Wherever The Corpse Is… (Matthew 24:28)

Introduction

That’s what it was supposed to look like. Or something similar to that. So if your notes were all messed up this morning, you can amend them now. Doesn’t that look much better? Now I must apologize to Scott who I threw under the bus I thought he had messed them up. Actually, we’re going to blame this on the computer. It was a font issue, and I’m really struggling, and actually, this is not the same font. It actually looked better. I’m struggling getting that font from my computer to this computer. It has been a nightmare. So at least you can see what it might have been like this morning. Hopefully, the message with the lack of visual support was somewhat helpful to you anyway. And then I looked down just now, and my notes for tonight’s sermon are upside down.

So I’m having a very challenging day. But I did need to apologize to Scott. It was not his fault. It was Daniel’s fault, and he wasn’t even here. All right. Tonight, we’re going to talk about a not so pleasant subject. Something that has touched the lives of us all. But I want to talk to you about something that’s far worse than physical death. As hurtful and painful as the loss of a loved one can be, or as we will each experience, unless the Lord returns, the sting of death ourselves. Far worse than that. As extreme as that is spiritual death is far worse. The New Testament so often couches alienation from God with this familiar analogy with its exceedingly dreadful, surpassingly horrific and eternally tragic consequences.

In most cases, we know when physical death occurs. Now, every now and then, clever writers might cause us to not know in the midst of a story whether people were actually alive or not. That was sort of what was debated during the TV series Lost. Had they really died on Oceanic 815? And were they in some kind of purgatory, or were they really alive? And so there was a lot of conjecture about that till the end, sort of maybe cleared that up a little bit. It was very difficult, I think, to figure out. And now there’s lost Part 2. And this show is called Manifest, where a plane is gone, they think the passengers on the plane, they’ve only been gone a couple of hours, they land and find out they’ve been missing for five years.

This has no basis in reality whatsoever. But it makes for good TV shows, I guess, and TV writing. Look at all you can do with the characters. But one of the things I noticed about this particular show is the emphasis on flight 828 and how they’ve wrapped it around a verse. Romans 8 28, and that’s actually a pillow from the mother of one of the passengers that she embroidered and had said this to her daughter the last time that she saw her. All things work together for good. 8 28. Romans 8 28. But that’s about physical death. Spiritual death should be more greatly feared. This is a scary verse in the New Testament, Ephesians 2, verse 1. It’s also full of hope for the Christian, but when it says, and you were dead in your trespasses and sins.

Now, we look at that verse and we think, oh, that was our former life before we became a Christian. And that’s absolutely right. Back here there was death in our trespasses and sins. But now you’re made alive. What a great story. The message of redemption in Christ. But a lot of people don’t get to experience the death to life that we have experienced. Most of the people that we come in contact with. If indeed there is a broad gate and a broad way that leads to destruction, and many are going in thereat. A lot of the people that we come in contact with in the world reside in this death, and they don’t even know it. The devil is all about veneer and camouflage and enhancing the appearance of what is only death.

Because he is a liar. He is a murderer. Jesus so styled him in John chapter 8 and verse 44. And he is intent upon your spiritual death. He will feed you any lie that is necessary for you not to come to life spiritually, or to surrender the life that you have attained. And some would say that’s not possible. That’s another one of the devil’s lies, whereby he accomplishes death. He puts shine to things that breed corruption and misery and death. Do not be deceived. God is not mocked. We will not make a mockery of God or his things or somehow cast them aside as untrue because they are so. God is not mocked. Whatever a man sows, that shall he reap. He that sows to the flesh, more on that in this lesson.

He that sows to the flesh shall of the flesh reap corruption.

But he that sows to the Spirit shall of the Spirit reap everlasting life. And that brings me, strangely, you might think, to the context of Matthew 24. Matthew 24, what’s in Matthew 24? That’s that passage about the signs that will indicate the destruction of Jerusalem. You didn’t know I was going to Matthew 24. Well, you might have, by the title that I gave you, where the corpse is found only in this context. In Matthew chapter 24, and the reason for this sermon is that while I was in Amarillo, Kyle Pope and I talked at length about Matthew 24 because of some things he’s dealing with there. And he wrote this 110 page treatise about those issues. And so we spend a good deal of time talking about Matthew 24 and some of the things that we talked about in our Sunday morning class in relation to this text.

And we were talking some about verse 34, where it says, Truly I say unto you, this generation will not pass away until all these things take place. And the question that we were raising is that true that this generation that Jesus is speaking of, among whom he lived, all these things shall take place in their lifetime. They will not pass away until all these things take place. And does that refer then necessarily, as I had concluded and talked about in class, that everything that precedes this in Matthew 24 automatically relates to the destruction of Jerusalem. And then the debate, of course, then is does what follows? Matthew 24, 36 or 34. Does it refer to the destruction of Jerusalem or the second coming or both? And then as it goes into chapter 25, you know, what sort of application in terms of time are we to make to the rest of Matthew 24 and Matthew 25, and we talked about that in class.

But Kyle observed that some of the things that are in the preceding verses before verse 34 may indeed be more about the second coming than the destruction of Jerusalem. So I’m just going to I’m just throwing that out there. And the parts that he’s talking about are verse 27, the lightning that comes from the east and flashes even to the west, so shall the coming of the Son of Man be. He sees that as possibly second coming, and so I’m I’m going to be considering that over time, some of the arguments that he made. And about the sun being dark and the moon will not give its light, a quotation from the Old Testament, the sign of the Son of Man will appear in the sky.

1. Wherever the Corpse Is, There the Vultures Gather

He sort of views that as the second coming, and his argument would be that the signs Jesus talked about that were going to precede the destruction of Jerusalem, that all of those things are going to take place in that generation. But some of the tentacles of this, he would argue, go beyond that to the second coming. I’m not here to debate that tonight. I’m just throwing that out for you to consider in your study. You’re going to study Matthew 24 all week as a result of this. But in the midst of this discussion, I’m looking down at these verses, and verse 28 leaped out at me. Because in every time I’ve ever talked about Matthew 24, I’m going immediately to this discussion of is it about the destruction of Jerusalem?

Is it about the second coming? Is there a transition in verses 35 and 36 as it takes us from the destruction of Jerusalem to the second coming? I’m always focused on that. And okay, I got verse 28. I’m just going to skip right over that. Wherever the corpse is, there the vultures will be gathered. That’s an easy figure, right? It is. But have you thought much about what that statement is saying? This isn’t a pretty sight, is it? I was trying to get some vultures, you know, vultures. We don’t see those around a lot, at least not up close. But imagine vultures. What do vultures do if there’s a corpse of some animal? They’re going to be all over it. I mean, that’s lunch. That’s dinner.

And there are going to be several in around. They may fight amongst each other, but they’re going to pick all the flesh off of those bones. That’s a nasty sign. I actually saw some Google images of that. And I said, I’m going to spare the audience that tonight. Vultures chewing on flesh. But that’s the imagery that Jesus uses here. And he says, where the corpse is, the vultures will gather. So it’s a very graphic, unpleasant illustration. Roadkill. We’ve all seen that, right? Roadkill. I mean, dead armadillas everywhere. That wander out on the road and get hit by vehicles. Animals everywhere. They get hit by cars everywhere. Animals are killed. And what happens if they’re not cleaned off the road? Some bird or fowl is going to come in and have the meat.

And Jesus says, how does that relate to Matthew 24? Judaism. The temple practices in his day. Where the disciples have just said, What wonderful stones and what wonderful buildings. And Jesus says, not one stone is going to be left upon another. What he is saying by the use of this illustration is, as wonderful as you think all of this is, as much as you value worship in this place as an Israelite or as a Jew, I want to tell you, this is a corpse. And it’s all going to be destroyed. And I think about that, and we talked about this briefly in our study of Ezekiel. And I think it was Aaron who pointed this out, and I’ve been looking at this ever since in Ezekiel 39 and verse 29, where God is using restoration language.

As he says in verse 25, I will restore the fortunes of Jacob and have mercy on the whole house of Israel. And the Israelites are going, Yeah, we’re in captivity right now, but things are going to be better in the future. He’s going to restore the fortunes of Jacob. And have mercy on the whole house of Israel. And I shall be jealous for my holy name. And they shall forget their disgrace and their treachery. I will bring them from the peoples, he says in verse 27. I’ll be sanctified through them. They will know that I am the Lord God. And then he says in verse 29, I will not hide my face from them any longer.

That’s what he’s done that caused the destruction of Jerusalem by the Babylonians.

And allowing the Romans to destroy them. So what is he talking about? Remember, he says, When I have poured out my spirit, and you go back a couple of chapters, chapter 36 and verse 27, he says, and I, this is what’s going to happen in the future. He says, I will put my spirit within you and cause you to walk in my statutes. And you will be careful to observe my ordinances. He’s talking about physical Israel there. Chapter 37, after the valley of dry bones. He says, and I, verse 14, I will put my spirit within you, and you will come to life, and I will place you on your own land. And then you will know that I, the Lord, have spoken and done it, declares the Lord.

The ultimate of all of these passages are not in the restoration of Israel from captivity. The ultimate of all of these passages is the new life that the Messiah will bring to covenant Israel. There are allusions to Acts chapter 2 and the Spirit descending upon the apostles and then upon believers following that.

Hearts careful to do the law of God, the real life that God would provide. So I point you to this verse and simply say, of all the Israelites in the first century, the disciples are shocked by what they’re hearing.

They don’t see this.

2. The Corpse of Selfish Indulgence

That this is a corpse ready to be devoured by vultures? They’re not getting it. And here’s the thing. And here’s the message for you tonight for the last few minutes. Spiritual death is so often not perceived or seen. Or applications. I want to talk to you about the corpse of selfish indulgence. Satiating ourselves with pleasure is the national pastime. This makes me feel good. This produces a feeling that I like, and therefore I’m going to do this thing. Now that thing can either, it can be not moral one way or the other, or it could be a practice that is immoral. And what is not immoral in and of itself can take such a precedent in our lives and become an idol to us that it interferes with our responsibility in relationship to God, and then that thing can then be a snare to us.

This thing that we enjoy so much that we want to indulge it. Why do we play games on our phone or on our electronic device? Because we like the way it makes us feel. It does something for us. It’s why I used to play golf. Yes, that’s right. I still play golf. But I used to actually enjoy it. Now I’m terrible. I used to enjoy it more than I do, even though I had a hole in one recently. I don’t know. But it’s why we go hunting. It’s why we go fishing. It’s why we watch television programming. It’s why we go to the movie theater. We sit in that dark room with this massive screen that’s bigger than our eyes need, but it’s just neat. And if you haven’t been to AMC and done Dolby, where the seats shake you.

Blake talked me into going to this movie at 10.30 at night. Way past my bedtime. But it was the best time for him to get away. So there, I think I’m going to go to sleep. You’re not going to go to sleep doing Dolby. Because your seat’s going to shake. And I was I one time I jumped, Blake jumped. It’s like, whoa, I wasn’t expecting that. So if you go to a late movie, I highly recommend that so you’ll stay awake. Why do we do this kind of stuff? Because we like it. It’s fun. We like the way it makes us feel. And those activities can vary from individual to individual. But we need to ask, what is my purpose in those things? Here’s what I absolutely know for sure.

Whatever that activity is in this world that you really love doing. What is that for you? Whatever the activity is. Again, it can be moral or just morally neutral. But you really enjoy that thing.

And so when you do it, you get the feeling. That’s what the feeling. And then when it’s over, it dissipates. You know, it wouldn’t be great if you went to one great movie, and I’ll never have to go to a movie. Or you watch one football game, I’ll never have to watch another one again. It was the ultimate, the greatest feeling ever when my team won. And there’s several games when Auburn played Alabama. I thought it was going to be like that. We beat Alabama finally, and it was like, this is it. It’s the most epic game ever. But you know, I want to beat him again this year. You know, it’s amazing how that keeps coming around every year. No matter what it is. You do it, you get the feeling from it, and then it dissipates.

You keep engaging in that cycle until that thing no longer produces the same feeling. And you start seeking that feeling somewhere else. You know, that’s exactly what Solomon was talking about when he says the eye is not satisfied with seeing, nor is the ear filled with hearing. Sometimes I have listened to some songs, and I said, that is such an incredible song. I love it. It’s it’s amazing. It’s a great song. And you listen to it, and then you listen to it again, and you listen to it day after day after day after day. It was a great song. And then you move on to something else. That’s how songs go to number one, and they may stay there for quite a long time if they’re really good.

3. The Corpse of Worldly Focus

But then they’re not number one anymore. Because we go on to something else. And so if you’re going to make selfish indulgence the rule of your life, ultimately, that’s a corpse. You need something for your soul. Something that extends to true satisfaction, both in this life and the life to come. And along with that is the corpse of worldly focus. That flows out of point number one. A lot of folks don’t seek spiritual things because they’re just absolutely, their hearts are absolutely consumed with the world and what it affords. They have no interest in God, as we talked about this morning. All the reasons why we ought to be invested emotionally, invested with all of our being and spiritual things. They’re not interested in that because their focus is not on an invisible God and spiritual things.

Their focus is on everything but that. Everything that their eyes can see and their hands can touch and their money can do. That’s what they’re focused on. And the world is passing away. And all of its lusts. John said in 1 John chapter 2. So you can focus on that, as we say, until the cows come home. And if that’s going to be it, if you’re not going to look beyond what you see with your eyes to the spiritual realm that is real and involves eternal life, let me tell you what that worldly focus is going to do for you. It’s a corpse. Whether you see it or not, and that’s the point. Just like Israel did not see the corpse of the religion of that day.

So many do not see the corpse of a worldly focus. Let me just throw this at you. I’ve mentioned this before. This isn’t new. The New Testament talks about things that are incorruptible. Remember, we saw God is not mocked, whatever a man sows, that shall he also reap. He that sows the flesh shall of the flesh reap corruption. If your focus is the flesh, and that’s what these two points are saying, what you reap from that is corruption. The Bible also talks about incorruption. Things that don’t corrupt ever. Sometimes it uses the word incorruptible. Sometimes it uses the word imperishable. Now we need to think about those things. Because in contrast to a worldly focus that will be our spiritual corpse, there are things that the Bible talks about that are incorruptible and imperishable.

And you know what those things are? Number one, God is incorruptible. 1 Timothy chapter 1 and verse 17. The only wise God who is incorruptible, Paul says. God’s word is incorruptible. We are born of incorruptible seed, that is the living and abiding word of God. This is incorruptible. And you can ignore it all day long, but this will survive. This message and your accountability to it will long survive. Anything else you pursue, and long survive you. Matthew 24, heaven and earth shall pass away, but my word shall not pass away. It says the same thing, Matthew 24, 35, a few verses later. This is imperishable. We run in such a way so that we might win the prize, and we receive an incorruptible, an imperishable wreath, Paul says.

Verse 4. And guess what? If we achieve that incorruptible crown and that hope, that very real hope, 1 Peter 1 in verse 4 says that is reserved in heaven for us, that is incorruptible. You know what we get? We get an incorruptible body. Same word. An eternal, immortal body. 1 Corinthians chapter 15 and verse 53. And that’s your exhaustive list of incorruptible things in the New Testament. So why make this point? Because people can find a thousand different reasons to exalt the corruptible over the incorruptible. That’s the major message of this lesson. If you exalt the corruptible over the incorruptible, there is the corpse where the vultures are gathered. And as we relate that to religion, people feel satisfied in the fact that they’re religious. I’m good.

4. Do Not Be Satisfied in Mere Religion

I’ve got that incorruptible stuff in view because I’m religious. Wait a minute. That’s what Matthew 24 is talking about. It’s talking about people who were very devoted religious. They didn’t miss assemblies, they didn’t miss sacrifices. They were religious people. They did their duty. But something was missing in their relationship to God. Evident in the fact that they would put the Messiah himself to death. There was some incongruity, some inconsistency in their expression to God in their worship. And I’ve got to tell you, this part of the worst, this part of the lesson scares me to death. I don’t want to be content with the fact that we’re religious and we do it on a regular basis. We say some right things with our lips. The Pharisees did that, who were the corpse that the vultures were about to eat.

Do not be satisfied in mere religion and the right things emanating from our lips. Because we know and we’ve been taught so many times, this teacher named Tony has told me this so many times. It is about our hearts. And whether our hearts are molded after the Spirit’s instruction to us. Are we truly born of the Spirit? That’s the issue. And so we can talk about corporate truth and what we practice corporately, but we can also talk about personal truth. And we can even convince ourselves well, God’s going to prosper me because I’m religious. I serve God regularly. God’s going to prosper me. That was sort of what Micah said in the days of the judges. Oh, now that I have a Levite as my priest, God will prosper.

5. The Corpse of Doing Things My Own Way

Every man was doing what was right in his own eyes. We better not manufacture a religion like that, which leads me to the final point. These two go together, like the top two do go together. The corpse of doing things my own way.

I want to pursue a religion that works for me. That sort of fits into my schedule. Boy, that’s a temptation. Let me decide what’s acceptable religion. I don’t decide that. God does. And what I need to be concerned about is whether my approach, my heart, my dedication to him and his people is what pleases him. We have as our ambition to be pleasing to him, as we read this morning in 2 Corinthians chapter 5 and verse 9. Is that my ambition? Pleasing to him. That’s the bottom line. It’s not, will I get withdrawn from or not? Will the elders come talk to me or not? Will other church members accept me or not? That’s not the basis. It should be. That’s not the basis. So it’s not, no matter how promising it may be or inviting it may be, my own way is doomed to corpse.

Conclusion

Death or life. 2 Timothy chapter 1 and verse 10. The appearing of our Savior Jesus Christ, who abolished death, brought life and immortality to light through the gospel. This is our message of life. We need to consider it frequently.

We need to consider the message submissively. We need to consider the message thoroughly. So that we don’t find ourselves as merely satisfied religious people where God is saying, but in reality, it’s not alive, it’s dead. Well, that was Judaism. That’s not this. That was Judaism. Now you know, you know the verse that’s popping into my head, right? They had a name that they were alive, but they were dead. Sardis. Revelation chapter 3 and verse 1. And I just want to say in conclusion, I can be so happy with what we are as Decreperi. As churches go, I love this place. I love these people. I find it a tremendous blessing to be numbered in this group. And I can get really satisfied here.

Sardis was once alive. Now they have only a few that have not soiled your garments. And so I can’t, as a single individual, I’m going to make Decker Prairie alive unto God. No. We’re alive when each of us individually determines. I am going to be faithful to God. I’m going to exalt the will of God above my own. I’m going to be a person of submissiveness and service and prayer and devotion to God. And I’m going to be excited about assemblies as we talked about this morning because I’m coming to worship God and help his people and advance his cause. We must not rest on what we were. What we were when? Yesterday, last week, last month. It is about who we are today. Somehow, over time, they went from life to death as a church.

And he says, unless you repent, vulture. That’s what he’s saying. Laodicea. Unless you repent, I’m going to spew you out of my mouth. Let us not grow content. But let us challenge ourselves to be more like our master. Be committed today. And tomorrow, if the sun rises. And make sure that life resides in us today. Does life reside in you? Or are you just pretty satisfied and think it’s going to be okay? Don’t be a corpse when life is right here within your grasp. Let’s stand and sing.