LUKE 21:25-36 - When The Man Comes Around

Introduction

There is a particular Christmas commercial that has been around for a long time—I don’t know if it’s made an appearance yet, but it’s the one with the Hershey’s Kisses that play “We Wish You A Merry Christmas” like a handbell choir—you know the one I mean? Bells are one of the most common associations with Christmas—sleigh bells ring, are you listening… jingle bells, jingle bells… I heard the bells on Christmas Day… jingle bell rock… and on you could go. Nothing says “Christmas” like adding sleigh bells to a percussion track on a popular song.

We associate ringing bells with Christmas because it is a joyful holiday. But there are other times when bells are rung to mark horrible or tragic events. Every September 11th, a bell is rung six times throughout the morning—once at 8:46 when Flight 11 hit the North Tower of the World Trade Center, then again at 9:03 when Flight 175 hit the South Tower, then again at 9:37 when Flight 77 hit the Pentagon, then at 9:59am when the South Tower collapsed, then at 10:02am when Flight 93 crashed in Shanksville, and finally at 10:28am when the North Tower collapsed.

9/11 is a date when bells are rung—but it is a date to mourn, not celebrate. Nobody exchanges gifts or sings happy songs about it, kids don’t go to bed the night before excited about getting up in the morning to celebrate. It is a day of darkness and not light, of death and not life.

This is the first Sunday in the season that has been traditionally called “Advent” (meaning “arrival” or “coming”)—a time when we focus our attention on our need for a Savior, so that the joy of Christmas is rooted where it belongs—in the Good News of God sending a Savior to redeem us from our sin and rebellion against Him.

And this is why we need to begin with the passage that we just read a moment ago from Luke. Because we need to be reminded that the coming of a holy and righteous God to a sinful, fallen world is not depicted in the Scriptures as a reason to celebrate; it is a reason to mourn!

We have lived in the Gospel-light of Christianity for so long that we don’t realize that when the prophets spoke of the coming of God, they were speaking of a catastrophic event—listen to the way the prophet Amos describes the Day of the LORD in Amos 5--

Amos 5:18–20 (ESV)

18 Woe to you who desire the day of the Lord! Why would you have the day of the Lord? It is darkness, and not light, 19 as if a man fled from a lion, and a bear met him, or went into the house and leaned his hand against the wall, and a serpent bit him. 20 Is not the day of the Lord darkness, and not light, and gloom with no brightness in it?

This is what we need to remember—that Christmas is only celebrated because the grace of God did not give us the Advent we deserved. When the Second Person of the Trinity, God Himself, took on human flesh, He would have been entirely justified in coming in wrath and the terrible splendor of judgment on this world.

And so as we begin this Advent season in 2022, I want to urge you from God’s Word:

Do not neglect the GRACE of God that made Christ’s first Advent one to CELEBRATE and not MOURN

Here in Luke 21 Jesus is warning His disciples about what was going to happen in the near future when the Roman armies would sack Jerusalem:

Luke 21:20–24 (ESV)

20 “But when you see Jerusalem surrounded by armies, then know that its desolation has come near. 21 Then let those who are in Judea flee to the mountains, and let those who are inside the city depart, and let not those who are out in the country enter it, 22 for these are days of vengeance, to fulfill all that is written. 23 Alas for women who are pregnant and for those who are nursing infants in those days! For there will be great distress upon the earth and wrath against this people. 24 They will fall by the edge of the sword and be led captive among all nations, and Jerusalem will be trampled underfoot by the Gentiles, until the times of the Gentiles are fulfilled.

Because they rejected the presentation of their Messiah and would instead cruelly torture Him to death on a Cross, Jesus said that that generation would suffer a horrible fate. The Jewish historian Josephus records page after page of shocking and gruesome details about the fall of Jerusalem in A.D. 70, just 40 years after Jesus spoke these words--which is why He said in Luke 21:32,

Luke 21:32 (ESV)

32 Truly, I say to you, this generation will not pass away until all has taken place.

So just for a moment, look at what Jesus says here about His returning to judge Jerusalem, because here we see a glimpse of

I. The Advent we DESERVED (Luke 21:25-36)

Listen to how Jesus describes His coming to judge Jerusalem:

Luke 21:25–27 (ESV)

25 “And there will be signs in sun and moon and stars, and on the earth distress of nations in perplexity because of the roaring of the sea and the waves, 26 people fainting with fear and with foreboding of what is coming on the world. For the powers of the heavens will be shaken. 27 And then they will see the Son of Man coming in a cloud with power and great glory.

Some interpreters look at these verses as taking place far in the future when Christ returns in the Second Coming (“Second Advent”); others see here a description of Christ returning in power and glory to judge the generation of Israel that murdered Him.

Either way you want to read it, though, it is a description of the terror and upheaval of the arrival of the holy and righteous Son of God on earth—it is His arrival that causes the distress and perplexity and fainting and foreboding, just as summer causes the leaves to come out on the fig trees:

Luke 21:29–30 (ESV)

29 And he told them a parable: “Look at the fig tree, and all the trees. 30 As soon as they come out in leaf, you see for yourselves and know that the summer is already near.

This is what an encounter with the righteousness and holiness of God does to a sinful and wicked people—it causes them to come undone. Consider the prophet’s cry in Isaiah 6:

Isaiah 6:3–5 (ESV)

3 ...“Holy, holy, holy is the Lord of hosts; the whole earth is full of his glory!”... 5 And I said: “Woe is me! For I am lost...

As one writer puts it:

“Holiness is not manageable... Holiness is wild. Holiness is three tornadoes in a row. Holiness is a series of black thunderheads coming in off the bay. Holiness is darkness to make a sinful man tremble. Holiness beckons us to that darkness, where we do not meet ghouls and ghosts, but rather the righteousness of God. Holiness is a consuming fire. Holiness melts the world” (Doug Wilson, The Potency of Right Worship).

What Jesus describes here in Luke 21 is the same as the description of what happens every time the holiness of God draws near to this world—in verse 25 we see that the approach of God’s presence causes

TERRORS and SIGNS in heaven (v. 25, cp. v. 11)

Luke 21:25 (ESV)

25 “And there will be signs in sun and moon and stars, and on the earth distress of nations in perplexity because of the roaring of the sea and the waves,

Earlier in verse 11 we see the same imagery:

Luke 21:11 (ESV)

11 There will be great earthquakes, and in various places famines and pestilences. And there will be terrors and great signs from heaven.

Throughout the Scriptures, the image of the sun and moon failing or stars falling out of the sky—the unraveling of the order of the heavens—is used to describe the unraveling of the powers and governments of the earth. Isaiah describes God’s judgment on Babylon:

Isaiah 13:10 (ESV)

10 For 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.

Isaiah 34:4 (ESV)

4 All the host of heaven shall rot away, and the skies roll up like a scroll. All their host shall fall, as leaves fall from the vine, like leaves falling from the fig tree.

Ezekiel uses the same imagery to describe the fall of Egypt in Ezekiel 32:7

Ezekiel 32:7 (ESV)

7 When I blot you out, I will cover the heavens and make their stars dark; I will cover the sun with a cloud, and the moon shall not give its light.

And Joel describes the coming of YHWH to judge the nations in the same way:

Joel 2:30–31 (ESV)

30 “And I will show wonders in the heavens and on the earth, blood and fire and columns of smoke. 31 The sun shall be turned to darkness, and the moon to blood, before the great and awesome day of the Lord comes.

Beloved, this is what happens when God visits His righteousness on this earth! This is the kind of Advent we deserve—a coming of God that unravels rebellious and blasphemous governments and kingdoms, that causes your whole world to fall apart.

The advent that we deserve causes terrors and signs in the heavens, which then causes

FEAR and DISTRESS on earth (v. 25)

Luke 21:25 (ESV)

25 “And there will be signs in sun and moon and stars, and on the earth distress of nations in perplexity because of the roaring of the sea and the waves,

Remember years ago the Broadway show Annie, and the signature song, “The Sun Will Come Out Tomorrow”? Hang on til tomorrow, because the sun will still come up… Except, what if it does not? What if everything you knew in this world simply collapsed? I’m not just talking about supply chain issues or government corruption or drag queen groomers in your elementary school—I’m talking about the Sun no longer rises in the East. I’m talking about looking up in the sky and actually watching the Moon crumble into dust like the last scenes of Infinity War… I’m talking about tsunami waves roaring in from the seas to decimate every port and seaside city in the world... I’m talking about every single structure in every single city in the world crumbling like the World Trade Center all at the same time.

This is the terror that the Scriptures say is visited on the earth when God approaches in His holiness and righteousness. If the Creator God, infinite in holiness and power, utterly righteous and perfect and omnipotent in power and authority were to come down from Heaven with the unfiltered and direct exposure of His glory, this planet and everything in it would dissolve out from under you while the last conscious experience to pass through your mind before you succumbed would be unadulterated, infinite horror and terror at His appearing.

That is the Advent that we deserve.

But thanks be to God that is not

II. The Advent we RECEIVED (Luke 2:8-14)

Beloved, we deserved the appearing of God on this earth the way it is described all through the Old Testament, the way it is described by Jesus in Luke 21—indeed, the way it happened for that generation of Jews in A.D. 70. But the reason that Jesus’ First Advent is celebrated this season and not mourned is because of the incomprehensible grace of God! That instead of terrors and signs in heaven, there was

PRAISE and GLORY in the heavens (Luke 2:8, 13)

Luke 2:8–14 (ESV)

8 And in the same region there were shepherds out in the field, keeping watch over their flock by night. 9 And an angel of the Lord appeared to them, and the glory of the Lord shone around them, and they were filled with great fear. 10 And the angel said to them, “Fear not, for behold, I bring you good news of great joy that will be for all the people. 11 For unto you is born this day in the city of David a Savior, who is Christ the Lord. 12 And this will be a sign for you: you will find a baby wrapped in swaddling cloths and lying in a manger.” 13 And suddenly there was with the angel a multitude of the heavenly host praising God and saying, 14 “Glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace among those with whom he is pleased!”

Instead of all of the hosts of heaven tumbling out of the sky in the terrifying unraveling of existence, those shepherds heard those angels filling the heavens with praise and glory to God! Oh, they were “sore afraid”—they were terrified at the appearance of God’s messengers—but their terror turned to joy as the angel gave them the news.

That angel that spoke to those men did not come with a pronouncement of fearful judgment—it was not a declaration that the holiness of God was going to scour the earth in wrath—it was a declaration that God was reconciling the world to Himself! Not fear and distress, but

PEACE and JOY on earth (Luke 2:10; cp. Romans 8:3-4)

Luke 2:10 (ESV)

10 And the angel said to them, “Fear not, for behold, I bring you good news of great joy that will be for all the people.

Luke 2:14 (ESV)

14 “Glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace among those with whom he is pleased!”

When God made landfall on earth that night in Bethlehem, He did not destroy Judea, He did not rip the sun and moon from their places—he did not even seriously inconvenience the depravity of King Herod’s court or the brutality of the Roman occupation. He did not come in the fulness of His direct and unfiltered holiness, righteousness and power—He came veiled in the fragile flesh of a baby boy, taking humanity into His deity, wrapping himself in skin and bones and swaddling clothes, lying in a feed trough.

The eternal Second Person of the Trinity, God the Son, Jesus Christ, came “in the likeness of sinful flesh and for sin, [condemning] sin in the flesh, “in order that the righteous requirement of the law might be fulfilled in us, who walk not according to the flesh but according to the Spirit.” (Romans 8:3-4)

Beloved, the First Advent of God arriving on this earth is a day to celebrate and not to mourn because, by the grace of God, Jesus came not to punish us for our sin, but to be punished for our sins. The only reason that you and I will hang decorations and prepare feasts and sing songs and wrap presents and eat fudge is because we did not receive the Advent we deserved that night.

Instead of judgment for our sin and rebellion, for our hatred of God and rejection of His law, you and I were given the escape from that judgment, as all of the wrath of God the Father for your sin was poured out on His sinless Son. It’s been well-noted before that one of the mainstays of the economy of the town of Bethlehem during that time was to provide sheep for the daily sacrifices at the Temple in Jerusalem six miles away. No wonder then, that when John the Baptist saw Jesus coming to be baptized that he called Him “the Lamb of God that takes away the sin of the world!” (John 1:29). Because Jesus came as the sacrificial Lamb that night in Bethlehem, the planet did not dissolve in fire and ashes when He made landfall.

The only reason that Jesus’ First Advent is a day to celebrate and not mourn is because of the grace of God that provided a way to escape the wrath of God by trusting in Him alone. And this is why I am pleading with you this morning not to neglect the grace of God that made this day a day of celebration and not a day of horror. Because just as surely as the Scriptures describe the grace and peace and joy and glory of Christ’s First Advent, it warns of the desperation and horror of the Day when He returns with unveiled holiness and glory during

III. The Advent that is COMING (2 Thessalonians 1:5-12)

Turn with me to 2 Thessalonians 1 (p. 989 in the pew Bible). Paul is encouraging his readers that their suffering for the sake of their faith in Christ has not gone unnoticed by God, and when Christ returns He will avenge it:

2 Thessalonians 1:6–8 (ESV)

6 since indeed God considers it just to repay with affliction those who afflict you, 7 and to grant relief to you who are afflicted as well as to us, when the Lord Jesus is revealed from heaven with his mighty angels 8 in flaming fire, inflicting vengeance on those who do not know God and on those who do not obey the gospel of our Lord Jesus.

Please do not neglect the grace of God that offers you rescue from the wrath that is coming—Jesus’ First Coming was marked by angels of praise and glory and joy in the heavens, but His Second Coming will be marked by

ANGELS of VENGEANCE in the heavens (vv. 7-8; cp. Revelation 6:15-17)

When Christ returns, the time for grace and mercy will be over. There will be no more “good news of great joy” for all the peoples—there will instead be the declaration that time is up. There will be no more opportunity to repent; there will be no “tomorrow” to look forward to (“Oh, I’ll get serious about religion and confessing Christ as my Savior tomorrow...”), there will be no structure of home or family or government to take refuge in because it will all unravel in the unadulterated and unveiled holiness and power of His presence:

Revelation 6:15–17 (ESV)

15 Then the kings of the earth and the great ones and the generals and the rich and the powerful, and everyone, slave and free, hid themselves in the caves and among the rocks of the mountains, 16 calling to the mountains and rocks, “Fall on us and hide us from the face of him who is seated on the throne, and from the wrath of the Lamb, 17 for the great day of their wrath has come, and who can stand?”

Friend, do not neglect the grace of God that spared you the Advent you deserved—and Who even now is sparing you from the Advent that is coming. Every day we get closer to that moment when Christ will return in this Advent—angels of vengeance in the heavens and

PUNISHMENT and PRAISE on earth (vv. 9-10; Romans 2:4-5)

For those who do not know God and have refused to obey the Gospel of Jesus, who have always responded to the call to salvation with “I have plenty of time tomorrow to think about it”, those “tomorrows” will someday run out. And then

2 Thessalonians 1:9–10 (ESV)

9 They will suffer the punishment of eternal destruction, away from the presence of the Lord and from the glory of his might, 10 when he comes on that day to be glorified in his saints, and to be marveled at among all who have believed, because our testimony to you was believed.

Dear friend, don’t neglect the grace of God that withheld the Advent you deserve and is holding off the Advent that is coming—He is doing so because He is still calling you to repent:

Romans 2:4–5 (ESV)

4 Or do you presume on the riches of his kindness and forbearance and patience, not knowing that God’s kindness is meant to lead you to repentance? 5 But because of your hard and impenitent heart you are storing up wrath for yourself on the day of wrath when God’s righteous judgment will be revealed.

On that Day—at that Second Advent—there will be no more time to think about it; the offer of the free gift of God of eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord will come to an end. Do you want to be one of the ones crying out in terror for a mountain to fall on you rather than face Him? Do you want to be one of the ones on whom His avenging angels will visit His fire of judgment on you because you refused to obey His Gospel call to repent and believe on Him?

You have time NOW to escape that wrath! Do not neglect the grace of God that made the First Advent of Christ one to celebrate and not to mourn over—do not presume on the riches of His kindness that He has looked at November 27th, 2022 and said, “Not today...” Instead of one of those who will unravel in terror and judgment at Christ’s Second Advent, you can be one of those who will marvel at Him in love and joy and fulfillment; one of those who will glorify Him for saving them from His wrath, who will rejoice at His Second Advent with the fulness of joy that will outshine the joy and peace and delight of Christmas the way the fulness of the noonday sun outshines a birthday candle.

Do not neglect the grace of God that has not (yet) given you the Advent you deserve—you do not know how many more “tomorrows” you have. Quit holding on to your pride, stop coddling those precious sins that you don’t want to let go of, stop segmenting your life into parts you want God to have control of and parts where you think He has no business interfering.

Stop relying on the fact that you are a regular church attender and don’t need the page numbers to find your place in the Bible. Stop thinking that God will welcome you into His holy habitation because you don’t drink and you don’t chew and you don’t go with the girls that do. You are not being called to “make a decision for Christ”, you are being called to lay down your arms and surrender. Bow the knee to Him now, before you are forced to do it on the Day He appears in His Second Advent.

And Christian, stop telling yourself that because you have bowed the knee to Him, because you have confessed Christ as your Savior and have placed all your hope in His death, burial and resurrection and have been freed from the penalty and power of your sin, that that means you can just coast along until He returns. That you have nothing to worry about on Judgment Day because you’ve already repented.

Praise God that you belong to Him by faith in Christ—but that doesn’t mean that He expects nothing of you in the meantime. In fact, Jesus does expect something of you—He expects you to be tempted:

Luke 21:34–35 (ESV)

34 “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. 35 For it will come upon all who dwell on the face of the whole earth.

Don’t get weighed down, Christian—don’t let the cares of this life weigh down your heart and weaken your resolve for holiness and good work in the Name of Christ. Paul knew how easy it would be for that to happen; that’s why he prayed for his readers in Thessalonica the way he did—and so, in the same way, see here in these verses our prayer for you:

2 Thessalonians 1:11–12 (ESV)

11 To this end we always pray for you, that our God may make you worthy of his calling and may fulfill every resolve for good and every work of faith by his power, 12 so that the name of our Lord Jesus may be glorified in you, and you in him, according to the grace of our God and the Lord Jesus Christ.

Do not neglect the grace of God that made Christ’s First Advent one to celebrate and not mourn over. Do not neglect the kindness and forbearance of God that even now lengthens the days before His Second Advent so that you may repent and, having repented, fill the days that remain to you with steadfast resolve for good and every work of faith by His power so that you would magnify the glory of your Savior, Jesus Christ!

BENEDICTION:

Hebrews 13:20–21 (ESV)

20 Now may the God of peace who brought again from the dead our Lord Jesus, the great shepherd of the sheep, by the blood of the eternal covenant, 21 equip you with everything good that you may do his will, working in us that which is pleasing in his sight, through Jesus Christ, to whom be glory forever and ever. Amen.

QUESTIONS FOR REFLECTION:

Why is celebrating the coming of God to earth such a strange idea, according to the Scriptures? Read Amos 5:18-20 again. What is it about God’s character that makes His approach to us such a traumatizing event?

Read Luke 21:25-28 and Luke 2:8-14. What imagery or phrases does Luke use in both places to describe the coming of Jesus? How does he contrast these two events—Jesus’ birth and the destruction of Jerusalem? What does this tell you about the grace of God to us in Christmas?

How is the coming of Jesus in 2 Thessalonians 1 different from the other two descriptions of His arrivals on earth? How do the Scriptures in these places instruct you to live your life in light of Christ’s return?

Read Luke 21:34-35. Spend some time this week in prayer, seeking strength from God to live in such a way that the Day of Christ’s return will not “come upon you suddenly as a trap”, but that “the name of our Lord Jesus may be glorified in you” (2 Thess. 1:12)