DISPENSATIONALLY there are three classes of people in the world — the Jew, the Gentile, and the Church of God. Spiritually there are but two — believers who are saved by faith in the Person and work of the Lord Jesus Christ, and unbelievers who reject that only way of salvation.
Spiritually, then, there are but two classes — saved or lost. Dispensationally there are three — Jews, Gentiles, and Christians (1 Cor. 10:32).
Now the coming of the Lord affects each of these, and hence the immense importance of the subject to every soul of man the wide world over. But why should Christians expect the coming of the Lord?
I. Christians should expect the coming of the Lord because the Lord Jesus Himself constantly foretold His return while here below. In that most striking prophetic outline given to us by the Lord Himself in His discourse to His disciples in Matthew 24. and 25., He unfolded to them the bearing of this weighty truth with reference to the three classes of people we have mentioned above.
The Coming of the Lord with Reference to the Jew.
Three times in the Gospel of Matthew do we find the blessed Lord presented to the Jewish people as their Messiah in fulfillment of three different lines of prophetic testimony.
First, He was presented to them at His birth in fulfillment of the prophecy of Isaiah, “Behold, a virgin shall be with child, and shall bring forth a son, and they shall call His name Emmanuel, which being interpreted is, God with us” (Matt. 1:23; Isa. 8:14). But Israel would not have Him.
Secondly, He was presented to them as their Messiah during His life of active service in fulfilment likewise of Isaiah’s prophecy, “Himself took our infirmities, and bare our sicknesses” (Matt. 8:17; Isa. 53:4). But still Israel would not have Him.
Once again, and for the third time, was Jesus presented to the stiff-necked people in fulfillment of the words of the prophet Zechariah. For the last time before the cross the blessed Lord drew near to Jerusalem, the city of solemnities. The prophet’s words must be fulfilled, “Tell ye the daughter of Sion, Behold, thy King cometh unto thee, meek, and sitting upon an ass, and a colt the foal of an ass” (Matt. 21:5; Zech. 9:9; Isa. 62:11). But again they reject Him, for “when the chief priests and scribes saw the wonderful things that He did, and the children crying in the temple, and saying, Hosanna to the Son of David; they were sore displeased” (Matt. 21:15).
All through His life, doubtless, He had been presented to the guilty nation; not a word nor an act that had not been a witness had they had ears to hear and eyes to see, or, better still, hearts to believe. But these were the three special lines of testimony; at His birth, during His ministry, and at the very close just before He died — not for that nation only, but for a world of sinners; and that to fulfill, not only prophecies of earthly blessing for Israel, but purposes of eternal blessing, even the “better things” provided for the Church, not merely for a thousand years of earthly blessing under Christ’s reign, but “throughout all ages, world without end” (Eph. 3:21). The promises made unto the Jewish fathers will be fulfilled during the millennium, and then will cease, whereas the Church’s portion as united to Christ will endure to all eternity; this latter is God’s “eternal purpose, which He purposed in Christ Jesus our Lord” (Eph. 3:11).
Jesus entered the temple (Matt. 21:12). He found it, instead of a house of prayer, a place of merchandise. Woe upon woe did He pronounce upon the scribes and Pharisees — the religious leaders of the people — and then uttered the solemn sentence that has written desolation upon the whole Jewish system of religion from that day to this, and on until the day when repentant and believing they will say, “Blessed is He that cometh in the name of the Lord” (Matt. 23:34-39).
For the last time His feet had trodden those courts, “Jesus went out, and departed from the temple” (Matt. 24:1). The Jewish system of earthly worship was judged, and with it the whole fabric fell to the ground. For a little while it continued in outward form until the Romans carried away the golden vessels, and destroyed the temple.
The disciples, occupied with Jewish hopes, and unable as yet to grasp the full import of the sentence, “Behold your house is left unto you desolate,” point with pride to the magnificent buildings of the temple. With unmistakable precision Jesus this time announces the complete ruin of it all, “Verily I say unto you, There shall not be left here one stone upon another that shall not be thrown down” (Matt. 24:2).
These were serious words that drew from the disciples the anxious question, “Tell us, when shall these things be?” But a further question still is asked by them, “What shall be the sign of Thy coming, and of the end of the age?” — for age it should be, and not “world.”
“Thy coming” — then Christ was indeed to return, though He had not yet departed; He was to return, too, in connection with the Jewish nation.
It will be noticed that in this Gospel a twofold question of the disciples is recorded, whereas in the Gospel of Luke one only is mentioned (Luke 21:7). This is of importance to observe, for while what is written in Luke has special reference to what has been already accomplished in the destruction of Jerusalem by the Romans, that which we find in Matthew points forward to what is yet future, and to what will immediately precede the coming of the Son of man and the end of the age.
The End of the Age.
It is imperative that we should have some clear understanding of the meaning of this expression. The phrase in our Authorized Version, excellent as that version is in most respects, namely, “the end of the world,” is most misleading. People gather from that that the Lord alluded to the close of the world’s history and the final judgment, but this is not the case.
Four times in this chapter do we find the expression, “the end”; and though to us Christians the force of these two words may not at first sight be evident, yet to the disciples who were on Jewish ground as to their calling and hopes, they had a very precise meaning. Repeatedly do they occur in the prophecies of Daniel. If chapter 8, 9, 11, and 12. of that book be carefully read, we cannot fail to be struck with the oft-recurring sentence, “the time of the end.” It has to do with the closing incidents of Israel’s history just before the appearing of the Son of man in glory; those closing days for them will be days of terrible tribulation. What happened in the past at the time of the siege of Jerusalem, awful, unspeakably awful as that was, is nothing to what will be experienced by them in the future.
Some of these trials and sorrows are described in our chapter (Matt. 24), but so terrible will they be that unless “those days should be shortened, there should no flesh be saved” (vs. 22). How different will that day of Jewish tribulation be from this day of gospel blessing! Then God will shorten the days of Jewish tribulation and persecution for His elect people’s sake, that is, the elect of that dispensation; whereas now He lengthens out the day of grace in His long-suffering mercy towards a sinful world (2 Peter 3:15). This explains a passage which is often much misunderstood, “He that shall endure unto the end, the same shall be saved” (vs. 13). It is often thought that this refers to the salvation of the soul, but this is not so. The word “saved” in this verse has the same meaning as in verse 22; it refers to the terrible persecutions that will overtake the Jewish remnant at the close of their history. Many will meet a martyr’s death and be rewarded with the martyr’s crown; these will be found in the first resurrection (Rev. 20:4). But those that endure to the end of that great tribulation will be saved to take part in the earthly kingdom of Messiah.
Further, these persecuted Jewish disciples will be the heralds of the gospel of the kingdom; they and not Christians of this dispensation will preach that gospel unto all the heathen nations (vs. 14).
It is important to notice that in this portion of Matthew 24. the scene and the subject are exclusively Jewish. The whole Christian dispensation is passed over in silence. The testimony to Israel instituted by the Lord Himself in Matthew 10. when He sent out His twelve disciples has been interrupted for the moment. The calling out of the Church and the special testimony of this dispensation has taken its place for the time; but when this parenthetic period has ceased at the coming of the Lord for the Church, and her rapture to meet Him in the air (1 Thess; 4), then the testimony to Israel will be resumed amidst fiery persecution — “when they persecute you in this city, flee ye into another: for verily I say unto you, Ye shall not have gone over the cities of Israel, till the Son of man be come” (Matt. 10:23). From this passage it is evident that there will be a resumption of this particular testimony to Israel, carried on by Jewish disciples.
But their testimony at the close will extend farther than to the cities of Israel — “This gospel of the kingdom shall be preached in all the world for a witness unto all nations; and then shall the end come” (Matt. 24:14). This, we repeat, is not the subject of Christian testimony to the world to-day. People have gathered from this verse that the Lord cannot come for the Church until all the heathen nations have been evangelized; and as this has not yet taken place, they conclude that it is a mistake to imagine that the Lord might come at any moment. But this is a misinterpretation of the passage.
All here is Jewish. The reference to Daniel’s prophecy (vs. 15) makes this perfectly plain. The allusion to Judea (vs. 16) confirms it. Then, too, the prayer that their flight should not be on the Sabbath day (vs. 20), all goes to prove that a people under the obligation to keep the law are in view.
“Then shall be great tribulation, such as was not since the beginning of the world to this time, no, nor ever shall be” (vs. 21). To no other people than the Jews could this verse be applied. It is clearly the same period as that spoken of by Daniel (Dan. 12:1), who adds that “at that time thy people shall be delivered.” Thy people — that is, Daniel’s people; not Christians, but Jews. Immediately after this time of awful tribulation, the sign of the Son of man shall appear in heaven, all the tribes of the earth shall mourn, and they shall see the Son of man coming in the clouds of heaven with power and great glory.
This is the coming of the Lord as it will affect the Jewish people. He will come as Redeemer to Zion, unto them that turn from transgression in Jacob (Isa. 59:20); but to the ungodly amongst them that day shall burn as an oven, and all the proud, yea, and all that do wickedly shall be as stubble (Mal. 4:1). In this aspect of His coming, He comes to the earth, “to Zion,” as it is said, and not merely into the air, as from 1 Thessalonians 4, we know He will come for the Church.
Things are moving rapidly towards this great event, the return of the Lord Jesus Christ. In the course of this present inquiry into the Scriptures, we shall see that at any moment the Lord may come for His saints, both for those that “sleep in Jesus” and for us which are “alive and remain,” but His return, so far as it will affect the Jews, cannot take place until their restoration to Palestine. His descent into the air for the heavenly saints must precede His coming to Zion for the deliverance of His earthly saints.
We are far from desiring to fix any date for the coming of the Lord. All those who at any time have attempted to do so have exposed their own folly, and have ignored the plain statement of the Word of God that of that day and that hour knoweth no man (Mark 13:32); nevertheless we are more and more persuaded that we are drawing very near to that glorious moment. A passage that has lately come before us with amazing power and interest in this connection we would briefly bring before the reader’s notice. In Hosea 5:13, we learn what is God’s present attitude towards Israel, “I will go and return to My place.” In other words, God has withdrawn Himself from all active interference in their affairs.
The Jews exist scattered in all nations, according to the word of the Lord by Moses, in Leviticus 26. and Deuteronomy 28; their own sin has brought this judgment upon them. This silence on God’s part will continue “till they acknowledge their offense, and seek My face.” Their great offense has been, not merely a broken law, but a crucified Messiah. Presently in their affliction they will seek Him. Then they will say, “Come, let us return unto the Lord” (Hos. 6:1). At present they are talking of returning to Palestine, and this they will do in unbelief, but after a while the Spirit of the Lord will work in their midst, a remnant from amongst them will turn to God in true repentance and contrition.
“After two days will He revive us,” says the prophet; “in the third day He will raise us up” (Hos. 6:2). Evidently these days must be taken in a figurative sense; they are not literal days of twenty-four hours. What do they mean? “One day is with the Lord as a thousand years” we are told in 2 Peter 3:8. Now it is close upon two thousand years since Israel’s rejection of Christ, their Messiah.
Their two days of scattering for this their crowning act of wickedness is rapidly approaching an end. What will be the third day of their raising up? May it not be the thousand years of millennial joy under the reign of “great David’s greater Son?” At any rate, without fixing the date of Christ’s return for us in the air, which might take place to-day, the present Zionistic movement amongst the Jews coinciding so remarkably with the near completion of the two thousand years of their wandering and scattering is, to say the least, most suggestive.
“Lift up, lift up thy voice with singing, Dear land, with strength lift up thy voice! The kingdoms of the earth are bringing, Their treasures to thy gates — Rejoice!
Arise and shine in youth immortal, Thy light is come, thy King appears! Beyond the century’s swinging portal Breaks a new dawn — the thousand years.”