Luke 21:34-38 "The End of the World pt 2"
Last week’s message was “The End of the World, Part 1.” You’ll never guess what this week is called. “End of the World 2: Electric Boogaloo.” No. That’s silly.
Ever since “Breakdance 2,” I always think any sequel should be called “Electric Boogaloo.”
Or maybe, “The End of the World: This Time it’s Personal!”
I could go non-linear, follow part one with part three and drive people crazy when they try to watch them later on YouTube. “I see part one and part three, where’s part two?” But after a few months, I’d forget I did it and then I’d be searching everywhere for the missing file and blame YouTube and the devil for deleting it.
When we left Jesus last time, He was in the middle of telling the disciples about the apocalypse. It was a nice evening, they were sitting around a campfire on the Mount of Olives. Probably toasting marshmallows.
Jesus was telling a spooky story, everyone was getting totally creeped out. All the heebie-jeebies. Jesus is like, “When the world ends, it’s going to be so scary. The sky is going to get dark and everything’s going to get weird. Strange black clouds swirling like the worst storm you’ve ever seen. The sun will turn purple, the moon will turn red, stars are going to get all weird and move around the sky like a nightmare. All the oceans will start going crazy. It’s going to be so loud—it’ll shake the earth. You know that “BRAAAH!!!” sound in movie trailers? I’m going to use that for sure! People are going to be freaking out! It’s going to be so cool!”
He looks around at the disciples and they’re all just wide eyed—a few of them are visibly shaking and a couple of them are starting to cry.
“No, guys, guys! It’s okay! It’s going to be awesome! It’s not going to be scary for you! You’re going to love it! It’s going to be so fun—I promise!” “BRAAAH!!!” Andrew falls for the jump scare and Lazarus makes fun of him, “Try waking up in a sealed tomb wearing a mummy costume—that’s scary!”
Jesus is describing a literal hell-scape—turning the entire world into a House of Horrors. He’s really getting into it, using poetic language to paint an image of doomsday they weren’t going to forget.
But He wants them to know they didn’t have anything to be afraid of. In that same moment, when things look as bad as they can possibly look—that’s when He’s going to come back. The Son of Man riding those storm clouds with glory and great power. So, if you know, you know. When it all goes down, don’t be scared: stand up straight, look toward Jesus, and thank God your salvation is near. You’ll know when it happens, everyone will know—so, don’t freak out.
Until then, stay ready. Keep waiting. He’s not kidding about this. He’s coming back and He wants us to be ready. So, that’s what we’re talking about today.
Remember last week when Jesus said Jerusalem and the temple were going to be destroyed? Those disciples had to wait over 30 years before that went down. Thirty years! You think maybe they might have started to doubt it was actually going to happen? Like after five or six years? How do you think they felt after thirty? Peter had been killed. Paul had been killed. Then after almost forty years—finally!—Rome invaded Jerusalem just like Jesus said. The surviving disciples had to be like, “Dude! You know what happens next.” I’ll bet they all started looking for the sky to fall any day after that. Go outside and get up on the roof every night looking for Jesus. But it never did—they all died waiting for Him to return. Waiting for the heavens and earth to look like a Salvidor Dali painting with Jesus arriving in spooky clouds. And now the followers of Jesus have been waiting for over 2,000 years so far. Some of us are probably tempted to doubt if He’s really coming back. Like the great theologian Tom Petty said, “The waiting is the hardest part.”
Today we’re going to talk about some of the challenges that come with waiting.
Luke chapter 21…
“But 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 whole earth. But stay awake at all times, praying that you may have strength to escape all these things that are going to take place, and to stand before the Son of Man.”
Luke 21:34-36
I want to meet the guy who takes that verse, “Stay awake at all times” literally. He’d be a little crazy jacked up on Red Bull always talking about “The end is nigh!”
Jesus doesn’t want us to get so weary of waiting that we get distracted by doubt and sin. Don’t get distracted with all the stupid cares of the world. Don’t let those things drown our faith.
This is like the parable of the seeds. Some grew a little while but the cares of the world choked them out. What are those things? The things that will kill our faith and keep us from staying awake and staying ready for Jesus to return? He says, “Dissipation and drunkenness and cares of this life.”
Dissipation is a fancy word for wasting our time chasing after everything else and living like there is no God. Dissipation is sexual sin, debauchery, perversion, decadence, self-indulgence, greed. All those things we spend our life pursuing—all those shiny things that take our eyes off Jesus. Then He also warns us about numbing ourselves from whatever we don’t want to deal with: Getting drunk, getting high, getting lost in whatever our favorite escapes might be—whether it’s sports or movies or TV shows or music or video games. Whatever we use to keep us from thinking our own thoughts and feeling those unpleasant things like pain, sorrow, shame, loneliness, guilt, boredom. All those distractions we use to try and forget our problems—Jesus says those distractions are worse because they weigh down our heart and put us in a stupor, make us like sitting ducks for the devil to trap us and choke out our faith. Watch yourselves. Trust in God, not all those diversions.
Those things will desensitize us to the Spirit of God. They will lull us asleep. They will make our faith weak.
Which one of these do you think is the most dangerous lie?
There’s no such thing as truth.
There’s no such thing as God.
There’s no such thing as the devil.
There’s no such thing as sin.
I’ll just eat one chip. Your call is very important to us. “I’ll just be a minute, honey!”
I think it’s no such thing as sin. Because if there’s no sin, then there’s no devil, and there’s no God, and you get to make up your own truth, which means there is no truth.
And if there’s no such thing as sin, then there’s no need for forgiveness. If there’s no need for forgiveness then there’s no need for Jesus. There’s no need for faith.
It’s the lie the devil is pushing the hardest for people to believe. All of the complete insanity of our culture flows from the lie that there’s no such thing as sin.
Don’t buy it. Confess your sin. Receive His grace and mercy—receive His forgiveness. And trust that forgiveness.
What do I mean by “trust His forgiveness?”
Well, when the world starts to end and the sun and moon go haywire and suddenly you see Jesus Christ descending from the clouds in a heavenly display of power and glory—is it going to fill your heart with joy because you trust in His mercy and forgiveness? Are you going to straighten up, lift your head, and look to your salvation? Or are you going to be scared? Run away and hide like Adam and Eve. Are you going to remember your sin and guilt, feel your shame and have no desire to stand in front of Jesus. Hope He doesn’t notice you.
Because when it says “stand before the Son of Man,” it means to stand knowing you’re completely forgiven. Stand in confidence. Stand in bold faith and humble thankfulness. Trust His forgiveness.
You can’t trust His forgiveness if you don’t think you need to be forgiven.
So, the question is, are we looking forward to that day? Or dreading it? The end of the world?
And every day he was teaching in the temple, but at night he went out and lodged on the mount called Olivet. And early in the morning all the people came to him in the temple to hear him. Luke 21:37
This is what Jesus spent His last week before going to the cross doing. Hanging with the disciples in the evening on the Mount of Olives, praying in the Garden of Gethsemane, visiting His friends in Bethany. Then He’d show up and teach in the temple all day—all day—He was cramming as much Gospel into these people as He could while He was still here. They were going to need it—just like we do. They were showing up early, staying late—eager to hear everything He had to say. I’m a little jealous. I hope they secretly recorded it so we can watch when we get to heaven—also hoping it will either be subtitled or we’ll be able to understand Aramaic when we get there.
So, last week and this morning, we listened to Jesus talk about the end of the world. How people who reject Him are not going to end up on the right side of history—to put it mildly. The religious leaders of Israel, all those hotshots who’ve been arguing with Him, trying to trap Him, and all the Jews who reject the Messiah—Jesus says they’re going to be destroyed along with the temple and Jerusalem. Also, all the Gentiles who reject Him will be trampled under His feet as enemies. The only ones who are going to be delivered from the wrath of God at the end of the world are the people who trust in Jesus to save them. The ones who stand up straight, with their heads lifted up, looking to their Lord and Savior when everything in the world all around them literally goes to hell.
And you might be thinking, “That seems harsh.” How can we talk about how good God is, how God is love, if He’s going to be like that? What’s so good about a God who destroys the wicked?
Maybe you’ve never considered this idea—if we think God’s judgment of the world is immoral, if we think it’s not good—then what are we saying? That we’d rather that evil triumphs? Rather that darkness wins? Where there’s no justice? No one wants that! No one wants the bad guy to get away with it! Everyone cries for justice! All the people make signs, march in the streets, and demand justice! No one wants evil to win in the end.
Unless they’re the bad guy, then they want mercy. We all want mercy for ourselves but we definitely want justice for other people.
Of course, we want to be the ones who decide what should be punished or not.
We don’t trust anyone else to say what’s right and wrong. What’s evil and wicked or not. We don’t want anyone telling us what to do—who are they to say what I’m doing is a sin?
But unless you think everyone in the world is just going to agree that you get to be the one who calls all the shots, wouldn’t you rather it was God who did it? Do you really want a world where everyone just decides for themselves what’s right and wrong? Where there’s really no such thing as right or wrong or good or bad—it’s all just a bunch of cultural, situational, subjective opinions?
Seems to me it’s exactly that kind of thinking that got us into this mess.
I, for one, do not want to be the one who decides what’s right and wrong. I would make a terrible god.
If everyone is their own standard, then there is no standard. A culture without a standard goes to hell really fast on its own. If you’ve been paying attention, you already know this.
God is the only One who’s qualified to say what’s right and what’s wrong. He’s the only One who is good and holy and righteous.
There’s nothing good, holy, or righteous inside any of us. Anything good or holy or righteous about us comes from outside us. It comes from what God has done for us through Jesus. It comes from the Holy Spirit dwelling in us.
Think of it like this: Without Jesus we’re all a bunch of disconnected lightbulbs on the floor of a dark room. Not good for anything unless someone picks us up and plugs us in—connects us to a power source.
1st John 1:5 says
“God is light and in Him is no darkness at all.”
No darkness at all. We’ve never known a world without darkness—a world without shadows. We can’t even imagine it. We’d be just as blind in that world of only light as we would be in total darkness. We need the shadows to even have a category for light. The point of all this, my little lightbulbs, is we’re in no position to call the shots, to say what’s right and wrong—we don’t have enough information, enough perspective.
When we’re thinking about the end of the world and what God’s going to do with it all, where it’s all going—we’re not in any position to second-guess Him. We’re like amoeba’s watching a ballet. Like bugs crawling on paintings in a museum. We’re not going to comprehend the glory and beauty of the new heavens and new earth on this side of forever.
Let go of the idea that you know better than God. Trust that He knows what He’s doing. That He’s good. Not just good—He’s gooder than you. Kinder than you. More compassionate and merciful than you. He’s infinitely more fair than you could ever be. He’s more forgiving and loving than you could possibly imagine. So, trust Him when He says He has a plan and it’s going somewhere better than this. You would not make a better God than Him. You can trust Him.
And it’s foolish to trust anything else.
The Jews trusted in the temple. They trusted in traditions. These things had become plastic versions of the true God. False gods.
That’s why, even though Jesus warned them to get away from the temple, get away from Jerusalem when the armies came—those people who rejected Jesus—they rejected His warning, they ran to the temple, they ran INTO Jerusalem and were destroyed.
Jesus said don’t get distracted with the things that will choke your faith. Your idols. Your plastic gods. What do you think yours are?
You don’t have to say it out loud but don’t pretend like you don’t have them. We all have them—false idols.
It’s pretty easy to figure out what they are. They’re the things you turn to when things get hard. When things get scary. When you’re sad or mad or lonely. They’re the things that would feel like the end of the world if they were taken away from you.
The Jews had their identity all wrapped up in the temple and acting like Jews. Jesus took all that away.
What’s your identity all wrapped up in? How much money you got—or don’t have. Is your security wrapped up in your bank account and financial investments? Your business? I mean, when we have enough, we feel good about ourselves, we feel successful. When we don’t have enough, we feel like failures. Or, maybe we get our identity from our possessions, our house, our car, our truck, our hobbies, our toys. Our health! How fit we are? Or not. Obsessing over losing weight, making sure our hair is a certain way, checking the mirror, comparing ourselves to others. Or our education! Intelligence. College degree. Or our street smarts! People have always put their trust in power. Prestige. Their family. Man, all those things I mentioned are as old as the hills. We modern people have added a few new ones to the list. We get our identity from technology, science, democracy, government, liberty, or socialism, or independence, maybe our favorite sports-ball team, our political affiliations, or the free market system.
Most of those things aren’t bad things—we don’t make gods out of things we think are bad—we make our idols out of good things we think are good. We can take anything and make it an idol. Make it a false god. Make it what we’re all about and something we trust in more than Jesus.
What is it that if it was taken away from you, you’d think it was the end of the world?
Money? Your job? You friends? Your family? Other things on that list?
There’s only one thing that, if you lose it, you lose everything and you won’t be ready for the end of the world.
The Gospel. Trust that Jesus is who He says He is and He promises to give you life and salvation, now and forever. Anything else you’re tempted to put in that ultimate spot has to go. When the clock runs down and it’s the end of time, nothing else matters. There is nothing more important than what God thinks of you. And your only hope of God thinking kindly of you is if you don’t reject Jesus. If there’s anything you hold onto tighter than the promises of Jesus, then you’re going to need to lay those things down. Repent, turn away from them, confess that you’ve made them too important. Call it what it is. An idol. The good things of this world, they make for terrible gods.
It doesn’t mean you can’t have those things. All the things on that list of distractions and things we get our identity from—you need to let God’s word tell you what to do with them. So we can put those things in their proper place in our lives. Do not let those things tell you how to think about God.
The promise of the Gospel isn’t that if you follow Jesus He’ll make your life perfect, or that He’ll make you perfect. Not in this life. Not on this side of the end of the world. The promise is forgiveness because of Jesus. The promise is for anyone who trusts in Him, with true belief and true repentance—not perfect belief and perfect repentance—just true. Confess your sin. Call it what it is. Every day say this prayer, “Lord, I’m a sinner. Help me be more faithful. Lord, I believe. Help my unbelief.” Because the point is this, He’s perfectly faithful so it won’t be the end of the world when you’re not. The end is coming—wait for it… AMEN