Scripture Reading: Luke 21:5-23
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 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 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 times of the Gentiles are fulfilled.
“And 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 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.
The Second Coming of Christ
Luke 21
Pastor Tardelli Voss
Luke 21 begins with Jesus telling, "Jerusalem and the temple are going to be destroyed. I tell you the truth, not one of these stones will be upon another." The disciples ask, "Lord, when will this great destruction happen?" And because they asked that question, Jesus begins to teach.
The teaching is fascinating. Jesus says the end of Jerusalem and the temple is actually a foreshadowing of the end of the world of Judgment Day. It's a glimpse of his second coming. And then he says at the very end, "Watch for it. Yearn for it, yearn and watch for My Second Coming."
A lot of people, we struggle with this teaching of Jesus. There are questions that come up immediately. One question is, is this fantasy, or just over the top? Another question may be, okay, even if it's not fantasy, do I really have to think about this teaching that much? Does it really make a difference in how I live my life? And if it does, then, what do I do? How do I watch for the second coming of Jesus? These are some questions that I propose to go through with you this morning.
Is This Teaching Fantasy?
Let me begin with this question: is this teaching of Jesus fantasy or just over the top? "But in those days, the sun will be darkened and the moon will not give its light, the stars will fall from the sky, and the heavenly bodies will be shaken. At that time, men will see the Son of Man coming in clouds with great power and glory."
We don't have any trouble with the biblical description of the first coming of Jesus, right? We love how the Bible talks about when Jesus first came. It's so soft and gentle. There's a star in the sky and there's a baby in the manger. We do have a lot of more trouble with the biblical description of the Second Coming, because it's kind of the opposite. Instead of a star in the sky, we have all the stars falling out of the sky. Jesus does not look like a baby here, right? Everything is shaking. Hell is breaking loose. It's too apocalyptic.
And because some people struggle with this, some teachers have tried to approach this in a little differently than the way it reads in the Bible. Some say, "Look, Jesus was a great man, but he was a product of his time, so his vision of the future was wrong. He was wrong about that." Others had said, "Well, Jesus wasn't wrong, but we must read this symbolically, not literally."
With all due respect, both of those approaches are wrong. Jesus was not wrong about the future. His prophecies about the destruction of Jerusalem came true year 70. This is literal. This is historic. This is visible stuff.
And then Jesus moves in to talk about when he's coming back, and then we have the doctrine of the Second Coming, and that doctrine is a crucial part of the teaching of Christianity. Not only is in our creeds, when we say we believe he will come to judge the living and the dead. Not only that, this doctrine is mentioned 300 times in the New Testament alone, and then we have even the Old Testament prophecies. Jesus talks about this—that he will come back to rule, to judge, over and over again. We cannot live a Christian life unless we believe this and unless we let it affect the way we live our lives today.
What Difference Does This Doctrine Make?
Now, the other question is, what difference does this doctrine make in our lives? I'll tell you, it makes all the difference in the world.
Understanding the Problems of the World
First of all, the doctrine of Jesus' return makes all the difference in the world to our understanding of the problems of the world, in our attitude towards the problems in our world. Verse 27 says, "The Son of Man will come in clouds with great power and glory." You know, it's different than the first time. First time Jesus came humble, he came weak, he came to die for our sins. Second time he will come with power and glory. I mean, he comes to rule, he comes to restore, he comes to fix—great power and glory.
Jesus will come to make the world new and perfect again. It's going to be the end of death, the end of cancer and any disease, the end of hunger and poverty, the end of injustice and the end of violence. If you keep reading this chapter right after, when we finish the Bible reading in the bulletin, we'll have a beautiful illustration that Jesus makes to make this point that he's coming to heal and restore, just like we saw in Malachi—Jesus, the son of righteousness that has healing on his wings.
The illustration that Jesus does is this one. I know you know this: when the fig tree puts out its leaves, you know summer is near. There weren't many plants in Israel that lost their leaves in the winter time. Most of them just kept their leaves, but the fig tree lost its leaves in the winter and only began to come back in the spring and in the summer.
What was Jesus talking about? He was saying, "I am bringing the ultimate spring. I am bringing the Forever summer, the sun of righteousness that brings forth life and healing, after centuries and centuries and centuries of winter." And then we remember Narnia, right? I will come back, says Jesus, to make this world, your world, perfect again, complete again.
What difference does it make? Anyone who yearns for the Second Coming and longs for the second coming of Jesus hates the same things God hates, and wants the same things as God wants, and is working already right alongside of him for those things in the present time. That's us, and we work with God. According to Paul in the epistle, we should not be lazy on this. We work with an unbreakable hope, because we know that even against all odds, even if it seems like we are not getting anywhere, summer, it's on its way, the son of righteousness. It's on its way. Jesus is coming back, and everything will be put right.
That's why Jesus at the end, he says, "Don't fall asleep spiritually. Be vigilant. Create expectations. Live in anticipation, watch, yearn for the Second Coming." Jesus is telling us not to abandon this hope and the implications of this hope for our daily lives. He's telling us His Second Coming is good news, precisely because the world as it is gives us so many reasons to cry, to cry it out for something better.
Even here in San Diego, we see this when we pass through some places where life has collapsed for so many, or when you stand by the grave of someone you deeply love. Your soul knows what it means to ache for the world to be made right. When life presses hard, when sorrows keep visiting, when the world feels too heavy, you don't yawn when someone mentions that Christ comes again. You long for it. You cling to it. You whisper sometimes with tears in your eyes, "Maranatha. Come, Lord Jesus. Come, come quick."
That's our call, and that's our attitude—to be sensitive to the suffering in the world. Cry it out. Pray for the return of Jesus. Pray for the healing he's bringing. Empathize and try to help. Keep working. Says Paul, keep working to help those who have nowhere to run. Watch out, says Jesus, against abstraction, against self-absorption. Raise your head, open your eyes. The Kingdom is coming.
Jesus' words are the antidote to being numb, insensitive in hopelessness. Jesus' words were spoken to get us out of our bubbles and raise our voice on behalf of our neighbors and on behalf of the people hurting.
Our Personal Lives and Character
Secondly, the second coming of Christ makes all the difference to our personal lives as well—to our own ethic and to our own character. There are two things and only two things the Bible says you can be sure about the Second Coming of Jesus. First, it's definitely going to happen. Secondly, there is absolutely no way to predict when.
If you put those two together—he is coming back, and we don't know when—this is a powerful force for personal integrity. How so, pastor? Well, I'll tell you. If we let our guard down, if we start playing at being a Christian, if we live happily in sin, but plan for a day of repentance. How do we know that in the midst of our rebellion, how do you know that the curtain won't come down?
C.S. Lewis talks about this in his book, The World's Last Night. He says precisely, because we cannot predict when that day will be, that last night of the world, we need to be ready at any moment. We need to have our lives in order. We don't need to be scared, but we need to be vigilant. We should be, he says, like the 80-year-old man who doesn't have to think about his approaching death, but takes it into account. It would be unwise for him not to have his will drawn up.
See, on one hand, an 80-year-old man should not be thinking all the time, "I might die tomorrow. I might die tomorrow." On the other hand, the old man should be thinking, "I might die tomorrow." There has to be a balance there.
The same way about Jesus coming—we don't need to be obsessed that we forget to live, to plan, to take risks. On the other hand, do not forget it could be today. And how will Jesus find me if it is this afternoon? Where? Doing what? With how much money? Saved in whose company? With what grudges? With what ideas still on the paper? With what legacy for my children and grandchildren?
Forgiveness and Making Peace
Lastly, the second coming of Jesus makes all the difference in the world to our ability to forgive and make peace with people who have wronged us. It's always worth reinforcing this, because people hurt us. They hurt us all the time, and we have the temptation to become bitter.
Christ is coming back, and when he comes, he's coming as a savior and as a judge. Remember that we are not the ones who will sit in the judge's chair. We will not be the ones wearing the robe. Why take on this role today? The doctrine of the Second Coming of Christ frees us of our desire to sit on the judge's throne. We don't have that right. We don't deserve it. Only God deserves it. Only God has the capacity to be just.
When we have been hurt by someone, we tend to minimize their good things and to magnify their bad things. We are not in the position of judging. Our sins prevent us from seeing things clearly. Only God has the capacity to give everyone what they deserve, and God will do it. We can rest in that.
How Can We Watch With Hope?
And that brings me to my final point. If Christ comes again and his coming will be a day of judgment, how can we watch? How do we have hope—hope for the world and hope for ourselves?
In Luke 21 we read that the Sun will become dark and the moon will no longer give its light, the heavenly bodies will be shaken. In Mark 15, we read, "Darkness descended. The deepest darkness filled the earth." In Matthew 24 we read that at the judgment, the earth will be shaken. And in Matthew 27 we read that the whole earth shook and rocks broke, and the sun disappeared from the sky, and there was deep darkness.
Do you see what I'm getting at with this? When everything shook, when darkness descended on the cross, Good Friday, when Jesus said, "It is finished," Jesus on the cross was fulfilling prophecies about judgment.
What does one have to do with the other? I'll tell you everything. Because on Good Friday, God's judgment on humanity was on Jesus' back. And why was that? Because Jesus was bearing our sins. He was taking on the rejection that was ours, the punishment that was ours. Jesus was taking on the death that was ours, the lack of light that was ours, the darkness that was ours. That darkness that was ours fell on him so that we may receive light, love and forgiveness.
At Christ's second coming, we will meet the judge, and many who refuse to believe in Christ's sacrifice and live according to that faith will unfortunately be condemned. How could it be otherwise? How could we expect justice without a real judgment? But we will find a judge who is not only willing to judge us, but a judge willing to be judged on our behalf, a judge willing to come down from the throne, from the judgment seat, to take the place of the defendant.
In Revelation, which has everything to do with the second coming, John looks and sees the judge's throne. And what does he see on the throne? He sees a lamb, a lamb where a judge should be. How is that possible? Because our judge has taken our judgment on his shoulder.
That's the blessing of being a Christian. As Christians, we can say, "I could never face this trial. I will never pass it. I will never gather enough works on my own, but my Lord God has forgiven me. My Lord Jesus accepted me. God the Father accepted me for what Jesus did for me, not because of what I've done." It is this faith in Christ, the trust in what Christ has done for you that puts you in this glorious position of being saved and enjoying life eternal in the new heavens and the new earth forever.
And that's why we can live with hope. We can create expectations. We can say, "Maranatha, come quick, Dear Jesus." And that is my prayer, and that is my pastoral message to you this morning. Believe in this judge who has been judged for you. Wait for his return. Let the coming of Jesus fill you with passion, encouragement to do whatever you can—all the good things that God has placed before you to practice these things of the kingdom of God who is coming, but is also already part of our lives. Make the most, says Paul, with the time that we have. Do whatever good you can.
In this hope, create expectation, yearn, watch, watch for it. It's going to be good. It already is.
Amen.
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