In Matthew 24:3, the disciples asked about what will be the sign of his coming.
Actually that is a misconception.....the first “sign” Jesus gave was of his “parousia” (presence) not his “coming” (
erchomai)....Christ’s “presence” and his “coming” are separate events. One at the beginning of the last days and the other at the end of them.
His “presence” was to be discerned by a series of world events that indicated that he was already here. It was a signal that his “coming” as judge of all the earth would follow in God’s due time...but first, all the features of the sign had to be in evidence. There is no point to giving a “sign” to indicate what is obviously seen by mankind, as he will be at the final judgment.
What were they?
Matt 24:3-14...NKJV...
“Now as He sat on the Mount of Olives, the disciples came to Him privately, saying, “Tell us, when will these things be? And what will be the sign of Your coming, [parousia] and of the end of the age?” And Jesus answered and said to them: “Take heed that no one deceives you. For many will come in My name, saying, ‘I am the Christ,’ and will deceive many. And you will hear of wars and rumors of wars. See that you are not troubled; for all must come to pass, but the end is not yet. For nation will rise against nation, and kingdom against kingdom. And there will be famines, pestilences, and earthquakes in various places. All these the beginning of sorrows. “Then they will deliver you up to tribulation and kill you, and you will be hated by all nations for My name’s sake. And then many will be offended, will betray one another, and will hate one another. Then many false prophets will rise up and deceive many. And because lawlessness will abound, the love of many will grow cold. But he who endures to the end shall be saved. And this gospel of the kingdom will be preached in all the world as a witness to all the nations, and then the end will come.”
Since these things were foretold to occur at the time of his return in these “last days”...what is the evidence, and how many have we witnessed?
This period was to begin with unprecedented warfare.....the likes of which the world had never seen.
When did that happen? “The Great War” of 1914 was a war that engulfed the whole world....for the first time in history we had a “First World War”. It was followed by an epidemic of the Spanish Flu that took more lives than the war did.....food shortages were experienced on a scale never before seen as all efforts went into maintaining the military and labor shortages in turn caused food shortages.
Earthquakes have been recorded in record numbers since WW1, and continue to this day, with seismologists predicting even more frequent and damaging earthquakes. Mother Earth is heaving under man’s mismanagement.
We see a rise in hatred of one another because of religious and political differences...even among Christians. False prophets abound and deception is everywhere.....then there’s the love of neighbor and of those who once loved a person who is now their worst enemy. Love in today’s world is more about lust...transient and temporary.....genuine Christian love has almost disappeared.
But then it speaks about another sign.....the “
gospel of the kingdom will be preached in all the world as a witness to all the nations, and then the end will come” .
This is a global preaching work that is undertaken by Christ’s disciples in these “critical” end times (2 Tim 3:1-5), under conditions that require great ‘endurance’ on their part.
So what is “this gospel of the Kingdom” and who are out in the whole world, preaching it.....with the same message in every nation...? The ones who are hated and persecuted for telling the inconvenient truth.
Matthew 24:3 And as he sat upon the mount of Olives, the disciples came unto him privately, saying, Tell us, when shall these things be? and what shall be the sign of thy coming, and of the end of the world?
In Matthew 24:29-30a, Jesus explained what would be the sign of his coming and when. The sign of his coming will be the sign of the Son of man in heaven, Matthew 24:30a.
Do you see how much you have left out here? You jump from v3 to v30 thereby ignoring some very important information when identifying what Jesus actually said.
30 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.
Matthew 24:29 is the powers of the heavens shaken, which is what will take place in the sixth seal event.
That is when the sign of the Son of man appears in heaven, that will send terror into the hearts and minds of the wicked. The sign will be Jesus, sickle in hand (from Revelation 14:14).
By the time disobedient mankind, (drowning in a sea of confusion and unresolvable conflict), see this sign....it will be too late to ‘change lanes’. The time for action was while the preaching and the other signs were in evidence.....which is right now. There will never be another opportunity as Jesus said.....it will be
“just as the days of Noah” (Matt 24:37-39) when Noah was preaching to the people to warn them about what God was going to do...yet they ignored him and the colossal structure that it probably took him and his sons, decades to finish.
It was not Noah who closed the door of the ark...it was God. Once the door was closed, no amount of pleading would reverse his decision.
The people had all the “signs” they needed, but not a sole responded to Noah’s warning. He and his family, out of a whole world of mankind at that time, were “saved”....but not by God...they were saved by their obedience to his commands. It required something from them, otherwise they too would have perished. The instructions Noah was given, were precise, down to the last detail....and we too have our instructions.....but if we fail to follow them to the letter, we too could find ourselves standing on the wrong side of that door of opportunity....
