The End is Near...Just Not Yet

Intro

We were diving back into the Gospel of Matthew this Sunday. Getting to one of the most difficult, yet also most fun sections of the Gospel.

So, since we aren’t meeting in-person this morning, I thought I would take a view minutes and just give a preview message for what we will continue next Sunday.

So, if you are watching this, you don’t get a pass for next Sunday, consider this more like the movie trailer, and next week is the main feature.

Matthew 24, known as the Olivet Discourse, was Jesus’s last recorded teaching outside of Jersualem on the Mount of Olives.

A high point east of the city that got it’s name from the olive groves that were prominent on the mountain during the time of Jesus.

We are going to look at the first 14 verses today and next Sunday.

Matthew 24:1–14 CSB

1 As Jesus left and was going out of the temple, his disciples came up and called his attention to its buildings. 2 He replied to them, “Do you see all these things? Truly I tell you, not one stone will be left here on another that will not be thrown down.” 3 While he was sitting on the Mount of Olives, the disciples approached him privately and said, “Tell us, when will these things happen? And what is the sign of your coming and of the end of the age?” 4 Jesus replied to them, “Watch out that no one deceives you. 5 For many will come in my name, saying, ‘I am the Messiah,’ and they will deceive many. 6 You are going to hear of wars and rumors of wars. See that you are not alarmed, because these things must take place, but the end is not yet. 7 For nation will rise up against nation, and kingdom against kingdom. There will be famines and earthquakes in various places. 8 All these events are the beginning of labor pains. 9 “Then they will hand you over to be persecuted, and they will kill you. You will be hated by all nations because of my name. 10 Then many will fall away, betray one another, and hate one another. 11 Many false prophets will rise up and deceive many. 12 Because lawlessness will multiply, the love of many will grow cold. 13 But the one who endures to the end will be saved. 14 This good news of the kingdom will be proclaimed in all the world as a testimony to all nations, and then the end will come.

Signs on the Highway

When we first moved to Hartford, my parents and grand parents came to hear me preach one Sunday.

It is a two hour drive from Lawrenceburg and as you know, there are quite a few signs along the way.

By that time, my Grandparents were didn’t travel too far from home, so I think my grandma was taking in all the sights.

My dad told us that nearly every sign they passed on the highway, my grandma would read.

“20 miles to Bardstown” “Exit 34” “5 miles to Elizabethtown” …you get the picture.

But if that wasn’t annoying enough, my grandpa, in his old age, had lost a good amount of his hearing.

So after my grandma would read the sign, my dad said you would hear him say “What is you say?” to which my grandma would repeat the sign even louder.

I don’t think anyone realizes how many signs are on the highway until you hear them read twice for 2 straight hours.

Matthew 24 is about signs.

We are going to dive deep into the signs Jesus shares in these verse next Sunday, but for this morning I want to answer another question.

A question that Jesus answers in this passage that isn’t asked about by His disciples.

In verse 3, they ask Him 2 questions.

See, Jesus had said something that really shook them up, and when they got Him alone on the mountain, they had to dig deeper.

The chapter starts with the disciples pointing out to Jesus how incredible the Temple mount was.

To them it was the most amazing structure they had ever seen, and it was truly an incredible site.

But it was also the center of their religious lives, the place they all understood to be God’s dwelling place, where His presence was with His people.

So we catch them in verse 1 standing in awe of the Temple.

But Jesus says something that threw them all for a loop.

“Do you see all these buildings? I tell you the truth, they will be completely demolished. Not one stone will be left on top of another!”

That sounds serious to us, but to the disciples, this was absolutely absurd.

We live in a world where building are torn down without much thought.

We remember 9/11, when the WTC building fell in NYC, and though that was awful and tragic, most people didn’t think the world was coming to an end.

But for the disciples, the idea of the Temple, the largest, most ornate, most holy, and most awe-inspiring building they had ever seen or could ever imagine, that being destroyed, being flattened could only mean one thing, the end of the world was at hand.

So when they get Jesus alone, two questions just had to be asked: “When will this happen” (aka when will the end come) and “what are the signs we should be looking for?”

They were convinced the world they knew was coming to an end and they wanted to know when and how, valid questions right?

And Jesus is going to address those question, and we will walk through His answer next week.

But before we do that, I want to ask another question, what does it matter to us that the world is going to end?

How are we to live knowing that one day Jesus will return the world as we know it will come to an end.

I want to share 4 ways we can choose to walk in a world coming to an end.

Four Ways to Walk in the End

1) Like it doesn’t matter.

I think it is safe to say, this might be the most popular way to live in our world.

Living as if the return of Christ either isn’t all that important or isn’t going to happen at all.

It’s not that we really believe that, we would never say it out loud, but if we are honest, how much thought do we actually put into the idea that much of what we value in this world is all going to come to an end one day.

Money, success, power, prestige…what people think of us, how many friends or follower we have, or whether or not our team wins a game.

We easily become obsessed with pursuing things in the present that we forget or ignore the realities of the future.

Don’t get me wrong, there is value, even eternal value, in the daily stuff of life, but when we loose sight of where this world and everyone in it is going, we quickly lose perspective.

When we live our lives like the end doesn’t matter we become overly attached to this life and the temporal, rather than seeing the bigger purpose and greater joy that is in the life to come for those who follow Jesus.

2) Like it’s all that matters.

On the other side, it is possible to let thoughts of the end overwhelm us or become too big in our lives.

Jesus is clear with His disciples in verse 6 that, just because there are signs of the end all around us, it has not yet come.

I did a writing project in college on William Miller

A baptist preacher in New England who did some calculations based off world events and biblical prophesy.

He began preaching that Jesus would return on October 22nd, 1844.

Thousands of people listened to Miller and began preparing for the end to come.

Oct 22nd came, but Jesus didn’t and the date was given the title “The Great Disappointment”

That wasn’t the first, and definitely wasn't the last, time someone set a date for the return of Jesus.

That is the temptation with a passage like Matthew 24, to begin to place events and names on a timeline in order to see when Jesus might return.

The danger here is either becoming overly obsessed or overwhelmed by the the idea of the end coming.

It isn’t joyous idea, that Jesus would come back, but something to try and predict or a point of anxious worry.

Jesus’s took His disciples questions seriously, but what we will see clearly next week is that He didn’t want them to become obsessed or overwhelmed with His return.

Jesus will say at the end of Matthew 24:36

Matthew 24:36 CSB

36 “Now concerning that day and hour no one knows—neither the angels of heaven nor the Son—except the Father alone.

So don’t let it become all that matters.

3) Like you have it all figured out.

People can get passionate about their views of the end times, about as passionate as they are about their favorite basketball teams.

Maybe you grew up in a particular church or denomination that taught a particular view of how the end time would happen.

Pre-trib, pre-mil

Post-trib, pre-mil

No-trib, a-mil

Or pan- mil (it will all “pan out” in the end…sorry, dumb end times joke).

Though how we view the end times doesn’t matter and has implications for how we understand the world and how we live in it.

I think it is important to understand that we are dealing with ideas that are challenging and complicated, and we won’t really know whose right until it all actually happens.

So when we come to passages like this, it is important to understand that no one has it all figured out, because none of us are God.

So come to the Bible with humility and let your curiosity stoke an eagerness to know Jesus more and urgency to make Him known around the world.

And that really is the right attitude.

4) Like it matters and makes a difference.

Jesus says in verse 14

Matthew 24:14 CSB

14 This good news of the kingdom will be proclaimed in all the world as a testimony to all nations, and then the end will come.

The good news is that He is coming back! And the purpose of our lives is to proclaim that good news to everyone we can with our words, with our deeds, and with everything we have until we can’t proclaim it anymore because it has happened.

We don’t have to obsess about Jesus return, but it has to make a difference, because it matters!

It should influence every aspect of our lives, putting life into proper perspective.

We are worth more than what we earn, acquire, or produce in this life.

And we have a bigger purpose and a greater hope than what this temporary world has to offer us.

Live like it matters and makes a difference!

PRAY

Well we are praying for God’s protection and provision over the next few days.

If you hear of anyone needing help over the next few days, or if you need something, please reach out.

And we trust that next week, by God’s grace, we will be back together.

Brief announcements for the coming weeks.