Signs - 9/12/26

Greeneville Seventh-day Adventist Church: There was a song, came out in 1970. Wasn't very peaceful. There's a song by Les Emerson. And in 1971, it became a huge hit. Signs, signs, everywhere there's signs. Old people are going, yeah, I know that song. Young people go, yeah, I know that song, it's still on the radio. It was inspired by a trip that the composer took along Route 66 in California. And he felt that there was an excessive number of billboards and advertisements and it ruined the scenery. So he came up with this song. How many signs did you pass this morning on your way to church? Well, those of you who are joining us virtually are saying, I'm still in my pajamas, I haven't passed any signs. Hey, I have a suggestion. If you're joining us online from home, because you need to be there, I challenge you, dress up for church anyway. You'll feel more like you're here. We do miss you here. But yes, even you have seen signs this morning, even if you stayed home. Your alarm clock and phone have signs advertising their brands to you every time you look at them. When you open your pantry for breakfast this morning, nearly everything in it has a sign on it telling you what's inside the box or the bag or the can. Even produce comes with stickers. Kids still put them on their faces from the bananas. Tell them where those bananas came from. what brand they are. We see so many signs that we no longer see the signs. Yesterday, yesterday morning, I took my usual route from the church to the school. How far away is the school? Eight tenths of a mile according to my GPS. I tried to count the signs. I took two trips. I do a lot for you people. One was to count the signs that my tax dollars helped pay for. You know, those official signs that you're supposed to read that tell you the names of streets and how you should drive. I didn't even count the lane arrows painted on the road. And I came up with around 80 individual signs. If I read all the official road signs every time I drove that route, I could be charged with distracted driving. I sat in front of the school the other morning, waiting for classes to begin, and I parked right up against the fence. And I got out my watch, and I timed five minutes. And I can see several stop signs from that vantage point. In five minutes, I saw 25 stop signs being run. Three of them were school buses. One was a police officer. Quite a few of them are people that work in, or at the old hospital, they're in the government building. Some of them don't even slow down. And I see the same cars every day. Zoom, right through them. It's a school zone too. We don't see the signs anymore. On my second trip, I attempted to count commercial signs and other instructional signs. I counted everything I could see from the road, which included looking down into shopping centers. And no, I didn't count every badge on every car telling me what kind of car it was and where they bought it. I looked at my own car this morning that I drove here. I counted over 20 signs on my car. telling me what kind of car it is on all sides, what kind of tires I'm using, what my windshield wiper brands are. Signs are all over my car. I didn't even count those. I just counted the signs of businesses and products and instructions like no smoking or no parking here. I know that I missed many of them because I was also trying to miss cars as I counted. Between here and the school, I counted over 450 commercial signs. So, added up, between the front door of the church and the front door of the school, I counted a total of over 520 signs that I'm supposed to read. Some of them the government requires me to read, like stop signs, and some of them are things that people want me to read, like bacon half off. We are so inundated with signs that our brains block most of them out. And this is also a danger spiritually. The signs of the times have been happening our whole lifetimes. Nobody here lived before there were signs of the times. I visited Paul Walters this week. And he remembers a sign of the end called Pearl Harbor. He's over 90 years old. He says, yeah, I remember when Pearl Harbor was bombed. Yo, people thought that was the end of the world. We were preaching it. People thought World War I was the end of the world. It was the war to end all wars. How many wars have we had since then? So many living today. don't even remember 9-11. was 25 years ago. Wow, just think of that. Most of us, I remember right where I was. Other people are like, what's that? They don't remember, they weren't there. Do we see the signs anymore? Are we reading them? Today we're beginning to look at Jesus' most extensive teaching on the subject of the coming kingdom. Remember, in one way, his kingdom has already come with the birth of Jesus. but he is the one who taught us to pray, thy kingdom come. So as we have seen, his kingdom is now in our hearts and we're looking forward to a further fulfillment of us physically being in his kingdom, the most miraculous place on earth. Look at Matthew 24. This is a major teaching moment between Jesus and his disciples as Jesus leaves the temple for the last time. Remember Pastor Dawson's sermon last week. Jesus is done trying to convince the leaders. Now he's responding to questions from his disciples. This is the most debated section of the scriptures that I can think of. And I'm not bold enough to proclaim that I have figured it all out. But I believe that we can learn some things together in the next few moments. Matthew 24 verse 1. Then Jesus went out and departed from the temple and his disciples came up to show him the buildings of the temple. Okay, just remember, the disciples, their thoughts of the way things ought to be have just been dashed. They've been hearing some strange things in the temple courts. The leadership that they have looked up to their whole lives seems to fallen apart before their very eyes. It's like they're trying to grasp onto something solid amongst all the quicksand. Hey Jesus, what about the temple? It's solid, isn't it? It's impressive. Then Jesus indicates that he's the only solid foundation for their lives. Verse two, and Jesus said to them, do you not see all these things? Surely I say to you, not one stone shall be left here upon another. that shall not be thrown down. picture the disciples now following Jesus in silence as they descend into the valley and up again into the next hill. And Jesus then sits down with Jerusalem and its beautiful temple in full view. Verse three, now as he sat on the Mount of Olives, the disciples came to him privately saying, tell us when will all these things be? And what will be the sign of your coming and of the end of the age? The disciples undoubtedly thought of the destruction of the temple, the end of the world, and the second coming as one event. To them, the temple was the center of earthly existence. It was impossible for them to think of a world without the great Jerusalem temple. Time, of course, has disproven their view that these events would all occur at the same time. But this was not obvious to them at the time they asked these questions. Jesus, however, does not see fit to correct their false understanding. His answer mixes the two events and their signs to such an extent that it's well nigh impossible to disentangle them. The result has been a chapter that has proven very difficult to interpret, at least as far as the details are concerned. The difficulties even seem to be deliberately built into the chapter. So why would Jesus present the disciples and us with such a hard nut to crack. Jesus is not so much seeking to tell us when the end will come as to alert his hearers that they must live in a state of continual expectancy as they look for the end. This becomes more clear as we come closer to the end of this chapter where Jesus tells us to watch and be ready and in the parables of chapter 25 that drive home the lessons of being faithful while waiting and being responsibly working for Him at all times. It's as if Jesus didn't want us to wait for a certain sign to start getting our acts together, to start living for Him, to start helping others to live for Him. It's like, do it now. Another reason is the lack of The lack of clarity makes us think more, doesn't it? It makes us study more deeply. We have to rethink his teachings of the second coming as we seek to understand its meaning. This is the reason Jesus gave forgiving parables in Matthew 13. Those who want to know the meaning enough will study it more and are more likely to take the meaning to heart. Jesus wants us to dig deeper into the meanings and not be satisfied with surface answers. You may remember a video that was on the internet a few years ago and it's still going around. It's a little boy that's doing his math homework. And he's looking at his textbook and he's reading one of those dreaded word problems. And the word problem is this, and he reads it out loud, Jaden has one dollar bill, one quarter, and two pennies. How much money does Jaden have? He looks up with a knowing grin and he answers while laughing, Jaden's broke. The kid does not give the obvious answer of a dollar and 27 cents. He goes to the heart of the matter, to the real problem. Jayden is in trouble if this is all the money he has. He's broke, he can't pay his bills, he can't buy food, he can't go on a date. Jayden is in financial hardship. Jayden needs to get a job. The answer isn't $1.27, the answer is he needs help. Jesus wants us to dig deeper into what the answer to the disciples' questions really mean. Just as this kid goes to the heart of Jayden's issue, Jesus goes to the heart of what his disciples really need to know. These are the things far more important than just a sign. The request for a miraculous sign has been repeatedly brought up in Matthew. In prior chapters, the request has always been made by the Jewish leaders, but Jesus has refused to offer them any except the sign of Jonah concerning his resurrection. But in this chapter, the disciples finally ask Jesus for a sign. They want to know the sign for the destruction of Jerusalem, the second coming, and the end of the age. And Jesus gives them a long list of signs. Verse four. And Jesus answered and said to them, take heed that no one deceives you. For many will come in my name saying, I am the Christ, and will deceive many. And you will hear of wars and rumors of wars. See that you are not troubled for all these things must come to pass. But the end is not yet. For a nation will rise against nation and kingdom against kingdom and there will be famines and pestilences and earthquakes in various places. All these are The end of sorrows. I didn't get that right. So these are not signs of the end. These are signs of the beginning. All these are the beginnings of sorrows. Unfortunately, these signs don't give us much specific information about the end of the age. After all, there have almost always been false messiahs, earthquakes, famines, wars. What are we to make of all of this? Jesus tells us in these verses, See to it that you are terrified. Wrong version. See to it that you are not troubled. Wouldn't you like to not be troubled? He gives you permission right here. In fact, he tells you, don't be troubled. Such things must happen. It's almost like he's saying, duh. Of course it's gonna happen. The end is still to come. In other words, there are signs that the end is coming, but they are not the real signs of the end. This is reinforced by verse 8, which informs us that these things are the beginnings of birth pains. This last Tuesday, I was getting ready to head to a meeting at Cajeta Springs. I'm in a bit of a hurry to get on the road, and then my doorbell rings. I didn't even know the thing worked. But the doorbell rang and startled me. So I went to the door and standing on the porch was a nice looking older couple. My first thought was, Jehovah's Witnesses. And I was not disappointed. Jehovah's Witnesses. And after a few pleasantries, I could tell that they were very nice people. The lady started out by asking me if I had ever noticed the direction the world was headed. I replied, I notice it every day. The key word here is notice. Noticing is one thing, being fearful is another. We are not the only ones who have noticed. Jehovah's Witnesses have noticed. We have noticed. The question is, what do we do about it? What's our response to what we have noticed? It appears that these signs and most of the other signs in this chapter are similar to the sign of the rainbow that God gave to Noah as a remembrance of his covenant after the flood. Every time Noah saw the rainbow, he would remember the faithfulness of God. You ever wonder why Satan stole the rainbow? He wants us to forget the faithfulness of God. Don't let his corruption do that to you. So Noah would look at the rainbow and said, yes, God is a faithful God. He promised never again to destroy the earth by a flood. I believe him. Even during when hurricanes hit East Tennessee, I still believe him. It's a sign that God is faithful to his promise. So the same thing is happening here with wars and famines and earthquakes. Each one is a remembrance of the Earth's sickness and a sign that the faithful covenant-keeping God has not finished the plan of salvation. Every time we see some tragedy happen, God's not done yet. It's a sign like the rainbow. Each of these signs is a promise that Christ will come again. to complete his work of saving his people from their sins. This was stated in the first chapter of Matthew. The same can be said for most of the other signs of Matthew 24. Look at verse nine. Then, They will deliver you up to tribulation and kill you and you will be hated by all nations for my name's sake. And then many will be offended and betray one another and will hate one another. Then many false prophets will rise up and deceive many. And because lawlessness will abound, the love of many will grow cold. But he who endures to the end shall be saved. And this gospel of the kingdom will be preached in the whole world and as a witness to all the nations. And then the end will come. Therefore, when you see the abomination of desolation spoken of by Daniel the prophet standing in the holy place, whoever reads, let him understand. Then let those who are in Judea flee to the mountains. Let him who is on the housetop not go down to take anything out of his house. And let he who is in the field not go back to get his clothes. But woe to those who are pregnant and to those who are nursing babies in those days. and pray that your flight may not be in winter or on the Sabbath. For then there will be great tribulation such as has never been since the beginning of the world until this time. No, nor shall ever be. And unless those days were shortened, no flesh would be saved. But for the elect's sake, those days will be shortened. Then if anyone says to you, look here is the Christ or there, do not believe them. For false Christ and false prophets will rise and show great signs and wonders to deceive, if possible, even the elect. See, I've told you beforehand. Therefore, if I say to you, look, he is in the desert, do not go out. Look, he's in the inner rooms, do not believe it. For as the lightning comes from the east and flashes to the west, so also will the coming of the Son of Man be. For wherever the carcass is, there the eagles will be gathered together. Immediately after the tribulation of those days, the sun will be darkened and the moon will not give its light. The stars will fall from heaven and the powers of the heavens will be shaken. Then the sign of the Son of Man will appear in the heavens and then all the tribes of the earth will mourn and they will see the Son of Man coming in the clouds of heaven with power and great glory and he will send his angels with the great sound of a trumpet and they will gather together his elect from the four winds. from one end of heaven to the other. Wow, that's a joyful. So persecution, false prophets, betrayal, cooling love, dark days, falling stars, all are signs that Jesus is coming again because his work is not yet finished. These are signs for us to get busy, not to run for the hills yet. But if we look carefully, we can find at least three signs in this chapter. that are much more precise in their connection to the second coming. The first is found in verse 14, which claims, gospel of the kingdom shall be preached to the whole world as a testimony to all nations, and then the end will come. That must have sounded like an impossible task for this handful of disciples up on the Mount of Olives. But the Christian church rapidly spread through the Roman Empire and beyond. And since the birth of modern missions 200 years ago, Christianity has become the most outreach oriented of all faiths. It has almost covered the globe, yet it's still incomplete. The second concrete sign of the end is found in verse 27, for as lightning that comes from the east and is visible even into the west, so will be the coming of the Son of Man. That sign will mean, it will not mean the end is near. It will mean the end is here. Don't wait for that sign to get your act together. Some of the signs that I counted on my way between the church and the school indicated that something was near. And some indicated that something was here. For instance, right across the street is a sign that says Ingalls. So as I'm driving down Asheville Highway, I realize that Ingalls is near. And if I look to the right, I see the sign Ingalls on a building. That means Ingalls is here. You know that when you see a sign, you may be near something or you may be there. There's another here kind of sign in this passage, verses 30 and 31. So the sign of the Son of Man will appear in the heavens and then all tribes of the earth will mourn and they will see the Son of Man coming in the clouds of heaven with power and great glory and he will send his angels. Okay, this is not a sign of nearness. This is a sign of here-ness. Is that a word, English teachers? It is now. That's not nearness, it's here-ness. The less precise signs are to encourage believers to keep watching and waiting and working. Matthew 24 has one other sign with a great deal of precision. The sign of the destruction of Jerusalem and the temple. A day of judgment and destruction that points to what will also happen to the end of our world. Jesus had predicted that the destruction of the temple will be complete. Not one stone here will be left on another. Josephus, the Jewish historian who lived through the destruction of Jerusalem, describes the almost unimaginable hardships during the final six month siege. Not only does he claim that more than a million Jews died, but nearly 100,000 more were taken captive. The famine was so bad that a mother was reported to have slain, roasted, and eaten her own child. The Roman general Titus eventually ordered the entire city, including the temple complex, to be flattened, just as Jesus had predicted in verse two. Christian believers in Jerusalem. Okay, think of this as second. Christian believers in Jerusalem. Christian believers in Jerusalem were also Jews, but now they believed in Christ. They did not suffer the same fate as those Jews who had rejected Jesus as the Messiah. Christians had the counsel of Jesus that we are looking at in this chapter. Verses 15 to 22 appeared specifically directed towards the fall of Jerusalem and give directions for when the Christians were to make their escape. The Christians in Jerusalem were not only alerted to the coming crisis of the destruction of Jerusalem by the general sign of wars and rumors of wars, but they had specific counsel that when they saw standing in the holy place the abomination that causes desolation spoken of through their prophet Daniel, those in Judea should flee to the mount. Luke makes this meaning even more clear in Luke 21, starting in verse 20. I'll just read it for you. So when you see Jerusalem surrounded by armies, then know that its desolation is near. Okay, the Roman legions surrounding Jerusalem, they're carrying banners with the images of idols on them, the abomination that causes desolation. Then let those who are in Judea flee to the mountains. Let those who are in the midst depart and let not those in the country enter her. For these are the days of vengeance that all things which are written may be fulfilled. The way things worked out, the Christians were able to heed Jesus' warning and get out. In August of AD 66, Sestius, the Roman legate in Syria, attacked Jerusalem and then withdrew for some unknown reason, even though victory was in his grasp. Then in the years 67 and 68, Vespasian took over Galilee and Judea but delayed the siege of Jerusalem because of Emperor Nero's death. It was not until the spring and summer of 8070 that Jerusalem was put under siege and destroyed by Vespasian's son Titus. Sometime in the interval between the trouble of 8066 and the destruction of 8070, Eusebius, an early church historian, tells us that the members of the Jerusalem church, by means of an oracle given by revelation to acceptable persons there, were ordered to leave the city before the war began in earnest. And they were to settle in the town in Perea called Pella, in the mountains on the other side of the river Jordan. So the Christians, they were paying attention to the signs. They heeded the signs and they left and were saved because they were watching. They were looking for the right time. From my office, I often hear police sirens and all kinds of other sirens going by and I would always, when I first came, I'd get up, what's going on? Look out the window. Then I kinda quit heeding the signs. And I learned one sound that goes on. goes, boop, boop. I know what that is. It's a sign that there's a funeral procession leaving Kaiser Rose Hill across the street from us and it's going to head to a cemetery. And so I quit looking at that one too. But this morning, this Sabbath morning, I was in my office and I'm praying about today's sermon. And I hear whoop, whoop, and I was compelled to look out. And I looked and there went the first cars of the procession. They got to Asheville Highway. The policeman's down there. He's the first car out. He stops long enough to get the traffic to stop. And then he leads the procession on down Asheville Highway. And here came several cars. And then here came the hearse. I'm like, nobody's behind the hearse. Why not? because it's usually a long line behind the hearse. So I looked up at the hill and there was a car that was at the head of the pack, and he wasn't moving. I bet he's on his phone. He doesn't know the hearse left. He wasn't paying attention to the signs. I think somebody behind him must have honked their horn or something, and he starts to head out. But now there's a long line between the hearse and him. which means Asheville Highway's now open. And cars were starting to go in where the funeral procession was supposed to be and then they noticed more cars coming around the hill and then confusion. They're pulling into the parking lot over at Hardee's and Engel's trying to get out of the way because somebody wasn't paying attention to the signs. We had a disruption right here on Sabbath morning right next to the church. Pay attention to the signs. Both the destruction of Jerusalem and the salvation of the Christians were signs of great significance concerning the second coming and the end of the world. In the context of Matthew 24, they function as guarantees of the final destruction of the sinful world and the ultimate salvation of those who believe in Jesus. The book Great Controversy says this. The Savior's prophecy concerning the visitation of judgments upon Jerusalem is to have another fulfillment of which that terrible desolation was but a faint shadow. In the fate of the chosen city, we may behold the doom of the world that has rejected God's mercy. But in that day, as in the time of Jerusalem's destruction, God's people will be delivered. Verse 32. Now learn this parable from the fig tree. When its branch has already become tender and puts out leaves, you know that summer is near. So you also, when you see all these things, know that it is near at the doors. Assuredly, I say to you, this generation will by no means pass away till all these things take place. Heaven and earth will pass away, but my words will by no means pass away. Here Jesus gives two great truths about human knowledge of the second coming. The first is the lesson of the tree. This tree is one of the few that loses its leaves for the winter in Palestine. Just as the appearance of new leaves on the fig tree indicate that spring is near, alert Christians can tell when Christ's appearance is near at hand. On the other hand, they can never know the exact time of that appearance. Kind of like around here. I mowed my grass yesterday. I mowed a lot of leaves. Is autumn here? No, but autumn is near. I see the signs of it. I'm already starting to mow some of those leaves up. I don't yet know when this dreaded heat of summer will be over. There's a tunnel in Norway on Highway E16 between Oslo and Bergen. And it's called the Lerdal Tunnel. It's the longest automobile tunnel in the world. 15.23 miles of salt through solid rock. It took us 20 minutes to drive through it. And you can look at YouTube videos of driving through Laredol Tunnel. It's pretty fascinating. Lights run down the center of the tunnel, 1,268 of them, and they give just enough light to see the way. Mile markers or kilometer markers are showing that you are actually making progress in the dark. There's a call box every 820 feet for you to be able to call the police or fire department or an ambulance. There's special wiring in the tunnel so you can still listen to your radio to help keep you awake. And you have use of your cell phone inside this tunnel. There's fire extinguishers every 410 feet. There's rubble strips to help you stay awake and in your lane. and every six kilometers or 3.7 miles, there's a light show. The tunnel widens out and lights are shining up on the walls and they're lights that are the color of a sunrise to help you wake up again. And then... After you think the tunnel has no end, you see a different light at the end of the tunnel. And you emerge back into where you belong in the land of beautiful snow-capped mountains, fjords, and waterfalls. As we continue through the darkness of this world, God provides just enough light to guide the way. Signs that we are on the right track, call boxes and radio and phone access are reminders that no matter how dark it gets, we still have access to God through prayer. We are never in so deep that he can't help us. Every once in a while, something big happens as a wake-up call to help us stay focused. World War I, World War II, 9-11, wake-up calls, pandemics. It reminds us that morning is coming. That we're about to leave this darkness and enter a land that's beyond our imagination. Back to where we belonged in the first place before we chose to enter this tunnel. I chose to enter Laredol Tunnel. It was my choice to enter darkness. It was Adam and Eve's choice to enter darkness for their family. Yes, and I even took my family into darkness with me. We all emerged on the other side. We can only pray that will happen for all of us. While we don't know exactly when Jesus will come, he's told us to be ready now, at all times. The signs around us are reminders that he will keep his promise to put an end to this darkness of sin and suffering. The enemy just wants us to get tired of seeing so many signs that we start to ignore them. But those who love Jesus will not let themselves be distracted. They will keep working and keep watching for that light at the end of the tunnel. Thank you Lord for the signs. Signs that remind us that you are faithful. Signs that remind us your coming is near. Signs that tell us, that invite us to keep our relationship with Jesus fresh. And that's what we wish for Lord. A fresh, loving relationship with Jesus every day so that we can have that relationship for eternity in a place we cannot imagine. In Jesus' name, Amen.

Matthew 24:1