Matthew Sermon 85 – Mat 24.3-28 – Take Heed that No One Deceives You

Immediately following Jesus’ prediction that the temple would be destroyed (Mat 24.1-2), the disciples ask him a “when” question about the destruction of the temple and two other things they knew were connected to it—Jesus’ coming in judgment on Jerusalem and the end of the old covenant age (Mat 24.3). The disciples’ motivation was highly practical and personal: They wanted to escape with their lives and the lives of their families. And that is also Jesus’ motivation for answering. As the good shepherd, Jesus has a great pastoral concern that his sheep not come under the destruction that he himself will be sending upon apostate Jerusalem (Mat 24.16-20). So he prepares them thoroughly for one of the most chaotic periods of recorded history, the period of 30 – 70 AD in the Roman empire. The precision with which Jesus’ predictions came true is one of the greatest evidences that Jesus is a true prophet and the Son of God. Unfortunately, the modern church typically misses the point and relegates Jesus’ prophesies to the distant future. There are two reasons for that: (1) the modern church doesn’t know the Old Testament, and therefore it doesn’t know how to read apocalyptic language; (2) the modern church doesn’t know the history of the first century.  We have already covered apocalyptic language in our preparatory sermons for the Olivet Discourse. In this sermon, we delve into the history of the first century and have our eyes opened to just how accurate Jesus was in his prophecies.

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