Shepherd of the Springs
Lutheran Church-Missouri Synod

The Third Last Sunday before the end of the Church Year

Text: Matthew 24:15-28

Theme: Finding Christ in the Last Days

This morning we come to those last Sundays of the Church year, the last set of Sundays after Trinity which are numbered according to how close they are to the last Sunday in the season. This morning marks the Third Last Sunday after Trinity. All of these last Sundays present us lessons that reveal the end game of God’s plan of salvation. They focus on what things can be expected to be like in the last days. For the people of God and for us here at Shepherd, they are intended to instruct and to warn. We understand that we have been baptized into the cross of Christ and it is God’s intention to remind us that we are to remain there to the very end. It is in the cross of Christ that our Lord intends for us to remain steadfast, ready to receive Him when He Returns in glory.

In the 24th chapter of Matthew, Jesus has just left the temple in Jerusalem after proclaiming God’s judgment upon the unbelief of the Jewish leadership and so many of his contemporary generation. He indicates to his disciples who are admiring the grand architecture of the temple building that in a short while, they will see it no more - not one stone standing upon another. The disciples ask Jesus when this will happen, and in addition, they ask when the end of the age will occur with his coming glory. Jesus responds in the section of Matthew 24 just before our text this morning with a general overview of what things are going to be like during the last days. He tells His disciples to make sure that no one misleads them. He warns them that a great tribulation will come and bring much affliction for the people of God. Many of the faithful will be hated and killed for his Name sake. He warns the disciples not to be fooled by many false prophets and messiahs that will arise. Many of those who confess Christ will be led astray during these days of persecution and deception.

Our text for this morning follows this section. Here Jesus retraces what He has just told His disciples, but offers more specific details. His description of the last days pick up the stinging words of judgment that He spoke in the temple against the unbelief of the Jewish leadership. When He left the temple, He proclaimed that the house of Jerusalem would soon be left desolate. Here in our text, Jesus provides us with details that indicate that the latter days for the people of God began with the execution of judgment upon the unbelieving house of Jerusalem.

About 35 years after Jesus was crucified, the Jewish faction that was looking for a political messiah that Jesus was not, revolted against Roman rule. While managing to gain a short time of success, being rather distant from the center of the empire, Rome finally marched upon Judea with strength, led by the famous commander, Titus. The woes spoken in our text relate to the slaughter of the Jews throughout the Judean countryside in 68 AD as the army moved toward Jerusalem for a two year siege. Finally in 71 AD, when all of the food and water had run out and most of the citizens of Jerusalem had died of thirst or starvation, Titus stormed the city and killed anything left that still moved. The abomination of desolation foretold by Jesus in our text occurred when Titus had a pig burned on the altar in the temple. And then the temple was destroyed with not one stone left standing upon another as Jesus foretold.

How do the predictions of Jesus apply to us today? First of all, they mean this: the last days for the people of God have begun! The judgment and destruction of Jerusalem and its temple signal both the judgment of God and the reign of Satan in the last days. We are a part of the people of God living in the last days. Life for the Church will be filled with many trials, much tribulation, and afflictions - precisely because of its connection with Jesus. It is as if Jesus were here giving a special beatitude for his people living during the end times. Blessed are the afflicted, for they are normal. A world-wide set of trials and afflictions is a sign for us to be ready for His return and the move from life in the cross of Christ to life in His glory.

Why are these signs important for us to understand? Why do we need to know about the intensified spiritual warfare and persecution of God’s people that will precede the return of Christ? It is this. When things get rough, when challenges to our spiritual life become great, when it may seems that we might have to lay our faith in Christ on the life, what are we to make of these things? And more importantly, where can we find comfort, strength, and peace? Where can we find strength and refreshment from the Lord Jesus to hold up and survive such ordeals, should they come to us? When it appears that we might have to put our faith on the line - pay a price, make a big sacrifice, even give up our life for being faithful to Christ - should such trials come upon us, we really need to know where we can go for comfort and strength.

When its all on the line for us, where can we find our Lord and Savior? Where can we listen to Jesus and know from Him that we must go through some ordeal, trial, or sacrifice on account of faithfulness to him? And if we were certain that now is the time of our participation in the great tribulation, where can we count on Christ showing up to offer us His comfort, His promises, His presence, His strength, and his peace of mind and heart? This is the all important issue that Jesus predicts in our text will have many looking in all the wrong places and being led astray. Many false messiahs will appear with great shows of supernatural power and wonders. They will offer compelling words of comfort and ways to escape the threats of suffering and affliction. And some of them will be able to deliver temporary deliverance from the chaos and turmoil. Some will say you can find him in the desolate places, some will say he is in the secret rooms, special holy places. Jesus warns us not to put your trust in them. They are of the anti-Christ.

The true messiah will be able to be found only where he has always been found among his people. And where is that? We need to know. Before He returns in glory, we need to be confident that we know just where He can be found. And where He can be found is right here! He is here in the sacred things that He gave his Church shortly before he ascended into Heaven. He is here in the bread and wine. He is here in the waters of baptism. Here is here in the words of holy absolution. He is here in the preaching and teaching of His Word. Here we can count on finding Him in good season and in bad, in the calm days and in the days of tribulation. Here He comes in the latter days to give us His strength, His peace, His direction, and all His saving gifts that will enable us to confidently stand in the face of the attacks of the Evil One.

In the Lord’s Prayer, we pray the petition, Thy Kingdom Come on Earth as it is in Heaven. As Luther has instructed us in his Catechism, we certainly know that it will indeed come. But in this petition we pray that it might also come to us. By the power of the Gospel, the Kingdom has already come to you. You have already been wrapped in the righteousness of Christ and ushered by adoption into God’s family. But now for you, as for all Christians, Jesus tells us to get ready for the end game. The end game is standing fast in the sure and certain hope of the fulness of the Kingdom, even before a world in upheaval, a world that hates the disciples of Jesus as it has hated Him, a world that may well be forcing you to put it all on the line. Don’t get lazy, be watchful. Don’t become preoccupied with your affairs of this world. This is not your home and you have not arrived there, yet. The gates of Hell will rattle for a little while more. When the noise seems deafening at times, look up, says Jesus, for your redemption is drawing nigh. You are entering into the end times; this is the end game. We are to play it out according to our Lord’s instruction that we might hold fast to the hope that is within us . . that faithfully engaging the end game, we might all be there, be there together, be there forever with our Lord.

And then Jesus tells us that when He finally appears, it will be in all the fulness of His glory like the crack of lightning that stretches across the sky from the east to the west. There will be not mistaking it. And then cross life for us will come to an end. Then the life of glory will rain down upon us and the days of tests, trials, and tribulations will be over forever. For now, however, we live in the last days. Hold fast to the Christ you know and continue to seek Him where He promises to be - here in His house with His Word of Gospel and His sacraments. These are honest to God places where you may be furnished with all that you need so that you will be with Him and remain with Him in the end. In the Name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit. A-men.