Ready for Rapture
Notes
Transcript
Matthew 24:36-25:46
Jesus' first word on his return is "not yet", but his second word is "be ready." It will be like lightning, like the blink of an eye, and Jesus gives us several pictures of what it looks like to be ready for his return. We are to be ready for a long wait for the Bridegroom. We are to multiply the resources he has invested in us. We are to feed, clothe and visit every stranger as if they were Jesus.
Ready for Camp
Ready for Camp
So today, shortly after lunch, the youth will be heading up to camp for a little weekend retreat.
Now, this is nothing on the scale of planning for a week long camp, but we have all been doing things to get ready, to be ready for the weekend. We have food to bring up, clothes to change into, bedding to sleep in, all of those things.
But for the youth, this is important, there is one REALLY important thing to be ready.
Around 1:30pm, when the cars full of kids are leaving for camp, on their way, turning on to the freeway… how will you know you are ready?
Here is the important question: are you in the car?
It’s real hard to be at camp if you’re never in the car on the way to camp. That’s just science.
Be ready. Be in the car.
Jesus is Coming… but Not Yet
Jesus is Coming… but Not Yet
Jesus has been getting his disciples ready for his death, resurrection and ascension, and begun to teach them about his return.
He will return and end this earth, and make all things new… but not yet. Over and over again he says, it is going to be awhile.
How do I know Jesus isn’t dropping hints here about the timing of his return? Because he doesn’t even know:
36 “But concerning that day and hour no one knows, not even the angels of heaven, nor the Son, but the Father only.
So don’t be chasing after rumors of wars, or false Christs, or false prophets. Don’t waste your time obsessing over prophetic minutia trying to predict Jesus’ return.
Instead, listen to Jesus’ 2nd major point about his return.
Settle in, his return is not yet… but you need to be ready.
Be ready, because it will be sudden. You WON’T expect it.
37 For as were the days of Noah, so will be the coming of the Son of Man.
38 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,
39 and they were unaware until the flood came and swept them all away, so will be the coming of the Son of Man.
40 Then two men will be in the field; one will be taken and one left.
41 Two women will be grinding at the mill; one will be taken and one left.
42 Therefore, stay awake, for you do not know on what day your Lord is coming.
Does that sound unexpected?
Are you going to know? No, it reads like in the last day, they won’t know, you won’t know.
So instead of trying to guess or predict… Be Ready.
How much clearer can Jesus be? So much, he triples down on this:
43 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.
44 Therefore you also must be ready, for the Son of Man is coming at an hour you do not expect.
Oh, let’s check, are you going to expect it? No. So…. Be Ready. Always.
45 “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?
46 Blessed is that servant whom his master will find so doing when he comes.
47 Truly, I say to you, he will set him over all his possessions.
48 But if that wicked servant says to himself, ‘My master is delayed,’
49 and begins to beat his fellow servants and eats and drinks with drunkards,
50 the master of that servant will come on a day when he does not expect him and at an hour he does not know
51 and will cut him in pieces and put him with the hypocrites. In that place there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth.
This is warning to those who think they have time and use that time to take advantage of Jesus’ delay to abuse Jesus’ people. He is going to gently correct them.
By… cutting him in pieces and putting him with the hypocrites. Weeping and gnashing of teeth. Regret, that’s what that is about. Wherever, however God punishes sinners, the vision of hell, even if it is anhiliationism… there is time for deep regret.
And Jesus isn’t done.
It is like he KNOWS how consistently the church is going to get this wrong.
Wait, but be ready.
I am returning, but not yet.. be ready.
And he gives us three parables of what this looks like. Mostly here Jesus teaches by contrast: he teaches how to be ready by showing us folks who aren’t ready. So we could call this a lesson in how to “not be ready”… and then do the opposite of that.
The Ten Virgins
The Ten Virgins
1 “Then the kingdom of heaven will be like ten virgins who took their lamps and went to meet the bridegroom.
This is wedding language, the bride waiting for her groom, the church waiting for Jesus. And the other 9 would be bridesmaids, this is not polygamy. That’s not the point here.
The tradition was that the Bridegroom would go to prepare a place within the Father’s house, the BetAbba (House of the Father), and the Father would tell the Bridegroom when it was ready. Yes, son, it is good enough, go get your bride. So the bridegroom didn’t know when until the Father said, and the Bride certainly didn’t know.
And all her bridesmaids guessing about when… they don’t know either.
And it’s the one’s that are guessing, assuming really, that it is going to be any second that miss out.
2 Five of them were foolish, and five were wise.
3 For when the foolish took their lamps, they took no oil with them,
4 but the wise took flasks of oil with their lamps.
5 As the bridegroom was delayed, they all became drowsy and slept.
6 But at midnight there was a cry, ‘Here is the bridegroom! Come out to meet him.’
7 Then all those virgins rose and trimmed their lamps.
8 And the foolish said to the wise, ‘Give us some of your oil, for our lamps are going out.’
9 But the wise answered, saying, ‘Since there will not be enough for us and for you, go rather to the dealers and buy for yourselves.’
10 And while they were going to buy, the bridegroom came, and those who were ready went in with him to the marriage feast, and the door was shut.
11 Afterward the other virgins came also, saying, ‘Lord, lord, open to us.’
12 But he answered, ‘Truly, I say to you, I do not know you.’
13 Watch therefore, for you know neither the day nor the hour.
Listen to that. Why weren’t they ready? Not because they were immoral or doing what we would think is the wrong thing. It is because they weren’t ready, and they weren’t ready because they assumed the Bridegroom would be back so soon they didn’t prepare appropriately.
We don’t want to read too much into that, we don’t earn our salvation by having enough oil on hand. But we are absolutely to be ready, prepared, in every way we can be for the Return of Jesus.
Prepared and ready to wait a long time.
Prepared and ready if it is in the next second.
The Talents
The Talents
14 “For it will be like a man going on a journey, who called his servants and entrusted to them his property.
15 To one he gave five talents, to another two, to another one, to each according to his ability. Then he went away.
Such a great story. A “talent” (Greek talanton), which is a super valuable gold coin, 20 years wages for a laborer, or a silver talent, still 10k??? so this is a substantial sum of money. And it’s just cute that the English “talent” corresponds to a skill or ability, and it super works in this story. That isn’t a wrong application, it’s helpful, it’s truthful, but it isn’t Jesus’ main point. His audience is just hearing “money” and everything else would be by extension.
Just like the oil lamp in the last story.
So there are so many great sermons out of this parable, and we may return to it, but let’s take it as a piece of Jesus’ larger point here. Another angle on someone who isn’t ready:
16 He who had received the five talents went at once and traded with them, and he made five talents more.
17 So also he who had the two talents made two talents more.
Good move. Doubled their money.
How fast, what were their investments? How did they know how long for their investments to mature? Some time, maybe a lot of time. There is no easy stock market to invest in, and if it is 10s or 100s of thousands of dollars, maybe millions, these are investments in large ventures, in ships, in trade lanes, in buildings and cities. These are large scale operations in pre-capitalistic societies. They undertook risk over a long timeframe.
18 But he who had received the one talent went and dug in the ground and hid his master’s money.
That’s not a bad idea if the master is coming back tomorrow, those other two are going to be in trouble because maybe their investments haven’t matured yet. But… he isn’t coming back tomorrow, settle in, it’s going to be awhile.
19 Now after a long time the master of those servants came and settled accounts with them.
How long? Long time.
20 And he who had received the five talents came forward, bringing five talents more, saying, ‘Master, you delivered to me five talents; here, I have made five talents more.’
21 His master said to him, ‘Well done, good and faithful servant. You have been faithful over a little; I will set you over much. Enter into the joy of your master.’
22 And he also who had the two talents came forward, saying, ‘Master, you delivered to me two talents; here, I have made two talents more.’
23 His master said to him, ‘Well done, good and faithful servant. You have been faithful over a little; I will set you over much. Enter into the joy of your master.’
I pray Jesus says this over me. Everything and anything we have in this life is a “little.” It’s all little here, compared with the riches of heaven, and the investment horizon of eternity.
May he find us faithful with our “little” and set us over “much.”
But the other guy…
24 He also who had received the one talent came forward, saying, ‘Master, I knew you to be a hard man, reaping where you did not sow, and gathering where you scattered no seed,
25 so I was afraid, and I went and hid your talent in the ground. Here, you have what is yours.’
Out of a deep misunderstanding of who the Master is…
Out of fear of his expectations? Of the reaping, of the gathering… it almost reads like a fear that the Master would expect return on investment. “Master, I was afraid you would want me to invest and make more of what you gave me, so I… didn’t do anything instead. Is that good?”
Nope.
26 But his master answered him, ‘You wicked and slothful servant! You knew that I reap where I have not sown and gather where I scattered no seed?
27 Then you ought to have invested my money with the bankers, and at my coming I should have received what was my own with interest.
28 So take the talent from him and give it to him who has the ten talents.
29 For to everyone who has will more be given, and he will have an abundance. But from the one who has not, even what he has will be taken away.
30 And cast the worthless servant into the outer darkness. In that place there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth.’
Again, much like the oil lamps, the dude who bet everything on Jesus returning in a minute lost out, wasn’t ready. The ones who expected a long horizon and planned accordingly, invested in the time they had with the money they were given… they were ready and were rewarded for it.
They weren’t full of assumption for when Jesus was coming back, and foolish and unprepared on account of it.
They weren’t full of fear and obsession over the Master returning any second and being angry and vengeful.
They were faithful, faithful to do what He said to do with what they were given.
They were faithful to do what He said to do with what they were given.
One more
The Final Judgment
The Final Judgment
31 “When the Son of Man comes in his glory, and all the angels with him, then he will sit on his glorious throne.
32 Before him will be gathered all the nations, and he will separate people one from another as a shepherd separates the sheep from the goats.
I learned this the other day. You know how the shepherds separate the goats and sheep? The sheep hear the shepherds voice and go… and the goats are weird. They do their own thing. So he just calls the sheep, and the sheep go. That’s a picture.
But goats go all over, some of these goats think they are sheep and have to be put on the left.
33 And he will place the sheep on his right, but the goats on the left.
34 Then the King will say to those on his right, ‘Come, you who are blessed by my Father, inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world.
35 For I was hungry and you gave me food, I was thirsty and you gave me drink, I was a stranger and you welcomed me,
36 I was naked and you clothed me, I was sick and you visited me, I was in prison and you came to me.’
Now, this is telling. The righteous don’t even know what they did.
37 Then the righteous will answer him, saying, ‘Lord, when did we see you hungry and feed you, or thirsty and give you drink?
38 And when did we see you a stranger and welcome you, or naked and clothe you?
We did?
39 And when did we see you sick or in prison and visit you?’
40 And the King will answer them, ‘Truly, I say to you, as you did it to one of the least of these my brothers, you did it to me.’
I like to think of this as Jesus in disguise.
At some point, at multiple points, they met Jesus in disguise. More literally, Jesus counted the way they treated “the least of these” as treating him. And, on any given day, any of us can be the “least of these.” This isn’t about superiority or class, this is one human having a human moment: hungry, cold, exposed, vulnerable, in trouble.
Conversely.
41 “Then he will say to those on his left, ‘Depart from me, you cursed, into the eternal fire prepared for the devil and his angels.
Oof. Weeping and gnashing of teeth, indeed. Eternal fire, does that mean you burn forever or burn up?
42 For I was hungry and you gave me no food, I was thirsty and you gave me no drink,
43 I was a stranger and you did not welcome me, naked and you did not clothe me, sick and in prison and you did not visit me.’
44 Then they also will answer, saying, ‘Lord, when did we see you hungry or thirsty or a stranger or naked or sick or in prison, and did not minister to you?’
45 Then he will answer them, saying, ‘Truly, I say to you, as you did not do it to one of the least of these, you did not do it to me.’
Ooof.
The flip side of “Jesus in Disguise.” The way you treated that dude. Especially someone vulnerable, in trouble, lost, hurt. That’s the way you treat Jesus in disguise.
Does it say you only visit the sick who are cleaned up and not contagious? Nope.
Does it say you only visit the wrongfully imprisoned? Does this include guilty people? Yup.
I mean naked people??? I have to go near the naked ones? Yeah, to give them clothing. Like you could start by tossing a towel to them, over them.
46 And these will go away into eternal punishment, but the righteous into eternal life.”
This is one of my least favorite verses. Because on all the verses around hell and state of punishment and anhiliationism… this one definitely seems to lean towards eternal conscious torment.
“Eternal punishment.” Now, it could be a punishment (aka destruction) that lasts forever. As in “Punishment that has Eternal Consequences.”
So, do you want to be ready when Jesus comes? How?
Be Ready
Be Ready
If you are not in the car as we are driving up to camp, you are missing out.
If you are not in the Christ when He returns… you are missing out. I think that is the clear message here, there is a time coming when it is too late.
Are you in Christ? Do you call Him Lord and Savior?
That isn’t just word salad, those words mean something, and your life looks different as a result of calling Him Lord and Savior.
Jesus gives us three ways to not be ready.
Way #1: Assume that Jesus is coming back within the hour, so make no provisions.
Instead, plan for the long term. Prepare for the long term, make long term plays.
Way #2: Assume that Jesus is coming back soon and just wants what he gave you back.
Instead, be faithful with everything he has given you, talents and talents. Put it to work in the world, use your money, your gifts, in ways that will multiply, growing His Kingdom, doubling it, tripling it, again with the long term in mind.
Way #3: Ignore everyone else and wait for Jesus.
Instead, assume everyone you meet is secretly Jesus… and treat them that way.
ESPECIALLY when you encounter someone in need, vulnerable, hurting, hungry… that should be a HUGE signal. Hey, sneaky Jesus here, love them like you would love Jesus!
Be Ready
Wait on the Lord
Grow what He has Given you
Serve Secret Jesus
Not a bad map for discipleship right there. Wait. Grow. Serve.
Really it is one thing: being in Christ. If you call Him Lord, you are living your life under His Lordship… and walking in His footsteps.
Be Ready
Wait on the Lord. For how long? Maybe a minute, maybe a lifetime.
Grow what He has Given you. Multiply it for His Kingdom.
Serve Secret Jesus. Love the least of these, the least of us. Seek them, search them out, in the park, in the parking lot, wherever you encounter them… “Oh yeah, that’s Jesus in disguise.”
When our bridegroom comes, I want him to find me ready, to find our church ready, with lamps burning brightly.
When our Master comes, I want him to see we have multiplied the gifts and resources He has given us. For him to say we have been faithful with even the little we have.
And when our Shepherd greets us, may He say that we have loved him again and again in the way we have loved people in need, the “least of these.”
May he find us in the car and ready to go. In Christ and living in the footsteps of Christ… and ready for live forever with Him. Amen.
