Eschatology (& Other Big Words)
The beauty of going through the scriptures verse by verse and book by book, is eventually you get to all the topics in scripture. Even some of the less popular, or better yet, the more controversial ones. This week is no exception.
In this message, we get to discuss the ever so popular and mysterious topic of ‘eschatology’. Eschatology is the study of the end times or ‘last things’. We’re not going too deep into the various popular views, but it is a major theme in our text.
Most people associate the Book of Revelation with eschatology, others see it in the gospels. It’s actually all over the scriptures. Some can even find it in their daily news feed online or on the TV news :-)) I enjoy the topic because when you really drill down into it, it’s directly rooted into the gospel.
We will see one particular eschatological theme as we continue in John chapter 12:12-19. You may be asking, where in the world are the verses about ‘the end’ in this passage? Well, the Jews of Jesus’ day had a very different perspective of eschatology than we do today. In fact, they were pretty passionate about it. So passionate, it often blinded them from seeing the forest through the trees. In other words, from seeing the big picture.
I don’t know about you, but one of the most frustrating things is when something presents itself so clearly to me, but the person I’m explaining it to just doesn’t get it. This often happens when presenting the gospel to someone. It seems so clear who Jesus is, what He did and why He did it. But for some reason, they just don’t get it. They may understand things ‘about’ Jesus, but they just can’t see who He really is and what He’s trying to do in their lives. God hasn’t opened their eyes just yet I suppose. All in His timing.
In John 12:12-19, the Jews are gathered for the biggest and most populated feast of the year, the Passover. Over the past previous 3 years, Jesus has been traveling around Israel doing some amazing things. Everyone has heard of Him by now. Some want to follow Him, others want to kill Him. But everyone is wondering if they’ll see Him at the feast and what He’ll do next.
Then, out of nowhere, here He comes. On a donkey. This had much more meaning to those present than you may think. We’ll cover that tomorrow. But my point being is, the person they had been waiting for was finally there - right in front of their eyes! The unfortunate thing, although He was there, they really didn’t see Him for who He was, or what He was doing for them.
And there’s the frustration - they were blinded. They were blinded by their own ideas of who they thought Jesus was, and what He was there to do. Their blindness caused them to miss out big. As Jesus says in Luke’s telling of the story, after Jesus entered Jerusalem on his donkey, he wept over the city:
[Luke 19:41-42 NASB] 41 When He approached [Jerusalem,] He saw the city and wept over it, 42 saying, "If you had known in this day, even you, the things which make for peace! But now they have been hidden from your eyes.
He then goes on to say in the next verse, ‘you missed the time of your visitation’. Why? They were blinded by their own ideas. Their own ‘eschatological’ ideas. Their expectations of the end, their interpretation of the scriptures which tell of Israel’s final deliverance, and their own ideas of Israel eventually ruling the world - all were misunderstood due to them being blinded by their incorrect ideas.
Can we, or do we, make the same mistake? I believe we can and sometimes do. As we dive into this text together, we’ll discover not only what their incorrect eschatological ideas were, but how we too can avoid making the same blinding errors when considering Jesus’ purpose in coming and returning.
To get a real good idea of the scene, I recommend that you not only read John 12:12-19, but also read the parallel passages in the synoptic gospels: Matthew 21:1-17; Mark 11:1-11; Luke 19:28-44.
Listen to this sermon on John 12:12-19 by clicking on the links below.
