WHERE WILL YOU GATHER?

WHERE WILL YOU GATHER?

Matthew 24:25-31 (KJV)

Behold, I have told you before.

Wherefore if they shall say unto you, Behold, he is in the desert; go not forth: behold, he is in the secret chambers; believe it not.

For as the lightning cometh out of the east, and shineth even unto the west; so shall also the coming of the Son of man be.

For wheresoever the carcase is, there will the eagles be gathered together.

Immediately after the tribulation of those days shall the sun be darkened, and the moon shall not give her light, and the stars shall fall from heaven, and the powers of the heavens shall be shaken:

And then shall appear the sign of the Son of man in heaven: and then shall all the tribes of the earth mourn, and they shall see the Son of man coming in the clouds of heaven with power and great glory.

And he shall send his angels with a great sound of a trumpet, and they shall gather together his elect from the four winds, from one end of heaven to the other.

The book of Matthew and chapter 24 is often called the Olivet Discourse.

Jesus had just told the disciples that the Temple would be one day torn down and they asked when.

In this discourse, He describes 

• The tension of the last days
• The deception of the last days and
• The wickedness of the last days

And then he described his coming again in what I think are three different concepts:

• The suddenness of it
• Vs 25-31
• The surprisedness of it
• Vs 32-36
• The separation caused by it
• Vs 37-44

It seems to me that Matthew 24 blends together Jesus’ coming for the saints at the rapture and His coming again with the saints at the end of the Tribulation.

This, in my estimation, accounts for most of the confusion around the timing of the rapture. The body of the Scripture clearly places the rapture of the Christians into heaven happening before the Tribulation begins.

It is this idea of confusion about spiritual things that I hope to address in the message today.

Notice how our passage begins, Matthew 24:25 (KJV)

Behold, I have told you before.

There is a lot of false doctrine in the world today - and Jesus said it would get worse, not better.

• •Better scholarship
• •Recent discoveries 
• •Advanced technology and
• •Modern teachers

Will not improve our clarify and improve our doctrines.

It’s best to stick to old school thinking.

It’s always safest to stay very close to those teachers who got us started on our spiritual paths and not to stray far from the things they taught us.

It seems to me that theme that weaves itself throughout this passage is that of where people gather.

I. SOME GATHER IN RELIGIOUS PLACES

Matthew 24:25-26 (KJV)

Behold, I have told you before.

Wherefore if they shall say unto you, Behold, he is in the desert; go not forth: behold, he is in the secret chambers; believe it not.

I understand I am using some imagination right now, but I don’t think I am too far off the mark with this.

Jesus said there are two places He will not be found:

• •In the desert and
• •In the secret chambers

A. The Desert

Have you ever noticed where those whose views are out of the normal like to gather?

The Millerites - early Seventh Day Adventists, went out to the mountains to wait for Jesus.

Christian cult groups find remote places to build safety bunkers.

Preppers, post-tribulationalists and pre-wrathers all think that when the end times come, Christians will have to escape to the mountains, and deserts and far away places where it would be appropriate to defend themselves and their property, with weapons if necessary.

The early monks thought the way to become spiritual was to isolate themselves from the rest of the world in some mountain or desert cave.

Jim Jones took his group of professing Christians to the jungles of in Guyana.

I agree that this world is an ugly place and getting worse all of the time.

But the Christian response is to get into the middle of it so 

• •our light can shine and 
• •our salt can savor

False Christian groups also like to gather in

B. The Secret Chambers

The Mormons have secret ceremonies that only Mormons of a certain level can partake in.

They have secret rooms where only Mormons are allowed to enter.

• •They wear secret underwear, and 
• •Have secret baptisms, 
• •Secret marriages and 
• •Secret codewords

The Jehovah’s Witnesses are just about the same.

When I first became a believer I was single, living by myself in a small town in Eastern Washington.

The devil knew I was vulnerable so it wasn’t long after I made a profession of faith that a lady and her child from the local Kingdom Hall made a visit at my trailer. 

She asked me if I was interested in spiritual things. When I said that I was she offered to have a teacher from her church come to my home and conduct Bible studies.

The guy came once a week for - as I recall - maybe two months. I like the guy and asked about attending the services of his church. He refused to let me come.

He suggested that, after a few more lessons, 

He would introduce me to a few more people

Then he would invite me to a picnic or something

Later, he would invite me to attend their services

Frankly, I do not know how they respond to drop-ins to their services. I do know all that secrecy is what turned me away.

Real Christianity has nothing to hide. 

• It’s true that I can’t teach you everything I know in one message.
• It’s also true that I hesitate to teach a person whose spirit suggests to me that they don’t want to learn but just argue. 

But we have nothing to hide.

• •No secret doctrines
• •No secret fraternities
• •No secret handshakes to codewords

We are what we are. “Warts and all.”

Jesus said what the coming of the Son of Man would be like. Matthew 24:27 (KJV)

For as the lightning cometh out of the east, and shineth even unto the west; so shall also the coming of the Son of man be.

That tells me that it is:

• •Heavenly
• •Suddenly and
• •Obviously

That doesn’t mean that everybody will be pleased with His coming, but everybody will know about it.

But notice the very next statement,

II. EAGLES GATHER WHERE THE BODY IS

Matthew 24:28 (KJV)

For wheresoever the carcase is, there will the eagles be gathered together.

The word carcase refers to a dead body.

In this case, it seems to me that Luke’s parallel to this passage is helpful.

Luke 17:37 (KJV)

And they answered and said unto him, Where, Lord? And he said unto them, Wheresoever the body is, thither will the eagles be gathered together.

Notice that Luke uses the word “body” instead of “carcase." 

The Greek word is a specific one that Thayer’s dictionary says refers, among other things, to a large group of men united into one society - a New Testament local church.

In both passages, we find the word “eagles.”

What does the Bible say about eagles?

Isaiah 40:31 (KJV)

But they that wait upon the LORD shall renew their strength; they shall mount up with wings as eagles; they shall run, and not be weary; and they shall walk, and not faint.

Eagles gather around the Lord’s body - which is His church.

I know who it is that won’t be fooled by the extremists and cults and modern teachers with their newest scholarship - the eagles.

• •Those who wait upon the Lord.
• •Those who gather faithfully, and unite themselves in a local church
• •Those who know the Word of God because they have been taught the same things over and over

One of the things I think the Bible teaches is that, as we draw closer to the coming of Jesus Christ, there will be a division among the professing Christians.

• •Those who are not truly saved will move toward the more modern ear ticklers or peculiar teachers.
• •Those who are God’s peculiar people will be drawn into those fewer and fewer churches that remain faithful to those things we were told before.

And then Jesus said, 

III. THE ELECT GATHER AT THE SOUND OF THE TRUMPET

Matthew 24:29-31 (KJV)

Immediately after the tribulation of those days shall the sun be darkened, and the moon shall not give her light, and the stars shall fall from heaven, and the powers of the heavens shall be shaken:

And then shall appear the sign of the Son of man in heaven: and then shall all the tribes of the earth mourn, and they shall see the Son of man coming in the clouds of heaven with power and great glory.

And he shall send his angels with a great sound of a trumpet, and they shall gather together his elect from the four winds, from one end of heaven to the other.

Here is one of those places where Jesus’ coming for the saints at the rapture - which happens before the Tribulation, and Jesus’ coming with His saints at the end of the Tribulation get blended.

Verses 29-30 are certainly referring to the end of the Tribulation when Jesus returns to the earth with the saints in heaven.

But verse 31, I think, it a reference to the rapture.

And I think so because of the sound of the Trumpet.

1 Thessalonians 4:15-17 (KJV)

For this we say unto you by the word of the Lord, that we which are alive and remain unto the coming of the Lord shall not prevent them which are asleep.

For the Lord himself shall descend from heaven with a shout, with the voice of the archangel, and with the trump of God: and the dead in Christ shall rise first:

Then we which are alive and remain shall be caught up together with them in the clouds, to meet the Lord in the air: and so shall we ever be with the Lord.

The rapture involves:

• •Every Christian in
• •Every place at 
• •The same time going to
• •The same place (heaven)

Conclusion

When Jesus comes it will be like lightning.

It will be suddenly, unexpectedly and in the twinkling of an eye.

It will be obvious.

Just as lightning strikes in the east but shines all the way into the west, the evidences of Jesus’ coming will be obvious to those who are taken into heaven and those who are left to go through Tribulation on the earth.

It will be heavenly.

• •It is ordered by God in heaven. 
• •It is the coming of Jesus from heaven and
• •It is the calling of Christians to heaven

Religious people will be led astray into all sorts of new but completely wrong beliefs about Jesus and His return.

True believers will be drawn into strong, doctrinally sound churches as they see the time of His coming getting closer.

Those are the ones who will hear His trumpet and gather together with Him in the air.

My question to you is, where will you gather?

• Will you be led into error and miss the Lord? Or
• Will you be faithful to a doctrinally sound church and be ready to meet the Lord?