God Only Knows

Psalm of the Day: Psalm 20

Psalm 20 ESV

To the choirmaster. A Psalm of David. May the Lord answer you in the day of trouble! May the name of the God of Jacob protect you! May he send you help from the sanctuary and give you support from Zion! May he remember all your offerings and regard with favor your burnt sacrifices! Selah May he grant you your heart’s desire and fulfill all your plans! May we shout for joy over your salvation, and in the name of our God set up our banners! May the Lord fulfill all your petitions! Now I know that the Lord saves his anointed; he will answer him from his holy heaven with the saving might of his right hand. Some trust in chariots and some in horses, but we trust in the name of the Lord our God. They collapse and fall, but we rise and stand upright. O Lord, save the king! May he answer us when we call.

Scripture Reading: Genesis 6:5-8

Genesis 6:5–8 ESV

The Lord saw that the wickedness of man was great in the earth, and that every intention of the thoughts of his heart was only evil continually. And the Lord regretted that he had made man on the earth, and it grieved him to his heart. So the Lord said, “I will blot out man whom I have created from the face of the land, man and animals and creeping things and birds of the heavens, for I am sorry that I have made them.” But Noah found favor in the eyes of the Lord.

Sermon:

Good Morning Church! I was Glad when they said to me let us go and worship in the house of the Lord!

This morning we are covering a passage that we have referred to many times of the course of this journey through the Olivet Discourse. Matthew 24:36-51. It is a longer one, and I would argue in all of the Olivet Discourse the most important one, So lets dive into reading it first off.

Matthew 24:36–51 ESV

“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.

These are the words of the Lord for us this morning. Let’s begin with a word of prayer

Out Father in Heaven, Holy is your name. We thank you for today, another day that you have made. We praise you for you are great and greatly to be praised. The God who created all things and the one who knows the end from the beginning. The One who has measured out the universe and has set its time. We praise you because you are the sovereign Lord of heaven. We also thank you that you see fit to speak to us through your word. Giving us access to the great riches of your truth and who you are. Open our eyes to see you and see your truth. Help us to keep our eyes on our savior. Than k you for sending him to us, while we were dead in our sins and trespasses and making us alive again. We thank you for the precious gift of the Holy Spirit, the one who comes and enlivens our souls justifying us and also sanctifying us. We thank you that though there is much that we do not and cannot know what we do know is that you are ever faithful and that you will keep us until the coming of our savior. Be with us this morning, speak to our hearts. It is in Jesus name that we pray. Amen

In my estimation this portion of the Olivet Discourse is BY FAR the easiest to understand. This is the longest Passage we have covered so far, but Ultimately I would argue that there is really ONE point. Let me highlight what that one point is.

Matthew 24:36 ESV

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

Matthew 24:39 ESV

and they were unaware until the flood came and swept them all away, so will be the coming of the Son of Man.

Matthew 24:42 ESV

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

Matthew 24:44 ESV

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

Matthew 24:50 ESV

the master of that servant will come on a day when he does not expect him and at an hour he does not know

In other words, the point of this whole passage is an attempt to answer ONE important question: WHO KNOWS WHEN CHRIST WILL RETURN?

and the answer is pretty easy: NO ONE!

Who knows when Christ will return? NO ONE!

That’s really it. again, I don’t think it is difficult. Sure this is prophetic language, but it feels to me like some of the most easy. I am half tempted to say amen and call it a day. Making this the easiest sermon ever preached, But more must be said.

Because this main point here is critical, and it is a point that it seems that most people will not listen. The history of the church (and really the present of the church in many ways too…) is filled with people who it seems did NOT take what Jesus said here to heart. This is not my research, but done by Douglass O’Donnell, but I think it is important for us to hear this, so it is a rather long quote.

BLOCK QUOTE!

In honesty, all this research is even more tragic. Because these are just the famous ones, or the ones that disastrous consequences. I would argue that if someone were to find and put down ALL the times when Christians (and as we saw in some of these examples, people claiming the name who are clearly NOT Christians) said that Jesus would return at a specific time we would run out of ink with which to print that out. And by ignoring the words here of Jesus it is not just these people who are brought into disrepute, but all of Christianity does as well. We get lumped in with the “crazies” and when we come with a message that says: repent for the day of the Lord is drawing near we are met with harsh skepticism, because even the world has hear this all before.

The truth of the matter is no one knows when christ is coming.

In light of this clear teaching, those who would seek to put a date and say a specific time are either willfully ignorant or worse: Engaging in sin. One commentator i was reading said to try to determine a day when christ has so clearly stated that we cannot and will not know it Is blasphemy. And I tend to agree with him. For you are seeking to know the secret hidden things of god that god has said only he will know. So who knows when christ will return? no one.

This is how this passage starts concerning that day and hour, no one knows. Not even the angels of heaven, the angels, the ministering spirits circling the throne room of heaven, waiting for anticipation to blow their trumpet, to announce the king is coming. They don't know when it's going to happen. The son doesn't even know. Is it difficult thought for some. I'd like to try to alleviate some of the difficulty here. Why does the son not know? It's because he willingly condescended down to earth taking the form of a man to be the perfect sacrifice that we desperately needed.

So jesus laid aside his omniscience to become a man. We see this with other traits of god. We can say jesus is God. He was Therefore, as god the son, Omnipresent. And yet in the time when he was ministering here on this earth, some 2000 years ago. He didn't live in his omnipresence, it wasn't like jesus: “like, okay, well, we're going to Capernaum next. Well, that's not true being omnipresent. I'm already in capernaum.. But when you get there disciples, you'll see me there.” That's not how it worked. He walked. He took a boat.

He was all powerful as god. The son is all-powerful yet, he condescended into earth, he laid aside his all-powerfulness. He grew hungry. He grew tired. He grew weak. He needed sleep and rest. And here, we read that he set aside. His all-knowing nature, his omniscience. So that he could be our perfect savior. And if it was enough for christ, who though he was in the form of god, did not count equality with god, a thing to be grasped. He laid aside all of that. And part of what he laid aside is an ability and a desire i would argue as well, to know when the second coming will take place. He laid that aside. What does this mean? I think, first and foremost, the most important thought we could gather here is this: You don't need to know. God has given us all that we need to know, he's given us everything we need. And so to try to find a determine exact dates is foolish at best but sinful at worst.

Final thought: if we go back to the beginning of chapter 24. Jesus warned that there would be people that say, i know when he's coming. Or he already has. Jesus warns us that they're lying to you.

Matthew 24:24–26 ESV

For false christs and false prophets will arise and perform great signs and wonders, so as to lead astray, if possible, even the elect. See, I have told you beforehand. So, if they say to you, ‘Look, he is in the wilderness,’ do not go out. If they say, ‘Look, he is in the inner rooms,’ do not believe it.

No one knows. If they say they do, they are lying or mistaken. That's the message. That's the thought of this entire passage. So now what do we do with it? Well, what we are NOT given access to is knowledge of when the day is, but even in this passage Jesus gives us a lot more that we can work with. He hasn't given us what we don't need, in particular an exact time. What he has given us, what we do need, are some exhortations. And so i'd like to spend the rest of our time this morning just looking at these briefly. For as we will see, these three that we will talk about become the outline for the rest of the Olivet discourse. And so understanding this helps us grasp the rest of what is coming. there are three thoughts that we can gather from looking at this passage. So what we're looking for here is not a date or a time, rather how we ought to live?

Knowing he's coming back at any moment… How does this apply to our lives? Well, the first is to view this as a warning.

WARNING

The fact that we don't know should be a warning for us. We don’t know so we must ALWAYS be aware. There's a thought he might come back before I finish this sermon. None of us are promised a safe drive home. God willing, we will, but we're not promised that. He may come tonight. We may not make it to the end of the week. The world may not make it to the end of the year. We don't know. No one knows. So heed this warning: It will be sudden. It will be catastrophic. It will come at a time when you are unaware. So, Be ready at all times.

Like the master who looks out to protect his house, like the servant faithfully working at all times, heed this warning.

Matthew 24:38 ESV

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,

The thought here is it was all life as normal. They were going about the things that they'd always done and in fact the things that jesus lists here are not inherently bad things. In fact, most of them are good. All of them probably are good.. within reason with the drinking, that's the only little weird one here... But they were eating and drinking. Living life. Doing the things required to live. Marrying and giving in marriage. Having wives, having kids giving their kids in marriage, their kids are having kids. Now, we're a grandparent, it's life as normal. What they're unaware of is the fact that this day is coming And then one day.. The ark is done, Noah walks in, the doors are shut, and they are swept away.

Heed this warning: Be prepared, Don't be foolish and unwise. Don't live your life thinking. Well the master is delayed, he'll come back sometime but for now, eat drink and be merry. The wicked servant did that. It cost him everything. The first way we use this is as a warning.

I would say that It's better that we don't know. For if we knew he was coming back, December 13th of 2027, we'd live wretched, sinful lives until December 12th. The warning here is we don't know, so we must live every day as if it's our last because every day could be our last. Not knowing is important for us. So heed the warning. but it is not just that. Heed the warning and get to work.

WORK

It's interesting to me that almost every example that jesus uses in this passage has to do with work. Verse 40 through 44, is what we'll talk about on Thursday at grace group, some of the other details, but just note this. Verse 42 men will be in the field. They're working. They're doing what they need to do. It's probably harvest time in the way this picture works. And so they are doing what needs to be done. Two women will be grinding at the mill. Even the women here are working. The harvest has come in. But now this wheat needs to be ground. If we don't mill it, now it will go bad. So we get to work. These are sort of harvest pictures. And harvest is very much a time-centered thing.

The master of the house. His job and his duty was to protect gaurd and watch over the house. So he needs to do his work all night, not just if he knows what time the hour, the thieve is coming. It might be anytime. So stay awake the whole time.

And then the final parable, the faithful, and the wise servants. They are servants. They get to work (and the tragedy is there is one that doest work). As we read through this passage, We read and we understand that since no one knows when jesus is coming back what then is left for me to do work until he returns. We should be caught working. When he does return, or if he calls me home first, either way, my life should be about the father's business doing his work. May I Leave this earth with the gospel message coming forth from my mouth. Doing what Ephesians talks about, the “good works prepared in advance that i may walk in them.” Because we don't know -- We work. Time could be short. Time IS short. We don't know how much time we have. We don't know how much time the people around us have so get to work. That's the message here. That's the thought here.

Don't waste your time, don't waste your life, don't waste, whatever time God has given to us.

I had three “w’s” here but i changed this last one. This is a passage warning us. We don't know. So be ready at all times. To passage encouraging us, we don't know. So we need to be working at all times. But we also need to understand. God's judging.

JUDGEMENT

If you like 3 “w’s”, the original word was WRATH, but i don't think that quite gets it here. It is god's wrath because it's poured out upon the ungodly but there's also issues of judgment here, but judgment of thew wicked yes, but also the faithful.

Jesus starts this whole thing. By saying as we're the days of Noah. And immediately our mind should start to think: “Well what were The days of Noah?” And simply put the days of Noah where the most wicked evil awful days that mankind has ever seen.

Genesis chapter 6 is where we start finding the story of Noah. And i think it's summed up best in Genesis chapter 6, verse 5.

Genesis 6:5 ESV

The Lord saw that the wickedness of man was great in the earth, and that every intention of the thoughts of his heart was only evil continually.

The lord saw that the wickedness of man was great in the earth, okay? That's bad. God's looking there. He sees the wickedness is great. How bad was it? Verse 5 continues. And that every intention of the thoughts of his heart was only evil continually. The flood,— we look at the flood And we think of Children's nurseries, and all of these decorations and cute little animals on the ark with Noah. But what we should see is that The ark was built because god's wrath and judgment was poured out upon sinful mankind. And therefore all mankind, save Noah And his children, were wiped from the face of the earth.

It is God's righteous judgment on sin. And so when we hear of the days of Noah immediately, we should understand that this is judgment— just judgment— of a holy God against wretched, Evil, sinful people. And it's not just that jesus wants to highlight well, yeah, that was bad but i was talking about the unexpectedness because the rest of this passage deals with the same thoughts of wrath and judgment.

We get to the parable of the faithful servant and the wise servant, but also the foolish one. Jesus ends his passage with this. The master of the servant will come on a day when he does not expect him an hour, he does not know. We already read that but it continues: And he will cut him into pieces and place him with the hypocrites. That's judgment. If we don't heed the warning, if we don't get to work here, the words of judgment are that in that place there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth. Our time is short. There is judgment coming wrath and judgment of a holy god against all those who will reject him. So heed these words: he's coming. And he's coming soon. Our only hope -- the only hope that we have to stand before a holy righteous god— is to stand in the completed work of christ. To cling to him and his cross, to hide your self in his grace and mercy, that's the only way we can stand against this great day of judgment. For it is coming. It is sure. I do not know when. But i know That i know that i know that My savior is returning. For those who are his, it will be a day of great rejoicing. For the wise servants. It will be a day of great joy and reward. To the wicked servants. Who thinks he can avoid judgment, who thinks well my masters delayed. So let me go eat and drink with all of the drunkards -- Judgment is coming. May we turn to the lord.

Lets PRAY