Beginning of The End 末了的開始                                                                                 11-14-2010

Matthew 馬太福音24:1-35

 

INTRODUCTION

 

To certain extent my wife is an impatient person. She is more eager to know the ending rather than the beginning of a story. In the early years of our marriage when we did not have kids we enjoyed watching sports together. A blessed man is he who can find a wife that watches sports. A woman is blessed if her husband enjoys shopping. We have both of that in our home. During the football season when the games were played on Sunday we would record a game and then watched it after we got home from the church. Very often my wife would rewind the tape just enough to see the final score. She would then decide whether or not to watch the whole game based on that. That really ticked me off. It kills all the fun and suspense. But that is just the way she is.

 

I guess the way God puts the Bible together is for people like my wife. He has already told us clearly the ending of His salvation plan in the Bible. All the believers will eventually be in heaven to be with the Lord forever. From the Bible almost every Christian would believe a few key things will surely happen – rapture of the church, the great tribulation, future judgment and the new heaven and new earth. We do not know the exact order of these events and the intricate details. We will leave the headache to the theologians. Among these events the second coming of Christ is the major decisive factor.

 

On the past two Sundays brothers Ted Wong and Mingqi Deng have covered some aspects about the second coming of Christ. Today’s message will focus on the signs of Christ’s second coming. But before we unfold the events from Matthew 24 I think it is important for us to take one step back and ask a key question – what is the significance of Christ’s return? I believe there are three main reasons for that.

 

I. The Significances of Christ’s Second Coming 基督再來之意義

 

1. Prophecy of the Scripture 聖經的預言

 

First of all, Christ’s second return is part of the prophecy of the Scripture. In the Old Testament alone there are 333 distinct prophecies about Jesus Christ. More than 100 of them have been fulfilled in the first coming of Christ. Let me quote a few examples that most Christians are familiar with. Micah 5:2 predicts that Jesus would be born in Bethlehem. Zechariah 9:9 tells us that Jesus would ride a donkey to enter Jerusalem. Many details of Jesus’ suffering and death are portrayed in Isaiah 52-53.

 

There are some other prophecies about Christ that have only been partially fulfilled. In another words Christ’s first coming accomplished a portion of the prophecies and the remaining portion is left for His second coming to bring to completion. Many Christians are familiar with the prophecy of Immanuel in Isaiah 9:6, which says: “For to us a child is born, to us a son is given…” The prophet goes on to describe this coming Messiah in the next verse that: “Of the greatness of his government and peace there will be no end. He will reign on David’s throne and over his kingdom, establishing and upholding it with justice and righteousness from that time on and forever.” Christ the Immanuel has come but it will be at His second coming that He will reign forever. There are other examples in the Old Testament like that. The key is that if one-third of the prophecies about Christ have been fulfilled at His first coming the rest two-third will also come to past at His second coming.

 

2. Promise of the Savior 救主的應許

 

The second coming of Christ is clearly prophesied in the Bible; in particular it comes from the promise of the Savior Himself. At the last supper Christ comforted His disciples in John 14:3 by saying: “And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come back and take you to be with me that you also may be where I am.” Mark records in his gospel in 14:62 when Jesus answered the High Priest at His trial: “And you will see the Son of Man sitting at the right hand of the Mighty One and coming on the clouds of heaven.” In Revelation Christ repeatedly reveals to the apostle John in vision that He is coming soon. Our Lord reiterates three times in 22: 7, 12 and 20 that “I am coming soon!” Jesus promises His disciples and every Christian that His return is a certainty.

 

3. Problem of Sin 罪惡的問題

 

Why Jesus will surely come back? A third reason is that He is coming back to deal with the problem of sin. 1 Cor. 15:24-26 reads “24 Then the end will come, when he hands over the kingdom to God the Father after he has destroyed all dominion, authority and power. 25 For he must reign until he has put all his enemies under his feet. 26 The last enemy to be destroyed is death.” Death is the punishment and consequence of sin. Two thousand years ago Christ died on the cross and rose from the death to conquer sin. All who puts their faith in Christ will be spared from eternal condemnation. However, sin still exerts its influence in our lives. But the Bible plainly tells us that when Christ comes back sin will be no more.

 

Revelation 20:10 and 14-15 give us the final picture: “10 And the devil, who deceived them, was thrown into the lake of burning sulfur, where the beast and the false prophet had been thrown. They will be tormented day and night for ever and ever. 14 Then death and Hades were thrown into the lake of fire. The lake of fire is the second death. 15 Anyone whose name was not found written in the book of life was thrown into the lake of fire.” Satan, along with his evil agents, and all who do not believe in Christ, and even death itself will be thrown into the lake of fire to suffer eternal judgment.

 

II. The Signs of Christ’s Second Coming基督再來之預兆

 

With that in mind let us turn our attention to Matthew 24 we read earlier. We have just finished the easier part of today’s message. Now we have come to the more difficult part. Many Bible conferences on the end times may need to spend the whole week on discussing what we will cover in the next 20 minutes or so. The entirety of chapters 24 and 25 is Jesus’ response to the disciples’ private question in 24:3: “Tell us,” they said, “when will this (referring to the destruction of the temple) happen, and what will be the sign of your coming and of the end of the age?” Historically there are three major interpretations to the chapter: (1) These signs had been fulfilled when the temple was destructed in AD 70; (2) these signs refer to the second coming of Christ, which are yet to be fulfilled; and (3) these signs refer to both the destruction of the temple and the second coming of Christ. Based on the materials I have read I am convinced that the third interpretation is the most appropriate when the whole end time progression is considered. I have to make it clear that this is not the only interpretation to the passage.

 

The Jewish Temple in Jesus’ time was built by Herod the Great. The building project began in 20 BC. It took 46 years to finish the whole construction according to John 2:20. In AD 66 there was a Jewish revolution against the Roman government. Finally in AD 70 the Roman army under Titus conquered Jerusalem. They destroyed the city and the temple. The Jewish historian Josephus recorded that at that time there were about 1 million people being killed and about 100 thousand people captured. After all the killing and plunder Titus gave order to completely demolish the whole city to make it look like it had not been inhabited. Thus the stones that laid the city foundation were all dug up. In so doing the prophecy Jesus made in Matthew 24:2 was fulfilled. Therefore, the destruction of the temple in AD 70 gave people, especially the Jews, an initial warning that there will be a bigger and more serious judgment from God coming. If the invasion of the Romans was deemed unbearable how much more nerve wrecking it will be when all the future events are building up and leading to the coming of Christ. Some of the signs given by Jesus first appeared when the Roman army was drawing near in AD 70. Then these signs will only intensify in the ages to come transitioning to the second coming of Christ. What kinds of sign are those?

 

1. Deception 迷惑

 

First of all Jesus said at that time many false prophets will rise up claiming to be Christ. Verse 5 reads: “For many will come in my name, claiming, ‘I am the Messiah,’ and will deceive many.” Then verse 11 says: “and many false prophets will appear and deceive many people.” Jesus goes on to tell us in verse 24: “For false messiahs and false prophets will appear and perform great signs and wonders to deceive, if possible, even the elect.” What will be result of all these deceptions? Jesus tells us in verse 10 that: “At that time many will turn away from the faith and will betray and hate each other;” then again in verse 12 He adds that: “Because of the increase of wickedness, the love of most will grow cold.” People rise up and claim to be Jesus is not a new thing at all. Since the first century and to this day there have been quite a number of people claiming to be the Messiah. Let me mention a few of them. In 1993 there was David Koresh in Waco, TX. In 1997 there was Marshall Applewhite with the Heaven’s Gate. Both incidences concluded in mass suicide. Then there is Sun Myung Moon with the Unification Church. He is 90 years old and still living at this moment. We Chinese also come up with our own version of false Messiah. It is even a woman, a Ms. Zhao of the infamous Eastern Lightning.

 

2. Dissension 戰爭

 

Besides the deception from false prophets there will also be dissension between nations. Jesus describes the situation in verse 6 and 7: “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.” It was said that the number of people died in wars in the 20th century were greater than the sum total of all the casualties in the first 19 centuries. The formation of the United Nations in 1945 right after the World War II was to promote world peace. Has world peace been achieved? It is true that since then there was no multi-national conflict civil wars in many parts of the world, Muslim terrorists and even nuclear threats have only be intensified. It was said that World War I was about conflict between countries, World War II was about conflict of different political beliefs and the possibility of the future World War III will be about the conflict of different religions.

 

3. Disaster 天災

 

Next Jesus reveals that there will be increasing natural disasters. He continues in the second half of verse 7 that: “There will be famines and earthquakes in various places.” While famine can be a result of environmental failure it can also be a direct consequence of war. In many parts of the world where famine is a recurring problem the core issue is not the lack of food but the distribution of food. Those are not natural disaster but man-made ones. Then Jesus says there will also be an increasing occurrence of earthquakes. Some of you may still remember the Tongshan earthquake in 1976. There was also the Asian Tsunami in December 2004. A more recent one is the Haiti earthquake happened in January of this year. In each of these major earthquakes there were more than two hundred thousand casualties. Besides those there was the Sichuan earthquake in May of 2008 that led to seventy thousand deaths. The point I am trying to make is that these earthquakes happened so frequently that people may become numb.

 

4. Declaration 宣告

 

So far what we have heard are all bad news. Is there any good news in Matthew 24? I believe there are at least two. First it is the widespread declaration of the gospel. Jesus encourages us in verse 14 that: “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.” Here Jesus is not saying that the increased evangelistic effort in itself will hasten His second coming. Preaching the gospel to all nations is a command from our Lord. What Jesus is telling us is that by the time of His return every human will have the opportunity to be reached by the gospel. Nowadays with the convenience of the Internet this can surely be accomplished. Take note that the Internet was just developed and popularized some 15 years ago.

 

5. Descent 降臨

 

All the signs Jesus has mentioned will culminate to His bodily descent to earth. That is the second and best good news Jesus brings to the Christians. He describes it in verse 27 that: “For as lightning that comes from the east is visible even in the west, so will be the coming of the Son of Man.” It will be as obvious as lightning in the sky that there will be no doubt in people’s mind. Then Jesus continues in verses 30 and 31: “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. 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.” To God’s people that will be a glorious day. All the suffering from false religions, wars and natural disasters will come to an end. What prophet Daniel prophesied in Daniel 7:13 to 14 will come true: “In my vision at night I looked, and there before me was one like a son of man, coming with the clouds of heaven. He approached the Ancient of Days and was led into his presence. 14 He was given authority, glory and sovereign power; all nations and peoples of every language worshiped him. His dominion is an everlasting dominion that will not pass away, and his kingdom is one that will never be destroyed.”

 

CONCLUSION

 

Jesus concludes this section of His discourse in verses 34 to 35 by saying: “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.” When Jesus says “this generation,” it does not necessarily restrict to the generation of His directly audience. A broader application would be the sinful human race as a whole.

 

All that we have studied today is not scientific fiction but the Word of God. Everything Jesus tells us will stand firm and shall come to pass. It all boils down to four words: Christ will surely come. What does all that mean to Christians living in the west in the 21st century? Paul warns us in 1 Cor. 15:19 when he teaches about the future resurrection that: “If only for this life we have hope in Christ, we are of all people most to be pitied.” If everything we have in this life is fading away and even the human history will come to an end sooner or later we need to look at this life from an eternal perspective. We need to keep asking ourselves whether what we do has any eternal significance. Your responsibility at the work place is not only to make a living but God also puts you there to be a witness for Him. To the parents, the reason why we bring up our children is not to prepare for our retirement but it is an opportunity for us to disciple our children so that they will become useful instruments for God’s Kingdom. This eternal perspective will also affect the way we invest our money. Invest in a way that not only will it give you temporal gain but also eternal dividends. If there is anything in common between the different Christian organizations it is the fact that most of them lack money to continue their ministries. I encourage you to pick a few of them that you have burdens for, read their correspondence to know about their needs and pray for their work. If God so moves you, offer money to support their work.

 

Do you long for Christ’s coming? The Christians in the early church were under the persecution of Rome. They desired to look for an end to their suffering and leave it to the hand of God to make a righteous judgment for their innocent blood. I strongly believe that at different times of the human history when believers of Jesus Christ felt the same way when they were under great distress for the sake of their faith – the Nazi regime, the Cultural Revolution and all the political movements in China and even to this day for those Christians living in some of the Muslim countries and nations with totalitarian dictatorship. We may jokingly say that we do not want Jesus to come back soon when we are having a good life. But at times when our project is over-due, examination not fully prepared for or even having a big fight with our spouse we feel that we have no desire to live on we cry for Christ to come back soon. But the Bible keeps telling us that we have to be ready for Christ’s return whether we are in good times or bad. You can start paying more attention to the prophetical books in the Bible if they look hard to understand at first glance. There was a saying when I first became a Christian that believers should hold the Bible in one hand and hold the newspaper in the other hand. The idea is that we should be equipped with the knowledge of God’s Word and use it to discern what is happening around us. We have to live wisely and always ready for Christ’s return.