Luke 21:5-38
Please remain standing and turn
in your copy of the word of God to Luke chapter 21. Today’s reading
will be verses five to 38. I think many of you will be glad
to see we are gonna zip through and next week we’ll start on
chapter 22. We got just a few more to go and we’ll be there. Today, Jesus will be giving us
end times encouragement. And so, Before we read God’s
word, let’s ask for his help. Lord, your word is a lamp to
our feet, a light to our path. Without it, we starve, for it
is bread from heaven, it is living bread. But Father, our appetites
are for other things. We love the world, we love the
temptations of Satan, and we even love the desires of our
flesh, which are sinful. And we pray now that in this
hour that you would bless us by your word and by your spirit
to see, to hear, to believe, and to understand, and most of
all, to put up into practice the things that we read and study
this day in our lives. All for the glory of God, the
good of our neighbor, and our everlasting joy. Amen. Hear the word of the living God.
Luke 21 beginning at verse 5. And while some were speaking
of the temple, and 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 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 ashamed,
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. 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 the 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 the nations. And Jerusalem
will be trampled underfoot by the Gentiles until the time of
the Gentiles are fulfilled. There will be signs in 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 then 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 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 the strength to escape all these
things that are going to take place and 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. Amen. The word of the living God, you
may be seated. Think through, if you will, in
the Bible, all the places where God has dwelled in the midst
of his people. In the beginning, God came to
Adam and Eve in the garden, the temple. The garden was much like
a temple, its design, its precincts, its sacred spaces. God walked
with Adam and Eve. He fellowshiped with them. In
fact, when sin entered the garden, he banished them from his garden. They could not be in his presence.
because of their sin. You move on through biblical
history from the garden and you see that God meets with individuals
at various times and places. Jacob wrestled with God that
night and named the place the face of God. Abraham was called
by God out of Ur of the Chaldeans. He made a covenant God did with
Abram. He passed through Abram’s offerings
and sacrifices. We think of Moses and the burning
bush. We think of Moses up on the mountain
in the wilderness. We think of God in particular
dwelling with his people for long stretches of Israel’s history
through the tabernacle and then through the temple. And we understand
that in the new covenant, we who come to faith in Christ Jesus,
we are living stones. Our bodies are temples of the
Holy Spirit and stone upon stone throughout history of the Christian
church, God has built up his people into a living building,
his church, with Christ as the chief or the cornerstone of his
temple. Now, Jesus in this passage is
speaking of the real temple, the physical temple, the Jerusalem
temple. Now, remember when David first
landed as king of Israel, one of the things he wanted to do
was to bring the ark. It had been rescued from the
Philistines after a war, and it was in the house of a faithful
man in Israel. David saw how it blessed him,
and he said, I want the ark of Israel in Jerusalem that the
city may be blessed. So David had the old Jebusite
city. He built it up into Jerusalem.
He built a house for himself, and his last desire was to build
a house for God. He said, I dwell in a palace,
but your presence is in a tent. And God says to David, through
the prophet, you’ve got too much blood on your hands. One of your
offspring will build a temple. So Solomon, remember, built Jerusalem
bigger and better than his father David had. And Solomon’s temple
was grand. It was huge. It was one of the
wonders of the ancient world. Kings and people from the earth
came. We go to Disney World. We go
to New York City. We go to all these places that
we think are wonderful and grand. Well, back in the ancient days,
if you wanted to really see something. You came to Jerusalem. I don’t
know if they sold timeshares or not, but Jerusalem was the
place in the world if you wanted to see something magnificent.
Well, we just read a few moments ago from the book of Jeremiah,
a description of the destruction of Jerusalem that took place
in around 586 before Christ. And remember about 70 years or
so later, Ezra and Nehemiah and a handful of others returned
from Babylon to rebuild Judah. to rebuild the city walls of
Jerusalem, to rebuild their houses and then to build a second temple. And so this temple where Jesus
is sitting with his disciples, this temple where the end of
our passage says he came day by day and taught in the temple.
He went to the Mount of Olives and lodged there at night. It
also says the people came early to hear him teach early in the
morning. He’s in the second temple. Now
some of you are scratching your heads and saying, why in the
world, I’ve read my Bible, why in the world would they be so
amazed at this second temple? Some of you have read through
Ezra and Nehemiah. There are a handful of you in
here who suffered under my preaching of Ezra and Nehemiah several
years ago. You remember that when the second temple was built,
it was a small temple. In fact, the old men of those
those days when they were building the foundation of the second
temple, they wept and they wept aloud. And the reason for their
weeping was the small size of the second temple at Jerusalem.
They were like good old church people. I remember the good old
days. I remember when we had Sunday school. I remember when
the preacher was this. I remember when we had fried
chicken every Sunday. You know, the good old days, that’s what
we like to remember. These old men remembering the bigger temple,
the better temple. And what does the prophet say?
Do not despise the day of small things. And then there’s a prophecy.
You will see greater things in this temple than you’ve ever
seen before. And now that greater thing, Jesus
is in the temple, but they’re amazed at this temple because
Herod, Herod, who is overseeing this little area of Palestine
over which he’s governor for the Roman emperor, he has taken
it upon himself. Well, if I’m going to rule this
little province, it’s going to look nice. And so when Herod
came into power, About 40 years before Jesus’ birth, his construction
campaign on the temple was magnificent. He had stones quarried from about
10 miles or so away, and these stones were massive, tons and
tons. Some historians say that over
2,000 yoke of oxen were used to haul these stones to the temple
mound He used thousands upon thousands of laborers and craftsmen
and artisans. Now, think of this. Herod was
no Jew. Herod was no Christian. Herod did not fear Yahweh. Herod
was building a name for himself. And so as these disciples and
Jesus are sitting in the second temple, remodeled for over 40
years and recently completed by Herod, They are looking at
all of the money coming into the offering plates and they’re
looking at the massive stones. And so Jesus is thinking here.
They need a little end times exhortation. They need to understand
this glory, this magnificence, this beauty, these offerings
will not last. And so every day Jesus is teaching
in the temple every night. He’s going out to all of it.
People come early to hear him preach and proclaim the good
news. And what’s on his mind in a day
or so, it’s Passover. In a day or so after Passover
with his disciples, he will institute the Lord’s Supper by Judas’ betrayal
with a kiss for 30 pieces of silver. He will be arrested in
the next day, trial after trial after trial, crucifixion, death,
and put in the grave. But he’s also thinking in about
eight weeks after his resurrection, the acts of the apostles of Jesus
Christ These men who are scaredy cats, these men who are fishermen,
these men who are Galileans, these men who will deny him and
flee into the night the next day or so will be the apostles
whose preaching and prayer and ministry will spread the gospel
like wildfire to the ends of the earth and even to us in 21st
century America. What a wonderful thing must have
been on Jesus’ mind. And what did he need to do? He
needed to say, quit marveling at the bricks. Quit thinking
wonderful thoughts of the stained glass. Quit thinking of how prosperous
is the American church. Quit thinking about how wonderful
it is when the organ swells and we straighten our ties and we
sit in our Presbyterian pew, right? He’s unsettling them with
end times exhortations and he’s doing that for us today. We wanna think for a moment or
two about the events that Jesus is predicting. and how we as
Christians might live out of the same exhortations as his
disciples that day. Now, there are a lot of ways
to go through these verses. We could we could do in time
stuff. We could do left-behind stuff. We could do prophecy stuff
We get there’s a lot we can do and I want to simply say this
Jesus is speaking about a future destruction of Jerusalem and
it does take place in AD 70 So about 40 years or so after Jesus
speaks these words. Yes Jerusalem is destroyed by
Rome and Jesus is also speaking about wars and tumults and rumors
of wars, wars among the nations and among the peoples of the
earth who sin against one another. He’s also speaking about natural
events, earthquakes, signs and wonders in the heavens. He’s
speaking about all kinds of things that will take place in natural
phenomena. He’s also speaking of pestilence,
sickness. He’s speaking of COVID-19. He’s
speaking of polio. He’s speaking of the black plague,
the black death. He’s speaking of all the things
that run through our cultures and give us great fear. He’s
speaking of heavenly signs. He’s speaking of persecutions.
And most of all, he’s speaking of the son of man and the coming
of redemption. And so there’s three categories
of exhortation for those living in the end times. He’s going
to speak to his disciples about things that took place in their
day, but he’s going to speak to us about things that take
place in our day. And there’s three categories
of his end times exhortation. There’s discernment, there’s
confidence, and there’s provision. Let’s think for a moment about
Jesus end times exhortation to have discernment. between the
advents of the coming of the Lord Jesus, between his first
coming and his birth and his second coming, where he will
make all things new and take the righteous home, between these
advents until the day of redemption, when our bodies are raised from
the grave and united with our spirits made perfect in heaven,
until then, we need to live eyes wide open. We need to live Bibles
open. We need to live spiritually discerning
spiritual things. We need to live not for this
world. We need to be less attached to
this world and more attached to the next world. And we don’t
need to live with Bible in one hand and newspaper in another.
Have you noticed how fascinated people are Oh, this happened
in the world. Therefore, this is what it says
in the Bible. Therefore, oh, Jesus is coming
back. Well, how many people do you think over the last 2,000
years have read their Bible in this hand and their newspaper
in that hand? I mean, how many Antichrist have there been in
2,000 years? It’s been the Pope, it’s been Hitler, it’s been Donald
Trump. I mean, who? It’s been the Tar
Heels. I mean, whatever. It’s been all
kinds of things. How many people do you think
have read the Bible with one hand and the newspaper in the
other and said, oh, Jesus is coming back. It’s got to be.
It’s got to be. It’s got to be. And that could happen for 2,000 more
years. And so we need to be discerning not only about Christian living,
but we need to be discerning when people all around us say,
oh, it’s here. Oh, it’s now. Oh, it’s coming.
Do any of y’all remember 88 reasons why Jesus is coming back in 1988?
Well, he didn’t come back and it had to be revised. 90 reasons.
Well, it’s 1990 and 2000 reasons. It’s 2000. And then Y2K. Oh,
it’s definitely Y2K. And some of you probably still
have your cans and beans and rice and you got your computer
fixed. So it wouldn’t crash on a 11 of 00 or whatever all that
mess was. We need discernment, not just
to weed out the wackiness of the Christian world, That needs
to be left behind, no pun intended. But we need to have eyes open,
Bibles open. We need to realize that it’s
like the days of Noah. Remember for 100 years, he cut,
he sawed, he hammered, and he built an ark. For the salvation
of his family, there was no rain in sight. He built an ark on
a dry desert bed. Yet God told him there will be
judgment, there will be a flood. And so in the days of Noah, people
were eating and drinking and marrying, and they were doing
all kinds of things except affirming who God is and what he’s done
and his judgment. And so some of the discernment
that pops up in this passage, look, if you will, in your Bibles,
verse eight of chapter 21. Chapter 21, verse eight says,
see that you are not led astray. That’s the first warning. There’s a second warning in verse
21 speaks to this discernment. Then let those who are in Judea
flee to the mountains. Let those who are inside the
city, that’s Jerusalem, depart. Let not those who are out in
the country enter it for the days of vengeance to fulfill
all that is written are these. And then skip down to verse 31. Jesus speaks of the leaves of
the tree coming because it’s summer, the kingdom of God is
near. So also verse 31 says, when you see these things taking
place, you know that the kingdom of God is near. And then one
final exhortation to discernment, verses 34 to 36. Watch yourselves. lest your hearts be weighed down
with dissipation and drunkenness and cares of this life. And that
that day come upon you suddenly like a trap, for it will come
upon all who dwell on the face of the earth, but stay awake. Pray that you will have strength
to escape all these things that are going to take place and stand
before the son of man. There’s four exhortations to
discernment. Watch. Pray. Beware of false
teachers. Flee Jerusalem. Look at the fig
tree, the coming leaves. It’s summer. Notice the signs
of the times. We need to have our eyes open,
our Bibles open. We need to be a praying people,
a church people. We need to do these things because
otherwise we’ll be swivel headed. We’ll be looking this way and
that way and listening to this and to that. And do you know
most Christians are confused? Most Christians believe all of
the sensational stuff of the day. And so my challenge to you
in being discerning and listening to these four exhortations for
discernment in these last days, don’t be swivel-headed. but be
catechism, boys and girls. Let me tell you what I mean by
that. One of the great theologians of American Presbyterianism was
writing about the value of knowing your catechism. You know, the
catechism, little questions and answers to teach you right doctrine,
right beliefs. If you’re little kids, who made
you? God. What else did God make? God made
all things. Why did God make you in all things?
For his own glory. Or you step it up a notch, what
is man’s chief end? Man’s chief end is to glorify
God and to enjoy him forever. And so we learn our catechisms,
maybe the kid’s catechism, the shorter catechism. You learn
the creeds and the confessions and it builds in you a strength. I know some of you work out,
some of you run, some of you diet, some of you take your supplements. Why do we do these things? We
do it to build up our strength. We do it so that our bodies can
perform as they were designed. We do it so that we have endurance
and strength and we can do things that others cannot do. We eat
our Wheaties. And that’s the call of the Christian.
It’s to know our Bibles, to know our doctrine, And this theologian
who is telling of the value of learning the catechism recounts
the story during one of the world wars of the last century, where
two soldiers were passing each other by on the street. There
were airplanes flying over, bombs being dropped, bullets whizzing
past heads, chaos of war. And as these two men passed each
other, they locked eyes. And they both, after passing
each other, turned around, walked right back to each other. One
stuck his finger in the other’s chest and says, what is man’s
chief end? The other replied, to glorify
God and to enjoy him forever. And he says, I knew you were
a catechism boy by the look on your face. And so friends, we
live in end times. We live in world war. We live
in chaos and tumult and disease and pestilence. We live in the
day of false teachers. We live with all this chaos around
us. And if we are not catechism, boys and girls and men and women,
people of the church with Bibles, open eyes, open praying, watching,
not worldly living in dissipation. We will be ready for the coming
and the redemption of the Lord Jesus. And that’s why Titus tells
the Christian church, live a simple, quiet, godly life. Clean out
the fat, get rid of the things in your life that hinder you
from being awake and ready and watchful. So Jesus in times,
exhortation, discernment. But another of his end times
exhortation, confidence, discernment, now confidence. We need to shut
off the news, don’t we? We just need to kill it. It’s
depressing, it’s deceitful, it’s awful. What’s going on in the world
will drive you batty, as they say, right? It’ll drive you nuts.
It’ll drive you crazy if you watch too much of what’s brewing
in this world. That’s what’s on Jesus’ mind. His disciples, and we can be
as Christians, are enamored with the stones of the church. with the outward glory of the
church, even the outward success. What defines success in the American
church? It’s nickels and noses. Actually,
that’s not what defines success. We may have no nickels and very
few noses, but if we have faithfulness to Christ, we can name success. It’s not in the size of our buildings,
the bricks, the numbers who come, the weeks we run out of parking
spaces, those sorts of things. We love to pat ourselves on the
back, but Jesus knows what’s brewing in the world and he’s
telling us what’s brewing in the world and saying, have discernment,
but also have confidence. You need to know what’s true,
know what’s going on, and you need to long for better days. And so as catechism boys and
girls, and as catechism men and women of the church who have
been filled up and fortified and are ready to fight by faith
this evil world, Jesus gives a couple of exhortations. Look
in verses nine through 11 of chapter 21. In verses nine through
11, he says, when you hear of wars,
when you hear of tumults, do not be terrified, for these things
must first take place, but the end will not be all at once. Don’t be terrified, Jesus says,
have confidence. And then if you look at verse
28, now when these things begin to take place, Straighten up,
raise your heads because your redemption is drawing near. Take heart, straighten up, raise
your heads, have confidence. Don’t be terrified at the events
of the apocalypse. Those two men who met each other
in the world war are really no different than us today. We go
outside these doors, And it’s pro this, it’s pro that, it’s
change creation ordinances. It’s redefined marriage, it’s
redefined when life begins, it’s redefining when life ends. It’s
this worldview, that worldview. Jesus is a crutch. You people
of faith are weak. And on and on it goes. And you
know what’s going on in our culture these days? It’s not about bullets
flying. It’s not about the march of boots
on the ground, and it’s not who has the biggest flag planted
in the most dirt. No, Satan is winning this war
to deceive people, not through armies and dictators, but he’s
winning it through worldview. You know, if you say it enough
today, if you say a lot enough, it becomes truth. I mean, what
do you hear now? If you go outside your house
and you don’t wear a mask and you have a 4th of July barbecue,
you’re gonna probably die. And you say that enough and you
see people just locked up in their homes, depressed. We see
suicide rates going up. And yes, I know that there are
real diseases and real consequences. Some of you have suffered it.
I know that to be true. But we’re living in an era where
they don’t have to point a gun at you and say, stick them up.
They just tell you a lie enough and we believe it and we follow
it and we’re seeing our culture taken away. Jesus says, have
discernment, be a catechism boy. Have confidence, be a catechism
girl. Take heart, straighten up, raise
your head. Remember Jesus through the apostle John wrote the book
of Revelation. John was on the Isle of Patmos.
He was the pastor at the church of Ephesus as an old man. Paul
started the church at Ephesus, Timothy took it over, and then
John the Apostle took it over and was there into his 90s as
an old man into the 90s. And so right before the end of
the first century, John is on the Isle of Patmos. The temple
has been destroyed over 20 years at Jerusalem that Jesus is speaking
of here. The Jews who lived scattered all over the Roman Empire. The
gospel has then gone out all over the Roman Empire. And they’re suffering persecution.
And John writes these visions. He writes these visions of judgment
on the wicked issued by the king of kings and the Lord of lords,
Jesus Christ, the lion of Judah wins. He rules and reigns over
all the chaos, all the bullets, all the ideologies, all the worldviews,
all the false teaching that is whizzing by our heads in this
world. And he’s saying to the people of the first century who
got the book of Revelation in their churches read, and we have
it in our laps today, you be confident the world may fall
apart, but Jesus wins. Jesus, the King of Kings and
Lord of Lords wins. And so when the apocalypse is
going on all around you, be confident, be confident. That’s Jesus’ second
end time exhortation, have discernment, be confident. But the third end
time exhortation we want to think of is the provision that God
gives. He gives discernment, he gives
confidence, and now provision. You’re really seeing the heart
of the Savior. This is a man who in the next
24 hours, all hell, and we mean that not figuratively, but literally,
It’s not that his car’s gonna break down, his washing machine
is going to quit. It’s not that his clothes aren’t
ironed or the dry cleaners lost his pants. Or that he got to
Belks to get his change of clothes for the next day and it was closed
and he had to wait till the next day, you know, our first world
trifles. All hell is really gonna break loose on Jesus. The wrath
of God for the sins of his children will be poured out on Jesus on
that cross in a day or so. Now we jumped over the hardship
he endures at the hands of the Romans and the Jews, even his
own disciples fleeing from him. But here’s the heart of the Savior.
He’s packing their bags for them. for this journey into the world.
You ladies know exactly what I’m talking about here. You raise
your children, we’re gonna go on a trip, and you say, we’re
going to the beach, or to the mountains, or whatever, and so
get your bags packed. And what does a good mom do? She checks
over the bags. And if she’s a good wife, she
even does it for the husband. Is there enough underwear? Are
there plenty of socks? Will they have sleeping clothes
for the cold nights? Because they think it’s going
to be hot the whole time. Did they pack their toothbrush? And
on and on the list goes. And we’re thankful for our moms,
our wives who check back over us because we would get down
there with nothing. and wonder what to do. Well, Jesus is packing
the bags for the disciples. He is providing for them. He’s
giving them a dose of reality. These stones are not what your
eyes should be fixed on. You will be pilgrims, you will
be strangers, you will be exiles, and you will be living in a hostile
world with apocalyptic things taking place at the last day. And notice the provision that
Jesus gives in verses 13 through 15. He says, these days, This will be your opportunity
to bear witness. That’s the martyr word. Settle
it therefore in your minds, not to meditate beforehand how to
answer, for I will give you a mouth. I will give you wisdom which
none of your adversaries will be able to withstand or contradict. What’s Jesus packing in their
suitcase? He’s giving them the confidence to say, when you stand
trial for being faithful servants of the Lord Jesus Christ, you
don’t have to study. You don’t have to cram. You don’t
have to pull an all-nighter for that test. You just stand in
front of that court. And I’ll give you the words of
wisdom to say, and didn’t this come true for Peter? Didn’t this
come true for Paul? Hasn’t this come true for you?
Maybe some of you high schoolers, some of you young people have
this worldview instilled in you by your parents and you go to
a class and they say, well, the Christians believe this and treat
you like monkeys at the zoo. Or you go to work and you’re
the only person that voted for a pro-choice or I’m sorry, a
pro-life candidate because you believe in the sanctity of life
and you’ve been ridiculed. Well, there’s the pro-lifer.
Or maybe you go home at night as a husband because you want
to be with your wife and children and the rest of the guys at the
workplace are going out. Oh, he’s the do-gooder. He’s
the family man. And on and on, we face these
hardships and Jesus is packing in their bag. I will give you
the words to say. Look also at verses 17 through
19. You will be hated by all for
my name’s sake, but not a hair of your head will perish. By your endurance, you will gain
your lives. You’ll be delivered over. You
will die. You will be hated. And it says elsewhere in this
passage, by your own family. Some of you have come to faith
in Jesus and it has not only cost you professional relationships,
it’s cost you personal relationships. But maybe even your family doesn’t
understand why are you a Bible thumping, probably gun toting,
Christian nut job now. Jesus says, that’s the way it
would be, but I won’t let you lose a hair of your head and
you will endure. And you’ll see Jesus face to
face, gaining your life. There’s one more in time provision
in verses 32 and 33. Jesus is speaking about the fig
tree and he says, truly I say to you in verse 32, this generation
will not pass away until all has taken place, heaven and earth,
will pass away, but my words will not pass away. You see what
Jesus on the way to the cross, facing the cross is doing for
his disciples. He’s not just on the way to provide
the perfect sacrifice of redemption. He’s giving you what you need
in your bag for the journey, the pilgrimage of the Christian
life. What a precious savior we have. I want you to think about this
question for a moment. If your house were on fire, do
you know what you would grab on the way out? And most of you
think the family Bible, the pictures of the kids, maybe the wedding
picture, the strong box with your certificates and titles
and wills and estates and things like that. If your house caught
on fire, what would you go back and get? Well, think about A.D. 70. Think about A.D. 70. This
is about, oh, 35, 40 years after Jesus giving this
Olivet Discourse, these end times encouragements, a new emperor
takes over the Roman Empire. And these hateful, wicked, godless
people, they surround Jerusalem at Passover. And it’s not Jerusalem
in its quiet months with a couple thousand people living in it.
No, it’s Passover. And the city is packed full of
Passover worshipers. And this Roman army lays siege
to the city, they surround it. And for about five months, they
surround this city until people are starving. People have nothing
to eat. They are living in despair. And
it’s not about masks and being six feet apart and not seeing
your loved ones. And it’s not about having to
follow the arrows in the grocery store. That would be a wonderful
problem for them. They are surrounded by one of
the meanest, nastiest, foulest armies on the face of the earth.
Probably worse than what we have seen in our last century during
world wars. And that’s why Jesus says, flee.
Don’t be in that city when these things take place. If your house
is on fire, what will you take? You run for your life. You run
for your life. You leave it all behind. Remember Lot’s wife. She looked back. My wedding veil. Oh, she looked back at the pictures
of the kids. She looked back at the baby books.
And yes, those are important things to us, but what is Jesus
saying here? Look, it’s in times. These are
exhortations you need to take to heart, discernment and confidence
and provision. But let us hold loosely to the
things of this earth, for there will be a day when our priorities
show. And if our fingers will not leave
the precious things of this earth, Jesus may say, you are not fit
for my kingdom and for my glory. Pray with me. Lord, we come to
you in faith, knowing that this is an upside down world, a dark
world, a dying world, a crooked and depraved generation. There
is evil unspeakable all around us. Yet when we awoke this morning,
when we raised the shades, we saw the green grass, we saw the
flowers blossoming, the azaleas, the trees. We remember that you
will come one day and make all things new. And yes, all around
us are signs of darkness. All around us are signs of the
apocalypse and things that would cause us to despair. But we’re
boys and girls, men and women of the faith. We know our God. We know our Savior. We know our
provision. We know reasons to be confident
and how to be discerning. So help us to walk confidently
through the turmoil of this world as pilgrims and strangers. on
the way to heaven. We pray that you would give us
the strength to persevere together as a church, but as individuals
and families. Help us, we pray in Christ’s
name, amen.