Luke 21:9-11, 25-28
When ye shall hear of wars and commotions, be not terrified: for these things must first come to pass; but the end is not by and by. Then said he unto them, Nation shall rise against nation, and kingdom against kingdom: and great earthquakes shall be in divers places, and famines, and pestilences; and fearful sights and great signs shall there be from heaven…
And there shall be signs in the sun, and in the moon, and in the stars; and upon the earth distress of nations, with perplexity; the sea and the waves roaring; men’s hearts failing them for fear, and for looking after those things which are coming on the earth: for the powers of heaven shall be shaken. And then shall they see the Son of man coming in a cloud with power and great glory. And when these things begin to come to pass, then look up, and lift up your heads; for your redemption draweth nigh.
C. H. SPURGEON (1834-1892): Just now, as the damp of autumn begins to fall and the days are sensibly shortening, we ought to take note of the signs of the times.
MATTHEW POOLE (1624-1679): What is spoken here certainly relates to the Day of judgment, before which prodigious things will be seen.
J. C. RYLE (1816-1900): We see, firstly, in this passage, how terrible will be the circumstances accompanying the second advent of Christ. This is a singularly awful picture.
MATTHEW HENRY (1662-1714): Jesus describes the great frights that people should generally be in.
A. W. PINK (1886-1952): First, “the distress of nations.” How well these words describe the well-nigh universal groaning and anguish of mankind! Distress is now no longer confined to any one people but is international and earth-wide…Second, “with perplexity”―Statesmen unable to discover any way out of present difficulties, at their wits’ end, fearful of what they see approaching and powerless to hinder and prevent it―Situations arising which the wisest of our statesmen, despite all our boasted enlightenment and progress, are unable to cope with successfully. “Perplexity” by reason of political corruption, economic agitations, and revolutionary troubles.
H. A. IRONSIDE (1876-1951): So we may be sure, in the light of the prophetic Word, that this poor world is doomed so far as man’s ability to help is concerned.
A. W. PINK: Unrest, discontent, and lawlessness are rife everywhere, and none can say how soon another great war will be set in motion.
C. H. MACKINTOSH (1820-1896): Remember the words of the Lord Jesus Christ, Luke 17:26, how He said, “as it was in the days of Noah, so shall it be in the days of the Son of man?” How was it in the days of Noah? Scripture replies, “The earth also was corrupt before God, and the earth was filled with violence,” Genesis 6:11.
A. W. PINK: Conditions on earth have now reached such a pass that no human skill can steer clear of the mighty maelstrom which is rapidly drawing all nations within its awful whirl.
MARTYN LLOYD-JONES (1899-1981): From the point of view of morality, the problem is not so much immorality but the total absence of morality—amorality, a tendency to doubt all types of moral standards. Indeed, some would go so far as to say that all those who acknowledge moral standards live an incomplete life and do an injustice to their personalities. These people claim that what was once called sin is nothing but self-expression…“As they were in Sodom,” He says, “even so they shall be.” That’s our Lord’s view of history.
H. A. IRONSIDE: Jesus also mentions great natural convulsions.
J. C. RYLE: The prophecy before us is not a symbolical one. Its predictions are plain, simple facts, and not clothed in figurative language. It seems, therefore, a high probability that the language before us will receive a literal fulfillment in the events preceding and accompanying the second advent of Christ. The frame of nature was convulsed when the law of God was given at Sinai, and when Christ died on the cross. It is surely not too much to expect that it will be convulsed when Christ returns to judge the world.
MATTHEW HENRY: Many frightful sights shall be in the sun, moon, and stars, prodigies in the heavens, and here in this lower world, the sea and the waves roaring, with terrible storms and tempests, such as had not been known, and above the ordinary working of natural causes.
C. H. MACKINTOSH: Judgments are now coming on the earth, with overwhelming rapidity, as the lightnings, thunderings, and voices indicate.
A. W. PINK: Without a doubt a world crisis is at hand, and everywhere men are alarmed. But God is not! He is never taken by surprise. It is no unexpected emergency which now confronts Him, for He is the One who “worketh all things after the counsel of His own will,” Ephesians 1:11. Hence, though the world is panic-stricken, the word to the believer is, “Fear not!” “All things” are subject to His immediate control: “all things” are moving in accord with His eternal purpose, and therefore, “all things” are “working together for good to them that love God, to them who are the called according to His purpose.” It must be so, for “of Him, and through Him, and to Him, are all things,” Romans 11:36.
H. A. IRONSIDE: Isn’t that a comforting thought as you look out on the world today? Never before has it been in such a condition, and men’s hearts indeed are “failing them for fear, and for looking after those things which are coming on the earth.” But He sits over the waterfloods and nothing can transpire in the affairs of men and of nations but in accordance with the permissive will of God.
C. H. SPURGEON: If the sea and the waves thereof should roar in a manner altogether unusual―yet this is still the precept for the worst of times that are supposable: “When these things begin to come to pass, then look up, and lift up your heads.”
WILLIAM GURNALL (1617-1679): A strange time, one would think, for Christ then to bid His disciples lift up their heads, when they see other “men’s hearts failing them for fear.” Yet, now is the time of the rising of their sun when others’ is setting―because now the Christian’s feast is coming: “your redemption draweth nigh.”
H. A. IRONSIDE: When things are at their worst God will intervene. “And then shall they see the Son of Man coming in a cloud with power and great glory.”
J. C. RYLE: However terrible the signs of Christ’s second coming may be to the impenitent, they need not strike terror into the heart of the true believer. They ought rather to fill him with joy. They ought to remind him that his complete deliverance from sin, the world and the devil, is close at hand, and that he shall soon bid an eternal farewell to sickness, sorrow, death and temptation…The very hour when the worldly man’s hopes shall perish, shall be the hour when the believer’s hope shall be exchanged for joyful certainty and full possession.
C. H. SPURGEON: Everything earthly is doomed. You are living, not in your eternal mansions but you are living a makeshift life; you are passing through a wilderness, you are pilgrims, you are sojourners; this is not your rest. Do not get to love this world, or to be taken up with it. Do not strike your roots into it; you are not to dwell here, and to live here always. You are walking among shadows; regard them as such. Hug them not to your bosom; feed not your souls upon them, lest, when that day comes, before Whose coming all of them shall melt away, you shall be filled with amazement and shame―The shades of the evening of the world and the damps of its autumn are all around us! But still there sounds forth the cry, “Whoever will, let him come and take the water of life freely.”―We deliver God’s threats and promises to every sinner and we cry, “Look unto Jesus and be ye saved, all the ends of the earth.”
