Services | Jesus’ Return - Be Alert, Ready and Serving

Bulletin

FBCWest
November 1, 2020

“God is Spirit, and those who worship Him
must worship Him in Spirit and truth.”

“Like a River Glorious”
Praise and Worship
SCRIPTURE READING – Psalm 9:1 & 2
“Speaking Louder than Before”
“All the Broken Pieces”
“Chain Breaker”
“God I Look to You”

Giving of Selves and Our Offerings
OFFERTORY PRAYER
SPECIAL MUSIC – By Pru Hungate

Proclamation of the Word
Message by Pastor Joe
“The Life and Ministry of Jesus The Messiah”
“Jesus’ Return: Be Alert, Ready and Serving”

PRAYER TIME / Time of Reflection
“Even So, Come”

Acknowledgements and Announcements

Benediction “Won’t Stop Now”

Sermon Notes

Mark 13:33 – 37 Parable of the householder – be alert
Matthew 24:32 – 41 Parable of the Fig Tree - Know the signs of the times
Matthew 24:42 – 44 Be alert and ready
Matthew 24:45 – 51 Blessed is the servant doing as the master instructed

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Scritpures

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Transcript of Service

I love theologians. They try to make the Bible soul complicated, and as a last part of that song said, it's simple. Yes, Jesus loves me.

I know so.

'cause the Bible tells me so.

It's not necessarily that complicated.

We've been looking at the life and Ministry on Earth of Jesus.

Anne, it is been.

The last week or so that we've been concentrating on an as I've shared, Jesus entered Jerusalem prior to Passover as a suffering servant, but yet victorious.

To the.

Admiration and praises of the people. But then he would return back to Bethany each evening and then go back to Jerusalem during the week prior to his crew's arrest and crucifixion.

Last time we took a look at the disciples.

Amazement of the temple and the temple courtyard and how beautiful it was and how seemingly permanent it was in Jesus told them that it was not so permanent.

And told him about its destruction an they after leaving Jerusalem and being at the Mount of Olives, or Mount all of it.

They ask him the questions.

About three different questions, and Matthew primarily concentrates on the signs of his return. Again, I find the location extremely important.

Because he's having this discussion on the Mount of Olives.

It is on the Mount of Olives that he will ascend to heaven.

It is on the Mount of Olives that he will return to this Earth as King of King and Lord of Lord and so he's going through this discussion.

And.

He has told them about the signs of his return, but now he's going to go and he's going to continue to teach and he's going to use about 6:00 or so parables to emphasize this.

Now it's been a long time since I've been a student, but I recall as a student.

That when it was getting close to finals or it was getting there about on a test.

That the teacher would usually emphasize what was going to be on the test. So you paid particular attention. And so if Jesus is going to spend this much time about teaching on his return, then maybe we should pay attention to his teachings of his return. About the only area where we see this amount of teaching taking place in a sustained period of time is at.

The final Last Supper and John will spend almost a third or more of his gospel on that evening, and Jesus is teaching, and so that was Jesus's final opportunity to teach to his disciples what it meant.

To be his disciple. And here I think Jesus is teaching not only those who are sitting around him, but he's teaching you and me. What it means about the signs of his return.

Ann is important.

And so we're going to take a look in Mark Chapter 13 first, and then we're going to skip over back to Matthew 24. This is again one of the.

Parables that Jesus is going to use. Emphasizing on the Mount of Olives about his return. And he says verse 33 take heed. Keep on the alert.

Very short sentence.

Very important sentence.

Keep on the alert.

Do not you. Do not know when the appointed time will come is like a man away on a journey who appan leaving his house, putting his slaves in charge, assigning to each one his task also commanded the doorkeeper to stay on the alert. Therefore be on the alert. Now he is now said this twice.

It's on the test.

He's telling us da be on the alert. You don't know when the appointed time is. No one knows what the father.

Your job is to be on the alert.

Or you do not know when the master of the House is coming, whether in the evening or at midnight, or when the rooster crows or in the morning, in case he should come suddenly and find you asleep.

What shall I say to you? I say to all, be on the alert now. It's really difficult for me to emphasize it anymore.

Jesus just said for three times be on the alert and he's saying is like a person who has been put in charge and he says each of us has been assigned a task and that task is to do the various things of being a disciple, teaching, baptizing.

Doing communicating to the world, those things but one of our jobs is to be on the alert and so.

In bold letters.

If you were in a class and you were taking notes.

I would emphasize that you would write this down. I would write it on the board.

Be on the alert, even when it appears nothing is going to happen, he says because it's like a man gone away and you don't know when he's coming.

And so the next couple of.

Parables he's going to discuss is found in Matthew.

24 following up on the teaching of his return and starting with verse 32, he says this now learn the parable of the fig tree when its branches has already become tender and puts forth its leaves. You know that summer is near, so you two when you see all these things recognized 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 will not pass away.

So Jesus is selling us.

We need to take seriously the signs that he told us about his return. The disciples wanted to know when is he going to be appearing and he gives them signs.

He says in nature you kind of figure out what is happening. While you may not have a calendar, if you see a fig tree an you see the branches start to become tender and starting. But it leaves you know that is spring and it's going to be summer is almost here in Southern California we rarely need.

Weather meteorologists

even in Southern California.

You can pretty much say it's going to be sunny in nine times out of 10. You're going to be right, probably 95 times out of 100. You might be right, but they have all kinds of Doppler Zan satellites and you see, and they can discuss. And here's the high pressure system, and here's the low pressure system.

And you don't even need them to speak. You can turn off if you see a high pressure to low pressure, you know what it's going to be like. If there's a high pressure in in one area of us, it's going to be hot. Santa Ana winds are gonna come.

If there's no pressure in another area, you know there's going to be an onshore flow. You know that it's going to be kind of cloudy in the morning, and it may burn off unless it's later in the year. Then it may be cloudy for awhile longer.

That's just the weather. It changes. I remember being in Texas in my wife's uncle we were eating in Dallas and he made a statement. If you don't like the weather in Texas, wait five minutes, it will change.

If we are so.

Interested in the weather? That will change in 5 minutes.

Maybe we should become very aware of the signs of his return.

Because that doesn't change in 5 minutes.

As he said, his word will not pass away.

So rather than being a meteorologist.

Maybe we should study.

But Jesus says.

Then again, he says.

But on that day and hour no one knows, not even the Angels of Heaven or the sun, but the father alone, for the coming of the son of man will be just like the days of Noah. For in those days before the flood there were eating and drinking, marrying and giving in marriage until the day that Noah entered the Ark. And they did not understand until the flood came and took them all away. So will be this coming of the Son of man.

So Jesus gives this explanation, he goes.

That you let me remind you of Noah in his days. He didn't spend a few months building the art.

He

Spent decades building the Ark.

In all that time, people were just going about living their lives.

And this crazy guy who's building this really big boat.

And thinking out nothing about life continued on as before.

You would think a curious person would come up to normal. Hey dude, what you doing?

I'm building a really big boat. Why his God said I need to put 2 animals of each kind in the boat? Well, why does he want that? 'cause it's gonna flood.

Really.

And God told you that yeah, maybe maybe it should affect your life. Maybe you should take it. You might say, hey, can you build an extra room for me?

No, people live their lives as if nothing else mattered.

And Jesus is saying people before his coming or going to continue living their lives as if nothing else was happening.

Spell Mary given marriage.

And you know that. So even in with believers not so long ago, I remember being a young, married, unmarried person and I remember being around a bunch of unmarried people.

And someone the pastor would preach about the second coming. And all these things and an people would go well. I want Jesus to come.

But after I get married.

But after this but after that.

Now, I deeply love my wife and we've been married for 48 plus years and I wouldn't change that.

But having the press.

Retrospective of that.

It had been OK if it came before we got married.

I don't want to change history, I don't regret it.

But even the blessings that God gives are not to be compared through the blessing God will give when he comes back.

And so we need to change our perspective and understand.

His coming.

And when people just keep living as if he's not coming back, it shouldn't surprise us.

There's any sense then there will be two men in the field. One will be taken and one will be left. Two women will be grinding at the mill, one will be taken and one will be left.

Now.

Almost all of you think this verse. These two verses mean the rapture.

Anicut, I'm not dismissing that 'cause there is a sense that God is going to pick us up. We're going to meet in the air. The dead will get a 6 foot at least head start on us and then will join him and will always be with the Lord.

But Jesus taught an interesting.

Parable.

About those who weren't his.

We're also going to be gathered up.

So this maybe not at the second coming, but maybe a.

Arrangement of those who aren't his. I'll let you study that.

See I don't believe in telling you all the secrets you need to study yourself. 'cause it doesn't matter what I think.

It matters what Jesus teaches.

So Jesus is emphasizing we don't know when.

But he just gave us the signs of his return.

Study them, be aware of them and understand.

His coming.

Therefore.

Beyond the alert.

He keeps emphasizing this.

Or you do not know which day your Lord is coming, but be sure of this that if the head of the House had known at what time of the night the thief was coming, he would have been on the alert and would have not allowed his house to be broken into. 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.

So Jesus keeps on us be on the alert because you can get.

Swayed into thinking. Well, he's not coming yet he's not coming yet. Everything has always been as it was and you can get laxed.

And we caught up, so he uses another example.

And one that we can all identify with.

If someone told you.

That the thief was going to break into your house.

At 11:30 on Tuesday night.

You'd prepare.

You would make sure the doors were locked and make sure the windows were locked. You would put your valuables in a safe place. You would make sure your family was in a safe place. You call the police. The police were probably say we don't respond to potential crimes when they're at the door. Call us and we'll come. Then maybe, but you'll do. You know you'll buy a gun. You'll get a baseball bat. You'll do something to prepare because you don't want anybody to take your stuff.

'cause it's your stuff. It may be trash, but it's your trash and you want to keep it. And Jesus saying the same way.

When it comes to heavenly, you need to be on the alert and be prepared.

There was a song written in the 70s that said, I wish we'd all been ready.

And oftentimes we sing that song thinking about the lossed

how they should have been ready.

But notice Jesus isn't talking about the loss, he's talking to his people, he's talking to his disciples. He's talking to you and me.

He's telling us, beyond alert. Be ready even when you don't think he's coming. You still need to think about his coming and you need to be prepared.

And then the final.

Parable that will look at today, verse 45. Who then is the faithful and sensible slave?

Good question. Who is the faithful and sensible slave whom his master put in charge of his household to give them their food at the proper time?

So he's going to use as he goes, the master is going on a trip. He's going to put his servants in charge of making sure the other servants are taken care of.

Bless it is that slave whom his master finds, so doing when he comes.

When Jesus ascends to heaven and in a few months will take a look at that.

It's interesting as he's taken up to heaven, his disciples gazed into the heavens.

And they gaze into the heavens.

And they gaze into the heavens even after he's gone there gazing into the heavens. And it takes an Angel to say, hey guys, he's coming back the same way. Remember he told you? Go to Jerusalem and get ready to go to Jerusalem and get ready. So often we believers.

Or as one person said, are so heavenly minded were no earthly good.

Ron, well, he's coming. He's coming, he's coming. I wish we all been ready.

Jesus says I got something for you to do.

And you're going to be able to see the signs, so stop looking up and get ready and keep busy doing what I've told you to do.

The best way to be prepared for Jesus is return to do what Jesus told us to do.

Truly, I say to you that he after versus say that whom is master find so doing when he comes truly, I say to you that he will put him in charge of all his possessions.

It is amazing how generous our God is.

Think about this. If with your employer.

Your boss says I want you to do this task before I get back.

And you do the task.

And you do it well.

And you're proud of it. You do a report or whatever, and you consider all the things in Indiana.

If word checked in to make sure all the words are spelled right and the language and you're proud of it, and the and your boss looks at it goes.

That's pretty good.

Thank you.

Anyone generally walks away?

Maybe if you got a really generous boss.

So you know you did such a good job.

I'm gonna give you a bonus.

Or I'm going to give you a raise.

I'll give you a promotion.

The master here says, I gave you this little job.

Now I'm going to give you a charge of everything.

This matter goes.

You are so faithful.

I don't give you a promotion.

I put you in charge.

You are now the boss.

That is Amazing Grace.

For what?

To do what he told us to do.

We don't even have is not like he says it's allergies are OK. I'm going off for awhile. You figure it out. See you later.

He told us what to do. He told us how to do it.

He even told us.

No matter how we do it, make sure you do it with love, because if you don't do it with love, it doesn't count.

He says do things in faith, but even if you have faith and even you have hope, you don't do in love.

I'm not that impressed. He tells us not only what to do, but how to do it.

We don't even have to have any imagination.

But if that evil slave says in his heart, my master is not coming for a long time and begins to beat his fellow slaves and eat and drink with drunkards.

The Master of the slave will come on a day when he does not expect him, and in an hour which he does not know.

No, it gets worse, but I want to stop there a second.

Can you imagine?

Not only does this part slave not do what the master tells him to do, but it does the opposite.

Instead of loving the fellow slaves, he hates them and mistreats them.

But is that any different than you find in a lot of?

People who claim to be believers.

How that there isn't the love that there ought to be amongst us.

I've said a number of times. Often times more Baptist churches started.

I fight in the congregation then on purpose.

Jesus has told us to love and to forgive, and yet we can't seem to love and forgive each other. So we go off and start a new church.

And as I've shared on other occasions, the problem when that happens is that you take the problem with you.

Instead of fixing you, you take the problem with you and so here we see that the people saying, well, jeez is not coming. So I get to do what I want to do, how I want to do it, and mistreats.

The fellow servants.

Now, unfortunately, I think that happens all too often.

In various congregations.

But notice what it says in verse 51.

And he will cut him in pieces.

And assign him a place with the hypocrites.

In that place there will be weeping.

And gnashing of teeth.

But you see that slave was not a believer.

He pretended to be, and he was assigned with the hypocrites.

Now.

Church has been accused.

Of a place.

Of being full with hypocrites.

And oftentimes that's true.

We don't truly act out what we say we believe.

But the great thing about being at church?

Is we're trying to get well.

We're trying to have self diagnosis an accountability amongst us saying you know, you say you trust Jesus, but you'd really don't.

You say you love Jesus, but you're more concerned about your 401K.

So you see, we're trying to get well, we're trying not to be hypocrites.

The world who loves to accuse us, being hypocrites.

Are themselves hypocrites.

And let's face it, I'd rather be in a place where people are trying to be recovering hypocrites than people who are proud of it.

Anne, where it says that place will be weeping and gnashing of teeth. That's Jesus is not so subtle way of saying hell.

So Jesus tells us.

That we need to be on the alert to be on the alert to be on the alert. He tells us that we need to understand the signs of his return.

That's why Prue oftentimes will play my redemption draws nigh because it talks about the signs of the time, and some people say that he's never coming back and it's it's.

Really true that there are signs of the time and there are people marrying and giving in marriage and saying he's never coming back.

But you think Jesus would spend this much time and he's not done yet. He still got some other parables. We're going to look at next time.

About his return.

If he's going to spend this much time teaching us to.

About his return and maybe we ought to study the signs of his return.

Maybe we ought to be on the alert. Maybe we should be working doing the things he has told us to do.

Because being on the alert and being ready.

Is great.

But doing what he told us to do?

Is blessed.

You can become a theologian.

On that.

Return.

You can come up with the doctrines and the arguments and all of that of.

Pre tribulation rapture post tribulation rapture second coming not setting up and you can know all of these things.

I've been very impressed with the, uh, number of.

Teachers

who known a lot of stuff.

But I saw very little evidence of faith.

Jesus has told us these things.

Faith responds by saying.

He's coming back.

How do I know 'cause he said so?

How do I know? Because of prophets had said so.

How do I know? Because heaven and hell will pass away before one single word of his fails.

I'll repeat my little phrase.

Which is different than what you've heard.

Some people will say.

God said it. I believe it that settles it, that's wrong.

God said it, that settles it.

It's a matter of whether you believe it or not, and believing it doesn't say, yeah, I think it's right. Know you live your life in accordance with what he's taught.

If you would prepare your home.

To not be burglarized.

If you care about the signs of nature.

Then you should care more about his warnings to be on the alert. He should be more concerned.

About reading the signs.

And you should be more concerned that when he comes.

He finds you doing what he said.

Now.

Let's say.

For arguments sake.

That Jesus doesn't return for another 150 years.

Possible it's been almost 2000.

We all want to think it's in our lifetime. We're all hoping that it's in our lifetime.

But I can guarantee you this.

Even if he doesn't return in our lifetime.

You'll see him.

Or to be absent from the body is to be present with the Lord.

And so the question that we need to ask ourselves, and this is a question I need to ask me an you need to ask you and the truth of that answer. We don't want to hear.

If Jesus was.

Is to return.

In the next 6 hours.

Or if you were to breathe your last in the next 6 hours.

Would you be doing anything differently in those next six hours than you would do otherwise?

I suspect most of us would kind of target in our act together.

We're going to meet the master in about 6 hours. Maybe ought to be acting a little more like his slave.

And that's all too true, but the answer should be.

It's all the same.

Kinda like being on an airline and the planes going down.

I would.

Hazard a guess. 99.9 percent of those people on board would be praying.

Probably somebody like Billy Graham wouldn't be.

'cause he's already frayed up.

He would probably spend those last few minutes giving comfort.

To those who are frightened.

Would it not be better to be like that person who's giving comfort?

To those who are frightened.

Then to those who are trying to pray up.

Just saying.

So weather your life.

Is all that you had imagined it to be.

And you're thrilled with it in you can't wait to tomorrow as you're looking for all the adventures and it's outstanding and it's exciting.

Or whether you're saying.

I can't take another day.

Tired of the shutdowns? I'm tired of people telling me this tired of being so much month at the end of the check that I'm.

I'm just done I I can't do it anymore whatever.

Son, you are.

We're going to sing a song that should apply to all of us.

Even so come.

Life is exciting, wonderful you come. Jesus would be more exciting.

Life is depressing and I can't take anymore. Even so come 'cause you're going to make it a bus at life.

'cause I'm ready for you, I'm prepared for you. I know the signs of the time and even reading the signs of time doesn't give me complete accuracy.

I'm going to find me doing what you told me to do.

And all God's people said.