The Confident Gospel

Mark 13:1-13

13 And as he came out of the temple, one of his disciples said to him, “Look, Teacher, what wonderful stones and what wonderful buildings!” 2 And Jesus said to him, “Do you see these great buildings? There will not be left here one stone upon another that will not be thrown down.”

3 And as he sat on the Mount of Olives opposite the temple, Peter and James and John and Andrew asked him privately, 4 “Tell us, when will these things be, and what will be the sign when all these things are about to be accomplished?” 5 And Jesus began to say to them, “See that no one leads you astray. 6 Many will come in my name, saying, ‘I am he!’ and they will lead many astray. 7 And when you hear of wars and rumors of wars, do not be alarmed. This must take place, but the end is not yet. 8 For nation will rise against nation, and kingdom against kingdom. There will be earthquakes in various places; there will be famines. These are but the beginning of the birth pains.

9 “But be on your guard. For they will deliver you over to councils, and you will be beaten in synagogues, and you will stand before governors and kings for my sake, to bear witness before them. 10 And the gospel must first be proclaimed to all nations. 11 And when they bring you to trial and deliver you over, do not be anxious beforehand what you are to say, but say whatever is given you in that hour, for it is not you who speak, but the Holy Spirit. 12 And brother will deliver brother over to death, and the father his child, and children will rise against parents and have them put to death. 13 And you will be hated by all for my name’s sake. But the one who endures to the end will be saved.

Pray

I wanted to read the text from last week to make sure that we are all on the same page as to where the text today is going.

The disciple marveled at the temple and Jesus tells him that the thing that he is seeing that looks like it is too big to fail, too important to fail, too beautiful to fail, is coming down. Which is a good parallel for us today. If our idea of religion is built on a foundation that is principally based on the good things I do for God, then at its core, it is rotten and must come down. Last week we spoke a lot about the need for the temple to be destroyed. There was nothing of value there anymore. While it may have housed what we would think of as valuable things, the thing of ultimate value, the Spirit of God, did not reside there any longer and the people that were supposed to be the teachers of the truth of God were teaching what ought not to be taught which is a works based religion. In other words, that you have to work your way to God. Jesus is saying that way is impossible to get to God so it all must come down.

The disciples ask what will be the signs when this is to take place and when will it take place? Which brings us to today’s text starting in verse 5.

5 And Jesus began to say to them, “See that no one leads you astray. 6 Many will come in my name, saying, ‘I am he!’ and they will lead many astray.

Remember this is a parallel road we are walking, one foot is on the ground in the time leading up to this prophetic event of the destruction of the temple and how the believers in that time would know that day was coming and the other foot is walking today in 2024 and how does this apply to our lives?

If we look at the text, Jesus says, “See that” or “See to it that no one leads YOU astray.”

He is speaking directly to his disciples. This is not a far off event that the disciples would never see. They needed to be aware of what was going to happen in their life. Later in the text it will say that these things will happen in your generation which is a span of 40 years. While all Scripture is good for teaching not all of Scripture is to us in the same way. These believers needed to know the signs of the sacking of the temple so they could be prepared. We will see later on in the chapter that when they see these signs, they are to flee to the mountains. If we take this text to mean that these are the signs that we are to be looking out for before the second coming of Christ where He will come and tribulation will be on the earth, if that is how you interpret that, then running for the mountains will do us no good. We have to look at this text in the context of who it is written to and for what specific purpose. So thinking that way, when we look at the text as to what signs are we to be looking for before the destruction of the temple and Jesus says that, “Many will come in my name, saying, ‘I am he!’ and they will lead many astray.”

The question then is, were their people that claimed to be Jesus between the time Jesus was Resurrected and the destruction of the temple? We know that there have been many messianic claims in the 19th and 20th century. There is a whole list of them that you can find on the internet, but was there anyone that tried to lead people as a Jewish messiah after Jesus was resurrected?

Historians tell us that a few years after the ascension of Jesus, a Jewish-Messiah figure excited a bunch of Samaritans to go into the wilderness on Mount Gerizzim to incite violence against the Romans. Pontius Pilate had them all put to death.

A few years later a magician named Theudas persuaded a large group of Jews to follow him and he told them that he was a prophet and that they should all come to the river Jordan and he would divide the river and they would have safe passage across it. The Roman government heard about this and stopped the people from going and beheaded Theudas.

Josephus the Jewish historian said this about all of the men that came to tear away the people,

“These were such men as deceived and deluded the people under the pretense of divine inspiration, but were for procuring innovations and changes of the government, and these prevailed with the multitude to act like madmen, and went before them into the wilderness, as pretending that God would there show them the signals of liberty.”

This is not an exhausted lists, but the first century Jews had their share of people trying to lead them astray. Jesus says, “See to it that you aren’t sucked into it.” Hold fast to the teachings, hold fast to what you first were called to. We can take that for us today as well, don’t be deceived, don’t stray from the teachings of Christ. Many will come and say “I am He” and lead them astray. We see that today as well. There is nothing new under the sun.

Those of us that have the standard that the bible is the only true, infallible, Word of God can test anyone that comes trying to teach or sway the church with the Word. If someone rises up and says that they are the second coming of Christ, we know that they are a false prophet because when Christ comes back there will be no hiding. The whole world will know. So we stay faithful to what the Word says and walk in obedience to it.

7 And when you hear of wars and rumors of wars, do not be alarmed. This must take place, but the end is not yet. 8 For nation will rise against nation, and kingdom against kingdom. There will be earthquakes in various places; there will be famines. These are but the beginning of the birth pains.

Has there been a time in your life when there was not wars or rumors of wars? We are currently out of the war in Iraq, but Russia and Ukraine are still fighting, Israel and Hamas are engaged in war, there are rumors that China and the US could be at war with each other. Have you heard of earthquakes happening? According to a search I did on Wednesday there have been 332 earthquakes in 2024 alone. Is there famine today? This year in the Democratic Republic of Congo there is expected to be over 25 million people effected by famine in 2024. All of these things have been taking place since the time of Jesus and before. The Jews and the Romans were always at the precipice of war after Christ ascended, the Jews against the gentiles.

Earthquakes start to happen at the crucifixion of Jesus. Matthew 27 there is an earthquake that shakes so strong that the temple veil is torn. In Matthew 28:2, when talking about the ladies visiting Jesus’ empty tomb, “and behold, there was a great earthquake, for an angel of the Lord descended from heaven and rolled back the stone and sat on it.” In Acts 16, Paul and Silas are in prison and there is a great earthquake and the locks and doors open wide.

Extra-biblical evidence reveals many earthquakes that were recorded. According to one scholar said that among the cities that experienced earthquakes were “Crete, Smyrna, Miletus, Chios, Samos, Laodicea, Hierapolis, Colosse, Campania, Rome, and Judea. The most famous was a city-destroying earthquake that leveled Pompeii in 63 AD. By this measure alone, there was an earthquake that did massive damage in no less than twelve different towns over forty years.”

What does Jesus tell his disciples about these things, “Do not be alarmed.” If you take nothing else from today, when you read about wars and rumors of wars and earthquakes and famines, Jesus is telling you, “DO NOT BE ALARMED.”

Jesus says that they must take place and that they are just the beginning of birth pains. I remember before Clive was born, every new couple probably does this. We were anxious and nervous and didn’t have a clue what we were up against. I remember Krysta was feeling something so we grab all of our stuff and jump in the car and head to the hospital to find that it wasn’t real labor, it was just Braxton Hicks. These things have to happen because it is the gradual progress of God’s plan unfolding, but we are not to be alarmed. If it is how some believe, getting worse in the world and Jesus is going to rapture His people to paradise then, why would we be alarmed? We should rejoice that the time is almost fulfilled, but if He tarries, He will provide a way for His people to continue the Gospel work. Make no mistake church, we have a job right now and that is to preach the Gospel and to spread the kingdom.

“But be on your guard. For they will deliver you over to councils, and you will be beaten in synagogues, and you will stand before governors and kings for my sake, to bear witness before them.

Jesus, speaking to us and to his disciples, did that happen to the disciples before the fall of the temple? Almost the entire book of Acts are the disciples setting up churches and being beaten in cites, stoned to death, thrown in prison, starved, you name it. This is another prophecy that came true. Is it possible that God will call us as hearers and readers of this Gospel to do the same? We have seen it in the last few years in this country and Canada where pastors were arrested for standing up to tyrannical governments who wanted to shut their church meetings down. Jesus says we must be ready for these things. About these trials that we could have to stand in front, in verse 11, Jesus says,

“And when they bring you to trial and deliver you over, do not be anxious beforehand what you are to say, but say whatever is given you in that hour, for it is not you who speak, but the Holy Spirit.”

Is this what we saw happen? Peter, the cowardly man that denied Christ to a little girl three times, on the day of Pentecost, when filled with the Holy Spirit, delivers one of the best sermons in the New Testament calling out the Jews for not seeing their Messiah with no thought to his life. We see Stephen, the first martyr in the bible, preach an incredible sermon, being filled with the Holy Spirit, knowing that it would be his last and as they are stoning him to death he cries out, “Lord, do not hold this sin against them.” The list goes on, Phillip with the Ethiopian eunuch, Saul/Paul, who was the persecutor of the church, empowered by the spirit was the most prolific church planter in all of the new testament, stands before counsels and all sorts of folks and says this about his persecutions in 2 Corinthians 11

“Five times I received at the hands of the Jews the forty lashes less one. 25 Three times I was beaten with rods. Once I was stoned. Three times I was shipwrecked; a night and a day I was adrift at sea; 26 on frequent journeys, in danger from rivers, danger from robbers, danger from my own people, danger from Gentiles, danger in the city, danger in the wilderness, danger at sea, danger from false brothers; 27 in toil and hardship, through many a sleepless night, in hunger and thirst, often without food,[b] in cold and exposure.”

What does he say about those things, later on the next chapter he says, “Therefore I will boast all the more gladly of my weaknesses, so that the power of Christ may rest upon me.”

He proclaimed that the only way that he was able to speak or withstand the hardship is through the power of the Holy Spirit. What was it all for? It is for what verse 10 says,

“And the gospel must first be proclaimed to all nations.”

This is where some might say, “See, this text is talking about the end of the world when Jesus comes back.” That may be the case, but look with me at what Paul says about this subject in Colossians.

Colossians 1:5–6 (ESV)

because of the hope laid up for you in heaven. Of this you have heard before in the word of the truth, the gospel, which has come to you, as indeed in the whole world it is bearing fruit and increasing

And again in Colossians 1:23

if indeed you continue in the faith, stable and steadfast, not shifting from the hope of the gospel that you heard, which has been proclaimed in all creation under heaven, and of which I, Paul, became a minister.

The world that was known to Paul was being reached by the Gospel. All of the nations were hearing about it from Spain to Africa to Turkey, the gospel was being spread throughout all of the nations. Now could this have a double meaning? I believe it does. Every nation in that first century the Gospel was being heralded but as we read it today there are new nations and people and nations that once believed that believe no more and ones that never believed are starting to believe. Our job is the same as the disciples, preach the Gospel. We preach the gospel as if he is coming back tomorrow if we believe that tomorrow will be the day or if you think the Lord still may terry for several more thousand years.

This is not something we should ever divide on. The time of His return is not for us to know, but our commission is as clear as it was when Jesus told the disciples that they were to go make disciples, baptise them in the name of the Father, Son and Holy Spirit and to teach them to obey all that Christ commanded. When you do this, depending on the time frame and the geographical location you live in, it could be a safe place for you and you get to go into glory to be with the father, but the opposite could be true as well that

12 And brother will deliver brother over to death, and the father his child, and children will rise against parents and have them put to death. 13 And you will be hated by all for my name’s sake.

If you are a Christian in Somalia right now or North Korea or Libya or Nigeria, brothers are delivering brothers over to death and fathers against children. This same thing happened to the church during the reign of Nero starting in 64 AD. Nero started a fire in Rome to make room for a new palace and he blamed the Christians for it which resulted in the tortuous killing of many Christians in Rome including Paul, but Christ gives hope and says,

But the one who endures to the end will be saved.

There can only be one king and one God. He says that no matter what happens, He is taking care of his people whether it is on this side of heaven or the next. We will read next week that he gives directions to the Christians to save them from the destruction of Jerusalem. Today, if you hear his voice and respond, and you preach the gospel fearlessly, He will take care of you. He is taking the stories of those who are giving their lives in far off countries to bring glory to Himself and growing His kingdom, but to the saint that was murdered for the cause, he or she is in glory. They are not the losers of the story but the conquerers through Christ. We, as well as the first Christians are conquerors. There is nothing that this world can do to shut down the Word of God. Do not be alarmed by the world around you. Stand confident in your Savior that the Holy Spirit will give you the words to preach when the time comes.