Sermon for Lord's Day February 12, 2023 Eschatology

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Sermon for Lord's Day February 12, 2023  Eschatology

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our Father and our God, our Savior and our
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Lord, our Creator and our Maker, we approach under your throne of mercy and grace this morning to find help in this time of our need as we stand to teach a word to your people.
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I pray, O Lord, that you would give us clarity in our mind, give us liberty with our mouth that we might speak forth the word of God and that the word of God would do, that you would do your perfect work in your word.
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Lord, that you would convict the lost, their sin and their standing outside of you, that you would redeem and you would draw them unto yourself, that you would regenerate the stony heart, give a heart of flesh to those who hear your word, that they might be saved today, that they may love you and that we may worship you in spirit and in truth, and that your word today, dear
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Lord, would be an encouragement to the saints of God, that we might, as was read in the call to worship,
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Lord, that we may rightfully and reasonably recognize the fact,
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God, that we are literally before you in this time of our worship and that we would be reminded as we see your word that you are the same yesterday, today, and forevermore.
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You are still the God who saves, you are still the
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God who heals, you are still the God who delivers, you are still the
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God who restores, you are still the God who brings your righteous and holy wrath upon your enemies, and you are still the
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God who gives grace to your elect people. Help us to see this, to know this, not just with our minds, for we truly need it with our minds, but we need to understand it with both our hearts and our heads alike, that this would be connected and that your people would be encouraged and edified from this time in your word today, for it's in Jesus' name
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I pray. Amen. Again, we thank
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God for the good word that was proclaimed and preached to us last week, the gospel spoken in clarity, and week before last, when we last left off here in Luke's gospel, we left off by reading, by seeing, the conversation, this connecting passage between verse 47 of chapter 20 and verse 5 and 6 where we're going to be picking up today, we see this connecting passage, right?
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He looked up, he saw the rich putting their gifts into the treasury, he saw a poor widow putting in two denarii, two cents, right?
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He said, truly I say to you, this poor widow put in more than all of them, for they all put in their gifts out of their abundance, but she, out of her lack, put in all that she had for living.
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And verse 5, where we're picking up today, and while some were talking about the temple, we see this in the synoptic accounts, in Matthew's account particularly,
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Matthew's account of where we're reading here today in Luke is far more expanded, but I believe that this section in Luke does appreciate the way that the
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Holy Spirit has this in the Word so succinctly for us, and so plainly sets forth the
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Word. As we see in the text, it's important for us to remember a few things, there's not really a title to put on this text other than that we are going to be talking about eschatology today.
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Eschatology in light of sin, in light of salvation, in light of prophecy, all of these doctrines are meeting here in this chapter, in this large section that we're going to be looking at today.
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And as we finish chapter 21, and we're going to of course not go into chapter 22, but chapter 22 forward, the remainder of Luke's gospel really and truly is the heart of the gospel.
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It is the death, the burial, and the resurrection of our Lord Jesus Christ, to which was prophesied by the prophets of old, and pointed to in the
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Old Testament, fulfilled in the New Testament, and thereafter proclaimed by the apostles, for which we as the
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Church of the Living God have a firm footing and a firm foundation rooted and grounded in the gospel of Jesus Christ.
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So today, today we are going to be addressing the eschatological,
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I want to be careful how to say this. We laughed at April's niece last night. April's niece's mother showed us a video of Katie.
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Some of you may know Katie. She was trying to say schizophrenic and was saying schizobiscuit or something.
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She tried over and over and over and over and laughed about it. And eschatology or saying eschatological is one of those times where it's one of those words that are sometimes hard to say, hard to read, and hard to think about.
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Nevertheless, it is still very important. If you want to know how to spell eschatology, it's
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E -S -C -H -A -T -O -L -O -G -Y, eschatology.
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And what is eschatology? Again, it's important for us to lay the groundwork to understand the meanings of words, the meanings of the doctrines that are set forth in the scripture.
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The word eschatology itself is a combination of two words, eschatos and logos.
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Eschatos is referenced to last. The word logos is the word or the meaning of the word eschatology is the study of last things.
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It's the study of last things. Kim Riddlebarger, in his book, wrote these words.
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Most often eschatology is understood as referring to events that are still future in relation to both the individual
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Christian and the course of world history. But he said this, with regard to individual eschatology, as far as individual eschatology is concerned, typically it's with physical death, immortality, and the intermediate state, which is the state of a person between death and when all people will be resurrected at the end of the age.
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So some might say, we don't need to understand eschatology. We don't need to know eschatology. I beg to differ.
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The scripture teaches us otherwise, because it has to do with death, immortality, the intermediate state, the state between death and the time when
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Jesus comes back the second time to call the saints of this world out of this world and judges both the living and the dead.
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So it's very, very important. In terms of world history, eschatology deals with the return of Jesus Christ.
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It deals with a bodily resurrection. We believe in a literal bodily resurrection from the dead.
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This is what the scriptures teach us. It refers to the bodily resurrection at the end of the age.
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It refers to the final judgment. These are things that are reality. These are things that we need to know and that we need to very much understand.
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Eschatology, big picture, has to do with final judgment and, of course, the eternal state.
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So you probably heard two terms there, intermediate state and the eternal state. The intermediate state is the time in which, between the time that I lay down my life to be absent from the body is to be present with the
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Lord. We don't go into a purgatory state. The intermediate state is just that period of time between the time that we die and the time that Christ comes back and our bodies are gloriously resurrected and raised.
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So that is why eschatology is very, very important. Now, I said all that to get us to here as we begin to look at this text, because you've heard it said before, and I'm going to say it again for the sake of us all, we very much see a twofold description of God's judgment.
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We see in this particular passage, in this particular text, in Matthew's account, it's the same thing.
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It's no different. It marks the same. We see a very real and a very imminent coming of destruction upon the city of Jerusalem.
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And we see this set forth very plainly in the text. Now, some may say, why does it happen that so many people get this idea, this doctrine of eschatology so confused?
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Why are there so many varying views on this doctrine of eschatology? Well, it's because that we don't go to the scripture itself.
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It's very, very easy for us as Christians to get our understanding of scripture from someone else other than the
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Holy Spirit. It's very easy for us to get it from our family members and from our friends or from the big name preachers on the
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TV or on the interwebs when we need to be going to the source, which is the
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Word of God. So there are three major views concerning eschatology.
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Three major views concerning eschatology. There is the premillennial view, premillennial.
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There is the postmillennial view, and there is the amillennial view.
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Now, the postmillennial view and the amillennial view in many ways are very much similar.
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The premillennial view is very much totally disconnected from the post and the amillennial view.
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I say that for this reason, to give you a very super brief definition or explanation of these views.
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The premillennial dispensational view of eschatology sees all of the
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Old Testament prophecies not necessarily fulfilled in Christ, but they see them fulfilled in future events in history that we've not even yet fully seen.
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Another, and this is going to be a derogatory term, but I'm still going to use it, another way that premillennial dispensational theology is referred to, it's referred to as newspaper exegesis.
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So when we watch the news or you read something in the newspaper and it's about an earthquake, it's about a storm, it's about troubles and trials and tumults in the world, the premillennialist says, see, that's what
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Jesus said was going to happen. Right? They don't look at it in view of the text of Scripture itself, but they look at it as though all these things are still yet taking place or happening.
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Now the postmillennial and the amillennial view see it, let me say this, the premillennial also sees what's referred to as the premillennial reign as a literal 1 ,000 years, a rigid 1 ,000 year period.
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The premillennial assumes that Christ will come and take the church out of the world before what is referred to as a great tribulation.
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Now again, everybody probably here, this is the only view that you've ever heard, not a lot of you. It's the only view that you've ever heard.
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Christ is going to come and rapture the church out of the world before the great tribulation takes place so that the people of God aren't on the earth during this great tribulation and then after a period of seven years of the great tribulation,
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Christ will come back, set up a 1 ,000 year reign on the earth and you'll hear this in a lot of popular teachers,
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John Hagee, I mean a lot of the
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TVN preachers, this is what you'll hear most, what you'll hear just all around about us. So John Hagee is one of those primary teachers of that.
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They say that Christ will come back, set a literal 1 ,000 year reign up on the earth and then after that, new heavens and the new earth.
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So the amillennial and the postmillennial sees the millennial reign of Christ as not a literal 1 ,000 year period but an indefinite period of time, not necessarily 1 ,000 years.
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It's a figurative number. And the amillennial and the postmillennial sees that the
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Old Testament prophecies concerning Christ were actually fulfilled in Christ, actually and literally fulfilled in Christ because the
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Old Testament is types and shadows pointing us to who? Christ, to Christ.
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And so in the New Testament, we see Christ fulfilling all of these things.
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As a matter of fact, what did Jesus say? You think that I've come to destroy the law and the prophets but I have not come to destroy the law and the prophets but to fulfill them.
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In Christ is the fulfillment. And so we see just that brief overview.
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Now, where do the amillennialists and the postmillennialists differ? The postmillennialist sees things as progressively getting better and better and better until the church ushers in the coming of Christ.
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So here's the thing. The premillennialist sees things getting worse and worse and worse. Newspaper exegesis.
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The fact that we assume things are getting worse and worse and worse is simply based on our connectivity to the interwebs.
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We just have more knowledge than they had over throughout the years. We're living in an unprecedented time in history.
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Never, never in history has anybody had access to world, to knowledge of world events and things that go on like we have literally today and in this time and age.
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So the premillennialist sees things as getting worse and worse and worse. The postmillennialist sees things as getting better and better and better.
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And the amillennialist sees things as continuing as they have since the beginning of creation.
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Sin, since the inception of sin in the fall of Adam and Eve, things have, because of sin, the world has been cursed, right?
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And because of sin, we're all born in sin, shaped in iniquity. The wrath and the curse of God is upon us.
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As we learned in the catechism today, we are all justly deserving of death and of hell.
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Right? So the premillennial says things are getting worse and worse. The postmillennial says things are getting better and better and better.
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The amillennialist says things are continuing on as they have since the foundation of the world.
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But both the post and the amillennialist hold to the idea, to the fact that these things that were prophesied of Christ were fulfilled in Christ.
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And very much so do the postmillennialist and the amillennialist hold to the understanding of the text of scripture that these texts that we read about are literally about the destruction to come upon Jerusalem.
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And we hold to these things because the scripture points us to these things.
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There are many time indicators that are given in the text. We see very plain language used by the gospel writers.
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We see very plain language used when they quote Jesus' words to the scribes, to the
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Pharisees, to the city of Jerusalem itself. And so that being said, let's pick up in verse 5.
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And while some were talking about the temple, that it had been adorned with beautiful stones and dedicated gifts, he said this, as for these things which you are looking at, the days will come in which there will not be left here one stone upon another which will not be torn down.
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So who's speaking here? Jesus, right? In verse 6,
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Jesus is speaking. Who is he speaking to? The disciples, those asking this question. Matthew's gospel, thank you dear.
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Matthew's gospel actually sets this account as Jesus walking out of the temple and the disciples looking back on the temple and asking these questions about the temple.
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He said the days will come in which there will not be left here one stone upon another which will not be torn down.
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So they question him saying, teacher, when therefore will these things happen?
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So what is the question that's being asked? When will what take place, right? What are they asking about specifically?
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They are asking about when the temple will be torn down because that is what
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Jesus just said. So they question him, teacher, when will these things happen?
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And then they ask a second question. What will be the sign when these things are about to take place?
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So when will these things happen and what will be the sign or how will we know that these things are about to take place?
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Very specific questions. And Jesus gives in length a very specific answer.
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And he said, see to it that you are not deceived for many will come in my name saying,
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I am he and the time is at hand. Do not go after them. All right, we covered that week before last.
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And when you hear, and then Jesus says this, and when you hear of wars and rumors of wars, or when you hear of wars and disturbances, do not be terrified for these things must first take place or must take place first.
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But the end, the end does not follow immediately. So Jesus, again, in very straightforward, plain talk, tells them there's going to be wars and disturbances.
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There's going to be a whole lot going on, but do not be terrified for these things must take place first.
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And then the end still isn't going to happen immediately, immediately in the sense of time and space.
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A generation is 30 to 40 years.
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Now, if you're seven years old, like Sarah, and you think about somebody being 40 years old, do you think those people are old or young?
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Huh? Oh, so mom and dad, yeah, yeah.
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Right? For a seven -year -old, 30 to 40 years seems like forever. But when you get to be 49 and about to be 50, you're like, holy cow.
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I remember when I was a teenager making fun of 30 -year -olds, saying they were old people. But it seems like a very long time, right?
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But in reality, time goes by quicker than we realize. So notice in verse 10 what
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Jesus says. Then he continued saying to them, nation will rise against nation and kingdom against kingdom.
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Remember, he's just said, his last breath, he said, you're going to hear wars and disturbances.
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Do not be terrified. What are these wars and these disturbances? They are the nations rising against the nations and kingdoms against kingdoms.
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There will be great earthquakes in various places, famines and plagues, and there will be terrors and there will be great signs from heaven, great signs in the heavens.
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But before all these things, this delineation between verse 11 and 12,
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I mean, to hear this, this is a very hard thing to hear what Jesus said.
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Verse 11, there'll be terrors and great signs from heaven, which is like, that's not bad enough.
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He says, but before all these things, before all these wars come about, before all these famines come about, before all these pestilences come about, before all these things, they will lay their hands on you and will persecute you, delivering you to the synagogues and prisons and bring you before kings and before governors for my name's sake.
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Again, here Jesus makes it clear that these, this great wars and rumors of wars, this great commotions that's going to happen within that generation, they are certainly going to happen.
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And one of the things that they know, how they know that that time is getting close is that they are going to be taken by force, that they are going to be forced literally to either stand with Christ or to deny
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Christ, to proclaim the gospel of Jesus Christ and die a saint's death, or they are going to deny the gospel of Christ, the gospel of Jesus Christ and prove themselves to be nothing but apostates.
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What a strong statement. But remember Jesus periodically through this passage, through this text, he's constantly encouraging them, do not be terrified.
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Do not be afraid. Do not fret. Do not fear.
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Do not worry. He's not giving them a false sense of assurance. He's not saying everything's going to be okay.
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You're not going to have any troubles. You're going to float on a cloud three feet above the ground for the remainder of this generation.
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And everything's going to be tulips and daisies. No, Jesus said, you're going to be brought before Kings.
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You're going to be brought before governors. They're going to lay their hands on you. They're going to persecute you.
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But in verse 13, Jesus said, what will it do? It will result in an opportunity for your testimony.
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It will result in an opportunity for you to proclaim the gospel message of Jesus Christ.
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And he goes on. So in light of what I just said, so set it in your heart, settle it in your hearts not to prepare beforehand to defend yourselves for I will give you a mouth and I will give you wisdom which none of your opponents will be able to resist or to refute.
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Again, the encouragement, the encouraging words of our Lord to his disciples here.
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You're going to be brought before Kings, but he said, I'll tell you what, don't fret because I'm going to give you the words that you need to speak when you're brought before Kings, when you're brought before governors, when you're brought before princes, when you're brought before captives, when you're brought before your captors, you are going,
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I, Jesus said, am going to give you the very words in which you are to speak. And some people may say, well, how does that look?
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How is that carried out? If you go to Acts very quickly here, Acts, go to Acts chapter eight, we have, or Acts chapter seven,
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I'm sorry, Acts chapter seven, we have the account, Luke's accounting of the deacon
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Stephen, his defense as he's brought before men to stand to proclaim the message of Jesus Christ.
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Actually, in chapter six, beginning in verse eight of chapter six, to get a little bit of context,
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Stephen, full of grace and power, was doing great wonders and signs among the people. Both some men from what was called the synagogue of the freedmen, including both
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Cyrenians and Alexandrians, some from Cilicia and Asia, they arose up and were arguing with Stephen, but they were, verse 10, unable to oppose the wisdom and the spirit by whom he was speaking.
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This is exactly what Jesus had told them, right? They're not going to be able to stand before my words.
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Listen, you can argue with somebody all you want. You can have all the wisdom in the world.
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You may be able to turn a phrase back on somebody, but my friend, you will never turn a phrase back on the
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Lord. You will never be able to refute the Lord. Then they secretly induced men, and here's where they gathered up a gang.
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We've heard him speak blasphemous words against Moses and God, and the scripture says they stirred up the people, the elders, the scribes, and they came up to him, and they dragged him away, and they brought him to the
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Sanhedrin. The Sanhedrin, remember, was the court of the 70, or some history will tell us the court of the 72, made up of scribes,
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Pharisees, and elders. It was like the religious supreme court, basically, is what it was.
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So they dragged him to the Sanhedrin. They put him, they put before false witnesses.
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They had folks telling lies, and they said this, this man never ceases speaking words against this holy place and the law.
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They were speaking of the temple and the law. For we have heard him say that this
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Jesus, the Nazarene, will destroy this place and alter the customs which
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Moses had handed down to us. They heard him say exactly what
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Jesus had told the disciples beforehand, that Jesus was going to destroy the temple, that the judgment of God, we can look at it as a little judgment, and I do not mean that disrespectfully, a little judgment was coming upon Jerusalem and upon the temple there, where it was going to be destroyed and tore down to the ground.
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And so they fixed their gaze on him, and all who were sitting in the Sanhedrin saw his face like the face of an angel.
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And so Stephen lights into preaching. He lights in, he goes, I mean, he starts back in David, he starts and preaches the
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Old Testament law to them that points to Jesus Christ. And then if you jump over to verse 44, he said, our fathers had the tabernacle of testimony in the wilderness, just as he who spoke to Moses directed him to make it according to the pattern which he had seen.
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And having received it in their turn, our fathers brought it in with Joshua when they dispossessed the nations whom
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God drove out before our fathers until the time of David. And then Stephen says
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David found favor in the sight of God and asked that he might find a dwelling place for the God of Jacob.
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But Solomon built a house for him. However, the Most High does not dwell in houses made by human hands, for as the prophet said, heaven is my throne, the earth is my footstool of my feet.
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What kind of house will you build for me, says the Lord, or what place is there for my rest?
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Was it not my hand which made all these things, says the Lord. And then another quote,
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Stephen says, you men, stiff -necked and uncircumcised in heart and ears, you are always resisting the
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Holy Spirit. As your fathers did, so do you. This is an example of the
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Lord giving Stephen a mouth, words of wisdom to stand and proclaim.
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And he goes on, in which one of the prophets did not your fathers persecute?
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They killed those who had previously announced the coming of the Righteous One, whose betrayers and murderers you have now become.
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He puts the onus on them. You who received the law as ordained by angels, and yet you did not observe it.
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Now when they heard this, they became furious in their hearts, and they began gnashing their teeth at him.
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But Stephen, being full of the Holy Spirit, gazed intently up into heaven, saw the glory of God and Jesus standing at the right hand of the throne of God.
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This is post -resurrection this is taking place. This is the fulfillment of what
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Jesus said was going to happen and what was going to take place. And he said,
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Stephen said, behold, I see the heavens opened up, and I see the Son of Man standing at the right hand of God.
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But crying out with a loud voice, they covered their ears, and they rushed at him with one accord.
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And when they had driven him out of the city, they began stoning him, and the witnesses laid aside their garments at the feet of a young man named
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Saul. Then went on stoning Stephen as he was calling out and saying these words,
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Lord Jesus, receive my spirit. Then falling on his knees, he cried out with a loud voice,
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Lord, do not hold this against them. And having said this, he fell asleep, or he died.
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It's not glamorous. It's not glorious. And it's not necessarily something we want to rush headlong into.
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But it is the truth. Right? So we see this. So Jesus said, I'll give you a mouth by which no one will be able to resist.
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Verse 6, back to Luke 21, 16, but you will be betrayed even by parents and brothers and relatives and friends, and they will put some of you to death, and you will be hated by all because of my name.
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Yet, verse 18, yet not a hair of your head will perish.
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Some may say, well, ain't that saying that they wouldn't have to endure pain or sorrow?
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No, what he's saying is this, that what we see physically is temporary, and what is unseen is eternal.
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And we are called repeatedly through the gospels, through the word of God itself, to take our eyes off of this world and to fix our eyes on that which is eternal, that which is fixed in the heavens.
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By your perseverance, verse 19, he said, you will gain your lives. Then those who are in Judea, Jesus gives specific instruction here.
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Then, when these things take place, or I'm sorry, verse 20, but when you see
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Jerusalem surrounded by armies, then know that its desolation is at hand.
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The premillennialist says, oh, see, we read that in the newspapers today. There's all kinds of trouble over in Israel.
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But Jesus was not talking about 2 ,000 years after when he spoke these words.
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He was talking about 30 to 40 years, the space within 30 to 40 years after he spoke these words, these things were going to happen.
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And what do we know because of history? We know that Jerusalem was surrounded by an army like it had never been surrounded by before, and that destruction came upon Jerusalem like never in history has been known.
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When you see Jerusalem surrounded by armies, then know that its desolation is at hand.
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Then those, when this takes place, what Jesus says, then those who are in Judea must flee to the mountains, and those who are in the midst of the city must leave, and those who are in the countryside must not enter the city.
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Now, what happened historically, just as a quick side note, what happened historically, it was the time of the feast of the
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Passover, when really over this, it was a period of time that this war came upon Jerusalem.
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But it was at the feast of the Passover when the crux of this hit. So everybody was trying to come to Jerusalem to make their temple sacrifices, to give their temple offerings.
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But what Jesus says to these people is this, look, if you're trying to get in, don't. If you're here and you're a child of God, make your way out.
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Matter of fact, there was a little town called Pella that the folks fled to. Then he said in verse 21, because these are the days of vengeance, so that all things which are written will be fulfilled.
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Woe to those who are pregnant and to those who are nursing babies in those days, for there will be great distress upon the land and wrath against this people.
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And they will fall by the edge of the sword and will be led captive into all the nations.
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And Jerusalem will be trampled underfoot by the Gentiles until the times of the
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Gentiles are fulfilled. Verse 25, and there will be, key statements here, there will be signs in sun and moon and stars and on the earth, anguish among the nations, in perplexity at the roaring of the sea and the waves, men fainting from fear and from the expectation of the things which are coming upon the world, for the powers of the heavens will be shaken and they will see the son of man coming in a cloud with power and great glory.
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But when these things begin to take place, what Jesus says here is this, lift up your heads.
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The King James, I believe, says, lift up your heads. The ESV, the
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LSV says this, straighten up, straighten up and lift up your heads because your redemption is drawing near.
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Now, this judgment that was coming may not have seen very much like a redemption, but what
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God was doing was demonstrating that he is ever faithful to his word.
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We can go on and we see these points that I've touched on this morning, touched on historically.
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Matthew Henry said this, I'm sorry, it wasn't Matthew Henry here, but this is from a book called
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Reformation and the Right Reading of Scripture. To read scripture, so when we look at text like we're reading here, when we look at these passages, these eschatological passages, we want to read them literally, which means this, that we read them in light of the context surrounding them and we read them in light of the grammar that's used.
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We read them in light of the terminology that is used. The terminology that is used in verse 25, the sun, the moon, the stars, the earth, the anguish among the nations, this is judgment language that's used throughout the
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Old Testament, that's used metaphorically, right, to paint pictures of things that are coming and things that will happen.
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Because God is finite and we are infinite, we can't understand God's language, so he has to speak to us in ours.
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That's why we have the word of God as we have it today. So to read scripture in accordance with its apparent communicative intentions as a collective for text from the past, whether in respect to smaller or larger sections of the text, it means that we do so taking full account of the nature of the language in which these intentions are embedded and revealed as components of scripture's unfolding covenantal story, doing justice to such realities as literary convention, idioms, metaphors, typology and figuration.
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To read literally, in other words, is to try to understand what the scripture is saying to us in just the way in which we seek to understand what other people are saying to us, that we're taking into account as we do so age, culture, customs and language, as well as the verbal context within which individual words and sentences are located.
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So what is it to be read literally in pursuit of the communicative intent of God in search of what we believe, how to live and what to hope for?
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So when we look at these texts, we ought to very much, yes, we take it literally, but we ought to understand it in its literal text, in its literal phraseology, how it's literally written.
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To be literal doesn't mean that we take it in a strict wooden form. For example, we've used the example before.
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Jesus said, if your hand offends you, do what to it? Does anybody remember? Cut it off.
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Do you think Jesus literally meant for us to cut our hands off? No. Metaphorical language is used there.
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So studying eschatology like this, studying eschatology offers us as believers proof that God is absolutely in control and we can have hope in what's to come while living in this sinful world.
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Biblical passage about the end times demonstrate God's sovereignty and they demonstrate
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God's control over sin. If your hope, eschatologically, if your hope as a believer is tied to a political or cultural renewal as the evidence of Christ's work in the world, then you will eventually and always find yourself in despair.
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Jesus communicated this to them. He said, my kingdom is not of this world.
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They were looking still yet, even though Jesus was there with him, they were looking for political dominance.
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Political dominance will not save this world. Political dominance will not save one sinner from hell.
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Christ's dominance will save the sinner from hell. Christ's dominance brought in salvation, made available through the proclamation of the gospel of Jesus Christ to all who would believe in his name.
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So we see these things. There's unity. There's unity throughout church history concerning this fact, concerning Christ's second coming.
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This passage is not about Christ's literal, physical second coming. It is about his literal, physical coming and judgment on Jerusalem.
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But we do very much have the hope, according to the remainder of the
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New Testament epistles, that Christ is coming again. Amen? We must be aware of this.
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Christ is coming again. Another of the great dangers in eschatology are what's called the full preterism view.
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The full preterist says that everything has been fulfilled, not only the Old Testament prophecies, but even the resurrection and the second coming of Jesus Christ.
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But Christ ain't came yet. I'll guarantee you every child of God will know when
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Christ comes because we'll be caught up together with him in the air and we will ever be with the
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Lord according to the word of God. The partial preterist view takes into consideration and balances these truths that there are things, most of these things that we read in the prophets, have been fulfilled.
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But Christ has not come yet, so there's already fulfilled and there are things that's not yet taken place.
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And there is a constant eschatological tension between those two things, the already and the not yet.
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But there is unity. There is unity in church history on the fact that Jesus is coming again.
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When he comes again, those who have died in the faith will be raised from the dead and those believers who are alive will be caught up together with the
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Lord in the air. You can read that in Paul's letter to the Thessalonians. It reminded me of one of the old songs out of the church hymnal.
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Oh what singing, singing. Oh what shouting, shouting on that happy morning when we all shall gladly rise.
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Oh what glory, glory, hallelujah, glory when we meet our blessed
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Savior yonder in the skies. We will one day meet the
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Lord in the air. The apostles' creed affirms this, concerning when it said this, the resurrection of the body and of life everlasting.
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Amen. The Nicene Creed affirms this. I believe in one Lord, Jesus Christ, that he will come again in glory to judge the living and the dead and his kingdom will have no end.
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In the Nicene Creed, I look for the resurrection of the dead and the life of the world to come.
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In the Athanasian Creed, Christ rose from the dead, ascended into heaven, seated at the right hand of the
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Father. From whence he shall come to judge the living and the dead. At his coming, all men shall rise with their bodies and give account of their own deeds.
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Those who have done good will enter into eternal life and those who have done evil will go into everlasting fire.
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So we have unity throughout church history in the great creeds. So the main event in focus throughout this passage is the destruction of the temple.
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Matthew Henry said this, having given them an idea of the times for about 38 years next ensuing, he here comes to show them what all those things would issue in at last, namely the destruction of Jerusalem and the utter dispersion of the
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Jewish nation, which would be a little day of judgment. That's a very good term that Matthew Henry uses, a little day of judgment.
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It would be a type and a figure of Christ's second coming, which was not so fully spoken of here as in the parallel place.
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Yet it is glanced at for the destruction of Jerusalem would be as it were the destruction of the world to those whose hearts were bound up in it.
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It would be the destruction of their all and their everything for those who had set their affections and set their faith and set their trust and set their confidence in a building, who set their confidence in a institution that had become corrupted and run by ungodly heathen men.
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So in closing, moving to a close as quick as we can. But when these things begin to take place, straighten up, lift up your heads because your redemption is drawing near.
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Then he told them a parable. Behold, the fig tree and all the trees, as soon as they put forth their leaves and you see it for yourselves, you know that summer is now near.
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So you also, when you see these things happening, he said this, know that the kingdom of God is near.
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Now, Jesus had already told them that the kingdom of God was with them when he came, right? He's not backing up on what he said, but he's saying this judgment of the kingdom of God is coming.
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You'll know that it's about to happen, that it's about to take place. Truly I say to you, and what does he say here?
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Verse 32, this generation, this generation will not pass away until all these things take place.
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Not until the wars and rumors of wars happen, not until the earthquakes and pestilences happen, not before the disciples were brought before kings and princes to give an account and a testimony of the truth of the gospel of Jesus Christ.
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Not before this, all of these things must take place. Heaven and earth, verse 33, will pass away, but my words will never pass away.
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But be on guard so that your heart will not be overcome with dissipation and drunkenness and the worries of this life, and that that day will not come upon you suddenly like a trap, for it will come upon all those who inhabit the face of all the earth.
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Again, this term, the face of all the earth, is very important.
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This is, metaphorically speaking, it's not the entire globe here that's being spoken of, but on the face of the earth in Jerusalem there.
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But keep on the alert, verse 36, when? At all times. Doing what?
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Praying earnestly that you have strength to escape all these things that are about to take place and to stand before the
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Son of Man. Now, during the day, he was teaching in the temple, but during the night, he would go out and spend it on the
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Mount called Olives, and the people would get up early in the morning to come to him and to come to him in the temple to listen to him.
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So, church, by way of application, what are we to gather from this great, massive section of Scripture?
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And I know there's 20 million things that I'm not able to cover, but by way of application, it's important for us to know this, that in the
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Bible, those who follow Jesus were called to a life of persecution.
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They were called to a life of peril. And at the same time, simultaneously, we have it from the words of the
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Apostle Paul in the book of Romans, speaking to people who are being persecuted for the gospel's sake, says this, he said,
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I reckon that the sufferings of this present time are not worthy to be compared with the glory that shall be revealed unto us.
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Despite what was taking place then in church, Christians know this today, despite what is taking place today, this world is not our home.
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We are just passing through. We have a home in the heavens whose builder and whose maker is
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God. We fail to remember this, that the cross always comes before the crown, and we fail to realize the truth of the psalmist's words, that weeping does certainly endure for the night, and boy, does not the night sometimes seem long, but joy comes in the morning.
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You can be certain of this one truth today, God is faithful.
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The easy part of this exposition of this text has been, it's quite plain and it's straightforward, telling of coming and judgment on Jerusalem in that generation.
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But where our challenge comes today, the challenge is not making sense of this clear text, but our dilemma is this, it is to accept the truth that the persecution, the very real persecution that was coming upon the disciples, that it was a reality, it was very much hard, and Jesus was pointing them, when he gave them these encouraging words in the midst of all the hard things that he said, he was constantly pointing them to their eternal hope in him, which is what,
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Christian? It is the resurrection of the dead, that this life, heaven is our home.
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Some may say, well, I can't get my mind around heaven. Somebody said something to this effect one time.
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If you try to get heaven in your mind, your head will explode. But Christians, don't let that stop you from putting your mind into heaven.
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Just because you can't get heaven in your mind, keep your mind on heaven. Keep your mind on heaven.
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So they were looking for a day in which the consummation of the kingdom was a reality, and the consummation of the kingdom in eschatological language, and what
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I'm referring to in light of eschatology is this, the consummation of the kingdom is that day when
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Christ comes, and he calls us out of this world, and we meet the
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Lord in the air, to be with him in the new heavens and the new earth.
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That is the consummation of all things. That is the eternal state. So in order, in order
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Spurgeon said this, in order to accomplish this, it has come to pass that Christ has made for us a new covenant.
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The old covenant was simply this, do this and live, and that covenant was a sentence of death upon us all.
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We could not do, therefore we could not live, and so we died.
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The new covenant has nothing in it contingent upon the creature doing anything, but it bases all its provisions upon Christ having done the word is, when he said
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I will and you shall. This is the language of the new covenant, the covenant of law in which we were weak, was weak through the flesh.
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It left us mangled, it left us broken, and the covenant of grace reveals God's kindness toward us, and our part thereof has been fulfilled for us by our surety, who is
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Jesus Christ. Spurgeon said thus it runs, their sins and their iniquities will
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I remember no more, and a new heart I will also give them, and a right spirit I will put in them said the
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Lord. The old world is still under the old covenant of works, and its children perish, for they cannot carry out the conditions of the covenant of works.
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They cannot keep God's law. They break it constantly, and they die, but the children of grace are under the new covenant, under the covenant of grace, and through the precious blood, which is the penalty of the old broken covenant, and through the spotless righteousness of Jesus Christ, which is the fulfillment and the magnifying of the old covenant, the
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Christian now stands secure, and he rejoices in what fact that he is saved.
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Christ has thus made us his people, and we dwell under the new covenant instead of under the old one.
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So in addition to the new covenant, Christ has been pleased to make us new men. We're not only in a new covenant, we're made new men.
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We're made new creatures, new men, new women, new boys, new girls. His saints are new creatures in Christ Jesus, and we have a new nature.
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God has breathed into us new life. The Holy Spirit through the old nature is, though the old nature is still there, the
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Holy Spirit has been pleased to put within us a new nature, and there is now a contending force within them.
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The old carnal nature, inclining to evil, and the new God -given nature, which pants after righteousness, they are new men.
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We have been, according to Peter's epistle, begotten again into a lively hope.
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The old nature is to be awed with threatenings or bribed with rewards. Spurgeon said this, the new nature feels the impulse of love.
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Gratitude, gratitude, thankfulness is the mainspring. We love
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God, the apostle John said. Why? Because God first loved us.
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There are no mercenary motives in us as new creatures. We have hope, church.
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We have hope beyond this life. In John's gospel, in the 14th chapter,
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Jesus says this, do not let your hearts be troubled. You believe in God, believe also in me.
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For in my Father's house are many mansions. If it were not so, I would have told you.
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We have certainty in the word of God. Were it not so, I would have told you. And Jesus said, but behold, know this,
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I go to prepare a place for you. And if I go and prepare a place for you, you can be sure of this, that I will come again.
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And when I come again, I will receive you unto myself.
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That is the word of the living God. And Thomas said to him, Lord, how?
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We do not know where you're going. How are we to know the way? And Jesus made it plain again for them and for us.
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Jesus said, I am the way, I am the truth, and I am the life.
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No one comes to the Father, but by me. Christian, I would ask you to consider something very serious right now.
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Every heart and every soul that hears my voice today,
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I encourage you to consider this. What well are you drinking from?
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Are you drinking from the corrupt, polluted well of this world to find peace, contentment, joy, and strength?
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Or are you with joy drawing water from the wells of salvation where your troubled heart can be made peace?
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Where you're weary and your wounded spirit can be made strong and be renewed with joy, drawing water from the well of salvation, drinking deep of the love of God, drinking deep of the eternal spring that comes from Jesus Christ.
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Are you drinking the filth and the corruption of this world? And if you are, you will be weak and you will be sickly.
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But if you will turn to Christ and drink of the living water that he gives and offers unto you today, you will be renewed.
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You will be satisfied. You will enjoy. You will appreciate.
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You will thank and you will praise God from whom all blessings flow.
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That's why we are enjoined every week at the end of the message to do this, to praise
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God from whom all blessings flow. Praise him, not some of you, all creatures here below.
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Praise him above you heavenly hosts. Praise who? Praise Jesus, Father, Son, and Holy Ghost today.
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Are you looking for the city which has foundations? I encourage you, turn away from this world and turn your eyes upon Jesus.
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Another of the old songs says, looking for a city yonder where we'll never die. There the sainted millions will never say goodbye.
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There, oh it's there, it's their church that we'll meet our savior and our loved ones too.
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Come, oh come, oh Holy Spirit. All our hopes renew today.