The Olivet Discourse: Part Four

Matthew 24:29-31 – “The Need for Hope” (part 1)

A sermon by Pastor Joe Haynes

Preached on September 8, 2024 at Beacon Church

When you read Jesus’ words in Mat 23:38, and see the history of desolation that has befallen the Jewish people ever since, you should ask, “How long?” Have you ever cried out to God, “How long O Lord?” It is a godly prayer. It is a biblical way to pray: When a soul is greatly troubled, “O Lord—how long? Turn O Lord, deliver my life; save me for the sake of your steadfast love!” (Ps 6:3-4); “How long O Lord? Will you forget me forever? How long will you hide your face from me?” (Ps 13:1); “How long O Lord… rescue me from their destruction!” (Ps 35:17); “How long, O LORD? Will you be angry forever?” (Ps. 79:5); “O LORD God of hosts, how long will you be angry with your people's prayers? You have fed them with the bread of tears and given them tears to drink in full measure,” (Ps. 80:4-5); “How long, O LORD? Will you hide yourself forever? How long will your wrath burn like fire?” (Ps. 89:46); “Return, O LORD! How long?” (Ps. 90:13); “O LORD, how long shall the wicked, how long shall the wicked exult?” (Ps. 94:3). Do you cry “how long?”

God also asks “how long?” “How long will you refuse to humble yourself before me?”  (Exod. 10:3); “How long will you refuse to keep my commandments…?”  (Exod. 16:28); “How long will this people despise me? And how long will they not believe in me, in spite of all the signs that I have done among them?” (Num. 14:11); “And Elijah came near to all the people and said, "How long will you go limping between two different opinions? If the LORD is God, follow him; but if Baal, then follow him," (1 Ki. 18:21). What answer will you give?

Well, over the past two Sundays, I’ve tried to show that the key to unlocking Jesus’ great prophecy in Matthew 24, is found in His final words to Jerusalem in Mat 23:38-39. He announced to the Jews, their “house” was about to be left desolate (38). But He held out hope that the Jewish nation would believe in Him one day (39). He told his disciples at that time to be ready for some things they lived to see happen and also predicted things that went far beyond their lifetimes. Looking into the future, Jesus said desolation comes before the salvation of the Jews. But then they will see Jesus again. Because He will come again. That great day is the day believers hope for. The return of the Lord Jesus Christ is when His people will never again cry, “How long?” If you belong to Christ, and have the Spirit of God within you, Christ is who you are longing for—and He is coming back. But that day of joy for believers will be a day of terror for unbelievers. In this prophecy, in Matthew 24, the Lord shows His disciples what the future would hold for their people. And in these three verses, He shows the events that signal His return. This is very relevant whether you are a Jew or a Gentile.

Do you dread the Day of the Lord? Or do you long for His coming? Mark carefully these predictions Jesus gives. If His word proves true, you must no longer “go limping between two opinions” or sit on the fence, or delude yourself that Jesus will never return. In these verses, the Lord predicts three things that will herald His second coming. When they happen it means the Lord is near. That is very good news for believers who hope in Christ, and dreadful news for you if you don’t. The first thing the Lord Jesus predicts is…

The dominion of the Gentiles will end (29)

Ps 94:3 cries, “O LORD, how long shall the wicked, how long shall the wicked exult?” Jesus predicts the nations who delight in Israel’s suffering will be thrown down. ""Immediately after the tribulation of those days the sun will be darkened, and the moon will not give its light, and the stars will fall from heaven, and the powers of the heavens will be shaken," (Matt. 24:29 ESV). What Jesus predicts in verse 29 tells us how the great tribulation of Israel comes to an end. The oppression of Israel ends when the oppressors are punished. This explains what Jesus says in verse 22, that “for the sake of the elect, those days will be cut short.” In other words, God will begin to act on behalf of His elect, against the powerful nations who afflict them.

The Lord makes two key points in this one prediction: He says when this will happen, and He says how it will happen. First, Jesus says “after the tribulation of those days.” What tribulation? The tribulation He predicted in verses 15-22. Jesus predicted the destruction of Jerusalem and the Temple. And Jesus predicted great tribulation after the destruction of Jerusalem and the Temple. It is not just one or the other. And it is not a double fulfillment like some people say. It is a continuing fulfillment. A continuing tribulation. An era of tribulation that began in 70 when the Romans brutally destroyed Jerusalem and continued until the 20th century. That’s 1900 years. I suggested last Sunday that this great tribulation of the Jews is bookended by two horrific events: the destruction of Jerusalem by the Romans in 70 AD, and the genocidal Holocaust by the Nazis during World War II. If God had not cut those days short (22), the Jewish people would be extinct.

This is not a short tribulation of a few years but a great tribulation that nearly erased the Jews. They have been persecuted and crushed and abused by the nations of the world for 1900 years. They barely survived those centuries. Do you know about the evils the Jews suffered in between 70AD and the Holocaust?—about the massacres, mass murders, oppression, and forced expulsions committed against the Jewish people by the nations of Europe, by the Ottoman Empire, and by Islamic nations even into the 20th century?[i] So when Jesus says, “after the tribulation of those days,” it brings us right up to modern times: this is when this first prediction will happen.

Second, the Lord Jesus says “how”—how the tribulation of the Jews will end. ""Immediately after the tribulation of those days the sun will be darkened, and the moon will not give its light, and the stars will fall from heaven, and the powers of the heavens will be shaken," (Matt. 24:29 ESV). First notice the Sun “will be” darkened—by who? By God. And the powers of the heavens “will be shaken”—by who? By God. God will do this. Is this the end of the Solar System? Well no: verse 30-31 describe things that happen on earth after this. That’s good news for the planet, but bad news for whatever “the powers of the heavens” are. And notice that line: “the powers of the heavens will be shaken” is a poetic summary of the first three lines. It is Hebrew-style poetry here. Three parallel lines followed by a summary. When the Sun, moon, and stars are all darkened in various ways, the conclusion is: the powers of the heavens will be shaken. So the Sun, Moon, and Stars are all poetic metaphors for “powers.”

So you should be asking, “What kinds of powers is Jesus talking about?” We don’t have to guess. The passages His wording alludes to tell us what kind of powers these are.[ii] Isaiah 34:4 uses wording like this about the host of heaven, and the very next verse explains it was about the country of Edom.

 All the host of heaven shall rot away, and the skies roll up like a scroll. All their host shall fall, as leaves fall from the vine, like leaves falling from the fig tree. For my sword has drunk its fill in the heavens; behold, it descends for judgment upon Edom, upon the people I have devoted to destruction.  (Isa. 34:4-5 ESV)

Ezekiel 32:7 talks about the sun, moon, and stars going dark and four verses later God says He was sending Babylon to punish the Kingdom of Egypt (Eze 32:11-12). 

When I blot you out, I will cover the heavens and make their stars dark; I will cover the sun with a cloud, and the moon shall not give its light. (Ezek. 32:7 ESV)

"For thus says the Lord GOD: The sword of the king of Babylon shall come upon you.  12 I will cause your multitude to fall by the swords of mighty ones, all of them most ruthless of nations. "They shall bring to ruin the pride of Egypt, and all its multitude shall perish.  (Ezek. 32:11-12 ESV)

And Isaiah 13:10 says, “For the stars of the heavens and their constellations will not give their light; the sun will be dark at its rising, and the moon will not shed its light.” Then Isa 13:17 & 19 explain God was sending the Medes to overthrow the Kingdom of Babylon. 

Behold, I am stirring up the Medes against them... (Isa. 13:17 ESV)

And Babylon, the glory of kingdoms, the splendor and pomp of the Chaldeans, will be like Sodom and Gomorrah when God overthrew them. (Isa. 13:19 ESV)

All these three “powers”—these Gentile kingdoms, were punished as God said they would be: Egypt by Babylon in 605 BC; Edom by Babylon in 553 BC; and Babylon by the Medo-Persians in 539 BC. (I don’t have time in this sermon to explain how targeting the “heavens” means God was deliberately humiliating the demonic false-gods those nations worshiped but that’s the idea.)

What Jesus is predicting in verse 29, then, is that the end of the 1900 year Jewish tribulation would be marked by God punishing those Gentile nations who afflicted the Jews. Think about it. Those countries in Europe, North Africa, and the Middle East, who treated the Jews so severely, have all suffered severely. Some of them have rebuilt. Some are gone forever. Where is the Ottoman Empire now? Where is the Third Reich today? Gone. Some of the governments that have warred against the Jews are in ruins today—Syria, Lebanon, Libya, and Iraq. Some still wage their war but will not get away with it. “…The powers of the heavens will be shaken.” By who? By God. The era of Gentile nations ruling over and dominating the Jews lasted 1900 years. But it is over. The tide has turned. History has shifted. It has all happened just as Jesus said it would happen in the parallel passage in Luke’s Gospel: “They will fall by the edge of the sword and be led captive among all nations, and Jerusalem will be trampled underfoot by the Gentiles, until the times of the Gentiles are fulfilled,” (Lk. 21:24). This prediction has come true. The times of the Gentiles is over and Jerusalem is in the control of the sovereign state of Israel. Just as Jesus predicted.

How long will the wicked prosper? How long will God let evil people do evil? Not forever. A better question is, “How long will you refuse to humble yourself before God?” Seeing that Jesus’ prophecy has proven true so far should make sinners repent. And it should give hope to those who cry out to God for justice. The Lord predicts three things that will herald His second coming. First, the dominion of Gentile nations over the Jews. Second…

The unrepentance of Israel will end (30)

In Numbers 14:11, the Lord God asks, “How long will this people despise me? And how long will they not believe in me, in spite of all the signs that I have done among them?” What Jesus predicts in verse 30 tells how Israel’s rejection of the Lord Jesus comes to an end. The unrepentance of Israel will end when they repent. Jesus predicts the hardest of hearts will one day weep for Him. "Then will appear in heaven the sign of the Son of Man, and then all the tribes of the earth will mourn, and they will see the Son of Man coming on the clouds of heaven with power and great glory," (Matt. 24:30 ESV). I want you to notice in this verse, how the coming repentance of Israel is marked by three things they will see—3 parts to this verse. First, they will see something “in heaven”. Something will “appear” to them. Something will become apparent to them. Jesus says it will “appear in heaven.” And it seems to me that He is using the word “heaven” here like he did in verse 29. When God shakes “the powers of the heavens” He threw down rulers on earth. I think that’s what the people of Israel will begin to see in the last days: it will become apparent to them that something wonderful has changed with regard to rule and authority to rule on earth. That’s where this change will appear: in the sphere of those who rule the earth—“in the heavens.”

Second, they will see a sign. A sign is something you can see that stands for something you need to understand. That’s what a sign is. Jesus doesn’t say exactly what this sign will be—what they will be able to see. But He does tell us what they will understand when they see it: they will know that Jesus Christ is the Son of Man. This was something about Jesus that the Jews could never see during Jesus’ earthly ministry. He looked like a nobody. A wandering teacher. A former builder from Nazareth. Certainly not like a King. But that’s who He is. That’s why He called Himself the Son of Man. It’s a quote from Daniel 7:13. 

 "I saw in the night visions, and behold, with the clouds of heaven there came one like a son of man, and he came to the Ancient of Days and was presented before him. And to him was given dominion and glory and a kingdom, that all peoples, nations, and languages should serve him; his dominion is an everlasting dominion, which shall not pass away, and his kingdom one that shall not be destroyed. (Dan. 7:13-14 ESV)

Jesus is saying a day is coming when something will become apparent to the people of Israel, that the Lord Jesus is not just a King, but that He is, in the words of Rev 1:5, “the ruler of kings on earth.” Israel will come to see that Jesus is this Son of Man. Something that will appear “in the heavens,” the sphere of those who have authority to rule and govern the earth, that will prove to the people of Israel that the Lord Jesus is the King of Kings on earth. Now I can only guess what that might be. But I know what it will cause.

“And then all the tribes of the earth will mourn…” This time Jesus alludes directly to the 12th chapter of Zechariah. 

And on that day I will seek to destroy all the nations that come against Jerusalem. "And I will pour out on the house of David and the inhabitants of Jerusalem a spirit of grace and pleas for mercy, so that, when they look on me, on him whom they have pierced, they shall mourn for him, as one mourns for an only child, and weep bitterly over him, as one weeps over a firstborn. (Zech. 12:9-10 ESV)

The next verses say the people will mourn tribe by tribe so that all the tribes in the whole land will weep (the Greek transl. keeps repeating the same word for “tribe,” φυλὴ, that Jesus uses here, Zech 12:12 LXX). The passage Jesus quotes does not say all the nations on earth but all the tribes of Israel in the land will mourn. And they weep for Him. Zech 12:10 says, “when they look on me, on him whom they have pierced, they shall mourn for him…” But is this really talking about Jesus? Yes, John 19:37 confirms that the words, “him whom they have pierced,” refers to the crucifixion of the Lord Jesus Christ. The people of Israel will come to realize that Jesus Christ whom they crucified is the King of Kings. And when they see it they will weep for Him. This won’t be a natural sorrow, but a supernatural conviction. John MacArthur is right: When Zechariah says God will “pour out a spirit of grace,” it means the Holy Spirit will convict them. “The Holy Spirit is so identified because He brings saving grace and because that grace produces sorrow which will result in repentant prayer to God for forgiveness.”[iii]

The third thing Israel will see is the most important truth about Him. "...And they will see the Son of Man coming on the clouds of heaven with power and great glory," (Matt. 24:30 ESV). When Israel sees Jesus coming again, as the Son of Man, the King of Kings to rule the earth forever, they will see Him coming “with power and great glory.” Clothed with the clothing of God. Clothed in power, clothed in glory. All the tribes of Israel will worship the Son of God. Do you wonder how long people will refuse to believe in God? More importantly, do you weep that people cannot see that God is Jesus? This should make you repent while there is time. The Lord predicts three things that will herald His second coming. The dominion of the Gentiles over the Jews, the unrepentance of Israel, and third…

The scattering of Israel will end (31)

Psa 80 asks, “O LORD God of hosts, how long will you be angry with your people's prayers? You have fed them with the bread of tears and given them tears to drink in full measure…” What Jesus predicts in verse 31 tells how God’s rejection of Israel will end; how He will gather the people He scattered; how He will bring the exiles home. Or, in the words of the Lord Jesus right before this prophecy, in Mat 23:37, how the Lord Jesus will gather Jerusalem’s children like a hen gathers her brood under her wings. " And he will send out his angels with a loud trumpet call, and they will gather his elect from the four winds, from one end of heaven to the other," (Matt. 24:31 ESV).

It is easy to just assume this is a description of “the rapture,” but neither those disciples or Matthew’s readers would have seen it that way. I believe in both the rapture and the last trumpet but not from this verse. (Having said that, I do want to affirm that the rapture, i.e., when believers are "caught up" to meet Christ in the air as He is descending to earth to rule, will take place at this time. It just isn't the focus of these verses. See my sermon on the rapture in 1 Thess 4.) Notice what you are supposed to notice in what Jesus says: First, whose angels are they? The Lord Jesus will send out “his angels.” All the angels of God belong to Jesus. He is God. Second, who sends them? The Lord Jesus sends them. By His authority. Third, how does He send them? “With a loud trumpet call…” Isaiah 27:13 predicts, “And in that day a great trumpet will be blown, and those who were lost in the land of Assyria and those who were driven out to the land of Egypt will come and worship the LORD on the holy mountain at Jerusalem.” Fourth, what does the Lord send His angels to do on that great Day? "...And they will gather his elect from the four winds, from one end of heaven to the other," (Matt. 24:31 ESV). “Hear the word of the LORD, O nations, and declare it in the coastlands far away; say, 'He who scattered Israel will gather him, and will keep him as a shepherd keeps his flock,’” (Jer. 31:10).

Neither those disciples or Matthew’s readers would hear in these words a description of the rapture of the Church. They would hear in these words of Jesus an unmistakeable prediction of the regathering of the people of Israel. These words allude to Deut 30:4, but let me read vv1-6: 

"And when all these things come upon you, the blessing and the curse, which I have set before you, and you call them to mind among all the nations where the LORD your God has driven you,  2 and return to the LORD your God, you and your children, and obey his voice in all that I command you today, with all your heart and with all your soul,  3 then the LORD your God will restore your fortunes and have mercy on you, and he will gather you again from all the peoples where the LORD your God has scattered you.  4 If your outcasts are in the uttermost parts of heaven, from there the LORD your God will gather you, and from there he will take you.  5 And the LORD your God will bring you into the land that your fathers possessed, that you may possess it. And he will make you more prosperous and numerous than your fathers.  6 And the LORD your God will circumcise your heart and the heart of your offspring, so that you will love the LORD your God with all your heart and with all your soul, that you may live.  (Deut. 30:1-6 ESV)

Not only are there Jews in the world who don’t know the Lord, there are Israelites in the world who don’t know they are Israelites. But neither of these problems will stop God from gathering the descendants of the people He scattered. Why? Because He promised He would do it. And you, as you see Jesus’ words prove true, learn what all this tells you about Jesus. Because God promised to give the unbelievers of Israel new hearts to believe in Him and love Him. Because He took on Himself all the responsibilities of both sides of the covenant. Because He fulfilled the covenant that Israel broke, in the obedience of His only begotten Son. Because He will not allow even one soul for whom Jesus died perish. Because, “for the sake of the elect,” He cut short the days of His anger and showed mercy and grace to sinners who don’t deserve it. This is our God.

The God who made such promises to Israel keeps those promises. We see the first of these three predictions already fulfilled. The second coming of the Lord Jesus Christ is near. A day believers long for, and a day of terror for unbelievers. So turn. Believe in Jesus today. Jesus says, in Lk 21:24-28, “They will fall by the edge of the sword and be led captive among all nations, and Jerusalem will be trampled underfoot by the Gentiles, until the times of the Gentiles are fulfilled. And there will be signs in sun and moon and stars, and on the earth distress of nations in perplexity because of the roaring of the sea and the waves,  people fainting with fear and with foreboding of what is coming on the world. For the powers of the heavens will be shaken. And then they will see the Son of Man coming in a cloud with power and great glory. Now when these things begin to take place, straighten up and raise your heads, because your redemption is drawing near."