1Thessalonians End Times Pt.1
Calvary
Chapel Bible College
October
6, 2021
START RECORDING
Homework
Let’s share our memory verse – one at a time.
(1 Thessalonians
4:3 NKJV) —3 For this is the will of God, your
sanctification: that you should abstain from sexual immorality;
Did you come up with any nuggets to share as you’ve been chewing on this
verse this week?
How could this verse be used by you?
Have you decided what passage you’d like to pick for your “project”? (Samantha??)
Introduction
For the next two weeks we are going to take a detour on our trip through
Thessalonians.
I want to lay the groundwork regarding the End Times.
Illustration
Fishnets
When I was growing up, we would occasionally go to a seafood restaurant,
and in those days, all seafood restaurants had fishing nets on the walls as
decorations, along with those colored glass floats.
I like to think of “theology” as a large fishnet hung on the wall. My specific
ideas about God are like those colored glass floats hang on various places on
the fishnet.
Everyone has ideas about theology whether they realize it or not.
Some ideas are things we’ve picked up at church, others from all sorts of
places. Some ideas are correct. Some ideas need changing.
The more I read God’s Word, I ought to be open to
moving where I place those shiny balls.
Over the next two weeks I will lay out a “grid” (fishnet) to help you
establish your own ideas about the End Times.
It may be that in a few years you might want to adjust an item or two…
Today I want to lay out four major subjects …
We will be talking about …
The Church Age
The Rapture
The Magog War
The Tribulation
Next week we will cover the subjects of
Antichrist
Tribulation Believers
The Midway point
Judgments
Armageddon
The Return
The Millennium
The Rebellion
The Great White Throne
Eternity
The Church Age
The age of the Gentiles.
The prophet Daniel was given some incredible prophecies.
One prophecy in particular bridges the time period between the first and second comings of the
Messiah.
Daniel lived during the time of the Babylonian exile, when the Jews had
been carted off to Babylon for seventy years as a judgment for their sin. While praying and fasting, God sends the
angel Gabriel to pass on some interesting information to Daniel.
(Da 9:24–27 NKJV) —24 “Seventy weeks are
determined For your people and for your holy city, To finish the transgression, To
make an end of sins, To make reconciliation for
iniquity, To bring in everlasting righteousness, To seal up vision and prophecy, And
to anoint the Most Holy.
This prophecy is called the “Seventy weeks of Daniel”. It is all about Daniel’s people, the
Jews. It is all about winding things up
for them, making things right, and the coming of the Messiah.
The key to decoding this is to know that each “week” is a period of seven
years. Seventy weeks involves 490 total
years.
25 “Know therefore and understand, That
from the going forth of the command To restore and
build Jerusalem Until Messiah the Prince, There shall
be seven weeks and sixty-two weeks; The street shall be built again, and the
wall, Even in troublesome times.
I won’t go into detail here, but this verse actually
locates the date that the Messiah would appear. I’ll give you a hint, it points to the day
that Jesus entered Jerusalem on a donkey and the people shouted “Hosanna”.
But that’s an entirely different study…
26 “And after the sixty-two weeks Messiah shall be cut off, but not
for Himself;
At the end of the 69th week the Messiah is put to death. It’s at His death that this seventy week time clock comes to a halt. There is still one “week” that hasn’t been
accounted for.
For a period of time, God will put the nation of
Israel “on a shelf” so to speak, and His main way of
speaking to the world will be through the predominantly Gentile church.
Yet there will be a time when God is finished with the Gentile church, and
God will once again be dealing with the nation of Israel.
26 And the people of the prince who is to come Shall destroy the
city and the sanctuary. The end of it shall be with a flood, And
till the end of the war desolations are determined.
The people of the prince to come were the Romans. They would destroy Jerusalem and the Temple
in A.D. 70.
The prince to come is the antichrist.
The antichrist wouldn’t destroy the city, but his people would.
27 Then he shall confirm a covenant with many for one week; But in
the middle of the week He shall bring an end to
sacrifice and offering. And on the wing of abominations shall be one who makes
desolate, Even until the consummation, which is
determined, Is poured out on the desolate.”
The “he” is the antichrist. This is
when he will come on the world scene.
This last “week” is the final week of the seventy weeks.
This last week of 7 years is known as the Tribulation.
We’ll come back to this verse a few times more over the next few weeks.
I believe this time break in the seventy weeks is the time during which God
shifts His focus from Israel, to the Gentile
church. Paul talks about God’s shift in
focus:
(Ro 11:25–26a
NKJV) —25 For I do not desire, brethren, that you should be ignorant of this
mystery, lest you should be wise in your own opinion, that blindness in part
has happened to Israel until the fullness of the Gentiles has come in. 26 And
so all Israel will be saved…
Paul saw the blindness in the Jews toward the Messiah. He saw that this would change once the
“fullness of the Gentiles has come in”.
I believe this “fullness” means that there is a certain number of Gentiles
that God is looking to save. When that number is reached, we will enter that
seventieth week, the Tribulation, and God will once again work through Israel.
Peter writes:
(2 Pe 3:9–12
NKJV) —9 The Lord is not slack concerning His promise, as some count slackness,
but is longsuffering toward us, not willing that any should perish but that all
should come to repentance. 10 But the day of the Lord will come as a thief in
the night, in which the heavens will pass away with a great noise, and the
elements will melt with fervent heat; both the earth and the works that are in
it will be burned up. 11 Therefore, since all these things will be dissolved,
what manner of persons ought you to be in holy conduct and godliness, 12
looking for and hastening the coming of the day of God, because of which the
heavens will be dissolved, being on fire, and the elements will melt with
fervent heat?
How can we “hasten” the coming of the day of God?
By sharing Christ. By seeing that
last person saved.
I sometimes wonder each year if it might happen when Greg Laurie leads the
crowd in prayer at the Harvest Crusade.
Or it could happen when you share your faith with your co-worker.
…or with that stranger you run into…
And then comes …
The Rapture
Listen to this fellow explain what the Rapture is all about:
Paul describes the Rapture like this:
(1 Th 4:13–18 NKJV) —13
But I do not want you to be ignorant, brethren, concerning those who have
fallen asleep, lest you sorrow as others who have no hope.
“fallen asleep” is a way of referring to those who
have died.
14 For if we believe that Jesus died and rose again, even so God
will bring with Him those who sleep in Jesus. 15 For this we say to you by the
word of the Lord, that we who are alive and remain until the coming of the Lord
will by no means precede those who are asleep.
Those of us who are still alive at the time of the Rapture won’t be getting
our new glorified bodies before those who have already died before us…
16 For the Lord Himself will descend from heaven with a shout, with
the voice of an archangel, and with the trumpet of God. And the dead in Christ
will rise first. 17 Then we who are alive and remain shall be caught up together with them in the clouds to meet the Lord in the
air. And thus we shall always be with the Lord. 18
Therefore comfort one another with these words.
We believe that the Bible teaches that when a believer dies, their physical
body is buried, but their spirit goes immediately to heaven to be with Jesus.
Paul writes the Philippians about how he’s not sure which is better, to
keep living and see God produce more fruit, or to “depart” and “be with Christ”
(Phil. 1:23)
(Philippians 1:23 NKJV) For I am hard-pressed between the
two, having a desire to depart and be with Christ, which is far better.
When the Rapture occurs, those who are already dead will get a new,
glorified body first.
Then we who are still alive on earth will be caught up in the clouds and
receive our new bodies.
Paul makes this sound as if this will happen almost instantaneously:
(1 Co 15:51–52
NKJV) —51 Behold, I tell you a mystery: We shall not all sleep, but we shall
all be changed— 52 in a moment, in the twinkling of an eye, at the last
trumpet. For the trumpet will sound, and the dead will be raised incorruptible,
and we shall be changed.
I don’t know how fast the “twinkling of an eye” is, but it sounds pretty quick to me.
(Don’t let people tell you they know how fast the “twinkling” is. The Greek word simply means “blink”.
What will it look like?
For the believer:
One moment you are here on earth, then you blink, and you’re in
heaven.
For the unbeliever: One moment you
are here on earth, and the next … your believing friends will be gone, and
you’ve been left.
In the movie “Left Behind”, they portrayed the Rapture as
people disappearing and their clothes remaining.
I think there’s a good possibility that
might be what it looks like.
An area that Christians often debate over is when the Rapture will occur in
relation to the other events coming up.
Will the Rapture occur at the end of the terrible Tribulation period? Will it occur sometime in the middle (and
there are even a couple different views on what defines the middle)? I believe it will occur before the
Tribulation. There are a lot of reasons
to believe in a pre-trib rapture, I will cut it down
to 5.
This will be part of the quiz – what is Rich’s view when the Rapture will
happen?
Reasons for a Pre-Trib Rapture:
1. The Outline of Revelation:
This is by no means a conclusive argument, but I think it has some merit to
it.
The Book of Revelation is broken down into three segments by the Lord. Jesus told John:
(Re 1:19
NKJV) Write the things which you have seen, and the things which are, and the
things which will take place after this.
As you study the book, you find that the “things which you have seen” are
the things that John saw in his vision of Jesus prior to verse 1:19.
The “things which are” are the things of chapters two and three, the
letters to the seven churches. It is all
about the church. It’s the “Church
Age”. In a sense it covers the history
of the Gentile church.
The “things which will take place after this” refers to the things in
chapters 4-22. The phrase “after these
things” even starts chapter 4:1 and is the exact same phrase in 1:19 (GRK: “meta tauta”). The
events from chapters 4-22 take place after the time of the “church” on earth.
I don’t think it’s a coincidence that the “after this” section that begins
to detail the unfolding of the Great Tribulation begins with a sort of
“rapture”, of John being caught up into heaven.
(Re 4:1–2
NKJV) —1 After these things I looked, and behold, a door standing open in
heaven. And the first voice which I heard was like a trumpet speaking with me,
saying, “Come up here, and I will show you things which must take place after
this.” 2 Immediately I was in the Spirit; and behold, a throne set in heaven,
and One sat on the throne.
I don’t think it’s a coincidence that the “church” seems to be missing on
earth after chapter 3. The term “church”
appears 18 times prior to chapter 4, and only once after chapter 4, at the end
of the book.
The church isn’t the focus of those chapters because the church is in
heaven.
2. Church and wrath don't mix.
The tribulation is a time of wrath
(Re 6:17
NKJV) For the great day of His wrath has
come, and who is able to stand?”
God does not intend for His church to experience wrath. Jesus died for us so we would escape wrath.
(1 Th 5:9
NKJV) For God did not appoint us to
wrath, but to obtain salvation through our Lord Jesus Christ,
3. The faithful escape
Jesus said,
(Lk 21:34–36
NKJV) —34 “But take heed to yourselves, lest your hearts be weighed down with
carousing, drunkenness, and cares of this life, and that Day come on you
unexpectedly. 35 For it will come as a snare on all those who dwell on the face
of the whole earth. 36 Watch therefore, and pray always that you may be counted
worthy to escape all
these things that will come to pass, and to stand before the Son of Man.”
To the church in Philadelphia, Jesus wrote:
(Revelation
3:10 NKJV) Because you have kept My command to persevere, I
also will keep you from the hour of trial which shall come upon the
whole world, to test those who dwell on the earth.
I believe Jesus is promising to keep the church from the Great Tribulation.
Old Testament examples (these don’t prove the point, but they make good
illustrations):
Both Noah and Lot are held up by Peter (2Pet.2) as examples of this.
Noah escaped the great flood. The
rain came down and he went “up”.
Lot escaped the judgment of Sodom by being taken out by the angels.
Peter summarizes these two when he writes:
(2 Peter 2:9 NKJV) then the Lord knows how to deliver the godly out of temptations
and to reserve the unjust under punishment for the day of judgment,
This was the center of Abraham’s negotiating with God over Lot’s life:
(Genesis
18:23 NKJV) And Abraham came near and said, “Would You also
destroy the righteous with the wicked?
God would not destroy Sodom if there were ten or more
righteous people left. But because there
were less than ten, God did destroy it.
But only after removing the last righteous people.
This raises a question, will the unfaithful go through the
Tribulation?
I have mixed feelings about this, and what it means to be saved by “grace”,
but I can’t get around the fact that Jesus said to the unrepentant in the
church of Thyatira:
(Revelation
2:22 NKJV) Indeed I will cast her into a sickbed, and those
who commit adultery with her into great tribulation, unless they repent
of their deeds.
Again, we are not saved by our works, we are saved by our
faith in Jesus – and we are all still imperfect.
But this warning is kind of sobering…
4. The
Tribulation’s people
We’ve already seen that the Tribulation will be a time of God’s wrath on
the earth, but it also will be a time aimed at bringing the Jews back to Him.
The Tribulation is that final 70th week of Daniel. Who were the 70 weeks for?
(Da 9:24
NKJV) —24 “Seventy weeks are determined For your people and for your holy city,
To finish the transgression, To
make an end of sins, To make reconciliation for
iniquity, To bring in everlasting righteousness, To seal up vision and prophecy, And
to anoint the Most Holy.
Who are Daniel’s “people”? Israel.
There are some people who say that God is finished working with Israel, and
that the church now owns all the promised that God made to Israel.
But God isn't finished with Israel!
Paul writes:
(Ro 11:1 NKJV) I say then, has God cast away His people?
Certainly not!
The tribulation is for the nation of Israel, not the church.
When you hear people holding to a “post-trib” or “mid-trib” position,
they are often people who feel that God is done with Israel.
When Israel is described in the Old Testament as going
through the Tribulation, they will say that the church is going through it…
(Isaiah
26:20–21 NKJV) —20 Come, my people, enter your
chambers, And shut your doors behind you; Hide yourself, as it were, for a little moment, Until the
indignation is past. 21 For behold, the Lord comes out of His place To punish the
inhabitants of the earth for their iniquity; The earth will also disclose her blood, And
will no more cover her slain.
That sounds like the Tribulation,
doesn’t it?
Is this for Israel, or for the church? (it’s for Israel)
5. The element of surprise
The Scripture talks about the suddenness of the second coming.
(Mt 24:44
NKJV) Therefore you also be ready, for the Son of Man is coming at an hour
you do not expect.
Yet Scripture also tells us how to predict the day when Jesus will come
back, tied to an event during the tribulation period (we’ll talk about this
next week).
(Da 12:11
NKJV) “And from the time that the daily sacrifice is taken away, and the
abomination of desolation is set up, there shall be one thousand two hundred
and ninety days.
How can there be a surprise, when it’s something
that can be calculated?
The Rapture comes first, unexpectedly, and is not tied to events in the
Tribulation.
The actual Second Coming, when we return with Jesus, can be calculated,
1290 days after the abomination of desolation.
We get the idea in Scripture that when Jesus comes back, the armies of the
earth are gathered together to fight against Him. They are expecting Him!
If the Rapture came at the end, right before Jesus comes back, there would
be no surprise, we’d all be marking our calendars.
We’ll see more of this next week…
Lesson
At any moment
This is a keyword for the quiz
Jesus said,
(Mt 24:42 NKJV) Watch therefore, for you do not know what hour your Lord is coming.
He said we were responsible to be “watching”.
It is a healthy attitude to be ready for your Master to
come back.
Years ago there was a commercial
on TV where a mom and dad are away on vacation at a cabin when they listen to a
voicemail of a neighbor who is telling them there’s a wild party going on at
their house …
Play “Party while Mom and Dad are away”
https://youtu.be/_cOjsiWUcYs
Did you get that?
The kid was having a wild party while his parents were gone.
If you live your life as if Mom and Dad could come back at
any moment, you might live your life a little differently, huh?
John wrote,
(1 Jn 3:3 NKJV) And everyone who has this hope in Him
purifies himself, just as He is pure.
Some might ridicule us for continually teaching that Jesus
could come back at any moment.
I personally feel it’s quite healthy to be ready.
The Magog War
There is a future war with Israel detailed in Ezekiel 38-39. A group of nations will come together to
attack Israel.
Some of the players in this game are a little unclear. We believe that names like Magog, Rosh, and
Meshech may be related to areas in the former Soviet Union.
There are a growing number of Bible scholars who are now linking some of
these places (like Gomer, Togarmah) to the areas between the Black Sea and the
Caspian Sea.
Countries like Georgia, Armenia, and Azerbaijan.
And Turkey.
Azerbaijan has been in the news lately because Iran has
claimed that they are allowing Israeli spy bases to operate in their country –
and they are threatening to cross the border and fight.
Some players are very clear, including Iran, Ethiopia, and Libya.
Pay attention to the rhetoric of these nations in the news.
(Eze 38:8–13 NKJV) 8
After many days you will be visited. In the latter years you will come into the
land of those brought back from the sword and gathered from many people on the
mountains of Israel, which had long been desolate; they were brought out of the
nations, and now all of them dwell safely. 9 You will ascend, coming like a
storm, covering the land like a cloud, you and all your troops and many peoples
with you.” 10 ‘Thus says the Lord God:
“On that day it shall come to pass that thoughts will arise in your mind, and
you will make an evil plan: 11 You will say, ‘I will go up against a land of
unwalled villages; I will go to a peaceful people, who dwell safely, all of
them dwelling without walls, and having neither bars nor gates’— 12 to take
plunder and to take booty, to stretch out your hand against the waste places
that are again inhabited, and against a people gathered from the nations, who
have acquired livestock and goods, who dwell in the midst of the land.
Some reason will come into the minds of these nations to gather and attack
the nation of Israel.
13 Sheba, Dedan, the merchants of Tarshish, and all their young
lions will say to you, ‘Have you come to take plunder? Have you gathered your
army to take booty, to carry away silver and gold, to take away livestock and
goods, to take great plunder?’ ” ’
Sheba and Dedan are in Saudi Arabia.
A few years ago President Trump pushed through the
“Abraham Accords” which has brought several Arab nations into an alliance with
Israel.
These nations are more concerned about Iran then they are Israel.
Tarshish – some have suggested that this group of nations would include
England and “their young lions” might even hint at the United States.
These nations will object to the invasion of Israel. But they only
object. They don’t act.
What will happen with this invasion?
God will step in.
(Eze 38:22–23 NKJV) —22 And
I will bring him to judgment with pestilence and bloodshed; I will rain down on
him, on his troops, and on the many peoples who are with him, flooding rain,
great hailstones, fire, and brimstone. 23 Thus I will magnify Myself and
sanctify Myself, and I will be known in the eyes of many nations. Then they
shall know that I am the Lord.” ’
The movie “Left Behind” (2000) portrayed this attack at the beginning of
the movie.
Play “Left Behind” (2000) clip.
We know that the Israeli air force is pretty tough. They also have the Iron Dome anti-missile
defense system.
But Ezekiel says it would be God delivering.
There are different views as to when this event might take place.
Some see it possibly happening before the Rapture (the Left Behind movie
did this), some see it happening after the Rapture, some see it in the middle
of the Tribulation, some confuse it with a similar event that happens 1,000
years from now (Rev. 20).
I find the last verse of Ezekiel
39 to be helpful:
(Eze 39:29
NKJV) And I will not hide My face from them anymore; for I shall have poured
out My Spirit on the house of Israel,’ says the Lord God.”
I wonder if this isn’t connected with the transition when God is finished
working with the Gentile Church, and again begins to
work with Israel.
I think it’s possible that this event might happen close to the time of the
Rapture, if not before.
Now some facts about the …
The Tribulation
Seven years
It is the final week of Daniel’s seventy weeks. It will last for seven years.
It will officially begin with a seven year treaty
between the nation of Israel and the antichrist.
(Da 9:27
NKJV) Then he shall confirm a covenant with many for one week…
It might begin right after the Rapture.
It might begin a few years after the Rapture.
Keep in mind the timeclock of the Tribulation doesn’t begin with the
Rapture, but the signing of this treaty.
Antichrist
It is the time when the antichrist will come to power.
(2 Th 2:7–8
NKJV) —7 For the mystery of lawlessness is already at work; only He who now
restrains will do so until He is taken out of the way. 8 And then the lawless
one will be revealed, whom the Lord will consume with the breath of His mouth
and destroy with the brightness of His coming.
I believe the thing that restrains the antichrist is the work of the Holy
Spirit in the church.
It’s not the Spirit alone.
The Holy Spirit is never “removed”.
If the Spirit was removed, no one could be saved in the Tribulation.
It’s the Spirit working in the church.
When the church is removed in the Rapture, the antichrist will step into
his spotlight.
Judgment
There is a purpose of this Tribulation period – it is the time of God’s
judgment.
(Re 6:17
NKJV) For the great day of His wrath has come, and who is able to stand?”
It is a time when God begins to right all the wrongs, but it will come with
great difficulty.
This is the period of time laid out in the book of
Revelation, chapters 6-18.
It is a time of wars, famine, and disease.
It will be a time with incredible disasters with stars falling from
heaven, seas and rivers turning to blood, and many, many people dying.
It is a time when God will bring an end to this corrupt world system.
We will look at a few more specific events that happen in the Tribulation
next week.
Deception
(2 Th 2:9–12 NKJV) —9 The
coming of the lawless one is according to the working of Satan, with all power,
signs, and lying wonders, 10 and with all unrighteous deception among those who
perish, because they did not receive the love of the truth, that they
might be saved. 11 And for this reason God will send them strong delusion, that
they should believe the lie, 12 that they all may be condemned who did not
believe the truth but had pleasure in unrighteousness.
Be careful about thinking that you don’t need to accept Jesus Christ
now. Be careful about thinking that you
can just wait until after the Rapture.
1) You
don’t want to live through the Tribulation.
You think life is tough now?
You think our current pandemic is difficult?
You ain’t seen nothin’ yet.
Many people will turn to God, but many of those believers
will be put to death
(Re 20:4 NKJV) …Then I saw the souls of those who had been
beheaded for their witness to Jesus and for the word of God, who had not
worshiped the beast or his image, and had not received his mark on their
foreheads or on their hands..
2) If you have been exposed to the
truth now and you don’t believe, then you may find yourself being deceived by
the antichrist.
As we’ll see, that’s the point of 2Th.
2:11 – the people will believe a lie then because they don’t accept the truth
now.
Pericope Project
No pericopes today … or next week…
Homework
Read both 1&2Thessalonians in The Message
Memorize 1Thess. 4:17 (the verse after last week’s)
(1 Thessalonians
4:17 NKJV) Then we who are alive and remain shall be caught up together
with them in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air. And thus
we shall always be with the Lord.
Be ready to recite it in class next week.
Memorize it early so you can chew on it during the week.
Go to our class’s “test” section
Share a prayer request
Take the Quick Quiz for you.
Keywords
What is Rich’s view when the Rapture will occur?
a.
Before the Tribulation (pre-trib)
b.
In the middle of the Tribulation
(mid-trib)
c.
At the end of the Tribulation
(post-trib)
What was the second “keyword”?
a.
At any moment
b.
Do the right thing
c.
Follow your heart
Was there something from today’s lesson that you can apply to your life
TODAY?