The Great Signs of The End Part IV Matthew 24:1-51

The Olivet Discourse and the Christian Hope of Christ’s Return

Last week, we looked at part three of our journey through Matthew 24. Matthew 24 is known as the Olivet Discourse, or in more common terms, the End Times according to Jesus. There is much fascination with this chapter as the God-man Jesus tells his disciples and all of us what we should expect to see before his return.

Once again, our big idea of this long sermon is to anticipate the soon return of Christ. And thus far, we have seen six practices how you are to anticipate his return. The first practice how you are to anticipate his return is through looking at prophetic certainty through what has already been fulfilled.

What we saw there is that Jesus predicted the destruction of the temple in 70 AD, and it was fulfilled exactly how he said it would. As we think about this, it's a reminder that when God declares something, it comes to pass exactly how he said it would.

When Jesus was talking to his disciples and he predicted the destruction of the temple, what Jesus said is that one stone would not be left upon another. And that's exactly what happened when the Romans pillaged the temple and destroyed it in 70 AD.

As we anticipate the soon return of Christ, we are also to take seriously, and we saw this in the second practice how, we are also to take seriously why Jesus provides end times details. He doesn't provide end times details to entertain us or to satisfy our curiosity.

I think that's why a lot of people get into prophecy. That's not the point. He provides these details so that as we see signs, it shows that he is coming. And as we ponder his coming, it draws us that much closer to God.

As you long for Jesus' return, you are much more useful to the Lord. What we have also seen is that you are to anticipate the soon return of Christ through watching out for the appearance of many false prophets, observing an increasing number of global wars, experiencing a rise in natural disasters, and lastly, the sixth practice how, witnessing the rise of global persecution.

The third through sixth points are signs that point to the reality that Christ's return is getting closer. As these signs increase, it shows us that much more that his return is nearing. And this is the great Christian hope.

He came the first time, and we're approaching this Christmas season, he came the first time to save sinners when he went to the cross. And that points ahead to his second coming where he's going to come in power and he's going to reign with his people.

That's the Christian hope. And these are the signs that Jesus gives that his return is coming. This morning, as we continue our sermon series through Matthew and our journey through chapter 24, we are going to see point seven and eight.

So this time I encourage you to turn in a Bible with me there. If you're using the red Bible, it's on page 986. The sermon is once again titled, The Great Signs of the End. And this is part four. And I'm gonna begin by giving you the seventh practice how you are to anticipate the soon return of Christ.

Lawlessness, the Love of Many Growing Cold, and Endurance to the End

And that is through noticing widespread disregard for God's law. This point piggybacks onto the previous point that described the increase of persecution of Christ's followers as his return nears. So let's read this in verses 12 and 13.

These are the words of the Lord Jesus. And because lawlessness will be increased, the love of many will grow cold. But the one who endures to the end will be saved. What we see here is that one mark that the end is coming is lawlessness.

Lawlessness occurs because people have a complete disregard for God's law. As we saw at the end of Matthew 22, the greatest commandment is to love God with all your heart, soul, and mind. And the one who loves God with all one's heart, soul, and mind is the one who will love God's image bearers.

That person will love his neighbor as himself. That's the second greatest commandment, to love your neighbor as yourself. A world where people love God with their whole heart and through that love, their neighbor as themselves, this is a world that is a pleasant place to live in.

It's a world where people do not steal, gossip, slander, commit adultery or fornication, where the weakest of society are protected, not harmed, where you can trust your neighbors and not be suspicious of them, where law and order are valued, not disregarded.

It is because of God's law that society can function and when there is a complete disregard for God's law, then anything goes and what results is chaos. In a world where God's law is not followed, people no longer love each other.

They hate each other. As people are selfish and no longer think of others, lawlessness will increase. 2 Timothy 3, verses one through four describes what people will be like as the end nears. These are the words of the Apostle Paul.

He wrote, in the last days, there will come times of difficulty for people will be lovers of self, lovers of money, proud, arrogant, abusive, disobedient to their parents, ungrateful, unholy, heartless, unappeasable, slanderous, without self-control, brutal, not loving good, treacherous, reckless, swollen with conceit, lovers of pleasure rather than lovers of God.

As the world does whatever it wants, what this shows us is that the end is nearing. This describes the world we live in. And continuing with the theme of the birth pains, the birth pains, this illustration that Jesus uses in verse eight, verse eight is really the key of this chapter.

When a woman is pregnant, the contractions increase in frequency and intensity as the birth nears. So it is with the signs of the end. The signs increase in frequency and intensity as the return of Christ nears.

And what we see is indeed lawlessness is increasing in our world. It's always been a problem ever since Christ ascended to heaven. But it only increases as time goes on. This is the world we live in. There's a complete disregard for God's law and what sinful humanity has done is make their own laws that satisfy the sinful hearts of mankind.

As the world becomes more and more godless, the world becomes a treacherous place to live in. And what's interesting is that it's a treacherous place to live in for those who actually do good, for law-abiding citizens and specifically Christians, those who follow the law of God.

Everything is backwards. And Scripture says it would be this way. Isaiah 5 .20 says, "'Woe to those who call evil good and good evil, "'who put darkness for light and light for darkness, "'who put bitter for sweet and sweet for bitter.'.

As people become lovers of self and haters of God, they also become haters of God's followers. As Jesus said in the second half of verse nine, there he said, "'You will be hated by all nations for my name's sake.'.

As godlessness increases and the people of this world hate Christ's followers, Jesus gives a strong word that every Christian needs to hear in verse 13. He says, "'The one who endures to the end will be saved.'.

As his followers face persecution, the call from Jesus is for endurance. Two weeks ago, we looked at the parable of the sower at the harvest service. And what we saw there are four seeds and four soils.

And the second seed and the second soil apply here. The second seed and the second soil describes a person who receives the gospel with joy, appears to be a true believer, but when testing comes, that person shows his or her true colors and falls away.

Specifically, the trial that comes upon that person is that that person understands that to be a Christian means that you can't love the world, that you can't receive acceptance from the world. And to this person, this is inconvenient.

It's uncomfortable. And their love of the world triumphs over their love for God. Their true allegiance is really to the world. And so that person, over time, shows him or herself not to be a believer and falls away.

But true believers are different. True believers have trust in God. True believers show their true allegiance when they are treated horribly by the world. They show their true allegiance when not walking with Christ would be so much easier.

True believers do not waver from their commitment to Christ. And what you must understand is that the only reason that believers do not fall away is because of God's power. God's power guards the believer.

The Apostle Peter wrote this in 1 Peter 1, verses five through nine. There he says that the believer is guarded by God's power through faith for a salvation ready to be revealed in the last time. In this you rejoice, though not for a little while.

If necessary, you have been grieved by various trials so that the tested genuineness of your faith, more precious than gold that perishes, though it is tested by fire, may be found to result in praise and glory and honor at the revelation of Jesus Christ.

Though you have not seen Him, you love Him. Though you do not now see Him, you believe in Him and rejoice with joy that is inexpressible and filled with glory, obtaining the outcome of your faith, the salvation of your souls.

What sweet words from the Word of God. This is a doctrine that Christians need to hold on to. It's called perseverance of the saints. That once the Holy Spirit enters you, the Holy Spirit does not leave you.

God guards you to the very end. True believers do not fall away. They stay with Christ through all the opposition that they experience from the world. As the world nears the end, the opposition will only increase in keeping with this illustration of birth pains.

And the greatest opposition will occur during the final seven-year tribulation. As we already saw last week, this opposition comes from a world that has a love that has grown cold. And therefore, what results is lawlessness.

In a lawless world, good is opposed and evil is promoted. This is the world we live in. And Jesus said it would be this way as His return nears. Anticipate the soon return of Christ and the seventh practice how, is through noticing widespread disregard for God's law.

The Gospel Going to All Nations Before the End

The eighth practice how, you are to anticipate the soon return of Christ, is through seeing the gospel advance to all the corners of the earth. Let's read this in verse 14. These are the words of Jesus once again, where He says, and this gospel of the kingdom will be proclaimed throughout the whole world as a testimony to all nations.

And then the end will come. What we must understand is one of the great missions of our church and any church is to get the gospel out. It's to get the gospel out to a lost world. Most of the world is lost whether they realize it or not.

And when we say that one is lost, what we are saying is that Satan rules that person's life. The person is still in his or her sins and the person is under the judgment of God. And that judgment will be experienced if one dies and one sins.

Because after this life, what awaits that person is God's judgment upon that person in hell. And people don't know it. People think they're good. People think they're doing just fine. What they don't understand is that they're sinners.

For all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God. And then Romans 6 .23 says, for the wages of sin is death. What people deserve for their sins is eternal death. And that is what awaits everyone who is not covered by the blood of Christ.

So one of the great missions of the church and any individual is to advance the gospel in our community and around the world. And what's so interesting and so wonderful is that Jesus says this will take place before the end.

And as we look at verse 14, the first question we need to ask is what is the gospel of the kingdom? The gospel of the kingdom is the same thing as the gospel of grace. And the gospel of grace is that Jesus died for sinners and was raised on the third day.

Now, 1 Corinthians 15 gives a really good definition of the gospel that Jesus died. For sinners. He was buried. He was raised on the third day. When John the Baptist preached to the Jews, he called the Jews to repent for the kingdom of heaven is at hand.

What John was saying there is that you need to repent and put your trust in the Lord. John was preparing the way for the Messiah who would be the one that people would need to trust in because he is the only one who was sacrificed for sinners.

The one who trusts in Christ Jesus is forgiven of one's sins. So the gospel of the kingdom is the gospel of grace. And I'd be remiss if I didn't right now invite anybody here or anybody who's listening to my voice to believe in Jesus.

If you have not yet believed in the Lord Jesus Christ, if you have not yet received the good news that Jesus died in your place, if you have not yet received that, receive it today. And if you receive it, then judgment does not await you, but glory, glory awaits you as you live with God forever in His wonderful presence.

Receive the gospel of the kingdom, which is the gospel of grace. Another way to say the gospel is good news. And there's only good news because there's first bad news. And the bad news is that you're a sinner, as I've explained, under the judgment of God.

But the good news is that Jesus came to save you. And what God the Father planned according to His will, and what Jesus reveals here in verse 14 is that the good news will be preached throughout the whole world before His return.

It has to happen.

And before Jesus left this earth in Matthew 28, 19, He gave this commission to His disciples. It's known as the Great Commission. He said, therefore, go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit, and teaching them to obey everything that I have commanded you.

This Great Commission, getting the gospel out, getting the good news out, this was the responsibility of the disciples. And it was something that they started to fulfill through their efforts. We would not be standing here as followers of Jesus without the disciples carrying out this mission of advancing the gospel to the ends of the earth.

It's so interesting when you think about this. We live in northwestern Wisconsin. We live a long ways from Jerusalem where Jesus gave this commission. As I have explained before, the disciples gave their lives so that the gospel would reach to the ends of the earth.

The disciples, largely speaking, were apostles to the Jews, while the apostle Paul was the apostle to the Gentiles. The disciples focused on the area of Palestine while Paul spread the gospel throughout the Roman Empire, the region of the Roman Empire, which is modern day Europe.

However, what's interesting is that one of his disciples, Thomas, one of Jesus' disciples, is believed to have brought the gospel to the Far East in India as early as 52 AD. As Jesus predicted, the gospel indeed has spread throughout the world over the last 2 ,000 years, the time when Jesus ascended to heaven and left the work to his followers who would carry out this work through the power of the Spirit.

And when you look at the book of Acts, the book of Acts is about the spread of the gospel. The disciples are commissioned. They go out. They preach the gospel to sinners. Sinners believe. Churches are planted.

It's incredible what happens as the gospel goes out. When the gospel goes out, it succeeds through the power of the Holy Spirit.

People believe.

Lives are transformed. The gospel and its influence has been dominant in what was the Roman Empire. The Roman Empire at its peak was modern day Europe, Palestine, and northern Africa. The gospel was spread to those areas and Christianity has a long history in that region of the world.

In fact, Christianity outlasted the Roman Empire. Eventually the Roman Empire fell, but Christianity continued. Over the last several hundred years, the gospel has spread to places where there was very little Christian influence.

And the Lord used these missionaries to make the gospel spread like wildfire. Here are a few worth noting. And some of these you may have heard of. Adoniram Judson was born in 1788 and he brought the gospel to Southeast Asia to a region known as Myanmar, which was formerly known as Burma.

Another one is David Livingstone, who was born in 1813 and spread the gospel throughout the continent of Africa. And Africa has largely become a Christian continent ever since. Think about the influence that one man can make.

And I know it wasn't just him, but he's the most notable one who went to Africa. And this continent is largely Christian. Incredible. Then there's Hudson Taylor. He was born in 1832 and he spread the gospel to China.

China today has over 100 million believers. And this is a communist nation. They believe in all these weird things. I know Buddhism is popular there. Atheism is popular there. But Christianity has a strong presence in China.

They have lots and lots of underground churches because of the persecution that they face there. And the reason that China is doing so well is because of someone like Hudson Taylor who left the comfort of his life to go to the mission field to spread the gospel.

In the present day, Christianity has a strong presence there. And not just there, but all around the world in so many places. Now here's a recent one that many of you have heard of. And there was a movie several years back made about this man called The End of the Spear.

And this is Jim Elliott. Jim Elliott was born in 1927. He was a missionary to the Haurani people of Ecuador. Before he and his friends went to this mission field, they knew how dangerous it was. It was said that any foreigners who went to this remote place in South America would be killed.

And these men, these brave young men, five of them, went down there to spread the gospel to these people who had never heard the gospel. And they went to them and they met their death. But the story does not end here.

One of the fathers of one of the missionaries killed went to Ecuador and found the man who killed his son and told him that he loved him in Jesus. Several of the men who killed these missionaries through these efforts from the family of those who died came to a relationship in Jesus Christ.

Jim Elliott and his friends understood that the gospel needed to reach the ends of the earth. They understood that without someone going, no one would hear as Romans 10 says. Faith comes through hearing and hearing through the word of Christ.

Before Elliott went to this deadly mission, he said this, he is no fool to give up what he cannot keep to gain what he cannot lose. Let me say that again. He is no fool to give up what he cannot keep to gain what he cannot lose.

He gave up comfort in this world for the greatest cause, giving oneself in order to reach the lost for Christ. Missionaries down through history have advanced the gospel to the four corners of the earth and there is still work left to do.

Another man who was a missionary is a guy by the name of Eric Little. And Eric Little is one of my heroes. He was featured in Chariots of Fire, which was a British film from 1981. Eric Little, as the story goes, his fastest event as a runner, as a sprinter was the 100 meter dash.

And because the prelims were run on Sunday, he would not run in that race. And so instead he ran in the 400 meters and people thought he had no chance in the 400 meters. But he ended up winning gold in an event that wasn't his best.

And instead of going and running in another Olympics and becoming an even bigger star than he already was, he followed his parents' example and he went to the mission field in China. And he died at the age of 43.

And you know what Eric Little said? He said, we are all missionaries wherever we go. We either bring people nearer to Christ or we repel them from Him. It's amazing to think the responsibility that we have as believers.

We have been entrusted with the Gospel, the good news to reach the lost. And there's still much work left to do. And we might be surprised to hear this because through technology, shouldn't the world already be reached for Christ?

And when we know the people in our neighborhoods, many of them, most of them have probably heard the Gospel and most of them sadly have rejected the Gospel. But we might think that hasn't every place on planet Earth heard the Gospel?

And the answer is no. There are places around the world that are cut off from the civilized world. There are about eight billion people in the world and about 3 .3 billion have little to no access to the Gospel of Jesus Christ.

Some have no access because their region is so remote, so uncivilized that missionaries have not gotten there. Others have no access because they live in an oppressive nation that bans biblical Christianity.

Places like North Korea and Iran. So yes, the Gospel has gone forth to every corner of the earth, but there are still people groups with little to no access. And it is our responsibility to pray for the Lord, to send missionaries to those places.

Jesus told us to pray for this in Matthew 9, verses 37 through 38. There he said, the harvest is plentiful, but the laborers are few. Therefore pray earnestly to the Lord of the harvest to send out laborers into his harvest.

I'm convicted by this and all of us should be. This is something that we should be in regular prayer over. Are we praying for the Lord to send workers to the mission field and specifically workers to those places that I've never heard?

Jesus makes it clear in verse 14 that for the return of Christ to happen, the nations need to be reached. We support missions. We pray for missions because we desire for people to be reached for Christ.

As birth pains go, as verse 8 tells us, there is an increase in frequency and intensity of the success of the Gospel as the years move on, as Christ's return gets closer. We have seen negative signs of the end thus far.

We've seen natural disasters and false prophets and lawlessness and wars. As bad things happen down through history, the Gospel continues to go forth with great success. So this sign is a positive sign.

It's a good sign. People need to be reached before Christ returns. And they will be reached. That's what Jesus says here. And we have a responsibility. Think about that. As we contribute to mission efforts, we are actually bringing the return of Christ closer.

I have explained briefly how the Gospel advanced from the earliest days of the disciples to the centuries after them, and how the Gospel advanced through the modern missionary movement. But the greatest advance of the Gospel will be during the final seven-year tribulation.

Revelation 7 -9 -10 describes this. This is the Apostle John's vision. He said this, After this I looked, and behold, a great multitude that no one could number, from every nation, from all tribes and peoples and languages, standing before the throne and before the Lamb, clothed in white robes, with palm branches in their hands, and crying out with a loud voice, Salvation belongs to our God who sits on the throne and to the Lamb.

And verse 14 tells us who these people are. These are the ones coming out of the great tribulation. They have washed their robes and made them white in the blood of the Lamb. This text describes many from the nations being saved.

But it won't just be Gentiles who are saved. Many Jews will also come to faith in Jesus. Ever since the Jews rejected the Messiah in the first century, God has revealed in scripture that there will be a mass conversion of Jews.

And when we say Jews, what we mean is Israelites. A mass conversion of Jews and Israelites at the very end of world history. This is promised. Romans 11 -26 says so. The Apostle Paul wrote that all Israel will be saved.

When this happens, there will be the fulfillment of Zechariah 12 -10. That Old Testament verse says, they, Israel that is, will look on Him whom they have pierced. Now what we have seen thus far in this chapter is that there will be mass casualties across planet Earth during the final seven years.

So how is it that there will be Israelites who will believe during the tribulation? This will happen because God will supernaturally preserve Israelites. There's three reasons why there's going to be so much havoc during the final seven years.

One is the Antichrist is going to cause a lot of problems. He's going to declare war on the saints. Secondly, there's going to be natural disasters. And third, there's going to be wars. And as I've explained already, there's going to be so much destruction.

It's estimated that three-fourths of the world will perish during the final seven-year tribulation. But while all these deaths are happening, the Lord will preserve His remnant of Jews. Two-thirds of the Jews will perish, but one-third will be preserved.

The Lord will supernaturally preserve one-third of Jews through the tribulation, as Zechariah 13 verses 8 -9 tells us. That passage says, in the whole land, declares the Lord, two-thirds shall be cut off and perish, and one-third shall be left alive.

And I will put this third into the fire and refine them as one refined silver and test them as gold is tested. They will call upon my name and I will answer them. I will say they are my people and they will say the Lord is my God.

This supernatural preservation will take place during the final seven years. What Revelation 7 describes is that the Lord will raise up Jewish evangelists who will evangelize the Jewish community and the world.

Revelation chapter 7 verses 4 -8 describes that there are 144 ,000 evangelists from each of the 12 tribes of Israel who will evangelize the world and their evangelism will be effective. There truly will be a great awakening or what is sometimes called a resurrection.

Revival. People sometimes wonder, will we have revival in our time? Is there revival on the horizon? My understanding is that in the time leading up to the final seven year tribulation, the time very close, which we don't know when that will be, but the time very close to the final seven years, there will not be a great awakening, but the opposite.

There will be lawlessness as we've seen. There will be a period where the love of many will grow cold. And 2 Timothy 3, 1 -4 says once again, in the last days, there will come times of difficulty. People will be lovers of self, lovers of money, proud, arrogant, abusive, disobedient to their parents, ungrateful, unholy, heartless, unappeasable, slanderous, without self-control, brutal, not loving good, treacherous, reckless, swollen with conceit, lovers of pleasure rather than lovers of God.

This is the ugly environment, the dark environment of the world as the world reaches its end. It has to be this way for evil rulers to rule this world. In order for the final one world ruler to take his throne, the people will be seduced by him.

There will be little resistance to prevent him from taking his throne. And there will be little resistance for two reasons. One, the church will be raptured from the earth. What the world doesn't understand is that the church keeps the world from crumbling.

God-fearing people keep this world going. Otherwise, the world would plunge itself into ruin and destruction. Immorality is off the charts without believers on the scene. And when the church is gone, the Antichrist is going to have no problem taking his throne.

And the second reason the Antichrist will receive little resistance is that the unbelieving world, as I have just read, is reaching heights of godlessness this world has never seen. And people will love darkness rather than light.

I mean, think about this. People think that people can change their gender. How is that even possible that people could think that's okay? But this is the world we live in. This is what the world has come to.

This world is going to have no problem welcoming this final one world leader,.

Which, by the way,.

We will talk about extensively next Sunday. Daniel 11 .32 describes how easily the final one world ruler will seduce people. That verse says, he shall seduce with flattery those who violate the covenant.

In that verse, those who violate the covenant are those who reject God's righteousness and instead embrace wickedness. This final one world ruler will seduce the godless by pushing forward immorality.

The immoral will want him in power because they love darkness rather than light, as the Gospel of John says. So is a great awakening coming? It depends how close we are to the very end. If we are very close to the end, then the answer is no.

What we see right now is the Lord is preparing His church for the rapture, I believe. But before that day comes, the Gospel will go forth and the Gospel will be most successful during the final seven year tribulation.

The Gospel goes forth.

All over the world,.

Throughout history, and the greatest increase of the success of the Gospel, of the conversion of lost souls, will happen at the very end. So you are to anticipate the soon return of Christ. And the eighth practice how is through seeing the Gospel advance to all corners of the earth.

And once again, I want to say that if you're here and you've never believed in Christ, believe in Him today. We want to be a church that gets the Gospel out. But we can only get the Gospel out if we first have the Gospel.

And in a room this size, there are people who have never believed in Christ,.

Probably.

So my prayer is that everyone here would know Christ as their Lord, Savior, and treasure. And anybody who is listening right now, that you would believe in the Lord Jesus Christ if you have not already done that.

It is God's mission to save the lost. And it is our role to believe and then to get the good news out. He saves us. And it's interesting, He doesn't take us to heaven when He saves us. He saves us and then He puts us on a mission to advance the Gospel to the lost world.

And this is going to increase. The advance of the Gospel will increase. And then Christ will come back and we can contribute to His coming being that much closer by getting the Gospel out, by being involved in praying for missionaries, in getting the Gospel to the ends of the earth.

At this time, let's bow our heads in prayer. Father in Heaven, what a responsibility to get the Gospel out to this lost world. This commission that Jesus has given us is one of the most important things we can do while we live on earth is to share the good news of Jesus.

And I pray that we would do that with the people in our lives. And that you'd use this church, Lord, to reach the nations as well. And not just our church, but all the true churches all over the world.

We all have, all the churches have a huge responsibility to support missionaries. And it's the responsibility of some to go to the mission field. And so whatever calling you have for each of us, Lord, help us to fulfill that calling in evangelism and missions.

And use it, Lord, to bring Your Son's return. Strengthen us, Lord, to fulfill this all-important mission of saving souls. In Jesus' name, Amen.