Matthew 24:06-14 “How to Survive the End Times”
Part 2: Persevere and Preach

Translation & Sermon by Nate Wilson for Christ The Redeemer Church, Manhattan, KS, 21 July 2013

Translation

24:1 Then Jesus exited, proceeding away from the temple,
and His disciples approached to show off to Him the construction of the temple.

24:2 But Jesus said to them, “Y’all are looking at all these things, aren’t you? Really, I’m telling y’all,
there shall absolutely not be left here a stone upon a stone which will not be undone.

24:3 Then, as He was sitting on the Mount of Olives, the disciples approached Him privately saying,

“Tell us when these things will be

and what is the sign that you are coming into your own,

and of the close of the age.”

24:4 And in answer, Jesus said to them, “See to it that nobody shall cause y’all to wander astray,

24:5 for many will come using my name, saying, “I am the Christ,”

and they will cause many to wander astray.

24:6 And y’all are about to hear of wars and hearsay about wars.

Keep seeing to it that y’all don’t keep being startled,

for it is necessary for all things to happen,

but the end is not yet.

24:7 For nation will be raised upon nation and kingdom upon kingdom,

and there will be famines and plagues and earthquakes against places,

24:8 but all these things are the beginning of labor pains.

24:9 Then they will put y’all under pressure, and they will kill you,

and you will be hated by all of the nations on account of my name.

24:10 And then many will be scandalized and will betray one another and hate one another,

24:11 and many false prophets will be raised up, and they will cause many to wander astray,

24:12 and on account of the proliferation of the lawlessness, the love of the many will evaporate.

24:13 But the one who has persevered into the end, this one will be saved.

24:14 And this good news of the kingdom will be announced

in the whole of the world for a testimony to all the nations,

and then the end will arrive.

Introduction

• Chapter 24 opens with it being Wednesday night of Passover, two days before the crucifixion, and Jesus is sitting on top of the Mount of Olives, the next hill East of the hill that Jerusalem was on, looking out over Jerusalem with His disciples, and giving them what is known as the Olivet Discourse. Jesus speaks as the greatest of the prophets as He answers His disciple’s questions about the future of His kingdom.
• His opening point was not to get distracted, not by the temple in Jerusalem, not by false teachers, not by natural disasters, not by anything, but keep their eyes fixed on the focal point of Christianity, and that is on Christ Himself.

Exegesis

24:6 And y’all are about^[1] to hear of wars and hearsay about wars. Keep seeing to it that y’all don’t keep being startled, for it is necessary for all things to happen, but the end is not yet.

Μελλησετε δε ακουειν πολεμους και ακοας πολεμων. Ορατε μη θροεισθε, δει γαρ παντα^[2] γενεσθαι αλλ’ ουπω εστιν το τελος.

• Did this happen in the disciples’ generation? Of course! A.T. Robertson, one of my favorite experts on the Greek New Testament commented, “Already there were outbreaks against the Jews in Alexandria, at Seleucia with the slaughter of more than fifty thousand, at Jamnia, and elsewhere. Caligula, Claudius, [and] Nero will threaten war before it finally comes with the destruction of the city and temple by Titus in a.d. 70.”
• And, of course today, you can’t turn on the news without hearing of wars and rumors of war – North Korea, Somalia, Afghanistan... it’s today too.
• It may be relevant to state that the book of Revelation mentions wars over four times more than any other book in the New Testament. However, some of the Old Testament history books, have Revelation beat four times over and more, so wars are nothing unique to the end times.
• The point, as I stated in my last sermon, is not to figure out everything about the end times, but to keep our focus in the right place: not on the wars and ominous threats around us, but upon the Master of History, our Lord Jesus, and not wander away from Him.
• “He was commanding them on two grounds to watch, so as neither to be seduced by the deceit of them that would beguile them, nor to be overpowered by the violence of ills that should overtake them… Seest thou the war to be threefold? from the deceivers, from the enemies, and from the false brethren… yet because by God’s grace we cling with much exactness to the doctrines of the truth, we are above the malice of the evil spirits.” ~Chrysostom

24:7 For nation will be raised upon nation and kingdom upon kingdom, and there will be famines and plagues and earthquakes against^[3] places

εγερθησεται γαρ εθνος επι εθνος και βασιλεια επι βασιλειαν και εσονται λιμοι και λοιμοι και^[4] σεισμοι κατα τοπους

• Luke 21 adds, “and there shall be terrors and great signs from heaven.”
• There is some debate over whether the first verb is active or passive. Greek lexicographers say it is passive, but all the standard English versions translate it active: “nation will rise against nation.” However, the last two times we saw this verb (Matt. 17:23 & 20:19), all the standard English versions translated this identical verb as passive: “He will be raised on the third day.” I’m keeping the passive voice to maintain the theme of the sovereignty of God. The Lord actually raises up and puts down kings and nations according to His creative initiative and His justice.
1. In Isaiah 19:2, God said, “I will incite Egyptians against Egyptians; And they will each fight against his brother and each against his neighbor, City against city and kingdom against kingdom.” (NASB)
2. Remember how God also promised to raise up Cyrus to overturn Babylonian foreign policy and re-establish the captive Jews in their homeland. (Isaiah 45:1)
3. And then God asks in Amos 9:7b “Have I not brought up Israel from the land of Egypt, And the Philistines from Caphtor and the Arameans from Kir?” God causes nations to rise and fall like waves on the sea. (cf. Daniel’s prophecy of succession of nations in ch. 2.)
4. When we see Serbs fighting Croats or Sunni Muslims fighting Shi’a Muslims, or Arabs and Turks fighting Kurds, let us realize that, while we may have a part to play in bringing peace or relief, God is also playing His part in orchestrating the great movements of history according to His perfect will.
• Now, there is another debate about this verse, and it has to do with whether or not the word “plagues” (or “pestilence” in the King James Versions) was in Matthew’s original list here. There is a large minority of Greek manuscripts that don’t include this word here in Matthew, so most of the modern English versions don’t include it, but nobody disputes that the word is in the original Greek in the parallel passage in Luke 21:11, so Jesus did say it, whether or not Matthew originally recorded it.
• Did famines, plagues, and earthquakes impact the lives of the apostles? Yes. Classical Greek scholar Marvin Vincent summarized, “Between [this] prophecy and the destruction of Jerusalem (a.d. 70) occurred: A great earthquake in Crete, a.d. 46 or 47: at Rome, on the day on which Nero entered his majority, a.d. 51: at Apameia, in Phrygia, a.d. 53… at Laodicea, in Phrygia, a.d. 60: in Campania, a.d. 63, by which, according to Tacitus, the city of Pompeii was largely destroyed… [and, of course there’s the earthquake in Phillipi that busted up the prison into which Paul and his companions had been thrown. And what about famines?]. During the reign of Claudius, a.d. 41-54:, four famines are recorded: One at Rome, a.d. 41, 42; one in Judaea, a.d. 44; one in Greece, a.d. 50; and again at Rome, a.d. 52, when the people rose in rebellion and threatened the life of the emperor. Tacitus says that it was accompanied by frequent earthquakes, which levelled houses. The famine in Judaea was probably the one prophesied by Agabus [in] Acts11:28. Of the year 65 a.d., Tacitus says: “This year, disgraced by so many deeds of horror, was further distinguished by the gods with storms and sicknesses. Campania was devastated by a hurricane which overthrew buildings, trees, and the fruits of the soil in every direction, even to the gates of the city, within which a pestilence thinned all ranks of the population... The houses were choked with dead…” (“Annals,” xvi., 10-13). ~Vincent
• Jesus prophecied correctly. But keep in mind that “earthquakes bode good, and no evil, to the church… (Rev. 11:12-19, 16:17-19.) When God shakes terribly the earth (Isa. 2:21), it is to shake the wicked out of it (Job 38:13), and to introduce the desire of all nations (Hag. 2:6-7).” ~Matthew Henry
• Jesus was just preparing His disciples for the kinds of challenges they would face during the rest of their lives. He was re-setting their expectations. They were expecting Him, as the Messiah, to start the heavenly age where there would be no more problems and no more evil anymore, and Jesus is saying, “No, your generation is not going to be that way, you need to prepare yourselves to endure bad news, wars, famines, sickness, and natural disasters just like the generations before you. The age when everything is made perfect is still coming, but it is not yet.”

24:8 but all these things are the beginning of labor pains.

παντα δε ταυτα αρχη ωδινων.

• So, wars, food shortages, diseases, and natural disasters are a sign of the beginning of something, not the end of something^[5].
• The Greek word wdiwn, translated “sorrows^KJV,” “pains^NIV,ESV,” or “pangs^NAS” is used in the Greek Bible to describe what a mother feels in the process of labor and delivery^[6] but, more often than not it is part of a simile describing the pain and anguish that people will experience when God’s wrath falls upon them in judgment:

· Job 21:17 “…the lamp of the ungodly also shall be put out, and destruction shall come upon them, and pangs of vengeance shall seize them.” (Brenton, cf. Exodus 15:14, Deuteronomy 2:25, Nahum 2:10)

· 1 Thessalonians 5:2-3 “…the day of the Lord will come just like a thief in the night. While they are saying, ‘Peace and safety!’ then destruction will come upon them suddenly like labor pains upon a woman with child, and they will not escape” (NASB)

• It is my opinion that the phrase “all these things” here in v.8 includes the destruction of the temple which is called “these things” back in v.3^[7], plus it includes the wars, famines, plagues, and earthquakes mentioned in vs.6-7.
• In other words, the end of hardships will not come when the Jewish nation is judged with destruction in 70AD. Christians in the generation which followed the apostles could not expect to kick back and enjoy the heavenly golden age any more than the apostles themselves. Rome considered Jews to be a threat in the first Century, and then, once they had destroyed the Jews, they began to consider Christians to be a threat and did their best to destroy Christianity in the second and third Centuries.

24:9 Then they will [deliver/betray] put y’all under pressure, and they will kill you, and you will be hated by all of the nations on account of my name.

Τοτε παραδωσουσιν ‘υμας εις θλιψιν και αποκτενουσιν ‘υμας και εσεσθε μισουμενοι ‘υπο παντων των εθνων δια το ονομα μου

• The plural “you” here is speaking specifically of the persecution of Christians – injustices motivated by hatred against the name of Jesus Christ.
• The parallel passages in Mark 13:9ff and Luke 21:12ff go into much more detail about the occurrences Jesus describes here, mentioning trials in synagogues and also before government councils in which Christians will nevertheless be able to testify of Christ. They would also be beaten and thrown into prison in the process. These are the kind of afflictions^KJV/ tribulations^NAS,NKJ,ESV/ persecutions^NIV Jesus was prophecying.
• The history in the book of Acts describes how the apostles were indeed tried in synagogues and in civil courts and persecuted and imprisoned and put to death. Historians tell us that capitol punishment was carried out on every one of the apostles^[8].
• Now, some people think that persecution of Christians ended after Constantine’s Edict of Toleration at the beginning of the fourth century, but that is inaccurate. Emperor Shaphur III decided to take the opposite position in the Persian empire from what Constantine was doing in the rival Roman empire , so Shaphur began what is called “The Great Persecution” and slaughtered 190,000 Christians^[9]. And if you look at history worldwide, the persecution of Christians does not ebb and flow so much as it rolls from one region to another, as you can see illustrated by the timeline of Martyrs per Year^[10].
• And the world isn’t through persecuting Christians, as the weekly column in our church bulletin should make soberingly clear. Just a few days ago I talked on the phone with a brother in Christ from a non-Christian family in Pakistan. He said that they take his Bibles away from him, force him to attend non-Christian temples, have frozen his bank account, and threatened to kill him.
• Mark and Luke mention that Christians will be betrayed even by their own family members – parents, brothers, and children, but “not a hair of your head shall perish. In your patience you shall win your souls.” (Luke 21:18-19)^[11]
• Persecution of Christians has characterized all of history since the time of Christ; it was not unique to the Apostles’ day, and it is not unique to our day. Suffering will remain in the world until Jesus brings the final consummation.
• What therefore we must do is persevere through the hardships with our eyes on Christ and take our place as witnesses to the good news that Jesus died to save sinners.

24:10 And then many will be scandalized and will betray one another and hate one another,

και τοτε σκανδαλισθησονται πολλοι και αλληλους παραδωσουσιν και μισησουσιν αλληλους

• The subject of this sentence, “many” appears to widen the scope beyond “you” Christians to “many” non-Christians in all the world.
• The word “then/at that time” seems to set it in a sequence after the persecution of Christians. So, the picture I get is that once the Christians are all chased underground, the non-Christian majority starts to turn on each other. When there are no more Christians to hate, they’ll turn their hatred upon each other, because hatred characterizes the non-Christian world, just as it characterizes the devil who influences them.
• I transliterated the Greek verb skandalizw here as “scandalized;” it is translated “be offended” in the KJV, and “fall away” or “turn away” in the NAS, NIV,and ESV – which is a more specific subset of the meaning of this Greek word, yet those translations don’t reflect the passive voice of the original word so well, and I also don’t like the implication that people could be Christians and later not be Christians. (I realize that 1 John 2:18-19 states that in the apostles’ lifetime, “many antichrists had appeared” who “went out from among us” but John is quick to qualify that by saying that “they were not really of us.”^[12])
• The Bible tells us that many things “scandalized” or “tripped up folks,” things like idolatry (Josh. 23:13, Jdg. 2:3), materialism (Jdg. 8:27), romantic relationships (1Sam. 18:21), revenge (1Sam. 25:31), lies (Psalm 50:20, 140:5; 141:9), humanism (Matt. 16:23), and misunderstanding Jesus and the Gospel (Rom. 9:33, 1Pet. 2:8, 1Cor. 1:23).
• Scandal, betrayal, and hate are all over the place today.
1. There has been a lot of talk lately over Edward Snowden leaking top-secret documents exposing how government leaders spy on law-abiding American citizens. The way he went about it certainly seems questionable, but it is sad to me to see the news full of traps being laid for Snowden in retaliation for the scandal.
2. Then there’s the brouhaha over the jury acquitting George Zimmerman, the neighborhood watch captain who killed a suspect. Zimmerman is looking at living the rest of his life in hiding to keep from being beat up or killed by people who believe the trial was rigged by white racists.
• Jesus prophecied accurately about the scandals and betrayals of the apostles’ time as well as our day. He also mentioned the problem of false prophets:

24:11 and many false prophets will be raised up, and they will cause many to wander astray,

και πολλοι ψευδοπροφηται εγερθησονται και πλανησουσιν πολλους

• I don’t have a problem with the passive voice of the verb “be raised up” in this verse. It is spelled passive in Greek, and it is not one of those irregular verbs with no active spelling, so I think the passive voice means something here.
1. It could speak of the sovereignty of God over even false prophecy (as per 1Ki. 22:23 and Isaiah 29:10, although God did not immediately send them – Jer. 23:21 & 32.),
2. or it could be that these false prophets are raised up by Satan.
3. Either way, false teachers are not to be feared. They are Satan’s dupes and God’s pawns.
• Again, Jesus’ prophecy about false prophets have come true:
1. Barnabus and Paul ran into a false prophet named “the Son of Jesus” when they were at Crete (Acts 13:6),
2. The Apostle John testified that “many false prophets” were circulating around the world in his day (1John 4:1),
3. And Peter warned the next generation that “there will also be also be false teachers among you” (2 Peter 2:1).
4. We have false prophets still deceiving^KJV,NIV/ misleading^NAS/ causing many to wander astray^ESV from God’s truth, like:
• Mohammed, the founder of Islam
• Joseph Smith, the founder of Mormonism,
• Liberal mainline denominational leaders who teach that truth is based on your feelings and that the Bible is full of errors.
• Robert Schuller, Joel Ostein, Oprah Winfrey, and many other charismatic leaders with personality cults that draw people away from the Bible.

24:12 and on account of the proliferation of the lawlessness, the love of the many will evaporate.

και δια το πληθυνθηναι την ανομιαν ψυγησεται ‘η αγαπη των πολλων.

• There will be an exponential increase of lawlessness/ iniquity^KJV/ wickedness^NIV – that is, disregard for the ten commandments given by God.
• I see this as a consequence of the “hoi polloi” (which is the Greek wording here for “the many”) hoi polloi being led astray by false prophets – philosophers, religious leaders, teachers, and media scriptwriters who are not operating under the authority of God and therefore are leading others to also live without submission to the moral law of God, even though every one of us is obligated to obey God because God created us and has every right to tell us what we should and should not do.
1. This “lawlessness” (a-nomia) existed back in Jesus’ day, for He already called the Pharisees “lawless” in v.28 of the last chapter.
2. And that lawlessness continued into the time of the apostles, for Paul wrote to the Thessalonian church that, “the mystery of lawlessness is already at work” (2 Thess. 2:7a).
3. And I doubt that any of you needs convincing that lawlessness is still characteristic of our contemporary society. Disregard for God’s law when it comes to religious pluralism, profanity, working on the Lord’s Day, adultery, dishonesty, and greed are rampant.
4. And lawlessness is prophecied to still be going strong in the end times, because the “lawless” are in the judgment day scenarios that Jesus described in Matthew 7 and Matthew 13, as well as in the end-time appearance of the “man of lawlessness” in 2 Thessalonians 2:3.
• Verses 9-10 of Matthew 24 told us that hate will characterize the world. The reason mentioned here in v.12 why they will hate is because their love has “grown cold” or “evaporated.” The Greek word describing what happened to their love is psugesetai, and in the five other verses in the Greek Bible where this word occurs, it mostly refers to exposing things^[13] to the open air so that they dry out.
• 1 John 4:7 tells us that “love comes from God,” so when people are lawless and disconnected from God, who is the source of love, naturally their ability to love cools off and evaporates. That’s, of course, why the Apostle John warns us in that same letter (3:13) not to be surprised if the world hates us.^[14]

24:13 But the one who [endures] has persevered^[15] into the end, this one will be saved.

‘Ο δε ‘υπομεινας εις τελος ‘ουτος σωθησεται

• Have you heard that somewhere before? It is an exact repeat of what Jesus said in Matt. 10:22 when He sent his 12 disciples out on their first preaching tour in Israel: “and y’all will be hated by all on account of my name, but the one who has persevered into the end, this one will be saved.”
• What is the “end” to which Jesus refers here? The Greek word behind the English word “end” is telos, and we see that Greek word occur two other times in chapter 24:
• Verse 6 “it is necessary for all things to happen, but the end is not yet;” so there is still yet to come persecution and hatred and betrayal and all that.
• and in verse 14 we will read that before the “end,” the gospel will be preached to every nation in the world.
• Since this discourse was given in response to the disciples’ question in v.3 “What is the sign of your coming and of the end of the age,” I think is safe to assume that Jesus is answering that question, even though the Greek word (suntelia) in the disciples’ question is slightly different than the Greek word (telos) here. Both words for the “end” share same Greek root, though, and remember that we run into that same synonym later in Matthew 28:20 when Jesus says, “I am with you always even until the end (suntelia) of the age.”
• What does it mean to “persevere to the end” to be “saved”? I believe that this can have multiple layers of fulfillment:
• In the near term, there will be times when you trust God, and people hate you for it. (This seems to be the application of the first time that Jesus said this, because in Matthew 10:23, immediately after saying “He who endures to the end will be saved,” Jesus explains to His disciples that they should run away to safety if they get persecuted, and that they would all get back together safely at the end of their first preaching tour through the cities of Israel.^[16]) We must persevere and keep on trusting God until we have obeyed Him in whatever difficult task He has given us to do.
• Sometimes when people hate us enough to try to put us to death, God will literally save our lives and put those who hate us to shame. This would be the kind of “end” spoken of in James 5:11, where we read that Job endured his sufferings to the “end,” and how that end was to receive mercy from God. The end can be the end of a trial.
• But for others, salvation will come in a different way. Our earthly life may be terminated by the hands of men, but God will bring us to live with Him in heaven. This appears to be the application of the word “end” in John 13:1, when it says that Jesus loved His followers to the “end,” which seems to be defined by the phrase “the hour that he would depart from this world to His father.” Persevering to the end includes persevering until your earthly life has ended.
• There is also the end of the world as we know it on judgment day, before the fullness of the kingdom which “will have no end” (Luke 1:33). That seems to be the use of the word “end” where it occurs in 1 Corinthians 1:7-8 “…you are eagerly waiting for the revelation of our Lord Jesus Christ, Who will also make you firm until the end – so as not to be called down in the day of our Lord Jesus Christ.” (NAW) When we see Jesus return and hear Him utter that final judgment, “I know you; I died to pay the price for your sin, and you have done well as my servant,” that will be the final step in our salvation.
• Note that it does not say they “shall” be saved or that they “might” be saved – it’s not subjunctive; there’s no question about it; they WILL be saved! Let that promise fire up your perseverance!
• Fair-weather “Christians” will not be saved. Those who turn away from God because their friends made fun of them – or even because an attempt was made on their life – will bear the wrath of God forever without mercy. Don’t give in to the temptation to forsake God in order to keep some worldly benefit!

24:14 And this good news of the kingdom will be announced [preached/proclaimed] in the whole of the world for a [witness] testimony to all the nations, and then the end will arrive.

και κηρυχθησεται τουτο το ευαγγελιον της βασιλειας εν ‘ολη τη οικουμενη εις μαρτυριον πασιν τοις εθνεσιν και τοτε ‘ηξει το τελος.

• What is the “gospel of the kingdom”?
1. It is the same phrase used in chapter 10:7, when Jesus commissioned the 12 disciples on their first preaching tour of Israel: “Preach saying, ‘The Kingdom of Heaven has drawn near!’”
2. It’s the same thing Jesus did in Galilee: 4:17, 4:23, and 9:35: “And Jesus was going around to all the cities and the villages, teaching in their synagogues, and preaching the good news of the kingdom, and healing all manner of disease and all manner of sickness”
3. And it was the message of John the Baptizer 3:1 “…Preaching in the wilderness, ‘Repent, for the kingdom of heaven has neared’”
4. Dispensationalists try to tell us that these identical phrases mean three totally different messages preached, but the good news of God’s kingdom has always been the same, that God would come as a human and provide a death which would atone for our sins and make us right with God forever, and we must believe in this and live as obedient citizens of His kingdom. Every prophet and apostle delivered that same good news even though the apostles could include more details, such as the name of the Messiah being Jesus.
• What does it mean for the Gospel to be preached “in all the world”?
1. oikoumene is the Greek word translated “world” here.
2. It is a compound of the Greek word for “house” and the Greek verb “to remain,” so it could be literally translated those “remaining” in the “house.”
3. It is used in Luke’s Gospel and Acts to refer to the Roman Empire – Caesar’s house, as it were^[17], and at other times it refer to the whole planet earth^[18]. Since it is used here in combination with the phrase “all the nations,” I think we must take it to mean the whole planet.
• This phrase “all the nations” is found three times in the book of Genesis, all in statements from God to Abraham and his descendents:
1. Genesis 18:18 “in thee shall all the nations of the earth be blest.” (Brenton)
2. Genesis 22:18 “And through your seed shall all the nations of the earth be blessed...”
3. Genesis 26:4 “… all the nations of the earth shall be blest through your seed.”
4. The Apostle Paul tells us in Galatians 3:8 that these passages in Genesis were the same thing that Jesus is talking about here in Matthew, it’s about God’s “good news/gospel” that the “gentiles” would be “justified by faith” through the Messiah who would be a descendent of Abraham.
5. Jesus explained in Luke 24:47, “[The prophets prophecied] that repentance for forgiveness of sins would be proclaimed in His name to all the nations, beginning from Jerusalem.” (NASB, cf. Isaiah 52:10)
• I believe that, just as every one of the preceding events has been characteristic of both the age of the apostles and of our time, so it is with this statement.
• However, my background in foreign missions predisposed me to be skeptical about the Gospel really having been preached in all the world to every nation during the time of the apostles.
1. Missiologists tell us that while a church building of some sort exists in every political nation,
2. about a quarter of the individuals in the world today have never heard the gospel,
3. 3,000 languages don’t have a single Bible verse translated into their tongue,
4. and some 12,000 whole ethnic groups live without a viable Gospel witness.
5. And the apostles were starting out from zero; they can’t possibly have evangelized the whole world, right?
• Well, what does the Bible say?
1. Acts 2:5-11 Now there were Jews living in Jerusalem, devout men from every nation under heaven. And when this sound occurred, the crowd came together… Parthians and Medes and Elamites, and residents of Mesopotamia, Judea and Cappadocia, Pontus and Asia, Phrygia and Pamphylia, Egypt and the districts of Libya around Cyrene, and visitors from Rome, both Jews and proselytes, Cretans and Arabs—we hear them in our own tongues speaking of the mighty deeds of God. (NASB)
2. Romans 16:25-26 “…the preaching of Jesus Christ… has been made known to all the nations, leading to obedience of faith” (NASB)
3. Colossians 1:23 “…continue in the faith… the gospel that you have heard, which was proclaimed in all creation under heaven…” (NASB)
4. Either the Bible is not true or else “the gospel of the kingdom” actually was “preached in the whole of the world as a testimony to all the nations” during the time of the apostles.
5. According to my research, 18% of the population of the world actually heard the Gospel by the end of the first century, and that 18% included at least some from every ethnic group in the world.
6. By the time of the Reformation, churches had been planted throughout all of Asia, Europe, the Middle East, and North Africa . They didn’t all survive, but they existed in all those places for at least some time.
• So, does this mean then that we’re off the hook and we can just sit around waiting for Jesus to come back because the Gospel has already been preached to the whole world and there’s nothing left to do? No, the things that characterized the apostles’ time should also characterize our time.
1. Even after the Pentecost episode when people from all nations under earth heard the gospel, Paul continued to act on Jesus’ command to, “Go into all the world and start preaching the gospel to all creation” (Mark 16:15). He said in Romans 15:20 that it had always been his ambition to preach the gospel where no one had gone before, and so he was planning church planting projects in Europe!
2. Part of the challenge of world evangelism is that even after a population has been evangelized, thirty years later you have a whole new generation to evangelize all over again – unless you’ve trained the parents to do it themselves. I believe it was the Presbyterian mobilizer John R. Mott about a hundred years ago who popularized the phrase, “The evangelization of the world in this generation,” and I think he was on to something there.
3. While we know that in heaven there will be “a great multitude, which no man could number, out of every nation and of all tribes and peoples and tongues, standing before the throne and before the Lamb, arrayed in white robes” (Rev. 7:9, NASB, cf. Rev. 15:4), we do not know how many generations there will be from every nation.
4. So those who say, “We just need to recruit 80,000 more missionaries and send them to the remaining unreached people groups and then Jesus will come back in the year 2050,” are bound to be surprised that Jesus doesn’t come back when they expect. But at the same time, I believe that all who engage in these kind of strategic mission enterprises will be blessed for doing the very thing God wants done in the world: and that is preaching the gospel.

Conclusion

Jesus prophecied that between His first and second comings there would be tremendous hardships, and only He who endures to the end will be saved. What then does Jesus want us to do until the end? What do we do to survive the terrible end times? Put paper sacks over our heads? Build a bomb shelter? Put on white robes and wait on a hilltop for Jesus to take you home? No! There are two positive things mentioned in this passage. Two things that it is clear that Jesus wants His people to do between now and the end:

1) ENDURE. This is related to my earlier application that we must keep our eyes on Christ and not get distracted. Keep believing in His name, even when people hate you for it, even when Christians are put to death over it, even when natural disasters like earthquakes or tornadoes make it seem like the earth is falling apart at the seams, even when false ideologies are running rampant through our culture so it seems hopeless that anyone will believe the truth, even when wars seem like they are going to rip your world apart. Stand fast. Whoever endures to the end, trusting in Jesus will be saved by Jesus, will be safe for all eternity!

2) And keep PREACHING the gospel of the kingdom. Keep sharing the love of God with people, even when everybody else’s love has grown cold. Keep finding new corners of the world and new ethnicities to share the good news that Jesus Christ died to save sinners!

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^[1] The mellw verb reminds me of Mat.12:32  “this age or the age about to come,” “The Son of man is about to come in the glory of the father,” and 3:7 “Who warned you to flee from the wrath that’s about to come?” But these are by no means the only context for the use of the word.

^[2] Critical texts omit this word due to it’s nonpresence in five of the most ancient Greek manuscripts (א, Β, D, L, Θ – perhaps following the reading of the parallel passage in Mark 13:7), but the majority of Greek manuscripts (including many of the most ancient ones: C, K, W, Δ, Π, O, Σ, 0138), contain panta “all.” Early African translations and church fathers tend to favor the omission, while early Latin translations tend to read as though the word tauta “these things” were there instead of panta (perhaps following the reading of Luke 21:9), but early translations made for languages inbetween the regions of Rome and Africa, tend to favor panta, as do church fathers also from that middle zone. The Byzantine and Textus Receptus (T.R.) editions of the Greek New Testament (GNT) also include panta.

^[3] All the English versions employ the distributive use of kata, “place by place,” which is valid, but since this is a list of calamaties and kata can mean “against,” this adversative meaning makes more sense to me.

^[4] This phrase is in the Majority of Greek manuscripts (incl. C, L, W, Θ, 0138, f¹, and f¹³), and thus in the Byzantine and T.R. editions of the GNT and the KJV translations (“pestilences and”). Ancient translations are divided on whether to include these words, and they are omitted in א, B, and D, and thus in Critical editions of the GNT and English versions which follow that. It occurs in Luke 21:11 without dispute among the manuscripts, so Jesus did say it, and besides, it has a neat poetic sound to it – limoi kai loimoi. Chrysostom includes it, but I wonder if men like him who memorized the entire N.T. might have conflated parallel passages when they recalled them from memory, while scribes copying from actual manuscripts would not have been as likely to make those conflations.

^[5] Granted, the metaphor is that of birth, so the beginning of labor is the end of the pregnancy and the baby will be born soon.

^[6] 1 Sam. 4:19, 2 Kings 19:3, Job 39:1, Isa. 13:8, 21:3, 26:17, 37:3, Jer. 6:24, 8:21, 22:23, Hosea 13:13, 1 Thess. 5:2-3

^[7] Cf. Jesus reference to the viewable temple as “all these things” in v.2

^[8] John alone managed to survive being boiled in oil and, we are told, died of old age in a labor camp.

^[9] Details can be found in Samuel Moffatt’s A History of the Church in Asia vol. 1.

^[10] Timeline found in Barrett & Johnson’s World Christian Trends

^[11] The other synoptic writers seem to have placed here the material that Matthew placed earlier in 10:17-21.

^[12] The parable of the sower also uses these words (except not “many”) along the same lines: Mt. 13:21b “…after stress or persecution occurs on account of the word, he is immediately scandalized”

^[13] like quail meat, (Numbers 11:32), wheat kernels (2 Samuel 17:19), and bones (Jer. 8:2). The other two instances in the O.T. are Jer. 6:7 – where the Hebrew “throw forth” leads me to interpret the LXX as a “evaporating” pool, and 2 Kings 19:24 where the Hebrew indicates excavation of dirt and I think the LXX could refer either to that or to the human body loosing water through evaporation and needing to be refreshed by a drink.

^[14] Cf. John 15:18-19 If the world hates you, you know that it has hated Me before it hated you. If you were of the world, the world would love its own; but because you are not of the world, but I chose you out of the world, because of this the world hates you.” (NASB)

^[15] This is my attempt to render the sense of the Aorist tense of the participle as referring to a single point in time.

^[16] That is my interpretation. I recognize that there are other interpretations in circulation.

^[17] Luke 2:1 Decree from Caesar that all the oikoumene should be taxed (He only had jurisdiction to tax his dominions), Acts 11:28 Agabus’ prophecy of a famine over the whole oikoumene (It’s hard to imagine a famine being truly world-wide), Acts 17:6 Paul is accused of upsetting the oikoumene by his preaching (He had not preached anywhere outside the Roman Empire), Acts 19:27 People from all over the oikoumene came to worship Artemis in Ephesus (It’s not likely that the Chinese or the American Indians knew anything about Artemis). Note that the word “whole” occurs in some of these examples, so the phrase “whole world” does not necessarily widen the meaning of oikoumene beyond the Roman Empire.

^[18] Luke 4:5 Satan tempted Jesus by showing and offering Jesus “all the kingdoms of the oikoumene,” Luke 21:26 seems to contrast the oikoumene with the heavens, Acts 17:31 says that Jesus will judge the oikoumene (which would have to be all mankind, not a subset of it). Other N.T. authors seem to use oikoumene in this same vein (Romans 10:18; Hebrews 1:6; 2:5; Revelation 3:10; 12:9; 16:14). The word only occurs this once in Matthew.