The evening of the third day of the Passion Week: The Olivet Discourse, part 1 Matt 24; Luk 21

The evening of the third day:

 

After His last solemn warning to those in the temple the Lord and the disciples took a walk up the Mount of Olives.

 

The disciples were definitely concerned. So much had happened that day and things seemed to get progressively worse. The Lord had started with denunciations of Israel which progressed to predictions about complete destruction.

 

The teachings of Christ seemed to get more dire as the day went on. Parable after parable predicted judgment that grew worse and worse. The Lord had even stood in the middle of the temple court and publicly condemned the religious people and their beloved temple, likened to a den of thieves in pronouncing 7 woe’s against them.  Earlier they had challenged His authority and late in the afternoon He spoke as their God of judgment.  

 

Matt 23:37-39

"O Jerusalem, Jerusalem, who kills the prophets and stones those who are sent to her! How often I wanted to gather your children together, the way a hen gathers her chicks under her wings, and you were unwilling. 38 "Behold, your house is being left to you desolate! 39 "For I say to you, from now on you shall not see Me until you say, ' Blessed is He who comes in the name of the Lord!'"

 

This passage reveals that Israel could have avoided the Tribulation completely, but as Christ will reveal to His disciples, the end will not come until the Tribulation is over.

 

From the Mount of Olives at certain places the Temple is in full view.

 

The Olivet Discourse

 

The famous Olivet Discourse of the Messiah occurred between two significant events. Immediately preceding the Olivet Dis­course, the Messiah spoke the final words of His public minis­try, found in Matthew 23:1-39, which contains the denunciation of the leadership of Israel, especially for their guilt in leading the nation to reject the Messiahship of Jesus.

 

With these words, the public min­istry of the Messiah as a prophet came to an end, and for the remain­der of His last few days on earth, He would deal exclusively with His disciples.

 

In verses 37-39, Jesus also laid down the precondition to the Second Coming, in that He will not return until the Jewish leaders ask Him to return. Just as the Jewish leaders once led the nation to reject His Messiahship, a day must come when they will lead the Jewish people to accept His Messiahship.

 

 

Immediately after the Olivet Discourse came the preparation of the last Passover and the first Lord’s Supper. These events came just before His death.

 

Between these two significant events is the famous Olivet Dis­course recorded by three of the Gospel writers: Matthew 24-25; Mark 13; and Luke 21:5-36.

 

The basic purpose of the Olivet Discourse is to answer the question: When and how would the Messianic Kingdom come into being?

 

Since Israel rejected the Kingdom offer of the Mes­siah, it was impossible to set up the Kingdom at that time, but since the covenants are unconditional it would have to be set up at a later time.

 

The basic presentation of the Olivet Discourse is chronological; if Jesus breaks the chronological order, He indicates it in some way.

 

First we have the historical setting:

 

Matt 24:1 And Jesus came out from the temple and was going away when His disciples came up to point out the temple buildings to Him.

 

Matt 24:2 And He answered and said to them, "Do you not see all these things? Truly I say to you, not one stone here shall be left upon another, which will not be torn down."

 

After His scathing denunciation of the Pharisees, and after an­nouncing the coming destruction of the Temple, Jesus and His dis­ciples left the Temple Compound for the last time during His lifetime. On the way out, the disciples pointed to the magnificent buildings of the Jewish Temple Compound, which were not complete at that time, but were very impressive. The Temple Compound wouldn’t be complete until A.D. 64.

 

Nevertheless, Jesus reiterated the fact that this Temple was doomed to destruction, and the Temple itself would not have one stone left upon another, that would not be thrown down.

 

This prophecy of the Messiah was literally fulfilled in A.D. 70 when the Romans destroyed the City of Jerusalem, and the Temple was set on fire. Because there was so much gold in the building, a great amount of it melted and the liquid gold seeped into the crevices between the stones of the Temple.

 

When the ruins cooled down, the Romans systematically removed ev­erything, stone by stone, in order to get to the gold that had solidified inside the crevices.

 

As we noted already, this prophecy of the Messiah left the disciples perplexed and concerned.

 

So the second section involves the questions of the disciples. I stated that there were two questions, but there are really three.

 

Matt 24:3 And as He was sitting on the Mount of Olives, the disciples came to Him privately, saying, "Tell us, when will these things be, and what will be the sign of Your coming, and of the end of the age?"

 

Luke 21:7 And they questioned Him, saying, "Teacher, when therefore will these things be? And what will be the sign when these things are about to take place?"

 

All together, three questions were asked which, at the same time, in­cluded requests for three signs.

 

The first question in the Matthew passage was: Tell us, when shall these things be?

 

These things refer to the destruction of Jerusalem and the Temple that He had prophesied in the previous two verses.

 

In the Luke passage, this first question is phrased as: Teacher, when therefore shall these things be? and what shall be the sign when these things are about to come to pass?

 

The first question was: “When will Jerusalem and the Temple be destroyed, and what will be the sign that this is about to take place?”

 

The second question was: What shall be the sign of your coming?

 

This question did not concern the Rapture of the Church because the Rapture is imminent and can happen at any moment, having no warn­ing sign preceding it.

 

However, the Second Coming will be preceded by a sign, and the disciples asked what the sign would be.

 

The third question was: What shall be the sign of the end of the age?

 

In rabbinic theology of that day, the rabbis spoke of two ages: this age, in which we now live; and the age to come, the Messianic Age. The question is: “What is the sign that the last days of this age have begun and that will lead to the Messianic Age?”

 

All together, then, there were three questions in which the dis­ciples asked for three signs to watch for. Jesus answered these ques­tions, but not in the same order as they were asked. He answered the third question first, the first question second, and the second question third. Nor are all three answers found in all three accounts.

 

While Matthew and Mark recorded the answers to the second and third ques­tions, they ignored the answer to the first question. It is Luke who recorded the Messiah’s answer to the first question.

 

The third section is the general characteristics of the Church-age.

 

Before the Lord begins to answer the questions He gives a warning and tells them that certain things will happen in the Church and that they should not be deceived by them because that is not yet the end. These are not signs but facts about their future as well as the future church.

 

C. The General Characteristics of the Church Age— Matthew 24:4-6; Mark 13:6-7; Luke 21:8-9

 

Matt 24:4 And Jesus answered and said to them, "See to it that no one misleads you.

 

Matt 24:5 "For many will come in My name, saying, 'I am the Christ,' and will mislead many.

 

Matt 24:6 "And you will be hearing of wars and rumors of wars; see that you are not frightened, for those things must take place, but that is not yet the end.

 

Rather than immediately answering all three questions, Jesus de­cided first to give some general characteristics of the Church Age, part of “this age,” none of which meant that the end has begun.

 

Jesus wanted to make sure that the disciples would not jump to certain conclusions because of various events, and so He first answered the question nega­tively, telling them of things that would not mean that the end has begun. There were to be two general characteristics of the Church Age.

 

1. The Rise of False Messiahs

The first general characteristic of the Church Age would be the rise of false messiahs. Historically, Jesus was the first Person Who claimed to be the Messiah. After Him, many came claiming to be the messiah. From the time of Jesus until about the middle of the 1850s, a great number of Jewish men—from Simon Bar Cochba to Sabbetal Tzvi and Jacob Frank—arose claiming to be the messiah, and indeed led many astray.

 

Gentiles have also claimed the messianic title. But this was to be a general characteristic of the Church Age, and the existence of false messiahs in no way meant that the end had begun.

 

2. The Existence of Local Wars

The second general characteristic would be local wars. Jesus stated that when they heard of wars and rumors of wars, these things also would not be signs of the end. The existence of local wars here and there would in no way indicate that the end had begun. Even if such local wars take place in the Middle East, it is not necessarily propheti­cally significant.

 

3. Conclusion

Concerning both false messiahs and local wars, in verse six, Jesus said: for all these things must needs to come to pass; but the end is not yet (Mat. 24:6).

 

Luke emphasized this point in his passage when he wrote:

 

Luke 21:8 And He said, "See to it that you be not misled; for many will come in My name, saying, 'I am He,' and, 'The time is at hand'; do not go after them.

 

Luke 21:9 "And when you hear of wars and disturbances, do not be terrified; for these things must take place first, but the end does not follow immediately."

 

In other words, the rise of false messiahs and long periods of local wars will necessarily come first. But neither of these things would in any way, shape, or form be signs that the end had begun.

 

D. The Sign of the End of the Age— Matthew 24:7-8; Mark 13:8; Luke 21:10-11

 

Having provided for His disciples certain characteristics that would in no way indicate that the end had begun, Jesus next proceeded to answer the third question positively, giving the one sign that the end of the age had truly begun.

 

The Matthew account reads:

   

Matt 24:7 "For nation will rise against nation, and kingdom against kingdom, and in various places there will be famines and earthquakes.

 

Matt 24:8 "But all these things are merely the beginning of birth pangs.

 

According to all three Gospel writers, the sign of the end of the age is said to be when nation shall rise against nation, and kingdom against kingdom.

 

This act will be coupled with famines and earthquakes in various places, and then Jesus clearly stated that this would be the beginning of birth pangs.

 

It refers to the series of birth pangs that a woman undergoes before giving birth to a baby. The prophets pictured the last days as a series of birth pangs before the birth of the new Messianic Age.

 

The first birth pang, and the sign that the end of the age has begun is when nation rises against nation, and kingdom against kingdom.

 

Jesus had already clearly stated that local wars between a few nations would not indicate that the end had begun. But then He said that when there is “nation against nation, and kingdom against kingdom,” this will mean the end of the age has begun.

 

This expression is a Hebrew idiom for a world war. Jesus’ statement here is that when a world war occurs, rather than merely a local war, that world war would signal that the end of the age had begun.

 

This is quite in keeping with the Jewish writings of this same period. One Jewish source known as the Zohar Chadash states:

At that time wars shall be stirred up in the world Nation shall be against nation and city against city; much distress shall be renewed against the enemies of the Israelites.

 

Another Jewish source known as the Bereshit Rabbah states:

If you shall see the kingdoms rising against each other in turn, then give heed and note the footsteps of the Messiah (XLJJ:4).

The rabbis clearly taught that a worldwide conflict would signal the coming of the Messiah. Jesus corrected this idea slightly, for He said that when the world war occurs, while it does not signal the com­ing of the Messiah, it will signal that the end of the age has begun.

 

These birth pangs that Jesus talked about are the same as the “foot­steps” that the rabbis talked about. The “footsteps of the Messiah” had to do with the series of events that will lead up to the coming of the Messiah. This Jewish concept is reflected in the Matthew account con­cerning “nation against nation, kingdom against kingdom.”

 

World War I (1914-1918) was the fulfillment of this particular prophecy, for that was the first world war. As virtually all historians agree, World War II was merely a continuation of World War I. Fur­thermore, both world wars had a decisive impact on Jewish history.

 

World War I gave impetus to the growth of the Zionist movement, and World War II led to the reestablishment of the Jewish State.

 

Since World War I, history has entered the last days of the Church Age. However, the last days are an extended period of time.

The sign that the end of the age has begun is the worldwide con­flict fulfilled by World War I and World War II.