If you would take your Bibles out and turn with me back into the gospel of Luke. We’re looking tonight at Luke chapter 21 and we’re looking at this last section of the gospel of Luke with a focus on hope. Tonight we’ll see what that hope looks like in a messy world. Luke chapter 21; 880 in the pew Bibles.
I heard a statistic recently about the noise of cities and about the volume of emergency sirens. And so in 1912, sirens registered at 96 decibels from a distance of 100 feet. By 1973, they were up to 114 decibels. And today, the average emergency siren is around 123 decibels. That probably means nothing to you as far as decibel level goes, but what it means is that the sirens today are actually six times louder than they were 100 years ago. And they have to be. They have to be in order for us to hear them because of all the noise that’s going on all around us all the time. But we do hear them, don’t we? And we’re familiar with hearing police sirens and firetrucks and ambulances whizzing by us day to day. We get alerted when there is a threat of severe weather, of a tornado. We get alerted when there is a missing person. If we lived in other parts of the world, we would be familiar with the sound of air raid sirens and missile alerts. And along those same lines, isn’t it sad that our children are familiar with the experience of a school lock down drill because of our country having too many school shootings. We live in a volatile world and we may be tempted because of the volatility of the world around us to lose hope.
But Jesus talked about these very things in Luke chapter 21 and He warns us. He warns us about being afraid. He warns us about being led astray. He warns us about loving and about being too attached to this world. And what He does is He redirects our gaze and He directs our attention to His coming again with power and with great glory. Because He’s going to come again with power and great glory and He’s going to come again to make all things right and to establish ultimately, completely, the kingdom of God. So our hope is not in this world. It’s not in the empires of dirt that are all around us. Our hope is in the kingdom of God. Our hope is in the redemption which Jesus alone will bring about. And that will be our two points for tonight. Number one, empires of dirt. And secondly, the kingdom of God.
Before we read God’s Word, let’s pray and ask His help for our understanding.
Our Father, we give You thanks for speaking to us and speaking so clearly of the things that we face day to day and that we hear and see in the world around us – concerning things, disturbing things – but we thank You for Your warnings and we thank You for Your promises and we ask that You would help us to have hope. We pray for Your Spirit. We wouldn’t understand, we wouldn’t apply, we wouldn’t live out Your Word unless Your Spirit worked in us and through us to help us be faithful to You. So speak, Lord, for Your servants listen. We pray this in Jesus’ name, amen.
Luke chapter 21, beginning in verse 1:
“Jesus looked up and saw the rich putting their gifts into the offering box, and he saw a poor widow put in two small copper coins. And he said, ‘Truly, I tell you, this poor widow has put in more than all of them. For they all contributed out of their abundance, but she out of her poverty put in all she had to live on.’
And while some were speaking of the temple, how it was adorned with noble stones and offerings, he said, ‘As for these things that you see, the days will come when there will not be left here one stone upon another that will not be thrown down.’ And they asked him, ‘Teacher, when will these things be, and what will be the sign when these things are about to take place?’ And he said, ‘See that you are not led astray. For many will come in my name, saying, ‘I am he!’ and, ‘The time is at hand!’ Do not go after them. And when you hear of wars and tumults, do not be terrified, for these things must first take place, but the end will not be at once.’
Then he said to them, ‘Nation will rise against nation, and kingdom against kingdom. There will be great earthquakes, and in various places famines and pestilences. And there will be terrors and great signs from heaven. But before all this they will lay their hands on you and persecute you, delivering you up to the synagogues and prisons, and you will be brought before kings and governors for my name’s sake. This will be your opportunity to bear witness. Settle it therefore in your minds not to meditate beforehand how to answer, for I will give you a mouth and wisdom, which none of your adversaries will be able to withstand or contradict. You will be delivered up even by parents and brothers and relatives and friends, and some of you they will put to death. You will be hated by all for my name’s sake. But not a hair of your head will perish. By your endurance you will gain your lives.
But when you see Jerusalem surrounded by armies, then know that its desolation has come near. 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, for these are days of vengeance, to fulfill all that is written. 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. 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.
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, people fainting with fear and with foreboding of what is coming on the world. For the powers of the heavens will be 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 heads, because your redemption is drawing near.’
And he told them a parable: ‘Look at the fig tree, and all the trees. As soon as they come out in leaf, you see for yourselves and know that the summer is already near. So also, when you see these things taking place, you know that the kingdom of God is near. Truly, I say to you, this generation will not pass away until all has taken place. Heaven and earth will pass away, but my words will not pass away.
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. For it will come upon all who dwell on the face of the whole earth. But stay awake 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.’
And every day he was teaching in the temple, but at night he went out and lodged on the mount called Olivet. And early in the morning all the people came to him in the temple to hear him.”
The grass withers and the flowers fall but the Word of our God endures forever.
Empires of Dirt
You know we tend to trust the things that are the most certain to us. Things like the ground that we stand on, the families that we come from, the places and the institutions that have been around forever. But what happens when those things go away? That’s what this chapter is about. And it begins with the wealthy putting their gifts into the offering box. They were the ones who operated out of their abundance. They were the ones who were responsible for the most part for the ongoing maintenance and adornment of the temple. And it was an impressive sight to see. If you look at pictures today of the temple mount in Jerusalem, you will see the way that the footprint of the temple dominated the landscape of the city.
I saw a Tweet recently from an Ole Miss football Twitter account and it was a picture. It was a picture of Vaught Hemingway Football Stadium and two practice football fields, an indoor practice facility, the basketball pavilion, a parking garage, and a few other parking lots alongside it, and the caption that went along with the picture was, “Welcome Back to Campus!” I thought, “Campus? This is more of a sports complex than a school campus!” And you have the same thing in Starkville as well. If you come into Starkville from the north you make the turn, you see on the horizon there’s The Hump and Dudy Noble and Davis Wade Stadium and you think, “This looks more like a sports venue than it does an institution of higher education.” That’s somewhat the way the temple dominated the landscape of the city of Jerusalem. Now am I comparing the function of these stadiums with the way the temple functioned in Jerusalem? Well maybe! It’s not very far of a stretch, is it?
But back to the temple. The temple complex in Jerusalem, it sat on a high point in the city and it covered an area that was 29 football fields, the same as 29 football fields. And the walls were around ten stories high and some of them went down just as far below the ground in order to reach bedrock. We’re talking about massive, massive stones. It was an engineering marvel. Josephus is usually the go-to source that we look to to find out what things were like, what things looked like in those days, and he says that, about the temple, that the columns were made of the purest white marble and that there was a golden vine that adorned the entrance to the sanctuary. He said that it was a marvel of size and artistry; that all who saw it marveled at the costliness of the material with which it had been constructed.
You think about this temple. In some form, in its beginning form, it went back to the rebuilding 500 years before that. So it had been around a long time. Just think about that. The United States has been around for about 250 years. That temple had been around in some form for about 500 years. You couldn’t help but think it was there to stay. In fact, it was so permanent that some people thought you could swear by the temple. It was certain. It was a sure thing for the people in Jerusalem. Verse 6, “As for these things that you see, the days will come when there will not be left here one stone upon another that will not be thrown down.” What was going to happen? Jesus was talking again about the destruction of Jerusalem in 70AD when the temple came down in a dramatic way.
But that’s just a foretaste. That’s just a foretaste of some of the things that Jesus talks about here in this passage that are to come. In fact, He goes on to talk about wars and earthquakes and famines and pestilences. He talks about persecution and about arrest and being put to death for His sake. A major upheaval of all that is good and right and dependable. These are things that are terrifying, but what is the trouble with being afraid of these things? The trouble is being led astray. In verse 8, Jesus says, “See that you are not led astray.”
Now we live in turbulent times, don’t we? And when you factor in all that’s been going on in recent years in the world around us from pandemic to inflation to a war to social unrest, it’s no wonder that all those things come with some level of anxiety, of anger, of the spread of misinformation. It’s no wonder that we are living in a time that people call the golden age of conspiracy theories. There’s so many conspiracy theories out there that there are conspiracy theories about conspiracy theories. Now probably the most well-known one is the “Birds Aren’t Real” conspiracy theory. Have you heard of that one? It’s that birds are actually drones that the government is using to keep an eye on us. It’s all a joke, it’s all tongue in cheek, but it’s meant to poke fun at the fact that there are conspiracy theories everywhere. And we tend to love conspiracy theories. They’re fun. They’re entertaining. They’re fun to talk about. They provide an explanation for those things that usually cannot be explained, and if they happen to support a particular political ideology or agenda, well all the better. And we live in this world where social media allows the spread of conspiracy theories to go unchecked and even to gain some traction.
And if we live in the golden age of conspiracy theories, then we have to be careful that we are not led astray. In fact, there are some studies that show in a congregation like ours, that we are more prone to fall for certain conservative conspiracy theories. And don’t think that those kind of things don’t seep into the church. And we can start to operate with a certain level of distrust or to question people’s motives in the church around us. But what Jesus is saying is, these things aren’t new. Jesus is saying that there will always be wars and disease and natural disasters and opposition but that does not mean that this is the end. And it does not mean that God is not still working out His plan and keeping and protecting His people.
And so He gives us in this passage some dangers to look out for. Here are some of the dangers that Jesus talks about in this passage. Number one, are false messiahs. Look at verse 8. He says, “Many will come in my name saying, ‘I am he and the time is at hand.’ Do not go after them.” The Greek phrase there when Jesus says that, “There will be those who come and say, ‘I am he,’” the Greek phrase is “ego eimi” – “I AM.” And you’ve heard the connections made between that phrase and the name of God revealed to Moses at the burning bush – “I AM that I AM.” And I think most of us are familiar with the gospel of John and how we find multiple times throughout the gospel of John the famous “I AM” sayings of Jesus. In fact, David mentioned one just a few weeks ago where the soldiers had come to arrest Jesus in the garden of Gethsemane and Jesus said, “I AM” – “ego eimi” – and they fell to the ground. Well He’s saying here, “Don’t be fooled when people are made out to be of messianic proportions. Don’t be fooled when people are made out to be of messianic proportions.”
And they have come. And they have names, by the way. Names like Bar Kokhba and David Alroy and Haile Selassie and David Koresh and Louis Farrakhan. John Lennon said that the Beatles are bigger than Jesus. And there are rappers that appear on the cover of “Rolling Stone” with the crown of thorns on their head and take on names that have messianic associations. Now we may not take those things seriously, but boy do we get worked up about certain political figures as being the answer to our country’s problems. And don’t tell me that there is not at times a religious following for presidential candidates and people with power and prestige. They’re false messiahs. Don’t get fooled by them. Don’t be led astray.
But then there are some other dangers as well and they’re more subtle. Things like simply being afraid – Jesus says in verse 9, “Do not be terrified.” Now what’s the problem with being terrified? What are the problems that arise from the fear of getting swept up in political and religious hostility? What are the problems of getting swept up in fear over even national or natural disasters? Well it’s self-protection; it’s self-preservation. Self-preservation can take on many different forms. It may be trying to avoid the persecution that could come our way. It may come from trying to evade the pressure of a secular culture. What happens then? We fail to live up to our responsibility to be a witness for Christ in an ungodly culture. And it may be an unwillingness that comes our way to stand alone or to be unpopular.
I’m reading a book right now that a man wrote about his father. And he says that his father was always saying different aphorisms or different sayings throughout their time growing up. One of the sayings that he would say is, “Dead salmon go with the flow.” And you know, there are times when going with the flow feels like it’s safe, but doesn’t that often come with a loss of spiritual vitality. Self-preservation may look like fitting in, going with the flow, but it also could be an inordinate love for the cares of this life, for the cares of this world. Verse 34, Jesus warns against our hearts being weighed down with dissipation and drunkenness and cares of this life. Isn’t there a temptation in the uncertainty of life, even in the brevity of life, to try to squeeze the most out of it while we can, to enjoy our best life now. And we go from one accomplishment to another, one game to another. We go from trip to trip to trip to trip and live like this life is all that there is. But then there’s a flip side of that. And the flip side of that is the tendency to try to hide from it all. I call it FEMA-mode. FEMA-mode is when you stockpile water and toilet paper and you go into a bunker so to speak and try to protect yourself from any kind of disaster that may come. And we all know what that looks like. We know what that looks like and we’ve seen it in the ways that many are still responding to the COVID pandemic.
So pretend saviors, bad teaching, fearfulness, worldliness, apathy – all of those things are in play when it looks like the world is coming apart. But that’s just the way things are in a fallen world. The things that Jesus is talking about, they are the groanings of the whole creation in the pangs of childbirth as Paul writes about in Romans chapter 8. It’s the whole creation waiting to be delivered from the bondage to corruption, waiting for the restoration, waiting for the new heavens and the new earth. Jesus said in John chapter 16, “In this world you will have trouble.” And the destruction of Jerusalem, it’s not the ultimate apocalyptic event. It’s a precursor. It is a precursor to the end. And because these things happen, these things have happened that Jesus is talking about, we can be certain that the rest will take place. We can count on the day coming when the heavens and the earth will be shaken, will be devastated, and Jesus will come in power and in glory and He will bring about the kingdom of God in all of its fullness. And so He’s saying to us, “Be ready.” While we live here in these empires of dirt, be ready for the coming of the kingdom of God because the kingdom of God will come.
The Kingdom of God
It’s like Johnson City, Tennessee. How? Well, since I was about three years old, our family has taken family vacations to the mountains in North Carolina. And it’s a long drive – like 10, 11 hours. It takes a long time, all day, to get there. And we try to get on the road early. We try to limit our stops as much as we can. We’ll maybe even pack a lunch so we don’t have to stop for lunch and we just keep on driving through lunch because there’s a lot of anticipation. There’s a lot of expectation about reaching our destination. And it’s something that we have been looking forward to not just on the drive up there but for weeks leading up to the vacation. But there’s a point when everything changes. And the point when it changes is when we get off of Interstate 81 and turn onto Interstate 26 towards Johnson City, Tennessee. And in my mind, at that point, we’ve made it. Now, understand, we still have about an hour and a half left to drive. That’s about 15% of the trip still to go. That’s still a good piece of the drive left when we make that turn. But something’s changed. It’s the homestretch. And I know that once we get there, I know what’s coming next. There’s Johnson City and Elizabethton and Roan Mountain and Elk Park and Newland and on into Linville and Blowing Rock. And I can already start to enjoy and to recognize parts of the end destination. Why? Because it’s near. It’s near.
And Jesus says that the coming of the kingdom is, in some ways, like that. And even the destruction of Jerusalem is a sign that the end is near, in a sense. And it means that the last great stage in the unfolding of God’s plan of salvation has begun. It means that the times of the Gentiles have arrived. And this is the time in which the Gentiles are included into the people of God engrafted in, in a fuller way. That that has begun. In fact, in a parallel passage in Mark chapter 13, Jesus says that the Gospel “must first be proclaimed to all nations.” Paul is saying in Romans chapter 1, Paul says, “I am not ashamed of the gospel for it is the power of God for salvation to all who believe, to the Jew first and also to the Gentile.” Well this is the time of the Gentile inclusion into the plan and the purpose of God. This is the Gospel age and there is no other redemptive event until the coming of Christ at the end of history. This is it. And because Jesus has come, because of His life and His death and His resurrection, His ascension, there is nothing else that we are waiting for except His coming again in a cloud with great power and with glory. And once the time of the Gentiles have been fulfilled, the end will come. The redemption, deliverance will arrive and the kingdom will be established.
Jesus told a parable. It’s just like the fig tree and all the trees. When a fig tree comes out in leaf, you know that the summer is already near. And so also, the events surrounding Jerusalem in the first century and the groanings of the creation that we experience today in our own times are indications that God is going to bring about both an even greater upheaval but also the ultimate restoration of all things. In all these things that Jesus has been teaching and proclaiming and demonstrating throughout His ministry, the things that we have been reading and studying in the gospel of Luke about peace and forgiveness and healing and freedom and beauty and resurrection life, all of those blessings and more in their fullness Jesus will bring about at the last day. That’s what we’re looking forward to. That’s what our hope is in. And in some ways, even the turmoil that we see in the world around us today should give us a confident expectation that what He says will happen, will happen. And He says in verse 33, “Heaven and earth will pass away, but my words will not pass away.”
Now what about verse 32. Jesus says in verse 32, “Truly I say to you, this generation will not pass away until all has taken place.” Is Jesus saying that the people alive at that moment when He was saying those things will see all of those things take place, they will see all of those things happen? Well there are a couple of ways to look at it. In one sense, that literal generation, they would see the destruction of Jerusalem, they would see persecution and they would see the Gospel going out to the Gentiles. In other words, they would see the beginning of the end happen in their lifetime. But there’s another sense in which it could be a figurative generation. The type of people, the figurative generation in which they do not recognize Jesus as the Messiah and who reject God’s promises. And that generation, those people will always be around until the Messiah and His promises come to fruition at the end.
There’s two ways of looking at it, but either way, Jesus’ message is the same for all those who heard His words in that day and all who hear His words tonight. And that message is, “Watch. Pay attention.” Verse 34, “Watch yourselves.” Verse 36, “Stay awake at all times.” In other words, Jesus is teaching us to hope, to have hope in the midst of turmoil and conflict and danger and disruption. Eugene Peterson says this in The Long Obedience in the Same Direction. He says that, “Watching and waiting add up to hope.” And he says that, “A Christian’s watching and waiting, the Christian’s hoping is based on the conviction that God is actively involved in His creation and vigorously at work in redemption. It means a confident, alert expectation that God will do what He says He will do and it is a willingness to let God do it in His way and in His time.”
Now do you know what that looks like? Well it could look like a bold defense of the Gospel in the midst of heart-wrenching persecution. It could look like being witnesses for Christ even when parents and brothers and relatives and friends are against you, even when it’s an unraveling at the most basic human relationships on the most solid ground of our lives. For some, it will even mean death. But hear what Jesus says. Jesus says, “Don’t worry beforehand what you will say.” He says, “I will give you a mouth and wisdom that none of your adversaries will be able to withstand and contradict and by endurance you will gain your lives.” You see, He’s saying that by hope you will overcome intense persecution and take hold of something that is far better than anything this life can offer to us.
But do you know what else it looks like? You know what else it looks like to watch and to wait and to hope in God’s redemption and in God’s timing? It looks like a poor widow who went to the offering box and put in all that she had to live on. She put in, in verse 1, just two small copper coins. What was she doing? She was trusting God and she was doing what she could do and she was waiting on God’s goodness. She was hoping in the kingdom of God and not hoping in the kingdom of this world and its empires of dirt. Can we hope like that? I think about all the money that goes to politicians and lobbyists and political campaigns and all the money that goes to name, image, and likeness collectives for college athletes and college coaches. And then there’s all the money that goes to funding our own hobbies and our personal appearances, to build us bigger homes and better homes. And so much of it can be disturbing, can’t it? But how much goes to extending the kingdom of God? How much are we sacrificially giving in order to see the kingdom, to see the Gospel go into the neighborhoods around us and onto the college campuses in our country or to the lost around the world? How much does our money go towards the time of the Gentiles being fulfilled and then the end coming in?
You know, we’re going to take a break from Luke for a couple of weeks. We’re going to take a break from studying Luke for the Mission Conference. And the theme of the Mission Conference is, “Lord, Extend Your Kingdom.” Now that’s a prayer, but it’s a prayer that, if God answers it, it’s going to come with action. It will come with action of giving our time and our money to seeing the Lord extend the kingdom. And how does our money, where our money goes, what does that say about where our hope lies? So let this poor widow – we’re going to have the theme of the Mission Conference, “Lord, Extend Your Kingdom,” but let the challenge be from this poor widow who gave in hope all that she had. And it’s more than money, isn’t it? She really gave her whole life. It’s like she put her whole life into the offering box. And that’s what we are called to do as we hope, as we wait expectantly for the coming of the kingdom of God, is that we would live as a living sacrifice to our great God and Savior, Jesus Christ, who will bring the kingdom of God in its fullness.
Watch yourselves. “Watch yourselves lest your hearts be weighed down with dissipation and drunkenness and the cares of this life and that day come upon you suddenly like a trap.” Maybe you need to hear that tonight. And that means repenting and believing for the first time and receiving the forgiveness of God, the salvation of Jesus Christ. Do it now. Don’t wait until tomorrow. And then, “Stay awake at all times,” verse 36 says, “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.” Let’s pray.
Our Father, we confess that we are so easily distracted and our sights are set much too closely. We look down straight in front of us and we forget to set our sights on eternity, on the coming of the kingdom of God and the coming of Christ in His glory and power. And so we ask that You would reset our focus and that our prayer would be, “Lord, extend Your kingdom. Extend Your kingdom through our lives, through our giving, through our ministry in bold defense and witness of the Gospel.” Help us to do those things because we have hope and because we know that what You have promised You will fulfill and You will keep Your people. You will not leave us or forsake us. Help us, Father, to watch and to stay awake. And we pray all of this in Jesus’ name, amen.