So this morning we're continuing our series of messages from the Gospel according to Matthew, and you can find our text for this morning in the Pew Bibles there before you on page 986. And I would urge you as always to keep those before you. And it looks like somebody forgot to bring something with them up here. We've been working through Matthew 24 for some weeks now. And so we're continuing there. We're not going to finish it this morning, but we're going to make more progress in it and possibly, Lord willing, finish it next week. But we'll be looking particularly this morning at verses 29 to 35 as our text for this morning. And if you're able, would you stand with me out of reverence and respect for the reading of God's infallible, inerrant, and inspired word. Jesus says to his disciples, immediately after that tribulation of those days, the sun will be darkened and the moon will not give its light. And the stars will fall from heaven and the powers of the heavens will be shaken. Then will appear in heaven the sign of the son of man. 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 out his angels with a loud trumpet call and they will gather his elect from the four winds from one end of heaven to the other. From the fig tree, learn its lesson. As soon as its branch becomes tender and puts out its leaves, you know that summer is near. So also when you see all these things, you know that he is near at the very gates. Truly I say to you, this generation will not pass away until all these things take place. Heaven and earth will pass away, but my words will not pass away. This is the reading of God's word. May he bless our hearts with it this morning. Please be seated. So in verse three, way back a few weeks ago when we worked on that, Jesus' disciples asked him a question, a question which, whether they knew it or not, actually ended up being two questions. Jesus has been answering the first question or first part of that question, when will the temple be destroyed? Because Jesus has told them, you see these buildings, not one stone will be left on another that won't be thrown down. And so we saw in verses 4 through 14, as we worked through those, that Jesus gave them some general signs, non-specific, things that you will hear and see these kinds of things going on, but don't be alarmed because the end is not yet, Jesus said. It's not then. And then in verses 15 to 28, last week, we saw him speaking to them about the very clear sign that the end is about to happen, what he called the abomination of desolation, taken from Daniel. Now that section last week that we looked on was focused not on worldwide kinds of signs, but rather on Judea itself and Jerusalem. And it's focused on the great tribulation of all the events that would lead up to and would include the five month Roman siege of the city of Jerusalem before it would be conquered and destroyed. There would be horrific conditions during that time. That's why Jesus called it the Great Tribulation. Nothing like it before and nothing like it would happen again, he said. This is when the end will come, Jesus said. But actually, as we reach verse 28, it hadn't yet. It was still will, but now you're Right there. And so now in our text for today, Jesus is going to specifically give his disciples the answer that they have been asking about as to when the end, the end of the temple will come. Jesus begins his speech at this point by saying immediately after the tribulation of those days. Now, You're familiar with Mark and of course we preach through that so you all remember that perfectly well. But one of the great characteristics of Mark and his gospel is that Mark is always saying immediately this and immediately that. Matthew doesn't do that. Matthew doesn't use the word immediately very often at all. But when he does use it, he really means immediately. He means what is happening is happening right after, no delay, no space in between. When Jesus talks about those things in those days in verses 19 and 22 earlier, he was using those to speak about that great period of tribulation that the Jewish people in Jerusalem were going to endure with the Jewish civil war and then the Roman siege on Jerusalem and all the horrible conditions that would be happening within the city during that time leading up to and including 70 AD. But what I want you to think about at this point is now, if you just take this text that we've looked at, immediately after the tribulation of those days, if you take it in a straightforward way, if you just take it at face value, pretend you're one of the disciples in first century Jerusalem, and you're outside the city, sitting on the Mount of Olives, listening to Jesus tell you this, what logically and historically happened immediately after the Roman siege of Jerusalem? Well, the only reason the siege ended is because the Romans broke through into the city, right? So there's no longer a siege. They now enter the city and they enter it in absolute conquest and utter devastation. They are destroying the city and particularly they destroy the temple just as Jesus has prophesied. Well, why doesn't Jesus just say then immediately after the tribulation of those days, the Romans are going to come in and destroy the temple? Well, he does. It's, in fact, exactly what he says, but he says it in very vivid, colorful, symbolic, Old Testament, prophetic language. Keep in mind what the temple represented to the covenant nation of Israel. Yes, on the one hand, it was the place where God was to be worshipped, where people were to bring and offer sacrifices in order to have their sins forgiven and in order to be made right with God again. That certainly was a major function of the temple. But the temple also had another focus, if you will. Remember that God had promised that he would dwell there. And he said it would even be between the cherubim, above the mercy seat. That was seen essentially as God's earthly throne. God's throne here on earth from which location he would exert his authority, his rule, his reign over his people. God's throne in the temple, authority, rule and reign. The problem is that when some people look at this passage, and it's completely understandable why, when they hear about sun and moon being darkened and stars falling from the sky and the heavens being shaken, it sounds to them like that's got to be the end of the world. So Jesus can't be talking about the destruction of the temple in 70 AD now. He's got to be talking about his coming at the end of the world because you can't have all of this and not have the world cease to exist. If the sun and moon and stars all go away and the heavens are being shaken, there's nothing left down here. Well, the problem with that is that God used exactly the same kind of language that Jesus uses here in verse 29, actually a number of times in the Old Testament. I've put some of those in the inside cover of your bulletin. Isaiah chapter 13 verses nine and 10, God through the prophet Isaiah is prophesying his ultimate judgment, final judgment on Babylon and the destruction of Babylon as a power and authority in the world. And he says, the stars of heaven and their constellations will not give their light. The sun will be dark at its rising. The moon will not shed its light. Sounds an awful lot like what Jesus is saying, right? Next passage is Isaiah 34 verses 4 and 5. This is God prophesying his final ultimate judgment on the nation of Edom. Again, it's power and authority as a nation in the world are going to be destroyed by God in this. And he says, all the host of heaven shall rot away. The skies roll up like a scroll. All their host shall fall as leaves falling from the vine, leaves falling from the fig tree. For my sword has drunk its fill in the heavens. Behold, it descends for judgment upon Edom, upon the people I have devoted to destruction. The world didn't end when Babylon was taken down. The world didn't end when Edom was taken down by God. So it doesn't necessarily, in fact, you might say even normally, indicate the end of the world when we see this kind of language. Okay, but those two nations, are ungodly worldly pagan nations that were completely opposed to God and His will and completely disobedient to Him. You can understand their judgment and their destruction with that kind of language, but this is God's nation, this is God's temple. Why would that kind of language be used about it? God's nation, God's temple. Well, you have to ask yourself the question at this point with what Jesus has been teaching. Is it God's nation and God's temple now? Do you remember back in chapter 23, when we were looking at verse 38, I think, when Jesus is looking at the temple and he's telling the people, because essentially, because of the way you have consistently rejected God's word, rejected God's prophets, and now you're rejecting God's Messiah, because you've been doing that and you have no regard for God and his will and purpose and word, Your house is left to you, not my house, your house is left to you desolate, empty, abandoned is the word. God was literally abandoning the temple and therefore his people because they had proven themselves to be what? A pagan nation just like Babylon and just like Edom. Almost worse, in fact, because God had committed himself to them and given them his word, and they still refused to follow it and obey it. He had dwelt in the midst of them, and they still refused to listen to him and obey him. So, in fact, you find in the next two passages I have listed there, Amos chapter 8, particularly verse 9, and Joel chapter 2, verse 10, that God used essentially the very same kind of language that Jesus uses here and that he used with Babylon and Edom to describe the judgment that he was going to bring on the northern kingdom of Israel through the Assyrians and later on the southern kingdom of Judah through the Babylonians. Again, listen just quickly to the language. On that day, declares the Lord God, I will make the sun go down at noon and darken the earth in broad daylight. I will turn your feasts in the morning and all your songs into lamentation. I will bring sackcloth on every waist and baldness on every head. I will make it like the morning for an only son and the end of it like a bitter day. Joel, For Judah, the earth quakes before them. The heavens tremble. The sun and the moon are darkened. The stars withdraw their shining. The Lord utters his voice before his army. His camp is exceedingly great. He who executes his word is powerful. For the day of the Lord is great and very awesome. Who can endure it? Again, sounds an awful lot like what Jesus is saying here in this passage is going to happen immediately after all the dire events leading up to and including the siege of Jerusalem by the Romans. The point is that God no longer dwells in this nation and in this temple. God has abandoned it. They've broken the covenant with him fully and finally, and he's broken the covenant with them fully and finally. And the old temple, which represented God's authority and now was being used for an authority that was not directed by God, has to be removed. in order to make way for the new center where God's authority will dwell as he reigns and rules over his people. And that actually is the point of verse 30. As we come to verse 30 here, then will appear in heaven, the sign of the son of man, 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. Again, this sounds an awful lot like the second coming, right? Son of man coming, clouds, power, great glory. The tribes are going to see him. But you have to really keep this in the context in which Jesus is speaking it. The fact is that the old temple is being removed because Christ is going to be declared by God to be the new temple. and those who are in him. That's going to be the new temple, the place where God's authority will be centered and through which he will exercise his kingship, lordship, rule, and reign over his people. Now again, I understand as you read this that many people, maybe even most people today as far as I know, take verses 29 to 31 with all of this vivid apocalyptic kind of language sounding like the end of the world, the end of creation, and then hearing that the Son of Man is coming on the clouds with power and glory, and then hearing about angels who are coming and gathering his elect from everywhere on earth. And then they put that together with looking back to verse 27 where Jesus said, that his coming was going to be like lightning that flashed in the sky and flashed all the way across the sky. You're not going to be able to miss it. Everyone is going to know. He talked about his parousia, his second coming in that verse. And so they pull all of this together and they come to this understanding of belief that Jesus has at some point in this passage moved away from teaching about the end of the temple and is now teaching about his second coming. But once again, I'm going to say to you that that doesn't fit with the straightforward face value reading and hearing, by the way, of this message from Jesus in the context that these first century Jewish disciples would be hearing it and understanding it. That's not how they would have taken these words. First of all, verse 27, again, I covered this then, but I'm just going to say briefly, when Jesus mentions his Perugia in verse 27, he's not talking and teaching that it's coming then. He's actually mentioning it as a reason why the people at the end of Jerusalem and the destruction of the temple should not believe it when people say the Christ has come, because I'm not coming then. You would have known if I was there, because it won't be that somebody's going to have to tell you where I'm hiding. It's going to be like lightning flashing in the sky. You won't be able to miss it. Trust me. The end that Jesus is talking about here is by his own words to take place immediately after the Roman siege of Jerusalem and all the things that have gone on just before that, not thousands of years later. Remember those days in tribulation point back to those events just before and including 70 AD, not somewhere distant in the future. And we also have to take account, we're not looking at it directly yet, but when you get to verse 34, Jesus is going to say specifically about all of these things he's teaching about, that they all must take place in the lifespan of this generation. We'll get to that. But if we hear all that, then what do verses 30 and 31 mean? Well, the phrase seeing the son of man coming on the clouds of heaven is a definite allusion back to Daniel chapter 7 verse 13. This vision Daniel receives of one like the son of man who is coming on the clouds. Think about where he's coming to in that vision though. He isn't coming to earth. He's coming before the ancient of days in heaven, before God himself in heaven. He's coming on the clouds and he's brought before the ancient of days. And when he arrives before the ancient of days, what happens? He is crowned as the King of Kings and Lord of Lords. He is given a kingdom that is universal in scope and that will never end. A kingdom no earthly king could ever claim. And of course, the New Testament makes it clear that Christ is the fulfillment of that vision, that prophecy that Daniel saw. He is the son of man who comes before the ancient of days and is given a kingdom and is crowned. What we're seeing in that vision and in even this reference is a coronation ceremony. Jesus being crowned as King of Kings and Lord of Lords, which if you think about it, again, we're jumping way ahead, but that's even why before he ascends back to heaven bodily in chapter 28, in verse 18 of that chapter, what is it that he tells his disciples? All authority in heaven and on earth has, not will, has been given to me. Is there anything that he doesn't have authority over if he has all authority in heaven and earth? He's God himself, which is true, but that's already been given to him before he even ascends at the end of that chapter. Also along with that, understand that the word Jesus uses here when he talks about the Son of Man coming is not parousia, the end times second coming at the last day of judgment. It's a different word, a word that just for the most part simply means to come. It can mean to come and appear before God, by the way. This is a coming to heaven, not a coming to earth. that Jesus is describing here just as it was in Daniel's vision. What about all the power and honor and glory that he talks about? Well, remember that through his resurrection from the dead, God vindicated him to literally be exactly who he said he was and who the scriptures said he was. The very Son of God, second person of the Trinity, come in human flesh in order to dwell among his people and to bring salvation to them. Only God can have all authority in heaven and on earth. And so clearly the son of man is the God-man who is ruling now eternally in heaven, sitting at the right hand of, he'll later say, the power. God himself. How much more glory is there than that? How much more power is there than that? In fact, this is If you want to make another jump, the answer to Jesus' prayer in John chapter 17, when he's praying to his father and he says to him, father, restore to me the glory that I had with you before the world even existed. He'll be glorified as God. He will reign with the father and spirit as God in heaven over all things. So Jesus goes on in verse 29 to say that then, when the temple is destroyed, at that time also will appear in heaven, the sign of the son of man. Again, many people think that what this means is at the second coming, Jesus himself will appear in the skies and that will be the sign he's here. You won't miss it. But again, that's not the direction this text is really going. There are others that believe this sign will be something physical, sort of like what Emperor Constantine was supposed to have seen. Remember at the great battle he had to fight when he supposedly looked up into the skies and saw maybe something like a cross or something like that, and believed he was being given a sign that God was with him. And that's sort of when he began to have the idea of making Christianity sort of the religion of the empire. But again, there's no record of Christ showing up in the skies at 70 AD or of some visible sign like that appearing in the heavens. France, in his commentary looking at this, says that there is actually another legitimate way to understand this phrase. Instead of it being, you'll see a sign that is in the heavens of the Son of Man, He says that you can really legitimately understand this to say that the sign will be the sign of the Son of Man in heaven. The sign, if you will, that the Son of Man is in heaven ruling and reigning as he just said, coming on the clouds with power and glory. The idea would be that the sign is meaning that there will be evidence that he literally, that prophecy has been fulfilled and that that is who he is and where he is and he is reigning in heaven as King of Kings and Lord of Lords. And that this evidence, this sign would be Number one, the temple's destruction. He said it was going to happen, had to happen, and it did. And secondly, what he goes on to talk about in verse 31, the gathering together of his people from the four winds, from one end of the earth to the other. Notice again, as you come there, that Jesus says also in verse 31, that then, at that time, then all of the tribes The ESV uses the word of the earth. The word can be interpreted either of the earth or the land. They interpret it as the earth. And this is an allusion to Zechariah chapter 12 verse 10. Zechariah is given a vision. He's had several visions about this messianic figure, either as a shepherd or whatever, that is rejected by the people of God. And here in chapter 12, verse 10, when the Messiah is rejected by the Jewish people, the prophecy and the vision is that the Jewish people, the tribes, and it lists specifically tribes, family of David and so on, they will see the one that they have pierced and they will mourn over him. Now, again, those who think this is talking about the second coming think that this morning is going to be the hopeless morning of those who never accepted Christ when he appears in the heavens at the second coming and realize all hope is lost. It's over. That's not the kind of morning that seems to be talked about necessarily in Zachariah though. And I wonder if that's how the disciples would have heard this, because the word used for tribes here is normally, in the New Testament, used to talk about the Old Testament tribes of Israel. And that makes sense, since that's who Jesus is talking to, right? When he uses tribes, when he's talking to Jewish men, you would think, normally, naturally, that might be who he would be talking about. Now I know this probably all sounds a bit complicated, but I want you to understand that there is a real sense in which all of this actually happened then at that time. You remember when Jesus ascends to heaven and he tells his disciples, I want you to go back to Jerusalem. You're going to be my witnesses in Jerusalem, Judea, Samaria, and all over the world. But first I want you to go back to Jerusalem and wait. until power is given to you. They go back to Jerusalem. And at one point, all of a sudden, like Joel prophesied in that same chapter two that we were talking about, the Holy Spirit is poured out on the disciples in that building. And when it's poured out, there's evidence that it's poured out. The house is filled with a mighty sound, like a mighty rushing wind. There are things that look like flames of fire above the heads of each of the disciples. And all of them are now given the ability to speak in different languages that they didn't speak before. And in fact, as they overflow out of the house into the street, all of the Jews who were there for the Feast of Pentecost, thousands of them gathered from all around the known world, who speak all these different languages, are amazed because they now hear these men speaking, and they hear them in their own language, and they're Jews, they're Galileans. Where would they get the ability to do that? But as they are listening, what they end up hearing is the apostle Peter who preaches a sermon to them. And when he preaches to them, he tells them very clearly that Jesus, the one who you guys all cried out to have put to death, by the way, that Jesus truly was the Messiah sent from God. And that God himself had delivered Jesus over to you, but you took him with your wicked lawless hands and you murdered him. You put him to death. You're guilty of killing the Messiah sent from God. He said, this same Jesus, I need you to know that God has made both Lord and Christ. And do you remember the response to those people in that crowd? They were stricken in their hearts. They were mourning over what had happened. They actually were brought by the Holy Spirit to a state of repentance for their sinfulness and their actions toward Christ and their unbelief. And they cried out, what can we do? Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ and you shall be saved. And they come to saving faith in Christ. 3,000 are added to the church on that very day. Do you hear the mourning? The one they pierced? Literally the one they pierced. A mourning that isn't hopeless, but a mourning that is actually, we did kill the Messiah. Is it too late? What can we do? But in grace, it's not too late. And salvation is offered and received. And that was just the beginning, by the way. Despite significant persecution, those same disciples began to do exactly as Jesus told them. Jerusalem, Judea, Samaria, out to the outermost parts of the known world, spreading this gospel of Jesus Christ, crucified, risen, enthroned at God's right hand. And people from all over the world, the four winds, from one end of heaven to the other, heard that message and came to believe in it, to mourn over what had happened to Christ and to come to faith and salvation. Now the word Jesus uses here for angels, translated as angels, who are going to be doing this gathering is a word that can just mean messengers. It can actually refer to humans. And certainly we've seen that the human apostles and disciples were involved in this evangelization of the world. But the truth is that in Matthew, this word, I think, at least always refers to actual angels when he uses it. And why would angels not be involved in this great proclamation of the gospel, this evangelization of the world? They have always been involved in the proclamation of God's word and the gospel. You remember, we're told that back at Sinai, when God gave Moses the law, that actually there were angels involved in that process. You remember when Jesus is born, it was angels who came to sing and rejoice about the gospel. When Jesus goes through his temptation successfully in the wilderness with Satan, who comes to him? Angels who come and minister to him. Surely, in the great spiritual battle that would be fought in the days following his death, resurrection, and ascension as the gospel being taken out, The angels would be going out before these apostles and disciples fighting the spiritual battle with the spiritual demonic forces who would oppose it so that the gospel would spread as it was intended to do. And notice whose angels they are here. I thought the angels belonged to God, but Jesus says the son of man is going to send out his angels, my angels. to bring in the elect from all over the world. Now again, this idea of the gathering of God's chosen people and the trumpet sound, they're all allusions to Old Testament passages that talk about how God was going to gather Israel out of his exile. But notice who it's referring to now? The church. Again, we've seen that over and over again throughout this gospel. Okay, so, It is true that that scattered around the known world of that day. But it's also true that without any doubt this gathering of the chosen ones of Christ from the four winds from one end of heaven to the other is still going on today, right? It's not over. We still send missionaries everywhere we can. Even after 2,000 years, that's still going on. And it's also true, by the way, that that cosmic deconstruction language we've looked at here in this passage that Jesus used in verse 29, it was used to speak about God's judgment coming in human history, not at the end of the world. But it's also true that that same language is used by the prophets to speak about the end of the world. Go back to Joel chapter 2 and read and you'll find that he speaks about it in terms of the Assyrian invasion or Babylonian invasion, but then he also goes on to speak about it in an end times, a scatological sense. And I think that's part of the reason why so many, although I'm convinced from Scripture they wrongly think this, that much of what we looked at here in chapter 24 so far has to do with Jesus' second coming, not the destruction of the temple. But if that's true, I want you to look at how Jesus concludes this and try to figure out why he would end it this way if that's the case. What he does, And again, talking about, if we think about this, talking about the temple destruction, he gives a very simple but powerful parable about fig trees. Not as a symbol of Israel like that one he cursed and it withered, but just fig trees because they're a common tree in Israel and the fruit from them was much looked forward to by people. So everybody knew about fig trees. And Jesus says, when you look at a fig tree and you see the leaves coming out, guess what? You know that summer is right around the corner. It's right at hand. It's just common knowledge. But he goes on to say, in the same way, when you see all these things happening, and by that, he means all these things I've just been teaching you about. When you see all these things happening, you will know that, and again, your translations are going to be different on this. Some will say, as the ESV did, you will know that he is at hand. Right outside the door, right outside the gate, ready to come through. But the word that's used here in the Greek is not necessarily referred to a person. It can also refer to a thing or to something that is expected to happen. And that's why you'll find in other translations like the King James, New King James, and the NIV that they translate it as, it is at hand. But I think if you look at this and you are thinking about Jesus talking about the end of the temple, if that's just going to happen immediately after the siege by the Romans, then it makes sense that this is talking about that particular time, not somewhere distant. That it's talking about it, the end of the temple coming, not he, Christ coming at the last day. Another reason to understand that is because between those two views, either he, Christ coming at the last day, or it, the temple being destroyed in 70 AD, at this point in history, there are now about 2000 years of space. How that fits with immediately after those days and all. And by the way, we don't know how many more years are going to be added to that 2000 before he actually returns. Could be thousands more as far as we know. Once again, is that how the disciples would have been hearing this from Jesus and expected to hear it? And I think that Jesus, that's why he ends this the way he does. If you look at verse 34, with this very solemn, trustworthy statement of fact. Truly, amen, truly I say to you, this generation will not pass away until all those things take place. Now, up until now, this generation has been talking about the people living in the time Jesus has been ministering. But those who think that this is talking about Jesus coming at the last day, see this and they have a problem. If it means the people living in that day, Jesus didn't know, and he spoke an untruth because he didn't come in 70 AD in that sense. And so we've got a problem. And so they move away from now that normal understanding of generation, and they go to another meaning generation can have, which is it can speak about a certain ethnicity of people, a certain race of people, a certain kind of people. And so some will say this means there will always be Jews until he comes back, or there will always be people, humans, until he comes back, and so on. But again, would that be what the disciples would be expected to understand as Jesus says this to them? Would it make any sense to them at all in their context? It doesn't answer the question when. That could be any time in thousands of years as it already is. And so Jesus goes on then to give an even stronger and more firm affirmation. Understand that in scripture, as we've read even this morning, heaven and earth are pictured in scripture as being essentially lasting, permanent, enduring. And because of that, scripture often uses them to emphasize the trustworthy, unchanging nature of God and his word. Just as the heavens and the earth stand forever, so God's word stands forever. But that's not exactly what Jesus says here. He doesn't say heaven and earth will stand forever, and thus God's word is going to stand forever. What we actually see here is another example in verse 35 of Jesus taking the characteristics of God and applying them to himself intentionally, deliberately. Heaven and earth, not may, but will, will pass away, but my words shall not pass away. That sounds like God talking and it's supposed to because it is God talking. Jesus Christ, the incarnate Son of God assures his disciples that what he has taught them here in this series of passages will without any doubt at all, surely and completely come to pass. He can be trusted as God can be trusted because he is God. And by the way, as we end this and we think about where we're going after this verse, When you read verses 34 and 35, understanding Jesus is going to continue talking about something related to comings. Doesn't Jesus sound in these verses, like he's actually concluding something, wrapping something up, bringing it to a conclusion. You can trust me. This is all going to happen. Does that make sense? If he goes right on to start talking about the same thing again, it just seems like Jesus is making a break here. And we'll find that he will move on from here to begin to answer the second part of the disciples question. What will be the sign of your coming, your parousia at the end of the age, at the end of the world? If you would just pray with me. Lord, we come to you and we come to you because these are difficult passages. We don't even try to avoid that. There are so many different ways people understand them, and yet we're trying to look at them faithfully using your word to teach us what your word is saying. And so we ask that you would give us wisdom and discernment, that you would make clear that if there is any confusion about these things, that people would pray for wisdom and guidance and search the scriptures and even come and ask questions. Give us the clarity of the Holy Spirit on what your assurance is here. And most of all, let us find it to be the encouraging thing Jesus intended it to be. That the world was not ending, that God's faithfulness was not ending, but God's faithfulness was continuing to his people as it had from the very beginning and will until actually the very end when Jesus returns in his parousia. We ask these things in Christ's name and for his sake. Amen.