THE OLIVET DISCOURSE - A SERIOUS LOOK AT MATTHEW 24 AND REVELATION 6 IN PARALLEL – PART 3
Welcome back. In this address I have been trying to show the strong link with Matthew 24 and Revelation chapter 6. This proves that there is no Rapture in Matthew 24. It is all about the Tribulation and the Second Coming. If you have come in at this point in the text, then you need to read PART 1 to get the whole setting and the background that proves Matthew 24 is not the Rapture. God bless you.
STILL CONTINUING SIGN NUMBER 6
{{Matthew 24:27-30 “Just as the lightning comes from the east and flashes even to the west, so shall the coming of the Son of Man be. Wherever the corpse is, there the vultures will gather, but immediately after the tribulation of those days the sun will be darkened, and the moon will not give its light and the stars will fall from the sky and the powers of the heavens will be shaken, and then the sign of the Son of Man will appear in the sky, and then all the tribes of the earth will mourn, and they will see the Son of Man coming on the clouds of the sky with power and great glory.”}}
In verses 27-30 of Matthew 24, the cosmic signs of the Lord’s Second Coming are given and replicate many of the Old Testament signs for The Day of the Lord. This is the Lord coming back in power and glory. Straight after verse 31 of Matthew 24, we have these remarkable verses:-
{{Matthew 24 v 32 - 33 “Now learn the parable from the fig tree: when its branch has already become tender, and puts forth its leaves, you know that summer is near. Even so you too, when you see all these things, recognise that He is near, right at the door.”}}
The disciples had been asking about the signs of the Lord’s coming and He gave those in verses 4 to 14 (the beginning ones) and in v 29 - 31. Now He follows that by the parable, which in its context, has to be understood as belonging to the period immediately before the Second coming. What Jesus is saying, is that when you (He means the Tribulation saints) begin to see those cosmic signs mentioned in Matthew 24 v 29 - 31 (and also in the Old Testament Prophets such as Joel) then it is like the fig tree which heralds summer when the tender branches and leaves are showing. Summer will be His Second Coming outlined in this chapter, and in the Old Testament passages and Revelation 19.
I know this passage - verses 32 – 33, is used for the Rapture sometimes, but it does not really fit there, and is wrong to do so because it drags the Rapture into Matthew 24 and there is NO rapture or Church in Matthew 24. (Look back at the Introduction in PART 1) Perhaps we could say that currently the fig tree (Israel) is budding because the fig tree is a type of Israel. It is getting close. It is very close.
SIGN NUMBER 7:- Well the 7 th seal in Revelation 6 opens into the Trumpet and Bowl judgments, and Matthew does not touch on the details of this severe time of wrath, but covers, as we have seen, the “beginning of sorrows” or “the beginning of the birth pains”.
[D]. THE GOSPEL OF THE KINGDOM: Matthew 24 v 14
{{Matthew 24 v 13-14 “but the one who endures to the end, he shall be saved. This GOSPEL OF THE KINGDOM shall be preached in the whole world for a witness to all the nations, and then the end shall come. “}}
All right, now we must consider this Gospel of the Kingdom to see what it is. This is essential as there is much confusion over it. The term “Gospel of the Kingdom” is exclusive to Matthew, the Jewish Gospel, and has to be understood as the Kingdom to be set up in Israel over which the Lord is the King-Messiah. Remember, neither the Church nor the gospel of grace is in Matthew 24.
John the Baptist came preaching that Gospel of the Kingdom:- {{Matthew 3 v 1-2 Now in those days John the Baptist came, preaching in the wilderness of Judea, saying, “Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is at hand.”}} His message was that the Messiah-King was about to come to set up the Kingdom in Israel. Repentance and confession in the waters of baptism meant entry into that Kingdom. John could only have referred to the Kingdom as known in the Old Testament, as he was the last of the Old Testament prophets. He preached that the Kingdom was at hand. That kingdom could only come through a national repentance and acceptance of the rightful King and that is what John the Baptist preached. There was no way would he be preaching “the Christian gospel” as Jesus had not gone to Calvary.
Jesus began His ministry the same way, preaching the same Gospel of the Kingdom:- {{Matthew 4 v 23 “And Jesus was going about in all Galilee, teaching in their synagogues, and proclaiming the gospel of the kingdom, and healing every kind of disease and every kind of sickness among the people.”}} He preached this very same Gospel that John preached - that of repentance and entry into the Kingdom. Here it is mentioned again:- {{Matthew 9 v 35 “And Jesus was going about all the cities and the villages, teaching in their synagogues, and proclaiming the gospel of the kingdom, and healing every kind of disease and every kind of sickness.”}}
The next mention of the Gospel of the Kingdom oddly does not occur again until Matt 24. Why is this? Why did Jesus stop preaching it? What had happened? Well the Bible is clear on that point also when we look into it. This is the very crucial changing point:-
{{Matthew 12:1-4 “At that time Jesus went on the Sabbath through the grain fields and His disciples became hungry and began to pick the heads of grain and eat, but when the Pharisees saw it they said to Him, “Behold, Your disciples do what is not lawful to do on a Sabbath,” but He said to them, “Have you not read what David did when he became hungry, he and his companions - how he entered the house of God and they ate the consecrated bread which was not lawful for him to eat, nor for those with him, but for the priests alone?”}}
Okay, what does that have to do with it? When you read the passage in context you find that the rightful king of Israel, David, is fleeing for His life in REJECTION FROM HIS THRONE pursued by Absalom I think it was. Because the nation had rejected the Law and the rightful king, then David could eat what was not allowed to be eaten, as the nation had set the Law aside and made it invalid. OR, to put it another way, the fact that the holy bread was eaten meant that the rightful king was in rejection and could eat blamelessly. What Jesus is doing is carefully paralleling Himself and David. He was now in rejection so it is quite okay for Him to eat as He did of the grain. Except for a few faithful ones, the nation had rejected His message.
No more would the nation hear the Gospel of the kingdom until the days of the Great Tribulation. Not long after this incident we now read these very crucial words:- {{Matthew 16 v 21 “FROM THAT TIME Jesus Christ began to show His disciples that He must go to Jerusalem, and suffer many things from the elders and chief priests and scribes, and be killed, and be raised up on the third day.”}} There we see the complete change in His ministry because His own people rejected their rightful King. {{John 1 v 11 He came to His own, and those who were His own did not receive Him.”}} Because of the fall of Israel salvation has gone out to the whole Gentile world.
Let us look further at this Gospel of the Kingdom as it will be preached in the Tribulation:- God has assigned 144 000 sealed Jews to be sealed to preach this gospel (Revelation chapter 7). They will naturally all be Jews and will be like the powerful Apostle Paul as he hinted in this great statement:- {{1Corinthians 15 v 7-8 “then He appeared to James, then to all the apostles; and last of all, as it were to one UNTIMELY BORN, He appeared to me also.”}} The method of Paul’s salvation will be similar to the way God will take up those 144 000 as the Church is no longer in the earth.
Every one (or many) of these will be killed for his faithful preaching:- {{Revelation 6 v 11 “And there was given to each of them a white robe; and they were told that they should rest for a little while longer, until the number of their fellow servants and their brethren who were to be killed even as they had been, should be completed also.”}} But that preaching is so successful - this Gospel of the Kingdom preaching, which is that the kingdom of God is at hand and about to be established on the earth - it is so successful that many are saved and these are the ones who will enter into His kingdom (which is what Matthew 25 is about). This is the record of those saved through that preaching:- {{Revelation 7 v 9 “After these things I looked, and behold, a great multitude, which no one could count, from every nation and all tribes and peoples and tongues, standing before the throne and before the Lamb, clothed in white robes, and palm branches were in their hands;”}}
[E]. INSTRUCTIONS TO THE JEWISH TRIBULATION SAINTS:- Matthew 24 v 15 - 26.
The Lord gives instructions, spoken to His immediate disciples in Matthew 24, but actually addressing His Tribulation believers, the Jewish saints, especially those in Jerusalem but I will not now expand on that for the sake of length, except for this important section:- {{Matthew 24 v 21-22 for then there will be a great tribulation, such as has not occurred since the beginning of the world until now, nor ever shall, and unless those days had been cut short, no life would have been saved, but for the sake of the elect those days shall be cut short.”}} Note the description - there is no doubt exactly where we are there in that biblical account. The timing is indisputable. This is the Great Tribulation like no other. That needs to be vitally understood. This is right bang in the Tribulation. It can not be transferred to the Church. It can not be set in the Church age. Matthew 24 has nothing to do with the Church for it is Jewish. The elect are Jews in this chapter. The Rapture does not happen in Matthew 24.
[F]. THE SECOND COMING. Matthew 24 v 29 - 44
In the next few verses right up to verse 28 we see the activity of false messiahs as the Second Coming gets closer. I will not expand that part either. Then we very quickly come to the Second Coming itself but note so carefully exactly how the verse begins:- {{Matthew 24 v 29-30 “But immediately after the tribulation of those days the sun will be darkened, and the moon will not give its light, and the stars will fall from the sky, and the powers of the heavens will be shaken, and then the sign of the Son of Man will appear in the sky, and then all the tribes of the earth will mourn, and they will see the Son of Man coming on the clouds of the sky with power and great glory.”}} The Lord mentions “After the tribulation of those days”. As the 7 years draw to a close, then serious activity will happen just before His coming – After the downfall of religious and commercial Babylon (Revelation 17 and 18) false christs, cosmic and stellar signs. There will be no doubting then that the Messiah’s Second Coming is so close. See Revelation 19 v 1-11 for His coming, but the Old Testament prophets give many references.
A section to look at:- {{Matthew 24 v 36 “But of that day and hour no one knows, not even the angels of heaven, nor the Son, but the Father alone.”}} The Jewish disciples awaiting His coming at the end of the Tribulation are told that no one knows the exact day or hour. Yes, we know it is 7 years after the rapture but those 7 years I suspect won’t start straight away after the Rapture, but very soon after it, and begin with the treaty of peace the World Leader draws up with Israel for 7 years. These are literal days and hours. Yes, no one can exactly pin point it apart from 7 years.
[G]. THOSE IN THE FIELD AND AT THE MILL
Now here is another matter that is misunderstood. It is this passage:- {{Matthew 24 v 37-42 “The coming of the Son of Man will be just like the days of Noah, for as in those days which were before the flood they were eating and drinking, they were marrying and giving in marriage until the day that Noah entered the ark, and they did not understand until the flood came and took them all away - so shall the coming of the Son of Man be. Then there shall be two men in the field - one will be taken and one will be left. Two women will be grinding at the mill - one will be taken, and one will be left. Therefore be on the alert, for you do not know which day your Lord is coming. “}}
I will say most clearly that this does not mean the Rapture. IT IS NOT the Rapture but is the Second Coming. To apply it to the Rapture is to misapply these verses. Let us look at this to see why. Firstly the chapter is set in the Tribulation and develops point after point relating to the world THEN, and to the Jews, and we are given this passage. To apply it to the Rapture by then skipping back over time is totally out of place with the context. That time is likened to Noah’s day.
The usual interpretation many give to explain those verses is that it is the Rapture and that the Lord comes to take the saved and leaves behind the unsaved. He takes the “Christian” at the mill and in the field and leaves behind the others. In fact the exact opposite is the truth, and the error comes from making it fit the Rapture, which it is not meant to do. Let me ask, “In the time of Noah, who were left behind? Who were taken away, taken away in judgment?” Why even Jesus used this exact term here, “the flood came and took them all away”. Who were taken away? Why, the unbelievers of course, and the righteous were left behind to inherit a new earth (Noah’s family). Can you see how clear that is? And just to be absolutely sure, the Lord adds the words, “so shall the coming of the Son of Man be.” There you have it - the unrighteous will be taken away in judgement, and the righteous saints are left to inherit the Kingdom Christ sets up on earth, the Millennial Kingdom on His return at the Second Coming. The Rapture is the opposite when the righteous are taken and the unrighteous left behind. Matthew 25 follows on with illustrative parables.
Matthew 24 is set in the Tribulation, and once that is understood, then everything in it flows naturally in understanding. The Rapture and the Second Coming CAN NOT be mixed and confused.
That brings us to the end of the study on Matthew 24 and Revelation 6 and how they slot in so perfectly.
ronaldf@aapt.net.au
