Matthew 24:32-51 - Wise and Patient Waiting

Turn to the Gospel of Matthew.

Hopefully you have a Bible.

If not, you can use the Pew Bible there in front of you.

Matthew chapter 24.

Matthew 24 · chapter mention

That's the first book of our Christian New Testament.

Matthew 24, that's page 880, if you're using the Pew Bible this morning.

The text we'll consider begins in verse 32, and we'll finish the rest of this chapter.

Matthew 24, verses 32 down through verse 51.

Matthew 24:32

This is what Holy Scripture says.

Learn this lesson from the fig tree.

As soon as its branch becomes tender and sprouts leaves, you know that summer is near.

In the same way, when you see all these things, recognize that he is near at the door.

Truly I tell you, this generation will certainly not pass away until all these things take place.

Heaven and earth will pass away, but my words will never pass away.

Now concerning that day and hour, no one knows, neither the angels of heaven nor the sun, except the Father alone.

As the days of Noah were, so the coming of the Son of Man will be.

For in those days before the flood they were eating and drinking, marrying and giving in marriage, until the day Noah boarded the Ark.

They didn't know until the flood came and swept them all away.

This is the way the coming of the Son of Man will be.

Then two men will be in the field, one will be taken and one left.

Two women will be grinding grain with a handmill, one will be taken and one left.

Therefore be alert, since you don't know what day your Lord is coming, but know this if the homeowner had known what time the thief was coming, he would have stayed alert and not let his house be broken into.

This is why you are also to be ready, because the Son of Man is coming at an hour you did not expect.

Who, then, is a faithful and wise servant, whom his master has put in charge of his household, to give them food at the proper time?

Blessed is that servant whom the master finds doing his job when he comes.

Truly I tell you, he will put him in charge of all his possessions.

But if that wicked servant says in his heart, My master is delayed, and starts to beat his fellow servants, and eats and drinks with drunkards, that servant's master will come on a day he does not expect him, and at an hour he does not know, he will cut him to pieces and assign him a place with the hypocrites, where there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth.

Lord, we're again asking for the spirit, because without the spirit the flesh profits nothing, and we want the conviction and power that is not merely human, but that comes through the spirit as he speaks through his word.

So grant us that now as we look at this text, we pray in Jesus' name.

Amen.

I know that was a larger block of text that I read, it's the whole passage for this morning, but I want to begin by drawing your attention right away to verse number 45.

Who then is a faithful and wise servant?

You can hear Christ summarizing what he's saying by the call for faithful servants.

And look all the way down in the next chapter, chapter 25 to verse 21.

Well done, good and faithful servant.

There it is again.

Expectation of a faithful servant.

And both of these figures are waiting, these faithful servants.

In the surrounding context of these chapters, Matthew 24 and 25, where Jesus gives this teaching from the Mount of Olives, he speaks frequently of his coming.

He's coming.

The text we read had a lot of language of the coming of Christ.

We don't know when he will come, so we have to be patient.

We don't know when he will come.

We've got to be alert and active.

We don't know when he will come, so we want to act as wise ones and not as unwise ones.

So if we're drawing this together, the Son of Man is coming, he's looking for faithful servants in the meantime.

We could summarize it this way Christ calls us to wait for him faithfully.

Christ calls us to wait for him faithfully.

How do we demonstrate that?

We demonstrate that three ways.

Number one, by being anchored in his word, number two, by being alert to his coming, and number three, by being active in his service.

So first, we're to be faithfully waiting by being anchored in his word.

Verse 35.

Christ says there, My words will never pass away.

We have to be anchored in God's word because that's the thing that's permanent.

That's the thing that won't pass away.

Three different times in verses 34 and 35, something is said to pass away or to not pass away.

You see that first in verse 34, Jesus says, This generation will certainly not pass away until all these things take place.

So Jesus isn't saying that this generation will never, ever, ever, ever pass away.

The implication is when these things take place, that generation will pass away.

Well, what things?

There's a verbal clue for us right in this chapter.

Where else do we hear the phrase these things?

Go all the way back up to when this whole section starts in verse number two of chapter 24.

His disciples are pointing out the significance of the temple complex.

And Jesus says, Do you see all these things talking about the temple they've been discussing?

Then Jesus goes on to say, Not one stone will be left, it'll all be torn down.

The next place we find that expression is in verse number three.

There the disciples ask, When will these things happen?

So Jesus has just said, the stone's not going to be left on top of another, it's going to be torn down.

And the disciples say, When will these things happen?

When will the destruction of the temple happen?

And then they go on to ask an additional question to the disciples in verse number three question about the sign of his coming and the end of the age.

So two times right at the outset of this discourse, these things refers to the temple and its destruction.

So I take it that here in verse 34, Jesus is circling back to remind his disciples that these things will take place.

The temple will pass away, and that stands in contrast with God's word that never passes away.

Jeremiah 7, verse 4.

Jeremiah 7:4

Do not trust in deceitful words, chanting, This is the temple of the Lord, the temple of the Lord, the temple of the Lord.

People in Jeremiah's day were appealing to the temple, but they weren't listening to God's words.

They weren't listening to what he said.

Jeremiah had already prophesied in chapter three of a coming day when people will no longer say the Ark of the Covenant of the Lord.

And it will never enter their minds or be remembered.

It will not be missed, nor will another one be made.

So, despite the Indiana Jones movies, that's not what Jeremiah says.

Jeremiah says there's a coming day when this piece of furniture that was so central in the temple, it was the throne room of God, where people won't even ask about it.

It's passing away.

When we fast forward to the book of Revelation, Revelation 21, 22, John writes, I did not see a temple in it, because the Lord God the Almighty and the Lamb are its temple.

Temple passes away, and even generations pass away.

As for man, his days are like grass, he blooms like a flower of the field.

When the wind passes over it, it vanishes.

Its place is no longer known.

Psalm 90 ten, our lives last seventy years, or if we're strong, eighty years.

Even the best of them are struggle and sorrow.

Indeed, they pass quickly and we fly away.

These things take place.

That generation passes away.

Future generations pass away, but God's word lasts forever.

Pastor Doug mentioned a couple of weeks ago that uh some people have tried to use verse 34 as kind of a calculator to determine the exact time frame of the Lord's return.

So they'll say, well, Israel was reestablished in 1948, and a generation is 40 years, so Christ is coming back in 1988.

And they were wrong.

And then some other people come along and say, Ah-uh, but wait, but wait.

Psalm says a generation could be 70 years.

So it's not 1988, it's 2018.

And they were wrong.

And then some people, I was on a website this week, wasted 10 minutes of my precious life on this website, but lest you say, well, no one really thinks this, the people do.

But wait, wait, wait, wait.

The Psalm says 70 or 80 years.

So see, it's not 2018, it's 2028.

I would love for the Lord to return in 2028.

We would all celebrate that, but we don't know.

And when we treat scripture that way, it's not only that people are misinterpreting scripture, they're giving fodder to the scoffers who say, Where is the promise of his coming?

We don't want to do that.

Even in verse 35, it's not only the temple, it's not only generations that come and go.

Even it says in verse 35, heaven and earth will pass away.

Second Peter.

Peter writes the same thing in chapter 3, verses 8 to 10.

Dear friends, don't overlook this one fact.

With the Lord, one day is like a thousand years, and a thousand years like one day.

The Lord does not delay his promise, as some understand delay, but is patient with you, not wanting any to perish, but all to come to repentance.

But the day of the Lord will come like a thief.

Similar language to what we read here in Matthew.

On that day, the heavens will pass away with a loud noise, the elements will burn and be dissolved, and the earth and the works on it will be disclosed.

God wants us to set our whole heart on his word to be anchored there.

How many of you really thought there was ever a day when you might not see the World Trade Center standing in its place?

How many of you, and we love having the children with us, if you can remember when you were nine years old, to think of 70 or 80 years, that's basically like forever.

Like I'm never gonna die.

And then as you get older, you realize, well, life actually just rushes out to sea like a sandcastle when the wind comes in.

Even beautiful buildings, great buildings, crumble and fall.

But Jesus upholds everything by the power of his word.

And if it's his word that sustains the heavens and the earth, if it's his word that determines the end from the beginning, then we have to anchor our lives in his word.

That's faithful waiting.

And it's not just individually, we as a church want to be anchored in the word together.

That's why when we come, we want to be having scripture guide what we sing about and what we listen to on the Lord's Day, and how we have it read, and how we have it infusing our prayers and hopefully our conversations.

We want to be anchored in the word together as we wait for Him.

It's His Word.

It comes from Christ, the Son of Man, and it's meant to bring us back to Him.

Revelation 21, 23.

The city does not need the sun or the moon to shine on it.

This new Jerusalem doesn't need the sun or the moon because the glory of God illuminates it, and its lamp is the Lamb.

So there will be a new heavens and the earth, new earth.

After this heaven and earth passes away, there'll be a new creation, but even that created order is in remarkable ways changed and transformed as Christ encompasses everything.

So let the word bring you to Jesus the Son.

Second, we demonstrate that we are faithfully waiting when we're alert to his coming.

Verse 42.

Therefore, be alert.

Or some of your versions might say, Watch or be ready.

Since you don't know what day your Lord is coming, but know this if the homeowner had broken, had known what time the thief was coming, he would have stayed alert.

There it is again, and not let his house be broken into.

That is why you are also to be ready.

So it's not just enough to have an idea that the Lord Jesus Christ is coming back.

We want to be anticipating it.

Not predicting the day or the hour.

We don't know the times and seasons, but we can still be anticipating and alert and ready for his coming when he does come.

We're drawn back to this final coming of Christ there in verse 36.

So before he talks about being alert and this parable of the owner that goes away and comes back, notice verse 36.

Now concerning that day and hour.

Again, in this section, Christ has talked both about the destruction of the temple in the first century and about his final coming.

And he gives us this clue that he's talking about the final coming.

And then he goes on in verse 37 to not give us the exact day or the hour, but he does make a comparison for us.

He compares his second coming, his final coming, to the days of Noah.

As the days of Noah were, so the coming of the Son of Man will be.

That was the scripture reading for this morning that Mike helped us with.

And there's something similar about his second coming from the days of Noah.

What is that similarity?

The days of Noah were days of judgment.

The people that weren't ready for the flood were swept away.

Verse 38 highlights that.

Carrying on in life with no thought of the God of heaven who's overall.

Until the day Noah boarded the ark, they didn't know until the flood came and swept them all away.

They weren't alert to coming judgment.

If you're here and you're not alert to the coming of Christ, you're going to be swept away in judgment.

I say that with no ill will towards you, but to warn you based on what Jesus Himself says.

Do you personally know the one who's coming?

Not just are you a respecter of the idea of God in general, or you have some thoughts of Jesus, but have you turned from your own way and trusted in him alone?

Have you embraced him and received him?

Don't think that somehow you're going to be able to accumulate enough good works to withstand his coming.

That's like a child taking some Legos and building a little house and putting it up on the lifeguard stand in Long Beach and thinking, you know, when Hurricane Sandy comes through, that'll it'll hold up.

It won't.

It'll be swept away with God's judgment.

And when the Lord Jesus returns, if you don't know him, you won't be able in that day to point your finger at the Christians who made bad predictions about the future.

You have to stand before God.

You won't be able to point your finger at those who are hypocrites, which this passage talks about.

We'll get into that, but you have to stand before the Lord.

And death and final judgment really do come.

It comes suddenly and irreversibly.

Verses 40 to 41, let the listener understand for a moment here.

But sometimes you might have heard these two verses and you haven't closely considered the context and the comparison Christ is making.

So there's two men in the field, one's taken, one's left, there's two women grinding grain, one's taken, one's left.

He's comparing it to Noah's day when people are going about their business and the flood comes and sweeps them away.

So Jesus isn't saying, at least here in this passage, that all the Christians are going to mysteriously disappear for many years.

He's saying if you are not ready, you're going to be swept away in judgment.

That's the comparison here.

No, I didn't.

I did read the first book.

Usually the books are better than the movies, and just as a general rule of thumb.

But I have to remind you of something you already know, and I know you know this, but Tim Lahaye is not inspired by God, but Matthew is.

So focus on what Matthew's saying here.

If you want to talk to me about other passages of scripture after the service, that's fine.

But right here he's comparing it to this flood of judgment.

Remember the parable of the weeds in Matthew 13?

Therefore, just as the weeds are gathered and burned in the fire, so will be at the end of the age.

The Son of Man will send out his angels, and they will gather from his kingdom all who cause sin and those guilty of lawlessness.

They will throw them into the blazing furnace where there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth.

Then the righteous will shine like the sun and their father's kingdom.

Let anyone who has ears to hear listen.

But there's a hopefulness.

We're alert to his coming, and we can be alert with hope and expectation if we've received his salvation.

And to do that, we've got to consider his first coming.

His first coming was a coming to bring salvation, to be a substitute, to live a perfect life, to die the death that we deserved.

All this judgment that we're speaking about, Christ took it upon himself and his first coming.

And for all those who turn and trust in him, there's freedom.

There's not a looking forward to that last day with a cowering fear, but an excitement that our Lord will return and receive us to himself.

He'll be marveled at on that day by all those who have believed in him.

Hold on to him as the faithful servant.

That's our hope right there.

We don't have to know exactly when he's coming to be excited about his coming.

Human nature is not meant to know all things.

Even the Son, and listen carefully, even the Son in his human nature, according to his human mind, apparently didn't know things that the Father knew.

He grew in wisdom and stature according to his human nature.

Yes, he's he's divine.

But to be alert to his coming is to expect it with anticipation and wonder, not to put every little last detail in place because we can't match up exactly all those little details, but we can be excited about it.

We can be prayerfully alert.

Remember when Jesus is with the disciples and he's in the garden, he says, just watch with me and pray, be alert in prayer.

And then he comes out and they're they're sleeping because they they lost that connection to him.

We'll come, and I don't want to uh preach Kevin's sermon for him next week.

I don't want to do that, but we'll come to this parable of the brides waiting for the groom to come.

Are you ready?

As a bride anticipates the groom.

You know, I've been To a number of weddings, and I have yet to be at a wedding where it's about to start.

The groom's here, the bride's in the back somewhere, and someone comes out and says, Stop the music, hang on a second.

The bride fell asleep.

She was in the back.

Canon and D was taking too long.

She got bored.

She fell asleep.

We're trying to wake her up.

Just hold on.

Hasn't happened.

Not one time yet in all the weddings I've been to.

Because the bride is anticipating being united to the groom.

She's alert.

She's ready.

She's excited to be there.

Don't sleep on Jesus.

Be anchored in his word.

Be alert to his coming.

And then finally, this morning, be active in his service.

Verse number 46.

Blessed is that servant whom the master finds doing his job when he comes.

We have a trust from God.

We've got a job to do.

Waiting faithfully is active waiting.

We need to be about the Lord's business all the while, yes, with an eye to the return of our Lord.

Faithful waiting is active waiting.

Be active in his service.

It's not like when you're waiting in the dentist's office.

You know what I mean?

You know your name's going to get called.

You know you've got an appointment, but what are you doing in the meantime?

Well, I haven't looked at golf digest since I was last here.

Is Tiger Woods still playing?

Let me check this out.

You know something's happening, but it's not actually animating what you're doing for those 15 minutes while you're waiting.

So it's it's not waiting like that.

This is more like you're an employee at Chick-fil-A and they get you in the morning and say, hey, everybody, listen up.

The owner's coming today.

How are you gonna wait if you know the owner's coming?

Uh hopefully, you correct me if I'm wrong, but hopefully, the the employees aren't gonna, someone's not gonna raise their hand and say, Well, owner coming or not, I need to double break today.

Uh Taylor Swift's new album just dropped, and I've got a lot of songs to listen to.

Uh, when the owner gets here, let me know.

I'll come over and throw some waffle fries in the fryer, and it'll be fine.

Of course not.

You you want to be eager to have everything prepared, all the samples lined up, everything clean.

You're waiting, but that's gonna inform how you serve while you're waiting.

This passage describes in more detail unfaithful waiting.

So, verse 49 There's a servant who is entrusted with this charge from the master.

It's a parable, and he starts to beat his fellow servants.

It's a warning there.

He eats and drinks with drunkards.

So it's unfaithful waiting.

It can be abusive tyrants like the character in this parable.

People aren't flourishing under their care, they're shriveling under their care.

They just want to be in charge and control and let others know that.

That's not faithful waiting.

That's not active in the Lord's service.

Or sometimes it's like being a drunk.

Oh, the master will come back when he comes back.

In the meantime, let's eat and drink, because tomorrow we'll die.

That's unfaithful waiting.

Jesus uses a word in verse 51.

It's a word he's used before in Matthew.

Uh it's a it's a scary word.

Not the word cut or pieces or weeping, those are frightening words.

The lazy servants in this parable get assigned a place with the hypocrites.

It's a very interesting word.

He's just been talking about someone who is a merciless drunk.

That sounds like he's obviously a bad guy.

What's so hypocritical about that?

There's nothing hidden about that.

But this servant is still presenting himself as part of the master's house.

Remember the Pharisees?

That's been one of the main groups of people that Jesus is speaking to and warning in the section of Matthew leading up to where we are now.

The Pharisees very much saw themselves as servants in the Lord's house, but they were trampling over widows.

They might not have been drunks in that sense, but they were so intoxicated with their own pride, they didn't see the coming judgment.

I would pray there would be no one here who you take the communion wine today, but you know you're planning to go home and have another drink and another drink and another drink, and you're presenting yourself as part of God's house, but it doesn't actually affect the way that you live.

I would I would pray there'd be no one here today who you would flatter some in the church to come across as as a healthy child of God, but then you would belittle the least of these as brothers.

Jesus is going to go on, even in the next chapter, to say, Whoever gives a cup of cold water to the least of these, you've done it to me.

So what does it look like?

Those are the the the negative side, unfaithful waiting, kind of activity that's not the right kind of active service.

What does it look like to be active in the service of our Lord?

That when he comes, we'd be doing his job.

What does that what does that look like?

Well, let me make just one before I'll get there, but just one qualification before I do that.

I think some people could read these verses, verses 45 to 51, and they could mistakenly think this.

They could think what this means is that I have to be really busy doing a lot of good things.

And then if I do enough good things, when Jesus comes back, maybe he'll give me that promotion to heaven I've always wanted.

That's not what Christ is saying here.

These these loyal deeds, this active service, it reveals what's in your heart.

It doesn't create the outcome, but it does reveal what's actually there all along.

It reveals if you know the Savior, if you've trusted in him alone.

So, so understand that.

But now we do want to be active because if we know the Lord, if we love him, if we've embraced his son, we want to be doing all that he wants us to do.

And that starts with the mindset.

This kind of goes back to the last point.

You've got to have this mindset of marveling at the Son, loving him, that that would so motivate your service that that changes the way you look, not just at this thing on Sunday or this thing on Tuesday, but the whole scope of your life and what you're living for.

Even the problem with the unfaithful servant in these verses, it begins with his attitude.

Verse 48.

It didn't begin with a crossword to one of his fellow servants.

It didn't begin with one drink and then lead to more.

It began when in his own heart he said, Maybe my master is delayed.

When in our own hearts we start to doubt God's word, that's that's where we're gonna get thrown off track of his service.

So this is going back again to the last point.

If we're alert to his coming, if we're in love with our Savior, our bridegroom, then we have the right mindset to understand that whatever we do, whether we eat or drink or anything, we do it for his glory.

Being active in the Lord's service isn't just being busy.

All the time you hear people say, I'm so busy, in and of itself, that doesn't tell us anything.

You could be busy about all kinds of things.

Are you active in the busyness of loving God and cherishing Him and working for Him in all that you do?

So it doesn't mean being active in the Lord's service, doesn't mean you have to be on the paid staff of a church somewhere.

But it does mean there's something all-encompassing about the direction of your life.

So if you're a businessman, it's it's not only, okay, I don't cheat people in business uh because I'm happen to be a Christian and we have certain, you know, bit of moral rules that we follow.

That's true, but it's more than that.

It's I've seen Jesus Christ, who's the perfection of all truth, who always spoke and dealt with everyone in integrity, and he's changed and captivated my heart, and I want to live with that same truth and integrity.

I want people to see his glory reflected in the way that I live.

It's I want to work and earn money because in a world that's so greedy and stingy, if I don't work hard and just give generously, how will people know about the generosity of God who has provided salvation through Jesus Christ, who's given us life and breath and everything else?

You know, I want to give money to the Keras School Project over in Indonesia because I'm not so consumed with just my bigger house or my possessions, but I want peoples and nations to have gospel platforms on which to build that others might come to know the Lord.

You see how all-encompassing that is?

If you're a mom, it is more than I've got to make lunch today for the kids.

I know God wants me to do that.

Yes, but you're making food for image bearers who bear the glory of God.

And you want your life to be part of what shapes them to know the greatness of God and to be image bearers that are arrows in the hand of the king that go out into the world in the future, who knows doing what?

But there's an eternal purpose that animates everything you're doing.

Plant that apple tree for the glory of God, as Doug said a couple of weeks ago.

If we review where we've just been in Matthew 24, going back to last week, the week before that, there's repeated tribulation.

There's repeated calls to endurance.

One of the chief ways that we're active in the service of the Lord, doing what he wants us to do, is by enduring amidst suffering without complaining.

When we are persecuted for the sake of Christ and we endure it happily, that shines the spotlight back on the coming king, the master.

That people would look at us and say, Why do they bear up under suffering so well?

Because we have a hope.

We have a Lord that's changed us and we know he's coming back.

We want the gospel of the kingdom to be proclaimed among all nations.

We don't want peoples and tribes to mourn when the Son of Man returns.

We want people from every tribe to rejoice because they know him.

So it's it's all of our life being built around the Son of Man and his significance for us.

Be someone who waits faithfully.

And I praise God.

So many of you model that so well for me.

I think of the older saints in our church.

I'm so thankful for your example of faithful endurance, faithful belief, of taking each step of life and seeing it as an opportunity to serve the coming king and to make his glory known everywhere.

Thank you.

Please keep enduring.

Let's turn over to 1 Peter.

We'll we'll conclude here, but I want you to look at 1 Peter.

Christ calls us to wait faithfully.

We do that by being first anchored in his word, second, alert to his coming, and third, active in his service.

But I want you to see the way Peter, it's almost as though he's taking these words of Jesus and applying them to the people that he's writing to.

1 Peter chapter 4.

1 Peter 4 · chapter mention

The end of all things is near.

This is verse 7.

Sorry.

1 Peter chapter 4, verse 7.

1 Peter 4:7

The end of all things is near.

Isn't that what Christ says?

Have you stopped to think about eternity?

How it it it's it's so soon to be here, our our lives and everything just rush away.

The end of all things is near, therefore be alert.

There's another connection point.

Be alert and sober-minded for prayer.

Now he's going to tell us some of the things that that looks like.

Above all, maintain constant love for one another, since love covers a multitude of sins.

Be hospitable to one another without complaining.

Just as each one has received a gift, we'll come to the parable of the talents in the next chapter.

As each has received a gift, use it to serve others, as good stewards of the very grace of God.

If anyone speaks, let it be as one who speaks God's words.

If anyone serves, let it be from the strength God provides.

And here's that grand overarching purpose, so that God may be glorified through Jesus Christ in everything, to him be the glory and the power forever and ever.

Can we say from our hearts, may God be glorified in everything forever and ever?

May it be so.

Let's pray.

Lord, oh how we're longing for this to take shape, to take a root in our hearts.

And we need you to root this in us.

For any here who haven't thought of coming death and what's beyond it, that they would be sweetly drawn to Christ, the King of Kings and Lord of Lords.

For those of us who do know you, let us walk with the greatest humility and at the same time the greatest confidence to know that our labor is not in vain in the Lord, because it's the Lord Jesus Christ that we serve.

Thank you for a word that speaks so clearly.

Thank you for a word that gives us an anchor in a fading world.

Thank you for the promise that Christ is indeed coming.

And we we long for his appearing.

We want to be marveling at him, the one whom our soul loves.

Give us that hunger and anticipation and give us an earnestness, give us a churning desire to work, not simply to occupy our time or to have others look at our deeds, but to work for our master, to work because we love him, to work with all of his goodness and grace coming alongside of our work and under our work, with the hope of his coming motivating our work in our lives.

Lord Jesus, thank you for symbols, symbols that remind us of all that we have been given in Christ, all that is yet coming, and the thankfulness and gratitude which sends us on our way in a manner worthy of God.

So as we consider these symbols now, give us reflection and give us celebration and joy together, we ask in Jesus' name, amen.