24 Jesus left the temple and was walking away when his disciples came up to him to call his attention to its buildings. 2 “Do you see all these things?” he asked. “Truly I tell you, not one stone here will be left on another; every one will be thrown down.”
3 As Jesus was sitting on the Mount of Olives, the disciples came to him privately. “Tell us,” they said, “when will this happen, and what will be the sign of your coming and of the end of the age?”
4 Jesus answered: “Watch out that no one deceives you. 5 For many will come in my name, claiming, ‘I am the Messiah,’ and will deceive many.
This passage in Matthew 24:1-5 was occurring during the last week of Jesus earthly life before his crucifixion. He made a comment about the temple being destroyed which shocked the disciples. It led to them asking Jesus three questions:
1. When will these things be? Referring to the destruction of the temple (which happened in A.D. 70)
2. What will be the sign of your coming?
3. what will be the sign of the end of the age?
Jesus first mentions what he calls the birth pangs vs.8. Birth pangs start off spaced apart and then grow in intensity. It is the same with the signs of his coming. As the time approaches, these things will grow both in intensity and duration until His return. The first sign is that there will be many false prophets or christs that appear.
You see this predicted throughout scripture in 2 Timothy 4:3-4, 2 Peter 2:1, 1 John 4:1. The primary sign of these false teachers is that they will make Jesus less than the Christ and deny who he is (1 John 4:1). We see this in many churches today and in particularly the Mormon and Jehovah's Witness faith. They deny the Trinity and that Jesus was fully God and fully man.
Paul also added that there will be a time when men will not endure sound doctrine. But, wanting to have their ears tickled and to be told things they want to hear they will gather for themselves teachers who will tell them what they want to hear. 2 Timothy 4:3-4 says that they will turn aside to myths. With all these warnings in the Bible, it strikes me as important that the believer in Christ study the Bible for him or herself and to be careful who you listen to as a teacher. There are a lot of "feel good" preachers out there who teach a watered down version of the Bible and leave out suffering or denial of self. The Bible warns us that we live in a time where there will be many false prophets. They sound good, the music may be very professional and the presentation first rate, but what about the content.
Does the pastor or teacher point to Jesus or himself or herself?
Is the sermon about becoming a better person or self help or is it Christ centered. Worship is not about you. While it is great to improve yourself, be careful about church just becoming an opportunity to be self centered.
Does the teacher compromise the life, death and resurrection of Christ? Does the sermon or church call on the believer to make Christ both Savior and Lord?
I think a lot of people want Jesus to be their Savior, but not their Lord. And the thing is, that he is either Lord of all or he is not Lord at all. Lord means that he is in charge and as the author of all things he has the right to be in that position.
