Certainty and the Fig Tree, Part 2 | Ready for the End

Luke 21:29-33

Well, we have come to this final section, actually, of the Olivet Discourse. It’s toward the end of Luke 21. So you can turn there in your Bibles to Luke 21 and find your way to verse 29, “Then he told them a parable,” the then, refers back to what he just told them about the signs in the sun, moon, stars, the powers of the heavens shaken; all these signs, and then the coming of the Son of Man in a cloud with power and great glory. And after that, “then he told them a parable: ‘Behold the fig tree and all the trees; as soon as they put forth leaves, and you see it for yourselves, know that summer is now near. So you also, when you see these things happening, know that the kingdom of God is near.

“Truly, I say to you, this generation will not pass away until all things take place. Heaven and earth will pass away, but My words will never pass away. But be on guard so that your hearts will not be overcome with dissipation, and drunkenness, and the worries of life, and that day will not come on you suddenly like a trap; for it will,” come upon on all “come upon all those who inhabit the face of all the earth. But keep on the alert at all times, praying earnestly that you may have strength to escape all these things that are about to take place, and to stand before the Son of Man.” And thus ends Luke’s account of the Olivet Discourse.

So much to consider in this section, isn’t there? But there’s more here as Jesus gives assurance to his disciples about the timing, assurance of the kingdom’s timing. I’m not talking about timing in the sense of date setting. Jesus said, we already mentioned this, “no one knows the day or the hour, not the angels, not the Son, but the Father alone.” But here we’re talking about the timing in the sense of once all this commences, how long is it going to take to set everything up? Look at verse 32, “Truly, I say to you, this generation will not pass away until all things take place. Heaven and earth will pass away, but my words will never pass away.”

Now, believe it or not, that little verse, verse 32, has been the cause of much consternation among biblical interpreters for generations. Some even say it’s the most difficult verse in all the Gospels to interpret. There are those who dive into this text, at verse 27, to see that Jesus predicts his own coming, his own return. And then they skip to verse 32 and read, “This generation will not pass away until all things take place,” that is, until Christ returns.

So Jesus said he’s coming. He said this generation is going to see it. And in ignorance of the rest of the Olivet Discourse and with no sincere interest to learn the Olivet Discourse, to read these texts in their context, they say Jesus has not returned. Therefore, Jesus is fallible, in error, not to be trusted. This whole thing is a fraud. There are those who say that, such a man was Bertrand Russell, atheist, author of the tract that he wrote in 1927 called, Why I Am Not a Christian.

According to Bertrand Russell, this is one evidence to reject Christianity, namely that Jesus promised to return during the lifetime, his, of his disciples. He didn’t do that, and so Jesus was wrong. Russell writes, quote, He that is Jesus, “He certainly thought that his second coming would occur in clouds of glory before the death of all the people who were living at that time.” Then he writes this: “That was the belief of his earlier followers and it was the basis of a good deal of his moral teaching.”

He continues, “When he said,” he’s talking about Jesus, “When Jesus said, ‘Take no thought for the morrow and things of that sort, it was very largely because he thought that the second coming was going to be very soon, and that all ordinary mundane affairs did not count. I have, as a matter of fact, known some Christians who did believe that the second coming was imminent.

“I knew a Parson” a preacher, “who frightened his congregation terribly by telling them that the second coming was very imminent indeed. But they were much consoled when they found that he was planting trees in his garden. The early Christians did really believe it, and they did abstain from such things as planting trees in their gardens, because they did accept from Christ the belief that the second coming was imminent. In that respect, clearly, he was not so wise as some other people have been, and he was certainly not superlatively wise.” End quote.

Well, since in Christ are hidden all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge, it’s hard to imagine the situation that Bertrand Russell finds himself in now after writing his essay in 1927. He died in 1970, so he’s had 54 years to reflect on those words he wrote, the mocking that are represented in his tract. Sadly though, there are many believers today, still today, who are still tripped up and intimidated by Bertrand Russell and that spirit of Bertrand Russell, how he mocked the words of Jesus who said, “truly I say to you, this generation will not pass away until all these things take place.”

 Now, it’s a debatable point whether the early church misunderstood Jesus or not, that’s beside the point. And we consider how the original audience heard and understood Jesus at the time, that’s important to figure out in doing biblical interpretation, but it is not determinative of meaning. How the original audience or how generations after that original audience understood Jesus is, is important to understand, but it’s not determinative of the meaning, because many, including Jesus own disciples, often misunderstood him. Should we take their misunderstanding as the true meaning of the text?

What really matters in Bible interpretation is authorial intent; Jesus’ intent. What did he intend to convey when he spoke? So since we see Jesus here speaking prophetically to his disciples about his future return, since he in his mind’s eye sees these things unfolding right before him, it is most natural that this generation he speaks of refers to the people then living. When the signs are happening, he’s talking about them. In context, he’s speaking about a future time, so he’s speaking about the generation of that future time. He uses that, near, demonstrative pronoun, this, because in giving the prophecy, he’s in that future moment and he sees ‘this generation’ before him.

So it’s those who see the celestial signs, verse 25, in sun, moon and stars, who witnesses the effect of all that pandemonium on the earth, widespread panic that grips the nations, who see the Son of Man coming on the cloud with power and great glory. Jesus says to this generation, the end of the old era, the starting of the new. Listen, it’s not going to take long, once the events that lead up to and follow the return of Christ begin, everything is going to happen in relatively rapid succession such that the same generation that witnesses the commencement will also witness the conclusion.

 So for this generation, once the events of the tribulation commence, it’s not going to take long for them to be fulfilled, for even the, the tribulation to come to their end, for the times the Gentiles to be fulfilled, for the angels to gather the elect and bring them to Israel, for the regeneration and the redemption of Israel. When it happens, it’ll all happen relatively quickly, and this generation, seeing it all, is going to see it commence and conclude.

Now others have tried to identify, this generation, differently than I just have. They make different suggestions. I’m going to mention a few of the main ones, not all of them, but I’ll mention a few of the main ones and then try to refute them for you. Some say this generation refers to the generation living at the time of Jesus, those who lived contemporaneous with him during his earthly life.

So if Jesus is saying this generation, including you disciples standing here right now, if that’s what he meant, you’re all going to see everything that’s been predicted. Luke 21, verses 20 to 24, including verses 25 to 28, you’re all going to see everything. If that’s what he meant, that leaves us with several options. We have number one, Bertrand Russell’s view that Jesus was just simply wrong. That’s patently false on doctrinal theological grounds. I’m not going to explicate that any further.

Then a second view that kind of unfolds from this understanding, the view that Jesus did return and that the second coming has happened, but he returned spiritually, so no further coming is expected. This is what some of you, may’ve heard, the full preterist view. This is what they teach. It’s a form of rank heresy based on 2 Thessalonians 2:1 to 3. Paul says don’t be upset as if we wrote this or taught this, that Christ has already returned. That’s rank heresy, which we reject, too, on the basis of that passage.

Another view, though, based on, this generation, you’re going to see everything that’s written here, is that Jesus came in a figurative sense in the destruction of Jerusalem in AD70. The people who say this don’t make the claim that that’s the second coming, but they say that’s what Jesus meant here, that he returns in a figurative sense. The problem with that view is that Jesus words just don’t allow it.

His return here is literal, not figurative. It’s physical, visible, not spiritual, not invisible. At his return he comes to execute judgement on all those who inhabit the face of all the earth. And that’s not a figure of speech that’s literally going to happen, verse 35. All those people who live on the face of the earth, verse 36 are going to stand before the Son of Man. Question is, will you have strength to stand or are you going to fall in judgement?

 There’s a different view entirely, it takes ‘this generation’ as a race of people. It’s a kind of people, so could refer to the Jews as a race of people or Gentiles, or even a race of disciples. So this, if this generation refers to a race of Jews, Gentiles, disciples, it’s talking about them being preserved through the events of the Tribulation. They make it to the end. If it’s the Jews, they survive and are blessed in the promises of God. If it’s disciples, they too survive and experience the blessing of promise. But if it’s Gentiles and they’re unbelieving, they survive only to come to fall to judgement.

I’ll grant that the word generation, genea, it can mean lineage, it can mean race, but not often. And even in some of the passages that are used as support for that, this non-chronological sense of generation, it’s forced. And some of those passages and it, it really doesn’t fit this context, which is all about chronology. The context requires us to use a chronological sense for genea. So this one’s out too.

So we have to come back to the most viable option, which is also the most common sense natural way to read, this generation. It’s those who are alive at the time these signs are starting to happen. They’re going to see everything from start to finish and without delay. And that’s what Jesus means here. Now I want to just pause and reinforce this because there are some who are prone to mock this view because they misunderstand it.

I like what Daryl Bock writes to address this objection, when it’s raised, he writes this, “Some argue that this view is tautologists making Jesus say the obvious. When you see the end, you see the end. This,” means, “misreads the point. What Jesus is saying is that the generation that sees the beginning of the end also sees its end. When the signs come, they will proceed quickly. They will not drag on for many generations. It will happen within a generation.” End quote. That’s what Jesus is saying.

Just to unpack this a bit further, and I’ve mentioned this from time to time as we’ve moved through the text. It’s just helpful again to back up and recognize, Jesus is speaking to his disciples. These men are his chosen apostles, and as such, these apostles have a very unique role in the redemptive plan. They are, these men, these 12 apostles, are representatives of the Church, Ephesians 2:20.

 And at the same time, these apostles are also representative of Israel, of a future nation of Israel, in its regenerate, repentant, and believing state. Which is why Paul points to himself in his own salvation as an indication and a down payment on all the future promises to Israel. He’s the first fruits of those. God has not given up on Israel, has he? “I too am an Israelite of the tribe of Benjamin, Hebrew of Hebrews.” These apostles too, they represent the future nation of Israel in its regenerate, repentant, believing state.

He speaks, Jesus speaks of that rule in the very next chapter. He tells his apostles in Luke 22:30, “You will sit,” with me, “on thrones judging the twelve tribes of Israel.” It’s really important to see that here, to remember that these men, they have a vested interest, ethnic, historical, religious interest in the outcome here. They have a civil, social, cultural interest in how things turn out for the Jews as a people, for Israel as a nation.

Perhaps it’s easiest to see this if we turn over to Matthew’s Gospel. Just turn back very quickly to Matthew chapter 20, 23, starting in verse 34, Matthew 23:34. This is Matthew’s account of the, just before the Olivet Discourse. It’s kind of a, a ramp up into the Olivet Discourse, if you will. In Matthew 23, Jesus has indicted the failed false spiritual leadership of Israel.

And in that chapter, he pronounces woe after woe after woe upon them for their hypocrisy, for their greed, for their ungodly leadership and he says this. Jesus says this in Matthew 23:34 and following, “On account of this, Behold, I’m sending you prophets and wise men and scribes, and some of them you will kill and crucify, and some of them you will flog in your synagogues and persecute from city to city. So that upon you may fall the guilt of all the righteous blood shed on earth, from the blood of righteous Abel to the blood of Zechariah, the son of Berechiah, whom you murder between the sanctuary and the altar. Truly, I say to you, all these things will come upon this generation.

“Jerusalem, Jerusalem, who kills the prophets and stones, those who are sent to her. Oh, how often I wanted to gather your children together, the way a hen gathers her chicks under her wings. And you did not want it. Behold, your house is being left to you desolate, for I say to you, from now on you will not see me until you say, blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord.” The disciples are there for that. The disciples hear that, this indictment upon their leadership, the pronouncement of judgement and desolation of the temple, the clear indication that Jesus Christ, he’s going to be leaving them.

So they’re thinking, if such horrific judgments are to come upon the Jews for rejecting their Messiah, how are the Jews going to survive this? If as Jesus said in Matthew 23:35 and 36 that the blood of all the prophets from Abel, that’s Genesis chapter 4, verse 10, all the way to Zechariah, the end of Israel’s history, basically in 2 Chronicles 24:21. If all that blood guilt is going to land on the head of this generation, on their own people, on the Jewish contemporaries of Jesus. If their temple is to be left to them desolate, Matthew 23:38, what hope is there for the future of our nation?

Obviously, thoughts like those would have been on the disciples’ mind, one of their own contemporaries, a Jew of Israel, of the tribe of Benjamin, Hebrew of Hebrews, who’d come up through the ranks of the Pharisees, the Apostle Paul. He asked in Romans, God has not rejected his people, has he? His immediate answer, you know what it is? umē. May it never be, emphatic negation. And that’s years later, in the mid 50s, more than 20 years after our events in the Olivet Discourse.

 Paul makes clear in the rest of Romans 11 that there is hope for the Jewish people. God’s promises of restoration to his people will never fail. Not one jot or titel of the law will fall. Everything will be fulfilled. The hope of the Jews and all that God has said will not be disappointed. All will be fulfilled. And these disciples being believers, they shared that same hope.

In fact, right after Jesus has predicted the judgments on the Jews in Matthew 23:38, 34 to 38, that fulfillment began, by the way, when he, God, sent the Romans to destroy Jerusalem and its temple in AD70. As I said, that judgement continues through our own day. It’s going to continue until Israel repents, until Israel trusts in Christ, in Matthew 23:39. Here’s what the disciples see; though Jesus speaks of leaving them, at the end of that sorrowful statement, he sheds a ray of light on the dark words, “For I say to you from now on you shall not see me until you say, blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord.” Implication: So there’s hope.

So there’s a hope for Israel. So there’s a future for the Jewish people. The disciples believing ears heard it, with hearts of faith, with attitudes of believing hope. They pounce on those words. They latch onto them as a promise. They hold on tightly to those words and they start asking their questions. Unbeknownst to these men, these apostles, they don’t even realize that they’re the believing seed that plants the church. They are the believing seed of future Israel.

They are representatives of a future generation of Israel. They, in their own generation, represent this generation as the ones who will say, according to Matthew 23:39. Oh yes, “blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord.” That’s the generation of Israel that will look upon Jesus whom they had pierced and mourn and repent. That’s the generation of Israel that will be gathered together from among the nations, from East, West, North, South, gathered by the angels. That’s the generation of Israel that will receive the promises of restoration. And what will their restoration mean of the fulfillment of all hope for the world?

Now one more aspect to the assurance of the kingdom’s timing. Look again at verse 32. Notice the strong statements of affirmation. “Truly,” amēn, “I say to you, this generation will not pass away until all things take place.” Verse 33, “Heaven and earth will pass away, but my words will never pass away.” You see what’s repeated there. Three uses of the verb, pass away,parerchomai, it can have a spatial sense, as in spatial movement of people passing by. It can have a temporal sense, as when time passes by. Here it has a figurative sense, referring to what passes away, what comes to an end, what passes off the scene, whether a generation of people, whether heaven and earth, or words.

Which brings us to an even more important repetition that we need to notice here at the beginning. Notice that Jesus says, “truly, I say to you,” it’s an emphatic statement of absolute truthfulness, authority, reliability of what he’s about to say. And then at the end of this, Jesus states even more emphatically the permanence and immutability, the absolute certainty of his holy words, heaven and earth. What God created, what he fixed and appointed, it’ll pass away. My words never, they will never pass away. It’s quite a pronouncement, isn’t it, from a man, especially when we remember what Jesus said about the law of God in Matthew 5:18, “But truly, I say to you, until heaven and earth pass away, not the smallest letter or stroke shall pass away from the law until all is accomplished.”

 Similarly, in Luke 16:17, “It’s easier for heaven and earth to pass away,” there, “than for one stroke of a letter of the law to fail.” In this saying, verses 32 to 33, Jesus puts his own words of promise, his guarantee of certainty, to give assurance to his disciples on par with the words given by God in the law. So as immutable as God’s words are, same level of immutability of his own words.

What a comfort, what assurance for Jesus disciples. They received far more from Jesus than a mere timeline of future events. They can put away their charts and stop reading headlines. Then you just see these men received what they did not ask for, but what they desperately needed: Eternal, immutable words of assurance; words more dependable, more solid, more stable, more permanent than heaven and earth itself. Words on par with, as reliable as, the very word of God.

Folks, I asked you earlier, what would you do if you just heard what they heard, because you now have. Would you change anything in your life or would you just carry on with life as usual? Let me offer a little warning by way of encouragement. You know who wanted to continue on with life as usual in his time? We’re going to meet him at the beginning of the next chapter. His name is Judas Iscariot, the lover of money, because money is what gave him what he wanted, what kept his life manageable, under his control.

Judas was willing to trade his relationship with the Son of Man to keep his own life the way he wanted it. Bertrand Russell, he too rejected truth. He loved darkness rather than light, because his deeds were evil, just like Judas’s. And there are many who live this way today. Beloved, having heard about the future of the earth, put no hope in elections or politicians. I trust nobody’s doing that. But don’t seek stability, security, or prosperity in this life.

Everything, everything that seems stable and secure and solid now, will not remain. It’s going to change one day. Could be tomorrow, could be next week, could be years from now, but it will change. After your last breath on this earth, when you awaken in the presence of God, then you’ll see the wisdom or the folly of how you’ve lived your life, and by then it’ll be too late to make any change.

Now is the time of salvation. Today is the day for change. You’ll either enter into the joy of your master, Jesus Christ, whom you have served faithfully for all of your life, or you’ll be turned away from him, denied access, denied before the father and the angels in heaven, and you’ll be sent into everlasting torment. Friends, how you live now, it matters. It really matters. Let’s pray.

Our Father, we are so thankful to you for giving us the gift of truth. Words that are more permanent than the ground that we stand on, more solid than the rocks, more faithful than the sun rising every day. You’ve given us words of life, words that are eternal, words that are from your eternal, infinite mind. You’ve shared with us your thinking, brought us into the way things really are.

Oh Father, please grant anyone here who does not have faith, grant them faith to believe that their eyes would be opened, that they see this life for what it really is, as an opportunity to serve you out of love for you because you have saved them. And for any here who have been living with weak, shriveled up faith, oh Father, will you help us all to repent of weak faith, not make excuses for it, but to live our lives with, with vigor and joy and zeal and hope, because we trust in your word. Please save those who don’t know you, please sanctify those who do, and let us all bring glory to you by the power of the Spirit, in the name of Jesus Christ, our Savior and Lord, Amen.