Do I Want Jesus To Come Back?
BRD REFLECTION 2025
Luke 21 and Psalm 35:1-10 (NIV)
(Kenneth Lim from Small Group Ministry)
READ:
Luke 21 and Psalm 35:1-10 (NIV)
OBSERVE:
In Luke 21, Jesus praised the widow who, despite her poverty, gave all she had. Jesus went on to predict the destruction of the temple, the cataclysms brought about by God’s final judgement and the persecution His disciples would face before Jesus’ return. Jesus also warned His disciples to be careful and not succumb to worldly pleasures and anxieties in the meantime.
In Psalm 35, David asks God to save him from his enemies, who treat him with groundless hostility.
APPLY:
It is ironic that the Israelites would have sung psalms like Psalm 35 to call out for God’s salvation, only for their chief priests to reject God in the flesh when Jesus rode into Jerusalem as King and reclaimed the temple (Luke 19-20). Worse still, they treated Jesus the way David’s enemies treated David, with groundless hostility, culminating in the priests eventually petitioning for Jesus’ crucifixion. Jesus foreshadows this in Luke 20:9-19 and implies that they did so to maintain their worldly status.
In this context, Jesus’ words in Luke 21 make sense: if the world persecuted Jesus, they will also persecute His followers; but those who stand firm will win life in His name and those who reject Jesus for worldly pleasures will find themselves on the wrong side of God’s justice on the final day of judgement.
Luke 21 is a sobering reminder to me that in the end, only those who enthrone Jesus as King will survive God’s judgement. It forces me to consider this: Have I let my pursuit of worldly comforts dethrone Jesus in my heart? Or do I earnestly desire for Jesus to return as my King and will I, like the poor widow, give up all that I have to gain Christ?
DO:
I will keep my eyes fixed on Jesus and not let my heart be weighed down by the things of this world, which will ultimately fall away in the light of God’s judgement.
PRAY:
Dear God, thank You that, although I am prone to wander and chase after worldly pleasures, You gave Your Son Jesus to die for me, so that I may be rescued into a life spent chasing after You instead. Help me to desire You more and more each day, so that my satisfaction may be complete when Your Kingdom is finally established on earth as it is in heaven. In Jesus’ name I pray, Amen.
