Carol
and I walked the Champs Elysees the other night. The Christmas
decorations are up and it was beautiful. What a wonderful time of the
year, filled with Christmas songs, and cards, and parties and gifts and
tinsel and lights. For most of us, it’s the most joyous season.
It is a birthday party, the celebration of the birth of our Lord Jesus
Christ. For the church it is the Season of Advent.
In addition to celebrating Jesus' birth, Christians from the beginning
have also turned their thoughts during this Season to his Second
Coming. Our lectionary Gospel lesson this morning is on the
Second Advent of Christ. It is one of our core beliefs. We affirm it in
the Apostles Creed,
when we jointly confess:
that Christ rose again on the third day; ascended into heaven, and
sitteth on the right hand of the God the Father Almighty.
Then we
say -- from thence he shall come to judge the quick and the
dead.” —Apostles’ Creed
At the end of the world drama, Christ will return. The curtain will be
drawn down. When will this happen? What will be the signs of His
coming? How can we prepare for it? This morning we will be
looking at Jesus’ answers to these questions.
We begin by asking, when? What year, on what day? What will
be
the hour? Our Matthew text tells us that Jesus gave the
answers
to these questions in language that was perfectly clear. He said:
1. NO ONE KNOWS BUT THE FATHER
Matt. 24:36 "No one knows about that day
or hour, not
even the angels in heaven, nor the Son, but only the Father.
There will be an ending! But no one knows when the end will take place.
The angels in heaven will take part in this End Time event; but they do
not know when it will take place. The Son of Man himself is featured as
the returning, victorious KING on this Extraordinary Day, and yet HE
does not known when it will take place. Only the Father knows.
There are those who ask, “how is it possible that Jesus did not
know? If he were the divine Son of God, wouldn’t he
know?” Not necessarily. When Jesus took on human
flesh he accepted all the conditions of a limited humanity. On several
occasions Jesus revealed that he did not know everything.
For example, on the cross. Jesus asked, “My God, My God, Why have You
forsaken me?” (Matthew 27:46)
When he asked that perplexing and tragic question, He apparently did
know the answer.
No one knows the day and the time of the Second Coming, except the
Father. And yet, it's ironic that many Christian teachers and
preachers have claimed to know when the end would come.
-- In America, tens of thousands of followers of William Miller waited
eagerly for Jesus to reappear on Oct. 22, 1844. Some of these
Millerites had given away all their belongings. They looked up in the
sky--
expecting the sun to be darkened,
the heavenly bodies to be shaken,
the Son of Man coming on clouds with power and great glory.
But nothing happened. What disappointment! What embarrassment!
Even now, in today’s news, police and clergy in southern Russia
are trying to negotiate with members of a doomsday cult barricaded
inside a cave and threatening to blow it up. The group calls itself the
"True Russian Orthodox Church." These persons are waiting for the end
of the world. They expect it to happen next May. They say they have
enough food and water in the cave to last through the winter.
In fact Jesus warns us of those who preach and teach that “The
end is near!” All kinds of charlatans make money selling
books that warn us that “The Day is upon us.” But Jesus
says that it is not for us to know ultimate times or seasons.
One of the reasons we cannot know when, --is because the end times will
be ordinary. Nothing spectacular will precede the Second Coming. In
verse 37, Jesus says,
2. THE END TIMES WILL BE ORDINARY
37 As it was in the days of Noah, so it will be at the coming of the
Son of Man. 38 For in the days before the flood, people were eating and
drinking, marrying and giving in marriage, up to the day Noah entered
the ark. They knew nothing about what would happen until the flood
… took them all away. And then Jesus says, That is
how it will be at the coming of the Son of Man
The people in Noah’s time were involved in ordinary, everyday
pursuits -- eating and drinking, wineing and dining. And
then,
suddenly the flood came upon them. Why the flood? Because the people in
Noah’s time had grieved the Lord. They are described as people
whose thoughts were consistently evil. They were characterized as
corrupt, and violent.
Some would ask, “Why is the Lord of love making this frightening
comparison between Noah’s time and the end time? Is he trying to
scare us?” No, He’s not trying to scare us. He is
telling us these things because he wants to prepare us for what is
certain to come. He wants us to be ready for the last day, the day when
the whole life of humanity in this world will end.
A loving Savior would not want to hide this teaching, he would not want
to suppress it, to hush it up. Christ wants to wake us up. To alert us.
And the church Fathers wanted us to look at this text during Advent for
the same reason. They put it in the lectionary, so that we
wouldn’t pass over this uncomfortable teaching.
There is still more to this text. It tells us that on the Day
of
His Coming some will be raptured to meet the Lord and some will be left
behind. vs. 39-40---
3. THE RAPTURE FOLLOWS THE SECOND COMING
That is how it will be at the coming of the Son of Man. 40 Two men will
be in the field; one will be taken and the other left. 41 Two
women will be grinding with a hand mill; one will be taken and the
other left.
In Christian theology this is referred to as the rapture which is
“the transporting of believers to heaven at the second coming of
Christ.” The term -- rapture means a feeling of intense pleasure
or joy. I find it hard to think of being lifted up in the air as
intense pleasurable or joy. I am afraid of heights. Even being up here
in this elevated pulpit makes me a little uneasy.
Not that I want to be left behind! I want to be caught up in
the
air by an angel. But I'm hoping that I will receive a new body on the
way up, --so that I will no longer have that phobia.
It’s interesting. In Jesus’ description of the rapture, he
does not refer to holy people who might be praying in the church, or to
zealots waiting for him in a monastery. His examples are working people
-- men in the field, women at a mill -- who are taken up into
the
air, snatched up at their places of employment.
This verse is saying something very positive about secular vocations
and people who are faithfully serving in those vocations, those
careers, those jobs-- men working in construction, women arguing their
cases in court. It is these people with secular jobs faithfully doing
what they are supposed to be doing who will be unexpectedly caught up.
Jesus goes on to apply his teaching by challenging us to Be Ready!
4.THE CHALLENGE TO BE READY
Matt. 24:43 But understand this: If the owner of
the house
had known at what time of night the thief was coming, he would have
kept watch and would not have let his house be broken into.
44 So you also -- and here’s the point --
must
be ready, because the Son of Man will come at an hour when you do not
expect him.
Let’s notice that the “you” in the Greek is plural.
So you --you as followers of Jesus, all of you -- must be
ready
as a community of believers. The challenge is to be faithful, together!
To be dedicated, together!
That means that we need to challenge one another, warn one another.
“As Iron sharpens iron so one persson sharpens another.
Proverbs 27:17
5.THE PERSON WHO IS AND ISN’T READY
In the final paragraph Jesus tells us who is and who is not
ready: Matt. 24:45 “Who then is the
faithful
and wise servant, whom the master has put in charge of the servants in
his household to give them their food at the proper time?
The Lord gets very practical here. He is saying that he has set
everyone of his servants -- you and I -- at some table, in some
calling, some job, some vocation. He has set each one of us in a work
place, in some circle of influence, with certain people.
He refers to these places as households, which would certainly include
your family, but it also means your workplace. The word has a
warmth to it that the term work-place doesn’t have.
And he wants us to provide food for our circle of influence. What is
this food? It is primarily the food of God’s Word, especially
Jesus’ teaching. It can also mean the good food of Christian love
as we share kindness, consideration, and patience with those around us.
46 It will be good for that servant whose master finds him doing so
when he returns.
Isn’t it surprising that Jesus does not say, “It will be
good for that servant who, when the Lord comes, is found in prayer, or
is found in Bible study,” or is found doing spiritual exercises.
”No, it will be good for that servant if his master, when he
returns, finds him doing exactly when he told him to do -- feeding his
household in relevant and creative ways.” That is how we are to
be ready.
Jesus does not want us to abandon the world---to hide in a cave, or
climb to a mountain top and look for his Coming. Rather, it is the
person who is serving his circle of influence, doing his job,
fulfilling her vocation -- that’s the person who is ready.
And notice the reward--
47 I tell you the truth, he will put him [this servant who is faithful]
in charge of all his possessions.
All his possessions. The Lord’s end-time reward for faithful
service is more responsibility. Somehow we have the notion that heaven
means heavenly rest. Some scoff and say it’s endless boredom.
That’s not what Jesus says here. The heavenly reward is heavenly
duties.
Do you have big, impressive, temporal goals down here. By comparison,
they are microscopic, They are infinitesimal next to the greater
service up there. This promise of great advancement lies within our
grasp, and it depends upon how we perform in our present duties. How
charitable we are, how faithful we are, how generous we are in the
sphere of influence in which he has placed us in the here and now.
If we will be faithful, Jesus promises that we will be given an almost
universal responsibility -- The Lord will (v. 47) put him in charge of
all his possessions. What does that “all” signify?
Who can say?!
But there is a dark side to this story. Jesus goes on to say--
48 But suppose that servant is wicked and says to himself, ‘My master
is staying away a long time,’
The first thing we want to notice is that we are dealing with the same
servant. Suppose that servant In the previous verses he was
good,
but now he apparently has turned bad. Jesus is talking about
two
possibilities -- faithfulness and unfaithfulness.
Isn’t it true that each one of us has the capacity for both
faithfulness and unfaithfulness Many of us have been admirable
faithfulness to God, but also a short time later, shameful
unfaithfulness to God. The great question is which is the steady
pattern of your life -- faithfulness or unfaithfulness. Are
you
most regularly faithful or unfaithful?
If a person says, “There’s no Christ.” Or, “If
he exists, he’s not around, and he’s certainly not coming
back.” That’s dangerous talk. A distant or none existing
Lord is one that you don’t need to pay attention to. As Pope
Benedict the XVI in his second encyclical reported in yesterdays
International Herald Tribune wrote: -- man’s attempt to banish
God “has led to the greatest forms of cruelty and violations of
justice.”
Notice what this unfaithful servant does-- 49 he begins to
beat
his fellow servants and to eat and drink with drunkards. He
becomes hostile, violent in his interactions with others; he lives a
life of dissipation. And then what follows?
50 The master of that servant will come on a day when he does not
expect him and at an hour he is not aware of. 51 He will cut
him
to pieces and assign him a place with the hypocrites, where there will
be weeping and gnashing of teeth.
The parable ends in a brutal way! It teaches that the Lord was
extremely serious in these convictions. He wants us to know
that
the gift of life is no joke. That the way we live will determine our
destiny. The tree that does not bear fruit is chopped down
and
thrown into the fire. Jesus is love; but he is holy love. He
baptizes with the Spirit, but also with fire. The person who violates
fellow servants, who wastes his life in dissipation is, first, an
object of Jesus’ deep compassion and search. Christ hounds him,
reaches out to him. But, when this search, this reaching out is
rejected, the result is the judgment.
And we are left with an gruesome picture -- the weeping and gnashing of
teeth! What can we say? Jesus certainly knew that the “fear
of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom.”
And what would wisdom say?
Wisdom would tell us to fulfill as best we can the calling that God has
given us as we serve others.
Wisdom would urge us to show kindness, consideration and patience in
our respective circles of influence.
Wisdom would urge us to be ready -- especially in these ways -- because
the Son of Man will come at an hour when you do not expect him. (Matt
24: 44)
Wisdom would encourage us to Rejoice over the Second Coming of Christ.
For His coming opens the door to
heaven! Amen.
