Well, howdy. Well, it's the end of the world
as we know it, and I feel fine. From time to
time, it's important to take a break from all
the feel -good passages in Scripture and... Just
be honest about the parts that are intense, cataclysmic,
and terrifying. Somebody asked one time, how
do you decide what you're going to preach on
every single week? I basically stick to all the
passages given, because to be honest, it would
be really easy to just preach whichever ones
you're comfortable with. It's a better idea to
see what God puts in front of you, because it's
better to let Him be the one to speak instead.
You see, this is what we look at today, is that
today we're looking at discussions of the end
of the world, but it's from our Luke passage.
It's not Revelation, it's not Daniel, it's the
gospel. It's Jesus talking about the end of the
world. And in doing so, maybe we actually understand
Christ himself. You see, every generation has
its own way of imagining the end of the world,
and for some reason, Our generation seems to
love putting it on the movie screen. The film
Knowing with Nicolas Cage, there's numbers being
scribbled by a child predicting these disasters
of solar flares and earthquakes, fire from the
sky, and each prediction comes true and creates
panic. The world unravels, the sky is a threat,
the sun and its flares are the enemy, and the
adults hope for their children to be rescued.
The whole film pulses with that feeling of people
fainting with fear, the earth, the heavens shaken
and the world coming undone. And then we take
Interstellar with Matthew McConaughey. Once he
gets past saying, all right, all right, all right.
The world isn't exploding, it's slowly dying.
The sky, it's not on fire, it's filled with dust.
Crops are failing, nations collapsing, people
losing hope, and a group of explorers look to
the stars, not with fear, but with longing for
a way forward, a future, redemption that seems
impossibly far away in some other galaxy. The
entire story is driven by fear that the world
can no longer hold us, and by the stubborn hope
that there's still a way through it. And then
there's Armageddon with Bruce Willis, where Aerosmith
had one of their best hits yet. The asteroid
is coming, the countdown is ticking, and they're
gonna go up with a giant bomb to blow it up.
The world is bracing for the impact, the governments
scramble, the scientists argue. People prepare
for the worst, chaotic, dramatic, loud, great
soundtrack. But beneath all the spectacle, that's
when the same simple truth comes out. Human beings
feel very small when the heavens start attacking
us. See, three different movies, three different
visions of the end, but they share the same heartbeat.
The familiar sky shakes, people panic, and the
visitors to church today wonder why they picked
today to visit. And this is why the words of
Jesus, in Luke 21 hits so close to home. Because
deep inside, we have a fear of what will happen.
If we look up and discover that the world's fate
is sealed and there's nothing we can do about
it. Jesus talks about signs and the sun, the
moon, the stars. He talks about nations in distress.
He talks about people fainting with fear. He
talks about the heavens shaking. It sounds like
a blockbuster, but it's not meant to entertain
us. It's meant to prepare us. Because into all
that imagery, Jesus speaks a word that no movie
ever dares to say. When these things begin to
take place, straighten up and raise your heads
because your redemption is near. Straighten up.
If the world is coming to an end, shouldn't we
be cowering and running in fear? When Jesus describes
wars, earthquakes, persecution, though, the disciples,
they lean in because they want secrets and strategies.
Jesus, though, He's not feeding fear or giving
them a timeline. He's anchoring them in what
faithfulness looks like when the world feels
fragile. Jesus says, there will be signs in the
sun and moon and stars and on the earth, distress
of nations in perplexity because of the roaring
of the sea and the waves, people fainting with
fear, the powers of the heavens shaken, and then
they will see the Son of Man coming in a cloud
with power and great glory. Now when these things
begin to take place, straighten up and raise
your head because your redemption is drawing
near. These vivid, mysterious words of Jesus.
People have tried to draw charts around them,
decode them, tie them to headlines. October seems
to be a common theme. Align them with eclipses,
blood moons, astronomical patterns and parties.
All in an attempt to predict and make sense of
everything. But when you just let Jesus speak
without forcing him into our modern anxieties,
something else rises to the surface, something
deeper, something calming, something steady.
Because the point is not the spectacle, the point
is your posture. But before Jesus even describes
the shaking of the heavens or the roaring of
the seas, He starts with the warning that it's
easy for us to overlook. Right after the disciples
ask, when will these things be? Right after they
hear that the temple is going to fall and the
world will crack, Jesus doesn't give them a date.
He doesn't give them signs to prevent it. He
doesn't give them a strategy to stop it. He says,
see that you are not led astray. Why is that
his first response? Because the disciples are
not just scared. They're looking for control.
They're looking to prevent it. The temple was
the center of their identity, their stability,
their world. If that falls, everything falls.
So naturally they want to know how to prevent
it. How to hold on to the life that they know.
But Jesus... He knows that when people are afraid
of losing the world that they know, losing their
comfort, security, control, that's exactly when
false prophets show up. Jesus knows something
about human fear, and we have seen it for two
millennia. Fear makes us vulnerable to the wrong
voices. It makes us cling to certainty. It makes
us follow those who promise safety. And this
is exactly why Jesus adds, many will come in
my name. Do not go after them. Because when people
are terrified of losing what they love, their
temple, their community, their comfort, false
prophets always show up. And the most dangerous
false prophets, they're not the ones who say,
follow Zeus or follow Baal. Would that really
be an issue? No thanks, I'm good. It's the ones
who say, I'm speaking for Jesus. I'm the one
who can fix it. I can stop the shaking. I can
preserve what you treasure. Because not everyone
who claims Jesus is sent by Jesus not every voice
promising safety comes from God and Jesus Knows
that when the world trembles the greatest threat
to his disciples. It's not the shaking It's the
seduction of a voice that tells them exactly
what they want to hear the wrong voice the wrong
Savior the wrong fullness the wrong safety and
So before anything else Jesus says do not be
led astray Please But wait is Jesus talking about
what's literally going to happen though as much
as we're tempted to jump into the news and look
for specific events Oh, I saw the earthquake.
Oh, I saw something in the heavens Jesus he's
using the language of the Sun the moon and the
stars because in scripture the sky often mirrors
what humans feel when the world shakes in the
Old Testament Cosmic imagery is the language
of upheaval and turmoil The prophets, they reach
for the sky whenever the words on the ground
are not big enough. Amos said in 8 .9, I will
make the sun go down at noon and darken the earth
in broad daylight. Joel said in 2 .31, the sun
shall be turned to darkness and the moon to blood
before the great and awesome day of the Lord.
Isaiah said in 13 .10, the stars of the heavens
and their constellations will not give their
light. The sun will be dark at its rising and
the moon will not shed its light. Ezekiel in
32 .7, with the fall of Egypt said, when you
are extinguished, I will cover the heavens and
make their stars dark." This is not about astronomy.
They're describing the collapse of human certainty.
They're saying when empires fall, when nations
tremble, when the familiar world gives way, the
sky goes dark. Because Jesus, He's not predicting
weather patterns. He's naming what it feels like
when life no longer holds the way we thought
it did. See, the prophets, they use the sky when
kingdoms fall and empires collapse. When Babylon
crumbled, the prophets said the stars were dimming.
When Egypt trembled, the sun was darkened. The
sky, it's a symbol of destabilizing worlds. Of
our world no longer making sense. The distress
of nations, perplexity, people fainting with
fear. We've seen nations in distress, haven't
we? We've seen perplexity. We've seen the sense
when leaders don't know what to do and people
don't know whom to trust We've seen fear so thick
that we can feel it when we walk into a room
Jesus is speaking the language of people who
watch the sky and feel the ground shifting beneath
their feet He's speaking to us But have you ever
had that moment when the world it suddenly felt
unfamiliar? When something that had always been
stable and confident is not. When the marriage
has cracked. When the diagnosis came out of nowhere.
When the job vanished. When the business seems
to disappear. When the friend has walked away
and the news story makes you wonder what kind
of a future there is for your children or whether
you get to have any. In those moments the world
feels like what Jesus has described. The sun
has dimmed. The moon is out of rhythm. The stars
are moving the wrong way. But the world, it's
not that the world ended. It's that the world
as you knew it did. See, that's the space that
Jesus is knowing. This is what He knows it's
going to feel like when the temple, it's going
to be destroyed in 70 AD. He knows that the Jewish
people are going to be exiled 60 years later.
As much as we like to talk about Israel being
eternal, The nation of Israel as a physical place,
it's never been eternal. It was shattered in
half after Solomon. It was overthrown and destroyed
in 722 and 586 BC. The temple was destroyed in
70 AD. The Jewish people were ejected in 135.
Israel as God's people are eternal. But Israel
as a nation by definition never has been. And
the people were about to experience it again
very soon. What does Jesus say? Doesn't make
any sense. When everything shakes, straighten
up. When everyone around is looking down, lift
up your head. Because your redemption is drawing
near. The world's falling apart and people are
supposed to be positive? What kind of self -help
nonsense is this? We're supposed to be happy
about the terrible things? We're supposed to
live in denial? No, and not just the river in
Egypt. It's tempting to think that danger always
comes from the outside, from the armies, from
the disasters, the enemies, the unknown, but
sometimes the world's upheaval, it comes from
the very people and relationships that we trust
the most, even as Jesus himself pointed it out.
Take Dietrich Bonhoeffer. He was a man of deep
faith, a pastor, a troublemaker, clearly, a theologian,
a resistor of tyranny. He was part of a secret
circle in the German military intelligence plotting
to overthrow the dictator. And he was cautious,
careful, devoted, trusting his closest friends
like Hans Ulster implicitly. But in a twist of
fate, it was Hans' own diary, his closest ally,
that chronicled all of the resistance work that
was found and exposed him to the Gestapo. It
was not a betrayal by intent. He never betrayed
him as Judas betrayed Jesus, but the very thing
that symbolized trust, connection, shared purpose,
it became the instrument of his demise. The one
closest to him, the one he trusted implicitly,
led to his arrest. There's a haunting parallel
in scripture. Looking at Jesus and Judas, Judas
was chosen, trained, trusted. He shared the ministry.
He was in the inner circle. And yet, in a single
moment, Judas became the instrument of betrayal.
Jesus was wounded, handed over, and condemned
not by a stranger, but by the one closest to
him. Because the lesson it's sobering is that
oftentimes the closest friends do not guarantee
safety and faithfulness. Even the things we treasure
the most, the people that we hold dearest, can
create the circumstances that may hurt us. And
even what seems like loyalty in the grand cosmic
scheme of things can play a role in the very
trials that we face. And Luke 21 becomes alive.
Everything will be fine if you pick the right
friends. Your trust will always protect you.
Jesus doesn't say that. He says, do not be terrified.
Straighten up, lift up your heads. Your redemption
is drawing near. The platform for the gospel
is not built on stability, safety, even the perfect
alignment of people around us. It's built on
faithfulness in the midst of uncertainty and
trusting the one who endured even in suffering.
See suffering whether it's from enemies without
or from the twists and turns of fate that touch
even our closest allies It does not merely lead
to the platform of the gospel. Oh all the bad
things are gonna happen and then the gospel happens
The suffering is the platform of the gospel Bonhoeffer's
courage in prison his unwavering witness and
ultimately his death became the testimony to
God's work in the midst of collapse. Jesus facing
betrayal in the garden. What looked like defeat
became the stage of God's redemption. As we see
the sun, moon, and stars falling all around us
and the nations are trembling and systems are
failing and betrayals large and small. Jesus
calls us to lift our heads and to stand firm.
Not because the world is safe. The world's never
supposed to be safe. Not because the people around
us are perfect. They're never going to be and
Not because the fear will disappear, but because
the kingdom of God is still advancing Even through
the very places that we thought were going to
destroy us But where's the hope? You will see
the son of man coming in a cloud with power and
great glory That's not about the weather It's
about the God of the Old Testament who overshadowed
the mountain, the one seen in Daniel's vision
when God gave authority to the Son of Man. Jesus
saying when the world feels like it's falling
apart, that is not the moment when God disappears,
that's the moment when God draws near. Not to
crush you, not to punish you, but to redeem you.
Jesus doesn't del his disciples to run, to hide,
to hoard, to build bunkers, or to interpret the
news cycle. He doesn't even tell them to figure
out the meaning of the signs. He tells them to
adopt a posture, stand up, look up, and have
hope. Because the one you're looking for is coming.
He's coming to you, not running away. The signs,
they're not telling you when Jesus will return.
It's telling you what it will feel like before
He does. Not calm or predictable, not neat. This
is not a question of trying to create a sense
of calm. Jesus wants His people to know that
the shaking, it's not the failure of God's plan,
it's the beginning. The same way that labor pains
are not the death of a child, but the symbol
of something new about to be born. And Jesus
says, when these things begin, not when they
end, when they begin, raise your heads. and look
like people who are expecting redemption. So
who is it that lifts their head when the sky
goes dark? The people who are afraid? The people
who are cynical? Not the ones who live for this
world alone. Because God is not done. Christ
is not done. Redemption, it's not a metaphor,
it's a promise. The shaking, it's not the end,
it's the announcement. Bonhoeffer lived through
one of the moments when an entire nation was
terrified of losing identity, losing stability,
losing its place in the world. And into that
fear stepped voices, loud and confident, that
claimed to speak for the church, to restore order,
strength and pride. And many Christians followed
the voices because they sounded like hope. But
the counterfeit hope of the false prophets is
always wrapped in religious language. But Bon
Haver said, Because a long obedience in the same
direction is a quiet defiance grounded Not in
optimism, but in being close to Christ Himself.
When evil tries to take everything, faith stands
taller. When the world is on fire, disciples
lift their head. When fear says to hide, Christ
says to hope. Because this is not a time for
fear. It's a time to be ready and confident.
Because the only people who lift their heads
in a collapsing world are the ones who know that
they are not the center of it Christ is So don't
look for escape Don't look for weapons Don't
look for false saviors Even when we see the temple
collapsing But rather let us continue to look
up Because our salvation is not from within this
earth but rather is from God sending his son
to come again with glory to judge both the living
and the dead. Because when our world ends, that's
when the kingdom truly begins. Thanks be to God.