Introduction
This is the word of the Lord,
Matthew 24:36–44 ESV
36 “But concerning that day and hour no one knows, not even the angels of heaven, nor the Son, but the Father only.
37 For as were the days of Noah, so will be the coming of the Son of Man.
38 For as in those days before the flood they were eating and drinking, marrying and giving in marriage, until the day when Noah entered the ark,
39 and they were unaware until the flood came and swept them all away, so will be the coming of the Son of Man.
40 Then two men will be in the field; one will be taken and one left.
41 Two women will be grinding at the mill; one will be taken and one left.
42 Therefore, stay awake, for you do not know on what day your Lord is coming.
43 But know this, that if the master of the house had known in what part of the night the thief was coming, he would have stayed awake and would not have let his house be broken into.
44 Therefore you also must be ready, for the Son of Man is coming at an hour you do not expect.
Let us pray.
The Bible tells us in Deut 29:29 that
Deuteronomy 29:29 ESV
29 “The secret things belong to the Lord our God, but the things that are revealed belong to us and to our children forever, that we may do all the words of this law.
This means that any divine revelation is meant to preserve us and our children forever. The entire Bible in that sense is a divine revelation that keeps us.
But more specifically then, the book of Revelation and all the apocalyptic prophecies that reveal some things concerning the end times while other things are God’s secrets. These revelations then are God’s blessing to us and our children, in order that we may keep his word.
As I mentioned to you last week, the subject of eschatology is tertiary with respect to one’s justification, but it is of primary importance when it comes to one’s hope of the things to come.
Therefore, we can fellowship with one another regardless of our disagreements concerning these subjects as long as the cardinal realities of eternity are not compromised such as the bodily resurrection of the saints, and the physical return of Christ and so on.
However, these divisions are unavoidable when it comes to many ministerial activities. It will affect how you disciple, parent, prioritise your decisions, and so on.
Given the state of my preparation, I expect that we will have 5 more sermons on the subject of Eschatology.
• I’ve titled today’s sermon ‘Thief in the Night’
• Next week, we will consider the three parables that were aimed at preparing the Christians to escape the judgment which was to come.
• After that, I will give you my apologetic for my optimistic eschatology, why this is evidently the millennial age of Christ, and finally,
• We should have a two part sermon on the subject of the Second Coming, during which I want to try and survey the book of Revelation and how all these things tie together.
Now, having said all that, I believe that the time is ripe for me to address what is probably the most treasured of the eschatological hopes of our culture’s predominant premillennialism – the rapture of the church.
However, let me set the tone here, at the outset of my sermon which will not be centred around the subject of the rapture since there is no text in scripture, not a single one, that centres around the modern misconception of the rapture of the church.
In order to make those famously quoted verses to be a reference to this modern notion of the rapture, namely that the church will be caught up with Christ in the clouds around the Great Tribulation in order to escape the judgment is more a thing of fiction than it is of any exegetical foundation.
I grew up in this rapture tradition that more often than not left me hyperventilating every time I woke up at an odd hour and couldn’t find my family right away, convinced that they’d been raptured while I’d missed the memo.
Hopefully, by the end of this sermon, I hope you find peace in knowing that no such worry need occupy your minds.
The Context
The Olivet discourse from Matthew 24-25 marks the prophecies concerning the future of God’s people from that point in time.
Israel, God’s chosen nation, his covenant people, would cease to be his covenant people. Jesus announces the end of the Judaic age in Matthew 23:37-38
Matthew 23:37–38 ESV
37 “O Jerusalem, Jerusalem, the city that kills the prophets and stones those who are sent to it! How often would I have gathered your children together as a hen gathers her brood under her wings, and you were not willing!
38 See, your house is left to you desolate.
In the parable of the Tenants, who beat every servant of the Master that was sent to them, and who finally killed the Master’s son, we are told in Matthew 21:40-41
Matthew 21:40–41 ESV
40 When therefore the owner of the vineyard comes, what will he do to those tenants?”
41 They said to him, “He will put those wretches to a miserable death and let out the vineyard to other tenants who will give him the fruits in their seasons.”
This was what was becoming of Israel. Because of their national rejection of the Messiah (their King), Jesus condemns the nation by cursing the fig tree (that symbolised Israel) and he condemns their leaders (the Pharisees and Scribes).
In doing this, Jesus was decreeing the passing of the heavens (which symbolised the rulers and authorities of Israel) and the earth (which symbolised the citizens of Israel). So, heaven and earth would pass away, but his word would not pass away.
The tenants would pass away, but the vineyard would remain. This was the concern of last week’s sermon where we saw the chiasm of the things that were to pass away and the things that were to remain.
Though the Judaic age, the identity of national Israel would pass away, the word of God (his promises and covenant assurances ) remained with the remnants who followed the twelve apostles. For salvation did come from the Jews as we read in John 4:22.
Therefore, with the passing of the old heavens (the pharisees and scribes), the new heavens was ushered in the ministry of the Apostles and of Christ the cornerstone.
And with the passing of the old earth (national Israel), the new earth was ushered in through the formation of the Church and the Gentiles being grafted in. Ephesians 2:19-20
Ephesians 2:19–20 ESV
19 So then you are no longer strangers and aliens, but you are fellow citizens with the saints and members of the household of God,
20 built on the foundation of the apostles and prophets, Christ Jesus himself being the cornerstone,
Thus, the final events of AD 70 and the destruction of the Jerusalem temple ended the old covenant and officially inaugurated the new heavens and the new earth – in the New Covenant age of the church under the millennial rule of Christ the King.
This is what reformed theologians call replacement theology where the church replaces Israel.
However, the word ‘replace’ can be misleading here. I prefer the word ‘grafted’ because ‘replacement’ and ‘new’ create a great sense of discontinuity between the old and the new. But this is not the case as God’s people have always been the children of promise.
The old olive tree (a symbol of God’s covenant people) was not uprooted and a new one established. Instead, Paul describes the same olive tree but change in structural identity.
Romans 11:17–18 ESV
17 But if some of the branches were broken off, and you, although a wild olive shoot, were grafted in among the others and now share in the nourishing root of the olive tree,
18 do not be arrogant toward the branches. If you are, remember it is not you who support the root, but the root that supports you.
The imagery of the fig tree cursed in Matthew 21 is not replaced with another tree in Matthew 23. Instead the old fig has become new.
The children of Abraham have always been the children according to promise, and not according to flesh.
Romans 9:6–8 ESV
6 But it is not as though the word of God has failed. For not all who are descended from Israel belong to Israel,
7 and not all are children of Abraham because they are his offspring, but “Through Isaac shall your offspring be named.”
8 This means that it is not the children of the flesh who are the children of God, but the children of the promise are counted as offspring.
Colossians 2:11 ESV
11 In him also you were circumcised with a circumcision made without hands, by putting off the body of the flesh, by the circumcision of Christ,
Christ is the true and better circumcision and the church is the true and better Israel. This is a matter of continuity and not discontinuity.
With that context, let us turn our attention to the passage before us today.
Exegesis
The passage before us may be broken into three sections,
• The first from v36-39, that compares the coming of the Son of Man in judgment to the days of Noah
• The second from v40-42, that speak of people being taken (raptured?), and
• The third from v43-44, that compares the coming of the Son of Man in judgment to the thief in the night
Matthew 24:36 ESV
36 “But concerning that day and hour no one knows, not even the angels of heaven, nor the Son, but the Father only.
• When we as Christians, regardless of our eschatology, speak of the second coming of Christ, we are referring to the physical return of Christ, and not a symbolic cameo.
Eternity, at the end of time, isn’t a poetic symbol and Christ’s reign isn’t a fanciful daydream. God’s visible presence isn’t a distant mirage; it’s the ultimate reality awaiting us.
• As a postmillennial, I believe that we await the physical return of Christ at the end of this millennial age of the rule of Christ. His second coming is in the future.
Therefore, the symbolic or the spiritual coming of Christ in this discourse refers to the coming of Christ in judgement through the Roman legions that destroy Jerusalem. This isn’t the second coming but it is a metaphorical coming because he sovereignly leads the Romans to plunder the Jews.
This coming in judgment is not to be confused with Christ’s physical second coming at the end of this age.
• Concerning that day and hour
So, the day and hour that is referenced here is to this coming in judgment and the exact timing of this coming was to be hidden from all. That was a secret thing that belonged to God and every other revelation that surrounded it was give and belongs to us.
• Not the angels of heaven
The word ἄγγελος used for an angel is used to refer to both human and angelic messengers. Matthew 11:10
Matthew 11:10 ESV
10 This is he of whom it is written, “ ‘Behold, I send my messenger before your face, who will prepare your way before you.’
in referencing John, the Baptist, calls him an ἄγγελος.
This word is used twice in this chapter and they are contrasted between each other by the descriptor ‘of heaven’. I believe this to be an intentional distinction that Matthew highlights as he accounts Jesus’ words.
The first ἄγγελος that go out with the trumpet call to gather the saints from the four winds in verse 31 refers to human messengers taking the Gospel to the ends of the earth. However, this second ἄγγελος are those of heaven and they refer to the angelic.
Jesus has revealed very specific events that were to take place but veils the day and hour of these events, even from the angels. This should be all the more striking considering the fact that in the book of Revelation, these angels are depicted as ushering in God’s judgments at his command.
By mentioning the angels of heaven, Jesus heightens the nature of the secrecy of this truth that is held closest in the heart of God alone. There is a privacy and intimacy to the things we do not reveal and hold closed in our hearts and the time of this judgment would be something closed in the heart of God.
• Nor the Son
Then Jesus heightens the secrecy ten thousand fold by saying that not even He, the Son of God knows.
Now, such a statement deserves our attention for God said he does not know. How can omniscience not know? Here we find the mystery of the hypostatic union in the mystery of the incarnation. When talking about Christ’s incarnation, Paul tells us in Philippians 2:8
Philippians 2:8 ESV
8 And being found in human form, he humbled himself by becoming obedient to the point of death, even death on a cross.
that what is in display in the incarnation is the humility of Christ.
Philippians 2:5–8 ESV
5 Have this mind among yourselves, which is yours in Christ Jesus,
6 who, though he was in the form of God, did not count equality with God a thing to be grasped,
7 but emptied himself, by taking the form of a servant, being born in the likeness of men.
8 And being found in human form, he humbled himself by becoming obedient to the point of death, even death on a cross.
Therefore, Jesus not knowing the day or hour is the volitional act of his humility. In emptying himself and taking the form of a servant, he humbled himself to the point of not knowing that day or hour for our sake. So that he might be one among us. So that we might have one whom we can imitate, to have a mind like his.
• But the Father only
The times and epochs are determined by the Father in Heaven. Acts 1:7
Acts 1:7 ESV
7 He said to them, “It is not for you to know times or seasons that the Father has fixed by his own authority.
Days of Noah
Matthew 24:37–39 ESV
37 For as were the days of Noah, so will be the coming of the Son of Man.
38 For as in those days before the flood they were eating and drinking, marrying and giving in marriage, until the day when Noah entered the ark,
39 and they were unaware until the flood came and swept them all away, so will be the coming of the Son of Man.
• Again, the coming of the Son of Man is his coming in judgment. And Jesus compares this judgment to the judgment in the days of Noah.
Notice the two comparisons that are made here.
• The judgments of the coming of the Son of Man are compared to the judgment in the days of Noah
• The attitude of the people of both these times
• The references to eating and drinking, and giving in marriage highlight the ordinary business of people’s lives with no perception that disaster was about to come to them.
The primary sin of the people that Jesus highlights here is the fact that in Noah’s time, they refused to hear the warnings of Noah. They went about their ordinary lives without repenting and were caught unaware when the flood came and swept them all away.
• The secrecy of the timings of these events were to catch them unaware. It is the duty then of the Christian to live and make preparations sensitive to God’s timings. We see the Christians do this in Acts 4:34-36
Acts 4:34–35 ESV
34 There was not a needy person among them, for as many as were owners of lands or houses sold them and brought the proceeds of what was sold
35 and laid it at the apostles’ feet, and it was distributed to each as any had need.
• But this comparison to Noah alludes to more.
In 1 Peter and Hebrews, imply that the building of the ark by Noah corresponds to the gradual building of the Church.
As James Jordan put it, “As Noah built the ark and then carried his whole family through the judgment to a new world, so Jesus would build His Church and then carry His people through the Cataclysm to the fullness of the New Creation after AD 70”
1 Peter 3:20 ESV
20 because they formerly did not obey, when God’s patience waited in the days of Noah, while the ark was being prepared, in which a few, that is, eight persons, were brought safely through water.
Hebrews 11:7 ESV
7 By faith Noah, being warned by God concerning events as yet unseen, in reverent fear constructed an ark for the saving of his household. By this he condemned the world and became an heir of the righteousness that comes by faith.
• The flood language is also mentioned in Daniel’s prophecy of this time in Daniel 9:26
Daniel 9:26 ESV
26 And after the sixty-two weeks, an anointed one shall be cut off and shall have nothing. And the people of the prince who is to come shall destroy the city and the sanctuary. Its end shall come with a flood, and to the end there shall be war. Desolations are decreed.
Matthew 24:40–42 ESV
40 Then two men will be in the field; one will be taken and one left.
41 Two women will be grinding at the mill; one will be taken and one left.
42 Therefore, stay awake, for you do not know on what day your Lord is coming.
• Having made the comparison with the Noahic judgment, Jesus describes what will take place in Jerusalem when the floods of its destruction would come.
• Men are working in the field and women are grinding at the mill. These are again depictions of people going about their ordinary lives.
• Now, some theologians are quick to make the connection between the one that is taken and the one that is left to be a distinction between the Christian and the non-Christian, between the saved and the unsaved.
But the passage simply does not allow that distinction.
• Remember that the saved according to this passage are not to go about their ordinary lives, but are to flee at the signs leading up to the flood of judgment. These two men going about their ordinary lives then are both unbelievers.
• The word ‘taken’ here is compared with phrases like ‘caught up’ to make a connection to the rapture of the church. Speaking of these phrases, John MacArthur says that they refer to a violent rapture, a swift and sudden taking away.
If we were to go with that definition of the word, tell me brothers, what is the violence in this passage? What judgment are we talking about? You have here a flood of judgment, like the flood in Noah’s time coming to violently sweep away the indifferent unbeliever who refuses to repent and heed the warnings of Christ.
In order for this passage to be about the so-called rapture of the church, one has to take this entirely out of context importation of an external idea that has to be violently forced into the text.
And as Pastor Jeff Durbin reminded in his sermon, brothers and sisters, who were the ones that were violently taken away by the flood in Noah’s time.
No, this taking is not of the elect away in a secret rapture, rather, it is the taking away of the non-elect in judgment.
• How then is one taken away and the other left behind? I can give you two explanations for that.
• Notice that there are ‘two’ in the field and ‘two’ in the mills. These are pictures of covenantal bonds – two men working together in the field, two women working together in the mill, and by implication men and women cooperating to make bread.
Therefore, the one taken and the one left behind is a sign of these social bonds being torn apart. In other words, the tearing of God’s covenant relationship with this wicked generation, tears the covenant relationship they have with each other. Cut off from the Lord, they are cut off from each other.
• It was true of every exilic encounter, that there were people taken away into exile and others left behind. Neither the Assyrians nor the Babylonians took every single Israelite into captivity, and neither would the Romans.
Those taken into captivity would become slaves, and those left behind would remain impoverished and struggling. Both would come under severe judgment.
When the Romans crushed the Jewish rebellion and besieged Jerusalem, we see how they randomly went about like a flood killing at will, capturing at will and casting aside at will.
The invading army in Scripture is often portrayed as a flood of waters.
2 Samuel 22:5 ESV
5 “For the waves of death encompassed me, the torrents of destruction assailed me;
Psalm 18:4 ESV
4 The cords of death encompassed me; the torrents of destruction assailed me;
Isaiah 59:19 ESV
19 So they shall fear the name of the Lord from the west, and his glory from the rising of the sun; for he will come like a rushing stream, which the wind of the Lord drives.
Jeremiah 46:7–8 ESV
7 “Who is this, rising like the Nile, like rivers whose waters surge?
8 Egypt rises like the Nile, like rivers whose waters surge. He said, ‘I will rise, I will cover the earth, I will destroy cities and their inhabitants.’
• Therefore, the Christians are instructed to stay awake, to flee before this flood comes.
Matthew 24:43–44 ESV
43 But know this, that if the master of the house had known in what part of the night the thief was coming, he would have stayed awake and would not have let his house be broken into.
44 Therefore you also must be ready, for the Son of Man is coming at an hour you do not expect.
• Here we have the mention of the thief in the night – a classic cultural reference to the rapture. The popular notion that this phrase is a reference to Christ who comes like a thief to steal his people away is again nothing short of fiction.
• Observe what the phrase ‘thief in the night’ is being used to describe – it is used to describe the coming of the Son of Man. This again is a reference to judgment not rescue.
John 10:10 ESV
10 The thief comes only to steal and kill and destroy. I came that they may have life and have it abundantly.
Just as the floods would come suddenly, so the thief would come unawares in the night when you do not expect. This is all in reference to judgment.
• So, the Christian is cautioned to stay awake, to be ready, not to hug the thief and go on a merry ride with him, but to flee the judgment to come.
• This phrase is reference multiple times in the New Testament, and in every one of those references, it is talking about judgment and not rescue. Here are the three popular ones.
1 Thessalonians 5:2–4 ESV
2 For you yourselves are fully aware that the day of the Lord will come like a thief in the night.
3 While people are saying, “There is peace and security,” then sudden destruction will come upon them as labor pains come upon a pregnant woman, and they will not escape.
4 But you are not in darkness, brothers, for that day to surprise you like a thief.
See the same language of peace and security that is ignorant of the sudden destruction. That day of judgment will surprise those who are in darkness and it will be to them like a thief coming to break in and steal and destroy.
2 Peter 3:10 ESV
10 But the day of the Lord will come like a thief, and then the heavens will pass away with a roar, and the heavenly bodies will be burned up and dissolved, and the earth and the works that are done on it will be exposed.
Here you have the same decreational language of the passing of heaven and earth.
Revelation 3:1–3 ESV
1 “And to the angel of the church in Sardis write: ‘The words of him who has the seven spirits of God and the seven stars. “ ‘I know your works. You have the reputation of being alive, but you are dead.
2 Wake up, and strengthen what remains and is about to die, for I have not found your works complete in the sight of my God.
3 Remember, then, what you received and heard. Keep it, and repent. If you will not wake up, I will come like a thief, and you will not know at what hour I will come against you.
The thief is coming against the unbeliever in judgment.
Therefore, neither the use of the word ‘taken’ or the phrase ‘thief in the night’ has any reference to a secret rapture of the church.
Conclusion
What is the rapture then? We have two pivotal texts that address what can be called the rapture of the church. And it has nothing to do with the modern misconception of this doctrine.
1 Thessalonians 4:13–18 ESV
13 But we do not want you to be uninformed, brothers, about those who are asleep, that you may not grieve as others do who have no hope.
14 For since we believe that Jesus died and rose again, even so, through Jesus, God will bring with him those who have fallen asleep.
15 For this we declare to you by a word from the Lord, that we who are alive, who are left until the coming of the Lord, will not precede those who have fallen asleep.
16 For the Lord himself will descend from heaven with a cry of command, with the voice of an archangel, and with the sound of the trumpet of God. And the dead in Christ will rise first.
17 Then we who are alive, who are left, will be caught up together with them in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air, and so we will always be with the Lord.
18 Therefore encourage one another with these words.
• Our grief is unlike the worlds because we have hope of the resurrection of our loved ones (another reason why eschatology is such an important subject).
• This passage is clearly in reference to the Second Coming and not the coming of Christ in judgment in AD 70.
And at his coming, the living will not precede the dead in the resurrection, but the dead are raised first and then the living are “caught up” with them in the clouds to meet with the Lord to always be with him from that point.
This is a parallel echo of what happens in Revelation at the end of the millennium, at the final judgment. Revelation 20:11-15
Revelation 20:11–15 ESV
11 Then I saw a great white throne and him who was seated on it. From his presence earth and sky fled away, and no place was found for them.
12 And I saw the dead, great and small, standing before the throne, and books were opened. Then another book was opened, which is the book of life. And the dead were judged by what was written in the books, according to what they had done.
13 And the sea gave up the dead who were in it, Death and Hades gave up the dead who were in them, and they were judged, each one of them, according to what they had done.
14 Then Death and Hades were thrown into the lake of fire. This is the second death, the lake of fire.
15 And if anyone’s name was not found written in the book of life, he was thrown into the lake of fire.
1 Corinthians 15:51–52 ESV
51 Behold! I tell you a mystery. We shall not all sleep, but we shall all be changed,
52 in a moment, in the twinkling of an eye, at the last trumpet. For the trumpet will sound, and the dead will be raised imperishable, and we shall be changed.
• At the last trumpet. This is a reference to the final act, the last event, the eschaton – when the dead are raised and the living are changed.
• In the twinkling of an eye – The suddenness of the final coming will be like the coming of Christ in judgment. We are not told of the day and hour for either of these events because they are the secret things of the Lord.
This is the rapture of the church. What is its purpose?
R.C Sproul in his lecture series on the Last Days according to Jesus talks about how the Roman soldiers when returning victoriously from the battlefield, would camp outside the city and send word. The prefects of the city would then arrange a victory procession and the citizens were encouraged to go out to the camp and walk with the soldiers in a joyful procession as they entered into a city full of celebration.
The rapture is the welcoming party that goes out to join the victorious coming of the King of kings and the Lord of lords.
