St Matthew 24:15-28/Job 14:1-6/1 Thessalonians 4:13-18
In the Name + of JESUS. Amen.
Man who is born of woman is few of days and full of trouble. Job was not only describing himself, but us. Our days are numbered. Yet in our folly we do not count them correctly. Your days are determined; the number of your months is with God. He has appointed limits for you that you cannot pass. And so the fear of death that every man experiences is not a fear of pain in dying, but a pain in life escaping, slipping away. Man comes out like a flower and withers; he flees like a shadow and continues not. Like the autumn leaves in full color that give way to decay. Winter is approaching. The smell of the apocalypse is in the air. We are nearer now to the end, to that great last day, closer than last week, closer than ever before.
Thus is the warning of our Lord to His disciples a warning for us. Hold fast to His Word. Beware of false christs and false prophets, who seek to lead astray, if possible, even you, His elect. For the prayer of the Church is as you just sang, “Preserve Your Word, O Savior, to us this latter day, and let Your kingdom flourish; enlarge Your Church, we pray. O keep our faith from failing; keeps hope’s bright star aglow. Let nothing from truth turn us while living here below.”
For you are indeed a storm-tossed little flock, assailed from without and within. Satan never lets you have a moment’s peace, but seeks night and day to lead you into false belief and despair. Resist him. Though at times it seems as if God Himself is against you, as He afflicted Job. You live in the great tribulation as did each generation of Christians before you. You know and experience the trouble of our days on account of the sins you commit and on account of the sins committed against you. And sometimes we suffer for reasons unknown, unexplained. But nothing has befallen you that is not common to man.
As the dire words of Christ echoed in the ears of the disciples their minds went reeling to the desolating sacrilege of Antiochus Epiphanes, 200 years earlier. In 167 BC the tyrant king of Syria sacked Jerusalem. He slaughtered swine on the altar. He put to death women who circumcised their sons, hanging their murdered children around their necks. He set up a statue of Zeus in the Temple.
A savior arose in Judah Maccabee. His revolutionary army eventually reclaimed the Temple. He purified the sacred space in a celebratory rite which became known as the annual remembrance of Hanukkah. He was hailed as a national hero; an Israeli William Wallace. But peace would not last. The Romans came. They saw. They conquered. Israel was enslaved once more.
The fury of her masters would be kindled and in AD 70 the Temple was desecrated once more. It was destroyed, never to be rebuilt. Jerusalem was besieged. Hunger and starvation plagued the city. Mothers smothered their infants to keep them from wailing in hunger. Bodies piled up in the streets. It was an apocalyptic catastrophe the likes of which no Hollywood movie could duplicate. And if those days had not been cut short, no human being would be saved. But for the sake of the elect those days will be cut short. See, I have told you beforehand. The hearers of Matthew’s Gospel would have known all too well of the events Jesus’ prophecy.
What of you? History is an excellent teacher. Yet we are not given to watch the signs of the times and the seasons, but to keep vigil concerning the Sign, the desolating sacrilege, even Jesus Christ! For as much as Christ warns concerning the last days, He preaches concerning His death! He is not a tabloid journalist or a doomsday prophet. He is the Holy One, the new Temple made without hands, who became a sacrilege unto God. It is written, For our sake He made Him to be Sin who knew no sin, so that in Him we might become the righteousness of God (2 Cor 5:21).
This is what the prophet Daniel, and all the prophets, proclaimed. Christ was made a curse for you. In His death He was not one sinner among others, but in God’s eyes, He is the only Sinner, a sacrilege to God. And the holy place in which He stands is Golgotha. Jerusalem and the Temple will be destroyed. Jesus’ death and Jerusalem’s destruction constitute one act of divine judgment.
Do not be deceived dear Christians, we are living in the last days. They are not the future, but they are the past and the present. Nothing as been the same since the crucifixion and resurrection of the Son of God. Everything hinges on the Cross. Life, history, the Church, your life. Everything. Governments rise and fall. Nations rage against nations. The Body of Christ ever lives in the great tribulation. The Church has been praying for the end since her birth, saying, “Come, Lord Jesus.”
And so you live in the midst of false prophets and false christs who perform great signs and wonders, seeking to lead you astray. The packing of an arena to hear false doctrine, this is indeed a sign and wonder. If they say to you, ‘Look, He is in the inner rooms,‘ meaning, you can find Jesus within your own heart and spiritual meditation, Do not believe it. If they say to you, ‘Look, He is in the wilderness‘ meaning you can hear and receive the Gospel in nature or culture or humanity’s love for one another, Do not believe it.
For there is but one place to locate God: the Cross and the preaching of Christ and Him crucified. There the sinner can find God. For there the Father reveals His wrath against sin in Sin Incarnate, in His only Son, our Lord. This is the hill to which you shall flee; even Mount Calvary. For as Lot and his family escaped the destruction of Sodom and Gomorrah by fleeing to the hills, so to shall you only escape the coming judgment by ascending to the holy place, the new Temple mount, that is, Mount Zion, the Church of God in Christ Jesus.
As it is written, Wherever the corpse is, there the eagles will gather, which means, wherever the carcass, the Body of Jesus is, there the faithful will still gather together, receiving His life-giving Body and cleansing Blood. This is the folly and scandal of the Cross. It is, in reality, wisdom and power and righteousness from God.
In this you live, even when you fall asleep. For you are in Christ. And you go to the Sacrament of the Altar as if going to your death, so that when you meet your death, you may go as if going to the Lord’s Supper. You needn‘t fear, dear ones, for the fury of God has been satisfied in the blood of the Son. His verdict is spoken to you already: forgiven. For the absolution is the verdict of the Last Day spoken to you now.
Encourage one another with these words. Do not depart from them to the right or to the left. Hold fast the eternal Word in this decaying world. He shall deliver you from every evil of body and soul, possessions and reputation, and finally, when your last hour comes, give you a blessed end. Be strong and let your heart take courage, all you who wait for the Lord!
In the Name of the Father and + of the Son and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.
In the Name + of JESUS. Amen.
Man who is born of woman is few of days and full of trouble. Job was not only describing himself, but us. Our days are numbered. Yet in our folly we do not count them correctly. Your days are determined; the number of your months is with God. He has appointed limits for you that you cannot pass. And so the fear of death that every man experiences is not a fear of pain in dying, but a pain in life escaping, slipping away. Man comes out like a flower and withers; he flees like a shadow and continues not. Like the autumn leaves in full color that give way to decay. Winter is approaching. The smell of the apocalypse is in the air. We are nearer now to the end, to that great last day, closer than last week, closer than ever before.
Thus is the warning of our Lord to His disciples a warning for us. Hold fast to His Word. Beware of false christs and false prophets, who seek to lead astray, if possible, even you, His elect. For the prayer of the Church is as you just sang, “Preserve Your Word, O Savior, to us this latter day, and let Your kingdom flourish; enlarge Your Church, we pray. O keep our faith from failing; keeps hope’s bright star aglow. Let nothing from truth turn us while living here below.”
For you are indeed a storm-tossed little flock, assailed from without and within. Satan never lets you have a moment’s peace, but seeks night and day to lead you into false belief and despair. Resist him. Though at times it seems as if God Himself is against you, as He afflicted Job. You live in the great tribulation as did each generation of Christians before you. You know and experience the trouble of our days on account of the sins you commit and on account of the sins committed against you. And sometimes we suffer for reasons unknown, unexplained. But nothing has befallen you that is not common to man.
As the dire words of Christ echoed in the ears of the disciples their minds went reeling to the desolating sacrilege of Antiochus Epiphanes, 200 years earlier. In 167 BC the tyrant king of Syria sacked Jerusalem. He slaughtered swine on the altar. He put to death women who circumcised their sons, hanging their murdered children around their necks. He set up a statue of Zeus in the Temple.
A savior arose in Judah Maccabee. His revolutionary army eventually reclaimed the Temple. He purified the sacred space in a celebratory rite which became known as the annual remembrance of Hanukkah. He was hailed as a national hero; an Israeli William Wallace. But peace would not last. The Romans came. They saw. They conquered. Israel was enslaved once more.
The fury of her masters would be kindled and in AD 70 the Temple was desecrated once more. It was destroyed, never to be rebuilt. Jerusalem was besieged. Hunger and starvation plagued the city. Mothers smothered their infants to keep them from wailing in hunger. Bodies piled up in the streets. It was an apocalyptic catastrophe the likes of which no Hollywood movie could duplicate. And if those days had not been cut short, no human being would be saved. But for the sake of the elect those days will be cut short. See, I have told you beforehand. The hearers of Matthew’s Gospel would have known all too well of the events Jesus’ prophecy.
What of you? History is an excellent teacher. Yet we are not given to watch the signs of the times and the seasons, but to keep vigil concerning the Sign, the desolating sacrilege, even Jesus Christ! For as much as Christ warns concerning the last days, He preaches concerning His death! He is not a tabloid journalist or a doomsday prophet. He is the Holy One, the new Temple made without hands, who became a sacrilege unto God. It is written, For our sake He made Him to be Sin who knew no sin, so that in Him we might become the righteousness of God (2 Cor 5:21).
This is what the prophet Daniel, and all the prophets, proclaimed. Christ was made a curse for you. In His death He was not one sinner among others, but in God’s eyes, He is the only Sinner, a sacrilege to God. And the holy place in which He stands is Golgotha. Jerusalem and the Temple will be destroyed. Jesus’ death and Jerusalem’s destruction constitute one act of divine judgment.
Do not be deceived dear Christians, we are living in the last days. They are not the future, but they are the past and the present. Nothing as been the same since the crucifixion and resurrection of the Son of God. Everything hinges on the Cross. Life, history, the Church, your life. Everything. Governments rise and fall. Nations rage against nations. The Body of Christ ever lives in the great tribulation. The Church has been praying for the end since her birth, saying, “Come, Lord Jesus.”
And so you live in the midst of false prophets and false christs who perform great signs and wonders, seeking to lead you astray. The packing of an arena to hear false doctrine, this is indeed a sign and wonder. If they say to you, ‘Look, He is in the inner rooms,‘ meaning, you can find Jesus within your own heart and spiritual meditation, Do not believe it. If they say to you, ‘Look, He is in the wilderness‘ meaning you can hear and receive the Gospel in nature or culture or humanity’s love for one another, Do not believe it.
For there is but one place to locate God: the Cross and the preaching of Christ and Him crucified. There the sinner can find God. For there the Father reveals His wrath against sin in Sin Incarnate, in His only Son, our Lord. This is the hill to which you shall flee; even Mount Calvary. For as Lot and his family escaped the destruction of Sodom and Gomorrah by fleeing to the hills, so to shall you only escape the coming judgment by ascending to the holy place, the new Temple mount, that is, Mount Zion, the Church of God in Christ Jesus.
As it is written, Wherever the corpse is, there the eagles will gather, which means, wherever the carcass, the Body of Jesus is, there the faithful will still gather together, receiving His life-giving Body and cleansing Blood. This is the folly and scandal of the Cross. It is, in reality, wisdom and power and righteousness from God.
In this you live, even when you fall asleep. For you are in Christ. And you go to the Sacrament of the Altar as if going to your death, so that when you meet your death, you may go as if going to the Lord’s Supper. You needn‘t fear, dear ones, for the fury of God has been satisfied in the blood of the Son. His verdict is spoken to you already: forgiven. For the absolution is the verdict of the Last Day spoken to you now.
Encourage one another with these words. Do not depart from them to the right or to the left. Hold fast the eternal Word in this decaying world. He shall deliver you from every evil of body and soul, possessions and reputation, and finally, when your last hour comes, give you a blessed end. Be strong and let your heart take courage, all you who wait for the Lord!
In the Name of the Father and + of the Son and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.
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