Jerusalem, Jerusalem - Matthew 23:37 - 24:44
Matt, 23:37 - 24:44 · Vern Peterman · Oct 11, 2009
Revelation (2009), No. 41
Holly Hills Bible Church
https://hollyhillsbiblechurch.org/teaching/messages/492614547310

Transcribed from the recording by SermonAudio, so expect the occasional misheard word.

I've got a question for you. The Bible is about 28% prophecy. If you were to try to count them, round numbers, about 10,000 individual details of prophecy in the Bible. About 5,000 have already been fulfilled. The other 5,000 are remaining to be fulfilled. Why include so much prophecy? Why not just kind of drop it? Why is it of any value? Prophecy fulfillment is proof that the Bible is valid. Okay, it's proof that the Bible is valid. Good.

I mean, the test of the whole prophets was they had to be 100% correct, right? That's right. Let's take a quick for instance. There are prophecies from before certain events happened in the city of Tyre, and in more than one place in the Old Testament, those prophecies were fulfilled between the Old and New Testaments, and they were all fulfilled to every single detail. And so that is a testimony to the truth of Scripture. Good. Any other reasons why prophecy is included?

I think it might prove that God is not changing. Yeah, okay, God's not just kind of shooting from the hip. And so God's not just kind of giving his best guess. And also, you know, if something is going to happen, determined to happen, God knows it. And he's not just, you know, surprised.

Yeah. I think it also proves his power. Okay. God is powerful. Yeah. Okay, yeah, this is some amazing intelligence and power. You're right. Any other ideas? Yeah. If you're waiting on something, it's good to know what you're waiting on. Yeah. I mean he's already told them. during the tribulation period, so they can wait on their God. It's right there. Good. Other reasons?

It's proof of the deity of Christ and God's plan. Right. Proof of the deity of Christ, and we're going to see that right here today, isn't it? And the book of Revelation also demonstrates the deity of Christ. Jesus said, you know, that I'm the first and the last. Well, guess what? That comes out of God's own statements in the book of Isaiah. Chapters 40 through 48 have several of those kinds of statements. Good. Others? Other thoughts?

What is the value of prophecy? Why have it in there? I just appreciate your comment. How are people knowing that Christ How would you know? And it really gives us a clue. Who Christ is, is a major issue, not a minor one. And prophecy does tell in advance who he is, and by his own testimony, saying what is going to happen, also demonstrates who he is. More importantly, it says that he comes twice. And the Jewish people do expect the Messiah, and he's going to come, and he's going to reign, and he's going to do all these things, and he's going to take control over the earth. But they missed the point of Jesus being the atonement. And that's the first step in the process. And it wouldn't be for prophecy, as they said. You couldn't prove that.

It also shows God's faithfulness. Here is God who 4,000 years ago makes a prophecy, basically a promise in prophecy to Abraham. So here's 4,000 years going by and God's still holding that promise. In fact, one of the reasons that God doesn't just say, oh boy, this isn't working out, let's just wrap this whole heaven and earth thing up and try something else. One of the reasons why God doesn't do that is He made a promise to this guy who was raised in paganism there in the Middle East named Abraham. I mean, this is amazing stuff. The land that I'll show you. And this land is still important and critical even though it's a small area in world events.

And He says, those who bless you I'll bless, those who curse you I will curse. And that's going to be held true all the way to the very end. We're not going to get into Matthew 25, but basically Matthew 25 describes how Jesus is going to judge the nations according to those who bless you, I will bless, and those who curse you, I will curse. That's what Matthew 25 is.

It's describing the fulfillment of God's promise to Abraham in Genesis 12. God is faithful. Let's take a look. Here is this passage. This was spoken a few days before Christ was crucified. Here is Jesus in the middle of crucifixion week. And you can imagine, if you can try to put yourself in that situation, here is Christ.

He is speaking to these disciples who still don't understand what's going to happen in a few days. They really don't. They don't get it. But he's speaking to them and telling them, look, you see this temple mount we're walking out of and you see all this stuff here? Let me tell you what's going to take place.

And it's all centered around this place we're walking in right now. And here is the crucifixion week. I'm going to step quickly through it. This is the traditional chronology. There are those who have argued in favor of some other, you know, different days of crucifixion and things of that sort. I can't claim to be a scholar, but in my own looking at it, I think the traditional chronology has a lot to say for itself. Friday before that week is Zacchaeus in Jericho. just to get some sense of the sequence. Saturday would be Lazarus and Bethany.

And by the way, if raising somebody from the dead is work, I guess he blew it, right? Triumphal entry. I think that's kind of a misnomer, but that's the term that's used on Sunday. Monday he drove out the money changers. Tuesday is this day that we call the Olivet Discourse. Basically, where that comes from, it's from Jesus gave the account we're about to read on the Mount of Olives. That's all it means. Wednesday, we went to the temple there in Jerusalem.

Thursday was the day of the Last Supper and the night of trial, crucifixion and burial on Friday. on Saturday remaining in the grave and on Sunday the resurrection. So basically that chronology would place the events of this particular passage and the words of this passage on Tuesday, just a few days before Christ was crucified. So here is Jesus.

He says, Jerusalem, Jerusalem, who kills the prophets and stones those who are sent to her, how often I wanted to gather your children together the way a hen gathers her chicks under her wings, and you were unwilling. Behold, your house is being left to you desolate. For I say to you, from now on you will not see me until you say, Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord. One of the things to point out about this passage is that the entire passage is extremely Jewish.

Jesus had earlier in the book of Matthew, in chapter 10, sent out the disciples and he said, go only to the lost sheep of the house of Israel. Do not go even on a road that leads to the Gentiles. Go to the Jews. Chapter 15, Jesus says, I was sent only to the lost sheep of the house of Israel.

Here he is in this passage and he starts off here, Jerusalem, Jerusalem, which is guess where? In Israel, okay? This repetition of names when something very serious is about to be said was a Jewish pattern. We see it here as Jesus says to Simon Peter when he's about to tell him, you're going to deny me, Simon, Simon, okay? Here is Saul, who is being approached by Christ on the Damascus Road, and what does he say? He doesn't say Saul. He says, Saul, Saul. And even throughout the Gospel of John, the pattern, truly, truly. So this double word usage is a preface to something very seriously said.

Who kills the prophets and stones those who sent her is a kind of a Jewish kind of rhyming. The killing was not always, but often by stoning, and the ones sent were the prophets. There's a figure of speech in Psalms, Israel's national hymn book, in which the author calls upon God to protect, under the shadow of your wings, and we have several references in Psalms there. In the Psalms, Psalm 91-4, he will cover you with his pinions, and under his wings you may seek refuge. His faithfulness is a shield and a bulwark. What does Jesus say here? How often I wanted to gather your children together the way a hen gathers her chicks under her wings. And who said that? Who has that said about previously in the Old Testament? God. There's your point. This is testimony to the deity of Christ. This is testimony to the deity of Christ.

If He were not deity, how dare He come and use these words which are so repeatedly and clearly, not only in Israel's national hymn book but elsewhere, so repeatedly and clearly used as a figure for this is what God would do. If he were not deity, that would be bald and bold and blasphemous.

Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord. It was traditional when people were walking in groups up to the festivals to repeat Psalms 113, it says 188, should be 118, make that correction, known as the Hallel, by pilgrims coming to Jerusalem for the appointed feasts. So blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord is one of the completing sentences there.

It was a set of words that were said in anticipation of the Messiah. From now on, you will not see me until you say, Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord. Until you say, you Jerusalem, welcome him as the Messiah. He says, you won't see me until you welcome me as the Messiah. That's what he's saying here. Basically, this first coming here is about over because the Jews have rejected him.

In the next verses which begin Matthew 24, this is the top of page 2, 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. Let me go through a few more slides here.

This is the inner temple area. The entire temple area was about the size of six football fields. Big. And it was all slabbed with stone all the way around. There was also the perimeter colonnades. This is from a picture of a model that was made, but it gives you an idea.

The front area was the area that was called the Court of Women. The front area there was where the widow put her mite. The front area was where the one said, you know, Lord, I thank you that I'm not a sinner like that guy over there. And then the tax collector, the publican, says, Lord, have mercy on me. That took place in that area there.

That semi-circle area of steps, several times throughout the day, they would have priests come out and there would be a priest chorus and they would sing. They would have harps that they would play there in the temple area, and the priests would sing and play from those steps that you see.

The Jewish men, only Jews were allowed in this middle area. As a matter of fact, we hear about a riot during the latter part of the Book of Acts, a riot in which Paul is suspected or accused of bringing a Gentile into that court where only Jews were allowed. Jewish men only were allowed through that doorway that you see in front of the inner temple, the Holy Place and the Holy of Holies, the holiest place there. Right behind that door on the wall was where a lot of the sacrifices were taking place.

Here is another model showing the colonnades that were all the way around the perimeter. A grand structure. Between the Israel Antiquities Authority and University of California at Los Angeles, they've done some computer modeling of what it would be like inside some of those colonnades and other views as well. Definitely a grand structure. Very impressive. Some of the stones were 50 tons in weight and yet you could not get a knife blade between the stones. They were cut so finely.

However, what would the Romans do? They shoved the stones off and here many of them were found. What they did is the archaeologist went through and removed a number of them but then left some so that people could see what it was like. Here's another view and you can see where the stones were before and how they crushed the stone and material underneath when they dumped everything off.

As you recall, at one place where Paul is accused of bringing a Gentile into that court, there were only Jews allowed. One and one half of those signs warning, don't bring a Gentile in here, Gentiles should not come in here, have been found in this rubble. There was also another place where it was real interesting, there's an engraving in Hebrew that says, the trumpeter's place. So it's a place where they, because they also, in addition to the harps, they also had trumpets.

And so that was also found in this rubble. This is an artist's rendering. I would say that this little precipice that the soldiers are standing on is, I think, artistic license. But the idea is to give you the image of the destruction that the Romans brought upon the city of Jerusalem and the temple area. They did use siege ramps and start fire when they destroyed things in 70 A.D. Here is Mount of Olives as it looks now from the temple area. And so Jesus, with this not being quite as developed as you see it here, Jesus would have sat with the disciples on the top of the Mount of Olives here looking at the temple site as he told them these things. They were very impressed.

By the way, the temple was still under reconstruction at that point. 20 BC, Herod had begun a reconstruction project. By the way, the Jews paid heavily in taxes for that. But he started a reconstruction project. And he taxed immensely, not only for this reconstruction project, which wasn't done until the early 60s AD, just a few years before it was all torn down. So a massive, massive reconstruction project. And on top of that, Herod also built other things. and in 12 BC funded the Olympics at the expense of the Jews.

Yes? I heard that he also put gold and precious metals between the stones. Is there any truth to that? Which is one of the reasons that they tore all the stones apart. What apparently took place was, and there's some scholarly debate about whether the fire in the temple area was started intentionally or accidentally. I don't know if that's ever been resolved, but the debate, at least at one point in time, has gone on. As a result of the fire, a lot of things that were set in place, because this was one beautiful piece of work, it was begun under Herod, but continued long after he had died. Because he died in like March of 4 BC, and the construction continued on for over 60 years, about 65 years after that. And when the fire was started up, then a lot of the gold melted and a lot of the precious stones then fell out of their placements and that kind of thing and fell between the stones. And of course, what would the soldiers want to do but pry every stone apart to get all the gold and precious stones out?

You can imagine, here's this phenomenal building, they're not done reconstructing it, and what does Jesus say? It's all going to be a wreck. Not one stone will be left on another, and that's what we thought. The Romans just shoved everything off the edge of this temple mount. Massive temple mount, like say six football fields in area. The structure goes many dozens of feet down into the ground. There is a massive water storage facility underneath. There were a number of different stairways coming, a varying construction. It was a phenomenal piece of work. Even in its day, looked upon as, this is quite a structure. the Romans would tear it down, all but just the foundation retaining wall area that still remains.

So you can imagine how shocked the disciples were to hear, this is all going to get ripped, not one stone will be left on another, all shoved down, and that's exactly what the archaeologists found and what you see some evidence remaining of here. Have all these ruins been cleaned up today? Well, they actually left what you see here. This set of barricades was while they were doing the excavation. You can go visit it now and see those rocks that are remaining that were left there intentionally. And a lot of these barricades you see, this was right towards the end of the archaeological work. What's there now is more cleaned up and finished looking, but they did leave some of the rubble at the end there, just so people could see it and witness, you know, what happened and what this was like. Because if you say, you know, what's left of the temple, that's what's left. No, that is still there. They are still in the process of discovering it, even now.

Back in the 70s, because remember the Jews for many centuries had no access to a lot of this. So back in the 70s they began excavations around the Temple Mount. And let's see, Leon Rittmeyer was the kind of chief architect there and they had archaeologists working in various parts. On the top of the Temple Mount now, the Jews are not allowed to go in and do archaeological work because of the Muslims having authority over it.

But tunnels, excavations around the outside, the Muslims went in and dug a trench and then just dumped the remains, well they found things that were from the area that the Muslims dumped. And they went through that and found coins and different pieces of pottery and things like that from the old temple site. So amazing stuff.

Verse 3, he was sitting on the Mount of Olives, the disciples came to him privately saying, tell us, when will these things happen? And look at their questions. Tell us, when will these things happen? What will be the sign of your coming and of the end of the age? The questions are three here. When will these things happen? Question one. Question two, what will be the sign of your coming? And then I put it there in brackets, and what will be the sign of the end of the age? One of the things I want to point out is the sign of your coming and the sign of the end of the age is the same thing. The reason is this.

In the Jewish manner of speaking, there is the present age and the age to come. And you'll see those phrases, both of them, used in the New Testament. the present age and the age to come. The present age continues up until the time the Messiah comes, and then the age to come is the time when the Messiah reigns. Okay? So when you talk about the end, to them the end of this age is the time when the Messiah comes.

So that's why they're stated, what will be the sign of your coming and of the end of the age. Those are referring to the same event, not separate events. And it's because of the Jewish mindset reflected in what Christ said in various places in the Gospels, even what Paul wrote. So then what's interesting is Jesus really does not address the Roman destruction as he answers the questions. He doesn't say when is this going to happen, really. He moves on in this passage. So let's look at verse 4.

And that Jesus answered and said to them, see to it that no one misleads you. Now, isn't that an interesting way to start? What do you think is the major hazard based on what Jesus says? The Jews. The radis. Major hazard, but look, how does he start when he starts speaking in verse 4?

Deception. Yeah. They're asking for, you know, what are the signs and all that? He says the first thing out of his mouth is, make sure nobody misleads you. Okay? Ding! Okay, this is big because he is not refusing to answer their question, but he's just telling them, you know, red lights, sirens, warnings, flashing, you know, everything else, being misled is a major hazard. Yeah. But that's not anything new. I mean, the Pharisees and the Sadducees and all the rest of it preceding the birth of Christ was deception as well. Yes. That's what happens on the planet Earth. Deception is the thing. There is never a time when believers of whatever ethnic background, there is never a time when believers need to stop being discerning. There isn't one. And what his point here is, this isn't time to stop being discerning.

And so one of the things, what will be the sign that there will be, certainly there have always been those who have been deceiving and misleading, but when you're talking about these end times, the end of the present age, deception and misleading is a key point on which he warns.

For many will come in my name, saying, I am the Christ, and will mislead many. You will be hearing of wars and rumors of wars. See that you are not frightened. For those things must take place, but that is not the end. For a nation will rise against nation, and kingdom against kingdom, and in various places there will be famines and earthquakes.

But all these things are merely the beginning of birth pains. They will deliver you to tribulation and will kill you and you will be hated by all nations because of my name. At that time, many will fall away and will betray one another and hate one another. Many false prophets will arise and will mislead many. Funny how the many keeps cropping up there. Because lawlessness is increased, most people's love will grow cold.

Isn't that interesting? What does that, how does that fall on your ears? What does that make you think of? Most people's love will grow cold. Apostasy. Apostasy, okay. And that misleading thing is certainly one. What else comes to mind? I guess lovers of self. Pardon? Lovers of self. Lovers of self, yeah. The prime question, what's in it for me? What's in it for me? The word today is narcissism. Narcissism, yeah. Yeah, I'm for me, and I'm for me. Yeah. Yep. Verse 13, But the one who endures to the end, he will be saved. This gospel of the kingdom shall be preached in the whole world as a testimony to all the nations, and then the end will come.

A lot of people have understood these verses, verses 4 through 14 above, as being either one entirely before the Tribulation period, partly before the Tribulation, and partly during, entirely during the Tribulation period. We'll present that Christ intended to communicate the third interpretation, that this is all about the tribulation period, that Matthew 24, 4-14 was intended to be understood as being entirely in the tribulation period and mostly in the first half of the tribulation period.

And there's a few reasons for that. Matthew 24 discourse focuses on the Jews and Israel in its words, audience, and geographical context. It does not refer to the Church at all, as the Church was not revealed in the Old Testament, but was revealed in the New Testament by the, essentially, substantially by the Apostles. And the Church is only revealed a little and towards the end of the Gospels.

So that's one. Next one, a parallel can be made between every event in Matthew 24, 4-14 and parallel passages in Mark and Luke, as you see them listed below. And those are the Revelation 6 seal judgments. We went earlier through Revelation chapter 6 and touched on the seal judgments. What we find is each of the items has an equivalence They're between the three places where this Matthew 24 or equivalent Mark 13 or Luke 21 connects up with the seal judgments in Revelation chapter 6. The term birth pains used by Christ here is also used by Paul and first Thessalonians to describe the tribulation events. Additionally, Jewish literature also describes this tribulation period as birth pangs.

Evidence of that is the Messiah text by Rafael Patai. On pages 95-96 he quoted the Jewish Talmud, a collection of Jewish traditional writings, where he wrote, the pangs of the Messianic times are imagined as having heavenly as well as earthly sources and expressions. Things will come to such a head that people will despair of redemption. This will last seven years and then, unexpectedly, the Messiah will come.

That's the Jewish understanding. They also use that similar phrase, pains, for this time of the tribulation period. The word translated coming, there's parousia, indicates not just coming but abiding presence, coming to stay. Coming to stay is the idea. This corresponds to the time when Christ will come again and remain on earth as the Messiah.

And then the last bullet there, the word translated end, suntereas in Matthew 24 and then in verses 3, 13, and 14, means entire completion or consummation. It refers to the time of the very end of this age with the Messiah's coming marking the beginning of the next age. So the end does not refer to century after century of process along the way. during this, the church age, nor does it refer to just the tribulation period. In the Jewish mind, there is this present age before the coming of the Messiah and the next age when the Messiah would come and reign on the earth over his kingdom. Ephesians 121 even uses that terminology. Something else, and I think it's important.

In this passage, all the way to verse 44, Jesus kept saying, When he said, you to these disciples, as we read through it, he was speaking of them not as disciples that would live during this time, but as representative Jews. He kept referring to, and he keeps talking about things in Jerusalem and Israel and matters that are Jewish. It's not that they would personally go through these things, but rather that he speaks to them as you being Jewish people. So now he tells them, make sure nobody misleads you. There will be not just people who teach false things, but people saying, I'm the Messiah. I'm your guy. So it isn't just false teaching, but false claims to be Christ.

He who endures to the end will be saved. Have you ever heard that quoted as something like, you know, in order to make sure that you're saved you've got to endure to the end and otherwise it proves you weren't really a Christian? Ever heard that? Yeah, some folks will bring that up. That's taking it out of context What he means by this is, he who endures to and through the entire tribulation period, those will be the ones who go into the millennium. Those will be the ones who are saved physically.

The Jewish pattern is not so much to think of salvation as we have come to know it. We'll ask somebody, are you saved? And what we talk about is, have you been saved by faith in Christ and therefore do you have eternal life? The typical Jewish usage of the word saved, and he's speaking to Jews in Israel, Right there, looking at the temple. The typical Jewish mindset of being saved is more in a circumstantial and even a military sense. A rescued. And that example, I give passages in Genesis and Exodus and Numbers and Deuteronomy and Judges. That's Christ's meaning for saved here. Not eternal salvation, but saved in the sense of rescued from the danger.

Then in verse 14, Jesus said, This gospel of the kingdom shall be preached in the whole world as a testimony to all the nations, and then the end will come. Recall that the gospel with a focus on the kingdom will be preached by the, remember we said 144,000, that's chapters 7 and 14 of Revelation, the two witnesses and by the gospel angel. Now, why does he say gospel of the kingdom? Why doesn't he just say gospel? Because that's strictly from a Jewish standpoint. Why is the gospel of the kingdom a specifically Jewish concept? Because they're promised earthly blessings. And I've promised that.

When they hear the word kingdom, what are they thinking of? They're thinking of the Millennial Kingdom. That's what they would think of. In Acts chapter 1, here's Jesus standing in this same place some weeks after this very discourse. And what do they ask Jesus?

It's now the time you're going to establish your kingdom. They didn't mean the church. They were saying, are you going to establish the Millennial Kingdom now? Are you going to come and drive out the Romans and reign now? Is now the time? And his answer?

The Father is the one that calls that. Right now I've got something else for you to do. That's also why he would say the kingdom is at hand, because he being the Christ, who would rule during the millennial kingdom was present on the face of the earth as Jesus. So the kingdom was partially at hand because the leader was not. Well, the kingdom was at hand and in fact it was still yet to be decided would they accept or reject him.

And let's think through this. I think we've asked this question before but just to make sure. What would have happened if the Jews had completely embraced Christ as their king? What's that? Yeah, there would be no reason for there to be the church. The church is an insertion. Paul explains in Romans 9-11 that the church was put in there basically to make Israel jealous.

But had the Jews said, this is our king, and embraced him as their king, Looking at prophecy, because remember we talked about the importance of prophecy, here's what would have taken place. There would have been no church, but there would instead have been, because it's prophesied, somehow Christ would still have been crucified, as prophesied in Isaiah 53, among other passages. Christ would still have been crucified and died for the sins of the world. there would still be a seven-year tribulation period, because that was predicted in Daniel, the seven-year figure, centuries before Christ came, and Christ would have come as the Messiah at that point in time, with no church and no centuries and millennia in between. So you're correct, the kingdom is in him. So what's happening, the gospel of the kingdom is still, you need to believe that this is Jesus Christ the Messiah, the Savior, but for the Jews it's all about, he's going to establish his kingdom and it's about here on planet earth. Okay, verse 15.

Therefore when you see the abomination of desolation, which was spoken through Daniel the prophet, standing in the holy place, then, little parenthesis, let the reader understand, then those who are in Judea must flee to the mountains. By the way, where's Judea? The southern part of Israel, the area around Jerusalem, must flee to the mountains. Whoever is on the housetop must not go down to get the things that are in his house. Whoever is in the field must not turn back to get his cloak. But woe to those who are pregnant and those who are nursing babies in those days and pray that your flight may not be in the winter.

And this is another pointer that this is about the Jews or on a Sabbath. Why is it a problem that fleeing would be on the Sabbath? Yeah, the Sabbath day's journey was the limit to the amount that you were supposed to go on a Sabbath. That gets all problematic if you're having to run away from an enemy and you have to stop because you've reached your limit. I've heard, and maybe that's because prophecy sometimes is double prophecy, but I've heard that some of the Jews had Jerusalem in a temple and so they flee because they had taken what Christ said here to flee and they did.

And many of the Jews were saved because they got out before the Romans completely surrounded Jerusalem and the rest of them died. Yeah, it was a huge tragic time. The Jews slaughtered themselves within the walls of Jerusalem, that is also that this particular 70 AD event is also the last we ever hear of the descendants of Esau. The last record that we have of any of the descendants of Esau was during that 70 AD time. The descendants of Esau came as a group, approached the city of Jerusalem and said, let us in, we'll help.

And it turned out they weren't all that helpful, but no more record of them after that. All gone. So isn't it interesting? Here's Jacob, and his descendants are still around, and somewhere close to 5% of the earth's population. The descendants of Esau, the last we know of, died in 70 AD. Brothers. But the Lord had promises to Jacob. It promises to Abraham.

For then there will be great tribulation. And by the way, this is why some will call the last part of the tribulation period the great tribulation. In other words, it gets worse. Then there will be great tribulation such as not occurred since the beginning of the world until now, nor ever will. Unless those days have been cut short, no life would have been saved. By the way, no life would have been saved. This is a clue that saved doesn't always refer to eternal salvation.

So that's the context that he has here. Okay, on page five. But for the sake of the elect, those days will be cut short. Then if anyone says to you, behold, here is the Christ, or there he is, don't believe him. It will not be an event such that everything will have to be pointed out. Oh, he's over here. He's out there or he's in this place. No, that won't be the case.

For false priests and false prophets will arise and will show great signs and wonders so as to mislead, if possible, even the elect. Behold, I have told you in advance. So if they say to you, behold, he's in the wilderness, do not go out. Or behold, he's in the inner rooms, do not believe him. For just as the lightning comes from the east and flashes to the west, even so will the coming of the Son of Man be. Wherever the corpse is, there will the vultures gather.

Imagine the Lord is coming back. Things on earth are rather a mess. And remember, the sun will be darkened for a time, right? Imagine that you're here on planet Earth, things are getting to be rather a mess and all the usual things in the sky, they aren't there.

But you start seeing this big, bright whiteness coming towards the Earth. And as time passes, you keep looking and it gets bigger and bigger and brighter. And everything else is dark. except for this big, bright whiteness that's coming towards the earth. And as the earth turns, there's all these people and they're looking up and they're all seeing this part of the sky getting brighter and bigger.

That's why Jesus will tell, you know, if somebody tells you he's over here, he's over there, that's not what the second coming is about. The second coming is about Here is the Lord coming, and what does Zechariah say? In the very first chapter, whatever read, people will look upon Him whom they have pierced and weep and wail. Oh! Here He is. He's coming. All the other things that draw our attention, they'll be gone from the sky. This will overwhelm their views. You won't need a telescope. You won't need any special glasses. This will be an overwhelming sight.

When the Lord comes, and the angels come, and all the saints of the Old Testament, and the saints of the New Testament, tribulation saints all coming with the Lord. That will be a sign. And the Lord, when He comes, will battle with Israel's enemies. We will be a part of that army, but we won't lift a finger. As a matter of fact, the Lord won't either. All He'll do is speak. And the army is attacking Israel because God is faithful to what He promised Abraham. He who curses you all curse. And in the same way that Jesus Christ said, let there be light, and that he spoke and everything he created was brought into existence, that same Jesus Christ will defeat, with the word of his mouth, the enemies of Israel. And we'll be with him.

You have a chart there in the middle of page 5. It shows the tribulation period, the rapture at the beginning, A second coming at the end. This shows a coordination between the book of Daniel and this passage that we've been looking at here in Matthew 24 and the passages in Revelation. And the timing of Antichrist breaking a treaty and violating the temple. This is the abomination of desolation. and Satan's multi-pronged attack upon Israel towards the last half. So there's the coordination of those multiple passages there. This abomination of desolation is to the Jews a violation of the Temple, an unlawful sacrifice. It could be sacrificing a pig, but also done by someone who is not allowed to do it. Done by a Gentile.

Those in Judea must flee to the mountains. We mentioned Judea is the area of southern Israel around Jerusalem. And he gives three warnings there. Those who are in Judea, and there's a positive statement and two negatives. Must flee, okay? must not go down, must not turn back. See that? Must flee, must not go down to get things in the house, must not turn back. If you see it, run and don't do anything else. So one positive, two negative statements there.

This is consistent with what we read in Revelation 12, 14 there. But the two wings of the great eagle were given to the woman, Israel, so that she can fly into the wilderness to her place. So pray that your flight would not be in the winter or on a Sabbath. Obviously winter would make it difficult in any place that had weather, but the Sabbath is specifically Jewish. Sabbath Days Journey is an issue from Acts 112.

I understand Mike Doyle lives in an area where he's got a number of Jews in the vicinity and they actually have an area marked out where they can walk and where they can't exceed it. And I guess you go over there, Mike could show you where that line is, but they actually have it marked out. Here's the, as far as you're allowed to go. On the next page there, pardon?

Can you address this vulture thing? Yes. Can you address that? Yeah, one thing is he's looking at, because he's also soon going to start talking about the fig tree, he's looking at in terms of the, there's going to be a lot of death, essentially, and so he'd start bringing up this picture of the vultures. It says, there the vultures will gather. I see that as basically that picture. Who is going to be dying at that end time?

The opponents of Israel, right? It even, at one later point, not in this passage, says that they will be spending a good deal of time dealing with the leftovers from this attempted battle against the Jews. Yes, I mean, it's going to be some period of months burying and burning. And so just dealing with it's going to be a big issue. But the vultures gathering I look at as a picture of dealing with the death. Yeah.

But in this last time here, it is those who oppose Israel who will be slaughtered. And that's why you'll have various pictures here. It talks about vultures. Elsewhere, the picture of blood up to the horse's bridles. It'll be a nasty, awful slaughter. But it's, here the Lord promised Abraham, those who bless you, I will bless. Those who curse you, I will curse. People make their choices. You know, as a nation, as the United States, we have a choice. How are we going to stand versus what God said? How are we going to treat Israel?

And in chapter 25, essentially his judgment of the Gentiles, you've heard the passage, you know, if you do this unto the least of my brethren, you've done it unto me. Well, who's his brethren? The Jews. And all this give them a drink of water and all that isn't just you know, a nice Christian thing to do, it's how did you treat the Jews? Okay?

Yeah, how did you treat the Jews is going to be the judgment question that Christ is going to have for the Gentiles. And there will be those who treated them with mercy and grace, and the Lord will bless that. There will also be those who oppose them, and the Lord will not bless that. It will be cursed. It will cost them.

Okay, we've just about run out of time, so let me move on. I'm on page 7. Now, learn the parable of the fig tree. That's kind of the next part there. When its branch has already become tender and puts forth its leaves, you know that summer is near. So you too, when you see these things, recognize that he is near, right at the door.

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." This generation phrase is one about which there's been a great deal of discussion. What I lay out here is some of the different views on, you know, means this, means that. What I would suggest to you is that the first four of those are not the correct answers. This generation refers to the generation there in the time of the Tribulation period.

It is used, the same Greek word is used for a generation of another time in Hebrews 3.10, so it's used that way. This generation refers to a people of a different time. What's he telling us there?

This seven-year period of time is to be taken literally. It's one brief seven-year period of time. There are those who look upon the description of the Tribulation Period as just kind of the difficulties that Christians go through during the Church Age. And it's spread out over the centuries. What Jesus is saying here, no, this entire generation here is going to be experiencing the seven-year period of tribulation.

It's not spread out over time. The seven years are to be taken literally, not figuratively. So that generation of Jews will be the ones who will go through this and the ones surviving to the end will be saved and will be the Jews who populate the Millennial Kingdom. So in the end, all Israel will be saved. All those who believe. Believing Israel will be saved.

As Paul says in Romans 11.26, all Israel will be saved. But earlier in Romans, he clarifies that all Israel is only those who believe. All of the Jews surviving to the end will be those who believe. and all of them will be saved and continue into the Millennial Kingdom. Okay.

Then he says, Heaven and Earth will pass away, but my words will not pass away. The Heaven and Earth will pass away, we'll get into that in the last few chapters of Revelation. But he says, my words will not pass away. What does he mean by that? They're true. Okay. First the words are true. What else? Yeah, they're good for all time.

They are not just true for now, they're true eternally. When this whole heaven and earth that we're currently standing in and physically composed of, when this all vaporizes and disappears, His words will still stand. He is indeed telling us the truth. His words will stand on into eternity. Let's break or run out of time here.

Thank you, Lord, for just what you've revealed. Thank you that even as we look at what you told your disciples and John was there listening, that that is consistent with what we see in the book of Revelation as well. We thank you for your consistency because you are indeed faithful, you are unchanging, you are true forever. We can count upon you. Thank you in Jesus' name. Amen.