Day 311 – Matthew 24

Talking Points

• Matthew 24 is filled with prophecies concerning the end times before Jesus’s second coming. Quotations of Old Testament prophets and difficult ideas like the “Abomination of Desolation” may make the passage seem overwhelming (and maybe it is) (Matthew 24:15). However, the great takeaway is this — Jesus is certainly coming again! As believers, we can take hope, gladness, and confidence in this awesome truth!
• One of the markers of the end times is a loveless, cold culture where “lawlessness” greatly escalates (24:12). Be sure, this lawlessness is not only against man’s laws, but ultimately, it is in rebellion to God’s laws. People will ridicule, spurn, and break what the LORD has declared righteous and good.
• Verse thirteen seems to say that enduring to the end will result in salvation, an apparent work or thing to be done in order to be saved. But, the testimony of Scripture is plain, we are saved by faith and not of any act or work. Enduring will not result in salvation, but is the result of salvation. “Will be saved” is referencing the fulfillment of one’s salvation.
• To avoid being misled, it should be noted, false prophets can successfully display signs and wonders. These signs, no matter how marvelous, do not validate the false teachers’ claims. For believers, every teaching, every claim must perfectly square with the teaching of Scripture.

Thoughts

Do we really believe we have a supernatural God? A God who spoke things into existence, brought about a world-wide flood, parted the Red Sea so that there was dry ground to walk across, made the Jordan River stand up in a heap, made the sun stand still for a whole day, shut the mouths of lions trained to kill, and brought the dead to life again? Really? Or is it something from a faraway time and faraway place? Something that, when we think about it, seems more like a fairy tale?

When we get wrapped up in the everyday, humdrum monotony of the day-to-day things that — just — keep — happening, we forget that our God is the same God who worked those miracles. It effectively turns us into the same sleeping people in Matthew 24 who are busy living their normal lives, who are not alert, and who fail to discern the signs of the times. This state of mind is really a dangerous place to be as believers. It changes our perspective. It deprives us of our urgency to tell a lost world the good news of Jesus. It steals our wonder of our miraculous, powerful God. It robs God of the glory He is due.

The truth is Jesus is coming back. There will actually be a day when the door of the ark of our salvation — Jesus — is shut, and God, in His supernatural power will judge the whole earth and “GATHER TOGETHER His elect from the four winds, from one end of the sky to the other” (24:31).

May we “recognize that He is near, right at the door,” and that He will supernaturally do all He has promised to do (24:33).