3rd Last Sunday in the Church Year
Hebrews 12:26-29 / Mark 13:1-13
An Unshakable Kingdom
11/9/03
My tongue get tied when I try to speak
My insides shake like a leaf on a tree
There’s only one cure for this body of mine
That’s to have the girl that I love so fine!
My hands are shaky and my knees are weak
I can’t seem to stand on my own two feet
Who do you thank when you have such luck?
I’m in love
I’m all shook up!
It’s a powerful thing; that is, love. And not just for Elvis, who couldn’t seem to stand still. It can seemingly make the earth move beneath anyone’s feet if by chance they meet the “right” someone. It can turn the biggest of men into broken-hearted babes if it suddenly fails to be so right.
But we all know that there’s much more in life that can rattle us than the roller coater ride of a youthful relationship. I can guarantee you that Judy was just a little bit more than “shook up” when I told her that I was going to begin this sermon with Elvis Presley’s All Shook Up. I can still remember the startled look as the image passed before her eyes, and it wasn’t one that said, “I can’t wait to see that!” I don’t think my kids would find the sight worthy of appreciation either.
But in all seriousness, there’s a lot about this life and this world that’s unstable, that disappoints, that shakes us to the core. In fact, we’re waking up most mornings these days to a myriad of things that leave us all shook up. There are natural disasters, sudden changes in climate, solar flares and any number of alternating circumstances that remind us of the instability of life we observe all around us. And if we don’t constantly react to our changing circumstances, we risk getting swept away; which is just as true if we seek help in all the wrong places.
Quite a number of people in California know that full well. They’ve learned the hard way. Having lived out there and having witnessed wild fires like those over the past two weeks, I feel safe assuming that there were quite a number of people who didn’t just evacuate their homes. There were undoubtedly some who took to the defense of their homes with a garden hose. I’ve seen it happen before. They’ll stand on their rooftops armed with a skinny tube, wetting their roofs, spraying surrounding trees, trying to avert the inevitable. Many lost their homes anyway, together with valuables and keepsakes they might have saved if they had used the time to gather up belongings instead of worthlessly trying to save it all. Some of them lost even more – their own lives.
While the firestorms of life are brewing, while the earth is coming unglued beneath our feet and making it important us to react; it’s just as important that we react in the right way, that we run to safety, where it can truly be found.
It’s important because many of our would-be-saviors are offering nothing but shaky ground too. Look at government, our would-be-savior of every societal woe. It carries out its God-given task of protecting us from harm; but it’s full of politicians who want to manipulate circumstances for their own political gain; even while it is costing us money, our well-being, our futures, and our lives. Look at science. It promises to answer every mystery, heal every disease, and overcome every handicap. Yet, some of its cures appear to be more threatening than the problems they claim to solve. Or consider investment banking. Many of us have sunk huge sums of money in a stock market that promised huge dividends only to learn the hard way that nothing is such a sure thing; especially when it’s entrusted to the hands of sinful human beings. In years past it was Enron, World Com and other companies. This past week we learned that Mutual Fund giant, Putnam, was under investigation for fraud. And on and on it goes, unsettling our minds, shaking our confidence; as we could say about any number of things in this life, in our world. Bodies that have failed us, skills that have left us, friends who have deserted us, even our own good intentions to do the good God wants us to do – they’re all part and parcel of this shaky world we live in.
The great question is, having realized this, what are we now to do? How should we now live? What affect should this have on how we proceed?
Amazingly, some just put on a brave face on it saying they’re not at all affected. Jesus is with them. Nothing bad can happen to them. They base such claims on verses like Psalm 62:1,2; 5,6 that read: “1 My soul finds rest in God alone; my salvation comes from him. 2 He alone is my rock and my salvation; he is my fortress, I will never be shaken… 5 Find rest, O my soul, in God alone; my hope comes from him. 6 He alone is my rock and my salvation; he is my fortress, I will not be shaken.” But this is reading something into the text that was never meant by the psalmist. It communicates the absolute confidence that the believer can place in the providence and care of God. But it in no way guarantees us that God’s people will never experience the terrible effects of war, or famine, or plagues, etc.
Quite to the contrary I think it’s rather clear that the disciples knew that too. Jesus talked about cataclysmic things occurring all around them. He told them that they would be handed over to the local councils, in other words, arrested; and they would be flogged in the synagogues all on account of Jesus. They would be the object of a great deal of scorn and hate. It’s rather clear that being a believer wouldn’t exclude even these pillars of the church from having their lives turned upside down. That’s why they wanted to know when this would happen, what signs they might look for so that they would know this was coming.
It’s the approach that many still take today. They want to read the tea leaves in order to know when all this coming; perhaps to understand when they need to really get serious about matters of faith; which is what makes Jesus’ answer all the more interesting.
It’s interesting because he never really answers when. He never really gives them a clear sign.
Everything that Jesus mentions in the Gospel today happened then and still is happening now. Sometimes with a bit more frequency than at other times so that we begin to sense that the end of time is drawing more near; but nothing definite to tip us off, so that Jesus’ answer really says that we should be ready now and forever always.
What are we to do? How should we live given the shaky nature of our world, our lives, and the things that surround us? Be prepared, first seeing this shaking for what it is. The thought of many people today is that people are inherently good and that the world itself is going to get better, not worse; but the clear reading of our Lord’s word shows quite another expectation. Ultimately, yes things will get better when our Lord returns; but they’ll get far worse first, with the purpose of bringing God’s people to rely on what really last.
When our text today begins with “at that time,” it refers to the days when Moses and God’s people stood at the foot of Mt. Sinai and watch God descend upon the mount in awe and great reverence to give the law. The earth literally shook, but the people were shaken too; shaken with the knowledge that they could not stand before God on their own, that their lives came up short, that they were in need of God’s mercy.
In the same way God continues to shake the earth again, awaking us to the truth that this life, this world disappoints, can’t last, often fails, will ultimately pass so that we come to the same revelation given to John in 1 John 2:17; that “the world and its desires pass away, but the man who does the will of God lives forever.” The shaking we’re receiving serves ultimately to end our more than frequent love affair with the things of this life and to place us on the eternally solid rock of Christ and His kingdom. That’s not to say God is indifferent to the troubles we face in this life, but it is to say His chief concern is where we land eternally. If some trouble, some hardship would serve to teach us to rely on Him more, He would bring it so as to ground our faith in that which cannot be removed, and that because this kingdom of Christ is unlike any other we’ve known.
When most of us think of kingdoms we think of world powers with clear borders, carefully marked out by walls of defense. But note what Jesus says about His. “20Once, having been asked by the Pharisees when the kingdom of God would come, Jesus replied, "The kingdom of God does not come with your careful observation, 21nor will people say, ’Here it is,’ or ’There it is,’ because the kingdom of God is within[2] you” (Luke 12:20-22). The kingdom is within. It’s known and marked by the faith of God’s people, a faith worked in their hearts by the power of God’s Word and that word is sure and certain. It’s made that way, not by wishful thinking; but, as the writer of our text assures us in chapter 1; in the life of our Lord Jesus Christ; the fulfillment of God’s OT promises and the one Himself who rose from the dead just as He said.
That’s how Paul could write in Romans 8:28, despite all that confronted him; that he was absolutely confident that all things worked together for the good of those who love God and are called according to His purposes. All things work together for good, even those things that tend to leave us all shook up in this world. And then he went on to boldly claim just 10 verses later that he was convinced “that neither death nor life, neither angels nor demons,[13] neither the present nor the future, nor any powers, 39neither height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus our Lord.” He was standing on the only firm and solid ground He could, on Christ Jesus and His Kingdom, grounded in the word; which is exactly where we can still stand today.
Perhaps you’ve heard of Watchman Nee. Watchman Nee became a Christian in mainland China in 1920 at the age of seventeen and began writing in the same year. Throughout the nearly thirty years of his ministry, Watchman Nee was a unique gift from the Lord to the church. Though imprisoned for his faith in 1952 and remaining there until his death in 1972; his words have become an abundant source of encouragement to Christians throughout the world. And so they are for us today.
Nee once told of a new convert who came to see him in deep distress. "No matter how much I pray, no matter how hard I try, I simply cannot seem to be faithful to my Lord. I think I’m losing my salvation." Nee said, "Do you see this dog here? He is my dog. He is house-trained; he never makes a mess; he is obedient; he is a pure delight to me. Out in the kitchen I have a son, a baby son. He makes a mess, he throws his food around, he fouls his clothes, he is a total mess. But who is going to inherit my kingdom? Not my dog; my son is my heir. And you are Jesus Christ’s heir because it is for you that He died." We are Christ’s heirs, not through our perfection but by means of His and His grace.
That’s such a snapshot of our lives isn’t it? Like the young man who came to Nee, we’re all shook up. We’re wrapped in stress. We’re wound up in despair. We’re looking for something, anything we can stand on and it can’t be found. Even our own lives are such a mess at times. If that’s all we stand on we can’t help but fall. But here’s God’s sure promise: “God sent his Son, born of a woman, born under law, 5to redeem those under law, that we might receive the full rights of sons…7So you are no longer a slave, but a son; and since you are a son, God has made you also an heir” (Galatians 4:5,7). It’s a comfort, a sure hope that Nee didn’t pull from thin air; but from the only solid truth he had experienced and found – Christ Jesus and His word. And here too, “though the earth give way, and the mountains fall into the heart of the sea,” (Psalm 46:2) we are given stand firm to the end and be saved.
