Luke 21:5-19

hey hey welcome to coffee and devotions this monday morning this is october 19th this where every weekday morning at 9 00 am and on the weekends before my kids wake up or i get a spare second you and i we get together we have some coffee we get into god's word and we grow in our love for the lord together and this year 2020 we'll make it through all the gospels well this morning we are at luke chapter 21 verses 5 through 19. why don't we go ahead and have some coffee pray and get into god's word let's pray father we thank you so much for this day and we thank you for your word we pray father that you would care for us and bless us now as we read your word that you would apply these things to our hearts in jesus name amen here we go luke chapter 21 beginning at verse 5. hey paula good to see you then as some spoke of the temple how it was adorned with beautiful stones and donations he said these things which you see the days will come in which not one stone shall be left upon another that shall not be thrown down so they asked him saying teacher but when will these things be and what sign will there be when these things are about to take place and he said take heed that you be not deceived for many will come in my name saying i am he and the time has drawn near therefore do not go after them but when you hear of wars and commotions do not be terrified for these things must come to pass but the end will not come immediately then he said to them nation will rise against nation and kingdom against kingdom and there will be great earthquakes in various places and families are sorry and famines and pestilences and there will be fearful sights and great signs from heaven but before all these things they will lay their hands on you and persecute you delivering you up to the synagogues and prisons you will be brought before kings and rulers for my name's sake but it will turn out for you as an occasion for testimony therefore settle it in your hearts not to meditate beforehand on what you will answer for i will give you a mouth and wisdom which all your adversaries will not be able to contradict or resist you will be betrayed even by parents and brothers relatives and friends and they will put some of you to death and you will be hated by all for my name's sake but not a hair on your head shall be lost but your patience possesses by your patience possesses your souls well two stories are two teachings for us this morning we need to ask ourselves real quick a what is this about b what's the best verse to summarize these sections and see what are we called to do in response to these words so a first what is this about well the disciples have two questions right uh first uh they asked uh you know look at these look at these are they they point out all the things in the temple right oh look at look at the stones and look at these beautiful donations look how amazing this temple is and jesus has two questions for or jesus says hold on these going to come when not one stone is going to be left upon another right this this whole temple isn't what it's about and they're shocked by this i mean if you've ever seen temples of just are pictures of just the temple mount these stones are massive i mean herod spared no expense building up this incredible temple but you can imagine jesus pointing to himself as he's saying this they're not going to quite understand this but they say teacher but when will these things be and what signs will there be when these things are about to take place they what come on tell us when this is going to happen and what are going to be the signs that this is going to happen jesus starts off by telling them in the first part there's going to be a bunch of people who try to deceive right there are going to be people who say oh look the time is at hand and oh look uh i am the christ and jesus saying don't fall for it don't fall for it i'm going to jump straight from about to calling i'm going to tell you don't fall for it don't fall for it you're gonna you can turn on christian television and you can listen to televangelists and they'll tell you oh it's gonna come now oh the end times are right now oh it's just in a few weeks it's just in a few months look at all these things and jesus is saying don't listen to it it's going to come like a thief in the night is what he tells us somewhere else right hold on you know that's don't don't fall for it but when you hear of wars and commotions do not be terrified for these things must come to pass first but the end will not come immediately but in the in those last days and there's a whole bunch of different eschatological views on this uh just to lay out my cards there i think we live in the last days right now i think there's a period a long period of the last days in which these wars and and rumors of wars and famines and pestilence we live in a pestilence right now we're in the middle of what people are talking about with this this pandemic i'm not going to go down that rabbit trail but feel free to let me know if you want to know more about that and i can send you some good books and we could talk about it over email but christians are going to be persecuted during this time they're going to be drug before councils they're going to be drugged before people and there's going to be there's going to even be tension within the family right and jesus said be ready for it it's going to happen i mean jesus said this right when he was talking about if you want to be his disciple you have to what you have to hate your mother and your father your brother and your sister your children if you're going to be a disciple of jesus then you have to be ready to be hated by those speaking of family my grandma just popped on hey grandma good to see you and so don't worry about what you're going to say beforehand just keep your heart in the truth and the spirit of wisdom is going to be with you that's what he that's what he says right he says therefore settle in your hearts not to meditate beforehand on what you will answer for i will give you a mouth and wisdom which all your adversaries will not be able to contradict or resist and jesus is specifically talking to his disciples here and i think within context we know that this actually happened we know that this happens when when the apostles went and they were giving their testimony we see it in the book of acts especially when we find paul and he's preaching to agrippa and he has these words of wisdom to speak to them and and the the king can't refute it right he just he could just push back and you just say whoa whoa hold on you think you're going to convince me of the christian truth in one day paul has this wisdom to speak paul takes this wisdom all the way up to nero the emperor and so what's the best verse i'm going to leave that up to you this morning let me know what would you highlight in your bible is the best verse to get to to get to the heart of this this section here calling what are we called to do are we ready for persecution does it surprise us if they hated me they all also hate you for the servant is not greater than his master do do we anticipate that we'll be persecuted for what we believe that will be called bigots will be called backwards will be called you know fools do we just accept it i think we have to we have to be ready for it we don't need to be scared we don't need to be alarmed we live in these last days we live in the time when all these things are happening and so just stay in the stay in the word be ready with your testimony of jesus christ don't rehearse your speech don't worry about it just pray lean upon the lord and he'll give understanding let's go ahead and pray now father we thank you so much for this day and we thank you for warning us father that these realities lay ahead they laid ahead of the apostles they lay ahead of us and and we thank you that you did not tell us some mysterious you know pie in the sky gospel but lord you told us that we should set our hearts on you but when we do that that the world will be against us for you're not of the world and neither are we father we pray that you would fix our hearts upon you for we love you in jesus name amen well may god bless you today and may he give you peace as you go forth doing his work for his glory bye