We pick up from where we left off in The End of the Age (IV). We're now in the middle of a
discourse that Jesus delivered to His disciples about 36 hours before He died.
He's seated on the Mount of Olives. That's why we call this the Olivet
Discourse. And He's explaining how future events of the end times will play out
in response to questions that He was asked by His disciples.
Altogether, in this discourse,
Jesus has explained four things to these men. He's explained to them how the
temple destruction will take place and what the signs would be when it was coming.
He's explained the signs of His own return, and He's explained the signs that
would end this age. And then He added that additional topic of what are not
things that will be considered signs just so that we don't get confused by the
wrong things.
Now the disciples asked those
questions in a somewhat random order, but Jesus reordered the answers because
He had a particular reason for saying what He said in the way that He said it.
And as it turns out, Jesus reordered their questions and gave His answers to
these questions in the order that these signs would appear when they start to
happen.
First, He says, not everything
that happens to you that is bad is a sign. So He puts that out of the way
first. Secondly, He begins to describe how the end of the age will start to
happen, and what the earliest signs will be that you're getting near the end of
the age. That will happen over a period of centuries. And then He moved to
talking about His second coming, and the signs that would immediately precede
His return. And we know those signs only happen in the last seven years of this
age. So He moves from general things you don't worry about, to the earliest
signs that we're near the end, to the specific things that come at the very
end. And then, in Luke's Gospel, He inserts the conversation about the temple's
destruction as a kind of sidebar in the middle of all of that.
Now, in part (IV) of this series, we
completed Jesus’ answer to the final question of what are the signs of His
second coming. But there is some unfinished business there for us that we need
to start with in this final part of this series, and it is about Jesus giving
us this fascinating footnote, a new sign, an overarching final sign that starts
and finishes the whole sequence of end time events. In a way, it's the one sign
you need to know, even if you don't know any of the other ones, and it starts
in verse 32.
He says in Matthew 24:32,
Mat 24:32 "Now learn the
parable from the fig tree: when its branch has already become tender and puts
forth its leaves, you know that summer is near;
Mat 24:33 so, you too, when you
see all these things, recognize that He is near, right at the door.
Mat 24:34 "Truly I say to
you, this generation will not pass away until all these things take place.
Mat 24:35 "Heaven and earth
will pass away, but My words will not pass away.
Throughout this discourse, Jesus has been giving us signs that each announce some certain event, the end of the age, or the destruction of the temple, or His return. And at the very end now, He sums up everything He's just discussed by giving us one more sign, a major sign that He says will tell us when the end times are about to begin. And then He adds that promise to assure us that these events will in fact complete, just as He has promised.
Let's start with that first sign,
this new sign that He gives us. He says that it will be the sign of the parable
of the fig tree. What He describes here is a fig tree coming out of its dormant
phase after the winter. Now, if you look at a tree that's dormant in winter, a
deciduous tree that loses its leaves, it looks dead. In fact, in some cases a
tree will die over the winter, and you can't tell which ones are dead or which
ones are still alive, not until you see leaves emerging in the spring. So it
can look dead but not actually be dead. And when the leaves show up, that's
when you know that not only is the tree still alive, but you also know summer
is near. You know that it won't be long before the tree is fully leafed out.
And then there's going to be fruit waiting for you on the branches.
And Jesus uses this parable to
give us an indication of how to understand the earliest indications we’ll have
that there is an end times sequence about to begin. And it comes from
understanding why He used a fig tree. After all, He could have used any tree. But
He chose a fig tree, because in the Bible, a fig tree is a picture of Israel.
A fig tree is a clock of Israel
for the sake of this parable. The thing is, if you had no idea what month it
was, let's say you're completely oblivious to the time or the time of year that
you're in, you could at least know that summer was near by watching the leaves
of a fig tree. When the fig tree produces leaves, you know summer is right
around the corner. And in the same way, the fig tree representing Israel tells
us that if you watch Israel, Israel is a clock to tell the world when the end
times are coming.
He is saying this. For a time in
its history, Israel appeared lifeless, much like a tree that was dormant in the
winter. If you looked at what the state of Israel was in the world over the
last many centuries, and even millennia, going back to AD 70, you'd be hard
pressed to think that Israel was even in existence. There were Jewish people,
yes, but the nation wasn't in existence. It wasn't in the land, and it saw no
prospect of returning. So for all intents and purposes, you could say Israel
was dead. But then, at a point in the last century, Israel came back to life,
so to speak. And Jesus said, it's like a fig tree showing its leaves again, and
in that way you can know the end times are approaching.
In effect, this is what Jesus is
saying: Israel, the nation of Israel, its re-emergence on the world scene is
the first sign to us that the end is coming. And it's the first sign because
the re-emergence of Israel didn't begin in 1948 with the formation of the
modern state of Israel. The establishment of the nation came as a result of
years of work of the Zionist Congress, and Zionist generally, that goes all the
way back into the late 1800’s and the first Zionist Congress that met at that
time. And so the Zionist movement was all about Jews around the world saying
it's time for there to be an Israel on the earth again. That started in the
19th century. It came into the 20th century, and it culminated in 1948 with
Israel's declaration of Independence.
Truly, Israel was back from the
dead, and Jesus in this parable connects the nation of Israel's re-emergence
with the end times, telling us that is the key event. And then He goes on to
say, “This generation will not pass away until all these things take place.”
Now, if you've studied eschatology in general, and certainly if you've studied
the events that are depicted here in Matthew 24, then you've come upon this
verse before. And you are probably aware that there is considerable debate and misinterpretation
over what Jesus means here.
One of the common interpretations of this verse says that once Israel became a nation, that is, once the fig tree sprouted its leaves, so to speak, then the end times would play out within the time span of one generation. But we know that it’s been over 100 years since Zionism began. It's been over 80 years since Israel became a nation, and that would be far too long if we were to call that a generation. So once enough time had passed, it rendered that interpretation incorrect.
So then a second interpretation
emerged, which said that Jesus was not speaking of the generation that saw
Israel show up, but the generation that will see Jesus show up, that is, the
people who live through tribulation. So their view of this statement is that
once tribulation begins, it will conclude before a generation has passed away.
But that's a pointless statement, because Daniel already told us that tribulation
is only seven years long and we’ve known that for 600 years before Jesus spoke
these words, and so there's no reason for Jesus to give this promise. It's
redundant. He's just repeating Daniel's timeline. And why would He use the term
“generation” then, if it's only a seven-year period anyway?
And there are two keys in what
Jesus says that lead us to finding the correct interpretation. The first key is
this: Jesus said, “All these things.” He says all these things would come to
pass before a generation went away, not just some of the things, not just the
things of tribulation, for example. That would rule out the second
interpretation. He's saying this: everything from the start of the fig tree
blooming until the return of Christ, all these things. And that spans at least
a couple 100 years, or almost certainly over 100 years so far, and we have
obviously more time yet to go. So all of those things Jesus says, will happen
within the span of a generation.
And then secondly, notice Jesus
says “THIS” generation,” not “A” generation. He's speaking about some specific
sense of a generation. He's not referring to a single human generation of, say,
40 years. What He's talking about here is something related to the fig tree.
The fig tree is “this generation.” That's why He uses that specific term. And
here's what He means. You get the answer by understanding what the word
“generation'' in Greek really says. In verse 34, when He says “this generation,”
the word in Greek can mean “a family” or “a kind” or “a tribe,” and by the
context, that's how you need to understand the word.
Jesus was speaking of the entire
nation as the new generation of Israel, not just a birth generation, but He's
saying the re-emergence of a new Israel on the world stage, this new generation
of Israel in the land, that will not pass away until all these things have come
to pass. That is, you will not see Israel cast out of its land again. You will
not see Israel cease to exist again, as has happened in the past.
Once you see Israel come back on
the world stage, that is your sign that we're moving promptly to the end. In fact,
the reason God allowed Israel to come back in that form was so that He could
move into the end times events. So you can be sure of this, when you see Israel
return, everything else Jesus said will happen. “My words will not pass away.”
He says, “Look, the heavens and the earth, they're going to pass away. That's
part of the events of the end times. But what I'm telling you is not going to
cease to be true.”
Now, think about that for a
moment. You look around the world that we live in today. The unshakable nature
of the earth. The vast and immeasurable universe that surrounds us. Jesus says,
“Yeah, here today, gone tomorrow.” And yet at the same time, the simple words
printed on that page we have in front of us right now in which Jesus tells us
of these things, He says those words are more permanent than anything we see in
creation.
So the next time you gaze up at
some huge mountain or across some immense expanse of water in the oceans or you
look at the countless stars in the sky, remember that those things are
temporary. Now, if those things leave you in awe now, imagine how you'll feel
if you were there when they disappear in the blink of an eye like we've already
studied.
That's how the world's going to
experience the judgments that are coming. They will find that everything
they've trusted in, even the most solid, immovable things of the existence
they've always known, when those things are gone, and then out of that darkness
comes the Word of God, Jesus Himself, they’re finally going to find out what is
true, what is permanent, what is trustworthy and what is not.
Never forget that what is worthy
of our dependence and trust is the Word of God. And what is not is everything
else, everything, everyone, everything. In times when our world is being shaken
and peace is being taken from us, much like some of us may be experiencing now, and when we feel like we're losing control or the world's losing control - that
is an excellent time to remember verse 35.
The things of the world that we
trust in for security or stability only have the appearance of such certainty.
A stable job or a comfortable house or our good health or a faithful spouse or our
secure retirement plan or even a civil society - those things might appear
certain and sure, until they aren't.
And then you wonder, “Where will I
find security in the world? If those things were not secure for me, well, what
is secure for me?” And the answer you find in the Bible, when you bring that
question to Jesus, is this: security and certainty is never found in this world
because the world itself is passing away, as is the cosmos around it. And when
you see the signs then, that tells you that the end of the age is upon us, and that
is the worst possible time to double down on your security in this world.
In fact, James, in his letter, he
scolds the Church at one point for having that attitude. He says it this way in
James 5:1, he says,
Jas 5:1 Come now, you rich, weep
and howl for your miseries which are coming upon you.
Jas 5:2 Your riches have rotted
and your garments have become moth-eaten.
Jas 5:3a Your gold and your
silver have rusted; and their rust will be a witness against you and will
consume your flesh like fire.
Now James is talking not just
about riches specifically. He's using that as an example. He's talking about
people who have trusted in what they can gain out of this world. So if you're
not one who's given to greed or pursuit of riches, that's fine. That's good,
but you're probably substituting something else, if you're depending on this
world in any way. Substitute that thing in this sentence, and he's talking to
you about what you're trusting in that you shouldn't be. And then he says
this.
Jas 5:3b It is in the last days
that you have stored up your treasure!
Now think about the irony of that
statement. It's the idea that you are oblivious to the larger set of
circumstances in your world, and you are myopically thinking that the little
thing you have control over is your safety and security. And it is a folly, and
no more so than for a Christian, because a Christian above all others in this
world knows these things. We know from our Bible that the world is supposed to
end, at least in some way someday. We understand our life is temporary,
obviously. And James says it is a sign of biblical ignorance, when we live in
ways that witness to a trust in this world, rather than in a trust in what God
has said in His Word.
And in Matthew, Jesus is telling us, look for these signs. That's why He gave us what He gave us. And then He added, as we just read in verse 33, “When you see them, know that I am near. I'm right at the door.” You can feel His presence even before you can see it. And He says, the first and foremost sign that tells us that this end is coming is the time you see Israel regathered.
Now, most of us were probably born
after 1948, and as a result, we take for granted a nation of Israel on the earth.
But it wasn't always that way. For almost 2000 years, no one gave a minute's
thought to Israel being a nation, other than perhaps the Jewish people. And
then suddenly it was there, almost overnight, out of nothing. And Jesus says
that’s not by chance. It’s not just some geopolitical quirk. That's a miracle.
And it's a miracle God ordained as a sign. So you can be sure of this, the
world will pass away because Jesus said it will pass away, and His Words will
not pass away.
This brings us to a fifth truth, a
fifth reason why we study prophecy, and it is this: it changes the way you live
and serve Jesus.
Think back on those days when you
were growing up. Your parents might have on occasions left you at home in the
evening when they would go out for dinner. And like most parents, they would
issue instructions to you about what they expected you to do and some warnings
about what would happen if you didn't, before they left. Things like make sure
you do your homework and not mess up the house and be ready for bed and so on. And
as soon as they stepped out, you immediately forget all of those instructions.
You ignore them, and you just start doing whatever you please, at least for a
time. But then, as the night progresses, your thoughts begin to turn inevitably
to the fact that they're going to eventually come back, and you don't want to
be caught by surprise when that happens, because if they show up finding you
doing the wrong things, that's not going to go well. So as the night goes on,
you eventually reach a point where your anticipation of their return leads you
to start doing the right things. You eventually get around to your homework.
You eventually clean up the mess and so on. So when they walk in, they don't
necessarily see the whole thing. They just see where you end. As long as everything
looks good, so much the better.
Now, it obviously would have been
better to have done it good from the very beginning. But at least it's better
to do it at all than to never have done it. In a sense, that's what the study
of prophecy is meant to do for the believer who endeavors to learn it properly
and to live it out accordingly. It motivates you to be ready.
The world has already seen sign
after sign that Jesus gave us in this discourse announcing the end of the age
is upon us. But let's say for argument's sake, you've never read this. You
didn't know that earthquakes and famines and plagues and world wars are signs.
Jesus says, “It doesn't matter because you only need to know one sign.” One
sign is enough, in this case. If you understand what Israel means and the re-emergence
of Israel on the world stage, as He said.
You just need to look at the fig
tree, and when you see the leaves, you know summer is near. You know fruit is
on its way. And in that same sense, seeing Israel today tells us that the clock
is ticking. So you should hear it this way. You are like a child that your
Father has put on notice. “I'm coming back soon. You need to do your homework.
You need to take care of the chores. You need to be ready for My return.”
Those who study prophecy in the
right heart, think carefully about what they're learning, and they prepare
properly for that return by living obediently in the meantime. It's the
same feeling you get as a child sitting at the kitchen table doing whatever you
care to while your parents are gone, and you look up at the clock and you
realize your parents are going to be back any minute. And at that moment, you rush around the house,
cleaning it up, doing what you're supposed to, brushing your teeth, jumping in
bed, hoping you get it done before they show up.
Again, it's better if you do it
from the beginning. But like most of us, that's not how life goes. We tend to
get more serious about our faith as we think more carefully about what it means
and as we draw closer to the day we meet Jesus. And because you do not want to
be found lacking when He arrives, because you know how to read a clock, you
should be ready. And that's the main reason, and maybe the best reason of all
to study prophecy. It leads to a sense of urgency and to a healthy fear of the
Lord, which has its ultimate good purpose in causing us to obey Christ more
fervently and more consistently. And all of that is made possible because you know
how to read a clock, or as it is in this case, the signs that Jesus has given
us.
Now, we will revisit this idea of
being ready a little later in this study because Jesus comes back to it Himself
with another parable. For now, we need to get to the end of the signs He's
given us here. We’ll go back to cover verse 27 and 28 of Matthew 24:
Mat 24:27 "For just as the
lightning comes from the east and flashes even to the west, so will the coming
of the Son of Man be.
Mat 24:28 "Wherever the
corpse is, there the vultures will gather.
Now, at this moment, Jesus was
describing the signs before His coming and shortly before He returns. What
would it be like on earth to see that? He says it starts with His bright
appearance in this otherwise pitch black universe, and it comes like lightning.
Now lightning is a fiercely bright, intense and quick light. So Jesus’ return
is not going to be like some slow descent of a helicopter onto a helipad
somewhere. Jesus is going to flash like lightning across the sky. And He comes
in a certain direction from east to west, and that reflects His movements at
His second coming.
In the book of Revelation, we see that
Jesus’ first appearance on earth at His second coming is at a place called
Bozrah, in southern Jordan today, which is south east of Jerusalem. He moves
from that location to Jerusalem to finish His second coming. It'll be like
lightning, and it'll come from the East to the West. And as He moves, He says
here that He leaves behind corpses, because as He returns, He is not only
saving some, but He is destroying many. And like all signs in this discourse,
what He's describing here with respect to lightning and corpses and so on is
from a perspective of someone on the earth. And the Bible says, in fact, there
are going to be three principal groups of people involved in witnessing the
return of Christ, and they will all experience Him in slightly different ways,
or in greatly different ways.
First, there are going to be those
on earth who have believed in Jesus at some point during the tribulation, and
they're still alive. And as they see the moment that was described happening,
they're going to be joyful, obviously. They're going to meet their Lord's
return with joy because He's coming to save them.
And then there'll be another group
on the earth that experiences His return from a very different point of view -
unbelievers who are on the earth and view Jesus’ return. We were told earlier,
they see it as an unmitigated disaster. They’re mourning His return because
they know it means judgment for them. There's a little passage in Paul's
writing to the church in Thessalonica, in 2 Thessalonians, in which he refers
to both of these groups at the second coming of Christ and their respective
responses.
2Th 1:6 For after all it is only
just for God to repay with affliction those who afflict you,
2Th 1:7 and to give relief to
you who are afflicted and to us as well when the Lord Jesus will be revealed
from heaven with His mighty angels in flaming fire,
2Th 1:8 dealing out retribution
to those who do not know God and to those who do not obey the gospel of our
Lord Jesus.
2Th 1:9 These will pay the
penalty of eternal destruction, away from the presence of the Lord and from the
glory of His power,
2Th 1:10 when He comes to be
glorified in His saints on that day, and to be marveled at among all who have
believed--for our testimony to you was believed.
Notice in that passage, Paul
mentioned that when the Lord's revealed from heaven, He comes bringing
retribution to those who are unsaved. He's talking about those who do not know
God. He says, “Those who do not obey the gospel of Jesus Christ,” and who have
persecuted believers. Throughout the history of the Church, “They’ve persecuted
us,” and now, he says, “it'll be their turn to see that retribution. They'll
pay the penalty of eternal destruction,” he says. But back in Matthew 24, Jesus
addressed the fate of this group in verse 28 by saying that their bodies would
be consumed by vultures, their corpses would be where the vultures would go.
And in Revelation 19 we’re given the details of how God uses birds to dispose
of the bodies of these unbelievers, who He comes back for. In Revelation 19:17,
it says, John writes,
Rev 19:17 Then I saw an angel
standing in the sun, and he cried out with a loud voice, saying to all the
birds which fly in midheaven, "Come, assemble for the great supper of God,
Rev 19:18 so that you may eat
the flesh of kings and the flesh of commanders and the flesh of mighty men and
the flesh of horses and of those who sit on them and the flesh of all men, both
free men and slaves, and small and great."
So Jesus says that those who see
Him when He returns who are not His will mourn. He will deal out retribution.
They will die. They'll be in damnation after that, and their bodies will be
consumed by vulture, by birds. But Paul also mentioned in that passage in 2 Thessalonians
1 that Jesus will be marveled at by the believers who are waiting for Him on
earth. That's the second group. And they who have believed in the Gospel,
whether Jew or Gentile, will watch in amazement as their Lord comes to them in
glory. We learned earlier in Matthew 24 that at that same moment, God is going
to send out His angels to gather up these elect, these believers, from all the
corners of the earth, wherever they still may be at that time, and bring them
all to Jerusalem. And this great assembling of believers takes place so that
they're all present to enter into the Kingdom and to celebrate it with Jesus in
the inaugural feast of the Kingdom in Jerusalem.
So we have all unbelievers made
corpses at the coming of Christ. And we have all believers being gathered
together by angels for a feast to start the Kingdom in Jerusalem. But we just
said that there are three groups involved in the return of Christ. And this third
group does not experience any of the things described from the perspective of
earth. This is the group that participates in the return of Christ. This third
group experiences it from heaven coming down with Jesus.
In 1 Thessalonians 3:13, Paul says
1Th 3:13 so that He may
establish your hearts without blame in holiness before our God and Father at
the coming of our Lord Jesus with all His saints.
So Paul says that the coming of
the Lord Jesus happens with all His saints, meaning the whole Church is with
Him when He returns. So, how does the Church move from earth, where we are now,
to heaven so that we’re there with Jesus when He comes back at His second
coming? Well, you get part of your answer just in the normal by and by of
earthly life, because Paul says in 2 Corinthians 5 that when a believer dies
today, the body goes in the grave. But the spirit, the part of us that is eternal,
goes immediately into the presence of the Lord. So every time a believer dies,
they move to that heavenly throne room, and they're there waiting for the
second coming of Christ. And that's how most of us will get there.
But Revelation 19 told us that in
that moment, right before Jesus returned, the bride of Christ has “been made
ready,” it says, and that the marriage of the bride to the Lamb is now able to
happen. And the bride can't marry the groom until the whole bride is present.
So, in other words, when it says the bride has been made ready in Revelation 19,
it is saying the entire body of Christ is there. No one's missing. There's not
still some Church member, some believer in the Church on the earth at that
moment. We're all in heaven because the bride is full, complete and ready to be
married to her groom, to Jesus.
So the question remains. When and
how does the entire Church now, not just those who have already died, but both
dead and living, how do we all end up together in the same place in the
heavenly realm at the same moment in preparation for Jesus’ second coming? And
that's a question that the disciples never thought to ask Jesus - that's a
scenario that they had never even considered. And in fact, it's an event that's
only whispered about in the Old Testament, and it's not explicitly
described.
It turns out, though, that this is
the most important question that the disciples could have asked, and had they
known to ask it, it would have given them the most important answer in
everything that Jesus has talked about in this chapter. But because they didn't
understand, because they didn't even know, Jesus brings them into this discussion
on His own now, at this point in verse 36. And this brings us into what will be
the most important thing that any Christian should know about the end times,
more important than anything else we've ever covered so far. And it starts at verse
36, Jesus says:
Mat 24:36 "But of that day
and hour no one knows, not even the angels of heaven, nor the Son, but the
Father alone.
Mat 24:37 "For the coming
of the Son of Man will be just like the days of Noah.
Mat 24:38 "For as in those
days before the flood they were eating and drinking, marrying and giving in
marriage, until the day that Noah entered the ark,
Mat 24:39 and they did not
understand until the flood came and took them all away; so will the coming of
the Son of Man be.
With that, Jesus
is taking us into a new topic, a topic that is covered in The Coming of the
Lord series here:
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