I started preaching through the Gospel of Matthew three years and two months ago. I’ve taken numerous pauses along the way to preach other, shorter expositional series. This latest pause was the longest: six months and a week. We returned to Matthew this last Lord’s Day. This meant giving a little bit of the introduction time reminding everyone how we got where we are. This is especially important, since we resumed Matthew in chapter 24, the Olivet Discourse. Jesus has been in Jerusalem and in the Temple since chapter 21. He has been engaged by the religious leadership with numerous tests, and has bested His antagonists every time. The Lord has pronounced woe and judgment over the religious leaders and Jerusalem itself. And now, in the last of the five great discourses of Matthew, Jesus teaches concerning the coming desolation of Jerusalem in chapters 24-25.
Part of me wishes I
would have stayed in Matthew without pause. There’s an idealistic part of me
that imagines a congregation living together in a text unbroken for several years.
Believing, as I do, in Scripture as the chief means of grace to the covenant
people, it seems such constant, patient immersion in a text could be an
especially fertile ground for the Spirit in a congregation’s life. But that’s
not why I’m writing.
One of the main tools I
use in Bible reading is looking for repetition or pattern. This repetition
doesn’t usually revolve around “big words” (theologically speaking), but often
it’s the “flyover words” that we need to make sure we are purposeful in
noticing.
As Jesus begins to answer
the disciples’ threefold question (24:3), we notice a word or idea that shows
up several times.
“And Jesus answered and
said to them, ‘See to it that no one misleads you. For many
will come in My name, saying, “I am the Christ,” and will mislead many. You
will be hearing of wars and rumors of wars. See that you are not
frightened, for those things must take place, but that is
not yet the end. For nation will rise against nation, and kingdom against
kingdom, and in various places there will be famines and earthquakes. But
all these things are merely the beginning of birth pangs. Then they
will deliver you to tribulation, and will kill you, and you will be hated
by all nations because of My name. At that time many will fall
away and will betray one another and hate one another. Many false
prophets will arise and will mislead many. Because lawlessness is
increased, most people’s love will grow cold. But the one who endures to
the end, he will be saved. 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’” (Matthew 24:4-14).
Though I believe Jesus
is speaking of the destruction of Jerusalem and the Temple (marking the end of
the old covenant age), there are definite opportunities for application in His
warnings that can be seen for any generation until He returns. In this case, maybe
it doesn’t pay to follow the trends or the crowd.
There was a hint at
this theme earlier, during Jesus’ engagement with those religious leaders who
challenged Him. At the end of the wedding feast parable, He said, “many
are called, but few are chosen.” (Matthew 22:14).
The primary link in my
mind, however, goes back to the first of the five great discourses in Matthew,
the “Sermon on the Mount.” Toward the end of that sermon, the idea of the “many”
as a category to which we do not want to belong, is used as warning: “Enter
through the narrow gate; for the gate is wide and the way is broad that leads
to destruction, and there are many who enter through it. For the gate is
small and the way is narrow that leads to life, and there are few who
find it…not everyone who says to Me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ will enter the kingdom of
heaven, but he who does the will of My Father Who is in heaven will enter.
Many will say to Me on that day, ‘Lord, Lord, did we not prophesy
in Your name, and in Your name cast out demons, and in Your name perform many miracles?’ And
then I will declare to them, ‘I never knew you; depart from Me, you who
practice lawlessness’” (Matthew 7:13-14,21-23).
My pastor used to make
much of John 6:66, “as a result of this many of
His disciples withdrew and were not walking with Him anymore.” The “this”
was Jesus first feeding the people and then chastising them for only wanting
physical food instead of desiring the Spirit-food (which was Him). Again, being
part of the “many” was not a good thing.
Following Christ is
never described as a leisurely stroll or a five-lane highway. There is a
constant temptation to the path of least resistance, to maintaining fellowship
with the “many,” be that in conformity to the shifting tides of cultural
opinion or even the established habits of a religious tradition. I have found
that charting a course as faithfully to the Bible as possible quickly means a
divergence from the “many.” Sometimes the “many” becomes a smaller group as you
return to the Word to make further course corrections for faithfulness’ sake.
Regardless, following the Christ of the whole Bible necessarily means that our
valuing the movements of the “many” must always weigh far less than the infinite
tonnage of the Lordship of our only Savior, Jesus Christ.
May we carefully and
faithfully follow Him, no matter what the “many” are doing. If they are
following Him as He and His will are revealed in the Word, then we will find
ourselves on the same track. If not, may our path serve as witness so that some
may, perhaps initially only out of curiosity, join us and find Him along the Way.
