WATCH AND PRAY...TO ESCAPE
Luke 21:29-36 - December 1, 2002
LUKE 21:29-36
29He told them this parable: "Look at the fig tree and all the trees. 30When they sprout leaves, you can see for yourselves and know that summer is near. 31Even so, when you see these things happening, you know that the kingdom of God is near.
32"I tell you the truth, this generation will certainly not pass away until all these things have happened. 33Heaven and earth will pass away, but my words will never pass away.
34"Be careful, or your hearts will be weighed down with dissipation, drunkenness and the anxieties of life, and that day will close on you unexpectedly like a trap. 35For it will come upon all those who live on the face of the whole earth. 36Be always on the watch, and pray that you may be able to escape all that is about to happen, and that you may be able to stand before the Son of Man."
Dearest Fellow-Redeemed and Saints in the Lord:
How do you live your life? There are all kinds of ways in which we live our lives. One of those that we want to think about this morning is how we live our lives in comparison to time. How do you live your life? Do you live in the past thinking how great things used to be? Or do you live in the present busy with the day-to-day activities of this life? Maybe you live in the future wondering what is going to happen next, wondering what the future might bring? Certainly, at different times and at different ages in our life, we may be connected to one aspect of time more than the other. At different times we are connected more to the past than the present. Sometimes we are connected more with the present than the future.
In our society, if you take careful and pay close attention to the things going on, it seems as if our society is always looking ahead to the future. The world around us often emphasizes that the future is uncertain, that we do not know how secure our future might be. To a certain degree we would agree that the future on this earth is never certain. We do not know what one nation is going to do against another. But we also know that our future is certain, that heaven is our home.
Today, we are going to concentrate on the future, a future that looks beyond this shaky earthly future going right to the gates of heaven itself. Too many people become so involved in the future in this world that they forget the future of eternity. Paul wrote that when he wrote in Philippians 3:20, "But our citizenship is in heaven. And we eagerly await a Savior from there, the Lord Jesus Christ." This is what we have the privilege of doing when we start a new church year and we get to prepare of the coming of our Savior, first as an infant and again his coming as our righteous king and judge.
In the words of our text, the Lord encourages us. He says, "Watch and pray...to escape." As we look into the future we see
I. That the signs are very clear
II. Our world is very tempting
I. The signs are very clear
As Jesus spoke these words to His disciples on Tuesday of Holy Week before He was put to death, the disciples already sensed that something was going to change in the near future. At the beginning of Luke 21, the disciples asked the Lord about the future, when the end would come. Jesus gives them all sorts of signs and things that are going to happen. When it gets to our text in verse 29, Jesus reminded them to just pay attention, to look around. "Jesus told them this parable: ’Look at the fig tree and all the trees.’" They could learn from what they would see as God provided it in nature. Jesus explains: "When they sprout leaves, you can see for yourselves that summer is near." The people of the New Testament did not have calendars as we have. What they did have was the sense that seasons changed as nature indicated it. When the trees sprouted leaves, when the leaves gave way and produced fruit, people knew that it was spring and summer and fall for the harvest. So the Lord says the signs are very clear just as you learn from nature. When winter is here and the seasons change, He says, "Even so when you see these things happening, you know that the kingdom of God is near." Again, He talked about all of those signs of wars and rumors of wars. (We are going to look at those signs more closely a little bit later.) Jesus told His disciples that they would not know exactly when. But the disciples would know as the signs become ever more clear that the time of Jesus’ return is getting ever more near.
Then Jesus gives them this encouragement: "I tell you the truth, this generation will certainly not pass away until all these things have happened." When we come to this verse, which is also in Matthew, there are some that say that Jesus made a mistake. They say Jesus misspoke Himself, because certainly none of that generation is left today. They all have passed away, but the end has not come. They would be right but not completely right. Jesus never made a mistake. When He talks about this generation, He talks about it in a specific sense and in a general sense. Specifically, when Jesus looked at the crowd and when He taught the disciples, He says, "You will not pass away before this destruction comes." He was talking first of all very specifically about the fall of Jerusalem. Jerusalem fell in 70 AD. Jesus spoke these words about 30 AD, give or take three or four years, 40 years, a generation, and destruction befell Jerusalem. Jesus was correct.
In a general sense when Jesus talked about this generation, He was talking about those who were believers. He was saying, "These believers would never pass away before the end will come." Again, Jesus is correct, as there will be believers until the Judgment Day, believers on this earth. The Lord says these numbers will be smaller, but there will still be believers. "The generation will not pass away until all things come true."
The Lord wanted these people to remember what He wants believers to remember today, too. He says, "Watch and pray to be able to escape. Be alert! See the signs that are all around us." Of course, we could list lots of signs in our world, couldn’t we? When we look at the world and when we look at what God says, we see them coming true day after day and year after year. From Matthew we read: "Nation will rise against nation, and kingdom against kingdom. There will be famines and earthquakes in various places. All these are the beginning of birth pains"(MATTHEW 24:7,8). As we look at the world picture, we see that very thing. Just about every day on the news or around us we read and we see or hear whether we are going to war or not going to war. That is just about our national news and us. We know that around the world there are nations that have always been at war for centuries. There are nations that are planning to go to war--nations will rise against nations. If we pay close attention, we will see in the news from time to time there are famines. There is drought, and in some places there is flooding. There have been earthquakes and new volcanoes that have erupted in the past few months. So the signs are very clear on a global perspective.
The signs are also very clear if we narrow it down to our nation--just the United States and its wickedness. Listen to these words from Mark: "Brother will betray brother to death, and a father his child. Children will rebel against their parents and have them put to death"(MARK 13:12). We might say, "How could Jesus say such words? Does anybody do that today?" How sadly, one of the greatest sins in our United States is the fact that hundreds of thousands of innocent children are put to death by abortion, year after year after year. A father will kill his children just as Jesus has predicted. The children rebel against their parents today. Yes, even modern society recognizes that as one of the greatest troubles that our nation is to face. Who is to blame? Children are left by themselves at daycares by parents who love to make money in the world more than loving to make a family. This has already come back to haunt us. Then Jesus says that children will even put their parents to death. We think that such things do not happen. When we look around, we see one of the greatest legislative actions lately for states is euthanasia. To take care of those old people--let them be put to death. Children have done it and will do it even more. The signs are very clear just in our nation.
Then the Lord says the signs are very clear when we look at the church as a whole. Where has Christianity gone since the time of the early disciples? Well, it has spread almost to the ends of the earth. We also know that it has branched off into different churches that care not so much about the law and the gospel anymore. You and I know that the law is not pleasant for us to hear that we are sinners, that we too are guilty just as the rest of the nation, just as the rest of the world, of murder and stealing and hatred and anger. Our thoughts condemn us, and our words also condemn us, not just actions. Yet, we need to hear that condemning law so that we might better appreciate the gospel. The Lord says: "For the time will come when men will not put up with sound doctrine. Instead, to suit their own desires, they will gather around them a great number of teachers to say what their itching ears want to hear"(2 TIMOTHY 4:3). Even we are like that. We like the people to tell us what we want to hear. When it comes to God’s Word and its truth, we cannot deny it. It says we are sinners. It also says we are sinners who are saved.
Therefore the Lord says to us, "The signs are very clear. Watch and pray to escape."
II. He says, "Watch and pray to escape, because our world is very tempting."
Remember, the Lord spoke this about two thousand years ago to His disciples. The warning is ever more clear for us. He says, "Be careful, or your hearts will be weighed down with dissipation, drunkenness, and the anxieties of life, and that day will close on you unexpectedly like a trap." We can almost hear the steel springs of the jaws of that trap snapping shut as many are caught unawares and unexpected. Jesus says to his disciples, "Be careful, for the anxieties of life might distract you." We realize that this was said during Holy Week when Jesus would be betrayed, arrested and put to death. Certainly, they were full of anxiety. He said that drunkenness could lead them astray. Dissipation means that one seeks out pleasures so much that it becomes harmful to one’s self. Already, there was trouble with that during the time of Jesus. Remember when the rich man stored up all his wealth, Jesus said, "But today, your life will be demanded of you."
The Lord gave that warning saying that the world is very tempting. He says, "For it will come upon all those who live on the face of the whole earth." Judgment Day will come. Unbelievers, unjust, believers and the just will all face the Righteous King. The unbelievers will be trembling. They will be scared to death, for there will not be any more time to repent. Their destiny is destruction, eternal condemnation. For the believers though, there is rejoicing and joy because this is the King who has come to take them home. The encouragement that the Lord gives us and gives His disciples, "Be always on the watch, and pray that you may be able to escape all that is about to happen." We should be alert, be watchful. Don’t be lulled into a false sense of security. He says, "As a result, we will be able to stand on that last day."
For the disciples it wasn’t all just warning, but there was encouragement too. He reminded them, "Heaven and earth will pass away, but My Words will never pass away." The future would change. Heaven and earth would be changed. It would be swallowed up by the Lord’s destructive power, but His Words would always last. No matter how much their future would change, God’s Word would always stand. No matter, too for us, how much our future changes, God’s Word is our sure foundation.
Now, let’s look at the warning Jesus gives us also today, that we not be friends of the world. There is a great danger, and we are right in the midst of this time when it is the most dangerous for us, right in the midst of being so friendly with the world that we can easily forget about God. James 4:4 says this: "You adulterous people, don’t you know that friendship with the world is hatred toward God? Anyone who chooses to be a friend of the world becomes an enemy of God"(JAMES 4:4). Now I am sure that there is not anyone here who wants to think he or she is an enemy of God or that we hated God. But the Lord says that when we are friends of the world that is what happens.
Our world is very tempting, isn’t it? It makes us get ready for Christmas with the idea that if we don’t have the right gift and the best gift, we have utterly failed. The day after Thanksgiving what happens? There are so many sales that people go to the extremes. They were lined up at 8 o’clock Thursday evening to wait for the stores to open in Lincoln NE. They didn’t open until the next day, but they didn’t want to miss all the bargains. Our stores here (in Norton, KS) were opened early. By ten minutes after opening at 6 a.m., some of the most favorite toys were sold out. That is being a friend with the world, and we fall into that sinful behavior from time to time. The world is very persuasive of making it seem that the things of this life are so very important. We might easily forget about the true celebration of Christmas.
Advent is very special. It gives us four Sundays to concentrate on the fact that our Savior is coming. He was born for our sins. Because we fall down that slippery slope of temptation and sin, we are just like everyone else that we have to get the best deal. The Lord offers us hope and comfort and encouragement. He says, "Repent, then, and turn to God, so that your sins may be wiped out, that times of refreshing may come from the Lord"(ACTS 3:19). That is what our gracious God provides for us in His word--times of refreshing. Christ reminds us that, yes, as often we fail; the Lord is just as often willing to forgive. We celebrate that today with the Lord’s very own body and blood, so that we not only hear that our sins are forgiven; but we can see and feel and touch and taste the Lord’s forgiveness in the Lord’s Supper. We need that, don’t we? We need it because our world is very tempting. We know that we spend a lot of time in this world. We spend a lot of time with the people of the world, more than in the church, and more than with the people of God. That is just the way it is. There are not a lot of people of God left anymore.
God gives us His grace, grace to know what is right and wrong, grace that encourages us and strengthens us. Paul writes to Titus: "It (GRACE) teaches us to say ’No’ to ungodliness and worldly passions, and to live self-controlled, upright and godly lives in this present age, while we wait for the blessed hope--the glorious appearing of our great God and Savior, Jesus Christ"(TITUS 2:12,13). We can do that, not on our own, but by God’s grace; not without faith, but with faith. He says we do it because we wait for the blessed hope, the glorious appearing of our Savior Jesus Christ.
We begin a new church year, which helps us to focus on the Savior being born. The Lord says to us, "Watch and pray to escape, to escape this tempting world and its sinful desires; watch and pray to escape because the signs are very clear. How do you live your life, dwelling on the past, living in the present?" As we live in the present, we are not too concerned about the present. We always have enough food to eat, clothes to wear; so we can live focusing on the future. Not the way the world focuses with its insecurity and uncertainty, but with the surety and certainty that salvation is ours. Not just in this life, but into eternity itself.
Watch and pray so you don’t succumb to the worldly temptations. It seems that every year that passes by and when Christmas is over, people just breathe a great big sigh of relief that everything is done. They think all the preparations went well, and all the gifts were appreciated. They forget the meaning of Christmas. The Lord says, "Watch and pray” to escape that feeling. Watch and pray to escape the temptations of the world.
Finally, God says how we can do that. From 1 John: "And now, dear children, continue in him, so that when he appears we may be confident and unashamed before him at his coming"(1 JOHN 2:28). The Lord says to remain steadfast to His Word. Continue in Christ; and when He does come, we will stand unashamed before Him realizing that He has provided us with forgiveness, realizing that the signs now that were clear are fulfilled, realizing that we have escaped the temptations of this world. But until that time there are a lot of things that will happen between here and now. He says, "Watch and pray.... to escape." Amen.
Pastor Timm O. Meyer
