Mark 13:24  But in those days, after that tribulation, the sun shall be darkened, and the moon shall not give her light,
25  And the stars of heaven shall fall, and the powers that are in heaven shall be shaken.
26  And then shall they see the Son of man coming in the clouds with great power and glory.
27  And then shall he send his angels, and shall gather together his elect from the four winds, from the uttermost part of the earth to the uttermost part of heaven.

The Jewish nation missed out on the blessing of the first coming of Christ because they approached the Old Testament prophecies with a preconceived opinion of what would happen. They had been under foreign occupation for so many years, but they failed to realize why they were under foreign occupation. They longed for their own homeland under their own rule, but they did not realize that they had no idea how to rule themselves because they were still rejecting the true God as their God.
Canada is a nation that is much younger than Israel. Canada never had God as her king. Canada was governed by a bunch of drunks from the start. Yes, in some of their sober moments, they put some Bible verses up around the Parliament buildings, but the heart of the politicians has never been surrendered to God. There was a brief moment when Mr. Pierre Trudeau tried to remove the word God from the preamble of the Charter Of Rights and Freedoms. Jack Epp, a politician from Manitoba was one of the driving forces to keep the name of God in that document. This is the same Jack Epp who was instrumental in getting the Catholic religion into Steinbach. Canada is a nation that used to pride itself somewhat on freedom of religion. That evolved into a nation that wanted freedom from religion. It is one thing to allow a false religion to develop in a place. It is quite another to ‘help’ to allow a false religion to develop in a place.
True Christians have the love of God in them and that love motivates them to want others to know the truth. Today, Islam is becoming well rooted in our country. It is openly spewing out hatred for Israel and is doing so under the protection of our politicians and police forces. This is a dark blot on this nation. When a nation chooses to build without the true God, it cannot see clearly and Canada is one such nation. We could have read our Bibles and believed in the true God and avoided the similar problems to what Israel has faced for much longer than we have. However, Canada is screaming toward destruction. Unlike Canada, Israel was given a parcel of land by God and no enemy will destroy them as a people, nor remove them from their land.
In our text, Jesus continued to reveal to His disciples, events that were coming in the future. Again Jesus referred to a specific time of tribulation. He stated that after THAT tribulation the sun shall be darkened … The second coming of Christ is divided into two parts. Many people miss this because they too approach the Scriptures with a preconceived idea of what they expect. They refuse to let the Scriptures speak freely.
We have already noted, that in chapter 13, Jesus is speaking to His disciples and He is telling them things that will happen to their people in the future. The church is not in view in these prophetic teachings. The true churches are gone, finished. Passages like I Thessalonians 4:13-18 clearly teach that true saints will be removed from this earth prior to the coming of the antichrist. In our text, Jesus is talking about the time when He will return after the coming of the antichrist. In the first part of His coming, He will come in the clouds. The saints will be called up to meet Him. In the second part of His second coming, He will come down to the earth and He will destroy the antichrist and all the wicked of that time. He will establish His kingdom on this earth for one thousand years.
At that time, the sun shall be darkened and the moon shall not give her light. The battle of Armageddon will be such a fierce battle that it will shake the very structure of the heaven and the earth. It will not destroy them, but shake them. The destruction of this heaven and earth will come at the end of the millennium.
Verse 28 tells us that Jesus will come in the clouds but He comes to the earth with great power and glory. He comes with greater power and glory than He did when He entered Jerusalem on the foal of an ass.
When Jesus comes back at the end of the Tribulation, He comes with His angels and He gathers His elect from the four winds. He brings all the elect from wherever they are on earth, and brings them into the Millennial kingdom that He establishes. The “elect” is clearly a reference to saved Jews at that time. The context is speaking to the nation of Israel. The nation of Israel is not all gathered together in Israel at this time. Between seven and eight million Jews live in Israel at this time. Others are scattered across the world. Not many are saved, but those who will be saved at the time of our text will be gathered together in Israel as the founding people of the millennium. Only saved people will enter the millennium.
There is a new time coming for this earth. There is a time of much greater blessing than what we know now. The reason for the greater blessing is because the earth will be receptive to that blessing at that time. The Jews will have recognized their sin of demanding the crucifixion of the Lord Jesus Christ. They will run to Him in repentance and be saved, not just physically, but spiritually. It will be a great day in the history of that nation.
Currently, the Jews, both inside and outside of the land of Israel, are suffering. They have suffered for thousands of years due to their rejection of the Messiah. That will come to an end at the close of the Tribulation. In the Millennium, children will be born and they will be born lost, just like children are now. Some of those children will get saved and others will not. The difference of that time will be that the Lord Jesus Christ will rule and He will not allow evil to have free reign as it currently does.
Currently we live in a time when evil is abounding. Wickedness is on the rise. True local churches are becoming fewer and fewer. The love of many is growing cold.
Today is the Lord’s Day. It is the day when true saints come together in a true local church to learn of God and to fellowship with Him and with Jesus Christ and with fellow saints. It is a very important time for true saints. As true saints come together, they testify to the lost around them of the blessing they have been given by the true God. It is a special time for true saints. Lost people are searching for something. God is drawing them to Himself. It is up to true saints to be that light that God designed us to be, to show the lost where they need to come. As we let our light shine before men, we can help them to glorify our Father which is in heaven.
Be sure you attend a true local church today. God has a blessing in store for all those who will submit to His authority.
Pastor Bartel