SPEAKER_00: This sermon was recorded at Faith Evangelical Free Church in Grand Forks, North Dakota.
SPEAKER_01: Thank you, Chad.
SPEAKER_01: Would you take your Bible and open it to Matthew 24 with me as we fill our hearts and minds with the Lord Jesus Christ as we've just sung?
SPEAKER_01: We sing that as a declaration of our trust in Him.
SPEAKER_01: We make it our prayer, and now we follow through as we look at God's word together.
SPEAKER_01: We are seven months from Christmas.
SPEAKER_01: That's funny.
SPEAKER_01: In Clement Clark Moore's poem, A Visit from St.
SPEAKER_01: Nicholas, children were all snug in their beds with visions of sugar plums dancing in their heads.
SPEAKER_01: Yes.
SPEAKER_01: Sugar plums, in case you didn't know, are small, spherically shaped hard candies.
SPEAKER_01: Now I don't remember ever falling asleep thinking about the next day's candy.
SPEAKER_01: Maybe that was because I couldn't have candy in the morning, I don't know.
SPEAKER_01: But all of us can resonate with having our minds filled with upcoming events.
SPEAKER_01: Maybe it's travel that you're experiencing on the next day, or maybe it's an event or some big thing that you go to bed at night and those things are dancing around, maybe bouncing around in your head.
SPEAKER_01: In Matthew chapter 24, Jesus' 12 disciples were not getting ready to sleep, but they were thinking about what's coming up.
SPEAKER_01: When they asked Jesus about the fulfillment of his words, it seems that they were having some visions of glory in their heads.
SPEAKER_01: When they inquired about his return and the end of the age in Matthew chapter 24, if you have your Bible, I would encourage you to follow along as I read, beginning in verse 29.
SPEAKER_01: I'll read through verse 35 as we pick up where we've left off from last Sunday.
SPEAKER_01: Again, Matthew chapter 24, beginning in verse 29.
SPEAKER_01: The Lord Jesus says, Immediately, immediately after the tribulation of those days, the sun will be darkened, and the moon will not give its light, and the stars will fall from heaven, and the powers of the heavens will be shaken.
SPEAKER_01: Then will appear in heaven the sign of the Son of Man.
SPEAKER_01: And then all the tribes of the earth will mourn, and they will see the Son of Man coming on the clouds of heaven with power and great glory.
SPEAKER_01: And he will send out his angels with a loud trumpet call, and they will gather his elect from the four winds from one end of the heaven to the other.
SPEAKER_01: Now from the fig tree, learn its lesson.
SPEAKER_01: As soon as its branch becomes tender and puts out its leaves, you know that summer is near.
SPEAKER_01: So also, when you see all these things, you know that he is near at the very gates.
SPEAKER_01: Truly, amen, I say to you, this generation will not pass away until all these things take place.
SPEAKER_01: Heaven and earth will pass away.
SPEAKER_01: But my words will not pass away.
SPEAKER_01: Amen.
SPEAKER_01: I love what my favorite Puritan writer says about this text.
SPEAKER_01: J.C.
SPEAKER_01: Ryle wrote, In this part of our Lord's prophecy, he describes his own second coming to judge the world.
SPEAKER_01: This, at all events, seems the natural meaning of the passage.
SPEAKER_01: To take any lower view than that seems to appear to be a violent straining of Scripture language.
SPEAKER_01: If the solemn words used here mean nothing more than the coming of ancient Roman armies to Jerusalem, well, if that's what it means, we can explain away everything or anything in the Bible.
SPEAKER_01: The event described here is one of far greater moment than the march of any earthly army.
SPEAKER_01: It is nothing less than the closing act of this dispensation, the second personal advent or coming of Jesus Christ.
SPEAKER_01: That's a great summary, perfect summary of this passage.
SPEAKER_01: And with that, we could close our Bibles and go home for lunch.
SPEAKER_01: But we wouldn't understand really what is happening here if we just closed our Bibles and went home with a summary.
SPEAKER_01: Now, some of you who are more well-versed in the doctrines of last things may wonder why we've moved so quickly from the ancient judgment on the Jewish temple in Jerusalem in the first part of this chapter to the time described by Jesus as a great tribulation, now to the second coming of Jesus.
SPEAKER_01: In other words, why would we skip over the rapture?
SPEAKER_01: We've done that because Matthew has not made any reference to it.
SPEAKER_01: Now, when we conclude chapter 24 and chapter 5, we'll take a step back for a while and look at the whole puzzle of the doctrine of end things and put in some, put some pieces in place that Jesus does not address directly here.
SPEAKER_01: But until then, we're just going to keep moving, section by section, through what Jesus said.
SPEAKER_01: And as we always do, we need to remind ourselves of where we are.
SPEAKER_01: The Lord Jesus is on the Mount of Olives speaking with his disciples.
SPEAKER_01: I wish all of us could instantly be transported to that location.
SPEAKER_01: Because it's just outside of the city walls of Jerusalem.
SPEAKER_01: There's this hill that comes up outside of the city walls.
SPEAKER_01: It's covered with olive trees.
SPEAKER_01: And on that Mount of Olives, all you have to do is direct your attention opposite the hillside, and you can see the temple mount, whereas Jesus was there with his disciples, would have stood the glorious temple covered with sheets of gold.
SPEAKER_01: That temple that Jesus has said, it's going to come down.
SPEAKER_01: Their excitement about the King of Glory entering the golden temple has been crushed by the announcement of its doom.
SPEAKER_01: And in the wake of that, that crushed excitement, the disciples begin to wonder when is this all gonna happen?
SPEAKER_01: And perhaps because their hope has taken a massive hit, they wonder about the Lord's coming and glory and great power at the end of the age.
SPEAKER_01: What's gonna happen?
SPEAKER_01: Great questions.
SPEAKER_01: A small minority of scholars and teachers assert that back in verse 3, when the disciples asked these questions, tell us when will these things be and what will be the sign of your coming and the close of the age?
SPEAKER_01: Some would say that they're pondering three questions rather than two questions.
SPEAKER_01: One, when will these things be?
SPEAKER_01: And some would say that the next part is divided into two questions.
SPEAKER_01: What will be the sign of your coming and what will be the sign of the end of the age?
SPEAKER_01: Now, I won't say that that view is unquestionably incorrect, that is, of three questions, but I will say that it is quite a stretch, I think, to make that assertion.
SPEAKER_01: Now, everybody would agree on the first question.
SPEAKER_01: When will these things be?
SPEAKER_01: Your Bibles have a comma after that.
SPEAKER_01: So if you understand how to read, you likely understand that that is a single question.
SPEAKER_01: Everyone would agree that that is a question, but it's that part about the sign of Christ's coming and the end of the age that some have a question about.
SPEAKER_01: And a few weeks ago, I said that simplicity is one of the keys to interpreting Scripture.
SPEAKER_01: Most often, the plain sense or the simple sense is the one that we should take unless there is a clear, apparent reason for understanding a passage differently.
SPEAKER_01: And that comes into play here, especially considering how Matthew structured that sentence in verse 3.
SPEAKER_01: Now I'm sure some of you are wondering why are we talking about verse 3 when we read verse 29?
SPEAKER_01: Hold on with me for a moment.
SPEAKER_01: Stick with me.
SPEAKER_01: It'll become evident in a moment.
SPEAKER_01: Let's talk about verse 3.
SPEAKER_01: Why do I say that this is best understood simply?
SPEAKER_01: Well, let's break down this portion in verse 3 to help it make more sense.
SPEAKER_01: Try to put it in a more straightforward way.
SPEAKER_01: Again, verse 3.
SPEAKER_01: The disciples come to Jesus privately saying, Tell us, when will these things be?
SPEAKER_01: Question one, and what will be the sign of your coming and of the end of the age?
SPEAKER_01: Those who see three questions effectively need to insert another use of the word sign into this sentence.
SPEAKER_01: Now they wouldn't actually do that, but they would assert that the term sign is implied after the and.
SPEAKER_01: So that it would kind of look like this.
SPEAKER_01: What will be the sign of your coming and the sign of the end of the age?
SPEAKER_01: That would be two questions in that single statement.
SPEAKER_01: Those who see three questions insert that just automatically.
SPEAKER_01: Now, if Matthew intended us to read it that way, we would then have three questions.
SPEAKER_01: But Matthew didn't record it that way.
SPEAKER_01: That is, he didn't put the word sign in there a second time.
SPEAKER_01: He just put it in one time.
SPEAKER_01: And so the simple understanding is that there is a single sign comprising the Lord's coming and the end of the age.
SPEAKER_01: That's the simple reading.
SPEAKER_01: But we can ask, if it's fair to ask, is there anything else here that confirms the simple reading?
SPEAKER_01: Or that maybe points in a different direction?
SPEAKER_01: Should we read the end of the age as a third question, or should we read it as part of the second question?
SPEAKER_01: Well, the answer is, well, yes, there is more information.
SPEAKER_01: There's something else here.
SPEAKER_01: You see, Biblical Greek, the language that Matthew wrote in, has a grammatical rule in effect here.
SPEAKER_01: It's important to you even though you don't understand it.
SPEAKER_01: It's important to your faith, even though you don't know about it.
SPEAKER_01: It's called the Granville Sharp rule, just named after the man who discovered that this rule actually exists in the Greek language.
SPEAKER_01: And that grammatical rule says that if there are two nouns of the same case connected by an and in the middle, but there's only one definite article that leads those two nouns, then those two nouns refer to the same thing, not two different things.
SPEAKER_01: I know that's a whole bunch to take in at one point.
SPEAKER_01: Let me give you an example.
SPEAKER_01: This is why I say that it matters to you, even though you may not grasp it.
SPEAKER_01: It matters to you because it is significant for your doctrine of the person of Christ, and it is significant for your doctrine of the Trinity.
SPEAKER_01: In Titus chapter 2, verse 13, the Apostle Paul writes about the person of Christ.
SPEAKER_01: He says, we are waiting for that blessed hope, for our blessed hope, the appearing of the glory of our great God and Savior, Jesus Christ.
SPEAKER_01: Now, the way that the Apostle Paul wrote that in Greek, the literal order of words is like this the, your coming, and end the yage.
SPEAKER_01: There's one article, the, at the beginning, before the two nouns of the same case, that is coming and end.
SPEAKER_01: I know some of you are thinking, wait a minute, coming isn't a noun.
SPEAKER_01: It is in Greek.
SPEAKER_01: Think of the word coming as advent, it's an event.
SPEAKER_01: So it's a noun.
SPEAKER_01: The noun is coming, the noun is end.
SPEAKER_01: They're connected by an and with a single the at the beginning.
SPEAKER_01: They refer to the same thing.
SPEAKER_01: That means Jesus is both God and Savior.
SPEAKER_01: Wait a minute.
SPEAKER_01: I'm missing a slide.
SPEAKER_01: Okay, let's go back to this one.
SPEAKER_01: Our great God and Savior.
SPEAKER_01: God and Savior are connected by an and.
SPEAKER_01: In Greek, there's a the at the beginning of that.
SPEAKER_01: So Jesus Christ is God and Savior.
SPEAKER_01: In other words, Paul does not intend to refer to the great God as one person and the savior as a different person.
SPEAKER_01: Some people would say, okay, Jesus is the savior and the Father is the great God.
SPEAKER_01: But the grammatical rule, in effect, here puts them together, saying Jesus is the great God and the Savior.
SPEAKER_01: So there's a grammatical structure here that implies specific meaning that impacts your faith in the person of Jesus Christ.
SPEAKER_01: Now that same thing happens in Matthew 24:3.
SPEAKER_01: Here's my right slide.
SPEAKER_01: Here is the word order in Matthew's Greek.
SPEAKER_01: The, your coming, and end the age.
SPEAKER_01: Two nouns of the same case, coming and end, connected with an and.
SPEAKER_01: That phrase has a single definite article at the beginning, and that confirms that we should not read this with an additional implied sign.
SPEAKER_01: So the simple reading is best.
SPEAKER_01: The disciples connected Jesus' coming with the end of the age and referred to that as a single event.
SPEAKER_01: And so they asked Jesus, what's the sign of that single event?
SPEAKER_01: One question, the first question, leads to understanding about God's judgment.
SPEAKER_01: The other seeks understanding about recognizing Jesus' coming at the end of the age.
SPEAKER_01: One question necessarily leads into the other question.
SPEAKER_01: They had visions of glory dancing in their heads.
SPEAKER_01: But their chronology of events needed some realignment when Jesus announced the destruction of their beautiful temple that they were probably looking at, instead of receiving glory by reigning with him.
SPEAKER_01: And so that then leads to the when question.
SPEAKER_01: But judgment then leads to a recognition of their ignorance.
SPEAKER_01: How will we know when the time is?
SPEAKER_01: How will we know when you are coming back?
SPEAKER_01: How will we know that glory is here, signifying the end of the age?
SPEAKER_01: Now, why is that long review necessary?
SPEAKER_01: Thank you for being patient with me.
SPEAKER_01: The reminder is important because our section for this morning, beginning in verse 29, completes the first question and begins the second question.
SPEAKER_01: The judgment on the temple and Jerusalem foreshadowed a greater judgment that Jesus described in verse 21 as a time of great squeezing, a great tribulation.
SPEAKER_01: Now, in verse 29, we read, immediately after the tribulation of those days, there's this cataclysmic language.
SPEAKER_01: The sun will be darkened, the moon won't give its light, the stars will fall from heaven, the powers of the heavens will be shaken.
SPEAKER_01: Then will appear in heaven the sign of the Son of Man.
SPEAKER_01: Do you see how Jesus is now answering their question about the sign?
SPEAKER_01: He's answered the first question.
SPEAKER_01: Now he says, your second question is about the sign of my coming and the end of the age.
SPEAKER_01: Here's my answer.
SPEAKER_01: So do you see the flow of events that Jesus laid out here?
SPEAKER_01: He says there's a period of time described as the beginning of birth pains, verse 8, during which the news of Christ's kingdom is proclaimed as a testimony to all the nations, verse 14.
SPEAKER_01: That time will conclude with what Jesus called a time of great tribulation, unlike anything the world has ever seen before.
SPEAKER_01: And immediately after that is the end of the age and Christ's return.
SPEAKER_01: So we move then from the disciples' first question to their second question.
SPEAKER_01: Okay, we can go home.
SPEAKER_01: No.
SPEAKER_01: So we understand the summary.
SPEAKER_01: We understand this is about Christ's second coming, his second advent.
SPEAKER_01: We understand in the flow of the text of Matthew 24 what he's doing.
SPEAKER_01: He's now answering their second question.
SPEAKER_01: But there's something much more profound that I think we need to make sure we get here.
SPEAKER_01: The second coming is simply assumed here.
SPEAKER_01: Jesus isn't speaking about the glories of his coming.
SPEAKER_01: He's not speaking about the importance of his coming.
SPEAKER_01: He's not speaking about how great and wonderful and awesome it is.
SPEAKER_01: Those might be implied or assumed.
SPEAKER_01: But the point that's really happening here is found in how Jesus speaks of those events.
SPEAKER_01: How does he do it?
SPEAKER_01: I'll tell you.
SPEAKER_01: Jesus led those twelve disciples, and he leads us to think about our Bibles in light of him.
SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
SPEAKER_01: He says, You know your scriptures.
SPEAKER_01: I fulfill them.
SPEAKER_01: When you read your scriptures, think about me.
SPEAKER_01: I'm the end of the scriptures, I'm the fulfillment of them.
SPEAKER_01: They all find their goal, their end in me.
SPEAKER_01: How do we see that?
SPEAKER_01: Look with me.
SPEAKER_01: First, Jesus affirmed the biblical prophecies about the end of the age.
SPEAKER_01: Jesus affirmed the biblical prophecies about the end of the age.
SPEAKER_01: Immediately after the tribulation of those days, the sun will be darkened, the moon will not give its light, and the stars will fall from heaven, and the powers of the heavens will be shaken.
SPEAKER_01: I see that my time is rapidly slipping away from me.
SPEAKER_01: So if you are a note taker, you'll have to write fast, or you can watch the YouTube and catch it later.
SPEAKER_01: We're gonna run through just a whole bunch of scriptures here.
SPEAKER_01: So if you're a Bible user, use your Bible real quickly and take the notes later.
SPEAKER_01: First, Isaiah chapter 13.
SPEAKER_01: We see here language that is found all throughout Scripture identifying the end of the age.
SPEAKER_01: So here again is more evidence that this coming of Jesus and the end of the age is a single question that Jesus is answering as a single event.
SPEAKER_01: Isaiah chapter 13, beginning in verse 9 Behold, the day of Yahweh comes, for the stars of the heavens and their constellations will not give their light.
SPEAKER_01: The sun will be dark at its rising, the moon will not shed its light, for I will punish the world for its evil and the wicked for their iniquity.
SPEAKER_01: I will put an end to the pomp of the arrogant and lay low the pompous pride of the ruthless.
SPEAKER_01: I will make people more rare than fine gold, and mankind than the gold of Ophir.
SPEAKER_01: Therefore I will make the heavens tremble, and the earth will be shaken out of its place at the wrath of Yahweh of hosts in the day of his fierce anger.
SPEAKER_01: Sorry, I'm so wrapped up in what I'm saying, I'm not advancing my slides.
SPEAKER_01: Again, the connection here is look at what Jesus is doing.
SPEAKER_01: He's pointing back to the Bible that they would have heard read in their synagogues.
SPEAKER_01: He's saying, You know the answer to your question.
SPEAKER_01: If you just connect your Bible with me.
SPEAKER_01: Isaiah chapter 24, verse 18.
SPEAKER_01: For the windows of heaven are opened, and the fountain foundations of the earth tremble.
SPEAKER_01: The earth is utterly broken, the earth is split apart, the earth is violently shaken.
SPEAKER_01: On that day the Lord will punish the host of heaven in heaven, and on the kings of the earth on earth.
SPEAKER_01: They will be gathered together as prisoners in a pit, they will be shut up in a prison, and after many days they will be punished.
SPEAKER_01: Then the moon will be confounded and the sun ashamed.
SPEAKER_01: Why?
SPEAKER_01: For Yahweh of hosts reigns on Mount Zion and in Jerusalem, and his glory will be before his elders.
SPEAKER_01: Isaiah 34, verse 4.
SPEAKER_01: All the host of heaven shall rot away, and the skies will be rolled up like a scroll.
SPEAKER_01: All their hosts shall fall as leaves from the vine, like leaves falling from a fig tree.
SPEAKER_01: This is actually the most important of all these verses because this is the verse that Jesus quotes.
SPEAKER_01: Jesus quotes, all their hosts shall fall, from the Greek translation of the Old Testament.
SPEAKER_01: When Jesus says the stars will fall from heaven and the powers of the heavens will be shaken, that powers of the heavens is the Greek translation of this verse from Isaiah.
SPEAKER_01: He's reminding them of what they know, of what they've heard.
SPEAKER_01: Now we can only speculate as to what this means.
SPEAKER_01: Is it strictly literal?
SPEAKER_01: That is, is the sky gonna literally roll up?
SPEAKER_01: Are the stars literally gonna fall from the heavens?
SPEAKER_01: Is he talking about meteors?
SPEAKER_01: Is it a symbol of meteor showers?
SPEAKER_01: Is it something else?
SPEAKER_01: Let's go on.
SPEAKER_01: Joel 2.
SPEAKER_01: Speaking of a locust plague that foreshadowed the end of days, Joel's prophecy said, The earth quakes before these locusts, the heavens tremble, the sun and the moon are darkened, the stars withdraw their shining.
SPEAKER_01: The Lord utters his voice before his army, for his camp is exceedingly great.
SPEAKER_01: He who executes his word is powerful, for the day of the Lord is great and very awesome.
SPEAKER_01: Who can endure it?
SPEAKER_01: Do you see all these celestial things being repeated throughout these passages?
SPEAKER_01: Speaking of the sun and the moon and the stars and the skies, there's all these things that are consistently pointing to God's wrath, God's judgment, this day of the Lord and the end of days.
SPEAKER_01: It does not end, folks.
SPEAKER_01: Joel chapter 2, verse 30.
SPEAKER_01: I will show wonders in the heavens and on the earth, blood and fire and columns of smoke, the sun shall be turned to darkness, the moon to blood before the great and awesome day of the Lord comes.
SPEAKER_01: Now, if we're tired of that yet and feeling the weight of it, that's good.
SPEAKER_01: Because it keeps going.
SPEAKER_01: This is real, folks, and that's where we have to get to where Jesus is addressing these disciples who would have heard these passages read in their synagogue.
SPEAKER_01: It goes on in Joel chapter 3, for the day of the Lord is near in the valley of decision.
SPEAKER_01: The sun and the moon are darkened, and the stars withdraw their shining.
SPEAKER_01: Zephaniah chapter 1, verse 14 the great day of the Lord is near, near, and hastening fast, the sound of the day of the Lord is bitter.
SPEAKER_01: The mighty man, the strong man, the masculine man cries aloud in that day.
SPEAKER_01: For a day of wrath is that day, a day of distress and anguish, a day of ruin and devastation, a day of darkness and gloom, a day of clouds and thick darkness, a day of trumpet blasts and battle cry against the fortified cities and against the lofty battlements.
SPEAKER_01: I will bring distress on mankind, so that they shall walk like the blind because they have sinned against the Lord.
SPEAKER_01: And that's just the Old Testament.
SPEAKER_01: We see that coming to its real and very true conclusion in Revelation chapter 6, when John sees the sixth seal of the scroll being opened.
SPEAKER_01: He says, Behold, there was a great earthquake, and the sun became black as sackcloth, the full moon became like blood, and the stars of the sky fell to the earth, just as the fig tree sheds its winter fruit when they are shaken by a gale.
SPEAKER_01: The sky vanished like a scroll that's being rolled up, and every mountain and island was removed from its place.
SPEAKER_01: Boy, that's heavy, is it not?
SPEAKER_01: This language was known and understood as judgment language, often used for God's historical judgments, that foreshadowed a future apocalyptic, cataclysmic end of age action.
SPEAKER_01: And Jesus affirmed those statements.
SPEAKER_01: He says, You know this.
SPEAKER_01: You've heard it spoken, you've heard it read.
SPEAKER_01: It is very true.
SPEAKER_01: One of the potentials for understanding this is that this has happened before.
SPEAKER_01: In some sense, it's happened before.
SPEAKER_01: You remember when the Lord Jesus bowed his head and said, Father, until your hands I commit my spirit.
SPEAKER_01: That was at the end of three hours of what?
SPEAKER_01: Darkness.
SPEAKER_01: In the middle of the day.
SPEAKER_01: It was dark.
SPEAKER_01: And when he gave up his spirit, the ground shook, the earth quaked, tombs opened, rocks split.
SPEAKER_01: This is foreshadowing all that's gonna happen.
SPEAKER_01: And Jesus affirms your Bible.
SPEAKER_01: He says, Yes, the end of the age in my coming is found in your Bible.
SPEAKER_01: Why do you think that Jesus could say to those disciples on the Emmaus road, hey, listen, do you guys remember your Bible?
SPEAKER_01: It all talks about me.
SPEAKER_01: It points to me.
SPEAKER_01: Let's go back, let's walk through it.
SPEAKER_01: You know all of this.
SPEAKER_01: He's doing the same thing here.
SPEAKER_01: He's affirming those prophetic portions of Scripture.
SPEAKER_01: Not only is he doing that, he's affirming the prophecies of the Son of Man.
SPEAKER_01: First and foremost, Daniel chapter 7, verse 13, where Daniel says, I had this vision during the night.
SPEAKER_01: And behold, with the clouds of heaven, there came one like a son of man.
SPEAKER_01: And he came to the ancient of days.
SPEAKER_01: And he came to him and he was presented before him.
SPEAKER_01: And to him was given dominion and glory and a kingdom, so that all peoples, all nations, all languages should serve him.
SPEAKER_01: His dominion is an everlasting dominion, which shall not pass away, and his kingdom is one that shall not be destroyed, fulfilling the prophetic portions that were spoken to King David, saying, A son of yours, a son of man, son of yours will come and he will reign forever and ever.
SPEAKER_01: And notice in verse 30 that this coming of the Son of Man is not joyous.
SPEAKER_01: Then all the tribes of the earth will mourn.
SPEAKER_01: I asked Webb if we could read through Zechariah this summer.
SPEAKER_01: Because Zechariah is found all throughout Matthew 24 and 25.
SPEAKER_01: For example, Zechariah chapter 12, verse 10.
SPEAKER_01: So that when they look on me, on him whom they have pierced, they shall mourn for him.
SPEAKER_01: Just as one mourns for an only child and weep bitterly over him as one weeps over a firstborn.
SPEAKER_01: Let's go back to Isaiah 13, verse 6.
SPEAKER_01: Wail, wail, for the day of Yahweh is near, as destruction from the Almighty it will come.
SPEAKER_01: Therefore all hands will be feeble, every human heart will melt, they will be dismayed, pangs and agony will seize them.
SPEAKER_01: Why will they seize them?
SPEAKER_01: Why will those things overcome them and seize them as though they cannot do anything else?
SPEAKER_01: Revelation chapter 1 answers that question, for it says, Behold, Jesus is coming.
SPEAKER_01: How?
SPEAKER_01: With the clouds, just as the Son of Man is coming on the clouds of heaven with power and great glory, and every eye will see him.
SPEAKER_01: Why?
SPEAKER_01: Because it's like the lightning in verse 27.
SPEAKER_01: Even, as Zechariah said, even those who pierced him, and all the tribes of the earth will wail.
SPEAKER_01: Some translations say mourn on account of him.
SPEAKER_01: Why would they wail?
SPEAKER_01: Why would they mourn?
SPEAKER_01: Well, Matthew has already covered that for us.
SPEAKER_01: Back in chapter 16 and verse 27, where Jesus spoke of his coming with judgment.
SPEAKER_01: Jesus answers their questions by saying, You know your Bible.
SPEAKER_01: Just think about your Bible in light of me.
SPEAKER_01: Jesus also affirmed the prophecies of God's promise to gather his people.
SPEAKER_01: No, the Bible's not speaking about a flat earth and four corners.
SPEAKER_01: It's speaking symbolically.
SPEAKER_01: How do we know that?
SPEAKER_01: Well, it's used throughout Scripture.
SPEAKER_01: For example, the language of four winds is used for the moving of people in Zechariah chapter 2.
SPEAKER_01: We read last Sunday.
SPEAKER_01: Up, up, flee from the land of the north, declares the Lord.
SPEAKER_01: For I have spread you abroad as the four winds of the heavens, declares the Lord.
SPEAKER_01: So it's used metaphorically to say, I'm moving people around, all around in different directions.
SPEAKER_01: Right?
SPEAKER_01: In Isaiah chapter 27, verse 13, he speaks differently.
SPEAKER_01: In that day a great trumpet will be blown.
SPEAKER_01: And those who are lost in the land of Assyria and those who are driven out to the land of Egypt will come and worship the Lord on the holy mountain at Jerusalem.
SPEAKER_01: So there's a sense of, hey, people are being drawn together.
SPEAKER_01: The first verse is, I'm scattering, right?
SPEAKER_01: Now this one says, I'm bringing them back.
SPEAKER_01: How do we make sense of those things?
SPEAKER_01: Well, those things are actually follow-ups to a previous passage that Moses said to the people of Israel in Deuteronomy chapter 30.
SPEAKER_01: After speaking of God's people being cast out of the land because of their disobedience, Moses says, If your outcasts are in the uttermost parts of heaven, from one end of heaven to the other, is the literal language.
SPEAKER_01: Jesus is quoting this.
SPEAKER_01: From there the Lord your God will gather you.
SPEAKER_01: So he's bringing together the scattering and now bringing it back from one end of heaven to the other, on four corners of the earth, wherever you might be, and from there he will take you.
SPEAKER_01: Now some want to assign great detail to the word elect in verse 31 of Matthew 24.
SPEAKER_01: They will gather his elect from the four winds.
SPEAKER_01: So some want to assign that as only Israel, the believing Israel.
SPEAKER_01: Some want to assign it to the church alone.
SPEAKER_01: And the answer might be yes.
SPEAKER_01: The disciples are probably hearing that for the first time and thinking, okay, Israel, God's elect, God's chosen.
SPEAKER_01: That's us.
SPEAKER_01: But as Matthew writes this to the collected church, they're probably going to hear it as whomever God has chosen.
SPEAKER_01: But do you see what Jesus is doing?
SPEAKER_01: He's answering their questions by saying to them, think about your Bible.
SPEAKER_01: You have these great questions about the future.
SPEAKER_01: You have these concerns and these uncertainties about tomorrow.
SPEAKER_01: Have you thought about your Bible in light of me?
SPEAKER_01: Have you done that?
SPEAKER_01: And that leads us to our final thought for this morning.
SPEAKER_01: Jesus identified himself as the God who keeps his promises to gather his people.
SPEAKER_01: He identified himself as the God who is coming to judge sin.
SPEAKER_01: And the God who is sovereign over all the universe.
SPEAKER_01: Jesus, my friends, is the coming King.
SPEAKER_01: That's the subtle undercurrent here.
SPEAKER_01: The disciples believe, okay, Jesus, now you've interrupted our thoughts.
SPEAKER_01: We can't be thinking the way we've been thinking, so when are you coming?
SPEAKER_01: And now Jesus is subtly affirming, I am coming.
SPEAKER_01: That's how your book ends.
SPEAKER_01: Behold, I am coming soon.
SPEAKER_01: It affirms Jesus is the coming king.
SPEAKER_01: His coming initiates the end of the age, the bringing of his judgment, and the keeping of his promises.
SPEAKER_01: His word destroys nations.
SPEAKER_01: That's Revelation 19, 15, because he is the word.
SPEAKER_01: His word alone fulfilled destroys sinners.
SPEAKER_01: Now by claiming the Son of Man title, Jesus is uniquely identifying himself with a strain of Jewish tradition.
SPEAKER_01: So the Son of Man that speaks to an individual's humanity.
SPEAKER_01: That is, they're descended humanly speaking from another person.
SPEAKER_01: And there's a strain of Jewish tradition that links that title back to Genesis chapter 3 and verse 15.
SPEAKER_01: Where Eve was promised a man who would come to redeem her and her descendants from their sin.
SPEAKER_01: And according to that strain of Jewish tradition, Jesus is saying, I'm that son of man.
SPEAKER_01: I'm that descendant of Eve who will save my people.
SPEAKER_01: As that savior, I am your God who is the ancient of days.
SPEAKER_01: Titus chapter 2, verse 13, our great God and Savior, Jesus Christ.
SPEAKER_01: He claims equality with the ancient of days.
SPEAKER_01: He says, I am that coming God.
SPEAKER_01: I am that coming Redeemer.
SPEAKER_01: I am the Son of God who was pierced and whose coming will bring great mourning.
SPEAKER_01: He is the word of God who speaks to his people, who brings about judgment, and who keeps his promises.
SPEAKER_01: All of that, all of that, just bringing together the cohesiveness of Scripture is summarized way back in the book of Deuteronomy, chapter 4.
SPEAKER_01: Moses says, When, not if, when you are in tribulation, and all these things come upon you in the latter days, and you return to Yahweh your God and obey his voice, for you will return to Yahweh your God and obey his voice, for Yahweh your God is a merciful God.
SPEAKER_01: He will not leave you or destroy you, or forget the covenant with your fathers that he swore to them.
SPEAKER_01: Jesus is affirming that.
SPEAKER_01: For ask now of the days that are past, which were before you, since the day that God created man on the earth, and ask from one end of heaven to the other whether there has been such a great thing as God redeeming a people, or has ever even heard of?
SPEAKER_01: Did any people ever hear the voice of God speaking out of the midst of a fire as you have and still live?
SPEAKER_01: The answer is no.
SPEAKER_01: Has any God ever attempted to go and take a nation for himself from the midst of any other nation by trials, by signs, by wonders, and by war, by a mighty hand and by an outstretched arm and by great deeds of terror?
SPEAKER_01: Has any God ever done that?
SPEAKER_01: No.
SPEAKER_01: But Yahweh your God did.
SPEAKER_01: To you, it was shown so that you might know that Yahweh is God.
SPEAKER_01: There is no other besides him.
SPEAKER_01: And Jesus pulls all of this together and says, I am Yahweh your God who saves you.
SPEAKER_01: And you know that summer is near, when its branch becomes tender and puts out its leaves.
SPEAKER_01: So when all these things happen, you know that he is near.
SPEAKER_01: How do you know?
SPEAKER_01: Because you've heard the word of God speak the words of Scripture to you.
SPEAKER_01: There is nothing new, my friends, in the Lord's answers to his disciples' questions.
SPEAKER_01: All he does is take biblical references that they've heard and he ties them together with his coming in the end of the age.
SPEAKER_01: Yeah, he provides a little more detail or definition, maybe we might say, to the timing.
SPEAKER_01: But under all this is the Lord's pointing all the people to himself.
SPEAKER_01: He is the Lord of the scriptures, he is the word of God, he is the one speaking out of the fire.
SPEAKER_01: You don't need to ask for signs, you need to look for him.
SPEAKER_01: For he's coming.
SPEAKER_01: Verses 32, 33, 34, and 35 are the summarized, concise answer to the second question.
SPEAKER_01: The question was, how will we know?
SPEAKER_01: What's the sign?
SPEAKER_01: And Jesus says, Well, you know.
SPEAKER_01: You know when summer's coming by watching the trees.
SPEAKER_01: In the same way, when you see these things, you know my coming is near.
SPEAKER_01: When you see these things, what are those things?
SPEAKER_01: Well, that's not easy to pinpoint.
SPEAKER_01: At the minimum, it would refer to the events of the great tribulation that culminate in cataclysmic events.
SPEAKER_01: But by but by tracing that those two words, these things, back to verse 22, and then from there back to verse 19, we could argue that these things go all the way back to the beginning of birth pains, and maybe even all the way back to the destruction of Jerusalem, saying, when you see these things, you know I'm I'm near.
SPEAKER_01: Summer's coming.
SPEAKER_01: And as we will see in the upcoming sections, Jesus' point is not to produce a chronology of events to check off of our list, but to create a people prepared for his coming.
SPEAKER_01: Are you ready?
SPEAKER_01: The disciples' question was, how will we know?
SPEAKER_01: The answer given is the basis for being prepared.
SPEAKER_01: The disciples ask for signs, just like we look at out at our world and the events in our world, and we ask, are these signs?
SPEAKER_01: But Jesus says, don't look for signs.
SPEAKER_01: You don't need signs when you have your Bible and trust.
SPEAKER_01: And so Jesus teaches us, my friends, to trust the scriptures.
SPEAKER_01: Do you trust your Bible?
SPEAKER_01: They contain everything that you need for life and godliness, Peter tells us.
SPEAKER_01: They are the wellspring of life, they are the very thing upon which Jesus rests himself and his humanity.
SPEAKER_01: He says, I trust what God has written.
SPEAKER_01: They will not pass away.
SPEAKER_01: All these things that Jesus spoke of will be fulfilled, including the promises to his people.
SPEAKER_01: Do you trust the scriptures?
SPEAKER_01: Now, if you trust the scriptures, you must also trust the Son.
SPEAKER_01: And my friends, you will not be ready for that day if you do not trust the Son.
SPEAKER_01: He is the one who must be your light and life.
SPEAKER_01: He must be the one for whom you wait.
SPEAKER_01: And if you trust in the scriptures and you trust in the Son, then place your trust in the sovereign God.
SPEAKER_01: Because this triune God does all things right.
SPEAKER_01: He will bring justice to a sinful world, he will bring righteousness to a faulty world, and he will bring perfect peace to a divided world.
SPEAKER_01: And so we as his people can come together and we can wait for him, humbly trusting him, because we know that our times are in his hands.
SPEAKER_01: And he does all things well.
SPEAKER_01: He is our Savior and our great God.
SPEAKER_01: And we can persevere then with meekness because we know that he will bring things to their intended conclusion, and we can endure with hope as we anticipate our gathering together with him.
SPEAKER_01: Let's pray.
SPEAKER_01: Lord Jesus, we humbly submit ourselves to your word.
SPEAKER_01: Some of these things are hard to understand.
SPEAKER_01: Peter wrote about some of Paul's things being hard to understand.
SPEAKER_01: And I say, well, some of Matthew wrote is hard to understand.
SPEAKER_01: Oh, may we learn to trust you even when we don't have all the answers.
SPEAKER_01: May our faith be in you alone.
SPEAKER_01: As we follow you.
SPEAKER_01: As we proclaim the message of hope of good news found in your eternal kingdom.
SPEAKER_01: May we love the day of your appearing.
SPEAKER_01: And in the meantime, may we wait for you with all hope, perseverance, and endurance as you empower your people to do that.
SPEAKER_01: Amen.
SPEAKER_00: That concludes this sermon from Faith Evangelical Free Church.
SPEAKER_00: Our mission is to declare the Word of God and disciple believers into mature, devoted followers of Jesus.
SPEAKER_00: You can learn more by visiting our website at faithfree.com.