Mark 13:1-37; Be Alert (Part 2)

Sermon in a sentence: Like the disciples, we must be alert for false saviors and be ready for Jesus’ return.

Being Alert For False Saviors

The false saviors were the Zealots and Roman apologists that promised salvation to the Jewish people. (Mark 13:10)

Jesus is telling his disciples that the temple or the sacrificial system will not save Israel. Their security does not come from the temple made with human hands. Instead, their salvation is in the fact that Jesus is building a new temple that no one can destroy.

Jesus even warns against believing these people because of the miracles they will perform. (Mark 13:21-23)

Today, we see false prophets and false saviors that have infiltrated the church. (2 Peter 2:1, Jude 4)

2 Peter 2:1 ESV

1 But false prophets also arose among the people, just as there will be false teachers among you, who will secretly bring in destructive heresies, even denying the Master who bought them, bringing upon themselves swift destruction.

Jude 4 ESV

4 For certain people have crept in unnoticed who long ago were designated for this condemnation, ungodly people, who pervert the grace of our God into sensuality and deny our only Master and Lord, Jesus Christ.

Being Ready for Jesus’ Return

First, we must put our salvation in no one else but Jesus Christ!

Second, we should proclaim the gospel to all nations.

Third, we should expect suffering in this world. (Mark 13:23)

vs. 14 - Abomination of desolation-

-Daniel 9:27 and Daniel 11:31-

Syrian King Antioches IV Epiphanes - 167 and Judas Maccabaeus 164

vs. 24 - Astronomical signs -

Babylon - Isaiah 13:1; 9-10 .

Isaiah 13:9–10 ESV

9 Behold, the day of the Lord comes, cruel, with wrath and fierce anger, to make the land a desolation and to destroy its sinners from it. 10 For the stars of the heavens and their constellations will not give their light; the sun will be dark at its rising, and the moon will not shed its light.

Edom - Isaiah 34:4-5

Isaiah 34:4–5 ESV

4 All the host of heaven shall rot away, and the skies roll up like a scroll. All their host shall fall, as leaves fall from the vine, like leaves falling from the fig tree. 5 For my sword has drunk its fill in the heavens; behold, it descends for judgment upon Edom, upon the people I have devoted to destruction.

Egypt - Ezekiel 32:7-8

Ezekiel 32:7–8 ESV

7 When I blot you out, I will cover the heavens and make their stars dark; I will cover the sun with a cloud, and the moon shall not give its light. 8 All the bright lights of heaven will I make dark over you, and put darkness on your land, declares the Lord God.

R.T. France

The Gospel of Mark The Coming of the Son of Man within ‘This Generation’ (13:24–31)

The natural sense of such language, used in a Jewish context, is surely clear. Mk. 13:24b–27 is not about the collapse of the universe,11 but about drastic events on the world scene, interpreted in the light of the divine judgment and purpose.12 What is startling about the use of such language by Jesus in this context is not that he uses the same imagery as the prophets, but that he uses it with regard to the fate of Jerusalem and its temple. In most uses of such language in the prophets the target was a Gentile nation which posed a threat to Israel or Judah. But now the target is Jerusalem itself, and more specifically God’s house in Jerusalem.

Eckhard Schnabel

40 Questions about the End Times The Signs of the End

The apocalyptic, cosmic language of the prophecy in 24:29 uses language from the Old Testament prophets who predict not the physical dissolution of the universe but, with symbolic language, catastrophic political events within history.37 This does not prove, however, that the prophecy must be limited to the siege and destruction of Jerusalem in A.D. 70 (described both as a climactic act of judgment and as “the symbol of a new beginning, the heavenly enthronement of the Son of Man”).38 The language of this section is most naturally understood as a prophecy of Jesus’ return: the celestial disturbances are linked with the coming of the Son of Man with the clouds of heaven, with power and great glory, with angels and a loud trumpet call, and with the gathering of the elect from all corners of the earth (24:30–31). The question of the disciples in 24:3 primed them (and Matthew’s readers) for comments on Jesus’ return and the end of the age. The description of the cosmic events could be meant metaphorically, symbolizing the dissolution of the first creation that will give way to the new heavens and the new earth.39 But the description could also be meant literally, describing the collapse of the universe before the “renewal of all things” that will be initiated by the Son of Man when he is seated on the throne of his glory (Matt. 19:28).