Full Transcript

Hi and welcome to Share the Word. We’re seeing this podcast being downloaded over and over again. It makes us feel good to know that you’re tuning in, finding it useful, and thank you for helping it grow by sharing it with your friends and family. Did you realize that God makes lots of promises to those who pay attention to and meditate on His Word? Let’s get into today’s thought-provoking lesson and see what valuable things it causes us to consider. Luke chapter 21.

Lift up your heads. I don’t think there’s any part of the Bible that people are more fascinated with than prophecy, and in my time, end times prophecy. By end times prophecy, I’m referring to what the Bible tells about at the end of this age we’re living in now, and the promised return of Jesus. The Bible teaches that time will not just go on aimlessly and indefinitely. Time is moving toward a climax. According to the Bible, the second coming of Jesus will end this era that we’re living in now and inaugurate a new age, the promised kingdom of God on earth, which will last a thousand years, according to Revelation chapter 20.

Because we’re going through the New Testament systematically, we will come to many chapters where things related to this fascinating topic are touched upon, and we have come to one today. At Luke 21, Jesus, remember now, is with his disciples in Jerusalem for the last Passover. It’s at the end of this week that he’s going to be arrested and crucified. In the days prior, they were camping outside the city on the Mount of Olives, which overlooked Jerusalem from the east, and Jesus has been appearing at the temple daily, openly teaching crowds of worshipers there. People gathered early each morning, Luke says, to be close enough to see and hear him. As chapter 21 opens, Jesus is with his disciples heading to the temple precinct.

This was a magnificent walled-in area on the Temple Mount in Jerusalem, a raised plateau of about 35 acres. Much of it was open courtyards with porticos and chambers built around the perimeter where people could gather. The whole Temple Mount was extremely impressive for its time. There were heavy gold decorations and sculptures on the walls. It was made of massive blocks of stone. It had taken several decades to construct.

The temple proper was located at the far end of the temple complex. This structure, about 15 stories tall at its highest point, was built of stunning white marble blocks that glistened in the morning sunlight like a shimmering cloud. In one enclosed courtyard was the bronze altar where the priests offered sacrifices, and within the temple proper was the inner sanctum, the Holy of Holies, as it’s called, that no one entered except the high priest once a year on the Day of Atonement. To these fishermen from Galilee, this place must have seemed breathtakingly beautiful and awe-inspiring. As they stood wide-eyed, viewing and commenting on all this, Jesus surprisingly said, All that you see here, the days are coming when there will not be one stone of this place left atop another. It will be so utterly torn down.

Wow. The temple was at the very heart of their nation, culturally and religiously. One of them asked incredulously, Then when is that going to happen? Jesus’ response through the rest of his chapter is a reply to the question. But also goes well beyond the man’s question because he begins to teach about the future, the end times, and his second coming. It’s recorded in even more detail in the Gospel of Matthew, and we’ll discuss more things Jesus taught this day when we get there.

But there’s plenty here in Luke 21 to get us thinking. Maybe 20 years ago now, when my kids were young, we took them to a pool and water park about half an hour from our house. It was July with a beautiful clear sky overhead. I remember when we got to the park and had paid for our day passes, we went directly to our favorite area, the lazy river. Maybe you’ve seen something like this, a long winding canal with slowly moving water where people float along on inner tubes. We liked this part because the water was shallow enough there that our kids would not drown, hopefully.

Anyway, as we found our place to stake out and we were dragging some lounge chairs together, I noticed people were looking up and pointing at the sky. When I looked up to see what had their attention, I saw something I had never seen in my life, something that struck me as bizarre, as off, if you know what I mean. You don’t just look up in the sky one day and see strange things that you’ve never seen before. The sky is supposed to look like the sky always looks. Yet strangely, on this day, what people were staring at, and as I began to look, what I started staring at, was a very bright rainbow in the sky, perfectly encircling the sun, 360 degrees around the sun. I remember sitting there by the pool with the kids running around just staring and staring at this very unusual phenomenon.

To me, it was honestly a little bit disconcerting. I couldn’t ignore it. You just don’t see bright rainbows in a perfectly clear sky on a summer day, and certainly not 360-degree rainbows encircling the sun. I remember, what came to my mind is something Jesus said here in Luke 21 about things immediately preceding his coming. This is from verses 10 and 11 in our chapter. He continued by saying, Nation will rise against nation and kingdom against kingdom, and there will be massive earthquakes, and in various places plagues and famine.

And there will be terrible sights and great signs in the heavens. As I stared up and pondered this, I wondered if this was the type of thing that Jesus was referring to when he told his disciples there would be great signs in the heavens at the end of the age, never-before-seen phenomena that would indicate things are about to radically change for this world. By the way, turns out that late that night when I was watching the news, the weatherman said, You may have seen some very unusual sight in the sky today if you were outside around 2 p.m., and he described what we had seen, gave some kind of scientific explanation about how a halo of ice crystals had created that unusual rainbow prism, which could only occur, he assured us, under very rare atmospheric conditions, blah, blah, blah.

Throughout Luke 21, Jesus is telling his disciples about things that are going to happen in their generation, and then he also began foretelling things that would happen well beyond their time at his second coming, his future return to rule the earth, which we’ve heard him promise before. As far as the things that would happen in their lifetimes, Jesus lets them know that difficult times are ahead for them. That persecution would come to the early Christian community and its leaders. That’s what he’s talking about in verses 12 through 19. I think he tells them all this beforehand so that when it happens, they wouldn’t panic or think that God had abandoned them. Persecution did come against the early church, and many of the men that Jesus was speaking to that day were certainly persecuted.

Some were martyred for their testimony and for relentlessly sharing the gospel. Persecution of Christians still goes on to many places today. Why is that the case? Simply put, because spiritual forces of darkness are real, and because darkness hates the light. It’s important that we listen to Jesus on this point too, because as he said once, A servant is not greater than his master. If they’ve hated me, they will hate you.

If they persecuted me, they will persecute you. It’s critical that we bear this in mind and hold it as a real part of our faith. This world is not our home. If we lose anything here on account of him, Jesus promises he will make it up to us in the age to come in his kingdom. In this world, however, Christians may well encounter serious opposition. He goes on to tell his disciples in verse 20 and following more about what he had said regarding Jerusalem and its beautiful temple being utterly destroyed.

Jesus told them there will be days of vengeance so that all that has been written will be fulfilled. Remember, when we see the formula, It is written, or in this case, All that has been written, it refers back to something in the Old Testament scripture. Jesus was referring now to something written in the book of Daniel. That prophet foresaw in a vision the destruction of Jerusalem following the rejection and death of the Messiah. This was prophesied in Daniel 9, verses 25 and following, and actually happened as both Daniel and Jesus foretold. In 70 A.D., just 40 years after this conversation with his disciples, a Roman general named Titus ruthlessly put down a rebellion in Israel.

Four Roman legions besieged Jerusalem during the Passover season that year. Hundreds of thousands of Jews were trapped in the city, and things got very chaotic. Because the Jewish zealots would not surrender, there were many battles as the Romans breached the city, and it turned into a slaughter. Estimates are that as many as 500,000 Jews were killed, and 100,000 more, mostly women and children, carried away into slavery by the Romans. The beautiful temple in Jerusalem and all its treasures, they were looted, and then it was burned down and torn down. If you like to read history, you can find a detailed article about this online in the World History Encyclopedia entitled The Siege of Jerusalem in 70 CE.

This is history, and Jesus foretold it all, as Luke records here in verse 20 and following. Interestingly, he says in that section, they, that is the Jews who are in Jerusalem at that time, will fall by the sword and will be taken prisoner to all nations, and Jerusalem will be trampled on by the Gentiles until the times of the Gentiles are fulfilled. Think about that last line. Jerusalem will be trampled on by the Gentiles until the time of the Gentiles are fulfilled. Jesus said when Jerusalem fell in 70 A.D., it would afterwards be trampled on by Gentiles. Since 70 A.D., Jerusalem was not inhabited again as a Jewish city for another 1,900 years, until my lifetime and perhaps yours.

After Israel was miraculously reborn as a nation in 1948 following World War II, Jews began to return to the land of Israel where they had been scattered for almost two millennia. In 1967, when I was a boy, surrounding Arab states attacked that small reforming nation, but they were soundly defeated. During that fighting, referred to as today the Six-Day War, Israel retook their ancient capital of Jerusalem. But in a subsequent peace accord agreement, they partitioned the city with Jews occupying a part of it and Arabs another part. The Temple Mount itself, where Jesus was when he made these prophecies, remained under control of the Arabs as it does to this day. But many wonder if the time when Jerusalem is no longer trampled underfoot by the Gentiles, as Jesus put it, may be near, since it seems impossible for the Jews and Palestinians to occupy one country peacefully.

What is going on in Israel and Gaza as I write this is testament to that fact. Jesus linked that with the times of the Gentiles being fulfilled, that is, running their course. That’s just another way of saying the time of his second coming, when he returns to establish his kingdom from Jerusalem, could be drawing near. Many people who take the Bible and its prophecies seriously, and I certainly do, see the return of the Jewish people from where they were scattered among the nations for thousands of years to their ancient land, the land God promised to Abraham and to his descendants, as very, very significant, a sign even more weird and more rare than the rainbows encircling the sun that I saw. Nothing like that has ever happened before in human history. Nations simply do not reform that have been out of existence for thousands of years.

People who emigrate or who are driven by force into other cultures and societies, after two or three generations assimilate. But most of the Jewish people never did, not for scores of generations. Then ever since 1948, these people began leaving their lives and their businesses in America and in India and in Russia and in South America and in Europe and in Australia to return to this land that their ancient ancestors once occupied. The Aliyah, as the Jews call it, the ascent, the going up, because from wherever they came from, going back to Israel is a step up in their view, has been going on now unabated for several decades. And just in 2022, for the first time in 2,500 years, the majority of the Jewish people on Earth once again live in the land of Israel. So why are they returning?

That’s a key question. Israel is not exactly the safest place to be. The answer is because God is drawing them back. Just as Israel’s destruction and dispersion into the nations of the world was foretold by Jesus and other biblical prophets, their return from their worldwide dispersion, or diaspora as it’s called, is specifically and graphically foretold too. God is calling them back to the land in the last days before their Messiah returns. I’ll include several Old Testament passages where this is clearly prophesied in the blog article, Why Trust the Bible.

Look for part five on our website, www.sharetheword.org. What all this leads many Bible scholars to conclude is that we may very well likely be living in the days when the times of the Gentiles, as Jesus put it, are wrapping up and the return of Jesus to Jerusalem will occur. I hope you are ready for that. I know what I am telling you here, and some of you are thinking, Hey, Paul, are you sure that’s what Jesus is talking about? Yes, I am. Notice verse 9 and following.

He tells his disciples that wars and trouble will mark the coming days and years, including the terrible destruction of Jerusalem, which happened in 70 A.D. But he specifically tells them, Don’t assume that means the end is coming immediately. Remember, we’ve already heard Jesus teach through parables that he was going away for a long time, for an undisclosed period of time, to receive his kingdom, and that his followers should stay busy in his interests while he is gone. Now here, Jesus talks about the times of the Gentiles and how that era needs to run its course before continuing. And don’t miss this at verse 25. Then, that is, after the times of the Gentiles have run their course, after I have been gone away for a long time, he says, There will be signs in the sun, moon, and stars.

On the earth, nations will be in anguish, like the perplexity of the roaring and tossing sea. People will faint from terror, apprehension at what is coming on the world, for the heavenly bodies even will be shaken. At that time, they will see the Son of Man coming in the clouds with power and great glory. When these things begin to take place, stand up, lift up your heads. Your redemption is drawing near. This is an unmistakable promise of his second coming, the dramatic event that will end this age.

It’s described in the book of Revelation chapter 19 in more detail as well as elsewhere. Jesus was quoting here in part from the prophet Daniel, identifying himself as the Son of Man, that heavenly figure who Daniel saw in one of his visions, the one to whom God would give dominion over the whole earth and who would establish his kingdom. So what should we make of all this? What Jesus taught his followers was that there would always be trouble, warfare, natural disasters, and so on in this world. He also taught them that hatred and persecution directed at his followers could happen and doesn’t mean at all that God had abandoned them. But it’s also clear from this chapter that at the end of this age, all of those things will ratchet up in intensity.

Things that have never been seen before or experienced before will occur then that will produce great fear and panic among people on the earth who do not know God. But Christians, those of us whose faith is in Jesus and who believe God’s word, rather than being overwhelmed as these things worsen, we should be, Jesus said, looking up. Our redemption is drawing near. I had someone on a forum I write for ask me recently something I knew they intended as a mocking question. They said, Don’t you agree that too many people make too much of this man who died on two pieces of wood 2,000 years ago, since we haven’t seen or heard anything from him since? I knew they weren’t looking for a real answer, but I gave them one anyway.

I told them the way things have gone since Jesus was here the first time is exactly the way he told his followers they would go. Jerusalem was utterly destroyed a generation after his time. Israel as a nation did cease to exist, and the Jewish people were scattered all over the world, as the prophets foretold. The times of the Gentiles took over as Jerusalem and the land of Israel ceased to be a Jewish state for thousands of years. On one hand, Jesus told them to expect all of this. There’s been continual wars, famines, plagues, natural disasters that wracked the planet.

But at the same time, all during this age, he told them the spiritual kingdom of Christ would be growing as God calls out through the gospel an eternal family for himself. While the King is away, as Jesus told us he would be, we are to be his representatives in this messed up world. As things get darker, we should shine brighter. As people get more anxious and scared of the dangers and uncertainties that seem to be growing, we should point them to the Prince of Peace, who alone can give us hope for the future. And we should be looking up confidently, keeping our hearts and minds fixed on our sure hope, the promised return of Jesus Christ. Yes, it’s been 2,000 years now.

But remember how much time passed from when God began promising through the Old Testament that he would send a Savior, and he kept his word, and Jesus came. A thousand years are to God, the apostle Peter once wrote, like one day. So why would it be any reason for doubt that a long time has now passed since Jesus promised that he would come again? He is coming again. Lift up your heads. There are many things going on in our world today that suggest it may be soon too.

The rebirth of the Jewish nation and the unprecedented return of the Jewish people to their ancient land is just one big obvious sign. Jesus never told us how long He’d be gone away, by the way, so it’s foolish for us to try to set dates. But at the right time, when our world is in dire straits and the regathered Jewish nation is once again encircled by satanically inspired enemies threatening their annihilation, their Messiah and our Savior will appear in the clouds to rescue them as He promised in this chapter. He will return to put down evil once for all and to establish God’s kingdom of righteousness and justice on this messed up planet. As you read or watch the news every day and things in our world seem to be getting more dangerous and more volatile and more unsettling, it’s natural to get anxious, especially if you are somewhere where the worst of these things are going on.

But remember, Jesus told us the end of the story. Keep your faith in Him. Lift up your heads. We hope you found this commentary both interesting and insightful. Keep in mind that Share the Word releases two new podcasts weekly at 9 a.m. on Mondays and Thursdays. If you’re just joining us, visit sharetheword.org and check out all the podcasts we’ve already released as well as other offerings available to you.

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