No One Can Know
Pastor Zach Pummill • March 07, 2021
Sermon Overview
MATTHEW 24:36–44
Jesus taught that no one know the day or the hour of Jesus’s coming. He teaches us how to stay awake and stay ready for when he returns. His teaching is intended to give hope to the tired and weary, and even though we don’t know when, the Bible tells us who is coming – a Rider on a White Horse.
Sermon Transcript
On February 11th, 2019 at 4:30 in the morning, I got elbowed in the ribs. That sweet elbow belonged to my wife. She woke me up, and it was one of those moments that you don't ever forget. She said, "Sweetie, I think it's time." Our baby was two days late, taking its sweet time, and she had laid awake for the last 30 minutes experiencing contractions. And the moment had come and I was ready. Because I knew how I thought this would go. I thought I knew how this would end.
And at that point the contractions were about six minutes apart. So we had a little bit of time. I called the birthing center and let them know that this party was getting started and we were on our way. I woke up Amy, my sister-in-law, who lived with us at the time to let her know, because she was gonna be staying with our son Asher. And then I got ready. I grabbed our bags. I ran outside to the car to load it up and it was cold and it was raining and I warmed up the car. And by the time I got back inside the contractions had jumped from six minutes to three minutes apart, just like that. It was time to get a move-on because we had to drive all the way to Allen. So one of those moments you never forget. I said, "Sweetie, I think it's time. "We need to go. Now." And yet I was confident. I was confident because I knew.
And so we got on the bridge on 66. And at that point, the contractions started piggybacking one after the other without any break in between. And Melissa was burning up and felt so hot that she had the AC on full blast, all the windows down and it was 35 degrees and raining outside and we're going 60 miles an hour. I was freezing cold. And yet I dare not say a word. A man takes his life into his hands in these moments.
I know my role, and it's quite simple. I am here for support. I am here for unconditional, positive reinforcement. And so I golf clap. I say encouraging words. I am to be quiet whenever I am shushed. Whenever I am told, "Stop touching me," I am to back away. I know how this goes, we've been here before, it's all very simple. And that was okay because I knew.
Then we got to the George Bush, and we got about a quarter of a mile away from the exit at 75, and then the traffic came to a complete stop. Not good. And so I'm sitting there looking up to see if we can go. And at this point in the story, I had every expectation that I'd be delivering our baby on the side of the road. I kid you not. And so I'm looking for a place to pull over, but just then traffic started moving. We got onto 75, and we finally made it to the birthing center. But of course it was locked and nobody was there, because the midwife also got stuck in traffic too. And at this point the contractions were about a minute apart. And the front porch in the freezing rain is a bad place for those contractions to happen. And I start feeling really helpless and really desperate for my wife.
And then the midwife finally got there. She let us in and before we could even make it to the hospital bed, she looked at us and she said, "This baby is coming right now. You can either try to make it to the bed, or you can have the baby right here on the floor." Melissa said, "I'm not moving." Okay, so the floor it is. Good choice, golf clap. We got this. So I get down on the floor next to her. And before I have a chance to get situated, she grabs my forearm and dug her fingernails into my arm for that last contraction. She's screaming, I'm screaming. And then we hear the baby scream. And the midwife wrapped it up and she placed it on Melissa. And then she asks us that famous question: "Do you want to find out what it is?"
Now what did I think I know? Well, I just knew it was a boy. Was never really a doubt in my mind. I had a great name picked out, Jonathan Cash Pummill. I was excited about that name. Melissa did not share that excitement whatsoever. But that's okay, because I knew that that was my baby boy laying there on Melissa. So she pulled the blanket off and held our baby up to us. And that thud you could hear was my jaw hitting the floor. And in the video my first words were, "Oh my God, it's a girl."
Turns out, I knew absolutely nothing. And yet, sometimes, realizing what you don't know is the most beautiful thing in the world.
This passage this morning is about learning to live in light of what you don't know. This passage is about learning to live in light of what we don't know, why? So that you might have hope, real hope. And some hope sounds really good these days.
But first we have to realize what we don't know. When the Bible talks about the condition of this world, the reality of the cosmos, it uses very vivid, visceral language. It says that all of creation is undergoing birth pains. It's violent, unpredictable fingernails-in-the-forearm kind of language. This world is deep in the throes of labor as it waits and longs for redemption. It waits for the one that can finally come and subdue it and bring peace, order, perfection and bliss. Creation is like an anxious dog in the middle of a thunderstorm waiting for its master to come home. But the thing is, it's that this anxious dog is actually a planet that weighs 13 septillion pounds traveling at 67,000 miles an hour across a universe so vast it makes our planet seem non-existent. It rages and toils with volcanoes, tsunami and earthquake, pandemic and plague, and arctic blasts that brings us to our knees. And yet, we think we're in the driver's seat.
Perhaps that's why everywhere you look, there's a lot of discussion these days about what the world really needs. There's a lot of discussion about how to fix our problems. But the beginning of this passage is the invitation to come to terms with what we don't know. And the first thing is this, is that the world's problems are bigger than we can imagine. And what the world really needs is bigger than we could ever comprehend. If it's lower taxes that you're after, well then all of that's pretty straightforward and not the hardest thing in the world. But if it's cosmic redemption, well that's a different category altogether. This passage is an invitation to realize that what the world really needs is this Rider on a White Horse. And anything that offers you solutions apart from this Rider's simply offering you best-laid plans, and those plans will come, and those plans will go, all the while this world continues to wait for the Rider on a White Horse.
This world, this universe, is in the throws of birth pains, but so are you. We may not always be aware of it and mindful of it, but you too long for this Rider on a White Horse that will bring the redemption of all things. That's the desire that lies behind every time your breath is taken away by a beautiful sunset. That's the desire that lies behind that gnawing in your gut every time you think about your kids. That's that desire behind every time you think about lost loved ones, and behind every hope for the future. It's that desire that's in every pleasure, in every pain, and every sigh at the end of a long day because you too, deep within you, are longing for the redemption that this Rider, and only this Rider brings with him. And that Rider says, "Surely I am coming soon."
And that sounds great. So when can we expect him?
Well, Jesus tells us about that very moment in our passage. He's telling us about the end of all things, when he will return, but there's a catch. He says, "No one can know the day and no one can know the hour." Not even the angels. Not even he, Jesus, the Son of Man, knew that. He will return, but when, no one can know. That piece of information is the best kept secret of all time. Only the Father in heaven knows that.
So then we really have to ask the question, why would Jesus even tell us that in the first place? Why would he tell us this? What are we supposed to do with that?
Well, divine mysteries aside, Jesus makes it quite simple for us. He tells us this so that we will stay awake and not fall asleep. Why? Because redemption and judgment are real things. They lie at the corridor at the end of history. Things by which our lives will be boiled down to those two very simple realities of redemption and judgment. Jesus says in verse 42, "Therefore stay awake for you do not know on what day your Lord is coming." Verse 44, "Therefore you also must be ready for the Son of Man is coming at an hour you do not expect." Jesus tells us about his coming. And even though when that will happen is unknown to us, he wants us to live with the assurance that he is coming. He's coming soon. And because of that, he says, "Do not fall asleep."
So what does he mean by that? What does it look like to fall asleep?
Well, he helps us understand in verse 37. He says, "For as were the days of Noah, so will be the coming of the Son of Man. 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." Now what's he saying? He's saying they ignored Noah all the way up to the final hour. Noah had come to them and said, "I don't know when, but the heavens will open up and you need an ark. You need an ark because God has provided a way for you. And you can rest assured that he is coming." But they ignored him. They ignored him to the very end, all the way up to the day that Noah and his family entered the ark.
How did they ignore him? Well, he says, "They were eating and drinking and marrying." What's he mean? Well, Jesus isn't saying that if you take his second coming seriously then you'll stop eating and drinking and marrying. He's describing what it looks like to fall asleep. They're eating and drinking and marrying as though they knew the future, as if they knew what lied ahead, as if nothing was coming for them. In short, these people lived as though they were going to live forever.
They were living as though this world is all there is. They ignored God's grace. They ignored his warnings to look up and be prepared and realize that judgment and redemption are real things. Instead, they just carried on with life as normal, as though this life, this world, is all that exists. And so they ignored Noah and they focused on their bellies and their own satisfaction. They ignored Noah and they focused on marrying off their kids and getting their family situated in society and well-positioned for a future that would never come. They were people that only ever looked down at what was right in front of them. They never looked up. And finally, when they felt the rain come down and they did look up, it was too late. The wave was already rising over the horizon.
We fall asleep when we do the same thing. We fall asleep when we live as though this life is all there is, as though it's going to go on forever. We live as though we understand. Or we fall asleep and we live as though we understand the world's problems, and we possess what is necessary to fix it. We focus on worldly affairs and we never factor in other worldly affairs. We become fixated and absorbed by politics, and current events, by family and career. We're living the good life and getting all of it situated just how we want it so we can coast. And we fall asleep when our gaze only resolves on the things of this world.
And what do we do? We only look down. We never look up. We treat earthly affairs as though they were eternal. And we can fall asleep to the deeper realities of our existence. And like I said earlier, laying hold of what Jesus is teaching us starts with recognizing that the problems of this world are bigger than we could ever know, or imagine, yet alone solve. And when we underestimate the world's problems, then what happens is that we inevitably begin to place our hopes in the powers, in the systems, in the voices, and the offerings of this world. We place our hope on those things to free us, to remake the world how we want it to be, to make it in our image.
We believe that the world's problems can be solved by legislation or the right leaders. Or our lives can finally be at peace through job titles, and remodels, and the right tax bracket. And this world constantly pulls our gaze downward, and we fall asleep. We fall asleep when we place our hope in these earthly realities, earthly systems, earthly structures, and we radically underestimate and forget what's really needed.
And so how do we stay awake? How do we stay awake and stay ready? It's by learning to lose hope in those very things. And Jesus isn't saying we live a life that's disconnected and detached from the world, but where you place your hope should be. Where you place your hope should be disconnected and detached from the things of this world.
Yes, politics is important, to lay hold of the freedoms that we have been given, to take part in seeking justice, to protect life and liberty. But don't give it your hope. Because we know hearts cannot be litigated into this Kingdom. Powers come. Powers go. But it's the Word of the Lord that remains forever.
Yes, give yourself to your career. Work as unto the Lord. Enjoy the fruits of your labors, but don't give it your hope. Because we know eventually that one day we will all clock out one last time. And we all leave this world bankrupt. Jesus is teaching us how to stay awake. By living in the here and now without giving our hope to anything in it. And what that means is it means that staying awake is learning to live with that deep longing within you. Jesus is teaching you how to be okay living in a world that's not okay. And learning to live with that longing for redemption that will never be fully realized in this life. It's learning to live with the disappointment, and the discouragement, and the frustration of the birth pains of this world, and the longing for more that comes with it. Learning to live with that longing is important, because it's only then that longing will lift your gaze. That longing will cause you to look up in hope. And it's that longing that will make you ready for a Rider on a White Horse.
That's why the second coming, if you truly understand what it's for, what it's about, and why it's given to us, is that the second coming is for the tired and the weary. It's for those who long for more. And the fullness and the finality of our redemption inside of a world that can never give it to us.
And aren't we all tired? Aren't we all pretty exhausted after this long season? Tired of wishing things were different? Tired as we struggle with the world deep in the throws of birth pains, and we long for a world made right? Passages like this that allow us to actually see the beauty of what Jesus is teaching us more clearly. Because it's seasons like this that wake us up, that lifts our gaze beyond the horizons of this world, and we look forward in hope to the Rider that says he is coming soon. But when is he coming? No one can know. And yet doesn't part of that make us feel hopeless? It doesn't feel very hopeful.
Well, the story doesn't end in Matthew 24. There's much more to that story. Because even though we do not know the when of his coming, we can certainly know Who is coming. And Revelation 19 is an invitation to look up. It invites your longing, it invites your desire, and it invites your hope, because Revelation 19 is a gift to us. Because it asks you a very simple question, "Christian, do you have any idea who's coming for you? Do you have any idea who this Rider really is?" I'm going to describe him to you from what Revelation 19 says. I'd even invite you to shut your eyes and allow your imagination to look up and see who it is that's coming for you.
It says this Rider on the White Horse is called Faithful and True. In righteousness, he judges and makes war. His eyes are like flaming fire and on his head are many diadems. His robe is dipped in blood and from his mouth comes a sword that will strike down the nations. He treads the winepress of the fury of the wrath of God Almighty. And his name is King of kings and Lord of lords, and the armies of heaven follow with him." That's quite the description. In fact, it's almost terrifying. To think otherwise is to not have read it at all. In fact, the very beginning of the book of Revelation says that when he comes all the nations of the earth will mourn and wail at the sight of him, because every eye will see power that this world has never known and never fathomed.
But that description is not given to you so that you would be horrified. That description is given to you so that you might have hope. Because that's not just some poetic, fantastic language. It's describing reality. It's telling you who this Rider is, what he does, and what he brings with him, so that you will know who it is that's coming for you. And so what does all that even mean?
Well, are you tired of the disappointments and the discouragement of life? Are you tired of the exhaustion created by doubt and wondering if the promises of God are even true? Are you tired of that lingering question, "God, are you there?" Then look up and see this Rider who's called Faithful and True. Because when he comes, he brings the realization with him that all the promises of God are as true as the air that you breathe. You can have hope because one day your doubts will give way to certainty, your wondering will give way to reality, and you will know not in part, you will know in full, and you can have hope.
Are you tired of feeling alone, unseen, unloved, tired of suffering with the happy face and going through the motions like everything is okay, when in reality it is not okay at all? Do you grow weary of prayer and searching and waiting? Are you tired of feeling broken and feeling like you will never be put back together? Does redemption feel impossible because who could account for the pain and sorrow in your life? Well, then look up and see this Rider whose eyes are like blazing fire. And that means he sees all things. Nothing is hidden from him. His eyes melt away all excuse, and pretense, and obstacle, and nothing can hide from his gaze. You can find hope in the one who sees you, who sees you in your suffering, who knows what's been done to you, either in your youth or in your old age. He sees every dark night of the soul. He hears every prayer offered in it. He's the one who counts your tears and places them in his bottle because they are precious to him. You can find hope that he is the one that brings redemption in full because he sees brokenness in full. He sees the full scope of the problem, and he alone has the full scope of the solution because his eyes are like flaming fire, and he sees you.
Are you tired of the anger, and the rage, and the venom all around us? Do you struggle following the words of Jesus in the way of love in a world of hate? Look up and see the one that has a sword that proceeds from his mouth by which he will strike down the nations. And remember, it's worth it to love when you are reviled. It's worth it to bless those who curse you. It's worth it to love your enemies even when it's hard, because he sees you. He knows when you struggle to do those things. And the world one day will know that everything that he said is right, and true, and good, and valuable, and only his words matter. Everything else withers and fades but the Word of the Lord stands forever.
Are you tired of the injustice and sorrow in this world? Does your heart break for the vulnerable, the oppressed, the forgotten, the destitute, the downtrodden? You've seen a measure of the insurmountable suffering in this world, and you ask, "How long, O Lord? Look up and see a Rider who sees all things and treads the winepress of the fury of the wrath of God the Almighty, the one who will bring a full recompense. He knows every orphan left on the streets, every lonely forgotten widow, every unwanted baby, every unvindicated, voiceless victim.
He's the one who is near to the brokenhearted and saves the crushed in spirit. He's with the lowly and with the sorrowful, he sees them.
He knows every name of every girl kidnapped by Nigerian warlords, and to them, he will bring war. He's the one that while the owners of the rock quarry count their money, he counts every brick those women have broken. He counts every wage that's stolen from them. He counts every blow to the face of the women in the Kalighat, and every scornful word. He counts every meal lost by the children in the deep forest. He counts every drop of blood shed by those pastors that preach about this Rider on a White Horse and are reviled by this world for it.
And that's all just the suffering that we've come to know in this world. He alone sees it in full, and this Rider will bring justice in full because nothing is unknown to him, and everything will have a full account. And there will be justice to the fullest extent. You can know that the one that has a sword that proceeds from his mouth is the one who speaks for the voiceless. And one day he will be the only one allowed to speak.
Are you tired of the division all around us? Tired of the division in the church? The distance due to pandemic and plague and ideology? One day this rider will unite all of his people to himself, and they will not appear divided and sectarian. No, they will all look like Jesus, clothed in white robes, crowned with glory, sitting on a white horse.
Christian, behold your future.
And Christian, you can know and look forward in hope, and know these things to be true. And yet all of that is just for starters. That's just the beginning.
Because the best part of this passage is actually what you'll never come to know at all. You see it where it says that this Rider has a name written that no one knows but himself. It's a reference to the fact that to know this Rider in the fullness of his being, and know what to call him is impossible. Because to know the fullness of his divinity means that you too must be divine. To know this Rider is also to never know him, because you will never reach the end of his being, his goodness, and his existence, and that's the best part of all.
That's the best news in this passage. Because when this Rider comes for you, that means that you will enter into a never-ending cycle of thinking that you have come to the end of all of his love, his goodness and his bliss, just to find out that you've only had the smallest drop of the endless ocean of his existence, and his being, and his fullness.
Sometimes realizing what you don't know is the most beautiful thing in the world.
And that's the one who's coming for you, the Rider who says, "Behold, I am coming soon. Long for me, wait for me, hope in me, and be ready. Stay awake."
On that day that my daughter was born, Amy brought our son up to the birthing center. And she told us about something that had never happened before. Whenever she told Asher that it was time to get ready to go and meet his new little sister, he did something that he'd never done. He wanted to pick out his clothes and comb his hair. I wasn't for sure that she brought the right little boy. I mean, cue the ZZ Top and some Sharp Dressed Man. Come on.
She said he was so concerned about being ready. He wanted to pick out his clothes and comb his hair. But the funny thing is he was only three years old at the time and he couldn't actually do it himself. He couldn't get himself ready. His little bubba arms and his little bubba legs would always get tangled up in his clothes every time he tried. And he lacked the mobile dexterity to comb his own hair. All he had was his little desire to be ready. But he had to let Aunt Mimi do it for him. He had to let her make him ready.
Who could possibly prepare themselves for the coming of this Rider? No one can.
But you can know that every time you look to him in your frustration, in your vexation, when you remember him and your longing and your desire for a world made right, then you can know in that moment that what's happening is that he's actually preparing you. He is readying you for his coming. And when he comes, he comes with a white robe and a crown of glory for you. And with him he brings joy, and peace and life that we will never come to fully know.
And in light of all that, it's no wonder the Bible ends with the words that it does. And the very words that we will use to end this series. "Come, Lord Jesus."
Let's pray.
