Scripture Reading:

Matthew 24

Please comment below with your conversation with God and/or insights from today’s Scriptures.

You can answer the following:

1. What are your overall thoughts about the chapter?

2. Do you ever consider the “End Times”? What kinds of feelings that it bring you? Dread? Confusion? Excitement?

3. What is your prayer to God brought on by this chapter?

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Chapter Notables:

1. Signs of the “End of Age”; many will come “in My Name” Jesus warned - verses 1-4

2. Wars and rumors of wars - verses 5-8

3. Persecution - verses 9-14

4. Great distress during those days - verses 15-22

5. False messiahs and prophets - verses 23-28

6. Cosmological signs - verses 29-31

7. Lesson from the fig tree; the eternality of God’s Word - verses 32-35

8. Warning to watch for no one knows the day nor the hour - verses 36-51

In The Safe House | Lemuel Ayudtud

The “end of age” we’ll be crazy, y’all! Stuff will be off the rails and the Gospel preachers will be off the chain. There will be things that we or people at that time will experience that no one has experienced before. They will be days of trouble but also of excitement. The end of all of what we know will come—that’s the troubling part; but Jesus will be coming to take us home with Him—that’s the exciting part.

The conversation about the end times have been discussed for over 2000 years now. Between the days of the apostles to a our day today, there have been many events that have looked like what Jesus shared in this chapter. There have been many people who have declared themselves to be the Messiah. There have been false prophets who declared that “this day“ and “that day” will be the time when Jesus returns. In fact there are denominations within Christianity that have actually been formed because certain of these “prophets” had so many followers that even though they were wrong, communities have built around their false prophecies. And instead of denouncing their so-called prophet, these people continue on.

There have also been wars and rumors of wars across the timeframe of Matthew 24 and today. In fact, world wars have occurred and massive amounts of people have died in those wars. Even in our day today, there are constant conversations about potential wars. It seems that as long as man is alive and living in this planet there will always be that potential for war.

When it comes to the persecution of the church, God’s people have been persecuted even during the days of Jesus and immediately afterwards. We read it in the book of Acts how that the disciples of the Lord got beaten, jailed and even killed because of their profession of faith. Over the millennia hundreds and thousands if not millions of fellow believers and disciples of Jesus have been tortured, tormented, and even killed, some beheaded, some burned, for their faith confession.

So what’s the difference between all these thousands of years in the past and the upcoming “End Times”? What exactly are the cataclysmic, upcoming events that will look different than any other event that has happened before? If false Christs or wars and even famines have happened before, what more should we expect? I mean, there have been famines and earthquakes and tremendous disasters that have plagued humanity. Volcanoes have erupted, tsunami’s have come, and the earth has opened up and swallowed whole entire villages before this time. What else is there to happen?

Maybe we don’t want to ask. How can it get worse?

Though there have been tremendous amount of chaos since the time of Jesus, there has never been, at least not in recent time, heavenly bodies engaging with earth, though. Yep, that’s what we have to look forward to in the coming end of age. (Now are you still glad you asked?)

Jesus said that we will see the signs in the heavens. The darkening of the sun, the turning of the moon to the color of blood, and other cosmological elements happening that has never happened before. Just talking about it can give anyone the heebie-jeebies. When we consider that the earth is just spinning wildly, yet controlled, in open space, we can imagine that there could have been at least once since the time of Jesus, that some rock from the sky could’ve fallen on earth, but none as of yet. (Of course those are not the best things to read about. Just the thought of it—whoa!)

Attempting to describe possible upcoming, life ending events are not fun, so let’s just continue into the celebratory part of the prophecies of Jesus, shall we?

When we consider what hasn’t happened, then we can recognize that the possibility of it actually happening is greater now than it ever has been. Yes, just thoughts of it can bring us dread, but we can take heart and not wallow in fear. The hope is before any of those things will happen, at least in my understanding of the coming of Jesus, we will have an out in the return of Jesus for His Church. Much like a husband having the ability to keep his family and his wife safe from trouble, Jesus will come for His Bride before the cosmos collapses on the earth. In fact, part of the reason why there is a need for us to tell the world about Jesus, is this coming eventuality.

Those who are part of the Church, those who have placed their trust and faith in Christ Jesus, those who have turned their backs to the world are promised an out in the return of Jesus. We will take on heavenly bodies and not experience or become a casualty of the end times.

Our mission here on earth is grave, y’all. We are the hope of the world. We are the voice in the wilderness telling people to turn to Jesus so that they can have a shelter in Him when these things come. When will He come? Jesus said no one knows the hour or the day. We can’t put a time stamp on exactly when these things will be, but we have been warned of such things.

It is important for those of us that have been warned to share the warning with others so that we can all be prepared.

Do we share our hope in Christ Jesus just so we can make sure that we are out of the way when these things happen? That’s not our main agenda. The mission of the church is not to get out from the world, the mission of the church is to be in the world and heal the world while we are in it. Our thoughts should not be about the time we get out of earth and into our home in heaven; our thoughts have to be about the time we are in the world.

Believers are not thinking escape; we are thinking not about ourselves but about those around us. We are not like rats trying to leave a sinking ship; rather, we are captains in the ship telling others to to get into the boat of safety that is Christ Jesus. We are watchmen in the highest tower seeing afar off what is coming. We don’t run for our lives, we tell people to take shelter in the safe house. And that Shelter, our Safe House, is Jesus.

Lord, thank You for being my safety, thank You for being my Safe House. You are my hope in times of distress. You are my hope now as you will be in the future. Father, teach me to trust in You. And teach me to share my hope, that is resting in You, to others. Help me not to be motivated by fear or dread, but by your love and your desire for relationship with me and others. Lord, in the coming end times where sorrow and pain and suffering will be real, let me know and understand that people are already suffering and in pain right now. Their hope, as it is mine, is You. So, Lord, give me the courage to share with them Your salvation both for today and the future. In Your Name, Jesus, I pray, amen.