The Gospel According to Matthew 24:37-51 [NLTse]
37 “When the Son of Man returns, it will be like it was in Noah’s day. 38 In those days before the flood, the people were enjoying banquets and parties and weddings right up to the time Noah entered his boat. 39 People didn’t realize what was going to happen until the flood came and swept them all away. That is the way it will be when the Son of Man comes.
40 “Two men will be working together in the field; one will be taken, the other left. 41 Two women will be grinding flour at the mill; one will be taken, the other left.
42 “So you, too, must keep watch! For you don’t know what day your Lord is coming. 43 Understand this: If a homeowner knew exactly when a burglar was coming, he would keep watch and not permit his house to be broken into.44 You also must be ready all the time, for the Son of Man will come when least expected.
45 “A faithful, sensible servant is one to whom the master can give the responsibility of managing his other household servants and feeding them. 46 If the master returns and finds that the servant has done a good job, there will be a reward. 47 I tell you the truth, the master will put that servant in charge of all he owns. 48 But what if the servant is evil and thinks, ‘My master won’t be back for a while,’ 49 and he begins beating the other servants, partying, and getting drunk? 50 The master will return unannounced and unexpected, 51 and he will cut the servant to pieces and assign him a place with the hypocrites. In that place there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth.
Sermon
The title of this sermon is: u
“IT’S THE END OF THE WORLD! ARE YOU READY? How We Can Let It Be the End Of Our World and Start Living In Total Surrender To Christ.”
As many of you may have heard, this coming Monday, September 28th, there will be a lunar eclipse, a “blood moon”, so-called because of the “Raleigh Scattering” process that gives the moon a reddish tint when it’s in eclipse. This will be the fourth in what are thought to be a special series of lunar eclipses because they have coincided with Jewish holy-day festivals. The first of these “blood moons” appeared on April 15, 2014, the first day of Passover last year. The second occurred on October 8, 2014, the Eve of Tabernacles. The third took place April 4th earlier this year, the first day of Passover. And now this fourth lunar eclipse expected next Monday, September 28th, the first day of Tabernacles.
Although there have been 8 previous occurrences of blood moons like these four (falling on Passover and Tabernacles) since the Lord Jesus ascended into Heaven, Pastor John Hagee of Cornerstone Church in San Antonio, Texas and founder of John Hagee Ministries has championed the prophetic importance of these recent blood moons. In his best-selling book titled Four Blood Moons, Pastor Hagee wrote that, for the past 500 years, during every series of four blood moons falling on Passovers and Tabernacles like these, that a significant event occurred in Jewish or Israeli history that, while beginning as tragic, ended up as triumphant.
Although Reverend Hagee has not proclaimed that the world will come to an end as the result of these “blood moons”, other pastors, teachers, and end-of-the-world prophets have promoted that possibility, even as u Joel 2:31 and Revelation 6:12 associate “blood moons” with the end of days.
And so, here we are with some Christian folks stock-piling food and water, wondering if the end is truly near, and other Christian folks considering it all to be rather silly, even while looking forward to the lunar eclipse that is coming. How are we, as Christ’s people, to live in face of such uncertainties?
First, I want to remind us, or to show us, if we haven’t been aware of such things before, that folks have been predicting the end of the world since Jesus first ascended. An Essene revolutionary, Simon son of Giora, saw the Jewish revolt against Rome in 66-70AD as the final end-time battle before Messiah came (he was not a Christian) and predicted the end of all things to come about during that war.
Martin of Tours (in what we now call France) predicted the end of the world to happen in 400AD, saying, “There is no doubt that the Antichrist has already been born. Firmly established already in his early years, he will, after reaching maturity, achieve supreme power.” The early church fathers Hippolytus of Rome, Sextus Julius Africanus, and Saint Irenaeus himself, all predicted that the end of the world would take place in 500AD, Julius later changing his date to 800AD. Many Christian leaders predicted Jesus’ return and the end of the world during 1000AD, and when that didn’t happen, 1033AD – moving it from one thousand years after Jesus’ birth to one thousand years after His death, resurrection, and ascension.
Many thought the different occurrences of the Black Plague across Europe were the beginnings of the end. Reformer Martin Luther believed that Jesus would return no later than 1600AD. Christopher Columbus believed it would happen in 1656 or 1658. The General Assembly of the State of Connecticut proclaimed May 19, 1780 to be the end of the world. Methodist-founder John Wesley believed that 1836 would be the beginning of the Millenium. Jehovah’s Witnesses predicted the end to take place in 1941. Astrologist Jean Dixon called it for February 4, 1962. Jehovah’s Witnesses tried it again, predicting the final battle of Armageddon to be finished by 1975. Pat Robertson predicted 1982. Louis Farrakhan declared the first Gulf War to be Armaggedon. Many may remember Harold Camping’s predictions of first September 6, then September 29, and then October 2 of 1994 to be the Last Days, and then March 31, 1995, and then that the Rapture would occur on May 21, 2011 and the end occur October 21st of that year. And there have been many more and there are still many more predictions to come.
So, we are not the first generation to be hearing of these things, nor the first to wonder how to faithfully respond.
But Jesus told us what to do. He told us, “Be ready.”
Just as His proclamation of the Greatest Commandment breaks down into three parts (love the Lord with all your heart and mind, soul, and strength) the parables Jesus told about being ready break down into the same groupings: Heart and mind; soul; and strength.
As I’ve shared before, a good paraphrase of “loving God with all our heart and mind” is “loving God with all our thoughts and desires.” The Lord Jesus’ parable about the Ten Bridesmaids paints a picture for us of ten young ladies on the front porch of their friend, the bride’s, house, watching and waiting for the groom and his men to arrive. But some of them didn’t bring extra oil for their oil lamps (or extra batteries for their flashlights, we might think of it today).
Jesus paints that picture for us to show us how we are to be thinking about His return, planning for His return, using our time wisely, desiring His coming. Loving Him and not the people or the things of this world with all our thoughts and desires.
So let me ask you: What do you spend your time thinking about? What do you really desire in this life? Let me ask you something else: What would it be like if Jesus was a part of all your thoughts? If, as you thought about your girlfriend or your boyfriend and the test you have coming up, if Jesus was a part of those thoughts, as well, and you got thinking about what He wants for your relationships and how He wants you to prepare for, and be worried or not be worried, about the test… If, as you consider your hopes and dreams, your plans, or as you look forward to retirement, if Jesus was a part of those plans and desires, letting Him shape your hopes, letting Him give you rest from your fears, letting Him give you great purpose in your last days… In the parable, Jesus says that those who do not love Him with all their thoughts and desires will find themselves knocking on Heaven’s door and will hear Him replying from inside, “Go away! I don’t know you.”
A good paraphrase of “loving God with all your soul” is “loving God with all your time and talents.” Jesus’ parable of the Three Servants speaks to this, that is, how we use our time and our abilities. One servant was given five bags of silver to invest for his master. A second was given two. And a third was given one bag of silver to invest. The first invested fully and well and doubled his master’s money and bringing him ten bags of silver. The second did likewise, doubling the two into four. But the third servant was lazy and didn’t do anything special with his, giving the master back his one bag. And, concerning this servant, Jesus said, the master threw this slave into the outer darkness where there is weeping and gnashing of teeth!
So, I ask you, is Jesus really a part of everything you do? Do you work for Jesus, doing your schoolwork, doing your chores, doing your 9 to 5 (or whatever your hours) for Him and not merely for your teacher or parents or boss? Do you decide upon the things you are going to do and the things you are not going to do depending on whether or not Jesus would want you to do or not do those things? Are you in the Word enough to be able to know what Jesus would want or not want? Are you in prayer enough to recognize His voice directing you across your days?
This love that Jesus calls us to is pretty pervasive, isn’t it? When He tells us to be ready, He has a lot in mind, doesn’t He?
A faithful paraphrase for “loving God with all our strength” is “loving God with all our stuff” (believe it or not). “Strength” and “stuff” include everything we have authority over, so it includes our kids, our possessions, our employees, and all that we are able to affect or influence. Jesus says that when He returns that one will be taken but that the one with them might not be. He says that when He returns that we should not go back to get this or that favorite possession…
Let me ask you, “Do you love your kids, or your grandkids, or your parents, or your husband or wife or girlfriend or boyfriend more than you love Jesus?” If Jesus came to you and told you that so-and-so was going to Hell, would you be sad about that but trust Jesus and continue to love Him the same?
Do you love your possessions – your house, your clothes, your cars, your checking account, your collections of this or that – do you love your stuff more than you love Jesus? If it was all taken from you would you still love Him the same?
Jesus is coming back for us. And although at the end of every Worship Service I say, “The grace of Jesus Christ, the love of God our Father, and the communion and fellowship of the Holy Spirit be with us, within us, and among us until the Lord Jesus does come to bring us all home,” some of us may not get to be a part of that “homecoming”, not if we’re not ready.
In the Adult Sunday School class we are looking at our lives – our thoughts our desires, our time and our talents, our stuff and all that we influence – with Jesus as a part of it all. We’re doing this in the context of ways the Holy Spirit might be moving us to be Jesus’ witnesses and to share our love for Him and all He’s done for us with others. I invite you all to join as we consider how to love the Lord our God with all our heart and mind, soul, and strength, especially as that love applies to sharing our faith – the great news of Jesus Christ – with those around us whom He so fiercely loves.
It is the end of the world. Let it be the end of your world. Are you ready?