Part One

Continuing a review of the increasingly vehement charges against that generation by our Lord will show us that the only way to misunderstand Matthew 24 is by willful suspension of disbelief. Just as we can’t understand Revelation without starting in Genesis with a thorough study of God’s judgment language and modalities of carrying out His judgments, in Matthew 24 verse 1, we enter into the middle of a three-year-long ongoing narrative about coming judgment.

Context is king.

“09 For I am a man under authority, having soldiers under me: and I say to this man, Go, and he goeth; and to another, Come, and he cometh; and to my servant, Do this, and he doeth it. 10 When Jesus heard it, he marvelled, and said to them that followed, Verily I say unto you, I have not found so great faith, no, not in Israel. 11 And I say unto you, That many shall come from the east and west, and shall sit down with Abraham, and Isaac, and Jacob, in the kingdom of heaven. 12 But the children of the kingdom shall be cast out into outer darkness: there shall be weeping and gnashing of teeth.” Matthew 8:9-12

In this important section of Scripture, a gentile Roman soldier who is the leader of a band of soldiers asks a miracle from Jesus. You can read the whole passage for yourself. We’re interested in the statements made by Jesus in verses 11 and 12.

In verse 11, Jesus says that many others, not only the centurion, shall come from the east and the west to sit at the table with the saints of the Old Testament in the Kingdom of Heaven. The “east and west” references the whole world and is a prophecy of the arriving church through faith.

In verse 12, Jesus says that the blood decedents of Abraham that don’t repent and believe will be cast into outer darkness, separated from the light of heaven and Holy God. This is due to a lack of repentance from breaking the Law of Moses and instituting traditions of men in its place (Matthew15:1-4). And most importantly, lack of faith in accepting Jesus. “I am come a light into the world, that whosoever believeth on me should not abide in darkness.” – John 12:46

The Old Covenant must end before the New Covenant can be fully instituted. As the disciples understood it, the whole world was about to end. A major upheaval at the hand of God in judgment was arriving, for not only rejecting Messiah but for hundreds of years of abuse of the Sabbath Jubilee. Every seven years, the slaves were to be set free, and every 49, the original land was to return to the sons of the tribe to whom God had given it.

“And there was delivered unto him the book of the prophet Esaias. And when he had opened the book, he found the place where it was written, The Spirit of the Lord is upon me, because he hath anointed me to preach the gospel to the poor; he hath sent me to heal the brokenhearted, to preach deliverance to the captives, and recovering of sight to the blind, to set at liberty them that are bruised, To preach the acceptable year of the Lord. And he closed the book, and he gave it again to the minister, and sat down. And the eyes of all them that were in the synagogue were fastened on him. And he began to say unto them, This day is this Scripture fulfilled in your ears.” Luke 4:17-21

In the prophecy of Isaiah that Jesus is fulfilling, the “acceptable year of the Lord,” is a reference to Israel being freed from Babylonian captivity? Isaiah likens that event to the Jubilee. But Israel had already been released from Babylonian captivity by the first century. What is Jesus talking about? Jesus is speaking of Israel failing to hold a jubilee for centuries. The acceptable year of the Lord is the Jubilee that our Lord is referring to. It’s a threat; God will punish them if the leadership won’t set the captives free and restore the lands. Jesus says, “This day.” He doesn’t mean someday 2000 later. Judgment looms on that generation for neglecting the conditional covenant of the Law given to Moses including the sabbath Law of Jubileee.

The covenant of the Law to Moses had been broken for the last time. Judgment must come. The thousands of years-long practice of animal sacrifice and with it the temple worship system was ending. Jesus would be the final sacrifice, once for all. The New Covenant of worship in spirit and in truth by faith was brought to all men, and a church numbered as the stars of heaven was birthed. There is no more important historic event in world history than the span, starting with the arrival of John the Baptist preaching the Kingdom of Heaven to the destruction of the temple in 70AD.

And, though Nehemiah had rebuilt the temple after the Babylonian captivity, we find that it would not last (Daniel 9:24-27). Desolations by a flood of judgment would come (Daniel 9:26). Just before the prophecy of Matthew 24, referring to the temple, in Matthew 23:38 Jesus says: “Behold, your house is left unto you desolate.” The prophecy of 70 weeks in Daniel nine is unsealed; the time has arrived, judgment is at hand.

The coming of Christ was the most significant event in human history. Everything was changing; the Father was giving Christ a people to be His inheritance under a new and better covenant (John 1:12, John 6:37-40, Hebrews 8:6). By His arrival, death, burial, and resurrection (1 Corinthians 15:1-4), now given all power and authority in heaven and earth (Matthew 28:18-20), He was and is changing the whole of mankind from the east to the west.

“And Simon Peter answered and said, Thou art the Christ, the Son of the living God.” – Matthew 16:16

“But this man, after he had offered one sacrifice for sins for ever, sat down on the right hand of God; From henceforth expecting till his enemies be made his footstool.” – Hebrews 10:12-13

Part Two  Part Three  Part Four  Part Five  Part Six  Part Seven  Part Eight  Part Nine  Part Ten

If you start in verse 1 of Matthew 24 and simply read the text, it could mean anything without the proper context. The timeframe is also largely misunderstood. This is a problem of modern interpretation throughout Scripture and is rife with misunderstanding and outright abuse today in the American Church.

In posts to follow, if the Lord allows, we’ll look at several sections of Scripture in Matthew leading up to chapter 24. The whole context to the Matthew 24 prophecy by Jesus will be much more evident when we arrive at the text by understanding what leads up to it. You CAN understand Matthew 24!

In Matthew Chapter 3, John the Baptist relays God’s threat:

“7 But when he saw many of the Pharisees and Sadducees come to his baptism, he said unto them, O generation of vipers, who hath warned you to flee from the wrath to come? 8 Bring forth therefore fruits meet for repentance: 9 And think not to say within yourselves, We have Abraham to our father: for I say unto you, that God is able of these stones to raise up children unto Abraham. 10 And now also the axe is laid unto the root of the trees: therefore every tree which bringeth not forth good fruit is hewn down, and cast into the fire. 11 I indeed baptize you with water unto repentance. but he that cometh after me is mightier than I, whose shoes I am not worthy to bear: he shall baptize you with the Holy Ghost, and with fire: 12 Whose fan is in his hand, and he will throughly purge his floor, and gather his wheat into the garner; but he will burn up the chaff with unquenchable fire.” – Matthew 3:7-13

Matthew 3 starts by detailing the calling and ministry of John the Baptist. All Judaea and the surrounding cities were coming out to be baptized by Him.

Look at verse 7; it seems necessary to understand what generation John is speaking about? What wrath, and upon who is this wrath to come? It seems rather plain; he looks the Sanhedrin in the eye, calls them vipers, and by way of question warns them of the wrath of God to come. Is John the Baptist speaking to people he never met about a judgment of Holy God 2000 years later in America? This seems very unlikely. If you know that you’re supposed to repent of sin, then you should, and indeed America she has her sin, but who is supposed to repent in verse 8? Are we, 2000 years later, also supposed to not think of Abraham as our father? Well, we suppose so, but he’s speaking to the Pharisees and Sadducees, who are Israel’s religious and civil leadership.

Note a conversation later in the life of Jesus that occurs in John 8 between Jesus and these rulers. Jesus explains how He always does what pleases His Father in heaven, and the Sanhedrin do precisely what John the Baptist warned them not to do. Jesus is speaking in verses 37 and 38:

“37 I know that ye are Abraham’s seed; but ye seek to kill me, because my word hath no place in you. 38 I speak that which I have seen with my Father: and ye do that which ye have seen with your father. 39 They answered and said unto him, Abraham is our father. Jesus saith unto them, If ye were Abraham’s children, ye would do the works of Abraham.” – John 8:37-38

by claiming Abraham as their father the Sanhedrin have just fulfilled the warning and prophecy by God that John the Baptist spoke in Matthew 3 .

And also, in John 8, Jesus goes on to call the devil their father (this is a rather unpleasant conversation):

“44 Ye are of your father the devil, and the lusts of your father ye will do. He was a murderer from the beginning, and abode not in the truth, because there is no truth in him. When he speaketh a lie, he speaketh of his own: for he is a liar, and the father of it. 45 And because I tell you the truth, ye believe me not.” – Jesus speaking in John 8:44-45

So we must conclude that the wrath of God abides on them because that was the other half of the threat by God given through John the Baptist. Now read the entirety of what John the Baptist says in Matthew 3:7-13 again. (And read verse 14 with it as well. Whoever said the New Testament is bad literature surely doesn’t know who or what the book is about?)

Whether the prophecy in Matthew 3 shifts from that generation to some distant judgment, you decide. There’s more here we could cross-reference to other Scripture, but the point is founded. God has made His threat of judgment to come against that generation.

Also, compare Matthew 3:10 in our text to Matthew 7:15-20.