Preparing for Worship - November 17, 2024

In these last two weeks of the Church Year, our focus is on end times, with the victory of Christ and His return on the last day. In the psalm, Psalm 16, David “takes refuge” in the Lord and knows that he “has no good apart from Him.” He “delights” in his fellow believers, “the saints in the land,” but sees the “sorrows” of those who follow “another god” instead of the One True God, the Lord. David knows that he has “a beautiful inheritance ahead” in heaven in the presence of the Lord. Some of this psalm is also prophetic, though, in pointing to the coming of our Savior, the Lord Jesus. David eventually died, and his body saw corruption, though it will be raised on the last day. Peter quotes this passage in his Pentecost sermon (Acts 2:22-36) with regard to Jesus, who was crucified and died but whose body did not see corruption but was raised to new and eternal life on the third day. Paul also quotes from Psalm 16 (and Psalm 2) regarding the resurrection of Christ and His body, which did not see decay, in Acts 13:32-39. Christ Jesus is now “the path of life” and “fullness of joy” for all who trust in Him for eternal life and resurrection.

In the Old Testament lesson, Daniel 12:1-3, Daniel speaks of great trouble for God’s people in the last times. All believers in the Lord and His saving work in Christ have their names written in the Book of Life and will be delivered. The bodies of those who have died in the Lord shall be awakened to everlasting life (and reunited with their souls). Unbelievers will be raised “to shame and everlasting contempt” apart from the Lord. Therefore, the Lord calls His people to “wisdom” and to seek to “turn many more to righteousness” through faith in Jesus. It is His doing, but we can be His witnesses.

In the Gospel lesson, Mark 13:1-13, Jesus predicts the destruction of Jerusalem and of the magnificent temple (which happened in 70 AD). This would be a prefiguring of the troubles in the last times, “the end of the ages” that Christ brought in by His saving life, death, and resurrection. (See last week’s epistle, Hebrews 9:24-28, for example.) There will be wars and earthquakes and famines and false prophets and persecution of believers and hatred of the name of Christ and other troubles, called “birth pangs,” which we have seen and still see today. These are reminders that Jesus may return at any time, and we will be saved as we endure to the end in faith in Christ, together with the Father and the Holy Spirit, through the Word of God, the Scriptures, and the Sacraments.

The Epistle lesson, Hebrews 10:11-25, points us again to the single sacrifice of Christ, once for all time, bringing in the New Covenant and the forgiveness of all our sins. As we wait now for the return of Christ, we can approach our Lord with the full assurance of faith, cleansed by the blood of Christ and our baptism and holding fast to the promises of our faithful God. We are also called “not to neglect to meet together, as is the habit of some,” but to “stir up one another to love and good works” and to “encourage one another” as we wait for “the Day” of Christ’s return, “drawing near.”