Shepherd of the Springs
Lutheran Church-Missouri Synod

From the OT: And the Lord said to Moses, "I have seen this people, and behold, it is a stiff-necked people. Now therefore let Me alone, that my wrath may burn hot against them, and I may consume them, in order that I may make a great nation of you." [Ex. 32.9-10]

From the Epistle of the Day: Therefore, encourage one another with these words. [1 Thess. 4.18]

From the Holy Gospel: "Therefore if they say to you, ‘Look, He is in the desert!’ do not go out; or ‘Look, He is in the inner rooms!’ do not believe it. For as the lightning comes from the east and flashes to the west, so also will the coming of the Son of Man be." [Matthew 24.26-27]

Today we enter into the final portion of the long Trinity Season known as the "Sundays in End-Time," and this third last Sunday of the year thus receives the name, "Signs of His Coming Sunday." During these three Sundays we will review the major texts which refer to the End Times, the Day of Judgment, and fulfillment of Christ’s promise of your place in the New Heavens and New Earth.

I.

In today’s Gospel, Jesus raises the issue of a "great tribulation." Christians have debated the meaning of this prophesy for ages. Today, books and movies abound that are supposed to treat the "great tribulation" for those who are "Left Behind." This view exists because of a great confusion – a great confusion about what the great tribulation is, and a great confusion about whether Christians experience this great tribulation. The Left Behind teachings assume that the great tribulation is an event that Christians will not experience and an experience that non-Christians will experience before the final return of Christ. To hold these two things together requires that Christians are taken out of this world before the great tribulation, hence the teaching called "the rapture," expressed by silly bumper stickers that warn you that the car in front of you will be cruising without a driver when the rapture occurs. There is no rapture, no multiple second comings, one secret and one in full view.

This teaching is comforting to many people; that is why it is so popular today. It is comforting in that it promises you a life without the threat of the great tribulation, and it is comforting because it assures you that those who refused the offer of salvation through the Gospel will still be saved when things get bad enough after you and all the true Christians are wisked away – a comforting message, but wrong.

What your Lord Jesus Christ actually teaches is that there shall be a unique tribulation at the end of the history of mankind, foreseen in a great tribulation in Jewish history of which Christ’s apostles-in-training were well aware.

The Lord reminds His hearers of the "abomination of desolation" spoken of by Daniel the prophet. This is a three-part concept in the Scriptures. First, the "abomination of desolation" is a prophecy by Daniel pointing to a future tragedy concerning the temple, during the Intertestamental period, i.e, between the end of the Old Testament writings and the birth of Christ. Second, this event itself is shown to be a shadow of an event yet to come according to Christ’s prophecy concerning the temple in New Testament Jerusalem. Finally, these events point to the final days in the life of this world as you know it.

This prophesy was first fulfilled when Antiochus entered the city of Jerusalem, and ordered a pagan altar erected in the temple; he also sacrificed pigs there. It was a true "abomination of desolation" in the temple.

II.

It is this event to which our Lord refers, thus making the actions of Antiochus a prophecy of what is yet to come for the temple, namely, the destruction of the temple by the Romans in 70 A.D. This same Josephus notes in his records that at the time of the fall of Jerusalem in 70 A.D., the "abomination of desolation" occurs in the temple again, begun when Jewish Zealots occupied the temple as a fortress in their rebellion against Rome, and culminated when the Roman soldiers entered the temple, burned sacrifices to their gods before their military standards, and then took away the sacred vessels and burned the temple. To this day, sculptures of Roman troops carrying away the vessels from the Jerusalem temple are visible on the Arch of Titus in Rome.

Now, what makes this a "great tribulation" is that it is the tribulation of judgment on Old Testament Israel for rejecting the One who is at the center of the covenant, the Messiah.

This event destroys completely what was left of God’s covenant relationship with the Jewish nation of the 1^st century. The article and vessels of the covenant were captured, desecrated, and carried away. The temple itself was burned and destroyed. The religious leadership of the Sanhedrin–who condemned Christ to the cross–was wiped out. According to the very testimony of Jewish historians, the Second Jewish Commonwealth which was established with the return to Jerusalem after the Babylonian Captivity five hundred years earlier was abolished. The Jewish people continue to exist as an ethnic group, but God’s chosen nation is no more. And more importantly, the identity of Israel – the people of God – no longer applies to the Jewish people. It now applies to the Church.

III.

We tend to think of Judaism as one unchanging religion since Abraham, but this is not the case. By the time that Jesus arrives in the flesh, Judaism is no longer the religion of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. It is no longer the religion established at Mt. Sinai. Only a small remnant of the faithful gives validity to its name. With the New Testament Fall of Jerusalem, even that validity ceases, and everything that connected the Jewish ethnic and religious identity to the Old Testament promises is severed, and a new Israel takes its place before God.

And it is all as Jesus Himself declares would happen, as just before the words in our text, He weeps over Jerusalem, "The days will come upon you when your enemies will build and embankment around you, surround you and close you in on every side, and level you, and your children within you, to the ground, and they will not leave in you one stone upon another, because you did not know the time of your visitation," and again when He declares in a parable, "He will destroy those wicked men miserably, and lease his vineyard to other vinedressers." Yet again at His trial before Caiaphas He says, in answer to the question as to whether He is the Christ, the Son of God, "It is as you said, Nevertheless, I say to you, hereafter you will see the Son of Man sitting at the right and of Power, and coming on the clouds of heaven," referring back to the prophet Daniel who prophesied concerning the Messiah and His ascension: "Behold, One like the Son of Man, coming with the clouds of heave! He came up to the Ancient of Days, and ... to Him was given dominion and glory and a kingdom, that all peoples, nations, and languages should serve Him. His dominion is an everlasting dominion, which shall not pass away, and His kingdom the one which shall not be destroyed." This destruction happened to the kingdom of Israel in 70 A.D.

IV.

Thus, what Jesus says immediately after this verse applies to those who live after this "great tribulation," and await the ultimate fulfillment of Christ’s prophesy when the final end-time great tribulation draws near. "Therefore if they say to you, ‘Look, He is in the desert!’ do not go out; or ‘Look, He is in the inner rooms!’ do not believe it. For as the lightning comes from the east and flashes to the west, so also will the coming of the Son of Man be." From this warning comes your place in the end-times.

The end-times leading up to Christ’s return will be marked by the devil working great and evil deceptions WITHIN the Church. It will be like unto the rebellion against Moses and God in Israel’s wilderness experience, when they demanded that Aaron – the religious leader – make for them a golden calf, as their god. God brought judgment upon them, as the Old Testament of the Day reminds you.

Now, as the Day of Christ’s return comes closer, these deceptions will increase, accompanied by growing lawlessness in the world – rough waters ahead! Christ gives a description of how the devil will attempt to deceive Christians. First, with the words, "Look, He is in the desert!" Christ speaks of the kind of religious practices which characterized the Jewish sects that lived in the desert, living lives separate from society, marked by rigid religious practices, as if these will save you in the day of His return. They won’t. Then, when He speaks those who would say, "Look, He is in the inner rooms!" Christ warns you of movements which would have you find your faith and your security inside of yourself, as if this will save you in the day of His return. It won’t. Both of these temptations attack one thing: your focus on Christ. Each one takes your focus off of Christ and puts it on yourself, either in terms of outward supposedly religious behaviors, or in terms of inward supposedly religious feelings. Either way, where people give in to the devil’s temptations, Christ is placed on the sideline, and the individual becomes the basis of hope and assurance.

Clearly, you live at a time in the Church and in the world where these warnings apply. Church after church today is turning away from a focus on Christ alone and to a focus on the Christian’s behavior, or the Christian’s inner feelings, or both. You see this in our own churches, and you see this in our society. There is not hope, no security, and no salvation there. Don’t go there! These are end-times happenings. The devil is tempting you with them. As Christ says, "Do not believe it!"

The end-times call for faithfulness in the face of temptation and the true and final great tribulation. And this faithfulness is neither a matter of outward behaviors nor inward feelings. It is a matter of trust, of dependence on Christ and His Word alone. This is why you are here today: to receive Christ and His Word through the preaching of the Gospel and the administration of the Sacrament. These things, Word and Sacrament, are outside of yourself. They are the testimonies to God’s promise to you that today’s Epistle urges you to make the centerpiece of your church life: "Therefore, encourage one another with these words." The gifts that Word and Sacrament bring depend neither on your behaviors or your feelings. They are insulated from both behaviors and feelings so that nothing can corrupt the gifts they bring: gifts of forgiveness, life, and salvation.

Especially in the end-times, surrounded with temptations in the Church and increasing lawlessness in the world, Christ at work in your life is your only hope, your only security, and your only salvation. And Christ IS at work in your life through His appointed Gospel and Sacraments. He has chosen you, called you, enlightened you with saving faith, and He keeps you in that faith. His love for you will never end. Therefore, He gives you these gifts of His grace so that you might know that love, and bank on it. His faithfulness keeps you faithful in the days of temptation and lawlessness. Yes, these days appear to be here by what you see about you. Let your heart be assured that in the midst of rough waters ahead, Christ is here about you, with you, and for you, forever.