When Harold Camping was a radio evangelist in the 1990s and early 2000s, he predicted, famously, that Jesus would rapture the church on May 21st, 2011, and that the world would end on October 21st that same year. Those predictions got a lot of attention. And he made a good bit of money off the books and TV shows that he produced based on that subject. And yet, here we are, still waiting. Now, many of us, of course, roll our eyes and grin at each other when we hear those kind of predictions. And we think, well, people ought to know better. Surely people know better than that, right? And yet still, we have a fascination with the end, and maybe a fear of it in our most candid moments, hopefully an anticipation of it. But inside, we would really like to know how it will all turn out. And we want to know when it will all turn out. because knowledge is power, and we like power. We like to feel that we can control at least a little something about the future. It makes us feel better informed, maybe even a little more secure if we can connect current events to biblical prophecy. And the more clearly we can do that, the more special we feel, the more insightful we feel, the more perhaps relevant we feel. We don't even have to go as far as herald camping. Many of us have heard Christian preachers talk as if we would hasten the Lord's return if we just finish the Great Commission quicker. Ever hear that? Let's put our nose to the evangelistic grindstone. Let's get her done so Jesus can finally come back. He's waiting on us to finish our job. So get to it. We hear that sometimes. This morning, we come to Matthew 24, which scholars call the Olivet Discourse, because Jesus is sitting on the Mount of Olives as he delivers this sermon, just after leaving the temple for the last time. Very suggestive. And here, among other things, Jesus tells us, no one can know the day or hour of his return. No one. And it is precisely our ignorance of the future that drives our faithfulness in the present. You don't know. I don't know. Therefore, Jesus says, be faithful. All of your life. Because you don't know. Now listen. This is Matthew 24. A lot of Christians disagree on how to understand Matthew 24. I'm going to preach it the way I understand it. You may disagree with the way I preach it, but I hope you will listen with an open mind, and I hope that by the end of our time together this morning, what you will take away is, I need to be faithful. I need to be faithful all the time. I need to serve Christ. I need to be the good servant, not the wicked servant. And I need to know less about the future and more about what it means to be faithful right now. So if you would, please stand with me together as I read aloud God's word from Matthew 24 all the way to the end of the chapter, from the beginning all the way to the end. Jesus left the temple and was going away when his disciples came to point out to him the buildings of the temple. But he answered them, You see all these things, do you not? Truly, I say to you, there will not be left here one stone upon another that will not be thrown down. As he sat on the Mount of Olives, the disciples came to him privately saying, Tell us, when will these things be? And what will be the sign of your coming in the end of the age? And Jesus answered them, see that no one leads you astray, for many will come in my name saying, I am the Christ. And they will lead many astray. And you will hear of wars and rumors of wars. See that you are not alarmed, for this must take place. But the end is not yet. For nation will rise against nation, kingdom against kingdom, and there will be famines and earthquakes in various places. All these things are but the beginning of the birth pains. Then they will deliver you up to tribulation and put you to death, and you will be hated by all nations for my name's sake. And then many will fall away and betray one another and hate one another, and many false prophets will arise and lead many astray. And because lawlessness will be increased, the love of many will grow cold. but the one who endures to the end will be saved. And this gospel of the kingdom will be proclaimed throughout the whole world as a testimony to all nations, and then the end will come. So when you see the abomination of desolation spoken of by the prophet Daniel standing in the holy place, let the reader understand. Then let those who are in Judea flee to the mountains. Let the one who is on the housetop not go down to take what is in his house, and let the one who is in the field not turn back to take his cloak. And alas for women who are pregnant, and for those who are nursing infants in those days, pray that your flight might not be in winter or on a Sabbath, for then there will be great tribulation, such as has not been from the beginning of the world until now, no, and never will be. And if those days had not been cut short, no human being would be saved. But for the sake of the elect, those days will be cut short. Then if anyone says to you, look, here is the Christ, or there he is, do not believe it. For false Christs and false prophets will arise and perform great signs and wonders so as to lead astray, if possible, even the elect. See, I have told you beforehand. So if they say to you, look, he is in the wilderness, do not go out. And if they say, look, he's in the inner rooms, do not believe it. For as the lightning comes from the East and shines as far as the West, so will be the coming of the Son of Man. Wherever the corpse is, there the vultures will gather. Immediately after the tribulation of those days, the sun will be darkened, 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. 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. But concerning that day and hour, No one knows. Not even the angels of heaven, nor the son, but the father only. For as were the days of Noah, so will be the coming of the son of man. 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. Then two men will be in the field. One will be taken and one left. Two women will be grinding at the mill. One will be taken and one left. Therefore, stay awake, for you do not know on what day your Lord is coming. 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 have not let his house be broken into. Therefore, you also must be ready, for the Son of Man is coming at an hour you do not expect. Who then is the faithful and wise servant whom his master has set over his household to give them their food at the proper time? Blessed is that servant whom his master will find so doing when he comes. Truly I say to you, he will set him over all his possessions. But if that wicked servant says to himself, my master is delayed and begins to beat his fellow servants and eats and drinks with drunkards, the master of that servant will come on a day when he does not expect him and at an hour that he does not know and will cut him in pieces and put him with the hypocrites in that place, there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth. Please be seated. a very very simple outline this morning two main points two main points Jesus will steady us Matthew 24 1 through 35 Jesus will steady us and Matthew 24 36 to the end of the chapter Jesus will surprise us so first Jesus will study us Matthew 24 1 through 35 the whole discourse is is occasioned by Jesus predicting the temple's destruction at the very end of Matthew 23. In 2338, Jesus told the Pharisees publicly in front of his disciples, see, your house is left to you desolate. It's abandoned. I'm leaving. God is leaving. Uninhabited. And right after that, The disciples stroll outside, apparently to marvel at the temple's curb appeal. Look at these buildings. It was said by one of the old rabbis, you have not seen a beautiful building until you have seen Herod's temple. This place was immaculate. Huge, beautiful. So Jesus clears it up for them because he thinks they're missing the point. And he says flat out, probably to their great disappointment and chagrin and confusion, there will not be left here one stone upon another that will not be thrown down. Hey, guys, I don't know what you're marveling at. So the disciples ask, naturally, when that's going to happen? When is the temple going to be destroyed? When are all these stones going to be toppled? When is this building going to be torn down? And they assume that the temple's destruction will immediately usher in the end of the age. Look at how they phrase The question, tell us, when will these things be and what will be the sign of your coming in the end of the age? If the temple is going down, I can't see how everything else isn't going to go down with it. So when is all this stuff going to happen? But Jesus treats those questions separately. And so I'm going to treat them separately in the sermon. In verses 4 to 35, he answers the question about the temple's destruction. And in verses 36 to 51, he answers the question about the end of the age. That doesn't mean that nothing in verses 4 to 35 has anything to do with the end of time. But it does mean that the main subject that Jesus is talking about in verses 4 to 35 is the destruction of the temple. Will some of those same kind of things happen at the end of time? Yes, of course they will. They're already happening. Is that exactly what he's talking about there? No. He's talking about the destruction of the temple. And we'll walk through the text and see why. So in verses 4 through 14, Jesus says, it's going to be easy for you to think that the end of the temple, and therefore the end of the age, is near when verses 1 through 6 happen. When you see verses 1 through 6 happen, it's going to be easy to think, man, this is the end. This is it. So he specifically says in verse 6 that when you see all these happen, all these things happen, false Christ, wars, rumors of wars, the end is not yet. Not yet. He's separating all these bad things from both the destruction of the temple, their first question, and from the end of the age, their second question. The end of the temple is not yet, and therefore the end of the world is not yet either. When you see all these things happen, sit tight. As bad as it will get for Christians between Jesus' death and the temple's destruction, all those things will just be the beginning of birth pangs. But we've got a long way to go between then and the end of the temple, and especially the end of the world. Now, of course, we have earthquakes and famines today, no question. And those are signs of God's judgment that's coming. We learned that from Luke 13. 1 through 5, where Jesus says natural and moral disasters that happen to others are warnings that I myself need to repent. Some other city doesn't get destroyed because they're more wicked than I am. Some other city gets destroyed as a warning to Paul that Paul needs to repent or that kind of destruction is going to come on Paul. Christians are being martyred all over the world today, and we ourselves are hated by some people just because we're Christians. All of that is true. False prophets are still running around saying stupid, sinful, sacrilegious things. Turn on your television. Lawlessness is increasing today. professing Christians are sadly betraying each other still today? Are all of those things part of the suffering that Jesus tells us in other parts of Scripture to expect today? Yes, definitely. Is that mainly what Jesus is referring to here, that all these things are happening in our day? Probably not. Here, Jesus is answering the disciples' first question about when the temple is going to be destroyed. And he says, ironically, that none of the suffering will signify either the end of the temple or the consummation of the ages. All these things will happen to you, and none of it spells the end of the temple or the end of the world. This must take place, but the end is not yet. These are not signs that the end is near. They are signs that the end is not near. And yet, there's still lots of application for us as Christians here in verses 4 to 14. For starters, Jesus says these bad things must happen. Must. Must? Whose must is that? It's God's. That is a statement of God's sovereignty over the unjust suffering that all true Christians experience. Christian, maybe you've been betrayed by other Christians, like these Christians were. Maybe you've taken it on the chin at work for being loyal to Jesus. Maybe people hate you at school, at work, at home, online, in a chat room somewhere, getting torn down, because you love and obey Jesus and because you speak his truth. Maybe you're the outcast because you don't run headlong into false teaching and immorality like so many other people around you do. Maybe everybody else around you thinks rejecting God's law, lawlessness, is actually a good thing. They call good evil and evil good, and they're surprised that you don't join them in that opinion, and they hate you for it. Maybe you have a professing Christian friend who thinks you're judgmental because you don't think prosperity preaching and positive thinking count as Christianity. Maybe the love of other professing Christians has grown cold towards you. Maybe you're disappointed that a close Christian friend has suddenly gone off the deep end into bad teaching or immorality. Brother, sister, you are not the first. You are not the first. There is a place in biblical Christianity for you. It's called the church. You're right where you belong. Your experience has already been endured over and over and over and over and over again. Count it not strength. just as they had to endure back then, so we have to endure today. Our experience as Christians in the world has always been like this, and it always will be like this. We're not even close to being the first Christians to face these hardships. We love to talk about post-modernity and lawlessness and all this new sexual immorality stuff, and think, oh boy, the church has never seen anything like that. Boy, we're really in trouble now. Have you never read your Bible? Jesus' very first followers faced all this stuff even before the temple was destroyed. And Paul would go on to tell his first converts in Acts 14.22, through many tribulations, we must enter into the kingdom of God. Being a Christian has always been hard. It's never been easy. And if it's easy for you, praise God, but don't think it's going to last too much longer. It's going to get hard if you're faithful. That's okay. We're to expect it. It's difficult. That's why not every person who professes to be a Christian at the beginning will actually end their lives that way. Many will prove disloyal to Christ and to you. That shouldn't surprise us either, because Jesus' point here is that when those things happen, it's not outside God's plan. When people are disloyal to you, even other Christians, God's not up in heaven thinking, oh man, I forgot to be faithful to you. Really? No, he's sanctifying you. He's making you patient. He's making you long for him. He is shaping your life into the pattern of the cross. And that hurts. But it is his design to make you like Jesus. So when that happens, it's literally not the end of the world. So don't overreact. Endure. Endure it. If the love of others grows cold to you, you make sure your love does not grow cold. You keep loving your fellow Christians, even if they don't love you back. You keep being loyal to each other, even when you don't feel like your loyalty is being rewarded or requited. Keep obeying the gospel and keep proclaiming the gospel. Stay on the offensive, even in the midst of your suffering. Look there in verse 14. In spite of all this suffering, maybe even because of it, Jesus says in verse 14, this gospel of the kingdom will be proclaimed throughout the whole world as a testimony to all nations, and then the end will come. I realize that most Christians think of that as the end time prophecy of completing the Great Commission, and some have used it as motivation to hurry up and fulfill it so the Lord will speed up the timeline of his return. That's really exciting to think about and I think it's probably a little misguided. The word here for world is not the word cosmos, earth in the geological or planetary sense. It's oikumene, the inhabited world, the known world, civilization in the social or political sense. It's the same word Luke uses in Acts 11.28 to talk about a famine that affected the whole world. not the world inclusive of North and South America, but the then known world. We should also notice that the word for end here in verse 14 is different than the word for consummation in the disciples' question. The consummation of the ages is suntelios to ionos, which doesn't mean anything I know to people who don't know Greek, but it's a technical phrase for the end of time. That's why I said it. It's a technical phrase for the end of time. If Jesus were answering that question, he'd use that word. But he doesn't use that word. He uses a more general word, telos, end. To clarify, he's not talking about the consummation of the ages that they were asking about. He's simply talking about the end of the temple. Now, you might have just cocked your head when I said that. I think I saw maybe one or two of you. So, remember the context here. Jesus had just predicted the temple's destruction twice. Once in Matthew 23, 36, and once in Matthew 24, 2. That's why the disciples ask when the temple is going to be destroyed, assuming that the temple's destruction would lead immediately to the consummation of the ages. They can't envision a world without a temple. Here, Jesus is still answering the first part of their question. The proclamation of the gospel all over the inhabited world will be one sign that the temple is about to be destroyed, and then Jesus describes the temple's destruction in the very next paragraph in verses 15 to 28. That's what he goes on to talk about, not the end of the world, the end of the temple. Now, why does that make sense, theologically, to talk about the spread of the gospel before the end of the temple? We have probably never thought about that, ever. Why does it make sense to talk about the spread of the gospel through the inhabited world before the temple itself is destroyed? What's the connection? Why does that need to happen? It makes sense because if the temple is destroyed, then what is God left without? A house on earth. But if the gospel is being preached throughout the inhabited world before the temple is destroyed, then the church as the spiritual temple will be ready as God's new dwelling place as soon as God's old one is torn down. And Paul's going to confirm in Colossians 1.6 that the word of God is bearing fruit and growing in all the world, writing before the temple was destroyed. And he says in Romans 15, 19, that from Jerusalem and all the way around to Illyricum, I have fulfilled the ministry of the gospel of Christ before the temple was destroyed. Paul himself is saying gospel is already spreading. Gospel is already filling the Roman Empire, filling the world as he knew it. The mission of the church, even before the destruction of the temple, has always been to make disciples of all the nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father, Son, and Spirit, teaching them to obey all that Jesus commanded. That's how the whole book of Matthew is going to end, and we're getting a hint of that here right now. If we're not making disciples, or at least trying with all we've got to make disciples, something is wrong with us as Christians. We don't know Jesus like we think we do if we're not trying to make disciples. And when we do evangelism today, the point is to keep building up the new temple. The church is the dwelling place of God. Yes, we do want more and more people to be saved. That is one of the great purposes of God's plan. But the purpose doesn't end with just a bunch of disparate believers out there enjoying their individual quiet times. The point is to bring them in to create one great temple, dwelling place of God. And local churches are little manifestations of that. The new temple, the church universal, was already under construction even before the old temple was destroyed, so that God would never be without a dwelling place with his people on earth. It's the same temple that we're building up today as we make disciples, not only by teaching them, but by first baptizing them into the fellowship of the local church. Jesus says in verse 14, the proclamation of the gospel is a testimony. It's a testimony. It's not a program or a vision. It's not a business plan. It's not a turbo button that we push to speed God up. It is a testimony. Evangelism is kind of like a legal deposition. It's an affidavit of what Jesus did in his life, death, and resurrection to accomplish the redemption of all who will ever repent and believe. It is not a testimony to what we ourselves are doing or to what other people can or should do. Christian Proclamation is a declaration of what God has done for sinners in sending Jesus into the world to live the perfect life that we should have lived, to die the death we deserve to die, and then to rise from the dead three days later to be vindicated and then accepted by his Father as the sacrifice that he made for all of his people so that we could be vindicated and accepted by God with him, hiding ourselves in his perfect righteousness and his all-sufficient sacrificial death. That's the testimony. That's what evangelism is. It's giving testimony. It's witness to that. Something happened. God did something, and we are witnesses to what he did. Now notice, all these bad things in verses 4 to 14 are going to take place in the lives of Christians before the temple is destroyed, and Not but, and at the same time, none of these bad things will hinder the gospel from filling the world and the church from being built. Isn't that wonderful? All of these awful things, all of these things that we would dread are going to happen, and at the same time, even through the means of that persecution, the gospel is going to spread throughout the world and the church is going to be built up. The gospel goes out and the church is built as Christians suffer. The same is true today because we serve the same Christ. You know, when we get criticized or mistreated as Christians, our first thought is often, man, I cannot believe she said that about me. I can't believe they did that to me. I can't believe God let that happen. I can't believe I've been neglected like this or mistreated like this by other Christians. We're amazed. We're offended. And we think, I don't deserve this. And our next step is to get sad or depressed or despairing or angry. And we think, this cannot be right. This is not how I thought it was going to go. This is not what I signed up for. This is not how I thought it was supposed to work. Well, Christian, how did you think it was supposed to work? You think it was supposed to go better for you than it went for the Christians in Matthew 24? Why? Because you're you? Because I'm me? That's why I think that in my sinfulness. I shouldn't have to go through this. Why? Well, come on. What do you mean why? Can't you see why? Because I'm special. That's why. No, not special. Jesus is special. Jesus is telling us how it was for the first Christians. Why do we think it should be easier for us? Jesus tells us to expect suffering and that when we suffer we should endure and keep on proclaiming the gospel right through that suffering. Don't quit because you have to suffer. He proclaimed the gospel right through that suffering, just like the first Christians, just like the Christians in Acts 8, who were scattered in the persecution connected with Stephen's martyrdom, and kept on gossiping the word all over the world. And look at the result of the first Christians' faithfulness. Do you think it was a waste? I hope not, because you're here, right now, listening to the gospel as a result of their faithfulness. And we hope and pray and trust that there will be other Christians many years from now, if the Lord tarries, who will be listening to the gospel being preached and edifying by it because of our testimony through suffering. Here we are, 2016, Bibles in our own languages translated for the first time hundreds of years ago by people who were killed by other professing Christians just for translating it. And so we too endure cheerfully, faithfully, gratefully through suffering because Jesus first suffered for us and he will be faithful to us. Now Jesus has been telling us that our suffering will not be the signs of destruction of the temple at the end of the world. In verses 15 to 28, he tells us what the sign will be that will signal the temple's demise. It's the abomination of desolation from Daniel 9. In Daniel's prophecy, that referred to Antiochus Epiphany setting up a pagan altar in the temple and sacrificing pig's flesh there in 167 BC. Jesus is saying something on that scale is getting ready to happen to the present temple. Rome would soon lay siege to Jerusalem, and that's how Luke narrates the same prophecy in Luke 21 20, Jerusalem surrounded by armies. Before they destroyed the temple, they would go into the temple, set up Roman flags or standards, worship Roman gods for giving them victory over Jerusalem. That was standard operating procedure for an ancient army. They'd give praise to their own god, often in the temple of the defeated god, to symbolize that the victorious god had conquered the defeated god. Now that was sacrilege under the old covenant, worshiping a different god in Yahweh's temple. Jesus says to his first disciples, when you see the Roman army coming, you had better get out of Jerusalem as fast as you can. Get out of Judea. Do not stick around. It is not going to be pretty. You will not want to be there for this. because the siege and the sacrilege will be awful. Run for your life. The Romans will be merciless. So if you're in a chaise lounge on your rooftop terrace, don't go downstairs to get your valuables. Don't go downstairs because there's some golden ring down there that you don't want to lose. You better run. And you could run, because those houses were connected together very often. You could run across the rooftops and get out of town, because often the rooftops were connected to the city wall. So get out of there. If you're in the field, don't turn back because you took your coat off and you want to get your coat. And if you're a woman, you better pray you're not pregnant or nursing. Because you're going to want to be light. You're going to want to get rid of everything that disables you from running. You're not going to be wanting to carry a baby when you're trying to make a run for it. Pray it doesn't come in winter because winter was the rainy season and even many armies would not march in that kind of a muddy mess. And pray it doesn't come on a Sabbath because you won't be able to get feed for your donkeys or food for the kids or lodging for the night since Judea observed what we would call blue laws today. Nothing was open on the Sabbath. You weren't going to go get gas. You couldn't stop for a pack of nabs. Nothing was open. Those days are going to be awful, great tribulation, and that's exactly what a siege entailed. After being locked inside the city, food and water would become scarce, conditions would become so gruesome that people would literally starve to death. People were known on occasion to even eat their own children to survive a siege. Was that bad? Verse 22, the only reason those days didn't last any longer was God's mercy on his chosen people. Here again, even at its worst, the suffering of God's people is under the sovereignty of God, and he can cut it short whenever he wants. Now a siege was a perfect opportunity for a false prophet to offer false hope of divine intervention. Everybody's desperate in a siege. And if that sham prophet could do signs and wonders, it would be all the more convincing to people who were desperate. Josephus, the Jewish historian, catalogs a number of false prophets who were offering their services during the siege. This was not a time to stand there and watch God deliver them like in Jehoshaphat today. There would be no deliverance this time. So if anybody claims to be the Messiah coming to save the temple from the pagan hordes, don't buy it. Beat it. Get out. There's not going to be a salvation this time. The temple is going down. Jerusalem is going down. Don't be there for them. Verse 27, the reason they shouldn't believe anyone who claims to be the Messiah back then, is the nature of the Messiah's arrival when he really does come at the end of the age. This is a very important verse for understanding this whole chapter. Verse 27 is crucial, because verse 27 is Jesus telling us that verses 15 to 26 do not apply to his second coming. When Jesus really does come back at the real perusa, at the real arrival of the King, it's not going to be a secret to anybody. The real arrival of the King is not going to be an opportunity for false prophets to point to a false Messiah, because the arrival of the true Messiah is going to be so clear, nobody can miss it. It's going to be like seeing lightning from one end of the horizon to the other. You're not going to have to have special perception to understand when Jesus really does come back. You're not going to miss it. Nobody's going to miss it. It will be public, it will be visible. And that's really the point of the cryptic proverb in verse 28. It's not exactly clear how that proverb works. I'm not really clear on it. Maybe it's that everybody knows what's on the ground when a bunch of vultures are circling the sky. Whatever the case, the context makes it clear that the proverb is about the obviousness and public visibility of the return of Jesus. No one's going to be able to miss it when he really does return. Therefore, when people in AD 70 claim to see the Messiah, even though you don't, you know it's a sham. So if you're looking for miraculous signs as signals of the end, the only people you're going to see doing them are going to be false prophets, not true ones. They'll be doing those signs with Satan's power. Many Christians interpret verses 29 to 31 as applying to Jesus' second coming, since it sounds so apocalyptic. Sun and moon go dark, stars dropping like flies out of the sky. The problem in verse 29 is that Jesus says these things will take place immediately after the tribulation of those days. Those days are the same those days of verses 21 to 22. the destruction of the temple, the deceit of the false prophets. Jesus is about to say in verse 35 that this generation will not pass away until all these things take place. This generation. In that context, the most natural way to read immediately after those days is not immediately after a period later than the one I was just talking about. Or what I mean by immediately is really over 2,000 years later. This problem has become so acute that liberal scholars use this passage as a reason to say Jesus was wrong about the timing of his return. He thought it was going to be immediate, and it wasn't. If you thought it was coming back immediately and the delay is over 2,000 years, it makes Jesus look bad. No, the most natural way to read immediately is immediately. But then the question is, what do we make of the sun and moon going dark after the destruction of the temple? Did that really happen? Were there solar and lunar eclipses? Are those recorded? What does that mean? Well, Jesus was using cosmic imagery, just like the Old Testament prophets used it. Like they used it back in Isaiah 13, which we heard earlier, to signify not cosmic phenomena, but political change, military change. The sky would fall politically. The darkening of sun and moon and the falling of the stars were used in the Old Testament to describe judgment on pagan nations, pagan nations. In Isaiah 13, verses 9 and 10, as God is announcing judgment on Babylon, He says, Babylon, He says, Behold, the day of the Lord comes, cruel with wrath and fierce anger, to make the land a desolation, to destroy its sinners from it. For the stars of the heavens and their constellations will not give their light. The sun will be dark at its rising and the moon will not shed its light. Okay, so if that's just cosmic, I mean, what's the big deal? But if it's political, if what he means is all the political luminaries are going down, that's a threat. That's a threat. That day of the Lord was for Babylon in the 500s BC. But God wasn't saying, again, the lights would go out in the night sky. He was talking about regime change. like hearing about destabilization today in the Middle East or North Africa. The sky is falling over them. Same thing with Egypt in Ezekiel 32, 7 and 8. When I blot you out, I will cover the heavens and make their stars dark. I will cover the sun with a cloud. The moon shall not give its light. All the bright lights of heaven will I make dark over you and put darkness on your land. I just don't think that's literal. I think that's figurative. I think it's political. And that's why it's so shocking to see the prophets themselves turn the same imagery against Israel in Amos 8, 9. And on that day, declares the Lord God, I will make the sun go down at noon and darken the earth in broad daylight. I will turn your feasts into mourning and all your songs into lamentation. You are going down. I'm snuffing your light out. Again in Joel 2.10, when God warns of destroying armies coming against Judah, the earth quakes before them, the heavens tremble, the sun and the moon are darkened. It's political, it's military. What God had done to Babylon and Egypt, he was about to do to Judah. The sky is going to fall in Jerusalem for the powers that be, and they are going to be no more. Now, we're used to taking verse 30 as well as the return of Jesus to the earth, but the word for coming there in verse 30 is not parousia. It's not the royal arrival of Jesus as king. That's the technical term for Jesus' second coming. It's a more general term, the same one, in fact, used in the Greek text of Daniel 7.13, where the Son of Man does not come from heaven to earth in Daniel 7. He goes like a man on the clouds from earth to heaven. He comes, not to earth, but to God, but to the throne of God, to receive glory, power, and a kingdom from the Ancient of Days. And so, because this is a reference to Daniel 7.13 in Matthew 24, I take Matthew 24.30 to mean that the destruction of the temple is a visible sign that Jesus is the Son of Man from Daniel 7.13, who has been enthroned at God's right hand. He is being vindicated in the destruction of the temple. The temple's destruction vindicates Jesus' authority over against the temple authorities who killed him. This is why the tribes of Israel mourn, and it's the tribes of Israel. Just like they mourned in Zechariah 12.10, it was the tribes of Israel that mourned in Zechariah 12. Because in the destruction of the temple, it finally dawns on the leaders of Israel that the Jesus they killed really was the true temple where God meets man, and that's why the old one is gone. just as Jesus said, destroy this temple and in three days I'll build it up, talking about his own body. The ascended and enthroned Christ will destroy the temple. He will send his messengers to the four corners of the earth to preach the gospel and gather his chosen ones from every tribe, tongue, and nation. Verse 32, the sign of the temple's destruction will be as clear as the emergence of fig leaves signaling the summer. That's why, again, I think he's still talking about the destruction of the temple. Because when he starts talking about the return of Jesus, nobody knows when that's going to be, and there's not going to be a sign. But the sign of the destruction of the temple is clear as day. The sign of the judgment on Israel's leaders is as clear as day. It's just as clear as a fig leaf. You can see it. Everybody knows. All you've got to do is walk up to a fig tree and see whether it's in leaf or not. You know the time is near when all these things happen. And I think the better translation is not, you know he is near, but you know it is near. And it's all going to happen before Jesus' own generation dies. This generation is the same one Jesus talked about in 2336, his own generation, the people alive when he walked the earth, the people that were rejecting him, the people who would crucify him. The blood of all the prophets would come on that generation of Israelites, and the way it would come on them, at least in part, is the destruction of the temple, which Jesus says here in verse 34 will take place before they die. Okay, that's the first point. And Jesus, remember, is going to steady his people through all of that. The church made it through all of that, all the way down to today. And that's a reason for our confidence today. The church can make it through that, make it through anything. Second, Jesus will surprise us. Jesus will surprise us. verses 36 to 51. Now, here is where he starts talking most specifically about his own return at the end of time. Here is the great contrast between the destruction of the temple and the second coming of Jesus. The temple's destruction is going to be preceded by the great abomination of desolation. That's the big sign. When you see that, get out, because it's on. And I want to protect you from that. That was the great sign of those days. Those days, the temple's destruction, is the phrase that Jesus and Matthew use to indicate when they're talking about the destruction of the temple. Those days, those days, those days. But, Jesus says, in verse 36, contrast. But, different from all of that, concerning not those days, but that day, that day, The consummation of the ages, the last day, concerning that day and hour, no one knows, not even the angels of heaven, nor the Son, but the Father only. Nobody knows, and that means we have no idea when it's going to happen, and we don't even have any signs that it's going to take place. It's just going to happen. So there are those days, the days of the temple's destruction, and there is that day, the day of Christ's return. Those days will be announced with signs, the abomination of desolation. That day, Jesus' return, will be unannounced without signs. It doesn't mean that I don't believe in 2 Thessalonians 2. I do believe in 2 Thessalonians 2. I believe the whole Bible. I'm just trying to put it all together. You'll be able to tell when you need to start running from the Romans when the army gets to Jerusalem, but you won't be able to run on this greater day because not even Jesus knows when that greater day is coming and God gives no hints. And this is why you should throw away all your charts and spreadsheets. You cannot read the tea leaves. But sadly, we've seen all too many Christians try to do just that, make predictions about the end times based on bad interpretations of the Bible and wars in the Middle East. The Bible is relevant enough without us doing that. In verse 37, we know we're back to talking about Jesus' second coming because the word for coming in verse 37 is parousia, his end time coming, his royal arrival on earth to reign. And it's going to be just like it was right before the flood. How was it right before the flood? It was normal. Ho-hum. People were getting married, planning for the future. Found this girl I like, gonna marry her, gonna have kids, think about a place to live. Celebrating life and love, good food, good wine, good grape juice. People were enjoying themselves, people were enjoying their relationships, the fruits and pursuits of their labors. Not really much different than life today, come to think of it. They were all making fun of Noah for making a stupid boat when no one had ever seen the first drop of rain in the history of the world. Freak. Bigot. Hypocrite. Zealot. Hater. Come on, man, forget him. Let's go with it. Wasted. We know what to do with tonight. Not building some stupid boat. Noah appeared to be all alone on the wrong side of history until suddenly it started raining. And all of a sudden, everyone else was on the wrong side of history. They were unaware. Unaware. Oblivious. Ignorant. Until the flood came and swept them all away. The flood was not part of their worldview. God was not a judge to them, not in their minds. That's not how they understood God. They didn't think of God like that. Immorality was hip. They lived for the now, unaware. Jesus says, yeah, it's gonna be like that. No time to react. Nowhere to hide. Caught with your pants down. You see it coming. There's a pit in your stomach because you had no idea. You will never see it coming until you are swept away, Jesus says. This is Jesus. It's not Paul or Peter. It's not some burly Old Testament prophet. It's Jesus warning you, you will never see it coming. But this is not biblical Star Trek. No one's getting beamed up while your non-Christian friend has to figure out what to do with a pile of clothes you left behind. It's not like Star Wars when Darth Vader kills Obi-Wan and Vader pokes at his empty robe on the floor wondering what happened to his body. Jesus is definitely coming back. But he himself has just told us plainly that his return will not be secret like that. It's not going to be a secret. it will be as obvious to everyone as lightning that fills the night sky." And he's only coming back once. Look at the text. It's going to be like it was in Noah's days. How was it in Noah's day? How many crises were there in Noah's day? One. One flood. A very public And the one taken in verses 40 to 41 probably does refer back not to the ones who are saved, but to the ones who are judged in Noah's day, swept away. The ones who are taken are the ones who are swept away in judgment. It's going to be like that. One will be swept away in judgment. The other will not be judged. All that is to say, don't overread that. It's an example. It's an illustration. It's just to say that there will be a great separation when Jesus returns. The wheat and the chaff. It's going to happen when He returns. Once. The point here is that the great separation is going to happen when you least expect it. When you least expect it. Everything is going to be totally normal. You're going to be running errands. You're going to be at Juul, wondering what kind of salad dressing to get for dinner tonight. You're going to be sitting at your cubicle, hoping that your boss doesn't see you playing solitaire. You're going to be working at the factory, wishing it was 5 o'clock. You're going to be on the phone with a client, wondering, why does he not get this? Just buy the thing, will you? I'm on a quota here. You're going to be flipping burgers. You're going to be changing a diaper. You're going to be sending out a thank you for that nice wedding gift that you got. You're going to be fixing dinner before your husband gets home from work. It will be a ho-hum just like any other day. No cross in the sky the week before. The point is that your world will be humming along as it always has. Very much like Peter said, people will say, where is the promise of his coming? For ever since the fellows fell asleep, all things will be continuing on as they were from the beginning of creation. That's how it's going to be. And then he will come. Camillo and I were talking over lunch last Friday about ways we were encouraged by this passage, and he said, as I was eating my burrito, that he was encouraged that Jesus will save ordinary Christians like us as we live out our worldly callings and faithfulness to God. Look at that example that he gives. Two women are going to be grinding at a mill. Two guys are going to be in the farm, in the field. I would have never seen that if he hadn't pointed out to me. But Camilo's right. Jesus is going to save both housewives and CEOs. He will save farmers and firemen. He will save pizza guys and pet doctors. He will save code writers and coffee baristas, factory workers and fraud analysts. He will save sales reps and library workers. He will save tech squad guys and even designers of evangelical book covers. You don't have to be a celebrity for God to save you. You can be an obscure farmer. You can be a no-name woman grinding out grain at a mill. But if you trust in Jesus and repent of your sins, he will remember to save you. He will distinguish you from those who do not trust in him. He will remember. He won't forget you. He knows those who are his. It's probably the most encouraging thing I've said all morning, and it was Camilo's idea, so thank Camilo for that one after the service. But the application of the two men and two women in verses 42 and 44 is not just to go about your business as if you were never saved. It's to stay awake, stay aware, be watchful for Jesus in whatever you do precisely because he could come back unannounced at any time. Do your work as unto him. If you're grinding out grain in the mill, grind it the best you can. Meditate on him as you do it. Don't get morally or mentally lazy. One of Jonathan Edwards' 70 resolutions was never to do anything that he would be embarrassed to be found doing by the Lord if he returned at that moment. That's a wonderful thing to his own. That's readiness. Readiness responds to temptation by saying, I know I know my sinful heart wants to lust or fly off the handle in anger at something my kid just did. But how I would regret that if Jesus came back just then. Now we hear that and we think, come on, seriously? I'm supposed to think like that? After Jesus has waited over 2,000 years to come back? And Jesus says, yes, that's right. And the way he says yes is by giving us the very next parable. In verses 45 to 51, the wicked slave is the one who assumes he has time to misbehave because his master is delayed beyond what the slave thinks is reasonable. Look at it. Look at what he says to himself. My master is delayed. The delay of the master is always the excuse for sin. Surely he won't come back now. And of course we feel so justified in that presumption, don't we? Precisely because no moment yet has ever been the moment of his return. Yes, and there was never a rainy day until the flood came. Look there in verse 50, the master of that servant will come on a day he doesn't expect, at an hour he doesn't know, and will cut him in pieces and put him with the hypocrites where there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth. Jesus said that. That is a serious warning against negligence, not just for pastors and ministry, but for all people in all of life. Jesus knows our sinful laziness and pride and sluggishness and our penchant for excusing ourselves and for doubting the promise of his return. And so he warns us. And the point is that sometimes the only thing that will keep us from sinning is the fear of God. The point is faithfulness. Do you want Jesus to find you faithful when he returns? Of course you do if you're a Christian. You want him to find you so doing when he comes? The only way that's going to happen is to make faithful service the habit of your life now. Now. What is faithful service? It's living as a servant, serving your fellow servants. That is wise living. Not picking and choosing when you feel like faithfulness suits you and when you feel like it doesn't, but making faithful service among God's people the habit of your whole life. Whether you're a preacher or a pilot, a deacon or a delivery guy, an elder or an electrician, or whether you're both, there will be no warning when Jesus comes The only warning is the preaching of the gospel. This is it, right here. And the saving response is a life lived in readiness for Christ's return by faithfully serving Christ and his people. Christ is coming. Are you ready? Let's pray. And Father, we ask your forgiveness for all the times that we have been lazy. We have assumed that we can get away with sinning because you're not looking or you're not going to come back very soon. You've told us not to live like that. So we pray that we would take you seriously. that we would trust that you are returning because you said, and that we would not doubt simply because you delay, because you have already told us a thousand years is like one day to you. And Father, may we not rationalize ourselves out of obedience. Rather, may we take your word as it is, as yours, is true, reliable, and that we would serve you faithfully with our lives, in all of life, whatever we do. And we would be serving our fellow servants, trusting in your blood and your righteousness to cover us, eager for your return, preparing Growing, repenting, always trusting, always believing. Chase away our doubts. May we stand firm in all that you have taught us. Even though the skies fall around us, let us stand firm, we pray. In Jesus' name, amen.