Finding Jesus in the Bible…So We Can Follow Him in Life
Bible Reading Plans
- Plan One: New Testament Only
- Plan Two: New Testament + Psalms
- Plan Three: New Testament + History
- Plan Four: The Entire Bible – Year 1 of 3, Year 2 of 3, Year 3 of 3
Don’t know which plan? Go to A Christ-Centered Bible Reading Plan: Quick Start.
Extras
Verse of the Day, Audio Capsule, and Video Minute
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(Today’s Reading)
The Biblical Case for the Second Coming as Accomplished Fact
(Book Installment 11)
Part Two – The Timing of the Second Coming
Chapter 2 – What the Gospels Say
“When Are You Coming?” (continued)
The primary text we are using for our discussion here is Matthew chapters 24 and 25. Bible scholars often call it the Olivet Discourse, or, less often, the Olivet prophecy. These names derive from the Mount of Olives which was opposite the temple and which was the place where this Q&A session with His disciples took place. Mark and Luke also record this episode (in Mark 13 and Luke 21) and we will use their accounts to supplement and help us understand Matthew’s. The reason we are focusing on this particular conversation is that it is the one time Jesus was asked point-blank by His disciples about the timing of His second coming. He gives an almost two-chapter answer. Could there be a better place for us to start if we want to move beyond confusion?
We will see that Jesus directly answers the disciples’ questions, giving them a timetable by which they can know the approximate time of His second coming. If he didn’t want them to know, or thought their line of questioning inappropriate, He could have rebuked them, or at least sent their thinking a different direction (as the gospels reveal that he did on a number of other
occasions). Instead, we see Him giving a thoughtful and extended answer, as He always did whenever a question was appropriate. Since these men were going to bear witness to Him all around the world and suffer greatly in the process, most of them dying violently by persecution, Jesus thought it entirely proper that they should know the answer to their questions. After all, it was a key part of their message to say that Messiah would be coming in glory (that is, what we call His Second Coming) and that people didn’t have forever to get ready. And we will see that the disciples not only communicated repeatedly that Jesus was coming again but also passed on
the same timeframe He was giving them on this very day. (As you read through Matthew 24-25, you may recognize various individual verses which have been ripped from their context by zealous but erring preachers bent on proclaiming a delayed Second Coming, contradicting each other in many respects. You will, however, see for yourself how these verses actually fit
together in one cohesive narrative which clearly points to a Second Coming in that generation.)
In answering His disciples (and you can have your Bible open to Matthew 24-25 as I describe it to you), Jesus first tells them not to be misled or deceived by false Messiahs – for there would be plenty of them. Then He tells His disciples that wars, rumors of wars, famines, and earthquakes will come. He tells them that these things do not denote the end, but only the
beginning of pains they will see (birth pangs that bring in a new age). Then they themselves will be persecuted and even killed. It will be so bad that betrayal will occur among the ranks of Christ’s followers. And during this time, many false prophets will arise. But the disciples should stay on mission until the gospel is preached throughout the whole world, for, since that was the goal, only then would the end come. What end? The end of the age they asked Him about.
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