SPIRITUAL DIARY FOR 1/29/2024 8:12 AM
My Worship Time Focus: PT-1 “Intro to Matt. 24:36-51”
Bible Reading & Meditation Reference:
Matt. 24:36-51
Message of the verses: “36 "But of
that day and hour no one knows, not even the angels of heaven, nor the Son, but
the Father alone. 37 “For the coming of the Son of Man will be just like the
days of Noah. 38 "For as in those
days before the flood they were eating and drinking, marrying and giving in
marriage, until the day that Noah entered the ark, 39 and they did not
understand until the flood came and took them all away; so will the coming of
the Son of Man be. 40 “Then there will be two men in the field; one will be
taken and one will be left. 41 “Two women will be grinding at the mill;
one will be taken and one will be left. 42 “Therefore be on the alert, for you do not know which day
your Lord is coming. 43 “But be sure of this, that if the head of the
house had known at what time of the night the thief was coming, he would have
been on the alert and would not have allowed his house to be broken into. 44 “For
this reason you also must be ready; for the Son of Man is coming at an hour
when you do not think He will. 45 “Who then is the faithful and sensible
slave whom his master put in charge of his household to give them their food at
the proper time? 46 “Blessed is that slave whom his master finds so doing when
he comes. 47 “Truly I say to you that he will put him in charge of all his
possessions. 48 “But if that evil slave says in his heart, ‘My master is not
coming for a long time,’ 49 and begins to beat his fellow slaves and eat and
drink with drunkards; 50 the master of that slave will come on a day when he
does not expect him and at an hour which he does not know, 51 and will
cut him in pieces and assign him a place with the hypocrites; in that place
there will be weeping and
gnashing of teeth.”
I want to begin by saying that these verses above
are very lengthy, and it will take us a long time to go over them. I have listened to two sermons from John
MacArthur on these two verses, close to two hours long, and in his commentary
there are 13 pages of notes. This total
section will take us through the 24th chapter of Matthew, a chapter
along with the 25th chapter come from the Words of our Lord telling
us what will happen during the end times, that is during the tribulation period
which goes along with Revelation 6-19.
Keep in mind that these are the Words of our Lord that He spoke to His
disciples in answering a question that they ask Him while sitting on the Mount
of Olives, a question that they may have thought that they knew a part of the
answer, but the answer that they got from the Lord goes deep into the future
and has not yet happened even in our time which is some 2000 years after it was
asked. I have to say that I truly believe
that the answer that Jesus gave His disciples is very close to being seen. I look at what is going on in the Middle
East, especially in Israel for the last 100 plus days and it could be the time
what the Lord will descend in the clouds, and with the sound of the trumpet and
the voice of the arc angel call His bride home to be with Him, and then return
with the Old Testament Saints and the bride of Christ to end the greatest war
ever to happen on planet earth.
When
most of us were kids we use to play a game called “hide and seek” a game where
a group of kids would chose a person to stay behind and count to 60 while the
rest of the kids would attempt to hide from him or her. Right before he or she would open her eyes
that person would say “Here I come, ready or not,” and then would go to find
the other kids before they could come to a certain place to touch a given
object and be home free without being caught.
That phrase “Here I come ready or not” “could well be applied to Jesus’
second coming, because He is coming according to the sovereign plan of God,
with no regard for worldwide or individual readiness. Jesus is coming when He is coming, because
the when and how of His return have long since been predetermined in the sovereign
wisdom of God” writes John MacArthur in his introductory comments on these
verses we will be looking at for a while.
I
have written about the question that the disciples asked Jesus which is
recorded in Matthew 24:3 “As He was sitting on the Mount of Olives, the
disciples came to Him privately, saying, "Tell us, when will these things
happen, and what will be the sign of Your coming, and of the end of the
age?’” It is time for a little review. We have already looked at the “birth pains
that would immediately precede His coming in verses 4-28, and the abomination
of desolation in verse 15, which would precipitate those signs, and of the
supreme sign of His own appearing on the clouds of heaven in verse 30. Now He gives them a partial answer to the “when”
part of the question, when will it happen?
John
MacArthur writes the following which I have to say still do not quite
understand: “Although there will be observable,
worldwide, and unmistakable indications of His coming just before it occurs,
the exact time will not be revealed in advance.
Of that day and hour no one knows, Jesus declared categorically. The signs He had just been describing will be
conclusive proof that His arrival is very near.
Once they have begun, the general time
period of His return will be known, because one of the key purposes of the
signs will be to make it known. But even
during those sign-days the precise day and hour of Jesus’ appearing will not be
know, a truth He reiterates several times in this Olivet discourse (see 24:42,
44, 50; 25:13).”
With
that being said I have to say that I look forward in continuing to look at
these concluding verses of chapter 24 of Matthew’s gospel.
1/29/2024 8:50 AM
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