turning your Bibles to Luke chapter 21. Luke chapter 21 we'll take as our text this morning verses 20 through 28. 20 through 28. And as we read God's word, this is really the central part of our worship. This is the focal point of our worship as God's people, is to come before him and of course recognize all that he's done for us in Christ, and yet what we come to is a point where week by week, reminding ourselves of the truth of the gospel, confessing our sins, looking to Christ, we once again come before him with open hands. and as his sheep, as his people who are hungry, not for that which satisfies our bodily appetites, but what we need is spiritual food and drink. We come before him with open hands and we read God's scripture and we pray a prayer asking for him to feed us. For him, first of all, to help us to understand these things so that we might really internalize them and that we might receive grace upon grace. And so this is our need is not first of all to speak to God, but to have God speak to us and to respond from the heart to the truth that he's given us in his word. So let's read in Luke chapter 21 in verses 20 through 28. Hear the word of the Lord. 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 and perplexity because of the roaring of the seas, 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. Let's go to the Lord in prayer. Father God, we do come to you, our heavenly Father, as your children, made children by your grace, and we pray that you give us your truth and that you would feed us upon the truth, the truth as it is in Jesus. that we might, with the eyes of faith, behold our Savior, see Jesus here, and God, learn of Him, and God, to take hold of the promises that you've made to us, saying to us that every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places is ours in Christ Jesus, that in your storehouses of blessing, there's not one thing that you have not promised to give to us or to withhold from us, but all is ours in Christ, and such is His perfect obedience. And He is not only our Savior, but our only hope, our blessed hope, as we anticipate His coming again and look forward to His return. We pray that you would steel our nerves as we live our lives here during this time of our earthly sojourn through a world that oftentimes can be hostile towards us and our faith. But we pray that you would help us to persevere by your grace as you keep us and preserve us as your people, looking to Christ, looking to his return without fear of man, but only a fear of you, a proper reverence for your power and your wisdom and God, with joy in our hearts, knowing that you, our great God, our creator and our redeemer, you have looked upon us with kindness and with mercy for Jesus' sake. So help us to understand what we read this morning and to benefit from it. God, we pray that it would produce fruit for eternity in our hearts and in our church. We pray all of this in Christ's name, amen. As we cover what we've looked at so far in what we call the Olivet Discourse, Jesus is speaking here of things to come. And this all begins in verse 5 when he notices that some are speaking of really the architectural wonder that is Herod's Temple. Just these massive stones and all of the architectural features which are very impressive. And they're noting this and they are there in a place where they ought to be Really, I think there's a warning here, but there's an implicit judgment of the priorities of those who would come into a building like this, and naturally, we understand why they would, if you've ever been to a cathedral or some kind of just grand place with these kind of features and architecture, it is impressive. but rather than being in awe of the God they've come to pray to and to worship, they're in awe of the buildings around them, which are passing away. And Jesus makes a point to foretell the future of this temple and to prophesy against it and to say, as he says here in verse six, that, 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 so here, before his crucifixion, Forty years before these things come to pass, Jesus prophesies the destruction of Jerusalem and the destruction of the Temple. Well, naturally, His disciples are concerned about this, and so they ask Him questions about it. They want to know when these things are going to take place, and specifically, they want to know what are signs that are going to precede these events that would sort of serve as portents and as signals to us that the end of Jerusalem and the temple is drawing near so that they can, presumably, so that they can escape the judgment that's coming upon the rest of Jerusalem and the people of God there. And so Jesus begins to answer them. And as he does this, there are times as we read this chapter where You know, if you were a Jesus disciple, you might think, okay, well, he's talking about the destruction of Jerusalem, the destruction of the temple, but you might wonder, Jesus, are we still talking about the temple? you know, because it seems like he's sort of reaching beyond 70 AD and talking about things that are more ultimate, more final than just this temporal destruction that could be, you know, added to the many judgments that we see in the Old Testament period of time or that we read about in Scripture. One more judgment. Jesus seems to be sort of reaching beyond this this next judgment that is to come in the year 70 AD and to be speaking about things that are more final and more ultimate. And so he begins to prepare God's people. And I think what we can read this as is primarily, yes, Jesus is speaking to people who are going to go through this historical judgment in the first century. But there is truth here for God's people that can help prepare us for all of the judgments that God's people have ever faced, that come after this, and all of the historical persecutions, and all of the times in which God's people have ever lived, including our time, and even looking forward to, you know, what about the end of time, when Christ does break open the skies and descend with great fanfare and when the end has finally come because Christ has come again and of course we believe in the bodily return of Christ. We believe that Christ is coming again to judge the living and the dead, to raise those who are dead in Christ to new life and to everlasting life and into the presence of God forever in the new heavens and the new earth and to judge those who would not believe, who would not call out to Christ for mercy and receive the mercy that's in him. So we believe this about the end, but as we think about when will this occur? And really we don't have clarity about that at this given in the Bible as far as, actually the Bible warns us about this. It says that these are things that are known only to God and we're not to speculate wildly and to set a date on the calendar and try to sort of work these things out. many people have, I think, foolishly tried to do, but nevertheless God's Word does. Jesus here in the Olivet Discourse prepares us for whether that day occurs tomorrow or whether it occurs a hundred years from now or a thousand years from now, for God's people ultimately it's immaterial and it's irrelevant because we're called to do the same things and to be the certain kinds of people whether we know that God's, you know, one minister was asked, you know, what if we, what if God were to reveal to us that he's coming tomorrow? How would that change what we do? And he essentially responded, it wouldn't change anything. We would need to get to work, you know. If you knew that Christ was coming tomorrow afternoon, what would you do tomorrow morning? You'd get a shower, and you would dress, and you would go to work, because you want to be found working when Christ comes, faithful, doing His will, and living for His kingdom when He returns. And so whenever He comes, we want to be faithful. Well, how can we do that? Well, there's certain teachings that Jesus has given. We've already considered some of these. You know, for example, one big danger that he lays out before us is the danger of being misled. He says in verse 8, see that you're not led astray. For many will come in my name and say I am he. Time is at hand. He says do not go after them. So, the first way in which we can be misled is through false saviors. We can put our confidence and our trust in for the future in man rather than in God. And secondly, we can be misled by harboring within ourselves a fearful spirit which doesn't look to God. In the same way that a false savior distracts us, our focus from being on Christ as our savior and puts it on a man, a fearful spirit likewise takes our confidence for the future away from God in whose hands we are preserved and well kept and guarded for that day. and instead, you know, takes our focus and puts it on circumstances, whether good or bad, to give us confidence or to take it away. And so he says, when you hear of wars and tumults, do not be terrified. He says, do not be terrified. Don't go after false saviors and do not be filled with a fearful spirit. And then as we move along in verses 10 through 19, here we have, he begins to sort of fill in some of the picture for us about what the future may entail. And of course, there are some of the things that we might expect, wars and uprisings and famines and all of this sort of upheaval and chaos, both in terms of human society and even in nature. But he says, before all this, you're going to face persecution. and you need to settle in your minds how you're going to think about that coming persecution for you as a believer. And basically the encouragement there that we looked at last week was to be confident that God will keep us, that we are to persevere, we are to endure in our faith, to run the race with endurance, but all the while, as we work out our salvation with fear and trembling, we know that God is within us, is working within us, both to will and to work for his good pleasure. He's not going to allow us to fall away, but will keep us. And so we have this confidence. Now in verses 20 through 28, Jesus is going to continue to teach us about the end. And the first thing that we see here in verses 20 through 26 really is that Jesus gives us signs of the end. He gives us signs of the end. And I want to, we'll read this again here, but I want to reflect on why are these signs at the end important? What are the functions of these signs? And so in verse 20 we read, but when you see Jerusalem surrounded by armies, then know that its desolation has come near. And he's talking about the circumstances surrounding the destruction of Jerusalem. And in fact, the Roman armies did surround Jerusalem and laid siege to it. Now they, they ended up dispersing for a time before they finally came and destroyed the city. Now, if you were in Jerusalem, you might have thought, well, these armies have dispersed, they've ended their siege, all is well. Or if you anticipated their return, if you lived in the surrounding countryside or whatever, you might say, well, let's use this opportunity to get into the city of Jerusalem. That's what you do in a siege, is you go into the walled city where there is greater protection. But Jesus is warning against this and he is preparing them by saying, once the armies, when you see Jerusalem surrounded by armies, once these Roman armies surround Jerusalem, the end of Jerusalem is near and its desolation has come near. And he says in verse 21, then let those who are in Judea flee to the mountains and let those who are inside the city depart. So it's the opposite of what we might, it's sort of counterintuitive. Rather than to go into the walled city, he's saying, there'll be no protection in that city. These walls can only do so much for you. And so he's giving them counsel here. He's instructing them and really warning them to escape this judgment by fleeing the city. And in verse 22, we read, these are days of vengeance to fulfill all that is written. Why does Jesus—there are other signs that are given in 25 and 26. You see there are signs in sun and moon and stars and on the earth, the stress of nations and 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, and the powers of the heavens will be shaken. There's some indication that there are many astrological signs in the first centuries, and Jesus may have been pointing to these at the very least. Halley's Comet was seen making the rounds in the first century, and we know that the Emperor Nero was very troubled by this, and there are other things that would fit into these categories and be fulfilled by these signs that Jesus mentioned. But my concern is here not so much to interpret the signs so that we know exactly what they are, and that's something that we can look at and we can see, you know, how can I recognize the signs of the times, but why does it, I want to reflect for a moment, why does Jesus give us signs? Why? Because if I'm, you know, this is a judgment on Jerusalem. Jerusalem has rejected their Messiah, and the leadership among God's people have. They have rejected the Messiah. They have been responsible for putting him to death. And so one way that we can think about the destruction of Jerusalem is as a particular act of judgment upon God's people. and vengeance upon and retribution against their rejection of God and His Messiah. And so if you are, you think, well if I am a king and I'm going to bring some judgment upon an uprising or a vassal state or some neighboring kingdom, Am I going to warn them and send out warning after warning after warning? Well, no. I want to bring that judgment swiftly. I want to take them by surprise so that it's more effective, essentially. And yet Christ, who is the one to whom judgment is given, the one who will ultimately be responsible for the judgment that comes, you know, as we see throughout the Old Testament, the empires, whether it be the Babylonian Empire, the Assyrian Empire, the Roman Empire, all of these empires are only tools in the hands of God to bring judgment upon the earth. And God declares that when he's done using them to bring judgment, he will judge them in turn for their wickedness. And so yes, the Romans are the ones that are judging, but ultimately it's Christ who is in his sovereignty. He's the one, and we'll come to that in a moment, think we see that in verse 27. But why does Christ, ahead of this, why does he give these signs? And we can see some evidence of why he does in here. He's giving these signs and he's instructing those who will heed the warnings to flee so that they might escape the judgment. And notice the pity that that is displayed by Christ in verse 23 and following. 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. And so, alas, Jesus is, he is expressing a certain degree of pity. And you get the sense that this isn't just a proclamation of woe on these people, but Jesus feeling this himself And so he warns. In Jeremiah 18, we have a formula, I think, that God gives to explain the function of prophecy. And I think of this prophecy of Jesus. A function of prophecy, in particular, when you have a prophetic declaration of future judgment. That's what's being foretold is judgment. And this is what we read in Jeremiah 18 in verses 7 and 8. If at any time I, this is the Lord speaking, if at any time I declare concerning a nation or a kingdom that I will pluck up and break down and destroy it, and if that nation concerning which I have spoken turns from its evil, I will relent of the disaster that I intended to do to it. One, God is right to bring this disaster upon people who deserve it because it's their sin that's brought it upon them. So God's not wrong to announce the judgment and then to judge them for this. But by announcing the judgment in this way, God is accomplishing something else. That ahead of the judgment, he's giving an opportunity for repentance. So as we reflect on the teaching of the Bible about the end times, These teachings are not to fuel our speculation about things or to enable us to put dates on a calendar or events on a timeline, but they're to, first of all, they're to concern us. That we not slip into a complacent sort of mode of being where we can live in a very complacent way in this world and just to enjoy the comforts and to live life in such a way that we eat and we drink and we carry on and we be merry, you know, for tomorrow we die. No concern about the future, but as believers, we carry the future before us. We have this vision, this biblical perspective that Christ is coming again, and why has he announced this? So that we might repent of our sin. So that we might live and walk in repentance. And so these signs are meant to lead us to repentance. And I hope that you are led to repentance. I hope that you don't vainly think that you can put off repenting of sin and getting right with the Lord and calling out to Christ for mercy and trusting in Him. Putting that off until a later date because you think, well, I've just got too many things that I want to do and there are too many things that I love that I'm hesitant to give up. this world, and so there's always this putting it off. I'll get right with the Lord someday when I'm an adult, if you're a child, or on my deathbed perhaps, or when I begin to grow ill. Well, that's not the perspective to have because we're not guaranteed those future opportunities to repent. We're not guaranteed, first of all, that we'll have another moment in time. We're not guaranteed life, but furthermore, you're not guaranteed that you'll ever be in the frame of mind that you're in now. where you are seriously considering the truths of the gospel, where you're actually reflecting upon this and find that maybe you're willing, but then you've put it off. No, I mean, I might, I'm not going to. You may never again, because every time you refuse to repent of your sins and trust in Christ, you are by degrees hardening your hearts and you'll find it more and more difficult to come to Him in repentance and faith. And so take these signs for what they are. They're a great mercy of God, I think, although they portend judgment for the future. Secondly, we see not only signs of the end, but we see who is sovereign over the end in verse 27. And then they will see the Son of Man coming in a cloud with power and great glory. Of course, we take this to refer to the second coming of Christ when he comes I'm not sure that that's exactly what Christ had in mind when he said this, although it certainly applies to that. I think that, first of all, that what he's saying here is that when Jerusalem is destroyed, make no mistake about it, that is my judgment. I am coming again to judge Jerusalem. And so God, in the persons of his agents, is bringing about judgment. Whether or not Christ is visibly manifest in that judgment, nevertheless, he is present in it. This is how the great Bible commentator Matthew Henry puts it. He says, the destruction of Jerusalem was in a particular manner an act of Christ's judgment, the judgment committed to the Son of Man. His religion could never be thoroughly established but by the destruction of the temple and the abolishing of the Levitical priesthood and economy, after which even the converted Jews and many of the Gentiles too were still hankering till they were destroyed. So he's referring here to how Even after the gospel is preached and people are believing in Christ, they're still tempted to go think about all of the Judaizers that the New Testament letters are written against to say, no, don't go back to circumcision, don't go back to animal sacrifice. All of that stuff was foreshadowing Christ. It was to point you forward to Christ. You can't go back to that stuff. It would be as if we were to go to a restaurant and pick up the menu, and it's a kind of menu that has pictures on it. And you were to look at that picture and your mouth is watering. You're thinking maybe you were at a Mexican restaurant and you think, man, that fajita looks so good. smell it and hear it sizzling when it comes out, you know, and as you're looking at the menu and you say, I'm going to order the fajita. You order it, fajita comes out and you kind of put it to the side and you're continuing to look at the menu. You're like, ah, but this picture is so good. It's absurd. I mean, the picture doesn't do the actual food justice. It just points you forward to it. It whets your appetite for it. But when the food comes, you put the menu aside. And yet in the first century, people were preferring the menu to the entree, to the main entree. And they were wanting to go back to the sacrifices and all of these, the priesthood and the temple and all of this stuff. And so God destroys it so that the religion of Jesus could be more thoroughly established and people could see that there is no salvation in all of that stuff, but only in Christ. And so Matthew Henry points this out, and then he goes on and says, he says, so that it might justly be looked upon as a coming of the Son of Man, in power and great glory, yet not visibly, but in the clouds. For in executing such judgments as these, clouds and darkness are round about him. And so he goes on, but the point here is he's suggesting that just as Christ is present, visibly and bodily in the second coming at the end of time, so in every temporal judgment between his first and second coming, don't think that Christ isn't present, even if not bodily. Christ is the one that's bringing that judgment, and we need to understand, especially as we think about the very end, that Christ is the one who's bringing that judgment, and so Christ is sovereign over the end. What does this mean for us? What it means is that all of the things that you have to be fearful about the future, all of them, whatever it might be, and it could be innumerable, wars, economic downturns or collapses, hyperinflation, anything that could concern you about the future, about your future, the future of this nation, the future for your children and grandchildren, anything that you could be fearful about, you recognize it is all well in hand. for God. This is all of the judgments that might come. God is superintending the outworking of history and all of the judgments that come upon the human race are coming at His hands and by His direction. And so don't fear the judgment. Fear the judge. And if you fear the judgment, and you're refusing to fear the judge, then you won't be prepared for the judgment. You'll be swept away in all of these judgments. But if you fear the judge alone, if you fear Christ, and so you turn not away from him, but to him, because his arms are open wide to receive you, he's inviting you to, in mercy, to come to him, that you might be saved. If you fear him alone, you have nothing else to fear. You have nothing else to fear, because he will be with you. teaching about the end that the New Testament gives us. I think about in 1 Thessalonians, Paul talks about people who are very concerned about when Christ comes again and what's going to happen, and they're afraid. And what he tells them is, he says, this is 1 Thessalonians 4, 13, I don't want you to be uninformed. And because if you're uninformed about this, then you'll grieve as people who have no hope. You'll be anxious and afraid about the future. And what he says here is, ultimately when Christ comes again, he's gonna call us up to be with him. And so that, the way he puts it here is that we who are alive, who are left, will be called up together with them who God has raised from the dead and also called to be with him. And all those who believe in Christ will be caught up together in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air. Why is Paul sharing this? He doesn't want you to be afraid about the end. He says, when the end comes, you are going to be caught up to be with Christ. In other words, you're going to be with the judge when he comes to judge. And he's not judging you. He's protecting you. So we will always be with the Lord. That's what Paul says in conclusion. Therefore, encourage one another with these words." If we're always with the Lord, that's an encouragement, despite all of the uncertainty and all of the darkness and all of the potential harms and difficulties and the trials and tribulations of the future. Yes, it's concerning, but we have no reason ultimately to fear because Christ is sovereign over the end. Finally, we see here salvation in the end, verse 28. Now when these things begin to take place, straighten up, raise your heads because your redemption is drawing near. This is a reminder for us to look to Christ. When we think about the end, we look to Christ. And ultimately have no reason to be afraid because with his coming is our salvation. Christ comes again, he brings two things. He brings judgment upon the earth, which falls on all of those who are not in Christ, who do not belong to him, because they haven't trusted in him alone. They're trusting in themselves that they're righteous, or they've denied his sovereignty, they've refused to submit to him, or whatever. Whatever the reason is, they've not trusted in Christ alone. And so they don't belong to him, they're not his people. Judgment. that Christ is bringing something else when He comes again and that is salvation. And so I would encourage you, I'd call you and urge you in the strongest terms this morning is to look to Christ this morning that you might be saved. And it doesn't matter whether He's coming again or He's coming in a thousand years. You know, for someone who's Christ in their heart, who's trusting in Him, is basically irrelevant to us. Because as Paul says, whether I live or I die, you know, this is the perspective that we have. To live is gain, I mean to die is gain, but to live is, you know, there's good work to be done and I want to serve and glorify the Lord with this earthly life. There are many good things that God has filled our lives with, he blesses us, but to be with him is far, far better. But Paul can have this perspective, live or die. You know, what does it really matter for the one who's in Christ because I'm trusting in him and so the future is, is not concerning to me. Our faith is in the Lord.