OLIVET DISCOURSE, Let’s Make This PersonalsteemCreated with Sketch.

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OLIVET DISCOURSE
Let’s Make This Personal
Matthew 24:9-14

To remind you what we are doing….

Matthew 24 is called The Olivet Discourse. It is the third of three sermons preached by Jesus to the nation of Israel.

In it he describes for them the signs which will indicate His coming to establish the kingdom promised them so long ago.

We said that the sign of His coming is the Tribulation Period – Daniel’s seventieth week.

And we said that in order to rightly divide this sermon we have to view it as ENTIRELY Jewish and Tribulational.

There has been, in my opinion much damage done to the credibility of preachers by the tendency to point to everything that happens as a sign that we are in the last days.

Paul, Peter and John all confirmed we are in the last days.
But they did it 2000 years ago.

We need no signs to tell us that. All we need to do is to urge people to look up! Jesus is coming soon!

There are those who have taught – and probably we have bought into this teaching without knowing it – that Matthew 24:4-14 happens at the end of the church age and that they are signs that tell us Jesus is coming soon….

Wars and strife on every hand
And violence fills the land
Still some people doubt He’ll ever come again
But the Word of God is true
He’ll redeem His chosen few
Don’t lose hope soon Christ Jesus will descend

Signs of the times are everywhere
There’s a brand new feeling in the air
Keep your eyes upon the eastern sky
Lift up your head redemption draweth nigh

I love the song and will keep singing it, but it does use Matthew 24 as its foundation and it does teach that the signs of Matthew 24 happen in the church age, not during the Tribulation Period.

I am saying in this series of lessons that the signs of Matthew 24 fit more properly into the Tribulation Period

And I am saying that if that is the case, we should be able to find parallels between Matthew 24 and the book of Revelation.

So a couple of weeks ago we began to compare Matthew 24:4-14 with Revelation six and the seven sealed judgments found therein.

We have gone through the first four of them; the four horsemen; and compared them to Matthew 24:4-8.

I want to look at the fifth and sixth seal judgments in comparison with Matthew 24:9-12

And you will notice right away in the book of Matthew, that this transitions from national and global type crises to more personal types.

So I am calling this lesson, “Let’s Get Personal.”

Turn with me to Revelation six
I. THE FIFTH SEAL/MARTYRDOM
Vs 9-11

And this corresponds, interestingly, to Matthew 24:9-11.

A. The first mention of Tribulation
We are going to find in Matthew 24 three references and each one significant

• The tribulation (vs 9)
• The great tribulation (vs 21) and
• After the tribulation (vs 29)

The use of these terms corresponds with Daniels 70th week and the fact that there is a division in the middle of it.

This is why I believe Matthew 24:4-14 all describes the first half of the tribulation.

B. The martyrs
The question ought to be asked, “Who are these martyrs?”

Two possibilities would be, church age Christians or Tribulation believers.

Remember a couple of weeks ago that I said that the book of Revelation reads sort of like a series of overhead transparencies?

Each one sits on top of the other so that in the Revelation we don’t have so much a description of one event after the other but one event on top of the other.

That said, Revelation 6 tells us of martyrs

Revelation 7 tells us of 144,000 Jews who are sealed to be witnesses

Rev 7:3-10
Saying, Hurt not the earth, neither the sea, nor the trees, till we have sealed the servants of our God in their foreheads.
And I heard the number of them which were sealed: and there were sealed an hundred and forty and four thousand of all the tribes of the children of Israel.
Of the tribe of Juda were sealed twelve thousand. Of the tribe of Reuben were sealed twelve thousand. Of the tribe of Gad were sealed twelve thousand.
Of the tribe of Aser were sealed twelve thousand. Of the tribe of Nephthalim were sealed twelve thousand. Of the tribe of Manasses were sealed twelve thousand.
Of the tribe of Simeon were sealed twelve thousand. Of the tribe of Levi were sealed twelve thousand. Of the tribe of Issachar were sealed twelve thousand.
Of the tribe of Zabulon were sealed twelve thousand. Of the tribe of Joseph were sealed twelve thousand. Of the tribe of Benjamin were sealed twelve thousand.
After this I beheld, and, lo, a great multitude, which no man could number, of all nations, and kindreds, and people, and tongues, stood before the throne, and before the Lamb, clothed with white robes, and palms in their hands;
And cried with a loud voice, saying, Salvation to our God which sitteth upon the throne, and unto the Lamb. (KJV)

And I think Revelation 11 gives us more detail about two of them, just like acts tells us about 12 Apostles, (counting Matthias) but only gives us the detail about the ministry of 2 of them (Peter and Paul).

Rev 11:2-9
But the court which is without the temple leave out, and measure it not; for it is given unto the Gentiles: and the holy city shall they tread under foot forty and two months.
And I will give power unto my two witnesses, and they shall prophesy a thousand two hundred and threescore days, clothed in sackcloth.
These are the two olive trees, and the two candlesticks standing before the God of the earth.
And if any man will hurt them, fire proceedeth out of their mouth, and devoureth their enemies: and if any man will hurt them, he must in this manner be killed.
These have power to shut heaven, that it rain not in the days of their prophecy: and have power over waters to turn them to blood, and to smite the earth with all plagues, as often as they will.
And when they shall have finished their testimony, the beast that ascendeth out of the bottomless pit shall make war against them, and shall overcome them, and kill them.
And their dead bodies shall lie in the street of the great city, which spiritually is called Sodom and Egypt, where also our Lord was crucified.
And they of the people and kindreds and tongues and nations shall see their dead bodies three days and an half, and shall not suffer their dead bodies to be put in graves. (KJV)

• They are martyred and they are hated, and I believe
• They are seen in Revelation six praying under the altar

So here are these that God sealed to protect them from death, now dying.
Part of their testimony and witness required that they be faithful in their witness “unto death.”

Look again at Revelation six
II. THE SIXTH SEAL/CALLOUSNESS
Vs 12-17

I am going to pair this up with Matthew 24:12

At first glance it is difficult to see any similarity between them, but I am going to make the connection with
A. The word “iniquity”
Matthew 24:12.

Iniquity means
• Lawlessness
• Violation of the law or
• Illegality

Another word might be anarchy.

Now look what happens in Revelation 6:15…..
Notice that those who are specifically impacted by this seal are
• Kings
• Great men
• Rich men
• Chief Captains
• Mighty men and
• Free men

All of these people would be the targets of the mobs in a time of anarchy.

Even the bondmen mentioned, would be targets because they are indentured to those great men of the world.

Lawlessness and anarchy will lead to
B. Love waxes cold

Someone has said, “there is no honor among thieves.”

Lawlessness has as its main motivation selfishness. It is a careless spirit that has no concern for anyone but self.

• A lawless person does not care for his parents – he will break their hearts with his actions
• A lawless person does not care for his victims – he will go to any lengths to get what he wants from them
• A lawless person does not care for the government- he is breaking the laws of the land
• A lawless person does not even care for his partners in crime – they become expendable in order to gain his goals

One author says,
…. real love is impossible for the lawless person. By definition the lawless person is motivated by personal, selfish concerns, not by any regard for others or for the rules that govern our intercourse with one another. So with the upsurge of lawlessness there is a cooling off of love. The one necessarily involves the other.”

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