End Times Signs As Imminent Judgment
Watch this blog on this week’s episode of The PRODCAST.
SETTING THE STAGE
As Jesus leaves the temple mount for the final time in Matthew, he gives a dramatic prophecy about Jerusalem's coming downfall and destruction. He told the Pharisees that the city would be brought under the entire weight of God's covenantal fury that had been stored up since the murder of Abel (Matthew 23:35). He announced to them that the temple would be left in desolation (Matthew 23:38) and would be torn apart brick by brick on the day of His wrath (Matthew 24:1-2). And all of these things He told His disciples would occur in a single generation (Matthew 24:34), which is about forty years.
Because the disciples were horrified by this assertion, they came to Him on the Mount of Olives asking three specific questions. First, they wanted to know: When would these things occur? Second, they wanted to understand: What would be the sign of Jesus' coming in judgment against the city? Finally, they needed to know if this would be the eschatological event that brought the Jewish age to a close (Matthew 24:3). Thus far, we have been looking at the question of when these things would occur.
Jesus told them that as the days of Jerusalem's destruction drew near, false messiahs would begin to appear all over Judah and would mislead many into following their violent revolutions. He also warned them that the Roman world, which had been categorized by a total cessation of war at that time, would be thrown into temporary chaos as wars and rumors of wars would break out during those forty years. He predicted that the earth itself, throughout the Roman world, would be thrown into chaos as earthquakes and famines would increase during that terrible generation. And, if those things were not bad enough, in the lead-up to AD 70, Christians would experience tremendous tribulations as they would be persecuted violently for their faith.
Today, we continue our look at the signs of the times by looking at several additional pieces of evidence that Jesus gave that would mark this tumultuous period immediately before Jerusalem's fall. He tells us in Matthew 24:10
10 At that time many will fall away and will betray one another and hate one another. 11 Many false prophets will arise and will mislead many. 12 Because lawlessness is increased, most people's love will grow cold. 13 But the one who endures to the end, he will be saved. 14 This Gospel of the Kingdom shall be preached in the whole world as a testimony to all the nations, and then the end will come. - Matthew 24:10-14
Now, a much larger episode will be coming next week that will deal with the increase of lawlessness in Judea, how the love of God among the Jews grew perilously cold as they marched toward their own frigid destruction, and how amid their violent persecutions against the Church, the Gospel really was declared to all the world, if you know what world means. These topics we will cover next week!
This week, I want to set the stage for all of this by going into what a Biblical sign means. This is not something we have covered yet on the show, and it is essential if you are going to understand eschatology in general, but even more so the Bible in particular. Signs are everywhere in God's Word, which means we need to know what to do with them. And you will see today that signs are given by God to specific people, living at a particular time, about events they will soon face in their lifetimes. Signs do not address things that happened in the distant past or the remote future. When God gives a sign in the Bible, it is a warning to the generation for them to repent or face the wrath of God and be destroyed.
That is how signs work in the Bible, and now, we will turn to part 1 as we look at all of this together.
PART 1: SIGNS AND IMMINENT JUDGMENT
Signs in the ancient world function just like they do in the modern world. For instance, when I pull up to a stop sign, I do not think I should have stopped a mile earlier, and I do not think I should stop somewhere miles ahead. Imagine the situation I would be in trying to explain that kind of logic to a statey? I also would not have the gall to say to Mr. Round Hat, "Yeah, I see the sign, but I already know that it does not apply to me but to someone who has not been born yet, who will one day see it, and they will have to deal with it, not me!" That kind of ignorance would not only get me a ticket, but it should earn me a one-way ticket to the nut house. And yet, this is how so many treat signs in the Bible. They are ripped out of their historical setting, where they made good sense and applied haphazardly to our world and time, where they become no better than nonsense.
This is how we get Apache helicopters out of locusts in Revelation. People rip a perfectly good sign - that functions well in its world - up and out of its ancient setting and then apply it to our world as if that is where it belongs. I would create far less confusion if I tore down all of the traffic lights in Manhattan and replaced them with cardboard signs written in Egyptian Hieroglyphics.
When I approach a stop sign, I immediately realize that the sign wants me to make an imminent stop, so that is what I do. I begin to see it from a distance with just enough time to maneuver my car from a brisk 55 MPH to a total cessation of movement. And once I have satisfied the conditions of the stop, I begin moving again in freedom having obeyed. This is precisely the way signs work in the Bible. They are given to the people who see them, sequestering some action of repentance before they can walk away in freedom. If they disobey the sign, they will not get arrested by the state police; they will have the wrath of Almighty God poured out on top of them, so I guess you could say signs are kind of a big deal!
Throughout redemptive history, God has used signs to authenticate His messengers, warn of a coming judgment, and bring deliverance to His people. Simply put, whenever you see signs in the Bible (which include visions, parables, or miracles), you ought to expect the generation that received them will stop and take a moment to consider what God is saying. The signs are a warning. If you keep going, you are going to drive over the edge of the cliff and to your doom. But if you come to a stop and repent of what you were doing, you will be saved! Again, every time you see sign activity in the Bible, these three things are present. Let me show you what I mean.
EXAMPLE 1: THE ARK OF NOAH
Just before God drafted the covenant with Noah, He looked down upon the world He made and was sorry for having made it. This was not because humans messed up the scenery and didn't plant enough palm trees for His liking. God was grieved at the fact that the good world He created had devolved into pure chaos, misery, and death. As you will remember, God hovered over the great floods of creation and brought order to the chaos. Now that the chaos had returned, it was also time for the primordial flood waters to return.
But, just before God wiped out every living and creeping thing on earth, He called a man named Noah and told Him to make an ark out of acacia wood, which was a massive boat. To add a little bit of humor to the story, God did not tell Noah to move to a port city near an ocean and then build the boat. No. He told him to assemble the sea-faring vessel right in the middle of a completely landlocked region, where the only way a ship this size would float is if God unleashed a global flood.
This is why the Ark of Noah was a sign to the people living in that day. It was a sign of warning to all who were participating in active rebellion against God. It was a sign for them to pump the breaks, repent at the preaching of Noah, and return again to their God and maker. And yet, after a hundred years of preaching and building that land-locked behemoth, God called Noah and His family to enter the ark, close the doors, and abandon the world to their own destruction.
For Noah and his family, the ark was a symbol of their salvation. To the rest of the world, it was a sign of their imminent destruction.
THE CONFUSION AT BABEL
Undergirding the remarkable narrative of salvation and covenant blessings, God offered to Abram, and his offspring in Genesis 12-20 is the dark black blot of Babel in Genesis 11. At Babel, humanity united to defy God's law by building a glorified ant hill to celebrate their glory. Instead of spreading out to fill the world with God's glory, they sought to consolidate their own power and "make a name for themselves," which turned out to be a bad idea. In response to their insolence, God performed a dramatic sign: He came down in their midst and confused their languages, accomplishing two critical purposes in redemptive history.
First, it accomplished imminent judgment. When God confused the languages in the plains of Shinar that day, the immediate effect was that everyone on Earth started sounding a bit like Farmer Fran. Everyone was yelling out something, but amid the cacophony of the first multilingual seconds on earth, the once ambitious and prideful people were reduced to helpless babes, crying out with no one to understand their shriekings. By disrupting their communication ability, God dismantled their unified rebellion and ended their collective defiance of His command to fill the earth with worshipers (Genesis 11:8-9). This was their judgment.
But this sign of confused tongues also signaled salvation for the people of God. For, in the aftermath of Babel's judgment, God's plan of salvation came into brighter focus. Turning from the rebellious nations, God chose one man, Abram, through whom He would build a new people for His purposes. Abram's call was an act of grace: while the nations were scattered in judgment, Abram and his family were called into a relationship of blessing with God. The sign of babbling not only executed judgment upon the wicked but also opened up a path of salvation and covenant blessings for the righteous.
God says to Abram in Genesis 12:
"Now the LORD said to Abram, 'Go forth from your country, and from your relatives, and from your father's house, to the land which I will show you; and I will make you a great nation, and I will bless you, and make your name great; and so you shall be a blessing'" (Genesis 12:1-2).
Notice something here. The people who wanted a great name apart from God end up nameless in the narrative. And the man who obeyed God ended up with a very great name. Again, the sign accomplished both salvation and imminent judgment.
THE BIRTH OF ISAAC
After Abram settles in the land, the Lord comes to Him and promises the most remarkable sign. He tells Abram that even though he is long past the years of Cialis, God is going to make his name great by giving him more offspring than he can even count. According to God, Abram will have more kiddos than grains of sand on every seashore and more children than countable stars within the Middle Eastern sky. All of this, God tells him, will come through His nursing home-aged wife, getting pregnant and having a child of promise that they were to name Isaac.
So far, we have seen that signs in the Bible are far from ordinary. In fact, they are nothing short of norm reversing and upheavals of what a person or people thought was standard. Signs involved things like building boats in the middle of a landlocked wilderness, Earth's population instantly being incapable of understanding one another, and a very old woman getting ready to have a baby. In this way, signs defy logic; they are spectacular on purpose, which signals why ignoring them leads to ferocious judgment.
In the case of Sarai having a baby boy as an octogenarian, the same two purposes we have already seen were likewise accomplished. It brought judgment on God's enemies and salvation for His people. Think about it. The promise of Isaac's birth occurred within the same narrative context of God's judgment upon Sodom and Gomorrah, two cities that epitomized human depravity. Their moral decay, rebellion against God's authority, and attempts to violate the angelic visitors reflected a resurgence of the same Nephilim-like behavior that proliferated before the flood. God declared to Abraham, "The outcry of Sodom and Gomorrah is indeed great, and their sin is exceedingly grave. I will go down now and see if they have done entirely according to its outcry, which has come to Me" (Genesis 18:20-21). Just like God did at Babel, He is promising to go down to the wicked city, take an assessment of their depravity, and unleash destruction upon them.
Thus, while living in the land of Canaan, God gave Abraham a multifaceted sign. He brought life to the old man's loins and gave him an heir who would grow up to possess the land and receive the blessings promised to his father. And, for all the enemies in the land, the sign of Isaac's birth was not good news. It was a sign that God would wipe away the sin-loving cities of Sodom and Gomorrah, that He would eventually remove all of the Canaanites from the land, and give His people this land as their possession. In the birth of this one boy, we have both salvation and judgment.
THE COLLAPSE OF THE EGYPTIAN NATION
After Abraham passed away, his grandson and family found themselves fleeing a massive famine and settling in the land of Egypt, which became a temporary cocoon for the newly minted people of Israel. But as the centuries rolled on, that refuge turned into a prison. Four hundred years passed, and the people were fruitful and multiplied greatly across the face of the land (Exodus 1:7). But, as they multiplied, the people of the serpent became hostile to them, making them slaves instead of welcomed guests and setting the stage for God to show up in extraordinary, redemptive, and retributive ways.
From the first lines of the Exodus, the story explodes with a proliferation of signs and wonders, like a fireworks show put on by old Gandalf himself. But these are not just spectacles magnifying the power of Yahweh over Egypt; they are flashing neon signs signaling judgment upon God's enemies and salvation for His children. God is using a megaphone that tumultuous things were coming, upheavals were looming over the horizon, and for the discerning, these signs should have produced repentance and contrition.
For example, the book begins with a subtle sign in the birth of Moses. This little baby, hidden in a miniature ark covered with pitch and floating down the Nile, is a sign that God has brought a new Noah to deliver His people once more. Like the global flood, one group would pass through the waters unscathed, and the other would be drowned in their sins. This baby Moses was a living sign of what God was about to do.
Eighty years later, after thoroughly humbling Moses from a piece of smoky quarts into a lump of pliable clay, God comes to him in the wilderness and speaks to him through a burning bush—a fire that enwraps the tree but doesn't consume it—and God gives Moses signs that he is to perform before the children of Israel. Think about it, God comes to Him as a theophanic sign, giving him the ability to perform signs in order to convince the children of Israel that salvation and judgment were coming. By putting his hand into his cloak and it becoming leprous, and by throwing down his staff and it became a snake, God was not only wowing the crowds like a Chris Angel special but was showing them that an imminent rescue was about to take place. The signs are signs of Israel's rescue and Egypt's doom.
And then, shortly after this, the plagues begin. Ten devastating blows rained down on Egypt, like Muhammed Ali in the eighth round with George Foreman. Each blow was like a hammer shattering their pantheon of false gods and their pride for thinking they could stand against the one true God, Yahweh. Rivers of blood, swarms of frogs, darkness so thick you could feel it—each plague was a vivid sign, an announcement that Egypt's time was finished. Meanwhile, in the land of Goshen, where the Israelites lived, there was peace, tranquility, and blessings. God spared His people, showing that His judgment was precise and His mercy intentional.
The tenth plague was the most severe. God commanded the Israelites to paint the blood of a lamb on their doorframes—which would be a sign to the destroying angel that they were protected by the blood. Yet, this was also a sign for that same angel to go in and devastate the Egyptians who were left naked and uncovered. That night, the angel of death swept through the land, taking every firstborn in the homes without the blood. That night, hundreds of thousands of Egyptians died, which made this one of the darkest nights in all of human history. God gave them the sign. Those who obeyed it were saved. Those who didn't were brought under condemnation.
But, this was not the end of the Exodus encounters. In a way, all of the previous signs were ratcheting up the intensity because they led to this final sign: a final showdown at the Red Sea. Picture it: God allowed the Israelites to draw the Egyptians hundreds of miles outside of their country for a brutal and glorious trap. Pharaoh's army began charging, and the people of Israel seemed to be pinned down in front of a massive body of water. Then, God acted. He parts the sea, turning a death trap into a highway. The Israelites walked across on the firmest dry ground, likely taking note of the coral formations that once were at the bottom of the sea but now littered their newly minted interstate across. As they hustled through the sea, with walls of water towering on either side, the haughty Egyptians followed to their demise. Like a mousetrap set with the finest peanut butter, the Egyptians went in for the bait, the trap sprung, and they all lost their heads. The sea came crashing down, wiping out Pharaoh's army in one final act of judgment against them and as the definitive declaration of God's salvation to Israel. Exodus says, "Thus the LORD saved Israel that day from the hand of the Egyptians, and Israel saw the Egyptians dead on the seashore" (Exodus 14:30). Judgment and salvation are side by side again, following immediately after a God-given sign.
A FEW EXTRA JUST FOR FUN
Before moving on, I want to add a few more examples of this because I want us to see this phenomenon with picture-perfect clarity. Because, when we arrive in the Gospels and see Jesus talking about signs, showcasing signs, and offering signs, then we will know what He is doing. When we see signs in the book of Revelation, we will know what they mean. Those signs were not given so that people twenty centuries later could figure out how they apply to us. The signs in Matthew and Revelation were given to a particular people about specific events happening in their lifetimes that concerned both salvation and judgment. So, to that end, here are just a couple more examples.
Think about Joshua and the events that went on in his day. After Moses died, the people were all wondering whether Yahweh would bring salvation to them by giving them the land and judgment upon the Giants of Canaan by crushing them in defeat. So what does God do? Well, the first thing He does is part another body of water to show them that He is the same powerful and mighty God leading Joshua as He was when He was leading Moses (Joshua 3:14-17). Then came Jericho, a massive fortified city with the descendants of Nephilim as their soldiers, whom God wiped off the map without a single arrow, sword, or javelin. Instead, God gave the city a sign of His presence, the ark of the covenant, and allowed everyone in that city to see that sign by having the Israelites parade it in front of them for seven days. Then, on the seventh day, the judgment that sign signified was chambered and launched, causing the massive walls to be turned into pure rubble and the city burned into ash. Salvation and judgment again.
The same is true when God pushed a pause on the sun, keeping it hanging in the sky until Joshua could win another critical battle. The sun was a sign of God's love and care for the Israelites and yet a sign of His furious anger at those who lived in darkness (Joshua 10:12-14). God was bringing Israel home into a safe land where God would be their God, and they would be His people (Salvation). To do that, God littered the earth and sky with signs signaling calamitous judgment.
Think about Elijah and the prophets of Baal. The sign of fire was given. Salvation came to the repentant, and judgment came to the wicked. Think about the prayer of Hezekiah. Judgment came to the Assyrians. Salvation and blessings came to the Judeans.
What do all these signs have in common? They show that two things are imminent to happen whenever God gives a sign. First, judgment is coming quickly on God's enemies. And salvation is coming quickly for His covenant friends. This does not take thousands of years to pan out because that would make the idea of a sign nonsense. A sign is for the people who see it. And it requires an action of repentance or the consequence of death that is poured out at some point in their own lifetime.
Knowing this, the Judeans of the first century should have understood what Jesus was doing when He came offering up signs through wonders, parables, and prophecies. They should have known… But they missed it like a drunk driver missing the flashing warning signs on the freeway. To that end, let us now turn and see how Jesus came bringing signs and how those signs signaled both salvation and judgment.
PART 2: JESUS' SIGNS AND IMMINENT JUDGMENT
The sheer number of signs in Jesus' ministry wasn't accidental. Jesus, just as it happened before in the Exodus, was heaping up a litany of signs and wonders so that the Jews would let His people go. Because of the signs, some repented and joined them, becoming a mixed multitude in union with Jesus, just like a mixed multitude came out of Egypt. But, many, like Pharoah, refused to see the signs, hardened their hearts, and persisted in their sin. To that generation, Jesus gave signs to damn them. He did not give them to talk about the goings on in a twenty-first-century world but to bring into ruin the first-century rebels of grace.
SIGNS IN JOHN'S GOSPEL
Everywhere Jesus went, He left some people in awe and others in violent opposition of Him based purely on His signs. He was dividing the people into categories. Those predestined for destruction and those set apart for salvation. He was using the signs as His tool to sift them.
Nowhere is this more clear than in the book of John, where Jesus gives seven intentional and explicitly mentioned "signs" of warning against that generation. For instance, the first sign was in Cana, of Galilee, when Jesus turned the water into wine (John 2:1-11). Here, Jesus wasn't merely rescuing a poorly executed party, He was symbolizing the beginning of the messianic age, a new covenant of spiritual riches and joy that was breaking into the world in order to replace the old. That was the salvation and judgment embedded in this sign.
But immediately after this joyful event, the Jews confronted Jesus at the temple in Jerusalem. They were enraged by His cleansing of the temple and demanded, "What sign do You show us as your authority for doing these things?" (John 2:18). Jesus, at this point, gave them the sign to which all other signs were pointing, His resurrection after three days. He promised them that He would tear down the temple in Jerusalem and rebuild it again as a new temple made up of His own body. But they missed it. Instead of clinging to the new temple of Christ's own body, they clung to their Herodian temple until the very end, when it was dismantled by the Romans and has not been rebuilt for more than 2000 years. The second sign He gave was calling them to repentance and salvation before they endured judgment and destruction.
The third sign Jesus performed in front of the Jews took place in Galilee, where Jesus healed the official's Son (John 4:46-54), and the Jews responded much the same way. Jesus rebuked the crowd for their obsession with signs, saying: "Unless you people see signs and wonders, you simply will not believe" (John 4:48). The irony was thick and palpable. Jesus was performing signs for them, but they still wanted more like a child opening up a mountain of presents at Christmas. Their response wasn't fueled by faith or even a doubt that was trying to get to faith. They started from a place of doubt and tried to find a reason why they could not believe Him. This arrogance turned into anger as the Gospel of John continued.
The fourth sign escalated the conflict between Jesus and the Jewish leaders, marking the moment they decided He must die. At the Pool of Bethesda, Jesus healed a paralytic who had suffered for thirty-eight years (John 5:1-15), which just so happens to be the entire length of time that the rebellious generation wandered in the wilderness before completely dying off. So, no matter what happens to this man, he looks to be a representative of Judah, who would also die for their sins within a generation. Nonetheless, this miracle was done right out in the open, on the Sabbath of all days, as a deliberate challenge to the legalism of the Jewish leaders. Instead of marveling at the mercy shown to the man, they sought to kill Jesus for breaking their own human and Talmudic traditions. John records, "For this reason, the Jews were persecuting Jesus, because He was doing these things on the Sabbath" (John 5:16). This healing signified that salvation would come to all who repent, but judgment and death to all who opposed Him. Let me say that even more clearly, by Jesus healing this man, He was alerting the Jews that they were about to die like the wicked wilderness generation of old. By giving a sign miracle, Jesus confirms that imminent salvation was near for the people of God and that judgment was coming to the iniquitous.
The fifth time the word for sign shows up in John is the feeding of the 5,000, which was witnessed by a massive crowd of Jews (John 6:1-14). This symbolized salvation, that Jesus is God in the flesh, the same God who fed the wilderness generation with bread, was now standing right in front of them multiplying a small child's meal. But, just like the wilderness generation of old, they misunderstood the signs and complained about Jesus as their ancestors did about Moses. In their confusion, they tried to make Him a political king (John 6:15) but rejected Him as the King of kings. How do we know they rejected Him? When He rebuked them for seeking bread and politics rather than eternal life, many turned away from Him in disappointment and left His movement forever (John 6:26-27, 6:66). The sign of multiplied bread was salvation for His disciples, but judgment upon the Jews who rejected Him.
The sixth sign, the healing of the man born blind (John 9:1-7), brought the conflict that was simmering to a boiling point. All who love God should have celebrated Jesus' stunning act of mercy. Instead, it exposed the spiritual blindness of the Pharisees. They interrogated the man who was healed, and they cast him out of the synagogue, which was akin to saying we damn you from knowing and being in the presence of God. Their rage boiled over, as John records, "Some of the Pharisees said, 'This man is not from God, because He does not keep the Sabbath'" (John 9:16). Rather than rejoicing in the miracle, they condemned the Healer and hardened their hearts even further.
The seventh and climactic sign was the raising of Lazarus from the dead (John 11:1-44). This miracle was the ultimate proof of Jesus' authority over life and death, a sign that could not be ignored. Yet instead of repenting, the Jewish leaders became consumed with rage, saying in John 11:47-48
"What are we doing? For this man is performing many signs. If we let Him go on like this, all men will believe in Him, and the Romans will come and take away both our place and our nation" (John 11:47-48).
They admitted that Jesus was performing many signs. And they knew that signs meant judgment. They also knew that His signs were signifying a national destruction at the hands of the Romans. But, even though they knew this, they thought they could thwart His signs by killing Him. They thought they could reverse the judgment by burying His body in a hidden tomb. Clearly, they had become just like Pharaoh, who chased the children of Israel to his doom.
John captures this tragic reality well when he says:
"Though He had performed so many signs before them, yet they were not believing in Him" (John 12:37).
The more light they were given, the more they fled back into the darkness, marching like a dumb animal toward the butcher. But, this is not only apparent in the Gospel of John. This "sign" motif and language also show up in the synoptic Gospels.
SIGNS IN THE SYNOPTICS
Despite the overwhelming flood of evidence, the Jewish leaders and people continued to demand more signs from Jesus, exposing the hardness of their hearts. In Matthew 12:38-39, the Pharisees boldly said, "Teacher, we want to see a sign from You." Jesus' response was blistering: "An evil and adulterous generation craves a sign, yet no sign will be given to it but the sign of Jonah." He told them "You do not need another sign… I have given you plenty! What you need is faith"which they did not have. Their refusal to repent wasn't due to a lack of evidence but to rebellion. Jesus pointed to the "sign of Jonah," referring to His death and resurrection, as their final warning before their fate was sealed. And sadly, while the city was filled with hundreds of eyewitnesses to the resurrection, they remained entrenched in their rebellion.
In Matthew 16:1-4, the Pharisees and Sadducees tested Jesus, asking for a sign from heaven. Jesus rebuked them sharply:
"When it is evening, you say, 'It will be fair weather, for the sky is red.' And in the morning, 'There will be a storm today, for the sky is red and threatening.' Do you know how to discern the appearance of the sky, but cannot discern the signs of the times?" - Matthew 16:1-4
They could interpret the weather but were blind to the spiritual storm brewing before their eyes. Jesus refused their demand, calling them "an evil and adulterous generation" and declaring that no sign would be given except the sign of Jonah.
Similarly, in Mark 8:11-12, the Pharisees again demanded a sign to test Him. Deeply grieved by their stubborn unbelief, Jesus declared, "Why does this generation seek a sign? Truly, I say to you, no sign will be given to this generation." Like Pharaoh in Egypt, their repeated rejection of clear evidence revealed a judicial hardening of their hearts. Their rebellion was not out of ignorance but willful rejection of the truth.
Jesus expanded this indictment to the crowds in Luke 11:29-32, where He declared that the people of Nineveh would rise up to condemn this generation. The Ninevites repented at Jonah's preaching (Jonah 3:5-10), yet the Jews, who witnessed far greater signs and wonders, remained unrepentant. He told them that Sodom and Gomorrah would condemn them (Matthew 10:15; 11:23-24), the queen of the south would lord it over them (Matthew 12:42; 1 Kings 10:1-9), and both Tyre and Sidon would rise up in judgment against that generation because they saw the most amazing signs and willingly accepted their national and covenantal destruction (Matthew 11:21-22).
SIGNS ALWAYS POINT TO JUDGMENT
Every time a sign appeared in Scripture, it signaled that judgment was near. The ark signaled the flood was coming. The plagues signaled the death of Egypt was coming. The ark and shouting worship leaders signaled that Jericho was coming under the ban of God's wrath. Each sign in the Bible clearly proclaimed: "Turn back now, before it's too late," and the Jews should have known this. They had the Scriptures. They knew that an increase in signs always preceded catastrophic judgment. Yet when the signs began to multiply during Jesus' ministry, they ignored the warnings, they hardened their hearts, and they killed the Christ to try and stop what He had initiated.
This brings us to Matthew 24, where we have been examining the signs that Jesus gave in that pivotal chapter, and now we know precisely what they mean.
PART 3: MATTHEW 24 SIGNS AND IMMINENT JUDGMENT
At this point in the episode, you should know completely well what a sign means. They are not accidental inclusions in the narrative, they are not incidental details, and they certainly are not mysteries to be untangled by people living thousands of years after they were given. Signs are given to the people they apply to. They are warnings of judgment for rebellion but salvation for obedience. This is precisely why the disciples asked Jesus for a sign in Matthew 24:3: because they intuited that He was speaking about salvation and judgment.
As Jesus departed from the temple, His final words to the Pharisees were: "Your house is being left to you desolate"(Matthew 23:38), which sounds an awful lot like covenant judgment to me. His disciples, shaken by this declaration and marveled at the temple's grandeur, needed to make sure they fully comprehended what He was saying. So, instead of asking Jesus to repeat Himself, they asked for a sign. Why? Because they were not confused about the words He spoke, they were confused about the meaning, and a sign (like a signature on a loan) meant that Jesus was guaranteeing the outcome and placing it within that very generation.
THE SIGNS OF COMING JUDGMENT
After His disciple's question, Jesus did not give them a single sign to hold onto. He gave them a myriad of signs to overwhelmingly convince them that this destruction event was coming in their lifetime. He told them that there would be false messiahs that would come as a sign of national judgment (Matthew 24:5). He told them that wars and rumors of wars would throw the Roman Empire into panic and confusion as a sign of Judah's judgment (Matthew 24:6). He told them famines and earthquakes would shake the Roman world unlike any other period in history as a sign of His impending violence against Jerusalem (Matthew 24:7). He told them they would be persecuted and martyred as a sign that their destruction and great tribulations were nearing (Matthew 24:9).
So far, we have examined one sign after another, showcasing that judgment is coming on that generation. In the weeks ahead, we will look at more, but the point is simple: Matthew 24 and the book of Revelation are not about things that are far off in the future. They give signs of a near-term disaster that was executed in the ancient world. The sooner we realize this, the sooner we can rightly interpret these passages and discover how to live like a Christian in our world. Instead of fearing the future because we think a calamity is just around every corner, we look optimistically toward the future because we know that Christ is reigning and winning, not failing and losing. And it is for that reason that I want to end by making sure you can connect all of this theology to the book of Revelation, which also is a book filled with signs.
PART 4: HOW THIS CONNECTS TO REVELATION
Throughout Scripture, God has used signs—miracles, parables, visions, and wonders—to unleash two obvious outcomes upon the living generation that received the sign. Judgment and salvation. With that, the book of Revelation continues this pattern, giving us the most sign-centric book in all of the Bible, which ought to tell us something. What it does not tell us is that signs and what they mean have changed just because we are in the apocalyptic genre. Just like adding more gas to a fire will amplify the explosion, so too does Revelation add more signs on top of signs to amplify the spoken warnings to the point of screaming! Revelation is God's emphatic, multi-signified warning that disaster is coming to Judah. These people, with whom He has been in covenant since the patriarch Jacob, are about to have their relationship and status undergo a fundamental and forever change. Many of the native-borns will be cut out like a dead olive branch. And many, the Gentiles, will be grafted into the tree by the grace of Jesus Christ. Revelation is about salvation and judgment.
For instance, Revelation 1:1 sets the tone by saying:
"The revelation of Jesus Christ, which God gave Him to show to His bond-servants… and He sent and communicated it [literally, signified it] by His angel."
The Greek word for signs (Simayon) shows up in the first verse of Revelation as a verb (sēmaínō), which means that from the very beginning, God is setting up this book as a book of signs. As we have noted before, these signs are primarily rooted in the Old Testament so that anyone familiar with the books of Genesis through Malachi can discern what John is conveying. Many of the signs, however, also emerge from the first-century context of Roman imperialism and Jewish occupation. This book would have made perfect sense for a scripturally literate Jewish convert to Christ living in the first century and aware of the events unfolding around them. The confusion arises when modern readers impose their own worldview and cultural assumptions on a book that was never intended to be read that way.
This is why John explicitly calls Revelation an apokalypsis—a revelation, not a mystery. Its purpose is not to obscure but to unveil and reveal God's will to its original first-century audience. Though the imagery may feel foreign to us today, it was deeply steeped in its time's cultural, historical, and theological symbols, making its meaning accessible to those for whom it was written. Revelation stands as the final great book of signs, bringing the story of God's covenantal dealings to its crescendo. And with that, I want to close by looking at a few examples of this.
REVELATION: A BOOK OF SIGNS
Revelation abounds with signs, all of which serve the same purposes consistently seen throughout Scripture: to declare judgment upon God's enemies and to proclaim the salvation of His people. In the context of Revelation, these signs specifically highlight the judgment of apostate Israel and the covenant blessings poured out upon the Church, the true people of God.
Let's explore some examples:
The woman clothed with the sun (Revelation 12:1-2) represents Judah, the tribe through whom the Messiah was born. Her crown of twelve stars symbolizes the twelve tribes, and her labor reveals the suffering required to bring the Savior into the world. The male child she gives birth to is Christ, destined to rule all nations with a rod of iron (Psalm 2:9; Revelation 12:5). Yet Judah, represented by this woman, becomes apostate, rejecting her own Messiah and becoming drunk on the blood of the saints (Revelation 17:6). For her covenantal infidelity, she is judged and ultimately destroyed by the very Son she rejected (Matthew 23:37-39). This judgment clears the way for salvation to flow to the Church, now represented as the new bride of Christ, redeemed by His love.
The two witnesses (Revelation 11:3-12) symbolize the faithful testimony of God's Church, proclaiming the truth in the face of persecution in Jerusalem. Their death at the hands of apostate Israel and Roman authorities signifies the violent rejection of God's messengers. However, their resurrection is the "first resurrection" (Revelation 20:5-6), a sign of the life given to all who are in Christ. This signifies the salvation of the Church and the judgment of those who murdered the witnesses. The ascension of the witnesses demonstrates God's ultimate vindication of His people, while fire falls upon their enemies (Revelation 11:5), signaling God's covenantal wrath upon apostate Judah.
The seven plagues (Revelation 15:1-16:21) mirror the judgments of Egypt and the covenantal curses of Deuteronomy 28. Just as the plagues in Egypt were signs of judgment against Pharaoh and salvation for Israel, these plagues fall upon apostate Israel as a sign of her covenantal rebellion. For example, rivers turned to blood (Revelation 16:4-6) recall the first plague of Egypt (Exodus 7:20-21), symbolizing the lifeblood of the land corrupted by their sins. Darkness upon the Kingdom (Revelation 16:10) reflects the ninth Egyptian plague (Exodus 10:21-23), symbolizing spiritual blindness. Hailstones and fire (Revelation 16:21) echo the seventh Egyptian plague (Exodus 9:23-25), representing God's unstoppable judgment. These signs affirm that the covenantal curses of Deuteronomy 28, including famine, pestilence, and destruction, are being poured out upon apostate Israel.
The fall of Babylon (Revelation 18:1-24) is the ultimate sign of judgment upon Jerusalem, which had become the new Babylon through her spiritual adultery and persecution of God's saints. Her destruction in AD 70 marked the end of the Old Covenant order, declared with the words, "Fallen, fallen is Babylon the Great!" (Revelation 18:2). Yet her fall also marked the emergence of the New Jerusalem, the Church, as God's holy dwelling place. This transition from Babylon to the New Jerusalem represents both the judgment upon apostate Israel and the salvation of God's elect.
The rider on the white horse (Revelation 19:11-21) portrays Christ as the victorious King, leading the armies of heaven to execute judgment upon apostate Israel in AD 70. Zechariah prophesied this triumph, foreseeing the Messiah's reign and the cleansing of Jerusalem (Zechariah 14:1-5). The imagery of the rider treading the winepress of God's wrath (Revelation 19:15) ties directly to the judgment upon Jerusalem for her rejection of the Messiah. This event signifies the salvation of the Church, as Christ's victory secures her place as His redeemed bride.
Jerusalem is explicitly depicted as a whore in Revelation 17:1-6, symbolizing her covenantal unfaithfulness. Just as the prophets of the Old Testament condemned Israel for spiritual adultery (e.g., Ezekiel 16, Hosea 1-3), Revelation condemns her for prostituting herself to the nations and shedding the blood of the saints. Her judgment is necessary to usher in the New Covenant reality. She is replaced by the Church, the true bride of Christ, who is purified and made ready through His death, resurrection, and justifying love (Revelation 19:7-8).
The sealing of the 144,000 (Revelation 7:1-8) represents God's protection of His faithful remnant. These are not merely ethnic Jews but all who believe in God, both Jew and Gentile, forming the one people of God throughout all history (Galatians 3:28-29). This sealing ensures their preservation during the judgment upon apostate Israel and signals their inclusion in the New Covenant Church. Following this, the vision of the great multitude (Revelation 7:9-17) celebrates the salvation of people from every nation, tribe, and tongue, fulfilling God's promise to Abraham (Genesis 12:3).
Through these signs, Revelation unfolds the dual message of God's covenantal dealings: the judgment of apostate Israel for her rejection of the Messiah and the salvation of the Church as His eternal bride. Each sign underscores the justice and mercy of God, revealing His sovereign plan to replace the old with the new, ensuring that His Kingdom will reign forever.
NO NEED FOR FUTURE SIGNS
The signs in Revelation are not about distant future tribulations or events in our time; they were given to warn of the imminent destruction of Jerusalem and the Old Covenant order in the first century. These signs, rooted in the prophetic tradition, were fulfilled during the Jewish-Roman War and culminated in the temple's destruction in AD 70. Their purpose was to signal the Old Covenant's conclusion and the New Covenant's establishment, not to forecast repeated or future judgments.
In this final covenant, administered directly by Christ, there is no longer a need for additional signs, wonders, or revelations. The New Covenant is perfect, complete, and sealed by Christ's blood. As Hebrews 1:1-2 declares, "God, after He spoke long ago to the fathers in the prophets in many portions and in many ways, in these last days has spoken to us in His Son." Unlike the covenants that required miraculous validation through signs due to their administration by fallible men, the New Covenant is mediated by Christ Himself and requires no further confirmation.
For those in the Reformed tradition who rightly recognize the cessation of the miraculous gifts, this understanding should naturally extend to the cessation of signs. The signs of Revelation have already been fulfilled, as they pointed to the judgments of God upon apostate Israel and the salvation of His Church. To hold to cessationism while imagining that Revelation's signs speak of future apocalyptic events is inconsistent with both Scripture and sound theology. Just as the judgments of the Old Covenant era have been poured out, the era of revelatory signs has ceased.
Dispensational claims of future covenantal woes and new signs fundamentally misunderstand Revelation's purpose and context. The book is not about endless cycles of judgment but about Christ's victory over His enemies and the establishment of His Kingdom. Its message is one of triumph, growth, and restoration. The conclusion of Revelation is clear:
"The kingdom of the world has become the kingdom of our Lord and of His Christ, and He will reign forever and ever"(Revelation 11:15).
Revelation's signs proclaim the fulfillment of God's covenantal purposes: the judgment of apostate Israel, the salvation of His elect, and the flourishing of His Kingdom under the New Covenant. These signs affirm the sufficiency of Christ's work and the completeness of His Kingdom, leaving no room for future signs, tribulations, or revelations. Instead, they call us to live confidently in the reality of His finished covenant and to focus on advancing His Kingdom through the ordinary means of grace.
Postmillennialism and partial preterism are the only hermeneutical tools that ensure we arrive at the proper understanding of Revelation. These frameworks allow us to see the book as it was intended: a declaration of Christ's triumph, a judgment upon the Old Covenant order, and a vision of the Church's glorious future. Only by adopting these lenses can we rightly interpret Revelation's purpose and live out its implications with confidence and hope.
CONCLUSION
As we wrap up this episode, let's fix our eyes on the hope-filled reality of God's Kingdom. The signs of Scripture, from the ark of Noah to the triumphs of Revelation, have always revealed His sovereign plan to judge His enemies, save His people, and establish His blessings for generations to come. These signs were never random—they pointed to His unfailing faithfulness, culminating in the ministry of Christ and the establishment of His unshakable Kingdom.
Today, we live in the era of the fully established New Covenant. The judgments foretold in Revelation have been poured out, the old has passed away, and Christ reigns victorious. This means we are not waiting for some future apocalypse or living on the edge of despair. Instead, we are standing on the solid ground of an advancing Kingdom that will cover the earth with the knowledge of the Lord as the waters cover the sea.
As we look to the future, we do so with confidence, not gloom. The story of history is not one of retreat or defeat but of triumph in Christ. His Kingdom is expanding, His Word is transforming hearts, and His Church is growing. We are not passengers on a sinking ship but soldiers on an aircraft carrier, launching the Kingdom offensive into every corner of the world. The battle is fierce, but the outcome is inevitable: the Lamb wins.
So, as you go about your week, take heart. Work with joy at the moment, knowing that every effort—whether in your family, your workplace, or your Church—matters in the grand mission of advancing God's Kingdom. Pray boldly, live courageously, and build faithfully, knowing the victory has already been secured.
Until next time, may God bless you richly, fill you with hope, and empower you to live as joyful ambassadors of His victorious Kingdom.
