Speaker 1: 0:00

We're in week two of our teaching series, Hope Rising, and in this series we are finally in the final chapters of Luke. And so for the last year and a half or a little bit longer actually we've been going through Luke and we've kind of dropped some series in between as we've taken some pauses but we've been going verse by verse and chapter by chapter through Luke's gospel and now, as we're coming up to Easter, in just a couple of weeks, we are coming to the end of his gospel. Now, some of the things that are starting to noticeably change, as we are, if we put ourselves in that mindset of us walking with Jesus through the gospel of Luke, some of the things we might notice if we were there 2000 years ago is that the resistance about Jesus is starting to grow. It's growing all around him. It's not just the Pharisees or the Sadducees, it's now. The government is starting to get involved and, as such, where there is resistance, the crowds are starting to thin. So, whereas there were a bunch of people following Jesus, there was no resistance, it was all good, hardly any of the bad. Now there's a lot of bad and people are yeah, you know what? It's not worth it, the tension that they're experiencing not worth it, and so they leave. But what we are discovering, what I hope to discover, between last week, this week and next week, is that even in the darkest moments, as we approach Easter Sunday, the death of Jesus, God is still at work, and what often looks like the end in our lives is often just the beginning. You see, hope doesn't come after the pain. Hope rises within our pain, and that's why we're doing this series.

Speaker 1: 1:41

We live in a world, as you might have noticed, you might be aware a world that is filled with uncertainty, surrounded by fear, division, instability. Globally, yes, Nationally, certainly true, but let's bring it home, to our families, where we go home at the end of the day. I think a lot of our households are marked by these things some fear, some division, some instability. And in a world like this that we live in, we do not need shallow optimism, and the good news for us today is that that's not even what Jesus offers. He doesn't offer us. Just keep your head up and, you know, just try to look at the good. We're going to Luke 21, if you want to follow along with me. Jesus is going to prepare his disciples and us, as we read for a future filled with chaos and confusion and even suffering.

Speaker 1: 2:37

And what I appreciate most about Jesus is, unlike a lot of guys like me pastors, church leaders unlike a lot of guys like me, Jesus does not sugarcoat how hard it's going to be. He doesn't sugarcoat it at all, and yet he doesn't leave them without hope. Okay, so he's able to do both. He's able to just tell you the blunt truth of how it's going to be, but he doesn't leave you feeling hopeless. I want to begin with a quote that I think captures the heart of what we're chasing in this series. It says hope is nothing else than the expectation of those things which faith has believed to have been truly promised by God. Or if I were to rewrite that, I would say hope isn't just when things are easy, it's actually for when everything feels like they're falling apart. Hope is when everything it's right there, when everything is falling apart.

Speaker 1: 3:29

And last week Sarah showed us how even sacred spaces, spaces like this on Sunday morning, or like the temple, can become a distraction from the true hope. And what Jesus wants us to do is to make room in our lives outside of Sundays, outside of this one hour a week we're together. He wants us to make room for something deeper and something that won't crumble when the world does. It's a promise. When the world crumbles, what's in here has to be stable, and it was the end of Sarah's moment brings us to this moment today, where Luke records that some of his disciples began talking about the majestic stonework of the temple and the memorial decorations on the walls. But Jesus said the time is coming when all these things will be completely demolished. Not one stone will be left on top of another.

Speaker 1: 4:21

Now the disciples are in awe. I mean, these guys, they're from, you know, these little towns out in the middle of nowhere, they're from the sticks, and now they're finally in the big city and they see this temple that everyone has been talking about and they are in awe. Now it's not just a beautiful building. I mean, you can imagine 2,000 years ago that's a really, really beautiful building. But it wasn't just that. This building was the center of Jewish life, spiritually, culturally, nationally. This was the place where, in their theology, what they believed, this is where heaven and earth collided, where sacrifices to God were offered and where festivals gathered thousands. It symbolized God's presence amongst his people. And this is Herod's temple. Herod rebuilt it and it was stunning White limestone, gold-plated accents, stones so massive that to just looking at it, you'd say this was immovable, this would be permanent. You might say that this is hope carved in stone, that when you look at the temple that you saw hope, you experienced hope.

Speaker 1: 5:35

And so when Jesus says it's going to be torn down, he's not just talking about a structure coming to its end, he is shaking there the disciples, whoever is listening, their entire framework for how they believed God worked. And we keep saying it Throughout the series. You're like man. Jesus keeps saying these things and the disciples keep nodding their head, and yet they still don't get it, no exception for today's passage. They still don't get it. The disciples are still expecting a revolution, that Jesus is going to be warrior God and put all things under him and put Jerusalem back on top. And when Jesus says, well, the base, the temple, this is going to crumble, it wouldn't have made sense. You see, the last time the temple fell was about 600 BC, so about 600 years before Jesus is talking. And when that happened, it meant exile, it meant judgment and it meant despair. Well, those don't sound like winning, that doesn't sound like victory, and isn't that why we are following Jesus, Because he's going to be the champion.

Speaker 1: 6:47

So they ask well, when, when, when, you know, when, Jesus, are all these things going to happen? They're looking for answers, they're looking for something to hold on to, Because you know this as well as they know this that when the unshakable starts to fall, we want to know what comes next. If my present reality is fractured and it's breaking, okay, I guess I can find peace or comfort in whatever's going to happen next. If today's a trash day, I still have tomorrow. But what will tomorrow bring? Well, Jesus doesn't quite approach that yet. He doesn't answer the question. He doesn't dodge it either. He says well, just hold on a second. We haven't even gotten to the bad news yet. He says when the temple is going to fall. And then he goes on. He says nation will go to war against nation and kingdom against kingdom. There will be great earthquakes and there will be famines and plagues and many lands, and there will be terrifying things and great miraculous signs from heaven.

Speaker 1: 7:48

Jesus is leaning into future, prophecy now. Okay, so he's talking. When he talks about the temple, it's like, hey, this is going to happen and then he's going to go way in the future. This is what's going to happen. And then he comes back to the present tense. But before all of this occurs, there will be a time of great persecution. Now he's talking to the disciples, his followers. You will be dragged into synagogues and prisons and you will stand trial before kings and governors because you are my followers. But this will be your opportunity to tell them about me, and everyone will hate you because you are my followers, but not a hair on your head will perish. By standing firm, you will win your souls.

Speaker 1: 8:34

And so we can kind of see Luke, who is this journalist, this investigator, who's a really good writer. He's structuring this teaching in a way that's a little different than how Matthew and Mark do it. He's saying here's the big picture. Everything is not heading in a real great direction. But before that, not heading in a real great direction and before that really doesn't look good for you. And that's how he structures it. And so you can imagine again.

Speaker 1: 9:00

The followers of Jesus are like I don't understand. The last four years we've been following you, we believe you're the Messiah, and if you are the Messiah, how can things still end the way that you are predicting it? But he reframes the suffering. So all of this bad stuff's going to happen and in the meantime it's an opportunity for you to bear witness. Don't run, Don't panic, don't despair, testify.

Speaker 1: 9:35

And then he closes with a paradox of comfort which I'm sure they're going to misunderstand. He says not a hair on your head will perish. And we're really talking in a spiritual sense. We know that all of his followers are going to eventually be killed for their faith. A lot of his followers are going to be persecuted. We know that that's what's going to happen. But what he's saying is I will save the essence of who you are. There's a part of you that only I can protect and I will protect it. There's a part of you they cannot harm, and I've got that For his disciples. But I would say for us today, it's sobering, it's clarifying.

Speaker 1: 10:16

Following Jesus will be hard, but it is never hopeless, because suffering isn't where God disappears, it's where he often draws us the closest. That's why, when people are going through a rough time and then we're talking and they want to know I must be doing something wrong, because I'm going through a rough time and I'm like that's kind of the opposite of what Jesus said. He didn't say if you do all the right things, things are going to go really well for you. I mean, he's explicit by following me things are often going to be difficult, challenging and they're going to suck. Okay. So it doesn't always mean you're doing something wrong. If today, you're in a season and you're feeling like, oh my gosh, the ground under me is very unstable and it's fractured and tomorrow, I don't know what tomorrow is going to bring, it doesn't mean you're doing anything wrong. I want to encourage you in that it could be that God is working and you actually are doing the right things. And to get from here to here, you got to go through this valley. Jesus wants his followers to see.

Speaker 1: 11:20

The fall of Jerusalem is not just devastation, but a moment within God's larger story of grace and of redemption, and I think that applies to us today. He wants you, he wants me, he wants us. If you're watching, listening online, he wants us to see that the destruction or the devastation that's going on in our lives. It is not the full story. There's a part of a larger narrative, One thing they needed to understand so that they could endure and remain faithful even when everything collapsed. Today might be terrible, but God's story is remarkable and he continues. He says those in Jerusalem must get out and those in the country should not return to the city, for those will be days of God's vengeance and the prophetic words of the scriptures will be fulfilled. He's saying Jerusalem, not just the temple Now we're going to go back out Not just the temple is going to fall, this entire city is going to fall. No metaphors, no symbols, no parables Explicit.

Speaker 1: 12:40

When you see the armies surrounding, you know it's time, it's over. And it happened. Like 35 years after that first Easter, Jesus' prophecy happened. The Roman forces laid siege to Jerusalem. The temple was in fact destroyed. The Roman forces laid siege to Jerusalem. The temple was in fact destroyed, the city burned. Thousands of people died.

Speaker 1: 13:00

But what's probably truly shocking to the Jewish followers of Jesus at that time was what he told them to do Don't stay, Do not stay. And if you're far away, do not return to Jerusalem. When you hear it's under attack, Run, Get out. And that would have sounded backwards. If you are the king of the Jews and you're this warrior, God, who's going to protect Jerusalem and protect the temple? Why are we retreating? But he says well, because this time isn't a time of refuge. It's not a time to hide, a time of refuge, of safety. This is a time of judgment. He calls it God's vengeance. He's echoing the prophetic words of Isaiah and Jeremiah, who warned this is what will happen to you, Israel, if you harden your hearts. And here it is. It's happened again. This wasn't just a military collapse. This wasn't just that Jerusalem got outsmarted or outpowered by another nation. They would have understood this the next time we fall. God let this happen, or God had it happen or orchestrated it. We're going to get, you know that kind of hairy theology there that we're not going to get into. But they would have understood this was God's vengeance. Now, what Jesus is trying to communicate the temple would end, Jerusalem would fall, and yet God's mission would continue despite those things. Despite those things, In this final section, Jesus shifts from near-term warnings like hey, this is what's going to happen in the following weeks, months and years in your lifetime, to a future cosmic movement that would have stirred both awe and fear into his listeners.

Speaker 1: 14:45

He said and there will be strange signs in the sun and the moon and the stars and here on earth. Nations will be in turmoil, perplexed by the roaring seas and strange tides. People will be terrified at what they see coming upon the earth. The powers in the heavens will be shaken. Then everyone will see the Son of man coming on a cloud with power and great glory. So when all of these things begin to happen, stand and look up, for your salvation is near. He describes the world is unraveling and there's going to be signs in the skies nations in chaos, seas roaring, people overcome.

Speaker 1: 15:22

With Terry, you might say that this sounds a lot like 2025, right, or maybe 2020 or whatever year you conjure up in your mind. It might sound symbolic, but this was the language of the prophets, Isaiah, Joel, Daniel. They would have recognized it. That what Jesus is describing when all of these things are in chaos, like what we look around that the day of the Lord is near, that victory is near, that that win that we've been waiting hundreds and thousands of years for is closer today than it's ever been before, Because at the center of this storm and the confusion and the chaos, they will see the Son of man coming on a cloud with power and great glory. He's saying I am the returning king, not just the conqueror. I'm not just going to go forward and overthrow a government and make the temple rise, I will come back, but it won't just be for Jerusalem and it won't just be for this temple, it will be for everything. I'm the returning king. So when this happens, don't look down. When there's chaos and confusion and fractures and brokenness and everything is wrong, he says don't look down, don't hide, don't give in to your fear, but rather look up, because redemption is near. Jesus warns stay awake, stay ready, Stay ready. This is a call to live with urgency, with clarity and hope. Urgency, clarity and hope, Because even when everything feels unstable, the Son of man will return and those who are watching I believe you, those of us who are watching we will see him and join him in his glory.

Speaker 1: 17:19

Now you can imagine the disciples' heads are spinning here. He just said a lot and it's really confusing, and Jesus sometimes talked in parables, but it didn't seem like he was really talking in a parable this time. So he actually means what he's saying. There's no guessing. So now they're left with some facts. The temple is going to fall, the world is going to unravel and in my immediate future, I'm going to suffer, be betrayed and be killed for what I believe. It's a lot to take in in a short period of time what I believe. It's a lot to take in in a short period of time, and yet through all of it, through all of it, Jesus calls his followers to endure, to trust, to hope, not in what's temporary, but in a kingdom that will not and cannot be shaken. And that's the heartbeat of the whole passage of what we have talked about today.

Speaker 1: 18:14

Many want to write books on the end times. It's going to be this year, it's going to be next year, it's going to be this day. People have written those kind of books. But the heart of this passage is that our hope is not grounded in what we can see. It's grounded in Christ's eternal reign. Not what we can see, but in Christ's eternal reign. And this is a theme echoed throughout the entire New Testament.

Speaker 1: 18:36

Paul writes that creation groans as it waits for redemption. We hope for what we do not yet see. That's Romans 8. Peter reminds us that even in trials, our faith is more valuable than gold. 1 Peter 1.7. And the author of Hebrews says we are receiving a kingdom that cannot be shaken. And the author of Hebrews says we are receiving a kingdom that cannot be shaken.

Speaker 1: 18:56

So Luke 21 isn't just a warning, it's a reframing. Jesus is saying don't tie your hope to what can fall apart, but rather tie your hope to me. And that raises a question for us this morning what have you anchored your hope to? What have you anchored your hope to? What have you anchored your hope to? What scares you the most? What are you most afraid of losing? That may reveal what you hope most in Life will shake, and for many of us, it already has.

Speaker 1: 19:48

The temple fell for the first disciples and we don't have a temple like that, but we have a temple like this. Our health and perhaps we got a diagnosis and the temple is falling. A broken relationship, something that seemed healthy and fun, now isn't. It's broken. A job or a career that we were so excited for, so invested in, is gone. We find ourselves in a season of doubt, of exhaustion. The things that we thought were secure when they begin to crumble, what do we do? What do we do? Do we numb out, sleep a little more, drink a little more, indulge ourselves? Just got to get through it. Or, and perhaps better, healthier? We stand firm and we look up and we make room for what Jesus has been asking us to make room for. That's him. That's what hope looks like in the middle of a storm. Not denial, not this shallow positivity, this toxic optimism, but faith-filled endurance.

Speaker 1: 21:06

And so maybe for you today it's just calling it out I am really scared of, I'm really fearful of. This is the place that fear has crept in. This is where I've been putting my hope in and I need to reroute my hope. Maybe it's recommitting to scripture and prayer. I know how it goes you get busy, you get overwhelmed. Perhaps you just go away for a weekend and the whole routine of your life gets thrown upside down when you return. But maybe it's a recommitment to scripture and prayer. Upside down when you return, but maybe it's a recommitment to scripture and prayer. Maybe for you, it's choosing to help someone in your life, someone who is near to you, who needs help that you're actually able to provide. Maybe it's just surrendering to Jesus for the first time. Maybe you haven't done that. Whatever the step is, do not let chaos define you. Don't let chaos define you. Let Christ define you, Because even when everything else falls, hope still rises.

Speaker 1: 22:05

Can you imagine what it would look like at Madison Church if we all did this? I've been kind of coming back to this idea. Well, imagine if you and me and us, the person sitting next to you imagine if we all stood up and did this in a world that feels unstable, a community that does not retreat when life gets hard, but a community that leans in to faith, with presence, with purpose. And that's what Jesus was forming when he spoke these words. Not just individuals trying to survive, not just going from day to day, week to week we just got to get through it but a kingdom, people who endure together, witness together, lift their heads together and advance his mission forward.

Speaker 1: 22:55

What if we, collectively, were known for being rooted in a hope that doesn't shake when the world does? When the world is overwhelmed by anxiety, we show up with peace Doesn't mean we don't feel anxiety. You're certainly going to feel worried from time to time, but what if we showed up with peace when others despair? We lived as a people of promise. When others ran, we stood steady, anchored, present and awake. Because, as you might have noticed this morning or last week, the world is still broken. The kingdom of God is not yet fully here, fully realized. The chaos is real.

Speaker 1: 23:43

Jesus isn't sugarcoating that for you, but he also hasn't stopped working, and he calls us to stand firm, to build a community in which hope rises, one life at a time. And so maybe today the invitation for you is to trust again. Maybe it's to trust in God for the first time, or trust in God for the first time in a long time. You did trust God and a bunch of bad stuff happened and you gave up on that, but then you determined it wasn't actually better the other way. Maybe it's time to come back to that. Maybe it's baptism, Maybe it's rejoining the Christian community, Maybe it's just choosing hope in the middle of your storm, Hope in the middle of your storm.

Speaker 1: 24:30

But don't confuse hope with a wish. As Dr Henry Cloud puts it in his book on trust a wish is hope without evidence, but hope, real hope, is based on evidence, and for us the evidence is the cross. It's the life, death and resurrection of Jesus. We don't just wish. Jesus is who he said he was. We hope because he proved it. So ask yourself what does it look like for hope to rise anew? Because the tomb is still empty, and that changes everything.