Luke 21 verses 29 through 33. 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 is 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. Let's go to the Lord in prayer. Father God, we thank you that you have given us your word, and that in your word you've made promises to us. Even as you teach us about what to expect concerning the future, there are promises in your word that give us such hope and assurance and confidence in light of that day, the day of your coming again, to judge those who belong to the generation of the wicked, but God, to preserve and to gather in and to bless those who are sons of light, who belong to the kingdom of your son, Jesus Christ, to bless us with everlasting life God, these blessings have been unearned by us. God, they have been earned by Christ for us, and we thank you for them all, and we pray that you would bless us as we study your word this morning. We pray that you would bless us in Christ. God, help us to look to the future with the kind of confidence that you mean to inspire in this discourse. We pray all of this in Christ's name, amen. The consistent message of the New Testament with regards to the end of time and the final day is that it will be a day of judgment, full of terrors for those who aren't set apart for salvation through faith in the Lord Jesus Christ. And as you look back, this is a day that was anticipated, and particularly as you read in some of the prophets, In the minor prophets, we see this day of the Lord oftentimes described in a way that inspires fear. It's a great and terrible day of the Lord. And so on the one hand, when God comes, and he will come again in the person of his son, Jesus Christ, to whom he has granted all authority in heaven and on earth and authority to judge, so that all judgment will be meted out through the Son, He is coming again surely through Jesus Christ to judge the world. And for many people, this is a terrifying prospect, or at least it ought to be a terrifying prospect. I think we talk about this on Wednesday nights recently as we consider the law of God that is written on the heart No matter what, people can harden their hearts to the truth. and their hearts can be corrupted by sin so that they don't see morality in the way the Bible teaches and gives us the will of God and the Ten Commandments summarized in the Ten Commandments. And we have such clear teaching on what is right and what is wrong. And the world doesn't deny this and the world pretends as if there are no moral standards. But what we have as an advantage to us in our evangelism is that it's undeniable. They can't deny it. Intuitively, deep down, they sense that what we're saying is true. They can deny it. They can voice their opposition to these truths, but deep down, there's a sense of knowing that this is true. And it comes with not only a sense of right and wrong, but as Paul says in Romans 2, that their hearts either excuse them or accuse them. That is the conscience that God has placed within the heart of man, this moral compass. And depending on as we measure ourselves up, our own lives and actions, our beliefs and thoughts and desires and the things that we do and say, this up against the standard of what we intuitively know to be right and wrong, our hearts accuse us, or they excuse us, and we have a sense that either we are good, that God must be pleased with us, and yet if any man feels this way, it's that they think more highly of themselves than they ought. They don't understand themselves as they ought to. And that's why we read God's law week by week, to inform the conscience and to prick the conscience. But what we ought to experience, if the Bible is true, and it is, when it says that all men sin and fall short of the glory of God, no one is righteous, not one, is we ought to feel, again intuitively, a sense of coming judgment. And so I think the world, feels this way, maybe can voice an opposition to this idea, but there's always this nagging doubt or concern that is shoved down but never quite gone. Because of the life that I lived, in opposition to my creator, that there will be a consequence, there has to be judgment. There'll be hell to pay. So as we evangelize, just take comfort in this. I think to be encouraged by this, that you're not having to convince somebody of something that is unbelievable. On the contrary, it is eminently believable because it is the true story of the world and deep down they know it to be true. And so you're bringing it up and out of them in one sense. That's one way of thinking about it. But this is, I think, the experience of all men apart from Christ is they know, we know that we've done wrong, that we have sinned, we've fallen short, that we're somehow inadequate, we failed, and there's this nagging concern about the future, which is why people don't like to think of death. Death is not only a scary topic, but it's a very uncomfortable topic. People don't want to think about death. I remember seeing just recently a commercial for, I think, a life insurance. And the whole theme of the commercial was that thing that you don't want to think about, you need to make preparations for it. Buy our life insurance. But the reality is people don't want to think about it, and I think for this reason, not just because it marks the end of their natural life, but because they know that they have not only a body, which can perish, the body will someday die, but we have a soul which can never die, and there is something that is worse than death, and there is judgment for those who are apart from Christ. So the consistent message of the New Testament with regards to the end of time, and that day of judgment, that final day is, on the one hand, is that it is a day full of terrors and set apart for judgment and for punishment for sin. However, For those who are trusting in Christ and in Him alone for salvation, the end of time and the last day are welcome. Consistently, the New Testament presents the prospect of Jesus coming again. Yes, He's coming in judgment, but there's another dimension to it. He's not only coming in judgment. He's coming to rescue. He's coming to deliver those who are trusting in Him. that they will be saved from that judgment. And so it is actually a, it's a happy prospect. These things are, these events and the prospect of Christ coming again are welcome. They're hoped for and their coming is looked for with just a glad anticipation. Jesus' disciples had asked him when. That's a big question that we ask when we think about Jesus coming again. We wanna know when. For some people, it's, I'd like to put off repenting of sin and making any kind of decision for Christ until I know that I don't have any time left. That is a foolish perspective to have because we're not guaranteed to have any time to repent except the present moment, which we're in, is an opportunity that we've been given, but there are no other guaranteed opportunities to repent and to believe Some will put it off. For Christians, the win has more to do with this life is difficult, and we have different experiences of this, and so for some, it's more difficult, more trying, more filled with loss and pain, but the troubles and the trials and the tribulations of this life are many, and there are many for the saints, for believers, we have this experience. And so the win is kind of a how long, oh Lord, until you come, a come Lord Jesus, Maranatha. We look forward to the coming of Jesus because it represents the end of our life in this present evil age and the beginning of our life in the age to come, which is forever and which is filled with joy and peace and righteousness and with the immediate presence of God to walk with him and to enjoy his fellowship as it were face to face. So it just, the waiting is, as Paul says, it's far better for me to depart and to be with Christ. And similarly, we await Christ coming again because it is far better than the life that we now live. And so Jesus' disciples had asked him, when? When will these things be? What will be the sign when these things are about to take place? And of course, these questions were prompted by Jesus' prophecy of the destruction of Jerusalem and the temple. We often conflate the end of our world or the world as we know it for the end of the world itself, and this is not the case, but this is the way we think about things. When our world seems to be crumbling around us, everything seems to be ending. We can't envision a future beyond what's right in front of us because of the pain, the loss, or the chaos in the world, or whatever, the opposition and persecution. And yet, Jesus, while teaching about the destruction that's coming on Jerusalem, and if you've ever read about the accounts of the destruction of Jerusalem, it is harrowing. It's not rated PG. It's not rated PG-13, but I'm not even sure if it's rated R. This is some of the most awful tribulation that's ever come upon a people, and Jesus is preparing his disciples and those who hear him for these events, and yet he makes the point when he describes these tribulations that are to come on his disciples, he says the end will not be at once. This may be an awful tribulation, a great tribulation. It may seem like the world is ending. And yet the end is not at once. And there's going to be time after cataclysm, after devastation, after tragedy. There will be a life to live after that. That's been the experience of Christians for now thousands of years. But he's preparing them and he's preparing us in this discourse to live faithfully as Christians in the last days between his first and his second advent. Things are gonna get bad for them. In short order, just in 40 years or so after Jesus speaks these words, these awful things will come to pass, and yet his disciples, they will persevere through them, and they'll have to continue living in the midst of wars. and rumors of wars and famines and pestilences and uprisings and persecutions and all of these things. And so he prepares them to live faithfully in the midst of these days. The last days that he's preparing us for, they may have begun as he was speaking these words, but they will not end until he comes again. And so for For 2,000 years so far, we have been in the last days and we need to be prepared for living in them faithfully. But the emphasis here is on hope, I think. Again, I want to... to emphasize this because I think this is the emphasis of Jesus' teaching. Look at verse 17. He says, Jesus says in verse 17, you will be hated by all for my name's sake. That's tough teaching. That's not what we want to hear. We want to hear that we believe in Jesus, that people are going to make life easier for us. We've made a good decision after all. And from an early age, we learn that if we want things to go well for us, we do what's right. And if we do what's wrong, we're training our children to expect that if they do what's wrong, that there will be negative consequences. We follow Jesus, we expect good things, and we find that we're hated by all for Christ's sake. Then Christ gives this assurance in verse 18, not a hair of your head will perish. Of course he's not speaking about, he's speaking metaphorically. He's not saying that no physical harm will come upon you because he's just said you'll be hated by all. And he speaks about persecution. He even says at the end of verse 16 that some of you will be put to death. Is it a contradiction that some will be put to death and yet not a hair of their head will perish? It's not a contradiction. Jesus' way of giving them assurance, similar to the teaching of Jesus, that we ought not fear the one who can destroy the body alone and do no harm to the soul, but fear the one who, after the body has been harmed, has been put to death, who can throw body and soul into hell. We ought to fear not man, but God. And if we fear God, then we need not fear man, because the worst that man can do is harm, do violence against, and even kill our bodies, which may seem like a lot, but in view of eternity, and in view of the one who can raise the dead to life and give those who are raised to newness of life and given new bodies, to give them eternal life and the age to come. We really have every reason not to fear man, but to fear God and to look to God and to hope. Not a hair of your head will perish. No eternal harm will come to me. No harm will come to my soul. God will keep me. He will guard me. He will preserve my life in this sense. Similarly, after describing the fall of Jerusalem in verses 20 through 24, Jesus extends his prophecy even further into the future to include the exile of the Jews. If you look at verse 24, he mentions that, yes, the city will fall, the temple will be destroyed. They, the Jewish people, will fall by the edge of the sword and be led captive among the nations, speaking of their exile and their diaspora among the nations. And also Jesus extends his prophecy further by including the church age in which the gospel is preached to the Gentiles. He mentions here that Jerusalem will be trampled underfoot by the Gentiles until the times of the Gentiles are fulfilled. This is referring to the church age in which the churches Predominantly, we're successful among, not among the Jewish people, although we seek to reach all people, Jews and non-Jews, but the church has been by and large successful in reaching non-Jewish peoples and nations. And so this is the time of the Gentiles. And Paul refers to this in Romans when he speaks about a future in gathering of the Jews. But again, he's pushing his prophecy into the future. And this is where I say a lot of this, he's addressing the destruction of Jerusalem and of the temple, but as he's talking, he seems to go beyond that. And he's speaking about things that happen well after that. For example, in verses 25 and following, signs in the heavens and distress of nations and perplexity because of the You have these natural disasters on a grand scale, and fear and foreboding and so forth. And then in verse 27, all of this culminates in the second coming of the Son of Man, in power and glory. But we have hope in verse 28. So once again, the emphasis is on hope. Now when these things begin to take place, he says, straighten up and raise your heads. I think it's interesting that he says when they begin to take place, because when they begin to take place, no one has yet seen Christ coming on the clouds and with great glory. And this is at the beginning of these signs of the times, these troubling signs which characterize increasingly and sort of ramping up as that day draws nearer, but these signs that we've seen throughout the church age, and they're troubling to us. They cause us anxiety and fear, they might, and yet what Jesus says is every time you see these things, wars and famines and natural disasters and all of these things, He says, when you begin to see them, straighten up. He says, have hope, and why? Because what you're about to see, what all of these things are reminding you of, is that something is coming, and that thing is not fearful. It's not a reason to fear, it's a reason to hope. And that is, how can we have such hope and confidence when the end is just beginning? Because we recall Jesus' words, here predicting these things, but also promising that he would be coming soon. Notice in our text in verses 29 through 33, the repeated words will not pass away. We see that in verse 32 and in verse 33. This generation will not pass away. My words will not pass away. This is the hope of believers facing the destruction of the world in this age, is this hope that this generation will not pass away. My words will not pass away. We will not pass away. God's word will not pass away. Can I put it very simply? If you are a Christian, no matter how things go in this world, and they may go very badly for you as we approach Christ's return, nevertheless, you're gonna be okay. We're going to be okay. and as we think about all the things that might trouble others, we look forward to the coming of Christ, and we dispel that fearfulness in our hearts and replace it with confidence and hope. Let's first of all consider Jesus' parable of the fig tree here and its point, and then we'll look at two promises, these two promises that follow. First the parable in verses 29 through 31. And he told them a parable, look at the fig tree and all of the trees, As soon as they come out in leaf, you see for yourselves and know that the summer is already near. We had a couple of trees cut down our backyard after the hurricane, and I hate that because I love those trees. There were three trees. There was a hickory tree, there was an elm tree, which is still there, and there was a red oak. And they grew up together, three hardwoods and a little triangle behind the fence, and birds love And that's why I hate it, because now the birds don't have a place to land. I don't have a place to sit there and watch the birds. But they all are very interesting because, of course, in the dead of winter, all the leaves are gone. But as spring begins and as summer approaches, you begin to just barely see a little glimpse of a shade of green, just the buds of leaves beginning to form and beginning to bloom. And when you see that, it's hopeful. It reminds you that although everything looks ugly in the winter, I mean really ugly. You drive down the road and you just see just the dead trees and the scrubby short trees and bushes and brush and everything is just ugly. When it's late spring, early summer, it is so beautiful. The light's shining through the green leaves and everything's blossoming and there's flowers and daffodils and wildflowers and grass is growing. It's beautiful. But the blossom there, as it just begins to show and manifest, it's a reminder summer's coming and that beauty is going to be here before you know it. And so we're not to give in to despair. And that parable is very simple. It's not one of these parables that really requires much of an interpretation. Jesus explains in verse 31, so also when you see these things taking place, what things is he referring to? Well, he's referring to here the signs that he's mentioned. All of them. Not just the signs that Jerusalem is about to be destroyed. They're going to see some of those signs. They're going to be warned. And if they follow Jesus' teaching, they're going to depart from the city. and they're going to be spared from that judgment that falls on Jerusalem in 70 AD. But even the things that come after, which he describes as preceding the second coming of the Son of Man in power and glory. But when you see these signs, they may be troubling, but they ought not trouble us because they're a reminder to us that Christ is coming. Or as he says it here, the kingdom of God is near. Nearness, nearness of the kingdom. This is somewhat of a challenging teaching because in the New Testament, in the Gospels in particular, Jesus speaks about his coming again, sometimes as if it will come in the lifetimes of his hearers. And you have to take these passages on a case-by-case basis. In some cases, he's talking about certain of his disciples seeing his glory, and it seems clear that he's speaking about them seeing his glory on the Mount of Transfiguration and experiencing the glory of his coming kingdom in that moment. And of course here, he mentions in verse 32, this generation will not pass away until all has taken place. And so it would seem that, as some have concluded, that Jesus just didn't know when he was coming again. He was wrong here. because he didn't come back in the lifetimes of the generation that was listening to him, if we're taking it to mean that. So there's different interpretations. What did he mean by this? Maybe some have said he's speaking about the generation that would witness the destruction of Jerusalem. Those are the things that are going to take place. But he mentions here all, until all has taken place. And he has, in my view, gone well beyond the destruction of Jerusalem and speaking about the very end of the judgment that's to come when Christ comes again a second time publicly and triumphantly and gloriously, powerfully. So what does he mean by this generation? Well there's other places in Luke's gospel where that language is used and so for example in Luke 16 in verse 8 in another parable, the parable of the dishonest manager, the master commended the dishonest manager for his shrewdness, for he says, the sons of this world, now these are contrasted with the sons of light. And so this is just a way of speaking of, it's not a particular group of people, it's in general, it's all of those who belong to this present evil age, as opposed to the sons of light who belong to of the age to come, who have eternal life. Throughout this section in Luke 16 he does this, he speaks of this again when he's asked about, well this is actually a little further on, I think in Luke, let's see here, 20. And he speaks about when he's talking about marriage and divorce and remarriage, and he's asked questions that are meant to trip him up. Jesus says in Luke 20 verse 34, the sons of this age marry and are given in marriage, but those who are considered worthy to attain to that age and to the resurrection from the dead, neither marry nor are given in marriage. So Luke, he's very conscious of there's really, there are two ages of the world. There's the age that from the beginning, of creation in which we're presently living and which will extend until Christ comes again, which is oftentimes described and I think pretty uniformly described negatively as this present evil age that is a kingdom of darkness that is under the power of the evil one. And there are people who belong to this age and those people are, Luke 16 verse 8, their own generation. The master commended the dishonest manager for his shrewdness, for the sons of this world are more shrewd in dealing with their own generation than the sons of light." So they are those who belong to the generation of this age versus those who, although they live in this age, really they belong to the age to come, who are already citizens of the kingdom of heaven, even though they await the coming of Christ. That's how I understand verse Luke 21, verse 32. This generation will not pass away until all has taken place. In keeping with this emphasis on hope and comfort, what Jesus is saying is all of these things are going to happen. However, this generation, those who are the sons of light, those who are worthy to attain to the resurrection of the dead by faith in Christ, His people, they will not pass away. It's another way of saying what he's already said in verse 18, that a hair of your head will perish. You will not pass away. In one of Peter's letters, he talks about this inheritance. I think it's 1 Peter chapter 1. I'll flip there very quickly. 1 Peter chapter 1. He talks about being born again in verse 3. Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ according to his great mercy. He has caused us, this is the work of God, he has caused us to be born again to a living hope. There's our hope for the future. through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead to an inheritance that is imperishable, undefiled and unfading, kept in heaven for you. So this is good news that if we can make it to heaven, that there is an inheritance there that God himself is keeping for us. It cannot be diminished, stolen, degraded, corrupted. It's a place where thieves don't break in and steal. Moth and rust don't destroy, as Jesus says elsewhere. But that's the real question. Can we make it to heaven in view of all the things that are characteristic of this age? All of the things which will precede the end. Well, notice what Peter says. These things are being kept in heaven for you, who by God's power are being guarded through faith for a salvation ready to be revealed in the last time. And so the promise here is that God is keeping you. God will preserve your soul for eternity. That he will not allow any, not any permanent harm to come of you. Temporal, earthly, physical, bodily harm, sure. But only for your good and no eternal harm can come. No harm at all can come to your soul. I think this is very comforting. And it just allows us with bold face and with every bit of confidence to face the future. I don't care who wins an election. I don't care what freedoms are taken away, what manner of persecution. Of course, I don't want those things to happen. None of us should. And we should work to make sure they don't happen, if at all possible. But if they come, the worst that can happen does not destroy my soul, does not invalidate this promise that I, as a Christian believer, will not pass away And in verse 33, following on the heels of this, first promise, we have a second. Heaven and earth will pass away. Everything else will pass away except your soul and except for the word of God, upon which we base our confidence and our trust. So God gives us this great certainty. I think it's a very inspiring hope for us. We don't trust in anything except the words that come from the mouth of Almighty God. When He makes promises to us, promises of salvation, promises that reveal to us Christ, we bank our hope not on anything else because everything else is passing away and will perish, will be burned up in the end, consumed by fire. But the one thing that we can bank our hope on and trust in completely and implicitly is this promise that for those who have faith in Christ, there is everlasting life. eternal joy, there is heaven to look forward to, to long for. And so I hope this morning that in view of all of the things that we see around us today, and the things which will surely come, should the Lord tarry, should we be granted extended life, no matter how fearful, no matter how difficult, trying our times may be, how much we suffer and lose, Nevertheless, God has made promises to us which give us a tremendous hope as we pray together. Father God, we thank you that you have made these promises to us. God, we pray that you would help us to trust in them, not to be startled, alarmed, concerned by things which are beyond our control, which are certainly not beyond yours. God, help us to feel safe in the arms of Christ. We pray that you would keep our souls, preserve our life, spiritual life, until that day when we see Christ face to face. We pray that for those in this room who are yet to believe that you would cause them alarm at the prospect of His coming again, which is not good news for those who refuse to believe in Him. We pray that you would turn their hearts to Christ and see that in Him is a willing Savior to receive any and all who come to Him, and who would seek His mercy and His protection against that day. We pray all of this in Christ's name, amen.