Sermon Tone Analysis

Good Morning Calvary Chapel Lake City!

Parents you may dismiss your kids!

If you don’t have a Bible...

Announcements:

Volunteers Needed for Children’s Ministry

We are adopting a family for Christmas… blessing them with gift cards to Amazon/Kohls/Meijer for our adopted Christmas Family.

Please have gift cards by 12/19.

Christmas Caroling in surrounding neighborhoods on Sunday Dec 19th 5-7pm… with cookies and cocoa to follow.

Meeting at Lakeland.

Fliers available.

Christmas Eve Service: Dec 24th 7pm

If you are new to Calvary Chapel…I’m Pastor Marc, welcome!

Thanks for joining us today!

Welcome Card & Prayer Basket!

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Please turn in your Bibles to Matthew 24.

We are covering Matt 24:45 to Matt 25:30 today finishing this section on the parables, and then next week we will finish The Olivet Discourse.... Jesus’ Discourse on End Times.

As a recap, Jesus in in His final week prior to the cross… in Jerusalem during Passover… and informed His disciples that the Temple would be destroyed sometime in the future.

The Disciples ask, “Tell us, when will these things be?

And what will be the sign of Your coming, and of the end of the age?”

And, Jesus answers describing that future Seven Year Tribulation time… Daniel’s 70th Week… A time of Jacob’s trouble.

Then, describes His second coming.

To reinforce His teaching, the Master Teacher, Jesus, shares parables.

We looked at a parable last week… “The Parable of the Fig Tree” and an illustration of “The Days of Noah.”

And, a key take away was to “Be ready.”

We don’t know when Jesus will return… it will be on a day and hour no one knows… except God alone.

We also don’t know how much time we have left.

And, I don’t know about you, but when God calls me home… either by death or rapture… I want to be busy about His business.

Peter said, 2 Pet 3:11-12 “… what manner of persons ought you to be in holy conduct and godliness, looking for and hastening the coming of the day of God...”

Paul said, Tit 2:12-13 "...denying ungodliness and worldly lusts, we should live soberly, righteously, and godly in the present age, 13 looking for the blessed hope and glorious appearing of our great God and Savior Jesus Christ...”

We are going to look at 3 more parables today, and as a reminder… Parables compare one truth to another… a natural truth to a spiritual truth… and I caution you to not run too far in allegorizing parables… look for the main point… the simple truth.

Many people get themselves in interpretive trouble by over allegorizing parables… by looking for hidden meaning… assigning each element of the story a specific meaning.

Carson shared this example of Augustine allegorizing… Carson wrote, “Augustine found in the parable of the Good Samaritan references to Adam, Jerusalem, the Devil and his angels, the Law and the Prophets, and Christ and the church!”

That’s over-allegorizing.

Peter warned, 2 Pet 1:20 -21 “...knowing this first, that no prophecy of Scripture is of any private interpretation, 21 for prophecy never came by the will of man, but holy men of God spoke as they were moved by the Holy Spirit.”

When it comes to prophecy, and scripture in general, be cautious of private interpretation... out of context interpretation… over-allegorization, etc.

Interpretations not tried, tested, and proven to be in harmony with the rest of scripture are likely wrong.

Now, what’s tricky about these passages in Matthew... is that in these parables, Jesus did not provide specific interpretations, so even within our camp… Evangelical-Fundamental Dispensationalists… even some of us see these passages a bit different.

Even amongst Pre-Tribulationists… still… differences of opinion.

And, that’s ok! Just have a view on eschatology.

I’m fairly confident that when we enter eternity... Jesus is going to set the record straight and we’re likely all a little wrong, and will stand amazed at God’s grace, and goodness, and justice, and mercy, and the list goes on.

After the tribulation… after the Millennial Reign of Christ, but before ushering in Eternity, God says this, Rev 21:6-7 “And He said to me, “It is done!

I am the Alpha and the Omega, the Beginning and the End.

I will give of the fountain of the water of life freely to him who thirsts.

7 He who overcomes shall inherit all things, and I will be his God and he shall be My son.”

A glorious promise, and I believe part of the ‘inheritance of all things’ is God will reveal exactly how it is.

Magnificent revelations in the “ages to come.”

Well let’s get into our teaching today, which is titled, “The Parables of the End Part 2.”

Let’s Pray!

Matt 24:45-51 “Who then is a faithful and wise servant, whom his master made ruler over his household, to give them food in due season?

46 Blessed is that servant whom his master, when he comes, will find so doing.

47 Assuredly, I say to you that he will make him ruler over all his goods.

48 But if that evil servant says in his heart, ‘My master is delaying his coming,’ 49 and begins to beat his fellow servants, and to eat and drink with the drunkards, 50 the master of that servant will come on a day when he is not looking for him and at an hour that he is not aware of, 51 and will cut him in two and appoint him his portion with the hypocrites.

There shall be weeping and gnashing of teeth.”

In this parable, there are two servants.

Both were trusted to care for the master’s household - the master’s family… to feed them at the proper time.

One servant did what he was asked.

He is called, “faithful,” “wise,” “blessed,” and is promised a position of authority in the master’s kingdom.

The other servant did not do what was asked.

He is called, “evil.”

He was abusive and a drunk… and is promised judgment and punishment.

In interpreting these parables… there is a difference of opinion.

The interpretive divide to these parables is primarily over which return of Jesus…

The rapture where Jesus returns for His church, to meet them in the air…

1 Thes 4:17 “Then we who are alive and remain shall be caught up together with them in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air.”

Or the Second Coming, where Jesus returns with His church… to rule and reign 1000 years…

Rev 19:11 “Now I saw heaven opened, and behold, a white horse.

And He who sat on him was called Faithful and True…”

Zech 14:4 “And in that day His feet will stand on the Mount of Olives, Which faces Jerusalem on the east.

And the Mount of Olives shall be split in two, From east to west, Making a very large valley; Half of the mountain shall move toward the north And half of it toward the south.”

Now, depending on how you see this… the rapture or 2nd coming… that determines who you perceive Jesus to be addressing...

Either exhortations for the church, or exhortations for end-times believers.

I lean towards the latter view, that these parables are primarily for Jewish believers of the end times… given the highly Jewish context of this teaching… and the highly Jewish context of the tribulation time as compared to scripture as a whole.

And, if you’ve been here for the past couple weeks… you’ve heard me speak on this in detail… so I won’t continue to beat a dead horse.

(I’m waiting for an ‘Amen!”)

What’s interesting… is no matter your interpretation… how valid is the application for saints today, or tribulation saints?

Jesus is returning, so how are you living now?

Are you being faithful and wise with what He has entrusted to you?

But, in this parable, there is a separation… perhaps picturing believing and unbelieving Israel or the nations… the Gentiles being sorted… as pictured in the Sheep / Goat judgment... at the end of Matt 25.

Matt 25:37-40 describes Gentiles during the tribulation who cared for… who fed Israel... “Then the righteous will answer Him, saying, ‘Lord, when did we see You hungry and feed You, or thirsty and give You drink?

38 When did we see You a stranger and take You in, or naked and clothe You? 39 Or when did we see You sick, or in prison, and come to You?’ 40 And the King will answer and say to them, ‘Assuredly, I say to you, inasmuch as you did it to one of the least of these My brethren, you did it to Me.’‘Assuredly,

I say to you, inasmuch as you did it to one of the least of these My brethren, you did it to Me.’”

At the end of the tribulation, after His return the Lord will judge the nations of people who survived the Tribulation based on their treatment of Israel… His brethren.

Zech 13:8 states two third shall be cut off and die, and one third shall remain.

So, Israel will not be treated kindly.

Jesus will separate the Sheep… the “righteous” and they will inherit the kingdom, and “eternal life.”

And, the Goats… who He titles the “cursed.”

They will “go away into everlasting punishment.”

Interesting parallels to this illustration.

This parable, like the last, is a warning about readiness for Jesus’ return… faithfulness to His calling… and a promise of either reward or punishment.

And, certainly… all those applications apply to people today as well.

Jesus continues… Matt 25:1… “The Parable of the Ten Virgins”...

Matt 25:1-13 “Then the kingdom of heaven shall be likened to ten virgins who took their lamps and went out to meet the bridegroom. 2 Now five of them were wise, and five were foolish.

3 Those who were foolish took their lamps and took no oil with them, 4 but the wise took oil in their vessels with their lamps.

5 But while the bridegroom was delayed, they all slumbered and slept.

6 “And at midnight a cry was heard: ‘Behold, the bridegroom is coming; go out to meet him!’ 7 Then all those virgins arose 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, ‘No, lest there should not be enough for us and you; but go rather to those who sell, and buy for yourselves.’ 10 And while they went to buy, the bridegroom came, and those who were ready went in with him to the wedding; and the door was shut.

11 “Afterward the other virgins came also, saying, ‘Lord, Lord, open to us!’ 12 But he answered and said, ‘Assuredly, I say to you, I do not know you.’13 “Watch therefore, for you know neither the day nor the hour in which the Son of Man is coming.

So, another parable.

Jesus is bringing to life His teaching about the Tribulation time to His disciples.

Jesus says, “the kingdom of heaven shall be likened to…”