It is going to end! The toothache that woke you up from a sound sleep, the winning streak of your favorite football team, the year 2024, a guilty conscience, our life, the world in which we live. Everything created is going to end. And Jesus said “the one who endures to the end will be saved.” Mark 13:13.
Jesus walked out of the temple one day in Jerusalem and the disciples called His attention to the magnificent, large stones with which the temple had been built. The temple should have lasted a long time. But Jesus told His disciples the day was coming when not one stone would be left on top of another one. The Romans came 37 years later with their army and destroyed the temple and Jerusalem.
Jesus predicted that the end of all things was going to come. There would be wars and natural disasters like earthquakes and famines; there would be persecution for Christians and even members of a family would hand one another over to death. But the one who endures to the end will be saved.
Being saved, having salvation, having eternal life, going to heaven, all refer to the same hope of most people and held confidently by Christians who have put their trust in Jesus Christ. A few months after Jesus spoke these words, He died on the cross. Every sin of every person was placed upon Him and He took away the sins of the world, took them away even from the memory of God.
A guilty conscience is quieted as a person believes that gospel message that God no longer remembers sin. Then why should I remember my sin? Forgiveness full, complete, final. That is how a believer stands before the eternal God who will still be there when heaven and earth pass away and He will be the same loving and forgiving God!
Count the wrinkles, count the grey hair, groan with your arthritis, live with your now and then indigestion. Go to the visitation of a dear friend, talk with your pastor about your funeral, visit the funeral home and pick out your casket with joy in your heart for you will be saved. Jesus said so! And He who died for you lives forever, and when your life on earth ends He will welcome you to the eternal home.
Elmer Schiefer
Pastor, Family of Christ Lutheran Church
elmer@myglobalemail.com
573-529-0584
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