Come, you blessed ones of My Father. Inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world. Don’t you long to hear those words from the King when He descends from heaven on the last day, with all the angels and saints accompanying Him? You heard a few descriptions of that inheritance on Sunday, from Peter’s first epistle: Incorruptible, undefiled, unfading. In this evening’s Lesson from Hebrews chapter 4, you heard another description of it: So then, there remains a Sabbath rest for the people of God, for whoever has entered God’s rest has also rested from his works as God did from his. “A Sabbath rest.” John speaks of it in similar terms in the book of Revelation: Then I heard a voice from heaven saying to me, “Write: ‘Blessed are the dead who die in the Lord from now on.’ ” “Yes,” says the Spirit, “that they may rest from their labors, and their works follow them.”
To understand why the writer to the Hebrews speaks of it as a Sabbath rest, we need to go back a few verses, back into chapter 3, actually, where he quoted a Psalm in which God said about Israel: Therefore, as the Holy Spirit says, “Today, if you hear his voice, do not harden your hearts as in the rebellion, on the day of testing in the wilderness, where your fathers put me to the test and saw my works for forty years. Therefore I was provoked with that generation, and said, ‘They always go astray in their heart; they have not known my ways.’ As I swore in my wrath, ‘They shall not enter my rest.’ ” God rested from all His work of creation on the seventh day of creation week. But when He commanded Israel to rest on the Sabbath Day, it wasn’t only in memory of God’s rest during that week. It was also in anticipation of another rest, a future rest for the people of God, a rest from all the toil and labor of this sin-tainted earth, a rest from being constantly attacked by the devil and constantly buffeted by temptation, a rest from suffering, a rest from loss, and from every heavy burden we carry. It’s the rest that awaits the people of God after this life on earth is through.
But many in Israel failed to enter that rest. Why? Because of their disobedience to the Word of God, which was the result of the unbelief. Oh, they believed God was real. They even knew who the true God was. But they didn’t trust in His goodness, or in His promise to give them eternal life. They wanted a better earthly life, and so they rebelled against Him throughout the Old Testament period. And then, when Jesus came to them, calling out, “Come to Me, you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest”…they remained in their unbelief. And so those people didn’t receive Jesus’ rest during this life. Their souls didn’t receive His rest when they died. And they won’t enter into His rest after the Last Day, either.
And so the writer to the Hebrews pleads with Christians, Let us therefore strive to enter that rest, so that no one may fall by the same sort of disobedience. Strive to enter that rest! How do we enter it? It isn’t automatic. Israel had the promise, but then fell. And as long as we’re still in this world, we, too, could fall by the same sort of disobedience. Notice, there’s no such thing as “once saved, always saved” in Scripture. The writer to the Hebrews warns Christians that we could fall, if we follow unbelieving Israel’s example. But the good news is, we don’t have to follow it! Here we have God the Holy Spirit, through these inspired words, urging us toward that rest, which God wants us to enter and offers to us for free. And so He urges us to enter it, by hearing and believing the Word of God.
For the word of God is living and active, sharper than any two-edged sword, piercing to the division of soul and of spirit, of joints and of marrow, and discerning the thoughts and intentions of the heart. Living. Active. Sharp. Piercing. The Word of God cuts through all the defenses, all the excuses, all the false motives, all the lies. It exposes the sins in our past, so that no one can hide anything from God. No creature is hidden from his sight, but all are naked and exposed to the eyes of him to whom we must give account.
But the word of God does more than expose our sins. It also reveals where there is repentance, and where there is faith in the Lord Jesus who died for our sins. It’s living and active, and able to work repentance and faith in our hearts. It’s living and active, and able to guide us away from sin and temptation and disobedience, able to show us the disobedience of Israel and other unbelievers in the past, so that we don’t repeat their foolish errors, able to set God’s eternal rest before our eyes and cause us to yearn for it, and, finally, to enter it. For we who have believed do enter that rest, it says.
Keep hearing. Keep believing. And keep working and toiling and suffering with patience for a little while longer. Because rest is coming for all those who remain faithful until the end. Amen.
Posted inSermons|Taggedhebrews 4:9-13|Comments Off on Enter God’s rest by believing His Word
Picture Jesus, sitting on the Mt. of Olives, just two nights before His betrayal by one of the twelve men sitting there with Him. He has a lot to teach them in so very little time. He looks past His suffering, death, resurrection, and ascension, all the way through the New Testament period to the day on which He would return. Those men sitting there would not be alive on earth then. But He knows that these apostles of His will pass on these words in their teaching, and that one of them, Matthew, will write them down for the generations of Christians who will live during that in-between time. Last week’s Gospel talked about the tribulation leading up to the Lord’s return, and it left us with Jesus returning and gathering all people to Himself when He appears. Today’s Gospel talks about what comes next.
We call it the day of judgment. But there will be no trial in which the judge hears arguments from both sides, or interrogates the defendants. Judgment, in the context of the Last Day, will simply be the separation of the righteous from the unrighteous, whom God will have already identified before He comes, because the verdict is established during each person’s own lifetime.
When the Son of Man comes in his glory, and all the holy angels with him, then he will sit upon his glorious throne. And all nations will be gathered before him. And he will separate them one from another, as a shepherd separates the sheep from the goats. And he will set the sheep on his right and the goats on his left. In just a few days from then, the Son of Man would appear in great shame, with not a single holy angel coming to His aid, by His own choice. Because Christ came the first time, not to judge, not to condemn, not to escape suffering, but to suffer the condemnation we all deserve because of our sins, so that, during this New Testament period, we might hear the Gospel, repent and believe in Christ, and so be saved from the judgment at Christ’s second coming. Because, when He comes again, the time for repentance, the chance to escape, will be gone. There will be no bargaining with God at that time, no defending ourselves, no making excuses. For those who will have died already before the Last Judgment begins, the state of their soul at their death locked in their verdict. For those who are still alive when Christ comes, the state of their soul at that time will be final. All the dead will be raised, all bodies and souls will be reunited. And our position, among the sheep or among the goats, will be revealed to everyone. We will all be found on that day either among the penitent believers in Christ on the right, or among the impenitent unbelievers on the left.
Then the King will say to those on his right, ‘Come, you blessed ones of my Father! Inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world. For I was hungry, and you gave me food; I was thirsty, and you gave me a drink; I was a stranger, and you took me in; naked, and you clothed me; I was sick, and you visited me; I was in prison, and you came to me.
There’s so much here that isn’t stated, like, how these people came to be blessed in the first place. The King mentions just a handful of their good works, because that’s the thing Jesus wants to focus on here, as we’ll see in a moment. But He doesn’t mention their sins, of which they were all guilty in this life. He doesn’t mention His own sacrifice on the cross which was the payment for their sins. He doesn’t mention the work of His Holy Spirit in calling them to repentance and faith in Him, their dear Savior, or their washing in Holy Baptism for the forgiveness of sins. That’s how they became blessed. That’s how they became children of the heavenly Father and brothers of the Lord Jesus, not by a single work they did, but through faith alone in the Lord Jesus, who earned heaven for them. That’s also what then produced in them the ability and the eagerness to do those simple acts of kindness for Jesus.
“When did we do any of these things for You, King Jesus?” they’ll ask. “When did we see You in any of these times of need?” Truly, I tell you, whatever you did for one of the least of these brothers of mine, you did for me.’ We have to pay attention to the words Jesus uses here. “These brothers of Mine” is not a reference to all people. Jesus is not talking about feeding the poor in general, or about inviting total strangers into your house, or foreigners into your country, or visiting random people in the hospitals or in the jails. Jesus is talking about simple acts of kindness done toward His brothers. And “brothers” is the word most commonly used in the New Testament for Christians, for those who have been adopted as children into God the Father’s family through faith in Christ Jesus, who is God’s true Son by nature and by right, making Him our human and divine Brother.
So what Jesus is emphasizing in this Gospel is that the King is always watching. The King is keeping track of how people treat each and every one of His little brothers (and sisters), His blood-bought Christians, in this time in between His first coming and His second. He wants us to know how much He cares about you, His brothers, in this life, and about how we are treated by men. It may seem, at times, as if the King weren’t watching, but He is.
And in praising the sheep on His right—the Christians who took care of their fellow Christians, simply because they were followers of Christ—Jesus is also emphasizing to His people how earnestly He wants us to be caring for our fellow Christians as we await His return. Because there are many who won’t. King Jesus Himself promises to receive your works of service to His little brothers as works of service done to Him directly. Let the fact that Jesus cares so much about this drive you to spend your life doing these simple acts of kindness for your fellow Christians, looking for ways to help and to serve when your fellow Christian has a need.
After addressing those on His right, the King will turn to those on His left and say, Depart from me, you who are cursed, into the everlasting fire prepared for the devil and his angels. And He will proceed to accuse them of not doing any of those kindnesses to Jesus’ brothers. Will they be guilty of much greater crimes than these? Absolutely. All the books containing all the records of human deeds will be opened, and those whose names are not found in the Book of Life—who don’t trust in the Lord Jesus for forgiveness—will have to answer for all their evil works. But see again how much Jesus insists that His believers be cared for in this life, as if He were the one in need of that care. Truly, I tell you, whatever you did not do for one of the least of these, you did not do for me. The King is watching how unbelievers fail to serve Him by not serving His brothers and sisters, and you should take great comfort in this, knowing that no one who abuses you, and for that matter, no one who fails to be kind to you when you’re in need of a kindness, will get away with it. Because the King is watching.
Then what? And these (the ones on the left) will go away to everlasting punishment, but the righteous to everlasting life.
The unrighteous are cursed by God, because they never repented and believed in the Lord Jesus, so they have to answer and pay for all their own sins, including these sins of omission toward Jesus’ brothers, in everlasting punishment, even though Jesus bore their sins on the cross, too. Because they didn’t want Jesus for their Redeemer, they will depart from God’s gracious presence forever. Their judgment will be everlasting, lasting forever, in that everlasting fire prepared for the devil and his angels. Notice that hell and hellfire weren’t originally created by God for human beings. It was His will from the beginning to save all men from death and hell, even though He knew not all would end up being saved through Christ. But God never prepared any such salvation for the devil and his angels. Hellfire was their destiny the moment they rebelled against God. But now, when people turn down God’s offer of salvation through Christ, they will join the devil and his demons in that fiery judgment they could have avoided, but didn’t.
On the other hand, the blessed ones of Jesus’ Father will go with the King into their eternal inheritance, to everlasting life—that is, life that lasts forever, where there will be no more sin or suffering or crying or pain. This inheritance was prepared for them from the foundation of the world, because it was always God’s plan for them to receive it. And there, in that inheritance that was purchased for them by the blood of Christ and that they themselves will receive for free, they will also receive rewards of grace for all those kindnesses done in this life for their fellow Christians, and for all the works of love that they produced in this life, as branches connected to the true Vine that is Christ.
These are the main things Jesus wants His followers to know about Judgment Day. The logistics of it and the other details aren’t for us to know ahead of time. But this is enough. Enough to keep us watchful. Enough to keep us longing for that day, and preparing for that day by living in daily contrition and repentance, and by caring for Jesus’ brothers, as the King watches over us all, making sure that, sooner, or, for sure, later, we all receive that promised inheritance that is, as Peter writes, imperishable, undefiled, and unfading, kept in heaven for youwho by God’s power are being guarded through faith for a salvation ready to be revealed in the last time. Amen.
Christians know that this world has an expiration date. But we don’t know when that date is. At some points in your life, maybe in your younger days, when you think you have many good things to look forward to here, you may not really yearn for the end of the world. At other times, the harder things get, the uglier the world becomes, you may be desperate for Jesus to come, wondering why it’s taking the Lord so long to keep His promise. St. Peter addresses that in the second Lesson you heard this evening, as he assures us that the Lord will come, gives us the reason why He hasn’t come yet, tells us what we have to look forward to when He does come, and reminds us what effect such knowledge should have on our lives while we wait.
First, the Lord will come, in spite of the scoffers who think that He won’t. Knowing this first, Peter writes, that scoffers will come in the last days, walking according to their own lusts, and saying, “Where is the promise of His coming? For since the fathers fell asleep, all things continue as they were from the beginning of creation.” Peter foresaw, by the Holy Spirit, that Jesus’ coming would take a while. And he foresaw that scoffers—people who laugh at the idea of God—would come along and mock Christianity’s claim that Jesus will come again. He wasn’t wrong, was he? Jesus has taken a while. And those scoffers are now everywhere. Many of them are atheists who don’t believe that God is behind the creation of the universe at all, but that everything came into being by natural processes that can be explained by science and scientific theory. In fact, Peter seems to allude to that in the next verse.
For this they willfully forget: that by the word of God the heavens were of old, and the earth standing out of water and in the water, by which the world that then existed perished, being flooded with water. They “willfully” forget how God created the heavens and the earth out of nothing, by the power of His almighty Word. It takes willfulness to forget that, because the creation all around us screams, “There is a divine Creator of all this!” The order, the beauty, the complexity of life and of the laws of science themselves—all of it points to an all-powerful, all-knowing, eternal God. But because people deny God’s existence, and maybe more importantly, God’s right to rule over His creation, they have to find a different way for the universe to have come into existence, which they now call “evolution.” And, of course, they deny not only the creation of the universe, but also the terrible judgment God brought upon sinful mankind through the waters of the worldwide flood.
Men can scoff. Men can make fun of God, and of us who believe in Him. Men can spread the lie of evolution all they want, and deny that Jesus will come again for judgment. But what they can’t do is actually get rid of God, or stop Jesus from coming, or escape the judgment He’ll bring with Him against the ungodly and unbelieving. But the heavens and the earth which are now preserved by the same word, are reserved for fire until the day of judgment and perdition of ungodly men. It’s only the word of God that continues to preserve this creation. He holds it up, keeps it going, keeps it running, and, yes, allows the suffering and the pain and the wickedness that the world is so full of. But God has made a reservation for the day of judgment, a day of fire, when everything evil and wicked and harmful will be burned up, and when every unbeliever will be sent, body and soul, into the eternal fire that was long ago prepared for the devil and his angels, as we’ll hear this Sunday in the Gospel.
But why does the Lord allow so much suffering to go on now? Why has Lord not returned yet to put an end to man’s wickedness? Peter spells it out for us: But, beloved, do not forget this one thing, that with the Lord one day is as a thousand years, and a thousand years as one day. Understand what that means. It doesn’t mean that God measures time differently than we do. It means that God views time differently than we do. He is outside of time. We view a thousand years (or 2,000 years) as a very long time, as if God were “taking too long.” God views it as if it were only a day. We view a day as a very short time. But to God, who has eternity to spend on each and every day, one day might as well be a thousand years. So we shouldn’t look at the time between Christ’s first and second coming as “long” or as “short.” In God’s estimation, it will be “just right.”
But here is why Jesus hasn’t returned yet: The Lord is not slack concerning His promise, as some count slackness, but is longsuffering toward us, not willing that any should perish but that all should come to repentance…and consider that the longsuffering of our Lord is salvation. “Longsuffering” is a word we don’t really use anymore. “Patience” is the word we commonly use for it. But “longsuffering” does give us the original picture behind this word. God “suffers” or “puts up with things” for a long time. He puts up with mankind’s sins and wickedness, because the alternative is immediate judgment on mankind. When that judgment comes, it will be final. After that judgment, no one will be given any more time to repent, to see the error of his ways, to hear the Gospel, to believe in Christ, and to escape the eternal fire of hell. That judgment will come, and everyone’s time of grace will be cut off, when God’s patience, when God’s longsuffering runs out. And it will run out. And God knows how long it will be until it runs out. But God also knows that there are people out there, who have yet to be born, or maybe who have already been born, who will believe the Gospel when He sends it to them and join us in this Holy Christian Church. Thank God He was not willing to cut off this time of grace before you and I were born, or worse, before we had a chance to be born again of water and the Spirit. Instead, He waited a little longer. Consider, Peter writes, that the longsuffering of our Lord is salvation.
What do we have to look forward to when He comes? But the day of the Lord will come as a thief in the night, in which the heavens will pass away with a great noise, and the elements will melt with fervent heat; both the earth and the works that are in it will be burned up. That’s one thing we look forward to: the destruction by fire of this present universe. That destruction will come suddenly, unexpectedly, like a thief in the night. Everything you see, everything you own will be gone. Only mankind will remain. And as we already heard, the ungodly will remain only to perish in eternal fire.
But as for believers, Peter writes, nevertheless we, according to His promise, look for new heavens and a new earth in which righteousness dwells. The prophet Isaiah wrote about these new heavens and this new earth. John also writes about them in Revelation. Jesus spoke of it as the “mansions” He has gone to prepare for His people, to which He will bring us when He comes again. This is the main thing we have to look forward to, a home of righteousness, a home with the enormous Christian family we barely see a fraction of in this life, and most importantly of all, a home with the Lord who has loved us and paid for our new home with His own precious blood.
What effect should such knowledge have on our lives while we wait? Therefore, since all these things will be dissolved, what manner of persons ought you to be in holy conduct and godliness, looking for and hastening the coming of the day of God, because of which the heavens will be dissolved, being on fire, and the elements will melt with fervent heat?… Beloved, looking forward to these things, be diligent to be found by Him in peace, without spot, and blameless. Christians are looking for Christ to return. Why would we want to be living in sin and filthiness as we wait for the One who is sinless and pure? Why, if we are children of heaven, would we want to live as children of hell? If we are waiting for eternal life with God, then let us rehearse for what that life with Him will be like, with genuine love, with heartfelt obedience to God’s commandment, with ears that are eager to hear His Word, and always with an eye toward the sky, yearning for our Savior’s promised return. Amen.
Posted inSermons|Comments Off on The end will come when God’s patience runs out
Sermon for the Third-to-Last Sunday of the Church Year (Trinity 25)
1 Thessalonians 4:13-18 + Matthew 24:15-28
The last three Sundays of the Church Year are upon us, already. Advent is right around the corner. As always, these Sundays at the end of the Church Year have us preparing for THE end, the end of this earth and of this universe, watching for Christ’s coming, for the last day, for the day of judgment. We need these reminders to prepare for the end, because you know very well how easy it is to get caught up in the day-to-day things, in what’s going on right now in your life and in the world. It’s easy to focus on the here and now and forget about what’s coming, and what to look for.
Of course, you have to look for the right things. So many Christians have been deceived into looking for the wrong things, for certain political figures to arise, from certain nations, for certain events to take place around the city of Jerusalem, for an Anti-christ to step forward suddenly and start causing big trouble for Christians. But you mustn’t get dragged into those millennialistic fantasies. Instead, watch for the things Jesus tells you plainly to watch for, and follow His instructions.
In today’s Gospel, Jesus speaks plainly about certain future events, while also speaking prophetically and somewhat cryptically about others. But the overall message is abundantly clear: Tough times are coming for Christians. Flee from the danger, if at all possible, as quickly as possible. Don’t be deceived by all the false christs who will come. But know for certain that the true Christ will finally come, at just the right time, and when He does, everyone will see it.
Tough times are coming for Christians. That was true in a specific way for the Christians to whom Jesus was speaking in today’s Gospel. He spoke these words during Holy Week, in order to prepare His disciples, and those who would become Christians through their preaching over the next few decades. The Christian Church would grow in Jerusalem, but it would never become the majority religion there. The unbelieving Jews would mostly remain unbelieving. But God gave them time, time to hear how Jesus had fulfilled the Old Testament prophecies, time to recognize that He was the promised Messiah, time to be baptized, and to transition from the Old Testament Jewish religion into the New Testament Christian religion. For the most part, they weren’t interested in transitioning. And so their sacrifices on the altar in the temple in Jerusalem which had once been offered to the true God, the God of Israel, would eventually become idols and abominations to the true God. Because those sacrifices were supposed to point the people to Christ. But instead, they began to offer those sacrifices in defiance of Jesus the Christ, which is, to God the Father, an utter abomination.
At the same time, those unbelieving Jews kept thinking that they were God’s chosen people, and that they shouldn’t have to put up with the Roman occupation of the Holy Land, because they thought that land should be theirs. And so, eventually, in the 60’s AD, they would try to start a revolution. That revolution, in turn, would bring the full wrath of the Roman empire down on Jerusalem, and on the Jews who were living there, which included the Christians who were living there, even though the Christians weren’t the ones rebelling against Rome.
And so Jesus prepares His disciples ahead of time, so that they don’t get caught up in the destruction. “Therefore, when you see the abomination of desolation, spoken of by the prophet Daniel, standing in the holy place (let the reader understand), then let those who are in Judea flee to the mountains. Let the one who is on the housetop not come down to get anything out of his house. And let the one who is in the field not turn back to get his clothes. But woe to the women who are with child and who are nursing in those days! Keep praying that your flight does not take place in the winter or on the Sabbath! For then there will be great tribulation. Jesus foresaw the “abomination of desolation” in the holy place, which could refer to the Jewish sacrifices offered in defiance of Jesus, or to the Jewish revolt when it first began. And He tells His disciples, and the future Christians, to flee. Flee urgently. Hurry! Get out of Jerusalem, so that you’re not caught up in the horrific destruction that will come upon that city, and her temple, and her people.
For then there will be great tribulation, such as has not been since the beginning of the world until now, nor will there ever be. The Roman occupation of Jerusalem would be horrific and devastating, leaving Jerusalem desolate, with unbelievable atrocities. But we see here in Jesus’ words an indication that He isn’t only talking about the coming destruction of Jerusalem by the Romans, because He adds, nor will there ever be such tribulation And both the rest of Scripture and human experience make it clear that, for as bad as that destruction was, it wasn’t the worst tribulation the world has ever seen.
Now, every war brings terrible tribulation with this, tough times for everyone. Every pestilence, every famine—and the world will be filled with those things, too, leading up to Christ’s return for judgment. Christians have experienced and are experiencing many tough times, at various times in history, as even now many are being targeted in parts of the world, often by followers of Islam. And we pray for them in those tough times, even as we know they pray for us. But Jesus is referring here to the tough times that His Christians would experience in the end times, because of an “abomination of desolation” that’s set up in the “holy place.”
The true holy place is the Church of God, about which Paul writes to the Ephesians, Christ loved the Church and gave Himself for her, that He might sanctify and cleanse her…, that she should be holy. And the true believers within the Church are holy, sanctified through the waters of Baptism and through genuine faith in Christ Jesus. But not all the baptized actually believe. Some of the baptized turn into wolves in sheep’s clothing. According to Jesus’ prophecy, an abomination of desolation would eventually be set up in the holy place, in the Church, an idol that God hates, and that will cause desolation within the Church, that will cause the external Church to be largely abandoned, and that will bring about God’s judgment upon that idolatrous Church, even as He brought judgment down upon Jerusalem.
That abomination, that idol, has been associated with the papacy and its errors, with prayers and offerings made to the saints, and with the turning of Christ’s Holy Supper into a sacrifice offered for the living and the dead, causing many to identify the papacy with the very Antichrist who was to arise from within the Church, to make not open war against Christ, but secret war, under the guise of being Christ-like. I would say that the abomination, the idol within the Church, includes more than that, though. It includes every teaching, every practice, and, ultimately, everything within the Church that draws people away from Christ and His Word, so that their hearts are more attached to the idol than to Christ. Look around at external Christianity as it exists in the world today. You can’t escape the truth: such idols are everywhere.
When Christians see those things, any of them, set up within the Church, Jesus’ warning to flee urgently applies again. Those things are dangerous in and of themselves. And, those things are dangerous because they will bring God’s wrath down upon the external Church, right along with the wrath He’ll bring down upon the rest of the unbelieving world.
What does it look to flee? It doesn’t look like indifference toward the Church, or toward going to Church, or toward the ministry of the Gospel, preaching, or the Sacraments. I believe that fleeing the place where the idol is set up means, basically, doing what we have done here, “running away” from the churches and the church bodies where the idolatry has taken hold.
This is serious business, isn’t it? One doesn’t practice this kind of Christianity casually, or for earthly comfort or advantage, as if going to church or joining a church were just another thing to put on the to-do list. But is there anything about Jesus’ warning in today’s Gospel that screams, “casual” or “comfortable Christianity”? Hardly. In fact, Jesus says it will get so bad for His Christians, toward the end of days, that if those days were not shortened, no flesh would be saved. But for the sake of the elect those days will be shortened. In other words, God knows how bad things are and how bad things could still become for His Christians. He knows the point at which even believers would break. But He will make sure that the days of trouble and tribulation are cut short, before they would become too much for us to endure.
Part of the tribulation includes false christs, false prophets, and false teaching. Then if anyone says to you, ‘Look, here is Christ!’ or ‘There!’ do not believe it. For there will arise false christs, and false prophets, and they will perform great signs and wonders, so as to deceive even the elect, if that were possible. See, I have told you ahead of time. There have been those, from time to time, who have actually claimed to be Christ. But there are many, many others who would point you to a false Christ—not one who is walking around among us, but to the false idea of Jesus, a false version of Jesus. Some will even do miracles to prove it! This is why I warn you often about anyone, in these last days, who points to miracles or signs, whether it’s an apparition of a saint, or healing, or tongue-speaking, or any other miracle. Because, while Jesus and His apostles certainly performed miracles during the first century, we have been warned that the latter-day miracle-workers will be false prophets. We were told ahead of time! And still, many people flock to where the wonders are.
Therefore, if they say to you, ‘Look, he is in the desert!’ do not go out; or, ‘Look, he is in the inner rooms!’ do not believe it. For as the lightning comes out of the east and is visible in the west, so also will be the coming of the Son of Man. For where the carcass lies, there the eagles will gather.” Very simply, Jesus tells His disciples not to look for Him in this world, anywhere, at any time, after His ascension. He will only come back once, when the time is right, and not in secret. Every eye will see Him, as John also writes in the book of Revelation. And like eagles can spot a carcass lying on the ground from miles away and are drawn to it, so all men will see the Lord Jesus when He returns and will be drawn to Him. The unbelieving will be drawn to Him for judgment. But those who have remained faithful, in spite of all the troubles and tribulations, those who have held to His Word, in spite of the suffering that comes with it, will be drawn to Him to begin a life free of troubles, as Paul wrote in today’s Epistle: The Lord Himself will descend from heaven with a shout, with the voice of an archangel, and with the trumpet of God. And the dead in Christ will 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.
Stand firm in these times of tribulation and trouble, with the help and strength that the Lord Himself will provide. And don’t be discouraged, if it looks like the Church throughout the world is in shambles. Jesus told us ahead of time that it would be. But He also promised to be with us always, to the end of the age. You have His Word. Just keeping listening to it! Amen.
On Sunday, we looked at the doctrine of election on the basis of Jesus’ parable of the Wedding Banquet. Let’s do a quick review.
The king invited certain people, representing the Old Testament Jews, to come to the wedding banquet for His beloved Son. When it was time for the wedding, He sent for all those invited guests and called on them to come to the wedding. They refused and even killed some of the messengers. The king punished those evildoers, but then opened up the invitation to everyone on the streets (referring to the Gentiles) until his banquet hall was full. Those who were there in the end, wearing the provided wedding garment (the robe of faith in Christ), were the ones whom God chose, whom God elected in eternity. We learned how important it is to approach election, not from the beginning, and not from the end, but from the place where God speaks to us in His Word, telling us that it is His will that all men should be saved, that Christ died for all, HihHcalling us to repent and believe in the Lord Jesus, to pray, to walk in step with the Spirit, and to use the gifts He provides along the way to keep us on the narrow path that leads to life. In such a doctrine, there is much comfort for the Christian.
Today’s second lesson from Romans 11 is not the key chapter in Romans that talks about election. That was presented more fully at the end of chapter 8. But chapter 11 does mention election, especially in the context of the Jews and how they fit into this doctrine. And, although we don’t have time to fully cover everything in this text, we will at least begin to address one of the burning questions that’s very much on the minds of Christians today: Should we believe that there be a mass conversion of the Jews before the Last Day?
First let’s dispense with a truly blasphemous teaching that has invaded many, many so-called Christian churches around the world: the belief that the Jews are already God’s chosen people in their current state of unbelief and don’t even need to be converted to Christ. Did you know that’s the official teaching of the Roman Catholic Church? It is. It’s also the teaching of practically all the mainline churches—liberal Presbyterians, ELCA Lutherans, United Methodists, Anglicans, Episcopalians, and others. They teach that the Jews shouldn’t be targeted for evangelism, since they already have their own covenant with the true God. But I’ll tell you, anyone who teaches that there is salvation for anyone apart from faith in Christ Jesus, is a servant of Satan and shouldn’t even be regarded as Christian.
But now let’s return to Paul’s words and the Jews’ place in election. Paul says in Romans 11, Concerning the gospel they (that is, those who are biological Israelites) are enemies for your sake. At the time of Paul’s writing, the Jews were actually the main enemies Christians had in the world. At that time, Rome wasn’t targeting Christians. The Jews were, because of the Christian belief that Jesus was actually the Son of God—the God of the Old Testament—sent to Israel as their promised Christ. In other words, the Christians weren’t just claiming to believe in a different god, like all the Gentiles did. They were claiming that the God of Israel was actually their God, that they, the Christians, were actually the continuation of the Old Testament Church, and that the Jews who rejected Jesus, who turned down the King’s invitation, to refer back to Jesus’ parable, had broken away from the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. That caused the Jews to hate the Christians, as Paul knew well from his own experience.
But, Paul says, concerning the election they are beloved for the sake of the fathers. For the gifts and the calling of God are irrevocable. What does that mean, that the biological Jews are beloved for the sake of the fathers (that is, for the sake of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob)? Well, let’s go back to Jesus’ parable. Who were the first ones whom the king sent his servants to call to the wedding? It was the Jews. For 2,000 years of world history before Jesus was born, “the elect” were almost exclusively made up of Israelites. Then, of course, Jesus was sent to the lost sheep of the house of Israel. They were the primary recipients of His ministry. Then, in practically every city where Paul preached, the Jews got to hear the Gospel first. As Paul had said in Romans 1, the Gospel is the power of God for salvation to everyone who believes, first for the Jew, then for the Gentile. And what Paul is saying here is that, because of the promises God made to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, God had favored the Jews in the past, and, even though they had mostly rejected the Gospel, God would never give up calling the Jews to Christ. Yes, they had crucified and mistreated and blasphemed the Son of God. Yes, they were at that time savagely persecuting the Christians. But God would not, for that reason, stop sending preachers to the Jews. He would not issue a decree that the Jews were not permitted to repent and believe in Jesus. He would not refuse them the gift of forgiveness, if they came to Christ for it. God would continue inviting them, generation after generation, to come to the wedding.
That’s not a guarantee that large numbers of them would come. Some, in every generation, have heard the Gospel of Christ and believed it and have been accepted again into the kingdom of God. But never in the mass numbers that occurred in the first century, when the Gospel first went out to them. And yet some still read Paul’s words as prophesying that very thing when he says, For I do not desire, brethren, that you should be ignorant of this mystery, lest you should be wise in your own opinion, that blindness in part has happened to Israel until the fullness of the Gentiles has come in. And so all Israel will be saved. Here Paul calls it a “mystery” that “blindness in part” has happened to Israel “until the fullness of the Gentiles has come in.” What does that mean? Referring back to Jesus’ parable, it simply means that, as a result of the blindness of Israel to the Gospel of Jesus, the king is turning his attention toward those in the streets, toward the Gentiles, until the king’s house is full of guests—guests who are unworthy in themselves, but who have been made worthy by the robe of faith in the Lord Jesus Christ. And so, in this way, when the king’s house is full of guests, including some of the Jews and many of the Gentiles, all Israel will be saved, Paul says.
Modern dispensationalists and millennialists generally take this to mean that there will be a mass conversion of the Jews before the Last Day. But Paul doesn’t say “a great mass of Israel or a multitude of Israel” will be saved. He says “all Israel.” But two chapters earlier the same apostle had said that Though the number of the sons of Israel be as the sand of the sea, only a remnant of them will be saved. How can both be true? How can only a remnant of Israel be saved, and all Israel be saved? And what about all the Israelites who have died in unbelief for the last 2,000 years? They certainly weren’t saved.
If we let Scripture interpret Scripture, then the “remnant of Israel” that will be saved must mean a small, leftover bunch of the biological descendants of Israel, while the “all Israel” in our lesson must be a reference, not to the biological descendants of Israel, but to those who are true Israelites, to all spiritual Israel, that is, to all true believers in Christ Jesus, both Jew and Gentile. As it is written: “The Deliverer will come out of Zion, and He will turn away ungodliness from Jacob; for this is My covenant with them, when I take away their sins.” Jesus Christ, the Deliverer did come out of Zion, from the people of Israel, and He has been turning away ungodliness from both Jew and Gentile generation after generation, bringing more and more people into the great wedding banquet in the “New Jerusalem.” God has known from the beginning who would be there in the end, in the kingdom of His Son, and how He would get them there, and how He would keep them there. That group of guests whom God foreknew from eternity, comprised of both Jews and Gentiles, are the ones whom God elected in eternity to be eternally saved. They are the ones whom God counts as the true “Israel.” And so “all Israel,” all the elect, will truly be saved.
But as we said on Sunday, we mustn’t try to reach back into eternity to look at that list, nor can we jump ahead to the Last Day to see it, either. There’s much we can’t fathom about the doctrine of election, leaving us in humble awe as we conclude with the apostle Paul, Oh, the depth of the riches both of the wisdom and knowledge of God! How unsearchable are His judgments and His ways past finding out! For who has known the mind of the LORD? Or who has become His counselor? Or who has first given to Him and it shall be repaid to him? For of Him and through Him and to Him are all things, to whom be glory forever. With that same humble awe, we have to simply cling to God’s revealed will in Scripture, that He wants all people to be saved, and that He offers forgiveness of sins, life, and salvation to all who repent, who believe, and who are baptized. So trust in the forgiveness God promises through Jesus. Keep praying and using the Means of Grace that God provides. And tell everyone you can, both Jew and non-Jew, what the Lord Jesus has done for them, and what good things God promises to all who believe in the Lord Jesus. Amen.
