Matthew 24:1-35

 

We have been reading through the Gospel According to Matthew and we are currently reading about Jesus’ final week, during Passover in Jerusalem. Today’s text in Matthew 24 contains a text that has become controversial in today’s theological discussions of the “end times.” I am sure many of you have heard the teachings on the end times involving the rapture, etc. This concept didn’t begin until the 19th Century by a theologian, John Nelson Darby and was promoted through the context of the Scofield Bible.

 

However, this view doesn’t take into account the original text and accept it for what it is, apocalyptic literature. Which means, it is a symbolic language. Because of this, it is going to be interpreted in lots of different ways by lots of different people through different periods of time. 

Val and I spent time at a Presbyterian church in Glendale California and the pastor at that time was going through the book of Revelations. His exploration came from this premise, that apocalyptic literature is symbolic and should be understood based on the symbols for which it was written. His interpretation did not agree with that of Hal Lindsay, who wrote The Late Great Planet Earth or Jim Jenkins and Tim LaHaye in their Left Behind fictional books and films. 

 

I am going to leave it up to you to decide which way you believe. We are reading a text with symbolic imagery. Whichever way we choose, I hope we can agree on the fundamentals of loving God and loving our neighbor. 

 

When we look at today’s Scripture, we read how Jesus helps answer the following questions: 

 

What does it look like to be a Christian in the midst of a crazy mixed up world?

 

What does Jesus want me to be and do when I hear about or see crazy things happening? 

 

How am I supposed to be intentional so I don’t fly into the extremes?

 

Jesus presents his answers in the context of the downfall of Jerusalem. We will see that Jesus does actually care how His disciples behave in a world that is out of control. 

And He provides specific guidance on how to do so in the Scripture we are reading today.

 

Quick review, we are at the point in the Gospel of Matthew where Jesus was in the temple having just confronted the religious leaders with their failures of leading God’s people. 

He has provided them with eight woes and we ended last week with Jesus actually weeping over the nation of Israel because they had been led astray and would soon be destroyed. The religious leaders on the other hand think Jesus is a rabble rouser and causing them nothing but trouble. They, in turn, were planning ways to have Him eliminated. 

 

In today’s Scripture Jesus and His disciples were leaving the temple and walking away when the disciples began commenting on the intensity and massiveness of the buildings around them. Mind you, the temple itself was over 35 acres and the stones used to create it were beyond huge. Not to mention all the other buildings within Jerusalem. The disciples were like country bumpkins walking through the city with their eyes straight up amazed by the buildings and their intensity. 

 

Jesus, however, doesn’t look up but responds with, 

verse 2,

“You’re not impressed by all this sheer size, are you? The truth of the matter is that there’s not a stone in that building that is not going to end up in a pile of rubble.”

Jesus had a heavy heart. He knew that within decades, the city of Jerusalem would be destroyed. The disciples dwell on this response and later, when Jesus was outside the city at the Mount of Olives, His disciples came to Him and questioned Him on when the destruction was going to happen and what sort of signs would appear that would tell them that Jesus would finally be taking His role as King. 

 

Notice, the disciples have given Jesus two questions:

1. When was the destruction of the temple going to happen?
2. What sort of signs would appear to let them know Jesus was going to take over and lead them to the end of the age? 

 

Okay, let’s get inside the heads of these disciples. 

What were they thinking? 

 

Well, Jesus has just predicted the destruction of the temple so they asked Him, When? 

When would that happen? 

Fair question. 

Finally Jesus was talking about destroying something. 

 

Their second question regarding Jesus’ coming had to do with their belief of what the Messiah was supposed to be doing. 

 

They wanted to know when Jesus was finally planning to behave like the Messiah and establish His kingdom and take over Rome and bring justice and peace and a rebirth of the universe. 

 

They wanted to know when they could expect such hope. 

 

So in their minds, the two questions were tied together. Jesus has told them that Jerusalem was to be destroyed. So that must mean Jesus is going to eventually take over the world and be the Messiah they expected Him to be. 

So when?

 

Jesus answers both questions. 

 

His answer to their first question, 

 

When was the destruction of the temple going to happen?

 

Begins with verse 4, all the way to verse 35. 

He actually gives them a definitive answer to the first question, in verse 34, with 

 

Truly I tell you, this generation will certainly not pass away until all these things have happened.

 

Generally, in Biblical times, a generation was considered to be around 40 years. Jesus had it pretty close as it happened with 37 years. 

 

He provides a clear answer to their second question as well, in verse 36, 

 

As far as when Jesus would return? 

He didn’t have a clue. 

In fact, no one knows, except the Father. 

We will explore this answer in depth later. 

 

Today we are going to focus on Jesus’ answer to the first question. Before I go on, I want to emphasize this particular section of Scripture has produced debate with scholars who are far more intelligent than me. I have done my share of reading and listening and have my point of view. I will also share with you why I have come up with what I believe. However, there are many who have a different point of view and I hope to be able to share some reasons why others believe the way they do. All to say, ultimately this passage is not about timelines and speculation. Jesus was giving pastoral guidance and wisdom to His disciples, of how they were supposed to live when the world is out of control. He was helping them establish a mindset that followers of Jesus should have during times of chaos. 

The manner in which Jesus goes about answering this question seems strange to us, because there are but a few of us in this room who are ethnically Jewish, and even today, many Jews are not immersed in the language of the prophets and the poetry of the prophets. But the disciples were. And Jesus himself was a good Jewish prophet. Jesus uses what scholars call, 

“Apocalyptic literature.” 

Which, by the way, doesn’t mean the “end of the world.” 

What it is, is a way of talking and writing that is full of imagery and symbolism. What they would do was look at events close to them in history, such as the fall of Jerusalem, and they would paint a verbal picture of this event within God’s cosmic purpose of the world to end evil and bring peace to nations. They would put all of this into one poem. So when you read it you are left thinking, “What is this? Is this about the fall of Jerusalem? Or is it about the fall of the world?” 

If you think that… you’re experiencing apocalyptic poetry. So, with that understanding, let’s go back to what Jesus has said and see what we get. 

 

Let’s begin with re-reading verse 4-8, 

 

Jesus answered: “Watch out that no one deceives you.  For many will come in my name, claiming, ‘I am the Messiah,’ and will deceive many.  You will hear of wars and rumors of wars, but see to it that you are not alarmed. Such things must happen, but the end is still to come. Nation will rise against nation, and kingdom against kingdom. There will be famines and earthquakes in various places. All these are the beginning of birth pains.

 

Okay, which question is Jesus answering? 

 

The first question the disciples asked, 

“When will the destruction of the buildings in Jerusalem happen?”

 

First, Jesus answers that life is going to get bad. There are going to be people who say, “Jesus of Nazareth, well, He is clearly the failed Messiah, He was crucified. He was a loser. No, I am the “real” Messiah.”  And we know from historical records that there were other people who claimed to be God's deliverer, the Messiah. Not only that, you will see wars, famine, and earthquakes. Notice Jesus’ advice to His disciples, 

 

“See to it that you are not alarmed.”

 

“Accept that the world is crazy. You are going to think it’s the end of the world, but I tell you it’s not.”

Not only is it not the end, Jesus provides an incredible metaphor of what it is, He describes it as “birth pains.” 

He describes the ways kingdoms work, the rise and fall of wars and the existence of natural disasters is like a woman in the pain of labor. This is an excellent metaphor because the pains of labor for a woman means the build up of “birth.” Jesus is describing the build up of a new birth for our world. All the destructive things that happen in our world, the prophets and poets describe, are a buildup of Jesus’ return, when the world will be re-born. 

Jesus was warning the disciples to not be alarmed, it’s just

the world, it’s how things work here. 

 

Verses 9 - 12,

“Then you will be handed over to be persecuted and put to death, and you will be hated by all nations because of me.  At that time many will turn away from the faith and will betray and hate each other, and many false prophets will appear and deceive many people. Because of the increase of wickedness, the love of most will grow cold, 

Okay, what question is Jesus still answering? 

 

The first question the disciples asked, 

“When will the destruction of the buildings in Jerusalem happen?”

 

At this point in Jesus' answer, we can read through the Book of Acts and see how the disciples went and declared Jesus as the King of the world. How did people respond to their announcement? Some people thought it was great news, but others thought it was ridiculous. Okay, think about it, these men had wandered for three years with this teacher, their teacher gets crucified, raised from the dead, has gone up into heaven and now they are wandering the world telling people to follow Him? 

Come on, this does sound a bit wacko. 

 

It does sound a bit strange, and if you can’t see how off the wall it may seem, try talking to one of your neighbors who doesn’t go to church. 

 

Look what happened to the disciples. They go out with this odd message and Jesus tells them three things are going to happen:

1. They will be pressured by those who are not a part of the movement. They will be hated, persecuted, even put to death.
2. There will also be destruction from within, there will be false prophets who claim to speak on behalf of Jesus and they get a following. But actually they have a hidden agenda and are trying to get people to follow them for false reasons. They are the ones looking for your credit card number. 
3. Finally, Jesus said due to wickedness, there will be apathy. The love of most will grow old. 

Jesus’ kingdom seems upside-down because humans just don’t want to give up their own desires. We are the ones who turn wrong into right. Jesus just described how that happens. For Jesus, the purpose of humans is about “love.” Love for God and love for our neighbor. But somehow that movement gets extinguished in the course of the rise and fall of human kingdoms. When we look at what Jesus is saying, we can see, 2000 years later, that life on earth has been this way continually. Not just in the lifetime of the disciples, but for every generation following. Jesus was certainly speaking like a prophet. 

 

Jesus provides two recommendations on what His disciples should be doing when such things happen…

First, verse 13, 

 

“but the one who stands firm to the end will be saved.” 

 

It’s about being an intentional disciple of Jesus. Realizing that there will be all types of distractions, 

• Persecution - people will make fun of me, 
• False prophets - there will be those who are extremists
• Apathy - I will sink down in all of the above 

But the ones who “endure” will be saved. Not the ones who are leading all their neighbors to Jesus, or the ones who give everything they have to others, No, Jesus says right here, “It’s the ones who hang on.” 

What does it mean to “hang on.” 

 

Loving the Lord their God and loving their neighbors. 

 

How encouraging! God knows that is about all we are capable of after all the distractions. 

 

Bring it home, what did we see in the news this week? Mass shootings, war in Ukraine, fires, storms? 

What am I supposed to do? 

Endure - love the Lord my God and my neighbor.

 

Jesus continues with verse 14, 

And this gospel of the kingdom will be preached in the whole world as a testimony to all nations, and then the end will come.

 

Jesus was telling his disciples, the destruction of Jerusalem was not the end. The gospel message was going to be taken to all the nations, all over the world before the end would come. 

 

How long is that going to take? 

 

Well, apparently at least 2000 years. In fact, when asked, Jesus said He had no idea when the end would come. However, He did provide us with marching orders. 

 

So when we begin looking at people and wondering if they are the antichrist or reading things as the answer to prophesies, 

that is giving into speculation and fear. 

 

But on the other hand, withdrawing and not caring about what is happening in the world is also not stepping up to our responsibility. 

 

Think about it, God cares about this world. That is the major theme of the Bible, how God cares for His world and has a plan to redeem and restore it. 

Therefore, we are called to 

> Stand firm 

> Bear witness to the good news of Jesus

 

That is the mindset we should cultivate every day.  Often easier said than done. But not impossible. In fact, just the opposite, it’s doable. God knows us. He realizes we are just humans and we need to keep it simple.  

 

This week, as the world offers us stories of destruction, to the environment, to our air quality, to education, to nations, to ________ you fill in the blank, God has called us to 

 

> Stand firm 

> Bear witness to the good news of Jesus

 

The Good News is that He has our back, He loves us, no matter what and seeks to have a relationship with us. No holds barred. That is freedom. Let’s stand firm in that.