I invite your attention to the
Gospel according to Matthew chapter 24. The 24th chapter of the Gospel
according to Matthew, the first book in the New Testament. God willing, we're going to expound
a passage this morning. Verses 29 through 44. Now let me set the background
for you. In the 22nd chapter of Matthew's
Gospel, the ministry of Jesus is coming to an end. His opponents have waxed bold
against him and he is now in Jerusalem and they come to gang up on him
in a tag team, as it were. The various sects of the Jews
came, including the Pharisees, and the Herodians, and the Sadducees,
and all these disagreed with each other, but in Jesus they
had a common enemy, and they came one by one. He confounded
every one of them. Then a lawyer stood up and he
questioned Jesus and Jesus silenced him. And then he, in the 23rd chapter, he gave just about the only denunciation
he ever gave, at least lengthy, woe to you scribes, Pharisees,
hypocrites, And he exposed them. And then we come to the 24th
chapter. And in the beginning of this
24th chapter we read that Jesus went out and departed from the
temple. And his disciples came to him
for to show him the buildings of the temple. It was actually
a complex a number of buildings and a wall. And Jesus said unto
them, after they pointed out the temple, look at this, I mean,
what a grand structure this is. And it was, Jesus says, see ye
not all these things? Verily I say unto you, there shall not be left here
one stone upon another that shall not be thrown down. and it came
to pass. He then begins to give an Olivet
Discourse on the Mount of Olives, and he begins to describe the
end time events. He first begins to describe what's
going to start happening very soon, and these would culminate
in that time period In the desolation, the abomination of desolation
coming into the temple, the Romans would bring it in. Spoken of,
prophesied by Daniel, fulfilled in 70 AD, Jesus said it's coming. The abomination of desolation
and Jerusalem shall be destroyed. And then, when Jesus had described
that, He said there's coming a time of great tribulation. Then in verse 29, immediately
after the tribulation of those days, shall the sun be darkened,
and the moon shall not give her light, and the stars shall fall
from heaven, and the powers of the heavens shall be shaken,
and then shall appear the sign of the Son of Man in heaven,
and then shall all the tribes of the earth mourn, and they
shall see the Son of Man coming in the clouds of heaven with
power and great glory." Now, I'm going to bring you back to
this in just a moment, but I want you to consider that express
phrase that is used. They shall see the Son of Man,
coming in the clouds of heaven with power and great glory. And
he shall send his angels with the great sound of a trumpet,
and they shall gather together his elect from the four corners,
over the four winds, and from one end of heaven to the other.
Now learn a parable of the fig tree. when his branch is yet
tender, and putteth forth leaves, ye know that summer is nigh.
So likewise ye, when ye shall see all these things, know that
it is near, even at the doors. Verily I say unto you, this generation
shall not pass till all these things be fulfilled. Heaven and
earth shall pass away, but my words shall not pass away. of
that day, the day of his return. But of that day and hour knoweth
no man, no, not the angels of heaven, but my Father only. But
as the days of Noah were, so shall also the coming of the
Son of Man be. For as in the days that were
before the flood they were eating and drinking, marrying and giving
in marriage until the day that Noe entered into the ark, and
knew not, until the flood came and took them all away. So shall
also the coming of the Son of Man be. Then shall two be in
the field, the one shall be taken and the other left. Two women
shall be grinding at the mill, the one shall be taken and the
other left. Watch therefore, for ye know
not what hour your Lord doth come. But know this, that if
the good man of the house had known and watched the thief would
come, he would have watched, and would not have suffered his
house to be broken into. Therefore, be ye also ready,
for in such an hour as ye think not, the Son of Man cometh. the day of his return. He's coming
back. His first coming was prophesied.
He fulfilled it just as it was prophesied. His second coming
is prophesied. He will fulfill it just as it
was prophesied. Today we're going to consider
these five points. The one who is coming the time
of his coming, the unexpectedness of his coming, the separation
at his coming, and the exhortation regarding his coming. So consider
that first point, the one who is coming. Who is he? He is,
he calls himself the Son of Man, the Son of Man. This was the term by which Jesus,
more than any other, referred to himself more than 30 times
in Matthew's Gospel. And six of these in this 24th
chapter, he called himself the Son of Man. Who are you? I am the Son of Man. When Jesus speaks of himself
as the Son of Man, we find three things regarding him. His humanity,
His humility, and His Messiahship. Now consider that first. This
term speaks of His humanity. He is the Son of God that denotes
His deity. He is the Son of Man that denotes
His humanity. He is God's only begotten son,
but he is one of many sons of man. But here he is said to be
a particular son of man. He is a son of man because, as
you'll find in Luke's Gospel, chapter 3, he could trace his
ancestry all the way back to the first man, Adam. All the
way back. Luke gives it to us, Jesus' recording,
or Jesus' genealogy, all the way back to Adam. Adam was the
first man, and Jesus was the son of a son of a son of a son
of a son of the first man. He is the Son of Man. Second,
this term speaks of His humility. Jesus did not go around telling
people, I'm the Son of God. Who are you? I am God's Son.
No, no, no. He did not do that. He is much
too humble to conduct himself in such a manner as that. Well,
who are you? I'm the Son of Man. Meaning,
I'm just like one of you. I am the Son of Man. Now, if
he is identified as the Son of God by others, he will admit
it. He did this when He was talking
with his disciples and he said, tell me, who do men say that
I, the son of man, that's what he called himself, who do they
say that I, the son of man, am? Well, some say you're Elijah,
you're one of the prophets, you're John the Baptist, come back to
life. I mean, they know you're someone
great, they just do not know which one. And then Jesus said,
But whom do you say that I, the Son of Man, am? And Peter said,
You are the Christ, the Son of the living God. And Jesus said
to him, Blessed are you, Simon bar Jonah, son of Jonah. Flesh and blood, humanity did
not reveal this to you, but my Father who is in heaven. So he did not deny that he was
the Son of God. It's just that he did not go
around bragging about it and boasting about it. His humility. Jesus was not one of those who
went around expecting you to call him by some high-faluting
title. He did not introduce himself
in such a manner as that. He'd simply say, I'm the Son
of Man. All right. The Son of Man denotes
His humanity, he descended from the first man. Denotes his humility,
he did not identify him as God's son, he identified himself as
man's son, but here he is the son of man. Now, in the text,
there is a definite Greek article, the son of man. All of us are sons of men. and sons of man. Every one of
us has an ancestry that goes back to the first man, Adam.
We cannot trace it, but it's there. But when Jesus said, I am the
son of man, he's talking about a very particular and a very
specific son of man. It is the one prophesied in Daniel
7, verses 13 and 14. And rather than have you turn
to the passage, I included it in your synopsis. You can follow
along with me with regard to Daniel 17, verses 13 and 14. Now, Daniel's prophecy reads
in these words, I, Daniel, was watching in the night visions
He is having perhaps some kind of an out-of-body experience,
which was not at all unusual for prophets. John the Beloved
probably had one, when he says, I was in the Spirit. God has
come down to give a vision, and Daniel has a night vision there,
when God is going to speak to him. And he says, and behold,
now watch this, one like the Son of Man. The Son of Man. Now this is not
the only time that term Son of Man is used in the book of Daniel. Do you remember when the three
Hebrew children are thrown into the fiery furnace? And the king has heated that
furnace seven times hotter than ever before. It was so big he
could look into it. And he says, did we not throw
three men in there? Yeah. Well, I see four men in there
and they're walking around as though they're not deeply troubled
by what's going on there. I know who three of them are
and the other looks like the Son of Man. This Son of Man is mentioned
here again in Daniel's prophecy. He says, And behold, one like
the Son of Man, now watch this, coming with the clouds of heaven. I saw one. I saw the Son of Man
coming on the clouds of heaven. He came to the Ancient of Days,
that's God, the Eternal One. And they, Jehovah's Angels, brought
Him, the Son of Man, near before Him. This is God, the Ancient
of Days, the Eternal Deity sitting on His throne. Here comes one
like the Son of Man on the clouds. He is brought close, the angels
take Him and bring Him right up to God's throne and present
Him there. Then to Him the Son of Man was
given dominion and glory and a kingdom that all peoples, nations
and languages should serve Him. His dominion is an everlasting
dominion which shall not pass away and His kingdom the one
which shall not be destroyed. Now, grasp the points that are
here being made. This is a very specific Son of
Man. When Jesus says, I am the Son
of Man, He is speaking not only of His humanity, not only of
His humility, but also His letting people know. Well, He did not
have to let them know. They figured it out as soon as
He said it. I am the Son of Man, the Son
of Man." When he said these words, his enemies understood exactly
what he was saying. When he was on trial before the
Sanhedrin, who condemned him toward the end of his earthly
life, And he's being asked these questions and he just would not
answer, you know, just let them talk. Then we read, And the high
priest answered and said to him, I put you under oath by the living
God. Tell us if you are the Christ,
the Son of God, or the Messiah. Put you on oath. You have to
answer me. Are you the Christ, the Son of
the living God? And Jesus said, It is as you
said. That is an admission. It is as
you said. Nevertheless, he's not through. He's not through. Nevertheless,
I say to you, hereafter you will see the Son of Man. sitting at the right hand of
the power and coming on the clouds of heaven as soon as he said
those words everybody there knew what he was talking about they remembered those very words
from Daniel's prophecy Daniel's prophecy of Messiah coming as
the son of man on the clouds and brought to God's throne and
made ruler over all God's kingdom. Now Jesus said, not only am I
the Christ, the Son of God, but I'm saying to you that you will
see the Son of Man, me, come in the clouds of heaven. with all power, sitting on the
throne of God. They knew what he was saying
as soon as he said it. He has spoken blasphemy, they
said. What further need have we of
witnesses? What do you say? And they said,
he's worthy of death. He's worthy of death. Let him
be crucified. Now they knew exactly what Jesus
meant when he said, you will see the Son of Man sitting on
the throne of glory, coming on the clouds of heaven. He was
saying that He was the fulfillment of every part of Daniel's prophecy. He is the Son of Man. He's coming
with the clouds of heaven and He is the ruler sitting at God's
right hand. Now, here in verse 30 of the
passage before us in Matthew 24, and I brought it to your
attention a moment ago, Jesus made reference to the very same
point in verse 30, saying these words, And then shall appear
the sign of the Son of Man in heaven. And then shall all the
tribes of the earth mourn, and they shall see the Son of Man
coming in the clouds of heaven with power and great glory. Now
what a day that will be. Oh, what a day that will be. There's going to be cataclysmic
events in the heavens. The sun not shining, the moon
not giving light. People are going to look up into
the heavens and see all these cataclysmic events. And their
hearts are going to shake with fear. What is going on? And then
the heavens opened and there he comes. There he comes. This Son of Man riding on the
clouds of heaven. Coming down as the world revolves.
And men will shake and quake in their fear, and God's people
will say, yes! He's here. He's here. Lift up
your eyes, folks. Your redemption draws nigh. Lift
them up. He's going to come in the clouds
of heaven, the Son of Man. Consider the second point, the
time of His coming. identified in two ways. In verse
29, it will be after the tribulation of those days. The tribulation
of those days. Now it is a popular opinion among
some that the Great Tribulation is only seven years in length
and some are way off in the future. And don't be worried about it,
they say. If you're a believer, you're
going to get raptured, and you don't have to go through it.
But it's only going to last seven years, and you're not going to
go through it. So that's a popular opinion. There's not a grain of truth
to it, though. That's the problem. Now watch
this. Jesus says that the coming of
the Son of Man will be after the tribulation of those days.
That tribulation commenced sometime shortly after the fall of Jerusalem
in 70 A.D. And it continues to this very
day. And will continue until he returns after the tribulation of those
days. It is a time of great tribulation. That's what Jesus called it in
verses 21 and following. John the Apostle, in about the
year 100 A.D., writing in the Revelation of Jesus Christ, the
last book in the Holy Scriptures, written to the seven churches
of Asia Minor, says, I am your companion in the tribulation. One of the churches in Asia Minor
was told, you will undergo tribulation ten days. Ten is a number of
completion, meaning that it's going to be a complete tribulation,
a great tribulation, a time of much tribulation. It's going
to be a time of great trouble. followers of Jesus Christ will
go through it. Someone sees them and they says,
who are these? Ah, these are they who have come
through great tribulation and washed their garments and made
them white in the blood of the Lamb. Folks, the plain teaching
of scripture is that the revelation is not somewhere off in the distant
future. No, no, no. Every child of God
goes through it. Not all to the same degree. But when you consider what's
going on in this country right now and the changes of events
toward Christians in the last 10 years, don't be surprised
if it gets a whole lot worse than it is now. It has been terrible
in some countries. In the former Soviet Union, in
China now, Christians are going through great tribulation in
parts of Africa. There were crusades mounted against
Christians back in the dark ages. Would you dare go up to one of
those people and say, you've not been through the tribulation?
Not this one! No, no, no. Every child of God's
going to go through it. And when that tribulation is
done, here he comes. Here he comes. All right. After
the tribulation of those days, it'll be at a time unknown by
men. But of that day and hour, no
one knows, not even the angels of heaven, but my Father only.
You do not know what hour your Lord is coming. Now think about
that. No one knows but the Father in
heaven. Around His throne are myriads
of angels in close communion with Him. And not a single one of them
knows what day Jesus is coming back. None of them knows. No man knows. Now what kind of a foolish man would stand
and say, I have calculated the time of Jesus' return? You'd
have to admit it's a foolish man, and yet we've seen a few of them, have
we not? Yep. I've done the calculations. I
have done Daniel 70 weeks and I know the day or the year Jesus
is coming. All right. They put it back in
the 1800s and various men have popped up. It just seems that
some people read God's word about fools and then they rush to fulfill
the word. and to prove it to be true. No
one knows! No one knows! Of that day and
hour, no one knows, not even the angels of heaven. So when
you hear a man or woman say, I know the time Jesus is coming
back, pay no heed. Pay no heed. Third point, the unexpectedness
of His coming. The Son of Man is coming at an
hour you do not expect. Now, Jesus illustrated this truth
in verses 37 through 39 as the days of Noah. In the parallel
account in Luke, it was as in the days of Lot. Now, what are
they doing? Buying and selling, marrying
and giving in marriage. And you say, well, what's wrong
with that? Absolutely nothing of itself. In fact, Paul says,
whether you eat or drink or whatever you do, do it all to the glory
of God. These are common, ordinary events of life. Luke's account
speaks of building houses, pursuing business. That's what we do. Their sin was not so much in
what they did in their everyday lives, Their sin was in the fact
that it became their preoccupation. And they were so concerned about
their physical deeds, feeding their families, marrying their
children, and all the other things of life that they did not consider adequately that
He's coming back. Now folks, I live close to 10th Avenue South. It's a major thoroughfare. And
I live at one end of it and quite often have to go all the way
to the other end. And I have driven down 10th Avenue South
at times and just wondered, all these people going to work, going
out to eat, going to this event or whatever, How many of them are even concerned
about the fact that Jesus is coming back? How many? And we sometimes have
to, you know, am I the only one concerned about this? A Lord's Day morning driving
down, and people are going everywhere except to some place to worship. What are they doing? Going shopping,
that's not bad. Going to buy gifts, that's not
bad. Going to work, that's not bad. Unless it becomes your preoccupation
and you become so occupied with these things that you give no
consideration for the fact that it is not only important that
I be ready to go to work, it is important for me to be ready
when Jesus returns. This event will take people so
unexpectedly. They're so preoccupied with ordinary
events. Listen, folks. Never become so
preoccupied with the events of your life that you forget He's
coming back and you need to be ready. I need to be ready. You
need to be ready. Then the separation is coming,
verses 31 and 40. And he will send his angels with
the great sound of a trumpet, and they will gather to gather
his elect from the four winds, from one end of heaven to the
other. 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. A foremost concern
of our dear sweet Jesus is that none of his children perish.
They are dear to him. They must not perish. And his
return is going to be not only with cataclysmic events in the
heavens, but all a conflagration on this earth, the elements melting. It's going to be a time of great
sorrow and great trouble upon all who are not ready. But before
Jesus comes to bring destruction upon those who refuse to believe,
he's going to send his angels and say, gather my elect. Gather my elect. Before I put my sigh into the
grave of all these wicked people, gather my elect. I love them. They must not perish. He will
gather His elect and His angels to gather them so that they do
not go through the terrible events that will come upon the wicked
when He returns. And out in the field are two
men working, hoeing their potatoes, planting their corn, feeding
their cattle, and all of a sudden one of them is gone. One of them
is gone. It is not what some people call
the rapture, Rather, it is the final day. It is not some event
that's going to happen seven years before Jesus comes back.
No. It's the day He returns. And
what has happened? An angel has flown by the field
and said, there's one of God's elect. Get him! And they get
him and take him off to safety. Two women grinding at the mill,
a common, ordinary event for men of that day. What has happened? And the angel says, she's one
of God's elect. Get her. Make sure she's safe.
And they gather her. It's going to be a great separation.
A great separation. And I hope and pray that when
it comes, every one of you is taken. I hope and pray. Let there be none of us in the
workplace when Jesus returns and we're not taken. Whatever
the event be in our lives, be ready. Be ready on that day. And when the angels come fly,
do not watch them go by and miss you, but be ready. They're coming. It's going to be unexpected.
It's going to be a separation in that day. Then the final point,
the warning or the exhortation regarding his coming, he says,
watch and be ready. Verses 42 through 44. Watch therefore, for you do not
know what hour your Lord is coming. 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.
Therefore, you also be ready, for the Son of Man is coming,
and an hour you do not expect." Watch and be ready. Military men and women sometimes have been called to go to some place, some
mission, had to be ready at a moment's notice. And I suppose they still
do it. When I was in the military, we
had a little bag we kept right beside the door or somewhere
close by, change of clothes and whatever toiletries we needed.
because when it was time to go, it was time to go and you had
room to go back to your barracks and get your bag and then get
on the truck and be gone. One of the leading military men
of England by the name of Campbell was told that in a time when
England was having trouble with a war in India And they said
to him, how soon can you be ready to go to take over the forces
in India? And he said, half an hour. All his affairs would be ready. Half an hour. Give me half an
hour. I'm ready to go. I'll be on the ship. Watch and
be ready. That's what we're told to do.
Let me ask you, folks. Are you ready for the day? When
will it be? Have no idea. Does a thief send
you an email to let you know when he's going to come? No!
He comes as a, you know, comes in the night, does not tell you. He comes when you least expect.
That's what Jesus will do. At an hour when you least expect.
And people will be so preoccupied with the ordinary events of their
lives that they look up and they say, oh no. What he said is true
and here he comes and it's too late. Watch and be ready. Keep your eyes upon that eastern
sky. Your redemption draws nigh. He's
coming. He's coming. Watch and be ready. Do not let that moment take you
by surprise. Before you walk out that door
this morning, ascertain this. I'm ready. He will not come a
minute too soon for me. If He comes before I finish this
breath, so be it. If you have never trusted in
Him before, do it now. Right now. Trust in
Him, the Son of Man. Oh God, our Father, Be pleased,
we pray, to bless this word. To your glory in Jesus' name,
we pray. Amen.