Matthew 24

1 – 2

Jesus left the Temple and was walking away. But his followers came to show him the Temple’s buildings. Jesus asked, “Do you see all these buildings? I tell you the truth. Every stone will be thrown down to the ground. Not one stone will be left on another.”

Jerusalem and the Temple were destroyed in 70 A.D. when the Romans were tired of the Jews always fighting against them. The Roman soldiers burned the Temple and then they saw that gold was running into the cracks of the stones so they pulled them apart to get the stones. All that can be seen today are some of the lowest foundation stones.

3 – 6

Later, Jesus was sitting on the Mount of Olives. His followers came to be alone with him. They said, “Tell us when these things will happen. And what will happen to show us that it is time for you to come again and for the world to end?”

Jesus answered: “Be careful that no one fools you. Many people will come in my name. They will say, ‘I am the Christ.’ And they will fool many people. You will hear about wars and stories of wars that are coming. But do not be afraid. These things must happen before the end comes.

There are already many groups who say that Jesus is with them and will soon show Himself. Matthew shows us that every eye will see Him so there is no way that Jesus will come and hide Himself with some crazy group of people.

7 – 8

Nations will fight against other nations. Kingdoms will fight against other kingdoms. There will be times when there is no food for people to eat. And there will be earthquakes in different places. These things are like the first pains when something new is about to be born.

We already see small wars all around the world. There are earthquakes now in places that have never had one before. There are more people without food now than at any time in the world’s history.

9 – 11

Then men will arrest you and hand you over to be hurt and kill you. They will hate you because you believe in me. At that time, many who believe will lose their faith. They will turn against each other and hate each other. Many false prophets will come and cause many people to believe false things.

The world as we know it now will be turned into a place of complete confusion. Men will be under the control of demons and do things that we would never expect. An old plan of the devil and evil men is to make trouble and then come and promise to save us from the trouble which they made!

12 – 13

There will be more and more evil in the world. So most people will stop showing their love for each other. But the person who continues to be strong until the end will be saved.

Already we see a spirit of evil spreading over the earth like never before. Men are plainly saying that killing and burning cities is good. Government leaders are saying that these evil things are good. There will be no rule of law. Governments will collapse. Killing babies in the worst possible way is now called good. Men will be hurting children and their own families.

14. The Good News about God’s kingdom will be preached in all the world, to every nation. Then the end will come.

With the internet and modern travel we have been given the job of sharing the Gospel to the whole world. Pray about this before you decide to let somebody else do it!

15 – 16

Daniel the prophet spoke about ‘the horrible thing that destroys.’ You will see this terrible thing standing in the holy place. You who read this should understand what it means. At that time, the people in Judea should run away to the mountains.

First the antichrist will come and make a fake peace with Israel. Watch for peace deals with the Jews! Those who are left behind on the earth will be hunted by the antichrist, God has made a place for the Jews to hide (Isaiah 16:4). God cares about the things the Jews will have to run away from even though they waited until the very last days to see the truth! Daniel 12:11

17 – 22

If a person is on the roof of his house, he must not go down to get anything out of his house. 18 If a person is in the field, he must not go back to get his coat. At that time, it will be hard for women who are pregnant or have nursing babies! Pray that it will not be winter or a Sabbath day when these things happen and you have to run away.

This is because at that time there will be much trouble. There will be more trouble than has ever happened since the beginning of the world.

And nothing as bad as that will ever happen again. God has decided to make that terrible time short. If that time were not made short, then no one would go on living. But God will make that time short to help the people he has chosen.

The Jews who live at that time and see these things happening can run away to the hiding place that God has prepared for them in the desert. God will use these things to show them that He loves them and they will see that Jesus is their Messiah.

The antichrist will not keep his promises to the Jews, and he will try to kill them. God will protect them in the land of Moab. Most teachers believe they will hide in the city of Petra.

Let My outcasts stay with you, O Moab; be a shelter to them from the face of the enemy. Isaiah 16:4

23 – 27

At that time, someone might say to you, ‘Look, there is the Christ!’ Or another person might say, ‘There he is!’ But do not believe them. False Christs and false prophets will come and perform great things and miracles. They will do these things to the people God has chosen. They will fool them, if that is possible. Now I have warned you about this before it happens.

If people tell you, ‘The Christ is in the desert’—do not go there. If they say, ‘The Christ is in the inner room’—do not believe it. When the Son of Man comes, he will be seen by everyone. It will be like lightning flashing in the sky that can be seen everywhere.

Until we see Jesus in the sky there is no reason to think that He has already come!

28. Wherever there is a dead body, there the vultures will gather.

False teachers will have their followers.

29 – 31

Soon after the trouble of those days, this will happen: The sun will grow dark. And the moon will not give its light. The stars will fall from the sky. And everything in the sky will be changed.’
At that time, there will be something in the sky that shows the Son of Man is coming.

All the peoples of the world will cry. They will see the Son of Man coming on clouds in the sky. He will come with great power and glory. He will use a loud trumpet to send his angels all around the earth. They will gather his chosen people from every part of the world.

God loves His people and He will show many warnings in the sky to get people to pay attention. These things will cause some people to start looking for God and other people will believe that these happen for some other reason. This is why the world wants to make people believe that there are other kinds of life on other planets. This way they can explain away everything that God does and say that these things came from somewhere else. Isaiah 13:10; Isaiah 34:4

32 – 35

The fig tree teaches us a lesson: When its branches become green and soft, and new leaves begin to grow, then you know that summer is near. So also, when you see all these things happening, you will know that the time is near, ready to come. I tell you the truth.

All these things will happen while the people of this time are still living! The whole world, earth and sky, will be destroyed, but the words I have said will never be destroyed!

The fig tree shows us that Israel will slowly come back to being a nation. We should watch everything that happens to Israel so that we can know what the Lord is doing.

36. “No one knows when that day or time will be. Even the Son and the angels in heaven do not know. Only the Father knows.

When Jesus became a man He gave up the power to know all these things.

See Philippians 2:5-11. God told Daniel to seal up until the last days. Anybody who says that they know the time of the end is confused. God will show us what we need to know at that time. Daniel 12:4.

37 – 41

When the Son of Man comes, it will be the same as what happened during Noah’s time. In those days before the flood, people were eating and drinking. They were marrying and giving their children to be married. They were still doing those things until the day Noah entered the boat.

They knew nothing about what was happening. But then the flood came, and all those people were destroyed. It will be the same when the Son of Man comes. Two men will be working together in the field. One man will be taken and the other left. Two women will be grinding grain with a hand mill. One woman will be taken and the other will be left.

People are not getting ready for the Lord’s return. The men of Noah’s day watched him build an ark and were not interested. When we read the story of Noah we can see how people were not listening to Noah and other evil things, it will be the same in the last days. They could see that an ark was waiting for them if they wanted it. God will use us to show them there is a way out but many will ignore us.

42 – 44

So always be ready. You do not know the day your Lord will come. Remember this: If the owner of the house knew what time a thief was coming, then the owner would be ready for him. The owner would watch and not let the thief enter his house. So you also must be ready. The Son of Man will come at a time you don’t expect him.

The thing that makes the most sense is that God does a lot of things during the feasts of Israel. Be awake in these last days to see what God may do during these times! We are being warned as we see these things growing and we cannot sleep through these last days!

Here is the best way to be ready: make sure that you have given your life to Christ and then watch and pray!

45 – 47

Who is the wise and trusted servant? The master trusts one servant to give the other servants their food at the right time. When the master comes and finds the servant doing his work, the servant will be very happy. I tell you the truth. The master will choose that servant to take care of everything the master owns.

We are not called to hide from these things in the last days but to keep working to bring as many people as possible to Jesus!

48 – 51

But what will happen if the servant is evil and thinks his master will not come back soon? Then that servant will begin to beat the other servants. He will feast and get drunk with others like him.

And the master will come when the servant is not ready and is not expecting him. Then the master will punish that servant. He will send him away to be among the hypocrites. There people will cry and grind their teeth with pain.

Already we see a spirit of evil spreading over the earth like never before. Some Christians have given in to a spirit of fear and turned against each other. Men are plainly saying that killing and burning cities is good. Government leaders are saying that these evil things are good. Killing babies in the worst possible way is now called good.