How Close Are We to The End? (Matthew 24:1-14, 32-35)

When traveling on a long trip (maybe as much as 2 hours) with my very young children, they used to ask, “How close are we?”  People are asking, “How close are we to the end?”

• A world-wide pandemic.  This is the first event which has been experienced and suffered by the entire world (177 countries/territories) all at once. 
• The Russian invasion of a peaceful sovereign nation, Ukraine, has altered the geo-political landscape. (Finland and Sweden are joining NATO.)  
• Iran is negotiating with Russia and other countries to attain nuclear power. 
• Political breakdown, decaying morality, social strife, economic uncertainty. 

In times like this it is important to understand that Jesus gave us a blueprint to understand what we are going through and how we are to respond. It can be summarized in three commands:

1. Be Watchful
2. Do not be alarmed
3. Stand firm

In times like these Jesus calls us to pray for stronger backs not lighter loads.  Let’s look at what Jesus says about the very times we are in and how he calls us to respond. 

The End of the World As They Knew It

Jesus has already experienced what we know as Palm Sunday, the Sunday before Easter Sunday.  People were declaring him to be the Messiah.  He has cleared out the Temple as a rebuke to the leaders of that day.  In Matthew 23 he condemns the leaders as corrupt. Jesus is now at the Temple.  There is anticipation that Jesus will bring a political revolution.  Two days before His crucifixion, Jesus says these words:  

Jesus left the temple and was walking away when his disciples came up to him to call his attention to its buildings.  Some of his disciples were remarking about how the temple was adorned with beautiful stones and with gifts dedicated to God.

Matthew 24:1

They weren’t kidding.  The Temple was 37 acres.  Some of the stones were several tons.  The temple was considered one of the most beautiful structures of the Roman world. There were 18,000 men who labored to build it.  Its location on Mount Moriah made it look like a mountain of gold. Josephus, the first century Jewish historian, wrote that when the sun shone on it, “it radiated so fiery a flash that persons straining to look at it were compelled to avert their eyes.”

Jesus continues:

 “Do you see all these things?” he asked. “ I tell you the truth, not one stone here will be left on another; every one will be thrown down.”

Matthew 24:2

The midrash, which is an ancient commentary of the Old Testament, stated that Israel is at the center of the world.  Jerusalem is at the center of Israel.  The temple is at the center of Jerusalem.  The center of God’s work and presence on earth was the temple.  This was God’s very house.  For it to be destroyed was unthinkable. But what Jesus said was fulfilled with jaw dropping accuracy.  In 70 A.D. (less than 40 years from this time) the Romans invaded the city and ordered both the city and the temple be levelled to the ground.  Soldiers gutted it by fire and then literally pulled the stones apart to reclaim valuable metals embedded in them. After it’s destruction, it looked like a city that had not been inhabited.  In 50 years of this destruction there was not a single Jewish inhabitant in all of Israel. 

Whenever this happens the nation is dispersed and becomes mixed in other populations.  

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?”

Matthew 24:3

The word for coming in the Greek is “parousia.” This means appearance, like appear in greater power, and did not relate to a second coming or return in the minds of the disciples. In a Sesame Street episode, the friendly blue character, Grover, teaches kids the difference between “near” and “far.” He begins close to the camera saying “near,” and then runs away yelling “faaaaaar.” His lesson is helpful to read what Jesus is saying because the disciples are thinking near.  But the verses we will look at are far. Jesus describes six events which will occur with increasing frequency. He calls them “birth pains.”

All these are the beginning of birth pains.   

Matthew 24:8

When Brenda and I took Lamaze class (a class on labor and delivery) we learned that when contractions start you need to get to the hospital and the more frequent they become the closer we are to the delivery. These “birth pains” or contractions are the wake-up calls which are preparing us for something better.

Contraction # 1: Reestablishment of Israel. 

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 (Things are heating up.) Even so, when you see all these things, you know that it is near, right at the door. ³⁴ I tell you the truth, 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.   

Matthew 24:32-35 

The fig tree is symbolic for Israel. Miraculously the nation of Israel was reestablished in 1948.  After 1900 years of being dispersed through the world, as well as being the most persecuted and hated people to ever live, and coming out of the Nazi Holocaust; Israel maintained its ethnic and religious identity and reestablished itself as a nation.  No nation of the earth has ever done this.  In fact, sociologically it is considered impossible. 

Further, they were outnumbered 80/1 by the Arab populations who fought them from the surrounding areas. To add to this, they were an immigrant community of farmers. 

“Who has ever heard of such things? Who has ever seen things like this? Can a country be born in a day, or a nation be brought forth in a moment? Yet no sooner is Zion in labor than she gives birth to her children.

Isaiah 66:8

1948 was the time when the contractions started.  The world started to look considerably different.

Contraction # 2: Growing deception. 

For many will come in my name, claiming, ‘I am the Christ,’ and will deceive many.

Matthew 25:5

When the light comes on the bugs gather to it. The spread of deception has greatly increased since this time.

Contraction # 3: Increasing warfare and conflict. 

You will hear of wars and rumors of wars,

Matthew 24:6

Will China invade Taiwan? Will Iran be an aggressor against Israel? Is Poland the next target of Russia? There will be increasing speculation along these lines. Since 3600 B.C. it is estimated that there have been 14,500 wars in which 3.5 billion people have been killed.  If you were to tally up the property damage of all the wars it would amount to a belt of gold 30 feet wide and a hundred feet thick around the earth. War is not new. Yet, the intensity and frequency of war will increase.

but see to it that you are not alarmed. Such things must happen, but the end is still to come. Nation will rise against nation and kingdom against kingdom.

Matthew 24:6-7

The word for nation in the Greek is ethnos. This appears to indicate the break up of ethnic groups in nations. Nations will split and divide into separate nations.  In 1948 the United Nation was composed of 66 countries.  After 1948 there were an additional 128 countries that came into existence.  Some of these were nations that grew out of ethnic divisions. Think for example of North and South Korea in the 50’s.  North and South Vietnam in the 60’s.  Yugoslavia split into five different countries. 

Contraction # 4: Escalation of natural disasters. 

There will be famines and earthquakes in various places.

Matthew 24:7

Luke adds these words:

There will be great earthquakes, famines and pestilences in various places…

Luke 21:11

Slate magazine predicted this to be a century of disasters.  That has proven accurate.  Hurricanes in Gulf Coast. Flood fatigue in much of the country. Snow fall shutting down the south. Yes, Texas getting more snow and ice than Michigan, where I live.  There was once the hope that infectious diseases could be eradicated.  But now it is more prominent.  Since 1980 outbreaks of infectious disease have tripled. 

Contraction # 5: Increased falling away. 

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, (Matthew 24:9-12)

In our lifetime more Christians have suffered and been killed for the faith than all the other centuries combined.  

Contraction # 6: Rapid spread of the gospel. 

These are the birth pains, so where is the baby?  The Good News is that in the mess there is a message. 

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.

Matthew 24:13-14

What are you saved from?  A mind that is fractured and pulled apart by the rising epidemic, anxiety and depression. For those who stay focused on God and his mission, they will be a part of the rapid spread of the gospel to the nations.

What do you need to do?

View these times through the lens of patience.

Stand firm and do not be alarmed.  How do I get this patience?  It is going through         tribulation that produces the ability to go through tribulation.  Your ability to walk through the difficulty you are in right now will come through walking through the difficulty you are in right now. I can hear the response, “Oh I hate that.”  The testing of your faith produces patience.  We need to pray for stronger backs rather than lighter loads.  Instead of proclaiming with the Psalmists, “I walk through the Valley of the Shadow of Death,” we ask God to “airlift me from mountain top to mountain top experience.”    

View through the lens of purpose

Watch As I grew up in 1970’s I can remember the Bee Gees, Bell Bottoms, Candy Cigarettes, and of course, Star Wars. As a child, born in 1969, I was far more into Scooby Doo than politics of any sort. But I do remember the long lines at the gas pump.  Oil prices doubled in 1979 due to the Iranian Revolution which held American hostages and was threatening to push Israel into the sea. Gas prices quadrupled in 1973 because of OPEC embargoes due to American aide to Israel during the Yom Kippur War. This was a result of the Iranian Revolution, a revolution which was holding American hostages and threatening to push Israel into the sea. Before that the price of oil quadrupled in 1973. Along with this:  

• Inflation was at 14.5 percent in 1980. 
• Crime was at its highest making major cities looking like something out of a batman movie. 
• Russia invaded Afghanistan in 1979 and we armed and trained a group called the Mujahidin.  These would become the Taliban. 
• American cities were in turmoil over forced busing causing many to abandon cities for a more rural location.
• 1973 the Supreme Court legalized abortion.

To be honest, the 1970’s was a time of contractions. But it was not the final time, obviously. I can honestly say, like I did in response to my children’s question, “How close are we?” “We are closer than we have ever been.”  So the words of the Savior are as relevant as ever:

• Be watchful
• Don’t be alarmed
• Stand firm

In the mess we have a message.