“THE BEGINNING OF THE END”
LUKE 21:5-11

I. Introduction
Is there any subject of biblical study more fascinating to the Bible-believing Christian than prophecy, or to be more specific, end-times prophecy? Theologians call that study eschatol-ogy, which simply means, “the study of last things.”

During the 1980’s the believing church had great interest in the subject. In fact, the Moody Bible Institute in Chicago sponsored week-long prophetic conferences in larger churches all over the country. These conferences usually opened on a Sunday night, continued over the course of the next six nights, and concluded on the following Sunday morning. There would be a different speaker each night who would address his own area of interest or expertise.

The speakers included some of the most prominent theologians of the last half of the twenti-eth century. Among them were Renald Showers, John Phillips, Lehman Strauss, and John Walvoord, to name just a few. Their topics included things like the difference between the Rapture of the Church and Jesus’ glorious appearing, the character and career of the Anti-christ, Russia’s coming invasion of Israel, the things Christians can expect in heaven, and the critical need for believers to know and understand prophecy.

I was blessed to attend two of those conferences – the first in 1983 and a second in 1985. I learned much, but as is so often the case with such things, every answer raised two more questions. So, being a curious and inquisitive person by nature, I began to read and study on my own, and found that, as I studied prophecy, the whole Bible started to make more sense to me. The pieces just “fit together” better than they had before.

Since that time my own personal interest in the study of the last days has really never waned, but somewhere along the way much of the professing church seems to have shifted its em-phasis and moved on to other things. Maybe it was the popularity of the so-called “church-growth movement” that really took hold around twenty-five years ago. Maybe it was some-thing else. But interest in, and the serious study of biblical prophecy, the last days, and the Lord Jesus’ return to this earth just doesn’t seem to generate the excitement it once did.

Frankly, I don’t understand why that is. Even Christians with only a passing understanding of Scripture can see what is going on all around us, and especially what is taking place in and around Israel today.

But now, as we move deeper into Luke 21, and the cross looms only a few days away, Jesus will give us some insight into the last days and His return. Between vv. 5-36 He will begin to reveal what are often called “the signs of the times.” In this, and in the parallel passages in both Matthew and Mark, Jesus will have a great deal to say about His Second Coming.
As we work our way through the rest of Luke 21, we’ll also make use of those other two accounts in order to give ourselves a fuller picture of the events surrounding our Lord’s return to judge this world and to take His rightful seat on the throne of David in Jerusalem.
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II. Review
By way of review you might say that the events that are about to take place began all the way back in Luke 9:51 where it says, “…when the days were approaching for His ascension (His return to heaven), that He resolutely set His face to go to Jerusalem.” From that point until now Jesus has been moving toward these final days. (Although He did visit Galilee once more in Luke 17, His ministry there was essentially over.) Between Luke 9:51 and the day we call “Palm Sunday” Jesus ministered in Judea, Samaria, and across the Jordan River in Perea.

From that point in time through Luke 20:44, Jesus’ ministry to others was centered on the good news of the gospel, His invitation to sinners, and the training of His disciples. But now, after Jesus’ final confrontation with the Jewish religious leaders, He has turned the cor-ner from the good news of salvation for all who will repent and receive Him to the bad news of judgment for all who refuse to repent and reject Him.

From Luke 20:46-21:4 our Lord warns us against the false teachers of the false religions that turn people away from the truth. He says that they will be judged and their condemnation will be great.
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III. Text
And now, as we move on to Luke 21:5, Jesus will speak of the future judgment that must soon fall upon this world. To set the stage: It’s Wednesday. Tomorrow, Thursday, Jesus will meet with His disciples in the upper room, celebrate His last Passover, establish our Communion Service, and be betrayed by Judas Iscariot. Jesus and the eleven remaining disciples will go out to the garden of Gethsemane where He will pray, they will sleep, and sometime before dawn on Friday they will come for Him.

But today, Wednesday of the final week, Jesus will give the disciples their final instructions before the crucifixion. He will begin to prepare them (and us) for what is to come after He has gone back to His Father in heaven, and before He returns to earth in power and great glory. His return will bring about the judgment of the lost, the salvation of God’s chosen nation, Israel, and the establishment of Jesus’ Millennial Kingdom.
*Luke 21:5-11 (Please stand with me in honor of reading God’s Word.)
5 And while some were talking about the temple, that it was adorned with beau-tiful stones and votive gifts, (Jesus) said,
6 “As for these things which you are looking at, the days will come in which there will not be left one stone upon another which will not be torn down.”
7 And they questioned Him, saying, “Teacher, when therefore will these things be? And what will be the sign when these things are about to take place?”
8 And He said, “See to it that you not be misled; for many will come in My name, saying, ‘I am He,’ and, ‘The time is at hand’; do not go after them.
9 “And when you hear of wars and disturbances, do not be terrified; for these things must take place first, but the end does not follow immediately.”
10 Then He continued by saying to them, “Nation will rise against nation, and kingdom against kingdom,
11 and there will be great earthquakes, and in various places plagues and fam-ines; and there will be terrors and great signs from heaven.”

Thus begins Jesus’ teachings on the beginning of the end. In these seven verses He warns us, His children, about being deceived by false teachers. As the time of Jesus’ return draws nearer, not only will the number of false teachers increase, but the power of their deception will intensify. So in these seven verses Jesus warns us once again of the dangers of false teachers, and He encourages us not to be fearful, even as we witness the increase of the cala-
mities that Scripture tells us will mark the end of the age.
*Luke 21:5-6
5 And while some were talking about the temple, that it was adorned with beau-tiful stones and votive gifts (an offering connected to a vow), (Jesus) said,
6 “As for these things which you are looking at, the days will come in which there will not be left one stone upon another which will not be torn down.”

In vv. 1-4 Jesus has exposed the evils of false teachers of false religions by giving an exam-ple of how they gladly take everything from their victims – even their very lives – but give nothing in return. The poor widow in Luke 21:1-4 was just such a victim. She had given all she had into a corrupt system but was left destitute by it. Meanwhile that corrupt system thrived and grew, while the widow was left with neither help nor hope.

Jesus has been speaking to the crowds from Solomon’s porch (portico) on the east side of the temple since the beginning of Luke 20. Now, as we come to 21:5-6, He and His disciples leave the temple, descend into the Kidron Valley, and begin the ascent to the Mount of Olives. By the way, while Luke doesn’t give us this information, Matthew and Mark do.
Matthew 24:1
1 And Jesus came out from the temple and was going away when His disciples came up to point out the temple buildings to Him.

In Luke 21:5-6, as Wednesday evening approaches Jesus, now sitting on the Mount of Olives, begins what has come to be known as the Olivet Discourse. The first thing He talks about is the temple, that most beautiful of man-made structures, and what will become of it.
I believe that what follows is a critical reminder for all of us. All that man has made, no matter how well-built, how grandiose, or how valuable, will all, one day, cease to exist.
The question for you and for me then is this: How much eternal value does any of it truly have? The answer can only be that none of it has any eternal value at all. Let me be quick to acknowledge that that’s not only a hard thing for us to say and hear, it’s a harder thing for us to embrace. And yet, as Bible-believing Christians, we know it is true.

What does have eternal value? Your soul has eternal value. That’s all! You’ll take nothing else from this world, will you? Job said it first. Then, referring to all men, Solomon said it.
Ecclesiastes 5:15
15 As he had come naked from his mother’s womb, so will he return as he came. He will take nothing from the fruit of his labor that he can carry in his hand.

While this is not Jesus’ first point in His prophecy of the last days, it may well be the first lesson. This world, and everything in it, is going to be judged and destroyed.

So in Luke 21:6 it’s as if Jesus is saying, “Look at all of the worldly beauty, all of the world-ly wealth, and all of the worldly power that resides in the temple. Look at it! It’s all going to come to an end. It’s all going to come down. It’s all doomed to extinction.”

“Well,” someone may say, “That’s not a very cheery thought for a lovely Sunday morning in August.” Actually, for God’s people, it is! It’s our only hope for tomorrow. We know that the ultimate destruction of this present creation is a core truth that all true Christians believe. Only when this old creation passes out of existence, can the new creation replace it. Paul teaches this truth, Peter pictures the reality of this creation’s passing, and John gives us a glimpse of the glory of the creation that is yet to come.

Listen as the Apostle Paul tells us why this creation must be done away with.
*Romans 8:18-21
18 For I consider that the sufferings of this present time are not worthy to be compared with the glory that is to be revealed to us.
19 For the anxious longing of the creation waits eagerly for the revealing of the sons of God.
20 For the creation was subjected to futility (cursed because of man’s sin), not of its own will, but because of Him who subjected it, in hope
21 that the creation itself will be set free from its slavery to corruption into the freedom of the glory of the children of God.

Listen as the Apostle Peter tells us how it will happen and what we should look forward to.
*2 Peter 3:10-13
10 But the day of the Lord will come like a thief, in which the heavens will pass away with a roar and the elements will be destroyed with a intense heat, and the earth and its works will be burned up.
11 Since all these things (this creation) are to be destroyed in this way, what sort of people ought you to be in holy conduct and godliness,
12 looking for and hastening the coming of the day of God, on account of which the heavens will be destroyed by burning, and the elements will melt with intense heat!
13 But according to His promise we are looking for new heavens and a new earth, in which righteousness dwells.

Listen as the Apostle John tells us of the glories of eternity future.
*Revelation 21:1-5
1 And I saw a new heaven and a new earth; for the first heaven and the first earth passed away, and there is no longer any sea.
2 And I saw the holy city, new Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven from God, made ready as a bride adorned for her husband.
3 And I heard a loud voice from the throne, saying, “Behold, the tabernacle of God is among men, and He shall dwell among them, and they shall be His peo-ple, and God Himself shall be among them,
4 And He shall wipe away every tear from their eyes; and there shall no longer be any death; there shall no longer be any mourning, or crying, or pain; the first things have passed away.”
5 And He who sits on the throne said, “Behold, I am making all things new.” And He said, “Write, for these words are faithful and true.”

The fact that this world will be judged at Jesus’ Second Coming, and destroyed at the end of His Millennial Kingdom, should hold terror for those who do not know Christ, but for us, the ones He has saved, there should be no terror or fear at all. There should be only the joy of the sure knowledge that whenever and however we leave this world, we have this hope.
1 John 3:2
2 Beloved, now we are children of God, and it has not appeared as yet what we shall be. We know that, when He appears, we shall be like Him, because we shall see Him just as He is.

But when Peter and John heard Jesus say the things He said in Luke 21:5-6, they did not yet know what, under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit, they would later write.
*Luke 21:7
7 And they questioned Him, saying, “Teacher, when therefore will these things be? And what will be the sign when these things are about to take place?”

“…these things” refers back to v. 6, the destruction of the temple. It would have been hard for the disciples to even imagine such destruction. They had read Zechariah and so they believed the Messiah would come to destroy Israel’s enemies and save the nation.
*Zechariah 12:8-9
8 “In that day the LORD will defend the inhabitants of Jerusalem, and the one who is feeble among them in that day will be like David,
and the house of David will be like God, like the angel of the LORD before them.
9 “And it will come about in that day that I will set about to destroy all the nations that come against Jerusalem.”

But if they had carefully read Zechariah all the way to the end, they would also know some-thing else. They would also know that before Israel’s salvation and restoration would come judgment and destruction.
*Zechariah 14:1-4a
1 Behold, a day is coming for the LORD when the spoil taken from you will be divided among you.
2 For I will gather all the nations against Jerusalem to battle, and the city will be captured, the houses plundered, the women ravished, and half of the city exiled, but the rest of the people will not be cut off from the city.
3 Then the LORD will go forth and fight against those nations, as when He fights on a day of battle.
4a And in that day His feet will stand on the Mount of Olives, which is in front of Jerusalem on the east…

When the whole world turns against Israel their only help will come from God. Let me take just a moment to apply some of this to you and to me.
• First, something had to take place before you were saved and restored. Your sin was judged at the cross, wasn’t it? Jesus took that judgment and the resultant punishment for you, didn’t He? And so it will be with Israel. Their judgment for their sin must take place before their salvation and restoration. Who will save Israel? The same Messiah who has already saved you!

• Second, when the whole world turns against you, who will remain faithful? When the whole world turns against you, who will go forth and fight for you? When you stand alone against impossible odds, who is really standing there with you? You know who, don’t you? (back to Luke 21:7)

So the disciples, who already know about Israel’s coming salvation and restoration, either don’t know about, don’t remember, or try to ignore the judgment and destruction that must come first. So they want to know when it will happen and what will be the signs that it is about to happen. Isn’t that precisely what you and I want to know? Jesus’ answer is quite extensive. It is spread out over the rest of Luke 21, Mark 13, and Matthew 24-25. We’ll be looking at it in some detail over the next few weeks.

But this morning we’ll focus on Luke 21:8-11 where Jesus begins His answer with what has by now become an all too familiar warning.
*Luke 21:8
8 And He said, “See to it that you not be misled; for many will come in My name, saying, ‘I am He,’ and, ‘The time is at hand’; do not go after them.
Based on the Jews’ understanding of eschatology it’s altogether possible that the disciples might have thought something like this: “All right, we don’t mind if judgment comes first as long as it doesn’t take too long and the Kingdom is established right away. We can live with that. So what if this temple is destroyed as long as there will soon be a bigger and better one to replace it. So all of this is going to happen in the next few weeks or months, right?”

They don’t expect Jesus to go away and not return until long after they’ve lived their lives. The disciples’ questions in Luke 21:7 imply that since Jesus is already there with them, He should tell them what to look for.

But their problem is that they don’t see the “Church Age” in which we now live, and which we believe is finally winding down and nearing its end. The disciples don’t understand that, although what they hope for will certainly come to pass, it won’t happen in a few weeks, or the next few months, or even the next few years. It won’t happen for a long time – a very long time – two thousand years…so far.

Think about that – the temple would stand for another forty years (70 AD). And the new tem-ple has yet to be built. Today the Jews’ desire to build the third temple is stronger than ever. As recently as last April US News and World Report published an article about the Jews’ current plans to rebuild the temple and reinstitute the blood sacrifice according to OT law.

Look again at Jesus’ answer to the disciples’ question in Luke 21:8. It at least intimates an extended period. He says that between now and the establishment of the kingdom there will be many false teachers peddling their false religions. Don’t go after them. He says that many will claim to be the Christ. Don’t believe them.
*Luke 21:9-11
9 “And when you hear of wars and disturbances, do not be terrified; for these things must take place first, but the end does not follow immediately.”
10 Then He continued by saying to them, “Nation will rise against nation, and kingdom against kingdom,
11 and there will be great earthquakes, and in various places plagues and fam-ines; and there will be terrors and great signs from heaven.”

In these three verses Jesus continues along the same lines. He says there will be wars and disturbances. The Greek word translated “disturbance” is “akatastasia,” which means instability, commotion, and tumult. The point is that before the Kingdom of God is estab-lished on this earth, things will get bad. Then they will get worse. Then they will get to the place where people will be so afraid that they won’t know what to do. Luke 21:26 says that “…men (will faint) from fear and the expectation of the things which are coming upon the world…” But some – at least a few – will turn to Christ, won’t they?

In v. 9 Jesus reminds the disciples and us that we are not to be afraid. These things must happen. Then He says something that we often seem to overlook.
Jesus clearly says that “…the end does not follow immediately.” Just because there is an increase in wars and disturbances, you cannot assume that any one particular war or disturb-ance can be singled out as the “war to end all wars” as was often said about World War I. As World War II and the history of the world since then plainly attests, World War I was hardly the war to end all wars.

Far too many people, claiming some great insight into Scripture that no one else has, have set dates for the Second Coming. They have always been, and they always will be, wrong.
Mark 13:32 (Jesus speaking)
32 “But of that day or hour no one knows, not even the angels in heaven, nor the Son, but the Father alone (knows).

Not only does Jesus speak of wars and disturbances, He speaks of earthquakes, plagues, and famines. And it’s worth remembering that “terrors and great signs from heaven” are hardly new. Comets, meteors, and both solar and lunar eclipses have always terrified some people. So when we see the things that Jesus talks about in Luke 21:9-11 we should not be trying to tie a specific time to any of them. Rather, we should see them all in their proper context.

Taken as a whole, they should remind us of what the Apostle Paul said in Romans 8 – the whole creation groans under the weight of sin. Each and every war, disturbance, earthquake, plague, famine, and even the amazing things we see through our telescopes should remind us that they all – in some form or fashion that we may not fully understand – foreshadow the end of the age, and the return of the Lord Jesus to establish God’s kingdom on this earth.

And of this you can sure: As we see these calamities increase and intensify, the end of the age is drawing nearer. But we (the Church of Jesus Christ) will not be here when the things Jesus speaks of in Luke 21:9-11 reach their peak. The full magnitude of those horrors is reserved for the Great Tribulation. They’re detailed for us in Revelation 6-19. If you’ve not read that, you really should. It’ll help you to put current events into their proper perspective. If you think things are bad now, you haven’t seen anything yet.

I know it is easy to become frightened when we see what is going on all around us. It’s easy to fear for our children and grandchildren. Israel is under constant siege. Our government is totally corrupt. Our national borders are crumbling. Our military is shrinking. Now Russia, China, North Korea, and Iran are all flexing their muscles. And then there is ISIS or ISIL or whatever it calls itself. Yet all of it together doesn’t even approach what will happen when Jesus unleashes God’s wrath upon this world.
*Revelation 6:1-8
1 And I saw when the Lamb broke one of the seven seals, and I heard one of the four living creatures saying as with a voice of thunder, “Come.”
2 And I looked, and behold, a white horse, and he who sat on it had a bow; and a crown was given to him; and he went out conquering and to conquer.
3 And when (Jesus) broke the second seal, I heard the second living creature saying, “Come.”
4 And another, a red horse, went out; and to him who sat on it, it was granted to take peace from the earth, and that men should slay one another; and a great sword was given to him.
5 And when He broke the third seal, I heard the third living creature saying, “Come.” And I looked, and behold, a black horse; and he who sat on it had a pair of scales in his hand.
6 And I heard as it were a voice in the center of the four living creatures saying, “A quart of wheat for a denarius, and three quarts of barley for a denarius; and do not harm the oil and the wine.”
7 And when He broke the fourth seal, I heard the voice of the fourth living crea-ture saying, “Come.”
8 And I looked, and behold, an ashen horse; and he who sat on it had the name Death; and Hades was following with him. And authority was given to them over a fourth of the earth, to kill with sword and with famine and with pesti-lence and by the wild beasts of the earth.

Thus ride the Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse. With them comes a hell on earth that no one has yet seen and few have even imagined. But that’s not all. There will be three more seal judgments to come. The seventh seal will unleash seven more judgments, and the seventh of those judgments will reveal another seven more horrible and devastating than the others. The Book of Revelation tells us that before it’s all over fully one-half of the human race will be annihilated, and the planet itself will go through such upheaval that much of it won’t even be recognizable. God will judge this world!

This is the future of our planet and the future of humanity. But we are God’s children. We know the Scriptures, we know that God is on His throne, we know that history is in His hands, and we know that He is sovereign over us, His children. And we know that we will be preserved from the wrath to come. He will take us to be with Him.
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IV. Conclusion
In this morning’s text in Luke’s gospel Jesus is talking about how the end will begin. But the lesson to take with you today is: Do not be misled and do not be afraid. Rather, be like the Bereans who “…were more noble-minded than (some others), for they received the word with great eagerness, examining the Scriptures daily, to see whether these things were so (Acts 17:11).” Let me leave you with this:
1 John 3:2
2 Beloved, now we are children of God, and it has not appeared as yet what we shall be. We know that, when He appears, we shall be like Him, because we shall see Him just as He is. ~ Pray ~