Christ's Teaching on the End of the Age - Final Part

Let's now bring in Matthew 13 and the parable of the tares and the other truths that Jesus was teaching.

What did Jesus say happens at the end of the age in Matthew 13?  The wheat will be gathered into the barn and the tares are gathered and burned.

Do you see the parallel between the wheat in Mt. 13 and the elect in Mt. 24?  Both give truths about what will occur at the end of the age. 

The wheat in Matthew 13 are true believers who are gathered into the barn by the reapers/angels, which are the elect that are gathered by the angels in Matthew 24 at the end of the age.

Jesus said He would be with us until the end of the age, when He returns - Mt. 28:20, Mt. 24:30,31.

The end of the age is when He comes with His angels to gather the elect, the wheat into the barn.  But before the end of the age occurs we will see what was spoken of by Daniel the prophet.  We will see the man of lawless stop the sacrifices and set himself up as God in the temple.  This will signal the beginning of the greatest persecution against believers ever to occur.  It will be so bad that if Jesus didn't cut short the persecution by His coming at the end of the age with His angels, no elect would be saved.  All elect would be killed.

Don't be misled.

We have been warned.

Jesus said in Matthew 28:20 that His disciples were to teach the new disciples to observe ALL Jesus commanded them.  Each generation of disciples is to be looking for the signs and should be teaching all the words of Christ to the new disciples, this includes the truths of His return in Matthew 13, 24, and 28.  We have fallen so short on this.  

Jesus said in Matthew 24:36 that no man knows the day or the hour of His return.  He has given us the signs however to know when His return is near.  Jesus said the generation who sees the sign of the prophet Daniel and the great tribulation that breaks out after will be the generation that sees His return - Mt. 24:34.

Recapping then, at the midpoint of the week Antichrist will be revealed, a huge marker.  Antichrist will then begin persecuting the church, God's elect.  We know from Revelation 12:13-17 Antichrist goes after Israel first, and then those who hold to the testimony of Jesus, the true believers in the church.  The look-a-likes fall away.  The persecution will not go to the end of Daniel's seventieth week however.  Christ's return cuts it short - Mt. 24:22.  The end of the age occurs sometime before the end of the week.  We don't know the day or the hour but we know it falls sometime after Antichrist desecrates the temple.

We need to keep our eyes on Israel. 

1 Thessalonians 4, the classic rapture passage, where it says those who are alive and remain until the coming of the Lord, will not precede those who have fallen asleep - those who have died in Christ.  The dead in Christ rise first then those who are alive and remain will be caught up together with the dead in Christ in the clouds.  Here's something interesting  - the word remain can also be translated survive.  What would they be surviving?  The great tribulation.  Both Mt. 24 and 1 Th. 4 mention a trumpet at Christ's coming.  This too points to these being parallel passages.

There is a verse in the Old Testament that makes a reference to the end of the age.  It is the last verse in Daniel.  It reads:

"But as for you, go your way to the end; then you will enter into rest and rise again for your allotted portion at the end of the age."

Old Testament saints looked forward to their Suffering Savior.  New Testament saints look back.  God is telling Daniel that at the end of the age he will be resurrected.  Paul tells the Corinthians that at Christ's coming the resurrection of the dead occurs - 1 Cor. 15:23.  So in Daniel we have a reference to the end of the age and the resurrection.  In 1 Cor. 15 we have a reference to the resurrection and Christ's coming, which we know from Matthew is at the end of the age - 1 Cor. 15:51,52.  It all points to the gathering of the elect being all who have died in Christ, Old and New Testament saints, and those who are alive and remain also, at His coming.

The gospel of Mark and the gospel of Luke also record Jesus teaching on His return.

Mark 13:37 says the gathering of the elect is from the farthest end of earth to the farthest end of heaven.  When you take all the passages we have looked at into consideration, it makes sense to me that the "earth elect" are the bodies of the dead who are raised, Old and New Testament saints, and the believers who are alive and remain at the Lord's return.  The "heaven elect" are the souls of those who died in Christ, that He brings with Him when He comes.

Luke tells us in his account that when we see the signs in the sky, the natural lights going out, we are to look up for our redemption is drawing near - Luke 21:25-28.

Our Blessed Hope, the appearing of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ.  There will be unprecedented tribulation before He returns, but He also has promised that through Him we are more than conquerors, we overwhelmingly conquer!


Romans 8:35-39 - "Who will separate us from the love of Christ?  Will tribulation, or distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or peril, or sword?  Just as it is written, FOR YOUR SAKE WE ARE BEING PUT TO DEATH ALL DAY LONG; WE WERE CONSIDERED AS SHEEP TO BE SLAUGHTERED.  But in all these things we overwhelmingly conquer through Him who loved us.  For I am convinced that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor principalities, nor things present, nor things to come, nor powers, nor height, nor depth, nor any other created thing, will be able to separate us from the love of God, which is in Christ Jesus our Lord."

Jude 24,25 - "Now to Him who is able to keep you from stumbling, and to make you stand in the presence of His glory blameless with great joy, to the only God our Savior, through Jesus Christ our Lord, be glory, majesty, dominion and authority, before all time and now and forever."