The Protocol For The Parousia

The Protocol for the Parousia

Matthew 24:1-14

24 And Jesus went out, and departed from the temple: and his disciples came to him for to shew him the buildings of the temple.

2 And Jesus said unto them, See ye not all these things? verily I say unto you, There shall not be left here one stone upon another, that shall not be thrown down.

3 And as he sat upon the mount of Olives, the disciples came unto him privately, saying, Tell us, when shall these things be? and what shall be the sign of thy coming, and of the end of the world?

4 And Jesus answered and said unto them, Take heed that no man deceive you.

5 For many shall come in my name, saying, I am Christ; and shall deceive many.

6 And ye shall hear of wars and rumours of wars: see that ye be not troubled: for all these things must come to pass, but the end is not yet.

7 For nation shall rise against nation, and kingdom against kingdom: and there shall be famines, and pestilences, and earthquakes, in divers places.

8 All these are the beginning of sorrows.

9 Then shall they deliver you up to be afflicted, and shall kill you: and ye shall be hated of all nations for my name's sake.

10 And then shall many be offended, and shall betray one another, and shall hate one another.

11 And many false prophets shall rise, and shall deceive many.

12 And because iniquity shall abound, the love of many shall wax cold.

13 But he that shall endure unto the end, the same shall be saved.

14 And this gospel of the kingdom shall be preached in all the world for a witness unto all nations; and then shall the end come.

Introduction: There is absolutely no question that the events of this time are pointing towards the end of the world. If you believe what the Scriptures have to say about the end times then it is obvious that the end is near and that Jesus will be coming soon. Jesus had a great deal to say about this subject and it can be found here in our text and in Luke 12, Mark 13 and in out text today. We are surrounded by events and developments that could interpreted as signs of the end. On every hand we see famines, earthquakes, disasters, troubles, persecutions, wars, and rumors of wars.

I. Don’t Be Fooled vs 1-5

4 And Jesus answered and said unto them, Take heed that no man deceive you.

5 For many shall come in my name, saying, I am Christ; and shall deceive many.

a. “Take heed that no man deceive you.” The danger of deception.

It is interesting to note that the Lord’s begins His answer with a warning. He knew that in the end of things that man would be especially susceptible to false teaching.

b. “Many shall come in my name” The most dangerous enemy is a religious enemy.

Satan can change his appearance and conceal his identity in many ways. He is described as a serpent, a lion and an angel. He is the most dangerous in the latter of the three.

c. “And shall deceive many.” It will be a time of widespread apostasy.

No matter how we may feel about the others signs of the times, apostasy is with today and it is pervasive. We live in a time when many of our largest protestant groups no longer adhere to the inspiration and inerrancy of Scripture and have openly embraced the kinds of behavior that formerly was condemned.

II. Don’t Be Frightened vs 6-8

6 And ye shall hear of wars and rumours of wars: see that ye be not troubled: for all these things must come to pass, but the end is not yet.

7 For nation shall rise against nation, and kingdom against kingdom: and there shall be famines, and pestilences, and earthquakes, in divers places.

8 All these are the beginning of sorrows.

9 Then shall they deliver you up to be afflicted, and shall kill you: and ye shall be hated of all nations for my name's sake.

10 And then shall many be offended, and shall betray one another, and shall hate one another.

When Luke penned his Gospel things in the world were heating up. The Roman Empire were fed up with all the problems being constantly stirred up by the Jews so they sent their army to deal with this rebel nation. This is why during the time of our Lord Jesus when Matthew was in our Lord’s very presence and heard these words where our Lord spoke of the near future disasters as described in chapter 24.

Now what we read in chapter 12 of the Gospel of Luke takes on some new understanding. Our Lord has warned all the people now reading both Luke’s and Matthew’s Gospel that Jerusalem was going to be destroyed. If the people wanted to save their families lives then they needed to flee soon. Put yourselves in their position. Will the destruction come in their lifetimes or is it speaking about some distant period in human history. The people were concerned about all that they had invested in with their property, positions, and possessions. So, our Lord is teaching them about how to think properly look again at what He says about all the worldly pursuits. – “22 Then He said to His disciples, Three things come to mind: