In Scott Brown's sermon titled 'Be Ready for the Son of Man is Coming,' he discusses Matthew chapters 24 and 25, known as the Olivet Discourse. This discourse, delivered by Jesus, outlines the events leading to the destruction of the temple and the final judgment. Jesus warns of false prophets, wars, and tribulations, emphasizing the need for readiness and vigilance. He uses parables, such as the ten virgins and the talents, to illustrate the importance of being prepared for his return. The sermon highlights the complexity and controversial nature of eschatology, urging humility and diligent study of Scripture. Brown encourages listeners to seek understanding and be ready for the coming of the Son of Man, underscoring God's sovereignty in history and judgment.

Now it's our time of reading the Scriptures before the preaching of the Word. We're at Matthew chapter 24. We'll be reading to the end of chapter 25. Matthew 24 verse 1. Then Jesus went out and departed from the temple, And his disciples came up to show him the buildings of the temple.

And Jesus said to them, Do you not see all these things? Assuredly I say to you, not one stone shall be left here upon another, that shall not be thrown down. Now as he sat on the mount of Olives, the disciples came to him privately, saying, Tell us, when will these things be, and what will be the sign of your coming, and of the end of the age? 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.

And you will hear of wars and rumors of wars. See that you are not troubled. For all these things must come to pass, but the end is not yet. For nation will rise against nation and kingdom against kingdom, and there will be famines, pestilences, and earthquakes in various places. All these are the beginning of sorrows.

Then they will deliver you up to tribulation and kill you, and you will be hated by all nations for My name's sake. And then many will be offended, will betray one another, and will hate one another. Then many false prophets will rise up and deceive many, and because lawlessness will abound, the love of many will grow cold. But he who endures to the end shall be saved. And this gospel of the kingdom will be preached in all the world, as a witness to all the nations, and then the end will come.

Therefore, when you see the abomination of desolation, spoken of by Daniel the prophet, standing in the holy place, whoever reads, let him understand, then let those who are in Judea flee to the mountains. Let him who is on the housetop not go down to take anything out of his house, and let him who is in the field not go back to get his clothes. But woe to those who are pregnant and to those who are nursing babes, Babies in those days. And pray that your flight may not be in winter or on the Sabbath, For then there will be great tribulation, such as has not been since the beginning of the world until this time, no, nor ever shall be. And unless those days were shortened, no flesh would be saved, but for the elect's sake those days will be shortened.

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.

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 the 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 that 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 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. But of that day and hour no one knows, not even the angels of heaven, but my Father only.

But as the days of Noah were, so also will the coming of the Son of Man be. For as in the days before the flood they were eating and drinking, marrying and giving in marriage until the day that Noah entered the ark, and did not know until the flood came and took them all away. So also will the coming of the Son of Man be. Then two men will be in the field, one will be taken, and the other left. Two women will be grinding at the mill, one will be taken, and the other left.

Watch therefore, for you do not know what hour your Lord is coming. But know this, that if the master of the house had known what hour the thief would come, he would have watched and not allowed his house to be broken into. Therefore you also be ready, for the Son of Man is coming at an hour you do not expect. Who then is a faithful and wise servant, whom his master made ruler over his household to give them food in due season. Blessed is that servant whom his master when he comes will find so doing.

Assuredly I say to you that he will make him ruler over all his goods. But if that evil servant says in his heart, My master is delaying his coming, and begins to beat his fellow servants, and to eat and drink with the drunkards. The master of that servant will come on a day when he is not looking for him, and at an hour that he is not aware of, and will cut him in two, and appoint him his portion with the hypocrites. There shall be weeping and gnashing of teeth. Then the kingdom of heaven shall be likened to ten virgins who took their lamps and went out to meet the bridegroom.

Now five of them were wise and five were foolish. Those who were foolish took their lamps and took no oil with them. But the wise took oil in their vessels with their lamps. But while the bridegroom was delayed, they all slumbered and slept. And at midnight a cry was heard, Behold the bridegroom is coming.

Go out to meet him. Then all those virgins arose and trimmed their lamps, and the foolish said to the wise, Give us some of your oil, for our lamps are going out. But the wise answered, saying, No, lest there should not be enough for us and you, but go rather to those who sell and buy for yourselves. And while they went to buy, the bridegroom came, and those who were ready went in with him to the wedding, and the door was shut. Afterward the other virgins came also, saying, Lord, Lord, open to us.

But he answered and said, Assuredly, I say to you, I do not know you. Watch therefore, for you know neither the day nor the hour in which the Son of Man is coming. For the kingdom of heaven is like a man traveling to a far country, who called his own servants and delivered his goods to them. And to one he gave five talents, to another two, and to another one. To each according to his own ability, and immediately he went on a journey.

Then he had received the five talents, went and traded with them, and made another five talents. And likewise he had received two, gained two more also. But he had received one, went and dug in the ground and hid his Lord's money. After a long time, the Lord of those servants came and settled accounts with them. So he had received five talents, came and brought five other talents, saying, Lord, you delivered to me five talents.

Look, I have gained five more talents besides them.' His Lord said to him, Well done, good and faithful servant, you were faithful over a few things, I will make you ruler over many things, enter into the joy of your Lord.' He also who had received two talents came and said, Lord, you delivered to me two talents. Look, I have gained two more talents beside them. His Lord said to him, Well done, good and faithful servant. You have been faithful over a few things. I will make you ruler over many things.

Enter into the joy of your Lord." Then he who had received the one talent came and said, Lord, I knew you to be a hard man, reaping where you have not sown, and gathering where you have not scattered seed. And I was afraid, and went, and hid your talent in the ground. Look, there you have what is yours." But his Lord answered and said to him, "'You wicked and lazy servant, you knew that I reap where I have not sown, and gather where I have not scattered seed. So you ought to have deposited my money with the bankers, and at my coming I would have received back my own, with interest. Therefore take the talent from him and give it to him who has ten talents.

For to everyone who has more will be given and he will have abundance. But from him who does not have even what he has will be taken away. And cast the unprofitable servant into the outer darkness there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth. When the Son of Man comes in his glory and all the holy angels with him, Then he will sit on the throne of his glory. All the nations will be gathered before him, And he will separate them one from another, As the shepherd divides his sheep from the goats.

And he will set the sheep on his right hand, But the goats on the left. Then the King will say to those on his right hand, Come, you blessed of my Father, Inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world, For I was hungry, and you gave me food. I was thirsty, and you gave me drink. I was a stranger, and you took me in. I was naked and you clothed me.

I was sick and you visited me. I was in prison and you came to me." Then the righteous will answer him saying, Lord, when did we see you hungry and feed you or thirsty and give you drink? When did we see you a stranger and take you in, or naked, and clothe you? Or when did we see you sick or in prison and come to you? And the King will answer and say to them, Assuredly I say to you, inasmuch as you did it to one of the least of these, my brethren, you did it to me.

Then he will also say to those on the left hand, Depart from me, you cursed into the everlasting fire, prepared for the devil and his angels. For I was hungry, and you gave me no food. I was thirsty, and you gave me no drink. I was a stranger, and you did not take me in. Naked, and you did not close me.

Sick, and in prison, and you did not visit me. Then they also will answer him saying, Lord, when did we see you hungry or thirsty, or a stranger or naked or sick or in prison, and did not minister to you? Then he will answer them, saying, Assuredly, I say to you, inasmuch as you did not do it to one of the least of these, you did not do it to me. And these will go away into everlasting punishment, but the righteous into eternal life. Amen.

May the Lord bless the reading of his word to our hearts. Let's pray. Father, as we prepare to hear your word preached as we have just heard the glorious word here of Christ, open our eyes Lord. Help us to see Jesus. Glorify him in our midst.

Bless our brother and our pastor. Give him your spirit. We pray in Jesus name. Amen. Well it is such a joy to be considering one of the great prophetic passages in Scripture that not only shows us the past, but also shows us the future.

Here's the big challenge today. You've got 97 verses to somehow deal with, you know, during a quote-unquote one-hour period of time. But these words that are here are the words of the Lord Jesus Christ. Every word is beautiful, every word is helpful, every word is true, and we have such a privilege to be able to survey 97 verses of the words of the Lord Jesus Christ. I do pray that this is a time of joy and celebration of thinking, of consideration, of prayer, of discernment and humility.

But here in Matthew 24 and 25, the Lord delivers what is called the the the Olivet Discourse in which he gives he gives the view of history from the time of his speaking to the end of the age until the final judgment. So here the Lord Jesus Christ is giving a very powerful and condensed history lesson that takes him and his disciples all the way to the end. And here The Lord Jesus Christ shows himself again as such a good shepherd. He leads his sheep to think clearly about what is to come. And for those who are born, you know, far, far later in history, those things that have happened.

And he is so good because he gives us the right categories to think about in terms of categorizing historical events and eras. He gives us the language that helps us to know the world, the way that he sees it. Here is that language. We're so privileged to have his explanation of the history of the world and the way that he not only sees it, but the very words that he uses to describe it and the categories of behavior and everything that he brings. And one of the things that I've been thinking about this week is, as I've just been considering, what the Lord Jesus is doing here by giving his disciples a whole history of the world.

You know, you might feel insecure about your place in the world. You might not know what's around the corner. But here's what you can know, and that is that Jesus Christ is guiding history. Nothing can stay his hand. He's the ruler of the kings of the earth.

All the king's hearts are in his hands, and he directs them wherever he wishes. And in this history lesson, you just learn that while days might grow darker and darker and darker at any given period of time, we have to recognize that Jesus Christ is the controller of history. That He stands mighty in heaven, actually sitting at the feet, sitting at his father's right hand, and under his foot are the necks of all of his enemies. And that's the picture that we get here. It's such a glorious picture.

However you come out in dissecting the the the the the win of these events, one one thing that everyone must come away with, and that is the the overwhelming, beautiful, sovereign hand of God. As he is controlling every moment of history. We can rejoice in that. Now the immediate context of the Olivet Discourse, as we know, comes on the heels of what we've been dealing with with the Lord Jesus Christ, His ministry in the temple. He's been in the temple for quite some time, dealing with situation after situation, question after question.

And at the end of chapter 23, is really kind of the setup for what we see in 24. So I'd like for your eyes to jump back to the end of chapter 23 so that we can pick up the flow of thinking of the Lord Jesus Christ and his disciples. So if you go to Matthew 23 verse 34, Therefore, indeed, I send you prophets, wise men and scribes, some of them you will kill and crucify, some of them you will scourge in your synagogues and persecute from city to city, that on you may come all the righteous blood shed on the earth, from the blood of righteous Abel to the blood of Zechariah, the son of Barakiah, whom you murdered between the temple and the altar. Assuredly, I say to you, all these things will come upon this generation. O Jerusalem, Jerusalem, who won who kills the prophets in stones, those who are sent to her.

How often I wanted to gather your children together, As a hen gathers her chicks under her wings, but you were unwilling. See, your house is left to you desolate. For I say to you, you shall see me no more till you say, Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord." And so the Lord Jesus Christ, after he has cleared the temple, after he has answered many questions, He is now moving from one place to another. He's been speaking to the scribes and the Pharisees, and he's been declaring to them their true nature. He looks deep within their hearts, and he sees who they really are in the midst of their elaborate religion, and he declares them to be hypocrites and truly dead men.

And what we find here in this last section in chapter 23 really is the heart of the gospel. And that is that there are only two conditions of mankind. There's the rejoicing heart at the sound of the voice of the prophet of God, and then there are the dead of heart. And the hearts of the true believers rejoice in the voice of the prophets, and they enjoy the loving wings of his protection as he is like a hen who's gathering his wings. Well, the hearts of the unbelievers are hard to the prophets, and they are desolate, and they clean the outside of the cup, but inwardly they're full of robbery and extortion.

On the one hand, You have these hearts that love the sound of the voices of the prophets, and on the other hand you have those who are, as Jesus says, they are not willing. They are just not willing. They're not able to rejoice in the sound of the voice of such a good shepherd as this. And what the Lord Jesus is telling them is that all that they've worked for will be destroyed. Because it really is nothing.

It was a fleshly, man-centered, self-exalting kind of religion. And he's saying it's all going to be destroyed. And so everything from chapter 21 verse 1 to 24 verse 1 is really about how the voice of a prophet is received and whether it's with joy or whether it's with nonchalance or deadness or rejection. And so now at the end of chapter 23, the Lord Jesus is declaring what is going to be further explained in the Olivet Discourse. So He ends his speeches in the temple with these words that we just read, and then he will actually move to the Mount of Olives.

And he really will pick up where he left off, and he'll give a further explanation, and he's explaining what it means that he is going to destroy. That's what he's explaining here. And so we see this this in the first two verses of chapter 24 where the destruction of the temple is prophesied. He has just said, your house will be left to you desolate. And then he'll begin to give the detail as he has with his disciples departed from the Mount of Olives, maybe 160 or 170 feet above the temple, looking down, seeing its glory, this very important place called the Mount of Olives, the place where the Lord Jesus Christ will ascend into heaven, the place where He will come and return again.

And what we read here in verses one and two, that Jesus went out and departed from the temple, and his disciples came up to show him the buildings of the temple. And Jesus said to them, do you see all these things? Surely I say to you, not one stone shall be left here upon another that shall not be thrown down." So the Lord has made his final withdrawal from the temple. He will never return to the temple again. And the glory of the Lord, in one sense, has departed from the temple.

And true worship departs, and so does the presence of God. And this is what has happened in Israel. And there has been a departure of the true worship of God. Every church, every home, every heart ought to consider whether the glory of the Lord has departed, whether there is true worship there, or whether there is just dead religion. This is one of the questions that must be asked in this departure of the Lord Jesus Christ from his temple.

And from now on, the Lord Jesus Christ is not going to be doing any more public teaching. He's going to be focusing on his disciples. And also, he does find himself in public with Herod, but he's having personal conversations with these people. And here in just a couple of days he will be killed. You know, all of what we've read, you know, from the beginning of chapter 21 until now is the last week of the life of the Lord Jesus.

And here they're standing back now at the end of the day, most likely at sunset, and They're looking back at what was perhaps one of the most astonishing wonders of the world, the temple that Herod had built. And they're looking back at this remarkable structure. You know, we know that in the 10th century, Solomon built this temple, and it was glorious. And then it was destroyed by Nebuchadnezzar in 586 BC. And then The third temple was erected in the first half of the first century by Herod.

And it took him 50 years to build it. And it had only been around for 46 years. It was still glorious in its condition. It was the most astonishing structure. Herod had invested absolutely enormous resources.

You think of gigantic public works projects. This was perhaps by percentage one of the greatest public works projects that was ever engaged. One sixth of the city of Jerusalem was taken up by this structure. It was absolutely gigantic. It was beyond measure in its sophistication and in its strength.

And Josephus, the first century historian, speaks about this as an eyewitness. And he says that the exterior on all sides was glistening. The white rocks these massive rocks you know as big as boxcars 40 feet long you know 20 you know 20 feet high and 14 feet thick gigantic stones set on one another, you know, composing this huge geographical footprint in the city of Jerusalem. You know, the sun radiating against this. Josephus says it was so bright that the hill looked like it was a snow capped mountain.

He says that the gold that clad these gigantic 80 foot tall gates was bright to the eyes. And if you came at the right time of the day, in the late afternoon when the sun was beating down upon it, you would have to look away. It was so bright. It was a spectacle. It was an absolute wonder of the world.

And there the disciples are on the Mount of Olives, looking down at this amazing place of massive gold overlays and white stones and gigantic doors. And Mark says that looking over it, he had a clear view of the temple. It was unparalleled, not just in its beauty, but it was unparalleled in its activity and its organization and its structure. It was, If you ever been to Washington, D.C., you just stand back and look at these gigantic buildings that are there. It was kind of like that, only even greater.

There was gold and wealth. And here, The Lord Jesus is telling His disciples that He is going to come and wipe out the whole system. He's going to bring it to the ground and completely obliterate it. And He's going to take the things that they trusted in. He's going to take the things that they've loved.

He's going to take the things that they've loved. He's going to take the things that were built as a result of their gifts. And He is going to completely wipe it off the map so that when people come back later, they'll come back and they say, was anything here at all? And it'll be like a desert. And the Lord Jesus is prophesying this great act of judgment against dead religion.

Here's a principle. The wheels of religion in your heart, in your family, in your church, can be churning flawlessly in their external mode. But if Jesus Christ, in the love of His voice, from the heart, The attention to the inside of the cup is not there. He will come and destroy you. That's the reality that's before us here.

And then the disciples asked this question, verse 3. Now as he sat on the Mount of Olives, the disciples came to him privately, saying, tell us, when will these things be? And what will be the sign and the end, the sign of your coming and of the end of the age. And this question is, is it one question, is it two questions, is it three questions? Well We're not exactly sure.

Jesus seems to be answering two questions as you read it further down. But one thing that has been clear is that the disciples aren't all that clear about the future. After the resurrection, the Lord comes and the disciples say, you know, when is, Lord, when is this the time that your kingdom is coming? And they're not clear. But what the Lord does here is that he gives them warnings for the destruction of the temple.

And then he later on makes appeals to be ready for the final judgment. And you can see the outline that's here that we'll be dealing with during this study of these two great chapters. That first of all, you'll see these conditions surrounding the destruction of the temple. We pick up in verse four and Jesus answers that question up to verse 35 and then finally the conditions surrounding the final judgment and the call of the Lord Jesus Christ for readiness. And so here he is delivering this Olivet Discourse.

And this is one of the most hotly debated passages of scripture. I've heard several people say, this is, this is the absolutely, the most difficult chapter in all of Holy Scripture. Well, it certainly is challenging, and so we ought to recognize that. I wanna give you a number of things here about some introductory thoughts about the Olivet Discourse before we launch into Jesus' answer to the question, when will these things be and what will be the sign of your coming. First of all, the thrust of the Olivet Discourse.

As we study this over the coming weeks, I want us to continue to remember what the whole thrust of this discourse is, And he without question is revealing things to come. And the whole Olivet Discourse really is an example of the love of God to shepherd his people. And there are so many ways that God shepherds his people in his own word. He, sometimes he shepherds his people through comfort. Sometimes he shepherds his people through instruction.

Sometimes he shepherds his people through instruction. Sometimes he shepherds his people through discipline. He often shepherds his people through warnings. And this is the kind of shepherding we find in the Olivet Discourse. These are warnings that are here for us.

And these two sections that I've identified here that you can see in the outline, first is a warning to the disciples who are alive and who will be alive at the time when he will come and destroy the temple and of Jerusalem. And he tells them in detail what will happen. And what I want us to grasp here is that the Lord Jesus Christ is making predictions that will come true. And many of them actually have come true. And his judgments are always on time.

His judgments, his judgment that came down in the days of Noah was at the perfect time. His judgment in 722 with Sennacherib coming in and destroying Israel, his judgment that he prophesied at the hands of Nebuchadnezzar in 586, and then now 70 AD. But the great white-throne judgment, too, that he has predicted will also happen in his own perfect timing. And he is showing us that he keeps his word in judgment, that he is faithful to fulfill his word. And as he speaks first of the judgment against Jerusalem and the temple and the complete dismantling and destruction of it, He's really giving us a prototype that we'll understand that he does keep his word.

He will absolutely do what he says he will do in judgment. And then Not only will it come to pass, but in the second section, he's really appealing to be ready for the final judgment. And this is directed mainly to the disciples from that time forward to the great judgment of God that is coming upon every person who ever lived. And to these he says, be ready. And he is, he's talking to the unconverted so that they would be ready for that day.

So how, whatever your eschatological position is, whatever structure is in your mind for this passage of scripture, these two things you can absolutely hang your hat on. And I just want us to understand them for emphasis this morning. And when we go throughout this whole thing, God is faithful to deliver the judgments that he has promised, number one. And second, that he calls his people to be ready. So however you think the timing works on these, These are absolutely critical for you to understand.

And they're here. So the first thing that I just wanted to speak about here is the thrust of all of that discourse. And then I also just want to acknowledge the great controversial nature of this passage and of eschatology. What is the definition of eschatology? It's very simple.

Last things. The last days began with Christ's exaltation at the right hand of his Father. From that moment on, we have been in the last days. And many sermons have been preached on this text. Here's one thing I'm confident in.

You're not going to hear today the final word, the defining summary, the most erudite, the most knowledgeable exposition of this text in the history of the church. You're not going to hear that today. I come to you today as a learning teacher and a teaching learner. And somebody once said that the millennium is that thousand years of peace that Christians love to fight about. And that's kind of where you're at when you're in this territory.

For some reason, people seem to lose their minds. They lose all sense of humility. They somehow, while there is one right interpretation, they somehow believe that the thousands and thousands of people who have other nuances of interpretation are also wrong. And there are. All of us are wrong in some sense here.

I'm confident. And so I think that we just need to recognize the controversial nature of eschatology. Thirdly, I want us to recognize how important it is for us to understand these things. It's right for us to pursue it. It's right for us to scan the scriptures from Genesis to Revelation to understand how these things fit.

And You know, God has it that he has given us a book of complexity so that we, our minds would be transformed, so that we would seek him, so that we would work, so that we wouldn't just take things at face value and be superficial in all of our understandings of scripture, but that we would actually seek to the depths. I pray that that would at least happen with us. There's a promise of blessing in understanding the revelation. You know, in Revelation chapter one, verse three, John says, blessed is he who reads and those who hear the words of this prophecy and keep those things which are written in it for the time is near. This is this it's it's critical that we understand not only the blessing but also the responsibility of seeking it out.

You know, when you read through Matthew 24, you continually hear these exhortations to understand. You hear he says, he who reads, let him understand. So we shouldn't just throw up our hands and say, no, this is just for the really smart guys. But we should seek to understand it as best that we can. So pray, study, and humble yourself in the midst of it.

And if you think that you have the final and absolutely correct interpretation of this text, I want you to consider two things. First of all, be comforted. You're looking for the right thing. You're hoping for the right result. Because there is one single and final correct exposition of this passage of scripture.

There is. And we're seeking to find it. I'm not here to say this morning that I have it. I'm here to say that I'm learning and I want to learn more. Secondly, be humbled because many men wiser, more intelligent, more schooled in scripture, more qualified in exegesis, with more depth of understanding of the prophetic literature, have come to different conclusions than you have, and they're real Christians, and you just have to recognize that.

We should enter into this study with a promise of blessing and also a recognition of humility. Here's a fourth thing I want us to understand as we engage this study. We will be advocating a particular position. And we're going to deliver what we believe Jesus is teaching. And as I've just said, as for me, you know, I don't believe that my persuasion at this second is the final persuasion, perhaps, that I will have for the rest of my life.

I don't know. What you find is that men move on this subject. Some of the best known men in Christendom today changed sometime in their 40s, 50s, sometimes in their 60s. When you hit that, you may change as well. And you just have to recognize this is part of the sanctification process that God has for his people as they seek him with all of their hearts.

And the position that we're going to be taking is plain in this outline. And now we may not all end up with the same conclusion. But here's what ought to happen. We ought to be able to be clearer about what must be considered in order to reach a right interpretation. And so as we proceed, we ought to engage this study with sobriety and caution and with fervency, And we should read these texts very carefully.

And I pray that these passages will become plain to you in your own mind, that you'll have a clear conviction. And I would encourage you just to engage in a lifetime endeavor to understand these things. And before you act like you're the final expert on these passages. And when you read Matthew 24 and 25, I mean, almost every line has an Old Testament prophecy or an imagery in it. Do you understand all those texts?

Do you really? I mean, you understand in depth all those texts? I just think that it takes time. This is one of those subjects that requires time. J.C.

Ryle put it this way, on no point have good men so entirely disagreed as on the interpretation of prophecy. On no point have the prejudices of one class, the dogmatism of a second, and the extravagance of a third done so much to rob the Church of Truths, which God intended to be a blessing. Well says Olshousen, what does not man see or fail to see when it serves to establish his own favorite opinions? So I just say all this to say, don't think you're in some special class of people, you know, who somehow have, you know, are going to have the confidence, you know, to declare absolute victory. I think you should seek it with all your heart.

But I also think that you ought to seek it with humility and recognize that it's an important and difficult issue. And so modesty and moderation ought to be engaged here. So the result that we're praying for is understanding and that we ought to understand this text. Here's what we need to recognize in the backdrop of this. And I pray that with every single word of this prophecy we recognize 2nd Timothy 3.16, that it is from God, that the origin is from God.

All scripture is given by inspiration of God. This is God breathed and it has come directly from him. Secondly, it has a purpose. It's profitable. It's profitable for doctrine, for reproof, and correction, and for instruction in righteousness.

And it produces a result, And that is that the man of God may be perfect and complete, thoroughly furnished for every good work. So its purpose is to fulfill all of these things here. It's interesting, Matthew Henry believed that these prophecies come at the end of particular sections because the simpler things come first and the more complex things come later. Whether that's true or not, I don't know. There are many different views.

I'm not gonna belabor the views that are out there today. It would take quite a bit of time to do that. I really would rather have us just move through the text and deal with the text. Also, you should pay careful attention to the time markers in the text. There are a number of them.

Verse 34 is one of the critical time markers in the text. Surely I say to you, this generation will by no means pass away till all these things take place. This is a very clear time marker. Matthew has always used the term this generation to mean the people that are alive today. He's always used it that way.

He used it at the end of chapter 23. He uses it in chapter 24. And my perspective is that this is one of the critical time markers. I'm not saying that it makes everything easy, by the way. Others use verses 29 and 30 to be the critical markers in the changeover from the destruction of Jerusalem and the temple and the coming age of judgment with the celestial signs that are there and the sign of the Son of Man appearing in heaven.

So there are various time markers that people think. It's critical that you end up deciding which time marker you think works because it really drives the whole interpretation. Decide what verse 34 means and you've decided three-fourths of what's here in this text. And then there are key phrases and words to interpret, and I'll tell you what they are. And these are also hinge points in the interpretation.

And how you take these drives your interpretation. Verse 3, into the age. What does that mean? We'll spend time on that next, more time on that next week. The whole world, verse 14, earth or land in verse 30, this generation, verse 34, the coming of the Son of Man, which is spoken of many times throughout this discourse in verse 30, verse 37, verse 42, verse 44, verse 48, the coming of the Son of Man.

What does that mean? Well, as it turns out, there are different things that are called the coming of the Son of Man in the Bible. So you've got to inspect those things and try to understand from the context what he means. And then, and then finally our method. Our method is to attempt to just follow standard historical grammatical rules of interpretation.

And so our, our objective over, over the next, you know, few weeks is to help you with the hermeneutical principles, to ask the right questions of the text, and to offer suggestions of the things that really drive the interpretation. So that when we finish, you can say, I think the text is saying this. This is what I believe the text is saying. So we're really hoping for greater clarity, you know, in this whole matter. So those are some general things that I just wanted to clear out before we begin to walk through the answer that the Lord Jesus Christ gives.

He has already answered that he is going to completely destroy the temple and that not a single stone is going to be left upon it. And so this is what is going to happen to that temple without question. That is with perfect clarity in this text. I hope there's no disagreement about that. But he's very clearly and distinctly saying that.

And then during this period of the time that he says these things on the Mount of Olives, looking down on the temple, to the time that the temple is destroyed, the Lord Jesus is delivering several warnings. And I've put headings under six of these warnings that he is delivering that teach his disciples what conditions will be in operation during this destruction of the temple. And the first thing that he says is that deceivers will arise in verses four and five. 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. So the Lord Jesus is saying, between that time and the time of speaking on the Mallet of Olives and the time of the destruction of the temple, there will be many false teachers and deceivers that will arise.

They are false Christs. They are ones who are claiming to be deliverers. And if you read Josephus and if you read the New Testament, you can see how there were many deceivers that came into the church. We can talk about those in more detail later. But the New Testament documents a number of false Christs and false teachers, and the Apostle John speaks very distinctly about false teachers and false Christs that come.

And so this is something that happened. The early church experienced it. And then there are these cataclysmic tumults in verses 6 through 8. And you will hear of wars and rumors of wars. See that you are not troubled.

All these things must come to pass, but the end is not yet." And so you have this condition where nations are rising up against one another. There's tumult in the physical world, and The scope is in this area of Judea, as we'll learn later. And Josepha speaks of a number of these kinds of things that are going on, the historian Tacitus reports, you know, all these things that are mentioned here. Of course, these are the kinds of things that go on in every year of history as well, but they seem to be accentuated and at a high level at that time. These wars, these famines, these pestilences, you know, are there.

These are only the beginnings, though. So remember what's happening. Jesus is talking to his disciples. And he's telling them what is going to happen. He's warning them of the things that are going to happen until that time that the temple is destroyed.

Now many commentators say, no, these are the things that will happen, you know, all the way to the end of the age. Others say, no, just at the very end of the world before final judgment. And then there's the persecution of the church in verses 9 through 14. Then they will deliver you up to tribulation and kill you, and you will be hated by all nations for my name's sake. And then many will be offended, will betray one another, and hate one another.

Then many false prophets will rise up and deceive many. And because lawlessness will abound, the love of many will grow cold. But he who endures to the end will be saved and this gospel of the kingdom will be preached in all the world as a witness to all the nations and then the end will come. And so here You find the effects of this apostasy on the church, how it affects the church, that the disciples will be delivered up. And many of them were delivered up.

They were killed. They were hated. And they had offended many, and they were betrayed by many. And there was lawlessness and lack of love during this season. Josephus speaks of this so distinctly.

I don't know if you've read his section on the destruction of Jerusalem in his book, The Jewish War, but it's astonishing to read his documentation of the lack of love that occurred. What happened, you know, as the Roman armies were coming into Jerusalem, inside the Jews were killing each other with absolutely horrific barbarity. It was one of the most astonishing moments in all of history. And the Lord Jesus Christ, you know, says it stands alone in history as a time of lack of love and lawlessness. And you also see this, even if you back up in the Book of Acts, you see the stoning of Stephen.

You see James, the brother of John. You see Peter. All of these were persecuted by the Jewish authorities. And so it is a time of persecution. And what do we learn from this?

Well, I mean, every generation must withstand persecution. This was a time of particular persecution that Jesus was warning his disciples explicitly about. He's telling them what is going to happen to them. He's getting ready to leave that from the Mount of Olives. And then he's promising them that these things will happen.

And what we find is that they actually believe him and they do spread the word and we'll find that they and the other Christians did listen to these things. And they're difficult phrases to deal with here. Verse 14 is one of those. And this gospel of the kingdom will be preached in all the world as a witness to all the nations, and then the end will come. The question is, what does it mean, all the world?

And what we find is that this very phrase is used in different ways in scripture. Luke says that there was a census for the whole world. Well, was it the whole world? Well, It was the whole world that affected them. You know, Agabus prophesies that there will be difficulty in the whole world.

Well, it wasn't the entire globe that he was talking about. This word is used that way. In Acts 17, we read that the whole world was turned upside down by the apostles. In Acts chapter 19, verse 27, we read that the whole world worships the goddess Diana. Well, it's general language that's used for a common region.

And so you have to decide in verse 14 whether it's the whole world or whether he's speaking of the Jewish world at that time, or does it bear witness to the spreading of the gospel? But Luke 21 makes it clear that this use of world is local. Because in Luke 21, verse 10 and forward, when you jump down to verse 21, he said, Luke 21, 21, he says, then those who are in Judea flee to the mountains. Let those who are in the midst of her depart, and let not those who are in the country enter her." He's talking about people who are in Judea. It's local, and they have houses with flat tops.

That's not the 20th century. This is not modern times. It's local to that area. That's our perspective on this passage. And then not only is there persecution of the church, there's this compelling to flee to the mountains in verses 15 through 18 in Matthew 24.

Therefore when you see the abomination of desolation spoken of by Daniel the prophet standing in the holy place, whoever reads Let him understand. Now when we get to this section, we're going to jet to Daniel chapter 9. And we're going to do an exposition of Daniel chapter 9. To see what he's talking about. What is this abomination of desolation?

What he says in verse 16 is, then let those who are in Judea flee to the mountains. Let him who is on the housetop not go down to take anything out of his house. And let him who is in the field not go back to get his clothes, but woe to those who are pregnant and those who are nursing babies in those days and pray that your flight may not be in winter or on the Sabbath." So all these local conditions, the Sabbath is being observed there. There's this urgent plea to flee for safety. Jesus is telling his disciples that when they see the armies gathered outside Jerusalem to flee, go immediately, to get out of town.

That's what he's telling them to do. This would happen, you know, some 38 years in the future. Perhaps some of them would still be alive. But what is interesting, you know, Josephus, when he speaks about this, he reports that Christians obeyed this, and they fled, and they were saved. The Jews fled into Jerusalem, and the Christians went to the mountains, and the Jews were all slaughtered.

Over a million of them were slaughtered there. And almost 100, 000 taking captive. While the Christians, they obeyed. You know what happened? Obviously, the fathers told their children.

The fathers told their children and they died. And they saw the armies outside of Jerusalem and they did what their fathers told them. They heeded the words of Jesus Christ. And they obeyed Him. It's a remarkable, remarkable story.

But they are in Judea, they are on the housetops. And then there are these celestial signs in verses 29 to 30. 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. This is another area of study that you must engage in.

This kind of language is common prophetic hyperbole that's spoken of in many places in the Old Testament of events that are happening in those times of judgments and difficulties. And so you have to decide whether this is a prophetic hyperbole, as it is many times in the Old Testament or is it literal? And our perspective is that it's prophetic hyperbole. You may take a different perspective on that. You know, many, many do, of course.

And many, many take verse 29 as the hinge point from the destruction of Jerusalem to the end of the age. Others, though, take the entire section and say all of these kinds of things happen up until the end of the age. But whatever perspective you take, you have different problems you have to solve in the text. They're exegetical problems you have to answer and They should be answered as best you can. Here's what will happen.

If you attempt to answer them, you'll learn more about your Bible. You'll learn more about the structure of the language of the prophetic passages. And you'll learn more of the words of Jesus. And as you study it, It will accumulate and you'll become wiser and it'll be a blessing to you. But you have to make these kinds of decisions.

And then there's this ingathering in verses 31 through 35. 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 that 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 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." Now in this section, this is a description of the great ingathering that the beginning of the preaching of the gospel throughout all the earth is inaugurated by, as the gospel is preached throughout the world, and as the great commission is being fulfilled. And there's the sound of the trumpet, and the elector being gathered from all over the earth, from every tongue and tribe and nation. Here from the four winds from one end of heaven to another. And it's like a fig tree with branches becoming tender and it's putting forth leaves.

Summer is near. There's growth. It's like the expansion of that great tree in the Kingdom of Heaven, and it's getting bigger and bigger and bigger. It's the seed of the mustard that turns into a great tree and becomes shade for so many. And so he's saying that this is a time of the spread of the gospel.

This is what the apostles were doing during this time before the destruction of Jerusalem. The Gospel is being spread. You know, thousands and thousands coming to faith. Three thousand in one day in Jerusalem. And then beyond, all over, you know, whole cities gathering together to hear the Gospel in the ancient world.

It's astonishing. You know, 20, 000 people gathering, you know, to hear and then to run against the gospel in Ephesus. This is happening in the major cities of the ancient world because the gospel is spreading. It's a time of budding. It's perhaps a fulfillment of the Song of Moses, rejoice you Gentiles, the blossoming that is happening there, the budding that is now breaking forth.

And So Jesus has now answered their first question. What about the destruction of Jerusalem? And he's saying, this generation, this generation will see these things. And then there's a switch in verse 36. And the conditions surrounding the final judgment are communicated.

And here everything from verse 36 forth is really an appeal to readiness. To make sure that your heart is ready. Make sure that you love the sound of the voice of the prophet. And if you don't cry out to God for salvation, appeal to him that he would save you, so that you would escape such a terrible judgment. Be ready.

Keep your lamp ready. And that's the whole character of this. But there are various characterizations, and I've named six of them, that these conditions are they're like the days of Noah. They're like the master of the house, they're like the wise and the unwise servants, they're like the ten virgins, they're like the men who were given investments, the parable of the talents, and they are like the sheep and the goats. This is this final section, which is a word to all those who exist until the final judgment, to heed these warnings.

These are the conditions that exist in the world today. One of the really interesting things about this section is how different it is from the first. In the first section, it's all tumult. In the first section, it's all travail and difficulty and the worst calamities that the world has ever seen. By the way, you might look at the calamity that happened in Jerusalem, and you might say, well, only 1.1 million were killed.

Weren't there 6 million killed in World War II? Isn't that worse? Well, the only thing I say is Jesus says it was worse. The pressure was worse. The word that is used in the first section is phallipsis.

It means pressure. It means that the pressing in, the difficulty, the excruciating, crying out, the difficulty, the lack of love, the defilement, the horrible hatreds that were running so hard that Jesus says there's been nothing like it since. You may think that you know a time different. Jesus says that it was a time of pressure like no other time. But in the second part here, beginning in verse 36, you see a marked contrast.

It's normal life. It's like in the days of Noah. People are getting married. They're being given in marriage. There's a man working out in the field.

He's just working. There's a woman and her friend, or maybe her sister, grinding wheat there. There's a wise and an unwise servant working in the same place. They're ten virgins, and they're experiencing life just as normal. They're all going to sleep, and they're waking up, and they're going to a celebration.

It's a time of peace. They're very different kinds of time that are explained in this second half. And the normality of it is the danger of it. That's what Jesus is saying. You think about life on the earth today, and you think of all the people out in the world who have not bowed their knee to Jesus Christ.

Life is just running on. The sun is coming up every day. The blessings are poured out. They're making money. They have houses.

They have clothing. They have interests. And they're experiencing all the blessings that are given by the Lord because He causes His Son to rise on both the evil and the good. And life seems so normal. It seems like it's just gonna go on forever, and the sun keeps coming up and going down.

And yes, the economies get worse and they get better, but on balance, life is good. That's the kind of life that exists during these last days. And Jesus is saying, do not be deceived at the peace that you see in the world. Look at the day that's out there today. And when you depart this place, go drive around and see how beautiful it is, see how normal it is, see how pleasant, see how peaceful it is in this world.

That's the controlling condition in this world. And so here he identifies six different conditions that define the kind of life that we will be experiencing until the coming judgment. And so here Jesus does what He does so well. He tells you the truth about the world. He shows you the way things really are.

You might think the world is one way, but Jesus is describing it here very carefully with so many different kinds of illustrations, with several sort of angles on life. And he comes at them and explains them in a very beautiful manner. And so he says it's like the days of Noah. But of that day and hour, Noah knows. Now, of that day, this term, that day, it's a technical term that you see in Scripture.

It's a term that's used in a particular way in the New Testament. In Matthew chapter 7, Jesus says, many will say to me in that day, in that day. That day means the time of judgment. And they'll say, Lord, Lord, have we not prophesied in your name, done many wonders in your name, cast out demons in your name, and he will say, I never knew you. That day, Matthew 7 22, or you could go to Luke 10 verse 12, where he says, but I say to you that it will be more tolerable in that day for Sodom than for that city.

There is something in that day that is going to happen in 2 Timothy 4, 8. Finally, there is laid up for me a crown of righteousness, which the Lord, the righteous judge, will give to me on that day." On that day. So this is why We're proposing that the hinge point in this text happens in verse 36 because of that term that day. Now, you might want to place it at a different point in there, and you would have to just explain various problems with that. There are some problems with this one as well.

But I understand the drivers of the timing configuration of this passage of scripture. But he says, but of that day and hour no one knows, not even the angels of heaven. Now, you notice the contrast? Before he's saying you will know that day, you who are in Judea, you who are on the housetop, when you see that army outside of Jerusalem, head for the hills. You know that day.

He told His disciples about that day. Here He's saying no one knows that day. It has to be a different day, doesn't it? Doesn't that make sense? And so of that day and hour, no one knows.

Not even the angels in heaven, but my Father only. But as the days of Noah were, so also will be the coming of the Son of Man be. For as in the days before the flood, they were eating and drinking, marrying and giving in marriage, until the day that Noah entered the ark, and did not know until the flood came, and took them away. So also will be the coming of the Son of Man be." So He's saying that that day, that day, that day and hour that no one knows, it will be like the days of Noah. And they didn't know that it was coming at all.

And they were just continuing, well, for a hundred years they were mocking Noah and his sons. And they didn't know that the day was going to come, even though Noah was a preacher of righteousness. And he says, so will be the coming of the Son of Man. This is the kind of condition that will exist before the second coming. Now, this phrase, the coming of the Son of Man, is a phrase that you have to study very carefully, because it's used in different ways.

If you think it only means the coming of the Son of Man and the second coming, you have to read Scripture and you'll recognize that's not the only way that it's used. We'll talk about that later in this study and give more detail about it. But study that phrase in Scripture for yourself. Go and be a good Berean and understand what that phrase means. And come with a conviction about what you think it means.

But here's the key thing. They did not know until the flood came. Very different from the days of the destruction of Jerusalem. Because Jesus said, when you see the armies and the abomination of desolation go they knew that day and and they did they did obey Jesus Christ and they left the city and they went to the hills and they were saved. Very different here and so it's like the days of Noah and then it's like two men and two women and then two men will be in the field, one will be taken and the other left.

Two women will be grinding at the mill, one will be taken and the other left. Watch therefore for you do not know what hour your Lord is coming." This verse is commonly been used to be a description of what's called the rapture. But actually, if you read the context, the ones who are taken away are the ones who are taken away in judgment, because that's what's happening in the days of Noah. They're taken away in judgment. In other words, the person taken away is not the one that's going to heaven in the rapture.

The person that's being taken away is being taken to judgment. But you notice the normalcy of it. Two men are working. They're experiencing the joy of work. They have something to do.

Every man in this room knows the blessing of having work to do and the curse of not having work to do. Here they're experiencing this normal blessing of God toward mankind. And then there are women who are grinding. Typically there were two grinding, one on each side, and they would take it part of the way and the other one would take it the rest. Perhaps it was two sisters or two friends that were there, or a mother and her daughter.

It describes normal life. And then, again, you know, people are not fleeing. They're working. And then it's like the master of the house in verses 43 through 44. But know this, that if the master of the house had known what hour the thief would come, he would have watched and not allowed his house to be broken into.

Therefore you also Be ready. Do you see that theme? Be ready. Be ready. Be ready.

In almost every one of these, that's the theme of it. You know, one of the most terrifying things you can ever experience is to know in the dead of night that an intruder is in your house. And he's saying, Be ready. Be ready. And then it's like the wise and the unwise servant in verses 45 through 50.

And here the Lord Jesus breaks this down into two different kinds of people. There's the wise servant and the unwise servant. And the unfaithful servant is not ready. And then in chapter 25, we get to the parable of the 10 virgins. In chapter 25, verses one through 13, you have five virgins who are ready and five who are not.

They're slumbering, they're doing the same thing. This is a picture of the professing church at the time of the coming of the Lord Jesus Christ, but only five had true light. They kept, those five unfaithful daughters were, they kept putting off their repentance and they were too late because the door was shut. The vigilance was lacking. In the next parable, the diligence is lacking.

In this parable, it's the vigilance that's lacking. And Jesus is informing these unfaithful virgins. You know, here's a truth about this. Are you a single girl today, here? This is a passage about a single girl and what she's doing with her life.

What are you doing with your life? These, some five of these girls were all part of everything, but they had no oil in their lamp. There was no true fire in their souls. They were just part of everything. And they did not have oil.

And it just shows, it shows how single young women can waste their lives and then be destroyed. And you have to ask yourself, single young woman, what does that oil mean? It's the oil of salvation. It's the presence of the Holy Spirit. It's the working of the precious Holy Spirit in your life to change you, to comfort you.

If you're comfortless, if you're not changing, if you have no hope, if you have no heart for God, beware, you may be this kind of girl. So this is a parable for single young girls. When we get there, this was the obvious focus of the parable. And then, fifthly, it's like the men who were given talents or investments. Every man is invested in in some way by God.

One man invested with five talents, two and one one. And they all operated differently and Jesus is saying, the man who was given one talent was not ready. He did not multiply what was given to him. There were three men. Two were fruitful, and one was unfruitful.

So, There you have it. That's a flyover of the Olivet Discourse, 97 verses and just a little over an hour. Well, what will we do with this? First of all, Praise your Savior who tells you everything that you need to know. And how He shows you what life is really like.

And secondly, to ask you How kind he is to ask you and me, are you ready? Are you ready? And he gives all these illustrations to ask that question, are you ready? And are you saying, blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord. This passage is really about two things.

It's about God's glory in judgment, how He will bring everything to justice. He will right every wrong at the end of the age through judgment. And he will bring the righteous into eternal life. And he will say, he will say, Enter the kingdom of heaven which was prepared for you before the foundation of the world, and he will say, enter into the joy of your master." What a wonderful passage of Scripture. However controversial you might think it be, Those two things are not controversial.

And I'm so grateful for these precious words of Jesus Christ to teach us the way in which we should go, to help us to think rightly about the world, and to cause us to study, to show ourselves approved, so that we might know his words and his will. Here's a piece of advice. Read the scriptures. Don't read a bunch of books about this. Go read your Bibles and know that.

Would you pray with me? Oh Lord, this Mount Everest that we've just engaged, this beautiful, helpful, clarifying text. Lord, we thank you for giving it to us. I pray that you would give us understanding to know your will, Amen.