Keep sharing good news without ads.
Matthew 24:1-35 History is His Story
Matthew chapter 24 be reading from verses 1 to 35 hear the word of the Lord Jesus left the temple and was going away when his disciples came to point out to him the buildings of the temple, but he answered them.
You see all these do you not truly? I say to you there will not be left here one stone upon another that will not be thrown down. As he said on the Mount of Olives the disciples came to him privately saying tell us when will these things be and what will be the sign of your coming and of the close of the age.
And Jesus answered them see that no one leads you astray for many will come in my name saying I am the Christ and they will lead many astray. And you will hear wars and rumors of wars. See that you are not alarmed for this must take place.
But the end is not yet for nation will rise against nation and kingdom against kingdom and there will be famines and earthquakes in various places. All these are but the beginning of birth pains. Then they will deliver you up to tribulation and put you to death and you will be hated by all nations for my namesake.
And then many will fall away and betray one another and hate one another and many false prophets and will arise and lead many astray. And because lawlessness will be increased the love of many will grow cold.
But the one who endures to the end will be saved. 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. So when you see the abomination of desolation spoken of by the prophet Daniel standing in the holy place let the reader understand.
Then let those who are in Judea flee to the mountains let the one who is on the housetop not go down to take what is in his house and let the one who was in the field not turn back to take his cloak. And alas for women who are pregnant and for those who are nursing infants in those days pray that your flight may not be in winter or on a Sabbath.
For then there will be a great tribulation such as has not been from the beginning of the world until now. No and never will be. And if those days had not been cut short no human being would be saved but for the sake of the elect those days will be cut short.
Then if anyone says to you look here is the Christ or there he is do not believe it for false Christ and false prophets will arise and perform great signs and wonders so as to lead astray if possible even the elect see I have told you beforehand so that if they say to you look he is in the wilderness do not go out.
If they say look he is in the inner rooms do not believe it. For as the lightning comes from the east and shines as far as the West so will be the coming of the Son of Man wherever the corpse is there the vultures will gather immediately after the tribulation of those days the sun will be darkened and the moon will not give its light and the stars will fall from heaven and the powers of the heavens will be shaken.
Then will appear in the heaven the sign of the Son of Man and then all the tribes of the earth will mourn and they will see the Son of Man coming on the clouds of heaven with power and great glory and he will send out his angels with the loud trumpet call and they will gather his elect from the four winds from one end of heaven to the other when the fig tree learned its lesson as soon as the branch becomes tender and puts out its leaves, you know that summer is near so also when you see all these things, you know that he is near at the very gates truly.
I say to you this generation will not pass away until all these things take place heaven and earth will pass away, but my words will not pass away and the Lord had his blessings the reading of his Holy Word.
Well, what's the meaning of history? Henry Ford is famous for saying that history is bunk that is he says it's just tradition and who cares about that that the he said the only history that's that's worth anything cleaning up his language a little bit is the history that we make today, but by history, I don't just mean, you know the events in the past, but I mean the whole story past present and future, you know, where is it going?
What is it for the secular kind of atheistic person would have to admit that for him history is meaningless his own life. Then it's pretty much meaningless. It's just one random event after another as Shakespeare wrote in Macbeth life's but a walking shadow a poor player that struts and frets his hour up on the stage and then is heard no more.
It is a tale told by an idiot full of sound and fury signifying nothing. But others have said that history does indeed have a meaning and has a goal. It is going somewhere according to Karl Marx the father of communism.
It is going toward the goal of the working people what he called the proletariat taking over and creating a classless perfectly equal Society where everyone just cares. After the fall of the most of the communist countries was going to prove that his theory didn't work.
But after the fall of most of the communist countries in the late 80s and American scholar Francis Fukuyama published a book that got a lot of attention entitled the end of history in this book Fukuyama wrote that the early he kind of he used the earlier ideas philosophers like Hegel and Karl Marx and applied it to his times by now the 1990s, you know, he said the Cold War is over America, especially now feels vindicated and apparently there would be peace and prosperity forever.
Fukuyama said that finally all the struggle all the wars of history had been resolved. He wrote that we had fought. Quote the last bloody battle. He believed that there was nothing else to fight for and nearly everyone in the world recognized that democracy and politics and capitalism in any economics were the undeniable victors the end result of history was democracy and capitalism with that Triumph the quest of history was an at an end time would keep ticking but there was according to Fukuyama nothing higher for which to strive at about 9 a .m. New York Time on September 11 2001 that fantasy of a human centered end of history went up in smoke with the World Trade Center.
It turned out that Muslims had a very different idea about the goal of history and we've been fighting wars and heard lots of rumors of wars ever since. What's the goal of history? Well, that's a good Christmas question because Christians have answered that question with Christmas, right?
We divide history right in half at the very point that we believe Jesus what was born BC before Christ a .d. Anyo Domini in the year of our Lord after he's born recently more secular people have tried to obscure this you'll see that sometimes some recent history.
Well, they'll say BCE. That's before the Christian era and see the Christian era. They're trying to eliminate, you know, trying to cover up the any references to Christ, but obviously that just kind of begs the question what what was it that happened in the year one that started the Christian era?
Well Christ was born and we're still back to Christmas history is his story. And it's his story that we are right now right in the middle of and it is going somewhere. It's not just you know facts in the past.
Maybe going to board you in school or whatever or facts that we can remember fondly at Christmas time with nice Christmas carols and doing our tradition. It's not the bunk that Henry Ford said it was and it's not just repeating what has happened.
It isn't circular linear. It says it's a line. It has a destination. It's like a train track. It has stations along the way, but there's a final station. It's going to it's going somewhere and we can remember where now we can remember fondly where we been remember the great views back there when we turn that been or we could remember that Jesus was born at a certain time.
We can do Christmas and remember that that he was born to bring the kingdom of God on Earth. But remember when we are remembering the past the future history is going somewhere. It has a goal God's goal.
And we see that in Matthew 24 where Jesus speaks of history that is to him in the future. It's coming. And this is really a controversial passage somewhat difficult and I'm going to handle a little bit differently than I do most passages got to break it up topics rather than verse by verse.
It's a controversial passage now almost 2 ,000 years later because the question really for this passage is is this all history that we just read for us everything in this chapter has it already happened Jesus to kind of saw it coming but him it already had already happened and there would be some basis for that after all he says this generation will not pass away until all these things are fulfilled.
So in one sense everything in here at least happened in part before that generation come. That's how I would answer that verse some people look at that verse say how could that have happened. How could all of these things been fulfilled.
Well, they were in some way maybe not completely but everything here had some meaning in Jesus's time. And so the question is has it all been fulfilled in the past in our past as some believe or all still in our there are still some who read this say well, this is about Jesus is coming.
And so everything here has to Jesus has to come has to be in the future. And so they'll play with that that thing about this generation as well generation. Maybe it means the race of Jews, but it's not very convincing.
Is it all in our that's the main question to interpret this passage. Is it for us past or is it for us future? Well notice the first question the disciples asked that gives us this long answer. You understand this whole chapter fact actually this chapter and chapter 25 is an answer to their question.
They are leaving the temple and that's symbolic because Jesus has just basically condemned that whole religion going on there chapter 23 temple was very impressive, you know, and it would be not just to them because they're peasants from this, you know, Judean village, but it would be impressive to us today the temple complex itself took up about one-sixth of the whole city of Jerusalem.
It dominated this Hill. If you coming into Jerusalem, you would just see it at the top of this Hill with a wall all kinds of things just be magnificent large structure. Some of the stones you see this no stone will be unturned.
We may have the idea of you know, like this kind of side stone stuck in there with mortar. No the I mean you're talking like pyramid kind of style, you know, but they used to build the pyramids with huge stones.
Some of the stones were 42 feet long 11 feet high. That's a foot higher than a basketball goal. Okay weighing over a million pounds. Try to grasp how big these stones were it would be difficult today to build with stones that are that huge.
I mean you'd have to get some kind of specialized very expensive cranes to move something that heavy and they did it without them. Don't ask me how they probably a lot of manpower and logs to roll it on whatever.
However, they did it but they did it the disciples. So I'm impressed with the magnificence of this temple that they pointed out to Jesus and you know, and Jesus responds you see these do you not truly I say to you and he's saying this as he's leaving the temple.
There's probably a lot of people around him truly. I say to you there will not be left here one stone upon another that will not be thrown down later in verse 3. So probably how many people heard him say that ago.
Whoa, how's that going to happen and later in verse 3 the disciples ask him privately and here's the key question. Here's what they ask him this sets off this whole rest of this chapter. Tell us when will these things be and what will be the sign of your coming and the end of the age it's into that question because to understand what he's answering you need to understand what the question is notice two things about it notice that they're asking two things.
They're asking first when will these things be other words what Jesus just said that this temple will be destroyed when is this temple going to be destroyed that we're so impressed by that's one thing they ask and to what will be the sign of your coming and the end of the age now they may have thought of these all going to happen at the same time and whatever but they asked two things now that last part sign of your coming in the end of the age and you think well, he's asking the rest of three things.
No, it's actually two because that last phrase the sign of your coming in the end of the age. That is one thing that shows if you're reading Greek in which it was written it have one definite article on the words one the there the right the way we say it in English.
What is the sign of your coming and of the end of the age we put into these because that's proper English but in Greek it has one the what would be the sign of your coming and into the age, which means it's one thing.
Okay, so they understood that's one and when Jesus returns it is the end of the age Jesus returning in this chapter actually these two chapters and the two questions to us. We look back. Well, the destruction of Jerusalem is one thing and the end of the age is something entirely different.
We that's the way we tend to think but really they're not the way he answers them shows that they're not they are related the destruction of Jerusalem is such a calamity that it is like the end. It's a preview of the end and really it's more so even than that.
It really is part of the end. It is the end having come already. In our past and yet there is also still the end that is not yet come that is still in our future. So we live now in this world. We're living in the middle of the end.
Okay, are we living in the end time people like to ask that question? Yes, definitely. We've been living in the end times since Jesus came. It's the last days. Okay last means there's no more after that.
There are no more eras. Okay, there's not another era another step. There's no more Revelation a new Revelation a new entirely new dispensation from God. There's no New Testament of Jesus Christ that you find out in golden tablets at the woods.
Sorry, there's none of that and it between the time of Jesus is first coming and the end. So that's why this is the last days Matthew 24. Then is about this time time. We're still in right now. And for us he tells us three things.
Okay about the past about the future and about the present and that's the way I'm dividing up the things we find in this part of the chapter. We read first 35 verses. What's about the path? What's about our path?
What's for our future? And what about our present first about the past the key idea about what we learned from the past to believe believe that history is his story and so he can he can tell it in advance.
That's the reason he can tell history in advance because it's his story. We see here that Jesus knew what was coming before it came especially from verses 15 to 20 maybe some after that but especially in those verses there because what he says there is is specifically about the siege of Jerusalem.
So it's in our path from 80 67 to 70 a year before then 80 66 the Jews finally rebelled Jesus had told them a couple chapters earlier rendered a Caesar to things that are Caesars but they decided not to believe him and instead in 80 66 they started this revolt throw out the Romans and the Roman general Titus and invaded Judea.
He laid siege to Jerusalem killing an enormous amount of people. It's estimated that he crucified 500 people a day during that siege and when they finally broke through the wall of Jerusalem in July or July I heard August but it was in the summer.
He asked him to pray that it not happen in winter. Apparently they did pray at God because it happened in the summer broken to Jerusalem in the summer of 80 70. They slaughtered the Romans did many Josephus estimates that 1 million people died from the war.
That's 1 million. That means every one of them killed by a sword thrust an arrow something like that. We're not talking bomb 1 million and enslaved another 100 thousand all the way in chains. What started for the Jews that was it started to be a great struggle for independence and some thought that they were doing it based on faith and God's promises to Israel but it resulted in a catastrophe that they never could have imagined unless of course they had remembered the words of Jesus because there were some of them that knew it was coming the Christians at the time many of them still Jews who were earlier would have been living in Jerusalem.
They remember Jesus is alarming words. I mean right. He's telling us here you know if you see it coming and you're on your rooftop I mean you just jump down and you run don't go back inside you know get your photo catalogs or whatever you your pet dog don't do anything just run.
OK when he's talking that alarming and the Jesus the Christians just remembered that when they saw them this invasion starting to take place Titus what Jesus refers to the abomination coming like what had been foreseen in Daniel or again sort of same thing happening.
Well they fled the Christians took Jesus's instructions here literally they got out of there. They did what Jesus said with urgency. They believe him and so they save their lives. There's no record I'm told of even one Christian being killed in that war.
Remember I said a million killed in the war. But the Christians were all gone because they they believe Jesus believe in what God has done for his people in the past. He came in the flesh he bore our sins.
He was raised from the dead. History is not meaningless. It's his story of him saving and protecting his people. He protected them by warning the early church of the calamity coming on Jerusalem. And so they got out of their lesson for us is believe and heed.
Some could say well that's interesting history nice history lesson would be nicer with a video but we don't want to try any more technology right now. What does it have to do with me now? It tells you that God protects his people if he protected them then he will do so now and much of what Jesus says in this chapter is to warn us.
Warn us of dangers will be facing of dangers of this entire time from his first coming to his second coming if we believe him will heed him. He warns us of the danger of false teachers over and over again in this chapter.
He begins at verse 4. That's the first thing that he starts with to warn us see that no one lead you astray. It says in verse 5 many will come in his name. Some of them will say I am the Christ was so common for Jewish leaders to rise up against Rome that when the apostle Paul is arrested in Acts chapter 21 the Roman officer thinks hey you're the Egyptian right.
You're that guy that led 4000 assassins out into the wilderness. Paul goes no no. In AD 44 a man named Theodos declared himself to be the Messiah taking 400 people with him into the desert when the Romans caught up with him.
They beheaded him. He lost his head more more ways than one when the Jews didn't learn their lesson. Unfortunately after the devastation of AD 70 about 65 years later another man rose claiming to be the Messiah by the name of Bar Kokhba who started another revolt.
It was again crushed in much the same way with thousands more killed. Israel was almost made barren of trees because the Romans cut them all down to make crosses out of and we've had the same thing happening in our day.
You know just this year in September I think Sun Myung Moon who claimed to be Messiah died. He led many astray including into mass arranged weddings. You know they had a huge way of like thousands tens of thousands of couples getting married at the same time but they arranged them like they never met each other before their wedding and which I suppose a mass arranged wedding is better than the mass suicides that some false messiahs lead their people into although you could joke that a mass wedding and a mass suicide are pretty much the same thing.
Well 20 years ago a man by the name of David Koresh really is original name was Vernon Wayne Howell. He renamed himself David taking it says he's inheriting the promises to David and Koresh which is actually just an alternative spelling or pronunciation of the name Cyrus whom God calls his anointed in Isaiah.
He claimed to be a new Christ. He led a cult the Branch Davidians that resulted in the deaths of at least 82 people including 26 children and there are many others who claim to be the Messiah. You know Jesus said many will come claiming to be the Messiah.
Well certainly he's been right hasn't he. A man by the name of John Nichols Thome who lived from 1799 to 1838 was a Cornish tax rebel. He claimed to be the savior of the world and the reincarnation of Jesus in 1834.
He was killed by British soldiers at the Battle of Boston Denwood on May 31st in 1838 and Kent Eaglet our man American man by the name of Arnold Potter. I believe he was living in Washington State from year 18 forward 1872.
He was an early Mormon leader and he claimed that the spirit of Jesus entered into his body and he called himself Potter Christ son of the living God. He attempted to. He died because he attempted to ascend to heaven by jumping off a cliff believing that he would.
Keep flying upwards. Instead gravity took him down or there's Ernest Norman who lived from 1904 to 1971 an American electrical engineer who co-founded the Uranus Academy of Science in 1954. He claimed that he was Jesus in the past life.
Okay, by the way Bible teaches against reincarnation right die once after that the judgment but anyway besides that he didn't he said he was Jesus in the past life. He also said he was the reincarnation of Confucius Socrates Mona Lisa, which is a strange one.
I don't know why they get that Benjamin Franklin Queen Elizabeth the first and Tsar Peter the first Tsar of Russia and and others and then there's Jim Jones live from 1931 to 1978 founder of the People's Temple who claimed to be the reincarnation of Jesus Akhenaten one of the pharaohs Buddha Vladimir Lenin why he would want to claim that I don't know Father Divine who's another cult leader in the 1970s.
He led his followers in a mass murder suicide at Jonestown Guyana on November 18 1978 killing 918 people or there's Marshall Applewhite who lived from 1931 to 1997 who posted an internet message with Internet's been great for people like this by the way started with I Jesus son of God.
So Applewhite in his Heaven's Gate cult committed mass suicide on March 26 1997 and order what they thought would help them to rendezvous with what they believe was a spaceship hiding behind the Hale Bopp comet and there are many others.
I mean you could just go on and on the list. I just picked out some of the more notable ones here with what Jesus calls false Christ false prophets in verse 24 who will lead many astray even he says if possible verse 24 even the elect and the implication is there you lead a lot of people astray, but you can't leave the electors.
It's not possible. It's possible. They would but it's not it's not possible because God protects his people. That's what the past teaches us false Christ lead their people and to suicide and disaster Jesus leads his people into life.
Jesus kept his new church from being destroyed in Jerusalem by warning them of the disaster that was coming ahead of time and he'll keep his people throughout all of history because history is his story of how he is saving people from every nation while so many others are deceased.
So the lesson of the path. Believe.
