Episode 897: What Time is it ?

"And Jesus went out, and departed from the temple: and his disciples came to him for to shew him the buildings of the temple. And Jesus said unto them, See ye not all these things? verily I say unto you, There shall not be left here one stone upon another, that shall not be thrown down.”

In Matthew 24 and 25 we see Jesus speaking about the future, about his second coming, about the tribulation that will precede his second coming, about the persecution against his disciples and how false prophets will arise, and many signs concerning the second coming. We can see these chapters, deal with prophecy. Chapter 25 deals with how we can be prepared for that coming. It is very interesting to see where Matthew 24 comes. Matthew 24 comes between Chapter 23 and chapter 25.

And that's the right place it should come in. In other words, if we don't understand Matthew 23 to be free from hypocrisy and Phariseeism, then there is no use studying prophecy, in Matthew 24 if you're not interested in the truths of Matthew 25. because Matthew 25 deals with how we can be spiritually prepared for the second coming of Christ. Now the reason I mentioned this is that many people are interested in Matthew 24 who are not so interested in Matthew 23 or 25, and that's very unhealthy spiritually. It's very dangerous because you can have an interest, an unhealthy interest, in prophecy. And because of this I want to warn you against an unhealthy interest in prophecy. How does it become unhealthy? When you are not sufficiently interested in freedom from hypocrisy. When you're not interested in purity and goodness and humility and love and in following Jesus in your daily life. If you have know interests in these things and you're still interested in prophecy, then your interest in prophecy is unhealthy.

Matthew 24 comes between Matthew 23 and Matthew 25 and if you want to understand it and it's correct perspective, read it as a chapter in the middle of Matthew 23 and 25.