11 last days events

LAST DAY EVENTSLesson 11

Key Text:

“ ‘And whoever

exalts himself will be

humbled, and he who

humbles himself will be

exalted’ ”

Matthew 23:12,

The second coming of Jesus is the climax of the Christian faith. The First Advent of Jesus and His death on the cross are the crucial pre-cursors for the Se-cond Coming.

The Second Advent couldn’t happen without the first, and the first is fruitless without the second. Both are inseparably linked, if not in time yet in purpose, which is the redemption of humanity and the end of the great controversy. The first coming is over and done, complete and finished; we now longingly and eagerly await the second.

This lesson we will look at what is recorded in Matthew 23, with Jesus’ final appeal to some of the Jewish leaders to repent and accept Him, their only hope of salvation. Next, in Matthew 24, Jesus responded to questions about what events will unfold prior to His second coming. Here Jesus presents a rather solemn picture, linking the destruction of Jerusalem with what will precede His return.

And yet, no matter how hard things become (i.e., war, fami-ne, betrayal), we are left with the promise of “ ‘the Son of Man coming on the clouds of heaven with power and great glory’ ” (Matt. 24:30, NKJV). In other words, despite the toils and sorrow, we do have every reason to rejoice.

REBUKING THE LEADERS“See! Your house is left to you desolate.” (Matthew 23:38)

God made a covenant with Israel at Sinai. Jesus rebuked the leaders of Israel just before making the “new covenant.” He condemned their bad behavior so they could admit their mistakes and humble themselves before God. They wouldn’t be destroyed if they did so. Ask yourself, could I be failing in any of those points too?

A. They don’t practice what they teach (v. 3).B. They crush people with unbearable religious

demands (v. 4).C. Everything they do is for show (v. 5).D. They love the seats of honor in the

synagogues (v. 6).E. They love to receive respectful greetings (v. 7)F. They shut the door of the kingdom of heaven

in people’s faces (v. 13).G. They shamelessly cheat widows out of their

property (v. 14).H. They pretend to be pious by making long

prayers (v. 14).

I. They turn that person (convert) into twice the child of hell that you yourselves are (v. 15).

J. They say that it means nothing to swear “by God’s Temple” (v. 16).

K. They ignore the more important aspects of the law—justice, mercy, and faith (v. 23).

L. They strain your water so you won’t accidentally swallow a gnat, but you swallow a camel instead (v. 24).

M. Inside they are filthy—full of greed and self-indulgence (v. 25).



N. Outwardly they look like righteous people, but inwardly their hearts are filled with hypocrisy and lawlessness (v. 28).

O. They testify against themselves that they are indeed the descendants of those who murdered the prophets... They will be held responsible for the murder of all godly people (v. 29-35).

Jesus foretold their unrepentance by announcing the desolation and the destruction of the Temple. When some Greek people visited Him soon after that (John 12:20-26), He announced that Israel would lose the privilege of being the herald of salvation since they rejected Him.



“At this time Christ’s work bore the appearance of cruel defeat. He had been victor in the controversy with the priests and Pharisees, but it was evident that He would never be received by them as the Messiah. The final separation had come. To His disciples the case seemed hopeless. But Christ was approaching the consummation of His work. The great event which concerned not only the Jewish nation, but the whole world, was about to take place. When Christ heard the eager request, ‘We would see Jesus,’ echoing the hungering cry of the world, His countenance lighted up, and He said, ‘The hour is come, that the Son of man should be glorified.’ In the request of the Greeks He saw an earnest of the results of His great sacrifice.”

E.G.W. (The Desire of Ages, cp. 68, pg. 621)

THE END TIME“Now as He sat on the Mount of Olives, the disciples came to Him privately, saying, ‘Tell us, when will these things be? And what will be the sign of Your coming, and of the end of the age?’” (Matthew 24:3)Jesus used the same scene for both the destruction of

Jerusalem and His Second Coming.He didn’t describe an ideal world, but a world with impostors, wars, persecution, false brothers, missing love… (Matthew 24:1-12).

Jesus gave a glimpse of hope before explaining more specific signs, “he who endures to the end shall be saved” (Matthew 24:13).He also gave the Church a mission, “this gospel of the kingdom will be preached in all the world as a witness to all the nations” (Matthew 24:14).

THE FALL OF JERUSALEM“Therefore when you see the ‘abomination of desolation,’ spoken of by Daniel the prophet, standing in the holy place (whoever reads, let him understand), then let those who are in Judea flee to the mountains.” (Matthew 24:15-16)

In Matthew 24:15-22, Jesus explained what would happen before the destruction of Jerusalem and how the believers could escape. Those events would happen again during the history of the Church.When Christians saw “Jerusalem surrounded by armies,” they knew the time had come to leave Jerusalem. Luke 21:20 is the parallel text to Matthew 24:15-16, the “abomination of desolation” is explained there in the context of the destruction of Jerusalem.

When Vespasian rose the siege, Christians fled the city and took refuge in Pella. Therefore, no Christian died when Titus razed Jerusalem and the Temple to the ground in 70 AD.

THE SECOND COMING“For as the lightning comes from the east and flashes to the west, so also will the coming of the Son of Man be.” (Matthew

24:27)

In Matthew 24:23-31, Jesus gave specific signs of His Second Coming:

False Christs will rise and show signs (v. 24; Rev. 13:13).

Outstanding phenomena will be seen in the sky and on earth (v. 29; Rev. 6:12-14).

His Coming will be physical and everyone will see Him (v. 27 y 30; Rev. 1:7; 1Ts. 4:16).

He will come as a triumphant King (v. 30; Rev. 19:16; 1Co. 15:25).

Jesus will come back to take us home, just as sure as He was born, lived and resurrected, “and thus we shall always be with the Lord.” (1Ts. 4:17).

THE WAIT“Watch therefore, for you do not

know what hour your Lord is coming.”

(Matthew 24:42)

There are two types of servants in the parable Jesus told in Matthew 24:45-51.The faithful servant does his lord’s will and cares for others.The wicked servant stays loose and thinks his lord will be late. He lives a chaotic life and maltreats others.Nobody knows when Jesus will return (Matthew 24:36). Jesus invited us to wait for Him.Waiting for Him means to live being ready to go with Him if He came today.

“That evil servant who said in his heart, “My Lord delayeth His coming,” professed to be waiting for Christ. […] Fearing that his brethren may stand higher than himself, he begins to disparage their efforts and impugn their motives. Thus he smites his fellow servants. […]The very beginning of the evil was a neglect of watchfulness and secret prayer, then came a neglect of other religious duties, and thus the way was opened for all the sins that followed. […] No one is safe. No matter what our experience has been, no matter how high our station, we need to watch and pray continually. We must be daily controlled by the Spirit of God or we are controlled by Satan.”

E.G.W. (Testimonies for the Church, vol. 5, No. 31, cp. 8, pg. 101-102)

Further Thought:

In the context of the events depicted in Mat-thew 24, Jesus also said, “ ‘Assuredly, I say to you, this generation will by no means pass away till all these things take place’ ” (vs. 34, NKJV). This text has led to confusion because, obviously, all these things didn’t take place in a single temporal generation. Dr. Richard Lehmann, writing in The Handbook of Seventh-day Adventist Theology, says that the Greek word translated “generation” corresponds to the Hebrew word dôr, which is often used to designate a group or class of people, such as a “stubborn and rebellious generation” (Ps. 78:8).

Thus, Jesus was not using the word to depict time or dates but to de-pict the class of evil peo-ple whom He had been referring to. “In harmony with this OT usage, Jesus would have used the term ‘this generation’ without a temporal meaning, to refer to a class of people. The evil generation would include all who share evil characteristics. In other words, evil will remain until the end of time, until Jesus comes back.

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11 last days events

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