The End of Their World Text: Luke 21:10-24
Introduction: Reading the Right Map
One of the great maladies of the modern church is its addiction to newspaper eschatology. We read the headlines about turmoil in the Middle East, see a picture of a missile or a famine, and we immediately run to passages like this one in Luke 21, convinced that we have finally cracked the code. We treat the Olivet Discourse as though it were a cryptic roadmap for the 21st century, written to us, about us. But this is a profound misreading, born of a peculiar kind of arrogance. We forget that Jesus was speaking to first-century disciples, answering their very specific questions about the magnificent Temple they had just been admiring, a Temple He had just promised would be utterly demolished.
To understand this passage, we must put ourselves on that dusty road with them. We must hear these words with their ears. Jesus is not giving them, or us, a detailed schematic of the final end of the space-time universe. He is giving His disciples a survival guide for the end of an age, the end of the entire Old Covenant world, which was centered on that Temple in Jerusalem. He is describing the death throes of Old Covenant Israel and the birth pangs of the New Covenant kingdom that would spread to every nation on earth. This is not about the end of the world, but rather the end of their world. And the failure to see this has led to a great deal of confusion, date-setting foolishness, and a pessimistic, escapist mentality that neuters the church's responsibility in the world today.
Jesus is a true prophet, and His words came true exactly as He said they would, within the lifetime of His hearers. This passage is not a source for anxiety about the future; it is a rock-solid confirmation of the authority of Christ. He told them what was coming, He told them what to do when it came, and He told them what it all meant. What it meant was judgment on the apostate nation that rejected its Messiah, and the definitive launching of the gospel to the four corners of the globe.
The Text
Then He continued saying to them, "Nation will rise against nation and kingdom against kingdom, and there will be great earthquakes, and in various places famines and plagues; and there will be terrors and great signs from heaven. But before all these things, they will lay their hands on you and will persecute you, delivering you to the synagogues and prisons, bringing you before kings and governors for My name's sake. It will result in an opportunity for your testimony. So set in your hearts not to prepare beforehand to defend yourselves; for I will give you a mouth and wisdom which none of your opponents will be able to resist or refute. But you will be betrayed even by parents and brothers and relatives and friends, and they will put some of you to death, and you will be hated by all because of My name. Yet not a hair of your head will perish. By your perseverance you will gain your lives. But when you see Jerusalem surrounded by armies, then know that its desolation is at hand. Then those who are in Judea must flee to the mountains, and those who are in the midst of the city must leave, and those who are in the countryside must not enter the city; because these are days of vengeance, so that all things which are written will be fulfilled. Woe to those who are pregnant and to those who are nursing babies in those days; for there will be great distress upon the land and wrath against this people, and they will fall by the edge of the sword, and will be led captive into all the nations, and Jerusalem will be trampled under foot by the Gentiles until the times of the Gentiles are fulfilled.
(Luke 21:10-24 LSB)
The Background Noise of History (vv. 10-11)
Jesus begins by describing what we might call the general sorrows of a fallen world.
"Nation will rise against nation and kingdom against kingdom, and there will be great earthquakes, and in various places famines and plagues; and there will be terrors and great signs from heaven." (Luke 21:10-11)
For the dispensationalist, this is a checklist for the seven-year tribulation. But Jesus is doing the opposite. He is telling His disciples not to be deceived by these things. Wars, earthquakes, and famines are the constant, tragic drumbeat of human history since the fall. They are not, in themselves, the sign that the end of Jerusalem is immediately at hand. The historian Tacitus, writing about this very period, describes the Roman Empire as being full of "disturbances and calamities." These are the beginning of birth pangs, not the final delivery. Jesus is inoculating his followers against panic. He is telling them that the world will continue to be a messy and dangerous place, but they are not to lose their heads. These are the general signs of God's providence, but a much more specific sign is coming.
The Particular Troubles of the Saints (vv. 12-19)
Before the geopolitical calamities reach their climax in Judea, the church will face its own unique set of troubles. Notice the timing marker: "But before all these things..."
"But before all these things, they will lay their hands on you and will persecute you, delivering you to the synagogues and prisons, bringing you before kings and governors for My name's sake." (Luke 21:12)
This is not a generic prophecy. This is a direct word to the apostles and the early church. Where were they delivered? To the synagogues. Who persecuted them? Their fellow Jews. We see this fulfilled on every page of the book of Acts. Peter and John before the Sanhedrin, Stephen stoned, James executed by Herod, Paul arrested in the Temple and dragged from one Jewish court to another, and then before Roman governors like Felix and Festus and King Agrippa. Jesus is describing the forty-year period between His ascension and the destruction of the Temple with stunning accuracy.
But this persecution is not a sign of failure. It is a divine setup. "It will result in an opportunity for your testimony" (v. 13). God's design in persecution is to put His people on a witness stand that they could not otherwise access. The courtroom becomes a pulpit. The chains become a microphone. Paul, writing from prison, says that his imprisonment has served to advance the gospel (Phil. 1:12). This is the glorious jujitsu of our sovereign God. He takes the enemy's greatest weapon, intimidation and violence, and turns it into a platform for the proclamation of the truth.
And in that moment of testimony, they are not to be anxious. "For I will give you a mouth and wisdom which none of your opponents will be able to resist or refute" (v. 15). Think of Stephen's sermon in Acts 7, where his opponents "could not stand up against the wisdom and the Spirit by which he spoke." This is a promise of supernatural eloquence and clarity under fire. It is a promise that Christ Himself will stand with His witnesses.
The pain, however, will be sharp and personal. "But you will be betrayed even by parents and brothers and relatives and friends, and they will put some of you to death, and you will be hated by all because of My name" (vv. 16-17). The gospel draws a new bloodline, and it often cuts across natural family ties. The hatred of the world for Christ will be visited upon His people. Some, like James, would be martyred. But in the midst of this stark warning comes a glorious promise: "Yet not a hair of your head will perish" (v. 18). This is not a promise of physical invulnerability; some, He just said, would be put to death. It is a promise of ultimate, eternal security. The world can kill your body, but it cannot touch your true life, which is hidden with Christ in God. Your eternal self is perfectly safe. Not a hair of that new man will be singed.
And the means of obtaining this life is perseverance. "By your perseverance you will gain your lives" (v. 19). Endurance is the proof of genuine faith. It is not our perseverance that saves us, but it is the saved who persevere. God grants the grace to stand firm, and in standing firm, we take possession of the salvation that is already ours in Christ.
The Final, Unmistakable Sign (vv. 20-24)
After describing the general chaos and the specific persecution, Jesus gives the one sign that was to be the final trigger for action.
"But when you see Jerusalem surrounded by armies, then know that its desolation is at hand." (Luke 21:20)
This is not ambiguous. This is not symbolic. This is a literal, historical, and geographical sign. He is telling the disciples in Judea what to watch for. When the Roman legions, the Gentiles, encircle the holy city, that is the final alarm. This happened initially under Cestius Gallus in A.D. 66 and then decisively under Titus from A.D. 68-70.
And the command is equally clear: "Then those who are in Judea must flee to the mountains" (v. 21). This is not a spiritual command to pray harder; it is a practical command to get out of town. And we know from the church historian Eusebius that the Christians in Jerusalem heeded this warning. Before the final siege locked the city down, they fled to the city of Pella across the Jordan, and they were spared the unspeakable horrors that followed. This command makes no sense if it is about a future, global tribulation. How do you flee to the mountains from a worldwide catastrophe? But it makes perfect sense as a warning to the first-century church in Judea.
This event is described as "days of vengeance, so that all things which are written will be fulfilled" (v. 22). This is the fulfillment of the covenant curses found in the Old Testament, particularly in Deuteronomy 28. For centuries, God had warned Israel what would happen if they broke covenant and rejected His prophets, and ultimately, His Son. This is God's righteous judgment upon a generation that had filled up the measure of their fathers' guilt by crucifying the Lord of glory.
The description of the suffering is visceral and tragic. "Woe to those who are pregnant... there will be great distress upon the land and wrath against this people" (v. 23). The historian Josephus, an eyewitness, chronicles the cannibalism, the disease, and the slaughter of that siege in stomach-turning detail. Over a million Jews perished. Jesus' prophecy was fulfilled to the letter. "They will fall by the edge of the sword, and will be led captive into all the nations" (v. 24). This is exactly what the Romans did, selling tens of thousands into slavery throughout the empire.
And it all culminates in this monumental statement: "and Jerusalem will be trampled under foot by the Gentiles until the times of the Gentiles are fulfilled" (v. 24). This is the great transition. The destruction of the Temple and the city marked the end of the privileged status of ethnic Israel in God's redemptive plan. The kingdom of God was taken from them and given to a people bearing the fruits of it, the international church. The "times of the Gentiles" is this present age in which we now live. It is the era of the Great Commission, the age when the gospel goes out from Jerusalem to Judea, Samaria, and the uttermost parts of the earth. This era began with the trampling of the old, physical Jerusalem, and it will be fulfilled when the knowledge of the glory of the Lord covers the earth as the waters cover the sea. The gospel has gone out, and it is conquering. We are not waiting for the end; we are in the middle of the mission that was unleashed by the events Jesus predicted here.