Matthew 24:15–28 (ESV)
So when you see the abomination of desolation spoken of by the prophet Daniel, standing in the holy place (let the reader understand), then let those who are in Judea flee to the mountains. Let the one who is on the housetop not go down to take what is in his house, and let the one who is in the field not turn back to take his cloak. And alas for women who are pregnant and for those who are nursing infants in those days! Pray that your flight may not be in winter or on a Sabbath. 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. And 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. Then if anyone says to you, ‘Look, here is the Christ!’ or ‘There he is!’ do not believe it. For false christs and false prophets will arise and perform great signs and wonders, so as to lead astray, if possible, even the elect. See, I have told you beforehand. 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. 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. Wherever the corpse is, there the vultures will gather.
Dear fellow redeemed: Imagine for just a moment if someone came into the church here at gunpoint, during a service, took the consecrated elements of Holy Communion, the body and blood of Christ, and poured it out in an offering to Mother Nature. (If that doesn’t strike you as an abomination, then take a few minutes later today to ponder the holiness of the sacrament and the perversion of worshipping the creature rather than the Creator.)
This would be similar to the abomination of Antiochus Epiphanes who conquered Jerusalem, seized the temple, built an altar on top of the great altar of sacrifice, and offered up a pig as a sacrifice. Conquest and desolation accompanied Antiochus’ profanity. Christ’s word to the Christians of Jerusalem was that when they saw an abomination of that kind again, they should flee the city.
If we believe that God is holy, his word is holy, his sacraments are holy, his promises are holy, and His name – all by which we know him – is holy, then we must be shocked at the dishonor shown Him in these days, unless we are just numb.
For these are the last days. The world waits for the fullness of its iniquity and rebellion, but in that iniquity and rebellion there is still a call to repentance, and where there is repentance, there is reconciliation, salvation, safety, peace, and immortality.
These are the last days. These are the days in which we know that the Old Covenant has been fulfilled. The new age has begun; we have been given this new life in our baptism. Now we just await the return of Christ, the final judgment, and a new heaven and new earth.
What we have here in our text is a microcosm of this dying world …
AS WE AWAIT THE ETERNAL DAWN
I. The Greatest of Calamities
II. A Pattern of Death in a Dying World
III. Travail Gives Way to Life
I. The Greatest of Calamities
The last days were ushered in by the destruction of the Temple, for Christ was the last sacrifice for sin, once for all. There has been and will be no greater calamity than the fall of Jerusalem. Jesus referred to the destruction of Jerusalem more than once, and always with great pity, as we pity someone who has brought ruin on himself. Even on his way to Golgotha, Jesus said to the women weeping for Him, Luke 23:28–29 (ESV) But turning to them Jesus said, “Daughters of Jerusalem, do not weep for me, but weep for yourselves and for your children. For behold, the days are coming when they will say, ‘Blessed are the barren and the wombs that never bore and the breasts that never nursed!’
Although the greater prophecy in this chapter telescopes the fall of Jerusalem into the coming of Christ and the end of the world, this text is about Jerusalem. Jesus tells his Christians living then in Jerusalem that they will be able to foresee the calamity in the nick of time, that they must flee, that they will suffer awfully themselves even in their escape, that God will welcome and answer their prayer, that deceit will accompany the catastrophe like birds on carrion, but they mustn’t confuse it with the end of the world. Did you get all that?
The first thing is that the believers should know what is coming. “The abomination that forebodes desolation” will be the tipoff. We can look through Daniel and see what Jesus is talking about, but it isn’t terribly clear. The direct fulfillment of the prophecy was when Antiochus Epiphanes put a pagan altar on the altar of sacrifice in the temple in 168 B.C.
Josephus the Jewish historian recounts a defilement of the temple by the Jews themselves and the Idumeans just before the siege of Titus, and some commentators believe that the Christians perceived the parallel with Daniel’s prophecy and fled. According to the church historian Eusebius, the Jerusalem Christians fled to Pella in Perea, facing great hardship and poverty in their migration. But Jesus encouraged them to pray, and pray they did, and God had mercy on many and for the sake of His church, for the sake of the elect, he cut short the time of suffering.
But this was also a time of great deceit as Jesus said it would be. Then if anyone says to you, ‘Look, here is the Christ!’ or ‘There he is!’ do not believe it. 24 For false christs and false prophets will arise and perform great signs and wonders, so as to lead astray, if possible, even the elect. See, I have told you beforehand. 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.
The historical record tells of false prophets at that time, though we can’t identify specific ones that claimed to be the Christ. You must admit it would be appealing to think that Christ had returned. How often, for example, do we pray, “even so, Lord Jesus, come quickly” when confronted with some appalling tribulation?
But they weren’t to fall for it, because even if there were some seemingly spectacular signs, we should know that the return of Christ isn’t going to be like anything else. It will be the end and the beginning. This world will be destroyed in fire. A new heaven and new earth will arise. 27 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.
When Christ comes, everyone in heaven and earth will know in an instant, and will know Who He is. Philippians 2:9–11 (ESV) Therefore God has highly exalted him and bestowed on him the name that is above every name, so that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, in heaven and on earth and under the earth, and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father.
This section closes with a final comment that has been a puzzle: Wherever the corpse is, there the vultures will gather.
I agree with the commentators who say this is still talking about deceit. Those living in unbelief are spiritually dead, and the deceivers are like carrion birds living off the dead.
II. A Pattern of Death in a Dying World
As we read what else Jesus taught about the end of all things, we see that what happened to Jerusalem is a pattern of the calamities in this dying world. We are to learn from it. Jesus says Matthew 24:32–33 (ESV) 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. So also, when you see all these things, you know that he is near, at the very gates.
But this world will not learn from it, as He also says, Matthew 24:38–39 (ESV) For 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, and they were unaware until the flood came and swept them all away, so will be the coming of the Son of Man.
One thing we need to wake up to is that God’s judgment falls upon this world as a call to repentance. While things may not be so horrible as the siege of Jerusalem, there is great suffering. In our day the lie of Satan is that we need no repentance, that we deserve no suffering, and if we do suffer that God is at fault. This is as prophecy says in Revelation, Revelation 16:9 (ESV) They were scorched by the fierce heat, and they cursed the name of God who had power over these plagues. They did not repent and give him glory.
Now, as then, there will be terrible judgment on this world, and until the end comes, it will be to call the lost to repentance. So Jeremiah says, regarding the conquest of Judea by Babylon, Jeremiah 5:18–19 (ESV) But even in those days, declares the LORD, I will not make a full end of you. And when your people say, ‘Why has the LORD our God done all these things to us?’ you shall say to them, ‘As you have forsaken me and served foreign gods in your land, so you shall serve foreigners in a land that is not yours.’
Do you think that our world, our country, will escape God’s judgment if we continue down our ungodly path? Sure, we can list the moral horrors of our day, and the politicians are like Antiochus or Jereboam, enshrining their immorality in law and in defiance of the living God. But they are elected by the people, and are the people called to repentance by the church? And if they are, is it the call of self-righteousness, or as one sinner to others, that we may find mercy in our God? Let us look in our own hearts and repent because we have not done all that we could to warn this world of its doom.
For God’s purpose in this judgment is mercy, as He says But even in those days, declares the LORD, I will not make a full end of you. Even in judgment, God desires repentance, faith, reconciliation and life.
But for Jerusalem this was the end, just as it was the end for Sodom, and finally for the world, when (per Revelation) They [will] not repent and give him glory.
In repentance, though we do rightly cry out, “Lord come quickly! For when He comes there is an end to not only our suffering, but of the deceit of the Devil and unbelievers.
III. Travail Gives Way to Life
And we know that He will come for us to take us from this vale of tears, and will in good time come and bring life to the dying. Romans 8:22–23 (ESV) For we know that the whole creation has been groaning together in the pains of childbirth until now. And not only the creation, but we ourselves, who have the firstfruits of the Spirit, groan inwardly as we wait eagerly for adoption as sons, the redemption of our bodies.
Right now there are so many people, including our relatives and friends, who meander through life without purpose or meaning. Essentially their goal is to be satisfied now, today. To eat, drink, and experience some measure of pleasure before they die. They view the troubles of life, not as a warning, not as a call to repentance, not as the result of sin, but the unfairness of the universe, or whoever they can find to blame at the time.
Are you among them? Or do you look back at the destruction of Jerusalem and understand God’s hand in it? Does the destruction that fell on them because they disregarded Christ warn you that you had better take Christ and His word seriously? Do the sufferings that make it on the news remind you that this is a sinful, broken, world – also because of our sin? Do you expect the sufferings as the judgment of God upon a rebellious human race?
Most importantly, do you hear the pity of Christ when He tells us how our rebellious nature has brought judgment down on us, and do you hear of His mercy in redeeming us so that that we are spared death, spared guilt, spared judgment, spared such suffering in eternity? Instead we are reconciled; we who were rebels are now children; we who were homeless have an eternal home; we who were lost are now found; we who were under judgment are now welcomed into the courts of heaven.
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.
And then for the faithful, the eternal bliss of heaven.
AMEN.
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