TITLE: “Enduring to the End”

In the name of the Father and of the + Son and of the Holy Spirit.  Amen.  Our text for this day of Repentance and Prayer is from Matthew chapter 24 as follows: Because lawlessness will abound, the love of many will grow cold. But he who endures to the end shall be saved.

Jesus’ words from Matthew 24 are part of what we should call the end-times prophecies.  This is a couple chapters before Jesus was crucified where He reminded His followers that there would come an end to all things.  He sought to both warn them of the dangers they would face in the final days, and where they would receive their comfort and hope in the midst of the pain and suffering before the end.

Jesus says in our text that in the last days there will be wars and rumors of wars.  Nation will rise against nation.  There will be pestilence, famine, earthquakes and the beginnings of sorrows.  Even more, though, Christians will be martyred for their faith, and you will be reviled and suffer precisely because you are a Christian.

Now this may come as a surprise to you, but these things have been going on for a very long time.  We live in a violent age.  There were more Christians murdered for their faith in the 20^th century than in any other century in the history of the world.  As we speak there are Christians throughout the world who suffer under oppression and pain.  Violence is all around us, and has been for a very long time.  Doctors murder unborn children.  Children kill each other.  Adults use death as a way for sport.  And, of course, death has been in the world since the fall of Adam.  It should never surprise us that people die.  God warned Adam and Eve that if they ate of the tree, they would die.  We still live with the consequences of those actions so many generations ago.  As St. Paul wrote, As in Adam all die…

But we in the United States like to think we have been spared from such suffering.  We live in a world where violence is what’s in the movies; it plays no part in my life.  But this week all of the images and gore of a thousand movies and throwaway lives has come home to us.  It’s no longer just a Die Hard flick or a Sega game where hundreds of people die like blips on a screen.  It is now that much closer to home.

So what is the Christian who wishes to be faithful to God’s Word think of all of this?  What should our response be?  There must be something we can do.  And certainly there is.  It may be giving money.  It may be volunteering time or giving blood.  For some of you here, or your children, they may serve in the armed forces to protect our country.  These are all good and noble and proper for the Christian citizen.  We live here, in the world, and God most certainly wants us to be a part of the world, pay taxes, and if called to do so, to protect our fellow citizens in a time of war.

But there must be more.  Maybe we should ask the question another way: what does the Christian Church have to offer the world that they can’t get anywhere else?  Now here we are getting closer to the real question for us.  What can we do that no one else can do?  Well, the answer is simple: be who you are.  Be a Lutheran that believes Jesus Christ’s death and resurrection for your sins is what makes you who you are.  That is the greatest thing you can do for the world in the midst of death and suffering.

Let me explain.  Jesus said in our text, "Take heed that no one deceives you. ⁵For many will come in My name, saying, "I am the Christ,' and will deceive many.  In the face of suffering and pain, there is always a temptation to put our hope someplace other than firmly on the foundation of Jesus Christ and the Gospel.  For remember, Jesus makes this prophecy about the time when nations there will be wars and bloodshed.  He is talking about now, my friends in Christ.  He is talking about right now.

So where might the Christian be tempted to place their hope in the face of this trial?  Certainly there is a temptation to find solace in revenge.  We’ll get the ones who did this, and that will make up for what they’ve done for us.  Now should they be brought to account?  Absolutely, but not for the sake of revenge.  Rather, they should be brought to justice.  For that is the purpose of the government.  God has given us the government to keep order, commend the good and punish wrongdoers.  But this is not where we place our hope.

We might be tempted at this time to place our hope in patriotism and the growing unity of our nation.  There is much to commend this, especially in such fractured and painful times.  God is the one who has given us our government and our leaders, and we should thank Him for them, pray for them, and do our civic duty joyfully, because it is the right thing to do.  But governments fail, even ours.  We don’t know what the future will bring.  Our hope as Christians does not lie in trusting in princes.

For the Christian, we may only rely on Jesus Christ in the face of trials, heartache and suffering.  You may have noticed that we aren’t really singing what we would usually call patriotic songs in church this morning.  Perhaps it’s what you expected.  Well, there’s a reason for that.  Christians wrote many of the hymns we are singing this morning as they faced suffering and trials not unlike what we face today.

For instance, our chief hymn of the day is 428, When in the Hour of Deepest Need, was written by Paul Eber, a professor of at the University of Wittenberg and good friend of Martin Luther’s.  In the midst of the Smalcald War, the city of Wittenberg was about to surrender.  The pastor of the city called the people to repentance and prayer in the midst of suffering, and this is the hymn they sang.  Or our closing hymn, Guide Me Ever Great Redeemer, was written at the dedication of a Church in New York City right before the collapse of the stock market and the Great Depression.  These are hymns that don’t simply instill good feeling.  Rather, they call to our mind that it is God who is our defender, and that only He will see us through this trial, by the blood of His only begotten Son.

When we gather here in this place as Christians, we do so to hear the Gospel of Jesus Christ.  For that is what God wants to give us, and that is what we have to give to the world in the midst of trial and suffering.  If you endure to the end, Jesus says.  And how will you endure?  You endure to the end by faith alone.  You endure to the end by tenaciously clinging to the cross of Jesus Christ, no matter what the cost, no matter what the world may throw at you.  For it is in that cross that you conquer.  It is the faith alone part that is so hard for us.  But when these events happen, they strip away all of our false gods, all of our self-deception about our own might and power.  All that is left is faith alone.  But that’s enough.  For when you have Jesus Christ, you have the forgiveness of sins, life and salvation.  What more do you want?

So we gather here today to repent.  We gather here to repent for our idol worship.  We gather to repent for believing that we can make it without Christ our Lord.  We gather here to say AMEN when God says that we deserve to die for our sins.  But more than that, we gather here so that Jesus Christ will forgive our sins.  As often as you eat this bread and drink this cup, you do show the Lord’s death until He comes.  Jesus longs to have you trust in Him alone.  He longs to forgive you and draw you under the wings of His gracious presence.

So what can you do in the midst of death and sorrow?  Be who you are.  Come to church.  Pray.  Confess your sins.  Receive God’s forgiveness and absolution.  By simply being a Christian in a dying world, you give a gift that could only come from God Himself.  You can endure to the end, because Christ endured to the end, and it is Christ Himself who will keep you in the palm of His hand.

So come to the Lord’s Table, and receive the forgiveness of sins for the life of the world.  In the name of the Father and of the † Son and of the Holy Spirit.  Amen.