The End of the World

Revelation Series 2

The Warnings of Jesus

Before we get into the Book of Revelation, it is beneficial to see what Jesus' words were regarding the end times during his time on Earth.

• The bulk of this dialogue from Jesus is contained in what is called the Olivet Discourse.

• It is called this because it was a teaching given to His disciples on the Mount of Olives.

• The Olivet Discourse can be found in Matthew 24, Mark 13 and Luke 21. While each depiction varies slightly, they all teach and express the same warnings and themes.

For today, we are going to go with Matthew 24, so let's begin...
Matthew 24:1-3
"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 these things?” he asked. “Truly I tell you, not one stone here will be left on another; every one 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?”

• The first thing we see here is Jesus' prophecy of the destruction of the Temple.

  • The Temple in Jerusalem was where the presence of the Lord resided. It was where sacrifices and the forgiveness of sins were made.

  • It is the same Temple, where we see the curtain being torn in two after the death of Jesus, symbolizing our new freedom to approach God.

• Jesus' prophecy would come to fruition not long after His death.

  • In 70 A.D., Roman emperor Titus would besiege Jerusalem and destroy the Temple.

  • And since its destruction, it has not been rebuilt since.

After this we see the disciples questions: "when will this happen, and what will be the sign of your coming and of the end of the age?"

Let's see how Jesus answers these...
Matthew 24:4-6
Jesus answered: “Watch out that no one 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."

Notice how Jesus begins verse 4 with "Do not be deceived. For..." and ends verse six saying "but see to it that you are not alarmed. Such things must happen, but the end is still to come."

• So, what should we expect to see in these three verses? Things we could be deceived to believe are signs of the end.

What are these things?

• False Messiahs

  • People that claim to be Jesus or another messianic figure but are not.

• Wars and Rumors of Wars

  • War is unfortunately an escapable reality if we are to take Jesus' words as truth.

  • Jesus says these events will happen, but don’t be alarmed—they're just part of life, not signs of the immanent end.

After this, Jesus does reveal early signs of the end...
Matthew 24:7-8
“Nation will rise against nation, and kingdom against kingdom. There will be famines and earthquakes in various places. All these are the beginning of birth pains."

• Nation will Rise Against Nation

  • This is not the same idea of war as mentioned in the verses before, this seems to imply something much larger like what we have seen with WWI and WWII.

• Famines & Earthquakes

  • These are things we see and hear about regularly. It seems as though these are happening more frequently, but it may just be our increased access to the news of the world.

Notice that Jesus describes these signs as birth pains. 

• So when we evaluate these verses, we should understand they are a sign that the end is coming, but not that it is immanent.

So if this is just the beginning of the end, what happens after?
Matthew 24:9-14
“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 one 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 what happens next?

• Christ followers will be persecuted and put to death.

  • We have seen this plenty.

• Christ followers will be hated by all nations.

  • We have seen this partially.

• People will leave the faith and turn on each other.

  • We have seen this plenty.

• False Prophets will appear and deceive.

  • We have seen many.

    • Muhammad, Joseph Smith, cult leaders, etc.

• Wickedness will increase.

  • We have seen this plenty.

• Love will grow cold.

  • We have seen this plenty.

• Those that endure will be saved.

  • This is just the simple truth of the Gospel.

• The Gospel will be preached to the whole world.

  • We have seen this partially.

  • Does this verse say that the whole world must accept the Gospel?

So, is any of this new to us?
If not what does that mean? It means we are getting closer to Jesus' return.

After this we see Jesus reference the book of Daniel and speak of "the abomination that causes desolation."

• While this is important to the narrative of Revelation, we do not have the time today to go over it. We will come back later.

What you need to understand out off this next chunk is that Jesus speaks of a time of intense suffering/tribulation. And it is during this time that Jesus gives another warning.

Let's head down to verse 23...
Matthew 24:23-26
“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 have told you ahead of time. “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. “

• Here we are told that there will be false messiahs and false prophets preforming miracles to deceive others. They may even deceive themselves into believing they are for God.

So where will we find Jesus? Well he tells us right after...
Matthew 24:27-31
“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 four winds, from one end of the heavens to the other.”

• Here Jesus is quoting Isaiah 13:10; 34:4

• Jesus will not be in the wilderness, we do not need to look for Him there, her will be in the clouds. We won't miss Him, do not worry.

Verse 31 seems to be a reference to what we call the rapture.

• If you do not know what the rapture is, basically the concept is that there will be a point in the end time when all believers on Earth will be called into heaven instantaneously.

• We will talk more about it later in the series.

If we continue in the chapter, we see this idea being reinforced.
Matthew 24:36-41
“But about that day or hour no one knows, not even the angels in heaven, nor the Son, but only the Father. As it was in the days of Noah, so it will be at the coming of the Son of Man. 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; 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. Two men will be in the field; one will be taken and the other left. Two women will be grinding with a hand mill; one will be taken and the other left.

“But about that day or hour no one knows," The day Jesus is referring to here is the rapture.

• Jesus will come and take believers up.

• We as believers must be prepared whenever and wherever for that moment.

And this is what Jesus ends with, we must be prepared...
Matthew 24:42-44
“Therefore keep watch, because you do not know on what day your Lord will come. 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. So you also must be ready, because the Son of Man will come at an hour when you do not expect him.

• We must always be ready for Jesus' return. If Jesus returned tomorrow, would you be He call you up? This is not a matter of if you are good enough to be called up, but are you truly a disciple of Christ?

• This does not mean you should be fearful of His return, it means we should be prepared and excited for the moment it is time.