Jesus Tells of Things to Come
Notes
Transcript
Good Morning
Have you ever noticed when geese fly in a v formation, one side is always longer than the other?
This is because there are more geese on that side.
Please keep the people in Texas in your prayers.
Have Rionna come forward.
Today we are going to be in Mark 13:1-8
Last week we saw Jesus give His last public talk and He warned us against the evils of the false teachers. The scribes were using their position to take advantage of the widows. They were robbing them and taking all that they had. Jesus showed us an example of that with the widow giving here last to coins she had to live on at the Temple treasury. The religious system and the scribes had put such a burden on her, that she was ready to go home and die. She gave all she had because that is what the system required. The religious system had taken everything she had, including her hope. We should never lose our hope, our hope is Jesus, not the religious systems. We should be ready to give all we have if He calls us to, but we do so knowing that He will provide all that we need.
Today we are going to see Jesus tell His disciples about what is going to happen in the future. Jesus is going to give the longest answer to a question in the New Testament. Jesus is going to tell them about the end times. This is sermon that Jesus gives is know as the Olivet Discourse. Jesus is on the Mt. of Olives just east of the temple across the Kidron Valley. Jesus predicts the destruction of the temple and it prompts the disciples to ask a question about the end times. This discourse by Jesus focuses the attention of the disciples on being prepared, on being ready to suffer for His name, and on trust. We are going to spend the next several weeks going through this discourse and seeing what Jesus has to say about the end times.
Please stand as we read God’s Word
1 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.
Pray
After a long day of answering questions from the religious groups and teaching and asking some questions of His own, Jesus is finally leaving Jerusalem. As they are leaving the temple one of the disciples says to Jesus, “look at these great buildings and stones!” Really, after what Jesus had just taught about the scribes and how they devour widows houses and the widow who gave her last coins, you are going to point out the grand buildings and stones. This temple is not the temple that Solomon built. That one was destroyed and was later rebuilt. King Harrod had been upgrading and enlarging the temple. This project had been going on for 46 years. We can see this in John 2:20. It was not finished yet either, it would not be finished until just before it is destroyed by the Romans. It would take some 70 years for this expansion and renovation to be finished. It almost doubled the size of the temple. Some of these stones measured 40x12x12. They were cut off site and then brought to the temple to be put in place. These stones would have weighed 100s of tones! They were made of solid white marble that would gleam in the sun. The whole eastern wall of the large main structure was covered with gold plates that reflected the morning sun. It was a magnificent structure, one of the wonders of the world at its time. It would have been a truly amazing to walk up to the city and see this amazing structure of white and gold. It would have been natural for someone to comment on the beauty of the temple. Just not good timing on their part. Not the thing to say just after what Jesus had been teaching on.
Jesus answers the disciple by telling them that all these great buildings are going to be destroyed. Not a single stone will be left on top of one another. He is foretelling of the Roman destruction of the temple that will happen in 70AD. In this attach by the Romans, they ransacked Jerusalem, killing over a million Jews, and completely destroyed the temple. When Jesus tells them this, they begin to think about it and Peter, James, John and Andrew ask Him privately when they got to the Mt. of Olives. They wanted to know what will be the sign when all these things are about to take place. Now that is a smart question. They want to know how to tell when this is about to happen.
Jesus is going to take this whole chapter to answer this one question. That should tell you how important of a question and answer this is. We will take the same amount of concern as we look at Jesus’ words about the end times.
Jesus begins by telling them to be careful and see that no one leads you astray. Mark 13:5-6 5 And Jesus began to say to them, “See to it that no one misleads you. 6 Many will come in My name, saying, ‘I am He!’ and they will mislead man. There have always been and there always will be false teachers. The pages of history are filled with the tragic stories of false messiahs, false prophets, and their enthusiastic but deluded disciples. The ones that fall for the false teachers are the ones who don’t know God’s Word. If we are truly studying and applying God’s Word to our lives, it will be hard to twist what we know and lead us astray. The only way to fight and identify a false teacher is to know the truth, to know God’s Word. It isn’t enough to just read God’s Word, we have to study it, we have to meditate on it, we have to glean from it, we have to learn how to apply it to our lives. I can’t say it enough, I can’t say it strong enough, we must be in God’s Word! We must be listening to people who teach the truth about God’s Word. We must obey Colossians 3:2.
2 Set your minds on things that are above, not on things that are on earth.
We spend way to much time on the things that don’t matter, the things of this earth. It takes away from the time that we could be focusing on the things of God. The things that encourage us, edify us, the things that bring us closer to Jesus. We get all up in arms about who is our President. Who puts our President in office? God does. No matter how much we worry or complain about the President, He is President, that is not going to change. The same thing goes for all other elected officials. Now I am not telling you to not vote, I am telling you to vote and then let it go. The time we spend complaining about who is in office, that is precious time that could be spent on the things above. We need to stop worrying about things we have no control over and focus on God and His Word, that is what we can control, what we do. We have to be ready to call out the false teachers!
Next Jesus tells us not to be alarmed when we hear about wars and rumors of wars. Mark 13:7-8
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.
Wars have always been around. In the last 3,421 years of recorded history there have only been 268 years without a single war. War is nothing new. We live in a cursed world with fallen people. We should not be surprised when war breaks out. We should be alarmed when we hear rumors of wars. Instead of being alarmed, we should pray for the people that the war is going to effect in a negative way. You and I can not stop the wars. Our worrying has no effect on the length or outcome of the war. I say that knowing that my son is in the army now and could be in the next war. I can promise you if he gets deployed to a war, my knees will be hurting like they have never hurt before! Worrying robs today of its joy. Worry never robs tomorrow of its sorrow, it only robs today of its joy. I have had plenty to worry about in my life, most of which never happened, Mark Twain. Mark Twain also said that worrying is like paying a debt you don’t owe. If we are staying focused on the things above and abiding in Christ, we will not have time to worry. It is when we take our eye off of Him, then we have time to stray from what He wants us to do and worry about things we can’t control.
Jesus said that the wars must take place. If he said that they must take place, why worry? He tells us that this is not the end yet. There have always and will always be wars.
Jesus also tells us that there will be earthquakes and there will be famines. Those two go hand in hand a lot of times, especially back in Jesus’ day. They didn’t have the disaster relief teams to go and help. Then an earthquake was bad and it could take a long time for help to come if they ever came at all. If you lived in a remote part of the world, no one may no that an earthquake ever happened. With technology, we know when they happen anywhere on earth.
There are natural disasters all the time. Texas is a prime example of that. The flooding that happened was unpredicted and it was fast. We all know too well the effects of a strong tornado, a hurricane. Even an extended drought could be disasterous. We can not control mother nature. We can not predict it either. These things will happen and we could easily say this is the end, but Jesus tells us that this is just the beginning of the end. Things are going to get much worse than we have ever seen it.
Birth pains start out light and far apart. The closer to the end it gets, the stronger and more frequent they become. I believe that we are seeing that in our time. I think we are having more and more of all of these things happen. We are getting close to Jesus’ return.
Jesus tells us to do to things in these passages
Do not be lead astray
and
Do not be alarmed
These two things are our action points. This should be our focus from these verses. The rest is just information for us to not be alarmed or lead astray.
What can we do to not be lead astray?
What can we do to not be alarmed?
The answer for both of these is the same.
Know God’s Word
Study God’s Word
Apply God’s Word to our lives
Focus on the things above, not the things here
It is so easy to get distracted by the world, that is what the devil wants. He doesn’t want us to know God’s Word. He doesn’t want us focusing on the things above. He is a liar and a deceiver. He will make things seem worse than they really are so that you will worry and lose your joy. He uses the false teachers, wars and natural disasters to try and get us to lose focus.
Knowing that there is nothing we can do to stop these things, lets stop worrying about them and focus on what truly matters, the things above.
I know it is easy for me to stand up here and tell you to not worry. It is not me telling you that, that is what the Bible says!
34 “Therefore do not be anxious about tomorrow, for tomorrow will be anxious for itself. Sufficient for the day is its own trouble.
6 do not be anxious about anything, but in everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made known to God.
22 Cast your burden on the Lord,
and he will sustain you;
he will never permit
the righteous to be moved.
There are so many more that tell us not to worry. I know it is hard, but we are commanded not to worry. We must do all that we can to not worry. If we are focused on Him and His work, we won’t have time to worry.
Remember that we are to not be lead astray and to not be alarmed.
Let’s stay focused on Him so that we do not loose focus of Him.
Let’s pray
