Chapter 5

The Olivet Discourse part one

THIS TELL US THAT THE GREAT TRIBULATION BEGAN WHEN THE TEMPLE WAS DESTROYED and THE JEWS WERE TAKEN CAPTIVE INTO THE NATIONS.  IT IS VERY IMPORTANT FOR US TO UNDERSTAND WHAT JESUS WAS SAYING.
 

These three accounts are concerning the same discourse given by Jesus spoken on the same day and time.

Matthew, Mark and Luke were not there to hear Jesus teaching. They wrote later and accordingly to the audience that would be reading it. This is known because in the Mark account at the end of chapter 12 it tells of Jesus' teaching concerning the poor widow woman giving her last two pennies, and Luke begins with the same event about the poor widow woman. 

So Mark and Luke are in agreement of what event begins the Discourse given be Jesus on that day.

From the temple they then journeyed up the Mount of Olives
 

Mat 24:1 Jesus came out from the temple and was going away when His disciples came up to point out the temple buildings to Him.
Mar 13:1 As He was going out of the temple, one of His disciples *said to Him, "Teacher, behold what wonderful stones and what wonderful buildings!"
Luk 21:5 And while some were talking about the temple, that it was adorned with beautiful stones and votive gifts, He said,

Mat 24:2 And He said to them, "Do you not see all these things? Truly I say to you, not one stone here will be left upon another, which will not be torn down."
Mar 13:2 And Jesus said to him, "Do you see these great buildings? Not one stone will be left upon another which will not be torn down."
Luk 21:6 "{As for} these things which you are looking at, the days will come in which there will not be left one stone upon another which will not be torn down."

What beautiful buildings were they speaking of to Jesus? Herod's Temple. The beautiful white stones he used to build the temple and outter buildings.  Jesus was not being shown the walls of the Mount, only the buildings of Herod.

Jesus was being specific. Those buildings you are speaking "looking at" Not one stone will be left upon another. Not some future temple on the Mount of today that may or may not ever be built.  He spoke of the great buildings of Herod!

Mat 24:3 As He was sitting on the Mount of Olives, the disciples came to Him privately, saying, "Tell us, when will these things happen, and what {will be} the sign of Your coming, and of the end of the age?"
Mar 13:3 As He was sitting on the Mount of Olives opposite the temple, Peter and James and John and Andrew were questioning Him privately, :4 "Tell us, when will these things be, and what {will be} the sign when all these things are going to be fulfilled?"
Luk 21:7 They questioned Him, saying, "Teacher, when therefore will these things happen? And what {will be} the sign when these things are about to take place?"
 

They asked when Herod's temple would be destroyed,  and they also asked what signs to look for concerning the coming of the end of the age and the sign of His coming... believing the two events were to happen close together.   Jesus began by  partially answering their second question, what will be the signs of your coming.
 

These are signs we will look for in our generation as the end nears. 

Mat 24:4 And Jesus answered and said unto them, Take heed that no man deceive you.
Mar 13:5 And Jesus answering them began to say, Take heed lest any [man] deceive you:
Luk 21:8a And he said, Take heed that ye be not deceived:

Mat 24:5 For many shall come in my name, saying, I am Christ; and shall deceive many.
Mar 13:6 For many shall come in my name, saying, I am [Christ]; and shall deceive many.
Luk 21:8b And He said, "See to it that you are not misled; for many will come in My name, saying, 'I am {He,}' and, 'The time is near.' Do not go after them.

Mat 24:6 And ye shall hear of wars and rumours of wars: see that ye be not troubled: for all [these things] must come to pass, but the end is not yet.
Mar 13:7 And when ye shall hear of wars and rumours of wars, be ye not troubled: for [such things] must needs be; but the end [shall] not [be] yet.
Luk 21:9 But when ye shall hear of wars and commotions, be not terrified: for these things must first come to pass; but the end [is] not by and by.

Mat 24:7 For nation shall rise against nation, and kingdom against kingdom: and there shall be famines, and pestilences, and earthquakes, in divers places.
Mar 13:8a For nation shall rise against nation, and kingdom against kingdom: and there shall be earthquakes in divers places, and there shall be famines and troubles:
Luk 21:10 Then said he unto them, Nation shall rise against nation, and kingdom against kingdom: And great earthquakes shall be in divers places, and famines, and pestilences; and fearful sights and great signs shall there be from heaven.

Mat 24:8 All these [are] the beginning of sorrows.
Mar 13:8b these [are] the beginnings of sorrows.
Luk 21:12 But before all these,

When Luke says "But before all these" he is telling us that these things Jesus said first would not happen first, but would take place later in the time-line after the abomination of Desolation. They are the beginning of the sorrows leading to the end of the age. Luke understanding that the beginning of sorrows are the calamities that precede the final days, said "But before these".

We can see the false christs (messiahs) and the wars and rumors of wars and earthquakes and famines happening in this world now and have been increasing in intensity steadily for over a decade as we near the end of the age.

NOTE: This is what "sorrows" is referring to according to the Blue Letter Bible on line:
2) intolerable anguish, in reference to the dire calamities precede the advent of the Messiah.

So we need to mentally reinsert these birth pangs as being later in the time line, closer to His return at a place where Jesus will sow us later in the discourse.
 

Some believe that ALL of Matt 24 is going to take place in the last 7 years of this age, but the destruction of the temple already happened in 70 AD exactly as Jesus described.  The reason the Romans took the temple and all the buildings down stone by stone was to retrieve the gold that had melted and run into the cracks between and under the stones.

 Their questions were in response to Jesus' prophecy about the temple's destruction, not one stone upon another,  and the apostles want to know when this destruction of the temple and buildings they had been looking at was going to happen.   Since they were Jews we can only imagine how this prophecy must have affected them. Their beloved Temple was going to be utterly destroyed. Of course they are going to ask more. "Tell us of these things?"

So Jesus will lead up slowly to the answer they seek about the Temple destruction because even though the disciples believe this is all going to happen within their generation, even the end of the age, we know only the destruction of the Temple will happen in their generation.

And  we know that the events of their second question, "when will be the end of the age and your coming?",  won't take place for almost two thousand years. They however tie the destruction of the Temple to the end of the age and Jesus' coming as King.

The Temple being destroyed in the manner of "not one stone left upon another" took place in 70 AD so Jesus starts the time-line before that time. He begins by telling the disciples what will happen to them very shortly.

(Again take note that Luke is telling of the same events in the same order as the other two writers.)

Mat 24:9 "Then they will deliver you to tribulation, and will kill you, and you will be hated by all nations because of My name.
Mar 13:9 "But be on your guard; for they will deliver you to {the} courts, and you will be flogged in {the} synagogues, and you will stand before governors and kings for My sake, as a testimony to them.
Luk 21:12 "But before all these things, they will lay their hands on you and will persecute you, delivering you to the synagogues and prisons, bringing you before kings and governors for My name's sake.

Mar 13:10 "The gospel must first be preached to all the nations.
Luk 21:13 "It will lead to an opportunity for your testimony.(:14) "So make up your minds not to prepare beforehand to defend yourselves; (:15) for I will give you utterance and wisdom which none of your opponents will be able to resist or refute.
Matthew says this at the end of this section of events that take place before 70 AD.
 

Mat 24:10 "At that time many will fall away and will betray one another and hate one another.
Mar 13:12 "Brother will betray brother to death, and a father {his} child; and children will rise up against parents and have them put to death.
Luk 21:16 "But you will be betrayed even by parents and brothers and relatives and friends, and they will put {some} of you to death,

Mat 24:11 "Many false prophets will arise and will mislead many. (:12)"Because lawlessness is increased, most people's love will grow cold. (:13)"But the one who endures to the end, he will be saved.
Mar 13:13 "You will be hated by all because of My name, but the one who endures to the end, he will be saved.
Luk 21:17 and you will be hated by all because of My name.(:18) "Yet not a hair of your head will perish. (:19)"By your endurance you will gain your lives.

Mat 24:14 "This gospel of the kingdom shall be preached in the whole world as a testimony to all the nations, and then the end will come.

This is the apostasy that will happen among the Jews before the abomination will stand in the Holy Place. (See also the link;  2Thes who is the restrainer?)

In the next section, we read of the Abomination of Desolation and the destruction of the Temple that Jesus told them about.

Now we are getting down to the nitty gritty. This is where the saying "rightly dividing the word" comes into play. It isn't always easy to do this, especially when the discourse is so long and one must consider three different accounts of the discourse to discover the truth of it.

But when we do it in-depth like this, then the scripture itself reveals the truth. The most important part of rightly dividing the scripture is to keep it in the context it was written in.

So, up to this point Jesus has not answered the first question that the disciples asked: Luk 21:7.."Teacher, when therefore will these things happen? But now He does.

Mat 24:15 "Therefore when you see the ABOMINATION OF DESOLATION which was spoken of through Daniel the prophet, standing in the holy place (let the reader understand),
Mar 13:14a "But when you see the ABOMINATION OF DESOLATION standing where it should not be (let the reader understand),
Luk 21:20 "But when you see Jerusalem surrounded by armies, then recognize that her *desolation is near.
 
 

Mat 24:16 then those who are in Judea must flee to the mountains.
Mar 13:14b then those who are in Judea must flee to the mountains.
Luk 21:21a "Then those who are in Judea must flee to the mountains,

Mat 24:17 "Whoever is on the housetop must not go down to get the things out that are in his house. (:18) "Whoever is in the field must not turn back to get his cloak.
Mar 13:15 "The one who is on the housetop must not go down, or go in to get anything out of his house; (:16) and the one who is in the field must not turn back to get his coat.
Luk 21:21b and those who are in the midst of the city must leave, and those who are in the country must not enter the city;

Luk 21:22 because these are days of vengeance, so that all things which are written will be fulfilled.

The days of the destruction of City and Temple.
 

Mat 24:19 "But woe to those who are pregnant and to those who are nursing babies in those days! (:20) "But pray that your flight will not be in the winter, or on a Sabbath.
Mar 13:17 "But woe to those who are pregnant and to those who are nursing babies in those days! (:18) "But pray that it may not happen in the winter.
Luk 21:23a "Woe to those who are pregnant and to those who are nursing babies in those days;

So far these have all been the same,  so believe that Luke is speaking of the same time-line of events in these next verses also.

Mat 24:21 "For then there will be a great tribulation, such as has not occurred since the beginning of the world until now, nor ever will.
Mar 13:19 "For those days will be a {time of} tribulation such as has not occurred since the beginning of the creation which God created until now, and never will.
Luk 21:23b for there will be great distress upon the land and wrath to this people; (:24) and they will fall by the edge of the sword, and will be led captive into all the nations; and Jerusalem will be trampled under foot by the Gentiles until the times of the Gentiles are fulfilled.  
 

Luke has just made it VERY clear that the time of the Jews taken into the nations begins when Jerusalem falls because that is when the Jews were carried into the nations,  and also lets the reader  know that this will not end until the time of the Gentile is complete! Personally I believe that this time in the nations for the Jews, where they would be in exile, came to an end in 1967 When the Jews captured and entered back into Jerusalem. 

But it sounds like Luke was talking about some other time in history because he says to watch for when the city is encompassed and doesn't tell about the abomination standing where it ought not like the other two apostles did. Both happened.  History tells us that the Zealots, that the Romans were chasing down, fled to Jerusalem and begged to be let in.  General Vespersian was at their heels. He surrounded Jerusalem with his armies. Inside Jerusalem the Zealots took the temple and set up the abomination which was a false priest in the temple.  But then for some reason the general withdrew his armies. This gave all that would heed Jesus warning to flea out of the city.  Within the month Titus arrived with his armies and destroyed not only the temple but also the Holy City and killed over a million Jews and carried the rest of the population of  Jerusalem captive into the nations.  See Josephus "The Jewish Wars" for this history.
 

Mat 24:22 "Unless those days had been cut short, no life would have been saved; but for the sake of the elect those days will be cut short.
Mar 13:20 "Unless the Lord had shortened {those} days, no life would have been saved; but for the sake of the elect, whom He chose, He shortened the days.

I believe that the discourse is speaking of the “great distress (great tribulation) upon the land and wrath to this people;” Is what was cut short or no life (of the Jews in Jerusalem) would have been saved.

Now we must go back and look at Daniel to see more about these days of vengeance Luke spoke of, and what Jesus said would happen to the Temple (not one stone left upon another) during the time of vengeance.