Twenty-Fifth Sunday after Trinity. Matthew 24:15-28

The Twenty-Fifth Sunday after Trinity, 2013

Pastor Gregory L. Jackson

http://www.ustream.tv/channel/bethany-lutheran-worship

Bethany Lutheran Church, 10 AM Central Time

The Hymn # 4     God Himself                    4:93

The Confession of Sins
The Absolution
The Introit p. 16
The Gloria Patri
The Kyrie p. 17
The Gloria in Excelsis
The Salutation and Collect p. 19
The Epistle and Gradual       

The Gospel              

Glory be to Thee, O Lord!
Praise be to Thee, O Christ!
The Nicene Creed             p. 22

The Sermon Hymn # 268           Zion Mourns      4:98 

Abomination of Desolation

The Communion Hymn #305            Soul, Adorn Thyself             4:23 

The Preface p. 24
The Sanctus p. 26
The Lord's Prayer p. 27
The Words of Institution
The Agnus Dei p. 28
The Nunc Dimittis p. 29
The Benediction p. 31
The Hymn # 657            Beautiful Savior            4:24  

1 Thessalonians 4:13-18

King James Version (KJV)

¹³ But I would not have you to be ignorant, brethren, concerning them which are asleep, that ye sorrow not, even as others which have no hope.

¹⁴ For if we believe that Jesus died and rose again, even so them also which sleep in Jesus will God bring with him.

¹⁵ For this we say unto you by the word of the Lord, that we which are alive and remain unto the coming of the Lord shall not prevent them which are asleep.

¹⁶ For the Lord himself shall descend from heaven with a shout, with the voice of the archangel, and with the trump of God: and the dead in Christ shall rise first:

¹⁷ Then we which are alive and remain shall be caught up together with them in the clouds, to meet the Lord in the air: and so shall we ever be with the Lord.

¹⁸ Wherefore comfort one another with these words.

Matthew 24:15-28

King James Version (KJV)

¹⁵ When ye therefore shall see the abomination of desolation, spoken of by Daniel the prophet, stand in the holy place, (whoso readeth, let him understand:)

¹⁶ Then let them which be in Judaea flee into the mountains:

¹⁷ Let him which is on the housetop not come down to take any thing out of his house:

¹⁸ Neither let him which is in the field return back to take his clothes.

¹⁹ And woe unto them that are with child, and to them that give suck in those days!

²⁰ But pray ye that your flight be not in the winter, neither on the sabbath day:

²¹ For then shall be great tribulation, such as was not since the beginning of the world to this time, no, nor ever shall be.

²² And except those days should be shortened, there should no flesh be saved: but for the elect's sake those days shall be shortened.

²³ Then if any man shall say unto you, Lo, here is Christ, or there; believe it not.

²⁴ For there shall arise false Christs, and false prophets, and shall shew great signs and wonders; insomuch that, if it were possible, they shall deceive the very elect.

²⁵ Behold, I have told you before.

²⁶ Wherefore if they shall say unto you, Behold, he is in the desert; go not forth: behold, he is in the secret chambers; believe it not.

²⁷ For as the lightning cometh out of the east, and shineth even unto the west; so shall also the coming of the Son of man be.

²⁸ For wheresoever the carcase is, there will the eagles be gathered together.

Abomination of Desolation

¹⁵ When ye therefore shall see the abomination of desolation, spoken of by Daniel the prophet, stand in the holy place, (whoso readeth, let him understand:)

¹⁶ Then let them which be in Judaea flee into the mountains:

Few resist the temptation to predict the end of the world. One part of my family become Adventists, a group that grew from two failed prophecies about the end of the world. Since Miller was the teacher, the Adventists were called Millerites. Many of them were in Battle Creek, Michigan, and they influenced Kellogg and cereal manufacturing.

Some of the Noel clan moved to Iowa and began making a living with hog farming, so they could no longer be Adventists. They became Evangelical Protestants, a name that once meant inerrancy of the Scriptures, Creation, and the articles of faith found in the Apostles Creed.

Living in the South is a time shift, reminding me that we have many Americas. In one week I talked to two college students about the Bible Bowls, where children compete in memorizing entire books of the Bible. That sort of activity was once known among Pietists, who have advanced to rationalism and social activism.

This passage in Matthew is a two-fold warning. One part consists of signs that the end is coming, so that every believer will be aware and fore-warned. This is the global version of what happened in Jesus’ ministry, when He warned the disciples to “watch and pray” (literally stay awake and pray) while they fell into deep slumber. Jesus was facing His torture and death, praying to the Father, but they were too tired to do the same.

The other part of this lesson warns against following false Messiahs, who will definitely spring up.

²³ Then if any man shall say unto you, Lo, here is Christ, or there; believe it not.

Rationalists dismiss Jesus predicting the future, making up various excuses, but they have to admit. This is exactly what happened. The first Jewish rebellion against Rome began about 70 AD, and that meant:

1.    The population of Jerusalem was starved and enslaved.

2.    The Temple was utterly destroyed.

3.    Rome celebrated the victory with a special coin.

Only a few decades later, another rebellion began, a Jewish Messiah leading his forces into another debacle, which was equally devastating to the Jews.

²⁴ For there shall arise false Christs, and false prophets, and shall shew great signs and wonders; insomuch that, if it were possible, they shall deceive the very elect.

²⁵ Behold, I have told you before.

Messiah means king, so the ideal was always to be a powerful political, religious, and military leader like David. Son of David is another term for the Messiah, since Messiah means the anointed king. Christ is the Greek version of Messiah.

But God did not give Israel a Messiah like David, but one beyond their hopes and imagination. Military and political heroes fail. Their reign is limited. Their power is often taken away in an instant.

But the real Messiah – His reign has extended ever since public ministry took a heavenward turn and the Spirit began Gospel work through the Word, through the Gospels.

The false messiah warnings were even more important in subsequent centuries, since Christianity took over the Eastern Roman Empire (a fact we forget) and then the Western European part of the Roman Empire.  Many deceptive trends and frauds enticed people who no longer studied the Word of God.

²⁶ Wherefore if they shall say unto you, Behold, he is in the desert; go not forth: behold, he is in the secret chambers; believe it not.

Luther’s sermon reminded me of an important development, which is still with us. The monastic tradition grew out of the practice of going out alone in the desert. Qumran was one of those communities.

St. Jerome wasted away in the desert, and Augustine almost worshiped this tradition. The idea was to have people abandon a normal family life and save the world by prayer, meditation, and fasting.

The Greeks have an independent little area reserved for this today.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mount_Athos

In a few words, this prophecy is seen so revealed in the action of the works-saints. They will find Jesus in the desert! Most of the tales of monasteries involve someone trying to save his soul by joining. That is what happened to Luther, whose time in Augustinian monastic life gave him the authority and experience to expose it as a fraud.

Luther’s essays on monastic life, on marriage, empties the convents and monasteries. Former bachelors became husbands and fathers, leaders of the Lutheran Reformation. Luther reluctantly joined, joking about marriage to his father, and hearing his father ask why not.

“Not in the secret chambers” – There are so many ways that false versions of Christianity displace the Gospel of the Scriptures. They always involve leaving the world God has given us and creating a new secret world for the elite. Some do that with excessive prayer, others with devotion to a secret agenda. Nothing is so exciting as a secretive group. As Dickens observed, a secret group will enroll 200 people while an open volunteer group can barely gain two or three members.

So it is – everyone wants to know the real origins of the Masonic Lodge, but the clear text of the Bible – they take that for granted. The Bible is so easily accessed now that hardly anyone knows it or understands it.

Contemporary worship – that great hunk of bait to snag the unwary – has songs where the content could just as easily be Buddhist as Christian. There is no confession of truth at all.

Or an entire hymn is sung to the Holy Spirit without an indication that the Spirit is always united with the Word. And because of this confusion and ignorance, the Spirit hymn is a  hope for some ecstatic experience, as if we will this upon ourselves instead of hearing/reading the Word as the normal part of the Spirit’s work.

For example, many college students have said, “No one taught us how to write a good essay.” I am sympathetic because no one gave me the formula. I learned on my own and found out that everyone had the same answer.

There is a same answer for every Christian question, because the true Church has always existed and will always remain until the end. But to separate the good from the bad, we have to be discerning and wise rather than blindly naïve.

²⁷ For as the lightning cometh out of the east, and shineth even unto the west; so shall also the coming of the Son of man be.

²⁸ For wheresoever the carcase is, there will the eagles be gathered together.

This warning, based on weather patterns, is vivid and memorable. We look at “accuweather” and take the predictions as an eternal maybe. Sudden storms rise up, like the windstorm yesterday. The weather began cold, warmed up, then combined that warm weather with high winds and a tiny bit of rain.

At times the storms come to rest over the area and lightning bolts precede thunder by moments, while pets shiver in bed.

We will not know the end of time until the actual appearance of Christ. Then the evidence will be so abundant that no one will doubt He is the Son of God and Savior.