HG139pt2 Matthew 24:3-8, Mark 13:3-8, Luke 21:7-11 Signs of the times
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1 Jesus left the temple and was going away, when his disciples came to point out to him the buildings of the temple. 2 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.”
3 As he sat 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 end of the age?” 4 And Jesus answered them, “See that no one leads you astray. 5 For many will come in my name, saying, ‘I am the Christ,’ and they will lead many astray. 6 And you will hear of wars and rumors of wars. See that you are not alarmed, for this must take place, but the end is not yet. 7 For nation will rise against nation, and kingdom against kingdom, and there will be famines and earthquakes in various places. 8 All these are but the beginning of the birth pains.
9 “Then they will deliver you up to tribulation and put you to death, and you will be hated by all nations for my name’s sake. 10 And then many will fall away and betray one another and hate one another. 11 And many false prophets will arise and lead many astray. 12 And because lawlessness will be increased, the love of many will grow cold. 13 But the one who endures to the end will be saved. 14 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.
This morning we started the “Olivet Discourse”, which is Jesus’ sermon about His Second Coming and what is going to happen in the meantime. We heard about a prophecy that was fulfilled with the Temple and its stones being thrown down in AD70.
Then we found out the disciples were mistaken about how things were going to turn out. It was understandable for the Old Testament prophecies of which there are 1200 concerning the Messiah and His coming conflates His first and second advents, that is, when reading the prophecies you would not know that there are two advents as it describes them together with no separation of time.
A good example of this is found in Isaiah 61 and was quoted by Jesus in Luke 4:
1 “The Spirit of the Lord God is upon Me,
Because the Lord has anointed Me
To preach good tidings to the poor;
He has sent Me to heal the brokenhearted,
To proclaim liberty to the captives,
And the opening of the prison to those who are bound;
2 To proclaim the acceptable year of the Lord,
And the day of vengeance of our God;
To comfort all who mourn,
Jesus stops mid way through verse 2 because that was all that related to His present ministry, His first advent. But the second part of verse 2 relates to Jesus second advent when He returns with great might and power and judgement. Imagine reading that before Jesus turns up the first time - you would think it is one event not two.
It is only after the resurrection and ascension that the disciples realise that there is going to be an indeterminable time difference which only God knows.
Let me repeat the one consensus among Christians: Jesus is coming back and He wins!
Before then there is going to be great troubles in what is called the ‘Tribulation’ also known in Jeremiah as ‘Jacob’s Trouble’ for it is a time of purifying the Jews for the return of Jesus but will also be a time of judgement upon the whole world in the hope that people will repent.
This is Jesus’ teaching on it but we will look at other passages of Scripture to help us along the way. Whilst the first and second advent was prophesied 1200 times in the Old Testament there are a further 300 or so prophesies in the New relating to the second return of Jesus. Scripture thinks that this is an important subject for it should challenge us to reach the lost and to lead holy and godly lives whilst looking forward to the time Jesus will take us to be with Him.
1. Deceptions -
So, let us turn to verse 4-5. There will arise false Christs.
First let us look at what it says in verse 8. Here it says that these are the beginning of birth pains. When the waters break then there is a gradual increase in contractions and an increase is pain and and the time in between gets faster and faster and more and more painful until the actual birth takes place. This is what we need to understand.
How do we apply this, then? Well up until verse 14 things are slow but gradually increasing but afterwards it is one thing after another in quick succession. Here in verses four and five we see false Christs and we know that there are a number about. From history we know that there were a couple in the first century, one in the tenth, ten in the nineteenth, twenty in the twentieth, and there are presently fifteen popular ones alive right now. However, over 1100 people in the last 50 years have claimed to be the Christ.
Jesus says take heed you do not get deceived. Don’t even be curious about these people for they are deceivers. This whole passage, though, is about the tribulation which will last for 7 years and when this starts all sorts of people are going to come out of the woodwork and say: “Hey, I’m the Saviour!” and lots of people will follow them. And in this time it will start of slow but then there will be a flood of these people. Why?
Before all this starts the Church will be raptured to be with Christ and celebrate the wedding feast of the lamb. When this happens all hell will break lose on the earth for there will be nothing to hold them back. We will not deal with this subject specifically today but it is God’s way to remove His people out of the way of judgement, look at Noah and the Ark, look at Lot and Sodom and Gomorrah. Before judgement was meted out God made a way of escape for those who are His people. It is because this tribulation is a time of judgement that the Church will be protected and removed from the scene.
And as soon as this happens everything will go to pot. There will be economic collapse, social disintegration, people out of control, things happening in the world they cannot fathom and it is no wonder, then, that false messiahs will arise and claim to have answers for the world’s ills. But there will be one who will rise to the head of the pack.
2 . Divisions
Then in verses six and seven we find division breaks out, continual wars and rumours of wars, and kingdoms will rising against each other. We think it has been bad here in the past with the world wars but the tribulation will set the scene for war on an unimaginable scale.
Then there is this little state of Israel.
We already know of the hatred of the Palestinians and Iran who speak openly about the destruction of Israel by pushing it into the sea. They are in for a rude awakening for it will not happen. And other nations are continually against Israel. The UN, the representatives of the world, condemn Israel more often than all the other nations put together despite massacres and human rights abuses in other nations. Israel is a hated nation and Jews are a hated race. And antisemitism is on the rise in our own nation and helped along, dare I say, with certain politicians giving platforms to and standing alongside out and out antisemites with no condemnation of their behaviour or their words. They would rather talk to terrorists than to other politicians who they disagree with. No wonder people condemn pop stars or other celebrities for holding events in Israel, the only truly democratic nation in the Middle East. Why the hatred? Is it because God still has a plan for these people? And I will return to this study another time by looking especially at Romans 9-11.
Now, I am not like others, who say Israel should not be criticised or governments should not be held to account. That’s ridiculous. These are far from perfect people for most still reject Christ, they still have the largest pride marches in the world and so on but they are truly zealous for God in many ways. Let’s be fair in our judgements and not too quick to jump to conclusions or condemnation. We have to remember Satan hates the Jews and that is evidential in the way he inspired Hitler and others to decimate them. And history is going to repeat itself only it will be even worse than anything before. All nations will hate Israel and, in time, will come to fight against Israel including present allies like America who said yesterday “we will always support Israel” this is a lie according to:
2 For I will gather all the nations against Jerusalem to battle, and the city shall be taken and the houses plundered and the women raped. Half of the city shall go out into exile, but the rest of the people shall not be cut off from the city.
And it seems that Israel are looking for someone to lead them, they will believe a man to have been sent from God but, in fact, he will have been sent by Satan, who will make a seven year peace deal with Israel. Unfortunately, he is the Antichrist. They will think he is their Messiah. He will be the leader of a unified European Empire based on the old Roman Empire. Daniel and Revelation speak of this man who comes in underhandedly as a man of peace and so it will seem for 3 and a half years. We read of his betrayal in
27 Then he shall confirm a covenant with many for one week;
But in the middle of the week
He shall bring an end to sacrifice and offering.
And on the wing of abominations shall be one who makes desolate,
Even until the consummation, which is determined,
Is poured out on the desolate.”
2 And I looked, and behold, a white horse. He who sat on it had a bow; and a crown was given to him, and he went out conquering and to conquer.
He will be a Christ imitator. Notice he does not have any arrows just a bow yet he conquers. He conquers the kingdoms of Europe, conquers Israel and because of it conquers the world through peace for 3.5 years. Then through sheer brutality the next 3.5 years.
23 “And in the latter time of their kingdom,
When the transgressors have reached their fullness,
A king shall arise,
Having fierce features,
Who understands sinister schemes.
24 His power shall be mighty, but not by his own power;
He shall destroy fearfully,
And shall prosper and thrive;
He shall destroy the mighty, and also the holy people.
25 “Through his cunning
He shall cause deceit to prosper under his rule;
And he shall exalt himself in his heart.
He shall destroy many in their prosperity.
He shall even rise against the Prince of princes;
But he shall be broken without human means.
This man, this antichrist, will be Satan incarnate, filled with him, he is called the man of sin, the man of perdition, the beast, the little horn and he will be skilled in deceit. We know, of course, that he will not be ultimate winner in all this. He shall receive his punishment in full in due time.
But the day of the Lord will not come until Antichrist has reigned:
3 Let no one deceive you by any means; for that Day will not come unless the falling away comes first, and the man of sin is revealed, the son of perdition,
3. Disasters
What follows all this are a series of disasters. The first one mentioned is famine. Revelation chapter 6 is the parallel passage to the things Jesus says. So in verses
5 When the Lamb opened the third seal, I heard the third living creature say, “Come!” I looked, and there before me was a black horse! Its rider was holding a pair of scales in his hand. 6 Then I heard what sounded like a voice among the four living creatures, saying, “Two pounds of wheat for a day’s wages, and six pounds of barley for a day’s wages, and do not damage the oil and the wine!”
We have seen famine and there has always been famine but not like what is to come. The food supply will be 1/8th of what it was. A loaf of bread will cost £60 in today’s money. The so-called luxury items of oil and wine only the rich can afford to have. Who will be able to afford to run a car, then?
The word pestilence here is disease. There will be a pandemic. We already know that antibiotics are being resisted by certain strains of disease so this is not a far stretch of the imagination. In 1918 there was something called the ‘Spanish flu’ that killed up to 50m people - 1 in 3 people on the planet were infected. What is coming is going to be a whole lot worse:
8 So I looked, and behold, a pale horse. And the name of him who sat on it was Death, and Hades followed with him. And power was given to them over a fourth of the earth, to kill with sword, with hunger, with death, and by the beasts of the earth.
The pale horse has always been denoted as disease. Indeed, if we say you look pale today we are saying someone doesn’t look well. Well, this time it will not be 1 in 10 who die but 1 in 4. Today, that would make nearly 2 billion people dying as a result.
Lastly, we have earthquakes mentioned and need I remind you of 2004 and the tsunami that result from a 9.1 magnitude or the 2011 9.0 magnitude one off the coast of Japan with a 133ft (12 stories - 4 times higher than a house) high tsunami or the one in 2009 in Nepal that moved Mount Everest 3cm . But there are worse ones to come:
19 The earth is violently broken,
The earth is split open,
The earth is shaken exceedingly.
20 The earth shall reel to and fro like a drunkard,
And shall totter like a hut;
Its transgression shall be heavy upon it,
And it will fall, and not rise again.
Some think that this will get the earth off its rotation from the description.
12 I looked when He opened the sixth seal, and behold, there was a great earthquake; and the sun became black as sackcloth of hair, and the moon became like blood.
But note again what it says here. This is just the beginning. These things are not the end but the beginning of the end. This will cause real cataclysmic climate change. As Christians we do not need to be troubled or fearful. The world will get its just due for rejecting Christ but we shall be rejoicing in Heaven at the time. The opportunity to repent will still be there but, incomprehensibly, very few be saved, though everyone, and I mean everyone will know God is real and judging them.
Our job is tell people there is a way of escape and to live in ready expectation in holiness and godliness for the return of the Lord. God willing, we shall return next Sunday morning to the next few verses.
Communion
Communion
Till He comes we celebrate this meal until we see Him for ourselves with the nail prints in His hands and feet and the hole in his side and the marks of the crown on His head - the evidence of His love for us and for the world He died to save. We have come to faith in Him, trusting that the work of the cross is enough for us to get to Heaven, that the penalty for all our sin was paid in full. Jesus’ hands are open to all who would come in but to reject Him is to invite God’s judgement for we are saying I can pay the price for my sin. This is not necessary for Jesus made a way to pay a price that would take eternity to do so. Our creator allowed Himself to be tortured and put to death on our behalf. He did not just die and be buried but rose again to prove death and hell had been defeated. And He will return to take us home wishing He could take everyone.
23 For I received from the Lord that which I also delivered to you: that the Lord Jesus on the same night in which He was betrayed took bread; 24 and when He had given thanks, He broke it and said, “Take, eat; this is My body which is broken for you; do this in remembrance of Me.” 25 In the same manner He also took the cup after supper, saying, “This cup is the new covenant in My blood. This do, as often as you drink it, in remembrance of Me.”
26 For as often as you eat this bread and drink this cup, you proclaim the Lord’s death till He comes.
Benediction
Benediction
11 For the grace of God that brings salvation has appeared to all men, 12 teaching us that, denying ungodliness and worldly lusts, we should live soberly, righteously, and godly in the present age, 13 looking for the blessed hope and glorious appearing of our great God and Savior Jesus Christ, 14 who gave Himself for us, that He might redeem us from every lawless deed and purify for Himself His own special people, zealous for good works.
Bibliography
Bibliography
Carr, A. (2015). The Sermon Notebook: New Testament. Lenoir, NC: Alan Carr.
Davies, W. D., & Allison, D. C., Jr. (2004). A critical and exegetical commentary on the Gospel according to Saint Matthew (Vol. 3). London; New York: T&T Clark International.
Elwell, W. A. (1995). Evangelical Commentary on the Bible (Vol. 3). Grand Rapids, MI: Baker Book House.
Geisler, N. L. (2005). Systematic theology, volume four: church, last things. Minneapolis, MN: Bethany House Publishers.
Grudem, W. A. (2004). Systematic theology: an introduction to biblical doctrine. Leicester, England; Grand Rapids, MI: Inter-Varsity Press; Zondervan Pub. House.
MacArthur, J. F., Jr. (2014). John MacArthur Sermon Archive. Panorama City, CA: Grace to You.
McCune, R. (2010). A Systematic Theology of Biblical Christianity: The Doctrines of Salvation, the Church, and Last Things (Vol. 3). Allen Park, MI: Detroit Baptist Theological Seminary.
O’Donnell, D. S. (2013). Matthew: All Authority in Heaven and on Earth. (R. K. Hughes, Ed.). Wheaton, IL: Crossway.
Rogers, A. (2017). Adrian Rogers Sermon Archive. Signal Hill, CA: Rogers Family Trust.
Exported from Logos Bible Software, 09:49 06 October 2019.