What Jesus Taught About the End of the World That Is Already Happening? | The Prophecy of Matthew 24
Before you close this video, I need you to hear something. Nearly 2,000 years ago, on one of the last afternoons before his crucifixion, sitting on a hill called the Mount of Olives, looking towards the most sacred temple in the Jewish world, Jesus of Nazareth uttered a phrase that forever changed the way humanity thinks about the end.
He gazed at that golden temple, bathed in sunlight, with white marble reflecting the gleam, and said something that left his disciples in utter silence. He said that not a stone would be left unturned. And 40 years later, exactly as he had prophesied, the temple was reduced to rubble by the Romans. But what few people know is that this prophecy was only the beginning, because in that same conversation, sitting on that same mountain, Jesus said something much more profound.
He described signs that would occur not only in that generation, but that would unfold throughout all of human history until the day of his return. And today, 2000 years later, these signs are no longer distant prophecy, they are newspaper headlines. And that’s exactly what we’re going to talk about today.
Before we dive in, I need to know where you’re listening to me from right now. Write the name of your city, state, or country in the comments, because what you’re about to discover in the next few minutes is happening simultaneously in every corner of the world. And I want you to know that you’re not alone in watching this.
Comment now and let’s delve together into one of the most mysterious, debated, and relevant passages in the entire Bible. Matthew, chapter 24. To understand what Jesus was really saying at that moment, we need to go back in time. We need to step outside our modern, Western, urban perspective and get inside the head of a first-century Jew.
We are in the year 30 of the Christian era, approximately. It’s the week of Passover, the Jewish holiday called Pesag. Jerusalem is crowded. Historians such as Flavius Josephus, the Jewish chronicler who wrote about this period, estimate that the city’s population tripled during this festival. Imagine narrow streets, heat, the smell of animals being led to sacrifice, the sound of prayers in Hebrew and Aramaic mingling with the Latin of the Roman soldiers guarding every corner.
And at the center of it all, dominating the horizon, was the temple. Not just any temple. It was Herod’s temple, one of the architectural wonders of the ancient world. Herod the Great had spent decades and fortunes renovating and expanding Zerubbabel’s temple, and the result was astounding. Some of the stones used in the foundation weighed over 400 tons.
The complex covered an area equivalent to 24 football fields. The outer walls were covered in gold, and when the sun shone on them, ancient accounts say, it was impossible to look directly at the temple because of how intense the reflected light was. For first-century Jews, that temple was not just a building; it was the heart of the people’s national, religious, and cultural identity.
It was where God dwelt among men. It was the visible presence of the Eternal on earth. Destroying that temple was unthinkable; it was the spiritual equivalent of extinguishing the sun. It was precisely in this setting that Jesus, upon leaving the temple, made one of the most shocking statements recorded in all of Scripture. The disciples, fascinated like tourists of any era, began pointing to the stones, to the grandeur of the building, as if they wanted Jesus to admire it along with them.
And Jesus, instead of marveling, looked at them and said, as recorded in Matthew, chapter 24, verse 2, “Do you see all this?” Truly I tell you, not one stone here will be left on another; every one will be thrown down. Imagine the impact of those words. Imagine the silence. Imagine the glances exchanged between Peter, James, John, and Andrew.
They were all simple Galileans, fishermen, men who saw that temple as the ultimate symbol of God’s presence. Hearing their master say that all of that would be destroyed, they walked in silence to the Mount of Olives, which lies on the other side of the Kidron Valley, directly opposite the temple.
And when they sat down with the panoramic view of Jerusalem before them, they couldn’t take it anymore. According to the Gospel of Mark, four of them approached him privately and asked him a question. And that question is the key to understanding everything that comes after. They asked in Matthew 24 verse 3, ” Tell us, when will these things happen, and what will be the sign of your coming and of the end of the age?” Pay attention, because the disciples asked not one, but three questions in one.
First, when the temple would be destroyed. Second, what would be the sign of Jesus’ return? Third, what would be the sign of the end of the world? Or in the original Greek, the end of the era, the end of times? These three questions are interwoven in the discourse that Jesus gives next. And that’s precisely why this chapter is so complex, so debated, and at the same time, so powerful.
For a first- century Jew, these three questions were not separate as we view them today. The Jewish mindset of that time, deeply shaped by the prophets of the Old Testament, especially Daniel, Ezekiel, Joel, Zechariah, and Isaiah, held that the end of one era and the beginning of another were profoundly connected. The rabbis of that time spoke of two worlds or two eras.
Raolam Ré, this present age, and Raolam Rabá, the age to come. They believed that the Messiah would come, judge the nations, restore Israel, and inaugurate the messianic era, the kingdom of God on earth. So, when the disciples asked about the end of the world, they weren’t thinking of a cosmic cataclysm in the modern sense.
They were asking about the end of that era, the beginning of the messianic kingdom, and how all of this connected with the destruction of the temple and the glorious return of their master. And Jesus, knowing exactly what was going on in their hearts, begins to answer: “And his answer is one of the densest, most profound, and most relevant that exists in all of humanity’s religious literature .
” The first thing Jesus says in Matthew 24, verse 4, is a warning. He says: “Beware that no one deceives you.” That’s the first word. Before any sign, before any prophecy, the first instruction is vigilance against deception. And why? Because Jesus knew that false Messiahs would arise throughout history . He said, “For many will come in my name, saying, ‘I am the Christ,’ and will deceive many.
” And look at this fascinating thing. Flavius Josephus, the Jewish historian I mentioned earlier, and the Book of Acts itself document several messianic figures who appeared in Israel in the first and second centuries. In Acts chapter 5, the respected teacher of the law, Gamaliel, mentions at least two names of those who had risen up before, gathered followers, and ended in tragedy.
Decades later, Josephus records another Theudas, who persuaded a crowd to follow him to the Jordan River, promising to part the waters like Moses before being killed by the Romans. It also records the Egyptian calling mentioned in the book of Acts, chapter 21, who led thousands of followers to the Mount of Olives, promising that the walls of Jerusalem would fall at his command.
And above all of them, in the following century arose Simon Barqba, declared Messiah by the influential Rabbi Ahiva, who led a bloody revolt against Rome between the years 132 and 135, ending in one of the greatest tragedies in Jewish history. They all deceived the masses, and they all ended in tragedy. And this is just the first batch.
Throughout the following 2000 years, history is filled with false Christs. In the 17th century, Sabatize, in Türkiye, was proclaimed Messiah by thousands of Jews before converting to Islam under threat of death. In the 20th century, we saw figures like Jim Jones, David Corch, and Sun Meung Moon. And today, in the 20th century, if you do a quick search, you’ll find dozens, maybe hundreds of men in different countries who declare themselves to be the reincarnation of Christ, the Messiah, the anointed one. This is not a
conspiracy theory, this is documented, this is a newspaper headline. And that is exactly what Jesus said would happen. But Jesus continues. In verse 6, He says: “And you will hear of wars and rumors of wars. See that you are not troubled; for all these things must take place, but the end is not yet. For nation will rise against nation, and kingdom against kingdom.
And there will be famines and earthquakes in various places. All these are the beginning of sorrows. Stop and breathe.” Read that sentence again . Beginning of pains. In the original Greek, the word used is odinom, which literally means the pains of childbirth. Jesus is saying that these signs—wars, famines, plagues, earthquakes—are like the contractions of a woman giving birth.
At first they are sporadic, spaced out, and bearable. But as the birth approaches, they become more frequent, more intense, and more painful. This is the image that Jesus is painting. And it is a profoundly Jewish image, because the rabbis of that time spoke precisely of this, of the Chevlei Hamashiach, the birth pangs of the Messiah, the period of tribulation that would precede the messianic era.
Jesus is saying that all of this will happen throughout history, but it will intensify. And the question we need to ask today, in the 20th century, is just one. These pains are getting worse . Look at our world. In the 20th century alone, two world wars killed more than 100 million people, more than all the wars of all previous centuries combined.
Conflicts such as the war in Ukraine, the war in Israel and Gaza, conflicts in Syria, Yemen, Sudan, and the Democratic Republic of Congo, keep the world in a permanent state of tension. When was the last time in history that the world wasn’t at war somewhere? Almost never. And then there are the rumors of war, nuclear tensions between powers, threats between the United States, China, Russia, Iran, North Korea—we live under the constant shadow of threat. Famines.
The UN estimates that more than 700 million people worldwide live in severe food insecurity . Children are dying of hunger every minute. Plagues. We have just lived through a pandemic that killed millions and brought the entire planet to a standstill, and scientists are warning that others are coming. Earthquakes. Seismic data from the USGS, the American geological survey, show that earthquakes of magnitude greater than seven occur with impressive regularity in the 20th century.
We saw the earthquake in Türkiye and Syria in 2023, which killed more than 50,000 people. We saw the one from Haiti, the one from Japan, the one from Nepal, the one from Indonesia. The signs that Jesus mentioned are not distant prophecies; they are our daily news. And remember, he said that all of this would only be the beginning of sorrows.
The suffering is intensifying, but Jesus doesn’t stop there. He elaborates on the verse, saying: “Then they will hand you over to be tormented and killed, and you will be hated by all nations because of my name.” Here Jesus is saying something that has been fulfilled in an impressive way in history: the persecution of Christians.
It is estimated, according to data from organizations such as Open Doors, that more Christians were martyred in the 20th century than in all the previous 19 centuries combined. And the 20th century continues this trend. Christians are persecuted today in more than 50 countries, from North Korea to Afghanistan, including Nigeria, China, India, Pakistan, and Iran.
Churches are burned, pastors are imprisoned, and entire families are massacred because of their faith. That’s no exaggeration. This is the annual report from dozens of international human rights organizations . And see how accurate Jesus’ words were. He didn’t just say that Christians would be persecuted.
He said: “You will be hated by all nations because of my name, because of my name. Not for political reasons, not for economic reasons, but because of the name of Jesus. This specificity is frighteningly relevant today. And Jesus continues: “And then many will be offended and will betray one another and hate one another.” And many false prophets will appear and deceive many people.
And because iniquity shall abound, the love of many shall grow cold. But the one who endures to the end will be saved. Stop, read it again. The love of many will grow cold. In an era of social media, extreme polarization, families destroyed by ideology, friends who cancel each other over an opinion, and a generation that can no longer have civilized conversations.
These words of Jesus, spoken 2000 years ago on a mountain in Jerusalem, sound as if he were describing our TikTok, our Twitter, our nightly news. Love has grown cold. People are lonelier than ever, according to data from the World Health Organization, and depression is the fastest-growing disease in the world.
Suicide among young people. It broke historical records in several countries. Iniquity multiplied in ways that the disciples, sitting on the Mount of Olives, could never have imagined. And yet Jesus prepared them. He knew, he saw, he spoke. And then comes perhaps the most discussed verse of the entire chapter. Matthew 24, verse 14.
And this gospel of the kingdom will be preached in all the world as a testimony to all nations, and then the end will come. This is the only sign that Jesus directly connects with the word “end,” the gospel preached throughout the world. And this prophecy is perhaps the most impressive of all, because it is the only one that can be measured with technical precision.
In the first century, the gospel was confined to a small group of Jewish followers in Galilee and Judea. Today, in the 20th century, according to data from the Wycliffe Global Alliance and the Joshua Project, the Bible has already been translated in whole or in part into more than 3,600 languages. There are Christians in virtually every country in the world.
There are missionaries reaching out to isolated tribes in the Amazon, in Papua New Guinea, and in the interior of Africa. Apps like Version bring the Bible into the pockets of over 600 million people. The gospel is being preached by satellite, radio, internet, and artificial intelligence, in places where no human missionary can physically enter.
For the first time in history, the possibility of the gospel reaching all people is not a utopia, it is a technical reality. And Jesus said that when that happened, then the end would come. Now, before you think I’m setting a date, I need to stop here and be absolutely honest with you, because faithfulness to Scripture demands it.
In the same chapter, in verse 36, Jesus says explicitly: “But about that day or hour no one knows, not even the angels in heaven, nor the Son, but only the Father.” Read this slowly. Not the angels, nor the Son himself, to a certain extent, according to the reading of the Gospel of Mark, in his self-emptying humanity, only the Father.
So, anyone who appears on YouTube, Instagram, television, or in a pulpit, saying they know the exact date, the exact year, the exact month of the end, that person is, with all due respect, directly contradicting the words of Jesus himself. What we can know is the season. Jesus uses the parable of the fig tree in the following verses to teach this.
He says that when the branches of the fig tree begin to sprout, we know that summer is near. Similarly, when we see these signs being fulfilled, we will know that the time is near, the doors are at hand, but the exact hour, the exact day, no one knows. And here it is important to understand a layer that many people miss.
The fig tree, in Jewish and prophetic symbolism, The image of the fig tree is frequently associated with the people of Israel. The prophets Hosea, Joel, and Jeremiah use this image repeatedly. Because of this, some Christian scholars, especially those of the dispensationalist tradition, have seen in the re-blooming of the fig tree a reference to the restoration of Israel as a nation.
Other theologians of the Reformed and Catholic traditions read the parable only as a general illustration of discerning the times, without a direct link to modern Israel. I will not definitively state which interpretation is correct here, because this is one of the most debated passages in Christian theology.
But it is impossible to ignore a historical fact that occurred on May 14, 1948. On that day, against all geopolitical and demographic expectations, after almost 2000 years of diaspora, after the Holocaust, after the Jewish people had been scattered to all corners of the earth, Israel was proclaimed again as a nation in the same land that Jesus walked on, that Abraham received as a promise, and that the prophets announced would be restored. This is history.
It is in the books, it is in the Nations. United. Each one should read this fact in the light of their theological conviction. But it is precisely in this tension, between knowing that it is near and not knowing exactly when, that the Christian faith is exercised. Not in panic, not in anxiety, but in vigilance, in faith, in love, and in hope.
There is yet another dimension that we need to explore, because it helps to understand why Jesus spoke all this and especially to whom he spoke. The disciples who received this prophecy were first-century Jews, formed in the messianic expectation of Second Temple Judaism. They grew up hearing the prophets read in the synagogues every Sabbath.
They knew Daniel chapter 9 with its 70 weeks. They knew Daniel chapter 12, which speaks of the end times, the resurrection of the dead, of the righteous, who will shine like the splendor of the firmament. They knew Zechariah chapter 14, which describes the Messiah returning to the Mount of Olives, exactly where they were sitting at that moment, and splitting the mountain in two.
They knew Joel chapter 2 with the outpouring of the Spirit on all flesh. They knew Isaiah… Matthew 65, which speaks of the new heavens and the new earth. The entire prophetic framework of the Old Testament was in the minds of those men. And Jesus, as the supreme teacher, was connecting all these prophetic threads in a single discourse, showing how his first coming, his death, his resurrection, his prolonged absence, and his glorious return would fulfill in successive layers everything the prophets had announced. That is why
the discourse is so dense, why it applies to multiple levels. That is why the destruction of the temple in the year 70 at the hands of the Roman general Titus is, at the same time, an immediate literal fulfillment and a prefiguration, a smaller mirror, of a greater fulfillment that would come at the end of times.
The rabbis called this principle “pexer” or layered fulfillment. A prophecy can have a near fulfillment and a distant fulfillment at the same time. And Matthew 24 is the ultimate example of this in the mouth of Jesus himself. And this is where many people get lost, because Jesus’ discourse in Matthew 24 is not a discourse of panic, it is a discourse of hope.
Look at what he says. It says in verse 30: ” Then the sign of the Son of Man will appear in the sky, and all the nations of the earth will mourn. They will see the Son of Man coming on the clouds of the sky, with power and great glory. And he will send his angels with a loud trumpet call, and they will gather his elect from the four winds, from one end of the heavens to the other.
” This is the culminating point. It is not suffering, it is not destruction, it is the glorious coming of the Son of Man. It is the reunion, it is restoration, it is final justice. When Jesus speaks of the end, he is not speaking of annihilation, he is speaking of transformation. He is speaking of the day when every tear will be wiped away, when all injustice will be undone, when all pain will end , when death will be swallowed up in victory.
The end of the world in the mouth of Jesus is the end of the world as we know it, the world of pain, sin, death, suffering, and the beginning of a new heaven and a new earth, according to the The apocalypse will detail this decades later through the writings of the apostle John. But for this to happen, a passage is necessary, a birth is necessary.
And birth, as every mother knows, is painful. The pains are there, the signs are there. False Christs deceiving multitudes through social media. Wars raging on multiple fronts. Famines on a global scale. Plagues paralyzing the planet, earthquakes devastating entire nations. Christian persecution at record levels, love growing cold, iniquity multiplying, the gospel being preached for the first time in every language and every corner, so that other, older signs would be reserved.
The signs are being fulfilled, the contractions are getting closer. And the question that each of us needs to ask ourselves, sitting listening to this video in whatever corner of the world you are in right now, is just one: Am I ready? Because that was the question Jesus left hanging in the air on that Mount of Olives.
He didn’t end the discourse with dates. He ended with parables about vigilance, the parable of the ten virgins, five The parable of the five wise and five foolish women, which is still in Matthew 25, the parable of the talents, the parable of the sheep and the goats. They all end with the same question: Are you watching? Are you ready? Does your lamp have oil? Have you cared for the little ones, the hungry, the prisoners? The sick, because the Son of Man will come at an hour when you do not expect him.
And here I need to return to you who are listening to this. Perhaps on your way to work, perhaps lying in bed before sleeping, perhaps washing dishes, perhaps driving. Where are you? In what country, in what city? At what moment in your life? Comment below. Not to feed algorithms, not to inflate numbers, but so that each one who is listening to this knows that there are brothers and sisters spread throughout the world having the same reflection.
And do you know why it matters? Because the gospel preached throughout the world, which Jesus said would precede the end, is happening right now, at this moment, through this video, through your sharing, through your comment, through the reach of this message. This is happening in the internet age. You are part of the fulfillment of this prophecy. Think about it.
Two thousand years ago, on a hill in Jerusalem, Jesus said that the gospel would reach all people. And you, on the other side of the world, in a language the disciples never spoke, in a medium they could never have imagined, are receiving this message now. So, what did Jesus want to convey to people? What did he want to remain after the dust of the destroyed temple settled? After generations passed, after the world changed a thousand times, he wanted only one thing to remain. Watch and pray.
Do not live in fear. Do not despair at the signs. Do not chase after false Messiahs. Do not lose your peace because of wars. Do not be frightened by earthquakes. Do not let your love grow cold. Do not give in to iniquity. Be faithful. Be vigilant. Love God above all things and your neighbor as yourself. Take care of the little ones, preach the gospel, and Wait, for He is coming.
And when He comes, He will be like lightning that flashes from the east and shines as far as the west. It will not be a secret, it will not be hidden. It will be seen by every eye, as the Book of Revelation says, and every knee will bow, and every tongue will confess. This is the prophecy of Matthew 24.
It is not a speech of terror, it is a speech of hope in disguise, a warning. It is a father saying to his children: “Look, it will be difficult, it will hurt, there will be times when you will want to give up, but I promise I am coming back.” Hold on tight, persevere. Those who persevere to the end will be saved.
This phrase in verse 13 is the key to everything. It’s not about when, it’s about how we live while we wait. And now I need you to do one thing before you leave. First, write in the comments the name of the place where you are listening from. City, state, country. I want to see how far this message is reaching, because each comment is literally the fulfillment of the prophecy in verse 14, happening before our very eyes.
Secondly, if this message resonated with you, share it with someone. It could be a friend, a family member, or a coworker. Jesus’ prophecy will not fulfill itself. It is fulfilled through people like you and me, carrying this message forward. Third, and perhaps most importantly, if you’ve heard all of this and something inside you has stirred, don’t ignore that discomfort, that feeling that something bigger is happening, that tear that may have fallen, that tightness in your chest.
This is the spirit of God speaking to you. He is calling you. He is telling you that there is still time, that the door is still open, that his coming is certain, but the day has not yet arrived. And that, while life lasts, there is a possibility of reunion with the Father. It does n’t matter what you’ve done, it doesn’t matter how far you’ve strayed, it doesn’t matter how many times you’ve fallen.
Jesus, sitting on that Mount of Olives 2000 years ago, knew that you would hear this message today. He was already waiting for you. And when he returns, and he will return exactly as promised, do you want to be found sleeping or watching? Do you want to be found with the light off or on? The choice is still yours today.
The question that Jesus left hanging in the air that day in Jerusalem is the same one that echoes to this day. In every corner of the world, in every listening heart, be watchful, for you do not know at what hour your Lord will come. May God bless you wherever you are in the world. Comment below where you’re listening from. Share this message with those you love, and may we all persevere together until the end.
Because the prophecy has already begun, and we are part of it.
