Luke 21:34-38--Watch Yourselves

Luke 21:34-38
English Standard Version

Watch Yourselves
34 “But watch yourselves lest your hearts be weighed down with dissipation and drunkenness and cares of this life, and that day come upon you suddenly like a trap. 35 For it will come upon all who dwell on the face of the whole earth. 36 But stay awake at all times, praying that you may have strength to escape all these things that are going to take place, and to stand before the Son of Man.”

​37 And every day he was teaching in the temple, but at night he went out and lodged on the mount called Olivet. 38 And early in the morning all the people came to him in the temple to hear him.

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Jesus tells His disciples now to be careful or they will become weighed down with a self-indulgence (that is the best synonym I can give you for dissipation, though it literally refers to smoke dissipating into the atmosphere and no longer becoming visible) as well as a spirit of drunkenness--again this would refer to a lack of self-control and being controlled by a substance of some kind.  They were also warned not to get weighed down by the cares of this life (like the seed that fell on the soil that was full of weeds, thorns and thistles that chocked out the good growth because of the cares of this world).  If we focus so much on ourselves, self-indulgence, living for the moment, and all the cares of this world, we will not have an eternal perspective to view current events through, and we too will be taken by surprise at the coming of the Son of Man--like how a trap quickly ensnares that which it is trying to catch by surprise because the thing being trapped did not see the trap.  So it will be in the last days that even some people who claim to be Christians and are living like the world will be caught off guard when the one they call Lord and Master returns for them.  Will He find them to be "good and faithful" servants, or will they be "wicked" servants, like in the parables we've studied recently?

Jesus tells those who belong to Him to instead be aware and awake and on guard, always praying for strength and to escape the coming judgment and to be able to stand faultless before the Son of Man when He sits in judgment.  To some this is a sign that the Church will be removed before the coming judgment because they read this verse to tell us to be ready for Him to answer the prayer that we would escape the judgment and that means to them being physically removed from earth before that judgment takes place by way of the event referred to as the Rapture.  Others look at this passage as evidence that there will be believers waiting not for the Rapture, but for the end of the Tribulation when the Son of Man will come save all those who belong to Him, to destroy all His enemies and to bring His citizens into His kingdom.  I think the Bible is clear that there are Tribulation saints and that God sends His witnesses during the Tribulation and that many are saved during that time--it is not just a time of judgment being poured out on the whole world, but a time when the gospel truly goes forth to the whole world, even when it is spoken from heaven and by the angels preaching the message to the whole world so that there is no corner of the earth without excuse.

So then, these people who hear the gospel in these last days--they are tempted like all of us to change the definition of the word "believe" so that they may only agree to a set of facts.  We see many in the book of Revelation that understand that the judgment is coming from Jesus who sits on the throne of heaven, but they refuse to repent, give their whole lives to Christ so that they are nothing but His slaves and He their Master, and live in complete submission and obedience to Him so that their lives are now a reflection of who He is and what He would do.  I think it is to this group that Jesus is saying for them to watch out, because they don't have much time during the Tribulation to get it right if they are believing a false gospel and think they are saved.  Their works would indicate to them that their faith wasn't genuine if they were living like the world and the world were not persecuting them.  Watch out, especially in the end times when the world loves you or is at least okay with you, because you will not be able to be a friend of God and a friend of the world.  So then those that believe they are disciples in the last days must be ever vigilant and pray that they are not killed by the plagues or the Antichrist before they are certain of their salvation.

The point here does not seem to be that people should want to live through the tribulation or should want to have God take them out of the tribulation.  The point seems to be that there are those who will be looking and ready for the coming of the Son of Man, and those who will not be ready and Jesus says that those who are not ready are not ready because they are busy living like the world and living for themselves.  It sounds like He's also saying that those in that situation might not have true faith that can save them (there really doesn't seem to be such a thing as a "carnal Christian" in the New Testament--Paul asks a rhetorical questions to the Corinthian congregation about if they are carnal if such faith can save them, and the implied answer to the rhetorical question is supposed to be "No.").  Jesus seems to be giving a similar warning to those who may have a head knowledge but no heart transformation.  The coming of the Son of Man is going to surprise them and they will have to give an account for everything.  Will their answer be one based on what Christ has done in them and to them, and if so, does their life support or contradict that claim?  Hopefully there are no so-called Christians that claim they are good because they said the magic words or learned their catechism to know all the right answers, or that they were baptized or they are members of a church or were born into a Christian family whose lives show that they were never citizens of the kingdom of God, but were always citizens of the kingdom of this world, living according to the desires of the flesh and being made into the image of the devil, not into the image of God.  Let us not try to tell God in the end, "Don't believe your lying eyes," for the eyes of the LORD are both on the righteous and the wicked.  He sees not just our actions, but our thoughts and motives.  He knows not just what we did, but why we did it--whether it was for His glory or our own glory.

So then, no matter what our view of eschatology is, this message is for us because we don't know when the end will come for us.  All of us need to be ready to stand before the Son of Man whether that is as the judge of the living or the judge of the dead, because He will judge both the living and the dead.  Death is no escape from the coming judgment, but it does prevent any second chances--"For it is appointed to a man once to die, and after that, the judgment."  There are no do-overs or second chances.  Your friends and family can't pray for your salvation after your death, nor can you bribe God with indulgences, nor can someone be baptized in your name, nor can someone else do "good works" to be credited to your account, nor any of these other false gospels that exist among so-called "Christian" denominations.  The Bible is very clear that when we die we are permenantly in one of two states:
1) Dead in our trespasses and sins because we are still "in Adam" OR
2) Alive in the power of Christ's Resurrection because we are "in Christ" (see Romans 5)

All who have ears to hear, let them hear!