The Gospel According To MatthewSampel

Future Victory: Matthew 23:1-25:46

This section extends from Matthew 23:1–25:46. In this discourse, Jesus described the future victory of the kingdom of heaven. 

This section begins with announcements of seven woes against Jesus’ opponents in Matthew 23:1-38. This discourse focuses especially on the Pharisees, their false teachings, their abuse of God’s people, and their hypocrisies. 

Near the end of this discourse, Jesus summed up his feelings about Jerusalem in this way in Matthew 23:37-38:

O Jerusalem, Jerusalem, you who kill the prophets and stone those sent to you, how often I have longed to gather your children together, as a hen gathers her chicks under her wings, but you were not willing. Look your house is left to you desolate.

The next section of Jesus’ discourse is often called the Olivet Discourse and it appears in Matthew 24:1–25:46. It’s often called the Olivet Discourse, because Jesus spoke these words to his disciples on the Mount of Olives.

The Olivet Discourse can be divided into three primary sections: In 24:4-28, Jesus described the birth pangs of this strange age in which the kingdom of heaven had come to earth but had not yet been manifested in the fullness of its glory and power. 

In 24:29-31, he spoke of the fullness of the kingdom, foretelling the day when the Son of Man would come on the clouds, and the kingdom of heaven would arrive in all of its power and glory.

Then in 24:32–25:46, Jesus exhorted his people to watch carefully for the coming day of glory because no one knows when it will be.

In this fifth major division of his gospel, Matthew reported that the Jewish leaders rejected Jesus, and even planned to kill him. But Jesus made it clear that all the planning in the world couldn’t stop the future triumph of the kingdom. And history proves that he was right. The Jewish leaders did kill him. But his kingdom has continued to grow throughout the ages. And one day, history will prove the last part right, too. Jesus will come again, with power and great glory, to bring his kingdom in all its fullness, and to reward his faithful people with the kingdom’s ultimate blessings.