The Father Knows, Parts 1 & 2 - Oct. 24th, 2021

Formal Elements / Descriptive Data

Text (focused on a complete thought-unit of Scripture providing the sermon’s authoritative basis & biblical affirmation): Mt. 24:36-42

Matthew 24:36–42 KJV 1900

36 But of that day and hour knoweth no man, no, not the angels of heaven, but my Father only. 37 But as the days of Noe were, so shall also the coming of the Son of man be. 38 For as in the days that were before the flood they were eating and drinking, marrying and giving in marriage, until the day that Noe entered into the ark, 39 And knew not until the flood came, and took them all away; so shall also the coming of the Son of man be. 40 Then shall two be in the field; the one shall be taken, and the other left. 41 Two women shall be grinding at the mill; the one shall be taken, and the other left. 42 Watch therefore: for ye know not what hour your Lord doth come.

Central Idea of the Text (CIT; details of text summarized in a complete, past tense sentence): Only the Father knows when the Son of Man will come: live & labor for God, but remain vigilant and watchful; Do not dismiss the warning signs of His return.

Proposition (major idea of sermon summarized in a complete sentence using present active, future indicative or imperative mood; the message): Live comfortably through uncertainty: Trust the Father, believe the Son (v. 36); Live unto the Lord, labor in faith & witness in love (vv. 37-41); Look for the Blessed Hope (v. 42)!

Statement of Purpose:

(1) Major Objective (MO; focuses on only one of six possible [doctrinal, devotional, ethical, evangelistic, consecrative, or supportive]) – Ethical

(2) Specific Objective (SO; focuses on only one; calls for specific action [“I want my hearer to . . .”]) – Find comfort in faith to live, work and witness in hope looking for Jesus to come again.

Title (Topic/Name) (2 to 4 words with key, arrow, or unifying word usually common to all major ideas; innovative, interesting, contemporary; indicative of general sermon content; not sensational or cute): The Father Knows

Structural Pattern (1 of 8 possible [enumeration, exploration, biographical, narrative, analogical, causal, problem-solution/question-answer, elimination]): Exploration

Informal Elements / Rhetorical Data

Initiation — Life Interest — Beginning Movement/Episode/Issue:

Life Material (LM) = “LIFE MATERIAL”: The telling/re-presenting of supportive life-material; compelling, fresh, interesting, believable; clearly related to the general conflict, mystery, question, problem, etc. being dealt with; use various sources or types; connect with listener’s experiences; strong, interesting opening sentence(s):

Illustrate evidence (from different angles) ways that people might live life without God:

Success

Temporary success may often crown the efforts of the godless, but even their greatest achievements cannot bring complete satisfaction. That was Solomon’s theme when he said, “… the expectation of the wicked shall perish.” If unrepentant sinners should view their most brilliant accomplishments in the light of eternity, they would find them to be as lasting and as valuable as bursting bubbles.

The 119th-century Bible scholar G. S. Bowes pointed out the ultimate futility of ambition that isn’t accompanied by dedication to God. Citing four powerful world rulers of the past, he wrote: “Alexander the Great was not satisfied, even when he had completely subdued the nations. He wept because there were no more worlds to conquer, and he died at an early age in a state of debauchery. Hannibal, who filled three bushels with the gold rings taken from the knights he had slaughtered, committed suicide by swallowing poison. Few noted his passing, and he left this earth completely unmourned. Julius Caesar, ‘staining his garments in the blood of one million of his foes,’ conquered 800 cities, only to be stabbed by his best friends at the scene of his greatest triumph. Napoleon, the feared conqueror, after being the scourge of Europe, spent his last years, in banishment.” No wonder Solomon warned of the poor prospects for anyone who strives to succeed without relying on God. - H.G.B.

Our Daily Bread, January 31

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

Life Issue (LI) = “LIFE ISSUE”: Posits question; creates problem; establishes mystery; arouses curiosity, anticipation; imposes conflict; establishes suspense, ambiguity, or bind:

What’s the point, why should I live for God anyway? Am I not better off without having to live by all His rules?

The Epicureans were somewhat like modern agnostic secularists. These followers of Epicurus (341–270 BC) viewed the gods as so distant and detached from the world that humans need not acknowledge them. Although meditation on the gods might have some positive benefits, praying to them was meaningless since the gods did not involve themselves in the affairs of men. The Epicureans primarily sought a life of pleasure, which they defined as the absence of physical pain or emotional upheaval. The Epicureans worked to diminish the fear of death, of the gods, and of punishment in the afterlife because they saw these fears as the major barriers to freedom from worry. Epicurus taught that “death is nothing to us since, while we exist, death is not present, and when death arrives, we do not exist.”24

24 Diogenes Laertius, Vitae 10.125.

[Charles L. Quarles, The Illustrated Life of Paul (Holman Reference, 2014).]

Background: A Shift in World Views

On Mars Hill the Apostle Paul faced the Epicureans and the Stoics (Acts 17:18). The Epicureans were the atheists of the day and the Stoics were the pantheists. Today Christianity again stands between the materialist and the mystic. Present-day ‘Epicureans’ are secular humanists, and contemporary ‘Stoics’ are proponents of what has come to be known as the New Age movement.

Western society is experiencing an ideological shift from an atheistic to a pantheistic orientation. The basic difference between these two views is that atheists claim there is no God at all, but pantheists say God is all and all is God. Atheistic materialists believe all is matter, but mystics hold that all is mind.

The shift from secular humanism to New Age pantheism has occurred gradually over the past few decades. It has been a relatively smooth transition because of the commonalities of these two world views. Both atheism and pantheism hold in common a basic naturalistic approach to the world. (1) Both deny an absolute distinction between Creator and creation. Both deny there is any God beyond the universe. (2) Both deny that a God supernaturally intervenes in the universe (by miracles). (3) And in the final analysis both believe that man is God (or Ultimate), though not all atheists admit this.

Western atheism and Eastern pantheism also have a common enemy. They are both diametrically opposed to Judeo-Christian theism. As Alice Bailey clearly declared, New Agers are committed to ‘The Gradual Dissolution of Orthodox Judaism.’ Benjamin Creme is just as emphatically anti-Christian. ‘To my way of thinking,’ he says, ‘the Christian Churches have released into the world a view of the Christ which is impossible for modern people to accept: as the one and only Son of God, sacrificed by a loving Father to save us from the results of our sins—a blood sacrifice, straight out of the old Jewish dispensation.’

Other New Age sources are equally emphatic in their rejection of biblical theism. Pantheism does not reject a God in nature. ‘It only refuses to accept any of the gods of the so-called monotheistic religions [such as Judaism and Christianity], gods created by man in his own image and likeness, a blasphemous and sorry caricature of the ever unknowable.’

The shift from the Old Age humanism to the New Age pantheism is manifest in numerous ways in today’s culture. First, there is the growth in pantheistic religions and cults. Along with Christian Science, Unity, Bahai, and Scientology, the growth in ‘guruism’ in the West has been phenomenal. Transcendental meditation, yoga, Hare Krishna, the Church Universal and Triumphant, and the Unification Church are only a few of the more popular cultic manifestations of New Age thought. Along with these are dozens of space cults and the more popular religion of the Force.

Second, New Age thought permeates the media. Many of the most popular movies of the past decade are pantheistic, including ‘Star Wars,’ ‘The Empire Strikes Back,’ ‘Return of the Jedi,’ ‘Poltergeist,’ ‘The Exorcist,’ ‘Raiders of the Lost Ark,’’‘Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom,’ ‘ET,’ ‘Close Encounters,’ and ‘The Dark Crystal’ (by Jim Henson, a fairy tale of pantheism). Television too has experienced more than its share of occult, magic, and other Eastern influences, from ‘I Dream of Jeannie’ to ‘Bewitched’. Even children’s cartoons feature ‘He Man,’ ‘Masters of the Universe,’ and numerous magical manifestations of Eastern mysticism. And children’s comics are literally filled with occult manifestations of New Age thought.

Third, much of pop pantheism was generated by the Beatles when they embraced the Maharishi. George Harrison expressed this in ‘My Sweet Lord,’ a song of praise to Krishna. This same trend continues unabated to date and has even manifested itself in outright satanic lyrics in some hard rock songs.

Fourth, pantheistic influence surfaced in the public schools through the teaching of transcendental meditation (popularly known as TM). Despite the fact that they were found by the court to be religious in nature, other forms of yoga, meditation, imaginary guides, and exploration of ‘inner space’ and ‘confluent education’ continue in public schools. Likewise the human potential movement and pantheistic forms of positive thinking methods are frequently taught in schools.

Fifth, the broader culture evidences numerous influences of pantheistic thought from EST (now FORUM) business seminars to holistic health fads (usually vegetarian), relaxation techniques, biofeedback, and biorhythms. The popularity of horoscopes and the supranormal are also indications of New Age thought. The increased belief in reincarnation is an amazing evidence of the turn to the East. A Gallup poll in 1982 showed that nearly one-fourth of all Americans believe in reincarnation, with 30 percent of college students believing it. And the most important fiction writer of the New Age is the bestselling author Carlos Castaneda, who wrote The Teachings of Don Juan, Tales of Power, The Ring of Power, and others.

[Evangelical review of theology, no. 11 (1987): 302–304.]

Continuation — Progress — Middle Movement/Episode/Option:

LM:

The World’s “Ship Is Sunk” - Just a Matter of Time

Illustrate from Titanic how “the world’s ship is sunk” so to speak. Focus on Captain Edward J. Smith’s actions in his best judgment which yet ended in catastrophe. Note the deceptive nature of the water, the breakdown in communications, the lack of preparation that failed to prevent the death of the large percentage of life. Point out investigative conclusions that apply to carelessness in soulwinning (e.g. the Californian vs. the Carpathian).

Final hours

Throughout much of the voyage, the wireless radio operators on the Titanic, Jack Phillips and Harold Bride, had been receiving iceberg warnings, most of which were passed along to the bridge. The two men worked for the Marconi Company, and much of their job was relaying passengers’ messages. On the evening of April 14 the Titanic began to approach an area known to have icebergs. Smith slightly altered the ship’s course to head farther south. However, he maintained the ship’s speed of some 22 knots. At approximately 9:40 pm the Mesaba sent a warning of an ice field. The message was never relayed to the Titanic’s bridge. At 10:55 pm the nearby Leyland liner Californian sent word that it had stopped after becoming surrounded by ice. Phillips, who was handling passenger messages, scolded the Californian for interrupting him.

Two lookouts, Frederick Fleet and Reginald Lee, were stationed in the crow’s nest of the Titanic. Their task was made difficult by the fact that the ocean was unusually calm that night: because there would be little water breaking at its base, an iceberg would be more difficult to spot. In addition, the crow’s nest’s binoculars were missing. At approximately 11:40 pm, about 400 nautical miles (740 km) south of Newfoundland, Canada, an iceberg was sighted, and the bridge was notified. First Officer William Murdoch ordered both the ship “hard-a-starboard” (to the left) and the engines reversed. The Titanic began to turn, but it was too close to avoid a collision. The ship’s starboard side scraped along the iceberg. At least five of its supposedly watertight compartments toward the bow were ruptured. After assessing the damage, Andrews determined that, as the ship’s forward compartments filled with water, its bow would drop deeper into the ocean, causing water from the ruptured compartments to spill over into each succeeding compartment, thereby sealing the ship’s fate. The Titanic would founder. (By reversing the engines, Murdoch actually caused the Titanic to turn slower than if it had been moving at its original speed. Most experts believe the ship would have survived if it had hit the iceberg head-on.)

Smith ordered Phillips to begin sending distress signals, one of which reached the Carpathia at approximately 12:20 am on April 15, and the Cunard ship immediately headed toward the stricken liner. However, the Carpathia was some 58 nautical miles (107 km) away when it received the signal, and it would take more than three hours to reach the Titanic. Other ships also responded, including the Olympic, but all were too far away. A vessel was spotted nearby, but the Titanic was unable to contact it. The Californian was also in the vicinity, but its wireless had been turned off for the night.

As attempts were made to contact nearby vessels, the lifeboats began to be launched, with orders of women and children first. Although the Titanic’s number of lifeboats exceeded that required by the British Board of Trade, its 20 boats could carry only 1,178 people, far short of the total number of passengers. This problem was exacerbated by lifeboats being launched well below capacity, because crewmen worried that the davits would not be able to support the weight of a fully loaded boat. (The Titanic had canceled its scheduled lifeboat drill earlier in the day, and the crew was unaware that the davits had been tested in Belfast.) Lifeboat number 7, which was the first to leave the Titanic, held only about 27 people, though it had space for 65. In the end, only 705 people would be rescued in lifeboats.

As the Titanic’s bow continued to sink, the stern began to rise out of the water, placing incredible strain on the midsection. At approximately 2:18 am the Titanic broke in two, with the bow going underwater. At 2:20 am the ship foundered as the stern section also disappeared beneath the Atlantic. Hundreds of passengers and crew went into the icy water. Fearful of being swamped, those in the lifeboats delayed returning to pick up survivors. By the time they rowed back, almost all the people in the water had died from exposure. In the end, more than 1,500 perished. Aside from the crew, which had about 700 fatalities, third class suffered the greatest loss: of approximately 710, only some 174 survived. (Subsequent claims that passengers in steerage were prevented from boarding boats, however, were largely dispelled. Given Smith’s failure to sound a general alarm, some third-class passengers did not realize the direness of the situation until it was too late. Many women also refused to leave their husbands and sons, while the difficulty of simply navigating the complex Titanic from the lower levels caused some to reach the top deck after most of the lifeboats had been launched.)

[Encyclopædia Britannica, Encyclopedia Britannica (Chicago, IL: Encyclopædia Britannica, 2016).]

Biblical Material/Exposition (EXP) = “EXPOSITION”: Summary of biblical material & identification of text(s) by vs. no.; exposit only from selected text; 3rd person pronouns; past tense; expresses the “then-ness” aspect:

How did Jesus exposit the Old Testament in vv. 37-41?

Verse 36 - Jesus set forth His thesis in verse 36 based on the certainty of His return as previously described in the preceding verses. The disciples’ question about timing was not as important as the certainty of God’s promises. Acknowledging that there were human and finite limitations on what they could know at that time, it was to be enough for His followers that though no man, nor even the angels could pinpoint the exact moment of His coming, the Father knows precisely when the right moment is. His perspective is transcendent, His understanding is omniscient. This is a most comforting thought for a finite man.

Verses 37-39 - Jesus then used the Old Testament story of Genesis 6 to help His disciples understand what to expect the world to look like when He returns. He provides a pertinent comparative illustration using “The Days of Noe” for a frame of reference. In verse 37, in true “Alpha and Omega” fashion (signalled by “but as…so also shall”), Jesus masterfully introduced His illustration, then provides its explanation in verses 38-39, following up with applying the comparison again by inclusio to the apocalyptic day prophesied of Daniel when the Son of Man comes.

As the Days of Noe

I trust you will notice how Jesus characterized the days of Noah. Though they were understood to be days of great wickedness and immorality, where Moses recounted that the “imaginations of the hearts of men were only evil continually, Jesus chose to draw attention to a different emphasis: their blatant disregard for and exclusion of God from their everyday lives, even to the point that any warnings Noah may have resounded fell on deaf ears and blind hearts living for themselves and lusting for the pleasures of sin for a season. The things listed by Jesus were not necessarily wicked evil things, except for the fact that they did them to the exclusion of God altogether. This is the very definition of godlessness which is a breeding ground for lust and sin which James assures us only leads to death, every time, without exclusion. Explaining the comparison, Jesus assured His followers that the inhabitants of the world would be in the same frame of mind when He would return. Just as they just kept on, and kept on, and kept on, eating, and drinking, and marrying, and giving in marriage, and lived life totally oblivious of God’s warnings of impending judgment and doom through His preacher of righteousness, Noe, and just as they were, by their own devices, willingly ignorant and completely unaware of the cataclysmic destruction about to overtake them on that fateful day when God invited Noe and his family into that Ark, which he built to the saving of his own house, so too, the Omega assured His disciples that it would be just like that when the Son of Man comes.

“Knew not” (οὐκ ἔγνωσαν) often does not connote lack of knowledge but deliberate rejection, but it might also mean a failure to “comprehend” or “recognize” the signs of imminent judgment. With the emphasis on the unexpected nature of the judgment here, the latter is best. The people were going about their godless business until the flood arrived and “took them all away” to their doom (note the similar pattern with respect to business practices in Jas 4:13–14).

James 4:13–14 KJV 1900

13 Go to now, ye that say, To day or to morrow we will go into such a city, and continue there a year, and buy and sell, and get gain: 14 Whereas ye know not what shall be on the morrow. For what is your life? It is even a vapour, that appeareth for a little time, and then vanisheth away.

[Grant R. Osborne, Matthew, vol. 1, Zondervan Exegetical Commentary on the New Testament (Grand Rapids, MI: Zondervan, 2010), 904.]

What kept the people from listening to Noah’s message and obeying? The common interests of life—eating, drinking, marrying, giving in marriage. They lost the best by living for the good. It is a dangerous thing to get so absorbed in the pursuits of life that we forget Jesus is coming.

[Warren W. Wiersbe, The Bible Exposition Commentary, vol. 1 (Wheaton, IL: Victor Books, 1996), 90.]

Noah’s flood:—Three rules without an exception—

I. “The flood came and took them all away.” 1. Many in that time were wealthy. Not one rich man could escape with his hoards. 2. There were some in those days who were extremely poor. The pauper out of the ark perished as well as the prince. 3. There were in those days learned men in the world. Their knowledge could not deliver them. 4. There were many who were very zealous in the cause of religion. Their outward religion of no avail. 5. Some of the oldest men that have lived perished. 6. They wondered at Noah building his ark, as contrary to reason; criticised his building; some took his part; some worked for him. All out of Christ perished.

II. The flood found them all eating, drinking, and marrying—this without exception. The mass of men are busy about fleeting interests, and neglect the salvation of their souls. The reason—1. Men’s indifference about their souls. 2. Universal unbelief. 3. That they were always and altogether given to worldliness.

III. All who were in the ark were safe. (C. H. Spurgeon.)

[Joseph S. Exell, The Biblical Illustrator: Matthew (Grand Rapids, MI: Baker Book House, 1952), 552.]

Tentative Resolution (TR) = “TENTATIVE RESOLUTION”: Temporary, incomplete, or incorrect conclusion; using present active, future indicative, or imperative mood, strong verbs (avoid “to be” or “to have” etc.):

They learned a hard lesson that day: It is futile to live life apart from God.

Transitional Sentence (TS) = “TRANSITIONAL SENTENCE”: Indicates change & progression of thought or direction; needs to achieve smooth, logical transition:

Noah did not live like the rest of the world. He was different. He lived by faith, walked in righteousness, and because of that, Noah found grace in the eyes of the Lord. On the contrary, the rest of the world lived godlessly, and the absence of faith (that Noah exhibits) in the omniscience of the Father leaves the godless to their own devices which leads to destruction, without exemption.

Next Movement/Episode/Option:

LM:

Illustrate the missionary endeavors of Nate Saint and Jim Eliot to the Auca Indians in Ecuador.

The New Encyclopedia of Christian Martyrs Jim Elliot

“He is no fool who gives what he cannot keep to gain what he cannot lose.” (Jim Elliot, written aged 22)

The Martyrs of the Ecuador Mission | 8 January 1956

In the dense rain-forests of Ecuador, on the Pacific side of the Andes Mountains, lives a tribe of Indians who call themselves the Huaorani (“people” in their language, Huao), but whose neighbors have called them the Aucas (“savages” in Quechua). For many generations they have been completely isolated from the outside world, disposed to kill any stranger on sight, and feared even by their head-hunting neighbors, the Jivaro tribe.

In 1955, four missionaries from the United States who were working with the Quechas, Jivaros, and other Indians of the interior of Ecuador became persuaded that they were being called to preach the Gospel to the Huaorani as well.

Nate Saint was 32 years old (born 1923), and devoted to flying. He had taken flying lessons in high school and served in the Air Force in WWII. After the war, he enrolled in Wheaton College to prepare for foreign mission work but dropped out to join the Missionary Aviation Fellowship. With his wife, Marjorie Farris, he established a base at Shell Mera (an abandoned oil exploration camp in Ecuador) in September 1948, and flew short hops to keep missionaries supplied with medicines, mail, etc. Once his plane crashed, but a few weeks later he returned to work in a cast from his neck to his thighs.

The other three, Ed McCully, Jim Elliot, and Peter Fleming, all Plymouth Brethren, came to Ecuador in 1952 to work for CMML (Christian Missions in Many Lands).

Ed McCully was 28 years old (born 1927). He had been a football and track star at Wheaton College and president of his senior class. After Wheaton, he enrolled at Marquette to study law, but dropped out to go to Ecuador. He and his wife, Marilou Hobolth, worked with the Quechuas at Arajuno, a base near the Huaorani. Half a dozen Quechuas had been killed at the base by Huaorani in the previous year.

Jim Elliot was 28 years old (born 1927) and an honors graduate of Wheaton College, where he had been a debater, public speaker, and champion wrestler. In Ecuador, he married Elisabeth Howard. They did paramedic work, tending broken arms, malaria, snakebite. They taught sanitation, wrote books in Quechua, and taught literacy.

Peter Fleming was 27 years old (born 1928), from the University of Washington, an honor student, and a linguist. With his wife, Olive Ainslie, he ran a literacy program among the Quechuas.

Nate and Ed found a Huaorani settlement from the air in late September 1955. Nate made four more flights on Thursday, 29 September, and found a settlement only fifteen minutes from their station. They told Jim and Pete, and the four planned their strategy.

They would keep the project secret from everyone but their wives, to avoid being joined by adventurers and the press, with the chance that someone not dedicated to the mission would start shooting at the first sign of real or imagined danger, and destroy the project.

They had one language resource, a Huaorani girl, Dayuma, who had fled from her tribe years earlier after her family was killed in a dispute. Dayuma, who spoke both Huao and Quechua, was now living with Nate’s sister Rachel. From her the missionaries learned enough of the language to get started.

They would fly over the village every Thursday and drop gifts as a means of making contact and establishing a friendly relationship. Eventually they would try for closer contact. Nate had discovered that, if he lowered a bucket on a line from the plane, and flew in tight circles, the bucket remained almost stationary, and could be used to lower objects to the ground. He had devised a mechanism to release the bucket when it touched down.

On Thursday, 6 October, one week after locating the village, they dropped an aluminum kettle into an apparently deserted village. On the next flight, several Huaorani were waiting, and the missionaries dropped a machete. On the third flight, they dropped another machete to a considerably larger crowd. Beginning with the fourth flight, they used a loudspeaker system to call out friendly messages in Huao.

Soon the Huaorani were responding with gifts of their own tied to the line: a woven headband, carved wooden combs, two live parrots, cooked fish, parcels of peanuts, a piece of smoked monkey tail.… They cleared a space near their village and built platforms to make the exchanges easier.

After three months of air-to-ground contact, during which they made far more progress than they had hoped, the missionaries decided that it was time for ground contact. They feared that they could not keep their activities secret much longer, and that delay risked a hostile encounter between the Huaorani and some third party.

They decided that the expedition needed a fifth man, so they brought in Roger Youderian, a 31-year-old (born 1924) former paratrooper who had fought in the Battle of the Bulge (a major German offensive in Belgium in the last stages of WWII) and had been in General Eisenhower’s honor guard. Roger and his wife, Barbara Orton, were working with the Jivaros, and Roger was thoroughly at home in the jungle, accustomed to living like the Jivaros and blessed with acute survival instincts.

They located a beach that would serve as a landing strip, about four miles from the village, and decided to go in on Tuesday, 3 January 1956. After some discussion, they decided to carry guns, having heard that the Huaorani never attacked anyone who was carrying a gun, and having resolved that they would, as a last resort, fire the guns into the air to ward off an attack, but would shoot no one, even to save their own lives.

On Tuesday they flew in and made camp, then flew over the village to invite the Huaorani to visit them. The first visitors showed up on Friday: a man, a woman, and a teen-aged girl. They stayed for several hours in apparent friendliness, then left abruptly. On Saturday, no one showed, and when the plane flew over the village, the Huaorani seemed frightened at first, but lost their fright when presents were dropped. On Sunday afternoon, 8 January 1956, at about 3 PM, all five missionaries were speared to death at their camp. A search party the next day found no signs of a struggle, and the lookout who was to be stationed in a tree-house overlooking the camp at ground level had come down, so it appeared that the meeting had originally seemed friendly, and that the attack had been a surprise. Ed McCully’s body was seen and identified, but was swept away by the river and not recovered. The other four, at the request of their wives, were buried at the site of the camp where they had died. Besides their wives, they left behind a total of nine children.

The effort to reach the Huaorani was not abandoned but rather intensified. Within three weeks, Johnny Keenan, another pilot of the Ecuador Mission, was continuing the flights over the Huaorani village. More than twenty fliers from the United States promptly applied to take Nate’s place. More than 1000 college students volunteered for foreign missions in direct response to the story of the Five Martyrs. In Ecuador, Indian attendance at mission schools and church services reached record levels, and the number of conversions skyrocketed. A Jivaro undertook to go at once to another Jivaro tribe that had been at war with his own tribe for years, bearing the Christian message, and his visit brought peace between the two tribes. Truly, as Tertullian said 1800 years ago, the blood of the martyrs is the seed of the Church.

In less than three years, Rachel Saint (sister of Nate Saint) and Elisabeth Elliot (widow of Jim Elliot) had not only renewed contact but had established permanent residence in a Huaorani settlement, where they practiced basic medicine and began the process of developing a written form of the language.

Nine years after the murder of the five missionaries, two of those who had killed Nate Saint and his companions baptized two of Nate’s children, Kathy and Stephen Saint. In June 1995, at the request of the Huaorani, Nate’s son Stephen moved to the settlement with his wife, Ginny, and their four children, to assist the Huaorani in developing greater internal leadership for a church committed to meeting the medical, economic, and social needs of their own people as a means of showing them God’s love and his desire to provide for their eternal needs as well.

Why did the Huaorani suddenly turn hostile? Much later, one of the Huaorani who had helped to kill the five martyrs explained that the tribe, who had had almost no contact with outsiders that did not involve killing or attempted killing on one side or another, wondered why the whites wanted to make contact with them; and while they wanted to believe that their visitors were friendly, they feared a trap. After the killings, they realized their mistake. When they were attacked, one of the missionaries fired two shots as warnings, and one shot grazed a Huaorani who was hiding in the brush, unknown to the missionaries. It was therefore clear that the visitors had weapons, were capable of killing, and had chosen not to do so. Thus, the Huaorani realized that the visitors were indeed their friends, willing to die for them if necessary. When in subsequent months they heard the message that the Son of God had come down from heaven to reconcile men with God, and to die in order to bring about that reconciliation, they recognized that the message of the missionaries was the basis of what they had seen enacted in the lives of the missionaries. They believed the Gospel preached because they had seen the Gospel lived.

James Kiefer, Christian Biographies, By kind permission

[Mark Water, The New Encyclopedia of Christian Martyrs (Alresford, Hampshire: John Hunt Publishers Ltd, 2001), 900–902.]

EXP:

Life in the Field & the Mill

What makes the difference in the end? There is a great separation on the horizon: what makes the difference between suffering judgment or finding salvation? How important is it that we live and labor in a way that reaches our loved ones and “co-laborers”?

Verses 40-41 - Having made a powerful impact with His pertinent and timely illustration of Noah’s day when the flood came and swept away the godless sinners, Jesus then, as only Jesus could, gave a prophetic outlook to a future day when there will be a great separation. That separation will be the removal of godless, faithless unbelievers from the earth, just as happened in Noah’s day. The prophecy Jesus made on that hillside overlooking the Kidron Valley and Jerusalem was intended to hit home. It gets down right to where the disciples lived, right where you and I, and our family and friends live and work and breathe and have our being. He tells them that there is coming a day, when two men would be laboring in the field, perhaps even brothers or fathers and sons like a James & John or Peter & Andrew with Zebedee, and two dear ladies, women (mind the gender of the translation), perhaps even sisters & mothers like a Mary & a Martha, would be grinding the flour together in the mill so they can just get enough to keep bread on the table, and then, just like a tidal wave, one would be “taken” and the other “left.” I’m not sure what could leave more uncertainty than that thought. Now you see ‘em; now you don’t! Do not miss the context. The context is that of the flood taking away those unbelievers of Noah’s day. Friend, if you and I get the wrong context, we might greatly misapply what Jesus is teaching here. This cannot be a reference to the Rapture of the Saints of Christ’s Church. The context could not be clearer. If I’ve read ten commentaries on these verses, I have encountered fifteen different viewpoints, and so the commentaries are not much help here. Preachers and teachers each have their opinions, but friend, it is not our opinions that matter, it is the fact of what the Scripture clearly presents. What did Jesus Himself teach? Exactly what He says here. AFTER the Abomination of Desolation, and AFTER the Antichrist, and AFTER the shaking of the heavens and the earth, and AFTER the time of Jacob’s Trouble, there will be a moment of great separation. In a few verses later, Jesus will assure that the sheep will be separated from the goats. Believers in His Words who actually live through the wickedness of those godless seven years, and who come through it all trusting and believing and waiting in hope, will one day find themselves left to see no more wickedness, no more sin, no more scoffing, no more mockers, and will enter into a thousand years of peace on this earth in their mortal bodies, to live in the greatest kingdom of blessedness the world will ever know, under the reign of King Jesus! Imagine that, sitting across from your co-worker, who, though you’ve witnessed to him or her a thousand times, still rejects the Bible and the God of the Bible, and goes home from work only to live for themselves and enjoy a godless vapor of existence, with nothing to look forward to but the end of the paycheck when they have to clock back in to do it all over again, and they sit there and mock you for going to church, and reading your Bible, and being a person of prayer and faith, imagine, now you see ‘em, now you don’t! As the angel of revelation cried in the ears of John the Seer, “There shall be time no more!” Friend, I cannot begin to stress to you the urgency that this level of uncertainty places on those who would live for Jesus to witness for Him while it is day, before the night cometh, when no man can work. While no one can be certain of the timing, it is more than certain, as Jesus prophesied here, that there will come a day of Great Separation, and those who remain in their sins and in unbelief will be swept away, taken away to face the eternal wrath of God on their sins forever. Are you ready for the judgment day?

Every major passage on the Lord’s return emphasizes right conduct on our part (cf. 1 Cor 15:58; 2 Cor 5:9–10; 1 Thess 5:8–11; 2 Thess 2:13–15; the perseverance theme in Revelation).

1 Corinthians 15:58 KJV 1900

58 Therefore, my beloved brethren, be ye stedfast, unmoveable, always abounding in the work of the Lord, forasmuch as ye know that your labour is not in vain in the Lord.

2 Corinthians 5:9–10 KJV 1900

9 Wherefore we labour, that, whether present or absent, we may be accepted of him. 10 For we must all appear before the judgment seat of Christ; that every one may receive the things done in his body, according to that he hath done, whether it be good or bad.

1 Thessalonians 5:8–11 KJV 1900

8 But let us, who are of the day, be sober, putting on the breastplate of faith and love; and for an helmet, the hope of salvation. 9 For God hath not appointed us to wrath, but to obtain salvation by our Lord Jesus Christ, 10 Who died for us, that, whether we wake or sleep, we should live together with him. 11 Wherefore comfort yourselves together, and edify one another, even as also ye do.

2 Thessalonians 2:13–15 KJV 1900

13 But we are bound to give thanks alway to God for you, brethren beloved of the Lord, because God hath from the beginning chosen you to salvation through sanctification of the Spirit and belief of the truth: 14 Whereunto he called you by our gospel, to the obtaining of the glory of our Lord Jesus Christ. 15 Therefore, brethren, stand fast, and hold the traditions which ye have been taught, whether by word, or our epistle.

In addition, in several places a statement that “the end is near” or some such saying is used to anchor ongoing ethical responsibility (cf. Rom 13:11; 1 Cor 7:29–31, 10:11–13; Jas 5:7–9; 1 Pet 4:7–11).

Romans 13:11 KJV 1900

11 And that, knowing the time, that now it is high time to awake out of sleep: for now is our salvation nearer than when we believed.

1 Corinthians 7:29–31 KJV 1900

29 But this I say, brethren, the time is short: it remaineth, that both they that have wives be as though they had none; 30 And they that weep, as though they wept not; and they that rejoice, as though they rejoiced not; and they that buy, as though they possessed not; 31 And they that use this world, as not abusing it: for the fashion of this world passeth away.

1 Corinthians 10:11–13 KJV 1900

11 Now all these things happened unto them for ensamples: and they are written for our admonition, upon whom the ends of the world are come. 12 Wherefore let him that thinketh he standeth take heed lest he fall. 13 There hath no temptation taken you but such as is common to man: but God is faithful, who will not suffer you to be tempted above that ye are able; but will with the temptation also make a way to escape, that ye may be able to bear it.

James 5:7–9 KJV 1900

7 Be patient therefore, brethren, unto the coming of the Lord. Behold, the husbandman waiteth for the precious fruit of the earth, and hath long patience for it, until he receive the early and latter rain. 8 Be ye also patient; stablish your hearts: for the coming of the Lord draweth nigh. 9 Grudge not one against another, brethren, lest ye be condemned: behold, the judge standeth before the door.

1 Peter 4:7–11 KJV 1900

7 But the end of all things is at hand: be ye therefore sober, and watch unto prayer. 8 And above all things have fervent charity among yourselves: for charity shall cover the multitude of sins. 9 Use hospitality one to another without grudging. 10 As every man hath received the gift, even so minister the same one to another, as good stewards of the manifold grace of God. 11 If any man speak, let him speak as the oracles of God; if any man minister, let him do it as of the ability which God giveth: that God in all things may be glorified through Jesus Christ, to whom be praise and dominion for ever and ever. Amen.

[Grant R. Osborne, Matthew, vol. 1, Zondervan Exegetical Commentary on the New Testament (Grand Rapids, MI: Zondervan, 2010), 906.]

The inference that Jesus makes in His prophecy is that Faith/Trust/Belief that leads to action, makes all the difference between those who are “taken” and those who remain “left.” This friend, is the true understanding of “Left Behind.” Left behind to enter into the Millennial Kingdom of our dear Savior, having been saved from a godless and wicked generation who crucified our Lord, and ushering into Eden, where the tree of life in eternal blooms, and the skies are not cloudy all day! Faith is the victory.

TR:

Illustrate the importance of witnessing in our daily life (consider “The Cobbler” as related by Dr. Ironside).

The Cobbler

“Do all in the name of the Lord Jesus” (Col. 3:17).

Colossians 3:17 KJV 1900

17 And whatsoever ye do in word or deed, do all in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks to God and the Father by him.

When I was a boy, I felt it was both a duty and a privilege to help my widowed mother make ends meet by finding employment in vacation time, on Saturdays and other times when I did not have to be in school. For quite a while I worked for a Scottish shoemaker, or “cobbler,” as he preferred to be called, an Orkney man, named Dan Mackay. He was a forthright Christian and his little shop was a real testimony for Christ in the neighborhood. The walls were literally covered with Bible texts and pictures, generally taken from old-fashioned Scripture Sheet Almanacs, so that look where one would, he found the Word of God staring him in the face. There were John 3:16 and John 5:24, Romans 10:9, and many more.

On the little counter in front of the bench on which the owner of the shop sat, was a Bible, generally open, and a pile of gospel tracts. No package went out of that shop without a printed message wrapped inside. And whenever opportunity offered, the customers were spoken to kindly and tactfully about the importance of being born again and the blessedness of knowing that the soul is saved through faith in Christ. Many came back to ask for more literature or to inquire more particularly as to how they might find peace with God, with the blessed results that men and women were saved, frequently right in the shoeshop.

It was my chief responsibility to pound leather for shoe soles. A piece of cowhide would be cut to suit, then soaked in water. I had a flat piece of iron over my knees and, with a flat-headed hammer, I pounded these soles until they were hard and dry. It seemed an endless operation to me, and I wearied of it many times.

What made my task worse was the fact that, a block away, there was another shop that I passed going and coming to or from my home, and in it sat a jolly, godless cobbler who gathered the boys of the neighborhood about him and regaled them with lewd tales that made him dreaded by respectable parents as a menace to the community. Yet, somehow, he seemed to thrive and that perhaps to a greater extent than my employer, Mackay. As I looked in his window, I often noticed that he never pounded the soles at all, but took them from the water, nailed them on, damp as they were, and with the water splashing from them as he drove each nail in.

One day I ventured inside, something I had been warned never to do. Timidly, I said, “I notice you put the soles on while still wet. Are they just as good as if they were pounded?” He gave me a wicked leer as he answered, “They come back all the quicker this way, my boy!”

“Feeling I had learned something, I related the instance to my boss and suggested that I was perhaps wasting time in drying out the leather so carefully. Mr. Mackay stopped his work and opened his Bible to the passage that reads, “Whatsoever ye do, do all to the glory of god.”

“Harry,” he said, “I do not cobble shoes just for the four bits and six bits (50c or 75c) that I get from my customers. I am doing this for the glory of God. I expect to see every shoe I have ever repaired in a big pile at the judgment seat of Christ, and I do not want the Lord to say to me in that day, ‘Dan, this was a poor job. You did not do your best here.’ I want Him to be able to say, ‘Well done, good and faithful servant.’“

Then he went on to explain that just as some men are called to preach, so he was called to fix shoes, and that only as he did this well would his testimony count for God. It was a lesson I have never been able to forget. Often when I have been tempted to carelessness, and to slipshod effort, I have thought of dear, devoted Dan Mackay, and it has stirred me up to seek to do all as for Him who died to redeem me.

In all the daily tasks we do, The Bible helps us clearly see That if the Work is good and true, We’re living for eternity.

- D.J.D. | Illustrations of Bible Truth by H.A. Ironside, Moody Press, 1945, pp. 37-39

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

TS:

The difference between living for self (leaving God out of life) vs. living in light of Jesus’ return is the difference between moth, rust, loss by theft, and corrosion of everything and gold, silver, and precious stone laid up as treasure in heaven, where life with Jesus is eternal.

Conscious of God

Tennyson, walking with his niece over the breezy downs at Freshwater, began talking of God’s presence, and told her that he was as sure of it as were the disciples when they had the Christ with them on the road to Emmaus. His niece replied that she thought the presence of God would be awful to most people, but he replied, “I should be surely afraid to live my life without God’s presence.” The truly awful thing is to be without God, to be in the deepest sanctuary of our being terribly alone. And yet how many seem to battle in order to banish God—He is not, in all their thoughts.

Doing the Will of God

“I find the doing of the will of God leaves me no time for disputing about his plans.”—M. D. Babcock

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

Life without God is futile. Living for Christ is fulfilling.

Consummation — Climax — Ending Movement/Episode/Option:

LM (most effective material used closer to climax):

Illustrate the peace and comfort that comes in times of uncertainty by facing each day with the thought that “The Father Knows.”

EXP:

Explain how this thought must have carried our Savior through His darkest valleys, even in His self-imposed limitations as a human, soon to face the most excruciating death capital punishment has ever offered (Roman crucifixion).

Verse 42 - The premise: No one knows when (except the Father) the Son of Man will come. The comparative illustration: Just as the flood caught the godless generation of Noe’s day unawares and ushered them into the depths of God’s wrath so it will be on the earth when the Son of Man comes. The prophetic warning: There is coming a day of Great Separation between unbelievers and believers when the Son of Man comes. Now Jesus provided His disciples with a home-run Inferential Application:

“Watch therefore!”

Always ready:—Sir Colin Campbell, when summoned to go to India to quell the rebellion, was asked, “How long would it take him to get ready?” He replied promptly, “Half-an-hour.” As a good soldier he lived in constant readiness for the call of duty. What a lesson for Christian soldiers! Suetonius tells us that it was a piece of Julius Cæsar’s policy never to fore-acquaint his soldiers of any set time of removal or onset, that he might ever have them in readiness to draw forth whithersoever he would. Christ, in like manner, who is called the “Captain of our salvation” (Heb. 2:10). Our enemy is always ready to annoy us; should we not therefore look to our stand, and be vigilant? Solomon’s wisdom, Lot’s integrity, and Noah’s sobriety, felt the smart of the serpent’s sting. The first was seduced, the second stumbled, and the third fell, while the eye of watchfulness was fallen asleep. (John Trapp.)

[Joseph S. Exell, The Biblical Illustrator: Matthew (Grand Rapids, MI: Baker Book House, 1952), 555.]

Do not be asleep at the wheel. Be alert. Stay awake. Don’t follow the crowd on this one. The disciples were walking into a world of uncertainty. They never knew from one moment to the next what the religious establishment might try to do to them for following Jesus. They never knew what the governmental authorities might be after them for, simply because of this man Jesus. They wanted to believe, and they did, that they were on the right side, that one day Jesus would sit on the throne of David, and rule, right across the valley from where they sat that very moment, in awe of the works of mens hands, which Jesus had assured would be destroyed just as Nimrod’s empire came crashing down at Babel. Jesus Himself, though omniscient as the Son of God, yet took upon Himself the form a servant, and limited Himself in that moment, in all His humanity, to only see what the Father allowed Him to see for that moment in time. He must needs go the way that the Father had marked out, but He did so as a sheep before His shearers, so He opened not His mouth. How lonely would be His path, when betrayed, arrested, and on fake trial, all of His followers would desert Him to His fated death, and yet, the great comfort of His heart was to know that no matter how dark His valley was, the Father’s all-seeing eye was watching every move. When no one else would be there, the all-piercing eye of His Father would be looking on, as He fulfilled all of the Father’s will for our redemption from sin.

The Father Knows Best

Our Father knows what’s best for us so why should we complain We always want the sunshine But He knows there must be rain. We love the sound of laughter And the merriment of cheer But our hears would lose their tenderness If we never shed a tear...

Our Father tests us often With suffering and with sorrow He tests us, not to punish us, But to help us meet tomorrow... For growing trees are strengthened when they withstand the storm And the sharp cut of the chisel Gives the diamond grace and form...

God never hurts us needlessly, and He never wastes our pain, For every loss He sends us is followed by rich gain... And when we count the blessings that God so freely sent, We’ll find no cause for murmuring And no time to lament...

For our Father loves His children, And to Him all things are plain, So He never sends us pleasure When the soul’s deep need is pain... So whenever we are troubled, And when everything goes wrong, It’s just God working in us, To make our Spirit strong...

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

Christ’s words disclose his voluntary limitation of the independent exercise of his divine attributes (cf. Phil 2:6–8). Jesus was obviously not bodily omnipresent while he walked on earth. Mark 6:5 describes some restrictions on his omnipotence. Here we have a limitation on his omniscience. Christians who balk at the implications of this verse reflect their own docetism (the early Christian heresy of not accepting the full humanity of Jesus) and lack a full appreciation for the extent of God’s condescension in the incarnation and in the various human limitations he took upon himself.

[Craig Blomberg, Matthew, vol. 22, The New American Commentary (Nashville: Broadman & Holman Publishers, 1992), 365.]

Final Resolution (FR) = “FINAL RESOLUTION”: Disclosure of proposition, answer, solution (*possible deductive/direct material; *application accomplished [explicitly/implicitly]; *carry-out stated purpose [MO/SO]; *1st & 2nd person pronouns; action-centered; relevant; *possible recapitulation):

Follow Jesus’ instruction and example to live comfortably through uncertainty: trust the Father, believe the Son (v. 36); live unto the Lord, labor in faith & witness in love (vv. 37-41); look for the Blessed Hope (v. 42)!