Luke 21:33

Jesus said in Luke 21:33, “Heaven and earth shall pass away: but my words shall not pass away.” Everything in the physical world has its limitations. It’s limited by time and space. This is not just a spiritual truth. It is a scientific truth. If Christ delays His return long enough, the sun itself will burn out. The universe is slowly dying down and wearing out. Of course, Jesus in this passage is talking about an ending that will come much sooner than the natural degeneration of energy and matter.

Heaven and earth shall pass away, according to Jesus. The age in which we live is coming to an end. We do not know exactly when it will end, but we do know that it will end with the return of Christ. If you want to make plans for the long-term, then put your hopes and dreams in that which will last the longest. Nothing will last longer than the Word of God. The Word of God comes from the person of God as nothing else in this world. “In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.” “All scripture is given by inspiration of God.” “The Word of God is alive and powerful.” The Psalmist understood the value of the Word of God. He said, “Thy Word have I hid in my heart that I might not sin against thee.” Elsewhere in the gospels Jesus said, “Man shall not live by bread alone, but by every Word of God.”

We need to make sure that we give an importance to what Jesus says is important. Do we understand how valuable is the Bible, and does the attention that we give to it demonstrate that we value it? We need to make sure that we are presenting and proclaiming the Word of God and not our own ideas. “If any man speak, let him speak as of the Word of God.” Someone once ran for president and they wanted to make sure that they always emphasized the economy in their policies and speeches, so they printed the following on bulletin boards and notepads in order to remind themselves of what the emphasis should be: “It’s the economy, stupid.” Pastors and preachers and Christian workers should remind themselves of what is really important when they speak. Are they giving out their own ideas and opinions or are they giving out the Word of God? Maybe they could remind themselves of what is really important with the following: “It’s the Word of God, stupid.”

Of course, everything that Jesus said was the Word of God. In Luke 21:34-36 Jesus said, “And take heed to yourselves, lest at any time your hearts be overcharged with surfeiting, and drunkenness, and cares of this life, and so that day come upon you unawares. For as a snare shall it come on all them that dwell on the face of the whole earth. Watch ye therefore, and pray always, that you may be accounted worthy to escape all these things that shall come to pass, and to stand before the Son of man.” Earlier in this chapter Jesus had given some signs that would appear before His return to the earth. As we prepare for the return of Christ, it’s important that we notice that in verses 34-36 Jesus does not tell us to look for the signs. Instead, He tells us to look at our own behavior and attitudes. If we want to be prepared for the return of Christ, we want to “take heed” to ourselves.

We should always take heed to ourselves because of the inherent weakness of the sinful nature that we all received from Adam. We never know when sin lieth at the door. There can be a terrible price to pay for sin. For every action there is a reaction. Consequences cannot be ignored or avoided. “God is not mocked. Whatsoever a man sows, that shall he also reap.” God is not a respecter of persons. Everyone lives under the same rules and God is the judge. In this passage Jesus is telling us to take heed to ourselves because His return is imminent. He came the first time to die on the cross for our sins, but He will come the second time to judge sin. We need to be prepared by our actions for His return. We are being warned very clearly by Jesus that it will be a serious mistake to not be prepared for His return.

Jesus told us to beware of “surfeiting, and drunkenness, and cares of this life.” Surfeiting is a word that means instability or staggering. It refers to the lack of physical self-control that would result from the improper use of drugs or alcohol. The emphasis is on the importance of doing the right thing. It is hard enough to do the right thing when you are not under the influence of some foreign substance. One of the goals of life is to do the right thing. Do right until the stars fall. Jesus says that it is especially important that you are doing the right thing when He returns. Because He might return on any given day, the only way to make sure that you are doing the right thing when He returns is to make sure that you do the right thing today.

Notice the relationship between the three things that Jesus said to beware of: “surfeiting, and drunkenness, and cares of this life.” Surfeiting, which is uncontrolled behavior, comes from drunkenness. Drunkenness often comes from being burdened by the cares of this life. The cares of this life refer to the multitude of things that human beings easily worry about involving their life on this earth. This includes everything from the need for food, shelter, and money, to relationships and the need for love. Human beings are capable of worrying about everything imaginable from birth to burial: from the beginning of life to death and even beyond.

Someone might say, “Oh, I do not have the problem of surfeiting and drunkenness.” That might be. But what about the cares of this life? As far as Jesus is concerned on the subject of being prepared for the return of Christ, if you are over-charged with the cares of this life, then you are in the same spiritual category as someone who has been overtaken by drugs or alcohol.

Of course, a Christian has every reason to never be over-charged with the cares of this life. We have been given such great and precious promises about the next life, and equally great promises about how we will be taken care of in this life by the Almighty God. God loves us. He has made promises, and He always keeps His promises. Any time that we are overtaken by the cares of this life is a time when we have forgotten the promises of God and at least momentarily have stopped having faith in Him.

Forgiveness of sin is a wonderful thing. God is a loving God who sent His Son to die for the sins of the world. “All have sinned.” It will be a terrible thing to die under the guilt of one’s sins. All people face the judgment to come. After death comes judgment. “It is appointed unto men once to die and after this the judgment.” Just before Jesus returns to the earth, there will be a judgment of the earth that Jesus called the Great Tribulation. Once in a while we hear of great tragedies and sorrows that happen on the earth, but during the time of the Great Tribulation there will be disasters and calamities and tragedies as the world has never known. Perhaps Jesus was speaking of this Great Tribulation in Luke 21:35 when He said, “For as a snare shall it come on all them that dwell on the face of the whole earth.”

The book of Revelation goes into much detail about the time of sorrow that shall come upon the earth. The Bible says in Revelation 6:15-17, “And the kings of the earth, and the great men, and the rich men, and the chief captains, and the mighty men, and every bondman, and every free man, hid themselves in the dens and in the rocks of the mountains; And said to the mountains and rocks, Fall on us, and hide us from the face of him that sits on the throne, and from the wrath of the Lamb; For the great day of his wrath has come; and who shall be able to stand?” When Jesus spoke of this day in Luke 21:35 He said that it would be a “snare” to the people of the earth. A snare is a place from which there is no escape. Today there is an escape from the judgment to come. You can find safety in the mercy of God and in the arms of Jesus. But do not delay. The day is coming when there will be no escape.

In Luke 21:36 Jesus indicated very clearly that there will be a possibility for some people to escape the terrible calamities of the Great Tribulation. Because of His great love, God always provides a way of escape even from His own just judgments. Jesus said, “I am the way, the truth, and the life.” In this passage in Luke chapter twenty-one Jesus said to watch and pray in order to escape the judgment of which He was speaking. What is the prayer that someone can pray and thereby escape the Great Tribulation just a few years before the return of Christ? It’s the prayer of salvation: the prayer to receive Jesus as Savior. Romans 10:13 says, “Whosoever shall call upon the name of he Lord shall be saved.”

In First Thessalonians the Bible speaks of the rapture when God will deliver His children from the earth so that they will not have to suffer in the period of the Great Tribulation. God always takes care of His children. In First Thessalonians 4:16-18 it says, “For the Lord Himself shall descend from heaven with a shout, with the voice of the archangel, and with the trump of God: and the dead in Christ shall rise first: Then we which are alive and remain shall be caught up together with them in the clouds, to meet the Lord in the air: and so shall we ever be with the Lord. Wherefore comfort one another with these words.”

There seems to be a two-fold significance to what Jesus said in Luke 21:36. One part of the great salvation that God has given to us through faith in Jesus is an escape from the time of Tribulation that will come upon the earth just before the return of Christ. Of course, for the believer the return of Christ also will be a time of judgment. We will be judged in order to determine the rewards that we have gained or lost. Jesus said to watch and pray. To watch means to be careful and to be on your guard. “The devil walks about as a roaring lion seeking whom He may devour.” To pray means that you recognize that you are needful of God’s help in the spiritual warfare. “Be strong in the Lord and in the power of His might.” In the Sermon on the Mount Jesus told us to always make this request from God, “Deliver us from the evil one.”

If we are going to learn to live for God in this world, then we must learn to watch and pray on a daily basis and even from moment to moment. If you have a moment of failure, if you say something that you ought not say, or if you react in a way that you ought not to react, it will probably be because you were not watching and praying the way that you should have been. Of course, Jesus watched and prayed, and He also taught. Luke 21:37-38 says, “And in the day time he was teaching in the temple; and at night he went out, and abode in the mount that is called the mount of Olives. And all the people came early in the morning to him in the temple, for to hear him.” We know what Jesus did on the Mount of Olives. He prayed there. One of the reasons that the teachings of Jesus were so powerful and wonderful is undoubtedly because of His prayers. No man ever spoke as this man, because no man ever prayed as this man. Before Jesus went to teach people and to speak to them, He made sure that He was spiritually prepared to do so. Too bad that more preachers do not do the same. Too many preachers are like clouds without rain, partly because they have not learned to pray.

The Bible says that “all the people came early in the morning to him in the temple, for to hear him.” Human nature has not changed that much. There is a natural hunger in the soul of man that can only be satisfied by the Word of God. People will still come to hear the Word of God, if there is someone who has been gifted by God as a teacher, and if that someone is spiritually minded, and if he gives out the Word of God instead of his own opinions, and if he has wisdom on how to lift up Christ instead of himself or some other human, and if he prays.

There are those who build up the kingdom of God, and there are those who attempt to tear it down. The Bible says in Luke 22:1-6, “Now the feast of unleavened bread drew near, which is called the Passover. And the chief priests and scribes sought how they might kill him; for they feared the people. Then entered Satan into Judas surnamed Iscariot, being of the number of the twelve. And he went his way, and communed with the chief priests and captains, how he might betray him unto them. And they were glad, and covenanted to give him money. And he promised, and sought opportunity to betray him unto them in the absence of the multitude.”

These six verses describe some of the more despicable motives that can exist in the human heart. In the persons of Judas Iscariot and the religious leaders we see hatred, deception, conspiracy, murder, greed, and betrayal. We also see fear. Fear leads to treachery and cowardice. You have nothing to fear but fear itself. These men had been plotting the death of Jesus for two or three years now. You had better be careful what you hope for, you just might get it. Throughout the history of the human race in the worst deeds of mankind, you will almost always find the devil there. He has a special gift for bringing out the worst motives in man and tempting man to commit the worst of sins. Here the devil is called Satan. Satan means adversary. These men and Satan tried to oppose the work of God. They plotted the death of Jesus. But in so doing somehow the mighty power of God used the evil deeds of these base humans to send Jesus to the cross so that our sins could be paid for.

We who believe in Jesus serve a great God and a great Savior. It was by the hand of wicked men that Jesus died for our sins, but it was also by the power of God who loves us and sent His Son to die for us.

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