Matthew 24 and 25 are the only chapters in the four gospels that receive systematic commentary by Swedenborg. That makes them really interesting, because we get a glimpse of how to look for the inner meaning using methods like the ones he used to study Genesis, Exodus, and Revelation.

We find this commentary deep in the middle of "Arcana Coelestia". For chapter 24, it starts in Arcana Coelestia 3353, (and continues in 3487-3489, 3650-3655, 3750-3757, 3897-3900, 4056-4060, 4229-4335, 4422-4424). Here's an excerpt from no. 3353:

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"Here first let the... words be explained which appear in Matthew [24:3-8].... Those who confine themselves to the sense of the letter cannot know whether these words and those that follow in this chapter refer to the destruction of Jerusalem and the dispersion of the Jews, or whether they refer to the end of days which is called the Last Judgement. But those admitted into the internal sense see clearly that the end of the Church is being referred to, this end being that which here and in other places is called 'the coming of the Lord' and 'the close of the age'. And inasmuch as the end of the Church is meant one is able to see that all these statements made by the Lord mean such things as have to do with the Church. But their overall meaning may be seen from the individual meaning below which each of them has in the internal sense.

Many will come in My name, saying, I am the Christ; and they will lead many astray. 'Name' here does not mean name, nor 'the Christ' the Christ, but 'name' means that by which the Lord is worshipped, 2724, 3006, while 'the Christ' means truth itself, 3009, 3010. Thus the meaning is that people will come who say that this is the sum and substance of faith, that is, it is the truth, when in fact it is neither the sum and substance of faith, nor the truth, but falsity.

They will hear of wars and rumours of wars means that arguments and disagreements over truths will arise which are wars in the spiritual sense.

Nation will be roused against nation and kingdom against kingdom means that evil will conflict with evil, and falsity with falsity, 'nation' meaning good, but in the contrary sense evil, see 1259, 1260, 1416, 1849, and 'kingdom' meaning truth, but in the contrary sense falsity, 1672, 2547. And there will be famines, and plagues, and earthquakes in various places means that no cognitions of good and truth will exist any more, and thus that the state of the Church is altered, meant by 'an earthquake'.'

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That's how Swedenborg described the inner meaning. Not surprisingly, it's pretty consistent with his exegesis of other books. It's interesting to see it applied to the Gospels, where often the literal meaning seems easier to apply to our lives than the stories of the Old Testament.

Next, we'll append the commentary on this chapter that Rev. John Clowes wrote back in the 1850's:

Verses 1, 2. The Lord predicts the vastation and destruction of the church.

Verses 3, 4. And from His Divine Love teaches, that the understanding ought to be opened to the light of truth, to prevent its being misled by falsities.

Verse 5. Because those are about to come who will say that this is of faith, or this is truth, when yet it is neither of faith nor is it truth, but what is false.

Verse 6. Debates also and disputes will exist concerning truths.

Verse 7. And the evil is about to fight against good, and the false against truth, and there will no longer be any knowledge of what is good and true, but perversion instead thereof, whereby the state of the church will be changed.

Verse 8. That this is the first state of the perversion of the church.

Verse 9. That the second state is when good and truth are about to perish, first by perversion, next by denial, and then by contempt for, and aversion from, all things which are of good and truth.

Verse 10. That hence will come enmities against the Lord's Divine Humanity, and likewise against all truth and good.

Verse 11. Also false doctrines and derivations thence.

Verse 12. And with faith will expire charity, according to the falsities of faith.

Verse 13. But they who are in charity, and do not suffer themselves to be seduced, will be saved.

Verse 14. And these things will first be made known in the Christian world, that none may pretend that they were ignorant, and then will be the consummation.

Verse 15. And when such things are observed, which had been predicted concerning vastation as to all things that are of good and truth, they ought to be carefully attended to, especially by those who are in love and faith.

Verse 16. Who, on such occasion, ought not to look elsewhere than to the Lord, thus to love to Him and charity towards the neighbour.

Verse 17. And they who are in the good of charity, ought not to take themselves thence to those things which are of the doctrines of faith.

Verse 18. And they who are in the good of truth, should not take themselves from its good to the doctrines of truth.

Verse 19. For they who are imbued with the good of love to the Lord, and with the good of innocence, will then be in danger of profaning those goods, and thus of eternal damnation.

Verse 20. They, therefore, who are principled in good and truth, ought to take heed lest a removal from those principles should be made precipitately in a state of too much cold arising from self-love, and in a state of too much heat arising from a holy external, concealing inwardly the loves of self and of the world.

Verse 21. For on that occasion will be the highest degree of perversion and vastation of the church as to good and truth, which is profanation.

Verse 22. So that for the salvation of those who are in the life of good, it will be necessary that they who are of the church should be removed from interior goods and truths to exterior.

Verses 23, 24. And the doctrine of those who are in a holy external principle, but in a profane internal, is to be guarded against, because it abounds with falsities.

Verse 24, latter part. Which falsities are supported by confirmations and persuasions grounded in external appearances and fallacies, whereby the simple suffer themselves to be seduced, but against which they are guarded who are in the life of good and truth.

Verse 25. Therefore there is need of prudence and caution.

Verse 26. Since they are not to be believed either as to what they speak about truth, or what they speak about good.

Verse 27. For as the lightning is instantly dissipated, so the internal worship of the Lord will at that time be dissipated also.

Verse 28. And confirmations of what is false will be multiplied by reasonings in the vastated church.

Verse 29. And where there is no longer any faith remaining, all love to the Lord and charity towards the neighbour will disappear, and the knowledges of good and truth will perish, and thus the foundations of the church will be removed.

Verse 30. And then shall be the appearing of Truth Divine, and all who are in the good of love and the truth of faith will be in grief, and then shall be revealed the Word as to its internal sense, in which the Lord is.

Verse 31. And then shall be election by the influx of holy good and truth from the Lord by the angels, and thus the establishment of a new church.

Verse 32. And when this new church is creating by the Lord, then first of all appears the good of the natural principle with its affections and truths.

Verse 33. And when all the things above spoken of appear, then will be the consummation of the church, that is the last judgement and coming of the Lord, consequently then the old church will be rejected, and the new established.

Verse 34. And the Jewish nation in the mean time will not be extirpated like other nations.

Verse 35. And the internals and externals of the former church will perish, but the Word of the Lord will remain.

Verse 36. And the state of the church at that time, as to goods and truths, will not appear to anyone, neither in earth nor in heaven, but to the Lord alone.

Verse 37. But the state of the vastation of those who are of the church will resemble that of the first or most ancient church, the consummation of whose age, or whose last judgement, is described by a flood.

Verse 38, 39. For they will appropriate evil and the false, and will conjoin those principles in themselves, and will not know that they are inundated by them, because they will be ignorant what the good of love to the Lord is, and the good of charity towards the neighbour, also what the truth of faith is, therefore they will not receive the Divine Truth.

Verse 40. Nevertheless they within the church, who are in good, will be saved, and they within the church, who are in evil, will be damned.

Verse 41. And they within the church who are in truth, that is, in the affection thereof from good, will be saved, and they within the church who are in truth that is in the affection thereof from evil, will be damned.

Verses 42, 43, 44. Therefore man ought to procure to himself life from the Lord, which is spiritual life, because he is in ignorance what the state of his life is, which is to remain to eternity.

Verse 45. And for this purpose he should make enquiry concerning the principles of heavenly good and truth, by which the natural man is restored to order, and made receptive of heavenly life.

Verses 46, 47. Until he discovers that those principles are in conjunction with the Lord, and have thence dominion over all inferior principles.

Verses 48, 49, 50, 51. And that if the natural man through unbelief perverts those principles, and appropriates to himself evils and falsities, he will then know nothing of the interior state of his own life, but will be separated from all the goods and truths of heaven, and will have his lot with those who outwardly appear in truth as to doctrine, and in good as to life, but inwardly believe nothing of truth, and will nothing of good, whose state thereof in the other life is most lamentable, from the distraction between evils and goods, and the collision of falsities with truths.

1807. 'And he said, Look, now, towards heaven' means a representation of the Lord's kingdom in a mental view of the universe. This is clear from the meaning of 'heaven'. In the internal sense of the Word 'heaven' does not mean the sky that is seen with the eyes but the Lord's kingdom in general and in particular. When a person who regards internal things from external sees the sky he does not think at all of the starry sky but of the angelic heaven. And when he sees the sun, he does not think about the sun but about the Lord's being the Sun of heaven. The same applies when he sees the moon, and also the stars. And so when he sees the boundlessness of the sky he does not think about the boundlessness of this but about the Lord's boundless and infinite power. And the same goes for everything else he sees, for there is nothing that is not representative.

[2] It is the same with the things belonging to the earth. When, for example, such a person sees the dawning of the day he does not think of the dawn but of the rise of all things from the Lord, and of advancement into the daylight of wisdom. Similarly when he sees cultivated gardens, trees, and flowers, his eye is not fixed on any tree and on its blossom, leaf, and fruit, but on the heavenly things which these represent. Nor is it fixed on any flower and its beauty and loveliness but on those things which these represent in the next life. For not one thing of beauty and delight ever exists in the sky above or on earth beneath that is not in some respect representative of the Lord's kingdom; see what has been stated in 1632. Such is the 'looking towards heaven' which means a representation of the Lord's kingdom in a mental view of the universe.

[3] The reason why every single thing in the sky above and on the earth beneath is representative is that it has come into being, and is constantly coming into being, that is, is kept in being, from the influx of the Lord through heaven. It is as it is with the human body, which comes into being and is kept in being by means of its soul, for which reason every single thing in the body is representative of the soul. Inherent in the soul there are use and end in view, but in the body the accomplishment of these. All effects, without exception, are in the same way representatives of the uses which are the causes behind those effects, while the uses are representative of the ends which constitute first beginnings.

[4] People whose concern is for Divine ideas never dwell on the objects of external sight, but from and in those objects they are continually seeing internal things. The most internal things of all are those that constitute the Lord's kingdom, and thus are those which consist in the greatest of all ends. It is similar with the Word of the Lord. The person whose concern is for Divine ideas never regards the Word of the Lord from the letter, but regards the letter and the literal sense as that which represents and means the celestial and spiritual things of the Church and of the Lord's kingdom. To that person the literal sense exists solely as the means which enable him to think about these. Such was the nature of the Lord's sight.