The Not Alert vs. the Alert (Matthew 24:42-44).Thursday December 18, 2025
The Text:
Mat 24:42 “Therefore be on the alert, for you do not know which day your Lord is coming.”
“Therefore” referring back to “no one knows, not angels, not even the Lord Himself” vs. 36.
The lack of certainty as to the exact time of His return is the emphasis through the rest of the chapter and into chapter 25.
“Be on the alert” - one word. Keep watching. Commandment.
Why? The causal clause: because you do not know the day your Lord is coming. That’s why you have to be continually alert.
From the pretrib rapture view, this certainly applies. A question we face is whether the Lord Jesus is giving His commandment here to the church or to the generation in the Tribulation.
1Th 5:1-11 Now as to the times and the epochs, brethren, you have no need of anything to be written to you. 2 For you yourselves know full well that the day of the Lord will come just like a thief in the night. 3 While they are saying, "Peace and safety!" then destruction will come upon them suddenly like labor pains upon a woman with child, and they will not escape. 4 But you, brethren, are not in darkness, that the day would overtake you like a thief; 5 for you are all sons of light and sons of day. We are not of night nor of darkness; 6 so then let us not sleep as others do, but let us be alert [PAS] and sober. 7 For those who sleep do their sleeping at night, and those who get drunk get drunk at night. 8 But since we are of the day, let us be sober, having put on the breastplate of faith and love, and as a helmet, the hope of salvation. 9 For God has not destined us for wrath, but for obtaining salvation through our Lord Jesus Christ, 10 who died for us, so that whether we are awake [PAS] or asleep, we will live together with Him. 11 Therefore encourage one another and build up one another, just as you also are doing.
Also applies to the Tribulation generation:
Just after pouring out sixth bowl (7 seals, 7 trumpets, 7 bowls)
Rev 16:13-16 And I saw coming out of the mouth of the dragon and out of the mouth of the beast and out of the mouth of the false prophet, three unclean spirits like frogs; 14 for they are spirits of demons, performing signs, which go out to the kings of the whole world, to gather them together for the war of the great day of God, the Almighty. 15 ("Behold, I am coming like a thief. Blessed is the one who stays awake and keeps his clothes, so that he will not walk about naked and men will not see his shame.") 16 And they gathered them together to the place which in Hebrew is called Har-Magedon.
“These illustrations, beginning in verse 32, have as their primary interpretation and exhortation the situation immediately preceding the second coming of Christ. But there is application to those living today in expectation of the rapture.” [Walvoord]
Mat 24:42 “Therefore be on the alert, for you do not know which day your Lord is coming.”
Mat 24:43 “But be sure of this, that if the head of the house had known at what time of the night the thief was coming, he would have been on the alert and would not have allowed his house to be broken into.”
The illustration is more or less common sense, but what is not common sense is relating it to His coming.
Had known - he couldn’t possibly. What watch - one of four 3 hour periods in the night (6pm - 6am). Alert - same as vs. 42
If he had known what watch, he would have only to be alert for a 3 hour period.
The verb “broken into” is also used in a very applicable way by our Lord.
Mat 6:19-21 “Do not store up for yourselves treasures on earth, where moth and rust destroy, and where thieves break in and steal. 20 But store up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where neither moth nor rust destroys, and where thieves do not break in or steal; 21 for where your treasure is, there your heart will be also.”
Mat 24:44 “For this reason you also must be ready; for the Son of Man is coming at an hour when you do not think He will.”
Not knowing His return: Tribulation or Church?
Excellent scholars in both camps. They make their cases.
Taking Christ at His word and keeping the context in the Tribulation, which it seems to be, He is referring to the Tribulation. This is debated, so you can make your own determination.
I’ll give you something to think on. And use it as a good transition to talk about why mystery is essential to our spiritual and mental health.
Dan 12:11-12 "From the time that the regular sacrifice is abolished and the abomination of desolation is set up, there will be 1,290 days. 12 "How blessed is he who keeps waiting and attains to the 1,335 days!
1,260 is 3.5 years (Rev 11:3; Rev 12:6). Why the extra 30 days (copyists error is unlikely with Hebrew Scriptures)? Why the extra 75? Lots of theories, no one knows.
The mindset of the not alert vs. the alert.
Mat 24:36-39 “But of that day and hour no one knows, not even the angels of heaven, nor the Son, but the Father alone. 37 For the coming of the Son of Man will be just like the days of Noah. 38 For as in those days before the flood they were eating and drinking, marrying and giving in marriage, until the day that Noah entered the ark, 39 and they did not understand until the flood came and took them all away; so will the coming of the Son of Man be.”
What is pointed out about the people in the days of Noah is not immorality or any sin, but that they were going about their daily business imagining that nothing would ever change, even though Noah had had an enormous ark parked in his driveway while he preached the gospel for over 100 years.
Just as Christ refers, in the Tribulation, the so-called great city of Babylon will have the same psychology.
Rev 18:7 To the degree that she glorified herself and lived sensuously, to the same degree give her torment and mourning; for she says in her heart, 'I SIT as A QUEEN AND I AM NOT A WIDOW, and will never see mourning.'
They are confident. Surrounded by walls; separated from the misery outside (woes); rich and sensual - all will go on as it has. Until…
Rev 18:8 “For this reason in one day her plagues will come, pestilence and mourning and famine, and she will be burned up with fire; for the Lord God who judges her is strong.”
Mat 24:48-51 “But if that evil slave says in his heart, 'My master is not coming for a long time,' 49 and begins to beat his fellow slaves and eat and drink with drunkards; 50 the master of that slave will come on a day when he does not expect him and at an hour which he does not know, 51 and will cut him in pieces and assign him a place with the hypocrites; in that place there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth.”
The mindset of the not alert: Security and sensuality at all costs leading to madness.
How about today? Is it any different? Don’t fall for it. Don’t fall asleep spiritually.
1 Th 5:6 so then let us not sleep as others do, but let us be alert and sober
Mindset of the alert: He lives happily in the paradox of knowing and not knowing.
He knows that the Lord is coming any day but he does not know when. He expects the Lord today though he knows it may be unlikely. In a word, he lives in a mystery.
Mystery is dependence. It is the quality of saying “I don’t know.”
I do not mean the mystery that Paul writes about; which is the full revelation of Christ and the church. |