The Lutheran Hour

  • "Christ Is Coming"

    #77-10
    Presented on The Lutheran Hour on November 15, 2009
    Speaker: Rev. Ken Klaus
    Copyright 2025 Lutheran Hour Ministries

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  • Text: Mark 13:13

  • Christ is risen! He is risen, indeed! In a world of sin and sadness the resurrection of the Savior shines like a beacon. It pierces darkness, death, and all which would keep humanity from God’s gracious gifts of faith, forgiveness, and an unending victory celebration in heaven. By the Holy Spirit’s power may we be brought to Christ and cling to Him who has defeated death. Grant this Lord to us all. Amen.

    Not so long ago, I read an editorial which had been sent into a newspaper. If you don’t mind, I’d like to share that writing with you and see whether you agree with the feeling which it tries to convey. This is what it said: “The world is too big for us. Too much going on, too many crimes, too much violence and excitement. Try as you will, you get behind in the race, in spite of yourself. It’s an incessant strain to keep pace — and still, you lose ground. Science empties its discoveries on you so fast that you stagger beneath them in hopeless bewilderment. The political world is news seen so rapidly you’re out of breath trying to keep pace with who’s in and who’s out. Everything is high pressure. Human nature can’t endure much more!” Do you think that paragraph accurately describes the world or not? I ask because that quote was first published in The Atlantic Journal on June 16, 1833. Amazing! More than 175 years ago people were convinced society’s pressure was too great and the world’s pace was too fast. I guess some things just don’t change.

    What kind of things don’t change? Well, how about people wanting to know when the end of the world is going to come. Understand, this kind of question isn’t confined to religious speculators. Using a mixture of information gleaned and gathered from sources as diverse as Nostradamus, planetary alignments, the Hopi Indians, the ancient Mayans, and Chinese “I Ching,” a lot of folks are speculating that December 21st, 2012, that’s the day we won’t have to worry about taking out the garbage. Understand, while there is no real proof that December 21st is going to be dramatically different than any other day, there is a plethora of very imaginative, ingenious people who are spending a lot of time doing some mountain-sized speculating as to what might happen.

    People want to know: when is the end of the world going to come and how will it happen when it does come? Will the earth’s end arrive as we are all sucked into some super-dense black hole or will it be grey goo which does us all in? Do you think our end will happen when the sun goes supernova or will we become victims of a highly effective plague? Will our end be brought about by the universe collapsing in upon itself or the passing of a rogue comet which sucks away our atmosphere? What do you think; how will the end come? Will it be a doomsday meteor which slaps us into oblivion; might we be taken out by a reversal of the magnetic poles; or will the eruption of a mega-volcano in Yellowstone Park plunge the world into a plantless, semi-permanent darkness? Will we be washed away by a tsunami, fried by global warming, or frozen by global cooling? Will some degenerate, desperate despot decide he wants to go down in history as the fellow who punched the red button which began the nuclear war to end all wars? People of the world want to know: “What is the global train wreck which is going to bring about the earth’s end?”

    That’s a question which is often echoed by people inside the church. Since following the Christ doesn’t mean you’ve killed off your curiosity, many Christian people want to know: “How and when will this earth come to an end?” To find God’s answers to that question, these folks spend considerable time digging through the Lord’s Holy Word. Then, after they’ve turned over all the stones, after they’ve followed up on all the leads, honest investigators confess to discovering the books of the Bible are in absolute agreement: the end is coming and Jesus is returning as our Judge. But if an investigator tries to nail down the specific details of Judgment Day, he quickly finds the waters of prediction have gotten a bit muddy and the mirror into the future seems to become pretty murky.

    Now, you and I both know that people do like to have the facts about any matter. But, if the facts aren’t forthcoming, that doesn’t slow them down. If they don’t have the facts, they’re perfectly content to do some serious guessin’ and some first-class conjecturin’. Indeed, over the centuries, speculation and supposition have been the tools of anyone who is trying to make a prediction about the last times. Around the year 150 A.D., a fellow by the name of Montanus conjectured Jesus was going to return to Asia Minor, the country we know as Turkey. Montanus conjectured wrong and Jesus didn’t show up. A hundred years later, another fellow, Hippolytus, guessed he was pretty certain Jesus would come back before the year 500. Lucky for Hippolytus that “pretty certain” isn’t the same thing as “absolutely certain.” Hippolytus was wrong, and Jesus didn’t show.

    As the first 1,000 years of the church’s history came to a conclusion, the ranks of people who predicted Jesus’ imminent return began to swell. It seemed so logical. After all, 1,000 years was mentioned in the Bible — and it was a good, round number, a number which symbolized completeness. It made sense. So much sense that in the spring of the year 1,000 many farmers decided not to plant any crops. In the small towns, buildings and roads fell into disrepair; commerce was left uncompleted and business deals were not concluded. To make a long story short, Jesus didn’t show up as people had hoped (or feared). In the months which followed, the disillusioned and the disappointed drifted back to their old, normal lives – and if anybody spoke about the year Jesus was supposed to have returned, they would blush and quickly change the subject.

    Of course, the failure of Jesus to make an appearance didn’t stop other people in other generations and other centuries from making their own predictions and prophecies. You remember how “Christopher Columbus sailed the ocean blue in fourteen-hundred-and-ninety-two”; but did you know, along with being an explorer, Columbus fancied himself to be somewhat of a scholar in regard to Biblical prophecies. In his manuscript, “The Book of Prophecies,” Columbus said he was convinced the world was going to end in 1556. That imminent date had to have been a great motivator for him to discover the shortest possible route to the Orient. Columbus felt the earth’s clock was ticking and there wasn’t much time left to preach to the lost souls and Christless hearts of the Far East. Columbus was wrong and Jesus didn’t come back in 1556; and the world didn’t end in 1666. Looking at that year’s dark numerical symbolism, a lot of people thought Jesus just might show up. In his diary, one pastor observed, “every time a storm hits, people go to church awaiting Jesus’ second coming.” I doubt if they kept showing up at worship when the calendar read 1667.

    Now, if you’re thinking, “Those were all superstitious people, uneducated, folk who could easily be confused. Today we are more sophisticated. We’re not near as likely to be suckered into following a false prophet who is making false promises.” If that is what you believe, I wish you would share your opinion with the 900 members of Jonestown, Guyana who put their faith in a false prophet. Their world ended with some sips of cyanide-laced Flavor-Aid. Are we too sophisticated to believe in false prophets? Tell that to the 75 Branch Davidians who put their misplaced faith in David Koresh and died in the Waco compound fire. Too sophisticated? Not so many years ago Reverend Colin Deal published a book which said Jesus would come back in 1988. Jesus didn’t show. There were those who said Jesus would return at the beginning of the new millennium. Indeed, some people were so sure He was coming back they took a special tour to Israel so they would be there to shake His hand.

    So, do we have any idea when the end is going to come? The answer to that question is, “Yes.” To those who are willing to listen, Jesus did give some clues. If you turn to the 13th chapter of the Gospel of Mark you will read how Jesus made a prediction about Herod’s magnificent temple. The Savior told His disciples: “Boys, that’s a pretty impressive building, but everything you see over there is going to be torn down.” Understandably, the disciples followed up. They asked, “When is this going to happen? When is the end of the world coming?” Jesus gave some clues; He offered a check list of things to watch for… things God’s Son said would happen before the end of the earth.

    First on Jesus’ list was the arrival of false prophets. These phony prophets would be men and women who claimed they were speaking for the Savior, that they were the Savior. Jesus told the disciples that the message shared by these charlatans would sound solid and be silky smooth to the ear, but the content of what they said would be contrary to everything Jesus had taught. These false prophets would seduce souls away from the Savior, His forgiveness, His blood-bought salvation and deposit those souls before Satan’s slaughterhouse in hell.

    But the rise of false prophets was just the beginning of Jesus’ list of things which must happen before the end. The Savior said there would be wars and rumors of wars – nation rising up against nation and kingdom against kingdom. Not a single generation listening to this Lutheran Hour broadcast has managed to escape the terrible, tragic bloodshed of war. Nor have we avoided the “earthquakes and famines” which Jesus said must come. December 26, 2004. On that day people worked, played, lived. They did these things until a tsunami came. 50-feet, 100-feet tall, it came. It engulfed communities, erased buildings, swept away life. Some died instantly, others took longer as, in the months to come, disease, starvation, malnutrition took their toll.

    Amazingly, Jesus tells His listeners not to be alarmed by these tragedies and terrors, for they are only the beginning of what is to come, what must come before Judgment Day. Jesus warned how His people would be betrayed by family members and denounced by those who should have been protecting them. He tells how the Holy Spirit will empower His redeemed to make a witness before those who hound and hate them; how they will be given words of proclamation to those who will persecute and punish them, murder and martyr them. Should I tell you how, in many places of the world, Jesus’ prediction has become reality?

    On July 27th of this year, four Christians, Christians who worked with orphans in southern Somalia, were kidnapped by a terrorist organization called Al-Shabaab. According to an eyewitness, all four were given a chance to return to their previous religion. If they did, they were told they would be released. The eye-witness reports, “They all declined the generous offer.” When they refused to convert, the four were beheaded by a man who calls himself “Seiful Islam,” which means “the sword of Islam.’ The families of the martyrs were told they would not get back the bodies for burial, “as Somalia does not have cemeteries for infidels.”1 One more item is checked off Jesus’ list of things which must happen before the world’s end.

    You have been checking things off that list, haven’t you? I mean you did say you wanted to know when the end was coming. Have you forgotten to keep track? All right, let me quickly go over the list. Temple in Jerusalem destroyed? Check. That happened about 40 years after Jesus was crucified and rose. False prophets? Check. Wars? Check. Rumors of wars? Check. Earthquakes? Famines? That’s a double check. Persecution? Check. Martyrs being put to death? Check. Oh, I forgot, Jesus said the “Gospel had to be proclaimed to all nations.” That’s happening, too. For almost 80 years The Lutheran Hour has been bringing Christ to the nations; we have been telling how, 2,000 years ago Jesus came into this world to be our Savior.

    To a dark and death-filled world, we have shared how Jesus’ entire life was dedicated to restoring the broken relationship between the heavenly Father and His sinful children. Jesus took on a thankless job and was committed to completing this monumental undertaking. So many of the joys, the comforts, the conveniences, the pleasures of life that you and I have been given, which we often take for granted, were denied to Him. His best friends misunderstood His mission and the sacrifices He had to make for their salvation. The leaders of His community and church found Him a nuisance, an annoyance, an aggravation who needed to be eliminated. At His trial, the government authority who had been sent to protect the innocent and punish the guilty, in Jesus’ case, chose to do just the opposite. Which is why, on a Friday morning almost 2,000 years ago, the Son of God, the innocent Savior of the world came to be nailed to a Roman cross outside the city walls of Jerusalem. There Jesus paid the price for our sin; there He died the death our disobedience had deserved. There, six hours later, in lonely darkness, Jesus died. But He did not stay dead; no, He didn’t. Three days after He was buried, Jesus came back to life — and a living Lord Jesus keeps coming back.

    Which really is the point of this message: Jesus keeps coming back. It’s not all that important if you know when the end of the whole world is going to happen or when Jesus is going to judge the living and the dead. The truth is, the Bible is clear; you’re never going to know that unknown hour. What is important is for you to be prepared for that moment when your personal end comes; for you to be ready for that day when death shows up and points his bony finger at you. My friends, you can be ready, you will be ready, if Jesus is standing at your side when death arrives. When death came for Peter and Paul during the Roman persecutions, Jesus was there. A few months ago, when that misguided swordsman beheaded those four Christians in Somalia, Jesus was there, too. I don’t know where those murderers put the bodies of their victims, but I know the living Lord Jesus took the souls of those martyrs to heaven. All of those souls were victorious because the risen Jesus was there. Like St. Paul they could say, “I am sure that neither death nor life, nor angels nor rulers, nor things present nor things to come, nor powers, nor height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord” (Rom. 8:38-39).

    Death is coming — your day of judgment is coming. When I began this message, I set the World Health Organization’s death clock. That’s a computer program which estimates how many people have died during a given period of time. Since this message began, the World Health Organization says death has come for 1243,1244, 1245, 1246, 1247. Death is coming. Some of you who are listening to this Gospel broadcast today will not be among the living a week from now. Are you ready? Is your family ready? Your friends? When death comes, will Jesus be with them, with you? With faith in the Christ, there is forgiveness, there is hope, there is victory, there is eternity. With Jesus you can be more than a conqueror. Death is coming for you. But you don’t have to face it alone. Jesus, who has, with His glorious resurrection, managed to defeat death has promised to do the same for you. He says it plainly, “Because I live, You shall live, also” (John 14:19).

    My friend, I don’t know when the end is coming for this sinful world. Nor do I know when your own personal end will arrive. I do know, if you have faith in Jesus as your Savior, those days, whenever they come, will not be frightening. His victory will be yours. If you need more of this assurance, please, call us at The Lutheran Hour. Amen.

    LUTHERAN HOUR MAILBOX (Questions & Answers) for November 15, 2009
    Topic: Suicide – Part 1

    Announcer: Now, Pastor Ken Klaus responds to questions from listeners. I’m Mark Eischer.

    Klaus: Hello, Mark.

    Announcer: Our discussion today is prompted by a listener who made a memorial gift to The Lutheran Hour upon the death of a young man who, sadly, took his own life. This 24 year-old hadn’t gone to church in years and at the funeral service, they played a country song called, “God is Great, Beer is Good and People are Crazy.”

    Klaus: Yes, I once had a request for “Home on The Range” to be used as a funeral song.

    Announcer: Did you use it?

    Klaus: The family rethought their request and came up with something a little bit more appropriate.

    Announcer: Well, anyway, it’s been a long time since we’ve even discussed the topic of suicide here. We know that, according to the Bible, Judas committed suicide.

    Klaus: He did.

    Announcer: Now was that because he was sorry that he betrayed Jesus?

    Klaus: The King James Version of the Bible says, “Judas repented himself.” The NIV says, “Judas was seized with remorse.” The Greek word that’s used here means to “be sorry.” So, the simple answer to the question is, “Yes, Judas repented of his sin.”

    Announcer: If he repented, why did he then commit suicide? Would he have been forgiven?

    Klaus: Those are complicated questions. Let me try to put them in order. First, let’s deal with the suicide. Mark, let me ask you: why would somebody commit suicide?

    Announcer: Well, someone might be tempted to consider it when it seems as though death looks better than life or when, perhaps, they’ve become extremely depressed or even mentally unbalanced.

    Klaus: I think you’ve covered most of the more popular reasons. Especially that last one. A lot of people think all suicides stem from mental imbalance.

    Announcer: I’ve heard that.

    Klaus: Me, too–although it’s not true! Mark, before I go any farther, I need to make one thing clear. We are talking specifically about Judas today. We are not talking about every suicide. There are times when a person is not in control of his or her actions, and when a Christian is in that state, the Lord does not hold them accountable.

    I want to emphasize this. You cannot take what I’m saying today and apply it to every single suicide. Every situation is different. There, having said that, I think it is possible for a person to be thinking perfectly rationally, albeit, wrongly, and still take their own life. I can give you some examples: the Japanese kamikaze pilots of World War II, they knew what they were doing. But they did it because they were dedicated to a cause. Today, we have terrorists who blow themselves up. They aren’t unbalanced, so much as they are dedicated.

    Announcer: Well, what kind of cause might Judas have been dedicated to?

    Klaus: Actually, the very same cause that motivates many terrorists today. I think Judas was trying to redeem himself, rather than counting on the redemption that Jesus was winning for him. Look at what Judas did. He saw Jesus being led off, beaten, tried, condemned. The Bible says Judas realized he had betrayed, “innocent blood.” Judas repented; he felt guilty. So what did he do?

    Announcer: The first thing he did was return the money.

    Klaus: Good, and the next thing?

    Announcer: The Bible says, “He went out and hanged himself.”

    Klaus: Why? Why would Judas, having returned the money, do something that final?

    Announcer: Well, that’s what our listener wants to know.

    Klaus: Mark, I can’t be sure. I can’t look into Judas’ heart, or anybody’s heart to see their motivation. But, Judas may well have known the passage from Leviticus 24, which says: “If anyone takes the life of a human being, he must be put to death. ….19If anyone injures his neighbor, whatever he has done must be done to him: 20fracture for fracture, eye for eye, tooth for tooth. As he has injured the other, so he is to be injured.”

    Announcer: So you are saying that Judas, realizing he had caused the death of an innocent Man, and now sorry for his crime, felt he needed to sacrifice his life to pay for the life of Jesus.

    Klaus: I’m saying that is a possibility. Think about it. How did Jesus die?

    Announcer: He was crucified.

    Klaus: How did Judas commit suicide?

    Announcer: He hanged himself.

    Klaus: Mark, there is a lot of ways of committing suicide. Is it coincidental that Judas picked the one which had him suspended between heaven and earth like a crucified man?

    Announcer: Well, something to think about. But, we’re out of time today-let’s continue with this next week?

    Klaus: Let’s do that.

    Announcer: Thank you Pastor Klaus. This has been a presentation of Lutheran Hour Ministries.

    Music selection for this program:

    “A Mighty Fortress” arranged by John Leavitt. Concordia Publishing House/SESAC

    “My Lord, What a Morning” arr. Henry Gerike. From Agnus Dei by the Concordia Seminary Chorus (© 1996 Concordia Seminary Chorus) Half-Schott Press

    “Jesus, Your Blood and Righteousness” arr. Chris Loemker. Concordia Publishing House

    “Thaxted” arr. Timothy Moke & Georg Masanz. From Music for Trumpet and Organ by Timothy Moke (© 2008 T. Moke Recordings)

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