I realize I spend probably way too much time in the Old
Testament so I decided to take a week off and look at a prophecy that Jesus
Himself made prior to His death. The text is found in several places but we
will look at it from the eyes of Luke. “Then, as some spoke of the temple, how
it is adorned with beautiful stones and donations, He said, ‘These things which
you see – the days will come in which not one stone will be left upon another
that shall not be thrown down.’” Luke 21:5-6
The beautiful temple, that king Herod remodeled, was truly
and utterly destroyed by the Romans in 70 A.D. , just thirty-eight years after
Jesus died. For two thousand years those stones have been left in rubble with
not one laid upon another just as Jesus predicted. Our bridegroom was going
away to prepare a place for us so that one day He would return and take us
home. But when could that day of His return be?
In the gospel of John 14:1-6 we find a wonderful look and
description of a promise Jesus made to all would choose to follow Him. “Let not
your heart be troubled; you believe in God, believe also in Me. In My Father’s
house are many mansions; if it were not so, I would have told you. I go to
prepare a place for you. And if I go to prepare a place for you, I will come
again and receive you back to myself; that where I am, there you may be also.
And where I go you know, and the way you know.” Before we look at the rest of
John 14 let’s see what Jesus taught about the sign post of His return.
Luke 21:7-11“For many
will come in My name, saying ‘I am He’ and ‘The time has drawn near.’ Therefore
do not go after them. But when you hear of wars and commotions, do not be
terrified; for these things must come to pass first, but the end will not come
immediately. Nation will rise against nation, and kingdom against kingdom. And
there will be great earthquakes in various places, and famines and pestilence;
and there will be fearful sights and great signs in the heavens.”
No matter what church you attend, with all of our
differences in doctrines of how and when the return of Christ will happen, one
thing we can all agree on is that His return is imminent. The key that unlocks the secrets of His
return is found in the books of Daniel and Revelation. Simply put, without a
lot of mathematical gymnastics, Daniel is told that there would be 70 weeks of
years until the Messiah’s return. Sixty-nine weeks of years have already been
fulfilled as the Messiah was “cut off” or put to death at His first appearance
where He died on a cross.
The period from the
birth of the Christian church at “Pentecost” to present time is called the
“church age”. It’s a time when bride is waiting, making herself ready, for the
bridegroom to return for her at an hour that she does not know. The idea is
that she would remain faithful even while the bridegroom was away preparing a
house for her to live in. The final week of seven years is known as the
“Tribulation” period and is characterized at first by a pseudo time of peace.
The first three and a half years is when the temple will be rebuilt with some
sort of negotiated peace treaty by a new world leader. The last three and a half
years culminates in the Great Tribulation. The book of Daniel and the book of
Revelation describes that period of time in great detail. I would encourage all
of you to study it for yourself.
I will close with what is probably one of the most important
questions ever asked by a man in all of recorded history. It was asked by a
relatively timid, doubting disciple of Jesus named Thomas and is recorded in
John 14:5 “Thomas said to Him, ‘Lord, we do not know where You are going, and
how can we know the way?’ Jesus said to him ‘I am the way, the truth, and the
life. No one comes to the Father except through Me.’”
Well, there you have it from the Master’s own mouth, there
is only one way to get to God and live in His presence and thanks to Thomas’
question that way is through Jesus and Jesus only. Why don’t you take a step in
faith and ask God to forgive you and become your Lord and Master. God has
invited every man to come to Him through His Son Jesus Christ.
