FALSE ALARMS

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In Christ, Mark

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The scriptures. May God bless the reading of His holy word.

Then He said to His disciples, “The time is coming when you will long to see one of the days of the Son of Man, but you will not see it. People will tell you, ‘There he is!’ or ‘Here he is!’ Do not go running off after them. For the Son of Man in His day will be like the lightning, which flashes and lights up the sky from one end to the other. But first he must suffer many things and be rejected by this generation.”

Luke 17:22-25

This ends today’s reading from God's holy word. Thanks be to God.

Not a whole lot of things get under my skin. I really try to keep from getting too worked up over things that are out of my control. But I have to confess that I get upset and shake my head every time I hear people who paint themselves as Christian making bold, calculated, specific predictions on when Jesus will return, everyone of which in my lifetime has been a false alarm.

Of course, none of this is very surprising because Jesus Himself told us that trying to pinpoint the day and time He will come back to earth is a full scale exercise in futility. We see it in our passage today as Jesus addresses His disciples and we see it in these words from the 24th chapter of Matthew:

“About that day or hour no one knows, not even the angels in heaven, nor the Son, but only the Father. As it was in the days of Noah, so it will be at the coming of the Son of Man.” Matthew 24:36-37

Jesus makes it clear. Only God the Father knows the time when He will send His Son back to earth. No one else.

Apparently there were faulty prognosticators in Jesus’ day as well. We can see that through His words in today’s passage:

Then He said to His disciples, “The time is coming when you will long to see one of the days of the Son of Man, but you will not see it. People will tell you, ‘There he is!’ or ‘Here he is!’ Do not go running off after them. For the Son of Man in His day will be like the lightning, which flashes and lights up the sky from one end to the other. But first he must suffer many things and be rejected by this generation.”  Luke 17:22-25

Jesus tried to tell His disciples He would be leaving them one day, promising a Comforter would be sent to them who would fill the void until He would return for them and all others who would place their belief, hope, and trust in Him. Unfortunately, the disciples had a hard time understanding what Jesus was saying to Him until the events in the latter days of life unfolded during that fateful week in Jerusalem.

This didn’t keep Jesus from talking openly about what was to come, days when people would long for His return so much that they would possibly believe others who had claimed to see Him, those who would sound false alarms. Jesus warned His followers then and now to be wary of anyone who might proclaim, “There He is!” or “Here He is!” For as we saw through His words in Matthew, no one knows when He will return but when He does, no one will need to tell another about it. It will be a return that is swift, sudden, and evident for all on earth to see. Jesus likened that return to a flash of lightning that lights up the sky from “one end to the other”. The day of Jesus’ second coming is going to be a main event, one that will have attention across the globe. There will be no certainty that He is back, just as He said He would be.

Fellow Christians, there is no need to fret over when Jesus will come. When He returns for us to draw us to Himself, it’s going to be the best day ever, a day when we will be liberated from the world and all its afflictions forever. Forever. We need not be concerned with the precise moment of His return and anyone who claims they know something about that exact time is doing nothing but wasting the time of everyone listening with falsehood and deception. Jesus is telling us in this passage to not allow foolish predictions to distract us from the task at hand, the task of making disciples of all nations and bringing them to know their Savior, the task of helping them to share in the joy all Christian believers will have when Jesus returns once and for all.

Amen.

In Christ,

Mark

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