A promise, not a guess

Bro. Mil Matienzo, visiting from Manila in the Philippines, where he is a pastor in training, preached from Luke 21:26-36. Church statements of faith, including Victory Baptist's own, declare that Jesus Christ lived a perfect life, died a substitutionary death, rose again, ascended, and will soon come back for His people. That declaration is not pulled out of thin air, Bro. Matienzo said. It is a promise of scripture from Jesus Himself.

In the verses before the passage, Jesus had confronted the corrupt Jewish leaders in Jerusalem and told His disciples about the destruction of the temple, which shocked them. He did not stop there. He told them of persecution and hardship for the sake of the gospel, much of which we see in the book of Acts, and then of things further off. Verse 25 says "there shall be signs," meaning a definite will be and not a maybe. Signs in the sun, moon, and stars, the distress of nations, and the roaring of the sea will perplex the whole world, and men's hearts will fail them for fear. It escalates from the temple, to Jerusalem, to the chaos of the whole earth, and all of it points to verse 27: "And then shall they see the Son of man coming in a cloud with power and great glory." Jesus was taking up the prophecy of Daniel 7 about one given dominion, glory, and a kingdom, and applying it to Himself.

Lift up your heads

Verse 28 says, "Look up, and lift up your heads; for your redemption draweth nigh." Everything terrible that Jesus had described simply means, I am coming back for you. He gave the parable of the fig tree: just as new leaves tell us summer is near, these signs will tell us His coming is near. He sealed it in verse 33, "Heaven and earth shall pass away: but my words shall not pass away." Then came the charge of verses 34 to 36, to take heed lest our hearts be weighed down by surfeiting, drunkenness, and the cares of this life, and to "watch ye therefore, and pray always." Only through prayerful anticipation will His people have strength to endure.

To visitors who found all this confusing or disturbing, Bro. Matienzo put it simply. Life is difficult and will grow more difficult, because we are sinful people separated from a holy God and living in a broken world. But the gospel is the good news that Jesus Christ died on the cross to redeem His people from their sins and save them from God's righteous wrath. For those who believe, His return is hope. For those who have not, it is a frightening thing, because He is coming as a righteous judge.

Three reminders

Do not be obsessed with looking at the signs. Be busy looking to the Christ of the signs. Some people become more concerned with what they will see than with the Christ who is coming, as if Jesus had said He was returning and we answered, "Lord, tell us more about the signs." We are called to wait upon the Lord, not upon the signs. The signs will happen, but they were given as an FYI. The signs are not the point. Jesus is. Here we are being told the most glorious thing that will happen in all of human history, and we should be found so busy looking at our Savior that we are not preoccupied with looking out for signs. The church will stand, he said, if and only if it keeps Christ and the gospel at the center, with everything else a far second.

Jesus is coming back to make all things new. Our redemption is promised and our salvation is sure. This world offers no lasting comfort or hope, so we should stop looking for them here. The blessings of this life, whether material things, a happy family, time, talents, or a church community, are good and should be enjoyed with thanks, but they are only a glimpse of heaven that points us to Christ. This world is not our home, and we are just passing through. For those in hardship the same hope holds: all our sufferings, failures, weaknesses, and sinfulness were dealt with at the cross, and He will come back to redeem us from them in finality. He recalled a church member who asked whether we could continue in faith without the pain. That is exactly the point, he answered. It is difficult, and we endure, because Christ is worth it.

Our gospel confession calls us to be ready in prayerful anticipation of the return of Jesus Christ our King. Scripture calls us ambassadors, and the church is an embassy of heaven on earth. Prayerful anticipation means not being preoccupied with the cares of this world or divided over lesser issues, but giving ourselves to the gathering of the saints and to prayer for one another. We do not have to go live in the mountains. We are to be faithful where God has placed us: parents raising their children in the knowledge of their Creator, students in their studies, workers reflecting Christ in their work, and citizens participating truthfully and graciously. It was election season, he noted, and our hope is not in any person in politics but in Christ, who is King over all.

This is what we signed up for, he said, and however difficult, frustrating, or painful it is, Christ is worth it all. He closed with a plea to the church, now in its 25th year, to endure until Christ takes us home or comes back for His church. Pastor Devon Ortiz then urged the congregation to take heed to themselves, asked anyone unsure of where they would spend eternity to raise a hand, and opened the altar.