MATTHEW 24:32-51 READY OR NOT HERE JESUS COMES2017 Teaching by Jerry B Simmons

Teaching Transcript: Matthew 24:32-51 Ready Or Not Here Jesus Comes

You are listening to FerventWord, an online Bible study ministry with teachings and tools to help you grow deeper in your relationship with God. The following message was taught by Jerry Simmons in 2017. Well, this morning I've prepared a very special Valentine's Day message on prophecy and end times for you.

As we look at Matthew chapter 24, we're looking at a very well-known prophetic passage, a well-known end times passage where Jesus talks about the end times and the signs of what is to come. And so I've titled the message, Ready or Not, Here Jesus Comes. And you can see there the idea, the picture of playing hide-and-go-seek, right? You know, I just learned this week, actually, some people just call it hide-and-seek. I don't know if you call it hide-and-seek, but I always called it hide-and-go-seek because

very descriptive names, you know, the games have. But anyways, so hide and seek, and you're counting down one, two, and then whatever number you've decided. Okay, when I get to 20, you know, then I'm going to come and find you. And as soon as you get to 20, you know, then you go and search for those who have hidden. Well, we understand from the coming of the Lord that, well, he is coming back. We don't know exactly what number he's counting to, though.

And so he's going to reach that number at some point and then say, ready or not, here I come. Now, as Jesus here talks about his second coming and the things that will lead up to it here in Matthew chapter 24, it really begins back in verse 3. And we're not going to cover all of those verses, but just looking at verse 3 real briefly, Jesus was sitting on the Mount of Olives and the disciples come to him and say privately, tell us when these things will be and

As Jesus has been talking about with his disciples the destruction of the temple and how one stone will not be left on another and some of the prophetic things that he was sharing with them, they now pull him aside privately and ask, well,

How will we know when these things are about to take place? So kind of looking at, you know, the destruction of the temple, which already took place, but also the return of Jesus and the fulfillment of the kingdom and all of the things that are promised. What do we know?

when will these things happen and how will we know when they're happening? And so there through Matthew chapter 24, Jesus gives some of the signs of the end times and the indications of those things that will be coming to pass. He also goes into detail about the great tribulation and some of the things that will be happening during that final tribulation period.

Now, we're going to be actually skipping over all of those signs and some of those details about the end times and really jumping in at the point where Jesus begins to give the application. How do we respond to the things that are going to take place and the signs of those things drawing near in light of those future events and the signs that precede them? Well,

What is it that we are to do? And so that's what we'll be looking at as we work our way through the passage this morning. Ready or not, here Jesus comes. There's three points we'll be looking at. The first one is found in verse 32 through 35, and that is, "...the return of Jesus is absolutely certain."

Here's something you need to know and recognize as we work through and look at this prophecy of Jesus and this application of the prophecy. And that is you can know and you can rest and you need to grasp hold of this truth as an absolute certainty. It's not a guess. It's not a speculation. It's not a maybe. It's not a what if. But this is the reality of what will take place. Looking again at verse 32 says,

Jesus says, now learn this parable from the fig tree. When its branch has already become tender and puts forth leaves, you know that summer is near. Here is Jesus talks with his disciples. He says, learn this parable. I want you to pay attention. I want you to learn a lesson from the fig tree. And he says, look, when you look at the fig tree and you see it put forth leaves and it becomes tender and

He says, then you know that summer is coming.

is near. Now, Jesus was talking to his disciples who, you know, lived in that culture, that society. It was an agricultural society. And so they would look at a fig tree and know exactly what Jesus was talking about. Now, if Jesus said this directly to me, he says, you know, and I would say, I don't know. I don't know what fruit is in season. I never know any. If it's at the grocery store, then I can buy it. That's all that I know. I can't tell anything else. We have an avocado tree in our yard. I

I have no idea when those avocados are ripe. I have no idea. I have no idea. Never had an avocado from that tree because I don't know. But the disciples, they knew. They lived in that agricultural society. So they looked at a fig tree and they knew...

exactly what that meant and how, okay, this is happening with the tree. That means we're heading into the summer season. I think for us today, perhaps, or maybe you know agriculture well, but I don't. So I determine what season we're in by the decorations inside the stores that I shop, right? So inside the store, they redecorate and restock everything for each season, for each holiday. And so, you know, when you see the Christmas decorations going up, then you know Thanksgiving is near, you know? So you kind of see those decorations

and you recognize, oh, those are going up. This is happening. And so now I know what's going to happen next. And that's the picture that Jesus is painting. He gives them this illustration of the fig tree to say, look, when you see this begin to happen, well, you know what season you're in and what you're about to head into.

And that's what these signs that he gave them were for, to indicate the things that were to come. And so I'd like to just give a little overview of the end times for you to talk about the things that Jesus was saying. These are the things that are to come and the indications of those things should remind you of these truths. And so here's a quick look, not very in-depth, and you can dig into these things more on your own. But we are living right now in what we could call the church age, right?

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Here in Matthew chapter 24, Jesus talks about the abomination of desolation that will take place in the tribulation period. He talks about the great tribulation and how that will be. He talks about the sun being darkened and other things. Those are just highlights from what Jesus talks about in that period. And then he talks about the return of the Son of Man or the return of Jesus, which will usher in eternity, first life.

the thousand year reign of Christ and then on into the rest of eternity. And so these are some of the things that Jesus talks about in Matthew chapter 24. These are the end times and the things that will unfold

Now, one thing that is not explicitly mentioned here in chapter 24, but I've added it, is the rapture. And so we also know from the scriptures that Jesus will come again at the end of the tribulation to set up his kingdom here on the earth. But there is also in the scriptures, the promises of Jesus that he will come for the church and he will not set foot on the earth at that point, but the church will be caught up to meet him in the air.

And so that will take place and the church will be with Jesus during the tribulation period and then return with Jesus to the earth to establish the thousand year reign and then on into eternity from there. And so these are some of the things that Jesus talks about in Matthew chapter 24. And he gives some signs, some indication for when these things are going to take place.

And so just listing a few of the signs he mentioned, famines, pestilences, earthquakes, wars, as well as false prophets. And so these are some of the signs Jesus says. And when you see these things happening, his intention for giving us these signs is to remind us that when you see wars, when you see famines, when you see these things happen, and particularly when you see them happen more frequently and when you see them happen with more intensity, Jesus

that our minds are to be stirred up and reminded, these are indications and reminders for what is to come, the plan of God, and all of these prophecies that will be fulfilled. And so Jesus says in verse 33, "'So you also, when you see all these things, know that it is near at the doors.'"

And so he gave us these signs so that when you read about famines, when you read about wars and rumors of wars, when you hear about earthquakes or pestilences, diseases, those things are to stir up in our minds and remind us that the promises of God and the prophecies of the scripture are going to be fulfilled. And as we see them come together more and more, it's to stir us up and remind us that the return of Jesus Christ is very close.

That's the purpose. That's why, and that's why Jesus says, learn the lesson of the fig tree, the parable of the fig tree, that you would recognize when the season is changing and that we're drawing near to the time of the return of Jesus Christ. In verse 34, he says, "'Assuredly, I say to you, this generation will by no means pass away till all these things take place.'"

Now I'm going to skip over a lot of detail here. In verse 34, there's a lot of discussion about what the generation is, how long that is, when it starts, and all of that. But what I'd like to call your attention to is that Jesus says, this generation will by no means pass away till all these things take place. What Jesus is establishing here is the certainty that

of these events being fulfilled. These prophetic events, the abomination of desolation, the great tribulation, the sun darkened, the seven-year tribulation, the return of Jesus Christ, all of these things that Jesus talks about in Matthew 24, they are for sure absolutely going to happen. They're not, you know, maybe in some scenarios, or if this happens, then that happens, but these are absolutely certain.

By no means will they pass away, he says. It's going to take place. In verse 35, he says, heaven and earth will pass away, but my words will by no means pass away. And so you can see he repeats that concept, that idea, by no means will this pass away. Now that's a pretty bold statement that Jesus makes.

Jesus here is declaring that his words are more sure, more certain than the very existence of heaven and earth. I mean, that's a pretty radical statement and one that only Jesus can make aside from the Father, right? You and I cannot make that statement. I cannot tell you that my words will by no means pass away even if heaven and earth passes away.

There's no guarantee I can give for my words. There's no promise I can give that will be that sure for my words. But Jesus says, more sure than the existence of earth is the completion of these things that he has declared. And so again, the return of Jesus is absolutely certain. Jesus told us in John chapter 14, verse 3,

If I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again and receive you to myself, that where I am, there you may be also. Jesus promised to come again. He declared that he went to prepare a place for us as believers in Jesus, and he will come again. And that is more certain than the very existence of

heaven and earth. It's more certain than the continuation of heaven and earth. It's more certain than anything else we could know or understand. But that challenge or that promise is challenged from time to time by people or even by our own hearts and minds sometimes as we begin to wonder about the return of Jesus Christ.

Peter tells us in 2 Peter chapter 3 that there will be scoffers in the last times. In verse 3 and 4, he says, scoffers will come in the last days, and they're going to say, where is the promise of his coming? And they'll also say, all things continue as they were from the beginning. That in the last days, he says, there's going to be those who question. You know, Jesus said he would come again. And you Christians have been saying that for 2,000 years. Where is it?

But you know, everything just continues to go on as it's always gone on. And history, you know, is continuing to be written as we continue to live our lives and do what we do and progress is made and so on and so forth. And so where is the coming that has been promised? Scoffers will come, Peter says. The return of Jesus will be questioned and mocked. But Peter goes on in that passage to say, you know what? They willfully forget Jesus.

That creation itself exists by the word of God. And that there was a destruction that happened already in the flood that happened by the word of God. And that the heavens and earth that exist now are preserved by the same word of God. The word of God is willfully forgotten by those who mock and question the return of Jesus. And that is

It's the word of God that has been fulfilled and been preserving everything throughout all of history. The word of God, Jesus spoke creation into existence, Colossians tells us. He continues to hold all things together. He's destroyed the earth with a flood before and he will do so again in the tribulation period. These are all consistent with the word of God and what God has said and God is faithful to his word. And so don't forget that.

or don't willfully forget, like Peter says, the reality is true. Jesus will come again, and that is absolutely certain. Now, sometimes, as believers even, we believe in the return of Jesus, but it kind of gets pushed to the back of our mind a little bit.

As we're living day to day, you know, as all things continue as they have, you know, we get involved in our routines, we get involved in our schedules, we get involved in the busyness, and there's lots of things going on. And that's why Jesus gave us the signs that he gave us in Matthew chapter 24 to say, listen,

you're going to need to be reminded and stirred up. You're going to need to be shaken out of your routine a little bit and remember and recall to your mind that the return of Jesus Christ is very near and that it is certain and it's imminent. That is, it can happen at any moment. It's absolutely certain, but there is one thing that's uncertain about the return of Jesus and that is the timing.

That's why he gave us the sign, so that we would be stirred up and reminded. But he didn't give us the schedule. In fact, the schedule is hidden from us. And that brings us to point number two. In verse 36 through 44, we have point number two, and that is watch diligently for the return of Jesus. The timing is unknown. And so what Jesus desires is for everyone to live with an expectation of his return.

He wants every believer, every person to be looking for Jesus to return, to be expecting that Jesus could come back at any time. In verse 36, Jesus says, He says,

And the return of Jesus is absolutely certain, but nobody knows the day or the hour. I think it's interesting. Even Jesus says, even the angels don't know. So there's the angels in heaven serving the Lord, but they don't know when all of this is going to unfold. They know it's true. They know it's going to happen. They know the plan of God, but they don't know when until, well, again, God's at the tree. He's counting. We just don't know what number he's counting to.

We know what's going to happen after he gets there. We know what's going to happen, you know, as all these things start to unfold. But we don't know exactly when. Jesus says, nobody knows the day or the hour. And so the result then he describes in verse 37. He says, as the days of Noah were, so also will be, or will the coming of the Son of Man be. Verse 38 says,

For as in the days before the flood they were eating and drinking, marrying and giving in marriage, until the day that Noah entered the ark and did not know until the flood came and took them away, so also will the coming of the Son of Man be. Jesus here gives another illustration. This one's from the Old Testament history. He says, look at the time of the flood. Now, you have Noah there called by God to build an ark to preserve himself and his family and

the animals that were created for the flood that was about to hit the earth. Now, Noah tells us in the scriptures, preached righteousness. He called people to repentance and he spent a hundred years building that ark. And so he had a very big, you know, visual illustration with his message to the world, but the world did not respond to that message. The people around him

did not turn from their ways. They didn't believe that the flood was coming. And so instead what happened was, well, people continued to live their lives as usual, expecting that the next day was just going to be like today and that things would continue as normal. And so that's what Jesus says. In the days before the flood, they were eating and drinking, marrying and giving in marriage until the day that Noah entered the ark.

Now think about that, right? So here's Noah and his family. They put the finishing touches. They go into the ark. Meanwhile, their neighbor is getting married and they're having a big wedding and a reception and all their family is there and they're celebrating and they're looking forward to 50 years together as husband and wife. But that's not going to happen because they got married on the day of the flood. And that very day, their wedding day is going to get rained out. It's going to be flooded and the world is going to be destroyed with the flood on that day. They were eating and drinking and

Just continuing on with life as normal up until the day of the flood. And so, you know, the flood came on a Tuesday, but they still had their meal plans for Wednesday that they didn't get to carry out. They had it all figured out. They were going to have some really good dinner on Friday, but they didn't get to Friday because on Tuesday, the earth was flooded. Now, it didn't actually happen on a Tuesday, or maybe it did. I don't know. But I'm just, you know, saying, look, it was, they had their plans. They had their schedules. They were just expecting life to continue and

And then in verse 39, it says, they didn't know until the flood came. They didn't know. They didn't expect anything different until the flood came. And now they understand we're not going to have dinner on Friday, but we're going to perish in this flood. The flood was announced. And yet at the same time, it was a surprise. And people kept living their lives as if things would continue. And Jesus says, that's exactly how it's going to be with the coming of the son of man.

That when Jesus returns, up to the very day that Jesus returns, people are going to be making their plans, having their schedules, preparing their meals, getting married. They're going to be continuing as if life is going to continue on for a long time to come up until the day of Jesus' return. Now, he is going to return. It has been announced, and yet at the same time, it's going to be

surprise. And Jesus will illustrate that a little bit more in verse 40 and 41. It says, then two men will be in the field. One will be taken and the other left. Two women will be grinding at the mill. One will be taken and the other left. And so picture that. There you are at work. Jonathan is at the airport in his nice looking TSA uniform with all his TSA buddies. And then suddenly they look and Jonathan's gone. Where's Jonathan? Did he take a bathroom break again? And

What happened to it? Where did he go? Suddenly he's gone. That's the idea. It's going to be work as, I mean, hey, normal schedule, normal life. Things will continue as normal. Two men will be in the field and one will be taken and the other left. And then two women will be grinding at the mill. You'll be working together, continuing on, having some fun, talking some gossip, whatever you ladies do. And then suddenly one's gone. Where'd she go? What happened? Just like the flood.

Things will continue. Days will continue. Routines will continue. Schedules will continue. And it will not be expected. But then all of a sudden, it will happen with no advance notice except for those signs that are to come. But no schedule, no announcement. No, okay, it's going to be on the 23rd of June, you know.

That there's no schedule and there's no like imminent thing that in the sense that, you know, well, everybody knows it's going to happen, right? It's going to be unexpected. No one knows the day or the hour, but Jesus will return for his church.

Again, we call it the rapture of the church. Paul talks about it in 1 Thessalonians 4, verse 17. He says, then we who are alive and remain shall be caught up together with them in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air, and thus we shall always be with the Lord. Here's the promise of God. Here's the absolute certainty in the return of Jesus that he will come and we will be caught up

believers in Jesus, followers of Jesus will be caught up to meet the Lord in the air. And there might even be people right next to us that don't go with us. They're left behind, but we will be caught up to be with the Lord. And there's not going to be five minute warning. Hey, five minute warning, by the way, Jesus is returning in five minutes. You know, get your affairs in order. Say the sinner's prayer. Get ready. Get ready.

That's not going to happen. It's just going to be, boom, it happened. And if you're left behind, it will be, well, now you're thinking about it. Now you're realizing it. But up until that time, you're planning your meals. You're planning your wedding. You know, you're going through your normal routine, expecting life to continue. And Jesus says to his followers, look, that shouldn't happen to you, that it's something that catches you off guard. Verse 42, he says, watch therefore.

for you do not know what hour your Lord is coming. So because it's going to be like this, because it's going to be like in the days of the flood where it just happened and nobody was expecting it, because it's going to be where people are working side by side and suddenly, boom, one of them is gone, because it's going to come as such a surprise and so fast. He says, watch therefore, because you don't know at what hour your Lord is coming. Jesus is coming back.

And he calls you to watch diligently for his return because he hasn't told you exactly when it's going to be. You know, if you get left behind, you're going to feel like you got robbed. And that's what he says in verse 43. But know this, that if the master of the house had known what hour the thief would come, he would have watched and not allowed his house to be broken into. I remember as a kid, my first experience with some type of robbery or burglary, it was a

Hanging out with one of my friends and not us doing the burglary, by the way. So we were with my friend. We were out and about with the whole family and we came back with the family to their house and we saw that the door had been busted open and so they wouldn't let us kids go inside. But the adults went inside, called the cops and watched this family go through, you know, the trauma of that experience of feeling violated and, you know, having all of that happen.

And it was a hard thing to watch. It was my first experience with it. But if we had known that that was going to take place, well, we would have rearranged the schedule, right? We would have, you know, set security and guarded the door and put things in place to protect ourselves from that robbery, right?

But that's not usually the way those crimes work. Usually they are, well, unexpected. And that's the point that Jesus is making. In a similar way, you're not going to know at what time the Lord is going to come. Now, if you knew, of course, yes, you would get ready. Of course you would get ready. Of course you would have things in order. Of course you would, you know, be ready for that if that schedule was announced and that day was announced. But it's not announced. It will not be announced. And so instead...

He calls us to be ready, ongoing, continually. Watch, therefore. He says in verse 44, therefore you also be ready for the Son of Man is coming at an hour you do not expect. What does it mean to watch diligently for the return of Jesus?

Maybe you would take that idea to watch diligently. And so you're like, okay, I got to check the headlines and see where the headlines match up with. Wow, look at that prophecy is fulfilled and that prophecy is fulfilled. And there's a lot of people who do that. And I wouldn't take that away from you if you do that. But that's not exactly what Jesus means when he tells you to watch. He's not saying everybody has to be an expert in the headlines and how that matches up with prophecy.

He's not saying that everybody has to be a prophecy expert, that you're supposed to know all the intricate details of every prophecy and be able to anticipate and figure out, well, the mark of the beast. Okay, it's 666. And what does it mean? And how is it going to be done? Is it a tattoo or is it a microchip or how's it going to take place? And Jesus is not, I mean, you can delve into that. You can speculate all you want. You can have fun with that. That's great. But that's not what Jesus is talking about when he tells you to watch diligently. Is he telling you to find the antichrist? Some people really have antichrist.

This desire, we got to find the Antichrist and figure it out and calculate the numbers. And it's going to be this person or that person. And that's not what Jesus is talking about when he tells us to watch diligently for his return. Here's how I would summarize what Jesus means when he says, watch. It means be ready to go. Be ready to go. That's what he means when he says, he says in verse 42, watch therefore, for you don't know what hour your Lord is coming. Then verse 44, therefore you also be ready. Be ready.

For the Son of Man is coming at an hour you do not expect. When Jesus is telling you to watch, he's not telling you to figure out all the prophecies. You can do that if you want. He's not telling you to search all the headlines. You can do that if you want. What he's telling you to do is to be ready, to have your life ready so that when he returns, you're ready to go. There's nothing left behind. There's nothing left undone of what he's called you to do.

Jesus illustrates this further in Matthew chapter 25. In chapter 24 and 25 of Matthew go together, they're one message. He goes on in chapter 25 to give the parable of the ten virgins. There's five wise and five foolish. And the idea here is that these girls are to be part of a wedding celebration. And so the groom has gone off to get the bride. That's how they did it in their custom. And so the bride is going to be the bride of the bride.

He would go get the bride. He would bring the bride back to his home that he's prepared for her. And they would have the wedding ceremony and celebration and feast and so forth. And so these 10 virgins are there waiting. The groom has gone to get the bride and it's taken longer than they expected. And so now it's late in the night. He's not yet back. They fall asleep. But the herald comes and says, hey, get ready. The groom's coming. The wedding party's coming. We're about to celebrate this.

the wedding for this couple. And so they hear the announcement and the five wise girls, they have oil for their lamps. And so they trim the wick and they're getting their lamp all set. And Jesus talks about the foolish. They didn't have extra oil. They weren't prepared. They weren't prepared for there to be this kind of delay. They didn't expect for there to be a delay. And so they didn't have oil for their lamps and they tried to get it from the

The other girls, and they said, no, we can't. We don't have enough for ourselves and you. You need to go get your own oil. And so they went off to get their own oil. But while they were gone, then the groom came back. The wedding party came and they entered in to celebrate the feast and the doors were shut. And afterwards, the girls who had no oil, they got the oil, they came back, but they were not able to enter in. They missed out because they were not ready to go. They were not prepared.

for the delay, they were not prepared for what they needed. They missed out because they were not ready. And Jesus ends that parable with verse 13 of Matthew 25 and says, So as you're picturing these, you know, five virgins outside the wall, unable to enter in, Jesus says, watch therefore, let that paint the picture for you.

That there are going to be those who enter in because they're prepared and they're ready to go. And there are going to be those who don't enter in because they're unprepared and they're not ready to go. And so therefore you need to watch. You need to be alert. You need to be ready to go. Watch diligently for the return of Jesus. And again, that doesn't necessarily mean you have to know how all the headlines correspond with prophetic messages.

scriptures. You don't necessarily have to have an expertise in prophecy and you don't have to know who the Antichrist is, but it means you need to be ready when Jesus returns. Think about it this way. If Jesus came back right now, before service is over today, is there anything that you would regret not doing? Is there anything you would regret that was left undone? That, well, God's put it on your heart. He's given you a desire for it, but you're

You haven't yet got around to it. Is there anything that God has instructed you? Anything that God has put upon your heart that you haven't done yet? And if you have those things that are outstanding, well, maybe you're not ready to go. Maybe you're not as prepared as you think you are. Now, of course, being ready for the Lord's return means that we need to be right with God. It means we need to be walking with God. But on top of that, on top of salvation,

God's called you to certain things and he's placed certain things in your life and on your heart. And there's some conversations perhaps that you need to have. And there's some things that he wants you to do. You just need to be on top of those things and ready to go. That you're not distracted and confused and off doing other things and unprepared for the return of Jesus Christ. Are you ready to go? Are your bags packed? Are you ready to go?

If the Lord came right now, would there be things that you would regret? Things that, obviously, when you're in the presence of the Lord, you're not going to be thinking about that. But you get what I'm saying, that you know there's things that are left undone. I always like to give Pastor Tom a little bit of a hard time when I was young. He would schedule a time to come pick me up from my house. And so my personality, my nature, what I like, whenever I'm going to be picked up by somebody,

I make sure that I'm out in the yard, out in the driveway, standing out front 10 minutes before the time that they told me they're going to be there. Because for me, it's just a horrible thought. Now, this is not an expectation on everybody, okay? But for me, it's just a horrible thought that

Someone would come to pick me up and I'm not ready and they have to get out and come to the door and knock on the door. To me, that's like, oh, that's a horrible, oh man, I hate that. That's a horrible thought. So I would be out front. But if you guys remember Pastor Tom back in the day, he's got much better. But 45 minutes, I'd be standing out there. Hour and a half, I'd be standing out and I would literally stand out there and

That was just, I couldn't, I couldn't take the thought even after an hour. He made me wait out there an hour, but I, I was like, no, I can't make him, make him get out of the car and come knock on the door. You know, like I just, I'm weird that way. But, but that's the idea. Even today. I mean, I don't mean literally today because I didn't get picked up today, but if someone is picking me up, if like, I just, I have to be ready. That's just part of my personality. But that's kind of like what God is asking you to do in regards to the return of Jesus Christ.

That you'd be ready that way, that your bags are packed, you're out front, you're ready to go. And that doesn't mean that you put your life on hold. We'll talk about that in just a few moments in the next point, that there's a life that God's called you to live and it involves work, it involves family, it involves school, it involves all of those things. It's not that you put your life on hold, but that the things that God has placed upon your heart, you have a priority upon them, you have an urgency on them and you're ready to go. Your bags are packed, you've done what God has called you to do.

Watch, be alert, and let those signs that Jesus gave, every time you hear about wars or rumors of wars or earthquakes or pestilence, let those be reminders to you

Let them stir up that urgency in your heart that you need to watch and be alert and be taking care of those things that God puts upon your heart. Whether it be a call to repentance on your heart, whether it be a direction for something, an outreach of some sort, a conversation with somebody, an expression of love, whatever it might be, that you respond, that you're alert, that you're waiting for and ready for the Lord's return.

Well, finally, point number three, we'll jump now to verses 45 through 51. Point number three is serve faithfully until the return of Jesus. His coming back is a certainty, absolutely without question. And so watch and be alert. But again, that doesn't mean you put your life on hold and do nothing, but that means you get engaged faithfully.

in serving God, in living the way that he's called you to live. Some people have taken the idea of Jesus's soon return as an excuse to be lazy. I mean, it is a nice convenient excuse, right? Hey, why bother mowing my lawn if Jesus is going to come back? You know, it's just a lot of work and it's not going to mean anything. Why bother finishing school if Jesus is going to come back? You know, because that's a lot of effort and it's just, you know, not going to get to use it.

Why bother? And it's an excuse for us many times to be lazy. And some people use it as an excuse to be foolish. Hey, might as well charge up those credit cards because Jesus is coming back soon. And so, you know, I can just enjoy all the benefits. I won't have to pay the debt because Jesus is coming back. And that is something that people have subscribed to over the years. But that's not what Jesus is calling us to do.

As we expect his return, as we look forward to his return, instead, it should inspire us and encourage us to dig in and be faithful to serve the Lord. Check out verse 45. It says, "'Who then is a faithful and wise servant "'whom his master made ruler over his household "'to give them food in due season? "'Blessed is that servant whom his master, "'when he comes, will find so doing.'"

Here Jesus gives another illustration, another picture. As you think about the return of Jesus, the uncertainty of it, he says, here's what a faithful servant looks like. The master is going away, and so he gives this servant responsibility. He says, servant, I'm charging you with the distribution of food to the whole household, and you need to make sure everybody gets fed.

You need to make sure everybody's taken care of and their needs are met. Now, if the master leaves this servant with that responsibility and goes away, when he comes back, if he finds that servant being faithful and giving the food to those who need food and distributing appropriately and handling things well while he's gone, Jesus says in verse 46, blessed is that servant. He's gonna be blessed. He's gonna be rewarded. He's going to be blessed by the master.

Because he was faithful to do what the master instructed him to do. Now Jesus will illustrate this even further again in Matthew chapter 25. After the parable of the wise and foolish virgins is the parable of the talents. Matthew 25, 14 through 30. And in that parable, Jesus talks about a master who is going away and he gives money to three servants.

To the first servant, he gives five talents. To the second servant, he gives two talents. And to the third servant, he gives one talent. Now the word talent makes us think about abilities, but it was a measure of weight. And so it was a certain amount of gold or a certain amount of silver that was given to these servants. And so each one is given a certain amount of money. The first servant takes his money and he invests it and he earns back double what he was given. Started with five talents, he ends with 10.

The second servant takes his money. He invests it and doubles it as well. He started out with two. He ends up with four. The third servant takes the money that was given to him and he buries it in the ground. And he says, well, at least this way, my master won't lose anything. That money that he gave me, he'll get it all back. So that should be good enough. He won't lose anything. Well, the master returns. He calls the servants in to give an account to say, hey, how'd you do with the money and the resources I gave you?

The first servant comes in and says, Master, you gave me five talents. I worked hard. I invested it. I spent it this way and built it up this way. And now I'm able to give you back 10 talents. I doubled the money that you gave me. And here's what Jesus says the master will say in Matthew 25, 21. His Lord said to him, well done, good and faithful servant. You were faithful over a few things. I will make you ruler over many things.

Good job, servant. You invested the money. You earned back double. You did well. Well done. Not only that, you'll be rewarded. I'm going to entrust you with more. Enter into the joy of your Lord. Now the second servant comes in. He had been given two talents. He earned four, earned two more. And the master says,

Gives him the same commendation. Well done, good and faithful servant. You were faithful over a few things. I'm going to entrust you with more things. Enter into the joy of your Lord. But the final servant comes in, the one who buried the talent. And he's thinking it's okay because as long as he didn't lose it, he should be fine. As long as he didn't, you know, lose money, he should be good. He's thinking that's enough. And so he brings it before his master. He says, here's your talent back.

I didn't lose any of it. You're welcome. And the master has a different response than he expected. In Matthew 25, 26, his Lord answered and said to him, you wicked and lazy servant. He says, you knew that I reap where I have not sown and gather where I have not scattered seed. And he's responding to the arguments that that servant was given. But notice how the master responds. He says, you wicked and lazy servant. And that's the contrast that Jesus is highlighting here.

The faithful servant versus the wicked and lazy servant. Now that servant wouldn't have thought that he was being wicked and lazy. He thought he was being safe. He was letting his fears overrule what the master had said. And so actually what he did was disobedience. The master gave him the money and said, put this to work. And the servant said, no, I'm too scared. I'll put it in the ground.

I'm too fearful. I don't want to. I don't feel like it. It doesn't sound like fun. I'll put it in the ground. I'm going to hide it. And see, the issue was not about whether he lost the money or made money. The issue was about his obedience to the master, and he was disobedient. He was wicked and lazy and used his fear as an excuse to disobey his master.

And that is the issue that Jesus is addressing here in chapter 24. It's just further illustrated here in chapter 25. Again, he says in verse 45 of chapter 24, who is the faithful and wise servant whose master made ruler over his household to give them food in due season. Now, if the master comes back and finds him being faithful to that, he's blessed, he's rewarded. But then he gives a warning in verse 48 through 51. Here's what it says.

But if that evil servant says in his heart, my master is delaying his coming and begins to beat his fellow servants and eat and drink with the drunkards, the master of that servant will come on a day when he is not looking for him and at an hour when he is not aware of and will cut him in two and appoint him his portion with the hypocrites. There shall be weeping and gnashing of teeth. Notice what the evil servant says. My master is delaying his coming.

as opposed to my master could come today. And so I need to be faithful and diligent today with what he's entrusted to me. The evil servant, the wicked servant, the lazy servant uses an excuse of he's probably not coming today to disregard and to disobey what the master has instructed. And Jesus says, the master is going to come back and catch that servant off guard. That servant will not be ready for the return of Jesus. He's not watching.

and he's not serving faithfully. And so he'll be dealt with, and there will be consequences for his unfaithfulness and disobedience to his master. Now, all of that to say, Jesus calls us to serve faithfully until his return. Whether you like it or not, you are a servant, and you have a master. God is your master. He is your God. He is your Lord. He is the one who reigns on high and

and you have a responsibility to him, and you are accountable to him, and he's coming back, and when he comes back, he will call you in to give an account for how you did with what he gave you. And if you were faithful with what he gave you, you'll be rewarded. Now, what has he given you? Well, there's a lot of things that we could consider. You could consider spiritual gifts. That's one

thing. Peter tells us to exercise those gifts as good stewards of the grace of God, that God's given this gift to you. He's given you a part in the body of Christ. And so you need to be faithful to that. And to not be faithful to that is wickedness. It's laziness. It's evil. It's an excuse to do what we want and to disregard what God has said. Now, God has also entrusted people to you. Maybe your

Your family, maybe people within the workplace, maybe people within the church. He's placed people around you. He's given you a responsibility in their lives. And he's called you to have an impact, to be an influence, to make a difference. You need to serve faithfully until the return of Jesus. He's given you time. He's given you strength. He's given you energy. He's given you mental capacity. You could go on and on. But again, the point is, you're a servant and you have a master.

And so here's what this means. You must hear from your master what he is instructing you to do so that you can serve faithfully until the return of Jesus. You see, you don't actually have the freedom. You have the freedom, but if you're going to follow Jesus, you don't have the freedom to just make whatever decisions you want to make and live however you want to live and do whatever you want to do. You don't get that freedom. As a follower of Jesus, you have a master.

And you are responsible, you are accountable to connect with your master, to hear from God so that as you're making decisions, you have his input and his direction so that as you're going in directions that he's leading you and you're following what he puts in your path and puts on your heart. You're doing what he says.

And again, even for us who've walked with the Lord for a long time, it's so easy for us to kind of fall out of that urgency and that priority of hearing from the Lord, what do I need to do? You know, we kind of get to a point many times where we're convinced we know what needs to be done and what decisions need to be made and what's going to be best and how things should go. And it's very easy for us to leave our master out of the picture. But if we're going to serve faithfully until the return of Jesus, we need to connect with Jesus.

And hear from him, Lord, what do you have for me today? And what direction would you have me to go? And there needs to be an urgency upon our heart because his return is near. As we're watching, as we're getting ready, that we're connecting with him and hearing his instruction for us and his commands to us and what he has entrusted to us, that we can serve faithfully and not use excuses to just disobey and live how we want to live, but to genuinely have a relationship with God.

to learn to hear His voice, that He can teach us and instruct us and direct us in the way that we should go. Ready or not, here Jesus comes. He's at the tree. He's counting. We don't know exactly the time. He's counting to a number. We don't know what the number is. One, two, three. We don't know when it's going to stop. But when the Father says, now's the time. He's the only one who knows. When He says, now's the time. All of this is going to happen fast.

In a moment, in the twinkling of an eye, 1 Corinthians 15 says, believers will be caught up to be with the Lord. And two people will be working, one will be taken and the other left. Two people over here will be working, one will be taken and the other left. And so we're to watch diligently, to be ready, to have our bags packed and anything that God's put upon our heart to make sure it's a priority and to do it, to live it out and put it into practice. Being connected to the Father and hearing from Him that we might serve faithfully and

Because over and over and over, Jesus made the point, you're going to stand before God and give account for how you did with what he gave you. Serve faithfully until the return of Jesus, that you could hear the words, well done, good and faithful servant. Enter into the joy of your Lord. Let's pray. Lord, as we consider the reality of your return, the absolute certainty, Lord, that you will come back and

Your people will be caught up to meet you in the air to forever be with the Lord. I thank you, God, that we have that hope and that promise. There's great joy in that. There's great hope in that. Lord, I pray that you would help us to hold fast to those truths and

As we see the signs, as we see earthquakes and famines and wars and pestilence and all of those things happening more and more with greater intensity, I pray that you would allow those things to stir up the reminder in our heart, Lord, that there would be a fire within us, the reality of your return and it's drawing near, Lord, that we would recognize, as Paul said, it's high time to awake because our salvation is nearer than when we first believed.

but it's getting closer and closer and it's easy for us to get duller and duller, but Lord, help us to be stirred up by these signs, these reminders, Lord, that we would recognize you are coming again. It's absolutely certain. And you've called us to watch, to be ready, to have our bags packed, that when we're caught up to be with you, whether there's no regrets, there's nothing left undone,

but Lord, that we've served you faithfully. I pray that that would be true for each one of us, God. Help us to know you, to draw near to you, to hear from you, and to live out in obedience the things that you've called us to. And Lord, of course, we know that this must first begin by being right with you, by receiving the forgiveness that you offer, to be cleansed of our sins and have the hope of eternity. And so, Lord, I pray.

that you would help people to look to you, to trust in you, to believe in Jesus and receive the forgiveness for their sins. In Jesus' name I pray, amen. We pray you have been blessed by this Bible teaching. The power of God to change a life is found in the daily reading of his word. Visit ferventword.com to find more teachings and Bible study resources.