Sermon Tone Analysis

THIS IS NOT OUR HOME

OUR PERMANENT SOJOURN

November 28, 2021 - Advent 1

Given by Craig Minke

Our theme for this Advent week is hope is the final word.

In Luke 21, Jesus prophesies about the horrible destruction of the temple in A.D. 70, and how the hope of the Son of Man will triumph even then.

LK 21:25-36 25 "And there will be signs in sun and moon and stars, and on the earth distress of nations in perplexity because of the roaring of the sea and the waves,

26 people fainting with fear and with foreboding of what is coming on the world.

For the powers of the heavens will be shaken.

27 And then they will see the Son of Man coming in a cloud with power and great glory.

28 Now when these things begin to take place, straighten up and raise your heads, because your redemption is drawing near."

(ESV)

29 And he told them a parable: "Look at the fig tree, and all the trees.

30 As soon as they come out in leaf, you see for yourselves and know that the summer is already near.

31 So also, when you see these things taking place, you know that the kingdom of God is near.

32 Truly, I say to you, this generation will not pass away until all has taken place.

33 Heaven and earth will pass away, but my words will not pass away.

34 "But watch yourselves lest your hearts be weighed down with dissipation and drunkenness and cares of this life, and that day come upon you suddenly like a trap.

35 For it will come upon all who dwell on the face of the whole earth.

36 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."

* One of the cinematic methods used to show a great war is through flashes of violent scenes shown in quick succession.

* The destruction of Jerusalem in A.D. 70 could be shown by such flashes from a writer of the time:

* For example: (Quotes from Josephus a historian of the time)

* "and made the whole city run down with blood, to such a degree indeed that the fire of many of the houses was quenched with these men's blood."

* "Round the Altar the heaps of corpses grew higher and higher."

* "Crowded together around the entrances many were trampled by their friends, many fell among the still hot and smoking ruins."

* They slew those whom they overtook, without mercy."

* These brutal images - and these are some of the less brutal ones - paint a picture of a merciless scene.

* Rome, the biggest superpower in the world, brings their full force to bear on one religious minority.

* The temple that Herod renovated, often called the Second Temple, was a wonder of the ancient world.

* It was over 470,000 square feet and over a hundred feet high.

* It was the central nerve of Jewish religious life and contained the Holy of Holies - God's connection point with earth.

* It was built around 520 BC and by the time of the temples destruction, it had stood for about 500 years, and for most people it was considered as solid and eternal as the sun itself.

Jesus' words, spoken a few decades before all this happen, describe this day of devastation:

LK 21:25-28 25 "And there will be signs in sun and moon and stars, and on the earth distress of nations in perplexity because of the roaring of the sea and the waves,

26 people fainting with fear and with foreboding of what is coming on the world.

For the powers of the heavens will be shaken.

27 And then they will see the Son of Man coming in a cloud with power and great glory.

28 Now when these things begin to take place, straighten up and raise your heads, because your redemption is drawing near."

(ESV)

* These words are often mistaken as referring to the Second Coming itself, but more likely they are referring to the destruction of the temple - this brutal battle that followed the death and resurrection of Jesus by less than a generation.

THE DESTRUCTION OF HE TEMPLE AND JUDAH IN 70 AD.

* There is scarcely another period in history so full of vice, corruption, and disaster as the six years between the Neronian persecution and the destruction of Jerusalem.

* Vespasian had left his son Titus to lay siege to Jerusalem

* On the ninth day of the fifth month (August 5), the anniversary of the destruction of the first temple by the Babylonians, the sanctuary was set on fire by the invaders

* A month later the whole city was in Titus's hands

* Some strongholds held out longer.

The last to fall was Masada (possibly as late as 74), where the defenders chose suicide to surrender (Josephus, War 7.8.1-7

[252-388]).

* In April, A.D. 70, immediately after the Passover, when Jerusalem was filled with strangers, the siege began.

* Even the famine which began to rage and sweep away thousands daily, and forced a woman to roast her own child, the cries of mothers and babes, the most pitiable scenes of misery around them, could not move the crazy fanatics

* Josephus, said people were murdered for their wealth.

The madness of the rebels grew with the famine, and both terrors blazed forth the more day by day.

Food was nowhere visible, but rushing into houses they searched them.

Then, if they found any, they tortured the owners for having denied that they had it, and if they did not find any they tormented them on the ground that they had concealed it too carefully.

* Historians reckon that over 1 million 1,100,000 perished by famine and the sword, and that the other rioters and robbers after the capture of the city were pointed out by one another and slain.

* Many over 17 years of age were sent as prisoners to labor in Egypt,3 but more were scattered throughout the provinces to perish in the theatres by the sword and by wild beasts.

* Those under seventeen years were lead away to be sold into slavery, and of these alone the number was reckoned to be about 90,000 men.1

* Jerusalem and the temple were destroyed, by the besieging armies

Let's look at this today and see how we can learn from these ancient - and fulfilled - prophecies.

* But we need to start with the right question, and not reactively pillage this passage for what it might mean to us and leave behind what we don't understand.

* The first thing we need to ask about this passage should always be our first question:

* 1) What does this tell us about Jesus?

* Then, and only then, can we move on to...

* 2) What does this tell us about the people of God?

* 3) What does this tell us about ourselves?

1st Question to ask as we study this passage is

1) WHAT DOES THIS TELL US ABOUT JESUS?

* This should always be our first question when we approach Scripture - not how this applies to us but how it applies to God.

* What does it teach us about who Jesus is and after that, how do we apply ourselves to that reality?

* This might be a disorienting reading for the beginning of Advent - the incredibly violent destruction of an ancient artifact.

* But let's hold off judgment for a moment and see how it is entirely appropriate to start our first Advent theme of: HOPE.

LK 21:25 25 "And there will be signs in sun and moon and stars, and on the earth distress of nations in perplexity because of the roaring of the sea and the waves, (ESV)

* Jesus starts here with a striking image, using a special kind of speech/writing that appears in several places in the Bible and was in wide use at the time - the apocalyptic.

* The sun, the moon, stars and sea - all of these will be shaken out of place.

* These are metaphors for political and religious structures that seemed to be as sure and predictable as the planets themselves falling apart and deconstructing.

* These vivid metaphors were meant to express more about something FELT than describe what exactly happened, and that's what apocalyptic language is.

* Think about it this way - have you ever had your heart broken?

* Maybe it was when we met the love of out life so we thought but things didn't work out.

* Our heart may have been broken by the loss of a spouse, a loved one, a child.

* Our world seemed to shut down or collapse.

* Did the chambers of your heart shatter and the arteries collapse?

* Nope, but it felt like it.

Depending on your age, think about when...

* Here you can add in a national event for your area that was widely felt.

* For this writer, an American, it would be something like:

* the assassination of President Kennedy, or

* when the Challenger spaceship exploded, or

* the morning of 911.

The world ended, didn't it?

And yet it didn't.

* That's what Jesus describes here, perhaps with a tear in his eye, as the old way of relating to God ended and a new way took its place.

* The language in Revelation describes the literal, physical Second Coming and enthronement of Christ on earth, no question.

* But a lot of the language used is meant to express feeling more than specific events.

* The events themselves will be the end of the world as we know it, but mapping them out in some kind of detailed timeline is to miss the point of this kind of writing.

* Jesus described what was coming shortly, and goes on later in the passage to say that "...this generation will not pass away" until this has happened (verse 31).

LK 21:32 ...this generation will not pass away until all has taken place.

There's a wrong-headed argument against faith that says Jesus predicted that generation wouldn't pass before the Second Coming.

* Therefore, the logic runs, Jesus was incorrect in his prediction and therefore fallible and not who he said he was.

* There are some belabored Christian answers to this critique.

* But Jesus WAS NOT talking about the Second Coming-he was talking about the completion of the coronation of Jesus as King.