Advent 2| Luke 21:25-36| Pastor James Preus| Trinity Lutheran Church| December 8, 2024
St. Paul tells us that whatever was written in former days, was written for our instruction, that through endurance and through the encouragement of the Scriptures, we might have hope (Romans 15:4). And so, by being students of Holy Scripture, we prepare ourselves for the return of Christ. Jesus speaks of terrifying signs: wars, persecutions, false-christs and false prophets, terrors in the sky and sea, fear overcoming the world. Yet, He tells us that when we see these things happening, we should straighten up and lift up our heads, because our Redemption is drawing near! While the world is falling apart around us, Jesus tells us to lift our heads up with joyful anticipation for His appearing. Why is that?
If you are a student of Scripture, when you hear Jesus speak of your Redemption, it should remind you of the Exodus of Israel out of Egypt. When God called Moses, He said to him, “Say therefore to the people of Israel, ‘I am the Lord, and I will bring you out from under the burdens of the Egyptians, and I will deliver you from slavery to them, and I will redeem you with an outstretched arm and with great acts of judgment. 7 I will take you to be My people, and I will be your God, and you shall know that I am the Lord your God, who has brought you out from under the burdens of the Egyptians.” (Exodus 6:6-7) And you are familiar with how God redeemed His people, Israel. He afflicted the Egyptians with ten plagues, turning their river to blood, inundating them with frogs, flies, lice, and locusts, boils, hail, sudden death of their livestock, and darkness. Yet, He preserved His people, Israel. Finally, for the tenth plague God passed through Egypt and killed the firstborn in every home. It was the worst of all the plagues God inflicted on Egypt. Not a house in Egypt was there not someone dead in it (Exodus 12:30). The whole land was filled with weeping and gnashing of teeth.
Yet, for the people of Israel the night of this final plague was a night of great joy and anticipation. They recognized that these plagues were signs from the Lord. God commanded them to sacrifice lambs that night and to smear the blood of those lambs on the door posts and lintels of their homes, so that when the Lord passed through, He would pass over the homes on which the Passover lambs’ blood was smeared and He would not kill anyone in that house. As the Egyptians were waking up in panic and terror as death struck each of their homes, the children of Israel were eating the Lord’s Passover, with their belts fastened around their wastes, their sandals on their feet, and their staff in their hands, ready to leave Egypt with haste at the Lord’s direction. This is how God redeemed Israel from slavery in Egypt.
And this teaches us about the coming of our Redemption. The Exodus of Israel out of Egypt with the sacrificing of the Passover lambs foretells Christ redeeming us from our sins. Israel was in slavery in Egypt. We are slaves under the law, convicted and damned for our sins, for it is written, “Cursed be everyone who does not abide by all things written in the Book of the Law, and do them.” (Deut. 27:5; Gal. 3:10) Yet, “Christ redeemed us from the curse of the law by becoming a curse for us—for it is written, “Cursed is everyone who is hanged on a tree” (Galatians 3:13) As death passed over the Israelite homes, with the blood of the Passover lamb smeared on their doorposts and lintels, so death and judgment pass over us who have Christ’s blood smeared on the doorposts and lintels of our hearts. St. Paul writes in Ephesians 1, “In [Christ] we have redemption through His blood, the forgiveness of our trespasses, according to the riches of His grace.” Through faith in Christ, we receive forgiveness of our sins, because Christ our Passover Lamb has been sacrificed for us (1 Corinthians 5:7) and His blood cleanses us from all sin (1 John 1:7).
And as the ten plagues brought increasing stress, anxiety, and terror upon the Egyptians, yet they exhorted the children of Israel to take heed of the coming of their Redeemer, so Jesus tells us that there will be signs in sun and moon and stars, anxiety and terror among the people for what is happening upon the earth and sea. Yet, like the children of Israel, we will have our belts fastened, shoes on our feet, standing ready to receive our Redeemer, even as we eat our Passover Lamb, Christ Jesus in the Sacrament of His body and blood.
As you recognize that summer is near when you see a fig tree, or any tree, pushing out its leaves, so you should recognize the signs of the end times. Jesus tells us we will see signs in the nations, wars and rumors of wars. Nation rising against nation and kingdom against kingdom. Last century we endured the bloodiest wars in history. In this century we stand always on the brink of nuclear war with skirmishes around the world. Jesus tells us there will be signs in nature, earthquakes, famines, pestilence. People will faint with foreboding over what is coming upon the world and the roaring of the seas. We see this with the alarmism over global climate change. Yes, there is climate change, yet God remains in control. Climate change should not be your religion. After the global flood, God promised in Genesis 8, “Neither will I ever again strike down every living creature as I have done. 22 While the earth remains, seedtime and harvest, cold and heat, summer and winter, day and night, shall not cease.” So, those overcome with foreboding over the climate should trust in God that He will not break His Word, and rather see these events as signs of Christ’s return.
Jesus tells us that there will be persecution against Christians, even households will be divided. There will be mass apostasy, as the love of many grows cold (Matthew 24:12). We see this today as Christians continue to be the most persecuted people on the planet. Christian populations centuries, even millennia old have been wiped out of the Middle East by war and Islamic violence. Since the rise of Mohammad in the 7th century, the Gospel has been under violent attack in half the world; millions of souls forbidden to hear the Gospel. The news won’t report on it, but Christians are being kidnapped and murdered in alarming numbers in Africa. Even in America and other western countries, the rights of Christians to practice their faith in public is frequently attacked, and Christians are told to submit to perverse ideologies.
Jesus speaks of signs in the sun and moon and stars. We certainly see heavenly signs reminding us of Christ’s return. Yet, the celestial bodies often represent angels, both good and evil, as well as powers in the church and state. Jesus tells us that we will see the Son of Man coming in a cloud with power and great glory. He is referring to the prophecy in Daniel 7, which predicts the Son of man coming on a cloud to the Ancient of Days to receive an everlasting dominion, which shall not pass away and a kingdom that shall not be destroyed (vss. 13-15). Daniel records that before the Son of Man comes on a cloud, a great horn will be speaking blasphemous words. This horn foreshadows the coming antichrist, whom St. Paul calls the man of lawlessness in 2 Thessalonians 2, who sets himself up in the temple of God, proclaiming himself to be God. And we see this man of lawlessness today in the papacy, where popes have claimed authority over all Church teaching, even the Bible, and have forbidden to pure Gospel to be preached, that a sinner is justified by grace through faith in Christ alone apart from his works. And there are many other stars, which will fall out of the sky, so to speak, false prophets and false-christs, who exalt themselves in God’s Church and lead many astray. People will accumulate for themselves teachers to suit their own passions (2 Timothy 4:3). And so, people do not endure sound teaching, but instead follow false teachers, who while claiming to be Christians, do not warn people to turn from their sins, but praise fornication, homosexuality, abortion, divorce, worship of false gods, denying that Jesus is the only way, truth, and life. Jesus warns us of all these false teachers and He tells us that their exposure is a sign of His coming.
So, when you see these things happening, wars, pestilence, persecution, apostasy, false prophets, know that the time is near. And it is. Stay dressed for action like the Israelites on Passover night. Yet, also know that no one knows when Christ will return. We are told the signs of His coming. Yet, we are also told He will come at a time you least expect (Luke 12:40). The unbelieving world may be distressed at these signs, just as the Egyptians were at the plagues. But they will not recognize them as signs of Christ’s return. Nor will you know the day or hour. So, always be ready. Keep watch, as Jesus says.
Jesus tells you to keep watch by not getting weighed down with dissipation, drunkenness, and cares of this life, so that that day does not come upon you suddenly like a trap. The plagues destroyed the Egyptians crops and ruined their homes. That’s all they cared about. Before the flood came, the world was buying and selling, marrying, and drinking. Yet, Christ warns us not to be distracted by this life. You do not want to be caught drunk when Christ returns. You also do not want to be caught worshipping the things of this world and being unprepared. For unbelievers, everything revolves around the things of this life. They work, so that they can eat and sleep, so that they can work and play. Yet, we live in this life to keep watch for Christ. We work, eat, and sleep, so that we may give glory to God. So, we do not place these things above worship.
Jesus tells us to pray as we keep watch. Pray that you may have strength to escape all these things and to stand before the Son of God. Pray that God would keep you faithful. We pray for a lot. We pray for good health. We pray for those who are sick and suffering. We pray for a good job, for food, for clothing. All these are fine things to pray for. Yet, the most important prayer is the prayer is that we would be given strength to stand before the Son of Man. You will indeed stand before Him. Even if you die before He returns, He will raise you up to stand before Him. We pray that our faith may be kept strong, so we may stand before Him with joy. This is what we pray for when we say, “Hallowed be Thy name, Thy kingdom Come, Thy will be done, forgive us our trespasses, and deliver us from the evil one.” Dear Christians, be constant in prayer. And set your prayers on the promises of Holy Scripture, which are profitable for teaching and comforting you, and be confident that He will answer you.
Finally, this chapter finishes with the people rising early to hear Jesus teach in the temple (Luke 21:38). The same temple, Jesus said would be destroyed. And so, we rise to listen to Jesus’ Word even as we live in a world which will pass away. Heaven and earth will pass away, but not Jesus’ Word. If we are to stand at judgment day to receive our Redemption, we need to hear and take to heart the words of Christ, which endure forever. It is by hearing and believing Christ’s Word, that we are brought to true repentance and that we smear Christ’s blood on the doorpost and lintels of our hearts. With Christ as our Passover Lamb, who has taken away our sins on the cross, we do not fear the final plague. Rather, we lift our heads with joy at the appearing of our Redeemer. Amen.
St. Paul tells us that whatever was written in former days, was written for our instruction, that through endurance and through the encouragement of the Scriptures, we might have hope (Romans 15:4). And so, by being students of Holy Scripture, we prepare ourselves for the return of Christ. Jesus speaks of terrifying signs: wars, persecutions, false-christs and false prophets, terrors in the sky and sea, fear overcoming the world. Yet, He tells us that when we see these things happening, we should straighten up and lift up our heads, because our Redemption is drawing near! While the world is falling apart around us, Jesus tells us to lift our heads up with joyful anticipation for His appearing. Why is that?
If you are a student of Scripture, when you hear Jesus speak of your Redemption, it should remind you of the Exodus of Israel out of Egypt. When God called Moses, He said to him, “Say therefore to the people of Israel, ‘I am the Lord, and I will bring you out from under the burdens of the Egyptians, and I will deliver you from slavery to them, and I will redeem you with an outstretched arm and with great acts of judgment. 7 I will take you to be My people, and I will be your God, and you shall know that I am the Lord your God, who has brought you out from under the burdens of the Egyptians.” (Exodus 6:6-7) And you are familiar with how God redeemed His people, Israel. He afflicted the Egyptians with ten plagues, turning their river to blood, inundating them with frogs, flies, lice, and locusts, boils, hail, sudden death of their livestock, and darkness. Yet, He preserved His people, Israel. Finally, for the tenth plague God passed through Egypt and killed the firstborn in every home. It was the worst of all the plagues God inflicted on Egypt. Not a house in Egypt was there not someone dead in it (Exodus 12:30). The whole land was filled with weeping and gnashing of teeth.
Yet, for the people of Israel the night of this final plague was a night of great joy and anticipation. They recognized that these plagues were signs from the Lord. God commanded them to sacrifice lambs that night and to smear the blood of those lambs on the door posts and lintels of their homes, so that when the Lord passed through, He would pass over the homes on which the Passover lambs’ blood was smeared and He would not kill anyone in that house. As the Egyptians were waking up in panic and terror as death struck each of their homes, the children of Israel were eating the Lord’s Passover, with their belts fastened around their wastes, their sandals on their feet, and their staff in their hands, ready to leave Egypt with haste at the Lord’s direction. This is how God redeemed Israel from slavery in Egypt.
And this teaches us about the coming of our Redemption. The Exodus of Israel out of Egypt with the sacrificing of the Passover lambs foretells Christ redeeming us from our sins. Israel was in slavery in Egypt. We are slaves under the law, convicted and damned for our sins, for it is written, “Cursed be everyone who does not abide by all things written in the Book of the Law, and do them.” (Deut. 27:5; Gal. 3:10) Yet, “Christ redeemed us from the curse of the law by becoming a curse for us—for it is written, “Cursed is everyone who is hanged on a tree” (Galatians 3:13) As death passed over the Israelite homes, with the blood of the Passover lamb smeared on their doorposts and lintels, so death and judgment pass over us who have Christ’s blood smeared on the doorposts and lintels of our hearts. St. Paul writes in Ephesians 1, “In [Christ] we have redemption through His blood, the forgiveness of our trespasses, according to the riches of His grace.” Through faith in Christ, we receive forgiveness of our sins, because Christ our Passover Lamb has been sacrificed for us (1 Corinthians 5:7) and His blood cleanses us from all sin (1 John 1:7).
And as the ten plagues brought increasing stress, anxiety, and terror upon the Egyptians, yet they exhorted the children of Israel to take heed of the coming of their Redeemer, so Jesus tells us that there will be signs in sun and moon and stars, anxiety and terror among the people for what is happening upon the earth and sea. Yet, like the children of Israel, we will have our belts fastened, shoes on our feet, standing ready to receive our Redeemer, even as we eat our Passover Lamb, Christ Jesus in the Sacrament of His body and blood.
As you recognize that summer is near when you see a fig tree, or any tree, pushing out its leaves, so you should recognize the signs of the end times. Jesus tells us we will see signs in the nations, wars and rumors of wars. Nation rising against nation and kingdom against kingdom. Last century we endured the bloodiest wars in history. In this century we stand always on the brink of nuclear war with skirmishes around the world. Jesus tells us there will be signs in nature, earthquakes, famines, pestilence. People will faint with foreboding over what is coming upon the world and the roaring of the seas. We see this with the alarmism over global climate change. Yes, there is climate change, yet God remains in control. Climate change should not be your religion. After the global flood, God promised in Genesis 8, “Neither will I ever again strike down every living creature as I have done. 22 While the earth remains, seedtime and harvest, cold and heat, summer and winter, day and night, shall not cease.” So, those overcome with foreboding over the climate should trust in God that He will not break His Word, and rather see these events as signs of Christ’s return.
Jesus tells us that there will be persecution against Christians, even households will be divided. There will be mass apostasy, as the love of many grows cold (Matthew 24:12). We see this today as Christians continue to be the most persecuted people on the planet. Christian populations centuries, even millennia old have been wiped out of the Middle East by war and Islamic violence. Since the rise of Mohammad in the 7th century, the Gospel has been under violent attack in half the world; millions of souls forbidden to hear the Gospel. The news won’t report on it, but Christians are being kidnapped and murdered in alarming numbers in Africa. Even in America and other western countries, the rights of Christians to practice their faith in public is frequently attacked, and Christians are told to submit to perverse ideologies.
Jesus speaks of signs in the sun and moon and stars. We certainly see heavenly signs reminding us of Christ’s return. Yet, the celestial bodies often represent angels, both good and evil, as well as powers in the church and state. Jesus tells us that we will see the Son of Man coming in a cloud with power and great glory. He is referring to the prophecy in Daniel 7, which predicts the Son of man coming on a cloud to the Ancient of Days to receive an everlasting dominion, which shall not pass away and a kingdom that shall not be destroyed (vss. 13-15). Daniel records that before the Son of Man comes on a cloud, a great horn will be speaking blasphemous words. This horn foreshadows the coming antichrist, whom St. Paul calls the man of lawlessness in 2 Thessalonians 2, who sets himself up in the temple of God, proclaiming himself to be God. And we see this man of lawlessness today in the papacy, where popes have claimed authority over all Church teaching, even the Bible, and have forbidden to pure Gospel to be preached, that a sinner is justified by grace through faith in Christ alone apart from his works. And there are many other stars, which will fall out of the sky, so to speak, false prophets and false-christs, who exalt themselves in God’s Church and lead many astray. People will accumulate for themselves teachers to suit their own passions (2 Timothy 4:3). And so, people do not endure sound teaching, but instead follow false teachers, who while claiming to be Christians, do not warn people to turn from their sins, but praise fornication, homosexuality, abortion, divorce, worship of false gods, denying that Jesus is the only way, truth, and life. Jesus warns us of all these false teachers and He tells us that their exposure is a sign of His coming.
So, when you see these things happening, wars, pestilence, persecution, apostasy, false prophets, know that the time is near. And it is. Stay dressed for action like the Israelites on Passover night. Yet, also know that no one knows when Christ will return. We are told the signs of His coming. Yet, we are also told He will come at a time you least expect (Luke 12:40). The unbelieving world may be distressed at these signs, just as the Egyptians were at the plagues. But they will not recognize them as signs of Christ’s return. Nor will you know the day or hour. So, always be ready. Keep watch, as Jesus says.
Jesus tells you to keep watch by not getting weighed down with dissipation, drunkenness, and cares of this life, so that that day does not come upon you suddenly like a trap. The plagues destroyed the Egyptians crops and ruined their homes. That’s all they cared about. Before the flood came, the world was buying and selling, marrying, and drinking. Yet, Christ warns us not to be distracted by this life. You do not want to be caught drunk when Christ returns. You also do not want to be caught worshipping the things of this world and being unprepared. For unbelievers, everything revolves around the things of this life. They work, so that they can eat and sleep, so that they can work and play. Yet, we live in this life to keep watch for Christ. We work, eat, and sleep, so that we may give glory to God. So, we do not place these things above worship.
Jesus tells us to pray as we keep watch. Pray that you may have strength to escape all these things and to stand before the Son of God. Pray that God would keep you faithful. We pray for a lot. We pray for good health. We pray for those who are sick and suffering. We pray for a good job, for food, for clothing. All these are fine things to pray for. Yet, the most important prayer is the prayer is that we would be given strength to stand before the Son of Man. You will indeed stand before Him. Even if you die before He returns, He will raise you up to stand before Him. We pray that our faith may be kept strong, so we may stand before Him with joy. This is what we pray for when we say, “Hallowed be Thy name, Thy kingdom Come, Thy will be done, forgive us our trespasses, and deliver us from the evil one.” Dear Christians, be constant in prayer. And set your prayers on the promises of Holy Scripture, which are profitable for teaching and comforting you, and be confident that He will answer you.
Finally, this chapter finishes with the people rising early to hear Jesus teach in the temple (Luke 21:38). The same temple, Jesus said would be destroyed. And so, we rise to listen to Jesus’ Word even as we live in a world which will pass away. Heaven and earth will pass away, but not Jesus’ Word. If we are to stand at judgment day to receive our Redemption, we need to hear and take to heart the words of Christ, which endure forever. It is by hearing and believing Christ’s Word, that we are brought to true repentance and that we smear Christ’s blood on the doorpost and lintels of our hearts. With Christ as our Passover Lamb, who has taken away our sins on the cross, we do not fear the final plague. Rather, we lift our heads with joy at the appearing of our Redeemer. Amen.
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