Lessons

Jesus lives—The Tomb is empty. Death is defeated—The Grave is opened. God is in control—His Word is true. The Devil’s power is destroyed—God won. Historic Faith can say Christ Lives—but Saving Faith always says Christ Lives in me! SAVING FAITH SAYS CHRIST LIVES IN ME Have you cried out “God be merciful to me” through […]

True salvation implants an inextinguishable hope within us. Prophecy is probably the most encouraging and affirming study we can do in God’s Word and especially prophecy. Prophecy has inspired believers since the very first recorded teaching on prophecy in the earliest days of Christ’s church; and it is the hope we have of Christ’s return that has inspired believers to face troubles, afflictions, and wearying persecutions. This morning, as we read the darkest hours of mankind’s earthly journey, note how Jesus weaves into this dark fabric, the rays of HOPE. 

The closer we get to the end of days, the more we need the bright hope of the early church that radiated from the catacombs and arenas of persecution to radiate from our lives today.

As we open to Luke 21 we find Jesus explaining how to impact our lost world for Him on a daily basis. We can make a choice, that makes our life able to powerfully display Him to a watching world; and that choice is to live in hope. When we live in hope we redeem our time. Daily life when filled with hope makes every moment count for eternity.

Each year we get to start a new fresh page.

This year that page is named 2010, and it contains 365 1/4 days, 8766 hours, 1/2 million minutes , and 31 1/2 million seconds. 

But more than anything else, this new year is a new opportunity for each of us to invest as much of that time as we want to into the First Eternal Bank of Jesus Christ, located at the Throne of the Almighty Ancient of Days, at the source of the River of Life, in the center of the Crystal Sea, also commonly known as Heaven.

Nothing can ever compare to the return of the King. 

Earth again will see its Creator no longer shrouded in the form of a humble servant. Christ’s Return is with the blazing glory that slightly glowed from the Mount of Transfiguration, but that on Patmos was as blinding as the Sun in the witness of the Apostle John.

So He come, powerfully splitting open the skies, majestically descending with the clouds. Before Him nothing can stand, every knee bows, all heads drop, the people of the earth begin to wail and moan. Their worst nightmares are now reality. The One who saw every secret, who heard every thought, and who felt every drop of their venomous hatred is coming, and finally—its too late.

We have come to the twelfth and final promise God made to Israel. 

God PROMISED in His Word that: Jesus will return as Israel’s Messiah, Jesus Christ the Pierced Messiah will rescue the Jews at their darkest hour, after defeating all their enemies and locking up their fiercest adversary the Devil they will rebuild their Temple in Jerusalem for all the world to visit, and finally that Jesus Christ, the Son of David will sit as the Promised King on the Throne of David. 

God Keeps His Promises

As we open to II Chronicles 6, always remember that God has had His eye one very special piece of property for a long time. 

•    It is the spot that God’s Word tells us in Genesis 14 that the mysterious Biblical character named Melchisadek lived; who was called the King of Righteousness, and lived in this place then called Salem or “the city of peace”. We know so little about this mysterious figure from the Scriptures (he just may have been the oldest son of Noah named Shem) but we do know that is was on that spot he lived; and
•    It is the spot that God sent Abraham to when he brought Isaac his son to be an offering in Genesis 22; and
•    It is also the spot where David’s sacrifice stopped the angel of Death (I Chronicles 21) and the purchased ground where Solomon built the Temple. But most of all, 
•    It is the same spot where God Himself took human flesh, suffered, bled, died, rose from the dead, and ascended into Heaven.  
•    It is also the spot where 50 days later the Church was born on Pentecost.
•    It is finally the spot to which Jesus will return when He comes as Israel’s Messiah to save them, end the Tribulation, and usher in the Millennial Kingdom.

The God who recorded the beginning, that no one but Him witnessed in Genesis; is also the God gives us the ending, that no one but Him could have ever written, in Revelation. 

Isn’t it amazing that God devotes 1/4th or 25% of the Bible to the indivisible union that the world’s destiny has with God’s Chosen People of Promise, Israel, Jerusalem, and the Jews? Never forget:

The Centrality of Israel
In the Bible

Tonight we need to ponder how the Tabernacle God intricately designed and described, as well as the four Temples God’s Word describes, fit into God’s great plan of the Ages. To understand we need to remember that:

The heartbeat of God’s Word is worship.

The only thing God seeks is worship.

The purpose of salvation is worshiping the God of Heaven.

So, to start with—is your heart the heart of a worshipper?

God uses 12 promises in His Word to identify Israel as the nation that will signal the end of days. God has declared that the Jews, are the nation of Israel, and are His Chosen People of Promise:

I believe that the prophesied “last days” are upon us and that our generation will likely see the remainder of what God’s Word has foretold would happen to the nation of Israel.

As we open to Jeremiah 30-31 tonight we are looking at the 12 keys God has given us in His Word to identify the nation among nations that will signal the end of days. Those people are the Jews, the nation of Israel, His Chosen People of Promise:

These keys are only part of the evidence, as we shall see, that the prophesied “last days” are upon us and that our generation will likely see the remainder of Bible prophecy fulfilled.   

There are so many more specific prophetic passages to be fulfilled in the last days; based on the prophecies, which have already come true, we must conclude that these too will literally unfold in the not-too-distant future.