Wait, What? -- Luke 24:29-31, 36-51 • Geoff Bradford

Thank you guys. Worship team, those song selections and the way that you all did that this morning is just such the perfect tone for the passages we're going to read today and the theme that we're discussing this Advent season.

We are back in Matthew chapter twenty four and twenty five. I was sick last week and so Chuck came and preached on Zacchaeus, and I was really grateful to have Chuck stand in. We're back in Matthew twenty four and twenty five today, and I want to invite you to read along with me as I read aloud. You're welcome to read aloud as well. We're going to read verses 29 to 31 and also 36 through the end of that chapter through 51. So let's listen to God's word together.

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. But concerning that day and hour, no one knows, not even the angels of heaven, nor the son, but the father only. As were the days of Noah, so will be the coming of the son of man. For as in those days before the flood, they were eating and drinking, marrying, and giving in marriage until the day when Noah entered the ark and they were unaware until the flood came and swept them all away. So will be the coming of the son of man. Then two men will be in the field. One will be taken and one left. Two men will be grinding at the mill. One will be taken and one left. Therefore, stay awake for you do not know on what day your lord is coming. But know this, if the master of the house had known in what part of the night the thief was coming, he would have stayed awake and would not have let his house be broken into. Therefore, you also must be ready for the son of man is coming at an hour you do not expect. Who then is the faithful and wise servant whom his master has set over his household to give them their food at the proper time. Blessed is that servant whom his master will find doing so when he comes. Truly, I say to you, he will set him over all his possessions but if that wicked servant says to himself, my master is delayed and begins to beat his fellow servants and eats and drinks with drunkards. The master of that servant will come on a day when he does not expect him and at an hour he does not know. And will cut him in pieces and put him with the hypocrites. In that place, there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth. — Matthew 24:29-51

This is the word of the Lord. Thanks be to God.

You know, this year I am dreaming about an apocalyptic Advent, and I understand exactly how crazy that sounds. I mean, apocalyptic Advent—what kind of person dreams about an apocalyptic Advent? When you hear the word apocalyptic, you probably think of movies. We have a genre of movies in American movie going that are apocalyptic movies, movies like Mad Max or the Book of Eli or 12 Monkeys or I Am Legend. And there's even a kid version of this—Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs is a kid version of the same thing.

So when I say apocalyptic Advent, after the year that we've had, some of you are probably like, we need to find this man not a red coat but a nice white one and take him to a special place. We've had quite enough of crazy this year, haven't we?

But when I say apocalyptic, I mean that in the way that the Bible uses the word, because the Bible doesn't use the word in the way that we think of it. When we think of apocalyptic, we think of it as cataclysmic destruction. I've heard people say, "September 11, that apocalyptic day in American history," like the destruction of that day. But the word doesn't mean crazy and it doesn't mean destruction. The word apocalypse actually means reveal or unveil.

So really, the best way I could explain this—let me give you an example. I do a lot of weddings, and imagine me up front and there's a groom right here. What happens at that moment, you know the moment in the wedding service where they open the doors and the bride comes through the doors? That would be called the apocalypse of the bride—the revealing of the bride, the unveiling of the bride. That would actually be the right biblical use of that term, because it's something revealed.

And today we're again picking up Matthew 24, the Olivet Discourse, some teaching that Jesus did just a few days before he was put on the cross, a few days before his death and resurrection. He's teaching on when and what is happening with the end of time. What are the end times?

And it's all about the revealing of Jesus, the unveiling of Jesus in his second coming. So here's my thesis for this morning: Our celebration of Advent and Christmas, the four weeks leading up to Christmas, should in some ways match that.

You know, I think the world views the season of Advent as the four weeks of shopping, right? The four weeks to get ready for the apocalypse of your family. But there has to be more to Advent than that. I think sometimes the church has treated this like a minor disruption, after which things can be set back in order. So you have your uncle who comes to visit and it disrupts the flow of the family for a couple days, but it soon gets made right again. But we need more to Advent than that.

When we sing the song "Oh Come, Oh Come, Emmanuel" — "Ransom captive Israel that mourns in lonely exile here until the son of God appear" — we need to ask, well, when he shows up, what do we think he's going to do? When he shows up, what exactly are we waiting for and hoping for?

So this morning, here's my outline, very simple. I'm going to ask the same question three times: Do you know what time it is? I'm going to ask, do you know what time it is? Do you know what time it is? And do you know what time it is?

The Time Between Advents

Let's start with the first one. Do you know what time it is? Well, Jesus has told us: it is the time between advents. It's the time in between advents. Now, let's be honest, nobody really likes the word "in between." To say you're in between jobs, that's not a great circumstance. Something has ended and you're hoping something else begins. To be in between relationships is also not a nice place to be. Or even in our families, if you have a family with three or more kids, you have the middle child, right? In between the siblings. Again, not always a nice place to be.

And here's what we learn from Matthew 24: We live in the in between. We live in a time in between two advents. The word "advent" actually just means arrival. So you could go to RDU Airport and they could have departures and advents. Advent means arrival. We're between the time we celebrate at Christmas—looking backward to the first arrival of Jesus—and looking forward to the second arrival of Jesus. That's what we're doing in this place of Advent. And like other in betweens, this in between is also a place of discomfort.

In fact, there's a name for the in between in which we live. It's called tribulation. Did you notice this in the passage? It's actually used three times in this whole chapter—verse 9, verse 21, verse 29—"the tribulation." The tribulation is not a future one thousand year period. We live now in a time of tribulation, a time of hardship, a time when this feels uncomfortable.

Remember what Jesus told us about this period. We reviewed this a couple weeks ago. He said: false Christs are going to come during this time. Don't be fooled. The world is going to get crazy and there's nothing you can do to stop it. The brokenness of the world doesn't mean anything about the brokenness of my plan. You're going to have to be ready. Being ready means taking care of others. And finally, all of this is going to have to happen and you're going to have to persevere.

We need to know that because life is hard in the in between. If you don't read these passages, if you're not aware of what the Bible tells us about this life, you will think that 2020 has been a cosmic alarm bell, that somehow God has been caught off guard. When in fact, Jesus said, "It's going to be hard. There are going to be seasons like this."

And along comes Matthew 24 and says, this is a time of in betweens, a time of tribulation. But we persevere not just in misery. We persevere, Jesus shows us here, in hope.

Look at verses 30 to 31 about the next advent. He says:

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. He will send out his angels with a trumpet call, and they will gather his elect from the four winds, from one end of heaven to the other. — Matthew 24:30-31

Jesus tells his disciples what's going to happen in the next advent: that he's going to come with the clouds, on the clouds. That's not just to help us envision it like Jesus surfing on the clouds coming back. This is actually laden with huge meaning if you know your Bible. The picture of the clouds is really important because it goes back to an Old Testament story, a series of depictions of God with his people represented by clouds.

For example, in the Exodus, God's presence enters the temple as a cloud. In fact, it's called the Shekinah glory of God. Shekinah means dwelling.

God dwelling with his people in the first instance is a tabernacle, in the tabernacle around his people, and then in the temple with all his people around him. God dwelling with his people. In the Exodus story, Moses goes up on the mountain and receives the law of God, the two tablets, and the mountain is described as covered with smoke and clouds. Again, the Shekinah glory of God. The cloud that shows us God's presence is right here with his people in Exodus. A pillar of cloud goes before them in the day. A pillar of fire goes before them at night. Again, Shekinah, the dwelling of God with his people.

And this is what's so amazing about the first advent, about the incarnation, the coming of Jesus at Christmas: that Jesus tabernacled with human flesh and was handled and seen.

And the Word became flesh and dwelt among us. We beheld his glory, the glory as of the only begotten of the Father, full of grace and truth. — John 1

So when Jesus says, "I'm coming with the clouds," that's not to help you just picture the backdrop. It's not just to help you visualize it. He's saying, "I'm coming with a purpose." Those clouds tell us the purpose: Jesus coming back to dwell again in the new Earth with his people. Dwelling with us. Glory with us. It tells us what Jesus is going to do.

Several years ago, I remember hearing someone teaching on the Book of Revelation and they described how Jesus is going to come back and make all things new. Of course, that's a word straight out of Revelation, but I'd never thought about this before. The person at the time said, "Not all new things, but all things new." And isn't that what we want? Aren't there tastes that you have of things in this life that are glorious and beautiful and they point to something beyond this life? Jesus shows us in Scripture, it's not going to wad up the world like a McDonald's wrapper, remove what's good, wrap up the wrapper, and throw it away. Jesus is going to make all things new.

And that's good news for us, because there are things in this life—like bacon and beaches and sunsets and salsa and mocha and mountains. Things that we think, "This is so good. This is a taste of something beyond this life." And Jesus says, "All things new. All things new." Those things that you enjoy in this life are going to be glorified and made new and perfected in the life to come, including you. Including you. He's going to make you work right too. With a body that's healed, with emotions that feel absolutely right, with laughter and no more tears.

And you can understand why the disciples are like, "Well, when? When are these things going to happen?" That's the question the disciples wanted to know. That's the question we want to know. When, Jesus?

When Will These Things Happen?

In verse 36 of this passage, they asked that very question, and there's been a lot of confusion around this that's been manufactured right here in America, actually. We've been the source of a lot of confusing material about this. For example, you would think that verse 36 did not appear in our Bibles by the way the American church operates.

Concerning that day and hour no one knows, not even the angels of heaven nor the Son, but the Father only. — Matthew 24:36

There's a huge second coming industry in the Christian church in America, and it's odd. There's some weird, wacky stuff out there. But many preachers and books and churches have acted like, "Oh yeah, we can figure out when this is going to happen, and we will tell you." But Jesus tells us remarkably the one thing that he doesn't know. The Father knows. Jesus doesn't know. Jesus, the omniscient one, knows everything. He could look at a person and tell them their thoughts. What does Jesus say? "I don't even know when this is going to happen. I don't even know."

There's been a lot of nonsense created by the Left Behind books and even dispensational theology around this about a rapture. Look at verses 37 through 41. You'll hear that a rapture is when God takes the believers out of the world and leaves the unbelievers here to suffer. But is this in par with what we read here in Scripture?

Look here. In the days of Noah, who was left behind? Noah and his family. The believers were left behind. The unbelievers were swept away. The example of the two men working in the field: the believers left behind, the unbelievers swept away. The two women working at the mill grinding grain: the believers left behind, the unbelievers swept away. We're going to see this over and over. The parable of the ten virgins, the parable of the sheep and the goats. The sheep are left behind. The goats are swept away.

The whole rapture business is not biblical. The people of God are not taken up to heaven out of tribulation, leaving unbelievers to suffer. The whole rapture idea comes from a misunderstanding of First Thessalonians 4.

Then we who are alive, who are left, will be caught up together with him in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air so we will always be with the Lord. — 1 Thessalonians 4:17

The picture there is not believers being taken out of this world, but exactly what we read here in verses 30 through 31. Jesus coming back with the clouds and those who are his rising up to meet him in the air and welcoming the King back to the earth. It's like a king who's been on a journey coming back to the castle riding his horse, and the people leave the castle to come out and welcome the king back in. There's a huge party as he's welcomed back. That's what we see in Scripture.

Do you know what time it is? This in-between time is a time of waiting and watching. This is when the church does sing, "Oh, come Emmanuel. Come." We cry out for the Second Advent. This is why I'm dreaming of an apocalyptic Advent this year. The church's choice is to participate in hope—to participate in hope of what God is going to do.

The End and the Beginning

Now, this is complex because what we read in Scripture is that there is an end that's also a beginning. When Jesus came and died and was raised again, there was an end. There was shaking. There was thunder. There were people who raised up from their graves. There were things we read about in the first advent that tell us that was an end and a beginning. The beginning of God's Spirit poured out on his people. The beginning of the era of the church. The beginning of God in Jesus bringing his kingdom. And yet, we know this isn't all there is.

The advent Jesus announced here is, in a manner of speaking, earth-shattering. Jesus gives us these words. He tells us, "I want you to know what life in the tribulation is going to be like so you don't freak out. So you don't lose your heads. Know that this is going somewhere." God's advent in Christ brings an end to the old order and a looking to what's new and a hungering and a longing. It's the sense of things being shaken—which always makes us afraid—but being shaken so they can be made right.

Do you know what time it is? Looking, waiting, watching.

Knowing About Versus Knowing

Second, do you know what time it is? Do you know? I want to emphasize the word "no" because that word is emphasized over and over in this whole chapter.

From the fig tree, as soon as its branch becomes tender and puts out its leaves, you know the summer is near. — Matthew 24:32

So also when you see these things, you know he's near at the very gates. — Matthew 24:33

But concerning that day or hour, no one knows, not even the angels of heaven nor the Son, but the Father only. — Matthew 24:36

And they knew nothing about what happened until the flood came and took them away. — Matthew 24:39

Know this: if the master of the house had known in what part of the night the thief was coming, he would have stayed awake. — Matthew 24:43

The master of the servant will come on a day when he does not expect him and an hour he does not know. — Matthew 24:50

Why all this business about the word "no"? There's a distinction Jesus is making. There's a difference between what you know and what you know, know. You know how people say that? And Jesus is making that distinction because the word in the Greek can either mean knowledge of something—knowledge about something—or knowing something comprehensively, inside and out. That's why many of you will remember there's a Hebrew idiom for sexuality around knowing. A man knowing a woman, a woman knowing a man—that's comprehensive knowledge.

Jesus is saying to us, it's one thing to know about the Second Coming. It's another thing to know, know the Second Coming. It's one thing to know about the biblical doctrine of the end times. It's another thing to live out the biblical doctrine of the end times.

C.S. Lewis, an Oxford professor, said it this way in an essay called "The World's Last Night": "The doctrine of the Second Coming has failed, so far as we are concerned, if it doesn't make us realize that at every moment of every year in our lives, we're asking the question: What if this present moment was the world's last night?"

He goes on to say this: "What's important is not that we should always live in fear of the end of things, but we should always remember and take it into account. An analogy may help. A man of 70 shouldn't always be feeling and worrying about his approaching death, but a wise man of 70 should always take it into account."

He would be a foolish man to embark on schemes that supposed another thirty or forty years of his life. He would be foolish indeed not to make a will.

He's saying this: do you know the second coming? In a lot of ways, we don't want to be one of those churches that overemphasizes the end times. Where we're always living in fear or anxiety, where we're always talking about this, where our church is always trying to figure out, "Hey, who's the beast? Is it Biden or is it Trump or is it the pope?" We're always kind of worried about and fixated on the future. But I don't think that's our problem, CTK. I think our problem is one of actually underemphasizing the second coming.

See, as Lewis says, what death is to each man, the second coming is to all of us together. We all believe that a person should remember how short and precarious and temporary and provisional a life is. What modern Christians find it harder to remember is that the whole of humanity in this world is also precarious and temporary and provisional.

So again, he's not asking, "Do you know about this?" He's saying, "Do you know know about this?"

I think one upside of 2020, if there's an upside to 2020, is that this year hasn't worked out for anybody like we thought. Everybody is dealing with disappointment and sorrow. I've said this over and over again: I think that Raleigh, North Carolina might be the most spiritually dangerous place to live in the country and maybe in the world. This place that's on all the lists of "best of" and "best place to" tricks us into thinking that this life will deliver on all its campaign promises. It makes us think, "Yes, this is our oyster. This is all there is." It attracts people here like flies to a carcass, and it's dangerous.

But I think it's a gift from God. If we can look for any silver lining to 2020, and I say this as a pastor very carefully because I know there's a lot of grief in our congregation, but if it's possible, I think that 2020 has been a good reminder that this is not all there is.

Growing up, there was a commercial for an aftershave by Mennen. It actually made John Goodman famous—Skin Bracer. You see him in a mirror just after shaving, and he's putting on a little aftershave, and he says, "Some aftershaves are too weak, some are too strong," but then he puts on the one being sold and smacks himself across the face and says, "Wow. Thanks, I needed that."

I think that 2020, in the best way, has maybe been like that for us. In the best way, it said, "Thanks, I needed that." I needed to remember that this life isn't all there is. It doesn't deliver on its promises. It can't. And I need to know today that there is more to come.

Understanding Parables and Apocalyptic Literature

Last time I asked the question: Do you know what time it is? The rest of this teaching in Matthew 24 is interestingly all in parable form. There are six parables—three short ones and three longer ones. We're going to look at those over the next couple weeks.

Do you know what the word parable means? It means something lying in the way. Picture your dad's shoes that you fall over in the den, right? He's left them out again. You trip over your dad's shoes. It's something lying in the way. Parables are never meant to give more information but to help us internalize information. In these parables that are to come, Jesus doesn't give us any more information. He just takes all of Matthew 24 and helps us to live into it and internalize it.

Apocalyptic literature in the Bible—parts of Daniel and First Thessalonians and Revelation and Ezekiel and all of this discourse—requires us to think not like a twenty-first century American but like a first century Hebrew, and to use our imaginations. This is hard for us. Actually, the kids in our congregation might be the most helpful people going through this because kids have access to an imagination that adults turn off. Adults tend to know more about amortization tables and bills and tax brackets, but kids are good at imagination.

These parts of the Bible are not meant to be read like a photo where we get up really close and try to figure out all the parts. They're more like an impressionistic painting. You know what an impressionistic painting is like? It's a painting where if you get really close to it, it just looks like blobs of color on a canvas. But if you back up and back up and back up, you're like, "Oh, a sailboat in a sunset. It's beautiful."

They're meant to give you an impression, not details. So we need to look at these parables over the next few weeks and ask: they're asking us the question, do you know what time it is?

For example, last time I preached on the parable of the fig tree. It's only one line. Jesus says this: "You learn this lesson from the fig tree. As soon as its twigs get tender and its leaves come out, you know that summer is near."

As soon as its twigs get tender and its leaves come out, you know that summer is near. — Matthew 24:32

See, what's Jesus saying? Well, we know this really well. We just watched all the leaves fall off. We know that somewhere around March, we'll start seeing buds and we'll start seeing things come back. And he's saying, you can look at the seasons and you know how to interpret the seasons. Do you know my seasons? Do you recognize this? That I'm going to bring the ultimate spring and summer? I'm going to bring the ultimate sunlight after centuries of winter.

So Jesus is saying, can you imagine? Do you know what time it is?

The questions we're going to wrestle with in these next few weeks are like the question that Lewis says. Are you like the seventy-year-old man? Do you recognize that this can be the world's last night? Are you living with expectation and hope of what is to come?

I'll close with this. Maybe you remember this as a kid. Maybe some of you are kids and you know this—but you know that feeling the night before Christmas? That excitement that runs all the way through, that anticipation where you just can't wait for tomorrow morning. I think all of us can remember some version of that.

Now, I know it's hard to apply that to the second coming of Jesus. For us, that seems like, wow, it's been almost two thousand years, Jesus? We're supposed to live like that tomorrow? I mean, really?

But God's word tells us that with the Lord, a thousand years are like a day gone by and a day is like a thousand years. God who dwells in eternity looks on our time and it just moves like this. I think that's helpful.

Eternity compared to a lifespan of seventy-eight years—it's kind of like Jordan Lake compared to the Atlantic Ocean. I mean, Jordan Lake is the biggest lake in our area. It's huge. I don't know anybody who could swim the length of Jordan Lake. It's almost sixteen miles. It's enormous. But compared to the Atlantic Ocean, what a joke. It's a drop. It's nothing.

This life that we're in is like Jordan Lake to the Atlantic Ocean. And there will come a day on the other side of this life where those who have already gone to be with the Lord, they're like, yeah, you know what? We thought that was so long. And you know what? Jesus and the saints who have passed before us are doing right now? Can't wait. It's going to happen. It's going to be amazing. Because they have in their heads eternity.

You and I, brothers and sisters, who've been born again, have been born again as eternal beings. This life isn't seventy-eight years long. It's eternity. It's a vector that starts at a point and goes to eternity future. And there will come a time where we're like, man, that seems so wrong. What were we really thinking? We really thought that was long?

In the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit. Amen.

Father, teach us to hope. Teach us to hope. We pray in Christ's name. Amen.