I am going to preach on a series of messages called: Apocalypse (which is the Greek name for the book of Revelation).
This series of messages will be about the end of times. I am very excited about this series and I am sure that you will be tremendously blessed and your relationship with God will be transformed!
In this series I’m going to talk about the Rapture, the Lamb’s marriage, Jesus’ return, the Great Tribulation, the Antichrist, the Millennium and the Great White Throne.
I may not preach in sequence, but I want to bring all these teachings to you, as we are close, very close to each of these biblical events.
Today’s message: The end of times, how is it going to happen?
I want to challenge you to read the book of Revelation which talks about the final days.
“The Revelation of Jesus Christ, which God gave Him to show His servants—things which must shortly take place.”
Revelation 1:1 NKJV
If you look back at this last year you will realise that we have been living in a new time, a new season, we are living difficult days and even those who do not read the Bible and those who are not believers might be heard saying: we are at the end of times.
When you hear that the end of times is near, that Jesus is returning for His church, what is the feeling in your heart? Joy, fear or insecurity?
You don’t have to be afraid of the end times, you only need to be ready and live in a loving relationship with Jesus.
In fact, Jesus said: When you see that the time is approaching, rejoice because your redemption is near!
It’s time to say: Maranatha, Jesus come! We are waiting for you and we want to meet you!
If you love the Lord Jesus, you need to study the word of God and be attentive to the signs, because if you are prepared you will not be caught by surprise.
Did you know that the Book of Revelation was written to strengthen the faith of the early church that was in persecution?
When the church was suffering persecution, Jesus sent these letters to the churches, telling them to stand firm, and not be discouraged!
Today The Lord is saying to you: Do not fear the end of times, for soon I am coming to you, to My bride!
Did you know that a quarter of the Bible is to do with prophecies about Jesus’ return?
Did you know that in the Old Testament alone there are 1800 references about Jesus’ second coming? And that in the New Testament, out of the 27 books, 24 speak about the rapture and the second coming of Jesus!
Did you also know that for every prophecy that speaks of the first coming, you have 8 references of Jesus’ second coming?
The Old Testament has 39 books with 351 prophecies and all of these prophecies about Jesus’ first coming have been faithfully fulfilled.
My point to you is this: If Jesus fulfilled 351 prophecies in 39 Old Testament books, why wouldn’t he fulfil the prophecies about His return too?
Dear ones, we are living the last minutes of the clock of God. I am not giving a date for the end and the return of the Lord, but whoever has ears to hear, listen and ready yourselves!
When we talk about eschatology, which is the study of the end times, we always want to know the date, when it will happen, what comes first, second, third, and so on.
I have read the Bible and many books by many Bible scholars who claim to know the correct order.
But the problem is that they don’t agree with each other and their opinions differ as to the sequence of events and any of them may be right or wrong.
Jesus gave us all the signs, a list of events that are going to happen at the end of times, but He did not give us the sequence of events. In other words, Jesus did not say what would happen first, then second, or third, etc.
I am not the “owner of the truth” but studying the Bible for the past 35 years I have my point of view and in this first message of the series I want to start by laying out the chronology of events! If you have a different belief in regards to this sequence there is no problem.
What matters is that you believe in each event and you are prepared, as they will happen one after the other. And you need to prepare yourself, watch and pray to be with the Lord or to face what is to come.
The biggest disagreement among Bible scholars is when the rapture will take place. The vast majority of scholars believe that the Rapture will take place at the beginning of the Great Tribulation. Others believe that the rapture will take place half way during the great tribulation (after 3 and a half years) and others yet believe that the rapture will take place after the 7 years of the great tribulation.
Today I am not going to talk about how each of the final events unfold, but will focus instead on the timeline or the chronology that I believe they will take place! And in the following messages, we will have a deeper biblical understanding of each of the events.
The world has changed, many things have happened in the past few days and they are not good things. But there is something beautiful and powerful going on at last!
The word of God is being fulfilled and this makes me happy and full of expectation. I am happy not because of the destruction and the deaths, of course not, but because in fulfilling the word of God our redemption is at hand. Hallelujah!
Jesus said: “Heaven and earth will pass away, but My words will by no means pass away.”
Matthew 24:35
Many ask me: In which of the described times are we living now?
Today we are awaiting the rapture, the rapture is not Jesus return to earth ,
“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.”
I Thessalonians 4:17 NKJV
First He will return to His church and we will catch up in the air to meet Him.
But before the rapture of the church, I believe we will go through a great war, called the war of Gog and Magog. This will be a great war against Israel.
This war is found in the book of Ezekiel, chapters 38 and 39. Please take a look at your Bible later and read it.
The Bible says that several nations in the Far North will come against Israel. The enemies or nations mentioned are Russia, Iran, Turkey, Syria and some other Arab nations that will unite to come against Israel. And in this war God will intervene in a supernatural way and will destroy all enemies.
Just to give you an idea, the Bible says that it will take 7 months to bury all the bodies. Ezekiel 39:12 I believe that this war will take worldwide proportions. In my opinion everyone will be involved in some way.
At the end of this war a peace agreement will be necessary and the one who will lead this peace agreement will be the Antichrist, he will do this with the help of the false prophet, and this peace agreement will involve the 3 great religions of the world: Jews, Muslims and Christians.
According to the Book of Daniel this peace agreement will last for 7 years and in my opinion the church will see this peace agreement being signed. For the Bible says that the antichrist will be revealed to us. ( 2 Thessalonians 2:3 )
How will we know that he is the antichrist? Because the Bible says that a peace agreement will be made as it is written in the Book of Daniel 9:27 with many nations for 7 years.
I believe that as soon as this peace agreement takes place, the church will be raptured. The rapture of the church is not the Second Coming of Jesus, because the Rapture of the church happens in the air and the Second Coming Jesus comes on earth, He steps on the Mount of Olives according to Zechariah 14:4
The rapture will be with Jesus in the air, the true church of Jesus will rise and all those who love, believe and hope for Jesus will rise in the air and then begins the great tribulation.
The great tribulation begins with the signing of the peace agreement, which is a 7-year agreement and with the Rapture of the church.
During the first 3 and a half years the world will still be adapting with the disappearance of millions and millions of people who were raptured. There will be the implantation of a single currency in the world, there will be the implantation of the mark of the beast in which people will not be able to buy or sell without it.
For the first three and a half years, Israel will believe that the Antichrist is a good person, a friend of Israel, who is promoting peace around the world, until the Antichrist decides to enter the temple that will be built at the beginning of the great tribulation.
Soon after Israel will return to daily sacrifices in Jerusalem, Israel.
The Antichrist will enter the Holy of Holies, he will say that he is the messiah expected by the people of Israel and at this moment Israel will realise their mistake, because he is not a high priest and he has no right to enter the Holy of Holies.
The Bible says that at this point he will turn against Israel. As he enters the temple, 2 Thessalonians 2:3 says that the wicked one, the son of perdition, will be revealed there.
In Matthew 24:15 Jesus calls this event “the abomination of desolation”, he repeats what happened to Antiochus Epiphany, when that Greek entered the holy of holies, sacrificed a pig and placed the image of Zeus in the holy of holies.
Jesus calls this event “the abomination of desolation” and this will happen exactly halfway through the great tribulation, after 3 ½ years.
From then on, the persecution of the antichrist against Israel begins and it will be a slaughter, many people will die, but in this period God will preserve his people so that they are not exterminated.
At the end of the great tribulation when the people of Israel are under siege in Jerusalem, the enemy’s army will enter the valley of Armageddon, the valley of Israel, which is a large ditch north of Jerusalem.
The Bible says in Revelation 9:16 that 200 million soldiers will come from the east. There will be the Arabs, Muslims, China and everyone who is now Israel’s enemy will be in this battle, the Battle of Armageddon.
But there will be no war! When Israel is under siege, is about to be destroyed, Jesus will appear from Heaven and a great army of His Saints will come with Him and these Saints are we who were raptured, who will have glorified bodies and ( Revelation 19:15 ) there at that moment the word of God said that Jesus will destroy the enemy’s army with the word of His mouth.
At that moment all of Israel’s enemies will die, simply with the word spoken by Jesus.
Israel will be converted whole and will finally know Jesus as the Messiah.
Nations will be gathered in the valley of Jehoshaphat, ( Joel 2:3 ) (Jehoshaphat means “The Lord will judge). This valley lies between Mount Moriah and the Mount of Olives.
When Jesus comes down, he will step on the Mount of Olives ( Zechariah 14: 3-4) and he will break the mountain and it will become a great plain and the nations will be judged, especially those who stood against Israel.
At this moment Jesus is on earth and He will establish the millennial Kingdom that will last 1000 years and in these 1000 years, we who were raptured will be living with Christ, with the glorified body.
At the end of the 1000 years, ( Revelation 20:7 )Satan who was imprisoned will be released and when he is released he will seduce the nations and once again, there will be an uprising, a second war and Jesus will end this rebellion and Jesus will win.
Satan will be then thrown into the lake of fire ( Revelation 20:10 ) and there will be the Last Judgment, the Great White Throne, ( Revelation 20:11 ) in which all the dead people, those who did not die believing in the Messiah Jesus will be there before God to be judged at the Last Judgment.
All those who died during the millennium, those who have no glorified body will also be judged there in the great court of the White throne.
After the White Throne, the period of Eternal times begin, which is eternity.
The New Jerusalem will be on earth, ( Revelation 21:2 ) Jesus will be governing the world and all the redeemed will live together with Him.
There will be no more sin, no more temptations, no more deaths, no pain (Revelation 21:4) and God will wipe away every tear from our eyes, only joy, happiness, abundance and we will live knowing God forever, yes we will need eternity to know God.
For the Bible says: Eternal life is this: that we may know God and Jesus. (John 17:3)
There will be no more sadness, pain or weeping because from then on , God will be present with his people. God’s people will be formed by the Jews and the church who believe in Jesus as their saviour and all will live forever in the presence of God.
This is the time for you to live for God, to sanctify yourself, to confess Jesus, to preach the gospel to the lost, because the clock of God is coming to an end!
We are living the last seconds of God’s clock and you have to prepare, you have to prepare to meet the Lord! Either through his death or through the rapture.
It is very important that you understand this, all the prophecies about the coming of Jesus have already been fulfilled, I believe that the rapture is very close and the Archangel who will blow the trumpet, the last trumpet is already prepared for this moment.
On the day of the last trumpet the church will be snatched but many will stay and will go through the great tribulation.
Maybe you will say, I believe that believers will go through the great tribulation and then experience the rapture, and yes that could be right, but if you are not ready for the rapture you are not ready to go through the great tribulation either.
Today is a day to sanctify your life, today is the time for you to prepare to be in the presence of the Lord!
May the Lord bless and keep you