[00:00:00] Speaker A: Hey, thanks so much for listening to this message. My name is Jason, and I'm one of the ministers here at the Madison Church of Christ. It's our hope and prayer that the teaching you hear today will bless your life and draw you closer to God. If you're ever in the Madison area, we'd love for you to stop by and study the Bible with us on Sundays at 05:00 p.m. or Wednesdays at 07:00 p.m. if you have questions about the Bible or want to know more about the Madison church, you can find us
[email protected] dot. Be sure to subscribe to this podcast as well as our Sermons podcast Madison Church of Christ Sermons. Thanks again for stopping by. I hope this study is a blessing to you.
[00:00:38] Speaker B: We're gonna do like we do every week. We're gonna start with a prayer. Ask Brent Gaddis to join me tonight. Robert actually got called back down to math, which. What is math?
[00:00:49] Speaker C: Michoud assembly facility.
[00:00:51] Speaker B: Okay. He got called back down to there for his work. He was there last week. And so, you know, as I've always said, I can't do this alone. So I called in helping hand here.
So Brent was going to help me. Now, probably everybody knows this. I asked Brent to do this in about five minutes after I asked Brent to do this. You guys have been praying for my brother, and I got the call that he had passed away on Sunday.
So I'm a little bit less than prepared tonight. And Brent called me very quickly and said he would take care of tonight. I'm going to be up here. I don't know how much commentary I'm going to have, but I am going to be up here attempting to teach. And before we begin, to everybody, thank you for the text, the cards, phone calls, everything. I really, really do appreciate it. And before we go into the prayer, there is one thing Amanda and I have been talking a lot about over the last few days, and I think several of y'all that are my age or older, you'll understand this.
If there is someone in your life that you feel like you've left something unsaid or undone, do it. Say it. I have been very fortunate that I've lost my Mother, my father, now my brother and I don't have any regrets.
And that's only by the grace of God. So tonight, if there's something you need to take care of, take care of it. Leave the class.
Take care of it. That scriptural, I don't have the book, chapter, verse, but y'all know the scripture that says if there's a problem with a brother, get it taken care of. Leave your gift at the altar and you go take care of it.
[00:03:13] Speaker C: Okay?
[00:03:14] Speaker B: Again, I'm not saying that because I had a problem. I didn't. And that is such a comfort. And I'm going to go further. I'm going to echo something that Andrew talked about Sunday.
If you need to make something right with God, do it. Do it where you sit. If it's something you can take care of right now, take care of it.
If you need one of the elders, elders, raise your hand. There's several of us. Ed's right there at the back.
If there's something you feel like you need an elder to take care of, you go get it taken care of.
And if you have not been immersed in water, in the name of the Father, Son and the Holy Spirit for the remission of your sins, take care of it before you leave here tonight. Get up. Leave this class. I say that because I was with my father when he died. I was with my mother when she died. And the difference in life and death is this.
And we're going to talk about this. Brent's going to finish the class out tonight and he's going to talk about this. You don't know when your time is.
Don't leave anything unsaid or undone. Last Wednesday, you know what was occupying a lot of my spare cycles?
We had a bathroom that wasn't fixed. I was dealing with contractors. Do you think I care about that bathroom today?
On Monday, our credit cards were stolen. It didn't bother me because it didn't matter. And I'll tell you guys, I'll share with you all. I wonder. I feel kind of like I'm in a fog right now. Maybe I'm not. Maybe I'm in a fog the other times. Maybe right now things are crystal clear. So that was on my heart tonight. I ran this by Amanda. Normally I wouldn't do this. She said, yeah, say it. So I've said my piece.
Several have reminded me that I did pray last week that my brother's situation be resolved. And I'm thankful that it is.
[00:05:29] Speaker C: That's a powerful message, folks. It really is.
Well, David told me what chapter it was, and I guess I should have known that because I've been in this class. It's chapter 24 of Matthew, which I have to say is a very interesting chapter.
And I'd like to say that I completely have this chapter figured out, as I'm sure most all of you do, and we totally understand anything, but I can't say that. But there's a lot of really interesting things in here. And I hope our study tonight will be beneficial to you.
You know, a little bit of background. We've been studying Matthew, and I guess starting with about chapter 21, Jesus goes to Jerusalem. You know, normally he's up in Galilee, he goes to Jerusalem.
There's the triumphal entry.
He cleanses the temple. He teaches in the temple. He sees that fig tree and then he walks by the next day and it's dead. And he uses that for a lesson to his disciples.
He tells a lot of parables in the temple. He indicts the chief priests and the Pharisees and calls them out with the parables of the landowner and the marriage feast in Matthew 21 22. And as we've discussed, he silenced the sadducees. They tried to. To catch him with a question about marriage. And then he takes care of the Pharisees too, when they ask about the greatest commandment and he asks them questions they can't answer. And at that point, people quit asking him questions. So it's quite an interesting week. You know, it's basically the last week of Jesus ministry here on earth, you know. And then when we got to the end of chapter 23 last week, well, the middle of chapter 23, he's talking about the Pharisees. And he really lays into them, I mean, with all the various woes, and calls them out because of the way they're acting, basically.
And then the last three verses are a good segue into this week's lesson. Because he talks about Jerusalem. He laments over Jerusalem. He says, jerusalem, who kills the prophets and stone those who are sent to her. How often I wanted to gather your children together the way a hen gathers her chicks under her wings and you were unwilling.
Behold, your house is being left desolate.
And that leads us into chapter 24. In chapter 24 and 25 are. You can kind of treat them together because they talk about a couple of major things.
They talk about the death of Christ and, well, not the death of Christ, but the signs of his second coming. And they also talk about the destruction of Jerusalem and the temple. That's going to happen as well. So, like I said, it's an interesting. And it's a challenging chapter that, you know, if you think you've got it all figured out, that's good, maybe you can enlighten us all. But there are a lot of various opinions over certain aspects of the chapter. And as we get through it, you'll probably understand why.
So it's a prediction of the near term future, that being the destruction of the temple, which basically ended the jewish sacrificial system and the way they'd been living for hundreds of years. I mean, it was all wiped out. They lost track of what tribe they were from. There was no temple to sacrifice at, you know, after that occurred. So Jesus is foretelling that. And then he also talks about his second coming as well.
So, you know, it is an interesting chapter. It also has parallels in Mark, chapter 13 and Luke chapter 21. So it helps to look at those. They're very similar in a lot of ways, but there are some differences and things that are in some that aren't in the other. So I'd encourage you to look at those chapters as well. As we go through here.
The one thing I would say is always keep in mind that the Bible doesn't contradict itself. Okay? So whatever interpretation we take out of what Jesus says in Matthew 24 is going to be consistent with the rest of his teachings and the rest of the Bible and things like that.
So that's kind of a introduction, if you will.
[00:10:09] Speaker B: So I was, as Brunt was talking, one of the things, you know, and I think it's. I don't know if it's because somebody brought this up in here a few weeks ago, but I definitely, as during this study, I'm paying more and more attention to what I would call the. I'm going to call the chapter breaks, but how it kind of messes up the flow. And to me, 23, you made a good point. He went after the sadducees. He went after the pharisees. And then as you were reading right there at the end of chapter 23, let me get back to it when he talks about wanting to gather in, and then he says, behold, your house is being left to you desolate. Okay? And then we have this chapter break. But if you read it, even the context there, he said that. And now he's walking away.
And the setup for the discussion, I guess I'd call it a discussion that he ends up having with the disciples there, at least in my mind, and I may be wrong about this, it almost is like he said that and he said, you know, the house is going to be desolate. And then they're walking away and his disciples are saying, but look at all the buildings. Look at how nice they are, you know, that sort of thing. And then he says, then he goes into in verse two where he says, do you not see all these things truly, I say to you, not 1 st here will be left upon another which will not be torn down. And then I would again say, just a short amount of time after he said this, they're shocked. They've probably ruminated on a little bit, and then they're saying, okay, when's this going to happen?
And what will be the sign of your coming?
Brent and I briefly discussed this before class, and I'll kind of give you guys a forewarning here.
Can't prove it, but I kind of feel like he's talking about two different things in this chapter. There's a part of it, and I do feel like down in the text we'll see that there's a part of it, that he answers the two questions, he tells them about the destruction of Jerusalem, and then he tells them about the signs of his coming. And he doesn't really give a heading, he doesn't look at them and go, this is what I'm talking about. And now I'm switching gears, but I think we'll see that as we go through the rest of the text.
[00:12:58] Speaker C: Yeah, that's a good point. And I think that's led to some confusion over the years, the way people make those breaks. And where does he stop answering one question and answer another? So let's get into those questions. In chapter 24, it says in verse one, jesus came out of the temple and was going away when his disciples came up to him to point out the temple buildings to him. And remember, these guys were mostly people from humble means from the north part of Israel. And the temple was a magnificent place. I mean, there was multiple acres. It had been built over a period of like 46 years. It was huge and, you know, very significant building. In fact, it was termed one of the wonders of the ancient world by some people. So they're pointing this stuff out to him. I mean, it had these stones, and some of these stones were like up to 40ft long and could weigh 100 tons, according to some of the historians back then. So they are pointing all this out to them. And then Jesus says, do you not see all these things? Truly, I say to you, not a stone will be left upon another which will not be torn down. And I suspect they're probably like, what? I mean, this is a very substantial building. Look, we're under the roman protection. How can this happen?
So jesus leaves the temple, he goes east, which means he crosses, he goes down, goes through the Kidron valley, there's a, the brook, Kidron there, and then he goes up the mount of Olives, which is maybe a quarter of a mile away or so. And you can look out over the brook and you can see the temple there. So that's apparently where they are. It says in verse three, he was sitting on the mount of Olives. The disciples came to him in private, saying, three questions here. Tell us, then, when will these things happen and what will be the sign of your coming and of the end of the age? So it tells us, I think, in mark that four of the disciples came to him there. It was Peter, Andrew, Simon, and Peter, James, John.
Well, go look in Mark, mark, chapter 13.
Anyway, four of his disciples came. I should have written that down.
And they asked him, it looks like three questions, right? The first one is pretty obvious. It says, tell us, when will these things happen? I think it's pretty clear that's talking about when are these stones going to be wiped out? You know, this is a big deal. When is this going to happen? And then, because Jesus had told him previously in chapter 16 of Matthew that, hey, I'm coming again. I'm coming back. I'm going to take the people who've been living right with me. So they knew that was going to happen, and they said, when? What will be the sign of your coming and of the end of the age? And I kind of tend to treat that as one question. You know, you can. You can look at it however you want, but we have at least two questions here that Jesus is going to answer.
So Jesus starts his answer in verse four. He says, see to it that no one misleads you, for many will come in my name, saying, I am the Christ, and will mislead many. You'll be hearing of wars and rumors of wars. See that you're not frightened, for these things must take place, but is not yet the end, for nation will rise against nation, in kingdom against kingdom, and in various places, there will be famines and earthquakes. But all these things are merely the beginning of the birth pangs. So, you know, when I read that, it seems like it's talking about the answer to the first question that they ask them. You know, when is all this going to happen? Destruction.
And that's when Jesus starts talking about that. You know, the Jews were expecting Jesus about the time he was born. I mean, you look at Simeon in the temple and Anna and others, they had looked at the prophecies in Daniel and other books, and they were like, you know, it's about time for the Messiah. You know, we can use the Messiah. The Romans have our country. We need somebody to deliver. So they were looking for somebody. And that's, I think, why Jesus says, hey, look, there are going to be people that come and say they're the messiah. They're going to lead people astray. They're going to promise all these big things that they can do. Don't be fooled. Okay?
Then he says, these things are merely the beginning of the birth pangs. And to me that seems interesting. The birth of what? You know. Or is it specifically talking about the birth of something specific?
[00:17:44] Speaker B: Anyway, so I'll jump in there. And the big thing I take away from verses four through eight, or at least to me, the lesson is the second 2nd part of verse six. What's his commandment there? When he says, essentially a lot of bad stuff is going to happen? And what is, what is he, what is his command there? Don't worry about it. That's, in other words, that's not the sign. That's not now every time. And I think even recently, right, with what's going on in the Middle east now, what do people automatically start saying, but what is versed, verses four, four through eight there? What is it?
It's going to happen. It's, you know, there's going to be wars, going to be famine. I've always taken that to mean he's basically just saying, people are going to be people. Nations are going to be nations. This stuff is going to happen. Don't worry about it. And that's the new Dicus version or new Dicus translation.
[00:18:54] Speaker C: Yeah, yeah, no, that sounds good.
So, you know, in my mind, those particular verses, he's kind of talking to his disciples, right? He's saying all these things are going to happen.
Where did I have that written? Oh, yeah. Okay. No, I take that back. Verses one through eight, I would say, is more of a general prophecy. It's when you get to verse nine, what you're about to read, that it gets into the specifics of, hey, here's you as disciples are going to experience this.
[00:19:31] Speaker B: And that's why I'm saying what I'm saying. He's basically saying there's all this general stuff that happens.
That's not the sign. That's not it.
Like I said, that's just normal stuff.
[00:19:48] Speaker C: Yeah. And then he gets into verse nine and he says, hey, here's what's going to happen to you as followers of me as christians. He says, then they will deliver you to tribulation and will kill you, and you will be hated by all nations because of my name.
And at that time, many will fall away and will betray one another and hate one another. And many false prophets will arise and mislead many because lawlessness is increased. Most people's love will grow cold. But the one who endures to the end, he will be saved.
This gospel of the kingdom shall be preached to the whole world as a testimony to all the nations. And then the end will come.
The end. Okay, which end is he talking about here? We'll talk about that, but interesting set of verses there. Talking about specific prophecies that his followers are going to undergo.
He talked in verse twelve about their love. The love will grow cold. I interpret that to be their love for Christ will grow cold because of all these terrible things happening.
They fall away and then they desert him.
You know, it's interesting, too, in verse 14 where he says that the gospel of the kingdom will be preached to the whole world. And we know from reading in other parts of the New Testament that's exactly what happened. Like in Colossians 123, the gospel was proclaimed to, all these things are going to happen in the near term. Right. That's pretty clear.
[00:21:21] Speaker B: I also think this goes back to something that Robert and I talked about a few weeks ago. What were they thinking? Right. I feel like again, he's talking to his disciples and they're asking him, and again, this isn't in scripture, but they're asking him, what's the sign that you're coming back? And what are, in my mind, I think they're probably asking, this is a triumph when you come back. You know, this is, this is going to be a big deal. And they're, you know, they're asking because I kind of feel like, based on the previous chapters, they're wanting to know how it's going to be good for them. And he's setting the stage there by saying, yeah, this isn't going to go well for you.
[00:22:00] Speaker C: It's not going to go well for you.
[00:22:01] Speaker B: This is not going to go the way you think it's going to go.
[00:22:06] Speaker C: Yeah. And just when you think it's bad, he gets into verse 15 and he says, and then when you see the abomination of desolation, which was spoken through Daniel the prophet standing in the holy place, and then in parentheses, let the reader understand.
Then those who are in Judea must flee to the mountains. Whoever's on the housetop must not go down to get things out of that are in his house. Whoever's in the field must not go back to get his cloak. But woe to those who are pregnant and those who are nursing babies in those days. But pray that your flight will be in winter and not on a sabbath, for then there will be great tribulation, such as has not occurred since the beginning of the world until now, nor ever will. Unless those days have been cut short.
No life would have been saved. But for the sake of the elect, those dates will be, those days will be cut short. Then if anyone says to you, behold, here's the christ, or there he is, do not believe them. For false christs and false prophets will arise and will show great signs and wonders so as to mislead the, if possible, even the elect.
Behold, I've told you in advance, so if they say to you, behold, he is in the wilderness, don't go out, or behold, he is in the inner room, don't believe him. For just as the lightning comes from the east and flashes even to the west, so will the coming of the son of man be. For wherever the corpse is, there, the vultures will gather.
So he says, okay, it's bad. And you're going to see this thing called the abomination of desolation. And that's very clear, right? But what Jesus is talking about here is the destruction of Jerusalem, which happened sometime later in AD 70. Jerusalem was besieged by the Romans for a period of years, and they eventually captured the city. They went in, they burned the temple, they eventually plowed it, literally plowed it under. There was nothing left. Exactly what Jesus said happened. The stones were taken off of each other. And that, like we said earlier, essentially put an end to the jewish sacrificial system that they were doing, you know, and in a way, it did Christianity a great favor, you know, because of that, if you think about it. But that's what Jesus is talking about here. He's answering that first question of when will these things happen that his disciples had asked him previously there.
And he talks about a lot of really terrible things there.
I think the general consensus is that when you talk about the abomination of desolation, that's when the roman armies surround Jerusalem.
They were pagans, which was abominable to the Jews, and they caused desolation. I mean, they essentially leveled the whole temple, killed many, many people. There was all these things that Jesus talks about here. If you go back and look at the historians in the time, such as Josephus and others, you can see, yeah, this is exactly what happened. And we know that from history, not just from looking at the scriptures.
[00:25:21] Speaker B: And I also think it's interesting, as I read it, the language there is not really symbolic. I mean, he says, if you're in Judea, watch out, get out of town. Right. It's not, at least the way I read it. It doesn't. At least in that part, it doesn't seem like what I would call apocalyptic language. Right. It was not symbolic. He's telling them, this is going to happen and you need to be ready for it. Right.
[00:25:54] Speaker D: Luke's account, we were talking about this before, class. Luke's account doesn't use this phrase, the abomination that causes desolation.
Luke 21 20 says, when you see Jerusalem being surrounded by armies, you'll know that desolation is near and then let those who are in Judea flee them out.
[00:26:17] Speaker B: Right.
[00:26:17] Speaker C: Yeah. So that interprets it.
[00:26:20] Speaker B: And I think the, and I may be stepping on where you're going, Brent. I apologize, but for me, I go to verse 27. Right? Verse 27. What he's saying there, I think his message is, you know, if there's any confusion. Right. If there's any confusion about what he's talking about here, what does he say? And let's use it as an example. If lightning struck anywhere in Madison right now, would we know it here? Would we be able to deny that lightning had struck? And so I think what he's saying here is, when I come back, you're going to know it. Right. And it's, it's a, to me, that's part of the, as we were talking about, part of where he's answering the two or three questions, depending on how you look at it. And he's basically capping this section off by saying, okay, I've told you this stuff, but that's not me coming back.
[00:27:23] Speaker C: Right.
[00:27:23] Speaker B: And there won't be any question when I've returned. Everybody's going to know it.
[00:27:30] Speaker C: Yeah. And that leads to the next section in your bibles. Man has put verses and paragraphs in there. And verse 29 is a new paragraph in my bible.
So you make the decision as to how you want to split it up, but just remember that all these things are manmade.
Verse 29 says, but immediately after those tribulations of those days, the sun will be darkened and the moon will not give its light, and the stars will fall from the sky, and the powers of heaven will be shaken. And then the sign of the son of man will appear in the sky. And then all the tribes of the earth will mourn, and they will see the son of man coming in the clouds of the sky with power and great glory. And he will send forth his angels with a great trumpet, and they will gather together as elect from the four winds from one end of the sky to the other. So, you know, I think that verse 29, in my mind, you know, when I read this previously, it was like, oh, well, it looks like you have the destruction of the Jerusalem. And then immediately, oh, well, that's the end of the world, right? I mean, it says, you know, it's a sign of the coming of man and all that.
David and I were talking for class, and David, say what you said about the prophecies there from Isaiah in verse 29. Cause I thought it made a lot of sense.
[00:28:52] Speaker D: There are two. The sun be darkened, and the minimum I give the slightest from Isaiah 13.
And that chapter is talking about Babylon being destroyed. It's prophecy against the nation of Babylon. And in chapter 34, my Bible, in some man's words, says it's prophecy against the nations in general, things that are going to happen to Them. In both cases, these words are prophecies about something that's going to happen to a nation. So that would make me ThinK, what's happening here? What's happened into the nation of IsrAel? It's BeinG destroyed.
[00:29:39] Speaker C: Yeah, appreciate that, David, but I think it's obvious when you get to verse 30, which question Jesus is answering. He's not answering the first question about when will these things happen, that being the destruction of the temple. He's answering the second part of Their question, which is, what will be the sign of your coming and of the end of the age? And like David said, David Dyka sAid, it's going to be very clear when Jesus comes. You know, and David had some really, really good words when we started about, you know, the fact that our life is. I mean, it's just vapor. You may take your last breath. We may not make it home tonight, you know, and that is absolutely true. But the other thing we don't know is our lives all may end a minute from now, an hour from now. Christ may come. You know, are we ready?
It's the same kind of thing, you know, as you're living your life and doing the things you're doing, saying the things you're saying.
You know, you may be young and healthy and think, ah, I got time to clean up my act later. But, hey, Christ could come at any time, you know.
[00:30:53] Speaker B: You know, sorry to kind of bring us down even further, but, you know, you mentioned young and healthy. And for those of y'all that either have family, children or grandchildren or whatever, at Harding, you know, a carload of four boys were coming back from fall break. They weren't doing anything bad. They weren't involved in anything, at least that I know of, anything that was wrong. And they wrecked that car. And one of those boys who was. I don't know how old he was, but I've assumed between the ages of 19 and 22, he didn't walk away from that wreck.
And it's. You know, I think for me personally, I think about that a lot. I think about, especially, even recently, is the immediacy. If we need to make changes, we need to make them, because we're not guaranteed another second.
[00:31:54] Speaker C: That's true.
Yeah. And not even Christ himself knows when that day is, you know.
Okay, continuing on in verse 32, Jesus tells us a parable.
He says, now, learn from the parable of the fig tree when its branch has already become tender and puts forth its leaves. You know, the summer is near. So you, too, when you see all these things, recognize that he is near, right at the door. Truly, I say to you, this generation will not pass away until all these things take place. Heaven and earth will pass away, but my words will not pass away. And then the verse I just referenced, but of that day and hour, no one knows, not even the angels of heaven, nor the son, but the father alone.
For the coming of the Son of man will be just like the days of Noah. 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. And they did not understand until the flood came and took them all away.
So will be the coming of this. So will the coming of the Son of man. Beverly. Then there will be two men in the field. One will be taken and one will be left. Two women will be grinding at the mill. One will be taken and one will be left.
So it's an interesting section here. And I guess one of the things that I've always.
It's always caused me to scratch my head is when he talks about in verse 34, he says, truly, I say to you, this generation will not pass away until all these things take place. So, okay, you can interpret that two ways. You can say, oh, well, maybe his coming. You know, these people are going to live till Jesus comes, which doesn't really make a lot of sense. Or you can look at the word generation and what it could mean and come up with a little bit of a different interpretation. I went back to look at the Greek, and I'm certainly no greek scholar, but it's always helpful to me to look at an interlinear, greek, english lexicon. And see, is there something there? What does that word really mean? Because we're at a disadvantage to some extent trying to understand something that was written 2000 years ago in a different language and it's been translated multiple times. So if you look at that word there in verse 34, it's genea. Genea. And it basically means an age, a generation, a nation, a time. So in my mind, that's a little bit different than a 70 year period of a generation of people. You know, that could be the entire jewish nation, it could be the nations of the world, something like that.
That was helpful to me in trying to understand what he means by this generation will not pass away. Because like I say, this has caused a lot of confusion over the years with people like, well, maybe all this happened back in 80, 70, all this kind of stuff. So anybody have any comments or questions or whatever?
I didn't ask for questions. I'm sorry, I'm rambling on up here.
[00:35:25] Speaker D: There's a footnote in the NASB that.
[00:35:28] Speaker B: Says that word sometimes used to talk about race.
[00:35:31] Speaker C: Right, exactly. And I think that's probably a good interpretation in this case. I mean, it seems consistent with the rest of the scriptures putting that in.
[00:35:40] Speaker D: Connection with the destruction of Jerusalem. All of the records that talked about.
[00:35:45] Speaker C: Ideology of the Jews was destroyed at that time. Right.
[00:35:51] Speaker B: So I was telling Brent, as I prepared for this, I've always looked at verse 36 as a, because he says, but about that day, right. And it's, to me, it's clear that what he's talking about. But that day, that's the end. Right?
But as I was trying to prepare for tonight, where I am, Fuzzy, is verses 34 and 35. Exactly what he was trying to say there. And I like what Brent was saying, but I do think that 34 and 35, when he's saying all these things take place, this generation, again, to me, that's the two questions. It's like he's saying, okay, the first part of the question you ask this generation is going to see that now. The other, I don't even know when that's going to happen.
But again, as I was studying for tonight, I was, I'm not sure that's more of a gut feel than it is any kind of in depth study study that I've done.
[00:37:08] Speaker C: Yeah. And you know, the Bible is an amazing book because it's simple enough for anybody to understand and learn what they need to do to be saved. But it's also, you can spend your life studying it and digging into it. And I don't think anybody can ever claim that they totally understand everything. So it just. It's an amazing book, you know, and only God could give us such a powerful book that works so well and for everybody, the entire world. It's just amazing.
Well, the last part of the chapter is another admonition from Jesus to be ready for his coming. He's like, hey, verse 42. Therefore, be on the alert, for you do not know which day your lord is coming. But be sure of this, that if the head of the house had known at what time of night the thief was coming, he would have been on the alert and would have not allowed his house to be broken into. For this reason, you also must be ready, for the son of man is coming at an hour. You do not think he will. You know, when I was a kid, I would read that and I would be like, hey, you know, if everybody on earth said, oh, I think he's coming on this day, and the next person said, this day, and then there would be one day where nobody would say anything, then we would, well, I can't say it, but, you know, anyway.
[00:38:33] Speaker B: I thought the same thing, but would never publicly admit it.
[00:38:36] Speaker C: Yeah, that's right. Well, I publicly admit it.
Up until last year, I thought, no, I'm just kidding. No, but anyway.
But the point he's making is, hey, you just don't know. You've got to be prepared. And that leads to, you know, chapter 25, which I will be saying next week, which some more information. It basically just continues the thought about how we need to be prepared and some really good examples of that verse 45. He says, who then is the faithful and sensible slave whom his master put in charge of his household to give them food at the proper time? Blessed is that slave, when his master finds so doing, when he comes, truly I say to him, he will put him in charge of all his possessions. But if that slave says in his heart, my master is not coming for a long time, he begins to beat his fellow slaves and eat and drink with drunkards. So the master of the slave will come on that day, he does not expect him, and at an hour he does not know, and will cut him into pieces and assign him in a place with the hypocrites, in a place with weeping and gnashing of teeth, you know, and two things there real quick, and then we'll be done. But it's interesting that the slave has a job. His job is feeding the other slave. You can think about that. The other part is, where does he assign him a place? This wicked slave he assigns him a place with?
Does it say murderers? Does it say liars? It says hypocrites. So think about that too. See if there's some meaning in there for you.
Thank you for your attention tonight. Thank you.
