Enduring to the End,
Whether Its the End or Not

Luke 21:12-24

by Dennis Gunderson

Read Luke 21:5-28

You know what would go a long way towards edification and blessing in the church today? If Christians would come around to realizing that, prophecy is not given to make some men shine as prophets. It wasn't given so some could be prophecy stars, renowned for great interpretive skills. Prophecy is given to be a witness to the glory of God when it is fulfilled. The Holy Spirit is the spirit of prophecy, and Peter also calls Him the Spirit of Christ when He is working prophetically.

What I'm saying is, we must ever remember that the Spirits work is to glorify Christ whether that is telling in the OT of what He would come to do, telling us what He has done, or telling us what He will yet do. If the result of our pursuing the meaning of words of prophecy does not lead to see glory in Christ and to live to the glory of Christ, our interpretation is not serving a worthy end even if we got the times and details right, we miss the main thing.

And nothing glorifies Christ quite like the redeemed lives of sinners who persevere in following Him no matter what. The section of prophecy just read reminds me of the Apostle Paul and what he wrote in 2 Tim 2:10:

I endure all things for the sake of those who are chosen, that they also may obtain the salvation which is in Christ Jesus and with it eternal glory.

Luke 21 could have even been visually in the mind of Paul as he penned that. Because he had to know, as he wrote those words, that he had lived to see and would still live to see some of Luke 21 fulfilled in his lifetime. He was determined to endure all things.

Enduring is a worthy goal. Enduring honors Christ because it imitates Christ. Enduring is the theme of this section: v 19. Enduring leads to blessing. Endurance (dict. def.):

1. The act, quality, or power of withstanding hardship or stress: A marathon tests a runner's endurance.

2. The state or fact of persevering: Through hard work and endurance, we will complete this project.

And enduring in the non-Christian world is far better than disputing in the church. Believers too often target the wrong enemy, and seem to often act as if, the enemy is, any lack of universal conformity of the rest of the church to my exact wishes, down to the finest detail. When it comes to prophecy, often agreement with my school of thought. One of the features that I believe has been a significant blessing in this church has been, from the beginning, a joyful embracing (not just a tolerance) of a variety of positions and views on prophecy.

But not all have been so gracious. For we had to admit in opening Luke 21 last week that, this chapter (and even more so the parallel chapter, Matt 24) are probably the most hotly disputed of all Jesus words in the gospels. It would seem there are certainly things more worthy of disputation and difference of opinion than this. And it all got kicked off with the innocent question of v 7:

Teacher, when will these things be? And what will be the sign when these things are about to take place? (and, as Matthew tells us they also asked): And what will be the sign of Your coming, and of the end of the age?

Sitting there together on that hill, 150 feet above the streets of Jerusalem, with a dramatic view below them of the entire temple complex, after completing a day of teaching in the temple, the disciples asked Jesus those questions, leading to the longest recorded answer Jesus ever gave to a question anyone asked Him. Words which foretell not just that the temple would be destroyed, and Jerusalem sacked, but words which speak of the end of our world probably because, to them, nothing could be more like the end of the world than the temple being destroyed. They pretty much thought of the end of Israel and the end of the world in one breath!

So asking v 7: Teacher, when therefore will these things be? And what will be the sign when these things are about to take place? When will it happen? What will precede it so we know its about to happen? And Matthew says they also asked And what will be the sign of Your coming, and of the end of the age? because, when the disciples hear Jesus talk of the temple being brought down and Jerusalem being taken, that had to mean the end of the world!

Its not unusual for people to be very centered on their own world, as though everything revolved around it. The bent of our minds to think this way is very strong. To think that the collapse of the world as we know it has to signal the end of everything. Well, Jerusalem had been trampled before and those weren't the end of the world. Yet, Jesus did not take the time to force the distinction at this time, to compel them to think otherwise. He did not draw a thick line of distinction between when He spoke of events to happen in the 1st century and events that would wait at least 1,900 more years before they would take place. It simply must be that its not all that important to our spiritual well-being to know one from the other.

Ponder this: imagine how unimportant precise time-tables are, when Jesus doesn't distinguish precisely enough to tell whether something is going to happen in 70 AD or its another 2000 years or more off?

Perhaps the better focus is to stay aware that God intervenes in history often and in dramatic ways. And that the 1st judgment this chapter speaks of, upon Jerusalem, bears such a similar character to the 2nd judgment this chapter speaks of, the end of the world, that the 1st ends up being something of a type of the 2nd or, a foreshadowing of it. The 1st is a visual symbol of characteristics of the 2nd.

Since then, the world has endured almost another 1,900 years after the ruin of Israel, and who knows how much longer it will be? So since then, with predictions and stabs in the dark far more off-base than those made by the early disciples, Christians have for centuries persisted in asking so many of the wrong questions when reading this chapter! Searching it for hints about timing which aren't there; scanning it carefully to find dates we can set, which aren't given. Which is why last week I urged that we put all that baggage out of mind and see if you don't see something else stressed here. I do.

What is primarily being emphasized here? I say it is perseverance to the end. A survey from vv 8-24 will reveal to you a section packed with your Saviors valuable and loving counsel to His Own to prepare them for the coming of nightmarish times for them, had they not had His interpretation of it all and promising grace for it all. As He tells them:

Don't be misled by fake Saviors; stay faithful to Christ.
Don't be terrified by wars and international incidents and overthrows of government
- press on in following Me.
Don't be overwhelmed by earthquakes or plagues or famines, even striking heavenly signs!
Don't give up when you see these things, with a thought that I'm right around the corner.
No, keep persevering. You don't want to run the risk of becoming disenchanted when it
turns out that my arrival is not right around the corner
Don't be hindered from your witness by persecution and intimidation
-- not even when your own family joins in on it.

There are going to be some terrible times. And we haven't even yet gotten into the vivid, heart-wrenching description He gives of the fall of Jerusalem, and how He kindly prepares them for what their eyes will see in those days but even in saying that, His design is to make a people who will persevere to the end. Last week we talked about 2 of the categories I've just named:

1) Don't be Misled by Fake Saviors (false Christ's) v 8

And He said, See to it that you not be misled (deceived); for many will come in My name, saying, I am He, and The time is at hand. Do not go after them!

We said that one of the things you're prone to do at such times is, to look for someone to lean on for hope. To find somebody who can give you a reason to take heart. And that makes you susceptible to listen to preachers who make claims of being someone they aren't. And who, even if they do not claim to be Christ, deal with you as though they had the claims of Christ. Do not follow such men. Do not give men the honors due only to Christ. Endure! Ignoring all impostors for your Lord.

2) Don't be Terrified by Wars and Disturbances (International Incidents, Riots, Overthrows) vv 9-10

And when you hear of wars and disturbances, do not be terrified; for these things must take place first, but the end does not follow immediately.

If there's a 9/11, don't think it signals the end of the world. If the Muslims take over our whole country, by war or revolution, don't think it signals the end of the world. It just might signal a whole new, lengthy era of glorious church history to preach the gospel of Christ. Wars and revolutions are no sign that the end of history is upon us yet this is one of the most commonly supposed errors today.

So as I said in conclusion last week, oddly, despite Jesus clear words to His disciples that these things are not the end, multitudes of present-day church members are awed and overwhelmed with admiration of the evangelist who speaks knowledgeably and with learning about the signs of the times and strives to show his audience that this or that war, earthquake, battle or famine, or comet based on his insight into prophecy! is a sign that Christ is on the verge of coming. Its as though they read what He said and determine to believe precisely the opposite.

No, when your world is coming apart, don't conclude that God is just about to bring it to a halt and mightily deliver us all. Oh, He's delivering us! He's delivering us from the grip of our sins, many of which have to do with holding onto our comfort zone. And the kind of thinking that He will stop it all soon, misleads us to suppose that trouble is short-term and that it is not going to be necessary to endure long.

No, far safer that you and I conclude that its necessary we persevere and endure for the long haul. Endure! Even if your nation unravels in war or revolution. And that brings us to today's 3rd point:

3) Don't be Overwhelmed by Natural Disasters or even Supernatural Heavenly Signs v 11

And there will be great earthquakes, and in various places plagues and famines; and there will be terrors and great signs from heaven.

Endure! Even if the security of the earth and heavens shakes. Stunning events across the globe! Natural phenomena like earthquakes, plagues of disease, and famine; and even when the signs are supernatural in the heavens above! Don't we often see that, people may leap to the conclusion that the end is when terrible things happen on earth, but wow, when we see striking things in the skies, that must mean the end is near!

But how can that be? There have been signs in the skies in the past. Joshua saw the sun stand still. The OT had striking occasions. There have been amazing astronomical events that don't signal anything in particular solar flares and sunspots, geomagnetic storms, meteor showers, northern lights, lunar and solar eclipses, and others. It is said by a few sources that at the fall of Jerusalem, a huge cross appeared in the skies. So those things also are no certain indication that the end is upon us.

Of course its normal for catastrophes of an earthquake, plague, or famine magnitude, or great changes in the skies, to upset our normal lives! But when we live for a higher calling than eating and drinking and being comfortable, and when our calling being servants of Christ and ambassadors for Christ to the world is just the same, whether men are living comfortably or dying in droves (in fact, our calling if anything is accentuated in importance when men are dying in droves!) then let us not be diverted from it into rash behavior, concluding this is the end, isolating ourselves or focusing on interpreting the signs of the times, when there is always the same worthy work to be done for souls! For the point of v 11 is to lead to:

4) Don't be Hindered From Your Witness by Persecution and Intimidation vv 12-13
But before all these things, they will lay their hands on you and will persecute you, delivering
you to the synagogues and prisons, bringing you before kings and governors for My name's sake.
Endure! Regardless of persecutors and opponents. Persecution is to be expected. It should not be treated as a surprise. In fact, he says, be encouraged! If you are to know that God brings good out of evil and has His good purpose in all things that take place in the lives of the chosen, then see this good that God is doing even when we are persecuted: it does lead to opportunities to testify of Christ, v 13.

When I think of that, I suppose that part of what He means is, many opportunities to testify of Christ which otherwise might just pass us by, can get forced upon us by persecution! And that makes it a better result than us being left at peace. When were more concerned with avoiding trouble and confrontation than speaking of Christ, when were too fixed on our comfort and our own lives than on speaking for Christ and what that might bring, that's one thing but the opportunity for your testimony gets unavoidable when the confrontation comes to us! When we are aggressively hunted, excuses for not being evangelistic evaporate and we find we are forced into the corner of being a witness.

He says in v 12, note, But before all these things before what things? That is, even before the world goes into a period of all sorts of tumults and revolutions and earthquakes and so on, you will find men in your immediate future, laying hands on you, arresting you, hauling you into synagogues for excommunication and you ending up in prison. They will take you before authorities as though you were criminals. And the mention of synagogues as having a role in this is a pointer that Jesus is still referring to events before 70 A.D.! Why? Because after 70 A.D. the Jewish synagogue completely lost its power to persecute Christians or anyone. From that point on, the Jew was never the persecutor again, but has been the persecuted.

But in that first century, yes, they did a great deal of persecuting. Paul is provoked by it, so that in 1 Thes 2:15 he lays the blood and damnation of some men at their feet, saying they hinder us from speaking to the Gentiles, who might otherwise be saved! He calls them hostile to all men, so tragically, the people for whom God purposed that in you all the nations of the earth shall be blessed and the promise was fulfilled, but never as extensively as it would have been had not men resisted.

Paul had earlier participated in the persecuting, as Saul of Tarsus, Acts 22:19: I went from one synagogue to another, to imprison and flog them. After his conversion, the tables were turned and Paul suffered from it, 2 Cor 11:24: From the Jews five times I received 40 lashes less one.

The point is, rather than be intimidated or shocked, be encouraged that this gives you an opportunity to testify to Christ, v 13. Even the very reason its happening is a testimony in itself, for when it takes place, you'll be suffering, He says, for My names sake, v 12c. What a refreshing way to regard trial and persecution! As Stephen did when he was being stoned; as Peter did (in Acts) when he was being threatened; as Paul and Silas did when they were imprisoned. In such times, Christians testified by refusing to go silent, and continuing to worship Christ even under duress; even by singing in prison after taking a beating!

While talking about this, Jesus raises a concern that naturally comes to mind for a loyal disciple who wants to be His faithful witness: But what if I fail to know what to say? He addresses that in v 14: Make up your minds not to prepare beforehand to defend yourselves. I like how the KJV puts it better: settle it in your hearts don't waste a lot of mental energy, fretting about But what will I say when I face that situation? Don't let that eat at you.

Truly, we never imagine that we are expected to possess an omniscience that would make us thoroughly and wisely prepared for every possible confrontation. Our confidence isn't to be in our preparedness. But since those events can be so very divers, we are to know that we can count on God imparting the needed wisdom to us, at the time of need. That's the gist of vv 14-15:
make up your minds not to prepare beforehand to defend yourselves; for I will give
you utterance and wisdom which none of your opponents will be able to resist or refute.

Now, what Jesus says here has been misused and applied to situations that it has nothing to do with. It has nothing to do with preachers coming to church with their sermons unprepared, or showing up at school without studying for your test, or putting no thought into a conversation that you could easily have prepared for and should have had the love to prepare for or any other sort of work which we ought to prepare for, as faithfully as one can in the circumstance.

No, what Jesus says here refers to replies to the unanticipated challenges which a believer could not really prepare for, which occur when suddenly thrown into the teeth of a persecutor, with no idea what he might even try to charge you with, what he might make up to ensnare you, what he may ask you, or who you might even have to face! In such a moment, the Holy Spirit will give you just what you need! Mark 13:11 puts it wonderfully:

And when they arrest you and deliver you up, do not be anxious beforehand about what you are to say, but say whatever is given you in that hour; for it is not you who speak, but it is the Holy Spirit.

Nothing like that is ever said elsewhere that you don't even speak, but the Holy Spirit does! Have you ever had a moment, when opposed for the cause of righteousness, that you answered and you had to shake your head at what came out of your mouth and say Where did that come from? I wasn't even thinking that! But you found words coming out even as the idea formed in your head, or scarily, even before the idea formed in your head.

At times Christians have quite surprised those who opposed them with what they might say. When they thought a Christian would be terrified, he was bold. When they thought we were out of answers, we had an answer to top their question. This is owing to the Lord. It has been a repeated experience that, the grace with which many a Christian died has caused one or more of his executioners to later turn to Christ.

5) Don't be Surprised How Many or Whom Your Persecutors Are vv 16-17

But you will be delivered up 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 on account of My name. Endure! No matter who turns against you. For even your close relatives may join them. Some will turn you in to a death sentence and this was not uncommon in the Jewish world or the Roman world, if a Roman of Hebrew father felt so disgraced and shamed that his child had become, of all things, a Christian, that he would turn them over with anger to the authorities and disown them.

When we read v 17: and you will be hated by all on account of My name, we are not to wonder how it is that we Christians sometimes get favorable press. Just, don't ever count on it, or be taken aback or offended at the world when the tide turns against us. Never forget that the same media which praises you one day can quickly turn against you.

6) Don't be Surprised to Find Yourselves Untouchable Until Gods Time vv 18-19

Yet not a hair of your head will perish. By your endurance you will gain your lives.
Now He has turned the corner into promises rather than warnings. Endure! Knowing that anything you suffer is the will of God. That's what keeps this from being a contradiction to say, not a hair of my head will perish when you just said they will kill me! What He means is, only as the Father permits, does any of it happen. They cant touch you unless He allows.

However they harm you, its not their will or power which makes you touchable only by the sovereign will of God can you be put to death, put in prison, slapped in the face, called a name, or have a hair yanked out of your beard. He remains in control of all. Nothing, not even the hairs of our head, fall outside the domain of Gods tender care for us, so that we can be assured that if anything about our lives is harmed, it is only by His will and for His purpose.

And so Jesus comes to the pinnacle of it all, what all His words are moving towards v 19: Endure! By your endurance you will save your lives. You cannot be saved if you give in to any of these things! You cannot be saved if false Christs make you forget your loyalty to Jesus; or if wars make you forsake the faith; if fearful natural disasters take your faith off Him, or persecutors. God will give you grace to continue in the faith through all of that, and pastoring many of you for 20+ years now, you and I have seen His faithfulness.

The counsel Jesus gave these disciples, to prepare them for their time of need, the disintegration of their world in Jerusalem, is the same good counsel that will help us endure. They were about to enter several ultimate tests of a lifetime: opposition by their nation, and the disintegration of their nation, at the same time. Well have to get into v 20 starting next week the days of vengeance to come.

Back to the point of enduring as we close. The point remains, as I made last week in closing: The clear inference of His words is: Not everything that seems to be a sign of the end of the world is, in fact, that. Its not the end of the world. Even when life as you have known it completely unravels and collapses, that's not meaning God is about to end the world and you don't have to persevere for very long; it means that you're going to have to learn a lot about persevering, even when He changes everything in life.

Endurance is a major theme in the New Testament. I quoted Paul at the start of the message:

2 Tim 2:10: For this reason I endure all things for the sake of those who are chosen, that they also may obtain the salvation which is in Christ Jesus and with it eternal glory.

Part of your reason for enduring is that the rest of Gods elect people need you to. We need you to help us press on by you pressing on. We cant afford to have you drop out because of the trials of life.

But I have a right to some comforts in this life! Well, Paul has something to say about that:

1 Cor 9:12: If others share the right over you, do we not more? Nevertheless, we did not use this right, but we endure all things, that we may cause no hindrance to the gospel of Christ.

Paul talked a lot about, in the ministry, giving up rights to things in this world, purposefully letting go of things that he could insist upon a right to enjoy and hold onto so that it would not stand in the way of the influence of the gospel of Christ. Have you done some hard thinking, in a seriously prosperous society, about whether you've done that, or steadily avoided having to do it? Facing up to that is part of enduring. You cant claim to be forsaking the world for Christ if you cant put your finger on any way in which you've forsaken the world. Give it thought.

Sometimes, in history, endure meant what Moses did:

Heb 11:25: choosing rather to endure ill-treatment with the people of God, than to enjoy the passing pleasures of sin.

To endure sometimes means, choosing to stand with the righteous when they suffer, even though it gets you in trouble for so doing. And the Lords people are often getting it from the world, when all they did was the right thing. Just as Peter wrote, its not endurance when you sin and get harshly treated for that but!:

1 Pet 2:20: But, when you do what is right and suffer for it you patiently endure it, this finds favor with God.

God really makes it worth it. More than makes up for it. When you suffer for having done the right thing, you will experience a kind of His smile and favor that you just really don't know about at other times. Not to even mention that, if we endure with Him, we shall also reign with Him 2 Tim 2:12. Not a bad bargain at all.

But temptation, not just persecution, is an obstacle to my enduring. The world doesn't just give us trouble for being Christians. Sometimes much worse! It tries to get us to switch sides! What does God promise His people when that is what must be endured? He promises that:

1 Cor 10:13: No temptation has overtaken you but such as is common to man; and God is faithful, who will not allow you to be tempted beyond what you are able, but with the temptation will provide the way of escape also, that you may be able to endure it.

If your heart is so hungry for righteousness and your eyes so looking unto Jesus in temptation, Show me that way of escape!, then you will endure even temptation. Because there's a way of escape from temptation and He knows where it is.

And while He may often let you fall, to humble you and show you how weak you are, Hell show you the path out so that you don't get stuck there either, and mired in the trap.

Because
The one who endures to the end, he shall be saved, Matt 24:13

That's how Jesus wrapped up this section. And what He commands, He promises grace for. Grace that is sufficient, even when it becomes unimaginable. Come back next week and learn just how far that can extend when we pass into verse 20 of the chapter.