The Power of Hope

There is a story about a small town in Maine that had been proposed as the site of a new hydroelectric dam.

Plans for the dam were announced many months prior to its construction, so the people had a long time to get their affairs in order and find new homes.

But during that time, something unusual happened. The town began to deteriorate. No improvements were made, nothing was painted, and there was no maintenance of sidewalks or streets.

The town began to look pretty shabby, and long before the waters covered it up, it already seemed abandoned and uncared for, even though people still lived there.

One resident explained the situation to a reporter this way: “Where there is no faith in the future, there is no power in the present.”

In other words, since the people of that town had no hope for the future of their town, they had lost their motivation to work in the present.

One of the characteristic traits of humans is the need for hope. In fact, researchers have concluded that hopefulness is one of the things that set apart the American survivors of POW camps during WWII from those who died in captivity.

The survivors tended to be those who not only expected to be released one day, but also imagined and pictured what their lives would be like when they had been freed. They would describe to each other what their homes would be like, the women they would marry and the careers they would pursue.

Hopefulness is a key not only to having life, but having life abundantly.

So, when Jesus was headed toward Jerusalem with His disciples during the week before He would be crucified, and as He considered what life would be like for them after his death, burial, resurrection, and ascension into heaven — as He considered what life would be like without His physical presence for those who had followed Him in faith — He sought to provide them with hope.

Sitting on the Mount of Olives opposite the temple in Jerusalem, Jesus delivered what is known as the Olivet Discourse, and Mark positioned his account of this mini-sermon just before his account of Jesus’ betrayal, arrest, and crucifixion.

Writing under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit, and knowing how dark would be his account of the passion of Christ, Mark shares first the hope we have in the knowledge that our crucified Savior will one day return in the clouds with great power and glory.

We see this Olivet Discourse in chapter 13 of the Gospel of Mark, and I’d like you to turn there today as we focus our attention on the hope of Christ’s second coming.

Now, as you are finding this chapter, I want to remind you of today’s Advent reading that Diana delivered this morning, because it’s closely connected to what Jesus talks about in this passage from Mark.

Isaiah 64:1–2 NASB95

Oh, that You would rend the heavens and come down, That the mountains might quake at Your presence— As fire kindles the brushwood, as fire causes water to boil— To make Your name known to Your adversaries, That the nations may tremble at Your presence!

When I asked her to read this passage today, Diana looked it up and called me back and said, “Are you sure that’s the right passage? Are you sure that’s an Advent passage?”

And I don’t blame her for asking! It’s easy to wonder how verses like these could be connected to the Advent theme for this week, which is “hope.”

But here’s the connection: As followers of Jesus Christ, we are to live in hope of the day when God makes things the way they are supposed to be.

And the way things are supposed to be is just and righteous. It is only because of mankind’s sinfulness that things are otherwise.

What God made, He made good. We who were made in His image — made to demonstrate His character throughout the earth — we rebelled against Him, first in the Garden of Eden and then as each one of us has fallen short of His glory.

We are all sinners, and we all deserve to reap the wages of sin, which is death — eternal separation from the God who made us to be in fellowship with Him.

If not for God’s grace, manifest through the obedient sacrifice by His own Son on our behalf, we would have no hope, no way of salvation.

But Jesus, the sinless Son of God, took upon Himself the punishment that each of us deserves for our sins. Jesus paid the price that we never could pay. The innocent died in place of the guilty.

But even in that ultimate sacrifice — the sacrifice of God Himself in the Person of His Son for those who have rebelled against Him — there is no hope. A dead Savior, after all, is not much of a savior.

We have hope only because death was not the end of Jesus Christ. Death could not hold Him. We can have hope because He who offered eternal life to those who would put their faith in Him was Himself raised from death unto life.

We can have hope, because His resurrection proved that He is God’s Son and that our Heavenly Father has power over death itself.

We can have hope that the God who raised His Son from the dead will likewise raise each of us. We can have hope that if we have placed our faith in Jesus Christ, we will be raised into the abundant life of eternity in God’s very presence.

But the people who were following Jesus during that last week on the way to Jerusalem did not yet understand all these things.

And the people who would have read Mark’s gospel — Christians in Rome around 65 A.D. — would have had a special need for hope.

When Nero came to power in Rome in A.D. 65, he began a merciless program of Christian persecution. Christians were covered in the skins of animals and torn to pieces by dogs; they were burned to death as human torches to light the night; they were nailed to crosses.

It was a horrific time to be a follower of Christ in Rome, and hope was in short supply as the Emperor Nero made history for the depths of his evil.

So in today’s passage, Mark turns to eschatology — the study of end times — to show that Christians should hold fast to their hope, even in the most dire of circumstances.

One commentator put it this way: “If we dispense with eschatology, then the purpose and destiny of history fall into the hands of humanity alone.... Unless human history, in all its greatness and potential as well as its propensity to evil and destructiveness, can be redeemed, human life is a futile and sordid endeavor.... [But] the grand finale of the gospel preached by Jesus is that there is a sure hope for the future.” [James R. Edwards, The Gospel according to Mark, The Pillar New Testament Commentary (Grand Rapids, MI; Leicester, England: Eerdmans; Apollos, 2002), 402.]

So let’s take a look at what Jesus had to say on the road to Jerusalem about how He will redeem history. We’ll pick up in verse 24 of chapter 13.

Mark 13:24–37 NASB95

“But in those days, after that tribulation, the sun will be darkened and the moon will not give its light, and the stars will be falling from heaven, and the powers that are in the heavens will be shaken. “Then they will see the Son of Man coming in clouds with great power and glory. “And then He will send forth the angels, and will gather together His elect from the four winds, from the farthest end of the earth to the farthest end of heaven. “Now learn the parable from the fig tree: when its branch has already become tender and puts forth its leaves, you know that summer is near. “Even so, you too, when you see these things happening, recognize that He is near, right at the door. “Truly I say to you, this generation will not pass away until all these things take place. “Heaven and earth will pass away, but My words will not pass away. “But of that day or hour no one knows, not even the angels in heaven, nor the Son, but the Father alone. “Take heed, keep on the alert; for you do not know when the appointed time will come. “It is like a man away on a journey, who upon leaving his house and putting his slaves in charge, assigning to each one his task, also commanded the doorkeeper to stay on the alert. “Therefore, be on the alert—for you do not know when the master of the house is coming, whether in the evening, at midnight, or when the rooster crows, or in the morning— in case he should come suddenly and find you asleep. “What I say to you I say to all, ‘Be on the alert!’ ”

Now, our study of the Tribulation period could take weeks of sermons, and I don’t want to get caught in the weeds here today.

For our purposes today, just understand that Jesus is talking in the first four verses of this passage about the end of the 7-year Tribulation.

This is after the rapture of the souls of the redeemed people of Christ. This is after the seven seals, and the seven trumpets, and the seven bowls of God’s wrath poured out upon the earth and its people.

All that remains of the Tribulation prophecies from the Book of Revelation when, as Jesus says here, “They will see the Son of Man coming in clouds with great power and glory,” is the great battle at Armageddon.

This is the battle in which Christ will finally bring the great judgment that Isaiah wrote about in the passage Diana read earlier, and when he will lay to ruin all the corrupt powers — political and otherwise — that have corrupted human history.

As He comes in the clouds, He will bring with Him the souls of all the dead who have followed Him in faith, and their bodies will be raised and made incorruptible and rejoined with their souls. And then the angels will gather with them all who have placed their faith in Christ during the Tribulation period.

And so, Jesus will have a great army of believers behind Him as he steps foot once again onto the Mount of Olives, causing the very earth to tremble.

But we will be there only as witnesses. In fact, the Book of Revelation describes no battle taking place. Jesus will simply speak a word, and His enemies will drop dead.

John the Revelator writes that this victory will be announced in heaven by a great multitude saying, “Hallelujah! Salvation and glory and power belong to our God;”

Revelation 19:2 NASB95

because His judgments are true and righteous; for He has judged the great harlot who was corrupting the earth with her immorality, and He has avenged the blood of His bond-servants on her.”

Here is the hope that Jesus will one day bring His just judgment upon the corrupt earth, that He will inaugurate His thousand-year reign on earth by utterly destroying the armies that will array themselves against Jerusalem.

This is why the passage in Isaiah, chapter 64, is a passage of hope. It is a passage that tells of the hope we have that righteousness will one day reign on earth and that we who follow Jesus Christ will rule with Him in complete righteousness.

But everyone wants to know when this will all take place.

That’s what the disciples had asked and what prompted Jesus to teach the things He taught in this chapter and in the parallel passages of the gospels of Matthew and Luke.

What signs should we look for, they asked.

So Jesus had warned them in the first part of this chapter what were not to be the signs.

Men would falsely proclaim that they were the Christ. There would be wars and rumors of wars. There would be great calamities. There would be widespread persecution of believers. But these things, He said, would be only the beginnings of the birth pangs.

The first real sign that we are in the end times, He said in verse 14, would be the abomination of desolation standing where it should not be.

This refers to the desecration of temple in Jerusalem, and many believe that desecration took place in A.D. 70, when the Roman Emperor Titus invaded Jerusalem, entered the temple and destroyed it, carrying off the lampstand and other temple artifacts to Rome.

So we are truly living in the end times today, and we have been in that period for 1,950 years.

The branch of the fig tree has become tender and put forth its leaves, and He is near, right at the door.

So how should people of hope live in such a time?

They must “take heed, keep on the alert.” They must watch.

In verses 33 to 35, Jesus talks about watchfulness four times: Take heed; keep on the alert; stay on the alert; be on the alert.

And He reinforces the message with a short parable about a doorkeeper.

“Living faithfully in the present, being attentive to the signs, and being ready at any hour for the return of the master is not one job among others; it is the doorkeeper’s only job.” [James R. Edwards, The Gospel according to Mark, The Pillar New Testament Commentary (Grand Rapids, MI; Leicester, England: Eerdmans; Apollos, 2002), 408.]

The church will be raptured before the Tribulation, praise God, so we know that we who have followed Jesus in faith will not experience the awful judgment that God will pour out on Earth during that time.

And Jesus’ second coming to earth will occur at the end of that seven-year Tribulation.

“Thus while His second coming is at least seven years away, His return at the Rapture will be sooner. … It could be at any moment. Therefore all that Jesus said about the importance of being vigilant anticipating His return is applicable to and relevant for us.” [Tom Constable, Tom Constable’s Expository Notes on the Bible (Galaxie Software, 2003), Mk 13:33.]

Unlike the people of that hopeless town in Maine, we have great hope for the future, so we should be living powerfully in the present.

Like the doorkeeper in verse 34, we believers have our assigned tasks.

We have been called to be His witnesses, both here and to the remotest part of the earth. We have been called to go and make disciples of all the nations. We have been called to love one another, even as Christ loved us — sacrificially and without prejudice.

And WHILE we are doing these things, we are to live in watchful hope. We are to live in anticipation, knowing that Jesus could return at any moment to take us into heaven with Him in the rapture.

It is fitting that our regular time of commemorating the Lord’s Supper falls on this day, when we celebrate the Advent theme of hope.

As we share the bread and wine that represent the body and blood of our Savior, we look back at the sacrifice that He made on the cross for our sins. But we also look forward in hope to His return and to the marriage supper of the Lamb, when Jesus will be wed to His church.

As we partake of the elements of this eucharist, this thanksgiving meal, I want to encourage you to have your hope renewed today, to recommit yourself to your assigned tasks as followers of Christ, and to commend yourself to a renewed sense of watchfulness.

Please go ahead and open your boxes.

As Jesus and His disciples were gathered for the Last Supper, He took the matzah, the unleavened bread, and told His disciples that it represented His body, which would be broken for our transgressions.

Let us pray.

Please go ahead and break your loaves and distribute the bread to your participating family members.

Matthew 26:26 NASB95

While they were eating, Jesus took some bread, and after a blessing, He broke it and gave it to the disciples, and said, “Take, eat; this is My body.”

As Jesus suffered and died on that cross, his blood poured out with His life. This was always God’s plan to reconcile mankind to Himself.

“In [Jesus] we have redemption through His blood, the forgiveness of our trespasses, according to the riches of His grace which He lavished on us.”

Let us pray.

Please share the cups from your boxes with your participating family members.

Matthew 26:27–28 NASB95

And when He had taken a cup and given thanks, He gave it to them, saying, “Drink from it, all of you; for this is My blood of the covenant, which is poured out for many for forgiveness of sins.

Now, as often as we eat this bread and drink this cup, we proclaim the Lord’s death until He comes.

Maranatha! Lord, come!

Now, we have a tradition here to gather in a circle and join hands and sing Blest Be the Tie That Binds at the end of the Lord’s Supper.

In light of our need to maintain social distancing, however, we’ll dispense with the circle this time, but I’d like you to join me as we sing the first verse of this song.