From the Top of the Mount of Olives  -  The Olivet Discourse.

These are the Words the Lord Jesus spoke to His disciples on the top of Mount of Olives. 

They are recorded in Matthew 24 and 25. 

They are called the Olivet Discourse simply because they were given from the top of Mount Olives.

In the 4 Gospels we have the Lord Jesus presented in the fourfold aspect of His glorious coming.

The Gospel of Matthew, presents Him as the King.  

The Gospel of Mark, presents Him as the Servant. 

The Gospel of Luke presents Him as the Son of Man, 

The Gospel of John presents Him as the Son of God. 

Therefore, when we read any of the Gospels, we ought to remember what the writer is emphasizing.

Now in the Olivet Discourse the Lord Jesus is speaking of last things, events that have to do with His Kingship. 

It has nothing in the world to do with the church. 

Sadly, people have been attempting to read some 2000 years of church history into this Discourse.

They have been superimposing the church upon a discourse in which the church is not mentioned.

Moses mentioned the fact that God was going to raise up a prophet like himself. He said:

"The Lord thy God will raise up unto thee a Prophet from the midst of thee, of thy brethren, like unto me; unto Him ye shall hearken. (Deuteronomy 18:15).

And God repeated it:

"I will raise them up a Prophet from among their brethren, like unto thee, and will put My Words in His mouth; and He shall speak unto them all that I shall command Him. (Deut.18:18).

The Lord Jesus Christ is the fulfillment of this prophecy. 

He is that Prophet, and Matthew 24 and 25 is His prophecy.

In Matthew 23 and 24 the Lord Jesus denounced the religious rulers, then He went out and wept over the city of Jerusalem. He denounced them in cutting terms.

He censured them in a fashion that absolutely blanches the soul when we read the account.

But He had spoken like that as the King, and He had exposed them with a broken heart. Now He says:

"O Jerusalem, Jerusalem, thou that killest the prophets, and stonest them which are sent unto thee, how often would I have gathered thy children together, even as a hen gathereth her chickens under her wings, and ye would not! Behold, your house is left unto you desolate. For I say unto you, Ye shall not see Me henceforth, till ye shall say, Blessed is He that cometh in the name of the Lord. (Matthew 23:37–39).

How literally that was fulfilled in a.d. 70.

Clouds were hanging over the city of Jerusalem, and the Roman army attacked and destroyed it.

The prophecy was literally fulfilled, the Words of our Lord were carried out to the very letter.

Then our Lord turned His back on Jerusalem.

We pick up our study at this point.

Matthew 24:1   "And Jesus went out, and departed from the temple: and His disciples came to Him for to show Him the buildings of the temple."

The Lord Jesus had just told His disciples that His Kingdom would be postponed and that the temple would be left desolate. 

The temple was made up of many buildings.

This was the temple that Herod was having built, and the construction was still in progress.

It was made of white marble, and it was beautiful. 

The disciples were disturbed at the remark of the Lord Jesus that it was to be left desolate. So they wanted to show Him around the buildings.

Matthew 24:2   "And Jesus said unto them, See ye not all these things? Verify I say unto you, There shall not be left here one stone upon another, that shall not be thrown down."

The disciples thought they saw it, and they asked Him to take a look. 

So our Lord Jesus said to them,

"Do you really see it?"

This is a good question for us to consider in our contemporary society.

Do we see the world around us?

Everything is under God’s judgment. 

It will all pass away.

All the cultural centers, all the government buildings, all the schools, all the universities, all the skyscrapers, all the malls, all the great cities, all the small cities and even the sea will all pass away someday. 

It seems impossible, and that is how the disciples felt.

Our Lord Jesus continued by saying, 

There shall not be left here one stone upon another, that shall not be thrown down." 

If His first statement put them in shock, this must have traumatized them.

History tells us that the Wailing Wall was made up of stones which came from different buildings in different periods. At the pinnacle of the temple, which evidently was the corner of the temple area, recent excavations reveal the same thing—there are all kinds of stones from different periods. 

What does that mean? 

Dear reader, that means that

not one stone was left upon another

 -  the builders had to go and pick up stones from different places because in a.d. 70 Titus the Roman really destroyed that city!

Although this is ancient history to us, it was a shocking revelation to the disciples, I'm sure. 

They talked it over, and then came to Him with 3 questions.

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?"

1) "When shall these things be?"  -  when one stone would not be left upon another; 

2) "What shall be the sign of thy coming?"  -  The answer is in verses 23–51; and 

3) "What shall be the sign of the end of the world?" -  The answer is in verses 9–22. 

The Lord Jesus answered these 3 questions, and we call His answers the Olivet Discourse because it took place on the Mount of Olives.

The Lord Jesus Answers the Disciples’ Questions.

The first question,

"When shall these things be?"  -  

when one stone shall not be left upon another, is not answered in the Gospel of Matthew. 

We find it in the Gospel of Luke, and we find segments of it in Mark. 

Why is it not included in Matthew’s gospel? 

Because Matthew is the gospel of the kingdom; it presents the King.

The destruction of Jerusalem in a.d. 70 has something to do with this age in which we live, but it has nothing to do with the distant future when the King is coming. 

Therefore, Matthew does not carry that part of the Olivet Discourse.

Look at our Lord’s answer to the first question, as recorded in Luke’s gospel: 

"And when ye shall see Jerusalem compassed with armies, then know that the desolation thereof is nigh. Then let them which are in Judaea flee to the mountains; and let them which are in the midst of it depart out; and let not them that are in the countries enter thereinto. For these be the days of vengeance, that all things which are written may be fulfilled. But woe unto them that are with child, and to them that give suck, in those days! for there shall be great distress in the land, and wrath upon this people. And they shall fall by the edge of the sword, and shall be led away captive into all nations: and Jerusalem shall be trodden down of the Gentiles, until the times of the Gentiles be fulfilled."  

Undoubtedly, many of those who heard the Lord Jesus say these things were present in a.d. 70 when the Roman armies surrounded the city, laid siege to it, cut it off from the rest of the world, then finally breached the wall and got in.

What the Romans did was terrible. They demolished the city. It was the worst destruction in its history, more devastating than that conducted by Nebuchadnezzar over six centuries earlier. 

When the Romans destroyed Jerusalem in a.d. 70, the first part of the Olivet Discourse was fulfilled.

The next two questions asked by the disciples were:

"What shall be the sign of thy coming, and of the end of the world [age]?"

The Lord answered the disciples’ questions in their chronological and logical order. 

He answered their last question 1st and their 2nd question last. 

The first thing He dealt with was the sign of the end of the world, or more accurately, the end of the age.

The world will never come to an end. 

The old world will pass away and a new earth will be brought on the scene. 

It will be similar to trading in your old car for a new one.

We do not say  "This is the end of the car-age for me. I don’t have a car anymore." We do have a car because we traded our old car in and got a new one. 

And the Lord is going to trade the old world in for a new one.

The world will not end but it will be the end of an age,

that is the word the disciples used in their question to the Lord Jesus.

In this Olivet Discourse, when Christ speaks of His coming, He is referring to His return to the earth to establish His kingdom. 

The church is not in the picture.

By the end of the age, the church will have been removed, and it will be the last days of the nation Israel. Our Lord was speaking about the Great Tribulation Period and so labels it in this discourse.

The Lord Jesus Traced the features of This Age.

Matthew 24:4   "And Jesus answered and said unto them, take heed that no man deceive you." 

The phrase  "Take heed that no man deceive you" is characteristic of this entire age. 

The Lord Jesus gives this Word of caution because there will be much deception, especially during the Tribulation Period when the Anti-christ will appear. 

Apostle Peter warns us in 

2 Peter 2:1 "But there were false prophets also among the people, even as there shall be false teachers among you, who privily shall bring in damnable heresies, even denying the Lord that bought them, and bring upon themselves swift destruction."

We do not have to worry about false prophets, because if anybody starts prophesying in our day, Christians can pooh-pooh him right off the scene because prophets are not for this period but 

We are to beware of false teachers.

There are many of them around.

We must test them by Scripture. 

Our Lord warns us, 

"Take heed that no man deceive you."

Matthew 24:5   "For many shall come in My name, saying, I am Christ; and shall deceive many."

Near the end of the age many people will claim to be Christ. 

We have such people present with us now. 

One man established a "holy city" in Northern California and expected any minute to be called to Washington, D.C., to solve the problems of the world. 

There are no "holy cities" on the face of the earth, 

but someday the Lord will come from the Holy of Holies in heaven to earth and solve the problems. 

It should be remembered that even now there are many antichrists, 

but at the end of the age there will come one Antichrist who will oppose Christ Jesus and set himself up as the only authority.

I believe that our Lord, up there on the Mount of Olives, looked down to the end of the age and to the Great Tribulation Period, but that at the beginning of His discourse, He bridged the gap by giving us a picture of the present age of the church. 

There are many Bible teachers who take the position that in verses 5–8 our Lord is speaking of the Tribulation Period. You will be in very good company if you go along with them.

However, I believe our Lord is not referring to the Great Tribulation until we get to v 9.

Wars and rumors of wars are not the sign that we are at the end of the age, by any means.

 The Lord is bridging the gap from where the disciples are to the end of the age.

 It is easy to think of major wars as indicative of the fact that we are at the end of the age. They are not! 

There have been many major wars in the past few thousand years and only about two hundred years of peace. 

At the end of World War I,  many books were printed declaring that it was the end of the world. 

World War I caused this type of thinking. 

But after the war, there was a worldwide depression, World War II, and the atom bomb. 

We have come a long way from World War II, and the end of the age still has not come. 

We ought to listen to the Lord Jesus 

and stop listening to false teachers. 

We should believe the Lord Jesus who told us, that there "will be wars and rumors of wars," and that we should not be troubled because all these things will happen and it will not mean the end of the age.

We must always keep in mind that man will never solve the problem of war. 

The United Nations will not be able to solve it.

There will be no peace until the Prince of Peace comes.

Matthew 24:7–8   "For nation shall rise against nation, and kingdom against kingdom: and there shall be famines, and pestilences, and earthquakes, in divers places. All these are the beginning of sorrows." 

These are all the characteristics of the entire age and are therefore not signs of the end of the age, "but the end is not yet" (verse 6). 

False christs, rumors of wars, famines, pestilences, and earthquakes characterize the entire church age, but they will  be intensified as we draw near to the end of the age. 

Right now the population explosion has the world frightened and rightly so. People are starving to death by the millions. 

And this situation will only increase. 

The old black horse of famine (see Rev. 6:5–6) has not appeared yet, but at the end of the age the black horse and its rider will come forth. 

What we see today is just the beginning of sorrows.

The next verse begins with our first "time" word:

Our Lord Jesus began to speak of the time of tribulation. 

We are living in the "age of the church" or "the age of the Holy Spirit."

The Bible divides the world into 3 groups of people: 

the Jews, 

the Gentiles, and 

the church of God (see 1 Corinthians 10:32). 

In this age God is calling out a people to His name from both Jews and Gentiles to compose the third group, the church.

It is this third group which will be taken out of the world at the time of the Rapture. 

Then the Great Tribulation will begin

and I believe that verse 9 speaks of this beginning  -  

Matthew 24:9   "Then shall they deliver you up to be afflicted, and shall kill you: and ye shall be hated of all nations for My name’s sake." 

Who is the you? 

Our Lord is not addressing the church but the nation Israel. 

The affliction He is talking about is anti-Semitism on a worldwide scale.

As long as the true church is in the world, there could not be worldwide anti-Semitism because the church would resist it. No genuine believer in the Lord Jesus could hate the Jews; it is an impossibility. 

It is my own feeling that the liberal church is presenting a false front to the Jews and that in the final analysis it will turn against them. 

But as long as the true church is in the world, there won’t be worldwide anti-Semitism; it will break out after the church has been removed at the Rapture.

Matthew 24:10-11   "And then shall many be offended, and shall betray one another, and shall hate one another. And many false prophets shall rise, and shall deceive many." 

As we saw earlier, the church is warned against false teachers while Israel is warned against false prophets. 

So here, after the church has been removed, the warning is given again against false prophets.

Matthew 24:12   "And because iniquity shall abound, the love of many shall wax cold."

This is a principle, and there are many principles in this Olivet Discourse which we can apply to our own day.

In liberal theology one can drink cocktails, smokes cigarettes, enjoy parties and live just like the rest of the world lives. 

"We are not to fight city hall but join it."

Sinful practices have gotten into the liberal wing of the church and they are not planning to fight them. 

"When iniquity abounds, the love of many shall wax cold." 

and this will be even more true at the end of the age.

Sadly, today most churches have become liberal and where I stay there is no fundamental church.

This next verse is very startling to some people  - 

Matthew 24:13  "But he that shall endure unto the end, the same shall be saved."

The question is:

Who endures to the end?

When we study the Book of Revelation, we find that God will stop all the forces of nature and of evil and even the forces of good while He seals a certain number of people.

So who is going to endure to the end?

Those whom He seals at the beginning, of course.

The Good Shepherd  -  in all ages  - will bring His sheep through to the end. When He starts with a 100 sheep, He will come through with a 100sheep.

When someone says to me, "So-and-so was very active in the church and has gone into sin. Is he saved?" I can only reply that I do not know. No one knows.

We will have to wait to see what happens.

I believe that people that are the pigs will eventually end up in the pigpen, and all the prodigal sons will all find their way back to the Father’s house.

It is confusing to find a son in a pigpen and a pig in the Father’s house.

Apostle Peter says,

"… the sow that was washed [has returned] to her wallowing in the mire" (2 Peter 2:22).

Let’s say that one of the little pigs went with the prodigal son to the father’s house, that he was scrubbed clean, his teeth brushed with Colgate, and that a pink ribbon was tied around her neck. But she did not stay at the father’s house, she went back to the pigpen where she felt she belonged.

"He that shall endure unto the end, the same shall be saved."

we have to just have to wait and see.

Sometimes a son, a Christian, will get into a pigpen, but since he is a son, he will long for his Fathers house and he will one day arise and come home.

Why?

Because he has a wonderful Shepherd.

"The same shall be saved."

Matthew 24:14   "And this gospel of the kingdom shall be preached in all the world for a witness unto all nations; and then shall the end come."

The Gospel of the kingdom is what John the Baptist preached  - 

"Repent ye: for the kingdom of heaven is at hand" (Matthew 3:2).

And our Lord Jesus Christ began His ministry with that message  - 

"From that time Jesus began to preach, and to say, Repent: for the kingdom of heaven is at hand" (Matt. 4:17).

He sent His apostles out with that message (see Matthew 10).

But we see in Matthew 11:28 our Lord’s message changed to

"Come unto Me, all ye that labour and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest."

And in Matthew 20:28 He said that He had come to give His life a ransom for many.

But during the Tribulation Period the gospel of the kingdom will again be preached.

It is not for our day,

because we are to preach the gospel of the grace of God.

Is the gospel of the kingdom another gospel?

No, not at all.

It is the same gospel with a different emphasis.

We today have no right to say that the kingdom of heaven is at hand because we do not know that it is.

But when the Great Tribulation Period begins, the people will know that they are close to the end, although they will not know the day nor the hour.

Therefore, the message will be,

"Repent: for the kingdom of heaven is at hand."

There are those who say that those who hold the dispensational view of Scripture teach that there are 2 or more ways of being saved. No, God has never had more than one way of saving sinners, and that basis is the cross of Christ. Every offering before Christ came looked forward to the cross of Christ, and every commemoration since He has come looks back to the cross of Christ.

To illustrate this, let’s go back to Genesis 4 and look at the offering which Abel brought to God.

He brought a little lamb.

If you had been there, you could have asked Abel,

Do you think the little lamb will take away your sins?

Abel would have said,

"I am bringing this little lamb because God told me to,

I am bringing it by faith."

The little lamb pointed to One who was to come later, the seed of the woman, who was his mother.

That One, our precious Saviour, the Lord Jesus is the One who would come to this earth to die upon the cruel rugged tree of Calvary in order to take our sins away.

Abel brought the little lamb by faith, recognizing that he was a sinner and that he needed a substitute.

Abel was looking forward to the One who was coming.

John the Baptist not only said,

"Repent ye: for the kingdom of heaven is at hand" (Matthew 3:2),

but he also said,

"… Behold the Lamb of God, which taketh away the sin of the world" (John 1:29).

John the Baptist identified Him.

Before the coming of Christ everyone who had come to God on His terms was saved on credit. And they were forgiven on the basis of the death of Christ.

In the Old Testament God never saved anyone by Law.

At the heart of the Mosaic system was the sacrificial system. They brought a lamb to God because the Law revealed that they were lawbreakers, and that they were not obeying God. They needed a substitute

to pay the penalty of their sins.

The Law was given

"… that every mouth may be stopped, and all the world may become guilty before God" (Romans 3:19).

We today are lawbreakers, we are sinners and we all need a Savior.

The only thing to do is to receive Christ as our Savior before He comes as the Sovereign of this universe when He will be our Judge.

Now to go back to the verse we are considering,

"this gospel of the kingdom shall be preached in all the world for a witness unto all nations; and then shall the end come."

This does not mean that while the church is here in the world the end cannot come until the gospel of the grace of God is preached worldwide.

I know there are those who use this verse to promote their Bible-teaching programs.

While it is laudable to want to get the gospel to the ends of the earth, this is not the verse to use to promote it.

It is very important to interpret Scripture in its context.

Remember that our Lord is answering the question,

"What is the sign of the end of the age?" (see verse 3).

He is speaking of that end time.

The Great Tribulation with its Trouble and Sorrows.

Now He will give the sign that will identify this time.

Matthew 24:15 "When ye therefore shall see the abomination of desolation, spoken of by Daniel the prophet, stand in the holy place, (whoso readeth, let him understand:)"

What is the abomination of desolation?

Well, the prophet Daniel tells us about 2 of them.

One of them was Antiochus Epiphanes, the Syrian, who came down and destroyed Jerusalem.

Daniel 11:31  "And arms shall stand on his part, and they shall pollute the sanctuary of strength, and shall take away the daily sacrifice, and they shall place the abomination that maketh desolate."

History bears out the fact that Antiochus Epiphanes came against Jerusalem in 170 B.C., at which time over one hundred thousand Jews were slain.

He took away the daily sacrifice from the temple, offered the blood and broth of a swine upon the altar, and set up an image of Jupiter in the holy place.

However, our Lord is undoubtedly referring to the 2nd abomination of desolation to which Daniel alludes

Daniel 12:11 "And from the time that the daily sacrifice shall be taken away, and the abomination that maketh desolate set up, there shall be a thousand two hundred and ninety days"

I believe that it will be an image of Antichrist which will be set up in the temple.

During the Tribulation the temple will be rebuilt and the nation of Israel will be back in Palestine.

Obviously, our Lord is speaking of the temple rather than the church, because the church has no holy place.

However, I cannot be sure that this is the abomination of desolation to which our Lord refers.

And I am  not looking for the abomination of desolation,  but the people in the last days will be looking for it because it will be the sign to prove that they are in the Great Tribulation.

Instead of us looking for Antichrist and his abominations, we are told to be

"Looking for that blessed hope, and the glorious appearing of the great God and our Saviour Jesus Christ" (Titus 2:13).

Our Lord then says,

"(whoso readeth, let him understand:),"

 which means the people who are living at that time will understand.

Since we, the church won’t be there, He has not given us many details.

Now we are given another time word.

When the abomination of desolation appears, "Then"-

Matthew 24:16 "Then let them which be in Judaea flee into the mountains."

We are not expecting to flee to the mountains of Judea.

Rather, this  has to do with people who are in Judea.

Our Lord gave this prophecy to them, not to us.

Matthew 24:17  "Let him which is on the housetop not come down to take any thing out of his house."

The housetop in Palestine corresponds to our front porch or our patio.

Our Lord is speaking here to the people in Palestine, not to you and me.

This warning is not applicable to us today.

This refers to people engaged in agriculture. If a worker in the fields leaves his cloak at the end of the row in the early morning when it is cool, and the word comes that the abomination of desolation has appeared, he is not to go back and get his cloak, but he is to start running.

This reveals our Lord’s great care and concern for mothers and little children.

It will be a time when one should not have children.

It is believed that there will be a great population explosion at the beginning of the Great Tribulation.

The fact that this earth is becoming over weighted with people in our day may be another evidence that we are approaching the end of the age.

Again, these are people who are observing the Sabbath day, which is Saturday.

This is another proof that Christ is speaking directly to the Jewish people.

We do not go to church on the Sabbath but on Sunday

because our Lord rose from the dead on that day.

Matthew 24:21   "For then shall be great tribulation, such as was not since the beginning of the world to this time, no, nor ever shall be."

This Tribulation is unique; there has been nothing like it in the history of the world, and there will never again be anything like it.

Notice that it is our Lord who is the One who labels the end of the age as the Great Tribulation.

People will know it when it gets here!

There are those who today talk as if the church is going through the Tribulation, and they dont seem to realize how severe the Great Tribulation will be. In fact, there are even some people who say that we are in the Great Tribulation at the present time! Well, things are bad in our day, we know that, but this period that we live in can be matched with many other periods in history.

When the Great Tribulation gets here, there will be nothing to match it with in the past or in the future.

We read in the Book of Revelation that during the Tribulation one-third of the population of the earth will be destroyed. On another occasion one-fourth of the population will be destroyed.

It is absolutely unique.

Using the simile given to us in Revelation 6, the red horse of war, the black horse of famine, and then the pale horse of death will ride during that time, and the population of the earth will be decimated.

At one time this seemed to be an exaggeration. 

Some good commentators considered it hyperbole.

In our day many nations have nuclear capabilities which could destroy the population of the world, no longer does this seem to be  exaggerated.

"But for the elect’s sake those days shall be shortened."

God will not allow mankind commit suicide.

That is the reason this will be such a brief period.

Who are the elect?

 In the Scriptures there are 2 elect groups: 

the elect of the nation Israel 

and the elect of the church. 

We have to use common sense to determine which group is meant. 

Who has our Lord been talking about up to this point?

Israel. 

Israel is the elect in this verse also. 

Our Lord Jesus is not talking about the church. 

God's children simply cannot be fooled all of the time. God said so. It just cannot be done. True believers always see the error of a cult’s teaching. It is not possible to fool God’s children all the time. They will come out of a cult eventually.

"Wherefore if they shall say unto you, Behold, he is in the desert; go not forth: behold, he is in the secret chambers; believe it not. For as the lightning cometh out of the east, and shineth even unto the west; so shall also the coming of the Son of man be. (Matthew 24:26, 27)

"For wheresoever the carcase is, there will the eagles be gathered together" (Matthew 24:28).

This is the most difficult verse to understand in the entire Olivet Discourse. 

After speaking of His coming in glory like lightning out of heaven, then to speak of carrion-eating birds seems strange indeed. But I believe it refers to Christ’s coming in judgment because Revelation 19 tells us about an invitation that went out to the birds to come together for a great banquet:

"And I saw an angel standing in the sun; and he cried with a loud voice, saying to all the fowls that fly in the midst of heaven, Come and gather yourselves together unto the supper of the great God; that ye may eat the flesh of kings, and the flesh of captains, and the flesh of mighty men, and the flesh of horses, and of them that sit on them, and the flesh of all men, both free and bond, both small and great. And I saw the beast, and the kings of the earth, and their armies, gathered together to make war against Him that sat on the horse, and against his army" (Revelation 19:17–19).

The birds that feed on carrion seem to be agents of divine judgment. When the Lord comes again, He will come in judgment.

"Immediately after the tribulation of those days shall the sun be darkened, and the moon shall not give her light, and the stars shall fall from heaven, and the powers of the heavens shall be shaken" (Matthew 24:29).

"Immediately after the tribulation of those days." 

My understanding is that all of these things will take place at Christ’s second coming to the earth.

"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 24:30).

What is that sign?

We do not know  but back in the Old Testament the nation Israel was given the glory, the shekinah presence of God. No other nation or people has ever had that, nor does the church have it. The shekinah glory rested over the tabernacle and later the temple at Jerusalem. But because of Israel’s sin, the shekinah glory left the nation. 

When Christ came the first time, He laid aside, not His deity, but His prerogative of deity, He laid aside His glory -  and although John says 

"We beheld His glory" (John 1:14) because there were times when it broke through. 

However, at His second coming, I believe that the shekinah glory will hover over the earth before He breaks through, and that will be the "sign of the Son of man in heaven." That is speculation.

"They shall see the Son of man coming in the clouds of heaven with power and great glory." 

This is His return to earth to set up His Kingdom.

"And He shall send His angels with a great sound of a trumpet, and they shall gather together His elect from the four winds, from one end of heaven to the other" (Matthew 24:31).

The "elect" spoken of in this verse is still the nation Israel. The prophets in the Old Testament foretold a miracle that would bring the Jews back into their land. 

This is not the church which is going to be caught up out of this world to meet the Lord in the air. 

Angels are not connected with the Rapture. 

The Lord will come in Person to receive the church with the sound of a trumpet, and His voice will be like that of an archangel. He will not need any help to gather His church together. He died for the church, and He will bring it together. When He says that the "angels … shall gather together his elect from the four winds, from one end of heaven to the other," we can be sure that He is talking about the nation Israel  -  ministering angels have always been connected with Israel.

Christ is the author and finisher of the church, His body of believers which will be caught up at the rapture.

The Sign Parables.

I do not see how the fig tree could represent anything other than the nation Israel (for example, see Jeremiah 24 and Hosea 9:10). There are certainly fig trees growing in abundance in Israel even in our day after all that has happened to that land. The area south of Bethlehem is filled with vineyards. Fig trees and grapevines identify the land, and I believe that our Lord is using the fig tree as a symbol of that land.

"Verily I say unto you, This generation shall not pass, till all these things be fulfilled" (Matthew 24:34).

"This generation"  -  the Greek word can mean race and refer to the nation Israel. Or it could refer to the generation that will be living at the time these predictions come to pass. A generation is reckoned to be about twenty years, and certainly the predicted events of this section will take place in a much briefer time than twenty years. My feeling is that it could refer to either one, but I much prefer the interpretation that it refers to the preservation of the Jewish race. Haman was not able to destroy them, neither was Pharaoh, nor did Hitler succeed in his attempts. And no dictator in our day will be able to exterminate these people  -  God will see to that.

"Heaven and earth shall pass away, but My Words shall not pass away. (Matthew 24:35).

There will be a new heaven and a new earth (Revelation 21:1), God will not change His Word. 

It will stand throughout the eternal ages.

"But of that day and hour knoweth no man, no, not the angels of heaven, but My Father only" (Matthew 24:36).

No one will know either the day or the hour. 

And our Lord used the illustration of Noah  -  

"But as the days of Noe [Noah] were, so shall also the coming of the Son of man be" (Matthew 24:37).

Christ will come in a day that will be like the days of Noah.

"For as in the days that were before the flood they were eating and drinking, marrying and giving in marriage, until the day that Noe [Noah] entered into the ark, and knew not until the flood came, and took them all away; so shall also the coming of the Son of man be" (Matthew 24:38- 39).

The days of Noah were characterized by gross immorality  -  every thought and imagination of man’s heart was only evil continually (see Genesis 6:5). The people in Noah’s day were not eating and drinking to the glory of God. 

They were living as though God did not exist.

Also, the people of Noah’s day were marrying and giving in marriage.  They did not honor God in their homes.

They did not believe that God would judge them and scorned the warning that a flood was imminent.

Christ 's return today, is imminent and people all around us today, are scorning the warning. 

There is no fear of God in this world.

"And knew not until the flood came, and took them all away; so shall also the coming of the Son of man be."

This is so sad yet the church today has no urgency in getting this crucial message out to the lost world.

"Then shall two be in the field; the one shall be taken, and the other left. Two women shall be grinding at the mill; the one shall be taken, and the other left" (Matt. 24:40-41).

I can hear someone saying to me, "Well, preacher, you have finally painted yourself into a corner.

You said the church and the Rapture are not in the Olivet Discourse, but here they are. 

"Two shall be in the field; one shall be taken, and the other shall be left."

Our Lord is still is not talking about the Rapture. After all, what is our Lord talking about here? 

"As it was in the days of Noah." 

Who was taken away in the days of Noah? 

"They knew not until the flood came, and took them all away."

They perished in the flood. 

This is not referring to the Rapture when the church will be taken out of the world. Rather, this pictures the removing from the earth by judgment those who are not going to enter the millennial Kingdom.

"Watch therefore; for ye know not what hour your Lord doth come" (Matthew 24:42).

"Watch" is the important word, and it has a little different meaning from the watching that a child of God does now in waiting for the Rapture. 

Today we have a comforting hope. 

In that day, they will be watching with fear and anxiety. 

In the night they will say, "Would God it were morning," and in the morning they will say, "Would God it were evening." 

Today we are to wait and long for His coming. 

In that future day they will watch with anxiety for His return.

"But know this, that if the goodman of the house had known in what watch the thief would come, he would have watched, and would not have suffered his house to be broken up. Therefore be ye also ready: for in such an hour as ye think not the Son of man cometh. Who then is a faithful and wise servant, whom his lord hath made ruler over his household, to give them meat in due season?" (Matthew 24:43–45).

Our Lord in the remainder of the Olivet Discourse gives us parables to illustrate the attitude of people to His coming and what will happen when He does come.

"Blessed is that servant, whom his lord when he cometh shall find so doing. Verily I say unto you, That He shall make him ruler over all His goods. But and if that evil servant shall say in his heart, My lord delayeth his coming; and shall begin to smite his fellow-servants, and to eat and drink with the drunken; the lord of that servant shall come in a day when he looketh not for him, and in an hour that he is not aware of, and shall cut him asunder, and appoint him his portion with the hypocrites: there shall be weeping and gnashing of teeth. (Matthew 24:46–51).

This parable reflects the attitude of some people in that future day. They will  say the Lord delays His coming  -  so we will just go on living carelessly. When Christ returns, He will judge that person.

This great principle is applicable to every age.

We ought to live our lives in the light of the fact that we are going to stand in the Presence of Christ. 

Regardless of whether Christ comes one hundred years from today or a thousand years, we will stand in His Presence. Whether you are saved or lost, we will stand in His Presence. 

If we are saved, we will have to give Him an account of our lives to see if we are to receive a reward or not. If you are not saved we will stand there to be judged. Therefore, every person should live his life in light of the fact that he is to stand in the presence of the Lord. This is the great emphasis in the Olivet Discourse. 

Therefore, it has applications to us, although the interpretation is specifically to people living at the time of Christ’s return as King.

Chapter 25 enlarges on the answer to the question, the disciples asked our Lord Jesus.

"What shall be the sign of thy coming?"

The parable of the 10 virgins.

This parable tests the genuineness of the faith of Israel; 

Then the parable of the talents, tests the faithfulness of His servants; and then the judgment of the gentile nations, tests their right of admission into the Kingdom. 

This chapter shows the significance of the coming of Christ as it relates to these groups that shall then be in the world. A close analysis of each group will reveal that it can be stripped down to a personal attitude and relationship to Jesus Christ.

The ten virgins do not refer to the church; they refer to the nation Israel. 

We need to let our Lord answer the questions of these men who were His apostles. They had asked Him the questions. If we try to make out that He is talking to us about something altogether different, it is as though we are interrupting Him. Let’s just listen and know that, although He is talking to someone else, we can make application of these wonderful parables to our own lives.

"Then shall the kingdom of heaven be likened unto ten virgins, which took their lamps, and went forth to meet the bridegroom" (Matthew 25:1).

As our Lord was giving warnings and parables, He said,

"Let your loins be girded about, and your lights burning; and ye yourselves like unto men that wait for their lord, when He will return from the wedding; that when He cometh and knocketh, they may open unto Him immediately" (Luke 12:35- 36).

Here in the parable of the 10 virgins, Christ, is pictured as the Bridegroom and He brings the bride with Him, and the believers on earth are waiting for Him to come. 

While the Great Tribulation has been going on upon the earth, Christ has been yonder in heaven with His bride, which is the church, His called out body of believers.

At the conclusion of the 7 years of Tribulation, He comes back to earth with the church.

This, now, is the attitude toward His coming on the part of those on earth  -  

"And five of them were wise, and five were foolish. They that were foolish took their lamps, and took no oil with them: but the wise took oil in their vessels with their lamps" (Matthew 25:2–4)"

Oil is symbolic of the Spirit of God.

In that day there will be phonies just as there were at 

His first coming. 

Our Lord Jesus called them hypocrites. 

They will have lamps but no oil.

"While the bridegroom tarried, they all slumbered and slept. And at midnight there was a cry made, Behold, the bridegroom cometh; go ye out to meet him. Then all those virgins arose, and trimmed their lamps" (Matthew 25:5–7).

Notice that both the wise and the foolish virgins slept.

The difference in them was that some had the Holy Spirit (represented by the oil) and some did not - because they were not true believers  -  hypocrites.

Our Lord Jesus concluded this parable with a warning -

"Watch therefore, for ye know neither the day nor the hour wherein the Son of man cometh" (Matthew 25:13).

The attitude for His own during this future period is to watch. That is the important thing for them to do.