Good morning. We'll be reading in Matthew chapter 24, and I'll be reading in verse 15 going through verse 28. So when you see the abomination of desolation spoken of by the prophet Daniel, standing in the holy place, let the reader understand, then let those who are in Judea flee to the mountains. Let the one who is on the housetop not go down to take what is in his house. And let the one who is in the field not turn back to take his clothes. And alas, for women who are pregnant and for those who are nursing infants in those days, pray that your flight may not be in winter or on a Sabbath, for then there will be great tribulation, such as has not been seen from the beginning of the world until now. No, and never will be. And if those days had not been cut short, no human being would be saved. But for the sake of the elect, those days will be cut short. Then if anyone says to you, look, here is the Christ, or there he is, do not believe it. for false Christs and false prophets will arise and perform great signs and wonders so as to lead astray, if possible, even the elect. See, I have told you beforehand, so if they say to you, look, he is in the wilderness, do not go out. If they say, look, he is in the inner rooms, do not believe it. For as the lightning comes from the east and shines as far as the west, so will be the coming of the Son of Man. Wherever the corpse is, there the vultures will gather. For the Lord is in His holy temple. Let all the earth keep silence before Him. Thank you, man. Amen. Saints, let's pray together. Father God, we come unto your Word and we come knowing that we need your help every time we come in order to understand, in order to trust, in order to have confidence in all that you reveal. And we know, Father, that your Word is living. We know that it is active. We know that it is profitable to us in every aspect. And so we pray this morning, Holy Spirit, illuminate our understanding. and apply this Word to our consciences and to our lives, that we might continue to strive in the strength that You supply, and to know that You hold us fast through every trial and tribulation of this world, and to run with endurance the race that is set before us, that we might finish well, and that we might glorify you, and that through your church you might shed light into the darkness of this world. Father, help us to live in light of the coming of our King, we pray in Jesus' name. Amen. Did any of you ever get in big trouble when you were younger? Any kids back there ever get in big trouble with mom and dad while dad's at home? Nick's raising, oh, that's Theo, sorry. I mean, me too, Nick, if you're raising your hand. You ever hear those words, wait until your father gets home from your mom? That kind of big trouble that strikes fear into your heart when you're a kid. I heard those words plenty of times when I was growing up and every single time it was bad news, right? Wait until your dad gets home isn't a good thing to hear from your mom. That's bad news. And every single time I heard those words, they struck fear and terror into their into my heart, and every single time I heard those words, those words were well-deserved, because I had done something bad, and justice was coming when dad got home, always because I'd done something to earn it. And whatever the consequence was that was going to come from it in my home, it would be a punishment that fit the crime, and it would always be followed by mercy. and it will always be followed by love. Because no matter what I'd done, and no matter what I deserved, and no matter what punishment I got, he was my dad, and I was always his son. In the past several weeks, we've been talking together about this coming day of the Lord, when the Lord will come. This long prophesied day spoken of by the Old Testament prophets, right? We've been studying their writings together. Also, this day of the Lord spoken of by Jesus and the apostles in the New Testament Scriptures. This coming day that was foreshadowed and anticipated by all of the historical times of judgment and deliverance which God had historically orchestrated in the history of Israel. this coming day of the Lord when the Sovereign, Almighty, Risen, Holy Lord Jesus Christ Himself will come home. will return and pour out the fullness and the finality of ultimate and divine judgment against all of the sin and all of the depravity and all of the injustice of all of this world and also bring ultimate redemption and ultimate salvation to all of His redeemed and forgiven and justified people. His beloved blood-bought sons and daughters, His blood-bought bride And on that coming day, we know that He is going to make all things new. New heavens, new earth, incorruptible peace and righteousness and life and glory forever. Wait until your Father gets home, right? Bad news when you've earned whatever consequences are coming, but also cushioned some at least by the certainty that forgiveness and mercy and love will follow because he's dad and I'm his son. So Jesus is coming. That's bad news for everyone who doesn't know Jesus. But for those who do, it's a blessed hope. Paul says in Titus, the day of the Lord is coming. Full and final and ultimate judgment is coming. for those who have earned the ultimate and eternal consequences of sin and falling infinitely short of the eternal glory of God, right? Bad news, eternally bad news, unless we have been unconditionally loved with such a divine love that we've been forgiven, that we've been justified, that we've been called sons, daughters of the living God. And such we are. Such we are if by grace alone and through faith alone in the person and the work of Jesus Christ alone we're saved, delivered from the wrath of God that is to come. All of this is what Jesus was focusing his disciples on in Matthew chapter 24, which we're coming back to again here today. Remember with me, just before facing His own death on the cross at the hands of the wicked and godless leaders of the Jewish people in Jerusalem, just before His crucifixion, Jesus told His disciples that the wrath of God was going to rain down on Jerusalem and on the temple because of that terrible atrocity that was going to be perpetrated when the incarnate Son of God was murdered. on the Roman cross. The temple of God would be destroyed. Not one stone would be left standing on another, Jesus said, and the whole thing would become utterly desolate. And so you remember from a few weeks ago when we first dipped into this chapter, that when Jesus said that to His disciples, they were absolutely shocked by this prediction. And they started asking Him questions. When is this going to happen? And what will be the signs of your coming and of the end of the age? Because remember they were assuming that all of those things were going to happen at the same time. The destruction of the temple, the second coming of Jesus, the end of the age would all happen together in time, but they were wrong about that. And Jesus explains through this chapter that there was going to be a long period of time between the destruction of the temple in Jerusalem, which we know historically happened in the year 70 A.D., a long period of time between that and Jesus' second coming, which hasn't happened yet, more than 2,000 years later. and that with his second coming, the end of the world and the end of this age, in the full and final outpouring of the wrath of God, God was gonna make all things new, a new heavens and a new earth. And this long period of time Jesus teaches between the temple's destruction and His return would be characterized, Jesus told His disciples in verses 4-8, remember, characterized by all kinds of upheaval in the world that is full of sin, that's under the curse, that's been subjected to decay and corruption. And so it's groaning, it's longing for renewal, like Paul says in Romans 8. And so, characteristically, it's just full of false teaching and wars and rumors of wars, natural disasters, suffering, sorrows of many kinds. Jesus calls them birth pains that are typical of this world and age in which we live in, but they're not signs that the end of this world and this age are upon us. Jesus was clear, when you see these things, don't be alarmed. It's characteristic of this world, but the end has not yet come. And equally clear, then remember in verses 9-14, Jesus spoke about what would be signs that the end was near. Tribulation and persecution and martyrdom, not just in general, but at the hands of all the nations of the world who had been gathered together and surrounded the saints of God and were conspiring against the Bride of Christ in an all-out global worldwide attempt to destroy the church and wipe all Christians from the face of the earth. That would be instigated by the activity of Satan. who we've seen from Revelation is currently bound and prevented from doing that, but will be let loose for a little bit of time off his chain in order to do that, to deceive the nations into surrounding the church and leaving us nowhere to run, nowhere to hide, and trying to persecute the church into extinction. And involved with that will be the rise, 1 John 2, as we've seen, of the Antichrist, the man of lawlessness, 2 Thessalonians 20, or 2 from last week, the man of destruction, who will take his seat in the temple of God, the living temple of the Holy Spirit, the church of Jesus Christ, make himself out to be God, and will lead many people away from Christ. He'll cause a massive apostasy of many, many people who call themselves followers of Jesus, but won't be willing to count the cost of the persecution and the martyrdom and the tribulation that's gonna come upon the true and faithful bride of Christ in those days. So there's a tribulation that already is in this world. In fact, John, at the beginning of the book of Revelation, says that he's a fellow partaker, already back in those days, 2,000 years ago, of the tribulation that is characteristic of this world. And there is a tribulation that is yet to come, the likes of which this world's never even seen. So, there's a tribulation coming, there's a tribulation that's already mounting, right? The full hurricane we've seen has yet to make landfall, but the leading winds of that storm are already howling. There's an Antichrist who's yet to come, yet John says many Antichrists are already here. There's a spirit of Antichrist already at work in this world, leading people away from the true Christ and His true Word and His true Gospel. All of this is what Jesus has been unveiling to his disciples in Matthew 24. And also what so many other passages in the New Testament unpack for us even more in places that we've been looking at, like Revelation 20 and 1 John 2 and 1 John 4 and 2 Thessalonians 2. These other passages kind of fill out the corners for us of Jesus' teaching about the end. And the reason for all of that teaching, the reason for all of this revelation from God about what's coming, about the way that things are in this world and how they're going to become more and more and more in this world until the end when Jesus returns, the reason for it is not to scare us. The reason for it is not to alarm us, even though the way things are and are becoming is bad and getting worse. But as Jesus said to his disciples, we should not be alarmed because above it all, he reigns in sovereign majesty. And through it all, he is working out his purposes to make all things new. And in it all, he's with us to the very end. with all the power and authority of heaven to help us endure whatever it is in faithfulness until He returns to gather us unto Himself. So, with everything that we've learned so far already under our feet, let's move into this next section of Matthew 24 where Jesus talks very openly and honestly and frankly with His disciples about what the future holds for them. Not just when the temple is destroyed back in 70 A.D., but ultimately, at the very end, just before Jesus returns. So we're going to focus mostly on verses 15 through 23, like your bulletins say. That's all we're going to have time for today. But we're also going to need to touch on verses 28 and 29, and we'll dig into them more deeply next time. But in these verses, Jesus is telling His disciples, including us, with great prophetic detail and accuracy what's gonna happen when the Jerusalem temple comes to be destroyed by the Romans, which it did in the year 70 AD, about 37 years after Jesus said the things that he says in this chapter. And he's also telling them, as we're gonna see, how that historical event that happened in Jerusalem would be another great divinely orchestrated foreshadowing and anticipation of what is still to come in our future, just before Jesus returns. And these verses actually aren't terribly difficult to understand. Neither, by the way, is what the Bible teaches us about the end times, unless we complicate it unnecessarily. with all kinds of modern understandings and interpretations or assumptions and expectations that don't actually come from the words of Jesus. These words aren't terribly hard to understand, but we've got to be very careful to understand them according to what Jesus actually says and not carry our own assumptions and preconceived ideas into them first and then try to use his words to support what we already want to believe. We just need to look at Jesus' words and put it together in the way He clearly spoke it. So remember, all of this is predicated on those questions that the disciples asked Jesus back up in the first three verses of this chapter after He told them the temple is going to be made desolate. And the first one of those questions was when? When? And that's what Jesus is starting to answer in verse 15. When is the temple going to be made desolate? But He doesn't give them a date. He gives them a sign to look for so that when they see this thing happening, they'll know this is it. The temple's about to be made desolate. So, verse 15. When? Here's when. When you see. The abomination of desolation spoken of by the prophet Daniel standing in the holy place. Let the reader understand how? Well, we're going to have to look at Daniel. Then when you see this, let those who are in Judea flee to the mountains. So notice, again, Jesus doesn't give a date for when the temple would be destroyed. He gives them a sign that they can watch for that will signal it. The abomination of desolation spoken of through the prophet Daniel. Whatever that means, it was gonna be the signal that the destruction of the Jewish temple was imminent. So to understand what it means, we gotta turn back to the book of Daniel and this prophecy that Jesus mentioned. So keep your bookmark or your thumb in Matthew 24 and go back with me to the book of Daniel and to chapter 11 of the book of Daniel. Remember, hopefully you do, that Daniel was prophesying and writing during the Babylonian captivity in the 6th century before Christ. Daniel was one of the ones who was taken captive from Jerusalem and brought to Babylon to live in exile there for 70 years. And of course, we've seen how that massively significant historical event in Old Testament history was one of those divinely orchestrated harbingers of the much more ultimate things that were to come and are still to come. And four times in the book of Daniel, God gave Daniel prophetic words and prophetic visions of a specific event that Jesus is referring to in Matthew 24. And that event is the abomination of desolation. We learned what desolation means, right? It means to leave it empty, to leave it abandoned. And the word abomination just means something really, really horrible. Something detestable that was going to happen in the temple, which would lead to it becoming desolate. An abomination that causes desolation. First time we hear about it in Daniel is chapter 8. You don't have to turn there. Stay in chapter 11 for now. But in chapter 8, God gives Daniel a vision about a transgression, a sin that makes desolate. and leads to the temple being trampled underfoot. So he's already 600 years before Christ predicting the same thing that Christ is predicting. And then in chapter 9, God gives Daniel a vision of Christ, who's going to make a strong covenant with God's people that will put an end to all of the sacrifices that were being performed in the earthly temple. They won't be needed anymore because of the covenant that Jesus makes by His own blood. And that's what happened when Jesus sacrificed himself as the true Lamb of God on the cross. And in Daniel 9.27, God says that the making of this covenant by Christ on the cross would be followed by this event. Listen, then after the covenant that Christ makes, then on the wing of abominations shall come one who makes desolate until the decreed end is poured out on the desolation. So again, following the death of Jesus, there's going to be abominations, detestable things done in the temple, and on the wing of these abominations is going to come one who makes the temple desolate. All of which is what Jesus was telling His disciples about in Matthew 24. And then, most explicitly in Daniel here, Daniel chapter 11, Look at verse 29, where God is prophesying, not about Jesus, but about an enemy of God, who's gonna attack the people of God. And God says this about that. At the time appointed he, this enemy, shall return and come into the south, but it shall not be this time as it was before. This is gonna be something unique. For the ships of Kittim shall come against him, and he shall be afraid and withdraw, shall turn back and be enraged, and will take action against the holy covenant. And he shall turn back and pay attention to those who forsake the holy covenant. Forces from him shall appear and profane the temple and the fortress, and shall take away the regular burnt offering, and they shall set up the abomination that makes desolate. And He shall seduce with flattery those who violate the covenant, but the people who know their God shall stand firm and take action. And the wise among the people shall make many understand, though for some days they will stumble by sword and flame, by captivity and plunder, but when they stumble they shall receive a little help. And so many shall join themselves to them with flattery and some of the wise shall stumble so that they will be refined and purified and made white until the time of the end. Very, very similar themes. to the ones of Daniel chapter eight and nine. There's gonna be a time when a holy covenant is made. That's the time of Christ, the new covenant in his blood. And around that time, there's gonna be enemies who come forsaking this holy covenant, committing abominations in the temple that lead to it being made desolate. And the chief among those enemies will seduce people into violating the covenant and falling away. All of this should sound very familiar from the past couple weeks, right? Revelation 20, 2 Thessalonians 2. And yet, in spite of all this persecution and pressure, the people who know their God will stand firm. And they'll take action. And even though many will end up falling away, the church won't be destroyed. There will be those who endure. until the time of the end. And the persecution that they'll experience will cause them to be refined and purified and made white by the help that God gives them. So I hope you can see all the tie-ins to all of the further revelation that God has given in the New Testament, which helps us understand even more by the activity of Satan, who is currently bound and kept from doing his worst, there's going to be this growing spirit of Antichrist in this world. It's already growing. We know it. We sense it. We see it. We feel it. Seducing people away from Jesus and the gospel. Ultimately, it will culminate in the rise of the Antichrist when Satan is let loose. And that person will take his seat in the living temple of the Holy Spirit, posing as God and deceiving people with signs and wonders even. And that will bring out a massive season of persecution and pressure and apostasy as many people fall away and rise up themselves against Christ, like we learned last week in 2 Thessalonians 2. but those who endure, those who stand firm by the strength that God gives through his word and through his spirit will be gathered together and glorified in robes made white by the blood of Jesus Christ at the appointed time of his return. Daniel was given visions of everything we've been learning 600 years before Jesus was even born and before Jesus began to bring fulfillment to all of those prophecies. And central to the fulfillment of all those prophecies is this abomination that brings desolation to the temple. Prophesied here in Daniel 11. So now, back to Matthew 24, verses 15 and 16. Jesus told the disciples that the temple in Jerusalem, the building itself, that they were pointing to and saying, how could it become desolate? Look how magnificent it is, right? Jesus said it would be destroyed so completely that not one stone would be left standing on another, and that the sign that they should look for, that that was about to happen, is this abomination in the temple which would bring desolation, which Daniel spoke of. And here's what happened in history, 37 years after Jesus referenced Daniel's prophecy. a group of Jewish radicals, factions of people who were very, very rebellious, actively against the Roman government, rose up in Jerusalem and started to stir up all kinds of political unrest in Jerusalem and in Judea. And you know the Romans, they don't put up with political unrest. The Pax Romana, the peace of the empire. is what they care about the most. And so, they would want to put down any insurrections like the one that was fulminating in Jerusalem. Just days before the Passover in April of 70 A.D., the Romans surrounded the city of Jerusalem with soldiers commanded by General Titus. who would later become the emperor of Rome. And when he did, he would venerate himself as a god and demand that people worship him as a god. And that siege of Jerusalem would culminate in Titus marching his soldiers into the temple of the Jews, where he would set up detestable images of false Roman gods, and sprinkle the place with pig's blood, which was a detestable thing to the Jewish people, of course, and demand that they venerate and worship these false gods, desecrating the temple with these abominations. And that desecration, this idolatrous abomination by Titus would then be followed in August of 70 A.D. by the Roman soldiers then setting fire to the temple and tearing the whole thing down to the ground. And then in the weeks that followed that desolation of the temple, they burned the entire city of Jerusalem to the ground. which as you can imagine was a massive catastrophe for the Jewish people and resulted in massive loss of life. 37 years before it happened, Jesus said to his beloved disciples, it's coming. And when it does, when you see the abomination of desolation, The next thing that'll happen is the temple will be destroyed and the whole city will be destroyed. You need to get out of there, Jesus is saying to his disciples. You gotta run for the hills. And the way you'll know when to run is when you see this abomination of Titus defiling the temple. Get out then or else you won't be able to. You'll be surrounded. And when the city is destroyed, you'll all lose your lives. So verses 17-20 are all about how the disciples are going to need to be ready to run, to flee, when they see the sign of the abomination of desolation in the temple. Verse 17, when you see that happen, get out immediately. Don't even take time to pack your bags. You gotta go. Verse 18, if you're out in the fields working when the abomination happens, don't even bother picking up your cloak, let alone trying to go back into the city to get anything. Just turn your back and run to the hills. Verse 19, when it happens, it's gonna be really tough for people like pregnant ladies and those who are nursing young babies because they're gonna have to run and flee quickly and that's hard to do when you have a child in the womb or when you're holding one in your arms. Verse 20, pray that you don't have to be running and fleeing in the winter months because it'll be much harder because you'll be on foot. or during a Sabbath because it's gonna be impossible to buy provisions. So see, Jesus is just being clear with his disciples, there's a war coming to Jerusalem, and you're not gonna win. The Jews aren't gonna win. They're gonna get crushed. The Romans are gonna be merciless and cruel, and the devastation's gonna be massive, and the suffering's gonna be great. Verse 21, he uses the word tribulation. It's the word thlipsis in Greek, and it means to crush something. This defeat, this suffering is going to be a crushing one. He qualifies the word tribulation there with the Greek word megale. This is going to be a mega-tribulation. Massive. Great. crushing of the temple of Jerusalem and of the lives of anyone who gets caught inside and wasn't able to flee in time. But now I want you to focus in very closely on Jesus' actual words there in verse 21 and 22. For then there will be great tribulation, phlipsis megelei, such as has not been from the beginning of the world until now, no and never will be. And if those days had not been cut short, no human being would be saved, but for the sake of the elect, those days will be cut short. Listen to me. In 70 AD, when Titus and the soldiers of Rome laid siege to Jerusalem and burned it all to the ground, it was a crushing, Tribulation. And it was all initially precipitated by the murder of Jesus, the incarnate Son of God, on the cross 37 years before. Never in the history of the world was there a greater injustice or a worse crime committed than the day when the Lord of Glory was crucified. But Jesus says there in verse 21 that the tribulation which would result from this crime against God, that would come after the crucifixion of Christ, that the tribulation would be so great that it would utterly transcend any other tribulation that had ever happened before in the history of the world or that would ever happen again. then there will be great tribulation such as has not been seen from the beginning of the world until now, no, and never will be. And the thing is, as bad as what happened in Jerusalem in 70 AD was, and it was bad, but quite simply, it was not as bad It was not as great of a tribulation as Jesus is talking about there in verse 21. It wasn't actually the worst thing or the greatest tribulation that had ever happened in the history of the world or that the world would ever see again. Even Jerusalem had historically, even just that city had historically known a time of tribulation equally as great to the one in 70 AD, right already? in 586 BC when the Babylonians did exactly the same thing to the city. They besieged it, they enslaved many, they slaughtered the rest of the population, they tore the temple to the ground, they burned it, and then the whole city they burned to the ground. It happened before. And since 70 AD, the world has also known times of great tribulation that equal or exceed what happened in Jerusalem when Titus and his soldiers destroyed that city and their temple. The Holocaust in Europe was a great tribulation. The killing fields in Cambodia. The bloody revolutions in France and in Russia. All of the devastations of World War II, especially in a place like Hiroshima or Nagasaki, Great tribulations. And the point is simply this, that as bad as the tribulation in Jerusalem was in 70 A.D. and it was, it doesn't fit Jesus' words in verses 21 and 22. It wasn't the greatest tribulation that the world had ever known or would ever know after that happened. as bad as the bloodshed was and the loss of life was, it was confined to that one place and time and didn't threaten all human life on the planet like Jesus is talking about in verse 22. So what's Jesus saying there in verses 21 and 22? Here's what He's saying. Here's what He's doing. He's doing what God does all throughout Scripture. which is the word of God, which is the word of Christ. Jesus is the living word who is the author of the written word of God all throughout the Bible, given through the prophets and the apostles. So Jesus is speaking like he did through the prophets so often. about events that happen in this world that he himself orchestrated as the sovereign God who he is, which were bad, but ultimately foreshadowings and anticipations of much more ultimate events that would come. Like the Exodus, anticipated a far greater deliverance that Jesus would ultimately bring. Like the flood and Noah's Ark, anticipated the far more ultimate salvation that Jesus brought and that Jesus is. Like Babylon, like Edom, like Hosea and Gomer, like Jonah in the belly of the whale. All of it, Jesus says, he said it himself to his disciples on the road to Emmaus, remember? All of it points to me and greater realities that I have come to accomplish. Ultimate judgment, ultimate redemption. Same thing here. The judgment on Jerusalem and the temple in 70 AD, the tribulation that resulted from it, were sovereignly orchestrated signs of a far worse, far greater tribulation that is yet to come. Which Jesus wants his disciples, all of us, to be ultimately ready for, prepared for. The great tribulation that will come when Satan is let loose from his chain. When he will deceive all the nations and gather them all together to make war on all of God's redeemed saints everywhere in the world. When by that activity of Satan, the Antichrist, the man of lawlessness and destruction will rise and deceive many with supernatural signs and wonders. and lead a global, worldwide effort to lead faithful followers of Jesus astray and persecute and destroy any and all who stand firm and don't fall away. That tribulation, when Satan is let loose, when Antichrist comes, when all the nations join forces against the church and surround Christians from all sides, like Titus' soldiers surrounding Jerusalem was a picture of, That tribulation will be so great that it will be unlike anything the world has ever known or will ever know again. And it's coming. Because look down at verse 29, which again, we don't have time to fully unpack today. It's gonna have to wait till next week. But in verse 29, Jesus says that immediately after the tribulation of those days, The sun will be darkened, the moon will not give its light, the stars will fall from the heavens, and the powers of the heavens will be shaken. And then will appear in heaven the sign of the Son of Man. So see the great tribulation that Jesus is ultimately talking about here is only foreshadowed by the catastrophe that happened in Jerusalem in 70 AD, because the ultimate tribulation unlike the world's never known, will be immediately followed, immediately without any gap in time, by the return of Jesus. Everyone in the whole world will see the Son of Man coming on the clouds of heaven with power and great glory. So see, there's the sequence of events that Jesus very simply lays out for his disciples, that the Word of God as a whole lays out Jesus was crucified in the year 33 A.D. The temple in Jerusalem destroyed in the year 70 A.D. Following that, a long period of time during which Satan is bound and kept from gathering all the nations together to destroy the church. But that long period of time is characterized by hard things, false teaching, wars, rumors of wars, natural disasters, upheavals of all kinds as the creation groans and longs for redemption. We're in the middle of that now. All the suffering, all the sorrow, all the tribulation that's part of life in this world is going to then increase and come to a head when Satan is let loose for a little while. A comparatively short period of time compared to the long age we're in the middle of now. And in that shorter time, when Satan's loosed, the man of lawlessness will rise. The nations will be gathered, inflicting the church with a great tribulation unlike this world has ever seen or thought or known before. Trying to destroy the Bride of Christ entirely, but immediately, After that tribulation starts to occur, the whole sky, the whole universe, the cosmos, the heavens above, the galaxies, and the stars will be shaken like Mount Sinai was shaken when the presence of God came down upon it. When the fullness of holiness entered and disrupted this natural world, the whole heavens will shake, the sun and the moon will go dark, stars will start falling out of the sky and the sky will be rolled back like a scroll and the bridegroom will appear and everyone will see him. There will be the blast of the trumpet of God from heaven, the voice of the archangel will be heard everywhere and he will come. Just like He left visibly, physically on a cloud from heaven, He will return with great power and glory and vanquish all of the enemies and cast all of them, cast Satan himself into the lake of fire and gather his bride into himself and make all things new. That's the sequence. That's what Jesus tells us. And that's the hope. Jesus is the hope. In Titus chapter 2, Paul calls this our blessed hope, the appearing of the glory of our great God and Savior, Jesus Christ. That's what we're waiting for. That's who we're waiting for. as we walk by faith and run with endurance in the growing and mounting tribulation of this world. We're not waiting for things to get better in this world. Nowhere does Jesus tell his disciples that he's gonna pull them out of this world before the great tribulation comes. I mean, I understand how desirable that teaching is, right? What the appeal of that teaching is. This horrible thing's gonna happen, but don't worry, it won't pertain to you because he's gonna snatch you out before it happens. No, Jesus says it's gonna happen to you and you need to be ready for it. He tells us how we can know that it's coming, how we can remain faithful until it comes, how we can endure it by standing firm in the ancient ways when it comes, and how we can be confident that immediately after it comes, He will come and put it all to an ultimate and final end. So the hope that Jesus gives us in His word is not that things are gonna get better and better in this world. And it's not that he'll pull us out of this world before things get to be their worst. Because the hope that Jesus gives has nothing to do with this world. It has everything to do with him. He is our hope. He is our hope. No matter what happens in this world. And we know what will happen because he tells us. According to him, to his clear words, to his disciples, and also all throughout the New Testament scriptures, the world is gonna get worse and worse until Satan is unbound and literally all hell breaks loose and breaks forth in this world. And according to him and his clear word in scriptures, when that happens, the hope isn't that we won't have to go through it. The hope is that while we're going through it, we can have hope in Him because He will immediately come and crush the great crushing tribulation. And that will be the end of all tribulation, all sin, all rebellion, all injustice, all suffering, all sorrow. He is the hope. His appearance is the blessed hope. And until he appears on the clouds of heaven, while we wait, we live by Paul's words to the Romans in Romans chapter 12 and verse 12, where he says, rejoice in hope, be patient in tribulation, and be constant in prayer. You hear it? Rejoice in hope and Jesus is the hope and his coming is the blessed hope. Rejoice in it, not because things are gonna get better in this world and you won't have to go through the tribulation. No, no, rejoice in hope that is Jesus and be patient in the tribulation that you will have to endure and be constant in prayer because it's only gonna get worse. But it's okay because you can rejoice in the hope that Jesus is coming. And even though He's not here physically in this world yet, you can rejoice in the hope of knowing that you're not alone. You're not alone because even though He's not here physically, He's with you. Right? Isn't that what He told His disciples? After this chapter in Matthew 24, isn't that what He told His disciples four chapters later? after he tells them about the great tribulation that's going to come into this world, after he was crucified, after he was raised from the dead, and just before he left and ascended up into heaven, he said to them in Matthew 28, all authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me. Go therefore and make disciples of all the nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe everything that I've commanded you and behold, I, even though I'm in heaven and to physically return later, I am with you always, even to the end of the age. He is our hope. He's the living hope into which we've been born again 1st Peter chapter 1 and verse 3. He's the hope in which we rejoice no matter what tribulation we face in this world because he's with us. He's the hope who is coming to put an end to all tribulation and to gather us to himself at the very end. and He's the hope who is with us always, all the way up to the very end of the age, indwelling us by the Holy Spirit whose temple we are, working in us and through us to bring the light of truth and the glory of the gospel into the darkness that is all around us, making perfect in His own strength our lives in spite of our own weakness. growing us, strengthening us, sanctifying us, sustaining us in every way with us through every tribulation. all of the deep water, every fiery trial, until the end. The hope isn't the absence of the tribulation. The hope is the presence and the coming of Christ. He is our hope, so stand firm. He is our hope, so be strong in the strength of His might. We're gonna stop there and dig more next week. And as we do, think of the words of the song we're about to sing. Those he saves are his delight, precious in his holy sight. He'll not let your soul be lost. His promises will last. Bought by him at such a cost, he will hold you fast. Amen. Pray with me to him and then we'll rejoice in the living hope that he is and receive grace from him at the table. Our God and our Father, we thank you for explaining to us what we could never know on our own. And we thank you for making clear to us what would absolutely elude us if you had not revealed it in your living and active word. And we thank you, Father, for the hope that you give us, even though the things that you tell us are dire in terms of what is coming for this world and in this world and what will happen to this world. And so, Father, help us never to lay up treasures in this world. Help our hearts to never be fixated mostly on the things of this world. Father, help Christ to be our hope. Help his appearance to be our blessed hope. And help us live rejoicing in that hope. and help us live, Father, by your strength, persevering and enduring through all the tribulations of this world, and help us to be constant in prayer. Father, we love you, and we praise you, and we need you, and we give you thanks in the name of Jesus, and we say amen.