Luke 21:5-28
Grace be unto you and peace…
I saw an “ad” the other day for a company that makes windows here in Kansas, whose name is “Pella”. You’ve probably heard of Pella Windows. They’ve been around for a long time. And I don’t know where or what they got their name from. Maybe the owner’s name is Pella? I don’t know. But, as a historian and as a theologian, I think the name Pella, is a great name for a company that makes windows.
Tradition holds that when the Christians in Jerusalem started to see the signs appear that Jesus talks about in this Gospel reading for today, they all packed up, hurried out of Jerusalem, and retreated to a little town across the Jordan river by the name of “Pella”. They saw the signs, and went to Pella, and as a result, they escape the destruction that soon followed. They were gathered together at Pella and were saved. That’s why, regardless of why the window company actually has the name that it does, I think it’s a great name for a window manufacturer. People make windows so that you can see…and the name “Pella” will forever have a place in history associated with those who “saw the signs”.
JESUS PROMISES US TODAY THAT, LIKE THE DAYS IN WHICH JERUSALEM WAS DESTROYED, THERE WILL BE SIGNS THAT THAT DAY IS APPROACHING, THAT CHRISTIANS, LIKE THOSE IN PELLA, CAN SEE THEM, BE GATHERED AND BE SAVED.
I. In regard to these signs, the first thing He says is, “see that no one leads you astray”.
A. Many will come in His Name.
In fact, in many ways, the Last Day will be like it was during those 30-40 years between when Jesus rose again and when the fall of Jerusalem took place. Why was it that it was pretty much only the Christians that escaped and were saved? The simple answer is, “the rest had all been led astray”.
The bible tells us that right after the Resurrection, the leaders of the Jews circulated rumors, denying the resurrection. They continued to oppose Jesus even after His death and even after rising again…they refused to repent. And instead of turning and being the people of God that they were called to be, they spent the next 30-40 years persecuting the followers of Jesus while the Christians remained in Jerusalem. When Rome came with its armies, they actually called everyone from the neighboring towns and countryside into the city, where, they thought they’d be protected like in the days of Hezekiah. As a result, food shortages, disease and pestilence overtook most of them even before Rome broke down the walls.
B. The Sanhedrin, the scribes and the Pharisees all claimed to speak for God.
And it’s important to recognize that these self-proclaimed leaders, actually led the people to their destruction during Jerusalem’s last days. Many of them had actually been alive and at least “rising to power” 35-40 years earlier, during Jesus’ last days. They were there, in the city, while Jesus approached it with tears saying, “You did not know the things that make for peace, nor did you recognize the day of your visitation”. They’d been led astray and in turn, they spent their lives leading other people astray. They didn’t recognize the Day that the Lord appeared to them…despite all the signs of healing and casting out demons and of even the resurrection…and Jesus says, that it will be very much the same on the Last Day.
II. His message to us today is the same: “See that no one leads you astray”.
A. The signs that Jesus talks about are everywhere.
So the question is, when you hear of wars and earthquakes and rumors of war and pestilences and even the roaring and rising of the seas, and all the other things that Jesus talks about in this passage, where can you go so that you can escape and be saved like the early Christians at Pella? Where is the right place to gather when you have all sorts of people saying, “I Am He” (or at least “I speak for God”) and when you’ve got a whole industry of televangelists and modern so-called “prophets” making tons of money saying, “the time is at hand!”? Where do you go?
B. The answer is “where Jesus is”.
The answer is to do as the Christians at Pella did. The answer is to gather together around His Word and Sacraments. The answer is that here and only here will you be saved. Why? Because here and only here are the signs (or the reality of the mysteries) that save. Everywhere else there are signs that cause people to fear and (as Jesus says), “faint with foreboding”. Everywhere else people are pumping their kids full of drugs to “quell their anxiety” while their parents see their therapists and pump themselves up “recreationally”. Only here do you see the signs that make for peace: The body given unto death that you might live; The blood shed for the forgiveness of sins. Only here do you have the assurance of the New Covenant; the absolution; and the washing of water and the Word. Only here can you have peace and confidence and know where to go, even when you see yourselves being surrounded
III. So, don’t be led astray.
A. You’re not like Jerusalem who didn’t know the things that make for peace.
Unlike Jerusalem that did not know the Day of her visitation…You have the things that make for peace distributed before you. They are pure gospel. They tell you over and over again amidst a myriad of signs in your life to the contrary…that God loves you; that your sins are forgiven; that as He says, “I Am with you always even until the end of the age”. These signs assure you that yes, “Where two or three are gathered, there I am in your midst”. They comfort you reminding you that, just as Jesus promised, “I will never leave you nor forsake you”. And by faith, you see the Lord coming and even the heavens being shaken, every time you sing the Sanctus with all the “Cherubim and Seraphim and all the heavenly hosts”.
B. This is very different from those who gather people simply saying, “the time is at hand”.
i. Most of them don’t believe that Christ is really present in Word and Sacrament.
Most of them believe that they simply have “Jesus in their heart”. As some of you can testify, because like me, you’ve spent a decade or two in other churches…this is why some of them are so offended when they see a pastor pronounce the absolution. In their minds, if they sin, that’s just “between them and God”. In their way of thinking, the Pharisees were right and Jesus was wrong.
Remember when Jesus healed the paralytic? He told the young man that “your sins are forgiven” and the Pharisees said, “What does He think He’s doing? Only God can forgive sins!”. And Jesus replied, “The son of man (not simply the Son of God, but the son of man) has authority on earth to forgive sins”. But people that have been raised to believe that you just need “Jesus in your heart” don’t believe this and they continue to be just as offended at Jesus’s words as the Pharisees were.
They have been taught to believe that they have the Spirit of God working with them directly…apart from Jesus. They believe that, instead of the Spirit “guiding them into all truth” where Jesus, the eternal Word is the truth” and instead of faith coming by hearing and hearing by this Word of Christ as passed on to us through His prophets and Apostles…they believe that they just have the “spirit”. In fact, many of them believe that the “real” baptism is the baptism “in the Spirit” – and it doesn’t really have anything to do with Jesus.
ii. And that’s why a lot of our people aren’t here – many have been led astray.
If you can just have “Jesus in your heart”, who needs to go to church? If your sins are “just between you and God”, who needs the absolution? Who needs the Office of the Keys if you can just “bind yourself on earth” or “loose yourself on earth” and if whatever you say to yourself, “this is bound” or “this is loosed” it’s as good as if it were “shouted throughout the heavens”? What good is the church when you can just say to yourself, “I am He…and this is just between Jesus and me” or as some people think, “Jesus doesn’t have anything to do with this…this is just between you and me”.
To such people, contrary to the God’s Word in Christ, the hand is free…even encouraged to say to the foot, “I don’t need you”. To such people, Christ’s promise that “He who hears you, hears me” simply means, “You need to accept what I think because I know that this is right…because this is what’s in my heart”. To such people, “Do this in remembrance of me” simply means, “Well I guess I’d better at least do this at least once so that I can check the box”. I kid you not…I forget who was telling me this the other day…but they said that they went to this “church” somewhere, where before the service there was a little room with bread and grape juice and if you felt you needed “it”, you could go in there and administer it to yourself (however you felt that should be done).
IV. People are being led astray.
It’s everywhere and in the same way that Jesus addressed the conversation that these disciples were having as they gawked at how beautiful the temple was…gawking at the work of human hands when you have the Lord of Heaven and Earth within earshot!....you need to be prepared to address all sorts of little conversations that happen within ear-shot of you today.
That’s what Jesus is talking about when He says you will be called before Governors and Kings and that you will be betrayed by parents and relatives and friends. You have been gathered to Jesus. There’s nothing more important. Otherwise His word to you is the same word He spoke to the Pharisees, “Why do you call me Lord, Lord, if you don’t do what I say?”. It’s only by the true testimony of Christ that people are saved. It’s not enough to simply believe that God exists. As Paul says to Timothy, “Everyone who calls on the Name of the Lord must turn away from iniquity”. That means that, instead of loving “Mother and Father more than me” as Jesus says, you have now been called to love your Mother and Father in Christ. It means that you’ve been called to love your relatives and friends, in Christ. It means that Christ is Lord and sometimes your parents, your relative and even your friends are going to be the ones the persecute you and hand you over to those “authorities” – even if those authorities at the moment are nothing more than the “unruly mob of unbelievers” that they like to hang out with and bring over to your house. You are called to love them in Jesus…and to repent when you find yourself loving them more than Jesus. The true “Spirit of Jesus” can’t help but talk about Jesus. That’s just the way it is. Every other spirit is of the Devil.
Conclusion: The fact is, on the last day, those that are accustomed to seeing Jesus by faith and eating Him in faith and reverencing Him in the humble ways and things in which He comes now, will behold the Last Day as a vision of beauty and a glorious vindication that their faith was right, and their God true. His coming in glory will not take you as a thief because you’ve learned to expect it – even as you have shared in a measure of His sufferings according to His will for you. That day will not be strange or unusual. Rather it will be that for which you’ve been practicing and already enjoying your entire life.
You will rejoice then as you rejoice now because you see these things taking place already. So, “straighten up and raise your heads…your redemption is drawing near”.*
In Jesus’ Name +
* This conclusion is taken from Pr. David Petersen's sermon on this text (with some edits). You can find the original on his website: cyberstones.org