Sermon 68
Sermon by John Mash on 25th February 2007.
LUKE
21: QUESTIONS ABOUT TOMORROW
Introduction
Today
is the first Sunday in Lent – a time of penance in the Christian church. And your penance this morning is going to be
listening to me for the next twenty minutes.
Because we have a difficult piece of scripture to unpack. The theme is:
Questions about tomorrow, the future;
and in this enormously full and diverse chapter of Luke we can put
Jesus’ pre-occupation with the future in context. He knows what his disciples have no idea
about: that his future on earth is going
to be short, humiliating and agonising.
He is already in
Jesus
and his disciples were chatting, quite informally, it seems in v 5 – they were
remarking on all the beautiful things dedicated to God in the temple. And suddenly Jesus hits them with a
bombshell: “Nothing that you see here,
none of these beautiful things, will remain.
They are all going to be thrown down.”
Of
course they respond just as you and I would:
“When is all this going to take place? And how shall we know? Will there be any warning signs?” The whole of the rest of this often difficult
chapter is Jesus’ response. He becomes
for a few moments like an Old Testament prophet. And I think we can break down his prophecies
into 3 separate parts:
1.
The destruction
of
2.
The persecution
that the apostles are going to undergo.
3.
The last days,
and his own return.
Let’s
consider each of these in turn.
The Destruction of
As
history relates, this occurred in AD 70, under the Emperor Vespasian. This was done to quell a rising tide of
Jewish unrest; and Josephus, a
contemporary historian who actually witnessed the fall of Jerusalem, wrote
that: “it was so thoroughly laid even
with the ground by those that dug it up to the foundation, that there was left
nothing to make those that came thither believe it [Jerusalem] had ever been
inhabited. This was the end which
Compare that with Jesus words: “the time will come when not one stone will
be left on another; everyone of them will be cast down.” Here
was Jesus, predicting with uncanny accuracy an event that was still nearly
forty years ahead. Ah, you might say,
but perhaps Luke was actually writing after the event, and making it sound more
convincing with hindsight. No, it is
universally agreed that Luke was writing his gospel in about 60 AD, ten years
ahead of the event. How about that for
accurate forecasting?
Incidentally,
the sack of Jerusalem had enormous significance for the young Christian
church: up to then, it had centred round
Jerusalem, and been strongly Jewish in its adherents, which was fairly
limiting; after AD 70 the emphasis
switched to Rome, with much more emphasis on gentile membership, where it could
grow more rapidly, helped of course by missionaries such as Peter and
Paul. Thus does God fulfil his purposes even
through apparent disasters.
A
further thought on this: it’s not
surprising, is it, that the Jews turned against him and wanted him crucified,
if he was going around prophesying the destruction of their beloved and sacred
capital city.
Persecution of the apostles vv 12 - 19
Now
let’s look at persecution of the apostles, very clearly forecast in verse
12: “but before all that – i.e. the sack
of
- Simon
Peter was crucified under Nero, and tradition has it that he chose to be
crucified upside down, as he felt he was unworthy to die in the same manner as
his Lord. Rings true, doesn’t it –
Peter, full of grand gestures to the last – but how sincere, how courageous, to
die rather than renounce his faith.
- James
the son of Zebedee we are told in Acts 12 was
martyred under the orders of Herod Agrippa.
- Andrew
was reported crucified as a missionary in
- Matthew,
who was by now fairly elderly, found that his age did not protect him. He was martyred in
- Thomas
went as a missionary to
- James
the son of Alphaeus, known as Thaddeus, was
thrown down from the top of the temple and stoned to death because he would not
renounce his faith.
So
at least half of the apostles did indeed meet with persecution and
martyrdom. What courage they must have
shown. Where did this fortitude come
from? We are told in verses 14 and 15: “do not worry beforehand how you will defend
yourselves. For I will give you words
and wisdom that none of your adversaries will be able to resist or
contradict.” And verses 18-19: “Not a hair of your head will perish. By standing firm you will gain life.” Well of course this was not all meant
literally, but the gist of it was that the disciples should stand firm, and if
they had to die for their faith, they would enter the kingdom of heaven as
whole persons, and win the crown of righteousness that Paul knew was in store
for him. And if you look ahead to Acts,
the next book that Luke wrote, you will find where the inspiration for the
apostles came from, following Jesus’ death:
the coming of the Holy Spirit at Pentecost.
Jesus
foretold the sack of
The last days, and Jesus’ return – vv 8
– 11, 25 – 28, 30 – 35
As
you can see, the majority of Jesus’ prophecy is concerned with the last
days; and he makes a number of points
1.
False prophets will arise – v 8
They will be claiming to be preaching in Jesus’
name. Is this true of our age? Is our society being beguiled by JWs, Mormons, spiritualists, new age religions, Christian
scientists – all purporting to be the true Christian faith? I’m not referring to other religions, which
abound now as they have always done; but
distortions of our own faith – and even within auntie C of E, bishops who don’t
believe in the virgin birth or the resurrection, twisted morals that seek to
make our faith more acceptable to a society that has rejected scriptural values
for relative morality. Are we living in
the last days?
2.
There will be wars and revolutions – v 9
Wars and revolutions there have always been; but considering that WW2 and the birth of the
UN were meant to usher in an age of worldwide peace and concord, is the current state of world turmoil and
unrest a sign of the last days?
3.
There will be great earthquakes, famines and
pestilence – v 11
Perhaps it is just that we have such events brought right
into our homes by the TV that makes me think that we are suffering more from
natural disasters than ever before: the
terrible tornados that have recently swept through the deep south of America,
and devastated much of Florida, the threat of global warming, floods and
famines that overwhelm whole nations.
Are we in the last days?
4.
There will be signs in the heavens – v 25
And of course these will influence the seas and raise
up terrible storms. Is the tsunami one
of these?
5.
The Son of Man will be seen coming in glory – v 27
Ok, you may say to me:
we go along with you so far, yes we agree that
Our
Christianity is so cosy today: are we
nice and comfortable in our houses? Do
we ever suffer hardship for our faith?
Are we constantly being told that so long as we love Jesus, and each
other, we have nothing to fear? Trust
and OK? That is true of course: but it is only half the gospel, and we all
too often conveniently forget the other half:
that Jesus, who died to save us, will come again to judge us. And this is not just Paul devising a
theology, it is based on what Jesus said about himself. How can we ignore this particular
prophecy? I refer you to the text that
John began our worship with: “heaven and
earth shall pass away; but my words
shall not pass away.” Some have already
been historically proven; dare we doubt
that those referring to days still ahead won’t happen? The return of Jesus in glory one day is an
integral part of our faith. We may not
be alive on this earth to see it, but it’s coming. We cannot ignore his words.
Finally,
we cannot either ignore the way he ends this remarkable chapter. “Be careful, don’t get carried away by
drunkenness, be vigilant, be on the watch.
As an advertiser might say: “there is something tremendous that is going
to happen. Don’t miss it.” Do we really believe Christ is coming
again? Are we prepared for it?