Lift Up Your Heads, Your Redemption Is Near: Luke 21:5-38

Good morning to you this morning.

My name is Tom Yarbrough.

I'm one of your pastors here at the Village Chapel where we study through books of the Bible.

And I would encourage you to follow along.

If you'd like to do that and you don't have a Bible with you, you can slip up your hand and someone would be glad to bring one to you.

And I would encourage you today to either have a device or a paper copy to follow along with.

We want to welcome anyone watching us online this morning.

We've been joined recently by uh uh households uh from as far away as Doha, Qatar, uh Sofia, Bulgaria.

I've been to Sofia before.

I love that city, love that country.

Um Blagoderia, I will say, and Cristos vos crece, Christ is risen, to those folks there if they're watching.

Uh Los Mochis, Sinaloba, Mexico, and as close to home as Atlanta, Georgia.

We're glad you're joining us if you're able to do that today.

Uh I do want to say, if any of you were in the TVC offices over the past week and you heard what might have sounded like bitter grumbling from me about the fact that Matt had four verses last week.

And and I have 34 verses this week.

Um I I I want to I want to confess to you that if I did that, I'm I'm repentant this morning, and it is both my duty and my delight to be in this section of the word this morning.

And I say that with humor, but I I want you to know that God has been overwhelmingly good to me to allow me to be able to be in this text this week.

So um, and I do mean that.

I do mean that.

Just to set this up, the text we're in today is known traditionally as the Olivet Discourse, because we're told in the other synoptic gospels of Matthew and Mark that Jesus and his disciples were on the Mount of Olives when he delivered it.

This is one of the most widely debated passages in Scripture.

I I feel like I always get those, but uh spoiler alert, we're not going to settle that debate this morning.

I want you to know that up front.

Uh, throughout much of Scripture, what we're working with is what is known and what is unknown to us, or what has not yet been revealed to us.

And so we're going to study through this humbly and honestly this morning.

I want to tell you that right up front.

If you've been following along with us in this study of Luke, you know that in the preceding days, Jesus has made his triumphal entry into Jerusalem.

We saw him cleanse the temple, debate the established religious leadership of the day.

He bested them, he left them speechless.

And then last week we saw him commend the poor widow in her giving, all that she had in the temple, and the heart behind her giving.

And in doing so, he condemned those religious leaders of Israel.

And now Jesus and his disciples are leaving the temple, probably for the last time.

Mark tells us at the beginning of his account of this in chapter 13 of his gospel that this conversation about the temple begins as they're walking away from it, presumably to descend Mount Moriah on which the temple sat and ascend the Mount of Olives, which sat 150 feet higher than the city of Jerusalem and would have afforded a panoramic view of the temple and of the city.

And Matthew also has a much more extensive account of this in chapters 24 and 25 of his gospel, so I would encourage you to take a look at that later.

So that's our background, that's our set.

And remember, this is mere days before his betrayal and his arrest, and the plot by the chief priests and scribes to kill Jesus has begun to come together.

And we're told at the end of this passage that we're about to read that the schedule he kept that week was that he would spend his days teaching in the temple and his nights there on the Mount of Olives, where we will also soon see his agony in the garden called Gethsemane.

So after three years of ministry, Jesus is nearing the pinnacle of his earthly mission, and the cross awaits him.

And in this setting, he delivers this farewell address to his disciples, and understandably, after they hear what he has to say, they have questions.

So I want to put this aerial view of the text on the screen for us as we read through this.

It helps me to know how Jesus is moving from one topic to the next as he goes through this prophecy.

It's very, it's very thick, it's very dense.

This is not the first time he's foretold the destruction of Jerusalem, prepared his disciples for persecution, or prophesied his coming using this favorite description of himself, the Son of Man.

We've seen them before even in Luke's account, but what's unique here is the way he intertwines them together as one big prophecy with multiple fulfillments and one final fulfillment.

Some are near, some are far, and of course there's the final.

So it can be confusing as he weaves his way in and out of these, which is why I sectioned it up this way on the screen.

We're going to see the destruction of the temple foretold by Jesus, the warning to his disciples of coming events.

He's going to prepare them for persecution that's coming.

The destruction of Jerusalem, the coming of the Son of Man, the parable of the fig tree, and then a final call to watchfulness.

So let me pray a prayer that the Spirit would illuminate the Word as we study today.

Father, thank you for your word and its transformative power.

Thank you, Spirit, for your ministry in this room, in our hearts.

Thank you, Jesus, for the promise of your presence with us.

And as we worship you through study today, continue to move our hearts toward yours, toward you.

For our good and for your glory.

In the name of Jesus.

Amen.

So we're going to begin in chapter 21, verse 5.

That's page 65 on the Pew Bible in the New Testament half.

And while some were speaking of the temple, how it was adorned with noble stones and offerings, he said, As for these things that you see, the days will come when there will not be left here one stone upon another that will not be thrown down.

And they asked him, Teacher, when will these things be, and what will be the sign when these things are about to take place?

And he said, See that you are not led astray, for many will come in my name, saying, I am he, and the time is at hand.

Do not go after them.

And when you hear of wars and tumults, do not be terrified, for these things must first take place, but the end will not be at once.

Then he said to them, Nation will rise against nation, and kingdom against kingdom.

There will be great earthquakes, and in various places famines and pestilences, and there will be terrors and great signs from heaven.

But before all this, they will lay their hands on you and persecute you, delivering you up to the synagogues and prisons, and you will be brought before kings and governors for my name's sake.

This will be your opportunity to bear witness.

Settle it, therefore, in your minds not to meditate beforehand how to answer, for I will give you a mouth and wisdom, which none of your adversaries will be able to withstand or contradict.

You will be delivered up even by parents and brothers and relatives and friends, and some of you they will put to death.

You will be hated by all for my name's sake, but not a pair, uh not a hair of your head will perish.

And I have to say, as someone who has suffered from perishing hairs, I'm like, I'm listening, Lord.

By your endurance, you will gain your lives.

But when you see Jerusalem surrounded by armies, then know that its desolation has come near.

Then let those who are in Judea flee to the mountains, and let those who are inside the city depart, and let not those who are out in the country enter it, for these are days of vengeance to fulfill all that is written.

Alas for women who are pregnant, and for those who are nursing infants in those days, for there will be great distress upon the earth, and wrath against this people.

They will fall by the edge of the sword and be led captive among all nations, and Jerusalem will be trampled underfoot by the Gentiles, until the time of the Gentiles are fulfilled.

And there will be signs and sun and moon and stars, and on the earth distress of nations in perplexity, because of the roaring of the sea and the waves, people fainting with fear and with foreboding of what is coming on the world, for the powers of the heavens will be 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.

And he told them a parable Look at the fig tree and all the trees.

As soon as they come out in leaf, you see for yourselves, and know that the summer is already near.

So also when you see these things taking place, you know that the kingdom of God is near.

Truly I say to you, this generation will not pass away until all has taken place.

Heaven and earth will pass away, but my words will not pass away.

But watch yourselves, lest your hearts be weighed down with dissipation and drunkenness and cares of this life, and that day come upon you suddenly like a trap, for it will come upon all who dwell on the face of the whole earth.

But stay awake at all times, praying that you may have strength to escape all these things that are going to take place, and to stand before the Son of Man.

And every day he was teaching in the temple, but at night he went out and lodged on the mount called Olivet.

And early in the morning all the people came to him in the temple to hear him.

This is the word of the Lord.

Thanks be to God.

Now I do feel the need to remind us at this point, after all of that, to paraphrase what Sinclair Ferguson sometimes likes to say.

Not every U we see here is the U that is in the pew.

Okay?

It's important to remember.

In other words, just because Scripture was written for you does not mean that everything we read in an account was said to you or about you.

In this case, Jesus is telling his disciples some very specific things, and not all of them apply specifically to us.

That being said, there's lots of good application in this text for what it means to be a disciple of Jesus in the times we do live in and in some future time.

And I do believe there's good and clear instruction for his church here as we await his return.

So first, Jesus foretells the total destruction of the temple in Jerusalem.

Now, this was the second temple that had been under reconstruction for over 50 years at this point.

This was an initiative by Herod the Great, and it wouldn't be completed for another 30 years past when Jesus prophesied its destruction.

So we'll put a picture of a scaled-down model on the screen so you can get an idea of what it might have looked like.

It would have been really impressive as a structure.

Now just try to get a sense of what a big thing this was.

I'm going to compare this to something in recent history for us.

We're coming up on 24 years since the shocking, sudden, violent destruction of the World Trade Center towers and the ruthless murder of over 3,000 people.

And it shocked the world when those buildings came down.

Partly because of how horrific the act was, but also because of how impressive and symbolic those structures were.

And imagine if in the years before their destruction someone had told you that this was going to happen.

You would struggle.

You would have questions, perhaps even some anxiety.

And I think this is what the disciples must have been thinking at this point.

This is an impressive and highly symbolic building for them.

It's a center of Jewish life, it's a symbol of national pride.

And most of all, it's considered a reminder of God's presence with his people.

Although for the past 600 years up to this point, they've seen no evidence of the Shekinah glory of God in the temple.

And they didn't recognize it when it rode in on a borrowed donkey just days before and entered the temple again.

And just a few chapters ago, Jesus lamented that they did not recognize the time of their visitation and he foretold the destruction just like he does here.

So the stone that the builders rejected has become the cornerstone.

And so when his disciples pointed out the impressive stones that make up the temple, he tells them what's going to happen to it total destruction.

And in AD 70, only seven years after its final completion, it was totally destroyed by the Romans under Titus.

And Titus had actually intended to preserve the temple, but one of his soldiers started a fire in the temple, and as a result, he ordered the temple and the entire city to be raised, to be completely destroyed, to be leveled.

And the soldiers went to work retrieving the melted gold from between the stones, and so they took every stone apart.

And these were massive stones.

Some of them were nearly 40 feet long.

We'll put a depiction on the screen from Francesco Haez of the destruction of the temple.

It's a chaotic and tragic scene.

So we see this is a prophecy that came to pass within 40 years of Jesus saying it.

And I'll add here, Luke's probably writing this around the early 60s A.D., most scholars think.

And so it hasn't happened yet at the time of the writing.

And we know his approach and his style well enough to know that if it had happened, he would have included that detail.

So the disciples naturally want to know as much about this word from Jesus as they can.

And Matthew actually tells us that they asked about it privately when they were back on the Mount of Olives.

And in fact, he includes this extra detail to their question.

Not only are they asking about the events surrounding the destruction of the temple and the signs and the times of that, but they also want to know tell us the signs and the times of your return and the end of the age.

So that might be helpful to know as we consider Jesus' answer that seems to go back and forth between this near fulfillment prophecy and this far fulfillment prophecy.

And in answer, Jesus begins by warning them about some events that are going to take place.

And I want to encourage you to see that all of this is being done so pastorally by Jesus.

He cares for his disciples so well.

We'll put a breakdown of the things he's warning them about on the screen.

In response to their what and when questions, Jesus warns his disciples not to be misled about coming historical events.

In verse 8, deception by false teachers, wars between nations in verses 9 and 10, catastrophic events in verse 11, and cosmic signs in verse 11.

And why is he warning them?

Because with chaos always comes the opportunity for deception.

We know that's true in our day.

With chaos comes the opportunity for deception.

And he does not want them to be deceived.

They're not to believe the end has come when they see these things.

He's letting them know what will be happening in the world around them as history continues to unfold, but he wants them to be wise and not misled about his return.

And he wants the same thing for us.

How many times have you heard people fret about World War III and what it would mean for life on earth and the continuance of the human race?

And people spin on that, and maybe you spin on that.

Maybe that's a point of anxiety for you.

Lord be with you if that is the case.

Many of you remembered the Cold War, growing up in the Cold War.

You practiced in school, getting under your desks in case of a nuclear attack.

It seemed like the end of the world could happen, but Jesus is saying, don't be led astray.

These things are going to happen, and it doesn't mean the end is near yet.

And then he shifts to telling them about what being his follower will mean for them.

What does it mean to be my disciples in your life?

This is personal insight about what will happen to them as a natural result of choosing to follow Jesus.

We'll put a slide up to prepare them for life as his followers.

Jesus warns his disciples not to be anxious about what they're going to personally experience.

Persecution by Jews and by Gentiles.

They'll be dragged into the synagogues and imprisoned.

They'll be taken before governors and kings.

Betrayal by friends and family.

Death in verse 16.

And hatred from the world.

And indeed, they had heard this before from Jesus.

Matthew records that when he sent them out on mission, he gave them these same warnings.

But what does Jesus say?

This is an opportunity, he says, to bear witness to him.

Can you imagine that?

Have I got an opportunity for you?

Now hear me out.

You're going to be imprisoned.

You're going to be dragged into prison.

You're going to be beaten.

Some of you are going to die.

But you get to bear witness for me.

And that's what Jesus is saying.

See this as an opportunity to represent me well, to spread the gospel.

Jesus tells them, He's going to give them all they need in the moment.

And this is a promise of his presence through the Holy Spirit.

He says he's going to give them a mouth and wisdom.

None will be able to withstand or contradict what they say.

Jesus warns them they're going to be given up by friends and family, and some will die, but none will perish, he says.

And what do we see in Acts?

As the apostles go out in the early church begins, we see boldness.

We see the apostles being dragged into the Sanhedrin and imprisoned.

And we see them before kings and governors, and we see unusually eloquent and theologically rich sermons being preached by uneducated men.

And they're so persuasive that no one knows how to oppose them.

And we see martyrs.

James, the brother of John, Stephen.

And what comfort it must have been to the early church to know that none of this was out of the sovereignty of God.

Jesus had told them they would be persecuted and they would be hated.

And listen, if you are a true follower of the Jesus of the Bible, the world is going to label you a weirdo at best.

And it's going to persecute you at worst.

We pray for the persecuted church every Sunday in this church.

We know that just because we're not suffering that kind of per persecution here in our country, it does not mean that the body of Christ is not being persecuted worldwide.

It is.

So if you're a believer, the world is not going to want you around for long.

And you can get used to that.

But Jesus reminds his followers in John's gospel, a servant is not greater than his master.

If they persecuted me, they will also persecute you.

And he ends by telling them their endurance will gain them their lives.

And he's not talking about survival.

He's not talking about physical life instead of physical death here.

He means that the one who remains steadfast and is trusting in the faithfulness of God to the end gets real life in Christ.

And in the meantime, we're not alone.

He's promised his presence and a steady supply of what we need to face everything the world throws at us because of his name.

And that's the first of three things I want us to see today in this text that should encourage us as believers.

The promise of his presence encourages us to be faithful.

We're not alone in suffering persecution.

Not only is he with us, providing a mouth and wisdom for us in the moment, but he has gone before us in suffering all these things and more.

The apostle Peter goes further.

Upon you to test you, as though something strange were happening to you.

But rejoice in so far as you share Christ's sufferings, that you may also rejoice and be glad when his glory is revealed.

Now, Jesus does get to the question that we see from the disciples in verse 7.

He gives them this eleventh-hour sign of the impending destruction of Jerusalem in verse 20 here.

And he uses this word desolation.

And we could read this as simply the destruction of Jerusalem.

But he's using this word desolation, which means this emptiness, this abandoning of something.

And they would have known 150 years earlier in the history of the Jewish nation, the Jews had to abandon the temple in worship and sacrifice for three and a half years.

The Maccabees recorded this.

And Jesus is saying there's going to be a new desolation coming with the Romans, and it's going to mean an abandonment of all of Jerusalem this time.

And he warns them to flee.

Notice that.

And there's a time to flee.

And Jesus doesn't want his disciples to be part of this judgment on Jerusalem.

And in fact, it's recorded history that those in the early church in Jerusalem did escape this invasion because they had warning.

And so they went out into other towns before Jerusalem was sieged.

The resulting diaspora for the nation of Israel would last until the 20th century, and there are still many Jews who have not returned to Jerusalem.

But because of this scattering of the early church before this, the gospel would spread around the world.

And you see Jesus referring in verse 22 to these as days of vengeance.

This is God's judgment on this people.

Why?

Because they've rejected the sent Son.

Do you remember the parable of the wicked tenants?

What then will the owner of the vineyard do to them?

He asks in the parable.

He will come and destroy those tenants and give the vineyard to others.

And Jesus does not take pleasure in this.

Remember how he wept for Jerusalem before he entered it because he knew what would befall the city as a result of their rejection of him.

And so the gospel will be preached to the Gentiles.

The veil will be torn in two.

There will no longer be a need for the Jewish system of mediation and sacrifice.

And God, in his long-suffering, desires that many would come to believe, and so he continues to wait.

And so he refers to this time of the Gentiles.

Until it is fulfilled, this will last.

But he will not wait forever.

The times of the Gentiles will be fulfilled upon the coming of the Son of Man, which is what he moves to next.

In verse 25, Jesus uses so much apocalyptic language here, that is the same language found in Joel and Isaiah and Ezekiel and Haggai, and it's too many to reference today.

And he does this to describe these portents, these earth-shaking, distressing signs in the heavens and on earth that will precede his appearing.

And these portents will cause fear and chaos.

And then in the midst of all this fear and perplexity is the coming of the Son of Man on a cloud with power and great glory.

It's not just the climax of this whole passage, it's the climax of all of history.

All the promises of Scripture are ultimately pointing to this moment.

They all have their yes and amen and fulfillment in him.

Now, the Son of Man is Jesus' most used way to reference himself.

And I can see why.

He uses it over 80 times in the Gospels.

So let's look at Daniel chapter 7.

Daniel 7 · chapter mention

We'll put it on the screen.

I love this passage so much.

I want to set the scene in Daniel's vision.

Thrones have been set in place, and God eternal, the ancient of days, who we sang about just a few moments ago, takes his place on one of them.

And he's being served by his thousands upon thousands.

And standing before him are ten thousands times ten thousands.

And it says, A court is being convened.

This is a royal court in which the king has total authority.

And then in verse 13, we see Daniel saying, Behold, with the clouds of heaven there came one like a son of man.

And he came to the ancient of days and was presented before him, and to him was given dominion and glory and a kingdom, and all peoples, nations, and languages should serve him.

His dominion is an everlasting dominion which shall not pass away, and his kingdom one that shall not be destroyed.

That's good news.

And Jesus is saying, I am that Son of Man that Daniel the prophet saw, and I will come with full authority given to me by God, the ancient of days.

He will come with God-given dominion.

He will come to rule righteously over a world that he has redeemed.

He will come to claim what belongs to him, his inheritance, every nation, all people, every tribe, and every tongue.

So that's why Jesus says, when you see these things begin to take place, straighten up.

Raise your head.

Look up.

Get ready for your redemption because it's coming, and it's coming in unmistakable glory this time.

And that's the second thing I want us to see this morning.

The promise of our redemption encourages us to be hopeful.

So giving the disciples and us as readers details on how he would return as a king with dominion power and the full authority of God is more important right now than giving them exactly when he would return.

So that they would endure persecution with joy, spread his gospel, and live ready.

Because they knew they could trust him.

And then Jesus tells this parable of the fig tree.

Now, in this parable of the fig tree that begins in verse 29, he says, when it comes to this when question, what he's saying is once these signs, these cosmic events begin to take place, the season has changed.

There's no time left.

When we see the trees change, it tells us that the season is upon us.

And in the same way he's saying, when you see these things happening, the season is upon you.

There's no time.

The generation that sees these signs is going to see my coming.

And then he closes with, Heaven and earth will pass away, but my words will not pass away, which feels a lot like what Daniel said about his kingdom, doesn't it?

Jesus considers his words to be as authoritative as the Old Testament, which he's been quoting along with this prophecy as he's saying it.

And he's saying, This, what I'm saying is true, it's trustworthy, it will be fulfilled.

And I think we can see him as saying, you can count on this no matter what else happens.

It's a promise.

I love the way Jen Wilken puts this on one of her blog posts when it comes to the promises of God.

Not many things are more comforting than a promise made and kept, and not many things are more hurtful than a promise broken.

Knowing we worship a God who keeps his promises is a source of deep joy.

And indeed, he does keep his promises and will keep his promises.

Isn't that reassuring to us?

To know that what he said, he will accomplish.

And the resurrection hadn't even happened at this point, so his disciples are going to have even more reason to trust his words once they have put their eyes on a resurrected Jesus.

Imagine that.

Destroy this temple, and in three days I will raise it up.

And he did.

So then the third way that the promises of Jesus in this passage encourage us, I think, as his disciples, is that the promises of his return encourage us to be watchful.

Starting in verse 34, how does Jesus tell his disciples to live in light of his coming?

He says, but watch yourselves.

And later in 36, but stay awake.

Pray that you may have strength.

He's saying, wake up, be awake, be sober-minded, guard yourselves from sin.

Don't get caught by surprise.

Watchfulness is probably the least observed spiritual discipline, but I need it every day.

And I admit that.

And Jesus is saying, this is why.

Because I want you to be ready for my return.

I don't want this to catch you by surprise.

Brian Hedges says it this way in Watchfulness, which is a really fantastic book of the same name.

Or the name of the book is Watchfulness, sorry.

He says, to watch is not only to be careful, but also to be persistently careful.

Diligence is persistence.

If you only examine yourself the way you do laundry on, say, Wednesdays and Fridays, then you're not watchful.

Watchfulness is not haphazard.

The watchful believer never takes a day off.

So this is about guarding yourself.

What's the worst thing you can do if you're on guard duty?

Fall asleep.

And it's painful to think that in a few weeks we'll read about Jesus' disciples sleeping during his agonizing ordeal in the garden when he's asked them to watch and pray with him.

They didn't last an hour.

And I'm going to tell you, I can relate to that.

And I bet you can relate to that too.

I've fallen asleep at the post of my own heart many times.

Paul says a similar thing to the church in Rome, in Romans chapter 13, verses 11 through 14.

Romans 13:11–14

Besides this, you know the time, that the hour has come for you to wake from sleep.

For salvation is nearer to us now than when we first believed.

The night is far gone, the day is at hand.

So then let us cast off the works of darkness and put on the armor of light.

He wants us to be awake and ready for his return.

So we see the first part of this prophecy in Luke 21 has already been fulfilled.

This is a matter of recorded history.

The word of Jesus is true and good.

We can trust his promise that he will return.

In fact, if we cannot trust that hope this morning, then I don't know what we're all doing here.

It's core, it's central to what we're doing here.

I love this quote from John Piper.

One of the marks of a living evangelical faith is that we reckon seriously, earnestly, and joyfully with the personal, visible return of the God man Jesus Christ.

The second coming is at the heart of our faith, and our confidence in it should be the faith of our heart.

We should long for it.

I hope you do long for it, but I would be wrong to assume that everyone in this room longs for that day.

That day that Jesus will return in glory to bring justice to the world and set it right.

And this text that we've been in may be prompting you to ask, how will I stand before the Son of Man?

And I want you to know that you don't need to have anxiety about that, but you do need to be able to answer that question.

And there's only one answer.

The only way to stand before him when he comes is in his own righteousness that has been applied to you upon his sacrificial death on a sinner's cross.

That is the only way.

If you are hoping to stand before him on your own merit, on your goodness, then you don't have a plan for that day.

You're standing on filthy rags.

So I want to encourage you to make that right even today.

If the Lord is stirring faith in your heart through the hearing of his word, in just a moment we're going to pray, and then we're going to stand, we're going to sing about our only means of salvation.

And there will be a prayer team in the back corner.

And I would just encourage you to go and ask for prayer from those folks.

They're kind and loving, and they would love to pray with you and answer questions.

So let's pray together.

Father God, thank you for the promise of your return in glory.

Thank you that upon your return you will set all things in the world right.

Thank you, Lord, for the authority and the dominion and the righteous rule that you will execute when you come.

Lord, our hearts long for that.

We pray, Jesus, come.

But Lord, for as long as you wait, we pray that you would spiritually give us the means to be ready.

We pray that your spirit would continue to encourage us to be witnesses for you, Lord.

We pray that your spirit would encourage us to guard our hearts.

We pray that we would encourage one another with watchfulness, Lord.

Lord, that this would be a body of believers who take seriously the promises of your word, Lord, the promise of your return.

Not in a doomsday kind of way, Lord, but in a hope-day kind of way.

Lord, we love you.

Thank you once again, Lord, for your word and its power, and we pray that you would continue, Lord, to show us what you have for us in the Gospel of Luke in the coming weeks.

Draw us closer to you, Lord.

Transform us into more of your likeness, Lord, for your glory.

And we ask it all in Jesus' name.

Amen.