Pilgrim’s Progress through Troubled Lands (Matthew 24:4-8).Thursday November 20, 2025
Main idea: In the midst of whatever chaos or trouble, the believer endures along the path of the plan of God in the manner of Christ and by so doing witnesses the gospel to that world.
Intro / review:
Turning His back on the temple, on the past, and teaching on the future, the Lord reveals that we must be spiritual long-distance runners. Christians with spiritual endurance.
Durability of the church – the body of Christ and you as the temple of God: Temple thrown down, but never the church; Act 5:38-39; 2Co 5:1.
We also need to know the future. The future secured is hope.
The spiritual long-distance runner has hope, which prevents his mental fatigue.
Hope: joyful, confident expectation of the future with the Lord.
Rom 5:5 hope does not disappoint, because the love of God has been poured out within our hearts through the Holy Spirit who was given to us.
Rom 8:25 But if we hope for what we do not see, with perseverance we wait eagerly for it.
The trends that Christ speaks of, which are birth pangs, show us why we may easily become fatigued spiritually. God in His word tells us what to believe about Him and what to do. The Holy Spirit within us, when our faith is mixed with our Bible study, makes that Word come alive and clear to our understanding. This sermon tells us what we face in the land that is suffering the birth pangs of the coming Messiah.
Not yet the end / birth pangs: Spiritual trouble: false teachers and their teachings (vv. 4-5). Social trouble: wars and disasters (vv. 6-8).
When Jesus begins His revelation of coming trends, He begins with warning them / us about false teachers and their false teaching.
2Co 11:13-14 For such men are false apostles, deceitful workers, disguising themselves as apostles of Christ. 14 No wonder, for even Satan disguises himself as an angel of light.
They come in His name and claiming to know Him deeper than most everyone they lack humility and understanding.
Mat 24:4-8 And Jesus answered and said to them, "See to it that no one misleads you. 5 "For many will come in My name, saying, 'I am the Christ,' and will mislead many. 6 "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. 7 "For nation will rise against nation, and kingdom against kingdom, and in various places there will be famines and earthquakes. 8 "But all these things are merely the beginning of birth pangs.
As you go in life you will be tempted by many falsehoods designed to take you off that path, hopefully while making you think that you’re still on it.
Our trek through the world our Lord describes in the initial part of His sermon is like a pilgrimage through a troubled land – troubled for many reasons.
Mat 24:6 “You will be hearing of wars and rumors of wars. See that you are not frightened …”
Jesus switches from theological – don’t be tricked; to pastoral – don’t be terrified.
“See that,” is again a verb that can be used for seeing with your eyes and is common. It is a commandment. Look! See that! Beware!
Frightened (present – continually; all of us get afraid here and there. Still a sin but what the Lord has in mind here is a life filled with fear)
It is used in the passive. You are made frightened. You are made frightened by what you hear. If fear takes hold of you, you drop out of the race and nurse your fear with some ungodly way. Confess and get back on the path.
Trends: Wars have greatly increased, famines have decreased significantly, earthquakes have remained steady.
“Must” is a strong word that reveals the hand behind it all.
“Nothing is more effective in bringing us to control ourselves than to recognize that the greatest apparent confusion is restrained by the authority of God.” [Calvin]
That nation would rise against nation is not surprising. It was happening in their day (Germanic wars, Britannic wars, Parthian wars) and would continue. What is surprising is something you can’t see in the grammar of this verse because the English translation does not bring it out.
“Will rise” - future passive = Nation will be caused to rise against nation.
Nations are caused by something to rise up against another nation. What is that cause? Hatred, greed, prejudice, fear, etc. Who or what causes that?
Is the devil in this passive construction? I would say yes.
Dan 10:18 But I shall now return to fight against the prince of Persia; so I am going forth, and behold, the prince of Greece is about to come.
God (who allows the devil to work) Isa 40:12 Behold, the nations are like a drop from a bucket, And are regarded as a speck of dust on the scales; Behold, He lifts up the islands like fine dust.
Prov 21:1 The king's heart is like channels of water in the hand of the Lord; He turns it wherever He wishes.
Amo 3:6 If a trumpet is blown in a city will not the people tremble? If a calamity occurs in a city has not the Lord done it?
Mat 24:7-8 “For nation will rise against nation, and kingdom against kingdom, and in various places there will be famines and earthquakes. 8 "But all these things are merely the beginning of birth pangs.”
There are spiritual-theological disorders and socio-political disorders, and now ecological disorders.
The main point to the opening of His sermon, is the teaching of spiritual endurance in the midst of a disordered and troubled world. The world will be troubled and disordered for various reason. What can go wrong will go wrong. The Lord Jesus tells us that this is the beginning of the end with no indication of how long it will go on (birth pangs). His point about our spiritual endurance is that we are not to fear.
In times of crisis, Christians are the calmest people on the block, and they help and serve their neighbors in an effort to assuage their pain.
Labor pains:
Labor pains have two sides: the counsel of patience and the counsel of excitement. I believe both are in view. We have no idea how long until the Tribulation begins (Rapture does not seem to be at all in this discourse).
Joh 16:16-22 "A little while, and you will no longer see Me; and again a little while, and you will see Me." 17 Some of His disciples then said to one another, "What is this thing He is telling us, 'A little while, and you will not see Me; and again a little while, and you will see Me'; and, 'because I go to the Father'?" 18 So they were saying, "What is this that He says, 'A little while'? We do not know what He is talking about." 19 Jesus knew that they wished to question Him, and He said to them, "Are you deliberating together about this, that I said, 'A little while, and you will not see Me, and again a little while, and you will see Me'? 20 "Truly, truly, I say to you, that you will weep and lament, but the world will rejoice; you will grieve, but your grief will be turned into joy. 21 "Whenever a woman is in labor she has pain, because her hour has come; but when she gives birth to the child, she no longer remembers the anguish because of the joy that a child has been born into the world. 22 "Therefore you too have grief now; but I will see you again, and your heart will rejoice, and no one will take your joy away from you.
Conclusion:
On a sinking ship or a tottering ship, the believer is to be at peace. I don’t mean a literal ship but the trends in the events of the world around us. It can feel like a ship on which the lunatics have mutinied and taken over.
In our personal lives, if our health totters and rocks us like an earthquake, if we are suffering want, as a famine; if our families, our communities, our nation experiences the same, we are to conclude our returning Master has all in His hands and someday He is returning.
You and I keep running the race set before us, along the beautiful new and living way that runs right through a crazy, dark world like a highway artery. |