Comfort in Uncertainty

David Poland

Matthew: Kingdom Authority • Sermon • Submitted 10 months ago • Presented 10 months ago

Matthew 24:29–31

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Sermon 77 in a series through the Gospel of Matthew

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Psalm of the Day: Psalm 18:31-50

Psalm 18:31–50 ESV

For who is God, but the Lord? And who is a rock, except our God?— the God who equipped me with strength and made my way blameless. He made my feet like the feet of a deer and set me secure on the heights. He trains my hands for war, so that my arms can bend a bow of bronze. You have given me the shield of your salvation, and your right hand supported me, and your gentleness made me great. You gave a wide place for my steps under me, and my feet did not slip. I pursued my enemies and overtook them, and did not turn back till they were consumed. I thrust them through, so that they were not able to rise; they fell under my feet. For you equipped me with strength for the battle; you made those who rise against me sink under me. You made my enemies turn their backs to me, and those who hated me I destroyed. They cried for help, but there was none to save; they cried to the Lord, but he did not answer them. I beat them fine as dust before the wind; I cast them out like the mire of the streets. You delivered me from strife with the people; you made me the head of the nations; people whom I had not known served me. As soon as they heard of me they obeyed me; foreigners came cringing to me. Foreigners lost heart and came trembling out of their fortresses. The Lord lives, and blessed be my rock, and exalted be the God of my salvation— the God who gave me vengeance and subdued peoples under me, who rescued me from my enemies; yes, you exalted me above those who rose against me; you delivered me from the man of violence. For this I will praise you, O Lord, among the nations, and sing to your name. Great salvation he brings to his king, and shows steadfast love to his anointed, to David and his offspring forever.

Scripture Reading: Jeremiah 23:5-6

Jeremiah 23:5–6 ESV

“Behold, the days are coming, declares the Lord, when I will raise up for David a righteous Branch, and he shall reign as king and deal wisely, and shall execute justice and righteousness in the land. In his days Judah will be saved, and Israel will dwell securely. And this is the name by which he will be called: ‘The Lord is our righteousness.’

Sermon

Well, good morning church.

I was glad when they said to me, let us go and worship. In the house of the lord.

This morning, we continue our journey through Matthew and continue our journey, in particular, through the final great discourse in the book of Matthew, the Olivet discourse. As we go through it there are many times where it might feel just a little bit like, we are going to get a little bit of whiplash. We jump from Ad 70 to the future and back and forth a couple times. It's hard to know exactly when Jesus is speaking of when he says many of these things. But for certain all of this is prophetic language and prophetic speech from our savior. As we contemplate prophecy in general it seems it is the genre and the portion of scripture that keeps most people fascinated. It is the place where most of our thoughts are drawn, and most people seem to really be drawn to prophecy as their favorite portions of Scripture. I say, most people. Because I'm not one of them. Most people, it seems, love it and if I am being honest, this has been difficult for me.

When I was a youth pastor There was something that I would do to try and keep youth engaged. I realized pretty early that as a youth pastor I felt like a really old out of touch guy. Now, being honest as senior pastorI often feel Too young and also out of touch, but then working with Kids I was conscious to not be sort of just speaking from the place of an old dude. So I would usually ask the youth what theft wanted to cover. We would do a whole thing on what will be the next series. We would write things up on the whiteboard and we would have usually three different categories of what we could do next like a topical series and old testament book or a new testament book. We had this process where we would eliminate them one by one after brainstorming them all. There would be some and voting and it was fun. We always had a good time. And always-- Every single time -- we would be brainstorming thoughts and ideas of what we could do next and the kids would always put in the new testament books, the book of revelation. And that was always the first book that I would cross out. I just didn't want to deal with it in some ways. And So I would use my veto to say that we are not going to deal with it. And this is what i would tell the kids i'd say: you know, We all seem so focused and we always want to learn about the book of revelation but i struggle With living life today. I'd like to figure that out before I start worrying too much about tomorrow. And while it was cute and it worked to sort of get the kids' attention moved. However, I don't think that was fully right.

I think there are portions of it that are actually correct. I think sometimes we can get so focused on looking ahead and so focused on what's going to happen in the last days and so focused on trying to discern and divine things in the future, which are, Jesus tells us, unknowable. We get so caught up in that that we do lose sight of today.

But it's incorrect because I believe if we truly understand what Jesus is saying and what Jesus is doing. If we were to fully understand what prophecy and vision and thinking of the end time should do for our heart we would see that It should correctly empower us to live for today. So this morning, as we look at Matthew 24, verses 29 through 31 I ask that you keep this in mind. We are surely here looking forward now. Last week, I endeavored to show you that what we were trying to do and what we were looking to do last week was see how it was all fulfilled in Ad 70. Well, this week we are now jumping forward to the return of christ. And to the end of all things. Matthew chapter 24. Starting in verse 29.

Matthew 24:29–31 ESV

“Immediately after the tribulation of those days the sun will be darkened, and the moon will not give its light, and the stars will fall from heaven, and the powers of the heavens will be shaken. Then will appear in heaven the sign of the Son of Man, and then all the tribes of the earth will mourn, and they will see the Son of Man coming on the clouds of heaven with power and great glory. And he will send out his angels with a loud trumpet call, and they will gather his elect from the four winds, from one end of heaven to the other.

These are the words of the Lord for us this morning. Let's open with a word of prayer.

Dear Lord we thank you for today. Thank you for your grace and mercy. We thank you for your kindness towards us. We thank you that we stand secure knowing that our savior who came-- who lived the perfect life, who suffered and died, but was then risen and ascended to the right hand of the throne in heaven-- We thank you that we know he is coming back as well. Be with our hearts. Help us to see clearly who you are and what you've said. Give us ears to hear and eyes to see. May we understand your word by the empowering word of the holy spirit. It's in jesus name we pray. Amen.

Today, the way I'd like to approach this passage is by trying to find our comfort and our peace. Here what we see is that are called to live sanctified lives in the midst of what is surely Great uncertainty. Just in general, once we start talking about the return of christ and what's going on there we are dealing with, by definition, things we cannot be certain about.

Verse 36, we'll get to this in a few weeks, the full context, but just here Matthew 24:36 ““But concerning that day and hour no one knows, not even the angels of heaven, nor the Son, but the Father only.”

And so trying to find certainty in terms of timing and in terms of even knowing exactly what's going to happen in every exact moment-- We're not given that. And I believe we're not given that because I don't think that's what we need. I know, in fact, that's not what we need. We have certainty on what we must have certainly on, which is this: Jesus is coming back. But the details and the things like that, we do not and we cannot be certain on anything.

But how then -- And here's the question I'd like us to look at this morning -- How then do we have comfort? How can we allow these words to comfort our souls and then empower us to live for today and have comfort in looking ahead to tomorrow?

Well, the first thing i think we can see in this passage is that it shows us Who god is

God Is ____________________

We open up here in this passage and we're struck with language that is rather terrifying and difficult to find certainty in. Verse 29 opens: “Immediately after the tribulation of those days”. We can ask: which days? AD 70 days? The coming of jesus days? tribulation days? we're not certain. moreover, I don't think we can be certain on everything here. Even the word “immediately” we struggle with, sometimes-- That's what we'll talk about on Thursday. But the passage continues.

“The sun will be darkened”. What does that mean? Does that mean the sun itself will lower its brightness? Will the sun physically be darkened some? Does this mean it will be overcast? But then like, overcast over the whole earth, is this some sort of nuclear fallout? There'll be a general sort of pale over the earth. We don't know. It could just mean that this is symbolic language and it will be dark days: Spiritually emotionally, not necessarily just physically.

It continues: “The moon will not give its light”. Is that similar to what we just mentioned? Is it more symbolic? Or maybe something will happen to the moon, struck by a comet or something. We don't know. Next thing, “the stars will fall from heaven”. Is this a meteor shower? Will the stars actually grow dark? Is this all one picture? Maybe whatever happened to the moon causes portions of it to fall looking like the stars are falling. Or maybe, and this would be where I would lean: The sun, the moon, and the stars all going dark is a picture of what god created in, Genesis 1 now going dark because creation itself is drawing to its close. It's hard to be certain of all of these things. And it ends with this: “And the powers of heaven will be shaken.”

Which powers of heaven? Is this a good thing as in God himself is from heaven, shaking and stirring, in his power, and he will come”? Or Are these more Spiritual powers that are shaken. Is the powers of heaven, the powers in heaven. We don't have certainty on any of these things. But what it can give us comfort in again, it's about who God is. I think the comfort here is that god is MORE FAITHFUL.

God is MORE FAITHFUL

I don't know what exactly it means to say: “The sun will be darkened, the moon will not give its light and the stars will fall from heaven”, but what I do know, Is that God is more faithful than even the sun and the moon and the stars.

One day, the sun will grow dark. One day the moon will stop giving its light. One day all of the stars will fall from heaven. And yet, God will still reign on his throne. God is more faithful than anything and everything. He's the one who causes the earth to spin, both in its orbit and on its axis, causing the seasons to change and the days to come. He's the one who causes the sunset, as sure as I am that the son will rise tomorrow. I am MORE sure that God is faithful. This is the lesson.

This is the thought that we should hold on to here, that it's all about God and his faithfulness. These other things, any other measure, any other standard that we would look to to measure faithfulness pales and comparison because God is MORE faithful. This is the thought. This is the lesson. This is the heart.

It's no use sort of trying to calculate and figure out solar storms, and lunar eclipses, and different numbers of new moons in the course of one calendar month. There is no understanding that during this meteor shower or that meteor shower… that's not with this passage just telling us. Instead, we should realize that God is more faithful. Ever faithful and ever true.

The next thought I'd like us to see deals with jesus.

Jesus is _________________________

The next verse: Matthew 24:30

Matthew 24:30 ESV

Then will appear in heaven the sign of the Son of Man, and then all the tribes of the earth will mourn, and they will see the Son of Man coming on the clouds of heaven with power and great glory.

In this verse, there's a lot we could be uncertain about. What does it mean that the sign of the son of man will appear in heaven? First of all, what is the sign of the son of man? Now we have to deal with all of daniel. But then to say that it will appear in heaven, That sounds easy but not really. For “in heaven” has a few difficulties. For there are three “heavens” that we could talk about. Paul writes about being caught up into the “third” heaven. So Is the sign of the son of man appearing in “heaven” heaven. In sort of what we think of as heaven, the throne room of god. Or maybe it's the second heaven. This sign of the son of man is something that happens up in the stars out in what we would call “outer space”. Maybe it's the first heaven. Maybe something will appear in the physical sky and it will be seen by all. SO this is appearing in heaven, but there is uncertainty. And then What is the sign of the son of man? And what does it mean? What is it exactly that will appear in heaven? We have trouble being sure. There's no certainty there.

All the tribes of the earth will mourn. This one, we can probably have some certainty in. It means that when Jesus does come there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth as those who see the savior. The one that they rejected comes in power to rule and reign. That's what the verse ends with. They will see the son of man coming on the clouds of heaven with power and great glory. They will mourn. Those who are Fully caught in their sin and rebellion will mourn that their rebellion has been quashed. Others will mourn their sin. And cry out to their savior. either way. They will morn.

But in total, It's hard to be sure exactly what's going on here. Except this -- Here's the comfort We can find in a passage like this-- Jesus is SURELY COMING.

Jesus is SURELY COMING

Whatever this sign of heaven is, whatever the sign of the son of man is, it all falls to the side when we realize this. What is going on here said as clearly as I can in this: Jesus is coming. This is the source and content of all our hope and confidence. This is our comfort. I don't like to spend time, because I think it's fruitless to try to spend time, determining the exact day and hour. Here's the thing: it's soon. And it has been soon for 2000 years. But still it is soon. He's coming. The next great thing we look at Is his return. If we were to lay out God's plan for all of humanity and God's plan for all of human history-- past, present, and future-- the last thing that we look forward to which is the culminating moment of all of this is the return of our savior.

And the faithful god, the one who is more faithful, is the one who will make sure that this happens. So we now are not like those who have no hope, but those who have hope knowing that he who raised Christ from the dead is able to also work in us. So we look forward. Knowing our savior is risen and he is coming again. When he comes every knee will bow and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is lord. When he comes he will wipe away every tear from our eye. When he comes, we will be risen like he is risen. Those who are asleep in Christ will be risen first, given new glorified bodies. Then we likewise will be given new, Holy, sanctified bodies at the power of the coming of our lord. This is what we look forward to and this is our comfort.

I don't think we find comfort trying to divine out all of the details of what exactly the sign of the son of man is, because We find comfort in knowing our savior is coming back. The one who Died for me. Who then rose for me. Is coming again.

This leads us to our last thought. I think we find comfort as we think of our position here.

We are ________________________

Matthew 24:31 ESV

And he will send out his angels with a loud trumpet call, and they will gather his elect from the four winds, from one end of heaven to the other.

There's a lot to be uncertain about here. As soon as we hear sending out angels with a loud trumpet call our mind goes to revelation and to the seven trumpets and what is going on there. And there -- that's a whole lot of wrath and death and destruction going on there. But is that what is going on here? It's hard to say. So how do we time this? What's going on here? Is this dealing with the rapture? If it is dealing with the rapture, is this a pre, mid, or post tribulation rapture. Again hard to say, even if that that's what's going on here (and I don’t think it is)? Any way you slice it, It's hard to be certain. Arguments can be made for all sides.

What does it mean that he will gather us from the four winds, north south, east and west? Its all of us, but wich “all”. Is this the end of the end of time? Is this the pre-figuring and the pre-setting up of his millennial kingdom? What's going on here? It's hard to be certain.

So how do we find comfort? Well, these build. We first find comfort, knowing that our god is more faithful, always ever faithful ever true. Then, because our god is always faithful, always true. We know that he is coming back. Jesus said he was coming back. We know this is certain. Again, more than I know that the sun is rising tomorrow I know Jesus will return, and I believe this to be our ultimate comfort. But then we can know that we are SAFE AND SECURE.

We are SAFE AND SECURE

I don't personally spend very much time worrying about when Jesus is coming and the end of all things. I used to. I used to get caught up in this a lot. But this is where i've land: It doesn't matter because i'll be safe in the arms of my savior. And Secure in the salvation that God gives me. There's nothing -- Absolutely nothing-- They can cause that to be called into question. He will gather his elect. The ones that He has called. Those whom he's loved. Those who he saved.

Paul writes it this way in Romans 8. As we turn there let me take a step back first and say that it took me a long time to actually be willing to understand and grasp this stuff. Because when I used to hear, “Oh, well, i'm safe and secure. I don't have to worry about losing my salvation or anything like that.” I used to think. Well, that'll just lead to What we call antinomianism. It boils down to, I used to say, just lawlessness. In my mind it played out like this: if you don't worry about these things, then you'll just live whatever wretched life because “I'm safe and secure.” But that is not the heart of this, and more to the point, knowing I am safe and secure does not lead to antinomianism, rather the opposite happens. I know that I am safe and secure so then IN THAT I am empowered to live for him. Paul writes it in this way: Romans chapter 8, starting in verse 28.

Romans 8:28–29 ESV

And we know that for those who love God all things work together for good, for those who are called according to his purpose. For those whom he foreknew he also predestined to be conformed to the image of his Son, in order that he might be the firstborn among many brothers.

We do this, and we know this so that God and Christ receive all glory. That's our first thought here but then continuing to verse 30.

Romans 8:30 ESV

And those whom he predestined he also called, and those whom he called he also justified, and those whom he justified he also glorified.

Theologians call this passage the “great golden chain of our salvation.” Because the way paul writes this, we cannot miss this. There is no room for anyone to be lost. It is a chain wherein each link is bound together in beautiful completeness. The language here means this: those whom he predestined, and all of those he predestined, he also called. And all of those who he called, each and every one of them, he also justified. And all of them, each and every one of those whom he justified, he also glorified. my future is secure If I am in christ. These steps follow on another, if you have one you necessarily and ALWAYS have the other. So I can know that if he has called me HE will bring about my sanctification and my glorification.

And then building off of this is how Paul can write Such beautiful things and he does in Verse 31, what shall we say Then? if i know that those whom he called he also justified, those who we justified, he will also glorify. If i know this, I know that I am safe and secure the I can say this, continuing in verse 31.

Romans 8:31–34 ESV

What then shall we say to these things? If God is for us, who can be against us? He who did not spare his own Son but gave him up for us all, how will he not also with him graciously give us all things? Who shall bring any charge against God’s elect? It is God who justifies. Who is to condemn? Christ Jesus is the one who died—more than that, who was raised—who is at the right hand of God, who indeed is interceding for us.

Paul completes this thought with this important idea. What does it mean to be safe and secure? Romans 8:38. Paul writes. “For, I am sure.” If you have an NIV translation of this, They translate this first little phrase. “For, I am convinced.” And I think the NIV actually gets it right here. Because what paul is saying is I have looked, I have seen, I know what it means to be safe and secure in christ. And because of that I am convinced, I have been, I have seen the evidence, I have weighed these things and now i know. What does he KNOW, what is he convinced of. Well it is that HE is safe and secure, but this is how he says it.

Romans 8:38–39 ESV

For I am sure that neither death nor life, nor angels nor rulers, nor things present nor things to come, nor powers, nor height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord.

We are safe and secure. In Matthew he says that he will send out his angels. What does this look like? I'm not certain. This, I do know, he will gather his people. From one end of heaven, to the other. We will gather, we are his. He will hold us. He will love us. Safe and secure,