Sermon Tone Analysis

Mark: The Olivet Discourse: Signs of the times []

We are going to start chapter 13 of Mark’s gospel, which is known as the Olivet discourse, we’ll break it up into 2 maybe 3 sermons.

I wrote in my notes at the beginning of the week to remind myself and to help me stay on task in this chapter… don’t miss the forest for the trees.

If you are in to taking notes write that down on your bulletins or somewhere especially when it comes to studying eschatology [study of end times].

Don’t miss the forest for the trees.

We sometimes get so caught up in the details of the end time events that we miss the beautiful overall picture.

, “Beloved what manner of love the Father has bestowed on us, that we should be called children of God.

Now we are children of God, and it has not yet been revealed what we shall be, but we know when Jesus returns, we shall be like Him, for we shall see Him as He is.”

So as we look at this discourse Jesus gave of the end times, we’re not going to get caught up with minute details, but focus on the plain things Jesus teaches us.

So whatever predetermined ideas you may have about the end times, set those aside for now and we’ll focus on what Jesus says.

i.e. don’t read into the text your own personal understanding, we’re going to use Hermeneutics [branch of study that involves interpretation].

The end times is not some theological rubics cube we have to try to sort out, and you get frustrated with because you can never get that thing to all go the same direction, so you say, “I give up, I know it goes together some how, but I can’t figure it out.

I’ll leave it to those smarter than I to figure out.”

No, as I’ve said before, the main things are usually the plain things.

OK so let’s not miss the forest for the trees as we get into it.

So three principals of Hermeneutics that we’ll use in this study is...

1. God’s word is for clarity not confusion.

God is not a God of confusion, neither is His word a book of confusion.

2. God’s word is practical not theoretical.

i.e.

God’s word is for life not just for theoretical ideas of the mind

3.

In God’s word we understand what’s obscure in light of what’s clear.

typically the clear things help our understanding of what’s not clear…and don’t forget…not everything is for our knowing.

Stand for the reading of the word of God []

Few things spark greater interest than the study of eschatology [end times].

Christians and non-Christians alike are fascinated by the issue.

unfortunately with this great interest there is also comes many ideas, some of which are absolutely unwarranted.

Many through the years have been obsessed with predicting when the end will be, no one has swung at it and missed more than the Jehovah’s witnesses, who have predicted nine dates of the end… 1874, 1878, 1881, 1910, 1914, 1918, 1925, 1975, and 1984.

But they’re not the only ones to make this mistake, in 1988 many evangelical’s looked silly by buying into Edgar Whisenant’s 88 reasons the rapture is in 1988.

Even more recently many said the end of time would be 12/21/2012, when the Mayan calendar ended.

The list goes on and on with failed attempts to pin point the end, but what we need to remember is, Jesus said…no one knows!

As Jesus addressed this issue of the end, you’ll notice He doesn’t encourage us to set dates, or identify the Antichrist, or the false prophet, or the 4 horseman of the Apocalypse.

Instead he says…be on guard and stay awake.

Since we do know the end will come quickly, we must always be ready…it’s not easy but it’s worth it.

We are going to walk through this first 13 verse, verse by verse.

The grandeur and destiny of the temple []

Jesus leaves the temple for the last time.

Just as in , when the glory of the Lord departed the temple…so here, Jesus the full embodiment of the glory of God leaves the temple.

One of the disciples attention is drawn to the temple.

He says see what manner of stones and what building are here.

The Second Temple [Herod’s temple].

All three accounts of the Olivet Discourse in the synoptics have this same background.

Jesus departing the Temple area with one calling attention to it’s grandeur and beauty.

It was called Herod’s temple because of Herod the Great who began a renewal of the post-captivity temple, the first temple built by Solomon had been destroyed by Babylon.

The second temple was worked on all the way till days of Jesus, so it’s construction too at least 46 years.

The Great building.

Jesus even referred to it as a great building.

Josephus, a Jewish historian of the first century described the temple as lavish, and massive, with white marble blocks of stone.

Some weighing in at 100 tons, measuring as much as 40 feet by 12 feet, by 18 feet.

The building was impressive.

Thrown down.

Jesus took this opportunity to get the disciples attention, He says, “you see this great massive impressive building…it’ll be utterly destroyed.

Jesus obviously knowing all things, looks to the future at the destruction of the temple in A.D. 70 when the temple complex would be completely destroyed by the Romans.

Josephus described it in his book “Wars of the Jews” he said, Jerusalem and the Temple looked as if there had never been anyone inhabiting it.”

i.e. it was a wasteland of rubbish.

Though Jesus gives no reason why to his disciples at that time for it’s destruction, we know after the fact that the Temple and the sacrificial system that had been maintained there was a part of the old order that would soon be done away with.

So when we couple this prediction of Jesus with the cursing of the fig tree and the cleansing of the temple, we see the coming destruction of the temple not as simply a response of Imperial Rome to insurrection, but as the judgment of God upon the rebelliousness of his people.

A question about when []

Mount of Olives.

Jesus was sitting on the Mount of Olives, directly across the Kidron valley from the temple.

It was the perfect vantage point to gaze at the Temple.

I recall standing there when I was in Israel looking over the city, you can see everything from the mount of olives.

Of course now there is no temple there but what is there is the golden dome of the Muslims.

Tell us when.

And just like people today, the disciples want to know…when will these things happen.

They couldn’t imagine life without the temple, it was the center of Jewish religious life, so without the temple…well that would have to be the end of days.

They associated the destruction of the temple with the end of time.

The disciples were concerned about when, while they should have asked the question why?

Why would the temple be destroyed?

The destruction of the temple was necessary because it would be no longer necessary.

As the book of Hebrews tells us, Jesus was the sacrifice once for all time, the sacrificial atonement of Jesus death upon the cross would destroy the need for any other sacrifice ever again…so the temple is no longer necessary.

There are some today who have this idea that the temple must be rebuilt before the Lord will return…they’re missing the point!

The NT tells us that Christians are the temple of God, the dwelling place of the Holy Spirit.

Jesus sacrifice did away with the need for sacrifice, therefore the temple is not necessary anymore.

Those who have that idea have focused on a tree and missed the forest.

What will the signs be?

The disciples ask what anyone would ask, what are the signs of this?

I believe the disciples had the assumption that this destruction of the temple would be the consummation or inauguration of the Messianic Kingdom.

There desire for a sign stood in contrast to the responsibility of being on constant watch.

And that’s what we must be careful of as well, not caught up in when these things will happen or the signs of things and forgetting to be on guard and be on watch.

Live as if Jesus is returning today.

We’ve got to do better, many of us are asleep at the wheel today.

Signs of the times: deceivers []

Take heed.

Jesus begins the discourse with take heed, literally means to be on watch, on guard for danger.

The key to understanding the discourse is in the phrase, “the end” What did Jesus mean?

End in Greek is ‘telos’ it means goal or conclusion.

The root of the word is in the verb ‘fulfilled’ verse 4, which indicates the disciples were referring to the end of the age.

But in these first 13 verses Jesus assures us “the end is not yet” [v.7], and “he who endures to the end, shall be saved” verse 13.

Jesus doesn’t give us signs of the end but signs of the times deceivers, wars, catastrophes, etc. i.e. these signs are not the signs the end is near but only that the end is coming some day…so take heed, be on guard, watch out for danger.

Many will come and claim ‘I am he’.

Jesus said many will come and claim to be Christ returned.

In fact in the first century there were many false claims of men who said they were Christ.

Some of these reports lead to various revolts of the Jews against Rome, which were crushed and ultimately resulted in the destruction of the temple in A.D. 70.

In A.D. 135 the Jews lost their homeland altogether under the false claims to be the messiah by Simon Bar-Kokhab.

This has happened through out history, as recent as David Koresh who lead the Branch Davidian sect who claimed to be the returned Christ in 1993.

Many will be deceived.

We may easily sit back and say, how foolish those people who buy into that are…but the words of Jesus are clear, many will be deceived, but by the grace of God we could be as well.

Signs of the times: Wars []

Wars and rumors of wars.