Luke 21:32-38 | Caution in Crisis
Notes
Transcript
Good morning and welcome to Harvest @ Home!
My name is Jason Self, my family and I are working towards planting a church in Ross, Ohio. Our plan is to launch in the fall of this year, and as long as the impact of Coronavirus doesn’t slow us down, I think we are on track for late September.
Like you we have been stuck inside and social distancing for months now, and I thought that a live stream of a Bible Study on Sunday mornings would be a good way to introduce our community to Harvest.
This also serves as a Sunday School hour for some of our church family in our sending church, Southland Baptist.
With that said, if you have a bible handy, turn it over to Luke 21 verses 32-38 where we will get our passage. But first a question:
Dealing
Dealing
Engage
When you are faced with hardship and uncertainly, how do you handle it? I will often resort to escapism of one sort or another. I have found that if I can sufficiently distract my brain with a woodworking project, or TV or learning some new skill. And while I am engaged in those activities I’m not thinking about the unpleasantness of things that are going around.
Clearly I am not the only one who looks to escapism in times of crisis. 2020 is shaping up to be a year we will likely never forget, and statistics are showing some of the ways people are coping. Since the Coronavirus Quarantines began internet searches for Netflix have seen a 104% increase and Disney+ a 633% increase. Facebook is concerned that even though ad revenue has decreased, traffic to their site has gone through the roof. Despite restaurants being closed, alcohol sales in the US have risen by 16%.
As tensions rise in this country over police brutality, racism, and riots I expect that people will look for further outlets for escapism.
In Luke 21 we have been covering a pretty a pretty awful future that Jesus says the disciples have in store for them. And he gives them a warning in our passage today, Luke 21:32-38
Verily I say unto you, This generation shall not pass away, till all be fulfilled. Heaven and earth shall pass away: but my words shall not pass away.
And take heed to yourselves, lest at any time your hearts be overcharged with surfeiting, and drunkenness, and cares of this life, and so that day come upon you unawares. For as a snare shall it come on all them that dwell on the face of the whole earth. Watch ye therefore, and pray always, that ye may be accounted worthy to escape all these things that shall come to pass, and to stand before the Son of man.
And in the day time he was teaching in the temple; and at night he went out, and abode in the mount that is called the mount of Olives. And all the people came early in the morning to him in the temple, for to hear him.
And so today’s message is entitled “Caution in Crisis”
Pray
Tension
Tension
What Generation?
What Generation?
There are some people that trip on this passage almost immediately and it begins with what we read in v32
Verily I say unto you, This generation shall not pass away, till all be fulfilled.
This believe it or not is a very controversial passage, because in order to understand what Jesus is saying, we have to define who Jesus is talking about when he says ‘This Generation’.
Since we have started this chapter I have been laying the ground work that there is a split between events that happen with the destruction of the temple and future events that happen after the time of the gentiles. It is important to recognize that split because some people will look at this passage and determine that all of the events in chapter 21 have been completed because nobody could possibly be alive today from a generation who experienced these first events.
Preterism
Preterism
This starts the building of an error called Preterism. The main idea behind preterism is that all of the events referred to by Jesus in the Olivet Discourse, which is essentially the entirety of Luke Chapter 21 and can be found in the Gospels of Matthew and Mark as well. They believe that the great tribulation occured when Jerusalem was destroyed in 70AD and the judgment was specifically upon Jews and not the world as a whole.
On a webpage promoting the preterist worldview you read the statement
Christ’s kingdom is here now. Paradise has been restored in Christ (for our afterlife in heaven above). Christ has conquered all His enemies and has given us His Eternal Kingdom, “of the increase of which there shall be no end”
I don’t want to spend a lot of time on the subject, they write Systematic Theologies to put people to sleep, sparing me the necessity. But, I struggle to turn on the news this month and come to the conclusion that this is the time of Christ’s restored Kingdom. And I understand that I am over-simplifying the position but there are a lot of other problems I find with this worldview, and I have to conclude that this is the kind of doctrine Jesus is talking about in 2 Timothy 2:18 when he warns
Who concerning the truth have erred, saying that the resurrection is past already; and overthrow the faith of some.
Immortal John
Immortal John
Interestingly this is also a proof text used by Mormonism to support this strange view supported by both the Book of Mormon and their Doctrines and Covenants book: that The Apostle John is still alive some where and living as an immortal for the last 2000 years. We also find this is some of the gnostic gospels along with many other heretical teachings.
That notion is a stretch that is very thinly supported by scripture and it is not something supported by any of the stories passed down in church history as to the Apostles death. Essentially that he died of old age in Ephesus.
Easier Answer
Easier Answer
It is probably a lot easier just to recognize the pattern of double fulfillment found throughout the bible and to recognize that one sentence in the middle of the chapter, Luke 21:24:
And they shall fall by the edge of the sword, and shall be led away captive into all nations: and Jerusalem shall be trodden down of the Gentiles, until the times of the Gentiles be fulfilled.
Times of the Gentiles be fulfilled
Overcharged
Overcharged
What we find in v34 is that Jesus is concerned that the hearts of the Disciples would be overcharged. This has nothing to do with their credit score and everything to do with the state of man’s heart in crisis.
The idea behind the word overcharged, it’s to experience burden and heavy obligation. There is no doubt that as a season would come upon someone that includes things like signs in the sun moon and stars, turbulent seas, and the governments of the world having no explanation. Some men will die from the fear surrounding those events. Jesus is not unsympathetic that these kinds of things will weight heavily on his followers hearts and instructs them to not become overcharged.
Overcharged with what?
Overcharged with what?
But here is the interesting thing to notice. It’s not the catastrophic events that Jesus says will burden the heart. It is the response to the events that create the burden. We see these in the middle of verse 34: surfeiting, drunkeness and the cares of this world
Surfeiting & Drunkeness
Surfeiting & Drunkeness
Now, I am going to make an admission, please don’t hold it against me. I have read this passage multiple times through the years and until I spent the time to really study this passage my eyes read this word surfeiting as suffering. And so in my head, I think that we aren’t to be overcharged with suffering, which sounds like a nice bible thing to say…it’s just not what the bible says.
Surfeiting is the word κραιπάλη kraipale, and it means drunken behavior which is completely without moral restraint.
This is a different word than the word we find following it in verse 34 translated drunkenness. There is a reason we have two words with similar meanings. Drunkenness is pretty self explanatory, it means to be drunk. And make no mistake, this is something we are explicitly forbidden to be as Christians in Romans 13:13
Let us walk honestly, as in the day; not in rioting and drunkenness, not in chambering and wantonness, not in strife and envying.
And this is because drunkeness alone isn’t the issue.
And be not drunk with wine, wherein is excess; but be filled with the Spirit;
Being drunk brings about “excess” which is another good word for us to understand. ἀσωτία, (asotia) meaning the behavior of showing no concern or thought for consequences. This is clearly the result we see with people who are drunk. They behave without moral restraint and they don’t have thought for the consequences of their actions.
Casino’s in Vegas give free drinks to people gambling for a reason. They want those people to not consider the consequences of their actions.
We know that people engage in behavior when they are drunk that they would never dream of while sober. But just as you can’t claim drunkeness as a defence in court for throwing a brick through someones window, you can’t use drunkeness as an excuse with God for the committing sin while drunk.
The Overcharge
The Overcharge
Medical experts will tell you what we just read Jesus telling the disciples: drunkeness overcharges, or burdens the heart. An article on helathline.com states:
Alcohol changes levels of serotonin and other neurotransmitters in the brain, which can worsen anxiety. In fact, you may feel more anxious after the alcohol wears off.
Alcohol-induced anxiety can last for several hours, or even for an entire day after drinking.
So often what people turn to as a cure for anxiety, is in and of itself a cause of anxiety. Not to mention repercussions for the moral failings brought on by drunkeness.
There is a new term ‘Shameover” as a matter of fact being considered for addition to the Collins Dictionary. It is
A hangover that comes with anxiety of what you did last night and a general fear of impending doom.
Soften the Blow
Soften the Blow
Sometimes when we focus on alcohol as being inherently evil in its substance, we can almost forget that it is drunkeness and the inevitable, not possible, but inevitable moral poverty that accompanies drunkeness which is the great concern.
Cares of this Life
Cares of this Life
But, alcohol isn’t the only thing that can overcharge our hearts. Jesus says in v34
And take heed to yourselves, lest at any time your hearts be overcharged with surfeiting, and drunkenness, and cares of this life
You could re-phrase that the distress of daily life.
Surely the hardship that Jesus’ disciples would experience in the years to come would weigh heavily on them. Surely those experiencing the birth pangs, what our bible calls the beginning of sorrows for the tribulation would be experiencing a heavy heart that Jesus warns not to get overcharged.
Even at a time less eventful time, when Jesus told the parable of the sower, how did he describe those sown among thorns?
And these are they which are sown among thorns; such as hear the word, And the cares of this world, and the deceitfulness of riches, and the lusts of other things entering in, choke the word, and it becometh unfruitful.
Application
Application
I’m going to be transparent with you. It’s easy for me to get fatigued by all that is going on right now. I am in support of most of it, but I’m tired of the COVID-19 precautions. I don’t want to hear about another accusation of police brutality. I 100% back peoples rights to protest, but I am tired of hearing about riots and looters. I am tired of people using the the struggles facing our country and caring more about how it can promote their political agenda. And I am tired of hearing about racism, which is stupid and something I naively though as a child was a problem that would be completely eliminated by the time I was an adult.
I let my heart get overcharged. With Cable news and talk radio and Social Media. It is easy to feel it swelling up in side of me…the cares of this life.
In John 17:11-21 Jesus prays this to God the Father
And now I am no more in the world, but these are in the world, and I come to thee. Holy Father, keep through thine own name those whom thou hast given me, that they may be one, as we are. While I was with them in the world, I kept them in thy name: those that thou gavest me I have kept, and none of them is lost, but the son of perdition; that the scripture might be fulfilled. And now come I to thee; and these things I speak in the world, that they might have my joy fulfilled in themselves. I have given them thy word; and the world hath hated them, because they are not of the world, even as I am not of the world. I pray not that thou shouldest take them out of the world, but that thou shouldest keep them from the evil. They are not of the world, even as I am not of the world. Sanctify them through thy truth: thy word is truth. As thou hast sent me into the world, even so have I also sent them into the world. And for their sakes I sanctify myself, that they also might be sanctified through the truth. Neither pray I for these alone, but for them also which shall believe on me through their word; That they all may be one; as thou, Father, art in me, and I in thee, that they also may be one in us: that the world may believe that thou hast sent me.
If we are Christians, we aren’t “of the world”. We see the world behaving like the world behaves, but were not with them. It should seem strange and it should seem foreign and alien to you to see the world misbehaving but — it’s not your world. It isn’t the Kingdom of Christ claimed by the preterists that we see on the TV screen every day. It’s simply fallen man doing what fallen man has always done and will do until the Lord’s return.
Inspiration / Action
Inspiration / Action
We are instructed by Jesus to not to be overcharged, because if our heart is on the wrong things we could get caught off guard, in spite of all of the signs. Luke 21: 34 ends
And take heed to yourselves, lest at any time your hearts be overcharged with surfeiting, and drunkenness, and cares of this life, and so that day come upon you unawares.
Better Plan
Better Plan
Instead of of getting bent out of shape and overcharged. Escaping into alcohol or really anything else that distracts us from the reality of the world, here is what we are told to do:
Watch and Pray
Watch and Pray
Meaning we should be alert and in control of our faculties. And that we should be in prayer. And this word isn’t just passive prayer like what we tend to do before we eat a meal. This is urgent prayer. If you want to impact the climate of our country I can promise you that speaking your heart to God is going to be more effective than speaking your heart to facebook.
Why
Why
And the reason we find is that It’s not that you are worthy to escape, but we should be glad that we are “accounted worthy to escape” that we are considered worthy. Not on our own merit but by the merit of Christ
And whether it is the end of this time or just the end of our time, we will get the reward of “Stand(ing) before the Son of man”. And instead of the heartache and injustice we see every day, we will see the Glory of Christ.
Like me, need to let go of the what is in the world…focus on prayer and watchfulness
Don’t know Christ, you are going to be overcharged. Consider a better way
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