Matthew 24:3-5 – Do Not Be Led Astray

This next passage of Matthew’s Gospel is often called “the Olivet Discourse,” primarily because Jesus spoke it while sitting on the Mount of Olives. It has also been referred to as “the Little Apocalypse” because its language and content mirror many passages found in Ezekiel, Daniel, and Revelation. Matthew introduces this passage with the following words,

3 As he sat on the Mount of Olives, the disciples came to him privately, saying, “Tell us, when will these things be, and what will be the sign of your coming and of the end of the age?” 4 And Jesus answered them,

Matthew 24:3-4

Context always matters. Jesus had just departed the temple and said that it would be torn down stone for stone. The disciples, not wanting such a claim to go unexplained, asked Jesus some questions. They asked about when the temple would be destroyed, when Jesus would return, and when the end of the age would come. Ever since Matthew recorded Jesus’s answer, theologians have debated how to interpret his teaching. Since I am not qualified to look into the future and prognosticate how the Father’s plans will play out, I will not and cannot enter the eschatological debate. However, this doesn’t mean that the Olivet Discourse doesn’t have other useful truths to help us in our lives as believers. At the very least, this passage provides the believer with confidence and hope that God has everything well in hand, but that is not the only truth we can learn from this passage.

Paul wrote the following words to his young protege Timothy,

16 All Scripture is breathed out by God and profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction, and for training in righteousness, 17 that the man of God may be complete, equipped for every good work.

II Timothy 3:16-17

When Paul wrote the words “all scripture,” he wasn’t thinking only of the law, he also was including prophecy. This means that the previous verse can be read as saying,

Prophecy is breathed out by God and profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction, and for training in righteousness, that the man of God may be complete, equipped for every good work.

II Timothy 3:16-17 as found in the Unauthorized Dave Version of the Bible

Paul is saying that prophecy is not merely about future events; prophecy also teaches, reproves, corrects, and trains the believer with those truths they need so they can do the Father’s good works in the present day. As such, the Olivet Discourse, while it does direct our focus to the future, it also helps us live as believers in the present, and in the case of this present study, the Olivet Discourse sheds light on how to better pray for the deliverance from evil and for the coming of the Father’s eternally powerful and glorious kingdom.

Jesus began the Olivet Discourse with the following words,

See that no one leads you astray. 5 For many will come in my name, saying, ‘I am the Christ,’ and they will lead many astray.

Matthew 24:4-5

Typically, when ingredients are listed for any packaged food the most prevalent, and frequently most important ingredient is listed first. The same holds true with regard to Jesus’s discourse on the Mount of Olives. While Jesus eventually speaks of wars, earthquakes, betrayal, and lawlessness, he begins his teaching with the most important message: false prophets are coming to lead you astray. If we view this through the eyes of prophecy, we might assume Jesus is talking about THE Antichrist, but Jesus seemed to quite deliberately say that “many will come,” indicating that he is talking about something other than THE Antichrist. It appears that Jesus is talking about something John later addressed in one of his letters. He wrote,

Children, it is the last hour, and as you have heard that antichrist is coming, so now many antichrists have come.

I John 2:18

Antichrists, whether THE Antichrist or just an antichrist, preach a false gospel contrary to the one Jesus preached; sometimes their false gospel is obvious, but sometimes it is subtle and difficult to discern. Most of us would never consider taking spiritual advice from a Satanist, but when Satan dons the cloak of sheep’s clothing, it is not so easy for the casual believer to discern the wolves from the true sheep. Jesus began this teaching by emphasizing the point that in the times preceding the destruction of the temple, Jesus’s return, and the end of the age some of the most dangerous of all evils will be present: false prophets. We must not, however, make the mistake of thinking that false prophets only come during those times. Those claiming to come in the name of Jesus but preaching a false gospel have filled the corridors of time and will continue to do so. Once again, Paul’s words to his protege Timothy are helpful in this matter. Paul wrote,

1 I charge you in the presence of God and of Christ Jesus, who is to judge the living and the dead, and by his appearing and his kingdom: 2 preach the word; be ready in season and out of season; reprove, rebuke, and exhort, with complete patience and teaching. 3 For the time is coming when people will not endure sound teaching, but having itching ears they will accumulate for themselves teachers to suit their own passions, 4 and will turn away from listening to the truth and wander off into myths.

II Timothy 4:1-3

I often envy the disciples because they lived in the physical presence of Jesus. Anytime they wanted Jesus’s wisdom and guidance they could just turn their head and ask. They didn’t have to wait for a mysterious sign or potentially ambiguous feeling, they could hear his actual voice and see his facial expressions. We, however, can’t turn our heads and hear Jesus’s words, nor can we see the light in his eyes or the movement of his lips. We do not live in the physical presence of Jesus and thus we rely on other means to discern Jesus’s wisdom and guidance — prayer and his holy Word, the Bible — and sometimes we get it right and sometimes we get it wrong. Most of us know we don’t have a perfect record of discerning God’s wisdom and guidance, so we have come to rely on others. Our believing friends become important as well as counselors and pastors — we tend to listen carefully to someone who has attended seminary or is employed as a pastor; we assume they have the inside track and know something we do not. All of these are good resources and can be used by God to help us discern his wisdom and guidance, but none of them are to be our primary means of approach to the Father’s throne where wisdom resides (Prov. 8:12-31). Furthermore, we often forget that God only appointed one mediator between himself and man — only one person can bring us into his presence — that is Christ Jesus (I Tim. 2:5). Yes, Jesus is our mediator when it comes to sin and punishment as he took the full brunt of God’s justice so we might experience God’s grace and mercy, but Jesus is also the one who spoke to us the words the Father had given him (John 12:49). Furthermore, Jesus told his disciples that after he would ascend to heaven, the Holy Spirit would come and guide them into all truth (John 16:13). The result of all of this is that we have available to us the Bible, the very words of God, breathed out to his disciples by the Spirit for teaching, for reproof, for correction, and for training in righteousness. God can and does use other people to help us hear his and understand his word, but until we go directly to the source of God’s communication, we will never develop our own relationship with the Father, nor will we have the capacity to discern the difference between those preaching the true gospel and those who are not. Only when we take time to pray for the Spirit’s guidance as we read the Bible are we able to encounter the Father’s wisdom, and only when we are doing that will we become empowered by God — the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit — to discern the difference between those who come in the name of Jesus and those who are false prophets.

Before Jesus began to answer the disciple’s questions regarding the temple’s destruction, his return, and the end of the age, he emphasized the one truth the disciples needed to sustain them through any future events: do not be led astray. And the only way we are not led astray is if we stay close to our shepherd and continually listen to his voice, and the only way we can do that today is to immerse ourselves in Scripture and pray for the Spirit’s guidance so we can discern the difference between our true Shepherd’s voice and a wolf in sheep’s clothing. Jesus makes no promise, however, (and we will see this in the verses to come) that this will lead to a life of ease and luxury for the believer. But he does promise that if the believer endures to the end by staying close to the Shepherd and listening to his voice that they will be saved.

For many other reasons, but above all that we are not drawn astray, we pray for the Father’s deliverance from the evil of false prophets and for the coming of his eternally glorious and powerful kingdom, both in the future and today in our lives.

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