Matthew 24: Jesus’ End Time Prophecies
Lesson Overview
Matthew 24: Jesus’ End Time Prophecies with Dr. David Reagan
This standalone message is given by Dr. David Reagan of Lamb and Lion Ministries. He walks through the Olivet Discourse, Jesus’ great end-times sermon delivered on the Mount of Olives, showing that Jesus was a prophet and that the signs He gave point to the season of His return. The message covers seven signs and closes with the parable of the fig tree. Use this overview to review the key points after watching the full video.
Jesus the Prophet
Reagan begins by establishing that Jesus was a prophet, indeed “the prophet” foretold by Moses in Deuteronomy 18. He notes that Jesus’ most repeated prophecy was of His own death, burial, and resurrection, and that He also prophesied about specific towns. Jesus pronounced woes on Chorazin, Bethsaida, and Capernaum, and Reagan observes that all three were later destroyed, so thoroughly that nineteenth-century skeptics cited them as proof the Bible was myth, until archaeology located each one.
He then turns to the Olivet Discourse (Matthew 24, with parallels in Mark 13 and Luke 21). Jesus first gave a near prophecy, that the temple would be torn down with not one stone left on another, fulfilled when Rome destroyed it in AD 70, and then moved to the distant future and the signs of His return.
Sign One: Deception and Cults
The first sign, and the only one Jesus repeats three times, is the rise of false christs and false prophets. Reagan traces cults from the early church (the Judaizers who added works to grace, and the Gnostics who denied Christ came in the flesh) through their explosive growth beginning in the 1850s. He identifies two marks of a cult: a false Jesus and salvation by works. He cites groups that fit this description in his analysis, and points to modern self-proclaimed messiahs as evidence that the age is one of great deception. These characterizations of specific religious movements are Reagan’s own, made from his evangelical standpoint, and adherents of those groups would describe their beliefs differently.
Sign Two: War and Violence
The second sign is “wars and rumors of wars,” nation rising against nation. Reagan notes the twentieth century was the most violent in history, with more than 100 million killed in wars, more than in all prior recorded history combined. He points to the destructive potential of nuclear weapons, linking Luke’s account of men fainting from fear and “the powers of the heavens being shaken” to the nuclear age that began in 1945.
Sign Three: Natural Disasters
The third sign is famines, earthquakes, plagues, and signs in the heavens. Reagan stresses Jesus’ phrase that these are “the beginning of birth pains,” which increase in both frequency and intensity as the end nears. He cites clusters of record disasters and earthquakes as illustrations. Because natural disasters have always happened, this sign is often dismissed, but Reagan argues the point is the accelerating pattern, not any single event.
Sign Four: Persecution of Believers
The fourth sign is the persecution of Christians. Reagan cites large numbers of believers martyred each year worldwide, and connects the rising persecution to the fact that more Muslims and Hindus are coming to Christ than ever before, which provokes violent backlash. He argues persecution now extends beyond the traditional hotspots into post-Christian Europe and even the United States, where he says Christianity is mocked with a freedom not extended to other religions. His examples reflect his own reading of contemporary culture.
Sign Five: Apostasy in the Church
The fifth and, to Reagan, saddest sign is apostasy within the church. He traces it to the German “higher criticism” that treated the Bible as human myth rather than God’s Word, and argues it hollowed out the once-vibrant Anglican Church in England, leaving empty buildings. He points to steep membership losses in liberal American denominations across 1960 to 2000, and argues that faithful and apostate wings are increasingly polarizing. He is careful to add that faithful and unfaithful congregations exist within every denomination, and that the problem lies chiefly with leadership. His naming of particular denominations and leaders reflects his own strong assessments, which those named would dispute.
Sign Six: Breakdown of Society
The sixth sign is lawlessness, with love growing cold. Reagan connects Jesus’ words about “the days of Noah” (marked by immorality and violence) to what he sees as a modern collapse of morality. He points to the entertainment industry as a major driver and praises those who have stood against it, citing the encouragement that God calls His people “not to win but to stand.” This section reflects his cultural and moral convictions.
Sign Seven: Worldwide Preaching of the Gospel
The seventh sign, and a hopeful one, is that the gospel will be preached to all nations before the end (Matthew 24:14). Reagan celebrates how modern technology, radio, satellite television, computer-aided Bible translation, and the widely shown Jesus film, has spread the gospel farther and faster than ever, with conversions rising dramatically worldwide, including in China. He presents this as the positive counterpart to the darker signs.
The Timing: The Parable of the Fig Tree
Reagan notes that when Jesus reaches the question of timing, He shifts into parable language (Matthew 24:32-34), so that only those with the Holy Spirit grasp it. In the parable of the fig tree, when it puts forth leaves, summer is near; so when “all these things” appear, His coming is near.
Reagan argues the fig tree is a common biblical symbol for Israel, reinforced by Jesus cursing a fig tree the day before (a symbolic act pointing to the nation’s judgment and dispersion). The “re-blossoming” of the fig tree, then, is the rebirth of Israel on May 14, 1948. He concludes that the generation seeing Israel reborn is the one that will witness the Lord’s return, making ours “the terminal generation.” This “fig tree equals 1948 Israel” reading is a widely held view in his tradition, though other Christians interpret the parable differently.
The Closing Appeal
Reagan ends with the crucial question: are you ready for the Lord’s return? He will come either as “your blessed hope or your holy terror.” Citing John 3:36, he says every person lives under either the wrath or the grace of God. He closes with the illustration of a prairie fire: wagon trains survived by burning a patch of ground and standing where the fire had already passed, just as the believer who trusts Christ stands where the wrath of God has already fallen at the cross, and is safe. His parting cry is “Maranatha, come quickly, Lord Jesus.”
Key Terms
Olivet Discourse: Jesus’ end-times sermon on the Mount of Olives, in Matthew 24, Mark 13, and Luke 21.
The prophet: the title from Deuteronomy 18 that Jews understood as a Messianic prophecy.
Birth pains: Jesus’ image for signs that increase in frequency and intensity toward the end.
Apostasy: the falling away from biblical faith within the professing church.
Higher criticism: the approach that treats the Bible as human writing rather than God’s revealed Word.
The fig tree: a biblical symbol for Israel, whose “re-blossoming” Reagan identifies with 1948.
Verses to Know
Deuteronomy 18:15-18, the promise of the prophet like Moses. Matthew 24:2, not one stone left upon another. Matthew 24:4-8, deception, wars, and disasters as the beginning of birth pains. Matthew 24:9-12, persecution, apostasy, and lawlessness. Matthew 24:14, the gospel preached to all nations. Matthew 24:32-34, the parable of the fig tree. John 3:36, the one under wrath and the one under grace.
Takeaway
Reagan argues that the seven signs of the Olivet Discourse, deception, war, disasters, persecution, apostasy, societal breakdown, and worldwide gospel preaching, are all converging today, and that the rebirth of Israel in 1948 marks ours as the generation that will see Christ return, so the urgent question is whether a person is ready to meet Him.