Today, I want to talk about Luke chapter 21, and I just want to start reading in verse
25 where the Bible reads,
And there shall be signs in the sun, and in the moon, and in the stars, and upon the earth
distress of nations, with perplexity, the sea and the waves roaring, man's hearts failing
them for fear, and for looking after those things which are coming on the earth.
For the powers of heaven shall be shaken.
And of course, that is the same thing that we saw in Matthew 24 and Mark 13 about the
sun and moon being darkened, the stars falling from the sky, the tribes of the earth mourning,
and the powers of heaven being shaken.
But listen to the next verse.
It says in verse 28,
And when these things begin to come to pass, then look up and lift up your heads for your
redemption draweth nigh.
So right there, he tells us that when we see the sun and moon darken, at that point, we
should look up and lift up our heads for our redemption draweth nigh.
Now a lot of people will say, well, Luke 21 is not talking to us as believers.
He's talking to the Jews.
Well, he was talking to his disciples at this time.
He's talking to the 12 disciples.
And people will say, well, yeah, but they were all Jewish.
Oh, you mean Simon the Canaanite?
It's funny how people will say that when Jesus is talking to his disciples in Luke 21, he's
talking to them as a picture of the nation of Israel because they were all Jews.
No, they were not all Jews.
The Bible is very careful to tell us that one of Jesus' disciples was not a Jew, but
rather he was a Canaanite.
He was Simon the Canaanite.
He was a proselyte into the Jewish religion.
He was obviously circumcised.
As the book of Esther says, many people became Jews.
But ethnically, the Bible tells us clearly that he was a Canaanite.
Somebody once told me, well, he was just from Canaan, but he was ethnically a Jew.
Well, the whole land of Israel is Canaan.
That whole area is called Canaan.
The promised land is called Canaan.
The reason that he's called a Canaanite is because ethnically, he descended from the
man Canaan, from the nation of the Canaanites, from before the children of Israel took over
that land.
And so not only did Jesus Christ speak to this group that included Simon the Canaanite,
but other passages where Jesus spoke to his 12 disciples, these same people who believe
in a preacher of rapture will always say he was talking to the church in this passage.
For example, the Great Commission.
He's talking to the same men when he gives the Great Commission, and people say the Great
Commission is given unto the church.
But it's the same group.
Okay, what about the Last Supper?
Jesus Christ celebrated the Last Supper with these very men, the disciples.
And yet when they look at a passage on the Last Supper, they'll say, communion, the Lord's
Supper is something that is for the church to celebrate.
See, that's the church there.
These 12 guys are the church.
When he gives the Great Commission, it's the church.
And then when he preaches on end times prophecy in Matthew 24, Mark 13, Luke 21, all of a
sudden they hypocritically change their stance and say, no, suddenly these 12 men represent
the nation of Israel or the Jews, or he's not talking to Christians, he's talking to
Jews.
No, he's talking to the saints, he's talking to believers.
And in Mark 13, 37, he said, what I say unto you, I say unto all, watch.