Matthew 24:27-44 “For as the lightning cometh out of the east, and shineth even unto the west; so shall also the coming of the Son of man be. For wheresoever the carcase is, there will the eagles be gathered together. Immediately after the tribulation of those days shall the sun be darkened, and the moon shall not give her light, and the stars shall fall from heaven, and the powers of the heavens shall be shaken: And then shall appear the sign of the Son of man in heaven: and then shall all the tribes of the earth mourn, and they shall see the Son of man coming in the clouds of heaven with power and great glory. And he shall send his angels with a great sound of a trumpet, and they shall gather together his elect from the four winds, from one end of heaven to the other. Now learn a parable of the fig tree; When his branch is yet tender, and putteth forth leaves, ye know that summer is nigh: So likewise ye, when ye shall see all these things, know that it is near, even at the doors. Verily I say unto you, This generation shall not pass, till all these things be fulfilled. Heaven and earth shall pass away, but my words shall not pass away. But of that day and hour knoweth no man, no, not the angels of heaven, but my Father only. But as the days of Noah were, so shall also the coming of the Son of man be. For as in the days that were before the flood they were eating and drinking, marrying and giving in marriage, until the day that Noe entered into the ark, And knew not until the flood came, and took them all away; so shall also the coming of the Son of man be. Then shall two be in the field; the one shall be taken, and the other left. Two women shall be grinding at the mill; the one shall be taken, and the other left. Watch therefore: for ye know not what hour your Lord doth come. But know this, that if the goodman of the house had known in what watch the thief would come, he would have watched, and would not have suffered his house to be broken up. Therefore be ye also ready: for in such an hour as ye think not the Son of man cometh.”This passage is about the Revelation of Jesus Christ, when He comes to earth to establish His kingdom, after the Great Tribulation. It is not about the Rapture of the Church, as many mistakenly believe. The passage has a distinctively Jewish application, in keeping with the theme of the book, “Jesus–the King of the Jews.”
Though Bible believers, during the Tribulation, will know the year of the Revelation because it will be seven years after the Rapture, they will not know the day nor the hour of His coming. No one, in that intense time of persecution, will know the precise time of His coming. But Jesus teaches here that Tribulation saints will know the approximate time of His Revelation. To make His teaching clear, He uses three illustrations. First, is the illustration of the fig tree. The fig tree is a symbol of Israel in the Scriptures. Jesus said that when the Tribulation saints begin to see some life in Israel, when many Jews are being converted to Christ, when these prophecies are coming to pass, the coming of Christ is near. It should be noted that the greatest revival that the world will ever see is yet future. Millions and millions will be saved, including millions of Jews, when the gospel is preached during the Tribulation period. The dormant fig tree will come to life again! The “generation” that Jesus refers to in v.34 is the Jewish generation (i.e., the Jewish decedents, the children of Israel, the Jewish people). It is a promise that the Jewish people will not be annihilated, extinguished, or destroyed before these prophecies are fulfilled, which is another way of saying that God has a bright future yet for the Jewish people.
In Jesus’ second illustration, He says that the time of His coming to establish His kingdom will be like the days of Noah. Many people will be preoccupied with their own personal concerns and will be ignoring their coming doom. Though millions and millions of people (including many Jews) will be saved during those days of awful judgment, it will still be a minority of the population that will be saved. Only a small minority entered into Noah’s ark and were saved. So all Christ rejectors, in every age, will will go down to hell and eternal punishment .
Jesus’ third illustration is about the thief in the night. If Tribulation saints knew exactly when Jesus would come as to the very day and hour, they would try to get right with God at the very last moment. But His coming will be like the coming of a thief in the night, unannounced and unexpected.
Believers in both the Church Age (today!) and in the Tribulation should be ready, all the time, for Jesus to come. Tribulation saints are implored to be ready for Him to come in judgment. People in our own day are implored to be ready for Him to come to receive His own people unto Himself. In both cases, those who are not ready go into a judgment.