Matthew 24. A chapter relating to events which will take place in this world, after the remainder of the Church has been taken up into Heaven (1 Thessalonians 4:13-18). The chapter has caused many aches and fears in the hearts of uninformed Christians. That in itself is the reason why we must endeavor to understand it.
Words in three verses need our full attention: v.9 ‘then’, v.29 ‘immediately after’ and v.30 ‘at that time’.
The chapter commences on a sombre note.
v.1 “Jesus left the temple and walked away . . . “
How tragic. It was the climax to all He had spoken in Matthew chapter 23. Near the end of that chapter our Lord spoke these words:
v.37 “O Jerusalem, o Jerusalem, you who kill the prophets and stone those sent to you, how often have I longed to gather your children together, as a hen gathers her chicks under her wing, but . . . you were not willing. Look your house is left to you desolate.”
The Jews were not willing and the real, one and only Son of the Father’s house, was walking away and now His Father’s house became ‘your’ house and was left desolate.
v.1(cont.) “When His disciples came up to Him to call His attention to
its buildings.”
They were true Jews and pretty proud of that magnificent monument, the Temple. They well remembered that day, not long ago, when their Lord and Master showed His honest feelings about His Father’s house. The money-managers had their tables turned upside down. The cattle-merchants could not catch their animals as they were eager to escape. Righteous anger had the Lord to honor His Father’s house. Now He walked away from ‘their’ house.
v.2“ ‘Do you see all these things ?’ He asked.’ .”
Yes, they did see them.
“ I tell you the truth, not one stone here will be left on another; every one will be thrown down.”
In AD 70 this prophecy, from the lips of Jesus, was literally fulfilled. The Roman armies levelled the temple to the last stone. There is no reason whatsoever, to doubt a literal fulfilment of all further prophecies by Jesus.
v.3 “As Jesus was sitting on the Mount of Olives the disciples came to Him
privately.”
They asked Him three questions in one:
‘Tell us’ they said ‘When will this happen?’
and ‘What will be the sign of Your coming ?’
and ‘of the end of the age ?’ “
Three specific questions and the Lord answered each one of them with a specific, prophetic answer.
I do hesitate, but I must mention one fact. In the whole of this chapter, in the three questions, in the Lord’s answers, there is not a single hint about the Church of the Lord Jesus. In His answers the Lord referred to future events, which today are still in the future. These events will take place in this world, and affect the Nations and Israel, while His Church will be with Him, in Heaven. However, that part of His Church now still here on earth, may well be witnessing “the beginning of birth pains” (v.8).
Our Lord answered the third part of His disciples question first.
‘The end of the age’.
To Noah the Lord did say: ‘Seven more days’. The nation of Israel would receive 70 more years of opportunity, before their temple would be destroyed. The world today has already received more than two thousand years. Many thousands have preached the precious Gospel of Grace, today they are telling the good news about Jesus, the Savior. And they are warning the world, but to no avail. The world of nations, including Israel, remains un-perturbed. And righteous judgment must and will fall, because God is Holy. In His answers to the disciples’ questions the Lord Jesus prophesied about that judgment. It will not come without prior warning.
Vs.4-7 “Jesus answered: ‘Watch out that no one deceives you! For many will come in My Name, claiming ‘I am the Christ’ and will deceive many. You will hear of wars and rumours of wars, but see to it that you are not alarmed. Such things must happen, but the end is still to come. Nation will rise against nation and kingdom against kingdom. There will be famines and earthquakes in various places. All these things are the beginning of birth-pains.’ “
Many false teachers who deceive many. In the year 2011.
Wars and rumours of wars. In the year 2011.
Nation against nation, . In the year 2011..
Famines and earthquakes. In the year 2011..
Today each of these warnings is with us in increasing reality and measure.
Today we hear many anti-scriptural, deceiving philosophies. Hear about wars and rumours of wars and quarrelling between nations and kingdoms. The secretary-general of the United Nations warns about global food-shortages and tens of thousands who are starving.
Important world-leaders deliberate and disagree about climate change and nuclear energy. WE know Who has laid the foundations of the earth and Who knows when and where those foundations will move. More and more we do hear about earthquakes. Are we witnessing ‘the beginning of birth-pains?’ The pains Israel will experience in her restoration.
So called ‘Zionism’ has caused Israel to return to the land. The ancient prophets said that it would be God bringing them back. Was it God? Or was it Israel’s old father Jacob’s self-dependence! And now, in haughty and murderous fighting they must try to maintain independence. They just could not wait for their God to fulfil His promise.
The sign of your coming.
God is Holy ! In His holiness He must judge! His fierce and righteous judgment will lead to horrendous suffering for the Nations and Israel. ‘Birth-pains’ will be the beginning of the process of Israel’s re-generation.
Vs. 9: ‘THEN’, (after the beginning of the birth-pains).
THEN those of Israel and the nations who found pre-loved Bibles and began to believe, will begin to know the consequences of their earlier rebellious attitudes and self-determination.
v.9 “THEN you will be handed over to be persecuted and put to death, and you will be hated by all nations because of Me. At that time many will turn away from the faith and will betray and hate each other, and many false prophets will appear and deceive many people. Because of the increase of wickedness, the love of most will grow cold, but he who stands firm to the end will be saved.”
‘Firm to the end’ does NOT mean ‘firm unto death’! It does mean ‘firm to the end of that time, those days’. Firm against all the evil deceptions, firm against all the pain and sorrow caused by the lawless man. As already mentioned, that period of time will come after the Church of the Lord Jesus has been taken up, out of this world. It will be a time of judgment. For believers in those days their suffering will be ‘the sign of His coming’. It cannot, never will apply to His Church. Here is the reason why.
Romans 5:1,2 “Therefore, since we have been justified through faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ, through Whom we have gained access by faith into this grace in which we now stand. And we rejoice in the hope of the glory of God.”
Romans 8:1 “Therefore. there is no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus because through Christ Jesus the law of the Spirit of Life set me free from the law of sin and death.”
At various times Christians have endured grievous sufferings. That was and is not judgment by God. It always was and is the bitter hatred of the enemy of God, Satan. No judgment for the Church of the Lord Jesus, but hope of the glory of God. If judgment on the Church still needs to be, what about that large part already with Him in Heaven?
The Church has never been hated by ALL nations. But today some Christians are being harassed, persecuted and killed. There are some people, convinced, religious people, who are beheading Christians. However, only after the Church has disappeared from this world will the haters of Jesus have free sway with their cruelties. The man of lawlessness will see to the persecution of the believers of those days and put them to death ‘because of Me’ the Lord Jesus said.
When those dear people die, they will not join the Church, because the Church will already be complete and with the Lord, in Heaven. But they will rejoice on a new earth and in a new Jerusalem. Then earth will be ruled by righteousness (2 Peter 3:13 / Revelation 21). A world as it was before Adam and Eve submitted to Sin.
But first, for them, there will be a time of great tribulation (v.21).
v.13 “But he who stands firm to the end will be saved.”
Some may ask: ‘How does that fit in with our message ‘Believe the Lord Jesus Christ and you will be saved’? Well, it does not! The condition of ‘standing firm to the end’ will apply to the time of ‘great tribulation’ on earth, while the Church is with her Lord, in Heaven.
Not only will they stand firm to the end. They will also persist at preaching the Gospel of the Kingdom.
v.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.”
In the darkest of difficult days, especially the converted Jews, will preach, not the message of the Savior, but the glad message of the coming King of Heaven. In the midst of terrible, deceitful oppression, there will be a message of hope and light, the Gospel of the Kingdom of Heaven. There will be the promise and hope of the soon coming King of kings. The once rejected King of the Jews.
The lawless, stern faced king will severely hate that message and bitterly, in his anti-Christ attitude, punish those who preach it. He has always wanted that Kingdom for himself and now, when the whole world and all nations are being told and warned about the coming of the Kingdom of Heaven the lawless man will know that the Kingdom will not be his. In furious hatred he will try to stop the message by killing the messengers. How many tears will be shed?
‘THEN the end will come’ the Lord Jesus said. For the believers during the end of the ages of man there will be further indications:
v.15 ‘The abomination that causes desolation’.
v.19 ‘Special dread for pregnant women and nursing mothers’.
v.21 ‘Great distress’ (by the hands of sinful, anti-God men).
v.24 ‘Deception at its peak’.
v.29 “IMMEDIATELY AFTER the distress of THOSE days’ one more distress, but now by the hand of God.
v.29 “ the sun will be darkened and the moon will not give its light; the stars will fall from the sky and the heavenly bodies will be shaken.”
Clear confirmation of the Old Testament prophets.
There is only one power that can interfere with God’s creation in that way, the eternal God of creation Himself. When He does so, it will be the Lord’s indication of what next will be at hand.
v.30 ‘AT THAT TIME the sign of the Son of man will appear in the sky, and all the nations of the earth will mourn. They will see the Son of man coming on the clouds of the sky, with power and great glory.”
Not after a day or moment, but at THAT time .
All nations had heard the Gospel of the Kingdom. They were told about the coming of its King. When they will see the Son of man, coming on the clouds of heaven, they will mourn.
Acts, chapter one, confirms Jesus’ prophecy:
Acts 1:11 THIS SAME JESUS Who has been taken from you into Heaven, will come back IN THE SAME WAY you have seen Him go into heaven.”
‘The same way’ will not be the way in which He will come to collect His Church, in 1 Thessalonians 4. There the Lord Jesus will come in the sky. At least seven years after that, His feet will stand on the Mount of Olives. To the end of the very last human age, there will be, on this earth, disciples of Jesus. They will stand firm to the end, experience the sign of His coming, and be saved..
v.31 “And He will send His angels with a loud trumpet-call, and they will
gather His elect from the four winds, from one end of the heavens to the
other.”
Please let us get this correct! ‘He will send His angels!” to gather His elect
When He comes to collect the last remainder of His Church from this earth
“the Lord Himself will come down from Heaven with a loud command, with the
voice of the arch-angel and with the trumpet-call of God, and the dead in
Christ will rise first and after that . . .”
The disciples’ first question, was answered last.
When will this happen?
No doubt, the disciples were referring to the words of the Lord Jesus about the destruction of the temple.
Vs.32, 33 “Now learn this lesson from the fig-tree. As soon as its twigs get tender and its leaves come out, you know that summer is near. Even so, when you see all these things, you know IT is near, right at the door.”
‘All these things’ (verse 29) will be seen and be so abundantly clear to the believers at the end of the end-age. For us, in these days, we may be seeing ‘the twigs getting tender and the leaves coming out.’ The believers of those days will know ‘that the end is near’.
Now finally:
v.36 “No one knows about that day or hour, not even the angels in Heaven, nor the Son, but only the Father.”
V.42 “Therefore keep watch, because you do not know what day your Lord will come.”
For our Lord Jesus and for them, what a day of rejoicing that will be!
From John, on the isle of Patmos, we learn what will be in store for those who stood firm to the end. All their suffering and sorrowful deaths will be wonderfully rewarded.
Revelation 6:13-17 “Then one of the elders asked me (John), ‘these in white robes, who are they? ‘ I (John) answered: ‘Sir, you know.’ And he said ‘these are they who have come out of THE GREAT TRIBULATION; they have washed their robes and have made them white in the Blood of the Lamb. Therefore they are before the throne of God and serve Him day and night in His temple.. And He Who sits on the throne will spread His tent over them,. Never again will they hunger and never again will they thirst! The sun will not beat upon them nor any scorching heat! For the Lamb at the centre of the Throne will be their Shepherd. He will lead them to springs of living water and God will wipe away every tear from their eyes.’ “
Steadfastly they had refused to wear the Mark of the Beast. Then they had not been able to buy or sell. So they had suffered hunger and thirst. There was very little or no sympathy for them. They were being hated and betrayed and many of them had died an ugly death. They did come through great tribulation. Many had stood firm to the end. How much did they hanker for His coming? He will come, and His angels will gather them, from the utmost corners of the earth. And then? They will be before the throne of God and serve Him, day and night. Never again to hunger, never again will they thirst. And God will wipe away their tears.
Revelation 20:4 “I saw thrones on which were seated those who had been given authority to judge. And I saw the souls of those who had been beheaded because of their testimony for Jesus AND because of the Word of God. They had not worshipped the Beast or his image and had not received his mark on their foreheads or their hands; they came to life and reigned with Christ a thousand years.”
Those end-time believers, many of them will be beheaded ‘because of their testimony for Jesus’. And ‘because of the Word of God’. With powerful signs and wonders, the lawless man will beguile humanity. But those who know the Word of God and stand in its light, they will detect and reject all those bogus signs and wonders and show them up as frauds. They will stay with the Word of Truth! They will stand up with ‘their testimony for Jesus’ and in defense of ‘the Word of God’. The Lord will honour those who endured to the end. That’s what the Apostle John tells us about.
Vs.34,35 “ ‘I tell you the truth’ the Lord said; ‘this generation will certainly not pass away until all these things have happened . Heaven and earth will pass away, but My words will never pass away.”
Clearly, the generation of Jesus’ days on earth has passed away. But the generation of those days will certainly not pass away until all these things have happened.
Since the day the Lord Jesus told that truth, more than two thousand years passed by. But what He does tell us, will never pass away. Let us listen, very carefully listen.
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