Before the second coming of Jesus, according to Lk 21:26, men’s hearts will be “failing them for fear, and for looking after those things which are coming on the earth.”  Every where they look, something bad will be happening.  Jerusalem will be compassed with armies v.20, there shall be great distress v.23, there will be wrath upon the people v.23, people will fall by the edge of the sword v.24, Jerusalem shall be trodden down of the Gentiles v.24, and “there shall be signs in the sun, and in the moon, and in the stars; and upon the earth distress of nations, with perplexity, the sea and the waves roaring” v.25.

Men will be looking at all these things and their hearts will fail with fear.  And then they’ll see the Son of man coming in a cloud with power and great glory v.27.  They’ll be consumed with things down here and not with what’s going on with the Lord.  The Lord said in Matt 24:44 “Therefore, be ye also ready: for in such an hour as ye think not the Son of man cometh.”  Do you understand?  God is doing something to fulfill the greatest prophecies in the whole Bible.  Yet, men are so overwhelmed with what they see going on down here, they aren’t thinking to look up.  They are “looking after those things which are coming on earth.”

We should learn from this to get our eyes on Jesus.  You need to keep looking at Jesus.  What’s going on around us now is just barely “the beginning of sorrows,” Matt 24:8.  

Notice, when John the Baptist was here, he was “looking upon Jesus,” Jn 1:36. And he instructed Israel to so the same.  He said, “Behold the Lamb of God.”

When Paul wrote Hebrews, he taught us how to get through this life no matter what happens to us (like the great cloud of witnesses endured in Heb 11:33-38).  He said, “Looking unto Jesus,” Heb 12:2.

When Paul wrote Titus, he told us where we should look for hope.  He said, “Looking for that blessed hope, and the glorious appearing of the great God and our Saviour Jesus Christ,” Titus 2:13.

From start to finish, keep looking at Jesus.  From the beginning of his ministry, John was looking upon Jesus.  And waiting for his arrival we need to be looking for Jesus.  Don’t look down here.  Look up.  If you look down here, all you’re going to see is one bad thing after another.  If you look up, you’ll see what’s going on with the Lord.  

Looking down to see the trouble on earth rather looking up to see Jesus is like the difference between looking at all the rubble at the base of Mt Rushmore rather than looking at the faces of the presidents that were carved by Lincoln Borglum.  Look up to see what the Creator is doing, not down here at the rubble.