Robert Jeffress - Jesus, The Subject of Prophecy
Hi, I am Robert Jeffress and welcome again to Pathway to Victory. When most people think about Jesus, they picture him as he appeared in his first coming, a gentle teacher, a compassionate healer, and a loving Savior. But the Bible tells us there’s much more to the story. Today we’re beginning a fascinating new study on the end times that reveals the complete picture of Jesus Christ and his triumphant return in the last days. My message is titled, Jesus: The Subject of Prophecy on today’s edition of Pathway to Victory.
What comes to your mind when you hear the name Jesus Christ? For millions of Americans, they think of the face of Jonathan Roumie. Now, let’s be clear. Jonathan Roumie did not come from heaven to earth. He came from hell to earth: well, to be more specific, hell’s kitchen, New York where he was born in 1974. As a young man, he wanted nothing more than to be a well-known actor. As a young adult, he went to Hollywood, had little success there. When he was down to his last $20, he knelt down and prayed that God would miraculously intervene in his life. Two months later, he was selected to play the lead character Jesus Christ in the hit series, «The Chosen». People think about Jonathan Roumie when they think about Jesus.
Roumie said about his character, «Jesus is the only character who I would hope to stay in character as all the time». He said he has some challenges though playing Jesus. He said, «People come up to meet him and are expecting a spiritual encounter». He said, «That can be hard to live up to. I am not Jesus». Jesus is the most portrayed person in human history. There is absolutely no way to calculate all the books that have been written about him, the paintings that have tried to depict him, the actors who have portrayed him. And yet, what all of these depictions about Jesus have in common is they all seem to center on the first coming of Jesus, Jesus as he appeared when he was here on earth. But what about now? What does Jesus look like as he sits at the right hand of God the Father? What will Jesus be like in the end times?
The fact is you can’t understand the totality of who Jesus is until you understand both his first and his second comings. And when you understand who Jesus will be when he comes in the end, that is the answer to the most basic questions we have in life. Questions like, what is my purpose? How can I have a relationship with God? And what does the future hold for me? It’s that last question that is perhaps the most relevant to people here and are watching this broadcast. What is the future for me? The world begins and ends with Jesus Christ and so do you and i. And that leads to the first truth I want us to understand. As we begin this series, Jesus revealed in the end times, the first truth is this: the focus of prophecy is a person rather than an event. The focus of prophecy is a person rather than an event.
You know, that can bring relief to us when we understand who Jesus really is. Remember in his first coming, the majority of people rejected him because he didn’t meet their expectations of what they were looking for in a Messiah. And so the average Israelite was confused about who Jesus was. The religious leaders took advantage of that. They rejected Jesus and said, «If you really want to know God, keep our laws, keep our endless list of rules and regulations». And to those people who listened to what Jesus said, familiar words from Matthew 11:28–30, «Come to me, all who are weary and heavy laden, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you and learn from me, for I am gentle and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. For my yoke is easy and my burden is light». He said, «If you want rest, if you are weary, you’re crushed down with burdens, come to me. I understand who I am».
There is rest in knowing who Jesus is and that leads to our second truth: the purpose of prophecy. What is the purpose? Why does God spend so much time talking about prophecy? You know, I think about 1 Thessalonians 4:13. Paul is introducing the subject of the rapture and he said to the Thessalonians, «For we do not want you to be ignorant, unaware about those who sleep in Christ, those who have died before the rapture of the return». There’s no premium on being ignorant about the end times. You know, there’s some people who say, «Well, I don’t bother about the end times. I just leave all that to God. You know, I’m not pre-millennial or post-millennial. I’m just pan millennial. I believe it will all pan out in the end».
Well, that’s real cute but it’s really ignorant and there’s no premium on ignorance in the Bible. God did want us good, God want us to understand the end times. That’s why he gives so much space to it. But it’s more than something to fill our heads. It needs to fill our heart. Understanding the end times ought to change the way we live, and that leads to the purpose of Bible prophecy. There are two things that should fill our hearts because of our understanding of Jesus in the end times. First of all, our hearts ought to be overflowing with hope. God gave us this truth to give us hope. Somebody has said man can go 40 days without food. He can go eight days without water. He can go four minutes without oxygen, but he will only last a few seconds without hope. We all need hope and hope is in short supply these days. We need hope. Hope, what is it? It’s a desire for something we don’t already have.
In Romans 8:24–25, Paul writes, «Who hopes for what he already has? But if we hope for what we do not have, we wait for it patiently». God wants to fill us with hope and we don’t find hope just in events, but in the person who controlled those events, Jesus Christ. Secondly, a study of prophecy in Jesus in the end times should fill our hearts with a desire for holiness. Holiness, the fact that Jesus is coming back again ought to fill us with a desire to obey God, to please God, to follow him in every part of our life. Quick 60-second review, remember the Bible uses two phrases to describe the end of time. There is the phrase, the last days. The last days, the Bible talks about the last days.
And technically, the last days are that time between Christ’s first coming and his second coming. Ever since Jesus ascended back into heaven more than 2000 years ago, we have been living in the last days anticipating his second coming. The Bible uses that term in several places. Acts 2:17, on the day of Pentecost, when the followers of Jesus had been baptized with the Holy Spirit, remember Peter preached to the crowd on the southern steps of Jerusalem and said, «This is an anticipation. This is a fulfillment of what the Bible says». And he quotes in Old Testament verse that says, «And it shall be in the last days, that I will pour out my spirit on all mankind». The second phrase, the end times, that’s the other phrase used to describe the last period on earth, the end times.
You find it in Matthew 24:3. Remember, Jesus was on the Mount of Olives with his disciples. And as he was sitting there, the disciples came to him saying, «Lord, tell us, when will these things happen and what will be the sign of your coming and of the end of the age»? Jesus skipped over answering the wind. He would say later in Matthew 24:36, «It’s not for you to know the time or the epics, you’re not in that business,» but he did say, «You need to understand the events». And Jesus began his description of the end times starting with the tribulation and going through the second coming and the ending with the millennial kingdom, the establishment of Christ’s kingdom on earth.
So let’s look at some of the roles that we’re going to examine and study in depth that the end times reveal about Jesus. First of all, Jesus as Messiah. In the end times, we see Jesus as Messiah. Now, we refer to Jesus as Jesus Christ. It’s funny how many people think Jesus is his first name and Christ is his last name. No, that’s not it. Christ, Christos, means Messiah, the anointed one. And Jesus, when he came the first time, he was the long-awaited Messiah. He was born in human form. He grew up. He taught many things. He was followed by some, rejected by most. He was betrayed, crucified, risen from the dead, and he ascended back into heaven. That was all in his first coming.
When Jesus came the first time, most people rejected him. But when he comes the second time, all will follow him. We’re living in that time between the first and the second coming of Christ. It’s a period of time that Paul referred to in Romans 11:25. He said, «For I do not want you,» he was talking to Jews here, «I don’t want you to be uninformed of this mystery so that you will not be wise in your own estimation, that a partial hardening has come to Israel until the fullness of the gentiles has come in». Because Israel rejected Christ at his first coming, God temporarily put Israel on the shelf. They are still his chosen people. Will God desert his people? Never.
As we watch the unfolding chaos in the Middle East, we need to remember that to be on Israel’s side is to be on the right side of history and the right side of God. Nevertheless, God has temporarily set aside Israel and open this time for gentiles to participate in the Abrahamic covenant in a different way, but to participate in it. We call this age, the age of the church. The age of the church will end with the rapture of the church and the final seven years of God’s dealing with Israel will commence and they will eventually see Jesus as the Messiah. Secondly, we’ll look at Jesus as prophet. Jesus also made many prophecies about the future. Some of them have been fulfilled, some are yet to be fulfilled. But because of all of the amazing things that have already come true that Jesus prophesied, we can have confidence that those things that haven’t come true will come true.
That’s what we’re going to look at in this message about what has come true that Jesus prophesied, what is yet to be fulfilled. Thirdly, we’re going to look at Jesus as a lamb. It’s a constant image in both the old and New Testaments. Remember in the Old Testament, under the sacrificial system, lambs were stand-in sacrifices. There was nothing about the blood of a lamb that could wash away sins, but it all pointed to the true Lamb of God, Jesus Christ who would come. Remember in John 1:29, when John the baptizer saw Jesus for the first time, he said, «Behold, the Lamb of God, who takes away the sins of the earth».
It took a perfect lamb, Jesus himself, to take away our sins. Interestingly, another John, John the apostle also uses the image of a lamb in the last book of the Bible, the Book of Revelation. Fourth, we’ll look at Jesus as conqueror. You know, the reason so many people missed Jesus at his first coming is he didn’t check all the boxes. They wanted a conquering Messiah who would overthrow whom they thought was their greatest enemy, Rome. And when he didn’t overthrow the Roman Empire, they were disappointed and rejected him. What they missed was when Jesus came the first time, he conquered our greatest enemies, sin and death by his death on the cross and his resurrection from the dead. But Jesus still has some unfinished business on planet earth.
When he comes again as conqueror, he will come as the one who conquers satan. We have the victory. It’s already been accomplished through Jesus Christ. We’ll look at Jesus as conqueror, and that leads to his other role to talk about and that is Jesus as king. After the Battle of Armageddon, Jesus will come to earth to set up that literal kingdom on earth with its seat in Jerusalem, and God will fulfill all of his promises to believing Israel and to the church as well. Interestingly, during that perfect time, when satan is bound for a thousand years, people are enjoying the just and perfect reign of Jesus. Not everybody born during that time will pledge allegiance to king Jesus.
Some will actually choose to rebel against Jesus and that will mean the end of the world because it will be too late. And that leads to the role of Jesus as judge. We don’t like to think of Jesus as a judge in our culture today. Do you know the most popular verse on the internet right now? It’s not John 3:16. That used to be the most popular verse of the Bible. Now it’s Matthew 7:1, «Judge not lest you be judged». Unbelievers and misguided Christians love to use that verse as a way to justify any evil they want to commit. No, God does judge us.
Jesus is coming as a judge in first, or 2 Timothy 4, a chapter I read every Saturday night to get ready to preach on Sunday. Paul tells Timothy to preach the word in season and out of season because Jesus is coming to judge the living and the dead, and that leads to Jesus as Lord, Jesus as Lord. After the last echo of the gavel has sounded and everyone has received their rewards or just punishment, Jesus will reign over a New Heaven and a new earth. «I saw a New Heaven and a new earth,» John said, «For the first heaven and earth will have passed away, and God will wipe away every tear from their eyes: and there shall no longer be any death: or mourning, or crying, or pain: for the first things will have passed away».
There’s one other role that frankly I’ve never seen anybody cover before, but I think we need to talk about, and that is Jesus as a friend, Jesus as our friend. Do you remember back in 2008? It seems so long ago when Sarah Palin, the governor of Alaska, was running for vice president. And Saturday night live loved to do these parodies of her, and in one skit they had Tina Fey who was playing Sarah Palin saying, supposedly, «I can see Russia from my house». And she didn’t actually say that in real life, but it was close enough.
«I can see Russia from my house,» and everybody laughed about that. Well, the fact is you could not see Russia from Alaska without some very powerful binoculars. You know, God has given us a powerful set of spiritual binoculars. It’s called the Bible. Think of all you can see through the Bible. You can look through your spiritual binoculars and you can see the future. You can see the rapture, the second coming, the millennium, the New Heaven, the new earth.
And in those binoculars, you can’t tell how far they may be away or how close they may be, but you can see all of those events. But looming over those events in the forefront is the person of Jesus Christ, the one who says, «I’m the alpha and the omega». «I’m the beginning and the end». «I’m the one who holds your past, your present, and your future in my hands». And that realization that the Jesus who knows the future has planned the future. That realization of who Jesus is ought to fill our hearts with unending hope and an unending desire for holiness as we prepare to enter into the end times.