Matthew 2024

If you're new this evening, we've been working our way through Matthew's gospel together.

And, we've come to this section now, Matthew 24. Jesus left the temple and was walking away when his disciples came up to him to call his attention to its buildings. Do you see all of these things? He asked? Truly, I tell you, not 1 stone here will be left on another.

Everyone will be thrown down. As Jesus was sitting on the mount of olives, the disciples came to him privately Tell us they said, when will this happen and what will be the sign of your coming and of the end of the age? Jesus answered, watch out that no 1 deceives you. For many will come in my name, claiming I am the Messiah and will deceive many. You will hear of wars and rumors of wars, but see to it that you are not alarmed.

Such things must happen, but the end is still to come. Nation will rise against nation and kingdom against kingdom. There will be famines and earthquakes in various places. All these are the beginnings of birth pains. Then you will be handed over to be persecuted and put to death.

And you will be hated by all nations because of me. At that time, many will turn away from the faith. And will betray and hate each other. And many false prophets will appear and deceive many people because of the increase of wickedness, the love of most will grow cold. But the 1 who stands firm to the end will be saved.

And this gospel of the kingdom will be preached in the whole world as a testimony to all nations, and then the end will come. So when you see standing in the holy place, the abomination that causes desolation spoken of through the prophet Daniel, let the reader understand. Then let those who are in Judea flee to the mountains. Let no 1 on the house top go down to take anything out of the house. Let no 1 in the field go back to get their cloak.

How dreadful it will be in those days for pregnant women and nursing mothers. Pray that your flight will not take place in winter or on the Sabbath. For then, there will be great distress unequaled from the beginning of the world until now and never to be equaled again. If those days had not been cut short, no 1 would survive, but for the sake of the elect, those days will be shortened. At that time, if anyone says to you, look, here's the Messiah or there he is.

Do not believe it. For false messiahs and false prophets will appear and perform great signs and wonders to save, if possible, even the elect. See, I have told you in advance. So if anyone tells you, there he is out in the desert. Do not go out or here he is in the inner rooms.

Do not believe it. For as lightning that comes from the east is visible even in the west, so will be the coming of the son of man. Wherever there is a carcass there, the vultures will gather. Immediately after the distress of those days, the sun will be darkened and the moon will not give its light. The stars will fall from the sky and the heavenly bodies will be shaken.

Then will appear the sign of the son of man in heaven, and then all the peoples of the earth will mourn when they see the son of man coming on the clouds of heaven with power and great glory. And he will send his angels with a loud trumpet call and they will gather his elect from the 4 winds from 1 end of the heavens to the other. Now learn this lesson from the fig tree. As soon as its twigs become tender and its leaves come out, you know that summer is near. Even so, when you see all these things, you know that it is near right at the door.

Truly, I tell you, this generation will certainly not pass away until all these things have happened. Heaven and Earth will pass away, but my words will never pass away. When Dean introduced this, this morning, he was sort of laughing because is a it's a a chapter that's been hotly debated over the centuries, and somehow I've been given this chance to try and, open it up. I was just saying to Tom, Jesus is really trying to make things clear to us, and I just don't wanna be somebody who makes it unclear. So, do do pray do pray for me as I as I go.

Lots of us have, I'm sure come across all, are those who who wanna know what's going going on. We like to try and interpret the times that are, ahead of us. And we wanna know what what the future holds. There there are 2 things that we often wanna find out about. And here, Jesus, is gonna give us give us the tools to interpret our age, but also to understand what is to come.

And so we wanna understand these things together. So let's pray, and then we'll we'll we'll have a look at these these words. File, we thank you so much for your words. We thank you so much for the lord Jesus Christ. And we thank you that he doesn't, leave us here without knowing what's going on.

And so we pray that you'll give us an assurance of your sovereignty tonight. And that you'll give us the tools to, endure and to, know Christ so well that we are able to, live for him. So we do pray, that you'll help us, with these things in Jesus' name, amen. Well, if you were here last week, Pete was taking us through, chapter 23. And, that was Jesus' last public sermon in the temple.

And, it was a right. It's a rocket of a sermon. So if you haven't heard it, you, you need to go back and listen because he really goes for it. It's an it's an attack on the religious leaders of the temple. And he's delivered these 7 woes, and you can imagine as he as he's finished that sermon, there's probably 1 of the most awkward silence is going, and he sort of drops the mic tears on his heel, and he walks out.

I imagine that sermon absolutely cemented the plans of the Jewish leaders to kill the lord Jesus Christ. And so there he goes, he leaves the temple for the last time. He will never ever again return to the temple. And so he pick up in verse 1. And as he as he goes, you'll notice that the disciples come up to him, and they're really taken up with the the Temple buildings.

They love a bit of architecture, apparently. And so they go, well, have a look at this in in in Mark and Luke. They're like, oh, look how lovely these buildings are, basically, magnificent buildings. It's like, you go to see Saint Paul. It's not a beautiful building.

Yet, Jesus turns to them and responds in verse 2 by saying this. Do you see all these things he asked? Truly, I tell you not 1 stone here will be left on another. Everyone will be thrown down. Yes.

It they may be impressive buildings. Jesus says, but ultimately, they will not last. This temple is gonna be destroyed is what he's saying. Is gonna be done away with, which for these guys would have been shocking because the temple for the Jewish person was so important to everything that they were. And Jesus says it's gonna be it's gonna be destroyed.

And so now they they go on. Imagine the disciples are reeling, and they reach the mount of olives in verse 3. Jesus has a sit down, and the disciples wanna know a little bit more about this. And so they come and they ask him in verse 3. You'll notice with me.

Tell us, they said, when will this happen? And what will be the sign of your coming? And of and of the end of the age? So they come and they they seem to have 2 or 3 questions here. They they seem to be saying, well, he's just told us that the the temple's gonna be destroyed.

So Jesus, when's that going to happen? And, and also when, will what what sign will we get that you're gonna come and bring your kingdom? That's what they're thinking. And, and and and then bring the end of the age. Now that that were that sentence end of the age, it'd be more appropriate to call it consummation of the age, the completion of the age.

The the the the reached, the expected climax of the aid. It's not just a, an end, but actually it's the, the culmination. Now the problem with their questions is actually it shows that they they don't quite under and what's going on here. See, for the the disciples, they they are thinking what most people of the Old Testament would have thought that when the Messiah came, he'd bring in his kingdom and then he would rule forever, and they would rule with him. That that was what their thinking was.

And so Jesus has to correct them and say that it's not all at once. It doesn't happen in 1 sweep, and and brings clarity to to their muddy thinking. And so he teaches them. And by teaching them, he teaches us so that we can navigate this world. In the wake of his soon crucifixion, resurrection, and ascension, we need to know what is going on in our world and how it will end.

And that's what Jesus is trying to teach us in this passage. He's gonna give us a lot. I'm I'm I'm sure as you read it. I don't know if we're doing question time after this, so you might have questions. I'm hoping that the that some of them will be answered, not create more, but he gives us a lot I mean, I'm sure as we read it, you're thinking, wow.

He's given us a lot of stuff here. So let us try and think about what he's saying here. Here's my first point. The birth pains of the Messiah, the birth pains of the Messiah. You'll notice in in verse 8, that is a term he uses.

All these are the beginning of birth pains. And that was a quite a common thought in in Jewish thinking. They thought that there was gonna be this period of intense self ring before the Messiah came. And they if if you remember in ezekiel when we looked at chapters 38 and 39, we talked about gog and magog. They thought that was gonna be the intense suffering and their Messiah would come.

And he would be finally here. And so so they use this term birth pains off the messiah. This is quite a I mean, it's 1 that's quite easy to understand birth pains, I think. I mean, we've we've just had a new baby. In fact, at rooted our our youth group, We held a baby shower for, for Jenny's new baby.

She's already had it, so we were a bit late on it. Do you know do you know what the the longest, labor is? I will know. Yes. What is it, Drew?

75 days in labor. Gosh. And there was other interesting facts if you wanna know them. The the largest baby was 22 pounds at 71.4 centimeters. So You know, if you think you had a hard birth ladies, that's 1 that was hard.

Okay. Anyway, they're using this this term, birth pains. There's intense suffering. And so what Jesus does, he first gives us an overview or or characteristics of these birth pains that we're gonna see in this world from verse 4 to 14. And and 1 of those birth pains will look with me verse 4 to 6 to start up with.

Watch out that no 1 deceives you. For many will come in my name, claiming I am the Messiah and will deceive many. You will hear of wars and rumors of wars, but see to it that you're not alarmed. Such things must happen. But the end is still to come.

Nation will rise against nation and the kingdom against kingdom. There will be famines and earthquakes in various places. All these are the beginnings of birth pains. See, this is the world that we live in. Jesus said, you're gonna hear about wars.

You're gonna hear about rumors of wars. You're gonna hear about nation rising up against nation and kingdom against kingdom. That's our world. Is it not? You just turn on the news.

And we are presented with wars, Israel, and Palestine, Ukraine, and Russia. We are confronted with rumors of suspected, Wars that might happen. What are China doing with that big army? Why has North Korea got the biggest missile that they're parading around? But not just the the wars that go on, but nature itself seems to be part of birth painted.

You noticed there are there are famines and earthquakes. Well, again, just turn on the news. You'll see that there is a famine. Apparently, there's a famine technically in Gaza. There was a famine in Sudan, There was an earthquake in the Philippines.

There was an earthquake in Ethiopia. All these are birth pains. They're, they're contractions that are saying that we are in the last times, but the end is not here yet. So we have the world showing these birth pains, but not only the world but we get spiritual birth pains as well, but with me at verse 9 to 14. Then you'll be handed over to be persecuted and put to death, and you'll be hated by all nations because of me.

At that time, many will turn away from the faith and will betray and hate each other, and many false prophets will appear and deceive many people. Because of the increase of wickedness, the love of most will grow old. But the 1 who stands firm to the end will be saved, and this gospel of the kingdom will be preached in the whole world as a testimony to all nations, and then the end will come. What are these spiritual birth pains? Well, number 1, there's persecution and opposition to believers.

Christians Jesus promises will be opposed by this world. Christians will be put to death in this world and will be hated by all nations. Now you might think, well, it doesn't seem like that happens in in our world, in our culture, but you must remember that the west is a is a very it's an anomaly to all of this that we don't face the same persecution as many other people. But if you know anything about our last 2 centuries, the 19 hundreds and the 2 thousands. More Christians have been killed than in any other than all the other centuries put together after Jesus.

Did you know anything about it. There there's, a campaign by, you know, open doors. They've got a campaign at the moment called Arise Africa, I think. Because every year, Christians are attacked and persecuted and displaced and put to death. 5000 in Nigeria.

Christians will be persecuted. And just because we don't face death or imprisonment. Doesn't mean you don't face persecution in this world. You may be mocked by colleagues, ridiculed by family members, dismissed by others Part of the birth pains of this world is that Christians will be opposed. But not just will Christians be opposed, but there will be those who look like Christians who turn away from the fate.

Did you see that in in verse 10? That time, many will turn away from the faith and will betray and hate each other. And then verse 12 is just a it's quite a horrible verse, to be honest. Because of the increase of wickedness, the love of most will grow cold. There will be people that profess that they follow the lord Jesus Christ that he is their savior who will in the end, turn away from him who will grow cold in the love for him and end up loving other things like wickedness.

And why? Well, probably because they're reposed, but also because they're being deceived did you see in verse 11? And many false prophets will appear and deceive many people. We've seen you see this the whole way through, actually. Look back with me at at verse 5, and many will come in my name, claiming I am the Messiah and will deceive many.

Then go down to verse 23. At that time, if anyone says to you, look, here is the Messiah, or there he is. Do not believe it. For false messiahs, and false prophets will appear and perform great signs and wonders to deceive. If possible, even the elect, see I've told you in advance.

Anyone tells you there he is out in the desert do not go out, or here he is in the inner rooms, do not believe it. There are people who want to take you away from the authentic original Jesus. And to believe in other things. There are people that wanna take your eyes of trusting in the lord Jesus Christ as your only hope of salvation and put them on other things that are not worth your while. There will be people who are messiahs, who are self anointed people.

That's what messiah means anointed 1, and they say I'm a self anointed 1. Will you listen to me? Will you listen to me the influencer? Will you give me your money? I can change your life.

They will deceive you if they can, and they will rob you of your faith in the lord Jesus Christ. And even the elect are in danger of these people. It's a birth pay, but there's another birth pay in verse 14. There will be a preaching of the gospel to all nations. Did you see this?

And this gospel verse 14 of the kingdom will be preached in the whole world as a testimony to all nations, and then the end will come. See, despite the fact that people will turn away from the faith, and by the way, that's been the history of the church. Generations come up and they trust in Jesus and then the next generation or the next generation, they run away from the lord Jesus Christ. But despite that going on, the gospel will be preached to all nations. And when the preaching of the gospel has gone out to all nations, And when Jesus sees that all peoples all peoples and all tribes and all tongues have been reached with the gospel of the lord Jesus Christ, then the consummation, then he will return.

And so the most important thing that the church that you as part of Cornerstone church can be part of is the preaching of the gospel of the lord Jesus Christ. See, churches always wanna get distracted by these deceivers. They wanna take you away and say, focus more on on on the the finer details of off what the Bible says and, and, and not actually think about the the the lost world or or or or or or focus more on things of, that are worldly, like the social justice aspects, which there's no nothing wrong or or think more about environmental things but but don't think so much about preaching up the gospel to the nations and think about the evangelism of all people. No. No.

There's nothing more important. That the church goes out and tells people about the lord Jesus Christ and the salvation that he has to offer them. See, once the number, the full number of Christians are gathered. The nations have been reached, and Jesus will come back again. And so this is the overview.

This is the overview of our our age since Jesus' ascension. There are wars. There are famines. There are earthquakes. There is persecution.

There is apostasy. People turning away. There is the preaching of the gospel. That is our overview. But then and this is where we have a bit of a history lesson in in I'm sure you're all excited about that.

We zoom in. We zoom in. So you have this wide angle version of of what's going on in all the ages, and we zoom in to a specific event. Verse 15 to 21. Read with me.

So when you see standing in the holy place, the abomination that causes desolation spoken of through the prophet Daniel, let the reader understand the reader of Daniel, then let those who are in Judea flee to the mountains. Let no 1 on the house top go down to take anything out of the house let no 1 in the field go back to get the cloak. How dreadful it will be in those days of pregnant women and nursing mothers. Prey that your flight will not take place of winter or on the Sabbath. For them, there will be great distress unequaled from the beginning of the world on till now are never to be equaled again.

It it might seem like a funny, a term to start off with there, the abomination that causes desolation. And, as I say, lots of people have, had lots of opinions on what that actually means. It does sound quite scary, doesn't it? The abomination, that means the strongest of language, the abomination that causes desolation. There's actually a term that's used in the Old Testament part of the Bible in in Daniel, few times in Daniel.

And, god tells Daniel that there's gonna be an abomination that causes desolation in the temple. And that that was fulfilled, actually. That happened when a a Syrian ruler called Antiochus came in, got, took over the temple, set up his own pagan altar where the temple was and started sacrificing pigs of all things. Remember Jewish people would see that as happened there. And it meant that no 1 could enter the temple area for a while until it was reconsecrated, your reading, Daniel.

But Jesus is saying, yes, that that happened there, but this also points to another event. Another abomination that causes desolation. And that event happened in AD 66 to 70. Do you remember in verse 2, Jesus told his disciples that the temple would be destroyed. Well, that event happens in a d 70.

In a d 70, after a 4 year battle between, uh-uh, revolutionaries in Jerusalem and the Roman Empire, Jerusalem was sieged, and eventually it was completely destroyed. Now we're not hundred percent sure what you might the abomination that causes desolation, but it could be that the zealots, for that's what they're called, those revolutionaries, they're they're very zealous about getting rid of Rome, basically. They get rid of the high priests, and they install their own priest than their own worship, which would mean that the worship of the temple was now stained. It was now not right, or it could be just when Pagan Rome eventually come in, smash up the place, and now have no temple and install pagan rule in Jerusalem. It's no longer functional as a temple.

It's completely desolate That's the abomination that causes desolation, I think. And so Jesus is saying, this is what's gonna happen. And when this happens, you're gonna wanna get out lads, and anyone in this generation, you don't want to stick around at this time, because this is gonna be of the worst times in history. And so what does he say verse 16 to 18? Did you see?

Then let those who are in Julia flee to the mountains. Get out of here. Run verse 17. Let no 1 on the house top go down to take anything out of the house. But remember it in in sort of, that time in Jerusalem, you will have those sort of flat roofs.

In other words, don't go down into the house, run and jump over the roofs and get out of duty. You know, like 1 of those parkour people, there's that, that seed. That's the only scene I've seen in Casside Royal, James Bond, where they're running across roofs. That's what Jesus is saying to these guys. It's gonna be so dangerous.

You need to do some roof running. And and if you're out in the field, verse, verse 18, don't be going back in and and booking in a removal van and saying we need to get some stuff out here. Yeah. Get the get the van and get the few friends around so we can do some moving. You haven't got time to go back and get your cloak.

You need just to run for the mountains. Now why do they need to run the mountains? Well, look at how vivid and how visceral Jesus talks about this this this ordeal in a d 70, how dreadful verse 19 it will be in those days for pregnant women and nursing mothers. Pray that your flight will not take place in winter or on the Sabbath. For then, there will be great distress unequaled from the beginning of the world until now and never to be equaled again.

That's strong, isn't it? Never to be equaled again unequaled? Surely Jesus is being hyperbolic here, no? Surely, you wouldn't say this is the worst event ever. I don't think Jesus has been hyperbolic.

He's not exaggerating here. If you read the accounts of this event, they are absolutely horrendous. And very few people got out alive. Nearly everyone, even if they escaped, were tracked down and were killed. And I think Jesus is saying that the concentration of violence, the ferocity of violence, the intensity of the violence at this time was so horrendous that it would never be equaled again.

I mean, if you read the accounts of the historian, Josephus, he's talking about women, boiling their own children and eating them. And eating their own defecation. So horrible is this event, but not only is it horrible in in the in the concentration of violence, but also this is where the whole identity of the Jewish people is gone. Never again is the temple replaced. Never again do they have a high priesthood?

Never again are the sacrifices made for them. And so in a sense, this is an unequaled tribulation. And so Jesus says this is a particularly sharp birth pain of the end times. So he zoomed in, and now he zooms out again. Verse 22.

If those days had not been cut short, those days being all the days that we looked at in verse 4 to 14, I think. If those days had not been cut short, no 1 would survive. But for the sake of the elect, those days will be shortened. In other words, god has cut short the days of humanity so that evil will not be victorious. So that humanity won't be completely eradicated by the the wickedness of mankind.

So that that people will come and hear the good news of the lord Jesus Christ and turn to him as savior. I think I think he's using language there from know, in Noah and Noah's story and and, god's looking at the generation of Noah, you'll you'll find the story in in Genesis sort of, I think 6 to 6 to 9, and he regrets making humanity. And so he says, I'm gonna cut short their days to a hundred and 20 years because their wickedness is so bad that if we allow them to go on, it would just be awful. And so he says I'm gonna cut short for the sake of my elect, for the sake of my redeemed people. And look what he says in verse 25.

See, I have told you in advance. He's told his disciples, look, this is what's gonna happen. Don't be surprised by this. He's explaining to us. He's given us clarity about what's gonna happen.

And so how should we respond? How should we apply what we've heard here? Should we just go, okay. Yeah. Jesus promise there was a war here.

Well, look what he says in verse 13 to 14, but the 1 who stands firm to the end will be saved. And this gospel of the kingdom will be preached in the whole world as a testimony to all nations, and then the end will come. This is the first way that you respond. You stand firm to the end. That word is you endure.

And that word is that you you bring yourself, and you you sit under the suffering of this world, you sit under this world, and the wars, and the famines, and the persecutions, and the people turning away from Jesus, and you endure you say I'm not gonna move away from Jesus. I'm not gonna be deceived by the other people. I'm not gonna go with those who have abandoned the lord Jesus Christ. I'm gonna take it. I'm gonna go through it.

A bit like if you're you're training for something, and you're putting yourself through hard work and strain so that you can achieve something. You have to put yourself through pain and endurance so that you can get the rewards. You have to go through the birth pains. You have to endure the contraction so that at the end. The birth happens and the joy appears.

So endure to the end, and as you endure, preach the gospel. Preach the gospel. Preach the gospel to a world that desperately needs to know the salvation of the lord jesus Christ. But not only that, verse 23 and verse 26. In the light of these messiahs, look what he says.

At the time, if anyone says to you, look, here is the messiah or there he is. Do not believe it. Verse 26. There he is. Out in the desert, do not go out, or here he is in the rooms, do not believe it.

It's really important that if you are a Christian and you are a follower of the lord Jesus Christ, that you don't believe the fakes. Is that a really important message to hear in our world today? I mean, you think about all the fakes, the deep fakes, AI. I mean, we're talking about AI on Saturday. I mean, the the amount of stuff that you can just make up now, the fake news, videos that can suddenly create and everyone believes it.

There's so much false information, and there's so many people that are promising false things. I and and it's like, oh, we'll go out to that person, go and see that person out in the desert in follow him, and he'll be the 1 that can give you what you need, or or there's someone in a private little room that you can go to and and find out all the answers. And Jesus says, don't believe them. Do not believe them. Don't believe the fakes.

Don't believe the deceivers. Don't believe the false messiahs. Now how do you do that? How do you endure to the end, preach the gospel, and don't believe the deceivers? Well, is what we were hearing this morning.

It's look at Jesus. Consider him in all his glory. Turn him over in your mind. See how glorious he is. See the authentic Jesus See, I remember on this all waking you up, Josh, if you've you've gone.

Josh, Josh, John once, gave me a good illustration to this. And it's about people that, know, about, you know, how you work out fraud? How do you how do you work out if a coin or a note is a fraud? Well, the way that you know it is by knowing the genuine article, like the back of your hand, so that when you see the fraud, it's so obvious. You don't want to be deceived brothers and sisters.

You want to endure to the end, know the genuine article, the glorious lord Jesus Christ himself. Look to him, see all that he has done for you see that he is your perfect righteousness, see that he died on a cross for your sin, see that he rose again and see that he's ascended on high, but not only those things. Look forward to the fact that he is coming again. See, there's people going where the messiah hears the messiah. You don't believe them because if you're questioning it, it's not him.

How do you know it's not him? Because look at verse 20, whatever it is. Sorry. Verse 27 to 28. For as lightning that comes from the east is visible, even in the west, so will be the coming of the son of man.

We've all seen lightning. You might be in 1 part of the co part of the thing, and if you see it light up the sky all the way over there, You see it. It's obvious, isn't it? There's lightning. Yeah?

You're gonna go, oh, was that lightning? Yeah. No. It's lightning. It lit up this guy.

And then he goes on, he he rubs it in verse 28. Wherever there is a carcass there, the vultures would gather. So you know how to read the signs. Right? You know, when when something's dead, suddenly all the volt or something's about to die, and suddenly you get the vultures coming.

A little bit of a feast on here today, lads. Hey. Yeah. We know it's obvious that something's about to die when there's vultures, they're incredible birds. Anyway, I'm not gonna go into them.

It'll be obvious when Jesus returns. Don't believe the deceivers. We will know when he returns, we will see him. And so that leads us into my second point. I know.

I know. Look, I said it was gonna be hard work tonight. I do apologize. It's a lot shorter. I promise.

Never trust to preach when they say that. It's longer. No. Second and second point. The return of the Messiah, the return of the Messiah Sire.

The second point is the return of Messiah. Look with me at verse 29 to 31. Immediately after the distress of those days, all of those things that signal that we are in the last days before the consummation immediately after the stress of those days. The sun will be darkened, and the moon will not give its light. The stars will fall from the sky and the heavenly bodies will be shaken, then will appear the sign of the son of man in heaven And then all the peoples of the earth will mourn when they see the son of man coming on the clouds of heaven with power and great glory, and he will send his angels with a loud trumpet call, and they will gather his elect from the 4 winds.

From 1 end of the heavens to the other. This is judgment day verse 29. You'll notice at the bottom on your footnote, it references 2 passages in Isaiah, Isaiah 13 verse 10, and Isaiah 34 verse 4. And those verses are talking about the judgment of Babylon and then the judgment of all nations. And so Jesus is saying that the son of man himself.

He will come back and he is gonna give judgment. How do we know it's gonna be the son of man? Well, verse 30, you'll notice it said. The sign of the son of man in heaven will appear. At that time.

That's what that word then is about. It's not after. And then all the peoples of the earth will mourn when they see the son of man coming on the clouds of heaven with power and great glory. You'll notice he blows trumpets. The sign of the son of man, again, is using biblical imagery here, I think, is a a word that means banner or standard.

If you know anything about warfare, the leader of an army would carry a huge banner or a or a flag that said that he was the ruler. And here he's saying, I am the ruler, and I have come to judge. The trumpets announce a warrior is here. And you'll notice in verse 31 sorry. 30 again, sorry, second part of it.

You will see the son of man coming on the clouds of heaven with power and great glory. That's a reference to Daniel chapter 7, where Daniel sees this this 1, this son of man who comes before God himself the ancient of days, and god himself gives this 1 all power and authority and dominion and a kingdom that will last forever. Here Jesus is coming, he is promising that he's going to come, that he is going to reign over this whole world, that his kingdom will be fully realized, that his kingdom of justice and peace and righteousness that is everlasting is here. That is what Jesus is saying is gonna happen at this point. And he is also saying that it is at this point that all evil will be removed.

All competitors, all pretenders will be dealt with. And so how will people respond to the coming of the lord Jesus Christ as he brings his kingdom, and he brings justice and judgment to all the nations, where you'll notice that all peoples mourn. It reminds me of a text in Revelation chapter 6. When the judgment of god comes in verse 16 to 17, it says, they call out to the mountains and the rocks fall on us and hide us from the face of him who sits on the throne and from the wrath of the lamb for the great day of their wrath has come, and who can withstand it. See, when Jesus returns, it will be too late.

For those who have not trusted in him. When Jesus returns, all there is for those who have not trusted in him is a place of weeping and gnashing of teeth. And so the consequences of being those people that have walked away from Christ, who have been involved in the persecution and position of believers who have been war mongerers is that Christ will come, and he will judge them, and there will be great mourning as a result. But the good news is And there is really good news here, is that when that trumpet blows in verse 31, his angels will be sent out to all of creation, and the redeemed people that have trusted in him will be gathered to him to be in his kingdom forever. And so the question is, which 1 will you be in?

Which group will you be in? Will you be in the elect? Will you be in the the redeemed people of gods? Or you be 1 who mourns they didn't take their opportunity to trust in the lord Jesus Christ and his death and resurrection and ascension, which 1 will you be? And so, Les, lastly, My third point, the conclusion of the Messiah, but with me at verse 32 to 35, these these words can be difficult to understand.

Now learn this lesson from the fig tree. As soon as its twigs become tender and its leaves come out, you know that summer is near. Even so, when you see all these things, you know that it is near right at the door. Truly, I tell you this generation will certainly not pass away until all these things have happened. Heaven and earth will pass away, but my words will never pass away.

He gives us a really simple illustration, doesn't he? We all know how to interpret the signs of of trees And when a fig fig tree starts getting its leaf, we we I assume we all know that when when things start to bud and start leaves start to come out, we know we're in spring, which usually means that summer follows. So we know that, and here's Jesus's point, all these things that I'm telling you about are gonna happen. Interperate the signs. You know how to interpret summer fall spring, interpret that the wars, the famines, the earthquakes, the persecution, the apostasy, the preaching of the gospel, will all show us that I will return.

The generation that Jesus is talking about verse 34 will see these things. This generation in this room see these things. And so Jesus can say in verse 35, heaven and earth will pass away, but my words will never pass away. So we've seen the birth pains. They tell us that his return is near, and so verse 35, we can trust Jesus.

We can trust him. He's told us exactly what what was going on. His words are lasting. His words are true. And so as I close, I know, I those 2 points were short weren't they?

As I close, are you reading the times, not the newspaper? Sorry. You interpreting the signs of this age. Everything in our world that we see in the news, if we're Christians, doesn't have to, like, status, because we know that Jesus is in complete control of it all, and we know that they're just birth pains that promise a consummation, that promise a a glorious birth, that promise a glorious resurrection future. As you look at the world and you see I suppose as you see what's going on in the Middle East, and as you see what's going on in in Eastern Europe, we can say, okay.

This is horrible, but Jesus promised that it would happen. And Jesus promised that once these things did happen, he would return. And so maybe you're here, and and you've heard me, and you hopefully, you've understood something about it. But you've never trusted in Jesus. And you're gonna be in that group that's part of the mourners, where you don't have to be.

You don't have to be. Why don't you come? Listen to Jesus. He's so trustworthy. His words last forever.

Come and trust him deny. Come and trust that he is the 1 who will return to take you home. We trust in him. And if you're a Christian, here's our call. Enjoy.

Keep going. Christian brothers and sisters. Enjoy stand firm to the end. Stan firm, fix your eyes on Jesus and his return. Know him more than you know anything else so that you're not deceived.

And long for the day when he'll come back. This world is broken. And all the birth pains show us that it's broken skin. And so we should 1 along for when Jesus comes back and he brings his kingdom of complete restoration. And as we pray for his return and long for his return, let us invite people to come and know him as lord and savior.

Finally, we thank you, for this time that we've had in this in this passage. And, we pray that you'll help us to be those who listen to the lord Jesus Christ so that we are able to navigate this world. We pray father that you'll help us to understand that Jesus, is, good news, that he has died for us, that he has risen, and that he has ascended, but that he promises to return. And we can understand that there's this world is broken, and there are birth pains in this world, but those birth pains promise his return. And so we pray you'll help us to be those who endure, that we'll be those who aren't deceived and that we are those who are involved in the greatest mission that there ever was, which is to preach the gospel to all nations.

Let us pray that the gospel goes out to all tribes and tongues. Let us be involved in world mission so that we can look forward to the day. When Christ returns. So we pray, father, you'll come soon. And so we pray these things in his name.