The Lesson in the Leaves - Oct. 10th, 2021

Formal Elements / Descriptive Data

Text: Matthew 24:32-35

Matthew 24:32–35 KJV 1900

32 Now learn a parable of the fig tree; When his branch is yet tender, and putteth forth leaves, ye know that summer is nigh: 33 So likewise ye, when ye shall see all these things, know that it is near, even at the doors. 34 Verily I say unto you, This generation shall not pass, till all these things be fulfilled. 35 Heaven and earth shall pass away, but my words shall not pass away.

CIT: Jesus gave us lesson in the fig leaves: His promises are eternally reliable.

Proposition: We should be more concerned with the infallible and eternal nature of the One who gave these promises than the specifics of when they will occur.

Statement of Purpose:

(1) MO – Doctrinal

(2) SO – I want my hearers to understand the greatest anchor point they have amidst an uncertain and unbelieving generation

Title (Topic/Name): The Lesson in the Leaves

Informal Elements / Rhetorical Data

Introduction:

Get Attention/Raise Need/Orient Theme/State Purpose

NEAR THE END OF World War II downtown Warsaw was almost completely leveled. According to one witness, the only skeletal structure remaining on the main street was the Polish headquarters of the British and Foreign Bible Society. The words engraved upon the only wall standing, which were clearly legible from the street, were the words, “Heaven and earth will pass away, but my words will never pass away.”1

1 This story was shared by Rev. Zdzislaw Tawlik of Poland at Whitworth College in 1984, recorded in Frederick Dale Bruner, The Churchbook: Matthew 13–28, 2nd and rev. ed. (Grand Rapids, MI: Eerdmans, 2004), p. 521. I have borrowed some of Bruner’s language.

[Douglas Sean O’Donnell, Matthew: All Authority in Heaven and on Earth, ed. R. Kent Hughes, Preaching the Word (Wheaton, IL: Crossway, 2013), 705.]

Jesus gave us lesson in the fig leaves: His promises are eternally reliable.

We should be more concerned with the infallible and eternal nature of the One who gave these promises than the specifics of when they will occur.

I want my hearers to understand the greatest anchor point they have amidst an uncertain and unbelieving generation. Let’s turn our attention to:

Body – Development – Outline:

I. The Lesson in the Leaves (Mt. 24:32-33)

Exposition:

A. Observations from Dendrology (Mt. 24:32)

Matthew 24:32 KJV 1900

32 Now learn a parable of the fig tree; When his branch is yet tender, and putteth forth leaves, ye know that summer is nigh:

1. Nearer to Heaven

klados (κλάδος, 2798), from klao, “to break” (cf. klasma, “a broken piece”), properly a young tender shoot, “broken off” for grafting, is used for any kind of branch, Matt. 13:32; 21:8; 24:32; Mark 4:32; 13:28; Luke 13:19; the descendants of Israel, Rom. 11:16–19, 21.¶

¶ Indicates that all the NT occurrences of the Greek word under consideration are mentioned under the heading or sub-heading.

[W. E. Vine, Merrill F. Unger, and William White Jr., Vine’s Complete Expository Dictionary of Old and New Testament Words (Nashville, TN: T. Nelson, 1996), 76.]

Note - Paul's use of is the only outside the Gospels. Aids the dispensational understanding of the times and God's work to one day restore Israel. Jesus' reference was to the Fig tree, Paul's to the Olive tree, James references both producing fruit after their kind.

2. Budding to Life

Genesis 8:22 KJV 1900

22 While the earth remaineth, seedtime and harvest, and cold and heat, and summer and winter, and day and night shall not cease.

Zechariah 14:8 KJV 1900

8 And it shall be in that day, That living waters shall go out from Jerusalem; Half of them toward the former sea, And half of them toward the hinder sea: In summer and in winter shall it be.

Note - It serves us all as followers of Jesus to be ardent observers of the dendrological teachings from the fig tree in relation to the timing of Jesus’ Kingdom Come!

B. The Kingdom on the Doorstep (Mt. 24:33)

Matthew 24:33 KJV 1900

33 So likewise ye, when ye shall see all these things, know that it is near, even at the doors.

1. The Threshold of the Millennial Reign

It is important for us to see that one cannot hold to the imminency of Christ's return, that is, that He may come at any moment, that He might have come at any time since Pentecost as far as any one then could know, and that Christians, all through the ages, were right to expect Christ to come at any moment, and to watch for His coming, and to believe at the same time that certain signs must come first. That doctrine that Christ's coming is imminent, the time of His coming unknown and unknowable, is clearly taught in the Bible. But one cannot hold to the imminency of Christ's return, and at the same time believe that there had to be a first world war before Christ could return, or that Christ could not return before the nation Israel was established in Palestine; or that Christ could not return before the present wave of modernism and worldliness. Every reader may take his choice; he can believe in Christ's imminent return, as taught in the Scriptures, or he can believe that Christ's coming had to await certain events. The two doctrines are irreconcilable. They cannot be harmonized. The intelligent Bible believer cannot hold to both positions. And the Bible certainly clearly teaches the imminent return of Christ, that is, that Christ may return at any moment . . . .

Certain events which will follow the Great Tribulation are like a fig tree whose branch is tender and which puts forth leaves in the spring. These events are the appearing of the sign of the Son of man in Heaven, when Christ starts to return, and the sight of the Son of man coming in the clouds of Heaven; and the sending of the angels to regather Israelites from all over the world. Then verse 33 says, "So likewise ye, when ye shall see all these things, know that it is near, even at the doors." When converted Israelites at the close of the Great Tribulation time, or other saints converted in that tribulation time, see Christ coming in the clouds of Heaven with power and great glory to set up His throne at Jerusalem and reign on the earth, and when they see the angels of God sent out miraculously around the world with the great sound of a trumpet to regather the elect, God's chosen nation Israel, from among all the lands of the earth, then these troubled people may know that Christ's coming and reign is immediately at hand. So there would be no use in speculating about the matter, because the meaning of the parable is clearly given in the words of the Saviour Himself.

And we should distinguish between the present immigration of godless Jews into Palestine, unconverted and unrepentant, and going by human means and with human purposes, from that other great gathering when every Jew left alive in the world will be gathered by the angels and brought to Palestine at Christ's return. The present movement in Palestine is human. It is not particularly a subject of Bible prophecy. It has no particular significance except that the Scripture indicates that some Jews will be in Palestine and will make a treaty with the Antichrist in the tribulation time. The present influx of Jews into Palestine is not the great regathering which will be done miraculously by the angels of God when Jesus returns in person to reign, after the rapture and after the tribulation period.

[John R. Rice, We Can Have Revival Now! (Sword of the Lord Publishers, 1950).]

2. When Faith Becomes Sight

thura (θύρα, 2374), “a door, gate” (Eng., “door” is connected), is used (a) literally, e.g., Matt. 6:6; 27:60; (b) metaphorically, of Christ, John 10:7, 9; of faith, by acceptance of the gospel, Acts 14:27; of “openings” for preaching and teaching the Word of God, 1 Cor. 16:9; 2 Cor. 2:12; Col. 4:3; Rev. 3:8; of “entrance” into the Kingdom of God, Matt. 25:10; Luke 13:24–25; of Christ’s “entrance” into a repentant believer’s heart, Rev. 3:20; of the nearness of Christ’s second advent, Matt. 24:33; Mark 13:29; cf. Jas. 5:9; of “access” to behold visions relative to the purposes of God, Rev. 4:1.

[W. E. Vine, Merrill F. Unger, and William White Jr., Vine’s Complete Expository Dictionary of Old and New Testament Words (Nashville, TN: T. Nelson, 1996), 180.]

Jeremiah 8:20 KJV 1900

20 The harvest is past, the summer is ended, and we are not saved.

Note - When Israel sat in judgment after her fall to Babylon, this was her remorse, when she finds Messiah at the end of the age, having endured the fullness of God’s chastening, she will realize her full salvation, as Paul assured us in Romans 9-11, All Israel Shall Be Saved.

Note - The AV translators have it right here. They have rendered “it” along with a clarifying marginal note to include “or he.” Comparing Mark and Luke avails the greater idea. “It” better to include all of the ideas encompassed, namely, “The Coming of the Son of Man” as well as including the “He” that shall come, and Luke’s revelation that coincides with the Geneva understanding that “it” will the “Kingdom of God” that will come with Him when He comes in power and great glory!

Illustration:

Faith and Sight

From valley to valley out over the hilltops, From sunshine to fog like the darkest of night; So we follow the Lord down life’s winding pathway, And walk much by faith and little by sight.

‘Twould be easy to see were His presence like lightning, And easy to hear if like thunder His voice; But He leads in the quiet by the voice of the Spirit, And we follow in love for we’ve made Him our choice.

The path that we tread by the cross is o’er shadowed, And the glory at times by pain is made dim; Temptations assail and the spirit grows weary, Yet we’re ever sustained by the vision of Him.

The years of our lives be they few or be many, Will soon pass away as dreams of the night; Then we’ll step through the portals on eternity’s morning, And greet Him in glory as faith turns to sight.

~ Richard L. Baxter

[Galaxie Software, 10,000 Sermon Illustrations (Biblical Studies Press, 2002).]

Transitional Sentence:

The Lesson in the Leaves is that there will be a time when ALL the things Jesus related here will have come to pass, and I believe that these assurances will be as transparent to those living through the Time of Jacob’s Trouble as when the Aspens turn for us here. We have a steadfast anchor in uncertain times, and that is,

II. The Lord’s Everlasting Truth (Mt. 24:34-35)

Exposition:

A. The Passing of an Evil and Untoward Generation (Mt. 24:34)

Matthew 24:34 KJV 1900

34 Verily I say unto you, This generation shall not pass, till all these things be fulfilled.

As regards the parable,—there is a reference to the withered fig-tree which the Lord cursed: and as that, in its judicial unfruitfulness, emblematized the Jewish people, so here the putting forth of the fig-tree from its state of winter dryness, symbolizes the future reviviscence of that race, which the Lord (ver. 34) declares shall not pass away till all be fulfilled.

[Henry Alford, Alford’s Greek Testament: An Exegetical and Critical Commentary, vol. 1 (Grand Rapids, MI: Guardian Press, 1976), 244.]

If we’re living in the end times, we need to have a sense that whatever we have to accomplish must be done quickly. If Jesus is coming soon, it should have a bearing on your lifestyle. There needs to be an urgency to your witness. You know that neighbor you’ve been thinking about witnessing to for years? This is the day. The Bible teacher F. B. Meyer asked D. L. Moody, “What’s the secret of your success?” Moody replied, “For many years I have never given an address without the consciousness that the Lord may come back before I’ve finished.”

[Robert J. Morgan, Nelson’s Annual Preacher’s Sourcebook, 2004 Edition. (Nashville, TN: Thomas Nelson Publishers, 2004), 250.]

B. The Ever-Enduring Promises of Jesus (Mt. 24:35)

Matthew 24:35 KJV 1900

35 Heaven and earth shall pass away, but my words shall not pass away.

The people rested themselves upon the words of Hezekiah king of Judah. —2 Chron. 32:8

One of the loveliest sentences which I treasure in my memory is this: “Above us, the silence of the stars; beneath us, the silence of the graves: between them, the voice of Jesus, and in this we rest.”

If the people of old, as our text tells us, could rest on the words of King Hezekiah, how much more confidently may we repose on the words of Christ!

[Ian MacPherson, Usable Outlines and Illustrations, Dollar Sermon Library Series (Grand Rapids, MI: Baker Book House, 1976), 48.]

Even Jewish prophets would not speak thus of their own words (Zech 1:5–6); such a claim was made only for God’s words, spoken through Moses and the prophets (cf. Jer 31:35–37). Those who claimed that their words were unchangeable believed that they spoke infallibly for God.

Zechariah 1:5–6 KJV 1900

5 Your fathers, where are they? And the prophets, do they live for ever? 6 But my words and my statutes, which I commanded my servants the prophets, Did they not take hold of your fathers? And they returned and said, Like as the Lord of hosts thought to do unto us, According to our ways, and according to our doings, so hath he dealt with us.

Jeremiah 31:35–37 KJV 1900

35 Thus saith the Lord, which giveth the sun for a light by day, And the ordinances of the moon and of the stars for a light by night, Which divideth the sea when the waves thereof roar; The Lord of hosts is his name: 36 If those ordinances depart from before me, saith the Lord, Then the seed of Israel also shall cease From being a nation before me for ever. 37 Thus saith the Lord; If heaven above can be measured, And the foundations of the earth searched out beneath, I will also cast off all the seed of Israel For all that they have done, saith the Lord.

[Craig S. Keener, The IVP Bible Background Commentary: New Testament, Second Edition. (Downers Grove, IL: IVP Academic: An Imprint of InterVarsity Press, 2014), 110.]

Illustration:

“When I was young, I was sure of everything. In a few years, having been mistaken a thousand times, I was not half so sure of most things as I was before. At present, I am hardly sure of anything but what God has revealed to man.”

~ John Wesley

[Craig Brian Larson and Brian Lowery, 1001 Quotations That Connect: Timeless Wisdom for Preaching, Teaching, and Writing (Grand Rapids, MI: Zondervan Publishing House, 2009), 93.]

Application:

The Bible, the Great Classic (Matthew 24:35)

Mr. Leslie Stephen says: “A writer is entitled to be called a classic when his books have been read for a century after his death. It takes a very powerful voice and a very clear utterance to make a man audible to the fourth generation.” If this is true, what a testimony to the Word of God, and the words of Jesus therein. The Bible is sold and read by millions, and while our Lord continues to declare “My words shall not pass away” (Matt. 24:35), even His enemies confess, “Never man spake like this man” (John 7:46).

[AMG Bible Illustrations, Bible Illustrations Series (Chattanooga: AMG Publishers, 2000).]

Transitional Sentence:

Jesus gave His followers a lesson in the leaves of the fig tree about when He come to establish His glorious kingdom on earth. Until He comes in the clouds, we can spend our days as a tale that is told, told on the leaves of the pages of the blessed Word of God! What lessons there are for us in each of these leaves! Page after page, verse after verse, we daily learn to live to be more and more like our Jesus who promised, “The text-critic shall pass away, but... Covid-19 shall pass away but... Vaccinations, Joe Biden, Rush Limbaugh... The Donkey and the Elephant… yes even you and me, under the chilling hand of death may pass away before Jesus returns, yea all these shall pass away if not for the trumpet, but the Words of the Lamb of God shall never pass away!” Someday, the great hope of God’s people is that the Devil and all his angels, the antichrist, the beast and the false prophet, yea, “Heaven and earth shall pass away, but Jesus’ WORDS shall never perish!”

Conclusion:

The wintery and harsh conditions of the judgment of Great Tribulation to come upon the earth that cause the tree branches to become bare and brittle from the cold (i.e. the Nation of Israel that endures the chilling blizzard of God’s judgment upon the world and the antichrist), will one day, once Jesus returns in power and great glory, thaw, and from their Root, the Righteous Branch, and Rod of Jesse, receive sustenance again, being graffed in again by faith in their Messiah, bud forth the promise of harvest, as the first signs of fruit begin to appear with the leaves of life, and welcome the heavenly summertime of the Millennial Reign of Christ, when the trees will be in ever bloom, and the fruits of righteousness shall ever prevail.