B.B. Warfield wrote that "Revelation depends on Daniel and Matthew 24." In the last lesson, we looked at Daniel and saw that in spite of the excellent theological training of the translation committees, because of being immersed in the popular culture of Christianity, they brought to the Bible a certain prejudice. This caused them to translate the end of Daniel 9 in a particular way. But the Hebrew is very different. It is not "the one who makes desolate" at the end of Daniel 9:24, but literally, "the desolate thing" which is being talked about. It is "the prince who is to come", and "the Coming One" who would destroy the desolate thing, which was the temple. That leads us into Matthew 24, which we are going to study now.

Matthew 24: (v1) And Jesus came out from the temple and was going away when his disciples came up to point out the temple buildings to him. (v2) And He answered and said to them, "Do you not see all these things? Truly I say to you, not one stone here shall be left upon another, which will not be torn down." (v3) And as he was sitting 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?" (v4) And Jesus answered and said to them, "See to it that no one misleads you. (v5) For many will come in my name, saying 'I am the Christ,' and will mislead many. (v6) And you will be hearing of wars and rumors of wars; see that you are not frightened, for those things must take place, but that is not yet the end. (v7) For nation will rise against nation and kingdom against kingdom, and in various places there will be famines and earthquakes. (v8)But all these things are merely the beginning of birth pangs. (v9) Then they will deliver you to tribulation, and will kill you, and you will be hated by all nations on account of my name. (v10) And at that time many will fall away and will deliver up one another and hate one another. (v11) And many false prophets will arise, and will mislead many. (v12) And because lawlessness is increased, most people's love will grow cold. (v13) But the one who endures to the end, he shall be saved. (v14) And this gospel of the kingdom shall be preached in the whole world for a witness to all the nations, and then the end shall come.

The key here is what really are the questions (or question) being asked of Jesus. Parousia is a Greek word that means "the appearing, the coming, the appearance." Whenever the New Testament speaks about "the coming" of the Son of man or "the appearance" of the Son of man, the word normally is parousia . In verse 3 the disciples ask, "what will be the sign of your parousia?"

J. Stuart Russell (who was a Puritan) wrote a book called The Parousia . Russell took every verse in the New Testament where that Greek word appeared and then he looked at them in context. His thesis (with which I don't totally agree) was that every verse that addresses the coming of Jesus Christ in the New Testament is not speaking about the coming of Jesus Christ at the end of the world, but is dealing with the coming of Jesus Christ and His destruction of the temple in 70 AD; every one of them. One of the interesting things Russell did in his book was to lay out Matthew, Mark and Luke in parallel so each of them could be easily compared.

One of the problems with the interpretation of Matthew 24 is that we are so immersed in the popular culture (a futurist interpretation) that we read it through those eyes. Then when we get to Luke and Mark, we read it in light of Matthew and we miss what's really there.

Here's what I mean:

How many have heard that Matthew 24 is talking about the destruction of the end of the world? Have you seen the sun darken and the moon not giving its light and the stars falling from the sky? Has that happened? Most people will immediately answer, "No." But it has in fact happened and I can prove it to you biblically!

Have you seen "the gospel of the kingdom preached in the whole world for a witness to all the nations and then the end will come?" Again, most people would answer, "No!" In fact, most mission agencies in the Christian world have it written into their charters that we have to get the gospel to all the other countries that don't have it so that Jesus Christ can return.

Let's see what the Bible itself has to say:

Colossians 1:5 (Paul says) "…because of the hope laid up for you in heaven, of which you previously heard in the word of truth, the gospel, (v6) which has come to you, just as in all the world also it is constantly bearing fruit and increasing, even as it has been doing in you also since the day you heard of it and understood the grace of God in truth;"

Colossians 1:23 "…the gospel…which was proclaimed in all creation under heaven…"

What is the Gospel that Paul is talking about here? How does somebody who has never heard the New Testament know about God? First of all, Paul says in Romans 1 that everything essential about God — his power, his beauty, his glory, all of that — has been revealed in the Creation. But men have suppressed the truth and exchanged it for a lie. So we have to get out there and say, "You're missing the truth. Here's the truth, the simple truth of the Gospel." That's what God wants us to do.

In Matthew 24, Jesus makes a prophecy, He says "Do you not see all these things? Truly I say to you, not one stone here shall be left upon another, which will not be torn down."

In case you don't understand why that was important, the seven wonders of the ancient world were incredible things. They were phenomenal engineering feats. What was the temple in Jerusalem like? It was fabulous! There were huge blocks of stone that had been carved out and moved and placed there. On the outside, as the disciples walked out they saw gold filigree on the blocks and lots of jewels. It was an absolute marvel of beauty and engineering! It was the pride of the Jews and they were justifiably proud.

The parallel passages in Mark and Luke put it this way.

Mark 13:1 And as He was going out of the temple, one of His disciples said to Him, "Teacher behold what wonderful stones and what wonderful buildings!"

Luke 21:5 And while some were talking about the temple, that it was adorned with beautiful stones and votive gifts."

Their focus is the place itself and not on what it represented. When Jesus said, "See these stones? I tell you the truth not one stone here shall remain upon another," they were stunned and the obvious question they asked was "What do you mean Lord?" So they came to him later that day as he was sitting on the Mount of Olives. In Matthew 24:3, they asked, "Tell us, when will these things be, and what will be the sign of Your coming, and of the end of the age?" Now what are the disciples concerned about? What are they asking about? The key here is, are they asking three different questions about three different things; or are they asking three questions about the same concern; or are they really asking only one question? This is a very, very important distinction. If they were asking three different questions: when will the temple be torn down, what is the sign of your coming, and what about the end of the world, then we have to look at Matthew 24 for answers to these same three questions.

Now, let's look at the parallel passage in Mark 13:2: And Jesus said to him, "Do you see these great buildings? Not one stone shall be left upon another which will not be torn down. (v3) And as he was sitting on the Mount of Olives opposite the temple, Peter and James and John and Andrew were questioning him privately, (v4) Tell us, when will these things be, and what will be the sign when all these things are going to be fulfilled?"

What does verse 2 say? – exactly the same thing as Matthew 24:2. Then in verse 3, it tells us who was doing the questioning. Mark tells us which of the disciples were actually asking the questions. Now look at verse 4: it is very clear that they are asking a two part question about the same matter: when are these things going to happen? and what is the sign that these things are going to happen? They're asking a two-part question, but it's really only one question. Clearly, in context, they're asking about the destruction of the temple.

We see the same thing in Luke 21:7 And they questioned him, saying, "Teacher, when therefore will these things be? And what will be the sign when these things are about to take place?" So again, what are they really asking him? About the destruction of the temple! That's really nothing to do with the end of the world, is it? Absolutely not!

The context then, is extremely important. Remember tool #2 in your hermeneutical tool kit: context, context, context! What they understood was that Jesus was going to come and destroy the temple. But not in the sense of ushering in the end of the world. But we tend to confuse the two. Why? Because we've been told over and over that Matthew 24 is talking about the end of the world. So when we read Matthew 24, we naturally read it in terms of Jesus coming back at the end of the world. It's time to get back to the original understanding. So we've established that what the disciples are really asking Jesus is what about the destruction of the temple, and what are the signs of this happening so that we can be prepared.

Jesus answered and said to them (the disciples Peter, James, John and Andrew as quoted in Mark 13:3), (v5) See to it that no one misleads you, (v6) And you will be hearing of wars and rumors of wars; see that you are not frightened, (v9) then they will deliver you and kill you, and you will be hated by all nations, (v1)5 therefore when you see abomination of desolation, (v20) pray that your flight may not be in the winter, (v23) Then if anyone says to you behold here is the Christ, (v25) Behold I have told you in advance.

Who is Jesus talking to? He is talking to the disciples, not some unknown people 2000 (or more) years in the future. Jesus is talking to the disciples, and he's telling them something is going to happen to them. They're asking the question, "Lord, when is the temple going to be torn down and what is the sign of when the temple is going to be torn down?" We read through Jesus’ answer and we see what? You, you, you – you can understand, when you see all of these things happen, etc. That's the context.

We've established then that Jesus was not talking about the future. Even the incredible things he says later on, like "He will bring forth His angels with a great trumpet and they will gather together His elect from the four winds from one end of the sky to the other." Are speaking not of the end of the world, but of the destruction of the temple. We'll see that in the lessons to come.

We've also shown by comparing Matthew, Mark and Luke that the disciples were not asking three questions, they were not asking (1) when is the temple going to be torn down, (2) when are you coming back and (3) what is the sign of the end of the age (or as we say it… the end of the world). They were really asking one two-part question: "When is the temple going to be destroyed" and, "What is the sign that it's going to happen?"

What does it mean then in Matthew 24:3 when the disciples say 'what will be the sign of your coming (your parousia) and of the end of the age?' What's the end of the age? It is the Old Testament age. The Jewish economy. The Jewish way of doing things is what Jesus is talking about here. Not "the age" in the sense of "the world," but rather the Jewish age, the Old Testament age.

There's a huge majority of people, even today, that pour millions of dollars into Israel, to support the state of Israel. Why? Because it's "the Holy Land." They truly believe the prophecy of Ezekiel that says the temple must be rebuilt on Mount Zion before God can come back. What's the problem with that? There is a mosque there! The mosque of the Dome of the Rock! An ungodly thing is built there! And they say it must be torn down and the temple rebuilt.

But what's the problem with rebuilding the temple and reinitiating the sacrificial system? Jesus — Jesus shed his blood as a fulfillment of all the Old Testament. The book of Hebrews tells us the sacrifices didn't accomplish anything. It was only the sacrifice of the Great High Priest himself (Jesus) that accomplished everything that God was pointing to. So why in the world would God allow sacrifices to continue when his Son had died on the cross as the fulfillment of all those sacrifices. Is it any wonder God destroyed the temple? Absolutely not! However, God graciously waited for 40 years – one entire generation – until he fulfilled Jesus' prophecy in Matthew 24.