The Son of Man

Throughout the chapter the Lord gives us a sequence of these events. This is not a prediction of when the world will end. The Lord himself says that no man knows the day or the hour when these things will come (Matt 24:36). In fact, prophesying the specific timing of the end is one of the signs of the false teachers and false christs. By contrast, the Lord focuses on the sequence of events rather than the specific time.

First will be the false teachers and the rumors of wars (v. 9). “It is necessary that these things take place first.” Yet these things are not the end. “The end won’t come right away.” The events are spread out over time. Indeed, some of what’s said in this chapter refers directly to Jerusalem and the people in Jesus’s audience that day. For example, the Lord says in verse 32: “Truly I tell you, this generation will certainly not pass away until all things take place.” He referred especially to the persecution of the disciples and the destruction of the temple. All of that did happen in that generation. The temple was destroyed in AD 70 when Romans surrounded and destroyed Jerusalem.

But other parts of this refer to the very end of the world. So in verse 27, “Then they will see the Son of Man coming in a cloud with power and great glory.” The second coming has not yet happened. We still await the Lord’s return. These things do not happen all at once. They are spread out from the day the Lord spoke these words through our very day until the end itself. But first are the false teachers and the rumors of war.

Second will be the persecution, natural disasters, and so on (vv. 10-12,16-17).

Third comes the destruction of Jerusalem (vv. 20-24).

Fourth, begins “the times of the Gentiles” (v. 24). Gentiles will occupy Jerusalem, as they do until this day. God will use the Gentiles as a judgment against Israel, as it was prophesied (v. 22). All will happen according to God’s divine plan. Moreover, the times of the Gentiles will feature Gentiles being brought into the kingdom of God. When Israel is broken off, then the non-Jewish people will be grafted in (Rom 11:11,17-19).

In verses 25-26 we see the cosmic distress that is to come. Then, finally, the Lord describes the second coming and the eternal kingdom (vv. 27-28).

This is the sequence the Lord gives us. We don’t need more than this. It is enough to occupy our imagination and stir our spiritual devotion. The main point is not the apocalyptic language or the sequence of events. Our Lord puts this teaching to pastoral use. So we need to ask ourselves, “So what? Why does this matter? How does this help us or ready us for the day of the coming of the Lord?”

The Lord gives us eight ways to prepare ourselves for the end.

First, give it all! This all started with Jesus observing the rich people and one poor widow giving in the temple. The widow placed two small coins out of her poverty into the offering. Jesus commends the woman for her generosity toward God. Here’s another scene where Luke uses a marginalized woman to illustrate the greater virtue of the kingdom. It’s no sacrifice to give to God out of your generosity, but our Lord watches this widow with intentionality. He focuses others’ attention on her. She emerges as the hero who gives God her all.

Randy Alcorn in Money, Possessions, and Eternity meditates on this scene in a convicting way (pp. 6–9). He asks us to consider what our counsel to this woman might have been if she had asked us what she should do with these last two coins. Would we say something like, “The Lord knows these are your last two coins and would understand if you purchased bread instead”? Many of us would. Yet the Lord commends this woman for giving her last in worship to God. Giving all that she had demonstrated her surrender to God. It was an act of great faith. If the Lord had provided those two copper coins then he could provide two thousand or twenty thousand copper coins. The coins were not her salvation; God was. What is always most vital is that we should be given over fully to trusting God himself.

This is what the gospel demands. The call of Christ requires us to turn away from the world, from sin, and from our own control to trust solely in him. The gospel calls us to give ourselves over to God, acknowledging that he has purchased our lives with the blood of his Son. Now our lives belong to him, and we live constantly giving ourselves over to him as a lifestyle of faith. If we would follow Jesus, we really must forget everything and everyone else as a source of security and provision. We must forget everything else as a “lord”; Christ alone is Lord. To be ready for his coming, we must belong to Christ. To belong to Christ, we must die to ourselves and submit to him in faith.

We must not be fooled or afraid because of false teachers. That prompts us to ask ourselves, To whom do we listen? Who has our attention? To whom do we give our ear? What are our podcasts and playlists? What are we downloading and streaming? Do we give ourselves over to clear teachers of God’s Word or to people who distract us or muddy the gospel?

Let me suggest that most religious programming fails to meet the tests of this chapter. This chapter presumes we are looking for and longing for the glorious appearance of our Lord Jesus Christ. So much of our day’s religious programming focuses us on things on earth rather than the coming of the Lord. Too many teachers would have us believe we should not be “so heavenly minded we are of no earthly good.” Yet this chapter suggests that to be of earthly good we must be even more heavenly minded. We are to be undistracted, undeterred, and unswayed by the falsehoods out there. This world and all that’s in it is passing away, but the world to come and the Christ who’s in it last forever. So we must “seek the things above, where Christ is, seated at the right hand of God” (Col 3:1). Our hope is that our lives are longer than this world because they stretch into eternity with Christ and the Father.

So don’t be fooled or afraid. Nod with certainty when you hear the rumors of wars and calamity. Our Lord predicted it centuries ago so we would not be afraid but fasten our hearts on him.

The list of calamities depresses us until we come to verse 13. Amidst all the turmoil the Lord says, “This will give you an opportunity to bear witness.” Huh! How often when you pray for opportunities to tell others about Jesus do you expect those opportunities to come in the form of persecution, mistreatment, war, and the like? If you are like me, I suspect you very seldom or never picture it that way. We tend to pray for the “easy button.” We imagine the tracks of our sharing are divinely oiled so that everything is smooth. There’s no friction or difficulty. We simply attend the family barbecue, someone asks us, “What must I do to be saved,” and then a revival breaks out!

That would be nice, but that’s not how it happens. This text suggests we will attend the barbecue and all the food is gone, the fireworks have gotten wet, everyone is grumpy and complaining, and then you have an urge to speak of Jesus! So people begin to mock you as a “preacher.” Before you arrived they were “sippin’ on gin and juice.” Now you, the Christian, have come and ruined their fun. That’s how God more often than not answers your prayers for an opportunity to witness.

Beloved, we are salmon swimming upstream. The current of this chapter and of the world is against us. We are fighting against the rapids to make it home to Zion, and along the way we must convince some other fish to turn against the current and swim upstream with us. We will have to witness in the face of rushing opposition.

The Lord calls us to this, but he does not leave us alone. He says to his disciples, “Don’t even think about what you will say. I will give you the words to speak at that time by the power of my Spirit.” The Lord promises the kind of wisdom their enemies cannot withstand.

He promises betrayal, death, and universal hatred. Then the Lord promises not a hair will be harmed on their heads (vv. 18-19). It’s a remarkable juxtaposition—persecution, famine, and death on the one hand, and not a single hair harmed on the other. How do we hold those two things together? Because our lives are eternal, the losing of this earthly life means the passing into eternal life and glory. The promises of God are not bound by this world; they are not even primarily fulfilled in this world. So the promises of God in Christ cannot be taken by this world. That includes our lives. We may very well be taken in persecution or worse, but it will be gain for us (Phil 1:21)! We may be persecuted or put to death, but we will not be truly harmed. If we witness to the end, we gain our lives (Luke 21:19).

That’s what our Lord does when he refers to the Scriptures. All that God has said will come to pass. Not one word will fall to the ground unfulfilled. Heaven and earth may pass away, but not God’s words (v. 33). We hold in our hands the sure, standing, enduring, never-failing, never-erring Word of God. If we would be ready for the end then we should stake our lives on the Word of God. Hide it in your heart that you might not sin against God. Stand on it as the one sure foundation. Hold it above your head as the exercise of Christ’s lordship in your life. Hold it out front as your guide; it will be a lamp for your feet and a light on your path. If you would live well until Christ comes, then live by this book.

Go to the Lord’s Word every morning. The last verse of the chapter features Christ going in the morning to the temple to teach and the crowds that come to hear him. We do not have a temple to visit and Christ there preaching, but we have a Bible to open, and he teaches us through it. We can go every morning in the temple of our own bodies to learn from him. Do that until he comes.

For the lost world, the coming of the Lord will be fearsome, but verse 28 encourages the saints with the promise that these signs indicate that our redemption is near! We have been bent by the calamity and the turmoil too. Perhaps that’s why we are told to “stand up” (v. 28). The Lord calls us to lift our heads. Like David, we must look to the hill from where our help comes. We look up because our redemption is close. All the signs point to this reality—Christ is near! All that we hope for draws quickly near. We get to live through tragedy like people who know there’s something better on the other side. We get to live through suffering like people who know they will be robed in the perfect righteousness of Christ. We are people who know that, even if we don’t manage to stand up and lift our heads, then in the kingdom God with his own hands will wipe away every tear from our eyes (Rev 21:4) and lift our heads (Ps 3:3)!

Signs only help us if we heed them. As a boy, I used to love the cartoon Mr. Magoo. I rolled on the floor laughing as this functionally blind wealthy old man drove his car through all kinds of calamity with barely a hint of concern. Mr. Magoo went through life blind. So do a good number of Christians. But the wise saints, like the “sons of Issachar” (see 1 Chr 12:32), know the times and the seasons, and they heed them. We must be a people who know the end is surely coming, and we must rightly interpret our Lord’s signs so that we are ready when he comes.

Readiness requires prayerfulness. We must be on guard against hearts weighed down by the cares of this life and of that coming day. The things we learn here are not intended to overthrow our hearts but to establish them. We must remain awake. We must pray for strength so we escape the calamities to come and stand assured before Christ. The best preparation for the life to come is a present life of prayer.

The Lord continues teaching, and the people keep coming. He keeps teaching today by his Word and his Spirit. We are meant to keep listening. Give attention to God’s Word, and you will be ready when he comes.

If you are not yet a Christian, this chapter applies to you. Right now, you are not ready for the end of the world because you are still in your sins. So you must give it all to Christ. Surrender to him. Confess your sins. Acknowledge the righteousness of God’s judgment against you. Then consider that your sins were atoned for on the cross and your righteousness secured in the resurrection. Put your trust in Christ and follow him in the obedience that comes from faith. Then, no matter what happens in your life and in the world, you may be certain that you are Christ’s and he is yours. Believe in Christ and the end will simply be the beginning of eternity for you.