March 22, 2023
Author: Pastor Mark Bauer
March 22, 2023
“And while some were speaking of the temple, how it was adorned with
noble stones ad 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 here
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 to 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 I 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.”
Luke 21:5-38
We read that Jesus is responding to some who are speaking of the
beauty and the grandeur of the temple in Jerusalem. Then from the
account in Matthew 24 we find that those people to whom Jesus is
speaking are his disciples. So Jesus then tells his disciples a number
of future events that will take place; he foretells of the destruction
of the temple. He tells his disciples in verse 6, “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.”
Jesus then goes
on to tell of wars and disaster and disease and of great suffering. In
verse 9 he tells them that when you hear of wars and tumults, and in
verse 10, he says, “Nations will rise against nation, kingdoms
against kingdom, and in verse 11 he tells that there will be great
earthquakes and in various places famines and pestilence.”
Then
he goes on to warn his disciples, of the persecution, that will come. He
says in verse 12, “They will lay their hands on you, and they will
persecute you, delivering you up to the synagogues and prisons, and you
will be brought before kings and governors for my name's sake.” Then
dropping down in verse 16 he says you will be delivered up even by
parents, and brothers and relatives and friends, and some of you they
will put to death. Then in verse 17, “You will be hated by all, for my
name's sake.” Then dropping to verse 24, Jesus tells of a great
destruction, including the destruction of Jerusalem. In verse 24 we read
that Jerusalem will be trampled underfoot by the Gentiles. Then next he
tells of this coming of the Son of Man, that there will be signs in the
sun and the moon and the stars, and on earth distress. It'll be
distress of the nations and perplexity. People will be fainting with
fear and with foreboding for that which is coming. In verse 27, “And
they will see the Son of Man coming in a cloud with power and great
glory.”
With this backdrop, with all of these warnings that he
just tells his disciples of all these coming events that will cause
destruction and suffering; the wars, the natural disasters, the disease,
the fear, and the foreboding that many will experience, what then does
Jesus tell his disciples in terms of how should they respond to all of
this? How should they prepare for these things?
So I take us now
back to verse 34 and then also in verse 36. Jesus gives his disciples
exhortations, directions on how the things that they should do, what
they should do. Essentially he tells them in these verses to watch and
to pray. First in verse 34 he says, “Be watchful, 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. He
tells them that they need to guard against a wrong response to these
things that are coming. They need to watch their hearts, they need to
guard their hearts against a worldly attitude I might suggest, to guard
against temptation to sin, the sins that might weigh them down with
drunkenness, indulging themselves, perhaps, in the pleasures of this
world, perhaps adopting an attitude of the world to eat and drink for
tomorrow they will die.
But they also may have to guard
themselves against being weighed down or consumed by the cares of this
life that they may be caught up in chasing after things, things of the
world, whether it's riches or financial security that you're trying to
get, or worldly accomplishments, or careers or fame, thinking that these
things can satisfy, perhaps thinking that these things provide them
safety or security. So they need to be watchful.
But then in
verse 36 they're told that the right response to the things which Jesus
has spoken, “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.” In another translation it reads this way,
“Watch therefore, and pray always.” So Jesus tells them that they need
to stay awake; they need to be watchful, they need to be alert at all
times.
And then added to this, he says that they are to pray
always, that they need to pray for strength to escape. They need to cry
out to the Lord, recognizing their own weakness, and pray that God would
be merciful to spare them from the pain and the sorrows, the suffering,
the destruction that may come with all these things that Jesus has
warned of: these wars and natural disasters and pestilence. But even
more so to protect them against those that would persecute them or
personally attack them. Also, not only to escape, but to pray
for strength to stand, particularly in times of persecution, that they
would remain faithful, that God would help them to keep themselves from
sin, to flee from temptations, to be preserved from the evil one, but
also to give them help in those times of persecution, that their lives
would be a testimony to their faith in Christ, and that they would be
bold to speak, to even be witnesses for Christ, that they would
ultimately endure to the end, so that on that final day when they stand
before Christ, that they would hear these words, “Well done, good and
faithful servant, enter into your rest.”
So as we look at these
exhortations to the disciples, and the time in that day, how do these
apply to us today? And so my view this says, well, maybe it only applies
to the disciples at that time, but I believe that these two
exhortations to watch and to pray still apply to the Church, to us
today. I think we all see that it's needful for us to watch, to guard
our hearts. Temptation to sin. It's a reality for all of God's people.
Therefore
we need to be watchful, for we have an adversary, the devil. He goes
around like a roaring lion, seeking to devour someone. Satan’s desire is
to destroy God's people, and therefore Peter exhorts us in 1 Peter 5:8
to be sober minded, and to be watchful. Again, that sense of we need to
be on watch. Commenting on Luke 21:34 J.C. Ryle writes this, “We are to
watch, we are to live on our guard like men in an enemy's country. We
are to remember that evil is about us, near us and in us, and that we
have to contend daily with a treacherous heart and ensnaring world, and a
busy devil.
In connection with being watchful, certainly we also
need to pray. How desperately do we need God's help each and every day?
Paul has letters to the church, exhorts us, and continues to exhort us
to continue steadfastly in prayer, being watchful in it, being constant
in prayer.
So I suggest that as I was reflecting on these verses,
these exhortations with disciples back in the day of Jesus, of these
coming events, that we still need to heed these exhortations of Jesus
even today, to watch and to pray. And we need to do that particularly as
we face times of persecution, and when we hear of dangers and threats,
and of wars and disease. But as we wait for the returning of our Lord,
and may God even give us grace to be found faithful to remain constantly
on guard, watching our hearts, and praying that God would give us help
and strength each and every day of our lives.
BACK