As
in Luke 17, Jesus gives His account of the end times, which is markedly
different from what is bandied about today, looking for signs. Jesus talks
about signs, but they are substantially different from modern end-times mania.
There seem to be two parts:
Verses 6-24 deal with the time leading up to the
destruction of Jerusalem
·
The temple will be torn down (this
happened in 70 AD)
·
There will be false messiahs and
people will say the end is near. Do not believe them.
·
Wars and disturbances will take
place, but the end will not come immediately. Wars are polemous (battles), straightforwardly, and disturbances are akatastasias, which is a compound of not
and standing, denotes a state of disorder, disturbance, confusion, tumult,
revolution, anarchy. Note: the end will not come immediately. There will
be wars, earthquakes, plagues, famine, terror, signs from heaven.
·
His people will be persecuted.
Certainly that has been the norm throughout all of church history. If outsiders
did not persecute the church, it would divide internally and persecute people
that the group in power disagreed with.
·
His people will be hated by all
people, including family members.
·
In these trials, persevering faith
will enable His people to win their own souls.
·
Jerusalem is appointed for a sign.
Jerusalem will be surrounded by armies - flee for your lives and don't look
back. The mention that Jerusalem will be trodden down by the Gentiles until the
time of the Gentiles is fulfilled (21:24) suggests that this refers to the time
of Titus. If Jesus is speaking chronologically, then all of the preceding is
past, because it happened before 70AD.
The second part is contained in
verses 25-36, which deal with the time of His return
·
The signs of the return of the Son of
Man
o Signs (semeia - indications,tokens)
in the sun, moon and starts
o Dismay among nations
o Perplexity at the roaring of the sea and the waves
o Men fainting from fear
o The powers of heaven being shaken
o The fig tree putting forth leaves
·
Heaven and earth will pass away, but
not His words
·
Do not be weighed down with
dissipation, drunkenness, and the concerns of life
·
This day will come upon the whole
earth (not just Jerusalem!)
·
Stay alert and pray that you may be accounted
worthy to escape these things and stand before Him
The warnings Jesus gives are
straightforward. There are many signs, and all will come to pass before He
returns. This gives us pause because we see some, but not all. And there is a
key sign mentioned in Matt 24:14 and Mark 13:10 that Luke does not mention
until Acts 1:7-8. Jesus told His disciples that the gospel must be preached to
all nations before the end will come. In Acts, He tells them that the kingdom
will not be restored to Israel at this time, but that they will be witnesses to
Him unto the uttermost parts of the earth.
The
bottom line on all this is that signs are indeed foretold by Jesus, but the key
motivating factor is not to be fearful of His immediate return, that we are not to fear the shaking of the nations or of the heavens.
Foremost, we are to look for advancing the preaching of His gospel to the
remotest parts of the earth, to every tribe and tongue and nation and people.
(Rev 5:9, 7:9, 11:9, 13:7, 14:6). The disciples were still fixated on restoring
the kingdom to Israel. Jesus was still working on getting them to understand
that the gospel was for all people. That was more important than the signs of
His immanence.
No comments:
Post a Comment