In this video, Clint Loveall and Michael Gewecke continue their study of the Gospel of Luke. They discuss the signs and teachings of Jesus regarding the end times and the coming Kingdom of God. They emphasize the importance of being alert, prepared, and focused on the teachings of Jesus. The transcript covers various passages from Luke, including Jesus’ parable of the fig tree and the assurance that His words will not pass away. They also explore different interpretations of the term “generation” in relation to the timing of these events. Overall, the discussion encourages viewers to live with awareness and patience while awaiting the fulfillment of God’s plans. Join Clint and Michael as they delve deeper into this thought-provoking topic.
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Transcript
00:00:00:39 – 00:00:28:23
Clint Loveall
Hey, everybody. Thanks for being with us again. We appreciate it. As we continue through the gospel of Luke, we’re finishing the 21st chapter today. We’re in the 29th verse of the 21st chapter. Just a reminder for several lessons. Now, we have been in a in a section where Jesus has been giving us passages that have a kind of end of the world overtones or signs.
00:00:28:28 – 00:00:57:51
Clint Loveall
When are these things happening that that’s kind of been we’ve called them apocalyptic, which is a just a a Bible theology word that means kind of in breaking usually associated with the end of the end of times or what the scripture sometimes calls the day of the Lord. And we are finishing that today, this section. And so start here at verse 29, read a few versus then we’ll come back and try to process them with you.
00:00:57:55 – 00:01:19:27
Clint Loveall
Then he told them a parable. Look at the fig tree and all the trees. As soon as they sprout leaves you can see for yourselves, you know, that summer is already near. So also when you see these things taking place, you know, the kingdom of God is near. I tell you the truth, this generation will not pass away until all things have taken place.
00:01:19:31 – 00:02:02:37
Clint Loveall
Heaven and earth will pass away. But my words will not pass away. So this is this is a combination, I think, of two interesting themes that are woven through these kind of passengers. The first is that whenever Jesus says something like It’s a mystery, it’s going to happen unexpectedly. He he tempers that with be on guard, be watchful, be aware, and some encouragement that believers will be able to interpret the times and seasons they’re in.
00:02:02:42 – 00:02:23:28
Clint Loveall
And so that’s where we go first here. Look at the fig tree. You know, you can look at a tree and you can say, spring is here, summer’s here, it’s blossoming. It’s harvest time we live. Those of you who are tuning in in the Midwest, we live in a seasonal place like that. We know when it’s planting time, we know when it’s harvest time.
00:02:23:33 – 00:02:52:39
Clint Loveall
Even if we’re not farmers, which most of us are, we kind of get that. And Jesus is saying that you’re about to believe, you know, you’ll know, you’ll be aware when you see these things taking place, you will know that the Kingdom of God is near, and there is an encouragement in that to be watchful. But there’s also an assurance that these are not things that need to be passed out with secret decoder rings.
00:02:52:44 – 00:03:25:28
Clint Loveall
There is an obviousness to the work of God that the attentive heart that the that the informed and and engaged believer will see, will notice and will know. And so as strange and scary as some of this language can be, I do find these passages helpful because Jesus is saying you don’t need to jump through a bunch of hoops, pay attention, and you’ll see what God is doing.
00:03:25:33 – 00:03:48:12
Michael Gewecke
A text like this does, I think, Call us in, Clint. It begs us to pull out our secret decoder rings a little bit, I think, because this idea of the sign Jesus is making the point when he talks about the fig tree, he is saying, you know, if you are observant in the world in which you live, you’re going to see these realities.
00:03:48:12 – 00:04:17:13
Michael Gewecke
It’s going to be clear to you. And I think that sets us out on the path where we think, okay, well, it’s time for us to look. And I think that maybe takes precedence here. Once we get to verse 32, where Jesus says, this generation will not pass away until all things have taken place. And I think a text like this, Clint, it’s a really interesting place for us to dig in a little bit because commentators will essentially give us two paths.
00:04:17:13 – 00:04:41:12
Michael Gewecke
On one, they’ll say generation here could be translated by the sense that we get by the living generation, the people alive. They will see all of the things take place. Then they give us the commentators, give us another path, and they point out that this word generation is often used in different contexts to talk about long seasons of time, sort of epochs of time.
00:04:41:16 – 00:05:01:54
Michael Gewecke
And then they would point out that that word could have a much broader sense. However you gloss it, I think does have a significant impact on what you get from this text. If on one hand, you’re looking forward to all fit together, kind of like a a carefully constructed machine, all of those parts are working together and that makes sense to you.
00:05:01:58 – 00:05:24:45
Michael Gewecke
Then you start looking for those signs and sees you look for your own fig tree in your own time and place. If, on the other hand, you see in this a kind of invitation to awareness, a kind of invitation to looking with gratitude at the world that God has given us, then you begin to see that there’s actually a patience built into a text like this.
00:05:24:45 – 00:05:46:19
Michael Gewecke
And I think as much as there is this human temptation to say, I want to be the one to see the signs, I think there’s a deeper spiritual lesson that we could all stand to learn, and that is that part of what it means to be human is to patiently wait for God to show us through the seasons what his will is.
00:05:46:19 – 00:06:05:54
Michael Gewecke
That’s not a particularly fun frame for many of us who are, you know, more rush to the head of the cart kind of people. But I think it’s an important sort of balance to a text that the church has historically read with some kind of desire to figure out all of the moving pieces. And we’re not going to be in a season like this forever in Luke.
00:06:05:54 – 00:06:09:29
Michael Gewecke
But as we’re still here, I think that that theme is worth repeating.
00:06:09:34 – 00:06:41:00
Clint Loveall
Yeah, I agree with that, Michael. I think so often the church, or at least portions of the church, particular Christians, have been attracted to these verses and ignored the warnings that they are not about pinpointing time, they are about being aware of the movement of God. And we we get so fascinated with the when question and we miss the whole question of what God is doing.
00:06:41:00 – 00:07:02:22
Clint Loveall
You know, you will know the Kingdom of God is near the other. I think there’s also a and it’s I know it’s maybe not the obvious reading, but as we now look back on this passage, so let me get there kind of in reverse. Verse 32, I tell you, this generation will not pass away until all things have taken place.
00:07:02:27 – 00:07:30:07
Clint Loveall
Right? We know that’s not the case. We know that the generation who address these words, we know that the generation that wrote and first heard these words have passed away. And so either that was something they were wrong about or it’s telling us something else that is generally true and not literally specifically true in the way that we have sometimes meant it.
00:07:30:12 – 00:07:55:40
Clint Loveall
And the I think the takeaway as those who live, you know, well on the other side of the fence, well down the road from the moment of these words being said, is to say, when you see these things taking place, well, we know that all of the things that have been described have taken place in every generation. They are the constant reality we live with.
00:07:55:40 – 00:08:26:30
Clint Loveall
And so we live with the constant tension of what the world is doing and what is happening on the earth with the constant hope that God’s kingdom is breaking in is is something coming to be established. And so I don’t you know, one of the benefits, I think, of our our vantage point as Presbyterians is that we don’t get particularly hung up on texts like this at our best.
00:08:26:34 – 00:08:50:08
Clint Loveall
We’ve not spent a whole lot of time trying to put a star on the calendar and pick a date. It’s just kind of not been how we functioned. And I think one of the things that has allowed us to do is to hear this language as a better summary of our entire course than referring to some mysterious day out in the future.
00:08:50:13 – 00:09:05:09
Clint Loveall
I think in that way, Jesus words here can be read as a guide for all of our days, and not just as an arrow pointing to one particular one that we haven’t yet figured out. And I think that’s a better way to read it.
00:09:05:11 – 00:09:27:07
Michael Gewecke
We’re going to push on here. But just before we do that, I want to make sure that we all hear this really powerful statement that Jesus makes. Heaven and earth will pass away, but my words will not pass away. That to the earliest disciples who are being actively sought out, persecuted, blamed for the burning of Rome by the Emperor himself.
00:09:27:07 – 00:09:51:19
Michael Gewecke
I mean the earliest church. They desperately needed to be reminded that Jesus’s teachings weren’t going anywhere, that the world could be collapsing underneath their feet, that their entire order and security and safety and jobs could all be in peril. And yet his words would not pass away. And what are his words? His words of the gospel, the proclamation of the Kingdom.
00:09:51:32 – 00:10:15:02
Michael Gewecke
As Luke has made so clear in the story thus far, Jesus’s teaching then, is the thing that is immutable and immovable and and trustworthy, and the earliest church would have heard it as such. They wouldn’t have had time or luxury, Clint, to be going on decoder ring sort of adventures. They were simply trying to hold on to the core teachings of who Jesus was.
00:10:15:07 – 00:10:34:49
Michael Gewecke
Son of God took on flesh, died, rose Again, if they could hold on to that gospel, to that those teachings that they’ve been given in this book, then that’s all that they need to hang on to in the worst seasons. And I think that that’s an encouraging word. And it’s important that we hear in texts like this that might make us uncomfortable.
00:10:34:49 – 00:10:42:00
Michael Gewecke
Sometimes there’s encouragement in it and and there is therefore, if we’re willing to hear it, encouragement in it for us today.
00:10:42:05 – 00:11:02:04
Clint Loveall
Yeah. And let’s move on here, because that encouragement, I think, gets spelled out specifically in the next passage here. Be on guard that your hearts are not weighed down with dissipation and drunkenness and the worries of life, and that the day doesn’t catch you unexpectedly like a trap, for it will come upon all who live on the face of the earth.
00:11:02:09 – 00:11:22:25
Clint Loveall
Be alert at all times, praying that you may have the strength to escape all the things that will take place and stand before the son of man every day he was teaching in the temple and at night he would go out and spend the night on the Mount of Olives, as it was called, and all the people would get up early in the morning to listen to him in the temple.
00:11:22:30 – 00:12:04:13
Clint Loveall
So here we have the Luke is closing this section as he gets ready to transition to the more specific part of Holy Week at the at the story that leads to the cross. But before we get there, Jesus says a version, of course, better said than we are trying to. Don’t let this day catch you unexpectedly. Be prepared, be alert, be on guard, be praying that you have the strength to escape those things and that you’re ready to stand before the son of man.
00:12:04:26 – 00:12:32:51
Clint Loveall
There is an urgency written into the New Testament to be ready for the coming of Christ. And we believe that those early Christians thought that that was imminent. And some Christians in every generation since have believed and taught that it was imminent. And as we wait for it, the idea of imminent is fine as long as it doesn’t distract us from our overall task, which is to be alert, to be ready.
00:12:32:56 – 00:13:01:22
Clint Loveall
And whenever someone has picked a date, they have as of yet been wrong. We’re old for thousands of predicting the time. And so this general counsel, to be ready to be alert, not to be drawn down with dissipation, which is a word related to drunkenness, kind of specifically like nausea or the sickness you might get from drinking too much or drunkenness or the worries of life.
00:13:01:37 – 00:13:30:10
Clint Loveall
In other words, don’t be distracted with living the wrong kind of life. Also, don’t be anxious about the worries of life, because in either of those, your focus is on something that isn’t the coming kingdom of God. And so again, be ready that that you will be prayerful, that you will be expectant and that you will be able to stand before the son of man for one day.
00:13:30:10 – 00:13:57:30
Clint Loveall
All people will. And there is a call in this for Christians to just be prepared for that to come at any moment. And really, rather than pick specific days to live each day in in that readiness, in that alertness and in that preparation. And I think, again, I’m biased because this is what we’ve tended to do with these texts.
00:13:57:43 – 00:14:02:49
Clint Loveall
And I’ll admit that up front, I think that’s a more helpful way to read the texts.
00:14:02:54 – 00:14:50:33
Michael Gewecke
So, Clint, I think that this is an unnerving text to the religious leadership of Jesus this day for many, many reasons. And I think that Luke goes out of his way to make sure that we understand that by the ending here, because Luke points out explicitly as the narrator, every day Jesus was teaching in the temple, Jesus is literally in the center of Jewish worship, is at the center of Jewish religious life, and the people who are now firmly his adversaries, the scribes, the Sadducees teachers of the law, all of these terms that we’ve now had applied to them, these individuals are hearing Jesus talking about this all being overthrown, these signs that the day
00:14:50:33 – 00:15:17:49
Michael Gewecke
is coming, that even this generation will see it. Each one of these is a call, a prophetic sort of nod to the fact that the very place that he was standing, the temple is itself no longer going to function in this role in the future. He’s explicitly talked about the destruction of the temple just a few verses earlier, and I think we shouldn’t miss the gravity of what he’s saying.
00:15:17:49 – 00:16:02:58
Michael Gewecke
He’s saying to the people of Israel, God fears. He’s saying to them that in the end, all the whole earth, we literally have that language here. All who live on the face of the earth will be impacted by this overturning reversal kind of movement. And that’s dangerous for people who have power and continue to benefit from it. And so not only is Luke giving us a teaching of Jesus and not only is that a strong encouragement to the early church who are facing real adversities as they receive this letter, but this is also a strong narrative evidence as to why Jesus is hated so much as to be killed.
00:16:03:03 – 00:16:35:04
Michael Gewecke
And that’s not implicit. If you join us for our next study, we’re going to see that exact thing named right away. The people that Jesus is speaking to are the crowds. No doubt The people also hearing this are those religious leaders and they are being enraged by every word that Jesus is teaching in this place of power and privilege and that is the setup for this grand finale that we all know is going to be coming as this week ends in Luke’s.
00:16:35:04 – 00:16:36:36
Michael Gewecke
Telling of that last week.
00:16:36:45 – 00:17:04:41
Clint Loveall
Yeah, I wanted to be sure I had this right. Michael and I and I believe this is accurate. As Luke closes this section and as we finish this chapter, this is the last that Jesus will speak sort of publicly to the crowds. The conversations that are going to follow this one are typically between Jesus and the disciples. We’re going to listen in on the Last Supper.
00:17:04:46 – 00:17:36:25
Clint Loveall
We’re going to listen in. Luke gives us a few other things that go along with that. But this is kind of the end of Jesus public preaching, and fittingly so it ends with be alert, be be ready. Hard times will come for people of faith, but I will come. Ultimately, I will be the last thing, the last measure is God’s is the coming kingdom.
00:17:36:37 – 00:17:57:49
Clint Loveall
So be alert at all times. And I think it’s a really interesting way that Luke kind of wraps up or transitions from that public speaking thing that we’ve seen Jesus doing now for for several chapters. And from here on out, it’s going to be a little bit more of a private audience.
00:17:57:54 – 00:18:25:16
Michael Gewecke
That that’s a reality of Luke’s masterful storytelling. I think for reminder that when Jesus is speaking to the crowd, there’s an implicit kind of teaching of all the disciples that come after we’re the crowd right? But we do get moments like you’re describing opportunities to over here with some of these key disciples, the ways that Jesus teaches, and maybe most importantly, the ways that they miss what he’s teaching them.
00:18:25:20 – 00:18:55:35
Michael Gewecke
And and that is going to continue on as this story progresses. But that’s enough for today. We’re certainly glad that you’ve been with us. I hope there’s been something in this section. I don’t think if I had to guess, there’s not many among us who would say that this is our favorite section of Luke, probably. But I think important words as we hear Jesus teaching and calling us to look ahead to the things that are lasting, the end things, and that there’s a lesson and encouragement for all of us in that.
00:18:55:49 – 00:19:03:07
Clint Loveall
Yeah, yeah. I think it’s important. Part of the gospel and it’s interesting that Luke makes it the last word in that sense.
00:19:03:12 – 00:19:17:46
Michael Gewecke
Thanks for being with us, friends. If you found this section encouraging, give this video like if you would like to stick with us as we move into another chapter of Luke, we would love to have you join us for the study. Hit that subscribe button. But friends, all that said, hope you’re blessed and we’ll see you tomorrow.
00:19:17:51 – 00:19:18:37
Clint Loveall
Thanks, everybody.