“What Just Happened?”
(Philippians 3:20-21)
Dr. Richard S. Koole
Chapel Pointe
November 9, 2008
I. Introduction
A. The remarkable rebirth of Israel
1. The Holocaust of WWII
2. After 1900 years of homelessness
3. And against all odds
May 14, 1948 David Ben-Gurion rushed into the Tel Aviv Art museum. More than 400 Jewish leaders from around the world were packed inside anxiously awaiting his words. At precisely 4:00 p.m. he stepped to the podium and read these historic words.
“This right is the natural right of the Jewish people to be masters of their own fate, like all other nations, in their own sovereign State. Accordingly, we…are here assembled…and by virtue of our natural and historic right, and on the strength of the resolution of the General Assembly of the United Nations, hereby declare the establishment of the Jewish State in Eretz-Israel, to be known as the State of Israel.”
Six thousand miles away, President Harry Truman sat in the Oval Office and signed his approval. One minute later the White House Press Secretary read the release to the world. The United States had officially recognized the birth of the modern nation of Israel
4. The unique place in prophecy
a. The prophetic clock started clicking
b. Like God slamming the “start button”
B. We’re told to try to watch for the “signs of the times”
1. (Matthew 24:33) “Even so, when you see all these things, you know that it is near, right at the door”
2. Questions
a. What is near?
b. See what things happening?
c. How near is near?
d. What is the key sign we should look for?
e. Does this have anything to do with the rebirth of Israel in 1948?
3. And what about the current global meltdown
a. Is this another sign of the coming of Christ?
4. And what has changed during the past 12 months?
a. Things are moving at breathtaking speed
II. Philippians 3:20-21
A. We await the return of Christ
(20) But our citizenship is in heaven. And we eagerly await a Savior from there, the Lord Jesus Christ, (21) who, by the power that enables him to bring everything under his control, will transform our lowly bodies so that they will be like his glorious body.
1. We eagerly await a Savior from Heaven
a. He promised to return for us
2. Will bring everything under his control
a. He promised to establish his kingdom on this earth
3. Will give you a glorified body
a. Will transform your “lowly body”
B. So how close are we to this event?
1. This will only be one sermon
2. Will have to leave out lots of stuff
II. Matthew 24
A. Jesus seated on the Mount of Olives
1. He tells how he will establish His Kingdom (Matt. 24:3-31)
2. The Rapture of the Church
3. The 7 years of Tribulation to come
a. First 3 ½ years (Matthew 24:4-8)
1. The Antichrist
b. Second 3 ½ years (v. 9-26)
1. Attacks on Israel
4. The Second Coming (v. 27-31)
a. Christ returns to establish kingdom on earth
“Even so, when you see these things happening, you know that the kingdom of God is near” (Luke 21:31)
B. Matthew 24 tells of some signs to look for
1. Other clues throughout the Bible
III. Text
A. The Fig Tree (Matt. 24:32-34)
(32) Now learn this lesson from the fig tree: As soon as its twigs get tender and its leaves come out, you know that summer is near. (33) Even so, when you see all these things, you know that it is near, right at the door. (34) I tell you the truth, this generation will certainly not pass away until all these things have happened.
1. Parable of fig tree……v.32
a. Purpose of parables
b. Use the common to explain the uncommon
2. The fig tree in my neighbor’s yard (California)
a. Looked dead
1. Brown
2. No leaves
b. But come spring?
1. It blooms to life!
3. Signs that it was about to bloom
a. Branches became tender
1. Sap begins to flow
2. Green
b. Puts forth leaves (spring)
1. Buds
c. Summer is coming!
d. May not know the exact day—but did know it would be soon
4. Key lesson?
a. Can tell when something is soon to occur
5. Regarding the return of Christ……v.33
a. We are to look for “signs” of His return
1. His triumphal return is the “it”
b. “it is near, right at the door”
1. Right outside
2. It’s almost Kingdom time!
6. “When you see all these things”
a. Which things?
b. The signs of prophecy just seen
1. Wars and rumors of wars
2. Abomination of desolation
3. Seven years of tribulation
c. Clues scattered throughout the Bible
d. Means Christ will return imminently
7. So who is the “fig tree?”
B. The fig tree is Israel
1. When Israel declared itself a nation in 1948
2. Sought recognition by United Nations
a. The U. S. was to be the tie-breaking vote
b. …and President Truman had to decide
3. What Truman went through
a. Opposition from men like General George Marshall
b. Truman a student of the Bible felt it had to happen
c. Cast the deciding vote in the UN
4. Rabbi Isaac Herzog
When Chief Rabbi of Israel, Isaac Herzog, called at the White House, he told Truman, “God put you in your mother’s womb so that you would be the instrument to bring about the rebirth of Israel after two thousand years.” One witness said that “when I looked over at the president, tears were running down his cheeks.”
5. What the Jews had just endured
a. Moses warned them
“And among those nations you shall find no rest, nor shall the sole of your foot have a resting place; but there the Lord will give you a trembling heart, failing eyes, and anguish of soul.” (Deuteronomy 28:65)
b. Suffering seemed to culminate during WW II
In 1933, nine million Jews lived in 21 European countries. By 1945, two out of three European Jews had been murdered. Of the six million Jews murdered during the Second World War, more than half were exterminated in the Nazi death camps. And the names Treblinka, Auschwitz, and Dachau become synonymous with the horrors of the Holocaust.”
6. Yet God promised that the nation would be reborn in a day
a. And that Israel would be the key player in the drama of the end times
7. The rebirth of Israel was the key sign…the fig tree
8. But there are other signs (Luke 21:29)
a. “Look at the fig tree and all the trees”
b. “All the trees”
1. The other nations
2. Mentioned in Old Testament prophecies
9. The current posturing of the other nations
C. Eleven reasons why we are closer to the return of Christ
1. The rebirth of Israel
a. The clock started ticking 60 years ago
2. The collapse and unification of the world’s economy
a. Socialism in one day
b. Never believed people would accept without a fight
c. The Mark of the Beast to buy and sell
1. Letter
Dear Dr. Koole,
I usually don’t write letters or say anything about sermon topics, but I think in this case it might be worth my two cents to add my comments. There have been things happening in the past few days that are worth noting. (1) The financial collapse: As a believer I always wondered how the mark of the beast was going to be accepted and so easily. These past weeks’ occurrences have marked the way for this to happen. I think it is amazing that the government now is part owner of the banking system in the United States. It’s not only true here, but every major country in the world beefed up their financial systems and now they are owners too. There is now a scheduled meeting of nations to discuss this matter and find a way to fix it. With the next financial crisis coming again soon, it will be easy to introduce world money through the governments and after that the mark will be easy to people.”
d. People will follow anyone who promises to fix it
1. Hitler and Germany
3. The unification of Europe
a. The Antichrist will rule over a revived Roman Empire
1. Including the land mass of Europe
2. However, since Rome, Europe has been deeply divided
b. Winston Churchill forcefully asserted
“the tragedy of Europe could only be solved if the issues of ancient nationalism and sovereignty could give way to a sense of European nationally grouping.” He said that the path to European peace and prosperity on the world stage was clear: “We must build a United States of Europe.”
c. There are now more than 450 million people in the European Union
d. With a single currency
4. The rising militancy of Islam
a. The majority of the world’s 1.5 billion Muslims want no part of terrorism
b. But that still leaves quite a few radicals around the world.
o Experts say that 15-20 percent of Muslims are radical enough to strap a bomb on their bodies in order to kill Christians and Jews.
o That equals 300 million potential terrorists
c. Tony Blankley of the Washington Times said in his book “The West’s Last Chance” : “The threat of the radical Islamists taking over Europe is every bit as great to the United States as was the threat of the Nazis taking over Europe in the 1940’s
d. The “biological jihad”
1. Some experts are projecting that by the year 2040, 80 percent of the population of France will be Muslim
e. The 12th Imam…The Mahdi
1. Shiite Muslims believe that the Twelfth Imam can appear only during a time of worldwide chaos
2. Why Ahmadinejad seems poised to push the world into a nuclear crisis
3. Why he stated in Tehran on October 25, 2005 that “Israel must be wiped off the map.”
4. He warned leaders of other Muslim nations who recognized the state of Israel that they would “face the wrath of their own people.”
5. As recently as January of this year in a televised speech he reiterated. “What we have right now is the last chapter…Accept that the life of Zionists (Israel) will sooner or later come to an end.”
5. The increasing power and needs of China
a. The size of the army from the East (200 million)
b. The Chinese thirst for oil
6. The importance of oil in the middle-east
a. The Bible foretells of the nations of the world fighting over the middle east
1. Didn’t seem to make sense
2. Dry worthless land
b. Can you say “oil?”
c. Prices this past year
d. Islam is willing to use oil as a weapon
1. Ayatollah Ali Khamenei of Iran
In a New York Times article in 2002 “Iranian Urges Muslims to Use Oil as a Weapon”
“The oil belongs to the people and can be used as a weapon against the West and those who support the savage regime of Israel…If Islamic and Arab countries…for only one month suspend the export of oil to Israel and its supporter, the world would be shaken.”
e. The US is committed to fight over there
1. The Carter Doctrine
“Let our position be absolutely clear: An attempt by any outside force to gain control of the Persian Gulf region will be regarded as an assault on the vital interests of the United States of America, and such an assault will be repelled by any means necessary including military force.”
7. The capabilities of technology
a. The mark of the beast and global economics
b. The cashless society
1. Seven days on the road with just a credit card…
c. The push for a world currency
1. The “Euro”
8. The desire for a world leader offering peace
a. The rise of the Antichrist
1. Will offer peace and protection to Israel
2. U.S. no longer willing or able to protect Israel
3. A leader promises peace
b. Paul-Henri Spaak, the first president of the UN General Assembly
“We do not need another committee. We have too many already. What we want is a man of sufficient stature to hold the allegiance of all people, and to lift us out of the economic morass into which we are sinking. Send us such a man and be he god or devil, we will receive him.”
9. The rising importance of Iraq
a. Babylon = Iraq
1. Role in the end times
2. Commercial center of the world
b. Nobody thought it possible for 2,500 years…until the past decade
c. Iraq will continue to be in the news
10. The partnership of Russia and Iran
a. The first event
1. The Battle of Gog and Magog
2. Ezekiel 38-39
b. Just prior to the seven years of Tribulation
1. Will surround Israel
b. The two key nations will be Russia and Iran
1. But known by old names
2. Have never before been allies
a. Until now
c. Vladimir Putin and Mahmoud Ahmadinejad
1. Russia’s billion-dollar deal to sell missiles and other weapons to Iran
2. Benjamin Netanyahu points out
“Over 1000 Iranian nuclear scientists have been trained in Russia by senior Russian Scientists.”
d. An end-time alliance that was prophesied 2,500 years ago
1. A reality within the past few years
11. America’s weakening position toward Israel
a. Only one vote in the congress away from a change
b. Pressure on us from the Islamic oil producing nations
c. The repercussions if we deserted Israel
D. But when?
1. (Matthew 24:32-34)
(32) Now learn this lesson from the fig tree: As soon as its twigs get tender and its leaves come out, you know that summer is near. (33) Even so, when you see all these things, you know that it is near, right at the door. (34) I tell you the truth, this generation will certainly not pass away until all these things have happened.
2. Which generation?
a. Some thought it was his disciples
1. Saw great tribulation
a. The destruction of Jerusalem
b. The destruction of the temple
c. Jews moved out of the land
2. But—
a. Passage is talking about the Second Coming
b. Have not seen the Great Tribulation
c. Did not see Second Coming
b. Those who are alive during the great tribulation
1. Witness birth pains—tribulation
a. All will be fulfilled within their generation
2. Encouragement
a. Hang in there!
b. Could very well be
c. Generation born 1948
1. Fig tree = Israel
2. The leaves sprouted in 1948
3. Those born in 1948—
a. Some will live to see it
b. 60 years old
4. The clock is ticking
E. Back to Philippians 3:20-21
(20) But our citizenship is in heaven. And we eagerly await a Savior from there, the Lord Jesus Christ, (21) who, by the power that enables him to bring everything under his control, will transform our lowly bodies so that they will be like his glorious body.
IV. Summary
A. So what?
1. Your response?
B. The “Countdown” has begun
1. According to the signs, it won’t be long
2. It may pause….or race forward to the end
3. Be encouraged
*His kingdom is coming
4. We must work even faster now