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3 Now 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 and said to them: "Take heed that no one deceives you. 5 For many will come in My name, saying, 'I am the Christ,’ and will deceive many. 6 And you will hear of wars and rumors of wars. See that you are not troubled; for all these things must come to pass, but the end is not yet. 7 For nation will rise against nation, and kingdom against kingdom. And there will be famines, pestilences, and earthquakes in various places. 8 All these are the beginning of sorrows.'" ~ Matthew 24:3-8
Today, we return to our study of Matthew 24 where the Lord Jesus and His disciples have departed from the temple in Jerusalem. His day of teaching in the Temple area was over. This was the last Wednesday of His earthly life. From this point on He interacted only with His disciples who were gathered around Him on the Mount of Olives.
In v.3 of today's passage we read, "Now 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?'"
After the Lord Jesus had pointed out the hypocrisy of the first century religious leaders of Israel, He informed His disciples that the Temple had been turned into that which it was not meant to be. It was in that context that He told the disciples that the Temple would be destroyed. This then prompted the disciples to ask the Lord a question about the End Times. To their credit they went to the Lord with their question. Our questions often reveal our humility and God always shows favor toward the humble. Questions elicit genuine dialogue which is what prayer is. Oswald Chambers once said, "Prayer is not only asking, but an attitude of mind which produces the atmosphere in which asking is perfectly natural."
Although we often find our questions as something that is disconcerting, they are good because they deepen our relationships with others. When we go to the Lord with our questions, we discover the meaning of prayer. We all have moments when life seems so overwhelming and we wonder if God really is involved in our lives. The questions mount up and they potentially are useful to the growth of our faith in the Lord. True faith comes from grappling with these questions, earnestly going to God with them, expecting responses from Him. That expectation leads to actively looking for Him in life. When we come to the Scriptures, we come looking for Him through our questions.
In v.4-5 of today's passage we read, "4 And Jesus answered and said to them: 'Take heed that no one deceives you. 5 For many will come in My name, saying, ‘I am the Christ,’ and will deceive many.'"
The law of motion says, "Every action has an equal and opposite reaction." That same law in the spiritual realm means "Every divine action brings an opposite satanic reaction." Since there is truth, there will be deception. This means we must be so attentive to the Word of God that the deceptive powers of the enemy, which are increasingly great, will not distract us from the Lord Himself.
The only sure way to keep from being deceived in this world is to know the Scriptures and to obey what God has told us. The disciples had long been taught wrongly to value the wrong thing, in this case the temple. You see, the value of the temple was who was inside it, the Lord Himself. He is to be our first love. He is to be our first God before all others. So, today, we do well to lay down our lives before Him, and, in so doing we do well to value nothing more than we do Him for that which we value the most will define us the most.
In addition, the disciples expected the Lord Jesus to set up His eternal kingdom, then and there. But, their theology needed an adjustment. The Lord Jesus knew the disciples would soon be in the position to be easily deceived. When we have insufficient theology, we can easily be deceived. This is why we must be in His Word and of His Word, daily. We must be careful to learn it from Him as our teacher. We must read His word while listening to His voice as we study it. Oh, we don't hear His voice with our ears but with our hearts. And, what He teaches us must frame up our understanding of all that is going on in our lives and in this world.
In v.6-7 of today's passage we read, "6 And you will hear of wars and rumors of wars. See that you are not troubled; for all these things must come to pass, but the end is not yet. 7 For nation will rise against nation, and kingdom against kingdom. And there will be famines, pestilences, and earthquakes in various places."
Like the religious leaders of first century Israel, the disciples did not understand the difference between the Lord's first coming and His second coming. They also didn't understand the difference between the Rapture and His Second Coming. I find in most instructive that out of the forty-six Old Testament prophets, ten of them spoke of matters related to His first coming. Thirty-six of them spoke of matters related to His Second Coming. One out of every twenty-five verses in the New Testament relates to Christ's return. For every time Christ mentions His first coming, He mentions His second coming eight times. That is, every time the New Testament mentions His first coming, it mentions His second coming eight times. The Lord Jesus referred to His Second Coming twenty times and there are over fifty times in the New Testament we are warned that He is coming.
From the beginning of time there have been counterfeit messiahs. In addition, there have been national and international upheavals, and religious persecution. But these things will increase and intensify as the time of the Lord Jesus’ Second Coming draws near. There will be religious delusion, and even God’s people will be in danger of being deceived. Satan is a counterfeiter who for centuries has led people astray by deceiving their minds and their blinding hearts. Israel was often seduced into sin by false prophets, and the church has had its share of false teachers.
Having said all of this, today, we wait for the Rapture. In John 14:1-3 we read, "Let not your heart be troubled. You believe in God, believe also in me. In My Father's house are many rooms. If it were not so I would have told you and I go to prepare a place for you. And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again and receive it in myself that where I am there you may be also."
There is no judgment connected to this prophecy in John 14. It is simply a time when the Lord Jesus comes to get His people and take us up to heaven to be in the place that He's prepared in the Father's house for us. This is not the Lord coming back to set up a kingdom on earth. This is an event in which He comes for His redeemed people, Jew and Gentile, all who are a part of the church gathered from all the nations. It could happen today.
In v.8 of today's passage we read, "All these are the beginning of sorrows."
That word "sorrows" is translated "birth pains" in other translations. Throughout today's passage, the Lord Jesus was careful to say the end is not coming immediately. He said, "All these are the beginning of birth pains." Birth pains are an increasing sequence of contractions that finally become intense, fiercely intense and result in the big event, the birth of the child. The contractions, or the birth pains, start out light and they increase till they reach a point of excruciation before the big event. The Lord Jesus uses this common event on earth to describe the nature of the end.
As I have mentioned before, the Rapture of the Church will happen before the Tribulation happens. I believe we are on the brink of the Rapture. It could happen today. For those who will not be a part of the Rapture, they will have opportunities to become believers during the Tribulation, but it will be most difficult to be a believer in the Lord Jesus Christ during that seven year period.
This is why I urge you to make sure you have entered into a personal relationship with Jesus Christ, right now. Simply pray this prayer: "Lord Jesus, I confess I am a sinner, and I ask for your forgiveness. I believe you died for my sins and rose from the dead. I turn from my sins and invite you to come into my heart and life right now. I want to trust and follow you as my Lord and Savior." If you prayed that prayer tell someone of your decision to be a follower of Jesus Christ, today. And, by the way, welcome to the family of God.
