Tomorrow we can say, "Happy New Year!" It is the first day of the new Church Year, Advent begins. "Advent" means "coming" and this is the season in which we prepare for the coming of Christ.

I am excited for what the season means for our congregation, for each of us as we walk with the Lord. Part of its significance is that it hallows the time of preparation for Christmas. It helps us not to get sucked into the culture's "Christmas season" that tries to make it about things (shopping) and many other distractions from the sacred faith.

Instead, we insist on preparation. Advent is a penitential season. It leads us to reflect on our need to "be still and know that God is God." It provides the opportunity to confess our sins. It ushers in humility as we reflect on what the coming Christmas season is really about: Christ comes! The King of kings comes! This indeed leads us to see the need to prepare our hearts.

Let us be people of preparation as we contemplate tomorrow's Gospel from Luke chapter 19. At first glance the gospel seems out of place. It is mostly associated with Palm Sunday, when Christ enters Jerusalem riding on a donkey, but tomorrow we will focus on how people react to His coming in general. How do we respond? How will we respond? This will be our meditation and the sermon is intended to help you -- by the Word of God -- to greet the coming Lord in a way that is salutary and in a way that shows true faith. The Word itself forms this proper preparation; this proper greeting.

As always, the Lord Himself will prepare us through the forgiveness of sins given in the Holy Sacrament. Why do we keep coming for forgiveness? Answer: because we always sin. It is that simple. Yes, your baptism has put you into Jesus and the forgiveness of sins, but the battle continues. Trust God, He knows what He is doing. You cannot receive His forgiveness too often.

Pastor Mueller and I hope to see you in the morning.

Here is the manuscript from tomorrow's sermon:

“We Must Cry Out” (Luke 19:40)

Pastor Espinosa

 

Grace to you and peace from God our Father and from our coming Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. Amen. Advent greetings to you dear Christians. We commence our season of preparing for the coming of Jesus. As the rest of the world draws you to jump directly into Christmas of the commercial type and hype, we say Christmas is not here yet. Instead, we prepare in the beautiful penitential season of Advent. We speak of how to prepare for the King so that when He comes we are not choking on the stuff of the world, but have a faith that is prepared and properly waiting.

 

When Jesus approaches, God approaches. What is that like? It is momentous. It is full of power. Imagine what it is like when certain mere mortals approach. What is it like when a president comes to town? Roads close, traffic is redirected. Whole cities are impacted. What if someone famous comes walking towards a crowd? People converge, they want to see. My family was in Manhattan to sight see when we had gone out for my eldest son’s graduation from college in New Haven, CT. We woke up that morning to “Good Morning America” staged in Times Square only this time Times Square was directly below us, about 30 floors below. My teenaged daughter at the time – Danielle – got pretty excited for an Olympic skater who was down there. She couldn’t get dressed fast enough to run down to see the heart-throb. In the army, all of the chaplain candidates were gathered in an auditorium, when the Major General came walking down the aisle, we all stood up and collectively saluted him. He couldn’t “just walk by,” his presence demanded a response.

 

In a movie called “Evan Almighty,” the actor temporarily gets the power of God. He’s in a car and he decides to conduct a modern-day parting of the Red Sea, but this time he parts the traffic...all of the cars move out of the way to clear his path so that he can zoom down the street in his fancy ride. The scene is silly in this comedy, but what is not lost is that the presence of someone special impacts the environment. It’s inevitable.

 

I inject this concept into my pre-marital and marital pastoral counseling. The one to whom you are joined to in marriage, should receive the highest honor of any person in your life. That person has top ranking. They complete you, they are your complement from God. No one under God is more important, so act like it. The sinful flesh of course fights against this high call. But your spouse is a gift from heaven, so we “make way” when they walk into the room. We become attentive, we refuse to take them for granted, we strive to show how precious they are to us. We should train ourselves to greet each other with hugs and kisses, and with “I love you’s.” Compared to anyone else who might walk by you: a celebrity, a sports star, a politician, a decorated military hero, etc., these pale in comparison to your spouse walking into the room. The couple that honors one another will properly care for their marriage.

 

Again, the point is that when someone special walks by, something happens. You can’t be silent. You shouldn’t be or in some cases, you should be...you might be so silent that you bow down and hit your knees to the ground (this is the instinctive and understandable response when a person finds themselves in the presence of one of the holy angels, though when this happened to the apostle John, the angel was quick to correct his response, “You must not do that! I am a fellow servant with you and your brothers the prophets, and with those who keep the words of this book. Worship God.” (Revelation 22:9)

 

But again, if you find yourself in the presence of someone very special, something’s gotta give. Something must happen. Again, it’s inevitable. And no one impacts us so much as when God comes. When our Creator and Savior comes, we can’t do nothing. Something must happen. Something happens now when He comes. Something will happen when He comes again in glory.

 

We have a snap shot of this very thing having actually occurred. Here’s what is recorded in Exodus chapter 33:

 

“Moses said, ‘Please show me your glory.’ And [the Lord] said, ‘I will make all my goodness pass before you and will proclaim before you my name “The Lord.” And I will be gracious to whom I will be gracious, and will show mercy on whom I will show mercy. But,’ he said, ‘you cannot see my face, for man shall not see me and live.’ And the Lord said, ‘Behold, there is a place by me where you shall stand on the rock, and while my glory passes by I will put you in a cleft of the rock, and I will cover you with my hand until I have passed by. Then I will take away my hand, and you shall see my back, but my face shall not be seen.’” (vss 18-23)

 

The day is coming when all people will be inevitably impacted when the Lord comes again in glory:

 

Therefore God has highly exalted him and bestowed on him the name that is above every name, so that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, in heaven and on earth and under the earth, and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father. (Philippians 2:9-11)

 

We shall be in His presence and we shall bow and we shall confess. There’s no negotiation here. This must happen. This will happen.

 

In our gospel at Luke 19, the Pharisees in the crowd, however, were offended by those crying out, “Blessed is the King who comes in the name of the Lord! Peace in heaven and glory in the highest!” (v 38) As a result they demanded that Jesus would instruct them to stop. (v 39) To this Jesus our Lord replied: “I tell you, if these were silent, the very stones would cry out.” (v 40) One expositor says, “If men should be silent, a stupendous miracle would have to take place, and the very stones about them would have to testify.” (Buls quoting Arndt, Exegetical Notes: Gospel Texts, Series C, 3)

And yet this is what the Pharisees wanted, that is, they wanted the people to be silent. They wanted to be silent and in their own way, they were silent...this is a terrible inconsistency, it is against the order of things, it is evil, it is wicked...and it depicts the sinful heart. God comes to us constantly through His Word and Spirit. He is always coming to all through the ministry of His Church and when He comes His desire is to always create faith by the Holy Spirit working through the Word of Christ and the Holy Sacraments, but when these are resisted and rejected, it is beyond sad. And yet this is what the flesh does.

 

We confess in our Small Catechism that when the Lord teaches us to pray, “Thy kingdom come,” that this means that “The kingdom of God certainly comes by itself without our prayer, but we pray in this petition that it may come to us also.” The catechism goes on to ask, “How does God’s kingdom come?” Answer: “God’s kingdom comes when our heavenly Father gives us His Holy Spirit, so that by His grace we believe His holy Word and lead godly lives here in time and there in eternity.” That is, when He comes already through His Word, His presence is definitely impacting us: we pray that His kingdom comes to us and fills us; we pray for the Holy Spirit so that by grace we have a living faith and lead godly lives. Talk about an impact. Talk about responding to the Lord who comes even now!

 

But the nightmarish reality that is as nothing to the world today is that one would have no reaction to the Lord’s coming; that His presence would have no effect. That people would ignore Him and consider Him as irrelevant or insignificant, and what is worse, would tell others to stop worshipping Him. To live in such a way that the Lord’s presence has no impact is horrifying. It is the height of irony that one would stare and be transfixed towards a celebrity who will turn to dust, but completely be unaffected by the One who is the eternal God who will judge all men.

 

This is why we must properly view these words of Christ, they are words of judgment. They are intended to wake us up so that we are not caught sleeping in our sin when He comes again in glory. Lenski explained: “Jesus speaks prophetically of a time when ‘these’ [in the crowed mixed with true disciples] shall, indeed, cease their acclaim, and when the lifeless stones shall, indeed, ‘yell’ with piercing shrieks when not one stone is left upon another in Jerusalem itself. That yelling will be the voice of judgment for rejecting the Messiah-King. By wanting the disciples to be silent these Pharisees were asking that this yelling of the stones begin now.” (Interpretation of Luke, 966)

 

This commentary struggles with the crowd. The fact is that they represent the range of people which persists to this day: the text says at verse 37 “the whole multitude of his disciples,” – there were genuine believers even if some of them were shouting for the wrong reasons if their shouting was for the miracle-worker Jesus and not the humble Savior who was going to give His life as a ransom for many, others were surely just observers, they were curious, and then finally, there were those against Him like the Pharisees, but reactions were abounding and varied. They still are.

 

Some will cry out with joy and thanksgiving; calling out for mercy; calling out in faith; but others cry out to silence the gospel; to reject the Savior, to make others compliant to their idea of political correctness (which term now is no longer politically correct since all views are to be honored and none of them put down including political correctness...except for the Christian faith that is, this is the one view that will continue to be outwardly attacked, and this is everywhere approved). Again, Jesus keeps raising a response...hotness or coldness, even while some imagine that lukewarm-ness is a safe-zone (it isn’t).

 

But in Jesus’ words of warning about the stones also strikes another imagery: from John the Baptist we learn that “stones” are a metaphor for Gentiles. The Pharisees were among His own people rejecting Him, but in time God would raise up Gentiles to “gladly accept the mission of announcing his presence.” (Just, Concordia Commentary, 748) One way or another, proper worshippers of the Christ would come, the Word and the Spirit always create faith. God always retains a remnant of true believers.

 

So what about us? Who do you say Jesus is? How do you respond to His presence? In the book of Acts when St. Paul proclaimed there were three reactions: 1) Some scoffed and rejected the gospel; 2) others scratched their heads and said, “I want to hear more;” and 3) and yet still others believed and followed. (Acts 17:32f.)

 

What about us? We must surely recognize this One who comes and must surely have the right response. This One who comes is the “Blessed One,” He is the Lord; this One who comes brings peace. He comes through His life-blood to establish peace between us and God. He covers our sins so that we can stand before God, so that we would know true joy since we are not condemned and since life is not something that ends for you, but rather something that flows and abounds forever, real life, true life. We therefore are very much impacted by His coming. We are full of joy, and full of hope; we are full of the knowledge that we are right with God through this One who comes and our response is inevitable: we must cry out. We too say, “Blessed is the King who comes in the name of the Lord! Peace in heaven and glory in the highest!” We are the stones who out-cry the Pharisees. We are the poor sinners and beggars delivered from the shackles of sin and death. We must respond, we must react, we can’t just sit back and do nothing. Jesus is coming, the Life of the World has entered our lives. We are now the people of God, full of His light, full of His love and mercy.

 

He comes again Christian in the Holy Sacrament. We must therefore cry out again. We cry out “Lamb of God, you take away the sin of the world, have mercy on us!”...We see Him come and then we cry out as He passes by, “Lord, now you are letting your servant depart in peace, according to your word; for my eyes have seen your salvation.” We keep crying out. We can’t help it! And all of this crying out will keep you awake, it will keep you watching, so that when He comes again in glory, you’ll be ready Christian. You will be ready to greet Him as one of the stones raised from death to life. Cry out, never stop crying out: “Blessed is the King who comes in the name of the Lord!” “He has saved me; He is saving me; He will save me! He is Jesus. I am one of His stones, and nothing will keep me from crying out to Him for by His grace, I now cry out.” This is what you do Christian. This is what you are! A saved one who cries out to Jesus! Thanks be to God!

In Jesus' Love,

Pastor Espinosa

Tonight we gather at Good Shepherd Chapel at Concordia University Irvine, located at 1530 Concordia West, Irvine, 92612.

The service is at 7 pm, 7 pm, 7 pm.

It is a shorter Service of the Word without Holy Communion.

We will receive God's Holy Word, sing to the Lord, and pray to the Lord. That is, we will enter Thanksgiving in the best way possible.

Tonight you will receive the true basis for lasting thanksgiving; what is yours in Jesus Christ!

Please come! Invite a friend! I hope to see you this evening!

Here is tonight's manuscript for my sermon:

Thanksgiving for Righteousness

(Isaiah 51:4-6)

Pastor Espinosa

 

Text: “⁴Give attention to me, my people, and give ear to me, my nation; for a law will go out from me, and I will set my justice for a light to the peoples [I will make rest]. ⁵My righteousness draws near, my salvation has gone out, and my arms will judge the peoples; the coastlands hope for me, and for my arm they wait. ⁶Lift up your eyes to the heavens, and look at the earth beneath, for the heavens vanish like smoke, the earth will wear out like a garment, and they who dwell in it will die in like manner; but my salvation will be forever, and my righteousness will never be dismayed.”

 

Grace to you and peace from God our Father and from our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ. Amen. God’s people suffer and God’s people also receive the greatest news of the most wondrous salvation, so wonderful because we are guaranteed the day in which we will not be able to remember what we have suffered. I think of what I witnessed when my wife gave birth: first there was pain, but then after the birth there was great joy. Things went from one extreme to another. We suffer now, the world is in turmoil, we see it in wars throughout the world and we see it in the tumultuous conditions and heightened alert within our own cities. Warnings to our entire nation have gone out about travel that we once thought was safe; and cities in this nation are seeing a heightened security that resemble in some cases military zones. Closer to home, families suffer with illness, depression, anger, and fear. But there is something coming: look up to the heavens and look at the earth beneath, these seem so permanent, solid, unmovable, but there is something you have Christian that is more permanent, solid, and unmovable.

 

The fact is that the heavens and the earth will wear out, but what has been given to you in Christ is truly permanent, absolutely solid, and there is no force able to move it out from under you: the Word of the Lord Jesus Christ endures forever (Isaiah 40:8). This has been given to you, it is in you, in your ears, in your mind and in your heart: His law, His justice, His light, His rest, His mighty arm for you, His righteousness, and His salvation make you immovable, “A thousand may fall at your side, ten thousand at your right hand, but [destruction] will not come near you.” (Psalm 91:7)

 

These things I speak of Christians are the basis for true thanksgiving. I don’t want to seem as a kill-joy for some of the more simple pleasures. They too are important. There is great wisdom for example in Ecclesiastes – don’t take your troubles too seriously, they are serious, but they do not define your life – so as Solomon wrote, “Go, eat your bread with joy, and drink your wine with a merry heart, for God has already approved what you do.” (Ecclesiastes 9:7) If you are blessed to have a feast tomorrow, have it, thank God for it, take joy in it. But let’s face it, we can’t base our thanksgiving on these things. Don’t get me wrong, I’m excited for tomorrow: Traci got a big turkey, she’s making me a lemon meringue pie, Bryan is getting a pecan pie, Christina a pumpkin pie...Katherine’s getting all of them; Christina has already made my deviled eggs, there will be a ton of food, but I stand a good chance for indigestion and the Dallas Cowboys will probably lose...no my thanksgiving can’t be based on these things. If the heavens and the earth will not stand, these won’t even come close to standing.

 

And yet we try desperately to invest our greatest thanksgiving in the things that will pass. This is our sin: mistaking our greatest joys, our greatest hopes, and our greatest thanks in things that are created as we forget about the Creator; treating things as if they will save us – give us joy, give us hope, give us meaning – while forgetting the Redeemer. We want to turn the things of the world into the things of heaven, while treating the true gifts of heaven as if they were unreal, irrelevant, and insignificant. In our sin, we’ve got it all backwards. And this backwardness kills the soul. It makes us desperate, hopeless people in whom little thanksgiving resides.

 

Israel once stood strong and they started to trust in themselves: God’s people brought to the promised-land and they forgot about God. Then, their nation was taken away. They were defeated. They went into exile. What once seemed solid was no more. But the Lord then brought amazing news to them and what is exciting about this Old Testament word is that it includes us too...you’re included though it was spoken so many centuries ago.

 

Things were going to change for the Israelites who had seemingly lost it all. In chapters 44-48 of Isaiah they hear of their freedom from exile, but in chapters 49-55 they hear of the One who would bring this freedom and who would bring the greatest freedom: freedom from sin; freedom from hopelessness, and freedom from death. In these chapters they hear of the Suffering Servant who is also the King of Kings, the Lord of Lords; they hear of the Christ who is also your Savior dear Christian! Be clear as to who this SERVANT is, He’s your Savior! Know Him, and you know true thanksgiving!

 

Luther: “[Isaiah] is calling us away from errors and therefore showing us someone else...The prophet points us to the Incarnate One and says that in this Head alone, in the unity of faith, we who were formerly scattered must be brought together...This was not written for Christ’s sake but for ours, so that we may be sure, about His work, and teaching and may have certainty about the emptiness of our idolatry. Nobody understands these things unless he believes. You must believe that Christ is a servant. It is as Paul says (1 Cor. 2:2): ‘I decided to know nothing among you except Jesus Christ and Him crucified.’...This Christ is an offense to the whole world. Therefore, in order to give us certainty, this commendation of Christ is necessary. We see from experience that nothing is more absurd to the wisdom of the flesh than Christ, the Servant, and His Word. All are offended because of Him. All of us want to be God’s servants while we please ourselves. Everything will be taken up and entrusted to Him alone. We should receive this with thanksgiving...’” (AE 17:60-61)

 

So we know what true thanksgiving must be about: remember Jesus! He has opened the Kingdom of God to you; He has invited you to the eternal feast. He the reason for our true thanksgiving!

 

To help us realize how important our Savior is, Isaiah 51:4-6 describes what Christ brings! Again, He brings the real, lasting gifts, not the kind that are here today and gone tomorrow, but the gifts which include -- again -- His law, His justice, His light, His rest, His mighty arm for you, His righteousness, and His salvation. This is what the servant brings.

 

This is good news, this is the Gospel. The Lord sees us in our helplessness and how easy it is to feel helpless. Helpless in the face of all that sin has brought into our lives, impacting our bodies, our minds, and our spirits. In our condition, we cannot initiate hope and freedom. We are truly helpless, so at Isaiah 51:4 what the Lord gives will “go out from [Him]”...these gifts are sent to us. God doesn’t wait for you to come to Him (He knows you can’t, so He sends salvation...He comes to you!). Talk about cause for true thanksgiving!

 

There are many gifts that go out and they are all important. In this reading from Isaiah 51:4-6, the law is God’s torah, His instruction which includes the Gospel of salvation. His Law is a royal law, the golden law, the law of victory, the law of God’s love and mercy which cannot be overcome by sin; and He sends justice that is His justice in Jesus: Jesus fulfills all justice and Jesus becomes our light – He is the light of the world – and Jesus gives us rest. The word “rest” is in the Hebrew here at Isaiah 51:4, but not in our English translation: Jesus comes and showers you in the light of His grace; and this love and mercy is your true rest in Christ: “[Jesus says:] Come to me all of you who are tired and with a heavy load and I will give you rest!” (Matthew 11:28)

 

Later in the text, He speaks of His mighty power in the imagery of His arms and His arm. These exert the judgment against all that threatens us; and is the basis for our hope as His arm is strong to save us. Then He gets to the climax of our reading at verse 6: consider how solid, how certain, how permanent and how immovable your salvation is. The heavens and the earth will “wear out like a garment,” but for you, God’s righteousness and salvation will keep you enduring, because the Word of the Lord endures FOREVER and since this Word is in you, YOU will endure FOREVER Christian in the love of God.

 

But I want to highlight being thankful for God’s righteousness. This is a word – “righteousness” – that we hear a lot of in church, in the Bible, in the talk of God and faith, but it is not really that familiar to us. We don’t typically use it in our “everyday” language and way of communicating to one another. It is a special word and takes on different shades of meaning depending on the biblical context, but here it is all good. It is a word that we want to know; it is a word that is good news for you this Thanksgiving. We should be exceedingly thankful for this righteousness.

 

This attribute of God called “righteousness” means that God does the right thing – in His love and mercy – to keep His promise of salvation. His righteousness is directly related to His faithfulness and this righteousness is not on us (that is something we fulfill), but on Him (something He fulfills). God is love. God is mercy. And His righteousness fulfills who and what He is; it guarantees that His righteousness will save us. Let’s read of this righteousness from the Psalms. This is the basis for our true thanksgiving:

 

Psalm 5:8: “Lead me, O Lord, in your righteousness because of my enemies; make your way straight before me.”

 

Psalm 31:1: “In you, O Lord, do I take refuge; let me never be put to shame; in your righteousness deliver me!”

 

Psalm 71:2: “In your righteousness deliver me and rescue me; incline your ear to me, and save me!”

 

Psalm 89:15-16: “Blessed are the people who know the festal shout, who walk, O Lord, in the light of your face, who exult in your name all the day and in your righteousness are exalted.”

 

Psalm 119:40: “Behold, I long for your precepts; in your righteousness give me life!”

 

Psalm 143:11: “For your name’s sake, O Lord, preserve my life! In your righteousness bring my soul out of trouble!”

 

As we trust in God’s righteousness as Abram believed and was counted righteous (Gn 15:6), so are we! God’s righteousness for us in in Jesus. Now we know He passes over our sins! God is righteousness becomes He justifies you; because He declares you righteous in Jesus as you trust in Him! Your faith is now counted as righteousness (Ro 4:5)! This righteousness which God gives IS His salvation for you Christian! In it, you are delivered from sin and death; pardoned for all guilt and shame; renewed just when you were sinking in death, and promised a glory that will outlast the heavens and the earth.

This is our thanksgiving. Technically, tomorrow is a civic holiday, not a sacred one, but for you, thanksgiving is always sacred: it leads you back to Jesus, your righteousness who took your sin; your righteousness who conquered your death; and your righteousness that will make you outlive the heavens and the earth. Have your feast tomorrow, but don’t forget the eternal feast that Jesus has won for you. Be thankful for this!

In Jesus' Love,

Pastor

The church year is no random exercise. It leads us to follow the life of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. And part of that life of Christ is that which is yet to come: He will come in glory, on the clouds, with the holy angels. We Christians call this "The Second Coming." That day will be the end of the world as we know it. That day will include the resurrection of all flesh and the great judgment of all humanity. It will also include the joyful gathering of all of God's people at the right hand of the Lord Jesus. It ends climatically with the descent of a new heaven and a new earth. (Revelation 21:1) Thank God that since you are in Christ, washed by His blood, that we know the verdict for you already! "There is therefore now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus." (Romans 8:1)

Knowing that this Day is coming, it impacts the way we live. The little-known book of Jude (which is only a single chapter long) includes wisdom on how to live, keeping us in the grace of God as we await the glorious day. Tomorrow's proclamation is based on this little book with a message to keep you strong in the Lord Jesus!

We have so much to be thankful for in our little church. Today was the holy baptism of Erin Rose Morris (which was held at the Good Shepherd Chapel at Concordia University). Tomorrow is our third new member Sunday in as many months. This one welcomes Kathy Witt (transferring in), Tina Wang (adult confirmation), Jon Crosier (adult confirmation), Veronica Steele (adult confirmation), and Erin Morris (adult confirmation).

Also: Just a couple of extra announcements:

1) This Wednesday is our Thanksgiving Eve service at 7 pm at the Good Shepherd Chapel at Concordia University. This is a service of the Word only, a shorter service, but one that is the perfect way to usher in Thanksgiving! This is a great service to invite a friend to. Please come!

2) The offer for a free Christmas Tree still stands. If you would like a free tree or know someone who might really appreciate it, please let me know.

In Jesus' Love,

Pastor Espinosa

It was with heavy hearts that we received the news yesterday about the terrorism that struck Paris. As of reports at around 11:30 am today: 129 dead, 352 injured (99 of these in critical condition). The violence is representative of evil. There is no good answer for trying to explain why. Evil is chaotic; it is darkness and the evil one seeks to paralyze us with fear and with loss of hope.

We shall not succumb to this. Instead, we will run to Jesus who will continue to give us hearts of faith as we know that He has overcome the world (John 16:33); that He has already given us the victory over evil. When disciples came to Jesus to ask Him about the terrible events in the world, Jesus' reply was very focused and clear:

"There were some present at that very time who told him about the Galileans whose blood Pilate had mingled with their sacrifices. 2 And he answered them, “Do you think that these Galileans were worse sinners than all the other Galileans, because they suffered in this way? 3 No, I tell you; but unless you repent, you will all likewise perish. 4 Or those eighteen on whom the tower in Siloam fell and killed them: do you think that they were worse offenders than all the others who lived in Jerusalem? 5 No, I tell you; but unless you repent, you will all likewise perish."  (Luke 13:1-5)

Here is the manuscript of tomorrow's sermon:

“Tell Us, When?” (Mark 13:1-13)

Pastor Espinosa

 

Grace to you and peace from God our Father and from our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ. Amen. Signs are important. They provide directions and can even save your life if you pay attention to them. It is, however, also important that we interpret them properly. Caltrans developed a yellow freeway sign that depicts a man and a woman running across the freeway, the woman is pulling along a little girl with pigtails. The sign was intended to warn drivers of illegal immigrants trying to cross the interstate. The signs were generated after more than 100 illegal immigrants were hit by oncoming vehicles and killed. The sign doesn’t have any words on it. It is merely a sign with the image of a family running. It avoids words so as to deal with the language barrier. Spanish-only or English-only speakers would be able to interpret the sign. The problem, however, is in the interpretation of the sign. Was this sign actually communicating a warning to drivers? Or was the sign communicating an invitation to those who want to cross? Is the sign communicating that this is a location where running across is permissible? A whole new problem has developed regarding this sign.

 

In our gospel this morning the Lord predicted Jerusalem’s destruction: “Do you see these great buildings? There will not be left here one stone upon another that will not be thrown down.” (v 2) The Lord’s prediction came to fruition in A.D. 70. Josephus describes the destruction in great detail -- and many of the details are horrifying -- but he concludes his description with the fact that “Caesar ordered the entire city and the temple smashed to the ground.” (Maier, trans., Josephus: The Essential Writings, 369)

 

The disciples who heard about the Lord’s terrifying prediction were most likely stunned by it and it is understandable that they would want to know about the sign leading up to this. Some of them asked the Lord as recorded at verse 4: “Tell us, when will these things be, and what will be the sign when all these things are about to be accomplished?” This was their question, but we know from a parallel passage in Matthew 24:3 that the disciples were asking not only about the sign for the end of Jerusalem, but also about the sign of the end of the world. Matthew 24:3 records: “Tell us, when will these things be, and what will be the sign of your coming and of the close of the age?” As a result, we know that in these texts we are dealing with two things:

 

1. The destruction of Jerusalem in A.D. 70.
2. The end of the world that is still to come.

 

Our Lord Jesus then goes on to discuss not a single sign,

but many signs. And these signs are not only applicable to what the disciples in the text -- in the first-century -- would experience, but appear applicable to what is also experienced before the end of the world. From the list in our gospel from St. Mark, we have these signs:

 

1. False Christs will appear.
2. Wars and rumors of wars.
3. Nation rising against nation, and kingdom against kingdom.
4. Earthquakes in various places.
5. Famines.
6. The disciples would experience persecution from the outside (the world would come against them).
7. The disciples would experience persecution from the inside (even some of their own family members would betray them).
8. The followers of Christ will be hated by all on account of the name of Christ.
9. They who would remain faithful will be saved.

 

But the clearest statement of the end is related to verse

10 which says, “And the gospel must first be proclaimed to all nations.” The parallel in Matthew 24:14 is the concluding sign on the list and simply states: “And the gospel of the kingdom will be proclaimed throughout the whole world as a testimony to all nations, and then the end will come.”

 

Take note of this very important point: the disciples wanted to know “when?” Sinful nature wants to live wrongly. We are tempted every single day to live wrongly and to focus on “when?” That way, the evil one leads us astray from “today.” Instead of praying today, helping those in need today; instead of sharing the gospel today, instead of living in this moment that we have as we should and as Scripture teaches: “this is the day the Lord has made, let us rejoice and be glad in it” (Psalm 118:24); “Behold, now is the favorable time; behold, now is the day of salvation.” (2 Cor. 6:2); “Today, if you hear his voice, do not harden your hearts.” (Hebrews 3:7; 3:15; and 4:7); “Therefore do not be anxious about tomorrow, for tomorrow will be anxious about itself. Sufficient for the day is its own trouble.” (Matthew 6:34), instead of living this way, our sinful flesh and the evil one tries to move us beyond today. And the moment we take on the anxiety of the future, we lose our peace today. Then we are too anxious to fill our hearts with the Word of Christ, when instead our minds are filled with the worries about tomorrow.

 

So there are many times when we think we want to know; when our curiosity is piqued and when we want to know when. When will the end come? The question is hotly pursued by many people and it’s a great way to get yourself into trouble and to distract yourself from the faith. On the internet there is actually something called a “the rapture index” which tries to rate the severity of the signs already mentioned in this sermon. When the severity of these signs seem very high, then a percentage is presented indicating the likelihood that today is the last day. This is a very popular website that has been going on for years and is obviously one that many people pay attention to. It is an open-invitation to dabbling with a question that Jesus Himself chose not to answer. It was the Lord’s way of saying, “don’t worry about it; it’s none of your business.”

 

And yet He does answer the disciples’ question from the standpoint of giving many signs. This was of course quite intentional. With this information, the process is easy: go down the list. Have there been false Christs? Yes indeed! Have there been wars and nations rising against nations? But of course! We see this before our eyes on the news almost every day! Earthquakes? They alarm us as they are all around. Famines? Even in this technologically advanced age, this remains a fundamental plight on our planet. God’s people persecuted? It is a painful reality. Is the Gospel being proclaimed throughout the world? As a matter of fact, yes it is. So what does this tell us? Our Lord clearly wanted us to know that we are living in the end times. This is something every Christian should just know.

 

So our Lord – in His great love and wisdom – wants us to know this:

 

• The signs are all around us and we are indeed living in the end times.
• Still, we do not know; He will not tell us exactly when.

 

Is He being cruel? Much to the contrary, He is being extraordinarily loving. It’s been several years now since the movie Titanic came out. It is one of the all-time highest-grossing movies. There is one scene that has particularly stuck with me for whatever reason. The ship is sinking. Almost everyone on board is panicking, but there is a quiet and peaceful scene going on, on one of the lower decks. A loving mother chooses to spend her time comforting her children, tucking them into bed and keeping her love before the eyes of her children. She refused to join the panic. She insisted to treat that night as any other. This was her way of facing the end. I found it to be most profound.

 

The signs are given to you and me for one reason: The Lord is saying that the end – either our personal end or yes, perhaps even the very end of the age is at hand – so what should we do? His call to us is simple: repent. Live in your faith Christians. Hold to Jesus. Turn from sin and turn towards your Savior Christ!

 

The last and greatest sign of the gospel being preached to the whole world is not given so that we would try to gauge and measure it so as to predict the last day, but so as to remind us as to what the constant occupation of the people of God is all about. We are the people of the saving gospel of Jesus Christ. Every day the good news is the most important news – not about wars, not about earthquakes (these will always be in this world and yes, we should view these as our call to pray and our call to serve those in need) – but the news that is to stick in our souls is not the news of terror; not the news for anxiety, but the news of peace, the news of consolation, and the news of eternal life. The news that leads us to know that we don’t have to worry about the end, because the Lord Jesus who will come at the end is already constantly coming to us through His Word and through His Holy Sacrament. It is His way of training us for the last day by viewing this day as the most important day because we know that the Lord of glory is already with us today!

 

We are on the inside of God’s perfect plan for protecting us and shielding us from the terrors of the world. See Christ comes now. You are not called to worry about “when” in the future, but rather to be full of joy for the “now” of the moment. This time, this day, this moment Jesus comes to you. You will be ready for the end, because you’ve been on the receiving end of Jesus coming to you over and over again; He comes as the One who took your sin upon Himself and covered it with His blood; He comes as the One who has conquered death for you by rising from the grave; He comes as the One who gives you the Kingdom which is quite simply impervious to the end. It can’t end.

 

This is how and this is why dear Christians that at the very end of our gospel in Mark 13 the Lord is recorded as saying, “But the one who endures to the end will be saved.” Your reception of Jesus continuously coming to you is what causes you to endure. You know the saying applied to physical conditioning or to the mastery of certain skills: “use it or lose it.” Christ has placed you into the rhythm of constant “use” of the Word and Sacraments. This is how He protects you. By His grace, you’ll never lose it. Your faith will endure.

 

So to the question, “Tell Us, When?” Let us say, “Today!” This day the Lord has come to me; this day the Lord has saved me! This day my sins are forgiven! I’m ready for anything.