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Prophecy, Olivet
(From Forerunner Commentary)

Parables of the Olivet Prophecy Parable Verses Lesson Fig Tree Matthew 24:32-35 Though the exact time only God knows, one can know the signs of Christ's return. Thief Matthew 24:36-44 Always be prepared for His coming. Faithful and True Servants Matthew 24:45-51 God's servants must be faithful and wise in carrying out their responsibilities and relationships in the Body of Christ. Ten Virgins Matthew 25:1-13 Christians must have constant contact with God to deepen their relationship with Him. Talents Matthew 25:14-30 Christians must constantly work with and improve upon the gifts God has given. Sheep and Goats Matthew 25:31-46 By serving fellow Christians, one serves his Savior. John W. Ritenbaugh The World, the Church and Laodiceanism

The six parables of the Olivet Prophecy can be summarized in the following six principles: Though not knowing the day or hour of Christ's return, we can know the signs. God requires us to live in expectation with vigilance and constant watchfulness. God requires faithfulness to duty and wisdom in dealing with our fellow man. God requires preparedness through spiritual development, working on our relationship with Him, and increasing the Holy Spirit. God requires us to grow in the grace and the knowledge of Jesus Christ (II Peter 3:18). Christ will judge us by how we treat Him and our brethren. We cannot fool the King—He can discern true love from false love. Nobody will pass under the rod through hypocrisy. Jesus understood what the end time would be like, and thus He gave commensurate instruction on how to overcome it and how not to be drawn into this world's distractions. A Christian cannot afford to succumb to these pressure-packed, enervating, and distracting times that we live in. These God-given principles apply to a multitude of specific circumstances: how we conduct our marriages and careers, how we rear our children, how we run our homes, how we drive a car, how we dress, how we talk, how we entertain ourselves. In every case—always—the Kingdom of God covers all parts of our lives. It covers everything all the time for those who are called in this age. We look to the future, but we live in the present. Are we living by what we believe? Are we truly living by faith? We look for a city whose builder is God, and as His representatives we witness for Him in the way we live our lives. The Laodicean is distracted—he is living by what he sees—and is useless to Christ because he is not a faithful and true witness. The righteous live by faith not by sight (II Corinthians 5:7). And so we must live and grow as the return of Christ nears day by day. John W. Ritenbaugh The World, the Church and Laodiceanism

Acts 1:6-7  (Go to this verse :: Verse pop-up) The apostles were curious and excited about this kind of thing, just as we are today, and their question was not even specifically about a certain day, because they were hopeful that the time had already arrived. Christ was every bit as general in His answer as they were with their question. Again, though, they are very clearly told they were not going to know. This statement coordinates with what Jesus said in the Olivet Prophecy (Matthew 24:36), but He expands the thought from day and hour to time and season, which are even more general. He told the apostles they were not even going to know the time or the season. The word time here means "the duration of a period of time." An hour would be a very short duration. A day would be a bit longer, but the implication from the word "time" is of a period much more expansive than that. The word "season" means a length of time characterized by certain events, like the Christmas Season. Even in our culture, the Christmas Season seems to extend now from Thanksgiving, (and even before Thanksgiving in some cases), all the way into January a week or so. So even the common usage here in the United States, a season would be somewhere between two and three months. Jesus' response to them was more general than the day nor the hour. He also says something very pointed here: "It's not for you to know." What He was doing was counseling them to avoid probing into these things. He was in a sense saying, "It's a waste of time. You have more important things to do than to be thinking about this." In short, the disciples were not even to know the general period of time of the establishment of God's Kingdom. John W. Ritenbaugh Where Is the Beast? (Part 3)

 

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