“The end of the Ages has come.” says the Apostle Paul. That little phrase it kind of tucked in there, hiding in our epistle lesson, perhaps on our first time through you didn't notice it. But sure enough, right there at the end of verse 11, there it is. “The end of the ages has come.” The end times. The last days. The conclusion to history. That time has come!
But then again, you probably already knew that, or at least were thinking it, what with all the crazy earthquakes, ridiculous weather patterns, and terrorists and rouge nations deciding to go nuclear and things like that. It all sounds rather like the apocalypse, does it not?
It all sounds a lot like the world that Jesus describes.
“You will hear of wars and rumors of wars. See that you are not alarmed, for this must take place, but the end is not yet. 7For nation will rise against nation, and kingdom against kingdom, and there will be famines and earthquakes in various places. 8All these are but the beginning of the birth pains.” (Matthew 24:6-7)
And so, as though there might have been some doubt about it, the Apostle puts and end to it and comes right out and says it, “The end of the ages has come.”
But it wasn't yesterday, may or may not be today. We can't say for sure when the day is. So we need to be ready. Our text is telling us to be ready.
To that end, the Apostle considers lessons from history to be appropriate. Paul tells of events from the history of the people of God; in particular, examples of God's judgment on past generations because of their sin. That God had been faithful to them, that he brought them through the Red Sea, fed them with the Manna, quenched their thirst by water that flowed from a rock and all those things pointed them to Christ. And they were members of Christ. This is Paul's point: they were believers. They were the Old Testament people of God.
And even though they were God's people, even though they had received these blessings and were people of faith, when temptations came they indulged; some to idol worship, some to sexual sins, some to grumbling and complaining. And because of their sin God punished them. God punished some by means of a plague, others were punished by means of deadly snakes, still others were killed by “the destroyer” (a reference to the angel of death or perhaps even a reference to Satan).
So Paul walks the Corinthians through these bits of history, and then he makes his point. These things happened to them as an example or a lesson, but they were written down for us so that we upon whom the end of the ages has come, could also receive instruction.
There are two important things to take away from this text. The first is the end of the ages has come. We have been talking about this, we are all probably aware of this to some extent or another, but along those lines there is something to keep in mind. We have been in the end of the ages for the last 2000 or so years. Paul wrote this to first century Christians living in the city of first century Corinth. They, way back then, were in the end of the ages. They experienced earthquakes and weather patterns and lunatic governments. These things are not new. They are, rather, as Jesus puts it, the beginnings of the birth pangs. We should not waste too much time getting excited over stuff we read about in the news papers.
Instead, rather than trying to pin point the day and the hour on our daily planners, we should take a clue from Paul as he gives it here in our text and learn the lesson from history. Learn from the Israelites. They were believers in God. Through the water in the rock and the Red Sea, they were baptized into Christ. Granted their baptism was in leu of what was still to come and our is based on thing that have now come, but in a very real way they were very similar to us. And for them, when they wandered from God's law into apostasy, they were punished.
“Therefore” writes Paul, “let anyone who thinks that he stands take heed lest he fall.”
Don't get cocky! Don't assume that you have sewed up your salvation and its in the bag. Don't make the mistake of believing that you can't fall away, that temptation won't hurt you, that you can dabble in all kinds of sin and come away unscathed. You will find yourself in trouble. You will find yourself at the mercy of an angry God who judges sin and condemns sinners.
So the first lesson to learn is that the end of the ages has come. The second lesson to learn is a lesson from history. Be mindful of history. Be mindful of what God has done and what has been written down for us in Biblical History. God has given these things, not just as stories, not just as children's books and fairy tales. These things are true historical events, and God inspired them to be written down for our learning.
Today marks the beginning in our day school of National Lutheran Schools Week. Those of you who have children in the school are likely already aware of this. There are memos that have gone home about silly hat day, and dress up day and mismatch day and all of that sort of thing.
And while dressing up (or down) is fun, that is far from the point of why we have national Lutheran school week. That is far from the reason of why it is important to recognize our Lutheran Schools.
Our Lutheran Schools are a gift and a blessing from God. All throughout the country there are hundreds and even thousands of Lutheran Schools. These are schools that teach all the academic disciplines excellently, just as our own Lutheran school does here. But beyond being a place to learn to read and write, our National Lutheran Schools are places where these stories of history are important. These biblical events are lifted up. They are studied. They are discussed. They are mined for wisdom because God has given them to us for our learning.
And these lessons are of great importance for our children. Today, our children who are growing up and living in today's world need a place where they can be taught the Word of God. The temptations that our children are facing today are as great as they have ever been. Paul mentions temptations to idolatry. Today false religions like Buddhism, neo-paganism, even atheism have taken root in our popular culture. These false religions have even invaded the Christian and they are taught in some churches along side Christianity.
Paul mentions sexual immorality. These days Christian churches have sanctioned all kinds of sexual and sinful behaviors as being a part of God's plan and design for his people.
Paul mentions grumbling against God and which one of us hasn't complained that God hasn't done for us what we would demand, who hasn't given to us what we expect, who hasn't demanded that any god that we would worship had better meet our felt needs and live up to our demands.
We are on the verge of destruction. Our church, our world, our culture is primed for death and disease and snakes and every kind of evil because of how far we have fallen.
So the deck is stacked against us... and against our children. Wouldn't you agree? Between our sin and the temptations in the world around us and the judgments of God, we are guilty and we are in serious danger.
So in our Lutheran School we study the Word of God and the history it presents. But all of that history wouldn't do us any good if it weren't for one even in particular. All of those stories, all of those events, if it were not for one event would do nothing but condemn us and send us to hell. \
The one piece of history that is of greatest importance for us to learn, to study, to be reminded of every day is the death and resurrection of Jesus. The fact that God himself entered our world to take from us our sin and suffer for it, die for it and then be raised again from the dead so that we who believe this event happened, and more importantly, we who believe this event happened for us, might be receive from God the promise of eternal life. There is no greater lesson to learn and our own Lutheran School teaches that lesson to our children every day.
Paul puts it this way. In our text he writes, “No temptation has overtaken you that is not common to man.”
We have listed off a lot of temptations, a lot of potential pit falls, a lot of places where we could go wrong. And often when we begin to examine these temptations and look at these sins our response is one of fear. To tell ourselves that we'd better get it just right or else.
So far we have mentioned two things that our text has taught us: the end of the ages, the need to learn from history so that we don't repeat it. But there is a third lesson. A more imporant lesson. In fact, the most important lesson. And that is the lesson of God's faithfulness.
God is faithful. When we find ourselves in the midst of temptation. When we find ourselves battling it out with the world around us. When we find ourselves floundering and about to fall. God is faithful.
When we are overwhelmed by the world, when we are overwhelmed by satan. When we are overwhelmed by our own history of failures and defeats. God is faithful. God is always faithful.
God sees your struggle. God is acutely aware of your struggle. God knows your strength and your weakness better than you do. God won't let you fall. God won't let you break. As you fight the good fight God strengthens your hands, God strengthens your knees. God provides the way of escape so that your temptations do not take you under.
And even when they do. Even when your weakness gets the better of you, he is still faithful. Even when we have not deserved his faithfulness and have turned away from it, he himself has died for us. He has forgiven us he has cleansed us. He has rescued us.
There are important lessons from history for us to learn. God would have us know and remember all that he has done. God would have us remember his wrath and punishment for sin. But more than that He would have us remember his grace and forgiveness, his love and his faithfulness.
Amen.
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