Over these next two weeks, I get the joy of talking about the tribulation with you (yes there’s irony in that phrase).

But before we get into that, I want to touch just briefly on something that we’ll be talking about in a couple of weeks when Josh returns. Not to steal from anything he’s going to talk about, but I think it’s important to at least mention it before we dive into the meat of today.

88 Reasons

In fact, I found a book (well more like a pamphlet) when preparing for today, I thought you all might like to see this:

88 Reasons Why Jesus is Coming Back in 1988.

The guy who wrote this explains right in the beginning – Jesus says, “You cannot know the day or the hour, but he never said that we couldn’t know within a 3-day window.” So, right here he gave a 3-day window in 1988 when Jesus was supposed to come back. It was a pretty big deal back then in a lot of churches, apparently, I wasn’t around then so I don’t know. But here’s what I do know:

1988 came and went.

But wait! There’s more! The next year a new book was published – I found this one too –

89 Reasons Jesus Will Come Back in 1989

He said, and I’ve highlighted it here – he explains that he miscounted the Gregorian calendar instead of the Hebrew calendar…classic.

Hate it when that happens. But it happens to the best of us.

And you know, we could make rapture jokes like there’s no tomorrow.

I’ll let that sink in for a second. If you didn’t get it, ask me after.

But, really, joking aside, it can be easy to seem kind of one sided when approaching a topic like today’s – but there is something in here that I believe is really missing from our generation, from the church today. And that’s the earnest and eager expectation of Christ’s return. And I mean really expecting it. And you know, I know that there’s a lot of disagreements out there and people’s own opinions’ and beliefs about the timing of Jesus’ return, and what phrases like “thief in the night” really mean – but those are friendly disagreements, I hope.

I have my own convictions and I’ll explain those in a minute today – as I’m sure you do – but something that I want to emphasize before we even read a single word out of the bible today is the main thing that we have in common.

And that is the need to conduct our ministries (and we all have ministries – every single one of us) with the awareness that eternity is real and the Lord is at hand.

That no matter the position we take on the timing of when x, y, or z will play out, is that we have hope that our souls will live eternally with our savior, we have hope for our bodies – as our bodies ache, wear out, as we wake up and our voice is just gone – we have this reminder in places like 1 Corinthians 15, and also in Revelation, that we’ll have physical, resurrected bodies that won’t perish or get sick. And then we have hope for our world.

This broken world that we’re in.

That in the reign and rule of Christ in and throughout eternity, all things will be made new, and our hope is not something that’s in front of us anymore, but – like I encouraged, it’s something that we’re actively participating in every second of our lives. A hope for our soul, a hope for our physical bodies, but also a hope for our planet. 

So – I want to say that this is a wonderful thing to dive into, a wonderful thing to study – but also that there’s a level of mystery here that God has allowed, even as He has revealed to us in His Word, that there is something around the millennial reign of Christ. But our focus over these next two weeks, as I tell you what I believe and why, our hope – no matter our camp – should be focused and placed in the fact that our souls are secure. Our bodies will be made new. And our earth will be recreated and will be what it was meant to be.

And praise God for that.

The Biblical Foundation of the Tribulation

The Tribulation in Scripture

Now, I’m going to hit you with a theological word – so don’t check out, just hang with me. The word is eschatology. Really, it’s just a fancy word for the theology of the end times – and it might be one of the most, if not the most, neglected in today’s church, in the 2024 church. Many theologians seem to find it embarrassing: you know, it’s almost like the crass, uneducated uncle of Christian theology. He shows up at thanksgiving dinner out of nowhere, and you’re just like, “oh great, we’ve got to hear him talk for 40 minutes. I just hope he doesn’t single me out…Let’s just put him at the end of the table and make Aunt Becky listen to him.”

But get this: the second coming of Christ is the most talked about doctrine in the Bible other than salvation. In the 929 chapters in the old testament and 260 chapters in the new testament, do you want to know how many references there are to it?

Roughly 1,845 references.

That comes out to roughly 1 in 17 verses talks about it. Jesus Himself says over 50 times to be ready for His return.

And we have a whole holiday celebrating the first coming of Christ, yet barely mention the second. Let’s go even deeper: almost every single moral command that is given in the New Testament, is tied to the second coming at some point. It’s in every chapter. Every command is tied to it. To miss it is to miss the whole hope and thrust of the New Testament: ‘Surely I come quickly. Even so come, Lord Jesus.’”

That’s how the New Testament ends.

So I just want to emphasize, and I don’t want to steal any of what Josh is going to be talking about here in a couple of weeks with the return of Jesus, but I bring all of this up to emphasize that there’s a commonality that all of us in this room, a commonality that all Christians should have, and it’s the imminence of Jesus’ return.

And that we conduct ourselves with that expectation.

The Olivet Discourse and the Tribulation

Now, let’s get into this. In the past weeks – Josh covered what we refer to as birth pangs. Specifically, Jesus says that these are the “beginning of sorrows”. The divisions. The wars. The rumors of wars. The defamation, the killing, the departure. So, we looked at what are called the birth pangs.

And what’s important to understand in this, and I just want to reiterate this for us this morning is that these are general signs that will intensify leading up to what is known as the tribulation period. There’ll be a seven-year period of the tribulation, some who call the last half, the last 3.5 years “The Great Tribulation.”

So I’d like for you to open up your Bibles with me, and we’ll read this passage together and then talk about it:

This is Jesus speaking in what is known as the Olivet Discourse. And this passage is speaking about the time just before Jesus returns. As a matter of fact, in verse 15, the Abomination of Desolation, when that happens, Jesus Christ will come back in 3.5 years.

So if you are here when that happens, and I hope you won’t be, because I believe – like Josh, that we’ll be raptured before that, that if you’re here when that happens, and you survive the last half of the Tribulation, you will know pretty close to the time. You won’t know the actually day or the hour, but you’ll know it’s close.

Don’t write a book on it giving a 3-day window. Just some advice.

Now, these two specific signs I want to point out in vv. 15 and 21:

1. The Sign of the Abomination of Desolation

First, we have the sign of the Abomination of Desolation. It’s in verse 15.

Jesus says, “when” – so “when you see” – and what He’s talking about here is this time when we’ll have the universal teaching of the Gospel, okay? The gospel will be heralded across the planet, “when you see the abomination of desolation spoken of by the prophet Daniel, standing in the holy place (let the reader understand),” so He’s giving us a sign.

What will be the sign of your coming? And this is the second coming, not rapture.

Now, there’s a ton here that we could spend our time unpacking, but what I want to make sure we understand is that there’s going to be this event take place that Daniel prophesied, called the “abomination of desolation.” Josh has mentioned this in a previous message as well. But basically, what we’re being told here is that when you see that happen, know that the second coming is near.

So, here’s the question: what is the abomination of desolation spoken of by Daniel that prophet? Well – it’s a vast subject. This entire sermon could have been on the abomination of desolation, but it’s talked about in the Old Testament, it’s talked about in the Gospels, like we read today, it’s talked about in the Epistles of Paul – specifically and graphically in great detail in 2 Thessalonians 2, and then it’s described in the Book of Revelation, which is yet future, and specifically in great detail in Revelation 13.

But there’s a pretty interesting fact of this abomination of desolation as spoken of by Daniel the prophet. Daniel spoke about it in Daniel 9:27. And in Daniel 11:31, and in Daniel 12:11. So there’s three places that Daniel mentions this abomination of desolation that is spoken of by Jesus here in v. 15.

• In Daniel 9:27, he puts it off into the future.

• In Daniel 11:31 he makes it clear that it will be an historic event that happens soon, and then in

• Daniel 12:11, he breaks down the time period from the abomination of desolation to the second coming of Jesus Christ.

But let me point something out for us, many times Old Testament prophets would make a prophecy that would have two parts to its fulfillment. It would have closer, near, historical fulfillment, but it would also have a future, what we call (and here comes a form of that theological word again) “eschatological” – the future interpretation. So some of these prophecies have two parts. It would happen in history, and then it would be fulfilled in future prophecy.

Don’t worry, I’ll explain what is meant by that.

In 168 BC, a very wicked Syrian ruler named Antiochus Epiphanes ended up conquering Jerusalem and Israel. Josephus, the Roman historian, tells us about him. Antiochus Epiphanes desecrated the Jewish temple, and in his just pure hatred of Jewish people, he went into the temple, and sacrificed a pig on the altar (an unclean animal for the Jews) and took the broth from this pig and threw it all over the temple, desecrating and polluting it. Then, just to really add on to it, he set up an image of the Greek god (that’s little g, just to emphasize) Zeus. Then, even further, in defiance of the God of Israel, he commanded the Jewish people to change their religion and to worship the Greek god Zeus.

Now the “abomination of desolation” also has a future fulfillment during the time of the seven-year tribulation, specifically three-and-a-half years into the tribulation. In the middle of the tribulation, the Antichrist will go into the rebuilt temple.

That means that the temple in Jerusalem will have to be rebuilt.

I find it interesting that in 1967, Israel reconquered the temple mount, and they had the capacity, if they wanted to, to rebuild a third temple on that temple mount where they could worship. But right now it’s not that. It’s a Muslim holy site; it has the Dome of the Rock and the Alaska Mosque. It is a very holy site to the Arabs, and the Jews have left it alone.

And all of this talk about, “Who is the antichrist?”

I don’t know. And not only me, but nobody. Nobody knows. But boy has there been a list proposed by people.

• Emperor Nero

• Napoleon Bonaparte

• Probably every president who was ever elected.

  • People said John F. Kennedy – why? Because he received 666 votes at the 1956
    Democratic convention.

  • People also said Ronald Reagan – why? Because his first, middle, and last name each have 6 characters. Ronald Wilson Reagan.

  • Then people said Barack Obama – why? The day after the 2008 presidential election, the Illinois Pick 3 lottery numbers were 666.

• Just about every single pope.

• Bill Gates.

• World rulers.

World War I. They thought that was it. That was the tribulation.

World War II. Now that was the tribulation. They thought Hitler was the antichrist, and Biblically speaking – I mean, I don’t know if I really blame them too much. It really looks like he just made a checklist of the things the antichrist was prophesied of doing, and made it into his personal bucket list. But, he’s dead, so. Not him.

Even if you’re in the camp that he somehow escaped to South America – he’d be 134 years old, so, dead.

But I’ll put it this way:

He was antichrist – but not THE antichrist.

So, there’s the historical fulfillment, and the future prophecy. Read with me in 2 Thessalonians 2:4 – it says that the Antichrist, 

Basically, what the Antichrist does is he comes into the temple, sets up an image of himself and commands everyone to worship it. He also commands everyone to get a mark on the right hand or the forehead. It’s related to the number of man, 666. It’s called “the mark of the beast.” You won’t be able to buy or sell without that mark. The Antichrist actually becomes the world-ruling dictator. He will tell everyone that he is God. And as unbelievable as it seems, we see that everyone will follow after him, because he is going to bring peace to the world. He will solve the conflict in the Middle East. He will be a great peace negotiator with great public speaking ability.

He is going to have a companion known as a false prophet or religious leader. So he will align himself with religion. This false prophet will perform miracles and signs and wonders, and all the world will basically be in awe and wonder – not of Christ, but of the beast. We read about it in Matthew 24 and in Revelation 13 (which we’ll get more into next week). He “opposes and exalts himself above all that is called God or that is worshipped, so that he sits as God in the temple of God, showing himself that he is God.” Satan has always wanted to usurp God and take His place. He wants to put himself above God.

Isaiah 14:14 says,

That is what the Antichrist will be like. You sell yourself to the devil, and he will give these things to you. So the Antichrist will be empowered by Satan. Satan gives him his power, his seat and his authority. It is really Satan wanting to get adoration and worship as God. Stemming from pride, jealousy, things like that.

And this story reminds me so much of the story of Nebuchadnezzar in Daniel 3. Nebuchadnezzar was king in Babylon and the Jews were taken captive there. He set up an image of himself and commanded everyone to bow down and worship the golden image. If you didn’t bow down, you would burn in the fiery furnace. When the band struck up a tune, everyone was to bow down to his image. Everyone bowed down except for the three Hebrews—Shadrach, Meshach and Abed-Nego. Daniel wasn’t there, but if he was, he wouldn’t have bowed down either. They wouldn’t bow, they wouldn’t bend so they wouldn’t burn. Then the three were thrown into a fiery furnace heated seven times hotter than normal. Seven times—an interesting number. It was so hot that the slaves that threw them in were consumed by the fire. These Hebrews were bound with ropes. All that happened to them was that their ropes were burned off, so they were loosed and they walked around in the fire.

If I were thrown into a fiery furnace and my ropes burned off, I’d be out of there right now!

I remember our dog Cooper, if there was somewhere he didn’t want to go – and me messing with him, I’d pick him up and like I was going to put him somewhere, I’m convinced if I tossed him, he’d somehow figure out a way to land behind me. Same with me and a fiery furnace. You open the door, get ready to throw me in, toss me, I’d land behind you. I’m out of there man. But no, they were just walking around in the furnace. Then Nebuchadnezzar said, “Did we not cast three men bound into the midst of the fire?” They said, “True, O king.” “Look,” he answered, “I see four men loose…and the form of the fourth is like the Son of God.” I believe that fourth man was a Christophany. A preincarnate Jesus Christ in the Old Testament. I believe that he was right there in the fiery furnace with Shadrach, Meshach and Abed-Nego. No wonder they were having a good time in there! Then “Nebuchadnezzar…spoke, saying…’Come out, and come here!’ Then Shadrach, Meshach and Abed-Nego came from the midst of the fire. 

Whenever you’re going through a fire, Jesus is with you. You may be going through a furnace of affliction, of tribulation (not the Great Tribulation), but going through stuff right now, but Jesus said, “I will never leave you nor forsake you.”

Now I know that we’ve spent some time on this today, but this is a picture of the “abomination of desolation.” Nebuchadnezzar raised up an image, commanded that he be worshipped, and if not, they would be put to death. A similar image we get with the antichrist. Then there would be three-and-a-half years following that of the great tribulation when God’s wrath would be poured out on the earth. So verse 15 is the event or the sign.

2. The Response to the Sign

Now notice the response in our text in verses 16-20.

“then let those who are in Judea flee to the mountains. Let the one who is on the housetop not go down to take what is in his house, and let the one who is in the field not turn back to take his cloak. And alas for women who are pregnant and for those who are nursing infants in those days! Pray that your flight may not be in winter or on a Sabbath.”

-Matthew 24:16-20 (ESV)

Verse 15 starts with a “when”—“when you see” this sign;
Verse 16 starts with a “then.”

Verse 16:

“Then let those who are in Judea…”—which is the area around Jerusalem—“…flee to the mountains.” Verse 17, ”Let the one who is on the housetop not go down to take what is in his house, and let the one who is in the field not turn back to take his cloak. And alas for women who are pregnant and for those who are nursing infants in those days! Pray that your flight may not be in winter or on a Sabbath.”

Everything we read here is talking about the holy land. It’s talking about the people of Israel. It’s all in the context of this tribulation period.

So – the teaching there is that the minute you see this desecration of the temple in Jerusalem by the Antichrist, flee (v. 16)!

For some context - in those days they had flat-topped houses with outside stairways to get to the top. They had flat roofs with a patio on the top. Jesus said not to even go down into your house to grab your belongings. Don’t pack your bags. Don’t get your medicines or money. Just run. Get out of there. If you’re out in the fields, verse 18, just leave from there. Don’t go back and get your clothes. During the time of the tribulation, which covers a pretty healthy chunk of the Book of Revelation, chapters 6-19, many Jews will be persecuted and martyred. Many of them will turn to Jesus Christ, and many of them will be put to death for their faith. There will be 144,000 Jews sealed and will, no doubt, be a witness to others, so many Jews will come to Christ at this time. But, it will be the greatest time of anti-Semitism and Jewish persecution in history.

So, in our passage in Matthew, Jesus tells us:

1. From the sign of the “abomination of desolation” in verse 15

2. That our response should be to, “flee,” in verses 16-20

3. And in verses 21-25, we come now to the sign of the “great tribulation.”

You have the sign of the abomination and of the tribulation.

The Sign of the Great Tribulation

So, follow with me:

1. Jesus said in verse 15, “When you see…”

2. In verse 16, “Then let those…”

3. In verse 21, “For then…”

Notice that it’s all a progression - read with me in verse 21:

This is all prophecy, predictive and warnings. These are the signs. You want to know what the signs are of the coming of Christ and of the end of the age?

Here it is: there will be a time of “great tribulation,” verse 21.

Now, I want to make a distinction between different kinds of tribulation. Jesus said in John 16:33:

The tribulation Jesus is referring to here is not the “great tribulation.” The tribulation Christians get now comes from the world, the flesh and the devil.  John Miller puts it wonderfully when he talks about the enemies that we face as Christians. He said this:

But the great tribulation, the seven-year period, will come from God. So the two tribulations have different sources. The Bible also says, in 1 Thessalonians 5:9, that:

Jesus took our wrath on the Cross, so we’re not appointed to wrath. I believe we will be caught up to meet the Lord before the seven years of tribulation.

The great tribulation will be a horrible time. During the tribulation time that Jesus mentions, there will be six seal judgments, seven trumpet judgments and seven bowls or wrath judgments. We’ll get into these more next week, but Revelation 6:12-17 describes what is under the sixth seal:

Notice that the source of the great tribulation is not Satan but is from God. It’s the wrath of the Lamb. “For the great day of their wrath has come, and who is able to stand?” So Jesus says, in Matthew 24:21, that there will be trouble like never before, “such as has not been since the beginning of the world until this time, no, nor ever shall be.” It will be God’s wrath poured out on a Christ-rejecting world.

Now when Jesus says in the Olivet discourse, in Matthew 24:21-25:

The days were then “shortened” or brought to a close. It doesn’t mean that this period of seven years is going to be shorter, or from the “abomination of desolation” to the Second Coming will be shorter than three-and-a-half years. It means that it will stop, that it will be terminated, that it will come to a conclusion. So the period of time will not be shorter, but He will stop it, lest the whole world be destroyed. Jesus Christ is coming back. Amen for that. Regardless on where you land personally, pre-tribulation, mid-tribulation, post-tribulation – the hope that we have is that Jesus Christ is coming back, and He’s coming back in victory.

And Jesus is saying here that those days have to be concluded or stopped, or all humanity will be wiped out. During the tribulation, at least half of the world’s population will be killed, billions of people.

Then notice verses 23-24:

Don’t be led astray. Be vigilant. Christ told us what to watch out for. He told us when to flee.

I mentioned it maybe in my last sermon, but I’m not a fan of spicy food.

Maybe you are, and if you are – I’m about to offend you. But have you been around people that just love spicy food? Food like hot wings? I heard someone mentioning their recipe for their sauce before – to blend the habanero chili peppers into a paste, mix it into a little Tabasco sauce, and bake it into the chicken wings.

And with my luck, it goes like this. We’ll be at some family event or something, and someone says the phrase: “You’ve got to try my hot wings and tell me what you think!”

Someone grabs a wing, takes a big ole bite, and gets about half way through pulling the bone out when the realization hits him that his mouth was on fire! Finally, after lots of water and stuffing anything other than those chicken wings into his mouth to try and put out the fire, he gets himself composed.

Then what happens? They go looking for someone else to try those fiery chicken wings!

After the first couple of people were fooled into eating the wings, with the same predictable results, enough people gather around and witness their demise that you’d think no one else would try it. But that’s not what happens!

People who have seen for themselves what the others had gone through try the wings for themselves! Sure, maybe they’re a little more cautious, not sticking the whole thing in their mouths, but kind of nibbling around the edges, yet the results were still pretty much the same. 

You might think the moral of this story is “people can be dumb,” and given the facts, I would have a hard time arguing with you. 

The one who made the sauce, knowing how hot it was and what would probably happen, still calls out to someone, “Hey, come on and try my chicken wings!” – He is like the false prophets spoken of in Matthew 24:11 seeking to mislead. "And many false prophets will arise and lead many astray" (NIV).

There are many people who will mislead you if you let them.

The person who first tried the wings and burned his mouth still called out for others to come and try them too – He is like the one who has fallen, and rather than picking himself up and putting up warning signs to keep others from the same fate, he calls out to see if he can get others to join him in his misery. 

As Proverbs 4:16 says, "For they [evil people] cannot sleep unless they have done wrong; they are robbed of sleep unless they have made someone stumble" (ESV).

There are those who take pleasure in causing others to stumble.

And what about the ones who see what goes on, but just had to try it for themselves?  They are the ones who blindly follow the masses, even when they know they are going to suffer.  And the result?  Matthew 7:13 says that “… the gate is wide and the way is broad that leads to destruction, and there are many who enter through it” (NASB).

There are those who beckon to you to follow them on their road to destruction.

Did I just liken people who make and like spicy food to the false prophets and Satan, maybe – but now that I’ve offended a healthy chunk of people here, the point is that there are those out there who seek to lead you astray. Not by eating something spicy, but in far more sinister, and actually serious ways.

And I’ll be honest with you, this sermon and the next have been some of the most difficult that I’ve ever prepared for or written. Because I had this thought of - “are you really going to give an entire sermon about something we’re not going to experience?”

And the answer in this case is – I certainly hope so. I hope I’m not. I hope you’re not.

In a Connect Group I led on the Book of Revelation, we were talking about this exact thing – and if we were pre-trib, mid-trib, post-trib, all of that – and one of the members had a great saying that I told them I’m stealing – it was this: “I believe that we’ll be raptured before the Great Tribulation – I just hope that Jesus does as well.”

So again, I hope you’re not. But regardless, if you haven’t been born again, if you haven’t trusted Jesus as your Savior, if you don’t have the life of God in your soul, I want to encourage you that if you don’t know Jesus Christ, get right with God. Because weather we’re here for the Great Tribulation or not - the end is coming.

I was listening to J.D. Greear talk about this subject, and he mentioned that his pastor growing up used to end their church services saying, “Maranatha” (meaning, the Lord is coming) – and then he would say, “And it could be today.”

So, I’m ending today the same way - I think it’s appropriate given what we’re talking about. So, with that being said: maranatha - and it could be today.

Sources:

Books/Research Papers/Blog Articles:

• “The World of the End: How Jesus’ Prophecy Shapes Our Priorities” by Dr. David Jeremiah

• “Has the Tribulation Begun?: Avoiding Confusion and Redeeming Time in These Last Days by Amir Tsarfati

• “The Last Days According to Jesus: When Did Jesus Say He Would Return?” by R.C. Sproul

• “What is the Great Tribulation?” from GotQuestions.com

• “What is the End Time Tribulation?” from GotQuestions.com

Sermons:

• “The Great Tribulation” by R.C. Sproul

• “The Great Tribulation” by John Miller

• “The Cradle That Rocked the World” by J.D. Geear

• “The Great Tribulation” by John MacArthur

• “The End Times | Daniel 11-12” by Gary Hamrick

Commentaries:

• “Revelation: The Spirit Speaks to the Churches” by James M. Hamilton, Jr.

• “Matthew: All Authority in Heaven and on Earth” by Douglas Sean O’Donnell

Resources for Further Study: