The Shout, The Trumpet, and The Triumph

Secular -

A man was walking down the street when he saw a sign in a window: "Psychic Fair: Find Out Your Future – Cancelled Due to Unforeseen Circumstances."

He thought to himself, "Well, if they didn't see that coming, I’m probably better off just sticking to Matthew 24!"

Historical/Cultural Context -

This Gospel is written by Matthew, also known as Levi who was a former tax collector. It was most likely written between AD 50-60. Matthew left everything behind to follow Jesus. Matthew wrote primarily to Jewish believers—people who knew the Old Testament well. Matthew had one goal: to prove that Jesus is the long-awaited Messiah, the King of Kings, and the fulfillment of God’s promises. Connecting the Old Testament prophecies to the life of Christ, proving that every word God spoke was coming true in Jesus. The key themes of the Gospel include Jesus as King, The Kingdom of Heaven, Fulfillment of Prophecy and discipleship.

Biblical Text -

Matthew 23:37–24:31 NKJV

“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!’ ” Then Jesus went out and departed from the temple, and His disciples came up to show Him the buildings of the temple. 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.” 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?” 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. All these are the beginning of sorrows. “Then they will deliver you up to tribulation and kill you, and you will be hated by all nations for My name’s sake. And then many will be offended, will betray one another, and will hate one another. Then many false prophets will rise up and deceive many. And because lawlessness will abound, the love of many will grow cold. But he who endures to the end shall be saved. And this gospel of the kingdom will be preached in all the world as a witness to all the nations, and then the end will come. “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. And unless those days were shortened, no flesh would be saved; but for the elect’s sake those days will be shortened. “Then if anyone says to you, ‘Look, here is the Christ!’ or ‘There!’ do not believe it. For false christs and false prophets will rise and show great signs and wonders to deceive, if possible, even the elect. See, I have told you beforehand. “Therefore if they say to you, ‘Look, He is in the desert!’ do not go out; or ‘Look, He is in the inner rooms!’ do not believe it. For as the lightning comes from the east and flashes to the west, so also will the coming of the Son of Man be. For wherever the carcass is, there the eagles will be gathered together. “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.

-[Prayer]-

Life Principle - Earthly foundations will crumble and human devotion will grow cold, the promise of Jesus’ return demands a life of constant vigilance.

Life Point- The Reality Of The Return

Exegetical -

Matthew 23:37–24:3 BSB

O Jerusalem, Jerusalem, who kills the prophets and stones those sent to her, how often I have longed to gather your children together, as a hen gathers her chicks under her wings, but you were unwilling! Look, your house is left to you desolate. For I tell you that you will not see Me again until you say, ‘Blessed is He who comes in the name of the Lord.’” As Jesus left the temple and was walking away, His disciples came up to Him to point out its buildings. “Do you see all these things?” He replied. “Truly I tell you, not one stone here will be left on another; every one will be thrown down.” While Jesus was sitting on the Mount of Olives, the disciples came to Him privately. “Tell us,” they said, “when will these things happen, and what will be the sign of Your coming and of the end of the age?”

Homiletical -

When Jesus is done talking with the leaders and then the masses, He speaks openly about the state of the people of Israel.

He makes it more clear than He did earlier about the vineyard that did not belong to them. If you remember the renters took the servants and then the son and beat and killed them. Now He talks openly about this and about their spiritual state. He talks as one who has authority. The only one that can speak with authority like this is God. Showing His divinity and roll as the Messiah.

He states that they kill the prophets and stone those sent to them. He says He has longed to gather them but, and this is the important part, they were unwilling to be gathered. Unwilling to submit to God.

Their hardness of heart and stubbornness, and indeed we in modern times are guilty as well, is well known to God. It was that way since the time of the Exodus.

Exodus 32:7–9 BSB

Then the LORD said to Moses, “Go down at once, for your people, whom you brought up out of the land of Egypt, have corrupted themselves. How quickly they have turned aside from the way that I commanded them! They have made for themselves a molten calf and have bowed down to it. They have sacrificed to it and said, ‘These, O Israel, are your gods, who brought you up out of the land of Egypt.’ ” The LORD also said to Moses, “I have seen this people, and they are indeed a stiff-necked people.

He speaks spiritually telling them how desolate Jerusalem is. He speaks spiritually yet we find in a minute the disciples will point out how grand the buildings are.

Then, He makes a prophecy that they will not see Him again as a nation until they say “blessed is He who comes in the name of The Lord.”

This points to the second coming. This points to the end of the tribulation period.

After this ending to His encounters the disciples come up to Him to point out the buildings and the grandeur of it all. How could it be desolate?

Jesus is like, yeah I see it all. However, this is all for nought because their spiritual and moral decay will eventually match the physical. He says it is all going to be brought down.

Now we have what is called hindsight bias. We can look back and see what happened. The temple and indeed the entirety of it was brought down and remains down to this very day.

It was brought down in A.D. 70 when the Romans laid seige to the city.

Billy Graham used to say that if God doesn’t judge America then He owes Sodom and Gomorrah an apology, and it has only gotten worse since he said it.

It has come to a place where sin is called good, and good is called evil.

Isaiah 5:20 NKJV

Woe to those who call evil good, and good evil; Who put darkness for light, and light for darkness; Who put bitter for sweet, and sweet for bitter!

Yet we trod along and ignore God. Trust me when I tell you, no matter how bad it is right now it is only going to get worse.

But we can thank God for the remnant that continue to serve and worship Him. For the mothers and the fathers who are on their knees praying for the country, praying for their families and who don’t give up.

I am convinced that without praying mothers the world would be a much worse place than it is. So on this day thank God for the praying mothers.

Now let’s look at what Jesus has to say about the end times. We can thank His disciples that came to Him privately because they asked the questions.

1) When will these things happen

2) When will be your coming and the end of the age

Notice they have gotten from Jesus that His coming is linked to the end of the age.

These two are inextricably linked.

Life Point - The End Of The Age

Exegetical -

Matthew 24:4–26 BSB

Jesus answered, “See to it that no one deceives you. For many will come in My name, claiming, ‘I am the Christ,’ and will deceive many. You will hear of wars and rumors of wars, but see to it that you are not alarmed. These 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 they will deliver you over to be persecuted and killed, and you will be hated by all nations because of My name. At that time many will fall away and will betray and hate one another, and many false prophets will arise and mislead many. Because of the multiplication of wickedness, the love of most will grow cold. But the one who perseveres to the end will be saved. And this gospel of the kingdom will be preached in all the world as a testimony to all nations, and then the end will come. So when you see standing in the holy place ‘the abomination of desolation,’ described by the prophet Daniel (let the reader understand), then let those who are in Judea flee to the mountains. Let no one on the housetop come down to retrieve anything from his house. And let no one in the field return for his cloak. How miserable those days will be for pregnant and nursing mothers! Pray that your flight will not occur in the winter or on the Sabbath. For at that time there will be great tribulation, unmatched from the beginning of the world until now, and never to be seen again. If those days had not been cut short, nobody would be saved. But for the sake of the elect, those days will be cut short. At that time, if anyone says to you, ‘Look, here is the Christ!’ or ‘There He is!’ do not believe it. For false Christs and false prophets will appear and perform great signs and wonders that would deceive even the elect, if that were possible. See, I have told you in advance. So if they tell you, ‘There He is in the wilderness,’ do not go out; or, ‘Here He is in the inner rooms,’ do not believe it.

Homiletical -

According to this prophecy we are still in the beginning of the end. We are in the beginning birth pains.

We have seen and continue to see false Christs. False saviours.

Now I don’t want to spend to long on this but if you get some time and you look at the Muslim rendition of Jesus, you will find that their Jesus and the Jesus of the Bible are not the same.

I have been thinking about this for quite some time and here is the conclusion that I have come to.

Their Jesus is called Issa and if you look through what Issa is supposed to accomplish when he comes you will find it is what is written about the anti-Christ. For example, you will find that Issa is supposed to make a peace treaty with the Jews for 7 years and that he will break it about halfway through and that he is then supposed to utterly destroy the Jews.

Does this sound familiar to you? This is exactly what the anti-Christ will do.

I believe, and I can’t be dogmatic about it, that the ant-Christ may be a muslim leader.

But one thing is for certain he is a false saviour.

There are many others out there as well. For example the Mormons have a rendition of Jesus that is not the Jesus of the Bible. They don’t believe Jesus to be divine but an actual offspring of God and that Satan and Jesus are literal brothers. This is a different Christ.

The Jehovah’s witnesses have a different Christ too. They believe Jesus is in actuality Michael the archangel. This is different than Biblical, Historical Christianity.

There are many others out there too, but one thing is for certain. There is but one Jesus and He is God in the flesh. He is the savior who redeems us by being the sacrifice for our sins, who did not die and stay dead but came back on the third day.

Thank God we are told that these days will be cut short for it’s going to get bad here on earth.

Thank Jesus if you’re a Christian that you belong to Him, especially because of how bad it is going to get.

Life Point - How He Will Come

Exegetical -

Matthew 24:27–31 BSB

For just as the lightning comes from the east and flashes as far as the west, so will be the coming of the Son of Man. Wherever there is a carcass, there the vultures will gather. 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 the sky, and the powers of the heavens will be shaken.’ At that time the sign of the Son of Man will appear in heaven, and all the tribes of the earth will mourn. They will see the Son of Man coming on the clouds of heaven, with power and great glory. 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 the heavens to the other.

Homiletical -

Here is what we know. The coming of Jesus is going to be sudden.

Those in power of the kingdoms of the earth are going to be mournful because they will know how bad they really are because they will see Him coming on the clouds of heaven, with power and great glory.

He will gather His elect from the four winds, from one end of the heavens to the other.

Here is what we don’t know.

We don’t know when the rapture will happen.

Some say it will be before the tribulation

Some say it will be midway through

Some say it will be before God poor out His wrath on the earth, which is right before the midway point.

Finally, some say it will be at the end of the Great Tribulation. Mainly because of this passage right here.

Our job is to watch the signs of the times and be ready whenever it happens. I pray for a pre-tribulation rapture but it is wise to prepare for a post tribulation rapture.

If one or some of these views step on your toes, that is OK. Not a single view of the rapture is going to send you to hell. It is a secondary issue and not important for salvation.

Someone always asks me, “Pastor where do you stand on the issues?” My answer is always the same. There will be a rapture of the church.

1 Thessalonians 4:13–18 BSB

Brothers, we do not want you to be uninformed about those who sleep in death, so that you will not grieve like the rest, who are without hope. For since we believe that Jesus died and rose again, we also believe that God will bring with Jesus those who have fallen asleep in Him. By the word of the Lord, we declare to you that we who are alive and remain until the coming of the Lord will by no means precede those who have fallen asleep. For the Lord Himself will descend from heaven with a loud command, with the voice of an archangel, and with the trumpet of God, and the dead in Christ will be the first to rise. After that, we who are alive and remain will be caught up together with them in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air. And so we will always be with the Lord. Therefore encourage one another with these words.

Life Principle– Don't be deceived by the signs of the times; be defined by the Savior of the soul.

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