The Drama of the Ages (Luke 21:20-36)

I intend to be very brief and I want us to be able to spend a good bit of time at the end of the message all together praying and seeking God for His grace and divine favors. A lot of things are being played out all over this world on the stage that we call earth. I’m going to talk to you about the greatest drama of all the ages; what God is doing and will climax with the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ. This chapter 21 gives us a tremendous record of three different stages of the development of our Lord and especially as it relates to His coming in power and glory. These stages are like acts of a great drama and I’m going to relate to those three acts of this great drama of the ages. I want us to focus our attention on what God is doing, and the fulfillment of the prophetic word, and the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ.

I believe that even though there are great things happening, heart-searching, heart-rending, heart-breaking things that are happening in this world, far above the drought in one place and floods in another, wars and rumors of wars, earthquakes, far above that is this great eternal drama that is being played out when God has His own divine will in the lives of people upon this earth.

Jesus, in this chapter, is teaching and talking to His disciples and they are looking at the temple and how it is adorned (verse 5) and how beautiful it is. They are just commenting about it. Jesus begins to describe what I’m referring here from verses 5-24a, the first act in this great drama of end time events. Leading up to the destruction of Jerusalem and the fall and destruction of the temple and Jerusalem being overrun by Gentiles until the time the Gentiles would be fulfilled. He describes what it is going to be like in their immediate future. He says, first of all, that the temple itself is going to be destroyed. Not one stone will be left unturned upon another. We don’t know the exact date when Jesus was saying this to His disciples. It could have been around the year 33 or so. But in 70 A.D. it was not long until it completely came to pass. It was an absolute prophecy that came to pass that people could see and the disciples and the apostles were able to see it. The very words and prophecies of Jesus that Jerusalem would indeed be compassed about with armies. He said there would be many false Christs that would arise (verse 8). He said “Don’t you follow them. Don’t listen to false voices. Don’t listen to false claims. Don’t be deceived with people who are saying ‘Here is Christ and There is Christ. Here is the Messiah. There is the Messiah.’ All these types of things are going to be taking place right here in your near future. There will be wars and commotions on the earth, but the end is not yet.” When these things are taking place in the tribulation that is being poured out upon the earth before the destruction of Jerusalem, He said that’s not the signal, that’s not the signs of the end because the end is not yet. It will come by and by.

He describes that there would be earthquakes and famines and pestilences (verse 11). He talks about all of these sights and signs that would be in the heavens; unusual demonstrations in the natural world, unusual things for them to see. Then He described the seriousness of life for the Christians themselves; great persecutions, imprisonments for some, execution of others, some denying each other, some betraying one another, and some turning back. It would appear from what Jesus said and from what other writers wrote to us in Scripture, for example the Hebrews writer, that there was a tremendous problem with people turning away from their faith and going back to Judaism, turning away from Christianity. There is a strong statement in Hebrews 6 that people who turn away from the Lord and from the blood of Jesus Christ that they crucify the Son of God afresh and bring Him to open shame. He says it is impossible to bring them back to repentance, seeing what they do. So, there must have been problems in those days as Jesus predicted and prophesied with people losing their faith.

It would appear that in times of trouble and questions that people do become uneasy and shaky and they want to turn to something they can see and put their hands on. They want to see a kingdom that will materialize right in front of them before they can feel safe and secure. But Jesus is saying ‘For My sake they will imprison you. For My sake because you are a Christian and you are holding up My Name, it will mean that persecutions will come upon you and trials and troubles will come.’ Then He said that one thing you need to know for sure is when you see Jerusalem compassed about with armies, then you know that that city is about to fall and it is going to be bad for people who are in that city then. People will need to flee from there. It will be bad for a woman who has a child or a baby, because they will become refugees. They will have to move out of that city if they are to escape the destruction because if they stay they will be destroyed. Some will be taken to all different countries of the world and will be scattered and dispersed everywhere all over the earth. The city itself will be destroyed and not one stone will be left upon the others. He said that when you see this you know that the desolation is near to Jerusalem. The awful desolation and destruction of the temple that would be by Gentile powers, Roman powers, and others in charge who come in to destroy the temple and all the sacred things of the Jews and all the familiar places of the Christians themselves.

Then He said that Jerusalem will be trodden down of the Gentiles until the time of the Gentiles be fulfilled. What He is saying is that with the destruction of Jerusalem and the coming in of Gentile rulers over it, like the Roman Empire in particular, He said then Jerusalem will be trodden down until the time of the Gentiles be fulfilled.

He is beginning to what I would refer to then as Act II, the time when Jerusalem is destroyed and Gentile powers come in and take over and they cover that land and that country and have rule over it for many, many, many years, until the times of the Gentiles be fulfilled. We have looked back in history and we know that for almost 2,000 years Jerusalem was indeed covered and ruled and governed by Gentile forces and powers. One of the greatest things that ever happened despite all the things that happened through the years was the fact that in our own time, in 1948, one of the greatest acts or developments in this drama of the ages is Jerusalem being turned again to Jewish people and the Jews being able to come home and being able to come back to their land. Amos prophesied about this and he said that they will be brought back and planted in their own land and they shall never be plucked up again. There have been many efforts to dislodge them and to turn them out and take that country away from them. There are many, many schemes of different nations now that would like to simply go in and wipe that Jewish nation completely off the map. But according to God’s Word and God’s divine prophecy that He has given to us, that is a divine impossibility.

I’m glad that regardless of what moves and shakes and happens here in this world and regardless of the schemes, God is still on the throne. He is still the divine eternal sovereign God and He can bring forth His divine will and all His people have to do is keep their eyes focused upon Him, His Word, His promised and His mighty power and nothing can shake us or turn us aside from following hard after Him.

That Act II has been underway for such a long time that now then we can see the beginning of Act III. The times of the Gentiles is just about fulfilled totally, completely and absolutely in Jerusalem. There are some who are still there. There are some opposing forces that still claim part of the city. We do not know exactly what will take place to bring about the rebuilding of the temple. We don’t know exactly when this is going to happen and when other forces and nations and nationalities and powers will be moved out of there. But we know God in His own time, in His own way will bring into being the beginning of this Act III. We think that this beginning of this third stage is already begun with Jews coming back home and the Jewish nation. There are some things that are to take place with them yet. For one thing, as a nation and as a people, they have not turned to God. They have not accepted the Christ. They are still heathen in that respect. There are some covenants and promises from God in the prophets and old that are related to them as a nation that do not bind in a spiritual sense because God has grafted in others to bring us in, the Church in, the new Israel, to be the beneficiaries of His covenants with the children or descendants of Abraham. So that now every person who has faith in Jesus Christ is considered a descendant of Abraham and of Abraham’s seed because of faith in the true Messiah.

We don’t know what God will do yet in Israel. We don’t know what He will do yet the Jewish people who have stood so hard against Christ. We know that they have suffered for centuries because of the stand they took in the first place against Jesus Christ and were guilty of His crucifixion. We know that they have suffered and have been scattered all over the world and have suffered all over the world and great prejudice and great sorrow have they reaped through the years. We think of the six million Jews destroyed in Germany alone by Gentiles. I want to tell you, we don’t know what else is to be written, what other dark chapters that may be written. But we do know that God is moving on His divine calendar according to His own will. He doesn’t figure time like we do. He doesn’t have to wear a watch to keep up with the events. He doesn’t have to use a calendar. He dwells in eternity. He sees the ending from the beginning and it is all moving according to His divine decrees and His divine power. Hallelujah! I’m glad it’s in His hands. Aren’t you? Hallelujah! Hallelujah! Oh, thank God. I’m glad it’s all in His hands.