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RENEWED ENERGY

Isaiah 40:27-31 NET.

²⁷ Why do you say, Jacob, Why do you say, Israel, “The LORD is not aware of what is happening to me, My God is not concerned with my vindication”? ²⁸ Do you not know? Have you not heard? The LORD is an eternal God, the creator of the whole earth. He does not get tired or weary; there is no limit to his wisdom. ²⁹ He gives strength to those who are tired; to the ones who lack power, he gives renewed energy. ³⁰ Even youths get tired and weary; even strong young men clumsily stumble. ³¹ But those who wait for the LORD’s help find renewed strength; they rise up as if they had eagles’ wings, they run without growing weary, they walk without getting tired.

Election day is coming. We see signs of its approach everywhere. Cars have bumper stickers with the candidates’ names on them. Signs pepper our roads and streets. Radio, television, and the internet are all filled with “ads” explaining how excellent one candidate is and how stupid the opposing candidate is. Election season is mostly just a major annoyance to most people. Many of us are convinced that no matter who gets voted in, life will continue as usual, and the politicians will not really make much of a difference.

The nation of Israel during the time of the prophet Isaiah had a similar experience. They were convinced that nothing good was ever going to happen to them as a nation. They knew that as a people, they had a tremendous past, but they had lost hope of ever experiencing anything positive as a nation again.

Isaiah, the prophet, had hammered his nation for its rebellion against God for the better part of 39 chapters. He wanted his people to come back to God in repentance. But even he recognized that all this negativity was not achieving positive results. At this point in his book, Isaiah starts to offer some hope to his people. He hears God tell him to comfort his people and offer hope for a better future. He wants his people to know that God is going to rescue them and restore them.

But Isaiah knows that his good news will not be believed. Israel had been oppressed for so long and had faced failure after failure. They were not likely to take any words of hope seriously.

In today’s text, we hear the nation’s three complaints and the prophet’s three answers. As we look at these words, we are going to find that they are relevant to us today as citizens of a nation and as individuals. We are going to see that the complaints of Israel as a nation, as voiced by Isaiah, are very real to us today because we often find ourselves thinking those same things, even if we don’t dare say them out loud. God knows what we are thinking, and it should be no surprise to us that he has already anticipated our complaints and given his response to them in his holy word.

The first complaint is “God does not know” (27-28, 30).

Israel says to the prophet that the Lord is not even aware of what is going on in their nation. He used to be present among them and spoke to them through great leaders like Moses and Joshua and great kings like David and Solomon, but he is on vacation now. They are not so bold as to dare say that God does not exist. Instead, they assert that God does not matter.

This is fundamentally a theological argument. It is an attack on the omniscience of God. It asserts that God is not who we have been told he is. Instead of being immediately involved in the lives of his people, God drops in every millennium or so to check on them. Otherwise, he is absent and cannot be reached. He could know, but he doesn’t know. He is busy with other nations and other worlds so Israel is on their own.

In answer to this theological argument, Isaiah tells his nation that “there is no limit to (God’s) wisdom” (28). He knows alright. He knows everything. He is not limited by distance. Even if he were actively involved in dealing with other nations, he is still 100% present among his people Israel.

Israel’s second complaint is that “God does not care” (27, 29).

Israel might concede theoretically that God knows everything, but they still insist that it does not matter because God does not care enough to intervene in their problems. The philosophical view of deism says that God created this world, then wound it up like a clock, and is now leaving it to run by itself without his supervision. The Israelites had come to believe in a God like that. He is all-wise and all-powerful, but it makes no difference because he does not rescue.

How can the prophet respond to an accusation like that? Isaiah responds by telling his nation that God is not like that. People get tired, but God does not. When we get tired and feel spent, “he gives renewed energy” (29). The people are not praying because they feel that it is no use: God is not listening. Isaiah says, “Pray, because God is there and he wants to restore your energy and give you new life.”

Jesus gave a similar invitation to the weak and weary of his day. He said “Come to me, all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke on you and learn from me because I am gentle and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. For my yoke is easy to bear, and my load is not hard to carry” (Matthew 11:28-30). We were not intended to carry the burdens of life alone. We were designed to get renewed energy by coming to the Lord and taking his yoke on us.

Maybe I need to explain what Jesus said because we are no longer living in a society where everyone uses animals to do their work. A yoke is a harness that you can mount over the necks of your horses and oxen. When an animal takes a yoke, it enables the animal to share the burden of the load with another animal. It, therefore, makes it easier for that animal to bear the burden. If a weak animal joined with a stronger animal, the result was that the weak animal was capable of doing anything that the strong animal could do.

When Jesus invited the weary and burdened to take his yoke on them, he was telling them that he was willing to work with them to accomplish what they needed to do. They did not need to face life alone. God is not only there, but he cares.

Israel’s third complaint to Isaiah is “God does not help” (31)

They said, “Isaiah, we admit that we have fallen, but God does not seem to be around to help us get back up.” Isaiah answered that objection too. He said, “Those who wait for the LORD’s help find renewed strength; they rise up as if they had eagles’ wings, they run without growing weary, they walk without getting tired.”

The phrase in Hebrew appears to mean “they will sprout wings like eagles.” Isaiah is telling them, “I know you have fallen, and you cannot help yourselves. But if you dare to trust God and wait for his rescue, he will do a miracle in your life. It will be as if you sprouted wings and flew away from your troubles.

Isaiah is not guaranteeing anything, but he is telling his people that God has not given up on helping them. He is there; he knows what they are facing, and he is able to help them. They need to start trusting him and waiting for him to act.

The same is true for our nation as well. Any nation that is willing to humble themselves and trust him can be rescued.

The same is true for every individual. If you dare to believe that God is who he says he is, that he knows what you are facing and cares about you, then you can put your trust in him, stand back, and wait for the eagles’ wings to sprout. If you choose to handle things for yourself, you may be able to run for a while, but eventually, your limitations are going to catch up with you. You will grow weary. You may be able to walk for a while, but sooner or later, you are going to get tired. Your heavenly Father is there. He knows what you are facing. He cares about you. He is standing by ready to help.

KNEW NOTHING

Matthew 24:36-41 NET.

³⁶ “But as for that day and hour no one knows it — not even the angels in heaven — except the Father alone. ³⁷ For just like the days of Noah were, so the coming of the Son of Man will be. ³⁸ For in those days before the flood, people were eating and drinking, marrying and giving in marriage, until the day Noah entered the ark. ³⁹ And they knew nothing until the flood came and took them all away. It will be the same at the coming of the Son of Man. ⁴⁰ Then there will be two men in the field; one will be taken and one left. ⁴¹ There will be two women grinding grain with a mill; one will be taken and one left.

The Gospel of Matthew is about Jesus as the king and his coming Kingdom. The gospel can be divided into seven parts. The first part of Matthew explains who Jesus is and why he qualifies as the king. The final part explains why Jesus had to die on the cross. The second part, which begins in chapter 4, verse 12, describes how we can represent the coming Kingdom. That is the part that contains the sermon on the mount. The third part of Matthew explains how to spread the future Kingdom. The 4th part describes how to stay committed to the coming king. The 5th part explains how to live by the standards of the coming Kingdom. The 6th part, which contains today’s passage, tells us what we need to know about when the Kingdom will come.

Each part of Matthew’s gospel focuses on a particular sermon Jesus gave. The sermon in section 6 is in chapters 24 and 25 of the Gospel. We have been examining chapter 24 for several months now. By this time, you ought to remember the process we go through whenever we approach one of the texts in this chapter. The first thing we must establish is which question Jesus answers in this Passage. Is he talking about the destruction of Jerusalem? Or is he talking about the second coming? Or is he talking about the end of the age? Those were the three questions a disciple asked him while they left the temple into the Mount of Olives.

It is easy to find the answer to that question in today’s passage. Verse 39 says it will be the same at the coming of the Son of Man, so it is clear that Jesus is talking about his second coming here.

The principle: no one will know the timing of the second coming (36).

Many books about Bible prophecy appear to have some special knowledge about the second coming. But today’s passage teaches that that special knowledge does not exist. It says that as for that day and hour, no one knows it, not even the angels in heaven, except the Father alone.

Now, let’s get practical here. Lots of us know that Jesus is coming back. Lots of us are convinced that Jesus is coming back sooner rather than later. This world’s condition is an indicator that Jesus is coming back soon. I don’t think the fact that Jesus is coming again is what is in question here. Instead, the issue is the timing of the second coming. The principle that Jesus gives us in today’s text is that the timing of his second coming is something that no one will know. Even if you had an Angel from heaven and you grilled him about this secret he could not reveal it because he doesn’t know it. The father alone knows when the son is going to come back.

That is a good thing. All the instructions that Jesus gave us about how to live our lives as Christians representing his Kingdom assume that we are living those lives in ignorance of when he is going to come back. A life of faith demands a certain amount of unawareness. A life of faith requires that we live prepared for Christ’s second coming, not knowing exactly when it will happen. If we knew precisely when the Lord was coming back, we would be tempted to ease off on living according to his commands. The blessing on Christ’s servants is given to us because we keep working for him even though we don’t know precisely when he will return and reward us. We are blessed because we are found serving him when he returns.

The question that the disciple gave Jesus that day is, what is the sign of your coming? Jesus answered that question by telling his disciples that no one knows when he is coming. There will be no preparatory sign. When Jesus talks about his coming, he describes it as an event that will happen suddenly, and no one will be prepared for it. Possibly, the disciples wanted to know when Jesus was coming back so they could quickly prepare for it when the time came. But Jesus point is that there is no preparing for Christ second coming until it comes. There will be no pre-warning. Not even Christians will know when Christ will return. That is precisely why we need to be ready at all times on all occasions. Our master wants us to get prepared and stay prepared.

Jesus doesn’t want us to set our calendars based on our prophetic understanding and then rest until the time approaches. He wants us to live in expectation and anticipation of his return at all times. He wants us to be instant in and out of season. He wants us to represent his Kingdom at all times, not just at the end times. The New Testament frames our understanding of God’s timing in this way: we live in the last days. We don’t know how long these last days will last. But we must always be ready for the coming of the Son of Man at any time.

The precedent: it will be like the days of Noah were (37-39a).

Jesus said that his coming was going to be just like the days of Noah were. The book of Genesis describes Noah and the great flood. It tells that Noah was given the revelation that the flood would come. From then on, Noah had two jobs. He had the job of building the ark that would rescue humanity from the coming flood. He also had the job of preaching about the coming day of judgment to everyone who would listen.

So, Noah built. He built an ark. He built that ark so that it could contain all the animals that God wanted to rescue. He also built rooms in that arc for his family members. He probably also built rooms in that ark for people he desperately wanted to save. But he preached and preached. Nobody came down the aisle. Nobody wanted to be saved. God had warned of a coming day of judgment. God had set aside his messenger to proclaim that day of judgment. Noah built, and Noah preached. The ark grew more extensive, but the congregation remained the same. It was just the preacher, his wife, his three sons, and their wives. Eight people, week after week. Eight people, month after month. God planned to rescue humanity, but an entire generation ignored his plan.

They probably called Noah a lunatic, and he certainly seemed like one. He kept building and preaching, and the number in the pews remained the same.

Jesus said that his second coming would be like that, too. I’m so grateful that he didn’t mean that only eight people would be saved. He suggested that even though the gospel will be preached, people will stay eating and drinking, marrying, and giving in marriage until the day comes, and they will miss their opportunity. Jesus is not promising that we will become famous preachers who reach many people for Christ. He’s not telling us to expect that. Instead, he tells us not to be surprised if we preach and preach and nobody cares about what we say. He’s telling us not to be surprised if the world thinks we’re crazy and sets us aside as insignificant. He’s telling us not to be surprised if the world ignores us and ignores our message.

Therefore, we should celebrate it whenever someone gives their life to Christ. A miracle has happened. A lost soul has been swept into God’s Kingdom against all odds. A generation that has learned to ignore God has produced another believer. What a miracle that is. If God has touched your life and assured you of the truth of his word, and you have put your faith in Jesus Christ according to that word, you are blessed beyond comprehension. You have been snatched not just from the flood but from the fire.

But Jesus tells us to be faithful like Noah was, even if we experience the same kind of rejection that Noah did. He does not guarantee that we will be successful. He warns us that we might not make a difference, but he calls on us to be faithful like Noah was.

Jesus said that that generation knew nothing until the flood came and took them all away. They could have known something. They could have put their faith in God’s word through his prophet Noah. But they chose to ignore him and so they knew nothing. We can know some things about the second coming of Christ. Just like Noah’s generation could have known much about what God was doing if they had listened to Noah. The tragedy is that there was something to know, but the generation chose to know nothing, so they knew nothing. We are living in such a generation today. They pride themselves on being agnostic. The word agnostic means ignorant. It means not knowing. There are people in this generation today who wear the title agnostic as if it is a badge of honor. It is not. It is a sign of shame. When God has given us his word in 66 books filled with infallible inherent knowledge, to claim to be an agnostic about God is ridiculous. Yet this generation continues to know less and less about the things that matter.

If you had been part of that generation during the days of Noah, you would have noticed the sky growing darker and the rains coming down. You might even have noticed that that boat that crazy Noah had built is now beginning to float. You might have wondered whether Noah was crazy or not. But even if your head raised your voice to the sky and cried out to the God of Noah, your prayers would not be answered. God gave that generation 100 years to listen to him. They never found the time to do that. Once the judgment began, there was no time to change their mind. The flood had come, and they had been left behind.

The purpose: we need to be ready (39b-41).

Jesus tells us that it will be the same at the coming of the Son of Man. Those who had never dared to enter the church will suddenly be interested in the Bible and the church. But it will be too late for them. There’ll be no time for church and Sunday school. There’ll be no time for preparation. The coming of the Son of Man will be a time of separation.

There will be two men in the field. One will be taken and one left. There’ll be two women grinding grain. One will be taken, and the other left. Scholars disagree over precisely what Jesus is describing here. He could be talking about the rapture. When Jesus appears in the sky and believers are caught up to be with him in the air. But he could also be talking about judgment. The people who are taken could be taken in judgment. Either way, Jesus is saying here that there will be a separation when he comes. The sheep will be separated from the goats. The wise will be separated from the foolish. The faithful will be separated from the unfaithful.

An immediate judgment will divide this world into the haves and the have-nots. Once again, there will be no time to change your status before God when Jesus returns. There will be people praying at that time, but they will be praying for the mountains to fall upon them to hide them from God’s wrath. They will be weeping in mourning over their eternal fate. They will be gnashing their teeth in anger at the God who is putting them on trial and punishing them for their sins.

But just as it was in Noah’s time, so it will be on the day when our Lord Jesus returns to this earth. The day of preparation will be over. The day of separation will come. The day of preparation is now. Tomorrow may be too late. Tonight may be too late. Now is the day of salvation. Now is the time to get ready for the coming king.

REMEMBER

Matthew 24:15-28 NET.

¹⁵ “So when you see the abomination of desolation — spoken about by Daniel the prophet — standing in the holy place (let the reader understand), ¹⁶ then those in Judea must flee to the mountains. ¹⁷ The one on the roof must not come down to take anything out of his house, ¹⁸ and the one in the field must not turn back to get his cloak. ¹⁹ Woe to those who are pregnant and to those who are nursing their babies in those days! ²⁰ Pray that your flight may not be in winter or on a Sabbath. ²¹ For then there will be great suffering unlike anything that has happened from the beginning of the world until now, or ever will happen. ²² And if those days had not been cut short, no one would be saved. But for the sake of the elect those days will be cut short. ²³ Then if anyone says to you, ‘Look, here is the Christ!’ or ‘There he is!’ do not believe him. ²⁴ For false messiahs and false prophets will appear and perform great signs and wonders to deceive, if possible, even the elect. ²⁵ Remember, I have told you ahead of time. ²⁶ So then, if someone says to you, ‘Look, he is in the wilderness,’ do not go out, or ‘Look, he is in the inner rooms,’ do not believe him. ²⁷ For just like the lightning comes from the east and flashes to the west, so the coming of the Son of Man will be. ²⁸ Wherever the corpse is, there the vultures will gather.

Here in the United States, we are celebrating Memorial Day this weekend. Memorial Day honors those who lost their lives while defending their country. We have been studying Jesus’ eschatological discourse. In that discourse, Jesus predicted that this entire age would contain war after war. During these wars, we will lose loved ones. They will make the ultimate sacrifice and die for their country. It is fitting that we honor these people. It is also vital that we remember the reason they died. We are living in an age of international strife. Jesus predicted this age. He told us that there would be wars throughout this age. But he also told us that these wars are not signs that the end has come. They are signs that we are still living in the present age.

There is another reason I find today’s passage very significant. When Penny and I returned from our trip on Tuesday, a flyer was waiting for us in the mail. The flyer stated that the Bible says two huge worldwide events are about to happen. One of those events is called the Secret Rapture. The other event is called the seven-year tribulation. We must study eschatology because there’s a lot of misrepresentation of the Bible. Let me say at the outset that the secret rapture is a deception. Also, the seven-year tribulation is a deception. I hope as we discuss these statements that Jesus makes in his eschatological discourse, we will better understand what Jesus actually predicted. We will see how the scripture texts have been misrepresented by popular theology. And I also hope that we will take Jesus’ commands seriously. The command in today’s text is remember.

The importance of remembering (25).

Jesus told his disciples that they were going to experience something. He told them that when they experience that thing, they should remember what he had predicted. You cannot remember something that you never experienced. This is a clue for us as to which question Jesus is answering. You remember that in verse 3 a disciple asked three questions of Jesus. He wanted to know when the destruction of Jerusalem was going to happen. He also wanted to know the sign of Jesus’ coming again. And he also wanted to know when the end of the age would come. This disciple probably thought all those things would happen in his lifetime. But as we have seen from verses 1 to 14 of this chapter, Jesus negated that assumption. He told his disciples there would be a long time before his second coming. It would be an age in which many events would happen and happen again and again. Jesus told them that the purpose of this age is that the gospel of the Kingdom will be preached throughout the inhabited earth. We are living in that age. Jesus told us to watch for his second coming. But he did not want us to be deceived about when it would occur. From the beginning, the church has set dates for their expectation of the Lord’s coming. So far, all those dates have been wrong. We are anxious for the Lord to come back. So, we take all of these signs mentioned in the eschatological discourse as if they are signs of the immediate second coming of Christ. But we must remember that there were other things that Jesus talked about in the eschatological discourse. So, what is Jesus talking about in this section?

A terrible time for Judea (15-20).

Numerous clues in today’s passage show that Jesus predicts a terrible time in Judea. Let’s walk through this text and we will see some of them. Note the word you in verse 15. Jesus is describing something that the disciples themselves would experience. What would they experience? They would experience the abomination of desolation. That is, something would happen to make the temple in Jerusalem desolate. That is, the temple would be defiled so it would longer function. The prophet Daniel had predicted that this would happen. Daniel’s prophecy concerned the defilement of the temple under the Greek general Antiochus Epiphanies. That event had already happened in Jesus’ time. But Jesus is saying that it is going to happen again. Jesus is saying that the defilement that happened under the Greeks will happen again under the Romans. Jesus told his disciples that that event was going to be a warning. When they noticed that the temple had been defiled, the Christians were to flee Jerusalem.

Jesus tells them to flee to the mountains. Note that this is a particular prophecy concerning a specific city. Jesus is not telling people in Delco to escape to the mountains. It would take us several hours to drive to the nearest mountain. History tells us that this terrible event happened within one generation of Jesus’ prediction. The siege and destruction of Jerusalem took place between AD 66 and AD 70. It was an awful experience for those who were living in Jerusalem. It was a time of great suffering. But fortunately for Christians, it was not a long time.

A time that will be cut short (21-22).

Jesus said if those days had not been cut short, no one would be saved, but for the sake of the elect, those days would be cut short. This is another clue that Jesus is not talking about this age. He had described this age as a very long one. But this time of intense suffering for the inhabitants of Jerusalem will be short. Historically we know that this time of great suffering lasted under four years. Millions of people perished. But many Christians were able to survive. They survived because they heeded Jesus’ warning. They fled to the mountains when they saw the evidence that the temple was being defiled.

A time of deception (23-26).

Jesus also predicted that this would be a time of deception. Unscrupulous false prophets would claim that this destruction of Jerusalem was the coming of Christ. But Jesus had already commanded us not to be misled by false prophets. He tells us here to remember that command. He warns his disciples not to be fooled by these people who claim he was coming again in 70 AD. He warned them not to follow their instructions. So, we know that Jesus knew exactly what would happen within one generation of this sermon. And he took extra care to keep his disciples from being misled by it.

We are living in an age when deception continues. As I said at the beginning of today’s message, some are teaching that when Jesus comes again, he’s going to come secretly and take his children away at first. The Bible describes Jesus’ second coming as a worldwide cataclysmic event that cannot be mistaken. Christ will return visibly. He will come back shouting. The trumpet will sound. The Archangel will shout. The dead in Christ will rise. Then, living believers will join them in the air (1 Thessalonians 4:16-17). If the second coming is secret, it will be the world’s worst-kept secret. I know what the movie said. I know what the books said. But I can guarantee that when Jesus comes back, everybody will know it.

Not the second coming! (27-28).

What Jesus does next is to explain why his coming is not to be equated with the fall of Jerusalem. He uses two metaphors. The first metaphor he uses is lightning. He says just like the lightning comes from the East and flashes to the West so the coming of the Son of Man will be. When lightning strikes, it is so sudden and so visible that even if it strikes on one side of the horizon, everyone can see it on the other side. There’s nothing secret about a lightning strike. The very point of the metaphor is that lightning is noticeable. You aren’t going to miss it.

The second metaphor Jesus uses is found in verse 28. He says wherever the corpse is, there the vultures will gather. In the North Carolina version, it says there the buzzards will gather. The point here, once again, is that the second coming will be noticeable. If I’m driving down the road and come across a wake of buzzards, I know that there’s something dead in the road. You see the buzzards even before you smell the dead thing. If there’s a corpse around, the buzzards will be there. That is why Jesus used that metaphor. The presence of buzzards is a sure sign of something dead. Likewise, when Jesus comes back, it will be so noticeable that no one will be able to miss it.

That disciple asked what the sign of Jesus coming would be. Jesus was not interested in telling that disciple what date he would be coming. That date is unknown and unknowable. But Jesus does want us to know one thing about his second coming. It is going to be sudden. I can’t tell you whether Jesus is going to come back soon. But I can tell you that when he comes back, it will be so sudden that no one can prepare for it. That’s why now is the day of salvation. Now is the day to prepare for Christ’s second coming. Now, Jesus is knocking on our door, allowing us to welcome him in. But when he returns, there will be no time to change your mind. Today, by God’s grace, we are allowed to make a judgment about Jesus Christ. But when Jesus comes back again, our time of judgment will be gone. Jesus is coming back, not to die on the cross for us but to separate the sheep from the goats. The only one making a judgment that day will be him.

In today’s text, Jesus describes the destruction of Jerusalem 40 years before it happened. He commanded his disciples to remember this prediction. He wanted them to know that everything he told them was reliable. If he predicted something, it was going to happen. Not only did Jesus know what would happen, but he also knew how people would respond to it. He knew there would be deceptive false prophets claiming he had already come. He warned his disciples not to fall for that deception. He also wanted his disciples to know that his coming will be visible, glorious, and personal when he comes. His coming is going to be unmistakable. But no one is going to know about it before it happens. Even today, almost 2000 years after Jesus’ prediction, we cannot guarantee people that Christ’s coming is going to be soon. But we can ensure that it is going to be sudden. And that is why our task is to call on people to respond to Jesus today and not to wait until our prophetic calendars are all filled up.

Jesus is coming again. The Old Testament predicted his first coming many times. All those prophecies were fulfilled at Christ’s first coming. The Bible also predicts Jesus’ second coming in many places. These prophecies have not yet been fulfilled. But Jesus wants us to remember that he is a reliable prophet. If he says something is going to happen, it will happen. If he warns us to get ready for something, we better get ready. In today’s passage, Jesus warns us to get prepared for something. That something is not rapture. That something is not a seven-year tribulation. That something is the second coming of our Lord. If we are going to get ready for something, let’s get ready for that.