Luke 21:25-38
The Coming of the Son of Man
‘There will be signs in the sun, the moon, and the stars, and on the earth distress among nations confused by the roaring of the sea and the waves. People will faint from fear and foreboding of what is coming upon the world, for the powers of the heavens will be shaken. Then they will see “the Son of Man coming in a cloud” with power and great glory. Now when these things begin to take place, stand up and raise your heads, because your redemption is drawing near.’
The Lesson of the Fig Tree
Then he told them a parable: ‘Look at the fig tree and all the trees; as soon as they sprout leaves you can see for yourselves and know that summer is already near. So also, when you see these things taking place, you know that the kingdom of God is near. Truly I tell you, this generation will not pass away until all things have taken place. Heaven and earth will pass away, but my words will not pass away.
Exhortation to Watch
‘Be on guard so that your hearts are not weighed down with dissipation and drunkenness and the worries of this life, and that day does not catch you unexpectedly, like a trap. For it will come upon all who live on the face of the whole earth. Be alert at all times, praying that you may have the strength to escape all these things that will take place, and to stand before the Son of Man.’
Every day he was teaching in the temple, and at night he would go out and spend the night on the Mount of Olives, as it was called. And all the people would get up early in the morning to listen to him in the temple.
I want you to stop
and think for a second—when was the last time you drank something
just to get energy?
Might have been
this morning—I know that they make coffee makers with alarm clocks
built in to ensure that your coffee is ready before your feet hit the
ground. Could have been Friday afternoon—maybe you were dragging
as you headed into the weekend. Or perhaps late Thursday night, as
you worked on a project that was due on Friday morning. I think the
last time I did was when I was driving back from Kentucky not too
long ago—I stopped in Knoxville for a cup of coffee to keep me
awake, and, sure enough, it kicked in around the time I got to
Cleveland, ensuring that I had plenty of energy right about the time
I was trying to go to bed.
When I was in
college, I don't remember having a lot of options for energy when I
had to stay up late and write a paper. We didn't have the variety of
energy drinks that now stack the shelves of every grocery store, gas
station and mini-mart in the country. Though the energy drink only
broke into the market almost 15 years ago, it has developed into a
multi-billion dollar industry and one of the easiest products to
find. It seems like you can buy a bottle of 5 hour energy almost
anywhere.
The fact that this
industry is thriving is an indicator that each of us often finds
ourselves running out of energy. We're over-committed and
over-burdened, rarely feeling like we have enough time in the day to
fulfill all of our obligations. We're running ourselves into the
ground. We often joke about it, laughing it off as we run for our
next task.
But Jesus warns us
about the dangers of this in today's text.
Be on your
guard so that your hearts are not weighed down with dissipation,
he says. Dissipation is the loss of energy over time. If we take
this tennis ball and bounce it down the aisle, we'll notice that each
bounce is a little lower than the one before it. Each time it meets
the ground, some energy is removed, so that it soon doesn't have
energy to bounce at all. Perhaps that may sound like many of your
days.
What
are the dangers of dissipation, of losing energy? We don't have to
leave the Bible to discover those. We can turn to the story of Jacob
and Esau to see the danger, the peril, that lurks in our exhaustion.
In our exhaustion, we find ourselves weakened—and our moral compass
is weakened as well. Esau, exhausted from his labors in the fields,
comes to Jacob and is willing to offer his birthright in exchange for
a bowl of soup! It's the worst trade in human history, and yet Esau
accepts it, such is his desperation. He gives up everything in his
weakened state.
We,
too, are often in danger in our weakness. When we're not at our
best, it's easy to fall into the snares the devil sets for us. When
we aren't fully alert, we can easily fail to obey Christ and settle
for what's easiest, for what's convenient. It is so important that,
as Christians, we live lives that are morally upright—we have to do
everything we can to live up to the standard Christ has set for us.
We will never succeed, of course, but the world is watching us live,
and part of our testimony is our actions. By our choices we reveal
the foundation of our life.
So
Christ tells us to be wary of dissipation. He doesn't want us to
allow our energy to fade and flag. He warns of drunkenness in this
passage, but any sin could fit in here—we need to be on our guard.
This
is the first command Christ gives us. It's amazing to think that he
spends this entire chapter talking about the end of the world, and at
the end he gives us two very specific commandments about what to do
about it. He doesn't tell us to spend the next 2000 years obsessing
over and worrying about the end of the world, like many have chosen
to do. He tells us this for information, I suppose, but then tells
us to get about the business of being a Christian. Being on our
guard, being alert, is the first aspect.
The
second is prayer.
I want you to take a second and realize what Jesus is saying—he is
telling us that prayer is one of the two most important things we can
do in our lives as Christians. It isn't a supplemental task that we
can pick up when we need some help, or something that is always there
for us if we're in a tight spot. Jesus Christ, the Savior of the
world, is telling us that prayer is to be part of the foundation of
our lives, one of the single most important things we can do. We
don't know when the end times will be, when Christ will descend from
the heavens in his glory, but we can prepare in the way we live, and
in our lives of prayer.
So are you taking prayer as seriously as Christ is charging you to
take it? It's an easy thing to put off. I heard the other week that
the average Christian prays for five minutes a day. The average
pastor apparently prays for eight minutes a day. I will freely admit
that there are many days when I struggle to make the time to pray.
It feels like another task to fit into an often overwhelmed day. But
Christ is telling me that it needs to be the first task that goes
into my day, the first thing I schedule, and the rest of life needs
to unfold around it. It needs to be foundational.
Notice, too, what we are to pray for—that we will stand before the
Son of Man. We are praying for the future, that our lives may be
pointed in one direction, and that they will culminate in our eternal
worship of Jesus Christ. In our lives of prayer, we are being formed
as disciples, as individuals whose lives are oriented towards Christ
the King—we are aiming for heaven while we're living on earth. We
are being reminded of our purpose, of the single most important
aspect of our being—that we are called to worship, we are created
to worship, and when our prayers remind us of this, they re-orient
us.
When our prayers remind us of our single most important aspect, they
should lead us to awe and wonder at the God who created us.
And this, you may find, gives you a little more energy. Because the
idea that God created you to exist forever in his eternal glory might
just help you live with a sense of purpose here—whatever task is
before you is one that is you offer up in your life to your God and
King. In this life, you are preparing for your eternal worship.
Each thing you undertake is vitally important to the Kingdom—because
you are vitally important to the Kingdom. Whether at work or play,
you are doing Kingdom work, spreading the Good News of Christ.
May you do so on your guard, led by prayer, filled with the Holy
Spirit. May his energy fill you and lead you out in your life of
discipleship.
Let us pray.
