Hermeneutics Pt. 7: In Practice Matthew 24 Pt. 2

Hermeneutics, Interpreting the Word of God. We're up to part seven of our study. And last week, we began a practice session using Matthew 24. And I chose Matthew 24 very specifically because it has different aspects of hermeneutics into it.

It draws a lot on the Old Testament. It's prophetic in nature. It's very debatable in the church. And it's often subject to gross misinterpretation and wild speculations. So that's why I chose Matthew 24.

And so we began our study last week by examining the context of the chapter to the whole of the Gospel of Matthew. Remember, the Gospel of Matthew is written to Jews by Matthew. Who can tell me a little bit about Matthew?

Who is Matthew? We didn't get into this too much last week.

Go ahead.

Jewish tax collector, right? And so definitely steeped in the Jewish culture. And so he's writing this gospel to the Jews to proclaim Jesus as the Messiah, as the Christ. And in the middle of this, well, more towards the end of the gospel, we find Matthew 24.

And then we started to look at Matthew 24 is prompted by the discussion of Jesus that he has with the Pharisees. Remember, he then pronounces woes upon the Pharisees, and he's condemning the Pharisees.

And on the heels of that, as they're coming out of the temple, the observations of the disciple concerning the magnificence of the temple buildings, that is a direct context of Matthew 24. Remember, we looked at, I'm going to just repeat the first three verses.

Jesus came out from the temple and was going away when his disciples came up to point out the temple buildings to him. And he said to them, do you not see all these things? Truly, I say to you, not one stone here will be left upon another which will not be torn down.

As he was sitting on the Mount of Olives, the disciples came to him privately. And that's important, he came to him privately, saying, tell us when these things will happen and what will be the sign of your coming and of the end of the age.

And we spent a good deal of time last week just talking about the fact that these three questions are really not three separate and distinct questions, but they are all relevant to the destruction of the temple, because that's the context.

That's what prompts it. To take these questions as being unrelated to the destruction of the temple is to just wrench them out of the context. We concluded that these are not three unrelated questions.

They are all related to the events concerning the destruction of the temple. We also saw that based upon the grammar, these events would take place during the days of the apostles. And these are all the things that we looked at last week.

We also looked at other texts that indicate the same timeline. And so now, all of this has just been review as to what we looked at last week. So let's look at the next part of the text. And Jesus answered and said to them, see to it that no one misleads you.

For many will come in my name saying, I am the Christ and will mislead many. You will be hearing of wars, rumors of wars. See that you are not frightened, for those things must take place. But that is not yet the end.

For nation will rise against nation, kingdom against kingdom. And in various places, there will be famines and earthquakes. But all these things are merely the beginning of birth pangs. That's all we're going to deal with tonight, just these few verses.

So if our interpretation of the text so far is accurate, then verses 4 to 8 should have been fulfilled within the period from the crucifixion of Jesus Christ to the destruction of the temple in 70 AD.

Following what I'm saying, if what we're saying is that the questions that the disciples ask and the response of Jesus has to do with something that's going to take place during the lifetime of the apostles, then we should see that everything that he says is going to happen has taken place in that time period.

If we find something in the text that doesn't take place in that time period, then we have to go back and start over and refigure our calculations and our interpretation. Why would I say that? Why is that true?

Because what if something isn't true? That means the Bible's not true. That can't be. We know that. We believe in the inerrancy of scripture. So if we find something that does not jive with what the scripture says, then our interpretation has got to be incorrect.

So that's why I put it in the positive, though. So remember, Jesus is speaking to his disciples privately. That's a very important word, the fact that he's speaking to them privately, because what he is addressing affects them.

His words serve as a warning to what is going to come upon Israel and them, as they are in Israel at this time. So then look at verse 4. And Jesus answered and said to them, see to it that no one misleads you.

Well, now we have to use the test. Did this happen in the lifetime of the apostles? Jesus is warning his disciples of the danger of being misled. This was a real and specific warning, not just a general admonition.

In other words, this was not just something Jesus, oh, for the life of the church, be careful because people are going to come and try to mislead the church. That's true. We know that's true. But the way it's worded in the scripture, Jesus is talking to them privately, answering their specific questions.

And his first admonition is be careful, because there's people are going to come who are going to try to mislead you. Look at verse 5. He expands on it. For many will come in my name, saying I am the Christ, and will mislead many.

Notice what he says. Many will come. This is not something that's isolated, and will mislead many. So what Jesus says is what I'm warning you is going to happen. So this is a word of prophecy. This is what is going to happen to the nation that the Israelites are a part of, that the disciples are a part of.

So now we have to ask the question, was this a problem during the lifetime of the apostles? Because if it wasn't, then we have to go back to the beginning and reassess what period of time Jesus is talking about.

So let's see. Scripture records in the book of Acts three such men, Thutis, Judas, and Simon the Magician, or Simon Magus, if you prefer.

OK?

The Thutis. First, remember when the council wanted to put Peter and the apostles to death? They called them in. And Gamaliel, Paul's mentor, intervenes. And you remember what Gamaliel tells him. He says, he said to them, men of Israel, take care what you propose to do with these men.

Now this is Peter and the apostles. For some time ago, Thutis rose up claiming to be somebody. What does that mean? All right, claiming to be somebody. Oops, I'm sorry. And a group of about 400 men joined up with him.

He's coming, trying to mislead people, right? He accomplishes it. He does, in fact, mislead. At least 400 men join up with him. But he was killed, and all who followed him were dispersed, and it came to nothing.

And in that same speech, he continues. This is still Gamaliel talking. After this man, Judas of Galilee, rose up in the days of the census and drew away some people after him, he too perished, and all those who followed him were scattered.

So now there's at least two that we have. Now we come in Acts 5, the same context here. So in the present case, this is still Gamaliel talking. So in the present case, they say to you, stay away from these men and let them alone.

For if this plan or action is of men, it will be overthrown. But if it is of God, you will not be able to overthrow them, or else you may even be found fighting against God. That doesn't have anything to do with our hermeneutics.

I just love what he says. That's why I had to include it, you know? Gamaliel gave some very, very wise counsel, and it was his counsel that actually saved the apostles from being put to death right there.

Then if we go to Acts 8, this is talking about Simon the magician. Now there was a man named Simon who was formerly practicing magic in the city and astonishing the people of Samaria, claiming to be someone great.

And they all, from the smallest to the greatest, were giving attention to him, saying, look at this. This man is what is called the great power of God. Is he coming, claiming to be the Messiah?

Yeah?

Is he misleading people? He was leading a ton of people away. And they were giving him attention because he had for a long time astonished them with his magic arts. So here's at least three people. Now these are all recorded in the book of Acts, all right?

So does this fit within our timeframe? Yeah, because what is the Acts called? The Acts of the apostles. So this is during the apostolic age. So these false prophets were so significant that even secular historians took note of them.

Jerome quotes Simon Magus as saying, I am the word of God. I am the comforter. I am almighty. I am all there is of God. This is Simon Magus. You remember what Peter told Simon when he wanted to purchase the Holy Spirit?

May your money perish with you. Irenaeus says Simon claimed to be the son of God and the creator of angels. Eusebius records the words of Justin and his description of Simon as a false Messiah. Eusebius further states that there was an inscription in Latin between two bridges which said, simoni deo sancto, which means to Simon, the holy God.

This is the same Simon who is recorded on the pages of scripture. Scripture only goes so far. And obviously they didn't want to, the writers of scripture didn't want to give too much space to him because it's the Acts of the apostles or actually the Acts of the Holy Spirit, all right?

He states, nearly all the Samaritans, a few also of other nations worship him, confessing him as the supreme God. Josephus tells of a certain imposter named Thutis, we've looked at him before, who persuaded a great number to follow him to the river Jordan, which he claimed he would divide for their passage.

Remember, why are we looking at all of these? What did Jesus say? Many will come in my name. They will mislead. They will mislead many. Those Thutis of Samaritan pretended that he was the lawgiver prophesied of by Moses.

There were so many of these imposters preying on the gullibility of the people that Thomas Newton wrote, that under the procuratorship of Felix, many of them were apprehended and killed every day. They seduce great numbers of people expecting the Messiah.

And that's exactly what Jesus warned the disciples about in Matthew 24. Notice how he starts off right after he's answering the questions that the disciples pose, he says, be careful, misleaders will come and they will mislead many.

Many will come in my name, right? And will mislead many. That's exactly what Jesus said. And now we have both sacred scripture, which gives the most weight, of course, but also we have secular historians saying that exactly what Jesus prophesied occurred during the time period between the crucifixion of Christ and the destruction of the temple in 70 AD.

So now let's look at verse six and verse seven. We've looked at the misleading. You will be hearing of wars and rumors of wars. See that you were not frightened for those things must take place, but that is not yet the end for nation will rise against nation and kingdom against kingdom.

And in various places there will be famines and earthquakes. Now, when we read this wars, rumors of wars, it seems to describe virtually any period in history of the world, doesn't it? I mean, that's what you would think because it does seem somewhat vague.

And you might even ask yourself, why would Christ include this? Because it could be almost any age. We ask ourselves this question. Does this description have any special significance to the time period we're looking at in our study?

That's the question. Anybody here ever see the movie, I, Robot? Anybody like the movie, I, Robot? I liked it.

All right.

Do you remember when the character Will Smith played and he was always talking to the hologram? And what did the hologram always come back and say?

Okay.

You're not asking the right question. One of the things that you have to look at when you're doing hermeneutics, you have to know what questions to ask. Does this description up here have any special significance for the time period we're looking at in our study?

Or is it just a general description of the history of the world? It is, isn't it? The answer is yes. I put that up so I remember the answer. While the history of the world is riddled with wars, there have been periods of relative peace.

One such period is called the Pax Romana. Anybody studied a Pax Romana in school? Not too many people? You studied, you were homeschooled. You were homeschooled. Actually, we did study this when I was in high school.

That was a couple of years after it ended. So there's this one period called the Pax Romana. It began with the reign of Caesar Augustus and extended about 200 years to the reign of Marcus Aurelius. This was during the Roman Empire's heyday, and there were 200 years of relative peace.

The 40-year period from the crucifixion of Jesus Christ to the destruction of Jerusalem is in that 200-year period. Because as we know, when Caesar Augustus came, Marcus Aurelius is long after 70 AD.

Now, we find in the midst of this 200 years of peace, the Pax Romana, where Rome was basically at peace, no major wars or conflicts, during this 40-year period, we come up and all of a sudden there's wars and rumors of wars.

That's what makes it so specific is that if there were wars and rumors of wars consistently, the warning about wars and rumors of war.

Would be meaningless.

We'd say, yeah, there's always wars and rumors of war. That'd be like today saying, oh, yeah, there's a war in the Middle East. Yeah, what's the big deal?

All right.

But when you have a period of peace, and that's interrupted by wars and rumors of war, that's noteworthy. The Annals of Tacitus, which covers the period from AD 14 to the death of Nero in AD 68, describes this period of time.

And these are the phrases that describes very specifically the period that we're talking about. Disturbances in Germany, commotions in Africa, commotions in Thrace, insurrections in Gaul, intrigues among the Parthians, the war in Britain and the war in Armenia.

That's Armenia, not Armenia. Armenia is now in the United States in evangelical churches. Josephus states that Roman civil wars were so numerous that he didn't give an exact account of them at this particular time.

He says, I have omitted to give an exact account of them because they are well-known by all, and they are described by a great number of Greek and Roman authors. Yet for the sake of the connection of matters and that my history may not be incoherent, I have just touched upon everything briefly.

Josephus says, it's just too many. I can't even, I'm not even gonna take the time in my history. That's a quotation from one of his books called The Jewish Wars. Jesus told his disciples what to look for, and it came to pass exactly as he said it would.

He said, be careful of false prophets misleading. That came to pass right within the lifetime of the apostles. He says, listen for wars and rumors of war. That took place. But he continues, he says, and in various places there will be famines and earthquakes.

Once again, we find this reported in the pages of scripture. Acts chapter 11. Now at this time, some prophets came down from Jerusalem to Antioch, and one of them named Agabus stood up and began to indicate by the spirit that there would certainly be a great famine over the whole world.

And this took place in the reign of Claudius. When did Claudius reign? From 41 AD to 54 AD, well within the period from the crucifixion of Christ to the destruction of the temple. In fact, Claudius was the emperor just prior to Nero.

The famine was so great that the church took relief measures. And in the proportion that any of the disciples had means, each of them determined to send a contribution for the relief of the brethren living in Judea.

And this they did, sending it in charge of Paul and Barnabas and Saul to the elders. Tacitus, Suetonius and Josephus all record other famines during the same period as well. In fact, Tacitus reports in AD 51 in Rome, this year witnessed many prodigies, signs or omens, including repeated earthquakes, further portents were seen in a shortage of corn resulting in famine.

It was established that there was no more than 15 days supply of food in the city. The book of Acts of the apostles also reports at least one other earthquake, which you may remember. But about midnight, Paul and Silas were praying and singing hymns of praise to God.

And the prisoners were listening to them. And suddenly there came a great earthquake so that the foundations of the prison, the house were shaken and immediately all the doors were open and everyone's chains were unfastened.

Yeah.

The historians report there were earthquakes in Crete, Smyrna, Miletus, Chios, Samos, Laodicea, Hierapolis, Colossi, Campania, Rome, Judea and Pompeii, all in that same period of time. Josephus describes an earthquake in Judea of such magnitude that the constitution of the universe was confounded for the destruction of men.

Edward Hayes Plumtree in a commentary on the whole Bible written back in 1897 says, perhaps no period in the world's history has ever been so marked by these convulsions as that which intervenes between the crucifixion and the destruction of Jerusalem.

And yet look at verse eight, but all these things are merely the beginning of birth pangs. What does he mean it's beginning of birth pangs? We're gonna pick this up and look and see what's to follow these things.

And what Jesus had warned very specifically would come upon mankind because of what they did to his prophets, apostles and of course, what they did to him. Questions. So, well, let me throw this out. If our interpretation of the questions is accurate, that it's Jesus warning his disciples and Jesus says, this is what you're gonna find in verses four to seven.

Do you think we've proven the case that it happened exactly as Jesus said? Trending in the right direction. And we've just begun. Okay, no questions? Yes, Steve.

I think what's contributed to this is the lack of education. But you said earlier that the Pax Romana was something you learned in school. So few of us, I'm not familiar with that. That there was this great 200 year period of peace that was unusual to world history.

And within that was a 40 year period of where these things did happen. And so if you're speaking to someone who has a wrong interpretation of Matthew 24 and you say, what about the Pax Romana? They're not gonna know what you're talking about.

They're not gonna get the reference. So that's part of that. That's another brick in the wall.

Can I tell you a very sad commentary on this? Exactly what you're saying. At my ordination, okay, I'm sitting up there that had 12 evangelical pastors examining me for my ordination. And when it came to eschatology, I several times referenced the events of 70 AD.

And several of the pastors, these are men with seminary educations, all right, standing in pulpits on evangelical churches. I'm not talking about liberal denominations or evangelical churches. Why do you keep referring to 70 AD?

What's the significance of 70 AD to the scripture? So imagine. Imagine why the people in the pews have never heard of some of these things. Final thoughts or questions? Okay, thank you.