Luke #47: Watching and Waiting (21:5-38)

Again, welcome to Family Worship with the church family of Eastern Hills. I pray that you’ve had a wonderful Christmas season to this point. I would like to say thanks to one of our ministry teams that serves every week on Sunday mornings: our Welcome team. These adults and students to a great job greeting everyone who comes in through the main doors of the building on Sundays, and helping first-time guests navigate to a Bible study class or coming into Family Worship. Thanks to everyone who serves on the Welcome ministry!

If you’re a guest or visiting with us this morning, we would really like to be able to thank you for being here today, and to be able to do that, we have to get a little information from you. Could you please just fill out one of the Welcome cards that you’ll find in the back of the pew in front of you? When you’ve done that, you can return it to us in one of two ways: you can drop it in the offering boxes by the doors as you leave when service is over, or I’d appreciate the opportunity to introduce myself, so after service, I’ll stay down here, and I invite you to come and say hello and give me your card personally. I have a small gift to give you to say thanks for being here today.

Announcements

LMCO VIDEO: What is the Lottie Moon Christmas Offering?

This offering is named for Charlotte Digges “Lottie” Moon, who served as a missionary with the International Mission Board of the SBC (called the Foreign Mission Board at the time), ministering to the people of China for nearly 40 years, from 1873 to 1912. I think it’s funny that the video referred to her as a “giant,” given that she was a whole 4’9”. But she was a giant as far as moving Southern Baptists to give to further the cause of international missions. She is credited as being instrumental in starting an annual Christmas offering for international missions in the SBC, which began in 1888. She served in China during a time of severe famine, and gave all that she had to the people of China. Ill and malnourished, she was instructed to return home, but died at the age of 72 in Kobe, Japan, on December 24, 1912, while in route back to the U.S. Over a century ago, the SBC Woman’s Missionary Union (WMU) named the annual Christmas offering for international missions in memory of Lottie’s passion, dedication, and sacrifice. Over 50% of the financial support that our missionaries receive comes from this annual offering, and as the video said, 100% of what you give to the Lottie Moon Christmas Offering goes to the mission field. We don’t keep any of it, the IMB doesn’t keep any of it. So each December and January, we set a goal for our church to strive for as we take up this important offering. Our goal as a church this year is $32,500, and through last Sunday, we’ve received $17,489.12. We will take this offering up through the end of January, so please pray about what God would lead you to give to support SBC missionaries throughout the world.

Opening

This year, you may have noticed that we’re trying something a little different. Rather than doing a separate Christmas sermon series, we have simply continued with what we started at the beginning of the year: the story of the King, as recorded in the Gospel of Luke. We won’t finish our look at Luke until the middle of February, which we are covering verse-by-verse. Two weeks ago, Trevor graciously covered for me in the pulpit as I had spent a couple of days sick in bed that week. His message, which he titled “Turnabout is Fair Play,” considered Jesus’s theological dispute with the religious leaders during His Passion Week.

This morning is the our 47th message from Luke, where we will see a warning contained in the remainder of Jesus’s teaching in the temple during the last week before His crucifixion. The title for this message is “Watching and Waiting,” and what time of year is more prone to watching and waiting than Advent? The season is kind of “set aside” for us to contemplate, anticipate, and eventually celebrate the arrival of Jesus. And Jesus’s teaching in our focal passage today was about watching and waiting as well, but for a different reason. The passage is a little long: 34 verses, from Luke 21 verse 5 to verse 38. So please turn in your Bibles or Bible apps to that chapter, and as you are able, please stand in honor of the declaration of the Word of God as I read this passage.

Luke 21:5–38 CSB

5 As some were talking about the temple, how it was adorned with beautiful stones and gifts dedicated to God, he said, 6 “These things that you see—the days will come when not one stone will be left on another that will not be thrown down.” 7 “Teacher,” they asked him, “so when will these things happen? And what will be the sign when these things are about to take place?” 8 Then he said, “Watch out that you are not deceived. For many will come in my name, saying, ‘I am he,’ and, ‘The time is near.’ Don’t follow them. 9 When you hear of wars and rebellions, don’t be alarmed. Indeed, it is necessary that these things take place first, but the end won’t come right away.” 10 Then he told them, “Nation will be raised up against nation, and kingdom against kingdom. 11 There will be violent earthquakes, and famines and plagues in various places, and there will be terrifying sights and great signs from heaven. 12 But before all these things, they will lay their hands on you and persecute you. They will hand you over to the synagogues and prisons, and you will be brought before kings and governors because of my name. 13 This will give you an opportunity to bear witness. 14 Therefore make up your minds not to prepare your defense ahead of time, 15 for I will give you such words and a wisdom that none of your adversaries will be able to resist or contradict. 16 You will even be betrayed by parents, brothers, relatives, and friends. They will kill some of you. 17 You will be hated by everyone because of my name, 18 but not a hair of your head will be lost. 19 By your endurance, gain your lives. 20 “When you see Jerusalem surrounded by armies, then recognize that its desolation has come near. 21 Then those in Judea must flee to the mountains. Those inside the city must leave it, and those who are in the country must not enter it, 22 because these are days of vengeance to fulfill all the things that are written. 23 Woe to pregnant women and nursing mothers in those days, for there will be great distress in the land and wrath against this people. 24 They will be killed by the sword and be led captive into all the nations, and Jerusalem will be trampled by the Gentiles until the times of the Gentiles are fulfilled. 25 “Then there will be signs in the sun, moon, and stars; and there will be anguish on the earth among nations bewildered by the roaring of the sea and the waves. 26 People will faint from fear and expectation of the things that are coming on the world, because the powers of the heavens will be shaken. 27 Then they will see the Son of Man coming in a cloud with power and great glory. 28 But when these things begin to take place, stand up and lift your heads, because your redemption is near.” 29 Then he told them a parable: “Look at the fig tree, and all the trees. 30 As soon as they put out leaves you can see for yourselves and recognize that summer is already near. 31 In the same way, when you see these things happening, recognize that the kingdom of God is near. 32 Truly I tell you, this generation will certainly not pass away until all things take place. 33 Heaven and earth will pass away, but my words will never pass away. 34 “Be on your guard, so that your minds are not dulled from carousing, drunkenness, and worries of life, or that day will come on you unexpectedly 35 like a trap. For it will come on all who live on the face of the whole earth. 36 But be alert 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.” 37 During the day, he was teaching in the temple, but in the evening he would go out and spend the night on what is called the Mount of Olives. 38 Then all the people would come early in the morning to hear him in the temple.

PRAYER

Can you believe that Christmas Day is this Thursday? Does everyone have their shopping finished? Who doesn’t? You’d better get cracking!

Who is pretty excited for what they (think) they are getting for Christmas?

If you don’t know how my family is made up, there were six kids in my family growing up, who are kind of in sets of two: I have two older sisters a year-and-a-half apart, then me and my younger sister just shy of a year apart, and then several years later, two younger brothers, born 13 months apart. When you have that many kids in a house, the anticipation for Christmas is high. I know that every year, we kids would wake our parents up at the crack of dawn to start opening our presents, because we were just so excited.

The funny thing is that I only have very specific recollection of two Christmases from when I was growing up. One of those specific recollections was when I was 13, I believe, and it was actually because we didn’t wake our parents up—they stayed up until all the presents were under the tree and ready to go, and then they woke us up. A brilliant move, in my opinion, because as Trevor said last week, “turnabout is fair play.” Dragging six kids out of our beds at probably 1 o’clock in the morning (I have no idea what time it was), having us open our gifts and then eventually going to sleep themselves was a masterful move… and it made it so all of us crashed out and slept a little later into the morning on Christmas Day as well.

But it was such a radical departure from what I expected that it is indelibly etched in my mind. Not all that it entailed… Who remembers everything when they’re woken from a sound sleep in the middle of the night?… but the shock and excitement of it (and to be honest, my parents’ glee in turning the tables). I’ll never forget it.

I knew Christmas was coming, but the reality came without warning. I wasn’t watching for it. I wasn’t waiting for it. And so it snuck up on me and my brothers and sisters.

This is what the first Christmas was like, as well. People who knew the Scriptures that we call the Old Testament knew that Messiah was coming. But they didn’t know how, and they didn’t know when. Really only Mary and Joseph, and MAYBE Zechariah and Elizabeth had a reasonable chance at making a guess as to when, but certainly none of them would have anticipated the how: born in an animal pen in Bethlehem instead of a palace in Jerusalem, swaddled in plain cloths instead of wrapped in the finest linen, and laid in a manger instead of an ornate cradle… the lowliest of arrivals for the greatest of kings.

But they weren’t the only people who saw the signs and understood something about what they meant. So for our first point this morning, we actually need to jump over the Matthew for a minute as we consider

1: The First Coming — Seen by few.

I think that we all have seen nativity scenes: there’s the baby Jesus, His mother Mary, His “earthly” dad Joseph, an angel, a bunch of animals, maybe a shepherd or two… and we tend to have three wise men there as well. The truth is that these guys are a little out of place in those scenes, because they didn’t get there when Jesus was lying in the manger. They came much later—almost certainly more than a year later. But that doesn’t mean they weren’t paying attention when that first Christmas occurred.

Matthew 2:1–2 CSB

1 After Jesus was born in Bethlehem of Judea in the days of King Herod, wise men from the east arrived in Jerusalem, 2 saying, “Where is he who has been born king of the Jews? For we saw his star at its rising and have come to worship him.”

Who were these mysterious visitors from the East? We’re not entirely sure, as the only record that we have of these Magi is found in this passage, so we should be reluctant to make too many guesses. But we do know they had followed a star a long distance to find and worship the promised Messiah. Some scholars think they may have come from Babylon, some from Persia, some from India, and still others suggest that they may have come from as far as China. At any rate, whether they were astrologers, royal court advisers, or some kind of actual rulers, the Magi were noble and wealthy men who demonstrate what it means to watch and wait in anticipation for what God is going to do. The Magi were the esteemed opposite to the lowly shepherds in human social structures. Not only this, but they were almost certainly Gentiles, and not Jews, and their inclusion in Jesus’s birth story echoes the radical idea that Jesus’s first advent was to bring the hope of salvation and restoration to all people, not just the Jews.

The wise men were also holy men of some sort. They seem to have belonged to more of a mystical tradition than the Jewish leaders’ structure, but they importantly contrast the spiritual Jewish leaders of the day. There were no Pharisees and Sadducees and spiritual VIP’s of the time who were invited to Jesus’s birth. Instead, we see these travelers of a different race who were willing to disrupt their lives with a great journey and humble themselves to worship the baby of a poor, unassuming couple in the Judean countryside.

Very few people were visited by angels that first Christmas. Probably fewer still saw that sign appear in the sky and understood the significance. As far as we can tell from the Scriptures, only these wise men were actively watching, and actively waiting, for the sign of the promised Messiah. And when that sign appeared, they recognized it and responded.

This is really the point of Christmas: watching for Jesus, waiting for His arrival, and responding in faith. But we don’t have to wait until Thursday. Christ, the Savior of the world, He has come! We can trust in Him even now, and experience all that Christmas should be. Jesus’s first coming was to take away our sins through His sinless life being taken on the cross as our substitute—taking the wrath against sin that we deserve, so we can have the relationship with God that we don’t deserve through faith in Him. He is the only way to be saved:

Acts 4:11–12 CSB

11 This Jesus is the stone rejected by you builders, which has become the cornerstone. 12 There is salvation in no one else, for there is no other name under heaven given to people by which we must be saved.”

We saw this passage from Psalm 118 quoted a couple of weeks ago in chapter 20. Salvation is only through faith in Christ. And we see in Jesus’s teaching in the temple today that God will not wait forever. He is perfect in His mercy, but He is also perfect in His justice. This means that at exactly the right time, He will bring forth His wrath against sin. And Jesus gives the Jews a warning about the judgment that was coming upon them because of their refusal to trust and follow the Lord:

2: The Judgment on Jerusalem — Warned yet unheeded.

Part of watching and waiting is being confident in the arrival of what we are watching and waiting for. Just a few days earlier back in chapter 19, Jesus had wept over the city of Jerusalem, saying that peace was available to them if they would only have recognized His arrival—the time when God visited them (19:41-44). But they did not. They continued in their sin and apostasy and selfishness and unrepentant pride. And now, Jesus gave an even clearer explanation of what was on their horizon in response to those around Him discussing the temple’s beauty:

Luke 21:5–6 CSB

The temple in Jerusalem in the first century AD was a VERY impressive piece of architecture. It was made of nearly white stone, and the historian Josephus said that the from a distance the temple appeared like a snow-capped mountain. Some of the stones were absolutely MASSIVE, and it had colonnades and porticoes and archways over the paths leading up to the temple mount. It would have been an incredible sight to see. To give you a bit of understanding of scale, HERE’S A PICTURE OF AN ACTUAL STONE FROM THE FIRST CENTURY AT THE TEMPLE MOUNT. This would have been a part of the archway over the paved path from the Pool of Siloam. IN THIS SECOND PICTURE, you can see a pile of stones that remain from the destruction of the temple. While the temple mount itself still has stones that are “left on another,” this conversation would have taken place within the temple courts on top of the mount, so they would have been speaking about the temple buildings, not the mount they stood upon.

If we were to imagine that we were those to whom Jesus made this prediction, we might have asked the same questions they did:

Luke 21:7 CSB

7 “Teacher,” they asked him, “so when will these things happen? And what will be the sign when these things are about to take place?”

They want to know when this destruction of the temple would occur, and how they would know that the time for its destruction was coming.

What follows is a near parallel to both Matthew 24 and Mark 13. However, the organization of Jesus’s warnings is more clearly defined than we see in either of the other two synoptic Gospels. I think that in his commentary Dr. Robert Stein argues very well for the fact that in Luke, verses 8-24 are about the time of the seige of Jerusalem and the destruction of the temple. This would occur when General Titus invaded Israel in 70 AD in response to the Jewish uprising which began in 68 AD. This was, without a doubt, God bringing judgment on the nation of Israel for their refusal to worship Him in spirit and truth.

I’m not going to re-read the whole section, but I do want to unpack some of what Jesus predicted, and connect it with what we see recorded in history.

First, Jesus warned his followers to, “watch out that you are not deceived,” promising that false prophets would come, claiming that they were messiah or that the time of Jerusalem’s deliverance was near. The Roman historian of the Jews, Flavius Josephus, records the following about the time leading up to the Jewish revolt through the destruction of Jerusalem:

Now, there was then a great number of false prophets suborned by the tyrants to impose upon the people, who denounced this to them, that they should wait for deliverance from God: and this was in order to keep them from deserting, and that they might be buoyed up above fear and care by such hopes. ... Thus were the miserable people persuaded by these deceivers, and such as belied God himself...

— Flavius Josephus, Wars of the Jews: 6.5.2-3

Josephus even wrote that it was reported to him that there were celestial signs—such as a comet the year before the rebellion began, and what appeared to be troops marching through the sky—as well as terrestrial signs—such as an earthquake. While some of this may seem far-fetched to us, Josephus understood that and wrote, “I suppose the account of it would seem to be a fable, were it not related by those that saw it, and were not the events that followed it of so considerable a nature as to deserve such signals...”

But Jesus said that these signs were just the beginning of Jerusalem’s destruction. He warned His disciples that they would face persecution, imprisonment, or even death because of Him, but that this would give them an opportunity to bear witness to Christ. They were not to try and come up with some great argument ahead of time to avoid this persecution, but to trust in Christ that He would deliver them with His wisdom. However, this wasn’t all. He told them:

Luke 21:16–19 CSB

16 You will even be betrayed by parents, brothers, relatives, and friends. They will kill some of you. 17 You will be hated by everyone because of my name, 18 but not a hair of your head will be lost. 19 By your endurance, gain your lives.

The time between Jesus’s ministry and the judgment of Jerusalem would be a great time of trial for those who follow Christ: Hated by “everyone” (certainly hyperbole) because of the name of Jesus; betrayed by families, even to the point of being killed for their faith, and yet somehow not having a hair on their heads lost, because of the future promise of full restoration and eternal life in Christ.

We see this persecution throughout the book of Acts: Peter and John were arrested in Acts 4. And through it they were actually invited to share about how a disabled man had been healed through the power of Christ:

Acts 4:7 CSB

7 After they had Peter and John stand before them, they began to question them: “By what power or in what name have you done this?”

All of the apostles were arrested in Acts 5, and again they had the opportunity to share the truth of the Gospel:

Acts 5:31–32 CSB

31 God exalted this man [referring to Jesus] to his right hand as ruler and Savior, to give repentance to Israel and forgiveness of sins. 32 We are witnesses of these things, and so is the Holy Spirit whom God has given to those who obey him.”

After this statement, they were flogged and told not to speak about Jesus again. Stephen was martyred by the Jewish leaders, great persecution broke out against Christianity, and Saul led in that persecution:

Acts 8:3 CSB

3 Saul, however, was ravaging the church. He would enter house after house, drag off men and women, and put them in prison.

James was put to death in Acts 12, and Peter was slated to be put to death as well when he was miraculously saved by an angelic visitor in prison.

This is just a smattering of what the early church faced in the time between Jesus’s crucifixion and the destruction of Jerusalem. And finally, Jesus gave the sign of Jerusalem’s destruction:

Luke 21:20–24 CSB

20 “When you see Jerusalem surrounded by armies, then recognize that its desolation has come near. 21 Then those in Judea must flee to the mountains. Those inside the city must leave it, and those who are in the country must not enter it, 22 because these are days of vengeance to fulfill all the things that are written. 23 Woe to pregnant women and nursing mothers in those days, for there will be great distress in the land and wrath against this people. 24 They will be killed by the sword and be led captive into all the nations, and Jerusalem will be trampled by the Gentiles until the times of the Gentiles are fulfilled.

This is why this part of the passage must not be about the end times, but about the invasion of Jerusalem. When Jesus comes, fleeing to the mountains won’t keep Him from finding us. Staying away from cities will not somehow deliver us from the wrath of God. Jesus’s second coming won’t end with Israel being taken into captivity again, nor will it bring about “the times of the Gentiles.” That time began at Jerusalem’s destruction and continues until now: the Islamic shrine, the Dome on the Rock, and Al-Aqsa mosque sit on temple mount. (PHOTO)

The Jewish leaders, I suppose you could say, “official” Israel, did not heed Jesus’s warning. As Josephus recorded, even right up to the destruction of the temple, they declared to the people that they would be delivered from this judgment. And when Titus attacked Jerusalem, he records that 1.1 million Jews perished, and that 97,000 were taking into captivity and dispersed throughout the Roman empire. Many were warned, but very few heeded the warning. They were not watching and waiting for what was promised to come.

Now, this isn’t to say that the destruction of Jerusalem has nothing to do with Christ’s second coming. The destruction of the temple and of Jerusalem’s walls is a literary “type:” an image of a greater future reality. In both Matthew and Mark, the language that we see in Luke 21 is more mixed in with in the eschatological or “end times” imagery.

But as Jesus said, these things He promised would come on Jerusalem actually happened. What He warned of came to pass. This truth gives veracity to everything that Jesus said. The power of the promise of the destruction of Jerusalem should move us to believe in what Jesus said about His second coming, and as a result to be ready for it:

3: The Second Coming — Seen by all, prepared for by few.

The greater future reality is that there will come a day when Jesus will return not as general, and not as Caesar, but as the King of kings, and He will bring judgment on the whole earth. The last section of Jesus’s temple teaching in Luke speaks of this global judgment that will affect all people. Jesus’s first advent was announced and seen only by a few. But at His second advent, everyone who is alive at His return will know about it. It’s not going to happen in secret. And since He promised that He is going to return, and we can trust His promises, we are to be watching and waiting expectantly for it.

Luke 21:25–36 CSB

25 “Then there will be signs in the sun, moon, and stars; and there will be anguish on the earth among nations bewildered by the roaring of the sea and the waves. 26 People will faint from fear and expectation of the things that are coming on the world, because the powers of the heavens will be shaken. 27 Then they will see the Son of Man coming in a cloud with power and great glory. 28 But when these things begin to take place, stand up and lift your heads, because your redemption is near.” 29 Then he told them a parable: “Look at the fig tree, and all the trees. 30 As soon as they put out leaves you can see for yourselves and recognize that summer is already near. 31 In the same way, when you see these things happening, recognize that the kingdom of God is near. 32 Truly I tell you, this generation will certainly not pass away until all things take place. 33 Heaven and earth will pass away, but my words will never pass away. 34 “Be on your guard, so that your minds are not dulled from carousing, drunkenness, and worries of life, or that day will come on you unexpectedly 35 like a trap. For it will come on all who live on the face of the whole earth. 36 But be alert 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.”

At the time set by God the Father (Acts 1:7), Jesus will return much in the same way His disciples saw Him leave in Act 1:

Acts 1:9–11 CSB

9 After he had said this, he was taken up as they were watching, and a cloud took him out of their sight. 10 While he was going, they were gazing into heaven, and suddenly two men in white clothes stood by them. 11 They said, “Men of Galilee, why do you stand looking up into heaven? This same Jesus, who has been taken from you into heaven, will come in the same way that you have seen him going into heaven.”

Jesus said that His return would be terrifying the lost, because Jesus will come in all His power and glory as the heavens themselves are shaken. The world and its order will be overthrown, and the kingdom of God will be consummated in all its fullness. Right now, we’re reading the book of Revelation in our Bible reading plan. If you’ve been following along, you’ve read some of what this is referring to just in the last couple of days.

But Jesus told His disciples that there would be signs—like those of the seasons—that point to the timing of His coming. However, would be foolish for us to predict when it will be. The point isn’t knowing the when. The point is watching and waiting, because the when is certain. Jesus’s return will be completely shocking to the lost world. But it will only be sudden to the believer who is watching and waiting for it. So we are to be “on our guard,” not distracted from our vigilant anticipation of His return by sin, the draw of the world, or anxiety about life—remember that these are the things that caused the seed sown in the thorny soil to be unfruitful in the parable of the soils:

Luke 8:14 CSB

14 As for the seed that fell among thorns, these are the ones who, when they have heard, go on their way and are choked with worries, riches, and pleasures of life, and produce no mature fruit.

When Jesus returns, those who are in Christ will be able to stand and lift up our heads, because we know that our complete redemption—our rescue from sin and death and the world—will be at hand. We will stand before Jesus as His brothers and sisters, sharing in His inheritance, while the world cowers in fear, unable to stand before Him at all.

Revelation 6:16–17 CSB

16 And they said to the mountains and to the rocks, “Fall on us and hide us from the face of the one seated on the throne and from the wrath of the Lamb, 17 because the great day of their wrath has come! And who is able to stand?”

Application

Are we watching and waiting? Advent reminds us of the coming of the Christ-child. The destruction of Jerusalem affirms the truth of Jesus’s words. We should now be engaged in prayerful watching and waiting for Jesus to come back to judge the world. Since we know that His return is coming, we should not be shocked when it happens.

Like I knew that Christmas was coming that night that my parents turned the tables and woke us up, so we must be aware that His return is coming. But with this knowledge, we must be diligently watching and waiting for His return, praying for His strength to endure to the end, whatever comes in the mean time.

Closing

For those who are lost, those who have never trusted in what Jesus has done for your forgiveness and salvation, this should be a scary prospect. Yes, Jesus died because God loves His creation, but He’s not going to force you to believe. Just as when Titus came to destroy Jerusalem, when Christ returns in all His glory to judge the world, it will be too late. Jesus died to take our place in the pouring out of God’s wrath against sin, so we are forgiven by faith in His sacrifice. He conquered death for us as well, so that we can have eternal life through faith in Him, and when He returns, His kingdom will be our kingdom forever.

This comes through belief: trusting Jesus as Savior, and surrendering to Him as Lord. Even right now, believe the Gospel, and place your faith in Jesus for your salvation.

Surrender

Baptism

Church membership

Giving

PRAYER

Closing Remarks

Bettye James memorial service: 1/2/26 at 4pm

Bible reading plan (Rev 8:6-9:21, Pro 19-20)

Pastor’s Study tonight

No Prayer Meeting this week or next (Christmas Eve and New Year’s Eve)

Instructions for guests

Benediction

James 5:7–8 CSB

7 Therefore, brothers and sisters, be patient until the Lord’s coming. See how the farmer waits for the precious fruit of the earth and is patient with it until it receives the early and the late rains. 8 You also must be patient. Strengthen your hearts, because the Lord’s coming is near.

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