Jesus Christ’s Olivet Prophecy

With so many major events happening in the news right now, I thought it would be good to give a sermon or two on Bible prophecy. I was originally planning to give this sermon last Sabbath, but as I started working on it, I realized that I needed to give last week's message on blessings and cursings as a prelude to today's message. If we are to understand what is foretold to happen in the end time, we need to understand why those things will happen. As we saw last week, the modern nations that are descended from ancient Israel, the modern English-speaking nations, will experience growing troubles and major problems because of their ongoing rebellion against God and hostility toward Him that is growing in virtually every aspect of life. We have seen some of that hostility toward God reach the boiling point in recent weeks, which illustrates the curses that we bring on ourselves through disobedience to God on many levels. Today I want to continue with the theme of Bible prophecy and what is foretold to happen, covering what Jesus Christ said in His Olivet prophecy. It is called the Olivet prophecy because He gave it on the Mount of Olives overlooking the city of Jerusalem only a few days before He was crucified and rose to life again. Let's read about this prophecy in Matthew 24. As usual, I'll be projecting the passage, the Bible verses, here on the screen for us. We'll also read several passages from Luke as well. To set the stage for this, again, just a few days before Jesus is arrested, He is in Jerusalem. During the final week there, these events apparently take place on Monday before He is arrested and crucified later that week. He and His disciples are visiting the temple, which is something they typically did when they went to Jerusalem. They are going around the temple. We'll pick up the story in Matthew 24 and verse 1. Then Jesus went out and departed from the temple, and His disciples came up to show Him the buildings of the temple. And Jesus said to them, Do you not see all these things? Assuredly I say to you, not one stone shall be left here upon another that shall not be thrown down. To help us visualize this a bit, here is the model of Jerusalem as it looked around 30 AD in Jerusalem. This is at the Israel Museum on the western side of the city of Jerusalem. A very large model. You can see the scale from some of the people around here. You can walk all the way around it. This is the approximate view that Jesus and His disciples would have had from the Mount of Olives, looking back toward the temple there. Again, they are visiting the temple, and the temple is used fairly generically in that day for either the temple itself, or this huge 15-story structure here in the middle of this huge 36-acre platform here. That also is called generically the temple. It is the temple, the court of the Gentiles out here, the court of women, the court of Israel. This whole complex has been under construction, dating back into the reign of King Herod the Great, about 14 BC. It is actually still being worked on as Jesus and the disciples are visiting it at this time. We know this. Can you hear me? Yes. Your screen share is not on. We can't see what's on your screen. Oh, I'm sorry. Okay. Okay, it must have kicked out when I... Okay. Thank you, Sam.

Okay, I'm getting a message that an attendee's screen sharing is disabled.

I made you a co-host that usually... Oh, wait, for some reason... Okay. I'm trying now. Sorry about that. Okay. All right. Is the photo showing on screen now? Not yet. Okay, let's try that again. Here we go. Here we go. All right. Okay, great. Now, it should be working.

Okay, can everyone see the photo of the temple there? Yes. It's... Okay, okay. All right. So, again, briefly recap what I was saying there. Jesus and the disciples are walking around this whole complex, which is also generically called the temple.

The temple itself is this 15-story structure right here in the middle. But the word temple is also used for this whole 36-acre complex during the first century there. It was started by Herod the Great about 14 BC. And it is actually so big, it is still being worked on even at this time. And will actually continue being worked on for about another 30-something years. And it is actually only completed just a few years before the Romans surround Jerusalem and destroy it in 70 AD.

So, apparently, some new portion of the complex has been completed. And that's why, as Matthew describes it there, the disciples show Him the buildings of the temple. And Mark and Luke's parallel account also mention the buildings and the temple itself. That is what Jesus refers to when He says, Do you not see all these things? As surely I say to you, not one stone shall be left here upon another that shall not be thrown down. So He's talking about the various buildings and structures here from the context.

And there was, Josephus describes this, and you can read, and Josephus, if you're interested in that, there was a literal battle that took place here on the Temple Mount. It made a great fortress here. It was the highest part of, well, technically, some parts of the upper city over here a little bit higher in elevation, but it made a great fortress there, dominated the city of Jerusalem. So there was literally a battle there, and in the aftermath of that battle, all of the rubble from the destroyed temple itself, these porches, covered porches where Jesus taught, and later John and Peter will also teach here.

All of this rubble, the Romans, after the battle and the destruction of the Temple Mount, they push it all over the sides. And here's an aerial photo showing what that aerial looks like today. It's dominated by the Dome of the Rock Muslim Shrine there. The Al-Aqsa Mosque is right over here. So this is the, you can see by the outline of these walls, that giant platform built by Herod the Great. So the Romans pushed the rubble from the destroyed structures off, the edges of the temple platform. If you go to Jerusalem today, you can see the stones from these buildings and structures up there.

And you can even see places where these stones fell down and smashed. This is a first century street that ran alongside the temple platform. And you can see how these huge stones here that are about 8 to 10 inches thick. And some of these, they're typically about 3 by 5 feet, so massive stones.

And they were crushed and broken when all of this debris was pushed off the top by the Romans. So this kind of helps us get an idea of what is going on here when Jesus says, not one stone will be left atop another here. So after Jesus gives this statement, which had to have utterly shocked the disciples to hear that, they cross over the Kidron Valley and ascend the Temple Mount overlooking the city.

And then Jesus gets into the actual Olivet prophecy itself in verse 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? And Jesus answered and said to them, Take heed that no one deceives you. So he begins to answer their question about what signs will precede Jesus Christ's return at the end of this age of human misrule over the earth. So his first warning is, Take heed that no one deceives you, for many will come in my name, saying, and I should point out here there were no quotation marks in the original, so, they are saying Jesus is the Christ, the Messiah, but they present a very different Messiah, a very different Christ.

And as a result of that, their teachings will deceive many, as he says here. So this is the first sign that Jesus gives, and he actually gives it three times in the Olivet prophecy, these warnings about false religion, false teachers, who will say that Jesus is the Christ, the Messiah, but they will misrepresent him and what he taught. And we have seen this for the last nearly 2,000 years.

That religious deception started very early on, because just about 30 years later, the Apostle Paul talks about it. You can see it reflected in his letters, such as here in 2 Corinthians 11, verses 13 through 15. He was having to already deal with what he calls here false apostles, deceitful workers, transforming themselves into apostles of Christ. And no wonder for Satan himself transforms himself into an angel of light. Therefore it is no great thing if his ministers also transform themselves into ministers of righteousness, whose end will be according to their works.

Paul is already having to deal with false apostles who claim to represent Jesus Christ, claim to be Christ's apostles, but they are liars. They are deceivers, deceitful workers, as he says here. And another one we'll read. There are many others we could cover, but I'll just cover these two.

And writing to the church in Galatia, or church members in Galatia, and what is today Turkey, Paul writes, I marvel that you are turning away so soon from him who called you in the grace of Christ to a different gospel. So they are teaching a different message here, which is not another, but there are some who trouble you and want to pervert the gospel of Christ.

But even if we, or an angel from heaven, preach any other gospel to you than what we have preached to you, let him be accursed. As we have said before, so now I say again, if anyone preaches any other gospel to you than what you have received, let him be accursed. So here in the middle of the first century, 50s, 60s A.D., this part of Christ's prophecy about false teachers claiming to represent him was already being fulfilled.

We see it reflected in Paul's writings. John's epistles near the end of the first century also reflect this, and these are called Deceitful Workers and False Apostles. They are teaching a different and perverted gospel, a twisted gospel, with a different message. It wasn't long until this counterfeit Christianity, this fake Christianity, took off and greatly outgrew genuine Christianity. It has dominated the world ever since. From prophecy, it will grow to dominate even more at the time of the end. Jesus gives the second warning, and these do parallel the four horsemen described in Revelation. We don't have time to go through and read that.

The first one we just talked about is the writer on the white horse, which appears to be Jesus Christ, but again is false teaching. The next sign that it gives in verse 6, you will hear of wars and rumors of wars. See that you are not troubled, for all these things must come to pass, but the end is not yet.

Here he gives another sign that began back then, nearly 2,000 years ago, and it has been with us ever since. That has been warfare, and these wars and rumors of wars have been near constant. But Jesus says the end is not yet. There are more things that must come to pass. He goes on and says next, verse 7, For nation will rise against nation, and kingdom against kingdom. There are a few interesting things to point out about these words here. Nation will rise against nation, and kingdom against kingdom. This word, let's talk about kingdom first, it is the word vassalia, and it means kingdom or realm.

It today is what we would call a nation, a political entity with borders and people within it who are the citizens of that nation. The word kingdom here would be more or less the equivalent of our physical, geopolitical entities called nations. But what is interesting is this word nation here. It is the Greek word ethnos.

It is from this word that we get words like ethnic, or ethnicity, or so on. Other similar words. In the use of Greek in that time, it referred to race, tribe, nation, or people. It was the stock of the people, their descent. Not where they lived in the sense of a nation, but who they were as a tribe, as a group, as a cultural group, as an ethnic group here. What Jesus is telling us here is that in the end time, part of this conflict will not just be between nations, as we know it, as in the United States versus China, or Iran, or North Korea, or Russia, or others that are hostile to one another.

But there is another layer of conflict in there, and that is between different ethnic groups, peoples, tribes, who may live within the same country, but they are hostile toward one another, and they are in conflict with one another as well. So it's multiple levels of this conflict here between peoples. And that too is exactly what we are seeing in the news today. And it is being stirred up and egged on by people who want to see the nation destroyed. So what Jesus is telling us here, the distinction between these two words, is that there is going to be a growing conflict at multiple levels, not just between nation and nation, as we think of nations today, but many peoples of all nations and races and cultures will be set against one another in conflicts.

Then he goes on, continuing here with other signs that will proceed his coming, continuing in verse 7, he says there will be famines, pestonces, and earthquakes in various places.

And one item that has been lost in the news coverage or overwhelmed in the news coverage, all the screaming headlines about coronavirus and riots and so on, has been some of the most devastating locust plagues in years, where swarms of billions and billions of locusts, literally dozens of miles wide, have swept into large areas stretching all the way from India and Pakistan across the Middle East and into Africa.

And this just started hitting the news just about the time that coronavirus broke out here in the United States. And there was a first wave of this locust infestation, and locusts have a fairly short lifespan, and the first generation largely died out. But what is bad is the next generation, because the second generation of these locust infestations is typically 10 to 16 times as large as the first generation.

And it is devastating, a large part of, again, a swath of land stretching all the way from India and Pakistan into Africa. And to give you some idea how bad this is, each locust can eat its own body weight in plant matter every single day. And the next day it can eat that much again, the day after that, that much again. Now, with dozens or hundreds of locusts, that's not a problem. But when the number of locusts is in the billions, and when they are in swarms, literally dozens of miles wide, they can strip their, an entire field of acres large in just a few minutes.

Stirke could totally, barely be nothing but twigs and stalks left. And what's particularly bad about this is it is hitting third world areas of the country that can least afford to lose huge areas of cropland and other vegetation.

And for years, biblically, because locusts have been around as long as we have, this is why they've long been viewed as a precursor to famine, as we're told here in Matthew 24.

And there is, however, an even greater cause of famine, and that is the war that Jesus foretold previously. Because war disrupts everything. It disrupts planting and harvesting of food. You can't grow crops when your nation is being invaded there. Or if your nation is invading another, what's going to happen to the food you grow? It's going to be confiscated, sent to supply the troops there, to feed the army. So people get malnourished. They grow weak. They starve to death. And alongside war and famine comes something else that Jesus Christ mentioned here, and that is disease epidemics.

All of these things go hand in hand because when war comes, people lose their homes, they lose their land, they lose their crops, their fields. The infrastructure is destroyed. The infrastructure that provides clean water and power, electricity, food, medicines, things like that. When all of that unravels and goes to pieces, disease epidemics spread like crazy. And there's nothing that people can do to stop them under those circumstances. So that is why pestilences, disease, and famine follow in the footsteps of wars and natural consequences.

They all go hand in hand. But as we have seen in recent months here, it doesn't take a war to bring about pestilences, as we've seen. We've gotten used to thinking there's a vaccine for everything. And if you get sick or you get this disease, you can be treated, and everything will be okay in a short time.

But this pandemic of coronavirus has shown how fragile our assumptions can be. This epidemic came out of nowhere to fit the world. And now, possibly this week, we'll cross more than a half a million people dead from coronavirus. And there's no vaccine. Yes, they're working feverishly to develop one. But they've been working feverishly to develop a vaccine for AIDS, or HIV.

You realize how long that epidemic has been with us? About 40 years. And there's still no vaccine for it. So there's no guarantee that there will ever be a vaccine for some of these things. And can we expect worse in the way of disease epidemics? Yes, we can, based on what Jesus Christ foretold here. He also foretold another wave of things that would hit, and that is earthquakes. Here's a photo of downtown Anchorage, Alaska, where some of you I know have walked down this main street here in Anchorage.

This was 1964, I believe it was. And you can see here, part of the land on which Alaska was built just dropped about 10 or 12 feet here. Early on a Sunday morning, I believe it was. So, just devastated large parts of Alaska there. You can still, if you visit, see a lot of the damage left over from that. They have a very good museum there called the Alaska Earthquake Museum. The document's a lot of that. And we do hear a lot about earthquakes these days. Most of the reports we hear are overhyped.

There's a saying in news headlines, if it bleeds, it leads. If it's dangerous, if it's bloody, if it's gory, if it's light-threatening, it leads. And that's, you need to be aware of that when you read the news headlines, because they are trying to get your attention and keep your eyes glued to that television screen or radio. So, they can sell your eyeballs to advertisers there. So, a lot of what we read about earthquakes is overhyped. A lot of what we read about nearly everything is overhyped for that reason.

But the time is coming when earthquakes are not going to be overhyped, but are going to be absolutely terrified. I've given a sermon before about one of my favorite places, which is Yellowstone National Park. And about the Yellowstone caldera, which is a Latin word for creator. And that area has fascinated me since I went there on a backpacking trip about 40 years ago. And Yellowstone is a beautiful place, but it's also an incredibly dangerous place.

And you hear, I mention this just because there's been several hundred minor earthquakes around Yellowstone in recent months. And so you'll start hearing about some of this. I do want to tell you what's going on there and why. And it's pretty sobering now. The backpacking trip I went on was led by a geology professor. So he explained a lot about the geology of Yellowstone. And at Yellowstone, everything is volcanic.

Everything. The rock is all volcanic. The geysers are caused by this pool of liquid molten magma or lava that's a few miles underneath the surface there of Yellowstone. And Yellowstone Lake itself sits in a big volcanic crater there. That's why there's the lake. Yellowstone Lake there. And every... there's a permanent hot spot here of magma, lava, very close underneath the earth's surface.

And every couple of hundred thousand years it goes off in spectacular fashion. Generally accompanied by a lot of earthquakes, which is what has people nervous about this right now. And it is about view for another one. It goes off on average about every 500,000 years. And it's been documented geologically there that this has happened. Now what's... for those of you who haven't heard this before or heard it, or if you have heard about it, this map illustrates... you can see three different shades of beige here. And these illustrate the ash fallout from the last three major eruptions there in Yellowstone. And show how far it's spread. And scientists know this because each eruption has its own unique chemical fingerprint in the volcanic ash there.

They're able to trace that. And these eruptions... well, you can see Mount St. Helens by comparison over here. How big that ash fallout was. Some of these eruptions covered about roughly half the country in volcanic ash, all the way from the Gulf of Mexico and the Mississippi River, all the way up into Canada. The largest one. And then there are two others that are somewhat smaller, but still covering several different states. And unfortunately, Colorado has been basically covered, the entire state, in all three of these eruptions.

And here is a map showing what a similar type of eruption might look like today. Here in Colorado, we wouldn't die immediately, like all of the people in this red circle here. No, we'd just be partially buried in hot ash and slowly suffocate or starve to death, because there would be no way to transport food into Colorado because all of the roads and all of the airfields are covered by hot volcanic ash. So, I mentioned this just as an example. And again, this happens every 500,000 years or so. Something like this is going to happen next week or next month, or you should sell your house and move as far away to Maine or Florida as you can to get away from this.

But, I am saying that there are a number of natural disasters, and the Book of Revelation and Matthew 24, do describe natural disasters that will bring this nation and much of the world to its needs. And many of those we're familiar with. We've heard of the San Andreas Fault here, running through LA. And we've heard of the big earthquake that leveled San Francisco a century ago, and we're familiar with the volcanoes up around just outside Seattle and Portland and the Ring of Fire and all the volcanoes along the Pacific Coast and so on. And it's interesting, even up around Steamboat Springs, if you drive up there, in a few months you'll pass at least one huge volcanic cone, generally in the Kremling area.

And across Rabideers Pass, which is all lava from ancient eruptions. And if you know what you're looking for, there's a place called Bears Tears out near Craig that's an ancient volcanic cone. And climbed that about 15 years ago with some other church members. And from the top of that, you can look off to the north and see about a dozen more extinct volcanoes up there. So, here in Colorado, there's a volcanic zone that runs all the way from around Steamboat Springs down into New Mexico and Arizona.

What you're looking for, you can see all of this everywhere. And again, I mention this, you know, not to panic at everybody, but just because Bible prophecy tells us that mankind is going to see things so horrifying and so frightening unlike anything that mankind has ever experienced in all of human history.

And I think these are the types of things that Jesus Christ is talking about, because in three different places in the Bible, this time of the end is described as being a time unlike anything in all of human history. So, when Jesus talks here about earthquakes, he's not talking about something that rattles the dishes in your cupboard and maybe knocks a picture or two off the wall. No. He's talking about earthquakes that will level entire cities and kill hundreds of thousands or millions of people. And these are real. They've happened before in history and they will happen again. And this is the kind of thing that he's talking about.

And to illustrate that, he goes on to say, all these are the beginning of sorrow. So, this is just the beginning. These things started shortly after Christ gave this prophecy here, and they've been around ever since, ever since the first century. And the way we understand this, because of the wording that is used here, this word sorrows, or beginning of sorrows, is the Greek word that is used of birth pains. In other words, a woman in the process of giving birth has birth pains that increase in frequency, they're shorter and shorter together, and they increase in intensity up to the moment that she gives birth. And Jesus Christ uses this as a metaphor of what's going to happen. That these birth pains, these sorrows, are going to increase in frequency and intensity, leading up to the time of his return, which by the metaphor here is a new birth. Paul talks about that, the whole world waiting, groaning for the new world to come, a new world of God's kingdom, which Jesus Christ will establish. So this helps us understand what Christ is describing here. These things started out small, two thousand years ago, but they're going to increase in frequency and intensity, leading up to the time when Christ will establish the kingdom of God on earth. And then he continues on to describe something else that will happen at this time, because as is typical in human history, when things start to go bad, people naturally look for someone to blame. It happened in the first century, it happened in the Roman Empire, it's happened repeatedly over the years since. And it's usually either Jews or Christians who are blamed for the problems, sometimes both, and they are persecuted. And that is why Jesus Christ says, after all these are the beginning of sorrows, then they will deliver you up to tribulation and kill you. And you'll be hated by all nations for my name's sake. And Luke adds a few additional details in here that Matthew doesn't. And Luke says, but before all these things, they will lay their hands on you and persecute you. And this is to apply more in a first century context, because we know they did happen then. Delivering you up to the synagogues and prisons, you will be brought before kings and rulers from my name's sake, as happened to the Apostle Paul. But it will turn out for you as an occasion for testimony. Therefore settle it in your hearts not to meditate beforehand on what you will answer, for I will give you a mouth and wisdom, which all your adversaries will not be able to contradict or resist. You will be betrayed even by parents and brothers, relatives and friends. And they will put some of you to death. And you will be hated by all for my name's sake, but not a hair of your head will be lost. By your patience, possess your souls.

So we see here from Christ's prophecy that a time is coming when Christians will be persecuted again. And this might have been unfathomable for us just a decade ago, but how are Christians viewed today? Even in the headlines. We've seen it in the last month. We've seen it in the last week or two. Because if you believe and try to live by what the Bible says, you are viewed as a bigot, as a hater, as mentally ill, deranged, and someone whose voice should be shut down because you don't deserve a right to speak such big of a use.

And we're seeing that. I won't go there. Recently I was called a racist by someone for something I posted on a conversation here. But in recent years we have seen Christian ministers either locked up or fined or both for simply quoting Bible scriptures about homosexual behavior. Or for quoting the Quran, which tells Muslims to kill Christians. And there are hate speech laws in Britain, in Canada, in Australia, where you are not allowed to say things about homosexual behavior or about Islam or so on. And we came very, very close to that a few years ago here in the United States. The U.S. House of Representatives passed hate speech laws that would have forbid us speaking about what the Bible says about false religions like Islam or about homosexual behavior and so on. But it did not come to a vote in the Senate at that time. But that's how close we came to enacting such laws here in the United States, which would have stripped us of our rights of freedom of speech to say what the Bible says about these things. This is plainly coming. It is coming. It's just a matter of when. Before the whole world gets immersed in this political correctness, which is very much against what the Bible teaches about these things. It's coming. As Christ says here, there will be Christians who will be executed and killed for our beliefs. Continuing back in Matthew 24 and down in verse 10, after this part about persecution, going along with that, he says, Many will be offended, will betray one another, and will hate one another.

Again, this is talking about what Luke is talking about, where you'll be betrayed even by parents and brothers, relatives and friends. Even family members will turn against those who are trying to live by God's laws. Here again, Jesus repeats the warning about false prophets. They will rise up and deceive many. He also says, because lawlessness will abound, the love of many will grow cold. Are we seeing lawlessness abound and love growing cold these days? Well, you bet we are. This is a photo a couple of weeks ago of a burning police station in downtown Minneapolis, Minnesota. Did you or I ever think a year ago that we would see police stations being burned down here in the United States? I sure didn't. But what we are seeing is a cultural and societal war, a literal war against law and order playing out before our eyes. In the last few weeks, more than 800 law enforcement officers have been injured by rocks, bricks, bottles, Molotov cocktails, being run over by various vehicles, being stabbed, being shot. Several have died, at least one was shot in the back of the head in a crowd and paralyzed from the neck down. And for what or why? Well, because spiritual forces are at work, intent on tearing the nation apart and destroying it. That is what is going on. We are seeing spiritual warfare against law and order, and decency and culture and civilization being waged before our very eyes here. Jesus continues, verse 13, We hear the faith, the love for God, His way of life, whatever. It might be a lot of factors play into this. But we have seen people who have given up and didn't endure. And we can't put ourselves among those who do not endure to the end here, as Jesus warns. And that He says, This gospel of the kingdom will be preached in all the world as a witness to all the nations, and then the end will come. This is why we do what we do, as the Church of God. God doesn't tell us our job is done and over, and we don't need to do it anymore. No, this will be preached in all the world as a witness to all the nations. Till when? Well, Jesus tells us here, till the end comes. So that is something, a job, a mission He has given to the Church to do, to carry out here. And we need to be about our Father's business of doing that and supporting that, and doing our part in it. Continuing, He says, verse 15, Therefore, when you see the abomination of desolation, spoken of by Daniel the prophet, standing in the holy place, whoever reads, let him understand. So He says, we ought to know what is being talked about here. Then let those who are in Judea flee to the mountains. So what is this talking about? Jesus is here referring to something that happened in the period between the Old Testament and the New Testament. When a ruler from Syria to the north of Israel, his name was Antiochus of Phineas, and this is a coin showing him, showing what he looked like, and then him seated on a throne here. Antiochus of Phineas hated the Jewish religion and tried to stamp that out. He invaded Judea, conquered the land, took over Jerusalem at the temple. Some of the things he did because he hated the Jewish religion, he banned keeping the Sabbath day on pain of death. If you were caught keeping the Sabbath, you would be executed by his soldiers. Same thing with circumcision. If a Jewish parent circumcised the child, both the parent and the child would be executed. The Apocryphal books of Maccabees talk about this in great detail. If a woman had her son circumcised, he killed the circumcised child and then tied it around the woman's neck. So she would have to walk around carrying her dead, circumcised baby around her neck. This is the kind of sadistic cruelty that Antiochus of Phineas exercised here. He required Jews to eat pig flesh.

But what about this abomination of desolation? Well, again, he captured Jerusalem, took over the temple, and he was a rather egomaniac as a ruler here, so he had a statue built of himself as the God, the Greek God Zeus, his face, his head on the statue, and erected that in the temple as the God to be worshipped. He was ordering the people to worship him. He also desecrated the altar of the temple by having pigs sacrificed on it. And again, all of this is spelled out in the books of the Maccabees here. This was the abomination of desolation by erecting this temple of himself, the statue of himself as Zeus in the temple, and desecrating the altar, making it defiled and impure for worshiping God. But Jesus here refers this to happening in the time of the end. So what's going on here? Well, what it means is history will repeat itself. There will be an end-time ruler who will basically, the ruler is called the Beast and the False Prophet, and they will essentially repeat history. They will do the same kind of thing that Antiochus Epiphanes did. And Paul talks about him sitting in the temple of God, proclaiming himself to be God, which is essentially exactly what Antiochus Epiphanes did. So we read from Daniel 11. We don't have time to go there, but they will, the Beast and the False Prophet, go to Israel. They take over the land, they take over Jerusalem, they establish their headquarters there, and will repeat in a form what Antiochus Epiphanes did back here in the 100s BC. So again, history will repeat. And when this starts to happen, Jesus says to those in the area of Judea, Let him who is on the housetop not go down to take anything out of his house, and let him who is in the field not go back to get his clothes. But woe to those who are pregnant, and to those who are nursing babies in those days, and pray that your flight may not be in winter or on the Sabbath day. In other words, what he's saying here is, and Luke says, when you see Jerusalem surrounded by armies, know that the time of its desolation is near. And in other words, what Jesus is saying is, if you are near Jerusalem at this time, get out of there, because it's going to be a very dangerous time. And plates, don't even stop to pick up your clothing out of your house, just leave, run as far and as fast as you can.

And some of this may be referring and typed what happened with the Roman invasion of Judea, because the Romans came, they started up in Galilee and worked their way south to Jerusalem, and they surrounded Jerusalem at the Passover, when Jerusalem is filled with people who come to Jerusalem for the Passover feast, and Feast of Unleavened Bread there, and the people were trapped. And initially the Romans had just set up camps around the city, and during this period, Josephus talks about an angelic voice from Heaven that appeared on Pentecost, or was heard on Pentecost, that said, get out of here. And the church fled, down to the Jordan Valley and up to Pella, in what is today Jordan, some of you have been there before, at Pella.

So the church members escaped there, they took this as a divine warning and did what Jesus is here, got out of Jerusalem and fled. And after that, the Romans literally built a wall around the entirety of Jerusalem, and nobody, after that point, was able to go in or out of the city. And everyone there was trapped. And they all either starved to death, or died in the fighting, or died of disease, or were enslaved by the Romans and died as slaves.

So his warning was very sobering, and meant to be very sobering, because of what happens. And then we see something I referred to earlier, that this will be a time unlike anything that has ever been seen in human history. Verse 21, for then there will be great tribulations, such as has not been since, such as has not been since the beginning of the world until this time, no, nor ever shall be. And unless those days were shortened, no flesh would be saved. But for the elects saved, for God's chosen people, those days will be shortened. So Jesus says very plainly here, this time will be unparalleled in all of human history. It will be so bad that were it not for God's chosen people that no flesh would be saved. In other words, the human race would become extinct. We would kill ourselves off. In other words, and it's only been since the development of nuclear weapons that mankind has had the ability to exterminate all human life on Earth. And now we can do it three different ways by nuclear weapons, by chemical weapons, by biological weapons. We can eliminate all human life on the Earth. So this tells us we are plainly living in the time of the end because it was never possible until World War II for this prophecy to be fulfilled. Luke also at this point adds that Jerusalem will be trampled by the Gentiles until the times of the Gentiles are fulfilled. And that's talking about the final three and a half years before Jesus Christ returns. During this period, the modern state of Israel will lose control of sovereignty over Jerusalem to this beast and false prophet that I mentioned earlier. So this is why we need to pay close attention to what is taking place in Israel. And then again we see a warning about false prophets and false christs and false religion. If anyone says to you, look, here is the Christ, or there, do not believe it. For false christs and false prophets will rise and show great signs and wonders to deceive, if possible, even the elect. So there will be false religious teachers deceiving people and being deceived. And they will even appear to perform great signs and wonders. These are the same words used for miracles here. And they will convince many people that they are men of God. And when in actuality they are false christs and false disciples, or false apostles, rather.

Continuing, he says, See, I have told you beforehand. Therefore, if they say to you, look, here is in the desert, do not go out. Or look, here is in the inner rooms, do not believe it. Whereas the lightning comes from the east and flashes to the west, so also will the coming of the Son of Man be. For wherever the carcass is, then the eagles will be gathered together. And then he starts talking about another terrifying sign preceding his return. There will be signs in the sun, in the moon, and in the stars, and on the earth, distress of nations with perplexity. The sea and the waves roaring.

Men's hearts failing them from fear and the expectation of those things which are coming on the earth. For the powers of heaven will be shaken. And they will see the Son of Man coming in a cloud with power and great glory. Now, when these things begin to happen, look up and lift up your heads, because your redemption draws near. And this is... the book of Revelation actually goes into this in considerably more detail here, but it describes things such as meteor storms and asteroid strikes, striking the oceans, striking the lands, stars falling from heaven, is the way it's described. And this produces so much smoke and dust in the atmosphere that the sun and the moon are darkened. And it becomes a world covered with darkness, apparently from these asteroid strikes, and the burning, and the fires, and so on, caused by that. And large portions of life in the oceans that are wiped out. And it will appear to those people alive at this time that the whole world is coming to an end, and in a sense it is. Here. It will appear that all of human life is about to be wiped out. But at that time, the sign of the Son of Man will appear in heaven, as we read about in verse 30 here. The sign of the Son of Man will appear in heaven, and then all the tribes of the earth will mourn, and they will see the Son of Man coming on the clouds of heaven with power and great glory. So, just when things appear to be completely hopeless, and it looks like human life is about to be a part of the world, become extinct at this time. Jesus Christ will appear to the entire world. And at this point, the faithful saints of God who have died in the centuries past will be raised and resurrected to spirit life. And those who are alive and remain, as Paul puts it in 1 Corinthians 15, will rise to meet them in the air. And that's what we read about here in verse 31. He will send his angels with a great sound of a trumpet, talking about the last trumpet when the saints are resurrected. And they will gather together his elect from the four winds, from one end of heaven, and heaven here, which we read as the sky, because that's what the word means in Greek. So God's elect will rise from the grave, from the dead, or be transformed, and will be gathered to meet Jesus Christ as he returns to earth. And verse 32, Now learn this parable from the fig tree, when its branch has already become tender, and puts forth leaves, you know that summer is near. So you also, when you see all these things, know that it is near, at the doors.

So Jesus tells us here, tells his followers that there are very specific signs and trends that will proceed, is coming, and specific prophecies that must be fulfilled. And these will give us a good idea that his return is imminent.

And I'm not saying that it is imminent right now, because there are clearly other prophecies that must be fulfilled, some of which we read about here today. But I am saying that we seem to be seeing what I would term wake-up calls. In other words, some of these prophecies being fulfilled in a preliminary way, because Bible prophecy does often repeat. But I think they are being fulfilled in a minor way now, as a prelude, as a foretaste, as a wake-up call to what is coming that is going to be far more severe, far worse than what we are seeing right here. And also keep in mind what we covered in the sermon last week, that by the time we reach this point in the prophetic timeline, the United States no longer exists as a viable nation on the world sea. The United States has fallen. It's gone. It's destroyed well before these final events that we are reading about here. And again, because of our rebellion against God, and rejection against Him. And a new superpower has arisen on the world sea, centered in Europe, and it is now the major power that exists at the time of Christ's return. And it is the one that has moved into the land of Israel and is controlling Jerusalem during this final three and a half years of the times of the Gentiles. So if you are thinking you will be around to see these final events unfold, well, you better hope not. We better hope that we are being sheltered wherever God is going to protect His people during those final years before Christ returns. And we better be watching and praying and living our life in a way that shows that we are worthy to be there to meet Jesus Christ and His return.

Continuing, Jesus says, Assuredly I say to you, this generation, the generation of people living at this time, will by no means pass away till all these things take place. In other words, what He is saying is that once these things start in earnest, that they will all take place within the span of a human generation, 20 to 30 years, 20, 25, 30 years, in that time span. And I think the groundwork for most of these pieces is in place for these prophecies and many other prophecies of Daniel and Revelation and so on to be fulfilled regarding this country, as we talked about last week, regarding Israel and the Middle East, and also regarding the new superpower to arise in Europe. These are the three big areas that we watch in Bible prophecy. Christ continues, Heaven and Earth will pass away, but My words will by no means pass away. But on that day and hour, no one knows, not even the angels of Heaven, but My Father only. So again, we won't know for sure ahead of time when this is going to place, at least not until the final three and a half years, and then it will be obvious that we're in that time. And it will be obvious when Christ is returning in. The plainly repeated throughout this prophecy is the need for us to be alert and to watch and to be alert as to what's going on. That's why I'm giving this sermon today and gave the sermon last week leading up as a prelude to this one. And then Jesus says, verse 37, So as overall a point here is that people will be surprised. They will be going about normal life, whatever normal is defined at that time, and suddenly they are surprised and shocked when total chaos and devastation and destruction hits and wipes out most of life on the earth. But since He mentions days of Noah, let's read what life and human attitudes were like at that time. Genesis 6, verses 5-7. Then the Lord saw that the wickedness of man was great in the earth, and that every intent of the thoughts of his heart was only evil continually. And the Lord was sorry that he had made man on the earth, and he was grieved in his heart. So the Lord said, I will destroy man whom I have created from the face of the earth, both man and beast, creeping thing and birds in the air, for I am sorry that I have made them.

Do you ever think that God may be looking down at earth today and is sorry that he made the human right peace? I've been thinking about that a lot lately. I think God looks at the evil and the hatred and the corruption and the perversion that we see all around us and thinks to Himself, if I let this go on much longer, people will be so corrupt in their thinking that they can really never repent, either in this life or the next life. Their thinking, their minds will be so corrupted and twisted and perverted that there's no hope for them. And it's time to cleanse the earth again. This happened with the flood of Noah. And that is what the final judgments that we read about in the book of Revelation in great detail are there. That he literally has to destroy the human race to save it. Otherwise, we are beyond the point of saving.

I think this photo says it all.

Continuing, he says, This is referring back to what he said about the flood, when most of mankind was taken away in the flood and drowned. And here he says many will be taken. In other words, they will be destroyed in those final judgments. And some will be left. Luke adds a little more detail to this warning here that's very pertinent to us. Take heed to yourselves, lest your hearts be weighed down with carousing, drunkenness, and cares of this life. And that day, that time, come on you unexpectedly. For it will come as a snare on all those who dwell on the face of the whole earth. And how does a snare strike? It strikes very suddenly, unexpectedly, without warning. So it is going to come and surprise many people. That's why he says, verse 36, Watch therefore, and pray always, if you may be counted worthy, to escape all these things that will come to pass, and to stand before the Son of Man. So we had better take this warning very seriously. And we're no better than the rest of the world. And the same thing that happens to them will happen to us.

And back to Matthew 24, getting close to the end of it. Then two men will be in the field, one will be taken, and the other left. Let's see, we read that part. So verse 42. Watch therefore, for you do not know what hour your Lord is coming. But know this, that if the master of the house had known what hour the thief would come, he would have watched and not allowed his house to be broken into. This point here is that Christ's coming is going to catch a lot of people off guard, like somebody breaking into a house in the middle of the night. We need to be watching and alert and prepared for that. Verse 44. Therefore you also be ready, for the Son of Man is coming at an hour you do not expect. So he is very clear about that. Who, then, is a faithful and wise servant whom his master made ruler over his household, to give them food and do season? Blessed is that servant whom his master, when he comes, will find so doing. Assuredly I say to you that he will make him ruler over all his goods. But if that evil servant says in his heart, my master is delaying his coming and begins to beat his fellow servants and to eat and drink with the drunkards, the master of that servant will come on a day when he is not looking for him, and at an hour that he is not aware of, and will cut him in two and appoint in his portion with the hypocrites. This shall be weeping and gnashing of teeth. And so ends the first part of the Olivet prophecy. And Matthew 25 is actually a continuation of the prophecy. We don't have time to cover that today, but perhaps before long I'll give another sermon on that chapter also.