30th Mar 26 | 13:54
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Luke 21 5-9 WATCH AND PRAY I 04 Luke 21 6-7 Pockets of glimmer and hope
📖 Luke 21:5-9
04May2021 - Pockets of glimmer and hope - Luke 21:5-9 - WATCH AND PRAY I (4) – Bible reading: Jeremiah 26:18-19
The things that Jesus is prophesying in this chapter will take place because of man’s rebellion. It is not that God wants all of these dreadful things to happen to His creation.
Some put it across that these events are happening because it is a fulfilment of prophecy. That is an unfortunate way to explain this chapter. Since the Lord is beyond time, He is telling us what will happen but all of these are happening due to Man’s rebellion from God.
If there will be repentance even now, there will be pockets of healing and restoration, though the overall scenario is that majority of humanity will remain obstinate and unwilling to surrender and submit to the lordship of Christ.
In our small areas of influence and impact, we can create those pockets of healing and so let us take heart.
Luke 21:6-7 “These things which you see—the days will come in which not one stone shall be left upon another that shall not be thrown down." (7) So they asked Him, saying, "Teacher, but when will these things be? And what sign will there be when these things are about to take place?"
Matthew 24:3 Now as He sat on the Mount of Olives, the disciples came to Him privately, saying, "Tell us, when will these things be? And what will be the sign of Your coming, and of the end of the age?"
The disciples were very clear that there is this age in which we are living in and we are moving into the next age. We’re coming to the end of this age and we are at the threshold of the next age or the new age.
As we are in this age and are eagerly looking forward to the grand opening of the new age, let us be thrilled and excited that we reign with Jesus in this age and we will reign with Jesus, in the age which is to open soon.
We must know that our position in Christ is to reign with Him over sin, over the flesh, over the influences of the world and to also defeat the powers of darkness and spiritual hosts of wickedness in this age and to also reign with Jesus in the age to come. Through all of these experiences, the Lord is preparing us for the age which is to come.
Ephesians 1:20-21 which He worked in Christ when He raised Him from the dead and seated Him at His right hand in the heavenly places, (21) far above all principality and power and might and dominion, and every name that is named, not only in this age but also in that which is to come.
We must see our awesome position in Jesus. Jesus is seated at the right hand of the Father in the heavenly places and that is where we too are seated, with Jesus. We are reigning with Jesus over all principality and power and might and dominion, and every name that is named in this age and in the age to come.
Ephesians 2:5-7 even when we were dead in trespasses, made us alive together with Christ (by grace you have been saved), (6) and raised us up together, and made us sit together in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus , (7) that in the ages to come He might show the exceeding riches of His grace in His kindness toward us in Christ Jesus.
The kindness that God the Father has shown us in Christ Jesus transcends and crosses over from this age to the age which is to come.
Since we are co-rulers with Christ in this age as well as in the age to come, we approach the end-time challenging times with fortitude and God’s grace, not in fear and dread.
Jesus began by talking about the disaster that will come upon Jerusalem and on her people.
Micah 3:9-12 Now hear this, You heads of the house of Jacob And rulers of the house of Israel, Who abhor justice And pervert all equity, (10) Who build up Zion with bloodshed And Jerusalem with iniquity: (11) Her heads judge for a bribe, Her priests teach for pay, And her prophets divine for money. Yet they lean on the LORD, and say, "Is not the LORD among us? No harm can come upon us." (12) Therefore because of you Zion shall be plowed like a field, Jerusalem shall become heaps of ruins, And the mountain of the temple Like the bare hills of the forest.
Did God want this devastation to come upon His people? No, but when they refused His repeated warning then the disaster that they had brought upon themselves, did take place.
Even in the context of the general devastation that took place, there were patches of hope and glimmer, where God’s people repented and returned to God.
Jeremiah 26:18-19 “Micah of Moresheth prophesied in the days of Hezekiah king of Judah, and spoke to all the people of Judah, saying, 'Thus says the LORD of hosts: "Zion shall be plowed like a field, Jerusalem shall become heaps of ruins, And the mountain of the temple Like the bare hills of the forest." ' (19) Did Hezekiah king of Judah and all Judah ever put him to death? Did he not fear the LORD and seek the LORD's favor? And the LORD—relented concerning the doom which He had pronounced against them. But we are doing great evil against ourselves."
Friends, though, in general, humanity will reject God and will experience the consequences of their rebellion, there will be pockets of glimmer and hope in the midst of despair because there were those who repented and returned to God .
Let us, therefore, take heart and create those pockets of healing in the midst of the ruin.
Thought to ponder
Will you be one of those who will create a pocket of God’s healing in your scenario of despair?