SIGNS OF THE TIMES
In the Bible, Jesus gave people of his generation and this generation signs of the times before his return.
SIGN GIVEN JESUS’ GENERATION
THE SIGN OF JONAH: Some of the scribes and Pharisees told Jesus, “Teacher, we want to see a sign from you.” But he replied to them: “An evil and adulterous generation craves a sign. Yet no sign will be given to it except the sign of the prophet Jonah, 40 because just as Jonah was in the stomach of the sea creature for three days and three nights,[z] so the Son of Man will be in the heart of the earth for three days and three nights” (Matthew 12:38-40).
Jesus said he did what Scriptures prophesized about God’s promised Messianic Savior, but many people did not recognize him as the Messiah: He did works of miracles which no one else did—calmed a stormy, rose from the dead to die no more. (John 15:24; Mark:4:35-41; Revelation 1:18). And he fulfilled all prophecies concerning the promised Messiah. (Luke 24:48; John 10:38).
“He came into the very world he created, but the world didn’t recognize him. He came to his own people, and even they rejected him. But to all who believed him and accepted him, he gave the right to become children of God.” (John 1:10-12)
SIGN GIVEN THIS GENERATION
SIGN OF BEING LIKE THE DAYS OF NOAH: Jesus said: “As it was in the days of Noah, so it will be at the coming of the Son of Man. 38 For in the days before the flood, people were eating and drinking, marrying and giving in marriage, up to the day Noah entered the ark; 39 and they knew nothing about what would happen until the flood came and took them all away. That is how it will be at the coming of the Son of Man. (Matthew 24:37-39).
2 Timothy 3:1-5,”But mark this: There will be terrible times in the last days. 2 People will be lovers of themselves, lovers of money, boastful, proud, abusive, disobedient to their parents, ungrateful, unholy, 3 without love, unforgiving, slanderous, without self-control, brutal, not lovers of the good, 4 treacherous, rash, conceited, lovers of pleasure rather than lovers of God— 5 having a form of godliness but denying its power. Have nothing to do with such people.
IMPORTANCE OF RECOGNIZING AND RESPONDING TO SIGNS OF THE TIMES
Jesus said, many people “cannot interpret the signs of the times;” although they “know how to interpret the appearance of the sky” (Matthew 16:3). However, the Lord who loves us enough to die for the sins of the world, wants all to know it is critical to recognize and respond appropriately to signs that have to do with eternal life and death (John 3:16-18).
- Recognize that you need to repent of your sins and accept Jesus Christ as your Lord and Savior. “For all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God” (Romans 3:23). And “the wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord” (Romans 6:23).
- “For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life.” (John 3:16; Isaiah 7:14; Matthew 1:20-23).
- Jesus said: “I am the way and the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me.
- “When the Son of Man comes in his glory, and all the angels with him, he will sit on his glorious throne. 32 All the nations will be gathered before him, and he will separate the people one from another as a shepherd separates the sheep from the goats. 33 He will put the sheep on his right and the goats on his left.34 “Then the King will say to those on his right, ‘Come, you who are blessed by my Father; take your inheritance, the kingdom prepared for you since the creation of the world…41 “Then he will say to those on his left, ‘Depart from me, you who are cursed, into the eternal fire prepared for the devil and his angels. Matthew 25:31-41
“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.” (1 Thessalonians 4:16-17).
