Lessons From a Tree

David Poland

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

Matthew 24:32–35

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Sermon 78 in a series through the Gospel of Matthew

Notes

Transcript

Psalm of the Day: Psalm 19

Psalm 19 ESV

To the choirmaster. A Psalm of David. The heavens declare the glory of God, and the sky above proclaims his handiwork. Day to day pours out speech, and night to night reveals knowledge. There is no speech, nor are there words, whose voice is not heard. Their voice goes out through all the earth, and their words to the end of the world. In them he has set a tent for the sun, which comes out like a bridegroom leaving his chamber, and, like a strong man, runs its course with joy. Its rising is from the end of the heavens, and its circuit to the end of them, and there is nothing hidden from its heat. The law of the Lord is perfect, reviving the soul; the testimony of the Lord is sure, making wise the simple; the precepts of the Lord are right, rejoicing the heart; the commandment of the Lord is pure, enlightening the eyes; the fear of the Lord is clean, enduring forever; the rules of the Lord are true, and righteous altogether. More to be desired are they than gold, even much fine gold; sweeter also than honey and drippings of the honeycomb. Moreover, by them is your servant warned; in keeping them there is great reward. Who can discern his errors? Declare me innocent from hidden faults. Keep back your servant also from presumptuous sins; let them not have dominion over me! Then I shall be blameless, and innocent of great transgression. Let the words of my mouth and the meditation of my heart be acceptable in your sight, O Lord, my rock and my redeemer.

Scripture Reading: Exodus 3:15

Exodus 3:15 ESV

God also said to Moses, “Say this to the people of Israel: ‘The Lord, the God of your fathers, the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob, has sent me to you.’ This is my name forever, and thus I am to be remembered throughout all generations.

Sermon:

Good Morning Church!

I was Glad when they said to me let us go and worship in the house of the Lord!

Far too often, If I am being honest, I allow myself to drive on “auto pilot.” I know where I am headed, and somewhere deep down that means that As I pull out of my hose I should take a right so that I can go to the interstate. but Autopilot takes over and I find myself turning left. Why? Because 99 percent of the time that is the way I go. It is the way I turn to come to the church, it is the way I go to go to Walmart, it is the way I go like ALL the time. but sometimes, The day to day gets in the way, and I cannot focus on going the right way when something is different. In the end it costs me like 30 seconds of my life when I do this because I can just turn around and fix it once I realize I did it, but it is still annoying.

But I feel like far too often we live our lives in the same way. And if we live our lives not listening, just going through the motions, not reading and understanding the times then there may be consequences that are more severe than just wasting a few seconds of your time. and THAT is what Jesus is going to caution us against in our passage for today.

We are continuing on today in the Olivet Discourse, this is the fourth sermon on this discourse meaning we are sermon wise halfway done, though some of the alter passages are the longer ones, so we are not quite halfway in that way. But our passage for today is Matthew 24:32-35 and the Lesson of the fig tree. Lets Read God’s words this morning.

Matthew 24:32–35 ESV

“From the fig tree learn its lesson: as soon as its branch becomes tender and puts out its leaves, you know that summer is near. So also, when you see all these things, you know that he is near, at the very gates. 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.

These are the words of the Lord for us this morning, lets open with a word of prayer

Dear Lord we do thank you for your words. Eternal, perfect words, given to us that we might know you and your working through your son, the word made flesh. Through the empowering work of the holy spirit at work within us teaching us and shaping us. Thank you for these gifts. Thank you that you see fit to speak to people such as us. To teach us. To meet with us that we might know you. Help us to learn the lessons we must learn. Use your word to conform us into the image of your son. Help us to live more holy, perfect lives, as we endeavor to follow you in the power of your spirit. It is jesus name, we pray. Amen.

This portion, this sermon really, marks the halfway point in the Olivet discourse and thematically, this really, i think also marks the halfway court point. From here, we're going to move to a couple parables, An exhortation from jesus that no one knows the day or the hour, and then end with Jesus final judgment on those who will not listen follow and believe in him. And so as the halfway point, there's there's something important going on here. And i think what we need to understand is that what jesus is doing here is giving us the takeaway or the take-home from all of the Olivet discourse.

In order in order to understand this pass is this morning we're going to try to tackle it a little bit differently. I'd actually like to look at it backwards. So we're going to start the end and then work our way to the lesson that he wants us to learn. Because i think this helps us to understand how to rightly grasp what jesus is saying, not just, in this passage but larger in the Olivet discourse as a whole.

Because what jesus is building up to, and i think the important thought to remember and what we must take away-- The comfort for our souls and the instruction for our spirit -- Is to remember the promise

The PROMISE

This passage ends with a promise.

Matthew 24:35 ESV

Heaven and earth will pass away, but my words will not pass away.

The promise is that the teaching --the words of jesus -- Again like we talked about last week— are more faithful, more secure, more lasting than anything else we could ever put our faith, hope, and trust in. The words of our savior are sure. They will take place. We can have confidence in our heart and in our soul as we ponder, study and live out the words of our savior.

These words, these prophetic words, of what will happen, What “these things” are, what will be the signs of the end of the age, Those words will not pass away. But this promise extends to all of his words. When he says, “i am the way the truth and the life and no one comes to the father, except through me,” he is speaking words that will not pass away. For all time in all eternity-- He is the way the truth and the life. Though heaven and earth will pass away, The sun, grow cold this world, waste away, The words of our savior will stand forever.

That's the promise. That's where we rest secure.

It's in this promise that must we build our foundation. And if we miss this, if we try to do these things out of order, we end up with a warped point of view. Jesus is saying here: listen to my words, study my words, love my words. All of his words.

He is, in fact, John tells us THE word. The word made flesh. No one has seen god, No one knows god, Except The only god who's at his side, he has made him known to us. SO in some sense He is our word and These are our words given to us by our savior. They stand Forever.

This point is one that deserves to be belabored, how long do the words of jesus last? forever!

He is now seated in the heavenly realms. Seated in the throne rooms of heaven from where his words go forth with eternal power.

This empowers us to trust him, to know him, to love him, to serve him. It all hinges on his words. The promise here, more than any other promise, is of an eternal SAVIOR. The one who is able to save those who come to him perfectly. The one who is the bread of life. Who is the living water. Who is the good shepherd. The one who calls out with his words-- his sheep hear his voice and know him. That's an eternal thing! No matter what else we do with this passage, no matter where else we go with this passage, no matter what else we try to figure out and learn in here-- and there are lessons for us to learn— First here, note this: Our hope rests on a very sure promise.

But as we then work our way back to figure out what he's doing, and what led to this promise, We run into a bit of a difficulty if i'm being honest. Verse 34... If the Olivet discourse, I've said multiple times is one of the hardest passages in scripture, verse 34 is one of the hardest verses in the hardest passages of scripture.

And so we need to wrestle through and take a little bit of time. Speaking about the generation.

The GENERATION

This verse in, a lot of ways is the acid test of how you're going to read almost all of the Olivet discourse. This is in fact, what we'll talk about on Thursday grace group. This verse is sort of your entryway into the different views of all sorts of end time things. I don't want to wrestle through that this morning, again that will come on Thursday. So instead, i'd like to say this: “Whatever, however, you read what jesus is saying here. It shouldn't undermine what we just talked about in the fact that there is a promise.”

I interpret this verse to mean that jesus is saying before one generation passes away Jerusalem and in particular the temple will be destroyed. The these things question, right? If we remember way back, four weeks ago, two questions opened this Olivet discourse. when will these things be? And what will be the sign of your coming of the age? What jesus is saying is that “these things”-- the destruction of the temple, not one brick being on top of each other. “These things” will happen before one generation passes. And then if we understand that, then what we have here in this passage is proof of the promise.

When jesus says: “This generation will not pass away until you see these things.” What he's saying is, so here's a test. Note that within one generation, 40 years, all of these things will happen. So now for us, two thousand years later, we look back to this generation, we see that all the words jesus said then will come true, and we have even more hope and trust and faith in the promise that it will come true for us in the future as well. By being able to look back to “the generation” by being able to look back to the fulfillment of much of the prophecy Jesus has already said, we can say: “well if that part came true, the rest will surely come true too.”

When we can look back and see this whole abomination of desolation, when we can see this day of tribulation as the temple is destroyed we can say this: Jesus nailed it. He got it perfectly right. So that THEN when he says for, as the lightning strikes from the east to the west so we'll be the coming of the son of man... When he says “Then will appear in heaven, the sign of the son of man and all the tribes of the earth will mourn and they will see the son of man coming on the clouds.” We know and we trust -- for he proved it! The “generation” thought here, that this generation will not pass, becomes for us a chance to say: “His words already came true. His words will come true. I will trust in his words.”

They rest on and actually build to the promise that his words will not pass away. As he speaks about his coming, that is the end. It is the ushering in of a new heaven and the new earth when jesus comes. And so we can trust in these things. Because what he said has already, And therefore will surely, Come true.

We get caught up in trying to divine and figure out who exactly is “This generation”? Is jesus, meaning explicitly, the generation of people living in and around ad 30. I think that's the right way to read it. But it is surely not the only. But no matter how we read it we must land here: His words are surely true. And this exhortation that “this generation will not pass away” is our test to see if our savior's words are true. And the result is that They surely are.

And this leads us to THE LESSON.

I think understanding like I said, what he's building up to, which is his promise seen fulfilled in this test gives us access to fully understand the lesson.

Because what i don't want the lesson to become is a sort of battlefield of end time views. Where if you think this, you're right, you think this you're wrong, And these two sides argue. Some of the most angry and violent-- not necessarily physically, but sort of emotionally and spiritually violent-- arguments that I've seen have to do with end times things.

This is a subject where we have very little assurance of surety of exactly what will happen, but yet people like to be very dogmatic about surely, this is exactly what will happen. And so, the lesson i think here is helpful. We understand that We're building to this promise, that's our trust. We look to the fulfillment of these promises. However we're going to take this idea and we're going to understand, we fully understand that our saviors words are true. So that's how we understand the lesson, which is pay attention.

The Lesson: PAY ATTENTION

Pay attention. Don't live your life on autopilot, pay attention because your savior is coming back. When? I don't know. That's why we have to pay attention. What exactly will it look like? I don't know right now. But what I do know is that I'll know when i see it. That's what this language has been throughout the whole all of it discourse.

Matthew 24:27 ESV

For as the lightning comes from the east and shines as far as the west, so will be the coming of the Son of Man.

We just had a Beautiful lightning storm last night. But is the lightning strikes, it lights up the whole sky, you can't miss it. Even if you're not looking at the lightning --your back is to the lightning — you see the light shine and you know what just happened. I don't know when it's going to strike but I know that it did. These ideas of the sun growing dark the moon, giving light. These are things you cannot miss. Verse 30 - All of this tribes of the earth will mourn. Everyone on earth will know when he's coming. You're not going to miss it.

So figuring out when that's not what i'm paying attention to. I think the exhortation here is to pay attention to when you see these things, you know it's coming. This is a slight distinction, but an Important one. I think it is better to look for my savior. Jesus tells us: From the fig tree learn its lesson. As soon as it's branch becomes tender and puts out leaves, you know, that summer is near. As soon as the plants start blooming you realize winter is over, springs over, and summer is here. WE can understand and know, not by obsessing over details but just understanding how the world works that It's harvest time.

We can seem to understand to read the signs of plants and things like that, but when we have the teaching of our savior, we can't seem to pay attention. The exhortation of the fig tree, i think it's interesting. We look and see things that have already happened. In order to understand the time we are currently in. In other words, We don't try to guess the time and force that on to things that we see happening.

What i mean by that is I don't think this is an exhortation to pull out the book of Daniel and obsess over Daniel’s 70 weeks and start doing some elaborate math. This idea is not that we are to figure out what exactly is going on THERE and then trying to make the events that are happening today fit into Whatever it is that you think is being said there. Rather, this is an exhortation to open your eyes and look at the world around you. And realize. He's coming back soon.

Next week we're going to dive into-- Finally-- the “concerning the day and hour, no one knows.” passage. But ehre I would like to ask: why does jesus put this in here? The lesson of the fig tree, i think gives us an important clue as to what jesus is doing. He's calling us to just open our eye. Don't be caught unaware.

The exhortation here is to use the common sense things that God has given us to see and understand and know what is happening. By way of example. how do we know that winter is over. Well, one way would be to find a groundhog and wait for it to come out of the ground and then see if it sees its shadow and gets scared and goes back into his hose then we know winter is not yet over. based on some crazy superstition etc etc. OR we could see the snow is melted, the grass is turning green and the trees are budding their flowers and just KNOW that spring is here. Jesus is telling us to use common sense as we read the signs of the times.

My final argument, If i may, Of warning Against being two caught up in end time thoughts comes form my heart. It's an observation I made one day as i was reading my bible.

When jesus came the first, The people who were most knowledgeable about all of the prophecy of who the Messiah was and what he would do-- The people who were the experts, Most studied -- The ones who knew the book cover to cover.,Who had every prophesy memorized and passed down — The ones who should have been able to see the messiah the most clearly, the most beautifully couldn’t see him WHEN their lives depended on it. We just read seven woes to those people. They were so clouded in their being right in their right understanding and their being able to know exactly what would happen-- that when the messiah came and was standing in front of him, they could not see him. I think the lesson here is that they didn't pay attention. They couldn't open their eyes. And so my.. Warning?... Caveat… Thought here is this: “We just need to pay attention.”

In order that we can see our savior more clearly PAY ATTENTION.

I'm convinced that the ones who will understand and know whenever, WHENEVER christ chooses to comes back, the ones who will see this first and understand it most clearly Are the ones who love their savior.

I don't think we need to know and understand every in and out just pay attention. We're turning our attention from here to the future even more keenly after this passage. The second half of the all of it discourse will become much more laden with pictures and thoughts that will direct our thoughts to and our eyes to see things that WILL be taking place. But here's the lesson from your savior. Fix your eyes on him. Trust him. Love him. Know him. And just like you can see some fig tree and understand and “Oh, it's time for the fruit to bloom. The leaves are blooming the flowers in season the fruits coming soon.” So too, we should be able to fix our eyes on our savior and understand: “He's coming.” He proved his words were sure. He gave us a promise, his words will not pass away. He said he's coming. He's coming soon.