Friends,
Christmas is coming! Tonight we
celebrate that God stepped into the world in human form as a little baby many
years ago. If we believe that is true,
we know what God can do. Surely, the One
who came insisted He would be returning one day. We must believe the truth of the return of
Christ as much as we believe that He came the first time. Advent is a season of expectation. We have been waiting to celebrate Christmas,
but even more we have been waiting for the return of Jesus. Advent is the season of expectation. Yet as Advent ends and Christmas begins, we
are called to live in a permanent state of expectation until Christ comes again,
keeping watch.
Our passage finishes up what we hear
of Jesus’s public teaching ministry.
From this point, Jesus is focused spending time with His disciples,
especially getting ready for the Passover.
In this last little bit of Luke 21, Jesus tells a parable about a fig
tree. It’s simple, we know by watching
deciduous fruit trees what season is coming.
When the leaves appear, we know summer is coming. Note, it isn’t summer yet! We still have spring to go through, but
summer is still on its way. Last week,
we heard the signs of the times. They
show that Jesus might not be coming just yet, but He is still on the way. I’m sure that there were some followers of
Jesus who recognized that the temple was about to be destroyed, just like Jesus
said it would be. But that made many of
them expect the return of Christ even more.
John was blessed to see the return of the Son of Man in a vision given
to him when he was in exile on the Island of Patmos. It is the book of Revelation. We already know the ending of the story. We know what is waiting for us. Knowing the ending should cause us to have
hopeful expectation that Jesus will return.
How many of you have been paying attention to the volcano in
Iceland? A month or so ago, they thought
it was going to erupt very soon, so they started evacuating people. There were a lot of earthquakes in increasing
frequency. Some lava did start to flow,
but not towards the town. Week before
last, they thought the volcanic activity was starting to die down. Earthquakes were lessening in frequency. Then this week, volcanic activity increased
again, and the lava is heading toward a power plant. All the geologists knew the volcano would
have a major eruption, but they didn’t know exactly when. They could read the
signs and prepare the people. The signs
tell us that Jesus is coming, but we don’t know when. We need to keep watching. But unlike a
volcano erupting, which I actually find interesting and fascinating, but can be
destructive and dangerous for people living near them, the return of Christ is
a joyful event!
Jesus reassures us that even though
heaven and earth will pass away, His words will not pass away. His return is certain. Jesus’s promise that “this generation will
not pass away until all these things take place” not only meant the judgment
upon Jerusalem would come, or that John would see the return, but is also a
promise that no matter how bad things get, no matter how even corrupt the
visible Church gets, there will always be a faithful body of believers on the
earth until Christ returns. As we wait and
endure the “signs of the times,” Jesus tells us to keep on watching, which is
what the apostles did, not really knowing if Jesus would return in their
lifetime or not. We too must keep watch
with expectation. Jesus instructs us
what watching looks like. It is a very
active state. As the watchman on the
wall stays awake looking for signs of potential trouble, looking out for
travelers in need of shelter, allies coming to make a treaty, or dreaded
enemies planning an attack, we are to keep watching. The first thing Jesus tells us to guard is
our own hearts. We aren’t to get
drunk. There are two different Greek
words for drunk. The NIV uses carousing
and drunkenness. Whether alone or
together, inebriation to the point of losing control of one’s faculties or
abilities, even to the point of having a headache the next day, yes the Greek
is that specific, is sinful. We know
that Jesus drank wine. He’s going to
soon be offering it to His disciples as a sign of His own blood. But though He was accused of being a
drunkard, He never imbibed to excess. You
can’t be in your right mind when you are drunk. One of the words is not even
alcohol specific. Any substance or thing
which causes loss of self-control could fall under these words. In our day, we know there are other
addictions besides substance abuse. We
can be addicted to electronic devices or what we find on them. But it’s not just about addiction. There are people who get drunk who are not
alcoholics. There are people who get
high who are not addicts. We can spend
too much time numbing our senses and being distracted so that we aren’t being
watchful.
We are also to keep watch over our
hearts in regard to not being weighed down by the worries of life. For most of us, this is probably a lot more
challenging than not getting drunk! When
we see the “signs of the times,” wars, persecution, natural disasters, it’s a
challenge not to worry or be fearful, especially when we feel helpless. How much harder when they actually affect us
directly! But we are even more prone to
worry about the stuff that affects our daily life—our own or a family member’s
illness or injury, whether or not we can meet our financial obligations. But once again, we see Jesus harkening back
to His early ministry—the Sermon on the Mount, those words we heard from Matthew 6. We
aren’t supposed to worry about what we will eat, what we drink, what we will
wear, where we will live. Keeping watch
for Christ’s return by guarding our hearts against the worries of life could
keep many of us busy until He comes, especially when we do it by seeking first
God’s kingdom and His righteousness.
Practicing right living and working towards serving and growing the
kingdom of God, we have plenty to do.
Our lack of fear and worry is also a witness to others. We have a whole generation growing up in
fear. When you look at data about how many
young people today are on antianxiety medications, it’s appalling. There are people who have chosen not to have
children because of “climate change.”
There will be climate change! You
can’t have the disruption of the heavens that Jesus has talked about without
major climate change. That doesn’t mean
we panic about it. Nor does it mean that
we don’t do our part to steward the earth as was commanded to the human race at
Creation. But we don’t have to fall for
climate panic. The news media does
everything it can to create fear over everything. I still see people in a car by themselves
wearing a mask. The world is a scary
place for a lot of people. The
temptation to join in the fear panic is strong.
But if you are not fearful and full of worry, you can be a non-anxious
presence for another person. You can
share why you don’t have to be afraid all the time, because you know the end of
the story, and it’s a happy, wonderful ending!
And in the meantime, you are not alone.
God is still with you.
But Jesus gives us one more command to
keep watch. That is to pray, to pray for
ourselves that we will have the strength to escape “all these things that are
about to take place and stand before the Son of Man.” How can we escape the “signs of the times”
when Jesus said that we will have to endure them? Well, some of this escape could be referring
specifically to the destruction of Jerusalem.
But I think the command to pray remains for us in the midst of the signs
in our times. Certainly, we can literally
pray for escape from these things, but know that God’s answer won’t always be a
yes, though many times it will be. Think
of how many disasters from which God has spared us. What if Florence had been a Category 4 like
it was at one point! We pray for escape
that the coming of the Son of Man will be our time of redemption, not of
judgement. We pray of course for
salvation, but Jesus uses praying here in the continuous sense. Praying for escape means these things won’t
cause us to lose our faith and our hope in Jesus. We pray against despair. We pray for strength. We pray to escape temptation—temptation to
give up and give in. If we are in
constant communication with God, we won’t be caught off guard.
Remember that expectation implies not
resignation—bad things are going to happen, life is hard and will be hard—no
expectation implies excitement and joy!
We keep watch, not for signs, but for the Son of Man. We keep watch for a person, a person we love
and who loves us! We keep watch for a
Savior, just as the shepherds joyfully sought the Savior of the world in
Bethlehem. I heard a sermon this week where
the pastor said, “There is a difference between watching for a train to arrive
and watching for a person that you love to get off the train!”
We are the watchmen on the wall. We must first keep watch out and for
ourselves. We don’t want to be caught in
God’s judgement, but we want to be ready to welcome our King. Second, we keep watch for others. We are called to warn and encourage people with
the truth that the Lord is coming again with power and glory to judge all
people. Because we don’t know when, we
must be ready at all times, which means that today is the day of
salvation. But salvation isn’t just for
the future, it is for now, to know that God will be with you and will see you
through whatever hardships come your way.
Remember that the return of Christ is good news! It’s something we look forward to with
anticipation. It’s the signs that are
the hard part, but when Jesus returns all hardships, all pain, all evil will be
ended! Everything will be perfect and
good. Maybe Jesus will return in
2024! That would sure be wonderful, but
may watching by living soberly, by not worrying but by seeking God’s kingdom
and righteousness, and by praying keep us busy until He does come.
