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Texts -- Matthew 24:1-23 (NET)

Context
The Destruction of the Temple
24:1 Now as Jesus was going out of the temple courts and walking away , his disciples came to show him the temple buildings . 24:2 And he said said to them , “Do you see all these things ? I tell you the truth , not one stone will be left on another . All will be torn down !”
Signs of the End of the Age
24:3 As he was sitting on the Mount of Olives , his disciples came to him privately and said , “Tell us , when will these things happen ? And what will be the sign of your coming and of the end of the age ?” 24:4 Jesus answered them , “Watch out that no one misleads you . 24:5 For many will come in my name , saying , ‘I am the Christ ,’ and they will mislead many . 24:6 You will hear of wars and rumors of wars . Make sure that you are not alarmed , for this must happen , but the end is still to come . 24:7 For nation will rise up in arms against nation , and kingdom against kingdom . And there will be famines and earthquakes in various places . 24:8 All these things are the beginning of birth pains .
Persecution of Disciples
24:9 “Then they will hand you over to be persecuted and will kill you . You will be hated by all the nations because of my name . 24:10 Then many will be led into sin , and they will betray one another and hate one another . 24:11 And many false prophets will appear and deceive many , 24:12 and because lawlessness will increase so much , the love of many will grow cold . 24:13 But the person who endures to the end will be saved . 24:14 And this gospel of the kingdom will be preached throughout the whole inhabited earth as a testimony to all the nations , and then the end will come .
The Abomination of Desolation
24:15 “So when you see the abomination of desolation – spoken about by Daniel the prophet – standing in the holy place (let the reader understand ), 24:16 then those in Judea must flee to the mountains . 24:17 The one on the roof must not come down to take anything out of his house , 24:18 and the one in the field must not turn back to get his cloak . 24:19 Woe to those who are pregnant pregnant and to those who are nursing their babies in those days ! 24:20 Pray that your flight may not be in winter or on a Sabbath . 24:21 For then there will be great suffering unlike anything that has happened from the beginning of the world until now , or ever will happen . 24:22 And if those days had not been cut short , no one would be saved . But for the sake of the elect those days will be cut short . 24:23 Then if anyone says to you , ‘Look , here is the Christ !’ or ‘There he is!’ do not believe him.

Pericope

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Hymns

(Note: In "active" or "on" condition, the hymns music will be played automatically when mouse hover on a hymns title)
  • Agungkan Kuasa NamaNya [KJ.222a]
  • Agungkan Kuasa NamaNya [KJ.222b]
  • [Mat 24:3] Jesus, Thy Church With Longing Eyes
  • [Mat 24:3] There Is A Mighty Question
  • [Mat 24:3] ’tis Almost Time For The Lord To Come
  • [Mat 24:6] End Is Not Yet, The
  • [Mat 24:6] Omnipotent Lord, My Savior And King
  • [Mat 24:7] How Happy Are The Little Flock
  • [Mat 24:14] Let The Song Go Round The Earth
  • [Mat 24:14] Lord, Her Watch Thy Church Is Keeping
  • [Mat 24:14] Missionary Cry, A
  • [Mat 24:14] Missionary Hymn
  • [Mat 24:14] Watchman, Blow The Gospel Trumpet

Questions

Sermon Illustrations

Matthew 24:5; Kinds of false prophets:; Premillennial View; Matthew 24:3-14; Outline; Satan’s Trinity; The Devil’s Strategy; World (Kosmos)

Resources/Books

Expository Notes on the Bible (Constable)

  • Nehemiah prayed for four months about conditions in Jerusalem before he spoke to Artaxerxes about them (cf. 1:1; 2:1). Artaxerxes' reign began in the seventh Jewish month, Tishri (late September and early October), of 464 B.C...
  • Having begun this oracle by clarifying God's desire for Israel (2:1-4), the prophet proceeded to contrast her present condition. She depended on people rather than Himself, a condition that would result in divine discipline (...
  • The reader would expect that Isaiah would inveigh against Assyria since it was the most threatening enemy in his day and since he referred to it many times in earlier chapters. However, he did not mention Assyria in this sect...
  • Isaiah revealed that the Lord's people are at the center of His plans for the world (cf. 14:2; 21:10). He will preserve them even though He will judge sinful humanity.227This passage contains many connections with the flood n...
  • This pericope concludes the sections on the culmination of Israel's future (65:17-66:24), Israel's future transformation (chs. 56-66), Israel's hope (chs. 40-66), and the whole book, Yahweh's salvation. As 56:1-8, it clarifie...
  • Sometimes God used the events in the lives of His prophets to speak to the people as well as their messages."Hosea's unhappy marriage (Hos. 1-3), Isaiah's family (Isa. 7-8), the death of Ezekiel's wife (Ezek. 24:15-27), and J...
  • This section consists of four parts: a summary of Jeremiah's Temple Sermon (vv. 2-6), the prophet's arrest and trial (vv. 7-16), the elders' plea for his life (vv. 17-19, 24), and the incident involving Uriah and his executio...
  • 30:4 This oracle concerns all the Israelites, those of both the Northern and Southern Kingdoms.30:5-6 A time of great terror, dread, and unrest was coming. Men would behave as though they were in labor; they would hold themse...
  • 11:22-23 Ezekiel then saw in his vision the glory of God depart from the temple gate and from the city of Jerusalem. He saw the cherubim under Yahweh's throne-chariot bear the Lord east from the entrance of the temple to the ...
  • This message forms a fitting conclusion to the whole section of prophecies about Israel's restoration to the Promised Land (chs. 33-39) as well as to those about future invasion (chs. 38-39).39:25-26 The Lord promised to rest...
  • There is little doubt among conservative scholars that Daniel himself wrote this book under the Holy Spirit's guidance. Probably he did so late in his life, which could have been about 530 B.C. or a few years later. Several P...
  • Daniel is a book of prophecy."Among the great prophetic books of Scripture, none provides a more comprehensive and chronological prophetic view of the broad movement of history than the book of Daniel. Of the three prophetic ...
  • "As interpreted by conservative expositors, the vision of Daniel [in chapter 7] provides the most comprehensive and detailed prophecy of future events to be found anywhere in the Old Testament."235"The vision's setting in the...
  • 7:1 We have already read of two dreams that Nebuchadnezzar had (2:1; 4:5). Now God gave one to Daniel. It too was a vision from God that came to Daniel as he slept."In referring to the experience as a dream' (sing.) Daniel wa...
  • 7:23 The interpreting angel now granted the prophet more insight about the fourth beast and particularly about the little horn. Here the dual identification of the beasts with kings and kingdoms becomes transparent. The fourt...
  • 8:9 Daniel next saw a rather small horn (king, v. 23) grow out of one of the four horns (kingdoms, v. 22) that had replaced the single horn (the first king, v. 21) on the goat (Greece, v. 21). This horn is quite clearly diffe...
  • 8:15-16 As in the previous vision (7:16), Daniel needed help understanding what he had seen. He saw someone who looked like a man standing before him. Evidently this was an angel. Daniel also heard a voice that he could under...
  • This chapter records a third vision that Daniel received (cf. chs. 7, 8). The vision itself occupies only a small part of this chapter (vv. 24-27), but the verses that precede it prepare for it and connect with it."In many re...
  • "In the concluding four verses of Daniel 9, one of the most important prophecies of the Old Testament is contained. The prophecy as a whole is presented in verse 24. The first sixty-nine sevens is described in verse 25. The e...
  • God gave more information about the following individual than He did about all the preceding ones combined. The reason is his devastating influence on the Jews. During his tenure as king Syria was in decline and Rome gained p...
  • In the revelation given to Daniel about the 70 sevens (years, 9:24-27), we observed that what Gabriel told the prophet in verses 24-26 has already happened. Those verses described what would happen in the first 69 sevens. Ver...
  • Whereas the previous verses have focused on the Antichrist, those in this pericope concern Israel. Here we learn that this "end time"will definitely be a time of intense persecution of Jews. This section constitutes the clima...
  • 12:9 The angel reminded Daniel that much of what he had received would remain obscure until the end time (cf. v. 4). Then people will be able to look back, marvel at the total fulfillment of prophecy, and glorify the sovereig...
  • The rest of the book is quite different from what has preceded because of its positive message. As is true of other eighth-century prophets to Israel and Judah, Amos included hope in his prophecy (cf. Isa. 40-66; Hos. 1:10-2:...
  • 13:1 In that day God would open a fountain for the complete spiritual cleansing of the Israelites, both for their moral sins and for their ritual uncleanness (cf. Ezek. 47). The figure of a fountain pictures abundant cleansin...
  • Matthew often grouped his material into sections so that three, five, six, or seven events, miracles, sayings, or parables appear together.27Jewish writers typically did this to help their readers remember what they had writt...
  • I. The introduction of the King 1:1-4:11A. The King's genealogy 1:1-17B. The King's birth 1:18-25C. The King's childhood 2:1-231. The prophecy about Bethlehem 2:1-122. The prophecies about Egypt 2:13-183. The prophecies about...
  • The first sentence in this pericope (section) serves as a title for the section, as the sentence in verse 1 did for 1:1-17. Matthew recorded the supernatural birth of Jesus to demonstrate further His qualification as Israel's...
  • Comparison of John's Gospel and Matthew's shows that Jesus ministered for about a year before John the Baptist's arrest. John had criticized Herod Antipas for having an adulterous relationship with his brother Philip's wife (...
  • The "multitudes"or "crowds"consisted of the people Matthew just mentioned in 4:23-25. They comprised a larger group than the "disciples."The disciples were not just the Twelve but many others who followed Jesus and sought to ...
  • The Old Testament contains several references to diverging ways that force the traveler to choose between two paths (e.g., Deut. 30:19; Ps. 1; Jer. 21:8). The AV translation "straight"is a bit misleading. That translation ref...
  • Matthew's first group of miracles (vv. 1-17) demonstrated that Jesus possessed the messianic power to heal physical ailments. His second group (8:23-9:8) shows even greater powers in other realms: disaster, demons, and diseas...
  • Jesus proceeded to elaborate on the dangers the apostles would face and how they should deal with them.In His descriptions of the opposition His disciples would experience, Jesus looked beyond His death to the time of tribula...
  • Matthew separated the explanation of this parable from its telling in the text (vv. 24-30). He evidently did this to separate more clearly for the reader the parables Jesus spoke to the multitudes from the parables He told Hi...
  • Jesus proceeded to clarify the way of discipleship. In view of Jesus' death His disciples, as well as He, would have to die to self. However, they could rejoice in the assurance that the kingdom would come eventually. Glory w...
  • Chapter 18 contains the fourth major discourse that Matthew recorded (cf. chs. 5-7; ch. 10; 13:1-53; chs. 24-25), His Discipleship Discourse. This discourse continues Jesus' instruction of His disciples that He began in 17:14...
  • 18:1-2 The writer introduced and concluded this discourse, as he did the others, with statements suggesting that Jesus delivered this address on one specific occasion (cf. 5:1; 7:28-29). The last two discourses in Matthew wer...
  • This section of the Gospel continues Jesus' instruction of His disciples in preparation for their future (19:3-20:34). Then Jesus presented Himself formally to Israel as her King with His triumphal entry (21:1-17). This resul...
  • There is a theological connection between this section and the former one. The death of Jesus provided the basis for God's gracious dealings with believers in His Son. This connection is clear to Matthew's readers because Mat...
  • Jesus came to Jerusalem to present Himself formally to the leaders of Israel as the nation's Messiah. He did this when He entered Jerusalem as Isaiah and Zechariah predicted Messiah would appear."Jesus entered Jerusalem for t...
  • Israel's rejection of Jesus as her King was now unmistakably clear. Her leaders had consistently refused to accept Him. Their rejection was a rejection of Jesus' person (22:42). It contrasts sharply with the disciples' confes...
  • "But"introduces the transition from the words to the disciples that preceded (vv. 1-12). The scribes and Pharisees had taken the exact opposite position on Jesus' person than the disciples had. Consequently their futures woul...
  • 23:29-30 By building monuments to the prophets and other righteous people that their forefathers had martyred, the Pharisees were saying that they would not have killed them if they had been alive then. These construction pro...
  • This lamentation should help us realize that the judgment Jesus just announced in such strong language was not something that delighted Him. It broke His heart. This is also clear from His personalizing the people in Jerusale...
  • 24:1 The connective "and"(NASB, Gr. kai) ties what follows to Jesus' preceding denunciation of the generation of Jews that rejected Him and the divine judgment that would follow (23:36-39). However the "apocalyptic"or "eschat...
  • Jesus began the Olivet Discourse by warning His disciples about the possibility of their concluding wrongly that He had returned or was just about to return.86124:4-5 The destruction of Jerusalem and other similar catastrophe...
  • Jesus proceeded to give His disciples a general picture of conditions just before He will return to end the present age and inaugurate His kingdom.24:7-8 Wars, famines, and earthquakes will anticipate the end of the present a...
  • Having given a general description of conditions preceding His return and the end of the present age, Jesus next described one particular event that would be the greatest sign of all.24:15 "Therefore"or "So"(Gr. oun) ties thi...
  • Jesus proceeded to explain to His disciples that His coming would terminate the Great Tribulation.24:23-24 "Then"means "at that time,"namely at the end of the Great Tribulation (v. 2). Jesus warned the disciples about people ...
  • Having explained the importance of the signs leading up to His return and the responses to those signs, Jesus next explained the respective consequences of the two responses.Many Christians who have read these verses have ass...
  • Jesus concluded His instructions concerning the importance of vigilance in view of His return by giving a parable advocating watchfulness.The introductory "but"connects this illustration with the former one and identifies a c...
  • Jesus concluded the Olivet Discourse with further revelation about the judgment that will take place at the end of the present age when He returns. He had referred to it often in the discourse, but now He made it a special su...
  • 26:1-2 These verses record the fourth major prediction of Jesus' death that He gave His disciples (cf. 16:21; 17:22-23; 20:18-19). Matthew just finished recording Jesus' claim to judge humankind (25:31-46). Now he wrote that ...
  • Whereas the chief priests used bribe money to commission the soldiers to spread lies, the resurrected Jesus used the promise of His power and presence to commission His disciples to spread the gospel.1091This is the final add...
  • Abbott-Smith, G. A. A Manual Greek Lexicon of the New Testament. Edinburgh: T. & T. Clark, 1937.Albright, W. F. and Mann, C. S. Matthew. The Anchor Bible series. Garden City: Doubleday, 1971.Alford, Henry. The Greek Testa...
  • These warnings also occur in other contexts of Jesus' ministry (cf. Matt. 10:17-22; Luke 12:11-12). Jesus evidently voiced them more than once.Mark stressed the idea of persecution by recording the Greek word paradidomithree ...
  • Having clarified what the sign of the coming destruction would not be, Jesus now explained what it would be. Matthew and Mark both described the destruction preceding Jesus' second coming. Luke recorded Jesus' teaching about ...
  • Jesus' teaching about the arrival of the kingdom arose out of a question from the Pharisees. It was a reasonable question since both John the Baptist and Jesus had preached for some time that the kingdom was at hand. Probably...
  • This teaching is quite similar to portions of the Olivet Discourse (cf. Matt. 24:23-28, 37-39), though the differences suggest separate teaching situations. It is one of several teachings that Luke recorded that deals with th...
  • 17:22-23 Jesus next gave His disciples more instruction about the coming of the kingdom. One of the days of the Son of Man refers to one of the future days when the Son of Man will be reigning on the earth (cf. vv. 24-25, 30)...
  • 21:5 Luke did not mention that Jesus gave this teaching on Mt. Olivet exclusively to His disciples (Matt. 24:1-4; Mark 13:1-5). His omission of these facts created continuity in his narrative and connected this discourse with...
  • 21:10-11 Luke's interruption of Jesus' teaching suggests a break of some kind in His thought. It seems clear from what follows, in verse 11 especially, that Jesus now broadened His perspective from the wars that would precede...
  • Jesus now returned to the subject of when the temple would suffer destruction (v. 7). The similar passages in Matthew and Mark are sufficiently different to alert the reader to the fact that they deal with a different inciden...
  • Luke omitted Jesus' warnings about false prophets that Matthew and Mark recorded (Matt. 24:23-28; Mark 13:21-23). Perhaps he did this because he had included similar warnings in his account of Jesus' earlier teachings (17:21-...
  • 2:14-15 Peter, again representing the apostles (cf. 1:15), addressed the assembled crowd. He probably gave this speech in the Temple outer courtyard (the court of the Gentiles). He probably spoke in the vernacular, Aramaic or...
  • 2:37 The Holy Spirit used Peter's sermon to bring conviction, as Jesus had predicted (John 16:8-11). He convicted Peter's hearers of the truth of what he said and of their guilt in rejecting Jesus. Their question arose from t...
  • 6:8 Stephen was full of grace (cf. cf. 4:33; Luke 4:22) and power (cf. 2:22; 4:33) as well as the Holy Spirit (vv. 3, 5), wisdom (v. 3), and faith (v. 5). His ability to perform miracles seems unrelated to his having been app...
  • Stephen began his defense by going back to Abraham, the father of the Jewish nation, and to the Abrahamic Covenant, God's foundational promises to the Jews.7:2-3 Stephen called for the Sanhedrin's attention addressing his hea...
  • This aspect of the problem involved showing disregard for the poorer members of the church.11:17 The Corinthians' behavior at the Lord's Supper was so bad that Paul could say they were worse off for observing it as they did r...
  • This verse is ". . . probably the most controversial in the letter."76It might have seemed ironical that Paul was in prison, in view of what he had just said about the success of the gospel. Therefore he quickly explained tha...
  • 1:4-5 Paul's favorite appellation for the Thessalonians was "brothers."He used it 15 times in this epistle and seven times in 2 Thessalonians. It emphasizes the equality of Christians in the family of God, Jews and Gentiles. ...
  • 3:1-2 Paul returned to the report of his plans (2:17-18). He explained that by the time he, Silas, and Timothy had reached Athens they felt they could not stay away from their young converts in Thessalonica any longer. They d...
  • Paul next turned to another subject on which his readers needed instruction in view of their newness in Christ (cf. 3:10). He outlined the immediate hope of his readers. He did this to explain that those of their number who h...
  • In view of the imminency of Christ's return Paul exhorted the Thessalonians to be ready to prepare them to meet the Lord at any time."The former [paragraph, i.e., 4:13-18] offered instruction concerning the dead in Christ; th...
  • In this pericope Paul reminded Timothy of the apostasy that Jesus Christ had foretold to equip him to identify and to deal with it.143"The change that occurs at 4:1 following the hymn of victory, then, is not unexpected. Oppo...
  • The writer proceeded to explain the superiority of the New Covenant that Jesus Christ ratified with His blood that is better than the Old Mosaic Covenant that He terminated when He died. He first explained the reason for the ...
  • Peter drew application for his readers and focused their attention on how they should live presently in view of the future.3:11 Peter believed that an understanding of the future should motivate the believer to live a holy li...
  • If I were to boil down the message of this epistle into one sentence it would be this. Fellowship with God is the essence of eternal life.Both the Gospel of John and the First Epistle of John deal with eternal life. John wrot...
  • "The present vv, 3:4-9, form six strophes, each of which divides . . . roughly into half. The two halves of the strophes balance one another; for the second part of the v provides a development of the first part (vv 4, 5, 7),...
  • The opening verses of the book state that "John"wrote it (1:1, 4, 9; cf. 22:8). >From the first century to the present day almost all orthodox scholars have concluded that this means the Apostle John.1Two noteworthy exception...
  • John received revelation concerning the judgments that would take place on earth after the Lamb opened the seals on the scroll (5:1). God gave him this information to help us understand what will take place in the future. The...
  • 6:1 "I saw"marks the continuation of what John had seen that chapters 4 and 5 record, but also the commencement of revelation concerning future events on earth. Chapters 1-5 have introduced this revelation. John was an eyewit...
  • 6:3 When the Lamb broke the second seal on the scroll, John heard the second living creature order the second horseman forward.6:4 The red horse probably symbolizes bloodshed and war. The rider of this horse removes peace fro...
  • 6:5 A black horse followed symbolizing the ravage of war, namely, famine. Antichrist, the cause of this famine, seems to be the rider (cf. Matt. 24:7b). He carries a pair of balance scales, a symbol of commerce, indicating hi...
  • What happened next evidently took place in heaven.6:9 The altar John saw was evidently in heaven (cf. 8:3, 5; 14:18). Earlier John had seen a throneroom in heaven (chs. 4-5), but now he saw a temple. Probably the concepts of ...
  • The scene now shifts back to earth."The entire passage in every clause utilizes well known prophetic anticipations of the day of the Lord, and by his use of these images John identifies the day for his readers. One may check ...
  • God led John to record what he saw between the opening of the sixth and seventh seals to explain how God would be merciful during this period of judgment.273John received two new visions that corrected the possible impression...
  • There are a number of contrasts between the 144,000 and this great multitude. The number of the first group is not only smaller but definite whereas the number of the second group is larger and indefinite. People from the 12 ...
  • 9:13 Someone near the four horns (symbolic of power) of the golden altar in heaven, probably the angel identified with it in 8:3, gave a command after the sixth angel blew the sixth trumpet (cf. 8:2, 6). Instead of seeing som...
  • 11:1 "And"(Gr. kai) ties this chapter closely to the previous one. John's first prophetic assignment after receiving his fresh commission was to provide this information.Again John became an active participant in his vision (...
  • This pericope furnishes the plot for the drama that unfolds in the rest of the chapter.12:1 John saw a "sign,"something that signified or represented something else (cf. v. 3; 13:13-14; 15:1; 16:14; 19:29). Usually John used ...
  • The revelation of Satan's activity, which the song of the martyrs (vv. 10-12) interrupted, now resumes.12:13 Satan will concentrate his vengeance on Israelites during the Great Tribulation, under the sovereign control of God,...
  • Most interpreters who see the first beast as an individual also see the second beast as one. Others who see the first beast as a power or movement tend to view the second beast similarly. Many of the Reformers identified the ...
  • 17:15 The angel next helped John understand the identity of the waters (v. 1). Water is a common symbol for people in the Old Testament (e.g., Ps. 18:4, 16; 124:4; Isa. 8:7; Jer. 47:2). The harlot exercises a controlling infl...
  • 18:4 Another voice from heaven instructed God's people to separate themselves from the system that the city symbolizes so they would avoid getting caught in her judgment. The being speaking is evidently an angel who speaks fo...
  • 19:17 John saw next an angel standing in the sun, a conspicuous position in which all the birds could see him. He cried loudly for all the birds flying in midheaven to assemble (cf. Ezek. 39:4, 17). Jesus referred to the same...

Expositions Of Holy Scripture (Maclaren)

  • Matthew 9-28
  • Behold, I send you forth as sheep in the midst of wolves: be ye therefore wise as serpents, and harmless as doves. 17. But beware of men: for they will deliver you up to the councils, and they will scourge you in their synago...
  • Hear another parable: There was a certain householder, which planted a vineyard, and hedged it round about, and digged a winepress in it, and built a tower, and let it out to husbandmen, and went into a far country: 34. And w...
  • He that endureth to the end, the same shall be saved.'--Matt. 24:13, R.V.In your patience possess ye your souls.'--Luke 21:19.THESE two sayings, different as they sound in our Version, are probably divergent representations o...
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