The Gospel of Matthew, Part 52
This chapter shows us the things that Jesus said about the future and give us the vision of the things to come. This chapter comes after the pronouncement of Judgement when Jesus speaks to the scribes and Pharisees.
A) THE SIEGE OF JERUSALEM
Christ is speaking about the destruction of the Temple in 70
AD. This is what Jesus foresaw; these are the things he forewarned. We must never forget that not only men but nations need the wisdom of Christ. Christ laid down the laws by which alone a nation can prosper, and by disregard of which it can do no other than miserably perish.
B) THE DAY OF THE LORD
God has not abandoned the world and we must not be discouraged at the crescendo of evil within the world. Destruction is a prelude to recreation.
We cannot take the pictures in their details word for word. They are only symbolic and which use the only pictures which the minds of men could conceive.
The basic meaning is this, whatever the world is like, God has not abandoned it.
C) THE PERSECUTION TO COME
Christ is brutally honest. He ever promised his disciples an easy way; he promised them death and suffering and persecution. The real Church will always be persecuted so long as it exists in a world which is not Christian.
Christ offers us the following:
1. A New Loyalty
2. A New Standard
3. A New Example
4. A New Conscience
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