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Jesus' Predictions Have A Purpose

            Nostradamus, known like a rock start by a single name, was a sixteenth century French doctor and astrologer credited with predicting everything from the rise of Adolph Hitler to the terrorist attacks of September eleventh.  Nostradamus laid out predictions, mostly about war and disaster, in a series of books published in 1555.  His followers claim he had true prophetic powers, but there is actually no evidence that he ever predicted a single specific event before it occurred other than in vague terms that could apply to any number of other events.

            Vague predictions do nothing except stir up fear in people’s hearts.  They fall in line with Jesus’ warning in the gospel for this day from Luke chapter twenty-one, “Watch out that you are not deceived.  For many will come in my name, claiming, ‘I am he,’ and, ‘The time is near.’  Do not follow them.”  But Jesus himself made predictions, and who wouldn’t want to find out what the Son of God predicted for our world, especially as we observe a national holiday and sense a strange mix of feelings … or am I the only one?  The Fourth of July!  Independence Day!  Parades and picnics, Sousa marches and fireworks give us a rush of national pride and patriotism, but there’s also concern about the moral filth swirling around in American culture.  We are filled with gratitude to God for allowing us to live in the land of the free and home of the brave, but there’s also the fear that you can’t leave your garage or car doors unlocked.  We love hearing about the kind citizen who found an envelope with three thousand six hundred dollars in wedding gift cash and turned it in, but there’s also the gang of fourteen year olds knocking a little kid off his bike to steal it.  What better time to turn to our Savior and discover that “Jesus’ Predictions Have A Purpose.”

To preserve us amid reality

            What if a person believes that being a Christian means good health and then gets cancer?  What if a person believes that being a Christian means big dollars and then gets fired?  What if a person believes that being a Christian means happy relationships and then finds out that his or her spouse has been unfaithful?  That’s devastating and leads to frustration, questioning, doubt … maybe even the disaster of loss of faith in God.  But it does not have to be that way if we understand Jesus’ predictions and that Jesus’ predictions have a purpose.

            It was late Tuesday afternoon just three days before he died.  Our Lord Jesus had spent the entire day in the courtyard of Jerusalem’s temple complex.  Every major faction of his opponents tried to challenge him and make him look foolish in front of the crowds.  They failed.  At the end of that long day Jesus and his disciples withdrew from the city and wound their way up the long ridge east of the city called the Mount of Olives.  As they turned, they could look over their shoulders and see the gleaming rays of the setting sun glinting off the golden roof of the temple.  Wow!  What a sight! – like seeing the skyline of Manhattan for the first time.  “Look, Teacher, at the magnificent buildings!”  Jesus shocked his disciples with his response.  “As for what you see here, the time will come when not one stone will be left on another; every one of them will be thrown down.”   Why in all the world would he make such a prediction?  True enough, the nation of Israel in general had rejected him as Messiah and deserved his righteous wrath.  But why tell his disciples that the city would be destroyed?  The answer – he wanted them to understand the realities of this world.

            Like many others the followers of Jesus hoped that the Messiah would be an earthly king, wipe out the Romans, and set up his royal throne in Jerusalem.  They knew Jesus had the power to do it.  They had seen him change water into wine, multiply bread and fish, and heal sick people.  Hey!  He could make life on earth really cushy.  “Look at those buildings, Lord!  Wouldn’t your throne look good in that gleaming, golden temple?”  Jesus cut them off.  He had not come into the world so that people could have a cushy, comfortable life before they go to the grave.  No!  He came so that all who trust in him can burst out of the grave like he did and live with God in heaven.  So he told his disciples, “I want you to understand the realities of this world.  Sure you can enjoy it.  There will be good times, happy times.  But there will also be problems and pains.  Nation will rise against nation, and kingdom against kingdom.  There will be great earthquakes, famines, and pestilences in various places, and fearful events.

            Unlike Nostradamus, Jesus’ predictions come true.  For example, in last decade, globally, there has been an average of over twenty-eight thousand four hundred seventeen earthquakes each year.  Since 1990, there has been an average of eighteen category four and five hurricanes each year.  In spite of modern machinery and technology, there were twelve famines recorded in the last decade.  In 2008 alone, one point four million adults and children in Africa died of AIDS.  There have been one hundred twenty-eight wars in the twentieth century alone.  Predictions by Nostradamus really don’t matter.  But Jesus’ predictions do.  His predictions have a purpose, helping us get a grip on reality so that we are reminded that this sinful world is not the be-all-end-all of your existence.  God has something much better in mind.  So, when you hear of wars and revolutions, do not be frightened.  These things must happen first, but the end will not come right away,”  and he added, “You will be betrayed even by parents, brothers, relatives and friends, and they will put some of you to death … But not a hair of your head will perish.”

            Wait just a second!  Doesn’t that sound like a contradiction?  How can Jesus say, “They will put some of you to death … but not a hair of your head will perish?”  The answer lies in his care for us.  He cares so much that he said in an earlier sermon, “The very hairs of your head are numbered”(Luke 12:7), whether we’ve got many or few.  He cares so much that he provides cold and heat, rain and sunshine for the seasons to come and go and for the crops to grow.  He cares so much that he has his eye on each little sparrow flitting through the barn as cows are milked.  He cares so much that he gave brains to scientists to figure out how to get that milk, pasteurized, into bottles for us to drink and how to get one hundred sixty-five point two bushels of corn per acre compared to fifty-four point seven bushels per acre fifty years ago.  He cares so much that he lets us hear from parents or friends or co-workers or spouse what we’ve done wrong so we can take those wrongs to him and plead, “Lord, have mercy on me.”  He cares so much that he yanked those sins off of your record and mine and hoisted them onto his own shoulders.  He cares so much that he allowed wicked people to put him on a cross to bleed and die and suffer torture for those sins, torture which you and I can’t imagine but surely deserved.  He cares so much that even if our bodies fail and die, or even if we’re killed in a tragic accident, our souls live on with him in perfect joy.  So, no matter how many apps you can add to your I-phone, no matter how funky the concerts you enjoy at Sommerfest, no matter how much money you make, Jesus predicted that there will also be lots of bad junk in our lives, in the land whose flag we love to wave, and in our world, and his predictions have a purpose.  His predictions are actually promises that he will preserve us amid reality.  “Your soul will be safe with me forever!”

To prepare us for ministry

            When you hear the word “ministry” or “minister,” what comes to mind?  If you look those words up in the dictionary, one of the first references is to someone in the clergy, in full-time church work.  For that reason, in our Lutheran church circles lately, we’ve been trying to avoid confusion by reserving the word “ministry” for what we pastors do.  But in the Bible the word “ministry” is a general term for service to God and others that flows from a heart filled with gratefulness for God’s love.  In that sense, all believers in Jesus are ministers and have a ministry, a life of service to God and others.

            Of course, the most obvious way we can bring honor to God and the most loving thing we can do in service to others is to introduce them to Jesus’ mercy.  But that raises up all kinds of concerns and worries about what to say and when to say it, especially if the audience is someone whom we think might not be interested, or some relative with whom there may be emotional static, or someone whom we view as rather scary because he or she has authority over us.  But in this message of Jesus to his followers, he was all about taking the air out of that fear balloon.  He was all about giving them assurance and courage and removing worries, just as he did two nights later in the upper room in Jerusalem hours before his arrest.  Before you fire up the grill or the sparklers later today, take five minutes and re-read chapters fourteen, fifteen, and sixteen in John’s gospel.  You’ll find those comforting upper-room words of Jesus cascading over you like a cool shower after a two hour stint in the hot sun on a sticky ninety-three degree day, comforting words that fit like a glove with his predictions in this section of Scripture.  He told his first followers and he tells us that by our lives and lips people are going to know that we do not go along with any and every whim of fancy that floats people’s boats and makes them feel good under the umbrella of, “We’re in America, so we’re free to do what we want as long as we don’t hurt anybody.”  No!  We may have freedom in America but that does not mean freedom from what God wants us to say and do.  Nor do we want to fall for the misguided thinking of some that to make America more God-pleasing we have to be part of a certain political party or get the government to legislate Christian truths.  Isn’t it interesting that the very people who complain about government taking over too much of our lives are the same ones who often look to the government to take over the job of the church and make Christians by rules?  No!  Jesus has given us that role as a part of our personal ministry since we are citizens of heaven who just happen to be also citizens of this earth.

            We’ll need courage from him to carry out that ministry because who’s to say how long it will be before you or I get sued for tactfully, lovingly identifying sin as sin whether it’s drunkenness or homosexuality or immorality?  But that’s exactly what Jesus gives us, “They will lay hands on you and persecute you … You will be brought before kings and governors, and all on account of my name.  This will result in your being witnesses to them – in other words, you’ll probably get hauled into court – But don’t worry.  I’ll be with you,” Jesus says, “Take into your hearts not to worry beforehand how you will defend yourselves.  For I will give you words and wisdom that none of your adversaries will be able to resist or contradict … By standing firm you will gain life.”  How about that for removing our fears?  We can proudly wave the flag today and at the same time honestly stand up for what God says is true – yes, the rules he gives but first and foremost the righteousness of Jesus he gives.   That’s what will save not our land but the people of our land, just as he predicted, and his predictions have a purpose.  His predictions are actually promises that he will prepare us for the ministry of sharing his love.

            Do you know what TEOTWAWKI (“tee-ought-walk-ee”) is?  It’s an acronym, the first letter of each of a string of words to make a new word.  T-E-O-T-W-A-W-K-I stands for “The End Of The World As We Know It.”  One website listed eleven different predictions about the end of the world occurring some time in the next decade, to say nothing of countless other predictions about events that would occur before that.  Ignore those just as you would ignore Nostradamus’ vague generalities.  But pay attention to Jesus and his predictions because his predictions have a purpose so that when it comes to Jesus’ love for sinners you can get a grip and let it rip!    Amen.

Preached at Grace Lutheran Church, Milwaukee, WI (www.gracedowntown.org) on July 4, 2010

Services

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Grace Evangelical Lutheran Church | 1209 North Broadway Milwaukee, WI 53202 | (414) 271-3006

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