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Sunday, November 18, 2007

25th Sunday after Pentecost 11/18/2007 Text: Luke 21:5-28 Title: Expectations

25th Sunday after Pentecost
11/18/2007
Text: Luke 21:5-28
Title: Expectations
This morning our Gospel reading focuses on the end times which might seem kind of strange since we are getting so close to Advent and Christmas celebrating the birth of Christ. It is sort of like a downer right before a great time of celebration like Christmas. Maybe you have never really thought about the reason behind the tradition of our looking at the end times at this time of the year.
There are a couple of reasons why we focus on end times at this time of the year. One reason is that we are in the last two Sundays of the church year. Time has run out, the end of the church year is here. While that is a reason, the main reason that these particular passages are read, they are to help us to anticipate the return of Jesus in his Second Advent.
Anticipation is a necessary and important part of every one’s life. Without it life would be boring and uneventful. The Christian’s life is no different. In fact for a Christian anticipation is critical to their faith life.
In Old Testament times the people anxiously awaited the start of a Messianic Kingdom. Today we should be waiting with the same urgent expectancy as did the Israelites of old. But our anticipation is of, as I said earlier, the Lord’s Second Advent, the piercing of the clouds and the sound of the trumpet, when victory over sin and death will be complete and final. The end of this earth as we know it will be over, but we need not be afraid, for in Jesus’ coming the new heaven and earth on which all believers in Christ will be united with Christ forever will be created.
We don’t have time to go over the entire reading, so I want to focus on verses 25 through 28 of chapter 21. But before I do that I need to set the context for the reading. Jesus is at the temple with his disciples and they have been talking about the beauty of the temple, about how all these massive stones had been decorated with gifts dedicated to God.
I have no doubt that the disciples were like so many today who profess their faith in Christ, but still put, at least a little, their confidence in buildings and institutions. I am sure they were thinking about how God would be proud of them and thus reward them for what the Jewish people had built.
I think that is why Jesus told them that not one stone would be left on another. This, by the way, actually happened in 70 AD. Jesus wanted them to refocus. The kingdom is not about buildings and institutions. It is not about human work. It is about God and what he has, is, and will be doing for his creation.
As you look through the following verses you see that there are going to be false pastors, even those that claim to be Jesus returned. I just got through reading a book written by a woman that was a teenager under Mao in China. She writes, now that she has become a Christian, that Mao was god and his teachings were taken as such. You don’t think that someone could pull that off today? There is a man in Florida who is doing exactly that and there are thousands of people following him.
There are going to be nations battling against nations. There are going to be earthquakes, famines, and pestilences. There are going to be fearful events and signs in the heavens. It is going to get bad.
As if that is not bad enough, Jesus tells his disciples, that before that takes place they will be brought into the synagogues and prisons before kings and governors; not to be honored, but persecuted. It certainly looks bad doesn’t it? It was, for almost every disciple of Jesus died a terrible death.
He tells them in verse 16 and the following that their families will betray them leading to their being put to death. He tells them that they will be hated. Boy that sure makes you want to be a Christian doesn’t it?
The city of Jerusalem did fall in 70ad. Records show that things were so bad in the city that people ate their children. It was bad, and people did turn in their family members to save their skin. It happened to the people of Israel and it will happen again. We have God’s word on it, except this time it will happen to all nations all around the world.
That brings me to verses 25 through 28 the actual end of the world as we know it. Jesus in verse 25 speaks the words that were spoken years earlier by the prophets Amos, Isaiah, Joel, and Zephaniah as each of them prophesied about the future of Israel.
Does that mean that Jesus was only prophesying about an event that has already taken place? No it does not, for, we see in his words that the time, he is speaking of the entire world for all will see what is happening.
Those things that we take for granted, like the rising and setting of the sun, moon, and stars in the sky will be stopped as the whole sky will be shaken. If that were not enough the oceans of the world will act like they never have before. You think that Hurricane Katrina was bad, it will pale in comparison to what the oceans and waterways of the world will be doing at the end of the world.
We are told in verse 26 that people will faint with fear. It is going to be worse than anything that has ever happened. People will be scared to death of what is coming, for how could it get worse than the sun, moon, and stars being shaken from their place?
Wow, it makes you really want to look forward to Jesus’ return doesn’t it? Who wants to go through that and how bad will it get? Will I be able to survive it? All natural questions, natural questions if you did not believe in Christ’s Second Coming.
Look at what Jesus tells us in verse 27. Those times mark the return of Jesus. And what does the return of Jesus mean? It is the end and we will be caught up with him in the clouds. We will not suffer those things.
Jesus tells us in verse 28 that at that time we, that is, believing Christians are to lift up our heads. We are not to be afraid. We are in fact to stand up because our redemption is here. This biblical passage is not just a metaphor about death, individual or collective. It is talking about the reality of the end of time, but not the end of life with God.
The problem comes when we see the signs as though they have some independent significance. Things like seeing the battle of Armageddon taking place before Jesus comes back. Those that believe that have not truly read the scripture, for Revelation 16 tells us that the demons gathered the kings of the world to do battle with God on the last day. They are not battling each other or battling Israel, as we see in Revelation 17:14, “ They will make war on the Lamb and the Lamb will conquer them, for is the Lord of lords and King of kings.”
We must remember that the focus of the passages we have been looking at this morning, in fact the entire Bible is on God and what he is doing. God is in charge of all time; so why wouldn’t he be in charge of end time?
Just as we know God who is revealed fully in Jesus Christ, through the Holy Spirit, we are called to trust God in contemplating the future, for it is this same God who comes to us at the end of time. Time will end, but God’s Word will not.
So my dear brothers and sisters in the faith don’t be anxious about the future, for God is in charge and he will not let any of his children fall away from the faith. You have his word on it. Amen