SPIRITUAL DIARY FOR 11/30/2023 11:55 AM
My Worship Time Focus: PT-3 “Intro
to Matthew 24:4-14”
Bible Reading & Meditation Reference: Matthew
24:4-14
Message of the verses: “4 And Jesus answered and said to them, "See to it that no one
misleads you. 5 “For many will come in My name, saying, ‘I am the Christ,’ and
will mislead many. 6 “And you will be hearing of wars and rumors of wars; see
that you are not frightened, for those things must take place, but that
is not yet the end. 7 “For nation will rise against nation, and kingdom against
kingdom, and in various places there will be famines and earthquakes. 8 “But
all these things are merely the beginning of birth pangs. 9 “Then they
will deliver you to tribulation, and will kill you, and you will be hated by
all nations on account of My name. 10 “And at that time many will fall away and
will deliver up one another and hate one another. 11 "And many false
prophets will arise, and will mislead many. 12 “And because lawlessness is
increased, most people’s love will grow cold. 13 “But the one who endures to
the end, he shall be saved. 14 “And this gospel of the kingdom shall be
preached in the whole world for a witness to all the nations, and then the end
shall come.”
In this passage known as the “Olivet Discourse,”
Jesus made it clear that the fulfillment was in the future. The message of Matthew 24-25 is a prophetic
sermon that sweeps the Twelve into a time not yet come, and a time they
themselves would never experience. I
have to say that no one has really gone through the prophetic message of these
two chapters, and won’t until the tribulation period begins.
John MacArthur writes the following, and I will be quoting
from this introduction from his commentary for the next couple of days in order
for us to best understand what he is going to talk about when we get to the
verses (4-14).
“There are at least seven indicators in the message itself
that it refers to the distant future and could not apply either to the events
related to the destruction of Jerusalem in A.D. 70, as many interpreters have
suggested, or to the church age, as others propose.
“The first indicator will be like birth pains, of which the
false Christs (Matt. 24:5), international warfare (vv. 6-7a), and famines and
earthquakes (v. 7b) are ‘merely the beginning’ (v. 8). The figure of birth pains was commonly used
by ancient Jewish writers, especially in regard to the end times. The great modern Jewish scholar Alfred
Edersheim wrote, ‘Jewish writings speak very frequently of the labor pains of
Messiah.’
“Labor pains do not occur at the conception or throughout
pregnancy but just before birth. The
figure of birth pains therefore would not have been appropriate to represent
either the destruction of Jerusalem, which occurred very near the beginning of
the church age, or the church age as a whole.
“Paul reminded the Thessalonians that the return of Christ
would come as a their in the night—unexpectedly, quietly, and suddenly. Using the same figure Jesus used in the
Olivet discourse, the apostle said that ‘while they are saying, ‘Peace and
safety!’ then destruction will come upon them suddenly like birth pangs upon a
woman with child; and they shall not escape’ (1 Thess. 5:1-3).
“Labor pains do not begin until shortly before delivery
time, and they occur with increasing frequency until the baby is born. In the same way, the events connected with
the Lord’s return will not begin until just before His return, and they will
occur with increasing rapidity, building up to an explosion and catastrophic
events. The same epoch is pictured in
the book of Revelation, as the seal judgments unfold over a period of perhaps
years (see 6:1-8:1-6), the trumpet judgments over a much shorter period of
time, perhaps weeks (see 8:7-9:21; 11:15-19), and the bowl judgments over the
period of perhaps of a few days or even hours (see 16:1-21).”
Lord willing we will look at the second indicator in the
next SD.
11/30/2023 12:18 PM
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