FBC Morning Light (2/8/2025)

Good morning people of faith. This week we had readings in Matthew 24 through 28, and I'm gonna look at Matthew 24. The passage here is often referred to as the Olivet Discourse. Pick it up in verse 3.

The Olivet Discourse and the Warning Against Date-Setting

Now as he sat on the mount of Jesus, the disciples came to him privately saying, The first thing I want to point out here is that Jesus does not directly answer and say it's going to be so and so many days or so many years or so many months.

He doesn't say that. He instead gives warnings as to what to watch for. In verse 4 he says, Christ is the Greek form of the word Messiah, so he's saying that there's going to be a lot of come and say, I'm the Messiah.

And there's been no shortage of people throughout history, even at the time of Christ himself, that would have claimed to be the Messiah. So do not be deceived. There is one and only one Messiah. There's not another.

All right? So verse 6, it says,. And you will hear of wars and rumors of wars. See that you are not troubled. For all these things must come to pass, but the end is not yet. For nation will rise against nation and kingdom against kingdom.

And there will be famines, pestilence, and earthquakes in various places. All these are the beginning of sorrows. So he's continuing to give warnings saying, look, things are going to get bad. This is not an unlikely event.

Jesus is telling them right then and there. And then in verse 9, it says, They will deliver you up to tribulation and kill you. You will be hated by all nations for my namesake. And then many will be offended and will betray one another and will hate one another.

All right? So there's going to be trouble, persecution from the outside. You will be hated as a Christian. This is not an uncommon thing over the last 2 ,000 years. There've been martyrs from the time of Stephen shortly after this happened.

Within just a few months, likely, of this event right here, Stephen was martyred. And that has not stopped. Even to this day, there are martyrs all throughout the world, people who are standing up for Christ, who are then persecuted for their belief and for their outspoken faith.

All right? It says, Many false prophets, verse 11, will rise up and deceive many. So we have a warning that not only will there be false Christ, but there will also be false prophets that arise. And again, over the last 2 ,000 years, there has been no shortage of false prophets from people that wanted to take the books of the Bible and remove much of the New Testament and most of the Old Testament from the Bible as the Word of God, people who even today teach that the Bible shouldn't be taught as Christians, that we can have a Christianity that is without our sacred book.

Those false prophets do not end well, and the end result of their straying from Scripture is always a bad thing. All right? And says in verse 12,. And because lawlessness will abound, the love of many will grow cold.

This is something that you can see. It just makes sense that if lawlessness abounds, it makes it much more difficult to put yourself out there in love. If you have no idea if just helping somebody could turn into a lawsuit against yourself or even physical harm by trying to help, you're much less likely to give aid or to love.

False Christs, False Prophets, and the Growth of Lawlessness

All right? So going on down here, I'm going to jump down to verse 23, and it says,. Then if anyone says to you, Look, here is the Christ, or there, do not believe it. All right? So what's he saying? False Christs and false prophets are going to say, Look, I've seen him out in the desert.

I saw him up in the clouds. There was this cloud formation that looked just like Jesus. Right? Do not believe these people. All right? It is going to be obvious. Right? It says in verse 27,. For as lightning comes from the east and flashes to the west, so also will the coming of the Son of Man.

All right? Christ's return is not going to be a secret event. Throughout church history, the last 2 ,000 years, there's been roughly three views of how Christ is going to return, whether that's before the tribulation, after the tribulation, or, excuse me, before the millennium, after millennium, or if the millennium will even exist.

There is one key element that makes all three of these positions viable, and that is looking forward to Christ's return. Elsewhere in Scripture, the manner in which we look forward to Christ's return is often a gauge or a measure of how our spiritual condition is.

If we do not desire Christ's return, it could be evidence that we've never really placed our trust in Christ, because what he offers is so much better than anything this world could ever offer. All right?

So, whatever position you have in terms of the relationship between Christ's return and the millennium is, in one sense, a small part of of the bigger picture, and keep in mind the bigger picture that we as believers are meant to look forward to Christ's return.

All right? Watch out for all the false prophets, those that would be claimed to be messiahs, but certainly look forward to Christ's return. It will not happen in secret. All right? There are groups out there that even today that claim Christ returned at such and such a time, and you missed it.

Sorry. Well, I can guarantee you if someone says that Christ has already returned when he hasn't, or someone says Christ is going to return on such and such a time or such and such a date in this year, they don't know.

The Public Return of Christ and the Christian Hope

All right? Let's keep those things in mind, and let us, as the people of God, look forward to Christ's return, and let us pray. Heavenly Father, thank you for sending your Son to die in our place and raising him to new life, the firstborn over the resurrection, that we now can live in the power of that resurrection and look forward to Christ's return as he is going to come back to claim his own, and let us walk faithfully with you until such time.

It's in your Son's name that we pray. Amen. Have an excellent day, people of faith.