Who Am I? The Gospel According to Matthew

The Gospel According to Matthew

Matthew 24

Question of the Day:  

READ: Matthew 24

We start this chapter with the disciples pointing out the temple.  This temple was large and beautiful. It was something worthy of an extra gaze. 

24 Jesus left the temple and was walking away when his disciples came up to him to call his attention to its buildings. 2 “Do you see all these things?” he asked. “Truly I tell you, not one stone here will be left on another; every one will be thrown down.”

3 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?”

4 Jesus answered: “Watch out that no one deceives you. 5 For many will come in my name, claiming, ‘I am the Messiah,’ and will deceive many.6 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. 7 Nation will rise against nation, and kingdom against kingdom. There will be famines and earthquakes in various places. 8 All these are the beginning of birth pains.

In this section there are 4 points I want us to look at. 

First their perch or location was sitting on the Mount of Olives with arguably the most stunning view of the Temple.  This view brings to mind what Jesus had just told them as they were leaving the temple. 

Second, first thing He says in response the their question is, "Watch out that no one deceives you." Just asking this question, just trying to know what will happen sets them up to be deceived. If we spend too much of our time worrying or looking for the signs we might miss the Savior all together!

Third,  He then warns them not to be alarmed.  Why?  Here again, if our focus it to get alarmed and scared, our focus is once again where it should not be!

Forth, in this passage He uses one of my favorite passages.  Childbirth is a fascinating event.  It is dreaded, hard, painful and yet when the time comes you can't wait to go through it because of the anticipation of meeting your child.  Also, no matter how hard you study, plan and prepare you never know when it will happen and when it does come, it may be nothing like you had imagined.  

If we are seeking our Savior, and yearning to see Him, it won't matter how difficult the end is.  We will just be focused on seeing Him!

Let's keep going... it doesn't get better.

9 “Then you will be handed over to be persecuted and put to death, and you will be hated by all nations because of me. 10 At that time many will turn away from the faith and will betray and hate each other, 11 and many false prophets will appear and deceive many people. 12 Because of the increase of wickedness, the love of most will grow cold, 13 but the one who stands firm to the end will be saved. 14 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.

Verse 13, what does that say to you?

It is important to note that verse 13 does not stand alone. If you read it with verse 12 what is it saying?  How do we stand firm?  Stand firm in what? 

"The love of most will grow cold..." So is it fair to say that to stand firm is to not let our love grow cold?  

How do we keep the love from growing cold? 

What does that mean?

Have you let your love for Jesus grow cold?

I can remember when Chris and I were first married, our love was NOT cold!  We were so excited to be together, so thrilled to see each other at the end of the work day.  Is our love as NOT cold now?  Yep, but it has taken being intentional, dedicated.  It has meant that we have had to learn about each other more everyday and set ourselves down.  

Do you remember when you first accepted Jesus as your personal Savior?  Has your love for him kept growing or is growing cold?

So can we saying it is important to stay IN LOVE with Jesus Christ? That is how we stand firm!

We can't forget verse 14 too.  Read that again.  

So our love must not grow cold.... our love for God, our love for others... we manifest that love by, spreading the GOOD NEWS to all nations and then JESUS will come!!!

Love is what we must hang onto! Let's read on.

15 “So when you see standing in the holy place ‘the abomination that causes desolation,’[a] spoken of through the prophet Daniel—let the reader understand— 16 then let those who are in Judea flee to the mountains. 17 Let no one on the housetop go down to take anything out of the house. 18 Let no one in the field go back to get their cloak. 19 How dreadful it will be in those days for pregnant women and nursing mothers! 20 Pray that your flight will not take place in winter or on the Sabbath. 21 For then there will be great distress, unequaled from the beginning of the world until now—and never to be equaled again.

22 “If those days had not been cut short, no one would survive, but for the sake of the elect those days will be shortened. 23 At that time if anyone says to you, ‘Look, here is the Messiah!’ or, ‘There he is!’ do not believe it. 24 For false messiahs and false prophets will appear and perform great signs and wonders to deceive, if possible, even the elect.25 See, I have told you ahead of time.

26 “So if anyone tells you, ‘There he is, out in the wilderness,’ do not go out; or, ‘Here he is, in the inner rooms,’ do not believe it. 27 For as lightning that comes from the east is visible even in the west, so will be the coming of the Son of Man. 28 Wherever there is a carcass, there the vultures will gather.

29 “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.’[b]

30 “Then will appear the sign of the Son of Man in heaven. And then all the peoples of the earth[c] will mourn when they see the Son of Man coming on the clouds of heaven, with power and great glory.[d] 31 And he will send his angels with a loud trumpet call, and they will gather his elect from the four winds, from one end of the heavens to the other.

32 “Now learn this lesson from the fig tree: As soon as its twigs get tender and its leaves come out, you know that summer is near. 33 Even so, when you see all these things, you know that it[e] is near, right at the door. 34 Truly I tell you, this generation will certainly not pass away until all these things have happened. 35 Heaven and earth will pass away, but my words will never pass away.

We can go back to the childbirth or labor analogy.  For a woman there is a time in labor when it feels like there is no way you can continue.   Emotionally it is too much, physically it is too much. At that moment most women, ask for something, medication, or some change.  Many women will say, "I can't, I can't do this any more!"  

That is one of the best indications that she may be in what is called transitional labor.  This labor is terrible! The good news however is that usually this transitional labor means you are right at the end.  It won't take much longer. Now I realize many women have complications, and this may not be their experience, but in most situations if a woman is having a natural childbirth their is quite a shift in transitional labor.  

There will be transitional labor at the end of time.  There will be a time when we aren't sure we can make it.  It will be rough but it will also be a short time.  

I remember transitional labor.  One thing that helped me get through it was knowing I was very close, close to seeing my baby!

When we are in the worst of times, we will know it will be short! We can rest in knowing that we will see Jesus very soon!  Very Soon!  That will carry us!

The Day and Hour Unknown

36 “But about that day or hour no one knows, not even the angels in heaven, nor the Son,[f] but only the Father. 37 As it was in the days of Noah, so it will be at the coming of the Son of Man. 38 For in the days before the flood, people were eating and drinking, marrying and giving in marriage, up to the day Noah entered the ark; 39 and they knew nothing about what would happen until the flood came and took them all away. That is how it will be at the coming of the Son of Man. 40 Two men will be in the field; one will be taken and the other left. 41 Two women will be grinding with a hand mill; one will be taken and the other left.

42 “Therefore keep watch, because you do not know on what day your Lord will come. 43 But understand this: If the owner of the house had known at what time of night the thief was coming, he would have kept watch and would not have let his house be broken into. 44 So you also must be ready, because the Son of Man will come at an hour when you do not expect him.

45 “Who then is the faithful and wise servant, whom the master has put in charge of the servants in his household to give them their food at the proper time? 46 It will be good for that servant whose master finds him doing so when he returns. 47 Truly I tell you, he will put him in charge of all his possessions. 

48 But suppose that servant is wicked and says to himself, ‘My master is staying away a long time,’ 49 and he then begins to beat his fellow servants and to eat and drink with drunkards. 50 The master of that servant will come on a day when he does not expect him and at an hour he is not aware of. 51 He will cut him to pieces and assign him a place with the hypocrites, where there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth.

What should we be doing? Serving.  Jesus has called us to serve, while we are waiting for Him to come we should be serving fellow men, teaching, spreading the gospel!  We should be working not worrying! Not desperately looking for all the signs, just working! 

Signs of the Times.  Signs of the times is a big part of our church message!  We believe in the soon return of our Savior.  It is part of our name, we believe it is part of our mission to spread the word. So we spend time focusing on the signs of the times.  We should and we do.  What also must we remember to do?

1.  We must be careful to not get deceived.

2.  We must not be alarmed.  

3.  Stand firm in our Love for God and others! 

4.   Keep working to serve our fellow man, and to spread the GOOD NEWS! The Gospel!

Who am I? I am a child of the living God.  I am child of the King who yearns to be with Him.  Because of what He has done I can enthusiastically seek Him and share Him knowing that very soon we will be together forever!  I don't have to fear or obsess about when it is, I can just keep developing our relationship by spending time with Him everyday!