PT-2 Intro to Matthew 24:32-35

 

SPIRITUAL DIARY FOR 1/21/2024 9:11 AM

 

My Worship Time                                                           Focus:  PT-2 “Intro to Matthew 24:32-35

 

Bible Reading & Meditation                                               Reference: Matthew 24:32-35

 

            Message of the verses: “32 "Now learn the parable from the fig tree: when its branch has already become tender and puts forth its leaves, you know that summer is near; 33 so, you too, when you see all these things, recognize that He is near, right at the door. 34 "Truly I say to you, this generation will not pass away until all these things take place. 35 "Heaven and earth will pass away, but My words will not pass away.”

 

            Today is January 21, 2024, and I have mentioned that on January 26, 1974 is when I became a born-again believer in Jesus Christ.  In five days it will be 50 years ago that the Lord saved me.  In today’s SD as I desire to conclude the introduction to these verses, which are a parable spoken to our Lord’s disciples by Him, He talks about the parable of the fig tree, and to understand this you must realize that it is a parable that He is using here.  Another thing that reminds me of when I came to know the Lord is the verses that John MacArthur uses in his introduction to these verses.  He writes “Believers anticipate the day when they will ‘all be changed, in a moment, in the twinkling of an eye’ and their perishable and mortal bodies put on the imperishable and immortal (1 Cor. 15:51-53), when ‘death is swallowed up in victory’ (v. 54), and when ‘the saints will judge the world’ (6:2).  They look forward to the day when they will be absent from the body and…at home with the Lord (2 Cor. 5:8) and when the church will be presented to Christ as His pure virgin bride (11:2).  They look forward to the day when the will see Him just as He is and become like Him (1 John 3:2).”

 

            I remember during the week that I was visiting a friend of mine in Florida in 1974 where I was listening to a series of tapes spoken by Hal Lindsey on the end times and he brought up the verses in 1 Corinthians 15 which spoke of how believers would be changed from a mortal body to an immortal body and I was telling my wife about this saying that I did not know if I wanted that to happen to me.  That certainly has changed in my mind soon after I became a child of God as I look forward to that more and more each day of my life.

 

            As one reads over the New Testament they will find that the theme of Christ’s second coming permeates there and is the great anticipatory reality of Christian living.  The truth is that the Lord’s return will be as real and as historical an event as His first coming, it is just in the future when it will happen and people who will be living in the Millennial Kingdom will look back on both His first and second coming like we as believers look back at His first coming now.  I have to say that fifty years ago I look different than I look now, but when I get to heaven in my new immoral body that I will look the same throughout eternity, and I look forward to that.  MacArthur adds “In that day Satan will be defeated, the curse lifted, Christ worshiped, the creation liberated and restored, sin and death conquered and saints glorified.”  That is a day that I truly look forward to.

 

            He goes on to write “Among the many passages in Scripture that describe the Lord’s coming again, Matthew 24-25 is unequaled because it is the message from Jesus’ own lips about His return.  After He told them of the series of signs that will precede His coming, including the supreme sign of His personal appearance, the disciples no doubt were still wondering about the time when those dramatic signs would begin, about what their duration would be, and about how long it would be from the sign in heaven of His appearing to His establishing the kingdom.

 

            “In Matthew 24:32-35 Jesus gives another parable about a fig tree.  The parable summarizes and illustrates what He had just said and acts as a transition to His answer to the disciples’ question about when His coming would be (see v.3).  In this parable and its explanation, four elements can be discerned; and uncomplicated analogy (v. 32), and unmistakable application (vv. 33-34), and unprecedented alteration (v. 35a), and an unchanging authority (v. 35b).”

 

            I truly look forward to better understanding this parable as I move through this section of Scripture.

 

1/21/2024 9:49 AM