As preached by Zach Thompson.
1) This age will be filled with distress, lawlessness, and false Christs (24:1-28).
2) Jesus will certainly return and this age will end (24:29-35).
3) But we don't know when he will return (24:36-44).
4) So wait for him with eager expectation (24:32-25:46).
Matthew 24-25
Good morning Christ Fellowship!
This morning, we are going to continue working through the book of Matthew. Today we will be looking at Matthew chapters 24 and 25.
Last time that we were in Matthew, we ended in chapter 23.
Jesus had just entered Jerusalem, and he was ultimately rejected by the religious leaders. And in chapter 23, Jesus pronounced woes against the Pharisees. He promised judgment on them for their hypocrisy.
And he ended that chapter with a lament. If you look in chapter 23:37–39:
“O Jerusalem, Jerusalem, the city that kills the prophets and stones those who are sent to it! How often would I have gathered your children together as a hen gathers her brood under her wings, and you were not willing! 38 See, your house is left to you desolate. 39 For I tell you, you will not see me again, until you say, ‘Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord.’”
Then, he left them. He left them to their judgment.
And that is where we start our text today.
If you’re able to, would you stand in honor of the reading of God’s word?
For our public reading, we will read Matthew chapter 24:1-35:
“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. 15 So when you see the abomination of desolation spoken of by the prophet Daniel, standing in the holy place (let the reader understand), 16 then let those who are in Judea flee to the mountains. 17 Let the one who is on the housetop not go down to take what is in his house, 18 and let the one who is in the field not turn back to take his cloak. 19 And alas for women who are pregnant and for those who are nursing infants in those days! 20 Pray that your flight may not be in winter or on a Sabbath. 21 For then there will be great tribulation, such as has not been from the beginning of the world until now, no, and never will be. 22 And if those days had not been cut short, no human being would be saved. But for the sake of the elect, those days will be cut short. 23 Then if anyone says to you, ‘Look, here is the Christ!’ or ‘There he is!’ Do not believe it. 24 For false Christs and false prophets will arise and perform great signs and wonders, so as to lead astray, if possible, even the elect. 25 See, I have told you beforehand. 26 So, if they say to you, ‘Look, he is in the wilderness,’ do not go out. If they say, ‘Look, he is in the inner rooms,’ do not believe it. 27 For as the lightning comes from the east and shines as far as the west, so will be the coming of the Son of Man. 28 Wherever the corpse is, there the vultures will gather. 29 Immediately after the tribulation of those days the sun will be darkened, and the moon will not give its light, and the stars will fall from heaven, and the powers of the heavens will be shaken. 30 Then will appear in heaven the sign of the Son of Man, and then all the tribes of the earth will mourn, and they will see the Son of Man coming on the clouds of heaven with power and great glory. 31 And he will send out his angels with a loud trumpet call, and they will gather his elect from the four winds, from one end of heaven to the other. 32 From the fig tree learn its lesson: as soon as its branch becomes tender and puts out its leaves, you know that summer is near. 33 So also, when you see all these things, you know that he is near, at the very gates. 34 Truly, I say to you, this generation will not pass away until all these things take place. 35 Heaven and earth will pass away, but my words will not pass away."
Let’s pray.
In 1776, George Washington led the first battles of the American Revolution. By 1777, it was clear that they were facing a foe that was beyond them. And that foe was not the British army. It was smallpox. They were losing more men to disease than they were to battle.
And Washington had to make a controversial decision. He decided to inoculate his entire army against smallpox. Vaccines were not as safe in those days. So there was a high likelihood that men would die because of a vaccine going wrong, but if they didn’t deal with it, then smallpox could slowly destroy the army.
In war, pestilence and disease are common, and it was only a matter of time before everyone in the army was exposed and affected by smallpox. It could devastate the army.
So, they took the gamble. They inoculated the entire army, and not a single unit was incapacitated because of the inoculation. And as a result, the army was able to operate without fear of smallpox in the ranks.
In our text today, Jesus is inoculating his troops against a particular type of infection. He inoculates his troops by telling them what will happen so that when it happens, they will be prepared for it.
He wanted them to be prepared for the day when false prophets come. He wanted them to be prepared for the day when they would be tempted to be complacent. He wanted them to be prepared for the day when they doubted whether Jesus would really return.
He wanted to shape vigilance and diligence in them, so that in the day of trial, they would continue on, knowing that on the final day, they would hear from the Lord, “You are mine. Enter into my rest.”
He wanted them to be prepared for the day that he returns to take his own to himself.
As I was preparing this sermon, I kept having lyrics pop into my head. It was this 90’s song called “People Get Ready…Jesus Is Comin'.”
“People Get Ready, Jesus is Comin', Soon we’ll be going home!”
I went back and listened to it in all of its 90’s contemporary Christian glory, and it was…painful to listen to. So I turned it off, and I went to read the lyrics, and the words are actually really great. You should go read the lyrics sometime. I think I’ve only ever heard the chorus of that song.
But I think that this is what God wants for us today. He wants us to be reminded of this reality. That Jesus is coming back. So get ready. Get inoculated against the lies of the enemy, and get ready for the return of Jesus.
In our text, Jesus begins this inoculation by telling the disciples that Jerusalem would fall and that the temple would be destroyed.
That’s in verse two of what we read for our public reading.
“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.”
Then, the disciples ask two very natural questions.
That’s in verse 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?”
And so begins the Olivet discourse. It’s called this because it happened as he sat on the Mount of Olives.
The disciples ask two questions here. Most people agree that as the disciples ask this, they probably think that they’re asking about a single reality. They think that the destruction of the temple and the end of the age are the same thing, but they ask two separate questions, and Jesus answers them as two separate questions.
When will these things be? And what will be the sign of your coming and of the end of the age?
Jesus answers their question about the temple, but he takes the opportunity to address much more.
He does this because he wants to prepare them for days to come when he is not with them. He wants to inoculate them against the days that would come.
And we need the same inoculation. We need the same warnings and preparation for days and times that are yet ahead of us.
Before we start working through the text, let me just point out the flow of our text today.
The disciples ask this question, and then in 24:3-14, Jesus answers them with general truths that largely summarize a lot of the rest of our text today. But then in verses 15-21, he foretells the destruction of Jerusalem in AD 70.
After that, starting in 24:29 to the end of our passage today, Jesus tells them that when he comes, it will end this age of tribulation and there will be a final judgment. He spends the last part of Chapter 24 and all of Chapter 25 telling parables and teaching about how we can be ready for that day, whenever it may come.
So let’s look at the text. I have three points as we walk through these chapters. Also, for extra credit, there are three bonus points under our first point.
First,
This age will be filled with distress, lawlessness, and false Christs (24:1-28)
After the disciples ask these questions, the first thing that Jesus says is in verse 4. “See that no one leads you astray.”
This is instructive for us. Around this topic of the end times, we need to be careful. People will make claims, and we need to be ready to approach them with discretion.
But Jesus doesn’t just leave it with this warning of false Christs. Look in verse 6, “You will hear of wars and rumors of wars . . . [then look in verse 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.”
Wars and earthquakes and false teachers. This is already terrifying. But he doesn’t stop here.
Look in verse 9: “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.”
Jesus is outlining a pretty grim picture here. Isn’t he?
It’s grim, but it’s also normal. These things happen every day. If you just glance over church history, you’ll see all of these things happening constantly. They are descriptive of the age in which we live.
But why is he doing this? Why is Jesus telling us how bad it will be?
I see three reasons in the text.
So that we wouldn’t be alarmed when it happens (24:6).
So that we won’t follow after false teachers (24:4-5; 23-26).
So that we would endure and proclaim the gospel (24:13-14).
Let’s think through each one of these:
First, Jesus is telling the disciples this so that they wouldn’t be alarmed when it happens (24:6).
Look in 24:6. “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.
He is telling us all of these things so that we can sail through storms knowing that we are anchored and secure.
It seems like every time there is a new war somewhere in the Middle East, I hear people speculate about Gog and Magog. People start to get scared, and there is a fresh round of people getting alarmed because they think that they are reading all of the signs. Wars and rumors of wars. Earthquakes.
But that’s the exact opposite of what Jesus wants for us here. “See that you are not alarmed.”
Often, when a couple is having their first child, they will have at least one false alarm. It can be difficult to tell when it’s the right time to go to the hospital. When Courtney was pregnant with Lana, it was a weird kind of guessing game. She was having contractions, but it wasn’t time to go to the hospital yet. But even before being at full term, you have to consider Braxton-hicks contractions. The first time that I learned about Braxton-hicks contractions, I thought it was a mean trick that no one had ever told me about.
I remember thinking that Courtney was playing a trick on me when she told me what they were.
Braxton-hicks contractions are kind of like phantom contractions. It’s when a woman’s body is getting ready for labor, but it isn’t in labor yet. Sometimes, they can happen weeks or even months before labor.
Jesus is talking to the disciples in a way that an experienced mom might talk to a woman who is carrying her first child:
“Honey, calm down. These are just the beginning of labor pains. Don’t go to the hospital yet, it’s not your time.” It’s like Jesus is giving the disciples a birthing class.
When the contractions come, just remember, that doesn’t mean it’s time, so stay calm.
But even as he encourages them to stay calm through the beginning of the birth pains. He tells them about a birth pain that is going to be particularly painful. He tells them about the coming fall of Jerusalem. That’s in verses 15 to 21.
We aren’t going to read that, but Jesus tells them that it will be horrible and that they should leave as soon as they see these things happening. And in AD 70, Jerusalem was sacked. It was absolutely destroyed, and if you look into it, you’ll see that there were almost no Christians in the city when it happened, because they saw the signs and left as soon as they could.
And just like Jesus promised, the sack of Jerusalem was an incredibly gruesome event, even by the standards of ancient war. D.A. Carson summarizes some of the things that happened there.
He writes this, “The famine was so severe that mothers ate their children. Rival groups within the city slaughtered one another and desecrated the Temple long before the Roman troops breached the walls of the city. The entire populace was either slaughtered or sold into slavery and the city was burned and razed to the ground.”
Not one stone left on another.
A sharp birth pain indeed, but they knew it was coming, and those who believed him fled.
Second, so that we won’t follow after false teachers (24:4-5; 23-26).
Look in 24:23-26, “Then if anyone says to you, ‘Look, here is the Christ!’ or ‘There he is!’ do not believe it. 24 For false Christs and false prophets will arise and perform great signs and wonders, so as to lead astray, if possible, even the elect. 25 See, I have told you beforehand. 26 So, if they say to you, ‘Look, he is in the wilderness,’ do not go out. If they say, ‘Look, he is in the inner rooms,’ do not believe it.”
Jesus wants to inoculate us against false teachers who would claim to have a secret truth or a secret Messiah.
If you have to go into a secret room to meet the “real” Messiah, then you should be skeptical.
Jesus revealed himself at his first coming, and when he comes again, everyone will know without a doubt that he has come. Look at verse 27, “For as the lightning comes from the east and shines as far as the west, so will be the coming of the Son of Man. 28 Wherever the corpse is, there the vultures will gather.”
When Jesus comes again, no one is going to wonder if he has come. The entire cosmos will know that the Messiah has come again. It will be as unavoidable as the lightning and thunder in a storm. It will be as clear as vultures in the sky as they circle their next meal. It will be visible and known to all of creation.
It won’t be a secret. So, don’t listen to people who say that it is.
The third reason is:
Third, so that we would endure and proclaim the gospel (24:13-14).
Those first two things here are realities that Jesus wants us to avoid. But this is what he wants us to do. He wants us to endure to the end and be saved.
He is inoculating us against those other things. But you don’t give someone a vaccine simply so that they won't get sick. You do it in hopes that they will be healthy.
If someone takes a vaccine, but then they drink maple syrup instead of water every day, they will get diabetes, and the vaccine would have been for nothing, because their life will still be cut short.
Jesus doesn’t just want us to be calm and skeptical of false teachers. Jesus said this so that we would be prepared to cling to him through every kind of hardship. He did it so that we would love him and endure to the end and proclaim the gospel.
And to what end are we enduring? That is our second main point.
Jesus will certainly return and this age will end (24:29-35).
Really, I think that we see this throughout our entire text today, but we see it really clearly in 24:29-35.
Look at 24:29:
“Immediately after the tribulation of those days the sun will be darkened, and the moon will not give its light, and the stars will fall from heaven, and the powers of the heavens will be shaken. 30 Then will appear in heaven the sign of the Son of Man, and then all the tribes of the earth will mourn, and they will see the Son of Man coming on the clouds of heaven with power and great glory. 31 And he will send out his angels with a loud trumpet call, and they will gather his elect from the four winds, from one end of heaven to the other.”
When Jesus comes, it is going to be unavoidably clear that he has come, and at that time, he is going to gather his people from all across the world. But his coming won’t be a time of pure joy. There will be mourning. That day will be a day of both deliverance and judgment. We’ll see that later in chapter 25.
But how do we know that this is the end of this age?
Look at verse 29. When does it happen? It happens “immediately after the tribulation of those days.” The days that he is talking about aren’t just the fall of Jerusalem. He’s talking about this entire age–this age that is characterized by distress and falsities.
So take heart. Because Jesus is coming back, and this age will end.
That’s why Jesus says what he does in 24:32-33: “From the fig tree learn its lesson: as soon as its branch becomes tender and puts out its leaves, you know that summer is near. 33 So also, when you see all these things, you know that he is near, at the very gates.”
We can see war and false teachers and pain and distress and persecution of every kind, but all of them serve this purpose. They remind us that Jesus is near. He is coming soon.
Relief is just around the corner.
And to give extra verification to his promise, he puts a timeline on these things. Look in verse 34. “Truly, I say to you, this generation will not pass away until all these things take place. 35 Heaven and earth will pass away, but my words will not pass away.”
Everything he says came true. There were wars, and famines, and persecutions. Jerusalem was destroyed. The gospel went to the ends of the known world. All within a generation of when Jesus uttered these words.
And now we can cling to these same promises together.
So let’s take a moment to consider how we can live this out as a church. We all live in this broken and distressed world, and it can be scary. Persecution is real. The fear of war is real. Nuclear attacks. Aggressive nations like Russia and China. Before my grandchildren are born, we might see a war that literally changes the face of the maps of the earth.
But as we look at these things together, we can cling to this same reality. Jesus is coming. And whatever may come, I am his. We are his. Say it out loud to each other.
If you hear a brother drifting over into fear about the political climate, remind him. Jesus is coming back. Let’s cling to it together.
And before that proud and skeptical part of you speaks up, let’s go ahead and speak to it. Yes, it sounds quaint. Yes, it’s not original.
But it’s what your soul needs. We need to be reminded over and over again. Jesus is coming back, and all of the broken things will come untrue.
But there is one snag:
But we don’t know when he will return (24:36-44).
This is in verses 24:36-44 but just look at verse 36 right now: “But concerning that day and hour no one knows, not even the angels of heaven, nor the Son, but the Father only.”
Jesus just said that he is the Son of God, and he doesn’t know when that day is! So, let’s make a deduction.
If Rob who works in the accounting department comes to you on his lunch break and tells you that he has cracked it! He has finally broken the code in the Bible, and he knows when Jesus is coming back.
Should you believe Rob? No. You shouldn’t.
Rob does not know more than Jesus about when Jesus will come back.
Maybe this feels kind of silly, but this has happened over and over. In times of uncertainty, people want something certain, so they just might listen to Rob.
Look down in 24:42: "Therefore, stay awake, for you do not know on what day your Lord is coming. 43 But know this, that if the master of the house had known in what part of the night the thief was coming, he would have stayed awake and would not have let his house be broken into. 44 Therefore you also must be ready, for the Son of Man is coming at an hour you do not expect.”
When Jesus comes, he is going to come like a thief in the night. Jesus is only trying to make a single point here, so don’t over-allegorize this.
Imagine coming home for the day, and you find a note on your door. And it says this, “To whom it may concern, I plan to steal your television tonight. Also, I am going to do my best to break into your car and go on a joy ride before ditching your car somewhere random in the next town over. I’ll probably wait until sometime after dark. Best wishes, Robber.”
Thieves don’t leave you a note telling you when they are going to steal your stuff.
Jesus is not going to announce the timing of his return before he comes.
And the application here is right there in verse 42. “Therefore, stay awake, for you do not know on what day your Lord is coming.”
And this is our final point:
So wait for him with eager expectation (24:45-25:46).
24:42 tells us to stay awake. But what does that mean?
What does it mean to wait for him with eager expectation?
From 24:45-25:46, Jesus tells 4 parables to answer this exact question.
First, he tells the parable of the 2 servants (24:45-51). Then he tells the parable of the 10 virgins (25:1-13). Then he tells the parable of the talents (25:14-30). And then he finishes with the parable of the sheep and the goats (25:31-46).
And all of these are driving toward this single point. Wait with eager expectation.
Waiting with eager expectation means submitting to Jesus without delay.
The parable of the two servants is in 24:45-51. It tells of one servant who is actively preparing for his master’s return and another who takes advantage of the fact that the master isn’t home yet. He thinks that he is delayed, so he does what he wants. In Verse 50. It says that “the master of that servant will come on a day when he does not expect him and at an hour he does not know 51 and will cut him in pieces and put him with the hypocrites. In that place there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth.”
The way that we wait matters. If you are here and you aren’t following Jesus, then consider this, every moment that he delays his return is a moment that he has given you to respond. And you can’t know when the moment will come when it’s too late, either by death or by the return of Jesus.
If you believe that Jesus is the Christ, don’t delay. Turn away from everything else that you would trust and trust in Christ.
Waiting with eager expectation means submitting to Jesus without delay.
It also means being ready to wait longer than you might expect.
In the parable of the 10 virgins, 5 of them don’t bring enough oil to wait long enough for the bridegroom, and after going to get more oil, they find that it’s too late. He doesn’t know them.
There is a theme in this parable of being prepared to walk into that final day. There is a sad irony here that when it comes to preparedness for an apocalyptic event, we live in one of the most prepared areas in the world. But when it comes to preparedness for that final day, we live in one of the most exposed places in the world.
On that day, 6 months of food storage will do you no good.
Oh, brothers and sisters, may this spur us on toward evangelism.
Next,
Waiting with eager expectation means seeking to advance the kingdom of God.
We don’t wait for Jesus to return in the way that a patient waits in a waiting room. We don’t just sit there and exist.
We are active as we wait. Part of waiting for the Lord to return is using whatever means we have to advance his kingdom. We see this in the parable of the Talents.
I’d love to camp out on this parable longer, but there is one thing that we need to zero in on here.
There are three servants. All of them are given different amounts of money. And the one who is given the least is eventually condemned because he didn’t do anything with what he was given. He buried it in the ground. But why didn’t he do anything?
It’s because he didn’t love his master.
Look in verse 24. “He also who had received the one talent came forward, saying, ‘Master, I knew you to be a hard man, reaping where you did not sow, and gathering where you scattered no seed, 25 so I was afraid, and I went and hid your talent in the ground. Here, you have what is yours.’ 26 But his master answered him, ‘You wicked and slothful servant! You knew that I reap where I have not sown and gather where I scattered no seed? 27 Then you ought to have invested my money with the bankers, and at my coming, I should have received what was my own with interest.”
The servant acted wickedly because he believed wickedly. The other servants acted in love because they loved their master.
Waiting with eager expectation means showing love and mercy to the people of God.
This is in the parable of the sheep and the goats. Really, I think this stretches the definition of a parable. He uses the sheep and goats as an image to show a separation between two groups at the final judgment.
Sheep and goats.
To the sheep, he will say, “34 Come, you who are blessed by my Father, inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world. 35 For I was hungry and you gave me food, I was thirsty and you gave me drink, I was a stranger and you welcomed me, 36 I was naked and you clothed me, I was sick and you visited me, I was in prison and you came to me.”
And to the goats, he will say the opposite: “41 Depart from me, you cursed, into the eternal fire prepared for the devil and his angels. 42 For I was hungry and you gave me no food, I was thirsty and you gave me no drink, 43 I was a stranger and you did not welcome me, naked and you did not clothe me, sick and in prison and you did not visit me."
And it ends with verse 46: "And these will go away into eternal punishment, but the righteous into eternal life.”
This isn’t a test where you can give water to people and be saved. Giving a glass of water isn’t the cause of salvation here. It’s the evidence.
If you are one of the sheep, then you will love the other sheep. You will love “one of the least of these, my brothers.”
Do you love God’s people? Do you show hospitality and serve and speak for their good? Do you do it out of obligation or love?
You know, in both cases, the sheep and the goats are surprised. Do you know why? Because neither of them were trying to pass a test. They were doing what they loved. And what they loved served as evidence in that final court.
And we see with this final parable that everyone is waiting. Whether we recognize it or not, we are all headed toward this same courtroom, and we will either be on the right or the left.
And we have a fundamental question that we have to ask.
Do you love Jesus? Do you long to see him?
Because he loves you. And he died so that you can be on his right hand and counted as righteous. He died so that you can wait with hope and not dread. He was raised so that you can have eternal life in him.
So if you have been delaying, don’t do it any longer. Repent. Turn to Jesus and find life. And wait eagerly for the day when you will brought fully into him.
Let’s pray.