Introduction: We here at Calvary Baptist Church enjoy the Christian fellowship of a biblical New Testament church. We have this because we believe the Bible, which means we believe God and know Him who is our God and Creator. We do not wonder about the future. We know! We are assured of the promises of God’s Word. This church believes the whole Bible and as a true New Testament church we accept only it as a sole authority for our faith and practice.

         We believe every word either has been fulfilled or will be fulfilled in the future. The Bible teaches us many marvelous truths. The Bible teaches us about the past. We do not wonder about the beginning of things for the Bible covers that.

         We read and marvel at the lives of men who lived thousands of years ago. How much alike their lives are to ours, except for the technologies that have been developed. One of the most blessed of all is our beliefs concerning the Second Coming of our Savior Jesus Christ.

         There are many subjects within this passage which we could preach on, but I want to focus in the verse 30 which promises the Second Coming of the Lord Jesus Christ. “And then shall appear the sign of the Son of man in heaven: and then shall all the tribes of the earth mourn, and they shall see the Son of man coming in the clouds of heaven with power and great glory” (Matt. 24:30).

I. Can We Be Certain of the Second Coming of Christ?

A. The Answer is a resounding YES! God in His word the Bible has much to say about Christ’s return.
His return will effect every person who was every born.
Romans 14:11 "For it is written, As I live, saith the Lord, every knee shall bow to me, and every tongue shall confess to God."

Philippians 2:10 says, "That at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, of things in heaven, and things in earth, and things under the earth"

Further Hebrews also plainly states this truth.
Heb 9:27 "And as it is appointed unto men once to die, but after this the judgment."

The reason for the Christ’s Second Coming is because of what He did 2000 years ago when He came to earth and gave Himself a sacrifice for the sins of the world. Christ promised salvation to all who would believe in Him and trust Him alone for their salvation.

God promised the resurrection for those in this age who put their trust in Him. He promised there will be a catching up of all believers off the earth.....the dead first and then those who are alive will be changed...given a resurrected body and taken to heaven to be with the Lord.

He promised to those in the Old Testament that if they would believe in Him, He would send the Messiah and He suffer and die for their sins as Isaiah 53 plainly states. He promised they would be part of a coming Kingdom of peace.

He promised to Israel a Kingdom in which they would live in peace in the land god gave them and that He would be their King and rule the world. That has not happened yet....but it certainly will!

Heb. 9:28 "So Christ was once offered to bear the sins of many; and unto them that look for him shall he appear the second time without sin unto salvation."

2000 years ago....the Messiah, Jesus came and He willingly went to the cross, and there He suffered and died for the sins of the world. Salvation was accomplished and the promise of God became a reality.

In His Second Coming....the reality of God’s promises will be fulfilled. As sure as you and I are here this morning....there is coming a day, I believe real soon, when all these things will come to past....exactly as He promised.

For those that believe.....it will be a happy day! For those that refuse to believe in Jesus Christ and receive Him as their Savior it will be a day of judgment....horrible beyond any imagination.

For the saved it begins the reality of Jesus’ wonderful Kingdom and our part in it. For the lost it begin and eternity separated from God, that ends in being cast into the Lake of Fire.....with no long any hope of the salvation they rejected.

B. But the Good News is that for the living who have not yet received Christ....it is not too late. We believe that Christ is coming, because God promised He would return. When He returns He will first receive His own at what is called the Rapture. This is the first part of His Second Coming. He comes as 1 Thess. 4:13-18 records.
After the Rapture there will be a seven year period called the Great Tribulation or Daniel’s 70th Week.

It is important to understand that those who believe, repent of their sins and receive Jesus Christ as their Savior will be in heaven with the Lord. We will not be on earth during the Tribulation period of seven years. After the seven years we will return with the Lord at the Second Coming when He comes to earth and establishes His kingdom.

At the beginning of this period the Antichrist will be revealed and come to power and rule over most of the nations of the earth. He, indwelled and controlled by Satan, will come at first offering the world peace and protection. He will sign a peace treaty with Israel to protect her from her enemies. Yet, he is a liar and a deceiver and soon he begins to reveal himself as to his truth character. He begins to persecute and murder those who believe in Jesus Christ. He requires that men worship him and he turns on Israel and breaks his peace treaty with her. History records that every treaty Israel made with her enemies has and will be broken. You would think they would remember God's promises to them and that Israel would turn to God for her safety and salvation.

At the beginning of the Tribulation God will save 144,000 Jews. Revelation 7:4 says there will be 12,000 from each of the 12 tribes of Israel.

The Book of Revelation beginning in Chapter 6 reveals there will be a series of 21 Judgments poured out upon the earth. The first seven judgments are called the Seal Judgments, followed by seven Trumpet Judgments and ending in seven Bowl or Vial Judgments. Each set of judgments will be worst than the ones that precede it.

There will be earthquakes, plagues, fires, storms, meteors hitting the earth and catastrophic disasters all over the world such as was never scene as we read in Matthew 24.

At the end of the Tribulation Christ will return to earth with all believers and His army of angels and will purge the earth of those who have rebelled against Him and served Satan and the Anti-Christ.

Yet, during this time and innumerable number of people will be saved. Revelation 7:9-12 records a scene in heaven as these believers, murdered by the Antichrist rejoice in heaven.

      “After this I beheld, and, lo, a great multitude, which no man could number, of all nations, and kindreds, and people, and tongues, stood before the throne, and before the Lamb, clothed with white robes, and palms in their hands; And cried with a loud voice, saying, Salvation to our God which sitteth upon the throne, and unto the Lamb.
      And all the angels stood round about the throne, and about the elders and the four beasts, and fell before the throne on their faces, and worshipped God, Saying, Amen: Blessing, and glory, and wisdom, and thanksgiving, and honour, and power, and might, be unto our God for ever and ever. Amen
      And one of the elders answered, saying unto me, What are these which are arrayed in white robes? and whence came they?
       And I said unto him, Sir, thou knowest. And he said to me, These are they which came out of great tribulation, and have washed their robes, and made them white in the blood of the Lamb” ( Rev. 7:9-14).

What a wonderful event this will be! In human terms it might have seemed to the enemies of God, a great victory was won when these men/women, boys and girls were beheaded and killed by Antichrist and those that follow him. However, those whom the Devil has slain on earth are seen victorious in heaven, rejoicing in the presence of the Lamb, the Lord Jesus Christ....rejoicing in their salvation. Death was only a door way to the presence of the Savior!

Revelation 20:4 in the chronology of the events of the Tribulation occurs after the Second Coming. Once again there is a victorious scene in heaven of those martyred for their faith in Jesus Christ:

“And I saw thrones, and they sat upon them, and judgment was given unto them: and I saw the souls of them that were beheaded for the witness of Jesus, and for the word of God, and which had not worshipped the beast, neither his image, neither had received his mark upon their foreheads, or in their hands; and they lived and reigned with Christ a thousand years.”

Note these dear saints of God endured great persecution because they would not worship the beast, the Antichrist whom they knew was controlled by Satan. They refused to have the mark of the beast put in their foreheads or hands and they were murdered for their refusal. The verse says they were beheaded.

ILLUS: This week I shuttered when the news was released that the terrorists in Iraqi had beheaded two Americans. Chills went up my spine at the horror of such a death. These men blind folded and on their knees pleaded for their lives, and yet an utterly evil man, who worships the false god of Islam, drew a sword and beheaded these innocent man.

During the coming Tribulation this will be common place as millions of believers will be murdered in this way.

C. Would you be willing to die rather than deny the Lord Jesus Christ as your Savior?

I believe that most of us who love the Lord Jesus and are faithful to Him living in faith would indeed die for Christ. The first three hundred years after Jesus returned to Heaven was a period marked by the murder of hundreds of thousands of Christians.

I believe God gave them the grace to face certain death. This grace was based on their faith in the promises of God. They truly believed in Jesus Christ and were sure of His promises to us.

They knew:
1. Jesus conquered sin and death on the cross.
2. God's promise of salvation by grace through faith was absolute.
3. Death for the believer is only a door way and entrance into the very presence of the Lord Jesus Christ in heaven.
4. Knew because they believed that their sins were forgiven and that God....even in death would not forsake them.

So staring at their executioner, their faith did not waver, God poured out His grace and they stood firm to physical death, rejoicing in the privilege to suffer and die for the Lord Jesus.