Luke 21:5-38 – The End is Not Near?

But we'll be in Luke's Gospel, chapter 21, this morning.

Just to give us a little context before we read.

And so Luke is telling us a story of where Jesus has entered Jerusalem.

So he has entered Jerusalem and the temple in to be particular.

But the surprise is that he has not come to continue the status quo.

And so even though, as God's son, in a way, coming to the temple should be his welcome home party, that has not at all been the case.

That the religious leaders and the religious institution has really rejected Jesus, and Jesus has come with a rebuke and actually a firm word about the things that are going to have to change.

And in doing this, Jesus is going to clearly move his kingdom beyond Jerusalem and beyond the temple as the center of God's promise of salvation.

So this move away from Jerusalem and away from the temple as the center of God's plan of salvation, that is a huge move.

It's a huge move.

And it and it would be hard for people to have believed in the first century.

And I think in some ways it still would be hard for us to believe.

And so I think the closest equivalent it would be that if you could imagine that somebody were to tell you that Washington, D.C.

is going to be destroyed, the White House is going to be permanently demolished, but the spirit of America will be just fine.

It would be so hard to believe that.

How could those great tragedies happen and yet the United States, America be okay?

And yet that is the level of message that Jesus is bringing, even better than that.

The extremes, he's saying the temple is going to be destroyed and never rebuilt.

Jerusalem itself will be destroyed, and yet God's kingdom, his plan for the world, is coming to fruition and fulfillment in new and exciting ways.

And so it's a hard message for people to hear.

And so Jesus, he takes his time giving it to them and giving it to us as well.

And so let's pray together that God will open our eyes and ears to hear his word and then we'll read together.

Heavenly Father, we do pray that your promises would be true for us this morning.

Lord Jesus, you tell us that you are alive and living and active.

And so your word is alive and living and active.

And so even though we will read these words on a page and I will do my best to explain them, Lord Jesus, we need your help to hear you speak to us, and we need the help of your spirit to help us to believe and in some ways be encouraged, maybe be challenged.

But regardless, would you prepare us to take our place as citizens in your kingdom?

And we ask this in Jesus' name.

Amen.

So we're going to read Luke chapter 21.

Luke 21 · chapter mention

We'll start in verse 5 and then read through verse 38.

If you're following along in the Church Bible, it's page 1046.

And while some were speaking of the temple, how it was adorned with noble stones and offerings, Jesus 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 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 namesake.

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 hair of your head will perish, and by your endurance you will gain your lives.

But when you see Jerusalem surrounded by enemies, 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 those who are out in the country enter not enter it, for these are days of vengeance to fulfil all that is written.

Alas for women who are pregnant, and for those who are nursing infants in those days.

For there will be a 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 times of the Gentiles are fulfilled.

And there will be signs in the 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 you know that 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 this 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 Alavet.

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

This is the word of the Lord.

Well, we have an advantage this morning, advantage and disadvantage in a way.

The advantage is that we do have a fascinating passage in front of us.

It's one with deals with Jerusalem that I think many people are fascinated with.

It talks about the end of time.

And yet we have a disadvantage because actually it's shocking how often we miss the message and point of what Jesus says.

And so we need to try to listen well.

And Jesus, he spends his last days teaching on this topic, the last bit there where it tells us that each morning he came to the temple to teach.

The assumption is that this is what he taught each morning.

That in his last week before his death, this was the message that people really needed to hear.

And then likewise, all three of the synoptic gospels, and so Matthew, Mark, and Luke, that basically tell the same story of Jesus in the same way, all three of them include this section of teaching.

And then the early church applied this teaching to great effect.

And so what we read this morning is really useful for what God is wanting to do, really useful for what Jesus wants to do to prepare us.

And so our passage begins, we'll just start with a bit of an introduction before we get into our main points.

Our passage begins with Jesus' shocking claim about the Jewish temple.

And so if you look back in our passage in verse 5, the people around Jesus, they are so impressed with the earthly power and prestige of the temple.

And so it's described as noble stones.

The word there really means size and significance.

Even today, you could go to the Wailing Wall and you could see some of the stones that were part of the foundation of the temple.

And so huge stones that were so impressive to people.

And then they were also impressed with what Luke describes as the offerings.

And so these were the gifts and the artifacts that were given to the temple, either from rulers or from wealthy people in the area.

And so these were like marble cloisters, golden grape clusters, shields representing the Roman emperors and the governors.

And so you can imagine as these people look at the temple, they must have thought, certainly this is the place of God's glory.

This is it.

Almost like if you were to visit the Vatican or visit one of the great cathedrals down in New York City, you might be tempted to think this is the place where God's glory is present.

But then notice in verse 6, Jesus redirects what they're seeing.

He says, 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.

He says, All this magnificence that you see, it is soon to disappear.

It's a prophecy that is fulfilled.

And so 70 AD, the Romans come in and they lay siege to Jerusalem and they do destroy the temple.

And so Josephus, a historian writing at the time, he tells us that the fire in the city was so great that the gold-plated stones started to melt, and so the gold would melt down off of stones, and so the Roman army knocked the stones off of each other so they could get to the gold.

And so it was that Jesus' words came to fruition within one generation.

And so, in light of this significant teaching, the disciples asked two questions in verse 7.

When and what?

When will these things be?

And what will be the sign?

When will these things be?

And what will be the sign that these things are about to take place?

And so, really, the rest of the passage then is answering those two questions.

And so the complications and the complexity of the passage, it comes from answering those questions.

That actually the answer to those two things, when and what will be the sign, it's a complicated thing.

And so that makes our job a little bit hard.

And so to get us going, I just want to start with this basic idea and an illustration to go along with it.

The basic story that Jesus is going to lay out, the basic answer that he's going to give, can be summarized as already, but not yet.

Some of you may already know that that phrase because it's one that's really helpful as a Christian to realize that so many of God's promises are already for us and yet not yet fully realized.

And so that is what Jesus is going to say here, that his kingdom is already being ushered in through Jesus.

That he is the king.

His resurrection, his ascension is going to prove it, and yet the culmination, the fulfillment, the end, is not yet.

And so a helpful illustration to think about this is maybe the life of the high school senior.

And so I don't know if we have any high school seniors in here, but if you are one or you know one, you know the situation.

As that final year goes on, they already start to know and to believe and to experience that their achievement of finishing high school is coming to an end.

And for each of them, that story is a little bit different as they find out.

Maybe they've been accepted to college.

If they're an athlete, maybe they sign even earlier.

As they get their final grades, they realize it's okay, they've made it.

And what happens?

Senioritis.

Right?

The belief in the future fulfillment starts to drag into the present and they start to kind of experience the freedom already, to the chagrin of their teachers and sometimes their parents.

It's the already, not yet, that they are already, perhaps, accepted into college, in a sense, already guaranteed to graduate, and yet not yet there, and so they need to hold on.

And so that's kind of the message Jesus is bringing.

That the end is sure.

His words are certain, and yet there's still work to be done.

And so we have an outline on the back of the program.

If that would help you, it's the way we're gonna work through this passage and really the points we're gonna try to make as we go along.

And so, first, Jesus is gonna say that it is not yet the end.

It is not yet the end, but God will use our endurance as a witness.

It is not yet the end, but God will use our endurance as a witness.

This not yet reality of the kingdom Jesus is ushering in is the first and the most clear thing that Jesus wants us to know.

It's the first statement he makes.

Isn't it so interesting that here's the answer?

You know, you you know the guy with the sandwich board standing on the street corner telling the message, the end is near.

Jesus actually tells a very different message.

The end is not yet.

Look down, verse eight and nine.

He said to them, See that you are not led astray, for many will come in my name, saying, I am he, and the time is at hand, but do not go after them.

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

And so here at the very beginning, and notice how often and how quick we are to get this clear statement wrong.

We are fascinated with the timelines and the outrageous claims about Jesus' return in the end times.

And sometimes people follow them.

And so I think it was just a year or two ago there was an African pastor who claimed that Jesus was coming back.

I think it was on September 23rd, maybe, or someday like that.

And so everyone, even people here, like my student, my high school students, mentioned it to me.

And so word got around.

And some people traveled with this preacher out into the woods and waited, looked up.

He must be here.

Jesus says, do not go after them.

Do not.

Other times we might just be terrified about what's happening in the world and what will happen.

I think this happens with every war or conflict.

It brings together big claims and insecurity.

Oh, this must be the time.

What does Jesus say?

When you hear of wars and tumults, do not be terrified.

The end is not yet.

You see, Jesus says his kingdom will be a not yet fulfilled kingdom.

And so during this season, there will be trouble on the one hand, and yet spiritual fruitfulness and life.

And so then, starting in verse 10, Jesus gives us more details.

And so that beginning section is the summary.

This is what you're going to hear and experience, but no, it's not yet.

Jesus gives some more details.

So verse 10 and 11, he describes that there will be trouble everyone has to deal with.

Nation will rise against nation, kingdom against kingdom, there will be great earthquakes in various places, famines and pestilence, and there will be terrors and great signs from heaven.

And so Jesus gives you a big scary summary of all the big issues that have haunted humanity.

Wars and conflicts, natural disasters and plagues, even the unknown of the terrors and the signs from heaven.

He just means the things we see, the big things, the cosmic things, even maybe the unidentified flying object type of things.

You know, it kind of sounds like our experience, even in the past 10 years.

Wars and rumors of wars, famines and plagues, signs and terrors in heaven, atlas, um, I forget whether it was a comet or an asteroid.

What is it going to do?

What is it?

You see, none of this is a surprise to Jesus.

And none of them are a challenge to his kingdom.

Rather, he is much more concerned about something else.

Do you notice in verse 12?

He turns his attention and then most of his time on a different kind of trouble.

A trouble that concerns him more, the persecution of his people.

He says that even before, and more prevalent than the kind of cosmic, epic troubles that afflict all of the humanity, all of the world, Jesus foretells a trouble that will afflict his followers in particular.

And it starts with his disciples.

But he says the same basic message: just like the wars and the tumults not being a reason for fear, so the persecution shouldn't be a reason for despair.

You see the point?

The delay, the time of not yet the end, is the way that Jesus will leave his witness in the world as his people endure.

Verse 13, he says, This will be your opportunity to bear witness.

This will be your opportunity.

The delay, the trouble, even the persecution will be your opportunity.

And so, in light of that, he promises his help.

Look down in verse 14 and 15.

Settle it therefore in your minds.

Think about it ahead of time.

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.

Just to clarify here, Peter, I don't think Jesus is saying there's no preparation here given, so don't prepare at all.

And so Peter in his letter he says, be prepared to give an answer for the hope that you have within you.

Instead, the word meditate there, it's really a technical term for the prepared speech of the lawyer in the courtroom.

And so as you face this persecution, as you wonder about the time when you might have the opportunity to speak, he says, Don't rely on your own preparation, don't prepare your technical argument.

Instead, what does he say?

I will give you a mouth.

That's how the Old Testament describes the prophet.

I will give you a mouth, I will give you wisdom.

Think of how the book of Proverbs describes wisdom is a gift from God to those who follow him.

You see, no reliance on human words or wisdom.

Instead, Jesus will be at work.

And notice with the same result as he achieved.

Even as he came in Jerusalem, the opponents came against him, and they tried to trick him, and each time Jesus answered, and then they, the opponents, were the ones who were silenced.

So much so in verse 18 and 19, Jesus promises, even though some of you will be taken to death, some of you will be arrested, not a hair of your head will perish.

And by your endurance, you will gain your lives.

You see, despite persecution, even death, the follower of Jesus will never perish.

If you want it in a more poetic way, think of Psalm 23: Even though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil.

You see, in fact, the simple endurance with Jesus, staying with Jesus, he says, the Christian, gains life, not earns, but possesses.

The same word is used of a spouse and the relationship to their husband or wife.

You don't gain them, but you have them.

You have life.

He says, by enduring, you will have life.

God has designed it such that the experience of seemingly losing our life in service or submission to Him, that is the very way that Jesus brings the power of resurrected life into our world.

That's true for the individual and also for communities.

And so Jesus uses this not yet experience of the Christian life to bring about life for Christianity.

Jesus uses the not yet experience of the Christian life to bring about the life of Christianity.

And I want to say that the witness of Christianity has never been stronger than in these two distinct areas.

How Christians endure through the common trouble of life, even death.

And how Christians endure through the special trouble of persecution.

How Christians endure through those parts of trouble have been the way that God has brought life into the world.

And so you can imagine first by application this teaching, it is for the disciples.

And so some of the details in this teaching, they are particularly for the disciples, and so they were the ones who would fulfill in detail all of these things, while we might fulfill some of them, and the church in general fulfills all of them.

But then by extension, it is true for all Christians that we should prepare to provide a witness by endurance.

And as we do so, expect Jesus' particular help.

So let me at least make one implication of that.

Don't get distracted by temporary or worldly kingdoms.

That's what was going on for Jesus' first audience.

He said, you look around and you see the amazing things, and when the time comes, you are going to grieve the loss.

You're going to grieve the loss of the temple, you're going to grieve the loss of your city.

But actually, something bigger is going to go on.

And so don't get distracted by temporary or worldly kingdoms.

Things like politics, survival, as we'll see in a little bit, even nationalism.

Because here is a word of comfort for the already but not yet.

I will give you a mouth and wisdom.

You know, often the extended tragedy of the victim is to be silenced.

The voice taken away.

You notice Jesus promises the opposite.

The victim of the trouble of the world, the victim of even the very particular persecution for my name, he says, all these things will not take away your voice.

Instead, it will give it to you.

The not yet.

It is not yet the end, and Jesus will use that time to use us as his witnesses.

But Jesus goes on.

And he says, already there are signs of judgment.

Already there are signs of judgment.

And God will use our hope as a sign of redemption.

And so Jesus, he transitions from talking about the general and persistent trouble that will be representative of the entire time before he returns, to now giving one example of a sign of judgment that is to come as God ushers in his new kingdom.

And so I think I've mentioned this before, but I'll just take a pause here to mention a note that in the Bible, when the Bible talks about the last days or the last times, it's clear that Jesus is talking about our current time.

And so basically, the last days are the time between when Jesus came the first time and when he'll come the second time.

That all of that time period is the last days because in terms of God's plan of redemption, nothing else needs to happen.

He is only being patient to allow more to be saved.

And so, because of that dynamic, what happens sometimes in prophetic writings in particular is what we've described as prophetic foreshortening, which means the things that are far away in our perspective get brought close, like they look like they're close.

And so I've used the example of like almost like a timeline.

And so imagine like you could read a timeline kind of from one side to the other, but if you turned it like this, it would look like things are right in line with each other, one after another after another.

And so it is in our pastors this morning that God uses, Jesus kind of goes back and forth between the long epic storyline and then the close details.

And so here he's bringing the judgment of the future into the present experience.

And so he begins first with the fall of Jerusalem.

And so this next section, verses 20 to 24, it is a description, a prediction of the fall, the literal in time and space, fall of Jerusalem.

And the way that Jesus describes it, he's using language from the Old Testament that was always used of coming judgment.

And so if you read through Isaiah, a lot of this language is used for the judgment against the nations, and then apply Jerusalem itself when they're taking exile by Babylon.

If you read through Daniel, a lot of this language shows up, and so Jesus is clear.

He's talking about judgment, God's judgment, and yet he's applying it to a particular circumstance.

The other thing we read in the Old Testament, and really all three synoptic gospels, pick up this story, is that this is a specific judgment of Israel.

That in the rejection of Jesus, God has withdrawn his protective hand, and so they will be judged by him as a precursor of the coming judgment of all nations and of all humanity.

And so just look how Jesus describes it in verse 20.

He says, Know that its desolation has come near.

That's direct language from the Old Testament.

That God has prophesied desolation for the city that rejects him.

Verse 22, days of vengeance to fulfill all that is written.

Where is the vengeance from?

Certainly from the Romans, but then also God's wrath.

God is judging.

Jesus told the parable of the tenets that as they reject God as owner, God would come and destroy.

And so all of this is about the temporary judgment against Jerusalem.

Jesus is saying, when you see these things happen, know what's about to happen.

And yet notice in verse 24, this temporary judgment, it will be used by God for the redemption of the Gentiles.

And so this expression, the time of the Gentiles, it is a difficult one.

We don't know exactly what it means.

I think it most likely means the time of the preaching of the gospel to the Gentiles.

That there was a period of history where God worked his saving plan primarily through the people of Israel.

And then there is a current time where God is working out his salvation plan primarily through the nations of the world, what the Bible would know as the Gentiles.

That's really how Paul applies the judgment of Israel, that God would judge Israel for the rejection of Jesus, and yet the rejection would be the very means by which then the gospel would go to others.

And so until the time, until the time of the Gentiles is over, I want to be clear here, and I want to slow down to say it carefully.

The Bible does not predict the return of the state of Israel.

The Bible does not predict the return of the state of Israel, neither does the Bible predict the rebuilding of the Jewish temple.

And so when Paul imagines what's going on here, he says that the people of Israel they have rejected Jesus, and so they have been cut out of God's vine.

He says the Gentiles will be grafted in.

And he even holds out hope and prayer that the Jews would be grafted in again.

He is not talking about a return of the nation-state of Israel, neither is he talking about a return of the temple.

And the reason we can be so clear is that if you look at the rest of the storyline of the Bible, where is the temple and where is Jerusalem in God's remade world?

It is in heaven coming down.

What the Bible predicts is that God has prepared a heavenly temple, a heavenly Jerusalem that all of his people will be entered into at the restoration of all things.

And so Jesus here, he's saying, judgment is coming, and first, in this way, it is coming here.

It's really a message that is understood and applied by those who heard this message first.

And so Eusebius, a Roman historian, he says that when the Romans came and they surrounded Jerusalem, I have the quote.

Yeah, when the Romans came and they surrounded Jerusalem, the Christians they saw the signs and they responded.

And so most of them fled to this city called Pella, which is one of the cities of the Decopolis, which is kind of the Greek, a Greek area of Judea.

And Eusebius says that they went in response to an oracle given by Revelation.

That actually they hear the words of Jesus and they apply them.

But for us, what does Jesus want us to apply?

Notice that he seemingly transitions from the temporary judgment against Israel to then he starts to talk about a judgment that seems to be bigger.

Look down at verse 25.

And there will be signs in sun and moon and stars, and on the earth distress of nations and perplexities, because the roaring of the waves and the sea.

People will faint with fear, with foreboding of what's to come, for the powers of heaven will be shaken.

Cosmically, things are going wrong.

And then they will see the Son of Man coming in glory.

And so Jesus, he transitions seamlessly from this temporary picture of judgment to then the big apocalyptic picture of judgment.

Let me just make a couple of notes on that.

You know, the Bible, the way the Bible talks about the final judgment, it makes several things clear.

Final judgment will be obvious, it will be clear to everyone, it will be unavoidable.

Everyone will face it.

And it means a real and imminent future.

It's in all of our futures.

You know, C.S.

Lewis, the guy who wrote Narnia and so much other helpful stuff, he famously said that he wished that the final judgment in Christianity wasn't true.

But he said what became clear over time is that the Bible clearly teaches it, Jesus firmly predicts it, and logic demands it.

I think that's in part of what Jesus means when he says, when you see these things.

In particular, there might come a time when the tumult is so clear that everything's coming to an end.

And so he might mean that when you see those things, know that Jesus is coming into the world.

But I think he also means that when you see these things throughout our time, know that these are signs of brokenness and suffering and that judgment is needed.

You see, logic demands judgment.

Our sense that things are not right and they need to be made right, that evil needs to be restrained and judged, that goodness needs to be protected and developed, all those demand a judgment.

Someone who would morally and ethically set the lines and hold the standard.

But notice, even though this judgment is coming and it's cosmically so life-changing, it's sudden, notice what it means for the Christian, though.

Verse 28, now when these things begin to take place, straighten up, raise your heads, because your redemption is drawing near.

You see, Jesus says that for his people, the signs of tumult and trouble in the world, whenever you see those things, it is not a time to cower in fear.

It is not a time to withdraw in safety.

Instead, he says it is time to straighten up and to raise your head because redemption is drawing near.

You see, it doesn't lead to fear or despair, but it leads to hope.

And so what do we do?

Look at the parable that he gives next.

Working our way through.

Verse 29, he starts to give this parable of the fig tree.

It's fairly obvious and straightforward.

As with any fig tree, when you see the fruit, the leaves, you know summer's coming.

You know the seasons are happening.

And so he says, see the signs.

See the signs of what is going on in this world.

I think that gives us the insight we need to understand verse 32.

It's another difficult verse.

Look down.

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

Now I want to say something pretty clearly that I don't think Jesus is talking that he would return during his disciples' generation.

I don't think he is claiming that he would return, say, in 20, 30 years.

The reason I'm so sure of that is one, that would mean Jesus is wrong, which would really be a very difficult thing for Christianity.

But beyond that, um, the early church did not respond to this as if Jesus was wrong.

And so you could imagine that that was the case, the early church would really hush-hush this part of the passage.

Let's not teach that anymore because that got disproven.

No, no, the early church continued to teach this, that they continue to teach that that Jesus' words here were useful and necessary for the Christian community.

And so all the people closest to Jesus didn't hear him saying that.

And so then what is he saying?

Well, I think there's really two options that are best.

I'm just gonna give you two, there's lots.

I'll give you two, one that I think is is the best one.

The one that I think is the best one is this generation, as in, those who start to see these signs, those who live in the last days.

And so their generation is basically the time of humanity that lives in this time period.

And so this generation, those who live between Jesus' first coming and his second coming, those who start to see the signs of the fall of Jerusalem, start to realize there's nothing left for God to do.

All he has to do is come back and judge and make things right.

And that's why I think the Christians who fled Jerusalem were applying Jesus' word so carefully.

The generation, they saw the signs and they knew what to do.

It's also possible that the generation could be kind of those in Jesus' day.

The generation saw the initial signs.

And so they knew that the time was coming.

Either way, you notice what the point is.

Jesus makes it there at the end of the fig tree analogy.

Verse 32 truly I say to you, this generation will not pass away until all has taken place.

Heaven and earth will pass away.

Everything's gonna pass away.

There's gonna be so much going on that it'll seem like no way this could still be true.

And yet my words will not pass away.

You see, the point is that we would trust and believe Jesus' words.

Even when it seems like everything else is passing away, the word of Jesus given in promise and comfort to his people, that word will endure forever.

Let me remind you how the New Testament applies this.

Judgment is already coming, and yet for us, those who have faith in the Lord Jesus, judgment is a sign of redemption.

That's how the Apostle Paul applies that to death.

And so we who live in this world, we still continue to face death, but what does he say?

Death, where is your sting?

Your sting has been lost.

And so for the Christian, death is but sleep.

Fall asleep in one world, open your eyes in the next.

How does Hebrews apply it to our worship?

The destruction of the temple?

No problem.

Why?

Because now we come to a heavenly Jerusalem.

We come to a heavenly temple that can't be built or destroyed by hands.

You see, Jerusalem falling was one sign of coming judgment.

And so I want to extend it out.

As is every disaster and fallen nation since then.

And so let me say it clearly: the state of Israel, the Jewish temple, they hold no spiritual significance today.

And so our opinion, our posture towards Israel should be based on other things.

And so it's perfectly appropriate that we would evaluate the nations around us and think whether they're promoting justice and goodness, think whether they would be good allies for our country.

But spiritually speaking, revealed from the Bible, the state of Israel has no significance.

You know what else is true?

The United States claims no revealed spiritual significance.

The Bible gives us no clear revelation or word of the spiritual significance of the United States.

We, like so many others before us and so many after us, are just like the nations that will rise and fall.

That we can seek goodness, we can be citizens of this world, even as Jesus said, give unto Caesar what is Caesar.

We do good in the world that God has placed us, we see his sovereign hand in control, but yet what are we doing?

We are citizens of a better country looking beyond.

And wherever we face trouble and struggle, whether it be plagues like COVID, whether it be need and famine, like economic downturns, whether it be wars and rumors of wars, what is our awareness?

Oh, the judgment that's coming will be for our redemption.

So will we be ready to hold on to the future hope?

Despite the ongoing and current signs of God's judgment.

You see, that will be a great testimony to our promised redemption.

We'll be ready when the next nation-to-nation moment comes, the next plague.

We'll be ready at least for our corporate testimony, for our Christian confession, to speak of the hope and redemption more loudly, more loudly than our fear, or more loudly than the fading hopes we might have for this life.

That transitions us to our last point here.

God's plan is not yet fulfilled, but God will use our readiness to help us stand.

And so Jesus, he ends his teaching with a clear application.

A clear application that our fascination with unanswered questions so often misses.

This is the time of delay.

This is the time of waiting for God to fulfill his plans.

So what should that mean for us?

Jesus is very clear.

Readiness.

Readiness to depend on God's help.

How striking that a discussion of the end times often causes us to look out to space or to look to the Middle East.

But where does Jesus want us to look?

Two directions.

Ourselves and to God.

Verse 34.

Watch yourselves.

Watch yourselves lest your hearts be weighed down with dissipation and drunkenness and the cares of this life.

It's certainly a literal warning, and so the challenges and the cares of this world can lead to kind of actual coping mechanisms like drunkenness or dissipation.

It's basically a lifestyle that leads to hangovers, living on edge so much that you barely have anything left.

Certainly it's literal.

Like beware, don't let yourself fall into that.

But it's certainly spiritual as well, because in verse 36, it adds this idea of staying awake at all times.

God doesn't intend for us to stay awake at all times.

Many of us are going to enjoy that this afternoon, maybe.

See, it doesn't mean never sleep.

It rather means we are to be spiritually ready.

While the situations around us will always be challenging and it will always be there.

Jesus is very honest about the world we live in.

What is our focus going to be?

Not primarily on the Middle East, not primarily to outer space, but watching our hearts.

And notice that the internal awareness then leads to a spiritual awareness that Jesus summarizes as prayer.

Verse 36, stay awake at all times, praying that you may have the strength to escape all the things that are going to take place and to stand before the Son of Man.

You see, when we look inside and we see our hearts being weighed down, where do we look then?

Psalm 121, I lift my eyes to the hills.

Where does my help come from?

My help comes from the Lord who made heaven and earth.

He will not let your foot be moved.

He who keeps you will not slumber.

Behold, he who keeps Israel will neither slumber nor sleep.

When we look inside, it reminds us that we need to look to Him.

In this verse, escape is not avoiding, it's triumphing through.

Escaping is surviving in a way, and yet notice the survival that Jesus has in mind.

That at the end you will stand before the Son of Man.

Once again, picking up from Daniel, Daniel 12, that we read, the great hope for the Old Testament Christian was that at the end, as they live through it all, they would stand before God.

Read Job.

I know my Redeemer lives, and at the end I will stand before him.

See, this is the wonderful picture of status and safety.

That everything in this world would seek to beat you down and take your voice and even take your life.

What is the hope of the Christian?

That the delay will just lead to your witness, to your redemption, and to your standing before God.

How do you know?

Read how it's applied in Revelation chapter 7.

Revelation 7 · chapter mention

Johnny's getting this great vision in Revelation chapter 7 and verse 9.

Revelation 7 · chapter mention

He looks and he beholds a great multitude that no one could number from every nation, from all the tribes and peoples and languages.

They're standing before the throne and before the Lamb, clothed in white robes, with palm branches in their hands, and crying out with a loud voice, Salvation belongs to our God who sits on the throne and to the Lamb.

And the question comes, Who are these?

Who are the ones clothed in white robes?

Who made it?

Who got to this point?

Who's standing at the end?

Last man standing?

The answer: These are the ones coming out of the great tribulation.

They have washed their robes and made them white in the blood of the Lamb.

Therefore they are before the throne of God and serve him day and night in his temple, and he who sits on the throne will shelter them with his presence.

They shall hunger no more, neither thirst anymore.

The sun shall not strike them, nor any scorching heat.

For the lamb in the midst of the throne will be their shepherd, and he will guide them to springs of living water, and God will wipe away every tear from their eyes.

Lots of questions about this chapter.

The clarity is there.

Jesus has unlocked the future for us.

Jesus has unlocked the future.

And rather than being those who are fascinated with the unknown, we are those who will be known.

Once we know the plans of the Son of Man, the coming king, the details, they don't really matter all that much.

There's an expression in sports where you act like you've been there before.

Act like you've been there before.

And so it's an expression used to kind of encourage people to maintain composure and dignity throughout their triumph or tribulation.

Act like you've been there before, like it's no big deal.

Or you can think of maybe the instinct of the animal.

And so we have a dog lily.

Do you notice dogs aren't scared of the dark?

Dogs aren't scared of the dark.

Why?

Well, at least in part, they have this instinctual history of their breed, that they they know and they understand that even the dark and their place in it.

In a way, that is the gift Jesus is giving to his Christian community.

He's inviting us to live into the freedom like we've been there before.

That attached to him and his plan, attached to those who have come before us and will go after us, we live even in all the tumult of this world as if we know the end.

We're witnesses to it.

We bear in our bodies not only the suffering with Jesus, but his redemption.

And so, therefore, in the midst of all of that, what do we look for?

We look within, steady my heart to look on you to find your safety.

Let's pray that God will prepare us for the future He has.

Heavenly Father, we thank you for your word and how you speak to us.

We pray that even though we may have questions about how the end will go, questions about other parts of the Bible related to this, we pray that the clarity of your word will be for us.

That you would build us up to be your witnesses.

That you would give us a mouth that would speak of your redemption.

Lord, would you make us those who are dependent on you and not on all the other ways that we could find power and security in this world?

Lord, would you make us like those who live, like we've been with you?

And we ask this in Jesus' name.

Amen.