Our Old Covenant reading this morning comes from the prophet Daniel. Daniel chapter 9. I'll be reading the entirety of the chapter. Though it's long, I think it's important that we see the entire context here. This is the word of the Lord. In the first year of Darius the son of Ahasuerus, by descent of Mede, who is made king over the realm of the Chaldeans, in the first year of his reign, I, Daniel, perceived in the books the number of years that according to the word of the Lord to Jeremiah the prophet must pass before the end of the desolations of Jerusalem, namely 70 years. I turned my face to the Lord God, seeking him by prayers and pleas for mercy with fasting and sackcloth and ashes. I prayed to the Lord my God and made confession, saying, O Lord, the great and awesome God who keeps covenant and steadfast love with those who love him and keep his commandments. We have sinned and done wrong and acted wickedly, and rebelled, turning aside from your commandments and rules. We have not listened to your servants, the prophets, who spoke in your name to our kings, our princes, and our fathers, and to all the people of the land. To you, O Lord, belongs righteousness, but to us opens shame. as at this day to the men of Judah, to the inhabitants of Jerusalem, and to all Israel, those who are near and those who are far away, and all the lands to which you have driven them, because of the treachery that they have committed against you. To us, O Lord, belongs open shame to our kings, to our princes, and to our fathers, because we have sinned against you. To the Lord our God belongs mercy and forgiveness, for we have rebelled against him and have not obeyed the voice of the Lord our God by walking in his laws, which he set before us by his servants, the prophets. All Israel has transgressed your law and turned aside, refusing to obey your voice. And the curse and the oath that are written in the law of Moses, the servant of God, have been poured out upon us because we have sinned against him. He has confirmed his words which he spoke against us and against our rulers who ruled us by bringing upon us a great calamity. For under the whole heaven there has not been anything done like what has been done against Jerusalem. As it is written in the law of Moses, all this calamity has come upon us. Yet we have not entreated the favor of the Lord our God, turning from our iniquities and gaining insight by your truth. Therefore the Lord has kept ready the calamity and has brought it upon us. For the Lord our God is righteous in all his works that he has done, and we have not obeyed his voice. And now, O Lord our God, who brought your people out of the land of Egypt with a mighty hand, And we have made a name for yourself, as this day we have sinned. We have done wickedly. O Lord, according to all your righteous acts, let your anger and your wrath turn away from your city, Jerusalem, your holy hill, because of our sins and for the iniquities of our fathers. Jerusalem and your people have become a byword among all those who are around us. Now therefore, O our God, listen to the prayer of your servant and his pleas for mercy. And for your own sake, O Lord, make your face to shine upon your sanctuary, which is desolate. O my God, incline your ear and hear, open your eyes and see our desolations and the city that is called by your name. For we do not present our pleas before you because of our righteousness, but because of your great mercy. O Lord, hear. O Lord, forgive. O Lord, pay attention and act. Do not delay for your own sake. O my God, because your city and your people are called by your name. While I was speaking and praying, confessing my sins and the sins of my people Israel, and presenting my plea before the Lord my God for the holy hill of my God, while I was speaking in prayer, the man Gabriel, whom I had seen in the vision at the first, came to me in swift flight at the time of the evening sacrifice. He made me understand, speaking with me and saying, O Daniel, I have now come out to give you insight and understanding. At the beginning of your pleas for mercy, a word went out, and I have come to tell you, for you are greatly loved, therefore consider the word and understand the vision. Seventy weeks are decreed about your people and your holy city to finish the transgression, to put an end to sin, and to atone for iniquity, to bring in everlasting righteousness, to seal both vision and prophet, and to anoint a most holy place. Know therefore and understand that from the going out of the word to restore and build Jerusalem, to a coming of an anointed one, a prince, There shall be seven weeks. Then for 62 weeks it shall be built again with squares and moat. But in a troubled time, after 62 weeks, an anointed one shall be cut off and shall have nothing. And the people of the princes who come shall destroy the city and the sanctuary. Its end shall come with flood, and to its end there shall be war. Desolations are decreed, and he shall make a strong covenant with many for one week. And for a half a week he shall put an end to sacrifice and offering, and on the wings of abomination shall come one who makes desolate, until the decreed end is poured out on the desolator. Our New Covenant reading this morning comes from the Gospel of Matthew. Matthew chapter 24, continuing on in Jesus' Olivet Discourse, the Eschatological Discourse. We'll be reading verses 15 to 28. This is the word of our God. Jesus said, So when you see the abomination of desolation spoken of by the prophet Daniel standing in the holy place, let the reader understand. Then let those who are in Judea flee to the mountains. Let the one who is on the housetop not go down to take what is in his house. Let the one who is in the field not turn back to take his cloak. And alas for women who are pregnant and for those who are nursing infants in those days. Pray that your flight may not be in winter or on the Sabbath. For then there will be great tribulation, such as has not been from the beginning of the world until now, no, and never will be. And if those days had not been cut short, no human being would be saved. But for the sake of the elect, those days will be cut short. Then if anyone says to you, look, here is the Christ, or there he is, do not believe it. For false Christs and false prophets will arise and perform great signs and wonders so as to lead astray, if possible, even the elect. See, I have told you beforehand. So if they say to you, Look, he is in the wilderness, do not go out. If they say, Look, he is in the inner rooms, do not believe it. For as the lightning comes from the east and shines as far as the west, so will be the coming of the Son of Man. Wherever the corpse is, there the vultures will gather. The grass withers and the flowers of the field, they fade and they fall. But this, the Word of our God, it endures forever. Let's pray together. Our Heavenly Father, we come to your Word this morning, to a portion of Scripture that is in many ways difficult to understand and often misunderstood. We come knowing that our own hearts make all of Scripture difficult to understand. as our internal corruptions and the blindness of our hearts keep us from seeing the truth. And so, Lord, like we pray often and like we pray eagerly, would You send forth Your Spirit among us to give light to our dark minds and our dark hearts? Would You open our deaf ears that we would hear from You, O Lord? according to what you have spoken. And may you use that word in our hearts to teach us, to grow us, to make us to love Christ all the more and to surely walk in His ways. We ask these things in Christ's name. Amen. As a new year is before us, in such times we often find ourselves with many hopes, many dreams, and expectations about what the new year ahead might hold, whether experiences, whether progress of various kinds. The future holds uncertainty that from our perspective as creatures, on the one hand, can offer excitement, But at the same time, such uncertainty can elicit fears and anxieties about what may lie ahead for us. Jesus at the beginning of chapter 24 of Matthew's Gospel confirms his previous pronouncement that the temple in Jerusalem and Jerusalem itself was heading for destruction. In response, Jesus' disciples asked a question of when and what, while at the same time assuming that the end of the temple meant the end of the world. that conflation of events Jesus distinguished in the previous verses by making clear to the disciples that they will face many troubles in this world. In fact, tribulation is what marks the present age as the world remains under the curse of sin until the day when God makes all things new. Having set the disciples' expectations there for the course of the world in terms of the troubles that lie ahead for Christians through the ages, Jesus turns in our passage this morning to address the more immediate horizon of history as it relates to the very landscape upon which Jesus and his disciples set their gaze during this discourse. See, amid the ordinary course of troubles that the disciples will face, there is a particular trouble that is on the horizon. And that is the coming judgment upon Jerusalem. As we look at this passage this morning, we will find that much of it is in fact concerned with that very immediate geographical and historical event. Yet of course, like all of Scripture, the Lord speaks to us too through the Lord's words, as we likewise anticipate what lies ahead for us. We'll look at this passage in three parts this morning. First, trouble ahead. Second, don't believe the hype. And third, you'll know when Christ comes. First, trouble ahead. Second, don't believe the hype. And third, you'll know when Christ comes. This passage begins with a reference to a prophecy from the book of Daniel, some of which we read, which is notoriously difficult to understand. Jesus here references the abomination of desolation, which is spoken of by Daniel in a number of places in the book of Daniel, and particularly in chapter 9 that we read. And Jesus takes that prophecy of Daniel and applies it to what's going to take place in Jerusalem. Now if you were a Jew in the first century, and you were asked about the abomination of desolation from Daniel, Someone would likely say, they would likely tell you that that event already happened. They would likely cite the desecration of the temple by Antiochus Epiphanes in 167 BC when he conquered Jerusalem. And he stopped the regular sacrifices in the temple. And he set up pagan sacrifices in their place. Including the slaughter and offering of pigs, unclean animals, on the altar of the Lord. But here, Jesus applies the prophecy of Daniel and the abomination or devastating pollution, as it could be translated, to what will take place in Jerusalem in the coming years. As many prophetic words of scripture, we recognize that there can be multiple vistas of fulfillment. We see that even in the prophecy of Christ's birth by a virgin, which had a specific historical fulfillment to an extent, but was ultimately fulfilled in Christ. Matthew's editorial comment, let the reader understand, clues us into the fact that Daniel's prophecy has a further fulfillment that is in what Jesus has pronounced. Now Jesus doesn't specifically tell us what this desolation or this defilement will look like. History, even, does not definitively record an event in the temple, standing in the holy place, as Jesus says, to which we can attribute this prophecy. That need not worry us, though, because there are things that we know of this desolation. Martin Luther helpfully instructs us to utilize that hermeneutical principle that I mentioned last week, letting clear texts interpret less clear texts. And so Luther, speaking of this passage, says you should take a look at the rest of Luke, since he speaks more clearly and plainly than Matthew about the destruction of Jerusalem. And Luke says in Luke 21-20, But when you see Jerusalem surrounded by armies, then you know that its desolation has come near. So that even from what Luke says, we at least know that it is something which will be completed when the Romans conquer Jerusalem in 70 AD. We also know that it's something that can be seen. It's something that can be discerned. Because as the next few verses show, there can be a response to it. And its devastation can be avoided by fleeing the region. Yet what is clear is that this desolation, as in the case of Daniel's prophecy, is an act of divine judgment. which is predicated upon the pollution that has already come to define the temple, right? The temple has already been polluted, right? That's why Jesus renounces the temple, right? They had rejected God's Christ and they had made God's house into a den of robbers. So whatever we can say about the abomination of desolation and what it is specifically, it at least comes with some warning. It is observable and it stands as the fulfillment of what Daniel had prophesied. Now after telling the disciples that they will see this abomination, This is to be a warning signal to the people living in Judea to flee. Now last week I said that the setting for this discourse is really important for us to recognize as we seek to understand Jesus' words. And I want us to note how carefully Jesus ties this desolation to the specific geographical location where he and his disciples are sitting. They're sitting on the Mount of Olives. They're overlooking the Kidron Valley and they see the temple. They see the buildings and they see all of Jerusalem. It is those in Judea that will need to flee. It is the abomination that takes place in the holy place, in the sanctuary of God in the temple. And so I don't think we have freedom here to generalize and disassociate those things, especially since Jesus will say that this will come upon this generation. When the desolation comes, Jesus says that there must be a swift and determined step taken by anyone who would wish to survive that judgment. We should note that this instruction to flee would make it very difficult to understand Jesus as speaking about consummate judgment or final judgment at this point. Because, of course, there is no fleeing the final judgment. The final judgment is a decisive judgment. There's nowhere to flee and there's nowhere to escape. But for the destruction that is coming upon the temple, and more generally Jerusalem, there is escape. Like in the days of old when the people were to head for the hills to flee for the caves. Certainly survival in the wilderness is going to be difficult. But the people who flee to the wilderness, who head for the hills, will have a better chance of survival than any who remain in the city. Jesus says to the one on the housetop, a housetop would have been accessed by an exterior ladder. He says, just go. Don't go in and try to take anything. He says to the one in the field, don't even turn back so as to get your cloak. Escape. Flee. For those for whom a swift journey would be difficult, Pregnant women and nursing mothers, he says, alas, woe. Jesus says, pray that your flight may not be in winter, right? That would be when the temperatures would be much colder. It would be the rainy season when the torrential rains would make it difficult, if not impossible, to travel through the mud and the rivers that would be born of flash floods. Or on the Sabbath, when finding provisions on your way out would be next to impossible. And for Jesus, talking with His disciples on the mountain overlooking a city that will soon be in ruins, Jesus is telling them that this will be terrible. This is going to be terrible. He says in verse 21, When Jesus speaks this way, I think it's best to see him speaking in a heightened, hyperbolic language in order to communicate the seriousness of what lies ahead. Have you ever given a Father's Day card to your father that says, world's best dad? You recognize that when you give that card on Father's Day, you didn't do a systematic analysis of fathers. And you did not conduct interviews with every father to see whether or not your father is indeed the best father in the world. It's simply a hyperbolic figure of speech intended to communicate something very important to the audience. In your card, you're simply trying to say, Dad, I love you, and you're wonderful, and you are my world, right? Those Christians living in or around Jerusalem will see a horror like they have never seen. They will see a horror that exemplifies the gross wickedness of sinners in this cruel and cursed world in a unique way. in a tragic and horrific way. But in addition, we must not miss that Jesus' heightened language is pressing a central theological truth about this desolation. It's not just an event of history. It is specifically an act of divine judgment for the rejection of Christ. It marks the decisive end of an administration, the removal of an already sacrilegious system. And so in the movement of history, it is a pivotal moment when God brings judgment upon Jerusalem by the hand of a pagan instrument, as he did with Babylon. So he will do finally. with Rome. Though we must not forget that the demise of the desecrated temple does not mean the end of God's redemptive purposes. But rather, God's redemptive purpose will center no longer on the temple in Jerusalem, But it centers upon His Son, who is Himself the way to God, in whom God's people worship in spirit and in truth. And the temple's destruction makes that truth absolutely, undeniably clear. A reality that will soon come in Matthew's gospel as Christ fulfills in His flesh all the purposes of the temple. wherein upon his death the curtain will be torn in two, and the former things will be rendered obsolete. As theologian Greg Beale notes, the transferal of the kingdom's stewardship also includes the transferal of stewardship of the new temple, centered not in an architectural sphere anymore, but now in Jesus and all who identify with him. By His death and resurrection, Christ brings in a new era of redemptive history in which the age of promise gives way to the age of fulfillment. But the beginning of the end is not the end itself. So that though this specific event of destruction will show forth divine judgment, it is not consummate judgment. Now, how do we know that? How do we know? Well, we already saw that there would be an opportunity to flee, which in the end, there's no opportunity to flee. The fact is further clarified in verse 21, which is the reason or the grounds for verse 20. Pray that your flight may not be in winter or on a Sabbath for or because there will be great tribulation. But we also see in verse 22 that this judgment is restrained. So that when we get there, we find God's care in the trouble. Look at verse 22. And if those days had not been cut short, no human being would be saved. But for the sake of the elect, those days will be cut short. We see further that this judgment is not the final eschatological judgment because as Jesus says, the days will be cut short. That is, this judgment, though devastating, will come to an end and there will be survivors. There will be people who come out the other end. Now I think it would be helpful for us to get a broad view of God's purposes in relation to judgment and mercy in the span of history to help us here. We recognize in our understanding of theology, in our understanding of the cosmos, that at any moment God would be just and he would be right to unleash the full extent of his wrath for sin. Right? So that each and every moment that the sin-cursed world continues to exist is a testimony to what we call God's common grace. Where the rain falls on the just and the unjust. Where sinners are given life and breath for a time. After the fall of man in sin, all of his life is lived in the context of common grace. wherein God withholds His wrath for sin for the sake of redemption. And once His redemptive purposes are complete, that wrath will be unleashed on what Scripture calls the day of the Lord. There are times in history, in the history of redemption, that we see intrusions of God's judgment. as temporary loosening of the restraint of common grace. And this destruction is one of those. But the Lord continues to uphold the world. He continues to restrain sin and withhold His final judgment, which He does for the sake of His redemptive purposes. See, common grace cannot save. But it does provide the context for God's special grace of salvation through Christ. So that so long as it is called today, there is time for the gospel to go forth and for sinners to be saved. And maybe that's you today. And in this passage, Jesus reminds us of an important theological truth. One that would be essential for the disciples of Jesus living in Judea during this time. A truth is that God has his eye on the elect. Even as they come to see, as they come to live through, or perhaps even suffer at the hand of this destruction. Even in this intense trouble, the Lord has regard for his own. As Jesus spoke generally of the necessary troubles that Christ's disciples would face in verse 6, here in the specific trouble in Judea, God will not abandon his own and will even offer unmerited reprieve in judgment for the sake of his elect living in Judea. And that has effect for us, too, down to this age, that God did cut those days short, that His mercies would flow to the ends of the earth through the ages down to you and to me, that we would have hope as those who trust in Christ. See, there's troubles ahead. But Jesus goes on, don't believe the hype. Verses 1 to 14 that we looked at last week, I mentioned that Jesus is less concerned with the precise when and what of the disciples' initial question in verse 3, and he is far more concerned in that discourse with the so what of how they should live once he's gone. Jesus comes back to that very concern in verse 23. Jesus had previously warned his disciples about the false Christ and the false prophets more generally in verse 5 when he talked about the normal troubles that disciples from every generation can expect. But here in verse 23, in light of the specific calamity that is coming upon Jerusalem, Jesus warns that this will provide an opportunity for false teachers and false prophets to capitalize on the chaos. Now that fact shouldn't surprise us. When there are disasters, when people feel as though things are out of control, whether it be because of wars, whether it be because of economic factors or natural disasters, such instability is a petri dish for conspiracy theories and for false narratives of hope. Even in our day, with even relatively minor instability, such conspiracy theories are all over the place. much of which can easily be dismissed as the ravings of a few loud voices. But when such things enter the realm of religious life and the interpretation of Scripture, things get very serious, very dangerous, very quickly. Jesus tells his disciples up front in verse 23 that if anyone says, look, here is the Christ or there he is, do not believe it. This time of turmoil, specifically in Judea in the first century, is going to be a time when false Christs and false prophets will arise. And the really troubling thing is that not only will they make claims concerning Christ with their lips, but they will also perform signs and wonders. They will have some type of evil supernatural power at their disposal, like Pharaoh's magicians who were in some cases able to replicate Moses' signs. Do you remember that? There is a deceptive plausibility to these false prophets. And they will do so in order to lead astray, if possible, even the elect. Now, of course, elsewhere Jesus speaks of the security of the elect in the care of God, who will not let them go. But in using this striking language, Jesus is pointing out the real and present danger ahead for the disciples. The deception is not targeted at the ignorant, but it is targeted at the initiated. Those who know better will be tempted to believe the lies. And notice the message of their deception. They deceive people by telling people in the midst of chaos and calamity that Christ has come. Now if we think back to the disciples' initial question of Jesus in verse 3, we remember that the disciples assumed the same thing that these false prophets assume in their false gospel. That is, that the troubles, and in this case specifically the destruction of the temple, means the coming of Christ. The tribulations mean the end of the age. But of course, that kind of thinking is the very thing Jesus is warning his disciples about. Calamity does not mean the coming of Christ. That connection is a means of leading people astray. There is some type of secret knowledge about the Christ that only a few people have. And to know it, you need to go into the wilderness. You need to join a certain community. Those kinds of things are the things that are defining features of cults, aren't they? Because the true gospel and the true Christ are not hidden. They're proclaimed freely and openly to the ends of the earth. Christians don't have secret knowledge. They have the revelation of God that they spread freely and openly. Of course, this warning has specific bearing on the disciples sitting there on the mountain with Jesus. And for those Christians who first read Matthew's gospel before Jerusalem was destroyed. But that doesn't mean that these words don't have any bearing upon us in the 21st century. Because of course, even as we ourselves have observed in our own lifetimes, chaos and calamity breeds speculations. And when it comes to the religious sphere, such chaos gives plausibility to the words of false prophets and false saviors and false gospels. Is it not true? that the temptation to doubt God's Word comes most often in the context of hardship and disappointment. When things get really tough and the pressure is really on, aren't we a little more willing to hear other voices? Did God really say, Did Christ really say that He's going to prepare a place for you? Did He really say that He's coming back for you? Are you sure He told you all that you need to know? Are you sure there isn't more that you need? Or if He really loved you, wouldn't He not make you go through these troubling times? Wouldn't He just relieve your distress? Come to the wilderness and see for yourself, the false teachers say. Let's not forget that in the gospel already, the wilderness is a metaphor for the realm of chaos and the realm of Satan, for the arena of temptation. And so essentially what they're saying is come out into the wilderness and be tempted. Be tempted to walk away from the Lord, be tempted by falsehood. If not in the wilderness, maybe he's in a secret chamber. Perhaps there's some secret knowledge that you need to know beyond the scriptures. Just a little bit more. Just a little addition that will make things clear and give you greater peace. See, when the chaos tempts the people of God to doubt and look elsewhere, Jesus says clearly and plainly, do not believe it. For as Jesus said in verse 13, the one who endures will be saved. We don't need to be tossed around by the troubles of this world as if chaos means that Christ's word and plans have failed. As if we need to look for the blueprints of a plan B because plan A just didn't seem to work out. See, the Christian life is not a scavenger hunt. Everything is right before us. We have only to listen and to believe. Even amid the greatest horrors that this world would face, just as Judea faced in 70 A.D., the mission and the plan of God and Christ is unchanging. Remember verse 14, this gospel of the kingdom will be proclaimed throughout the whole world as a testimony to all nations and then the end will come. You see here Jesus comes back around to those earlier foundational verses at the beginning of the chapter to assure the disciples and to assure those early Christians that they need not give in to the doubts and the chaos because the end is not yet. And though what we face is not exactly what they faced, the danger and the warning still speak to us right now. Don't believe the hype. You'll know when Christ comes. Knowing how things end, well, not knowing exactly how we get there still provides God's people with immense comfort and assurance. And that's where Jesus takes his disciples in these final verses. As during the time of calamity that will come upon Jerusalem, there would be those who would be determined to predict the coming of Christ or even to say that he's already come. But Jesus tells them not to believe it and goes on in verses 27 and 28 to tell them why they must not believe it. Jesus makes an essential distinction between the true appearance of Christ at the end of the age and the false Christs and the prophets who show up during the chaos. Look there at verse 27. For as the lightning comes from the east and shines as far as the west, so will be the coming of the Son of Man. The first thing we must note here again is the clear separation Jesus makes between the two things that the disciples in their question and the false prophets that will arise have conflated. In their minds they thought there was an immediate chronological relationship between the destruction of the temple and the coming of Christ, but that's not the case. The temple being destroyed is not a sign of the end. It is part of the troubles of the world. It's not time for speculation and time for doubt. But rather, when the end comes and Christ returns in glory, it can't be missed. And it's not because you have some sort of special knowledge or insight. that you won't miss it. It's not because you've calculated the day and the time that you won't miss it. You're not going to miss it because no one is going to be able to miss it. As R.T. France puts it, the coming of the Son of Man will be as unmissable as a flash of lightning which blazes across the whole sky. With this, Jesus is setting the parousia and the end of the age decisively apart from the coming destruction of the temple. Unlike the messianic pretenders with their offer of signs, the Son of Man will give no warning sign of his coming. But when he comes, no one can escape the sudden illumination. As lightning comes from the east and shines as far as the west, so will be the coming of the Son of Man. And that's the reason why you don't need to believe the hype. Jesus employs another image to reiterate the same thing, to reiterate the perspicuity of His coming. He says in verse 28, wherever the corpse is, there the vultures will gather. Now this image is slightly more difficult to interpret than that of the lightning. There have been a number of interpretations that refer this back to the siege of Jerusalem or a coming siege, some of which allegorize the corpse as being Jerusalem and the eagles as being the Roman army, that eagles could be translated vultures. Yet the fact that Jesus relates this proverbial saying after speaking of his coming, and the fact that Luke in Luke 17, 37 explicitly refers to this as Christ's coming, there's no need to press the image beyond the simple meaning that when you see the vulture circling, you know without a shadow of a doubt that a corpse lies below. Though ominous in its force, the point is the same as it was in verse 27. As another scholar says, no one will have to tell you when the Lord returns. Do not be deceived. Do not believe the hearsay of rumor mongers and go out and find him. You will know. Everyone will know. You see, the world does not need claims and signs and proofs that Christ is coming. What the world needs is the gospel of Christ that on the day of His appearing they would rejoice and be glad and not cower in fear in face of judgment. That the world and we with them would on that day Welcome our Savior and King, shouting, Hosanna to the Son of God, the Son of David. Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord. And if we miss that point from what Jesus is saying here, we've gone in the wrong direction. The point is to keep Christ ever central amid all the troubles that this world may bring. It is Christ who stands supreme and His gospel that must go to the ends of the earth. Let's pray together. Our Lord, we rejoice that You have been so kind to us. to give to us Your very Word, to record for us the words of our dear Lord, and to instruct us in the way of truth and in the way of godliness. Lord, we ask that You would bless us with these words that we have heard, that You would strengthen us, that You would establish us, that You would grow us by Your mercy and Your grace. We pray these things in Christ's name. Amen.