Till All These Things Take Place
Matthew 24:34
Assuredly, I say to you, this generation
will by no means pass away till all these
things take place.
The two important questions we need to ask are:
1. Who is “this generation”?
2. What are “all these things”?
Before we read Matthew 24, we first need to read Matthew 23.
Matthew 23
Woe to the Scribes and Pharisees
1 Then Jesus spoke to the multitudes and to His disciples,
2 saying: “The scribes and the Pharisees sit
in Moses’ seat.
3 Therefore whatever they tell you to
observe, that observe and do, but do not do according to their
works; for they say, and do not do.
4 For they bind heavy burdens, hard to bear,
and lay them on men’s shoulders; but they themselves will not move
them with one of their fingers.
5 But all their works they do to be seen by
men. They make their phylacteries broad and enlarge the borders of
their garments.
6 They love the best places at feasts, the
best seats in the synagogues,
7 greetings in the marketplaces, and to be
called by men, ‘Rabbi, Rabbi.’
8 But you, do not be called ‘Rabbi’; for One
is your Teacher, the Christ, and you are all brethren.
9 Do not call anyone on earth your father;
for One is your Father, He who is in heaven.
10 And do not be called teachers; for One is
your Teacher, the Christ.
11 But he who is greatest among you shall be
your servant.
12 And whoever exalts himself will be
humbled, and he who humbles himself will be exalted.
13 “But woe to you, scribes and
Pharisees, hypocrites! For you shut up the kingdom of heaven against
men; for you neither go in yourselves, nor do you allow those who
are entering to go in.
14 Woe to you,
scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! For you devour widows’ houses,
and for a pretense make long prayers. Therefore you will receive
greater condemnation.
15 “Woe to you, scribes and
Pharisees, hypocrites! For you travel land and sea to win one
proselyte, and when he is won, you make him twice as much a son of
hell as yourselves.
16 “Woe to you,
blind guides, who say, ‘Whoever swears by the temple, it is nothing;
but whoever swears by the gold of the temple, he is obliged to
perform it.’
17 Fools and blind! For which is greater, the
gold or the temple that sanctifies the gold?
18 And, ‘Whoever swears by the altar, it is
nothing; but whoever swears by the gift that is on it, he is obliged
to perform it.’
19 Fools and blind! For which is greater, the
gift or the altar that sanctifies the gift?
20 Therefore he who swears by the altar,
swears by it and by all things on it.
21 He who swears by the temple, swears by it
and by Him who dwells in it.
22 And he who swears by heaven, swears by the
throne of God and by Him who sits on it.
23 “Woe to you, scribes and
Pharisees, hypocrites! For you pay tithe of mint and anise and
cummin, and have neglected the weightier matters of the law: justice
and mercy and faith. These you ought to have done, without leaving
the others undone.
24 Blind guides, who strain out a gnat and
swallow a camel!
25 “Woe to you, scribes and
Pharisees, hypocrites! For you cleanse the outside of the cup and
dish, but inside they are full of extortion and self-indulgence.
26 Blind Pharisee, first cleanse the inside
of the cup and dish, that the outside of them may be clean also.
27 “Woe to you, scribes and
Pharisees, hypocrites! For you are like whitewashed tombs which
indeed appear beautiful outwardly, but inside are full of dead men’s
bones and all uncleanness.
28 Even so you also outwardly appear
righteous to men, but inside you are full of hypocrisy and
lawlessness.
29 “Woe to you, scribes and
Pharisees, hypocrites! Because you build the tombs of the prophets
and adorn the monuments of the righteous,
30 and say, ‘If we had lived in the days of
our fathers, we would not have been partakers with them in the blood
of the prophets.’
31 “Therefore you are witnesses against yourselves that you are sons
of those who murdered the prophets.
32 Fill up, then, the measure of your
fathers’ guilt.
33 Serpents, brood of vipers! How can you
escape the condemnation of hell?
34 Therefore, indeed, I send you prophets,
wise men, and scribes: some of them you will kill and crucify, and
some of them you will scourge in your synagogues and persecute from
city to city,
35 that on you may come all the righteous
blood shed on the earth, from the blood of righteous Abel to the
blood of Zechariah, son of Berechiah, whom you murdered between the
temple and the altar.
36 Assuredly, I say
to you, all these things will come upon this generation.
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!
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!’ ”
Matthew 24
Jesus Predicts the Destruction of the Temple
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 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?”
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.
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.
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.
11 Then many false prophets will rise up and
deceive many.
12 And because lawlessness will abound, the
love of many will grow cold.
13 But he who
endures to the end shall be saved.
14 And this gospel of the kingdom will be
preached in all the world as a witness to all the nations, and then
the end will come.
The Great Tribulation
15 “Therefore when you see the ‘abomination of desolation,’ spoken
of by Daniel the prophet, standing in the holy place” (whoever
reads, let him understand),
16 “then let those who are in Judea flee to
the mountains.
17 Let him who is on the housetop not go down
to take anything out of his house.
18 And let him who is in the field not go
back to get his clothes.
19 But woe to those who are pregnant and to
those who are nursing babies in those days!
20 And pray that your flight may not be in
winter or on the Sabbath.
21 For then there will be great tribulation,
such as has not been since the beginning of the world until this
time, no, nor ever shall be.
22 And unless those days were shortened, no
flesh would be saved; but for the elect’s sake those days will be
shortened.
23 “Then if anyone says to you, ‘Look, here is the Christ!’ or
‘There!’ do not believe it.
24 For false christs and false prophets will
rise and show great signs and wonders to deceive, if possible, even
the elect.
25 See, I have told you beforehand.
26 “Therefore if they say to you, ‘Look, He is in the desert!’ do
not go out; or ‘Look, He is in the inner rooms!’ do not believe it.
27 For as the lightning comes from the east
and flashes to the west, so also will the coming of the Son of Man
be.
28 For wherever the carcass is, there the
eagles will be gathered together.
The Coming of the Son of Man
29 “Immediately after the tribulation of those days the sun will be
darkened, and the moon will not give its light; the stars will fall
from heaven, and the powers of the heavens will be shaken.
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 other.
The Parable of the Fig Tree
32 “Now learn this parable from the fig tree: When its branch has
already become tender and puts forth leaves, you know that summer is
near.
33 So you also, when you see all these
things, know that it is near—at the doors!
34 Assuredly, I say
to you, this generation will by no means pass away till all these
things take place.
35 Heaven and earth will pass away, but My
words will by no means pass away.
No One Knows the Day or Hour
36 “But of that day and hour no one knows, not even the angels of
heaven, but My Father only.
37 But as the days of Noah were, so also will
the coming of the Son of Man be.
38 For as in the days before the flood, they
were eating and drinking, marrying and giving in marriage, until the
day that Noah entered the ark,
39 and did not know until the flood came and
took them all away, so also will the coming of the Son of Man be.
40 Then two men will be in the field: one
will be taken and the other left.
41 Two women will be grinding at the mill:
one will be taken and the other left.
42 Watch therefore, for you do not know what
hour your Lord is coming.
43 But know this, that if the master of the
house had known what hour the thief would come, he would have
watched and not allowed his house to be broken into.
44 Therefore you also be ready, for the Son
of Man is coming at an hour you do not expect.
The Faithful Servant and the Evil Servant
45 “Who then is a faithful and wise servant, whom his master made
ruler over his household, to give them food in due season?
46 Blessed is that servant whom his master,
when he comes, will find so doing.
47 Assuredly, I say to you that he will make
him ruler over all his goods.
48 But if that evil servant says in his
heart, ‘My master is delaying his coming,’
49 and begins to beat his fellow servants,
and to eat and drink with the drunkards,
50 the master of that servant will come on a
day when he is not looking for him and at an hour that he is not
aware of,
51 and will cut him in two and appoint him
his portion with the hypocrites. There shall be weeping and gnashing
of teeth.
First, Jesus was referring to the generation that He was speaking
to when He used the phrase "this generation." Yes, the generation
living about AD 30.
Matthew 11:16-17
16 “But to what shall I liken this
generation? It is like children sitting in the marketplaces
and calling to their companions,
17 and saying: ‘We played the flute for you,
And you did not dance; We mourned to you, And you did not
lament.’
Matthew 12:41
The men of Nineveh will rise up in the judgment with this generation and
condemn it, because they repented at the preaching of Jonah; and
indeed a greater than Jonah is here.
Matthew 12:42
The queen of the South will rise up in the judgment with this generation and
condemn it, for she came from the ends of the earth to hear the
wisdom of Solomon; and indeed a greater than Solomon is here.
Matthew 12:45
Then he goes and takes with him seven other spirits more wicked than
himself, and they enter and dwell there; and the last state of that
man is worse than the first. So shall it also be with
this wicked generation.
Matthew 23:36
Assuredly, I say to you, all these things will come upon this generation.
Matthew 24:34
Assuredly, I say to you, this generation will
by no means pass away till all these things take place.
Mark 8:12
But He sighed deeply in His spirit, and said, “Why does this generation
seek
a sign? Assuredly, I say to you, no sign shall be given to this generation.”
Mark 8:38
For whoever is ashamed of Me and My words
in this adulterous and sinful generation, of him the Son of
Man also will be ashamed when He comes in the glory of His Father
with the holy angels.”
Mark 13:30
Assuredly, I say to you, this generation will
by no means pass away till all these things take place.
Luke 7:31
And the Lord said, “To what then shall I liken the men
of this generation, and what are they like?
Luke 11:29-32
29
And while the crowds were thickly gathered together, He began to
say, “This is an evil generation.
It seeks a sign, and no sign will be given to it except the sign of
Jonah the prophet.
30
For as Jonah became a sign to the Ninevites, so also the Son of Man
will be to this generation.
31
The queen of the South will rise up in the judgment with the men of this generation and
condemn them, for she came from the ends of the earth to hear the
wisdom of Solomon; and indeed a greater than Solomon is here.
32
The men of Nineveh will rise up in the judgment with this generation and
condemn it, for they repented at the preaching of Jonah; and indeed
a greater than Jonah is here.
Luke 11:49-51
49 Therefore the wisdom of God also said, ‘I will send them prophets
and apostles, and some of them they will kill and persecute,’
50 that the blood of all the prophets which
was shed from the foundation of the world may be required of
this generation,
51 from the blood of Abel to the blood of
Zechariah who perished between the altar and the temple. Yes, I say
to you, it shall be required of this
generation.
Luke 17:25
But first He must suffer many things and be rejected by this generation.
Luke 21:32
Assuredly, I say to you, this generation will
by no means pass away till all things take place.
Jesus was referring to the adulterous and sinful generation
living about AD 30 who was seeking a sign, doubting and questioning Him. The generation that would
eventually reject their Messiah and crucify Him.
But what are "all these things"?
Looking closer, Matthew 24:34 was a repetition of Matthew 23:36.
Matthew 23:36
Assuredly, I say to you, all these things will come upon this
generation.
Matthew 24:34
Assuredly, I say to you, this generation will by no means pass away
till all these things take place.
It was a "verily, verily, I say unto you" moment. Jesus said it
once and said it again!
In Matthew 24:3, as Jesus 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?”
Herein are three questions:
- When will these things be?
- What will be the sign of Your coming?
- What will be the sign of the end of the age?
In Matthew 24:6-7, Jesus said, "See that you are not troubled;
for all these things must come to pass,
but the end is not yet. For nation will rise against nation,
and kingdom against kingdom. And there will be famines, pestilences,
and earthquakes in various places."
Jesus said that all these things must come to pass but the end is
not yet come. The end will begin when nation will rise against
nation, and kingdom against kingdom, and there will be
famines, pestilences, and earthquakes in various places.
Therefore "all these things" did not include the endtime events
stated in Matthew 24:7-31.
"All these things" included all the woes in Matthew 23 and the
destruction of the Temple in Matthew 24:1-2 which took place in AD
70. As it was written, that generation did pass away till all those
things came to pass and took place. But the end was not yet come!
Many people have many different interpretations and wild guesses
of "this generation" without first considering what "all these things"
are. This causes a lot of different
Christian eschatological views and prophetic insights that are
not founded in the Bible. Some people thought that every endtime
prophecy was fulfilled in AD70, and there is no more Second Coming
of the Messiah. Some people argued over the duration of a generation
- 40 years or 60 years or 70 years or 100 years! A lot of
unnecessary heartaches and confusions.
2 Timothy 2:15
Be diligent to present yourself approved to God, a worker who does
not need to be ashamed, rightly dividing the word of truth.
We need to seek Him not here and there, but in His Word. Yes,
heaven and earth will pass away, but His words will by no means pass
away.
Note:
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Written on 22 March 2014