The Fig Tree, Part 2b

Matthew chapter 24 as we continue our study on the parables, searchlights for the soul. The parables that Christ give in Matthew 24 and 25 come about as a result of a question that's been asked of him. And that question leads Christ into a long answer. And so we are able to understand the importance of the in times by, realizing the emphasis that Christ places on this question and how he answers this question to his disciples. Now, I don't know if you think that in-time prophecy is important to you or not, but I thought it would be interesting for us to note that of the 216 chapters in the New Testament, there are more than 300 references.

to the return of Christ. Better yet, there are 7,959 verses in the New Testament. You say, well, how do you know that? I counted them. It's very easy to do. Of the 7,9159 verses, there are 330 references to the return of Christ, meaning that out of every 25 verses, in the New Testament, one of them is going to mention the return of Jesus Christ. That's pretty important. In fact, outside the subject of faith, the subject of the return of Christ becomes the most dominant subject in the New Testament.

Outside of that, every time the first coming is mentioned in the Bible, Christmas, The second coming is mentioned eight times to help you understand the importance of the second advent of Jesus Christ, our Lord.

Of the times the atonement is mentioned in the Bible, the second coming of Christ is mentioned twice to every one time the atonement is mentioned.

of the 333 prophecies concerning the coming of Christ. 109 of them were fulfilled in his first coming, leaving 224 of them yet to be fulfilled in his second coming.

The Lord himself refers to his coming 21 different times, and no less than 50 times, 50 times man is exhorted to be ready for the return of Christ. All that to say, not that we want you to have a bunch of statistics running around in your head, but just to let you know that the New Testament emphasizes the return of Jesus Christ. It is the most important event in the history of the world. It is the climatic event. It's what we're the most important event. It's what everybody is looking forward to.

That's why, when you pray as God teaches you to pray, you pray our Father, who art in heaven, hallowed be thy name, thy kingdom, come. Now, if you're going to pray God's way, you're going to pray for the kingdom of God to come to earth. You're going to pray for God's will to be done on earth as it is in heaven, because that's how God taught his disciples to pray. And so if you're going to pray for the kingdom of God, to come to earth as you should as a believer what you are doing is asking God to come our lord come maranatha come quickly lord Jesus come quickly that should be all of our prayers and so we realize that in the disciples mind knowing that they were at the end of the ministry of Christ they would ask this question Matthew 24, verse number three, as he was sitting on the Mount of Olives, the disciples came to him privately saying, tell us, when will these things be?

And then they say this. And what will be the sign of your coming? And then this. And of the end of the age. That's the question. Christ would answer the question with a sermon. A sermon. A sermon. called the Olivet Discourse, Matthew 24, Matthew 25. And not only was there a sermon to listen to, but there would be a savior to look for, and then there would be a story to learn from. And that's our parable, the parable of the barren fig tree. He says, now learn the parable. Point number two, the instruction.

Four very simple points. The instruction about the parable. One is a picture. Two is the principle. Three, a parallel, and four, the promise. Okay? Here it is. Now learn the parable from the fig tree. When its branch has already become tender and puts forth its leaves, you know that summer is near. Even so, you too. When you see all these things recognize that he is near right at the door. Truly, I say to you, this generation will not pass away. until all these things take place. Heaven and earth will pass away.

But my words shall not pass away. First of all, the picture. He gives a picture of a fig tree. He refers to it when he says that when the branch is already become tender. Look at the fig tree.

And when its branch has already become tender and puts forth its leaves, you know something. You know that summer is near. So Jesus says, when you see the barren fig tree and you see it begin to bud, note something, summer is near and summer is the harvest time.

That's important. Why? Because we move from the picture to look at the principle. You need to understand that because the time of the harvest, listen carefully, the time of the harvest in the New Testament is representative of the time of God's judgment. The harvest time is when Christ separates. the good from the bad. Christ says, listen, in the analogy of the fig tree, when Jesus said that the harvest was near, the disciples would understand exactly what he was talking about.

They would have already heard his servants. That's the principle. With Jesus number three, to the parallel, verse number 33 of Matthew 24, even as you too, when you see all these things recognize that he is near right at the door.

Now here's the parallel. When you see the these things happening, what things? The things you just talked about. All these signs. When you see all those things happening, know this. The time is near. Understand that. Just as the tree with new shoots signifies that the summer is coming, all these signs signal that Jesus is coming. Isn't that good? These are the signs of it's coming. That's what they asked them. They needed to understand that. Why? Because when man's age comes to an end, the kingdom of Jesus Christ will be established on earth.

And then he gets a promise. He gets a promise. Truly, I say to you, this generation will not pass away until all these things take place. This promise has become a great problem in evangelicalism today. The question is, who is this generation? I'm glad you asked. So I thought I'd answer that for you this evening. There are a myriad of explanations to this generation. I'm not going to bore you by giving you all of them. I'm just going to give you three of them. The first one is explained this way.

This generation is the Jewish race. Why? For the word Ghania can be translated race. So they say, who believe in this, that this, race, that is, the Jewish race will not pass away until all these things take place. Now, that's interesting. But the problem with that is it doesn't fit the context of Matthew 24. The reason being is because that would make Jesus predicting the survival of the Jewish race until the second coming.

It is true that the Jewish race will survive until the second coming of Christ. But if he was talking about the Jewish nation, he could have very easily said, my people, instead of this generation or this race. The question in the minds of the disciples was not, would we survive until you're coming? That was not their question. The question is, what is the sign of the end of the age? They knew, listen, they knew they would survive to the end, because God made a promise to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob.

He made a covenant with Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob that one day there would be a son of David who would sit on the throne in Jerusalem in rule over the people of God. They knew that. So the context doesn't fit the fact that Jesus would be talking about the Jewish race and predicting the fact that they would endure and be around until he came again. That's already been an established fact all throughout the Old Testament. So that's not a question. Another popular one is the fact that this generation refers specifically to the disciples, just the disciples.

And that if it refers to the disciples, then Jesus was wrong. And if Jesus is wrong, that means he's not perfect, he's sinful because he made a mistake. He didn't know the future. He wasn't God. And there are some people who believe that. In fact, they say, well, look what it says in verse number 36. But of that day and hour, no one knows not even the angels of heaven nor the son, but the father alone. See, Jesus didn't even know when he was coming back. And so they say, well, Jesus must have been wrong then about what he was talking about.

Listen, it's one thing not to know something. It's one thing to choose not to know something in the incarnation when Christ would lay aside certain attributes and he would lay aside his omniscience at times so that he would not know. it this time, but he would know after his resurrection right before his ascension because in Acts 1, he didn't say that the son didn't know anymore. But this time he did. And to say that you don't know something because you purposefully decide not to know it doesn't mean that Jesus is a liar.

He just restricted his knowledge for this time being because that's what the conosis is, the emptying of himself, the incarnation of himself, the incarnation of of Jesus Christ, our Lord. Hebrews 415 tells us that he was tempted in all points, yet without sin. So Jesus could not have been lying. Jesus could not have sinned. It's unreasonable to believe that this generation refers to, quote, the disciples. The third one I want to give you the statement is the most popular, and it's this, that they say that this generation refers not only to the disciples, but those people who lived at that time, making, listen, making everything that happens in Matthew 24 being fulfilled in AD 70 at the destruction of Jerusalem when the Roman army under the command of Titus would run in and destroy the city of Jerusalem.

This is the most popular view of Matthew chapter 24. However, that's not a very popular view of Matthew chapter 24. However, that's my view. Just because it's the most popular view doesn't mean it's the right view. Remember what we always used to tell you. Just because the most people believe in it doesn't mean it's right. And so we must understand what's going on here. You see, in Matthew 24, there was a question that was asked. The disciples did not ask what would be the sign of the Romans coming and destroying the city?

They didn't ask that question. They asked a very particular question. And the questions centered around presence of Christ and the signs leading up to his presence, his full presence, his coming, where you will rule from Jerusalem. That's the question they are asking. Very important to understand that. Why? Because he told them about the signs that would precede his return. On top of that, many of the events described, listen, in Matthew 24, never happened in 70, AD at the destruction of Jerusalem.

For example, the sun and the moon were not darkened in 70 AD. The stars did not fall out of heaven in 70 AD. Christ hasn't yet returned to gather the elect from the four corners of the earth. That didn't happen 70 AD. There hasn't been mourning from all the tribes on the face of the earth, according to verse number 30. The war in Jerusalem in 8070 was between the Romans and the Jews. It was the local battle. It was not. a global battle. On top of that, there weren't nations rising against nations in 70 AD.

On top of that, there weren't earthquakes, pestilence all over the world on a scale unknown before that time, according to verse number 7 of Matthew 24. Say, well, how do they come up with the interpretation that all these happened in 70 AD? Simply this. They say that these events that Christ was teaching were only symbolic of the horror that would come upon the city of Jerusalem. Hmm. We have a problem with that. Because it means if all the things that Jesus said were only symbolic of the horror that would come upon Jerusalem, then it must also mean that his coming again is only symbolic and not literal, right?

That could be the only conclusion. Then did Jesus return in 8070? No, he didn't. Did he set up his kingdom in 8070? No, he didn't. Were there 10 Gentiles on the robe of every Jew saying, take us to your Messiah in Jerusalem? No, there isn't. That is yet to happen. It has not yet occurred. Say, wow, if it hasn't yet occurred, does that then mean that I'm going to experience? all this? Who is the generation? Who is the generation that Jesus Christ is talking about? The most compatible interpretation with the context of the passage is that when the fig trees branches are tender and puts forth its leaves, judgment is near.

And those who see the signs in verses 4 to 28 of Matthew 24 should know that the Lord's return is near. The new leaves on the fig tree are analogous to the signs preceding the second coming.

So that means the phrase this generation must mean the generation that is alive during the times these signs are fulfilled is the generation that Jesus is referring to. Meaning this. Remember, we told you last time, that prophets would prophesy a near event, and a further event. They'd prophesied the nearer one to prove that what they said about the future would come true. So we talked about the stones of the temple being destroyed and that the whole house coming down and being left unto them ruined so that when it happened, then it did happen in 70 AD.

We talked about that last time. It actually did happen. It would remind them, hey, listen, if he said it and it happened, that means that everything else he said about his return. is going to happen just like he said it would happen. And so we believe that the generation he's speaking of is a generation that is alive during that time that sees these signs is whom he or who is he is speaking about. Jesus's answer to the disciples' questions of how much time would pass between the signs of his coming and his actual return have been given.

And we also know from Daniel chapter nine, how long those times will last? A week, the 70th week of Daniel's prophecy, seven years. And if you read through the book of Revelation, you learn about the time of Jacob's trouble. Remember what says over in verse number 21, for then there will be a great tribulation. Listen to the words of Revelation chapter 7, verse number 14. Those are the ones who come out of the great tribulation. Same phrase. meaning that the book of Revelation is describing to us Matthew chapter 24th and the time of Jacob's trouble, the time of great tribulation upon the earth.

The Bible says that that will be approximately the last three and a half years of the 70th week of Daniel's prophecy, 1, 260 days, as is recorded in Revelation 11, 3 or 3 and a half years, as in Revelation 12, verse number 14, or 42 months, as is recorded in Revelation 13, verse number 5, all beginning with the abomination of desolation in the middle of the tribulational period.

Say, okay, if that's the case, does that mean that I'm going to have to face all these things? Am I going to have to go through all these things? Is that what it means? I got to let you know something. I got goodness for you. No. No. Why? Because I believe that the church will be translated out of here, transported out of here, before this ever takes place. Based on what? Based on the fact that the word rapture appears in the Bible? No, because it doesn't. So people say, well, there's not going to really be a rapture because that word never appears in the Bible.

Well, the word Trinity never appears in the Bible either. But doesn't mean God isn't three and one, right? There is something very important you need to understand. It's called biblical harmonization. When looking at the Bible and interpret, the Bible. The Bible is harmonious. It all rings true together. So when you read to the Bible, what do you realize? You realize the Father's God, the Son is God, and the Holy Spirit's God. So you realize they're all God, right? Based on biblical harmonization.

When you read through the Bible, what do you realize? You realize that the church is translated, that the church is going to be gone before this ever happens. How do we know that? I wish I had the time to give you all the answers to that this evening, but there are two tapes you can buy entitled Why the Church Won't Go Through Tribulation. We gave them to you during our Revelation series you can buy, but let me just give you just a couple of them this evening so you understand why the Church will not go through the Tribulation.

Turn me to one verse, which I think is the key verse, which I think stops all things, and that's Revelation Tip 3, verse number 10. Because you have kept the word of my perseverance, I also will keep you from the hour of testing that hour, which is about to come upon the whole world. to test those who dwell upon the earth. And Christ says, I will keep you out of that hour.

That will come upon the whole world that's designed to test these people, those who dwell upon the earth. That phrase is used 10 times in the book of Revelation and always refers to the disobedient people to Christ. I just convinced myself once again that I won't go through the tribulation. And so that's the answer. I say all that. Why? Because this generation in Matthew 24 refers to those who are left on the earth after the rapture. Those of us in the church who have given lives to Christ will be translated out of here.

And those who are left will be the generation. I believe that the rapture of the church, the translation of the church, to heaven, 1st, 1st, 4.17, when we are caught up together in the air to meet the Lord in the air, okay? That will usher in the tribulational period. and it will last for seven years upon the earth. And the generation that sees the signs in Matthew 24 will know, the Lord is knocking at the door. Time is at hand. The judgment is near. And during that tribulational period, Revelation 7 says that there will be a multitude of Gentiles that are saved, a multitude of them.

We told you before, there is more people saved in the seven years of the tribulation than there has been saved in the history of the world. That's the reality of the book of Revelation. and the greatness of the gospel of Jesus Christ as it permeates the entire globe with the gospel. Christ says, in verse 35, heaven and earth shall pass away, but my words will not pass away.

That I'm changing promise. Listen, it's all going to be destroyed. Read about 2. Peter 3.10, Revelation 21, verse number one, all of heaven and earth will be destroyed.

But you know what? God's words will not. Which leads me to this implication, our third point. I think I got two minutes left. Number one, are you looking for the Lord?

Are you looking for the Lord? Titus chapter 2 talks about verses 11 to 15, looking for the blessed hope and the glorious appearing of our great God and Savior Jesus Christ. Are you looking for his return? You need to be. Your redemption draweth 9. You need to be looking for the return of Jesus Christ, our Lord. The day he comes to take us home to be with him. On top of that, are you ready for his return? Are you ready? Do you know for certain that if Jesus came today to take the church of Jesus Christ home with him, that you'd go?

How do you know you're ready? Let me give it four principles. And one is this. You've been washed from your iniquity. You've been washed from your iniquity. You've been washed in the blood of the lamb. You've been clothed by the garments of God. And you realize that what Jesus did on the cross, he did for you. He washed away your sins. And you say, yes, Lord, you died from me. I give my life to you and ask you to take away all my sins, all the guilt of those sins. I want to be washed in the blood of the land.

Have you been washed from your iniquity? You're ready for his return. Number two, are you worshiping with the body?

Are you worshiping with the body? Hebrews 10, 24, and 25, we read about earlier. As you see the day approaching, so much more so, as you see the day approaching, do not forsake the assembling of yourselves together. It's washed from your iniquity. You worship with the body. Number three, you work in the ministry.

That is, within that body, within that church, you have a giftedness that you use to help build the body of Christ. You work in the ministry. And lastly, and not least, you witness in your community. You witness in your community because you believe that Jesus has come back. Not only are you looking for his return, but you are ready for his return. I hope you're ready. I am. I wish it would be tonight. Let's pray. Thank you