Verse 29 says, “And immediately after the tribulation of those days, the sun shall be darkened, and the moon shall not give her light, and the stars shall fall from heaven, and the powers of the heavens shall be shaken.” This is a strong proof that the open coming of Christ will be after the great tribulation. This supernatural calamity in heaven will follow the great tribulation at the close of this age. This differs from the fourth trumpet (Rev. 8:12), which will occur very close to the great tribulation.
Verse 30 says, “And the sign of the Son of Man shall appear in heaven, and then all the tribes of the land shall wail, and they shall see the Son of Man coming on the clouds of heaven with power and great glory.” What this sign is we have no way of knowing. However, it must be supernatural and clearly visible (perhaps like the lightning in verse 27), appearing in heaven.
The tribes here refer to the tribes of the nation of Israel, and the land to the holy land. At the Lord’s appearing, all the tribes of Israel will repent and wail (Zech. 12:10-14; Rev. 1:7).
This verse says that the Son of Man will come on the clouds of heaven with power and great glory. By this time the Lord is no longer in the cloud, but on the cloud, appearing to the people on earth. This is the open aspect of His second coming. In Christ’s first coming, His authority was manifested in such things as casting out demons and healing diseases (7:29; 8:8-9; 9:8; 21:23-24) to vindicate Himself as the heavenly King; whereas in His second coming, His power will be exercised to execute God’s judgment, to destroy Antichrist and his armies, and to bind Satan for the establishment of His kingdom on earth.
Verse 31 says, “And He shall send His angels with a loud trumpet, and they shall gather together His elect from the four winds, from the extremities of the heavens to their extremities.” After the great tribulation, at His coming back to earth, the Lord will gather together the scattered Jews from all parts of the earth to the holy land. This will be the fulfillment not only of the Lord’s word in 23:37, but also of God’s promise in the Old Testament.
Matthew 24:4-31 is a sketch of twenty centuries of Jewish history. Like those on the Mount of Olives with the Lord, we have a clear view of this. Therefore, sitting with the greatest Prophet, we know what the situation is. Not even the leaders of nations are as clear as we are. We have seen the events from Christ’s ascension to the end of this age and the events during the end of this age, the period of the great tribulation. At the end of the great tribulation, there will be supernatural calamities, and Christ will appear openly and publicly to the inhabitants of the earth, especially to the Jews in the holy land. Christ will descend where Antichrist and his armies are gathered. Like vultures devouring a corpse, Christ and His overcomers will defeat Antichrist and his army. Then Christ will gather all the remaining Jews into the Messianic kingdom.