Things to come

Luke 21:1-28 from the daily reading in the One Year Bible

And He looked up and saw the rich putting their gifts into the treasury. ² And He saw a poor widow putting in two small copper coins. ³ And He said, “Truly I say to you, this poor widow put in more than all of them; ⁴ for they all out of their surplus put into the offering; but she out of her poverty put in all that she had to live on.”

⁵ And while some were talking about the temple, that it was adorned with beautiful stones and votive gifts, He said, ⁶ “As for these things which you are looking at, the days will come in which there will not be left one stone upon another which will not be torn down.”

⁷ They questioned Him, saying, “Teacher, when therefore will these things happen? And what will be the sign when these things are about to take place?” ⁸ And He said, “See to it that you are not misled; for many will come in My name, saying, ‘I am He,’ and, ‘The time is near.’ Do not go after them. ⁹ When you hear of wars and disturbances, do not be terrified; for these things must take place first, but the end does not follow immediately.”

Things to Come

¹⁰ Then He continued by saying to them, “Nation will rise against nation and kingdom against kingdom, ¹¹ and there will be great earthquakes, and in various places plagues and famines; and there will be terrors and great signs from heaven.

¹² “But before all these things, they will lay their hands on you and will persecute you, delivering you to the synagogues and prisons, bringing you before kings and governors for My name’s sake. ¹³ It will lead to an opportunity for your testimony. ¹⁴ So make up your minds not to prepare beforehand to defend yourselves; ¹⁵ for I will give you utterance and wisdom which none of your opponents will be able to resist or refute. ¹⁶ But you will be betrayed even by parents and brothers and relatives and friends, and they will put some of you to death, ¹⁷ and you will be hated by all because of My name. ¹⁸ Yet not a hair of your head will perish. ¹⁹ By your endurance you will gain your lives.

²⁰ “But when you see Jerusalem surrounded by armies, then recognize that her desolation is near. ²¹ Then those who are in Judea must flee to the mountains, and those who are in the midst of the city must leave, and those who are in the country must not enter the city; ²² because these are days of vengeance, so that all things which are written will be fulfilled. ²³ Woe to those who are pregnant and to those who are nursing babies in those days; for there will be great distress upon the land and wrath to this people; ²⁴ and they will fall by the edge of the sword, and will be led captive into all the nations; and Jerusalem will be trampled under foot by the Gentiles until the times of the Gentiles are fulfilled.

The Return of Christ

²⁵ “There will be signs in sun and moon and stars, and on the earth dismay among nations, in perplexity at the roaring of the sea and the waves, ²⁶ men fainting from fear and the expectation of the things which are coming upon the world; for the powers of the heavens will be shaken. ²⁷ Then they will see the Son of Man coming in a cloud with power and great glory. ²⁸ But when these things begin to take place, straighten up and lift up your heads, because your redemption is drawing near.”

Many people are looking at the things that are happening in the world today and beginning to speculate as to how they line up with what the Bible says. As we watch our individual freedoms and privacy being reduced, for what they say is for the good of all, we can truly see how close we are to being a society that is completely controlled and monitored through technology; a time when our movements can be traced and our very ability to participate in society is monitored and controlled. Many in western cultures, who see their faith as one of their most important freedoms, are pushing back against the changes in government and society. Only time will tell how long we can continue to have our freedoms, including the freedom to openly express and practice our faith. In today’s text it says:  They questioned Him, saying, “Teacher, when therefore will these things happen? And what will be the sign when these things are about to take place?” And He said, “See to it that you are not misled; for many will come in My name, saying, ‘I am He,’ and, ‘The time is near.’ Do not go after them. When you hear of wars and disturbances, do not be terrified; for these things must take place first, but the end does not follow immediately.”   Jesus warning and His exhortation is not that we should push back and rebel against what is happening, but that we should not be mislead. That does not mean that we should be willing to allow our freedom to be taken, but first and foremost we should heed Jesus warning not to be mislead. He says: “Many will come in My name, saying, ‘I am He,’ and, ‘The time is near.’ Do not go after them.”  The most dangerous deception is not by those who are opposed to Christ and God. They are easy to recognize, refute and resist. The most dangerous deception is that of the ones who come in Jesus name, saying He is the Christ, but presenting a different version of Christ than the one who is revealed in scripture. The most dangerous deception is perpetrated by those who say that Jesus would view sin differently today than He did two thousand years ago. The deception that will and is misleading many, is the deception that Jesus would tolerate and embrace the very sin He suffered and died for on the cross.  Jesus says:  “When you hear of wars and disturbances, do not be terrified; for these things must take place first, but the end does not follow immediately.”    Jesus says, these things must take place.  We are not to be terrified and again it does not mean that we should surrender our freedoms, but if we believe what the Bible says, things will get worse before they once and for all get better. What is important for us is that we are not mislead.

Jesus continues:  “Nation will rise against nation and kingdom against kingdom, and there will be great earthquakes, and in various places plagues and famines; and there will be terrors and great signs from heaven. But before all these things, they will lay their hands on you and will persecute you, delivering you to the synagogues and prisons, bringing you before kings and governors for My name’s sake. It will lead to an opportunity for your testimony. So make up your minds not to prepare beforehand to defend yourselves; for I will give you utterance and wisdom which none of your opponents will be able to resist or refute. But you will be betrayed even by parents and brothers and relatives and friends, and they will put some of you to death, and you will be hated by all because of My name. Yet not a hair of your head will perish. By your endurance you will gain your lives.”  We already see nations rising against nations. These are the ethnic and racial divisions and battles that have been escalating around the world and even here in the U.S. We already see kingdoms against kingdoms and great earthquakes, and in various places plagues and famines.  So we should not be surprised, but rather we should expect that:  they will lay their hands on you and will persecute you, delivering you to the synagogues and prisons, bringing you before kings and governors for My name’s sake.  Even if we don’t protest about our freedoms being taken, we can expect that we will be persecuted and arrested for the sake of the name of Jesus, if we are not mislead.  Jesus says though that we are not to defend ourselves or our rights, but rather:  It will lead to an opportunity for your testimony. So make up your minds not to prepare beforehand to defend yourselves; for I will give you utterance and wisdom which none of your opponents will be able to resist or refute.  We are not to defend ourselves, we are to testify of Christ. He will give us words and wisdom.

Even so, Jesus says:  “But you will be betrayed even by parents and brothers and relatives and friends, and they will put some of you to death, and you will be hated by all because of My name. Yet not a hair of your head will perish. By your endurance you will gain your lives.”  Again the society and culture says that we should love, tolerate and embrace every person’s choices. They say that tolerance is the key to peace. In Matthew 10:34-39 Jesus says:   “Do not think that I came to bring peace on earth. I did not come to bring peace but a sword. For I have come to ‘set a man against his father, a daughter against her mother, and a daughter-in-law against her mother-in-law’;  and ‘a man’s enemies will be those of his own household.’ He who loves father or mother more than Me is not worthy of Me. And he who loves son or daughter more than Me is not worthy of Me.  And he who does not take his cross and follow after Me is not worthy of Me. He who finds his life will lose it, and he who loses his life for My sake will find it.” Perhaps the most difficult thing we can expect to face is that a time will come when to some extent we will be divided against even our own families for the name of Christ. Jesus says:  “By your endurance you will gain your lives.”   It will not be by our resistance that we gain our lives, but rather by our endurance in Christ; by not being mislead about who He is and what He says.

Jesus says:  “There will be signs in sun and moon and stars, and on the earth dismay among nations, in perplexity at the roaring of the sea and the waves,  men fainting from fear and the expectation of the things which are coming upon the world; for the powers of the heavens will be shaken.  Then they will see the Son of Man coming in a cloud with power and great glory. But when these things begin to take place, straighten up and lift up your heads, because your redemption is drawing near.”   The world is filled with fear of the expectation of the things which are coming, but for those who believe, for those who are not mislead, we should straighten up and lift up our heads, because our redemption is drawing near.

Amen. Come Lord Jesus come. Amen.