By Steve Carpenter
Jesus isn’t nervous, and He doesn’t want us to be either. Anxiety, worry and fear are viral spirits behind a global soul pandemic with eternal stakes at play. Sure, there is valid concern over the current corona situation, and the confusing way in which the powers that be are spinning the narrative and pushing short term solutions with no real clarity regarding the long term risks. But the physical realties of this current and continuing crisis are being eclipsed by a soul crisis that is taking an even greater toll, at least for now. Because of these things, and many other world events, people are seriously considering end-time scenarios and wondering if what we are dealing with now is simply a precursor of much greater challenges ahead.
In Matthew’s gospel, chapter 24, Yeshua’s disciples came to a crossroads in their own journey with Him, and they seemed to have more questions than they did answers. They boiled down their concerns into two queries for the King. When will these things happen, and what will be the sign of Your coming and the end of the age? His answers to their questions provided the precise perspective that they needed to persevere through the dark days that were just around the corner for them. His life-giving words to them are His life-preserving lifeline to us. In this writing, we will look at part one of Yeshua’s answers to their questions (verses 1-14) and hopefully draw some much needed perspective for what we are walking through now.
Let’s break down the first portion of His message:
TAKE HEED THAT NO ONE DECEIVES YOU
In other words, it is possible to be deceived. He says that there will be many who will come with a sales pitch of anointed solutions to save you, but they won’t. They can’t. There is only one Source and only one Savior, and He is the only way, truth, and life. The sobering reality is, that each of us are personally responsible to see to it that we are not deceived. He says, “You, yes, YOU, take heed that no one deceives you.” You can’t blame the government, you can’t blame your doctor, you can’t blame your pastor. Ultimately, you choose how you will see things and what you will choose to believe.
This is a huge responsibility that you just cannot pass off to someone else. Sure, the wisest of Israel’s Kings wrote, “Where there is no counsel, the people fall; but in the multitude of counselors there is safety.” So, Amen! Go get counsel, do your research, listen to wise and objective voices, but in the end, it’s you, and you alone, that chooses whether or not you will or won’t be deceived. Take heed to the truth. Take heed to yourself because it’s super important. It’s eternally important.
YOU WILL HEAR OF WARS AND RUMORS OF WARS
He says, “See to it that you are not troubled. In other words, don’t allow the temporary turbulence and turmoil to trouble you. These things must come to pass, but the end is not yet.” He goes on to say that, “Nation will rise against nation, and kingdom against kingdom. And there will be famines, pestilences, and earthquakes in various places.”
The stories and images currently coming out of Afghanistan are indeed, troubling, heart wrenching, and terrifying, but this isn’t the only war that is troubling, heart wrenching, and terrifying. There are wars over human rights, religious freedoms, and civil liberties that are being waged all around us, at this very moment, and many are just as unengaged in these wars as they are in Afghanistan. Not being troubled does not mean that we bury our heads in the sand and completely disengage. We have a responsibility to stand up and speak out for the truth as best we can, wherever we can. Not being troubled simply means that you won’t allow the wars, famines, pestilences, and earthquakes to take away your peace in the midst of the problems.
THESE ARE THE BEGINNING OF SORROWS
In other words, don’t worry, it’s going to get worse. Jesus has the integrity to tell the truth, even if it’s a hard truth. It’s so easy to scratch itching ears with messages that people enjoy hearing. The only problem is, most of those messages fail to prepare people to actually persevere through hard and difficult times.
Noah did not win the public’s popularity contest with his preaching of righteousness. They mocked him, marginalized him, and misunderstood him, that is, until it began to rain. Sadly, many preachers today aptly fit the description found in John 12:43 that states, “They love the praise of men more than the praise of God.” Jesus is preparing His disciples to endure, not escape. He says, “Deceptions, wars, famines, pestilences, and earthquakes are just the beginning of sorrows.” He says, “Get ready, it’s going to get more intense.” I like how Maya Angelou said it: “Hoping for the best, prepared for the worst, and unsurprised by anything in between.”
OFFENSES, BETRAYALS, AND HATRED
Up until this point, in Yeshua’s prophetic preparatory forecast, one might be able to stay somewhat separated from the afore mentioned sorrows, but not now. Here is when it becomes really personal. He says, prepare yourselves, because your loyalty and love for the truth, and for your Lord, is going to cost you something. He says, “They will deliver you up to tribulation and kill you, and you will be hated by all nations for My name's sake.”
We are not in control of the degree of persecution that will come, but we can control how that persecution will play out in our personal lives and among the community of faith that we walk with. Because of coming pressure and persecution, Yeshua says, many will become offended, betray one another, and hate one another. We must guard our hearts, in advance, from this type of offense, betrayal and hatred.
FALSE PROPHETS, LAWLESSNESS, AND THE LOSS OF LOVE
Nothing creates the atmosphere for the rise of false prophets and false teachers faster than a body of believers who are operating in offense, betrayal and hatred. False prophets and false teachers create an environment for lawlessness, which is a definitive breakaway from biblical revelation and apostolic instruction. The result of this false teaching and lawlessness is the loss of love. Let that sink in. Yeshua says, “Because lawlessness will abound, the love of many will grow cold.” Lawlessness and the loss of love go hand in hand. Lawlessness violates the first and greatest of all the commandments, “You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, soul, mind, and strength and love your neighbor as yourself.”
Paul writes in 2 Thessalonians 2:8-10, “And then the lawless one will be revealed, whom the Lord will consume with the breath of His mouth and destroy with the brightness of His coming. The coming of the lawless one is according to the working of Satan, with all power, signs, and lying wonders, and with all unrighteous deception among those who perish, because they did not receive the love of the truth, that they might be saved.”
Yeshua told His disciples in John 13:34-35, “A new commandment I give to you, that you love one another; as I have loved you, that you also love one another. By this all will know that you are My disciples, if you have love for one another.”
We must guard, at all costs, our persevering loyalty to the truth and our passionate love for the people of God.
ENDURANCE AND THE GOSPEL OF THE KINGDOM
It’s hard to hold an escapism theology, when the challenge of Yeshua in this epic explanation is clearly, “He who endures to the end shall be saved.” His message here, in the Gospel of Matthew, is similar to the repetitive message to all the seven churches in the book of Revelation, when Yeshua says, “To him who overcomes, I will give…”
Endurance is enhanced when you are holding a vision greater than yourself, your own community, and your own personal calling. Here’s the climactic vision that Yeshua gives His disciples on the mountain that day: “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.” The gospel of the kingdom, preached in all the world, as a witness to all the nations, before the end will come. That’s pretty clear. This is the mission and the vision that is intended to hold us strong through all the hardships. This is one of the “joys set before us”.
Matthew 24 goes on to provide many prophetic insights and revelation regarding the end of the age and the coming of the Son of Man. In short, His main message is, “Be ready, for the Son of Man is coming at an hour you do not expect.”
I’ll end with a few words from the Apostle Paul’s first letter to the Thessalonians. He writes, “For the Lord Himself will descend from heaven with a shout, with the voice of an archangel, and with the trumpet of God. And the dead in Christ will rise first. Then we who are alive and remain shall be caught up together with them in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air. And thus we shall always be with the Lord. Therefore comfort one another with these words.”
We have a lot to look forward to, and may we never forget that Yeshua said, “These things I have spoken to you, that in Me you may have peace. In the world you will have tribulation; but be of good cheer, I have overcome the world." That’s a pretty good perspective to persevere. May you be compelled and comforted with these words.