Kingdom Come: Signs


In Luke 21, Jesus and his disciples are in Jerusalem.  His disciples were in awe of the beauty of the temple.  But Jesus shocked them by saying that soon, not one stone of the temple would standing on top of the other.  For the disciples, this meant the end of the world and the coming of the kingdom of God.  

Jesus knew that the coming of the kingdom was more complex than his followers imagined.  He had been trying to tell them that the kingdom was entering the world through him, but they didn't understand what he was talking about.  In his discourse in Luke 21, he tried to prepare them for what was to come.

The temple would be destroyed, and there would be cataclysmic events like earthquakes, wars, and more.  These were all signs of the coming kingdom.  But they were to wait patiently, because the end wouldn't come immediately.  

Their job wasn't to try to nail down the time of the end.  Their job was to do the things Jesus commanded them to do.  Like love God with all their hearts and love their neighbors as themselves.  They were to do so watchfully, knowing that one day Christ would return.

What does all this have to do with Christmas?  It reminds us that Jesus' birth was an event of the end times.  The Messiah was to come at the end of the world and bring God's kingdom.  In Luke 1, the angel Gabriel told Mary the son she would bear would be the Messiah, and in Luke 2, the angel proclaimed to the shepherds that the Messiah had been born in Bethlehem.  

Christmas reminds us that the Messiah has come, and that we're living in the end times.  It also reminds us that just as Jesus came 2,000 years ago, he's coming again.  This time, he'll come in power and glory, set all wrongs right, and rule over a resurrected creation.

Christmas reminds us to be alert and watchful for his return, so that when he comes back, he finds us doing what he commanded us to do!

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