Matthew (Session 18) Chapter 24b & Luke 21

we're in session 18 of our review of the gospel of matthew and you could call this the olivet discourse part 2 where we're going to take a look at one of the passages that is widely assumed to be the owl of the discourse namely the passage in luke 21 and this i hope will be useful background for you give you a whole fresh insight as to what really transpired in that first century and more relevantly what's forthcoming so let's just jump in let's back up and take a look at the design of the gospels we've done this in most of these studies as you know that matthew presents jesus as the mashiach the messiah the king the lion of the tribe of judah mark the suffering servant luke being a gentile doctor focuses on his humanity the son of man and john is the only one of the three that really focuses on who he is that he's the son of god the genealogies in each of them support that every detail of each of the gospels support their primary design the genealogy of matthews as any jew would would starts with abraham and goes through the legal line through joseph mark posting a servant does not even deal with his pedigree there's no there's no there's no genealogy in mark luke focuses on his humanity starting with adam and he goes down through david when he gets to david he takes a left turn he doesn't go through solomon the way matthew does the first surviving son of bathsheba he goes through the second surviving son of bathsheba a son by the name of nathan not nathan the prophet a different nathan down through mary the bloodline and and john of course has a genealogy most people wouldn't recognize the first few verses describe the genealogy of the pre-existent one in effect but we'll move on matthew focus on what jesus said what he expresses marx's shooting script but he did luke what his humanity what he felt john who he was and uh they're each writing to a slightly different audience uh and uh the first miracle and the how it ends all supports their basic thesis all the way through to the end and we've talked about this before and we focus of course on the matthew account we're going to take a little deviation and take a look at luke's reflection of this thing we're going to contrast matthew 24 verses luke 21 and again the issues are the destruction of jerusalem is it 70 a.d or the one yet future what about the abomination of desolation luke never mentions it what is it when did it happen is it has it yet the great tribulation we talked about last time quite a bit the parable of fig tree shows up in both accounts slightly differently and each speak of a generation that will not pass away is of the same group or a different group and the doctrine of eminence lurks behind all of this the whole idea that jesus can come back for us at any moment without any preconditioned notions that's taught all through the new testament and we talked about the whole idea of our prologue epistemology the study of knowledge and scope and limits how not to be deceived and to establish the integrity of god's word and then through this established identity of christ and then carefully understand with precision what he actually said so he establishes the integrity that the total package that package establishes beyond any reasonable doubt the identity of christ and knowing who he is then authenticates the whole package that's their approach and we talk about hermeneutics we acknowledge rhetorical devices there are allegories but you never build doctrine on them and there are parallel accounts and separate accounts and you let the context determine it and always i always lean for precision as we go through these studies because of a high view of text we went through this last time okay now in the eschatology just busy by way of summary eschatology divides first major divide is a millennial premillennial post-millennials you don't find very often today preterism is on the rise within the millennial camp if you will we are we lean obviously to the the premillennial view in fact we're very not only pre-trib we're pre-73 daniel in our in our perceptions but the main point is is that most denominations are all millennial and post-trib and the fundamentalists or independent bible churches are typically pre-millennial fundamentalists if you will the main point i want to make is that your willingness to allegorize scripture will determine where you flow on this chart and if you have a high willingness to treat things just sort of broad symbols it means whatever you think it might mean you could swing to the left if you take it very precisely with a great emphasis on the literal applications you tend to be on the right side of the chart so your hermeneutics determines your eschatology as my premise but there are hazards to presuppositions we talked about last time how mosaic judaism degraded to pharisaical judaism by regarding what they call the oral law which then gets codified in the in a written form called the talmud and how that led ultimately the cap the kabbalah and the hasidics in the 18th and 12th and the 12th and 18th centuries respectively but the main point is these drifts away from the text is what leads to the the deviations if you will the the tangled tethers i call them we have the same risks as we tend to if we don't tend to really stick to what the text really says precisely but there's another error that we encounter that we're right in the middle of this whole idea of harmonizing the gospels assuming that matthew 24 mark 13 luke 21 are the same discord they may be they may not let's take a look at that and is the eleventh discourse pastor futures one of the big debates raging among some denominations are these one briefing or several i'm going to show you why i believe they're quite distinctly different briefings not the same despite their similarities we talked about resolving power and remind you that if you take a cheap telescope you'll see a star that's fine but if you improve the optics substantially you can often tell that it's a double star not just one that's called resolving power it's a it's a measure of quality in optics a high resolving power is a more expensive telescope and that's sort of the same thing we're running into here with matthew 24 21 the beginning of sorrows is in common to both plus another few other phrases so let's again we just refresh our memory of matthew 24 and then we're going to dissect luke 21 carefully but let's remind ourselves how matthew 24 flowed out jesus went out and departed from the temple and his disciples came to him for to show him the buildings of the temple and jesus said i'm seeing not all these things verily i say to you there shall not be left here one stone upon another that shall not be thrown down as he sat upon the mount of olives the disciples came in privately and we just determined from mark that there's four of those guys saying tell us when shall these things be and what shall be the sign by coming the end of the age and so and it's mark that tells us it was peter james john and andrew that we're among the four that's where we pick that up and of all his followers there's obviously the general public then there's the 70s then there's the 12 there's the inner circle which are the favored bunch there's at least four occasions when peter james and john are present john andrew joins him with all the discourse but the other jairus daughter transfiguration get so many are all demonstrate that these three peter james and john enjoyed a private inner circle status somehow and jesus answered he'd know that no man deceive you for many shall come in my name saying i am christ and shall deceive many and ye shall hear of wars and rumors of wars see that you be not troubled for all these things must come to pass but the end is not yet these are non-signs in effect but then we get to verse 8 7-8 for a nation shall rise against nation and kingdom against kingdom and there shall be famines and pestilences and earthquakes and diverse places all these are the beginning of birth pangs or sorrows this cluster shows up in revelation as well as luke and matthew the false christ the wars the famines pestilence earthquakes occur in matthew 24 verses 4-9 in luke 21 verses 4-24 and revelation 6 through 12. so i'm going to cluster these they're going to be important in the chart that we're going to develop here shortly but then jesus went on to say then shall they deliver up to be afflicted and kill you and shall be hated of all nations for my name's sake and then shall many be offended and shall betray one another shall hate one another and many false prophets shall arise and shall deceive many that word then i suggested you mark in your bibles because we're going to contrast that word with the 12th verse of luke 21 with some surprising implications let's move on you said because iniquity shall abound the love or the agape of many shall wax cold and 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 and then we have this pivotal verse the one that you really want to master verse 15 of matthew 24 when you therefore shall see the abomination of desolation spoken by daniel the prophet that authenticates it if you will and it's all through the book of daniel obviously stand in the holy place and if there's a call for every one of us who's so readers let him understand so we now have an obligation to do our homework here we talked about antioxidants epiphanies how he offered a swine in every village erected his idol to zeus the holy of holies and so forth we had a lot more background on the previous one i won't try to summarize at all and when you therefore shall see the abomination of desolation spoken by daniel the prophet stand in the holy place then we have let me give summarize the chronology daniel wrote in the fifth at the beginning of the fifth century um returned to jerusalem occurred about 509 at 539 bc the abomination of desolation occurs in the second century the septuagint got translated in the third century bc and the olivet discourse occurs in the first century the point is that jesus is making reference to the abomination the abomination of desolation as a future event but obviously it gains its rhetorical relevance from history so it happened back in 1664 bc and it's going to happen again and so we understand its significance by the fact that we can examine history okay we talk the difference between the fullness of the gentiles and the times of the gentiles let's not get confused because luke is going to use the times of the gentiles which started with nebuchadnezzar will end with the antichrist not to be confused with the term paul uses of the church calling it the fullness of the gentiles in romans 11 25. but anyway at the end of the tribulation is when we have the kingdom set up the 70th week is is a target of our of matthew's focus here the interval when we studied daniel 70 weeks we had the first 25 verse 25 had the 69 weeks which predicted the exact day that jesus presented himself as a king but verse 26 deals with an interval before we even get to the last the 70th week there's a gap during which the messiah is executed the temple is destroyed as indeed it was and from history we know that that's turned at least 38 years between the uh um from the time that of the triumphal entry until the destruction of the temple but from experience we've noticed that's that's been over 1900 years but it's the 70th week that's one of the most documented periods of time in both the old new testament and it's defined by the covenant being forced by this world leader it's split into two halves by this peculiar political event that occurs in the holy of holies where this world leader sets himself up to be worshipped and that splits the seven year period into two halves and jesus himself labels the three and a half years the second three and a half years as the great tribulation and so there's lots of confusion because people speak of a seven year tribulation what they really are alluding to is the seventh week of daniel but it's not the tribulation is not seven years it's three and a half the first three and a half may be a false peace that raises this guy his his stature in the on the planet earth but matthew candy let them which be in judea knows that word then then let them which be in judea flee into the mountains let him which is on the house tough what is the then what triggers the then the abomination of desolation exactly then let them which be in judea fleet of the mountains let's hem which on the house top not come down take anything out of his house kneel at him which is in the field return back take his clothes and water them that are with child and to them that you've sucked in those days and pray that he that she your flight be not in winter neither on the sabbath day obviously speaking to jews here and obviously when you see the abomination of desolation when you know that that's happened when you see it on television whatever you split you don't even stop to pack you run for it and get out of there and for then shall be great tribulation there's the lord labeling this period of time the great tribulation such as was not since the beginning of the world of this time never shall be except those days should be short and there should no flesh be saved but for you let's say those days shall be shortened he's not talking about the holocaust in europe this is something yet future and unless those days be short there would be no flesh on the planet earth saved it's going to the first holocaust took one jew and three on the planet earth zechariah 13 verse 8 9 says the next one will take two out of three okay and jesus simply quoting from daniel 12. a time of trouble such as never since there there was a nation even that same time jeremiah used a slightly different phrase for the same thing a time of jacob's trouble it's the focus on this is israel and then matthew continued if any man shall say to you low here is christ or there believe it not for there shall arise false christ false prophets they'll show great signs and wonders in so much that if it were possible they should deceive the very elect that's scary isn't it behold i've told you before wherefore if they say unto you be always in the desert go not forth behold is he in the secret chambers believe it not for his lightning cometh out of the east and china even of the west so shall also the coming of the son of man be and wheresoever the carcasses there will the eagles be gathered together many different views of that verse i personally suspect can't prove i suspect that's just referring to that we will be with christ the body of christ immediately after the tribulation of those days shall the sun be darkened and the moon shall not give her light the star shall fall from heaven the powers of heaven shall be shaken i submit to you i don't think this has happened yet i think this is yet future 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 immediately after the tribulation we have all these cosmic things happening i submit to you that has not happened yet we haven't had the tribulation yet we haven't had these major issues so we have the covenant enforced the abomination desolation the second coming the question is where does the church get raptured the amillennialists would sort of adopt a post-tribulational view that the rapture the resurrection of the or the the catching of the saints and so forth occur essentially with the return of christ that's their view we believe that it happens before the seventh week of daniel because of 2 thessalonians 2 and several other passages there are some that recognize that the church is clearly taken up before the great tribulation and they would be called mid-tribulations meaning they they believe the rapture will occur in the middle of the week both the mid-week the mid-tribulation gang and the post-tribulation gang in effect deny the doctrine of eminence if you recognize that there's no event that has to occur before the lord gathers his own then then you would be the you you you uh that view is decimated by being made or post-trib because they have all kinds of events that have to occur before the rapture can occur for example the the emergence of the antichrist and so forth anyway let's move on we believe that the next event to happen in this scenario is the rapture itself by some distance ahead of the seventh week could be hours it could be days or weeks who knows but it's uh because the after the rapture the antichrist is revealed according to paul ii thessalonians 2 and once he's revealed he has to rise to power to enforce the covenant that could be a day it could be many months it could be years who knows you know anyway going on he'll set his angels with a great sound of a trumpet they shall gather together his elect from the four winds from one end of heaven to the other now learn the prayer of the fig tree when his branch is yet tender and put it forth leaves you know that summer is nigh this is matthew's account luke's will be slightly different maybe illuminating in that regard so likewise ye when you shall see all these things know that is near even at the doors verily i say to you this generation shall not pass till all these things be fulfilled heaven earth will pass away but my words will not pass away for that day and hour knoweth no man no not the answer to him but my father only and as mark points out even the son does not know but that day and hour knows no man no not the angel of heaven neither the son but the father only rather remarkable insight from peter mark is basically the secretary for peter's gospel then as but as the days of noah were so shall also the coming of the son of man being this begs a question what do we mean by the days of noah for that you need to study genesis 6 carefully but continuing here for as in the days that were before the flood they were eating and drinking and marrying and giving in marriage until the day that noah entered the 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 be two in the field one shall be taken the other left two women shall be grinding at the male one will be taken the other left watch therefore for ye know not what hour your lord doth come there's again another call to eminence if you will but know this that if the good man of the house had known and what watched the thief would come he would have watched and would not have suffered his house to be broken up the good man is a unfortunate translation of a term that actually just simply means the master of the head of the house he's not necessarily a good guy at all it's just a term for the master and in this case the master of satan he or he runs the place and jesus is going to take is going to come to break up his house therefore be also ready for in such an hour as you think not the son of man cometh who then is a faithful and wise servant whom his lord hath made ruler of his household to give them meat and due season blessed is that servant whom is lord when he cometh shall find so doing verily i said to you he that shall make him ruler over all his goods but and if that evil servant shall say in his heart that my lord delayeth his coming and 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 but an hour that he is not aware of and shall cut him asunder and point him his portion with hypocrites there shall be weeping and gnashing of teeth there are some people that try to apply this to post-tribulational viewpoint i think that's probably a misapplication but it does give you a pause let's move on matthew 24 and luke 21 have some elements in common we're going to discover that the wars famines earthquakes and so forth the beginning of sorrows is a cluster of signs alluded to by both of these guys also that ultimately at the very end there's going to be cosmic of evil sun and moon and stars good all sorts of both of them make allusions to this but in slightly different ways what matthew did he talked about wars famines earthquakes these are the beginning of sorrows and his next verse says then that is after those then shall you see this the abomination of desolation stand in the holy place verse 15 of matthew in other words matthew jumps right after discussing these signs he focuses on what happens after those signs namely the abomination of desolation so he jumps right in to talk about that those events that occur from the abomination of desolation until the second coming of christ so what he talks about there the abominative desolation the great tribulation what what jeremiah calls the time of jacob's trouble you're with me so far that's all but all of this so far was by a summary warm up to get into the luke account now luke's going to take a little different view let's take a look and see what luke says and i'm going to suggest you it's not on the count it's not the mount of olives at all luke chapter 21 verse 5 and as some spake of the temple how it was adorned with goodly stones and gifts he said as for these things which ye behold the days will come in which there shall not be left one stone upon another that shall not be thrown down so that must have been kind of a discouraging announcement to make we're going to discover at the end of this briefing that he's giving this briefing in the temple during the day not on the mount of olives at night that's that should get the sense here and they ask him saying master but when shall these things be what shall what sign will there be when these things shall come to pass he said take heed that ye be not deceived there it is again for many shall come in my name saying i am christ and the time draws 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 so far it's tracking pretty good isn't it okay then say the end of them nations shall rise against nation and kingdom against kingdom and the great earthquake shall be in diverse places the famines and pestilences and fearful sights and great signs shall they be from heaven so far that sounds like the beginning of sorrows that we found out in matthew right same things all the way through in matthew we had the false christ wars fans pestilence and earthquakes same thing in luke revelation let's move on verse 11 and great earthquake shall be in divers places and famines and pestilence and fearful sights and great signs shall they be from heaven notice verse 12 mark it in your bible luke then says or i should say jesus in luke says but before all these see the difference matthew is talking about events that will happen after this cluster of signs luke mentions the same cluster but then says before these things let me tell you what's going to happen so luke's going to talk about things that matthew does not matthew is going to talk about things that luke does not we want to understand that i'll diagram it before we're through anyway mark verse 12 look jesus says but before all these they shall lay their hands on the you persecute you delivering you up to the synagogues and the prisons being brought before kings and rulers for my name's sake and it shall turn to you for a testimony before all these mark that down settle it therefore in your hearts not to meditate before what ye shall answer for i will give you a mouth and a wisdom which all your adversaries shall not be able to gain sin or resist and you shall be betrayed both by parents and brethren and kinsfolk 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 saying but there shall not a hair of your head perish well that's a neat thing to cling to they're going to need it in your patience possess your souls now notice his instructions are a little different than matthew's and when ye shall see jerusalem compassed with armies then know that the desolation thereof is nigh man you didn't talk about that at all then let them which be in judea flee to the mountains well that sounds similar and let them which are in the midst of it depart out and let not them that are in the countries enter there into he's saying not only do you get out of town don't let your friends come back into town i'll show you why in a minute for these be the day of vengeance that all things which are written may be fulfilled so far so good let's do a little homework and understand what happened after this right after the crucifixion the spacion was ordered by nero to attack to take over jerusalem to get order in judea the whole area he succeeded he and his son titus as a general under the vespasian being a senior general titus's son with him they conquered the galilee all the towns the only one left was jerusalem they were getting ready to put a siege on jerusalem and they attacked all the cities of the galilee and so forth except a very important event occurs nero who ordered this dies in june of 68 a.d nero dies what does that lead to anarchy and civil war in rome of course galba assumes the rulership and he's murdered by january so not even six months go by galba is murdered ortho takes he takes over but he's defeated and he commits suicide in april only a couple months later then vitalius took over but he's murdered by his own troops by december of that year okay so this is a mess can you imagine the world empire in rome you've got all this struggle for power vespasian plays his cards right and he takes over as emperor he goes to rome and kicks butt as it were takes charge and brings order and he takes over and he undo's most of the mess that nero had all the debts and the disaster characterized by his by nero the predecessor and these guys of course have taken care of they've killed they've knocked themselves out of the game so the spacion succeeds as emperor okay what happens back in jerusalem titus is left there to complete the siege to jerusalem there's an 18-month period in which his troops are at you know titus the vespasian would have been ordered by nero to to attack jerusalem but near is dead that that that erases the blackboard and through that 18 months of turbulence finally vespasian goes to rome and he takes over now titus is clear obviously encouraged instructed by his father to follow through and complete the job this is all josephus wars of the jews volume 6 chapter 6 verse 1 and following now what happens of course you get that once you get the picture the roman soldiers the four the fifth 10th 12th and 15th legions are out there but they haven't laid siege to the city yet but they're all around because they've just succeeded in the galilee but there's better than over a year here of milling around and and armies atrophy in the barracks they need to be engaged now we learn from eusebius one of the early church fathers that the christians who heard the message that luke records did what jesus said when you see jerusalem surrounded by armies get out of town don't let your friends return what happened according to sebius book three chapter five verse one and following the christians left jerusalem and went to pella a city in in vitreo which berea which is uh east of the jordan pereira so they're safe according to sebius no christians got killed in the fall of jerusalem because they followed the instructions that jesus gave them in luke 21 follow me okay kind of fun woe unto them that are with child and then they give suck in those days for they shall be great distress in the land and wrath upon his 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 the gentiles be fulfilled so jerusalem is not going to have peace until the prince of peace comes they'll have a false peace when the antichrist establishes it not until then road map or no road man there shall be signs in the sun and the moon and the stars upon the earth depressive nations of perplexity and seeing a way of throwing men's hearts failing him for fear and looking for after looking after those things which are coming on the earth and the powers of heaven shall be shaken whenever i read that verse i remember walter martin we were on his board and we always always wince when he would do this but he men's hearts failing him for fear and looking for after those things which are coming upon the earth and you always gesture like a saucer flying saucer landing upon the earth because he was convinced that was ufos you know and not that it isn't but we always felt that would describe if he went down that path it would discredit his ministry looking for those things which are coming on the earth and the powers of the heavens shall be shaken and then shall they see the son of man coming in the cloud with power and great glory so that's the second coming of course and when these things begin to come to pass then look up lift up your heads for your redemption draw nigh praise god your redemption and that's a releasing affected by the payment of a ransom it occurs nine times in the in in this sense in the in the new testament and he spoke to them a parable behold the fig tree and all the trees notice that all the trees i don't think it's appropriate to try to make the fig tree a specific nation or something in this usage here behold the fig tree and all the trees when they now shoot forth and you see and know of your own selves that summer is now nigh at hand that's his point so likewise when you see these things come to pass know ye that the kingdom of god is nigh at hand so even though these things are stressful they're encouraging because it's doing exactly what god said it's going to do okay he said verily i sent you this generation shall not pass away till all be fulfilled now this is a grabber he's talking there to people who are to flee for their own protection to to pella right before the fall of jerusalem 70 a.d 38 years after he said this the romans laid siege jerusalem and we had the fall of jerusalem in 70 a.d 38 years the same length of time that israel wandered in the wilderness after their failure at kiddish bernie the 38 years of that generation that were wasted because of unbelief here's a generation that got survived because they did believe them see the contrast and it's 38 years now it's also interesting here here's another demonstration of the deity of jesus christ especially to those that were alive in that day can you imagine he told them in the temple when you see the armies get out of town right now they did and a million and a half men women and children were slaughtered in the nine months of that siege of titus no christians were lost according to cbs this generation shall not pass away till all be fulfilled heaven earth shall pass away but my word shall not pass away now take you to yourselves unless any time your hearts be over charged with surfeiting and drunkenness or the cares of this life and so that they come upon you unawares for as a snare shall come on all them that dwell on the face of the whole earth boy 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 we have the beginning of sorrows the same group of things that uh are in both cases but they also all of them matthew luke and also revelation talks about this cosmic upheaval at the end the great earthquake shall be in divers places famines pestilence fearful sights great signs that shall be in heaven but before all these this is a repeat before all these that's in other words luke's focus his whole presentation is pretty much focuses on the events that occur before this cluster of signs and then he has a wrap-up at the very end let's see luke says but before all these matthew says then shall they see before all these the beginning of sorrows is what luke focuses on then shall they is what matthew matthew talks about after both of them are using that cluster of signs as a as a reference point and we're talking about false christs wars famines and so forth and luke luke says before those things matthew says after these things then shall they yet the difference very distinctive difference there's more coming again this resolving power we have luke 21 and matthew 24 beginning of sorrows is the is the watershed luke says before these things certain things are going to happen matthew speaks about after these then these things will happen the desolation of jerusalem number one the first desolation which was the 70 a.d matthew talks about the desolation jerusalem under the world leader the the abomination of desolation and all of that and luke talks he tells he's talking to the first generation after his death this generation shall not pass away till all these be fulfilled when matthew speaks of this generation he's speaking to that generation that sees the abomination of desolation and following different generations one is the first generation the other is the last generation they're different presentations by the same person you know it's interesting i have members of my staff that travel with me as we talk across the country and i'll give the same talk many times to different audiences and those that travel with me recognize obviously that maybe 80 of my talk is identical to these different audiences but i'll tailor 10 or 20 of it or some percentage of it to the particular audience how sophisticated are they if they're new believers that's one thing if they're real prophecy buffs that have been through some of the troubled processes in other words my talk will drop on the same references but the emphasis will be tailored to the audience i'm speaking to matthew is a private briefing to the insiders at night on the mount of olives this luke's presentation is to the general believers in the temple during the day i'll show you that in a minute so we have matthew 24 luke 21 famines pestilence and earthquakes to be in and the cosmic peoples being two major areas in common matthew talks about the abomination of desolation what happens after that the great tribulation the time of jacob's trouble then of course the big climax luke talks about what happens before the wars famines and earthquakes and so forth and he's talking about the fall of jerusalem in 70 a.d and both of them have distinctives that make them very relevant where we get into trouble is our presumption that they're both the same presentation they're not they include elements that are similar but they include elements that are distinctively different and i hope this chart helps now so matthew talk about luke talks about what i'll call desolation number one of jerusalem matthew desolation number two the one that happens at the end times there's two major dissolutions in view here and it's confusing then that leads to this confusion that's being promoted by the preteritis saying well it all happened long ago clearly luke did matthew hasn't they're very distinctively different in that regard so the fall luke is talking to the first generation matthew the last generation are we together so far then the question is where do the seven letters seven churches fit in i'm going to suggest you they fit in prior to the beginning of sorrows because they're ahead of chapter six of revelation they're revelation 2 and 3. and if you take if you've been through our our study of that you know that these seven letters seven churches profile among other things the history of the church they have personal homiletic and prophetic implications at least and ephesus speaks of the apostolic church smyrna the persecuted church pergamus the married church what satan couldn't accomplish by persecution he accomplished by uh marrying them to the world that leads to meet what i'll call the medieval church and out of that comes what most of our denominational churches and out of that comes some missionary churches and ultimately the apostate church and we notice that the first three letters have the promises to the overcomer postscripted outside the body of the letter so they're distinctive architecturally for some reason the last four have the promises incorporated within the body of a letter it gets their attention that somehow the first three and the last four have some distinctives we also discover the last four have explicit references to a second coming the first three do not that's kind of interesting so we infer and furthermore one of the last four has an explicit promise that unless they turn around they're going to be thrust into the great tribulation that's interesting one of the last four is an explicit promise that they will be spared from the very time of the great tribulation and so that gets everyone's attention what happens about these others who knows that depends on their individual uh walk of faith i'm sure but in any case that's one that's a prophetic that's why we suggest the seven letters fill in that little gap okay but there's something else that is rather provocative and that is that luke doesn't even mention the great tribulation at all it's not in his presentation at all i get the impression that luke's uh accounting of christ's presentation is specifically addressed to the believers that were alive at that time that we're going to be facing the fall of jerusalem 70 a.d they had no need to focus on events that far distant matthew's presentation for whatever reason seems to focus on the end times it seems to be almost a handbook for the jewish believers after the abomination of desolation so it's interesting that luke being a gentile is focusing on the on the christians of that generation matthew is focusing on matthew's account is focusing uh as a handbook at the end i think that's kind of interesting in luke 21 we find he says in the daytime he was teaching in the temple and at night he went out and boated in the mount of olives which called the mount of olives and all the people came early in the morning to him in the temple before to hear him so i'm it's i'm convinced that the luke 21 account is not the same as the matthew the olive discourse as such it's always bundled with it in some respects it's similar but i think that that bundling can be misleading and that's really the essence of i think there's a hermeneutical lesson for all of us in all of this matthew is speaking to the jews it's a private briefing on the mount of olives that makes clear both matthew and mark luke's account is to the gentiles in the temple they're obviously believers jewish and and prosecute believers and so in eschatology the abomination abomination desolation is to stand in the holy place some people try to make the worship of the roman ensigns at the gate the abominate desolation people who tried to advocate that haven't done their homework frankly but you'll find people that try to make other things there are some people that regard the dome of the rock as the abomination of desolation and i understand why they feel that way but because it the the arabic inscriptions on the doma rock say god does not beget and has not begotten and since it's the denial of jesus christ so people of faith regard that whole monstrosity as an abomination desolation that's a colorful label but that confuses the idioms from what jesus was actually talking about and uh and antarctica's epiphanies it's interesting that um caligula and i think it was about 40 a.d i think had ordered petronius as general in judea to put his image in the holy of holies petronius realized if he tried to do that he would have a repeat of what happened back a couple of centuries earlier under the maccabean revolt so he refused to do that when caligula found out that he didn't follow his orders he sent out orders for petronius to be executed but then caligula dies and by a mix-up at sea the message of his death arrived in judea before his orders to have petronius killed and when the order giver dies it nullifies his order so petronius escaped for the skin but it's interesting to notice how god seems to intervene to prevent a repeat of the abomination of desolation in those early years once the temple's destroyed in 70 a.d there is no way to create an abomination of desolation the very existence of that as a milestone in the future that jesus points to is a demonstration that the temple will be rebuilt and be in operation in order to be desecrated once again that's why we as christians take such interest in aspirations of the jews to rebuild their temple it's not our issue it's their issue but we watch it with great interest that's one reason that knesset had us reinstitute our temple conferences this past in our last trip and uh they're encouraging us to do that again because they're you know they that's a a very meaningful issue before uh the the uh the jew in in jerusalem so we we monitor that with great interest we have good friends that are in the middle of all that um but at the same time it's not our issue except as an observer of course and the hiatus of the siege in 78d is fascinating it's as if god intervened to allow his faithful remnant to get to safety before this horrible horrible siege and by by the romans and so the deity of christ i'm fascinated by the prophecies that his extent in luke luke's account because those 38 years were specifically with great precision uh testified by jesus christ himself so it's one of these overlooked testimonies in my opinion so the destruction of jerusalem we've dealt with the there there's two of them that's our conclusion the abomination lesson it did happen in the past but it will happen again and the great tribulation we've identified the peril the fig tree which generation will pass away it depends which set of sides you're talking about and the doctrine of eminence you need to study for yourself because that doctrine of eminence affects each of us personally you need to understand that jesus can come back tomorrow maybe next week maybe next month and one of the implications of that the more we study the prophetic horizon that's why we monitor the strategic trends in all our materials every one of them is biblically relevant and it's not any one of them it's all of them converging that causes us to recognize that the furniture is being moved into place for the final climax and if that's true that should galvanize every one of us to get serious about our faith at the personal level every one of us should resolve before we leave this room to raise the bar on your personal walk i have no idea what that means for each of us but each one of us no matter where we're at there's something we could be doing that we're not a little more time in prayer a little more serious about a daily reading program in the bible a little more serious about a study time different reading just reading it through is one thing diligent study is quite another the idea of being part of a small group find one join one if not start one it's not hard we'll help you but whatever it is raise the bar on your personal walk whatever that might mean for you in your situation also what it means is that whatever god has called you to do you should do with a higher degree of urgency there are some people that are very very concerned about the future of america george tenet before he left office with george bush he said he believes that al qaeda already has nukes planted in u.s cities the is to get a half a dozen or more at one time maybe he's right maybe he's not jerry corsi and others have published books pointing out that iran is practicing in fact we know from intelligence sources that iran is practicing emp attacks they're launching medium-range ballistic missiles from container ships in the caspian sea detonating with altitude the intelligence community recognizes what they're doing is practicing an electromagnetic pulse attack we've also discovered by analyzing the data of the 1962 nuclear blasts we know that a high altitude nuclear blast causes a huge magnetic pulse that's powerful enough to wipe out electronics connected to a long wire thousand miles away they've also in studying this they've discovered that if one bomb thrown at altitude no no no accuracy is necessary detonated 140 miles up will white will plunge the united states back to the 19th century we not only use telecommunications power and all micro circuits connected to reasonable wires but it destroys our entire infrastructure telecommunications power networks you need telecom to run the power next by the way and other things the analysis of that has shaken the e-ring of the pentagon they realize we are a vulnerable country we are a bomb country israel recognizes they are a one bomb country one bomb over tel aviv and it's over for them but the us is not much better off if iran can get a container ship a couple hundred miles off the eastern seaboard that successfully launches the sahab three missile over the eastern seaboard you'll take out the infrastructure of seventy percent of the population united states no if these things are as we see these clouds on the horizon as we as we grieve and worry over the accelerating decline of america in its legal system in its political system in its entertainment system its media what have you um many many thinking people are getting very discouraged because there's no protection or or shepherding of our heritage the most blessed heritage of any nation in the history of mankind and there aren't teachers that can teach our kids because they don't understand it either we've now through several generations of abandonment of of any real understanding of how we were founded where they're even there's questions of having the ten commandments in courtrooms or that in god we trust on our coins or one nation under god in our pledge of elites all these things are up for grabs you've got to be kidding the you look at the politicians and it's of both parties i'm not here to disparage the democrats alone all of them our military's cemeteries are filled with patriots who died living alive for everything that our politicians are are now advocating i mean they died to prevent that how feudalism must seem but all that's true our real question is not this country our heritage our real question is what is god calling you to do every every one of us if i ask you how many are saved every hand would go up in this audience my question then would follow would be what have you done with it god has called you into the body of christ for a mission and your adventure is to find out what that admit that mission is and then pursue it with a sense of urgency so find out what god is calling you to for and there's probably no two people in this room that have the same calling but if you don't meet that calling nobody else is because you've been i believe god is teleological that he does things with a purpose if he's if he's called you to faith he's called you for a purpose and your challenge is to prayerfully by studying the word of god and praying diligently discover what it is he's calling you to and then to embrace that calling with a new sense of urgency because if we're right the time is short what you're going to do you better do now that's what i think the doctrine of eminence means for every one of us individually therefore be also ready for in such an hour as ye think not the son of man cometh let's stand for a closing word of prayer

Channel: Bible Study

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Length: 50min 56sec (3056 seconds)

Published: Mon Oct 19 2020