Title: Future Knowledge
2012. 6. 17 Sunday morning worship service
Bible: Matthew 24:42-44
Title: Future Knowledge
Matthew 24:42-44 ‘42. Watch therefore, for you do not know on what day your Lord will come.
43. You also know that if the owner of the house had known at what time the thief was coming, he would have been awake and would not have broken through the house, 44. Therefore you also be prepared, for the Son of Man will come at an hour you do not expect.' - Amen.
This text is an exhortation and prophecy for the saints living in the last days to always be spiritually awake and prepare to meet the Lord in peace when He comes. The way saints understand the world is different from general scientific or philosophical ideas. In particular, from an eschatological point of view, we see that the knowledge that believers understand about life is markedly different from that of unbelievers.
1. The knowledge of the world is past
Although new scientific discoveries, religions, and new knowledge and cultures appear, they are not new, but memories of the buried past. That is why the Bible says, Ecclesiastes 1:9, “What has been, will come again later, and what has been done, it will be done again, and there is nothing new under the sun.”
So, prior to the text, He spoke of the condition of those who were destroyed in the days of Noah and warned them not to do so, knowing that their appearance would be similar in the last days. Matthew 24:37-39 ‘37. As it was in the days of Noah, so it will be with the coming of the Son of Man. 38. People were eating, drinking, marrying and giving in marriage until the day Noah entered the ark before the flood, 39. They did not realize until the flood came and destroyed them all. so shall it be.”
This spiritual world is no different from that of the Jews who had fallen into religion when Jesus was on the earth or the church in the last days. Secularism perishes not because it is presentism, but because it is knowledge belonging to a corrupting past.
2. Knowledge of future saints
The Christian worldview wants to live in the world and time of the coming of Jesus Christ, leaving behind the knowledge and experiences of the coming and going global village. This knowledge is revelation, and this knowledge is knowledge that gives eternal value and assurance.
So, in verses 42 and 44 of the text, he pointed out the spiritual ignorance of not knowing when the Lord will come to us. I have experienced many times in history that the world proudly seeks and lives its own glory as if it will always be eternal, but once God tries it, it will be in vain.
2 Corinthians 4:18 “We do not look at what is seen, but on what is not seen, for what is seen is temporary, but what is not seen is eternal.”
To believe in Jesus, to live a church life, and to live according to the standard of faith and the Bible is living by entrusting God with a future that the world has not experienced. The truth is, people were originally supposed to live like this, but because of sin, it became dark and they forgot that fact. It has become a revelation that you can only know if you live like that.
We know from experience that the future of the time we live in is difficult to guarantee with the knowledge and experience the world gives us. So, there is a saying that human beings are not able to look ahead.
Isaiah 55:8-9 ‘8. For my thoughts are not your thoughts, and my ways are not your ways, says the Lord, 9. For as the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways, and my thoughts higher than your thoughts.”
The modern age is called the information age. Late information also slows the success rate. The socio-cultural structure has changed so much that it is difficult to live in the old fashioned way. At the same time, that goal and ideology of life are disappearing.
The reality and future of the global village are bleak as the knowledge of why and how to live well is now like a school without textbooks. The hope here is that there is only the Word of truth that has given us absolute values.
If you put down the world's calculation methods and ways of thinking, depend on the words of revelation from God, and live according to the methods and teachings that Jesus lived, you will overcome the world, and I pray that you will obey and receive grace.