gather all believer from around the world. Mt. 25:31-33. This could refer to the Rapture (post-trib rapture view), or it could refer to Christ rescuing His mortal disciples from around the world.
  3. Fig tree illustration. See 2 Thess. 2:1-4. None of the Caesars ever did what 2 Th. 2 predicted.  We are not in the tribulation time. Normal persecutions & troubles for Christians  =/=  the Tribulation.
  4. “This generation” = the Jews. 24:34. Not a generation, this generation. Luke 11:30 (Assyrian Ninevites / Jews).
 


[1] This harmonizes with Daniel 2, where the iron-legged kingdom has continuity with the brittle iron-&-pottery feet kingdom, after which Christ annihilates all world government (Daniel 2:35); and with Daniel 7, where the iron-toothed monster (Rome) has another horn (king) pop up on its head (Daniel 7:18, 21-22).   

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3/27/2018

Christ Teaches About the End-Times, Part 2.

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Matthew 24:15-28

  • “Abomination of desolation” originally referred to the desecration of the temple by Greek tyrant Antiochus Epiphanes (175 B.C.), who set up a shrine to Zeus in the Holy Place and sacrificed a pig there. Daniel 11.
 
  • A second “abomination” will happen at the end of this age (Daniel 12).
    • Israel will undergo unprecedented trouble (Daniel 12:1a),
    • But its suffering will end with a great divine deliverance (12:1b),
    • There will be resurrections (Daniel 12:2).
    • The number of days following will be 1,290 days (Daniel 12:11), which includes the 1,260 days of Revelation, plus 30. No idea why the 30 extra, we can only speculate.
 
  • Matthew 24:15 probably is not referring to Rome’s attack in 70 A.D. because:
 
  •  In 70 A.D., the Christians left before the Romans entered. In contrast, Christ says that the disciples would see the abomination standing in the holy place, and then flee.
  • Daniel said Jerusalem’s destruction by Rome would precede the desolating abomination (Daniel 9:26, 27).
 
  • Suffering believers vulnerable to deception.
 
  • Christ tells them to ignore all claims that He has returned. (23-26)
  • His return will be public, visible, universal, unmistakable (27-28).
  • You want to know where Christ is? Look for vultures. Matt. 24:28, Rev. 19:17-21. 

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3/27/2018

Christ's Teaching About the End-times, part 1.

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Christ On the End-Times
Matthew 24-25

The setting of these prophecies:
  • Jesus predicts God turning over the kingdom to Gentiles (21:33-44).
  • Christ condemns the chief teachers of Israel (23:1-36).
  • Christ predicts the city’s destruction (23:38).
Christ begins His prophecies.
  • All the buildings in the temple complex will be knocked down.  1-2.
  • Later, the disciples ask two questions. The second question is compound. (24:3).
  • First exhortation: “Don’t let anyone deceive you.”
    • Many will come and successfully deceive people. (4-5). History only preserves a few names (Anthronges, Simon bar Kohkbar), there must have been more.
    • These disciples will hear about real wars, and rumors of wars. They should not be frightened. (6). There would be famines and earthquakes. These were all Braxton Hicks [false labor pains]. (7-8)
  • Then, a time of persecution (9-14). Rome picked up after Israel went down.
    • Roman persecution: “At first several were seized, who confessed, and then by their discovery a great multitude of others were convicted and executed.” Tacitus, speaking of persecution of Christians under Nero. Annals of Tacitus, book 1.15.
    • Persecution would come with other ills: apostasy, internal betrayals, false prophets, love for Christ turns cold. However, genuine believers would stand firm to the end of their lives, and by that faith be saved.
    • If Christ is still answering their first question, and I think He was, then the “end” (14) is the end of the Temple and the Jewish system. Romans 10:18 – the Gospel had spread through the known “world” by the time Paul wrote Romans in 56-57 A.D. Rome unintentionally broke the Jews’ power to systematically persecute believers.
 
  • Christ was already prophetically looking beyond the immediate situation. God was preparing to judge and set-aside the nation of Israel, until a future date.​
  • Jesus in this section was straight-forwardly answering their first question from 24:3. Not everything in this chapter is about the end-times.
  • Israel’s glorious restoration was not the next event on God’s time-table. The Jewish disciples had a very hard time accepting that (Acts 1:6), especially because the Church Age was a new revelation.

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3/9/2018

What Is "The Flesh"?

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One of the weaknesses I feel I see in how American Christians approach non-Christians, is how our view of them (and of ourselves, from when we were also non-Christians) is more influenced by secular psychology than by the Bible.

How often I have read or heard Christian speakers say that non-Christians are "wounded", or "broken", and how seldom I hear Christian preachers say that non-Christians are sinners.

Also, how often I hear preachers use the word "sin" as a synonym for "a deed I do", and seldom in the sense of, "Something fundamentally wrong with me on a deep level." The evangelical diagnosis of humanity's troubles seems stuck on a very shallow level.

The Bible takes us much deeper than woundedness or brokenness. It takes us all the way down deep to what it calls the "flesh."

The word translated flesh, sarx, can refer to the physical body (Mt. 19:15), bloodline (Ro. 1:3), or worldly human thinking (2 Co. 5:16). But when the apostle Paul gets ahold of it, he uses it to unfold the tragic troubles of the unsaved man, and also the internal battles of the Christian.

"Flesh" is a synonym for sin, in Romans 7:8. You can see this in Ro. 13:14, and Galatians 5:16-17. The flesh produces evil desires -- Ro. 7:8. Notice that the flesh isn't the same thing as the evil desires. It produces the evil desires, like a thistle-root produces a thistle.

The flesh deceives the lost person (perhaps into thinking that there will be no bad consequences to sinning, just as Satan deceived Eve in the garden), and it destroys the person by bringing down God's righteous judgment. Ro. 7:11.

In this portion of Romans 7, Paul is testifying to his spiritual experience as a dedicated but lost Pharisee. In spite of his high dedication, he was entirely without the Holy Spirit and enslaved by his evil flesh (7:14).

Paul called himself "carnal", which meant he did not have the Holy Spirit of God. Even though he was keeping the Jewish law outwardly, he knew that inside his heart sin reigned. 

Paul was controlled by the flesh. Even though his mind was well-taught in the Bible, and he, on one level of awareness, heartily approved of Moses' holy law, sin controlled him.

Paul was powerless. He committed sins that he knew he should not do, and his conscience made him feel condemned. He also did not do that which he knew he should, and that also made him feel condemned. Ro. 7:15-23. He was a man under the Holy Spirit's conviction, he felt his own crippled condition, and he felt helpless and wretched.

Then he goes on in Romans 8 to say with joy that we are freed from slavery to the flesh/sin by new life in Christ (Ro. 8:1-2). Christ by dying did what we could not do: satisfy God's standards.

This is why there is no condemnation from God for those who are in Christ Jesus -- Jesus Christ received God's condemnation in our place!  And when we receive Him as Savior, God gives us the Holy Spirit, who causes us to become born-again. We are weak compared to the evil flesh/sin living within us, but the Holy Spirit is infinitely more powerful than sin. His power can undo the damage sin does to our thinking and desires, and He can lead us step-by-step to victory.

I am not dismissing life's formative influences. How we are raised has a powerful effect on our outlook on life. Whether we are taught the good words of God's book makes a huge difference.

But: the Bible says there is an evil force dwelling inside each one of us, and we are all born with it. It cannot be re-educated by teachers, or reformed by counselors. It hates God by its very nature. It cannot obey Him (Rom. 8:7), any more than a rattlesnake can drink milk from a cow. The "flesh" is a deeper thing than just being broken, or just being wounded, and it takes the Gospel, the death of Christ, and the Holy Spirit to cure it.

   








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  • Home
  • About Us
    • How To Be Justified of Sin.
    • Music & Worship
    • What Makes Us Distinct?
    • Our History
    • Ministries >
      • Children
      • Women's
      • Youth
      • Adult Bible Study
    • Statement of Faith
  • Messages
  • Contact Us
  • Pastor's Blog