End Times

As he was leaving the temple, one of his disciples said to him, "Look, Teacher! What massive stones! What magnificent buildings!" "Do you see all these great buildings?" replied Jesus. "Not one stone here will be left on another; every one will be thrown down."

As Jesus was sitting on the Mount of Olives opposite the temple, Peter, James, John and Andrew asked him privately,  "Tell us, when will these things happen? And what will be the sign that they are all about to be fulfilled?"

Jesus said to them: "Watch out that no one deceives you.  Many will come in my name, claiming, `I am he,' and will deceive many.  When you hear of wars and rumors of wars, do not be alarmed. Such things must happen, but the end is still to come.  Nation will rise against nation, and kingdom against kingdom. There will be earthquakes in various places, and famines. These are the beginning of birth pains.

"You must be on your guard. You will be handed over to the local councils and flogged in the synagogues. On account of me you will stand before governors and kings as witnesses to them.  And the gospel must first be preached to all nations.  Whenever you are arrested and brought to trial, do not worry beforehand about what to say. Just say whatever is given you at the time, for it is not you speaking, but the Holy Spirit.

"Brother will betray brother to death, and a father his child. Children will rebel against their parents and have them put to death.  All men will hate you because of me, but he who stands firm to the end will be saved" (Mark 13:1-13).

There are people who stay away from church because they don’t like to hear bad news.  If a preacher is doing his job, every sermon will feature two things—warning and comfort.  The warning concerns God’s message about sin—He hates evil in all its forms, from the smallest to the greatest, and He uses hell to punish sin forever.   The comfort is God’s message about forgiveness—He sent Jesus to suffer on the cross for every sin, so all who trust in His mercy can be granted pardon and receive eternal life in paradise.  God's law must be preached so that sinners understand their need for the Savior; His Gospel must be preached, or there is no hope for happiness after death. 

Naturally, people like to hear the Gospel—who doesn’t enjoy being told that God loves them and holds them precious in His arms?  But the Law is hard to listen to—no one likes being told that he or she is a miserable failure.  Preachers who speak warnings in their sermons are doing what God has ordered His messengers to do since the days of the prophets—but now as back then, many people resent being criticized.  They won’t attend worship if the Gospel is taught along with the Law. 

We have entered the last weeks of the Church Year.  Starting with All Saints’ Day, our focus is on the End Times, the final days of turmoil that will only grow worse until Christ returns in glory.  On the Last Day, Jesus will raise every human back to life to face the Lord for final judgment.  Daniel says, Multitudes who sleep in the dust of the earth will awake: some to everlasting life, others to shame and everlasting contempt (12:2).  Those judged worthy will inherit the new earth that Jesus will make for them; those deemed unworthy will be locked away in hell with Satan and his demons, an eternal sentence with no hope of parole.

There are people who don’t like to dwell on the bad stuff; they want their lives filled with song and sunny days.  But the End Times are upon us, and there’s no way to hide from the dark influence of sin and Satan.  Even if I were to ignore the Law in my messages to you, sin and God’s punishment cannot be ignored. 

In today’s Gospel lesson, the disciples ask Jesus for a date that they can put on the calendar—when will the End Times arrive?  But Jesus doesn’t give them a date; instead, He describes what the End Times will be like.  As we look at Jesus’ predictions, we can see that the End Times began shortly after He ascended into heaven and that the end of the world is drawing ever closer.  There’s no avoiding it.

The discussion started after a visit to the great Temple in Jerusalem.  The disciples were impressed by the grandeur of the building; they thought it so well built that it would remain standing for all time.  But Jesus shatters their illusions: Not one stone here will be left on another; every one will be thrown down.  This prophecy was fulfilled less than 40 years later when the Roman Empire, as punishment for rebellion, leveled Jerusalem and the Temple. 

The next prediction Jesus made was this: Many will come in my name, claiming, `I am he,' and will deceive many.  False saviors started coming out of the woodwork almost as soon as Jesus returned to heaven.  Some of these were men who wanted to be popular; others were looking to get rich at the expense of gullible followers.  Such wolves in sheep’s clothing have misled many throughout the centuries.  Consider Mohammed, who claimed to be Jesus’ successor and led his followers in holy jihad against Christians who would not submit to him.  Or right here in America, consider Joseph Smith who wrote the Book of Mormon, creating his own religion and declaring himself its leader and head teacher.  As Jesus warned, these false saviors have deceived many and kept them from the truth.

Jesus moved on to wars and rumors of wars.  The world has been embroiled in war ever since Jesus spoke those words; I’ll just mention a few.  The Crusades.  The Thirty Year’s War.  The War of Independence.  The War of 1812.  The Spanish-American War.  The First World War, which was so horrible that many felt the Last Day was coming soon.  The Second World War.  The Korean War.  The war in Vietnam.  The war in Kuwait.  The war in Iraq.  The war in Afghanistan.  There have been more wars than can be counted, and yet Jesus says when you hear of wars and rumors of wars, do not be alarmed. Such things must happen, but the end is still to come.  Nation will rise against nation, and kingdom against kingdom.  Our Lord tells us that war and saber rattling are part and parcel of the End Times.

Jesus moves on to natural disasters. There will be earthquakes in various places, and famines.  In the Book of Acts we are told of a terrible famine in the Holy Land, with the churches of Europe taking up collections to send relief.  Some of you can remember the “dirty 30s” when the breadbasket of America was reduced to a dust bowl and people abandoned their farms.  And there have been major earthquakes, too.  40 years after Jesus died and rose, Mount Vesuvius erupted, destroying Pompeii and changing the climate for hundreds of miles in southern Europe.  Underwater earthquakes cause tsunamis, tidal waves that destroy coastal regions; in recent years, we have seen massive loss of life caused by earthquake-triggered tsunamis.  Yet Jesus says that these are just the beginning of birth pains.  The world is getting ready to change, to die and give way to a new and perfect world that God will make for the pleasure of His saints.  But for now we have to deal with the pain leading up to that new birth.

But as terrible as war and natural disaster are, the real suffering comes at the hands of sinful humanity.  This is hardly surprising, because it was Adam’s sin that caused the world to be cursed with pain and death in the first place.  We are responsible for things getting so bad.  Our sins of thought, word and deed; our sins of failure and letting chaos go unchecked.  We contribute to the evil of the End Times when we choose living together over marriage.  We add to the pain of the world when we let hatred and bigotry influence the words we speak and type.  Things get worse when we don’t use our votes to stop evil from spreading unchecked.  The world groans in pain from our lies, our selfish wastefulness, and our casual attitude towards promises and commitments. 

Jesus warns, You must be on your guard. You will be handed over to the local councils and flogged in the synagogues. On account of me you will stand before governors and kings as witnesses to them.  These words came to pass for Peter and Paul.  Peter was whipped by order of those Jews in charge of religious purity, because they did not accept Jesus or His teachings as coming from God.  Paul was put on trial before officers of Rome, and used those opportunities to speak the Law and Gospel to them.  Fifteen hundred years later, Martin Luther was summoned to the court of Charles V to tell the king why he was stirring up controversy in the church; Luther used that opportunity to explain God’s word clearly and without apology.  In 2nd Timothy chapter four, Paul spoke of the world we live in, a world that doesn’t like to hear the Law and Gospel; the time will come when men will not put up with sound doctrine. Instead, to suit their own desires, they will gather around them a great number of teachers to say what their itching ears want to hear.  When you are used to darkness, bright light is painful to look at; sinners who are accustomed to living in darkness would rather extinguish the light of God than learn to appreciate its beauty.

Jesus’ words get even scarier: Brother will betray brother to death, and a father his child. Children will rebel against their parents and have them put to death.  All men will hate you because of me.  This prediction is no exaggeration of the facts.  In the early days of the church, the emperors of Rome insisted that the citizens honor them as gods living on earth; when the followers of Christ refused to do this, those emperors retaliated by ordering the arrest and gruesome death of any pledged to Christ.  Family members sold each other out to the authorities; some were afraid of the government, while others could not accept a relative leaving the religion of their family to follow Christ.  We see it happening in our world today.  Muslims and Hindus who convert are often shunned by their families and targeted for death by religious extremists.  In some places it is dangerous to accept Jesus as your Lord and Master.

The End Times are upon us, making life scary and dangerous.  Yet in spite of all the bad news, Jesus offers us hope, a bright ray of light to dispel the darkness that surrounds us.  He says, Whenever you are arrested and brought to trial, do not worry beforehand about what to say. Just say whatever is given you at the time, for it is not you speaking, but the Holy Spirit.  The Son of God does not leave us to deal with the End Times on our own.  He sends the Spirit of God to help us.  The Spirit comes through Word and Sacrament.  He takes up residence in our hearts and gives us the qualities we need to withstand this evil world: strength and patience, wisdom and hope.  When we are uncertain how to proceed, the Spirit is ready to help us; He is as close as a Bible, as close as a prayer.

Of course, the only reason that we have the Spirit’s help is because of Jesus’ work on our behalf.  The Son of God laid down His life to save sinners from the hellish punishment they deserve for breaking God’s Law.  Jesus bled and died for you and me and every sinner, and He pulls to safety all who cry to Him for rescue. 

But Jesus did not save us so we can just hide in our homes and ignore the suffering of the End Times.  Supported by the Holy Spirit, He sends us out through out with a mission—preach the Good News, in season and out of season, when people are receptive and also when they’re not (2nd Timothy 4:2).  The End Times will not be over until the mission work of God is complete: the gospel must first be preached to all nations.  If we drag our heels, if we are too scared or too lazy to share the Good News of salvation in Christ, we only prolong the agony that others are experiencing.  We dare not be selfish with the treasure of forgiveness and peace that God has shared with us!  When you see a person who is suffering the End Times without hope, you should think to yourself, "there, but for the grace of God, go I".

Of course, it can be unpleasant and even dangerous to practice your faith in public.  But heed the words of Peter: Your enemy the devil prowls around like a roaring lion looking for someone to devour.  Resist him, standing firm in the faith, because you know that your brothers throughout the world are undergoing the same kind of sufferings. And the God of all grace, who called you to his eternal glory in Christ, after you have suffered a little while, will himself restore you and make you strong, firm and steadfast (1st Peter 5:8-10).  Jesus says, let your light shine before men, that they may see your good deeds and praise your Father in heaven (Matthew 5:16).  Don’t let the End Times drive you to despair.  Don’t let all the bad stuff that is happening push you into hiding.  Christ is your king.  He forgives your mistakes.  He fills you with the Holy Spirit so you can be a light in the darkness.  And remember that Christ promised, he who stands firm to the end will be saved.