"You Also Must Be Ready” | Matthew 24:1–14, 36–44

Show Notes

Episode 741: 
In this episode, hosts Chris and Jeff dive into the profound phrase "You also must be ready," a significant teaching from Jesus. We read from Matthew 24, where Jesus speaks about the signs of the end times, including wars, famines, and persecution. Chris emphasizes that these warnings are not meant to scare us but to remind us that God is in control. He highlights the importance of being prepared and living each day as if Jesus could return at any moment.

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You're listening to The Bible Guys, a podcast where a couple of friends talk about the Bible in fun, in practical ways. Hello, Jeff, Hello Chris. It's good to see this morning. Man. I am so excited. I can hardly stand it. Wow. I wonder if anybody believes that? Is that true? Is that true? Oh? Man? This is a brand new week of the Bible Guys. That's why you're excited because it's about us. Absolutely, it's gonna be amazing. Okay, well, hey, welcome to the Bible Guys. My name is Chris, this is Jeff, and today we are jumping into the phrase you also must be ready, which was a famous phrase that Jesus said. Yeah, and the whole premise of this, this series for us is what if Jesus had a podcast, and so we just took famous comments that he made. Yeah, and we're jumping off from there. So it's kind of fun. Yeah. Yeah, before we do, we have a famous Well it's not really famous, is it famous. It's for our listeners. It's the guess the word I have to say. We're words to Jeff. He has to guess the actual word. But I'm not allowed to say five taboo words. And if you're brand new listening to our podcast, you're going to discover why we have so many followers and listeners right here, y. Yeah, genius, we're really yeah yeah, you put that on me right now. If you're watching on video, we're going to go ahead and put the five words up on the screen, hopefully the five words that I cannot say, and then, of course, you know, you can race. Against This reads kind of like taboo. Okay, yes, you're ready, Oh goodness, gracious wow. Okay. When something is uncomfortable, another word for it is. I don't know, rough. It's so uncomfortable between us, so uncomfortable. There's a moment that's just very awkward. Yes, yes, And the opposite of noisy is loud. Opposite of noisy opposite quiet. Yeah, but there another word silence, Yes, awkward silence. Awkward silence. Man, that was a rough one. It was so I wasn't allowed to say pause. I know we were looking for two words. Crickets, dead, nothing or I couldn't say quiet. Okay, So two words, yes, yes, okay, uh wow? How many words? This is? Everything? Else is one word? One word? Okay? Yes, okay, remember that commercial weebles wobble, but they don't fall down. Yes, yeah, so you don't. You don't really walk? You what wobble? Wattle wattle wattle wat? I guess what I did? I said walk walk. Oh no, I. Can't believe it. I get the weebels wobble. I pulled that out. That was fabulous and and yeah, I threw it away, threw it away. I need to uh get rid of my my ding here. All right, here we go, by the way. I wasn't allowed to say penguin, duck, walk, wiggle or legs. I can't believe I did it. Okay, sometimes when somebody does that t M, I what does that stand for? Too much information? Yeah, it's not in under but in over communication, over over, oversharing, yes, overshare. Yes, I was allowed to say information, personal details, boundaries, or embarrassing. Okay, so TM I pretty good. Angle, They're pretty good. All right? Are you allowed to use initials? Of course? You see anything? Okay? Okay, okay, you want Hey, yesterday, yesterday Catlin brought us tacos. Yes, yes, so I mentioned last week that, uh, we just look like we know what we're doing, but really we just hoping somebody brings us tacos, and then well you mentioned you look like and then one of our one of our staff guys brought us tacos. Which was amazingly great, amazingly. Nice from the Detroit Taco Company. Yes, it was great. And so I wasn't allowed to say shell, Mexican salsa, crunch or but all I had. To say was caln, there you go. That's great. Okay. Uh oh, wow, the sound a guy makes on a movie right before he dies. Yes, Oh my goodness, I can't believe it. I cannot believe you got gurgle from that. Wow. I was say stomach, water, bubble, sink or noise. Now all of our new listeners are like, oh man, I'm so glad I found this chair. I can't believe you got that death the death gurgle. I can't believe it. I can't be. I thought for sure you wouldn't get that. Does it make you a little bit nervous about me? Now? Uh no, it makes me happier. Okay, right, so you're tuned in. Man, you're right there. I just figured you'd be nervous that. Why does Jeff know about the gurgle so much? Like you're a suit. Whatever. No, I I am very proud of you, Jeff, so good job that that was it? Five of them, five out of four out of five. Well, it's it's my fault. Yeah, my fault, all right. Weebles wobble, but they don't fall down for anybody who is over forty, probably forty, they probably know what that is. Anybody under forty desireate you know what weavels are. How old are you? It's none of your business. You're not supposed to see that. Oh man, you want to get beat up, you're supposed to ask a young woman. She is much younger than forty, and she has no idea what a weavel is. A right, that's correct. They were great. I had a bunch of weavels, did you know? Really? No? Oh, I had like thirty weavels. I had like one or two and thought, what's the point. I couldn't I couldn't figure out how to play with them. Well, you had to have the things that they go in, Yeah, with the different cars and the even houses and everything. I was busy playing with like g I, Joe and guns. Well I had those two. Yeah, so hey, I don't even know, man, what is the transition for this one. Well, i'll tell you what. When you fall down, it means you're really not ready. You're not ready. Yeah, yeah, yeah, I know Jesus. But Jesus said you must be ready. Oh no, that's terrible. So we always try to figure out the worst possible transition, and that was a pretty bad one. Yep. So Jesus said you also must be ready. And we're in Matthew chapter twenty four. Look at this very unusual. We're skipping. Yeah, yeah, we're skipping parts. There's a big chunk of this that Dez just doesn't like. Does doesn't like. She likes the good parts, and she doesn't like some of the other ones. So she's just like, get rid of those verses. It tells you to be kind and yeah, your neighbor. Hates those ones. Yeah. So uh. In Matthew chapter twenty four, we're going to read one through fourteen. Yep, we're going to skip all the ones that Does hates, and then we're gonna pick back up in thirty six. Okay, so here's what good. Here's what it says. It says as Jesus was leaving the temple grounds, as disciples pointed out to him the various temple buildings, but he responded, you see all these buildings, I tell you the truth. They will be completely demolished. Not one stone will be left on top of another. Later, Jesus sat on the Mount of Olives, and his disciples came to him privately and said, tell us, when will this all happen? What sign will signal your return in the end of the world. Jesus told them, don't let anyone mislead you, for many will come in my name claiming I am the Messiah, and they will deceive many. And you will hear of wars and threats of wars. But don't panic. Yes, these things must take place, but the end won't follow immediately. Nation will go to war against nation, and kingdom against kingdom. There will be famines and earthquakes in many parts of the world. And all this is only the first of the birth pains, with more to come. Then you'll be arrested and persecuted and killed, and you'll be hated all over the world because you are my followers. And many will turn away from me and betray and hate each other. Many false prophets will appear, will deceive many people, sin will be rampant everywhere, and the love of many will grow cold. But the one who endures to the end will be saved. And the good news about the Kingdom will be preached throughout the whole world, so that all nations will hear it. And then the end will come. And then we're going to skip all those other ones where Jesus is. He's going on. He's talking about the Book of Daniel, he's talking about different different things, and then we pick back up with this big idea in verse thirty. Success. However, no one knows the day or hour when these things will happen, not even the angels in heaven or the Son of Man himself. Only the Father knows. When the Son of Man returns, It'll be like it was in Noah's day. In those days before the flood, the people were enjoying banquets and parties and weddings right up to the time Noah entered his boat. People didn't realize what was going to happen until the flood came and swept them all away. And that is the way it'll be when the Son of Man comes. Two men will be working together in the field, and one will be taken the other left. Two women be grinding flour at the mill, and one will be taken and the other left. So you too must keep watch for you don't know what day our lord is coming. Understand this. If a homeowner knew exactly when a burglar was coming, he'd keep watch and not permit this, permit his house to be broken into. And you must also be ready all the time, for the son of Man will come when least expected. And two podcasters will be doing a podcast, and one we've taken and the other be left. I'm so sorry. I'm so sorry for you. Yeah, so there you go. Yeah, And then reminds me of that old DC talk song. Remember we're all we all be ready that what's that called? I don't know, come on, you know it? I don't remember. One is walking up a hill. Oh I don't know the tune. But anyway, it's uh, you're gonna make me look it up. Okay, But it's very it's very it's a great song. It's about the second Coming. Well, Jesus talks about these things not to scare you, right, A lot of times people read these things that sounds scary because he's talking about earthquakes, he's talking about famines, he's talking about all these things. If you turn off the ringer side of it, it doesn't keep ringing. Hey, y'rs beeped. Yeah, I did it. I did it. Mind did because of the bad influence of yours, your phone. And so he doesn't tell us all these things to scare us. Yeah, he tells us these things to let us know he's in control. Right, And so he does say, Hey, arrests and persecution, martyrdom and all those things. People are gonna hate you because as we race towards the end, you know, we're in a real spiritual battle. And the devil hates what Jesus is doing. So he's going to start clawing and fighting as hard as he can to hang onto his kingdom as long as he can, even while it's slipping through his fingers. But Jesus tells us all these things not to scare us, but to let us know, Hey, I'm in control and I know exactly what's coming. Oh yeah, I wish we'd all been read. I wish ready. Yeah, life was filled with guns and war and everyone's trampet on the floor. I wish we'd all been ready and it speaks a pretty yucky you know, this is er two men walking up a hill, one disappears, one's left standing still and. Yeah, super cool callback from two thousand. Well, actually it's a remix in nineteen sixty nine by Larry Norman. Yeah, yeah, I guess they remade it into that. Wow, didn't know that. Well, there you go. So anyways, in this then he's talking about the difficulties that are going to happen. But then there's a pivot, this massive pivot in verse fourteen, where he says, and the good news about the Kingdom will be preached throughout the whole world, so that all nations will hear it, and then the end will come. Yeah. Right. So I think one of the reasons why all the animosity and the hatred and the violence and all those things that begin to happen towards Christians is because the devil is trying to claw and hang on as much as he can to his kingdom. But the Gospel is just spreading and spreading and spreading and moving into places where it's only ever been darkness, where there's never been any light, and the Gospel begins to invade those places, losing his grip, So of course then he starts to lash out because he's the prince of the power of the ear. He's the prince of this world. Right. The king of this world is really a weird way to reference the devil, but that's how the Bible talks about him, is he's kind of ruling this planet and he hates the idea that he's going to lose it. Yeah, you know, I could summarize the entire twenty one chapters of the Book of Revelation on the two major thoughts. The first one is the character of God. Right, So all throughout the Book of Revelation, there are plenty of things that describe who God is as the conqueror and as the defeater and the ruler and the one who's just and everything else. So that's amazing, right. And the second thing is live every day as if Jesus were coming today, right right now. That's it. If you study the character of God and recognize who he is, and you live every day like Jesus is coming like it's today, you've mastered the Book of Relation. And by the way, people are going to hate that comment because there's a lot of people who want to master the Book of Revelation in a million ways, right, but but truthfully as it applies to my life. Uh, that's that. Those are the two things that I that I take away to live my life. I'm going to live my life recognizing who God is and understanding who he is. And and and by the way, that when you do that, it gives you a perspective on evil, doesn't it. That's right, it gives you a perspective on just like you said, not to be afraid, not to be freaked out, to recognize that, yes, evil is still here in the world. But yet you know, we know that one day God will defeat and destroy all evil, but He has not yet defeated evil. So we in the meantime live in a world that's broken and messed up. And uh, and these things can be scary, and yes they sort of are, to be honest, but you know, those who are faithful, right in the end, we'll be rescued. Yeah, and God will give you grace to go through it. Right, if you have the power of the Holy Spirit in you, everybody dies, we all do yep, right, so really, yeah, everybody does. It's life is one hundred percent terminal. Find out Yeah, it turns out, which is a bum deal. Nobody tells you that when you're born, right, But that's what happens. And so I think that when when you look at it, Since we're all going to have this last breath on earth, let's live a life that matters. Let's let's be about the kingdom work. Let's let's do something that rings into eternity. Uh. You know what's his name? Uh? Ct Stud, one of my great missionary heroes that I love reading about. Ct Stud wrote uh that he wanted to live a life so that the devil would throw a Thanksgiving party in hell the day he leaves the field of battle. That's fun, right, And how cool of a life is that? Right? That's it. So when I read these things, I'm like, Okay, hey, life is hard. Life's hard. So first Ascustion comms that these things happen. Okay, that's just life is hard. In the meantime, let's live a life that matters, then, and do something that rings into all of eternity, not just chasing the things here on earth. I mean, I have a nice life here on earth. I have a nice home. I've got a great family. I love everything about my life. But this life here on this earth is temporary, and what we're preparing for is eternity, and that lasts forever. And so Jesus says, then difficulties are coming, but man alive. The good news about the Kingdom will be preached throughout the whole world, so that all the nations will hear it, and then the end will come. And so this is talking about the whole world. Some theologians would say, oh, that only meant the known Roman world because they didn't know about the whole world at the time, which I think is an unfair assessment of this passage because it doesn't. The Greek word being used doesn't just reference the known world, right, it's the whole world. He's talking about the whole planet. When Jesus said go into the whole world and preach the gospel, he didn't just say go only to the Roman empire. Right, not what he said. Right. So, while the people who wrote it didn't know about everywhere and everybody, God did. And so God said, man, there's people who haven't yet heard, and I'm not coming back until and then the word that's used here in English, it says until all the nations will hear it. It's not talking about you know, the one hundred and ninety eight nations or the two hundred and eight recognized territories or whatever in the world. It's talking about every It's Ethnos. It's every Ethno linguistic people group. There will be people. And there's another place in the Bible and book Revelation it says people from every Ethnos will be around the throne of God at the end. Right. And so a big part of our job is if we're looking forward to the day when God fixes this, people go, how come God hasn't gotten rid of disease and war and violence and sin and all that stuff. He's gonna, right, And he tells us when once you get the Gospel to everybody, once every people group has had a chance to hear the Gospel, then I'm going to come back. I'm going to defeat evil, and there'll be no more death or no more disease. He'll wipe every tear from our eye. That's what we desire, and so we have to move in that direction. So Tti's mission is going to end it all for us. Not just Tti. There's a bunch of great organizations out there. Do you know the name Oswald J. Smith. He founded the People's Church in Toronto back in like nineteen twenty. I do not know this. He was great. He was one of the heroes of the mission movements. He was like this missionary statesman kind of a guy. He was a pastor of a big church. But they founded People's Church in nineteen twenty eight and from day one gave fifty percent of their income resources to global missions. Holy Christmas, can you imagine? It was phenomenal. I pulled up a quote from him that's incredible because I thought this would be worth looking at. People talk about the second coming of Christ man. Jesus is coming back. We read about this, Jesus is coming back. How exciting that is. There's a lot of people your revelation friends love talking about Jesus coming back as a matter of fact. In the next day and they do the math and figure it out. In the next few verses. The verses that does hate so much, she skipped in his reading it. It does say that then at last, the sign that the Sun of Man is coming will appear in the heavens right, and He's coming back, and they will see the Son of Man coming on the clouds of Heaven with power and great glory. Right, what a cool passage. I don't know why she didn't want us to read that she's but but so the Second Coming is super exciting for most Christians. And Oswald J. Smith said, we talk of the Second Coming when half of the world has never heard of the first Oh, well can you think? Can you imagine that? So we're looking, well, Jesus, when are you going to come back? And Jesus, like man, half the world hasn't even heard of me, heard the first time I was here, and we saw a stat lately. I think I mentioned this a while back, but one third of all the people on the planet don't even know another Christian that can lead them to Jesus. One third. So we still got a lot of work to do. The problem is population is getting out of control. We can't keep it. It keeps growing. Yeah, but so the Christians. Christians are spreading faster than the population growth I think so or nearly at the same pace. So it's pretty exciting. We only have to reach if there's two point four billion Christians on the planet and give or take, and there's only eight billion people on the planet, we only need to reach like three and a half a piece. Right, everybody tells three and a half, we're good. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. The problem is we don't. And so that's the big part of it. But then when you move, you know, you pivot. It would have been easier. Fanos would have succeeded. Just what Yeah, well then there's no coming back from that one, right, right, right? And so then Jesus, you know, from that point on after he says, hey, uh, everybody needs to hear that's kind of the pivot from the bad news to mostly the good news. It's not all good news, but it's mostly the other side of it. Right. You don't know when it's going to happen, even, he says, even the angels in heaven and the Son of Man himself doesn't know. Only the Father knows, which. By the way, isn't that isn't that cool? So Jesus, who is in the personhood of God? Uh, you know there's a and by the way, that's telling for the roles of the personhoods of God? Yes, right, Like isn't isn't that so strange? How like? It it works that way? So God, the Father is always the one who has the will in the Old Testament. If you think about every single time, there is a will for somebody's life, there's a plan for somebody's life. There's a directive for somebody's life. It's coming from God, the Father, and uh, and then the and then the son is the one who does what the Father initiates. So the son is the foreman on the ground. He's the one who puts forth and executes the Father's will. And then and and then the Holy Spirit is the completer of the work. So the completer, the Holy Spirit's job in our lives is the interpreter. Uh you know. So so the completer of our prayers. Uh, the completer of God shaping us, uh, you know, working with us and being with us until the very end. So it's interesting how when Jesus says, even the son of Man doesn't know, I think to myself, what what do you mean? You don't know? But he doesn't know. Yeah, So God's not less God when he chooses to limit himself. That's right, right, He's still sovereign. He's still God. And so Jesus chose not to be everywhere and all encompassing. He chose to limit himself inside of a human body. And then Jesus chose to limit himself inside of a nation that's about the size of New Jersey for his entire ministry. Right, so, time space, he had to sleep when he slept, he had to eat when he needed to eat, right, all the things, he had to walk where he was going. Except for when he was an infant hesited Egypt. Yeah, exactly so. But the ministry of Jesus was very, very limited as a man in the location all those things. But that doesn't make him less God. He chose to limit himself on purpose, right, That's what he did. And in this situation now he has limited himself that only the Father knows. Right, That's what this comes down to. And so it shows the sovereignty of God. God's in control. This whole passage. Matthew chapter twenty four. Matthew chapter twenty five is similar to you know when we talk about Matthew five, six and seven, that's the Sermon on the Mount, right, Yeah, that's what we call it. And he teaches us so many things. Turn the other cheek, go the extra mile, don't judge, you know, treat people the way you want to be treated. The Golden Rule, all those things. This one twenty four and twenty five is called the Olivet Discourse, and it's because he's sitting on the Mount of Olives and they come and go, hey, Jesus, so when you're coming back, and they ask him several times, and previously before this one, when they had asked him, hey, tell us about the end times, Jesus goes, it's none of your business, right, only the Father knows, right, right. But this time he goes, Okay, we're gonnaunpack. It's because he's about ready to go die, and so he begins to unpack what it's going to be like at the end. Listen, guys, you're gonna go through some tough times, but it's gonna be worth it. Go tell everybody everywhere, right, and and then just understand, uh you need to be ready, Just be ready at any minute because I'm going to come back. There's gonna be two people sitting in the field, right, it just happens, and uh so it's going to be a sudden thing. So between here and there, you don't know when it's going to happen, but between here and there, just stay busy, keep going, keep serving keep reaching people for Jesus with the gospel. So yeah, and uh, and the only time that I know that the Second Coming is not going to come is when somebody says that they know. What's absolutely coming. That's right, that's right, because. God, God says right here, not only does nobody know, not either, I not know, but it's going to come when everybody least expects it. Yeah. Yeah, well, so you know, my my famous thing about Jesus coming back in any moment is what do I say, Hey, Jesus come back in any moment. He deserve first. That's right, that's right. You never know, you never know, man, you get it. Man, if Jesus comes back, bang, you're just standing before the throne. You got broccoli in your mouth and you could have had a brownie, right, So he deserved first. That's right, that's right. That's great. Hey, what a great passage, you know, and the whole thing might have been better dead, but thank you for that. And uh, we're just giving you hard time. We'll see you know. She's trying to do is keep us from reading forty nine verses and no of that, but like, but but the verses the whole episode. Yeah, none of that, but the verses on Daniel are quite obscure and hard to get. Into, right, so well he explains him. But yeah, yeah, anyways, anyways, yeah, it's good than it does. We're totally kidding. Well, hey, hopefully we'll see you next time. I'm the Bible guys,