This chapter is called the Olivet Discourse because Jesus sat on the Mount of Olives when he gave his discourse.
Matthew 24:1-2
Jesus left the temple and was going away, when his disciples came to point out to him the buildings of the temple. But he answered them, “You see all these, do you not? Truly, I say to you, there will not be left here one stone upon another that will not be thrown down.”
As Jesus leaves the temple, the disciples point out how magnificent the temple is. This is probably in reference to Matthew 23:38 where Jesus said the house would be left desolate. How could this be when the temple is such an amazing construction? MacArthur's commentary says the temple construction began in 20BC and was still under construction when the Romans destroyed it in AD 70. Some of the stones measured 40 by 12 by 12 feet and were fit together perfectly against one another. The temple had marble and gold plates - something spectacular. How could it become desolate where not one stone would be left unturned? Of course, history proves Jesus words were true as the temple was destroyed in AD70 and another has not been built. From this study I truly believe the new temple will be built as part of the covenant that begins the 70th week of Daniel.
Matthew 24:3
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 close of the age?”
In verse 3, the disciples pose three questions:
1. When will these things be? Most assuredly when will these stones be left unturned.
2. What will be the sign of your coming?
3. What will be the sign of the end of the age?
Now I know Matthew 24 has a lot of debate, so I fully understand that what we learned in class may not be 100% accurate. But here is what we were taught and we can go through Matthew 24 and see if this could be a correct way to interpret the passage. By the way, we looked at Matthew 24 as something happening almost chronologically. I know even my beloved ESV Study Bible has some differing opinion on this.
Jesus answers the 3rd question first...what will be the sign of the end of the age? He first answers by saying to see to it that no one misleads you because many will come in his name and mislead many. Do you think we have this today? I believe we do. I think we have all along throughout time but it really seems to be more of an issue today. Maybe the Internet makes all this more accessible and couple that with a lack of real Biblical knowledge among God's people - it is very easy to be deceived.
A couple of years ago there was a revival of sorts in our area with a man by the name of Todd Bentley. He was quite a character. For weeks people flocked to his revivals and proclaimed miracles. It was a spectacle to say the least. However, it didn't stand time, after a few weeks the hoopla died and he admitted to an inappropriate relationship with a secretary on his ministry team DURING the revival. It was really sad. Many I knew just thought it was amazing and ran nightly to the events. I am thankful I was discerning enough not to buy into it.
This is just one small meager example. False prophets are certainly an issue today. Look at Christian television. My "favorite" (total sarcasm here) is Joel Osteen. In fact, he is coming to Tampa this weekend. Our local newspaper did an interview with him. Here he has 40,000 people attending his church every weekend and he admits he doesn't know much theology, that isn't his forte. He just wants to "encourage" people to live their best life now. Too bad he doesn't realizing living our best life comes from deep devotion and commitment to the very theology taught in God's word that he doesn't know much about.
I could go on. There are so many right now it is unreal. Of course there have been heretics throughout history and again, all our modern technology may be the reason they seem so prevalent right now. But if the reality is there are more now, Jesus is telling us this is the sign of the beginning of the end.
We will look at his next answer in my next post.
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