Introduction:
3 Reasons to Believe History Is Going to Go Down as Jesus Said (Matthew 24:32-35):
- The Signs are still happening. (Matthew 24:32-33)
- 184-280 - Three Kingdoms War (36-40 mil)
- 755-763 - An Lushan Rebellion (13 mil)
- 1206-1324 - Mongol Conquests (40-70 mil)
- 1562-1598 - French Wars of Religion (2-4 mil)
- 1616-1662 - Qing Dynasty Conquered Ming (25 mil)
- 1803-1815 - Napoleonic Wars (3.5 - 6 mil)
- 1850-1864 - Taiping Rebellion (20 mil)
- 1914-1918 - WWI (17 mil)
- 1939-1945 - WWII (60 - 85 mil)
- 2001 – Today - War on Terror (1.3 - 2 million)
2 Timothy 3:1-4 - But understand this, that in the last days there will come times of difficulty. For people will be lovers of self, lovers of money, proud, arrogant, abusive, disobedient to their parents, ungrateful, unholy, heartless, unappeasable, slanderous, without self-control, brutal, not loving good, treacherous, reckless, swollen with conceit, lovers of pleasure rather than lovers of God...
- Israel is still going strong. (Matthew 24:34)
Matthew 23:33-36 - You serpents, you brood of vipers, how are you to escape being sentenced to hell? Therefore I send you prophets and wise men and scribes, some of whom you will kill and crucify, and some you will flog in your synagogues and dpersecute from town to town, so that on you may come all the righteous blood shed on earth, from the blood of righteous Abel to the blood of gZechariah the son of Barachiah, whom you murdered between hthe sanctuary and ithe altar. Truly, I say to you, jall these things will come upon this generation.
- Jesus' Words still prevail. (Matthew 24:35)
Sermon Notes (PDF): BLANK
Hint: Highlight blanks above for answers!
-
01:08-01:11
Open up to Matthew chapter 24, are you there?
01:13-01:16
Our family moved to Chicago several years ago for training.
01:16-01:22
And before we moved, I have a good friend, his name's Nathaniel and he's a veterinarian.
01:22-01:24
He wanted to spend some time with our family.
01:25-01:28
And he said, we went to Living Treasures Park.
01:30-01:36
And at Living Treasures, if you've never been there, they have, you ever see these bird enclosures, You know what I'm talking about?
01:36-01:46
Where you go in, you know, you pay like $13 for a Dixie cup of seeds and you go in and you feed the pigeons or whatever.
01:47-01:49
They're not shy about coming up on you.
01:49-01:50
You know what I'm talking about?
01:51-01:53
The little feathered beggars, they just come up all on you.
01:54-01:57
And well, my wife, she doesn't love birds, okay?
01:57-02:01
You know, especially the birds that are just like all over you.
02:02-02:05
So she goes, well, you and Nathaniel take the boys in.
02:06-02:08
And I was just, yeah, that's no problem.
02:08-02:09
I like birds.
02:10-02:13
So we go in, and Cade was four at the time.
02:14-02:16
And you know how four-year-old boys are, right?
02:18-02:20
He's just kind of not paying attention.
02:21-02:25
And he was standing on top of one of the rocks that lined the path.
02:25-02:29
And he just kind of jumped and spun around and stomped on a bird.
02:29-02:30
(audience laughing)
02:34-02:41
The bird fluttered in feathers and then it stopped.
02:43-02:49
Then it suddenly had a red ring around its neck that wasn't there before.
02:51-03:02
Now I had to go tell the people that run the zoo that my kid killed one of their animals.
03:04-03:10
And it was even worse than that because when I went in, the lady that was working there, she knew me.
03:10-03:19
I didn't know who she was, but I walked in, she goes, "Oh, hey, Pastor Jeff." So now I have to go tell this lady that knows me as a pastor that I don't know that.
03:21-03:35
So I went and I said, "I don't know how to tell you this, but my son accidentally stepped on one of your birds and killed it.
03:37-03:48
And then she said, "Are you sure it's dead?" Now let's just pause here for a second and examine that question.
03:49-03:51
I'm not sure how she wanted me to answer that.
03:53-03:58
I'm not sure if she thought I had some kind a little stethoscope to pull out.
04:00-04:16
I'm not sure if she thought I was gonna give the bird like mouth to beak resuscitation, but I said, "Well, my best friend's a veterinarian "and he says the bird's dead.
04:17-04:24
"So that's what I'm going with." She was really cool about it.
04:26-04:28
the rest of the story sometime.
04:28-04:29
I know some of you guys know that story.
04:34-04:35
Sure, sure.
04:38-04:47
You know, that might be the question that you have these past few weeks as we've been going through these passages.
04:49-04:49
Are you sure?
04:51-05:03
Because let's be honest, Jesus laid out some pretty shocking predictions and you could be following along with us and reading this and hearing these sermons going, are you sure?
05:04-05:05
Are you sure?
05:07-05:10
I mean, is that really how it's going to go down?
05:13-05:18
Well, verses four through 14, we saw what we would say are the general signs.
05:18-05:21
Jesus called them birth pains.
05:24-05:28
You know, birth pains, they get more intense and closer together.
05:29-05:31
The closer you get to the actual birth.
05:32-05:39
Jesus talked about the birth pains, their spiritual deception, wars, famines, earthquakes, hatred, and the gospel goes out.
05:39-05:49
Jesus said, "These are the signs you're going to see in the future." And then Jesus got really specific in verses 15 through 28.
05:50-05:51
He talked about tribulation events.
05:52-05:57
He said, "Watch for the abomination of desolation." You know, there's going to be fleeing in Judah.
05:57-05:58
There's going to be false Christ.
05:58-06:04
And then as Pastor Taylor told us last week, there's going to be the return of the King.
06:07-06:11
And we could read all this and be like, hmm, are you sure?
06:13-06:19
I mean, how do we really know that this is how history is going to go down?
06:21-06:27
And if we can be honest here, which we always encourage in church, I think we've all struggled with doubt from time to time, haven't we?
06:30-06:31
Just honest questioning.
06:32-06:43
I'm not gonna ask you to raise your hand, but I bet you the number is pretty close to 100 % of people sitting here and listening to this that are like, I struggled with that.
06:44-06:50
I've struggled with this end of the world teaching type stuff.
06:50-06:52
Is it really going to go down that way?
06:53-06:55
We've questioned it on some level.
06:56-06:59
I'm not talking about blasphemous denial.
06:59-07:01
I'm not talking about that.
07:01-07:03
You know, seeing as I don't believe any of that.
07:03-07:05
I'm not talking about that.
07:06-07:20
Just talking about, even as believers sometimes, we're like, is that, all this stuff that we've been talking about, is that really, is that really, is that really how that's gonna happen?
07:22-07:24
Are you sure?
07:26-07:32
I think that's why we have the passage we're looking at today, is for those of us that have struggled with that.
07:33-07:40
So in your outline, three reasons to believe history is going to go down as Jesus said.
07:41-07:42
That's what we have here.
07:44-07:48
Like I really want to believe what Jesus said, but sometimes I struggle.
07:49-07:50
Can you give me some reason?
07:50-07:51
I'll give you three reasons.
07:51-07:54
Well, Jesus will give you three reasons.
07:54-07:56
I'm just gonna try to echo them today.
07:57-07:59
Three reasons to believe history is going to go down as Jesus said.
08:00-08:01
Number one, write this down.
08:01-08:02
The signs are still happening.
08:02-08:05
Look at verse 32.
08:07-08:21
Jesus said, "From the fig tree, learn its lesson." As soon as the branch becomes tender and puts out its leaves, you know that summer is near.
08:22-08:23
So Jesus gives a little parable.
08:26-08:33
And it's not complicated, especially for the disciples, because where they lived, there were fig trees everywhere.
08:34-08:37
Okay, so this wasn't some concept that was lost on them.
08:38-08:41
They might've been looking at a fig tree while he said this.
08:43-08:49
Jesus points out with fig trees that the branch becomes tender and the leaves come out.
08:50-08:51
The disciples got that.
08:51-08:58
You know, the sap will swell to the end of the branch and it pushes the leaf out.
08:58-09:03
And everybody knew that that happened in spring.
09:05-09:06
That's just the way it was.
09:08-09:18
And because that happened in spring, Jesus said, well, obviously when that happens, you know that summer's near, right?
09:20-09:28
But Jesus says, learn it's lesson, learn and that word for learn means, Listen, you really got to get this.
09:31-09:33
Slow down and get this.
09:34-09:38
Signs tell you when a new season is coming.
09:39-09:41
That's the picture here, right?
09:42-09:45
Signs tell you when a new season is coming.
09:46-09:47
Look at verse 33.
09:48-10:01
Jesus says, "So also, when you see all these things, You know that he is near at the very gates.
10:03-10:07
All these things, like all what things?
10:08-10:09
All the things he was just talking about.
10:10-10:13
All of the birth pains he was just talking about.
10:13-10:17
All of the tribulation events he was just talking about.
10:17-10:21
All these things he was just mentioning and teaching.
10:23-10:28
Jesus very clearly told us what we should be watching.
10:32-10:34
And as we said, it's birth pains.
10:36-10:42
And these things that Jesus was talking about in this passage, the birth pains are happening.
10:43-10:48
They're getting closer and closer together, and they're getting more intense.
10:49-10:51
So let's talk about some birth pains.
10:51-10:52
Let's talk about some signs.
10:53-10:56
Do a little call back to some of these things.
10:56-11:00
Jesus said that there's going to be false Christs.
11:01-11:02
He said that in verse five.
11:04-11:06
Is that a sign that we're seeing?
11:07-11:08
False Christs.
11:10-11:11
I did some study on this.
11:12-11:14
There was a man, Silvio Giselle.
11:15-11:17
He lived from 1862 to 1930.
11:17-11:20
He was a German merchant and anarchist.
11:21-11:24
He said that he was the return of Jesus with new name.
11:26-11:29
I'm not buying that our Lord would return and adopt the name Silvio.
11:35-11:36
Nothing against the name Silvio.
11:37-11:42
I think it's a wonderful name, but it's not the name above all names that Jesus has.
11:43-11:47
I also read about Jose Luis de Jesus.
11:49-11:51
Well, now we're getting closer name-wise, I guess.
11:51-11:53
But he was an interesting guy.
11:53-11:55
Maybe some of you heard of him.
11:55-12:00
He claimed to be both the return of Jesus and the antichrist.
12:01-12:02
Don't ask me to explain that.
12:03-12:04
But he said he was both.
12:05-12:12
And his followers got 666 tattooed on themselves and on their children.
12:14-12:20
He died August 8th, 2013, and the church denies his death.
12:22-12:26
I read an article from, this was several years ago when I was studying these things.
12:27-12:31
The article mentioned some modern day Christs.
12:32-12:34
How about A.J. Miller and Mary Luck?
12:36-12:40
By the way, I think I need to insert here that no relation, okay?
12:40-12:41
A.J. Miller?
12:43-12:44
No relation.
12:44-12:53
AJ Miller, Mary Luck in Australia, he said he was the reincarnation of Jesus and she is the reincarnation of Mary Magdalene.
12:53-13:03
Same article talked about Sergei Anatolyevich Turov of Siberia also claimed like AJ Miller to be Jesus reincarnated.
13:04-13:14
And then the article went on to talk about Alvaro Thies from Brazil who claimed to be Jesus reincarnated.
13:15-13:19
And I read this article and I thought, wouldn't it be great to get these three guys in a room?
13:23-13:30
And okay, we can talk about, I don't know if there's mental illness going on here.
13:31-13:34
I don't know if it's intentional deception.
13:35-13:37
I don't know if it's just pure wickedness.
13:37-13:39
I'm not, I can't speak to the heart.
13:43-13:45
but throughout history, you can research this.
13:45-13:57
There have been so many false Christs and we can kind of point and laugh and roll our eyes, but we have this in our own neighborhoods, right?
13:57-14:01
The Mormon church representing Christ, they say.
14:03-14:13
The Jehovah's Witnesses, the Christian scientists, people that are saying, "We represent the Christ." when they don't.
14:15-14:19
So there's a sign, Jesus said, this sign's gonna happen and we're looking at it.
14:20-14:23
As Jesus said, we're seeing all these things.
14:23-14:24
He's at the very gates.
14:24-14:29
Jesus talked about false Christ, but he talked about wars and rumors of wars.
14:29-14:35
And we said a few weeks ago, you'd either be in a war or you'd be hearing about a war or both.
14:35-14:40
And is that a sign that we've seen?
14:41-14:44
We have this as a graphic for the screen here, 'cause there's a lot, I'm gonna fly through this.
14:45-14:46
You can look this up.
14:46-14:48
But just fly through history.
14:48-14:50
Here's some examples of what Jesus was talking about.
14:51-15:02
The Three Kingdoms War, oh, the parenthetical, the numbers in parentheses represent the approximate estimated death toll from these wars, by the way.
15:03-15:07
The Three Kingdoms War, 36 to 40 million people killed.
15:07-15:09
The An Lushan Rebellion, 13 million.
15:09-15:14
The Mongol conquests, they estimate killed 40 to 70 million people.
15:14-15:17
The French wars of religion, 2 to 4 million.
15:18-15:24
The Qing dynasty conquering the Ming dynasty, they're estimating 25 million people.
15:27-15:30
The Napoleonic Wars, 3 and 1/2 to 6 million.
15:30-15:34
The Taiping Rebellion, 20 million.
15:34-15:37
World War I, 17 million.
15:37-15:41
World War II, 60 to 85 million.
15:41-15:49
And in 2001 until today, the war on terror, do you know that people consider the war on terror is still happening right now?
15:51-15:56
And the best estimate on the war on terror has been 1.3 to 2 million people have died.
15:59-16:03
Jesus said with the birth pains, more and more, more intense, closer together.
16:04-16:13
And we said this a couple of weeks ago, Reminder, right now, right now, wars and rumors of wars, Ukraine and Russia, have you been paying attention?
16:14-16:15
Israel and Hamas.
16:15-16:19
Do you remember when I gave this sermon, like, what was that, three weeks ago, Taylor?
16:20-16:27
I said in the sermon something like, I'm hearing rumblings of problems with Iran, here's my shocked face, do you remember that?
16:29-16:32
A week later after I said that, Iran attacked Israel.
16:34-16:36
Like, "Wow, Jeff, you're a prophet." No.
16:39-16:44
No, I don't think that was a very staggering prediction.
16:47-16:48
We're seeing these things.
16:51-16:52
He's at the very gates.
16:54-16:56
Jesus talked about famines and earthquakes.
16:57-16:59
Just very quickly, you can study this, right?
17:01-17:05
But just looking at the last, I just looked at the last 20 years.
17:07-17:09
More and more closer together.
17:10-17:12
There's the tsunami in Indonesia, remember that?
17:12-17:14
2004 killed 200,000 people.
17:15-17:19
Earthquake in Haiti, 2010 killed 316,000 people.
17:19-17:22
In Japan, killed 20,000, that was 2011.
17:23-17:28
In Nepal, 2015, our church was involved in relief efforts there, killed 9,000 people.
17:28-17:33
Turkey, 2023, killed 50,000 people.
17:33-17:36
And then just three weeks ago, there was a major earthquake in Taiwan.
17:38-17:40
Oh, by the way, this is bonus content here.
17:41-17:46
Luke in his account of Jesus giving this discourse talks about pestilences.
17:48-17:50
Have we seen those signs for history?
17:51-17:52
Pestilences.
17:53-18:02
We can talk about the black deaths, banished flu, smallpox, yellow fever, polio, Asian flu, botulism, whooping cough, cholera, mumps, AIDS.
18:04-18:20
But have you noticed, I would say about the last 20 years, have you noticed that it just seems like every year there's a new disease that we're pushing the panic button over?
18:20-18:21
Have you noticed that?
18:25-18:34
SARS, West Nile, bird flu, swine flu, H1N1, Ebola, COVID every year.
18:34-18:36
It's like, hey, here's the thing to panic about.
18:39-18:41
We're seeing these things.
18:43-18:46
And Jesus said, he's at the very gates.
18:50-18:56
And then Jesus talked about in these general signs, He talked about people hatred.
18:59-19:02
Are you seeing people become more and more brutal?
19:03-19:04
More and more heartless?
19:04-19:05
Are you seeing it?
19:06-19:07
Or is it just me?
19:10-19:13
I mean, just me seeing it, not just me becoming more brutal.
19:18-19:19
Mass shootings.
19:24-19:28
You know, I remember the first one that I heard about.
19:29-19:38
I was in college and I remember sitting in the parking lot of the school, sitting in my car, just like, I was speechless.
19:39-19:45
I was just like, so like, I couldn't wrap my head around it.
19:47-19:55
And you fast forward to today, It just seems like a month can't go by that you don't hear about a few of them.
19:57-20:04
And we're almost getting desensitized to it because it's becoming more and more, just like Jesus said.
20:11-20:15
Racism, abortion, we talked about that a couple of weeks ago.
20:15-20:27
We live in a day where you can just get on your phone I can watch videos of violence and hatred, whether it's rioting and looting.
20:28-20:33
I saw a video that showed up on my, what do they call Twitter now?
20:34-20:34
X.
20:35-20:38
It came up on my feed.
20:38-20:38
I don't know why.
20:38-20:43
You know, they suggest videos for you, and I'm a little disturbed that they suggested this video for me.
20:44-20:55
but like it was a bunch of high school fighting and the one girl just grabbed the other one and was bashing her head on the sidewalk as she laid there lifeless.
21:06-21:12
This is where we are, but it's just as Jesus predicted.
21:14-22:26
Paul talks about that. I have other examples here. I can't, I'm not gonna be able to finish this sermon if I start that. So let me just tell you what Paul said about that. Second Timothy three, Paul wrote this a couple thousand years ago, but see if this sounds like what you're seeing today. Look at this, but understand this in the last days, there will come times of difficulty for people will be. See if this is an accurate description of where we are as a race. For people be lovers of self, lovers of money, proud, arrogant, abusive, disobedient to their parents, ungrateful, unholy, heartless, unappeasable, slanderous, without self-control, brutal, not loving good, treacherous, reckless, swollen with conceit, lovers of pleasure rather than lovers of God.
22:27-22:28
(congregation laughing)
22:30-22:33
We're seeing all these things.
22:34-22:42
So we know, He is near at the very gates.
22:45-22:52
And not just the signs of the general events, and I could go on, but we have to move on.
22:52-23:00
Not just the signs of the general events, You know, Jesus gave some very specific events that are going to accompany the tribulation.
23:01-23:03
They're like, well, how do we see signs for that?
23:03-23:04
Because that hasn't happened yet.
23:05-23:13
And I would say that we are seeing signs of the stage being set for the tribulation.
23:14-23:15
Here's what I mean.
23:15-23:19
We know that the temple's going to exist during the tribulation.
23:19-23:24
And right now, there are plans to rebuild the temple.
23:24-23:27
The furnishings and the garments have been made.
23:27-23:28
They're just waiting.
23:31-23:31
Sign.
23:33-23:34
Oh, how about this one?
23:34-23:42
Revelation chapter 13 tells us that the Antichrist will make people take his mark, the mark of the beast.
23:42-23:48
And the Bible says that you're not gonna be able to buy or sell unless you have this mark.
23:52-24:00
you know, a generation or two ago, that seemed inconceivable, right?
24:01-24:06
Like how could somebody prevent buying and selling globally?
24:06-24:07
How could that happen?
24:09-24:11
And I have to wonder, what would your grandparents have thought?
24:14-24:22
If I would have sat down with my grandparents and said, "How do you think this is gonna happen?" They would have been like, "I have no idea how that can happen.
24:22-24:37
I don't think they believed it, but now we can see dozens of different ways that this is possible.
24:39-24:44
Now that we live in a digital age, you don't think that they could just shut your bank account off.
24:45-24:46
You take the mark.
24:47-24:49
We'll turn your bank account back on.
24:52-24:54
We're seeing these things.
24:55-24:56
He's at the very gates.
24:58-25:03
So first of all, learn the lesson from the fig tree.
25:05-25:06
There are signs.
25:07-25:10
We don't know exactly when he's coming back.
25:10-25:14
We don't know exactly when the tribulation is going to start.
25:14-25:16
You know, when the church will be raptured.
25:16-25:21
We don't know when all of these things are gonna happen and Pastor Taylor is gonna talk all about that next week.
25:22-25:30
But what we do know is there are signs that tell us that he's standing at the gate.
25:33-25:49
So if you want evidence that what Jesus said is true, turn on the news with Matthew 24 open and see if it's happening right before your eyes.
25:51-25:56
Three reasons to believe history is going to go down as Jesus said.
25:56-25:58
Number one, the signs are still happening.
25:58-26:00
Number two, Israel is still going strong.
26:05-26:06
Look at verse 34.
26:09-26:25
Jesus says, "Truly I say to you, "this generation will not pass away "until all these things take place." That is an extremely difficult verse in the New Testament.
26:26-26:28
I get a front load with that.
26:29-26:33
Do you know this verse has been credited with turning people atheists?
26:34-26:39
Because they're like, well, Jesus said he was coming back, like in that generation, and he didn't come back.
26:39-26:41
So Jesus was wrong, Jesus was wrong.
26:41-26:48
And people have grossly misunderstood what Jesus was actually saying here.
26:50-26:59
So I wanna share with you my best understanding after countless hours, especially this past week of reading and studying this.
26:59-27:04
And I wanna give you my best understanding of what's going on here.
27:05-27:06
All right.
27:08-27:12
Jesus said, first of all, let this phrase not pass away.
27:12-27:13
Okay, that's easy.
27:13-27:16
That just means come to an end or die.
27:17-27:21
He says, this generation will not pass away until all, and we know what all these things are.
27:21-27:23
He just talked about all these things.
27:24-27:29
The problem that people have is the phrase, this generation.
27:30-27:31
What's he talking about?
27:31-27:33
What is this generation?
27:36-27:38
And some people say, well, that's the disciples.
27:38-27:40
He's talking to the disciples.
27:42-27:43
But there's a problem with that, right?
27:44-27:49
Because the disciples didn't see all of these things that he just described.
27:52-27:57
Some people say, well, no, it's not like just the disciples, but like that first century, the people beyond.
28:00-28:01
There's a problem with that.
28:02-28:11
because so many theologians try to, they try to shoehorn everything Jesus said here into the first century.
28:12-28:14
Like all of this happened in the first century.
28:15-28:17
And I read this, I'm like, no, no, no.
28:17-28:20
In fact, it did not all happen in the first century.
28:26-28:53
Some people think, well, it just means the generation that's alive during the tribulation all these things take place and that makes sense I won't fight you on that too hard but I kind of struggle with that one because many people during the tribulation are going to die so they're not gonna see it all the way to the end and to see all these signs.
28:59-29:01
Like, well, what do you think it is?
29:02-29:04
I wanna share with you my best understanding.
29:06-29:09
I think Jesus here is talking about Israel, and here's why.
29:10-29:18
It's not because of the fig tree, because you go to the parallel account in Luke, Jesus talked about the fig tree, and he says in all the trees, I don't think it's that.
29:20-29:27
But turn back the page to Matthew chapter 23, versus, we're gonna look at verses 33 and throughout 36.
29:27-29:33
And I think we might have them on the screen too, if it's just too warm to turn that page.
29:40-29:46
Jesus is pronouncing the woes on the scribes and the Pharisees, the religious leaders of Israel.
29:47-29:55
Look at the, it says, Jesus said, "You serpents, you brood of vipers, "how are you to escape being sentenced to hell?
29:58-30:30
"Therefore, I send you prophets and wise men and scribes, "some of whom you will kill and crucify, "and some you will flog in your synagogues "and persecute from town to town, so that on you may come all the righteous blood shed on earth, from the blood of innocent Abel to the blood of Zechariah, the son of Barakiah, whom you murdered between the sanctuary and the altar.
30:32-30:40
Truly I say to you, look at this, all these things will come upon this generation.
30:44-30:45
(pages rustling)
30:46-30:53
Looking at this passage here, this generation, Jesus is obviously condemning Israel's leaders.
30:56-30:57
What's going on here?
30:57-31:00
What's Jesus so...
31:03-31:05
What's he so angry about here?
31:05-31:16
Well, because Israel was the chosen nation that was supposed to teach the world what God is like.
31:19-31:30
So Israel not only failed in that, but Israel murdered the people that God sent to them.
31:31-31:48
So Israel, because of their rejection of God and their rejection of God's people, ultimately, especially, and specifically Jesus Christ, the Bible tells us, please listen to me very closely, I don't wanna be misunderstood here.
31:49-31:55
The Bible tells us that Israel is temporarily set aside during the church age.
31:55-32:09
But in the end, to the very last day, Israel is going to survive and have a mass revival.
32:12-32:14
That's Romans chapter 11.
32:14-32:20
We're not gonna read that now, but if you want some homework, read that because that's Paul's point.
32:23-32:36
So I believe getting back to Matthew 24 and verse 34, truly I say to you, this generation will not pass away until all these things take place.
32:36-32:40
I believe this generation, Jesus is still talking about Israel.
32:42-32:51
And I believe what Jesus is saying in this verse is this, to his disciples, Jesus is saying, watch this, Israel is going to make it all the way to the end.
32:53-33:01
That's a sign that Jesus' words will come to pass as he said.
33:05-33:07
And somebody here might be like, okay, hang on.
33:07-33:10
So you're saying that Jesus is like Israel is gonna make it all the way to the end.
33:11-33:13
What's so profound about that, Hefei?
33:14-33:20
Through 20 centuries, have you noticed what's happened with Israel through 20 centuries?
33:22-33:28
Dispersion, persecution, Holocaust, attacked as individuals, attacked as a nation.
33:30-33:34
One of the greatest proofs that the Bible is true.
33:40-33:53
One of the greatest proofs that Jesus' prophecy is being fulfilled to the letter has been the Jews and their ability to survive as an identifiable race.
33:56-34:20
Because Israel still stands, and you realize there's no other ancient nation that can really say that, right? What I mean is, when's the last time you met a Hittite? You're like, "I think my neighbor's a Hittite." No, she's not. When's the last time you ran into an Amorite?
34:21-34:34
Like, "My boss was an Amorite. I don't appreciate you saying that, Jeff. He It's like, oh, I'm pleased to meet you, by the way.
34:34-34:37
I'm 76% Jebusite.
34:43-34:48
But Israel, the Jews, they're still going strong.
34:51-34:59
Somehow this tiny nation is nestled right in the middle of the hotbed of all this violence, and they still stand and thrive.
35:03-35:33
I think that's what Jesus is talking about here. And if you disagree, you're still my brother or sister. But you can buy me Ruth's Chris and explain your view. I believe what Jesus is saying is this generation Israel that I just "rebuked in a temple, they will survive to the last day." And we have witnessed that throughout history, even until today.
35:35-35:42
Three reasons to believe history is going to go down, as Jesus said, number one, the signs are still happening.
35:42-35:44
Number two, Israel is still going strong.
35:44-35:53
And number three, last, and I would say strongest, saving the best for last as Jesus' words still prevail.
35:57-36:06
Jesus said, "Heaven and earth will pass away, but my words will not pass away." Ah.
36:09-36:12
What's the most dependable thing that you know?
36:13-36:18
The most dependable thing that you know is heaven and earth.
36:19-36:20
Right?
36:22-36:27
More than anything else, those are the two things that you are most sure of, is heaven and earth.
36:28-36:28
Like, what do you mean?
36:28-36:33
What I mean is this, have you ever canceled a flight on a business trip?
36:34-36:38
Because you're like, Alex, I don't wanna fly because what if the plane takes up and the sky's not there?
36:40-36:40
What if it's gone?
36:42-36:44
Nobody's ever said that.
36:45-36:53
You've never laid awake at night going, What if I wake up tomorrow and I look out my window and the earth is gone?
36:54-36:55
What am I gonna do then?
36:56-36:59
I like the earth, that's where I keep all my stuff.
36:59-37:00
What am I gonna do?
37:02-37:03
You've never done that.
37:08-37:12
You're like, that's just a idiotic concept.
37:14-38:42
And I think it's the craziness of that point. Jesus said heaven and earth will pass away, but his words will not. His coming and all of this leading up to his coming is more certain than the most certain thing that you know of. More sure than all of these signs that we're watching in the news is the Word of Jesus Christ. More certain than the existence of the nation of Israel are the words of Jesus Christ. Jesus said in His ministry that He would be handed over to sinful men, and He was. Jesus said He would be crucified. And He was. Jesus said He would rise from the dead. And He did. Jesus has a spotless track record of making predictions. And here we see Jesus He says, "He is coming again." And you can write this down.
38:44-38:44
He will.
38:46-38:47
He will.
38:49-38:51
Do you believe God's word?
38:52-38:53
Do you believe the words of Jesus?
38:56-39:01
Because it's going to happen just as he said.
39:02-39:07
And what we have here are three good reasons to take it to the bank.
39:09-39:11
Don't try to dismiss it.
39:12-39:14
Don't try to explain it away.
39:14-39:16
And please don't put it off.
39:18-39:19
Get ready for it.
39:20-39:20
Let's pray.
39:22-39:32
Father in heaven, I just thank you for these signs that you've given us.
39:32-39:45
And we shouldn't, we shouldn't need them, but God, you know our weakness, that we could look at such spectacular teaching of Jesus and be like, wow, is that really, is that really how it's going down?
39:45-39:47
But God, you've given us all these signs.
39:51-39:54
Father, we thank you most of all for the sign of the word of God.
39:55-39:57
Jesus said his words will not pass away.
39:57-40:15
And 2000 years ago, we have a room full of people that made it a priority to come to examine and to study and to internalize and to apply the words of Jesus that He spoke.
40:20-40:42
So Father, I pray that we would be watchful and that the signs that we're seeing would increase our faith, they would increase our hope, They would increase our longing for the day that you come to make all things right, and you come to make all things new.
40:44-40:46
We pray in Jesus' name, amen.
Small Group Discussion
Read Matthew 24:32-35
What was your big take-away from this passage / message?
What was Jesus' point about the fig tree (Matt 24:32-33)? Which signs seem the most obvious to you?
What did Jesus mean by “this generation” (Matt 24:34)? If He is indeed referring to Israel, how is the existence of Israel strong proof that history will close as the Bible tells us?
Breakout
Pray for one another.
Want more eschatology teaching?
Catch up on the previous verse by verse teaching through Revelation
Catch up on the previous verse by verse teaching through 2 Thessalonians