Birth Pangs of the End of Time (Matthew Sermon 120)

Introduction

Well apparently, according to some, the world is going to end on December 21st, 2012. You know, it just might. I mean, the Lord is sovereign. But it’s not going to end on December 21st, 2012, because the Mayan calendar says it will. Despite all of the experts that have studied those hieroglyphs and those other things, and the History Channel programs on the 2012 phenomenon, and the recent popular movie about the year 2012 and solar flares sending radiation across 93 million miles of space and heating up the Earth’s core like a microwave, until the mantle on which the continent sits, melts, and a major water flood covers the earth, I know that’s not going to happen. Don’t you, Bible believers, know that is not going to happen?

But you know, I tell you, the 2012 phenomenon is just more evidence in the long line of evidence that we are morbidly fascinated with the end of the world, doomsday scenarios, this is just natural to the human heart. We are fascinated by it. We are interested in it. There are many different scenarios that people discuss on how it will happen.

Since the nuclear age, there’s been something called the doomsday clock, which some bureau of atomic scientists set after 1947, after the blasts at Hiroshima and Nagasaki, set at seven minutes till midnight. Seven minutes till the end of the world by nuclear blast. And it actually, they would change it based on certain current events, and so, when, in 1953, both the United States and the Soviet Union experimented with a new form of nuclear blast, a thermonuclear blast that was so much more powerful than the atomic bombs, that had been, they set the doomsday clock at two minutes to midnight. That’s the closest it got. It relaxed a bit to six minutes shortly thereafter, where it stayed through the Cuban Missile Crisis, interestingly. I would have thought they would have moved it up a little bit during that time, but they kept it there. It’s presently at six minutes till midnight now.

They added some environmental issues like, global warming to it, so that’s factoring into the setting of the minute hand. They don’t have a clue, friends. I’m not saying there’s no Christians, I’m just saying, wherever they put that minute, it doesn’t make a difference for when the Lord will return. All I’m saying is that this is a fascination that people have with it.

There are so many different movies about these end of the world scenarios. You’ve probably seen a few of them. The earliest one I ever saw was Planet of the Apes, in which a nuclear holocaust had just wiped human civilization from the surface, it’s a reverse evolution thing, and then, whatever, you don’t need to see it, but you know, that was the nuclear thing. There’s the pandemic that wipes out this huge quantities of the earth’s population, some kind of virus or something that’s genetically developed and we can’t control and that wipes it out. I Am Legend follows that approach. Global warming gives us oddly enough a new arctic age in The Day After Tomorrow, so that had… It has a backlash, there’s reasons for it, I guess, and we end up.

I find it interesting in all of these movies, there’s some people you’re following, they are the movie version of the elect that you’re following through, and they always make it through. Have you noticed? They always somehow survive through, which is another human aspect, we want to survive Doomsday.

And the amazing thing is, first of all, there actually will be a Doomsday. And secondly, you can survive it in Christ, and that’s what we’re getting to in Matthew 24, isn’t that marvelous? The end of the world is coming. It is, there is going to be an end. This isn’t the Hindu kind of cyclical thing going round and round, birth and rebirth, that kinda thing; there will be an end. There was an Alpha Day, and there will be an Omega, a final day in this world history, this age, this eon that we know, it will come to an end.

And Matthew 24 and 25 is talking about that. And so, we’re beginning really, I’m sure it’s going to be a lengthy study in this chapter. I’ve already come to the conclusion that the next two sermons, if God lets me live, and if we’re still here, and I don’t say it facetiously, but if the Lord wills and we live, the next two Sundays are going to be on one verse each, amazingly. Matthew 24:14, “This gospel of the kingdom will be preached in the whole world as a testimony to all nations, and then the end will come,” deserves a full sermon by itself, and it will get one.

And then, in my opinion, the next verse also deserves a full sermon by itself and it will get one, ’cause I get to do that being up here. So, and that’s going to be interesting, because Matthew 24:15 isn’t even a completed sentence. I’m gonna preach on a sentence fragment, a whole sermon on a sentence fragment. “So when you see the abomination of desolation spoken of by the Prophet Daniel, let the reader understand …” That’s it. What should we do? Well, that’s the next sermon, the answer is, run for your lives. We’ll get to that, but I wanna just give a whole Sunday to the abomination of desolation, so that’s where we’re hearing. I’m already off my time, and this was a 50-minute sermon this morning, so we better get going.

I. The Shocking Prediction

The Significance of the Moment

At any rate, at the end of Matthew 23, just, let’s set it in context. Jesus gives the seven-fold woes to the Jews. It’s a very, very significant moment in redemptive history. Because they have rejected God, God has in some way rejected them, and so, there is this complete perfect seven-fold woe spoken by the ultimate, the greatest, the perfect prophet of God, Jesus. Spoken to them seven times, woe to you scribes and Pharisees, you hypocrites.

And the chapter comes to an end in Matthew 23 with these just heart-wrenching words, and you just have to read the Bible and all that God has done with his people, his love for Israel, and all of that and embodied in his Son Jesus. And he stands there and says, it doesn’t say in the scripture, but you can just imagine with tears coming down his face, “O Jerusalem, Jerusalem, you who kill the prophets and stone those sent to you, how often I have longed to gather your children together, as a hen gathers her chicks under her wings, but you were not willing. Behold, 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.’” Immediately go to the next chapter, verse 1, “Jesus left the temple and was walking away.”

So that’s where we go, we’re going right from that, those amazing words, “Behold, your house is left to you desolate, for you’re not gonna see me again,” and then he walks away. It’s just hugely significant. Big, big moment. I believe this is an embodiment of the glory of God leaving the temple, just leaving. I think that the Shekhinah, the dwelling glory, that’s what “Shekhinah’” means. “Mishkan” was the Tabernacle, the dwelling place with God, the dwelling glory in the Tabernacle, and then in the temple, it represented God’s desire to live with us, to be with us, to be with his people, to live with them. And the Tabernacle, the tent, the temple, the building with a foundation, they are both temporary, but symbols of God’s desire to dwell with his people.

The glory cloud was a symbol of that, and in both cases, a miraculous appearance of this glory cloud showed God saying, I am willing to live with you. Amazing Grace. But in Ezekiel, the glory cloud departs the temple, goes to the threshold, goes in stages, but eventually just leaves, and why? Because of their wickedness, because of their sin, leaves. Jesus leaving the temple embodies that. The glory cloud was a symbol of Jesus, it’s really what it was. “The Word became flesh and made his dwelling among us,” and so, we have seen his glory, it says in John 1, he was the glory of God for Israel, and he leaves now, Matthew 24:1.

The Disciples’ Wide-Eyed Wonder Misplaced

And at that moment, the disciples who are us, come up just, no idea what’s going on. No idea of the significance of this moment in redemptive history, and just wide eyed-with wonder at the magnificence of the temple. Just amazing. Jesus left the temple and was walking away when his disciples came to him to call his attention to its buildings. Mark 13:1 gives us this. “They said, ‘Look, Teacher! What massive stones! What magnificent buildings!’” Aren’t you glad for the disciples? I mean, aren’t you glad for the Apostles? They just, they’re us. Like I said in my prayer, we don’t always know what God is doing, and so they represent us and, they just, the timing is terrible on that statement. But actually beautiful too, because it gives Jesus a chance to speak into their ignorance and their misunderstandings of what he is going to do. They did not understand the significance.

Now, some commentators have taken the approach that these are just country people, they’re country people from Galilee, from the outliers, the outlying region, they didn’t get to the big city much, and they’re just country hicks and they’re like… With their mouths agape at the skyscrapers. But you have to realize, they had to come to the city three times a year, at least. They’ve been there regularly. Really what they’re doing is, they’re including the love of their lives, their savior into their wonder, which is actually a good thing to do, including Jesus in your amazement and wonder. So I don’t fault them for it.

Some of those stones were amazingly large. Josephus tells us that one of the stones in Herod’s temple was 45 feet long. One stone, 12 feet high and 18 feet in width. So I had to calculate the weight of a stone that size. I just, I can’t let some aspects of engineering go. And so, I went and found out the density of granite, which I figured it would be, 1.6 million pounds on that one stone. Amazing. So, and the building itself was apparently amazingly ornate and beautiful and just visually appealing.

There was marble, there was gold, Herod spared nothing. He was a tyrant, a wicked man. Wicked man, read about it in Matthew 2, with the slaughter of the infants. But he had this adorned temple. And Rabbis commenting from the first century said, “He who has not seen the temple of Herod, has never seen a beautiful building.” It’s the Jewish way of saying this was the most beautiful building on earth.

And it is natural for us as human beings to marvel in human achievement, to be amazed at what we can do, the technology, the architecture, to be amazed at that. From the tower of Babel through Nebuchadnezzar’s evening walk on the roof of his palace, looking out over Babylon and saying, “Is this not the magnificent Babylon that I have built for the praise of my glory,” and that kind of thing. We have always been amazed at what we can achieve with our hands.

But God is not so impressed with us and with what we can achieve. Stephen quoted an Old Testament scripture in Acts 7, when God says this through the Old Testament prophet, and then again through Stephen to the Sanhedrin. God saying this to us, “Heaven is my throne and the earth is my footstool. What kind of house will you build for me, or where will my resting place be? Has not my hand made all these things?” God apparently is much more impressed with what his hands can do, and so should we be.

God yearns for us to have a broken-hearted humility toward human achievement, toward what we can do, what we have done with our hands. We have sinned. That’s what we’ve done with our hands, and God wants us to tell the truth about that. And with broken-hearted humility with tears and with faith, come to Jesus and find forgiveness, not be amazed at human achievement, even religious achievement. Maybe, I would say, especially religious achievement.

The Shocking Prediction

And so, Jesus at this moment makes a shocking prediction to them. “Do you see all these things,” verse 2, “Do you see them all? Look at them. I tell you the truth, not one stone here will be left on another; every one will be thrown down.” Wow. Again, Jesus, the greatest teacher that has ever lived, in this case uses an object lesson. Look at them. Look at the stones. Take a look at them. They’re big, aren’t they? Huge, ornate. I tell you that not one of them will be on top of another.

Humanity tends to build, like the Tower of Babel, tends to build upward, we tend to go up. I think it’s a grasp after deity is really what, we tend to go up. There are practical reasons for going up, but I’m just telling you, tends to go up, and these stones are coming down, that’s what Jesus says. Everything lofty will be humbled. Everything that exalts itself against God will be thrown down to the ground.

The Prediction Fulfilled

Now, this prediction actually did happen, it’s unclear whether Jesus is referring to the temple alone or the whole city of Jerusalem. Because I don’t know what his hand gesture is when he said, “Do you see all these things?” We know the whole city was destroyed, so it could be that Jesus was predicting the destruction of the whole city of Jerusalem, as it is a little clearer in Luke in another place, he’s talking about the whole city. But either way, temple, whole city, it’s gonna be destroyed.

Josephus tells the story. Josephus was a Jewish historian, who acted as a mediator between the Jews and the Romans during the years leading up to the war, the Jewish War. But in 70, in AD 70, the temple was destroyed. The city was destroyed by the Romans, they went beyond the Roman edict. Titus, who was in charge of the army, he eventually would be Emperor, he was there. He commanded restraint. But they just couldn’t stop themselves, their hatred for the zealots was so great, and a little structure burned near the temple, and pretty soon the whole thing was burning and then they wanted the gold and just pretty soon, Jesus’ words were fulfilled. They were.

It was destroyed, the whole city was destroyed. And Josephus tells the story, the details, I have a quote from Josephus, we don’t have the time for it. But it happened, it really happened, and you can go to Jerusalem and see the wailing wall and I’ll talk about that in another sermon, but the fact of the matter is, it happened, Jesus’ words were fulfilled, Jesus was not a false prophet. Jesus told the truth and the city was destroyed in fulfillment of Jesus’ words.

The Significance

And the significance of this theologically cannot be measured. It’s huge, it’s a huge moment. The destruction of the temple in 70, in AD 70, was a huge moment in redemptive history, not a minor moment. And I’m gonna make this clear in the abomination of desolation sermon, but God has a habit regularly of trashing his own sanctuary, of having it trampled by Gentiles. He does it again and again, we’ll get to that. It’s just what he did. And he predicted in the song of Moses that he would do it. He said, “You’re going to forsake me, you’re gonna go after the idols of the Gentiles, so I’m gonna bring the Gentiles and they’re gonna trample you.”

And therefore, it is what Jesus calls “the times of the Gentiles,” that’s a designation in which God is primarily by his grace, a sovereign power working among Gentiles, not Jews. That’s what this time is. And so, the verses we’re looking at today from Matthew 24:4-14, those verses. I said in my overview sermon last week, that describes in general terms what life is like between the first and second advent of Christ, between the first and second coming of Christ. And those times are the times of the Gentiles, that’s what it is. It’s the time in which God is primarily directing his actions towards the nations of the world and bringing them in in a vast, glorious harvest. Bringing them in through faith in Christ, by the spread of the gospel, he’s working in the nations. His gospel of the kingdom will be preached in the whole world as a testimony to all nations, and then the end will come.

So this is the time of the Gentiles. He speaks specifically of that phrase in Luke 21:24, “Jerusalem will be trampled on by the Gentiles until the times of the Gentiles are fulfilled.” In the book of Acts, Paul always goes to a synagogue first, and in a key moment, he says, “I’m through with you, your blood beyond your own heads. From now on, I’m going to the Gentiles.” Very significant, and that’s exactly what happens here.

Also, and I think just as significant is the official, clear, obvious to anyone who’s looking, end of the old covenant. It’s the end. Curtain in the temple torn in two from top to bottom wasn’t enough. We’ll get to that. The destruction of the temple should have been enough. It won’t be, we’ll get to that as well. But at any rate, God is saying, “I am finished with animal sacrifice, it’s done.” God will never again accept the blood of an animal for a religious spiritual purpose. He will never be pleased with it again, I am not a dispensationalist, I don’t think there are two different ways of getting at God. There is one new man out of the two, Ephesians 2, he accepts only the blood of Jesus shed once for all.

Read about it in the book of Hebrews, dear friends. It is finished. And so, in Hebrews 8:13, speaking of the new covenant that God predicted in the times of the old covenant, through Jeremiah the prophet, that God would make a new covenant with the house of Israel, with the house of Judah, the forgiveness of sins, at the center of that new covenant, as it could not have been with the animal sacrifice. In Hebrews 8:13, it says, “by calling this covenant ‘new,’ he’s made the old one obsolete. And what is obsolete and aging will soon pass away.” Interesting there, the author of the Hebrews gives us the word “soon.” You know why? It was before 70 AD. Now it’s gone. And they cannot obey the law of Moses, they can’t. Oh, they can offer a bull or a goat, they can do that kinda stuff, but they can’t do it in the one place God chose among the nation, among the tribes, Jerusalem, he can’t do it there. The Muslims won’t let them. So we’ll get to all that in due time, but the fact of the matter is, the time for that is finished, so a big-time significant moment in redemptive history.

So, obviously this statement in verse 2 must have rocked their world. I think they still expected Jesus to set up shop in a paneled palace with a golden throne with them, with six thrones on each side. One of them, right and the left, James and John being right at the right and the left, ’cause mom asked, that’s another passage, but that’s what they figured. Jesus is gonna be there, and I think they assumed the animal sacrifice would be going on in the temple, praising God. All of this was, they just did not understand yet that Jesus had to shed his blood for them and for their sins or they would be disqualified from anything good from God. They would deserve only wrath from God, they didn’t understand that. Not really.

II. The Stunned Questions

Asked in Private… on the Mount of Olives

And so they’re stunned. And in verse 3, it says, “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?’” Now, it was wise for them to ask this in private. Mount of Olives was a place of refuge for Jesus, he’d get out of the city, too hot in the city, and I don’t mean thermally, I mean, just relationally, just so much anger and hatred. And so, Jesus would go in the evenings to Mount of Olives, Gethsemane was there. Gethsemane means olive press. That’s where, it was a place of refuge, and he’s sitting there.

And as it turns out from the Mount of Olives, I’ve never been to Jerusalem, but you can see the city just spread out, and so you can imagine Jesus sitting on a rock or something on the mount, and they’re looking out over the city as they’re having this discussion. Powerful. So they come to Jesus privately and privately was the best way for them to discuss the statement. If Jesus had gotten up on a podium in downtown Jerusalem and said, “The Temple is going to be destroyed,” I don’t think they could have heard that. I don’t think the populace could have handled that. All of the stuff that he’s about to predict, I don’t think they can handle this. I think the apostles themselves had a hard time handling it, and so, it’s a private discussion.

Three Questions, Answered in a Complex Swirl

And so, they come to him and they ask him these questions in a complex swirl. When will this happen, the destruction of Jerusalem and of the temple? When will this happen? And what will be the sign of your coming? The word “coming” is “parousia,” it’s an important word in eschatology, end time teaching. And Jesus, I believe had already taught them this word, this concept of “parousia” coming. It’s in almost all the parables, the absentee master who returned. So, they’re already starting to get it, but they don’t quite get it. And of the end of the age, the age is going to end. We’re coming into a new age of the kingdom, your kingdom come, your will be done on earth as is in heaven. They already were starting to think about these things, but didn’t get it, so they wanna know.

And I think that these threads that just are woven together in their minds and they come across the rest of the Chapter, it’s what makes Matthew 24 so delightful and so complex to interpret. At any time, you’re not sure if Jesus is talking about the destruction of the temple, or is he talking about the end of the world and his second coming and all that? How do you know? Three separate issues.

Interpretive Key: As It Was, So It Will Be

Now, in my opinion, I believe one of the key hermeneutical or interpretive principles for this chapter is found in verse 37. Go down to verse 37, Matthew 24:37. And there it says, “As it was in the days of Noah, so it will be at the coming of Son of man.”

Now, actually Jesus says also in Luke that same statement, but another one besides, “As it was in the days of Lot, before the destruction of Sodom and Gomorrah, so it will be at the coming of Son of Man.” He actually gives us two “as it was, so it will be” statements. What that means is that God has crafted history to give us dress rehearsals. And so stuff happens in history that is a lot like what it’s gonna be like at the end of the world.

And he actually does a lot of that, he gives us lots of dress rehearsals. A key example of this is in 1 John, which is the only verse that mentions the word antichrist, it’s the only one. The concept’s in other places, but the word is only mentioned in 1 John 2. “You have heard that antichrist is coming, but even now, many antichrists have come.” There is one final antichrist, he’s coming, we’ll talk about him. But there are many antichrists along the way, and John describes what he means by that.

So there are dress rehearsals and then the final act, the final thing. And so it is, I believe, with the destruction of Jerusalem and then the second coming of Christ. I actually think the reason that it’s so hard to unravel is that as it was in the days of the destruction of Jerusalem, so it will be when Jesus comes back, it’s gonna happen again. And it’s actually pretty complicated to assert that in light of the book of Hebrews, but this is what I think is gonna happen. We’re gonna talk about that in due time. That’s why a sentence fragment gets a whole Sunday in two weeks. But we’ll get to that in due time, but we’re gonna see this again.

III. The Warning Against Spiritual Deception

Great Danger in Every Era: False Teachers

Now, the first thing Jesus says to get them ready is he warns them against spiritual deception. Look at verses 4 and 5, “Jesus answered: ‘Watch out that no one deceives you.’” Verse 5, “‘For many will come in my name claiming “I am the Christ,” and will deceive many.’” I’ve said before, just a great maybe the greatest danger in every church age is false doctrine, false teaching, it attacks the Gospel itself, which is the only power of God there is in this world for salvation. And so, it’s like AIDS that goes after the immune system, vital to our lives, so false teaching goes after the gospel.

And so, it’s part of the job of an elder to defend the gospel against attacks. We’ve got to do that defense work, and so, that’s why your elders have to be sharp doctrinally, because they need to discern how Satan is attacking the gospel and defend it. But there’s gonna be these false teachers, false christs, false prophets that are coming in Christ’s name and they’re going to say, “I am the Christ.”

Specifically in Eschatology: False Christs

And it’s interesting, one of the hallmarks of cult leaders is their appeal to eschatological things, end time things. So many cult leaders come and say, “The end of the world is imminent.” It’s happened again and again in church history. It’s a regular pattern.

Like during the Reformation in the 16th Century, right during the time of Martin Luther, there was a group of people called the “Zwickau Prophets,” and they went around preaching Millenarianism, the thousand year reign is about to come. They were led by a man named Thomas Muntzer. They proclaimed that the return of Christ was imminent, the day of God’s wrath and judgment was very near in hand, they believe they were the elect, the chosen ones, the Zwickau Prophets were, to announce the arrival, the impending arrival of the kingdom of God, and that the true saints would inherit the earth and get this, they themselves were to impose the kingdom using the power of the sword. Well, you can imagine what happened. They were defeated militarily, and were executed, those that survived the battle.

Around that same time, a little later though, in 1533, a man named Jan Matthys of Leiden came to the German town of Munster and set up a polygamous theocracy. Polygamous means in the pattern of the Old Testament kings, he had multiple wives. And many of them had multiple wives, and it was a theocracy, God ruled in this town through this man as the prophet, you see. And so, Matthys declared that Munster was in fact the New Jerusalem considerably smaller than the book of Revelation had said, but at any rate, there it was, that was the New Jerusalem and he was in charge. And the town became so bizarre that the only thing the Catholics and Protestants in the region could agree about was that it needed to be besieged and destroyed. And so, the Catholics and Protestants together took out that town. While they were being besieged, this guy Jan Matthys, who he thought, he believed he was spiritually the successor of King David, took 30 of his best men and rode out to meet this besieging army. Needless to say, they were captured immediately and executed. It happens again and again, it happens all over the world.

In China, there was a man named Hong Xiuquan, in 1837, after hearing some Christian missionaries, he had some visions of his elder brother Jesus. Jesus was his elder brother, and he called on this man to purify China of demon worship and bring in a heavenly kingdom of transcendent peace. On January 11th in 1851, he led the Taiping Rebellion, he was eventually defeated and committed suicide.

Well, is that going on now in our era? Yes. You’ve heard of ghe Moonies, Sun Myung Moon from Korea. He has designated himself to be the successor to Christ, get this, to finish Christ’s unfinished work. And on, I didn’t know this, on March 23rd, 2004, he crowned himself Messiah at the Dirksen Senate Office Building in Washington, DC, with some senators and representatives there, photo-op, the new Messiah.

David Koresh, you’ve heard of him, Branch Davidians. Claimed to be the final prophet, end of the world imminent. FBI and ATF agents came to the compound there, you remember in Waco, Texas, and destroyed it.

And there’s this man from Puerto Rico, Jose Luis de Jesus Miranda who claims, get this, to be both the Christ and the antichrist at the same time. Now, there’s a confused individual. How would you like to do counseling with him? But he has the number 666 tattooed on his forearm and he preaches to followers in 35 nations, mostly in Latin America, has 287 radio programs and a 24-hour Spanish language TV network. I’m gonna ask Herbert afterwards if he’s ever heard this individual. You have, alright, well, we’ll talk about him later. You don’t believe him though, do you? Good. Alright. Encouraged.

Forewarned is Sufficient for God’s Elect

Jesus warns us to watch out for these kinds of people. And here’s the beauty of it. Can I just say, Go right to the heart of the matter. The beauty is Jesus’ warning is effective for us. It’s effective for the elect, the sheep will not follow these guys, they just won’t.

We have an anointing from the Holy One, and we know the truth. You know it when you hear it, you just know good doctrine when you hear it, don’t you? You’re listening to some preacher, you don’t even know his name, it’s like, that’s right or it’s wrong. You just hear it. But we need the warning, because Jesus is giving it to us here.

And so, later in the same Chapter, in Matthew 24:23-25, look down and see it, says, “So 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,” listen, “and perform great signs and miracles” – Wow, they’re going to do it friends, great signs and wonders – “to deceive even the elect, if that were possible. Behold, I have told you ahead of time.” That collection of words is huge for me. He’s warning them, this is what they’re going to do to deceive the elect, if that were possible, implying it’s not, and the reason it’s not is I’ve told you ahead of time.

So part of my job is to tell you ahead of time, watch out for these folks. Watch out for false teachers, especially eschatological style false teachers. And the culmination of that will be the antichrist, the greatest deceiver that has ever lived as a human being. And I’m gonna tell you why in due time in the next sermon, after the 24:15 sermon, why you have to run for your lives if you’re alive at that time. You can’t take him on. He’s just too strong. The power of evil will be so pervasive in this individual, his wonder-working ability, miracles, that he will be able to do, you can’t handle him. And so, the advice, the command, Jesus gives you is you run for your life.

And we’ll get to that in due time, but in 2 Thessalonians 2, it says, “The coming of the lawless one, the antichrist will be in accordance with the work of Satan, displayed in all kinds of counterfeit miracles, signs, and wonders, and in every sort of evil that deceives those who are perishing. They perish, because they refuse to love the truth, and so be saved. And for this reason, God sends them a powerful delusion so that they will believe the lie.” God’s sovereignty goes in places you and I can scarcely understand or imagine. But basically, if you won’t believe the truth, I’ll send you a lie. And so, we, the elect, the true sheep of God, we have loved the truth, we embrace the truth. We’re not gonna get taken in by this, but we still need to run for our lives. We’ll get to that later.

IV. The Spasms of a Dying and Hateful World

All right, so the first thing Jesus does is, he gives us that warning against false teachers, next he gives us an overview of what I call the spasms of a dying world. And it’s been dying since Adam took that fruit. It’s not anything new, and that’s the whole thing. This stretch of Matthew 24, you really need to see it for its sad ordinariness, is what it is. Its tragic ordinariness. And if you don’t think it’s ordinary, you don’t know much about history frankly. But I think that you do know enough about history to know how ordinary these things are.

Look at what it says. “You’ll hear of wars and rumors of wars, but see to it that you’re not alarmed. Such things must happen, but the end is still to come. Nation will rise against nation and kingdom against kingdom. There’ll be famines and earthquakes in various places. All these are the beginning of birth pains.

The Wickedness of Humanity

This is the wickedness of humanity, wars and rumors of wars. I lost track of the number. I did some research a couple of years ago, the number of wars there have been since the United Nations were set up, it’s in the hundreds and hundreds. I don’t know what, but wars and rumors of wars are nothing new, and they do not mark out or identify any era of human history. Frankly, since Cain killed his brother Abel, we have been en route to wars and rumors of wars right from that very start. It’s in the nature of the human heart to assemble together, power, military power, and go after someone and take what they have. It’s been going on all this time.

Empires rising and falling is the history of the world, and it’s going to continue right to the end. Why did the Roman army destroy Jerusalem? Because they were fulfilling prophecy? They were all Christians doing God’s work? Not at all. They destroyed Jerusalem because they thought it was in the best interest of the empire. They were just doing what they do. It’s what the legions did, they wanted Pax Romana, they wanted organization and peace and quiet and tax money rolling in and harvest rolling in and everybody happy under their boot, that’s what they wanted. But if people got uppity, if they got rebellious, they would bring in the legions and guess what? The legions would win. And that’s what happened to Jerusalem, they’re just doing what they do. Wars and rumors of wars. The zealots, I don’t think they were doing it for the glory of God, they wanted their own kingdom, that’s what they do. It’s what the human heart, the unregenerate human heart does.

And those current events, friends, are gonna continue to swirl in every generation. There’s not gonna be some lull with no current events for X amount of time before Jesus comes back. I mean, the New York Times, CNN, they’re just, stuff will be happening, right up – Lots of stuff, actually – and then Jesus will interrupt it all. Actually, this is for this very reason that Jesus is coming back. The wickedness of the human heart, the wars, the rumors of wars, the hatred we have for one another, the native hatred, the covetousness we have of our neighbor’s goods, this is why these empires rise and fall. And Jesus is coming back to end it.

Physical Spasms of the Earth

But it’s not just human to human, there are spasms of the earth itself described here, famines and earthquakes in various places. And that just shows you how general this is. Well, which places? Various places. Where? Well, just look on the computer, do some research on earthquakes in the last thousand years. There have been some. There have actually been a lot, and in fulfillment of the prophecy, they’ve been in various places. I mean, there were two major ones quite recently, one in Port-au-Prince, one in Haiti, and one in China. They just keep on coming.

The Bible doesn’t specifically mention volcanoes blowing their top in Iceland and putting an ash cloud over the northern part of Europe, so that a week of flights in and out of Northern European cities are cancelled and backlogged. But I believe all of this is a picture of an earth convulsing and writhing under human sin.

Beginning of Birth Pangs

Groaning as in the pains of childbirth, it says in Romans 8. This world is under a curse because of us. God put it that way. “It was subjected to futility,” Romans 8, “not by its own choice, but by the will of him who subjected it in hope that the creation itself will be liberated from its bondage to decay and brought into the glorious freedom of the children of God.” But meanwhile, we get famines and earthquakes and volcanoes and floods, and tidal waves and mudslides and pandemics and other natural stuff that just comes and it’s just horrible.

And Jesus calls it the beginning of birth pains. And again, as a man, I can’t understand that except by sympathy. I saw my wife go through it with our children, I’ve heard it’s agonizing. Jesus chooses it as an example of great pain, not small pain, but great pain. But a different kind of pain, isn’t it? Birth pains are different than cancerous tumor pains. And what’s the difference? Well, Jesus says in John 16, “after the baby is born, she forgets the grief for joy that her child has brought into the world.” Oh, hang on that friends. We’re heading to something glorious and beautiful. Yes, it’s just the beginning of birth pains, and it’s not going to be easy to get there.

Friends, no one here, no one sitting here, no human being sitting here will get out of this place unscathed. We are in a world of pain, and the only way to get through it is great pain and difficulty and trouble, some more than others, I acknowledge. Walter Martin, the Bible answer man, was taken while kneeling in prayer. O Lord, that sounds good. But most of us don’t go that way. Most of us, like I preached for you on Easter Sunday about David Brainerd. Oh, was that… I wasn’t sure I should even preach that, but it’s tough to die, and it’s tough to be with those that die. It’s not going to be easy to get out of here into the next world. But when we do, oh, it’s gonna be beautiful. The beginning of birth pains.

V. The Costly Growth of a Living Kingdom

The Suffering of the Church

And then he gets to what I call the costly growth of a living kingdom. “You’ll be handed over to be persecuted and put to death,” said Jesus, “and you’ll 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 he who stands firm to the end will be saved.”

Now, this is a unique special kind of suffering. This is the suffering of the church, the suffering of believers that we will have. Hatred is going to increase at the end of the world, persecution will be both informal and formal. Informal will, you know, pseudo-brothers and sisters in Christ, the false ones, the nominal ones. They’re not going out of the Church easily, they’re going to betray us, they’re gonna turn us in. Turn us into who? Well, to the formal persecutors, those are the government forces. And in some countries, they know exactly what we’re talking about, the governmental laws against Christianity and you’re betrayed and turned in for your faith. And they persecute you, they put you in jail, they torture you.

The Trial of Faith

That’s going to escalate and increase until it’s consummated in the age of the antichrist, when it will most certainly be illegal to be a Christian. And nominal Christians cannot handle that, and they will sell out their brothers and sisters in Christ to improve their own position in the new world order. They’re gonna betray and hate each other. And the love of most will grow cold. This is a great trial of faith. But you remember the parable of the seed and the soils, and there is that stony ground here that at once receives the word with joy, but when the sun comes up on trouble, persecution comes because of the word, they quickly… What? What do they do? Well, they fall away.

So Jesus says, you know, they’re going to turn away from the faith. That’s called apostasy. You think, well, if you’re reformed in theology, we don’t believe in falling away from the faith. Well, these are nominal Christians, this is what they are, they are stony ground hearers. And they can’t handle the persecution, and they go out from the church, they go out from us, because they’re not really with us or part of us.

But verse 13, just put it in your brain, put it up on your mirror. “How do I know, Lord, if I’m a Christian?” Well, “He who stands firm to the end will be saved.” The greatest mark of regeneration is perseverance in the faith through difficulty, that’s it. Day after day, month after month, year after year, still loving Jesus, despite the temptations, the sins, the struggles, the attacks, the trouble that Christ has caused you, if we can even use that expression, the trouble the word has brought into your life, you’re still loving him, still believing in him, that’s the mark of a Christian. Now, next week, I’m going to talk about verse 14, so I literally will say nothing about it right now.

VI. Applications

Come to Christ—for Salvation and for Wisdom

The gospel of the kingdom will spread, and that is my first application. What is this gospel? Well, how are we gonna get out of here and go into the next world, except by that gospel of the kingdom. Come to Christ, come to Christ. I don’t know that the world is going to end later today, but I already said last week, we have to be ready for that. Jesus isn’t asking your opinion on eschatology when he comes back, he’ll come when he comes.

So it might end later today, but that’s not the issue; you might end later today. You might end later today. You might die later today. And after death comes judgment. Are you ready for it? You are a sinner. And so am I. Apart from Christ, you are not ready for it. You will weep, you will wail in hell if you’re not a Christian. You will grieve, and you’ll wish you could have come back to April 18th, 2010, when it was quiet and peaceful and sitting on a comfortable pew, and this man stood up and told me about Jesus and how Jesus shed his blood for me, and that if I had believed in Jesus, all of my sins would have been forgiven, and God would have seen me as perfectly righteous in him, trust in Christ. That’s the answer here.

This is the purpose of all of this is to redeem sinners like you and me. Come to Christ, come to him for salvation. I tell you, the cross of Christ is the only thing that makes any sense of human history. I don’t understand it other than that. And it doesn’t make any sense. One hymn writer put it this way, “In the cross of Christ I glory, towering o’er the wrecks of time.” It’s the only thing that makes any sense over the wrecks of time.

But also come to Christ for wisdom, alright? You’re a Christian, alright, you already came to Christ for forgiveness, well, then come to Christ for wisdom. Go to Mount of Olives, metaphorically in your minds, spiritually, sit at Jesus’ feet and say, I don’t get it. I don’t understand. Teach me, teach me the end of the world, teach me what Revelation means, teach me Matthew 24. Teach me what it means that this generation will not end until all these things have taken place. I wanna know what this means, teach me the deep truths of the faith.

And he will do it through this word, not through private subjective impressions. He will teach you what these words mean, what these nouns and verbs and adjectives mean and how they relate to other ones, and it’s gonna be a lifetime study. Ask him for wisdom and he will give it to you. Be confident that God wants to tell you more than you wanna know. He wants to give you wisdom, Matthew 13:11, “The knowledge of the secrets of the kingdom of heaven has been given to you, but not to them.” Come to Christ and ask.

Understand the Direction of History

And realize that history has a direction. And that’s what Matthew 24 is about. We’re heading somewhere friends, we’re heading somewhere. We’re heading toward the new heaven and new earth, we’re heading toward the second coming of Christ. It’s not gonna go on forever. It will not go on forever. And though people have oftentimes thought the end of the world was imminent and it wasn’t, it doesn’t mean the end of the world isn’t coming, it is. I am the Alpha and the Omega, the beginning and the end, said Jesus, the first and the last. It is coming. Believe in that and accept it.

Rejoice in the End of the Sacrificial System

And rejoice in the end of the sacrificial system, be glad you don’t need to go to the temple in Jerusalem and offer an animal for your sins. It’s done. Jesus said, “It is finished.” His blood is shed. You are, if you’re a Christian, you are forgiven. You’re forgiven. Isn’t that beautiful? The righteousness of Jesus is yours. And that animal sacrifice is over, it’s finished.

Do Not Trust In Human Achievements—Spiritual or Secular

And do not trust in human achievements, don’t rejoice in the temple and the size of its stones and all that. Don’t rejoice in the beauty of this building. I’m glad that this building is beautiful and comfortable, it’s a good thing. But everything you see around you will come down some day, all of it. All of it will. Focus instead on Jesus’ achievement, on Christ’s achievement for you, focus on that. I have many other applications to say, but if God wills, we’ll have more chances to talk about Matthew Chapter 24:14, let’s say a closing prayer.

These are only preliminary, unedited outlines and may differ from Andy’s final message.

Every generation is fascinated by doomsday scenarios concerning the end of the world… and popular American culture of the 21^st century is no different.  A sense of impending doom is not a new thing in American culture

In 1947, after the atomic blasts that vaporized Hiroshima and Nagasaki, the Bulletin of Atomic Scientists has maintained something they call the “Doomsday Clock”… a clock face with hour and minute hand showing their estimation of how close the world is to total destruction from nuclear blasts;  the first time setting in 1947 was seven minutes till midnight;  during the height of Cold War tensions, the clock was reset to as close as two minutes till midnight (1953 when both the US and USSR tested thermonuclear devices)

Strangely during the Cuba Missile Crisis, when the US and Soviet Union was it seemed within a hair’s breadth of full-scale war, the clock remained at 7 minutes till midnight

In 2007, the Doomsday Clock added environmental issues (like global warming) to the factors determining the time setting… it is presently at 6 minutes till midnight

Movemakers pitch in with movies depicting the earth after a major thermonuclear holocaust (Planet of the Apes, Dr. Strangelove, and others), a pandemic which wipes out the earth’s population (I Am Legend), global warming and/or solar flares (2012 and The Day After Tomorrow), or even alien invasions (The War of the Worlds) or conquest by Artificial Intelligence robots (The Matrix)…

So how exactly will the world end?  How will we know when it is coming?  Is there anything we can do about it?  These are the questions that Jesus Christ answers in Matthew 24-25 as we began to see last week.

This morning, we begin to look at the details…

One of the key issues is, “What are the SIGNS by which we can see the impending end of the world as we know it?”  Jesus begins amazingly by talking about signs that will happen in EVERY GENERATION before getting specific about other signs that will only happen in the final generation

I. The Shocking Prediction

A. The Significance of the Moment

1. The Desolation of Israel Begins

Matthew 23:37 – 24:1  “O Jerusalem, Jerusalem, you who kill the prophets and stone those sent to you, how often I have longed to gather your children together, as a hen gathers her chicks under her wings, but you were not willing.  ³⁸ Look, your house is left to you desolate.  ³⁹ For I tell you, you will not see me again until you say, ‘Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord.'”

24:1 ¶ Jesus left the temple and was walking away

2. The Glory Leaves the Temple

a. In the Old Covenant, the Glory-cloud symbolized God’s dwelling with the Jews… His glory-cloud entered the tabernacle and filled it; then the glory-cloud entered the Temple and filled it

b. BUT when the Jews forsook God and went after idols, the prophet Ezekiel beheld the glory of God LEAVE the temple when the Babylonians came to destroy it the first time

c. NOW the true glory of God—Jesus Christ—leaves the temple and walks away because they rejected Him

d. HUGELY SIGNIFICANT moment in Redemptive History

B. The Disciples’ Wide-Eyed Wonder Misplaced

Matthew 24:1  Jesus left the temple and was walking away when his disciples came up to him to call his attention to its buildings.

Mark 13:1  As he was leaving the temple, one of his disciples said to him, “Look, Teacher! What massive stones! What magnificent buildings!”

1. Timing!!!

a. The disciples could not understand the significance of Jesus’ statement:  Your house is left to you desolate

b. They still assumed Jesus was going to take up His throne and rule the Jewish nation and the world at that very moment

2. Country hicks from Galilee?

a. Astonished at the magnificence of the Temple

b. They verbalize their feelings

c. Some have wondered if it was that they were country hicks from Galilee walking in wide-eyed wonder in the big city

3. The Impressiveness of Herod’s Temple

a. Some of the stones were truly massive:  Josephus, the Jewish historian tells us that some of them were as large as 45 feet long, 12 feet high, and 18 feet in width!!   INCREDIBLE… a single stone could weigh over 1.5 million pounds

b. Furthermore, the building itself was incredibly beautiful; King Herod the Great, the tyrant ruling when Jesus was born, had poured his wealth into adorning the temple grandly:  huge MARBLE stones, vast overlays of gold

c. Rabbinic comment from  the first century:  “He who has not seen the Temple of Herod has never seen a beautiful building.” (B.Bat. 4a)

4. The Human Marvel at Human Achievement

a. From the Tower of Babel, through Nebuchadnezzar’s boast over Babylon, we have been impressed with the achievements of our own hands

b. God is not so impressed!!

Acts 7:49-50  “‘Heaven is my throne, and the earth is my footstool. What kind of house will you build for me? says the Lord. Or where will my resting place be?  ⁵⁰ Has not my hand made all these things?’

c. God yearns for broken-hearted humility and faith in sinners like us

C. The Shocking Prediction

Matthew 24:2  “Do you see all these things?” he asked. “I tell you the truth, not one stone here will be left on another; every one will be thrown down.”

1. An Object Lesson:  Do You See All These Things?

a. Perhaps more than just the Temple

b. Perhaps Jesus’ hand gesture swept over the WHOLE CITY of Jerusalem

c. Look carefully at this magnificent Temple, and at the whole city

2. The Prediction was Specific… and Shocking

a. Every single stone placed on top of another would be thrown down

b. Humanity in pride builds UPWARD… God casts human pride DOWNWARD

c. This is nothing less than a prediction of the total destruction of the city of Jerusalem

D. The Prediction Fulfilled

1. Josephus tells the story

The Siege of Jerusalem in the year 70 AD was a decisive event in the First Jewish-Roman War. It was followed by the fall of Masada in 73 AD. The Roman army, led by the future Emperor Titus, besieged and conquered the city of Jerusalem, which had been occupied by its Jewish defenders in 66 AD. The city and its famous Temple were destroyed in 70 AD

The account of Josephus described Titus as moderate in his approach and, after conferring with others, ordering that the Temple be spared.  According to Josephus, the Roman soldiers grew furious with Jewish attacks and tactics and, against Titus’ orders, set fire to an apartment adjacent to the Temple, which soon spread all throughout.

Josephus had acted as a mediator for the Romans and, when negotiations failed, witnessed the siege and aftermath. He wrote:

Now as soon as the army had no more people to slay or to plunder, because there remained none to be the objects of their fury (for they would not have spared any, had there remained any other work to be done), [Titus] gave orders that they should now demolish the entire city and Temple, but should leave as many of the towers standing as they were of the greatest eminence … and so much of the wall enclosed the city on the west side. This wall was spared, in order to afford a camp for such as were to lie in garrison [in the Upper City], as were the towers [the three forts] also spared, in order to demonstrate to posterity what kind of city it was, and how well fortified, which the Roman valor had subdued; but for all the rest of the wall [surrounding Jerusalem], it was so thoroughly laid even with the ground by those that dug it up to the foundation, that there was left nothing to make those that came thither believe it [Jerusalem] had ever been inhabited. This was the end which Jerusalem came to by the madness of those that were for innovations; a city otherwise of great magnificence, and of mighty fame among all mankind.^[1]
And truly, the very view itself was a melancholy thing; for those places which were adorned with trees and pleasant gardens, were now become desolate country every way, and its trees were all cut down. Nor could any foreigner that had formerly seen Judaea and the most beautiful suburbs of the city, and now saw it as a desert, but lament and mourn sadly at so great a change. For the war had laid all signs of beauty quite waste. Nor had anyone who had known the place before, had come on a sudden to it now, would he have known it again. But though he [a foreigner] were at the city itself, yet would he have inquired for it

E. The Significance

1. The rejection of God by Israel;  the rejection of Israel by God

a. God’s consistent pattern: using Gentile military power to discipline Israel

Deuteronomy 32:21  They made me jealous by what is no god and angered me with their worthless idols. I will make them envious by those who are not a people; I will make them angry by a nation that has no understanding.

Deuteronomy 32:29-30  If only they were wise and would understand this and discern what their end will be!  ³⁰ How could one man chase a thousand, or two put ten thousand to flight, unless their Rock had sold them, unless the LORD had given them up?

b. But this is far more severe… a significant moment in Redemptive History

2. The clear declaration:  this is the “Times of the Gentiles”

Luke 21:24  Jerusalem will be trampled on by the Gentiles until the times of the Gentiles are fulfilled.

a. The “Times of the Gentiles” means a shift in God’s focus in the world

b. First, God would give the Jewish nation up to Gentile enemies to be trampled… specifically to the Romans

c. Then He would pour out His grace and mercy on the elect among the Gentiles to save them from darkness

d. Up until this moment, God concentrated His focus on the Jews, and allowed the pagan nations to wander in darkness

Acts 14:16  In the past, he let all nations go their own way.

e. Now, He turns to the Gentiles… to the nations

Acts 18:6  when the Jews opposed Paul and became abusive, he shook out his clothes in protest and said to them, “Your blood be on your own heads! I am clear of my responsibility. From now on I will go to the Gentiles.”

3. The end of the sacrificial system

a. Also, the destruction of the Temple clearly means an end of the sacrificial system… the Old Covenant has clearly come to an end

b. Jesus’ death on the cross FULFILLED the sacrificial system, and that system has now become obsolete

Hebrews 8:13 By calling this covenant “new,” he has made the first one obsolete; and what is obsolete and aging will soon disappear.

c. God demonstrated the END of that system when Jesus died by tearing the veil in the temple

d. He now makes it much plainer by destroying the temple

e. Now the Jews CANNOT obey the Laws of Moses concerning animal sacrifice… God has BLOCKED the animal sacrifices by destroying the temple

II. The Stunned Questions

Matthew 24:3  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?”

A. Asked in Private… on the Mount of Olives

1. The disciples were certainly troubled by Jesus’ statement

2. They still fully expected Jesus would fit into their mental image of the coming Kingdom

3. They could picture Jesus in a beautiful palace of cedar, surrounded by His twelve apostles, ruling the world

4. The total destruction of the Temple and of Jerusalem makes no sense to them

5. They still did not understand that Jesus had to die for their sins

6. Privately was the BEST way for these revolutionary teachings to be revealed;  the crowds could never have handled these ideas

7. So they approach Jesus privately while He was sitting on the Mount of Olives… undoubtedly they could look down over Jerusalem as He was discussing this… this is therefore called the “Olivet Discourse” or the “Little Apocalypse”

B. Three Questions, Answered in a Complex Swirl

1. “When will this happen?” = When will the destruction of the Temple and of Jerusalem occur?

2. “What will be the sign of your coming?” = coming in Greek is PAROUSIA, and clearly Jesus has used this term at other times not recorded in the Bible to teach them of His Second Coming, though they don’t understand it

3. “And of the end of the age” = the end of the world

4. These three separate issues Jesus answers for the rest of the chapter

5. The complexity of Matthew 24 comes in unraveling whether Jesus is discussing the destruction of Jerusalem in AD 70 or the Second Coming and the End of the Age

C. Interpretive Key:  As It Was, So It Will Be

Matthew 24:37  As it was in the days of Noah, so it will be at the coming of the Son of Man.

1. History repeats itself… and so will redemptive history as well

2. The events leading up to the destruction of Jerusalem in AD 70 prefigure the events leading to the Second Coming of Christ… so there will be similar themes both times

III. The Warning Against Spiritual Deception

Matthew 24:4-5  Jesus answered: “Watch out that no one deceives you.  ⁵ For many will come in my name, claiming, ‘I am the Christ,’ and will deceive many.

A. Great Danger in Every Era:  False Teachers

B. Specifically in Eschatology:  False Christs

1. One great hallmark of cult leaders is their stirring up of end of the world fears to attract a following

2. In the past

·      During the Reformation, a group of called the “Zwickau Prophets” went around preaching Millenarianism, led by Thomas Muntzer;  they proclaimed that the return of Christ was imminent and that the Day of God’s Wrath and Judgment was very near at hand. They believed that they were the ones chosen to announce the arrival of the Kingdom of God and that the true saints would inherit the earth. They, themselves, were to impose the Kingdom, using the power of the sword if necessary.  They were eventually defeated militarily and Muntzer was executed.

·      1533:  Jan Matthys of Leiden came to the German town of Munster and set up a polygamous theocracy based on the Old Testament;  Matthys declared that Munster was the New Jerusalem and that he was the King of Zion;  the town became so bizarre that it was besieged by both Catholic and Protestant soldiers;  Matthys, believing he was the successor of King David went out from the city walls with just 30 soldiers to take on the besiegers and was captured immediately

·      Hong Xiuquan:  in 1837, after hearing some Christian missionaries, had some visions in which he claimed that his elder brother Jesus Christ called on him to purify China of demon worship;  Hong declared the foundation of the “Heavenly Kingdom of Transcendent Peace” on 11 January 1851 and led the Taiping Rebellion;  he was eventually defeated and committed suicide

3. In our era

·      Sun Myung Moon:  Korean, claims to be the new Christ, come to complete Christ’s unfinished work; March 23, 2004, crowned himself Messiah at the Dirksen Senate Office Building Washington D.C. with congressmen and senators present.

·      David Koresh, Branch Davidians; claimed to be the final prophet;  lead a small group of followers on a ranch in Waco Texas until the FBI and ATF besieged it in 1993 and Koresh and his followers were killed

·      Jose Luis de Jesus Miranda:  from Puerto Rico, claims to be both the Christ and the Antichrist at the same time; has “666” tattooed on his forearm;  preaches to followers in some 35 nations, mostly in Latin America, and has 287 radio programs and a 24-hour Spanish-language TV network

C. Forewarned is Sufficient for God’s Elect

Matthew 24:23-25  At that time if anyone says to you, ‘Look, here is the Christ!’ or, ‘There he is!’ do not believe it.  ²⁴ For false Christs and false prophets will appear and perform great signs and miracles to deceive even the elect– if that were possible.  ²⁵ See, I have told you ahead of time.

The culmination of this will be the Antichrist:

2 Thessalonians 2:9-11  The coming of the lawless one will be in accordance with the work of Satan displayed in all kinds of counterfeit miracles, signs and wonders,  ¹⁰ and in every sort of evil that deceives those who are perishing. They perish because they refused to love the truth and so be saved.  ¹¹ For this reason God sends them a powerful delusion so that they will believe the lie

IV. The Spasms of a Dying and Hateful World

Matthew 24:6-8  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.  ⁷ Nation will rise against nation, and kingdom against kingdom. There will be famines and earthquakes in various places.  ⁸ All these are the beginning of birth pains.

A. The Wickedness of Humanity

1. Wars and Rumors of Wars

2. Empires Rising and Falling

a. This has been the history of the world and it will continue right to the end of time

b. The Roman army, in destroying Jerusalem, were just managing their vast empire in the way that seemed best to them

c. The Zealots, in fighting the Romans, were seeking to establish a Jewish kingdom by the sword… the very thing Jesus repudiated

d. Current events will continue to swirl in every generation… these are no certain signs of the end of the world, but simply evidence of the wickedness of the human heart… the very reason Christ will return to judge the earth

B. Physical Spasms of the Earth

1. Famines and Earthquakes

a. Human sin has subjected the earth to futility… and earthquakes and famines are just evidence of the curse on the earth

Romans 8:20-22  the creation was subjected to frustration, not by its own choice, but by the will of the one who subjected it, in hope  ²¹ that the creation itself will be liberated from its bondage to decay and brought into the glorious freedom of the children of God.  ²² We know that the whole creation has been groaning as in the pains of childbirth right up to the present time.

b. In every generation, these two afflictions and others (like hurricanes, local floods, tsunamis, mud slides, plagues, etc.) have shown the fact that the natural order is cursed

2. Various Places:  again, Jesus speaks in vague generalities… just reminding His followers of the convulsions

C. Beginning of Birth Pangs

1. Both Matthew 24 and Romans 8 speak of groaning and pains like childbirth

2. The image is one of immediate pain for eternal pleasure… the net result is one of joy forever

3. Jesus spoke the same way in John 16

John 16:21-22  A woman giving birth to a child has pain because her time has come; but when her baby is born she forgets the anguish because of her joy that a child is born into the world.  ²² So with you: Now is yourtime of grief, but I will see you again and you will rejoice, and no one will take away your joy.

4. The “birth pains” imply the future world, the perfect world, will only come as a result of a vast convulsion of agony

V. The Costly Growth of a Living Kingdom

Matthew 24:9-13  “Then you will be handed over to be persecuted and put to death, and you will be hated by all nations because of me.  ¹⁰ At that time many will turn away from the faith and will betray and hate each other,  ¹¹ and many false prophets will appear and deceive many people.  ¹² Because of the increase of wickedness, the love of most will grow cold,  ¹³ but he who stands firm to the end will be saved.

A. The Suffering of the Church

1. Jesus warned us again and again, as the world hated Him, it would hate Christians as well

2. That hatred will actually INCREASE at the end of the world

3. Persecution will be both informal and formal

a. Informally, family members and friends will turn against Christians

b. Thus they will BETRAY the closeness of the relationship

4. Then persecution will be formal… by the government… official rejection of Christians by the government has been characteristic of the church’s suffering from its beginning… it will reach its pinnacle in the reign of Antichrist

B. The Trial of Faith

1. The increase of persecution will be a severe test of NOMINAL CHRISTIANS… gospel hypocrites will be weeded out

Vs. 10  At that time many will turn away from the faith and will betray and hate each other

2. The increase of wickedness will cause people’s hearts to grow cold… natural affection will be replaced by animal-like instincts… survival of the fittest

Matthew 24:12  Because of the increase of wickedness, the love of most will grow cold

3. True Christians can never fall away from Christ… but in the parable of the seed and the soils, it is clear that “stony ground hearers” are those who fall away when trouble or persecution comes because of the word

4. The clearest evidence of true Christianity:  perseverance in the face of trials and difficulties

Matthew 24:13  he who stands firm to the end will be saved.

C. The Worldwide Testimony of the Gospel

Matthew 24:14  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.

1. Through all this, the greatest evidence of the truth of Christ is the constant, irresistible advance of the Gospel to the ends of the earth

2. The progress of the gospel over twenty centuries is amazing… and tremendous evidence of the power of Christ to predict the future

a. Christ sat on that hillside on the Mount of Olives and predicted the advance of the gospel to the ends of the earth

b. At that time, Christ’s true followers numbered less than 200… and only 120 gathered in the upper room to wait for the Holy Spirit

c. Now, there is not a single nation on earth which does not have a Christian church… and the number of unreached people groups has dwindled steadily

3. This prediction is a CERTAINTY… and it can only be achieved by the sovereign power of God

4. Note:  this “Gospel of the KINGDOM”… that is, of the reign of God over the earth… the GOOD NEWS that God reigns on earth

5. And THEN AT LAST  the end will come

a. The end is waiting for the completion of the great commission… this gospel preaching work

b. By our faithful involvement we can

2 Peter 3:12  look forward to the day of God and speed its coming.

VI. Applications

A. Come to Christ—for Salvation and for Wisdom

1. Come to Christ for salvation

a. Christ is the center of history… therefore He should be the focus of your life

b. All the sufferings and tribulations of these two chapters are caused by one thing: human sin

c. Christ is the only answer for sin

d. Glory in the cross of Christ

In the cross of Christ I glory
Towering o’er the wrecks of time

e. The cross of Christ is the only truth that can make any sense of the wrecks of time

f. Come to Christ for salvation… He alone can rescue you from the wrath to come

2. Come to Christ for wisdom

a. It was Christ that predicted the destruction of Jerusalem… He initiated this discussion

b. Christ does not merely PREDICT the future… He CAUSES it

c. When bewildered, the disciples came to Christ privately for wisdom… GOOD PATTERN

d. Matthew 13:  The disciples came to Christ privately to understand the parables

e. So here, the disciples come to Christ privately to understand the end of the world

f. EXCELLENT PATTERN for us to follow!!!

James 1:5  If any of you lacks wisdom, he should ask God, who gives generously to all without finding fault, and it will be given to him.

Colossians 2:3  in [Christ] are hidden all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge.

1 Corinthians 1:30 It is because of him that you are in Christ Jesus, who has become for us wisdom from God

3. Be confident that God wants to tell you so much more than you know

Matthew 13:11  “The knowledge of the secrets of the kingdom of heaven has been given to you, but not to them.

Ephesians 1:9-10  And he made known to us the mystery of his will according to his good pleasure, which he purposed in Christ,  ¹⁰ to be put into effect when the times will have reached their fulfillment– to bring all things in heaven and on earth together under one head, even Christ.

So, come to Christ with questions about the end of the world… and allow Him to give you answers from Matthew 24-25, and the Book of Revelation

B. Understand the Direction of History

1. History has a direction… it has a beginning, middle, and end… and it has an ultimate goal

Revelation 21:6-7  I am the Alpha and the Omega, the Beginning and the End. To him who is thirsty I will give to drink without cost from the spring of the water of life.  ⁷ He who overcomes will inherit all this, and I will be his God and he will be my son.

2. The ultimate end of history is JESUS Christ ministering salvation to thirsty sinners who come to Him for the water of life

3. Never think for a minute that history is spiraling out of control!  It’s not

a. When the so-called “Eternal City”—Rome—fell to the Vandals, many thought the end of the world was imminent… it wasn’t

b. When the Muslims swept across North Africa, destroying the churches in that spiritually rich area, when they swept across the Straits of Gibraltar, when they conquered Spain, when they moved into France, it seemed the Christian church was about to become obsolete… it wasn’t

c. When the Vikings destroyed one monastery after another, one church after another, one village after another, one city after another, when they burned every Bible they could find and slaughtered Christians by the thousands, it seemed the church was powerless and about to be wiped from the face of the earth… it wasn’t

d. When the Mongol warriors extended the largest empire in the history of the world to the rivers of central Europe, when their swarthy horsemen seemed absolutely invincible, when Christian knights were slaughtered by them and fell in one ignominious defeat after another, many felt the end of the world was imminent… it wasn’t

e. When the Black Death swept across Europe in the 14^th century and no one knew what caused it or how to stop it, when superstitious rituals failed, and 1/3^rd of the population of the continent died a hideous death, it seemed like the four horsemen of the Apocalypse were riding across the earth and the world was about to end… it wasn’t

f. When the capital of the Eastern Roman Empire—Constantinople—which had held the Muslims at bay for eight centuries and had protected the back door of Europe from the Islamic tidal wave sweeping across the continent, when in the 15^th century that citadel finally fell to the pounding of their terrifying new invention—gunpowder, when the Muslim crescent banner unfurled over the eastern capital of Christianity, many feared the end of the Christian church was at hand… it wasn’t

g. When the 20^th century dawned with the War to End All Wars, resulting in the senseless slaughter of millions, when European poets said “I see the lights of humanity extinguished all over Europe, and we shall not see them lit again in our lifetime”… when 20 years later, a far worse war followed, resulting in the most terrifying force for evil ever seen—Nazism—spreading its dark cloud over one powerless nation after another, many thought the end of the world was imminent… it wasn’t

h. When Communism spread its seemingly irresistible wave of atheism across Europe, Asia, and Latin America, some feared the total eradication of the church of Jesus Christ was at hand… it wasn’t

Again and again, history has shuddered under seemingly fatal blows, shaken to its pillars with the events of humanity

Again and again, experts and fear-mongers have cried the cries of the hopeless… “History is spinning out of control!  We shall all be lost!!  We are all doomed!!”

The Bible teaches us to rest securely in the sovereign power of God to navigate history

C. Rejoice in the End of the Sacrificial System

1. Christ’s death on the cross has ended forever the sacrificial system

2. God’s sovereign control over human history insured that the Temple would be completely destroyed, making it clear that He wanted an end to the animal sacrifices that were essential to the Law of Moses

3. We have a BETTER COVENANT in the blood of Christ which can actually atone for our sins

D. Do Not Trust In Human Achievements—Spiritual or Secular

1. The disciples were stunned at Jesus’ prediction of the destruction of the temple

2. They thought that Herod’s lavish edifice, with its astonishing stones, would last forever

3. Herod’s temple represents the element of human pride in religion… and the great danger is to TRUST in human achievement

a. Spiritual achievement:  the temple was built supposedly to worship God;  God destroyed any trust in the temple of the Lord by throwing every single stone down to the ground… the only spiritual achievement that matters is that of Christ

b. Secular achievement:  the “wars and rumors of wars” represent all the convulsive spasms of human pride and arrogant empire building;

Psalm 146:3-6  Do not put your trust in princes, in mortal men, who cannot save.  ⁴ When their spirit departs, they return to the ground; on that very day their plans come to nothing.  ⁵ Blessed is he whose help is the God of Jacob, whose hope is in the LORD his God,  ⁶ the Maker of heaven and earth, the sea, and everything in them

E. Be On Your Guard Against Deceivers

F. Do Not Be Alarmed at Disasters… But Be Compassionate

G. Be Ready for Persecution

H. Stand Firm to the End

I. Be Confident in the Advance of the Gospel

J. Be Active in the Advance of the Gospel