Final Hours #1 - 2 Questions
Message Description
Dr. Kurt Bjorklund begins the new message series "Final Hours" teaching on the final hours of Jesus's life from the New Testament book of Matthew. Jesus's disciples asked two important questions of Jesus in the twenty-fourth chapter of Matthew.
Message Transcript
Good morning. Welcome to Orchard Hill. Let's pray together. God as we gather today, coming from different experiences, different places, I pray that you would speak to each of us wherever we are on our journey. God, I pray that my words reflect your word in content, tone, and emphasis. We pray this in Jesus' name. Amen.
So, if you were to hear that you had just a few hours left to live, maybe a few days, maybe a few weeks, but not months, what things would you prioritize over those final hours? My guess is that many of us would prioritize certain conversations. We'd maybe prioritize certain visits. There would be some things we'd want to get in order, but we would shape the most important things into our lives out of what had been our life to say these final hours brought a type of focus. And we actually know what Jesus did in his final hours. Jesus, God, the Son of God, as a human being, knew that His life was coming to an end. And we have a record in the Gospels, Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John about those final hours in all of the Gospels, at least in part, deal with this.
And over the next few weeks, we're going to look at this account and see what Jesus prioritized in his final hours, and we're going to use the account in Matthew's Gospel. So, Matthew 24 through 28. And what you'll see is that in Matthew 24 Jesus was asked two questions, and so we'll address that today. Then in Matthew 25, Jesus told three stories. So, we'll look at that next week. And then in Matthew 26, there were four places that he visited. We'll look at that. And then in the first half of Matthew 27, there were five people who interacted with his crucifixion to be. And then there were 6 hours on the cross at the end of Matthew 27. And then this series will culminate on Easter weekend in Matthew 28 where we look at the one event that changed the world.
Now, we often, as we get ready on a weekend to teach, will have the Scripture read before the teaching. And the reason that we often do that is that we want the Scripture to stand as its own entity to say this is what's definitive. What comes after is still human interpretation, hopefully, good interpretation, but is interpreted nonetheless. And so that's the authority of what we do here and during this series because these texts are really long. No, we're not going to read each of them. But what I will do today is actually read the entirety of Matthew 24 as we talk because this is in some ways better just taken in Jesus' direct words than it is with a whole lot of comment as we try to understand this.
And so, here's how this starts, Matthew 24 verse one says, “Jesus left the temple and was walking away when his disciples came up to him to call his attention to its buildings.” And then Jesus said this verse two, “’Do you see all these things?” he asked. “Truly I tell you, not one stone here will be left on another; every one will be thrown down.’” This was an amazing statement because the temple is this amazing structure that existed in ancient Israel. And if you were here over the First Corinthians series that we just finished, a couple of times, I mentioned that in the original language, there are two different words for Temple. There's a word that means the holy of holies or the inner temple, the one that connotes more intimacy. And when in First Corinthians, you're told that your body is the temple of the Holy Spirit, that's the word that's used here. It's the broader word. It refers to the magnificent structure that's here.
And so, Jesus, walking with his disciples makes this provocative statement. He says, do you see this? This whole thing's going to be destroyed. And the reason this was so provocative to the disciples is when they heard this, they believed that Jesus was going to use the temple structure to usher in His kingdom here and now, and that they would be part of it, that they would see it in their lifetime. And so, when Jesus says, this whole thing's going to be destroyed, they have the what are you talking about moment. This would be a little bit like walking with somebody in Washington, D.C. in our country and saying, Do you see the Capitol? Do you see the White House? Do you see the Supreme Court? It'll all be gone soon. And what you do is you'd say, you're a little crazy. How could that be?
And so, what happens next is the disciples ask two questions. Verse three is, Jesus was sitting on the Mount of Olives. This is why this is sometimes called the Olivet Discourse. “As Jesus was sitting on the Mount of Olives, the disciples came to him privately. ‘Tell us,’ they said, ‘when will this happen, and what will be the sign of your coming and of the end of the age?’” Now, in English, it looks like it's one question, but there are two here. When will this happen? When will the temple be destroyed? And what is the sign of your coming in the end of the age?
And here's why this is important. In the disciple’s minds, the destruction of the temple and the end of the age, or Jesus' return, were one in the same event. So, they believed that whenever the temple would be destroyed, that would be the sign that Jesus was coming in. That was the end of the age. The disciples that lived during the time of Jesus believed that they were living in the final generation before Jesus' ultimate reign on Earth.
And here's how Jesus now begins to answer this and says, “Jesus answered: “Watch out that no one deceives you. For many will come in my name, claiming, ‘I am the Messiah,’ and will deceive many. You will hear of wars and rumors of wars, but see to it that you are not alarmed. Such things must happen, but the end is still to come. Nation will rise against nation, and kingdom against kingdom. There will be famines and earthquakes in various places. All these are the beginning of birth pains.
“Then you will be handed over to be persecuted and put to death, and you will be hated by all nations because of me. At that time many will turn away from the faith and will betray and hate each other, and many false prophets will appear and deceive many people. Because of the increase of wickedness, the love of most will grow cold, but the one who stands firm to the end will be saved. And this gospel of the kingdom will be preached in the whole world as a testimony to all nations, and then the end will come.”
And what you have here is you have a very clear statement of some ominous days that are coming. Now, here are the interpretive questions. When you read this first, is Jesus answering the question of when will the temple be destroyed? Or is he talking about the end of the age? And is he speaking primarily to the Jewish people or is he speaking to all of his followers for all time? Now, I'm not going to answer that immediately here. I'll tell you what I think about it in a little bit. But I want you to interact with this text for a little bit before I try to answer it, because this actually makes a difference in how you read this.
And it may not sound like that much of a debate, but let me just give you two quotes from two different people who've written books on this on different sides of this equation. The first one is Warren Wiersbe. Here's what he says, “The entire paragraph,” and he's referring to this and what comes after it, “relates only to the Jews and no Christian believer would worry about breaking Sabbath laws. And a little later he talks about that. So, what he in essence is saying, is this is only written to the Jewish people. And if you're a Christian, you don't need to even consider this. Now, Warren Wiersbe takes kind of an approach that says the believers will be taken out of this so this is only about Jewish people. You don't need to worry about this at all.
Don Carson says it this way. He says, “These things show the end is near. None of them stipulates how near. And the tenor of the warning is that the delay will be substantial and that during this period, Jesus' disciples must not be deceived by false messiahs.” And so, what he's doing is he's saying, no, no, this applies to believers over all time, and that this warning in verse four says, watch out that no one deceives you, is the main point of what Jesus is talking about. But here's what I don't think you can argue, however you want to interpret it. When you read through this, this is talking about some ominous days, some things that no matter who you are, you read it and you go, “That's a little concerning.”
Now, verse 15, “’So when you see standing in the holy place ‘the abomination that causes desolation,’ spoken of through the prophet Daniel—let the reader understand.” I'm not going to take a lot of time on this. We did a series on the Book of Daniel last year, and if you're interested in this, I think we did almost a whole message on Daniel 9:24-27 about the abomination of desolation. But here's what many scholars would say, and that is that this is some kind of a pagan use of the temple. And so, in 70 A.D., when the temple was literally destroyed, there was an abomination of desolation that took place then, that the readers would understand. And so many interpreters would say that this took place then. And again, I'll refer you to a past message rather than going down this hole but here's what's interesting. The temple has been rebuilt. And so, there is certainly an element of saying, could it be that there was an entire fulfilment of this prophecy then and there's a future fulfillment to come?
Verse 16, “then let those who are in Judea flee to the mountains. Let no one on the housetop go down to take anything out of the house. Let no one in the field go back to get their cloak. How dreadful it will be in those days for pregnant women and nursing mothers! Pray that your flight will not take place in winter or on the Sabbath. For then there will be great distress, unequaled from the beginning of the world until now—and never to be equaled again.” Is anybody encouraged yet? Clearly, when verse 21 is stated, Jesus is saying, I want you to know there's going to be incredible destruction, an incredibly destructive period of worldwide upheaval that you will experience. And again, some scholars say this is all fulfilled in 70 A.D., but many would say, no, this is still future.
And now Jesus is answering the end of the age question. And again, where exactly that is, is a matter of debate. Verse 22, “’If those days had not been cut short, no one would survive, but for the sake of the elect those days will be shortened.” Now, the elect is a word that sometimes troubles people because of the doctrine of election, and that certainly is a biblical ideal that God selects people who will believe but I don't think his point here is to say election, I want you to go down a rabbit hole of election. I think his point is using elect almost as shorthand to say, these are my loved people, these are my secure, chosen people.
And so, he says, “for the sake of the elect those days will be shortened. At that time if anyone says to you, ‘Look, here is the Messiah!’ or, ‘There he is!’ do not believe it. For false messiahs and false prophets will appear and perform great signs and wonders to deceive, if possible, even the elect. See, I have told you ahead of time.
“So if anyone tells you, ‘There he is, out in the wilderness,’ do not go out; or, ‘Here he is, in the inner rooms,’ do not believe it. For as lightning that comes from the east is visible even in the west, so will be the coming of the Son of Man. Wherever there is a carcass, there the vultures will gather.” And so, what you have here again is the statement of worldwide upheaval that follows these ominous days. So, the beginning of birth pains, ominous days, things going on. And then you have this period of worldwide upheaval that seems to be talked about here.
And certainly, you and I just watching the news today can say there are places in the world where worldwide upheaval feels like it's people's dominant reality. And what I mean is I was listening to a podcast the other day, and it was interviewing people who had come from Ukraine and what their experiences were. And one woman was talking about how she walked into her apartment knowing that it was the last time she would be there. And she had to take everything she could gather on her back to say, I need to be able to walk long distances with this. What will I take knowing that I'll never come back to this place as it is? And in a sense, what Jesus is doing here is He is saying there will be a time that could be like that, that could extend well beyond just a war that takes place in one part of Europe or one part of Africa, or something like that, but could be more of a worldwide phenomenon.
And most scholars would say again that this refers to a period of tribulation. Again, there's some division in how people talk about this, but certainly when you read through scriptures that speak about the future, what you see is that there is at a minimum, some kind of a worldwide government that coalesces, that it'll be hard for people who haven't taken the mark of the beast to buy and sell. And you're seeing little evidences of how this could be true in our future today because you saw a little bit with what took place in Canada and some of the other places, how people are restricting your use of funds. Very simply. And I think just recently our current president signed an order about how he wants us to move to digital currency and digital currency will make it harder and harder for anybody to buy or sell who isn't approved or who finds themselves outside of this.
So, you see the movement towards some of the things that the Bible seems to speak about. And certainly, if you read through Ezekiel 38 and 39, there's a great army from the North that someday appears to descend on Israel. And again, there are some who think this is all figurative. But certainly, there's a sense in which Israel will stand against much of the world. And then there's an army from the east. And I just want to show you this. This is Revelation nine, and this is in a portion that seems to talk about future events. Again, some would say this is continuous over time, but here's Revelation 9:16. It says this, “The number of the mounted troops was twice ten thousand times ten thousand. I heard their number.”
Okay, is anybody good at math? What's twice times 10,000 times 10,000? 200 million. I did the math ahead of time. Now, here's the deal. Can you think of a nation that could have 200 million troops today that they could send East for some purpose? I mean it's not hard to imagine that China has that. And, my point is as I look at this, is you can say certainly there are some things in the Bible that appear to say there are some things lining up more today than they have in the past. Verse 15. “And the four angels who had been kept ready for this very hour and day and month and year were released.” Here it is, “to kill a third of mankind.” I mean, that is staggering.
Now, again, I know some of you are like, boy, am I glad I tuned into church today to hear about this. But what I want you to see, again, is that Matthew 24, whatever you think about the interpretive questions, speaks about ominous days and worldwide upheaval that's ahead. Now, how do I understand this? Let me just tell you how I understand this. And I realize that there will be many different views even in this room. If you've studied it or have been around it, you may be like, I don’t buy that. But I'll tell you how I understand it. This is after years of study, thinking about it, and everything else.
So, I have a picture here that might help. So, if this is a prophet, kind of who's getting God's word, like when this was spoken by Jesus, as people heard this, I have the little “f” with the shorter arrow, than the slightly longer arrow, than the slightly longer arrow, and then an ultimate arrow with a big “f.” And what that's meant to do is, the “f’s” are fulfillment. So, how I understand this is, what Jesus was doing when he said and answered the two questions, when will it be that the temple is destroyed and what will be the sign of the end of the age is, he was talking on two levels. The disciples, I don't think understood it at the time, but what he was doing was he was saying there will be a fulfillment of some of this in 70 A.D. So that when you're living, you're going to say, oh, here it is. And then there will be other times that it seems like it's being fulfilled, and then there will be an ultimate fulfillment.
And one of the reasons that I say this, if you've read or been around, people in almost every generation have had a sense that this was being fulfilled. This section was being fulfilled in their lifetime. Just think about World War Two. If you were a Jewish person, people thought and believed that Adolf Hitler was the Antichrist and that they were living in the Great Tribulation. And it would be hard to argue with those people that there wasn't some sense of fulfillment, but now is where so many years on the other side of World War Two and the Holocaust. What you would say is that was still a time of a little fulfillment, and there's yet a future fulfillment.
If you like, big words. This is called inaugurated eschatology. You can Google it and see that I'm not the only person who thinks this way. But it's not necessarily the dominant view. And the reason that I want you to see this though, is I think this goes to Jesus speaking to both of these and saying it's a way of understanding this that helps you say, I make sense of what happened historically, but it still has some kind of future relevance in terms of how I look at this. And it also allows you to do what I do in this and to see that Jesus can be speaking both to the nation of Israel and to Christians simultaneously because he's talking on different levels simultaneously.
Now, the point of this ultimately is not just that there will be a worldwide upheaval, but that this leads somewhere. Verse 29, ““Immediately after the distress of those days “‘the sun will be darkened, and the moon will not give its light; the stars will fall from the sky, and the heavenly bodies will be shaken.’ “Then will appear the sign of the Son of Man in heaven. And then all the peoples of the earth will mourn when they see the Son of Man coming on the clouds of heaven, with power and great glory. And he will send his angels with a loud trumpet call, and they will gather his elect from the four winds, from one end of the heavens to the other.”
So, what is that talking about? I'm just going to say this is a hopeful culmination because where this leads is not to us, to God's judgment, to people who don't believe around the world that turns its nose at God, but it is to His return and his restoration of all things. Because when Jesus comes back, even the book of Revelation, with all of its judgments and things that you read that are somewhat disturbing, ends with this beautiful picture of the new heaven in the new Earth, where God's people find life as it should be. And that is the hope that's embedded in this.
But it's part of a timeline that God's working through. And those who have come to trust Jesus Christ as their Lord and Savior can say, I know that I don't earn my way to God, but I have faith in God because of what Jesus Christ did on the Cross. I have faith that that same God who is raised from the dead in Jesus Christ is coming back to make things right in this world. And that is the hopeful culmination that we think about.
So, that leads to a question at least that I have, and that is so what? We can talk about this and say all these things are happening. What does it mean for you, for me, as we live our lives today? And I'm thankful that Jesus actually answers the question right in this passage. In fact, in verse 32 he says this, “Now learn this lesson from the fig tree.” So, what's the lesson? Well, he's going to tell us and he's going to give us four different images - the fig tree, the days of Noah, the thief in the night, and the master on a journey. And what he does in rapid succession is he takes this idea of ominous days and worldwide upheaval and an ultimate hopeful culmination, and he says, now learn these lessons.
In a way, you could, as you think about it, say, okay, how do I relate to these warnings? If you want to call them that. So, one way is to say, okay, as I read this, I've seen warnings over history and maybe there's nothing to think about because people have always thought that Jesus was coming back. In fact, historically, there have been people who thought in 1836 that Jesus was coming back in 1914. There were some who thought it was going to happen in World War Two. There were some who believed that in 1988 there were 88 reasons why Jesus was going to come back. If you've been around a long time, maybe you remember this. And when they got it wrong and he didn't come back, they came out with another book called 89 Reasons Why Jesus Is Coming Back in 1989, and they made more money on the book after that. And there were still people who are like yeah, 89 reasons. And, so there are people who think that.
People thought Y2K in the year 2000 was going to be the end. And there are people who have said it just a few years ago. And I'll admit my history with this is that in college, I sat and listened on the radio, the actual radio where you actually had to tune into teaching, by a well-known pastor on the Book of Revelation where he had it all spelled out. And what happened was when little of it came true, as he released a new series a few years later, he just changed the dialogue of what was happening.
And what can happen for some of us is you can hear that and you can say, well, you know what, people have been wrong so many times. Why would I listen at all? So, a little bit like this, in 2018, there was a text message sent to all the people who had cell phones somehow registered, you probably didn’t know this could happen, but from the government that sent a message to everybody's cell phone that said, “Ballistic missile threat. Seek immediate shelter. This is not a drill.”
I don't know about you, but if I got that on my cell phone, I would first say, who's pranking me? But if I became convinced it was a legit thing, I'd be like, that is serious. And then what happened was they realized that an employee had pulled down the wrong pull-down menu and clicked on the wrong thing and sent this message in there. But imagine that same employee did it again by mistake a few weeks later, and then somebody else did it by mistake. And then somebody thought it was funny, and they put it out there by mistake. Do you know what would happen? If you were living in Hawaii, after a while, you'd be like, I got this text message. It means nothing. Let's go to the beach. And that's how you would be. And that's how some people have started to interact with the teaching about what Jesus says is ahead.
The other way to talk about this, maybe from a warning standpoint, is to say some people have just ignored this altogether. And it's a little bit like saying, you know what, I'm driving down the road and there's a sign that says, “Bridge out.” And what happens is I drive past it and I go, I don't think the bridge is out. And then there's another sign that says, “Warning, bridge out.” And then there's another sign, and I just keep going. And I come to a barricaded section, and I'm like, the bridge isn't out. So, I go around it, and I keep going because I'm convinced the bridge isn’t out. But that's how some of us have interacted with this idea.
And so, what does Jesus say we're to do? Let's look at these words of Jesus, verse 32. ““Now learn this lesson from the fig tree: As soon as its twigs get tender and its leaves come out, you know that summer is near. Even so, when you see all these things, you know that it is near, right at the door. Truly I tell you, this generation will certainly not pass away until all these things have happened. Heaven and earth will pass away, but my words will never pass away.” And so, what Jesus does is he says it's a little bit like spring. Think about one of your markers. One of the things you look at. It may be in your yard or in a park, and you go, when that starts, I know summer is coming.
What Jesus does is he takes a familiar example of the fig tree, and he says, when this starts to bloom, you know summer is at the door. When you see these things happening, he says, I want you to know it's right at the door. Now, we do need to understand that the Bible tells us, that for us, a thousand years is like a day to the Lord. And so, there's a sense in which we may say, boy, this feels like it's right at the door, and it may still be a bit, but his point isn't to say, run out and sell everything and say, hey, I'm living as if this is happening tomorrow. As much as to say, understand that you're living in a time in which things are happening that could lead to this ultimate hopeful culmination and maybe to some of this worldwide upheaval and some of the things that are happening here.
And his point ultimately, if we go back to what he says in verse four, verse six, watch out that no one deceives you. And what? Don't be alarmed. Don't be alarmed. So, Jesus’ point, he says, know that these things are at the door, but don't be deceived because there will be people who will come and who will try to tell you that Jesus has come back or that there's another way. And then he says, and don't be alarmed. And one of the things that I believe, when you understand what this teaches, is that you can watch the news, watch what's happening in the world and say, I don't need to be alarmed because God is at work in history in a way that I may not like, but He's at work. And what that means is you don't need to be alarmed when you see things happening.
So, then he moves from the fig tree to the days of Noah, verse 36. “’But about that day or hour no one knows, not even the angels in heaven, nor the Son, but only the Father.” And some people have said, well, you can't know the day and the hour, but you can know the season. I think he's in essence saying, look, understand that when somebody says there are eighty-eight reasons why Jesus is coming back in 88, you can be pretty certain that they're wrong. That seems to me what he's talking about.
“As it was in the days of Noah, so it will be at the coming of the Son of Man.” Days of Noah, days right before the flood, the flood was judgment, destruction, and salvation. And he tells us exactly what he means by it right here. He says this, “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; and they knew nothing about what would happen until the flood came and took them all away. That is how it will be at the coming of the Son of Man. Two men will be in the field; one will be taken and the other left. Two women will be grinding with a hand mill; one will be taken and the other left.”
And so, what does he say? He says, I want you to know that the days before Jesus comes will be like the day of Noah. Now, if you're kind of following this, this seems to say the opposite of what the rest of this has said because what this has said in Matthew 24 is there's ominous days, wars, rumors of wars, famines, all these things happening. And then he says, it'll be like the days of Noah. People will be just carrying on like it's no big deal, living their ordinary life, and then it will happen.
So, which is it? Which is it that Jesus is talking about? Well, it's possible that because our world is the way it is, the experiences could be different for different people. Now, certainly, worldwide upheaval seems to indicate more, but if you were to talk to people who live in Ukraine right now, they may very well feel like they are living out these days that it's talking about because of what's happening in Ukraine. People are starving, there's war, there's famine, there are all kinds of things happening where people could go, this is that. And you and I can sit here where we live today and we can go, wow, that's something. And then do you know what we do? I mean, just to be really honest, we go get in our SUV, we go out to dinner, we drop a Hyundai on dinner, we go home to our nice warm houses, and we're like, yeah, look at what's going on in the world. And I don't say that as a matter of anything other than just the experiences are radically different based on where you live today.
I saw this book on a friend's coffee table in their home, and it's called Ten Global Trends Every Smart Person Should Know. So, of course, I had to try and pick it up and say, what are these ten trends? And it actually has 78 trends that it walks through to tell us. Basically, the world is better than you think today. And I just want to show you a couple of these. And here's my reason for this. If you watch the news, especially with social media and people having a phone everywhere, you can get into the mindset that says this world is as bad as it's ever been. And there's some reality to that. But you can also look at some of the data, and this is all pretty well documented and say in some ways the world is better than it's ever been.
Here's the first trend that they talk about, which is the world's gross product. And what you see is that for so many years, the gross product relative to population held pretty constant. But in the last 100 years, look at the steep increase in wealth in our world. In other words, our world, not just America, is wealthier than it's ever been. The second trend that they show. And again, these are pictures, and I won't take a lot of time to unpack it, is the decrease in absolute poverty in our world. These are a couple of different scales. And again, you can just see how poverty is decreasing overall in our world. The third trend that they talk about is the change in global commodity prices over the last 30 years. And what you see again is that real prices are actually lower than the nominal. Nominal means you pay more, but compared to what people make, it's actually lower to buy prices of goods, according to this than it used to be.
I'll skip a trend for trend five. Talks about the food supply. Like even when you read about famines and stuff, the beginning of birth pains doesn't mean they're not happening in some places. But overall, in our world today, there is a greater amount of calories available to people even in sub-Saharan Africa than there was 20 or 30 years ago. The eighth trend that they mentioned, again, just for time's sake, is the difference between democracies and autocracies worldwide. So, if you believe that democracies are better for human flourishing, than autocracies, which I would agree with, what you see is that there are actually more democracies today than autocracies and that it's actually going up in our era.
And then if you look at trend nine, it's about interstate wars worldwide and they started in 1946. Now that's a little convenient for data's sake because if you go back 100 years you have World War Two, World War One. So, you could say over a century it isn't better. But over the last 50 years look at the sustained trajectory of peace. And then the final one, just to show you, is deaths from natural disasters. from 1900 to 2016. And what you see is that the deaths from natural disasters are actually down now.
Why do I take the time to show you all of this? Because when you read what Jesus says about when you see these things, be ready, it's like the fig tree about to blossom. At the same time, know that when he says as it was in the days of Noah, so it will be when the son of man comes. What Jesus is doing is he's covering, I think, the basis of people's experiences and saying whatever it is you're experiencing if the world feels like it's richer, safer, more peaceful than it has been, you're living in the days of Noah and if you're experiencing things where you go and look at the upheaval in the ominous days, he's saying it's like the fig tree, it's happening around you.
And then Jesus moves and tells the story about the thief in the night. He says, “Therefore keep watch, because you do not know on what day your Lord will come. 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. So you also must be ready, because the Son of Man will come at an hour when you do not expect him.”
And so, if you're living in the days of Noah, what can happen is you can become so consumed with now that you have no thought of the fact that history is moving somewhere and that you could be living in a terminal time frame in which the King of Kings will come back and settle all accounts. And so, he says, I want you to consider this like a thief in the night. If you knew there was a thief coming, but you didn't know when, you would stay alert, you would handle your sleep differently than if you didn't think somebody was coming.
And then he talks about this manager or owner who goes on a journey. He says, verse 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? It will be good for that servant whose master finds him doing so when he returns. Truly I tell you, he will put him in charge of all his possessions. But suppose that servant is wicked and says to himself, ‘My master is staying away a long time,’ and he then begins to beat his fellow servants and to eat and drink with drunkards. 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. He will cut him to pieces and assign him a place with the hypocrites, where there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth.”
And so, Jesus, as his fourth analogy, says, there's a master who's away. And His point is to say you don't know when He’s coming, so be about your master's business instead of doing other things. And so really, however you understand this, whatever kind of lens you use to see how to understand this whole teaching, the point Jesus has is very clear, and that is live your life not just for now, but for eternity. Knowing that this life is not everything.
I remember when I was in college, I worked construction for several summers, and the crew that I worked on had a foreman, and it changed from time to time. But the foreman would often run errands, so he would take a long time to run errands. He would go to the store. You know, the version of whatever Home Depot was back then. He'd leave the workers to work on their own and the breaks would sometimes get longer. And I remember one particular day a couple of the guys decided to use the nail guns. You know how they have nail guns with the compressor, to see who could shoot and hit the trees at a better rate of distance than one another. And we were mid-nail gun shooting tournament when the foreman came back. And it was not a great moment.
And I think that's a little bit of what Jesus is saying here. He's saying, understand that you may think that Jesus isn't coming back, that he's been gone for a long time, but there will come a day when you will move from what has been to what will be. So, choose to live your life accordingly. Now, Jesus chose this. He provoked the question in his final hours, the questions from the disciples, hey, these things are going to all fall down. And then they ask the question. And the reason I believe he did that is he wants his followers for all time to understand that the idea of Jesus isn't just He did something in the past for us, but that He's coming back and that what we do in this life matters immensely.
In fact, we're going to take communion. One of the things Jesus did, one of the places Jesus went, was the upper room. And one of the things that He did when he was there was, he said, we're going to celebrate the Passover, but also this institution of the Lord's Supper, where he says, I want you to look back and see what Jesus has done, but I also want you to look forward and know that there's a day coming when you will do this again in the kingdom, when you will have a feast with the Son of God, with the King of Kings. And that is the time period in which you live. So don't lose sight of it.
I'm going to pray, and then each of our campuses will partake in communion. Father, thank you for just the way in which your word encourages us not just to be so focused on our current situation that we live in a place where we don't understand that history is moving somewhere. God, I pray that you would help me, help each person who's here to understand that our lives are on a trajectory, that history is on a trajectory. God for those who maybe have heard this and it's all kind of new information and seems maybe to be just kind of out there, I pray that there would even be a recognition that says God loves people and wants through your son to have people be a part of this ultimate hopeful end, the return of Jesus Christ. And that we can share in that through coming to faith in Jesus ourselves. And we pray this in Jesus' name. Amen.