1. When will these things happen?
2. What will be the sign of Your coming?
3. When will be the end of the age?

Before we get started in this overview of Matthew 24, which is known as the Olivet Discourse, I would like you to be aware that this is Christ’s overview of end-time prophecy. Yes, Jesus Christ the Savior, the Healer, the Comforter and the Prophet will now in His own words give us a briefing on the end times. “He who has an ear, let him hear” (Revelation 3:22 NKJV).

The Signs of the Times

Jesus had just left the temple for the last time. A few days earlier, Jesus made His triumphal entry into Jerusalem riding on a donkey, fulfilling the prophecy of Zechariah 9:9 as well as the prophecy given to Daniel by the angel Gabriel, which actually foretold Christ’s first coming to the exact day. As a recap, we are told in Daniel 9:25 that from the time the walls were rebuilt until the coming of the Messiah would be sixty-nine years times seven years or 173,880 days (to do the addition you need to use a 360-day calendar and add the leap years). We read in Nehemiah 2:5-8 that King Artaxerxes signed the decree for Nehemiah to rebuild the city walls on March 14, 445 BC. This ancient document can be found in the London Museum today. If we take March 14, 445 BC and add 173,880 days, then Christ rode into Jerusalem on April 6th, 32 AD. Keep in mind that this was also the first time that Christ let the people receive Him as the Messiah. Prior to this, He always said “my time has not yet come” (John 7:6 NKJV) and hid away from the crowds. The exact day of His coming was arranged, and therefore Christ wept for His people, because they did not know their Scriptures.

The prophets gave them the exact day, along with how He would enter into the city, yet the Jews rejected Him. That is why Christ wept in Luke 19:41, stating “you did not know the time of your visitation” (Luke 19:44 NKJV). From that point on, blindness was put on the Jews until the fullness of the Gentiles came (see Romans 11:25). Think about that, Christ wept because His people did not know what His Word had promised. The Creator of the universe arranged the exact day when He would appear, yet no one accepted His Word. Are we like that? The Lord has fulfilled history. The Bible has foretold past, present and future events, yet are we too caught up in the things of this world to understand that He will come again? The next time He comes, we are not given the exact day, for the Son of man will come at an hour when you least expect. Woe unto them that do not heed His Word.

Reading Assignment I: Matt 24:1-2

"And Jesus went out, and departed from the temple: and his disciples came to him for to shew him the buildings of the temple. And Jesus said unto them, See ye 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".

Christ stated, “See ye not all these things?” In the Greek language, Christ was saying, “Does it really matter? Is this what you think life is about?” Jesus then went on to say that the temple would be destroyed brick by brick. At this point, I would imagine that the disciples whispered among themselves “How could this be?” Yet, thirty-eight years later, Titus Vespasian, along with his troops of four Roman legions, lay siege to Jerusalem and burned the temple to the ground. In the writings of the historian Josephus (who was an eye witness to the event), he states that Titus had the soldiers disassemble each brick in order to retrieve all the gold that was melted between the cracks.

Reading Assignment II: Matt 24:3

"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 of the end of the world?"

We read that Christ sat down on the Mount of Olives, anticipating the disciples’ questions. In the Gospel of Mark, we are told that four of the disciples came to Christ privately: Peter, James, John and Andrew. Keep in mind that it was always Peter, James and John that the Lord had kept close to His heart and had revealed many things to (for example, the transfiguration).

The Three Big ?

We notice that the Lord spoke to the multitudes in parables and then, our Lord would give the disciples a straightforward answer to the parable. So here we have three questions that the disciples asked:

1. When shall these things be? Or, when will the temple be destroyed?
2. What shall be the sign of Thy coming?
3. What shall be the sign of the end of the world? (This refers to the end of the age or the time of the Gentile rule on Earth.)

The answer to the first question is accounted for in Luke 21:20:
“And when ye shall see Jerusalem compassed with armies, then know that the desolation thereof is nigh.”

Christ referred to Titus and his army, as they were to lay siege to Jerusalem. Then Jesus spoke of what the Romans would do to the Jews and their city and how the Jews would be trodden down by the Gentiles: Next, Jesus answered the questions chronologically, starting with the third question,
“When will the end of the age happen?”

Our loving Lord started by giving the signs or the seasons of things that must take place before He returns to Earth. Keep in mind that Christ is going to take His Church from the earth (the rapture) prior to His returning to Earth to reign and rule.

And Jesus answered and said unto them, Take heed that no man deceive you. For many shall come in my name, saying, I am Christ; and shall deceive many (Matt. 24:4,5).
Christ said to watch out for false prophets. Satan will always send a counterfeit to deceive many.
And ye shall hear of wars and rumours of wars: 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, and kingdom against kingdom (Matt. 24:6,7a).
The Lord predicted wars and rumors of wars, yet He said that we should not be troubled. Yes, there will be fighting and nations rising up against nations (this is referring to world wars), yet this will always be the case, until the Lord brings in His righteous Kingdom.

Reading Assignment III: Matt 24:4-5

"And Jesus answered and said unto them, Take heed that no man deceive you. For many shall come in my name, saying, I am Christ; and shall deceive many".

Christ said to watch out for false prophets. Satan will always send a counterfeit to deceive many. We have seen these counterfeits rise up & preach a different gospel. In Revelation 13:13-14, we see the coming of the final false prophet, who is also alluded to in 2 Thessalonians 2:9.

Reading Assignment IV: Matt 24:6-8

"And ye shall hear of wars and rumours of wars: 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, and kingdom against kingdom" (Matt. 24:6,7a).

The Lord predicted wars and rumors of wars, yet He said that we should not be troubled. Since the garden of Eden, man has been selfish; it is part of our sinful nature to want. So the Lord said that man will want and covet things. Yes, there will be fighting and nations rising up against nations (this is referring to world wars),

And there shall be famines, and pestilences, and earthquakes, in divers places. All these are the beginning of sorrows (Matt. 24:7b,8).

We have seen major earthquakes worldwide, epidemics of disease such as the AIDS, Tsunamis such as those that wiped out parts of Indonesia, Thailand, Sri Lanka and India in December of 2004. As a q side note, in Indonesia, the night before the tidal wave hit, in a small Christian village the Muslim government sent the Christians up into the mountain for their Christmas celebration, the flood hit, and wiped out the village, but the Christians were spared. It is awesome how the Lord delivers His people from trials and tribulations. Getting back to Matthew, the Lord said that when you see these things, it is just the beginning, like a woman in labor. It starts out with a little pain and then really gets intense.

Reading Assignment V: Matt 24:23

"Verily I say unto you, This generation shall not pass, till all these things be fulfilled"

This generation could refer to the people who see these things come to pass, for example, Israel being back in the land, the rise of the European nations, a cashless society being established and so on. So either way, we are currently living in a time when these things are taking place. Let us not lose sight of the fact that Christ told us in advance to keep an eye out for the seasons and the time in which we live. The tree is blossoming, and the fruit will soon appear.

Reading Assignment VI: Matt 24:37-39

But as the days of Noah were, 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 Noe 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 (Matt. 24:37-39).

The days of Noah were corrupt and God had to intercede with a worldwide flood to cleanse the earth of its wickedness. The Bible tells us that in the those days, there were homosexuals and people worshipping images, with no sense of any morals. People did as they liked, and God judged them. The Lord said that as the days of Noah were, so will it be when the Son of man returns. The times we are living in now are far worse than the days of Noah. People have the same sinful hearts; yet with today’s modern technology, we bring more immoral values into our homes. Between what is broadcast on the TV and what is seen in our homes on the internet, I am sure that this generation has more sin than in Noah’s time. Also note that Christ said that they “knew not” until the flood came (they did not believe until it was too late). Their hearts grew cold. Noah preached repentance, yet the people wanted to live their lives their way, with the pleasures of this world. So will it be when the Son of man returns. Will we hearken to His Word? Hasn’t Christ given us enough warning?

Food For Thought!:

When ye therefore shall see the abomination of desolation, spoken of by Daniel the prophet, stand in the holy place, (whoso readeth, let him understand:) (Matt. 24:15).

Christ quoted from the book of Daniel, which was written hundreds of years before Christ was born. This passage is very important, because it speaks of the abomination of desolation, which meant that the temple must be defiled. The exciting part of this is that it is alluding to the fact that Israel will have another temple. As we study the Scriptures, we are told that a world leader will come to power and bring peace to Israel and Palestine. He will make a covenant with the nation and rebuild their temple. Ezekiel 40 states that there will be a wall built between the temple and the outer court (this is where the Dome of the Rock sits). Christ then went on to say “whoso readeth, let him understand.”

Wow, pretty heavy! Christ quoted from Daniel, spoke of the temple that will be built and then told us to understand and acknowledge this. We are told to understand that this will take place. I would like us to consider ourselves reading this passage in the year 1940. Israel was not in the land nor had been for 2,000 years (since about 100 AD or so), there had been one world war and another was on the rise and here we read that there will be a temple built in Jerusalem. And then Christ stated “whoso readeth, let him understand.” Yet, today we see Israel back in the land, the European Union emerge and a cashless society that is about to unfold. Now we can surely understand what our Lord spoke of. How much more evidence do we need? Remember that the Bible was given to us so that we would not be ignorant of the things to come. Our Lord is coming back, and we need to repent of our sins and trust in His Word. “For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life (John 3:16). Yes, He paid the price of sins that He did not commit so that we could be forgiven. He rose from the dead and was seen by a great many. His disciples died the deaths of martyrs (other than John, the beloved, who was banished to the island of Patmos and was then given the book of Revelation to write) because of their conviction after seeing the risen Lord. So may I say, “whoso readeth, let him understand.”