Matt. 24:29 (ESV) “…immediately after the tribulation of those days the sun will be darkened, and the moon will not give its light, and the stars will fall from heaven, and the powers of the heavens will be shaken.
Matt. 24:30 (ESV) Then will appear in heaven the sign of the Son of Man, and then all the tribes of the earth will mourn, and they will see the Son of Man coming on the clouds of heaven with power and great glory.
Matt. 24:31 (ESV) And he will send out his angels with a loud trumpet call, and they will gather his elect from the four winds, from one end of heaven to the other.
Matt. 24:32 (ESV) “From the fig tree learn its lesson: as soon as its branch becomes tender and puts out its leaves, you know that summer is near.
Matt 24:33 (ESV) So also, when you see all these things, you know that he is near, at the very gates.
Matt 24:34 (ESV) Truly, I say to you, this generation will not pass away until all these things take place.
Matt 24:35 (ESV) Heaven and earth will pass away, but my words will not pass away.
Matt. 24:36 (ESV) “But concerning that day and hour no one knows, not even the angels of heaven, nor the Son, but the Father only.
Matt 24:37 (ESV) For as were the days of Noah, so will be the coming of the Son of Man.
Matt 24:38 (ESV) For as in those days before the flood they were eating and drinking, marrying and giving in marriage, until the day when Noah entered the ark,
Matt 24:39 (ESV) and they were unaware until the flood came and swept them all away, so will be the coming of the Son of Man.
Matt 24:40 (ESV) Then two men will be in the field; one will be taken and one left.
Matt 24:41 (ESV) Two women will be grinding at the mill; one will be taken and one left.
Matt 24:42 (ESV) Therefore, stay awake, for you do not know on what day your Lord is coming.
Matt 24:43 (ESV) But know this, that if the master of the house had known in what part of the night the thief was coming, he would have stayed awake and would not have let his house be broken into.
Matt 24:44 (ESV) Therefore you also must be ready, for the Son of Man is coming at an hour you do not expect.
During Advent we anticipate the arrival of the Messiah on two levels. First, we seek to place ourselves in the historical shoes of Israel as they waited for the arrival of the Messiah. When we sing songs like “O Come, O Come, Emmanuel” with its lyrics about “ransoming captive Israel” who “mourns in lonely exile here”, we are remembering our forebears as they awaited the arrival of God’s Anointed One on what is for us, Christmas Day.
On the second level, we anticipate Christ’s second coming, what the New Testament writers refer to as Jesus’ parousia; his “arrival” or “coming”. That word, parousia, is the Greek word that gets translated to Adventus in Latin. That’s the original word for Advent, and it’s a word that will be important for a lot of what we look at today.
Today’s Gospel passage from Matthew Ch 24, verses 29-44, is complicated as it jumps around in terms of the timeframes Jesus is speaking about. It is found on page _____________ of your pew Bibles. I think it would be very helpful to have it in front of you as we go through the passage this morning.
Just before the beginning of this passage, Jesus discussed the nature of God’s coming judgment against Israel. Israel was being judged for its repeated failure to live as the people of God in the world.
Our passage this morning is talking about that, but also about the Final Judgment. Jesus splits his judgments into two parts throughout this whole chapter, and sometimes in the same cluster of verses like we have here. He speaks of God’s coming judgment against Israel within these people’s lifetime, as in the destruction of the Temple in 70AD. But the final arrival of the Messiah, Jesus speaks of as happening later in time. And, unlike the destruction of the Temple, which Jesus says will happen before all of the disciples pass away, Jesus says God the Father is the only only one knows when this final coming, this parousia, this Second Advent, will be.
So, that’s a good background for us to wade into this morning’s Gospel reading. Let’s start with verses 29-31, “Immediately after the tribulation of those days the sun will be darkened, and the moon will not give its light, and the stars will fall from heaven, and the powers of the heavens will be shaken. Then will appear in heaven the sign of the Son of Man, and then all the tribes of the earth will mourn, and they will see the Son of Man coming on the clouds of heaven with power and great glory. And he will send out his angels with a loud trumpet call, and they will gather his elect from the four winds, from one end of heaven to the other.” (Matthew 24:29–31 ESV)
Now, some commentators say these verses are referring to the period of the destruction of the Temple, as symbolic for the Gospel going into all the world, Satan’s forces being trampled under foot, and Jesus having his vindication. While we can say that many of those things happened in 70AD, or rather it is better to say, they began at that time, I, along with many other commentators believe Jesus is talking about the Second Advent, or, The Second Coming, or The End here. These verses are part of the splits I mentioned earlier. Jesus jumps from the time of the disciples to the time of the future, back to the time of the disciples. It is often confusing.
The language Jesus uses in 29-31 seems to parallel other passages in Matthew’s Gospel (16:27, 25:31), 1 Corinthians (15:52) and 1 Thessalians (4:14-17). It just makes more sense that Jesus is talking about his second coming here.
For those of you that might be hearing “rapture” in this text, we’ll cover that a little later.
Next, we come to the Lesson of the Fig Tree in verses 32 and 34, “‘From the fig tree learn its lesson: as soon as its branch becomes tender and puts out its leaves, you know that summer is near. So also, when you see all these things, you know that he is near, at the very gates. Truly, I say to you, this generation will not pass away until all these things take place. Heaven and earth will pass away, but my words will not pass away.’” (Matthew 24:32–35 ESV)
At first glance, this is a parable about about paying attention to the signs and being ready for Christ’s return. That’s solid wisdom. In this regard, it is not unlike the sermon we heard back in August on Luke 12, where Jesus said to the weather gazers regarding paying attention to the times, “When you see a cloud rising in the west, you say at once, ‘A shower is coming.’ And so it happens. And when you see the south wind blowing, you say, ‘There will be scorching heat,’ and it happens. You hypocrites! You know how to interpret the appearance of earth and sky, but why do you not know how to interpret the present time?” (Luke 12:54–56 ESV)
But, here, I think we have one of those “jumps” in verse 34, “…this generation will not pass away until all these things take place.” (Matthew 24:34 ESV) It seems most obvious that Jesus is speaking of the people he is speaking directly to when he refers to “this generation”, that the disciples would not pass away until “these things” happen.
I’m also going to suggest that “these things” in verse 34 are the beginning of the “birth pains” that Jesus mentions in 24:8, which was not part of our reading this morning, but refers to things such as wars and rumors of wars, kingdoms against kingdoms, famines, and earthquakes, where Jesus says, “All these are the beginning of the birth pains.” I would also count the destruction of the Temple in 70AD as “these things” and as an example of “birth pains”.
Sometimes the lectionary readings force us out of context if we are not paying attention to the verses surrounding our reading. But, remember the three rules for reading Scripture: 1) context, 2) context, and 3) context. Never isolate yourself to a single passage. Zoom out to the to the chapter, to the whole of the book or letter, and ultimately to the whole of Scripture. A lot of questions are answered when we take the time to zoom out a little. That’s how, and why, I’m connecting verse 34 to verse 8.
In verses 36-44, Jesus is jumping to the future again. These are the verses that say that no one, not Jesus himself, nor the angels, know when The End will be, but only the Father. He goes on to say some will be taken, and some will be left. And, some of us are hearing “Rapture”. Well, if you define rapture as Jesus taking his own people, then that’s great. If you hear it and are trying to figure out exactly what time that happens in the grand timeline of God, I want to caution you.
I’m not really equipped to cover rapture-theology, which requires an understanding of premillennial dispensationalism. I’ve done my best to forget it over the years. If you are not sure what I mean by premillennial dispensationalism, think of the Left Behind series. It articulates that position well. And, it has become mainstream over the last 120 years or so, and has worked its way into a lot of study Bibles. But note, it never existed before then. That does not make it wrong, but the burden of proof is on those who uphold it.
I would love to be wrong, and the idea of being raptured out of here before the going gets tough is very appealing, I just don’t see anywhere in Scripture where we can peg it on a timeline. Just simply, that at some point before the earth is purged with the refiner’s fire, God plans to call the believers up into the air to be with him.
So, it is probably a good idea for us to set timelines aside and limit ourselves to the points that Jesus teaches us here in this passage and in many other places:
- Christ will come again.
- His coming will be swift and surprising.
- He will divide people into two groups (taken/left behind).
- So, we better be ready.
That is the point; we better be ready. And, if we focus on being ready, we can trust Jesus to get The End right.
So, that’s why I really want to dig into verse 38 for the rest of our time. We read, “For as in those days before the flood they were eating and drinking, marrying and giving in marriage, until the day when Noah entered the ark, and they were unaware until the flood came and swept them all away, so will be the coming of the Son of Man.” (Matthew 24:38–39 ESV) In other words, it looked like any other day in Noah’s time…until it started to rain.
What brought on the rain and the flood in Noah’s time? “The LORD saw that the wickedness of man was great in the earth, and that every intention of the thoughts of his heart was only evil continually.” (Genesis 6:5 ESV) That was the norm.
Even though all people have sinned and do sin (Romans 3:23), only God determines when an entire society or nation has violated His laws to a critical point where He will tolerate no more. It was in God’s perfect judgment that He destroyed the world during the days of Noah, allowing it to serve as an example for all mankind to learn from. He promised never to destroy the earth again through a flood, but would wait until The End. It is mercy that he has waited so long, so that more and more would come to faith in Jesus Christ. Remember what Peter writes, “The Lord is not slow to fulfill his promise as some count slowness, but is patient toward you, not wishing that any should perish, but that all should reach repentance.” (2 Peter 3:9 ESV) The slowness is indeed mercy for the world.
However, a risk that people take when rejecting God’s call to repentance over time is that their hearts can become hardened, and their consciences seared. Paul describes it like this in Romans 2:5-6, “But because of your hard and impenitent heart you are storing up wrath for yourself on the day of wrath when God’s righteous judgment will be revealed. He will render to each one according to his works:” (Romans 2:5–6 ESV)
The first time God brought His judgment on the earth, it was by a great flood. The next time God punishes the whole earth, it will be at Christ’s return, when He will, “render his anger in fury, and his rebuke with flames of fire. For by fire will the LORD enter into judgment, and by his sword, with all flesh; and those slain by the LORD shall be many.” (Isaiah 66:15–16 ESV)
Noah was mocked and ridiculed for preaching righteousness for all the years he built the ark. (2 Peter 2:5) And, Peter tells us that in the end, just prior to Christ’s return, people will also ignore warnings to repent, saying, “…scoffers will come in the last days…following their own sinful desires. They will say, ‘Where is the promise of his coming? For ever since the fathers fell asleep, all things are continuing as they were from the beginning of creation.’” (2 Peter 3:3–4 ESV)
In other words, people are going to keep doing what they’ve always done, until, as the angels told the disciples in Acts 1:9:-11, “This Jesus, who was taken up from you into heaven, will come in the same way as you saw him go into heaven.” (Acts 1:11 ESV) Jesus is going to be here like a thief in the night…suddenly, just like when it started to rain in the time of Noah. And, I have to say, as a Watcher on the Wall, it looks a lot like rain out there right now.
And, the world is sticking its head in the sand. They say, “Everything is fine. Everything normal. Let’s get on with eating and drinking. Let’s drop $10,000 on a Disney family vacation. Let’s tear down our barns and build bigger ones. We only life once, right? Let’s eat, drink and be merry, for tomorrow we die.”
That’s how the world handles the Second Advent…and the rain will assuredly come. To the world, we would say, “Repent of your sins, and believe on the Lord Jesus Christ for your forgiveness. Today is the day of salvation. Tick Tock.” If you are in that camp today and have come to realize this is something you must do, please see me, our Deacon, or one of our Elders. We would love to help you connect with Jesus. Please, don’t wait.
For us as believers, this Gospel lesson calls for readiness. But, it doesn’t really tell us how to get ready. So, what are we, the children of God, supposed to do? How do we prepare for this Second Advent?
In the next chapter, Jesus gives us some direction. First, the Parable of the Talents (25:14-30), tells us to use our God-given resources (time, talent, treasure) for the furthering of the Kingdom. Second, Jesus says that feeding the hungry, giving drink to the thirsty, welcoming the stranger, clothing the naked, and visiting the prisoner are activities that will be considered as if we had done them for Christ himself (25:31-46). The first one is being “ready” toward God. The second is being “ready” toward our neighbor.
I’m sure you can hear the parallels with Jesus’ answer to the lawyer who asked, “Teacher, which commandment in the law is the greatest?” Jesus gave a twofold answer, “You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind. This is the great and first commandment. And a second is like it: You shall love your neighbor as yourself. On these two commandments depend all the Law and the Prophets.” (Matthew 22:36–40 ESV) We actually recite this as the Summary of the Law in our worship service every Sunday.
So we can be ready for Christ’s second coming by loving God and loving our neighbors. While that is our job description all year, Advent, like Lent, is a really good time to take in some personal reflection…to take an inventory if you will. It is a really good idea to say “no” to some of the busyness of this season to recoup the time to spend in self-reflection, asking things like:
- Is everything in order?
- What needs to be let go of?
- What needs to be taken on?
- What sins need to be addressed?
- Where might I need some serious healing to move on with my maturity in Christ?
- For what am I grateful?
- With whom do I need to make peace?
- Who needs my forgiveness?
- Who do I need to seek forgiveness from?
- What’s stopping me?
May this Advent be a time of renewal for each of us; a time where we draw closer to God, reclaim our priorities, and a time where we find clarity of personal mission and calling. Remember, Jesus asked, “…when the Son of Man comes, will he find faith on earth?” (Luke 18:8 ESV) May he find us all active in faith and about our Father’s business when he returns.
Let’s pray…