So let's give attention now as we read God's Word together. This is Jesus speaking, beginning in Luke 21, verse 25. And there will be signs in sun and moon and stars and on earth distress of nations in perplexity because of the roaring of the sea and the waves people fainting with fear and with foreboding of what is coming on the world, for the powers of the heavens will be shaken. And then they will see the Son of Man coming in a cloud with power and great glory. Now, when these things begin to take place, straighten up and raise your heads because your redemption is drawing near. And he told them a parable. Look at the fig tree and all the trees. As soon as they come out in leaf, you see for yourselves and know that the summer is already near. So also, when you see these things taking place, you know that the kingdom of God is near. Truly, I say to you, this generation will not pass away until all has taken place. Heaven and earth will pass away, but my words will not pass away. But watch yourselves, lest your hearts be weighed down with dissipation and drunkenness and the cares of this life, and that the day and that day come upon you suddenly like a trap. For it will come upon all who dwell on the face of the whole earth, but stay awake at all times, praying that you may have strength to escape all these things that are going to take place and to stand before the Son of Man. And every day he was teaching in the temple. But at night he went out and lodged on the mount called Olivet. And early in the morning, all the people came to him in the temple to hear him reading from the word of God. Recall, as we've been working our way through this passage, that we've been picturing the thrust of Jesus here as picturing a trip, a car trip, a journey across the Midwest, across the plains of Colorado, and then slowly you get towards the Rocky Mountains and the intimidating mountain range begins to rise in the distance. In particular, as you're taking that trip, focusing in on two mountains in the distance, two mountains that you're going to head right over. Two mountains that look from your distance as if they're right on top of one another. Hard to tell where one mountain stops and the other mountain begins. The smaller mountain in front looking like an almost exact copy of the second larger mountain in the back. And you're going to be headed over those intimidating looking mountains. We said that seems to be what Jesus is doing here in Luke 21. that he's pointing his disciples towards the horizon of where the world is going, where his people are going to be going. Rocky ground ahead. A trip in particular up two intimidating mountains. Mountain one, the smaller one in front, the destruction of Jerusalem in 70 AD under the Romans. The larger mountain behind the second coming of Christ and the end of the age. Those mountains from the perspective of Jesus, the great prophet, looking as if almost they're on top of one another, but mirrors of one another. The smaller, the destruction of Jerusalem, picturing, foreshadowing what will come at the second coming. Well, we found out, as we've been studying, that Jesus' intention here is to be very practical. Because Jesus' disciples throughout the church age have work to do as they travel over that rocky ground. And so Jesus has been telling us what we're to look out for, what we're to do, how we're to be encouraged. And this week is no different. As we come now, having gone up and over in Jesus' teaching, Mountain 1, talking about the destruction of Jerusalem, now make our way towards Mountain 2, the second coming of Christ. Now where I want us to start is by pointing out a few landmarks in that journey. A few landmarks that help us to notice where we are along the road. Because we might at this point say, well, how do we know, as we move from verse 24 to verse 25 and following, How do we know that Jesus is not talking about the destruction of Jerusalem anymore, and now he's talking about the second coming? How do we know we've made that transition? Well, there's a few landmarks in the text. We're not completely surprised that one blends right into the other. We expect that. That's how prophets speak. Jesus wants us to think of the two as being connected, which they are. But there's landmarks in the text that show us we're moving ahead. A couple quick ones to get our place. Landmark number one. Verse 9, verse 9, the beginning of the passage. Remember how it begins? Verse 5, the disciples marvel at the temple and the buildings. Verse 6, Jesus says, it's all going to be destroyed. Verse 7, the disciples say, well, when is this going to happen? What are there going to be the signs? Assuming that, of course, that would be the end of the age. Jesus warns them about false messiahs and false prophets, verse 8. Then verse 9, he says this, And when you hear of wars and tumults, do not be terrified, for these things must first take place, but the end will not be at once." Our first landmark is that there's going to be this delay. You're going to see tumults and distress, but the end's not yet. So he sets up his disciples. There's going to be a distress, but not the end right away, a delay. Next landmark, verse 24. Between 9 and 24, he's told us a lot about the road towards the destruction of Jerusalem. And he's wrapping things up in verse 24, clearly talking about the destruction of those days in Jerusalem, 70 AD. Verse 24, they will fall by the edge of the sword and be led captive among all nations, and Jerusalem will be trampled underfoot by the Gentiles. Until the times of the Gentiles are fulfilled, Now, you'll see, we won't have time to talk about every little nook and cranny of this passage. It's so rich. We don't have time to talk about what exactly does he mean by the times of the Gentiles. But get the landmark, at least. He's saying, okay, Jerusalem is going to be destroyed by the Gentiles, and then there's going to be this times of the Gentiles. Right? Remember verse 9? There's going to be distress, delay. Now he's talking about there's this destruction of Jerusalem. Now there's times of the Gentiles. So then we, as we think from verse 24 into verse 25, we're thinking, well, is now he moving ahead? Is he moving beyond the destruction of 70 AD and maybe beyond the times of the Gentiles? And our suspicions are confirmed when we look at the language in 25 and following. The final and real, the best landmark comes in verse 27, even verse 28. Verse 25 and 26, as we'll mention later, he talks about signs in the heavens and distress on earth, language very similar that he used earlier that seemed to refer at least primarily to the events of the first century. Again, we're not necessarily surprised that he uses similar language because we said smaller mountains are a reflection of the larger mountains. But then he comes up in verse 27 with new language. And language that in the New Testament speaks of the second coming of Christ verse 27 Then they will see the Son of Man coming in a cloud with power and great glory The Son of Man of course referring to Jesus coming but not just coming you look at the descriptions of how he comes and in a cloud with power and great glory and It's language that's drawn from Daniel chapter 7, but in the New Testament, it's referred to several different times. In fact, other places, it's expanded even further. Look at Matthew and Mark's version of the Olivet Discourse. He adds other details. The sound of a trumpet. The angels, the Son of Man coming with angels who are sent out to gather the elect. And you look at that language, Jesus coming, coming in a cloud, coming with trumpet sounds and angels and gathering of the elect. And you look, how is that used in the New Testament? And all of a sudden you discover it's used to describe the second coming of Christ. That's how that language is used. It confirms what we thought, that now we've made our way from Mountain 1, now he's talking about Mountain 2. Let me just give you one example. We could quote a whole bunch of examples in the New Testament, but here's just one. 1 Thessalonians 4. For the Lord himself will descend from heaven with a cry of command, with the voice of an archangel, with the sound of a trumpet of God, and the dead in Christ will rise first. Then we who are alive, who are left, will be caught up together with them in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air. And so we will always be with the Lord. You get some of those languages. Jesus coming. Clouds. Trumpet call. Archangels. You see that idea reflected. This is New Testament language. This is the second coming. Jesus is coming now. The Son of Man is coming now. Not humbly riding on a donkey to lay down His life as a servant and a sacrifice for sin. Now the Son of Man is coming in glory. Now He's coming in the glory of His Father. He is coming as the judge of the living and the dead. And it's the events around that that are described beginning in verse 25. So, let's talk for a couple of minutes about this final road up to the summit of what we've been calling now into the coming, the second coming of the Son of Man. We're told in verses 25 and 26 that there will be again signs and distress 25 talks about signs in the heavens sun moon and stars Again, we saw a little bit of this earlier And we saw from Joel chapter 2 this morning that this line language of signs in the heavens This is Old Testament prophetic language Jesus picking up on that Saying they'll be signed distresses on earth various disasters that will take place Old Testament language That language often has multiple fulfillments, seemed to have some kind of fulfillment around 70 AD. And now as we get closer, well, you see, in fact, throughout the church age that there's signs and distresses. But here as we get closer towards the second coming, even more fulfillments. What are these fulfillments, these distresses on earth and signs in the heavens? Are they literal or are they symbolic? Well, often that language in the Old Testament does take on a symbolic character. The signs in the heavens and the shaking of the heavens can often refer to God coming in judgments, overthrowing the kingdoms of this earth. That's happened throughout the church age. We're not surprised if we continue to see that happening, even if we see that happening all the way up to the very end, maybe even in a climactic way. Symbolic fulfillments? Sure. I don't see any reason why we shouldn't expect literal fulfillments as well. We talked about some literal signs in the heavens around in the first century and we can probably expect those to continue all the way up and even climaxing in the final day. Signs in the heavens, distresses on earth. The road, you're starting to get this picture that the road to the top of the Second Coming is a rocky road for the church. Sometimes and ages are even more rocky than others. The first century was especially rocky as Jerusalem was destroyed. But the whole road is rocky, filled with signs of distress and difficulties on earth. The climax, of course, comes in verse 27, when the Son of Man comes in power and glory. This is where it's leading to. This Christ comes back as He promised. Remember his ascension. Angels say, this one that you saw disappear this way, he's going to come back the same way. The clouds cover him up, he's going to come back. Jesus says, I'm going to return, this time in power and in great glory. That's the climax. It's a coming that other parts of Scripture tell us that the world greets, as is implied here, with great distress. Many running, calling out to the mountains, fall on us. rather have the mountains fall on them than face this great, glorious judge. But Jesus says something different about believers. He says that we don't have to be afraid of this glorious coming. He says, in fact, verse 28, when these things begin to take place, straighten up and raise your heads because your redemption is drawing near. Straighten up Raise your head. Do you get the posture there? This is the this is the posture of confidence of anticipation It should strike us as very odd Because here's Again, it begins signs in the heavens distresses on earth The world is in great perplexity and as it gets closer and closer the peoples are people are running out The world is running, calling out to the mountains. I'd rather have you kill me than face this glorious judge. And here are believers, in sharp contrast, standing up straight with their heads held high. Does that strike you as strange? It should. How is that possible? Were you paying attention as you were singing that last hymn? That hymn that would strike you as odd? That here you're singing Quickly come dread judge of all Awful though thine advent be That's a biblical picture he comes in glory He's the dread judge of all and Here are believers standing straight looking up in anticipation. They quickly come How is that possible? Well, Jesus explains it in the end of verse 28, because your redemption is drawing near. Unlike the nations who are in perplexity, who run, who are in fear, the children of God, believers, can be confident, can anticipate, because our redemption is drawing near. It's not because we're any better. We're just as sinful as they are. just as worthy of the Judge coming to judge us. The difference is, when the dread Judge of all draws near to us, there's no judgment left. There's no wrath left. It's all been poured out. The Son of Man, in His first coming, He took the judgment for us. For all who believe. Now the judgment, the wrath of God for your sin, believer, my sin, was poured out on Jesus. So now when He comes back as the dredged judge of all with glory, there's no wrath left for me. Christ took it at the cross. Same for all believers. He comes back. He paid the redemption price. Right? Redemption. You pay the ransom and the slave goes free. Redemptionists pay the ransom slave goes free. That's what Jesus did for his people He pays the price of the cross takes the wrath of God and now we go free And there's a sense in which we are already free As those who believe in Christ now But the fullness of our freedom we don't have it yet We're waiting for it and it arrives when Christ arrives Complete freedom from sin a resurrection body, the glory of the world to come. We don't have it yet, but it's coming when Christ comes. And so we raise our heads, we stand high, because when Christ comes, He does not bring wrath for us. That's gone, done at the cross. He comes back. He brings the fullness of our redemption. So we say quickly come. Yeah, even dread judge of all. And hopefully you see how this ties in beautifully with the Lord's Supper. As we gather, what will we celebrate? Well, we'll celebrate Christ paying the ransom price. His body for us. His blood for us. He takes the wrath of God at the cross. We see it and we touch it and we taste it here. But Paul tells us that we celebrate it until He comes. So as we're looking back to Him paying the price, we're looking ahead. He's going to come back and bring the fullness of our redemption. So part of your coming here is you're crying out in your heart, Lord, thank you for paying the price. And quickly come. And quickly come. Well, we need to then quickly look at this last section. What I've entitled The Rocky Mountains Summary. Verses 29 and following, we notice Luke breaks in into Jesus' discussion and he told them a parable. Gets us wondering, is this an intentional break on Luke's part? And we look at the section, verses 29 and following. What it seems like Jesus is doing here is giving a summary of everything he's talked about. This is the conclusion of his sermon. It's going back over what he said and bringing it to a head. He starts where the conversation began. Remember the conversation began with the disciples? You know, what are going to be the signs? And now he comes back talking about signs. The signs, he puts the signs into a picture for us. A picture of the fig tree. Pretty simple. Wintertime, fig tree, there's no leaves. And then all of a sudden you walk out one morning and you see some leaves. What do you know? Summer's coming soon. Summer's drawing near. Jesus says, that's what I've been talking about. When you see, he says, verse 31, these things taking place, you know that the kingdom of God is near. When you begin to see these things, the signs he's been talking about, you know that the kingdom of God in all its fullness is drawing near. Now, what are these things he's been talking? They're the signs. I think it's the signs he's been talking throughout this passage. Remember what signs are for. They're not for us to be able to set a date on a calendar. Right? So you see a sign and you can put dates on calendars. Jesus says nobody knows, not even him. And in fact, anybody who set the date run from him. That's essentially what Jesus says. The signs aren't for you to set a date. They're for you to be ready. And so it doesn't surprise us at all that as he's summarizing here, when you see the signs, all these signs are taking place throughout the church age. There was a whole lot of it in the first century. The signs of the perplexity of those days in the fall of Jerusalem, very big sign of what's coming. It's continued throughout as we've had oppositions to the gospel and disasters on the earth. And it seems to continue and even climax until the final coming appears. All that, the signs, the leaves that are appearing on the tree that tell you the kingdom of God is coming near. You don't know exactly. That's not the point. You don't need to know exactly when, but it's coming near. And so you begin to watch and anticipate. You see the signs, you see the leaves. That understanding, that setup, I think helps us understand what's often a tricky verse, verse 32. Truly I say to you, this generation will not pass away until all has taken place. This is a tricky verse to understand if you're going to say, as we've been saying, that Jesus is talking somewhere in here about the second coming. So you read that verse quickly and you say well it almost sounds as if Jesus thinks he's going to come back within the lifetime of the disciples and Obviously he didn't was Jesus wrong. What's going on? Well, obviously Jesus wasn't wrong. We'll talk about that more tonight Heaven and earth will pass away, but his words will never pass away Jesus wasn't wrong. So what's he talking about here? Well, some people focus a lot on what does he mean by this generation. Generation can have different senses to the word. Probably the best understanding of the generation is the normal sense of that. It means the people who are alive then during their lifetime. I think the more interesting place to focus in on this verse is what does Jesus mean by until all has taken place? Until all has taken place. Remember, this verse comes in a context. He's been talking about the leaves appearing. What are the leaves? Well, he says, verse 31, when you see these things taking place, they're the signs that he's been describing throughout this passage that show the kingdom of God is drawing near. Not so you can set a date, so you can be ready. The signs throughout, these things taking place, that's the all that comes in verse 32. And so you've seen all taking place. It's the leaves on the tree. It's the sign that the coming is near. So the all that he's talking about in verse 32 wouldn't refer to the second coming itself, verse 27, the Son of Man coming in power and glory. That's not the signs. That's not the leaves. That's the summer. You get it? The Son of Man coming is the end. It's not a sign of the end. So then ask this question. What did that generation, who was alive in front of him, what did they see? What did they see? Well, they saw distresses on earth, nation rising against nation. They saw the judgment in Jerusalem. They saw examples of all the signs he's been talking about in this passage. And that seems to be what he's saying. He's saying to this generation, you're going to see leaves. You're going to see leaves. He doesn't say that, well, then the leaves are going to stop. But he said this generation is going to see all the leaves. They're going to see all the signs of the coming. Again, all of it's not the set of date. It's to say, get ready. And Jesus has been saying to the church, get ready from the very beginning. Signs of the coming. The leaves will continue. They have continued throughout our age and will continue, even climax, right before his coming. And that gets us to the point. If you want to read more on 32, essentially what I'm trying to describe to you, though other men could do it better, is essentially what D. A. Carson says about the verse, seems to be what Calvin is describing, but they'll probably explain it better than I can. But the point begins to come in in verse 34. where he makes the application. What's the application of all this? You see the leaves. Here's what you need to do. See the sign the kingdom is drawing near. Watch yourselves. Lest your hearts be weighed down with dissipation and drunkenness. The cares of this life at that day and that day come on you suddenly like a trap. The point of the signs. Whether it's the first century Christians whether it's the the rocky road in between or whether it's getting right to the top Towards mountain to we don't know exactly where we are in that But we know we're on rocky ground and we see even around us leaves signs that kingdom is drawing near What are we supposed to do with that not set a date? Watch out be on guard be on guard of what Jesus mentions two things to wrong reactions to the distress of this age. The distress, the rocky grounds, you begin to feel it in your life, in the world around you. There's two wrong ways to respond to it. You can either respond wrongly with escape or wrongly with worry. Jesus says those are both wrong ways, wrong responses. Trying to escape. Jesus talks about dissipation and drunkenness. The rocky ground, you begin to feel it. The world and its troubles begin to bear down and you look for an escape. In the first century, they didn't have many escapes. Alcohol was one of the few ones that they could run to, to get a little escape from the world. But we are in the modern world. We have all kinds of other options. Maybe alcohol is a temptation for you, but you can choose any number of things. When you feel the danger come, something you can run to, just escape for a little bit. Maybe it's alcohol, maybe it's pornography, maybe it's not bad things. Entertainment, the TV, the internet, sports, or shopping, or food, or something that when you feel the difficulties you can run to, to just get away, just escape. And Jesus says, no, that's not the way to respond. He gives another warning. about trying to respond with worry, being weighted down by the cares of this life. These are the times when you feel the rocky ground and now, and you don't try to necessarily escape from it, but you're just grounding in it. The worry and the fretting and the fear just binds you up and it chains you, it enslaves you. That's not the response either. How do you respond when you feel the rocky ground? You remind yourself, it points you to the kingdom that's drawing near. You don't know when, you don't need to, but it reminds you to be on guard, to be ready. Christ is drawing near. Your hope in the midst of the rocky ground is not running and trying to escape real quick. It's not trying to figure it all out and be burdened by it and enslaved by it. Your hope is the one who's coming back. That's your hope. The redemption is drawing near. There is your life. Your life is wrapped up in the Son of Man. And He's coming back. And He's going to establish the fullness of His Kingdom. There's where you look. Jesus reminds us, stay awake for His coming. So you're ready, trusting in Him for your salvation. And for all the cares of this life, you're ready for his return. And again, the Lord's Supper provides us with an opportunity to reflect on all of this. To see here, yes, here's the Savior pictured here who died for me. Purchase my redemption. And I'm reminded here of what's true, that Jesus is where my hope is. I don't need to try to run and escape. I don't need to be enchained by the fretting and the worrying. My hope's in Him. And I'm going to keep doing this and keep being reminded until He comes. And He's coming. He's coming. And so it's a reminder here, I belong to Him. I'm going to serve Him until He comes. Because I belong to Him and He's my hope. So gather here, see the Christ who has laid down His life, Be reminded that he's coming again for you and for me. Let's pray. Father, lift up our heads to the Christ who has come, who has died, who has been raised in glory. And now we look forward to his coming again for us. We pray, Lord, that you would refresh us with the hope of our salvation, even your son. And we ask it in his name. Amen. Let's turn then to CIM 426. CIM 426.