Woes against hypocrisy (Matthew 23)

Matthew 23 covers a long speech by Jesus to the crowds in the temple.  Jesus has answered every question that the Pharisees and Sadducees had about paying taxes to Caesar and marriage in the resurrection.

Here, Jesus unleashes in the style of an Old Testament prophet.  He talks about the hypocrisy of the Pharisees emphasizing that they have extra rules in place to obey portions of the law, but neglect the more important parts about justice and faithfulness.



The end of the world (Matthew 24; Mark 13; Luke 21:5-27)
The disciples remark about how beautiful the stones of the temple are.  This prompts Jesus to discuss how one day, all the stones of the temple will be thrown down.

This for the most part happened when Jerusalem is attacked by the Romans.  However, the temple was not completely destroyed as the Western Wall remained.  Otherwise, it was destroyed.

Jesus uses the occasion to discuss his second coming.  There will be wars and famines before that, but people should not be dissuaded as they are the beginning of the "birth pains".

Every now and then, Christians speculate about whether the times are so bad that the end of the world must be near.  Here, Jesus seems to state that this is misguided - there will always be wars, rumors of wars, famines, and so forth.  They have and will continue to recur throughout human history.

At the end of the chapter, Jesus discusses that it will be evident to all when it really is the end of the world.

Jesus also discusses what some consider to be the "Little Apocaplyse".  This refers to the near total destruction of the people in Judea at the hands of the Romans.

There are a lot of other details in the chapter, must of which are vague.  Jesus does emphasize that no one actually knows when all this will happen, not even Jesus himself.

Likewise, Jesus also mentions that "this generation" (NIV) will not pass out until all this happens. I the marginalia, it also translates "generation" as "race", which would mean that humanity will not die out until all things happen.  This would match the context of the next verse which states that heaven and earth may pass away, but his words will not.

We also see the concept "elect" and "chosen" people.  I do not ascribe to the interpretation of the Calvinist beliefs.  I do not think the purpose of these chapters is discuss free will versus predistation.  Rather, these words are used to generally mean the saved or God's people.