09/07/2026
https://youtu.be/Bhjl4CxLM6k
September 3, 20, 2026 Matthew 24:1-8 - New International Version
The Destruction of the Temple and Signs of the End Times
24 Jesus left the temple and was walking away when his disciples came up to him to call his attention to its buildings. 2 “Do you see all these things?” he asked. “Truly I tell you, not one stone here will be left on another; everyone will be thrown down.”
3 As Jesus was sitting on the Mount of Olives, the disciples came to him privately. “Tell us”, they said, “when will this happen, and what will be the sign of your coming and of the end of the age?”
4 Jesus answered: “Watch out that no one deceives you. 5 For many will come in my name, claiming, ‘I am the Messiah,’ and will deceive many. 6 You will hear of wars and rumors of wars but see to it that you are not alarmed. Such things must happen, but the end is still to come. 7 Nation will rise against nation, and kingdom against kingdom. There will be famines and earthquakes in various places. 8 All these are the beginning of birth pains.
Matthew’s Gospel was written in about 90 A.D. to the early Church in Jerusalem and from the very beginning the Church in Jerusalem had its problems, and especially with prejudice because the first Christians were Jews and only Jews.
The Jews in Jesus’ time despised Gentiles and would not even associate with them. As I’ve told you before, the Jews called Gentiles, “dogs,” and some rabbis were even teaching that the only reason God created Gentiles in the first place was for firewood in hell.
It was the Church in Jerusalem that raised a fuss when word was received that Gentiles (non-Jews) were converting to Christianity and the Church in Jerusalem had a lot of intimidating power and influence. Paul tells us in his letter to the Christians in Galatia, that while he was in Antioch, a Gentile city, he went out to eat, so to speak. Peter was there, too, and was sitting at a table eating with some of his Gentile friends.
It kind of went like this: Peter and His Gentiles buddies were laughing so hard they had tears in their eyes. Peter had just told a joke.
To everyone’s surprise, some Council members from the Church in Jerusalem walked in! Like a scene from an old Western, when the Jews from Jerusalem stepped through the saloon’s swinging doors, everyone stopped talking, the honky-tonk piano player stopped playing and when Peter looked up from his plate, the color drained out of his face. Without saying a word, he picked up his tray and moved to a table where only Jews were sitting. Peter, “the Rock,” was afraid to be seen with his Gentile buddies.
We can’t even begin to imagine the depth of the contempt the Jewish people felt for Gentiles. The Jews didn’t even consider Gentiles, human beings.
When it became clear that Gentiles were accepting Jesus as Lord and Savior, a tremendous controversy arose. The conservative Jewish Christians simply could not believe what was happening. It made no sense to them. It was totally offensive!
But Jews and Gentiles worshipping and eating together as equals was one of the unique characteristics of the early Church that attracted so many Gentiles to convert!
Jews and Gentiles were treating each other as equals and that was something the Jews would have never imagined, but it had been prophesied! Gentile converts in the early Church were living the fulfillment of Old Testament prophecies. How exciting would that have been!?
We, too, are living the fulfillment of prophecies, New Testament prophecies!
Now, I know that, in the Lutheran Church, you don’t hear much about prophecy, except during Advent, when we read the Messianic prophecies. But what about the New Testament prophecies concerning the “last days”? And what about the
prophecies Jesus, Himself, made about the Church in the “last days”?
The “last days”! Pastor Dave, that kind of talk is for the Baptists and Pentecostals and other less “sophisticated” churches than the Lutherans. I mean just look at how we worship, we’re very orderly and there’s no whooping or hollering in our services and, besides, those other kinds of churches have been talking about the “last days” for decades and nothing has happened. We’re still here.
Yes…we’re still here…but just barely, wouldn’t you say???
In Matthew 24:10 Jesus, Himself, prophesied about these times and said, “At that time many will turn away from the faith…” In 2nd Timothy 3:5 St. Paul said about these times, “People will maintain the outward appearance of religion, but will have denied its power.” And that word translated as “denied” really means, “to reject.” That word also means, “to act entirely unlike oneself.” So, in the “last days” Christians will act so unlike Christians that you won’t even be able to recognize them as Christians. And why would they do that? They do that because they want to serve two masters, but you can’t serve two masters unless you only give lip service to one of them. That is exactly what “maintaining the outward appearance of religion but denying its power” is about. Lip service!
They are the fulfillment of prophecy, but so are we.
“Because of the increase of wickedness, the love of most will grow cold,” Jesus says in Matthew 24:12. But then He goes on to say in verse 13, “But the person who endures to the end will be saved.” That word “endure” means to hold fast to one’s faith in Christ during misfortune and trials, and within this context, it means all the misfortunes and trials that present themselves during the “last days.” We are still here. By the grace of God, we are enduring what is happening in this world, but let’s never become complacent or take our faith for granted, because, whether or not you want to believe that these are, indeed, the “last days,” you would certainly agree that it is the end of “the way things used to be.” Things are never going to be the same in this country, or in this world. Never. Prophecy never reverses itself. It marches forward and, in these times, it is racing forward.
Trying to maintain one’s faith in these times requires more than just a quick fix on Sunday mornings; it requires constant vigilance and prayer.
If you decide to begin praying the way I am going to teach you to pray this morning*, the Devil will not leave you alone, not for one minute, because even the Devil recognizes the fulfillment of prophecy, and the Devil is livid when prophecy is fulfilled.
“He’s filled with fury,” it says in Revelation 12:12, “because he knows his time is short.”
Trust me, IF you decide to begin praying like I am going to teach you to pray this morning, you will experience unrelenting “pushback.”
But that is what we, as disciples of the King of kings and Lord of lords were born into these prophetic times to do. PRAY into the past, into the present and into the future.
But take heart! Jesus Christ is the Son of God and Jesus Christ has overcome this world and He keeps His promises! “Not a hair of your head will perish!” Jesus says in Luke 21:18,” My Father, Who has given you to Me, is greater than all,” Jesus says in John 10:29, and then He says, “and no one can sn**ch you out of My Father’s hand!”
Last days or not, these times are unprecedented and “keeping the faith” is extremely difficult, but if you agree with me that, like the Gentiles converting to Christianity in the early Church were participants in the fulfillment of prophecy, we, too, are participants in the fulfillment of prophecy in these times, then you will fight the good fight, knowing that you have been chosen! “You did not choose Me,” Jesus said in John 15:16, “I chose you!”
You have been chosen! Never forget that! You were born into these times for reason! Never forget that! There is no greater honor than THAT, but a lot of Christians are walking away from that honor because they just don’t want to be bothered. They want to pretend like everything in this world will just stay the same. They want to pretend like the fulfillment of prophecy was for the “olden” days, “Bible days”.
I conclude with these words from Ephesians 6, The Message Bible. And these words weren’t written just for Christians living in the early Church, these words were written for Christians living in THESE times, as well –
“Be prepared! You are up against far more than you can handle on your own! Take all the help you can get, every weapon God has issued, so that when it’s all over but the shouting, you’ll still be onyour feet!”
In Jesus’ Name – Amen!
*We are going to spend time this morning praying into the past for everyone in the past standing in the need of prayer but have NO ONE to pray for them; and praying into the present for everyone who is standing in the need of prayer but have NO ONE to pray for them; and praying into the future for everyone who is standing in the need of prayer but have NO ONE to pray for them.
They all feel alone, abandoned and hopeless. But, NO, no more! They have US – their sisters and brothers in Christ living in their future, their sisters and brothers in Christ living in their present and their sisters and brothers in Christ living in their past!
Copy and paste this in your browser or click on Trinity’s YouTube page. This is what church is meant to look like.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QuhUc5VM-mw&t=9s
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