Trap Snaps Shut • Luke 21:25-38
1:03:41 Teaching begins
Notes
What’s this about? It’s about hearing Jesus’ voice and trusting Him, that He knows the future that is going to happen and why it’s going to happen.
If you hear His voice, you will live. If you won’t hear His voice, you won’t even know what hit you.
The trap is cocked and loaded, and is about to snap shut.
I’m reading in Luke 21 from verse 25.
1. Jesus has been answering His disciples’ question about the future.
A. They were admiring the temple, one of the seven wonders of the ancient world.
B. Jesus said, not one stone would remain on another. It’s all going to be destroyed.
C. Jerusalem will be surrounded by armies, destroyed, and it will be trampled by the Gentiles until the times of the Gentiles are fulfilled.
D. It’s all the consequences of sin against God for rejecting His Messiah, Jesus. Paul talks about this in Romans 11, that a partial hardening has happened to Israel until the fullness of the Gentiles has come in.
2. Then Paul says, and so all Israel will be saved.
A. Romans 11:30-32 For just as you once were disobedient to God, but now have been shown mercy because of their disobedience, so these also now have been disobedient, that because of the mercy shown to you they also may now be shown mercy. For God has shut up all in disobedience so that He may show mercy to all.
B. There is no such thing as the church replacing Israel. They are not confused in Scripture.
C. God turned from Israel to the Gentiles. They disobeyed Jesus, He says, I’ll turn to the Gentiles, they’ll listen to Me.
D. Because of the mercy shown to the Gentiles Israel may now be shown mercy. He has shut up all in disobedience so that He may show mercy to all.
E. Jesus said Jerusalem will be trampled by the Gentiles until the times of the Gentiles are fulfilled.
1. Jerusalem is now completely controlled by Israel as of 1967.
2. This is a process that began in 1897, the movement known as Zionism, the re-founding of the nation of Israel, which happened in May 1948.
3. This indicates that God is ready to turn from dealing with Gentiles to turn to Israel. This is the final work of God in this age, which is saving Israel, and that means that they grasp that they rejected Jesus, that they become greatly humbled, and they receive Jesus as their Messiah.
3. Jesus goes on to describe how it will be when He returns in glory.
A. There will be signs in the sun, moon, and stars. These are written in the Old Testament.
1. Isaiah 13:9-13 Behold, the day of the LORD is coming, cruel, with fury and burning anger, to make the land a desolation; and He will exterminate its sinners from it. For the stars of heaven and their constellations will not flash forth their light; the sun will be dark when it rises and the moon will not shed its light. Thus I will punish the world for its evil and the wicked for their iniquity; I will also put an end to the arrogance of the proud and abase the haughtiness of the ruthless. I will make mortal man scarcer than pure gold and mankind than the gold of Ophir. Therefore I will make the heavens tremble, and the earth will be shaken from its place at the fury of the LORD of hosts in the day of His burning anger.
2. Isaiah 24:17-23 Terror and pit and snare confront you, O inhabitant of the earth. Then it will be that he who flees the report of disaster will fall into the pit, and he who climbs out of the pit will be caught in the snare; for the windows above are opened, and the foundations of the earth shake. The earth is broken asunder, the earth is split through, the earth is shaken violently. The earth reels to and fro like a drunkard and it totters like a shack, for its transgression is heavy upon it, and it will fall, never to rise again. So it will happen in that day, that the LORD will punish the host of heaven on high, and the kings of the earth on earth. They will be gathered together like prisoners in the dungeon, and will be confined in prison; and after many days they will be punished. Then the moon will be abashed and the sun ashamed, for the LORD of hosts will reign on Mount Zion and in Jerusalem, and His glory will be before His elders.
3. Joel 2:30-31 I will display wonders in the sky and on the earth, blood, fire and columns of smoke. The sun will be turned into darkness and the moon into blood before the great and awesome day of the LORD comes.
B. The powers in the heavens will be shaken. This could be literal or figurative, or both.
1. Imagine the stars actually moving out of their places in real time. These constants aren’t constant anymore. You would have absolute chaos.
2. But the spiritual forces of wickedness in the heavenly places will also be shaken and be imprisoned in the earth.
C. So on the earth Jesus notes there will be absolute chaos.
1. Dismay is great fear in the face of impending evil or danger. You don’t have courage anymore. I used to have courage and think, “I can deal with this.” But now I don’t think so.
2. Perplexity is confusion about what to do. Not being able to see a solution or a way forward.
3. The roaring of the sea could be literal or figurative. Literal could happen as a result of chaos in the structure of the earth. Figuratively, the sea is used as a metaphor for the nations, always in instability and uncleanness, never at peace. This is Isaiah 57:20-21. Also used in Daniel 7:2 and Revelation 13.
D. The stars move, the sun darkened, the moon turned to blood, the earth shake like a tottering hut, how could things be worse? Then the Son of Man will come with a cloud and with great power and glory.
1. The clouds of heaven are the angels of God, ten thousand times ten thousand, and myriads of myriads. And they are the saints in glory, those who are Christ’s at His coming. Here comes all of heaven to the earth. Any natural beautiful sight you have ever seen pales in comparison. This is very nearly the ultimate “wow”.
2. The ultimate wow is Jesus Christ, the Son of Man, the Son of God, coming in the glory of the Father.
3. All the tribes of the earth are going to mourn, because their way of life in suppressing the truth in unrighteousness about God is gone forever. No one can reject Jesus anymore. There are no more intellectual arguments, no more choice about what I think is God. The Truth is revealed in glory. You are looking at God Himself and He is Jesus.
4. Not everyone will be devastated. There will be people who have a different response to the chaos. They listen to Jesus’ warning and get ready.
A. For them, these signs do not mean condemnation, judgment, shame, and everlasting contempt. They signify redemption, the last step in our salvation.
1. Redemption is the paying of a ransom to free a captive. Our sins deserve death, and Jesus paid our death with His sinless life.
2. We receive part of our salvation now: forgiveness of our sins, reconciliation with God. We now have a relationship with God. That’s eternal life.
3. God gave believers a token, an earnest, a guarantee that He is going to complete our salvation. Ephesians 1:13-14 In Him, you also, after listening to the message of truth, the gospel of your salvation—having also believed, you were sealed in Him with the Holy Spirit of promise, who is given as a pledge of our inheritance, with a view to the redemption of God’s own possession, to the praise of His glory. He gave us His Holy Spirit. He Himself is the guarantee that He will finish what He has started.
4. The fullness of our salvation is receiving the glory of God, our bodies made like Jesus after He rose from the dead.
B. Jesus says when you see these things begin to happen, straighten up, lift up your heads.
1. Have courage, mental and moral strength to withstand danger, fear, and difficulty, to persevere, to dare to do things.
2. Have hope, confident expecting of good. It’s nearly here, it’s within reach. It’s going to happen.
C. We know this because Jesus said how things are going to happen.
1. He says it’s like a fig tree and all the trees. The fig tree is the first tree in Israel to put forth leaves when spring comes.
2. The other trees also put forth leaves, but these are the signs that it’s a new season, you know that summer is coming.
D. You know Jesus is about to come when you see insolvable problems all around you.
1. He spoke of perplexity, this is the anxious feeling you have when you don’t know what to do.
2. There are insolvable problems in the world that don’t go away. They grow larger all the time. When they go off they will destroy the fabric of civilisation.
3. Like finances. World finance is a house of cards. The system is beyond repair, it’s only going to get worse. The United States national debt is not repayable. President Trump is taking steps to change that, but it won’t be enough. All the nations are in financial trouble. Iran, China, Russia.
4. Like world peace. How will you bring peace between Iran and Israel? Between Russia and Ukraine? China? The whole world is arming itself, it’s only going to get worse.
5. Who is telling the truth? Alexandr Solzhenitsyn was attributed as saying, “We know they are lying. They also know that they are lying. They also know that we know they are lying. We also know that they know that we know they are lying, but they are still lying.”
6. Like crime? Cyber-terrorists hack businesses. Gangs take over whole countries, like in South Africa, like in Congo.
7. Drug problems, sex problems, breakdown of marriages, abortion, smart phones, doom-scrolling.
8. All these issues are the result of sin. The world could have peace right now this second if everyone turned to Jesus and confessed their sins and trusted in Him. He could save the world right now. But the nations say, we do not have to obey Jesus. We have the right of self-determination, and no one is going to tell us what to do. Sin is about to destroy the world. Men’s hearts are about to fail them for fear of what is coming upon them.
E. Ah, but you know these signs are exactly what Jesus said would happen before His return. Therefore when you see them happen, take courage, have hope. Jesus will come in power and glory.
5. When the end is this close you have to be ready right now.
A. You don’t want to be distracted and lose the plot.
1. Jesus calls it being weighed down with dissipation or drunkenness. A drunken nausea, a hangover, from excessive drinking and self-indulgence.
2. The question is, what do you give yourself to? What do you let influence you? What do you fill yourself with? Do you indulge in yourself, and please yourself?
3. When you’re drunk you don’t think properly. You can’t reason. You’re not aware. You imagine things that aren’t there, and you don’t see things that are there.
B. The day will come unexpectedly as a snare, a trap, and it will snap shut on all those who dwell on the earth. Their home is not in heaven. They don’t think about eternity or where they’re going when they die. They only think about right here, right now, they only dwell on this earth.
C. We give ourselves to be influenced and filled with God Himself.
1. For us, the answer is in Ephesians 5:18 And do not get drunk with wine, for that is dissipation, but be filled with the Spirit. We give ourselves to Jesus, we fill ourselves with His word, we be being filled with His Spirit.
2. Jesus also says we watch and pray. We keep aware of God as we pray. We keep giving Him our burdens, we give Him our perplexity, the issues we can’t solve. That’s what we’re supposed to do, and He solves them for us. We pray, and He will save us from the wrath to come.
6. So what? The trap that people have made for themselves is about to snap shut.
A. The very choices people make because they have rejected Jesus have consequences. All these consequences will hit at the same time. Unsolvable problems will nearly kill everyone.
B. Unless God had shortened the time, there would be no flesh left alive, but God has shortened the days. He’s not going to let man destroy himself.
C. The world will end just as Jesus said. The trap is about to snap shut.
1. I know this because Israel is a nation again, after not having a homeland for almost two thousand years. No ethnic group in history has existed more than three generations without a homeland. Except the Jews. And now they are a nation, that speaks Hebrew, whose currency is the shekel. It’s a nation that has been raised from the dead, that is about to become spiritually alive. That is Ezekiel 37.
2. More than that, Israel is destroying Iran’s ability to make nuclear weapons. They are saving the world for another few months. But Iran is going to get nuclear weapons from somewhere, maybe Russia or China. They’re going to use them. And the world will keep falling apart because the people who dwell on the earth refuse to obey Jesus.
D. So now you decide how you want to live.
1. Do you give yourself over to self-indulgence and drunken nausea? Let your self-indulgence blot out God and eternity? To not be aware of Jesus is to live in a trap that’s going to go off and kill you.
2. Or do you listen to Jesus? Ask Him to save you? Pray that you be ready when He comes? Give yourself over to the Holy Spirit and pray, “Lord, make me ready.”
E. The trap is about to snap shut.
Let’s pray.