Matthew (Session 17) Chapter 24a

well we're in session 17 of our review of the gospel of matthew and we're going to focus on chapter 24. the olivet discourse as it's commonly called i'd like to say right up front before we go any further that this is one of the most important prophetic passages in the new testament on the one hand but it's also one of the most misunderstood passages in the new testament not so much because of matthew but because of the presumption that matthew mark and luke all are recording the same discourse you'll find them called the olivet discourse in most study bibles all three or three accounts and if we read it very carefully all we're going to do is read it very carefully fill you in some background as we go and you come to your own conclusions but i'll prepare you in advance that many people are misinformed about the luke account that's what we're going to try to highlight so let's just jump in christ's major discourse the new testament are for the sermon on the mount the manifesto of the kingdom the mystery parables discourse in matthew 13. then we have the olivet discourse that we're focusing on tonight and the upper room farewell address in the gospel of john 14 through 17. these are four of the major discourses in the new testament and obviously three of the four are in the gospel of matthew and we suspect that part of that is because matthew took shorthand it was a required skill for a customs inspector and so he was taking these down and verbatim and tonight we're going to focus on the olivet discourse as recorded in matthew 24. it's typically listed as being recorded in matthew 24 mark 13 and luke 21 mark 13 the account there is the exception of probably about two verses is identical to the matthew account we'll highlight those two verses as we go through the real distinctives are between matthew and luke luke 21 which we'll deal in the subsequent session let's first of all just go through and read it to get the flavors i'm sure more very familiar to you that as students of prophecy but let's just warm up by reading it through matthew 24 verse 1 and jesus went out and departed from the temple and his disciples came to him for to show him the buildings of the temple in previous chapters you recall he just cleansed the temple drove out the money changers and so forth so he departed from there the disciples came to him for to show him the building of the temple jesus said on them see not all these things verily i say unto you there shall not be left here one stone upon another that shall not be thrown down and as he sat upon the mount of olives the disciples came unto him privately saying tell us when shall these things be and what shall be the sign of thy coming and the end of the world great questions great questions jesus answered and said to them take heed that no man deceive you it's interesting it always opens and closes these passages with the admonition don't be deceived take heed that no man deceive you for many shall come in my name saying i am christ and shall deceive many and he shall hear of wars and rumors of wars that see that ye be not troubled for all these things must come to pass but the end is not yet for nation shall rise against nation kingdom against kingdom and there shall be famines and pestilences and earthquakes and diverse places all these are the beginning of sorrows then they shall deliver you up to be afflicted and shall kill you and you shall be hated of all nations for my name's sake and then shall many be offended and shall betray one another and shall hate one another and many false prophets shall arise and shall deceive many and because iniquity shall abound the love of many shall wax cold but he that shall endure unto the end the same shall be saved and this gospel of the kingdom shall be preached in all the world for a witness unto all nations and then shall the end come when you therefore shall see the abomination of desolation spoken of by daniel the prophet stand in the holy place who saw readeth let him understand then let them which be in judea flee into the mountains let him which is on the housetop not come down to take anything out of his house neither let him which is in the field return back to take his clothes and woe unto them that are with child unto them that gives suck in those days but pray that your flight be not in winter neither on the sabbath day for there shall be great tribulation such was not since the beginning of the world to this time no no ever shall be except those days should be short and there should no flesh be saved but for the elect's sake those days shall be shortened and if any man shall say unto you lo here is christ or there believe it not for there shall arise false christs and false prophets and shall show great signs and wonders and so much that if it were possible they shall deceive the very elect behold i have told you before wherefore they shall say unto you behold he is in the desert go not forth behold he is in the secret chambers believe it or not for the lightning cometh out of the east and shine even under the west show so shall also this coming of the son of man be for wheresoever the carcasses there will the eagles be gathered together immediately after the tribulation of those days shall the sun be darkened the moon shall not give her light the star shall fall from heaven the powers of the heaven shall be shaken and then shall appear the sign of the son of man in heaven and then shall all the tribes of the earth mourn and they shall see the son of man coming in the clouds of heaven with power and great glory and he'll send his angels with the great sound of a trumpet and they shall gather together his elect from the four winds and from one end of heaven to the other now learn the parable of the fig tree when his branch is yet tender and putteth forth leaves ye know that summer is nigh so likewise ye when you shall see all these things no that is near even at the doors for verily i say unto you this generation shall not pass till all these things be fulfilled heaven earth shall pass away but my word shall not pass away but of that day and hour knoweth no man no not the angels heaven but my father only but as the days of nowhere so shall also the coming of the son of man be for as in the days that were before the flood they were eating and drinking marrying and giving in marriage until the day that noah entered into the ark and knew not until the flood came and took them all away so shall also the coming of the son of man be then shall two be in the field one shall be taken the other left two women shall be grinding at the mill one shall be taken the other left watch therefore for ye know not what hour your lord doth come but know this that if the goodman of the house had known in what watch the thief would come he would have watched and would not have suffered his house to be broken up therefore be also ready for such an hour as ye think not the son of man cometh who then is a faithful and wise servant whom is the lord hath made ruler over his household to give them meat and due season blessed is that servant whom his lord when he cometh shall find so doing verily i say unto you that he shall make him ruler over all his goods but and if that evil servant shall say in his heart my lord delayeth his coming and he shall begin to smite his fellow servants and to eat and drink with the drunken the lord of that servant shall come in a day when he looketh not for him and in an hour that he is not aware of and shall cut him asunder and appoint him his portion with hypocrites there shall be weeping and gnashing of teeth so that's matthew 24 our first sweep through to get the flavor of what i believe is a familiar passage to most of you i want to do the same thing with the luke passage just skim it through you'll notice the similarities and you'll also know some things that are a little different let's take a look at luke luke chapter 21 starting about verse 5. as some speak of the temple how it was joined with goodly stones and gifts he said as for these things which he behold the days will come in the which there shall not be left one stone upon another that shall not be thrown down and they ask him saying master but when shall these things be and what sign will there be when these things shall come to pass he said take heed that you be not deceived for many shall come in my name saying i am christ and that and the time draweth near go ye not therefore after them but when ye shall hear of wars and commotions be not terrified for these things must first come to pass but the end is not by and by then say the unto them nation shall rise against nation kingdom against kingdom and great earthquakes shall be in diverse places and famines and pestilences and fearful sights and great signs shall be there be from heaven but before all these they shall lay their hands on you and persecute you delivering you up to the synagogues and into prisons being brought before kings and rulers for night my name's sake and it shall turn to you for a testimony settle it therefore in your hearts not to meditate before what ye shall answer for i will give you a mouth and wisdom which all your adversaries shall not be able to gain say or resist and you shall be betrayed both by parents and brethren and kids folk and friends and some of you shall they cause to be put to death and you shall be hated of all men for my name's sake but there shall not a hair of your head perish in your patience possess you your souls and when you shall see jerusalem compassed with armies then know that the desolation thereof is nigh then let them which are in judea flee to the mountains and let them which are in the midst of it depart out let not them that are in the countries enter there into for these be the days of vengeance that all things which are written may be fulfilled but woed unto them that are with child unto them that give suck in those days for there shall be great distress in the land and wrath upon this people and they shall fall by the edge of the sword and shall be led away captive into all nations and jerusalem shall be trodden down of the gentiles until the times of the gentiles be fulfilled there shall be signs in the sun and the moon and in the stars and upon the earth distress of nations and with perplexity the sea and the waves roaring men's hearts failing them for fear and for looking after those things which are coming on the earth for the powers of heaven shall be shaken and then shall they see the son of man coming in a cloud with power and great glory and when these things begin to come to pass then look up lift up your heads for your redemption drought nigh and he spake to them a parable behold the fig tree and all the trees when they now shoot forth ye see and know of your own selves that summer is now nigh at hand so likewise you when you see these things come to pass know ye that the kingdom of god is nigh at hand verily i say to you this generation shall not pass away till all be fulfilled heaven and earth shall pass away but my word shall not pass away and take heed to yourselves lest at any time your hearts be overcharged with surfeiting and with drunkenness and the cares of this life and so that day come upon you unawares for as a snare shall it come on all them that dwell on the face of the whole earth watch you therefore and pray always that ye may be accounted worthy to escape all these things that shall come to pass and to stand before the son of man so that's the luke passage obviously very similar in many respects and yet there are some differences that the more you study the more disturbing they become what are some of the issues well the destruction of jerusalem it turns out the discussion of the destruction of jerusalem is very different in both accounts is it the destruction in 70 a.d that's a major landmark in jewish history or is it an event yet future and the abomination of desolation that matthew talks about what on earth is that all about what is it when did it happen or has it not happened yet the great tribulation the parable of the fig tree these are all issues that prophecy buffs argue about and talks about this generation shall not pass away which generation is he talking about and this doctrine of eminence underlays all of this that he could come at any moment both to the world and also to us individually it has a number of implications so these are some of the issues that lurk behind our understanding of this critical passage given by the lord himself let's back up a little bit and review what i like to call the epistemology and that's simply the study of knowledge at scope and limits how do we know that anything is true jesus says be not deceived he says at the beginning and the end of each discourse well great how do we prevent how do we keep from being deceived how do you go about it what are your tools and we we live in a culture in which the information we get from our administration and from the press has been proven to be unreliable okay how do you find out what's really going on how do you know what's really true and uh well in what we're doing here first of all you establish the integrity of the word of god by discovering its integrity that that you got 66 books penned by 40 guys over several thousand years that are an integrated message once you discover that then you'd also discover that the origin had to come from outside time itself outside the the dimensions that we normally experience once you establish that it's that collection that that integrated message that establishes the identity of jesus christ mel gibson in this movie the passion did a marvelous job in many respects but it led to two areas of confusion it created the impression of the crucifixion was a tragedy it was an achievement that was planned before the foundation of the world the second thing it failed to do is identify who jesus christ really is not just a great teacher a great religious leader quite the country's the most anti-religious person ever walked the earth so once you establish the identity of the scripture then with that you establish christ and then from that you carefully understand precisely what he said find out what he actually said and address that with a a great care and precision our piston logic approach is to establish the identity of the integrity of the design which establishes the identity of jesus christ and he then of course identifies authenticates the whole package that's our epistemological model in effect so we've got under hermeneutics which is a theory of interpretation we do recognize that there are all kinds of rhetorical devices in the text some of those are allegorical some of those are met similes metaphors there's 200 different rhetorical devices in the scripture but we need to understand when we see a historical rhetorical device is it allegorical or is it to be taken literally those are issues are these uh uh things that look similar are they parallel or are they distinctives are those distinctives deliberate we need to decide those things and are we dealing in precision or approximations i've learned painfully over my 60 years of studying the bible i never use the word approximate in god in the same sentence his precision is astonishing the more you know about the languages the more astonishing it becomes so we obviously have a very high view of the text as it might be said scholastically and we draw that from matthew 5 17-18 where jesus himself says think not that i come to destroy the torah or the prophets i come not to destroy but to fulfill for verily i say not one yacht or one tittle shall pass the law till all be fulfilled that's a call to taking the text very very precisely you test your views always against the context but the real context is the whole council of god not just the local context the ultimate context is the whole council of god and it's an integrated deliberate design and once you discover that it'll change your whole approach to your bible studies the ultimate challenge to your hermeneutics is your eschatology the ultimate challenge to your theories of interpretation is how comprehensive do you understand god's whole plan of redemption the first branch in the road you come to there are those that believe that the millennium christ's literal rule on the earth is just an allegorical kind of illusion and there are those that are pre-millennial that believe the millennium that the bible talks about is very literal very specific that jesus will literally rule the planet earth from the throne of david for a thousand years that's the first divide i'm guessing my numbers but i would suspect that over 90 percent of people who call themselves christians in the united states would be a millennial most denominate most classical denominations are those that are considered fundamentalists as crackpots like ourselves are premillennial there are there were groups in the past called post milan they felt the millennial had already started but that view is uh became very um shredded by the experience of the 20th century which is the bloodiest century of all mankind and so the idea that millenniums already started is is is there's still a fringe group to think so but i don't think that's a serious contender today there's a variation of millennialism called preterism which says all prophecies been fulfilled already and they're on the rise strangely enough in our culture and uh one of their major arguments is their you so i might say abuse of matthew 24. so we'll be dealing with that in a sense as we go into these through this text among the pre-millennial types of course the question then is when does the rapture take place is it before during or at the end of the tribulation and we take the view that the the rapture will occur before the 7th week of daniel so it's certainly before the tribulation and that's a but that's an area that good scholars have different different views on but if you are on the left side of this chart as most denominations are then you would be post-tribulational or millennial in your perspectives whether you knew those names or not if you are extremists like we are and take the bible very seriously then you tend to be on the right side of this chart and uh pre-tribulational pre-millennial the main point i'm making here though isn't to sell you a particular viewpoint is to point out where you end up on this chart is a function of your hermeneutics if you have a great willingness to allegorize scripture take it just symbolically as as great moral points rather than specifically actually happening that would put you on the left side of the chart if you take the heavy tendency take the bible very precisely very seriously i'll use the term literally uh still acknowledging there are figures of speech obviously that would put you on the right side of the chart so that's a little background but one of the things you'll discover as you study your bible are hazards of your presuppositions we all bring presuppositions to a study and those presuppositions can be hazardous one of the major hazards that we bring to any study is our own traditions and what i call tangled tethers how far are you willing to stray from the text itself there was of course originally mosaic judaism these these were people who believed in the torah the laws of moses directly we'll call that for lack of a better term mosaic judaism the judaism of the old testament but as time went on there were those that embraced what they called the oral law they added to what moses wrote with other rules 613 of them actually and they end up being codified a thing called the talmud in the third through the sixth centuries a.d and the pharisaical judaism is what christ when he shows up he preaches against many of the conflicts the new testament are his rebuttal of these self-imposed rules that weren't where did violence to what god intended as he expressed himself through moses and the tension between pharisaical judaism and mosaic judaism is in part what accounts for those confrontations that we've encountered in the gospel of matthew already as you get after the fall of the temple fall jerusalem and the destruction of the temple the the judaism has a huge problem because they've been taught that by the shedding of blood only by the shedding of blood is remission of sins and now there's no place to shed blood there's no temple there's no alder they had to redefine judaism so they had the council of yamna in 90 a.d which began this trend to redefining judaism to what we see today in large measure would be more properly called talmudic judaism they spend more time studying the talmud then they do the text itself so the point i'm getting here is the tether is getting a little longer each stage going from the written law to the oral law and then from that oral law to the written down oral law called the talmud it went further when you get to the 12th century you have the rise of the writings of the kabbalah jewish mysticism which goes even further in fact it actually even inverts some of the teachings of moses it literally is an attempt to unveil the father's nakedness where they're speaking of the godhead itself and so the tether is getting so bad that there was a reaction to some of that that led to the hasidic judaism in the 18th century six centuries later but each step of these things involves what i call tango tethers they're using the anchor of the text their their tether from that anchor is getting too long they get themselves tangled up into their own uh definitions so that's that we're all victims of traditions this is just one chain that is relevant to our studies they drift away from the original anchor of the text itself we now know from computerized studies that god gave moses the torah letter by letter it has properties that only are sustained by not omitting a single letter but there's another danger that we have perhaps more subtle but one i want you to be aware of and that's where we harmonize the scripture we find two accounts that are different but similar enough we assume they're the same account that one of the two writers just didn't quite get it right are they really recording the same thing or not most of those are in the in the periphery not really serious but the olivet discourse is one of them is it past or is it future the preterist would have you believe it deals with things of the past and yet uh that has some problems we're going to take a look at the olivet discourse is it really the same briefing in all three gospels matthew mark and luke or are they several briefings and with different audiences and different emphasis we'll see i want you to imagine that you had a cheap telescope you point up the sky and you see a star but you're kind of dissatisfied with the fuzzy optics of your cheap telescope so you go to a fancy store and you spend a lot of money and get a really fancy telescope and you look at that same star with good optics and you discus discover something very surprising that that star you were looking at is not a single star it's actually two stars close together there is a mathematical property of optics called resolving power better optics have the ability to resolve more precisely things that are very close together that's basically what a optician means by resolving power and i'm going to suggest to you that when we try to crunch several different passages and assume it's really the same incident we run the risk of losing some precision some insight it may be the subject of error by we're going to discover that matthew 24 and luke 21 have a common a set of common elements the main one being this cluster of events the matthew labels the beginning of sorrows both of them talk about several things that's one of them several others so they have some things in common but they also some things that are distinctively different we're going to try to take a look at that so let's first of all go through the olivet discourse as matthew records it marks is exactly the same thing with the exception of a couple of verses i'll highlight as we go so we're basically looking at two together matthew and mark together here let's go back and look at this again as matthew chapter 24 chapter 1 jesus went out departed from the temple his disciples came to him four to them showed the buildings of the temple obviously the great pride they're all excited about this and jesus said on them see not all these things verily i said to you there shall not be left here one stone upon another that shall not be thrown down that must have come as a shock to them this was a source of stability this was the temple that had a history in fact it was a defining appointed place with divinely appointed priests following divinely appointed procedures it was incomprehensible that god would allow this to be destroyed in their minds that's what jesus is saying so this raises other questions so he said from the mount of olives disciples came unto him privately i want you to notice the reason we call it the olivet discourse is the the location where it was recorded was on the mount of olives i want you to notice that they came to him privately only four not twelve four guys came peter james and john and peter's brother andrew this is a private insider's briefing it's important to understand came to them privately saying tell us when shall these things be what shall be the sign of thy coming in the end of the world good questions the disciples came in privately not 12 4 guys okay if you look at the mark account that's parallel to this as you went out of the temple once this happens in a match to see what manner of stones and buildings are here these answering sentences see us though these great buildings that shall not be left one stone upon another shop not be thrown down notice what mark says in the next verse as he sat upon the mount of olives over against the temple peter james john and andrew asked him privately just these four guys tell us when shall these things be and what shall be the sign when all these things show up fulfilled that's the only difference in the matthew and mark account let's go back a little further here now i want you to realize that jesus had a lot of followers probably in the hundreds especially at this time because they all heard about lazarus and what have you so that's the general public as outside that there's groups that are his followers that are after matthew 12 he he speaks to the public only in parables but inside his total followers there's a group called the 70 we read about but inside that 70 there are the 12. you even use that as a title when there's only 11 after judas departs they still call it the 12 but that's it means or it's really the 11 as we would say and of course within the 12 there's an inner circle right and that inner circle consists of three guys that were present with jairus's daughter when she was raised from the dead these three guys are at the transfiguration in matthew 17. these three will be in an inner circle at gethsemane a little closer than the rest and of course these three plus andrew j peter's brother are at the olivet discourse so this is what we're talking about the ins inner circle that's the point trying to get across okay so to this inner circle jesus answered and said to them take heed that no man deceive you for many shall come in my name saying i am christ and shall deceive many christ is a title claiming to be the messiah not the messiah of israel necessarily but the the the messiah that's coming on the world here and he shall hear of wars and rumors of wars see that be not troubled for all these things must come to pass but the end is not yet it fascinates me how many people use wars and rumors of wars as signs they're non-signs this that the other thing that happened but the end is not yet he says he's going to show you signs in a minute that's not one of them because he goes on to say ford nation shall rise against nation kingdom and kingdom and there shall be famines pestilences and earthquakes and divers places all these are the beginning of sorrows or the actual the uh the label in the greek is birth pangs sorrows like a woman has in labor increasing in intensity and increasing in frequency this group of signs is referred to by both writers luke and matthew i'm going to cluster these and call them the beginning of sorrows it's a group okay national triage against nation kingdom against kingdom famines pestilences earthquakes and diverse places why am i doing that because they are listed consistently in three interesting places the false christ the wars the famines peasants earthquakes are in matthew 24 verses 4 through 9. they're also the same list as in luke 21 verse 4 through 24 in effect and revelation opens in chapter six with the first dozen verses listing those same things using slightly different idioms but again you've got the white horseman the red horseman the black horsemen and so forth right okay so these are i'm going to call the beginning of sorrows to give them a a cluster a label okay now what matthew records then shall they deliver you up to be afflicted very key word here see that word then underline that in your bible is going to be important later then shall they deliver you up to be afflicted and shall kill you see that's wonderful news and you shall be hated of all nations for my name's sake and then shall many be offended and shall betray one another and hate one another and many false prophets shall rise and shall deceive many okay and because iniquity shall abound the love of many shall wax cold as my wife pointed out to me the word love there is agape oh the agape of many shall wax cold the lack of love within the christian body is a sign of the times i was shocked to get that prophecy lesson from my wife who's dedicated her ministry on that issue love within the body but he that shall endure to the end the same shall be saved and this gospel of the kingdom shall be preached in all the world for a witness unto all nations and then shall the end come then we get to verse 15 and the identical verse is in mark 13 verse 14 jesus when ye therefore shall see the abomination of desolation key word we're going to talk about that spoken of by daniel the prophet now that verse is very precious to me because daniel i mean that jesus here has saved you hours of boring library research the book of daniel happens to be one of the best documented books of the old testament there's more support for that book that if you want to dig it out but you don't need to who wrote the book of daniel daniel did was it daniel the prophet yes how do i know jesus told me that saves me all that trouble i don't have to i don't have any doubt about that anymore if you believe in jesus christ you have no doubt about the authenticity of the book of daniel if you don't believe in jesus christ you've got a lot bigger problems than the authentic city of the book of daniel when you see the abomination desolation spoken by daniel the prophet that now he speaks of it by the way in daniel 8 daniel 9 and 11 daniel 12. daniel speaks a lot about this abomination of desolation stand in the holy place the holy of holies let me define this right now we'll get into a little more but i want to just get this right out of the way because there's more confusion about what is the abomination of desolation the word abomination throughout the bible is something god detests detests it's abomination it's something god detests what is it that he detests idol worship worshiping anything other than worshiping the living god is an abomination to him the abomination of desolation is the ultimate most insulting form of that you not only erect an idol and worship but you worship it on the most holy spot on the planet earth that's in jerusalem in the temple in fact in the holy place in fact in the holy of holies it has only happened once before in history and because it has happened in the past we know a lot about it stand the holy place and then you have this interesting verse or passage whoso readeth let him understand how many of you read that verse off the screen during the study i see a show of hands come on let's see hi okay i played a dirty trick on you you see this verse is not for theologians or pastors for everybody that had their hand up whosoever readeth let him understand you have incurred an obligation to understand what this highly technical highly precise verse is saying jesus is telling his believers his disciples when ye therefore shall see it's something they're going to be able to see well that's confusing the abomination of desolation that's an idol a pagan idol in the holy of holies which is spoken of by daniel the prophet at least in four places stanley was how can't now the holy place is a place that only the high priest can enter and only once a year and only after great ceremonial preparations called yom kippur if only the high priest can go in there and only on once a year how can you as somebody in judea see this going on anyone cnn exactly this will be a televised this strangely enough this may sound like i'm being flippant i'm not this is actually includes within it a prediction of global television there's going to be several of those throughout the bible by the way let's move on we need a little background because the the abomination desolation occurred in the past there was a guy by the name of antiochus iv he was the son of antarcus iii third known as the antiochus antiochus the great he became the successor of his brother seleucus the fourth who had been murdered by his minister and the king of syria antigua is the fourth was a despot highly eccentric highly unpredictable and reliable very cruel astonishingly cruel and tyrannical he adopted the nickname epiphanies which is an abbreviation of the greek theos epiphanes which is a designation he gave himself what it means is the god who appears or reveals himself you get some insight into his humility by the label he picks up but he becomes by the way in the book of daniel a foreshadowing of the final world ruler by the way that's why there are passages especially in chapter 11 from from verse 36 through about 40 is about in tigers the fourth but from 40 on it's obviously speaking of a future echo of that guy in the future and take center took the total eradication of the jewish religion he was a he was a seleucid empire of greek and he wanted to establish the greek polytheism instead of the judaism of the jews and he decided to do that by force the observance of all jewish laws especially those that relate to the shabbat and the circumcision were forbidden under pain of death if you circumcised your children you were subject to the death penalty think about that as a parent to be faithful you need to circumcise your kids but that would be something that would leave evidence that would be actioned upon by monthly visits of the officers of antiochus if you tried to observe the sabbath you were had the same result all jewish practices were set aside in all the cities of judea and sacrifices were ordered to be submitted against pagan deities and representatives of the crown were everywhere to enforce these edicts once a month the search was instituted and whoever secreted a copy of the torah or it observed the right of circumcision was condemned to death these were tough times these were tough times in jerusalem on the 15th of kislev in december of 168 he broke the league that he had made he apparently had made an agreement with the leadership in jerusalem but he apparently have violated that league a pagan altar was built on the great altar and albert sacrifices the temple and he stripped the temple of its treasuries this is all recorded in josephus in antiquities of the jews book seven verse four he pillaged them the city of jerusalem took ten thousand captives compelled them to forsake their worship forbid circumcision crucified violence the torah was forbidden and destroyed this also is recorded by josephus in antiquities volume 12. on the 25th of kislev which happens to be antiochus birthday and it interestingly enough becomes commemorated by all jewish families ever since for reasons i'll explain in a minute on his birthday he brought a sacrifice on this altar for the first time he had offered a swine in every village that's josephus points that out the first the other one's in maccabees he erected an idol to zeus in the holy of holies which maccabees first maccabees calls a desolating sacrilege second magnus calls it made thus the temple to jupiter olympias and this was the abomination of desolation why do i call it that because there a spontaneous revolt occurs there's a bunch of officers arrived to carry out antarctica's decrees at the village of modain where an aged priest named matthias lived with his five sons matthias was a devout jew obviously he immediately killed the first jew that approached the pagan altar to offer the sacrifice and he also killed the royal official who presided and he and his sons he and his five sons obviously fled to the hills because they now were fugitives now this little spontaneous incident gets blossoms into a full-scale war his five sons were of course the nucleus of these gang of rebels five sons were john simon judas eliezer and jonathan they had nicknames judas's nickname that was gaddai fassai maccabeas and avaron and athes but the leader it's clear that judas of these five sons was had great military aptitude and skills his nickname happened to be mecca beast the hammer gives you some idea of his athletic prowess that he apparently earned before all this happened but he then becomes the leader of this revolt and the revolt in general are then known as the maccabeans after judas's nickname their last name really had to do with hasmoneans some people can't link up why what why did the maccabean revolt which was successful lead to the hezbollah that was the family name the maccabean is the nickname of judas who was the big leader here at the time matthias the age of priests soon died after leaving the leadership of the hands of judas and so he was a brilliant brilliant guy and this guerrilla war then turned into full military engagements and they managed to defeat the more powerful syrian armies they actually threw off the yoke of the seleucid empire and that leads to what's called the hasmonean period he did a lot of things he captured jerusalem he rededicated the temple it took three years it's the third year on the anniversary of its desecration that they rededicate the temple on the 25th of kislev and that is honored by the jewish community every 25th of kids live since then it's called hanukkah we always associate hanukkah with the colorful legends that surround just it's analogous to talking about santa claus and christmas in a sense they have some colorful legends about hanukkah but set that aside for the moment the real issue is they're celebrating the rededication of the temple and uh and it's it's authorized the new testament by the way in john chapter 10 verse 22 the new testament makes allusion to hanukkah i think the holy spirit did that to make you do your homework on this background now antiochus also took place in 164 so that's that's a great year by any accounting okay now he continued uh successfully to press what was now a war for independence his last great victory was over the force of encounter beth horon that beth horn was the same place that joshua had the sun standstill and all that and that was in march of 161 bc that leads to what we call the hasmonean period and that endures until pompeii conquers judea on behalf of the romans in 63 bc so it lasts about a century of what we call a hasmonean period okay so here we have the abomination of desolation spoken by daniel the prophet stand in the holy place now here's here's the problem jesus is talking this at about 32 a.d but he says he's speaking of it as a future event when ye shall see so it's something coming but what we know about it if you were jewish at that time that word conjures up a memory of a couple you know a couple centuries ago and once you get that clear in your mind i think i've got a little chronology here we visualize this as a timeline daniel's prophecy was call it the 5th fifth century bc just ahead of the return when they were freed the persians conquered babylon and freedom go home that occurs about 539 bc daniel's prophecy was written just in advance of that obviously the abomination of desolation took place in 167 bc right so that the the step two in the meantime the septuagint in the middle of the third century 270 bc the septuagints translated just to give you a feeling of the chronology here okay daniel's prophecy they get freed they come back to the land under the persian under the uh under ptolemy philadelphus they translate the old testament into greek let's call the septuagint 270 bc we're not get we as time moves we're now at 1657 bc where we have this event that we just talked about jesus is talking here about 32 a.d so all this is history with me so far but jesus is making reference to an abomination of desolation i'm going to call it abomination desolation number two because he's talking about something that hasn't happened that is mirrored in advance in in by antioxidants are we together on that the reason we're so comfortable about knowing it because it happened in the past and jesus himself is making reference to it in fact he links jesus himself in the olivet discourse points you to daniel to unravel prophecy jesus is pointing his insiders to daniel chapter nine as the key to end time prophecy now we've just been through all that this is i'm just trying to tie it all together for you okay so we have a term that paul uses called the fullness of the gentiles referring to the church because after after jesus is resurrected and then ascended we have the the church is born at the feast of shavuot or feast of pentecost as we call it it was born in a miracle it will end in the miracle that period of time paul uses the phrase the fullness of the gentiles and romans 11 25. don't confuse that and obviously by the way that leads to the tribulation don't confuse that term with the times of the gentiles which starts with nebuchadnezzar and ends with the antichrist the times the gentiles luke uses in this thing to refer to gentile dominion of the planet earth and it will be consummated with the antichrist so don't let those two terms confuse you but obviously after the tribulation comes armageddon the lord intervenes sets up his kingdom and we're going to focus shortly on this peculiar period of time called the 70th week which is split into two three and a half year period remember when we talked about daniel 70 weeks we had 69 weeks that predicted the exact day that jesus rode that donk into jerusalem then there's an interval verse 25 of the 69 weeks we dealt with that verse 27 will deal with the last of the 70th weeks the seventh week there is an interval between the two verse 26 during which the messiah is executed and which the temple is destroyed these things happen after the writing of the donkey presenting himself as king and yet they occur before the 70th week there's a discontinuity there's an interval a gap if you will and that gap includes the church the seventh week is verse 27. and a lot the detail there we've talked about in the past it's defined by a covenant being enforced by the world leader that's what defines us does it not defined by the rapture that apparently occurs sometime prior to that many people get they assume he signs a treaty or someone says he enforces a covenant that maybe he does sign a tree maybe he just enforces the palestinian covenant who knows in the middle of that seven year period is when we have this abomination of desolation and jesus himself labels that last half of that seven year period the great tribulation his label not mine it's three three and a half years not seven in fact each half of this seven year period is labeled three and a half years 42 months 1260 days in old testament and the new testament both most documented period of time in the bible are we together so far okay when you see the abomination of desolation jesus says you split and you split now he says then let them which be in judea not l.a or paris or whatever then let them which be in judea flee into the mountains let him which is on the house house top not pack his things but he was in the housetop not come down to take anything out of his house neither let him which is in the field return back to take his clothes how much clearer can he be when you know this has happened you split and you split now whoa unto them that are with child or to them which gives suck in those days if you're a woman with a baby you've got a problem because you're not going to be able to move fast enough apparently pray that your flight and be not in the winter you know that judea sometimes is impassable in winter we were there when it snowed neither on the sabbath day now there's a clue is he talking to gentiles or is he talking to jews he's talking to jews pray that your flight be not in the winter or on the sabbath day the sabbath day you've got a problem for then here's another then market for then shall be great tribulation such as not since the beginning of the world of this time nor ever shall be that's a technology statement may not realize until you think about it if you were studying this during the civil war you could not imagine that kind of chaos coming from muskets and bayonets this is a technology statement the nuclear cloud overhangs every geopolitical decision on the planet earth today except those days should be shortened there should no flesh be saved but for your elect's sake those days shall be shortened if god didn't intervene some way man would wipe himself out that's what he's saying that's a technology statement among other things great tribulation jesus is labeling this period himself he's quoting from daniel 12. look at daniel 12 at that time shall michael stand up the great prince would stand for the children of thy people and there shall be a time of trouble such was never since there was a nation even to that same time and at that time thy people shall be delivered every one that shall be found written in the book a promise that's given to him by a messenger in the last couple of three chapters of daniel the climax of daniel time of trouble such as never was since that that's exactly what jesus saying jesus is calling it the great tribulation jeremiah uses a similar kind of phrase he says the last for that day is great so that none is like it it is even the time of jacob's trouble but he shall be saved out of it that's the time of jacob's trouble that's a jewish label for the great tribulation it's worldwide but it focuses on the jews then if any man shall say unto you no here is christ you're there believe it or not where there shall rise false christs and false prophets and shall show great signs on television and right now and shall show great signs and wonders and so much that if it were possible they shall deceive the very elect behold i have told you before wherefore if they say unto you behold he's in the desert go not forth if he's in the secret chambers believe it not for his lightning cometh out of the east and shineth even to the west so shall also the coming of the son of man be for wheresoever the carcasses there will the eagles be gathered together that's one phrase that i can't find any of the conservative scholars that will tell you what that means all of them in their privacy will admit they scratch their head there are a number of conjectures but all of them are attackable so this is not one to finally resolve one can view it like where the body is there will be his eagles gathered together that's one view but the idiom is a very strange one because the carcasses sounds like a dead carcass and uh the eagles are our vultures or not equals like we think of them so as you as you analyze this into the text it's not helpful at least it apparently is a phrase that needs uh more illumination i've talked to um all the great scholars i know and and all of have conjectures but none that are really uh conclusively uh i personally suspect that it alludes to that though where his body is we will all be gathered with him but that's that's con that's con presumptuous but here's another one immediately after the tribulation of those days import that's a very key phrase some interesting things happen see the predators would say this has already happened oh really then the sun was darkened the moon shall not give her light the stars shall fall from heaven the powers of heaven shall be shaken not so you'd notice you see and then shall appear the sign of the son of man in heaven and then shall all the tribes of the earth mourn for they shall see the son of man coming in the clouds of heaven with power and great glory that's not the rapture that's the coming in power and great glory and so the uh and the rapture phrase may emerge from a better understanding that previous verse but i can't prove it to you today but the main point is the preterists have to take this verse and just make it allegorical because they can't escape the fact it says immediately after tribulation if that's already passed gee then the sun's moon the sun the moon is darkened and stars fall powers haven't shaken and the sign of the son of man in heaven that all the tribes of the earth mourn i haven't noticed that anywhere no i don't think that this is where the preterists insist but it falls apart immediately after so again we have the covenant enforced the seventh week second coming is that the after that tribulation he comes and there's the millennium and there's different views of the tribulation among the pre-revelational types the amillennialists typically assume that there's some kind of resurrection when he comes back that makes the marriage separate the lamb a snack lunch i guess the pre-tribbers like ourselves you notice that is not at the beginning of the week some interval prior to because once the rapture takes place then is the antichrist revealed then he comes to power enough to enforce the covenant that interval maybe one day it might be 30 years who knows and there are those that recognize that the rapture has to occur before the great tribulation but they recognize the tribulations three and a half not seven years so there's a mid-trib subset of the pre-trippers but that's fine both the mid-tribs and the post-tribs have to deny the doctrine of eminence the doctrine of eminence throughout the new testament causes us to understand that he can come at any moment and imposing any conditions on that clouds the doctor of eminence and both the mid-trib and the post-trib people have all kinds of things that have to happen before you can come back and uh donald gray barnhouse used to needle walter every day that he came to the office he said sad day sad day jesus can't come back today he was kneeling walter about his post-tribulation position because if you're post-trib jesus you've got at least seven years of stuff that have to happen before christ can come back and that's just a way of dramatizing the doctrine of eminence but it's that interval i don't know whether it's one hour or many months or days who knows okay you shall send his angels with a great sound of a trumpet and they shall gather his elect from the four winds and from one end of heaven to the other now learn the parable of the fig ah here comes the big one when his branch is yet tender put it forth leaves you know that summer is nigh so likewise ye when you shall see these things know that is near even at the doors verily i say to you this generation shall not pass to all these things be fulfilled there are all kinds of people writing books that try to make the fig tree israel or judah or whatever no that they're the vine not the fig tree generally but luke punctures this by saying the fig tree and all the trees the issue here isn't the fact that it's figs the issue here is that it's spring coming when you see the first signs you know that summer's coming near that's his basic point verily i'm saying to you this generation will not pass until all these things will be fulfilled i'll come back to this after we've looked at the luke account heaven and earth will pass away but my word shall not pass away but of that day and hour knoweth no man no not the angels of heaven but my father only that's the way it is in the matthew account the way it's in the mark account is really disturbing the same equivalent verse in mark 13 heaven and earth shall pass away but my word shall not pass away but of that day and hour knoweth no man no not the angels of heaven neither the son but the father only now that's quite a verse to chew on because that seems to indicate that at least at that moment that he was speaking jesus speaking there was something his father knew that he did not and you know theologically you can have some difficulties with that i thought the father and he were one that's what he you know he's going to say a few hours later in john 17. and so or does that mean that there is something apparently that has been withheld for some reason to the father only there is a number when the body of christ is complete that the father says the son go get him and i believe that that event is deliberately in the mind of the father kept a secret to catch satan by surprise so you're doing i think you in vain trying to second guess when the rapture occurs because i think the whole thing's been deliberately designed to catch satan off guard but this is a troublesome troublesome verse but the interest of being complete i want to call to your attention when it says neither there's neither the son but the father only that's that raised some very interesting discussions among theologians about the trinity but we'll forego those and go on here as the days of nowhere so shall the coming of the son of man be for as in the days that were before the flood they were eating and drinking marrying giving and marriage to in the day that no entered the ark and knew not until the flood came and took them all away so shall the also the son of the coming of the son of man be now there are most bible expositors will assume that this illusion of the days of noah simply means that it was business as usual until the flood came as a surprise and that's certainly what it includes there are many scholars for a number of subtle reasons believe that that is certainly true but there's more to it than that and to really understand this you can't discuss it intelligently until you've really studied what the days of noah were really like and that leads to to a whole study of genesis 6 which i'll spare you this evening invite you to dig into that if you haven't done so and come to your own conclusions about what is called the angel view of genesis 6. but let's move on there shall be two in the field one shall be taken the other left two women shall be grinding at the mill one shall be taken the other left and another account will say that there are uh two sleeping in the same bed one will be taken the other left the three those passages put together is interesting because it indicates that jesus understood that the world was round because you got a pre-breakfast chore grinding at the mill by the women you got men in the middle of the day working in the field you got people sleeping in the bed at night so you got morning noon and night at the same instant so it tells you it's it it's one of the things we take for granted but i just want to point out that it it it requires a accurate world view to appreciate anyway but um wherefore there you know not what our your lord death come that's obviously i believe it's an illusion to the rapture there's different views on this thing but know this that if the good man of the house had known in what watch the thief would come he would have watched and would not have suffered his house to be broken up don't be confused by the unfortunate translation for good man the word in the greek actually means master head of the house good man here is unfortunate because we assume he's a good man no the term really means the head of the house no more it's not it's not a it's a it's not a a value judgment he's the master of the head of the house so what the term the greek means notice that if the head of the house had known in what watch the thief would come he would have watched and would not have suffered his house to be broken up who is the master of the house anyone satan exactly who's the thief idiomatically christ sounds strange think it through come to your own conclusions satan's house is going to be that's jesus is going to catch satan by surprise is the point therefore be also ready for in such an hour as you think not the son of man cometh the son of man is that thief in the idiom of the previous parable who then is a faithful and wise servant whom his lord hath made rule over his household to give them meat and due season blessed is that servant whom his lord when he cometh shall find so doing verily i say to you that he shall make him ruler over all his goods what's all this mean be diligent moment by moment are many many signs in the rise that cause us to believe that we're moving into the end times okay if so it's time to put some urgency about raising the bar in your personal walk on your faith and your commitments to a king make sure that he's not number one on a list of ten he's number one on a list of one but an if that evil servant shall say in his heart my lord delayeth his coming he shall begin to smite his fellow servants and to eat and drink with the drunken the lord of that servant shall come in the day when he looketh not for him but in an hour that he is not aware of and he shall cut him asunder and appoint him his portion with the hypocrites there shall be weeping and gnashing of teeth so in the next session i want you to compare carefully matthew 24 and luke 21 are they the same or was it a different occasion with different audiences and a different emphasis that's your challenge between now and next week's session

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Length: 59min 43sec (3583 seconds)

Published: Mon Oct 19 2020