Transcript

How Will The World End?-Part Two

Matthew 24:15-22
Sunday, August 29, 2010
Pastor Randy Smith

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The way I project it, we will be discussing this subject of the "end times" in Matthew 24-25 for about ten weeks.

Now I know two things that might be going through your minds. First, these sermons will initially raise more questions than answers. Be patient. Stay with us each week. I do believe things will come together as we continually immerse ourselves in this material. Second, many of these points have a few different interpretations, interpretations that can be defended by conservative biblical scholars. Without a doubt, I know I will say some things in the weeks ahead that you may disagree with. You are welcome to disagree providing you can defend your position with the Word of God. And overall let's remember, we are united with our common conviction that our Savior will return in bodily form. Beyond that, we must extend not division, but grace to one another.

You know we began our study of Matthew 24 and 25 last week. This is our Lord's final sermon before His betrayal. The sermon is commonly called the "Olivet Discourse," because Jesus delivered it on the "Mount of Olives" (Mt. 24:3). And the subject of this sermon, relating to future events, is initiated by the disciples' question in verse 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?'" Jesus had just forsaken the Jewish nation (Mt. 23:38) and predicted the destruction of the temple (Mt. 24:2). To the disciples, these events must have signified the end of all things.

Prophecy must be understood like riding in the back of an old 1970's station wagon. Remember those days when the farthest rear seat faced backwards and when dad rolled the window down you and your two siblings had the pleasure of breathing all the exhaust fumes? When facing backwards in a car, you are not privy to what is ahead, but you can observe everything clearly after the car passes the objects.

In the same way, I believe in the minds of the disciples' they saw their question in verse 3 not as three questions, but as one. To them, the desolation and destruction of the temple must have been the end of the world. Yet to us, like facing backwards in the rear seat of a station wagon, we can look back on history and observe that there is a big gap between the two. We know the temple was destroyed in 70 A.D. and the end of the world (or the Return of Christ) is still in the future.

Biblical prophets will commonly make a big prediction for the far future and give a smaller prediction for the near future. The point is to gain credibility with the audience. If the near prediction is fulfilled as promised, there will be greater validity that the further one will be fulfilled as well. Jesus did the same here. The fall of Jerusalem (though intense) was the smaller prediction to foreshadow the greater prediction, the end of the world.

Therefore I believe Jesus' answer to the disciples' question, beginning in verse 4, definitely deals with the end of the world (as I taught you last week), but also has a near fulfillment in the end of Jerusalem (through further study, I am more confident of that than I was last week). Though the intensity goes from mild to severe, the pattern is the same in both destructions. In other words, what they saw in the destruction of Jerusalem will be seen on a greater scale in the end of the world. This is especially seen in verses 4-28.

I believe a good example of this is seen in verse 15. "Therefore when you see the Abomination of Desolation which was spoken of through Daniel the prophet, standing in the holy place (let the reader understand)."

Jesus clearly calls us to understand a prophecy from Daniel entitled the "Abomination of Desolation." Abomination means detestable to God, and desolation means utter destruction. So here we are talking about something that is terribly sinful and results in some type of destruction as Jesus said in the "holy place," which is the temple. So what did Daniel the prophet say about an Abomination of Desolation in the temple?

We find the Abomination of Desolation mentioned four times in Daniel. I would like to bring them to your attention. Please turn to the Old Testament book of Daniel.

Let's look first at chapter 8, verse 13. "Then I heard a holy one speaking, and another holy one said to that particular one who was speaking, 'How long will the vision about the regular sacrifice apply, while the transgression causes horror, so as to allow both the holy place and the host to be trampled?'"

What's happening here? We will need to back up and catch the entire context. Beginning in verse 2 we learn that this is a "vision." And the vision entailed, verse 3, "a ram [with] two horns" who, verse 4, "did as he pleased and magnified himself." Verse 5 speaks of "a male goat" that had one horn. This goat, verse 7 takes on the ram and shatters both his horns. After being victorious, verse 8, he "magnified himself exceedingly." But at that time his one horn was broken and up in its place came four new horns. One of these horns in particular, verse 9, grew exceedingly great and verse 11, "magnified itself to be equal with the Commander of the host." And it [here is the Abomination of Desolation] "removed the regular sacrifice for Him, and the place of His sanctuary was thrown down."

Beginning in verse 15 the interpretation of the vision comes to Daniel through the angel Gabriel (Dan. 8:16). Daniel is told the vision will take place in the future (Dan. 8:17, 19). And the description begins in verse 20. The ram with the two horns is "Media and Persia." The goat, verse 21 is "Greece." Verse 22, four kingdoms will come out of Greece and one of those kingdoms will be ruled by a king that will be especially powerful. Verses 23-25 describe him as "insolent" and "mighty" and "deceitful" and prideful and a "[destroyer of] many."

The prophecy was fulfilled in 175 B.C. when a man named Antiochus Epiphanes rose to power. In 167 B.C. he attacked Jerusalem and executed many Jews.

According to 2 Maccabees 5:11-14 [apocryphal book - not inspired but good history], "Raging like a wild animal, he set out from Egypt and took Jerusalem by storm. He ordered his soldiers to cut down without mercy those whom they met and to slay those who took refuge in their houses. There was a massacre of young and old, a killing of women and children, a slaughter of virgins and infants. In the space of three days, eighty thousand were lost, forty thousand meeting a violent death, and the same number being sold into slavery."

Later he decided to outlaw Jewish rites and traditions. He entered the temple, sacrificed a pig on the altar and set up a shrine to the Greek god, Zeus. As Daniel predicted several hundred years earlier, the temple was desecrated and all Jewish offerings for their sacrificial system ceased. The first Abomination of Desolation.

The same abomination of desolation is spoken of again in Daniel 11:31. "Forces from him will arise, desecrate the sanctuary fortress, and do away with the regular sacrifice. And they will set up the abomination of desolation."

So the Jews at the time of Christ were well aware of this abomination that happened only a century and a half before their lifetime. They knew about the accuracy of Daniel's prediction and they knew about this historical slaughter and defilement of their temple. Their knowledge combined with Jesus' words in Matthew 24:15 established a clear picture in their minds. Jesus is telling them about a pattern. What they know from the past will happen in a greater intensity in the future.

Jesus calls us to understand the prophecy of Daniel in Matthew 25:15, so we go back to Daniel and see another different Abomination of Desolation mentioned. This time we look at chapter 9. I will be using the ESV as I believe this version is more accurate.

Daniel receives another vision beginning in verse 24. "Seventy weeks are decreed about your people and your holy city, to finish the transgression, to put an end to sin, and to atone for iniquity, to bring in everlasting righteousness, to seal both vision and prophet, and to anoint a most holy place."

A prophetic week is not seven days, but seven years (the Jews numbered in periods of "sevens"). So when Daniel hears of seventy weeks we know this prophecy is speaking of 490 years. In other words we can read, "[Four hundred-ninety years] have been decreed for your people." In 490 years this continual cycle of Israel's rebelliousness will end.

Verse 25, "Know therefore and understand that from the going out of the word to restore and build Jerusalem to the coming of an anointed one, a prince, there shall be seven weeks. Then for sixty-two weeks it shall be built again with squares and moat, but in a troubled time."

Israel, taken in captivity by the Babylonians, would be released by the Persians and permitted to rebuild their land. When we were studying Ezra we learned about this decree. Cyrus gave the Israelites permission to return to Jerusalem and rebuild their city. Within seven prophetic weeks (or 49 years), as verse 25 states, Nehemiah, also called the "anointed one" or the "prince" in verse 25 arrives in the holy city to begin the work. (Many claim (as NASB translates) this anointed one is the Messiah. They add the seven and sixty-two weeks from the decree to rebuild and end at a point in His ministry - usually the start of His ministry or the Triumphant Entry).

Then when we add the remaining sixty-two prophetic weeks (or 434 years) as verse 25 states, we are taken directly to 70 A.D. when the Romans came and destroyed the city. I believe this is more in line with the context (the Abomination of Desolation) than the popular interpretation.

This is seen in verse 26, "And after the sixty-two weeks, an anointed one shall be cut off and shall have nothing. And the people of the prince who is to come shall destroy the city and the sanctuary. Its end shall come with a flood, and to the end there shall be war. Desolations are decreed."

The disciples back in Matthew 24 asked when the temple would be destroyed. Jesus uses Daniel to provide the answer.

The destruction of Jerusalem predicted by Daniel centuries earlier, and Jesus decades earlier, became a horrible reality. Josephus, the Jewish historian of this time describes the overthrow of Jerusalem as an awful holocaust. The Romans surrounded the city forcing a famine. The Jews turned on each other in hopes of finding the smallest morsel. When Jews were caught trying to escape they were tortured and then often executed on crosses by the hundreds. When the Romans ran out of crosses, they began nailing people to the city walls. Josephus describes the brutality and lamentations in the most horrific details of which I will spare you.

Now if you do your math at this point (and here is where most interpretations agree) you realize one week is missing. Verse 24, seventy weeks decreed. Verses 25 and 26, only a total of sixty-nine weeks mentioned (seven plus sixty-two). How do we account for the final prophetic week or seven years? There is a gap and that gap is from the destruction of Jerusalem to the final seven years preceding the return of Christ.

Now verse 27, "And he shall make a strong covenant with many for one week, and for half of the week he shall put an end to sacrifice and offering. And on the wing of abominations shall come one who makes desolate, until the decreed end is poured out on the desolator."

Verse 26 tells us, I believe, that the temple will be destroyed. We know that this took place in 70 A.D. But in verse 27 we read about another temple being defiled. Since we know the temple (in Jesus' day) was destroyed as predicted, we now get the belief that the temple will be rebuilt in Jerusalem sometime in the future. (Verse 27) "Sacrifices and offerings" will be resumed and then (verses 27) another abomination will take place.

How will this happen? Verse 27 tells us. Just before the return of Christ, specifically the final seven years of the world, Israel will be in all kinds of military trouble. Their safety will be threatened on every side. They will (verse 27) "make a covenant" with this beast empire of antichrist for (verse 27) "one week" (or seven years). All will go well for the first three and a half years until antichrist turns on the Jews. He will (verse 27) "put an end to sacrifice and offering." And he will bring abominations on the temple as we know from 2 Thessalonians when "he takes his seat in the temple of God, displaying himself as being God" (2 Thes. 2:4).

The fourth and final reference to the Abomination of Desolation in Daniel comes in chapter 12, verses 11-13. "From the time that the regular sacrifice is abolished and the abomination of desolation is set up, there will be 1,290 days [some believe this number represents antichrist's reign - 1,260 days all out persecution and 30 days at Har Magedon battle]. How blessed is he who keeps waiting and attains to the 1,335 days! But as for you, go your way to the end; then you will enter into rest and rise again for your allotted portion at the end of the age." I believe this speaks directly to the end of the age and the final and ultimate Abomination of Desolation caused by antichrist.

So we see from a brief study of the four passages in Daniel that there is a predicted Abomination of Desolation. First it happened before Christ when the temple was defiled by Antiochus Epiphanes. Second it happened just after Christ's first coming when the temple was destroyed by the Romans. So both these prophecies have come true and both these prophecies are the pattern for the third and final desolation of the temple by antichrist just before the return of Jesus Christ.

We go back to Matthew 24. Verse 15, "Therefore when you see the abomination of desolation which was spoken of through Daniel the prophet, standing in the holy place (let the reader understand)." Near fulfillment will be the destruction of Jerusalem in less than 40 years. Far fulfillment will be the final prophetic week just before the return of Christ. When this happens, what should people do? The verses that follow give the instructions, instructions that I believe apply primarily to the Jews because they are the ones living in Jerusalem and the ones primarily persecuted at this time by antichrist.

Beginning in verse 16, "Then those who are in Judea must flee to the mountains. Whoever is on the housetop must not go down to get the things out that are in his house. Whoever is in the field must not turn back to get his cloak. But woe to those who are pregnant and to those who are nursing babies in those days! But pray that your flight will not be in the winter, or on a Sabbath. For then there will be a great tribulation, such as has not occurred since the beginning of the world until now, nor ever will" (Mt. 24:16-21).

As tribulations have hit Jerusalem, this final Great Tribulation will start in Jerusalem and then take place on a worldwide scale. Antichrist will become Satan's counterfeit king. His targets will be set on the Israelites and the people of God. Revelation tells us he will "make war with the saints" (Rev. 13:7. John Macarthur said, "He is a demon-possessed, hell-inspired, Christ-hating, God-defying, Christian-killing, Jew-despising man of sin who takes over the reigns of rulership in the world. And Satan pulls out all the stops to try to destroy all Christians, all Jews, the nation of Israel and stop Jesus Christ from establishing His Kingdom" (Sermon, Matthew 24:15).

Revelation 13 describes the nature of this persecution: "They worshiped the dragon [satan] because he gave his authority to the beast [antichrist]; and they worshiped the beast, saying, 'Who is like the beast, and who is able to wage war with him?' There was given to him a mouth speaking arrogant words and blasphemies, and authority to act for forty-two months was given to him. And he opened his mouth in blasphemies against God, to blaspheme His name and His tabernacle, that is, those who dwell in heaven. It was also given to him to make war with the saints and to overcome them, and authority over every tribe and people and tongue and nation was given to him. All who dwell on the earth will worship him, everyone whose name has not been written from the foundation of the world in the book of life of the Lamb who has been slain. If anyone has an ear, let him hear" (Rev. 13:4-9).

Back to Matthew 24, verse 22. "Unless those days had been cut short, no life would have been saved; but for the sake of the elect those days will be cut short."

I believe this verse again reveals the mercy of God. The last prophetic week (seven years) will get pretty intense during the final half after antichrist reveals himself at the midpoint. Yet I believe God will cut those final three and a half years short when He brings judgment to the beast and unbelievers and delivers His people. And this glorious event is known as the Second Coming. Next week we will study the blessed and victorious return of our Savior (Mt. 24:23-31).

So what have we seen so far in Matthew 24? We learned that there will be several "birth pangs" (Mt. 24:8) before the return of Christ. There will be false teachers and wars and earthquakes and famines and an increase in sin and defection from the church and universal preaching of the gospel (Mt. 24:4-14). Like birth pangs, each of these will come in greater succession and intensity before Messiah is "delivered" back into the world. And one key event that will precede His coming will be the coming of antichrist (Mt. 24:15). Antichrist will have his way for a period, but as Paul said in 2 Thessalonians, "Then that lawless one will be revealed whom the Lord will slay with the breath of His mouth and bring to an end by the appearance of His coming" (2 Thes. 2:8).

Many hear this information and get consumed with the details without ever letting the truth of our Lord's return affect their hearts. God did not provide us with this information to merely make charts and divide over the minutiae of these issues. Rather this information is given so that we will not be shaken when any form of persecution hits (2 Thes. 2:2), so that we will be encouraged that we are on the winning team (1 Thes. 4:18), so that we will long for Jesus' return (Rev. 22:20) and so we will live every day abiding in Christ as faithful servants of our God and King (Jn. 15:5).