While preparing to study and write this unit of lessons, I have spoken to several of our teachers as well as several of our learners.  Mostly, I have done a lot of listening.  To the person, they have each expressed various concerns about studying this passage of scripture in Matthew 24 called “The Olivet Discourse.”  These are the same concerns I have observed over the years when the passage studied has been The Revelation, the Book of Daniel, the Book of Ezekiel or any other “end times” prophecy passage. 

Most teachers feel inadequate to teach these sections of scripture.  Writers feel inadequate to write them.  Learners listen, hoping to find answers to questions they have always wanted to ask but didn’t even know how to!  We ALL come away from these study sessions with more questions than we have answers.  Even reading the “red words” as recorded in Matthew 24 from the very mouth of Jesus our Savior, we still are left with a sense of the wonder of it all. 

This week’s lesson will explain a few of the “whys” of how we feel.  The title itself is an imperative for us:  “Trust God’s Timing.”  Wow.  What a comforting directive.  We can take all of our questions and lay them gently in the lap of Jesus and feel His hug.  Then as we walk away to continue living out our infinitesimal section of world history, we can spend our time doing the things He has commanded us to do while we wait:  work, walk, watch, worship and witness as we welcome others into the amazing plan of God. 

Here are the two main conclusions I have gleaned from our study of Matthew 24. First:  we are never to be a “doomsday prepper” but we are to abide in Jesus as a “this day stepper.”  Second:  There will be an END.  Only the Father knows WHEN.  We must be faithful until THEN. 

We have learned from our study that the rapture of the church will be a sudden, quiet, unobserved, instantaneous “catching away” of those who remain on earth at the time.  It will be a joint meeting of those who have died in Christ and been buried.  In Romans 8:17, Paul declares that we are “joint heirs” with Jesus.  At the moment of the rapture, all believers will be “joint airs” as we travel with Jesus to the place He has prepared for us.  In 1Thessalonians 4:13-18, Paul confirms that at that time, we will be forever with the Lord.  Such news brings comfort, joy and peace. We have also learned that the second coming of Jesus will occur seven years after the rapture. This coming will be different from the rapture.  This coming will be an unmistakeable, cataclysmic, universally visible, world wide event. 

Just like the fig tree in our Scripture passage today, there are visible signs that alert us to its time for fruit production.  Jesus says it is acceptable for us to look for signs but signs are not to be our priority.  He affirms that His words will outlive the earth He created.  Our main assignment is to be ready and prepared personally at all times for the rapture.  That means we are to spend our time sharing with folks about the gospel by allowing them to see Jesus lived out in our daily lives.  Our witness is our word, but also our way of life.  Our character speaks so loud, folks can’t hear a word we are saying!  Live for Jesus.  Be ready personally, but be sharing perpetually. 

We are to live in anticipation, not in fear.  We are to live in expectation, not in desperation.  We are to live in patient surrender, not with defeated spirits. We are to live with momentary awareness, not dwelling on what did or did not occur on a given day. Certainly, since only the Father knows the day and the hour, we are to trust that to Him alone.

Verse 34 gives a clear clue that some of these RED words deal with their immediate first century future.  Others speak of a later time…