What Are The Signs Of Jesus Return?

When the disciples of Jesus asked Him in Matthew’s gospel chapter 24 concerning what would be the signs of His return, they had in the back of their mind the biblical teaching of the eternal kingdom of the offspring of David. They wanted to know when Jesus would be placed upon that throne and when He would establish His kingdom on earth not only in a spiritual sense but also a physical sense. Let’s take a look at how Jesus answered this question.

What Are The Signs Of Christ’s Return?

Matthew 24:3-31
The Signs of the Times and the End of the Age

3 Now as He sat on the Mount of Olives, the disciples came to Him privately, saying, “Tell us, when will these things be? And what will be the sign of Your coming, and of the end of the age?”

4 And Jesus answered and said to them: “Take heed that no one deceives you. 5 For many will come in My name, saying, ‘I am the Christ,’ and will deceive many. 6 And you will hear of wars and rumors of wars. See that you are not troubled; for all[a] these things must come to pass, but the end is not yet. 7 For nation will rise against nation, and kingdom against kingdom. And there will be famines, pestilences,[b] and earthquakes in various places. 8 All these are the beginning of sorrows.

9 “Then they will deliver you up to tribulation and kill you, and you will be hated by all nations for My name’s sake. 10 And then many will be offended, will betray one another, and will hate one another. 11 Then many false prophets will rise up and deceive many. 12 And because lawlessness will abound, the love of many will grow cold. 13 But he who endures to the end shall be saved. 14 And this gospel of the kingdom will be preached in all the world as a witness to all the nations, and then the end will come.

The Great Tribulation

15 “Therefore when you see the ‘abomination of desolation,’[c] spoken of by Daniel the prophet, standing in the holy place” (whoever reads, let him understand), 16 “then let those who are in Judea flee to the mountains. 17 Let him who is on the housetop not go down to take anything out of his house. 18 And let him who is in the field not go back to get his clothes. 19 But woe to those who are pregnant and to those who are nursing babies in those days! 20 And pray that your flight may not be in winter or on the Sabbath. 21 For then there will be great tribulation, such as has not been since the beginning of the world until this time, no, nor ever shall be. 22 And unless those days were shortened, no flesh would be saved; but for the elect’s sake those days will be shortened.

23 “Then if anyone says to you, ‘Look, here is the Christ!’ or ‘There!’ do not believe it. 24 For false christs and false prophets will rise and show great signs and wonders to deceive, if possible, even the elect. 25 See, I have told you beforehand.

26 “Therefore if they say to you, ‘Look, He is in the desert!’ do not go out; or ‘Look, He is in the inner rooms!’ do not believe it. 27 For as the lightning comes from the east and flashes to the west, so also will the coming of the Son of Man be. 28 For wherever the carcass is, there the eagles will be gathered together.

Now I am not an expert on Eschatology, (the study of end times) but I think we can all see and agree upon some pretty basic things in this passage. They include such things as deception, wars, famines, disease epidemics, earthquakes and religious persecution. We have seen natural disasters of a scale that are beyond imagination. We have seen people, including those in the church who are falling for deception and bad teaching. We have the ability to solve world hunger yet we choose not to do so. We have new and more viral diseases coming upon us, both from natural and from man-made causes. We also see the rise of militant Islam and it’s persecution of Christianity. All of these things are gaining in intensity compared to times past.

Jesus said before He returned that,

Luke 21:11-12
11 And there will be great earthquakes in various places, and famines and pestilences; and there will be fearful sights and great signs from heaven. 12 But before all these things, they will lay their hands on you and persecute you, delivering you up to the synagogues and prisons. You will be brought before kings and rulers for My name’s sake.

Luke 21:25-28
The Coming of the Son of Man

25 “And there will be signs in the sun, in the moon, and in the stars; and on the earth distress of nations, with perplexity, the sea and the waves roaring; 26 men’s hearts failing them from fear and the expectation of those things which are coming on the earth, for the powers of the heavens will be shaken. 27 Then they will see the Son of Man coming in a cloud with power and great glory. 28 Now when these things begin to happen, look up and lift up your heads, because your redemption draws near.”

When we start to see these signs of Jesus return, it says to lift up our heads. Jesus is on His way. So I ask you this? Are you fretting about the condition of the world? Are you worried about your future? Look up! Jesus is on His way.

The Apostle Paul Addresses the end times signs as well

2 Timothy 3:1-7
Perilous Times and Perilous Men

3 But know this, that in the last days perilous times will come: 2 For men will be lovers of themselves, lovers of money, boasters, proud, blasphemers, disobedient to parents, unthankful, unholy, 3 unloving, unforgiving, slanderers, without self-control, brutal, despisers of good, 4 traitors, headstrong, haughty, lovers of pleasure rather than lovers of God, 5 having a form of godliness but denying its power. And from such people turn away! 6 For of this sort are those who creep into households and make captives of gullible women loaded down with sins, led away by various lusts, 7 always learning and never able to come to the knowledge of the truth.

Many people claim that the lack of spiritual desire in the church today is because we are not communicating the message effectively enough, but this passage seems to differ from that opinion. This passage clearly states that the reason people are not following after God is because of their issues within their heart and not the method that the message is communicated.
We have whole denominations of Christian churches that have the outward trappings of Christianity but when it comes to believing in the power of God to transform, enable, and gift people supernaturally, they rationalize it all away.

2 Timothy 4:3-4
3 For the time will come when they will not endure sound doctrine, but according to their own desires, because they have itching ears, they will heap up for themselves teachers; 4 and they will turn their ears away from the truth, and be turned aside to fables.

One of the things that the Apostle Paul predicted would happen is that people will be more concerned with hearing a good sermon, or how it was delivered than they will be with truth. They will want their Sunday Morning feel good shot and go back to their life without ever letting God change them or convict them from the inside out.

The Apostle Peter gives us some clues as to the signs of Jesus return.

2 Peter 3:3-7
3 knowing this first: that scoffers will come in the last days, walking according to their own lusts, 4 and saying, “Where is the promise of His coming? For since the fathers fell asleep, all things continue as they were from the beginning of creation.” 5 For this they willfully forget: that by the word of God the heavens were of old, and the earth standing out of water and in the water, 6 by which the world that then existed perished, being flooded with water. 7 But the heavens and the earth which are now preserved by the same word, are reserved for fire until the day of judgment and perdition of ungodly men.

I find it amazing that an old unschooled fisherman could be so prophetic as to predict exactly the type of people that we are dealing with today. This alone should silence any atheist skeptic. In the end times, scoffers will increase and they will do 2 things. They will walk according to their own lusts, and they will say that the return of Jesus Christ is a myth.

They do this because they are willfully doing so.

The Top 7 Signs of the Christ’s Return

Rev. 9:20-21 lists the top 7 signs of the Tribulation:
#1 Rebellion against God (“They did not turn from the path they were on and turn back to God.”).
#2 The Worship of Demons and Satan
#3 They worshipped the works of their hands and their own constructs
#4 Murders
#5 Sorceries (Witchcraft, Wiccanism, and Druidism)
#6 Sexual Immorality
#7 Thefts

Are you prepared for the return of Jesus Christ.

As you can see, the signs of Jesus return are all around us, so that causes us to ask the question, “Am I prepared”? There is only 1 way to be prepared for His returning. You must give your life to Him and have your ticket pre-punched for that heavenly train that is coming around the bend. If you would like to make sure you are prepared for when Jesus returns, then I would encourage you to go to my page entitled, “Meet Jesus” and learn how you can start your personal relationship with Jesus today.

Blessings!

Pastor Duke

Resource: The Holy Bible, New King James Version Copyright © 1982 by Thomas Nelson, Inc.