This sermon is a few days late due to some meetings in Fargo:
Text: Luke 21:5-36
Grace Mercy and Peace to you from God our Father through our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ, Amen, our text today is the Gospel lesson, especially this verse "When these things take place, stand up and lift up your head, for your redemption is drawing near."
Dear friends in Christ. We are quickly approaching the end of the church year, only this week and next week left. And with the end of the church year comes talk of the end of the world. As human beings, we have a fascination with the end of the world. There are books, there are movies. There are predictions, and my favorite - claims of aliens living on comets. The end of the world brings our the weirdest in our imaginations. We want to know when the end is, and we want to know how we can protect ourselves from the end. It seems like every few years, we have another blockbuster movie about people surviving the end of the world. The Day After tomorrow, I am Legend, 2012, the list goes on and on, all of them depicting some future end of the world as we know it.
But are we really that concerned with the end of the world? Do we really expect the world to end? Or do we think that things will just always go on the way they have for so long? I bet that not many of you woke up this morning and said, "Today could be the end of the world." Instead, you probably are making plans for a tomorrow you are sure will come, planning Christmas trips, and summer vacations and more.
The same was true in our text today. Jesus' disciples were not worried about the end of the world in our text. "It'll never happen," they thought. They were with Jesus in the temple, a massive building, 150 feet tall, 150 feet square at the base, and inlaid with gold and precious stones. While admiring this building, the disciples couldn't help but be amazed at this fantastic structure, and how long they supposed it would stand. But Jesus shocks them, "Not one stone will be left upon another." This huge, beautiful and expensive building will not last for ever. It will be destroyed.
Put yourself in the disciples shoes. Jesus tells them that the most magnificent building they had ever seen will be destroyed. For us it brings back memories of 9-11, of huge towers being destroyed by terrorists. It reminds us of the Oklahoma city bombing, where a car blew up the entire front of a building, of plane crashes, of explosions. Death and destruction are all around us, after all, Jesus says this world is heading toward its end, toward its death. And in its death throws, there will be destruction.
In our text, the disciples ask Jesus, "When will these things take place?" When will the world come to an end? Jesus responds, "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." These are the signs of the end.
And these things are what we see in our world today. We see nation fighting against nation, in Afghanistan, in Iraq, and in Sudan, people are warring against one another. We see earthquakes in Haiti, in Italy, in the Philippines, and other places. In theses earthquakes we see people dying, people losing their homes, people suffering. We see famine and pestilence, as hail destroys crops, as waters flood them, and as we turn on our televisions and see people who have no food or water, who suffer. And we see persecution at the hands of our enemies. People who are laughed at for their beliefs, people who are imprisoned for their confession, and even, yes in our day and age, people who are killed because of their belief in Christ.
Friends in Christ, the end of the world is coming, every day it is drawing nearer than the day before. The signs are there, as we daily see in the death throws of this sinful world. And Christ has warned us, and given us a way out, just as he did the disciples in our text today. 40 years after Christ had told the disciples that every stone of the temple would be thrown down, it happened. Roman soldiers surrounded Jerusalem and burned down the entire temple complex and threw every stone of the entire city down, killing as many inhabitants as possible, and enslaving the rest. The destruction that Christ predicted came.
And the other things Christ mentioned will also continue to come true. The end will come. There will be more earthquakes, there will be more destruction. Some of you will be persecuted for your faith. Some of you may even die because of what you believe. But through all of this, in the face of all these terrible predictions of the end of the world, there is also a promise of hope. Jesus says, "not a hair on your head will perish." Your Father knows their number, and He knows you. Your life is held in the hands of the One who loved you and laid down His life to save you. Even if you die, not one hair on your head will be unaccounted for on resurrection day. And then your faith, your trust in the promise of God in Jesus will be vindicated, and by your patient endurance you will gain your life. Though you die, yet you will live; and living and believing Jesus, you never die forever.
This promise is from Jesus, the one who overcame the world, and purchased each of you, not with Gold or Silver, but with his innocent suffering and death. Jesus poured out his blood and it covers you. He gave up his own flesh, and gave it to you to eat. He gave up his own life, so that on that last day of this present earth, you will be raised from the dead, and brought to live with Jesus for all eternity.
As the text says, when these signs of the end take place, lift up your head for your redemption is drawing near. When you see persecution, know your redemption is drawing near. When you see destruction, know that your redemption is drawing near. When you see the tribulation of this world, know that your redemption comes from Jesus on the cross, Jesus shedding his blood, Jesus for you.
Yes, the world is coming to an end, but we need not worry about it. Because the end of this world will not be the end of us. We will continue on in our faith, before the throne of God for all eternity. God tells us that at the end of the world, this world will be destroyed, but in addition to this destruction, there will also be a new heaven and a new earth created for us to live in. In this new heaven and earth that God will share with us, there will no longer be pain or suffering. There will no longer be destruction, and threats of destruction. This new heaven and earth will last forever, and God will bring you in to live there for eternity.
The end of this present world is not something that we need fear, for the end of this world is but the final destruction of sin. In a way, the end of this world was assured by the death of Jesus Christ on the cross. In his death, all sin was killed with him, and thus this world and all of its great tribulation no longer has power over us. Instead we have hope of life with Jesus. We have that hope, hope in Jesus.
The end is near. We are certain. The end is coming like a freight train, we have seen the signs in our world, but we also see our hope - Jesus Christ, crucified and risen for the signs of the world. And so we pray, "Come Lord Jesus, Come quickly" Amen.
