Ask Jesus

As he sat on the Mount of Olives, the disciples came to him privately, saying, “Tell us, when will these things be, and what will be the sign of your coming and of the close of the age?”

Matthew 24:3(ESV)

Jesus has just concluded His condemnation of the Pharisees where we saw that He called them hypocrites for the way they twisted the law and made themselves appear to be righteous, yet all the while they remained as evil as ever on the inside. Jesus concludes by saying that this is the reason prophets were sent to them, but they chose to kill the prophets instead of heeding their warnings. Now Jesus tells them that the blood of these prophets is on their hands, and that the generation that was hearing these words would be judged for all of these things.

Jesus then tells them that His desire was to gather them up and protect them as a mother hen does with her chicks, but they are not willing to submit. Because of their attitude of self righteousness, judgment is passed on them and Jesus tells them that their house will be left desolate. All of these things happened in 70 A.D. just as Jesus said they would, but that is not where I want to focus our attention today.

The disciples were also here and they have witnessed this exchange between Jesus and the Pharisees; they are confused by what they have just seen, so they come to him privately and they ask Him 3 questions: When will these things take place, what is the sign of Your coming, and what is the sign of the end of the age? Again, I am not going to deal with these questions today; today I want us to focus on the fact that the disciples came to Jesus privately and asked Him questions about what they didn't understand from His teaching. This is what we, as disciples of Christ should be doing as well. How often de we read something in the Bible that we do not understand and our first inclination is to find our favorite commentary or study Bible to see what Dr.so-and-so has to say about the passage instead of seeking the answer from God Himself.

I realize that the disciples had Jesus physically with them, but we have the Holy Spirit with us and we can ask Him questions just like they did with Jesus. So today, I want us to take some time to think about the fact that the disciples asked Jesus questions, and that He answered them. Then remember that in John 16:7, Jesus said that it was to their advantage that He go away, because then the Holy Spirit would come, so the next time you are reading the Bible, or listening to a sermon, and think "I don't really understand this" go get alone with God, and asked Him to give you the answer? Remember, we have an advantage that the disciples didn't have (at least at that time); we have the Holy Spirit living inside of us.

Ask Jesus, He does answer. Print This Post