In the sermon 'The Coming of the Son of Man' by Jason Dohm, Matthew 24 is explored, focusing on two significant events: the destruction of Jerusalem in 70 AD and the end of the age. Dohm emphasizes the authority of Jesus Christ, as He reigns in the midst of His enemies, and the massive shift from Old to New Covenant as worship transitions from a physical location to worship in spirit and truth. The sermon warns of false Christs and prophets who will attempt to deceive even the elect, with references to Old Testament prophecies in Isaiah, Ezekiel, and Joel illustrating the apocalyptic language used to describe these events. The perseverance of the saints is highlighted, emphasizing God's power in preserving His elect. The sermon concludes by affirming that Jesus is reigning and that the new covenant brings better promises, incorporating Gentiles into God's plan.

Matthew chapter 24 verses 23 through 35 Then if anyone says to you look here is the Christ or there do not believe it For false Christ and false prophets will rise and show great signs and wonders to deceive, if possible even the elect. See I have told you beforehand. Therefore if they say to you look he is in the desert do not go out or look he is in the inner rooms do not believe it for as though for as the lightning comes from the east and flashes to the west so also will the coming of the Son of man be for wherever the carcass is there the Eagles will be gathered together immediately after the tribulation of those days the Sun will be darkened and the moon will not give its light the stars will fall from heaven and the powers of the heavens will be shaken. Then the sign of the Son of Man will appear in heaven and then all the tribes of the earth will mourn and they will see the Son of Man coming on the clouds of heaven with power and great glory and he will send his angels with a great sound of a trumpet and they will gather together his elect from the four winds from one end of heaven to the other.

Now learn this parable from the fig tree When its branch has already become tender and puts forth leaves you know the summer is near So you also when you see all these things know that it is near at the doors. Assuredly I say to you this generation will not when will by no means pass away till all these things take place. Heaven and earth will pass away but my words will by no means pass away. Lord God, we thank you Father for your word. Father, we thank you for the opportunity to study your word.

And Lord, we thank you for men who boldly proclaim your word. And Lord, now we pray that you will speak through Jason, Lord. Give him the words. Father, give him the ability to speak boldly your word of truth. Father, we love you and we lift it this time.

In Jesus' name, Amen. Well, have your Bibles at the ready. You're going to need them a lot this morning. We're going to be everywhere. You can see all the tags here.

We're going to all those spots. So you better have your Bibles ready. The title for the sermon this week is The Coming of the Son of Man. And there's so much about the coming of the Son of Man in our text. And I'm hoping to get through verse 30 this week.

In last week's text, in verses 15 through 22, There was something to be seen. Jesus is telling his disciples to watch out for something and that something is the abomination of desolation from Daniel 9 verse 27 and in the parallel passage in Luke in Luke chapter 21 verse 20 In exactly the same spot in the discourse, Jesus says when you see armies surrounding Jerusalem. So the abomination of desolation in Daniel 9 is closely, closely, closely linked with the armies surrounding Jerusalem. And that's actually the thing that the disciples will be able to see with their eyeballs that will trigger action. So that's what we had in last week's text.

We have something that can be seen with your two eyes that is to trigger an action. And that is to be that the disciples would immediately flee when they see armies surrounding Jerusalem. And this is going to have an effect. And the effect is that the elect, God's people, are going to be saved from a judgment that is so far-reaching and terrible that if God had not cut it short, all flesh would have been completely annihilated. So, for the first time in the chapter, Jesus has used the word elect.

The elect. Jesus is starting to talk about His people. His elect, His chosen ones. And you can't think about the elect without thinking about Paul's great chapter on election, Romans 9. And Romans 9.29 says this, unless the Lord of sabbath, unless the Lord of hosts had left us a seed, we would have become like Sodom, and we would have been made like Gomorrah.

This is exactly what Jesus is talking about. Unless those days had been cut short, all flesh would have been cut off. But God does cut those days short for the sake of His elect. So what we have here is what we keep seeing in Matthew 24, that there are two events in view. The first event is 70 AD, the Romans descending on Jerusalem and pulling down the walls of Jerusalem and tearing down the temple so there's not even one stone on top of another.

But this is just a picture. This is just a microcosm, a little world, a little representation of the judgment that's going to come in the second event that's in view, which is the end of the age when Jesus brings all of human history to a close and he judges the living and the dead. So 70 AD is a picture of where sin takes you. And it's a picture of what sinners deserve. And it's a little world, It's a microcosm of the second event, which is the end of the age.

With this week's text, there are two key things that provide a helpful framework for understanding everything up to verse 35. Two key things. And I'm afraid if you don't have a grasp on these two things, if you aren't holding on to these two things when you read these verses. You don't have the full understanding of it. So they're really important.

The first is this. The authority of Jesus Christ is in view. Matthew 24 is all about the reign of the Lord Jesus Christ. His authority working itself out in real ways in the affairs of nations. Matthew 28, 18, this is the resurrected Christ and what does he say?

He says, all authority has been given to me in heaven and on earth. And that forms the basis in Matthew 28 of the Great Commission. Our footing for preaching the Gospel to the nations and discipling them is that all authority in heaven and on earth has been handed over to Jesus Christ. He's been given an everlasting kingdom that will never end. Psalm 110, verses one and two.

Now this is what Jesus quoted in Matthew 22. So really, right here in the same week, Jesus quoted Psalm 110, verse 1, but I'll read 1 and 2. The Lord, God the Father, said to my Lord, this is David saying this, said to my Lord, God the Son, who David acknowledged was his Lord, sit at my feet till I make your enemies your footstool. The Lord shall send the rod of your strength out of Zion. Rule in the midst of your enemies.

Matthew 24 and the two great events of Matthew 24, 70 AD and the end of the age, are about Jesus ruling in the midst of his enemies. The Lord, God the Father, said to David's Lord, God the Son, sit at my right hand till I make your enemies your footstool. Jesus Christ is, from the time of the ascension, sitting at the right hand of God the Father and all of his enemies are being made his footstool. So we have to read Matthew 24 with one arm wrapped around the authority of Jesus Christ. The second thing, a massive shift, a mega shift is in view.

Turn in your Bibles to John 4. We don't appreciate this, but we can't afford not to appreciate it when we come to all of that discourse in Matthew 24. A shift unlike any Other shift in history is happening right now at the end of Jesus' life when He'll give His life as a ransom for many. And He'll be resurrected and declared to be the Son of God with power. That's what Paul says the resurrection is in Romans chapter 1.

So now we're in John 4. John 4, Jesus is passing through Samaria and this is meeting the Samaritan woman at the well. And she begins the dialogue in verse 20. John 4 verse 20. Our fathers worshiped on this mountain, and you Jews say that in Jerusalem is the place where one ought to worship.

Jesus said to her, woman, believe me, the hour is coming when you will neither on this mountain nor in Jerusalem Worship the Father. You worship what you do not know, we worship what we know, for salvation is of the Jews. But the hour is coming and now is when the true worshipers will worship the Father in Spirit and Truth. For the Father is seeking such to worship Him. God is Spirit and those who worship Him must worship in Spirit and Truth.

Now, we read this with the Gentile handicap. And so we read it and say, Spirit and in truth. We should worship in Spirit and in truth. Amen. But maybe the earth shook when Jesus said this.

Because Jesus is describing a massive shift in John 4. A mega shift in John 4. For 1500 years a covenant has been in force. 1500 years Since the Mosaic Law with all the ceremonies has been brought in and Jerusalem is at the center of it all, and that's what Jesus is talking about in John 4, and he's saying It's getting ready not to be that way. All the things that applied, all the things that were at the center of it for 1500 years are getting ready not to be the center of it.

In fact, it would be impossible to carry on the requirements of the Mosaic Law once the Temple has been totally wiped out so that one stone is not upon another. So, as I preach, you've got one arm wrapped around the authority of Jesus Christ, and that He is seated at the right hand of the Father, and all His enemies, He's ruling over them, they're being made his footstool. And under the other arm, you have this massive shift in view. There's a new covenant, a better covenant, based on better promises, and everything that's been in force for 1, 500 years is going to be swept away as Jesus is talking about this period. Now, let's look at verses 23 through 26.

Jesus says, so we're back in Matthew 24, Jesus says, then if anyone says to you, look, here is the Christ, or there, do not believe it. For false Christs and false prophets will rise and show great signs and wonders to deceive, if possible, even the elect. See, I have told you beforehand. Therefore, if they say to you, look, he is in the desert, do not go out. Or look he is in the inner rooms, do not believe it.

For as the lightning comes from the east and flashes to the west, so also will the coming of the Son of Man be. For wherever the carcass is, there the eagles will be gathered together." In verses 4 and 5 of this chapter, Jesus has taken up this topic for the first time. So look at verses 4 and 5. And Jesus answered and said to them, Take heed that no one deceives you, For many will come in My name, saying, I am the Christ, and will deceive many." Now skip to verse 11. Then many false prophets will rise up and deceive many.

So Jesus has already spoken in this chapter, in this discourse, about false Christs and about false prophets and He's already said whether they're going to be successful or not they're going to be successful. The false Christs will deceive many and the false prophets will deceive many." In verse 25, Jesus says, See, I have told you beforehand. You've heard the expression, forewarned is forearmed. Forewarned is forearmed. Jesus is arming his people for the coming of false Christs and false prophets.

He says, see I told you beforehand, you're armed, you're armed for the coming of these deceivers. So that if anyone says here, or if anyone says there, if anyone says out in the desert, or if anyone says in the inner rooms, then they're lying or they're self-deceived. And in either case, they're trying to deceive you. The Apostle John was here when Jesus was speaking in Matthew 24, and he was listening. And he takes up the theme of his Lord in 1 John 4 verses 1 through 3.

Listen to 1 John 4 verses 1 through 3. Beloved, do not believe every spirit, but test the spirits, whether they are of God. Because many false prophets have gone out into the world. By this you know the Spirit of God. Every spirit that confesses that Jesus Christ has come in the flesh is of God.

And every spirit that does not confess that Jesus Christ has come in the flesh is not of God. And this is the spirit of the antichrist, which you have heard was coming and is now already in the world. So John, in expanding on this in 1 John chapter 4, says that there's a spirit that's come into the world, and it's in a bunch of false prophets, and it's the spirit of the Antichrist, and it will not acknowledge that Jesus is the Messiah and that God has come in the flesh. Now this is just what the Old Testament teaches, not surprisingly. In Deuteronomy chapter 13 verses 1 through 3, Moses is talking about false prophets and he says that if a prophet comes and does a sign or a wonder.

So this is just what Jesus is talking about in Matthew 24. Able to do signs and wonders. But in Deuteronomy 13 verses 1 through 3, Moses says, if a prophet comes and they do a sign or wonder, but also say, let us go after other gods, that even though they've done a sign or a wonder, that you ignore them. Because signs and wonders aren't enough. Signs and wonders cannot be enough for the people of God because there are counterfeit signs and wonders.

So John in 1 John 4 says the same thing that Moses says in Deuteronomy 13 which is there has to be a marriage between signs and wonders and Doctrine, sound doctrine. A knowledge, a sound knowledge of the God of the Old Testament, Deuteronomy 13, and specifically of Jesus Christ and who Jesus Christ is in the New Testament. So signs and wonders aren't enough. Jesus actually affirms what Deuteronomy 13, what Moses is saying in Deuteronomy 13, people are going to be able to do signs and wonders. Now Is this sleight of hand?

And not really, but it appears to be. I don't know. It reads like they're real signs and wonders. They're real miraculous things that are happening. But even if they are, they're counterfeit.

They're not of God. That's what these texts are teaching. And then in verse 24, to deceive if possible, even the elect. To deceive if possible, even the elect. Jesus speaks of how powerful these deceptions are going to be.

They're going to be so powerful that many, many will be deceived by these false Christs and these false teachers because they come armed even with signs and wonders. And they're trying to deceive everyone, including the real, live, authentic people of God, even if it was possible. Listen again to John, this time in John 10, the Gospel of John 10, verses 27 through 29. This is that great passage about Jesus the shepherd. He says, my sheep hear my voice and I know them and they follow me and I give them eternal life and they shall never perish.

Neither shall anyone snatch them out of my hand. My Father who has given them to me is greater than all, and no one is able to snatch them out of my Father's hand." The perseverance of the saints isn't about the backbone of a human person who's able to stand up to all the trials that a lifetime will bring to them. That's not the doctrine of the perseverance of the saints. The doctrine of the perseverance of the saints comes right here out of John 10 that declares that God is greater than all, even you. Especially you.

So, you're being saved doesn't depend on you, and you're being kept and preserved in the faith doesn't depend upon you. It depends upon an almighty God who is greater than all. And so no one is able to snatch you out of your hands. I think what Jesus is saying in Matthew chapter 24, verse 24, if possible, is actually inserted in there to say that it's not possible. This is what he's teaching.

What he's teaching isn't in contradiction to John 10. It's saying the same thing as John 10. It's not possible. But it's such a powerful deception that it will take the electing power of God to preserve people through these deceptions. This is the second time in the chapter that the elect are mentioned.

The first time the Great Tribulation is cut short for the sake of the elect. This time the elect are preserved from even these powerful, overwhelming deceptions. The elect are preserved through them. And then in verse 31, which we won't get to today, Jesus is going to talk about the gathering of the elect from the four winds. There are such words of comfort in Matthew 24 for the people of God.

God loves His people. God cuts short tribulation for the sake of His people. God preserves His people from deception. God gathers His people like a hen gathers her chicks. Remember that?

God loves His people. He does want to be obeyed by His people. He ought to be obeyed by His people, but our faith is so much more than that. Our faith is a God who sustains His people, who gathers His people, who woos His people, who goes after His people when they stray, who preserves His people. There is so much joy in looking at what God says about His elect in Matthew 24.

And this is exactly what happens. Jerusalem is ripe because of the timing and because of the great pressure and tribulation that is brought upon these people, they are right for false Christs and false prophets. And that's exactly what happens. Here's one example. Josephus records that on the day the temple was destroyed, a false prophet says, God says we have to go to the temple for safety.

This is the day the temple is destroyed and burned to the ground. God says we have to go to the temple for safety and 6, 000 people believe, are deceived successfully by this false prophet, and they go to the temple, and 6, 000 people on the day the temple is destroyed are burnt up in the temple because they were deceived by a false prophet. They believed someone that they should not have believed. Now let's look at verses 27 and 28. Back in Matthew 24, verses 27 and 28.

For as the lightning comes from the east and flashes to the west, so also will the coming of the Son of Man be. For wherever the carcass is, there the eagles will be gathered together. Verse 27 starts with the word for, so we have a connecting word, connecting verse 27 with the thought that preceded it. And Jesus is drawing a contrast. There are people who are saying, here, there, out in the desert, in the inner rooms, and Jesus says, don't believe them for...

For drawing a contrast. And he's saying, it won't be like that. There's no value in anyone saying, here, there, out in the desert, in the inner rooms. Because it's not going to be like that. It's going to be like this.

It's going to be like a lightning bolt that goes from the eastern skies to the western skies. Now there's something that has to be marked here, And if you don't get this, you're going to miss a lot in interpreting this passage. A big shift has just happened. A big shift. Here's the shift.

We've gone from literal to figurative with this verse. We've gone from literal to figurative in verse 27. The whole chapter has been literal so far. It's a literal temple that will be leveled so that a literal stone won't be on top of another literal stone. We've had literal deceivers, literal false Christs, literal false prophets, literal famines, literal pestilences, literal wars, a literal flight from a literal city.

Now we're talking lightning bolts. You get it? Everything up to this point has been literal. And now we're talking about lightning bolts. It will be like this.

It will be as this. Now, have you ever seen one of these lightning bolts? Goes all the way across. Have you ever been there to see one of those lightning bolts? No one says, did you see that?

Everyone says, whoa. Wow. There's no question about whether there was a lightning bolt. It's public, undeniable, unquestionable. And Jesus says, my coming is going to be like that.

This is not going to be confined to a little group of initiates who know the secret handshake. No. This is going to be like one of those lightning bolts that goes all the way across the breadth of the sky. And everyone will know that it's happened. This is the coming of the Son of Man.

The Greek word is perusia. It's usually used with the second coming. But it just means presence. So There's two words, there's two different words used with the coming of the Son of Man. There's perusia, which means presence.

Jesus will be present, He's coming, He'll be there. And then there's ercomi, which has to do with movement. It's the movement of Him coming. This is presence. He's going to be there present.

Now, verse 28. Again, we've got the same connecting word. Verse 28 begins with the same word, for. For wherever the carcass is, There the eagles will be gathered together. Thayer's Lexicon, it's one of the key lexicons that gets used to help you understand word usage for these underlying languages, Greek in this case.

Thayer's lexicon, when you look up Eagle quotes this proverb which was in use at Jesus' time. So it's not a capital P proverb that you'd find in the book of Proverbs, but it was a proverb in use at the time of Jesus. Where there are sinners, their judgments from heaven will not be wanting. And the lexicon says that's the meaning of the usage here. Where there are sinners, there the judgments from heaven will not be wanting.

In other words, A compounding, a piling up of sin attracts the judgment of God like a carcass attracts vultures. You can translate this word either eagle or vulture. King James and New King James says eagle and that's appropriate. NASB, ESB, NIV, render it vulture, that's appropriate. In any case, the sense is the piling up of sin has brought the judgment of God upon these people in the same inevitable way that a carcass will bring circling birds to devour it.

And Jerusalem has become just this. Last week we looked at Luke where Jesus says, if you know a lot but won't obey, you'll be beaten with many stripes. If you didn't know much and you didn't obey, you'll be beaten with few stripes. By that standard, this generation deserves the most stripes of all because they were nose to nose, literally face to face with the Son of God, the Messiah sent by God to tell all the truth all the time and to do wonders and signs along with His sound doctrine to prove that He came from God. Turn in your Bibles to Deuteronomy 28.

Deuteronomy 28. Now you'll remember this chapter when we got there. Deuteronomy 28, the first 14 verses, talks about how God will deal with the people who are careful to obey all of His commandments. Remember, blessed Will you be in the city and blessed will you be in the country? Blessed will be your kneading bowl.

Blessed will be this. Blessed will be that. For people who are careful to obey God and all His commandments, They're blessed wherever they go. Whatever they do, they're blessed by God. And then in verse 15, you have this shift to talk about people who are careless about obedience, who rebel against God, who don't obey God, and how God will deal with that people.

Now, look at Deuteronomy 28, verses 47 through 50. Deuteronomy 28, starting in verse 47. Because you did not serve the Lord your God with joy and gladness of heart for the abundance of everything. Therefore, you shall serve your enemies whom the Lord will send against you in hunger, in thirst, in nakedness, and in need of everything. And He will put a yoke of iron on your neck until He has destroyed you.

The Lord will bring a nation against you from afar, from the end of the earth, as swift as the eagle flies. A nation whose language you will not understand. A nation of fierce countenance, which does not respect the elderly, nor show favor to the young. When you read Josephus and what happened in Jerusalem in 70 AD, you go back to this and say that's exactly it. They would not obey God.

They would not listen to him. They would not hear Him when He sent His many, many warnings. And so God sent a nation upon them to devour all of their abundance and to strip everything away from them and to destroy them. Like an eagle, he sent a fierce people from afar to come in judgment upon them. Now we read those accounts of women eating their own babies in 70 A.D.

Because there was no food and they were starving to death. And we say, how horrific, how horrible. No, No. This is where sin takes you. And this is what sinners deserve.

And we serve ourselves well by agreeing with God. By having our own sensibilities calibrated to the Word of God so that we say, no, I deserve that. That's what my sins should have brought me to except for the grace of God. Now let's go back to Matthew 24. There's some other good cross references there about eagles coming and it's used as people brought in judgment.

So, but we don't have time. So you can just do a word search on eagle and it will take you to all of them. And they're all good. That one was particularly good so we went there. Matthew 24 verse 29, immediately after the tribulation of those days the sun will be darkened and the moon will not give its light.

The stars will fall from heaven, and the powers of the heavens will be shaken." Then, we're stopping with 29. Let's stop there. When you look at 29 through 31, if you just take those in isolation, it sounds exactly like the Second Coming and the End of the Age. And it sounds exactly like passages like 1 Corinthians 15 or 1 Thessalonians 4 that talk about the end of the age and Jesus coming on the great day. I don't deny that.

I don't need to deny that. I don't want to deny that. It sounds just like that. But I'm holding fast to my interpretation that all of what we're talking about, Jesus is talking about 70 AD. Now, last week I spent an hour in the additional teaching time talking about principles of sound Bible interpretation.

And one of the things I said was that we ought to have a bias towards the plain reading of the text unless there are compelling reasons to do otherwise. So we have a bent, we have a bias, and it's toward the plain reading of the text. And anything that would take us away from that would need compelling evidence. I think there's compelling evidence here. So there are two things that I want to say just about Bible interpretation before we get into interpreting the words of verse 29.

The first is An interpretation that has this being 70 AD allows us to have a plain reading of verse 34 which says, assuredly I say to you, this generation will by no means pass away till all these things take place. So I still have a bias towards the plain reading of the text. But I'm saying I have more confidence in a plain reading of verse 34, and next week we're going to get to my reasons for that, but I have confidence there. And when I actually go and look at verse 29, I can have confidence that this is 70 AD and not the second coming. I've been saying all along that 70 AD is a microcosm.

It's a little world. It's a picture of the end time. So I expect to see many similarities, many things that can be said about 70 ad that can be said of the end of the age and Vice versa because one is a picture of the other so I'm not put off by that fact at all It also allows me to come actually to verse 29 and the words that are used in 29 and preserve a plain reading of the word immediately. So when you make 29 be the end of the age, you have to have an unplanned meaning of immediately, don't you? So you're going to have to, again, you're going to have to take an interpretive track and live with the difficulties.

I'd much rather live with the difficulties of saying this is 70 AD than to try to impose a different kind of definition on this generation and all these things happening in this generation and have to do things with words like immediately. Okay? So immediately after the tribulation of those days, what can he be talking about? He has to be talking about the tribulation in verse 21. For then there will be great tribulation.

Now Jesus, I don't know of many people who dispute that Jesus is talking about the destruction of the temple in verse 21. And then in verse 22 he says, and unless those days were shortened, no flesh would be saved, but for the elect's sake, those days will be shortened. So I think it has to be that tribulation and those days that have already been called those days. So one, I do think this preserves a plain reading. A plain reading of verse 24, a plain reading of immediately, a plain reading of those days.

Secondly, there's precedent of this language in the Old Testament. I'm getting ready to prove that. I'm taking you to three places I could take you to more. But God has used these words before when He spoke to His people. Did you know that?

You're about ready to know that. God has used these same words before, prophetically, in prophetic language, and in places where it's already been fulfilled. So you can know what the fulfillment of these words was. When God spoke to His people using these words, what exactly was He saying? Well, it's been fulfilled.

So now we have the advantage of hindsight and knowing that the events have already taken place. Okay, turning your Bibles to Isaiah 13. Isaiah 13. Isaiah 13. Isaiah 13.

So in Isaiah 13 verse 1, we get the scope of what Isaiah is talking about. The burden against Babylon, which Isaiah the son of Amoz saw. So Within the scope of the prophecy is a great right city. So this has application to Jerusalem. I'm not saying that Isaiah 13 is about Jerusalem or about 70 AD.

I'm just drawing the parallel. This is about Babylon. This is about a great city, a glorious city that is right for the judgment of God. Now look towards the end of verse 4. And I'll read through verse 6.

Isaiah 13, towards the end of verse 4. The Lord of Hosts musters the army for battle. They come from a far country, from the end of heaven. The Lord and His weapons of indignation to destroy the whole land. Whale, for the day of the Lord is at hand.

It will come as destruction from the Almighty." So at this point, God is saying, I'm doing this. You cannot miss that here. It's in black and white. God is doing this. He is the Lord of hosts and He's mustered His army to bring judgment on Babylon.

Now look at verses 9 and 10. Behold, the day of the Lord comes, cruel, with both wrath and fierce anger, to lay the land desolate, and he will destroy its sinners from it. For the stars of heaven and their constellations will not give their light. The sun will be darkened and it's going forth, and the moon will not cause its light to shine. So now God is talking about the desolation of a city.

So we have many parallels in language to what we've already seen in Matthew 24 and he's using the same language the Sun and the moon darkened. Now look at verse 17. I'll read 17 through 20. Behold, I will stir up the meads against them, who will not regard silver. As for gold, they will not delight in it.

Also, their bows will dash the young men to pieces, and they will have no pity on the fruit of the womb. Their eye will not spare children. And Babylon, the glory of kingdoms, the beauty of the Chaldeans' pride, will be as when God overthrew Sodom and Gomorrah. It will never be inhabited, nor will it be settled from generation to generation, nor will the Arabian pitch tents there, nor will the shepherds make their sheepfolds there." So God has said he's doing this early in the chapter, and he's put himself at the head of this army. But now he comes and says that he's going to stir up a very specific physical, numberable people, the Medes.

He's going to bring the Medes in judgment. And that's exactly what happened to the Babylonian Empire. It was overrun by the Medes and the Persians. And the Medes are going to be his instrument of judgment. So God has said, I'm coming, I'm doing this, but the outworking of it is that he's got a specific people who are his instruments of judgment and he's going to make this city like Sodom and Gomorrah is going to be total annihilation of this city and Its fulfillment Is not literal When we go back and look at the sun being darkened, the moon, the stars won't give their light, that did not happen.

This is apocalyptic, prophetic, figurative language to talk about the bringing down of a glorious kingdom. Okay? This is prophetic, apocalyptic, figurative language about the bringing down of a glorious kingdom. If we had time, we'd go to Isaiah 34 verses 1 through 4, more sun and moon darken. You can look it up later.

Go to Ezekiel chapter 32. It's Isaiah, Jeremiah, chapter 32. It's Isaiah, Jeremiah, then Ezekiel with lamentations wedged in there somewhere. I'm going to be reading verses 1 through 12. Ezekiel 32 verse 1.

And it came to pass in the twelfth year, in the twelfth month, on the first day of the month, that the word of the Lord came to me saying, Son of man, take up a lamentation for Pharaoh, King of Egypt, and say to him. So now we've got the scope here. The scope in Isaiah 13 was Babylon. The scope here is Pharaoh. You are like a young lion among the nations, and you are like a monster in the seas, bursting forth in your rivers, troubling the waters with your feet and fouling the rivers.

Thus says the Lord God, I will therefore spread my net over you with the company of many people, and they will draw you up in my net. Then I will leave you on the land. I will cast you out in the open fields and cause to settle on you all the birds of the heavens. And with you I will fill the beasts of the whole earth. I will lay your flesh on the mountains and fill the valleys with your carcass.

I will also water the land with the flow of your blood even to the mountains, and the riverbeds will be full of you. When I put out your light, I will cover the heavens and make its stars dark. I will cover the sun with a cloud, and the moon shall not give her light. All the bright lights of the heavens I will make dark over you and bring darkness upon your land, says the Lord God. I will also trouble the hearts of many peoples when I bring your destruction among the nations into the countries which you have not known.

Yes, I will make many peoples astonished at you, and their king shall be horribly afraid of you when I brandish my sword before them. And they shall tremble every moment, every man for his own life in the day of your fall. For thus says the Lord God, the sword of the king of Babylon shall come to you. By the swords of the mighty warriors, all of them the most terrible of the nations, I will cause your multitude to fall. They shall plunder the pomp of all Egypt, and all its multitude shall be destroyed." The same points can be made here as were made in Isaiah 13.

You've got the same language being used. You've got a carcass being devoured by the birds of the air. Well, this is the bringing down of Pharaoh. This is the bringing down of a wicked king who was fouling the rivers. You've got the same language for the darkening of the stars and the sun and the moon.

What does it mean? It means a mighty king is being cast down, brought low. In verse 10, God says, my sword, I'm doing this. In verse 11, he says, it's the sword of the Babylonians. Well, which is it?

It's both. It's God using the Babylonians as his instrument of judgment. Just like in Isaiah 13, it was the Medes being used as God's instrument of judgment. Finally turn to Joel 2. So Ezekiel then Daniel then Joel Excuse me Daniel Hosea and then Joel Joel too Now the other two have great parallel language.

You can see, right, with your own two eyes, the same language is being used to talk about the casting down of the kingdom, a glorious kingdom, or the casting down of a glorious king. Now I think Joel 2 is actually speaking about what Jesus is speaking about so it's more than just parallel language it's talking about the same thing and I hope to demonstrate that. Joel 2 I'm gonna read verses 1 through 11 so you can see where we are and then we'll pick up in verse 28. Joel 2 verse 1. Blow the trumpet in Zion and sound an alarm in my holy mountain.

Let all the inhabitants of the land tremble, for the day of the Lord is coming, for it is at hand. A day of darkness and gloominess. A day of clouds and thick darkness, like the morning clouds spread over the mountains. A people come great and strong, the like of whom has never been, nor will there ever be any such after them, even for many successive generations. A fire devours before them and behind them a flame burns.

The land is like the Garden of Eden before them, and behind them a desolate wilderness. Surely nothing shall escape them. Their appearance is like the appearance of horses, and like swift steeds, so they run. With a noise like chariots over mountaintops they leap, like the noise of a flaming fire that devours the stubble, like a strong people set in battle array. Before them the people writhe in pain.

All faces are drained of color. They run like mighty men, they climb the wall like men of war. Everyone marches in formation, and they do not break ranks. They do not push one another. Everyone marches in his own column.

Though they lunge between the weapons, They are not cut down. They run to and fro in the city. They run on the wall. They climb into the houses. They enter at the windows like a thief.

The earth quakes before them. The heavens tremble. The sun and moon grow dark. And the stars diminish their brightness. The Lord gives voice before His army, for His camp is very great.

For strong is the one who executes His Word. For the day of the Lord is great and very terrible. Who can endure it? So again, here towards the end of what I was reading, it's God doing it, and yet He's bringing strong people to do it. God is at the head of this army.

Now pick up in 28, which will look very familiar. And it shall come to pass afterward, that I will pour out my spirit on all flesh. Your sons and your daughters shall prophesy. Your old men shall dream dreams. Your young men shall see visions.

And also on my men servants and on my maids servants I will pour out my spirit in those days. And I will show wonders in the heavens and in the earth, blood and fire and pillars of smoke. The sun shall be turned into darkness and the moon into blood before the coming of the great and awesome day of the Lord. And it shall come to pass that whoever calls on the name of the Lord shall be saved. For in Mount Zion, in Jerusalem, there shall be deliverance, as the Lord has said, among the remnant whom the Lord calls." So we have the same language here about the darkening of the stars and the sun and the moon, but we have an interpretive key here that we didn't have in the other passages, which is Acts 2, which is Peter preaching on the day of Pentecost, where he quotes Joel 2, 28-32, and he says Pentecost is this.

Pentecost is the coming of the Spirit. When we read in Joel 2, the spirit being poured out on people, Peter says, today is this, this is the fulfillment of this. And then following on that, in sequence we have the heavens being made dark and the sun being turned to darkness and the moon into blood. Very, very similar language. And then at the end, at the very end, it talks about a remnant being saved in Jerusalem.

Doesn't that sound familiar? Can't we tie that into verse 24 in the very few Christians knowing when to leave the remnant being saved from the destruction of Jerusalem? Back to Matthew 24. Now, having read those three texts, I want to read verse 29 again. Immediately after the tribulation of those days, the sun will be darkened and the moon will not give its light.

The stars will fall from heaven and the powers of the heavens will be shaken." Given the use of this exact same language in the Old Testament prophets, can we say that a literal fulfillment is required here? Now, you might still argue for it. I won't hold that against anybody who still wants to argue, but can you say the text requires that based on what we've seen in Isaiah and Ezekiel and Joel? No, you cannot. There's a mega shift, a massive shift that's happening here.

And it warrants the apocalyptic, prophetic, figurative language that Jesus is using. This is what Marcellus Kik writes. He's commented extensively, and I believe well, on Matthew 24. Kik writes, the passing away of Jewish privileges and glories was certainly the greatest catastrophe that ever happened or would happen to the Jewish nation. Traditional apocalyptic language, as used by the Old Testament prophets, should not cause surprise here, since Jesus Christ depicts the fall of the Jewish nation.

It is a matter of history that the Jewish nation has been darkened and no longer shines for the living God. Jesus is reigning in 70 A.D. Jesus is reigning in the midst of His enemies As Psalm 110 verses 1 and 2 said, his enemies are being made his footstool. He is seated at the right hand of God the Father. He's been given an everlasting kingdom and it's advancing and he's destroying his enemies And he's come to those who murdered him in judgment.

And, and, the good part, he's brought a new covenant in doing it. We don't go to Jerusalem anymore. We don't go to a mountain anymore. He's desired that people would worship him in spirit and in truth so he's brought a new covenant, a better covenant based on better promises, as Hebrews says. And he's folded in the Gentiles so that they would be brought from the north and the south and the east and the west, but more on that next week.

One more week. Let's pray. Father I thank you for your Word, I thank you for the beauty of it, I thank you for the clarity of it. Even in hard text, I thank you that your Word helps to interpret your Word. God, I pray that you'd help us to understand these things in a way that wouldn't cause our minds to be puffed up, but that would enlarge our hearts towards you, would give us a desire to love you more, to obey you more, to serve you more.

Oh God, I thank you that you are seated at the right hand of the Father, and that all your enemies are being made your footstool. What confidence this gives to your people. God, I thank you that you have established a better covenant upon better promises. I thank you that you brought the Gentiles in. In time past, we probably never even would have heard your name, but you have saved the people through Christ.

I Thank you. We praise you in Jesus' name. Amen.