Matthew 24:45-51 My Cup Overflows!

Matthew 24:45-51  “Who then is the faithful and wise servant, whom the master has put in charge of the servants in his household to give them their food at the proper time?  It will be good for that servant whose master finds him doing so when he returns.  Truly I tell you, he will put him in charge of all his possessions.  But suppose that servant is wicked and says to himself, ‘My master is staying away a long time,’  and he then begins to beat his fellow servants and to eat and drink with drunkards.  The master of that servant will come on a day when he does not expect him and at an hour he is not aware of.  He will cut him to pieces and assign him a place with the hypocrites, where there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth.” 

This parable primarily refers to leadership in the church after Jesus leaves the flock untended.  Of course, all Christians are expected to take care of their lives in an orderly and caring manner, to be faithful to the Lord until He comes or until the end of their lives.  In the above parable, the supposed servant is given special responsibilities over the master’s possessions.  He has been given a leadership role in the church.  The master leaves for an extended period of time.  Jesus has been absent from earth for over two thousand years.  His overseers have been given the responsibility of caring for the body of Christ.  They are to make sure the master’s servants are treated well: fed and nurtured.  The overseers are to be faithful and wise servants, whom the master has put in charge of everything he owns.  They should be above reproach in all they do in the church and outside of the church.  Now the overseer is to be above reproach, faithful to his wife, temperate, self-controlled, respectable, hospitable, able to teach, not given to drunkenness, not violent but gentle, not quarrelsome, not a lover of money.  (1 Timothy 3:1-3)  But Jesus says, suppose they get tired as this overseer waiting for the master to return, suppose their hearts turn cold towards their master.  Instead of demonstrating the master’s goodness and his love towards his own, these charlatans will forsake their assignment of caring for the sheep and turn to their desires of the flesh, delving deeply into the world’s wicked and self-indulgent behavior.  As with this servant, they might say, 'My master is staying away a long time,’ and he then begins to beat his fellow servants and to eat and drink with drunkards.  Jesus says strongly that these servants who have betrayed their calling, responsibility, will face the consequence of such self-serving ways.  They will be assigned to the place where all hypocrites end up after they die.  These deceptive servants had the title of overseer, to care for the master’s sheep, but they were not genuine followers of the master; they were playing a role, basking in a place of controlling others, not for the purposes of the master but for their own selfish desires.  

David was a man after God’s own heart.  David son of Jesse, a man after my own heart; he will do everything I want him to do.  (Acts 13:22)  Jesus, the Son of God, would do everything his Father wanted him to do.  David as a young man was vigilant in guarding the sheep of his father.  But David said to Saul, “Your servant has been keeping his father’s sheep.  When a lion or a bear came and carried off a sheep from the flock, I went after it, struck it and rescued the sheep from its mouth.  When it turned on me, I seized it by its hair, struck it and killed it.  Your servant has killed both the lion and the bear.  (1 Samuel 17:34-36)  Jesus is jealous for the well-being of his flock.  He gave up his life for the sheep.  David, the throne Jesus takes, placed his life in danger for his father’s sheep.  We see in the above parable, the wicked servant is neither like the man David or like the Son of God, Jesus.  He becomes impatient with the master tarrying so long in another land.  He did not remain faithful to his calling.  He placed his fleshly needs above the master’s needs.  He was not like David who protected his father’s sheep.  Jesus is jealous for the well-being of his flock.  He gave up his life for the sheep.  David, the throne Jesus takes, placed his life in danger for his father’s sheep.  We see in the above parable, the wicked servant is neither like the man David or like the Son of God, Jesus.  He becomes impatient with the master tarrying so long in another land.  He did not remain faithful to his calling.  He placed his fleshly needs before his master’s assignment.  In both the other cases, the man of flesh, David, and the Son of God, Jesus, were faithful to their fathers.  The flocks belonged to their fathers.  A good shepherd will place his life in jeopardy for the sheep.  I am the good shepherd; I know my sheep and my sheep know me—just as the Father knows me and I know the Father—and I lay down my life for the sheep.  (John 10:14-15)  Jesus extolls the need of the overseers to place their wants, their temptations of the flesh, secondary to the Father’s desire for their lives.  The flesh will always battle the Father’s will, desiring to go its own way: to eat, drink and be merry for tomorrow we die.  The wicked servant in the church deflects God’s will to his own needs.  He becomes a drunkard to sin, wicked in his actions toward his fellow servants: beating and abusing them, using them for his benefit.  This kind of behavior is not evident in the apostles’ lives after Jesus departed into heaven.  Instead we see them fervently working to spread the Good News to the world.  We see them suffering in body and mind to bring everyone the news of redemption, peace with God the Creator.  They have a love for people.  Many reject their message, despising them, mistreating them in every way.   Paul is whipped, beaten with rods, mocked, ridiculed, abused physically and with words.  Yet, he was the Master’s faithful servant to the end, fighting the good fight all the way to his death in Rome.  And now, compelled by the Spirit, I am going to Jerusalem, not knowing what will happen to me there.  I only know that in every city the Holy Spirit warns me that prison and hardships are facing me.  However, I consider my life worth nothing to me; my only aim is to finish the race and complete the task the Lord Jesus has given me—the task of testifying to the good news of God’s grace.  (Acts 20:22-24)  As with David and Christ, the apostles were willing to face the adversaries to the flock.  They were willing to put their lives in peril for the purposes of the Father.  Going a little farther, he fell with his face to the ground and prayed, “My Father, if it is possible, may this cup be taken from me.  Yet not as I will, but as you will.”  (Matthew 26:39)  The supposed recalcitrant servant in the above parable was not willing to endure to the end.  He did not fulfill his mission from his master; he quit on the will of his master.  Jesus places this kind of person into the camp of the hypocrites—those who are not really sold out for God.  They will be judged harshly.

John says that God is love.  If you do not love God, you will not love others as God desires.  You will fail in the assignment God has given you: to love God with all your heart, mind and strength and to love others as you love yourself.  (See Mark 12:30-31)  Love requires action, not just a supposed attitude.  If love is enduring in our hearts, we will love those who oppose us as the apostles revealed love by going into hostile territory.  Jesus said to love our enemies.  The servant in the above parable was not faced with opposition to his leadership.  He just needed to carry out his assigned duties.  We who are Christians, need to implement God’s will in our lives by loving others as we wish to be loved.  As servants to the Lord who have been led out of captivity, we should serve God wholeheartedly.  If we are leaders in the church or have influence over others, we should exemplify Jesus.  Paul desired the Christians to follow Jesus as he followed the Christ.  Follow my example, as I follow the example of Christ.  (1 Corinthians 11:1)  Christians should be in control of their own lives, reflecting the nature of God in their attitudes and activities.  We have the Holy Spirit resident in us.  We need to be sensitive to his voice.  The sheep listen to his voice.  He calls his own sheep by name and leads them out.  When he has brought out all his own, he goes on ahead of them, and his sheep follow him because they know his voice.  (John 10:3-4)  Leaders in the church need to be sensitive to the voice of God in their role as overseers.  As with Paul, the sheep were the center of his existence.  Night and day he prayed for his churches.  His love for their well-being compelled him to work hard in every area in his life.  He supported himself as a tent maker, not wishing to be a burden on the churches he served.  He sacrificed everything for ministering the Good News.  But Paul knew he really lacked nothing, that he had not missed out on anything in this world, for he had gained everything in Christ.  He was seeking for another life for himself and for the ones he ministered to.  For the Master of the house was his God.  He would follow God diligently to the end of his life.  The Lord is my shepherd, I lack nothing.  He makes me lie down in green pastures, he leads me beside quiet waters, he refreshes my soul.  He guides me along the right paths for his name’s sake.  Even though I walk through the darkest valley, I will fear no evil, for you are with me; your rod and your staff, they comfort me.  You prepare a table before me in the presence of my enemies.  You anoint my head with oil; my cup overflows.  Surely your goodness and love will follow me all the days of my life, and I will dwell in the house of the Lord forever.  (Psalms 23:1-6)  Dear friends around this breakfast table, endure to the end, your reward is great.  It will be good for that servant whose master finds him doing so when he returns.  Truly I tell you, he will put him in charge of all his possessions.   

Matthew 24:36-44 Be Ready!

Matthew 24:36-44  But about that day or hour no one knows, not even the angels in heaven, nor the Son, but only the Father.  As it was in the days of Noah, so it will be at the coming of the Son of Man.  For in the days before the flood, people were eating and drinking, marrying and giving in marriage, up to the day Noah entered the ark; and they knew nothing about what would happen until the flood came and took them all away.  That is how it will be at the coming of the Son of Man.  Two men will be in the field; one will be taken and the other left.  Two women will be grinding with a hand mill; one will be taken and the other left.  “Therefore keep watch, because you do not know on what day your Lord will come.  But understand this: If the owner of the house had known at what time of night the thief was coming, he would have kept watch and would not have let his house be broken into.  So you also must be ready, because the Son of Man will come at an hour when you do not expect him.”

These are wonderful verses of hope for all who have placed their trust in Jesus Christ.  In Noah’s day they knew nothing about what would happen.  They did not know their lives soon would be terminated.  They assumed this rain would be temporary.  However, God determined to rid the earth of their contaminated lives of wickedness and violence.  Nature itself would suffer under this deluge of water.  The rebellion of mankind to God’s authority would end in the destruction of mankind; only Noah and his family would be saved from this cataclysm.  The violence of Cain had permeated the whole race of humans.  The Lord saw how great the wickedness of the human race had become on the earth, and that every inclination of the thoughts of the human heart was only evil all the time.  (Genesis 6:5)  Even though the human heart was evil all the time, mankind carried on the necessary functions of life: eating and drinking, marrying and giving in marriage.  They assumed life was encapsulated only in these necessary activities.  However, the Creator had made man more than just physical beings; He made man in his image.  He gave them language to commune with him their Creator.  We see in Noah’s time, man had forgotten God’s nature of goodness and love.  Wickedness with its concomitant competitive and murderous nature supplanted God’s image within them of love, grace, mercy and goodness.  God had given them language to express love to each other, to honor others as they wished to be honored, but instead language was used to divide and conquer the human spirit of unity and concern for others.  God sorrowed over mankind’s spirit of evil.  The Lord regretted that he had made human beings on the earth, and his heart was deeply troubled.  (Genesis 6:6)  Mankind had forgotten his Creator.  God’s nature of goodness and love was set aside in their spirits.  Instead they lived self-indulgent lives, forsaking God’s will.  Jesus said, the last days will be like the days of Noah. The people will be enthralled with their own lives—their thoughts and experiences will be centered on themselves.  Now in our day, even in family or  community activities, people have their computers out to feast on their own interests rather than participating in what is going on around them.  They use their computers to dig deeply into their own self-interests.  In all of these self-serving, selfish pursuits, they have set aside the primary reason for life: serving, honoring, and loving God.  Jesus said, the Son of Man will come at an hour when you do not expect him.  When people become absorbed with their own selfish desires and activities and forget their Creator, they are not looking for the coming of the Lord.  

Every day for millenniums people have been busy with activities to take care of themselves, to clothe and feed themselves.  Marrying and having children is a necessary component in life.  Participation in institutions such as government, schools and religion are also part of man’s existence.  These functions help people exist in an organized community.  In Noah’s time all of these activities were affected by wickedness and violence.  Their self-serving lives blinded men and women to God’s anger against them.  They mocked Noah for building the ark.  They knew nothing about what would happen until the flood came and took them all away.  Jesus tells his followers not to get so caught up in perfunctory worldly activities that they forget that He will return for them someday.  Therefore keep watch, because you do not know on what day your Lord will come.  The world in the last days will assume that there is no such thing as Jesus returning.  They will scoff at this assumption by Christians.  Just as they have eliminated the truth of the miracles in the Bible, they will also eliminate the miraculous event of Jesus returning.  You must understand that in the last days scoffers will come, scoffing and following their own evil desires.  They will say, “Where is this ‘coming’ he promised?  Ever since our ancestors died, everything goes on as it has since the beginning of creation.  (2 Peter 3:4)  Now, since two thousand years have gone by since Peter wrote those words, we have the fulfillment of the those words in spades.  People are in the process of disproving everything the Bible says about miracles, so the second coming is within their disbelief.  The miraculous return of Jesus will be unexpected.  The hour will not be detected even by Christians because the mundaneness of life will be their primary focus.  As with the man in Jesus’ parable who was fixated on accumulating wealth, so will it be at the end times.  “The ground of a certain rich man yielded an abundant harvest.  He thought to himself, ‘What shall I do?  I have no place to store my crops.’  Then he said, ‘This is what I’ll do.  I will tear down my barns and build bigger ones, and there I will store my surplus grain.  And I’ll say to myself, You have plenty of grain laid up for many years.  Take life easy; eat, drink and be merry.  But God said to him, ‘You fool!  This very night your life will be demanded from you.”  (Luke 12:16-20)  To avoid the reality of the second coming is like this rich man.  He thought life would go on for him as it had always been.  But he was a fool.  Of course for most of us Christians, we can be placed in that category of foolish people, for this life is the only life we know.  It is reality to us.  We can imagine no other life with any precision.  But Jesus says, there is another life.  When He returns, two men will be in the field; one will be taken and the other left.  Two women will be grinding with a hand mill; one will be taken and the other left.  Those who are his will be taken suddenly from this life to another existence.  He tells his followers to discern the times and to look for his returning.  Paul told Titus to live a holy life, Looking for that blessed hope, and the glorious appearing of the great God and our Savior Jesus Christ.  (Titus 2:13 KJV)

How should we live in anticipation of his return?  Are we to be as if we are in a state of sedation, merely sitting around looking for Jesus to return?  Should we be lethargic in our approach to life?  The Bible says, we are not to be idle; we must be about the Lord’s work while it is still day.  “As long as it is day, we must do the works of him who sent me.  Night is coming, when no one can work.  While I am in the world, I am the light of the world.”  (John 9:4-5)  What is the work of God?  What should we be doing as we wait for Jesus’ quick returning?  Jesus answered, “The work of God is this: to believe in the one he has sent.”  (John 6:26-29)  We are to proclaim by words and actions that Jesus Christ the Redeemer has come to earth to restore mankind to God, and that his resurrection reveals that there is life eternal for all who believe in his name.  The world should know that Jesus has taken the curse of death off mankind’s existence.  He has paid the complete price for the redemption of men and women, placing them in the kingdom of God in righteousness, without one fault, pleasing to God as his children.  Our message to the world is one of great hope.  Jesus will return.  We should be looking up, but if he does not return in our lifetime, we still have a message of him returning to the hearts of men every day by faith.  Eternal life has come to men and women through and IN Jesus Christ.  As for you, you were dead in your transgressions and sins, in which you used to live when you followed the ways of this world and of the ruler of the kingdom of the air, the spirit who is now at work in those who are disobedient.  All of us also lived among them at one time, gratifying the cravings of our flesh and following its desires and thoughts.  Like the rest, we were by nature deserving of wrath.  But because of his great love for us, God, who is rich in mercy, made us alive with Christ even when we were dead in transgressions—it is by grace you have been saved.  (Ephesians 2:1-5)  No flood for the redeemed is in our future, but an exit to an eternal life is our destiny.  In eternity, we will partake of the bread of life, fed by Jesus’ hands.  On the road to Emmaus, two disciples of Jesus were walking home sad and discouraged after observing the awful events in the last three days in Jerusalem: Jesus’ arrest, abuse, crucifixion.  To them, their hope of Jesus being the Messiah had been dashed.  A third man joins them in their journey home.  He talks to them about the Messiah as the scriptures reveal, explaining to them that the events they had observed in Jerusalem were in the plan of God.  The two disciples invited this third man into their home to stay the night.  While they were eating, the third man breaks the bread and serves the two disciples.  Immediately, the disciples recognize the third man as Jesus.  Jesus broke the bread and handed it to them because He is the bread of life, broken for them.  When Jesus returns for us, we will consume his life, his eternal life, the bread of life, to the fullest.  We will live forever in our eternal home.  Then we which are alive and remain shall be caught up together with them in the clouds, to meet the Lord in the air: and so shall we ever be with the Lord.  (1 Thessalonians 4:17 KJV)           

 

 

Matthew 24:32-35 Light of the World!

Matthew 24:32-35  Now learn this lesson from the fig tree: As soon as its twigs get tender and its leaves come out, you know that summer is near.  Even so, when you see all these things, you know that it is near, right at the door.  Truly I tell you, this generation will certainly not pass away until all these things have happened.  Heaven and earth will pass away, but my words will never pass away.

The Israelites did not know when or how they were going to be released from slavery.  They did not know whether they would ever experience a life beyond the world they knew: Egypt.  But God’s timetable of the last days in Egypt for the Israelites was in motion.  A child was born named Moses, meaning to pull out or draw out of water.  As the Spirit hovered over the darkness at the beginning of time, a light came into the lives of the Israelites: the Spirit of God was hovering over the waters.  And God said, “Let there be light,” and there was light.  (Genesis 1:2-3)  Moses would bring to an end the Israelite’s days of darkness, of slavery.  His presence in Egypt meant a new day was dawning, the fig tree was budding.  The last day of slavery came after much trauma in Egypt, one catastrophe after another in the land.  At last, the very final stay in slavery happened at night. The Egyptians had no clue what would happen to them.  As with the very last day before Jesus appears, the world will mourn.  After the death angel fulfilled his mission, the Egyptians mourned the death of their first born.  And then all the peoples of the earth will mourn when they see the Son of Man coming on the clouds of heaven, with power and great glory.  (Matthew 24:30)  The angel of death brought an end to the slavery of God’s people.  He struck the Egyptians so hard that they were willing for the Israelites to depart to the Promised Land with the Egyptian’s gold, silver, and jewels in their satchels.  The Jews’ departure was quick; bondage to slavery was over for them.  A new life under the tutelage of Moses was on the horizon for them in a land under their own control with their own rulers.  Jesus prophesies that this same kind of departure will happen to Christians who are now in the land of darkness, of slavery to the god of this world.  He tells Christians that a land awaits them with milk and honey where the trials of slavery will be dropped forever.  He foretells there will be awful calamities leading up to the last day before He comes.  As a tree buds, portending future fruit, so will natural and manmade catastrophes indicate the return of the Lord.  Events will happen as unimaginable as when the sun will be darkened, and the moon will not give its light; the stars will fall from the sky, and the heavenly bodies will be shaken.  Wars and rumors of wars will be everywhere.  (Matthew 24:29)  Pervasive self-indulgence and violence will be evident in every community on earth.  There will be terrible times in the last days.  People will be lovers of themselves, lovers of money, boastful, proud, abusive, disobedient to their parents, ungrateful, unholy, without love, unforgiving, slanderous, without self-control, brutal, not lovers of the good, treacherous, rash, conceited, lovers of pleasure rather than lovers of God.  (2 Timothy 1-4)  Mankind will be in chaos.  There will be no authority in the lands.  In those days there was no king in Israel: every man did that which was right in his own eyes.  (Judges 21:25)  From the beginning to battle the chaotic, self-indulgence of man, God instituted authority to govern man’s inclinations.  Paul describes this need of governance.  Let everyone be subject to the governing authorities, for there is no authority except that which God has established.  The authorities that exist have been established by God.  (Romans 13:1)  But authorities with the assignment to fight chaos also become corrupt, causing nations to rise against nation, and kingdom against kingdom.  (Luke 21:10)  Natural disasters in the last days will happen everywhere, crushing the human spirit.  Extreme aridness and calamitous floods will cause many to immigrate from their lands, fleeing to safer places.  Earthquakes around the world will strike terror in the people’s hearts.  These are indications of the last days, but even Jesus’ disciples would not be able to know all of these happenings, because they did not have the know-how to be informed of all these predictions by Jesus.  Even to the present age, only a few learned people would be cognizant of these events occurring throughout the whole world at the same time.  

Without the technology that we in the modern world have become accustomed to, the fig tree budding would go unnoticed by the majority of the people.  No people in the past could possibly detect all that Jesus predicted for the last days.  The extent of their knowledge about the world was minimal.  Most of what they knew or appreciated pertained to their agricultural way of life.  Any event they heard about outside of their provincial existence was by word of mouth, slow and many times inaccurate because of traveling from person to person, or authority to authority.  Only in our generation are we fully aware of the many events and conditions that are occurring every day in the world.  We know when nations have become failed states, controlled by the local militias or gangs or drug cartels.  We know when authorities are removed from power, either in communities or nations.  We know when evil strikes a community with violence, rape, and murder.  We are informed about volcanoes and earthquakes that are shaking the earth.  We know that people are fleeing from wars and other disasters such as horrendous floods or excessive heat that is destroying their crops.  People are on the move, immigrating to safer lands, better living conditions.  We know all of this for our computers and televisions expose us to these activities and events.  Every morning through our electronic media, we have access to knowledge about the world’s condition.  In our generation, we can assess the fig tree budding.  Past generations were basically ignorant of what was happening in the world.  Their knowledge of life was limited to their personal surroundings, their daily activities and interactions.  Their world was very small.  But we have information about the world splashed across every electronic device that we own.  Even children are exposed to more knowledge about the world than the most learned person in past generations.  Because of this truth, we are living in the day Jesus referred to as the last days.  We have little excuse for not detecting the budding of the fig tree.  However, we cannot definitively say that this is the last generation before Jesus comes because technology might avail people with even better ways of dispensing information to the human awareness, to the brain, more efficiently and emphatically.  But, the budding of the tree has definitely taken place.  The budding has been taking place since the destruction of the Temple in 70 AD. 

How should we live if we are living in the last days?  We should live with a positive hope that Jesus will soon arrive on the scene.   Our lives should display the light of God.  You are the light of the world.  A town built on a hill cannot be hidden.  Neither do people light a lamp and put it under a bowl.  Instead they put it on its stand, and it gives light to everyone in the house.  In the same way, let your light shine before others, that they may see your good deeds and glorify your Father in heaven.  (Matthew 5:14-16)  We are not to hide in the darkness of the world, pursuing activities that blind us to the eventual return of the Lord.  We should know as in the days of Noah that the world is filled with self-indulgence and violence.  The world is going in the opposite direction of light.  We are to boldly be the light, reflecting the Spirit of God’s attributes in everything we do.  We are truly free, but our freedom is to do good.  The world desires freedom to do their will, but sadly their freedom leads to a sickness in the basic nature of man.  Their self-willed, self-indulged, competitive spirit leads to violence and chaos.  Our freedom leads to displaying the Spirit of God who occupies our inner being: love, joy, peace, forbearance, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control.  Against such things there is no law.  (Galatians 5:22-23)  There are no laws needed in the land of the Spirit.  No policeman on every corner, no highway patrolman, no IRS constable to keep people honest.  In advanced countries, there are multiple police agencies to keep people under control, preventing them from taking advantage of others or their country.  But in the land of the Spirit, no such police forces are needed.  Breakfast companions that is where you are going when Jesus comes back; the will of the Spirit will be dominant.  The goodness of the Lord and his grace and mercy will inhabit heaven.  Often when Christians talk about the last days, they feel some dread and worry.  Many preachers will say to the faithful, you better get ready to meet God.  The altars will be filled with people weeping before the Lord, trying to get ready.  But Christian friends, if you are not ready right now, you may never be ready, no matter how much weeping and fasting you do.  To be ready, without one fault, is a work of God, not your work.  The children of Israel were freed from slavery and were protected by God through the wilderness, but still rebellion and self-will marked their trail out of Egypt.  Even though God was in control of their deliverance, in their unbelief they grumbled in their hearts.  They spoke against God; they said, “Can God really spread a table in the wilderness?  True, he struck the rock, and water gushed out, streams flowed abundantly, but can he also give us bread?  Can he supply meat for his people?”  When the Lord heard them, he was furious; his fire broke out against Jacob, and his wrath rose against Israel, for they did not believe in God or trust in his deliverance.  (Psalm 78:19-22)  God is angry with us when we do not believe Jesus is enough, that his sacrifice is enough for us to make it to the Promised Land.  He is disappointed with us when we belittle the works of the Spirit by fighting the world with an angry spirit and ill-will towards our enemies.  Jesus said in the last days, look up, anticipate the soon return of the Lord.  Why should we grumble in this wilderness, anxious about the condition of the world?  We need to affirm that God took us out of slavery, placed his Spirit with us, a cloud by day and a pillar of fire by night.  We should know full well that God is able to feed us each day, to help us through life.  God was angry with the Israelites who had seen all kinds of miracles in their lives for not trusting him to the end of their journey.  They were afraid they did not have what they needed to get through the wilderness.  They could not see the land of promise with their eyes, but God told them through his servant Moses that the land was waiting for them.  As with Jesus’ predictions of the last days, we know the land with God is waiting for us.  Heaven and earth WILL pass away, but his promises to us will never pass away.  This generation and all generations should know the timeless God will fulfill his promise to us of eternal life, either through death or through the clouds.  Amen!  

       

Matthew 24:26-30 Stars Will Fall

Matthew 24:26-30  “So if anyone tells you, ‘There he is, out in the wilderness,’ do not go out; or, ‘Here he is, in the inner rooms,’ do not believe it.  For as lightning that comes from the east is visible even in the west, so will be the coming of the Son of Man.  Wherever there is a carcass, there the vultures will gather.  Immediately after the distress of those days ‘the sun will be darkened, and the moon will not give its light; the stars will fall from the sky, and the heavenly bodies will be shaken.’  Then will appear the sign of the Son of Man in heaven.  And then all the peoples of the earth will mourn when they see the Son of Man coming on the clouds of heaven, with power and great glory.  And he will send his angels with a loud trumpet call, and they will gather his elect from the four winds, from one end of the heavens to the other.”

As it was in the days of Noah, so it will be at the coming of the Son of Man.  For in the days before the flood, people were eating and drinking, marrying and giving in marriage, up to the day Noah entered the ark; and they knew nothing about what would happen until the flood came and took them all away.  (Matthew 24:37-39)  As with the days of Noah, people will be involved with the necessities of life.  The end of time cannot be detected easily by analyzing the activities of mankind.  But the condition of the hearts of man is a good presage of the end times.  As in the day of Noah, the hearts of men and women will be corrupt, self-serving, self-indulgent, violent.  In our day, primarily because of the media in our lives, we can satisfy our self-serving, self-indulgent nature.  Our minds can wallow in whatever we desire for the day.  Paul’s description of the last days has little to do with the physical aspect of the end times, but a whole lot to do with the hearts of men and women.  People will be lovers of themselves, lovers of money, boastful, proud, abusive, disobedient to their parents, ungrateful, unholy, without love, unforgiving, slanderous, without self-control, brutal, not lovers of the good, treacherous, rash, conceited, lovers of pleasure rather than lovers of God—having a form of godliness but denying its power.  (2 Timothy 3:2-5)  The computer and other electronics have allowed mankind’s basic nature to surface: our selfish pursuits in life, our self-indulgence.  Our world view can be so self-centered that we eliminate the God of Creation from our reality.  In Noah’s time the people did not expect God to intervene in their lives.  Their hearts were filled with their own concerns, and sadly they also were filled with ill-will toward others, so God put an end to their existence.  Now the earth was corrupt in God’s sight and was full of violence.  God saw how corrupt the earth had become, for all the people on earth had corrupted their ways.  So God said to Noah, “I am going to put an end to all people, for the earth is filled with violence because of them.  I am surely going to destroy both them and the earth.  (Genesis 6:11-12)  God said all the people had become corrupt.  Adam’s rebellion, the yeast of violence and self-will, had contaminated the whole of humankind.  In the flood everyone was destroyed, even the newborn baby.  Only because of God’s grace, Noah and his family were spared.  Paul writes, humans have always been under the power of sin: There is no one righteous, not even one; there is no one who understands; there is no one who seeks God.  All have turned away, they have together become worthless; there is no one who does good, not even one.”  (Romans 3:10-12)  Mankind chaffs under this description of his nature.  Even Christians are uncomfortable with this evaluation.  But Jesus says at his appearance as Lord, ALL will understand immediately the difference between their goodness and righteousness, and the goodness and righteousness of the Holy One.  And then ALL THE PEOPLES OF THE EARTH WILL MOURN when they see the Son of Man coming on the clouds of heaven, with power and great glory.  Why not rejoicing, celebrating the entrance of God in their lives?  No celebration, no happy greeting for as Isaiah said when he saw the Lord, high and lifted up, “Woe to me!” I cried. “I am ruined!  For I am a man of unclean lips, and I live among a people of unclean lips, and my eyes have seen the King, the Lord Almighty.”  (Isaiah 6:5)  Isaiah realized quickly his human nature was not acceptable to a holy God.  In Noah’s time they could not conceive of anything happening beyond their lives of sensuality.  What they saw, heard, touched, tasted described the parameters of their lives--nothing else could possibly be real to them.  They had rejected the miraculous God who made heaven and earth out of nothing.  But one man heard God, believed in the Creator God, and he built an ark.  Regardless of the ridicule and mockery, Noah built a way out of the eventual destruction of mankind.  He believed the impossible.  Today, mankind has made God small, far removed from the reality of life.  Today, even the most conscientious, dedicated Christians often have trouble envisioning the soon return of the Lord.

As the days grow darker and as more fear and anxiety arise in peoples’ hearts, do not run to seers or people who claim they know what is happening.  Do not seek a false messiah to rescue you from a dire future.  Do not seek the gurus of the world; their answers will not help you.  The truth of the end times is not hidden.  Jesus will return openly and quickly.  All will know immediately.  This was an impossibility only a few years ago.  Now because of satellites and the internet, his return will be seen by all instantaneously.  The world will know when He enters our existence, as lightning that comes from the east is visible even in the west, so will be the coming of the Son of Man.  As Jesus describes, east, west, north, south, all will see the lightning, happening quickly and visibly.  Noah’s time was full of violence.  Our time is full of violence, but now we have the means to destroy all of mankind.  God prevented man from going this far in Noah’s time by terminating man with the flood, but because of God’s love for what He had made, He allowed man to continue on even though people harbor violence and competition in their innermost being.  Now, after many centuries, we have the ability not only to destroy our neighbors, but everyone else on the planet Earth.  Immediately after the distress of those days the sun will be darkened, and the moon will not give its light; the stars will fall from the sky, and the heavenly bodies will be shaken.  This is a very accurate post-war description of a nuclear holocaust.  As Peter says, even the elements will be burned up, destroyed.  Man’s violence culminates in horrific circumstances in the last days.  Of course this propensity towards violence is the opposite of Jesus’ love.  He taught us to love our enemies, not to destroy them.  However, man fulfills his desires in life through resorting to violence if necessary, even nuclear violence.  This madness is an uncontrollable virus; good teaching, good conditioning, good environmental factors will not alter much this spirit of violence.  When we see Jesus on the cross, we see the evidence of man’s depravity.  Jesus did only good, healing and loving others, telling men to put away their hatred, their rage; instead loving their enemies, doing good to those who harmed them.  Jesus’ teaching went against mankind’s self-will, the desire to control others. The leading priests and the elite of the Jewish society turned Jesus over to the Romans to murder, writing again the story of Cain killing Abel. 

In our day we discount miracles, including the creation story.  We do away with Noah’s flood, Jonah’s whale, the Israelite’s wilderness journey, Jesus’ miracles.  Science has proved all the miraculous impossible.  We have become very learned.  The angel tells Daniel to put away the scroll of the last days.  But you, Daniel, roll up and seal the words of the scroll until the time of the end.  Many will go here and there to increase knowledge.  (Daniel 12:4)  People fly around the world, seeking more knowledge, trying to understand the beginning of life and what life is all about.  We measure the stars and their existence; we work on how to produce life.  We are trying to exit this earth if we need to.  Our knowledge is wonderful, marvelous, a credit to our ingenuity and creativity.  We are proud of our knowledge; we boast about our understanding of what is.  We are in pursuit of knowing everything about existence.  We have gurus around the world telling us to go deep into our consciousness, for there we will find happiness and the meaning of life.  How far we have come!  But the Holy Spirit in Paul describes something different about mankind's wisdom and knowledge.  Do not deceive yourselves.  If any of you think you are wise by the standards of this age, you should become “fools” so that you may become wise.  For the wisdom of this world is foolishness in God’s sight.  As it is written: “He catches the wise in their craftiness”; and again, “The Lord knows that the thoughts of the wise are futile.”  (1 Corinthians 3:18-20)  After King Nebuchadnezzar experienced his madness, where he lived as an animal, exposed to the environment, eating grass for sustenance, he came to his senses when he looked up to God.  He praised God and glorified him, and said that God was all-powerful and should not be questioned (see Daniel 4:34-35)  Before, when he was sitting on his gold throne, with the accoutrements of life, embellished by an environment of precious metals and gorgeous splendor all around him, with servants, slaves, concubines at his beckoning, he thought of himself in control.  But after his period of madness, he knew the God of all things was in control on earth.  Mankind and all of its knowledge and wisdom is nothing compared to God’s glory.  We are nothing compared to God, the creator of all things.  His purpose for mankind is for people to become his children, to be as He is: generous, loving, kindhearted, eternal; He sends the rain on his enemies and his friends.  Even though most of mankind has written God off as being irrelevant to their lives, God will do what He desires to do in this world.  We might have made him small, discounting any miracles in the past, but he will come with power and great glory.   And he will send his angels with a loud trumpet call, and they will gather his elect from the four winds, from one end of the heavens to the other.  Dear friends around the breakfast table, hold firm to the truth of the Scriptures.  Christ will return again.  Let the trumpet call be heard by your ears for those who hear the Lord’s call with joy are his.