Sermon on The End Times

Here's a sermon I preached on Sunday November 27th and Monday November 28th. It's one the End Times and it's based off of Mark 13:32-37.

"KEEP WATCH!"
Text: Mark 13:32-37

1. Grace mercy and peace to you from God our Father and our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. Today’s message is entitled, “Keep Watch,” and is taken from the Gospel of Mark 13:32-37. Dear brothers and sisters in Christ: U.S. President Lyndon Johnson on many occasions told one of his favorite stories about a pastor who was having difficulties with one of the members of his congregation. This pastor was becoming distracted at his church by a man who came every Sunday and slept through the entire sermon. One Sunday the preacher decided to do something about it. As he began to preach, the man fell fast asleep. Seeing this, the preacher said quietly, “Everyone who wants to go to heaven, stand up.” The entire congregation immediately stood up, except the sleeping man. When they sat down, the preacher shouted at the top of his voice, “Everyone who wants to go to hell, stand up!” This startled the dozing man. Still half asleep, he jumped up, looked around to see what was going on, then said to the preacher, “I don’t know what we’re voting on but it looks like you and I are the only ones in favor of it.”

2. This story about the sleeping man reminds all of us about the importance of keeping watch and awaiting Christ’s return. Jesus calls us to keep watch and be ready for God to come. Though humorous as the story of the sleeping man in church is, it can paint a picture of all of us at one point in time in our lives where we may have fallen asleep and forgotten about our Lord’s return. The early Christians in Jesus’ day took this literally and many gave up a lot of their possessions and became monks and nuns in order to be ready for Christ’s return. Now Jesus isn’t telling us to do this, because the possessions that He’s given to us are also a gift from God. These blessings can be used to bring others to know who He is and what He’s done for them. Jesus is telling us to be aware and awake for His return.

3. In Mark 13:32-37 Jesus lays out for His disciples what it means to be watchful and to await His second coming. He says, "No one knows about that day or hour, not even the angels in heaven, nor the Son, but only the Father. Be on guard! Be alert! You do not know when that time will come. It's like a man going away: He leaves his house and puts his servants in charge, each with his assigned task, and tells the one at the door to keep watch. "Therefore keep watch because you do not know when the owner of the house will come back-- whether in the evening, or at midnight, or when the rooster crows, or at dawn. If he comes suddenly, do not let him find you sleeping. What I say to you, I say to everyone: Watch!”

4. It’s during the season of Advent that we remember that Christ will again return to judge both the living and the dead. In the same way that Jesus left this earth at His ascension, so also He’s going to return with glory at a time when we least expect Him. It’s a useless effort to try and predict the hour of Christ’s return when even Jesus Himself doesn’t know when the Day of the Last Judgment will be. Many of you may remember the doom’s day cults who had stated when the end of the world would come. They followed their leaders to death believing that the end of the world was upon them and the only way out was to commit suicide. The Seventh Day Adventists, Jehovah’s Witnesses and The Worldwide Church of God started their religious followings with the belief that they had predicted when the Second Coming of Christ would be. The Jehovah’s Witnesses for instance once set many dates for the end of the world in the 20th century in the years 1914, 1918 and 1925, but the end never came. Here in Mark 13 Jesus says that not even He Himself, will know the time when the Last Day will be. This is difficult for us to understand. How can God the Father know when the Last Day will be, but not Jesus Himself? We as human beings cannot answer this question, because it’s part of the mystery of who God is.

5. This shows us how futile it is to try and predict when Armageddon or the Last Day will be. But, today more than ever we see people running scared because they don’t know when The Day of Judgment will be. Many of you probably remember the Y2K scare when everyone thought all of the computers of the world would shut down because they were only set for 20th century dates and not for the 21st century. Many went out and bought enough supplies of food, clothing and other things to feed a whole nation. And yet, nothing happened. We’re still here five years after the Y2K scare hit us. If even the Son of God doesn’t know the day or hour when the Last Day will be we too should keep watch in faith. God the Father will return and Jesus calls us to remain diligent in the faith awaiting His return. As the Apostle Paul says in our Epistle Lesson for today from 1 Corinthians 1:7-9, “Therefore you do not lack any spiritual gift as you eagerly wait for our Lord Jesus Christ to be revealed. He will keep you strong to the end, so that you will be blameless on the day of our Lord Jesus Christ. God, who has called you into fellowship with his Son Jesus Christ our Lord, is faithful.” Dear brothers and sisters in Christ, God will continue to keep us faithful through the power of His Word as we await His return. He’ll give us the spiritual gifts we need through the power of the Holy Spirit in order to serve Him and build up His Kingdom.

6. Jesus says in Mark 13 that it’s not the duty of the owner of the house to tell his servants exactly when he’ll return, but it’s the duty of a faithful doorkeeper to be watching. That’s who we are. We’re God’s servants who’ve been called to work diligently at keeping watch for Christ to return. Does keeping watch mean that all we do is sit around and wait for His return? No. God doesn’t want us to be idle or lazy in our waiting, because that can lead to godlessness and all sorts of wickedness. When I read this verse from Mark 13 I thought about the times when I was younger and my parents left the house for me to take care of when they were going out on a date. I had to take care of my brothers Eric and Nate and keep the house clean. My parents wouldn’t always tell me when they would return, but I had to be ready for them to come so that they wouldn’t find the house in shambles or my brothers and I fighting. Kids this may have happened to you when your parents left the house. This state of watchfulness still applies to me today as I need to keep watch in my apartment so that when my wife leaves to run an errand and asks me to clean the house, I get it done. Guys you know what I’m talking about. The image Jesus paints for us is a picture of a watchman or doorkeeper who awaits the owner’s return. The owner may return in the evening, at midnight, in the middle of the night or at dawn. These are the four watches of the night as the Romans during Jesus’ time kept. Here we see in Jesus’ explanation of His return that awaiting The Last Judgment is not a call for indifference or fanaticism as many cults have done, but for alertness and readiness for His coming.

7. The word “Watch” that Jesus uses in Mark 13 has different meanings in the original Greek language that was used in His day. The first word for watch that He uses talks about a man arousing himself from a deep sleep. This is like the story I told earlier of the man who fell asleep in church and woke up to find that he didn’t know what was happening. The other word for watch conveys the idea of wakefulness and alertness. Jesus conveys this by providing an example of how people kept watch during His time. In the temple during the night, the captain made his rounds and the guards had to rise at his approach and salute him in a particular manner. Any guard who was found asleep on duty was beaten, or his garments were set on fire. Jesus doesn’t want this happen to us. He wants us to keep watch and be alert and ready for His return. Revelation 16:15 says, "Behold, I come like a thief! Blessed is he who stays awake and keeps his clothes with him, so that he may not go naked and be shamefully exposed." Jesus, the Son of God will come like a thief. At an hour when we least expect Him and He doesn’t want to find us naked or asleep when He returns. Jesus is saying, “Be on guard! Be alert!" Don’t immerse yourselves in the things of this world and lose your own soul. Always keep your eyes fixed on Him. So that when the Last Day comes we’ll be anxiously awaiting His return along with others we‘ve brought to the faith so that they too can share in the wonderful gift of eternal life. Watching is then more than keeping the faith and praying. It’s also continuing in that relationship with God and bringing others into that relationship with Him.

8. The call from Jesus for Christians to be watchful has become less apparent in some Christian circles today. One of these examples can be taken from the Left Behind series written by Tim Lahaye and Jerry Jenkins. For instance, The Left Behind understanding of the rapture, which is the belief that when Christ returns all of the believers will be taken up to heaven immediately and all the non-believers will be left on earth. You’ve seen this in bumper stickers on cars where it says, “In case of rapture this car will be unmanned.” This understanding of the rapture can lead to a dangerous “wait and see” attitude. Non-Christian readers of the series might conclude that if millions of Christians suddenly disappear, then—and only then—will they repent and believe in Jesus. Before this they may “take their chances,” and believe that they will get a second opportunity during the Seven Year Tribulation. However, Jesus states in Matthew 25:10: “But while they were on their way to buy the oil, the bridegroom arrived. The virgins who were ready went in with him to the wedding banquet. And the door was shut.” This “shut door” indicates that there will be no salvation offered after the one-time Second Coming of our Lord. The Left Behind series causes more confusion when it promotes the idea that there’s not just one return of Christ (the rapture), nor two (Christ’s appearing to usher in his 1000-year rule), but three comings of Christ. The last advent, it teaches, will be at the end of the millennial reign or the Great White Throne Judgment of Rev 20:11–15. In the Bible the words “rapture,” “the blessed hope,” “the glorious appearing” and “the final judgment” are terms that designate one event: Christ’s Second Coming. We as Lutherans believe that there’s only one future hope for the church, the bodily return of Jesus Christ. It’s then that Jesus will judge the righteous from the unrighteous and He’ll create a new heavens and a new earth. What this will look like we don’t know, but He calls us to be ready, watchful and anxiously awaiting His return, because all people on this earth only get one chance.

9. May God enable each of us through the power of His Holy Spirit to live and act according to His purpose so that we may be able to share in that blessed hope of eternal life. We ask that God would enable us to be on guard and alert for when His Second Coming comes. May we be empowered to lead others to see the urgency of the Gospel message—that there’s little time before Christ will return, so that they too may share in the glorious hope of eternal life. We ask that God would give us the strength to keep watch each day for the hour when He returns so that Christ may not find us sleeping like the man who slept through the whole church service. With God’s power we’ll be able to complete this as we await the end of all trials and tribulations that this life brings. The day when there will be no more tsunamis, hurricanes, earthquakes, tornadoes, mudslides and other disasters. When people will no longer fight with one another and families will no longer be found in ruin, but when we’ll all see our Savior face to face and live in eternal peace and joy. May that day come fast and quickly! In Jesus’ name we ask this. AMEN.