Exodus 32:1-20; 1 Thessalonians 4:13-18; St Matthew 24:15-28
In the Name + of JESUS. Amen.
Man who is born of woman is few of days and full of trouble (Job 14:1). Old 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 which you cannot pass. Teach us to number our days, prays Moses, that we may get a heart of wisdom (Ps 90:12).
But our hearts are filled with worry, anxiety, regret and anger. And so the fear of death that every man experiences is not a fear of dying, or even the fear of pain in dying. But a fear of life escaping, of slipping away. Man comes out like a flower and withers; he flees like a shadow and continues not (Job 14:2).
Like autumn leaves in full color that give way to decay our lives are for a season. Winter is approaching. The smell of the apocalypse is in the air. In truth we are nearer now to the end, to that great and terrible day. Closer than last week. Closer than ever before.
The warning of our Lord Jesus Christ to His disciples is a warning for us. What happened to the Israelites was written down for our instruction, writes St Paul, on whom the end of the ages has come. Therefore let anyone who thinks that he stands take heed lest he fall. (1 Cor 10:11-12).
Hold fast to the Word of the Lord which alone endures forever. 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; keep hope’s bright star aglow. Let nothing from truth turn us while living here below” (LSB 658:1).
You are indeed a storm tossed little flock. Assailed from without and within. Satan never lets you have a moment’s peace. He seeks night and day to lead you into false belief, despair, and other great shame and vice. Resist him, firm in your faith. It seems as though God Himself is against you at times, even as He afflicted old Job. You know and experience the trouble of our days on account of the sins you’ve committed and on account of the sins committed against you. And sometimes, dear Christians, you suffer for reasons unknown, unexplained. But nothing has befallen you that is not common to man.
As the dire words of Christ rang in the ears of the first disciples, no doubt 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 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 Israelite William Wallace. But peace would not last. The Romans came. They saw. They conquered. Israel was enslaved once more.
And as tensions mounted and tempers flared, the fury of her masters was kindled against in AD 70. Jerusalem was besieged. Hunger and starvation plagued the city for months on end. Mothers smothered their infants to keep them from wailing in hunger. Bodies piled up in the streets. The living fell exhausted into the graves of their dead. It was an apocalyptic catastrophe the like of which no Hollywood movie could duplicate or media pundit could bemoan. The Temple was desecrated once more. It was destroyed, never to be rebuilt.
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 the events of Jesus’ prophecy.
What of you? History is an excellent teacher, if one is willing to learn. Are we assuming that the man who sits in the chair at 1600 Pennsylvania Ave is the abomination of desolation? Are we watching the signs of the times and the seasons? The charts and graphs and data and metrics?
Do not be uninformed, dear brethren. We are given to keep vigil concerning the Sign, the desolating sacrilege, even Jesus Christ our Lord! For as much as Christ warns concerning the destruction of Jerusalem or the great and awesome Day of His Return, He is actually preaching about His death!
Jesus is not a tabloid journalist or a doomsday prophet. He is the Holy One. He is the new Temple made without hands who became a sacrilege unto God. Christ redeemed us from the curse of the Law by becoming a curse for us - for it is written, “Cursed is everyone who is hanged on a tree (Gal 3:13). And elsewhere, For our sake God 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. An abomination in the sight of God. For in His death He was not one sinner among others. In the Father’s eyes He is the only Sinner. A desolating sacrilege. And the Holy Place in which He stands is Golgotha. Following His crucifixion, Jerusalem and the Temple will be destroyed within a generation. 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. Not on account of political elections or societal woes or economic conundrums. But on account of the Incarnation of the only Begotten Son of God. The Word made Flesh. Nothing has been the same since the nativity, crucifixion, resurrection, and ascension of the Son of God. Everything hinges on the Cross. The universe, history, the Church, your life. Everything. Governments rise and fall. Nations rage against nations. The Body of Christ ever lives in great tribulation. The Church has been praying for the end since her birth, saying, “Come, Lord Jesus. Come quickly.” Those Christians in Thessalonica lived in the expectation of the imminent return of Christ.
You ought to be no different, dear ones. For you too live in the midst of false prophets and false christs who perform great signs and wonder, seeking to lead you astray. Don’t believe me? Check out the Christian best seller lists or turn on the Daystar network. Or better yet, don’t. If they say to you, “Look, He is in the inner rooms,” that is, you an find Jesus within the chambers of your heart or in your own 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 in cultural or wokeness, Do not believe it.
For there is but one place to locate God: in the Cross and preaching of Jesus Christ and Him crucified. There the sinner can find God. 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; here the Cross laid sideways as a Table from which He feeds you. For as Lot and his family escaped the destruction of Sodom and Gomorrah by fleeing to the hills, so too shall you only escape the coming judgment by running to the Holy Place, the new Temple mount, that is, Mount Zion, His Altar, the Church of God in Christ Jesus.
As it is written, Wherever the corpse is, there the eagles will gather. St Matthew doesn’t say, vultures, as the ESV renders it. Rather, eagles, as the prophet Isaiah proclaimed: They who wait for the Lord shall renew their strength; they shall mount up with wings like eagles (Is 40:31).
This means, dear Christians, that whoever the Body of Jesus is, there the faithful will still gather together, receiving His life-giving, death defying Body and Blood. This is the folly and scandal of the Cross. It is, in reality, the wisdom and power and righteousness of God. And you, dear ones, are the eagles, soaring high above the death and destruction and ruin of this passing world, being gathered around the Body of our Lord Jesus Christ.
In this you live. Even when you fall asleep. For you are in Christ and He in you. You go now to the Sacrament of the Altar, running to the Hill of the Lord, as though going to your death. Do you not sing, Lord, now let Your servant depart, that is, die, in peace, after receiving the Holy Eucharist? You do this, dear ones, as preparation and catechesis. As dress rehearsal for your death. You come to the Lord’s Supper as though going to your death so that when you meet your death you may go as it going to the Lord’s Supper.
Fear not, people loved by God. For the fury of God has been satisfied in the Blood of the Son. He drank the Cup of Sorrow, the Cup of Woe, the Cup of your Idolatry down to the dregs. He gives you the Cup of Salvation. Call upon His Name. For His verdict is spoken to you already: forgiven. The absolution is the verdict of the Last Day spoken now.
Encourage one another with these words. Be strong and let your heart take courage, all you who wait for the Lord. Do not depart from them to the right or to the left. Hold fast the eternal Word in this decaying world. And let us consider how to stir up one another to love and good works, not neglecting to meet together, as is the habit of some, but encouraging one another, and all the more as you see the Day drawing near (Heb 10:24-25). And 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 and graciously take you from this valley of sorrow to Himself in heaven.
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 14:1). Old 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 which you cannot pass. Teach us to number our days, prays Moses, that we may get a heart of wisdom (Ps 90:12).
But our hearts are filled with worry, anxiety, regret and anger. And so the fear of death that every man experiences is not a fear of dying, or even the fear of pain in dying. But a fear of life escaping, of slipping away. Man comes out like a flower and withers; he flees like a shadow and continues not (Job 14:2).
Like autumn leaves in full color that give way to decay our lives are for a season. Winter is approaching. The smell of the apocalypse is in the air. In truth we are nearer now to the end, to that great and terrible day. Closer than last week. Closer than ever before.
The warning of our Lord Jesus Christ to His disciples is a warning for us. What happened to the Israelites was written down for our instruction, writes St Paul, on whom the end of the ages has come. Therefore let anyone who thinks that he stands take heed lest he fall. (1 Cor 10:11-12).
Hold fast to the Word of the Lord which alone endures forever. 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; keep hope’s bright star aglow. Let nothing from truth turn us while living here below” (LSB 658:1).
You are indeed a storm tossed little flock. Assailed from without and within. Satan never lets you have a moment’s peace. He seeks night and day to lead you into false belief, despair, and other great shame and vice. Resist him, firm in your faith. It seems as though God Himself is against you at times, even as He afflicted old Job. You know and experience the trouble of our days on account of the sins you’ve committed and on account of the sins committed against you. And sometimes, dear Christians, you suffer for reasons unknown, unexplained. But nothing has befallen you that is not common to man.
As the dire words of Christ rang in the ears of the first disciples, no doubt 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 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 Israelite William Wallace. But peace would not last. The Romans came. They saw. They conquered. Israel was enslaved once more.
And as tensions mounted and tempers flared, the fury of her masters was kindled against in AD 70. Jerusalem was besieged. Hunger and starvation plagued the city for months on end. Mothers smothered their infants to keep them from wailing in hunger. Bodies piled up in the streets. The living fell exhausted into the graves of their dead. It was an apocalyptic catastrophe the like of which no Hollywood movie could duplicate or media pundit could bemoan. The Temple was desecrated once more. It was destroyed, never to be rebuilt.
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 the events of Jesus’ prophecy.
What of you? History is an excellent teacher, if one is willing to learn. Are we assuming that the man who sits in the chair at 1600 Pennsylvania Ave is the abomination of desolation? Are we watching the signs of the times and the seasons? The charts and graphs and data and metrics?
Do not be uninformed, dear brethren. We are given to keep vigil concerning the Sign, the desolating sacrilege, even Jesus Christ our Lord! For as much as Christ warns concerning the destruction of Jerusalem or the great and awesome Day of His Return, He is actually preaching about His death!
Jesus is not a tabloid journalist or a doomsday prophet. He is the Holy One. He is the new Temple made without hands who became a sacrilege unto God. Christ redeemed us from the curse of the Law by becoming a curse for us - for it is written, “Cursed is everyone who is hanged on a tree (Gal 3:13). And elsewhere, For our sake God 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. An abomination in the sight of God. For in His death He was not one sinner among others. In the Father’s eyes He is the only Sinner. A desolating sacrilege. And the Holy Place in which He stands is Golgotha. Following His crucifixion, Jerusalem and the Temple will be destroyed within a generation. 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. Not on account of political elections or societal woes or economic conundrums. But on account of the Incarnation of the only Begotten Son of God. The Word made Flesh. Nothing has been the same since the nativity, crucifixion, resurrection, and ascension of the Son of God. Everything hinges on the Cross. The universe, history, the Church, your life. Everything. Governments rise and fall. Nations rage against nations. The Body of Christ ever lives in great tribulation. The Church has been praying for the end since her birth, saying, “Come, Lord Jesus. Come quickly.” Those Christians in Thessalonica lived in the expectation of the imminent return of Christ.
You ought to be no different, dear ones. For you too live in the midst of false prophets and false christs who perform great signs and wonder, seeking to lead you astray. Don’t believe me? Check out the Christian best seller lists or turn on the Daystar network. Or better yet, don’t. If they say to you, “Look, He is in the inner rooms,” that is, you an find Jesus within the chambers of your heart or in your own 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 in cultural or wokeness, Do not believe it.
For there is but one place to locate God: in the Cross and preaching of Jesus Christ and Him crucified. There the sinner can find God. 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; here the Cross laid sideways as a Table from which He feeds you. For as Lot and his family escaped the destruction of Sodom and Gomorrah by fleeing to the hills, so too shall you only escape the coming judgment by running to the Holy Place, the new Temple mount, that is, Mount Zion, His Altar, the Church of God in Christ Jesus.
As it is written, Wherever the corpse is, there the eagles will gather. St Matthew doesn’t say, vultures, as the ESV renders it. Rather, eagles, as the prophet Isaiah proclaimed: They who wait for the Lord shall renew their strength; they shall mount up with wings like eagles (Is 40:31).
This means, dear Christians, that whoever the Body of Jesus is, there the faithful will still gather together, receiving His life-giving, death defying Body and Blood. This is the folly and scandal of the Cross. It is, in reality, the wisdom and power and righteousness of God. And you, dear ones, are the eagles, soaring high above the death and destruction and ruin of this passing world, being gathered around the Body of our Lord Jesus Christ.
In this you live. Even when you fall asleep. For you are in Christ and He in you. You go now to the Sacrament of the Altar, running to the Hill of the Lord, as though going to your death. Do you not sing, Lord, now let Your servant depart, that is, die, in peace, after receiving the Holy Eucharist? You do this, dear ones, as preparation and catechesis. As dress rehearsal for your death. You come to the Lord’s Supper as though going to your death so that when you meet your death you may go as it going to the Lord’s Supper.
Fear not, people loved by God. For the fury of God has been satisfied in the Blood of the Son. He drank the Cup of Sorrow, the Cup of Woe, the Cup of your Idolatry down to the dregs. He gives you the Cup of Salvation. Call upon His Name. For His verdict is spoken to you already: forgiven. The absolution is the verdict of the Last Day spoken now.
Encourage one another with these words. Be strong and let your heart take courage, all you who wait for the Lord. Do not depart from them to the right or to the left. Hold fast the eternal Word in this decaying world. And let us consider how to stir up one another to love and good works, not neglecting to meet together, as is the habit of some, but encouraging one another, and all the more as you see the Day drawing near (Heb 10:24-25). And 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 and graciously take you from this valley of sorrow to Himself in heaven.
In the Name of the Father and + of the Son and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.
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