hotcoffee
New Member
Matthew 24:9 “Then you will be handed over to be persecuted and put to death, and you will be hated by all nations because of me. 10 At that time many will turn away from the faith and will betray and hate each other, 11 and many false prophets will appear and deceive many people. 12 Because of the increase of wickedness, the love of most will grow cold, 13 but the one who stands firm to the end will be saved. 14 And this gospel of the kingdom will be preached in the whole world as a testimony to all nations, and then the end will come.
Once again.... I have to put this in perspective. Jesus and the Disciples are discussing the destruction of the Temple. That will happen in 70AD when Rome surrounds Jerusalem, and they burn down the temple to get at the people hiding inside.
Verse 10 is glaring at me this morning. "Many will turn away from the faith and will betray and hate each other" is a statement I've heard in a lot of sermons over the years. In this perspective, though, it makes more sense.
The Jews were looking for a king like David. They weren't looking for anyone like Jesus.... hung on a cross in humiliation. They were looking for a warrior. They actually believed that Jesus would run the Romans out of Jerusalem. When things got really bad, after the crucifixion and before the destruction of the Temple in Jerusalem, they really expected Jesus to return and take the Roman Government down. When that didn't happen... they gave up.
One of the commentaries puts it this way.
The words point primarily to those who were believers in Christ, and found, a stumbling-block either in the new aspects of truth from time to time presented, or in the slowness of its victory, or in the delayed coming of the Lord.
The words received a terrible fulfillment in the faction-fights of the Zealots and Sicarii at Jerusalem, in the disputes in every city between believing and unbelieving Jews (Acts 13:50; Acts 14:19; Acts 17:5; Acts 18:6; Acts 19:9), in the bitter hatred of the Judaisers against St. Paul (Acts 23:12).
The words received a terrible fulfillment in the faction-fights of the Zealots and Sicarii at Jerusalem, in the disputes in every city between believing and unbelieving Jews (Acts 13:50; Acts 14:19; Acts 17:5; Acts 18:6; Acts 19:9), in the bitter hatred of the Judaisers against St. Paul (Acts 23:12).
Ok.... let's define some terms here...
Zeolots... members of a first-century political movement among Judean Jews who sought to overthrow the occupying Roman government
Sicarii....an extremist splinter group of the Jewish Zealots, who attempted to expel the Romans and their partisans from the Roman province aka "dagger-men"
Judaisers.... is a term for Christians who insist that Christians must follow the Old Covenant laws
Jesus knew what was going to happen.
