PART 1 FOR ISRAEL OR THE CHURCH

MATTHEW 24:1-49

WARNING FOR  ISRAEL  OR  THE  CHURCH

As Christians we seem to think that the New Testament was written just for us, “wrong”, if you look you will see that Jesus was sent for the lost sheep of Israel. Jesus is the fulfillment of the law and the prophets of the Old Testament. It was through the rejection of their promised Messiah by the majority that the door opened to the gentiles, for the first Christians were Jews. The bible, God’s word was written for all mankind. We can clearly see that there are times God’s word speaks directly to Israel (the Jews), directly to Christians, and to just the unbelievers, but it is for the benefit of all.  In Matthew 24 Jesus is speaking of Israel.

Sending Out the Twelve

⁵ These twelve Jesus sent out and commanded them, 

saying: “Do not go into the way of the Gentiles, 

and do not enter a city of the Samaritans. ⁶ But go 

rather to the lost sheep of the house of Israel.

MATTHEW 10:5-6

²⁴ But He answered and said, “I was not sent except 

to the lost sheep of the house of Israel.”

MATTHEW 15:24

There was no Christian church at this time in history. The church begins in Acts 2:1, the day of Pentecost.  Before reading Matthew 24, you need to go back three verses in Matthew 23 to see Jesus is speaking of Israel, the Jews, not the church.  Remember it was man that marked God’s word with chapters and numbered the verses, so always follow the golden rule, read the verses before and after to understand the fullness of God’s word and meaning.

In Revelation 7 the Lamb (Jesus) opens the 7 seals allowing the anti-christ to begin his time to deceive the world. In Revelation 7:3 Jesus seals the servants of God on their foreheads, all from the house of Israel. We the church, are not here, for we were already sealed by God with His   Holy Spirit.

²² who also has sealed us and given us the Spirit 

in our hearts as a guarantee.

2 CORINTHIANS 1:22

⁵ Now He who has prepared us for this very thing is God,

who also has given us the Spirit as a guarantee.

2 CORINTHIANS 5:5

In Him you also trusted, after you heard the word of truth, 

the gospel of your salvation; in whom also, having 

believed, you were sealed with the Holy Spirit of promise,

EPHESIANS 1:13

Only God, the Holy Spirit and Jesus have the power to restrain Satan. When Jesus raptures His church to Himself, in that moment with the Holy Spirit living in us, He leaves with us. The earth will feel a great loss of the presence of the Holy Spirit for a moment. But when those left behind see them disappear, many will realize what the Christians told them was true, and will believe and call on the name of Jesus and be saved and receive God’s Holy Spirit. For God is omnipresent. Only when the believers are gone can the anti-christ be revealed.

⁷ For the mystery of lawlessness is already at work;

only He who now restrains will do so until He is taken out 

of the way. ⁸ And then the lawless one will be revealed, 

whom the Lord will consume with the breath of His mouth 

and destroy with the brightness of His coming.

2 THESSALONIANS 2:7- 8

For if the church was still here, we would recognize the anti-christ and warn people who he is before he entered the holy temple and claim to be god. As Christians, our focus is always on the appearing of Jesus Christ and not the coming of the anti-christ. There are two events, first, Jesus appearing, the rapture, second, His return, with His saints for judgment.

The First Event. Pre-Tribualtion Rapture. The Lord Himself. Christians will love His appearing.

Finally, there is laid up for me the crown of righteousness, 

which the Lord, the righteous Judge, will give to me on 

that Day, and not to me only but also to all who 

have loved His appearing.

2 TIMOTHY 4:8

Trained by Saving Grace

¹¹ For the grace of God that brings salvation has appeared to 

all men, ¹² teaching us that, denying ungodliness and worldly 

lusts, we should live soberly, righteously, and godly in the 

present age, ¹³ looking for the blessed hope and glorious 

appearing of our great God and Savior Jesus Christ,

TITUS 2:11-13

The Second Even. He Sends His Angels Out. The World will mourn at His appearing.

30 Then the sign of the Son of Man will appear in heaven.

and then all the tribes of the earth will mourn, and they will see

the Son of Man coming on the clouds of heaven with power and 

great glory. 31 And He will send His angels with a great sound of

a trumpet, and they will gather together His elect from the

four winds, from one end of heaven to the others.

MATTHEW 24:30,31

Will people be saved during the tribulation?  Yes.  They will receive the Holy Spirit after they hear the truth of the gospel. God’s word endures forever. But those left behind after the rapture must try to survive the seven year tribulation or die for their faith in Jesus.

So God, who knows the heart, acknowledged them by 

giving them the Holy Spirit, just as He did to us,

ACTS 15:8

⁸ The grass withers, the flower fades,
But the word of our God stands forever.”

ISAIAH 40:8

But the word of the Lord endures forever.

”Now this is the word which by the 

gospel was preached to you.

1 PETER 1:25

Fifth Seal: The Cry of the Martyrs

⁹ When He opened the fifth seal, I saw under the altar the souls 

of those who had been slain for the word of God and for the 

testimony which they held. ¹⁰ And they cried with a loud voice, 

saying, “How long, O Lord, holy and true, until You judge and 

avenge our blood on those who dwell on the earth?” ¹¹ Then a 

white robe was given to each of them; and it was said to them 

that they should rest a little while longer, until both the number 

of their fellow servants and their brethren, who would be killed 

as they were, was completed.

REVELATION 6:9-11

God is dealing with Israel, the Jews. We know the holy city is Jerusalem. We do not need to be reconciled for our iniquities to God, Jesus already took care of that.

²⁴ “Seventy weeks are determined
For your people and for your holy city,
To finish the transgression,
To make an end of sins,
To make reconciliation for iniquity,
To bring in everlasting righteousness,
To seal up vision and prophecy,
And to anoint the Most Holy.

DANIEL 9:24

STARTING WITH MATTHEW  23:37-39

Jesus Laments over Jerusalem

³⁷ “O Jerusalem, Jerusalem, the one who kills the prophets and stones those who are sent to her! How often I wanted to gather your children together, as a hen gathers her chicks under her wings, but you were not willing!

Jesus is lamenting for Jerusalem (Israel) who He came to save, but was rejected by the majority, that were not willing to accept Him as their promised Messiah. 

³ He is despised and rejected by men,
A Man of sorrows and acquainted with grief.
And we hid, as it were, our faces from Him;
He was despised, and we did not esteem Him.

ISAIAH 53:3

¹⁰ He was in the world, and the world was made 

through Him,and the world did not know Him.

¹¹ He came to His own, and His own did not receive Him.

JOHN 1:10-11

³⁸ See! Your house is left to you desolate; ³⁹ for I say to you, you shall see Me no more till you say, ‘Blessed is He who comes in the name of the Lord!’ ”

Their house (the temple), was desolate. For the temple had become their house, not God’s.  They couldn’t see that God Almighty and Jesus the Lamb are the True temple, and without Jesus it was just an empty building. 

⁶ Yet I say to you that in this place 

there is One greater than the temple.

MATTHEW 12:6

²² But I saw no temple in it,

for the Lord God Almighty and the Lamb are its temple.

REVELATION 21:22

As for the church we are joined to the Father by Jesus Christ through the Holy Spirit. We are never separated from Him.

At that day you will know that I am in My Father, 

and you in Me, and I in you.

JOHN 14:20

But he who is joined to the Lord is one spirit with Him.

1 CORINTHIANS 6:17

MATTHEW  24 : 1 – 31

Jesus Predicts the Destruction of the Temple

MATTHEW 24:1  Then Jesus went out and departed from the temple, and His disciples came up to show Him the buildings of the temple. ² And Jesus said to them, “Do you not see all these things? Assuredly, I say to you, not one stone shall be left here upon another, that shall not be thrown down.”

The temple destroyed, 70 A.D by the Romans', Jesus saw the future destruction of the temple.

Therefore because of you Zion shall be plowed like a field,

Jerusalem shall become heaps of ruins, And the mountain 

of the temple Like the bare hills of the forest.

MICAH 3:12

These buildings of the temple were magnificent. They took pride in man’s workmanship. But Jesus asked them, “can’t you see”? The buildings mean nothing, for Israel rejected their Messiah, the true temple of God. Jesus wept over the city of Jerusalem because of their rejection. Today Israel is preparing to rebuild their third temple.

²¹ But He was speaking of the temple of His body.

JOHN 2:21

⁴⁸ “However, the Most High does not dwell in temples

made with hands, as the prophet says:

⁴⁹ ‘Heaven is My throne, And earth is My footstool.
What house will you build for Me? says the Lord,
Or what is the place of My rest?
⁵⁰ Has My hand not made all these things?’

ACTS 7:48-50

Jesus Weeps over Jerusalem

⁴¹ Now as He drew near, He saw the city and wept over it,

⁴² saying, “If you had known, even you, especially in this your 

day, the things that make for your peace! But now they are 

hidden from your eyes. ⁴³ For days will come upon you when your

 enemies will build an embankment around you, surround you 

and close you in on every side,  ⁴⁴ and level you, and your 

children within you, to the ground; and they will not leave in 

you one stone upon another, because you did not know 

the time of your visitation.”

LUKE 19:41-44

The Signs of the Times and the End of the Age

³ 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?”

The disciples meet with Jesus privately, and question Him on His coming return. Jesus calls them friends and makes known to them all the things He heard from His Father concerning Israel for their rejection of their promised Messiah, confirming the words of the prophet Joel.  Luke in Acts 2:22 goes on to add that Jesus was the sign that Israel was waiting for. Even with all the miracles, wonders, and signs they saw Him do, they still did not receive Him.  In the last days God will pour out His Spirit on Israel, yet only a remnant is saved.

¹⁵ No longer do I call you servants, for a servant does not know

what his master is doing; but I have called you friends, for all things

that I heard from My Father I have made known to you.

JOHN 15:15

²⁷ Then you shall know that I am in the midst of Israel: I am 

the Lord your God  And there is no other. My people shall

 never be put to shame. ²⁸ “And it shall come to pass afterward 

That I will pour out My Spirit on all flesh; Your sons and your 

daughters shall prophesy, Your old men shall dream dreams,  

Your young men shall see visions. ²⁹ And also on My menservants 

and on My maidservants I will pour out My Spirit in those days.

³⁰ “And I will show wonders in the heavens and in the earth: 

Blood and fire and pillars of smoke. ³¹ The sun shall be turned 

into darkness, And the moon into blood, Before the coming of the 

great and awesome day of the Lord. ³² And it shall come to pass  

That whoever calls on the name of the Lord Shall be saved.  For 

in Mount Zion and in Jerusalem there shall be deliverance, As the 

Lord has said, Among the remnant whom the Lord calls.

JOEL 2:27-32

²² “Men of Israel, hear these words: Jesus of Nazareth, a Man 

attested by God  to you by miracles, wonders, and signs 

which God did through Him in your midst,

as you yourselves also know—

ACTS 2:22

⁴ And Jesus answered and said to them: “Take heed that no one deceives you. ⁵ For many will come in My name, saying, ‘I am the Christ,’ and will deceive many.

Messiah in Hebrew is moshiach or mashiach which means anointed priest or king. The moshiach will be a man who possesses extraordinary qualities. The Jews believe he will be human, not god, demi-god, and there is absolutely nothing supernatural about a moshiach. As Christians, we believe the messiah is the Son of God and is God. Hebrew teaching is the moshiach will be a charismatic leader inspiring others to follow him, bringing the nations to a new world order, he will be a great military leader and judge, well versed in Jewish law. As Christians we can see how many will be deceived, for us this is almost an exact description of the anti-christ. In Matthew 24:24 Jesus warns them again, if possible to even deceive the elect, (Jews).  We can also see many false teachers in the Christian churches also deceiving many.

²⁴ For false christs and false prophets will rise and show great 

signs and wonders to deceive, if possible, even the elect.

MATTHEW 24:24

For many will come in My name,

saying, ‘I am He,’ and will deceive many.

MARK 13:6

For false christs and false prophets will rise and

show signs and wonders to deceive, if possible, even the elect.

MARK 13:22 

⁶ And you will hear of wars and rumors of wars. See that you are not troubled; for all these things must come to pass, but the end is not yet.   ⁷ For nation will rise against nation, and kingdom against kingdom. And there will be famines, pestilences, and earthquakes in various places. ⁸ All these are the beginning of sorrows.

God’s judgment begins on the earth.  God told us all before hand in His word, as when a woman is in labor. the pain keeps getting closer until the birth comes. We can see many of these signs happening now and will continue to grow worse until the birth, (the seven year tribulation begins.)

Behold, the day of the Lord comes, Cruel, with both wrath 

and fierce anger, To lay the land desolate; And He will 

destroy its sinners from it.

ISAIAH 13:9

⁴ Now these are the words that the Lord spoke concerning Israel 

and Judah. ⁵ “For thus says the Lord: ‘We have heard a voice of 

trembling, Of fear, and not of peace. ⁶ Ask now, and see, Whether 

a man is ever in labor with child? So why do I see every man with 

his hands on his loins Like a woman in labor, And all faces turned 

pale? ⁷ Alas! For that day is great, So that none is like it; And it 

is the time of Jacob’s trouble, But he shall be saved out of it.

JEREMIAH 30:4-7

Alas for the day! For the day of the Lord is at hand;

It shall come as destruction from the Almighty.

JOEL 1:15

The Lord gives voice before His army, For His camp is very 

great; For strong is the One who executes His word.

For the day of the Lord is great and very terrible; 

Who can endure it?

JOEL 2:11

² For you yourselves know perfectly that the day of the Lord

so comes as a thief in the night. ³ For when they say, “Peace and 

safety!” then sudden destruction comes upon them, as labor pains 

upon a pregnant woman. And they shall not escape.

1 THESSALONIANS 5:2-3

God’s word states, He preserves the believers in Jesus Christ (the church) and we will not be left to the hands of evil or face His wrath.

You who love the Lord, hate evil! He preserves the souls of 

His saints; He delivers them out of the hand of the wicked.

PSALM 97:10

³⁶ Watch therefore, and pray always that you may be counted 

worthy to escape all these things that will come to pass, 

and to stand before the Son of Man.”

LUKE 21:36

Much more then, having now been justified by His blood,

we shall be saved from wrath through Him.

ROMANS 5:9

and to wait for His Son from heaven, whom He raised from the 

dead, even Jesus who delivers us from the wrath to come.

1 THESSALONIANS 1:10

Because you have kept My command to persevere,

I also will keep you from the hour of trial which shall come

upon the whole world, to test those who dwell on the earth.

REVELATION 3:10

⁹ “Then they will deliver you up to tribulation and kill you, and you will be hated by all nations for My name’s sake. ¹⁰ And then many will be offended, will betray one another, and will hate one another.

At this point in time, remember Jesus is speaking to His disciples, Jews, Israel, there is no Christian church in this time of history. Throughout history the faithful Jews have faced tribulation, and His disciples did not only face tribulation, but death. There will be no greater time in history than the seven year tribulation that future Jewish generations must endure for rejecting Jesus as their Messiah. Those who know God’s word will realize that Jesus is the true Messiah and be hated and killed in this time of the seven year tribulation.

²² And you will be hated by all for My name’s sake.

But he who endures to the end will be saved.

MATTHEW 10:22

¹⁰ For this is the covenant that I will make with the house of Israel

after those days, says the Lord: I will put My laws in their mind and

write them on their hearts; and I will be their God, and they shall

be My people. ¹¹ None of them shall teach his neighbor, and

none his brother, saying, ‘Know the Lord,’ for all shall know Me,

from the least of them to the greatest of them.

HEBREWS 8:10-11

Jesus knowing all things, knew what was in store for His disciples, but also for generations to come.  Stephen was stoned to death, James the son of Zebedee was beheaded, Philip was crucified, Matthew was martyred, slain with a halberd, a weapon consisting of an ax blade and a sharp spike mounted on the end of a long staff, usually about 5–6 ft, James, the brother of Jesus, stoned, his brains dashed out with a fuller’s club, Matthias was beheaded, Andrew was crucified, Mark was dragged to pieces by the people of Alexandria, Peter was crucified upside down, Paul was beheaded by sword, Jude was crucified, Bartholomew was beaten, then crucified, Thomas was thrust through with a spear, Luke was hanged on an olive tree, Simon was crucified, and John cast into boiling oil, he escaped by miracle without injury. John was the only apostle who escaped a violent death.

Persecutions Are Coming

¹⁶ “Behold, I send you out as sheep in the midst of wolves. 

Therefore be wise as serpents and harmless as doves. 

¹⁷ But beware of men, for they will deliver you up to councils 

and scourge you in their synagogues. ¹⁸ You will be brought

before governors and kings for My sake, as a 

testimony to them and to the Gentiles.

MATTHEW 10:16-18

¹¹ Then many false prophets will rise up and deceive many.   

Not only have false prophets come into the temples of Israel to keep them from the true Messiah, but we can see this is also happening in many churches today.  As God’s word was true for Israel, it also holds true for today’s Christian church as a warning. For many religious leaders want to hold all the glory and power for themselves, withholding the truth from Israel and the church.

“My people have been lost sheep. Their shepherds have led 

them astray; They have turned them away on the mountains. 

They have gone from mountain to hill; They have 

forgotten their resting place.

JEREMIAH 50:6

“Son of man, prophesy against the shepherds of Israel, prophesy 

and say to them, ‘Thus says the Lord God to the shepherds: 

“Woe to the shepherds of Israel who

feed themselves! Should not the shepherds feed the flocks?

EZEKIEL 34:2

¹³ But evil men and impostors will grow worse and worse, 

deceiving and being deceived.

2 TIMOTHY 3:13