"You Also Must Be Ready” | Matthew 24:1–14, 36–44

You're listening to The Bible Guys, a podcast where a

couple of friends talk about the Bible in fun, in

practical ways.

Hello, Jeff, Hello Chris.

It's good to see this morning. Man.

I am so excited. I can hardly stand it.

Wow. I wonder if anybody believes that? Is that true?

Is that true?

Oh?

Man? This is a brand new week of the Bible Guys.

That's why you're excited because it's about us.

Absolutely, it's gonna be amazing.

Okay, well, hey, welcome to the Bible Guys. My name

is Chris, this is Jeff, and today we are jumping

into the phrase you also must be ready, which was

a famous phrase that Jesus said.

Yeah, and the whole premise of this, this series for

us is what if Jesus had a podcast, and so

we just took famous comments that he made. Yeah, and

we're jumping off from there. So it's kind of fun.

Yeah. Yeah, before we do, we have a famous Well

it's not really famous, is it famous.

It's for our listeners.

It's the guess the word I have to say. We're

words to Jeff. He has to guess the actual word.

But I'm not allowed to say five taboo words.

And if you're brand new listening to our podcast, you're

going to discover why we have so many followers and

listeners right here, y.

Yeah, genius, we're really yeah yeah, you put that on

me right now. If you're watching on video, we're going

to go ahead and put the five words up on

the screen, hopefully the five words that I cannot say,

and then, of course, you know, you can race.

Against This reads kind of like taboo.

Okay, yes, you're ready, Oh goodness, gracious wow. Okay. When

something is uncomfortable, another word for it is.

I don't know, rough.

It's so uncomfortable between us, so uncomfortable. There's a moment

that's just very awkward. Yes, yes, And the opposite of

noisy is loud. Opposite of noisy opposite quiet. Yeah, but

there another word silence, Yes, awkward silence.

Awkward silence. Man, that was a rough one.

It was so I wasn't allowed to say pause.

I know we were looking for two words.

Crickets, dead, nothing or I couldn't say quiet.

Okay, So two words, yes, yes, okay, uh wow? How

many words?

This is? Everything? Else is one word?

One word? Okay?

Yes, okay, remember that commercial weebles wobble, but they don't

fall down.

Yes, yeah, so you don't.

You don't really walk?

You what wobble?

Wattle wattle wattle wat? I guess what I did?

I said walk walk. Oh no, I.

Can't believe it. I get the weebels wobble. I pulled

that out. That was fabulous and and yeah, I threw

it away, threw it away. I need to uh get

rid of my my ding here. All right, here we go,

by the way. I wasn't allowed to say penguin, duck, walk,

wiggle or legs. I can't believe I did it. Okay,

sometimes when somebody does that t M, I what does

that stand for?

Too much information?

Yeah, it's not in under but in over communication, over over, oversharing, yes, overshare. Yes,

I was allowed to say information, personal details, boundaries, or embarrassing.

Okay, so TM I pretty good. Angle, They're pretty good.

All right?

Are you allowed to use initials?

Of course? You see anything? Okay? Okay, okay, you want Hey, yesterday,

yesterday Catlin brought us tacos.

Yes, yes, so I mentioned last week that, uh, we

just look like we know what we're doing, but really

we just hoping somebody brings us tacos, and then well

you mentioned you look like and then one of our

one of our staff guys brought us tacos.

Which was amazingly great, amazingly.

Nice from the Detroit Taco Company.

Yes, it was great. And so I wasn't allowed to

say shell, Mexican salsa, crunch or but all I had.

To say was caln, there you go. That's great.

Okay. Uh oh, wow, the sound a guy makes on

a movie right before he dies. Yes, Oh my goodness,

I can't believe it. I cannot believe you got gurgle

from that. Wow. I was say stomach, water, bubble, sink

or noise.

Now all of our new listeners are like, oh man,

I'm so glad I found this chair.

I can't believe you got that death the death gurgle.

I can't believe it. I can't be. I thought for

sure you wouldn't get that.

Does it make you a little bit nervous about me?

Now? Uh no, it makes me happier.

Okay, right, so you're tuned in.

Man, you're right there.

I just figured you'd be nervous that. Why does Jeff

know about the gurgle so much?

Like you're a suit.

Whatever.

No, I I am very proud of you, Jeff, so

good job that that was it?

Five of them, five out of four out of five. Well,

it's it's my fault.

Yeah, my fault, all right. Weebles wobble, but they don't

fall down for anybody who is over forty, probably forty,

they probably know what that is. Anybody under forty desireate

you know what weavels are. How old are you?

It's none of your business. You're not supposed to see that.

Oh man, you want to get beat up, you're supposed

to ask a young woman.

She is much younger than forty, and she has no

idea what a weavel is. A right, that's correct. They

were great. I had a bunch of weavels, did you know?

Really? No?

Oh, I had like thirty weavels.

I had like one or two and thought, what's the point.

I couldn't I couldn't figure out how to play with them.

Well, you had to have the things that they go in, Yeah,

with the different cars and the even houses and everything.

I was busy playing with like g I, Joe and guns.

Well I had those two.

Yeah, so hey, I don't even know, man, what is

the transition for this one.

Well, i'll tell you what. When you fall down, it

means you're really not ready.

You're not ready. Yeah, yeah, yeah, I know Jesus.

But Jesus said you must be ready.

Oh no, that's terrible. So we always try to figure

out the worst possible transition, and that was a pretty

bad one.

Yep.

So Jesus said you also must be ready. And we're

in Matthew chapter twenty four.

Look at this very unusual. We're skipping.

Yeah, yeah, we're skipping parts. There's a big chunk of

this that Dez just doesn't like.

Does doesn't like.

She likes the good parts, and she doesn't like some

of the other ones. So she's just like, get rid

of those verses.

It tells you to be kind and yeah, your neighbor.

Hates those ones.

Yeah.

So uh. In Matthew chapter twenty four, we're going to

read one through fourteen. Yep, we're going to skip all

the ones that Does hates, and then we're gonna pick

back up in thirty six. Okay, so here's what good.

Here's what it says. It says as Jesus was leaving

the temple grounds, as disciples pointed out to him the

various temple buildings, but he responded, you see all these buildings,

I tell you the truth. They will be completely demolished.

Not one stone will be left on top of another. Later,

Jesus sat on the Mount of Olives, and his disciples

came to him privately and said, tell us, when will

this all happen? What sign will signal your return in

the end of the world. Jesus told them, don't let

anyone mislead you, for many will come in my name

claiming I am the Messiah, and they will deceive many.

And you will hear of wars and threats of wars.

But don't panic. Yes, these things must take place, but

the end won't follow immediately. Nation will go to war

against nation, and kingdom against kingdom. There will be famines

and earthquakes in many parts of the world. And all

this is only the first of the birth pains, with

more to come. Then you'll be arrested and persecuted and killed,

and you'll be hated all over the world because you

are my followers. And many will turn away from me

and betray and hate each other. Many false prophets will appear,

will deceive many people, sin will be rampant everywhere, and

the love of many will grow cold. But the one

who endures to the end will be saved. And the

good news about the Kingdom will be preached throughout the

whole world, so that all nations will hear it. And

then the end will come. And then we're going to

skip all those other ones where Jesus is. He's going on.

He's talking about the Book of Daniel, he's talking about

different different things, and then we pick back up with

this big idea in verse thirty. Success. However, no one

knows the day or hour when these things will happen,

not even the angels in heaven or the Son of

Man himself. Only the Father knows. When the Son of

Man returns, It'll be like it was in Noah's day.

In those days before the flood, the people were enjoying

banquets and parties and weddings right up to the time

Noah entered his boat. People didn't realize what was going

to happen until the flood came and swept them all away.

And that is the way it'll be when the Son

of Man comes. Two men will be working together in

the field, and one will be taken the other left.

Two women be grinding flour at the mill, and one

will be taken and the other left. So you too

must keep watch for you don't know what day our

lord is coming. Understand this. If a homeowner knew exactly

when a burglar was coming, he'd keep watch and not

permit this, permit his house to be broken into. And

you must also be ready all the time, for the

son of Man will come when least expected. And two

podcasters will be doing a podcast, and one we've taken

and the other be left.

I'm so sorry. I'm so sorry for you.

Yeah, so there you go.

Yeah, And then reminds me of that old DC talk song.

Remember we're all we all be ready that what's that called?

I don't know, come on, you know it? I don't remember.

One is walking up a hill. Oh I don't know

the tune. But anyway, it's uh, you're gonna make me

look it up. Okay, But it's very it's very it's

a great song. It's about the second Coming.

Well, Jesus talks about these things not to scare you, right,

A lot of times people read these things that sounds

scary because he's talking about earthquakes, he's talking about famines,

he's talking about all these things. If you turn off

the ringer side of it, it doesn't keep ringing.

Hey, y'rs beeped. Yeah, I did it. I did it.

Mind did because of the bad influence of yours, your phone.

And so he doesn't tell us all these things to

scare us. Yeah, he tells us these things to let

us know he's in control. Right, And so he does say, Hey,

arrests and persecution, martyrdom and all those things. People are

gonna hate you because as we race towards the end,

you know, we're in a real spiritual battle. And the

devil hates what Jesus is doing. So he's going to

start clawing and fighting as hard as he can to

hang onto his kingdom as long as he can, even

while it's slipping through his fingers. But Jesus tells us

all these things not to scare us, but to let

us know, Hey, I'm in control and I know exactly

what's coming. Oh yeah, I wish we'd all been read.

I wish ready. Yeah, life was filled with guns and

war and everyone's trampet on the floor. I wish we'd

all been ready and it speaks a pretty yucky you know,

this is er two men walking up a hill, one disappears,

one's left standing still and.

Yeah, super cool callback from two thousand.

Well, actually it's a remix in nineteen sixty nine by

Larry Norman. Yeah, yeah, I guess they remade it into that. Wow,

didn't know that.

Well, there you go. So anyways, in this then he's

talking about the difficulties that are going to happen. But

then there's a pivot, this massive pivot in verse fourteen,

where he says, and the good news about the Kingdom

will be preached throughout the whole world, so that all

nations will hear it, and then the end will come. Yeah. Right.

So I think one of the reasons why all the

animosity and the hatred and the violence and all those

things that begin to happen towards Christians is because the

devil is trying to claw and hang on as much

as he can to his kingdom. But the Gospel is

just spreading and spreading and spreading and moving into places

where it's only ever been darkness, where there's never been

any light, and the Gospel begins to invade those places,

losing his grip, So of course then he starts to

lash out because he's the prince of the power of

the ear. He's the prince of this world. Right. The

king of this world is really a weird way to

reference the devil, but that's how the Bible talks about him,

is he's kind of ruling this planet and he hates

the idea that he's going to lose it.

Yeah, you know, I could summarize the entire twenty one

chapters of the Book of Revelation on the two major thoughts.

The first one is the character of God. Right, So

all throughout the Book of Revelation, there are plenty of

things that describe who God is as the conqueror and

as the defeater and the ruler and the one who's

just and everything else. So that's amazing, right. And the

second thing is live every day as if Jesus were

coming today, right right now. That's it. If you study

the character of God and recognize who he is, and

you live every day like Jesus is coming like it's today,

you've mastered the Book of Relation. And by the way,

people are going to hate that comment because there's a

lot of people who want to master the Book of

Revelation in a million ways, right, but but truthfully as

it applies to my life. Uh, that's that. Those are

the two things that I that I take away to

live my life. I'm going to live my life recognizing

who God is and understanding who he is. And and

and by the way, that when you do that, it

gives you a perspective on evil, doesn't it. That's right,

it gives you a perspective on just like you said,

not to be afraid, not to be freaked out, to

recognize that, yes, evil is still here in the world.

But yet you know, we know that one day God

will defeat and destroy all evil, but He has not

yet defeated evil. So we in the meantime live in

a world that's broken and messed up. And uh, and

these things can be scary, and yes they sort of are,

to be honest, but you know, those who are faithful,

right in the end, we'll be rescued.

Yeah, and God will give you grace to go through it. Right,

if you have the power of the Holy Spirit in you,

everybody dies, we all do yep, right, so really, yeah,

everybody does. It's life is one hundred percent terminal. Find

out Yeah, it turns out, which is a bum deal.

Nobody tells you that when you're born, right, But that's

what happens. And so I think that when when you

look at it, Since we're all going to have this

last breath on earth, let's live a life that matters.

Let's let's be about the kingdom work. Let's let's do

something that rings into eternity. Uh. You know what's his name? Uh?

Ct Stud, one of my great missionary heroes that I

love reading about. Ct Stud wrote uh that he wanted

to live a life so that the devil would throw

a Thanksgiving party in hell the day he leaves the

field of battle. That's fun, right, And how cool of

a life is that? Right? That's it. So when I

read these things, I'm like, Okay, hey, life is hard.

Life's hard. So first Ascustion comms that these things happen. Okay,

that's just life is hard. In the meantime, let's live

a life that matters, then, and do something that rings

into all of eternity, not just chasing the things here

on earth. I mean, I have a nice life here

on earth. I have a nice home. I've got a

great family. I love everything about my life. But this

life here on this earth is temporary, and what we're

preparing for is eternity, and that lasts forever. And so

Jesus says, then difficulties are coming, but man alive. The

good news about the Kingdom will be preached throughout the

whole world, so that all the nations will hear it,

and then the end will come. And so this is

talking about the whole world. Some theologians would say, oh,

that only meant the known Roman world because they didn't

know about the whole world at the time, which I

think is an unfair assessment of this passage because it doesn't.

The Greek word being used doesn't just reference the known world, right,

it's the whole world. He's talking about the whole planet.

When Jesus said go into the whole world and preach

the gospel, he didn't just say go only to the

Roman empire.

Right, not what he said.

Right. So, while the people who wrote it didn't know

about everywhere and everybody, God did. And so God said, man,

there's people who haven't yet heard, and I'm not coming

back until and then the word that's used here in English,

it says until all the nations will hear it. It's

not talking about you know, the one hundred and ninety

eight nations or the two hundred and eight recognized territories

or whatever in the world. It's talking about every It's Ethnos.

It's every Ethno linguistic people group. There will be people.

And there's another place in the Bible and book Revelation

it says people from every Ethnos will be around the

throne of God at the end. Right. And so a

big part of our job is if we're looking forward

to the day when God fixes this, people go, how

come God hasn't gotten rid of disease and war and

violence and sin and all that stuff. He's gonna, right,

And he tells us when once you get the Gospel

to everybody, once every people group has had a chance

to hear the Gospel, then I'm going to come back.

I'm going to defeat evil, and there'll be no more

death or no more disease. He'll wipe every tear from

our eye. That's what we desire, and so we have

to move in that direction.

So Tti's mission is going to end it all for us.

Not just Tti. There's a bunch of great organizations out there.

Do you know the name Oswald J. Smith. He founded

the People's Church in Toronto back in like nineteen twenty.

I do not know this.

He was great. He was one of the heroes of

the mission movements. He was like this missionary statesman kind

of a guy. He was a pastor of a big church.

But they founded People's Church in nineteen twenty eight and

from day one gave fifty percent of their income resources

to global missions. Holy Christmas, can you imagine? It was phenomenal.

I pulled up a quote from him that's incredible because

I thought this would be worth looking at. People talk

about the second coming of Christ man. Jesus is coming back.

We read about this, Jesus is coming back. How exciting

that is. There's a lot of people your revelation friends

love talking about Jesus coming back as a matter of fact.

In the next day and they do the math and

figure it out.

In the next few verses. The verses that does hate

so much, she skipped in his reading it. It does

say that then at last, the sign that the Sun

of Man is coming will appear in the heavens right,

and He's coming back, and they will see the Son

of Man coming on the clouds of Heaven with power

and great glory. Right, what a cool passage. I don't

know why she didn't want us to read that she's

but but so the Second Coming is super exciting for

most Christians. And Oswald J. Smith said, we talk of

the Second Coming when half of the world has never

heard of the first Oh, well can you think? Can

you imagine that? So we're looking, well, Jesus, when are

you going to come back? And Jesus, like man, half

the world hasn't even heard of me, heard the first

time I was here, and we saw a stat lately.

I think I mentioned this a while back, but one

third of all the people on the planet don't even

know another Christian that can lead them to Jesus. One third.

So we still got a lot of work to do.

The problem is population is getting out of control. We

can't keep it.

It keeps growing. Yeah, but so the Christians. Christians are

spreading faster than the population growth I think so or

nearly at the same pace. So it's pretty exciting. We

only have to reach if there's two point four billion

Christians on the planet and give or take, and there's

only eight billion people on the planet, we only need

to reach like three and a half a piece.

Right, everybody tells three and a half, we're good.

Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. The problem is we don't.

And so that's the big part of it. But then

when you move, you know, you pivot.

It would have been easier. Fanos would have succeeded.

Just what Yeah, well then there's no coming back from

that one, right, right, right? And so then Jesus, you know,

from that point on after he says, hey, uh, everybody

needs to hear that's kind of the pivot from the

bad news to mostly the good news. It's not all

good news, but it's mostly the other side of it. Right.

You don't know when it's going to happen, even, he says,

even the angels in heaven and the Son of Man

himself doesn't know. Only the Father knows, which.

By the way, isn't that isn't that cool? So Jesus,

who is in the personhood of God? Uh, you know

there's a and by the way, that's telling for the

roles of the personhoods of God? Yes, right, Like isn't

isn't that so strange? How like? It it works that way?

So God, the Father is always the one who has

the will in the Old Testament. If you think about

every single time, there is a will for somebody's life,

there's a plan for somebody's life. There's a directive for

somebody's life. It's coming from God, the Father, and uh,

and then the and then the son is the one

who does what the Father initiates. So the son is

the foreman on the ground. He's the one who puts

forth and executes the Father's will. And then and and

then the Holy Spirit is the completer of the work.

So the completer, the Holy Spirit's job in our lives

is the interpreter. Uh you know. So so the completer

of our prayers. Uh, the completer of God shaping us, uh,

you know, working with us and being with us until

the very end. So it's interesting how when Jesus says,

even the son of Man doesn't know, I think to myself,

what what do you mean? You don't know? But he

doesn't know.

Yeah, So God's not less God when he chooses to

limit himself. That's right, right, He's still sovereign. He's still God.

And so Jesus chose not to be everywhere and all encompassing.

He chose to limit himself inside of a human body.

And then Jesus chose to limit himself inside of a

nation that's about the size of New Jersey for his

entire ministry. Right, so, time space, he had to sleep

when he slept, he had to eat when he needed

to eat, right, all the things, he had to walk

where he was going.

Except for when he was an infant hesited Egypt.

Yeah, exactly so. But the ministry of Jesus was very,

very limited as a man in the location all those things.

But that doesn't make him less God. He chose to

limit himself on purpose, right, That's what he did. And

in this situation now he has limited himself that only

the Father knows. Right, That's what this comes down to.

And so it shows the sovereignty of God. God's in control.

This whole passage. Matthew chapter twenty four. Matthew chapter twenty

five is similar to you know when we talk about

Matthew five, six and seven, that's the Sermon on the Mount, right, Yeah,

that's what we call it. And he teaches us so

many things. Turn the other cheek, go the extra mile,

don't judge, you know, treat people the way you want

to be treated. The Golden Rule, all those things. This

one twenty four and twenty five is called the Olivet Discourse,

and it's because he's sitting on the Mount of Olives

and they come and go, hey, Jesus, so when you're

coming back, and they ask him several times, and previously

before this one, when they had asked him, hey, tell

us about the end times, Jesus goes, it's none of

your business, right, only the Father knows, right, right. But

this time he goes, Okay, we're gonnaunpack. It's because he's

about ready to go die, and so he begins to

unpack what it's going to be like at the end. Listen, guys,

you're gonna go through some tough times, but it's gonna

be worth it. Go tell everybody everywhere, right, and and

then just understand, uh you need to be ready, Just

be ready at any minute because I'm going to come back.

There's gonna be two people sitting in the field, right,

it just happens, and uh so it's going to be

a sudden thing. So between here and there, you don't

know when it's going to happen, but between here and there,

just stay busy, keep going, keep serving keep reaching people

for Jesus with the gospel.

So yeah, and uh, and the only time that I

know that the Second Coming is not going to come

is when somebody says that they know.

What's absolutely coming. That's right, that's right, because.

God, God says right here, not only does nobody know,

not either, I not know, but it's going to come

when everybody least expects it.

Yeah. Yeah, well, so you know, my my famous thing

about Jesus coming back in any moment is what do

I say, Hey, Jesus come back in any moment.

He deserve first.

That's right, that's right. You never know, you never know, man,

you get it. Man, if Jesus comes back, bang, you're

just standing before the throne. You got broccoli in your

mouth and you could have had a brownie, right, So

he deserved first.

That's right, that's right. That's great. Hey, what a great passage,

you know, and the whole thing might have been better dead,

but thank you for that. And uh, we're just giving

you hard time.

We'll see you know. She's trying to do is keep

us from reading forty nine verses and no of that,

but like, but but the verses the whole episode.

Yeah, none of that, but the verses on Daniel are

quite obscure and hard to get.

Into, right, so well he explains him. But yeah, yeah, anyways, anyways, yeah,

it's good than it does.

We're totally kidding. Well, hey, hopefully we'll see you next time.

I'm the Bible guys,