The entire story that God’s Word is telling is ultimately about this promise and fulfillment: God’s promise that one day he is going to send someone who will restore the world, who will redeem the world, who will fix what we broke, who will heal what we made sick, who will put right what we put wrong, who will destroy the devil and the forces of darkness, crush the head of the serpent, and bring our world back into God’s good, original design and purpose.
Who will take our fallen and broken world, raise it up out of the pit, and make it into a good and perfect and beautiful world where there is no grief, no crying, no pain, no suffering, no struggle, no injustice, no loss, no evil, no sickness, no brokenness.
The story that the Word of God tells is the story of the God of the universe pouring himself out to undo the fall, unbreak the world, to redeem humanity and restore our world.
That is the big story God’s Word is telling.
And we are getting a crash course in that story as we trek through the first of four books about the life and ministry of Jesus.
We are now getting to one of the most important chapters in that story, one of the most important chapters in Matthew’s Gospel, but also one of the most misunderstood chapters in Matthew’s Gospel.
Jesus has carried out his earthly ministry, and he has demonstrated who he is.
He has shown himself, proved himself, to be this Savior God promised in the beginning, who’s going to redeem humanity and restore the world.
He has proven himself to be the rightful King of Israel and the world.
He has proven himself to be the Messiah we’ve been waiting for.
And he has proven himself to be not only the Savior, not only the Messiah, not only the King, not only a prophet, not only a teacher, but actually God himself in human flesh.
Jesus has demonstrated himself to be the God who created us, the God who sustains us, and the God who redeems us and rules us, come down from heaven in human flesh so that he can rub elbows with us and then go to the cross in our place.
Jesus has demonstrated himself, proven himself, to be Savior, King, and God, lawgiver, righteous judge, and God of the universe.
Jesus is the God of the Old Testament, come down from the mountain, come down from his throne, so that by his sacrifice we can be redeemed and restored.
That is who Jesus is.
And now, in chapter 24, he starts to look forward, and he starts to vision-cast the rest of history for us.
The Destruction of the Temple
Jesus has just authoritatively taken up his role as judge over all the Earth.
He has declared that the entrenched religious leaders in Israel and the unbelieving Israelites who rejected him and opposed him are under judgment for rejecting and opposing Jesus as their Savior and their King and their God.
He says, “If you don’t want me to be your God, I won’t be your God. If you don’t want to be in my covenant, then you don’t have to be in my covenant. Feel free to be banished. Feel free to be cast out. Feel free to go to the outer darkness where there is weeping and gnashing of teeth.”
Jesus has authoritatively declared that unbelieving Israel is no longer a part of the people of God, and the true Israel now is every tribe and tongue and nation that throws themselves on his mercy as Savior, submits to him as King, and worships him as God.
He has cast this divine, authoritative judgment on the religious leaders of Israel and the unbelieving Israelites who follow in their footsteps.
And he says this judgment is going to be made visible by the destruction of the temple.
The temple in Jerusalem is going to be destroyed.
Not one brick is going to remain.
He says, “I am going to visually demonstrate my judgment on unbelieving Israel for abandoning my covenant by destroying the center of the Israelite religious system, by destroying the center of the Old Testament religious system.”
The temple in Jerusalem was the heart and soul of the Hebrew religion.
It was the heart and soul of the Israelite religion.
The temple was a visible reminder of God’s presence with his people and God’s covenant with his people.
Jesus says, “I am going to destroy the temple in Jerusalem as a visible message, as a visualization of my judgment of unbelieving Israel, my judgment on the Israelites who have rejected me and opposed me.”
“When the temple is destroyed, it is me saying, ‘You have nothing to do with me.’”
“When the temple is destroyed, it is me saying to unbelieving Israel, ‘You have no part in my covenant.’”
“It is me saying to unbelieving Israel, ‘You are not my people. You are not my children. You are not my family. Not because I rejected you, but because you rejected me. And the only way that you can be part of the covenant that I made with Abraham, part of my covenant to redeem humanity and restore the world, is if you throw yourself on my mercy as your Savior, submit to me as your King, and worship me as your God.’”
Jesus is predicting the destruction of the temple.
And that destruction comes about 40 years after Jesus says all of this.
It comes in 70 AD.
The temple was destroyed by the Roman government and has never been rebuilt.
And just to be clear, if anyone rebuilds the temple, if the modern nation of Israel rebuilds the temple, if a bunch of hardcore, extreme Zionist evangelical Christians put their money together to rebuild the temple, it will not actually be the temple.
The temple is over because Jesus is the temple.
The temple was a visual representation of God’s presence among his people.
But the presence of God is Jesus.
Jesus is God’s presence on Earth, and Jesus has sent the Holy Spirit to be God’s presence within us.
So Jesus is the temple in the sense that he is the presence of God.
And now we as believers are the temple because God dwells within us the way that he dwelled within the temple.
So there is no more need for a temple in Jerusalem.
And frankly, rebuilding the temple would be blasphemous because it would be denying that Jesus is God’s presence, and it would be denying that the Holy Spirit dwells within us, making us temples of God’s presence.
And so Jesus destroys the temple on purpose.
It was not a tragedy that the temple was destroyed in 70 AD.
It was God’s active, purposeful work.
And we are never called to build a third temple.
Don’t listen to the weirdo prophecy cranks who make a bunch of money off of fake prophecies about Israel.
Don’t send them your money.
Don’t fall into their nonsense.
The temple was destroyed by God through the Romans on purpose as a visible demonstration of his judgment on unbelieving Israel.
He is burning the bridge behind them so they can only go forward.
He is saying, “Your old system is gone. It’s over. No more Levites. No more Old Testament priests. No more priests from the line of Aaron. No more temple to represent my presence. No more animal sacrifices. No more of any of that crap. All of that was pointing towards me, towards Jesus, and I am here. So you need to be done with all of that. You need to put your devotion on me. You need to serve me as your King, worship me as your God, and throw yourself on my mercy as your Savior.”
Jesus says:
“Don’t you see all of these things? Most certainly I tell you, there will not be left here one stone on another, that will not be thrown down.”
—Matthew 24:2, WEB
And in AD 70, that is exactly what happens.
God destroyed the temple forever on purpose through the Roman army.
“What Is the Sign of Your Coming?”
As Jesus is saying all these things, his disciples get completely the wrong idea.
The disciples ask a question that is understandable but wrong:
“Tell us, when will these things be? What is the sign of your coming, and of the end of the age?”
—Matthew 24:3, WEB
So the disciples assume, understandably, reasonably, but wrongly, that the temple is going to be destroyed at the end of time, at the end of the age, at the end of the world.
The disciples think Jesus is talking about the end times when he talks about the destruction of the temple.
He’s not.
They say, “Okay, what’s going to be the sign of your coming? What is going to be the sign of the end times? How can we know when the end times are going to begin?”
So the disciples are kind of like Christians today.
Christians are obsessed with the end times, aren’t they?
Christians are obsessed with trying to map out the end of days, trying to map out the end times.
You go, you open a lot of Bibles, and they print out these whole end-times charts that say, “Oh, first this is going to happen, then this is going to happen, then this is going to happen.”
The disciples had the exact same misconception.
They wanted to map out the end times, and they assumed the temple is going to continue to operate all the way until the very, very end.
And they assume the temple will be destroyed in the final judgment at the end of time.
But Jesus says, “Hold on a second. You’re getting ahead of yourselves. You are hearing things I didn’t say. You are hearing things God didn’t say. You are getting way ahead of what God actually prophesied and predicted.”
He says, “Don’t be deceived. Don’t be sidetracked. Don’t get obsessed.”
He says, “Listen, you are not meant to know when the end will come.”
He says, “You are not meant to know when the end will come, and frankly, you are not meant to know exactly what the end will look like.”
So preachers who are out there who have detailed charts saying, “Oh, there’s going to be the rapture here. There’s going to be the seven years of tribulation here. There’s going to be the fall of America here. There’s going to be Gog and Magog—that’s Russia, or that’s Ukraine, or that’s blah, blah, blah. Right? Then Israel is going to do this thing. They’re going to rebuild the temple. They’re going to blah, blah, blah.”
They didn’t get any of that crap from God’s Word.
They got that from their own freaking imaginations.
God did not and will not tell us exactly what the end times are going to look like.
He did not give us the information we need to chart out the end times.
Jesus says:
“But no one knows of that day and hour, not even the angels of heaven, but my Father only.”
—Matthew 24:36, WEB
At that moment, Jesus was still limiting himself, right?
Jesus had emptied himself, the book of Philippians says.
So Jesus was not using his omniscience as God.
So today, sitting on the throne, I think Jesus absolutely knows the day and the hour.
But at that moment, in Matthew 24, during his earthly ministry, Jesus isn’t using his omniscience as God.
He is living as a human, and he’s not using cheat codes, right?
When Jesus performed miracles and supernatural things, he did that not using his God powers.
He did that by the power of the Holy Spirit who descended on him and dwelled in him.
He’s emptied himself.
He is living genuinely as a human.
He is accepting human limitations during his ministry on Earth.
So in that moment, he doesn’t even know exactly when the end will come or exactly what the end will look like because, in that moment, the Holy Spirit hasn’t shown him.
He knows only what his Father gives him.
He does only what his Father shows him.
And at that moment, his Father hadn’t shown him.
You know why?
Because he hasn’t shown us.
So when they ask him, “Hey, what are the end times going to look like?” God doesn’t give Jesus the answer because he’s not giving us the answer.
But today, sitting on the throne, sitting at the Father’s right hand, I think Jesus absolutely knows the day or the hour.
But the point is, he says to the disciples, “Slow down. You’re getting ahead of yourself. Your imagination is filling out a picture God did not give you.”
He says:
“But no one knows of that day and hour.”
—Matthew 24:36, WEB
But what you can do is take comfort in the signs along the way.
Three Signs Along the Way
Jesus says whenever a fig tree starts to sprout, you know that means summer is near.
That means harvesting time is near.
That means reaping time is near.
There are sowing seasons where you sow your seeds, and there are reaping seasons where you reap the fruit.
And when you see the sprouts start to come out of the ground, when you see the sprouts start to come on the fig tree, you know, okay, reaping season is coming near.
And he says, in the same way, there are a handful of things.
There are three things that you can look for that will tell you that the end is coming nearer.
That does not mean that these things tell you that the end is starting.
That means these things tell you that the end, the return of Jesus, the second coming, the restoration, is drawing nearer.
Sign #1: The Destruction of the Temple
He says:
“When, therefore, you see the abomination of desolation, which was spoken of through Daniel the prophet, standing in the holy place (let the reader understand), then let those who are in Judea flee to the mountains.”
—Matthew 24:15–16, WEB
Now, in parentheses there, Matthew says, “Let the reader understand.”
Now, that’s important.
When he says, “Let the reader understand,” what he’s saying is, “You guys know what I’m talking about. You guys have seen what I’m talking about. You guys have lived through what I’m talking about.”
He says, “You guys know what this means. You have witnessed what this means.”
He says, “This is not a secret. This is not a code to be cracked. You don’t have to go through and do a bunch of numerology and all stuff like that to figure out what the abomination that causes desolation is. Daniel told us what it is.”
When Daniel talked about the abomination that causes desolation, he’s talking about two things.
One was in the present.
One was in the future at that point in time.
The government of Babylon and the government of Persia and the government of Greece, the governments over Israel, started desecrating the temple.
They started sacrificing to pagan gods in the temple.
They started sacrificing pigs, which were a forbidden animal in ancient Hebrew religion, in the temple.
They were actively desecrating the temple.
They were trying to destroy the sanctity of the temple, and they were threatening to literally destroy the temple.
They called that the abomination that causes desolation.
It’s not some weird code about something coming way down the line.
The abomination that causes desolation is when pagan rulers desecrate or destroy the temple of the Lord.
What does God do in AD 70?
He uses these pagan rulers, the Roman Empire, to destroy the temple of the Lord.
What is the abomination that causes desolation?
It already happened.
It happened almost 2,000 years ago when God destroyed the temple through the Roman government.
So sign number one is the destruction of the temple.
He says, “When you see the temple destroyed, when you see the abomination of desolation, take comfort. Don’t panic. All it means is you are one day closer to my return, to the final judgment, to the restoration of the world.”
But he says when it happens, you need to do something very specific.
You need to flee.
Do not try to fight the Roman government when they destroy the temple.
You need to get out of the way.
Let them do their work because I did this.
So many of the ancient Israelites died in AD 70 when the temple was destroyed because they understandably threw themselves into trying to protect the temple.
They rejected the message of Jesus.
They rejected the truth that Jesus is the true temple, that he is the presence of God, and that he’s given us the Spirit to be God’s presence within us.
So the temple is over.
It’s irrelevant.
It’s obsolete.
It’s done.
They rejected that message.
So when the Roman government tried to destroy the temple, they gave their lives for nothing to try to save it.
And so much of the nation of Israel was slaughtered over the course of just a few days trying to protect a temple God had already gotten rid of.
He says, “When you see the abomination of desolation, don’t fight. Flee. When you see the abomination of desolation, don’t try to defend the temple. It’s worthless. Go to the mountains. Go to the rooftops. Go to the caves. Get out of the way until God has finished destroying the temple, burning the bridge behind us so we can’t go backwards. We can only go forwards into the arms and the mission of Jesus.”
That is sign number one: the destruction of the temple.
Don’t panic when you see sign number one.
Just know you are one day closer to my return and the restoration of all things.
Sign #2: Natural Disasters, Famines, and Wars
He says:
“You will hear of wars and rumors of wars. See that you aren’t troubled.”
—Matthew 24:6, WEB
You are going to hear about all of these things, and when you do, don’t freak out.
Once again, right, we tend to wrongly take exactly the opposite lesson from what Jesus says.
We say, “Oh man, there’s a war in Ukraine. Oh my gosh, there’s a war happening between Israel and Hamas, Israel and Iran. Oh my gosh, there’s a war happening over here. Oh man, China might declare war on us,” and so on and so forth.
“Oh no, we’re coming on the end times. We’ve got to freak out. We’ve got to buy a bunch of MREs. We’ve got to build a bunker beneath our house. We’ve got to go fortify ourselves, get a whole bunch of guns, amass a small arsenal, start a militia.”
That is the opposite of what Jesus actually says.
He says, “When you hear of wars and rumors of wars, don’t panic.”
While everybody else is panicking, you stop panicking.
When you hear of famines, when you hear of natural disasters, when you hear of pandemics and diseases, while everybody else is panicking, you don’t panic because you know all this means is that we are one day closer to my return, the final judgment, and the glorious restoration of all things.
That’s sign number two.
Sign #3: Persecution
He says:
“Then they will deliver you up to oppression and will kill you. You will be hated by all of the nations for my name’s sake.”
—Matthew 24:9, WEB
Many will take offense.
Offense at what?
Offense at the message of the Gospel, not offense at you being a jerk, okay?
A lot of Christians think they’re being persecuted for their faith.
They’re actually just being an a-hole, and they’re facing the consequences, right?
Many will take offense not at you sucking, but they will take offense at the Gospel.
They’ll take offense at the truth about Jesus, and as a result, they will betray you and they will hate you.
He says sign number three is persecution.
But he says when persecution ramps up, do not panic, because all this means is that you are one day closer to the final judgment, to my glorious return, and to the restoration of all things.
Those are the three signs to look for.
This is not a map of what the end times looks like.
This is not a chart of the order of the end times.
This is three signs that Jesus says, when you see these, don’t panic.
When you see these, don’t freak out.
He is giving us these not so that we’ll obsess over the end times and say, “Oh, this is it,” every time a war starts, every time a famine starts, every time an earthquake happens, every time persecution gets worse, every time something like that happens.
He’s giving this to us so that we will not obsess.
He’s giving this to us so that we will relax, so that we will not worry, so that we will see all these things taking place and say, “It’s going to be fine. I don’t need to be anxious. These wars will come. These famines will come. These pandemics will come. These persecutions will come. But I know that all this means is that we are one day closer to the restoration of all things.”
Four Jobs Between Now and the End
Between now and then, Jesus says we have four jobs.
1. Do Not Be Deceived by False Messiahs
Do not be deceived by false prophets claiming to be the second coming of Jesus.
History is filled with people who claimed that they are Jesus reincarnated or that they are Jesus returned in the flesh, that they are the second coming of Jesus.
He says, “Do not be deceived by anyone who claims that they are me. Between now and then, you are not going to see me again in the flesh until I return in the very end.”
2. Don’t Fall Away or Be Enticed by the World
He says:
“Many false prophets will arise and will lead many astray. Because iniquity will be multiplied, the love of many will grow cold. But he who endures to the end will be saved.”
—Matthew 24:11–13, WEB
He says, “Do not allow your love to grow cold between now and when I return.”
He says, “Do not fall away between now and when I return.”
He says, “Do not be enticed by the world. Don’t be drawn away from following me by the temptations of the world. I’m not delaying. I’m not being slow. I’m being patient.”
He says, “Stay on course every day between now and when I return.”
That’s job number two.
Don’t fall away.
Don’t be enticed by the world.
3. Don’t Obsess Over Trying to Figure Out the End Times
He says:
“But all these things are the beginning of birth pains.”
—Matthew 24:8, WEB
He says all these things are signs that we’re drawing nearer, but they are not the end times itself.
He says:
“For these things must happen, but the end is not yet.”
—Matthew 24:6, WEB
Don’t jump the gun.
Don’t obsess.
He says, “You don’t know the day or the hour, and neither does that person who tells you they’ve cracked the code.”
He says no one will crack the code.
No one will figure it out.
No one will map out the end times.
Do not listen to them.
Focus on faithfulness.
Focus on preparation, not prediction.
That’s job number three.
Our job, literally our calling, is to not obsess over trying to figure out the end times.
Do not get drawn away.
Do not get drawn away by John Hagee types, by Jonathan Cahn types, by the prophecy preachers who give you detailed maps and charts and stuff like that.
Some of them are full-on fraudsters.
Some of them are just mistaken.
But regardless, all of them are doing the same thing.
All of them are distracting us.
They’re getting us to focus on the wrong things.
They’re getting us to chase the wrong rabbits.
They’re getting us to go on wild goose chases that distract us from our true calling.
What is our true calling?
It’s job number four.
4. Continue the Kingdom Work and Mission Jesus Gave Us
He says, “When I return, I must find you working.”
He says:
“Who then is the faithful and wise servant, whom his lord has set over his household, to give them their food in due season? Blessed is that servant whom his lord finds doing so when he comes.”
—Matthew 24:45–46, WEB
Jesus needs to find us working.
And working does not involve obsessively trying to map out the rapture, obsessively trying to map out what’s going to happen in Israel, obsessively trying to map out what’s going to happen with the temple, obsessively trying to map out seven years of tribulation, obsessively trying to map out who the Antichrist is going to be, what country is he going to be from, blah, blah, blah.
That is not working.
The master must find us working.
What does working look like?
He tells us in verse 14:
“This Good News of the Kingdom will be preached in the whole world for a testimony to all the nations, and then the end will come.”
—Matthew 24:14, WEB
Why don’t we map out the end times?
Why don’t we try to build charts and figure the whole thing out?
There’s two reasons.
One is because God has not told us, so anything we map out is going to come from our imagination, not God’s Word.
And number two, because we don’t have freaking time.
We should be way too busy proclaiming the good news of the kingdom in all the world to sit down and try to map out the end times God hasn’t told us about.
We should be too busy proclaiming the good news of the kingdom to all nations, starting with our own front yard.
And so job number four is continue his kingdom work and mission.
When he returns, he should find us working on behalf of his kingdom.
“And Then the End Will Come”
Jesus says something really fascinating right here in the same exact verse, in verse 14.
He says the end will not fully come until we have finished our kingdom work.
He says:
“This Good News of the Kingdom will be preached in the whole world for a testimony to all the nations, and then the end will come.”
—Matthew 24:14, WEB
I actually think that when people say, “Oh, Jesus could return any day, any moment,” I actually don’t think that’s quite right.
We’re not done with the work.
So he’s not coming back yet.
Why hasn’t Jesus returned for the final judgment and to restore the world yet?
It’s because we’re still working.
Actually, to be clear, it’s because we haven’t worked enough.
We haven’t done what we were supposed to.
We haven’t gone and proclaimed the good news of the kingdom to all nations.
We haven’t finished our God-given kingdom work of proclaiming the good news of Jesus to the lost and the hurting and the broken and the struggling everywhere.
And because that is true, the end is not here yet.
Second Peter 3:9 says:
“The Lord is not slow concerning his promise, as some count slowness; but is patient with us, not wishing that anyone should perish, but that all should come to repentance.”
—2 Peter 3:9, WEB
His promise to what?
To restore all things, to come back for the final judgment, for the second coming.
The Lord is not slow in fulfilling that promise.
He’s patient because he wants all to come to repentance, all to come to a knowledge of the truth.
The Lord is patiently awaiting his return.
But he has told us as clearly as possible he’s not returning until we are done with the work and the mission he’s given us.
So if you want Jesus to come back, get to work.
Every person you introduce to the God who wants to redeem and restore them brings us one step closer to the second coming of Jesus.
How do we bring about the end?
Through the Great Commission:
“Go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all things that I commanded you.”
—Matthew 28:19–20, WEB
How do we bring about the end?
By going and being fishers of people who find the lost and the hurting and the broken and the struggling and introduce them to the God who wants to redeem them and restore them.
How do we bring about the end?
By going into the harvest and laboring, by going into the harvest and harvesting, by going and finding people who are far from God and bringing them into relationship with him.
So our calling is unbelievably clear and unbelievably simple.
We go out and carry on the work that God has given us.
Go Usher in the Second Coming Today
Who has the Lord been leading you to speak to?
Who has the Lord been leading you to share the good news with?
Spend some time today praying about that, and then go do it.
Go start it.
Go reach out to them, pray with them, and start to share the truth of Jesus with them.
And then watch the Lord work through that relationship over the coming weeks, coming months, coming years to bring them to faith in him and usher in the end.
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