Matthew 29

Looking Forward to the End

Last week we heard Jesus condemn the Pharisees for their behavior while He was still in the Temple in Jerusalem. After this condemnation of the Pharisees Jesus speaks of the desolation, or destruction of the temple as He is leaving from the temple for the last time in His life on Earth which is symbolic of God abandoning the temple and the heretical Jews who have rejected Him. As He leaves the temple the disciples with Him seemingly try to cheer Him up and maybe persuade Him to not declare the destruction of the temple by showing Him the buildings and talking about their beauty. But Jesus doubles down stating that it will all be torn down so the disciples ask Him when this might happen.

This is where we start getting into some of Jesus’ final teaching and what He is closing with is a prophetical text. It is interesting to note that He chooses to end His ministry with prophecy rather than put it at the beginning or in the middle. And if you look at the rest of scripture you actually see that the Old Testament ends with prophecy and the New Testament does as well in Revelation. Why do we see these coincidences? Matthew Henry, a commentator of the Bible, states that it is likely to emphasize the priorities we should have. The gospel, practical knowledge, and application for daily living is the most important things that we can gain from scripture and are what we should focus on learning best from the beginning. Prophecy though is still important otherwise it would not be included at all. I say all this to say to you that we are about to get into some prophecy and I will make some points on how it affects our lives today, but if you struggle to understand prophecy then that is ok. It is not the end of the world to be a little confused about the end of the world. This chapter in specific that we are about to go through has a different interpretation every time based on who you ask. This being said, I ask that as we go into it that you lay down everything that you believe about the end times regarding the second coming of Christ or tribulation or the rapture and you go into this with me with a fresh mind only pulling information from the text with me as we discuss the possible meanings. I also want to say that just because I preach it to you tonight does not mean that I am 100% correct. I believe I am right, but it would be arrogant of me to say that I have this all figured out so take the information and believe what makes the most sense to you. Now with all of that said let’s jump into some prophecy.

Matthew 24:4–6 “And Jesus answered and said to them: “Take heed that no one deceives you. For many will come in My name, saying, ‘I am the Christ,’ and will deceive many. And you will hear of wars and rumors of wars. See that you are not troubled; for all these things must come to pass, but the end is not yet.”

Matthew 24:7–8 “For nation will rise against nation, and kingdom against kingdom. And there will be famines, pestilences, and earthquakes in various places. All these are the beginning of sorrows.”

Here Jesus is talking about a coming time of tribulation, or time of trouble. Now this part is really up for debate as to when He is talking about. He does not give any specific dates or a period of time, He just says that it is coming. So, here is what I believe is most likely as to what Jesus is refering to in this passage. Right after Jesus was crucified, raised, and ascended into heaven there was a lot of chaos within Israel. For one thing Christians for generations faced severe persecution and were killed in mass and tortured for sport really by the Roman government. Also fifty years after Christ due to rebellion from the Jews the Romans came in and destroyed the temple and laid waste to Israel. For the Jewish Christians the next century of history would definetly seem as though the world was ending and nearly all of them assumed that Christ must be returning. In part Jesus was indeed prophecying about this in this passage. He was telling them so that they would be prepared for the coming chaos and persecution that would surround them and the future disciples of the church. This immediate time of destruction though is not the only thing He was meaning here. He also was likely reffering to the tribulation and trouble that the church would suffer througout history moving forward. The church since Christ has been through many hills and valleys and faced much trouble and we can see that even today. Just on Saturday there was an attempted church shooting just south of Lafeyette. We are living in times of tribulation now because all that means is that we are struggling. I mean think about the descrtiption here about wars and rumors of wars. When was the last time there wasn’t someone going to war and there wasn’t someone predicting world war three to start any minute. There are many who try to decieve us and lead us astray even today. This will likely get worse as time goes leading up to the second coming of Christ. It is important for us to know this so that we are prepared for the future. We need to know that there are troubles in our future and we have to be strong in our faith to push through whatever the world throws at us.

We are given hope though. It is not all bad news in this prophecy.

Matthew 24:22 “And unless those days were shortened, no flesh would be saved; but for the elect’s sake those days will be shortened.”

Jesus says that these times of tribulation will culminate in a world so harsh that if continued no one would survive but we are given hope here. We are told that for the sake of the elect it will be shortened. This is for us. For the believers, the Christians, the regenerate, God’s chosen people. Whatever you want to call us, for our sake He will shorten the days of tribulation. Now I do want to note here that it does not say that the days are only shortened for the elect, rather it says that the days are shortened for the sake of the elect. This might not seem like much but it is an important distinction as many people think that what is being said here is that the Christians will be taken off of the world early in what is called the rapture and the rest of the world will be left in tribulation. This is not what it says in my opinion. In saying for the sake of the elect Jesus is saying that the tribulation as a whole will be ended rather than just for the people of God.

So then what next? If the tribulation is ended then what would happen to us and to those who do not believe? first look at verse 23

Matthew 24:23 ““Then if anyone says to you, ‘Look, here is the Christ!’ or ‘There!’ do not believe it.”

First Jesus says that in our time of tribulation, which like I said we have been in since the ascension of Christ to some degree or another, many people will try to tell us when Christ is coming back. A few weeks back we had an eclipse coming over the US. During this time I saw so many people on Facebook sharing some wild conspiracy theories about this eclipse being the second coming of Christ. I trypically read each one I saw because I found them to be wildly entertaining to read. The straws that they would grasp at would be some of the biggest stretches of the imagination but people would be fully bought into it. Here is what Christ has to say about His second coming.

Matthew 24:27 “For as the lightning comes from the east and flashes to the west, so also will the coming of the Son of Man be.”

The second coming of Christ will not be in secret. It will not be something that we can predict either. Think of lightning in the sky. It is bright, bold, quick, and unexpected. Lightning does not come in secret and will always light up the sky and startle you. When Christ comes again it will not be something that you can put on your calendar to be ready, it will be suddenly and unexpectantly. So, don’t get caught up and worried in all of the people saying the end of the world is coming tomorrow they do not know any more than you do. We cannot know when Christ will return so we should not live worried that the sky is falling. Now when Christ does return though what will happen?

Matthew 24:31 “And He will send His angels with a great sound of a trumpet, and they will gather together His elect from the four winds, from one end of heaven to the other.”

Here is where we get the rapture of the church. Note though that Jesus does not say that He is taking them anywhere just that He is gathering them up. Christ says He will return and gather His people but He does not say anything about taking them anywhere. Now we do have a verse in 1 Thessalonians 4:17 where it is said that we will be caught up together in the clouds and many people will use this to state that we are taken out of the world, but if you look at the greek here the language used is actually reffering to when a Roman general would enter a city he had captured and all of his soldiers would meet him outside to march in with him. In the same way it seems that we may be called up into the air together to enter with Christ into His newly conquested Earth. furthermore look down to verse 36

Matthew 24:36–38 ““But of that day and hour no one knows, not even the angels of heaven, but My Father only. But as the days of Noah were, so also will the coming of the Son of Man be. For as in the days before the flood, they were eating and drinking, marrying and giving in marriage, until the day that Noah entered the ark,”

Matthew 24:39–41 “and did not know until the flood came and took them all away, so also will the coming of the Son of Man be. Then two men will be in the field: one will be taken and the other left. Two women will be grinding at the mill: one will be taken and the other left.”

Again this passage is often used to support the idea that we will be taken up before the time of tribulation in a rapture but look at the analogy that He uses. Who does He say is taken away in the story of Noah? It was the wicked and evil people of the generation not the followers of God. The followers of God were protected from the flood but they remained on Earth. So in the second coming of Christ when He says that one will be taken and one will be left I think the most clear meaning of this text is that we as believers will be gathered to Him but remain on this Earth while the wicked and non-believers will be taken from the earth and their souls will be judged and cast into Hell.

Now all of this is a lot of information to take in and try to make sense of but it really does have some significance in our lives. Heres how.

Matthew 24:42–44 “Watch therefore, for you do not know what hour your Lord is coming. But know this, that if the master of the house had known what hour the thief would come, he would have watched and not allowed his house to be broken into. Therefore you also be ready, for the Son of Man is coming at an hour you do not expect.”

Jesus tells us all of this first to prepare us for uncertain and troublesome days. We will face trials and struggles so long as we are on this Earth and there are times of good days for the church and times of bad and as we near closer to we will eventually come to a boiling point in the tribulation of the Church. We can have faith though that Christ will see us through it and come in victoriously to make all things right, but until that time we are tasked with living out His commandments. We don not know when Christ is going to return so we must be dilligent in working towards spreading His kingdom and doing His will because we are not promised tomorrow.