Robert Jeffress - Jesus the Prophet - Part 1
Hi, I’m Robert Jeffress and welcome again to «Pathway to Victory». From newspaper horoscopes to fortune tellers, people are constantly trying to predict what lies ahead, but there’s only one prophet whose words we can trust completely. His name is Jesus Christ, and his prophecies about the future are one hundred percent reliable. Today we’re going to examine Christ’s perfect prophetic record, and discover what he said about three future events that will impact every person on Earth. My message is titled «Jesus The Prophet» on today’s edition of «Pathway to Victory».
Among the modern day prophets, one of the most popular is a man named Kai-Fu Lee. He’s a Taiwanese businessman and computer scientist who has written a bestselling book about artificial intelligence. It’s called «AI 2041: Ten Visions for Our Future». And he attempts to suggest what life is going to be like in 2041, a world in which artificial intelligence has changed everything. He predicts that this means quote, «The loss of traditional jobs, an unprecedented abundance of goods, exacerbated inequality, an autonomous weapons, arms race, tradeoffs between privacy and happiness, and the human pursuit of a high purpose». He says, «These are going to be profound changes. And humans may embrace them with compassion, exploit them with malice, capitulate to them with resignation, or be inspired to reinvent ourselves».
Lee predicts that by the year 2041, we’ll be wearing contact lenses that record every moment of our day providing us with an infinite memory repository and digital immortality. Everything you do, every word you speak, every thought you have will be stored and preserved, presumably available to government agencies, as well as the curiosity of future generation. He then talks about the catastrophic dangers of future autonomous weapons designed to search for, engage, and kill people without any human involvement whatsoever. This new generation of weaponry will be generated by AI and by quantum computing. I don’t know about you, but when I hear that, I want to go hide someplace.
Now, the truth is, we don’t know whether Kai-Fu Lee’s predictions, any of them or none of them will come to pass, but there is one prophet who makes perfect predictions about the future. We can trust every word he says about the future. He knows the future perfectly because he has planned the future and that prophet, the only one on whom we can rely, is named Jesus, the Christos, the Messiah. We’re in a series called «Jesus Revealed In The End Times,» and we’re discovering that Bible prophecy is not so much about events that will happen in the future, those are secondary.
The real thrust of Bible prophecy is the revelation, the unveiling of Jesus in all of his roles. Last time we looked at how the end times will reveal Jesus to be the ultimate Messiah, and today we’re going to look at how the end times reveal Jesus to be the perfect prophet. I want us to consider for just a moment, Jesus as prophet, his unique identity. In John 6:14, we find this description of Jesus as the prophet who is to come. In Luke 7:16, the amazed crowd said, «A great prophet has risen among us».
We read that Jesus is the fulfiller of Moses’s prediction that a great prophet would arise from Israel. Remember that even the opening verses of Revelation talk about Jesus’s role as a prophet. The revelation of Jesus Christ, that’s how John begins the letter, the apocalypsis, the unveiling of Jesus Christ, which God gave him, Jesus to show to his bond servants the things that must soon take place. I want you to also consider the complete accuracy of Jesus’s past prophecies. You know, I was reading this week, a prediction by a political pundit, and the article proclaimed that this man got nine out of the ten last elections correctly. He predicted them correctly.
Now that’s supposed to impress us, but in the Old Testament times that would not be enough. You see, you couldn’t be right just most of the time if you claim to be a prophet. You couldn’t be right some of the time, you had to be right all of the time. In fact, if you made a prophecy that didn’t come true, you were to be stoned to death. Those were tough standards to live by, but Jesus met those standards. Consider what he had to say about his first coming when Jesus was born in Bethlehem in human form, Jesus made certain prophecies about his short time on earth.
I’ve listed them for you on your outline, just some of those prophecies that he nailed with one hundred percent accuracy. He predicted that he would be arrested, that he would be mocked and spat upon and scourged. He would be crucified. He would rise again three days after his death. He predicted that one of his disciples would betray him, that Peter would deny him, that the church would arise after his death, that the Holy Spirit would come upon his followers, that Jerusalem and its temple would one day be destroyed. All of those things have come to pass.
Now here’s the point, if every past prediction Jesus made about the past has been fulfilled, then can’t we bank on what he says about the future? Yes, he can be trusted with the future because he knows everything, he plans everything that is going to happen. And so what I want to look at briefly today are three predictions Jesus made about the future, his future and your future that we can bank on and know are going to come true. What are these three future events? First of all, the rapture. Secondly, the end times, and finally, his second coming and kingdom. Let’s first of all talk about Jesus and his prediction about the rapture. The rapture we believe is the next event on God’s prophetic timeline. It could happen at any moment, what do we mean by the rapture?
You know, some people criticize me for preaching on the rapture. They say, «That’s nowhere in the Bible, you don’t find the word rapture in the Bible». Well, even if that were true, it wouldn’t make any difference, you don’t find the word Trinity in the Bible either, but we believe in God the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit. But the fact is the word rapture is found in the New Testament. It’s found first of all in 1 Thessalonians 4:17. We’ll look at the context of this in just a moment, but just notice Paul writes, «Then we who are alive, and remain, will be caught up together with them in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air, and thus we shall always be with the Lord».
That word translated «caught up» is the Latin word «Rapturo,» we get rapture from it, but it’s a translation of the Greek word «Harpazo,» which means to snatch away. There’s the word right there in 4:17. «We’re going to be caught up, snatched away together with them in the clouds». Now, what did Jesus have to say about the rapture? Now, those of you who’ve been around here for a while have heard me preach on the rapture, and you probably heard me make this statement that nowhere did Jesus say anything about the rapture.
Now, I’m gonna stand by that comment with one asterisk, one little amendment. There is one verse in which Jesus may be alluding to the rapture, and it’s the verse we’re going to look at right now. The context is, the time before Jesus was crucified, he said to his disciples in John 13:33, «Little children, I am with you for a little while longer. You will seek Me; and as I said to the Jews, now I say to you; 'Where I am going, you cannot come.'» What do you mean you can’t come? Well, you can’t come now. And to clarify that when the disciples were upset, he continued in chapter 14 with these familiar words, «Do not let your heart be troubled; believe in God, believe also in Me. In My Father’s house are many dwelling places; if it were not so, I would have told you, for I go to prepare a place for you, and if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again and take you to Myself, that where I am, there you may be also».
I want you to underline the words «come again» and «take,» some translations say receive. When is it that Jesus Christ is coming again to take his disciples? Well, there are really two stages, to fulfillments of that, two different events that share some things in common. One is the rapture, at the rapture Jesus comes again in the air and takes believers, snatches them away to be with him. We’ll talk about that in more detail in a moment. But there’s a second stage of the second coming of Christ, and that is his visible return to Earth. When he doesn’t come into the clouds, but he comes to Earth. The first time he comes at the rapture, he comes to take believers. The next time he comes seven years later at the second coming, he comes with believers to the earth to establish his kingdom.
So, in that sense this phrase, «I will come again and take you into myself,» has its ultimate fulfillment in the second coming after the tribulation. But there’s a partial fulfillment at the rapture of the church. Now, to be fair, if that’s all we had in the Bible about the rapture, that would be pretty flimsy to build a whole doctrine on on the rapture of the church, but that’s not all that’s in the Bible about the rapture. Jesus didn’t talk much about the rapture because the rapture was for the church age. Jesus’s audience was primarily a Jewish audience, and that’s why when Jesus talked to his disciples about the future, as we’ll see in Matthew 24, he started with the tribulation and then went to the second coming and the millennial reign of Jesus and the judgments. He omitted the rapture because that was a peculiar event for the church alone.
That’s why the apostle Paul is the one who talks mainly about the rapture. Remember Paul said in Ephesians 3 «Unto me, Paul, I was given the charge to reveal the mystery». What is the mystery that Paul revealed? That is that the Gentiles would be fellow heirs with the Jews in the promises of Abraham. You see, the idea that Gentiles would be converted that wasn’t new, there was no mystery to that. The Old Testament’s filled with examples of Gentiles who became believers, but what was a mystery that Paul revealed was that Gentiles would be fellow heirs with the Jews of the promises of Abraham. In different ways but still beneficiaries of the Abrahamic covenant.
And so since Paul was the one who revealed the mystery of the church age, Ephesians 3, it only makes sense that Paul would be the one to reveal the ending event of the church age, which is the rapture of the church. Now people say all the time, «Well, I’m a red letter Christian. I just concentrate on the red letters in the Bible, the words that Jesus spoke». Well, guess what? All the words are important to God, they’re all red letters. Paul was just as inspired as Jesus Christ. His words were just as much scripture as those of the Lord. In fact, Peter who didn’t always get along with Paul, they had their differences even Peter referred to the writings of Paul as quote, «scripture». And so we can take authoritatively what Paul says about the rapture, and Paul gives us an outline of the rapture in 1 Thessalonians 4.
Now he gives us the context beginning in verse 13. «We don’t want you to be uninformed, brethren about those who are asleep, so that you may not grieve as the rest who have no hope». You see, the Thessalonian Christians believed that Jesus was coming back in their lifetime. Paul believed he would live to see the return of Jesus Christ, but then something started to happen. These Christians had loved ones who were Christians who began to die, and they began to despair, saying, «Are they gonna miss out on the resurrection when Christ comes back, they’ve already died».
And so Paul reassures them about those whose bodies have fallen asleep. In the Bible, a Christian when he dies, never goes to sleep there’s no such thing as soul sleep. 2 Corinthians 5:8 says that for a Christian to be absent from the body is to be at home with the Lord. The moment a Christian dies, the moment he closes his eye for the last time, he awakens in the presence of Jesus Christ. But his body goes to sleep, so to speak. It’s buried, it’s cremated, it’s blown up, it’s eaten by the fish, something happens to it, but it’s destroyed, it is asleep, awaiting a future resurrection.
Verse 14 says, «For if we believe that Jesus died and rose again, even so, God will bring with him those whose bodies have fallen asleep in Jesus». And then he gives us this outline. And notice the five parts of this event. First of all, Christ’s appearance will be announced supernaturally. Look at verse 16, «For the Lord Himself will descend from heaven with a shout, with the voice of the archangel, and with the trumpet of God, and the dead in Christ shall rise first». In Jesus’s day, when a Roman emperor or a general would arrive, his arrival would be preceded by the blast of a trumpet, so it shall be with the Lord. It will be announced supernaturally by the voice of the archangel and by the trumpet of God.
And then Christ will descend from heaven. He will descend from heaven with a shout. He’s in heaven right now, building a place for us, the new Jerusalem, but when the time comes for him to return, he will descend from heaven. Thirdly, the dead in Christ will be raised. The bodies of the dead in Christ shall be raised. Who are the dead in Christ? Every Christian who has died since the time of Pentecost and body has been buried or cremated or whatever. The dead in Christ will be the first ones who will be raised. And then notice fourth, believers who are alive will be raptured and changed. If you happen to be among those who are alive during the rapture, you won’t experience death.
There’s always been a generation of Christians who don’t experience death in the Old Testament, Enoch and Elisha, there’ll be a generation of Christians who won’t experience death at the rapture. They will be caught up together with them in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air. And whether you are resurrected, your body is resurrected because you’ve already died, or because you are raptured, as you make your way to heaven, something magnificent’s gonna happen. 1 Corinthians 15:52 to 53, we shall all be changed in the moment in the twinkling of an eye.
Now picture that all of the cemetery graves are open of Christians. They are all rising up you and I are following behind them if we are alive, and the Bible says in the moment in the twinkling of an eye, that’s not the blinking of it, eye that’s far too slow. The twinkling of an eye is the amount of time it takes for light to pass from your iris and your eye to the retina. It’s a nano-nano-nano-nano second instantaneously. That’s how quickly you’re gonna receive that brand new body, a perfect body, a body that never grows sick again, never suffers, never dies. That’s the promise that we have, we shall be caught up together with them in the air. And then the best part of this fifth, we will be with Christ forever.
Notice this note of joy, encouragement he gave to those whose loved ones have passed away, «And so we shall always be with the Lord». Who are the «we»? He’s talked about two groups of Christians, those who are resurrected, they come out of the grave, their bodies, but also those who are raptured. The «we» is all of us. Every loved one you have who is a Christian, you will be caught up together to meet the Lord in the air, and the second word is always. You will always be with the Lord and with one another, with your loved ones. No more death, no more mourning, no more pain for the first things will have passed away. Therefore comfort one another with these words.
I was reading this week about the first space port built in Great Britain for the launch of vertical rockets. It was built on the Shetland Islands off the coast of Scotland, and as they were building that space port, they were involved in excavating the land to make preparations, and they discovered a cemetery that was 4000 years old. That dates back to the time of Abraham. And they found it quite interesting, but that didn’t stop them from building the spaceport. And today, covering those graves are the launch pads for the rockets. And I thought about that. I thought, isn’t that a great metaphor for what awaits us as a Christian?
I told you before about that little plot of land north of here in Dan Austin, Texas that has been the site of the saddest days of my life. Our family grave plots are there, and it’s there that I said goodbye to my great grandmother, to my grandparents, my grandfather and grandmother, to my mom and dad. It was a place of mourning. But you know what? It’s only a cemetery for a while because what it really is is a launching pad. Because one day those graves are gonna be opened and one day my loved ones and your loved ones are going to be taken out of that grave and if we’re alive and remain we’re gonna be following, chasing after them on the way to heaven and we’ll be with the Lord forever. Therefore comfort one another with these words.
How do we know it’s gonna happen? Because Jesus said it’s going to happen and you can trust him completely. Now you know there have been people who have tried to time when the rapture’s going to happen. Some people believe it happens before the tribulation. Some people believe it happens after the tribulation. Sometimes people believe it happens halfway during the tribulation. I believe in the pre-tribulation rapture that this happens before, not problems, but before the great tribulation. Every Christian has experienced problems and tribulations throughout history, but there’s a special tribulation coming that I believe we’re exempt from. Why do I say that? Why do I believe in a pre-tribulation rapture.
Let me give you three reasons. First of all, the absence of tribulation like language and 1 Thessalonians 4, now you would think if the tribulation were coming first, Paul would have described the tribulation and how awful it’s going to be, but saying just hang on because when you’re through this, you’re gonna be raptured. But he doesn’t do that. The Thessalonians were suffering persecution, but not the great tribulation yet. That’s a special period of time. Instead, Paul starts with the rapture, but then, as he says, comfort one another with these words. Then he begins chapter 5, verse 1 with these words, «Now concerning the day of the Lord». That phrase translated now concerning is the Greek phrase «Peri de,» it always means in the Bible a new subject. Paula saying, «I’ve described the rapture for you, now let me tell you the next thing that’s gonna happen the day of the Lord».