Inaction Solved by Imminence (Matthew 24:32-42).
length: 77:32 - taught on Dec, 14 2025
Class Outline:
Sunday December 14, 2025
Theme:
How does the Son of God not know when He’s coming back? He wants us alert, and He wants it so badly that He is willing to partner with us in our limitations.
Overview of the text:
“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; 33 so, you too, when you see all these things, recognize that He is near, right at the door.”
This short parable is simply an association that all in Israel knew - the fig tree gets its leaves in late spring so you know summer is near. In the same way, “all these things” mean that the Lord is near.
“Truly I say to you, this generation will not pass away until all these things take place.”
I take the literal interpretation: “this generation” is the generation who are alive in the Tribulation.
“Heaven and earth will pass away, but My words will not pass away.”
His words are more dependable than nature and the universe. This is a characteristic of His deity.
“But of that day and hour no one knows, not even the angels of heaven, nor the Son, but the Father alone.”
This is a characteristic of His humanity (voluntarily assumed).
This is one of the many ways He identifies with us (developed below). What Messiah would admit that He doesn’t know when He is returning to establish His kingdom? Ours!
“For the coming of the Son of Man will be just like the days of Noah. 38 For as in those days before the flood they were eating and drinking, marrying and giving in marriage, until the day that Noah entered the ark, 39 and they did not understand until the flood came and took them all away; so will the coming of the Son of Man be. 40 Then there will be two men in the field; one will be taken and one will be left. 41 Two women will be grinding at the mill; one will be taken and one will be left.”
Imminence: The Son could return at any time.
And a very real and physical judgment comes at the end of the age.
“Therefore be on the alert, for you do not know which day your Lord is coming.”
Vs. 42 is the transition from what is going to happen - to the type of ethical life that all who are waiting are commanded to have.
Let’s dig into some parts of this.
First; a unique expression of Jesus’ deity and humanity.
Hypostatic Union: The Lord Jesus Christ is undiminished deity and true humanity in one person forever.
"Heaven and earth will pass away, but My words will not pass away (Deity: His words are the Word of God). 36 "But of that day and hour no one knows, not even the angels of heaven, nor the Son (humanity: willful limitation), but the Father alone.
My words will not pass away.
His words are our rock (MAT 7:24-25).
His words are our most cherished possession from Him.
Humanity of our Lord:
Our Lord used perfect self-control to limit Himself so that He could fully identify with us.
Further confirmation of this principle is the fact that He commands us to do the same: to limit ourselves for the benefit of others and in order to identify with others (weep with those who weep; deny ourselves so as not to cause our brother or sister to stumble - the Law of Love).
All of His limitations demanded perfect self-control.
Therefore, since the children share in flesh and blood, He Himself likewise also partook of the same, that through death He might render powerless him who had the power of death, that is, the devil, 15 and might free those who through fear of death were subject to slavery all their lives. 16 For assuredly He does not give help to angels, but He gives help to the descendant of Abraham. 17 Therefore, He had to be made like His brethren in all things, so that He might become a merciful and faithful high priest in things pertaining to God, to make propitiation for the sins of the people. 18 For since He Himself was tempted in that which He has suffered, He is able to come to the aid of those who are tempted.
For we do not have a high priest who cannot sympathize with our weaknesses, but One who has been tempted in all things as we are, yet without sin.
Let’s not get bogged down in trying to unravel the deity and humanity of our Lord, and color in the mechanics of how it works, but rather rejoice in the fact that we have a Lord and Master such as this.
God wants us alert and ready and Jesus identified with this as well.
The mindset of inaction:
Not knowing when something will happen will often lead people to inaction.
The Lord solves this problem by imminence, using Noah as an example.
Peter writes that mockers will come and say:
“Where is the promise of His coming? For ever since the fathers fell asleep, all continues just as it was from the beginning of creation.”
And that is precisely the mindset that the Lord means to remove from us. The mindset of inaction and procrastination, and boredom.
Complacency with status quo is death.
"For the coming of the Son of Man will be just like the days of Noah. 38 "For as in those days before the flood they were eating and drinking, marrying and giving in marriage, until the day that Noah entered the ark, 39 and they did not understand until the flood came and took them all away; so will the coming of the Son of Man be.
Paul refers to the exact same attitude in his letter to the Thessalonians:
let us not sleep as others do, but let us be alert and sober.
In line with our Lord’s sermon, in the Tribulation, the same exact thing happens in the society of the elite, behind the sheltering walls of Babylon.
"For all the nations have drunk of the wine of the passion of her immorality, and the kings of the earth have committed acts of immorality with her, and the merchants of the earth have become rich by the wealth of her sensuality."
The Lord desires so badly for us to be alert and ready.
He seeks for us to lose our tendency to complacency that He voluntarily limits His knowledge of His own return so as to identify with us.
He became, and is, alert and ready, just as He wants us to be.
His return is imminent for Him as it is for us.
This is the Law of Love. He became just like us, but without sin.
The disciple is to be like his Master: if He does not know, how are we to know?
“Christians are in sales, not management.”
The rest of His sermon is in reference to our mindset and behavior while we wait - alert, ready, and laboring for Him.
You are laboring and toiling in the Lord’s field and every day has the very real possibility of being your last. As you are harvesting the fruit, sweating, back aching a bit, from time to time you look up or out to the horizon. Not yet.
“Therefore be on the alert, for you do not know which day your Lord is coming.”
“For this reason you also must be ready; for the Son of Man is coming at an hour when you do not think He will.”
From here to the end of the sermon we will be focused on our mindset and actions while we wait, and I’m going to do my best to show us what that actually looks like: alert, ready, laboring for our Lord who like us, anticipates our day of ultimate union and marriage.
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