Matthew 16

Chapter 16. The Coming of the King"Therefore keep watch, because you do not know the day or the hour." (Matthew 25:13)Our Lord had accepted for the time the homage of the multitude and the titles and honors of the Son of David and the throne of the Messiah! If the nation had only heartily and truly received Him, we can scarcely dream of the results that might have followed. An eloquent writer has ventured to express something of such a dream, picturing the Lord Jesus completing His sacrifice, not through wicked enemies, but by His Father offering Him up even as Abraham offered Isaac on Mount Moriah, followed by His glorious resurrection and His sitting down upon David’s throne and fulfilling for Israel and the world the vision of ancient prophecy without the dark and dreadful centuries of Israel’s rejection and punishment. But this was not to be. Indeed, it could not be with all the other prophecies yet to be fulfilled. And so “He came to that which was his own, but his own did not receive him” (John 1:11). Israel as a nation rejected Him, and ages had to pass before He could come to them again, as their King and fulfill to them the vision of the promised glory. But He will surely come; and the next portion of Matthew’s gospel unfolds to us, in His own prophetic words, the panorama of events that will lead up to the great appearing. The discourses related in the 24th and 25th chapters of Matthew were delivered by our Lord on Tuesday afternoon, immediately after His great conflict with the rulers described in our last chapter, and on His way from the temple to His temporary home in Bethany. The first part of the address was no doubt uttered as they departed from the temple, probably through the Golden Gate, and walked down into the valley of Kedron. The last portion was probably concluded as He sat on the slopes of Olivet, looking down once more over the city at His feet. The interpretation of the discourse will be rendered more clear if we bear in mind the questions of the disciples to which it was intended to be an answer. Questions of the Disciples They pointed out to Him the splendid stones and buildings of the temple and He told them, “Not one stone here will be left on another; every one will be thrown down” (Matthew 24:2). Immediately they ask Him three questions, “Tell us… when will this happen, and what will be the sign of your coming and of the end of the age?” (Matthew 24:3). The first part of His discourse would therefore naturally be a reply to their first question, “When will this happen?” namely, the destruction of Jerusalem. The later portion of His discourse would naturally refer to their other two questions, “What will be the sign of your coming and of the end of the age (world)?” It should be borne in mind that the term “world” here employed is not the usual Greek word for the material world. That would be kosmos, it is the word aion, which means “the age,” the order of events, and the plan of providence. The correct translation, therefore, is “the end of the age,” for the end of the age will not necessarily bring the end of the world. We shall group the Lord’s teachings concerning His coming under a number of clearly defined heads which are brought out with great distinction in His discourses. In Relation to Israel

1. The Relation of His Coming to Israel and the Destruction of Jerusalem This was the first thing that entered their minds and His, and it is also the prominent idea present to the narrator of the Gospel of Matthew, which was specially the gospel for Israel, and brings to the front, in all the Master’s teachings, the special references of His addresses to the “chosen people” (Deuteronomy 7:6). From Matthew 24:4 to Matthew 24:28, with the single exception of Matthew 24:14, the entire passage in Matthew 24 seems to apply to Israel and the judgments and sufferings that were to come upon them because of their rejection of the Messiah. There would appear, however, to be two sections in the passage, the one referring to the earlier tribulations of Jerusalem under the Romans, and the other to her later trials at the end of the age. To the Master’s view, it seemed like one long perspective for Israel, beginning and ending with a fearful tragedy. Between these two sections, there is thrown in a brief parenthesis in Matthew 24:14, which describes the Christian age and the gospel among the Gentiles. For Israel, however, the prospect is dark and lurid, reaching its climax in spiritual delusion and national calamity, without a precedent or parallel. This is in exact accordance with the predictions of Daniel and Zechariah. Referring to the first destruction of Jerusalem, Daniel had said: “The people of the ruler who will come will destroy the city and the sanctuary. The end will come like a flood: War will continue until the end, and desolations have been decreed” (Daniel 9:26). And referring to the later afflictions of Jerusalem at the end of the age Daniel had said: “There will be a time of distress such as has not happened from the beginning of nations until then” (Daniel 12:1). Zechariah also had even more explicitly described these calamities, especially in the later days of Israel. “In the whole land,” declares the Lord, “two-thirds will be struck down and perish; yet one-third will be left in it….” A day of the Lord is coming when your plunder will be divided among you. I will gather all the nations to Jerusalem to fight against it; the city will be captured, the houses ransacked, and the women raped. Half of the city will go into exile, but the rest of the people will not be taken from the city." (Zechariah 13:8, Zechariah 14:1-2) Our Lord’s predictions are in exact accordance with these terrible forewarnings. No doubt much of this was fulfilled when the Romans captured the city under Titus and Vespasian, but much of it yet must be in store. The Christian Age
2. His Coming with Reference to the Christian Age This is condensed into a single verse: “And this gospel of the kingdom will be preached in the whole world as a testimony to all nations, and then the end will come” (Matthew 24:14). This is all that the Master says about the Gentile parentheses which we call the Christian age and which has now been running its course for 19 centuries. A single phrase of concentrated light and truth covers all this long period. Let us not think, in our self-conceit, that we Gentiles monopolize the whole prophetic word. Writing to the Gentiles, the Apostle Paul said: “I do not want you to be ignorant of this mystery, brothers, so that you may not be conceited: Israel has experienced a hardening in part until the full number of the Gentiles has come in” (Romans 11:25). That is to say, we Gentiles have received the gospel for a time because Israel refused it, but after our time of opportunity is over, Israel’s will return. This 14th verse describes the Gentile age during which the gospel of the kingdom (and there is but one gospel) is to be “preached in the whole world as a testimony to all nations” (Matthew 24:14). When this shall have been done to the full extent, our Lord assures us “the end will come” (Matthew 24:14). The evangelization of the world and its universal accomplishment are the most distinct landmarks of the Lord’s coming. Our Lord’s prediction here is in exact accord with the words of the Apostle Peter and the prophets [summarized by James]: “God at first showed his concern by taking from the Gentiles a people for himself…. ‘After this I will return and rebuild David’s fallen tent’” (Acts 15:14, Acts 15:16). This is the age in which we are living. This is the time of grace for the Gentiles. Oh, let none of us allow “the time of God’s coming to you” (Luke 19:44) to pass by neglected; and let us not fail as the disciples of Christ to meet our high and holy trust to send the gospel as a witness to all nations that we may hasten the coming of our Lord. The Tribulation
3. The Great Tribulation Coinciding with Israel’s latest trials is to come that time of trouble known in prophecy as the “The Great Tribulation.” Speaking of it our Lord said: “For then there will be great distress, unequaled from the beginning of the world until now—and never to be equaled again. If those days had not been cut short, no one would survive, but for the sake of the elect those days will be shortened” (Matthew 24:21-22). This time of trouble will be brought about by a variety of conditions. One of them will be God’s judgment upon this sinful world, another the outbreak of Satanic power and malignity, and still another, the power of Antichrist and his assaults upon, Israel and upon all divine institutions that shall remain in the world; and yet another element will be the absence of most of God’s people, for the Church will have been withdrawn at the beginning of the tribulation and its watching and holy members caught up to meet the Lord in the air. A world without the godly, a world controlled by Antichrist, a world under the personal government of Satan, and a world beneath the outpourings of God’s vials of wrath—surely, that is a picture dark enough to make us watch and pray that we “may be able to escape all that is about to happen” (Luke 21:36). It is the promise of Christ to the faithful ones: “I will also keep you from the hour of trial that is going to come upon the whole world to test those who live on the earth” (Revelation 3:10). His Appearing
4. The Glorious Appearing of the Lord “Immediately after the distess of those days ’the sun will be darkened, and the moon will not give its light; the stars will fall from the sky, and the heavenly bodies will be shaken.’ At that time the sign of the Son of Man will appear in the sky, and all the nations of the earth will mourn. They will see the Son of Man coming on the clouds of the sky, with power and great glory” (Matthew 24:29-30). This is the great epiphany, the public appearance of the Lord Jesus as distinguished from His parousia, which refers to His previous and secret coming for His own. Now, however, after the tribulation He is to come in the blaze of His glory openly and visibly before the eyes of all the world, and as they see Him “all the nations of the earth will mourn” (Matthew 24:30). It shall be a day of terror to this godless world and destruction and judgment to the wicked nations that shall be found in opposition to His throne. We should notice the pronoun “they” instead of “you.” The Lord does not tell them that they are to see Him come; His disciples will be with Him when He comes. The world shall see Him, but we, His followers, will have no business there in that day of terror and dismay. God help us to be found ready and waiting so that we shall escape the tribulation and the day of wrath and be with Him above the storm. I see that last and bloody sunset, I see the dread Avenger’s form; I hear the Armageddon onset, But I shall be above the storm. Caught Up5. The Rapture of the Saints This forms a separate picture (Matthew 24:40 and Matthew 24:41). This passage refers to the parousia of the Son of Man before His epiphany, His coming for His own. “As it was in the days of Noah, so it will be at the coming of the Son of Man” (Matthew 24:37). Of this He is speaking when He says: “Two men will be in the field; one will be taken and the other left. Two women will be grinding with a hand mill; one will be taken and the other left (Matthew 24:40-41). It is a little uncertain whether the passage in Matthew 24:31 also refers to this, “And he will send his angels with a loud trumpet call, and they will gather his elect from the four winds, from one end of the heavens to the other.” This may refer to the final gathering of the tribulation saints, still left on earth after the tribulation of His public appearing. There is no doubt, however, that the passage, Matthew 24:40 and Matthew 24:41, must refer to the rapture of His saints as one by one they shall be caught up to meet Him in the air and the unready ones left behind. Dear friend, are you ready for that parousia and will you be found in “that happy company”? Christ Before the Millennium
5. The Parable of the Fig Tree The Lord introduces, in the picture of His coming, the remarkable natural similitude which He calls “a parable of the fig tree” (Matthew 24:32). The peculiarity of the fig tree is that the fruit appears before the leaves, and the application of this to the Lord’s coming is that the Lord Jesus will appear before the Millennium. It is not first the luxuriant foliage on the tree and then the fruit as a climax, but it is first the fruit and then the foliage. Or, to drop the figure, it is not first our culture and social, scientific and religious progress, and then Christ coming to a world all ready to receive Him. On the contrary, it is first Christ Himself, and then, as the result of His coming, the revolution of modern society and the righting of all the world’s ancient wrongs. The coming of Jesus Christ is not an evolution, but a revolution. As the Days of Noah
6. The Condition of the World at the Time of His Coming This is still further confirmed by the picture He gives us of the state of human society at His advent. Our postmillennial friends are fond of telling us of the gradual progress of Christian influences and the improvement of the world and that, after a little while, things will be about right and we can expect the Lord to come down to congratulate us on the good work we have been able to do without Him. The picture Jesus gives us is entirely different: “As it was in the days of Noah, so it will be at the coming of the Son of Man” (Matthew 24:37). We know that the days of Noah were marked by wickedness and crime, and it would seem as if the two crimes most rampant in Noah’s time, namely violence and lust, are coming to the front again in our own day in the increasing prevalence of murder, divorce and social corruption. While it is true that the elements of righteousness and spiritual power are making progress and the good are better than they ever were before, there can be no doubt that the bad are worse, and the shadow grows as dark as the light grows bright. Sudden
7. His Coming a Surprise Matthew 24:36, Matthew 24:42 and Matthew 24:44 tell us that the Lord’s coming will be a shock to this self-complacent world. It will also be a surprise to the modern prophets who have told us all about it so often and still persist in knowing the very schedule of events and the times which the Father has set by His own power. It will not be a surprise to His waiting people. “But you, brothers, are not in darkness so that this day should surprise you like a thief” (1 Thessalonians 5:4). They may not know the day or hour, but they shall know enough to be ready. But to the world it will be a terrific and startling blow. “While people are saying, ‘Peace and safety,’ destruction will come on them suddenly, as labor pains on a pregnant woman, and they will not escape” (1 Thessalonians 5:3). Even for us, the followers of Christ, the only safety is to be always ready. The Judgment of the Ministers
8. The Lord’s Coming in Relation to the Ministers of Christ His first act at His coming will be to call His servants before Him in judgment. Then shall the faithful ministers receive a great reward. Who then is the faithful and wise servant, whom the master has put in charge of the servants in his household to give them their food at the proper time? It will be good for that servant whose master finds him doing so when he returns. I tell you the truth, he will put him in charge of all his possessions. (Matthew 24:45-47) This is the promise which speaks of the servants who shall be found true to His message and His flock. But, oh, how awful the doom of the false minister, of the man that has ignored the truth of the Lord’s coming and in his heart has secretly hoped that it might not be; and, encouraged by this false theology, has yielded to ambition and self-aggrandizement and been drawn into the spirit of controversy and worldliness. Alas for him! But suppose that servant is wicked and says to himself, ‘My master is staying away a long time,’ and he then begins to beat his fellow servants and to eat and drink with drunkards. The master of that servant will come on a day when he does not expect him and at an hour he is not aware of. He will cut him to pieces and assign him a place with the hypocrites, where there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth. (Matthew 24:48-51) Preparation of the Church
9. The Lord’s Coming in Relation to the Members of His Church and Their Spiritual Preparation This is brought out in the parable of the 10 Virgins (Matthew 25:1-13). These two classes both represent the followers of Christ. They were all virgins, which certainly represents purity, and they were all looking forward to the coming of the Lord, for they “went out to meet the bridegroom” (Matthew 25:1). Then besides, they all had light and a certain measure of oil, and this must stand for the true light and the true life. The difference between them was essential; the one had the source of light and the other had not. The foolish virgins had a temporary supply and the wise had vessels filled with oil, a permanent provision. There can be little question about the meaning of the symbol of oil, always the type of the Holy Spirit. And so the lesson seems most plain that the wise virgins represent those Christians who have not only accepted Christ as a Savior, but have received the baptism of the Holy Spirit and been brought into a personal relation with Christ Himself as an abiding source of light and power, while the foolish virgins represent the great multitude in the Church of God who are willing to remain on a lower plane and fail to press on into the fullness of Christ. When the Master comes it is too late to rectify their mistake. They go to obtain oil and perhaps they obtain it, but the doors are shut. It would not seem that they are finally lost, but they are excluded from the marriage feast, they are left in the “darkness” (Matthew 25:30) of the tribulation. They are not lost, perhaps, but oh, how much they lose! Dear friend, do not run this fearful risk. The baptism of the Holy Spirit means much to you now for your peace, your holiness, your victory, your power, your service; but oh, it will mean everything to you then. “Did you receive the Holy Spirit when you believed?” (Acts 19:2). This is the one prerequisite for the coming of the Lord. The Servants
10. The Judgment of the Servants The parable of the 10 Virgins has reference to our sainthood; the parable of the Talents has reference to our service. It is found in the paragraph Matthew 25:14-30. The endowment of these talents stands for everything in our natural, spiritual and providential conditions which God has given us for the purpose of fitting us for service and usefulness, everything in a word, which may tell in your life for the glory of God and the good of others. These talents, He says, were given “each according to his ability” (Matthew 25:15). God has put each one of us in the very best position to accomplish our own work for Him. There is something you can do that no one else can do, there is someone you can reach that no one else can reach. Your talent may consist of natural ability, social influence, financial resources, position in the church or the world or special opportunities brought to you in connection with your life work. It is the sum of all the possibilities of usefulness in your life. God expects you to make the most of it for Him and others and is going to call you to account at the coming of Christ for the use you have made of your life. The principle on which He will judge you will not be the amount of your talent, but the measure in which you have improved it. The man who had but two talents was rewarded as much as the man who had five if it was found that he had made a proportionate improvement of his little endowment. The reward that the Master is to give at His coming will be a higher form of service. The coming age and the future kingdom is not to be a luxurious sinecure, but a magnificent opportunity for higher work and holy activity. There is one figure in this picture which stands out in awful distinctness. It is the servant who had but one talent, and because it was so little, made no use of it, but wrapped it up in a napkin and brought it back to his Lord with his trifling and insulting excuses. How solemnly it reminds us that the people that are mostly to miss the mark are the ordinary people that think they amount to very little and therefore do little or nothing. Oh, you who think you have but one talent, watch and pray, lest through false humility you lose even that and meet the Master in fearful disappointment and condemnation. The deep secret, however, of this man’s failure was his utter lack of faith and love toward Christ. He said, “I knew that you are a hard man…. I was afraid” (Matthew 25:24-25). It was the spirit of the natural heart. Faith and love will make a very little ability go a great way; and without them, the largest gifts are vain. When the Master comes He is to judge our works. Oh, that He may find us faithful now and accepted then. The Nations
11. Christ’s Coming with Reference to the Judgment of the Nations God is judging the nations in providence now. And at the coming of the Lord Jesus He will call them before Him in final and solemn assize, and judge them according to their treatment of His people and their treatment of Israel. “These brothers of mine” (Matthew 25:40), no doubt refers to Israel literally and also spiritually. According to the way in which the rulers of the earth have treated God’s ancient people and also treated the gospel and the followers of Christ, will be their judgment in that day. We see a little section sometimes of that judgment now as the hand of God is breaking those powers that have oppressed the Hebrew people and opposed the gospel of Christ, but we shall some day witness the final act of this sublime tribunal when the old promise of Psalms 72:4 shall be fulfilled, and “he will crush the oppressor.” Lessons Such, then, is the Master’s panorama of the events that lead up to His coming. Oh, how solemnly it bids us to be ready, to be faithful, to be watchful and to labor and pray that all our loved ones may be with us in that day, nay that hour, which may come at any moment, when “one will be taken and the other left” (Matthew 24:40). Our Loved Ones The late Dr. Gordon told of two girls, sisters, who lay down to sleep one night in the same bed. The one, a Christian, the other, a scoffer. The Christian girl had just come from a religious service in which the preacher had quoted that phrase, “one will be taken and the other left” (Matthew 24:40), and had solemnly warned his hearers of the coming of the Lord. Her heart was so filled with concern for her sister that she could not sleep. She told her of the sermon and her feelings and earnestly begged her to think of her soul’s salvation, but she was only met with jests and rebuffs, and soon the thoughtless girl was fast asleep. The other could only weep and pray in agony until at last she was so distressed that she rose from her bed, and stealing into a closet adjoining, she fell upon her face and poured out her heart in sobs and prayers for the salvation of her sister. After a while the sleeper awoke, and missing her sister from her side, suddenly remembered the conversation of the earlier part of the night. Suddenly it flashed upon her, “What if the Lord had come and she was left?” Then she broke down with alarm and calling for her sister, sought her in the darkness of the room, and at last heard her sobbing in the closet. Throwing herself on her knees by her side, she besought her prayers, and together the two girls found the Savior and lay down a little later clasped in each other’s arms with the joyful thought that if He should come, they would be together. Oh, is there any motive that so tenderly appeals to us to labor and pray for our dear ones in view of the coming of the Lord? This Passing World And surely, out of all this there must come to the mind of every thoughtful man and woman the solemn conviction of the uncertainty of this present world and the supreme importance of being ready for that coming age which is so speedily impending. Dear friend, if these things be true, what security have you for the future? Humboldt, the great traveler, describes in one of his books his first experience of an earthquake. He was in South America at the village of Cumana. Suddenly a shock came and everything beneath him and around him seemed dissolved. The one overmastering impression was, he says, that everything was going, and the things that he had always looked upon as substantial were no longer real. The solid ground was rocking and sinking beneath his feet; the crocodiles ran howling from the rivers into the woods in terror and dismay; the very dogs lay panting by his side unable to bark or scarcely to breathe. The houses, instead of being a refuge for their inmates, were falling in ruins upon the inhabitants, whose screams of dying agony were mingled with the roar of dissolving nature. He looked to the forests and the trees were falling; he looked to the mountains and they were flying from their bases and tossing like the billows of the sea. And then he looked up and lo, the sky and heavens alone seemed stable and unchanging, and he thought, “every earthly thing is dissolving and heaven alone remains unmoved.” The hour is coming when everything which you have counted substantial shall dissolve and disappear, and only the things that are above shall be unshaken and remain. Oh, have you found your portion there? Have you chosen “the city with foundations” (Hebrews 11:10), and “a kingdom that cannot be shaken” (Hebrews 12:28)?