JESUS has given his prophecy which concerns the certain future of the world, and all the people in the world. He has given a word of assurance to his disciples as they face the truth that he has proclaimed. Now Jesus makes his application to his disciples and to the church of God all down the ages. The application can be summed up in one word – WATCH. Jesus wants his people to be prepared so that when he returns there may be joy and not sorrow. This application continues from Matthew 24:36 to the end of chapter 25. It is helpful to divide the passage up. In verses 36-41 Jesus speaks of the fact of his return and that it will effect all the whole world. He speaks of a separation. This is continued from chapter 25:31-33 ending with the result of this separation in Matthew 25:46. All the rest of the passage Jesus is concerned with all those who profess to be members of the church of God. He is addressing all who claim to be God's servants, and warning them to have a sure servant-hood. He does this in vivid parables which address different issues in the way being servants of Christ are expressed.

With that general view of the end of chapter 24 together with chapter 25, let us look in particular to verses 36-44 of chapter 24.

Jesus is at pains to emphasize that his coming again to judge the world can not be predicted. In verse 36 he says plainly that the time is known only the God, the Father. The angels, who will be involved in Christ's return, don't know, and will not be told until it happens. Even Jesus as the Son of Man, the representative of his people, does not know. Jesus as the 2nd person of the Trinity, as the divine Son, must know, because God in three persons acts in unison. How this knowing and not knowing is we can't imagine now though such things will be plainer in heaven.

It seems that Jesus is preparing his disciples and his people all down the ages, that his return time-wise was a long way into the future. We know this today because we are living over 2000 years since Jesus uttered these words, and he still has not returned. His return may still be very far into the future. As time goes by it is so easy to forget that Christ said he would return, or at least feel that it is not relevant to us in our daily lives. Because of this there is the danger that we may grow slack in our living. Certainly in the life of the visible church we have seen down history how the church has lived as if Christ will never come, and all sorts of slackness has resulted. The most marked aspect of this slackness is the willingness to believe human opinions, and allow the world and its wisdom to creep into the church, and take over the church's life.

It is in this context that Jesus is so urgent in calling for watchfulness. This he does in the first place by causing us to look back in history, and take seriously what has happened in the past. There was a day of judgement right at the beginning of time. We read of this in Genesis chapter 6-9. Much time had gone by. Humanity had multiplied on the earth. Whatever the exact occurrence reported in Genesis 6:2, strange things had happened in human society, and God had been forgotten, and great wickedness covered the whole of the inhabited earth. So bad was this apostasy that God could only find one family which found favour in his sight. Because of this godlessness and unrighteousness of mankind, God determined on making an end. This is reported to us in Genesis 6:6. So we see that the flood was an act of judgement upon the whole earth.

This was a foretaste of the final judgement at the end of the world, and this is why Jesus mentions it in these verses before us. Jesus paints the picture of how things were just before he brought judgement through the flood, and tells us that this will be the state of the world just before he returns. It is a picture of utter indifference to God and to righteousness. Surely we can see our world in this description which Jesus gives of how things existed just before the flood. What is so terrible is the fact that people went on in this indifference, living for themselves and pursuing their own worldly interests, and were taken totally by surprise when the flood came and annihilated them all.

The fact is that God did not leave them without warning. In 2 Peter 2:5 the apostle Peter, under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit, tells us that Noah was a preacher of righteousness. This can only mean that while he was building the great boat called the Ark, he also spent much time in preaching. He must have warned the people of the flood, and why it was coming. The people were, therefore, told that God was displeased with their lives and ways, and called them to repent. But the fact that the flood consumed them tells us that, like society today all over the world, the people derided the preaching of righteousness which Noah was proclaiming.

The suddenness of Christ coming is described in verses 40 and 41. The world will suddenly be struck by the disappearance of a multitude of people throughout the world, the elect of God gathered by the angels to glory at Christ's command.