Let me say it as directly as I can. We have not been told the whole truth about Matthew 24. Scholars have seen historical facts and reached what they considered to be obvious conclusions. But facts cannot be allowed to confuse truth. It was facts that blinded the Israelites as they approached the Promised Land. Ten spies, you recall (Numbers 13) saw one set of “facts”, that the giants were real and would eat them up! Two spies saw facts that differed, through eyes of faith, on the same trip.

We must read the Scriptures with eyes like the faithful spies, ever believing God is able to do even the most spectacular things. The truth of Matthew 24 can only sink in if every word of it is allowed to hit us full force, attached to our faith. Let “history” wait. Let men’s theories wait. Let us read it as it is! If you have ever read the conclusions of men about Matthew 24, and went away a bit unsatisfied, the reason is that you were made to understand rather than to believe. Many scholars feel it is their calling to explain away texts that are “too hard”. They do not deserve a following.

To the text.

Jesus pronounced an amazing statement of doom in Matthew 24:2. He claimed that everything in the beautiful temple site around them would be reduced to rubble! Not one stone would be left upon another. The common people must have been a bit annoyed. The religious leaders would use this gloom and doom talk against Him later. But the disciples were given grace to come to Him privately and ask merely when it would all take place.

The Herodian Temple of Jesus’ day had taken decades to complete. Some say it was still under construction during the life of Jesus. It was an awesome structure, and as the text implies, was made of several buildings, not just a place of worship. There were a number of separate courts for a number of separate groups of people. There were porches, and stairways leading everywhere, rooms like our storefronts to be used for shops. There was even attached to this structure an entire fortress to be used by the Roman Governor when he was in town. And there were huge walls surrounding the entire site, one of which still stands…

Were you listening? I just said one of those walls still stands. In plain sight to all of us humans for 20 centuries has been a wall from the days of Herod’s Jerusalem that was not destroyed when the Romans changed the course of Israel’s history in the year 70 A.D. In fact, Rome, it is said, left it there to remind the Jews of what they, the Romans, had accomplished in their war of near annihilation. Now, the Jews like to point out that the standing wall was a sign of God resisting the Romans and letting Israel know that His bond with them was unbroken. Whether your viewpoint is Roman or Jewish, the text before us is in trouble.

Again, Jesus: “Assuredly I say to you, not one stone shall be left here upon another, that shall not be thrown down (Matthew 24:2)."

We are either off to a bad start here or we have stumbled onto something. From the beginning of our search for truth we are being asked to rearrange thinking that has settled in since scholars have convinced us not to look further than their findings. Their findings are that Jesus’ words about the coming destruction were fulfilled in A.D. 70. But they have trouble explaining the sequence of the wording that follows in this chapter. And for sure they cannot deal with a certain “western wall” (sometimes called the wailing wall by those less respectful of Israelite feelings) that nullifies the literal acceptance of Jesus’ words.

Jesus’ words stirred the disciples into thoughts to which they had not often been drawn. All of this destroyed? How could that be? Would it mean the end of the world? The return of the Master? For, though they still had not fully believed He would die and rise again, as witnessed by the difficulty Jesus had in convincing them of such even after He was raised (Luke 24 et al), they had at least picked up the significance of His “long journey” parables (e.g. Matthew 21:33 ff). Somehow Jesus was going to leave them for awhile, then return. That much they knew.

Their question (24:3) showed they were concerned about end time matters. Jesus did not rebuke them for it, but went into significant detail explaining what is surely to come. They asked very clear questions, and Jesus answered them very clearly. Speculation has arisen as to whether they were asking several questions or one question with several parts. But the effect is the same, and Jesus’ answer is the same. He tells them when not to look for Him, but also when to know that His coming, and Jerusalem’s ultimate fall, and the end of the world, are all very near.

The Holy Spirit has seen to it that this discourse was recorded three times, to be sure we would not be unprepared when it was the time for its fulfillment. Let none of us say that these things don’t matter. They do! And we can know when these things will be. We can know the very real sign that will point to the end of all things. We can therefore know also who will be ruling the earth when it is about to go under.

First, Jesus tells us what is not the sign of His coming, and the end of the age (vs. 4-14). Heed the list well, for every so often in your life and mine, someone is going to mention one or more of these signs to you, and glibly add: “Jesus must be coming soon!”

No, these are the negatives. “See that you are not troubled…the end is not yet,” (v.6) and “All these are the beginning of sorrow,” (v. 8). The beginning is not the end.

Here is the list of things that prove nothing, but that will happen down through the years:

• Many will come saying they are Christ.
• There will be actual wars.
• There will be talk about a war starting.
• Nations and kingdoms will rise against each other.
• There will be localized food shortages.
• There will be localized spread of contagious diseases.
• Earthquakes will multiply.
• “You” (beginning with the 12 but on to our time in all of this list) will have trouble.
• “You” will be killed.
• “You” will be hated by all nations for the sake of Jesus.
• “You” will be betrayed by members of the church family.
• False prophets will arise.
• A growing sense of lawlessness, immorality, will be so pervasive as to cause many believers to love Jesus less. (This trait will be the defining characteristic of Paul’s “man of sin,” a leader the world will deserve! II Thessalonians 2.)

and...This Gospel will have been preached all over the world