Law & Grace - Matthew 24:1-31 Tribulation & 2nd Coming - Part I

Good morning. We are going to be going through actually a series over these next few weeks today and next Sunday. We'll be looking at Matthew 24 and we're titling it Tribulation and Second Coming. Those are the events that are addressed in chapter 24. And then we'll move on for the next Sundays into chapter 25, which talk about the judgment of those at the end of the tribulation period and before the beginning of the kingdom. We're calling it kingdom judging.

And so that will be the series that we'll be stepping our way through here over the next four weeks beginning today. Just as we pointed out last week, the things that are recorded in chapters 23 and 24 took place on Tuesday of what's typically called Passion Week. It would be just a few days before Christ would be crucified and buried and resurrected. Now, this chapter here is talking about what's coming sooner and later. We'll talk about what that means here.

They have to do with the people and the land of Israel, specifically those. And Jesus says, you to the disciples in this context, as representatives of the people of the land of Israel. So he speaks in a you, not specifically referring to the disciples themselves. They, in fact, are going to have a different future. They will all, except for John, die a martyr's death and will not personally go through these. So when he says, you, in this passage, he is speaking of them as representatives of the Jews living in the land of Israel. Jesus answers the disciples' questions in this passage. And in doing so, he is telling his disciples about what's going to take place with the people and the land of Israel in the near and in the more distant future, both.

Now, I have here a slide, and it's also on page one of your handout. With verse one particularly translated so that it carries out the Greek sense, Jesus having gone out from the temple in other words They had just left the temple area was going away when his disciples came up to point out the temple buildings to him you can imagine as the you know walked away from the temple is just boy this impressive structure and They were looking at it And so they were pointing it out to Jesus and I imagine saying wow did you see that man that is really amazing? What a structure What is phenomenal is that the history of the temple that we know Indicates that it was awesome, and we'll talk about that in a minute But 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 that must have stunned them whoa and So Jesus and his disciples had left the temple. They were walking back to the east toward Bethany. They were leaving Jerusalem, headed towards Bethany, just over the back side of the Mount of Olives. And as they were doing that, they looked back at the temple. They had quite a view.

This would be kind of an oblique aerial view of the temple. And what you see is the temple courtyard That courtyard there is about the size of six football fields. Okay, soccer fields if you prefer that. About the size of six football or soccer fields. And that was the larger courtyard. You have, of course, the inner temple, the structure in the middle.

And that was a structure Gentiles were not allowed to go. They were not permitted to go. There was across the valley there in front of it a bridge at the time. There isn't one now, but there was a bridge at the time and you can imagine Jesus and his disciples getting partway out on that bridge and kind of looking back at the temple structure and being rather astounded at what they saw.

This was the second temple, the first one being built under Solomon. This was the second one, but since 20 BC it had been undergoing upgrades that began under Herod the Great, who was not so great, right? And the upgrades were taking place on an active temple. That is, they had to go and do these various upgrades while the temple was in use.

A little bit tricky. Now, the middle part of the temple, which we'll take a closer look at in a bit, the middle part of the temple had to be upgraded by Levites, not by regular craftsmen, because it was an active temple. And so they trained the Levites in the various skills necessary because nobody else was supposed to go in there. So this is a kind of a closer look at the same view there. Now, off at the one corner, you'll notice there is, let me point it out, there is here, that's the temple.

At that end of the temple, that's the Fortress Antonia. That's the fortress where Jesus was sentenced and at first beaten. Now, these were impressive buildings. Looking at the middle part of the temple, a little more close up, Jesus told them that these stones would be torn down completely.

And this was quite a structure. At the top there, you'll see kind of peaked structure at the very top of that building. What they did is they said, well, we want to make it attractive, but we also want it to keep unclean birds from landing on it. So they had gold spikes, OK? If you can imagine that, because they didn't want bad birds, ones that were not allowed to be landing on such a structure so holy as this.

The upgrades to the temple took place all during the lifetime of Jesus on the earth. They had been begun before, and they went on for decades afterwards. In the early 60s, and I'm not talking 1960s, right? In the early 60s AD, The temple was completed and then only years later, in 70 AD, it was completely destroyed. What Jesus had just told the disciples, in fact, took place. Not one stone was left upon another.

Here's an artist's depiction of the Roman attack on Jerusalem in 70 AD. In the end, over a million Jews died in that conflagration. Here is what is commonly called the Wailing Wall. Actually, the Jews prefer that it not be called that, but the Western Wall. It is the Temple Mount Edge structure, retaining wall, if you will, that was built under this upgrade that Herod had begun.

And if we look at that, and then off to the right, a little farther down, In this area, at the bottom, you see those stones that look like rubble? That's the leftovers of the temple. A lot of it has been cleaned up, but they left some of it so that people could see what was there. Here's a little bit more close-up of the rubble. The Romans did, in fact, dump all the stones off the edge.

Not one stone was left upon another, exactly as Jesus had told the disciples would take place. So here in verse 3, and as he was sitting on the Mount of Olives, so they've gone across the bridge now and sitting at the Mount of Olives and now looking back at the temple, looking back at Jerusalem.

From there, the disciples came to him privately saying, tell us, when will these things happen? What will be the sign of your coming and of the end of the age? So three questions are being asked here. The disciples ask these three, when will these things happen? First question. We want a timing answer. What will be the sign of your coming? In other words, you're looking at him as the Messiah coming to begin the kingdom. And implied in that, because it's a double question, and what will be the sign of the end of the age?

And in reality, those last two questions have the same answer. And the reason is this. They refer to the same event because the Jews, and we even find this throughout the New Testament, the Jews spoke of this present age from the time of Adam's fall up until the time of the coming of the Messiah as this present evil age.

That's Galatians 1.4. This present evil age. So from the time Adam sinned until the time of the Messiah comes, that's the present evil age or this age. And when the Messiah comes, that's the age to come, right? That's the end of the present evil age.

And so we'll find that pattern in Matthew 12.32, Ephesians 1.21, Hebrews 6.5, and then some similar references in other places such as Galatians 1.4. So really, what's the Going back to the questions here, what will be the sign of your coming and of the end of the age? Those are the same questions. Now, here you have a timeline and what it shows is Christ's first coming and following that Acts 2 is the beginning of the church age.

And then right prior to the beginning of the Tribulation, the Rapture, is the end of the Church Age. The Tribulation being a seven-year period of time. We'll talk about that some more. And then the Millennial Kingdom following that. And after that, a new heavens and a new earth. And I think your bulletin has a verse quote where Peter writes about a new heaven and a new earth and our expectation of it.

Now the Jews already believed in a seven-year tribulation period and at the end of that the Messiah would come. Now what's interesting is that Orthodox Jews even now believe that. Even now believe exactly that. So there was the expectation and is among Orthodox Jews a continuing expectation of this future seven-year period in which there is great difficulty for Israel at the end of which the Messiah will come.

To put it in the context of this age and the age to come this would be the present evil age all the time up to the time of the Messiah's coming and the age to come the time when the Messiah comes and after that Messiah times. The first thing that Jesus says The first thing that Jesus says in answering the disciple's question, He doesn't start saying, okay, here's your first answer, there's your next answer. What does He say?

See to it that no one misleads you. How about that? See to it that no one misleads you. Before I answer any questions, you need to know that. Being misled in these matters is apparently a major hazard, even one so great that it precedes and is of such great importance that it's before answering any of the questions. Being misled is going to be a major risk. Jesus' statement also implies that there will be people who will be doing the misleading, and in fact that's the problem. The hazard, many will come in Christ's name claiming to be the Messiah. It's kind of a different version of pick me, pick me, right? Many will come making that claim. So that's the first thing that he says.

Of this passage, verses 4 through 14, there are three interpretations. They're not all correct. we would operate by this principle, God inspired his word to communicate a specific meaning to each passage. You will oftentimes have numerous interpretations out there, only one of them is correct. Hopefully at least there's one correct interpretation, right?

Among those who interpret the Bible literally, One is that what is described in these verses is entirely before the Tribulation period. The second interpretation is part of its before and part of its afterwards, after the beginning of the Tribulation period.

And number three is entirely. These verses land entirely during this seven-year Tribulation period. And we would say that the third one is correct for a few different reasons. And that being mostly during the first half of the seven-year tribulation period.

So why only that view, you might ask? Well, I'm glad you asked. Matthew 24 here focuses on the Jews and the land of Israel. We'll see that in the language as we go through it. in the words, in the audience that it talks to, and in its geographical context.

It never refers to the church in this context, the body of Christ, and that's because the church will have been raptured before the seven-year tribulation period, and every event in Matthew 24, 4-14, and the parallel passages, which we'll list shortly, and Mark and Luke corresponds to the Revelation 6 seal judgments that begin the seven year tribulation period.

So you have this chart here which takes up about half a page on page 2 of your handout. It shows the parallels between Revelation chapter 6 and it gives for each item the verse numbers. and those in Matthew 24 and the parallel passages in Mark 13 and Luke 21. One of the things that you'll notice in this is that for each item listed in Revelation chapter 6, the account given in Luke 21 has a corresponding event for each one. And so Revelation 6 and Luke 21 are both complete listings. Matthew 24 that we're going through now and Mark 13 are a little bit short of the complete listing that we see in Revelation 6 and Luke 21. Also, and I was going to offer a supplemental handout that includes this chart, and I'm told before the service even started they're all gone, so I'll get some more out there, okay?

Nonetheless, the first The first judgments, the sealed judgments, are what Jesus describes, and those all take place during the Tribulation period. Now, there's this term, birth pangs, that gets used in here in Matthew 24, 8, and by also the Apostle Paul in 1 Thessalonians 5, 3. It was not just, however, a biblical term, it was also a term used in other Jewish literature when they described the Tribulation period. That's another reason for considering that this is simply referring to tribulation and not sometime before.

There is a book written by a Jewish scholar, he's passed away a decade and a half ago, but Rafael Patai, and in his quote of the Jewish Talmud, which is a collection of Jewish traditional writings, he wrote these words. 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. Now, in talking sometime back to my rabbi friend, as he and I were talking about this, He said, we will want to ask the Messiah when he comes.

Is this your first or your second time? Here, right? Now, this verse is one that is commonly misunderstood, so let's not misunderstand it. And let's heed Jesus' warning and see that no one misleads us, right? The one who endures to the end, he will be saved. Now, does that mean that I've got to be faithful and never stumble? Or I'm going to croak and be gone and not be saved? Is that what that means? Well, no, it doesn't. Okay. This saved isn't used in the sense of believe in the Lord Jesus Christ and you'll be saved. It's not used in that sense.

Rather, the Jewish concept of being rescued from horrific and threatening circumstances. That's what's intended here. More the use of the word rescue would probably be the way to think of it. This is reflected in Old Testament passages and I've just listed a few of them in the books of Moses, Genesis 19, 20, 47, 25, Exodus 14, 30, and on into Deuteronomy and then Judges here. Actually that use of saved continues on in the Old Testament. It is used rather commonly. So that's the usage that's intended here. It's more of a rescue type message. So we might say, he who endures to the end of the tribulation period will be rescued is kind of the sense there that Jesus is actually intending to get across.

And then this one, this gospel of the kingdom shall be preached in the whole world. You'll recall that the Gospel of the Kingdom is not the same as the Gospel of Christ dying as our substitute, all of God's grace. The Gospel of the Kingdom is not the same Gospel. So there are two Gospels. As a matter of fact, the Gospel of the Kingdom and the Gospel of substitution, the Gospel of Christ dying for our sins, both of those are communicated from Genesis to Revelation as separate Gospels. even preached in parallel during the book of Acts, all the way to the last verses of the book of Acts. This gospel of the kingdom is the one that Christ and the twelve disciples only preach to the people of Israel in the land of Israel.

And so one of the contrasts that I think Jesus is making when he makes this statement is he sent the disciples out two by two, right? And when he did that, what did he do? He says, go only to the lost sheep of the house of Israel. Don't even go on a road that leads to the Gentiles. That's what he says in Matthew chapter 10. In chapter 15, Jesus says, I was sent only to the lost sheep of the house of Israel.

The contrast is that during this coming tribulation period, the gospel of the kingdom will not be limited simply to the land of Israel, it will be preached to the entire world. During the tribulation period, the gospel of the kingdom will be preached worldwide by three primary agents, 144,000 Jewish males, two witnesses for the first half of the tribulation period, and a gospel angel who goes about up in the atmosphere and spreading it that way. Those three agents will be the ones who will be preaching the gospel of the kingdom during the tribulation period. Christ is called the Lamb throughout the tribulation period, and there are people who are saved, however, in the tribulation period who die before the kingdom begins. There will, in fact, be a preaching of the gospel of substitution, but so far the disciples don't understand what that is. So that's why he puts the focus, I think, on the gospel of the kingdom here. There will be people who will believe that Christ died for their sins and was buried and rose again and they will be saved.

So that is going to be happening too. Now, in this passage, we're now into verse 15 through 28, Jesus makes reference to the prophet Daniel. And in doing so, he talks about what's called the abomination of desolation in the holy place. Let's talk about what that means.

Here is a more close-up picture, kind of looking at an angle from an aerial view, into the inner part of the temple. In the front part is the area where qualified Jews, male and female, could enter into that front area. It is that front area where you read about Jesus telling of, here's the One fellow who says, thank you, Lord, that I'm so holy and so good. And then here is the tax collector saying, Lord, have mercy on me. That area. That is also the area where the widow gave her mites, right? The small coins that she put in the offering. So this is an area where they would gather.

Going through that doorway, however, in the middle, went into the area where only the priests were operating and qualified Jewish males could go through there to deal with the sacrifices. So in that area, in the back part of it, that building that you see standing up taller, that is what we call the Holy Place and the Holy of Holies. You have this on your handout in order to serve as a map, and it's this top part that we're focusing on here to answer the question about what Jesus is talking about.

Here is the Holy Place, the front part of that larger building that you see and the doorway. The veil that was torn on the day Jesus was crucified is that veil between the holy place and the holy of holies. That was torn on the day Christ was crucified, but it's the place in front of that veil that Jesus is referring to. The abomination of desolation in the holy place is a pagan and therefore ceremonially unclean sacrifice. that will happen there. So here is this temple, that's this doorway that you see right in the front. Right behind that doorway is the holy place. Since Jesus already said that the present temple will be completely destroyed, what does this imply?

It implies there will be a third temple built that will be used during the tribulation period. and Daniel 9, 24 through 27, Matthew 24, and Revelation all present a consistent picture of the Tribulation period, when properly understood anyway. You have this chart on page 3 that shows the Tribulation period, the first half, three and a half years, and the second half, three and a half years. Daniel 9, 27, the second half of the verse, addresses this abomination of desolation that breaks the middle of the tribulation period and ends the use of the temple for the last three and a half years. Matthew 24, 4-14 addresses the first half of that tribulation period as does Revelation 6, 1-17 and chapter 7. This second half addresses the passage that we're looking at now, Matthew 24, 15-28, and then Revelation chapter 12, 6-17, and chapter 13. So this is the layout that we get from Daniel, this is the layout that we get from the book of Matthew, and we also get from Revelation. Interestingly enough, if you were to ask a conservative Jew, or actually Orthodox Jew, Is this what you believe is the case? They would say yes. Their name for the Antichrist is Armilus. But yes, they believe this.

Now, three warnings are given by Jesus. One is a direction of what you must do. The next two are a you must not. And the warnings go like this. Jesus gives the Jews three warnings in the passage. Then those, verse 16, who are in Judea must flee to the mountains. Now, he then has double warnings about do not hesitate.

Do not hesitate. Whoever is on the housetop must not go down to get the things that are in his house. You don't have that long. Whoever is in the field must not turn back to get his cloak. You'd better run. You probably noticed at the top of this that the warning is directed to those in Judea in the land of Israel. I think it has to do with Israel. The Israelites in the land of Israel are told to flee to safety in the mountains without the slightest hesitation. Don't even go back for anything. Don't go inside the house to get anything. You don't have that long. Why would he give such warnings? It has to do with he who endures to the end. And if you want to endure to the end, you'd better heed his warning, right? Don't hesitate. Keep in mind, Don't let this make your heart start racing.

This is addressed to the Jews, right? It's those in Judea. Now, what's in this passage here is consistent with what we read in Revelation 12, 14a. The two wings of the great eagle were given to the woman, that's Israel, so that she could fly into the wilderness to her place. Matthew 24, 20. pray that your flight will not be in winter or on the Sabbath. There's another indication that this is addressed to Jews, right? Only Jews, of course, would be concerned about traveling on the Sabbath since they have a limitation of distance known as a Sabbath day's journey, about three-fifths of a mile.

Acts 1.12 makes reference to that. And that's about the distance out there to the Mount of Olives. We in the church are not under any such limitation. This is not addressed to us, since we're not under law, but under grace.

Now, a lot of people have heard about the Battle of Armageddon. As a matter of fact, it's gotten very distorted in terms of what people think when they hear Armageddon. It has nothing to do with Bruce Willis. Honestly, it has nothing to do with Bruce Willis, and it has nothing to do with great giant asteroids that you have to climb onto.

What we have here is a map of Israel and some of the areas surrounding in the Middle East. And we have it labeled, and it's about half page on page four of your handout, the Campaign of Armageddon. Because in fact, there are eight steps that will take place in certain sequence. They are outlined there on your handout.

The final part of that takes place in and around Israel, in Jerusalem specifically. And so it is that final victory ascent on the Mount of Olives that matches up exactly with what is told to the disciples. Once Jesus is ascended, he'll come back in the same way he left, and also to the same place. This is, in Jerusalem, the culmination of the campaign surrounding Armageddon.

The other thing that comes out of this passage, when Christ returns, it will be visible. His return, His second coming, will be visible to all on earth. He will be coming with the clouds, and we, at this point, will be with Him. Okay? We will be with Him. The second coming is not something we will be waiting for. We will be coming with Him.

Behold, He is coming with the clouds, and every eye will see Him, is what Revelation 1.7 says. It's consistent with the message that Jesus has here in Matthew 24. Every eye will see Him.

It will not be a matter of somebody saying, He's here, or He's over there, or come over here, you can see Him. No, that will not be the case. Anyone who says Christ is here or there, or you've got to come over here or see Him at this place, is either deceived or a liar. It's not going to happen.

When Christ comes at the end of his tribulation period, when he returns to earth, it will be something everyone will see and you and I will be with him. You have also this kind of listing where Jesus says in this passage, after the tribulation of those days. Some people have made the mistake, well, okay, we've got the tribulation period and now we've got the things here. But Jesus says, after the tribulation of those days, that is, after the early part of this tribulation period, and the tribulation that takes place in the first half of what we call the tribulation period, then these next things take place after that. That's what's intended.

The sun will be darkened, the moon will not give its light, stars will fall from the sky, and the powers of the heavens will be shaken. At the end of that, the sign of the Son of Man will appear, That is, coming in the clouds, right? All the tribes of the earth will mourn. Oh no, what is this? We are in deep yogurt, right? They will see the Son of Man coming in the clouds of the sky with power and great glory. It won't be a matter of, hey, did you hear about that thing in the sky?

No, it'll be like everybody looking. Everybody looking. It will be unmistakable. Here we have this chart again, and the seven bold judgments are what parallels what Jesus has just listed. When Christ will come to earth with the clouds of heaven, that will be visible to all, just like we've portrayed in an artistic sense here. It will be visible to everyone who can see.

He will come to reign as the King of Israel, the long-awaited Messiah, the Lion of Judah. He will reign as the King of Kings and Lord of Lords over all the Gentile nations. And by the way, that title, King of Kings and Lord of Lords, means over all the Gentile nations. It's specifically that. He will come with the angelic armies of heaven and us. You and me. God is managing all of history to the end that everything will be summed up in Christ.

That's Ephesians 1.10. See, all the things that are going on, this year we're in a year where we've got this double whammy. We've got the Summer Olympics and then we have the presidential election, right? And some people get really agitated when they start thinking about the election and all that.

The reality is, God's managing all of history. And you know, I can't tell you who's going to get elected to what this next fall, but I can tell you one thing. God is managing all of history to the end that everything will be summed up in Christ. He's doing that. He's in charge. Don't worry about it. The rapture, the catching up of the church precedes all these things.

We won't be here for the events that take place in the tribulation period. You'll notice that all of Jesus' addresses were about Israel and Judah, about the Jews and about their Sabbath, which is no concern of ours. All of us who have believed will be occupied with heavenly things during that time.

Knowing, and we will acknowledge this, that God is just, that He is a God of justice. And He is just and rightfully so will judge earth during that time. So we'll have, we ran out of this handout, but we'll have more of those available. And I can also email it to anybody who likes it, and that will have more printed up for next week.

The next person that we're to be anticipating should not be the Antichrist. The next person that we should be anticipating is Christ himself. You will find Christians get all preoccupied and really worked up trying to identify the Antichrist. And I've heard some real doozies for who the Antichrist is. Some of them are like impossible, right? But I've seen Christians get real worked up over this.

Don't do that. You don't need to do that. What you need to do is to look for Christ's coming. Do you know that the Bible says there's a crown? The Apostle Paul wrote this. There is a crown, a reward eternally for looking for His coming now. Okay? God really wants you to look for His coming. Not get all agitated over who's the Antichrist, right? We will not be anticipating the blessed, I hope so, but rather the blessed hope.

As Titus 2.13 says, looking for the blessed hope and the appearing of the glory of our great God and Savior, by the way, what does it say? Is Jesus God? Yes. That's the way specifically this is structured.

Our great God and Savior, Christ Jesus, looking for His appearing. Looking for that day. Anticipating that day. That's what God wants us to be preoccupied with. As we look at what the Lord has planned. He is going to sum up all things in Christ, and you and I will be there when Christ comes and returns. We'll be there with Him. But right now, our focus needs to be on Him. As a matter of fact, one way to look at it is keep beholding the Lord through His Word until the day you behold Him face to face. That would be the exhortation of Scripture.

What Jesus is describing in this chapter, and we'll continue to look at the rest of the chapter, next Sunday. But what Jesus is describing here is what's going to happen during this tribulation period and you and I won't be here. It's not for us to get all worked up about. You and I won't be here. It's not that we're exempt from trials. That's not going to happen. In fact, we're to rejoice when we encounter trials. It won't exempt us from trials, but it will exempt us from that time of the expression of God's wrath, which lasts seven years.

Let's go to the Lord. Lord, we thank you as we begin to look at this passage. Certainly, there are a lot of things that must have opened the disciples' eyes really wide as they listened to what Jesus was describing. And yet, Lord, as we look at that, we can say, yes, that's true. Yes, that will happen. Yes, that will take place.

And yet we have a blessed hope. A hope that the disciples would learn about later. Thank you for that blessed hope. Thank you that no matter what goes on here, that one day you will come for us. I pray that today is that day. I pray in Jesus' name. Amen.