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In the name of Jesus, amen. Dear saints, in these last two weeks of the church year, we are hearing our Lord’s promise that he will come again in glory to judge both the living and the dead. And especially in the context of the gospel, Mark chapter 13, Jesus is giving this promise to his disciples in a very specific way. We’ll have the first part of the chapter this week, the last part of the chapter next week, where we’ll specifically look at what will happen when the Lord returns again in glory.
But the Lord is answering two questions, and He really gives three answers. Here’s the setup. It’s Holy Tuesday. It’s the last public day that Jesus was teaching in the temple grounds, and They were questioning him. They were trying to trick him. Whose wife will the woman be in the resurrection? And should we pay taxes to Caesar? Jesus asked them about Psalm 110. They were silenced. And then they’re leaving the temple. They’re probably heading over to Bethany. So they leave out of Jerusalem to the east.
As they’re leaving the temple grounds, the disciples are looking at this picture. It’s a massive, beautiful building, and they’re marveling at it. Teacher, they say, look at these stones. Probably some of the stones were laid down by King Solomon in 930, 970 B.C., way back. And some of them, after that was destroyed and Zerubbabel rebuilt it, were improved by King Herod, who built this marvelous temple and temple complex in this place. They’re looking at it and just wondering at it, and Jesus says, you see these stones? Yes. Not one is going to be left upon another.
I think the disciples are just kind of stunned by it. They walk out of Jerusalem. They walk… You have to go kind of down when you’re walking this direction. They go down to the Kidron Valley, walk up past the Garden of Gethsemane, past the same route that Jesus would have entered into Jerusalem on, up the side of the Mount of Olives, and they get up to the top of the Mount of Olives. They sit down, and they’re looking back west over Jerusalem. The sun sets over the city. It’s a beautiful view, and they’re looking, and they see the whole city kind of stretched out before them.
And there, the jewel of the city, the temple, that Jesus just had said to the disciples that it’s not going to be standing. It’s going to be destroyed. And so four of the disciples are sitting there by Jesus, and they said, Lord, would you tell us when these things are going to happen? Amen. And what are the signs of your coming at the end of the age?
Now, unbeknownst to the disciples, those are two very different questions. The temple would be destroyed. We know now, we can look back and see it. The temple was destroyed on August the 10th in the year 70 by Titus the general, who would then later go on to become Caesar and leader in Rome. He besieged the city, and he destroyed it and wiped it out. And Jesus warned them about the signs of the coming of the destruction of Jerusalem. When will this happen? And the Lord tells him.
And then what are the signs of the coming of the end of the age? And we’re still waiting for that. It seems like the disciples maybe thought this was one thing. I mean, if Jerusalem is destroyed, it must be the end of the world. But the Lord, according to His will, has separated those two events already now by 1,950-something years. And every year, another year is between those two things.
Now, Jesus is going to answer the question, and this is key for understanding the chapter. Jesus is going to answer both of those questions. Here’s the signs of the destruction of Jerusalem, and here’s the signs of my coming at the end of the age, and that’s going to be really what we talk about next week. But the major portion of Jesus’ answer is something that we don’t expect, and we have to pay really careful attention to. It’s the lesson that we read this morning, and these are the indications that the end is not yet here.
I want you to look, if you can see it in the text here, it’s at the end of verse 7. It’s a really amazing thing. Jesus says, and you will hear of wars and rumors of wars. Don’t be alarmed. This must take place. The end is not yet.
What we want to think about today, this is what Jesus is teaching his disciples and us, is that we can be ready for the last day. We can be ready for his coming and judgment. We can be ready for the resurrection of all flesh, especially next week we’ll talk about it. But we can also be ready for his not coming. We can be ready for the waiting day. We can be ready for the intermediary time.
And this is what Jesus is going to describe: how things will be from the moment that he ascends up into heaven until the moment that he returns in glory. Now this is so important because in this list of things that Jesus puts there for us—wars and rumors of wars, earthquakes and plagues and famines—all of these, I think, happen, or at least when they happen, we are tempted to think, ah, the end is near.
Whenever you hear news of another war starting, don’t you… This is what happens to me. Oh, another war starts. It’s probably the end of the world. But Jesus is teaching us this morning that we should hear of a war starting and think, ah, the end is not yet. Right? You see, it changes it around in our minds. Wars and rumors of wars, that’s just how things go. It’s the normal course of the world.
Nations will rise against nations and kingdoms against kingdoms. Kingdoms will grow and kingdoms will collapse, and kings will come and kings will go. This is just how it’s going to be. And more than that, there are going to be earthquakes. There are going to be famines. There are going to be all sorts of natural disasters. I think this is also what happens to us. We hear of a natural disaster. Here comes a hurricane or a tornado or something’s on fire somewhere, and we think, ah, the end is on the way.
But Jesus, again, says the opposite, no? The end is not yet. The end is not yet. This is just the normal course of the world. And not only that, not only will nations rise against nation, and not only will there be all these natural disasters, but look at what Jesus says at the beginning of verse 9.
So, verse 5, sorry, see that no one leads you astray. There’s all sorts of false doctrine and false teachers. Verse 9, be on your guard because they’re going to deliver you over to councils. You’re going to be beaten in the synagogues. You’re going to stand before governors and kings. To bear witness before them? The gospel is going to be preached in all nations? Don’t be anxious.
Again, we see false doctrines. We see cults. We see people leading people astray. We say, ah, the end. Not yet. We see the church being persecuted and suffering, afflictions, and we think the end. And Jesus says, not yet. That’s just how it is. It is.
And maybe even the worst part, because it’s not just nations and kingdoms and the church, but it also gets down into families. These are some tough verses at the end. Brother will deliver brother over to death, and a father will deliver his child over to die, and children will rise up against their parents to have them put to death. And look what Jesus says: you will be hated by all for my name’s sake.
So that the division that Jesus brings when he teaches us to confess him as our Lord and Savior is a division that cuts even through families, divides families, divides us from the world, makes us the off-scouring, the rubbish, the refuge of the world, that the whole world looks at the Christian and despises the Christian because the world looks at Christ and despises Christ. And this means the end is not yet.
It’s just, and here’s the point, it’s just how it goes. You and I are in the midst of a struggle. The struggle of nation fighting against nation. The struggle of nations fighting against the church. The joy of the church preaching the gospel to the nations. The struggle of families being divided. Jesus says that these are not signs of the end. This is just the regular business cycle of life as a Christian.
And in doing this, something happens. I don’t know how to explain it really well. I asked the, I preached this to the early service, and I said, if anyone thinks of how to explain this better, you should tell me, and then I’ll use it for the late service. But no one told me. So we’re still trying to figure this out.
But Jesus, he’s flipping it on our heads. Here’s how it is. You know, I think, okay, look, I might—I don’t think I’m ready. I might be ready for tomorrow and the next day, but I’m not ready for the last day. The last day, the judgment day, seems scary and intimidating to me. But, you know, the days in between are all right. But Jesus flips that on its head. He says, you know, the tough day is not the last day. The difficult day is not the judgment day. You’re already ready for that day. That day is a glorious day. That day is a day of deliverance, a day of rescue, a day of salvation, a day of redemption, a day of justification, a day of glorification. That day is the day that you’re ready for.
Now, tomorrow might be tough, but the last day will be easy. Do you see how it’s flipped? It’s flipped. We think, well, we got a few easy days until the last day, and then that’s going to be a tough one when Jesus appears to judge the living and the dead. Jesus says, no, no, that’s the day you’re waiting for. That’s the day you’re longing for. That’s the day you’re hoping for.
When I’ll come back to the earth, and I’ll raise the dead, and I’ll crown you with glory—a glory that will go on and on and light and joy and peace and triumph and victory. And you’ll see me face to face, and you’ll live forever. And every tear will be wiped from your face. And there will be no more sorrow or suffering or graves or death or temptation or trouble. But all is life and joy and peace from that day forward. That’s the day we’re looking forward to.
Now, there might be a few tough days between now and then, but I’m with you in the midst of it. You see? You see? We are not afraid of the judgment day. What is there to be afraid of? There is no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus. There’s nothing held against you. There’s no sin that you’ve committed that is not forgiven and covered by the blood of Jesus. There’s nothing that you’ve done wrong that the Lord has not already forgotten about because of the death of Jesus on the cross.
So that day is a day of glory and peace and life. We long for that day. And in fact, holding on to the hope of that day, we endure all the difficult days in between. We’re not anxious, for example. Whenever we’re dragged into the courts to confess Christ, the Holy Spirit will help us and will teach us what to say. We’re not afraid.
When false doctrines and false Christs come to lead many astray, we know who our Lord is. We’re not afraid when nations rise against nations, when nations stand up and fall down. We’re not afraid when earthquakes shake the world or famines come in various places. We have Christ, and Christ has us, so that we are going through all of the birth pains, waiting to be born into life eternal.
And this is our confidence and our peace. When it comes to the Lord’s promise to come again and judge the living and the dead, we have to have a two-fold readiness. We have to be ready to go. And we are. And we also have to be ready to stay. And by the mercies of Christ and by the Holy Spirit, we’re ready for that as well.
The one who endures to the end, you will be saved. May God grant it for Christ’s sake. Amen. And the peace of God which passes all understanding, guard your hearts and minds through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.
