Not Yet, But Trust

Primary Text: Matthew 24:36 Runway Context: Matthew 24:1–35

Anchor Phrase: Not Knowing. Still Trusting. Faithfully Waiting.

Big Idea: Jesus sets a boundary on end-times curiosity: the timing of His return belongs to the Father alone, so disciples must trust God’s plan rather than chase prophetic certainty.

INTRO: Why We Want What God Won’t Give

We live in a world trained to demand answers.

And when the world feels unstable, we do what humans always do:

We try to find a date, a chart, a code, something that makes the future feel controllable.

But Jesus is about to do something pastoral and powerful:

He doesn’t just warn about the end, He protects His disciples from obsession.

Tonight, we’re going to let Jesus set the rules for our Revelation series.

Why Matthew 24:36 Matters So Much

(Matthew 24:1–35 summary to set the stage)

A. The setting: Awe → shock (24:1–2)

Matthew 24:1–2 NIV

Jesus left the temple and was walking away when his disciples came up to him to call his attention to its buildings. “Do you see all these things?” he asked. “Truly I tell you, not one stone here will be left on another; every one will be thrown down.”

The disciples are admiring the temple. Jesus says: “It’s coming down.”

That’s not a small prediction, it’s world-shattering to them.

B. The questions: “When?” “What sign?” “End of age?” (24:3)

Matthew 24:3 NIV

As Jesus was sitting on the Mount of Olives, the disciples came to him privately. “Tell us,” they said, “when will this happen, and what will be the sign of your coming and of the end of the age?”

They ask what all of us want to ask:

Tell us when

Tell us the sign

Tell us how it ends

And part of the problem is they’re mixing categories, they assume major events must mean the end right now.

C. Jesus’ first concern isn’t dates, it’s disciples (24:4–35)

Before Jesus gives boundaries, He gives warnings:

Don’t be deceived (false christs, false prophets)

Don’t be troubled (wars, rumors, upheaval)

Endure

Stay faithful

The gospel goes forward

He even uses the “birth pains” idea: things intensify, but that doesn’t mean you can schedule the moment.

Then, after all that, Jesus brings it to a single line — not a timeline:

“But concerning that day and hour…” (24:36)

That “but” is a pivot:

from what can be observed → to what must be entrusted.

Now we’re ready for the verse.

I. JESUS INTENTIONALLY LIMITS WHAT WE CAN KNOW

(Matthew 24:36a)

Matthew 24:36 NIV

“But about that day or hour no one knows,

“But concerning that day and hour no one knows…”

A. This is not vagueness, it’s a boundary

Jesus does not say, “You’ll figure it out.”

He says: no one knows.

So any teaching that claims certainty where Jesus drew a limit is not maturity, it’s overreach.

B. This preserves the nature of faith

If we could know the date:

faith becomes calculation

obedience becomes strategic

repentance becomes delayed

God refuses to let faith become a math problem.

And then Jesus says the most shocking part.

II. JESUS’ WILLING LIMITATION DISPLAYS PERFECT TRUST IN THE FATHER

(Matthew 24:36b)

Matthew 24:36 NIV

“not even the angels in heaven, nor the Son, but only the Father.

“…not even the angels of heaven, nor the Son, but the Father only.”

This is one of the most misunderstood lines Jesus ever spoke — and one of the most revealing.

A. This is not a denial of Jesus’ deity, but a window into the Incarnation

When Jesus says “nor the Son,” He is not saying He is less than God.

Scripture is clear:

Jesus is fully divine

Equal with the Father

Sharing the same nature

But in becoming human, Jesus voluntarily accepted real limitations.

Philippians 2 tells us that Jesus did not stop being God — He chose not to grasp or exercise every divine privilege.

That includes independent access to the Father’s timeline.

So this is not ignorance forced on Jesus. This is knowledge willingly withheld.

B. Jesus chooses trust before demanding it from His disciples

This is the heart of the verse.

Jesus is showing us that:

Trusting the Father is not weakness

Submission is not inferiority

Dependence is not failure

If the eternal Son can say,

“I entrust the timing to the Father,”

then discipleship means learning to live with the same posture.

Faith is not built on knowing everything. Faith is built on knowing the One who knows everything.

C. The Father’s sovereignty is the comfort, not the date

Jesus points all attention upward:

“…but the Father only.”

The timing of redemption is not uncertain. It is not floating. It is not up for debate.

It is securely held by the Father.

That means our confidence does not rest in access to information, but in the character of God.

If the Son trusted the Father with what He did not know, then learning to trust God with uncertainty is not a flaw in our faith, it’s a mark of it.

III. GOD WITHHOLDS THE DATE TO PRODUCE WATCHFUL PEOPLE, NOT FEARFUL PEOPLE

Here’s the spiritual genius of God:

He withholds the day so we don’t drift into laziness

He withholds the day so we don’t spiral into panic

He withholds the day so we learn steady faithfulness

This is where you drop the series-defining line:

God is more concerned with who we are becoming than what we are calculating.

That sentence becomes a guardrail for every Revelation sermon.

Transition: And now we can say what Revelation is for.

IV. REVELATION IS NOT A DATE-BOOK, IT’S A DISCIPLE-MAKING BOOK

Revelation will:

lift our eyes to the throne

steady us under pressure

expose counterfeit powers

fuel endurance

show the certainty of Christ’s victory

But Revelation will not:

cancel Matthew 24:36

give us permission to speculate

turn the church into a prediction club

This series will be about learning to watch like Jesus commanded, not guessing what Jesus refused to reveal.

CONCLUSION: The Comfort of Not Knowing

We leave tonight without a date, and that’s not a loss, it’s mercy.

The Father knows the day

The Son trusted the Father

The plan is secure

So our job is not to crack the code.

Our job is to be faithful.

And next week, we’ll look at how Jesus describes that faithfulness because right after v.36, He says, in effect:

“Since you don’t know the day… be ready.”

“Jesus doesn’t stop speaking after verse 36. He immediately tells us what to do in light of not knowing. Next week: What it means to be watchful.”