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22 September (Evening) - MATTHEW SERIES 61. Jesus and the end of days(Part 1)

So last week Greg promised that this week’s sermon will only take 10 minutes, he was wrong. We are dealing with a very difficult passage of Scripture. So, from the get-go there might be disagreements with my position that I take in interpreting this portion of Scripture. However, please note everyone is trying to explain the text, this does not impact our salvation, and it is inherently mysterious. Therefore, we must be gracious to each other in our interpretation and seek together to see what the Word says.

However, the interpretation I take is trying to be as honest with the text as I can be. To let the text, speak in terms of what it was originally trying to say. So, we are going to go on a two-week journey through this difficult splitting it where there is a natural split in the text.

Let’s just dive in and I will show you what I mean. Jesus has just had a very intense interaction with the Religious leaders of his days and at the back end of this as they are leaving the Temple we read…

Matthew 24:1-2 English Standard Version (ESV)

Jesus Foretells Destruction of the Temple


His disciples come up to Jesus and said look at this building isn’t it amazing. And Jesus says, well actually everything you see here it’s going to be destroyed. Now, we have to understand that this is the centre of Jewish life. The Temple was, in the mind of the Jews, where God met with His people. Now, for the sake of clarity for the rest of tonight the Temple that Jesus describes here was destroyed in AD 70 under the invasion of Titus. So, when we speak of the destruction of the Temple, that is what we are talking about.

Now, this perturbs the disciples, so they ask;

Matthew 24:3 English Standard Version (ESV)


Now, notice, how many questions do the disciples ask here? Two! The disciples ask:

1. When will this (the destruction of the Temple) take place

2. When will be the sign of your coming and the end of the age be?

And church, this is gives us a clue on how to interpret this section. Jesus answers the disciples two questions in two parts which we will look at over the next two weeks. Firstly (and what we will look at tonight), when will the destruction of the Temple took place which Jesus answers from vs4-35 and then when will the coming of Jesus take place and the end of the age which Jesus answers from vs 36-51 (which we will look at next week).

Now, you might be thinking that that division doesn’t look right because it seems that Jesus slips in seriously “end of the world” type imagery in verses 4-35 so how can we limit the destruction of the Temple to verse 4-35 when there is clearly “end of the world events” like in verse 29 especially.

Well, that is what we are going to tackle tonight. Let’s continue through our journey through the text:

Jesus answers their question; and I am arguing that he is answering their first question here; which is when will the destruction of the Temple take place?

We read in;

Matthew 24:4-14 English Standard Version (ESV)



Now, there are many warnings that Jesus gives us here and then he says, then the end will come. What is Jesus doing? Is he describing the End or the destruction of the Temple? Now, to understand this section we need to get our mind into Jewish prophecy. We can try and go literal verse for verse and state this passage is talking about the end of time. However, in doing that we are limiting what Jesus is talking about and ultimately confusing ourselves in the process because the language does not allow us to do this and in the other Jewish prophets (such as Daniel, Isaiah, Micah etc) we will become increasingly confused as we read scripture.

Jesus describes how everything we are about to see, all the turmoil, the destruction of Jerusalem and the Temple these are the start of a serious of event that will culminate at the end of the age. These are birth pains Jesus says. The “end” sandwiched between the destruction of the Temple and the preaching of the gospel to all nations as a testimony.

So, just like the Old Testament prophets Jesus is using the coming events to point the reader to the goal of creation. The goal is that God is coming back to establish his just rule over all the earth and over every nation.

Now, Jesus describes many things here, false Christs, wars, destructive nature and lawlessness. This is human history! There had been and always will be people wanting to lead us astray, there has been and always will be war, the devastation of natural disaster and lawlessness. The lesson that Jesus wants us to take away (which we will come back to at the end of this sermon) is to stand firm, and preach the gospel.

Next Jesus gives details to the temples destruction;

Matthew 24:15-25 English Standard Version (ESV)


Now we come to an image that sparks many debates. However, what we know of history according to the Jewish historian Josephus, in AD 66 riots broke out in Jerusalem that started in motion a serious of even that culminated in the siege of Jerusalem in AD70. The siege started on the 14th April and ended on the 30 August AD70. With the Temple being utterly destroyed and ransacked. As a final display of victory Titus (the Roman General who was leading the siege) sacrificed an offering to his gods on the altar of God therefor fulfilling what Daniel was talking about.

This is most likely for Matthew adding the “reader take note” part of this passage. The reality is that this section was a preparation for the Christians during the start of the Christian Church, as it has been reported that during the siege not many Christians were killed as they had heeded the warnings of Christ and fled the city at the first reports of a Roman invasion.

Next we read