"The Words of Jesus will not Pass Away"
Mark 13:24-31
11/19/06
Well, it may or may not have all gotten
started with a big bang, but its certainly all going to end with a big
bang. In todays Gospel text Jesus describes the day of the end of
the universe as one in which the sun will be darkened, the moon will
not give its light, the stars will be falling from heaven, and the
powers that are in the heavens will be shaken. The Apostle Peter
describes it as a day in which the heavens will pass away with a roar,
the elements will be destroyed with intense heat, and the earth and its
works will be burned up. It will be just as God said through the
prophet Haggai, Yet once more I will shake not only the earth [as He
did at Mt. Sinai], but also the heaven.
All our precious things, our cars, our collectibles,
our fine jewelry, our homes, Yosemite, the Grand Canyon, Hawaii, all
our money, our bank accounts, and mutual funds, will all go up in smoke
on the last day. How will it go for us, then, if these are the
things we have been trusting in for our security? Will we have
built on the solid foundation of the Rock of Jesus Christ, or will we
find that we have built on sinking sand? All too often it is the
sinking sand. The Lord revealed this to a certain rich man who
thought he had kept Gods 10 commandments. But when Jesus told him
to sell his possessions, give the money to the poor, and then follow
Him, it was more than the man could bear. Jesus revealed that the
man had a false god - his possessions. And as much as we have to
depend on money and possessions to operate in this society, we cannot
depend upon them for our eternal salvation.
But this is the deception of a life of ease and
comfort. It gives us the feeling that all is right between
ourselves and God. God wouldnt bless us with so many gifts if we
werent under His favor, would He? Yet, Jesus tells another
parable about a man who was blessed by God with a great wheat
harvest. But instead of giving thanks to God or sharing his
wealth with those who were in need, he hoarded it all for himself and
trusted in it for his security. He said to himself, Self, you
have many goods laid up for many years to come; take your ease, eat,
drink and be merry. But God said to him, You fool! This
very night your soul is required of you; and now who will own what you
have prepared? God does not bless us with His gifts because we
deserve them, nor does He give His gifts only to the righteous, but
also to the wicked, that all might come to confess that every good
thing comes from God and learn to fear, love, and trust in Him above
all things.
To trust in our possessions or the things of this
world will mean death and destruction for us in the end. If the
false gods themselves will be judged and pass away in the end, what
will become of those who trusted in them? They will be like the
man whose house, built on the sand, was destroyed when the flood waters
overtook it. Jesus words here about the end of the age are a
warning to us not to put our trust in created things but in Him, the
Creator, the Rock of our salvation.
Seeing you under your slavery to your false gods,
seeing you hoarding your possessions for yourselves and trusting in
them for your security, seeing you impoverished of the true riches of
Gods grace, Jesus impoverished Himself for you, so that you might be
made truly rich with the eternal possessions He gives you which cannot
be taken away from you. The greatest of these gifts is the gift
of Jesus Himself. Why would anyone want to worship creation when
the Creator of it all gives Himself to you? And He gave Himself
completely to you, in order that you might not suffer the destruction
and loss of all Gods gifts on the last day. On the day of His
crucifixion the world was given a little preview of the last day as the
sun was darkened and there was a great earthquake at Jesus death.
The Father was showing that His wrath on account of your sin was being
poured out on His Son. On the cross, Jesus suffered the judgement
of the last day for you in your place. There He suffered the loss
and destruction that you should have suffered. Now, for His sake
and through faith in Him, God declares you righteous, no longer under
the sentence of condemnation, judgment, and wrath, but under Gods
grace, mercy, and peace.
You now have an inheritance that is unshakeable and
will not be destroyed on the last day. It is the inheritance of
Jesus - eternal life with Him, the Father, and the Holy Spirit.
On this you have His Word. You have His Word that your sins are
forgiven for the sake of His sacrifice on the cross. You have His
Word that you belong to Him and that nothing can snatch you out of His
hand. You have His Word that He will never leave or forsake
you. You have His Word that because He has been raised from the
dead, so you too will be raised from the dead on the last day.
And you have His Word that you will live forever with Him face to face
in the new heaven and earth that Hes going to create for you. All
these promises and many more you have by way of His Word, which, as
Jesus says, will not pass away. Everything else might be taken
away from you, but not Jesus and His Word. These gifts are
greater than any other gifts in all creation. And when you have
Jesus and His Word, what gifts do you lack? You have everything.
And so the last day is a day of hope for Christians,
because though it will be a day when this creation is destroyed, it
will also be the day when Jesus comes back for you and ushers in a new
creation. As He says, He will come back in the clouds with great
power and glory, and Hell send forth His angels and gather His elect
from the four winds, from the farthest end of the earth, to the
farthest end of heaven. The Apostle Paul describes the event in
this way: The Lord Himself will descend from heaven with a shout,
with the voice of the archangel, and with the trumpet of God, and the
dead in Christ shall rise first. Then we who are alive and remain
shall be caught up together with them in the clouds to meet the Lord in
the air, and thus we shall always be with the Lord. And the
Apostle John tells us where we will always be with the Lord, and that
is the new heaven and the new earth. There, as he tells us, the
tabernacle of God will be among men and He will tabernacle among
them. They will be His people, God Himself will be among them,
and He will wipe away every tear from their eyes. There will no
longer be any death, there will no longer be any mourning, or crying,
or pain, because the first things have passed away. And the Lord
tells John to write these things because these words are faithful and
true; they will not pass away.
We must confess that we are guilty of often putting
our trust in the things of this world, things that will eventually pass
away - whether its our money, our health, our national security, or our
many possessions. For this we deserve to suffer destruction along
with those things on the last day. But the destruction that you
deserved was suffered by Jesus on the cross, so that instead of death
you might have life. And to that end He gives you His sure and
certain Word that will never pass away, a Word that pronounces you
righteous and forgiven all your sins, including your trust in your
false gods, so that you might trust in Him, the one true God, who will
come for you on the last day and take you to live with Him in heaven
forever. And so, as the Lord teaches, Do not lay up for
yourselves treasures on earth, where moth and rust destroy, and where
thieves break in and steal. But lay up for yourselves treasures
in heaven, where neither moth nor rust destroys, and where thieves do
not break in or steal; for where your treasure is, there will your
heart be also. What is this treasure? Your Savior Jesus
Christ Himself, your very great reward. Amen.