144,000 Jewish Witnesses TDD#21

Today’s reading is Matthew 24:9-14

Today our key verse is found in verse 14 And this gospel of the kingdom will be preached in the whole world as a testimony to all nations, and then the end will come.

I have told you before, but let me say it again, we are living in the birth pains of human history.  Jesus said in Matthew 24:6  these things must happen, and then in verse 8 that this is just the beginning, these are the birth pains.  

Jesus said it clearly and plainly:  THE END IS STILL TO COME!  

Now if I wake up in the morning, and a man emerges and takes control of the world and the nations of this world follow his lead, claim him to be a god among men, my opinion will change.  That would be a different conversation.

But these things that we see, observe in the here and now that we live in are casting a shadow on the tribulation.  We are  getting closer, but we are not there yet.  These things are birth pains and a foreshadow on the things to come.

I want to come today to Matthew 24 verse 14.  As we do. This is one of the most misunderstood verses in all of the Bible.   I have showed you in past episodes that I believe Matthew 24:4-13 parallel  Revelation chapter 6.  

If you missed that go back and look through my previous devotionals.   Tonight I want to look at Matthew 24:14  and I want you to also examine Revelation 7:1-4.  There is another parallel between thesis passages that cannot be ignored.

Many times I have been in conferences where Matthew 24:14 is a verse that is quoted and it is used as the motivation for world missions.  

And the argument is made if we go to every tribe, every tongue, we will ultimately make it possible for the Lord Jesus to come again because the gospel has been preached to every nation and throughout the world.  

There is nothing wrong with preaching the gospel to all the world, the great commission tells us that, Acts chapter 1 tells us that.  And while we are commanded to go and preach the gospel to all the world, Matthew 24:14…  Does not have anything to do with the Lord coming back in the Rapture…!  Nothing!  

Look at Revelation 7:1- 4…  I believe that Revelation 7:1-4 are those who are preaching the gospel of the kingdom in Matthew 24:14…  

Keep in mind Jesus and John agree, and they are giving the same information, Matthew with concise detail, John with a greater detail.  But both are matching up in the prophetic calendar. 

Revelation 7:1 “After this I saw four angels standing at the four corners of the earth, holding back the four winds of the earth to prevent any wind from blowing on the land or on the sea or on any tree.

 2 Then I saw another angel coming up from the east, having the seal of the living God. He called out in a loud voice to the four angels who had been given power to harm the land and the sea:

 3 "Do not harm the land or the sea or the trees until we put a seal on the foreheads of the servants of our God.”

 4 Then I heard the number of those who were sealed: 144,000 from all the tribes of Israel.”

So let me ask the question:  Who are these protected preachers?

This gospel will be preached to all the world as a witness to the nation’s until everyone hears it and then the end will come!  

John talks about these 144,000 being sealed by God.  Go forth with the Gospel Message!  But who are they?

Keep in mind that the time is being set, and the setting is that all of the beginning of sorrows it is already taking place.  Sorrows will come into full bloom.   The beginning of sorrows will be over, persecution begins and yet the church is gone.  

Here is a good question:  if the church is gone who is the Anti-Christ hating, and persecuting, and killing?

This 7 year period is called the tribulation and it is interesting indeed.   AntiChrist comes, deceives the world makes a false treaty of peace, and in the middle of it all he breaks that treaty and he persecutes Christians.    But preacher, you said the church is gone.   Yes!

Keep in mind,  during that seven-year period there's going to be the preaching of the gospel.  Even though the church is gone, God sends preachers to preach the good news of Jesus, his death and resurrection, and people will be saved by faith through grace. 

It is not just preaching about salvation that will be done, but also preaching about the coming kingdom of God.

So these preachers are sent out in Matthew 24:14, and in Revelation 7 and they win people to Christ kingdom.

The Bible says that in the tribulation period, with all of this carnage one of the things that will happen is 144,000 zealots will be set loose to preach the gospel to those who have not yet heard, and this is not talking about between now and the rapture, but it is referring to the time of the tribulation.  

These 144,000  are Jewish witnesses.   They are  jewish witness and not jehovah witnesses!  They are going to be flaming evangelist preaching the kingdom message and the coming Messiah, and the Bible says they are sealed!   {See Revelation 7:4}

The seal of the living God is placed on the 144,000. And this is not just an external seal but also an internal mark as well…  God is going to choose 144,000 Jews for a special heaven to earth mission and they are going to be used to preach the gospel during this time.  

The world has never seen the kind of preaching these men will do!  When they are set loose it is going to be amazing!  It only took 12 Jews to turn the 1st century world upside down!  12,000 times that many will be set loose during the tribulation period.   

It says in Revelation 7:4 …

This is one of the most important and yet misunderstood and sometimes most controversial verses in all the New Testament.  You cannot even begin to imagine how many different ideas there are concerning this verse and these people.  

Don't get caught up in the thinking that you are going to be one of the 144,000 preachers!   The church is going to be in heaven with God and from what I read of Scripture you don't want to be one of those preachers.   

You want to be up in heaven hearing about those preachers but you do not want to be one of them.  These people are true Jews.  They are not Jehovah witnesses, and they are not Seventh-day Adventist.  

They are listed here as coming from all the various tribes of Israel.  It Can not be the Seventh-day Adventist, as wonderful as those people are they are not here in this passage the Scripture.  

Truer still,  they are not Jehovah witnesses!  You know the Jehovah witnesses used to teach that if they excelled to a certain level, that they would be included in the 144,000.  

They have gotten so many of them now,  they don't know what to do with the rest of them!  Who is in and who is out?  Who can tell anymore?    I can say with Biblical certainty this passage has nothing to do with Jehovah witnesses.  

Well Monday, God willing I will come back and continue to share and teach on these protected preachers.

Join us at Open Door Fellowship online at 10:30 AM and  soon very soon back at our campus in some form.  Until then- May God bless you and may you truly expect and encounter from God almighty.