Allen Jackson - When the Cheering Stopped - Part 2
Now in Matthew 24, Jesus pivots, meaning he takes a new direction. It’s like he plants a foot in the ground, and he goes another way. The instructions are going to change. Remember, there’s two or three days of this very up close and personal and intense training that he’s giving to those who will listen to him. And he’s been trying to expose the hypocrisy of the leaders in Jerusalem, so the people will have the courage not to be swept along by them. But now there’s a pivot that takes place, and he’s going to begin to give us some instruction on preparations for the parousia. It’s a fancy religious word, it means «the second coming». He’s gonna begin to talk to the people that are listening about his return. It seems a little inconsistent with the messaging until you see the bigger picture.
Jesus understands that he’s within a few days of leaving, and he’s going to begin to try to prepare his best friends for what next will look like. What an amazing friend we have. It’s Matthew 24:36, «No one knows about that day or hour». He’s talking about when his return will be. And he said, «No one knows, not even the angels in heaven, nor the Son, but only the Father». Now with that statement, if you meet somebody that tells you they know when Jesus is returning, what do you know? That they don’t know. I wouldn’t argue, I wouldn’t debate. I’d just smile, and go, «Oh, bless your heart». If they’re not from around here, they’ll think you complimented them. It’s okay. «As it was in the days of Noah, so it will be at the coming of the Son of Man. For in the days before the flood, people were eating and drinking, and marrying and giving in marriage, up till the day Noah entered the ark; and they knew nothing about what would happen until the flood came and took them all away. That is how it will be at the coming of the Son of Man».
So, Jesus just gave us a picture of what it will be like before he comes. And he lists some behaviors that people will be engaged in. I would note to you that none of them are ungodly or immoral. They’ll be buying and selling, marrying and giving in marriage. They’ll be doing normal life things. They’ll be living too far into the world system to understand that God is moving. He said, «Up until the day that Noah entered the ark, nobody knew what was coming». You read that, and you go, «Well, maybe».
Look, you should, it should give you concern, if you can walk with your friends who are marginally aware of the things of God, and there’s no distinction with you. There better be some distinctiveness in our lives. Or we’re like salt, it’s not salty. If you put salty, that’s not very salty, you start taking the top off the salt shaker, it must not be working right. It’s the humidity, live in the South. It’ll be just like that, he said. Verse 40, «Two men will be in the field; and one will be taken and the other left. Two women will be grinding with a hand mill; and one will be taken and the other left». There’s a sense of very unexpectedness, an assumption that we’re all good, and the assumption’s faulty. And then he says, «Therefore keep watch, because you don’t know on what day your Lord will come».
Again, there’s an unexpectedness to this. I’m amused at the determination Christians have to try to tell everybody, «We know. This is the time». I’m like, «Did you read what the boss said? 'You do not know.'» «But understand this: If the owner of the house had known at what time the night the thief was coming, he would have kept watch and would not have let his house be broken into». No duh. «So you also must be ready, because the Son of Man will come in an hour when you don’t expect him. Who then is the faithful and wise servant»? That’s a very important question. I want Jesus to think that I’m a wise and faithful servant, don’t you? I don’t want him to think I was a good preacher, a good church attender, a good organizer. I don’t want him to think I was a good planner. I want the Lord to look at me, and go, «You are a faithful servant».
That’s the category where I want to ring the bell, so that’s the question posed. He’s gonna give us an answer. «Who then is the faithful and wise servant, whom the master has put in charge of the servants in his household to give them their food at the proper time? It will be good for that servant whose master finds him doing so when he returns». What are we supposed to be busy with? Serving the people and the purposes of God. «He’s coming back,» he said. And there’s gonna be an unexpected component to it. And what you want to be busy with is the assignment he’s given us. «But suppose that servant is wicked and says to himself, Nah, he’s staying away a long time, and then he begins to beat his fellow servants and eat and drink with the drunkards».
Well, we’ll just call that evangelism. «The master of that servant will come on a day when he doesn’t expect him, at an hour that he’s not aware of». Watch this. «And he will cut him to pieces and assign him a place with the hypocrites, where there’ll be weeping and gnashing of teeth». It’s a pretty hard pivot Jesus makes. In the paragraphs before, he’s talking to the religious leaders, and he’s saying, «You know, your hypocrisy is not hidden. Your duplicity has been exposed. You’re not as clever as you think you are. You should repent».
And they’re gonna make their choices, but they’ve been given one last invitation. Actually, they’ve been given multiple invitations. The Lord is with them, standing in the halls of the temple, inviting them to change. Some of them will, but then he makes this hard pivot, and he said, «You know, I’ll be gone very quickly, but I’m coming back for you. And there’ll be a lot of messages saying this or that, but nobody knows when I’m coming back. Not even the angels in heaven know. It’ll be a lot like it was in Noah’s day, big boats and lots of animals, but people were just busy with their stuff». He said, «Who is a wise and faithful servant»? He says, «The one that’s busy with the kingdom business». See, it’s not an intrusion. It’s not all another project. It’s what we were created for.
You know, I remind people frequently that God has given us directives regarding our money, so that we keep our hearts free from the love of it. We’re encouraged to be generous, to learn to give. And here go the skeptics, you know, they start sitting up straighter. «I knew it, he was after your money». No, that’s not true. We want your blood, too, donate that. God said, «The first tenth belongs to him». Well, that’s an Old Testament concept. So is, «Thou shalt not kill». So has, «He created the male and female,» but we don’t wanna leave that out of the New Testament like so many churches are doing right now. I believe that first tenth belongs to the Lord. It isn’t mine. I mean, it’s not even mine to arbitrate. I just give it to the Lord. It’s all his, but I do that because it breaks that stranglehold in me.
I’m grateful that my parents taught me that when I was a little kid. It’s something that got baked into me, and it is one of the great gifts that my parents gave to me. But God also gives us directives regarding food. He gives us directives regarding family. We’ve just been pretty casual about this. We’re going back to our salvation card, go, «No, no, look, I’m born again. I can eat what I want, and drink what I want, and live how I want, and spend how I want». No, no. «What, are you saying we earn our way to godliness»? No, I’m not saying that at all. I’m saying the call of God and the grace of God is to enable you to lead righteous lives. And you can’t practice ungodliness and imagine you belong to the kingdom. Or somebody will build a boat in the middle of a field, and you won’t notice because you’ll be too busy with investments, and too busy planning the next party, and you won’t be ready to be on the boat.
Jesus is talking to people who offer daily sacrifices, and celebrate all the right holidays, and go to the synagogues, and do the Scripture readings. It’s Luke 21, «Jesus looked up, and saw the rich putting their gifts into the temple treasury. And he saw a poor widow put in two very small copper coins. And he said, I tell you the truth,» and you know now, right, buckle up, about to blow everybody’s mind. «This poor widow has put in more than all the others». No, she dropped in pocket change. There have been people who made some big gifts. They’re getting naming rights for this stuff. Jesus said, «Well, this poor widow put in more than all the others. They gave their gifts out of their wealth, but she out of her poverty put in all she had to live on».
I don’t believe Jesus is saying that we have to liquidate, but I do believe he’s calling our attention to what it means to make a sacrifice. And nobody can tell you that, I would not presume to do that, don’t want to. You know, sometimes I meet Christians, and they act like they’re so mad at people that have been successful and are affluent and have resources. I remember sitting in a meeting with a man. He owned two professional sports teams. And he was a believer, a strong Christian. He was out front with his faith. It’s been a few years ago, so you don’t need to try to figure out who it was. And he interacted a lot with the Christian community. I remember somebody asked him, and they said, «What do you wish that Christians knew»?
Well, the first question is, «What do you feel when you’re amongst Christians»? And he said, «I feel like they’re mad at me because I have too much». And the follow-up question is, «What do you wish the Christians really knew about you»? He said, «I wish they knew I paid eight people full time to give away money». And I remember sitting there thinking, «Yeah, I was kind of mad at you until then». And I spent a while walking around and wondering, «Well, how much would he have to give away before I thought he’d given away enough? That’s really none of my business». And clearly, God couldn’t trust me with that much because I was still so messed up, I was mad at somebody that had more.
See, God can’t give you more if it’ll mess you up. We’ve loved it so much. We’ve been so greedy. Now if you have a lot, the expectations are higher. I always smile at people, «So, you know, I can’t give that much, that’d be more than God’s people could deal with». Oh, really? Jesus doesn’t stop. Very next verse, «Some of his disciples were remarking about how the temple was adorned with beautiful stones». This is all one discussion. This isn’t broken apart, you know, we tend to pull a verse out and preach a sermon, but this is one discussion. In these three or four days between his arrival and his betrayal, «They remark about how the temple was adorned with beautiful stones and with gifts dedicated to God. But Jesus said, 'As for what you see here, the time will come when not one stone will be left on another; every one of them will be thrown down.'»
The most beautiful building in all of Israel is the temple. It took Herod more than 40 years to build it. Some of the largest cut stones in the history of humanity are a part of that temple. It was one of the wonders of the ancient world. People would come from all over the Roman Empire to see the the Jewish temple in Jerusalem. And on the heels of this conversation, where Jesus said, «That little widow just gave more than everybody else,» the disciples comment on the beauty of the temple, and Jesus said, «Every stone will be torn down,» and within a handful of years. Even the stones of the temple are temporary. The message Jesus is giving is be careful where you direct your affection, or you will imagine that what validates you, what secures your future, what makes you unique, what gives you a place in the kingdom of God is something that’s temporary. Enjoy the things that God provides, but don’t misdirect your effort and allegiance. Be generous towards God.
If I had to look for a summary line, it’s, «Be generous towards God, no matter what level of resources you have». That’s a learned behavior. It’s not intuitive. By nature, I’m selfish. My parents, when my brothers and I were at home when we were little, my parents had this really weird idea. They were messed up. I already told you, they wanted me to clean my room. I mean, it was a bad environment. And this other mistaken notion that we should share. It was awful. Somebody would give me because they recognized I was a special child, and they would recognize my tender heart and my gentle character. And they would give me a bag of M&Ms, and I would mistakenly let my parents know. And then here’s where it would go really weird. They would say, «Don’t you want to share with your brothers»? What’s the answer to that? «No, let them get their own chocolate. I was the good kid. Clearly, they noticed».
I’m grateful for my parents’s determination because it took some. Oh, you’re applauding because you know how much effort it took. I know what you’re doing, but it’s the same invitation God is giving. Our natural tendency is not to be generous, our natural tendency is to say, «I’ve done enough». Our natural tendency says, «Well, they’ll never stop asking». And Jesus said that, he said, «You’ll always have the poor with you». You can’t alleviate someone else’s brokenness with your generosity. One of my mentors in my life told me when I was traveling more around the world, he said, «You can’t break the cycle of darkness over the lives of people with money, only the Cross can do that. And it’s far more valuable to take the message of the Cross to the nations of the world than it is to distribute resources».
But because we haven’t believed very much in the power of the Cross, we have tried to alleviate our conscience by sharing our resources. But still, the point in this particular lesson of Jesus in this particular section has to do with our attitude towards money. I put 1 Timothy 6 in so you know it’s not some isolated theme. Paul’s writing, he said, «The love of money is a root of all kinds of evil». So, it isn’t about your stuff. You do not want to let evil have access to grow in your heart. You can’t afford it, you’ll miss the boat. You will miss the boat. One last passage, and I’m done. My time’s about gone. This is such a fruitful time. Go back and read your Gospels. You can look at Matthew, start with a triumphal entry, and read all the way to Gethsemane when Judas betrays Jesus. There’s a whole host of learning in there.
We’ll pick a little bit up on Wednesday night, but one last segment, Matthew 26. «When Jesus finished all these sayings, he said to his disciples,» remember, there’s three groups, the disciples, the crowd, and the antagonist. «He says to his disciples, 'As you know, the Passover is two days away… and the Son of Man will be handed over to be crucified.' And then the chief priests and the elders of the people assembled in the palace of the high priest, whose name was Caiaphas». And they said, «We’ve been wrong about this guy. He’s raised the dead and healed the blind. We need to change our attitude». That’s the logical part, makes perfect sense. We’ve given our lives to serving these people. We’ve been training since we were children in the Scriptures. «They met in the house of the high priest, Caiaphas, and they plotted to arrest Jesus in some sly way and to kill him. 'But not during the Feast, ' they said, 'or there could be a riot amongst the people.'»
I told you, one of the groups you will follow through these little segments if you go do the homework is these antagonists. What you’ll notice is they’re unrelenting. There’s no answer that will satisfy them. There’s no expression of the goodness of God or the grace of God. There’s no number in the crowd that will cause them to relent. They imagine they know better. The behavior of evil is not different, folks. It’s very similar in the 21st century in the 1st century. If I talk about the way evil is expressed today, people start shouting at me, «You’re being political». I’m going, «I’m being very biblical». I’m not advocating for parties or candidates. What I would invite you to is this very simple, that there’s a spiritual force that’s opposing Jesus. And it’s working through people, spiritual forces work through people. It’s working through people who have refused to cooperate with God.
Now, what makes it particularly confusing and deceptive in this particular scene is there are people who are steeped in religious behavior. They wear religious clothes, they work in religious buildings, they can quote the prophets, they just don’t do what they say. So, Jesus instructions to us were that we would know one another not by where we sit, or by our wardrobe, or by the verses we can quote, that we would know one another by the fruit of our lives. We’re going to have to become more sophisticated consumers. God is moving in the earth. We’re celebrating Holy Week. Jesus triumphal entry into the city amongst the cheering of the crowd, the cheers stopped very quickly.
In fact, one of the Gospels records that when he finished that very emotional entry, and the weeping, and the cheering, he came to the temple, and it was the end of the day, and the crowds had dispersed. And it says that Jesus looked around. There was a big bridge at that time across the Kidron Valley that he walked back across the bridge and climbed the the Mount of Olives to where his friends lived. And then he begins these days of very intense training. Let’s take this week as a training week. Let’s prepare our hearts for Easter. Let’s show up. Next weekend, there’ll be people here that aren’t normally here. Now, they’ll wanna act like like, «I’ve always been here». Don’t point out the difference. «It’s good to see you, welcome».
And let’s see, let’s trust God to change hearts, but let’s be willing that it begin with us. Let’s be willing to answer the awkward questions Jesus might ask us. What do you think about John’s baptism? What did you see that widow put into the offering? Were you more enamored with the people who had more? Or did you recognize the sacrifice of someone who had little? Are you gonna plot and scheme how to shut it down? Are you gonna give your whole self to seeing the message expanded? Where are you gonna find yourself? Are you a part of that rather fluid, indifferent crowd that are just gonna go where the opportunity the moment is? Are you gonna join the disciples? Careful, there’s some very bumpy roads ahead for them, but there’s some amazing rewards ahead for them. You know, building a boat in the middle of an open field while everybody in town mocks you. «You cashed in your 401k to build what? Where? You spent how much on hay? You don’t even own any animals».
Are you willing to be a little different? I pray we are. God is moving in the earth. Why don’t you stand with me? I wanna pray for you. I was gonna give you a specific invitation, but then I thought, «Who’s gonna raise their hand, and say, 'I don’t wanna be any different, I don’t wanna cooperate with God, I wanna be an antagonist"'? If you’ve chosen that, I don’t think you’d admit it right now. So, I would rather pray that all of us have a change of heart, that we would surrender the smug self-righteousness that there’s nothing significant left for us to do. You know, my parents started teaching me lessons about maturing. I mean, honest to goodness, I remember one time having to go back to the bathroom like three or four times because I couldn’t get the dirt off.
I was really offended. I’m like, «Could you just tell me what the secret is»? And they’d send me back. «No, you didn’t». I’m like, «I promise there was water and soap». But you know, I left home, and they kind of stepped out of that role and God stepped in. And he’s still asking me to grow up. When he sent me back for some of those same lessons several times I’m like, «Oh, can you just tell me the secret formula»? Some of you are mad at God. Now, he can withstand your rage about his poor job performance, but you won’t withstand rebellion. So, let’s come today with a sincere heart and say, «Lord, we want your best. We wanna follow you. I don’t wanna be in the crowd. I certainly don’t want to be an antagonist. I want to be a disciple». You up for that? Let’s pray:
Father, thank you for your Word, for its truth, and authority, and power. I thank you that you love us enough to show us the way, that you cared about us enough to send Jesus. And Lord Jesus, that you were invested enough not only to be one of us, but to tell us the truth, and to show us a way, and to provide us direction. And now, I ask, Holy Spirit, that you would help us. Bring to our mind those things that we need to be aware of. Help us to see ourselves with clarity. May we have the humility to repent, to not defend ourselves or to justify ourselves, but may we be willing to engage in the purposes of God in this generation. May we not sit back and wait for others to do what needs to be done. May we lift our voices, and raise our hands, and offer ourselves, and commit our resources to being men and women for the purposes of God. I pray that in our lifetime, in this generation, that the name of Jesus will be lifted up, and your kingdom extended, and the church strengthened, and the young people given a presentation of the truth that will shape generations to come. We praise you for it and we thank you for it. For it’s in Jesus’s name we pray, amen.