Luke 21.5-38
The Olivet Discourse
(Luke 21.5-38)
Jason Procopio
We’ve got a lot going on in Église Connexion these days. This afternoon we’ll be having our first general assembly this year. We’ll be making some significant decisions for the life of the church and the glory of God. We’ll be electing three new deacons. We have fifteen people who will become members today. All of this is intimidating, and exciting, and I’m so grateful for it.
But for all of the good work being done, and the good things happening, none of it means anything if Christ isn’t on the throne, reigning over his kingdom and the world he created.
Now when we talk about Jesus being “seated on the throne”, we’ll sometimes unconsciously imagine that for now anyway, it’s really more of a symbolic position. But the Bible tells us that’s the furthest thing from the truth.
Christ is seated on his throne, and he sovereignly reigns over the world he created, and one day everyone will see and recognize his reign.
Today we’re going to be in Luke 21.5-38, where we see Jesus giving what is traditionally called the Olivet Discourse—his teaching on the Mount of Olives. It is Jesus’s last major teaching before his arrest and crucifixion a couple days later.
Jesus says some things here which most people see as allusions to his second coming. As the Apostles’ Creed says, one day, he will come back from heaven to judge the living and the dead. And a lot of people will read this text and immediately think that’s what he’s talking about.
Now of course, we need to come to this text humbly: it’s an incredibly difficult text, with a number of possible interpretations. And I want to be very clear right from the outset, because I can already see the angry emails I’m going to get tomorrow: Jesus is coming back to gather his people to himself. That’s not up for debate. It’s all over the Bible, and we affirm that wholeheartedly, and with great joy.
But I would argue that Christ’s second coming is not the main focus of this text.
He’s speaking about something more immediate than that, and he’s saying it for a specific group of people at a specific point in time.
So there are two main things we’ll do this morning. The first few minutes of this sermon are going to be a bit of a history lesson. We’re going to look at what Jesus says, and how what Jesus prophesied actually did take place.
After that, we’re going to broaden our scope a little bit—there are echoes there of what will happen further down the line, things that directly concern us.
We’ve got a lot to see here, so I won’t be able to answer every question we have about this text, but I’ll try to be as detailed as I can with the time that we have.
Luke 21.5-7: The Destruction of the Temple
Let’s quickly remember the context. Jesus has been teaching in the temple. He has been affirming his authority, against the attacks from the religious leaders, and he has been lamenting the state in which the religious system in Israel had found itself. He talks about the religious authorities as being corrupt, and ignorant, and hypocritical—the Jewish religion in Israel had fallen under very hard times.
That’s what’s going on when we pick up the text in v. 5.
5 And while some were speaking of the temple, how it was adorned with noble stones and offerings, he said, 6 “As for these things that you see, the days will come when there will not be left here one stone upon another that will not be thrown down.”
We saw this last week. What Jesus is saying is very simple: because of the sin of the religious leaders in Israel, this temple—the temple in Jerusalem—will be destroyed. Nothing will be left.
Now for the Jews listening to him, the idea that the temple would be destroyed would have been nearly unthinkable.
Remember back in April, when the roof of Notre-Dame caught fire? We all watched it burn, and as we watched it there was this feeling we all shared: This can not be happening.
Why not? It’s a building, after all—made of stone and wood. What made us feel like this particular building should not be subject to the same weaknesses as other buildings?
Because not only has Notre-Dame been standing for so long that we just can’t picture Paris without it, it has achieved a particular place of grandeur in the public consciousness, through its prominence in history as well as in works of art.
In other words, history had made it so that we unconsciously saw Notre-Dame as invincible, when it isn’t.
Same thing here. This temple had been a permanent fixture in the religious life of Israel for over five hundred years, since it was rebuilt by the Jews upon their return from exile (as we see in the books of Ezra and Nehemiah). It was the center around which the religious life of the people turned, the sun in their religious solar system.
So the idea that the temple might be destroyed would have been a profoundly shocking idea for the Jews listening to Jesus, even to the disciples. The destruction of the temple would effectively mean the end of the Jewish state, and the end of Jewish worship as it had existed up to that point.
And Jesus says, “Yeah. That’s going to happen. Not a brick will be left.”
So the disciples ask the only logical question: “When is this going to happen?”
7 And they asked him, “Teacher, when will these things be, and what will be the sign when these things are about to take place?”
Luke 21.8-24: Signs to Prepare the Disciples
Now it’s important to note that Jesus answers their question. He gets them ready for it. Why does he do that?
Because these disciples have accepted that Jesus is the Christ. He is the Messiah, the Savior whom God sent to deliver his people.
There are many, many other people who have rejected him—who would indeed have him killed just a couple days from then. So what he’s predicting will happen in Jerusalem isn’t just a random event: the destruction Jesus describes here is the judgment of God against the people who had rejected his Messiah, who were living at that time.
Jesus is getting his disciples ready for that difficult period, so that they might stand firm in the face of it.
The first thing he says is that there will be “false Messiahs”—people claiming to be the Messiah.
8 And he said, “See that you are not led astray. For many will come in my name, saying, ‘I am he!’ and, ‘The time is at hand!’ Do not go after them.
We find examples of these false Messiahs in the book of Acts, as well as in the works of the Jewish historian Josephus: people who came claiming to be sent from God to deliver the people. And Jesus says not to listen to any of them—he’s not going to come back like that.
Next, he says, there will be natural and civil unrest:
9 And when you hear of wars and tumults, do not be terrified, for these things must first take place, but the end will not be at once.”
10 Then he said to them, “Nation will rise against nation, and kingdom against kingdom. 11 There will be great earthquakes, and in various places famines and pestilences. And there will be terrors and great signs from heaven.
Now of course, this was nothing new. There have always been wars, and there have always been natural disasters. But in the immediate period following the life of Jesus, there were many.
From A.D. 33 to A.D. 70 alone there was an uprising in Caesaria in which 20,000 Jews were killed; in Alexandria, 50,000 were killed; in Damascus 10,000 were killed.
There is a famine described in Acts 11.28, which occurred in the year 44, and three other famines came in the decades following.
One earthquake in the year 60 wiped out three entire cities in one go.
As for the signs from heaven, there was a comet which appeared during the emperor Nero’s reign, around the year 60, and Halley’s Comet appeared in the year 66. Josephus wrote in his War of the Jews that “there was a star resembling a sword, which stood over the city [of Jerusalem], and a comet, that continued a whole year” (Josephus, The War of the Jews, 6.289).
Next, Jesus says there will be persecution against Christians in the synagogues—so he’s not talking about the general persecution of Christians, but the persecution of Christians by the Jewish leaders.
12 But before all this they will lay their hands on you and persecute you, delivering you up to the synagogues and prisons [Mark 13 adds “councils”], and you will be brought before kings and governors for my name’s sake. 13 This will be your opportunity to bear witness. 14 Settle it therefore in your minds not to meditate beforehand how to answer, 15 for I will give you a mouth and wisdom, which none of your adversaries will be able to withstand or contradict. 16 You will be delivered up even by parents and brothers and relatives and friends, and some of you they will put to death. 17 You will be hated by all for my name’s sake. 18 But not a hair of your head will perish. 19 By your endurance you will gain your lives.
We see the fulfillment of this prophecy all over the place in the book of Acts. In the book of Acts, the main persecutors of Christians were not the Romans (that would come later), but the Jews.
So Jesus tells his disciples that all of these things will come before the temple is destroyed (after the destruction of the temple, there would be no Jewish councils left to persecute Christians), and he tells them this so that they might not be afraid. He will give them words to speak, and he will protect their lives, even in the face of death.
Up to this point, Jesus has been speaking in fairly general terms of things which have always happened, to a greater or lesser extent—wars and natural disasters and the like. But starting in v. 20, he gets much more specific—this is how the disciples will know the end of Jerusalem is near.
20 “But when you see Jerusalem surrounded by armies, then know that its desolation has come near. 21 Then let those who are in Judea flee to the mountains, and let those who are inside the city depart, and let not those who are out in the country enter it, 22 for these are days of vengeance, to fulfill all that is written. 23 Alas for women who are pregnant and for those who are nursing infants in those days! For there will be great distress upon the earth and wrath against this people. 24 They will fall by the edge of the sword and be led captive among all nations, and Jerusalem will be trampled underfoot by the Gentiles, until the times of the Gentiles are fulfilled.
So Jesus is saying, “All that was written concerning God’s judgment on Israel will be fulfilled in this way. This is how the judgment of God—the ‘time of vengeance’—will come upon those who reject the Messiah: by Jerusalem being trampled underfoot by the Gentiles.”
In A.D. 70, from April to September, came the fall of Jerusalem. The historian Josephus, who was an eyewitness to these events, wrote a very detailed chronicle (over 200 pages), which is still the definitive, accepted account of what happened.
In the year 66, war broke out between the Jews and the Romans—the tensions between the two main people groups we see in this gospel finally came to a boiling point. Rome began destroying every significant Jewish stronghold, and Jerusalem was the last—the target of their greatest fury.
Sam Storms summarizes Josephus:
“Multitudes of thieves, Zealots, and murderers had flocked to the city seeking refuge. The city was without law and order. Chaos and anarchy reigned. The city divided into warring factions who took turns attacking each other. In one incident, more than 12,000 of the city’s nobles and leading citizens were tortured and killed by the Zealots. Those who tried to escape had their throats slit and their bodies were left to rot in the streets. Burial became impossible. Huge piles of cadavers filled the streets or were thrown from the city’s walls.”
There was not enough food for the people still living in the city to eat. People sold not only their homes, but their children, to buy food. Others tried to flee the city, but were instead captured and crucified by the Romans outside the city walls (as many as 500 a day).
Finally, in A.D. 70, the emperor Titus ordered his troops to surround the city and prevent escape. The wall was finally breached (through a particularly horrible event I won’t describe here), and the temple was set ablaze.
Jerusalem, and nearly everything in it, was destroyed, burned to the ground, trampled underfoot by the Gentiles, just as Jesus said it would be.
And if all that wasn’t enough, in the next verses Jesus goes even further.
Luke 21.25-33: The Crowning of the Son of Man
25 “And there will be signs in sun and moon and stars, and on the earth distress of nations in perplexity because of the roaring of the sea and the waves, 26 people fainting with fear and with foreboding of what is coming on the world. For the powers of the heavens will be shaken.
We don’t see too much of it here in Paris, but if you go to New York, and you spend some time in Times Square, you will almost inevitably run across a street preacher wearing a sandwich board, yelling that Jesus is coming soon. And his proof will be right on his body: on the sandwich board he’s wearing, he’ll have stuck news clippings: sea levels are rising because of global warming; many nations are in chaos; an eclipse appeared in the sky two years ago…
We’ve gotten used to hearing people associate events like these with Christ’s second coming. So when we read v. 25-26 today, many of us will immediately start making similar connections.
In other words, we have a tendency to come to this text with 21st-century glasses on. We’ll see what Jesus says to his disciples, and we’ll assume he’s talking about real-life events, that will tell us Jesus’s return is just over the horizon.
Now this difficult for us to see, but that’s probably not how the Jewish disciples listening to Jesus would have heard what he’s saying.
Sam Storms explains it this way: “Jesus was speaking to a people saturated by Old Testament language, concepts and imagery. From the earliest days of their lives they memorized and were taught the Old Testament. Thus, when Jesus spoke to them of things to come he used the prophetic vocabulary of the Old Testament which they would instantly recognize.”
In other words, when Jesus talks about signs in the heavens, he’s not being innovative—this is exactly the kind of imagery the prophets used to talk about major events in history. (We see examples of this kind of figurative language in Isaiah 13.9-10, Isaiah 34.4-5, and Ezekiel 32.7-8, 15, to name just a few.)
It’s kind of like when we say, “It was raining buckets.” If you say that to someone, no one is going to wonder if you meant that buckets were literally falling out of the sky. It’s part of our cultural lexicon: an easily understood word picture, used to describe just how hard it was raining.
In the same way, when Jesus uses these images of signs in the heavens and natural disasters to talk about God’s judgment on Jerusalem for having rejected his Messiah (to quote N.T. Wright), "This is simply the way regular Jewish imagery is able to refer to major socio-political events and bring out their full significance.”
But then, in v. 27, Jesus drops a bombshell:
27 And then they will see the Son of Man coming in a cloud with power and great glory.
V. 27 is the most difficult verse in this passage, because what else could this be, but the second coming of Christ? “The Son of Man” was Jesus’s favorite title for himself; and when else would he come in a cloud with power and great glory, if not at his second coming?
But again, for the Jewish disciples listening to Jesus, that’s not the assumption they would make. These men and women would hear this sentence—they will see the Son of Man coming in a cloud with power and great glory—and they would say, Wait a minute… He’s talking about Daniel 7.
If you have a Bible, you can turn to Daniel 7 with me (if not, I’ll put it up on the screen.)
Daniel chapter 7 describes a vision that Daniel receives of God’s throne room, and it contains one particularly significant event to which Jesus is clearly referring in this text.
Let’s look at the prophecy together (Daniel 7.9, 13-14):
9 “As I looked,
thrones were placed,
and the Ancient of Days [God the Father] took his seat;
his clothing was white as snow,
and the hair of his head like pure wool;
his throne was fiery flames;
its wheels were burning fire.
And in v. 13, God the Father, the Ancient of Days, is joined by another figure:
13 “I saw in the night visions,
and behold, with the clouds of heaven
there came one like a son of man,
and he came to the Ancient of Days
and was presented before him.
So let’s stop there for a moment. Already, we can see how the disciples would have heard Jesus’s words differently than we often do.
In Daniel’s vision, to which Jesus is alluding, the Son of Man is not coming to us, but to the Ancient of Days. This isn’t a vision of the Son returning to earth; this vision is of the Son coming to the Father.
And why does he come to the Father? Daniel 7.14:
14 And to him was given dominion
and glory and a kingdom,
that all peoples, nations, and languages
should serve him;
his dominion is an everlasting dominion,
which shall not pass away,
and his kingdom one
that shall not be destroyed.
So in Daniel’s vision, we do not see the Son returning to earth; we see him returning to his Father, to receive his kingdom.
In other words, when Jesus says in v. 27, And then they will see the Son of Man coming in a cloud with power and great glory, that’s not mainly a reference to his second coming, but to his coronation as King.
And that’s what the disciples would have heard, because they knew this prophecy well. They’d hear Jesus using this Daniel 7 language, and they would realize what he was saying: All of this—the destruction of Jerusalem, and all the signs leading up to it—will prove that I have taken my place as King.
This is the thing so many people miss, but once you see it, you start seeing it all over the New Testament. They hear about Christ receiving his kingdom, and they assume that this will happen at his return. But that’s not where the Bible puts the beginning of Christ’s reign.
Remember when we talked about the ascension of Jesus at the beginning? That's what we see here—Jesus Christ lived, died and was raised. He ascended into heaven and took his seat at the right hand of the Father, where he received his kingdom, and took up his reign as King. All peoples and nations of the world serve his sovereign will, whether they know it or not.
The Father vindicated his Son’s finished work by bringing judgment on those who had rejected him, and he did it in a way that the disciples would see and recognize.
And seeing all of that—knowing that everything they’re seeing is proof that Jesus Christ is seated on the throne and reigns with power as King—should fill them with boldness. V. 28:
28 Now when these things begin to take place, straighten up and raise your heads, because your redemption is drawing near.”
29 And he told them a parable: “Look at the fig tree, and all the trees. 30 As soon as they come out in leaf, you see for yourselves and know that the summer is already near. 31 So also, when you see these things taking place, you know that the kingdom of God is near. 32 Truly, I say to you, this generation will not pass away until all has taken place. 33 Heaven and earth will pass away, but my words will not pass away.
Can you see the impact that hearing all this from Jesus, and then experiencing it first-hand, would have on the disciples?
Or the impact it would have, even on those who would receive and read this gospel later? Luke said in chapter 1 that he was writing this gospel to Theophilus (1.4) that you may have certainty concerning the things you have been taught.
This passage would have done exactly that—given the first readers of Luke’s gospel certainty concerning the things they had been taught.
Can you imagine? Luke wrote it just a couple years before the fall of Jerusalem, and it would take a while before it made its way into their hands. The first churches who received a copy of this gospel would have just lived through everything described here. They would have surely been afraid; they would have been troubled.
And here, they have this assurance from Christ himself, saying, No—by this you can see I’m on the throne. Don’t be afraid. Be bold. Be courageous. The kingdom of God is near.
Luke 21.34-36: “Stay Awake…”
So Jesus ends with a final exhortation to his disciples (v. 34):
34 “But watch yourselves lest your hearts be weighed down with dissipation and drunkenness and cares of this life, and that day come upon you suddenly like a trap. 35 For it will come upon all who dwell on the face of the whole earth. 36 But stay awake at all times, praying that you may have strength to escape all these things that are going to take place, and to stand before the Son of Man.”
I know all this is a lot to take in. And I know that I’ve probably made some of you mad, because you’re so used to hearing that this text is all about the second coming of Christ. Let me just say, if that’s the way you interpret this text, that’s okay—this is not an issue of central importance, so we can disagree here, and still be faithful Christians.
In either case, whatever our interpretation, the question we need to ask ourselves here is, What’s the point? What’s the big idea we are meant to take away from this text?
There are three:
Jesus wants his disciples to see and fear his great power, which will be on full display at the destruction of Jerusalem.
He wants them to be thankful for his mercy, because he has given them the means to escape this judgment.
And he wants them to be ready. To stay awake. To have courage, and to be bold, and to pray.
That’s what he’s saying to this group of disciples seated around him at that time, and we have to see that: he is talking to a specific group of people, telling them, “You will see these things, and when you see these things, here’s what you should do.”
And once we understand that—once we understand what he’s saying to the disciples there with him on the Mount of Olives—we can start to see what he’s telling us, through Luke’s faithful transmission of his teaching.
Because there is a good deal of overlap here with other things the Bible says will happen, which are still in our future. What Jesus says here gives us a foretaste of bigger events—bigger judgments, and bigger mercies—still to come.
The Bible says that Jesus has lived, died, was raised, and has taken up his throne at the right hand of God. It says that one day, Christ will come back to renew the earth, to judge the living and the dead.
And that day of judgment will be like this day of judgment on Jerusalem, but on a global scale.
Jesus even eludes to this in v. 34-35, when he talks about “that day which will come upon all who dwell on the earth,” instead of “these signs which you disciples will see”. He’s saying that a day is coming when God’s judgment will come on all those who reject his Messiah.
And by the same token, the mercies Christ extended to his disciples, by giving them everything they needed to escape, will also be extended on a global scale. On “that day”, Christ will raise his elect and gather them to himself and glorify their bodies and bring them with him to reign on the new heavens and the new earth.
But can we be honest? It feels like that’s a long way off, right?
We often talk about the “already” and the “not yet” of the kingdom. God’s kingdom has already come, in the person of Christ…but it has not yet been consummated at his return. Christ’s authority over this world is already absolute and total…but it is not yet visible to everyone.
So we, Christians in the 21st century, can often feel like we’re in a kind of holding pattern.
We know Christ has received his kingdom, and we’re waiting for his return…but we’ve been waiting for a pretty long time. Over two thousand years. And no matter what the end-times predictors like to say, we have no idea when he’ll return.
So it can be easy for us to think, Yeah, he’s not coming back anytime soon…and, quite frankly, to get bored with the wait. To become complacent. To get distracted by those things which seem more immediate, or at least more comforting.
And the same thing could have happened to the disciples in Jesus’s time.
Jesus tells them the signs which would precede the destruction of Jerusalem, but forty years can feel like a long time. And when they see the signs—all these depressing events Jesus predicts—it could be easy to fall into a similar kind of stupor. It could be easy to think, In the face of all these real-world terrors, what difference will it really make if I stay faithful?
It could be easy for them to seek comfort and solace in the simple pleasures of life—food and drink and family and distraction—and then suddenly find themselves in Jerusalem with Titus’s armies surrounding the walls, when they should have fled to the mountains, like Jesus told them to.
So although we today are in a different situation than the disciples were, Jesus’s exhortation to them is exactly the same as his exhortation to us.
STAY AWAKE. Watch yourselves. Don’t let yourself get distracted. Pray.
He gives us fair warning—it’s going to be difficult. It will look like everything is falling apart. We will be hated. We will be rejected. We may even be threatened. For all the good we want to do, it may feel like one step forward, two steps back.
But that feeling is a lie. Jesus Christ is King, and he still reigns today.
The cost of rejecting him is as serious as it was in that day; but the mercies he gives to his people are just as great.
He gives us everything we need to be delivered from our sin, to not suffer judgment for our rebellion against him—he gives us faith, and he drives us to repentance, and he re-creates us in his image.
He promises that even if we are persecuted, we are safe. Thousands of Christians around the world are persecuted and beaten and killed for their faith. But his promise to us is the same as his promise to the disciples in v. 16-18: Some of you they will put to death… But not a hair of your head will perish.
So if you have a hard time remembering the details of everything we’ve seen this morning, here’s the message: remember Christ’s power, remember Christ’s mercy…and stay awake.
It may feel like a long time, but in the grand scheme of history, two thousand years is nothing. You don’t know when Christ will return.
So don’t let yourself be distracted by the cares of this life. Don’t let yourself be weighed down by the cares of this life. Don’t let yourselves fall into complacency.
“But stay awake at all times, praying that you may have strength to escape all these things that are going to take place, and to stand before the Son of Man.”
He is powerful, and he is merciful. If we pray to have strength, he will give us strength. So pray for help, pray for strength, and stay awake.
