Matthew 24:46  Blessed is that servant, whom his lord when he cometh shall find so doing.
47  Verily I say unto you, That he shall make him ruler over all his goods.
48  But and if that evil servant shall say in his heart, My lord delayeth his coming;
49  And shall begin to smite his fellowservants, and to eat and drink with the drunken;
50  The lord of that servant shall come in a day when he looketh not for him, and in an hour that he is not aware of,
51  And shall cut him asunder, and appoint him his portion with the hypocrites: there shall be weeping and gnashing of teeth.

We left off with verse 46 last time. Jesus is continuing to speak of events that will take place at the end of the Tribulation. Jesus will reward the faithful servant who endured the persecution of that time, but did not take his eyes off the promises of God. Of course the person who does not take his eyes off the Lord is the saved person. Perseverance is a gift that God gives to His children. It is worthwhile to be a faithful servant of the Lord. The persecution of this life is minor compared to the glories of heaven. No person deserves Heaven, and yet God has provided the only way for people to know His peace and forgiveness and having a home in heaven one day.
Jesus Christ is “the way the truth and the life”. He is the only way to the Father. Verse 47 confirms that Jesus will reward those who are saved and serve Him faithfully at the end of the Tribulation. Again, we know that this same promise is true for us today as it was for the disciples in Jesus’ day. Jesus reminds us that the way of salvation is always the same and the blessings of salvation are always the same.
In verse 48 Jesus spoke of those who despised Him and His Word. The remaining verses of this chapter expand on this warning. Those alive during the Tribulation will witness the evil ways of the antichrist. They will also be given evidence of the faithfulness of the Lord. Life will be very difficult for those who live during the last half of the Tribulation. It will be particularly difficult for the saved in the last half of the Tribulation.
We must keep in mind that the context of this chapter is to the Jews. That does not mean there will be no Gentiles there. However, the disciples were asking the questions and Jesus was addressing them in His answer. The evil servant is the Jew who rejects Jesus Christ and chooses to serve the antichrist instead. There are many evil servants in Israel and amongst the Jews today. It is amazing how many Jews support the Democratic party in the U.S. That party hates God and the Jews and yet many secular Jews are supportive of the evil policies of that party. In Canada it is amazing to see that there are Jews who support the wicked policies of the Liberal government. That party also hates the Jews and yet secular Jews will bow to that party. We know there is a division between the secular Jews and the saved Jews. It was the secular Jews who cried out: “Crucify Him, Crucify Him” when Jesus was on trial. Yes, they were religious, but they were religiously lost. There will be Jews who will support the antichrist during the Tribulation. They will be just as blind as many of the Gentiles.
These blinded Jews will be convinced in their hearts that the Lord is delaying His coming. They will not believe the testimony of the saved. Notice the problem is in their hearts. It is not just an opinion they have. They are convinced in their hearts that they know best.
There are many people today that are convinced in their hearts that they have the correct understanding of these passages. They are either mid-Trib. or post-Trib. people and they take the Scriptures apart to make them fit their own corrupted views. They believe that a person can be saved and lose their salvation, even though the Bible is abundantly clear that God’s gift of salvation is the gift of “eternal life”. What is eternal life if it is not eternal. What is “everlasting life” if it is not everlasting? We have already explained the teaching of Jesus regarding endurance in this chapter. It must be kept within the context of the chapter first of all and then it must also fit with the rest of Scripture. Nowhere in Scripture are we taught that it is up to us to keep ourselves saved. Nowhere are we told that if we are not careful we can lose our salvation. In fact Paul was directed to write:

I Corinthians 3:15  If any man’s work shall be burned, he shall suffer loss: but he himself shall be saved; yet so as by fire.

Salvation is the gift of God. We do not earn it. God says there will be saved people who will be saved so as by fire. They will receive no rewards. Yet they are saved. No true Christian would want to be in that category, but according to God, there will be those who will be in that place.
In our text, the unfaithful servant is the one who is part of the nation of Israel, but is lost. Verse 51 makes that abundantly clear.
In verse 49 we see that this unsaved Jew abuses his own people. Unsaved Jews will attack saved Jews. What a shame. Yet that is the fact. It was unbelieving Jews that wanted Jesus put to death. It was unsaved Jews that attacked saved Jews in the book of Acts. Saul (who later became the apostle Paul) consented to the stoning death of Stephen.
The Bible warns us that unsaved family members will betray their saved family members in our time. It is amazing what lost people will do to try to protect their own lives. They will distance themselves from family members who trust in the Lord. They will maybe tolerate them for a time, but if the situation arises, they will stand against Godly family members and will stand with the ungodly instead. The ungodly may even be members of some N.E. church, but they are still ungodly.
In verse 50 Jesus warned that those who are lost during the Tribulation time, will not be looking for the coming of the King. We noted in verse 48 that they will assume that Jesus is delaying His coming. They may even be date setters and because Jesus does not come on the day they assume they will determine He is not coming. Or they may assume that because He has allowed the antichrist to rule and to declare himself to be God and he was not struck dead immediately, therefore maybe he is God.
King Herod who was in power at the time of Acts 12 was the grandson of Herod the Great. The king Herod of Acts 12 was a puppet king who was in agreement with the Roman government. He was an ungodly king and in Acts 12 he had James put to death and wanted to put Peter to death as well. God did not strike him dead immediately for killing James. At the end of that chapter, Herod made a speech and the people praised him as if he were a god. The true God sent an angel to smite the king with worms and he was eaten with worms right there.
God is never late. He is longsuffering, but He is never late. Those unfaithful servants in our text will be under God’s wrath and in verse 51 we see that they will be judged by Him. They will not be saved to enter the Millennium. They will be cut in pieces and they will be cast out with the hypocrites and they will spend eternity in the lake of fire.
It is extremely foolish to align oneself with those who seem to be in power. Our P.M. has the power to influence the courts and the police and army to do his dirty work. He does not have the power to stop anyone from getting saved or serving the Lord. Some Christians may find themselves in prison, but they can still serve the Lord there. At this time, there are many who are willing to align themselves with the wickedness of the government at the cost of their souls. There are also many who are willing to align themselves with the false teaching of the New Evangelical crowd at the expense of their own souls.
The Bible declares that there is one judge. That judge is Jesus Christ. The saved will meet Him at the judgment seat of Christ. The lost will meet Him at the great white throne judgment. During the Tribulation there will be saints who will be killed and even beheaded for trusting in the Lord Jesus Christ for salvation. They will lose their physical lives through violence, but their souls will be in heaven and they will be reunited with their resurrected bodies in the future. The lost are cast into hell at the moment of death, and then are brought to stand at the great white throne judgment and are then cast into the lake of fire.
God’s Word is clear. The wise person trusts in God and rejects the lies of men. God’s Word is true. Believe what He says. Reject those who want to twist what He says. Then you can help others to know the truth as well.
Pastor Bartel