What are Not the Signs of The End?

Matthew 24:1–14 NIV

Jesus left the temple and was walking away when his disciples came up to him to call his attention to its buildings. “Do you see all these things?” he asked. “Truly I tell you, not one stone here will be left on another; every one will be thrown down.” As Jesus was sitting on the Mount of Olives, the disciples came to him privately. “Tell us,” they said, “when will this happen, and what will be the sign of your coming and of the end of the age?” Jesus answered: “Watch out that no one deceives you. For many will come in my name, claiming, ‘I am the Messiah,’ and will deceive many. You will hear of wars and rumors of wars, but see to it that you are not alarmed. Such things must happen, but the end is still to come. Nation will rise against nation, and kingdom against kingdom. There will be famines and earthquakes in various places. All these are the beginning of birth pains. “Then you will be handed over to be persecuted and put to death, and you will be hated by all nations because of me. At that time many will turn away from the faith and will betray and hate each other, and many false prophets will appear and deceive many people. Because of the increase of wickedness, the love of most will grow cold, but the one who stands firm to the end will be saved. And this gospel of the kingdom will be preached in the whole world as a testimony to all nations, and then the end will come.

Introduction: https://www.northjersey.com/story/news/2024/04/05/earthquake-and-eclipse-end-times-chatter-on-social-media/73219435007/

16 - What is the End Jesus is Talking About?

Context: Jesus had just left the temple

- It is what we call Holy Week

- Palm Sunday - He clears the temple 21:12-17 - He clashes with the religious rulers - 23 Jesus pronunces woes on religious rulers, vs 38 - “Your house will be left desolate”

Jesus tells the disciples that the temple will be destroyed

Clash of Kingdoms, and a New Way of doing things will be established by Jesus through his death and resurrection.

This is the context for the Disciples questions on the Mount of Olives - “Jesus’ Olivet Discourse is the Answer.

Please Notice that the focus is on the Temple…Not necessarily Jesus’ second coming. That is the Context.

Two questions:

When will the temple be destroyed - Timing Question.

Two-parter - What will be the sign of your coming and of the end of the age? What sign to look for.

17 -

Mark 13:4 LEB

“Tell us, when will these things happen, and what will be the sign when all these things are about to be accomplished?”

The Question is only about the destruction of the Temple.

18 -

Luke 21:7 LEB

And they asked him, saying, “Teacher, when therefore will these things happen, and what will be the sign when these things are about to take place?”

The Question is only about the destruction of the Temple

So in order to interpret this well, We must see Jesus’ response as addressing first the destruction of the Temple, but in Matthew he is also talking about his second coming as well. For example, Mark and Luke do not have the Judgement of the Sheep and Goats as Matthew does in 25:31

So we will be careful to parse out when Jesus is answering the first question about when the temple will be destroyed, and the second question, What are the signs of his coming.

Then we will talk about how each has a bearing on our lives today.

19 - What are Not the Signs of the End?

Vs. 1- 14 is primarily talking about the Destruction of the Temple.

20 - Jewish Idea of the Ages - Chart from the True Story of the Whole World pg. 100. - This is what the Disciples are thinking....

21 - Post-Resurrection of the Ages - as articulated by Paul - Chart from the True Story of the Whole World pg. 152

22 - We are sitting here in the year 2024 and we have seen.....

- Kanye saying that he is God

-Alan John Miller - Australian claims to be Jesus reincarnated

https://www.israeltoday.co.il/read/israeli-rabbi-says-hes-already-holding-meetings-with-messiah/

- We see the War between Israel and Palestine, between Ukraine and Russia

- We here talk of more war, rumors of wars - Such threats from Iran to attack Israel

- And of course natural disasters

It is easy for all of us to see these things and match them to Jesus’ words and Say, “The End is Near.” - meaning the end of this world as we know it and Jesus’ second coming.

But pay attention carefully - Jesus says

vs. 6 - The end is not yet.

vs. 8 - These are the beginning of birth pains.

In Other Words These are Not The Signs. - Stop making them the signs....

Furthermore, All of these things were happening leading up to the destruction of the Temple as well.

- There were the Jewish Wars - In fact Josephus wrote a history on the Jewish Wars that led up to the destruction of the Temple.

There were figures who claimed to be the Messiah, and approached a whole bunch of different ways to save Israel from Rome.

Josephus lists a number of people claiming to be prophets and kings who would save Israel from Rome

A Samaritan, Theudas, The Sons of Judas of Galilee, The Egyptian, and later after the destruction of the temple Bar Kochba who claimed to be the Messiah and led the famed Bar Kochba rebellion against Rome.

Jesus instead gives us in this passage 1 sign, and an encouragement.

23 - In Light of the End Christ Calls Us to...

24 - Chart of sevens from the Book of Revelation

25 - Evangelize

This is the Sign Jesus gives - He will give another two signs in the following passage that we will look at next week.

vs. 14 - The sign is the Gospel has been proclaimed in the whole inhabited earth.

- If Jesus is saying in this verse the End is - The End of the Temple. Here is what he is saying.

- The Church is the New Temple made up of Both Jews and the Gentiles grafted in. When the Gospel gathers in people from the known world at that time, then God is ready to allow the Old Age System of the Temple - The Building to go away. No longer will the presence of God be in that building, but in the gathered people of God.

- Address the charge of replacement theology. No this is covenantal continuation theology.

26 - Graph of Paul’s continuation theology in Romans.

27 - When our view is to Christ’s Second coming and the restoration of the New Heaven and New Earth. This Sign still applies. Now it is not about a Critical Mass before the temple is destroyed, but it is the Full redemption of people from all people groups.

28 -

2 Peter 3:9 LEB

The Lord is not delaying the promise, as some consider slowness, but is being patient toward you, because he does not want any to perish, but all to come to repentance.

29 - “it is a time for mission. The waiting must be active, not passive. All the Gentiles must be confronted with the gospel. Not until this task has been fulfilled can the eschatological drama move to its denouement” (Hare, Matthew, 277).

Application Point: This is why we emphasise it so much at this Church.

How Can We Participate in Proclaiming the Gospel locally? And Globally - Barnabas, World Cassette Ministry.

30 - Patiently Endure

1. vs. 4 - Don’t be deceived.

To do that, we must stick close to the True Jesus -

- Jude illustration we can recognize the counterfeit when we study the real dollar bill. - all of the counterfeit Messiah’s don’t match up to the real Messiah. mentioned above.

- Jesus will give us an easy clue for not being deceived by would be Messiah’s in next week’s passage.

2. vs. 6 - Be vigilent about Not being alarmed -

- All of these Non-Signs Jesus says must happen. In fact they are unfortunatley, because of sin in our world, is the normal course of human history.

- We believers, however, often have an alarmist attitude, always looking at the Newspaper to find signs for the end, and then sometimes freaking out about it. To that Jesus says, “Stop it.” Be Vigilant about not being alarmed.

3. One thing Jesus said that will also be normal is persecution and everything we are seeing happen in our world. vs. 9 - 13.

- Not being alarmist is not the same as Not caring, not loving.

- I want to say that again if we are talking about the end of the Temple, All of the Disciples experienced this passage. OK, so this whole passage is a part of being a believer, seeing these things in our world. We have not really seen vs. 9 in our country yet, like the disciples did, but we are seeing vs. 10 - 12.

- Our Call is to Patiently Endure. Keep preaching the Gospel. Don’t comprise it. Keep following Jesus and growing in his ways, to the end.

Conclusion:

When Jesus’s disciples approach him about the end of days, his response is both cryptic and clear. Just as he called for the disciples to be mindful but not fixated on the events that would precede his return, so he calls us today to see what is happening from both the “as it is” and “will one day be” perspectives.