Signs to keep you watching and praying

Sermon for Advent 2

Romans 15:4-13  +  Luke 21:25-36

The Lord is coming. But we don’t know when. And not knowing when can be both a blessing and a challenge. If you knew He was coming in five years, would you really be too concerned with getting yourself ready over the next 4-1/2 years? Wouldn’t you wait until closer to His coming to get ready? If you knew He wasn’t even going to come back during your lifetime, how would that affect how you live? Your sinful flesh would surely take advantage of such knowledge. There would be no urgency to repent when you sin, or to confess the faith, or to help your neighbor. And by the time you decided you should start getting your heart and your life together, there would be no faith left to revive. And you would be caught unprepared, and the snare of Christ’s coming would close around you, and you would be eternally trapped. So Jesus’ decision not to tell us when He’s coming was really a blessing.

But it’s also a challenge, because there’s plenty going on down here on earth to keep our attention. We have homes here. We put down roots here. And it’s not easy to view our homes and our earthly lives as just temporary stops along the way to a greater destination. Our homes and our earthly lives can easily become our destination—the goal around which we make all our decisions, the things our hearts are tied to.

So to help us watch and pray, to keep us from being caught unprepared, to keep us from getting so bogged down here that we forget about our heavenly destination, Jesus gave us some reminders which He calls signs, to keep us looking up, to keep us watching and praying.

There will be signs, He says, in the sun and the moon and the stars. And He adds, The powers of heaven will be shaken. What does all that mean? It’s intentionally vague. But very simply, it means that every time you see something out of the ordinary in the sky, it should make you pause and look up and remember what you’re living for, who you’re living for, how you’re living. It should urge you to repent, and to watch and to pray. It should make you think about Jesus, reigning at the right hand of the Father. It should remind you that Jesus is coming soon.

On the earth there will be distress and anxiety among the nations, and the sea and the waves will roar. And men will lose heart from fear and dread of the things that are coming on the world. Every time you see “the nations” distressed and anxious—worldwide distress and anxiety—whether it’s due to war or pandemic or fear and dread of climate change or asteroids, every time you hear of a hurricane or a typhoon or a tsunami, or an earthquake, or a famine, or a war (which Jesus mentions elsewhere as signs of His imminent coming), it should make you pause and look up and remember what you’re living for, who you’re living for, how you’re living. It should urge you to repent, and to watch and to pray. It should make you think about Jesus, reigning at the right hand of the Father. It should remind you that Jesus is coming soon.

In Matthew’s Gospel, Jesus adds this sign: Lawlessness will abound, causing the love of many to grow cold. It’s hard to watch lawlessness and injustice abound in the world. It’s hard to watch loveless people screaming about their right to kill unborn babies, gangs carrying out violence and destruction, sex traffickers and drug dealers and the streets of our cities being lined with filth. But instead of fixating on those horrors when you hear about them on the news and wringing your hands over them, it should make you pause and look up and remember what you’re living for, who you’re living for, how you’re living. It should urge you to repent, and to watch and to pray. It should make you think about Jesus, reigning at the right hand of the Father. It should remind you that Jesus is coming soon.

Also from Matthew’s Gospel: They will deliver you up to tribulation and kill you, and you will be hated by all nations for My name’s sake. And then many will be offended, will betray one another, and will hate one another. Then many false prophets will rise up and deceive many. Yes, terrible things will happen among Christians and to Christians. They’re already happening. But when you see the Church fractured and broken by false doctrine and the multitude of denominations that are the result of it, when you see the world coming for Christians to silence us and to marginalize us, it should make you pause and look up and remember what you’re living for, who you’re living for, how you’re living. It should urge you to repent, and to watch and to pray. It should make you think about Jesus, reigning at the right hand of the Father. It should remind you that Jesus is coming soon.

A final sign recorded in Matthew: This gospel of the kingdom will be preached in all the world as a witness to all the nations, and then the end will come. That’s a good sign, isn’t it? And it’s happening, too. The gospel has been and is still being preached in all the world. In fact, sixteen children were baptized just last week in the tribal villages of the Amazon jungle in Peru. When you see that Christians are still gathering all over the world and that the gospel is being preached at all, it should make you pause and look up and remember what you’re living for, who you’re living for, how you’re living. It should urge you to repent, and to watch and to pray. It should make you think about Jesus, reigning at the right hand of the Father. It should remind you that Jesus is coming soon.

These signs may intensify as the Lord’s second Advent approaches. We expect that they will. But they’ve already been in place for a long time, so that Christians have never been without the constant encouragements to watch and to pray. That’s why Jesus said, When these things begin to happen, look up and lift up your heads, for your redemption is drawing near! These things began happening since almost the beginning of the New Testament era. And Christ’s coming is much nearer now than it was then.

Now, there’s another sign, or even two signs, Jesus gives to demonstrate the truthfulness of His words. Truly I tell you, this generation will not pass away until all this takes place. Heaven and earth will pass away, but my words will never pass away. “This generation” can refer to at least two groups of people. It could refer to the people alive at Jesus’ time, and that would make sense, because really the signs Jesus gives did already start happening in the first century AD. Or it could refer to the unbelieving race of the Jews. That’s how Luther took it, and that would make sense, because contrary to all probability, the Jewish race does continue to exist still today, and most sadly continue in their unbelief. Either way, the signs have been and are being fulfilled, just as Jesus promised. And the fact that Jesus’ words have not passed away, but are still being heard and read and fulfilled even today, is yet another sign that should lead Christians to watch and to pray.

And to drive home the urgency of constantly watching and praying, Jesus adds a warning: Be on your guard, lest your hearts be weighed down with carousing and drunkenness and cares of this life, and that day come upon you unexpectedly. For it will come like a snare upon all who dwell on the face of the whole earth. Therefore, always watch, and pray that you may be counted worthy to escape all these things that will take place and to stand before the Son of Man. Be on your guard. Why? Because earthly things are heavy. Like weights on the heart. Carousing is basically partying, and while it may seem uplifting, it can actually weigh a person down to avoid watching and praying for a while. Drunkenness puts you in a state of mind that makes it nearly impossible to watch and to pray and to be filled with the Spirit. Cares of this life are always there, but if you get wrapped up in them, they’ll consume you, body and soul. And suddenly Jesus will appear, and you’ll realize you hadn’t given Him a thought in quite a while. Believers in Christ are destined to be lifted up from this world. But if your hearts are weighed down and entangled in earthly things, you won’t be ready to be lifted up away from it. You’ll sink down into the earth like a rock sinks to the bottom of the ocean, never to be seen again.

That day will come like a snare upon all who dwell on the face of the whole earth. That’s an interesting analogy. A snare is hidden until the last moment, when an animal that was just running along, going about its business, runs right through it, and it traps the creature. The animal didn’t see the snare, how close it was. In the same way, leading up to the last day, people will be going about their business, doing harmless things like eating, drinking, marrying, and being given in marriage, and also doing sinful things, thinking they’ll get away with it again, maybe thinking they’ll have time to repent later. And then, in the next moment, the snare closes around them. Christ will appear, and it will be too late to repent.

So always watch. Watch and pray. Pray that you may be counted worthy to escape “all these things.” Escape what? Escape the signs? Hardly. We’re meant to notice the signs. That means we have to live through them. No, pray that you may be counted worthy to escape being caught in the snare at the coming of the Lord, and pray that you may be able to stand before the Son of Man. To stand, not in pride, but to stand as in to pass the test, to pass through the judgment unharmed, uncondemned, righteous, innocent, to stand as one of those who will be allowed to accompany the Son of Man into His glorious kingdom.

How will you be counted worthy? By still believing at the end, by still mourning over your sins and relying only on Christ crucified as the One who paid for your sins and who offers you eternal life as a gift. So watch out for all those things that would entangle you in sin and keep you distant from Christ and His Word and His Sacraments. And as you watch, pray for God’s mercy, to keep you from going astray. And as you pray, recommit yourself to leading a holy life in the time you have left, a life of love and service, a life that confesses Christ before the world, a life that testifies to your hope in the Lord Jesus.

Now may the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace in believing, that you may abound in hope through the power of the Holy Spirit. Amen.