WWUTT 2092 When You See the Abomination of Desolation (Matthew 24:15-28)

WWUTT Podcast

Subscribe

Download

Share

00

00:00

The Olivet Discourse is the last of the five discourses that Matthew writes down in his gospel that Jesus spoke to his disciples.

00:09

And it's here that he talks about the destruction of the temple and his second coming. When we understand the text.

00:24

This is When we understand the text, a daily Bible study in the word of Christ that men and women of God may be complete, equipped for every good work.

00:33

Tell your friends about our ministry at www .utt .com. Here's your teacher,

00:39

Pastor Gabe. Thank you, Becky. In our study of the gospel of Matthew, we are in the last of Jesus' five discourses in this gospel.

00:47

And that is the Olivet Discourse, where Jesus is on the Mount of Olives telling his disciples what to expect concerning the destruction of the temple, and then what to expect concerning his eventual return and the end of the world.

01:01

Let's come back to the discourse, picking up where we left off yesterday. So I'm in Matthew 24, beginning in verse 15 and reading to verse 28.

01:09

Hear the word of the Lord. Therefore, when you see the abomination of desolation, which was spoken of through Daniel the prophet, standing in the holy place, let the reader understand, then those who are in Judea must flee to the mountains.

01:24

Whoever is on the housetop must not go down to get the things out that are in his house. And whoever is in the field must not turn back to get his garment.

01:33

But woe to those who are pregnant and to those who are nursing babies in those days. But pray that your flight will not be in the winter or on a

01:41

Sabbath. For then there will be a great tribulation, such as has not occurred since the beginning of the world until now, nor ever will.

01:51

And unless those days had been cut short, no life would have been saved. But for the sake of the elect, those days will be cut short.

01:59

Then if anyone says to you, behold, here is the Christ or there he is, do not believe him.

02:06

For false Christ and false prophets will arise and will show great signs and wonders. So as to deceive, if possible, even the elect, behold,

02:14

I have told you in advance. Therefore if they say to you, behold, he is in the wilderness, do not go out.

02:22

Or behold, he is in the inner rooms, do not believe them. For just as the lightning comes from the east and appears even to the west, so will be the coming of the son of man.

02:34

Wherever the corpse is, there the vultures will gather. So to remind you again of our outline in this particular section, yesterday we looked at verses 1 through 14.

02:48

And this is what kicks off this particular discussion between Jesus and his disciples. They have left

02:54

Jerusalem. On their way out, the disciples were amazed at the temple structure and all of the buildings around it.

03:02

And Jesus said to them, do you not see all of these things? Truly I say to you, not one stone here will be left upon another, which will not be torn down.

03:11

And that's Jesus telling them about the destruction of the temple that's going to come 40 years from the time that they are considering these things.

03:19

Then in verse three, he goes up on the Mount of Olives. Remember, all of this is taking place in that week that Jesus is going to be crucified.

03:29

Jesus had just been teaching in the temple. That was all of these things right here that we're reading about have happened on a

03:36

Tuesday. And so then later on Thursday, he's going to come back to Jerusalem, have his last supper with his disciples.

03:43

He's going to be arrested late that night. He's crucified on a Friday. So this is all happening in that week as he goes back and forth between Jerusalem and Bethany.

03:52

Bethany is where he's staying, which is on the other side of the Mount of Olives. So here he's gone up on the

03:58

Mount of Olives as they're heading back to Bethany. And they're on the Mount of Olives. They can overlook all of Jerusalem and even see the temple.

04:05

So having just said that all these stones are going to be thrown down, not one stone will be left on top of another.

04:12

The disciples come to him on the Mount of Olives and say to him privately, I think it's in Mark's gospel.

04:17

It says it's only Peter, James, and John that actually ask him this question. But anyway, they ask him, tell us when will these things happen and what will be the sign of your coming and of the end of the age.

04:31

Now the disciples think, I said this yesterday, but the disciples think that the destruction of the temple is also the end of the world.

04:38

Like they're conflating the two events when they ask this question. When will these things happen?

04:44

What Jesus just said about the temple being torn down and what will be the sign of your coming and of the end of the age.

04:50

If the temple's not here, what's the sign of your coming? And then they also equate that with the end of the age.

04:57

Because if the temple is torn down, that's got to be the end of the world. Jesus in his response says to them, first of all, not to be alarmed when you hear of wars or even earthquakes and famines happening in the world.

05:10

Don't think of those things as being the end. And that's what we read yesterday, verses four to 14.

05:17

The Jews could not imagine a time without the temple, especially as huge as the temple was.

05:25

The temple having been built by Herod, they did not have a great relationship with the Romans, but they just did not imagine that the

05:32

Romans were going to fight against the Jews and tear the temple down. They could not fathom that this would take place.

05:39

So if the temple is going to be torn down and we can't sacrifice anymore, that's got to be the end of the world.

05:44

That's what the disciples are thinking. Now there's going to be chaos in the world when all that happens. So Jesus says, don't let these wars and rumors of wars convince you that this is the end of the world.

05:56

This is not yet the end. There's even going to be famines and earthquakes in various places. There were famines and earthquakes during the days of the apostles.

06:05

Remember, there was the famine that had taken place in Judea that was prophesied by Agabus, the prophet in the book of Acts.

06:14

So there was a deep famine that was going on then. There were earthquakes that even happened during the time of apostolic ministry and that 40 years between 30 and 70

06:22

AD. One of those earthquakes had devastated the city of Colossae and Colossae was largely forgotten when the apostle

06:31

Paul wrote to them. It would have been after that earthquake had taken place. So yeah, there are all of these things were happening in the world, even during the time of the apostles.

06:40

And Jesus is saying, don't let these things convince you that this is the end of the world. They must take place.

06:48

And even to this day, we've got people that are saying natural disasters and catastrophes are a sign of the end of the world.

06:54

No, it's the way the world always has been. We've always had hurricanes, earthquakes, famines, droughts, so on and so forth.

07:01

We've always had those things. But yet when something major like that happens, even pagans will say, this is a sign at the end of the world.

07:09

You better start driving electric vehicles or where, you know, the planet polar ice caps are going to melt in our coastal cities will drown and all this kind of thing.

07:17

Anyway, even pagans get in on this whenever there are major natural disasters.

07:23

Well, this has to be a sign of the end of the world. Jesus is saying, nope, these things are going to continue on. Don't be alarmed by them.

07:30

And so now we get to the section, the portion that I just read, verses 15 to 28, where Jesus is talking about the destruction of the temple and his warning to the disciples here is that even the destruction of the temple is not the sign of the end.

07:44

This is certainly going to be a major event, not just in Judea, but in world history.

07:50

And it will have global implications, even especially as far as the

07:56

Roman Empire is concerned, because what happens around that time is centuries of intense persecution against Christians that last from 70 to about the early 300s up until Constantine becomes emperor.

08:11

So there's a couple of centuries there where Christians are heavily persecuted in the Roman Empire.

08:17

And I think that's hinted at in what Jesus prophesies here. I'll kind of show you the part, but it's in this section where Jesus talks about the destruction of the temple and then says to them, even this is not the sign of the end of the world.

08:30

It's not even the sign of his coming. There are some who will take the Olivet discourse that we're reading here, and they will say that all of this just has to do with his return.

08:40

And there are others that will say that this discourse just has to do with the destruction of the temple and that Jesus will even return shortly after the destruction of the temple.

08:51

These are the hyper preterists that will say that Christ had already returned. He did return in 70

08:57

AD with the destruction of the temple. That's wrong, too. And Jesus is even saying here that the destruction of the temple is not the sign of the end, that his coming is going to be a separate event that will take place long after the destruction of the temple.

09:11

I think the hints are even given here in Matthew that it's going to be sometime after the temple falls that Jesus will return.

09:18

But there is a section here in this portion that tends to it tends to fuel the confusion.

09:24

As I said yesterday, there's no reason for this to be so mysterious.

09:30

We have our different end times views that we read into this and make it confusing. But really, the outline of Matthew 24,

09:38

I think, clarifies the chapter in and of itself. There's some details in there that can be confusing, and I'll give you the different interpretations of them.

09:44

But overall, the layout of the chapter itself really demystifies a lot of the confusion that tends to come from Matthew 24.

09:53

Because once again, we have 1 through 14, wars and disasters are not a sign of the end.

09:59

15 to 35, the destruction of the temple is not a sign of the end. And then 36 to the end of the chapter, verse 51,

10:07

Jesus is saying, just because you haven't seen the end doesn't mean it isn't coming. So back to verse 15,

10:15

Jesus says, therefore, when you see the abomination of desolation, which was spoken of through Daniel, the prophet standing in the holy place, let the reader understand, then those who are in Judea must flee to the mountains.

10:30

Now, the abomination that causes desolation is referenced in Daniel 11 and in Daniel 12. And the

10:36

Jews really thought that prophecy had already been fulfilled with Antiochus Epiphanes IV, who desecrated the temple in 167

10:46

BC. And we actually read about this in the Apocrypha. So the Apocrypha has some historical things to it.

10:54

They're not inspired books. You know, we're talking about those books that were written between the

10:59

Old Testament, the New Testament, the Catholics include them in their Bible. But these were not divinely inspired books.

11:05

They do contain some valuable history to them. But but that's it.

11:10

We don't include them as part of canon because they were not Holy Spirit inspired.

11:16

But it's in the books of First and Second Maccabees that you read about this event that happens with Antiochus IV coming into the temple and desecrating the temple by sacrificing a pig on the altar.

11:30

And Antiochus Epiphanes even thought of himself as a god, which was why he called himself

11:35

Epiphanes, that he was God incarnate. He was a god that had appeared in human flesh.

11:42

That was Antiochus's claim. So here he erects a statue of Zeus in the temple and he sacrifices a pig on the altar.

11:53

This is what everybody thought to be the fulfillment of Daniel's prophecy regarding the abomination of desolation.

12:00

And a lot of commentaries that you read, including Matthew Henry's and John Gill's, even they will make reference to the fact that the abomination of desolation is talking about Antiochus.

12:13

But Jesus references it here. And this surely would have been startling to the disciples who were asking him about this, because Jesus is saying the abomination that causes desolation is going to stand in the holy place.

12:25

And they're going, whoa, wait, what? What? That already happened. That happened over 100 years ago, almost 200 years ago.

12:32

You're saying it's going to happen again? And yeah, the Romans were going to come in and they were going to erect their banners and they were going to bring in their desecrations into the temple.

12:43

And so Jesus is saying, yeah, there was a fulfillment of this that happened with Antiochus, but it's going to happen again.

12:50

The totality of everything that Daniel prophesied has not yet come to fulfillment. The abomination of desolation is going to stand again in the holy place.

13:00

And when that happens, this is Jesus talking about the destruction of the temple, when it happens that the abomination is there, then those who are in Judea must flee to the mountains.

13:12

Now, once again, this is one of those hints that we can pick up on understanding that Jesus is not talking about his return.

13:21

He's talking about the destruction of the temple. He's not talking about his return. If he was talking about his return, why would they flee to the mountains?

13:28

That doesn't make any sense. So he's talking about when the Jewish -Roman war will happen.

13:35

Flee from that. Don't try to get involved. Get away from it. Those things are going to happen because God has ordained to bring those things about.

13:44

Whoever's in Judea, flee to the mountains. Get out of there. God is bringing it about that Jerusalem is going to be sacked and the temple is going to be destroyed.

13:54

This must happen because God is bringing sacrifices to an end. This is even talked about in Hebrews 8.

14:01

And Hebrews was written in that 40 -year time between Jesus' ascension and the eventual destruction of the temple.

14:08

And in Hebrews 8 .13, it says, when he set a new covenant, he has made the first covenant obsolete.

14:14

But whatever is becoming obsolete is growing old and is ready to disappear. There were still temple sacrifices that were going on during the time that the gospel was preached in that 40 -year period of apostolic ministry.

14:27

But God was going to bring all sacrificing in the temple to an end. The way a person comes to God is no longer through the temple, no longer through a priest, no longer on Yom Kippur, one single day, the day of atonement.

14:42

It was going to be every day through Jesus Christ. That is how we come to God. So God has ordained that this destruction of the temple is going to happen, bringing that old covenant to a conclusion so that only the new covenant continues on.

14:59

And so, since that's supposed to happen, none of Jesus' followers are to get involved in this

15:04

Jewish -Roman war. They're supposed to run away from it. Those who are in Judea, flee to the mountains.

15:09

Whoever is on the housetop must not go down to get the things out that are in his house. And whoever is in the field must not turn back to get his garment.

15:18

Jesus is saying that on that day when these things happen, it's going to happen quick. You're not going to have time to gather up your things.

15:24

Get out of there. But woe to those who are pregnant and to those who are nursing babies in those days, he says in verse 19.

15:31

Paul says something similar in 1 Corinthians 12, or not 1 Corinthians 12, 1

15:36

Corinthians 7. This is where he talks about marriage and singleness. And there's that controversial section there in chapter 7 where he says,

15:44

I wish that you all would remain as I am. Well, why would Paul say that? Of course, referring to him being single.

15:51

Why would he tell Christians to stay single instead of get married and have kids and populate the world with Christian children, you know, raising them up in the training and the discipline of the

16:00

Lord? Why wouldn't Paul instruct them to do that? Well, he does in Ephesians 6. But anyway, yet he discourages them from getting married.

16:07

And he says that those who get married will have trouble in this life. And I am trying to spare you.

16:14

This is 1 Corinthians 7, 28 and 29. But this I say, brothers, the time has been shortened so that from now on, those who have wives should be as though they had none and those who cry as though they did not cry and those who rejoice as though they did not rejoice and those who buy as though they did not possess and those who use the world as though they did not make full use of it for the form of this world is passing away.

16:42

But I want you to be free from concern. Paul is hinting at there of the persecution of believers that's going to begin around the time of the

16:54

Jewish Roman War and then will continue on until Constantine for a couple hundred years. And you're going to be persecuted for your faith.

17:01

How much harder it is for a person who is married to have to watch that kind of persecution happen to their spouse.

17:07

It also leaves a person vulnerable, you know, maybe maybe their persecutors, Roman soldiers, whoever it might happen to be, will seize your wife and your children will tell you to renounce

17:16

Christ or we're going to kill your wife and your kids. And would that burden be upon a man in such a way that would cause him to renounce

17:23

Christ? That would be that would be the concern that Paul says,

17:29

I want to relieve you of that. So that's why in 1 Corinthians 7 that he it sounds like he kind of discourages marriage and says it would be better for you to remain single.

17:39

Well, it had to do with the times and what it was that was about to take place.

17:45

And so Jesus says here, woe to those who are pregnant and nursing in those days because they're going to have to flee and run away with their children, with their babies, try to find food somewhere, trying to find shelter, how much more difficult it's going to be for those who have children.

18:02

Verse 20, but pray that your flight will not be in the winter or on a Sabbath. For then there will be a great tribulation such as has not occurred since the beginning of the world until now, nor ever will.

18:16

So Jesus is saying here that what's going to happen with the Romans coming against Jerusalem and even destroying the temple, it's going to be worse than even what happened with the

18:26

Babylonians. And unless those days had been cut short, no life would have been saved.

18:33

But for the sake of the elect, those days will be cut short. Now, there's a couple of possibilities here. Either Jesus is just talking about that immediate persecution that happened from about 64 to 70.

18:45

Nero was emperor for most of that time, and he was a tyrant. You probably heard the stories about what

18:50

Nero did, putting Christians even up on poles and lighting them on fire to light the streets.

18:56

But Nero would die in 68. The temple wouldn't be destroyed until 70 when

19:02

Vespasian gave command of the campaign to his son Titus, and then Titus led those armies against Jerusalem and against the temple.

19:12

So given that all that was going on in a span of about three years, then it could be interpreted, could be understood here as those days had been cut short.

19:23

It could also be in reference to the fact that the persecution of Christians really happens in that decade of the 60s, culminating with the destruction of the temple in 70.

19:35

And then there's persecution of Christians that continues on in the Roman Empire until Constantine in the early part of the fourth century.

19:43

So it could be that Jesus is referring to that, that couple of centuries where that persecution would continue on.

19:50

And if those days had not been cut short, then no one would be saved.

19:56

But for the sake of the elect, those days would be cut short. That could be what it was that Jesus was referring to.

20:03

Then in verse 23, if anyone says to you, behold, here is the Christ or there he is, do not believe him for false

20:11

Christ and false prophets will arise and will show great signs and wonders. So as to deceive, if possible, even the elect a lot of this chaos that's going on in the world, there are going to be those false prophets that are going to take advantage and are going to say, here's the

20:23

Christ. Here is the Messiah. Here is his return. Because remember, the

20:29

Jews are expecting a Messiah that is going to lead an emancipation from the

20:34

Romans. He's going to set us free. He's going to lead a military campaign. He's going to assume the throne and rule over Israel.

20:41

And Israel is going to be a great empire again. That's what the Jews are expecting. And even the disciples are somewhat hinting at that in the question that they've asked

20:49

Jesus here at the start of this chapter. So there's many that are going to come claiming to be that Messiah.

20:56

There he is. Here he is. Don't believe him for false Christ and false prophets will arise and will show great signs and wonders.

21:04

So as to deceive, if possible, even the elect behold, I have told you in advance now, even though this is talking about the context of the

21:13

Jewish Roman war and then the possibly even the persecution of Christians that would continue on for the next couple of centuries, even though that might be what

21:22

Jesus is referring to. Nonetheless, the counsel that he gives here, these are words that we should heed presently.

21:29

There are many who come along claiming to be the Christ, but do not believe them. There he is in the wilderness.

21:35

Here he is in the in the inner rooms. Do not go out. By the way, the Roman Catholics do this.

21:40

When they practice the mass and the priest raises up the Eucharist and says, here is the

21:47

Christ. This is literally his body, literally his blood. Don't believe them.

21:54

Christ is not appearing to anyone in secret for Jesus says his next return is not going to be in the mass.

22:02

It's going to be as visible as lightning. So let me continue on here. He says, behold, I have told you in advance.

22:08

Therefore, if they say to you, behold, he is in the wilderness. Do not go out or behold. He is in the inner rooms.

22:14

Do not believe them. This is relevant to the disciples, but it's something that is relevant to us even in the present.

22:24

Because Jesus return is going to look like this versus 27 and 28 for just as the lightning comes from the east and appears even to the west, so will be the coming of the son of man.

22:34

Wherever the corpse is there, the vultures will gather. And I don't think there's anything terribly cryptic about that particular line, although different commentators will have different interpretations of wherever the corpse is, the vultures will gather.

22:48

All Jesus is saying there is you will understand the signs of these things. You know where a corpse is because you see the vultures circling in the air.

22:57

So you're going to see signs that are going to indicate to you when exactly these things are going to take place, and you won't have to be in mystery about it.

23:06

So then what comes up next is Jesus talking about his coming, and he does talk about it as being a separate event than the destruction of the temple.

23:17

We're already out of time for this particular lesson today, so we're going to come back to that tomorrow.

23:22

This particular section will still be in part two of the Olivet Discourse, where Jesus is telling his disciples that the destruction of the temple is not the sign of the end.

23:32

And so his coming and the destruction of the temple are different events, and we'll understand how that's the case when we pick up in verse 29 tomorrow.

23:43

Let's finish here with prayer. Heavenly Father, I thank you for what we've read here, and I pray that we hold fast to the words of Christ.

23:51

There are many who are going to claim to be the Christ. There are many who are going to claim that they know the day of Christ's return.

23:57

No one knows that day or hour. Jesus says that his return, the coming of the

24:02

Son of Man, is going to be as visible as lightning. So when we see chaos and crazy events happening in the world, we should not be alarmed by this.

24:11

Christ's return will be clearly evident to us and to everyone else in the world. Let us hold fast to these truths that have been given to us according to your word.

24:22

And may we go out with the gospel, for the judgment of God is coming upon this wicked generation.

24:27

The only way to be saved is by faith in the Lord Jesus Christ. Give us boldness to declare the gospel in these days.