Introduction
This is the word of the Lord,
Matthew 24:1-8
Matthew 24:1–8 ESV
1 Jesus left the temple and was going away, when his disciples came to point out to him the buildings of the temple.
2 But he answered them, “You see all these, do you not? Truly, I say to you, there will not be left here one stone upon another that will not be thrown down.”
3 As he sat on the Mount of Olives, the disciples came to him privately, saying, “Tell us, when will these things be, and what will be the sign of your coming and of the end of the age?”
4 And Jesus answered them, “See that no one leads you astray.
5 For many will come in my name, saying, ‘I am the Christ,’ and they will lead many astray.
6 And you will hear of wars and rumors of wars. See that you are not alarmed, for this must take place, but the end is not yet.
7 For nation will rise against nation, and kingdom against kingdom, and there will be famines and earthquakes in various places.
8 All these are but the beginning of the birth pains.
Let us pray.
Christianity is founded upon a certain and irrevocable reality, an immutable doctrine, an impenetrable belief; that there is such a thing as ‘the truth’ and that this absolute and objective truth can be known.
• It is a certain and irrevocable reality because it is true that we are all at this moment gathered in this hall.
This isn’t a figment of our imagination. You are not asleep or in a game simulation.
The truth always corresponds with reality.
You are acting, behaving, feeling and believing at this moment on the certainty of what is true and knowable.
Truth is objective reality. It is not subjective. There is no such thing as ‘your truth’ and ‘my truth’. There is only truth.
A friend of mine once debated me by saying that truth was relative. I asked her in turn if what she just said was actually true.
The look on her face when she realised that she couldn’t make that objective statement about subjective truth without first believing in objective truth.
R.C Sproul once said that truth is reality as it is perceived by God. Since we are human, our perception may be flawed. But God sees all things as they are. And so the pursuit of truth is the pursuit of God.
• It is an immutable (unchangeable) doctrine because Jesus said of himself, in John 14:6
John 14:6 ESV
6 Jesus said to him, “I am the way, and the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me.
Jesus, himself, is the ultimate truth. And, Hebrews 13:8, teaches us that
Hebrews 13:8 ESV
8 Jesus Christ is the same yesterday and today and forever.
Jesus is the truth and Jesus is unchanging. The absoluteness of truth comes from the absoluteness of God.
• It is an impenetrable belief because the genuine Christian’s faith in God did not come from his strength.
Ephesians 2:8–9 ESV
8 For by grace you have been saved through faith. And this is not your own doing; it is the gift of God,
9 not a result of works, so that no one may boast.
The law of God is written on our hearts. Faith in Christ is to abide in his divine and unchangeable word, and his grace abiding in us.
Therefore, as Christians, we are biblical absolutists. We know that there is such a thing as the truth, and that that truth is knowable.
I often like to compare our finitude to God’s infinite existence, like looking at the horizon. No matter how far you travel in that direction, there will always be a horizon. Though you cover much ground you always have more to go.
Even the word infinite, is not a description of what we know but a description of that which is beyond our comprehension.
And so is God, so much beyond our comprehension. Isaiah 55:8-9
Isaiah 55:8–9 ESV
8 For my thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways my ways, declares the Lord.
9 For as the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways and my thoughts than your thoughts.
And if God is so far beyond our comprehension, and he is the truth, how can we know him?
Doug Wilson, in a debate, once explained this by using the analogy of a prisoner. Suppose you’re in prison and your chains prevent you from touching the jailer’s nose, it does not then follow that the jailer cannot walk over and touch yours.
It is impossible for man to know God, unless, God were to make himself known to man. There’s nothing stopping the sovereign God of the universe from touching our nose. And that is exactly what he did.
John 1:18 ESV
18 No one has ever seen God; the only God, who is at the Father’s side, he has made him known.
This is why Christ is the very embodiment of truth, because it is he that reveals the Father to us. Christ coming down to us is truth coming down to us, God coming down to his people.
Therefore, we know the truth because he has revealed himself to us.
Now, I want you to keep this context as we navigate the passage before us today. As much as we are on the subject of Eschatology or the study of the end times, this passage reveals something of the human heart that I believe we ought to ponder more deeply on.
The Truth about Eschatology
As we continue to plod through Matthew 24 in our expository series through he Gospel of Matthew, this is yet another week on the subject of ‘Eschatology’ or the study of the end times.
We are determined to persevere because we believe that God has revealed this subject to us in Scripture for the sake of our knowledge.
We are talking about Eschatology because what God has told us about the end times are truths we can know.
We are talking about Eschatology because Jesus has walked over and touched our nose.
And therefore, as good students, we are gathered here to investigate the revelation of God’s word.
So, fundamentally, as Christians, we believe in objective reality, truths that we are to believe, even about the end times, and that these truths are knowable regardless of the many interpretations and confusions that such a subject inspires.
Ambrose Bierce, one of the most renowned journalists in the 19th Century, spoke about the commentators on the book of Revelation, as a famous book in which St. John the Divine concealed all that he knew. The revealing is done by the commentators, who know nothing.
Now, the plague – and there is a plague – of Christians abandoning verses like 2 Timothy 3:16, because they do not actually believe that the Bible is an unveiling, or that it has anything to offer us in the way of truth.
Too many Christians look for truth elsewhere. To the news, to their leaders, to their parents, to their teachers, to their traditions, and even to their own subjective experiences.
O the devastating loss! To have felt the touch of the infinite in your hands and have reduced it in your mind to a mere book of good morals.
In the matters of Eschatology then, too long have the Christians in our country looked to men and not the Scriptures.
And so they find it very strange when I tell them that there are more than one orthodox Christians positions on this subject.
Although the vast majority of the Christians have been taught culturally that there is only one legitimate view of the end times, that simply isn’t true.
In fact, the most popular and specific view of the classical ’dispensational premillennialism’, I dare say was an invention of the 19th Century. Nobody in the New Testament history of the church has heard anything like it till that point in time.
I don’t hold to that view.
This is as John Piper put it, ‘Unrelenting sleuth in the pursuit of truth’. That is who we are. We are Christians. We pursue the truth. It is foundational to our faith and existence.
Exegesis
Matthew 24:1–3 ESV
1 Jesus left the temple and was going away, when his disciples came to point out to him the buildings of the temple.
2 But he answered them, “You see all these, do you not? Truly, I say to you, there will not be left here one stone upon another that will not be thrown down.”
3 As he sat on the Mount of Olives, the disciples came to him privately, saying, “Tell us, when will these things be, and what will be the sign of your coming and of the end of the age?”
We covered this portion in detail last week, and I made the case that by the phrase, ‘the end of the age’, the disciples were not talking about the end of the world, but about the end of the Judaic age.
This question about the sign of your coming was prompted by Jesus’ declaration fo the destruction of the temple.
So, the destruction of the temple is the end of the Judaic age, and this happens at the coming of Christ.
The temple was later destroyed according to Jesus’ prophecy in AD 70. So I take this to mean that Jesus did come in judgment in AD 70 to judge Israel.
It is then helpful for us to note that preceding the destruction of the first Jewish temple, the prophet Ezekiel wrote about the coming judgment of God in,
Ezekiel 11:23 – And the glory of the Lord went up from the midst of the city and stood on the mountain that is on the east side of the city.
The mountain on the east side of the city is the Mount of Olives.
Matthew 24:4 ESV
4 And Jesus answered them, “See that no one leads you astray.
It is on this verse that I want to spend the bulk of my time today. And the emphasis I want to lay here has less to do with eschatology and more to do with what muddies the waters of scripture for many of us.
• I want to spend time here because the very first thing that Jesus said when responding to the disciple’s question about the end of the age, was to issue them a warning – to not be led astray. -> “Careful now, lest you go the wrong way”
• There is an innate tendency in the human heart to be driven away from Christ instead of toward him. This is the sin of our flesh.
Romans 3:10–12 ESV
10 as it is written: “None is righteous, no, not one;
11 no one understands; no one seeks for God.
12 All have turned aside; together they have become worthless; no one does good, not even one.”
Isaiah 53:6 ESV
6 All we like sheep have gone astray; we have turned—every one—to his own way; and the Lord has laid on him the iniquity of us all.
Jeremiah 17:9 ESV
9 The heart is deceitful above all things, and desperately sick; who can understand it?
• We all love the parable of the lost sheep. Matthew 18:12-14
Matthew 18:12–14 ESV
12 What do you think? If a man has a hundred sheep, and one of them has gone astray, does he not leave the ninety-nine on the mountains and go in search of the one that went astray?
13 And if he finds it, truly, I say to you, he rejoices over it more than over the ninety-nine that never went astray.
14 So it is not the will of my Father who is in heaven that one of these little ones should perish.
But we love it more because we feel that it excuses us in our many wanderings away from the path of Christ because the Good Shepherd will ultimately come for us.
But this is a sad misunderstanding of the text.
The same Good Shepherd issued the command to his sheep that they are not to go astray, to go away from the correct path.
• And here, as is the case in most situations, this verse is not so much talking about us finding a new path, but about us being led to a new path.
This isn’t about merely going astray, but about being led astray.
Matthew 7:15 ESV
15 “Beware of false prophets, who come to you in sheep’s clothing but inwardly are ravenous wolves.
2 Peter 2:1–3 ESV
1 But false prophets also arose among the people, just as there will be false teachers among you, who will secretly bring in destructive heresies, even denying the Master who bought them, bringing upon themselves swift destruction.
2 And many will follow their sensuality, and because of them the way of truth will be blasphemed.
3 And in their greed they will exploit you with false words. Their condemnation from long ago is not idle, and their destruction is not asleep.
• And who is here responsible for ensuring that we do not go astray? We are.
You, the Christian, are given the charge to safeguard your walk, to ensure that you are not led astray by another.
The Truth alone is your safeguard
So, if I may for a moment summarise this warning of Christ in three points.
1. All men are capable of going astray, deviating from the path of righteousness and truth.
2. There is something (or specifically here, someone) who leads us astray.
3. We are to keep guard, ensuring that no one leads us astray.
Ephesians 4:11–14 ESV
11 And he gave the apostles, the prophets, the evangelists, the shepherds and teachers,
12 to equip the saints for the work of ministry, for building up the body of Christ,
13 until we all attain to the unity of the faith and of the knowledge of the Son of God, to mature manhood, to the measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ,
14 so that we may no longer be children, tossed to and fro by the waves and carried about by every wind of doctrine, by human cunning, by craftiness in deceitful schemes.
• There is such a thing as the objective truth and that truth is knowable.
And it is the charge of the church to ensure that the saints are grounded in the knowledge of that truth, of the Son of God, to mature manhood, to the measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ.
• Church, people of God, if you are not grounded in the truth, you will be led astray.
So, the first step to understanding the signs of the end of the age or of the coming of Christ, is that you and I be objective seekers of the truth. For only, those who know the truth refuse to be led astray.
In that sense, I see this first warning of Christ also as a summons. Eschatology is not a subject for those who disregard the truth, but those who love and treasure it.
Conscience, Conviction & the Cunning of the Flesh
The objectivity of truth means that it cannot be identified by how you feel about it.
1 Corinthians 4:4 ESV
4 For I am not aware of anything against myself, but I am not thereby acquitted. It is the Lord who judges me.
People are too easily assured as long as they feel that their conscience is clear]
Exegesis continued…
Matthew 24:5 ESV
5 For many will come in my name, saying, ‘I am the Christ,’ and they will lead many astray.
• The first problem are the false Christs. These are not anti-Christs but false Christs. They are not against the divinity of Christ, but are proclaiming themselves as the Christ.
• We are led astray in not knowing Christ. Too many things in our lives take the place of God.
• If you don’t have an objectively true understanding of Christ, you will be led astray by whatever projection of Christ you have in your mind.
• There were many false Christs that arose during the time of the disciples leading up to AD 70. The historian Josephus who lived during that time talks about how in between (AD 53 – 60) the country was full of robbers, magicians, false prophets, false Messiahs, and impostors, who deluded the people with promises of great events.
They deluded great multitudes and this gives credit to Jesus’ prophetic warning.
John Calvin wrote, “For shortly after Christ’s resurrection, there arose impostors, every one of whom professed to be the Christ. And as the true Redeemer had not only been removed from the world, but oppressed by the ignominy of the cross, and yet the minds of all were excited by the hope and inflamed with the desire of redemption, those men had in their power a plausible opportunity of deceiving. Nor can it be doubted, that God permitted such reveries to impose on the Jews, who had so basely rejected his Son.”
Galatians 1:6–9 ESV
6 I am astonished that you are so quickly deserting him who called you in the grace of Christ and are turning to a different gospel—
7 not that there is another one, but there are some who trouble you and want to distort the gospel of Christ.
8 But even if we or an angel from heaven should preach to you a gospel contrary to the one we preached to you, let him be accursed.
9 As we have said before, so now I say again: If anyone is preaching to you a gospel contrary to the one you received, let him be accursed.
A different Christ is a different gospel, they are both false.
The Subtle Art of Being Led Astray -> 2 Timothy 4:3 – For the time is coming when people will not endure sound teaching, but having itching ears they will accumulate for themselves teachers to suit their own passions,
Matthew 24:6–7 ESV
6 And you will hear of wars and rumors of wars. See that you are not alarmed, for this must take place, but the end is not yet.
7 For nation will rise against nation, and kingdom against kingdom, and there will be famines and earthquakes in various places.
Likewise, politics, economics, calamities have all played their part in leading us astray. Because we’ve wanted to make sense of the Bible more than making sense of the world.
The clearer Scripture must always interpret the more obscure parts of Scripture, but for us the clearest thing is the political environment and our subjective experiences.
Now, in order for the preterist position to hold ground, I have to prove that these things happened in the first century.
And there is a lot of evidence that it did.
• The Roman Empire was engaged in various military campaigns and expansion efforts during the first century. This expansion often led to conflicts with neighbouring regions and peoples. The Roman conquests and military activities generated rumours of wars and instilled a sense of anxiety and uncertainty among the populace.
In Alexandria, in Seleucia, in Syria, in Babylonia, there were violent tumults between the Jews and the Greeks, the Jews and the Syrians and so on.
In the reign of Caligula, there were great apprehensions of Judea going to war with the Romans in consequence of this tyrant emperor’s proposal to place his statue in the temple.
• During the reign of the Emperor Claudius (AD 41-54), there were four seasons of great famine. So sever was the famine that a great number of people died.
• And we know from the accounts of certain historians, that there were earthquakes during that time, in both the reign of Caligula and Claudius.
Conclusion
Matthew 24:8 ESV
8 All these are but the beginning of the birth pains.
The word used here for birth pains is some translations is suffering. But that is not the specific word. This isn’t generic suffering but the pain of giving birth.
But the word in that context is also used to refer to bringing something new – the birth of something.
Many scholars have seen this phrase as an emphasis on the beginning of birth pains that would increase and finally result in the birth of something – in this context, probably the birth of the new age.
The Cross
Truth came down from heaven that we may behold him and believe in him.
