We know that history has a point of beginning — God created the heavens and the earth. We know that history has an end point — all things fulfilled in Jesus Christ. We know that God meets us in history, providentially moving all things to the fulfillment of His purpose.
We have experienced God’s presence in history in the redeeming work of Jesus and in His sovereign Lordship over time and empire. We have experienced God’s presence in His shepherding care over His church and in our own lives.
We know that all of time since the atoning death and resurrection of Jesus is the end time, the last age. We know that Jesus is returning to judge the final godless empires of idolatry and establish His kingdom on earth with justice and mercy. We know that we will not know the exact hour of His return. We also know that as we move deeper into the end times, there will be an increase in deception, especially in the political and religious realms.
The Lord wants us to be discerning, aware. Therefore He has much to say through His own teaching and through the apostles. We will begin by examining what the Lord says.
24:1 “Jesus came out from the temple and was going away when His disciples came up to point out the temple buildings to Him.”
The disciples are admiring the splendor, the breathtaking majesty of the temple. Its stones were massive— some weighing as much as 100 tons. Its gold plating could be seen from many miles away, reflecting the sun light with dazzling brightness. But it was not just the beauty of the temple that awed the onlooker; there was a solidness beyond the weight of the stones. More than the architecture, centuries of history gave a sense of permanence to it. Though the first temple had been destroyed by the Babylonians many years before, it had been rebuilt, providing a sense of continuity with Israel’s history. The disciples could not imagine that in forty years, Jerusalem and the temple would be destroyed again.
There is a tendency to be seduced by our memorials and monuments, our national and religious cathedrals. The history behind them, the power which they seem to reflect, can cause us to forget about the ideals, even the God, upon which these memorials are built. Nations and churches can lose contact with the truth of their beginnings, instead placing faith and trust in the monuments which represent the truth. Our icons then become our idols, disconnect us from our roots, lead us into pride, complacency, corruption, false security and spiritual blindness.
Even more dangerous, our monuments can blind us to the reality of our present day, seducing us into believing that all is well because look how solid our monuments are! When
they suddenly and unexpectedly disintegrate and crumble, the disillusionment is shattering. No one but a few misunderstood prophets ever even imagine such disaster.
Jesus does not want any generation of disciples to be unprepared, undiscerning.
24:2 “And He said to them, ‘Do you not see all these things? Truly I say to you, not one stone here will be left upon another, which will not be torn down.’”
Jesus’ response to His disciples’ awe is to prophesy the complete destruction of the temple — not one stone here will be left upon another. Surely our Lord longed for Israel to repent and believe the Good News of the kingdom of God present in Him. This is the message He proclaimed from the very beginning of His ministry, The time is fulfilled, and the kingdom of God is at hand; repent and believe in the gospel (Mark 1:15). Jesus passionately desired that Israel would enter into its destiny as messenger and witness of the kingdom.
He had called to the nation for over three years, had wept over their unbelief. But Jesus knew the human heart perfectly and He was a realist. He understood that because Israel had rejected its Messiah, the Prince of Peace, the nation would soon choose to follow the violent revolutionists. Having disbelieved the message of the kingdom of God, they would believe the false narrative of the kingdom of Israel. The Roman response would be brutal, total, savage.
So it was that in AD 66, Israel revolted against Roman rule. After violent conflict, in AD 70 the temple was destroyed along with Jerusalem and the entire nation. Jesus knew what the rejection of His ministry would cost. However, the disciples could not conceive of such a traumatic event except as part of the end of the age and so they question Jesus.
Jesus’s words have a near fulfillment but there is also a far fulfillment, at the end of the age.
24:3 “As He was sitting on the Mount of Olives, the disciples came to Him privately, saying, ‘Tell us, when will these things happen, and what will be the sign of Your coming, and of the end of the age?’”
In the privacy of the Mount of Olives, they bring their questions. They almost certainly were not thinking of a far future event. After all the miraculous demonstrations of Christ’s power which they had seen over the past three years, after the triumphal entry into Jerusalem only a few days before, they thought the end of the age was upon them and that the manifesting of God’s kingdom and the revelation to the entire nation of Jesus’ Messiahship was about to occur. In fact, Luke tells us that on the way to Jerusalem the disciples, Supposed that the kingdom of God was going to appear immediately (Luke 19:11). That is why the disciples were so excited when Jesus rode into the city — they thought that the dawning of the Kingdom Age was upon them.
It’s not surprising that they would think this. The Old Testament prophets typically did not see a time gap between the first and second coming of the Messiah.
Given their expectation of the immediate establishment of the kingdom of God, their question, What will be the sign of Your coming, and of the end of the age? was not oriented toward the future. The word coming — parousia — certainly can refer to the future arrival of something and Jesus used it that way at times. But parousia may also refer to the presence of something. What the disciples were really asking was, “What will be the sign of the revealing of your presence now as our Messiah?” They had no expectation of Jesus leaving them through death, resurrection and ascension to heaven. They surely had no idea of His return.
The word end refers to the fulfilling of something, its final completion. They were expecting the end of this present age, its fulfillment, right then, in Jerusalem in the revelation of Jesus as
Messiah and the subsequent establishing of His kingdom in power and glory.
24:4 “And Jesus answered and said to them, ‘See to it that no one misleads you.’”
Though the soon destruction of the temple had nothing to do with His second coming or history’s conclusion, Jesus responds by teaching about the end of the age. Again, understand that the disciples were expecting the end of the age immediately. And though the destruction of the temple was a near future even, in 70 AD, Jesus is now speaking of a far future event.
He begins with the warning, See to it that no one misleads you. There is a danger in prophetic charts, calendars and chronologies. The surest way to know the times and seasons is to know the God who is Lord over times and seasons. The Psalmist said, My times are in Your hand (Psalm 31:15). In every generation, we need that confidence.
We don’t need to know the calendar of the future. We do need to know the God who fashioned all of time, the Lord who exists in eternity past and eternity future while meeting us in time. Lord of the universe, Creator of all that was and is and shall be, God is not only sovereign over all substance, not only Lord over all laws of nature and physics which govern substance, but also sovereign over all time and history and nations.
We must also be aware that since the death, resurrection and ascension of Jesus, all of time is the end time, the final age. Everything that God needs to do to redeem lost humanity has been done — the Messiah has died for the sins of the world, has risen from the dead, has ascended to the right hand of majesty. All that remains now is to proclaim the Good News of salvation among the nations. These past 2,000 years has been the season of the end times. In these final teachings, Jesus is talking about the end of the end times.
24:5 “For many will come in My name, saying, ‘I am the Christ,’ and will mislead many.”
There have always been impostors claiming to be the Messiah, misleading many. So it was in the early days of the church and so to this day, mesmerizing mis-leaders feed on the insecurities and pride and longing of vulnerable people. Neither secular education nor superficial religious affiliation offer any protection against deception. In 1930, the nation in Europe with the highest level of adult education and the highest percentage of “registered Christians” was Germany. Before the decade was ended, the German people followed Hitler, their anti-Messiah, into some of the most horrific savagery in modern history.
Hitler presented himself as a messianic leader, boasting of the thousand year reign of Nazism, a mockery of the true millennial reign of Christ. So in every age, counterfeits great and small rise up, some with a political / military agenda, others cloaked in religious disguises. But as history moves toward its conclusion, these counterfeit mis-leaders will increase and the end of the end times will be characterized by even worse deception. Human wisdom will not preserve anyone, nor a passing knowledge of religion. Note carefully that neither the high level of secular education nor the shallow, nominal religiousness of the German people preserved them from Hitler’s deception.
Only a deep, transforming relationship with the true and living God through His Son Jesus Christ will save us from the seduction of false messiah’s. Each day we need to maintain intimacy with the Christ who said, I am the way and the truth and the life (John 14:6). Security is found not in merely reading His truth but living it, as Jesus said, If you abide in My word, then you are truly disciples of Mine; and you shall know the truth and the truth shall make you free (John 8:31,32).
Jesus warns us that these false messiahs will mislead many. But they cannot mislead the saints, the truly redeemed, for we have the indwelling presence of the Holy Spirit. Jesus said, But when He, the Spirit of truth, comes, He will guide you into all the truth; for He will not speak on His own initiative, but whatever He hears, He will speak; and He will disclose to you what is to come (John 16:13).
Speaking of Himself as the Good Shepherd, Jesus said, He goes ahead of them, and the sheep follow him because they know his voice. A stranger they simply will not follow, but will flee from him, because they do not know the voice of strangers (John 10:4,5).
Jesus said, My sheep hear My voice, and I know them, and they follow Me; and I give them eternal life, and they will never perish; and no one will snatch them out of My hand (John 10:27,28).
In times of deception, we may trust in the Lord, Who is able to keep (us) from stumbling and to make (us) stand in the presence of His glory blameless with great joy (Jude 1:24).
24:6 “You will be hearing of wars and rumors of wars. See that you are not frightened, for those things must take place, but that is not yet the end.”
There will be wars and rumors of wars. The history of this fallen world has always been violent, from the time that Adam’s first son, Cain, murdered his brother, Abel. But the deeper we live into the end times, the more we will witness a multiplied increase in violence. Even this is not yet the end, rather, it is a brutal passageway to the end.
Notice that Jesus says, Those things must take place. The verb must reveals the inevitable disintegration of human society spiraling into darkness. In Romans 1:18-32, Paul describes this devolution which began with humanity’s rejection of the true God and the invention of false gods. This resulted in the darkening of the human heart, leading to all manner of moral corruption and societal breakdown.
The verb must also speaks of the sovereignty of God in human history. Even in the savagery and chaos of the end times, we will witness the preordained purpose of God being worked out. Human catastrophe and social breakdown do not reveal the absence of God. Rather, the Bible and history testify of a God who, Works all things after the counsel of His will (Ephesians 1:11), even in the midst of humanity’s self destruction.
The Lord reveals aspects of the future to demonstrate His knowledge of the future but also His sovereign Lordship over all of time. Though God allows human beings and unholy angels to exercise free, moral will in rebellion against Him, God is still able to accomplish His preordained purpose, as He said through the prophet Isaiah: ‘Remember the former things long past, for I am God, and there is no other; I am God, and there is no one like Me, declaring the end from the beginning, and from ancient times things which have not been done, saying, ‘My purpose will be established, and I will accomplish all My good pleasure’ (Isa. 46:9,10).
Therefore, because the Lord is sovereign over time and history, He exhorts us, See that you are not frightened. We will not be intimidated by the times for, as our brother the Apostle John reminds us, You are from God, little children, and have overcome them; because greater is He who is in you than he who is in the world (I Jn. 4:4). Yes, darkness will multiply but the Lord will explode His light through His holy, overcoming church.
24:7 “For nation will rise against nation, and kingdom against kingdom, and in various places there will be famines and earthquakes.”
The word which we translate nation is ethnos, which is a race, tribe or people group. We derive the word ethnic from ethnos. Jesus says that people groups will rise up against one another in the end times. We have seen nations at war. But increasingly, we will see nations collapsing into ethnic violence, ethnic groups at war with one another, as civilization splinters into its tribal factions. There have always been wars but as we draw closer to the end, we will see a fragmenting of nations into warring people groups as nations disintegrate into chaos.
In the midst of this collapse, the true church will continue as a new community, created by the Holy Spirit, in which there is no longer Jew nor Greek, there is neither slave nor free man, there is neither male nor female; for you are all one in Christ Jesus (Gal. 3:28). We will not lose our God-given uniqueness as men and women, as black and white and Latino and Asian. But we will show the world what it looks like to loose the fear and animosity and prejudice which separates people from one another. The true church, throughout the end times, will show the world how the redeeming grace of Jesus can create a unity of brothers and sisters drawn from every tribe and tongue and nation.
Jesus also says that there will be famines and earthquakes, as resources run short and nature itself begins to disintegrate under the weight of the curse. Ever since Adam and Eve forfeited their position as stewards over creation, and especially since the Great Flood of Noah’s generation in which the tectonic plates of the earth ruptured, the vapor canopy collapsed and the topography of the earth was radically altered, there have been famines, plagues, cataclysmic storms and seismic events. These are normal on a cursed earth. But the number and intensity of these events will dramatically increase as the end approaches.
24:8 “But all these things are merely the beginning of birth pangs.”
These events are not the end, rather, they are the beginning of birth pangs. Whereas some translations read, the beginning of sorrows or the beginning of sufferings, it is most literally translated the beginning of birth pangs. These cataclysmic events signal the approaching end of history and time but not the end of God’s purpose. Rather, they are the beginning of the birthing of God’s new creation.
24:9 “Then they will deliver you to tribulation, and will kill you, and you will be hated by all nations because of My name.”
End time persecution of the redeemed has occurred from the first generation of disciples until this present day. For three centuries following the resurrection of Jesus, the church endured fierce, murderous tribulation at the hands of the Roman government. Though there have been times and places when the church has prospered in peace, for many Christians, tribulation and persecution have been the norm. It has been estimated that during the 20th century, more Christians died for their faith than in all previous nineteen centuries combined.
How is it that the followers of Jesus are hated by all nations? Gospel means good news and surely it is good news that our sins are forgiven in Christ, that we can be reconciled to God our Creator and have fellowship with God, that death is conquered and we are promised resurrection and eternal life with God. How does this message arouse such hostility? Because we cannot receive the message without receiving and surrendering to the Savior who has brought us the message. If Christ has become my Savior, my Lord and my King, then I am no longer my own savior, lord and king. This infuriates the self-enthroned soul.
The gospel arouses anger because it shines light into hearts, revealing the truth of sin and depravity. This is good news for those who want to come out of darkness but there have always been those, as Jesus said, who have loved the darkness rather than the Light, for their deeds were evil. For everyone who does evil hates the Light and does not come to the Light for fear that his deeds will be exposed (John 3:19,20). Light arouses hatred among those who love darkness.
This Gospel message is also a threat to the Caesars and tyrants of the world, who pretend to be gods, who demand that citizens not only obey the laws but worship the rulers who make the laws. In the days of the Roman Empire, Christians were put to death as atheists because they refused to worship the Emperors who declared themselves to be divine. The Bible indicates that as we approach the last days of history, world governments will arise which, more than ever, combine political and religious functions, requiring not only obedience but also worship. In that context, Christians, Christ worshippers, will be hated.
24:10 “At that time many will fall away and will betray one another and hate one another.”
In times of persecution, there are those who fall away. Fall away may also be translated entrapped or enticed to sin or offended. It is the Greek word skandalizo. This does not refer to truly redeemed followers of Christ losing their salvation. These are professing believers who never truly committed to follow Christ and the threat of imprisonment or death reveals the hollowness of their profession. Their profession of faith was not based on true repentance or saving faith, as the Apostle John tells us regarding men and women in his own day who had shared in the life of the church but had departed: They went out from us but they were not really of us; for if they had been of us, they would have remained with us; but they went out, so that it would be shown that they all are not of us (I John 2:19).
Their profession was part of a self righteous facade, it served some useful purpose to be part of a church. But they had not counted the cost of following Christ and in the day of tribulation, the cost is more than they are willing to bear. So they fall away.
Ironically, it is often precisely in those times and places of suffering that the church realizes its greatest harvest, growth, purity and revival. A good recent example is China. Prior to the communists seizing power in the late 1940s, the church was relatively small and growth had been slow. With the advent of the communist dictatorship, churches were closed, Bibles were burned, pastors arrested and executed, church members sent to concentration camps and it was assumed that the church had been destroyed. Forty years later, when restrictions eased slightly, the world was amazed to discover a vital, growing church much larger than before the persecution. Tribulation does not destroy the true church. It purifies and strengthens it.
However, Jesus is not speaking here of generalized persecution and apostasy. He is referring to unprecedented violence released against the church and a significant falling away at the end of history. The Apostle Paul refers to this also, when speaking of the day of the Lord’s return: Let no one in any way deceive you, for it will not come unless the apostasy (falling away) comes first and the man of lawlessness is revealed, the son of destruction (2 Thess. 2:3).
The word it refers to the return of Christ, preceded by the falling away and the appearance of the man of lawlessness. This is a reference to the Antichrist who will establish his rule across the earth and even set up an altar to himself in the rebuilt Jerusalem temple, declaring himself to be God.
Paul says that one of the signs of that day will be apostasy, apostasia, which means revolt, rebellion, abandonment, falling away. Again, there have always been false believers who fall away from their false profession of faith. There have always been churches which have fallen into heresy, apostasy, rebellion against the truth and surely this is true in our day — churches, seminaries and even the majority of some denominations denying the truth of the Bible, blaspheming foundational doctrines of the faith while blessing lifestyles and sins which separate people from God. Surely the multiplying of false bishops, false pastors and false teachers which we see today indicates that we are well into the final season of the end times.
But this future day of which Jesus speaks will be a time of unprecedented rebellion against God and against Godly truth. It will not only feature a falling away of false believers from the church but also unbelievers falling away from reason and law, falling further into rebellion, violence and darkness, broken covenants, lawlessness and injustice, immorality and depravity. This falling away will be accompanied by unprecedented social chaos which will be expressed through increased violence against God’s truth-speakers, the true church.
How do we prepare for the possibility of persecution? By asking the Holy Spirit to examine our hearts every day. Am I harboring unfaithfulness, compromise, insincerity of faith? Have I counted the cost? God has promised to preserve us, as Paul reminds us: For this reason I also suffer these things, but I am not ashamed; for I know whom I have believed and I am convinced that He is able to guard what I have entrusted to Him until that day (2 Tim. 1:12).
God has promised to complete what He has begun in us, as Paul again exhorts us: For I am confident of this very thing, that He who began a good work in you will perfect it until the day of Christ Jesus (Philippians 1:6). God holds each believer in His hand and nothing can snatch us out of His hand as Jesus assured us, My sheep hear My voice, and I know them, and they follow Me; and I give them eternal life, and they will never perish; and no one will snatch them out of My hand. My Father, who has given them to Me, is greater than all; and no one is able to snatch them out of the Father’s hand (John 10:27-29).
Secure in the hands of our Creator / Redeemer, we will not fear the times. In a season of tribulation, we will overcome every trial for greater is He who is in you than he who is in the world (I Jn. 4;4). In a time of lies, we will not be deceived, rather, we will bear witness to the truth. As darkness multiplies, we will not stumble, rather, we will shine forth the light of the glory of Jesus.