God’s Plan Demands Christ’s Return, Part 1, Luke 21:8

This morning we have the opportunity to return to the twenty-first chapter of the gospel of Luke and to consider the next in a series of messages drawn from our Lord’s own teaching called “Signs of Christ’s return…Signs of Christ’s return.” One of the cardinal doctrines in the Christian faith is the Second Coming of Jesus Christ. He came once to die on the cross, to pay the penalty for the sins of all who would believe throughout all of history. He will come again to judge the ungodly and to establish His Kingdom for His saints. He will reign in that Kingdom for a thousand years. Then the entire universe as we know it will be destroyed, and in its place He will create a New heaven and a New Earth in which all His own will dwell forever in joy and peace and righteousness. This is the future and this, as I said, is a cardinal doctrine of the Christian gospel, the Second Coming of Jesus Christ.

That is the theme of our text in Luke chapter 21. In fact, from verse 5 all the way to verse 36, Jesus talks about the features that are associated with His return. There are some people who would assume that the story of Jesus ended badly, that frankly it couldn’t have ended any more badly than it did…rejected by His own people, killed as a criminal, rejected as a religious leader, seen as a seditious rebel, a threat not only to religion but a threat to societal peace, put on a cross by the Romans like a whole lot of other criminal riff-raff. It couldn’t have ended any worse.

That might be the perspective of even well-intentioned people who were attracted to Jesus, if in fact we left out the rest of the story. But Jesus didn’t leave it out and so on Wednesday of Passion Week, two days before His death, Jesus says, “I’ll be back. This is not the last chapter. This is not the end. This is not the last vision the world will have of Me.” Walking out of the temple on a Wednesday evening with only a few disciples gathered around Him, and heading up the western slope of the Mount of Olives, that is not the final vision of the Lord Jesus Christ. And He wants to make that very clear even before He goes to the cross.

It all begins, this discussion about His return, in verse 5…Luke 21. “And while some were talking about the temple, that it was adorned with beautiful stones and votive gifts, He said, ‘As for these things which you’re looking at, the days will come in which there will not be left one stone upon another which will not be torn down.’ And they questioned Him saying, ‘Teacher, when therefore will these things be? And what will be the sign when these things are about to take place?’ And He said, ‘See to it that you be not misled, for many will come in My name saying I am He, and the time is at hand. Do not go after them.’”

From where Christ sat when this discussion was taking place, with His disciples, they had a magnificent view of the eastern side of the temple mount and the temple. It was the most stunning of all Herod’s many building projects. Already over 50 years in the building with about 35 more years to go before it would be completed. Eighty-five years to build a building? It was made of gleaming white polished stone overlaid with gold and all kinds of amazing artistic decorations that had been brought by people wanting to make donations to seal vows that they had made, hence they’re called votive gifts.

Sitting on the western slope of the Mount of Olives in the twilight as the sun is setting in the west, it was still a stunning and magnificent sight on that Wednesday night. Oh in the morning when the sun rose over the Mount of Olives and shown on the gold eastern side, it was like a mirror flashing the sun in its full blaze right back at the Mount of Olives. But even at night it was a staggering sight. Some said it was the most beautiful building in the ancient world. It was opulent and that was what they were talking about. They were talking about this temple adorned with beautiful stones and votive gifts. It was a stunning thing and yet it was representative of a false religion…a false religion that was going to be under the judgment of God for even the Messiah Himself had declared that it would be destroyed, it would become a desolation along with the city and the nation and it would remain in a desolate condition until the people turned to Jesus Christ as their Messiah and said, “Blessed is He who comes in the name of the Lord.” And, folks, we’re still living in that desolation. When Jesus said, “Not one stone will be upon another,” in that temple, that came to pass forty years later in the destruction of Jerusalem by the Romans. It is still the case, no two temple stones stand on top of each other. It is still a desolate place.

It was hard for the disciples to understand this. And they respond by saying, “When therefore will these things be and what will be the sign when these things are about to take place?” What’s going to point to this? What’s going to tell us it’s coming? When is it going to happen? In Matthew 24:3 the parallel passage to this, Matthew says they also added, “And what will be the sign of Your coming?…or Your full presence and the end of the age?” You see, they assumed that whatever He was going to do to the temple was going to be done quickly and then overruled quickly because He was the Messiah, the Messiah had come, all Messianic prophecy would need to be fulfilled. Any judgment on the temple would have to be quickly reversed and then the Kingdom would be coming immediately, the temple would be restored after having been purified. They all expected it to happen immediately.

You see, in the minds of the Jews, the Messiah was chiefly a political figure who would deliver Israel from foreign oppression and foreign hostility. Oh yes, there would be a purification and a bringing of righteousness and peace to the people as well, but the big issue was to bring back the preeminence of Israel, the sovereign Kingdom of David and his throne and that throne would then rule not only Israel but the world. They thought that when the Messiah came He would destroy the nations and save Israel, that He would vindicate the tribes identifying them and their millennial possessions, that He would vindicate and verify the priestly line, purify the nation, set up His Kingdom and rule. And so if Jesus is saying it’s all going to come down, that’s okay, they just want to know how fast is it going back up again in its millennial glory? Since Jesus clearly is the Messiah, they have, along with Peter, given testimony to that, “You are the Messiah, the Son of the living God,” this is their hope. In fact, they’re anticipation is reaching a fever pitch. You take the triumphal entry on Monday, two days before, this celebration by hundreds of thousands of people of Jesus as the Messiah, Son of David, all the hosannas, the disciples, those who believe in Him, buy into that fully even though the crowd is fickle and unconvinced but hopeful.

By now they have waned and faded away and only the disciples are left. He has made His triumphal entry as Messiah, putting a stamp of approval on their faith and their hope that He in fact was. If He’s going to do the judgment, certainly the Kingdom is going to follow soon. And because of this boiling anticipation, they are in a very precarious position…very precarious because the fact of the matter is, it’s not going to come when they think it’s going to come. He’s not going to come when they think He’s going to come. There is going to be a long, long delay, still, by the way, two thousand years later, going on. But they’re in a very vulnerable position because with all of that anticipation somebody might come along and say, “I am the resurrected Christ, I am Christ come back to earth. The time is near. I’m here to bring the Kingdom.” And they could easily be misled. So the whole message begins with a warning in verse 8. “See to it that you be not misled.” Don’t be deceived. Don’t be led astray. Misled comes from a verb plenao from which we get planets, things that wander in space. Don’t wander off, don’t drift away because you’re very vulnerable.

And what would induce that? Verse 8, “For many,” not a few, “many will come in My name,” meaning claiming to be Christ. “Many will come claiming to be Christ saying, ‘I am…literally…I am.’” The tetragrammaton, the name of God. The time is at hand, the end of the age, the beginning of the Kingdom age, many will come. And many did come…many came and they still come. Does it seem a curiosity to you that there is no list of people who claim to be the resurrected Buddha? That a curiosity to you? There’s no list of people who claim to be Mohammed come back. There’s no list of people who claim to be the returning Joseph Smith, or any other false religious leader. Why? Because there’s no sense in counterfeiting the counterfeit. No point, why would Satan waste his time counterfeiting the counterfeit?

“This article originally appeared here at Bible Bulletin Board.”