“Where Can We Find Security?”
Mark 13:31

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Pastor Kevin Vogts
Trinity Lutheran Church
Paola, Kansas
Christ the King Sunday–Last Sunday in the Church Year—November 21, 2021

Grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ.  Amen.

Our text is from today’s Gospel Reading in the thirteenth chapter of St. Mark.  Jesus says, “Heaven and earth will pass away, but my words will never pass away.” 

Fifteen years ago there was a great financial scandal in the United States, when a con man named Bernie Madoff tricked some of the nation’s wealthiest individuals and biggest institutions into letting him manage their money.  But, instead of managing it, he stole it.  Billions of dollars were lost by banks, insurance companies, and even the movie director Steven Spielberg and the late actress Zsa Zsa Gabor.

About that same time, when auto industry was bailed out, it wasn’t a con man but the United States government that shamefully allowed two of the biggest companies in the world to get away with fraudulently cancelling their special class of supposedly risk-free, secured bonds, with investors eventually receiving only 29 cents on the dollar, for bonds that were sold as guaranteed to never lose value.

And in the late 1970’s and early 1980’s, thousands of average middle-class people put their money into what was considered to be an absolutely safe and secure investment:  The Washington Public Power Supply System, WHPPSS, called “WHOOPS” for short.  Many of these investors were retirees, some of whom put their entire life’s savings into “WHOOPS.”  Often, they chose the prestigious Washington Public Power Supply System precisely because it was considered such a safe and secure investment.  But, sadly, it turned out that “WHOOPS” was more than just a nickname; it was prophetic omen.  The Washington Public Power Supply System went broke, and all those investors lost everything they put into it.  Who would have thought that billions of dollars’ worth of triple-A bonds, issued by the State of Washington, would end up being so many worthless scraps of paper?

We live in an age of uncertainty.  The question for our age of uncertainty is “Where Can We Find Security?”  Jesus tells us in our text: “Heaven and earth will pass away, but my words will never pass away.”

“Heaven and earth will pass away.”  Everything in our world—even our world itself—is coming to an end.  Everything that seems so permanent and enduring is really only temporary and transitory.  Just after Terry and I were married 30 years ago we took a trip to the northwest and visited the site of Mt. St. Helens, also in Washington State. We wanted to see it because a decade before there had been an awe-inspiring volcanic eruption.  It’s really incomprehensible that in just a few seconds this ancient landmark of a mountain lost over 1,000 feet of elevation.

But, at the Second Coming of Christ on the Last Day, all the mountains, the rivers, the lakes, the great plains, where we live, the oceans, the continents themselves, the earth below and the heavens above—all will be completely destroyed in an instant, as St. Paul says in 1st Corinthians, “in a flash, in the twinkling of an eye, at the last trumpet.”  St. Peter puts it this way: “The present heavens and earth are reserved for fire, being kept for the day of judgment . . . The heavens will be destroyed by fire, and the earth and everything in it will be laid bare. . . That day will bring about the destruction of the heavens by fire, and the elements will melt in the heat.”

“Heaven and earth will pass away.”  Only the Lord himself knows when this will happen; he has not and will not ever reveal it to any man.  Jesus says simply, “No one knows that day or hour,” and he tells his disciples, “It is not for you to know the times or dates the Father has set by his own authority.”  You should always assume automatically that anyone who gives any kind of calculation about the time of the Second Coming is a fraud, a false prophet.  Do not follow them; do not support them; do not listen to them.

“Heaven and earth will pass away.”  Only the Lord himself knows when this will happen.  The one thing we can say is that it could happen at any time.  For as we saw in last Sunday’s sermon, all the signs given in Scripture have all been fulfilled.  As St. Paul says in Romans, “The day is almost here.”

“Heaven and earth will pass away.”  Remember the parable Jesus told about the rich fool?  “The ground of a certain rich man produced a good crop.  He thought to himself, ‘What shall I do?  I have no place to store my crops.’  Then he said, ‘This is what I’ll do.  I will tear down my barns and build bigger ones, and there I will store all my grain and my goods.  And I’ll say to myself, “You have plenty of good things laid for many years.  Take life easy; eat, drink and be merry.”’  But God said to him, ‘You fool!  This very night your life shall be required of you.’”

St. Paul says in 1st Corinthians, “Use the things of this world, but as if not engrossed in them; for the world in its present form is passing away.” Are you like the rich fool, trying to find your security in the things of this world, putting your hopes in things that seem so permanent and enduring, but are actually all passing away?

“Where Can We Find Security?”  “Heaven and earth will pass away,” Jesus says, “but my words will never pass away.”  As Psalm 46 says, “God is our refuge and strength, a very present help in trouble.  Therefore we will not fear, though the earth give way and the mountains fall into the depths of the sea . . . The Lord Almighty is with us.” 

Find your security in the promises of his word, which will never pass away.  Find your security in the Good News of your salvation:  “This is how God showed his love for us: He sent his only-begotten Son into the world that we would live through him. . . He loved us and sent his Son as an atoning sacrifice for our sins. . . And the blood of Jesus, his Son, cleanses us from every sin.” 

Find your security in Jesus’ promise to you of eternal life:  “Do not let your hearts be troubled.  Trust in God; trust also in me.  In my Father’s house are many rooms. . . I am going there to prepare a place for you.  And since I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again and take you to be with me, that you also may be where I am.  You know the way to the place where I am going. . . I am the Way, the Truth, and the Life.” 

Find your security in Jesus’ promise to you of resurrection:  “I am the resurrection and the life. Whoever believes in me, even though he dies, yet shall he live. . . For my Father’s will is that everyone who looks to the Son and believes in him shall have eternal life, and I will raise him up at the Last Day.”

Find your security in the Lord’s promise to you of eternal bliss in the new heaven and the new earth.  As St. Peter says, “In keeping with his promise we are looking forward to a new heaven and a new earth, the home of righteousness.”

Find your security not in this world, for the world in its present form is passing away.  Instead, as St. Paul says in Colossians, “Set your hearts on things above, where Christ is seated at the right hand of God.  Set your minds on things above, not on earthly things. . . When Christ, who is your life, appears, then you also will appear with him in glory.”

“Where Can We Find Security?”  “Heaven and earth will pass away,” Jesus says, “but my words will never pass away.”