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God wanted all of us who live through the Last Days to know–How it ALL Ends. So God sent us as a gift. That is the message of the Book of Revelation. Bonnie & I just spent a week of ministry with several hundred dear saints studying Matthew & Revelation and examing current events through the lens of prophetic Scriptures. Please join us for this 8 part series that captures all of my latest studies on Prophecy & God’s Word about how to live at the End of Days. These are unprecedentedly-amazing, and fearfully uncertain days in which we live.
To help us do what we were all designed and called to do, Let’s all quote aloud the text of our study today, from Matthew 6.
I’d like to emphasize the second petition’s three words in this message: Thy Kingdom Come.

Transcript

There was a Bible conference, a whole team of us came from Los Angeles. I was on staff at that time with Dr. John MacArthur. He was speaking I think to pastors, I don’t know. It was pastors, yeah. Pastors conference. It was just one stop of many. We blipped into Word of Life. We went on to Montreal for SEMBEQ, the Baptist evangelistic work in Quebec. Then we went on from there to New Brunswick Bible Institute, beep bopping all around. We came back to LA and went on down to Santiago, Word of Life Peru and to Lima. Then we went all the way to, I spoke at Palabra de Vida in Argentina. Those were great days. That’s how I met Ron. That’s how long I have been at Word of Life. 35 years.

Let’s open our Bibles to chapter 6. You can see on the screen what I’m going to share from Matthew chapter 6, right there Matthew 6. How it all ends. Boy, is that a great topic. Bonnie and I, I’m going to show you a picture in a second, but we’re full-time missionaries. We travel, we’re nearing the end of our first term. Five years we’ve been on the road. When it’s not COVID, the other three years, we fly 10,000 miles a month, 125,000 a year. We’re home one month out of the year. This is the best time, in my recollection, for sharing the Gospel I’ve ever seen. People are getting a little nervous about our world.

We just flew into town. The last time I got a haircut was in Rome when I was teaching there. I was doing the epistles of Paul in November. I know I don’t look like I have any hair, but boy it was getting long. I hadn’t had my hair really cut since November. Bonnie would clip all the parts that were sticking out, the two or three hairs I have left, but she said, you need a real haircut before we go to all those dear saints at Word of Life. She makes an appointment, I didn’t even know you can make an appointment to have a men’s haircut, right here, near in Tampa. I got there and they were starting to clip away on me. The barber, they said, what do you think of the news? I said, I think it’s great. They said, it’s scary. Nuclear reactors on fire. Russia threatening us. I said, I’m going to speak to a whole bunch of people about how it all ends. How does it all end? It just was a perfect opening for the Gospel. I asked her to lightly trim around my ears and squared off in the back and she wouldn’t stop. It was a lady. She wouldn’t stop cutting my hair. My hair has not been this short since I was 13 years old. She wanted me to keep talking. I thought, what? you’re not around my ears anymore. She was just like a lawnmower. Then this is what she said, I just got here from Peru. She said, this is my job, the only job I could get. She said, this week I said God, I want to get to know you, I’m scared. She said, and you’re sitting in my chair. She leaned up like this and she says, keep telling me more. That, did you know people are a little unsettled right now.

Matthew chapter 6, we should be the settled ones. What I thought would be great is that we quote my texts tonight. How many of you went to Sunday school growing up? Hold it up high if you went to Sunday school. Put your hands down. How many of you memorize verses? I would like all of you to quote out loud our text tonight. It’s Matthew chapter 6, starting in verse 9. Look, down. Does anybody see what it is? What is it? The Lord’s Prayer. What we’re going to emphasize, when we get to it, is those three words. Thy Kingdom Come.

To begin this time inviting the Lord to totally get us ignited, to take advantage of these days, when people are wondering how it’s all going to end, let’s remind ourselves that we know what’s coming because His kingdom really is coming. Let’s quote our text. If you want you can close your eyes because I’m going to, and we can say it to the Lord together.

“Our Father who art in Heaven, hallowed be Thy name. Thy kingdom come. Thy will be done on Earth, as it is in Heaven. Give us this day, our daily bread. And forgive us our trespasses as we forgive those who trespass against us. And lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil. For thine is the Kingdom, and the power, and the glory forever. Amen.”

How do you like quoting the text? That’s what we’re doing. Look at the headlines, that’s the Wall Street Journal. Have you ever seen that on the Wall Street Journal? Any of you that get the Wall Street Journal, some of you businessmen got it your whole business life. It’s too expensive now. Look at that cover. Ukraine crisis kicks off a new superpower struggle among US, Russia, and China. You know what’s fascinating? COVID did something. It got everybody on Earth watching the same thing. The whole world was watching COVID. For two years we’ve gotten ready for this. It used to be only the World Cup that everyone would watch or only maybe the Olympics everybody would watch, then you went back to your own stuff. In COVID everyone was watching the pandemic. Everyone is watching this. This has become a global event. It was the biggest vote in the UN, other than the 26 abstentions, the entire world voted against Russia. It was unprecedented.

Look at what it says in Revelation, we’re going to get there by the end of the week, Lord willing, if I stay on schedule. Matthew 6 tonight. Matthew 24, Lord willing, tomorrow. Then the book of Revelation, the rest of the six times. Look at what Revelation 11:8-13 says, that when the two witnesses die, are killed, and they’re laid out for three and a half days for the whole world, it says to watch. They used to say that was metaphorical, figurative. It’s now reality for us. The whole world is watching the tanks.

Here’s another great headline. Do you remember, that was day one. I clipped this out of the newspaper, day one. Actually, up there at the top. It says that Kiev is to fall in days, now it hasn’t quite fallen yet and we’re on day 11, but the world is holding their breath. We’re watching coverage, this is just basically Bloomberg. Did you know only commanders in past wars actually knew all this. We’re in real time. Elon Musk is dropping his Starlink stations all over Ukraine so that the Russians can’t block the signal. We’re getting videos posted, the world is. Tik Tok videos. The whole world is watching the bombings and how many children are getting killed. Look at this, it’s in real time. Jesus said, that’s what it was going to be like. It says that events in the Tribulation are going to be watched in real time. Everyone’s seeing them happen. They are going to rejoice because they’re happy for what is happening, when it’s helping them. Like the two witnesses die.

Did you notice they’ve attacked the second reactor? Did you know that Ukraine is very important historically? That’s where the very first atomic bomb, nuclear bomb pointed at us. I was saved during the Cuban Missile Crisis, when one of the bombs built in the Ukraine was being shipped to Cuba. If any of you are old enough to remember that in 1962. We stared them down and finally the boats turned around. The Ukraine is where all those reactors are, and they just bombed the first one. Now they’re bombing the second. This is a headline, Ukraine nuke plant fire; Radiation rising. Fears it will blow. Do you know what the Lord said about how it all ends? It says it’s going to end with people dying of fear because of what’s happening in the world. That’s unprecedented. Do you know why? For most of human history, nobody knew what was happening in the world. One of the Roman emperors died, and they didn’t even know it for six months. They were still out there in the extremities, in the provinces, and it took that long for the couriers to get the news out to the whole empire. Now, like Jesus said, the whole world.

It says in Luke 21, “there’ll be great earthquakes in various places, and famines and pestilences; and there will be fearful sights and great signs from Heaven.” It won’t be localized; it’ll be universally watched. Look at this. Boy, it’s hard for us. This is from, I think that’s Fox, I don’t know. I didn’t get what new service, but they called… you notice who those are, right? The president of Russia, president of China or Premier or whatever they are. The league of villains. In America we don’t like headlines like that. Defense analysts say that even the US wouldn’t stand a chance if both China and Russia decide they’re going to turn their attention toward us. Very interesting. That’s exactly how we see the end of the world. We see the kings of the east coming in, in Revelation 16. In Revelation 13, we see all the united revived Roman Empire. We don’t see the one that they’re talking about is not going to stand a chance, we don’t see ourselves in there.

One last headline, I couldn’t resist. That’s the Sarmat missile, the big thing with all the pointy warheads. That is one of the ancient Russian tribes, that’s the name of their most powerful Russian missile. Each one of those little bomblets is independently, it’s a multiple independent re-entry vehicle, atomic warheads. That one missile could wipe out an entire country. One missile could wipe out all 240,000 square miles of France. One missile sending it 16 warheads out covers 240,000 square miles. Do see why people, barbers, are afraid and they’re saying, what do you think of the news? It’s the first time in a generation that Americans have felt insecure and Christians, us, we should feel so empowered, emboldened, and full of the Holy Spirit to share our hope and peace and joy in the Spirit.

What a time to evangelize. People are shaken. It says in Revelation 3:8, in fact let’s turn there. I just have to show you this because this so blessed my heart. Revelation 3:8. We’re going to get there in about four days. Bonnie asked me the other day, she said, what’s your favorite part you found so far? I said, oh! It was right here. See verse 8 Revelation 3. “I’ve set before you an open door, and no one can shut; it for you have a little strength, have kept My word, and have not denied My name.” It’s talking to Philadelphia. It’s talking to the weakest, the littlest church probably. Says, you have little strength. That means they weren’t gigantic like we’re going to see Ephesus was. Do you know what the Lord says? I set before you an open door. I was not interested in doing anything but getting my hair cut yesterday. I wanted to get it over with. I had to get ready for this. I had to unpack. I had to find my plug for my computer, it was dying. I had everything else on my mind. All the time zone changes and everything else. I got there and sat down and took my glasses off. When you have as bad of vision as I do, when you take your glasses off you can’t hear anymore, because you can’t see the people’s faces. It’s really a wonderful thing. In fact, when we lived in Los Angeles, I used to walk the beach. I didn’t know if anybody was wearing clothes or not, because I didn’t wear my glasses. That’s how Bonnie and I started out in ministry. I said, honey, we can go to the beach because I won’t notice anybody. I can’t see, but I can’t hear either because I can’t see your face. I took my glasses off and that’s why that barber leaned in like this and said, don’t stop talking, tell me.

You know what I thought about? Every day I pray the Lord would open a door of ministry to share the Gospel with someone. I’m not going to embarrass you, but I hope you pray the same thing. I hope you pray every day; God, You give me one more day of life, I want to redeem the time I’m here. I want to do what You called me to do. I want to go into all the world that You have given me to go into. I want to share the Gospel and I want to take the only thing with me that I can take to Heaven. That’s people. You can take people with you to Heaven, if you share the Gospel. Jesus opens doors. In fact, Bonnie said to me, wasn’t that thrilling? I said, that was thrilling. Every time I see that happen. The Lord knew that woman from Lima, Peru was crying out to Him and praying and saying God, I want to know You. He knew that I was tired and was going to need a little kick, Bonnie making that appointment. I would’ve rather come with my fluffy hair for you guys, it wouldn’t have bothered me. I don’t see what you see, so it’s all right. She made that appointment. I got in that chair and that lady was scared. God makes divine appointments, and He opens doors. Not just in front of Mike, and Ron, and me, and the evangelists in this crowd, but in front of all of us. The only choice is, are you going to walk through it? Are you asking Him to make you bold, and fearless, and full of hope and joy, and sharing the Gospel? It’s a marvelous thing.

That’s my wonderful wife Bonnie you see there. That’s without our mask on. This is what we do. We teach the next generation. That’s those in Bible schools that we’re challenging. I don’t know if you noticed, but I just challenged you. That you should be getting tracts and sharing the Gospel. How many of you caught that I was challenging you? I was praying that many of you would at least catch it. That’s all we do. For the last five years we’ve done that. These are the places we serve, Sub-Sahara Africa, and the Middle East, and Central Europe, and East Asia, and Central Asia. This is a map of everywhere we’ve taught for the last five years. The big yellow stars are all the Bible training institutes. There’s Word of Life, New York, you see it. Florida, that it’s actually off in the water. Mexico City, Buenos Aires, the UK. That star in Central Europe is in Hungary. There’s one in Greece. There’s one in Thailand. There’s one in the Philippines. Not all of them are Word of Life, but they’re all missionary training centers we go to. There’s Jeju on the far right. The red dots, those are where the missionaries are that we’ve personally served. In fact, during our first term, 2,500 students we’ve taught 25,000 different students, and 2000 front line missionaries. When Bonnie and I go to some of those, there’ll be 500, 600, 700 of them. They’re all gathered. They get one week of vacation, and they come to get stirred up and trained for their medical missionaries, all of them that we work with, and then to be stirred up spiritually. What a thrill it’s been, but let’s get back to our text.

Did you ever think about how Jesus explained in the Lord’s Prayer, we call it that, our seven greatest needs? That’s what I want to talk to you about tonight. The wording, “Hallowed be Your name.” It starts out, our Father. You notice it’s plural. It’s not my Father. It’s our. There’s something about the Church that makes us no longer be on our own, we’re a part of this bigger group. “Our Father in Heaven, Hallowed be Your name.” What does that mean? Think about how Paul defined it. He said in Philippians, that He has “given Him the name which is above every name, that at the name of Jesus every knee should,” what? “Bow.” Do you know what hallowing means? That’s an Old English word, hallow. Sounds like hollow. In fact, it sounds empty. We don’t even know; we don’t even think about what it means. What it means is, Your name hallowed means, I bow for You. That You’re more important than anything else. You’re more important than me, than my desire for security, or comfort, or convenience, or whatever keeps us back.

“Your kingdom come.” Do you know what that is? That’s the world to end, and sin to end, and every wrong to be righted by Jesus Christ. It means that He is going to come and He’s going to finally, once and for all, stop this rebellion. We’re supposed to pray for that. We should be thinking about the Lord’s return constantly. This prayer, Jesus said, is to be what the pattern is. He actually didn’t suggest that He said, “After this manner therefore pray.” In the Greek it’s an imperative, that’s a command. That means we’re supposed to not repeat that prayer, but ask for those things, that I bow before Your name, that I look forward to Your kingdom coming. You know how you can hasten the kingdom? Share the Gospel. When the last one that the Lord Jesus Christ wants to know Him before He drops the horrors upon the earth and the Tribulation, so we are hastening His coming, as Paul put it, every time we share the Gospel. That’s why we all need to be busy doing it, not just the Word of Life missionaries, but all of us.

“Your will be done.” I want Your will, not my will but Yours be done. That’s what Jesus prayed constantly in His earthly ministry. I need You, supply us. Do you remember what Jesus said about, we’re going to see it, the Laodicean church? He said, you don’t need anything. You don’t need Me. You’re rich and increased in goods and have need of You and don’t know that you’re miserably, poor, and blind, and naked, and wretched in My sight. I want to need the Lord all the time, constantly. That’s why we were so weak, so that we can realize we need Him. “Forgive us.” I need your cleansing so that your Spirit is not grieved and quenched. I need your protection. Most of the. us understand how horrible the spiritual warfare is around us, until you travel somewhere and go into a non-Christianized country. Go to Haiti sometime, go to the Middle East. There are parts of Japan. Bonnie and I, when we were teaching once in Osaka, we went over to Kyoto. The hair started standing up. You could see the hair on my arm, just standing up. I said, what is this? The missionary said oh, this is a Shinto shrine. There are so many demons here you must be sensing it. I thought, I’m sensing it. The Japanese put piles of salt to keep the demons inside the temple. I thought, wow, get some Morton salt, put it around you, and think that’ll help. No. We are so removed from the power of darkness, praise God. It’s there, even though we aren’t very aware of it and that’s why we need Him to protect us. “Deliver us from evil one.” In Job what it says is, Satan controls the weather with God’s permission, but Satan controls the weather. Do you remember he sent, probably it would be called in our language a tornado, like the one that just hit Iowa yesterday, killed seven people. He sent a tornado out of the wilderness, and it destroyed the home where Job’s children were. Satan is very powerful. Part of what the Lord said we’re supposed to do is, don’t lead us into temptation, but deliver us from the evil one, protect us. Finally, “Yours is the kingdom and the power and the glory forever.” What does that mean? Our greatest seven needs are, we need our minds focused on Him.

New York times recently ran a piece and said that we are absolutely distracted. 73% of all adults could not imagine going a whole day without looking at their screen. I think it’s probably more than that. We travel enough. It’s unbelievable, everybody’s looking at their screen all the time. “Your kingdom come,” I want to live surrendered to You. That’s my greatest need. I want to surrender. I want You to control me. I want to follow You every day. Jesus called His disciples with two words. Do you remember what those two words were? Follow, what? Me. Either you are or you’re not. Either we are or we’re not. Either today I am or I’m not. Following Jesus every day and needing His help. I need your help. That’s why the Lord says don’t store up so much that you can just plan out for the next 50 years because you got it all saved up and you invested it. You need me on a daily basis. That’s what’s so interesting. When the Church grew the fastest was when it was persecuted the most. When Christians couldn’t own things, when Christians had no security, their security was needing the Lord and the Church just mushroomed.

I spent a couple of years, of my college days, as a courier taking Bibles into Eastern Europe. What I saw as we went in, and that’s how I got to Russia and all the other countries that are in the Eastern Bloc because we used to run those Bibles in. What we met were people that were far greater, powerful Christians than we had ever met. Those people didn’t have… did you know, in communist countries your kids could not go to college if you were Christians. When you had children, you had to decide. If you’re a Christian, your child could only be a menial laborer. They could never be a professional anything. They could not go beyond high school. They had to get a trade and they had to be in the servant class of the Soviet Union and the Eastern Bloc unless you would join the party, renounced Christianity. Have you seen how many parents will do anything for their kids? For their sports? For their education? For the scholarship? We have movie stars who were in jail because they were doing anything to get their kids into the right school. Did you know the Eastern Europeans and the Russians, they sacrificed all future financial and every other kind of notoriety in any fields, the musical arts, or anything, sports, for being a Christian. That’s why the Church mushrooms behind their curtain. You know what they said? We need Your help. We have nothing. We have no future. We have no hope. We need Your cleansing. I don’t want Your Spirit grieved and quenched, protect me from evil, empty me so I’m full of You.

 

Did you ever think that neglecting those seven petitions are our greatest dangers? That’s what’s going to play out when we get to Revelation. Our greatest danger is if we don’t hallow His name and bow before Him, we’re going to be like Ephesus. We’re going to be distracted. We’re going to fall from our first love. Do you know what that means? Can you remember a time that you love the word of God more than you do tonight? Do you remember a time when you were more zealous about sharing the Gospel? Do you remember a time when you couldn’t wait to memorize that next verse? Is that in the past? You know what the Lord says? Remember. Repent. Return. He had a nice alliterated outline there in His letter to the seven churches. He says, remember when I was most important, you loved me most, My word and My time together, and repent of whatever distracted you from that. Return back to those first things that you did.

In fact, the other Chris, who’s our sound man tonight. I’ve watched him for, I think it’s about, seven years now, since 2014. Eight years, I don’t know how long it’s been, but I said, how are you doing? He said, great. I said, are you happily married? He says, in August! You should have seen him, he’s usually quiet. I said, are you happily married? In August! He just came like that. I said, I’m a newlywed too. I said, you know what the secret of a newlywed is? Work as hard to keep her as you did to get her. Do you remember guys? You lathered yourself in cologne, and shaved incessantly, and polished your car, and bought her things, and wrote crazy things to her, and spend every moment trying to talk to her, see her, but now you’re married and that’s how it goes. That’s how Christianity goes too. We move away and the Lord says, no. Don’t get distracted.

Your kingdom come, or we can be like Pergamos, self-centered not even thinking about the Lord’s kingdom. In fact, hold off Lord, don’t ruin it. I’m having too much fun. At Thyatira they were doing their own thing. Laodicea, they were self-sufficient. Already mentioned that Pergamos was comfortable with sin. They weren’t asking the Lord to cleanse them. They weren’t fleeing sin. They weren’t saying Lord, I just want to abstain from all known sin, and I want to repent of it. I want You to keep me seeking after You with my whole heart. The Sardians were dead, were defeated. There’s no pulse. The Laodiceans, they didn’t think His was “the kingdom and the power and the glory.” They were proud.

Let’s get back to this. How it all ends in the book of Revelation, in Matthew 6 is the Lord wanted His Church to be constantly refocusing on Him. When He comes back in Revelation, He finds that basically five of the seven churches weren’t focused on Him. Five of the seven. He says, I have this against you. Only one, did He have nothing against. The Smyrnians He said, don’t fear. That’s slightly saying, watch out you guys are getting fearful. Philadelphia, He says, you are weak and you have little strength, but you’re going through the door and doing what I have said. He had nothing negative to say about that church. Basically, if you stay with us until we get to Philadelphia by about Thursday or Friday morning, we’ll see in Revelation that they were just basically following that Lord’s Prayer. Bowing to the Lord, focusing on Him, seeking His control, following His will, asking Him to supply, making sure they were cleansed, making sure that they were asking His deliverance from the evil one. They said, all of life is about You. They just were following the Lord’s Prayer.

 

Let me show you Matthew 24. I’ll just introduce that because I see that it’s 7:17 pm and it’s supposed to be over at 7:30 pm. We have 13 minutes. Jesus went to outline the world, the end of the world, during His final week. Did you ever think about that? Why did Jesus spend all that time talking about prophecy if it’s not important? In fact, half of Christendom thinks prophecy is not important. They think it’s divisive, and argumentative, and possibly not even what we should think about. Yet, Jesus as He’s marching to the cross, starts out on Palm Sunday. Let’s go there, go to Luke 19. Look at Luke 19 and verse 41. This is what Jesus says on Palm Sunday. This is the beginning of His final week. Verse 41 “As He drew near, remember He is coming up from Bethany and Bethphage. He’s coming on that historic road that’s still there today. He crested over the top of the Mount of Olives and He came down. As he got over the top, all the splendor of Jerusalem was in front of Him.” Look at verse 41. “Now, as He drew near, He saw this city and wept over it, saying, ‘If you had known, even you, especially in this your day, the things that make for your peace! But now they’re hidden from your eyes.’ “ Jesus actually could see the future. It’s like a little glimpse of what Revelation is like.

Did you know John was actually seeing the future happen? You say, wait a minute… no, no, he was seeing what was going to happen. No actually, I really believe, he was seeing it happen. You say, wait a minute. That’s not possible. Yes, it is. Mathematically and in physics it is, because time is just one dimension. Do you remember that? We’re aware of four dimensions for sure. We’re aware of just the physical universe and then there’s this other layer over it called time. There are other dimensions because, obviously, the angels and God are somewhere else than us. They come and go, and they just show up. There’s something else out there. I won’t go into that. Jesus was actually seeing the future happen, that hasn’t happened yet but He saw it happening. Look what He says, it’s fascinating. “For days will come upon you when your enemies will build an embankment around you, surround you and close you in on every side, and level you, and your children within you,” sounds like what’s going on in Ukraine right now, “to the ground; and they will not leave in you one stone upon another, because you did not know the time of your visitation.” That’s how He starts Palm Sunday. His last week.

Go to Matthew 24. The first one was on Sunday; this is on Wednesday. Matthew 24, backup. By the way, Jesus preached the same sermon in different forms in each of the synoptic Gospels. Matthew 24, Mark 13, Luke 21. I like that. I speak enough, that I was just speaking awhile back in Rhode Island at a church that Bonnie and I served at from 1989 to 1995. I was speaking along and this elderly woman, she was elderly when I was there and she was more elderly now, she came up. She came up to me with her Bible and turned it around, said, you already spoke on that. I wrote it right here, the date. Why don’t you give me a new sermon? I came out to hear you. I thought, bless the Lord for such a faithful woman. Every time someone spoke, she wrote their name and date by the passage checking that they didn’t repeat themselves. Jesus repeated Himself. Mark 13, Luke 21, Matthew 24, it’s the Wednesday sermon.

Look what He says. “Then Jesus went out,” Verse 1 of Matthew 24, “departed from the temple, and His disciples came up to show Him the buildings of the temple.” They were just excited. He’d just gone through this triumphal entry on Sunday and everything. The city is buzzing and they’re oblivious to the horrors ahead, of the cross. “Jesus said to them, ‘Do you not see all these things? Assuredly? I say to you, not one stone shall be left here upon another, that shall not be thrown down.’ “ I love that little modifier, this thrown down. When you go to Israel, all of you that have been and any of you that go, that’s one of the most beautiful sites. I always get people and we stand on that pile of rocks that the Roman soldiers threw down from the temple mount, down to the street below. I say, this is the most vivid fulfilled prophecy you’ll ever see before your eyes. Jesus said they would be thrown down and 40 years later, there they are. They’re still there, weighing tons and tons and tons. They pried them apart to get the gold.

Look what happens. Verse 3, “As He sat on the Mount of Olives, the disciples came to Him privately, saying, ‘Tell us, when will these things be?’ “ In other words, how it all ends, when will this be and how will it be? They were just like us. They were bewildered, how in God’s plan, it would include the destruction of Jerusalem and the destruction of all those million people that Vespasian and his son Titus ended up massacring in AD 70.

By the way, Bonnie and I are never anywhere more than a week or two when we teach at Word of Life. If I get a two week session, like I’m going to be doing two weeks here in April, and two weeks in New York in April. I’m spending most of April teaching the book of Revelation. We only get one or two weeks with anybody that we serve. We travel constantly. We’re never in our local church. You know what? We decided five years ago that we would start our own little Bible study with people. This chart happens to be one of the charts that we use. It’s a little study I have with a group of people, it’s called the 52 Greatest Chapters in the Bible. Actually, bonnie and I have the study and then we record it once a week and upload it. In all of them you hear how we’re doing, and pray for us, and study along with us. It’s amazing. This, I went through with them. It was just a few months ago. The countdown to the cross in Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John. Then you see down on the left, those tiny numbers. There are 250 different events, this is right out of the back of a study Bible. It’s called a harmony of the Gospels. You can buy it anywhere, but this is mine that I changed. I added the words in bold, those are the locations. I wanted them to start thinking that everything happens somewhere, that’s Bible geography. Everything happens some time, that’s history.

Historically looking on Sunday, you see that, and then the black means we’ve missed a few days, and then event 200 is Tuesday PM, Jesus grieves again at the temple and then the widow gives. Then look at this. Jesus starts talking about the future from the temple. Jesus starts telling them what’s going to happen. Then, He follows up with all those parables and lessons that you see up there. What is this about? God’s map at the end.

Basically, it’s introduced in Matthew 6. The Lord says, I want you to be constantly saying, “Thy kingdom come.” I want you to be in step with Me, that I have a plan. I know the universe is groaning and I know what’s coming. All you have to do is follow Me. When people get scared and troubled, like my barber, that you can just say oh, I know how it’s going to turn out.

In fact, the barber said, could you summarize the Bible for me? She said, I’m Catholic and I haven’t read it much. She said, could you summarize it? I said oh, I love summary. I can summarize it in one minute. I said the Creator of the Universe came down on Earth as the Redeemer. If you meet Him, you have endless life. But if you don’t, He’s coming back as the Judge. There’s the whole Bible. That’s actually Paul’s outline, but what we’re going to see tomorrow. I want to finish these so I’m on time.

Why did Jesus weep as He described the End of the Day? Because He saw the horrors that were coming. We already read about that in Luke 19. In Matthew 23, and if you’re in 24, backup to the two verses just before Matthew 24. This is what Jesus did just before His Olivet discourse, when He’s going to tell us about the future. He wailed, lamented. He said, “O Jerusalem, Jerusalem, the one who kills the prophets and stones those who are sent to her! How often I wanted to gather your children together, as a hen gathers her chicks under her wings, but you were not willing! See! Your house is left to you desolate; for I say to you, you shall not see Me no more till you say, ‘Blessed is He who comes in the name of the Lord!’ “ Jesus, of course, is alluding to what He said through Zechariah the prophet, which we’ll see later.

By the way, we’re standing… this is the second group, I have the 52 Greatest Chapters Group that prays for us, I have a second group that actually are going through the Holy Land. I take them to one new site every week, it’s fascinating. We’re standing in Dominus Flevit right now, when I was taking this picture. That’s the cross that’s on the altar of the Roman Catholic church there. That’s looking through the window. That’s the Dome of the Rock. Just to the right where those trees are is the Eastern Gate.

Lest you miss any of this, that’s the Mount of Olives. See the arrow? That’s the Church of the Ascension. Do you see the Palm Sunday road? That’s the very same road that Jesus went on. It’s the same road. It’s 2,000… actually 3,000 years old. That’s the road David went on when he was fleeing from Absalom his son, when Absalom wanted to kill him in the insurrection. David went up to the top of the Mount of Olives and back over the backside on the left there. To the left of the Dome of the Rock is Gethsemane. You get an idea of where everything is. Watch this, that’s the temple mount, the one with the Dome of the Rock on it, you see all the worshipers there. It’s Friday. That’s the Palm Sunday road Jesus was coming down when He stopped and wept. We just read that in Luke 19.

Look, that is where I just showed you out the window, that’s the place of Matthew 24’s sermon. That’s called Dominus Flevit, that little church. You can’t see it very well there, so here’s one up close. Barluzzi made that a teardrop. You can see it’s a little bit like a teardrop like that. That marks the side of the Mount of Olives where that event of the message we’re going to study tomorrow happened.

This is looking out that window. You can look straight at the platform and see the Eastern Gate there on the right, the little purple line pointing at it. That’s probably one of my favorite views of Jerusalem.

This is why Jerusalem has God’s countdown clock for humanity. When Jesus told the disciples about the future, He built every word of it around the city of Jerusalem in theological circles. This is called the Olivet discourse. Jesus framed His words about the rest of the history of this planet as he looked at Jerusalem. In Matthew 24, which is what we’re going to study Lord willing tomorrow morning, Jesus said keep your eye on Jerusalem. Why? He said, that’s where I’m going to ascend back to Heaven, from there Mount of Olives, and that’s where I’m coming back. When my feet touch it, it’s going to split in half and it’s the end. That’s how it all ends.

The last time we were there they let us up onto the Dome of the Rock. They don’t always have it open. I’m standing, the Dome of the rocks right behind me, and I’m looking right over the Eastern Gate. Look what’s right up there on the hillside. You can see the golden dome of the Russian Orthodox church of Gethsemane on the left, right by that Cedar tree. Straight in the middle, right above that cream colored wall, that’s Dominus Flevit. That’s where Jesus gave this sermon that we’re going to study.

I always show the people in our group my journal. This is my journal. Jesus wept as He watched the end of the world. As Jesus stood there, do you know what He thought about? He thought about everything that had happened on that temple platform that was going to get wiped out. Have you ever thought about that? He spoke, I’m the water of life, John 7, up on the platform. In chapter 8, right there by the temple He said, “I’m the light of the world.” He gave the good shepherd discourse. It’s the same place the Gate Beautiful is, where Acts 3 takes place. That’s where they arrested the apostles in chapter 4 and chapter 5. That’s Solomon’s porch. For the Church was “with one accord.” It’s all the same.

This is what it looks like, a model of it before it was destroyed. Southern steps, number one right there. The Gate Beautiful is number two. The location number three, there in the back, that great big area is where the early Church met. Number four on the corner, that’s the Antonian Fortress where Jesus was scourged and platted with a crown of thorns. That’s where Paul was when they were starting to tie Him up and stretch Him out to scourge Him. He says, is it proper for you to do this to a Roman citizen and scared them all to death? All that happened there. Number five is actually the approximate location of where we are at, Dominus Flevit. Jesus was thinking about all that.

He had sorrow as He described the end of the world. He said the chief characteristic of the End of Days. Let’s just look at that. Matthew 24 and I’ll be done. I only have two more slides. Look at chapter 24, verse 5. I want to show you something. This is daisy-chained, if I could show you my Bible, I have a circle with a line. I am Christ and many will come deceiving many (24:5) and just circle deceived. Look at verse 11, and “many false prophets will rise up and,” what? “Deceive.” Look down at verse 24, to “show great signs and wonders to deceive.” What did Jesus most warn about as the characteristic of the end of the world? Religious deception. We’ll see next time that Matthew 24 has seven basic elements there, the outline of the book of Revelation. Jesus gave us the outline of Revelation in Matthew 24, and we’ll see that tomorrow.

When Paul shared the Gospel, he said three parts in Acts 17. Number one, the Creator that created all things. That by the way, is what we see in Genesis 1 & 2, became the Redeemer. Did you know this is the outline of the whole Bible? You can outline the whole Bible in three parts. If the barber asked you, you got it. Creator, Genesis 1 & 2. Redeemer starts in chapter 3, when the promised seed of the woman that would crush the serpent is prophesied, all the way through Revelation 5 when we see the Lamb slain, like he was massacred. Then He is the Judge, and we see Him unfolding his judgements in chapter 6.

Why is that important? There are three questions everybody asks. How did I get here? Why am I here? Where am I going? That’s what the barber wants to know. That’s what young people all over the world are committing suicide over, because they’re saying, how did I get here? Am I just primordial slime? Why am I here? I don’t even know why I’m here. I have no hope of the future. I don’t even know where I’m going. What the Lord says is, the reason you’re here is I am your Creator. To us who know Him, I am your Redeemer. I bought you at a price. There is something I want you to do that no one else can do. It’s a thrill to go through life knowing that I’m doing, and that you’re doing, and that we are doing what no one else can do, because we’re doing what God designed us to do. That’s where I’m going. I’m going to stand in front of Him and He’s going to ask me, what I did with my one and only precious life He gave me.

That’s how it all ends. We got Matthew 6. Lord willing, if He doesn’t come, we’re going to get to Matthew 24 tomorrow morning. Then we’re going to cover the book of Revelation in six little pieces. Let’s bow for a word of prayer.

Father in Heaven, I thank you that it’s thrilling to see the world unsettled. They’re so often secure and distracted in all their electronic devices, but they’re unsettled right now. This is a perfect moment for us to dust off our Gospel tracts and to start making it a daily prayer, Lord, I’d like a divine appointment. I’d like to see someone look earnestly at me in the face and say, wait a minute, could you tell me that again? Could you explain that to me and we hold forth the wonderful word of life, the Gospel of Jesus Christ. I pray that You’d stir our hearts, that we would be like in that prayer You left us, focused on You. Seeking that You control us. Asking You to lead us every day. Knowing we need Your help for supplying the strength, and grace to help us. Keep us, cleanse, protect us from that evil one. Empty us of everything but the desire that Yours is “the kingdom and the power and the glory forever.” That it will be the desire of our hearts. All God’s people said, Amen. God bless you.

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