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Twenty-Sixth Sunday after Pentecost
St. Stephen's Anglican Church
The Rev. Jeffrey O. Cerar, November 17, 2013


A Future We Can Believe In


Text: Luke 21:5-19

Are you an optimist or a pessimist? These terms are all about the way a person thinks about what is going on and what lies ahead. An optimist is someone who dwells on the hopeful aspects of a situation, and tends to expect good things in the future. A pessimist is someone who puts the gloomiest spin on everything, both present and future.

As a Christian, should you be an optimist or a pessimist? Or should we look for another term? At the risk of taking all the suspense out of this sermon, I will give you a Biblical answer at the outset: A Christian is neither an optimist nor a pessimist. A Christian is a realist who knows what to expect because the Bible has told us. And because of what the Bible has told us, we are hopeful about the future, because God has guaranteed it will be in accordance with His redeeming love. Our hope is not based on the expectation that everything is going to be comfortable and easy for us. In fact, we know better than anyone who does not read the Bible that things are not going to be at all comfortable and easy. But we are hopeful about the future simply because it is going to be God's work.

In our Gospel reading from Luke today, we hear Jesus talking to His disciples about what is to come. The picture Jesus painted for them would be one a pessimist would find frightening. Jesus prophesied quite a litany of bad things that were to come:

How do you suppose the disciples reacted when Jesus said all of that? The Bible doesn't tell us. But you can bet they were stunned. They would have needed time to process all this. They must have asked themselves how all this could be. This was shortly before Jesus Himself was captured and interrogated and beaten and killed. And surely, that made their confusion, fear and doubt even worse.

But when Jesus returned from the dead, and when He spent another 40 days with them, they began to put all the pieces together. And what they understood was that this upheaval that had already started was the inevitable result of God's confrontation with evil. They remembered all the prophecies in scripture, and they knew now the meaning of many of those prophecies.

All the things Jesus foretold began to come true very soon. And they continue on today. As you and I share our lives of faith together, we have that same opportunity to make sense of the Word of God, the prophecies, the spiritual battle, the Cross, the Judgment, and God's glorious future. Our experiences and our hard work in studying the Bible have given us the perspective of Biblical Christians. And this perspective is vastly different from that of a person who doesn't believe that God has revealed Himself to us through His Word.

Let's take a few moments to consider three things about the Biblical Christian's perspective:

1. How do we read the present?

2. How do we assess the future?

3. How do we cope with what we know?

First, how do we read the present? Biblical Christians have a framework for looking at our lives that other people do not. We believe that the world is in serious need of repair. We're not the only ones who think that. But other people don't understand what the fundamental problem is. We Biblical Christians understand that the root cause of all the tragedies of life is sin—universal sin. Sin is pervasive in the world, and it affects everyone at every level. Billy Graham said last week in his national broadcast, "Sin is a disease in the human heart that affects the mind and the will and the emotions." That is why the world, which God made and declared to be good, is such a violent, sad, painful and deadly place. Had sin never entered the world, there would be no death, and there would be no suffering.

We know from God's Word that He is repairing this broken world. He is doing it in His own way, and on His own schedule. He is using human beings whom He has appointed to work with Him. So we know that God has a plan, and we know that we are a part of His plan. What that means is that the most important thing we can do is to discern what God is doing in our lives and in the world around us, so that we can be prepared to play our part in His work. And if we can allow Him to take us where He wants to take us and do with us what He wants to do, what we do in the present moment is supremely worthwhile.

So then, how do we assess the future? Let's go back to Jesus' words in this morning's Gospel reading. He was telling His disciples the hard truth. In the eyes of the world, it would be a grim picture. In the eyes of a faithful disciple, it is a picture that would not be our first choice by a long shot. But once we understand what God is doing—casting out evil forever, and redeeming the world and restoring it to its original perfection—the fear of that future falls away. He tells us we are going to suffer. But when we see that our suffering has a purpose, we can take our eyes off ourselves and look to the skies. We look to the glory of God's future. We see that the clash between the triumph of Jesus on the Cross and the scheming and wickedness of Satan inevitably causes so much of the pain we encounter. And we see what God has promised the ultimate future will hold. This makes it hard for us to be pessimistic, even about things that we all fear—even death.

Take a look at verse 16 of our reading from Luke. Jesus said, "They will put some of you to death." And then in verse 18 He said, "But not a hair of your head will perish." That sounds like a contradiction. What Jesus is saying is that some Christians are going to lose their earthly life if they stand firm for Jesus. But their eternal life will be intact and guaranteed. Notice verse 19 says, "Stand firm and you will win life." Jesus is talking about resurrection. Stand firm, and even though the evil one thinks he is wiping you out, you will find eternal life with God in heaven. And what a life that will be! St. Paul said, "I consider that our present sufferings are not worth comparing with the glory that will be revealed in us." (Romans 8:18)

One of the definitions of pessimism in the dictionary is, "The doctrine or belief that this is the worst of all possible worlds and that all things ultimately tend toward evil." I can hear a secular person saying, "That's just what you Christians believe, with all your talk about sin and evil and the devil and hellfire and brimstone." Well, yes, if God were not doing something about it, this world would be the worst imaginable place.

Oh, yes, we do believe in evil, and that is what all our talk about sin and Satan and hell are about. But we are not pessimists, because we know that God is doing something about all this evil, and that He has already resoundingly defeated Satan at the Cross on Calvary, and that some day soon, He will finish restoring everything to its beautiful glory.

That is how we assess the future. And, as I said, we are realistic about what to expect, because we trust in the Word of God. Jesus told us all these scary things were going to happen to us, and so we know they will. We don't live in the illusion that we can go comfortably from day to day enjoying our earthly pleasures and not having to experience loss, or pain, or ridicule, or misunderstanding. Even if we try to hide out and not engage our increasingly hostile culture, the suffering will find us in our own homes.

But we haven't hidden away hoping to be left alone, have we?

In fact, I have had the experience Jesus predicted when He said we would be brought before kings and governors. It wasn't a king or a governor, but it was a circuit court judge. And as Jesus said, "And so you will bear testimony to me." I was in the witness box, and the judge asked me a question that practically invited me to bear testimony to Jesus—in a very public way—on the record. Jesus said,

Make up your mind 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.

I have to confess, I did worry beforehand. Of course, it did no good, because I didn't know what I would be asked. But sure enough, I did feel the words coming into my mind that I was to speak, and I found great peace in that moment. Obviously, our testimony did not persuade the judge to decide the case in our favor. But we were able to witness for Jesus, and Jesus will do what He wants with that. His plan was not for us to win the case and keep our property. His plan is better than that. We're still watching it work out. And we are still earnestly discerning how He wants us to fit into His plan, and praying for the strength and courage to go there with Him.

So here we are, living in a time when God's glorious plan has not yet come to fullness. How do we cope?

First of all, we trust in God's promises. The Bible says that "In all things God works for the good of those who love the Lord, who have been called according to His purpose." (Romans 8:28) Believing this remarkable promise gives us what we need to seek God's guidance and surrender ourselves to His plan.

Second, we endure what we must in order to participate faithfully in His plan. Paul said,

Therefore I endure all things for the sake of the elect, that they, too may obtain the salvation that is in Christ Jesus, with eternal glory. [2 Timothy 2:10]

Our third coping mechanism is to obey Jesus. When we love one another in the Body of Christ, we share the afflictions that life throws at us, and the pain is diminished. When we love our neighbor as ourselves, we receive the benefit of having a life that matters. When we go out and share the Gospel hoping to bring people to Christ, we hasten the coming of the day to which every believer looks forward. The more people who find the salvation in Christ Jesus, the closer will be the day of redemption. Jesus said,

And the Gospel of the Kingdom will be preached in the whole world as a testimony to all nations, and then the end will come. [Matthew 24:14]

Trust in His promises. Endure what you must to be in synch with His plan. And obey His commands. That's how we cope with these difficult times.

We all have our moments when we are fearful about the future. Sometimes we are so angry at the world in which we live that we lose sleep. Maybe something or someone is pushing you toward pessimism. I'm not going to ask you to become a cockeyed optimist.

Let me close with some comforting words from the Word of God. This is from Psalm 27, which David prayed millennia ago:

1 The Lord is my light and my salvation—    
   whom shall I fear?
The Lord is the stronghold of my life—    
   of whom shall I be afraid?

2 When the wicked advance against me    
   to devour me,
it is my enemies and my foes    
   who will stumble and fall.

3 Though an army besiege me,    
   my heart will not fear;
though war break out against me,    
   even then I will be confident.

4 One thing I ask from the Lord,   
   this only do I seek:
that I may dwell in the house of the Lord   
   all the days of my life,
to gaze on the beauty of the Lord   
   and to seek him in his temple.

© The Rev. Jeffrey O. Cerar, 2013

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