Jesus Teaches on the End of the World (Matthew Sermon 119 of 151) (Audio)

In stark contrast to the behavior of all those around him, the glory of Christ ripped apart the moral darkness of human history and showed us the perfection of his nature.

- SERMON TRANSCRIPT coming soon-

Gethsemane is the greatest display of the perfect humanity of Jesus in the Bible, it also offers opportunities to ponder the excellencies and perfection of his character.

- SERMON TRANSCRIPT -

One sacred day, God spoke to Moses from the flames of the burning bush. "Take off your shoes, for the ground on which you are standing is holy ground." What does this mean? Since God is everywhere, all at once, holy ground means that God was about to be uniquely revealed, revealed in an extraordinary way, and Moses's knowledge of God was going to be greatly increased by this encounter. "Draw near to listen. Draw near to fall on the ground in fear and wonder in worship and adoration." If that's true at the burning bush, then how much more true is it when we come to Gethsemane?

Gethsemane is the greatest display of the perfect humanity of Jesus Christ in the Bible. It contains almost incomprehensible mysteries, but also tremendous opportunities to ponder the excellencies of Christ, His glories, the perfection of His character, His courage, His obedience, His trust in His father, His willingness to suffer for us, His love for us, His reversal of the disobedience of Adam, also His frailty and His weakness, His mortality, His emotions. All of this is on display.

We will spend eternity in heaven, I believe, pondering these themes and others that flow through this account. This morning, we're going to spend just a little while on them. My desire, my goals with this sermon is first and foremost to exalt Jesus Christ our Savior, based on the words of this account, that we may worship Him with all of our hearts for what He did for us at the cross. Secondly, that we would understand more accurately the humanity of Jesus, His emotions, His submission, His mortality and frailty, His temptations, and yet His sinlessness. Thirdly, that we would understand the power of prayer in facing temptations, in strengthening us to do the will of our Father. Fourthly, to motivate us to trust in Christ's finished work on the cross, more than ever before. Fifthly, to help us understand the proper use of our own will, that we would learn to imitate Jesus Christ every day in saying, "Not my will, but yours be done," no matter what the cost. And sixth, to feel intensely personally, if you are a Christian, to feel intensely personally Christ's love for you. For you.

In Galatians 2:20, Paul gives us permission to do this, to say, "Christ loved me and died for me. He gave Himself for me." It is right for us as Christians to say both Christ loved me and gave Himself for me, and Christ loved us and gave Himself for us, that multitude greater than anyone could count, from every tribe, language, people, and nation.[Revelation 7]. But in Galatians 2:20, “Jesus loved me and He drank my cup for me.”

Here we're going to walk through all of these themes, and I don't know what the Holy Spirit's going to do in your heart as we walk through, probably a little different than He'll do in mine. But if those things will be achieved in you, then I will have preached for the glory of God in Christ. Let's walk first through the facts of Gethsemane.

I. The Facts of Gethsemane

All His life, Jesus lived under the shadow of the cross. B.B. Warfield, the great Presbyterian theologian, said the prospect of His suffering was a perpetual Gethsemane to Him. He said, in Luke 12:50, "I have a baptism to undergo, and how distressed” or straitened, like in a straitjacket, "I am until it is completed." There is clear evidence in the Gospel. This is very important for us to understand. Jesus knew exactly what was going to happen to Him. In Mark 9:31, Jesus said, "The Son of Man is going to be betrayed into the hands of men. They will kill Him, and after three days, He will rise." There's no doubt about this at all. He said it again and again. As Jesus comes to Gethsemane on that faithful night, the time had come for Him to face the cross straight on, and make a final decision about what He was going to do. The Lord's supper is over. They have finished the Passover meal. They have sung a hymn. They've crossed the Kidron Valley into the garden of Gethsemane. Verse 32, "They went to a place called Gethsemane." What is Gethsemane? It was a private garden on the Mount of Olives, probably walled off, owned by some rich friend of Jesus, who allowed Jesus and His disciples to frequent the place. It was outside of Jerusalem, across the Kidron Valley from the city, away from the maddening crowd of millions of pilgrims that had come from all over the settled world for the Passover feast.

The word Gethsemane itself means “oil press”, probably included a physical press for making olive oil from the harvest of olives on the mount, and the crushing of those olives produced a reddish, viscous, precious fluid, olive oil, to flow into containers for sale or for use. But this also could stand somewhat of a spiritual metaphor for the crushing pressure, spiritual pressure, that Jesus would experience there, so intense that by the end of the time there, His blood was flowing like sweat, like great drops of blood dropping from His face.

Why did Jesus go to Gethsemane? It was a place, a regular place of retirement and prayer, a refuge for Him and His disciples. It was commonly used by Jesus and His disciples. Therefore Judas, who had left by then to betray Him that very night, would know exactly where Jesus was going that night. It was His habit to go there. He made it His habit, because in part He wanted to make it easy for Judas to find Him that night and betray Him. This is evidence, clear evidence of His willingness to lay down His life for us. He was never a victim trapped by external circumstances He didn't foresee or couldn't control. It's not the case. John 10:18, Jesus said, “No one takes my life from me, but I lay it down freely of my own accord." It's vital to understand that.

Jesus comes to Gethsemane for all those reasons, and He gives a command to His disciples, and He separates away from them. Look at verse 32-33, "Jesus said to His disciples, 'Sit here while I pray.' Then He took Peter, James, and John along with Him.” Luke tells us that Jesus separated from His disciples by a distance of a stone's throw, maybe 100, 150 feet, but He also took His closest disciples with Him. They were His best friends in the world, His closest friends, and He wanted to be with them at that point, Peter, James, and John. These are the same three, of course, that had viewed Jesus on the Mount of Transfiguration. It's amazing that these three saw Him at His most glorious, His most radiantly glorious in the days of His incarnation on Earth, and also would see Him at His most humbled and abased here in the garden of Gethsemane, eyewitnesses of both.

He went there, Jesus did, He separated Himself so that He could pray. Jesus' understanding of prayer is infinitely greater than ours, clearly greater than Peter, James, and John's that night. Jesus knew it was only by prayer that He would be able to get through the cross, so He went there to pray. We see the awesome and the overpowering emotional distress that comes upon Jesus. First of all, it's stated in the accounts. Verse 33, “He began to be deeply distressed and troubled.” In Matthew 26:37, “He began to be sorrowful and troubled.” It's not only stated in the accounts, but Jesus says it about Himself. Look at verse 34, "'My soul is overwhelmed with sorrow to the point of death,' He said to them."

"Jesus knew it was only by prayer that He would be able to get through the cross, so He went there to pray."

These overpowering emotions, there are two words, we're going to save one of the words for later, but He says He's “sorrowful”. The root word has to do with grief, sadness of an overwhelming nature, usually associated with death. Then “troubles”. It refers to a distracted or anxious state of mind or soul, like someone consumed with anxiety about an impending event. His statement says, "My soul is overwhelmed with sorrow," as though He's surrounded by it. He's walled in by grief. There's no escape from it except by His own death, right there in the garden. "My soul is overwhelmed with sorrow, even to the point of death," He says. I don't think this was just a phrase or a metaphor. I think it was literally true. I think He was literally close to dying in the garden of Gethsemane.

So the Father has to dispatch an angel to strengthen Him. Luke 22:43, "An angel from Heaven appeared to Him and strengthened Him." What an amazing moment that was. Aa amazing picture of His frailty, the frailty of the Son of God in His humanity. This angel that was dispatched from Heaven, was created by Jesus, and yet at that moment, Jesus is so much weaker than the angel. It says in Luke's account, Luke 22:44, "And being in anguish, He prayed more earnestly, and His sweat was like drops of blood falling to the ground." This is literally true. We look at that, it's not just an analogy, but it's drops of blood. I would think then that what happened was His blood pressure spiked there in the garden of Gethsemane, the internal pressure so great that it seemed like the capillaries just under the skin burst, they couldn't handle the pressure, and the blood came out of the pores. I mean, not a little, a lot, and it's flowing down His face and dripping to the ground there in the garden of Gethsemane, great drops of blood. It seems quite likely that, had Jesus not been physically strengthened at that moment, He might've died right there in the garden.

Then Jesus prays. Look at verse 35-36, "Going a little farther, He fell to the ground, and prayed that if possible the hour might pass from Him. "Abba Father,” He said, “everything is possible for you. Take this cup from me, yet not what I will, but what you will." His physical position, He's on His face, He's prostrate, totally weak, helpless, submissive to God, as low as He can be. As Joseph Hart put in a 1759 hymn, "Come you sinners, poor and needy. View Him groveling in the garden, low your maker prostrate lies."

And then the request is, “If it's possible, Abba Father," He said, "Everything is possible for you. Take this cup from me." For any parent of a child, this prayer must be the most heartrending you can possibly imagine. “Abba" means “daddy”. He's reduced to speaking like a little child. I can scarcely imagine what this must have done to His heavenly Father, who's the most perfect, compassionate being there could ever be, whose heart goes out to those that suffer, but especially His Son, whom He loved with a perfect love, with a love so complete that we can't even imagine how great that love would be. How much would Jesus's prayer rip the heart of a loving heavenly Father? "Daddy, you can do anything. If it's possible, take this cup from me." What loving father wouldn't do everything he could to alleviate the suffering, this kind of suffering from a child?

But Jesus is also probing the limits of the sovereignty of God within the scope of His plan, “If it's possible.” Later, that same evening in Matthew's account, when Peter draws his sword to rescue Him from the cross, He tells him to put his sword away, and says, "How then would the Scripture be fulfilled that says it must happen in this way?" No, it isn't possible. Once it is written, once it is written, and God has made His commitment and signed it in the blood of millions of sacrificial animals, over centuries of history, and specific careful promises laid out in the prophets, there was no other way.

What is this cup? How do we understand the cup? In Scripture, the cup in prophetic language frequently represents the judgments of God, the righteous judgments of God on a sinner or on sinful people or sinful nations. It's a regular pattern, the word “cup”. The most potent example of this word cup is in Revelation 14, "God's wrath and judgment poured out on the damned." Revelation 14:10-11, "He too will drink the wine of God's fury, which has been poured full strength into the cup of His wrath. He will be tormented with burning sulfur in the presence of the holy angels and of the Lamb, and the smoke of their torment rises forever and ever. There is no rest, day or night." That's the cup. That's your cup and my cup set before Jesus there in Gethsemane. It's Hell. It's the wrath of God poured out on sinners. Jesus is staring into the cup of the wrath of God, and understandably in His humanity, shrinking back in horror. The wrath of God is terrifying, God is a consuming fire. The wrath of God is His omnipotence focused like a white-hot laser beam on the destruction of His enemies. Jesus is shrinking back from that, from drinking the cup of God's wrath in our place.

We could also imagine He's shrinking back from being our sin bearer. We don't understand the purity of the person of Christ. We're just so used to sin. 2 Corinthians 5:21 said, "God made Him, Jesus, who had no sin, to be sin for us, so that in Him we might become the righteousness of God." It's like having tons of raw sewage poured on a perfectly pure being, spiritual sewage. In the atonement, then Jesus, the only perfectly holy man that has ever lived, would become sin for us. He would bear the defiling sins of all of His people from every generation of history, all the filth and corruption, all the lust and murder, all the covetousness and greed, all of that poured onto Jesus as our substitute.

Then we see the submission of Jesus. Verse 36, "Yet not what I will, but what you will." This is the centerpiece of this magnificent moment. This is the center of it. "Not what I will, but what you will." This is the greatest act of submission and courage in the history of the human race. More on this in a moment.

Then we have the admonishment of the sleeping disciples, verse 37-38, "He returned to His disciples and found them sleeping. 'Simon,' He said to Peter, 'are you asleep? Could you not keep watch for one hour? Watch and pray, so that you will not fall into temptation. The spirit is willing, but the body is weak.'" Matthew tells us Jesus said this to all three of them, but Mark focuses specifically on Peter. By contrast with Jesus, we have the weakness and the unbelief, really, of the disciples exposed here. Jesus specifically warns them of falling into temptation, not merely being tempted, but being ensnared and overcome by it. That's what it means to fall into temptation. He tells them that the remedy is to watch and pray.

He also marvels at their weakness that they're not able to watch and pray with Him for even one hour. Peter in particular should have been getting ready for the most intense spiritual struggle of his life, but instead he's giving in to the weakness of the flesh. That famous expression, “the spirit is willing, but the flesh is weak.” That was Peter. Amazing also, isn't it, the shepherd heart of Jesus, to break off His intense prayer to His father, which He knew better than any of us, how much He needed, breaks that off to go back and check on His disciples, make sure they're praying, make sure they're getting ready for what they're about to face, to reason with them, to pray, and watch and pray.

Then in verse 39, we have Jesus' second prayer, "Once more, He went away and prayed the same thing." Matthew gives a little more detail. "My father, if it is not possible for this cup to be taken away unless I drink it, may your will be done." It's an evolution of the conversation that He's having with His father on this issue of the cup. Then He goes back, and we have the disciples' second failure, verse 40, "When He came back, He again found them sleeping, because their eyes were heavy. They did not know what to say to Him." Luke tells us in Luke 22:45, "When He rose from prayer and went back to the disciples, He found them asleep, exhausted from sorrow."

Then we have Jesus' final prayer. It's assumed in Mark and openly stated in Matthew 26:44, "So He left them and went away once more, and prayed the third time, saying the same thing." Finally the end of the account, verses 41-43, "Returning the third time, He said to them, 'Are you still sleeping and resting? Enough. The hour has come. The Son of Man is betrayed into the hands of sinners. Rise, let us go. Here comes my betrayer.' Just as He was speaking, Judas, one of the twelve, appeared. With him was a crowd armed with swords and clubs, sent from the chief priest, the teacher of the law, and the elders." Jesus has effectively faced His final temptation there in the garden and conquered it, and now He rises from His moment of greatest weakness, and goes forth mightily to conquer sin and death with unflinching courage.

II. The Mysteries of Gethesemane

Those are the facts of Gethsemane. Now let's talk about the mysteries of Gethsemane. A. W. Tozer said, "If you've never faced mystery in your study of God, I doubt whether you've ever heard a single word from God at all." We will not plumb the depths of Gethsemane here. The issue has to do with Jesus' incarnation, the theological mystery of the incarnation. The incarnation of Jesus Christ is perhaps the most profound mystery in the Bible. How can Jesus be both fully God and fully man? Many over the centuries have questioned this, and sought to deny one or the other. Dualistic philosophies and theologies like the Gnostics early on, and the Docetists, deny the humanity of Christ, saying He only seemed to be human. Gethsemane is a powerful antidote to this heresy. Jesus' humanity is on full display here, especially in His weakness, His frailty, His wavering, His fear, shrinking back, and to some mysterious degree, His limited knowledge. The fact that Jesus in His incarnation can learn things. We’ll get to more of that in a moment.

Jesus's emotional life is real and full and perfect. He fully displays the reality of His title, Man of Sorrows. How then can Christ be both omnipotent deity and this weak humanity? How do we understand and explain His stunning fear of death? Lots of people face death more courageously, overtly courageously than this. It's not that rare a story. Soldiers that are willing just to die, so that others may live. That actually is not all that rare. Socrates famously took the cup of hemlock, knowing it was his own death in that cup, unflinchingly drank it to the bottom and died. But Jesus seems different, just a quantum level difference. Martin Luther said, "No man ever feared death like this man."

How can we understand this? How can the infinite creator of all things visible and invisible need help from an angel? How can He need strengthening? How can He shrink back like this from death? So, clearly the answers to all these questions is a mystery, but it shows clearly the humanity of Christ.

We get to verse 33, and here I want to show you something that, unless you have the KJV, you won't see. The King James Version is the only version that translates the Greek word in the simplest way, the most direct way. "Now, when Christ entered Gethsemane, He knew exactly what was going to happen to Him factually." Factually. He knew He would most certainly die on the cross as a ransom for sinners. But apparently, it seems, there was a dimension of knowing that was withheld from Him by His father until this moment.

Why do I say that? There's a shocking word in the KJV translation of verse 33, which accurately translates. It's not a mistranslation, it’s a good translation. "And He taketh with Him Peter and James and John, and began to be sore amazed, and to be very heavy." Sore amazed. The word “amazed” stops us in our tracks. The word “sore” just means extremely, like overwhelmed with amazement. So in some mysterious way, Jesus was amazed at Gethsemane. The same word is used of a crowd reaction to Jesus's ministry, or to the apostles healing of the lame beggar in Acts 3. It is frequently translated in those places, “astonished.” It implies some sense of wonder or surprise. Something is hitting Jesus here that He didn't see coming, and hence He is sore amazed.

How does that apply to Jesus at Gethsemane? I believe that when Jesus began to pray, the Father revealed to Him in an immeasurably more vivid way, to His soul, to His mind and His soul, what it would actually be like to drink the cup of His wrath on the cross as our substitute. Drinking the cup of God's wrath poured full strength on Him. The revelation occurred within Jesus's mind and soul, and knocked Him to the ground.

This kind of showing or display language was essential to Jesus' role and His daily ministry, actually. In John 5:20, Jesus said, "The Father loves the Son and shows Him all He does. Yes, to your amazement, He will show Him even greater things than these." More in general in the Scripture, this is a regular pattern, that the prophets were shown spiritual visions and realities in the spiritual realm. They had visions and dimensions like Ezekiel, of wheels within wheels and all that. This is prophetic vision. This is common, actually. But Jesus says He openly got His marching orders from the Father daily. He doesn't say any word except what the Father has told Him to say. He doesn't do anything except what the Father is doing. The Father shows the Son what He's doing. What did He show Him in Gethsemane? He showed Him the cup. "Father, what are we doing next?" "Well, today I'm going to kill you. Kill you for the sins of the world. That's what we're doing next, and this is what it'll be like." It's akin to the difference between seeing an old black and white photo of the Grand Canyon and seeing like an IMAX movie or a virtual reality helicopter tour through the ravine itself. It's just a whole different level of impression made to the mind.

As Christ began to pray, God turned up the intensity in Christ's mind of what it would actually be like to drink the cup of His wrath, to absorb the lightning of His indignation, to go through Hell in our place as our substitute, and it knocked Him to the ground, it increased His blood pressure so it spiked, He starts bleeding out of His pores. Why did He do it? Why did the Father do this? I think He did it, I believe, to give Christ the ability to make a more informed choice of whether He would do it or not, whether He would go through with their plan. He refrained from doing it earlier, because look what happened to Him. I mean, the human body can only stand so much strain. It would've been too great for Him to bear. I think, in effect, some infinitely mysterious conversation went on between the Father and the Son. The Father shows the Son the cup, and then the Father says, "Son, this is what the cup of my wrath will be like for you to drink." Jesus answered, "Father, is it possible for me to save my people without drinking that terrifying cup?" The Father. "Son, no. There is no other way. Will you do it anyway?" And now comes what I've called the most heroic moment in human history. "If it is not possible to save my people any other way than drinking that cup, may your will be done." If you ever don't feel loved by God, think about that moment. Think about that. That's your cup He drank, mine too.

At that moment, Christ put His own will completely under the will of the Father. At that moment, as I said, He overturned the wretched choice made by the first Adam, that he had made in the Garden of Eden. All the wretched choices that the sons and daughters of Adam have made since by their willful sinning, that's yours and mine, all the bad choices we have made, He overturned all of that. Here, Christ showed the proper use of human will, and that is to do the will of God. So, bow your head and worship all generations of Christians. This is the most perfect act of obedience ever.

We also have the mystery of Jesus' prayer. Is His will somehow different than the Father's? Are they at cross-purposes? Some have wondered if the wrestling Jesus displayed in Gethsemane, "If it is possible, take this cup from me," was indicative that His will was somehow against the cross, as though He's battling within Himself, as though He and the Father disagreed about this. In general, we just as Christians have to treat Gethsemane like holy ground, and limit your speculation, and don't go too far. Jesus has said plainly in John 10:30, "I and the Father are one." No doubt about that. He wasn't against the Father's will. He loved the Father's will. Isaiah 53:10 says, "It was the Lord's will to crush Him and cause Him to suffer. And though the Lord makes His life a guilt offering, He will see His offspring and prolong His days. The will of the Lord will prosper in His hand." It's so beautiful. It's like the Father wrote a magnificent concerto, and Jesus the soloist played it to perfection. He made it beautiful. The will of the Lord prospers. No, they're not at cross-purposes, not at all. It just shows that the cost to Jesus, and indeed to the Father, was infinitely high, and the Father was willing to pay it. He did not spare His own Son, but gave Him up to this for us all.

III. The Glories of Gethsemane

Finally, the glories of Gethsemane. We've said, the free will of Jesus, properly on display. Jesus went to the cross of His own free will. He was not coerced, He was not forced. Therefore, for those that talk often about free will, this is free will. This is what free will looks like. He had no sin nature holding Him back, no corruption. He was free, and He used it perfectly to do the will of God. That's what it's for. That's what free will is for, to do the will of God. Because the Father has a will, too. Our will is patterned after the fact that the Father has a will. Jesus taught us that the best use of human will is to find its joy and its delight and its fruitfulness in the will of God. He taught us that.

From this moment in time on, Jesus will only be able to escape the cross by a direct application of His supernatural power, His wonder-working power, to get out of it. Physical forces will come on Him at the end of this account and seize Him, and the only way He'll be able to get out of it is by using His power. And He could do it, but He was not going to do it. This is His last moment of freedom, and He gave it up willingly.

Therefore, we need to understand the significance of this choice theologically, Romans 3:26. Some have blasphemously, I don't even want to say these words, but blasphemously called the idea of substitutionary atonement Heavenly child abuse, as the Father's crushing His son in some way. Rather, in Gethsemane we have God the Father revealing to the Son as much as He possibly could do, what it would be like to drink the cup, and asking Jesus to make a choice, and He did. Therefore, it was of His own free will that He did it. "Not my will, but yours be done." This removes any charge of injustice against the Father concerning substitutionary atonement. Romans 3:25, "God put Jesus forward as a propitiation by His blood to be received by faith." Propitiation is the one who removes the wrath of God by drinking the cup. Romans 3:26, "He did it to demonstrate His justice at the present time, so as to be just and the one who justifies those who have faith in Jesus." It is a perfect display of justice, not injustice. Why? Because in part of this transaction that we've been describing here. The willingness of Jesus to do it removes any charge of injustice.

We see also the obedience of Jesus versus the disobedience of Adam. I've mentioned it, but the clear parallel is set up in Romans 5:19, "Just as through the disobedience of the one man, the many were made sinners, so also through the obedience of the one man, the many will be made righteous." That's staggering. You know what that means? By Jesus's obedience, He makes you righteous, if you're a Christian. What that means is He makes you obedient, positionally obedient. You are seen by God in Christ at the moment of your conversion to be as obedient as Jesus. How about that? That is our imputed righteousness. It's staggering. This is the righteousness given to you as a gift. God sees you as obedient as Jesus was there in Gethsemane, as a gift.

What is that act of obedience? It's His willingness to die on the cross. Philippians 2:8, "Being found in appearance as a man, He humbled Himself and became obedient to death, even death on a cross." Then Hebrews 5:8-9, "Although He was a son, He learned obedience." What a staggering phrase that is. "He learned obedience from what He suffered, and once made perfect or qualified, He became the source of eternal salvation for all who obey Him." Wow. Adam used his free will to rebel against God, and we all died in that. The second Adam, Jesus, uses His free will to make a right choice, and we all live and are seen righteous in that. That's our salvation.

"Adam used his free will to rebel against God, and we all died in that. The second Adam, Jesus, uses His free will to make a right choice, and we all live and are seen righteous in that. That's our salvation."

Finally, we see the perfect love of Jesus, first for God, and then for His people. In Gethsemane, we see Jesus loving God and us sinners more than He loved Himself. It was the revulsion of the thing that caused Him to shrink back, but it was love, first and foremost love for God, and secondly love for us, that caused Him to deny Himself, first vertically, John 14:31, "The world must learn that I love the Father, and that I do exactly what my Father has commanded me to do." Think about that. "The world must know and learn that I love my Father, and they'll know that when they see me go to the cross."

Secondly, love for us. John 15:13-14, "Greater love has no one than this, that he laid down his life for his friends. You are my friends." We see that courage of Jesus, that love that drives out fear. Many people have willingly laid down their lives to save others. It occasionally happens, very rarely will anyone die for a righteous man, though for a good man, someone might possibly dare to die. So, the Congressional Medal of Honor is given to people that were willing to lay down their lives in the battlefield. It happens. But nothing ever in history has been like this incredible moment of courage.

IV. Applications of Gethsemane

Come to Christ. Trust in Jesus. There is a cup of wrath, of righteous, just wrath, poured out from God on sinners. Either Jesus will drink that cup in your place, or you'll drink it for all eternity. Those are the choices. There's no other option. You can be in denial that there is such a cup, but there is a cup of God's wrath against sin. Jesus is offering in the gospel to drink yours for you. Trust in Him, repent of sin, turn away from wickedness, and turn to Christ in faith, and let Him save you. If you're already a Christian, worship Christ for what He did for you. Thank Him for what He did for you. I don't know how you're made up. I cry basically at one thing, for the most part. It's always the same. It's Christ's love for me as a sinner. It just melts me. I melt every time, and this melts me. This text probably melts me more than any other text. I almost can't talk about it in everyday life without choking up. I never stop thinking about this, my savior drinking my cup.

I want to take and sharpen this and apply it on the matter of Christian contentment. When I was studying Christian contentment, I wrote one statement that people who have read the book that I wrote said is the most convicting in the whole book, and that is this: "Has Christ crucified and resurrected done enough for you to be happy today? Or does He have to be a little more?" Let's take it in the language of Gethsemane. Is it enough for Jesus to drink your cup and that's it, so you don't have to drink it and you'll spend the eternity in Heaven? Or does He have to do some more beyond that?

I'm not minimizing the things you would pray for. For the healing of somebody that you love and you want to see them heal. I'm not minimizing that. I'm just asking you to put it in perspective, Him drinking your cup for you is the greatest act of love and gift that could ever be. Keep in mind, Romans 8 said He did not spare His own son. God's not holding anything back because He's stingy. He has given the greatest thing He could ever give, His beloved, His perfect son, shattered on the cross. It should be enough, it should be enough for you to be happy.

What about obedience? What about free will? This is how you should use your free will the rest of your lives. What do you say? Just choose to say to God, no matter how difficult it is, "Not my will but yours be done."

Close with me in prayer. Father, thank you for this infinitely deep text. We'll never be able to finish it, to plumb the depths of it, to understand it. I pray that you would take its lessons and burn them into our hearts. Help us to be overwhelmed with thankfulness, with gratitude. Help us to be overwhelmed with love for Jesus. Help us to want to imitate Him and to use our wills the way He used His. Help us to understand that, oh Lord. And God, I pray that no-one that's here today would leave this place still under the wrath of God, but they would just simply transfer that, the sin and the wrath, onto Jesus by faith, by simple faith, and trust in Him that they would know the full and perfect forgiveness of God. In Jesus' name, Amen.

Scripture probes the people of God for the hidden recesses of the sinful heart. It also tells us the truth of the indomitable grace of God in Christ to save sinners like us.

- SERMON TRANSCRIPT -

As I look at the life of Christ and the Gospels, Matthew, Mark, Luke and John, I look at the statements that Jesus made, and Jesus made many stunningly audacious statements during His ministry. Depending on how you look at it, perhaps none is more audacious than His proclamation about the grand and glorious construction project that He was initiating, the church, which would be the eternal dwelling place of Almighty God. This audacious assertion was made right after Peter had declared rightly that Jesus was the Christ, the Son of the living God, in Caesarea Philippi. Jesus then said these words, "I tell you that you are Peter, and on this rock, I will build My church and the gates of Hades will not overcome it." Now, that's an audacious statement in every respect.

As we look at this image of a great glorious building being constructed, we begin to step back and think about what is involved in that. Every great building needs a wise architect and a skillful builder. Jesus is both when it comes to the church. Throughout history, human beings have studied the science of architecture and the art. In the decades just before Jesus was born, a Roman architect named Vitruvius wrote a guide for all Roman construction that would follow. He stated that all great buildings were defined by three characteristics, strength, functionality and beauty.

Strength because the building must stand strong, not crumble or collapse and thereby kill the people that use it. Functionality because the building must meet its purpose for which it was designed and constructed, its reason for existence. And then beauty because the building must ennoble both the builder and those who look upon it and use it day after day. These three characteristics must extend, of course, to the building materials chosen and the construction techniques that are used. The actual materials chosen by the builder must be of the proper quality. So any great architect must be a student of building materials, different kinds of stone, metal, wood. There are different attributes, how those materials behave in different conditions and how they look.

In the New Testament, this architectural image is clear and powerful. Jesus had already stated in Matthew 16:18, as I said, He will build His church. That's an architectural image. Ephesians 2 likens the church to a holy temple that is rising in which God dwells by His Spirit. Peter talks about all of us being living stones built into a spiritual house. Paul in First Corinthians 3 speaks of laying a foundation through the proclamation of Christ crucified and resurrected and now others are building on it, but they should be careful how they build. Hebrews 11 speaks of a city with foundations whose architect and builder is God. And the Book of Revelation climaxes with a breathtaking tour of the new Jerusalem in openly architectural terms, speaking of both its foundations, its walls and its gates.

What is stunning in all of this, I would say even audacious as I began, is Scripture's honesty about the building materials out of which the church was built. Jesus said, "I will build My church on such a foundation as Peter, Simon Peter, and out of building materials like him, and they are deeply flawed, deeply flawed." What is stunning in all of this is Scripture's honesty about us as building materials for the eternal dwelling place of God. In this account, we will begin to see, it won't be consummated or completed in today's text, but we'll begin to see just how deeply flawed even the best of Jesus' followers really are.

Look at those basic attributes that Vitruvius saw in terms of architecture. The eleven apostles fail in all three regards. Strength, not at all. They are rocks that crumble when pressure is put on them as if they were made by compressed sand. Functionality, no. Their mission will be to testify boldly to the life, death and resurrection of Christ, even at the cost of their lives, but instead, they flee to save their lives. Beauty, no. They are at their most repulsive, in no way displaying the glory of God and of Christ, but instead showing darkness, selfishness, corruption, ugliness. But the glory of this story is not in where it begins, but where it ends.

And in God's sovereign, gracious power, to take building materials like you and I are, and make us eternally strong, eternally functional, and eternally beautiful, the new Jerusalem will be built of people just like the 11 apostles. In today's text, we are, in some respects, weak and useless and ugly, and we'll be transformed and perfected into living stones eternally strong, fulfilling our function and radiantly beautiful Revelation 21:14 says, "The wall of the city, the new Jerusalem, had twelve foundations and on them were the names of the twelve apostles of the Lamb." A few verses later, Revelation 21:19, "The foundations of the city walls were decorated with every kind of precious stone. Strong, functional, and beautiful."

"In God's sovereign, gracious power, to take building materials like you and I are, and make us eternally strong, eternally functional, and eternally beautiful, the new Jerusalem will be built of people just like the 11 apostles."

So here we are, we come to this passage. It was one that, in some respects, I wish I could skip, but I'm very thankful for it as well. Jesus Christ predicts the universal abandonment of His closest friends and most loyal followers. In a moment, as though their love were a morning mist, they will all turn away from Christ. They'll throw away their love and faith and their commitment in a display of weakness and sin. His closest and greatest follower, Peter, is singled out as a paradigm display of the sin at the core that they all have, all of His followers, all of them, not just some of them. All of us, if we are pressed hard enough by our earthly circumstances, would abandon Jesus to save our lives in this world.

Yet in this passage, we see ultimately, not this one passage alone, but as the story unfolds, the amazing grace of Christ to predict also His regathering of His scattered flock after His resurrection and His work in them to make them eternally strong and beautiful and functional. Scripture takes all the people of God on an intensely honest and stark probing of the hidden recesses of our sinful hearts. It holds up, Scripture does, a brutally honest mirror whereby we can see the truth, that our souls are corrupt, pockmarked with the disease of selfishness and worldliness, a willingness to flee from Jesus under the pressures of this present evil age, but also of the indomitable grace of God in Christ, to take sinners like us, to use our sins even for His glory, and finally, to save us in radiant glory. As Romans 5 says, "Where sin abounds, grace abounds all the more." Amen and hallelujah. We're going to actually spend eternity in heaven celebrating grace's triumph over our particular weaknesses. Grace's triumph over our corruptions and our selfishness and our cowardice and our laziness.

Ultimately, we’ll see grace's triumph over the most intractable foe there is in human history and that is sin, stubborn sin, relentless sin, devious sin, deceitful sin, tyrannical sin, a foe too great for any of us to defeat, but that foe will be overwhelmed at last, swallowed up in the victory of Christ. Now, of course, in this account, therefore, the central figure is not the eleven apostles and their running away from Jesus. The central figure is Jesus Christ, and in this case, His supernatural ability to predict the future as well as His amazing grace in going to the cross for people such as we are, and then His ability as a good shepherd to regather His flock after they've been scattered.

The second figure, of course, is Peter the rock on which Jesus said He would build His church. He doesn't look like much of a rock in this whole story, not at all, but God is going to make him a rock. He's going to make him a solid foundation for the subsequent generations. The case study of Peter, which we'll begin today, but we're not going to finish because it's going to be consummated when he actually does in fact deny Jesus in the later account, this case study is one of the most probing and insightful, troubling and ultimately triumphant in the Bible. Today's passage is just a key step in that journey that's actually already begun.

In this, this case study with Peter and in frankly the eleven apostles, we're really looking at the problem, as I said, of indwelling sin. The Apostle Paul lamented this issue in Romans 7:15-17, He says, "I do not understand what I do. For what I want to do, I do not do, but what I hate, I do. And if I do what I do not want to do, I agree that the law is good as it is. It is no longer I myself who do it, but it is sin living in me. So I find this law at work, when I want to do good, evil is right there with me. For in my inner being, I delight in God's law, but I see another law at work in the members of my body, waging war against the law of my mind and make me a prisoner of the law of sin at work within my members. What a wretched man I am. Who will rescue me from this body of death? Thanks be to God through Jesus Christ, our Lord."

So today, in this account, we're going to see the stunningly swift fall of the eleven apostles, especially Peter into denying Christ. We'll see the beginning of that through the prediction. We see the devastating power of indwelling sin. We also see the glory of Christ. We're going to look at predicting the apostles' failure, then probing Peter's sinfulness, just beginning that, completing it later in another sermon and then proclaiming Christ's glories.

I. Predicting the Apostles’ Failure

Let's start with predicting the apostles failure. Look at verse 27-28, "'You will all fall away,' Jesus told them, 'for it is written. I'll strike the shepherd and the sheep will be scattered. But after I've risen, I will go ahead of you into Galilee.’" Jesus makes predictions concerning His apostles. We've already talked about this even in recent sermons. Jesus' meticulous and careful ability to predict the future, His ability to know the hearts and the minds of His people and also the specific details of their actions even before they happen. This is the clear prediction that is rooted also in the prophecy of Scripture. Now as I've said, Scripture is brutally honest about the sins of its great leaders. That's one of the ways I know it's the word of God. John Calvin said at the beginning of the Institutes of the Christian Religion, "Nearly all the wisdom that we possess, that is to say true and sound wisdom, consists in two parts, the knowledge of God and of ourselves."

I think this is a very helpful way for us to look at every Scripture, "What does this scripture teach me about the majestic glory of God and what does this scripture teach me about myself?" It's a good way to come to this text as well. The Bible has given us words concerning ourselves to probe human sinfulness. Again and again, we see in the Bible a tremendous honesty about its great leaders and their sinfulness. John Calvin spoke powerfully about our need to have this work done, this humbling work because of our pride. Calvin said, "We always seem to ourselves righteous and upright and wise and holy. This pride is innate in all of us. Unless by clear proofs, we stand convinced of our own unrighteousness, foulness, folly and impurity."

That's Peter, isn't it? He thought very highly of himself and he's about to get clear proofs of his corruption, clear proofs, and it begins with this prediction. It seems that Scripture is given in part to help us see that truth, not just about Peter. We're supposed to look at this text and think we're looking in the mirror and have somewhat of an explanation of why we are not good witnesses, evangelists to lost people that surround us every day. The answer may in part be in this text. But our salvation depends on that humbling work by the Holy Spirit because it says in James 4:6, "God opposes the proud, but gives grace to the humble." That humbling work is to teach you that you need a Savior.  As it says in Luke 5: 31- 32, "It's not the healthy who need a doctor, but the sick. I've not come to call the righteous, but sinners to repentance." We need to realize we're sick with sin. We need this Savior. We need this therapeutic, this healing work done in us by Jesus. So when we look at the great men and women of the Bible and we see them at their worst, the Bible's honest about their failings, the best response is to look inward and say, "How am I like this? I would not do any different than if I had been one of those eleven apostles. I would've done the same." Prediction should humble us and so should its fulfillment.

Now, as I look at this, I think about who the eleven apostles, obviously Judas is out at this point, but who the eleven apostles were in the kingdom of God, what their role was to be, what they were chosen for. Jesus spent all night in prayer and then chose these men. It began with His call to the kingdom. Mark 1:15 says, "The time is at hand. The kingdom of God has drawn near. Repent and believe the good news." It's a call to enter a kingdom, to take His kingly yoke upon ourselves. In medieval times, the knights of a king would swear oaths of fealty or loyalty to the king. They would pledge their devotion. They'd put their swords before the king and say, "I'm willing to fight for your honor and for your kingdom. I'm willing to give you undying devotion. I'm willing to obey you as king and follow you."

Effectively Jesus laid out what that oath would sound like, what the oaths of fealty would be earlier in Mark's gospel in Mark 8:34-37, "'If anyone would come after me,' He said, 'he must deny himself and take up his cross and follow me. For whoever wants to save his life will lose it. But whoever loses his life for Me and for the gospel will save it. What good would it be for a man if he should gain the whole world and yet forfeit his soul or what could a man give an exchange for his soul?’" You want to follow Jesus, there's your oath of loyalty. To follow Jesus, according to Mark 8, means to deny yourself and be willing to follow even if it meant your death, to take up your cross and follow, to not love your life in this world, so much as to shrink from death.

If you try to save your life in this world, He said you'll lose it. If you want to follow Jesus, you have to be willing to give up your life in this world. The soul for which you would then be living, if you're giving up your physical life here on earth, you're living for the next world to come, your soul is worth more than any earthly advantage you could ever have. Any power or pleasure or anything possession that you could ever have in this life, your soul's worth more than any of that. Jesus made it plain at the end of that Mark 8 in verse 38, "If anyone is ashamed of Me and of My words in this adulterous and sinful generation, of Him will the Son of Man be ashamed when He comes in His father's glory with His holy angels?"

Jesus laid all that out. The apostles had effectively taken such oaths. They'd effectively made such promises. They'd been willing to stand with Jesus through all of His most difficult trials up to that point. As a matter of fact, that same evening, just a few minutes before this, Jesus said as much about them. In Luke 22:28-30, “You are those who have stood by Me in My trials." Think about that. "You've stood by Me in My trials and I confer upon you a kingdom just as My Father conferred one on Me, so that you may eat and drink at My table in My kingdom and sit on thrones judging the twelve tribes of Israel." He said that to them, the eleven apostles. They had been loyal to Him.

You remember that time when Jesus fed the 5,000 in John's Gospel and then they come back the next day for another meal.  He has a serious talk with all of those so-called disciples that were there just for another meal, and it culminates in the hardest teaching He ever gave, "Eat My flesh and drink My blood. And if you do not eat My flesh and you don't drink My blood, you have no life in you and all that." Jesus is weeding out the big crowd at that point. It says in John 6:66-70, "From that time, many of His disciples turned back and no longer followed Him. 'You do not want to leave too, do you?' Jesus asked the twelve. Simon Peter answered on behalf of all of them, 'Lord, to whom shall we go? You have the words of eternal life. We believe and know that You are the Holy One of God.' Then Jesus replied, 'Have I not chosen you, the twelve?'"

They had stood by Him that night. Though they didn't understand what He was saying, they said, "We have nowhere else to go. You're it." "So you are those that have stood by Me." They felt that they were ready to die with Him, but they weren't. That very night, all of them, all eleven, would fall away. Verse 27, "'You'll all fall away,' Jesus told them, 'for it is written. I will strike the shepherd and the sheep will be scattered.'" They would in fact be ashamed of Jesus and of His words in that adulterous and sinful generation. They would run away from Him in His moment, His greatest moment of need. The word translated “fall away” as “skandalizo,” from which we get the word to be scandalized or to stumble, to fall, to be offended, to be ashamed. That's what the word means. It is passive.

Something will come to them to scandalize them. It'll be forced on them from the outside, but they will stumble and fall. It will cause them to be knocked down and to run away to flee. Now that very night Jesus defines friendship in John 15:13, "He said, 'Greater love has no one than this, that a man laid down his life for his friends.' 'You are my friends,' Jesus said.” and He was going to go lay down His life for them. One of the great tragedies there is in this world is unrequited love. At that moment, His love for them was unrequited. They were not willing to lay down their lives for Him, even though He was willing to lay down His life for them, and they aren't just anybody now. They are essential to Jesus' worldwide plan for salvation. They're essential. They're going to be the essential link that the rest of us would have, subsequent generations would have to the facts, the truths about Jesus' life. They would be essential eyewitnesses to Jesus' life, His teachings, His death on the cross and His resurrection. They would need to stand in the day of testing and testify to Christ for the salvation of those that would listen to Him. The church would be built on the foundation of the apostles and prophets with Christ Jesus Himself as the cornerstone, [Ephesians 2:20]. It would be fundamental.

They would have to be willing to lay down their lives for the salvation of others. Central to that was that basic principle of being willing to die. John 12:24, "Unless a kernel of wheat falls into the ground and dies, it remains a single seed. But if it dies, it brings forth much fruit." They were going to have to do that. They were going to have to imitate Jesus and that willingness to fall into the ground and die. He says in John 12:25-26, "The man who loves his life will lose it, while the man who hates his life in this world will keep it for eternal life. Whoever serves Me must follow Me, and where I am, My servant also will be. My Father will honor the one who serves Me." To love your life in this world is to lose it. You want to be with Jesus, you have to be willing to imitate this basic principle.

What's amazing is, in the end, they were. In the end, they were willing to die as martyrs. They all died as martyrs for the Gospel except John. And he would've, it was just God willed that he remained long enough in exile to write the Book of Revelation. But he, again and again, wasn't in enough hot water to have been martyred. It was not God's purpose. But all of them in the end were willing, as it says in Revelation 12:11, "They overcame Satan by the blood of the Lamb and by the word of their testimony, they did not love their lives so much as to shrink from death." That's where they end up. That's where all the true witnesses for Christ end up, but it's not how they start, at least not that night. At the core, all of Jesus' disciples have a fundamental weakness in their nature, a self-saving tendency.

And the failure is predicted in scripture. Jesus said, "For it is written, I'll strike the shepherd and the sheep will be scattered." He's quoting Zechariah 13:7 which says, "'Awake, O, sword against my shepherd, against the man who is close to Me,' declares the Lord Almighty. 'Strike the shepherd and the sheep will be scattered and I'll turn my hand against the little ones.'" The striking of the shepherd would be His arrest, His trial, His condemnation, and ultimately, His death. That's what the striking of the shepherd would mean. They were not ready to see that happen. They didn't understand, and when they saw that, something loosened within them and they were not able to continue in their commitment to Christ, and Jesus mad this prediction.

Now the disciples responded with shock protestations with Peter leading the way, verse 31, "Peter insisted emphatically, 'Even if I have to die with You, I'll never disown You,' and all the others said the same." Now let's just pause and say, "What's going on here?" They believed Jesus was wrong about them. Think about that. "Jesus, you're very talented teacher. You do a lot of right things, but You got me all wrong." Imagine the audacity of saying that to Jesus. But the consistent testimony is that Jesus is able to search hearts and minds. He knows people. In John chapter 2, He doesn't need people's testimony about people, He knows what's inside people. He says, of Nathaniel, "Here's a true Israelite in whom there is no guile." He sees Him and knows Him. He knows them.

But they're saying, "You're wrong about me," but He wasn't. If you look down on the page, not there yet, but in verse 50-52, this is the completion of the prediction, "Then everyone deserted Him and fled. They all left. A young man wearing nothing but a linen garment was following Jesus. When they seized Him, he fled naked leaving his garment behind." I'll leave that until the later sermon, we're not covering that today, but there's a guy that's willing to leave behind a garment and flee for his life naked. Jesus wasn't wrong about them. Now they're not Judas, Judas was never a follower of Jesus. He hated Jesus truly. He was not a believer. Jesus said that very time, "Have I not chosen, the twelve? And one of you was a devil. Not one of you will later become a devil. He's a devil now."

They'd already heard Jesus predict that one of them would betray Jesus to His enemies. They're not going to do that, but maybe they felt they were better than Judas. But just because they're better than Judas is no reason to boast. Matthew Henry put it this way, "Though God keeps them from being as bad as the worst, yet we may well be ashamed to think we're not better than we are." "Well, at least I'm not as bad as Judas," but they still fled for their lives. 

II. Probing Peter’s Sinfulness

Let's look briefly at Peter's sinfulness. We're going to finish this story in a later sermon, but Peter was the leader in all respects, including this denial. Look at verse 29-31, "Peter declared, 'Even if all fall away, I will not.' 'I tell you the truth,' Jesus answered, 'Today, yes, tonight, before the rooster crows twice, you yourself will disown Me three times.' But Peter insisted emphatically, 'Even if I have to die with You, I will never disown You,' and all the others said the same."

Peter was the leader. He was the rock on which Jesus said He would build His church. Here, we have an example of Peter's arrogant self-esteem. Peter is confident that he would not do as badly as the rest of his disciples in verse 29, "Though all would fall away, his brother's standing there next to Him, yet I will not. I'm better than all of these other guys." He supposes himself not only stronger than the others, but so much stronger that he's going to be able to receive the frontal attack of the trial to bear up against it all alone, to stand with no one else with him. Matthew Henry said, "It is bread and the bone with us to think well of ourselves and to trust to our own hearts."

But Christ tells him he's actually going to do worse than any of them. They're going to desert Him and run away to their own homes, but he's going to deny Him not once, but three times that very night. Peter is a study in sin, his descent. We're going to finish it in a later sermon, but the descent actually has already begun before any of this. Back in that very passage that I cited in Mark 8, you remember how Peter made that amazing confession, [Peter],“You are the Christ, the Son of the living God." [Jesus],“I tell you, Peter, this was not revealed you by man, but by My Father in heaven, but the Spirit of God revealed this to you, Peter, and you are Peter. And on this rock, I'll build My church and the gates of Hades will not prove stronger than it."

But then Mark 8:31-33, "He then began to teach them that the Son of Man must suffer many things and be rejected by the elders, chief priests, teachers of the law and that He must be killed, and after three days, rise again. He spoke plainly about this and Peter took Him aside and began to rebuke Him." Remember that? I always thought that was amazing. "Jesus, do you have a minute?”, pulling Jesus aside. It's incredible, the arrogance in Peter. It's already begun. The seeds of his own destruction, the seeds of his pride, it's already there. “But when Jesus turned and looked at His disciples, He rebuked Peter, ‘Get behind me, Satan. You do not have in mind the things of God, but the things of men.’" That was a vigorous rebuke to Peter, a warning to him, but he didn't take the warning.

He has his next warning in today's text, "'You will all fall away in account of me this very night,' but Peter responds pridefully, 'Even if all fall away, I will not. I'm better than any of them.'" And not only pride horizontally to all His disciples, but pride in reference to Jesus, "You're wrong about me." Such incredible arrogance to say this to the Lord of all the earth. Jesus says, "All right, let's go to the next level. Let me get more specific about what's going to happen tonight." Look at verse 30, "'I tell you the truth,' Jesus answered, 'Today, yes, tonight, before the rooster crows twice, you yourself will disown Me three times.’" This is remarkable precision.

Notice by the way, only Mark mentions that the rooster crows twice, but you don't need more than one mention to say that's what happened. The rooster crowed twice, and before the rooster crowed twice, Peter would deny Him three times. Peter is actually, as I said, going to do worse than anyone else, but the reason he would do worse than anyone else is he was so prideful as to get himself in over his head and immerse himself in the enemies of Jesus because he thought he could handle it. Peter doubles down in verse 31, He insisted emphatically, “Even if I have to die with You, I'll never disown You."We're going to track this out in later sermon. 

But look at Peter's faulty assumptions first about himself. He's making assumptions about his virtue, his courage, his loyalty, his faithfulness, his love. He's making faulty assumptions about his life in the world. He still has a worldly conception of the kingdom that Jesus is going to build. He can't imagine Jesus dying. He thinks Jesus is going to triumph, and if Peter stays right near Jesus, he'll be fine. That's why he pulls out the sword and starts swinging it. That's the whole thing, "If I stay close to the shepherd, I'll be fine," but if the shepherd actually passively gets arrested and let away, bound up and let away. Peter doesn't know what to do, but he's got faulty assumptions about the kingdom, about his life in the world, his power, his glory, his wealth, the things that were going to come.

He's got faulty assumptions about Jesus. He forgets that He's God in the flesh and cannot say anything false. Literally nothing that ever comes out of Jesus' mouth is false, ever, including hard things about Peter. He has faulty assumptions about Christ's kingdom, about its nature. It was not of this world. It was not established by fighting. It was not established by military power. It was not immediately glorious and radiant and powerful. It was a different kind of kingdom. His kingdom was not of this world. He didn't understand Christ's mission. He didn't understand that Jesus had to die on the cross for Peter's sin and the sins of the world. He didn't understand that atoning sacrifice and he didn't understand that the real danger, Peter's real danger, would not be from the Romans or from the temple police or from even the slave girls at the door that would be asking him questions that's about to come. He's not predicting that at all.

He didn't understand his real danger is from Almighty God, the Holy One on Judgment Day in which Peter will have no answer he can give for His own sins and he must have an atoning sacrifice to survive Judgment Day and not spend eternity in hell. He didn't understand the real threat. Sin had twisted Peter's mind, darken his understanding, entangled his affections, and as a result, compelled his will to make evil choices. 

III. Proclaiming Christ’s Glories

Now what of Christ's glories? Not overtly evident here, but there's a lot of themes that we can draw out here. We've already talked about Jesus' prophetic foresight. He has meticulous foreknowledge of the future. Only God has that kind of knowledge. Christ's prediction is extremely specific, "Before the rooster crows twice, you will disown me three times this very night."

Also, Jesus knows the scriptures perfectly. They'd not seen Zechariah 13:7 before. He knows the apostles' hearts perfectly. He knows all of the events before they happen. This prediction, though heartbreaking, proves Jesus' supernatural knowledge of all those things. 

We also see Jesus's glories in His loving warnings to them. Jesus' lovingly giving them warnings ahead of time." He told them that they would fall away ahead of time so that when they did, their faith would not be destroyed. Actually their faith would be strengthened because that's the very thing He predicted that would happen.  He says multiple times in John's Gospel, John 13:19, "I'm telling you now before it happens, so that when it does happen, you'll believe that I am, that I am God again." John 14:29, "I've told you now before it happens, so that when it does happen, you'll believe." John 16:4, "I have told you this, so that when the time comes, you'll remember that I warned you." And again John 16:33, "I have told you these things, so that in Me, you may have peace. In this world, you'll have trouble, but take heart, I've overcome the world." Jesus' honest predictions and His honest evaluation of us only enhances our faith and our confidence in Him.

"Jesus' honest predictions and His honest evaluation of us only enhances our faith and our confidence in Him."

Thirdly, we see also Jesus' shepherd heart to restore them. "After I have risen, I will go ahead of you into Galilee. You'll all fall away on account of me, for it is written, I'll strike the shepherd and the sheep will be scattered. But after I've risen, I'm going to go ahead of you in Galilee and we'll meet again. I'll gather you there." There's so much hope in that. Their place as His sheep and His place is there, the good shepherd is not finished. It's not done. As a matter of fact, nothing will ever change that. "No one can snatch my sheep from Me. No one has the power to take my sheep from Me." Even though they're going to be scattered and they're going to run away through cowardice and unbelief, He's going to gather them back together again after He has risen. He'll go ahead of them into Galilee, He's going to forgive them, and He's going to restore them. Peter again will be the clear example of that. He's going to restore Peter. and He's going to use him despite his sin.

We also don't see in this text, but in another place, Jesus' priestly ministry is to pray for them. If you look at cover of your bulletin that's quoted there in Luke 22:31-32, very important text, "Simon, Simon, Satan has demanded to sift you like wheat," plural, "all of you, but I've prayed for you Simon that your faith may not fail. And when you have turned back, strengthen your brothers." Satan is going to sift them that night. He's going to test them, but Jesus has specifically, as a great high priest, interceded for Simon Peter, "I prayed for you Simon to the end that your faith will not fail and it won't. So you're going to stumble, you're going to fall, but not so as to fall beyond recovery. You're going to be recovered and your faith will not fail. I'm going to bring you back."

The idea, the image of Jesus as our Great High Priest, interceding for us is so beautifully established here. It says in Hebrews 7:25, "Christ is able to save completely those who come to God through Him because He always lives to intercede for them." We're no better than these eleven apostles. We're the same. Isn't it beautiful to think that Jesus always lives to intercede for you and for me that our faith will not fail? And by the way, I think that's a vital thing for us to pray for each other. If you hear that somebody is going through a severe trial, medical maybe, a diagnosis, some other thing that's come in their family life or in their personal life, pray this. Pray Luke 22, "I'm praying that their faith won't fail."

Don't think that that's impossible. We believe in, "Once saved, always saved." I believe in a dynamic faith that needs to keep existing until we don't need it anymore. That faith needs to be fed by the Word of God, it needs to be prayed for by the Son of God. It needs to be sustained by the God who gave it until we don't need it anymore. Jesus does that. He knows that He must pray for us that our faith will not fail and it won’t.

 We see also the King's heart to protect them. I'm not going to say much about this, but the fact is, in John's Gospel, when his enemies came to arrest Jesus, Jesus orchestrated an escape so they could run away. He orchestrated an escape, so that they would not be arrested that night.  In John 18, "He asked them, 'Who is it you want?' They said, 'Jesus of Nazareth.' 'I told you that I am. If you're looking for Me,' he said, 'then let all these men go.' This happened so that the words He had spoken would be fulfilled, ‘I have not lost one of those you gave Me.’" He knew they were not ready to be arrested that night. He wanted them to run away. He opened the door, said, "It's time for you to go," and they all ran away. The only problem is Peter did a U-turn. That was a bad mistake. We'll talk more about that in the future sermon. But Jesus orchestrated their protection because He is their good shepherd and would not let them get in over their heads or be tempted beyond what they could bear.

The courage also we see in Jesus to venture ahead alone with no friends with Him, whatsoever, to go to the cross and die for us. The courage of Jesus is unspeakable, it's infinite. He says in John 16:32, "A time is coming and has come when you'll be scattered each to his own home. You'll all leave Me alone. Yet I am not alone for the Father's with Me." He's going to venture out into the fiery furnace of the wrath of God. He's going to go ahead, completely alone. And He will do that to save us from our sins with no friends, no earthly friends with Him, just on His own. Obviously, the greatest glory in this text is only quickly alluded — to the triumph of the resurrection, "After I've risen, I'll go ahead of you in a Galilee." I'm sure we'll have occasion very soon to celebrate that, the glories of Christ in the resurrection.

IV. Lessons

What lessons can we take from this? First, stand amazed at God's grace in building an eternal and glorious city out of building materials like these eleven apostles and people like you and me. Stand amazed that He has the ability to speak truth over us and then make it happen in us. He has the ability, it says in Romans 4, "He gives life to the dead and calls things that are not as though they were." I love that verse. He's going to look at Peter and says, "You are a rock, and on you, I'm going to build My church," and then He makes him a rock. How beautiful is that?

We say, ”O, Lord, I know what I am. I'm weak. I'm faulty. I'm failure. I'm not a good witness. I'm not a good Christian. Would you make me bold? Would you make me courageous? Would you make me faithful?" We have an opportunity around this time of year, I just alluded to the Easter, it's coming up, Resurrection Day, to talk to people that we're surrounded with every day who are without hope and without God in the world. We want to do it. The question is, why don't we? The sermon today kind of covered that, because we're weak. But all you need to do is say, "Lord, I know I'm weak. Would you please make me strong? Would you please give me the ability to speak to a co-worker or to a neighbor, even a total stranger, invite them to church or talk to them about Christ's death and resurrection? Give me that ability."

Along with that, obviously, be convicted of the weakness in your own heart. Part of it is that we're looking in the mirror here. Be honest about who you really are. Thank Jesus for His intercession for you, that He always lives to pray for you, that your faith will not fail, and join with Him in that intercession for one another. Then finally, the glories of Christ that are the basis of our salvation, His supernatural knowledge, His astonishing courage to die on the cross, to venture forth alone, His amazing resurrection, triumphing forever death. Trust in Him for the forgiveness of your sins.

Close with me in prayer. Lord, we thank you for the text today. It's difficult, it's a hard text. We're grateful for the honesty of the Bible to tell us the truth about ourselves, to tell us the truth about the apostles, and to see what You did in them despite their weakness and how much You use them to build an eternal dwelling in which You will live by Your spirit. Thank you for the text and for the things we've learned. In Jesus' name, Amen.

God's sovereignty and authority over all things are displayed in His precise predictions as the disciples prepared for the Passover and Judas' imminent betrayal.

- SERMON TRANSCRIPT -

This world that we're living in is so filled with unexpected and difficult events. Some of them bringing us pain, change, things that we never anticipated. Very famously, Hamlet and his “to be or not to be” soliloquy, talked about the slings and arrows of outstanding or outrageous fortune. He also talked about a thousand natural shocks. That implies things coming at us that we never saw, and they're devastating, all their outrageous fortune. But we Christians know better, because the great consolation of our Christian faith in this uncertain and painful world, is that our Heavenly Father knows absolutely everything that will happen before it comes to pass. The Bible's very clear about that. And not only that, He knows it and He's aware of it, but He's actually decreed whatsoever will come to pass. It's part of His wise and loving plan. As one hymn writer put it, "I don't know what tomorrow holds, but I know who holds tomorrow." And that brings us great comfort.

Foundational to this concept is the idea of God's exhaustive foreknowledge, God's exhaustive foreknowledge. The exhaustive foreknowledge of God and of his son Jesus Christ. We see aspects of that in today's text. In this account, we're going to see some remarkable knowledge that Jesus has of decisions made by people, free will decisions, ahead of time. I don't deny that this is an infinite mystery, but it's on display. The context here is Jesus preparing the Passover.

I. Jesus Prepares the Passover

 We began the whole preparation language last week, and we continue now in this passage as Jesus prepares the Passover. Part of all of this is the stunning foreknowledge of God. We believe that God's foreknowledge comes first and foremost from His eternality. We believe that God is outside of time. Psalm 90 in verse 2, "Before the mountains were born or you brought forth the earth in the world, from everlasting to everlasting, you are God."

God's outside of time, He's not bound by time the way that we are. When it comes to human history, God knows the end from the beginning, as it says, ascribed to Christ in Revelation 22:13, "I am the Alpha and the Omega, the first and the last, the beginning and the end." So God ordains the entire flow of human history. He declares many of His purposes even centuries beforehand. Isaiah 46:9-10, "I am God and there is no other. I am God and there is none like me. I make known the end from the beginning, from ancient times, what is still to come. I say my purpose will stand and I will do all that I please." We should not imagine that God's exhaustive foreknowledge is because He's just really good at predicting things. God really is good at seeing what's about to happen and predicting it. Not at all. God's foreknowledge is tied to the fact that He has ordained things before they come to pass.

God makes decrees and then makes certain that they happen, as it says in Ephesians 1:11, "God works everything in conformity with the purpose of his will." This Passover time that we're walking through, in this account of the final week of Jesus's life, is part of God's divine foreknowledge and His preparation for the cross. We discussed this last time, so there's no need to go into great detail, but just by way of reminder. Almighty God, when planning the exodus of the Jewish nation from Egypt, included the ten plagues as part of it that He might display His power to all the earth. Most terrifying of all, of course, was the tenth plague, the plague on the firstborn. Exodus 11, "This is what the Lord says, ‘About midnight, I will go throughout Egypt. Every firstborn son in Egypt will die, from the firstborn son of Pharaoh, who sits on the throne, to the firstborn son of the slave girl who is at her hand mill.’"

Ezekiel 20 makes it plain that the Jewish nation was every bit as idolatrous and wicked as the Egyptians who enslaved them, and that their firstborn deserve to die as well. God's very clear about that. If you don't sacrifice the Passover lamb and paint the blood on your doorpost, your firstborn will die too. We see the grace of God extending to Israel. God graciously made a provision to save the sons of Israel by the shedding of the blood of the Passover lamb, and the application of that blood to their houses. Exodus 12, "On that same night, I will pass through Egypt and strike down every firstborn, both men and animals, and I'll bring judgment on all the gods of Egypt. I am the Lord. The blood will be a sign for you on the houses where you are. And when I see the blood, I'll pass over you. No destructive plague will touch you when I strike Egypt."

God established this Passover, not just that first time, that dreadful night, but as an annual ceremony, a continual reminder of these great acts of God for the Jews in every generation, in that same chapter, Exodus 12: 14, "This is a day you are to commemorate. For the generations to come, you shall celebrate it as a festival to the Lord, a lasting ordinance." I could use the language we're going to get to later in this sermon. Effectively, the God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob was saying, "Do this in remembrance of me," the Passover, and so they did, generational. This is part of God's wonderful foreknowledge and His sovereignty, establishing this ordinance as a picture of the death of Jesus Christ on the cross, the shedding of His blood, which would then be applied, spiritually, by the work of the Holy Spirit, so that we would not die. Every generation of Jews for fifteen centuries had commemorated the Passover with the slaughter of the lamb.

In this last week of Jesus's life, the time now for the fulfillment of this prophetic image has come. Mark, in his Gospel account, directly links Jesus's disciples’ question with the slaughter of the Passover lamb. Look at verse 12. "On the first day of the feast of unleavened bread, when it was customary to sacrifice the Passover lamb, Jesus's disciples asked him, ‘Where do you want us to go and make preparations for you to do the Passover?’”  He's uploading that in the minds of the readers, and it was uploaded in their minds as well. The Passover itself was preparation for the death of Jesus, that we would understand its meaning. 

But along with this comes some remarkable and stunning, meticulous foreknowledge on the part of Jesus. Look at verses 13-16, "So he sent two of his disciples, telling them, ‘Go into the city, and a man carrying a jar of water will meet you. Follow him. Say to the owner of the house he enters, the teacher asks, where is my guest room where I may eat the Passover with my disciples?  He will show you a large upper room, furnished and ready. Make preparations there.’ The disciples left, went into the city and found things just as Jesus had told them so they prepared the Passover." Here the providence of God extends beyond merely comprehensive foreknowledge, but it does include that. God in His eternality knows all of the details, even the tiniest details that will happen before any of them come to pass. As he says in Matthew 10:29-30, "Not one sparrow falls to the ground apart from the will of your Father, and even the very hairs of your head are all numbered." A sparrow dying and falling off a branch to the ground is not considered a significant moment in history. It would never be recorded in history. It's just a happening. But Jesus said, "Not one sparrow on earth falls to the ground apart from the will of God.” And then, “even your very hairs of your head are all numbered.” The number of hairs in your head changes daily, but God's up on the count. You're like, "Doesn't He have better things to do?" God's omniscience can cover that detail. Even the very hairs of your head are continually numbered. 

Now in this case, what's amazing is the detail of a man carrying a jar of water walking into a big city, and the timing of all that. Picture this. There are hundreds of thousands of Jewish pilgrims that have assembled from all over that part of the world for the Feast of Unleavened bread. Hundreds of thousands. Now, what are the odds that two disciples that Jesus sends at a certain moment, when they've finished this conversation, sent into the big city, are going to line up with a guy carrying a jar of water? That particular guy, but it happened. It wasn't an accident, everything had been orchestrated.

When I was in college in the Boston area, I had a friend, a mentor, Tim Schuman, who discipled me. He was a great brother, a man of God. He's also a distance runner. He ran the Boston Marathon. I grew up in eastern Massachusetts.  The Boston Marathon was a big part of our culture. I knew about it very well, and he asked if I would drive him out to Hopkinson where the race began. I did drive him there, and he gave me all of his stuff. We agreed to meet at the finish line. Anybody who knows anything about the city of Boston and knows anything about the Boston Marathon, knows how stupid we were at that moment. Yeah. So let's meet at the finish line. Why don't you meet your friend in Los Angeles? All right. See how that goes? Where? I don't know, just Los Angeles. You're going to meet up somewhere. It's just incredible.

But somehow... Now this is in the days before the cell phone and “Find my Friend”, as I mentioned last week. I found him with one of these aluminum foil blankets sitting at a Brigham's waiting for me to find him. Somehow we found each other. That was close to a miracle, but it's still an hour after he had finished the race. We should have done better. I should have known better, but that's a picture of just how preposterous this whole thing is. "Go in to the city and a man carrying a jar of water will meet you. Follow him." There were eleven gates into the city of Jerusalem. Let's just start there. Which gate? Not specified. You just see the improbability of the detail of something like this. Everything had been choreographed by the plan of God. So the man carrying the jar of water did meet them at the right gate, at just the right time.  He led them to a house that Jesus had arranged ahead of time for He and His disciples to eat the Passover. The owner of that house met them at the door of his house and led them up to what would become the most famous room in the history of the human race.

This is a very significant room. This is the place where the last Supper would occur. This is the place where the resurrected Jesus would appear, though the doors were locked, and give physical evidence of His resurrection to the apostles. This is the very place where they're waiting for the gift of the Holy Spirit to come, in which on the day of Pentecost, did come. And which after the Holy Spirit was poured out, they flooded out from that room and began to change the world. It's a very significant room in history. Jesus somehow had already made arrangements with this man. We don't know how. It's not miraculous. It was just practical administrative foresight on the part of Jesus. What's amazing is the man with the water jar and the timing of all that. But the preparation had been made.

Now think, when Jesus was born in Bethlehem, there had been no room at the inn. The problem of finding a place would have been even more extreme in those days. Just a limited number of places where they could meet. But Jesus had, God had, the foresight to get all of this arranged ahead of time. The room was provided, furniture was sufficient. It was a large room, an upper room. It was furnished and ready. Everything's in place. The two disciples then could go begin their preparation for the actual feast, the unleavened bread, the lamb, the wine, the table settings, the cups, plates, napkins, cushions. Everything they would need, they would go and do that.

Now, far more significant than those details, however, of course is the big picture. The meticulous preparation, for centuries, even before the foundation of the world leading step by step to the cross of Jesus Christ. None of this was thrown together at the last minute, but everything was ordained and planned carefully by God before the foundation of the world. 

"The meticulous preparation, for centuries, even before the foundation of the world leading step by step to the cross of Jesus Christ. None of this was thrown together at the last minute, but everything was ordained and planned carefully by God before the foundation of the world."

II. Jesus Predicts Judas’s Betrayal

Next, we see this same aspect of God's astonishing foreknowledge as Jesus predicts Judas's betrayal. The betrayal of Judas Iscariot, one of the twelve apostles, ranks as one of the most repulsive acts in human history. We already know that Judas was never truly a disciple of Jesus, but was called a devil by Jesus in John 6, after the “eat my flesh and drink my blood” teaching. We know also that Judas was just in it for the money, because he used to steal money from the money bag that had been entrusted to him by Jesus, violating that trust.

We saw last time that Judas went to Jesus's enemies and agreed to betray Him for the price of 30 pieces of silver. In this passage, Jesus predicts it. So Judas has gone on quietly, slunk off by himself, to make this arrangement. But now Jesus is going to predict it in front of them all. Look at verses 17-21, "When evening came, Jesus arrived with the twelve. While they were reclining at the table, eating, He said, ‘I tell you the truth, one of you will betray me, one who is eating with me.' They were saddened, and one by one they said to him, ‘Surely not I.’ ‘ It is one of the twelve,’ he replied, ‘one who dips bread into the bowl with me. The Son of Man will go just as it is written about him. But woe to that man who betrays the Son of Man. It would be better for him if he had not been born.’"

What makes Judas's betrayal so heinous was the loving and tender heart that Jesus had for each of the twelve, His affection for them. That's what makes this so horrible. It's a betrayal of a love relationship. Luke 22:15, "Jesus said to them, ‘I have eagerly desired to eat this Passover with you before I suffer.’" Think about that. "I want to have this meal with you." It's a very significant statement. It displays the ultimate heart of Jesus for all of us. The delight of close loving fellowship. I'm going to return to that theme at the end of the sermon, but that's Jesus's heart. He wanted to be with them. It also displays the unspeakable pain that Judas's betrayal must have caused the loving heart of Jesus. 

It's also remarkable because the other disciples had been arguing about which of them was the greatest. That was precisely why Jesus washed their feet, as recorded in John 13. So here's Jesus, this loving heart toward them, and they're bickering about which of them is the greatest, so He washes their feet to give them a display of the loving service that they should have toward one another. As He says in John 13:14- 15, "Now that I, your Lord and teacher have washed your feet, you also should wash one another's feet. I've set you an example that you should do as I have done for you." That's the setting. and now Jesus predicts Judas's betrayal. The timing is, it says, while there are reclining at the table. Leonardo da Vinci's famous portrait of the last Supper shows all of them sitting upright as if they're sitting on chairs at a long table. I also find it odd, they're all sitting on one side of the table. I've never seen a feast like that. Hard to look at each other, left to right, but they're good for Leonardo as he's painting the picture. So they're all facing outward that way. The near East pattern wouldn't have been that. It would have been a very low table. They're reclining on cushions. So their head right at the table, maybe they're reclining on their elbows with their feet away from the table. That's the usual pattern.

If this Passover had followed the traditional pattern, it would have begun with a prayer of thanksgiving for God's deliverance and for His protection and loving care for the Jewish nation. Then there would have been four successive cups of diluted red wine. Then a ceremonial hand washing, symbolizing the need for purification from sin. Then they would have eaten bitter herbs, symbolizing the bitterness of their centuries of in Egypt.  At the same time, then, they would partake of loaves of flat unleavened bread, which is where the feast gets its name, Feast of Unleavened Bread. They would have been passed out, and they would have eaten those loaves of unleavened bread. They would have then dipped them into a thick paste of mashed fruit and ground nuts. Then they would have sung two Psalms of praise from Psalm 113 to 118. At that point, the head of the household, which would have been Jesus, in this case, usually explain the story of the Passover and its symbolism to everyone in the house. Then the roasted lamb and the unleavened bread would have been served. After the main course had been consumed, the third cup of red wine would have been passed out. The rest of the Psalms of praise from Psalm 113 to 118 would have been read, and they would have finished with the fourth and last cup of red wine.

Now, somewhere in all of this, Jesus announced the coming betrayal. John 13:21 tells us Jesus' emotions concerning this. It tells us that He began to be deeply distressed and troubled and said, "I tell you the truth, one of you will betray me." The exhaustive foreknowledge doesn't take away the pain and the sorrow of it. He knows it, but it hurts, hurts. In our account, in verse 18, "I tell you the truth, one of you will betray me, one who is eating with me." The disciples, at that moment, are shocked, trying to figure out who it is. Verse 19, "They were saddened. One by one said to him, ‘Surely not I.’" True disciples are aware of the corruption of their own hearts. Genuinely born again, they understand, like the parable of the Pharisee and the tax collector, that they're sinners and they're corrupt.  I think they wonder, "It really might be me. Could be me." It's evidence of their humility and of the Holy Spirit's convicting work in their lives. 

But also the shocking nature of the news. They're just completely back on their heels. They didn't see this coming. Then Jesus identifies his betrayer, verse 20, “‘It is one of the twelve,’ he replied. ‘One who dips bread into the bowl with me.’" The fact of saying one of the twelve shows that intimacy, that closeness, and the privilege of being one of the apostles. Jesus had prayed all night before identifying this one of the twelve. But then there's this issue of the dipping of the bread into the bowl. John's Gospel unfolds this moment, a very significant moment here. John 13:22 through 27, "His disciples stared at one another at a loss to know which of them he meant.  One of them, the disciple whom Jesus loved, it's John, was reclining next to him. Simon Peter motioned to this disciple and asked, ‘Ask Him which one He means.’ Leaning back against Jesus, he asked Him, ‘Lord, who is it?’ Jesus answered, ‘It is the one to whom I will give this piece of bread when I have dipped it into the dish.’ Then dipping the piece of bread, He gave it to Judas Iscariot, son of Simon. As soon as Judas took the bread, Satan entered into him." This is stunning. It's almost like Judas accepting the bread with that language having been attached to it, was making a willing choice for that role. "I'm willing to play that role." His soul is open at that moment and Satan, it says, entered into him which also shows Satan's direct activity in leading toward Jesus's death on the cross. 

Satan had already been tempting and prompting Judas. It says in John 13:2, "The evening meal was being served and the devil had already prompted Judas Iscariot, son Simon, to betray him.” But now this is a whole different matter. He's not demon possessed, Judas, he’s Satan possessed. Now we get to the infinitely deep theology of this betrayal. This is the most complex, and I think significant, case of divine sovereignty and human responsibility you'll find in the Bible. Look at what Jesus says in verse 21, "The Son of Man will go just as it is written about him, but woe to that man who betrays the Son of Man. It would be better for him if he had not been born." The beginning of Jesus's statement, “the Son of Man will go just as it is written about him,” means He's going to die, having been betrayed by one of his close friends and rejected by the Jewish nation. It's going to happen exactly as the prophets have said. It was specifically part of God's plan, including Judas Iscariot's role.

It's predicted in Scripture, it's ordained by God. Nothing would change. It would most certainly happen as the church prayed in Acts 4:28, speaking of the plots of Jesus enemies leading to his death. "They did," speaking of God, "They did what your power and will had determined beforehand should happen." But then the next part, "But woe to the man who betrays the Son of Man." The word “woe" is the common word of prophetic judgment. When a prophet speaks a word of judgment like Isaiah 5, “Woe, woe, woe, woe,” or Jesus's sevenfold woe in Matthew 23. This is a common word of prophetic judgment, divine judgment. It shows that Judas is still responsible for his actions. He's accountable for what he did. He's judged for his motives and his reasons, his purposes, as well as what he actually does to betray Jesus. Then Jesus says, "It would have been better for him if he had not been born." I don't think we'll ever be able to probe the depth of that statement.  Judas is identified in the end as a son of perdition, a son of lostness, son of means characterized by hell, understanding the statements made about him and what he did. He's the only person we know, by name, in hell. Yet this very man, we are instructed, was knit together step by step in his mother's womb by the direct activity of Almighty God. No human being gets a body apart from that. Every moment that God was knitting Judas's body together, He knew very well what Judas would do. Very well. So why then did He make him? 

"Judas is still responsible for his actions. He's accountable for what he did. He's judged for his motives and his reasons, his purposes, as well as what he actually does to betray Jesus."

Why did He create him if it would have been better for Judas if he had not been born? Well, the answer is no, it wasn't better for Judas, but it was better for the glory of God and the plan of God, and it was better for us. Better for us, not better for Judas. And so he was born, and not only was he born, but he was sustained every day of his life. For in God we live and move and have our being. God fed him every meal that He ever gave him. He gave him lavish gifts of love. Jesus gave him above and beyond, the privilege of being one of the Apostles. So it is not true, in a simplistic sort of way, that God loves everyone and has a wonderful plan for everyone's life. It's not true. It wasn't a wonderful plan for Judas. It would have been better for Judas not to have existed at all. 

We also need to understand the complexity of Satan's motives here. What is Satan doing? Does Satan really want Judas to betray Jesus to his death? Does he not know where all that's going to lead? Earlier, he had been influencing Peter to tempt Jesus not to go to the cross. Remember? "Get behind me, Satan." Remember? So now Satan is in Judas orchestrating Jesus's arrest for the end of his death. And in so doing, he will destroy his own dark kingdom.

Praise God for what I call satanic confusion. "I don't know what to do with the incarnate Son of God. Do I let him live or do I kill him?" In the end, he did what his nature is. He's a murderer. There's nothing more that he could do except just kill him. And in so doing, by Jesus's death, it says in Hebrews 2, he destroyed Him who holds the power of death, that is the devil, and freed those who all their lives were held in slavery by their fear of death. Thanks be to God. Amen. There's Judas and Satan conspiring to destroy Satan's dark kingdom.

III. Jesus Symbolizes the New Covenant

Now we get to the Lord's Supper. Jesus symbolizes the new Covenant. Look at verses 22-24. "While they're eating, Jesus took bread, gave thanks and broke it and gave it to his disciples saying, ‘Take it, this is my body.’ Then He took the cup, gave thanks and offered it to them, and they all drank from it. ‘This is my blood of the covenant, which is poured out for many,’ He said to them."

Jesus uses the ceremony of the Old Covenant, the Passover, to declare the reality of the New Covenant. He gives the bread a new symbolism. The unleavened bread had been a symbol of the Exodus, and of their haste, as you remember, in eating it because they didn't have time for the bread to rise. Remember always you had to eat it in haste because you are fleeing out of bondage in Egypt. It's remembering that. But now He said, "This is my body." It symbolizes His body, by which they would be delivered from their true slavery. The true slavery is slavery to sin, and to the death sin deserves. By his body He would set them free. The bread is also a symbol of life. Jesus came that we might live. We need food to live. There's nourishment that comes from it. So Jesus said in John 6:51, "I am the living bread that came down from heaven. If anyone eats of this bread, he will live forever. This bread is my flesh, which I will give for the life of the world."

In doing this, Jesus established a new pattern of worship in the New Covenant with the Lord's Supper. Then He takes the cup. After supper, He took the cup, He gave it to all of them to drink. He identified the symbolism of the cup with these significant words. "This is my blood of the covenant, which is poured out for many for the forgiveness of sins." Luke adds the word "new." Luke 22:20, "In the same way, after supper, he took the cup saying, this cup is the New Covenant in my blood, which is poured out for you." Very significant words here. The Old Covenant had been established and founded on animal sacrifice. It was the centerpiece of the Old Covenant, the blood of bulls and goats and lambs.  In this, in Leviticus, God made it clear that it was by the shedding of blood that forgiveness was worked, which is essential to our salvation. Leviticus 17:11, "For the life of a creature is in the blood and I've given it to you to make atonement for yourselves on the altar." It is the blood that makes atonement for one's life. But the author to Hebrews tells us that the endless annual repetition of these animal sacrifices shows that they are ineffective. They didn't really do anything. They're just symbols. Just symbolic. Hebrews 10:3-4, “But those sacrifices are an annual reminder of sins, because listen, it is impossible for the blood of bulls and goats to take away sin.” That's a once for all statement. It never did anything. It never actually removed any sin. Instead, the New Covenant is established, also based on blood, but this is the blood of the only-begotten Son of God.

The Word became flesh, and that blood shed once for all for the sins of all of his people throughout all time. Hebrews 9:12, "Jesus did not enter by means of the blood of goats and calves, but he entered the most holy place once for all by his own blood, having obtained eternal redemption." This is the blood of the New Covenant and it shed once for all time, never to be repeated again. Again, by faith in the blood of Christ, are our sins forgiven forever. Ephesians 1:7, "In him we have redemption through his blood, the forgiveness of sins in accordance with the riches of God's grace." 

I just want to say something about the mass that the church has made of this whole thing since that time. This is a meal that should have united Christians, but instead it's been one of the most divisive theological topics there's ever been in church history and part of it centers on the conception of real presence. The idea that in some way the bread and wine, we now use juice, become the literal body and blood of Jesus or spiritual body and blood, in that sense, an actual body and blood. That's the doctrine of “real presence”. For Roman Catholics, they say this happens by the mystery of transubstantiation, leaning on some Aristotelian philosophy. That's a little hard to follow, hard to explain, which I won't go into here, but that's how they argued in the Middle Ages is how it happens. 

It all started with the statement, "This is my body and this is my blood." Martin Luther came along, rejected the link with Greek philosophy, but still believed in real presence. Believed it ardently, so much so, that he got into a very nasty argument with Ulrich Zwingli, the leader of the Swiss Reformation on this very issue.  Ulrich Zwingli didn't see any of this in the New Testament. He was just a simple Bible reading guy, and to him, the Lord's Supper was what we call a mere memorial. It's just something that we just do whenever we want to. He tended to very much downplay it. Zwingli did, so they had it about once a year. He went too far, very much so. But Luther was so ardent about real presence. He wrote in Latin, "Hoc est corpus meum," ”This is my body” in chalk on a table and then pounded the table, as only Luther could do, saying this is the text that will break you. It was not a nice interaction between two great men of God. They're getting along great now. I'm confident, absolutely confident. But it was a terrible dispute. 

John Calvin came along with what I call the spiritual presence view, which is what I hold to, which is that the ordinance is valuable in proportion to your faith in the word of God. That as the Holy Spirit's active and takes these words and presses them to your home, you take them seriously by faith, then this will be a meaningful participation, spiritually, in the death of Jesus Christ. I am troubled by the fact that with transubstantiation, the Roman Catholics believe that the priest is forever offering Jesus again and again and again and again and again. I find that incredibly problematic. Because the author to Hebrews tells us that Jesus died once for all time never to be repeated. So that's a part of the problem I have with their view of the offering being given up. Also, it's problematic in that when Jesus actually literally spoke what we know as the “words of institution”, “this is my body,” his body was there. There it was. There were his hands, and there's the bread. So you're looking at, if you had been there, his actual body, and the bread wasn't it. Jesus was very accustomed to doing metaphorical statements, like “I am the door for the sheep,” this kind of thing. Jesus isn't a door, but his ministry is similar to a door in that sense. Jesus then said in John 6:63, "The spirit gives life. The flesh counts for nothing. The words I have spoken to are spirit and they are life." 

IV. Jesus Symbolizes the Future Heavenly Feast

Beyond that, Jesus also symbolizes the future heavenly feast that we're all going to enjoy. Look what He says in verse 25, "I tell you the truth, I will not drink of the fruit of the vine until that day when I drink it anew in the kingdom of God." He makes two predictions here. First, this is the last supper, this is it. I'm not going to eat or drink with you again. This is the last time.

Secondly, Jesus is also predicting that in the kingdom of God, He will drink of the fruit of the vine anew in the kingdom of God, a prediction of heavenly feasting.  I love the word “new.” "I'm going to drink it anew with you." That's such a powerful word, isn't it? Revelation 21:5, "He who was seated on the throne said, ‘Behold, I am making all things new.’" The very thing we get with the new covenant, in Luke 22:20, "This cup is the New Covenant in my blood, which is poured out for you." Hebrews 8:13, "By calling this covenant new, He has made the first one obsolete. And what is obsolete and aging will soon disappear." All the new things are yet to come. The new thing, the new covenant is here, but there's a new heaven, a new earth, and a new Jerusalem coming.

That's where we're heading. "I saw a new heaven, new earth for the first time in the first earth that passed away. I saw the holy city, the new Jerusalem coming down out of heaven from God, prepared as a bride, beautifully dressed for her husband." In that new world and in that new Jerusalem, we're going to have new feasting. We're going to feast with Jesus. It's the fulfillment of the very thing I said earlier about Jesus's eagerness to eat with us. "I've eagerly desired to sit at table with you and feast with you." So many times in the Gospels we have this future heavenly banquet predicted.  Matthew 8:11, "I tell you that many will come from the east and the west and will take their places at the feast with Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob in the kingdom of heaven." How cool will that be to sit next to Abraham and the kingdom? What would you talk to father Abraham about or something like that? Or all these other great men and women from history. Or again, Matthew 22, "The kingdom of heaven is like a king who wanted to prepare a wedding banquet for his son. And he sends out messengers and says, look, the oxen are fattened, cattle have been butchered. Everything's ready. Come to the banquet." It's a heavenly banquet, a heavenly feast. Or again, Luke 22:29-30, "I confer on you a kingdom just as my Father conferred one on me, so that you may eat and drink at my table in my kingdom." Think about that. You may eat and drink with Me at my table in my kingdom.

Therefore, I love thinking about Revelation 3:20. I know it's for now, but I also think it's a foretaste of that heavenly banquet we're going to have. Revelation 3:20. "Jesus says, behold, I stand at the door and knock. If anyone hears My voice and opens the door, I will come in and eat with him and He with Me." There is that yearning for table fellowship that He has with the people of God. How sweet is that?

VI. Lessons and Applications

First, the Lord's Supper. Look back and look ahead. Passover was a yearly reminder to the Jewish nation of their deliverance from bondage in Egypt. So also the Lord's Supper is a continual reminder for us, as Christians, of the blood of Christ shed on the cross for our sins. First Corinthians 11:26, "For whenever you eat this bread and drink this cup, you proclaim the Lord's death.”  Whenever we do this, we're proclaiming Jesus died for us. Remembering that. It's vital for us to be forever mindful of what Jesus did for us, once for all time. Luke 22:19, "He took bread, gave thanks and broke it and gave it to them saying, this is my body given for you. Do this in remembrance of me." We need that, don't we? We need these reminders. The Lord's Supper, which we're about to partake in, is a reminder to us of the price that was paid for our sins. We need to think continually of the blood of Jesus shed for our sins, so we can be humbled. 

"Passover was a yearly reminder to the Jewish nation of their deliverance from bondage in Egypt. So also the Lord's Supper is a continual reminder for us, as Christians, of the blood of Christ shed on the cross for our sins."

We can also be thankful for our salvation. But we're also supposed to look ahead. I Corinthians 11:26, "For whenever you eat this bread and drink this cup, you proclaim the Lord's death until he comes.” This causes us to look ahead with faith through the second coming of Christ when He will destroy all His enemies, and the last enemy to be destroyed is death. Then we will feast with Christ sitting at table with Him. So at the Lord's Supper, which we're about to partake in, and indeed every day, be mindful of your sins forgiven at such a high cost, the body and blood of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. Be mindful and be thankful for that indescribable gift of grace. Be humble in reference to it. Be willing to forgive others because you've been given so much, and be expectant of the feast that we're going to enjoy when we finally get to heaven.

Beyond that, think about the deep themes that we've walked through today. God's exhaustive foreknowledge of all things.  There's no lucky events that happen in life. There's no chance encounters. The guy carrying the jar of water, God does that stuff every day. Sparrows don't fall to the ground and hairs don't fall off our heads without God planning it and orchestrating it. That gives us confidence about our lives in this world. 

We're going to close the time of preaching now with prayer, and then we'll go over to the Lord's Supper. Father, thank you for the Word of God. We thank you for the things that we've learned from it. Father, we thank you for feeding us by it. We're grateful for it. And we ask now that as we transition to the Lord's Supper, that you would strengthen us with its lessons as well. In Jesus' name. Amen.

Jesus’ death on the cross was the result of the meticulous plan and purpose of God, orchestrated in space and time.

- SERMON TRANSCRIPT -

It is the manner of God, before He bestows any signal mercy on the people, first to prepare them for it, so said Jonathan Edwards talking about the Great Awakening as God moved a lot of pieces together to produce that revival. And it is absolutely true. If you look at the scripture, God is a God of meticulous preparations, laying out the raw materials for a providential work before He does that work, of throwing the unformed clay onto the center of the potter's wheel before He shapes it into the vessel He has predetermined to make, or of arranging the wood and the sacrifice on the altar before the fire comes down and ignites it.

God is a God of meticulous preparation, we see it in Genesis 1 with the entire earth, with the worlds that He made. In the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth, and the earth was formless and empty. Interesting statement. Darkness was over the surface of the deep and the Spirit of God was hovering over the waters. Formless, empty, the earth, that was planet earth. Then God got busy shaping a planet just right for human life, working day by day, creating light, separating light from darkness, separating the waters in the atmosphere from the waters down below on the surface of the earth, separating the sea from the dry land, step by step, preparing things, getting things ready for human life, for man created in the image of God. God is a God of meticulous preparations.

But if that's true of physical creation, it's even more true of the complexities of redemptive history. God has meticulously arranged the pieces for our salvation on the chessboard of human history, moving this piece here and that piece there, putting it all together as century unfolded after century until, as Galatians tells us, "In the fullness of time, in the fullness of time God sent his son into the world." In the fullness of time means, effectively, when all of God's preparations for the coming of his son into the world were complete. God had raised up the Jewish nation. He had established the kingly line of David. He had spoken clearly through the prophets. He had borne patiently for centuries with the sins of the Jewish nation. He brought judgments on that nation through two exiles, first to Assyria and then to Babylon. Then reestablished a small remnant of Jews in the Promised Land under Gentile dominion. Then at just the right time, brought Jesus, his only-begotten son into the world.

Then God meticulously prepared Jesus for 30 years for his role as Savior of the world. Jesus grew in wisdom and in stature and in favor with God and man, step by step being gotten ready, for 30 years, getting ready until the time came for Him to be revealed to Israel, and that He could begin his work of amazing miracles and perfect teachings that identified Him as the only-begotten son of God, the Savior, the only Savior from sin.  Then at just the right time, God prepared the climax of Jesus' mission to the world, the journey to the cross and then to the empty tomb. The final three chapters of Mark's gospel depict that journey, and we're beginning that today. Mark 14, 15 and 16, Jesus' journey to the cross. And in this account, today, we're going to see overwhelming evidence for this God's meticulous preparation, preparation for the cross.

We see the concept of preparation, of getting things ready in a number of verses in the text you just heard read.  Look down at verse 8, speaking of Mary's anointing, "She poured perfume on my body beforehand to prepare for my burial.” One of the translation says, prepare for my burial. Then, a few verses later, verse 12, Jesus' disciples asked him, "Where do you want us to go to make preparations for you to eat the Passover?" We'll deal with that text next week, God willing, and also, in verse 15 and 16, next week, "He will show you a large upper room furnished and ready. Make preparations for us there. So the disciples left and went into the city and found things just as Jesus had told them. So they prepared the Passover." We're going to look at all that next week, but that's where we're heading, it's preparations, it's getting things ready.

And as we'll see today, these are just some of the preparations that God was orchestrating to bring Jesus' son to his bloody substitutionary death on the cross. This morning, we're going to see that God's preparations for that, for the cross, went back before the foundation of the world, extended through all of Jewish history, included Jesus' most hateful enemies, included Jesus' most devoted followers, extended even to the bitter betrayal by one of his closest followers, one of Jesus' apostles, step by step, meticulous preparation, bringing us to the cross. 

I. Preparation for the Cross

Now the cross, we believe as Christians, is the centerpiece of the Bible and of all of human history. It is the center of Christian theology. By the cross alone are our sins atoned for. By the cross alone are we reconciled to a holy God. By the cross alone are we delivered from God's righteous sentence of death and hell. By the cross alone are we cleansed of all of our defilement and made pure. By the cross alone are we clothed in perfect righteousness. By the cross alone are we brought into an eternity in heaven.  We understand the centrality of the cross, for this reason, Paul said in 1st Corinthians 2:2, "I resolved to know nothing while I was with you, except Jesus Christ and Him crucified." Or again, later in that same epistle, 1st Corinthians 15:3 and 4, "For what I received, I passed on to you as of first importance," top priority, "Christ died for our sins according to the scriptures, and that he was buried, and he was raised on the third day according to the scriptures." That's the centerpiece.

Then, finally, Paul's own personal statement, he makes many of them, but I love this one, Galatians 6:14, "May I never boast, except in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ, through which the world has been crucified to me and I to the world." Paul's saying, "The cross changed everything for me, the entire way I look at myself and the world and everything, and I'm only going to boast in the cross of Christ." The infinite value of the cross can only be seen by faith.

It's easy to misunderstand Jesus' death on the cross as though it were some kind of tragic mistake, some kind of horrific blunder, a hideous miscalculation on the part of Jesus. He had made enemies of very powerful men. He was sucked into their vortex of pride and power, got sucked in over his head, suffered the ultimate penalty for his naiveté.  But this is a grave error, no, it's not that way at all. Jesus' death on the cross was the result of the meticulous plan and purpose of God orchestrated in space and time to the specific actions of people who are doing God's will, whether they knew it or not. Jesus said it plainly, John 10:18, "No one takes my life from me, but I lay it down freely of myself. I have the authority to lay it down and I have the authority to take it back up again, this command I receive from my Father." It says it all.

So we see this when it comes to the cross, the centerpiece of all human history, all biblical theology, all roads lead to Calvary, all roads lead to the bloody cross of Jesus Christ. Here we see God's sovereign, meticulous preparation that brought us there. So in today's outline, we're going to see the preparation by predestination and then, by prophecy, by prediction, by plotting, by the perfume poured out on him, and by betrayal. So let's walk through these.

II. Preparation for the Cross by Predestination

The Bible reveals that the cross was predestined by God before the foundation of the world. Now we're at Passover time. I'm going to talk about the Passover in a moment, but before any of that happened, God knew about the cross God had planned the cross. The cross was founded in the mind of God before time began. Revelation 13:8 says that Jesus was, "the lamb that was slain from the creation of the world.”  1st Peter 1:19, 20 says, "You," us, we Christians, "were redeemed by the precious blood of Christ, a lamb without blemish or defect. He was chosen before the creation of the world, but was revealed in these last times for your sake." So before the creation of the world, the substitutionary atonement of Christ had been predestined in the mind of God. Jesus was the lamb of God slain in the mind of God from the creation of the world. Since this was the plan of God, every step toward the cross, even taken by Jesus' sworn enemies, was part of that plan.

As Peter preached in the streets of Jerusalem 40 days after Jesus' death, Acts 2:23, "Jesus was handed over to you by God's set purpose and foreknowledge, and you, with the help of wicked men, put him to death by nailing him to the cross." God's set purpose and foreknowledge involving the people of Jerusalem and wicked men led to Jesus being nailed to the cross.  Then later, two chapters later, in Acts 4, as persecution starts to ramp up, the church prayed to God. In Acts 4:27, 28, "Herod and Pontius Pilate met together with the Gentiles and the people of Israel in this city to conspire against your holy servant, Jesus. They did what your power and will had determined beforehand should happen." That says it plainly, doesn't it? Even the plots of wicked men were part of God's eternal plan. The preparation for the cross was ultimately in the mind of God before time began.

III. Preparation for the Cross by Prophecy

Next, we see the preparation of the cross by prophecy. God had already formed this plan before He said, "Let there be light," but then He paid out information gradually over redemptive history through prophecies that said what He was going to do step by step. God communicated the details of the cross through many prophecies. God sent many prophets and spoke many words of prophecy predicting the cross of Christ. Every animal sacrifice itself was an acting  out prophecy of the cross.

Now, clearest in this text was the Passover itself, it was a lived-out, acted-out prophecy from centuries before pointing toward the cross of Christ. This account begins with the approach of the Passover. Verse 1, "Now, the Passover and the Feast of Unleavened Bread were only two days away”. The preparation of the Passover is a big part of this account and next week's account, God willing. The disciples wanted to know where they should go and prepare the Passover feast. Everything's getting ready. All the people have come from miles away to prepare for the Passover. The Passover itself was God's sovereign preparation for the cross, getting everybody ready to understand it, fifteen centuries before Christ. You remember the story of the Exodus and how God brought the enslaved nation of Israel out of Egypt with a mighty hand and outstretched arm, and with ten plagues, terrible plagues.

The tenth plague was the worst of them all, the plague on the firstborn. The angel of death would visit every home in Egypt that terrible night and kill the firstborn in that home. From the highest to the lowest, from the throne of Pharaoh to the lowest slave, no one would be exempt.  And the Jews were no better, Ezekiel 20, "They are as idolatrous as the Egyptians were,” and they deserve their firstborn to be slaughtered as much as the Egyptians did. So God made a provision to make a distinction between Israel and Egypt by means of this sacrifice. The clear implication, when you have to paint the blood on your doorpost and your lintel or your firstborn would die, your firstborn deserves to die as much as anybody else's. It's only by the shed blood of the substitute that that death doesn't come to you.  God commanded each family to select a lamb without blemish or defect, slaughter it, paint the blood of that lamb on the doorposts and lintels of the house. The promise was that the angel of the Lord would see the blood of the lamb and pass over that home not killing the firstborn. Thus, the Passover is the picture of what God had already predestined before the foundation of the world to do, the cross of Christ. He's the lamb that was slain before the foundation of the world. Now it's acted out that very night, the night of the tenth plague, the shedding the blood, a substitute delivering sinners from death. Then, it was reenacted year by year for fifteen centuries as part of their heritage, part of their religious year. God established this as a preparation, getting their minds ready for the fulfillment.

In Jesus' time, it's estimated that over two million Jewish pilgrims would come to the city of Jerusalem for the Feast of Unleavened Bread and Passover. That feast, that particular Passover that year, Jesus would fulfill that image for all time. Christ is the end of the law so that there might be righteousness for all who believe. And so, it would be fulfilled. It wasn't an accident that Jesus died right at the Passover time, right when the Lamb would be slain, it was exactly to fulfill that imagery.

So the application of the blood of Jesus, the substitute, to our souls is what enables us to survive Judgment Day. As Romans 3:25 says, "God presented him as a propitiation through faith in his blood." Propitiation means one who turns aside the wrath of God by the payment of a sacrifice. That's what propitiation means. Jesus is that. So, Romans 5:9 says, "Since we have now been justified by his blood, how much more shall we be saved from God's wrath through him?"

"The application of the blood of Jesus, the substitute, to our souls is what enables us to survive Judgment Day. As Romans 3:25 says, 'God presented him as a propitiation through faith in his blood.' Propitiation means one who turns aside the wrath of God by the payment of a sacrifice."

Of course I haven't given the whole raft of prophecies from the Old Testament pointing toward Christ, which there are many, but I'm focusing on the prophecy, the acted out prophecy that was the Passover.

IV. Preparation for the Cross by Prediction

Next, we see the preparation for the cross by prediction. In this, I mean, specifically, Jesus' stated predictions of what was going to happen leading up to the cross, effectively saying, "I am the fulfillment of all those prophecies. It's happening now." He got them ready by predicting what would happen to him.

We're told in Matthew 16:21, "From that time on," that was in Caesarea Philippi when Peter made his great confession, "You are the Christ, the Son of the living God," "Blessed are you Simon Jonah. This was not revealed to you by man, but my Father in heaven." All that, Caesarea Philippi. "From that time on," Matthew 16:21 tells us, "Jesus began to explain to his disciples that he must go to Jerusalem and suffer many things at the hands of the elders, chief priests, and teachers of the law, that he must be killed. And on the third day, raise to life." He did this again and again and again, predicted, predicted, predicted. Especially at this time again in Matthew 26:2, it says, "The Passover is two days away and the son of man will be handed over to be crucified." That's a clear statement Jesus made in Matthew's account. Mark doesn't pick up on it, but he did say it, "As you know, this is all happening. I'm about to die to fulfill the Passover." His prediction linked his own life to the Passover imagery.  Now He did this to prepare his disciples ahead of time so that they wouldn't lose their faith. John 13:19, "I'm telling you now before it happens, so that when it does happen, you'll believe that I am, that I am God, and that I am the Messiah." The predictions got them ready, but they didn't really listen. Did you notice? They had no idea. One person listened though, the woman in our account. We will get to her in a moment. She listened. She paid attention, but the others, they were fighting it. They couldn't conceive of it.

V. Preparation for the Cross by Plotting

Next, we see preparation of the cross by plotting.  Jesus' enemies were directly plotting his death. Look at verse 1 and 2, "Now the Passover and the Feast of Unleavened Bread were only two days away and the chief priests and the teachers of the law were looking for some sly way to arrest Jesus and kill him, but not during the feast, they said, or the people may riot."  “Not during the feast," they said. Isn't it beautiful that He was killed during the feast? We'll get to all that. So much for the plans of the enemies, but they're plotting concerning this.

Why did they hate Him so much? It's instructive for us to probe that. Why did they hate the only perfect man that's ever lived, filled with love, perfect in love toward God and toward others? Why did they hate Him? First, Jesus himself said the reason they hate Him is He testifies that what they do is evil and their pride won't let them listen to Him. He says they are evildoers. They hated Him because He exposed their righteousness as a sham. He called them, "whitewashed tombs, which look beautiful on the outside, but inside, full of dead men's bones and everything unclean."

They hated Him because He cleansed the temple twice, at the beginning of His public ministry and then at the end, thus He was touching the nerve of what they cared about the most, money. So they hated Him for that. They were jealous. They hated Him because they were jealous of his popularity with the people who loved Him, and these enemies were jealous. And they hated Him because they were afraid of what the Romans would do in reference to Him, that the Romans would come away, come and take away their place in their nation because they were threatened by Him, so they hated Him.

Throughout His ministry they opposed Him. And at a certain point, from a certain point on, they're looking to kill Him. They're openly wanting to kill Him. At some points, even picking up stones right there and then to kill Him like in John 8. They want to kill Him, many times already, but they're not able to do so, we're told, especially in John's Gospel because His time had not yet come. Timing is everything, fullness of time. So they were not able to do it.

Now, however, the time has come, Jesus prays that in John 17, "Father, the time has come, glorify your son." The time's there, but God has His timetable, the enemies have theirs as He just hinted at a moment ago. God wanted Jesus to die at exactly the right time to fulfill the imagery of the Passover. God loves symbolism, and He wanted to fulfill that and make it easy for them to see the connection.

But we see the irony, for Jesus' enemies, this is exactly the wrong time to kill Jesus. This is absolutely not what they want to do, not because they didn't want Jesus to fulfill prophecy, they weren't thinking about that at all, it's because of the threat to their nation and to their own position of this huge crowd and Jesus' stunning popularity with the crowd. Remember the triumphal entry? It terrified them. They were clearly afraid of Jesus' popularity with the crowds. So if they arrest Jesus in public, the crowds are going to riot, they're going to kill those that are there to arrest Jesus and defend Jesus.

But they're also afraid, as I mentioned, of what the Romans would do if the crowds took Jesus and made Him king even by force, as John 6 said they wanted to do. In that case, Jesus' enemies would be left out, right? Either the Romans would come in and that moment would fail through Roman power and Jesus would be slaughtered and His followers slaughtered, and then the Romans would just come and take over and they would lose their place of power and position in the nation, or Jesus would succeed and be the king of the world, whereupon they're out because they're His enemies. Either way, this is not the time they think to arrest.

They want to arrest Jesus, "in some sly way," that's one translation, the Greek says, "by subterfuge, by treachery or trickery." Ideally, they would like to arrest Jesus maybe at night or sometime when there's not many people around, and they needed information on His coming and going. They didn't have “Find My Friends” back then yet, so they needed to know where He's going to be and when, they need an insider. But how could that be? Jesus' twelve followers are fanatically committed to Him, so they thought. They had a problem, but in any case, they know, not during the feast.

But yet, isn't it beautiful? God's plan cannot be stopped. It was during the feast because that's what God wanted. "Many are the plans of a man's heart, but it's the Lord's purpose that prevails." And so, the passages tell us, Acts 2, "Jesus was handed over to you by God's set purpose and foreknowledge, and you, with the help of wicked men, put him to death by nailing him to the cross." Their actions are part of the plan. Or again, "Herod and Pontius Pilate met together with the Gentiles and the people of Israel in this city to conspire against your holy servant Jesus whom you anointed. They did what your power and will had determined beforehand should happen." God willed that Jesus should die at the Passover and that these wicked men would be essential to making that happen by their plots, and so would Judas' betrayal, so would Judas' betrayal. We'll get to that.

VI. Preparation for the Cross by Poured Perfume

Next, we see preparation for the cross by the poured perfume. In the middle of all this swirling evil, there is this act of pure beauty, pure beauty, sacrificial worship poured directly on the head and feet of Jesus. And I would argue to some degree, I think even simply straight out, this is the point of everything, it really is, the point of the cross.

Why did God make the universe to begin with? For His own glory, for a radiant display of His glory. But God already knew how glorious He was, He didn't need to make anything to prove it to himself. So then, God made sentient beings, angels and humans to be able to see and appreciate His glory and praise Him for it. He made the universe because He's generous and He wanted to share Himself.

I's all about worship, but sin entered the world blocking that worship that God created us to do. Jesus came to remove that sin problem, that sin blockage by His death and His resurrection, by the outpoured Spirit, by His salvation plan to heal us of sin so that we could get back to the original purpose, which is worship, worship. Jesus came into the world for that purpose to affect worship as He said to the Samaritan woman in John 4, "A time is coming and has now come when the true worshipers will worship the Father in spirit and truth, for they are the kind of worshipers the Father seeks. God is spirit and those who worship and must worship in spirit and truth."

"Jesus came to remove that sin problem, that sin blockage by His death and His resurrection, by the outpoured Spirit, by His salvation plan to heal us of sin so that we could get back to the original purpose, which is worship."

So in the midst of all of this wickedness, this confusion, swirling plots by these powerful, wicked men, in the midst of the apostles at their worst, we're told in another place, some of them bickering about which of them was the greatest, some of them boasting that they love Jesus more than any of the others, and one of them showing his true nature as the devil, betraying Jesus, that's going to happen that night, in the middle of all of that, we get one beautiful act of worship by this woman. So beautiful.

Let's look at the act, the act described. Look at verse 3, "While he was in Bethany reclining at the table at the home of a man known as Simon the Leper, a woman came with an alabaster jar of very expensive perfume made of pure nard. She broke the jar and poured the perfume on his head." Now, all four Gospels have an account of a woman anointing Jesus. Luke speaks of a sinful, but forgiven woman who anoints Jesus' feet with her tears and dries them with her hair. But Matthew, Mark and John all speak of this one incident that we're looking at now, and I think it's clearly a different time, a different woman too, I believe.

John identifies this woman as Mary, the sister of Lazarus, the man that Jesus raised from the dead in John 11 and with whom Jesus had a close love relationship. Martha, Mary and Lazarus were close friends with Jesus. Martha and Mary are also well known. They were dear friends of Jesus. We're told the anointing takes place in Bethany very close to Jerusalem. We're told it happened in the home of a man known as Simon, the leper. We know nothing else about this man. He's not mentioned in any other account, so there's nothing to say about him, just where his home was.

John tells us, this anointing took place eight days before the Passover. John positions it chronologically. So Mark has rearranged it and kind of inserted it here, but with John, we get the full picture of the chronology. It was a sacrificial gift. Mary took an alabaster jar of pure spikenard. One of the translations gives spikenard. John says it was pistik nard coming from the head or spike of a fragrant East Indian plant belong to the genus Valeriana, which yields juice of a delicious odor. The plant grows in the distant Himalayan mountains and was extremely costly, you can well imagine.  It's traveled a long distance to get there.  John tells us, and Mark tells us here that it was valued at 300 denari. A denarius was a day's wage for a laborer, so that's a year's worth of money. It's a lot of money. Furthermore, it was in a costly alabaster jar. You picture like a flask with a slender neck sealed at the top. For her to get at it quickly, she chose to break the neck of the alabaster jar and pour the whole bottle over Jesus' head, and also, John tells us, over his feet, Mark just says head, but head and feet.

Then, we get the disciples' reaction, verse 4 and 5, "Some of those present were saying indignantly to one another, ‘Why this waste of perfume? It could have been sold for more than a year's wages and the money given to the poor.’ And they rebuked her harshly." John tells us that Judas was the ringleader of all this, he led out in this. John, under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit, probes Judas' heart, John 12:6, "Judas did not say this because he cared about the poor, but because he was a thief. As keeper of the money bag, he used to help himself to what was put into." It's absolutely disgusting. Because we are told in Luke 8 that some women, some wealthy women were supporting Jesus out of their means and Judas is plundering that on the side.  Jesus had given the money bag to him to take care of.  It's not like he didn't know who Judas was. However, it seems all of the disciples shared, to some degree, Judas' abhorrence of this action. They're all on board with what he's saying. They don't get it, it doesn't make sense. I mean, Jesus has just got done in Matthew's Gospel with the whole sheep and the goats thing, remember? The sheep and the goats, "I was hungry, you fed me. I was thirsty, you gave me something to drink." All of that. That's a whole bunch of benevolent ministry, a whole bunch of mercy ministry, and if you do it, you're in heaven. If you don't do it, you're in hell. And all this. Then, just a short time later, there's a woman pouring a year's worth of wages all over Him, and He's fine with it. It's confusing.

Years ago, remember those, "What would Jesus do?" bracelets? I don't always know what Jesus would do. Does He seem unpredictable to you? I think I would've understood their objections, but He defended her. Look at it in verse 6 through 9, “'Leave her alone,’" said Jesus, “'Why are you bothering her? She has done a beautiful thing for me. The poor you'll always have with you and you can help them anytime you want, but you will not always have me. She did what she could. She poured perfume on my body beforehand to prepare for my burial. I tell you the truth, wherever this gospel is preached throughout the world, what she has done will also be told in memory of her.’" I can't imagine a stronger defense.

He describes her lavish gift as a beautiful thing. The Greek word implies that it's a virtuous act. He addresses their concern for the poor by citing Deuteronomy 15:11, "There will always be poor in the land." He then challenges them about the poor, you can help them anytime you want. It's a bottomless pit. It never ends. You always have poor people with you. And anytime any of us wants to help the poor, we can do it. And I do believe, as in the sheep and the goats, God's going to talk to us about it on Judgment day, how much that was.  But Jesus said, "You'll not always have me," not like this. This is an amazing statement. He's returning to the topic of His imminent death. He's soon to be physically taken away from them. He specifically says she anointed His body to prepare for His death. Verse 8, "She did what she could. She poured perfume on my body beforehand to prepare for my burial." Then Jesus makes this amazing, prophetic statement about how she would be remembered forever, "I tell you the truth, wherever this gospel is preached throughout the world, what she has done will also be told in memory of her."

Jesus knew at that moment that these stories would be told to the end of time. How did He know that? Because He's God. And He knew that there would be a careful gospel record under the direct inspiration of the Holy Spirit and that this account would be included in that and that this gospel will be preached through the whole world. He already said that in Matthew 24:14 it's going to happen, and this story is going to ride along with that gospel proclamation, it's going to come with it and people are going to hear about her to the end of time, and I say beyond, beyond.

I believe his statement's being fulfilled right now as I preach. Here we are in Durham, North Carolina, which is a long way from Jerusalem, and we're centuries later, and we're talking about her. Jesus is a prophet. But I think it goes beyond, it goes beyond this moment, it goes on into heaven. It goes into heaven. Why is that? Because we already learned from Mark 13:31, "Until heaven and earth pass away, my words will never pass away." Heaven and earth will pass away, my words will never pass away. What? Including this one? Yes. For all eternity, we'll be talking about this woman's anointing. That's pretty awesome.

But then I thought about it as I was meditating about heaven, writing my book on heaven, I thought, we're not just going to talk about her active, sacrificial giving, we're going to talk about all of them, all of them. Which ones? Well, the ones you all did too, and the ones that I did. Why just this woman? If we're going to remember her good works, we're going to remember everybody's, and so, I believe we will. We're going to remember, "And my Father will honor," Jesus said, "the one who serves me." That's a beautiful thing.

I love what it says in verse 8, "She did what she could." Isn't that powerful? What else can we ever do? Reminds me of Moses and the burning bush and that interaction. At some point, God says to Moses, "What do you have in your hand, Moses?" "A staff." "Throw it on the ground." Remember? It's like, "What do you have with you? I can use that. I can use that staff. Throw it on the ground." What about you? Are you doing what you could? That's the question. We'll get back to this. I want to circle back, but this is a beautiful moment.

VII. Preparation for the Cross by Betrayal

We go from that to... We go from the height of beauty to the depth of darkness. It's disgusting what happens next, but it's the truth, isn't it? Look at verses 10 and 11, preparation for the cross by betrayal. "Then Judas Iscariot, one of the twelve, went to the chief priests to betray Jesus to them. They were delighted to hear this and promised to give him money. So he watched for an opportunity to hand him over." So now we get to betrayal.

Keep in mind, Jesus is in no way surprised or caught unaware by Judas. He knew this was coming. After the whole “eat my flesh, drink my blood "teaching in John 6, He says to the twelve, "You don't want to go away too, do you?" Peter says, "To whom should we go? You have the words of eternal life." Then Jesus says, "Have I not chosen you the twelve? And one of you is a devil." Not one of you will later will become a devil, you're a devil right now. He already knew. But still, just because Jesus knew didn't mean it wasn't painful for Him. Jesus knew about the cross, it was painful.

This is betrayal. Betrayal shows a violation of trust, a love relationship. You can't betray someone you don't know or have no connection with, it always has to do with a close friend, has to do with a spouse, it has to do with a son or daughter or father or mother, a close relation. It has to do with a national affinity, you can betray your country. But you can't betray someone you have no connection with, a total stranger and there's no connection. So this is hurtful, painful betrayal.

Why did Judas betray Him? He was never a believer. It's not like he lost his faith, he never had any. Jesus gave him charge of the money bag because that's all he cared about, it's the only way He could keep him to stick around. He was in it for the money. He was embezzling. In all of the gospel accounts, it's immediately after this anointing by Mary that he goes out to say, "What can I get for Jesus?" It's directly, you get a sense of cause and effect, it's like, "All right, if we're going to be doing that, we're going to pour a year's worth of wages on the ground, the game's up. It's time to trade Jesus in for what I can get from them.”  Look at the valuation, you can't see it, but listen to the valuation question in Matthew's account, Matthew 26:14, 15, "Then one of the twelve, the one called Judas Iscariot, went to the chief priest and asked," listen to this, "What are you willing to give me if I hand him over to you?" "What's it worth to you?" It makes you want to vomit. "What's he worth to you?" "Thirty pieces of silver." Little knowing, both sides, that they were directly fulfilling a prophecy in Zechariah, but 30 pieces of silver. They measured out thirty silver coins, cold-blooded idolatry on the part of Judas. He was in it for the money. He loved money. He was covetous. Then, selling his soul for 30 pieces of silver.  Yet, his initiative is instrumental, it's a catalyst for the timetable of Jesus' death. It was instrumental because now, they have what they were looking for, an insider who can give knowledge, specific knowledge of Jesus' comings and goings, and that's going to lead to Gethsemane where Jesus would be arrested.

VIII. The Point of the Cross:  Worship

The point of all of this, as I've said, is worship, so let's bring this to application and bring it to a close. God created you and me to worship Him. The only reason we don't is sin, that's why we don't worship Him as we should. Mary's act of sacrificial giving was both a unique moment in time that could never be repeated, but also a timeless pattern or paradigm of worship. It's both. It was unique because Jesus said, "You will not always have me." We cannot anoint Jesus' head and feet physically, He's up in heaven, we do not have that ability to do it. Furthermore, we can't prepare for His burial because death no longer has mastery over Him. He will not die again. He doesn't need to be prepared for burial. That moment has passed. So it's not possible for us to love Jesus specifically the way Mary did.

And yet, as unique as that moment was, it clearly also is, to some degree, a paradigm for lavish worship. It's based on faith. What was she doing? Preparing Him for what? Burial. So I told you, there was one disciple there who took Jesus' word seriously, He's going to die. She maybe didn't fully understand, of course, she didn't fully understand, but she believed that what Jesus said was true and she took Him at face value. Mary was this kind of a woman, she was a contemplative listener, ponderer, she sat at Jesus' feet and listened to His teaching. She took it seriously, that's who she was. Luke 10:42, Jesus said, "Mary has chosen what is better and it will not be taken from her." That's who she was. So as faith, it was based on Jesus' word.

Secondly, it was loving. She cherished Jesus and sought to honor Him. She poured out this costly perfume out of a heart of love for Him. The beauty of the action was the love that was in her heart. It was lavishly sacrificial, it was costly, costly. Love can always be measured by cost, by sacrifice. No sacrifice, no love. Jesus said, "Greater love has no one than this that he laid down his life for his friends." The greatest gift God has ever given us, God the Father, is the gift of His son. That's the measure of God's love for the earth. God did not spare His own son, but gave Him up for us. That word “spare”, she didn't spare, she didn't hold back, she didn't pour a few drops on Jesus, she poured it out, poured it out.

It recognizes, therefore, the supremacy of Christ above all. Yes, it is right to serve and love the poor, to share the gospel, to do many horizontal acts of kindness to other people, but we are created, first and foremost, for God and for Jesus. If we love anything more than we love God, including poor people, we're not worthy of Him. Jesus demands and deserves our best. That's a picture of worship.

The challenge for us in terms of worship is are you doing what you can? She did what she could, what about you? What's in your hand? What's in your life? Are you living a life of self-denying sacrificial love for Jesus? That's the challenge. That's the challenge.

As I finish my comments, now I want to go back to the beginning. The whole thing's about preparation. The best thing I can hope about all of you who are listening to me today is you are what Romans 9:23 calls, "vessels of mercy prepared in advance for glory." How beautiful is that? God is the potter, we are the clay. Is He preparing you, shaping you for glory? Have you trusted in Jesus for the forgiveness of your sins? That's the first direct preparation on a soul to get you ready for heaven. Have you trusted in Jesus for the forgiveness of your sins? And if so, then do you see the shaping hands of God in your life preparing you for an eternity in glory? That's a beautiful picture, isn't it?

Close with me in prayer. 

Father, we thank you for the time that we've had to study this beautiful text. Father, I pray that you would work in us such a heart of sacrificial love for you, Lord Jesus, that we would hold back nothing, that we would spare nothing, that we would give and give. We are so stingy, Lord. I feel ashamed as I read this account. I feel how stingy I am toward you, how much I hold back from genuinely serving you and loving you. I pray, oh Lord, that there would be no one here listening to this sermon now that's outside of Christ, but that everyone would repent and believe and trust, simply trust in His blood shed on the cross for the forgiveness of sins, but then, that you would do that beautiful preparatory work in us so that we would be able to give and give and give worship for all eternity. In Jesus' name, Amen.

Jesus urges us to be watchful and prepared for the end of the world when he will return in power and glory. He also tells us to be wise and faithful to what he’s told us to do.

- SERMON TRANSCRIPT -

One of the many ways that we Christians are radically different than non-Christians has to do with the topic of these recent sermons, the second coming of Christ. For us as Christians, we look forward to that day eagerly and energetically yearning for that day. We believe that that day is the remedy to everything that makes this present world so difficult to live in. We believe that someday right in the midst of human history, while people are still marrying and giving in marriage, Christ will return. He will come with the clouds, with the trumpet call of God and the voice of the archangel, and He will break in with great power and the fulfillment of the most common eschatological prayer ever prayed, "May Your kingdom come, may Your will be done on earth as it is in heaven," will come true at last, and we're yearning for that day.

For non-Christians, if they even think about it at all, it's often a thing of mockery. We think about an individual that would walk around like a crazy person with a sign over his neck saying, "The end is near," this thing in New York City or San Francisco, something like that, often a source of mockery and ridicule. That message, the message that the end is near, that the end is coming soon, is met with derision by unbelievers in this world, but that's how it's always been.

Peter writes about this in 2 Peter 3. First of all, you must understand that in the last days, scoffers will come scoffing and following their own evil desires. They will say, "Where is this coming He promised? Ever since our fathers died, everything goes on as it has since the beginning of creation.”   Peter goes on and cites a star witness, the experience of Noah in building the ark. The connection that Peter makes there seems to be mockery by people doomed to be swept away. Jesus Himself talked about the heart response of Noah's neighbors during the days when the ark was being built. Matthew 24, "As it was in the days of Noah, so it will be at the coming of the Son of Man for in the days before the flood, people were eating and drinking, marrying and giving in marriage up to the day Noah entered the ark, and they knew nothing about what would happen until the flood came. It took them all away. That is how it'll be at the coming of the Son of Man.”  Peter colors in for us the mocking unbelief that Noah had to endure at that time. Peter calls Noah a preacher of righteousness in an era when Genesis tells us that the hearts of people are only evil all the time. When Jesus returns, it's going to be the same way. Wickedness will have greatly increased, people will be murderously hateful toward each other, generally, but especially toward preachers of righteousness who urge people that the end is near and that they should flee the wrath to come.  

"When Jesus returns, it's going to be the same way. Wickedness will have greatly increased, people will be murderously hateful toward each other, generally, but especially toward preachers of righteousness who urge people that the end is near and that they should flee the wrath to come."

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This morning, we conclude Mark's account of Jesus's words about how we should prepare for the end of the world, how we should be ready for the second coming of Christ when Christ returns in power and glory. We will see that Jesus will urge us to be continually watchful and on guard for that day.

When I was doing Bible study recently in the Gospel of Matthew, we went through Matthew 24 and 25, which has a lot more information than Mark gives us about these themes.  In Matthew 24:44, it says, "So you also must be ready," and then it goes on from that in that verse. Then verse 45 in Matthew 24 says, "Who then is the faithful and wise servant?" I circled the words “be ready” and then the word “faithful.” Be ready and be faithful. Then I noticed that the parables in chapter 25 line up perfectly with that. You've got the 10 virgins, five wise and five foolish. If you look at that lesson, it's all about being ready. If you're only partially ready for the second coming of Christ, you'll be eternally excluded from the kingdom of heaven. Then the parable of the talents, the five talents, the two talents, the one talent is all about being faithful with what's entrusted to you. Be faithful. That's the exhortation that I take as I go to Mark 13 as well.

Let's look at the context in Mark and also in Matthew. I have my eye on Matthew as we understand more aspects. The final week of Jesus' life, Jesus, in Matthew 23, has had a climactic prophetic encounter with the Jewish religious leaders of His day. The sevenfold woe to them, "Woe to you, scribes and pharisees, you hypocrites," and they were evil at many, many levels. They were whitewashed tombs, which looked beautiful on the outside but inside full of dead men's bones and everything unclean, but their greatest crime of all was they did not recognize the time of God coming to them in the person of His son. They hated Jesus.  They were not sons of Abraham because if they had been sons of Abraham, they would've loved Him, but instead they hated Him and they opposed Him and they would soon condemn Him to death, and so Jesus utters a sevenfold woe on them and culminates in the statement, "Behold, your house is left to you desolate." The emptiness of the house, meaning the nation of Israel generally, but specifically the temple, the emptiness of the temple was underscored when Jesus Himself left, "For you will not see Me again." That is the essence of their desolation, their emptiness as He goes out. At that moment, the disciples come up to Him, calling His attention to its buildings, "Look, Teacher, what magnificent stones, what incredible buildings." Then Jesus drops that bombshell on them, "I tell you the truth. Not one stone here will be left on another. Everyone will be thrown down, blew them away."  So they come to Jesus on the Mount of Olives, and they ask for insight. Peter, John, James, and Andrew, the inner circle apostles, wanted to know His explanation for that statement. In Matthew 24:3, threefold question, "Tell us when will these things happen," namely the destruction of the temple, "and what will be the sign of your coming and of the end of the age?" With the more elaborate answer in Matthew 24, the Mount of Olives discourse, and then the more truncated answer, Mark 13, as we harmonize, the interweaving of those themes is complex. 

I've received actually numerous emails from people who are very interested in this topic, and I'm going to keep preaching what I'm preaching, but I'm stimulated by your insights on eschatology. I think it's a deep topic, but weaving together the significant event of the destruction of the temple in AD 70 and then the issues of the end of the world and how that's coming. For us, the destruction of the temple is behind us. It's only a matter of historical interest, but also theological interest because of the significance of the Jews, but we're like, "Is there something for us to do here?" and the answer is, "Yes, there is," not just in this one teaching in Mark 13 or even in Matthew 24 and 25. It's pretty clear Jesus is expanding beyond just the destruction of the temple. He's saying we need to be ready for the end of the world, and we need to be faithful between now and then. That's what we're dealing with, the complex interweaving of these themes.

A key interpretive theme for me has been “as it was, so it'll be, as it was in the days of Noah, so it'll be at the coming of the son of man,” we see this recapitulation. Some things happen and then they happen again and again, but also, we see the uniqueness of that final day, celestial portent, things that actual happen so that there will be in fact a new heavens and a new earth, the elements melting in the heat as Peter tells us. So all of these things are huge. 

Now, specifically there's a general movement or progress between the first and second coming of Christ. There's going to be difficulty on planet Earth that's not unique to any one generation. There's going to be wars and rumors of wars, famines and earthquakes in various places. There's going to be persecution. You'll be delivered over to councils and you'll be brought before authorities, et cetera, but they are going to be witnesses to Him in every generation and the gospel of the King will be preached to the whole world as a testimony to all nations, and then the end will come.

So whereas those signs of wars, rumors of wars, famines, and earthquakes are no specific indication of anything other than the beginning of birth pains, the progress of the gospel from Jerusalem through Judea Samaria to the ends of the earth is measurable. The spread of the gospel is measurable. It's much further out than it was a week or a month after the day of Pentecost. The spread of the gospel is measurable. and we can see the progress between the first and second coming, but then Jesus zeroes in on specific events tied to a moment in history, namely the abomination of desolation teaching. It's not true of everybody at all time. It's not true of everybody all over the world, but those living in Judea, when they see the abomination that causes desolation spoken of by the prophet Daniel, let the reader understand, then run for your lives.

That teaches an important hermeneutical principle with eschatology. Bible interpretation concerning the end of the world is a right combination of Bible interpretation and current events. That's what you match together. That's the lesson of the fig tree. When you see events happening that line up with things you see in the Bible, then you'll know, then you'll know. So we move ahead.

Now, the events surrounding the destruction of Jerusalem required specific actions by Jesus' disciples. Get out of the city of Jerusalem, counterintuitive; don’t go into the walled citadel. Get away from it. Run away from it to the mountains and hills. So also the events surrounding, I believe, the final version of the abomination of desolation spoken of by Daniel. Also very important to me is 2 Thessalonians 2 in which Paul wrote to the Thessalonian Christians saying, "The day the Lord cannot come until you see effectively the man of sin and the abomination of desolation fulfilled," almost a direct quotation of Daniel 11. 

Still yet to come, still yet to come.  There's going to be all of this persecution, a time of tribulation unlike any of the world had ever seen from the beginning of the world until that point and never seen again. I believe then in His kindness, the Lord has given through the Holy Spirit more signs than just in Matthew 24 and also in Mark 13 and in Daniel, but the whole book of Revelation is given to tell His servants what must soon take place. We're told in Revelation, "Blessed are those who read and take to heart the things that are written there." So for me as a preacher of the whole Bible, I want to harmonize that but then plug it into what we're saying when you see these signs. In Revelation 8, we have ecological disasters that have never happen before ever. A third of the ocean turning the blood, a third of the drinking water fouled, that's never happened. Burning up of trees and grass, that's never happened, not to that degree. Ecological destruction, which makes sense theologically, the linking between Adam's sin and the earth producing thorns and thistles, that whole link between human sin and ecological ravaging is fulfilled in the book of Revelation. When you see all of that, plus the man of sin, the antichrist, the beast from the sea, the one world government that openly described in Revelation 13, then you'll know.   All of those marks that leads to the second coming described in Mark 13:24-27, "In those days following that distress, the sun will be darkened, the moon will not give its light. The stars will fall from the sky and the heavenly bodies will be shaken. At that time, men will see the Son of Man coming in the clouds with great power and glory and He'll send his angels and gather His elect from the four winds from the ends of the earth to the ends of the heavens."

That's second coming described in language from Isaiah 13, which if you read Isaiah 13, we are not sure if it’s talking about the fall of Babylon there or, frankly, the end of the world. Isaiah's vision was immediate and then out to the end, very complex, but we know from the book of 2 Peter, and we also know from Jesus' statement, heaven and earth are going to pass away, so that includes the sun, the moon, and the stars. I can well imagine that that would happen at the time of the second coming and the angels being sent out to gather the Elect. We're going to be caught up in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air when He comes with His armies in heaven, the second coming. 

Then we're told from last week the lessons of the fig tree. Look at that. When you see these things, you'll know. In the meantime between now and then, suppose you say, "Well, pastor, I don't see those things. I don't see a one world government," don't tell me about some leader whose name all have six letters, the first, middle, and last name. Don't do that. I've heard that before. Ronald Wilson Reagan, he was the antichrist. he’s dead. He's clearly not the antichrist. People do that, and I understand that. They want to calculate the number of the beasts and they want to figure all that and that shrewdness and discern. It's like, "Look, you're not going to miss it. We're talking about globe-shattering events described in the Book of Revelation. That's what we're talking about. You're not going to wonder." 

I. No One Knows That Day or Hour

So between now and then, what? In the language of Matthew, it's be ready, be faithful. A different way that Mark says in Jesus' words in Mark is “be watchful.”  I think that's similar to being ready. It begins with Jesus' statement here, "No one knows about that day or hour." Look at verse 32, "No one knows about that day or hour, not even the angels in heaven, nor the Son, but only the Father." Vigilance is needed because we don't know the day or hour. That's the logic in Jesus' mind, "Because you don't know you need to be ready and watchful." Verse 35, "Therefore keep watch because you don't know when the owner of the house will come back." That's His logic. 

God's will in this matter is to conceal this information, He’s hiding it. Being in the dark is not an accident here. It's not like God couldn't have told us. If it would've been better for us to know, He would've told us. He could easily. He's told us many detailed overwhelming things about the future in the book of Revelation and other places, a lot of things we know. He could have given us a specific date and time and other milestones if He wanted to leading up to the exact time of the second coming of Christ, but God felt it best to keep His people in the dark. 

He wanted us to be ready and to be faithful in every generation. The parable of the five wise and five foolish virgins implies a long intervening period where everyone falls asleep. The sleep of the virgins isn't necessarily sinful, it just implies a long time, perhaps even death at that point depending on how you read the parable. Fundamentally, He doesn't want His servants being selfish and lustful like in Matthew 24, "Suppose that servant is wicked and says to himself, 'My master's staying away a long time,' and then he begins to beat his fellow servants and to eat and drink with drunkards." So to not be like that, he's keeping us in the dark. We don't know, so we need to be ready, every generation. Concerning the exact day or hour, a humble servant would say what we learned to say in Deuteronomy 29:29, which is, "The secret things belong to the Lord, but the things revealed belong to the children forever." So we need to let God keep secret what He wants to keep secret and then understand what He has revealed. 

Secondly, Jesus says, "The angels don't know either. No one knows about that hour, not even the angels in heaven." Angels are created beings or creatures, they're servants of God. The angels in heaven are pure beings, perfect with perfect minds, but they are creatures limited in their knowledge. Angels can learn things, there are things angels don't know. This text openly says that the angels don't know this. Peter tells us in 1 Peter 1:12, "Even angels long to look into these things," these things having to do with redemptive history, having to do with the unfolding plan of God. Even angels long to look into these things. One of the best examples of angelic inquiry into these things, specifically the timing of the second coming is in Daniel 12:6. One of them, definitely an angelic being, one of them said to the man clothed in linen who was above the waters of the river, another angelic being, "How long will it be before these astonishing things are fulfilled?" That's where we get in that chapter a countdown of days, which I'll cover later in the sermon, but all I'm saying is at that moment in Daniel 12:6, one angel's asking another angel, "How long will it be?" They don't know and they're inquiring.  The angels are tracking the progress of the spread of the gospel. Jesus said in Luke 15 about the parable of the lost sheep, the lost coin, and the lost son, the prodigal son. In all three cases, there's a search for what's lost, a finding of what's lost, and then a big celebration. Jesus said in Luke 15:10, "There is rejoicing in the presence of the angels of God over one sinner who repents." That means that God is rejoicing in the presence of His angels and they most certainly must be rejoicing with Him over the progress of the gospel every single day of redemptive history. Think about that. Just one party after another up in heaven as people are saved by the gospel, how exciting is that? They're just celebrating, but they're tracking. 

Also in the book of Revelation, don't you see the angels are tracking the unfolding judgments on the earth? They're reacting to what's happening and they're rejoicing in what's happening, and they're vindicating God in what's happening. They're tracking, they're involved. "They don't know the exact day or hour," Jesus said. Most amazingly of all in this statement is Jesus' statement that He didn't know as the Son. Now, that's mind blowing, but it's okay. We should understand the doctrine of the incarnation is infinite in its depth and majesty and magnitude. We'll spend eternity trying to understand the incarnation, trying to understand the complexity of Jesus fully God and fully man and the willing limitations He took on Himself to become a human. For example, though God is omnipresent, Jesus in His body wasn't. He was only one place at one time, and so He willingly limited Himself there. So also, though God is omniscient, it is very important we understand that Jesus limited His knowledge and therefore didn't know some things, like here, and could learn things. God has never learned anything and ever will. Now, that's mind blowing it, isn't it? 

Has it ever occurred to you that nothing has ever occurred to God? God never has had a new thought ever. God's never had an aha moment, never. God already knew it, but Jesus grew in wisdom and in stature and in favor of God of Man. When He was a young boy in His parents' home, He learned, He grew. Then there's moments where the best interpretation, I think, of the woman with the bleeding problem touching Him and Jesus stops and says, "Who touched me?" "What do you mean who touched you?" everybody said. "No, no, no, someone touched me because power has gone through me." The best explanation of that is that He didn't know who touched Him. Here at least we don't have to wonder. He says He didn't know, He openly says there's a limitation of that. When we get to Gethsemane in a couple of weeks, I think that's also what's going on there too. We'll get to that. I don't want to steal thunder from that, but I believe there is a revelation of what it'll be like to drink the cup of God's wrath that knocked Jesus to the ground. So there is that ability that Jesus has in His incarnation to learn things and to not know things. 

Jesus had supernatural knowledge. He was reading people's minds. He knew things distant and remote like the Syrophoenician woman's demon possessed daughter. The demon has gone. How do you know that he's gone? Supernatural knowledge but still limitations. We believe also that when He ascended, He rose from the dead and ascended to heaven, when He got all of His glory back with the Father, that includes omniscience. He says in John 17:5, "And now, Father, glorify Me with the glory I had with You before the creation of the world." So we believe that Jesus knows right now everything there is to know. In Christ are hidden all the treasures, wisdom, and knowledge. He knows everything. That therefore is an important interpretive key on asking the next question. Did Jesus say here about that day or hour no one knows or ever will know? He doesn't say that. We know already He's exempt from the second half. No one knows, present tense, or ever will know. We know that's not true of Him.  Most scholars believe that this statement means no one on earth can ever know the exact day of Jesus' return. That's not what the verse says. It is possible that that is true, but it's not what that verse says. We know already Jesus is exempt from it. 

By the way, such expressions do exist in the Bible. For example, 1 Timothy 6:16, it says, "God alone is immortal, dwells in unapproachable light," listen, "whom no one has seen or can see." So there's an absolute statement of limitation.   So we could imagine, no one can know, no one does know, and no one can ever know the exact day or hour. Therefore, when I go back to Daniel 12 and the angel answering the other angel's question, "When will all this happen?" and he gives an answer in a countdown of days, I find that interesting. "From the time," this is Daniel 12:11-12, "From the time that the daily sacrifice is abolished and the abomination that causes desolation is set up, there'll be 1,290 days. Blessed and holy or blessed is the one who waits for and reaches the end of the 1,335 days." I've said this to you many times before. What is that? What is Daniel 12:11-12? Could it be that knowing the exact day of the Lord's return is on a need to know basis? If you need to know, you'll know. If you see the abomination of desolation, the final version set up and you're running for your life and you're hiding in a cave somewhere and you're counting down the days of which Jesus said, if those days had not been cut short, no one would survive. He may want you to know how many more days of this we're going to have to go through. Maybe, maybe not, but either way, it's at least possible. So I can tell you this, it's on a need to know basis and, apparently, you don't need to know, so you don't know and neither do I. 

II. Be On Guard! Be Alert!

What does He exhort us to do? Then “be on guard and be alert” or in the language of Matthew, “be ready.” Be ready. Verse 33, "Be on guard. Be alert. You do not know when that time will come." Verse 35, "Therefore keep watch because you do not know." Verse 37, "What I say to you, I say to everyone. Watch." So be watchful for the Lord's coming. This watchfulness is essentially positive. We want this to happen. In the common language, we're looking forward to this. Like a little kid looking forward to his or her birthday, we're looking forward to this. We want it to happen. We're expectant for this.  Revelation 22:20, "He who testifies to these things that Jesus says, 'Yes, I am coming soon,'" and then John answers from his heart, "Amen. Come, Lord Jesus." Come, Lord Jesus, we want that to happen. We're taught to long for that moment. 2 Timothy 4:7-8, 4:7,-8, “'I've fought the good fight,’" Paul says, “'I've finished the race. I've kept the faith. Now there is in store for me a crown of righteousness, which the Lord, the righteous judge, will award to me on that day and not only to me, but to all who have longed for His appearing.'" 

Isn't that a biblical urging for us to long for the appearing of Christ, longing for it? Earlier in that same chapter, Paul taught Timothy to do all of his ministry in light of the second coming. 2 Timothy 4:1-2, "In the presence of God and of Christ Jesus who will judge the living and the dead and in view of His appearing and His kingdom," appearing as Parousia, "He's appearing in his kingdom, I give you this charge. Preach the word, be prepared in season and out of season, correct, rebuke, and encourage with great patience and careful instruction." So for me as a pastor, it's like I should be doing my ministry constantly in light of the second coming of Christ, aware of it. Four times in Mark, Jesus tells us to watch, be on guard for the coming of the Lord.

 Now, this expectancy shapes the way we live our entire lives. It shapes us negatively to be on guard for the dangers to our faith. We're supposed to be on guard and be defensive, in a defensive mode about the onslaught. The enemy's coming. We are in danger of our sin. The idea is we want to be healthy in our faith when Jesus comes, so we won't be ashamed as John tells us, to be holy and healthy in our faith so we will not be ashamed when He comes. Jonathan Edwards, one of his resolutions when he was 19 years old, he said, "Resolved to never be doing anything that I would be ashamed to be found doing when the Lord came in the final hour." Wow. You don't know, so don't be doing something you don't want to be ashamed doing when He returns or as Jesus says in Luke 21:34-36, "Be careful or your hearts will be weighed down with dissipation, drunkenness in the anxieties of life, and that day will close upon you unexpectedly like a trap." You didn't see it coming. You forgot about the second coming and you went off into sin, you went off into worldliness, you went off into lust, and suddenly the day came and you didn't see it coming.

Four, it will come upon all those who live on the face of the whole earth. That's not just the fall of Jerusalem, dear friends, that’s the whole world. We need to be ready for an event that's coming on the entire face of the earth. Be always on the watch and pray that you may be able to escape all that is about to happen and that you may be able to stand before the Son of Man, that you'll have to stand before Him unashamed of how you were living when He came. The lazy and lustful servant in Matthew 24 is shocked when his master comes unexpectedly. Matthew 24:48-51, "Suppose that servant is wicked and says to himself, 'My master's staying away a long time,' and then he begins to beat his fellow servants into eat and drink with drunkards. The master of that servant will come on a day when he does not expect him and an hour he's not aware of. He'll cut him to pieces and assign him a place with the hypocrites where there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth." 

We have to watch over our own souls, our doctrine, very carefully to be ready for the second coming of Christ. That trial will come at the end of the world and it'll be the greatest hour of testing that believers have ever had to go through in all of redemptive history. It's going to be very hard those last days, so be ready, be watchful.  

III. Be Faithful While You Watch

Then he says also, "Be faithful." Look at verses 34 through 37. It's like a man going away. "He leaves his house and puts his servants in charge, each with his assigned task and tells the one at the door to keep watch. Therefore, keep watch because you do not know when the owner of the house will come back, whether in the evening or at midnight or when the rooster crows at dawn. If he comes suddenly, do not let him find you sleeping. What I say to you, I say to everyone. Watch." 

The idea of this paragraph is we are given jobs to do in the intervening time. We're given tasks to perform. These are entrusted to us and we need to be faithful doing them. We need to be faithful. Again, as with many parables, there's the concept of the absentee authority figure, the absentee Lord, the absentee owner, the absentee king, the absentee master who entrusts the vineyard or the talents or the household to some servants and goes away. He's not there. You’ve got to be faithful and be aware. Someday the owner of the king is going to come back and settle accounts here and we got to be ready for that. Got to be ready for that. There's a lot of those kinds of parables. 

Note the phrase, each with his assigned task. So you have to ask yourself, "What is my assigned task? Do I have one?" You do. What has the Lord assigned you to do? If you don't know, you better find out. What has He left you here to do? What is your work here on earth? You're not here for no purpose, so each person has specific work assigned to him. I think a key way that the New Testament teaches is the doctrine of spiritual gifts, the doctrine of spiritual gifts taught in Romans 12, 1 Corinthians 12, and other places. Romans 12 says, "Each of us has one body just as each of us has one body with many members, and these members do not all have the same function. So in Christ, we who are many form one body and each member belongs to all the others." We have different gifts according to the grace given us. So the giving of the spiritual gift comes with a string attached, and the string is accountability to the Lord. You have to find out what your spiritual gift package is and what ministry is tied to it and be faithful doing it.

"We have different gifts according to the grace given us. So the giving of the spiritual gift comes with a string attached, and the string is accountability to the Lord. You have to find out what your spiritual gift package is and what ministry is tied to it and be faithful doing it."

Paul goes on and says, "If a man's gift is prophesying, let him use it in proportion to his faith. If it is serving, let him serve. If it is teaching, let him teach. If it is encouraging, let them encourage. If it is contributing to the needs of others, let him give generously. If it is leadership, let him govern diligently. If it is caring for others, let him do it cheerfully." So whatever your role is, do it. That's what Paul's saying, do it. Do your task. He expects us to be faithful. 

That, by the way, again, is the parable of the five talents, the two talents, and the one talent. He entrusts property and He expects you to go out and trade with it and make something of it. He expects you to not be wicked and lazy. 

As Jesus makes plain concerning faithfulness, who then is the faithful and wise servant whom the master put in charge of the servants in his household to give them their food at the proper time? It will be good for that servant whose master finds him doing so when he returns. Faithful means you did the work the Lord entrusted to you. You stuck with it. You worked at it with all your heart. Wise means you understood the Lord's will and you sought to please Him with your efforts, to do anything else would be foolish. Don't be foolish like the foolish virgins who weren't ready. It's wise or foolish. Who is the faithful and wise servant? That's what he's talking about here. 

The great danger Jesus list here in Mark is sleep. Mark 13:36, "If he comes suddenly, do not let him find you sleeping." This is warning specifically about sleep in light of the second coming. This is clearly a sinful sleep. This is not the sleep that the Lord gives graciously to His faithful servants after a hard day's work. Ecclesiastes 5:12 says, "The sleep of a laborer is sweet," or it says in Psalm 4:8, "I will lie down and sleep in peace for you alone, O Lord, make me dwell in safety," or again, the 23rd Psalm, "He makes me lie down in green pastures. He restores my soul." We need that. That's not what it's talking about. This is a sinful sleep.  This is, I believe, the sleep of a spiritual sluggard. You know the sluggard in Proverbs 6:10-11? "A little sleep, a little slumber, a little folding in the hands to rest and poverty will come upon you like a bandit and scarcity like an armed man." Basically, the sleepiness here is laziness in the spiritual ministries the Lord's given us to do within the church through spiritual gifts and outside of the church through evangelism and missions. That's the work we are called to do. The question is, are we doing it? 

Again, he says, "Watch because you don't know when the Lord is coming," and then he divide the night into four sections, 6:00 PM to 6:00 AM. So you go from 6:00 PM, that's night for them, 12-hour segment. So evening ends at 9:00 PM, midnight at 12:00 AM. With the rooster crowing, that's at 3:00 AM and then dawn at 6:00 AM. There's segments of the night. The sense is you get a progression of time and you don't know at any point he could come. You just don't know when he's going to come, and so we need to be alert. 

The dangers here are our own sinfulness and our own wickedness, and also in terms of holiness and then laziness in the harvest, laziness in evangelism and mission. In terms of personal sin, Paul nails it here in Romans 13:11-14. He says, "And do this understanding the present time. The hour has come for you to wake up from your slumber because our salvation is nearer now than when we first believed. The night is nearly over. The day is almost here. So let us put aside the deeds of darkness and put on the armor of light. Let us behave decently as in the daytime, not in orgies and drunkenness, not in sexual immorality and debauchery, not in dissension and jealousy. Rather clothe yourselves with the Lord Jesus Christ and do not think about how to gratify the desires of the flesh."

That's what he means by don't be sleepy. It's don't be immoral, don't be wicked, don't be corrupt. Put aside the deeds of darkness and put on the armor of light. That's Romans 13, but also , it's a matter of laziness in the harvest. Right before Jesus descended to heaven, He went out with his disciples on the Mount of Olives. After His resurrection, after His 40 days of instruction, after all of that, they asked Him, "Lord, are You at this time going to restore the kingdom of Israel? He said, “'It's not for you to know the times or dates the Father has set by His own authority, but you'll receive power when the Holy Spirit comes on you and you'll be My witnesses in Jerusalem and in all Judea and Samaria and to the ends of the earth.’ After He said this, He was taken up before their very eyes and a cloud hid Him from their sight.  They were standing looking up into the sky as He was going when two men dressed in white came and stood beside them and said, ‘Men of Galilee, why do you stand here looking up in the sky? This same Jesus who has been taken from you into heaven will come back in the same way you've seen Him go into heaven.’" Jesus had already told them what to do, "Wait in the city until you've been clothed with power from on high. The holy spirit's coming." 

Putting all together, those were Jesus' final words to the church. We will be His witnesses to a lost and dying world. That's our work to do. So the question is, are we being faithful or are we being sleepy? It says in Proverbs 10:5, "He who gathers crops in summer is a wise son, but he who sleeps during harvest is a disgraceful son." There's a harvest going on now. We're told to lift up our eyes and look at the fields that they're white for harvest. We're told the harvest is plentiful, but the workers are few. There's a harvest going on. The question is, are we gathering crops during harvest time or are we sleeping during the harvest and that's a disgraceful son? The question we have to ask is, "Am I exerting myself to be a witness to lost people?" This is what we're called to do.

One last thing, the doorkeeper and the steward. This specifically relates to me as a pastor, in Mark 13:34, Jesus speaks of a servant being put at the door like as a doorkeeper who gives alerts to the rest of the house. Look at verse 34, "He leaves his house and puts his servants in charge, each with his assigned task, and tells the one at the door to keep watch." So that's like me. My job is to keep watch and to shout into the household saying, "The master's coming. The master's coming. He's coming soon. He's coming soon." That's my job. So that's what I'm doing in this sermon, and I've done the last few weeks. My job is to call out to you and tell you these things and keep you ready. 

Also, there's a feeding ministry at the end of Matthew 24, "Who then is the faithful and wise servant whom the master is put in charge of the servants in his household to give them their food at the proper time.” Again, that's a pastor's call, "Feed my sheep." So I get to do two things. I get to warn you and I get to feed you, and that's what I'm trying to do in these eschatology sermons. 

IV. Applications

How do we prepare for the end of the world? If I could just boil it down to two things, I think I would just say be ready and be faithful. If you didn't get anything else, that's it. How can you be ready? First, make certain that you're in Christ, that you're one of His and not an enemy of His, that you belong to Jesus through repentance of your sins and faith in Jesus Christ crucified and resurrected for the forgiveness of your sins.  Listen to this. This is 2 Thessalonians 1:7-10. It speaks of when the Lord Jesus is revealed from heaven in blazing fire with powerful angels. "He will punish those who do not know God and do not obey the gospel of our Lord Jesus." That's devastating. “He will punish those who do not know God through the gospel of Christ. They will be punished with everlasting destruction and shut out from the presence of the Lord and from the majesty of His power on the day He comes to be glorified in His holy people and to be marveled at among those who have believed. This includes you because you believed our testimony to you.” 

That all comes down to this. Believe the testimony about Jesus and you'll be ready, ultimately ready for the second coming, but beyond that, be ready and be faithful as Christians. Watch over your life in terms of sin. Read Romans 13:11-14 and wake up concerning sinfulness. I think sometimes there's a sleepiness that comes over us and a complacency similar to one of those Tolkien books where a massive spider stings us and wraps us up with sticky web to eat us later. That's like Satan, isn't it? It's a picture of Satan. We get stung and paralyzed and weak and flabby and we're going to get eaten later.  So Romans 13:11-14 says, "Cut through all that, break free, and live in the light, not in the darkness. Give up sexual immorality, give up covetousness and greed and idolatry. Give up those things and live a holy life.” Peter tells us to live a holy life, be ready, and then watch for the second coming constantly. One of the things we do here in this church is we should help each other for that day. We should help each other. 

It says in Hebrews 10:23-25, "Let us consider how we may spur one another on toward loving good deeds. Not neglecting meeting together is somewhere in the habit of doing, but encouraging one another and all the more as you see the day approaching." That is second coming language, isn't it? As we see the day approaching, we should encourage each other to do good works. A healthy church will do that. Be part of a healthy church, which exhorts and encourages one another toward love and good deeds. 

Finally, be active in the harvest. We're surrounded by lostness. Statistics estimate show that Durham is going to double in population the next 25 years, up to estimates of 450,000 people. That's an additional 200,000 to 225,000 people living right within this vicinity. I would say the overwhelming, if it's our entire nation, the overwhelming majority of those people flooding into this area will be unchurched. They'll be lost. They'll be without hope and without God in the world. Our responsibility is to strategize how we can meet them and share the gospel with them, get to know them, and draw them in. Let's be faithful in that harvest.

Close with me in prayer.

Father, we thank You for the clarity of Your word. We thank You for how You tell us enough to know, enough to go on, Lord, how we should be living our lives. We don't know the day or the hour, but we do know that You are coming, You will return and that we should be ready and be faithful. So I pray that You would enable us to do that. Help us to be faithful in the tasks You've given us to do. Help us to think continually about the second coming and exhort one another and provoke one another to loving good deeds. Help us to be bold in evangelism and creative. Help us to get outside of our bubble of safety and take risks and be willing to meet people and have conversations and share the gospel. We pray this in Jesus' name. Amen.

As we look ahead to Christ's second coming, all we have is the permanence of his words recorded in Scripture.

- SERMON TRANSCRIPT -

In this world that we're living in, it's right for us to ask what is permanent and what is temporary. This is a world of constant change. The older you get, the more you see that. Things just fade away, pass away. We've had significant events even in our culture with 9/11 in which the Twin Towers just melted away in a matter of hours and gone forever, or we also saw in the pandemic a number of businesses or patterns of life that ended, and we had a sense of the fragility of our life and of our society. I feel the older I get, the more I see how temporal is everything around me. What is permanent? One answer commonly given is the ground beneath our feet is permanent. It says in Psalm 104:5, "God set the earth on its foundations. It can never be moved." But my family and I had the experience when we were missionaries in Japan of an earthquake. It's something most people don't actually live through, but I felt the ground beneath my feet shaking. I felt the entire house we were living in shaking.  We were not at the epicenter, but we weren't far from it. The epicenter was in Awaji Island just off the coast of the major city of Kobe, 7.3 on the Richter scale, resulting in over 6,000 deaths in the city of Kobe. It was a devastating earthquake. The elevated Hanshin Expressway, which is a technological marvel, toppled over. Reinforced concrete and all that just fell over because the ground on which it was supported, cracked open. A number of months later, my family and I went to Kobe and we saw the rift or one of the rifts in the ground.  There were still some tremors and aftershocks months later. We also saw some very sobering sites. As I walked around with my brother-in-law, Bill, we saw huge piles of rubble that, of course, still hadn't been cleared away.  I saw one particular office building, a six-story, very modern office building, a steel and glass structure in which one of the floors had collapsed, the fourth floor; it went from three to five and that floor just collapsed. It was gone, some kind of structural weakness there. It was strange because you could see the Venetian blind sticking out, straight out from that now missing floor, and the entire building was slanted over about 20 degrees.

Earthquakes are terrifying because they're a sign of impermanence of even the ground beneath our feet. In our text today, Jesus spoke of the impermanence of every created thing in the universe, but He also spoke of the one permanent thing on which we can build our lives and our souls. Look at verse 31, Jesus said, "Heaven and earth will pass away, but my words will never pass away." That's an incredible statement. What is a word? What is that?  It seems like the most evanescent temporary thing they could ever be. It's a sound that goes out into the air like the whisper of the wind that floats through the air and then it disappears like faint echo in a cavern. It seems like nothing could be more fleeting, more temporary, more of a shadow of reality, more like nothing than a word. For many of us, words are the very picture of impermanent, something that lasts only as long as it causes the eardrum to vibrate. But Jesus said His words will last forever and heaven and earth won't. 

The context of this statement couldn't be more dramatic and more powerful. Jesus has predicted the destruction of the temple in Jerusalem to His disciples. Verse 2, "Do you see all these great buildings? Not one stone here will be left on another. Every one of them will be thrown down." But Jesus is saying in Verse 31, "Not just the temple, not just the city of Jerusalem, everything you see with your eyes is temporary.”  The disciples when they heard of the prediction of the destruction came to Him on the Mount of Olives and asked Him that three-part question. "Tell us when will this happen? What will be the sign of your coming and of the end of the age? What are the signs by which we can see that final day approaching?”

By this time in Mark as we're walking through Mark 13, Jesus has already traced out some amazing aspects of the future. In verses 5-13 of Mark 13, He describes in general, but striking terms, how life in this sin-cursed world will progress between the First and Second Comings of Christ, "There will be wars and rumors or wars," and He said, "famines and indeed earthquakes in various places." There would also be the special and ongoing vicious persecution of the church. They'll be brought before tribunals and they would suffer in their witness concerning Him. There would also be a constant and escalating apostasy of believers, of people that claim to be believers, under the pressure of that persecution. Therefore, the call, he who stands firm to the end will be saved, the need for perseverance.

But more than anything, the measurable sign of the progress between the First and Second Coming is the preaching of the gospel in all nations, a testimony in all nations. We can see measurable progress being made between the First and Second Coming of the spread of the gospel from Jerusalem through Judea and Samaria, even to the ends of the earth. Then He turns the corner in Mark 13 and gives us the special “abomination of desolation” teaching. That's something that's unique to that specific generation. Indeed, I argued, to the final generation as well, “abomination of desolation." First the destruction of the temple in Jerusalem in the year 70 AD. Then I believe the foretelling “as it was, so it will be.” As it was, so it'll be at the end of the antichrist setting himself up in God's temple, proclaiming himself to be God [2 Thessalonians 2]. At that time, both in the year, but then again, at the end of the world, the need to run for your lives, the tremendous urgency of Christians who run for their lives.

Then as we saw last week, the description of the actual Second Coming. Look at verses 24-27, "In those days following that distress, the sun will be darkened, the moon will not give its light. The stars will fall from the sky and the heavenly bodies will be shaken. At that time, men will see the sun of man coming in clouds with great power and glory, and He will send His angels and gather His elect from the four winds, from the ends of the earth to the ends of the heavens." We looked at that last week. Now the sending out of the angels to gather the Elect is what's commonly known as the Rapture, the rescue of the Elect from the surface of the earth to be caught up in the clouds, to meet the Lord in the air. 1 Thessalonians 1 teases that very, very plainly. The things that the Jews thought were permanent, the Temple, the city of Jerusalem, Jesus revealed actually were going to be destroyed, "Not one stone left on another."

Jesus's disciples were stunned and they wanted to ask more questions. When would it happen and what signs can we see as it approaches? That's what we're going to look at today. Then deeper, I think the question is, "If all of this is impermanent, what is permanent? What can I build my life on that won't move? What can I establish my life and my soul on that will not be cast away?" He answers that, and He gives the sense of when this will happen. The answer He gives for the rest of this discourse, both in Mark 13, but even in more detail in Matthew 24:25, "Look for the signs for these things that happen.” Add up those signs. "Know that the Lord will come," it says, "like a thief in the night, suddenly and unexpectedly." So you need to be ready at any moment. You need to be ready and be faithful. 

But concerning what's permanent, what can I build my life upon? The unifying theme of this sermon today is the word of Christ. The word of Christ, the trustworthiness of Christ's words.  We're going to look at aspects of the words of Christ. It's clarity, it's immediacy, it's difficulty, and then it's permanence. In the end, all we have as we look ahead to the Second Coming of Christ is this. We have the words of scripture and no other source of information. It's going to come from here, it'll come from nowhere else. Everything comes down in the end to Christ's word. 

I. Clarity: The Parable of the Fig Tree

Let's start initially with clarity, the clarity of Christ's words, and the fact that we will be able to perceive certain things if we understand both the Scripture and the signs of the times. With eschatology, it's a combination of the two. We're going to see in the Scripture specific things laid out. We've already seen them, but we're going to keep seeing them, and then we're going to see current events. He said, "When you see the ‘abomination of desolation’, when you see that, put it together, you'll know what to do." To get at this clarity, He gives a parable, the parable of the fig tree.

Look at verse 28-29 and learn this lesson from the fig tree. "As soon as its twigs get tender and its leaves come out, you know that summer is near. Even so, when you see these things happening, you know that it is near right at the door." Jesus gives this parable of the fig tree. A parable is a common everyday story that has a spiritual lesson, a spiritual point in which you take common things that we're used to seeing, frequently agricultural, but not always. If you have the interpretive key, the insider information, it makes everything clear. If you don't, it makes things worse. Jesus told His disciples that they were the insiders, and He said in Mark 4:11, "The secret of the kingdom of God has been given to you, but not to them. To those on the outside, they get everything in parables." What He means there is unexplained parables, parables don't make any sense if you don't get the interpretive key if you don't have them.  I've said before, all you have to do is just go to some public place, like a mall, whatever, and go up and just tell them one of Jesus' parables with no explanation and see what they say. If they're not a church person, not a Christian, they will look at you like you're nuts, and that's the way it is with parables. It doesn't make anything clear if you don't understand it. But if you understand it, it makes everything clear.

So we have this parable of the fig tree. The thing with all of Jesus's agricultural parables in particular is it takes time to develop. You get a seed planted and then it springs up and grows and develops. You got this idea of patience and of things developing and growing. We're familiar with that. The point Jesus makes here with eschatology and end times things, the lesson of the fig tree is just like what happens with the seasons, if you're trying to understand the seasons, you can look at the trees. There's certain trees that bud at certain times and you look at that, and until you see that, you don't think that summer is near, even though you have ridiculous 68 degree weather in the middle of January. What in the world? I came out on Wednesday night, and it was 68, but I didn't think summer was near because I was looking at the trees. I knew I was going to preach this parable, so I figured I'd give that illustration. No, summer's not near, even though it's 68 degrees, just weather's weird because it was 17 degrees a few days before that. But you know as soon as the twigs get tender and its leaves come out, that summer is near. When you see these things, you know that the coming of Christ is imminent. So despite the fact that there's an essential mystery to the timing of the Second Coming, the signs leading up to it mean that we're not in the dark. We can see things developing. We can see things coming.

There needs to be, as I've been saying, a combination of the word of God rightly understood and current events rightly understood when you see those things come together. Jesus says, "When you see all these things, the signs that I've been giving…” Now, of course, there are those vague, nondescript signs. By that I mean they're not unique to any generation or any era such as wars, rumors of wars, famines and earthquakes. That's just a sign that we're not in the new heaven and new earth yet. We're still in the sin era. We're in the misery era. It's just good to know that. Wars, rumors of wars, famines and earthquakes just shows we're in convulsions now, and that's good to know. But then you've got, as I said, that measurable progress of the gospel in Mark 13:10, "The gospel preached in the whole world as a testament in all nations." That wasn't true a week after Jesus ascended to heaven or a year after Jesus sent to heaven. It had only begun, that process had only begun. But now we've had 20 centuries of progress of the gospel.

Then we've got the teaching and the "abomination of desolation", which we'll walk through what that is, Gentile power—taking a holy space, a sacred space, taking it over, blaspheming, claiming that he's God, demanding the worship as God, all of that stuff predicted in the Book of Daniel — the “abomination of desolation”, and then that whole running for your life, the great tribulation. If those days have not been cut short, no one would survive. We have much more information about this, not just in Matthew 24. There's more detail in Matthew, but even more in the Book of Revelation. If you look at the Book of Revelation, we have the seven seals,  the seven trumpets, and the seven bowls. The Holy Spirit knew very well He was going to give His people subsequent to the time of the apostles, based on their testimony, 66 books, indeed, 27 books in the New Testament, and so there's a division of labor. There's more information than just in Mark 13 here. There's more signs that we can look at in the Book of Revelation.

He knew very well that He was going to inspire John to give us that information. If you go to Revelation 8 and you look at the ecological disasters that are described there that I think, and when I preach through the Book of Revelation, cannot be symbolic of anything. A third of the sea turning to blood and a third of the living creatures in the sea dying and a third of the drinking water on earth, undrinkable, what is that? The green grass burning up, the trees burning up, a third of the trees, burning all that. What is that? Ecological disaster such as the world has never seen. We've never seen anything like that. If you were to argue, "Well, Revelation's a apocalyptic, symbolic book," I can find it. What's it a symbol of? What is a third of the sea turning into blood and a third of the living creatures in the sea dying a symbol of? I think it's going to happen.  I think it's the consummation of the terrible effect of human sin on the ecology of earth, just like happened with Adam's sin and the ground was cursed because of him and it produced thorns and thistles. That's just the end of that journey. So when you see those ecological disasters happening and you see people unable to drink water where they live and you see forming a one-world government and you start seeing a particular leader rising, when you see those things, you know the end is near. I think that's what He's saying. 

Now, the fig tree, some people say the fig tree is Israel. Maybe you've heard that, maybe you haven't. I'm going to spend a lot of time on this. But I remember back in 1988 a former missionary wrote a book, 88 Reasons Why The Rapture Will Be in 1988. I sure hope it wasn’t, because I definitely was left behind at that point.  One of his reasons had to do with the formation of the nation of Israel in 1948, May 14, 1948, and that within one generation 40 years after that, the end would come. Pastor Chuck Smith preached this kind of thing as well, so there's a number of people. I don't look at that it's been a lot more than one generation since Israel was formed in 1948. It's been 76 years. However, I do think it is right for us to combine current events and scripture and look at that. That's what I think the idea is of the budding of the fig tree. 

II. Immediacy:  Near…Right at the Door

Secondly, the immediacy of the word of God. He says “it's right at the door, it's near, right at the door.” Verse 29, "Even so when you see these things happening, you know that it is near, right at the door." What is near? His coming. The Second Coming is near.  There will be believers on earth, Bible believers filled with the Spirit who will know that the end is near, it's imminent because they see these things, but it hasn't happened yet. That's the sense of immediacy of something that hasn't happened yet because we believe that the Bible is a supernatural book and does, in fact, predict the future. We believe in the predictions of the future. We've seen the track record of prophecy, things that were predicted and have now been fulfilled, and we're waiting for unfulfilled things yet to come, such as the Second Coming. There is a sense of the immediacy of an event that hasn't come yet, but based on the word of God, for us, it's immediate. We know it's coming. As it says in another place, we're not in the dark, so this day shouldn't surprise us, we've been instructed. You're being instructed right now. You've been instructed before, and so you hear this. It's a sense of immediacy, and that's important.  But I want to say something more than this. I don't think I'm spiritualizing by saying this. There's another sense of immediacy which is important for me. There is by faith in the Word of God the ability to have an immediate encounter with invisible spiritual realities by faith. We are able to come right into the presence of an invisible God by the ministry of the Word. We are able to have a sense of an invisible God speaking directly to us by the Word of God. This is vital. This is the immediacy of the word. It's how we have a relationship with Jesus Christ.  It is by His Word, by His Spirit that we have that relational immediacy. I thought about verses that teach, probably the strongest for me, that teach us is in Hebrews 3 where the author to Hebrews in verse 9, quoting a very old scripture, Psalm 95, introduces it with these words: "So as the Holy Spirit says, today, if you hear His voice, don't harden your hearts." 

"We believe that the Bible is a supernatural book and does, in fact, predict the future. We believe in the predictions of the future. We've seen the track record of prophecy, things that were predicted and have now been fulfilled, and we're waiting for unfulfilled things yet to come, such as the Second Coming."

Do you realize the importance of that statement? Let me intensify the present tense. As the Holy Spirit is saying right now in Psalm 95, "Today, if you hear His voice, don't harden your hearts." That makes even the most ancient Psalm written 1000 years before Christ, alive, it's living and active for us. The Holy Spirit is saying something to us right now, and what is He saying? "If you hear Me speaking in the word, don't harden your heart." Speaking about what? Anything the Spirit is speaking in the Word. Don't harden your heart but yield to it. That's a sense of the immediacy of the Word of God. 

Then with the idea of a door, look at verse 29, "Even so when you see these things happening, you know that it is near right at the door," meaning the door hasn't opened yet. Christ hasn't come yet, but He's at the door. It made me think about Revelation 3:20, which is a very powerful verse. In Revelation 3:20, Christ says this, "Behold, I stand at the door and knock. If anyone hears My voice and opens the door, I will come in and eat with him and he with Me.”  O. Hallesby, in his book Prayer, made that the central text of a healthy prayer life. We frequently hear Revelation 3:20 connected with evangelism; Christ knocking on the door of your heart and that's fine. I don't have a problem with that, but I think it would be wrong for even mature Christians to cast aside the power of that verse. Jesus is knocking at the door, He wants you to open it and He wants to have a meal with you. He wants to sit down and eat with you and you with Him. The redoubling of the language says this is an intense, intimate relationship we have with Christ through the ministry of the word. What I get, putting all this together is, I can and should experience the Second Coming day now by faith, even though I know it can't come imminently. I'll tell you more about that in a second. But I should experience now by faith, reading the word of God, rightly dividing it, what that day will be like. The final day of human history, and I should experience that right now. That's the immediacy of the word of God.

Now what do I mean by saying it can't happen today? You've been listening to what I've said about Revelation 8. Do you see the ocean, a third of the ocean turning to blood and a third of the living creatures dying? No. Let’s get very specific. Let's go to 2 Thessalonians 2. In 2 Thessalonians, Paul's writing to the Thessalonians who had a very aggressive and even realized eschatology. They had been lied to. They had been told that they had missed the day of the Lord. Furthermore, reading between the lines with Thessalonians, it seems like some of them weren't working and they had quit their jobs. There wasn't a need to hold down a job because Jesus is coming, like today, and he's pumping the brakes and all that in 2 Thessalonians 2 saying, “Stop! That day cannot occur until X happens." If you rightly divide that, you're like, "All right, I can't think the Second Coming can happen until the events listed in 2 Thessalonians to occur," and that's all the stuff in the “abomination of desolation” sermon. I already preached that.  When you see all that, then you know that box has been checked where it's imminent. You're like, "Pastor, am I supposed to expect the Second Coming any day or not?" Well, yes and no. I told you the word's complex. I'm trying to feel the weight of 2 Thessalonians 2, the “pump the brakes” passage to say it can't happen until the Man of Sin sets himself up in God's temple proclaiming himself to be God. However, I'm not going to trust my own view of Jesus and deny the clear repeated teaching by Jesus that I need to be ready anytime for the Second Coming. Like the five wise and five foolish virgins, I need to be ready now. I need to buy my own now. I need to be ready now. So this much I do know, there is a personal eschatology for you called the day of your death. That's when it all ends for you. Do you know when that day is? You don't.

The same preparation you do for the Second Coming, you have to do for your own death, and since you don't know that day it's going to end up the same. In the end, I'm not going to steal the thunder of sermons yet to come, but it basically comes down to two things with the Second Coming: be ready and be faithful. Be faithful means do the work God has entrusted you to do. Don't quit your jobs. Don't whatever. Farmers need to keep sowing and reaping and they need to keep doing things. We need to keep doing work. We need to keep doing evangelism and church work and all that until that day comes. To be faithful with the job given to us, we also need to be ready. For me as a Bible teacher, I'm already thinking, "I'm not so sure about my eschatology, but I'm sure Jesus is coming back and I'm sure He told me to be ready anytime. That much I do know." That's how I put all of that together. We need to keep watch and be ready at any hour. That's the immediacy of Christ's word.

III. Difficulty: Who Is “This Generation” That Will Not Pass Away?

Thirdly, the difficulty. We already covered some of the difficulty. That was difficult, and there's more difficulty yet to come. Verse 30, "I tell you the truth, this generation will certainly not pass away until all these things have happened." Let me read it again. "I tell you the truth, this generation will certainly not pass away until all these things have happened." Do you see any difficulty in that verse? It's like, “that's why I'm glad you're the pastor and I'm not." Many of Christ's words are difficult. The scripture's difficult. We don't expect all of it to be easy. Many times He taught, and they didn't understand what He was saying, it happened a lot. Mark 9:32, “they did not understand.” Luke 18:34, “they did not understand.” This is a hotly-debated passage. This is a solemn declaration Jesus gives. The way I approach difficult passages is I talk about things that cannot be the answer. I actually identify them and say, "It can't be this, it can't be this, it can't be this." I think it's helpful.

The word “generation” in this verse cannot refer to the human race generally. In other words, "The human race will not be extinct before I come back." What's the point in saying that? That's good to know. It tells you nothing. Neither does it mean that the church would not be extinct before He comes back. We'll set that aside. Here's another thing that it seems like it does mean, but it doesn't. The generation of people who are alive right now when I'm speaking these words will still be alive when all of the events I've just described such as the sun, the moon and the stars ending, and Jesus coming in the clouds with power and great glory and all the angels sent out, that is not what that means. How do I know that? Because it didn't happen. That would mean that Jesus was wrong. So can we all agree to not do that because if Jesus is wrong about that, there's no point in guessing at where He is wrong somewhere else. This is the doctrine of an errancy. There's no mistake here.

Now what do we do? We try to come up with the best description of what this could mean. Even though you don't feel great about it, you end up saying, "I'm going to move on," and I've done my best to explain this verse. I'm not throwing out an errancy, and I'm certainly not throwing out the Bible, just because I can't fully understand every aspect of it. There are some reasonable explanations. The first is that Jesus is really only speaking about the fall of Jerusalem at this point and saying at this point in verse 30, "The not one stone left on another, the destruction of the temple and indeed of the city of Jerusalem will happen within one generation of this present moment," and that is true. That is a significant prophecy actually if you think about it. It is a significant prophecy. Jerusalem went centuries between being sacked, so that validates you as a prophet if that's what He meant, that the destruction of Jerusalem would be within one generation, and it was.

In support of that approach, that's the most common use of the word “generation,” like the people alive today, people alive within this room. That makes you feel good about the word “generation”, and then you're like, "All right." The problem is the full statement. Look again at verse 30, "I tell you the truth, this generation will not pass away until," what? "All these things have happened." All what things? We'll go back a few verses or remember last week's sermon, it's like, all that? That didn't happen. That's the very thing that didn't happen. What do you do with the phrase all these things? That's a challenge. "The sun will be dark and the moon will not give its light. The stars will fall from the sky and the heavenly bodies will be shaken, and at that time, men will see the Son of Man coming in the clouds with great power and glory." That's hard.

Another possibility is that the word “generation” is mistranslated and it could refer to this race.  He's specifically talking about the Jewish people, and that's another conservative interpretation of this, that the Jews will not become extinct before the end of the world. It fits the context because obviously the Romans came in with a great intention of slaughter and they killed, Josephus tells us, over a million-and-a half Jews by the edge of the sword. There was a rage that went to heaven when they pulled down every stone one from another. They would've loved to obliterate the Jewish race at that point, and this is actually no small promise on Jesus' part. The Jews have been consistently hated in every generation. Again and again, there has been anti-Semitism and genocidal attacks on the Jewish people, right in the Bible, the Book of Esther, remember? Haman, that was a plot of genocide to exterminate the Jews entirely from the Persian Empire, and God averted it. There's long history, and I've laid out here in my sermon, the crusaders that were anti-Semitic and sought to wipe out the Jews, first crusade, 1096.

During Black Death, the Jews were blamed for the Black Death, and there were tremendous reprisals on the Jewish people. Muslims consistently wiped out communities of Jews in various lands, in Morocco in the 8th century, in North Africa in the 12th century, Tunisia, Libya, other place in the 16th, 17th century. Moorish Spain saw a terrible massacre of Jews in Grenada, 1066. In Czarist Russia in the 19th century, there were terrible attempts at genocide in Russia. The story “Fiddler on the Roof” has that as one of its significant themes. The 20th century, of course, saw the greatest most organized attack on the Jews of all time under the Nazis, and then later, again, under the Communists, the Holocaust from the Nazis, and then the Communists. Therefore, Jesus' prediction that Jews would not be exterminated is amazing, and also that they would not be absorbed into the surrounding Gentile world as many peoples have.

People become extinct, like the Last of the Mohicans, they're out. Moabites and Amorites, they're gone. We don't know where they are, maybe some people who have great, great, great ancestors who were Ammonites or Moabites, but we don't know them as such. Those peoples are gone, but the Jews are still here. I believe Romans 9 through 11 teaches why, because God's gifts and his purposes toward them are irrevocable. He has a final chapter to tell. I believe when it says in Romans 11, "All Israel will be saved," He's talking about that final generation of Jews. There's going to be a mass revival. The deliverable will come from Zion. He will turn godlessness away from Jacob, "And this is my covenant with them when I take away their sins." That's going to be a tremendous final act of redemptive history, so I think that's what it means.

IV. Eternity: Christ’s Words More Permanent Than the Universe

Let's move on to eternity.  In verse 31-32 Jesus said, "Heaven and earth will pass away, but My words will never pass away." First of all, Jesus asserts that this physical universe itself is temporary. The physical universe is temporary and many verses assert this. Hebrews 1:10-12 says, "In the beginning, O Lord, You laid the foundations of the earth and the heavens of the work of Your hands. They will perish, but you remain. They will all wear out like a garment. You will roll them up like a robe, like a garment, they will be changed, but you'll remain the same and your years will never end.” 2 Peter 3:10 says, "The day the Lord will come like a thief, the heavens will disappear with a roar. The elements will be destroyed by fire and the earth and everything in it will be laid bare." There is nothing you see with your eyes or hear with your ears, you touch with your hands, nothing physical in the universe is eternal. The physical universe will someday pass away.

But the second half of the statement, even more amazing, "Christ's words will never pass away.” Christ's words are eternal. They will last forever. In the new heavens and the new earth, Christ's words will be established and will be delighted in and celebrated and studied forever. We'll be feeding on them and resting on them and relying on them and pondering them, probing their depths forever. You must see this as a claim to deity. Only God, Almighty God could make such a statement, "Heaven and earth will pass away, but my words, the words I speak will last forever." This is the very statement Jesus had made about the Old Testament, the laws of Moses and the prophets. He said in Matthew 5, "Do not think that I've come to abolish the law of the prophets. I've not come to abolish them, but fulfill them. I tell you the truth, until heaven and earth disappear, not the smallest letter, not the least stroke of a pen will by any means disappear from the law until everything is accomplished."

God's Word, the Old Testament and New Testament, is eternal. It's eternal. He's equating His own words to the words of the Bible. This assertion has proven true so far, and it reaches beyond the end of the world. Christ's word will stand forever as Isaiah 40:8 says, "The grass withers and the flowers fall, but the word of our God stands forever." Let me say something, it's not in my sermon, but I want to mention it. About the earth, I do not believe that the new earth will be created “ex nihilo”, “out of nothing”. I believe it will be this present earth, but in some sense, resurrected. I think there must be a continuity between the present earth and the new earth or else the promise made to Abraham in Genesis 13, "Walk through the land, go through the breadth of it. Look and see, I will give this land to you, Abraham, and to your descendants forever." That promise would be null and void. It didn't happen.  Hebrews 11 said they died not having received the promise. There's an outstanding promise of the land still made to the patriarchs. I believe that the new earth will be this earth resurrected, just like Abraham's new body will be his old body resurrected, so there's continuity and difference. That's what I believe about the earth. 

"God's Word, the Old Testament and New Testament, is eternal. It's eternal. He's equating His own words to the words of the Bible. This assertion has proven true so far, and it reaches beyond the end of the world."

The purpose of Jesus' assertion is our faith and confidence. The most intensely wrenching circumstances in human history are described in this chapter, horrendous suffering, famines, earthquakes, wars, rumors of wars, attacks on the church, destruction of Jerusalem, a tribulation so great that no one would survive if those days that not been cut short. The events are so immense and so stupendous even to the shaking of the heavenly beings at the return of Christ, all of this tends to make us say, "Where can I stand? Where can I put my feet that won't move?" The answer is the word of God. Trust in the words of Christ. Rest securely on the foundation. 

V. Application

That's the application I'm taking from this. Let's rest securely on the word of God, first and foremost, for your own salvation. In John 5:24 Jesus said, "Whoever hears my words and believes him who sent Me has eternal life and will not be condemned. He's crossed over from death to life." What a beautiful statement that is. Has that happened to you? Have you heard Christ's words about your sinfulness, your violation of the laws of God, the corruption that comes up from your inner nature that defiles you and all of us, the ways you violated God's commands, the fact that there is no remedy, no works that could ever be done, but that Jesus came to give His life as a ransom for many and that if we believe our sins will be forgiven, like the paralyzed man?  When He saw their faith, He said, "Take heart, son, your sins are forgiven." Has that happened to you? If Jesus declares, your sins are forgiven, they are forgiven. The question is, has that happened to you? The foundation of your life, the word of God. 

Concerning the clarity, immediacy, difficulty, and eternity of God's word, first clarity. Come to Christ, trust in Him and then He will give you the Holy Spirit to illuminate the word of God, and it will become increasingly clear to you by the power of the Spirit as you study it, clarity. 

What about immediacy? Go back to Revelation 3:20, "Behold, I stand at the door and knock." He does that by the word of God and by the Spirit. Open the door, and He'll come in and eat with you and you with Him.  Intimate fellowship with Christ is available, immediacy. Again, Hebrews 3, as the Holy Spirit is saying to you right now, "Today, if you hear His voice, don't harden your heart." What does that go to? Anything covered in the Bible, any topic in the Bible. If He's telling you what sin is and you're convicted, repent and make changes in your life. If He's giving you wisdom or promises or giving you guidance, follow it. Today, if you hear his word, if you hear him speak, don't harden your heart. That's immediacy. 

Concerning the difficulty of the word of God, there are always going to be passages where you're not quite sure what it means. Doesn't that show you that the Bible came from a mind so infinitely greater than any of ours?  "As the heavens are higher than the earth, so are God's ways higher than our ways,” and God's words higher than our words," so expect difficulty.

Finally, eternality. I think it's exciting to think that when we get to heaven, we will still be learning, studying and probing the extent and the dimensions of the words of Christ. To me, that's exciting.

Close with me in prayer. Father, thank You for giving us a sure and certain foundation of our souls. We thank You that this foundation, the word of God, cannot be shaken. As Jesus said at the end of the Sermon of the Mount, "Everyone who hears these words of mine and puts him into practice is like a wise man who built his house on the rock, and the rains came down and the streams rose, and the winds blew and beat against that house; yet it did not fall because it had its foundation on the rock." Help us to build on the unshakeable foundation of the Word of God. We pray in Jesus' name, Amen.

A central article of faith of Christianity is that Jesus will return visibly and powerfully to end this era and bring in a world of eternal life and glory.

- SERMON TRANSCRIPT -

Turn in your Bibles to Mark 13 as we consider the Second Coming of Christ. And as I do this morning, my mind goes back 29 years, my wife and I were missionaries in Japan. I went regularly on Saturdays to a different city, taking a  train from Tokushima to Takamatsu. In that city I would teach English and the Bible.  On one particular day, a Saturday, I was walking through the streets of Takamatsu, and praying about the ministry I was about to have. I looked overhead, and there was a spectacular cloud formation. You know what I'm talking about, one of those clouds that just heap up like a pile, like a mountain up to the sky. Very, very dramatic. It was especially dramatic in that there was a small peephole of sunlight coming through and there were rays that were streaming down. I was just overwhelmed.  I began singing the hymn we're going to close with today, It Is Well With My Soul, because I really felt that it was well with my soul. I was especially thinking about the fourth stanza which says, "And Lord haste the day when our faith will be sight, the clouds be rolled back like a scroll. The trump shall resound, and the Lord shall descend. Even so, it is well with my soul." Think about that when we sing at the end.

But I was thinking about that myself, and how dramatic and how awesome that day was going to be. As I was contemplating this sermon, I was thinking about that day, the day that is yet to come, and our understanding of all that will happen on that day. I would say easily the most dramatic moment in the history of sin-cursed humanity. I can't actually imagine a more spectacular and dramatic day than that, and we are going to understand it and effectively see it today by faith.  My prayer has been that the eyes of your heart would be enlightened, that you would be able to see the invisible, the future. And that you would see the glories of the greatness and the majesty and the power and the terror, indeed the terror, of that day in which everything on earth will come to an end. To see it by faith and understand it by faith, that's my desire.

How different is the circumstance of Jesus' Second Coming from that of his First Coming. Think of the Christmas hymn, A Little Town of Bethlehem, “how silently the wondrous gift is given.”  We know that an army of angels came and appeared, but just to a very small number of shepherds on the hills outside Bethlehem, no one else got to see that. It was just a pregnant couple, a pregnant woman, no room in the inn, and then Jesus born in the natural way. Very quiet. But the Second Coming of Christ will not be so. and we need to understand it. We need to understand it biblically. We need to understand the reasons for it.

This morning, as I was thinking about that, the reasons for the Second Coming, I listed out a series of them. Why is Christ coming back to Earth? First and foremost, for the glory of God, for the open, clear, plain, visible display of the greatness and majesty of almighty God. Secondly, to be praised and marveled at by the saints, stimulating us in worship such as we have never experienced before, and that, even for all eternity. Third, to rescue His persecuted people from imminent deadly danger. Fourthly, to bring about justice for them as they are crying out for justice day and night. To bring about justice and, indeed, vindication for His people.  Fifth, to punish evildoers, idolaters, blasphemers and wicked people who have not fled to Christ for the forgiveness of their sins. Sixth, to end the open reign of Satan and antichrist and that final government which we have described recently. Seventh, to establish the kingdom of God in righteousness and purity in answer to the prayers that have been prayed in every generation, "May your kingdom come, may your will be done on earth as it is in heaven." To usher in the new heaven and the new earth, the perfect world free from all death, mourning, and crying, and pain. To be with His people forever and to end the reign of sin and death for all eternity. These are the reasons and many others.

I. The Absolute Certainty of the Second Coming

It's beneficial for us today to walk through this biblically, to understand it, to understand what Mark reveals about it. I begin with the absolute certainty of the Second Coming of Christ. The Second Coming of Christ is taught many, many times throughout the Scriptures. This is one of the central articles of the Christian faith, that Jesus Christ will return visibly and powerfully to end this era of human history and bring in a world of eternal life and radiant glory. We believe this as Christians.

Now, Paul speaks of the purpose of Jesus's first coming like this in Galatians 1:3 and 4, "The Lord Jesus Christ gave himself for our sins to rescue us from this present evil age." To rescue us from this present evil age. What is this present evil age, and what world of eternal blessedness did Christ come to usher in? No text captures it better than Revelation 21:4, "He'll wipe every tear from their eyes. There'll be no more death, or mourning, or crying, or pain for the old order of things has passed away."

This present evil age in Galatians 1 and the old order of things that is passing away are the same, they're just different ways of talking about the same thing. The present evil age is characterized by the reign of sin, sin reigning in death, and mourning and crying and pain. That's this present evil age from which Jesus has come to rescue us. The new heavens and the new earth that Jesus will bring in at His Second Coming will be forever free from those enemies, forever free from sin, and Satan, and death, mourning, crying, and pain.

Therefore, the Second Coming of Christ is a central aspect of the Christian hope. We are looking forward to it. We're longing for it. We're yearning for it to come. We're seeking to speed its coming by service to God and by the proclamation of the gospel. The Second Coming is therefore taught in many places in Scripture. First, historically, by a man named Enoch, seventh from Adam. We learned this in the book of Jude.  Enoch, seventh from Adam, that's a long, long, long, long, long time ago, said these words, prophesied about these wicked men, "Behold the Lord is coming with thousands upon thousands of his holy ones, angels, to judge everyone and to convict all the ungodly of all the ungodly acts they have done in the ungodly way, and of all the harsh words ungodly sinners have spoken against Him." Enoch said that. How in the world did Enoch know about the Lord coming with thousands of angels the same way we do? The Lord revealed it to him prophetically.

"The Second Coming of Christ is a central aspect of the Christian hope. We are looking forward to it. We're longing for it. We're yearning for it to come. We're seeking to speed its coming by service to God and by the proclamation of the gospel."

It started with Enoch, then many other places. I zero in into my mind to Daniel 7, the vision that Daniel the prophet had at night, a night vision. The centerpiece of it was a vision of the Son of Man, Daniel 7: 13 and 14, "In my vision at night, I looked and there before me was one like a Son of Man coming with the clouds of heaven. And He approached the ancient of days and was led into his presence. He was given authority, glory, and sovereign power. All people's nations and men of every language worshiped Him. His dominion is an everlasting dominion that will not pass away, and His kingdom is one that will never be destroyed." It's taught there in Daniel 7.

It's taught in Matthew 24 and 25, and here also in Mark 13, and we'll walk through it carefully today, but there are many other passages on the Second Coming. Jesus, for example, in John 14, spoke to his apostles the night before He was crucified, saying, "Do not let your hearts be troubled. Trust in God, trust also in me. In my father's house or many rooms. If it were not so I would've told you, for I'm going there to prepare a place for you. And if I go and prepare a place for you," listen now, "I will come back and take you to be with me so you also may be where I am." It's a clear prediction of the Second Coming of Christ.

Then that very night after Jesus was arrested, and early the next morning when He was on trial, He quoted Daniel 7, and I'm not going to read it now because I'll read it later in the sermon, but He referred to the Second Coming at that point. It got Him killed. It got Him condemned by the Jewish authorities. Then after His death on the cross, and after His physical resurrection from the dead, and after He had spent forty days instructing His disciples and giving many convincing proofs that He was alive, after all of that training was over, He gave them His final word, "You'll receive power when the Holy Spirit comes on you, and you'll be my witnesses in Jerusalem, Judea, and Samaria to the ends of the earth.” [Acts 1:9-11] "After He said this, He was taken up before their very eyes, and a cloud hid Him from their sight. They were looking intently into the sky as He was going when suddenly two men dressed in white stood beside them. 'Men of Galilee,' they said, 'why do you stand here looking into the sky? This same Jesus who has been taken from you into heaven will come back in the same way you've seen Him go into heaven.'" It’s a clear prediction of the Second Coming of Christ.

The Apostle Paul, wrote of it often. He spoke of the Parousia, the coming of Christ. He spoke of it many times, most dramatically in 1 Thessalonians 4: 16-18, "The Lord himself will come down from heaven with a loud command, with a voice of the archangel, with the trumpet call of God, and the dead in Christ will rise first. After that, we who are still alive and are left will be caught up together with them in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air." That's the rapture. Caught up midair, mid-heaven to meet the Lord as He descends from heaven to earth, to meet the Lord in the air. And so we will be with the Lord forever.  Therefore, encourage one another with these words. I hope you're encouraged with these words. This is the future. This is what Paul taught in 1 Thessalonians 4, and in 2 Thessalonians 2, "Concerning the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ [the Parousia] and our being gathered to Him, we ask you brothers not to become easily unsettled or alarmed by some prophecy, reporter, or letter supposed to have come from us saying the day of the Lord has already come. You didn't miss it.” That ship has not sailed," et cetera. But he talked about the Parousia, the coming of the Lord.

The Apostle Peter talked about it in 2 Peter 3: 3-4, "First of all, you must understand that in the last day, scoffers will come scoffing and following their own evil desires. They will say, 'Where is this coming he promised?”  What coming?  That's the Second Coming of Christ.  “Where is it? We don't see it. Where is this coming He promised? Ever since our fathers died, everything goes on as it has since the beginning of creation.”  Peter goes on to talk about how the generation of Noah before the flood were saying the same thing, Jesus made that same connection. They were saying, "There's no flood. We don't see any flood," until that flood came. Then later in 2 Peter 3 : 10  he said, "The day of the Lord will come like a thief. The heavens will disappear with a roar. The elements will be destroyed by fire, and the earth and everything in it will be laid bare."

Also the Second Coming of Christ is taught many times in the Book of Revelation, such as Revelation 1:7, "Behold He is coming with the clouds, and every eye will see Him, even those who pierced him, and all the peoples of the earth will mourn because of Him, so shall it be on men." We'll return to that passage a number of times. Then of course in Revelation 19, it openly depicts and describes the Second Coming of Christ with an angelic army, and Jesus coming with a sword coming out of His mouth with which He will slay the wicked.  Then in the final chapter, Revelation 22:7, Jesus said, "Behold, I am coming soon. Blessed is he who keeps the words of the prophecy in this book." Again, Revelation 22:12 and 13, "Behold, I am coming soon. My reward is with me, and I'll give to each person according to what he has done. I am the alpha and the omega, the first and the last, the beginning and the end."

We believe in linear history. We believe in an unfolding history. We don't believe in reincarnation and cyclical history that goes around. No, we believe in a beginning, a middle, and an end. We believe in an alpha and omega, and Jesus is that letter and that letter and every letter in between. We believe in a purpose to history, and we believe it's going to end, this phase, this present evil age will end with the Second Coming of Christ.  Then again, Revelation 22:20, the second to last verse of the Bible, "He who testifies to these things says, 'Yes, I am coming soon.'" That's three times in Revelation 22 He says, "I'm coming soon." Then John replies, "Amen. Come Lord Jesus."   It seems then that looking forward to the Second Coming, yearning for the Second Coming, crying out for it as John does, is essential to our healthy lives in this present evil age.  This is a major theme taught many times in the Bible. 

II. The Heavenly Bodies Darkened, Shaken, and Removed

What aspects does Jesus give here in Mark 13, that's our purpose now, as we look through Mark 13:24-27. It begins with the heavenly bodies darkened, shaken, and removed. Look at verse 24 and 25, "But in those days, following that distress, the sun will be darkened and the moon will not give its light. The stars will fall from the sky and the heavenly bodies will be shaken.”  The context here, as we remember, is in those days following that distress. We're right in the middle now of Mark 13. The last sermon was entitled, as you remember, “Run For Your Lives.” Look at verses 14-19, "When you see the abomination that causes desolation standing where it does not belong, let the reader understand, then let those who are in Judea flee to the mountains. Let no one on the roof of his house go down or enter the house to take anything out. Let no one in the field go back to get his cloak. How dreadful it be in those days for pregnant women and nursing mothers? Pray that this will not take place in winter because those will be days of distress unequal from the beginning when God created the world until now, and never to be equaled again."

The Abomination of Desolation, we walked through that, devoting a whole sermon to that. The Abomination of Desolation is the defiling of a sacred space by a blasphemous Gentile power. Concerning the destruction of the temple, Jesus talked about the Gentile army surrounding the city ready to destroy it. But the Abomination of Desolation, per se, is the antichrist finally setting himself up in God's temple, proclaiming himself to be God.  Jesus clearly warned his church that would be living in that geographical region, both at the destruction of the temple, but then as it foretold the final events. When you see that, when you see these things spoken of by the prophet Daniel, run for your lives, get away as fast as you can. This is what the Bible calls the Great Tribulation.

The Book of Revelation gives many more details about what life on earth will be like at that time, and how terrifying and terrible it will be. Seven seals broken, seven trumpets sounded, seven bulls poured out. Those seven, seven, sevens give heaven's response to the wickedness and sinfulness of man on earth, and they will ravage the surface of the earth. Ecological disaster such as has never been seen before, a clear link between human sin and the ecology as we saw from the beginning when Adam sinned and the earth was cursed, and it produced only thorns and thistles for him.  We learned in Romans 8 that the whole world has been cursed with the bondage of decay;  there's a link between human sin and the ecology. The ecological disasters described specifically in Revelation 8, have never, however, been seen before. A burning up of green grass, a burning up of a third of the trees on earth, a turning of a third of the ocean waters to blood, a killing of a third of the living creatures in the sea. What effect would that have on human commerce and life itself?

Then even worse, a third of the drinking water is fouled, made undrinkable. But what effect will that have on national boundaries when some parts of the world have drinking water and other parts don't? You can't live longer than a certain number of days without water, a terrifying, terrible rending of the planet because of the judgments of God. It's not an accident, but it's something God is pouring out. The unleashing of plagues on mankind resulting in painful sores and an agony so great that the people, the inhabitants of the earth, will long for death, but they will not find it. An unleashing of demonic powers billowing up from the deepest resources of the pit and coming to bring agonies and torments on people, [Revelation 9]. It's a terrifying time.

Then the coming of the beast from the sea, the antichrist, the one-world government, the one-world religion, all of those things that culminate in the Abomination of Desolation. Those are terrible days. Mark 13:19-20, "Those will be days of distress unequal from the beginning when God created the world until now, and never to be equaled again. If the Lord had not cut short those days, no one would survive," think about that, "but for the sake of the elect, those days will be shortened."

Immediately after the distress of those days, the Second Coming happens, and it's described here as the shaking and rending and destruction of the cosmos. Look up into the night sky. Look up into the sky and see the lights that God put there. Verse 24 and 25, "In those days following that distress, the sun will be darkened and the moon will not give its light. The stars will fall from the sky and the heavenly bodies will be shaken.”  The heavens will be rent, similar to Isaiah's prayer concerning the wickedness of man. He said in Isaiah 64:1-2, "Oh that you would rend the heavens and come down, that the mountains would tremble before you as when fire sets twigs, ablaze and causes water to boil. Come down and make your name known to your enemies. Cause the nations to quake before you." Isaiah 64, “Oh, that you would rend the heavens and come down." It's interesting, this idea of rending the heavens, it creates a sense of a membrane or barrier between us and the heavenly realms. A rending is a tear and a rip, and out of it, Isaiah wants God almighty to come and bring judgment.

What's interesting is, this is the language used at Jesus' baptism. When Jesus was baptized, the heavens were torn, but out came a dove, a symbol of peace, a symbol of reconciliation with God. That's the First Coming, peace on earth, goodwill to man. That's the first rending happening. The second will not be so. It'll be more like Isaiah 64, the wrath of God coming out of that rending of the heavens, and the heavenly bodies will be shaken and removed.

I need to bring up the Polish astronomer, Copernicus. Some of you I'm sure are thinking about Copernicus. Maybe not, but I am, anyway. Until Copernicus, most people on earth thought that the stars, the sun, the moon revolved around the earth, the earth was the center of everything. They moved in concentric spheres, earth is center, and they moved across, so the sun would make it circuit across the sky in this sort of pattern. But along came Copernicus, and he wasn't the only one, but he led the way to teach us that actually the earth revolves around the sun, physically. That is true, physically.

However, the Bible does give an earthbound purpose to the heavenly bodies. The reason they exist is found on planet Earth. We get that from Genesis chapter one, "And God said, let there be lights in the expanse of the sky to separate the day from the night, and let them serve as signs to mark seasons and days and years. And let them be lights in the expanse of the sky to give light to the earth, and it was so. God made two great lights, the greater light to govern the day, that's the sun, and the lesser light to govern the night, that's the moon. He also made the stars." One of the great understatements in the entire Bible, "Oh, by the way, He also made the stars."

But God made them all, and God set them in the expanse of the sky to give light to the earth. That's twice we have an earthbound statement for the sun, the moon, and the stars. Let the earth physically revolve around the sun, that's fine. But when events come to their conclusion on the surface of the earth, the sun, the moon, and the stars will end their career. There's an earthbound purpose to these, to give light to the earth and to mark time, seasons, and days, and years.

This proves also to me, there are no other planet earths out there having an unfolding redemptive history; that Jesus is doing that saving thing that He did here in planet after planet, after planet like some traveling roadshow. That is false. It is not true. When events come to an end here, the stars will fall from the sky. Literally, the sun will be dark and the moon will not give its lights. Either the sun's light will be blocked or reduced or ceased to give it altogether, because the sun will no longer exist. The sun and the moon, we are told, will not be needed in the new heavens and the new earth, the new Jerusalem, because the glory of God will illuminate that new universe and that new Jerusalem. It doesn't mean they don't exist, it just says they won't be needed, so maybe they won't exist at all.

The sixth seal of Revelation speaks of the same thing. Revelation 6:12-14, "I watched as he opened the sixth seal, and there was a great earthquake. The sun turned black like sackcloth made of goat hair. The whole moon turned blood red, and the stars in the sky fell to the earth as late figs dropped from a fig tree when shaken by a strong wind. The sky receded like a scroll rolling up, and every mountain and island was removed from its place." Isaiah 64, "Oh, that you would rend the heavens and come down and make the mountains shake before you like boiling water."

The fourth trumpet in Revelation correlates, Revelation 8:12, "The fourth angel sounded his trumpet, and a third of the sun was struck, a third of the moon and a third of the stars. So a third of them turned dark. A third of the day was without light, also a third of the night." Isaiah had also predicted this, Isaiah 34:4, "All the stars of the heavens will be dissolved and the sky rolled up like a scroll. All the starry hosts will fall like withered leaves from a vine like shrill figs from a fig tree." We have this image again and again and again.

I'm aware that in the Book of Isaiah, it's sometime linked to cataclysmic events that happen on earth such as the end of an empire, like Babylonian empire, when it doesn't literally happen that the stars fall from the sky, but it's like the events will be so big, it'll be like that. I understand that language. But since the language is used again and again and again and again, that may be just a poetical connection to what actually will physically happen at the end of the world. Now you wonder how could God do this? It's because God is sovereign over every created thing in the universe. Isaiah 40:26 says, "Lift up your eyes and look to the heavens. Who created all these? He who brings out the starry host one by one and calls them each by name because of His great power and His mighty understanding, not one of them is missing.”  They continue to exist, according to Isaiah 40:26, because God wills that they continue to exist. God sustains the stars. A new heaven, a new earth will have a new cosmos as well. 

III. Jesus Comes With the Clouds

Next, Jesus comes with the clouds. Look at verse 26, "At that time, men will see the Son of Man coming in clouds with power and great glory." This was predicted by Daniel and then cited by Jesus at his trials. The very thing that Daniel saw in the Son of Man vision that I’ve already read for you, Daniel 7:12-13, he saw the Son of Man coming into the presence of almighty God on the clouds, and receiving from Him power and great glory. The angels and then all peoples on earth worshiping Him and serving Him. That's the Son of Man vision.

Jesus cited that on the trial for His life before the Jewish authorities. Think of the boldness of Jesus, He knew they wouldn't be able to accept it, but He still proclaimed it, referred to it. in Mark 14:62-64, they asked Him, “'I charge you under oath by the living God, tell us if you're the Christ the Son of God.’Jesus said, ‘I am.’" Period. That's a claim to deity, "I am.”  Then He quotes or alludes to Daniel 7, "And you'll see the Son of Man sitting at the right hand of the mighty one and coming on the clouds of heaven." Now that's a clear prediction to his enemies, "You will see this. You're going to see this whether you believe in me or not. It will not take faith to see this. You will see it." “The high priest tore his clothes,'Why do we need any more witnesses?’ he asked. ‘You've heard the blasphemy. What do you think?’ And they all condemned him as worthy of death.”  Jesus predicting his own Second Coming is what officially got him killed, quoting Daniel 7. 

The clouds, Jesus coming with the clouds, I believe are both physical like I saw in Takamatsu that day, but they're also symbolic. Clouds are referred to again and again in connection with the great power of God. Clouds are awesome and dramatic. I think all of us who have flown have been above the clouds and then seen a carpet of clouds dramatically. And you can see, especially at sunset, they're all glowing, they're very dramatic things.  Clouds literally hid Jesus when He ascended from the earth. It's reasonable for them to be a feature on his return. 

But the clouds also symbolize the wrath of God, again and again, the wrath of God. Like at Mount Sinai, Moses said to the Jews, in retrospect, looking back on the day at Mount Sinai, Moses said, "You came near and stood at the foot of the mountain while at blaze with fire to the very heavens with black clouds and deep darkness." God surrounded Mount Sinai with terrifying black clouds as though a lightning strike could come out of that cloud at any moment.  Psalm 18 is probably the strongest connection here. Psalm 18:7-13, "The earth trembled and quaked. The foundations of the mountain shook, they trembled because he was angry. Smoke rose from his nostrils. Consuming fire came from his mouth, burning coals blazed out of it. He parted the heavens and came down. Dark clouds were under his feet. He mounted the cherub him and flew. He soared on the wings of the wind. He made darkness his covering, his canopy around him. The dark rain clouds of the sky. Out of the brightness of His presence, clouds advanced with hailstones and bolts of lightning. The Lord thundered from heaven, the voice of the most high resounded."

It's terrifying. What's going on in Psalm 18? What is David talking about? What happens is David is in trouble on a battlefield, and cries out to God to deliver him, and then God does. He comes to rescue David in the midst of his trouble. Do you not see how that applies to the Second Coming? I believe the Second Coming is a rescue mission. I believe that the bridegroom is coming to rescue the bride because she's about to become exterminated by the antichrist, and He's filled with rage over it. Psalm 18 describes that.  Would God do all that for one person, King David? We know that God protected David in every battlefield he ever fought on. He never died in battle, so God did deliver him, and rescued him, and crushed his enemies under his feet. David himself is a symbol of Christ.

 But ultimately, I think this idea of God rending the heavens, coming with the clouds to rescue his people is consummated at the Second Coming. It's a rescue mission where the people of God are rescued from their enemies, and from imminent death. Isaiah 30:27, "Behold the name of the Lord comes from afar with burning anger and dense clouds of smoke. His lips are full of wrath in his tongue of consuming fire.” Jesus comes with the literal clouds, the physical clouds, but also metaphorically, He comes in the wrath of God.

"This idea of God rending the heavens, coming with the clouds to rescue his people is consummated at the Second Coming. It's a rescue mission where the people of God are rescued from their enemies, and from imminent death"

IV. The Mourning of the Nations

 Next, the mourning of the nations. It's not mentioned in Mark, but I want to bring it up. It's mentioned in Matthew, and it's also mentioned in Revelation 1 and Revelation 18.  Matthew 24:30, "At that time, the sign of the Son of Man will appear in the sky, and all the nations of the earth will mourn." Think about that, they’re all going to mourn. "They will see the Son of Man coming on the clouds of the sky with power and great glory.” Again, Revelation 1:7, "Behold, He's coming with the clouds, and every eye will see Him. Even those who pierced Him. And all the people of the earth will mourn because of Him. So shall it be. Amen."

A mourning. Why are the nations mourning? “It’s not the end of the world.” No, it will be the end of the world. That's it. All of the things that those unbelievers had been living for will instantly come to an end. This is depicted with the fall of Babylon in Revelation 18:9-11, “When the kings of the earth who committed adultery with [Babylon] and shared her luxury see  the smoke of her burning, they will weep and mourn over her. Terrified at her torment, they will stand far off and cry: "'Woe! Woe, O great city, O Babylon, city of power! In one hour your doom has come!' The merchants of the earth will weep and mourn over her because no one buys their cargoes any more.” 

 The party is over. All the lust of the eyes, and the lust of the flesh, and the boastful pride of life is done that day. It's over. It's judgment day for them, and so they will mourn. The righteous wrath of the Lord is being poured out on them for their sins, especially because they have not loved Christ or his people. As it says in 2 Thessalonians 2:10, “They perish because they refused to love the truth and so be saved.”  Revelation 18:18-20 says, "When they see the smoke of her burning, they will exclaim, 'Was there ever a city like this great city?' And they'll throw dust on their heads, and with weeping and mourning, cry out, 'Woe, woe, Oh great city where all who had ships of the sea became rich through her wealth. In one hour she has been brought to ruin. Rejoice over her, oh heaven. Rejoice saints and apostles and prophets for God has judged her for the way she treated you.'" That's the justice of God, but there is mourning and grieving.

Let me just stop right now and say the best thing we can do is believe all of these things, and the judgment day that follows, and even more, the hell that follows that, and mourn and grieve now by faith. Grieve over sin now and flee to Christ. That's the best thing we can do is believe these things now when there's still time. At that point, the tears will mean nothing.

V. The Gathering of the Elect

Then there's the gathering of the Elect. Look at verse 27, "And He will send His angels and gather His elect from the four winds, from the ends of the earth to the ends of the heavens." This is, I believe, the primary reason, other than the glory of God, the primary reason for the Second Coming. He's come to gather His bride together, His people. The antichrist will be bearing down on them with great power, great hatred. He'll be hunting them down to force them to blaspheme by receiving the mark of the beast. Jesus said if those days had not been cut short, no one would survive. That's how bad it's going to be, but for the sake of the Elect, those days will be shortened.

Everyone has their limit. There's only so much temptation we can face. No matter how courageous, no matter how faith-filled, no matter how much we are willing to suffer and die as martyrs, there is a limit to what we can endure. Remember, as I talked about last week, the night that Jesus was arrested, He made them say twice who they were there to arrest so that He could say concerning the rest of his followers, "If you're looking for me, then let these men go." John said Jesus said this so that the saying Jesus had stated would come true, "Of all those you have given me, I have not lost one."

There is a time to run away. But if that antichrist power is spreading over the earth with so much domination, and if those days had not been cut short or counted as in Daniel 12, He would say, "When the Son of Man comes, will there be any believers left on earth?" So He intervenes. Furthermore, I think He just wants to be with us. Ultimately, isn't that it? Isn't that the point of His death on the cross? He wants to spend eternity with us. He wants to feast with us in heaven. He wants to walk with us in the new heaven, new earth. He wants fellowship with us. He earnestly desires to be with us. Isn't that amazing? Doesn't it blow your mind?  

We're pathetic, and yet He loves us and wants to be with us. And guess what? We're not going to be pathetic in heaven. Praise God. We'll be really pretty amazing. We'll be glorified. He loves us. He says in John 14:3, "If I go and prepare a place for you, I will come back and take you to be with me.” Why? “So that you also may be where I am." Or again, 1 Thessalonians 4:17, "And so we will be with the Lord forever." Ezekiel 37:23, have you heard this before? "They will be my people, and I will be their God.” Do you know how many times it says that in Ezekiel and Jeremiah? The answer is seven. That's how many times again and again, "They will be my people and I will be their God." He wants fellowship with us. Or again, it's cited in Revelation 21:3, "I heard a loud voice from the throne saying, 'Now the dwelling of God is with men, and He will live with them, they will be his people, and God himself will be with them and be their God, and He'll wipe every tear from their eyes and there'll be no more death, mourning, crying or pain.'"

He  wants to be with us. And this is at this moment, the rapture, as I mentioned. He's going to send out his angels and they'll gather his Elect. They're dispatched to collect us and bring us up to meet the Lord in the air. Let me read 1 Thessalonians 4:16-17 again, "For the Lord himself will come down from heaven with a loud command, with a voice of the archangel, and with the trumpet call of God, and the dead in Christ will rise first. After that, we who are still alive and are left will be caught up." That's “rapture.” That's what the word means. And the Latin root is “to be captured up, caught up.” I picture like a mother cat and a kitten being grabbed by the back of the neck, something like that because we can't fly, gravity works on us. So how are we going to meet the Lord in the air? He's going to send out angels who can fly, and they will pick us up so that we can meet the Lord in the clouds. You may say, "Well, why does He want to meet us in the clouds?" I don't know, but He does. We're going to go out like a welcome committee, and meet Him in the clouds. This is the rapture. Verse 27, "He will send His angels and they'll gather His elect from the four winds from the ends of the earth to the ends of the heaven." By the way, the Elect by then will all have been converted. Evangelism and missions will be done by then, no unconverted elect.

This is the eternal separation at this moment of the Elect and non-Elect, as Matthew 24:40-41 says, "Two men will be in the field, one will be taken and the other left. Two women will be grinding with a hand mill, one will be taken and the other left." Yes, I believe in the “left-behind” thing. But the left behind here is not pre-trib seven year and all that. This is the separation of the Second Coming. If you're left behind at that moment, you are non-Elect, and the gospel era is over. The sheep and the goats are separated, the wheat and the weeds are separated, the good fish and bad fish are separated forever.  The non-Elect will be stunned and seem like they have no idea what's happening. They will not understand this. Matthew 24, "As it was in the days of Noah, so will it be at the coming of the Son of Man." From the days before the flood, people were eating and drinking, marrying, and giving in marriage right up to the day Noah entered the ark. They knew nothing about what would happen until the flood came and took them all away. That is how it will be at the coming of the Son of Man.

VI. Properly Preparing for the Second Coming

How can we apply this? How can we properly prepare for the Second Coming? I've already said it, but first and foremost, trust in Christ and Christ alone for the forgiveness of your sins while there's time. That day is the end of the faith era. It's the end of the gospel era. It's the end of the open door to Noah's Ark era. God closed Noah's door with His own hand. God ended that. Everyone outside the ark perished. Now is the time to enter. Now is the time to believe. Now is the time to trust in Christ, to believe in Him for the forgiveness of your sins. That's how it starts.

And what does that look like? Paul spoke to the Thessalonian Christians in 1 Thessalonians 1:9-10, "You turn to God from idols to serve the living and true God and to wait for His son from heaven, whom He raised from the dead, Jesus who rescues us from the coming wrath." What does it mean? It's to turn to God away from idols. What are idols? It's the lust of the eyes, the lust of the flesh, the pride of life. It's all the things that lead us away from God. It's all the wickedness. We turn away from those things, away from sin to God through Christ, and we receive forgiveness for all of our sins, Jesus' blood shed for all of our idolatries. You did that in Thessalonians, you turned to God from idols, and you waited, to wait for His son from heaven. So prepare that way.

Secondly, cry out in prayer, I would say daily, for the Second Coming of Christ.  This line is already very famous. I cited it once, but you remember it's the Lord's prayer, "Our Father in heaven, hallow be your name." What's next? "May your kingdom come, may your will be done on earth as it is in heaven." That's the Second Coming. It's a crying out for the Second Coming. Pray that. Do it. Revelation 22:20, "He who testifies to these things says, 'Yes, I'm coming soon.'" What was John's response? "Amen. Come, Lord Jesus." That's a prayer, right? Amen. Come, Lord Jesus.

Or again, Revelation 1:7, "Behold, He is coming with the clouds, and every eye will see Him, even those who pierced Him, and all the tribes of the earth will wail on account of Him." John's answer, “Even so, "Amen. Let it be. I want that to happen." Or again, in 1 Corinthians 16:22, if you have New American Standard Translation, it reads like this, "If anyone does not love the Lord, let him be a cursed.” 

 What is “maranatha”? It's Aramaic for, “come, Lord.” It's a prayer for the Second Coming. Christians should cry out for Jesus to come, and this accords with our understanding of prayer. Not as, number one, giving God an idea He didn't have before, or number two, persuading God to do something He didn't want to do until you persuaded him. That's not what prayer is. Then what is prayer? It's understanding from the Word what God has said He's going to do but hasn't done yet, and ask him to do it.  Wouldn't you think the Second Coming fits that description? Has God revealed that he wants his son to come?  Yes. Has it happened yet?  No.  Pray for it. Pray for it.

Thirdly, look forward to the Second Coming and long for it. Your prayer for it will stimulate that. You should long for the Second Coming. 2 Peter 3:12 says, "Look forward to the day of God." 2 Peter 3:13, "In keeping with his promise, we're looking forward to a new heaven, new earth." Then verse 14, "So then, dear friends, since you are looking forward to this…” That's three consecutive verses. Look forward to it, look forward to it, look forward to it. That means yearn for it. Say, "I want this to happen."

Fourth, be holy. Again, leaning on 2 Peter 3, "Since everything will be destroyed in this way, what kind of people ought you to be?" Answer, you ought to live holy and godly lives as you look forward to the day of God. 2 Peter 3:14, "So then, dear friends, since you're looking forward to this, make every effort to be found spotless, blameless, and at peace with Him." Now that day is coming, bringing about the destruction of the heavens by fire and the elements will melt in the heat.  But in keeping with this promise, we're looking forward to a new heavens and new earth called the home of righteousness. Only pure people will enter the new Jerusalem. We know we can't purify ourselves by our own efforts, but we know that it's justification, sanctification, and then glorification. That's purification. John says very plainly in 1 John 3, "We know that when He appears we shall be like Him, for we shall see Him as He is." Everyone who has this hope in Him is purified, just as He is pure.  The more you believe in the Second Coming, what Jesus is coming to do, the more zealous you should be to put evil and sin to death in your own life. Colossians 3:5 and 6, "Put to death therefore whatever belongs to your earthly nature, sexual immorality, impurity, lust, evil desires, and greed, which is idolatry. Because of these, the wrath of God is coming."  The Second Coming. That's why He's coming back, to destroy those sins.

Fifth, speed the Second Coming by evangelism and missions. Peter said, "As you look forward to the day of God in speed, it's coming." Matthew 24:14, "This gospel of the kingdom will be preached in the whole world as a testimony to all nations, and then the end will come." We speed the day of God by evangelism and missions. With every unconverted elect person who then becomes converted and crosses over from death to life through faith in Jesus, we've gotten that much closer to the Second Coming of Christ.  We are called on to preach the gospel to lost people. We're surrounded by people who, like in the days of Noah, they are not ready for the Second Coming, and we should care about that.

Sixth, serve the Lord's purposes in light of the Second Coming. 2 Timothy 4:1 and 2, "I charge you in the presence of God and of Christ Jesus who is to judge the living and the dead. And by His appearing and His kingdom, preach the word, be ready in season and out of season, reprove, rebuke and exhort with complete patience and teaching." We are each given a role to play. You all have a ministry or should have a spiritual gift ministry. Do it.  2 Timothy 4, "In light of the second coming." In light of the fact that in view of his coming, you're going to give an account for your life and your ministry.

 Close with me in prayer.

Father, we thank you for the time we've had to walk through this deep, powerful, and significant topic. Father, I pray that you would press these truths home. Help us to live in light of them, help us to be prepared, help us to warn others who we know are not yet prepared. Oh Lord, help us to be holy, to put sin to death. Help us to just saturate our minds in the truths of the Word so that we may live a life pleasing to God. In your name we pray. Amen.

The abomination of desolation signifies the desecration of the temple in 70AD by Romans and foretells a final desecration by the Antichrist, leading to Christ's return.

- Sermon Transcript -

Turn in your Bibles to  Mark 13. I can hardly imagine a more terrifying scenario than running for your life with some powerful, violent men chasing you, seeking to capture you, seeking to bring you in for questioning, to interrogate you, seeking to imprison you, to torture you, perhaps ultimately even to kill you. I can hardly imagine a more terrifying scenario than that.

It was a scene that was played out again and again in the dark days of World War II. Nazi troops would win battles and conquer territories, and on their heels would come the SS and the Gestapo who would seek to weed out every Jewish person and every perceived threat to the Nazi state, including Christian leaders. Refugees would have to flee in the middle of the night, breathlessly waiting under bridges while their Nazi pursuers would travel over them, so close they could hear their conversations.

Others fled by train using falsified travel permits. They had to endure the suspense of Gestapo agents moving systematically through the rail cars, checking papers, asking questions. Others fled through mountain passes into Switzerland, avoiding Nazi roadblocks only by scaling forbidden mountain sides in the snow and during freezing temperatures. Some hid among baggage and crates on freight ships, their hearts beating wildly and beads of sweat forming on their brows as Nazi guards with German shepherds were inspecting the cargo holds where they were hiding, getting closer and closer to their secret positions.

All of these refugees were fleeing because of terror, fleeing the might of the most sinister and powerful force of evil the world had ever seen up to that time. But I believe all of those experiences of fleeing are as nothing compared to the days that will come right before the end of the world, the days when the Antichrist will be ruling the world by the direct power of Satan himself, seeking to exterminate anyone who refuses to worship him as God.

Brothers and sisters, I don't know if that day will come in our lifetime, but this text implies that we are to get ready for those days. We are to get ready for what is coming. When Jesus says, "I have told you everything ahead of time," that implies a certain weight of responsibility on us; on me as a teacher of the Word of God, on me as a father, on me as a discipler and as a preacher. All of us as Christians, take seriously these themes, to immerse ourselves in them and to study them. Jesus's mentality is, forewarned is forearmed.

I have carefully studied this text, Mark 13:14-23, and compared it with the parallel texts of Matthew 24:15-26. They're almost completely identical with just a few simple differences, so I'm going to weave the two together where needed, but my home base is Mark 13.

Let's talk about context. Context is Jesus's statement of the destruction of the temple. Look at Mark 13:1-2, "As he was leaving the temple, one of His disciples said to Him, 'Look, teacher, what massive stones, what magnificent buildings.' 'Do you see all these great buildings?' replied Jesus. 'Not one stone here will be left on another. Every one will be thrown down.'" Then the disciples came to Jesus in private. Fuller version's in 24 Matthew. "'Tell us,'" they said, in Matthew 24:3, "'Tell us, when will this happen?’" Not one stone left on another, "'And what would be the sign of your coming and of the end of the age?'" It's pretty clear that Jesus's answer soars far above the events surrounding the destruction of Jerusalem and of the Temple, and go right to the end of the world. It's very clear if you read Mark 13 and Matthew 24.  In this section of Mark 13, in verses 5-13, we have the nature of the ministry of the Word of God and the progress of the Word of God between the First and Second Comings.  That's what unifies those verses, Mark  13: 5-13. The focal point is us being witnesses to Him by the power of the Spirit and the ongoing persecution that will happen as the gospel spreads. That's been the story for 20 centuries. But then at verse 14, as we saw last week, there's a decisive break in the narrative and an event that's unique to people living in a certain place at a certain time.

When you see the “abomination of desolation”, and we talked about that last time, in a nutshell, it's a two-fold answer, both the desecration of the Temple by Roman forces in the year AD 70, and I believe going out to the end of the world, the desecration of the Temple at the end of history by the Antichrist, are in view in this phrase.  Last week we walked through all that. We saw how God has four times allowed the Gentiles to trample on His holy place. We talked about what that holy place was, how we understand that. And we saw it in the time of Eli when he allowed the Ark of the Covenant to be captured by the Philistines. Again, when the Babylonians destroyed Solomon's temple, burned it to the ground. In 162 BC when the Greek king Antiochus Epiphanes sacrificed pig's blood in the temple that Haggai had rebuilt, desecrating it as predicted in Daniel 8 and Daniel 11. Then again in AD 70 when the Romans destroyed Herod's temple four times.

But I also believe that it points ahead to that eschatological principle, “as it was so it will be", to one last time, all of those being dress rehearsals for a final desecration. I believe that implies, based on 2 Thessalonians 2, a rebuilt temple, rebuilt by the Jews, in what I consider to be an open defiance of the finished work of Jesus Christ on the cross. The themes clearly articulated in the Book of Hebrews, the ending of the old covenant based on animal sacrifice and the blood of bulls and lambs and goats. All of that finished at the moment that Jesus died.  But an unbelieving Jewish nation with veils over their hearts and minds, unable to see in Jesus the consummation of the old covenant, and unbelieving, reestablishing the curtain in the Temple that was torn into from top to bottom, showing a motive and a movement toward temple sacrifice, which went on for another generation after Jesus's death in defiance of His finished work.

Jesus's counsel to His people, His lasting counsel, I didn't even finish. I kind of did last week. I preached on a fragment of a verse: "When you see the abomination of desolation..." This sermon is the rest of it, but I said it last week, and it's in the title of this sermon: Run For Your Lives.. What it openly says is, "When you see the abomination that causes desolation, standing where it does not belong, let the reader understand, then let those who are in Judea flee to the mountains." And it goes on from there. In other words, run for your lives.

I. The Desolation Leading to the Flight

Let's talk about it. Let's begin with the desolation that leads to the flight. It is the spiritual desolation of Israel, consummated in their rejection of the Son of God, the incarnate Son of God, and their murder of Him. Israel's rejection of Jesus as their Messiah is the essence of their spiritual desolation. As Jesus says at the end of 23 Matthew 38-39, "Behold, your house is left to you desolate. For I tell you, you will not see me again.”  It's pretty simple. If you put that together, two and two together, "The essence of the desolation is you're not going to see me again, until you say, 'Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord.'" In other words,  until you recognize me by faith, that I was the one sent by Almighty God as your Savior. So until you say that, you'll be desolate, empty. Desolation means emptiness.

That spiritual desolation then leads to a physical desolation, a city of slaughter left with no inhabitants. Above that or behind all that is the demonic side, a satanic and a demonic side that we need to understand. It comes very clearly in the Book of Revelation, chapter 12. There is a dragon, clearly identified as Satan, that ancient serpent. This dragon is standing by the sea in Revelation 13, and he calls from the sea a beast, a clear connection with Daniel 7, where up out of the sea come a succession of four beasts that represent empires, represent human political governments, empires with military power, with economic power, et cetera. That's Daniel 7.  We get the consummation of that in Revelation 13. It is the dragon, it is Satan that calls the beast from the sea. 

Jesus spoke about demons. You know that Jesus drove demons out effortlessly, exorcism after exorcism. People were stunned. They were amazed at His power. Even the demons are subject. In his name, easily, Jesus sent out His disciples and gave them the power as well to drive out demons. The demons were on the run, but they didn't cease existing, they didn't cease hating. They were just pushed back for a time. Jesus warned that they're going to come back.  He makes this very plain. In Matthew 12: 43-45, He says this, "When an evil spirit comes out of a man, it goes through arid places seeking rest and doesn't find it. Then it says, 'I will return to the house I left.' When it arrives, it finds the house unoccupied, swept clean and put in order." Unoccupied sounds like desolate to me. Empty. Finds a house unoccupied, swept clean, put in order. “Then it goes and takes seven other spirits more wicked than itself and they go in and live there. And the final condition of that man is worse than the first.” AJV says famously, "The last shall be worse than the first.”  "That is how it'll be with this generation." I thought we were talking about a man and then we're talking about a house. Now we're talking about a whole generation. It's the same, the same, the same. When the demon goes out, it's going to come back. If the individual, if the nation is not filled with God, filled with the spirit of God, filled with light, the darkness is coming back. We've already said that the nation of the Jews is desolate, empty. Not believing in Jesus, it's ready to be reinvaded by demons.

The image that I have here is of an individual in the deep woods of Alaska or Siberia or Canada, and a ravenous pack of wolves is chasing this individual. He's been able to start a bonfire and push all the pack of wolves back, but he can see their eyes surrounding his campfire. They're still out there in the darkness and they still want his blood. When that fire goes out, they're going to come flooding back in, ravenous.

We Christians, we're not secularists, materialists. We actually believe in a spiritual realm, and we believe that the events that happen with nations and with politics and with invasions has a demonic backing, though we cannot see it. I believe that it is demonic force that pushes the Romans in, and it's going to be overtly a satanic, a demonic kingdom at the end of the world. “As it was, so it will be.” We get these dress rehearsals.  It says it twice in Luke, in Luke 17:26, "As it was in the days of Noah, so it will be at the coming of the Son of Man." And again, Luke 17:28-30, "As it was in the days of Lot, so it will be on the day when the Son of man is revealed." “As it was, so it will be.” It's a repeated principle, an eschatological interpretive principle. We get things happening again and again, dress rehearsals.  The overt statement of this is in 1 John 2, "You have heard that Antichrist is coming and even now many Antichrists have come." Lots of dress rehearsals on that Antichrist theme. But there is one coming. So as it was in the days of the Roman desecration of Jerusalem, so it will be in the days before Christ returns. As it was in the days of Antiochus Epiphanes of Daniel 8 and Daniel, 11, so it will be in the days before Christ returns.

The destruction of the Jewish Temple in the city of Jerusalem in the year AD 70 by the Romans is a dress rehearsal for the end of the world, I believe. The signal to Jewish Christians living in Judea, Jewish Christians living there in Jerusalem, is you have to watch what's happening in current events. When you see certain things, get out of the city, get out of that area, run for your lives. He says it openly in Luke  21: 20-22. It's just as clear as anything. You don't have to wonder about it. "When you see Jerusalem being surrounded by armies, you will know that this desolation is near. Then let those who are in Judea flee to the mountains. Let those in the city get out. Let those in the country not enter the city. For this is the time of punishment and fulfillment of all that has been written."

There's a Jewish Christian Church in Jerusalem, the very ones that Paul raised money for and brought [in Romans 15] money back to Jerusalem and Judea, the Pentecost. Those were Jewish Christians that came to faith in Christ. They lived there. It was a Jewish church of Jesus Christ. Those people are living there, followers of Christ. He's telling them what to do.

Let's talk about what actually happened at the destruction of Jerusalem by the Romans. Josephus, a contemporary of those events, wrote a history, and we're able to read that history and find out what happened. Rome was the dominant world power at that point. Judea at that time was ruled by Roman procurators, most of whom knew little or nothing about the Jewish religion, which resulted in continuous provocations to the Jewish people, continuous irritations to them concerning religious issues.  A group within the city of Jerusalem, within that area of Judea, called Zealots, were very active at that time, very patriotic about the Jewish heritage and about the promised land, et cetera. They wanted the Romans out, and they convinced the general population there to rise up against Rome and rebel.

There were three stages then to the Roman response and the conquest of Judea and Jerusalem in the 1st century AD. Stages one and two resulted in the Jews surviving and even winning marginal victories. That led to the Jews having a sense of being unconquerable by the Romans, a false sense of being unconquerable. But they weren't. Shortly before Passover in April of the year 70, a powerful Roman general named Titus arrived at Jerusalem with legions, to finally put an end to the Jewish revolt and crush the insurrection. Titus encircled the city to prevent help from reaching the Jews and began this final stage, the very thing Jesus was talking about.

During this time, those who attempted to flee were either prevented from doing so, killed by the Jewish Zealous factions within the city, or captured by the Romans, tortured and crucified outside the city as a warning to those still inside the city. The Romans built an embankment, or rampart, around the city just as Jesus had foretold they would do. Titus' soldiers breached the third outer wall of Jerusalem on May 25th of the year 70 and captured the newer portions of the city of Jerusalem.

By June, the siege had progressed into the second walled area and the Jewish people retreated behind that last wall that protected the city. The Fortress of Antonia was taken by Titus on July 22nd, followed by the Romans setting fires to the gates of the temple, against the desires of Titus, their commanding general. During the attack, a soldier threw a firebrand through a window into one of the Temple's side chambers, followed by a second firebrand being thrown into the holy place, which set the whole sanctuary ablaze. All Jewish resistance in the city was quelled by September 26th in the year 70.

According to Josephus, 1.1 million Jews were killed during that campaign, a staggering number.  97,000 Jews were taken into captivity by the Romans. Over the next three years, the temple stones were dismantled entirely. Every stone involved in the Temple was leveled to the ground, which Josephus describes, saying, "It was so thoroughly laid even to the ground by those that dug it up to the foundation that there was nothing left to make those that came later believe there had ever been a building there." That's complete fulfillment of Jesus's prophecy.

Caesar eventually gave orders to level everything else, with the exception of what we can still see today. Part of one of the external walls, not directly connected with the Temple but near it, was left to demonstrate what kind of city the Romans had defeated and as a display of Roman power. That is the famous Wailing Wall that Jews from all over the world go pray in front of, and many of them, I believe, are praying for a rebuilding of the temple.

Given those horrors that were coming, Jesus gave his people living in Judea a prophetic warning: when you see the indications, run for your lives. Mark 13 is Jesus's warning for them to flee when they see the city surrounded by soldiers. There is no record at all in church history or by Josephus of Christians in Judea and what happened with them. We have no record. However, we have to imagine that many of the church did in fact heed Jesus's warning and ran for their lives. When the time was right, they fled from Jerusalem. Now, that would have been the exact opposite of what many of the Jews would have been doing when they heard that the Roman legions were marching in. They're going to run to the fortress for the preservation of their lives. That makes perfect sense. The Christians are running the opposite direction.

And as I said, the destruction of Jerusalem in the year 70,  was just a dress rehearsal for the final desolations, the end of the world, because of their ongoing rejection of Jesus as the Christ, the spiritual desolation of Israel has continued in every generation since. Every generation there's been a small remnant within that generation of Jewish people who believe in Jesus. The are called  Messianic Jews or Completed Jews, et cetera. In every generation, there's been some, as predicted in Romans 11.  But the general population of Jewish people have not received Jesus as Lord and Savior, and so the desolation continues. The rebuilding of the Temple would be a consummation of that desolation. It's a direct affront to God and to Jesus, saying, "You're not the Messiah, your death means nothing. We want to reestablish the old covenant, animal sacrifices." They yearn to obey the law of Moses. They are able, I believe, by reading the 70 weeks prophecy and other predictions in the Book of Daniel and other places, to rebuild the Temple. They're able to get what they want. How that would be, with the Dome of the Rock and all that is hard to see. But it seems like the Antichrist, the ruler of the people who is to come, in Daniel 9:26, will, in Daniel 9:27, "Confirm a covenant with many for one seven," a seven-year period. In the middle of the seven, three and a half years in, he'll put an end to sacrifice and offering.  That implies sacrifice and offerings going on for the first half of that last seven-year period. "And on a wing of the temple, he will set up an abomination that causes desolation until the end that is decreed is poured out on him." Those are the predictions that we look through, et cetera.

II. The Danger That Causes the Flight

Let's talk about the danger that causes the flight. The basic concept is Christ's people must run because we can't handle the temptation of that moment.  Consistently in the Lord's Prayer, we pray, "Lead us not into temptation but deliver us from the evil one." You're to avoid temptation. You're not to show how powerful and strong you are by stepping right into the fire of temptation and resisting it. No. Run, get out of there. A very clear example in parallel of this is found the night that Jesus was arrested. In John 17,  Jesus prays to the Father concerning the Elect.  He said, "I have not lost any of all that you have given me." He prays specifically that. As you read that in John 17, you know He's not lost them spiritually. They still believe in Him, they still are trusting in Jesus. He's not lost any of them, and He won't. But then in John 18, as the detachment of 600 soldiers comes and they're there to arrest Jesus, Jesus goes out and confronts them and asks them who they've come to arrest. He takes the initiative. "Who are you looking for?" "Jesus of Nazareth." Jesus says, "I am." And at that moment they draw back and fall to the ground. That's His name, He's God. And He says, "I am," and they fall on the ground.  Again, Jesus asked them a second time, "Who are you looking for?" They pick themselves up off the ground and answer like robots: "Jesus of Nazareth." Jesus said, "I've told you that I am. If you're looking for me, then let these men go," speaking about His apostles. Then John comments, John 18: 9, "This happened so that the words that Jesus had spoken would be fulfilled. 'I have not lost any of all that you have given me.'" Do you realize the significance of that? If they were arrested physically, they would have been lost spiritually. They weren't ready to be tortured, they weren't ready to die, they weren't ready to be crucified, they weren't ready. And they would've been lost. So Jesus makes a way of escape for them to get out. They all ran away at that moment, all of them, including Peter.  Jesus knows that there are some trials so great our faith can't handle it.

"You're to avoid temptation. You're not to show how powerful and strong you are by stepping right into the fire of temptation and resisting it. No. Run, get out of there."

Peter, in his arrogance that night, did a U-turn and followed at a distance. You saw what happened to him. Within a short amount of time, Satan had maneuvered it so that Peter denied ever even having heard of Jesus. That's hours later. Don't think you're so mighty, so strong in your faith as so you can handle anything. Jesus says to His people, "Run for your lives. Run for your souls. Get out of there." How much greater will the trial be when Antichrist is ruling the world through the direct power of Satan, and the secret police and the ones chasing are directly demonically instructed? Where are you going to hide? It's a time of utter carnage, of martyrdom like has never been seen before. That's what it's going to be like. The beast of Revelation  13:1, it says, "The dragon stood on the shore of the sea and I saw a beast coming up out of the sea.” Revelation 13:2, "The dragon gave the beast his power and his throne and great authority.”

 We've seen in multiple places, the beast, the Antichrist, is able to do great signs and wonders. "To deceive," Jesus says, "the elect, even the elect, if that were possible." The Antichrist will rule the earth and conquer the saints physically. It says in Revelation 13: 5-8, "The beast was given a mouth to utter proud words and blasphemies and to exercise his authority for 42 months." That's three and a half years. "He opened his mouth to blaspheme God and to slander His name and His dwelling place and those who live in heaven. He was given power to make war against the saints and to conquer them."

That's exactly what's taught in Daniel 7 as well. What does that mean? There's going to be dead Christians, lots of believers, saints, slaughtered by the beast. He was given authority over every tribe, people, language and nation. That's the one world government ruling every nation on earth, one guy. All the inhabitants of the earth will worship the beast. That's the consummation of wicked government, and it's the consummation of wicked religion focused on this one person.  All the inhabitants of the earth will worship the beast. All whose names have not been written in the Book of Life, belonging to the Lamb that was slain from the creation of the world; so the non-elect. Basically then, one world government and one world religion at that point, far too powerful for any person to resist. 

The  Antichrist's specific enemies at that point are Jews and Christians. This deception leads to the final destruction, and so we must run. Revelation 14: 9-12 says, "A third angel followed them and said in a loud voice, 'If anyone worships the beast and his image and receives his mark on the forehead or on the hand, he too will drink the wine of God's fury, which has been poured full strength into the cup of his wrath. He'll be tormented with burning sulfur in the presence of the holy angels and of the lamb, and the smoke of their torment rises forever and ever. There is no rest day or night for those who worship the beast and his image or for anyone who receives the mark of his name.'" Revelation 14:12, "This calls for patient endurance on the part of the saints who obey God's commands and remain faithful to Jesus.”  In other words, that's a call to patiently endure that temptation.  The temptation is to receive the mark of the beast and worship him as God for the preservation of your life. Therefore Jesus says in verse 13, "He who stands firm to the end will be saved." 

III. The Desperation That Characteristics the Flight

That's the danger, the desperation that characterized the flight. We'll look at the verses, verses 14-19, "Then let those who are in Judea flee to the mountains. Let no one on the roof of his house go down or enter the house to take anything out. Let no one in the field go back to get his cloak. How dreadful it would be in those days for pregnant women and nursing mothers. Pray that this will not take place in the winter because those will be days of distress unequal from the beginning when God created the world until now and never to be equaled again."

There's a sense of immense urgency in these verses -- do you get it? -- as you read it, there's a breathless pace here. No earthly possession's worth your soul. You won't have time -- you think about the flat roofs back then -- you wouldn't have time to go down from that flat roof, down into the first floor of the house to get anything out. There's not time for that.  Someone working out in the field doesn't have time to go back and get a garment, a cloak. There's not time for that. And it's dreadful, says Jesus, for those who can't run fast, pregnant women or nursing mothers. It's all about running for your lives with murderous enemies nipping at your heels. Pray for an easement of circumstances. Pray that it won't take place in the winter when it's harder to run, or in the Sabbath, Matthew adds, because it would be harder to travel at that point.  Anything that would slow down the flight would be a detriment.  He says, unequal distress. Those would be days of distress, unequal from the beginning when God created the world until now, never to be equaled again. KJV, ESV, NSB all use the words “great tribulation.” That's where you get the expression "the great tribulation"; it comes right from that verse. 

IV. The Destination of the Flight

 The destination of the flight, verse 14, "Then those who are in Judea flee to the mountains." The mountains, perhaps caves, crags, hiding places.  Luke 23:30, "Then they will say to the mountains, 'Fall on us into the hills. Cover us.'" Looking for a hiding place from the forces of Antichrist, the forces of the desolator that sets up the abomination of desolation. Whether the Romans in 87 AD or Antichrist at the end of the world, looking for mountain hiding places in Judea.

You think about Masada, it was a mountainous area. The Jews held out for a number of years after the fall of Jerusalem, probably another two or three years. It's very hard to get to, and so a place where you can hide. The purpose at that point, at the end of the world, is to wait for the Lord's coming and to count the days. 

V. The Duration of the Flight

What's the duration of the flight? “If those days”, verse 20, “had not been…”, “If the Lord had not cut short those days, no one would survive. But for the sake of the elect, whom He has chosen, He has shortened them.”  It's a terrible time. You have to read the whole of the Scripture to understand how terrible it is. You have to read the Book of Revelation. You have to read the trumpet judgments in Revelation which has ecological disasters unlike anything that had ever been seen before. The trumpet judgments and then the bowl judgments. It's going to be hard to live on planet Earth. A third of the drinking water, polluted. A third of the seas, polluted. A third of the living creatures, dead. Trees burned, grass burned. It's an ecological horror show which leads, I think, to the one world government. That's the cause of it, I believe.

It's so bad, and the slaughter focused on believers in Jesus is so bad, and the martyrdom, the machine of martyrdom is so great, Jesus has to ask, “Will there be faith on Earth when He returns?” There have to be some believers left when He comes back. So the days are counted out, and He says, short. And if they continued on even a few more days or weeks, no one would be left.

That's what I think brings, for me, the full understanding of the mystery in Revelation 11 and 12. From the time that the daily sacrifice is abolished and the abomination that causes desolation is set up, there will be 1,290 days. Blessed is the one who waits for and reaches the end of the 1,335 days. Because Revelation 12 is talking about the general resurrection of both the righteous and the wicked, as it says in verse 2 and 3, "Multitudes who sleep in the dust of the earth will awake," [that’s the Second Coming]. "Some to everlasting life. Others to shame and everlasting contempt. Those who are wise will shine like the brightness of the heavens and those who lead many to righteousness light their stars forever and ever." It's the end of the world.

Then the counting of the days, 1,290 days and 1,335 days, goes ahead. It's not talking about Antiochus. It's not talking even about the Romans. It's talking about a general resurrection to heaven or hell and the end of the world in Daniel 12. At that time of the Antichrist, when God's people are hiding in caves, trying to survive, demonically instructed and led Gestapo-type folks are searching them out to martyr them. In the midst of that, when they're counting the days, Jesus returns for His bride. He returns to rescue her and protect her, so that there will be faith on earth when He returns.

Who are the Elect Jesus had in mind, "For the sake of the elect, those days will be shortened"? Elect are people chosen from Jews and Gentiles to believe in Him. I believe this is the consummation of the whole story of the Jewish nation. It's the consummation of their salvation. It's been a long journey, a long journey between Jesus and the sons and daughters of Abraham, the biological descendants. That consummation, I believe, is revealed in a mystery in Romans 11: 25-27,  "I do not want you to be ignorant of this mystery, brother, so that you may not be conceited. Israel has experienced a hardening in part until the full number of Gentiles has come in. And so all Israel will be saved. As it is written, the deliverer will come from Zion. He will turn godlessness away from Jacob." Those are incredibly important words. He's going to drive godlessness, atheism, unbelief from the Jewish nation. What's there instead? Faith in Christ, just in time. Again, Zechariah 12:10, "And I will pour out on the house of David and the inhabitants of Jerusalem, a spirit of grace and supplication. And they will look on me, the one they have pierced, and they will mourn for him as one mourns for an only child and grieve bitterly for him as one grieves her first-born son.”  This is directly quoted by the apostle John in the account of Jesus. "In his death, they will look on him whom they have pierced." But they haven't looked yet, have they? Not by faith. At the end, in Revelation 12:10, God is going to pour out a spirit of grace on them and they will look finally to Jesus and trust. Those are the people Jesus is coming back to rescue, among others.

VI. The Destiny Beyond the Flight

What is the destiny beyond the flight? Verses 24-27, "But in those days following that distress, the sun will be darkened and the moon will not give its light. The stars will fall from the sky and the heavenly bodies will be shaken. At that time, men will see the Son of man coming in the clouds with power and great glory, and He will send His angels and gather His elect, from the four winds from the ends of the earth to the ends of the heavens.”  More next week, that's the Second Coming. 

VII. Application

This morning as I was thinking about application, I wrote out some, and at the top I wrote two words. "So what?" So what? Run for your life. The overwhelming majority, if not every single person sitting here, will probably not have to run for your life, unless you're planning a move to Judea. If you're going to go live in Judea, then you might want to pay more special attention to this injunction and run for your lives. But it would have to be at the time when the abomination of desolation is set up. So how do we take this to heart?

First of all, salvation is a fleeing. Salvation itself is a fleeing, but the fleeing of far greater terror than anything Satan or the Antichrist could ever orchestrate. John the Baptist said to his enemies, "You brood of vipers, who warned you to flee from the wrath to come?" What's the wrath to come? It's Almighty God, the omnipotent God, pouring out His wrath on His enemies. Where are you going to hide from God?  It's one thing to try to hide from Satan and from demonically instructed agents. How do you hide from an omnipresent, omnipotent, omniscient God? There is a refuge, and that refuge is Jesus Christ. The cross of Christ is the refuge. That's where you flee, but you got to do it now. You got to do it today. Today is the day of salvation. Now's the time to flee the wrath to come.  When it comes, it will be too late. Therefore, look again to the cross of Christ. Understand what was really going on there. Look with eyes of faith and say, "The reason Jesus died on the cross is to forgive a sinner like me." Repent of your sins, trust in Him and you'll find forgiveness. He will be your refuge. As the Book of Proverbs says, "The name of the Lord is a strong tower. The righteous run and are kept safe." Run to Christ, flee to Him while there's time.

"Salvation itself is a fleeing, but the fleeing of far greater terror than anything Satan or the Antichrist could ever orchestrate. …" What's the wrath to come? It's Almighty God, the omnipotent God, pouring out His wrath on His enemies."

Second of all, understand where world history is going. We're going to an orchestrated, planned out, scripted destination. Enough information has been given in the books of the Bible. So understand, we're going somewhere. Understand, Revelation 13 says, "The beast from the sea will rule the whole earth." So even if you don't live in Judea, the same force that's hunting our brothers and sisters down in that geographical region will be ruling the whole world., and he will hate your faith as much as he hates theirs.  The mark of the beast is worldwide, not just for Judea or those living in Jerusalem, and no elect person will ever receive it. Why not? Because we know what it is, and we know not to do it. The essence of it is that we will not bow our knee to a creature and worship that creature as God. We're not going to worship and serve the Antichrist as God, which will make us his enemies.

Know where all this is heading. His government is going to rule the whole earth. It says in Revelation 3:10, "I will keep you from the hour of testing that's going to come on the whole Earth." It's not just Judea, it's coming all over the whole world. So understand, just understand where that's going. 

Third of all, you could say, "Why should I care what happens to those living in Judea and Jerusalem?" Because you're part of the body of Christ, and it says in 1 Corinthians 12:26, "If one part of the body suffers, the whole body suffers with it.”  We should care what happens to people who are being persecuted in other parts, even today, even now. The spirit of the Antichrist is at work now, whether the Antichrist is on Earth now. We are a unity, we as the body of Christ, we should care what happens to those that are being persecuted. Though it may not be that it will happen in your lifetime, it may well happen in your children's lifetime. It may well happen in your grandchildren's lifetime or your great-grandchildren's lifetime.  Someone will be alive who needs to know this information in order to save their lives and their souls. Paul says, concerning these eschatological details in 2 Thessalonians 2,"Don't you remember that when I was with you, I kept telling you these things?" Paul thought this was important enough to teach as part of his body of doctrine and part of body of teaching that he taught to the Thessalonians. I think it's important for you all as well.

It is complicated, immerse yourself in it. Flee to Christ. I could do other things right now and say, "Flee temptations," and all that. That would be a good preaching point, but it doesn't line up with the eschatology we're talking about today. But if you want to take that, good. Flee sin this week, that's a good idea. But foundationally to eschatology, learn these facts. Teach them to your kids and grandkids. Let's be ready. 

Close with me in prayer. Father, we thank you for the depths of the riches and the wisdom and the knowledge of God as revealed in scripture. It is not easy to follow these things, not easy to understand. Father, I pray that you would please press to our hearts the truth that we've heard today. And even if it doesn't directly apply to us so that we ourselves have to run for our lives physically in fulfillment of these words, help us to understand these words so that they have the right shaping effect on our theology, our understanding of history, our understanding of government, of Satan, of brothers and sisters in Christ, of the Jewish nation, of all of these themes that we've addressed. Thank you for Christ. Thank you that Jesus died to take the wrath of God so that we would not have to. It's in His name we pray. Amen.

God abandoned the Jewish people because of their sins, resulting in their desolation. He does this to show that He is holy and dwells in a high and holy place.

- SERMON TRANSCRIPT -

This morning as I was thinking about preaching this text, I decided to write a quick two-page startup guide to today's sermon. Have you ever had a complex piece of equipment and you get a sheet of paper that gives you that quick startup guide? I thought it might be helpful for today's sermon. This is my version of the quick startup guide. I hope it's helpful.

One of the things that I marvel at of the Word of God is the division of the Word of God into two categories, milk and meat. I marvel at the simplicity of the Word of God, and I marvel at the complexity of the Word of God. The essential doctrines of the Bible are so simple, a child can understand them and receive forgiveness of sins in a right relationship with God by understanding the milk, but there's more in the Bible than just milk. There is also meat or complexity.

My approach to pulpit ministry is to sequentially go through books of the Bible and take whatever's there. As we come this morning to Mark 13:14 and the phrase, “abomination of desolation," we come to what I consider to be a very deep and complex topic. I love preaching to you. I love preaching in this church because you love the Word of God and are willing to follow where it leads. I don't ever get any pushback on asking much of my hearers. This morning I'm going to ask much of you, so I am leading you into a quick startup guide.

The first thing I want to say to you is, as we resume our study in the Gospel of Mark, I'd like to ask you to turn to the Gospel of Matthew. I know what I'm doing, I understand that we're in Mark. The problem is a lot of the details that I want to get, as I explain the abomination of desolation, come from Matthew. Instead of having you flip back and forth, the passages are essentially the same, but there's some phrases and there's some lead-up that is only found in Matthew. So I'm going to ask you, as you return to the Gospel of Mark, to turn to the Gospel of Matthew. 

Our focus this morning is on one phrase, “the abomination of desolation.” The context of this complex phrase, “abomination of desolation,” is Jesus' prediction of the destruction of the Temple of Jerusalem. He said, "Not one stone will be left on another," and what followed, the private inquiry on the part of Jesus' disciples to ask Him about that and then Jesus' complex answer recorded for us in Matthew 24 and 25 and in Mark 13 on the Mount of Olives, sometimes called the Olivet Discourse because it was on the Mount of Olives.

It falls into the theological category of eschatology or the study of end-time things. I believe that Jesus traces out the events between his First and Second Coming in some very helpful detail, and it's good for us to walk through that. It's a prophetic roadmap of what was still to come when Jesus was alive, and I believe very important for me to say to you now, what is still to come for us as well. Not everyone believes that, but I do.

In Mark 13:5-13 and in Matthew 24:4-14, we have some general description of the two millennia between the First and Second Coming, and the centerpiece is the spread of the gospel to all nations. The gospel will be preached in the whole world as a testimony of all nations and then the end will come, so — the work of the gospel between the First and Second Coming of Christ, attended by great suffering on the part of the messengers, persecution, difficulty, being arrested and brought before tribunals, et cetera. That is something that we've already seen.

We get specifically then in Matthew 24:15, Mark 13:14, the focus on the destruction of the Temple and then signs that are unique to just that generation. Whereas, the overview that He gives in Mark 13:4-13 and also Matthew 24:4-14 is true of every generation there have been since Jesus ascended to heaven until now. As we venture now into the “abomination of desolation," we're speaking about events that are particular to a specific group of people who are going to experience some things that not everybody experiences.

That's what we're trying to understand, the destruction of the temple and the phrase, “abomination of desolation”. That phrase comes from the prophet, Daniel, as Jesus says in the Gospel of Matthew, though He doesn't say it in Mark. Simply put, if you are living in Judea and Jerusalem at that point when the “abomination of desolation” is established, set up, et cetera, if we could put it simply— run for your lives.  That's where we're going next week, God willing. I'm not going to get into “run for your lives.” Today, I'm effectively preaching on a phrase and a half sentence. "When you see the “abomination of desolation” spoken of by the prophet, Daniel, “let the reader understand” ... What?  The answer is: run for your lives.

The topic is essentially a sober one and a sad one. It's very, very difficult. As I give you this quick startup guide, we have to look at the phrase itself, “abomination of desolation.” I want you to understand that the essence of the desolation is a broken relationship with almighty God, an emptiness that comes from not having a right relationship with God and God's decision to withdraw Himself from His people, from Israel because of their sins. That's the essence of the desolation, but it's more complex than that.

"The essence of the desolation is a broken relationship with almighty God, an emptiness that comes from not having a right relationship with God and God's decision to withdraw Himself from His people, from Israel because of their sins."

It has earthly ramifications in the destruction of the Temple, the destruction of the city of Jerusalem by invading Gentile armies as a direct act of judgment from almighty God for their sins. It's a very sobering topic. The point of connection to us, though we are not Jews, though we don't live in Judea, in Jerusalem, the “abomination of desolation” is not on Earth right now. The point of connection to us is twofold.

First of all, we need to understand, big picture, what God is doing in the universe, what God is doing with you. What is His whole purpose for creating everything? His whole purpose is a love relationship with you, with us, with His people. He wants an intimate love relationship with us. When we instead turn to idolatry, when we turn to wickedness, He withdraws. There's a desolation that comes from that, and you can be experiencing that desolation right now, that emptiness right now, though it doesn't specifically relate to the historical events of the “abomination of desolation.”

It is something we experience whenever we sin, and God withdraws. It is also the terror of hell. The worst part of hell is that God is not there in any way to bless the people that are there. It's a place of utter darkness. It's a tragedy that we're talking about here, a desolation of the Jews and of Jerusalem. It's also part of that long and complex story of God's relationship with the Jewish people, the physical descendants of Abraham, a very complex story and heartbreaking for God.  This is why Jesus wept over Jerusalem, because of these things that were going to happen. Though for us, we're somewhat removed from it. We should care about it because we should care about all people. We should care about the Jews. We should care about the story of God and the Jews, and we should realize, I believe, there's still more to come. That's vital, the phrase, “abomination of desolation.”

I've talked briefly about desolation. I'm going to do the intro of the sermon on the topic of desolation in a moment. Abomination has to do fundamentally with idolatry and desecration. It has to do with wickedness in the place where there should be holiness. It's talking about a literal place of worship, a temple, a tabernacle and then a temple, a literal place that is then desecrated or defiled through idolatry and blasphemy and wickedness. That's what the phrase means, “abomination of desolation.”  It comes from Daniel. So if we're going to do Daniel, I have to go over to Daniel and walk through it. Daniel is a very complex book. It's one of the most complex books in the Bible, and we have to roll up our sleeves to do that. Jesus urges us to work hard at this. He urges us right in the text when He says, "Let the reader understand." It's an odd aside. Jesus doesn't usually say that kind of thing. "When you see the abomination of desolation spoken of by the prophet, Daniel, let the reader understand."

What He's saying is this isn't going to be easy. This isn't low-hanging fruit. You have to work at this to understand it. You have to work at Daniel. You have to work at the words to understand what this is about, but you need to know. What I'm going to argue is the “abomination of desolation” is not a one-off. I believe it's a regular pattern in God's relationship with the Jewish people. Again and again and again and again this has happened.

I will argue in this sermon that it happens in five phases. This is where I risk many of you glazing over as we walk through those five phases. I'm asking you not to do that. But there are five different phases of the “abomination of desolation,” the dynamic of God withdrawing His active presence from a holy place, the Gentiles pouring in like a flood to destroy it. All of that is a judgment by God, so I believe that we need to pay attention.  I also believe because I think the fifth and final phase hasn't happened yet, it's yet to come. Therefore, it will be relevant, if not for you, it'll be relevant for your kids and, if not for them, for your grandkids and, if not for them, for your great-grandkids, so you should care about this. We need to understand it. There's the startup guide.

On July 21, 1969, Buzz Aldrin became the second human being to walk on the moon just moments after Neil Armstrong became the first. Aldrin stepped off the ladder of the lunar module and began walking around on that lunar landscape, feeling the somewhat weightlessness of the one-sixth gravitational pull and looking out at that eerie, strange lunar landscape. As he did, he uttered a famous phrase. He called it “magnificent desolation,” magnificent desolation.

From a biblical point of view, those two are essentially a contradiction. There's an essential contradiction or irony to them. To God, there is nothing magnificent about emptiness. There's nothing magnificent about desolation. God created the universe, and it's amazing that the most common attribute of the physical universe that God made is its apparent emptiness.  The lunar landscape was indeed desolate. It was desolate of life, of trees, of water, animals, birds, other human beings. It was crater-marked with centuries of asteroid assaults. It was empty, empty, empty. But still, it was there. You could walk on it, reach down and scoop up the lunar dust. The real desolation was outer space itself.

C.S. Lewis talked about this in his classic, The Problem of Pain. This is what he wrote, "Not many years ago when I was an atheist, if anyone had asked me, 'Why do you not believe in God?' my reply would have run something like this. Look at the universe we live in. By far, the greatest part of it consists of empty space, completely dark and unimaginably cold. The bodies which move in this space are so few and so small in comparison with the space itself that even if every one of them were known to be crowded as full as it could hold with perfectly happy creatures, it would still be difficult to believe that life and happiness were more than a byproduct to the power that made the universe.  Why  would I be an atheist, I look at outer space and it's mostly empty, cold and empty.” Truly, the desolation of the universe is absolutely terrifying. The nearest star is 4.3 light years away from us. Between the solar system and that star is literally nothing." So for CS Lewis, the desolation of the universe made it difficult to believe in a God of love and light.

I believe the irony of that phrase, “magnificent desolation,” biblically would be similar to a phrase like this, “beautiful darkness." Beautiful darkness. Biblically, there's nothing beautiful about darkness. God created the light and reveals Himself in light as it says in 1 John 1:5, "God is light and in Him there is no darkness at all." I would say, in a similar sense, God is fullness and in Him there's no emptiness or desolation at all.  God did not create the universe to be empty or desolate. In Isaiah 45:18, it says, "For this is what the Lord says, He who created the heavens, He is God, He who fashioned and made the Earth. He founded it. He did not create it to be empty, but formed it to be inhabited. He says, 'I am the Lord, and there is no other.'" The Bible reveals the omnipresence and immensity of God, the omnipresence, the immensity of God.  In Jeremiah 23, He says, "'Am I only a God nearby?' declares the Lord, 'and not a God far away? Can anyone hide in secret places so I cannot see Him?' declares the Lord. 'Do I not fill heaven and Earth?' declares the Lord.”

God, therefore, is a full being who overflows His fullness to us as creatures so that we would drink of His fullness in a love relationship.  He wants to fill every portion of the universe with His glory. He wants to fill every portion of your life with His glory. Most especially, God created sentient beings, angels and humans, to have an intimate love relationship with Him that we would know Him as He really is and see His glory and love Him with all of our hearts. But tragically, humanity has sinned and God is relationally distant from us. As the Bible says, "The wicked He knows from afar.” Yet, God has worked in redemptive history to draw near to us. The history of redemption is God coming back in to be close to sinners. He chose out a nation, the Jewish people, Abraham's descendants, to reveal that desire that God has to draw near and to have an intimate love relationship with sinful people to display this closeness.

Central to that relationship with Israel was His establishment of a holy place, holy ground, so to speak.  That idea began in Exodus 3 where Moses saw the burning bush and God said to him, "Take off your sandals for the place where you're standing is holy ground." Friends, what does that mean, “holy ground"? Especially when we consider what I've already said, the omnipresence of God, God fills heaven and Earth, what then is holy ground? I believe it is a location, a place where God chooses especially to reveal Himself relationally in His glory for the purpose of our relationship with Him.  It's a place chosen, like the burning bush, where God shines in some unique way and attracts us into a relationship with Him. Jonathan Edwards put it this way, "God, considered with respect to His essence, is everywhere. He fills both heaven and Earth. But yet, He is said, in some respects, to be more especially in some places than in others. He was said of old to dwell in the land of Israel above all other lands and in Jerusalem above all other cities of that land and in the temple above all other buildings in that city and in the Holy of Holies above all other apartments in the temple and on the mercy seat over the Ark of the Covenant, above all other places in the Holy of Holies.”  

God specifically chose to reveal His unique presence with His people by a glory cloud that descended into the tabernacle where the Ark of the Covenant was to be housed. The glory cloud showed that that place had become holy ground, a sacred space, and that glory cloud revealed it. Later, the same thing happened when Solomon built his temple, and he said, "Even the highest heavens can't contain you. How much less this temple I've built?”  Yet, despite all of that, God chose in His kindness and His goodness to appear in a cloud of glory and fill the Temple, as though God was there in some special way. But sadly, tragically, because of the sinfulness of the Jewish people, God withdrew His presence from them as was seen by Ezekiel the prophet when the glory cloud left or departed from the Temple. When God moved out, He left those places desolate. He left those places relationally empty. That's the nature of the desolation.

That desolation symbolizes God's departing from His people, leaving us desolate, leaving us empty, apart from God. This sermon seeks to understand that desolation and how it relates to the destruction of Jerusalem and, indeed, to our salvation. The passage looks back at the prediction of Christ concerning the destruction of the temple, "Not one stone will be left on another." Why it happened, it wasn't an accident.  It's something that God actually did in space and time. But also, I believe it looks ahead to a reenactment of it right before the Second Coming of Christ in this passage most clearly taught in 2 Thessalonians 2. That's why I believe there's not four phases of the abomination of desolation, but one yet to come. It hasn't happened yet.

Look at the text again from Matthew 24. I could do it from Mark. They're almost identical except for some phrases. Matthew 24:15-22, "So when you see standing in the holy place the abomination that causes desolation spoken of through the prophet, Daniel, let the reader understand, then let those who are in Judea flee to the mountains. Let no one in the housetop go down to take anything out of the house. Let no one in the field go back to get his cloak. How dreadful it would be in those days for pregnant women and nursing mothers. Pray that your flight will not take place in the winter on the Sabbath for then there will be great distress unequal from the beginning of the world until now and never to be equaled again. If those days had not been cut short, no one would survive. But for the sake of the elect, those days will be shortened.”

I. Key Eschatological Principle: “As it was …so it will be.”

We're going to zero in and try to understand from the Book of Daniel the phrase, “abomination of desolation.” A key eschatological principle I'm giving, I'm going to give you two principles. Principle number one in Matthew 24:37, "As it was in the days of Noah, so it will be at the coming of the Son of Man." To keep it simple, “as it was, so it will be.” That's recurring themes, things that happen and then happen again and happen again to teach some prophetic truth. “As it was, so it will be.”

The second is Jesus' statement in Matthew 24:25, "Behold I have told you ahead of time.” God wants His people who read the Bible to know ahead of time what's going to happen. That's why I consider 2 Thessalonians 2 and also these passages to be important reading for Christians because I believe many of the terrifying events haven't happened yet. The protection that we're going to have, that we'll not be deceived by the Antichrist and his miracles and all of that drawn in, Jesus says very plainly is because He's told us ahead of time. We know what's coming. Forewarned is forearmed.

Those are the basic eschatological principles. These things happen again and again. As it was in the days of Noah, so it will been the coming of the Son of Man. The things that happen right before the flood will be pictures of what will happen right before the Second Coming. We get these acted out— “types.” They're called “types”, prophetic actions in history.  Things are acted out, like Abraham's near sacrifice of his son, Isaac, is a picture of the giving of Jesus Christ on the cross for our sins. So also the blood of the Passover lamb painted on the houses of the Jewish people, a picture of Christ's sacrifice for us. So also the Exodus itself, a rescue of the people from slavery and bondage, a picture of our deliverance from slavery to sin. These are the kinds of things that are acted out.  God acts out history. He acts out prophecies in history. So also it is with the Temple and its desolation. As it was, so it will be. 

In Jesus' time, Daniel's prophecy had already, to some degree, come true in the Greek era between the time of Daniel and the time of Jesus. It had already come true. But Jesus said, "Yeah, but there's one more to come and then another beyond that." So there is the one with the Romans, and yet beyond it.  He's already operating from that same principle— As it was, so it will be. The words of Daniel have yet more fulfillment yet to come, Jesus is saying, in His time. I'm saying that it's still to come, yet still.

II. What is the “Abomination of Desolation”?

Let's zero in on this phrase, “abomination of desolation.” If you're in Matthew, look back at Matthew 23 and you look at 37-39 after Jesus has given His sevenfold woe against the scribes and Pharisees who represent the Jewish nation, "Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, you hypocrites," because of their rejection of Him and their hatred of Him and their plotting to kill Him and they will kill Him. Because of all that, He has turned away from the Jewish nation. Because they have rejected Him, He is rejecting them. He says very tragically in verses 37-39, Matthew 23, "Oh, Jerusalem, Jerusalem, you who kill the prophets and stone those sent to you, how often I have longed to gather your children together as a hen gathers her chicks under her wings, but you were not willing. Behold, your house is left to you desolate." That's an important word, isn't it? Look, “behold,” your house is desolate now. What do you mean? “The reason I say that is you will not see me again until you say, 'Blessed is He who comes in the name of the Lord.’ Then Jesus left the temple.”

The essence of the desolation is Jesus leaving physically, walking out of the Temple. Why is that significant? Remember in Ezekiel, the glory cloud, which symbolized the presence of God, left from the Temple. Jesus is the radiance of God's glory in the exact representation of His being. Jesus is a greater display of the glory of God than any cloud ever was. Because they have rejected Him, He is walking out, and He's not coming back. That means that that space is not sacred space anymore, it’s just a pile of stones.  At that moment, the disciples came up and said, "Look, Teacher, what massive stones. What magnificent buildings." Right at that moment, Jesus said, "Do you see all these things? I tell you the truth. Not one stone here will be left on another. Every one will be thrown down." Not an accident. It's a judgment of God on the Jewish nation for their rebellion against Him, their hatred of His messengers, the prophets, and especially their hatred of the Son who was sent to them. The judgment is coming.

As He's privately on the Mount of Olives, the disciples come to Him, Peter, John, James, and Andrew in particular come and ask Him, "When will this happen, and what will be the sign of your coming and of the end of the age?" The threefold question is in Matthew, not in Mark. Those three questions woven together in Matthew 24 and 25, also Mark 13, constitute His answer.  Three topics, when will these things happen, the destruction of the temple, and what will be the sign of your coming and of the end of the age? In their mind, they conflated all of them as though they're all at the same time, but we know now that they're not. The destruction of the Temple happened at least roughly two millennia before the Second Coming, which hasn't happened yet. The signs of the Coming which we're going to cover, God willing, in the next number of sermons in Mark 13, we'll talk about in detail. Those are yet to come in His discourse.

We're zeroing in now in this phrase, “abomination of desolation.” A parallel in Luke helps us to understand. This is in Luke 21. Listen to these words very carefully. "When you see Jerusalem being surrounded by armies, you will know that its desolation is near." Do you see the link in Jesus' mind between Gentile armies invading and the desolation? That's how He thinks, Gentile armies invading and desolation. When you see, you know that Jerusalem's desolation is near.  "Then let those who are in Judea flee to the mountains. Let those in the city get out. Let those in the country not enter the city. For this is the time of punishment and fulfillment of all that has been written. How dreadful it will be in those days for pregnant women and nursing mothers. There will be great distress in the land and wrath against this people that will fall by the sword and be taken as prisoners to all nations. Jerusalem will be trampled on by the Gentiles," listen, "until the times of the Gentiles has been fulfilled."

That is essential reading for us to understand the “abomination of desolation.” Jerusalem is going to be destroyed by surrounding Gentile armies. He's talking about the circumstances of the destruction of the Temple and, indeed, of the city of Jerusalem in the year AD 70, about a generation after Jesus. He calls it the “times of the Gentiles." The physical desolation of Jerusalem comes after Christ has left it spiritually desolate.  It involves military conquest by the Gentiles, specifically by the Roman legions, the most powerful military nation in history. The “abomination of desolation”, Mark 13:14 and Matthew 24:15, is at least about the destruction of the city of Jerusalem by the Romans. But I also believe that it will be an issue right before His coming at the end of the world. Then He said, "Let the reader understand." By that, He means the reader of Daniel.

So now we have to roll up our sleeves and go back to Daniel and try to understand it. "Let the reader of Daniel understand." Let me just tell you something about the Book of Daniel. Daniel himself didn't understand it, not fully. Daniel himself didn't understand it. You say, "Well, what hope do we have?" Here's what I believe about the mysteries of Daniel. It's on a need-to-know basis, the more you need to know, the more you'll understand Daniel.  If we are alive when the final “abomination of desolation” comes, you're going to understand aspects of Daniel that this congregation right now will not understand no matter how well I preach today. It's on a need-to-know basis. But there are levels of complexity and timing that Daniel wanted to know, but he couldn't understand because it wasn't for him. So it's complex.  Daniel would often ask for insight, and sometime it would be given him, but other times he was told to seal up the vision for a future generation. Daniel 12:4, "But you, Daniel, close up and seal the words of the scroll until the time of the end." Close it up and seal it. In other words, Daniel, it's not for you. It's for the time of the end, for people who will live at the time of the end. There are portions of Daniel's prophecy that will only be fully intelligible to the generation that actually goes through it.

Let's talk about where this phrase, “abomination of desolation," comes from. It actually is a repeated phrase in Daniel, it’s not just one time. The desolation comes again and again, this use of the word, “desolation.” Who is Daniel? Daniel was a Jewish prophet who lived in exile in Babylon after Nebuchadnezzar, the king of Babylon, had destroyed the city of Jerusalem, and had taken the Temple artifacts out and eventually destroyed the Temple. Daniel lived at that time, the time of Nebuchadnezzar and on down until the Medo-Persian empire, so roughly around the year 620 to 538 BC, somewhere in there. Anyway, that's what Wikipedia told me about when Daniel lived,  I don't know. That’s about right, 600 to 500 BC. 

In Daniel chapter 8, it's the first time we have the phrase, “desolation.” In Daniel 8, Daniel sees a vision of Alexander the Great, a great king coming from the west from Greece, who will destroy the Persian empire, including the promised land.  One of Alexander's successors will viciously persecute the Jewish nation, becoming extremely arrogant, making claims that reach up to heaven. Daniel is told that a huge number of his own people would be given over to this man because of their transgressions. This individual who makes arrogant boasts that reach up to heaven is a “type” or a picture of the Antichrist. He is not the Antichrist, but he's a type or picture of the mentality of Antichrist, an arrogant Gentile leader that blasphemes and makes claims that go beyond all proportion. This is predicted in Daniel 8.

At one point in Daniel 8:13, he's asking for information. By the way, Alexander the Great's conquest happened about 200 years after Daniel died. So it was future for Daniel, but it's past for Jesus and for us. He's looking ahead to Alexander the Great about 200 years after Daniel would die. In Daniel 8:13, this is the first time that the word is used. "For how long is the vision concerning the regular burnt offering, the transgression that makes desolate and the giving over to the sanctuary and the host to be trampled underfoot." That's the first time we have that desolation.  There's the sanctuary, the animal sacrifices, and desolation connected with that. That's Daniel 8:13.

In Daniel 9, he rolls up his sleeves and really talks about the desolation. He talks about it a lot. Daniel 9 is the first saturated chapter on the concept of desolation. What happens is the prophet, Daniel, reads from the scroll of Jeremiah that the judgment on Jerusalem will last 70 years. The clock was ticking, and the time was drawing near.  Daniel figures out, he's an old man by this point, hey, the time is coming near for God to rebuild Jerusalem and the Temple, so he prays toward Jerusalem three times a day for the rebuilding of Jerusalem and specifically rebuilding of the Temple. Why? Because the Temple is where animal sacrifice happened. That was the center of their religion, and they couldn't do it while there was no temple. He's praying and confessing the sins of his people, and he uses this phrase, “desolate.”  He talks about the desolation of Jerusalem in verse 2. He talks about it again in Daniel 9:17-18, "For your own sake, Lord, make your face shine upon your sanctuary," that's the temple, "which is desolate. Oh, my God, incline your ear and hear. Open your eyes and see the desolation and the city that is called by your name." He’s praying about a desolate sanctuary and a desolate city.

The Lord dispatches an angel to tell Daniel with amazing clarity about the 70 weeks of Daniel. That's a timetable about the coming of the Messiah, the Anointed One, about His death and the desolation that would follow His death. He says that after the 69th week, Daniel 9:26, "An Anointed One," that's Christ, "shall be cut off and have nothing [killed] "and the people of the prince who is to come," so that the Gentile ruler, "the prince who is to come shall destroy the city and the sanctuary.”  There it is again. This Gentile ruler comes in to destroy the city and the sanctuary after the death of the Messiah. "Its end shall come with a flood and to the end there shall be war. Desolations are decreed." Friends, this is exactly the prediction Jesus made. After the Messiah's cut off, the Temple is going to be destroyed by the ruler who is to come. That's the destruction of Jerusalem in AD 70 predicted in Daniel 9:26.  But there's more to come, 9:27. It speaks of the final week, a seven-year period. The last stretch is seven years. The weeks are seven-year stretches that many believe refer to the final seven years of human history. Again, the concept of desolation figures prominently. Listen to Daniel 9:27, "And he" [the prince of the people that'll come, the wicked ruler] "shall make a strong covenant with many for one week. And for half of the week, he shall put an end to sacrifice and offering.”  Sacrifice and offering's animal sacrifice. "And on a wing of abomination shall come one who makes desolate" [a person who makes desolate] "until the decreed end is poured out on the desolator." 

I told you this was meat and not milk. You're reading this and like, "What in the world is this even talking about?  Daniel 9:26 talks about a Messiah who's cut off, killed, but then chapter 27 talks about animal sacrifice and desecrations. The concept is that a powerful and evil ruler will make a seven-year covenant concerning the sacrifices of the Temple and that in the middle of that period of seven years, he shall put an end to sacrifice offering in the Temple, and he shall, in some striking way, abominate or desecrate the Temple. But the end decreed by God shall be poured out on this evil person.

Then in Daniel 11, the Lord reveals to Daniel the specific history of Israel under the dominion of Greek rulers that followed Alexander the Great. One of those Greek rulers who lived about a couple of centuries after Alexander, about the year 175 or so BC, was a man named Antiochus IV. He called himself Epiphanies, “the manifest one.” He thought he was a god. The Greeks were like this. Alexander thought he was a god. They had this kind of mentality. He thought of himself as a god, and he's there in Jerusalem. Daniel 11:31 predicts him. Again, this is centuries before it even happened. This is the amazing aspect of predictive prophecy. Daniel 11:31, "His armed forces will rise up to desecrate the temple fortress and will abolish the daily sacrifice. Then they will set up the abomination that causes desolation." There's the phrase exactly in Daniel 11:31.

Finally, in Daniel chapter 12, the concept is mentioned once again, but this time it seems to be in connection with the end of the world and the eternal state of glory that the saints will enjoy. In Daniel 12:1, it mentions a great tribulation greater than any that Israel had ever endured. It also predicts the rising up of Michael, the great prince, the archangel who protects Israel. The chapter goes on to unfold the deliverance of Israel, the resurrection of both the righteous and the wicked, some to everlasting glory and others to everlasting shame.

At the end of the chapter, the angel asks about the timetable for all of this. Daniel 12:8-12, "I heard, but I did not understand. Then I said, 'Oh my Lord, what will the outcome of these things be?' He said, 'Go your way, Daniel, for the words are shut up and sealed until the time of the end.'" There it is again. "Many shall purify themselves and make themselves white and be refined, but the wicked shall act wickedly and none of the wicked shall understand. But those who are wise shall understand. From the time that the regular burnt offering is taken away and the abomination that makes desolate is set up, there shall be 1,290 days. Blessed is he who waits and arrives at the 1,335 days."

There's not a person on Earth who can tell us with absolute certainty what those days mean. 1,290 days, what is that? 1,335 days, what is that? I already told you, it’s on a need-to-know basis, and you don't need to know or you would know. Daniel didn't need to know and didn't know. But they're odd. The numbers are odd ... More later in Mark 13.

The most heretical thing your pastor believes is that I think actually the people who are alive at the time of the Second Coming will be counting down days until He comes. So though we do not know the day or hour, they will. That's my own thought. If you disagree, that's fine. Then you tell me what the 1,290 days and the 1,335 days signify. It's in there for a reason, friends. Nothing's in there for nothing, and no one has ever been able to understand because, I told you, it's on a need-to-know basis.  If you need to know, woe to you, it’s going to be a hard time. Jesus said, "If those days had not been cut short, no one would survive." That's how bad that time is going to be. It's a terrifying thing that He's talking about. That's Daniel, summarizing, the abomination is some kind of idolatrous desecration by a Gentile ruler connected with Gentile military power.  What is the abomination? It is an idol or an idolatry. What is the desolation? It is, first and foremost, spiritual emptiness that comes from God and then the physical destruction of the temple. That's what I believe Daniel teaches us. 

III. Dress Rehearsals: The Abomination of Desolation: Across History

Let’s go through the dress rehearsals, and then we'll be done. This is something God has done again and again. Let me just bring you through them quickly.  The first phase was in Shiloh. Do you remember in the days of the judges? In the days of the judges, God judged Israel for their wickedness and sin again and again. Because of their sins, He brought Gentile invaders. In 1 Samuel, the Gentile invaders are the Philistines, He brings the Philistines. Do you remember what happened? The Philistines won the first day's battle, so the Jews decided to bring the Ark of the Covenant from the tabernacle.  They bring the Ark of the Covenant, and they say, "The Ark will deliver us." It was like it was a good luck charm. The Philistines were terrified. "Oh, no, those gods that destroyed the Egyptians are here. Well, what can we do? The best thing we can do is try. So be like men, Philistines, and let's find out if we can win." They did win and what did they do? The Philistines captured the Ark.  Do you remember what Eli the priest did when he found out about it? He died. He fell over backward and died, broke his neck because he was terrified about this very thing. The Ark of the Covenant was captured by the Philistines. In his family, a pregnant woman gave birth and died in the birth, and they named the baby, Ichabod, “the glory has departed from Israel” because the Gentiles had captured the Ark of the Covenant.  Remember what happened? They couldn't do much with the Ark. The Ark did a lot with them and gave them tumors and all kinds of things until they finally sent it back. It was like the Ark can take care of itself. But that was that. It was phase one. 

Phase two happened in the days of Jeremiah right before the Babylonian exile. In Jeremiah 7, the prophet was dispatched by God to go deal with, disabuse the Jews, of a basic concept and a theory.  The concept was, because of Solomon's beautiful temple, there is no way that God would ever let this city be captured or destroyed. God will defend this temple. He will protect it. “We have the Temple of the Lord. We're never going to lose.” Jeremiah had the hardest ministry in the Old Testament. He had to go and say, "That whole thing is false. Do not say the Temple of the Lord, the Temple of the Lord, the Temple of the Lord. Go to Shiloh and see what God did to the Ark. You think He's not going to let the Ark get captured? You think He's not going to let the Temple get destroyed?"

Needless to say, Jeremiah was not a very popular man, but he spoke the truth. God did, in fact, let the Babylonians swarm in and, as the psalmist said, "Cut it apart with hatchets and burn it and destroy it." There in Jeremiah 7, God said, "I will bring an end to the sounds of joy and gladness and to the voices of bride and bridegroom in the towns of Judah and the streets of Jerusalem, for the land will be desolate.” As a matter of fact, the very beginning of the Book of Lamentations, which Jeremiah wrote after all of it was done, he looked down in Lamentations 1:1 and said, "How desolate lies the city once so full of people." The emptiness was because of their wicked and their sins. That's second phase. 

Phase three is the Greeks in Jerusalem under the time of Antiochus IV, Epiphanies, the very thing predicted in Daniel 8, also Daniel 11.  The Greek king came, Antiochus IV called Epiphanies, and he reigned from the year 175 to 164. The prediction we've already seen in Daniel 11:31, "His armed forces will rise up to desecrate the temple fortress and will abolish the daily sacrifice. Then they will set up the abomination that causes desolation." The apocryphal book 1 Maccabees tells us what happened. Antiochus IV set up an altar to Zeus in the Holy of Holies and sacrificed a pig to Zeus there, open blasphemy and defilement of the Holy of Holies directly in God's face.  He did it specifically to enrage the Jews and the God of the Jews. This is what I believe is the spirit of the Antichrist. Antiochus IV believed he was a god, and he wanted to take on the Jewish god ,and he did so with blasphemy and with an ending of the animal sacrifice. 

Phase four was the Romans under Titus and the days of Jerusalem, the very thing we're talking about.  The Jewish zealots and revolutionaries had pushed the Roman occupiers so far. Titus said, "Enough is enough," and comes in with the legions. They defeat the zealots militarily. Though he didn't want the Temple destroyed, it was destroyed and not one stone was left on another. It was completely desecrated. When these pagans came in, they brought the effigies, the images of Caesar, and set them up in the Temple. So this is that desecration, that idolatry and the fulfillment of the abomination of desolation.

IV. Final phase:  The “Abomination of Desolation” and the AntiChrist

Those are the four phases that are passed. Is there yet one more to come? I believe there is. Here I would urge you to look at 2 Thessalonians 2, and we'll finish with that. First of all, you need to understand the significance of Jesus' death on the cross. The moment that Jesus died, the curtain in the Temple is torn in two from top to bottom. Jesus said, "It is finished." What is finished? The old covenant is finished. Animal sacrifice is finished.  A new and living way has been opened for us into the presence of God. What was restricted in the old covenant is now open to us by the blood of Jesus. The author of the Book of Hebrews makes it very plain that the old covenant is obsolete, and animal sacrifice as pleasing to the God is done forever. God will never again be pleased with the blood of bulls and goats, ever. It would be a direct affront to the blood of His Son, which was offered.

"The moment that Jesus died, the curtain in the Temple is torn in two from top to bottom. Jesus said, "It is finished." What is finished? The old covenant is finished. Animal sacrifice is finished.  A new and living way has been opened for us into the presence of God."

The author of Hebrews tells us again and again, “once for all,” never to be offered again. It says in Hebrews 8:13, "By calling this covenant new, He's made the first one obsolete.” What is obsolete will  soon disappear. When not one stone is left on another, the Temple itself destroyed. The problem is that when the curtain in theTemple was torn into from top to bottom, the priests that were there watching it, most of them didn't believe in Jesus. Certainly, they must have reported it back to the high priest, Caiaphas. He didn't believe in Jesus either. He had no explanation for the miraculous tearing of the curtain from top to bottom. But what do you think they did? They repaired it. They replaced it. So animal sacrifice went on for another generation after Jesus. What do you think God thought about that? That's an affront to His Son, and it's an affront to the new covenant. It's affront to everything He stood for. Yet, the Jews did it because they didn't believe that Jesus was the consummation of the animal sacrificial system.  They didn't believe that His blood ended for all time animal sacrifice. So in come the Romans, and they destroy the Temple, putting a physical end to animal sacrifice. It can't be done. It hasn't been done for almost 2,000 years since then. Yet, from all over the world, Jews go to Jerusalem. They go to the Wailing Wall, and many of them pray for ... What do they pray for? A rebuilding of the Temple.

For most of my Christian life, I had heard that the Temple was going to be rebuilt. Then when I read the Book of Hebrews and studied it, it's like, "That's awful." God doesn't want animal sacrifice ever again. When Jesus said, "It is finished," He meant it. When the curtain in the Temple was torn in two from top to bottom, that was it. When the author says, "A new and living way has been open for us into the presence of God through the body and blood of Jesus," that's it. It's finished. Yet, we've got this tragic unbelief and blindness on the part of the Jewish nation and a desire to re-establish animal sacrifice. I came to realize just because it's an affront to God and an affront to the finished work of Christ, doesn't mean it won't happen. Didn't the curtain itself get repaired or replaced? Why not the whole Temple?

Then you study 2 Thessalonians 2, and this kind of, in my opinion, cinches it. I don't really have a good interpretation of 2 Thessalonians 2 apart from one final act of the “abomination of desolation.” There's one left to come. Look what Paul says. By the way, the Thessalonians had some false teachers there that told them, unfortunately, they had missed the day of the Lord. How depressing is that? They missed the end of all things.  I don't even know how you make that teaching, but I would find that depressing. Imagine if I got up next week, "By the way, we missed it. We missed it all, not just the rapture now. We missed the whole thing." This was strange false teaching and Paul came in to refute it. He writes very clearly in 1 Thessalonians 4 about the Rapture, and he writes very clearly in 2 Thessalonians 2, I would say, pumping the brakes on a sense of immediacy about the Second Coming.  He said, "Don't let anyone deceive you." Look what he says in 2 Thessalonians 2, 3, and 4. "Don't let anyone deceive you in any way, for that day will not come until the rebellion occurs and the man of lawlessness is revealed, the man doomed to destruction." 2 Thessalonians 2:4 sounds exactly like Daniel 11:36 to me. Listen to what Paul writes about the man of sin, "He will oppose and will exalt himself over everything that is called God or His worship so that he sets himself up in God's temple, proclaiming himself to be God.”  The end can't come until that happens, and it hasn't happened yet. 

I'm saying it still hasn't happened yet. How do I know? Look at verse 8, 2 Thessalonians 2:8, "This man of lawlessness who opposes and exalts himself over everything that is called God and sets himself up in God's temple, proclaiming himself to be God, Jesus is going to destroy with the breath of his mouth and the splendor of His coming.” I know that some reform scholars or others spiritualized this. They saw the Pope as Antichrist. They saw the spread of the true gospel as a fulfillment, it isn't. The Second Coming is something in physical space and time that we'll be able to see with our own eyes, and part of His agenda will be to destroy the beast from the sea, the Antichrist who, 1 John 2 tells us is coming, who sets himself up in God's temple. He's going to destroy Him with the breath of His mouth and the splendor of His coming. That hasn't happened yet.

I don't think it's helpful to spiritualize it. I'm all in favor of sound doctrine. I'm all in favor of that doctrine spreading around the world. I believe that sound doctrine pushes back the spirit of Antichrist. I believe in all of that. I believe many antichrists have come, and we need to fight them in every generation by sound doctrine. But there is an Antichrist coming. John tells us that. “You have heard that Antichrist is coming. Even now, many antichrists have come. There is one that is yet to come,” and 2 Thessalonians 2-4 describes him and Daniel 11:36 describes him. "The king will do as he pleases." This is Daniel 11:36. "He will exalt and magnify himself above every God and will say unheard of things against the God of Gods. He will be successful until the time of wrath is completed, for what has been determined must take place."

One of the things he will do, according to verse 31 of Daniel 11, is to abolish daily sacrifice. The way I put all that together is the Jews will get what they wanted throughout every century, a reestablishment of the animal sacrificial system. We know from the Book of Hebrews what God thinks about that, but it doesn't mean it won't happen and that it will be enacted, it seems, by the prince of the people who will come. That is the Antichrist who will make a covenant with them.  Halfway through that time, he will put an end to it and he will take its place and he'll set himself, and I think of it as air quotes. He'll set himself up in so-called God's temple declaring himself to be so-called God and that will be considered blasphemy. I think it is also essential to the Jews turning genuinely to Christ as they will do right before the Second Coming. But that's another story for another time.

V. Application

“Let the reader understand.” That's what all of that meant. “Let the reader understand.” What are we supposed to do with it? Jesus says, "Behold, I have told you ahead of time." What are we supposed to do with that information? First, let me go back to the point I started with. Understand the desolation that comes from not living in a right relationship with God. That's the real problem here, the emptiness.

God is a full being, and He wants to fill you with Himself. He wants to fill you with the Spirit of Christ. He wants to fill you with the Holy Spirit. The clearest teaching on this is Ephesians 3:17-19. Paul prays for the Ephesian Christians, "I pray that you may be rooted and established in love and may have power together with all the saints to grasp how wide and long and high and deep is the love of Christ and that you may know that love that surpasses knowledge so that you may be filled to the measure of all the fullness of God."

That's what salvation is, friends, filled to the measure of all the fullness of God. God is a full being, and He wants to fill you. It is idolatry, the abomination that makes desolate. So what idolatry is in your life driving out the fullness that you could experience with Christ? That's the question you have to ask. Now, I believe in a geopolitical actual military aspect of this. I believe in physical history, but I also think it's spiritual as well.

I urge you, come to Christ and trust in Him while there's time. Believe that His death on the cross ended forever the need for blood sacrifice. Jesus' blood is the blood of the new covenant. By faith in that blood, you can be washed and cleansed of all your sins and know the fullness of God. Finally, marvel at the intricacies of redemptive history. 

I've been looking forward to and dreading this sermon for weeks now. I decided it was not best to preach it in December. I think you all agree now. It probably was best to preach a couple of good Christmas sermons in December. But now we've gone through the intricacies here. It's a marvel, isn't it? Don't you share with me a marveling at the simplicity and the complexity of the Bible? Close with me in prayer.

Father, we thank you for this deep dive that we've had through the Book of Daniel, redemptive history, the things that Jesus wanted us to know. The fact of the desecration of the holy space by the Gentiles again and again and again has been a display of your holiness, a display of the fact that you don't dwell in temples built by human hands, but you want to dwell in our hearts by the Spirit. So I pray that you would help us, oh Lord, help us to walk with you, help us to put to death all the idols and the sins in our lives, and help us to be faithful to share the message of the simple gospel of Jesus Christ to a lost and dying world that needs it so desperately. In Jesus' name, amen.