The Olivet or Apocalyptic Discourse (Matthew 24-25) is the last of the five discourses of Jesus that are narrated in the Gospel of Matthew. How we have approached these two chapters in the past have been largely built around the expectation of something in the distant future, but it begins with Jesus's prediction that the temple in Jerusalem would be destroyed. Once we get ahold of that, the rest of what is recorded in these chapters makes more sense, and when we read the parables about the importance of being prepared for what is to come, we have a better understanding of what being prepared means. Here's a hint: Jesus isn't introducing anything new here . . .