Sermon Tone Analysis

Hope of Christs Return

Apocalyptic, as a recognizable genre of literary expression, has significant characteristics.

There is a keen sense of the battle between good and evil, pessimism about that process working out well in natural terms, a conviction that things will end in crisis, and the need for God to put everything right in and through the crisis.

Second Coming, also called Second Advent or Parousia, in Christianity, the future return of Christ in glory, when it is understood that he will set up his kingdom, judge his enemies, and reward the faithful, living and dead.

vs. 2 Jesus proclaims the destruction of the temple in Jerusalem.

His disciples asked the question when will this take place.

They are no on the Mt. of olives the pathway from Bethany to Jerusalem, the same place that Jesus stood and wept over Jerusalem.

The Mt. of olives is central in Jesus coming, going, and coming again to judge the living and the dead.

The belief that the Kidron Valley is the future Valley of Jehoshaphat (“The Lord Judges”), where God will judge humanity (Joel 3:2, 12), has inspired thousands of Jews to make their graves on the adjacent slopes.

The world’s largest Jewish cemetery spreads across the Mount of Olives, and Muslim graves dot the slopes across the Kidron Valley below the Temple Mount.

After his resurrection Jesus gave the great commission and ascended to heaven from the mt. of Olives and this will also be the place just as Zacharia predicted that Jesus will return as the conquering king.

The Message of (10.

The ‘Little Apocalypse’ (13:1–37))

The question should have been, ‘How are we to live in the light of such a prophecy?’

It is knowledge which feeds spiritual and moral well-being and the lifestyle that they need.

The Message of Mark (10.

The ‘Little Apocalypse’ (13:1–37)

13:1–4 Warning about the temple

13:5–13 The continuing experience of hardship by disciples.

13:14–23 The destruction of Jerusalem.

13:24–27 The end of all things.

13:28–37 Watchfulness during the entire end time—i.e. from now onward.

This whole chapter reminds the disciples to ‘be on guard.’

Advent begins not with Jesus talking about his first coming but about his second coming.

The words that Jesus uses to describe his second coming are not easy to hear or give much optimism to the reader.

Hope: The confidence that, by integrating God’s redemptive acts in the past with trusting human responses in the present, the faithful will experience the fullness of God’s goodness both in the present and in the future.

Also: Future Hope; Longing; Yearning.

BIG IDEA: Are you living your life on ready mode or unsteady self-control.

Mark 13:24–27 (ESV)

24 “But in those days, after that tribulation, the sun will be darkened, and the moon will not give its light, 25 and the stars will be falling from heaven, and the powers in the heavens will be shaken.

26 And then they will see the Son of Man coming in clouds with great power and glory.

27 And then he will send out the angels and gather his elect from the four winds, from the ends of the earth to the ends of heaven.

1.

Our Hope is a realistic Hope.

The text that we just read does not hold out for a pie in the sky type of hope.

It does not hold out for a great hope in a prosperity sanitized version of Christianity.

Hope Is an Essential Part of Life

Humans seek after hope like moths seek after light.

It’s intrinsic to who we are.

Neuroscientists Tali Sharot argues hope is so essential to our survival that it is hardwired into our brains, arguing it can be the difference between living a healthier life versus one trapped by despair.

Studies show hopeful college kids get higher GPA’s and are more likely to graduate.

Hopeful athletes perform better on the field, cope better with injuries, and have greater mental adjustment when situations change.

In one study of the elderly, those who said they felt hopeless were more than twice as likely to die during the study follow-up period than those who were more hopeful.

It’s pretty clear: hope is powerfully catalytic, and why Dr. Shane Lopez, the psychologist who was regarded as the world’s leading researcher on hope, claimed that hope isn’t just an emotion but an essential life tool.

The text we just read should be a huge jolt of reality.

The imagery of doom and gloom is very evident in the text.

This text does not hold much for the triumphant prosperity gospel being peddled in Christian culture today.

The description actually chills one to the bone.

We should not shy away from reading such text.

Some of Jesus words have been happening in every generation.

In recent decades many of these things are daily occurrences for people in South Africa, South America, and Eastern Europe.

All of this is a direct testimony to the reality and consequences of this thing called SIN!

The coming of the Son of Man will be associated with celestial phenomena.

The imagery and language are derived from the OT descriptions of the Day of the Lord.

The quotation is an echo of Isaiah 13:10

(1) the sun will be darkened (see Rev 6:12),

(2) the moon will not give its light (see Rev 6:12), and

(3) the stars (perhaps meteorites) will be falling from heaven, and the powers in the heavens will be shaken (see Rev 6:13–14).

Ultimate cosmic upheaval and universal cataclysmic judgment will signal that the end has come

The repeated assertion in Scripture that the end times will be accompanied by cosmic disturbances seems to imply that there will be unprecedented celestial disturbances of some sort that are literal and real.

This is the reality of our hope.

Note: We know that with Christ’s return comes a new heaven and a new earth, and the reality of our Hope!

Theology

This also marks the new ordering of the world where, days, and nights, and seasons will come to an end.

The only light that we will need is the light of Jesus.

Christians have been waiting for this to happen since the 1st century and were mocked for such hope.

This marks the wiping away of every tear from our eyes and the dead in Christ will rise to be given imperishable bodies.

Jesus followers can rest assured that even in the middle of our suffering and struggles our faithfulness will be rewarded.

“In those Day’s after that Tribulation”

The Christian Calling is one of enduring Hope.

The Problem in the Waiting.

Think about Jesus first advent, how long people had been waiting for the Messiah to arrive for close to 1,000 years that many missed Jesus appearing all together.

Now we have waited another 2,000 year for the second advent to take place.

The problem in the waiting is the misplaced conception that the hope we are waiting for comes without struggles, and pain in the process.

The Israelites suffered greatly at the hands of their enemies before Christ appeared the at the first advent in the stable in Bethlehem.

Scripture is very clear that one of the key reasons that we are called to suffering is to produce perseverance in us.

This is the sign of the hope that we claim to follow.

Look what Paul says in Romans 5:3-5

As Christians we must remember that everything that comes into our lives is under the sovereign reign, rule and control of God that He has promised to be working everything out for His Glory and our Good.

Romans 8:28.

It is all as it should be.

Jesus will come again to gather His people.

“He will send out the angels” (v.

27) who will harvest the work done by suffering saints who have “proclaimed [the good news] to all nations” (v.

10).

These will be gathered from every corner of the globe as well as heaven.

Revelation 7:9-10

Salvation belongs to our God who sits on the throne, and to the Lamb!

We are reminded in 1 Peter 3:15 that we are always to be prepared to make a defense or reason (apologia) for the great hope we have inside of us.

2. Our Hope is a Certain Hope.

Certainty: A sure knowledge or conviction that what is believed is true and trustworthy.

Christian certainty does not arise from the credulity of the believer, but is based on the faithfulness and trustworthiness of God.

Why is it so important that we understand the certainty or our hope of God?

We live in a world today of complete uncertain reality of truth to the point that our hope is in this world or ourselves and even that kind of hope is uncertain.

Our Labor of Love for the Lord is not in Vain.

“When you see these things take place you know that He is near.”

Famous Atheist Unable to Completely Rule Out God

Biologist Richard Dawkins, a vocal atheist and critic of organized religion, inadvertently revealed the lack of certainty that must accompany all denials of God's existence in his 2006 book The God Delusion.

On a scale of 1 to 7, where 1 is certitude that God exists and 7 is certitude that God does not exist, Dawkins rates himself a 6: "I cannot know for certain, but I think God is very improbable, and I live my life on the assumption that he is not there."

In Palestine most trees are evergreen, but the fig tree is an exception.

In the fall it loses its leaves; and when in the spring the sap rises in its branches and the tree begins to leaf out, summer cannot be far off.

The parable is essentially an antidote to despair.