Lesson 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
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.
 “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?
 “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?
 “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?

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)

“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).
“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.
 “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:

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

“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.”
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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