BE
ALERT
LUKE
21:34-38
(See
also Matthew 24 and Mark 13)
Luke
21:34 And take heed to yourselves, lest at any time your hearts be overcharged
with surfeiting, and drunkenness, and cares of this life, and so that day come
upon you unawares.
Susan: We
like to look up unfamiliar words used in the King James Version. It sounds like
“surfeiting” is gluttony on steroids!
American
Dictionary of the English Language, Noah Webster, 1828.
SUR'FEITING,
participle present tense Oppressing the system by excessive eating and
drinking; cloying; loading or filling to disgust.
SUR'FEITING,
noun The act of feeding to excess; gluttony. Luke 21:34.
Susie: As
believers, we should not be caught off guard when the Lord returns. Even though
we cannot know dates and times, we can see His return approaching. Therefore,
we should desire to be about His business—witnessing, encouraging, uplifting
others—rather than the mundane cares of this world. We do not want to be like
those who do not believe as the Apostle Paul described them:
Philippians
3:18-19 (AMP) For there are many, of whom I have often told you, and now tell
you even with tears, who live as enemies of the cross of Christ [rejecting and
opposing His way of salvation], whose
fate is destruction, whose god is their belly [their worldly appetite, their
sensuality, their vanity], and whose glory is in their shame—who focus their
mind on earthly and temporal things.
Susan: We
should not be so consumed with earthly pursuits that we are neglecting God’s
word, pursuing Jesus, and focusing on the job with which God has entrusted
us—knowing Him and making Him known to others.
Luke
21:35 For as a snare shall it come on all them that dwell on the face of the
whole earth.
Susie: Like a
hunter’s trap slamming closed, Jesus’s return will happen suddenly. Those of us
who heed His warning will not be embarrassed to stand before Him. If we watch
and pray, we will not fear that day. Everyone on the earth will be aware of His
return at once. Some will tremble with fear, and others (those who have trusted
in Jesus) will rejoice to see the day of justice, redemption, and God’s glory
arrive.
Luke
21:36 Watch ye therefore, and pray always, that ye may be accounted worthy to
escape all these things that shall come to pass, and to stand before the Son of
man.
Susan: Every
time Jesus highlights His return, He admonishes His people to pay attention, be
alert because the great Day of the Lord is coming.
Matthew
25:13 Watch therefore, for ye know neither the day nor the hour wherein the Son
of man cometh.
Mark
13:33-37 Take ye heed, watch and pray: for ye know not when the time is. For
the Son of Man is as a man taking a far journey, who left his house, and gave
authority to his servants, and to every man his work, and commanded the porter
to watch. Watch ye therefore: for ye know not when the master of the house
cometh, at even, or at midnight, or at the cockcrowing, or in the morning: Lest
coming suddenly he find you sleeping. And what I say unto you I say unto all,
Watch.
Susie: Our
Lord and Master, Jesus Christ, has commissioned us to spread the Good News of
salvation through His finished work on the cross. May He find us busy about
this task when He returns.
Luke
21:37 And in the day time he was teaching in the temple; and at night he went
out, and abode in the mount that is called the mount of Olives.
Susie: Every
day of Jesus’s last week before the crucifixion, he was teaching in the temple
courts. He was continuing to announce that kingdom of God. He was faithfully
instructing those who followed Him.
Susan: Jesus
was about His Father’s business even to the very end as we will see when we
study His words from the cross.
Susie: Every
night, Jesus would camp out on the mount of Olives, living as a homeless person
on the earth He created for people.
Susan: As I
understand in Scripture, the mount of Olives was Jesus’s outdoor sanctuary, His
spiritual man-cave.
Luke
21:38 And all the people came early in the morning to him in the temple, for to
hear him.
Susie: People
were eager to hear Jesus teach, and showed up early in the day to do so. We are
not told everything Jesus did during “Passion Week” when He was not teaching or
sleeping. One would imagine He spent much time in prayer and preparation, and
that the garden would be a peaceful atmosphere to spend time in communion with
His Father.
Ponder
this and Apply it: The question we must ask ourselves is, “How,
then, shall we live?” We must live in such a way as to honor the Lord Jesus
with our thoughts, words, and actions. We must be His witnesses to a lost and
dying world. We must commit ourselves to His familyship by discipling and
encouraging other believers. Perhaps we should begin each day with this song:
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