Sermon Tone Analysis

“Immediately after the tribulation of those days the sun will be darkened, and the moon will not give its light, and the stars will fall from heaven, and the powers of the heavens will be shaken.

Then will appear in heaven the sign of the Son of Man, and then all the tribes of the earth will mourn, and they will see the Son of Man coming on the clouds of heaven with power and great glory.

And he will send out his angels with a loud trumpet call, and they will gather his elect from the four winds, from one end of heaven to the other.

“From the fig tree learn its lesson: as soon as its branch becomes tender and puts out its leaves, you know that summer is near.

So also, when you see all these things, you know that he is near, at the very gates.

Truly, I say to you, this generation will not pass away until all these things take place.

Heaven and earth will pass away, but my words will not pass away.

“But concerning that day and hour no one knows, not even the angels of heaven, nor the Son, but the Father only.

For as were the days of Noah, so will be the coming of the Son of Man.

For as in those days before the flood they were eating and drinking, marrying and giving in marriage, until the day when Noah entered the ark, and they were unaware until the flood came and swept them all away, so will be the coming of the Son of Man.

Then two men will be in the field; one will be taken and one left.

Two women will be grinding at the mill; one will be taken and one left.

Therefore, stay awake, for you do not know on what day your Lord is coming.

But know this, that if the master of the house had known in what part of the night the thief was coming, he would have stayed awake and would not have let his house be broken into.

Therefore you also must be ready, for the Son of Man is coming at an hour you do not expect.

“Who then is the faithful and wise servant, whom his master has set over his household, to give them their food at the proper time?

Blessed is that servant whom his master will find so doing when he comes.

Truly, I say to you, he will set him over all his possessions.

But if that wicked servant says to himself, ‘My master is delayed,’ and begins to beat his fellow servants and eats and drinks with drunkards, the master of that servant will come on a day when he does not expect him and at an hour he does not know and will cut him in pieces and put him with the hypocrites.

In that place there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth.”[1]

Of all the Gospel writers, the Evangelist Matthew devotes more verses to record what the Master said concerning the days preceding His return to reign over the earth.

A large portion of Matthew 24 deals with signs that are not actually about Jesus’ return,[2] though they refer to conditions that will prevail on the earth in the days preceding that event.

A very small portion of the chapter describes the return of the Master.[3]

However, a large portion of the chapter[4] and all of chapter 25 (62 verses in total) are devoted to warning us to get ready since we do not know when He will return to reign.

Put another way, the Master stresses the need for readiness through the use of seven historical references and verbal pictures—four in chapter 24 and three in chapter 25.

The application should be self-evident: Are you ready?

Christians should live in anticipation of the Master’s return, looking for this Blessed Hope.

There is a significant point of contrast between verse 33 and verse 36.

In verse 33, Jesus says “You know,” referring to the fact that when certain events begin to unfold, the observant individual may know with certainty what is coming.

On the other hand, in verse 36, He says “No one knows,” speaking of the precise timing of His return.

“You know” arises from observing multiplication of various signs: “false messiahs, wars, earthquakes, famines, persecutions, apostasy and false prophets.”

However, the timing of His return is hidden from men.

Though many people—Bible teachers who imagine they have a foolproof method of calculating the timing of His return, modern Gnostics who imagine they have hidden knowledge, and outright charlatans who seek to dupe the gullible—attempt to set dates for His return, they always turn out to be wrong, and they will continue to be shown to be foolish and errant.

What we do know is: (1) the return of Christ the Lord to gather His elect and to judge the world is yet future; (2) we do not know when this will be; and (3) we must keep watch and be ready.

Nothing the disciples saw, and nothing that we will ever see, is a certain sign of the Master’s return, for that day will be sudden and without warning.

*Timing of His Coming* — The Christian Faith is a doctrinal faith; it is defined by fixed beliefs.

There is considerable room for Christians to disagree about many aspects of the Faith—how we conduct our services, the governance of the congregation, the preferences we have concerning interpretation of what is written, and so forth.

However, at its core the Faith consists of foundational truths that are held inviolate by all who name the Name of Christ.

The foundations of the Christian Faith may be stated as: Jesus is very God and perfect man; He presented His life as a sacrifice for sinful man and raised bodily from the grave; He ascended into heaven and He shall come again to gather His elect and judge the wicked; faith in Him, without any necessity of deeds, brings an individual into a right relationship with the Father; and the authority for this Faith is the written Word of God.

These truths are held in common by all redeemed individuals.

Though we may disagree on many other issues, these truths define us as Christians.

No saved individual doubts that Jesus was born of a virgin or that He gave His life as a sacrifice for the sin of mankind.

No redeemed individual doubts that He was raised from the dead and that He ascended into glory where He is seated on the right hand of the Father.

Though there may be church members who doubt these truths concerning the Master, it is impossible that one who denies these truths could be saved.

Similarly, no saved individual doubts that Jesus will come again to gather His saved people and to judge the wicked.

We who are redeemed may disagree about the timing of His return and we may quibble about the order of events at His return, but we hold the promise of His return as foundational to the Christian Faith.

To deny this “Blessed Hope” [see *Titus 2:13*] is to deny a fundamental truth of the Christian Faith.

However, Jesus does speak of His coming as an event to be anticipated by His people.

Nor should we imagine that this is the only time the Master spoke of His return.

It seems evident that throughout His days in the flesh, He spoke of His coming to reign.

For instance, we read, “Just as the weeds are gathered and burned with fire, so will it be at the close of the age.

The Son of Man will send his angels, and they will gather out of his kingdom all causes of sin and all law-breakers” [*Matthew 13:40, 41*].

Again, Jesus said, “The Son of Man is going to come with his angels in the glory of his Father, and then he will repay each person according to what he has done” [*Matthew 16:27*].

As He concluded this instruction, the Master testified, “When the Son of Man comes in his glory, and all the angels with him, then he will sit on his glorious throne” [*Matthew 25:31*].

From earliest days, believers have comforted their weary hearts with the knowledge of His return.

In one of his earliest letters, the Apostle Paul stated, “Since we believe that Jesus died and rose again, even so, through Jesus, God will bring with him those who have fallen asleep.

For this we declare to you by a word from the Lord, that we who are alive, who are left until the coming of the Lord, will not precede those who have fallen asleep.

For the Lord himself will descend from heaven with a cry of command, with the voice of an archangel, and with the sound of the trumpet of God.

And the dead in Christ will rise first.

Then we who are alive, who are left, will be caught up together with them in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air, and so we will always be with the Lord” [*1 Thessalonians 4:14-17*].

However, there will be no warning when He returns.

What is important for us to understand is that the Master did not provide a detailed timetable of events preceding His return.

To be certain, the disciples did ask “What will be the sign of Your coming and the close of the age” [*Matthew 24:3*].

The Master answered that they were to be alert so that they would not be led astray.

The reason this is significant is that there are within the evangelical community many who have their eschatology down precisely—they can identify every event with icy precision and thus they give definite dates of when to expect the Master’s return.

However, all such efforts neglect a vital point that Jesus made when He said, “Concerning that day and hour no one knows, not even the angels of heaven, nor the Son, but the Father only” [*Matthew 24:36*].

But what about all the signs?

Jesus spoke of false messiahs [*Matthew 24:5*], wars and disquiet throughout the nations of the world [*Matthew** 24:6, 7a*], famines and earthquakes [*Matthew** 24:7b*].

So, He described the situation that will prevail for believers throughout this age.

He described these events as “the beginning of birth pains” [*Matthew 24:8*].

Following this warning, the Master warned of persecution targeting those who trust Him [*Matthew 24:9*].

He also warned of an increase in false prophets who would lead many astray [*Matthew 24:11*] and an increase in lawlessness that would cause the love of many to grow cold [*Matthew 24:12*].

All this builds to a crescendo until He says there will stand in the holy place—the sanctuary of the Temple—“the abomination of desolation” that was first spoken of by Daniel [*Matthew 24:15*].

Let me point out a fact that is too often overlooked: Jesus counsels watchfulness in His followers.

He warns them to watch in every period of this age.

He spoke of the unexpected presence that is suddenly there when He compared life at the time of His return to life in the days preceding the Noachic Flood.

“As were the days of Noah, so will be the coming of the Son of Man.

For as in those days before the flood they were eating and drinking, marrying and giving in marriage, until the day when Noah entered the ark, and they were unaware until the flood came and swept them all away, so will be the coming of the Son of Man” [*Matthew 24:38, 39*].

The description of life before the heavens opened and the fountains of the deep were broken up is rather pedestrian.

It was distinguished by its ordinariness.

People were eating and drinking, marrying and giving in marriage—in short, they doing what they had always done.

The world was largely unbelieving.

The people did not worship the True and Living God; they were unconcerned with His glory.

To be precise, only one man was prepared and thus spared, and his family was kept from death because of his pursuit of the glory of the Lord God.

Just as the world that perished was completely secular, so it is that the world at Christ’s return will be utterly secular.

Believers who long for Christ’s glory will be in a minority.

There have always been detractors from the Faith, but as the age moves to a conclusion, unbelief will be in the ascendency and the Faith will be so compromised that the Master was compelled to ask, “When the Son of Man comes, will He find faith on the earth” [*Luke** 18:8b*]?

Jesus also spoke of the suddenness with which His coming again will be accomplished.

He spoke of two men toiling in a field—one is taken and one is left behind.

He quickly shifted the focus to two women grinding at a mill—one is taken and one is left behind.

Again, the emphasis is on the suddenness with which some will be removed.

The two men working in the field would probably be co-workers; the two women grinding would likely be related—perhaps mother and daughter, or it could be two servants in the same household.

Outwardly, they seem to be in the same situations, perhaps even identical in their relationship to the Master.

However, at His return, one will be taken and the other left.

Jesus does not specify how these separations will be accomplished, and He most assuredly does not tell us when it will happen.

The point of these verses is only that “persons most intimately associated will be separated by that unexpected coming.”[5]

That knowledge alone should encourage us to examine ourselves closely to ensure that we have not deceived ourselves.

You may recall that the Master spoke of the astonishment of professed believers at the Judgement.

He warned, “On that day many will say to Me, ‘Lord, Lord, did we not prophesy in Your Name, and case out demons in Your Name, and do many mighty works in Your Name?’

And then will I declare to them, ‘I never knew you; depart from Me, you workers of lawlessness’” [*Matthew 7:22, 23*].