Lesson#49

THE PARABLES OF JESUS CHRIST
LESSON #49
THE PARABLE OF THE FIG TREE (MAT 24:32-35)

• MEMORY VERSE: EZE 37:14

• IN OUR LAST LESSON, WE ANSWERED ONE OF THE THREE QUESTIONS THE DISCIPLES ASKED JESUS.
• QUESTION #1, “WHEN SHALL THESE THINGS BE?”
• THE QUESTION AND THE ANSWER REFER TO JERUSALEM AND THE TEMPLE (MAT 23:37-38)
• THE ANSWER IS IN MAT 24:15-28.
• IN THIS LESSON, WE WILL ANSWER QUESTIONS #2 AND #3.
• QUESTION #2, “WHAT SHALL BE THE SIGN OF THY COMING?
• THIS QUESTION REFERS TO JESUS’ SECOND COMING.
• THE ANSWER IS IN MAT 24:29-31.
• QUESTION #3, “WHAT SHALL BE THE SIGN OF THE END OF THE AGE?”
• THIS QUESTION REFERS TO THE TIME FROM THE DAY OF PENTECOST UNTIL THE EVENT OF THE SECOND COMING OF CHRIST.
• THE ANSWER IS IN MAT 24:4-14

• QUESTION #3, “WHAT SHALL BE THE SIGN OF THE END OF THE AGE?”
• WE WILL CONSIDER QUESTION #3 FIRST BECAUSE THE PARABLE COMES RIGHT AFTER JESUS ANSWERED QUESTION #2.
• READ MAT 24:4-14
• THE SIGNS OF THE END OF THE CHURCH AGE INTO THE TRIBULATION PERIOD:
• FALSE MESSIAH’S (4-5)
• WARS AND RUMORS OF WARS, ETHNIC CONFLICTS (NATION AGAINST NATION), AND POLITICAL CONFLICTS (KINGDOM AGAINST KINGDOM) (6-7)
• FAMINES, PESTILENCE, EARTHQUAKES (7)
• PERSECUTION AND ANTI-SEMITISM (9-10)
• FALSE PROPHETS (11)
• AN INCREASE IN SIN, IMMORALITY, HATRED, AND VIOLENCE (12)
• THE PREACHING OF THE GOSPEL THROUGHOUT THE WORLD IN ALL NATIONS (ETHNIC GROUPS) (14)

• QUESTION #2, “WHAT SHALL BE THE SIGN OF THY COMING?
• READ MAT 24:29-31
• JESUS SAYS THAT THE EVENT OF HIS SECOND COMING IS IMMEDIATELY AT THE END OF THE SEVEN-YEAR TRIBULATION PERIOD.
• THEN THERE WILL BE CHANGES IN THE SKY.
• THE ANGELS WILL GATHER ALL THE DEAD CHRISTIANS FROM THE TRIBULATION PERIOD, ALL THE RAPTURED BELIEVERS FROM THE CHURCH AGE, AND ALL THE OLD TESTAMENT SAINTS. THESE THREE GROUPS OF BELIEVERS WILL COME BACK TO EARTH WITH CHRIST AT HIS COMING.

• READ THE PARABLE IN MAT 24:32-36
• WHAT DOES THE FIG TREE REPRESENT?
• REMEMBER THE PARABLE OF THE FIG TREE AND FAITH IN MAT 21:18-22 (LESSON #41)?
• THE FIG TREE IN THAT PARABLE REPRESENTED ISRAEL. THEREFORE WE MUST KEEP THE MEANING OF THE SYMBOLS CONSISTENT IN OUR INTERPRETATION.
• READ HOS 9:10
• WHAT DID JESUS MEAN BY THE WORDS, “WHEN ITS BRANCH IS YET YENDER, AND PUTTETH FORTH LEAVES”?
• READ EZE 37:1-14 THE OLD TESTAMENT PROPHECY ABOUT ISRAEL:
• THE BLOSSOMING OF THE FIG TREE REFERS TO THE ESTABLISHMENT OF ISRAEL AS A NATION.
• WHEN DID ISRAEL BECOME A NATION? IN 1948.
• THE HISTORY OF ISRAEL BECOMING A NATION:
• IN 1917 THE BRITISH GOVERNMENT SIGNED THE BALFOUR DECLARATION THAT COMMITTED THAT COUNTRY TO FAVOR THE ESTABLISHMENT OF ISRAEL AS A NATION.
• IN 1918 WITH THE HELP OF A FEW JEWS, GREAT BRITAIN ATTACKED THE TURKS WHO POSSESSED THE LAND OF ISRAEL.
• IN 1922, AFTER WORLD WAR I, THE LEAGUE OF NATIONS RATIFIED THE BALFOUR DECLARATION AND GAVE GREAT BRITAIN THE MANDATE TO GOVERN THE TERRITORY
• IN 1936, ARAB GUERRILLA WARFARE PUT PRESSURE ON GREAT BRITIAN TO STOP THE IMMIGRATION OF THE JEWS TO ISRAEL. GREAT BRITIAN BOWED TO THE PRESSURE. THEREFORE, THE JEWS TURNED AGAINST GREAT BRITIAN. AS A RESULT, THE BRITISH DISARMED THE JEWS.
• IN 1947 THE UNITED NATIONS INTERVENED AND DIVIDED THE LAND INTO TWO INDEPENDENT STATES, ONE FOR THE JEWS AND ONE FOR THE ARABS WITH JERUSALEM OPEN TO ALL AS AN INTERNATIONAL CITY RUN BY THE UNITED NATIONS. THE JEWS ACCEPTED THE MANDATE, BUT THE ARABS REJECTED IT AND ATTACKED THE JEWS.
• IN 1948, GREAT BRITIAN LEFT ISRAEL WITHOUT ANY DEFENSE. ISRAEL DECLARED ITS INDEPENDENCE. ARAB ARMIES FROM SYRIA, EGYPT, LEBANON, JORDAN, SAUDI ARABIA, AND IRAQ ATTACKED THAT SAME DAY.
• THE UNITED STATES WAS THE FIRST NATION TO RECOGNIZE THE NEW NATION OF ISRAEL AS AN IDEPENDENT NATION.
• ACCORDING TO EZE 37, THE VICTORY OCCURRED BY THE POWER OF GOD THAT BREATHED LIFE BACK INTO THE DEAD BONES OF ISRAEL.
• WHAT DOES SUMMER REPRESENT? (32)
• REMEMBER THAT WHEN THE FIG TREE BLOSSOMS, IT IS A SIGN THAT THE FRUIT IS ON THE TREE AND THAT SUMMER IS NEAR
• THE SUMMER REPRESENTS THE EVENT OF THE COMING OF THE LORD.
• AFTER A LONG HARD WINTER OF SUFFERING, WHEN THE JEWS WERE OUT OF THE PROMISED LAND FROM 70 AD TO 1948, BLESSING WOULD FOLLOW FOR THEM WHEN THEY BECAME A NATION.
• THE LAND OF ISRAEL BEGAN TO BLOSSOM AFTER CENTURIES OF NEGLECT.
• THE NATION BECAME STRONG.
• GOD PROTECTED THE NATION AND ITS PEOPLE FROM THEIR ENEMIES.
• THE SIX-DAY WAR OF 1967 WHEN ISRAEL OBTAINED POSSESSION OF JERUSALEM AND THE TEMPLE MOUNT.
• THE YOM KIPPUR WAR OF 1973.
• THE PUZZLING STATEMENT IN MAT 24:34
• JESUS SAYS THAT THIS GENERATION WILL NOT PASS AWAY UNTIL ALL THESE THINGS ARE FULFILLED.
• TO WHICH THINGS DOES JESUS REFER?
• TO EVERYTHING IN MAT 24 INCLUDING THE EVENT OF HIS SECOND COMING????
• TO WHAT GENERATION DOES JESUS REFER IN MAT 24:34?
• FIRST WE NEED TO KNOW THE DURATION OF A GENERATION.
• TODAY A GENERATION IS BETWEEN 20 AND 30 YEARS.
• THE WORD, “GENERATION” IS genea OR genus WHICH MEANS RACE OR FAMILY AND REFERS TO THE JEWS, AND TO THE POINT IN TIME WHEN A MAN HAS HIS FIRST CHILD.
• THROUGH THE BIBLE, THE LENGTH OF A GENERATION HAS CHANGED OVER TIME. REMEMBER THOSE IN GENESIS LIVED HUNDREDS OF YEARS (METHUSALEH LIVED 969 YRS.). NOAH LIVED 950 YEARS AND HAD HIS FIRST CHILD WHEN HE WAS 500 YEARS OLD.
• JESUS SAID HIS SECOND COMING WOULD BE LIKE IN THE DAYS OF NOAH. (MAT 24:37) DID JESUS MEAN THE LENGTH OF THE GENERATION THAT WOULD NOT PASS AWAY WAS 500 YEARS????
• BY THE TIME OF MOSES, A GENERATION HAD DECREASED CONSIDERABLY. A GENERATION WAS 40 YEARS. (NUM 32:13)
• IN THE TIME OF THE NEW TESTAMENT WHEN JESUS SPOKE THESE WORDS, A GENERATION WAS BETWEEN 30 AND 40 YEARS.
• OBVIOUSLY JESUS DID NOT MEAN THESE THINGS WOULD OCCUR WITHIN 30 OR 40 YEARS OF HIS SPEAKING, BECAUSE WE STILL WAIT.
• OBVIOUSLY JESUS DID NOT MEAN 30 OR 40 YEARS FROM 1948 WHEN ISRAEL WAS ESTABLISHED, BECAUSE WE STILL WAIT.
• SOME SAY THE BLOSSOMING OF ISRAEL OCCURRED IN THE SIX DAY WAR OF 1967. THE GENERATION OF 40 YEARS ENDS IN 2007.
• CONCLUSION:
• WE DON’T KNOW FOR SURE HOW LONG WE SHOULD ALLOW FOR A GENERATION.
• WE DON’T KNOW FOR SURE IF JESUS MEANT THAT THE STARTING DATE FOR THE GENERATION SHOULD BE 1948 OR 1967 OR SOME OTHER MAJOR EVENT IN ISRAEL.
• THEREFORE, WE MUST CONCLUDE THAT NO MAN KNOWS THE HOUR OR THE DAY. WE CAN ONLY DETERMINE THE APPROXIMATE SEASON.
• WHAT IS THE CENTRAL TRUTH OF THIS PARABLE?
• ISRAEL IS GOD’S TIME CLOCK OF PROPHECY. THEREFORE, WE SHOULD WATCH WHAT HAPPENS TO ISRAEL IF WE WANT TO UNDERSTAND THE EVENTS THAT APPROACH THE BIG EVENT OF THE SECOND COMING OF CHRIST.

HOMEWORK
THE PARABLE OF THE THIEF AND THE HOUEHOLDER (MAT 24:43-44)
THIS IS A SELF-STUDY. PLEASE DO NOT SEND HOMEWORK ANSWERS TO THE TEACHER FORCORRECTION.

• APPLICATION OF THE PARABLE OF THE FIG TREE (MAT 24:32-35)
• WHAT IS YOUR ATTITUDE TOWARD ISRAEL AND THE JEWS?

• DO YOU FOLLOW THE NEWS THAT COMES OUT OF ISRAEL?

• PREPARATION FOR THE PARABLE OF THE THIEF AND THE HOUSEHOLDER (MAT 24:43-44)
• READ MAT 24 AND REVIEW YOUR NOTES FROM THE LAST TWO LESSONS (#48 AND #49)

• WHO DOES THE THIEF REPRESENT?

• WHO DOES THE “HOUSEHOLDER” (GOOD MAN OF THE HOUSE) REPRESENT?

• WHAT DOES THE HOUSE REPRESENT?

• WHICH EVENT IS JESUS TALKING ABOUT, THE RAPTURE OF THE CHURCH OR THE EVENT OF THE SECOND COMING OF CHRIST? HOW DO YOU KNOW?

• WHAT IS THE CENTRAL TRUTH OF THE PARABLE?

• MEMORY VERSE: MAT 24:44