Micah McCormick: Turn to the Gospel of Matthew.
Micah McCormick: It will be in Matthew 24 this morning.
Micah McCormick: If you happen to be using the Pew Bible, you'll find that on page 879.
Micah McCormick: That's the first book of our Christian New Testament, the Gospel of Matthew.
Micah McCormick: And has uh as Pastor Doug has also offered, if you don't have a Bible at all in your possession, if you want to take that Pew Bible and let that be an encouragement to cherish it and read it, please feel free to do that.
Micah McCormick: Matthew 24, I'm going to be reading for us verses 27 through verse 31.
Micah McCormick: Matthew 24, verses 27 through 31.
Micah McCormick: This is God's word.
Micah McCormick: For as the lightning comes from the east and flashes as far as the west, so will be the coming of the Son of Man.
Micah McCormick: Wherever the carcass is, there the vultures will gather.
Micah McCormick: Immediately after the distress of those days, the sun will be darkened, and the moon will not shed its light, the stars will fall from the sky, and the powers of the heavens will be shaken.
Micah McCormick: Then the sign of the Son of Man will appear in the sky, and then all the peoples of the earth will mourn, and they will see the Son of Man coming on the clouds of heaven with power and great glory.
Micah McCormick: He will send out his angels with a loud trumpet, and they will gather his elect from the four winds, from one end of the sky to the other.
Micah McCormick: We need the Holy Spirit, we need you to speak.
Micah McCormick: Just human speaking is not enough.
Micah McCormick: We need the divine voice.
Micah McCormick: So give us humility and a readiness to receive it, and only your words may those words last, not my words.
Micah McCormick: In Jesus' name, Amen.
Micah McCormick: The Son of Man is coming and we must be ready.
Micah McCormick: If you were here last week, Pastor Doug was introducing chapter 24, this section of Matthew's gospel, and he encouraged us to honor Christ from our hearts.
Micah McCormick: This is not a passage that's primarily about getting a perfect timeline in order, or certainly not about setting a specific date.
Micah McCormick: But we do need to be ready because the Son of Man is coming.
Micah McCormick: This section of Matthew's Gospel is sometimes called the Olivet Discourse, because when Jesus gave this teaching, he was on the Mount of Olives, Olivet, Mount of Olives, with his disciples.
Micah McCormick: And that location is has some significance.
Micah McCormick: If you look back in the book of Ezekiel, and Pastor Doug brought this out last week, in the book of Ezekiel, the nation of Israel is turned away from God.
Micah McCormick: Its leaders are largely false leaders, and God judges them.
Micah McCormick: And a part of the sign of that judgment is Ezekiel portrays the glory of the Lord that was filling the temple, departs.
Micah McCormick: It leaves that house, that temple, and it goes and it stops on a mountain east.
Micah McCormick: In our passage, at the beginning of our passage, Jesus Christ is on the Mount of Olives.
Micah McCormick: He's the very glorious presence of the Lord to dwell with humanity.
Micah McCormick: He's been talking about the temple and the temple complex and even in that region, and now he leaves the temple and goes east, and he's going to pronounce judgment on the people.
Micah McCormick: So there's a pattern there.
Micah McCormick: If you look back in chapter 23, verse 38, he'd already said your house will be left desolate.
Micah McCormick: And then the disciples ask, and he continues to talk more about some of those themes in this chapter.
Micah McCormick: Now at the beginning of the chapter, the disciples ask about two things.
Micah McCormick: They say, When will be these, when will these things take place?
Micah McCormick: The destruction of the temple that he talks about in the first part of the chapter.
Micah McCormick: And then they also ask about the sign of his coming in the end of the age.
Micah McCormick: So as Doug brought out, it's not always easy in this chapter to see when Christ responds to their questions.
Micah McCormick: Where is he leaving off one idea and picking up another?
Micah McCormick: Where is he talking about the destruction of the temple?
Micah McCormick: And that happened in the first century.
Micah McCormick: And then his final return, that happens years later.
Micah McCormick: It hasn't happened yet.
Micah McCormick: But there's a pattern there in the way that Jesus talks about this destruction.
Micah McCormick: There's a pattern and even his geographical movement.
Micah McCormick: And we're going to see other patterns, not the last pattern in this chapter.
Micah McCormick: Now, a lot of us haven't thought a lot about that event that took place in the first century.
Micah McCormick: So just to give a little bit of historical context, Jesus here is teaching, it's about 30 AD.
Micah McCormick: At that time, the Jewish people had a temple in Jerusalem.
Micah McCormick: They were allowed to worship, but the Romans occupied that territory.
Micah McCormick: They were under Roman rule.
Micah McCormick: About 35 years after Jesus finishes this teaching time, some Jewish people revolted and tried to take back Jerusalem for Jewish control rather than Roman control.
Micah McCormick: And they were somewhat successful in that.
Micah McCormick: But then five years later, so 40 years after Jesus speaks of these things, the Romans come in and they squashed that Jewish uprising and they desecrate the temple, and there's bloodshed, and it's an awful scene.
Micah McCormick: You can read about some of those things in Josephus, who writes about that.
Micah McCormick: But again, Matthew, as he as he as he tells us what Jesus said, and as Jesus speaks here, these things are woven together, that nearer destruction of the temple and the farther appearance of his coming.
Micah McCormick: And that's not altogether unusual in prophecy.
Micah McCormick: Sometimes in prophecy, it's like a mountain range.
Micah McCormick: If you remember from what Doug said, when you look at a mountain range in the distance, the mountains appear stacked close together, and you can't tell exactly how far out one event, one mountain is from the other.
Micah McCormick: That's a little bit what's going on here.
Micah McCormick: And as Pastor Doug said, some Christians look at this chapter, Matthew 24, and they think it's really all about the past.
Micah McCormick: It's all about what was going to happen in the near term when the Romans were going to come in.
Micah McCormick: Other Christians, they look at this chapter, and for them, it's really all about the future, about events that are going to take place surrounding the second coming of the Lord Jesus Christ.
Micah McCormick: Doug represents a third category, and I'm in this category too, who see both the past and the future brought together in this chapter.
Micah McCormick: All Christians should be able to agree that the Son of Man is coming and we must be ready.
Micah McCormick: There's our big idea for today.
Micah McCormick: I'm going to start this morning by looking at one section of Matthew 24.
Micah McCormick: I'm going to look at the verses that I read at the beginning, verses 27 through 31.
Micah McCormick: That's one section of this larger block.
Micah McCormick: And this section is going to illustrate some of the challenges that Pastor Doug alluded to.
Micah McCormick: It's also, it should help bolster our confidence.
Micah McCormick: The Son of Man is coming.
Micah McCormick: We must be ready.
Micah McCormick: Now I'm going to do something I don't normally do in a sermon.
Micah McCormick: I'm going to walk through a viewpoint that I don't think is complete enough.
Micah McCormick: I don't entirely agree with it.
Micah McCormick: It's a viewpoint that I think focuses too excessively on the past and doesn't cast us forward enough to the future.
Micah McCormick: Like just give us what it means, what we can do, why are you going to go through something?
Micah McCormick: We don't need every theory out there, just cut to the chase.
Micah McCormick: I have a reason for doing this, a couple of reasons, and I'll tell you what those reasons are after I explain the view.
Micah McCormick: So, uh as I've mentioned, there are some Christians who see this chapter as really all about the past, all about the first century, what was going to come in AD 70.
Micah McCormick: Why do they think that's the case?
Micah McCormick: And I'm not, just to be clear, they're not saying that Jesus won't come in the future.
Micah McCormick: They just don't think that's what this chapter is really about.
Micah McCormick: And they would say, even the verses that I read, verse 27, the stars falling from the sky, verse 29, the clouds, verse 300 man coming on the clouds, the lightning flashing.
Micah McCormick: Even that is about the past.
Micah McCormick: I know for a lot of you that's kind of a new thought and probably a very strange thought.
Micah McCormick: What do stars falling from the sky have to do with the Roman army, what they did 2,000 years ago?
Micah McCormick: Let me give a few of their arguments.
Micah McCormick: Number one, Jesus gives us a time frame, the disciples' own lifetime, not some distant time frame.
Micah McCormick: Look at verse 34.
Micah McCormick: Jesus says, Truly I tell you, this generation will certainly not pass away until all these things take place.
Micah McCormick: What had the disciples been asking about?
Micah McCormick: Destruction of the temple.
Micah McCormick: When did the destruction of the temple take place?
Micah McCormick: 40 years after he said that.
Micah McCormick: That's about a generation.
Micah McCormick: So Jesus' final return didn't happen within 40 years, that generation.
Micah McCormick: But that's okay because Jesus wasn't talking about his final return.
Micah McCormick: He was talking about the work that he was going to do providentially through the Romans in judging those people.
Micah McCormick: Verse 29, one of the verses that I did read.
Micah McCormick: And by the way, if you want, you can go back and look at, you could Google this afternoon, the way that Matthew uses that phrase, this generation, he normally uses it the way that we use it, the people that are alive at this time.
Micah McCormick: So they would say, to make this generation about a certain race of people or some later generation, why not just take what he says at face value?
Micah McCormick: This generation is this generation.
Micah McCormick: Verse 29, that verse begins immediately.
Micah McCormick: It says here there's another time frame.
Micah McCormick: He doesn't say at some point in the future or even near, immediately.
Micah McCormick: He's been talking about this destruction, and then immediately something happens.
Micah McCormick: So that's that's the first argument.
Micah McCormick: Number two, in the Bible, when God judges different groups of people throughout history, at times that judgment is described with similar, vivid, catastrophic language.
Micah McCormick: The verses that I read, there's the language of cosmic upheaval.
Micah McCormick: Sun's going dark, stars are falling.
Micah McCormick: When we hear that, we think, well, that's a wrap.
Micah McCormick: I mean, if the stars are falling, that's that's the end of the world as we know it.
Micah McCormick: Sky's going to be rolled up like a scroll, judgment, new creation.
Micah McCormick: But sometimes in the Old Testament, that same language is used when God brings judgment to bear on a specific people in a specific place.
Micah McCormick: For example, Isaiah 13, verse 1 is a pronouncement of judgment against Babylon.
Micah McCormick: And then verse 10 of Isaiah 13 says, Indeed, the stars of the sky and its constellations will not give their light.
Micah McCormick: The sun will be dark.
Micah McCormick: When it rises, the moon will not shine.
Micah McCormick: In Ezekiel 32, there's a pronouncement of judgment against the Pharaoh of Egypt, a specific person at a specific time.
Micah McCormick: And God says, When I snuff you out, I will cover the heavens and darken their stars.
Micah McCormick: I will darken all the shining lights in the heavens over you and bring darkness on you.
Micah McCormick: This is the declaration of the Lord.
Micah McCormick: So why would it be described that way?
Micah McCormick: When the Babylonian Empire came crashing down, the whole universe didn't come to an end.
Micah McCormick: When the Egyptian Empire came crashing down, the whole universe didn't come to an end.
Micah McCormick: No, but their worlds came to an end.
Micah McCormick: Their whole world came crashing down.
Micah McCormick: And sometimes the prophets use a vivid poetic language to help capture the emotion of these particular events.
Micah McCormick: So these people that would that would that would focus on the past when it comes to Matthew 24, they would say something similar is going on here.
Micah McCormick: It's the very same language is being used when 8070 happens and there's bloodshed and the Jews' worship is is is stamped out and it's a horrific thing.
Micah McCormick: It was as if their world came crashing down.
Micah McCormick: It was horrible for them, for the ethnic people.
Micah McCormick: Number three, in verse 30 of Matthew 24, so hopefully you're still there.
Micah McCormick: Stay with me.
Micah McCormick: I know this is the focus today, but Matthew 24, verse 30, the Greek word for peoples sometimes means tribes.
Micah McCormick: And the Greek word for earth sometimes means land.
Micah McCormick: If you're looking at our Pew Bible, it actually gives a little letter.
Micah McCormick: If you look down in the footnote, it'll give you that alternate translation.
Micah McCormick: So most of your translations read that the peoples of the earth will mourn, but you could translate it, the tribes of the land will mourn.
Micah McCormick: So the people that want to bring it back exclusively to the past will say, Well, Jesus isn't saying everyone on planet earth is going to mourn.
Micah McCormick: He's saying the tr ethnic tribes within the land of Israel will mourn when the Romans attack them.
Micah McCormick: Fourth, in verse 30, it speaks of the Son of Man coming in the clouds.
Micah McCormick: And that's one real well, wait a minute here.
Micah McCormick: The Son of Man coming in the clouds, that didn't happen in the first century.
Micah McCormick: That's going to happen in the future.
Micah McCormick: But these friends of ours would say, and again, if they're, if, if they're seeing the whole of scripture, they'll agree Christ is returning, but they'll say, that language is not original to Jesus.
Micah McCormick: He said it, but he drew it from the book of Daniel.
Micah McCormick: In Daniel chapter 7, it says in verse 13, suddenly, one like a son of man was coming with the clouds of heaven.
Micah McCormick: Son of man, clouds of heaven.
Micah McCormick: You hear the same language.
Micah McCormick: But then listen to what Daniel says.
Micah McCormick: He approached the ancient of days and was escorted before him.
Micah McCormick: Daniel seems to say he's coming in the clouds to be escorted into the presence of God.
Micah McCormick: Not that he's coming through the clouds to return again.
Micah McCormick: So they would say, see there, Daniel uses the same language to talk about Christ's exaltation and enthronement.
Micah McCormick: And don't we see that in Acts chapter one, where he goes up in the clouds to the Father's right hand?
Micah McCormick: Doesn't Acts chapter two talk about him reigning from heaven?
Micah McCormick: What does he do as the reigning king?
Micah McCormick: He pours out his spirit, he saves this remnant of Jewish people.
Micah McCormick: But also, they would say, one of his great dramatic acts as the reigning king is to allow the Romans to judge these people who have rejected him during his lifetime.
Micah McCormick: His blood be on us and on our children.
Micah McCormick: You've asked for it, and the Son of Man is here going to allow it.
Micah McCormick: Those are some of the reasons why some people would want to really zero in on the past.
Micah McCormick: Now, as I said already, I think that's too much of an exclusive focus on the past.
Micah McCormick: I think we need to be casting our eyes forward to the future.
Micah McCormick: I'm going to give you one reason why I would argue for that.
Micah McCormick: It seems like the Apostle Paul, who's inspired by God, applies this teaching of Jesus to the second coming, the final coming of Christ.
Micah McCormick: First Thessalonians 4, verses 15 to 17.
Micah McCormick: For we say this to you by a word from the Lord.
Micah McCormick: The dead in Christ will rise first.
Micah McCormick: Then we who are still alive, who are left, will be caught up together with them in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air.
Micah McCormick: So we will always be with the Lord.
Micah McCormick: Paul's inspired by God, so everything he says is from the Lord, but he speaks about a word from the Lord here as though he's advancing a specific teaching of Jesus.
Micah McCormick: And he goes on to describe the final coming of Christ with very similar language to what I've just read in Matthew.
Micah McCormick: The sun comes from heaven, there's an angel, there's a trumpet, there's a gathering of God's people.
Micah McCormick: Paul adds more, the dead in Christ will rise first, but the essential core is the same.
Micah McCormick: Okay, so why did I go through all that?
Micah McCormick: You know, why don't I just quote Thessalonians and Christ is coming again, let's apply it to our lives.
Micah McCormick: Why did I go through that whole thing?
Micah McCormick: We need to study our Bibles.
Micah McCormick: We need to take away from this one thing is we need to know what Scripture says and we need to interpret Scripture with Scripture.
Micah McCormick: Many of us probably hadn't thought about where else the Bible talks about the sun being darkened and the moon giving its light.
Micah McCormick: How many of us knew that Daniel addresses the Son of Man and studied what Daniel's actually saying?
Micah McCormick: We need to do that.
Micah McCormick: We don't uh Doug last week talked about warning us about excessive focus on timelines.
Micah McCormick: I think he used the phrase prophetic play-doh, kind of a colorful phrase.
Micah McCormick: I've heard the expression, maybe you have newspaper eschatology.
Micah McCormick: Where we're so immersed in the headlines, like, look what's going on in Russia, and like we get all these, we draw these connections, and then we too quickly put that down on top of our Bible, and they're like, yeah, we see this, we see this.
Micah McCormick: But what about scripture?
Micah McCormick: We always want to first go to scripture, first dig into what scripture says.
Micah McCormick: What about the Son of Man and Daniel?
Micah McCormick: Yeah, forget about that.
Micah McCormick: What's going on in Russia is we don't want to forget about that.
Micah McCormick: We want to let Scripture be our guide first and foremost, always.
Micah McCormick: Another reason why I went through that is just to remind us, to reiterate what Doug said, we should be gracious to other Christians when it comes to some of these disputed details of the exact reference of each individual verse and description.
Micah McCormick: Sometimes we can be kind of quick to dismiss a view before we listen to it.
Micah McCormick: Love, one of the ways we show love is by listening so that we could say what someone else believes, even if we think that could maybe use some adjustments or we disagree altogether, that they would be able to listen to how we describe their beliefs and say, yeah, that's that's what I'm trying to say.
Micah McCormick: That's that's love.
Micah McCormick: I'm not saying that we should never disagree.
Micah McCormick: I'm not saying that it's irrelevant, but I am saying that we need to be careful in how we treat those who Christ loves and is bought with his precious blood.
Micah McCormick: Peter says that Paul writes some things that are hard to be understood.
Micah McCormick: We could add that Jesus says some things that are hard to understand in the exact level of detail and assurance that we desire.
Micah McCormick: Doug has friends who think the chapter's really all about the past.
Micah McCormick: He has friends who think it's really all about the future.
Micah McCormick: It's very probable that we have church members who think it's all about the future.
Micah McCormick: It's quite possible that we have some church members who think it's all about the past.
Micah McCormick: It's definitely true that we have at least two church members who think it's a blend of both, because that's where Doug and I stand together on this one.
Micah McCormick: And if you want someone a little more notable than me, you could look at the commentaries of John Calvin or more recently D.A.
Micah McCormick: Carson, Andreas Kostenberger.
Micah McCormick: They'll give you more description of the kind of viewpoint that I'm I'm advocating.
Micah McCormick: But what's most important is not what this person or that person says, but again, going back to we've got to get in the word.
Micah McCormick: And that brings me to the very last reason I went through that, and this is going to be pushing us toward the remainder of the sermon for today.
Micah McCormick: God's work in the past often forms a pattern for God's work in the future.
Micah McCormick: Doug used the word echo.
Micah McCormick: Someone says something, you hear the same sound in the distance.
Micah McCormick: Or you might hear a language like foreshadow or type.
Micah McCormick: There's a guy named Patrick Schreiner who writes about Matthew, and he uses the word shadow stories.
Micah McCormick: Not that they're not real, but there's something about many stories in Matthew which remind us of events from the Old Testament.
Micah McCormick: So it's not only specific words, it can be people or events that took place.
Micah McCormick: This is what one person writes Jesus prophetically blends the tribulation.
Micah McCormick: Of AD 70 with the final one, for the prophetic perspective, naturally viewed nearer historical events as precursors of final events.
Micah McCormick: I've already given you an example of that.
Micah McCormick: When Babylon's going to be judged in the Old Testament, hundreds of years before this, when Pharaoh and Egypt are going to be judged, the judgment is described in similar language.
Micah McCormick: Why?
Micah McCormick: Well, it shows us their whole worlds came crashing down.
Micah McCormick: But it's also described in a similar way to draw a connection between those two events.
Micah McCormick: And often those repeating patterns and descriptions build an expectation that there's going to be more of those repeating patterns and events.
Micah McCormick: And there's going to be a grand final conclusion of those repeating patterns and events.
Micah McCormick: One day, for those who reject the Lord, your whole world's going to come crashing down.
Micah McCormick: Do you see the pattern here?
Micah McCormick: One day, this created order will give way to a final shaking of the heavens and the earth, and there'll be a new creation.
Micah McCormick: So the destruction that happened in the first century, it stands in line with that pattern of events of God's judgment.
Micah McCormick: But it pushes us forward to consider that the Son of Man is coming and we have to be ready for Him.
Micah McCormick: So in verse 29, to get again specific, in verse 29, whether you see the stars falling from the sky, specifically as Jesus saying, Hey, when the Jewish people have their temple destroyed, their whole world's going to come crashing down.
Micah McCormick: If you see him talking about that specific event, primarily, or if you understand Christ to be talking exclusively about the future, when the whole universe is judged, either way, you're still on that same arrow of a direction.
Micah McCormick: You're still pointing in the same place.
Micah McCormick: You're still arriving at the same destination.
Micah McCormick: One day, judgment is coming.
Micah McCormick: One day the Son of Man is coming.
Micah McCormick: There's been judgment in the past, there'll be judgment in the future.
Micah McCormick: Take care how you live, how you receive him.
Micah McCormick: We must be ready because the Son of Man is coming.
Micah McCormick: So we're circling back to that big idea now.
Micah McCormick: And I want to just leave you, I'll move through these quickly.
Micah McCormick: I want to leave you with just four final applications for us.
Micah McCormick: The Son of Man is coming, we must be ready.
Micah McCormick: How can we live our lives in light of that?
Micah McCormick: Number one, recognize the Messiah.
Micah McCormick: Verse 30.
Micah McCormick: All the peoples of the earth will mourn.
Micah McCormick: They will see the Son of Man coming.
Micah McCormick: One day the Son of Man will be seen and vindicated before all.
Micah McCormick: But in the meantime, do you know him?
Micah McCormick: Verse 5, many will come saying, I am the Messiah, and they will deceive many.
Micah McCormick: Verse 11, many false prophets will arise and deceive many.
Micah McCormick: Verse 23, if anyone tells you here is the Messiah or over here, don't believe it.
Micah McCormick: Grab hold of Jesus Christ.
Micah McCormick: Don't fall for any imposter messiahs.
Micah McCormick: We have newscasters telling us if you want the real truth, you have to listen to me, only me.
Micah McCormick: We have politicians telling us if you want hope, if you want greatness, if you want to see something finished, you have to vote for me, only me.
Micah McCormick: Friends, the problems of this world are far too great for any one mere human being to solve.
Micah McCormick: There's only one Messiah.
Micah McCormick: And the problems of our own heart are too great for any one mere human to solve.
Micah McCormick: So if you're here this morning and you're not a follower of Jesus Christ, you don't really know him, listen to this.
Micah McCormick: And I, this is this is a tougher sermon.
Micah McCormick: You may have come in.
Micah McCormick: If you don't know a lot about the Bible, we're thankful you're here.
Micah McCormick: You might have come in thinking, oh, this guy's gonna tell us to love our neighbor, and then I'm gonna get to go home.
Micah McCormick: And I don't know what he was talking about, but it sounded like my high school literature class, and I didn't like that to begin with anyway.
Micah McCormick: Listen to this, okay?
Micah McCormick: The Son of Man is coming, and there's only one Son of Man, his name is Jesus.
Micah McCormick: You need him in your life.
Micah McCormick: All of this judgment we've been talking about, Jesus Christ died to take the judgment that people deserved.
Micah McCormick: He died in the place of all those who would ever repent and trust in him so that we could find forgiveness.
Micah McCormick: So come to him, recognize the Messiah.
Micah McCormick: Why is he called the Son of Man?
Micah McCormick: Well, he's a true human, but he's the true human.
Micah McCormick: The first man, Adam, failed.
Micah McCormick: He's the final Adam.
Micah McCormick: And no mere human can bring this kind of rescue.
Micah McCormick: It takes the Son of God from heaven to be the true Son of Man.
Micah McCormick: There's a beautiful union of the divine nature and human nature in the person of Jesus Christ.
Micah McCormick: Recognize the Messiah.
Micah McCormick: Second, recognize what is permanent.
Micah McCormick: Doug told us from this passage we see that so often what we think is permanent isn't.
Micah McCormick: The disciples were so proud of that temple.
Micah McCormick: Look at the stones.
Micah McCormick: And it was a glorious temple.
Micah McCormick: If you go back and read about it, maybe not as glorious as the first one, you know, but it was very glorious.
SPEAKER_01: And within one generation, rubble.
SPEAKER_01: We think nations are permanent.
SPEAKER_01: They're not.
Micah McCormick: Babylon, not permanent.
Micah McCormick: Egypt, not permanent.
Micah McCormick: Rome, where is Rome now?
Micah McCormick: We don't know what will happen to China or India or America.
Micah McCormick: But this we do know there's a stone cut without hands that crushes all the kingdoms of this earth.
Micah McCormick: There's a kingdom that we're a part of that actually lasts and endures forever, that actually is permanent.
Micah McCormick: So recognize what is permanent.
Micah McCormick: Third, recognize the time.
Micah McCormick: This goes back to the way Matthew blends together events from that time period of Jesus with future events.
Micah McCormick: Verse 8 of chapter 24 speaks of the beginning of labor pains.
Micah McCormick: In one sense, we're still in the distress of labor pains.
Micah McCormick: In verse 29, depending on what translation you have, it'll say there the distress of those days.
Micah McCormick: Or you might be looking at a Bible that says the tribulation of those days.
Micah McCormick: That specific Greek word is used quite a number of times in the New Testament.
Micah McCormick: It's used actually three times right here in this chapter.
Micah McCormick: It's used in the verse I just alluded to, verse 29.
Micah McCormick: It's also used in verse 21.
Micah McCormick: Look there.
Micah McCormick: For at that time there will be great distress or tribulation.
Micah McCormick: And then it's even used back in verse 9.
Micah McCormick: They will hand you over to be persecuted, or they'll deliver you over for tribulation.
Micah McCormick: So there's another repeated pattern of this idea of tribulation in this chapter.
Micah McCormick: And the tribulation, again, of that first century, as distant as it was from where we are, that tribulation was great.
Micah McCormick: But as Christians, we should expect some measure of tribulation no matter where and when we're living.
Micah McCormick: Whether it's 24 AD or 1024 or 2024.
Micah McCormick: Listen to some other places in Scripture where that same word is used.
Micah McCormick: John 16, 33, I have told you these things so that in me you may have peace.
Micah McCormick: There's the Son of Man who brings what we need.
Micah McCormick: You will have tribulation in this world.
Micah McCormick: Be of good cheer.
Micah McCormick: I've overcome the world.
Micah McCormick: Acts 11, verse 19.
Micah McCormick: Christians are scattered because of the tribulation that came against the early church.
Micah McCormick: Acts 20, verse 23, Paul says, In every city, tribulation awaits me.
Micah McCormick: 2 Corinthians 4, 17, for our light momentary, we think of the word affliction, it's the same word, affliction, tribulation is producing in us an incomparable weight of glory.
Micah McCormick: 1 Thessalonians 3, verse 3, Paul says he doesn't want the Thessalonian church to be shaken by the tribulation they're experiencing, because that's what they're appointed to.
Micah McCormick: It's part of God's plan.
Micah McCormick: Revelation 1:9.
Micah McCormick: I, John, your brother and partner in the tribulation and kingdom and endurance that are in Jesus Christ.
Micah McCormick: So John's going to write about a lot of climactic events that are going to happen, but he begins his letter by saying, You're in tribulation right now.
Micah McCormick: I'm in there with you.
Micah McCormick: We're in this together as suffering saints, but it's God's purpose for us.
Micah McCormick: It's one of God's ways of shaping us to be like his son.
Micah McCormick: Verse 14 here in Matthew says, This good news of the kingdom will be proclaimed in all the world as a testimony to all nations.
Micah McCormick: So there's repeated tribulation, and yet as God's people respond to that with faith in Christ, their witness expands beyond to the ends of the earth.
Micah McCormick: We have to recognize what time it is.
Micah McCormick: Paul writes to the Corinthians that you are those on whom the end of the ages has come.
Micah McCormick: The Galatian churches were living in the last days.
Micah McCormick: We're living in the last days.
Micah McCormick: We ultimately set our clocks by the birth and life and death and resurrection and ascension of our Lord.
Micah McCormick: That's how we recognize the significance and value of our life living now in this time of intense conflict and intense glory.
Micah McCormick: The Kunis have been visiting with us for a few weeks.
Micah McCormick: And if you've heard someone ask Kevin, tell me how ministry is going, you might have heard him say, missions is war.
Micah McCormick: Or ministry is war.
Micah McCormick: The Christian life is war.
Micah McCormick: Some of us will have more tribulation, some of us will have less tribulation.
Micah McCormick: But part of honoring Christ and be being ready for his return is that we have this mindset of Christ, our commander has called us to suffering and witness.
Micah McCormick: And we know that it's going to be a time of intense struggle.
Micah McCormick: And yet we embrace that because Christ is our commander.
Micah McCormick: He's already risen and ascended.
Micah McCormick: He will be victorious.
Micah McCormick: And that leads to the very final application for this morning.
Micah McCormick: Recognize the Messiah, recognize what is permanent, recognize the time, and then finally recognize this call to endurance.
Micah McCormick: In scripture, often tribulation is linked with calls for endurance.
Micah McCormick: So, for example, in the book of Acts, in chapter 14, Paul and Barnabas have helped to see churches established.
Micah McCormick: They go back to visit those churches and they get a little chance to speak to the disciples there.
Micah McCormick: What are they going to tell these fledgling disciples?
Micah McCormick: How are they going to encourage their hearts in the faith?
Micah McCormick: Listen to what they say.
Micah McCormick: Acts 14.
Micah McCormick: Strengthening the disciples by encouraging them to continue in the faith.
Micah McCormick: There's the call for endurance.
Micah McCormick: Keep trusting.
Micah McCormick: And by telling them it is necessary to go through many tribulations.
Micah McCormick: Same word we see here in Matthew.
Micah McCormick: It's necessary to go through many tribulations to enter the kingdom of God.
Micah McCormick: And we see that call here in this chapter, too.
Micah McCormick: So looked at verses 12 and 13.
Micah McCormick: Matthew 24, 12 and 13.
Micah McCormick: Because lawlessness will multiply, the love of many will grow cold.
Micah McCormick: But the one who endures to the end will be saved.
Micah McCormick: The generation Jesus was speaking to needed to hear that message.
Micah McCormick: His 12 needed to hear that message.
Micah McCormick: We need to hear that message.
Micah McCormick: We need to hear those calls for endurance.
Micah McCormick: So don't just kind of hang on waiting for the end to come.
Micah McCormick: Grab hold of Christ and go on, step forward in following him.
Micah McCormick: What about our church collectively?
Micah McCormick: Would other people look at New Hyde Park Baptist Church and would they say, wow, you know, that that New Hyde Park Baptist Church, that's an enduring, persevering church.
Micah McCormick: They don't seem alarmed and shaken by cultural winds of opposition.
Micah McCormick: They just keep joyfully following their Lord.
Micah McCormick: I need to think about his claims more carefully.
Micah McCormick: Wouldn't that be a wonderful testimony for us to have as we wait eagerly?
Micah McCormick: So we can say to those who are recently baptized, hallelujah, you are trusting in Christ.
Micah McCormick: Thank you for partnering with us.
Micah McCormick: Keep trusting in him.
Micah McCormick: We can say to them, the Son of Man is coming, God's promises are certain.
Micah McCormick: Keep believing.
Micah McCormick: We can say to them, even if it appears that the love of some grows cold, you kindle your heart in the love of Christ.
Micah McCormick: We'll walk right along beside you.
Micah McCormick: We say to them, we say to ourselves, it's necessary to go through tribulation to enter the kingdom of God.
SPEAKER_01: But we'll enter it.
SPEAKER_01: Fear not, little flock.
SPEAKER_01: It's the Father's good pleasure to give you the kingdom.
Micah McCormick: The Son of Man is coming, and we must be ready.
Micah McCormick: I'll leave you with this passage from Romans 8.
Micah McCormick: Who is the one who condemns?
Micah McCormick: Christ Jesus is the one who died, but even more has been raised.
Micah McCormick: He also is at the right hand of God, interceding for us.
Micah McCormick: And he's coming, we could add.
Micah McCormick: Who can separate us from the love of Christ?
Micah McCormick: Can, and the first thing Paul mentions, can tribulation separate us from the love of Christ?
Micah McCormick: No.
Micah McCormick: In all these things, we are more than conquerors through the one who's loved us.
Micah McCormick: Let's pray.
Micah McCormick: Oh God, how thankful we are.
Micah McCormick: And we say all glory and praise to you, all honor and power, every every dominion that could be imagined in heaven and earth is ultimately yours.
Micah McCormick: We feel our own weakness.
Micah McCormick: We feel the the lightness at times of our hearts.
Micah McCormick: And yet we want to have a resiliency that is brought by the Spirit.
Micah McCormick: That tribulation will not shake us, that we know the end is coming, and Christ will soon be gathering his bride to himself.
Micah McCormick: Lord, we're looking for that day.
Micah McCormick: We're looking for that day when the clouds part and we see the Son of Man coming again, coming, yes, in judgment on those who don't obey his gospel.
Micah McCormick: But for those of us who are being saved, he's coming again to be marveled at by us, to be admired by all of us who believe.
Micah McCormick: And we do admire the Son today.
Micah McCormick: Give us hearts of worship as we sing now, that this would be a testimony that can come from faith hearts, not hearts that want to reject you and reject your call, but ready hearts, hearts of fullness, that the loveliness of Christ is controlling us each and every day in this day.
Micah McCormick: We pray this in Jesus' name.
Micah McCormick: Amen.