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Pastor Lars Larson, PhD                                                                                               FBC Sermon #630
First Baptist Church, Leominster, MA                                                                            September 25, 2011
Words for children: tribulation, day, days, desolation,                                                      Text: Matthew 24:15-28
Scripture reading: Jerusalem, Christ, coming

The Gospel of Matthew (94)
God’s Judgment upon Jerusalem (cont.)

Our current progress through Matthew:

I.  Prologue (chs. 1, 2)
II.  The Kingdom Comes (chs. 3-7)
III.  The Works of the Kingdom (chs. 8-10)
IV.  The Nature of the Kingdom (chs. 11-13)
V.  The Authority of the Kingdom (chs. 14-18)
VI.  Kingdom Blessings and Kingdom Judgments (chs. 19-25)
       A.  From Galilee to Jerusalem (chs. 19, 20)
       B.  The King enters Jerusalem (chs. 21-23)
       C.  Fifth Discourse: Kingdom Judgment, the Olivet Discourse (chs. 24, 25)
             1.  Signs of the “End” (24:1-31)

*****************

                    c.  The coming great tribulation-- the “end” of the temple and Jerusalem (24:15-28)

         Let us read the words of our Lord Jesus which are in Matthew 24:15-21.

        15“So when you see the abomination of desolation spoken of by the prophet Daniel, standing in the holy place (let the reader understand), 16then let those who are in Judea flee to the mountains.  17Let the one who is on the housetop not go down to take what is in his house, 18and let the one who is in the field not turn back to take his cloak.  19And alas for women who are pregnant and for those who are nursing infants in those days!  20Pray that your flight may not be in winter or on a Sabbath.  21For then there will be great tribulation, such as has not been from the beginning of the world until now, no, and never will be.”

                             (1)  The abomination of desolation (24:15-20)

         Last Lord’s Day we explored the meaning of the expression, “the abomination of desolation”, which had been prophesied by Daniel, the Old Testament prophet.  Our Lord spoke of this prophecy in the context of His prophecy of the destruction of Jerusalem that took place in AD 70, when the Romans had completed the 3½ year siege of Jerusalem and then destroyed the Jewish temple and the city.
        In contrast to our (i.e. my) understanding of the fulfillment of this passage, many evangelicals see this prophecy to be of an end time event in a future tribulation period.  It is taught that the abomination of desolation is an incident that will happen in Jerusalem in the middle of a future seven year tribulation period, an event that a future antichrist perpetrates on the Jewish people.  It is commonly said that these happenings will occur through the actions of a future antichrist.  In the midst of the seven year tribulation period just prior to the second coming of Christ, the antichrist will show his true evil character.  He will come to Jerusalem, set up an idol of himself in the rebuilt temple, proclaim himself to be god and demand to be worshipped.  Then he will turn upon the Jews and persecute them with fierce hostility.  He will have destroyed the Jews had not the Lord intervened by His second coming to the earth, in which he overthrows the antichrist and his armies in a great end time battle of Armageddon, which will take place in the valley of Megiddo, in northern Israel.
        We examined Daniel’s prophecy of Daniel 9, in which we have a record of Gabriel, an angel of God, coming to provide Daniel a time frame in which God would send the Messiah, who would gain the pardon of His people through the sacrifice of Himself.  We showed how the 70 week prophecy was fulfilled in the ministry of the Lord Jesus.  In contrast, the popular teaching has no merit is that there is a parenthesis of time of 2,000 plus years between the end of the 69th week and the beginning of the 70th week, which is a future 7 year tribulation period.
        At this time let us bring in the parallel passages of this Olivet Discourse in the other Gospels in which this prophecy is recorded, which are Mark and Luke.  Consider particularly the bold and italicized words.  These are synonymous expressions but in different recorded words.

Matthew 24:15-21

“They will fall by the edge of the sword and be led captive among all nations, and Jerusalem will be trampled underfoot by the Gentiles, until the times of the Gentiles are fulfilled.”  (Luke 21:24).

At is at this point that Luke sets forth this church age, here described as “the times of the Gentiles”, as continuing to occur after the destruction of Jerusalem into the indefinite future.  The futurist interpretation of the Olivet Discourse must either ignore this phrase in Luke’s account, or force an interpretation that this “times of the Gentiles” is a very short period of time, the last 3 ½ years of a future 7 year tribulation.  However, virtually every expositor of Luke’s account understands Luke to be speaking of the events of the Roman siege and destruction of Jerusalem that took place in AD 70.[1] And so, if we use the Bible as its own interpreter, we see quite clearly that our Lord’s Olivet Discourse was a prophecy of Israel’s (“Jerusalem’s”) overthrow and the temple’s destruction.

         One further point may be made about this interpretation of our Lord’s words referring to the events of AD 70 and not of a future tribulation period.  The early Christians obeyed our Lord’s words and fled Jerusalem when they saw the city surrounded by the Roman armies.  It is clear that they believed our Lord’s words as being fulfilled in their day. 
         Now one might ask, “But if the Roman armies surrounded Jerusalem in order to lay siege to the city, how were the Christians able to escape?”  Josephus recorded what happened.  Josephus was a Jew, who became a historian who had aligned himself with the Roman forces.  Here is one description of what happened.

        As is well known, the city of Jerusalem and the temple were destroyed by Roman armies in AD70.  But before this happened, in obedience to the warning Jesus had given, every Christian fled and thus escaped the disaster.  The account of what happened is truly amazing.
        In 65 AD, Florus, the worse of Caesar’s procurators, assumed control of Judea and aggravated the Jews to the point of rebellion--a rebellion too great for him to handle.  Consequently, another man, Cestius Gallus, took over.  Marching his armies into Palestine, he subdued a number of towns and advanced toward Jerusalem.  After camping for three days near the city, he began the assault.
        Seeing Jerusalem compassed with armies, the disciples now knew its desolation was near--according to the words of Christ.  This was their sign to flee!  But how could they flee when the city was surrounded?  This had not been explained in the prophecy.  But notice what happened.
        When Cestius would have almost taken the city, suddenly, as Josephus says, “without any reason in the world”, he withdrew his troops and departed!  The Jews, who were about to open the gates in surrender, were now filled with courage as they pursued the retreating army, inflicting upon it a major disaster.  With this retreat, there was a brief interval before the armies would return with reinforcements and destroy the city.  In this interval, there was time for those who believed in Christ to flee.  What happened next is well summed up in the words of Thomas Newton:

We learn from ecclesiastical histories, that at this juncture all who believed in Christ departed from Jerusalem, and removed to Pella and other places beyond the river Jordan; so that they all marvelously escaped the general shipwreck of their countrymen; and we do not read anywhere that so much as one of them perished in the destruction of Jerusalem.

         Adam Clarke wrote: “It is very remarkable that not a single Christian perished in the destruction of Jerusalem though there were many there when Cestius Gallus invested the city.”  Truly it was a marvelous escape!  What confirmation of our Lord’s words!  What an amazing fulfillment of prophecy!
         After Cestius Gallus had retreated with his troops, Nero ordered Vespasian to take over.  He, in turn, ordered his son, Titus, to go to Alexandria and bring the fifth and tenth legions from Egypt to subdue Judea.  But a crisis causes Vespasian to return there (where he was hailed the new emperor in 70 AD).  Meanwhile the job of capturing Jerusalem was left in the hands of Titus who brought about its destruction.[2]
         Where Thomas Newton above mentions ecclesiastical histories, we might cite the words of Eusebius, who wrote the first complete history of the Christian church, covering events of the first through the third centuries.  He wrote these words:

      1.  After Nero had held the power thirteen years, and Galba and Otho had ruled a year and six months, Vespasian, who had become distinguished in the campaigns against the Jews, was proclaimed sovereign in Judea and received the title of Emperor from the armies there.  Setting out immediately, therefore, for Rome, he entrusted the conduct of the war against the Jews to his son Titus.
      2.  For the Jews after the ascension of our Savior, in addition to their crime against him, had been devising as many plots as they could against his apostles...
      3.  But the people of the church in Jerusalem had been commanded by a revelation, vouchsafed to approved men there before the war, to leave the city and to dwell in a certain town of Perea called Pella. And when those that believed in Christ had come there from Jerusalem, then, as if the royal city of the Jews and the whole land of Judea were entirely destitute of holy men, the judgment of God at length overtook those who had committed such outrages against Christ and his apostles, and totally destroyed that generation of impious men.
      4.  But the number of calamities which everywhere fell upon the nation at that time; the extreme misfortunes to which the inhabitants of Judea were especially subjected, the thousands of men, as well as women and children, that perished by the sword, by famine, and by other forms of death innumerable—all these things, as well as the many great sieges which were carried on against the cities of Judea, and the excessive sufferings endured by those that fled to Jerusalem itself, as to a city of perfect safety, and finally the general course of the whole war, as well as its particular occurrences in detail, and how at last the abomination of desolation, proclaimed by the prophets Daniel 9:27), stood in the very temple of God, so celebrated of old, the temple which was now awaiting its total and final destruction by fire — all these things any one that wishes may find accurately described in the history written by Josephus.
      5.  But it is necessary to state that this writer records that the multitude of those who were assembled from all Judea at the time of the Passover, to the number of three million souls, were shut up in Jerusalem as in a prison, to use his own words.
      6.  For it was right that in the very days in which they had inflicted suffering upon the Saviour and the Benefactor of all, the Christ of God, that in those days, shut up as in a prison, they should meet with destruction at the hands of divine justice.
      7.  But passing by the particular calamities which they suffered from the attempts made upon them by the sword and by other means, I think it necessary to relate only the misfortunes which the famine caused, that those who read this work may have some means of knowing that God was not long in executing vengeance upon them for their wickedness against the Christ of God.[3]

         Let us next consider the expression in this paragraph of Matthew 24 respecting…

                             (2)  The great tribulation (Matt. 24:21-28)

         15“So when you see the abomination of desolation spoken of by the prophet Daniel, standing in the holy place (let the reader understand), 16then let those who are in Judea flee to the mountains.  17Let the one who is on the housetop not go down to take what is in his house, 18and let the one who is in the field not turn back to take his cloak.  19And alas for women who are pregnant and for those who are nursing infants in those days!  20Pray that your flight may not be in winter or on a Sabbath.  21For then there will be great tribulation, such as has not been from the beginning of the world until now, no, and never will be.  22And if those days had not been cut short, no human being would be saved.  But for the sake of the elect those days will be cut short.  23Then if anyone says to you, ‘Look, here is the Christ!’ or ‘There he is!’ do not believe it.  24For false christs and false prophets will arise and perform great signs and wonders, so as to lead astray, if possible, even the elect.  25See, I have told you beforehand.  26So, if they say to you, ‘Look, he is in the wilderness,’ do not go out.  If they say, ‘Look, he is in the inner rooms,’ do not believe it.  27For as the lightning comes from the east and shines as far as the west, so will be the coming of the Son of Man.  28Wherever the corpse is, there the vultures will gather.  (Matt. 24:15-28)

         In these verses we read our Lord’s instructions to His apostles on when and how they might escape “the great tribulation” that will come upon the land, the city of Jerusalem, and its people.  We use the expression above in our outline, the great tribulation, because our Lord used this expression to describe the fall of Jerusalem that occurred in AD 70.  Of course when we hear this phrase, we immediately think of what is commonly believed and taught, that the expression, “the great tribulation”, is a biblical reference to a future 7 year tribulation period just before the second coming of Jesus Christ.
         Actually, this precisely worded phrase, “great tribulation”, is used three times in Scripture.[4]  (1) It is used here in Matthew 24:21, in which our Lord was speaking of the fall of Jerusalem and the destruction of the temple that occurred in AD 70.  (2) It is used in Revelation 2:22, in which our Lord spoke of His judgment that would come upon sinning professing Christians who warranted His wrath by their behavior.

         20“But I have this against you, that you tolerate that woman Jezebel, who calls herself a prophetess and is teaching and seducing my servants to practice sexual immorality and to eat food sacrificed to idols.  21I gave her time to repent, but she refuses to repent of her sexual immorality.  22Behold, I will throw her onto a sickbed, and those who commit adultery with her I will throw into great tribulation, unless they repent of her works, 23and I will strike her children dead.  And all the churches will know that I am he who searches mind and heart, and I will give to each of you according to your works.” (Rev. 2:20-23)

This is a warning from our Lord to all professing Christians everywhere in “all the churches” at all times in history.
(3) The third reference to “the great tribulation” is in Revelation 7:14. 

         9After this I looked, and behold, a great multitude that no one could number, from every nation, from all tribes and peoples and languages, standing before the throne and before the Lamb, clothed in white robes, with palm branches in their hands, 10and crying out with a loud voice, “Salvation belongs to our God who sits on the throne, and to the Lamb!”  11And all the angels were standing around the throne and around the elders and the four living creatures, and they fell on their faces before the throne and worshiped God, 12saying, “Amen!  Blessing and glory and wisdom and thanksgiving and honor and power and might be to our God forever and ever!  Amen.”
         13Then one of the elders addressed me, saying, “Who are these, clothed in white robes, and from where have they come?”  14I said to him, “Sir, you know.”  And he said to me, “These are the ones coming out of the great tribulation.  They have washed their robes and made them white in the blood of the Lamb.” (Rev. 7:9-14)[5]

We will not take time to examine the teaching of this passage, but leave that for another occasion.  But these are the only three occasions in the entire Bible where the expression, “great tribulation” is used.
         Now, the word “tribulation” without the adjective “great” occurs in 19 other places in Scripture.  Of these 19, three instances are in the Old Testament,[5] and the sixteen other occurrences are in the New Testament.[6]  I believe that it can be shown that all of these uses of the word refer to the “tribulation” or trouble that Christians encounter in this life and that there is no instance in which the word is used of an end time tribulation period.  Therefore, aside from the one instance in which the expression, “the great tribulation”, is used in Revelation 7:14, in which the interpretation is debated, the only place the word is used to describe a specific period of intense suffering is this description of the siege and fall of Jerusalem and the destruction of its temple in AD 70.[7]

        Now, I am not ready to say that there will not be an end time tribulation period, but I do know that such a thing is not taught by our Lord in the Gospels, and certainly not here in Matthew 24 or its parallel passages in Mark 13 and Luke 21.

         Let us consider some more detail of our passage, Matthew 24.  Again, Jesus said of the coming siege and destruction of Jerusalem by the Romans in verse 21, “For then there will be great tribulation, such as has not been from the beginning of the world until now, no, and never will be.”  Some argue that this must refer to a future tribulation period, saying, “How could anyone describe what happened to the Jews and Jerusalem in AD 70 as the worst case of human suffering that the world has ever known or will know?  After all, was not the Jewish holocaust a much the worst case of human suffering than what occurred to Jerusalem in the first century?”  “What of the dropping of the bomb on Hiroshima, was that not a much worse event than what the Jews and Jerusalem experienced in AD 70?”  But this argument would fail in two ways.  First, it perhaps fails to recognize the nature of the apocalyptic language in this context.  Jesus’ description of Jerusalem’s fall is to emphasize the seriousness and extent of the calamity of God’s judgment that fell upon the people.  And indeed, there have been other events in history of people’s sufferings that one could argue rival what the Jews encountered.  But it could be argued that our Lord was using hyperbolic language in order to show the seriousness and the extent of their impending ruin.  In so doing He was warning and preparing His disciples for their escape when that time arrived.
                        We see similar language in the Old Testament to describe a great event that had taken place, when Babylon had defeated Judah and had destroyed Jerusalem and the temple in 587 BC.  Jeremiah wrote of the return of Jews from the 70 year Babylonian exile, but he first describes the great calamity that had befallen them when God had punished them for their sin.  We read in Jeremiah 30:1ff:

         1The word that came to Jeremiah from the LORD, saying, 2“Thus speaks the LORD God of Israel, saying: ‘Write in a book for yourself all the words that I have spoken to you.  3For behold, the days are coming,’ says the LORD, ‘that I will bring back from captivity My people Israel and Judah,’ says the LORD.’  And I will cause them to return to the land that I gave to their fathers, and they shall possess it.’”
         4Now these are the words that the LORD spoke concerning Israel and Judah.
         5“For thus says the LORD:

                  ‘We have heard a voice of trembling,
                  Of fear, and not of peace.
                  6Ask now, and see,
                  Whether a man is ever in labor with child?
                  So why do I see every man with his hands on his loins
                  Like a woman in labor,
                  And all faces turned pale?
                  7Alas!  For that day is great,
                  So that none is like it;
                  And it is the time of Jacob's trouble,
                  But he shall be saved out of it
                   8‘For it shall come to pass in that day,’
                  Says the LORD of hosts,
                  ‘That I will break his yoke from your neck,
                  And will burst your bonds;
                  Foreigners shall no more enslave them.
                  9But they shall serve the LORD their God,
                  And David their king,
                  Whom I will raise up for them. (Jer. 30:1-9)

         And so, we see a similar description of an event as worse than any other that had occurred in history which was a prophecy that was fulfilled upon Jerusalem in 587 BC.  Our Lord used the same kind of language to describe what Jerusalem would encounter in AD 70.

         But second, before we dismiss the idea that the siege and fall of Jerusalem could be described as “great tribulation, such as has not been from the beginning of the world until now, no, and never will be”, we should consider the eye-witness account that Josephus is recorded in extensive detail of the siege and fall of Jerusalem.  He recorded in graphic detail of the events that unfolded before him.  We will not quote him, but will simply say that his descriptions of what unfolded before him defy comprehension.  He recorded an extended account of the event, which covers over 40 pages of two column small font text.[8]  It is an incredible account of suffering.  From his vantage point, he would probably have affirmed the words of our Lord Jesus.

         Our Lord next warned His disciples of the danger of false claims that He had returned a second time. 

 23Then if anyone says to you, ‘Look, here is the Christ!’ or ‘There he is!’ do not believe it.  24For false christs and false prophets will arise and perform great signs and wonders, so as to lead astray, if possible, even the elect.  25See, I have told you beforehand.  26So, if they say to you, ‘Look, he is in the wilderness,’ do not go out.  If they say, ‘Look, he is in the inner rooms,’ do not believe it.  27For as the lightning comes from the east and shines as far as the west, so will be the coming of the Son of Man.  28Wherever the corpse is, there the vultures will gather.

He told them not to be deceived when some claim that He had returned and was seen here or there. Jesus said that when His second coming does occur, there would be no mistake recognizing it.  “For as the lightning comes from the east and shines as far as the west, so will be the coming of the Son of Man” (24:27).  His coming would be visible, sudden, and all would witness it.

         We next come to a very difficult section of the Olivet Discourse.  You may recall me saying how each of the different interpretations of this passage has “problems” or perhaps better, “difficulties” that must be explained in order for the position to be regarded as legitimate.  As we have said, we look back through history with knowledge that although Jerusalem was destroyed, Jesus did not and has not as yet returned a second time.  The position that I have been espousing has the difficulty of explaining this next paragraph, which is Matthew 24:29-35.

         29“Immediately after the 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.  30Then 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.  31And 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.
         32From the fig tree learn its lesson: as soon as its branch becomes tender and puts out its leaves, you know that summer is near.  33So also, when you see all these things, you know that He is near, at the very gates.  34Truly, I say to you, this generation will not pass away until all these things take place.  35Heaven and earth will pass away, but My words will not pass away. (Matt. 24:29-35)

         The problem is obvious.  Jesus says clearly that His second coming would take place “immediately” after the tribulation of those days.  But Jesus did not come immediately after those days, so how do we explain this?  Some would argue: This proves that the whole passage does not speak of the fall of Jerusalem in AD 70, but it is a prophecy of the future, final tribulation period just before the second coming of Christ.  This is John Macarthur’s position.  Macarthur reasons that these verses must refer not to the events of AD 70:

         …there are some who suggest, and this is equally a popular one, that it refers to the 70 A.D. destruction of Jerusalem.  And what it means is, this generation of people living in Jerusalem at this time, including the disciples, but broader than that, all the populous of this place, they’re going to live to the destruction of Jerusalem which is only 40 years from now, so this generation will not pass away before all these things come to pass.  And this is the most popular amillennial view of this text.  Reams have been written trying to defend this...hopelessly, I might add, because how in the world can you put into the 70 A.D. destruction of Jerusalem, nation rising against nation, kingdom against kingdom, how can you put plagues and pestilences and terrors in the sky?  How can you put the devastation of the sun, the moon, the stars, the seas, the powers of the heavens shaken?  Come on, that’s not 70 A.D.  You have one nation, the Romans, coming and attacking Jerusalem.  This is not the time which is indicated here in verse 22 as the days of divine vengeance, nor is it the time that all things which are written may be fulfilled.  And certainly....certainly for sure, in 70 A.D. the Son of Man did not come in a cloud with power and great glory.  Just not possible.[9]

         But I take issue with his assertions.  We have cited numbers of reasons why his position is not a viable solution; we will not recount them again.  By the way, Macarthur claims that he takes the Bible ‘literally” and therefore what Jesus spoke of in verses 29ff have not yet occurred.  But does he really take these matters literally?   The scriptures say that “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.”[10]  I will show how these are common prophetic and apocalyptic metaphors to describe momentous historical events in the Bible.

         Others, who hold to an AD 70 fulfillment, will try and deal with the meaning of the word “immediately” in verse 29.  It is hard to put 2,000 plus years into the span of time encompassed by that word, “immediately.”  Others try and say that because Jesus had said that He did not know when He would return, that He was “mistaken” when He said “immediately.”  We will not even tolerate such a suggestion, for that would result in all kinds of great and erroneous views of our Lord as well as the veracity of the statements of Scripture. 
         What is my position?  How do I deal with this problem?  As I have said several times, the difficulty of interpreting this passage is to determine at what point our Lord ceased to speak of the events of AD 70 and when He began to speak of His second coming.  It is my opinion that our Lord was not clearly speaking of his second coming in verses 29-31; rather, He was still speaking of the events of AD 70 in these verses.  I believe that our Lord begins to speak of his second coming not with verse 29ff, but with verses 36-44, which read,

         36“But concerning that day and hour no one knows, not even the angels of heaven, nor the Son, but the Father only.  37For as were the days of Noah, so will be the coming of the Son of Man.  38For as in those days before the flood they were eating and drinking, marrying and giving in marriage, until the day when Noah entered the ark, 39and they were unaware until the flood came and swept them all away, so will be the coming of the Son of Man.  40Then two men will be in the field; one will be taken and one left.  41Two women will be grinding at the mill; one will be taken and one left.  42Therefore, stay awake, for you do not know on what day your Lord is coming.  43But know this, that if the master of the house had known in what part of the night the thief was coming, he would have stayed awake and would not have let his house be broken into.  44Therefore you also must be ready, for the Son of Man is coming at an hour you do not expect.”

         What reasons do I have to commend this understanding?  First, whereas Jesus said that His disciples would know the day and hour when the fall of Jerusalem would occur, “when Jerusalem is surrounded by the armies”, no one will know “the day and hour” of His second coming.  Second, when Jesus was speaking of Jerusalem’s fall and destruction, He referred to those “days”, plural (see vs. 19, 22, 29); but when He speaks of the event of His second coming, He speaks of that “day”, singular (see v. 36).  Third, in contrast to “the days” of the siege and fall of Jerusalem, He speaks in this way of His second coming: “But concerning that day”, in distinction from and in contrast to the former days.

         But the problem remains, how can the words of verses 29 through 31 not be seen as referring to the second coming, but that they speak of the events of 70?

         29“Immediately after the 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.  30Then 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.  31And 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.

         I believe these describe the events of AD 70 for the following reasons: First, there is no possibility that the words of our Lord before verse 29 can refer to any even except for the fall of Jerusalem in AD 70.  We have demonstrated that conclusively.  Second, there is no way to ignore or redefine the words, “immediately after the tribulation of those days” that begin verse 29.  That word indicates the events of verses 29-31 occurred then, at the time of the fall of Jerusalem in AD 70.
         But how can this be?  First, recognize again, the common use in the first century of apocalyptic language, language that we are not accustomed to reading and we tend to interpret hyper-literally.  The fall of Jerusalem was an earth shaking, epic changing event.  Language such as we read, is used elsewhere to describe other historic events of great proportion.  For example, consider the language of Micah 1:1-5.

         1The word of the LORD that came to Micah of Moresheth in the days of Jotham, Ahaz, and Hezekiah, kings of Judah, which he saw concerning Samaria and Jerusalem.

      2Hear, all you peoples!
      Listen, O earth, and all that is in it!
      Let the Lord GOD be a witness against you,
      The Lord from His holy temple.
      3For behold, the LORD is coming out of His place;
      He will come down And tread on the high places of the earth.
      4The mountains will melt under Him,
      And the valleys will split
      Like wax before the fire,
      Like waters poured down a steep place.
      5All this is for the transgression of Jacob
      And for the sins of the house of Israel.

         This was Micah predicting God’s judgment upon His people through the Assyrians, which took place hundreds of years before the birth of Jesus Christ. 
         Consider also the words of Isaiah which describe the judgment of God on Edom in Old Testament times:

4All the host of heaven shall be dissolved,
And the heavens shall be rolled up like a scroll;
All their host shall fall down
As the leaf falls from the vine,
And as fruit falling from a fig tree.

5For My sword shall be bathed in heaven;
Indeed it shall come down on Edom,
And on the people of My curse, for judgment…
8 For it is the day of the LORD’S vengeance,
The year of recompense for the cause of Zion.
9Its streams shall be turned into pitch,
And its dust into brimstone;
Its land shall become burning pitch.
10It shall not be quenched night or day;
Its smoke shall ascend forever.
From generation to generation it shall lie waste;
No one shall pass through it forever and ever. (Isa 34:4-10)

         Isaiah used similar language to describe Babylon’s destruction by Media Persia which happened in the 6th century BC.

1The burden against Babylon which Isaiah the son of Amoz saw.

4The noise of a multitude in the mountains,
Like that of many people!
A tumultuous noise of the kingdoms of nations gathered together!
The LORD of hosts musters
The army for battle.
5They come from a far country,
From the end of heaven—
The LORD and His weapons of indignation,
To destroy the whole land.
6Wail, for the day of the LORD is at hand!
It will come as destruction from the Almighty.
7Therefore all hands will be limp,
Every man’s heart will melt,
8And they will be afraid.
Pangs and sorrows will take hold of them;
They will be in pain as a woman in childbirth;
They will be amazed at one another;
Their faces will be like flames.
9Behold, the day of the LORD comes,
Cruel, with both wrath and fierce anger,
To lay the land desolate;
And He will destroy its sinners from it.
10For the stars of heaven and their constellations
Will not give their light;
The sun will be darkened in its going forth,
And the moon will not cause its light to shine.
11I will punish the world for its evil,
And the wicked for their iniquity;
I will halt the arrogance of the proud,
And will lay low the haughtiness of the terrible.
12I will make a mortal more rare than fine gold,
A man more than the golden wedge of Ophir.
13Therefore I will shake the heavens,
And the earth will move out of her place,
In the wrath of the LORD of hosts
And in the day of His fierce anger.

17Behold, I will stir up the Medes against them,
Who will not regard silver;
And as for gold, they will not delight in it.
18Also their bows will dash the young men to pieces,
And they will have no pity on the fruit of the womb;
Their eye will not spare children.
19And Babylon, the glory of kingdoms,
The beauty of the Chaldeans’ pride,
Will be as when God overthrew Sodom and Gomorrah.

20It will never be inhabited,
Nor will it be settled from generation to generation.

         This was Isaiah’s prophecy that took place when the armies of Media Persia defeated and capture Babylon in a single night, during the days of Daniel, when he was an old man living in the city of Babylon.  But notice the similarity of language between Isaiah 13 describing the fall of Babylon that Media-Persia had brought compared with the language of our Lord in Matthew 24:29: “Immediately after the 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.”

         But what of Matthew 24:30, which reads, “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”, clearly, this speaks of the second coming, does it not?  Actually, I would say it does not.  This is apocalyptic language to describe the events of the Romans destroying Jerusalem and the temple as they were directed by the Lord Jesus, as He is the Sovereign Lord controlling and directing the armies of the earth. 
         The expression, “the Son of Man coming on the clouds of heaven with power and great glory” does not say that He is coming down, or that He is returning, but rather “coming in judgment.”  Remember when Jesus was before the Sanhedrin, when they were challenging His authority?  How did He respond to them?  We read in Matthew 26:63-65:

         But Jesus kept silent.  And the high priest answered and said to Him, “I put You under oath by the living God: Tell us if You are the Christ, the Son of God!”
         64Jesus said to him, “It is as you said.  Nevertheless, I say to you, hereafter you will see the Son of Man sitting at the right hand of the Power, and coming on the clouds of heaven.”
         65Then the high priest tore his clothes, saying, “He has spoken blasphemy!  What further need do we have of witnesses?  Look, now you have heard His blasphemy!”

Was Jesus speaking of His second coming?  I do not think so.  He says that they would see Him “sitting at the right hand of the Power”, that is, they would recognize Him as indeed enthroned in heaven as Lord, even when their judgment comes upon them, “when His power is coming on the clouds of heaven” to destroy them.  The expression “clouds of heaven” is another way of saying that He is “the Lord of hosts”, in that He has sovereign power to direct all of heavens armies to bring about the defeat and judgment of His enemies.  Notice again, it does not say He is coming to the earth, in fact, it declares that He is “sitting” enthroned.  But He was “coming” in the sense that He was visiting them with His judgment.  This is the same language of historical events when Israel was judged by God in the days of Micah, Isaiah, and Ezekiel.  There are many places in the Old Testament in which it describes God as “coming” in judgment when He overthrew nations and peoples.               
         In short, the fall of Jerusalem to the Roman armies in AD 70 was one of the historical events that signaled, confirmed, and testified to the fact that Jesus Christ was Lord of heaven and earth.

         But lastly, what of our Lord’s description in Matthew 24:30: “Then will appear in heaven the sign of the Son of Man, and then all the tribes of the earth will mourn”?  Surely this is a reference to the second coming!  No, it is simply saying that the fall of Jerusalem is a clear sign of our Lord’s rule over heaven and earth.  But for those who want to hold out for a “literal” fulfillment in these matters, let me commend to you once again the eyewitness account of Josephus.  I am not saying that everything he said or described should be regarded as historically accurate, nevertheless, what he said he and everyone saw is quite remarkable.  He wrote these words of some events in Jerusalem:

         Thus were the miserable people persuaded by these deceivers, and such as belied God himself; while they did not attend or give credit, to the signs that were so evident, and did so plainly tell their future desolation; but, like men infatuated, without either eyes to see or minds to consider, did not regard the denunciations God made to them.  Thus there was a star resembling a sword, which stood over the city, and a comet, that continued a whole year.  Thus also, before the Jews’ rebellion, and before those commotions which preceded the war, when the people were come in great crowds too the feast of unleavened bread, on the eighth day of the month Xanthicus (Nisan) and at the ninth hour of the night, so great a light shone round about the altar and the holy house (the temple), that it appeared bright day-time; which light lasted for half an hour.  This light seemed to be a good sign to the unskillful, but was so interpreted by the sacred scribes as to portend those events that followed immediately upon it…  Besides these, a few days after the feast, on the one and twentieth day of the month Artemisus (Jyar), a certain prodigious and incredible phenomenon appeared; I suppose the account of it would seem to be a fable, were it not related by those that saw it, and were not the events that followed it of so considerable a nature as to deserve such signals; for, before sun-setting, chariots and troops of soldiers in their armour were seen running among the clouds, and surrounding the cities.  Moreover, at that feast we call Pentecost, as the priests were going by night into the inner (court of the) temple, as their custom was, to perform their sacred ministrations, they said that, in the first place, they felt a quaking, and heard a great noise, and after that they heard a sound of a great multitude, saying, “Let us remove hence”…[12]

                        Before we too quickly dismiss every detail that he described, let me recall to you an event in the Old Testament in which a similar vision was seen.  Elisha and his servant were surrounded by Syrian troops who were seeking to kill them.  Elisha was unalarmed at the Syrian armies.  His servant was greatly distressed.  We read of what occurred in 2 Kings 6:14-17.

         14Therefore he (the king of Syria) sent horses and chariots and a great army there, and they came by night and surrounded the city. 15And when the servant of the man of God arose early and went out, there was an army, surrounding the city with horses and chariots.  And his servant said to him, “Alas, my master!  What shall we do?”
         16So he answered, “Do not fear, for those who are with us are more than those who are with them.”  17And Elisha prayed, and said, “LORD, I pray, open his eyes that he may see.”  Then the LORD opened the eyes of the young man, and he saw.  And behold, the mountain was full of horses and chariots of fire all around Elisha. 

         I have no difficulty in believing that God may have done a similar thing in Jerusalem during the days of this siege, a far greater event than the threat to Elisha’s life, whereby He enabled all to see that “sign” of the enthroned Lord Jesus was “coming” with His clouds of troops to bring judgment upon the city.

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