Sermon  November 23, 1997  Text Mark 13:32-37



Grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ, Amen.
Our text is the assigned Gospel, Mark 13:32-37, which reads: ""No one knows
about that day or hour, not even the angels in heaven, nor the Son, but
only the Father.  Be on guard! Be alert ! You do not know when that time
will come.  It's like a man going away: He leaves his house and puts his
servants in charge, each with his assigned task, and tells the one at the
door to keep watch.  "Therefore keep watch because you do not know when the
owner of the house will come back--whether in the evening, or at midnight,
or when the rooster crows, or at dawn.  If he comes suddenly, do not let
him find you sleeping.  What I say to you, I say to everyone: 'Watch!'"
This is the Word; you may be seated.



Introduction

Our text today gives us the answer to the much pondered question, "When
will it all end?"  I spoke two weeks ago of how some suppose they have the
answer to the question, and they are deceiving others.  The answer is made
very clear by our text.  And the answer is: only God knows.  That's it.  No
need to try to guess or ponder it.  You won't figure it out.  End of
discussion.  Amen.



Now some have asked for shorter sermons, but this is too short.  You
haven't heard the law and the gospel yet!



Law

Let us ponder for a moment what you or I or people in general would do if
they knew the date of the end.  We are very anxious to know it.  There must
be a good reason for that anxiety.  I would suggest the greatest reason has
to do with control.  We wish to have control of things and determine the
outcome.  Another reason for our anxiety is our sinful desire to be lazy
and procrastinate.



Here is an example.  Suppose I tell you that you are going to have a fatal
accident in your car some day.  Most of us would go batty knowing that the
accident was coming but not knowing when.  Perhaps the greatest issue for
us would be our desire to prevent the accident.  We might buy a safer car.
Take fewer chances like driving under poor conditions or at night.  We
would wear our seatbelts.  If we knew the day it was to happen, we might
vow not to drive that day.  All this would be an effort to control the
situation.  We would want to avoid that fatal accident.  Our desire is to
control the outcome.


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What would be the difference if we knew the accident was going to happen
next week or we knew it was twenty years off?  In the second case, twenty
years off, we would most likely wait and be lazy.  We may even forget about
the prediction of our accident over the years.  We are naturally lazy and
tend to put off what doesn't need to be done today.



These issues work in a similar way when it comes to the final judgment.
First, we wish to know the date of the end so that we might control it some
way.  Most obviously, we would want to influence the verdict of our
judgment before God.  We probably have other loved ones and the masses of
people, for whom we would like to ensure their verdict is not-guilty also.



Secondly, if we knew the date of the end, we might procrastinate on the
various things we should be doing to keep our faith strong and bring the
Good News to others.  We would be lazy.



To control the verdict of the final judgment, many would concentrate on
what they thought were the right things.  Just like the crimnal who appears
in nice clothes in court, when he or she had never dressed that way
previously, we would inevitably try to have all the "right stuff."  We
would want to look our best for God.



Our hope would be that we would be judged good enough by God.  Our actions
would be motivated by that hope that we could please God.  In this we would
find the temptation to justify or save ourselves.  We would be led into
thinking that we are saved based on our works or deeds.



If you knew the date, would you wait until then to do certain things?  It
may be hard for us to admit, but our sinful nature would lead us toward
taking things easy.  Many people would even test God to see just what they
could get away with.  They would plan their repentance date to be a
comfortable period before judgment day, and then live it up until then.



If you doubt what I am saying, then put yourself into the situation I am
about to describe.  Consider what you would do differently if you knew the
date.  To get you the date we will use what pastors might consider the
ultimate weapon.  See, pastors like to daydream about having a big enough
weapon so that they could convince all the members to be more active and
attend divine services regularly.  The ultimate weapon has to be: the big
sign in the sky.


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So, suppose you leave the church building today and up in the sky you see
written this message: "Jesus is coming to judge December 25, 1997."  This
sign remains in the sky and everyone who looked up could see it.  Imagine,
one month until the end.  Is your behavior going to change?  I would
imagine the church would be full as it got closer to that date.  Probably
people would start doing what they thought God wanted them to do as it got
closer and closer to the end.



After seeing the big sign in the sky, would you go home and keep it to
yourself?  No doubt, you would immediately call people and you would
probably mention the message to everyone you met until the end came.  Would
we spend any time talking about the weather, grain futures, or sports
scores?  Probably not.



Surely some would not be convinced to do anything different and they would
ignore the sign.  Others would do all sorts of outwardly good acts, but
inside they would still reject Christ.  They would be hoping to get by on
just their appearances.  If they are doing the right things they might
imagine that God would accept them based on their works.



Actually, most of us would have the belief that God was going to pay
attention to what we do.  If you would behave differently knowing the end
was coming Dec. 25, then you would be thinking God is going to judge you on
your works.  All of us would be tempted with works-righteous attitudes if
we knew the date.



God however, keeps the date from us.  It could be tomorrow or five minutes
from now.  It could be in 20 years, 2000 years or 200 million years.  God
has the date.  He is in control, though we would like to be.



With God having the date, then our text consists of the warning to be alert
for the coming of the judgment.  The text consists of law statements,
telling us how God would like us to behave.  He requests that we remain
awake.  "Be on guard! Be alert !" says the NIV version of our text.   The
NIV missed out on the command to pray, which the King James Bible included:
"Take ye heed, watch and pray."  We have a warning that the judge could
come at any time, even the middle of the night.



You might have noticed there isn't much given to us specifically to do
here.  It doesn't say read your Bible all night and don't sleep.  It is


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dealing more with our attitude than our actions.  Our attitude should be
one of preparation and watchfulness.  And we ought to pray.  This law, like
all law, leads us to see how we come up short.  It leads us to see our
dependance upon God.



The fact that God keeps the day and hour from us is also indended by Him
for our good.  God again wants to lead us to trust in Him alone.  Rather
than tempting us with thinking we can save ourselves, we are left realizing
that it is only God who can save us.



Gospel

By realizing the day is up to the Lord, we see our complete dependance upon
Him.  We have no control and He has complete control.  In fact, God is not
waiting to decide the day, but He has it already picked out and had it
planned from the start of the world.  He is in control of everything.



The Gospel tells us that God has taken care of everything.  We do not need
to be anxious about the judgment day, because God has taken care of it.  We
do not need to concern ourselves over whether our works are good enough to
satisfy God on judgment day, for it is not our works that save us, but the
sacrifice of Jesus on the cross.



When we see the our failure to be watchful and alert, and to pray, we can
also take comfort in the Gospel.  For, the Gospel tells us that the Lord is
watching even when we fail.  He is like the doorman in the parable in our
text.  The Lord is alert and He will save us, despite our shortcomings in
preparation for the judgment.



The reading from Jude said it so well.  "To him who is able to keep you
from falling and to present you before his glorious presence without fault
and with great joy -to the only God our Savior be glory!
                  -                                     "  Because of His
great mercy, the Lord is able to keep us from falling.  He presents us
without fault, that is stainless and forgiven, by His grace.



If we were to count upon ourselves to watch and avoid falling asleep, we
would come up short.  Like the disciples in Gethsemane, we would be found
sleeping.  Instead, we have the comfort to know that when our Lord comes,
He will come for all His children who trust in the salvation purchased by
Christ.




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Part of our liturgy points us to this assurance.  You may wish to turn to
page 145 of your hymnal to see the Common Preface.  Page 145.  This part of
our liturgy is traced back in the Christian Chruch prior to the 1500s.  We
use this preface as part of Communion for both Divine Service I and II.
The Common Preface is used June through November, during the Sundays after
Pentecost.  We are about to leave this one and use several others, so let
us take one more look at it.  It says: "It is truly good, right, and
salutary that we should at all times and in all places give thanks to you,
holy Lord, almighty Father, everlasting God, through Jesus Christ, our
Lord, who on this day overcame death and the grave and by his glorious
resurrection opened to us the way of everlasting life.  Therefore with
angels and archangels and with all the company of heaven we laud and
magnify your glorious name, evermore praising you and saying."  By the way,
"salutary" means something which improves us or keeps us healthy.  The
preface says it is a good thing to praise God.  Then it points us to the
certainty we have going into the judgment.  It says, " who on this day
overcame death and the grave and by his glorious resurrection opened to us
the way of everlasting life."  This day refers to  Sunday, which is the day
that Christ rose from the dead.  We primarily worship on Sunday because
that is the day Christ rose from the dead.  By rising, our Savior scored
the victory over death and He opened the way to everlasting life.  Christ
has already achived these things for us.  Nothing is left to be done to
satisfy God.  Because of this, we praise God with the residents of heaven
the angels, including the highest angels, the archangels.



Therefore, despite our failure to be on guard and keep watch, our way to
heaven is still open, because Christ did it all.  Even on those times we
are caught sleeping, we can find assurance in our Lord's mercy which has
done all we need to be saved.  Christ's death and resurrection are our
strength when we grow weak in the battle to be watchful.



The Lord knows the day and hour of the end.  In this we find security,
because it shows us that it all depends on the Lord.  He is in control AND
He is merciful.  He does not lead us into temptation to trust in our works
by giving us the date.  By God's grace, we are led to completely trust in
Him.  Our Psalm said, "I wait for the LORD, my soul waits, and in his word
I put my hope."  We wait for the Lord and we place our trust in His word.
His word which assures us that the way to everlasting life has been opened
for us by the resurrection of our Lord, Jesus Christ.  Amen.













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