THE WEDDING AND THE WAR 3: Looking for the Day

Sunday, March 24, 2019

Pastor Troy Brewer, OpenDoor Church, Burleson, TX

WEDDING AND THE WAR 1: “I Ain’t Scared”

  • Any part of your life that doesn’t have great hope is under the influence of a lie.
  • Jesus doesn’t warn us to scare us. He warns us to prepare us.

WEDDING AND THE WAR 1: “I Ain’t Scared”

  • Never be afraid to trust an unknown future to a known God. -Corrie Ten Boom

THE WEDDING AND WAR 2:

  • Keep it positive but keep it accurate.
  • The reason there is a dual nature is because there is actually a choice.

The dual nature of the wedding and the war

1. The great and terrible day of the Lord

2. The catching away and the great return of the King

        * The thief in the night (nobody sees him)

        * The heavens are peeled back. Jesus enters into the atmosphere with a mighty shout and a trumpet blast. 

THE WEDDING AND WAR 2: Keep it positive but keep it accurate.

  • THE PRINCIPLE OF ABOUNDING GRACE
  • “Where sin abounds, grace does much more abound.”
  • Abounding: growing in abundant supply
  • Daniel described the last days “like a hurricane” – a perfect storm from everything global, the four beasts from the north, south, east and west.
  • There is a progressive intensity of everything you can imagine that will continue to progress until Jesus Himself comes back to put a stop to it.
  • The principle of accelerated time frames belong to you.
  • Wisdom and the counsel of God is for you to understand that the fifties are not returning to America. The new normal is increased major malfunctions.
  • But there is also a new level of anointing, a new level of intense  OUTPOURING of God’s grace and manifest Glory that answers this present darkness with the goodness of God.

THE WEDDING AND THE WAR 3: Looking for the Day

  • God gave you time. And time is gift that God has given everyone.
  • Time is something that can be measured, numbered and predicted by common people. Time is an environment God created for our sakes and we need to understand time in order to partner with His purposes for us. 
  • Time is a blessing for the redeemed and a curse for God’s haters. It owns everything that isn’t kingdom and is a valuable tool for the purposes of the redeemed and the Redeemer. Scripture tells us God gives and God takes away. When it comes to time, we need to know the prophetic value of time before we step into eternity.

When people are in synch with God’s heart, they get into synch with God’s timing.

  • God said, “Surely the sovereign Lord does nothing without revealing it to His servants the prophets.” – Amos 3:7
  • God said “nothing,” and He did not exclude Christ’s return. I take Him at His word.

God not only knows the end from the beginning, He tells us that He makes it known!

  • Isaiah 46:10 – “I make known the end from the beginning, from ancient times, what is still to come.”
  • He has already made it known! I personally believe it has been hidden in His Word all along, to be unlocked in His timing.  There is nothing wrong with seeking!  No doubt, it pleases God.
  • Isaiah 48:5 – I have even from the beginning declared it to you; before it came to pass I showed it to you.
  • Jesus said the Holy Spirit “will teach you all things.” – John 14:26
  • He said “all things.” Did Jesus make a mistake, forgetting to exclude when He will return? I don’t think so.

Friends confide in one another.

  • Abraham was called God’s “friend.” (Isaiah 41:8; James 2:23)
  • Genesis 18:17 – And the LORD said, Shall I hide from Abraham that thing which I do.
  • Now, because of Jesus’ atonement, we are called friends of God:
  • John 15:15 – “I no longer call you servants, because a servant does not know his master’s business. Instead, I have called you friends.”
  • The Bible also says that Jesus was crucified so that the blessing of Abraham, part of which was friendship with God, would come upon the Gentiles — us (Galatians 3:14).

FORESHADOWING THINGS TO COME

  • Ecclesiastes 1:9 – What has been will be again, what has been done will be done again; there is nothing new under the sun. 
  • Many Bible students believe that ancient events and dating in the Bible are shadows and clues that foretell the coming of the Lord, even the timing.  An example is the six days of creation, seen as 6,000 years of man’s dominion over the earth, before the return of the Lord and the seventh, or Sabbath Millennium of peace, with Christ ruling in Jerusalem.  According to scholars, we are now at the end of 6,000 years since Adam.
  • There are other such passages. God clearly promised that we would know at least approximately when Christ will return, and even “the day” will not surprise us, as the Holy Spirit reveals through Paul!
  • He gave Noah advance notice of when the flood would be (Genesis 6,7).
  • He told Abraham how long the Israelites would be in Egypt (Genesis 15:13).
  • He revealed to many the very day of Elijah’s rapture (2 Kings 2).
  • He told Jeremiah how long the Babylonian exile would be (Jeremiah 29:10).
  • He told Daniel exactly when Messiah would come the first time (Daniel 9:25-26).

MISSING THE MARK

  • There were many alive during the first appearance of Jesus who totally missed it.
  • Bethlehem may have had more than 10,000 people run it at the time that Jesus was born and only a handful of people knew anything about the greatest promise ever made being fulfilled just feet away and out of their view. 
  • Matthew 23:37 – “Jerusalem, Jerusalem, you who kill the prophets and stone those sent to you, how often I have longed to gather your children together, as a hen gathers her chicks under her wings, and you were not willing.”
  • See, when Jesus was on trial before Herod and Pontius Pilate, he was not the one on trial. Everybody else who was there was actually on trial. Did they recognize the timing and the appearance of Christ? 

ARE YOU LOOKING?

  • The day of His appearance is also a judgment-based on whether you are expecting Him or not.
  • 1 Peter 2:12 – Beloved, I beg you as sojourners and pilgrims, abstain from fleshly lusts which war against the soul, having your conduct honorable among the Gentiles, that when they speak against you as evildoers, they may, by your good works which they observe, glorify God in the day of visitation.
  • It says that you don’t want to miss your day of visitation and some translations say inspection. The litmus test for where your heart is and the thing that God will inspect is to do you know the timing go His appearance. 
  • Just the question — when? — causes some Christians to cringe, protest, or even scoff! They quickly point out that Jesus said,
  • Matthew 24:36 – But of that day and hour knoweth no man.
  • Some believers criticize other believers who are seeking God’s clues, either from the Scriptures or by personal revelation. It is interesting that it was apparently by personal revelation, not Scripture, that many people knew the exact day of Elijah’s rapture in 2 Kings!  Are there types in the Old Testament?  Do God’s principles repeat themselves?
  • As evidence, many other Scriptures reveal to us that God will reveal at least the approximate time. Even if the “day and hour” restriction is literally valid today, it may be because the Earth is in 24 time zones and always in two different days.
  • Jesus also said, “but my Father only” knows, which pins the statement to His hearers at the time, when Jesus was still on the earth, because surely there are now no secrets in the Trinity between the Father and the glorified Son, who are truly One.
  • Also, in context, He seems to be speaking of heaven and earth passing away (v. 35), not other end-time events. In addition, Jesus said,
    • Revelation 3:3 – If therefore thou shalt not watch, I will come on thee as a thief, and thou shalt not know what hour I will come upon thee.
  • It is clear that Jesus will not come as a “thief in the night” for watchful believers, because in the very same passage, verse 4, Paul tells us,
    • 1 Thessalonians 5:4 – But you, brothers, are not in darkness so that this day should surprise you like a thief.
  • Jesus rebuked those who did not understand the signs of the times in His day:
    • Matthew 16:3 – O ye hypocrites, ye can discern the face of the sky, but can ye not discern the signs of the times.
  • Of the end of the age, Jesus said,
    • Luke 21:28 – And when these things begin to come to pass, then look up, and lift up your heads; for your redemption draweth nigh.

THE FEASTS OF THE LORD

The Spring feasts have already been fulfilled.

1. Passover — Pointed to the Messiah as our passover lamb whose blood would be shed for our sins. Jesus was crucified on the day of preparation for the Passover, at the same time that the lambs were being slaughtered for the Passover meal that evening.

2. Unleavened Bread — Pointed to the Messiah’s sinless life, making Him the perfect sacrifice for our sins. Jesus’ body was in the grave during the first days of this feast, like a kernel of wheat planted and waiting to burst forth as the bread of life.

3. First Fruits — Pointed to the Messiah’s resurrection as the first fruits of the righteous. Jesus was resurrected on this very day, which is one of the reasons that Paul refers to him in I Corinthians 15:20 as the “first fruits from the dead.”

4. Harvest or Pentecost — (Called Shavuot today.) Pointed to the great harvest of souls, both Jew and Gentile, that would come into the kingdom of God during the Church Age. The Church was actually established on this day when the Messiah poured out the Holy Spirit and 3,000 souls responded to Peter’s first proclamation of the Gospel.

The long interval of three months between Harvest and Trumpets pointed to the current Church Age, a period of time that was kept as a mystery to the Hebrew prophets in Old Testament times.

THE FALL FEASTS

That leaves us with the three fall feasts which are yet to be fulfilled in the life and work of the Messiah. Because Jesus literally fulfilled the first four feasts and did so on the actual feast days, I think it is safe to assume that the last three will also be fulfilled and that their fulfillment will occur on the actual feast days. We cannot be certain how they will be fulfilled, but my guess is that they most likely have the following prophetic implications:

5) Trumpets — (Called Rosh Hashana today.) Points to the Rapture when the Messiah will appear in the heavens as a Bridegroom coming for His bride, the Church. The Rapture is always associated in Scripture with the blowing of a loud trumpet (I Thessalonians 4:13-18 and I Corinthians 15:52)

6) Atonement — (Called Yom Kippur today.) Points to the day of the Second Coming of Jesus when He will return to earth. That will be the day of atonement for the Jewish remnant when they “look upon Him whom they have pierced,” repent of their sins, and receive Him as their Messiah (Zechariah 12:10 and Romans 11:1-6, 25-36).

7) Tabernacles — (Called Sukkot today.) Points to the Lord’s promise that He will once again tabernacle with His people when He returns to reign over all the world from Jerusalem (Micah 4:1-7).

Jesus will come back for the rapture of the church at the feast of trumpets  and no man knows the day or the hour because you cant know the day or the hot because it variable from year due to the appearance of the moon