Sitting on HIs Glorious Throne

 Matthew 25:31-46
 

When the Son of Man comes in his glory, and all the angels with him, he will sit on his throne in heavenly glory. – Matthew 25:31
 
Why is Jesus talking about this issue? I think it stems from the question back in Matthew 24:3 in which the disciples asked, “what will be the sign of your coming and of the end of the age?” So, it seems as if Jesus is still answering their question. To my knowledge Jesus is only going to return once. Once he is here, he will reign for a thousand years.
 
The first time that Jesus came, he came as a lamb to be slaughtered. He was born in a barn with no glory. He was born to two parents who were simple. They did not have much and they did not look like much. As a young man he worked as a carpenter. He probably had to deal with customer service issues. Like me, in my business, he probably did not just have one boss, he had many bosses to please. I bet there was messiness involved. Before he started his travelling missionary work, he was baptized by a man who wore clothes made out of camel hair, and he ate locusts...with a touch of honey. He gathered 12 men who were ordinary and unschooled as it says in Acts 4:13. That does not sound too much like a glorious entourage for a king. He was not like charismatic evangelists of our time, waiting for people to come to him at his event. In Luke 19:10 Jesus said that he was going be the one to do the seeking. In Matthew 20, some of his disciples were jockeying for a better position in the group. He corrected their mindset by saying, “just as the Son of Man did not come to be served, but to serve, and to give his life as a ransom for many.” (Matthew 20:28) Later, Judas betrayed Jesus to be arrested by the Romans. Instead of demonstrating his glory, power and authority, he said, “Do you think I cannot call on my Father, and he will at once put at my disposal more than twelve legions of angels? But how then would the Scriptures be fulfilled that say it must happen in this way?” (Matthew 26:53-54). None of these things seem to portray a king who has glory. Well, where I come from, we had a saying. “You ain't seen nothin’ yet.”

Journeys to the Kingdom

 Matthew 25:1-30

Good morning! Today we continue our series in Matthew, looking at the first part of Chapter 25. I have entitled the message “Journeys to the Kingdom,” but perhaps a better title might be “Journeys Illustrating the Kingdom,” as our passage today focuses on two parables that each involve journeys. But before we look at our passage, I think it is helpful to recall the context, which we have explored over the past two weeks in Matthew 24.
 
These two chapters, Matthew 24 and Matthew 25, are known as the Olivet Discourse, because Jesus told them to His disciples while sitting at the Mount of Olives. Jesus begins by telling them that a time will come when the Temple will be destroyed. His disciples ask Him when this will be, and what will be the signs of His coming and of the end of the age.
 
Jesus gives them signs, but also warns them that before He comes, deceivers will come who claim to be Him, and they should be careful not to fall for them. He also tells them that as for the day and hour of when these things will happen, nobody knows except God the Father. He warns them to keep watch, because His coming will be sudden and not when people expect Him. He ends Chapter 24 by warning that some will be like servants put in charge of a master’s household who, thinking they have plenty of time, chooses to live evilly and wildly. This person, Jesus says, will be caught in the midst of his disobedience and “assigned a place with hypocrites, where there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth.”

Keeping Watch

 
Matthew 24:36-51
 

Are you keeping watch for the end of the age? What does this even mean? As John pointed out last Sunday, the disciples were wondering this, as they asked Jesus in verse 2 of Matthew 24, “What will be the sign of your coming and of the end of the age?” They knew that Jesus would be bringing in his kingdom in a more complete way. They suspected that the world as they knew it would change dramatically. Would that happen now or at some point in the future? How would they know what to expect? Jesus had just given them the shocking news that their beloved and honored temple would be destroyed; maybe he would explain the complete picture of what was to happen.
 
Jesus does give them a vivid warning that it will be a tough time, but that he will return to “gather his elect.” All the peoples of the earth would “see the Son of Man coming on the clouds of heaven, with power and great glory.” When the temple was completely destroyed by the Romans in 70 A.D. no doubt many Christians wondered if Jesus would return right then. This surely was one of the signs of his coming, the “abomination that causes desolation” prophesied by Daniel more than 600 years earlier.
 
But John also pointed out in his message last week that Biblical prophecy is usually fulfilled in multiple ways, in the near term and also in the end times. We have to be very careful with definitive interpretations that associate prophetic elements with current events, in an attempt to predict the end of the world. But people have been trying to do this ever since Jesus returned to heaven. Many times entire communities have stopped their normal activities and just waited, convinced that Jesus was about to return at any moment. Is that what it means to “keep watch”? We will see from today’s passage that the answer is no. We pick up Jesus’ discourse again in the middle of Matthew 24:

Mourning When the King Returns

 Matthew 24:1-35
 

Good morning! As we move into chapter 24 in the book of Matthew, let’s look back and get a glimpse of where we are in Jesus’ life on earth.
 
It is now the middle of the Passion Week, only days from Jesus’ crucifixion and death. Jesus has been in Jerusalem during the day and staying a few miles to the east in Bethany each night.
 
On Sunday, the first day, of the Passion Week, Jesus was ushered into the city riding on a donkey’s colt as the people laid cloaks and palm branches before him all the while shouting “Hosanna in the highest! Blessed is He who comes in the Name of the Lord!”
 
Then, Jesus entered the temple courts and cleared the corrupt money changers and those buying and selling there. This week, I happened to read the account of these events in Mark’s gospel. There it says that Jesus also prevented anyone from carrying merchandise through the temple courts. It seems in addition to the money changers and buyers and sellers, other people were using the temple courts not as a place of worship but a short cut carrying whatever goods they needed to transport directly through the temple courts. The focus of many people in the temple courts was not on God but on themselves.
 
Each subsequent day, Jesus was in the temple courts teaching and being questioned. The events of the Passion Week are jam packed. It is still only Monday or Tuesday as we reach Matthew 24. The questions to trap Him, the parables He told, the repeated astonishment of the crowds, the seven woes, all these events happened in the course of one or at most two days.