No One Knows

The text I want to look at today is Matthew 24:36

Matthew 24:36 36 "But about that day or hour no one knows, not even the angels in heaven, nor the Son, but only the Father.”

In 1843, a man by the name of William Miller who lived in the New England states, and was a follower of Jesus and a believer in the second coming made a great error. He decided that he knew when Christ was coming back, but unfortunately he drew his conclusions based on calculations that he had made.  YET,  and he was absolutely confident that he was right.

He had spent hours, days and months collecting all the data, making no mistakes, and making the right calculations. He was confident of his conclusions.  William Miller, dated the Second Coming to the year, to the day, and to the very hour.  

He announced to his congregation that on March 21, 1843  Jesus Christ would return.  And according to the reports, a timely comet fostered the delusions, and his followers prepared their ascension robes and at midnight they went out into the mountains of the community and climbed up in the tops of the trees and expected the Lord Jesus Christ to return and take them into heaven.

Their idea in going into the mountains and going to the tops of the trees was, to be just as close as possible, so that they would have less journey through the air to meet the Lord.  Needless to say the day came and went, and the Lord did not return for his saints.  The Millerites went home to a late breakfast on March 22 followed by the jeers of all the drunks in town who made fun of them because of their foolishness.

There was an obvious disappointment created in the hearts of Mr. Miller’s followers and he immediately went back to his studies, and he began to study the prophecies all over again.  He searched through all the Scriptures paying particularly close attention to those upon which he had made his calculations. 

To his surprise he discovered that he had made a mistake, (You think)

He concluded, that his deductions were one-year wrong.  So he went back to his followers, and assured them that he had all the data right this time, and that one-year after the original date the Lord was going to come back.  And so these enduring followers of William Miller decided that they would trust him one more time, he reinforced up their hopes and expectations.  When the time came once again they went out in their white robes climb the trees and waited only to be disappointed.

Mr. Miller went back and took up his pencil, his work and Bible.  For a 3rd time he reviewed all of his work. Again, he discovered that he had made a not a one-year mistake, but a two year mistake…  And while it seems unbelievable this is a true story.

He went back to his followers and assured them that there could be no misunderstanding of this final prediction in one year from that date the Lord would come.  And for the third successive year, his followers expecting the Lord’s return when out to the mountains, climbed up in the trees…

 and if the Lord returned than all of us are in serious trouble!

The Lord did not return according to the schedule, and Mr. Miller’s followers gave up all hope.  They turned their hearts away from their teacher and many from God.

How can we know when Jesus will come again?    Can we know?  Are there signs of the times as we have often heard.  If so what are they?

Every time we turn around someone is trying to pin down a date.  The Jehovah Witnesses have done it  Someone is always raising the issue of the return of Christ.  How many times in the past 3-4 weeks has someone asked me:  Preacher is this the end?  could it be?  might it be?

For almost 150 year the Watch Tower society - known to most as the Jehovah Witnesses have been pointing to dates of the return of Chirst:

1874

1914

1918

1925

1944

1975

here is the deal:  I have been studying eschatology, or the End Times studies since I was 13.

I’m 45 and so that means i have been reading and studying for 32 years.   And I am still learning things.  even to this day I am learning -

But for the next several days, I want to begin an online series on the Second Coming of Christ.  For the foundation of our study I want to use a text from the sacred Scriptures that includes a sermon that our Lord once gave.  

Christ, gave this sermon to his disciples, and that sermon was given on the Mount of Olives.  The sermon is called the Olivet Discourse.  It is found in Matthew 24 and I ask you to begin to read it and reread it.   

This is one of the many discourses in the book of Matthew.  And it is according to scholars this is  the longest answer to any question by Jesus in the New Testament. 

 At least the longest recorded  in the Scriptures  - In fact Matthew 24 and 25  thats 97 verses devoted devoted to Jesus’s answer to the questions that the disciples asked.  

What was the question that they asked?  Well tune in tomorrow  and next week for more on the Signs that are Significant,  right here on the Daily Devo!