What kinds of questions do hard times make you ask? Think of one of the hardest times in your life; what question would you like answered? Take a note card from the pew in front of you. Write out your question.
Hard times can confuse us and make us ask the wrong questions or expect wrong answers.
Luke 20 and 21 record several questions to Jesus as well as a few by Jesus himself. Some were asking him questions as a way to catch and condemn Jesus, and some were asking him questions in order to understand the condemnation Jesus spoke against the temple and all the buildings. Finally, Jesus issues a question that points us to his identity.
Hard times were coming for Jesus, just as hard times came for Jerusalem, and eventually for all of us. When those hard times come, what do we do? Where do we go? Who do we seek answers from?
The Feast of Unleavened Bread and the Passover feast are just hours away. Crowds have already come to Jerusalem to celebrate. There is excitement in the air. A new voice is heard in the Temple courts challenging the status quo and confronting the religious leadership, which, by the way IS the Jewish leadership as far as many are concerned. All other powers, such as the Roman authorities, are foreign occupants, hated and unwanted.
These hard times have brought many Jews to their knees.
The prayers of the Jewish people day in and day out is for God to deliver them and restore the fortunes of Israel. They all hoped that when Messiah came, he would be a new David. They expected that God would fight alongside Messiah or Christ and bring all the nations around them to their knees so that Israel would rise to be the greatest nation in the world and all others would bow to them. This hope rose and fell as the years went by, but it did not die. It was this high hope that carried them through the hard days. Jesus himself speaks of this when he says: Luke 18: 7 now shall not God bring about justice for His elect, who cry to Him day and night, and will He delay long over them? 8 "I tell you that He will bring about justice for them speedily. However, when the Son of Man comes, will He find faith on the earth?"
Hard times can produce hard hearts and false hopes.
You see, the expectation they held didn’t look like Jesus. Their hopes were tied to God’s deliverance in ways that left Jesus out. In fact, their expectations actually caused many of them to see Jesus as a threat.
The greatest problem of the time was not hardship from the Romans but unfaithfulness to God. But if you had asked the typical man or woman in Israel, “What is the biggest challenge facing you today?” You would most likely hear something that sounds like today’s answer. It’s the economy! Good jobs are scarce and prices are ridiculous. It’s terrorism. It’s the Liberal political influence that wants to tax us to death and give everything we hold dear away. It’s the conservative loudmouths who make people angry and stir up trouble and drag us into war.
Hard times reveal who we are and test our metal.
Jenny and I are about to finish reading through the entire Bible in 90 days. Do you know what is most amazing to me? Just a casual reading of the Bible shows us that times have certainly changed, but people, and the struggles we face and the ways we face them, are the same. Many people still hold out expectations and false hopes that blind them from Jesus. Others still have pressing questions for Jesus that he simply doesn’t feel obligated to answer. But what Jesus does tell us is exactly what we need to accept and follow him through whatever we must face.
Hard times turn some away from Jesus, but others to him.
In chapter 20 we see an attempt to put on the hot-seat. The religious powers attempt to catch him in a trap of words. They come to him with questions assuming he is false. Does that not sound familiar today? But, in this case, Jesus has gained the popular vote and they know it. This only makes him all the more dangerous in their minds. They can’t stand it. This nobody from Nazareth must be stopped. They flatter Jesus in their introductions and then seek to snare him in their questions. Matthew, Mark and Luke all record this. These opponents of Jesus are not simply trying to discredit him. They want to kill him. These are men with power and position, but a wrong vision.
Who are they? They are religious leaders of the people of God. They have been given a responsibility to uphold the honor of God and guide the nation of Israel in the ways and will and word of God. Jesus says that they sit in the seat of Moses but they were not doing what Moses did nor saying what Moses said. Jesus said that they put heavy burdens on men but do not so much as lift a finger to help them. Jesus calls them blind guides, hypocrites, brood of vipers, and other unpleasant things. (This from Matthew’s gospel where chapters 23-25 are one piece).
They are thinking: Who is Jesus? Where does he get the right to say such things? What they fail to see is: He is God’s Son and He is only speaking the words God gives him to speak. So when God sends them his own Son, what do they do? How do they treat him? Why can they not see who he is? What is it that has blinded their minds and closed their hearts so that they cannot recognize the very presence of God at his visitation to them?
Did Jesus not do signs and miracles?
Did Jesus not speak the truth of God and keep the Law of God?
Did Jesus not fulfill the prophecies written about him in scripture?
Yes, but… Jesus wasn’t what they expected. So they rejected him and plot his death. As Jesus leaves the temple he tells the disciples that not one stone will be left on another here... it will all be destroyed. Hard times are at the door.
Here Jesus tells us how to handle the hardest times of all: Fix all our hopes on Him.
Chapter 21 of Luke is very similar to Matthew 24 and Mark 13. This is Jesus prophecy of the end. These words are Jesus response to three questions asked by his disciples after Jesus said that not one stone would be left on another of all the huge buildings within Jerusalem, particularly around the Temple itself.
Jesus disciples asked him: When will these things happen? What will be the sign that these things are about to be accomplished? What will be the sign of your coming and the close of the age?
The words of Jesus that follow are not easy. Instead of telling them details that they wanted to know, Jesus gives them a list of instructions that they needed to know so that they can hold on and have a true hope through the hardest times in our lives.
Here’s a handful of helpful directives to heed and hold onto when having hard times.
1. Don’t be deceived by false hopes. (8) Don’t be afraid of worldly troubles. (9)
2. Don’t worry about what to say, but speak what is given to you when the opportunity arises. (12-14)
3. Don’t close your eyes to what is happening around you; get out of Jerusalem when the time comes. (20-24) There’s never a time to deny Christ but there sometimes is a time to flee and escape danger.
4. When everyone else is scared to death about disasters going on in this world, lift up your heads. Look forward to your redemption that is drawing near. (25-28)
5. Don’t get caught up in dissipation, drunkenness, and cares of this life. Watch and pray so that you will be able to stand before the Son of Man.
The main message for us is to meet hard times with high hopes in Jesus.
When through fiery trials thy pathway shall lie, my grace all sufficient shall be thy supply,
The flames shall not harm thee, I only design, thy dross to consume and thy gold to refine.
When through the deep waters I cause you to go. The rivers of sorrow shall not overflow.
For I will be with thee, thy troubles to bless, and sanctify to thee thy deepest distress. (Isaiah 43:1-5)
Remember Stephen? When he defended the gospel and condemned the unbelief of the high court of the Jews, they dragged him out and stoned him to death. But even as they rushed upon him he looked up and declared what he saw. Luke records this for us in Acts 7:55f
55 But being full of the Holy Spirit, he gazed intently into heaven and saw the glory of God, and Jesus standing at the right hand of God;
56 and he said, "Behold, I see the heavens opened up and the Son of Man standing at the right hand of God."
57 But they cried out with a loud voice, and covered their ears, and they rushed upon him with one impulse.
58 And when they had driven him out of the city, they began stoning him, and the witnesses laid aside their robes at the feet of a young man named Saul.
59 And they went on stoning Stephen as he called upon the Lord and said, "Lord Jesus, receive my spirit!"
60 And falling on his knees, he cried out with a loud voice, "Lord, do not hold this sin against them!" And having said this, he fell asleep.
So, when we face hard times and things get to their worst point, what shall we do?
Look up! Open your eyes and look for the Son of Man, who is coming for you.
