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You will be hated by all for my name’s sake, but not a hair of your head will perish. You may be seated. In the name of Jesus, Amen.
Dear Saints, at the end of the church year, we consider what we say every day in the Creed. I believe that Jesus will come again in glory to judge the living and the dead. We say it all the time, but we want to spend especially this week and next meditating on what exactly that means, that Jesus will in fact one day return, that He will stand bodily on the earth, that He will call the dead up from the grave, that He will divide the sheep and the goats, that He will bring His Christians into life eternal. And He wants us to be ready for it.
So, we consider this marvelous teaching in the gospel text. And I want to do it, if you’ll let me, in two ways. First, I want to compare the church’s preaching of the end to the world’s preaching of the end. And then second, I want to compare our doctrine of the end times with what oftentimes is preached in the church regarding the end times.
So first, how does the church’s preaching of the end compare to the world’s preaching of the end? It is good for us to recognize that, in fact, the world has a doctrine of the end times. In fact, every major worldview – we talk about this quite a bit, the idea of having a worldview, which means a kind of a consistent way of viewing the world and thinking about the world – every worldview is going to answer a number of important questions. A couple of those questions are, how did everything start, and how then will everything end?
This, by the way, is one of the reasons why it’s so important, this debate between creation and evolutionism, because there are two profoundly different answers about how things got started. The world, the secular world, has a story of creation. It tells about an ancient explosion, which is called without much artistic flair, the Big Bang, and the Bible tells us something different. It tells us about the speaking of God. It tells us about the Word of God that called the cosmos into existence out of nothing.
Now these are very different answers to the same exact question, how did everything start? And how you answer that question has consequences in how you live every day. Now the same is true at the other end, not just at the beginning but also at the end. How are things going to end? The word for the study of this is eschatology. That means the consideration or the doctrine or the teaching of the study of things at the end, and the secular worldview has an eschatology. It has an answer for how things will end. In fact, it has multiple answers, and it seems to me like the answer is always changing.
Some of you remember when you were in school having to do the drill where you hid under your desk for fear of an atomic attack, getting ready for that. You remember? Maybe you don’t want to admit that you remember, because it’ll tell you how old you are, but this is a… That was two generations, a generation ago, that was how the world was going to end, right? We were all going to blow each other up, but now there’s a different answer to the question.
In fact, I was reading this news story from November the 10th from the Washington Post that says, more than 11,000 scientists from around the world declare a climate emergency. A new report by 11,258 scientists in 153 countries from a broad range of disciplines warn that the planet clearly and unequivocally faces a climate emergency. This is now the story of the end that the world is preaching, and make no mistake, it is a preaching. In other words, climate change is the way that the secular world is answering the question, how are things going to end?
Now I know it’s like impossible to take politics out of this and economics and science and everything else, but I want to make simply the worldview assertion that your theology or your assertion of how things are in or going to end really matters. And the secular world now is preaching an end, but it’s this: it’s that we are destroying the climate, and it preaches with religious fervor that we have to change or die.
And we notice three things about this. Number one, that we’re the problem. Number two, that we also happen to be the solution. And number three, that the end is bad and something that we really have to all work on avoiding.
Now regarding climate change, what does the Bible say? I think we can say with confidence these two things and probably not much more. Number one, we are to be good stewards of the earth. The Lord put Adam and Eve in the garden and gave them dominion over the earth, and that dominion is still to be exercised by us with as much wisdom and as much care as we can muster. We can say that. And, also, we can say this: climate change will not end humanity. It simply won’t, because Jesus will.
And the Bible has a different, and this is the point, the Bible has a different answer to how things are going to end. And it doesn’t say that things are going to end with a climate catastrophe, or with a war to end all wars or with a nuclear explosion. It says that Jesus will come again to judge the living and the dead.
In fact, the Bible says that there’s three – whenever the Bible talks about the end, there’s three things that it says to answer the question, how are things going to end? Number one, a sudden and unexpected bodily return of the Lord Jesus Christ. Number two, the general resurrection of all people from the dead. And, number three, a judgment or a dividing, the believers and the unbelievers, the sheep and the goats, and the sending of the unbelievers to eternal death and the bringing of the believers to eternal life.
And that, dear saints, is our hope, that’s our trust, that’s our confidence from the Lord’s Word. Now we just want to compare the two then, the two answers to the question, how is the world going to end? If you compare the secular answer, which is just currently climate change – I mean in ten years it will be something different, in twenty years something else different – but just to compare what we have today, we see that we’re the problem. If you compare the biblical doctrine, you see that that’s also the case. We are the problem, that we are sinners.
But over here in the secular preaching of the end, it says that we are also the solution, that we are the ones through our own change and change of activity and change of action, we are the ones who are going to solve the problem, whereas when we read the Scriptures we understand that Jesus is the solution, both now and on the last day, that He is the Savior and the Redeemer now and on the last day.
And because of this difference at point two, it makes point three something entirely different. The secular world says that the end of all things is to be avoided at all costs. We have to do everything we can to avoid the end of the world, while the church longs for the end, hopes for the end, and is taught to pray for the end. Remember the last verse of the Scripture? Come, Lord Jesus. This is our hope.
In other words, the last day for us is not something that we are afraid of, not something that we’re trying to avoid, but something that we long for, something that we hope for. Jesus says, there will be signs in sun and moon and stars, on the earth, distress of nations and perplexity because of the roaring in the sea and the waves, people fainting with fear and foreboding of what’s coming on the world, for the powers of the heavens will be shaken, and then they will see the Son of Man coming in the cloud with a power and great glory.
And when these things begin to take place, Jesus gives you instructions. Now pay close attention. Jesus is telling you exactly what you are supposed to do when the second coming happens. And notice what He doesn’t say. He doesn’t say, run for the hills. He doesn’t say, climb under your desk. He doesn’t say, duck and cover. He says, straighten up and lift up your heads. Your redemption draws near.
On the last day, it’s not your destruction coming, your end coming, your doom coming, your catastrophe coming, it’s your redemption coming because it’s your Jesus coming. The one who came to die for you is the one who is coming back to get you, so that this last day is what we long for and hope for and pray for. Rather than trying to avoid the end, the Christian church presses gloriously to it knowing that it, in fact, is not the end but for us just the beginning.
Now, that by way of contrast is the different way that the end is preached in the world and in the church, but I also want to contrast the preaching of the end that happens inside the church because it’s often the case that the way that we hear the second coming of Jesus in the church is not according to the Scriptures.
Now, I don’t think that this approach to the Bible and to the world is as popular as it used to be, but there still is this danger that we think that we’re supposed to read the… like with the Bible in one hand and the newspaper in the other, that we’re looking around us to see Bible prophecies being fulfilled, that we are watching the events of world history and geopolitics unfolding before us, and that we see in these things indications that the Lord is coming back sooner now than He would be otherwise.
Now, there is a great danger in this. One of the great dangers is thinking that there are still things that need to happen before Jesus comes back. So I want you to listen carefully to what Jesus says. I’m going to take it up in verse 8 of our text. Jesus says this, “‘See that you are not led astray, for many will come in My name, saying, I am He, and the time is at hand. Do not go after them.’ And when you hear of wars and tumults, do not be terrified, for these things must first take place, but the end will not be at once. In Matthew it says it like this, the end is not yet.
In other words, when we see wars and tumults and rumors of wars, we are not supposed to think, according to Jesus, we are not supposed to think, ah, this means the end. But instead, ah, the end is not yet. In fact, Jesus goes on. He said to them, nation will rise against nation, kingdom against kingdom, there will be great earthquakes in various places, famines and pestilences, there will be terrors and great signs from heaven, and before all of this, they will lay their hands on you, they will persecute you, they’ll deliver you up to the synagogues, they’ll throw you in prison, You’ll be brought before kings and governors for my namesake, and this will be your opportunity to bear witness.
Settle it in your minds, not to meditate how to answer. I’ll give you a mouth and wisdom, which none of your adversaries will be able to withstand or contradict.” That’s wonderful. And then Jesus continues, you will be delivered up even by parents and brothers and relatives and friends, and some of you they will put to death, and you will be hated by all for my namesake, but not a hair on your head will perish, and by your endurance you will gain your lives.”
Now, look, when Jesus is listing these things – wars, rumors of wars, tumults, nations rising against nations, earthquakes, famines, pestilences, the nations rising against the church, Christians being dragged before kings and being put to death – Jesus says, when you see all of these things you should know that the end is not yet, that these are not signs of the end. In fact, they’re the other way. They’re signs that the end is not. In other words, to say it as simply as I can, all of these things that will happen, wars and rumors of wars, pestilences, earthquakes, and so forth and so on, Jesus is saying that that is simply how it will be from the time of the ascension until the time of the second coming. You’re going to have trouble. All of this trouble in the world is business as usual.
And you do not need, Jesus says, to be looking for my second coming. You do not need to be looking for hints that I’m going to be coming back because it will happen at any moment. You don’t need to be reading the news and listening to the radio to know that the end is close because we are always close. We are always a moment away from the last trumpet. It, and Jesus says, you should live in that expectation.
There are a lot of churches that think that there are promises that Jesus made that still need to be fulfilled, that there are things that still need to happen. For example, in Jerusalem, before Jesus can return, we’re talking about it in Bible class. When I went to Jerusalem the first time, when I was 19 years old, one of the reasons I was there was to see biblical prophecy fulfilled before my eyes, because I thought that there was a lot of promises that the Lord still had to keep and that they were going to be kept there in Jerusalem before He needs to come back. But all of the promises of God in Jesus Christ are yes and amen.
There is not a single promise of the Bible that is not fulfilled in Jesus except for these promises of the second coming and the new heaven and the new earth. We’re not waiting for a rebuilt temple, we’re not waiting for a reconstituted priesthood, we’re not waiting for a new nation state, we’re not waiting for an army to be mustered in China, we’re not worried about Russia being Gog and Magog. Every promise has already been kept. From August the 11th in the year 70 AD, the church has been on alert that at any moment Jesus can return.
So, we live with that expectation, we live with that hope, and we live with our eyes lifted up. Now, what does this mean? I mean, what does it mean for us? I think this preaching of the end and the return of Jesus is for us both law and gospel. I want to maybe give you a picture. When I was a kid, this sentence could be either good news or bad news. “Your dad’s almost home.” If I had, you know, if I was there in my room because I had done something wrong, if I was in trouble, “Your dad’s almost home” was bad news. But if I was stuck in the top of the tree and I could barely hang on, “Your dad’s almost home” was great news, and so the preaching of the return of Jesus is for us, and it serves as both a warning and especially a comfort.
Jesus says in verse 34, “‘Watch yourselves, lest your hearts be weighed down with dissipation and drunkenness and cares of this life, and that day come upon you suddenly like a trap, for it will come upon all who dwell on the face of the earth.'” In other words, the Christian is called to a constant remembrance, to an alertness and a wakefulness, knowing that at any moment the Lord could return, and we want to be ready to meet Him, to greet Him, not found in slothfulness or drunkenness or idleness or whatever, but found trusting in His words and in His promises.
But also there is this great comfort, this great and supreme comfort, that when Jesus comes, He comes on a rescue mission. When Jesus returns, He does to deliver us from sin, death, and the devil. When Jesus comes, He comes to redeem us and to claim us as His own. Like He said, “Lift up your head, your redemption draws near.” The one who is coming back is the one who was crucified.
Remember how it was when Jesus was ascended? He was lifted up and He disappeared from their sight, and it says that His hands were raised in blessing. And then He disappeared from their sight, and they were all staring up looking where Jesus disappeared from, and the angel comes and appears to them and says, “Why do you stand there staring up into heaven? Jesus, who left, will come back in the same way with His hands, dear saints, with His hands raised in blessing.”
So we’re barely holding on, we’re about to fall out of the tree and we hear the news, “Your dad’s almost home.” Here we are hanging on, and the Lord knows that we need this encouragement. The end is at hand, and this is good news for us, because we know that the end for us is in fact not the end at all, but the beginning of the new heavens and the new earth, where the righteous dwell. May God grant us this hope. Amen.
Please stand. Now when these things begin to take place, straighten up and raise your heads. Your redemption is drawing near. Amen.