We live in uncertain times. How often has it been said that we are living in the end times? I’ve been asked on several occasions if I would preach about the end times. I have done so in the past and will do so in the future. In my preaching, I try, to the best of my ability and understanding, to preach the whole counsel of God, not just about end times, not just about salvation, but also include how we should live, and how we need to view the world around us.
Does preach about the end times (eschatology) mean I will be preaching through Revelation? Not exactly, for we will be in and out of the Book of Revelation in this study. But a proper understanding of Revelation requires a firm grasp of the entire Bible, especially the Old Testament from which many of the imagery presented in the Revelation come. We must realize that that the Book of Revelation is only part of the reveal plan of God.
Many books have been written on the end times. Many have differing views and theologies. They can be so difficult to understand. Study of end time prophecies can be like a a big jigsaw puzzle. What are the signs and events we should be looking for? What is our road map? How does this all fit together? For example, how many of us understand every word in the Book of Revelation?
In this sermon series, we are going to see what Jesus himself had to say about the end times. The disciples were asking similar questions and we will start with what Jesus had to say to them.
Jesus talks about His second coming and the times of the end in many different places, and we will touch on many of them. Our study in this series will look at what many call as Jesus’ Olivet Discourse, from Matthew 24-25, for Jesus came with this teaching to His disciples on the Mount of Olives.
For the next few weeks we will looking at Matthew 24:1-24. Today we will look at verses 1-3, the questions the disciples asked that prompted Jesus to have this teaching. We look at His teachings, diligently compare with other scriptures, and try and let the Word speak for itself.
Matthew 24:1–3
A fundamental concept in when we look at Scripture interpretation, as the Holy Spirit guides us, is what did these words mean to the original audience? Part of that is putting the words of Scripture into context. What is the background? To more fully understand the question the disciples were asking, we have to back up to chapter 23. Jesus was giving his last public teaching in the Temple, and He was raking the scribes and Pharisees over the coals, giving them “what for.” This was just a couple of days prior to His crucifixion. We read in Matthew 23:13-36 Jesus gives eight “woes” to them. The seventh “woe” is the root of their problems:
Matthew 23:27–28 “Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! For you are like whitewashed tombs which on the outside appear beautiful, but inside they are full of dead men’s bones and all uncleanness. 28 So you, too, outwardly appear righteous to men, but inwardly you are full of hypocrisy and lawlessness.
These scribes and Pharisees appear as holy men, but Jesus knows their heart. The Jewish people (especially the scribes, Pharisees and priests and the other professional holy men) had missed out on what God had for them. So Jesus laments or mourns over Jerusalem:
Matthew 23:37–39 “Jerusalem, Jerusalem, who kills the prophets and stones those who are sent to her! How often I wanted to gather your children together, the way a hen gathers her chicks under her wings, and you were unwilling. 38 Behold, your house is being left to you desolate! 39 For I say to you, from now on you will not see Me until you say, ‘BLESSED IS HE WHO COMES IN THE NAME OF THE LORD!’ ”
From here on out, the Temple in Jerusalem holds no further factor in salvation history. The temple is now no longer the central place of worship. It had been the place where the people met God, but now, location for worship is not important. Now to worship God, Jesus told the woman at the well:
John 4:23 But an hour is coming, and now is, when the true worshipers will worship the Father in spirit and truth; for such people the Father seeks to be His worshipers.
Jesus told this woman that location was now no longer important. But as for the temple, Jesus tells them, “Behold, your house is being left to you desolate!” When Jesus said this, it was very similar as what we read in Ezekiel 10-11 where God’s glory departed from the first temple, the temple that Solomon built. Jesus, like the glory of God, is leaving this temple, the second temple, the magnificent structure that Herod the Great hat built, now Jesus leaves for the last time. Jesus will not come on to the Temple Mount again until he returns at His second coming.
“For I say to you, from now on you will not see Me” In fact, according the Scripture, after the resurrection, no one but believers ever see see Jesus again. That brings us to our focal verses.
Matthew 24:1 Jesus came out from the temple and was going away when His disciples came up to point out the temple buildings to Him.
If we skip ahead to chapter 26, we learn that Jesus was heading for Bethany, the home of Lazarus and His sisters, for it was in this town where Jesus was staying. We learn in chapter 21 that Jesus stayed in Bethany that last week before His Crucifixion and commuted daily to Jerusalem. Bethany lies just on the east side of the Mount of Olives, so the Mount had to be crossed to get there. The Mount of Olives is grand place to view the city of Jerusalem and especially the temple mount. The Mount of Olives lies just to the east of Jerusalem and and from the mount you look west to see the city.
Even today, if you go to the top of the mount, and stand in the parking lot of the Mount of Olives Hotel (Seven Arches Hotel) you would have a beautiful picturesque view of the city, and especially the temple mount where the Moslem shrine, the Dome of the Rock sits. This dome sit where many archeologists and tradition place the original location of the Temple.
If Herod’s Temple still stood today, it would be considered one of the wonders of the ancient world. In Mark’s parallel passage (Mark 13:1), the disciples point out to Jesus the huge stones with which the temple was constructed. These 12’x12’x12’ stones, are how many tons each? How did they move those stones? It was a magnificent sight to behold, with all that white marble and gold trimming. Even if it was standing today, it would take your breath away.
Considering the disciples were country boys, fishermen, who now are in the big city, they were blown away. Considering what Jesus just said about Jerusalem and leaving the temple, they could not help but say to Jesus, “Look at these great buildings! Look at these huge stones used to construct it!” But Jesus was unimpressed. He said to them:
Matthew 24:2 And He said to them, “Do you not see all these things? Truly I say to you, not one stone here will be left upon another, which will not be torn down.”
What was Jesus talking about? The very popular Jewish mindset was that with such a magnificent structure, a place where we can go and meet God, that God would ever let His house be destroyed. After all, God said His name would be there forever (2 Kings 9:3). The temple was their security blanket. In Jeremiah’s day, they had the same “Temple Theology” As the forces of Babylon was gathering against them, God said to them:
Jeremiah 7:4 Do not trust in deceptive words, saying, ‘This is the temple of the LORD, the temple of the LORD, the temple of the LORD.’
The threefold repetition of “the Temple of the LORD” showed how strongly they felt about the Temple and it became their “Temple theology.” But what happen? Nebuchadnezzar leveled the temple in 582 BC and when Jesus said “not one stone here will be left upon another” this was quite literally fulfilled some 40 years later in 70 AD when the temple was destroyed again.
In fact when the Romans went up against Jerusalem in 70 AD, the Roman general Titus tried to save the temple, but when his soldiers put the torch to the temple to burn it, it was so hot the gold melted and went between the stones. To get at the gold, the soldiers had to remove the stones one by one, and not one stone was left on top of another.
This prophecy really disturbed the disciples, so the disciples naturally had a few questions.
Matthew 24:3 As He was sitting on the Mount of Olives, the disciples came to Him privately, saying, “Tell us, when will these things happen, and what will be the sign of Your coming, and of the end of the age?”
They went to Jesus privately. What followed was not a public teaching, but a private teaching to his disciples. If Jesus went public with this, that would raise quite a stir if Jesus had spoken all that followed to everyone. “Tell us, when will these things happen, and what will be the sign of Your coming, and of the end of the age?” To the Disciples, this was one question. The destruction of the temple to them would signal the end of the age. To the Jew, there was only two ages, the present age, the age of evil, the age which we all are in now, and the age to come, when the Messiah would come and rule. But these are different questions. The first question: “When will these things happen” referred to the destruction of the temple. Jesus does not answer this question here in Matthew but Luke records His answer in a parallel passage:
Luke 21:20–22 “But when you see Jerusalem surrounded by armies, then recognize that her desolation is near. 21 Then those who are in Judea must flee to the mountains, and those who are in the midst of the city must leave, and those who are in the country must not enter the city; 22 because these are days of vengeance, so that all things which are written will be fulfilled.
“Days of vengeance” was God's vengeance, not the Roman vengeance against Jerusalem. In some translations (NIV) will have “time of punishment.” What was Jerusalem being punished for?
In Daniel 9:24-27 is the prophecy of 70 weeks for Israel (This will be discussed in more detail on our Wednesday Evening Bible Study). At the end of the 69th week, the Messiah will come, and be cut off. This coming of the Messiah was Jesus at His triumphal entry into Jerusalem. But you know what happen five days later. The Messiah, the King, was rejected, and now God will have His punishment against Jerusalem, and whole city and the temple was destroyed in 70 AD because they rejected their King.
That has happened. It is important to understand the importance of these short term prophecies. If the short term prophecies are fulfilled exacted as they said it will be, so will the long term prophecies. The rest of that passage from luke stated:
Luke 21:23–24 Woe to those who are pregnant and to those who are nursing babies in those days; for there will be great distress upon the land and wrath to this people; 24 and they will fall by the edge of the sword, and will be led captive into all the nations; and Jerusalem will be trampled under foot by the Gentiles until the times of the Gentiles are fulfilled.
To the Jew, there are only two kinds of people in the world, Jews and Gentiles. “The times of the Gentiles” is the time we are now in. It has only been in the 80+ past years that Israel as become a nation again, and only since 1967 after the 7 day war that Israel has had control over all of Jerusalem. But, we are still in the time of the Gentiles because the most holy part of Jerusalem, the Temple Mount, is still under the control and dominance of the Gentiles, namely the Muslim Wakf.
Do you realize, we are on the very verge of seeing scripture being fulfilled before our very eyes. When is the end of the time of Gentiles? When is the end of the age? What are the signs of Jesus coming? These questions are quite a bit difference from the destruction of the Temple.
What is our take-away from this? If God did not spare His own people, His own Temple, what make us think God will spare America if we publicly reject Him also?
Jesus makes His answer in the rest of chapter 24 and into chapter 25. His answers deals with warnings and of prophecy of tribulations to come (we will cover in the weeks to come).
Please do not say we don’t have to worry about these things like the tribulation because the church will be raptured. I had a seminary professor challenge me on this. I asked him, a professor of hermeneutics (Bible interpretation) and Greek, about the rapture of the church before the tribulation. This man knew Greek better than I know English. All he said was “Really? Where does it say that?” He challenged me to look for myself. There are many godly men that have varying views on this: Pre-tribulation rapture, post-tribulation rapture, and mid tribulation rapture. The fact is, they all cannot be right, and the very real possibility exist that they all may be wrong. I believe the Holy Spirit has not revealed the proper interpretation for these passages yet. Even Daniel asked about these things that he wrote down and was told that it was sealed up till the end (Daniel 12:8-10). The revealing of the truth of it all is coming, and when the the Holy Spirit does open our eyes and our understanding to these things, we will be amazed and say the words were alway before us but we failed to see it.
In the meanwhile, we must be like the Bereans:
Acts 17:11 Now these were more noble-minded than those in Thessalonica, for they received the word with great eagerness, examining the Scriptures daily to see whether these things were so.
We will be examining these things that Jesus says in these two chapters over the next couple of months and on Wednesday evenings.
If you take away nothing else form this message today and from this sermon series, take this away, Jesus is coming again. Are you ready? Have you made your decision for Him? Are you living for Him now? These things are urgent. If you wait till Jesus does come, or if you wait till He gives you your last heart heartbeat, it will be too late. There may be no tomorrow to accept Him as Lord and Savior. As it is written “Behold, now is “the acceptable time,” behold, now is “the day of salvation” (2 Corinthians 6:2b).
