Misused and Misapplied: Lesson Four (Matthew 24)
Misused and Misapplied • Sermon • Submitted • Presented
0 ratings
· 7 viewsNotes
Transcript
Greeting:
Greeting:
Good morning everyone.
Good to see you all out with us..
Welcome to any visitors.
Come back be with us tonight and Wednesday night.
Lesson Text:
Lesson Text:
Matthew 24
Opening:
Opening:
This morning we are continuing on in our series we began a few weeks back.
We are looking at a series of lessons titled Misused and Misapplied.
We have been going to various passages in the Bible and trying to take an unbiased opened mined view of what Gods word says.
So many times we go to scripture and we say or maybe hear others say, “Well this is what I think, or this is the way I interpret it.”
Is this always the right approach to studying Gods word?
Our hope as we go through these passages is to see what Gods word says in context, what it truly means.
Not what we want it to mean or not what fits our doctrine but what fits God’s word.
This morning we are going to spend the majority of our time studying there in Matthew 24.
This chapter as a whole is one that’s so many times today referred to and spoke about.
Most times unfortunately it’s a chapter that is taken and misused and misapplied though
There unfortunately are many false views taken from this chapter.
Especially today in the world we live in, and we will elude to that later.
This topic is one that can be confusing, one that unfortunately we may not have enough time to do a deep deep dive intothis morning.
But its a topic that I think its very important we all understand today.
A topic that I hope we can all apply and use correctly…
Lesson:
Lesson:
But as we begin, we want to look at the chapter and look at some common false views you may hear someone hold from this passage.
There is a lot to unpack here so we will dive in.
A little background before we dive into the chapter itself.
Each of the gospels while all being written having the same accounts for the most part all told, they are all wrote a little differently.
Especially Matthew Mark and Luke.
And with these come a purpose.
They were each written to different audiences.
When you read them you’ll notice this.
Matthew is one that uses a lot of Old Testament references
One could conclude that based on what we read Matthew was one that was written primarily to a Jewish audience.
We see the lineage traces back to David.
We see the sermon on the mount where Jesus teaches against many of the scribes and Pharisees lessons.
This is why we see so many Old Testament references.
Mark has a Roman audience in mine, hence the direct nature of his writing.
And Luke we see written to the Greeks. Or Gentiles.
Luke often quotes words in Greek many others are translated from Hebrew words.
Now you may notice we left John out of the gospels.
Thats no by accident
John doesn’t mention this in his book?
Could that have anything to do with the fact John was written after AD 70 when this destruction of Jerusalem took place.
But I say all of this to say it’s important to keep the audience in mind, and context in mind especially as we study this morning.
So with that said as we come to Matthew 24 we see where we are in terms of what’s going on.
We can see at this point Jesus has been speaking towards the scribes and Pharisees in chapter 23 and had just issued the woes to him.
But we can also notice a woe given to the city itself …
“O Jerusalem, Jerusalem, the one who kills the prophets and stones those who are sent to her! How often I wanted to gather your children together, as a hen gathers her chicks under her wings, but you were not willing! See! Your house is left to you desolate; for I say to you, you shall see Me no more till you say, ‘Blessed is He who comes in the name of the Lord!’ ”
Jesus is issuing a woe to the city itself for its evil of killing the prophets and Gods messengers.
And as they are leaving the city the disciples are pointing out various structures like the temple.
Then Jesus went out and departed from the temple, and His disciples came up to show Him the buildings of the temple.
And they aren’t doing this in terms of sight seeing.
They’ve been there many times, they knew the significance of these buildings.
But they are wondering how Jesus can condemn such a noble structure.
How could these be torn down? They didn’t understand…
Then, as some spoke of the temple, how it was adorned with beautiful stones and donations, He said,
They want to know how can something so great, be destroyed?
Jesus responds in an interesting way. He says in verse 2…
And Jesus said to them, “Do you not see all these things? Assuredly, I say to you, not one stone shall be left here upon another, that shall not be thrown down.”
Again they didn’t understand what he was alluding to…
Now as we come to verse 3 this is critical we understand this verse so that we can understand everything else this morning…
Now as He sat on the Mount of Olives, the disciples came to Him privately, saying, “Tell us, when will these things be? And what will be the sign of Your coming, and of the end of the age?”
By the initial reading of this it sounds like the disciples are asking about the second coming of Christ and what the signs will be…
But is that what he is referring to? What is this passage referring to?
This morning we are going to look at why this can’t be the second coming and what some common false interpretations are from this chapter…
One common false view from this is, “The second coming of Christ was actually the destruction of Jerusalem and there will be no future comings.”
Another false view is that “Everything in the New Testament (including Revelation) that is speaking about the coming of Christ is actually speaking about the destruction of Jerusalem in AD 70.”
And a third false view, the one you probably hear most today, especially now with things that “seem” to happen a lot more is this… “The coming of Jesus will be marked by numerous signs.”
This is the premillenial view of this passage…
There’s a lot more that goes into that teaching than what we can cover today but this is where they go and what they use to support the signs showing Christ’s second coming.
For example, maybe today each time we have a natural disaster you see these verses posted on Facebook and people telling others to get ready for the end times.
Again is that what this passage is teaching?
Let’s look at the text and look at what Jesus is saying…
So as we said a moment ago as we begin there in Matthew 24…
We have the disciples and Jesus east of the city on the Mount of Olives as they look back at the city and Jesus telling them what is going to happen…
Now as He sat on the Mount of Olives, the disciples came to Him privately, saying, “Tell us, when will these things be? And what will be the sign of Your coming, and of the end of the age?”
The disciples ask when? When will these things happen.
That’s really the big question of the chapter.
But really it’s multiple questions being asked here.
When will these things happen, what will be the sign of your coming, and when will be the end of the age…
First they wanna know when will THESE things happen.
When will the destruction of the temple, will these stones be overturned, when will those happen?
Jesus will explain this in verses 1-35…
So in these verses we see the answer to when these things will happen, the destruction of the temple, no stone being left unturned, all of those things.
But then a change happens in verse 36…
A great divide in the chapter…
The Second coming of Christ will now be discussed in verses 36-51…
Notice how he changes his verbiage.
Up until this point he’s referred to “these things” now in verse 36 he shifts to “But cocnerning that day…”
But we will get to that later…
But first, the destruction of the temple…
There is some key phrases and words we have to understand…
For the destruction of Jerusalem he mentions it “has signs”
We see this in verses 4-7
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. For nation will rise against nation, and kingdom against kingdom. And there will be famines, pestilences, and earthquakes in various places.
We know that this happened you can read different accounts of historians of all the terrible things that happened around this time…
But also, here is where we see all of those signs so many people use today to refer to…
See there’s gonna be wars, all those wars in the Middle East it’s happening, the famines in Africa, the earthquakes every time one happens, it’s all showing the end of the times!
But Jesus himself even tells them don’t be afraid, this isn’t the end of things, these things must happen.
Again notice his verbiage, these things…
He continues on with this phrase.
Verse 9
“Then they will deliver you up to tribulation and kill you, and you will be hated by all nations for My name’s sake.
Another sign Jesus says will take place for these things, is massive persecution.
Many will fall away, many false prophets, all of these things..
He tells them to ignore any false signs or any false teachings that may come…
Don’t listen to them don’t be lead astray…
Jesus is telling them look things are going to get bad, but I don’t want you to lose faith.
He tells them in verse 13 and 14 the one who endures will be saved, how?
Through the gospel being taught and spread throughout the world.
We know in Colossians 1:23 that the gospel has gone into the whole world…
if indeed you continue in the faith, grounded and steadfast, and are not moved away from the hope of the gospel which you heard, which was preached to every creature under heaven, of which I, Paul, became a minister.
So we know when this happened, the Jewish religion, the temple was about to be destroyed.
The gospel has now been preached and taught to every nation..
The gospel now reigns supreme, again signifying the end of time for the Jewish teachings…
So continuing on… Verse 15, he says therefore, after all we must have talked about….
“Therefore when you see the ‘abomination of desolation,’ spoken of by Daniel the prophet, standing in the holy place” (whoever reads, let him understand), “then let those who are in Judea flee to the mountains. Let him who is on the housetop not go down to take anything out of his house. And let him who is in the field not go back to get his clothes. But woe to those who are pregnant and to those who are nursing babies in those days! And pray that your flight may not be in winter or on the Sabbath. For then there will be great tribulation, such as has not been since the beginning of the world until this time, no, nor ever shall be.
Abomination of desolation… what on earth could that be?
What are all of these crazy things he’s talking about here mean?
Our society today will come up with a lot of crazy answers…
Again saying how this is time will be at the end of the world, and how there will be this anti christ figure on earth, but is that the context?
Remember he’s continuing on talking about the destruction of the temple.
In your text you may notice in Matthew’s account there is a phrase that says let the reader understand…
So to understand this we must understand Daniel.
We don’t unfortunately have the time to do a deep study on this but here’s a quick summary.
In Daniel’s time he was speaking of a group that would come into the temple and mutilate the holiest of holy places.
But he also prophesied about another event taking place and that’s the one Jesus refers to here.
He tells us another event will take place.
An event of severe destruction and persecution…
So again Jewish audience would be been familiar with this…
Fast forward we can go to Luke and see this play out.
“But when you see Jerusalem surrounded by armies, then know that its desolation is near.
Luke sort of answers what the desolation is…
Here we have the Roman army who’s essentially going to come in and siege Jerusalem and those in it will have to flee.
When they would siege the city they would surround it and shut off the city.
So Jesus tells them when they see this go, get out of there don’t turn around and look back. High tail it out of there.
He even tells them they need to pray it’s not in the winter or sabbath so that they can make it out…
Back to our text…
In Matthew 24:22-28 He continues on this section to elaborate further what will happen in these days and things to look for.
More signs and events that will take place during this time…
In Verse 29 though he begins with the word immediately…
So right after the tribulation of those days, right after this Roman siege, here are more things that are going to happen…
“Immediately after the tribulation of those days the sun will be darkened, and the moon will not give its light; the stars will fall from heaven, and the powers of the heavens will be shaken. Then the sign of the Son of Man will appear in heaven, 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. 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.
Now if the waters aren’t murky enough, they definitely are here.
This is where it’s so easy to shift our mind to thinking about the end of time.. this has got to refer to that right?
What did he say in verse 29?
Immediately after.
Immediately after the tribulation, after the Roman siege these things will happen.
When we read those phrases of the sun darkened and moon not showing light, remember what we said earlier about Matthew using a lot of Old Testament references that Jews would understand?
We can find those same phrases a lot in the Old Testament… Isaiah 19:1 Lamentations 2:1 and Ezekiel 30:10 are just three examples for instance and will all write these same ideas.
And what we find from these references is this type of terminology is referring to judgement terminology.
Well in our case this morning what’s the judgement?
We spoke on this earlier but it’s on the Jewish teachings and religion…
We find Jesus and God saying the Jewish religion is over…
Christ has come he’s lived died and resurrected. He’s now ascended… The gospel has been preached to everyone.
So now the temple, the Jewish symbol, will now be destroyed… Signifying Gods judgement on the religion…
Jesus continues on to heed warning to them by speaking with the parable of the fig tree…
“Now learn this parable from the fig tree: When its branch has already become tender and puts forth leaves, you know that summer is near. So you also, when you see all these things, know that it is near—at the doors! Assuredly, I say to you, this generation will by no means pass away till all these things take place. Heaven and earth will pass away, but My words will by no means pass away.
Jesus uses the example of the tree putting forth leaves to show summer is near to tell them to know all these things I have told you is near…
Again, get ready!
So many teachings revolve around the world today about the last days…
Maybe you have heard terminology like the rapture, or seen the series “Left Behind”
This is a piece of scripture heavily focused on in the doctrine of premillennialism
They will teach from here about a time of tribulation that will occur after a rapture…
If that’s true then what about this generation he refers to?
If we ever need to highlight or star a verse to see the importance in this topic its verse 34…
He says this generation will by no means pass away until all these things take place…
How can this be speaking of something today? How can this be talking about things after the generation he is speaking of is gone?
Verse 35
Heaven and earth will pass away, but My words will by no means pass away.
Jesus in the midst of all of this though gives them some encouragement.
Some words of hope for what is to come…
Now we come to verse 36…
This is sort of the great divide.
If you remember beer earlier this is where we said he changes his focus.
He will now go on to answer the other part of the question
He will now start speaking about the end of the age…
“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, 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. 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.
Look at how different it is and how he describes this day…
The first half of the chapter had all these signs and warning but thus is different..
He says no one will know…
People will be out doing their thing and he will come
He says for us to watch to take watch so we can be ready when we come
He even goes on to use the illustration of the thief breaking into the home…
He said the coming of Christ is just like this
Coming when we least expect it…
We know from scripture that there will be no signs for the end of the world
For you yourselves know perfectly that the day of the Lord so comes as a thief in the night.
There won’t be earthquakes wars famines or any of those things that predict Christ coming back.
Jesus himself even said he doesn’t know when the day is…only God…
He will come just like a thief in the night…
So when hear someone or discuss with someone this passage I hope we can see what Jesus is really saying here
And that his main idea here is the destruction of Jerusalem and what will lead up to and happen with that event.
He is in no way foretelling of what will happen and lead up to his return….
Conclusion:
Conclusion:
This morning I hope this lesson has shed some light on a passage we see referenced a lot today
Maybe next time we see this brought up or talked about we can be more informed..
And most importantly try to point people to Gods word.
Not our thoughts or opinions but what Gods word says.
As we’ve looked at each study it’s so important we don’t misuse and misapply Gods word…
This morning I hope though that our subject makes you think…
I hope we think about this day that is coming.
Are we ready?
Or are we like those we just read of in the days of Noah?
Going about our lives not heeding the warning, only to want in the ark once it was too late?
