What a sight is this! Jesus sat on the mount of Olives, three days only before He suffered the death of the cross. The disciples came to Him privately. What a privilege! Have we not the same privilege now, so near His return? Yes, wondrous privilege! Where two or three are gathered together to His name, there He is in the midst of them. How blessed to sit at His feet! Let us meditate on every word that comes from His precious lips. The Holy Ghost dwelling in us, abiding with us, we thus can understand the words of Jesus.
How solemn the denunciations of the previous chapter! As Jesus went out, and departed from the temple, He told them, " Behold, your house is left unto you desolate." They had rejected Him as Messiah, and as such shall not see Him henceforth, till they shall say, " Blessed is he that cometh in the name of the Lord."
Oh, Christendom, Christendom, is it not even so also with thee? Judgment was then at the doors of Jerusalem. Is not judgment at the door of Christendom? How desolate was Jerusalem's temple, when Jesus left it, and went up on high! How desolate will Christendom be when the body, the church, is taken to meet Him! The disciples were occupied with the buildings of the temple. And is it not so now? only, with the complete revelation of God in our hands, is it not more sad? But are we not too much occupied with buildings and ritual?
Jesus said, " Verily I say unto you, There shall not be left here one stone upon another, that shall, not he thrown down." Let us listen. The disciples ask three questions, "Tell us when shall these things be?" The judgments denounced against Jerusalem. " And what? shall be the sign of thy coming? and of the end of the world [or age]?" " Jesus answered.'' Yes, we have the answer of Jesus to these three questions; but not in the order in which they are put, but as they will be fulfilled. First, the things, the judgments denounced. (Vers. 4-14.) Secondly, the time of the end. (Vers. 15-28.) Thirdly, the coming of the Son of man. (Vers. 29-31; chap. 25:31-46.) Chapter 24:31 to 25:31, form a parenthesis.
Let us remember, at that time, the church had only been announced as a future thing, " Upon this rock I will build My church." (Matt. 16:18.) The three questions have no reference to it. They are about the Jews, and Jerusalem; and the return of the Son of man, to set up His kingdom on earth. We must not confound this with His coming for His church, to take her to heavenly glory. The answer then of Jesus in verses 4-14, gives the general history of the Jews, from the rejection of Jesus to the time of the end; also, a particular description of the remnant, immediately previous to "the end." The beginning of sorrows. Behold, oh my soul, the Holy One of God, sitting on the mount of Olives. There lay the city before Him, with all its future history. There, the splendid temple about to be destroyed. There, the multitude about to gnash their teeth and cry, " Crucify him." There, the place of Calvary, where He is about in three days to bear His people's sins. What a solemnity this gives to the prophetic utterances οΐ the Lord!
During this period, until the time of the end, wars, famines, pestilences, sorrows, persecutions, and desolations. Many deceived by false prophets, and iniquity abounding, and this brings us to the time of the end. This is ushered in, however, by the preaching of the gospel of the kingdom in all the world. We must mark, this is not the gospel of the grace of God, or of the glory, but the gospel of the kingdom. The coming reign of the Son of man. We find this shall be preached after the close of Christianity, and the redeemed church has gone to heaven.
You will notice, beloved reader, in our Lord's teaching, there is no thought of the world's conversion in these verses, which describe the state of things up to the time of "the end." Iniquity abounds to that very time. And only those who shall endure to "the end" shall be saved, and blessed on the earth, as Noah and those with him were brought through the flood.
Now we will notice the third question, but the second answer, " The end of the age." Yes, the Lord answers it thus, because He shows it is immediately after this time of the end that the Son of man cometh. It is helpful to see that when the gospel of the kingdom shall be preached to all nations, " Then shall the end come."
Now He calls attention to the prophet Daniel, and points to that which marks, with certainty, the commencement of the time of the end. This is all-important, and He says, a Whoso readeth, let him understand." Let us turn to Daniel, and read a few verses in dependence on the Holy Ghost. There is evidently a specific time appointed of God to the Jews, called the time of the end. " The time of the end," because it is yet for a time appointed. (Dan. 11:35.) This time is to be one " of trouble, such as never was since there was a nation, even to that same time," &c. (Chap. 12:1) Daniel was to shut up the words and seal the book, " even to the time of the end" (Ver. 4.) Then one asks, " How long shall it be to the end of these wonders?" (Ver. 6.) Again, " Ο my Lord, what shall be the end of these things?" (Ver. 9.) The words are closed up, and sealed, till the time of the end." Then the days of this time of the end are counted. " From the time that the daily sacrifice shall be taken away, and the abomination that maketh desolate set up, there shall be a thousand, two hundred and ninety days." But to Daniel it is said, " Go thou thy way till the end be, for thou shalt rest, and stand in thy lot at the end of the days." (Ver. 13.)
Now if we would still further see the importance of understanding this reference of our Lord to Daniel, as to the time of the end, we must read carefully Dan. 9:24-27. We find seventy weeks determined upon Daniel's people the Jews, and their city. Those seventy weeks can only mean weeks of years, or 490 years. Their division is very remarkable—seven at the beginning, sixty-two, and one at the end. As Jesus sat and beheld the city, in three days, events of eternal moment in this prophecy were about to be fulfilled. Yes, in three days, the seven, and the sixty and two were about to be fulfilled. And they were fulfilled. There was Calvary where reconciliation for iniquity was made. There the sepulcher from whence He arose from the dead. Everlasting righteousness brought in. And as Messiah, He was cut off, and had nothing. Thus seven, and sixty-two, or sixty-nine of these weeks of years, or 483 years of this prophecy have run their course. The last week, or seven years, has not yet come. Not only was our blessed Lord cut off, and had nothing as Messiah, but the Romans came and destroyed the city. And then followed that sad parenthesis in their history of general desolations, and sufferings; exactly as described by the Lord in our chapter, Matt. 24:4-14. At the close of this unmeasured period, the prince of the people that destroyed Jerusalem is found making a covenant with them for the last one week, or seven years. (Dan. 5:27; 11) Now mark, it is in the midst of these seven years that he takes away the daily sacrifice, and sets up that Very abomination spoken of by our Lord. And from that very day, the days of the time of the end are measured. Thus nothing could be more distinctly marked in scripture than this time of the end.
How clear and how tender is the Lord's instruction to the remnant of Jews, who believe then! The setting up the abomination is the signal; the days of unparalleled tribulation begin. They are to flee to the mountains. So terrible, that unless those days spoken of in Daniel were shortened, no elect Jew, no flesh, should be saved. They are however shortened to 1260. (Rev. 13:6.)
We may listen then to the words of Jesus on Olivet (vers 15-28), as simply describing the time of the end, the last three years and a half of Daniel's vision, commencing with the setting up of the abomination of desolation.
Now He tells us what will take place immediately after the tribulation of those days. Yes, immediately after, The sun shall be darkened, the moon shall not give her light, and the stars shall fall from heaven, and the powers of the heavens shall be shaken. And then, ah listen to these words of Jesus! "And then shall appear the sign of the Son of man in heaven: and then shall all the tribes of the earth mourn, and they shall see the Son of man coming in the clouds of heaven, with power and great glory." Fellow Christian, washed in the blood of the Lamb, it is indeed most certain that before this coming of Christ in glory and to judgment, we shall have been caught up to meet Him, as it is written. (1 Thess. 4 Thess. 2:1-11.)
And it is also absolutely certain, "When Christ who is our life, shall appear, then shall ye also appear with him in glory." (Col. 3:4.)
My reader, if still unsaved, here is the most astounding event described by the Lord Jesus. A sight in the heavens that shall make all the tribes of the earth mourn. Your very eyes before you die, just as you are in your sins, and in your body, even you may see the Son of man coming in the clouds of heaven with power and glory. Ah then there will be no hiding from those eyes as a flame of fire. What will your companions avail you then? You have sacrificed your precious soul, it may be, to them, and the fashion of this world. Can they help you then? If you had all the riches and deceitful pleasures of this world, what would they be in the terrors of that day so near?
We beg, we entreat of you pause, ere it be too late. Lift up your eyes to the heavens, picture that moment, when suddenly, and unexpectedly, the Son of man appears in the sight of a guilty world. Infidelity will turn pale in that moment. And sleeping Christendom (still crying peace and safety!) Oh how sudden, how terrible the destruction! Now the Lord says, " Let him that is athirst come: and whosoever will, let him take the water of life freely." But then, forever too late! too late! Yes;; these words which describe what will take place both during the time of the end, and immediately after it, are the words of Him who is the truth.