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Tomorrow Night 1 Samuel 18:17-Ch.19

Matthew 24Signs of His Coming

Part 6 – Lessons From A Thief and Two Servants

We have been working our way through Matthew 24 – a chapter PACKED with tremendous PROPHETIC CONTENT

Matthew Chapter 24 closes with Jesus giving to us

FIVE PRACTICAL LESSONS concerning His Second Coming ---- by way of FIVE ILUSTRATIONS

A lesson from: Trees, Noah, a Thief, a Servant, and an Evil Servant!

32“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. 33So also, when you see all these things, you know that he is near, at the very gates.

Lesson #1 - His Coming is Near!

When Spring is in full bloom....know Summer is around the corner!

37As were the days of Noah, so will be the coming of the Son of Man. 38For 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, 39and they were unaware until the flood came and swept them all away, so will be the coming of the Son of Man.

Lesson #2 – Watch!

History is going to repeat itself.

“Days of Noah” Were marked by Plenty of warning, but ZERO Unpreparedness!

100 years of CONSTRUCTION

100 years INSTRUCTION (Noah – a preacher of righteousness)

In ANTICIPATION of the coming judgment

Yet no preparedness!

JESUS SAYS that this very same outcome will be repeated before he comes a second time to this earth!

There will be a PROCESSION of very specific events

Deception ---- Geopolitical chaos ---- Natural disasters ---- increasing in frequency and intensity

Israel in the land once again – A Temple in Jeruslaem

In the middle of a seven year covenant the anti-Christ will walk into the rebuilt Temple and demand to be worshipped as God.

THEN there will be GREAT tribulation

such as has never been seen before in history

and will never again be seen

so radical that if Jesus did not return there would be the complete annihilation of humanity

cosmic disturbances

All of these culminating in the second coming of Jesus to the earth.

Jesus says that DESPITE all of these SIGNS

When He comes He will find many UNPREPARED and UNCONCERNED

JUST LIKE it happened the Days of Noah when the flood came and took them away!

WHAT was it that caused mankind in the Days of Noah to not see the coming judgment?

The common interests of life!

God was literally going to rain on their parade and they just kept living for the parade!

III. A LESSON FROM A THIEF

43But know this, that if the master of the house had known in what part of the night the thief was coming, he would have stayed awake and would not have let his house be broken into. 44Therefore you also must be ready, for the Son of Man is coming at an hour you do not expect.

Jesus is so practical.

It’s an obvious assumption you’d protect your home!

KEY POINT: If you knew the time a thief was going to come - you would be Especially Alert!

Every little sound will attract your attention.

It wouldn’t matter where the thief would try to break in

Backdoor

Window

Wherever

The master’s eye is watching ---- His hand is ready

BECAUSE he has received ample warning that the thief is coming!

BUT THE POINT HERE is that this person does NOT KNOW when the thief is coming --- they can only prepare for that unexpected event

In the natural ----most men are prepared to defend for the UNEXPECTED visit of a thief!

Every new home comes with an alarm ---- insurance companies offer a discounted premium if you have one installed and activated.

But mankind is NOT ready spiritually

I. The LESSON OF THE FIG TREE - “His Coming is Near!”

II. The LESSON OF THE DAYS OF NOAH - “Watch”

III. The LESSON FROM THE THIEF – “Be Ready!”

To those living in the Great Tribulation Jesus says BE READY!

1 Thes 5:2 For you yourselves are fully aware that the day of the Lord will come like a thief in the night.

They can not be ready for His coming apart from the precious blood of the Lord Jesus Christ.

 

CRUCIAL OBSERVATION: None can READY for His coming apart from the precious blood of the Lord Jesus Christ.

As we move through to the end of the chapter there Jesus is going to shift the emphasis of His discourse

It is not uncommon in scripture for a writer to change emphasis in the middle of a sentence.

EXAMPLE: Is.9:6 “For unto us a Child is born, Unto us a Son is given; And the government will be upon His shoulder.”

The whole church age occurs between the word given and and

Child born - Son given = 1st coming.

And the government shall be upon His shoulders = Millennium.

EXAMPLE: Is.6:12 “The Spirit of the Lord GOD is upon Me, Because the LORD has anointed Me To preach good tidings to the poor; He has sent Me to heal the brokenhearted, To proclaim liberty to the captives, And the opening of the prison to those who are bound; To proclaim the acceptable year of the LORD, And the day of vengeance of our God;”

The beginning of the verse up to the word LORD deals with the FIRST coming of Jesus and His ministry that would continue through the agency of the Church.

The emphasis then switches to His SECOND COMING with the words And the day of vengeance of our God

IN THIS SECTION HE SHIFTS His emphasis

From - Outward EVENTS

To - Inward ATTITUDES!

IV. LESSON FROM A FAITHFUL SERVANT

45“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? 46Blessed is that servant whom his master will find so doing when he comes.

47Truly, I say to you, he will set him over all his possessions.  In addition to

being watchful and ready in light of OBSERVABLE SIGNS of the Second Coming

Jesus exhorts the Tribulation believer to see themselves as faithful servants in a household.

KEY INSIGHT: Household

It’s used four times in the New Testament.  

= therapeia

We get our English word Therapeutic from this word

In the KJV

2x translated as household

2x translated healing.

Rev. 22:2 through the middle of the street of the city; also, on either side of the river, the tree of life with its twelve kinds of fruit, yielding its fruit each month. The leaves of the tree were for the healing of the nations.

THAYERS GREEK DEFINITIONS –

medical service: curing, healing

household service

body of attendants, servants, domestics

The EMPHASIS is on the attitude of heart

The man or woman who comes to faith in Christ during the Great Tribulation is to see themselves

Even in the midst of the HORRORS and WICKEDNESS of the Great Tribulation

As a domestic servant whose very life and actions are THERAPEUTIC and HEALING!

The faithful servant is the one going to give …. food at the proper time

NOTE: The reward for living as a servant in the midst of the the horrors of the Great Tribulation –

46Blessed is that servant whom his master will find so doing when he comes. 47Truly, I say to you, he will set him over all his possessions.

Obedient service is the capacity for greater service!

Lesson #4 - Be a Faithful & Wise Servant!

V. A LESSON FROM AN EVIL SERVANT!

48But if that wicked servant says to himself, ‘My master is delayed,’ 49and begins to beat his fellow servants and eats and drinks with drunkards, 50the master of that servant will come on a day when he does not expect him and at an hour he does not know 51and will cut him in pieces and put him with the hypocrites. In that place there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth.

NOTE WELL: This “wicked servant” is in reality not a REAL servant of the Lord ----

Because though he might fool man ---- he can not fool the Lord who is returning.

Gal. 6:7 Do not be deceived: God is not mocked,

Jesus KNOWS that this individual is a HYPOCRITE

Thus Jesus will JUDGE this man WITH the rest of religious HYPOCRITES!

CLOSING THOUGHTS

QUOTE: Dr. John Walvoord - While these illustrations, beginning in v.32, have as their primary interpretation and exhortation the situation immediately preceding the second coming of Christ, there are parallels to those living today in expectation of the rapture.

WE SHOULD LEAR

I. The LESSON OF THE FIG TREE –

“His Coming is Near!”

II. The LESSON OF THE DAYS OF NOAH -

“Watch”

We NEED to be looking at the world through the lens of Scripture ---- and in particular through the lens of the prophetic elements of this Olivet Discourse.

The reality of ONE MAN grabbing the confidence of the world and the world embracing ONE MAN as their leader into an era of global peace prosperity

May seem absurd to most Americans

May evoke the response – THAT could NEVER happen.

CHRISTIANS –I want you to listen to a short bit of an article by a man named Fouad Ajami

He is a Professor; Director of the Middle East Studies Program at Johns Hopkins University 

The article is called - "Obama and the Politics of Crowds”

There is something odd -- and dare I say novel -- in American politics about the crowds that have been greeting Barack Obama on his campaign trail. Hitherto, crowds have not been a prominent feature of American politics. We associate them with the temper of Third World societies. We think of places like Argentina and Egypt and Iran, of multitudes brought together by their zeal for a Peron or a Nasser or a Khomeini.

In these kinds of societies, the crowd comes forth to affirm its faith in a redeemer: a man who would set the world right.

The political genius of the man is that he is a blank slate. The devotees can project onto him what they wish

The entire article really a great read.

I found this analysis quite profound

Not because I think that Obama is the anti-Christ

Nor because Obama is the last man in the world I would vote for as president

But because it is a great take on mankind and his willingness to embrace a FALSE messiah!

And it is a great take on HOW he will gain global endorsement.

As the world becomes more unstable --- Just as Jesus said it would –

There WILL arise a man who is a blank slate.

The Bible calls this man

“the son of perdition”

“the man of lawlessness.”

Yet his character and agenda will be so obscured – that the world will project on him their hopes

But there will come a day – when this blank slate will reveal his agenda.

III. The LESSON FROM THE THIEF –

“Be Ready!”

Are YOU ready to meet the Lord?

ONLY ONE THING can make you ready to meet Him – The blood of Jesus.

IV. LESSON FROM A FAITHFUL SERVANT

Jesus has gone away to prepare a place for us.

He will come for us BEFORE the events of the Great Tribulation.

UNTIL then we need to be taking care of our master’s business!

Luke 9:12-13 – 12He said therefore, “A nobleman went into a far country to receive for himself a kingdom and then return. 13Calling ten of his servants, he gave them ten minas, and said to them, ‘Engage in business until I come.’

We need to be about the business of FEEDING the household of God.

Being a part of that enterprise in every way possible.

Being vessels through whom the Lord can bring healing in every way possible.

V. LESSON FROM THE WICKED SERVANT

We want to be guarding against

Religious hypocrisy

The attitude that says – “Our master is delaying His coming.”

Falling into carnal company and carnal behavior.