Alert • Matthew 24:36-51
By Joe McKeever
The old joke goes: “Be alert. Everybody loves a lert.”
But seriously…
You have to wonder why some church people simply do not believe what Jesus said. Look at what our Lord told His people about the end of the world as they knew it:
But of that day and hour, no one knows, not even the angels of heaven, nor the Son, but the Father alone. (Matthew 24:36 NASB)
How clear is that? Our Lord Jesus Christ is coming back to earth. He said that again and again. And when He does, He is going to rule as Lord of all.
But exactly when that is going to happen, we are not told. No one knows except the Father. No one.
In fact, Jesus told us not to worry about the “when.” Just be faithful. Do your job. In Acts 1:7, He told the disciples, “It is not for you to know the times or epochs which the Father has fixed by His own authority” (NASB). Got that? This is off limits to us.
So, since that crucial bit of information is kept from us, what are we to do in the meantime, Lord? His answer is found in numerous places, such as this passage in Matthew 24. We are to:
— “Be on the alert.” (24:42)
— “Be ready.” (24:44)
— Stay faithful. (“so doing,” 24:46) On the job, hand on the tiller, as the saying goes.
Our Lord said the last days would be “like the days of Noah.” And how were the days of Noah? “They were eating and drinking, marrying and giving in marriage…” (24:38).
In other words, business as usual. Assuming things would continue as they always had, completely unaware the Lord of the universe was about to put them out of business.
Verse 38 says, “…until the day that Noah entered the ark.” Interestingly, Noah and his family entered the ark a full seven days before the rains came. Pause and reflect on that (see Genesis 7:10). Inside that ark — we assume it was cramped and crowded and hot — we can imagine Noah’s family saying, “Well? Where are all those rains you’ve been talking about?” And no doubt the neighbors were jeering. “Look at them! Inside the boat and not a cloud in sight!” Day after day this continued. For a full week.
And then the rains came.
We who believes the Lord Jesus and who takes seriously the Word of God must not overlook this. God will ask things of us which may seem foolish to the unbelieving world. Yet, we obey Him.
We must “enter the ark” — that is, be saved and ready — while the sun is still shining and the unbelieving world is still clueless.
Pastor Don Fugate of San Jose, Calif., writes lesson summaries for The Baptist Paper, published by the TAB Media Group of Birmingham. Commenting on our text, Pastor Fugate says: It reminds me of the story of Ernest Shackleton and the stranded crew of Endurance. The ship became trapped in an ice floe in Antarctica. The crew was stranded for 22 months while Shackleton and five others traveled 800 miles in a small boat to seek help. When they finally returned with a rescue ship, he found the crew ready to strike camp in quick order. Throughout all that time, Frank Wild, the second-in-command, would instruct the crew daily to “lash up and stow (their belongings). The boss may come today!” That’s the mindset we need to employ on a daily basis. “The Boss may come today.”
In almost every generation, in direct contradiction to Jesus’s caution, false prophets have announced dates for the Lord’s return, and have led many of the faithful astray. A full list of such false prophecies would probably require an encyclopedia and would include such incidents as these:
— The Jehovah’s Witnesses announced the Lord would return in 1975. A year earlier, witnesses were commended for selling their houses and properties in anticipation of the big event. But the year 1975 came and went. It is reported that one million members of this false religion left as a result.
— Harold Camping announced that the rapture and Judgement Day was set for May 21, 2011, and that it would begin at 6 p.m. When that failed, he said it was October 21, 2011.
— Joseph Smith, founder of the Latter Day Saints (the Mormons), famously gave all kinds of false prophecies. I recall reading where he predicted that people lived on the moon, that they were very tall and dressed like Quakers. Since Smith lived in the 1800s and man did not land on the moon until the 1960s, he was safe — for a time. But eventually, the false prophets get called out.
We are staking everything on our belief that Jesus Christ is coming again. We have His word on it, repeated again and again throughout the New Testament. We say with the saints of old, “Even so, come Lord Jesus!” (Revelation 22:20).
McKeever is a member of First Baptist Church, Jackson.
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