MATTHEW 24 PREPARE FOR THE END OF THE AGE2020 Teaching by Jerry B Simmons

Teaching Transcript: Matthew 24 Prepare For The End Of The Age

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 2020.

Matthew chapter 24 is an exciting chapter in many ways. It's a passage where Jesus talks about the things that are to come. And so there's prophecies that are bound up in this chapter and many things that are very interesting to consider and exciting to look at. He's with the disciples here in his final days of ministry leading up to his time going to the cross. And in doing so, they have their last visit to the temple.

And as they visit the temple, they're walking away from the temple and the disciples kind of nudge Jesus and they say, look, look behind you at the temple. And man, isn't it impressive? The temple itself and the buildings around it, there's massive stones that make up the temple and they're such beautiful buildings. There had been much efforts and much work put into the building and the beautification of the temple. And so they're just standing there in awe.

and inspired by the magnificence of the temple. And as they're in awe of the temple, Jesus kind of brings them back to reality a little bit. As they're kind of caught up in what man has done and what, you know, they have created, Jesus says, I want you to remember something.

All of this beauty, all of this magnificence, this huge structure, this beautiful building, it's going to be brought down completely. Not one stone will be left upon another. And that is a truth not only of the temple. It was fulfilled later on in 70 AD when the Romans conquered Jerusalem and the temple was brought down brick by brick, stone by stone.

But it's important to consider this as we look at the things that we see around us and the things that we build, the things that we create as individuals or as humanity. And to recognize that there are temporary things all around us and that the greatest things that we can build and create are

They're not going to last forever, but everyone will be dismantled piece by piece, brick by brick. And Jesus here uses this to draw his disciples' attention away from the temporary and away from being so impressed by what we can do and to be reminded of the future that is to come and the reality of eternity. Well, as Jesus does this, it prompts some questions within the disciples.

If that's going to be the case and this isn't going to last, we're going to enter into a new era and the era of eternity, then what are the signs of that? How do we know that this is about to happen? And that's why Jesus begins to give the things that he gives in this prophetic chapter. Now, there was a time in my life where

Looking at this chapter, perhaps, or studying other prophecies, it would be something that was really exciting. Something to be like, you know, you look at these things, you go, wow, this is so cool. And there is definitely a lot of excitement around the things that are of a prophetic nature, and rightfully so. And yet at the same time, as we consider this passage this morning, I think there's some other aspects of this that the Lord wants to minister to us about.

There are things to get excited about when we think about eternity and what God has in store for us. Absolutely. And there's reason for us to take joy and to lift up our eyes because our redemption draws near. There's reason for us to have great hope and joy and excitement in looking towards those things. But at the same time, here as Jesus shares these things, he instructs his disciples about some of the difficulties that are to come.

And so this morning I've titled the message, Prepare for the End of the Age. And there's a need for us to prepare ourselves, to put some effort into making ourselves ready for the life that is to come. But before we enter into eternity, well, there's some history that is yet to be written that we need to walk through. And so Jesus prepares us for that, that we might be prepared for the events that will unfold.

And so let's walk through some of these things. We're going to start out in verses 1 through 10 for point number one this morning, and that is, do not be troubled by the sorrows. In order for you to be prepared for the end of the age, the first thing that Jesus wants to remind us of and encourage us in and help us through is the sorrows that will be unfolding as a result of the end of the age coming to a conclusion.

The end of the age, he says in verse 6, you will hear of wars and rumors of wars. See that you are not troubled, for all these things must come to pass, but the end is not yet. For nation will rise against nation, and kingdom against kingdom. And there will be famines, pestilences, and earthquakes in various places. And then in verse 8, he says, all these are the beginning of sorrows.

Jesus, as he talks about the signs of his return, the signs of eternity, he describes them differently than we might expect. Not as, these are the cool things to look out for, right? These are the exciting headlines to watch out for. No, he actually describes these as sorrows. And so he gives his disciples some key indicators to pay attention to.

But Jesus describes them as sorrows, the beginning really of sorrows. And what are these sorrows? Well, he talks about war and rumors of war and nations against nations and kingdoms against kingdoms. He talks about famines, pestilence, earthquakes in various places, as well as persecution.

Now, when thinking about these signs as sorrows, it helps us to have a little bit of perspective because in each of these things, you can understand why sorrow would be the appropriate word. Wars and rumors of wars do not produce, they don't produce things that are, you know, just full of rainbows and sunflowers and butterflies and fluffy pillows. And that's all the good stuff I can think about, right? That,

War and rumors of wars and nations against nation, when it takes place, it leaves behind devastation. Sorrow is the appropriate word to talk about wars and rumors of wars. There's casualties of war. Soldiers in fighting against each other are wounded, harmed, killed. It's not just the soldiers that are affected, of course, but their families are also affected. And, you know, moms lose sons and

Families lose relatives and loved ones and friends lose each other. And so there's great sorrow. But then also we recognize that it's not just the soldiers who are fighting that are affected. There's innocent people who are harmed and hurt and devastated by war as well. And so as Jesus talks about wars and rumors of wars, although we are excited about war,

What he has said and what he will do at the same time, we recognize there's sorrows that will be unfolding as we reach the end of the age. Not only are there going to be wars and rumors of war, but there's going to be famines, Jesus says. And famines, you can understand as just, you know, the lack of rain, but it doesn't just have to be that kind of environmental, you know, there is no rain type of thing, but famines speak about hunger, right?

And hunger is something that has been going on in the world, of course, since the beginning. But there is severe hunger and famine continuing to take place throughout the world. And what Jesus is saying is that this is going to continue and increase as we draw near to the end of the age. Let me just throw out a few numbers here, a few statistics about hunger in the world. There's a

A lot of study and data, you know, looking into these things and trying to resolve worldwide hunger. There's an estimated 795 million people in the world that are deficient nutritionally, that are not able to have the food and the nutrition that they need. So it's about one in nine people on the earth essentially are hungry.

of the world, Asia, the continent of Asia is the one that has the most hungry people. It's about two-thirds of all the hungry people in the world are located on the continent of Asia. It becomes a little bit more difficult to think about and consider when you think about the children that are hungry and they estimate that poor nutrition causes nearly half of deaths in children under five years old worldwide.

So of all the kids that die worldwide under five years old, almost half, 45% of those are due to poor nutrition. They're due to hunger issues, starvation, and things surrounding that. Another estimated number is that 66 million of primary school-aged children come to class hungry. And so...

five-year-old kid, six-year-old kid, seven-year-old kid coming to school, coming to class, and they're hungry when they get there. Not just because they just have a raging appetite and just had a hearty breakfast and they're just waiting for lunch, but they don't have food. And so they're heading to school hungry. Now, Jesus said famines would be part of these sorrows that would take place.

This is something that we can see going on and we can see developing and increasing as we progress in history. Another sorrow or sign that Jesus shared was pestilences. I'm sure the thing that comes immediately to mind right now is the coronavirus, right? Carlos Jacobi

Carlos Jacobo told me that there's nothing worse than the norcovirus, so you got to watch out for that. But coronavirus is getting the headlines right now, right? 37,000 or so infected, about 800 deaths so far, and yet others are quick to remind us, you know, the regular flu causes more deaths, you know, so far this season than the coronavirus, you know, strain and all of these things that you could look at. It's

A lot of things are developing around the world, diseases, things that we thought were eradicated and done, and then they're making a comeback. And this idea of pestilences or diseases is something we could spend a lot of time thinking about and recognizing and understanding. It's an appropriate thing to call it a sorrow. There's families devastated, people hurt, lives lost.

Earthquakes in various places, Jesus says. And earthquakes over the past few decades have been increasing significantly and continues to take place. We continue to see that trend. And so there's people being shaken. There's buildings being destroyed. There's families being wrecked. There's tsunamis being formed. And all of these things we continue to see. And we can see the devastation as a result of it. And again, the appropriate word is sorrow.

And then he talks about persecution in verse 9 and 10. Verse 9 says, Now there's a couple ways to look at these verses and understand what Jesus was saying. It's possible he's speaking specifically about the Jewish people.

And so there he's describing not so much Christian persecution, but anti-Semitism, which is an interesting thing to consider because there is a rise of anti-Semitism that we continue to see. And of course, we look back at the Holocaust and that is kind of like the biggest example of it. And yet there continues to be great animosity and persecution and attack against the Jewish people around the world. And it continues to increase year by year.

But you can also look at this and understand that Jesus perhaps is talking about the Christians. He's talking about his followers and the persecution that Christians will face. There's, again, in a bunch of data gathered and statistics, you can look at...

I forget the name of the website. I think it's persecution.com. It's the voice of the martyrs. And there's information there about the persecution. We're like in this little Southern California bubble. We don't see a lot of these sorrows. We're not really face-to-face with a lot of these many days and most of the time. But around the world,

It's estimated that there's about 260 million Christians who are facing persecution, that is experiencing some type of violence against them as a result of their Christian faith.

So we're talking about, you know, people being attacked, people being raped, people being murdered, churches being burned down, businesses, you know, being attacked or shut down, and these kinds of things that are happening around the world. It's more this year, 2019, than previous years before it. It continues to increase. And again, we may not be

completely aware of it because it's, you know, we're kind of secluded in our nice little bubble where, you know, it's just hard for us to get to church on a Sunday morning because, you know, I was tired from watching the game last night or whatever, right? Like we live in a whole different reality than many of the Christians around the world. When you think about the persecution, you think about the imprisoned, you think about those who are suffering for their faith. And again, the only appropriate way to describe these things is sorrows, right?

Jesus says, kind of summing up all these things, these are the beginning of sorrows. This word sorrow, it speaks of the pain of childbirth. Sorry, Liz, I didn't mean to bring this up, but the pain of childbirth. And childbirth pains come towards the end with greater frequency and more intensity. And this is the way that these end time sorrows will take place.

These are things that have happened ever since the beginning. These are things that have been going on ever since, you know, sin entered into the world. And as a result of sin, these things continue to increase and will continue to increase with intensity, with frequency up until the end of the age. And so Jesus says, these are pains. These are sorrows that are going to be happening more and more to a greater degree.

And looking at all of these things, of course, it can be affecting us emotionally. It can be stressing us, perhaps, internally. It can be having this kind of impact upon us. But going back to verse 6 for a moment, notice what Jesus says. And you will hear of wars and rumors of wars. See that you are not troubled, for all these things must come to pass, but the end is not yet.

As Jesus talks about these sorrows, it's appropriate to understand these are sorrows, these signs that he gives, they're impacting people's lives, and there's going to be so much hurt and devastation as a result of these things that are happening in the world. And yet Jesus tells us, see that you are not troubled. In order for us to be prepared for the end of the age,

He says, look, I want you to know and be aware, first of all, these things are going to happen. These things must come to pass, Jesus says. This is the inevitable result of sin in the world. And so there is going to be these kinds of sorrows and devastations because of a world that is in rebellion against God, because of a world that is fallen from a relationship with God. There is going to be these sorrows.

And so he says, don't be troubled. See that you're not troubled. In other words, prepare yourself so that when you see these things happen and increase and intensify, that you are not troubled by it. The word troubled, it means to cry aloud. It's sounding of an alarm, to cry out in fear, to scream. Jesus says, don't be troubled like that. Don't be surprised. Don't be alarmed. Don't panic.

He's not saying don't care. As he talks about the sorrows and we recognize that all of these things are affecting people severely and there's great harm and hurt as a result of all of these sorrows. He's not saying, you know, just don't care about all the people who are affected by these things. No, he's saying, don't panic. This is what I told you is going to take place.

This isn't a surprise. It's not a shock. It's not reason for you to scream out an alarm. I can't believe. Listen, the coronavirus, you know, it's a big scare. It's in all the headlines. You hear about it every day. But what's coming is going to be a hundred times worse than that. Be prepared for that. Prepare yourself for the end of the age so that you're not troubled, so that you're not panicking, so that you're not screaming with alarm.

When you see the wars ramp up, when you see the earthquakes multiply, when you see these things unfold, don't be surprised and don't panic. These are sorrows. They're signs that the end is coming. And as you see them increase, as you see them become more frequent, you can see the indication that we are nearing the end. Now, understanding these as sorrows is also important for us in

helping us to prepare because there's going to be not only the physical aspects of all of these things, but there's going to be a lot of questions that you're going to have to wrestle with for yourself and perhaps with others around you. There's the age-old question, how could a God of love, and then you can fill in the blank after that, how can a God of love allow this kind of disease to

How can a God of love allow this kind of famine? How could God allow hungry kids to come to school hungry? How could God allow that if God is a God of love? How could God allow this type of person to come to power? How could God allow? How could God let? How could God? There's all of these questions that will be wrestled with and grappled with. And Jesus is saying, look, you need to prepare yourself now,

Because at the end of the age, these things are going to intensify and increase. You're going to have to wrestle with some hard truths, some hard doctrines. And there's answers. There's worthwhile conversations. There's discussions that need to be had and things that you can wrestle with and should wrestle with. But if you're unprepared for these kinds of questions, you're going to be troubled by this sorrow. There's a Christian songwriter,

worship leader. He wrote several worship songs I shared about him some time back. He came out a few months ago saying, I'm genuinely losing my faith. I know I've, you know, led worship and been part of moves of the spirit and, you know, been part of these encounters with God and walking with God. I've written worship songs. I've, you know, been part of all these things, but I just don't know if I'm going to continue in this walk with God or not. And the things that he was wrestling with

Really come back to these sorrows that Jesus mentioned. How could a God of love allow this? Let this happen. How could this be going on if God is on the throne? How could this be happening? And these things that he's wrestling with are things that every one of us are going to have to wrestle with as we see these sorrows increase and intensify.

The Apostle Paul wrote a lot about the things that are to come and speaking prophetically about the rapture of the church, the tribulation period, the Antichrist, all of those things that are really important to understand doctrinally. And I'm not trying to explain all those things this morning. But as he was writing about those things, one thing that I found interesting in thinking about them this week, in 1 Thessalonians, as he writes a lot about the rapture of the church and he establishes the doctrine of the rapture there in 1 Thessalonians 4.

He goes on into chapter 5 to talk a lot about the Antichrist and to explain the role of the Antichrist in the world and in those final days. And as Paul talks about these things, he gives the Thessalonians instruction for how they're to relate to one another. And notice the word that he chooses to use. 1 Thessalonians 4.18, he says, therefore, comfort one another with these words. In chapter 5, verse 11, he says, therefore, comfort each other and edify one another with

just as you also are doing. Looking ahead can be exciting. Looking at the future, looking at, you know, things that God has in store for us, looking at things happening in the headlines that are written about in the scriptures, there can be a spark of excitement there. And that's not necessarily wrong. But at the same time, I think the Lord wants us to remember this morning, along with those headlines comes a lot of people who are hurting, comes a lot of people who are wounded, comes a lot of people who are affected, right?

And there's going to be some questions more and more as we draw near to the end. We need to be prepared so that we're not troubled by the sorrows. And one of the ways that we prepare is we comfort one another. We help each other work through, talk through, face some of these difficulties. Comfort one another. Edify or build up one another. This morning I would ask you to consider, are you prepared for the end of the age? Are you ready to answer those questions?

Are you ready to see these sorrows? Are you ready to not panic when these things begin to play out? Well, along with this instruction about not being troubled, we're going to look at verses 4 through 14 for point number 2 this morning, and that is do not be deceived by the lies. Not only do we not need to be troubled by the sorrows, but we need to be careful. We need to prepare ourselves so that we are not deceived by

In verse 4 and 5, it says, Jesus here is giving his disciples practical instruction that they can begin to work on in light of the things that are to come. And so one thing is to make sure that they prepare themselves to not be troubled. But he also says here in verse 4, take heed and be prepared.

that no one deceives you. You need to prepare yourself so that you're protected against the deception that is to come. Satan is the father of lies. He's the inventor of lies. He's the creator of lies. Jesus says when Satan lies, he speaks his first language. It's his natural language. It's something that he's fluent in and comes easily for him. And so as we look

Towards those end times, to the end of the age, and all of these sorrows will increase and intensify in a similar pattern, deception will increase and intensify. And as Satan fights harder and harder and works more and more, deception and lies will increase and grow stronger. One form of that in verse 5 is the false messiahs.

Those who come on, Jesus says, and claim, I am the Christ and will deceive many. And that may or may not sound like a big threat to you or something that you need to be alarmed about or pay attention to. We do hear about those who rise up and claim to be Jesus from time to time. I think it's something that will be more apparent and more relevant as we draw near to the end. But I would also remind you,

The deception is not just limited to this one particular kind of those who claim to be Jesus, whether in the first coming or replacement of the real coming or a second coming or, you know, whatever, there's going to be all those kinds of deceptions and false messiahs that come. But jumping down to verse 11, Jesus goes on to say, then many false prophets will rise up and deceive many. And so not only will there be those who claim to be Jesus, but also those who claim to be

there will also be those who just bring a false message. They claim to have insight. They claim to have inspiration. They claim to have the answers, but they're false prophets. They don't have to do it. And typically when we think about false prophets, at least for me, I think about in the context of, you know, the Christian realm, the Christian church, right?

And so I might think of, you know, people who were prominent preachers or pastors and then began to teach false doctrine or bad doctrine. You might think of, you know, some people on the TV or on the radio or someone that you know about that, yeah, they claim to teach the Bible, but they teach a different message. And, oh, that's a false prophet. And certainly that is true. But I would also suggest and remind you that false prophets don't have to claim to teach the Bible, right?

They don't have to claim to be Christian. They don't have to do any of that. That actually many of the things that we hear on the radio, on YouTube, in the news, wherever it is that it might be, that there's false prophecies being declared. There's false prophets speaking nonstop, 24-7, nonstop.

There is so many lies. There is so many things that are completely contrary to what God has said and what God has revealed. There's agendas that are being promoted. There's philosophies that are being established. There's things that are completely contrary to God, but are being promoted as the truth. And there is many who are being deceived.

This is one of the sorrows that we could consider that are increasing and unfolding right before our eyes. Paul tells Timothy in 1 Timothy 4, verse 1, the Spirit expressly says that in latter times some will depart from the faith, giving heed to deceiving spirits and doctrines of demons. Paul says, look, the Holy Spirit clearly says this. There will be people who are part of the church who

who abandon the church, who abandon the truth to then pursue doctrines of demons. And Paul is not saying there that then, you know, there's this Christian who says, oh, I want to worship demons, you know, let's go do that. That's not what he's saying. What he's saying is that they buy into doctrines that have their inspiration from the demonic world. It doesn't have to have anything necessary to do with demons. It might have instead more to do with gender identity.

or marriage and what that is and how that's defined. It doesn't have to be the bowing down before demonic statues. It can be the buying into the philosophies and lies that are being told all around us. Many false prophets will rise up and deceive many. Verse 12, and because lawlessness will abound, the love of many will grow cold.

There's going to be this contrast. There's going to be this battle in a sense of the truth that will go forth into all the world and then the lies that are being told. And because so many are buying into the lies, the love of many will grow cold. There's going to be a cooling off.

a departing from, a pull away from the truth of God. Paul told Timothy in 2 Timothy chapter 4, the time will come when they will not endure sound doctrine, but according to their own desires, because they have itching ears, they will heap up for themselves teachers, and they will turn their ears away from the truth and be turned aside to fables. It's not that, you know, people won't want to hear from anybody. It's that we want to hear what we want to hear, and so there will be heaping up. And so the

Not only is there the reality of false prophets, but we see the heaping up of false prophets. People who will tell other people what they want to hear. And so there's this openness, this receiving of. And Jesus warning us in advance says, take heed that you're not deceived. Take heed to yourself.

Prepare yourself to face some really strong deception and serious lies. It's going to come subtly. It's going to come, you know, through very clever arguments, through like impressive, persuasive words. It's going to sound amazing, but it will not be the truth. Here's another quote from the Apostle Paul, 2 Thessalonians 2.

He tells the Thessalonians, he warns them, the coming of the lawless one is according to the working of Satan with all power, signs, and lying wonders, and with all unrighteous deception among those who perish because they did not receive the love of the truth that they might be saved. Here, Paul explains, as you see the end approach, as you see the lawless one coming to power, it's gonna be in accordance with the work of Satan. There's gonna be powerful things happen. There's gonna be miracles that take place.

And here we get some insight into how to prepare ourselves so that we're not deceived by the lies. You ready? Here's how not to be deceived by the lies. Love the truth. Love the truth.

Be passionate for and pursue the truth that God has revealed and the truth that God declares. Are you ready to face the lies? Are you ready to discern the deceptions? Are you prepared? We're told in the book of Acts that the Bereans were more noble than the Thessalonians because they heard what Paul said and then they searched the scriptures to see whether it was the truth.

That's the kind of people that we need to be in order to be prepared for the end of the age. The deceptions are going to increase. The lies are going to get stronger and more persuasive. And so we need to be the kind of people that don't just accept what others tell us, don't just believe the philosophies that we're given, but that we search the scriptures to find out, is this really what God says? Is this the truth that I should live by?

Well, moving on to verses 15 through 35, we're going to see point number three this morning, and that is read and understand the signs. We're just going to hit a couple things here. We're not going to really dive into this, and here's where a lot of the prophetic events and things that will happen during the end of the age and the tribulation period and all of that are going to take place. But Jesus highlights one aspect of it in verse 15. Verse 15.

He says, therefore, when you see the abomination of desolation spoken of by Daniel the prophet standing in the holy place, whoever reads, let him understand. Then let those who are in Judea flee to the mountains. Here, Jesus makes reference to an event as the abomination of desolation. What is that? What is he talking about there? Well, he encourages you, you go figure it out. Let the reader understand, he says, whoever reads.

Notice he says, whoever reads. This is individual. You, you find out what is it talking about, the abomination of desolation. What are these events? How do they all fit together? It doesn't say whoever teaches, let him understand. I don't have to understand this. You have to understand this. I have to understand it myself personally.

But you can't like just push off and say, ah, there's other, you know, smart people. They figure out all those, you know, prophecy things and those end times events. And, you know, let others worry about those things. You know, I just, you know, I have a hard time just reading the Bible. So I'm not going to worry about those things. And Jesus says, whoever reads, let him understand.

He goes on to say, then let those who are in Judea flee to the mountains. And there's a little bit of an insight there. There's a key there because, well, he's now dealing with specific events that are happening in the nation of Israel, in the geographic region of Israel, in the region of Judea, and they're to flee to the mountains. And there's important understanding to the events that Jesus is talking about in light of that.

Let me give you a quick overview just to help set some perspective. But again, not trying to teach all of these things or explain all of these things. Right now we are living in the church age, but that age is going to come to an end. It will probably not come to an end at a height of glory and magnificence. It's probably going to come to an end where it looks like it's going to be absolute defeat. Think about it like this. When Noah was rescued in the ark...

and God brought judgment upon the world, it wasn't at like the height of glory where Noah was at like the peak and he had the biggest, you know, ministry possible. It was no, all that was left who were believers was Noah and his family. And when it looked like all hope was lost, when it looked like nobody would know God or walk with God, then that's when the judgment came. It was the end of that age and God brought in a new age through the flood, through the ark.

in a similar way the end of the church age don't be surprised if it's not the church reached the greatest point in history you know more impressiveness you know than ever before in all history you know and more acceptance than ever before in all history it very well might end up being where it looks like god's lost when the rapture of the church takes place before the seven-year tribulation it might look like all hope is lost don't be surprised

After the church age will come seven years of tribulation where there will be an abomination of desolation, tribulation like the world has never seen before, cataclysmic events like the sun being darkened and stars falling from the sky. That time period will end with the return of Jesus Christ. And as Jesus returns, he will establish his kingdom and usher in eternity. Hey, John, can you help that group of people outside? Thanks, man.

Going to usher in eternity and bring about his kingdom and his purposes. That's a quick look. There's lots of events, lots of details, cool things. We're not going to get into them this morning, but you need to understand these things. Let him who reads understand. Verse 32. 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. So you also, when you see all these things, know that it is nearer

at the doors. Jesus says, look, you need to pay attention. Learn the lesson of the fig tree. You know when, you know, the season is changing, you can see the evidence in the tree. You see that begin to produce leaves and you know that summer is near. In a similar way, look at all these sorrows. Look at the lies and the deception. Look at the things that are unfolding around you and you know these events and so pay attention and recognize that we are drawing near. Recognize that things are progressing.

He says in verse 34, Now there's been a lot of discussion about what exactly that means. And we can look at certain dates and, okay, a generation from there. And how long is a generation? And there's all this, you know, math that you can do. That's one option. But I would also encourage you to consider this also might be saying, what Jesus is saying here is that this is going to happen within one generation. Right?

Now, once this hits, the end of the age, once that starts, this series of events that has been established, it's not going to progress over then 100 years, but within one generation. This is all going to happen very fast. It's going to come down very quickly, very swiftly. Heaven and earth will pass away, Jesus says, but my words will by no means pass away. Read and understand the signs. Be prepared for the end of the age.

There's a lot of events that are gonna happen. Some before the rapture, some after the rapture, some during the tribulation, some before, some after. There's all these events. Be prepared, read ahead. Understand the signs. See the sorrows. Pay attention so that you're ready when the end of the age is finally upon us. Well, the final thing to consider, looking at verses 36 through 51. Again, we're not covering all those verses, but just hitting a couple highlights here.

To be prepared for the end of the age, you need to be a faithful servant. In verse 36, Jesus says, The reason why you need to be prepared is because you don't know. Nobody knows when all of this is going to happen exactly. We can see the signs. We can see the seasons. We can see the sorrows and the intensifying of them.

But we don't know exactly when this is going to happen. And it could happen today. The rapture of the church could take place today. The unfolding of the end times events could begin right now before even service is over. Nobody knows the day or the hour. He says, as it was in the days of Noah, that's how it's going to be in the coming of the Son of Man. How was it in the days of Noah? You know, the day that the ark door was closed and the flood came on the earth, did you know that day people were having feasts and getting married and

People were picking their flowers for their ceremony. Oh, this is going to be so beautiful. And then the flood. Jesus says, just like that, when the end of the age happens, people are going to be picking out, you know, their prom dresses. They're going to be like, oh, this is going to be so great when he asked me out. And it's going to be amazing. People are going to be planning their wedding and their vacations and their retirements and remodeling their kitchen. And oh, when it's all done, it's going to be awesome. We're remodeling our kitchen right now. So that's why it's on my head.

There's going to be just life as usual right up until the end. The flood was an announced surprise and so is the end of the age. And so Jesus says in verse 42, watch therefore, because you don't know the hour. You don't know the time. Verse 44, therefore you also be ready for the Son of Man is coming at an hour you do not expect. Watch, be ready. How do you do that? How do you watch and be ready? Does that mean you just like read the headlines and try to like match the verse that fits the headline and

Try to have all this prophecy stuff memorized. Is that how you are ready and watching? No, Jesus goes on to explain. Verse 45. Here's what Jesus says. Here's how to be ready. Do what God is calling you to do.

how to be watchful and alert and prepared for the end of the age, you hear from God and then do what he says. Be a faithful servant. He goes on to give the contrast, a wicked servant who thinks, I've got time later on, I'll start doing what God wants me to do. And that's an evil servant. That's a wicked servant. But a faithful servant, a prepared servant is one who is hearing from God and doing what he says. So I would ask you to consider this morning. Is there anything that God has asked you to do

that you haven't done yet? Is there anything outstanding in the things that God has called you to do and led you to do and prompted you to do? Is there anything outstanding that he has placed before you, but that thus far you've left undone? Be a faithful servant. If Jesus came back right now, would you have any regrets?

Would you be like, you know, being caught up into the air, but while you're up there, you know, you're on the way, you're thinking, oh man, I didn't have that conversation. I never apologized for that. I never made that right. I never reached out to that person. I never showed love in this way. I never, there was these things that God had impressed upon my heart, things that God spoke to me about, but I didn't do it. There's the opportunity for us now to be faithful servants. Are you prepared? Are you prepared for the end of the age?

The troubles, the sorrows, they're coming. Don't be troubled. Don't be alarmed. Don't panic when you see that happen. Prepare yourself to face those. Prepare yourself to answer the tough questions. Prepare yourself to wrestle with those doctrines. And you might think, well, what can I do about those sorrows that are even happening right now? Hear from God and then do what he says. Don't be deceived by the lies. Satan has a full-fledged campaign to trick you.

to deceive you and to keep you from knowing God and his word. Read and understand the signs. Pay attention to what is going on. Most important, make sure that you're connecting with God, hearing from him and doing what he says. Be a faithful servant and you'll be prepared for the end of the age. Let's pray. Lord, we thank you for your word. And the reminder and exhortation this morning is,

to be ready and prepared, to be equipped. Lord, it's much easier to just bury our head in the sand, to just go along with the flow of everything that's happening around us. Lord, I pray that you would help us to not do that, but to pay attention, to see the signs and to use them, Lord, as prompts and reminders to prepare ourself.

to know you, to walk with you, to hear from you, and to obey you. And so God, I pray that you would draw us near to you. Help us, Lord. Show us where we need to be faithful, where previously we've not been faithful. Show us, Lord, how to walk with you and help us, Lord, to hear your voice, that we might respond as you speak and be ready for all that is to come. We pray this in Jesus' name. 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.