REMEMBER

REMEMBER

Matthew 24:15-28 NET.

¹⁵ “So when you see the abomination of desolation — spoken about by Daniel the prophet — standing in the holy place (let the reader understand), ¹⁶ then those in Judea must flee to the mountains. ¹⁷ The one on the roof must not come down to take anything out of his house, ¹⁸ and the one in the field must not turn back to get his cloak. ¹⁹ Woe to those who are pregnant and to those who are nursing their babies in those days! ²⁰ Pray that your flight may not be in winter or on a Sabbath. ²¹ For then there will be great suffering unlike anything that has happened from the beginning of the world until now, or ever will happen. ²² And if those days had not been cut short, no one would be saved. But for the sake of the elect those days will be cut short. ²³ Then if anyone says to you, ‘Look, here is the Christ!’ or ‘There he is!’ do not believe him. ²⁴ For false messiahs and false prophets will appear and perform great signs and wonders to deceive, if possible, even the elect. ²⁵ Remember, I have told you ahead of time. ²⁶ So then, if someone says to you, ‘Look, he is in the wilderness,’ do not go out, or ‘Look, he is in the inner rooms,’ do not believe him. ²⁷ For just like the lightning comes from the east and flashes to the west, so the coming of the Son of Man will be. ²⁸ Wherever the corpse is, there the vultures will gather.

Here in the United States, we are celebrating Memorial Day this weekend. Memorial Day honors those who lost their lives while defending their country. We have been studying Jesus’ eschatological discourse. In that discourse, Jesus predicted that this entire age would contain war after war. During these wars, we will lose loved ones. They will make the ultimate sacrifice and die for their country. It is fitting that we honor these people. It is also vital that we remember the reason they died. We are living in an age of international strife. Jesus predicted this age. He told us that there would be wars throughout this age. But he also told us that these wars are not signs that the end has come. They are signs that we are still living in the present age.

There is another reason I find today’s passage very significant. When Penny and I returned from our trip on Tuesday, a flyer was waiting for us in the mail. The flyer stated that the Bible says two huge worldwide events are about to happen. One of those events is called the Secret Rapture. The other event is called the seven-year tribulation. We must study eschatology because there’s a lot of misrepresentation of the Bible. Let me say at the outset that the secret rapture is a deception. Also, the seven-year tribulation is a deception. I hope as we discuss these statements that Jesus makes in his eschatological discourse, we will better understand what Jesus actually predicted. We will see how the scripture texts have been misrepresented by popular theology. And I also hope that we will take Jesus’ commands seriously. The command in today’s text is remember.

The importance of remembering (25).

Jesus told his disciples that they were going to experience something. He told them that when they experience that thing, they should remember what he had predicted. You cannot remember something that you never experienced. This is a clue for us as to which question Jesus is answering. You remember that in verse 3 a disciple asked three questions of Jesus. He wanted to know when the destruction of Jerusalem was going to happen. He also wanted to know the sign of Jesus’ coming again. And he also wanted to know when the end of the age would come. This disciple probably thought all those things would happen in his lifetime. But as we have seen from verses 1 to 14 of this chapter, Jesus negated that assumption. He told his disciples there would be a long time before his second coming. It would be an age in which many events would happen and happen again and again. Jesus told them that the purpose of this age is that the gospel of the Kingdom will be preached throughout the inhabited earth. We are living in that age. Jesus told us to watch for his second coming. But he did not want us to be deceived about when it would occur. From the beginning, the church has set dates for their expectation of the Lord’s coming. So far, all those dates have been wrong. We are anxious for the Lord to come back. So, we take all of these signs mentioned in the eschatological discourse as if they are signs of the immediate second coming of Christ. But we must remember that there were other things that Jesus talked about in the eschatological discourse. So, what is Jesus talking about in this section?

A terrible time for Judea (15-20).

Numerous clues in today’s passage show that Jesus predicts a terrible time in Judea. Let’s walk through this text and we will see some of them. Note the word you in verse 15. Jesus is describing something that the disciples themselves would experience. What would they experience? They would experience the abomination of desolation. That is, something would happen to make the temple in Jerusalem desolate. That is, the temple would be defiled so it would longer function. The prophet Daniel had predicted that this would happen. Daniel’s prophecy concerned the defilement of the temple under the Greek general Antiochus Epiphanies. That event had already happened in Jesus’ time. But Jesus is saying that it is going to happen again. Jesus is saying that the defilement that happened under the Greeks will happen again under the Romans. Jesus told his disciples that that event was going to be a warning. When they noticed that the temple had been defiled, the Christians were to flee Jerusalem.

Jesus tells them to flee to the mountains. Note that this is a particular prophecy concerning a specific city. Jesus is not telling people in Delco to escape to the mountains. It would take us several hours to drive to the nearest mountain. History tells us that this terrible event happened within one generation of Jesus’ prediction. The siege and destruction of Jerusalem took place between AD 66 and AD 70. It was an awful experience for those who were living in Jerusalem. It was a time of great suffering. But fortunately for Christians, it was not a long time.

A time that will be cut short (21-22).

Jesus said if those days had not been cut short, no one would be saved, but for the sake of the elect, those days would be cut short. This is another clue that Jesus is not talking about this age. He had described this age as a very long one. But this time of intense suffering for the inhabitants of Jerusalem will be short. Historically we know that this time of great suffering lasted under four years. Millions of people perished. But many Christians were able to survive. They survived because they heeded Jesus’ warning. They fled to the mountains when they saw the evidence that the temple was being defiled.

A time of deception (23-26).

Jesus also predicted that this would be a time of deception. Unscrupulous false prophets would claim that this destruction of Jerusalem was the coming of Christ. But Jesus had already commanded us not to be misled by false prophets. He tells us here to remember that command. He warns his disciples not to be fooled by these people who claim he was coming again in 70 AD. He warned them not to follow their instructions. So, we know that Jesus knew exactly what would happen within one generation of this sermon. And he took extra care to keep his disciples from being misled by it.

We are living in an age when deception continues. As I said at the beginning of today’s message, some are teaching that when Jesus comes again, he’s going to come secretly and take his children away at first. The Bible describes Jesus’ second coming as a worldwide cataclysmic event that cannot be mistaken. Christ will return visibly. He will come back shouting. The trumpet will sound. The Archangel will shout. The dead in Christ will rise. Then, living believers will join them in the air (1 Thessalonians 4:16-17). If the second coming is secret, it will be the world’s worst-kept secret. I know what the movie said. I know what the books said. But I can guarantee that when Jesus comes back, everybody will know it.

Not the second coming! (27-28).

What Jesus does next is to explain why his coming is not to be equated with the fall of Jerusalem. He uses two metaphors. The first metaphor he uses is lightning. He says just like the lightning comes from the East and flashes to the West so the coming of the Son of Man will be. When lightning strikes, it is so sudden and so visible that even if it strikes on one side of the horizon, everyone can see it on the other side. There’s nothing secret about a lightning strike. The very point of the metaphor is that lightning is noticeable. You aren’t going to miss it.

The second metaphor Jesus uses is found in verse 28. He says wherever the corpse is, there the vultures will gather. In the North Carolina version, it says there the buzzards will gather. The point here, once again, is that the second coming will be noticeable. If I’m driving down the road and come across a wake of buzzards, I know that there’s something dead in the road. You see the buzzards even before you smell the dead thing. If there’s a corpse around, the buzzards will be there. That is why Jesus used that metaphor. The presence of buzzards is a sure sign of something dead. Likewise, when Jesus comes back, it will be so noticeable that no one will be able to miss it.

That disciple asked what the sign of Jesus coming would be. Jesus was not interested in telling that disciple what date he would be coming. That date is unknown and unknowable. But Jesus does want us to know one thing about his second coming. It is going to be sudden. I can’t tell you whether Jesus is going to come back soon. But I can tell you that when he comes back, it will be so sudden that no one can prepare for it. That’s why now is the day of salvation. Now is the day to prepare for Christ’s second coming. Now, Jesus is knocking on our door, allowing us to welcome him in. But when he returns, there will be no time to change your mind. Today, by God’s grace, we are allowed to make a judgment about Jesus Christ. But when Jesus comes back again, our time of judgment will be gone. Jesus is coming back, not to die on the cross for us but to separate the sheep from the goats. The only one making a judgment that day will be him.

In today’s text, Jesus describes the destruction of Jerusalem 40 years before it happened. He commanded his disciples to remember this prediction. He wanted them to know that everything he told them was reliable. If he predicted something, it was going to happen. Not only did Jesus know what would happen, but he also knew how people would respond to it. He knew there would be deceptive false prophets claiming he had already come. He warned his disciples not to fall for that deception. He also wanted his disciples to know that his coming will be visible, glorious, and personal when he comes. His coming is going to be unmistakable. But no one is going to know about it before it happens. Even today, almost 2000 years after Jesus’ prediction, we cannot guarantee people that Christ’s coming is going to be soon. But we can ensure that it is going to be sudden. And that is why our task is to call on people to respond to Jesus today and not to wait until our prophetic calendars are all filled up.

Jesus is coming again. The Old Testament predicted his first coming many times. All those prophecies were fulfilled at Christ’s first coming. The Bible also predicts Jesus’ second coming in many places. These prophecies have not yet been fulfilled. But Jesus wants us to remember that he is a reliable prophet. If he says something is going to happen, it will happen. If he warns us to get ready for something, we better get ready. In today’s passage, Jesus warns us to get prepared for something. That something is not rapture. That something is not a seven-year tribulation. That something is the second coming of our Lord. If we are going to get ready for something, let’s get ready for that.