And while some were speaking of the temple, how it was adorned with noble stones and offerings, he said, that is Jesus, 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're 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. Let's go to the Lord in prayer. Father God, we thank you for this opportunity to come before you. to open up your word before us, with your people, to receive the truth as it is in Jesus, to receive grace from your benevolent hands. You love us. Hard to believe. You love us with perfect love. You care for us. You look down with the tenderness and compassion of a father who wants the best for his children and would give us everything. And you have promised that every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places is ours. Christ Jesus. We're not here to beg you for blessings. We're coming in faith, God, that you've already given us to possess these blessings. We just simply ask that you would give them to us now as you've promised. We pray that you would help us to understand the truth, that with it you would encourage us and work in our hearts and lives in ways that surpass our expectations. many of us don't come to church week by week expecting to receive a blessing, expecting to be changed, or helped, or comforted, or, God, to find that our course is in need of correction, to find your word rebuking us in our complacency or in our sin, to repent of our sin, but your word is powerful and effective and it always accomplishes the purposes for which you send it out, and so we pray that this morning that you would accomplish your purposes through your word. as we, your people, are gathered together, looking to you. I pray that you'd help us to understand and receive the truth, and may it bear fruit in our lives for eternity. We pray all of this in Christ's name, amen. Some of the largest and most outwardly impressive church buildings in the world, sadly, have no gospel in them at all, and no proper worship of the triune God. I think this has been most striking, it's sad wherever you see it, it's most striking to me when you consider the great European cathedrals, and there are cathedrals in the United States and I think I remember going to one, maybe it was in New York City, some giant Roman Catholic Church or Episcopal Church. And you go into a building like this that is just designed by this architecture to direct, to lift your heart upwards and to direct your focus upwards. to God, and the whole, every detail, and it's so ornate, it's so incredibly beautiful, but every detail of the architecture of these great cathedrals is designed to give you a sense of the majesty and the glory of God. And yet, in most of these most beautiful buildings, there is no genuine biblical worship of God, no gospel. I remember going to one and just looking at the pulpit and thinking, I wonder when the last time the gospel has resounded from that pulpit. Who knows? In many places in Europe today, those cathedrals are just places for tourists to visit. Maybe there's small local gatherings of Roman Catholic believers, but for all of the superstition and false worship, there's no genuine true worship of God. There's no gospel of salvation. through faith alone and Christ alone, but only the expectation of works to commend ourselves to God. And so this is a tragedy. It's very disheartening to see this, but this isn't just true in these great cathedrals. There are many mainline Protestant churches in urban centers in the U.S. You can go to any number of downtown areas and find these historic, sometimes very impressive, they're not cathedrals but the architecture is old and it is very outwardly impressive, churches that are abandoned. Or, if they're not abandoned and have been converted into apartment complexes or law offices, then there are liberal churches that meet there that would rather affirm the worst of human depravity than to preach sin and righteousness and judgment in the gospel of Jesus Christ. But we even see this in the suburbs, in affluent suburbs, evangelical megachurches, even if, on paper, they get the gospel right. And if you talk to the minister, the gospel isn't distorted. It's hardly ever preached or emphasized and instead what you find is churches that they seek to address the felt needs of the congregants and there's no depth, there's no real discipleship. The members aren't growing in their knowledge of who God is and what he has done and what his expectations are for his his saints, but just skimming the surface and seeking to offer a minimal of encouragement and just sort of a little bit of moral uplift or to give, at best, milk to people who really are sick for want of meat. So you see some of the largest and most outwardly impressive cathedrals and megachurch facilities in the world, sadly have no gospel in them at all, or no proper worship of the triune God. In their own way, each of these offers an impressive experience to visitors, but can only do so while offering no gospel of salvation to those who are lost in sin. No clear, pointing sinners to Christ. week by week and without establishing biblical worship that's pleasing to God and in accord with his word. And there's a danger in this. It's easy to become, we can think, oh well that's not us. You know, as beautiful as our sanctuary is and we love our church, but to think that we're immune from being distracted by the outward and impressive things, the outward and the visible, and be distracted by some of the things that we have around us in church. and neglect the weightier matters. We'd be fooled to think we'd be immune from this. There is danger even for us. It's easy to become distracted by the facilities and the community of people and the programmatic offerings of a church, all of which are fine. It's okay to have a beautiful building. It's okay to enjoy the people that you worship alongside of. And it's okay for a church to have programs. that are well done and just executed with excellence. There's nothing inherently evil about these things, but it is easy to become distracted by all of this and to have no concern about the things that God has sent His Holy Spirit into our hearts in order to make us concerned about sin and righteousness and judgment. Jesus would have us to forget about the beautiful sanctuary that we're in this morning and all of the other incidentals to our worship and to be reminded of what's to come so that you will be ready for the future, your future. Not just the future of our country or the end times, you know, as you think about the events that will happen across the world and we think of when we associate with the end times, but I'm talking about what will happen to you in the future. your earthly life from here until. The Lord calls you home. Or what will happen when Christ comes again? Whether or not you're living or dead, do you understand what's going to happen to you? Are you concerned about this? Or, like many people, are you tempted to be distracted by the things around us? I mean, it can be very easy to just fall into a routine without giving ourselves to worldliness or to depravity, but nevertheless, to be just impressed with and to be distracted by just these outward things that we have going on in church. and to allow these things to keep us busy and distracted from more important matters. We can look at verses 5 and 6 with me. Luke 21 verses 5 and 6 again. While some were speaking of the temple, how it was adorned with noble stones and offerings. So this is the context that we find here. Jesus is noticing how people are You know, here to worship God, to give their offerings, where they ought to be concerned with God himself and making sure that they are right with him, to trust in his promises of salvation, to be looking for the Messiah. The Messiah is in their midst and they're missing him because they're looking at everything but Jesus. And they're impressed by everything around them and all of these beautiful things, but Jesus is among them and they're missing him because they're distracted. And so Jesus warns them here. 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. What we know from history is that Jesus here is actually prophesying the destruction of the temple that occurs in 70 A.D. And as we go along in Luke chapter 21, for several weeks we're going to be considering the rest of this chapter. And there's really quite a lot here about the future. Your future, the future of the church, and God's future purposes for this world and for his kingdom. And so this is a great time for us over the next several weeks to sort of, we'll have a mini series on end times within the book of Luke. But we begin here in verses And the problem is that we need to be thinking about the future. There are bad ways to think about the future, and we'll come to that, but there is the danger of us being so distracted that we're not thinking about it at all. I mean, you see this in your own life of how little you want to think about death. We all, this is true probably all of us, there was I think a life insurance commercial recently that just sort of comes to mind and the whole purpose of the commercial was the person didn't want to talk about death. And so the whole, the end was that thing you don't want to talk about, you need to go ahead and make sure that you're ready for it. And so it was a gag in the commercial, but that is true. We don't want to think about this or talk about this. The future can make us uncomfortable, especially when we think about the far-off future, our own death, or end times, final judgment. But lest we be distracted and fail to properly deal with these issues, we need to be warned. So Jesus prophesies the destruction of the temple. You're focusing on the wrong things, he says. All of this. is going to be destroyed. As we go along in Luke 21, you'll notice that he addresses the temple, but then he seems to kind of reach beyond that, talk about things that are going to happen in not just the end of the temple or for the end of God's people and the worship as they know it and the end of the old covenant era and all of this, but he sort of reaches beyond that to address things that are going to happen in the very end. of time. And so, naturally, they ask in verse 7, Teacher, when will these things be? And what will be the sign when these things are about to take place? Jesus' hearers are alarmed, and they're interested in knowing more about especially the timing of the coming judgment. presumably so that they can avoid being themselves judged along with the rest when this judgment falls. And this is right. They're taking Jesus at his word. He's reminding them, you're being distracted from what's important. Judgment is coming. Are you ready? And they think, well, maybe we're not. Help us to be ready, Jesus. When should we expect these things? You need to hear periodically that the things that we build and the things that we buy will someday be destroyed because it is so easy, not just with church buildings and what goes on in a church, but your life, in all of our lives, that the things that we build, the things that we buy will be destroyed. If we really believe that, we need to ask ourselves, do I focus too much on these things then? Am I using these things in the way that I ought to as a believer in light of the fact they're all gonna be destroyed? Am I loving things too much, investing too much of my future hope and my love and my interest in things that are ultimately going to be destroyed? Everything that you possess besides your own eternal soul will someday be consumed by fire. Do you think in this way? We need to hear this. Could it be that other things surrounding Church and religion distract you or in your life distracts you from reflecting seriously on the hard questions like, for example, am I right with God? When's the last time you thought about that? Are you sure that you know the answer to that question? Am I right with God? How does a person get right with God? Another question, do you know that answer? On what basis or for what good reason would God accept me rather than reject me? Would he bless me rather than destroy me? Do I know for certain that my soul and afterlife are safe and secure or is my hope for the future based on probabilities? I think that I'm good to go. Maybe if I did more of this and less of this. Or are you sure? Do you know beyond a doubt that your future is secure? their line of questioning in verse seven is that, so it's good to ask questions, but the problem with their line of question is that their questions aren't the most relevant to ask. So Jesus is gonna help us here. You could know the day and the hour of Christ coming again in judgment. No one does, and we're told not to really seek these things out because it's not for us to know. But you could, theoretically, let's say that you did know the day and the hour of Christ coming again And you can think to yourself, when the time comes, I will get ready for it. That's exactly what we would do, wouldn't we? If we knew exactly when Christ was coming again, we'd say, you know what? If I know when Christ is coming again, and I know exactly when I'm gonna die, we'd all put it off. into the last moment. The problem is that the Day of Salvation is not the day before Jesus' return. And the Day of Salvation is not the day before your death. Today is the Day of Salvation, the Bible tells us. And if it's not, then you're heartening your heart and you should not expect to find a chance to repent later on. And so we need to learn to ask the right questions, and that isn't to seek to time Christ's return as many seek to do. As we go on to study the rest of this passage in Luke 21, Jesus does offer a great deal of teaching on the future, but I want you to notice maybe as you sort of survey the rest of the chapter and maybe read ahead, which I would encourage, but notice how throughout the practical concern is for how we think and act now in light of the future. And so rather than teaching us something that would encourage us to put off acting, or to put off any kind of change in our perspective or worldview. Jesus is concerned that we not know the day or the hour of his return, but that we live in light of the imminence and the absolute sure reality of his return. and think in light of these things now. And that practical concern begins in verses 8 and 9 with a warning. Do not be led astray. You see this in verse 8. How does Jesus respond to their question, their desire to know the timing? Give us signs that we can anticipate when this is. We can time your return or the judgment that's coming on the temple. Verse 8, Jesus said, see that you are not led astray. It is interesting that of all the things that he could teach concerning end times, that Jesus starts here. So evidently, this is the primary thing, or this is something that's of great importance for us as we begin to think about end times. If you were to say, you know what, I don't really know much about what the Bible teaches concerning end times. I'd like to make a start of it. Where to begin? Jesus says, here's where you begin. You make sure that you're not led astray, because this is a danger. It's a great danger. If we're learning about the future and the end times from Jesus, the first thing that he would have us learn is to be on your guard against the ever-present danger of being misled. So settle in your mind right now that you're not so clever or so careful that you're beyond the possibility of being misled. None of us are. And there are important ways that we can be misled, and it doesn't matter what you know about the end times, or how confident you are about the timing of things, but if you're not careful, you will be misled, and none of that will matter. And so Jesus wants us to avoid this danger of being misled. Consider that it is a danger for you, and not of little consequence. To be misleading your thinking about the future has serious practical consequences. At worst, it could be a part of idolatry or even apostasy for someone when they think wrongly about the future. But at best, you may lack assurance. Your life may be filled with fear, unnecessary fear, wasting your years on what is passing away. We need to think rightly, to live rightly in light of the future, but we need to avoid being misled. So that we're not misled, Jesus teaches us to be careful about two things in particular in verses eight and nine. Fault saviors in a fearful spirit. And so let's just briefly this morning consider these two dangers. We've gotta be careful that we're not misled in either of these two ways. And let's begin by considering the warning which Jesus gives against false saviors in verse eight. Read this verse with me again, starting in verse eight. He said, see that you are not led astray, for many will come in my name saying, I am he. The time is at hand. Do not go after them. Jesus says, I am he. That's what they'll come saying. What does that mean? I am who exactly? Well, the implication is that people will arise in the midst of future uncertainties to offer deliverance to those who will invest their hope in them. Some are going to, even just immediately after, within so many decades of Jesus' ascension to the right hand of the Father, there are going to be people who come and suggest that they are the Christ returned, and sort of directly mislead people into thinking that they are a Savior, their false Savior. But throughout history, there's always going to be people, and there are today, who would have you invest a kind of ultimate hope in them to deliver you from what seem to be great uncertainties and anxieties that you have about the future. In our day, while it's not limited to this, certainly, it's the politicians, I think, who, more than anyone, who seek your ultimate allegiance. I mean, the reality is that the stakes in politics are very high. And I don't want to, at this time, especially with an election, a presidential election coming up in a week, I don't want to discourage any of you from voting or participating in the political process, to say anything that's going to encourage you to check out politically, but it's very important. It's very important, but it touches on our temporal and earthly life. And so you need to understand that even if everything with regards to our nation went the right way, that does not by any means secure our future. Does it mean that our eternity is secure? That we're safe in terms of that? So we've got to be careful that we have a proper respect for and regard for the stakes in an election like this and recognize the moral issues and encourage all of you to vote and vote early if possible. But also while not making a political candidate at any level, some kind of false savior or messiah that you think is going to really, if only this person could win, then all of my problems. Well, it could be that all of your earthly problems would be solved, but that by no means indicates that all of your problems are solved, because you have a soul which can never die. And you better be sure that your hope in terms of the future of your soul is invested not in a politician, but in the Lord Jesus. But the rhetoric that politicians use, it just raises the stakes of every election to the highest possible levels and it's always just, it's not just temporal good, but it's ultimate, you know, almost eternal battle between good and evil, democracy versus fascism and so forth. People just invest all of their energies and their hopes in politics, and we've got to avoid that as believers. We need to have a more balanced view of politics. And we see some of this. I'll take you to Jeremiah 8 briefly. We see this even in the Old Testament. There is this danger of leaders, not politicians. We have in the Old Testament examples of the people of God, rather than trusting in God himself, wanting a king. And not just one that will rule them for the Lord, but they want a king like the nations around them. And so they're looking for, essentially they're looking for a political, military savior. But even if we're talking about in matters of religion, in Jeremiah 8 in verse 11, in a refrain that is repeated in this book, we read that they have healed. These are religious leaders who are doing this. They have healed the wound of my people lightly, saying, peace, peace, where there is no peace. This is especially dangerous. especially dangerous when we listen to preachers, ministers, who will say, peace, peace, when there is no peace. In other words, they'll say, don't worry about that sin. God's not concerned about it, and neither should you be. When the Bible would have you feel conviction for your sin, to view it as God views it, to repent of it, to seek forgiveness in Jesus Christ, this is the gospel not to just say God is a God of mercy and that he just overlooks sin just sort of de facto. You don't have to worry about it. You don't have to trust anything, do anything. God just would never condemn you. He would never judge you. Just feel at ease. no matter what, you're safe and secure. This is to be misled by a false savior or a false teacher who presents to you a false salvation. And Jesus would have us be on guard against this. So we think about the future, what sort of is prominent is the uncertainties, the anxieties. Rarely do we look at the future just in an ordinary way, not thinking about heaven, not thinking about God's intervention in history to bring about his will on earth, but just to think about our future, our times, we think about all of the uncertainty, we think about wars and tumults and riots and all of the signs of the times that we even see or hear in this chapter, and we can become misled into putting all of our eggs into the wrong basket and investing our hope in what is false rather than in the Lord. The second temptation here is of being misled with regards to a fearful spirit. We see this in verse 9. I've gotten off of my chapter here. Luke 21, in verse 9, Jesus says, 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. There are other reasons that he'll go on to give why we should not be terrified in the midst of this, but as Christians, we need to settle in our minds now how we're going to respond emotionally to the upsetting realities that accompany the end of times, because the closer that we get to the end, And just as some of these things are just sort of cyclical, wars, and as he says here, it doesn't necessarily indicate that the end is near, or is coming at once, but there will be wars, and tumults, and civil unrest, and there'll be political upheavals, and things that are very upsetting. But as Christians, it is important that we know how to respond emotionally to these things. And that is not to be anxious about many things, to be fearful, as if we don't serve and trust a God who is in control of all things and who is sovereign over all. But our God is sovereign. He is in control. And there is no, to quote one author, there's no maverick molecule in the universe. There's not one iota, one atom that is just out of God's control that can just somehow be like calls everything to go haywire. God is in control of all things. And so because of that, we know that he will be with us no matter what happens. He's going to be with us. His presence will go with us. He will help us. Jesus is going to go on to talk about the help that we will receive when we're called to give witness, to give a witness, a testimony to our faith. And he encourages us with words like this in verse 18, not a hair of your head will perish. And this isn't talking about necessarily our physical well-being because we know that there are believers who have died for their faith, but no harm can come to our eternal soul. God keeps that secure. So what can man do to us when God holds our fate? and our everlasting soul in His hands. We have no reason to be fear. And so at the outset of this study of future realities and end times, we need to be careful that we're not misled. We need to not be distracted. by many of the cares and concerns of life or the outwardly impressive things around us that might distract us from what's important. We need to avoid being misled by false saviors, by a fearful spirit that could cause us to lose sight of our hope, the hope of the gospel, our hope in the salvation that is ours through Jesus Christ. Let's pray together. Father God, we thank you that you have giving us salvation through Jesus. And once this matter is settled in our hearts and minds, there's a real sense in which nothing else matters as far as what happens to us. We just take one step at a time and live the life that's before us, do the things faithfully and for your glory that you called us to do in our times and our circumstances, but nothing else matters. Our lives can turn out exactly how we would always dreamt and imagined them to be and be filled with happiness and earthly comforts. Or life can really go sideways and things could turn out poorly so far as our earthly life is concerned. But trusting in your son, Jesus Christ, we have a hope for the future so that we're not given to trusting in that which is false. or succumbing to a spirit of fear. We pray that you keep our eyes on Christ. We pray all of this in his name. Amen.