CMLC 2025-11-16 Sermon

Howdy. Well, it's the end of the world as we

know it, and I feel fine. From time to time,

it's important to take a break from all the feel

-good passages in Scripture, you know, beatitudes

and all the cutesy parts in there, and let's

just take time for the intense, cataclysmic,

and terrifying Scriptures, right? Absolutely.

This is what we have in our Luke passage today.

Not Revelation, not Daniel, the Gospel. The world

is falling apart, but in so reviewing, maybe

we can truly understand Christ. Every generation

has its own way of imagining the end of the world.

For some reason, our generation loves to put

it on movie screens. We have the film Knowing

with Nicolas Cage, possibly the greatest actor

of all time, I'm just gonna say. I mean, come

on, Con Air? Pretty amazing. But you see, it

begins with a prophecy of numbers scribbled by

a child, predicting disaster after disaster,

solar flares, earthquakes, fire from the sky,

and as every prediction comes true, and people

begin to panic. The world unravels, the sky is

a threat, the sun and its flares are the enemy.

And the adults just hope that the children will

somehow be rescued from it all. People fainting

with fear, the heavens are shaken and the world

comes undone. But then, there's interstellar.

Matthew McConaughey apparently knows more words

than just, all right, all right, all right. The

world is not exploding, it's slowly dying. The

sky is not on fire, it's filled with dust. The

crops fail, the nations collapse, the people

lose hope. And a group of explorers look to the

stars not with fear, but a longing for another

way forward. A future maybe in a faraway galaxy.

The entire story is driven by the fear that our

world can no longer hold us, but the stubborn

hope that there might still be a way through.

And just because Aerosmith needed one more hit,

we got Armageddon with Bruce Willis. So where

the blue collar workers get to save the day.

The asteroid is coming, the countdown is ticking,

the world is bracing for impact, governments

scramble, scientists argue, and somehow they

manage to get up to this giant asteroid and blow

it up. It's chaotic, it's dramatic, it's very,

very loud, kind of ridiculous. But beneath all

the spectacle is the same simple truth. Human

beings feel very small when the heavens start

attacking us. Three different movies, three different

visions of the ending, but the same heartbeat.

When the familiar sky shakes, people panic. And

the visitors to church today wonder why they

picked today to visit. But this is why the words

of Jesus in Luke 21 hit so close to home. Deep

inside we have a fear of what will happen if

we look up and discover that the world's fate

is sealed. There's nothing we could do about

it. Jesus talks about signs and the sun, the

moon, the stars. He talks about nations in distress.

He talks about people fainting with fear. He

talks about the heavens shaking. It sounds like

a blockbuster, but it's not for entertainment.

It's to prepare us. Because in all that imagery,

Jesus speaks a word that no movie would ever

dare to say. When these things begin to take

place, straighten up and raise your heads because

your redemption is drawing near. Straighten up?

What kind of words are these? If the world is

coming to an end, shouldn't we be cowering and

running in fear? Maybe find as much spam and

twinkies as you can, right? But when Jesus describes

wars, earthquakes, persecution, the disciples

lean in because they want all the secrets and

all the strategies for how to survive. But you

see, Jesus is not feeding the fear or giving

them a timeline. He's anchoring them in the faithfulness

and what it looks like when the world feels very

fragile. And Jesus says there will be signs in

the sun and the moon and the stars. And on the

earth distress of nations perplexity because

of the roaring of the sea and the waves. People

fainting with fear the powers of the heavens

shaken and then they will see the Son of Man

coming in a cloud with power and great glory.

Now when these things begin to take place straighten

up and raise your heads because your redemption

is drawing near. Jesus doesn't normally talk

like this, right? Jesus does not use eclipses

and blood moons and astronomical patterns, right?

But these words are His, mysterious and vivid.

And so many people try to draw charts around

them and decode them and tie them to the headlines.

There were weeks before one of the most recent

eclipses when there were people that were petrified

that that was truly the end. But with all of

these, when you just let Jesus speak. He makes

sense, not by forcing him into our modern anxiety,

but rather something else rises to the surface,

something deeper, calming, steady, because the

point is not the spectacle. The point is your

posture. But before Jesus even describes the

shaking of the heavens or the roaring of the

seas and everybody wonders if I'm just referring

everyone to a chiropractor He starts with the

warning that is easy to overlook Right after

the disciples ask when will these things be?

Right after they hear that the temple is gonna

fall and their world is gonna crack Jesus doesn't

give them a date He doesn't give them the signs

to prevent it. He doesn't give them a strategy

to stop it He says, see that you are not led

astray. Why is that his first response? The disciples

are not just scared. They're looking to control.

They're looking to prevent it. The temple was

the center of their identity, their stability,

their world. And if that fell, everything falls.

So naturally, they want to know how to prevent

it, how to hold on to the life that they know.

Jesus knows that when people are afraid of losing

the world they know, losing their comfort, their

security, their control, that's exactly when

the false prophets show up. It's been two millennia.

There have been plenty. And Jesus knows something

about human fear. Fear makes us vulnerable to

the wrong voices. It makes us cling to certainty.

It makes us follow those who promise safety.

And this is exactly why Jesus adds, many will

come in my name, do not go after them. Because

when people are terrified of losing what they

love, their temple, their community, their comfort,

false prophets always show up. And the dangerous

ones are not the ones who come and say, oh, go

follow Zeus. Oh, go follow Baal. Is that even

really a temptation? It's the ones who say, I'm

speaking for Jesus. I can fix it. I can stop

your shaking. I can preserve what you care about.

Not everyone who claims Jesus is sent by Jesus.

Not every voice promising safety comes from God.

And Jesus knows that when the world trembles,

the greatest threat to the disciples is not the

shaking, it's the seduction in the voice that

tells them exactly what they want to hear. The

wrong voice, the wrong Savior, the wrong fulfillment.

And so before anything else, Jesus says, do not

be led astray. But is Jesus then getting into

literal things that are going to happen? As much

as we're tempted to look and to say, oh, there's

an earthquake, oh, there's a storm, oh, there's

a solar flare, oh, there's a Nicolas Cage film,

Jesus is looking instead to use the language

of the sun, the moon, and the stars because scripture

mirrors what we feel. when the world shakes.

In the Old Testament, it meant upheaval and turmoil.

The prophets reach for the sky when the words

on the ground are just not big enough Amos in

8 9 says I will make the Sun go down at noon

and darken the earth in broad daylight Joel in

231 says the Sun shall be turned to darkness

and the moon to blood before the great and awesome

day of the Lord Isaiah in 13 10 the stars of

the heavens and their constellations will not

give their light the Sun will be dark at its

rising and the moon will not shed its light Ezekiel

32 -7, when you are extinguished, I will cover

the heavens and make their stars dark. The prophets

are not describing astronomy. They're talking

about the collapse of our certainty. They're

saying that when the empires fall, when the nations

tremble, when the familiar world gives way, the

sky goes dark. Jesus is pointing us to the prophets

who say that when the sky, the kingdoms fall,

the empires collapse, then God intervenes, the

stars are dimmed, the sun is darkened, and the

sky is destabilized because the world no longer

makes any sense. We've seen the nations in distress,

haven't we? We've seen perplexity. We've seen

the sense when leaders don't know what to do

and people do not know who to trust. We've seen

fear so thick that we feel it when we walk into

a room. Jesus is speaking the language of people

who watch the sky and feel the ground shift beneath

their feet. He's speaking to us. Have you ever

had that moment when your world suddenly felt

unfamiliar? When something that had always been

stable suddenly wasn't. Maybe a marriage that

cracked. A diagnosis that came out of nowhere.

A job that vanished or a career that disappeared.

A friend who walked away or managed to betray.

A new story that made you wonder what the future

was going to look like for your kids. The world

feels like what Jesus is describing, that the

sun is dimmed, the moon is out of its rhythm,

and the stars are moving the wrong way. But the

world didn't actually end. It felt like the world

that you knew was falling apart. That's the space

where Jesus is naming. Because He knows what

it's going to feel like when the temple is destroyed.

And the Jewish people are going to be exiled

out of Jerusalem. It's going to happen in the

next few decades. As much as we like to talk

about Israel being eternal, the nation of Israel

as a physical place has never been eternal. It

was shattered in half after Solomon. It was overthrown

and destroyed in 722 and 586 BC. The temple was

destroyed a few decades after Jesus spoke in

70 AD. And the Jewish people were ejected in

135. Israel as God's people are eternal. But

as a nation, by definition, it never has been.

And the people were going to experience that

very soon. Jesus says one of the strangest things

though, your redemption is drawing near. The

world is falling apart and people are supposed

to be positive? How does that make any sense?

Are we supposed to be happy about all the terrible

things that are going on? Are we just supposed

to be in denial? about what's happening all around

us. Everybody gets your floaties. But it's tempting

to think that danger is always going to come

from the outside. From the armies, from the disasters,

from the enemies, from the unknown. But sometimes

the world's upheaval, it comes to us through

the very people and relationships that we trust

the most. There was a man, Dietrich Bonhoeffer.

He was a man of deep faith, a pastor, so clearly

a troublemaker, a theologian, a resistor of tyranny.

He was part of a circle within the German military

intelligence to overthrow the dictator. He was

cautious, careful, devoted, and he trusted his

closest friends like Hans Oster, implicitly.

And yet, in a twist of fate, it was Hans' diary

that recorded all the resistance work that betrayed

Bonhoeffer. to the Gestapo. It was not because

he meant to. He never meant to betray him the

way that Judas betrayed Jesus. But the very thing

that symbolized trust and connection, purpose,

became the instrument of vulnerability. What

was closest to him became what led to his downfall.

And there's a parallel here. When we look at

someone like Judas, who was one of the 12, one

of the closest ones, the inner circle, Jesus

was wounded and handed over, condemned not because

of a stranger, but by someone who was closest

to him. The lesson for us is sobering. Even the

things that we treasure the most, the people

we hold dearest, The ones who we believe to be

faithful and safe can be the very ones that bring

about our harm. Even what seems like loyalty

in the grand cosmic scheme of things can play

a role in the trials that we face. Sometimes

the ones that we care for are the ones who mock

the very torment we experience. And this is where

Jesus comes alive when he says, do not be terrified.

He doesn't say everything's going to be fine

as long as you pick the right friends. He doesn't

say your trust will always protect you. He says

your redemption is drawing near. The platform

for the gospel is not stability or safety. It's

not being perfectly aligned with the people around

you. It's built on the faithfulness in the midst

of uncertainty. It's built on enduring in the

suffering. Because suffering, whether it's from

the enemies outside or from a twist of faith

in the closest allies we have, it doesn't just

lead to the platform for the gospel. That is

where the gospel is found. See, Bonhoeffer's

courage in prison, his witness, and even his

death became testimony to God's work in the midst

of the collapse. Like Jesus facing betrayal in

the garden like the early church scattered in

persecution What looked like defeat became the

stage for God's redemption revealed? so when

we see Everything falling apart in our lives

That's exactly when God is saying to lift up

your head Because that's when Jesus is coming

near The kingdom of God is always advancing but

just not always in the places we expected. You

see, the Son of Man is coming in a cloud with

power and great glory. When the world feels like

it's falling apart, that's not the moment when

God disappears. It's the moment God draws near.

Not to crush, not to punish, but to redeem. He's

not telling us to run, to hide. to hoard, to

build bunkers, or to try to figure out the news

cycles. He's not even saying to figure out exact

meanings of what every sign is. But he's saying

to take a posture that doesn't make sense to

us. Look up and hope. Because the one that we're

looking for is coming. He's not leaving. See,

the signs, they're... meant to tell us that Jesus

is still on the way. The more everything is falling

apart, the better it is. Because it means that

God is coming even faster. You see, as much as...

As much as this microphone is annoying me to

no end, the cosmic signs do not show anything

being calm, predictable, or neat. It's neither

hopeless, and it's not out of control. Jesus

wants us to know that the shaking of the world

is not a failure, it's the beginning. It's the

same way that the labor pains are not the death

of a child, it's the signal that the child is

about to be born. And Jesus says, when these

things begin, straighten up, because you are

people expecting redemption. See, God is not

done. Christ is not gone. Redemption is not just

a metaphor. Bonhoeffer lived through one of those

moments when an entire nation was terrified of

losing its identity, its sense of stability,

its place in the world. And into that fear, There

were loud and confident voices that claimed to

speak for God, promising to restore order, strength,

pride. And Christians followed those voices because

they sounded like hope, though it was counterfeit

and wrapped in religious language. But Bon Hafer

echoed Jesus' words. He said, the great masquerade

of evil has played havoc with all our ethical

concepts. We must learn to regard people less

in light of what they do or fail to do, and more

in terms of what they suffer. Bonhoeffer led

with long obedience in the same direction. Because

when evil tries to take everything, faith stands

up. When the world is on fire, disciples lift

their heads. When fear says hide, Christ says

hope. The thread is not fear. or anxiety or speculation.

Because the Christian posture in chaos is not

to collapse, it's to hope in Christ. As Bonhoeffer

said, the church is the church only when it exists

for other people. In a world full of earthquakes

and headlines and shifting empires, in a world

where the sky sometimes feels dark, Jesus doesn't

say, be afraid and run away. He says your redemption

is near. The world is not stable because Christ

is. You cannot control the shaking, but Christ

redeems it. The world may look the least like

it should, but that's often when God is closest

to revealing Himself. So the end of our world

is not the end of God's work. Whatever it may

look like, whichever actor may be portraying

it. Jesus is the true temple. And when that temple

was destroyed, salvation was not stopped. It

was unleashed to the ends of the earth. So when

the world breaks, grace leaks out to all people

in a way that we have not figured out yet. And

when our safety dissolves, Christ is more easily

seen. So don't look for escape. Don't look for

weapons. Don't look for false saviors. Look up,

because when our world finally ends, that's when

the kingdom of God truly begins. Thanks be to

God.