INVINCIBLE CHURCH 10-29-23

Invincible Church Sermon Notes
10/29/2023
Be Ready pt 3
Luke 21:5-38
The Bible tells us that God wants His people to “Be Ready” and “Stay Ready” for His plan, which means it’s God’s will for us to know and understand the signs of the times concerning the second coming of Jesus, so we can be ready for the work He’s designed us to do!
The primary reason we know it’s so important is approximately 27% of the Bible’s message from God to us contains prophecy! And out of the 27 Books of the New Testament, 23 of them mention or teach something about the second coming of Jesus.
In fact, the second coming of Jesus is mentioned 321 times in the Bible, which is more than any other subject except for salvation! It’s what we see all through the course of Paul’s ministry. He talks about the salvation of lost people and the second coming of Jesus more than anything else!
Likewise, we want to be successful in everything God designed us to do in our ministry on earth as a follower of Jesus! So, we’ve been looking at the …
4 Primary Ways Jesus Teaches Us to “Be Ready” in Luke 21: 5-38.
1) Discern “The Prophetic Times” We’re Living In! … (vs 5-9) Tells us followers of Jesus are supposed to be diligently: praying, working and watching for the continuing prophecy of the end times. The second way for us to be ready is…
2) Discern “The Prophetic Signs” We’re Living In! … (vs 10-19) Tells us the signs are fearful events that terrify and disgust us, which are natural disasters like tsunamis, earthquakes, volcanoes, hurricanes, tornadoes, famines, floods, plagues and pestilence!
The fearful events also include evil, vile, perverted actions of wicked people, which happen every day now. We can see clearly the signs of these type of abominations increasing in scope and frequency all the time. Today we’re going to pick back up in…
Luke 21:20-28 NIV - 20 “When you See Jerusalem being Surrounded by Armies … You will Know that Its Desolation is Near! ... 21 Then Let Those who Are In Judea Flee to The Mountains … Let Those In The City Get Out! … And Let Those In The Country Not Enter The City! ... 22 For This is The Time of Punishment in Fulfillment of All that has Been Written! ... 23 How Dreadful It will Be In Those Days for Pregnant Women … And Nursing Mothers! … There will Be Great Distress in The Land … And Wrath against this People! ... 24 They will Fall by The Sword … And will Be Taken as Prisoners to All The Nations! … Jerusalem will Be Trampled On by The Gentiles until The Times of The Gentiles are Fulfilled! ... 25 “There will Be Signs in The Sun … Moon … And Stars! ... On The Earth … Nations will Be In “Anguish and Perplexity” at The “Roaring and Tossing” of The Sea! … 26 People will Faint from Terror … Apprehensive of What is “Coming On” The World … For The Heavenly Bodies will Be Shaken! … 27 At That Time … They will See The Son of Man Coming In a Cloud with “Power and Great Glory”! … 28 When These Things Begin to Take Place … Stand Up … And “Lift Up” your Heads … Because your Redemption is Drawing Near!” …
The prophecy of Jesus is complete because it has specific design inside of God’s overall plan for the Nation of Israel, the Jewish people, the city of Jerusalem, the gentile people, and it encompasses the entire world for all time. But the primary thing to remember is…
God’s alarm clock for the prophetic times is centered on the Nation of Israel and the second coming of Jesus. #1 there are “times” and #2 there are “signs”! So, Jesus expects us to keep up with what’s going on and keep our eye on the Nation of Israel.
The only nation in history that’s had its sovereignty completely taken away and then completely restored again is the Nation of Israel, exactly like the Bible said it would! So, this prophecy makes it easy to discern the times we’re in now!
The times and signs work hand in hand! That’s why God wants us to be aware of the prophetic signs because they’re indicators for the end of time events! So, we have the proof of prophecy that’s come to pass in history so far. Now we move on to #3, which is…
3) Discern “The Prophetic Events” that are Still to Come! … (vs 20-28) – The benefit we get from studying this is knowing with certainty what’s ahead gives us confidence and courage for the work we need to be doing now. Because…
What God says is what God does… and Jesus makes it easy for us to see the big picture idea of what God wants us to know! What Jesus says in (vs 20-22) covers 2000 years of time! So, looking ahead gives us the true perspective for having a Biblical worldview!
It’s one of the primary reasons God gave us the Bible. The Bible is the Word of God… and it’s not of this world, but it was sent by God to this world! Non-believers who try to refute the Bible say it’s written by man so it can’t be trusted, which isn’t true. The Bible says in…
2 Timothy 3:16 NIV – 16 All Scripture is God-breathed and is useful for teaching, rebuking, correcting and training in righteousness …
So, no matter what people want to believe, the Bible is the authority of God! A lot of folks may not believe it or like it, but the reality is, every time we speak the Bible, the Holy Spirit infuses it into the lives of the people who are listening.
It causes them to start thinking about spiritual matters. That’s why people will forget what we say from human intellect, but they’ll never forget what the Holy Spirit says through us! Always stick to the truth of the Bible! We can put it to the test and it will pass every time!
2 Peter 1:21 NIV – 21 For prophecy never had its origin in the human will, but prophets, though human, spoke from God as they were carried along by The Holy Spirit! … What it's saying here is...
All the authors of the Word of God were possessed by the Holy Spirit. Most people only think about being possessed in terms of being possessed by a demon, but every follower of Jesus is possessed by the power of the Holy Spirit and can’t be demon possessed! Also, the truth of God’s Word will never go away!
Matthew 5:18 NIV – 18 For truly I tell you, until heaven and earth disappear, not the smallest letter, not the least stroke of a pen, will by any means disappear from The Law until everything is accomplished.
This is telling us that the Word of God will be completely fulfilled. Also in…
John 13:19 NIV – 19 “I Am telling you now before it happens, so that when it does happen you will believe that I Am Who I Am!
So, when the Bible said Jerusalem would be surrounded and destroyed by enemies, it happened! And it’s not just in the Bible, it’s in history books as fact! So, when the Bible says Jerusalem will be surrounded by armies again, it’s going to happen!
Daniel spoke about the events around the ministry of Jesus 500 years before Jesus was born! And every bit of it happened exactly the way he prophesied that it would…
Daniel 9:26 NIV - 26 After the sixty-two ‘sevens,’ The Anointed One will be put to death and will have nothing. The people of the ruler who will come will destroy the city and The Sanctuary. The end will come like a flood … War will continue until the end, and desolations have been decreed.
God’s Word ever fails! Mattew gives us a more detailed prophecy…
Matthew 24:14-21 NIV – 14 And this Gospel of The Kingdom will be preached in the whole world as a Testimony to all nations, and then the end will come. 15 “So when you see standing in The Holy Place ‘the abomination that causes desolation,’ spoken of through the prophet Daniel … Let the reader understand … 16 Then let those who are in Judea flee to the mountains. 17 Let no one on the housetop go down to take anything out of the house. 18 Let no one in the field go back to get their cloak. 19 How dreadful it will be in those days for pregnant women and nursing mothers! 20 Pray that your flight will not take place in winter or on The Sabbath. 21 For then there will be great distress, unequaled from the beginning of the world until now and never to be equaled again.
God wants us to be looking ahead because He wants us to know what’s coming! Not just for our curiosity and planning, but because He’s got stuff for us to accomplish for His Kingdom!
So, back to (vs 24), in one sentence, with just 15 words, Jesus reveals a truth that nobody can deny… Jerusalem is the epicenter of the past… and the future.
Past to present… How we got here… God’s plan to reveal Himself to the World… Abram, Sarah, Hagar, Ismael, Miracle, Isaac… the spirit of Hagar became evil… Sarah had Abraham put her out of the house… Jerusalem was promised by God to Abraham, Isaac, Jacob and descendants!
Prophecy… Solomon builds temple… King Nebuchadnezzar destroys 1st temple in Jerusalem 565 BC… Israelites reconquer… King Herod builds 2nd temple… Romans destroy in 70 AD… pagan spirit of Hagar rises again… Muhammed falsely prophecies… Nation of Islam… Muslims.
They believe the Temple Mount was promised to Ismael. The reality is, Jerusalem belongs to God, but God doesn’t stay where He’s not wanted! It’s been thousands of years since there was a permanent representation of God on the Temple Mount!
God is not begotten and He has no son!
Jews sufferer because they rejected God and His Son, Jesus… again and again! Holocaust, persecution from radical Islam, most recently the attacks from Palestinians in Gaza… back to the main passage in (vs 24) again… this is amazing…
(vs 24) They will fall by the sword and will be taken as prisoners to all the nations. Full stop. 2000 year+ pause… Jerusalem will be trampled on by the Gentiles until the times of the Gentiles are fulfilled.
Basically, there are two types of people… Jews and Gentiles. There are two types of Jews and Gentiles… Jews who believe in Jesus and Jews who don’t. Gentiles who believe in Jesus and those who don’t! Two dynamics surrounding each! The temple and the church!
God’s dealing with each group in His sovereign/holy way! He wants all who will come to salvation through Jesus, but there’s still specifics that are unique to each covenant that He will fulfill because He made the promise and He won’t break it!
Even more amazing… go way back before (vs 24) to the Old Testament where it’s prophesied in…
Hosea 5:15; 6:1 NIV – 15 Then I will return to My Lair until they have borne their guilt and seek My Face … in their misery they will earnestly seek Me.” [Prophesying 2000+ YR PAUSE] … 6 1“Come, let us return to The Lord. He has torn us to pieces but He will heal us; He has injured us but He will bind up our wounds.
So, God’s going to deal with the Jews and the Gentiles on earth as He has specified and sees fit, in His perfect timing! There will be a rapture of the church, which is all who choose to submit to Jesus as Lord and Savior, receiving the gift of salvation!
God is a loving, patient, merciful, gracious God. He’s given the Jewish people many, many chances…
John 1:10-11 NIV – 10 He was in the world, and though the world was made Through Him, the world did not recognize Him. 11 He came to that which was His Own, but His own did not receive Him.
God won’t be done with His people until His plan is fully complete! There are so many times when He gives grace and mercy that people become arrogant and disobedient. It’s what Paul was talking about in…
Romans 11:25 NIV – 25 I do not want you to be ignorant of this mystery, brothers and sisters, so that you may not be conceited … Israel has experienced a hardening in part until the full number of the Gentiles has come in.
We can do our part by looking ahead to prophecy in the Bible because looking ahead helps us understand and discern more about God’s heart, mind and plan. We need to spend more time reading the Bible than we do reading books about the Bible. It tells us what’s going to happen and what to be ready for…
Romans 8:20-23 NIV – 20 For The Creation was subjected to frustration, not by its own choice, but by The Will of The One Who subjected it, in hope 21 that The Creation itself will be liberated from its bondage to decay and brought into the Freedom and Glory of The children of God. 22 We know that The Whole Creation has been groaning as in the pains of childbirth right up to the present time. 23 Not only so, but we ourselves, who have The First-Fruits of The Spirit, groan inwardly as we wait eagerly for our adoption to son-ship, the redemption of our bodies! … SO … à
The Bible’s not only a manual for how to live our life now. It’s also a warning beacon that allows us to be ready for the future! Again, we can have 100% confidence in God’s Word. Look at…
2 Peter 3:3-5 NIV – 3 Above all, you must understand that in the last days scoffers will come, scoffing and following their own evil desires. 4 They will say, “Where is this ‘coming’ He promised? Ever since our ancestors died, everything goes on as it has since the beginning of creation.” 5 But they deliberately forget that long ago by God’s Word The Heavens came into being and the earth was formed out of water and by water.
The better we know and understand the prophecy in God’s plan, the more assurance, confidence and courage we have to get His work done! Let’s do our part and get ready!
If you’re listening online and you haven’t made the decision to follow Jesus, then I’m inviting you to pray to Jesus right now and receive Him as your personal Lord and Savior. He knows what’s best for us and it’s eternity with God in heaven, but the only way to get there is through a salvation relationship with Jesus! So, don’t wait. Receive Him now!
Let’s pray!