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Pastor Lars Larson, PhD                                                                                           FBC Sermon #631
First Baptist Church, Leominster, MA                                                                       October 2, 2011
Words for children: tribulation, day, days, desolation,                                                 Text: Matthew 24:26-44
Scripture reading: lightening, second coming, clouds

The Gospel of Matthew (95)
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)

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            Let us read the words of our Lord Jesus which are recorded for us in Matthew 24:26-44

            26“So, 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.

            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.”
            32“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.  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.
            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.”

          We have been working through this Olivet Discourse of our Lord for a number of weeks.  Last time together, we gave our attention to verses 15 -28, which we described as…

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

            These events occurred in AD 70 in fulfillment of our Lord’s prophecy to His disciples.  We then considered the next paragraph, which may be titled…

                       d.  The “coming” of the Son of Man (Matt. 24:29-31)

            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.

            Even though a casual reading of this paragraph would admittedly result in assuming our Lord was speaking here of His future second coming to the earth, but I presented the position that these verses continue the context, referring to events that occurred in AD 70 when the Lord sent the Roman armies to lay siege to overthrow Jerusalem and destroy the temple.
            One might ask, “But how can this be, for it seems so obvious to be speaking of the Second Coming?”  My answer is, “How can it not be?”  For when one considers the context and our understanding of what and what did not occur in AD 70, it seems to me the only viable interpretation is that verses 29 through 31 also refer to that judgment of God upon that generation, when the enthroned Lord Jesus brought His judgment upon the Jewish nation that had rejected Him and His overtures of peace and salvation. 
            The first clause of this paragraph, “Immediately after the tribulation of those days” (v. 28), with particular attention given to the first word of this clause, “Immediately”, makes it clear to me the paragraph must be referring to that great first century event.  Everything before the word, “immediately,” from 24:4 and continuing through 24:27, shows clearly that our Lord was speaking of the temple that stood before Him and His apostles.  He told His disciples that God would bring judgment upon that city of Jerusalem, but that His disciples would escape if they fled the city upon seeing the city of Jerusalem surrounded by the Roman armies.  Our Lord declared, “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” (Mat 24:21).  Therefore, the words, “Immediately after the tribulation of those days”, cannot refer to events 2,000+ years after AD 70. 
            Unfortunately, the common approach of interpreting the passage is to assume at the outset that verses 29-31 refer to the second coming of Christ.  Then it follows in their thinking, since the beginning of verse 28 reads, “Immediately after the tribulation of those days”, an interpretation is imposed on everything before verse 28 that everything speaks of the end times, not of AD 70.  This dismisses the historical context of our Lord’s words.  These interpreters take the entire discourse and say it is entirely a prophecy of the events leading up to the second coming, ignoring or denying the significance, even the historicity of our Lord’s prophetic words regarding AD 70.  And so, even though we acknowledge that it is with some difficulty to interpret the paragraph contained in verses 29 through 31 as events of AD 70, we have done so.  I see no other viable way to treat the passage with integrity and to maintain the historical context of our Lord’s words.

            And so, last time we addressed verses 29 through 30 and showed how they may be understood as prophetic of that great judgment of God that came upon Jerusalem.  But what of verse 31?  We did not address these words last Lord’s day.  How do we understand the words, “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”?

            Our dispensational friends who view the entire Olivet Discourse as a prophecy of yet future events, see these words to refer to the event of the rapture, when Jesus Christ will return to catch up believers to be with Him, an event that takes place at the end of the age. 
            By the way, most of these futurists that we have described believe in a pre-tribulation rapture of the church, that Jesus Christ will return for His church only just before a seven year end time tribulation period.  There are some futurists, who are fewer in number, who argue for a post-tribulation rapture.  They also believe the Olivet Discourse is largely a prophecy of end time events.  But they make a good argument, which is from their point of view an argument fatal to the pre-tribulation rapture position, for they argue that verses 28ff speak of the rapture, and clearly the Lord taught that this would occur “immediately after” the tribulation period.

            Now, the Bible does indeed describe what many refer to as the “rapture.”  But whereas many separate the rapture from the church as an event distinct and prior to the Second Coming of Jesus Christ, we would argue that the Lord’s rapture of His people is nothing less than the Second Coming of Jesus Christ itself.

            The passage that speaks clearly to this rapture event is 1 Thessalonians 4:13-18.

            13But we do not want you to be uninformed, brothers, about those who are asleep, that you may not grieve as others do who have no hope.  14For since we believe that Jesus died and rose again, even so, through Jesus, God will bring with him those who have fallen asleep.  15For this we declare to you by a word from the Lord, that we who are alive, who are left until the coming of the Lord, will not precede those who have fallen asleep.  16For the Lord himself will descend from heaven with a cry of command, with the voice of an archangel, and with the sound of the trumpet of God.  And the dead in Christ will rise first.  17Then we who are alive, who are left, will be caught up together with them in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air, and so we will always be with the Lord.  18Therefore encourage one another with these words.

It may be argued that there is similarity of ideas, if not words, of what Paul wrote in 1 Thessalonians 4 and our passage under consideration, Matthew 24:31.  But actually, in my thinking when you compare these two passages, Matthew 24:31 with 1 Thessalonians 4:13-18, the similarity is quite limited.  This is also the case as with claims that Matthew 24:31 is “parallel” with other passages that speak clearly about the Second Coming of Jesus Christ.  
            And so, let us consider some of these passages that have similar terms and that some argue all speak of the same event.  There a number of passages that we could select for comparison, but we have selected four, since these are listed in the footnote of The New Reformation Study Bible as passages that are “parallel” with Matthew 24:31.  These passages include 1 Thessalonians 4:16f, Matthew 13:41, Matthew 16:27, and 1 Corinthians 15:52.  I have set these side-by-side to enable a better consideration of their teaching.

I. Matthew 24:31, “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”?

II. 1 Thess. 4:16f, “For the Lord Himself will descend from heaven with a cry of command, with the voice of an archangel, and with the sound of the trumpet of God.  And the dead in Christ will rise first.  17Then we who are alive, who are left, will be caught up together with them in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air, and so we will always be with the Lord.”

III. Matthew 13:41f, “The Son of Man will send His angels, and they will gather out of His kingdom all causes of sin and all law-breakers, and throw them into the fiery furnace.  In that place there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth.”

IV. Matthew 16:27, “For the Son of Man is going to come with His angels in the glory of His Father, and then he will repay each person according to what he has done.”

V. 1 Corinth. 15:52, “Behold!  I tell you a mystery.  We shall not all sleep, but we shall all be changed, in a moment, in the twinkling of an eye, at the last trumpet.  For the trumpet will sound, and the dead will be raised imperishable, and we shall be changed.”

            In the above verses we have our text, Matthew 24:31, and then 4 verses that are cited as being “parallel” with our passage.  But look carefully.  We see that there is a reference to angels in 3 of the passages (I. III, and IV).  The word trumpet is used in 3 of the passages (I, II, V).  But a close consideration of the contexts of these passages shows differences between them. 

            1.  The Matthew 24 passage (I) has Jesus sending forth his angels after He gives a trumpet signal to them.  The angels “gather His elect from the four winds, from one end of heaven to the other.”

            2. The second passage (II) has Jesus Himself coming, with no reference to angels, summoning His dead saints with a trumpet to rise from the dead.

            3.  The third passage (III) has Jesus sending forth His angels, but not to gather His elect, as in the Matthew 24 passage, but to remove the unsaved from His kingdom, sending them to hell. 

            4.  The fourth passage (IV) has Jesus coming with His angels, not sending them out as in our Matthew 24 passage.  Here Jesus is described as coming to execute the final judgment.

            5.  The fifth passage (V) does not identify Jesus or angels coming, although we may assume it is at the Second Coming, but here the trumpet is not a signal to send forth angels, but rather to summon the righteous dead to come forth from their graves.

           And so, we might say that Matthew 24 is unique from these other passages, for although it speaks of the Lord sending out angels and the elect being gathered, it says nothing of Christ Himself returning to the earth, it says nothing of the physical resurrection of His saints, and it says nothing of the final judgment.
            What, then, is Matthew 24:31 speaking about?  Most interpreters argue that it is indeed a reference to the final Second Coming of Jesus Christ.  Even some of those who see our Lord’s prophecy here in Matthew 24 as applying to the events of AD 70, interpret verses the events of verses 29-31 as prophetic of the Second Coming of Jesus Christ.[1]  But then their interpretation of the clause, “Immediately after the tribulation of these days” seems a real problem to their position, for they do not view it as “immediately after the tribulation of those days,” but rather 2,000+ years afterwards.  And so, I differ with them at this point, for it seems to me that its immediate context seems must be and must remain the events of AD 70. 
              And so, a minority position, to which I am sympathetic, sees the Lord sending forth His angels to gather His elect, that is, His messengers summon them to faith in Himself, as the word spreads forth from Jerusalem that Jesus Christ is indeed Lord.  Although He had been rejected by Israel when they crucified Him, Jesus is Lord, for His rule has been confirmed and His righteousness has been vindicated by the fulfillment of His prediction of the judgment of God upon Israel and Jerusalem.  As one argued:

              The news of his victory will spread rapidly throughout the world.  What people will see is [sic--"are"] strange messengers, alone or in small groups, traveling around from country to country telling people that a recently executed Jewish prophet has been vindicated by God, that he is the Messiah and the Lord of the world.  The deeper dimension of these happenings is that the one true God is announcing to his whole creation that Jesus is his appointed Lord of the world.  Or, as they would put it, ‘he will send off his messengers’ (or ‘angels’), ‘and collect his chosen ones from the four winds, from one end of heaven to the other’.  If we are to understand the biblical writers, we have to learn, once again, to read their language in their way.[2]

                       e.  The parable of the fig tree (Matt. 24:32-35)

            Our Lord then gave His disciples a parable, further giving them a sense of foreboding and certainty that these prophecies of His would take place.

            32“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.  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.

This further fits very suitably with my interpretation of the passage.  Our Lord Jesus told His disciples that they would be eye witnesses these events.  Speaking to His disciples, He said, “When you see all these things, you know that he is near, at the very gates.”  Our Lord declared that “all these things” of which He had been speaking to them, that being God’s judgment upon Israel and Jerusalem, would transpire before that current generation would pass from the scene. 

            Those who are futurists, primarily dispensational end-time pundits, commonly interpret these verses in this way:

“The fig tree is a biblical metaphor for the nation of Israel.  When Israel became a formal nation once again, which occurred in 1948, the beginning of the end time “generation” began.  And so, within a generation of the founding of Israel, all these things--the end time tribulation and the Second Coming of Jesus Christ.”

            Earlier this century these futurists argued that the beginning of the time frame for the “generation” began in 1917, with The Balfour Declaration, the British mandate that allowed Jews to return and settle Palestine.  This formal declaration was a letter from the British Foreign Secretary, Arthur James Balfour, to Baron Walter Rothschild, a leader of the British Jewish community, for transmission to the Zionist Federation of Great Britain and Ireland.  It stated as follows:

“His Majesty’s government view with favour the establishment in Palestine of a national home for the Jewish people, and will use their best endeavours to facilitate the achievement of this object, it being clearly understood that nothing shall be done which may prejudice the civil and religious rights of existing non-Jewish communities in Palestine, or the rights and political status enjoyed by Jews in any other country.”

And so, many evangelicals who viewed Matthew 24 to be predicting end time events, set this formal declaration as the beginning point of the final generation.  But the Lord did not come within that generation. 
            But then Israel was formally constituted as a nation in 1948 by the action of the United Nations.  And so, for the first time since before the days of AD 70, Israel was a constituted nation.  Many evangelicals claimed, therefore, that this is when the final time frame of a “generation” should begin to be counted.  So the Lord would return by 1978 or 1988.  It was about this time that I received a little booklet in the mail, which I keep in my library, which was sent to me and about every other evangelical pastor in this country, which is entitled, “88 Reasons Why The Rapture Could Be In 1988.”
            But then many evangelicals changed their position once again, identify the timing of the fig tree metaphor to have begun when Israel reoccupied the old city of Jerusalem in AD 1967, during the Israel-Arab Six Day War.  Then assuming that the length of time for a generation is between 30 to 40 years, they have taught that the final seven year tribulation and the Second Coming of Christ would occur before 1997, or 2007.  Of course each of these interpretations has run its course since more than a generation of time has transpired since any of these events, with perhaps the exception of 1967.

            But their problem is this: the interpretation that “the fig tree” represents the nation of Israel in the context of Matthew 24 is faulty.  When you compare the parallel passage in Luke’s Gospel, we read these words, “And He told them a parable: “Look at the fig tree, and all the trees” (Luke 21:29).  We see clearly that when our Lord used the emblem of a “fig tree”, He did not intend it to be a metaphor or reference to Israel.  Rather, He was simply saying that just as you see a tree you can determine that summer is near by the presence of leaves, so when the disciples would begin to see the things that He described, they would know that the desolation of Jerusalem would soon occur.

            Now I would suggest that Matthew 24:35 contains the conclusion of our Lord’s words that refer to the first century events.  Beginning with the next verse, our Lord addresses His Second Coming.

                       f.  Our Lord foretells His Second Coming (Matt. 24:36-44)

            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.”

            In contrast to the days when the fall of Jerusalem would occur, in which they would know when it would occur-- when Jerusalem is surrounded by armies, Jesus said, “concerning that day and hour no one knows, not even the angels of heaven, nor the Son, but the Father only” (24:36).  In His human nature, our Lord Himself did not know when His Second Coming would take place.  This is mysterious to us, but He Himself declared this was so. 
            Our Lord is a single divine person with two natures.  As the eternally begotten Son of God, He came into time and into this world to become our Redeemer.  He assumed a created, finite, and temporal human nature into union with His divine nature.  These two natures are distinct from one another and never co-mingled.  That our Lord has two natures, therefore, means that He has two minds, two wills, two sets of affections. 

Though mystery abounds, it is clear from the biblical data that our Lord as he was in this world was a divine person and not a human person.  He was fully man, in possession of a human soul with all the unfallen faculties of soul.  By reason of his two natures there were within him two minds, a divine and human, two capacities for emotion and affection, a divine and human, and both a divine and human will.[4]

            Our Lord’s human nature informs His divine nature with respect to our human condition, so that He may truly know and sympathize with us in our human weakness.  While on earth His divine nature informed His human nature about matters which He would need to know in order to accomplish His work of redemption our behalf.  Apparently, His human nature did not need to be “informed” by His divine nature (or by the Father) of the exact date of His Second Coming. 

            Our Lord said that no one knows “that day and hour” of His Second Coming.  This ought to bring an end to all date-setters.  Sadly, however, it does not seem to discourage them.  The latest effort is a “postponed” Second Coming that Harold Camping of Family Radio claims will take place 19 days from now, on Friday, October 21, 2011.  I wish he was right; but of course, he is in error.  If our Lord in his unfallen human nature did not know the day or hour, no other man in his fallen nature is going to know the exact time of His coming.

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