From His Heart

Speaker 1

Are you ready for the most awesome moment in history? The second Coming, the return of Jesus Christ to the earth.

He says, just as lightning comes from the east, verse 27, and flashes even to the west, so will the coming of the Son of Man be.

You're not going to need somebody to tell you, oh, don't miss it. It's over here in this corner. It's going to be visible to all.

Speaker 2

Thank you for joining today on From His Heart with Pastor Jeff Shreve. Have you ever wondered when and how Jesus would return, and what it would be like? Today we continue to study the prophecy that Jesus himself uttered, taken from the book of Matthew. It's about his returning and the signs and the promises of his coming.

In today's powerful message from Pastor Jeff, you'll discover how this promise gives you and me hope, urgency, and confidence as we wait for his glorious return. Today we begin the message, "The Power and the Glory of His Return." It's from the 9-message series, "When the Son of Man Comes," a study of Matthew, chapters 24 and 25.

It's also our gift of thanks to you for your support of From His Heart this month of any amount. You can get it in the format of your choice. Just go to fromhisheart.org. First, though, open God's word and turn to Matthew chapter 24. Here again is Pastor Jeff.

Speaker 1

Are you ready for the most awesome moment in history? The second Coming, the return of Jesus Christ to the earth. Three truths for today. As we think about this awesome event, truth number one: Jesus will return with full visibility. Full visibility. Every eye is going to see him.

Now, he says in the verses preceding verse 29, he mentions that false Christs are going to arise right at the end of the tribulation period. False Christs are going to rise, and people are going to say, "Christ Jesus is here. He's in the inner room. Come with me to the inner room," or "He's in the wilderness. Let's go out to the wilderness, and there you can see Christ. He has come." And Jesus said, "Don't believe them." He says, "Just as lightning comes from the east and flashes even to the west, so will the coming of the Son of Man be." You're not going to need somebody to tell you, "Oh, don't miss it. It's over here in this corner." It's going to be visible to all. He's coming with full visibility.

It's as if, when he says in verse 29, God shuts off all exterior light. He shuts off the light of the sun, he shuts off the light of the moon, he shuts off the light of the stars. You know, you've been to concerts and things where they're getting ready to start, and it goes black so that the spotlight can really shine. I think that's what the Lord is doing at the second coming of Jesus. He shuts all the light, all the external light down so that you see the sign of the Son of Man.

So the question is, well, when is this return? It says in verse 29 that he comes back at the end of the tribulation period, but immediately after the tribulation of those days. That's when the sun is dark, and that's when the moon will not give its light. That's when the stars will fall from the sky, and the powers of the heavens will be shaken. That's when you'll see the sign of the Son of Man that will appear in the sky. It comes at the end of the tribulation period, after that seven-year period that Jesus said, "If those days hadn't been cut short, everyone would die." And he comes back in full view of every person.

It says in Revelation, chapter 1, verse 7, quoting from Daniel, "Behold, he is coming with the clouds, and every eye will see him, even those who pierced him." Every eye is going to see him. Now, Daniel 7:13 is the scripture that talks about Jesus the Messiah coming back in the clouds. If you remember, when Jesus was being interrogated by the religious leaders, they had arrested him and began to interrogate him. He wasn't giving any answers, and Caiaphas finally got mad because they had all these false witnesses come forth, and they were contradicting one another. It was just a mess.

Then Caiaphas finally just said to him, the high priest that year, "Tell us plainly, are you the Christ?" And Jesus said, "You have said it yourself, and you will see the Son of Man coming on the clouds of heaven." He quotes Daniel 7:13, a verse they all knew spoke of the Messiah. When Caiaphas heard those words come out of the mouth of Jesus, he tore his robes and said, "Blasphemy! What further need do we have of witnesses? You have heard it yourself. What do you say, Sanhedrin?" And they said, "He is guilty of death, deserving of death." Why? Because Jesus told them who he was. He said, "The Son of Man, you will see me." Not meaning Caiaphas, but the prophetic "you." The people who live in that day, they will see me riding on the clouds.

Remember the song we used to sing? "Behold, he comes riding on the clouds." Well, he rides a white horse, and that white horse is riding on the clouds. And every eye is going to see him. Now, this is far different from when we talk about the rapture of the church. Because 1 Corinthians 15 says, "Behold, I tell you a mystery: we shall not all sleep, but we shall all be changed in a moment, in the twinkling of an eye." Boom! At the last trump, the last trumpet, and now the twinkling of an eye.

See, you can miss the Rapture in terms of you can be talking to somebody. Let's say a lost person is talking to a saved person. The saved person is just going to be gone, just like that. The twinkling of an eye, faster than the blink of an eye. And Jesus comes and goes. He comes in the clouds, he snatches away his bride, and he takes his bride to the Father's house, just like he said he was going to do in John, chapter 14: "Let not your hearts be troubled."

Speaker 2

Believe in God.

Speaker 1

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 receive you to myself. That where I am, there you may be also.

That is the Rapture, where he snatches away his bride and takes us to the Father's house. This is not the Rapture. This is the return of Jesus at the rapture. It's that fast. And we're gone. And Jesus is gone in the clouds. He doesn't come back to the earth, but now he comes back to the earth, and every eye will see him. And he comes back with his bride.

The church is the bride of Christ, and the Lord is going to snatch his bride away before the tribulation period ever begins. He snatches us away to be with him, to have the marriage of the Lamb. We have the judgment seat of Christ. Everything that we did that was done in the flesh is going to be burned away. It's wood, hay, and stubble. It's burned away. And all that's left are the gold, silver, precious stone, the things that stand the test of the fire.

And the bride makes herself ready. In Revelation 19, when we read the most telltale passage about the return of Christ, the most full passage about his return, beginning in verse 14, it tells us, "And the armies which are in heaven, clothed in fine linen, white and clean, were following him on white horses." That's us. That's the bride of Christ. We're wearing fine linen, white and clean. The bride has made herself ready for the wedding, and we follow after Christ.

This makes sense because it says in First Thessalonians, chapter four, when he comes to get us, the dead in Christ rise first, and we who are alive and remain shall be caught up together with him in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air. And thus shall we always be with the Lord. Anywhere he goes, from that moment on, we are with him as his bride. And so when he comes back, we come back with Him.

Now, some will say, Revelation 19:14, "Oh, Jeff, you're missing it. That's not talking about the bride of Christ coming with him on white horses. That's talking about angels." Now, do angels come back with the Lord at the Second coming? Yes, they do. They come back along with the bride of Christ.

So, in Revelation chapter 19, before you get to verse 14, this is what you read in verses 7 and 8: "Let us rejoice and be glad and give the glory to him. For the marriage of the Lamb has come, and his bride has made herself ready. It was given to her to clothe herself in fine linen, bright and clean. For the fine linen is the righteous acts of the saints."

And then just a few verses later, it says that we follow after him, clothed in fine linen, white and clean. We're following the Lord. He's speaking about the bride of Christ. We come with Jesus.

So what does that mean, if we come with Jesus? We were taken up before this time period. You have to understand that the rapture of the church and the return of Christ are two separate phases of his return.

Speaker 2

And those are two glorious prophecies that we can stand firm on today. You're listening to part one of the lesson called the Power and Glory of His Return. Pastor Jeff will return in just a moment to continue this study.

Are you ready for the most awesome moment in history? The most awesome one? The return of Jesus to the earth. Are you learning today that Jesus prophesied His return in the book of Matthew, detailing the signs and the promise of his coming? The message we're listening to today is called the Power and the Glory of His Return. It's from Pastor Jeff's new nine-message series, When the Son of Man Comes, a Study of Matthew 24:25.

This extensive series will help you discover how these promises give each of us and all of us hope and urgency and a guaranteed confidence as we await his glorious return. This series is our gift of thanks to you for your support to From His Heart this month of any amount, and that'll help us to continue to support and expand this outreach in 2026.

Our goal this year is to begin translating the broadcast into five different languages as we seek to expand this ministry this year and for the next five years as well. So please consider a helpful gift or even become a monthly supporter, a vision partner with From His Heart. Request the new series, When the Son of Man Comes, when you call 866-40-BIBLE or go online to fromhisheart.org.

What did Jesus say about the End of the World and His glorious return? Learn it all with this new series for your gift today to From His Heart.

Now let's get back to the message, the Power and Glory of His Return. Here again is Pastor Jeff Shreve.

Speaker 1

In the Rapture, he comes back in the clouds. When he returns, he sets his feet on the Mount of Olives, which is going to split. Where is he giving this Olivet discourse? On the Mount of Olives. That's where he's going to come back; that's where he ascended to heaven. Remember in Acts Chapter one when they saw Jesus ascend to heaven and they're looking up at the sky? The angels came and said, "Men of Galilee, why do you stand here gazing? This same Jesus whom you saw taken up will come in like manner," and he's going to come back to the Mount of Olives.

So, he appears in the air at the Rapture, and he returns to the earth at the Second Coming. He returns in secret like a thief, but Jesus, this is not in secret. Every eye is going to see him at the Return. He comes for his church, for his bride. At the Rapture, he comes with his church, with his bride. At the Second Coming, he comes as a bridegroom; at the Rapture, he comes as a king. At the Return, he comes as a deliverer, a warrior, and judge. At the Return, he delivers the church, the Bride of Christ, from the wrath of God. He delivers believers in the tribulation who endured the wrath. Living believers receive immortal bodies as they are taken to heaven. Living believers at the Return, what do they get? They remain mortal on the earth during the millennium.

The world is left unjudged at the Rapture, but the world is now judged at the return of Christ. The world continues in sin after the Rapture, but righteousness is now established at the return of Jesus Christ. The Rapture addresses only the saved, but the Return addresses the saved and the lost. The Rapture can happen at any moment; the return cannot happen at any moment. Things have to be set up after the tribulation of those days. He will come. Well, we haven't had the tribulation of those days. We haven't had the abomination of desolation. The Antichrist hasn't signed a seven-year treaty with Israel. None of that has taken place yet. So we know that the return is not yet. But the rapture can happen at any moment. The devil continues his evil reign after the Rapture, but the devil is cast into the abyss at the return.

Two separate events, two phases of his coming. So we're talking about the return of Christ. Matthew is talking about the actual return of Christ, and every eye will see him. He will return with full visibility. Secondly, he will return with power and great glory. Let's look at verse 30 again. "And then the sign of the Son of Man will appear in the sky. And then all of the tribes of the earth will mourn, and they will see the Son of Man coming on the clouds of the sky with power." Dunamis. We get our English word dynamite from that. And great glory, abundant glory. It is going to be amazing beyond anything that anyone has ever experienced before.

You know, when they dedicated the temple, Solomon dedicated the temple, Second Chronicles, Chapter 7. The glory of the Lord fell on the house of the Lord, so much so that the priests couldn't go into the house of the Lord because there was so much glory on it. They just fell on their faces and said, "Truly he is good. Truly his loving kindness is everlasting." Well, this is going to outshine that glory, I believe, by a country mile. Because the full weight, the full glory of God is going to descend in the Lord Jesus Christ, and every eye is going to see it.

Now, how do people respond to the return of Christ? Interestingly, the Jews will weep bitterly. The Jews who are living at that time will weep bitterly. They'll mourn over him. And that's what the prophet Zechariah said: "I will pour out on the house of David" (Zechariah, chapter 12, verse 10) "and on the inhabitants of Jerusalem, the spirit of grace and of supplication, so that they will look on me whom they have pierced, and they will mourn for him as one mourns for an only son. And they will weep bitterly over him, like the bitter weeping over a firstborn."

To mourn means literally to beat your chest in lamentation. It's the deepest kind of grief and wailing. They're going to see him, the Jews, and it's going to become extremely clear to them: he was our Messiah all along. And we didn't just miss him as Messiah; we pierced him, we rejected him, we crucified him. When Pilate asked us, "Shall I crucify your King?" we had the audacity to say, "We have no king but Caesar." They're going to mourn like one would mourn at the loss of a firstborn son. So much pain, so much bitter weeping that will take place there when the light comes on exactly who Jesus was and is.

But not only will the Jews weep bitterly, the unbelievers will fear greatly. Proverbs 21, verse 15 says that the execution of justice is joy to the righteous, but it is terror to the workers of iniquity. If somebody is getting mugged or robbed and things are looking bad, like, "Hey, I may not only lose my wallet, but I may lose my life," and all of a sudden, here come three squad cars, police pouring out of the car, and they know if you're that person getting robbed, mugged, you know, "Hey, justice is coming." Well, you're there, you're rejoicing. If you're the guy doing the mugging, shame on you for doing that. But if you're the guy doing the mugging, the police coming is not a good thing for you. Drat. They came. They got me.

The execution of justice is joy for the righteous, but it is terror to the workers of iniquity. We read in Revelation, chapter 6, what they say during the tribulation period, as God begins to open up seals of wrath and trumpets of wrath and bowls of wrath. The judgments get exceedingly more severe. You have giant hailstones, a hundred pounds each, pelting the earth toward the end of the tribulation. You have this heat that scorches everyone, and it is so horrible. The Bible says during the tribulation period, men long to die. They seek to die, but death flees from them. God won't let them die. They're just experiencing this hell on earth.

What do they do when things get so great and so terrible? They blaspheme God (Revelation 16). Because of the severity of the plagues, they don't give him glory; they blaspheme him. But in Revelation 6, we hear that they're hiding in the caves and in the rocks, and they're calling out to the rocks, "Fall on us and hide us from him who sits on the throne, and from the wrath of the Lamb. For the day of their wrath is coming. Who is able to stand?" They're afraid. Unbelievers will fear greatly and fear rightly, because who would not fear?

Exodus, chapter 19, when God is getting ready to give Moses the law, you know he's on Mount Sinai. The Lord gave strict instructions: "Moses, don't let the people break through to the mountain. If they break through to the mountain, they're going to die. They can't touch the mountain." On Mount Sinai, there's thunder, there's lightning, there is thick smoke, there's fire, there's a loud trumpet. The mountain, Mount Sinai, is shaking. The people are witnessing all of this. Moses goes up in the smoke and in the fire and in the trumpet. When he comes back down, the people say to Moses, "Speak to us yourself, and we will listen. But let not God speak to us, lest we die." They were scared to death.

That's at the giving of the law. This is at the return of the King of Kings and Lord of Lords. You know, Luke says that men's hearts are going to fail them for fear. You're going to have people that have heart attacks and die because they're so afraid at the return of Christ, because they know the execution of justice is terror to the workers of iniquity.

And then the elect will be gathered to Jerusalem, verse 31. "And he will send forth his angels with a great trumpet, and they will gather together his elect, probably Jewish elect, there from the four winds, from one end of the sky to the other." Now, people read verse 31 and they say, "See, that's the Rapture. That's what you guys are, you pre-tribulation rapture people that you just want to get out of here and not have to go through all the difficulties of the tribulation." You should read the words of Jesus, because verse 31 very clearly is speaking of the Rapture. And when does that happen? That happens at the end of the tribulation based on verses 29 through 31. But verse 31 is not a rapture; it's a gathering.

Speaker 2

What a clear and concise discussion of the Tribulation and the Rapture today from Pastor Jeff Shreve on from his heart. In his message, "The Power and Glory of His Return," he emphasizes that it will be glorious. We are going to pause right there for today, but next time, after a brief review, Pastor Jeff will continue describing the difference between the rapture of the church and this particular gathering mentioned here in this passage. Don't miss the conclusion to "The Power and Glory of His Return," the fourth message in the nine-lesson series "When the Son of Man Comes." We'll have part two tomorrow.

By the way, that new series is also our gift of thanks for your support this month of any amount. You can find out more about that when you call 866-40-BIBLE (866-402-4253) or go to fromhisheart.org.

Well, that's all the time we have for today. Thank you for joining us. I'm Larry Nobles, reminding you that From His Heart is a listener-supported broadcast ministry speaking the truth in love to a lost and hurting world. Next time, Pastor Jeff will bring part two of this powerful lesson entitled "The Power and Glory of His Return." Here's a part of the truth to come.

Speaker 1

John says, "And I saw heaven opened and behold a white horse. And he who sat on it is called faithful and true."

Jesus rides a white horse into battle because victory is certain, and he comes back with fire in his eyes.

In righteousness, he judges and wages.

Speaker 2

Make sure you join us on Tuesday when we'll again open up God's Word and share real truth, real love and real hope from his heart.