He is Near, at the Very Gates

There is something enjoyable about certainty in life, isn’t there? I can speak, especially for young men, that it seems the younger I was, the more certain I was about everything! I can remember vividly as a boy, looking at a bottle of water and seeing the writing 16 FL OZ, and having recently learned my State abbreviations, I was absolutely certain that meant that the bottle contained 16 “Florida” ounces.

I wish every case of being proven wrong in my certainty was that trivial. But life has a way of humbling us, and we are reminded time and time again that we need to constantly go back to a sure source. The only “certainty” in life really comes from outside of us. It comes from God Himself.

This has much relevance when we start thinking about end-times prophecy, and the scriptures concerning them. If you were part of the Sunday School series in Revelation that we just finished a couple of weeks ago, you will know that Matt highlighted several views of end-times prophecy, or “Eschatology” that are common in the church.

There are those who practically build an entire church centered around one particular view of eschatology or another. In that, there is a kind of certainty that goes beyond what we can know for sure from scripture.

There are some basics of what we can know, from the Bible, about the things to come. We know that Jesus is coming. We saw that in Sunday School this morning, as we began studying the book of Acts together. In the same manner than Jesus ascended to heaven, we are told that he will come back. He told his disciples in John 14, If I go to prepare a place, I will come back. The fact that Jesus is coming again is just as certain as the fact that he departed from this earth.

Another certainty that we have concerning things to come, is that there will be great tribulation. Jesus promised, also in the book of John chapter 16, that in the world we will have trouble/tribulation, but that we should take heart and take courage, because Christ has overcome the world.

Knowing that we will have this experience of tribulation, we begin to ask the same questions that the disciples asked - the questions that are being answered in Matthew 24. When will these things be? What are the signs?

We have to keep those questions in mind as we continue through this chapter, and we also have to keep in mind that the disciples asked those questions after Jesus predicted the destruction of the temple, which would happen just 40 years later.

When we read the words of Jesus honestly, we have to admit that we are still left with some big questions, but Jesus provides some answers that give us what we need to know, and what we need to be certain about.

Because of Jesus’ answers to the disciples’ questions, we must know that Jesus is near, at the very gates, and that His return may come at any time.

Concerning the Destruction of the Temple - Vs. 15-28

Keeping in mind that Jesus is answering two questions, “when will these things take place?” is one of those questions, and It seems very likely that Jesus is speaking to that particular question as we pick up in verse 15.

The abomination of desolation. That is literally, an abomination which makes desolate. Jesus is referring back to the prophecy in Daniel which looked forward to in Daniel 9, 11, and 12. There was an event, during the days of the Macebees, where the Greek King Antiochus Epiphanes sacrificed a pig on the temple altar, and at the same time caused much destruction around the temple. Many Jews looked at this as the fulfillment of Daniel’s prophecy, and it might have been in part. But Jesus surely looks ahead to something else that will happen.

This “abomination which makes desolate” could be a person, it could be an event, it is worded in such a way as to leave it ambiguous, but this would certainly coincide with a destruction of the Temple. Unclean and unworthy individuals entering the holy place and the holy of holies, and causing utter destruction is nothing less than abomination and desolation.

Matthew includes a little note, “let the reader understand,” because he insinuates that some understanding is needed to see the significance of this, but at the very least, we are being told that this is going to fulfill prophecy, it needs to happen, be aware of it.

Another reason that it seems this ties into the destruction of the temple is that Jesus indicates it is Judea-central. This will be a time, in short and local history, where his followers and those around need to pay utmost heed and take these serious warnings.

It will be an awful time - woe for those who have difficulty travelling, like pregnant women and those with young nursing infants. Woe to those if it comes in winter when there was frequent rains and bad weather, or on a sabbath day when it will be difficult to buy resources necessary to leave indefinitely.

Jesus warns his disciples, that in this event, destruction will come so quickly that there won’t be any time to hope that it turns out ok. There won’t be any sense in staying to fight. It will be swift, and terrible. The ones who are relaxing on their housetops, which was so common in that day, shouldn’t even stop to gather their belongings on their way down and out of their homes.

And this terrible event did happen. Jesus promised of the Glorious temple, “there will not be one stone upon another that will not be thrown down.” And this utter destruction took place in AD 70.

But that was not the end, or even the worst, of things that will come.

Jesus goes on, in verse 21, and says “then, there will be great tribulation…”

The word “then” is important, and it does not simply mean “at the same time” or “around the same time,” it is specifically subsequent in time. So it is not at this time it will be great tribulation, such as has never been seen, but once these things happen, great tribulation will begin.

There are a couple different “problems” here, which are not problems with scripture, just problems when we try to understand, and I want to highlight them and maybe it will help you see how I’m thinking.

One, if we take the “great tribulation” here as being the events of the siege of Jerusalem/destruction of the temple in 70, then it seems Jesus is greatly exaggerating when he says it is greater tribulation than the world has ever seen, and ever will see. Surely, it was awful, but it didn’t even come close to disasters that would happen in the future, and even some that had happened in the past.

Another, though, if we take all of this to be something that is not going to happen in the future, just before Jesus comes, then Jesus must have been wrong when he says in verse 34 that the disciples’ generation wouldn’t pass away until these things happen.

In fact, that statement in verse 34 keeps us in check for a lot of what Jesus says here, because everything that Jesus describes, except the actual second coming, would happen, according to Him, before the current generation passed away. So there must be a way in which Jesus can speak both of the distant future, like His second coming, which has not taken place yet even though nearly 2,000 years have passed, but also speak into that very generation which was standing before Him.

And that is exactly why I think that the desolation, abomination, and destruction of the temple were the beginning here, and the “then” in verse 21, refers to tribulation that would happen, and is happening, during the whole church age after those events.

And this is not hard to believe, because the most awful events in world history have happened in not so distant years. When we think of mass death, destruction, murder, disease, things have not gotten better, but worse. So Jesus was right then, the tribulation would be such that the world had never seen. And it is.

Then, speaking to those who would experience that destruction and the start of great tribulation, Jesus reiterates some of the warnings we saw in verse 5 and verse 11. In other words, don’t be alarmed, don’t be led astray, don’t believe every wind of promise that you hear.

Things will get so bad, in this tribulation time, that if it is not cut short by the Second Coming of Christ, then all would eventually go to utter destruction at the hands of evil men. Yet, there is great hope here, because for the sake of the Elect, God’s chosen followers, the days will be cut short. The world will not fall into utter destruction at the hands of evil men.

This is very pertinent to us, because besides all the cults who predict and try to say that Christ is coming back on a certain day, or that he has already come back in a mysterious spiritual sense, we also have people who don’t know the Lord who tell us that we will plunge the earth into certain doom by our behaviors, by our emissions, by our overpopulation, etc. We should be good stewards, as we are called to keep the earth, but it is in the Lord’s hands when the ultimate end will come, and it will not come at the hands or by the power of mankind.

So the encouragement from the beginning of the chapter continues. Don’t be alarmed, don’t be led astray, because when Christ comes, it will be undeniable and unmistakable. For, as verse 27 says, as lightning comes from the east and shines as far as the west, so will the coming of the Son of Man be.

Verse 28 can be taken in two ways, and I think they are both fitting. One, it gives a picture of sure judgment. That is how luke uses the same phrase in Luke 17. But on the other hand, it can be taken to show how all people will be drawn to see the awe and wonder of Christ upon his return. Nobody will mistake it for a mere astronomical event, and it won’t be in secret.

Before we move on, Even if you don’t agree with every detail of my interpretation, I believe we can agree that we are in tribulation, just as jesus predicted.

John 16:33 ESV

I have said these things to you, that in me you may have peace. In the world you will have tribulation. But take heart; I have overcome the world.”

You can disagree with a lot of what I have said if you hold a particular end-times view, but we must be aware that tribulation is not a future thing for us, it is a now thing for us. But just as sure as tribulation is a now thing, so is Christ’s overcoming of the world.

Concerning the Signs of His Coming - Vs. 29-31

So, keeping in mind that Jesus is speaking both into the experience of his own generation, and the future generations that will be alive at his coming, he goes on and gives some details about what things will be like when he comes.

Remember, he has already said that it would be like unto lightning from the eastern sky to the western sky - nobody will miss it or mistake it.

When we speak of Christ’s return, we have to think of it in at least two ways. There is a wonderful, joyous, and desirable aspect of his coming for those who are his children, his followers. That aspect comes in verse 31.

Matthew 24:31 ESV

And he will send out his angels with a loud trumpet call, and they will gather his elect from the four winds, from one end of heaven to the other.

This is the part that we rejoice in and long for, and we should. Christ is coming back for his own people. He is a bridegroom, returning for his bride. He is a leader, returning for his followers. He is a rescuer, coming to pull us out from the pit. He is a brother, saving his little brothers and sisters from sure destruction.

This will be a glorious time, an unmistakable time. Paul describes this time this way in 1 Corinthians 15.

1 Corinthians 15:51–52 ESV

Behold! I tell you a mystery. We shall not all sleep, but we shall all be changed, in a moment, in the twinkling of an eye, at the last trumpet. For the trumpet will sound, and the dead will be raised imperishable, and we shall be changed.

And again, in 1 Thessalonians this way.

1 Thessalonians 4:16 ESV

For the Lord himself will descend from heaven with a cry of command, with the voice of an archangel, and with the sound of the trumpet of God. And the dead in Christ will rise first.

There is even reason to believe that this imagery goes back to the Prophet Isaiah, who pictured this.

Isaiah 27:13 ESV

And in that day a great trumpet will be blown, and those who were lost in the land of Assyria and those who were driven out to the land of Egypt will come and worship the Lord on the holy mountain at Jerusalem.

A time of resurrection, a time of angel-sending, trumpet-blast-announcement, gathering of saints and children together, dead or alive, from all parts of heaven and earth. This is the joy of Christ’s coming.

But before Jesus describes the joy of the coming, he describes a terror also.

Matthew 24:29–30 ESV

“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 heaven, and the powers of the heavens will be shaken. Then will appear in heaven the sign of the Son of Man, and then all the tribes of the earth will mourn, and they will see the Son of Man coming on the clouds of heaven with power and great glory.

This description, for those who are not the bride, the chosen ones, the believers, is a description of darkness, of shaking, of removal of powers, of mourning.

Again, this coming will be unmistakable. All the tribes of earth will be able to see this “sign of the Son of Man.”

Some have debated over what the sign will be. Will it be a cross? Will it be a star? Will it be a pillar of cloud, or a pillar of fire like in the days of Moses?

Perhaps, though, it will not be a “sign” that they will see, but rather the “sign” will be the Son of Man Himself. It will be just as promised.

Acts 1:9–11 ESV

And when he had said these things, as they were looking on, he was lifted up, and a cloud took him out of their sight. And while they were gazing into heaven as he went, behold, two men stood by them in white robes, and said, “Men of Galilee, why do you stand looking into heaven? This Jesus, who was taken up from you into heaven, will come in the same way as you saw him go into heaven.”

If Jesus’ first coming was humble, was low, was quiet, was poor and even a bit embarrasing. If his first coming was awkward, and even those from his own town rejected him, then his second coming will be grand, glorious, unmistakable, awe and fear-inducing.

All the tribes of the earth - not just the 12 tribes of Israel, but all the tribes of the whole earth will see the unmistakable power and glory of Christ at his coming.

Jesus is saying this to answer the question, “what will be the signs of your coming at the end of the age?”

Remember, in the beginning of the chapter, jesus described wars, rumors of wars, tribulation, persecution, the turmoil of nations, famines, earthquakes, and all these dreadful things not as signs of his coming, but as signs that he is coming.

The only sign, then, of His coming, is his coming. Later we will read that no man, no angel, not even the Son knows the day or the hour. So Jesus is not predicting or giving a timeline here, he is simply saying, it will be obvious. It will be terror-inducing for some, but awe and wonder inducing for those who he comes to gather.

We should be encouraged, because on the last day, not one of God’s people will be missing.

Concerning the Things to Come - Vs. 32-35

From this point on in this Olivet Discourse, Matthew 24-25, Jesus speaks much in the language of Parables. There are two main parables, the parable of the ten Virgins and the parable of the Talents, and those parables show how his followers are to live in expectation of his coming.

But he starts here in verse 32 with a little short parable, which is not a parable in story-form, but just a parable of comparison.

Jesus uses a fig tree as a comparison for the nearness of His coming. And he does so in a way that we can easily understand. He looks at the fig tree in springtime, and says that is what all these signs are like.

I have heard that many of the trees in that area, especially in the lower country, remain green for much of the year. But the fig tree goes through a more pronounced early and late season, losing its leaves and dramatically coming back to life in spring, like we are used to here.

We have been watching the leaves pop out and green up here in our homes this spring, and we know that is a sign. It is spring. Warm weather is coming, summer is near.

The leaves don’t bring summer, and they don’t decisively say, “summer is here!” but they do tell us it is surely coming. And so it is with the coming of the Son of Man, the coming of Jesus Christ in Judgment and in Glory.

In verses 33 and 34, Jesus makes some summary statements, and he uses the phrase “all these things” twice.

Matthew 24:33–34 ESV

So also, when you see all these things, you know that he is near, at the very gates. Truly, I say to you, this generation will not pass away until all these things take place.

“All these things” in verse 33 is everything that happens to show us he is near.

“All these things” in verse 34 must be “all these things” in verse 33, which includes everything necessary before the second coming, but not the second coming itself.

So Jesus taught, definitively, that “all these things,” meaning everything necessary before his coming, everything necessary to show he is near, at the very gates, would happen within the lifespan of those living at the time.

Which means, by the end of the first century, the church has been able to say that Christ’s coming is imminent. We are in a period of tribulation, but Christ’s coming is imminent.

“He is near, at the very gates.”

That speaks as much to nearness of presence as nearness of time. We should not live as if Christ’s coming is distant, and we should not live as if Christ is distant.

And that is something, that regardless of your particular end-times theology, we can agree on and rejoice in, and also be aware of.

Christ is coming, we are in tribulation times, and his coming is imminent - it could be at any moment. We aren’t waiting for the next geo-political event to fulfill prophesy. He could come at any time.

So our main concern, then, knowing these things, is not to wonder “when is it,” and it is not so sit on our hands and wait thinking “I’m just going to do nothing until he gets here.” Rather, our main concern is to say, “Christ’s coming is imminent, so I am going to live according to His will and do His work while I have time.”

If I could break the Olivet discourse into two big points, and make it really simple,

From verse 1-35, Christ could come at any time

From verse 36-the end of chapter 25, because he could come at any time, be watchful, be faithful, be ready.

We will look at His teachings in detail over the next couple weeks, but know this. This may be a basic tenet of Christian belief, and of biblical teaching, but be encouraged and know for certain - Christ is coming, he is near, at the very gates.

2 Peter 3:3–4 ESV

knowing this first of all, that scoffers will come in the last days with scoffing, following their own sinful desires. They will say, “Where is the promise of his coming? For ever since the fathers fell asleep, all things are continuing as they were from the beginning of creation.”

2 Peter 3:8–11 ESV

But do not overlook this one fact, beloved, that with the Lord one day is as a thousand years, and a thousand years as one day. The Lord is not slow to fulfill his promise as some count slowness, but is patient toward you, not wishing that any should perish, but that all should reach repentance. But the day of the Lord will come like a thief, and then the heavens will pass away with a roar, and the heavenly bodies will be burned up and dissolved, and the earth and the works that are done on it will be exposed. Since all these things are thus to be dissolved, what sort of people ought you to be in lives of holiness and godliness,