Found in Christ / Matthew 24:36–44 / Pr. Ted A. Giese / Sunday November 30th 2025/ Season of Advent / Mount Olive Lutheran Church

Mount Olive Lutheran Church / Pr. Ted A. Giese / Sunday November 30th 2025: Season of Advent / Matthew 24:36–44 “Found in Christ”

“But concerning that day and hour no one knows, not even the angels of heaven, nor the Son, but the Father only. 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, and they were unaware until the flood came and swept them all away, so will be the coming of the Son of Man. Then two men will be in the field; one will be taken and one left. Two women will be grinding at the mill; one will be taken and one left. Therefore, stay awake, for you do not know on what day your Lord is coming. But know this, that if the master of the house had known in what part of the night the thief was coming, he would have stayed awake and would not have let his house be broken into. Therefore you also must be ready, for the Son of Man is coming at an hour you do not expect.

Let us pray: May the words of my mouth and the meditations of all our hearts be acceptable in Your sight O Lord. Amen.

Grace peace and mercy to you from God our Father and from our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ. Good Christian Friends in a moment, in the twinkling of an eye, at the last trumpet we shall all be changed. For the trumpet will sound, and the dead will be raised imperishable, and we shall be changed.”[1] Saint Paul calls this a mystery. Jesus in our Gospel today describes this moment when He says, “two men will be in the field; one will be taken and one left. Two women will be grinding at the mill; one will be taken and one left.” He says this after describing That Day to be like when Noah entered the Ark with his family, and the rest of the people of the world were unaware of what was coming, that is, until the flood came and swept them all away. They were eating and drinking, marrying and giving in marriage, and then suddenly they were swept away in the judgment and only Noah and his family were left behind to continue in the righteousness of the Lord. And so it will be for us on The Last Day at the Second Advent of our Lord. Jesus says it will be all business as usual for the people living without faith in His heavenly Father, without faith in Him, and on That Day they’ll have no worry or expectation that anything would happen, that an end would come, that they would be taken away from the land of the living, from their Sunday brunches and cottages and hobbies and sports and lazy boy recliners, from their pensions and investments and bank accounts, from their property and heirlooms and keepsakes. All of these prove only to be knick knacks when the Lord Himself descends from heaven with a cry of command, with the voice of an archangel, and with the sound of the trumpet of God. Yes, when the dead in Christ are raised up[2] and the living are transformed in the twinkling of an eye, then the separation of the righteous (justified in Christ alone) and the wicked (justified in themselves alone) will be instantaneous and the only ones who will truly understand what has happened in that moment will be the faithful ones who kept watch and were found in the Lord.

We don’t know the exact number of years and months and weeks and day and hours and minutes that Noah watched and waited for God to destroy the wicked along with the earth[3] between when God command Noah to build the Ark and the day when all the fountains of the great deep burst forth, and the windows of the heavens were opened and God shut the door of the Ark upon him and his family,[4] but it was likely a maximum of 75 years because his sons needed to be old enough to be married.[5] In our lives we are only given so much time to watch for the Advent of the Lord Jesus’ Second Coming and that moment when the wicked will be taken away from us so that we may be left behind to remain with the Lord to live in His peace. Some of us don’t make 75 years, and  some don’t have much more than that, a smaller number of us push toward 100 years and a blessed few have over a hundred years to watch and wait, and yet regardless of how much time you’ve been given the Christian is to watch and wait, to go about their work and then on That Day to be found standing on the Rock who is Christ Jesus the Lord[6] and not to be found standing on their own works and accomplishments and the many other things that won’t save you, all those things that are shifting as sand.[7]

Jesus says, “Concerning that day and hour no one knows, not even the angels of heaven, nor the Son, but the Father only,” so He says, “stay awake, for you do not know on what day your Lord is coming.” Jesus promises that He “is coming at an hour you do not expect.” John the Baptizer says that on That Day the Lord will appear with, “His winnowing fork is in His hand, to clear His threshing floor and to gather the wheat into His barn, but the chaff He will burn with unquenchable fire.”[8] Psalm One describes the believer living in the righteousness of the Lord as on “like a tree planted by streams of water that yields its fruit in its season, and its leaf does not wither. In all that he does, he prospers. The wicked,” the Psalmist says, “are not so, but are like chaff that the wind drives away.”[9] If your roots are deep, if you’re found rooted in the righteous goodness of the Lord Jesus then the wind will not drive you away. The chaff will be swept away into hellfire and you will be left to grow and yield fruit eternally in the Lord firmly rooted in Him.

This morning we heard about Noah and his family and how the Lord saves us like them through water. In our case we aren’t asked to build an Ark, in baptism the Lord shut little Grace into the Ark of the Church and the waters of baptism then washed away every sin that would separate her from the Lord. Saint Peter one of the first hearers of the words of our Gospel today teaches that “Baptism, which corresponds to this [flood experienced by Noah and his family], now saves you, not as a removal of dirt from the body but as an appeal to God for a good conscience, through the resurrection of Jesus Christ, who has gone into heaven and is at the right hand of God, with angels, authorities, and powers having been subjected to Him.”[10]

Scripture presents the return of Jesus as the most public of events, there will be nothing secret about it, the wicked and the righteous, the living and the dead will all be witnesses to it. No eye will miss seeing it. The dead will be raised to see it, all will be transformed and all will be judged. They will be judged to be in Christ Jesus, ones with faith the baptised or they will be judged to be outside of Christ ones without faith, as Jesus says “whoever believes and is baptized will be saved, but whoever does not believe will be condemned.”[11]

When God commanded Noah to build the Ark it would have been foolish to put off building it. Noah set himself to work following what God had commanded him to do, driving home every peg of wood in the construction, painting on every drip and drop of pitch to make it waterproof, making every preparation for him and his family in light of what the Lord promised to do. Had he lived his life as if the day would never come what good would that have accomplished. In the same way we would be fools if we lived our lives like there were no consequences and the end couldn’t come this very hour, we would be fools to teach our kids that the spiritual and religious life of faith in Jesus is something for later in life and not for right now? We would be fools to pretend with the dying that they aren’t in fact dying? We would be fools think to ourselves: ‘I’ll come to church when I have more time, when it suits me, when I have nothing else to do? I’ll read my bible when I have more time, when it suits me, when I have nothing else to do? I’ll pray when I have more time, when it suits me, when I have nothing else to do? I’ll teach my kids and grandkids the faith when I have more time, when it suits me, when I have nothing else to do? I’ll attend to the needs of the aged and dying when I have more time, when it suits me, when I have nothing else to do?’ Are these the thoughts and plans of the wise or of the foolish? Is such an approach cautious or reckless? Wise King Solomon, King David’s son, teaches in Proverbs, “One who is wise is cautious and turns away from evil, but a fool is reckless and careless.”[12] And so we return to the two men in the field, the two women grinding grain into flower at the mill, one is wise and watches and waits for the coming of the Lord, the fulfilment of His promises to them, the other is foolish with no care for such things, no interest in the promises of the Lord.

Jesus is teaching His disciples all of these things during Holy Week and they don’t know what will happen by the end of the week. We are in the Season of Advent preparing to celebrate both Jesus’ first coming in His birth and His second coming on The Last Day. We know that God promised Jesus’ first coming all through The Old Testament and there were wise and foolish people mixed in together that whole time, where some watched and waited and others lived with no care for such promises; and at the time of Jesus’ First Advent and birth in Bethlehem there were some living and working, eating and drinking, marrying and giving in marriage who were wise and there were also some living and working, eating and drinking, marrying and giving in marriage who were foolish; in our day today there are wise people who are watching and waiting in anticipation while others foolishly work and grind away without a concern for the Second Advent and return of Jesus on The Last Day. The mother and father who come to have their baby baptised are ones preparing for a life in the Lord and for the Advent of Jesus’ Second Coming. The mother and father with no intention of having their children baptised or to raise them in the Lord are in no way preparing for the sudden and imminent return of Jesus. What if the Lord returns when you don’t expect Him to return?

Municipalities build fire halls and man them with firefighters and provide them with equipment and infrastructure without knowing when or where a fire might suddenly appear. They wisely make sure that there is someone watching and ready in the event of a fire, it would be foolish for a city to not do these things. In our Gospel Jesus says, “If the master of the house had known in what part of the night the thief was coming, he would have stayed awake and would not have let his house be broken into.” So be ready every night, just as the fire department is ready every day. And in the same way when it comes to your faith be ready, keep watch, stay awake, for the Son of Man is coming at an hour you do not expect.

As Christians do we need to be frightened of that moment? This is a question people have: If that moment comes while we live our natural lives, if it comes in the days before we enter into our rest in the Lord do we need to be afraid of that moment? Jesus says no, for the Christian we can live with peace concerning That Day for when we see the Son of Man coming in a cloud with power and great glory Jesus says, “Straighten up and raise your heads, because your redemption is drawing near.”[13] Saint Paul reminds us that, “salvation is nearer to us now than when we first believed. [And that] the night is far gone; the day is at hand.” And, “So [Saint Paul encourages us saying] let us then cast off the works of darkness and put on the armor of light.”[14]  Dear ones we do this as ones baptised, as ones with our faith in Christ, held in the Ark of the Church, held in His Almighty Hand from which you will never be taken away. Remember what Jesus says, “I give them eternal life, and they will never perish, and no one will snatch them out of My hand. My Father, who has given them to Me, is greater than all, and no one is able to snatch them out of the Father’s hand.”[15] Where then do you want to be found when the Last Trumpet sounds, when the Lord returns for a Second Time? 

Let us pray:

Lord have mercy on us, Christ have mercy on us, Lord have mercy on us, “take our minds and think through them, take our lips and speak through them, take our hearts and set them on fire; for the sake of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ, Amen.

[1] 1 Corinthians 15:52
[2] 1 Thessalonians 4:16
[3] Genesis 6:13
[4] Genesis 7:11, 16
[5] Genesis 5:32, “After Noah was five hundred years old, Noah fathered Shem, Ham, and Japheth.” Genesis 7:6, “Noah was six hundred years old when the flood of waters came upon the earth.”
[6] Psalm 94:22
[7] Matthew 7:24–27
[8] Luke 3:17
[9] Psalm 1:3–4
[10] 1 Peter 3:21–22
[11] Mark 16:16
[12] Proverbs 14:16
[13] Luke 21:27–28
[14] Romans 13:11b-12
[15] John 10:28–29

Photo Credit: Main photo provided by photographer Pastor Ted Giese on behalf of Mount Olive Lutheran Church.