Things To Come: pt.1
Things To Come • Sermon • Submitted
0 ratings
· 15 viewsNotes
Transcript
Handout
Introduction
Introduction
v.10
v.10
10 Then He continued by saying to them, “Nation will rise against nation and kingdom against kingdom,
A Critical and Exegetical Commentary on the Gospel according to St. Luke 19:29–21:38. The Last Days of Public Teaching
A new introduction to mark a solemn utterance
Jesus now launches into a new section, or sermon, teaching about the things to come.
This section is repeated in:
7 “For nation will rise against nation, and kingdom against kingdom, and in various places there will be famines and earthquakes.
8 “For nation will rise up against nation, and kingdom against kingdom; there will be earthquakes in various places; there will also be famines. These things are merely the beginning of birth pangs.
What is this condition?
It is important to set up an understanding of the timing of these things, if there is one.
Notice:
v.12 - “But before all these things...”
This indicates that vv. 10-11 are after the things that follow in vv. 12ff.
Therefore, the timing of things that are being spoken of here is during the Tribulation, which, as we will see, occurs after the church age which the disciples are initiating.
Jesus is methodical.
Also notice that there will be a difference between Jesus’ emphases here.
During the church age, the emphasis is the persecution of the church (vv.12-24).
During the age after the church, the emphasis is the natural phenomena which spells out the unwinding of creation as a judgment against man (vv.10-11).
This condition, then, is shifting as time goes on.
The world is in view here.
Jesus is speaking concerning vast things.
Nations will unravel.
Kingdoms will unravel.
This unravelling will undo the world as we know it.
Those who trust in and hope in this world will be thrown into a tailspin and will begin to resent God.
Men will be looking for a savior.
Jesus warned against doing that.
8 And He said, “See to it that you are not misled; for many will come in My name, saying, ‘I am He,’ and, ‘The time is near.’ Do not go after them. 9 “When you hear of wars and disturbances, do not be terrified; for these things must take place first, but the end does not follow immediately.”
This will compel Christians to preach Christ, the true Savior.
God has unravelled nations and kingdoms in the past.
1 The oracle concerning Egypt. Behold, the Lord is riding on a swift cloud and is about to come to Egypt; The idols of Egypt will tremble at His presence, And the heart of the Egyptians will melt within them. 2 “So I will incite Egyptians against Egyptians; And they will each fight against his brother and each against his neighbor, City against city and kingdom against kingdom. 3 “Then the spirit of the Egyptians will be demoralized within them; And I will confound their strategy, So that they will resort to idols and ghosts of the dead And to mediums and spiritists. 4 “Moreover, I will deliver the Egyptians into the hand of a cruel master, And a mighty king will rule over them,” declares the Lord God of hosts. 5 The waters from the sea will dry up, And the river will be parched and dry. 6 The canals will emit a stench, The streams of Egypt will thin out and dry up; The reeds and rushes will rot away. 7 The bulrushes by the Nile, by the edge of the Nile And all the sown fields by the Nile Will become dry, be driven away, and be no more. 8 And the fishermen will lament, And all those who cast a line into the Nile will mourn, And those who spread nets on the waters will pine away. 9 Moreover, the manufacturers of linen made from combed flax And the weavers of white cloth will be utterly dejected. 10 And the pillars of Egypt will be crushed; All the hired laborers will be grieved in soul.
20 They rose early in the morning and went out to the wilderness of Tekoa; and when they went out, Jehoshaphat stood and said, “Listen to me, O Judah and inhabitants of Jerusalem, put your trust in the Lord your God and you will be established. Put your trust in His prophets and succeed.” 21 When he had consulted with the people, he appointed those who sang to the Lord and those who praised Him in holy attire, as they went out before the army and said, “Give thanks to the Lord, for His lovingkindness is everlasting.” 22 When they began singing and praising, the Lord set ambushes against the sons of Ammon, Moab and Mount Seir, who had come against Judah; so they were routed. 23 For the sons of Ammon and Moab rose up against the inhabitants of Mount Seir destroying them completely; and when they had finished with the inhabitants of Seir, they helped to destroy one another. 24 When Judah came to the lookout of the wilderness, they looked toward the multitude, and behold, they were corpses lying on the ground, and no one had escaped. 25 When Jehoshaphat and his people came to take their spoil, they found much among them, including goods, garments and valuable things which they took for themselves, more than they could carry. And they were three days taking the spoil because there was so much.
This is the promise of God towards Israel.
20 “Behold, I am going to send an angel before you to guard you along the way and to bring you into the place which I have prepared. 21 “Be on your guard before him and obey his voice; do not be rebellious toward him, for he will not pardon your transgression, since My name is in him. 22 “But if you truly obey his voice and do all that I say, then I will be an enemy to your enemies and an adversary to your adversaries. 23 “For My angel will go before you and bring you in to the land of the Amorites, the Hittites, the Perizzites, the Canaanites, the Hivites and the Jebusites; and I will completely destroy them. 24 “You shall not worship their gods, nor serve them, nor do according to their deeds; but you shall utterly overthrow them and break their sacred pillars in pieces. 25 “But you shall serve the Lord your God, and He will bless your bread and your water; and I will remove sickness from your midst. 26 “There shall be no one miscarrying or barren in your land; I will fulfill the number of your days. 27 “I will send My terror ahead of you, and throw into confusion all the people among whom you come, and I will make all your enemies turn their backs to you. 28 “I will send hornets ahead of you so that they will drive out the Hivites, the Canaanites, and the Hittites before you. 29 “I will not drive them out before you in a single year, that the land may not become desolate and the beasts of the field become too numerous for you. 30 “I will drive them out before you little by little, until you become fruitful and take possession of the land.
Consider:
3 When He broke the second seal, I heard the second living creature saying, “Come.” 4 And another, a red horse, went out; and to him who sat on it, it was granted to take peace from the earth, and that men would slay one another; and a great sword was given to him.
v.11
v.11
11 and there will be great earthquakes, and in various places plagues and famines; and there will be terrors and great signs from heaven.
This falls under the Tribulation time frame.
During that time, there will be these things.
Let’s review.
Earthquakes -
Earthquakes -
Tyndale Bible Dictionary Earthquake
Instances of earthquakes are (1) at Mt Sinai, in connection with God’s giving the law to Moses (Ex 19:18); (2) during the wilderness wandering of the Israelites, when Korah and his followers rebelled against Moses and were destroyed as punishment for their rebellion (Nm 16:31–33); (3) among the Philistines on the occasion when Jonathan and his armor bearer fought a garrison of Philistines (1 Sm 14:15); (4) after Elijah killed the prophets of Baal and, fleeing Jezebel’s wrath, sat under a juniper tree feeling sorry for himself (1 Kgs 19:7–9, 11); (5) in the reign of King Uzziah (Am 1:1); (6) at the death of Jesus on Calvary (Mt 27:51–54); (7) at the resurrection of Jesus (Mt 28:2); and (8) at Philippi while Paul and Silas were in jail (Acts 16:26). Earthquakes are also mentioned as one of the phenomena in connection with the “Day of the Lord” (Zec 14:4–5) and the consummation of this age (Rv 6:12–24; 11:19; 16:18).
18 And there were flashes of lightning and sounds and peals of thunder; and there was a great earthquake, such as there had not been since man came to be upon the earth, so great an earthquake was it, and so mighty. 19 The great city was split into three parts, and the cities of the nations fell. Babylon the great was remembered before God, to give her the cup of the wine of His fierce wrath.
Famines -
Famines -
“The hungry are men who both outwardly and inwardly are painfully deficient in the things essential to life as God meant it to be, and who, since they cannot help themselves, turn to God on the basis of His promise.” - Leonhard Goppelt, “Πεινάω (λιμός),” ed. Gerhard Kittel, Geoffrey W. Bromiley, and Gerhard Friedrich, Theological Dictionary of the New Testament (Grand Rapids, MI: Eerdmans, 1964–), 18.
5 When He broke the third seal, I heard the third living creature saying, “Come.” I looked, and behold, a black horse; and he who sat on it had a pair of scales in his hand. 6 And I heard something like a voice in the center of the four living creatures saying, “A quart of wheat for a denarius, and three quarts of barley for a denarius; and do not damage the oil and the wine.”
The Theological Dictionary of the New Testament 1. The Use of λιμός.
a. λιμός denotes first an acute lack of food as a result of the absence of means of nourishment, i.e, famine, whether through failure of crops due to drought22 or the cutting off of supplies in war (2 K. 6:25; 7:4; 25:3). Through every natural cause it is a work of God, either as something which shapes history (Ps. 105:16; 2 K. 8:1) or as a visitation (Dt. 11:10–17; 2 S. 21:1; 24:13; 1 Ch. 21:12; cf. 1 K. 17:1; Is. 14:30; Sir. 39:29; 48:2). Hence deliverance from languishing is sought from God (1 K. 8:37; 2 Ch. 6:28; 20:9; Ps. Sol. 5:8) and is experienced as His help by men of God.23 Later Judaism clings to this understanding, though it lays increasing stress on the concept of retribution, Jos. Ant., 15, 299 f.
b. λιμός is also the subjective result of famine, i.e., hunger, a gnawing lack of that which is necessary to life. In this sense λιμός is in Jer. and Ez., with μάχαιρα and θάνατος (דֶּבֶר), a phenomenon of the divine judgment in salvation history. These three deadly arrows (Dt. 32:23; Ez. 5:16) bring on the rebellious people of the covenant a judgment which is eschatological in character,24 and which is to be followed by a new beginning as out of death. λιμός is again used along these lines, with sword, pestilence etc., to denote historical judgment in Dt. 32:23 f.; Lv. 26:23–26; Test. Jud. 23; Ps. Sol. 13:2 f.; Philo Vit. Mos., I, 110; Praem. Poen., 127; Ab., 5, 8; b. Ab., 5, 10.
Plagues -
Plagues -
① pert. to being diseased, pestilential, diseased, of birds of prey ὄρνεα … ὄντα λοιμὰ τῇ πονηρίᾳ αὐτῶν B 10:4. For the names of the birds in this pass. s. Lev. 11:13–16. B views them as typical of certain persons.
This is rampant disease.
Terrors -
Terrors -
These are events or conditions which create fear in men.
12 I looked when He broke the sixth seal, and there was a great earthquake; and the sun became black as sackcloth made of hair, and the whole moon became like blood; 13 and the stars of the sky fell to the earth, as a fig tree casts its unripe figs when shaken by a great wind. 14 The sky was split apart like a scroll when it is rolled up, and every mountain and island were moved out of their places. 15 Then the kings of the earth and the great men and the commanders and the rich and the strong and every slave and free man hid themselves in the caves and among the rocks of the mountains; 16 and they said to the mountains and to the rocks, “Fall on us and hide us from the presence of Him who sits on the throne, and from the wrath of the Lamb; 17 for the great day of their wrath has come, and who is able to stand?”
These things send men into hysterics.
17 The land of Judah will become a terror to Egypt; everyone to whom it is mentioned will be in dread of it, because of the purpose of the Lord of hosts which He is purposing against them.
Isaiah 1–39 (2) God Will Save Egypt; Egyptians Will Worship God (19:16–25)
When one observes the uplifted hand of God, it is a strong hint about his plans.
Isaiah 1–39 (2) God Will Save Egypt; Egyptians Will Worship God (19:16–25)
Egypt’s fear of God also involves a recognition of their own inability to control their future. Learning to fear God has a positive side to it, because it brings the person who fears God to the place where they recognize the power and glory of Almighty God. Pride and self-sufficiency are removed and a humble attitude of submission arises. Thus the threatened punishment of God is not just designed for the purpose of fulfilling the demands of his justice. God’s plan is to use his discipline to teach men and nations to fear him as God.
Illustration:
8 Now before they lay down, she came up to them on the roof, 9 and said to the men, “I know that the Lord has given you the land, and that the terror of you has fallen on us, and that all the inhabitants of the land have melted away before you. 10 “For we have heard how the Lord dried up the water of the Red Sea before you when you came out of Egypt, and what you did to the two kings of the Amorites who were beyond the Jordan, to Sihon and Og, whom you utterly destroyed. 11 “When we heard it, our hearts melted and no courage remained in any man any longer because of you; for the Lord your God, He is God in heaven above and on earth beneath.
Signs from heaven -
Signs from heaven -
This would refer to events that are observable in the heavens where the stars are, above the earth.
30 “I will display wonders in the sky and on the earth, Blood, fire and columns of smoke. 31 “The sun will be turned into darkness And the moon into blood Before the great and awesome day of the Lord comes. 32 “And it will come about that whoever calls on the name of the Lord Will be delivered; For on Mount Zion and in Jerusalem There will be those who escape, As the Lord has said, Even among the survivors whom the Lord calls.
12 The fourth angel sounded, and a third of the sun and a third of the moon and a third of the stars were struck, so that a third of them would be darkened and the day would not shine for a third of it, and the night in the same way.
All of these things represent what God promised through the Prophet Joel:
1 Blow a trumpet in Zion, And sound an alarm on My holy mountain! Let all the inhabitants of the land tremble, For the day of the Lord is coming; Surely it is near, 2 A day of darkness and gloom, A day of clouds and thick darkness. As the dawn is spread over the mountains, So there is a great and mighty people; There has never been anything like it, Nor will there be again after it To the years of many generations. 3 A fire consumes before them And behind them a flame burns. The land is like the garden of Eden before them But a desolate wilderness behind them, And nothing at all escapes them. 4 Their appearance is like the appearance of horses; And like war horses, so they run. 5 With a noise as of chariots They leap on the tops of the mountains, Like the crackling of a flame of fire consuming the stubble, Like a mighty people arranged for battle. 6 Before them the people are in anguish; All faces turn pale. 7 They run like mighty men, They climb the wall like soldiers; And they each march in line, Nor do they deviate from their paths. 8 They do not crowd each other, They march everyone in his path; When they burst through the defenses, They do not break ranks. 9 They rush on the city, They run on the wall; They climb into the houses, They enter through the windows like a thief. 10 Before them the earth quakes, The heavens tremble, The sun and the moon grow dark And the stars lose their brightness. 11 The Lord utters His voice before His army; Surely His camp is very great, For strong is he who carries out His word. The day of the Lord is indeed great and very awesome, And who can endure it? 12 “Yet even now,” declares the Lord, “Return to Me with all your heart, And with fasting, weeping and mourning; 13 And rend your heart and not your garments.” Now return to the Lord your God, For He is gracious and compassionate, Slow to anger, abounding in lovingkindness And relenting of evil.
v.12
v.12
12 “But before all these things, they will lay their hands on you and will persecute you, delivering you to the synagogues and prisons, bringing you before kings and governors for My name’s sake.
Before the Tribulation, this is what the disciples of Jesus can expect.
Lay their hands on you
To arrest.
Persecute you
διώκω impf. ἐδίωκον; fut. διώξω; 1aor. ἐδίωξα; pf. pass. ptc. δεδιωγμένος; 1aor. pass. ἐδιώχθην; (1) as making haste press forward, hasten, run (figuratively in PH 3:12); (2) of hostile pursuit persecute (JN 5:16); drive out, expel (MT 23:34); (3) figuratively, as being zealous; for a person run after, pursue (LU 17:23); as an earnest striving after something pursue, follow after, seek after (1T 6:11)
Timothy Friberg, Barbara Friberg, and Neva F. Miller, Analytical Lexicon of the Greek New Testament, Baker’s Greek New Testament Library (Grand Rapids, MI: Baker Books, 2000), 118.
Delivering you to synagogues
Public shame and judgment by “Sanhedrin.”
Delivering you to prisons
Gentile prisons. This assumes trumped up charges.
Bringing you before kings
Worldly officials on national level.
Bringing you before governors
Worldly officials on local level.
Consider that the act of delivering a Christian to synagogues, etc… is necessary to understand.
12 πρὸ δὲ τούτων πάντων ἐπιβαλοῦσιν ἐφʼ ὑμᾶς τὰς χεῖρας αὐτῶν καὶ διώξουσιν, παραδιδόντες εἰς τὰς συναγωγὰς καὶ φυλακάς, ἀπαγομένους ἐπὶ βασιλεῖς καὶ ἡγεμόνας ἕνεκεν τοῦ ὀνόματός μου·
The process is this: “being betrayed into the hands of the leaders of the synagogues and prisons, being led away upon the kings and governors...”
Who is doing the betraying?
16 “But you will be betrayed even by parents and brothers and relatives and friends, and they will put some of you to death, 17 and you will be hated by all because of My name.
The betrayal will come from the most intimate of relationships.
Those who betray will be the “familiar friends” of life.
9 Even my close friend in whom I trusted, Who ate my bread, Has lifted up his heel against me.
51 “Do you suppose that I came to grant peace on earth? I tell you, no, but rather division; 52 for from now on five members in one household will be divided, three against two and two against three. 53 “They will be divided, father against son and son against father, mother against daughter and daughter against mother, mother-in-law against daughter-in-law and daughter-in-law against mother-in-law.”
v.13
v.13
13 “It will lead to an opportunity for your testimony.
12 Now I want you to know, brethren, that my circumstances have turned out for the greater progress of the gospel, 13 so that my imprisonment in the cause of Christ has become well known throughout the whole praetorian guard and to everyone else, 14 and that most of the brethren, trusting in the Lord because of my imprisonment, have far more courage to speak the word of God without fear.
If a person is committed to testifying of the Lord Jesus Christ, then being arrested, which typically includes some level of confession, gives opportunity for speaking about Jesus Christ.
v.14
v.14
Luke 21:13–14 (NAS): 14 “So make up your minds not to prepare beforehand to defend yourselves;
LIterally, “Put it into your heart not to give a defense speech beforehand.”
The indication here is that a person should not defend himself, but give testimony of Jesus Christ.
This is what Paul did.
Paul’s imprisonment from Acts 23ff.
v.15
v.15