Please turn to Matthew 24.
And Jesus went out from the temple, and was going on His way; and His disciples came to Him to show Him the buildings of the temple.
But He answered and said unto them, See ye not all these things? verily I say unto you, There shall not be left here one stone upon another, that shall not be thrown down.
And as He sat on the mount of Olives, the disciples came unto Him privately, saying, Tell us, when shall these things be? and what shall be the sign of Thy coming, and of the end of the world?
Now from the fig tree learn her parable: when her branch is now become tender, and putteth forth its leaves, ye know that the summer is nigh;
even so ye also, when ye see all these things, know ye that He is nigh, even at the doors.
Verily I say unto you, This generation shall not pass away, till all these things be accomplished.
Heaven and earth shall pass away, but My words shall not pass away.
But of that day and hour knoweth no one, not even the angels of heaven, neither the Son, but the Father only.
And as were the days of Noah, so shall be the coming of the Son of man.
For as in those days which were before the flood they were eating and drinking, marrying and giving in marriage, until the day that Noah entered into the ark,
and they knew not until the flood came, and took them all away; so shall be the coming of the Son of man.
Then shall two men be in the field; one is taken, and one is left:
two women shall be grinding at the mill; one is taken, and one is left.
Watch therefore: for ye know not on what day your Lord cometh.
Dear Lord, we want to thank Thee again for Thy mercy and grace towards us. We thank Thee for gathering us together this morning in Thy name.
We thank Thee for Thy precious promise, because Thou hast promised us, “Where two or three are gathered together in My name, there am I in the midst of them.”
Dear Lord, as we are all in Thy presence, may Thy Spirit move among us. Open Thy Word to our hearts, that we may not only believe, but actually be transformed.
Make us those who are truly waiting for Thy return—not only waiting for Thee, but also being used by Thee to prepare for Thy return. We are not worthy, Lord, but Thou art the worthy One. We offer ourselves to Thee for Thy use.
May all glory, praise, and honour be unto Thee. We ask in Thy precious name. Amen.
Thank God for gathering us together this morning. Our Lord is so gracious. Again and again, He is trying to prepare us for His imminent return.
Not only that, but He desires to use us to prepare for His return. What a responsibility that is! We cannot do it, but His grace is sufficient for us.
We hope that during these few days, the Lord will really use this opportunity to prepare us, that we may all be those who are literally living in the kingdom of the heavens today. By the grace of God, may we also be used by Him to prepare His return.
We have mentioned before that it was the preaching of the kingdom of the heavens that brought in this age of grace.
Because it was when John the Baptist cried, “Repent ye; for the kingdom of heaven is at hand,” that what we call the age of grace began.
Brothers and sisters, we are still living in this age of grace. But we know that the end is coming. Everybody knows that—even unbelievers. They are talking about doomsday.
Why is it that, after twenty centuries, the end has not yet come? It is not because our Lord is not anxious to come back.
He told us in Revelation 22, “Behold, I come quickly.” So far as our Lord is concerned, He is anxious to come back and receive us unto Himself.
But why has history turned out this way? I think this is something we need to consider seriously. Is there anything for us to do? Does He expect us to prepare the way for His return?
Even though the whole nation of Israel seemed to be waiting for the Messiah, and even in the temple service they prayed every day, “O Messiah, come,” when the news came that the Messiah had come, people were afraid. They were not prepared for His coming.
Only a few were truly prepared for His coming. The same thing will happen at His second coming.
It is not merely a matter of expecting Him to return; it is something for which we need to prepare. That is why the preaching of the kingdom of the heavens is so important.
As we have repeated again and again, in Matthew 24:14 our Lord Jesus says:
And this gospel of the kingdom shall be preached in the whole world for a testimony unto all the nations; and then shall the end come.
When our Lord Jesus came to this earth the first time, He came to prepare for His kingdom. We may say that His first coming was an invasion of heaven upon earth. He came for the purpose of preparing His own kingdom.
Unfortunately, people rejected Him. But those who truly believed in Him, He called to follow Him.
To believe in the Lord Jesus and to be His disciple are one thing. We should not divide these two things.
If we have believed in the Lord Jesus, if we have accepted Him as our Saviour, then naturally His love should constrain us so that we cannot but surrender our whole life to Him as our Lord.
We must allow Him to work out His full salvation, to conform us to His own image.
The Gospel of Matthew is centred upon this theme. In the Gospel of Matthew, we see three peaks.
The first peak is found in Matthew 5–7. It tells us the reality of the kingdom of the heavens. It tells us what the kingdom of heaven really is.
The kingdom of heaven is none other than the King Himself. Christ characterises His own kingdom. His character rules His kingdom.
Those who are in His kingdom begin to take upon themselves the character of Christ. That is what Matthew 5–7 tells us.
It tells us how we need to be separated unto Him and how we need to be extraordinary. We need to be perfect as our heavenly Father is perfect.
There is only one possibility: that He is our life. Christ is our life. That is the only way to be perfect as the heavenly Father is perfect—not in degree, but in nature.
As we allow Christ to live in us, we will live differently from the people in this world. We will seek first the kingdom of God and His righteousness, and all these things shall be added unto us.
We will be building upon the rock, that is, building upon Christ. Out of that building, God has His habitation. That is Matthew 5–7.
How can we really enter into this kingdom of the heavens? Our Lord Jesus tells us in Matthew 11 that we must seize it by violence, and the violent shall seize upon it.
Of course, this violence is not doing violence to other people. Unfortunately, that is what we usually do. The violent must be violent to themselves, because in ourselves there is no good thing.
Everything that comes out of our flesh is rejected by God. The Holy Spirit within us works in our lives and reminds us of the will of God. When the Holy Spirit reminds us, that is the time we need to be violent.
It simply means: deny yourself, take up the cross, and follow Him. That is the way to live daily in the kingdom of the heavens.
I want to emphasise this: only those who today live in the kingdom of the heavens will reign with Christ for a thousand years when the Lord comes and His kingdom is publicly established on earth.
As Christianity grew in this world, it began to take on an outward appearance. This is the outward appearance of the kingdom of the heavens, described in Matthew 13.
We find that Christendom began to grow, but unfortunately it was an abnormal growth. Within it there is corruption, just as leaven was put into the three measures of meal.
Yet, thank God, there is some reality within it. We find this in the parable of the treasure and the parable of the pearl.
The treasure and the pearl refer to the reality of the kingdom of the heavens. It is something for which our Lord paid everything to purchase.
At the end of this age, the angels will come to divide and separate. That is what we find in Matthew 13.
This morning we come to Matthew 24 and 25, because in these two chapters we are told of the public appearing of the kingdom of the heavens.
Thank God, there will be a day when the kingdom of heaven will literally be publicly established upon this earth. How will He come? That is what we shall find in Matthew 24 and 25.
When our Lord Jesus entered into Jerusalem for the last time, He visited the temple. After He left the temple, His disciples pointed out to Him how beautiful and wonderful the temple was.
It was built with precious stones and adorned with precious gifts. The Jews of that time took pride in their temple.
But the Lord told them that the day would come when not one stone would be left upon another in that temple. It was a shock to the disciples.
They dared not say anything more, because they were afraid that if people heard about it, they would be stirred up. So they waited until our Lord came to the Mount of Olives.
If you read the Gospel according to Mark, you find that four disciples came secretly to the Lord: Peter, James, John, and Andrew. They came to ask Him a question.
“Tell us, when shall these things be? What is the sign of Thy coming, and of the completion of this age?”
It seems that there are three questions here, but to the disciples it was one question. If the temple should be destroyed, that meant the Lord was coming again and that the end of the age had come.
The Lord began to answer them. If you read Matthew 24 and 25, you find that these two chapters can be divided into three parts.
The whole world is composed of three kinds of people: the Jews, the Christians, and the Gentiles. Our Lord Jesus addresses these three kinds of people in Matthew 24 and 25.
From Matthew 24:4–31, He is mainly addressing the Jews. Even though Christians and the world are involved, this section is principally addressed to the Jews.
From Matthew 24:32 through Matthew 25:30, He addresses Christians, and He uses parables. Finally, in Matthew 25:31 to the end, He addresses the Gentiles.
We do not have time to go over all these things, so we will concentrate on the Christians. What will happen to us at the coming of the Lord? When will He come back, and what will happen at that time?
When you come to Matthew 24:32, He says, “Learn the parable from the fig tree.” We know that the fig tree is a symbol of the Jewish nation.
When our Lord Jesus was on earth, He always blessed, but He did curse a fig tree. You remember Matthew 21. One morning, He entered into Jerusalem. He was hungry, and He saw a fig tree full of leaves.
He went there to find some fruit. Usually, when a fig tree has leaves, there will be some fruit. But there was none. So our Lord cursed that fig tree, and the fig tree withered.
Brothers and sisters, it was symbolic. Our Lord had worked with that nation for three years, and yet there was no fruit. Finally, the Lord cursed it, and that meant that the nation of Israel would fall.
Here you find that the Lord says that when the fig tree begins to bud and have leaves, we should take note. Israel did not have a nation of its own for centuries.
It was a surprise to all the statesmen and politicians in this world when, in 1948, Israel was restored. It was restored in such a marvellous way. Everybody wondered how it happened.
A race that had no country, no land, and no government for so long was suddenly restored. You never find it in history. This is a miracle from above.
The Lord said that when you see the fig tree begin to bud and have leaves, you know that summer is near. Strangely, the Lord does not say that it has figs. The restoration of Israel is not yet complete, because the nation has not yet turned to the Lord.
But one day the whole nation will turn to the Lord. That will happen at His second coming.
The Lord explained in Matthew 24:33, “When ye see all these things, know ye that He is nigh, even at the doors.”
The Bible has the Eastern world in mind. In the Western world, when you come to a door and the door is opened, you are already in the house. But in the East it was different.
If you wanted to come to a person’s home, you had to go through more than one door. There would be an outward door; when you entered, you came into a yard. Then you might have to go through another door before you came to the family.
If you read Luke, you find not only the fig tree, but the other trees also. This means nationalities will grow all over the earth.
When you see these things, know that our Lord is at the doors. Brothers and sisters, if He is at the door, even if He is not in yet, we know that it is very, very near.
“This generation shall not pass away, till all these things shall come to pass.” What is this generation? It is not a generation of thirty or forty years. It is a generation marked by a certain condition.
Our Lord said, “This wicked and adulterous generation.” That is the generation. We are still in that generation, and the Lord said that this generation will not pass away until all these things come to pass.
No one knows the day and hour—not even the angels of heaven, but the Father alone.
There have been many people who tried to figure out when the Lord would come. If you read church history, again and again people predicted that the Lord would come on a certain day.
They would go out into the wilderness in white clothes, waiting for the Lord to come. But the Lord did not come. It happened a number of times in history.
Why? Because they did not believe the Word of God. The Lord told us clearly that nobody knows. Only the Father knows. It is in the hand of the Father.
But even though nobody knows, He has given us enough signs to know that it is very close.
The Lord said, “As in the days of Noah, so shall be the coming of the Son of man.”
Those who know Greek understand that there are several words that speak of the coming of the Lord. Here in Matthew 24, the word is parousia.
Parousia means presence. This presence is not one event occurring at one moment. It speaks of a period of time in which a number of things happen.
We want to know: how will He come? Turn to Acts 1:11.
Our Lord Jesus left this world from the Mount of Olives. After He had spoken to His disciples, He ascended, and a cloud received Him out of their sight.
Then two men in white appeared and said:
Ye men of Galilee, why stand ye looking into heaven? this Jesus, who was received up from you into heaven, shall so come in like manner as ye beheld Him going into heaven.
In other words, the way our Lord Jesus returned to heaven, He will come back in the same manner.
His ascension had two stages. The first stage was from the Mount of Olives to the cloud, and it was visible. The second stage was from the cloud to the throne, and it was invisible.
How do we know that He reached heaven? It is very simple. On the day of Pentecost, when the Holy Spirit came down, it proved that our Lord had been exalted as Lord and Christ. Yet nobody saw Him ascend from the cloud to the throne.
Therefore, if we know how He left this world for heaven, then He will come back in like manner. His coming will begin from the throne to the air, unseen by the world; then from the cloud to the Mount of Olives, seen by everybody.
That is why we find two aspects of His coming. One is that He will come like a thief.
Have you ever met a thief who blows a trumpet and says, “I am coming”? A thief comes when you are unaware. He does not tell you, “I am coming now.” When you are unaware, he suddenly arrives.
That is one side of His coming: invisible, when He comes from the throne to the cloud.
But in Matthew 24:27 we read:
For as the lightning cometh forth from the east, and is seen even unto the west; so shall be the coming of the Son of man.
Here His coming is like lightning. It will shine from the east to the west. Everybody will see it. This shows that He will come from the cloud to the Mount of Olives.
At that time the trumpet will sound. But, brothers and sisters, for us it will be too late if we wait for that trumpet.
The Lord began to use parables. He said His coming would be like the days of Noah.
In the days of Noah, people were eating and drinking, marrying and giving in marriage. Everything seemed normal. People were still living in the world and being worldly.
Then, suddenly, Noah entered into the ark.
Luke also tells us that the coming of the Lord is like the days of Lot. People were eating and drinking, marrying and giving in marriage. When Lot went out of Sodom, suddenly fire came down.
The Lord said that His coming would be like that. In other words, His coming will be unawares to the world. But that does not mean that we should be unaware, because we are children of light.
What happens at that time? Matthew 24:40 says:
Then shall two men be in the field; one is taken, and one is left:
two women shall be grinding at the mill; one is taken, and one is left.
Luke adds that two will be sleeping: one is taken, and one is left. Do you have six people here? No, only two. Why? Because the earth is round.
When He comes, some people will be sleeping at night. Some ladies will have already risen and be grinding at the mill. Some people will be working in the field. It is still only two people: one is taken, and one is left.
How alike they look! They are doing the same thing. Brothers and sisters, do not be afraid to go to sleep. Do not quit your work. Go to sleep; continue to work. But the Lord looks at the heart.
He knows one is ready and one is not.
A thief always knows where your treasure is. He takes your treasure and disappears. The Lord knows our hearts. He knows who is ready for Him, who is waiting for Him, and who is living in the kingdom of the heavens.
Two believers may appear to do the same things. They both go to church, they both pray, and they both read the Bible. But the Lord knows the difference: who is real and who is unreal; who is living in the kingdom of heaven and who is not His disciple.
If you read Matthew 25, you have the ten virgins. Among the ten virgins, five are wise and five are foolish.
The wise virgins are wise because they prepared oil in their vessels. The foolish virgins did not. Yet they are all virgins, and they all went out to meet the Lord.
The Bible never calls people in the world virgins. Only those who are saved are virgins.
The bridegroom delayed, so they all slept. Brothers and sisters, these ten represent the saints throughout the ages.
In the first century, the saints were waiting for the coming of the Lord. In every century, you find saints waiting for the Lord. The Lord delayed, and they went to sleep. Even if they died, they were awaiting the coming of the Lord.
At the coming of the Lord, they will all be raised from the dead. But there is a difference. Those who have extra oil enter into the marriage feast, and those who do not remain outside.
It is the same principle with the ten and the two.
Brothers and sisters, by all indications, it seems that we may be among the two. It is the prayer of my heart that we may be raptured at His coming. But are we prepared for it?
When you read Revelation 12, you find a woman clothed with glory, and she is about to give birth. The dragon’s aim is not the woman, because the woman is nothing to him. He is waiting for the man-child within the woman.
He knows that the man-child will bruise his head. But thank God, when the man-child came forth, he was immediately caught up unto the throne.
Then there was war in the air, and Satan was cast down upon the earth. The air was cleared for the Lord to come from the throne to the air.
When Satan was cast down upon the earth, what do you expect? The great tribulation.
So far as Christians are concerned, the great tribulation is God giving Christians another opportunity that they may be overcomers through the great tribulation.
When the great tribulation is over, you find in 1 Thessalonians 4 that the trumpet sounds. Those who have died in Christ will be raised, and those who are still living will be caught up.
Where do they go? To the air, not to the throne, because the Lord is already in the air.
When we are all gathered in the air, there will be the judgment seat of Christ. We will all stand before His judgment seat and be judged according to how we lived.
While this is going on, the wrath of God will be poured out on the earth. Then the Lord will break through the cloud and come to the Mount of Olives.
Brothers and sisters, we are to be prepared for that rapture. He loves us so much. How He wants to see us and receive us unto Himself!
Pray and watch, because He is coming.
One day, suddenly, people will disappear from all over the world. This is the beginning of the parousia, the beginning of His coming.
Oh, brothers and sisters, how we look to the Lord in His grace and mercy. May the Lord have mercy upon us.
Dear Lord, we humbly come to Thee and pray that Thy grace, which is always sufficient for us, will make us what Thou dost expect us to be.
Do not allow us to drift along as if the Lord delays. Lord, if Thou shouldst come today, where would we be?
Have mercy upon us. We have nothing to boast of. The only thing we can say is that Thy grace is sufficient for us.
We cast ourselves upon Thy grace—not for us, but for Thy glory. In Thy precious name, Amen.