Some Specific Events from Jesus...Matthew 24:15-31

 

I don't think I have posted this picture of the main entrance to the church.  It must have been taken in the late fall.  I snapped it because of the moon above and this is my path taken from our living quarters to my office.  The moon made me think of one of the specific events that Jesus gives us in this passage of scripture.  Jesus gives specific events that must happen prior to the end of times and His 2nd coming.  What was created by Him will be de-created in a sense.

Jesus goes back into the second half of His general outline in v.4-14.  The first half (v.4-8) ends with the beginning of sorrows or birth pains.  I always loved the imagery that Jesus uses when the birthing process is brought up.  The labor pains some from less severe to severe and from less frequent to almost constant.  In the wake of the whole process you know that someone is coming.  In looking at the end times we have to look at the pains that are coming and with increased intensity but always in the back of our minds Someone is coming!

The second half (v.9-14) give us a more grim picture of the second half of the great tribulation.  It ends with the phrase that then the end will come.  Jesus now gives His disciples and us (His current disciples) some specific events.  The first was that this temple they were looking at and the disciples were admiring would be destroyed and that happened in 70 A.D. by the Roman general Titus.

Looking to the future, one would come that Daniel called the Abomination of Desolation, the anti-christ, the man of sin, etc.  This one would align with Jewish people for a time and then turn on them and make desolate the worship of their God.  He would set himself up as God.  I am so amazed that Jesus tells us where to go in the Bible to find out this information.  He affirms Daniel as He will affirm Noah in the next passage.

Jesus also speaks again of the many false christs that will do signs and wonders and be very pervasive to turn people away from Jesus as the Christ.  Jesus speaks another specific event of the celestial bodies of the sun, moon and stars being altered.  He ends with the deployment of His angels to gather His own from the 4 winds and from one end of heaven to the other.

Jesus gives one huge point in this passage and that is of how He will come again.  It will not be hidden.  It will not be isolated.  It will be seen by all as the lightning flashes from the east to the west across the sky.  Next week he will give another "big" truth about His coming that He will end up saying at least 4 times.  I love these words from Jesus because they keep us focused on the right things.  Many books have been written on the end times that focus so much on the "what" and the "when" like the disciples asking Jesus these opening questions but Jesus focuses on the "how."  How we are to be.

We are not to be deceived.  We are not to be like jello, debilitated by the bad news of the world.  We are to endure, stand by His side, and we are to hold fast to His words in the face of the many words of men.  Many times we might shy away from passages like this and I am specifically speaking of pastors and preachers.  It is a hard message to give because it speaks of doom and gloom and we are a world of delight and glee.  Who proclaims out Jesus' words to this generation about the Someone who is to come?  Do we ignore these words of Jesus for the easier ones to digest?  

Even though His disciples would never experience these events, Jesus was giving them again the words of God to the prophets of something they would never experience.  We may never experience these events but we are to give these words of Jesus to our generation to pass onto the next.  While we give the "bad news," we must never forget to insert the "good news" that Someone is coming for those whose names are written in the Lamb's Book of Life.  This gives us an open door to share an invitation to accept the One who gave His all for our benefit.

Adam