Advent 2009
November 29, 2009
Luke 21:24, 25-36
The season of Advent begins with a focus on the second Advent.
Our Christmas season is usually set apart from anything sad or unsettling.
This is not the point of Advent.
Advent requires that we be a little unsettled and realized that God does not accept sin and that he will shake the heavens and bring his redemptive purposes to his appointed end.
We do not want to deny the genuine good news of Christmas or the proper excitement and joy that the season brings, but we also don’t want the lies of our world to dampen the realities that make the season such good news.
For the good news to be really good news it must come to a dark, harsh and evil place to remind us that a Savior is needed.
Advent was once considered a “deep purple” season of preparatory penitence that gave equal time to Jesus’ first and second Advent.
Luke 21:24, 25-36 reminds us of the reason Jesus came to Bethlehem, not to be born in obscurity and start a movement among a tribe of former nomads, but to be exalted as the God of heaven and earth and redeemer of those who are waiting on him from every tribe, tongue and nation.
Without the Second Advent and the upheaval that comes with it, the first Advent does not make much sense.
So, we will see the First Advent through the lens of the Second Advent that is to come. Why?
a. Produce anticipation leading to urgency in the mission
b. Produce anticipation leading to holiness
c. Produce anticipation leading to perseverance
d. Produce anticipation leading to increased community over our common
mission and bond and need of each other to persevere, be holy and do the
work.
1. Jesus’ second advent is preceded by the “times of the Gentiles” 24
a. Salvation for Gentiles from all nations Romans 11:25
b. Gentiles, not of the faith of Abraham, will dominate and conflict with God’s
people Jew and Gentile alike
c. Notice, however, the Gentile season is not in domination
1. Take note of the advance of the Great Commission
a. Matthew 24:14 All nations and then the end will come
2. Take note of the dominant news
a. Iran’s (just about every non-Jew) desire to obliterate Israel
b. Denial of there ever having been a temple on the site of the
dome of the Rock (Muslim denial of YHWH as every being the
God of the Jews)
c. Israel’s discovery of oil reserves that could rival other
oil rich country’s output.
3. Take note of Muslim conversion to the Gospel
“At the time of the Islamic Revolution in 1979 there were only about 500 known Muslim converts to Jesus inside the country. By 2000, a survey of Christian demographic trends reported that there were 220,000 Christians inside Iran, of which between 4,000 and 20,000 were Muslim converts.”
3. The point? We are closer than ever before and salvation history is
closing.
2. Jesus’ second advent will be preceded by global upheaval 25-28
Luke does not give these verses so that a good timetable can be constructed.
Acts 1:7 “It is not for you to know the times or seasons the Father has fixed by his own authority.”
Isaiah 13:9-11 Babylon
Ezekiel 32:7-8 Egypt
Amos 8:9 Prophecy to Israel and Judah (probably the first prophet in the canon Chronologically)
Habakkuk 3:11 Fall of Assyria and Judah (eventually) at the hands of Babylon
Joel 2:10, 28-31 A call to Judah to return to the Lord before the day of the Lord. This passages is applied by Luke to Pentecost in Acts 2.
Joel 3:15 The Lord’s judgment on the nations surrounding Judah
Revelation 6:12-17 The view of the near future history to befall the church as well as application to the time of severe tribulation preceding the Lord’s return
a. Watch for a continual decline in the west and a rise of power in the east
b. Watch for a continual focus on globalization and the conflict that arises
from the collision between competing world views
c. Watch for an increase in persecution by those who hate Jesus
1. Revelation 6:9-11
3. Jesus’ second advent is sure 29-33
a. Jesus staked his identity on these things coming to pass. If they do not
come to pass, then Jesus was a fraud.
b. “This generation” references humanity in general in light of the massive
upheaval.
“One deals with the reference to “this generation” not passing away until all has taken place. This expression has been interpreted as referring to (1) Jesus’ own generation, (2) the Jewish people, (3) humans in general, (4) the last generation in history, and (5) Luke’s contemporaries. (Compare how the Qumran community wrestled with the identity of the final generation in 1QpHab 2.7; 7.2.7 and how the “final generation” referred to several generations.) Even though every other reference to “this generation” in Luke can include Jesus’ own generation, it is quite unlikely that here Luke understood “this generation” in this manner because that generation had essentially passed from the scene, and the parousia still lay in the future. The fourth interpretation is so bland as to be meaningless. As long as humanity is present when the Son of Man returns, this by definition must be true; for unlike people in the nuclear generation who wonder if humanity may destroy itself in nuclear war, Luke and his contemporaries had no doubt that the return of the Son of Man would take place in the presence of people. The second suggestion fails to take into consideration that the scene of the coming of the Son of Man is not the “land” (Luke 21:23) of Judea but the “earth” and the “nations” (21:25), so that to restrict the audience here simply to the Jewish people would be to lose sight of the cosmic focus of 21:25–36. Furthermore why would Luke or his readers think that the Jewish people might be wiped from the face of the earth? The fifth suggestion is unattractive to many interpreters since it is obviously wrong. The Son of Man did not come in Luke’s generation. However, in the pursuit of Luke’s meaning one cannot rule out this possible interpretation simply because one does not like it. Nevertheless this interpretation would be strange if in his Gospel Luke was combatting a misunderstanding that the parousia already should have taken place. See Introduction 7 (3). Luke probably would have been hesitant to date the coming of the Son of Man in such a way.
The third suggestion appears to be the best option. Elsewhere in Luke this expression is used to describe sinful humanity unresponsive to God and oblivious to the possibility of immediately encountering him (cf. 12:16–21, 35–40; 17:26–36). “This generation,” which ignored the coming of the kingdom in Jesus’ ministry, continues in its rejection of the gospel message until the very end. Thus “this generation” of 21:32 stands in continuity and solidarity with “this generation” of Jesus’ day.”96
4. Jesus’ second advent must not be a surprise to his people 34-36
a. Do not be intoxicated by the alluring pursuits of a fallen world v. 34
b. All people present will experience these hardships v. 35
c. Stay alert to world events in anticipation of the Lord’s return v. 36a
1. Don’t be dissuaded by terrible teachers on this issue
d. Pray for perseverance to stand before the King v. 36b
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