Mark 13:1-9 :: “Seek Understanding and Follow Jesus”

[Music] good morning church it is a privilege to be with you and be able to teach the word with you guys today how about that camp video i was so pumped on that yvette hazeltine made that she hates she gets she hates getting pointed out but i did it as revenge because i didn't know she was gonna like be showing that at church and i had a little stain on my shirt which probably none of you noticed and i'm just outing myself now in front of all of you and if you're confused i was the guy with the big afro um which got chopped off by the guy playing drums today pablo he did a great job he also did this was new for me he also did my eyebrows a little bit which was great they were i was in the mirror a little bit i'm a little bit vain please open up to mark chapter 13 this morning i'm just letting you know who you're getting this morning all right mark chapter 13 in all seriousness i am really really excited for this passage um the way that we kind of go through teaching is like bruce comes up with the schedule and then he sends it out to the teachers and i and we go okay what i get this time os gonna be a big chunk uh that's that's gonna be a fun one and i saw i had this chunk and i was so excited because a lot of the things that we're gonna be talking about this morning are a lot of things that have been on my heart especially in the last year and a half this is so it's crazy how relevant it is it's not crazy because god's word is relevant to all people at all times in all places but specifically this passage today family is huge my misunderstanding of this passage led me to do really weird things and i was when i first became a believer about 10 years ago i would track earthquakes all over the world i was super interested in like political conflicts and world politics and specifically like middle eastern politics i pretended to know what was going on and because of all this weird like speculation into these things i became addicted literally to the news cycle because i thought that by knowing what was going on in the world i would be able to tell like exactly when jesus was going to come back and this passage is specifically answering that it he's specifically talking about not being deceived and seeking understanding and not being troubled and simply following him so again we're in mark chapter 13. i'm just going to read the passage just going to read the unadulterated word of god before we get into the teaching this morning so we're going to be through verses 1 through 9 mark chapter 13. then as he went out of the temple one of his disciples said to him teachers see what manner of stones and what buildings are here and jesus answered and said to him do you see these great buildings not one stone shall be left upon another that shall not be thrown down now as he sat on the mount of olives opposite the temple peter james john and andrew asked him privately tell us when will these things be and what will be the sign that all these things will be fulfilled and jesus answering them began to say take heed that no one deceives you verse six for many will come in my name saying i am he and will deceive many but when you hear of wars and rumors of wars do not be troubled for such things must happen but the end is not yet for nation will rise against nation and kingdom against kingdom and there will be earthquakes in various places and there will be famines and troubles these are the beginnings of sorrows verse 9 but watch out for yourselves for they will deliver you up to councils and you will be beaten in the synagogues you will be brought before rulers and kings for my sake as a testimony to them let's pray lord more than my opinions and interpretations just let your word shine forth this morning lord let this be an exercise in worshiping through paying you our attention lord you're telling us this morning to take heed to literally give our thoughts and our minds over to you to contemplate your words help us to do that this morning lord in your name we pray for these things amen amen so as you guys probably figured we're talking about jesus predicting the destruction of the temple and my goal this morning is that we would seek understanding and follow jesus that's really the thrust of what i'm going to be talking about this morning so where we're at in the book of mark is we're a couple days out from passover we're a couple days out from jesus arrest and from jesus's death and jesus resurrection so we're getting close and we're in jerusalem and the other gospels talk about this part that the disciples were showing jesus around the temple complex which i think is just so cool that the disciples were taking their teacher around and showing him the temple now if you're not familiar with the temple this was not the temple that solomon built right david got the idea like hey god i king david said i live in a palace your tabernacle is just a tent like that something's wrong about that thing is god ordained it to be that way god ordained it to be a tent because he knows the heart of humanity and he knows what happens when we see nice shiny things as we tend to idolize that and actually put it before god but god said i did not ask i didn't ask for you to build a temple but guess what now you're going to do it except you're not going to do it because you're a warmonger and you have blood on your hands your son solomon is going to do it so solomon built the temple this building probably sounded as as a worship music guy i i dream about what this temple might have sounded like because it was just amazing wood the acoustics had to be insane gold everywhere and then the tabernacle the tent sat in the middle and what happened the israelites god's people started to literally worship the building and not the god to whom the building stood for and so god literally brought nations to destroy his own temple he let his temple be ransacked for the sake of his people because they were putting the temple before him they were loving the temple and thought that by going to the temple they were right with god instead of going to god himself so it gets destroyed and the israelites are sent into exile but then they're allowed to come back and they rebuild it and it's not at all as fancy as it was the first time the older israelites who knew the first temple when the second temple went up it's such an eerie scene because all the young people who hadn't seen the first temple were all cheering and then the older people who had seen the first temple are like wailing crying and so you couldn't tell who was wailing and who was cheering but from then on it got expanded on and herod king herod who was like a false jewish king king herod started to expand this temple complex it had a ton of buildings people say that this building when you saw it from far away and you didn't know what it was people thought it was a snow-covered mountain because it was made out of marble and gold the heaviest stone that made the temple was 550 tons which for reference the heaviest stone in the egyptian pyramids those giant things which don't look big until you see people next to them is five tons so the biggest stone in this temple is over a hundred times heavier so of course the disciples are excited to see like rabbi's response to this rabbi jesus's response isn't this nuts look how big this is see what manner of stones and what buildings are here and i always i assume this was peter you know it doesn't say who it was but like peter's always the guy who's just like just starting stuff by talking and i don't see anything wrong with what he said there look at this but pointing out the temple to jesus is a little bit like pointing out like a child's drawing to michelangelo like look at this drawing like i see like arms and legs on the stick figure isn't that really impressive michelangelo again peter but not peter problem maybe peter this disciple is showcasing what happens in man's hearts when it comes to temples and institutions and placing them before god like literally god of all heaven and earth lord of all creation for whom bathroom and through whom all things were made is standing right there and peter's like look i'm not peter sorry i keep thinking it's peter one of the disciples is like look how great this is failing to recognize that the lord of all creation is standing right next to him in human flesh so what's jesus's response it's pretty interesting and jesus answered and said to him do you see these great buildings not one stone shall be left upon another that shall not be thrown down all right if i had pointed out to jesus the temple i think i'd kind of take that personally at this point like okay jesus i was just pointing i just wanted to get your take on the temple whoa like that was uncalled for you have no i we can't fully grasp how salacious that was not sinful but how scandalous that statement was made by jesus i don't want to try and ruffle feathers i'm not trying to do this for like shock value but that would almost be like walking through new york city before 2001 and saying look at the world trade center jesus and jesus going it's all going to come down you you start to approach the significance of what jesus said it's it's not even there yet like the temple if you spoke against the temple at this time period that was considered blasphemy like that was a crime just talking bad about the temple let alone prophesying that it was going to come crumbling down jesus is kind of poking at them in matthew we read he also added and i'm greater than the temple one stands before you who is greater than the temple jesus is testing the sensibilities of the disciples so what jesus just said completely rocked the disciples and sure enough in 70 a.d a couple decades later the temple comes crumbling down which was odd because it wasn't even finished yet at this time it only got completed in about 61 a.d and like nine years later it gets destroyed by the roman emperor titus and the roman emperor titus all he wanted to do was just quell a jewish uprising that's all he was trying to do he did not want to go after the temple because it actually it actually was a monument to roman control over the jews but a roman soldier threw a torch into the temple set everything on fire and the gold melted and so titus said take down all the stones take them all down so we can get that gold and sure enough jesus prophesied correctly that the temple would be destroyed but the disciples don't know this is how it's going to go down what he just said that that probably ended all conversation you know when like a conversation just dies someone says something kind of like i'm usually the conversation killer if i'm totally honest like it'll be like nice light conversation and then i'll just bring up some like super random morbid fact i am that person in the friend group and at family gatherings like oh i just thought that was interesting i'm sorry so conversation's dead all cheeriness all like the temple tour is done for the day like we're we're not having a good time anymore and i just i gotta wonder what the disciples what their reaction was and we know a little bit of what their reaction was they were probably so confused i know they were confused i know that had to be hard for some of them maybe some of them were apathetic but we're gonna find out the response of four of the disciples verse three now as he sat on the mount of olives opposite the temple peter james and john and andrew asked him privately let's stop there so the mount of olives sits on the other side of jerusalem as the temple and you can see the temple you can see jerusalem it's just an amazing sight you can still go there today so they're sitting on the mount of olives seeing this oh what looks like a snow-capped peak mix of gold and four of the disciples muster up the courage to go ask jesus what in the world he was talking about four of them and it's it's your usual suspects it's peter james john and then andrew comes along too and it's it's weird that only four of them go up to him out of the twelve only a third were curious enough about this to go ask jesus i don't know what the other disciples were thinking did they not care were they just too scared to even ask they didn't even want to know how it was going to go down did they just trust god's plan like hey temple's coming down i guess i'll just i'll trust in that what was their reaction i know that the reaction of the four though was the better path always go to jesus to seek understanding in any of our confusion whether it be about something we read in the word whether it be about world events going on right now don't shut out like the other eight disciples press into jesus during those times go to him privately in your secret place in the prayer closet with jesus and seek understanding so jesus answered actually they asked in verse four tell us when will these things be and what will be the sign when all these things will be fulfilled they asked two questions when is that gonna happen and what's going to be the sign when all these things are going to be fulfilled like what's going to happen right before then that's interesting those two questions that they asked they asked when's it going to be and basically how i'm going to know that it's going happen they they were so concerned with the what and the when they didn't really seem concerned with the why though which i thought was interesting if i'm going to god and asking a question about that i would think to ask him lord why the destruction of the temple was bloody josephus the historian estimated that approximately 1.1 million jews died just jewish people not even counting the romans we don't know if his estimates are accurate but at least in the minds of the jewish people 1.1 million perished i would be asking why jesus and we can ask why we can we can ask those hard questions i think a lot of us think that faith is not asking the questions like just a blind acceptance of the truth of the word the reality of our world as it is as messed up as it is that's not necessarily faith i think that's more apathy like whatever concerns and confusions and heartaches you're having you can go to jesus and you can ask him about why these things are happening and so they asked jesus when is this going to happen and in matthew 24 we actually see that they asked another question as well and they said and when are you coming in glory they thought it was one big thing they're like okay you so the temple's going down so clearly that's when you're gonna be like new heavens new earth time kingdom of heaven time guys let's go like there's no way that you're not gonna do something big after that like there's no way there's no way and so they're already asking jesus about the end of all things with preconceived notions about how it's going to go down and jesus doesn't go that's not how it's going to happen stupid that's not what he says he answers them very patiently very kindly very wisely it's okay to have questions about the end times you you read the book of revelation i know christians that are afraid to read that book it's a it's a gnarly book it's a highly prophetic book i think it's really cool i would love to see it like depicted with full-blown cgi i think it's awesome but i know not everybody feels that way about the book revelation for some i mean you're talking about you know talks about a third of the world perishing and some of it talks about the antichrist talks about eternity i mean these are these are the heaviest subjects i think you can talk about like you can talk about politics and kind of upset people at family gatherings you start talking about the afterlife though how everything's gonna end that you're sure to ruffle some feathers people are not going to let you know where thanksgiving is going to be next year more than likely right unless your family is obviously believing but they thought it was going to be the same thing they're like okay so when so when the temple happens and the end of the world happens let us know right we're going to kind of get into it a little bit more in this message but i saw that happen so much throughout the course of lockdown and quarantine and covid i saw people react to this and go all right well clearly jesus is coming back which seems harmless in and of itself but i knew believers that were leaving their churches because their pastors didn't agree with them that this meant that jesus was coming back like this can be a divisive issue this can be a confusing and unsettling issue but think about the black death okay 13th century europe a third not three percent 33 of the european population perished in the black death you don't think people were talking about jesus coming back like it was a sure thing you don't think the other two-thirds of europe thought jesus was coming back at any second after that it's interesting that that's always our reaction to these big world events and these big tragedies is that well clearly it means jesus is coming back but what we're gonna find is that that's just part of life and so jesus starts his answer in verse 5 and he says and jesus answering them began to say take heed that no one deceives you before he gives a when before he gives a what or a how he says listen really really carefully take heed meaning pay attention literally give your attention to what i'm about to say right now is what jesus is saying and our attention is a currency we don't have an infinite amount of attention as much as i'd like to think so as many hours as i spend on my phone saying i'll get to reading the word later it's not we have we have to make the decision to invest our attention like it's money into the words of jesus otherwise we will be deceived we will be so easy to lie to and to be manipulated by opportunists and charlatans so before he says anything he says look don't be deceived and these four disciples are doing a great job because they're actually seeking understanding and that is the whole point seek understanding from god before you go to google go to jesus and i'm i'm a big culprit of that what's wikipedia gotta say about this thing i read about in the word instead of just talking to god like he's there because he is he's so present the reason jesus died was to bring us into the presence of god so that we could go to him and seek understanding whenever we need it we have to spend real time with jesus in prayer and in the word and fellowship and meditation on his word and it's humbling maybe the other disciples didn't go to jesus because it was they didn't want us they didn't want to look dumb they didn't want jesus to think that they didn't know what he was talking about but jesus knew you can ask god any question i love it like we're not supposed to have a childish face we're supposed to have a child like faith that same faith that a little kid that unquestioning wavering loyalty and trust a child has in their parent this is the kind of trust we can have in god because he's a perfect heavenly father don't rely on any kind of temple don't rely on any kind of institution i honestly don't even rely on any church for understanding or intervention of man to draw close to god i think i said it last week here on stage when i was leading worship but no one takes you into the presence of god no one brings you into the throne room of god except for jesus and he is with you always and we need understanding in order to not be deceived and to obey jesus in this but look okay even if we were we had perfect understanding and perfect knowledge of everything going on if we knew exactly how the end times was going to go down that does not mean that we're not going to be troubled by what happens in this life like knowing everything jesus knew that the temple was going to go down and when he enters into jerusalem right after the triumphal entry people are laying palm prawns down and singing hosanna as soon as he goes through the gates of jerusalem he weeps he cries with real tears because he knows that jerusalem's gonna be destroyed it wasn't just a matter of fact for him he wasn't like oh i'm just gonna disconnect from the temple because like or the reality of it because it's gonna come down anyway it still troubled him knowledge of what is going to happen does not bring peace the following jesus does and that's what we're going to read in our next three verses if you don't want to be troubled follow jesus those are his two directives in this do not be deceived and do not be troubled again let's read through verse six for many will come in my name saying i am he and will deceive many i think a lot of us in our minds may jump to how it applies to us today right all the cults that happen all the christ cults is what i'll call them i don't even need to tell you them anymore because now that is a whole genre of entertainment known as cult shows i am a fan of cult shows i am very fascinated by the idea of cults and things of that nature i actually almost got pulled into a christ cult and you're asking okay what makes something a church and a cult like it's got to be something tangible and a cult is anything that basically tries to have the monopoly on salvation meaning you can only be right with god if you associate with us we here at calvary nexus do not believe that you have to associate with us or calvary chapel or even evangelicalism in order to be made right with god jesus alone faith in jesus alone his grace that alone makes you right with god no religious institution or alignment or membership does that and the thing is jesus is answering the disciples question it's like look a lot of people in your guys's life are going to come in my name and say i am he if you have the new king james version in front of you you'll see that he is italicized meaning it's not in the original language and it's inferred so it could be inferred that he's talking about people will come in my name and people will say that they're me we have to be really careful about who we trust as a fellow believer when i first became a believer i thought anyone who called themselves a christian was a christian i was like right on brother me too and not that it's on us to try and figure out like i used to sit with my buddies and be like what about this celebrity you think that's celebrity saved nah dude because they they cussed that one time oh yeah that's right yeah they can't be or they did that scene in that movie there's no way that they could be safer they said that thing one time right that's not our job our job is not to be salvation sheriffs okay we're not supposed to be like detectives of who's in and who's out but we're still supposed to practice discernment in fact john said the apostle john in 1st john chapter 4 verse 3 he said look a lot of antichrists are going to come in the world and the spirit of antichrist is already here a lot of people are speculating about who the antichrist is going to be whereas the spirit of antichrist that that sense of rebellion against god is already present and it has been it's been there since the disciples were still alive false teachers and prophets and fake jesuses are have always been a threat they will always be a threat until he returns follow jesus and that's all you got to worry about seek the real jesus follow the real jesus and avoid that verse seven but when you hear of wars and rumors of wars do not be troubled for such things must happen but the end is not yet in the time of the disciples right now when jesus said that rome had like a weird piece going on like it was super peaceful at this point in rome's history so that was probably super weird for them like uh this is like literally world peace time what are you talking about i have no idea what what's going on with you jesus but everything's going fine right now but in 10 years time rome would go and conquer what is now known as the united kingdom like jesus knew this was going to happen and he knew as soon as wars and all that stuff happened as soon as calamities occurred that people were going to go he's coming back he's coming back trust me follow me and i'll make sure that you go with him if you don't follow me you're not going to go with him and i love what he says here do not be troubled this actually is a little bit hard to stomach for such things must happen but the end is not yet why do i mean war is one of the biggest criticisms of unbelief it's one of the biggest reasons people say well what about suffering in the world god's real jesus is real what about war war is horrible that's such an understatement war is demonic i'll say i mean it is the expression of the heart of the devil if anything and here jesus says it has to happen why back to seeking understanding i want to understand why these things have to happen but think about it those calamities are often the things that bring people to god when 9 11 happened do you know what happened church attendance exploded in this country like never before that was the highest instance of church attendance ever people didn't run away from god people ran to god during that see this in the old testament the old testament is a story of israel being conquered by other nations and then them returning to god to see victory it's often because mankind has fallen we are by default sinful when we enter this world you're conceived in sin it takes really feeling the effects of sin to go what else is there besides sin i don't like what evil brings to this world i don't like how it kills and torments people and tortures people i think that's part of the reason why these things have to happen and how do we not be troubled how are we not supposed to be thrown off by pandemics and famines and poverty genocide inequality injustice and the way that we have peace through that is knowing that jesus is going to set it all right like if you don't believe that if you don't believe that your faith and your hope is gonna be really weak to be honest like if you're not looking forward to the future if you're just looking to jesus as a way to get through the rest of the week like sometimes i treat him as and not as the great king who's going to return one day and set all things right and bring in a new heavens and a new earth then we've only got a part of faith like that is the answer jesus himself is the answer to those criticisms brought by people who don't believe and so it's our job to invite people into that kingdom it's our job to tell people about following jesus so that they can escape the coming wrath verse 8 for nation will rise against nation and kingdom against kingdom and there will be earthquakes in various places and there will be famines and troubles these are the beginnings of sorrows so all those things and jesus says these are the beginnings of sorrows these are just the consequences of living in a fallen world these things may increase as we approach the end times but these things have always been a thing the familiar did anyone go to the pompeii exhibit at the reagan library it was it was a pretty gnarly yeah a couple of you it was a pretty gnarly experience i was very much into world history even as a little kid and the the pompeii event blew my mind if you're not familiar a hub of roman culture an entire city called pompeii overnight was essentially mummified under stories of ash instantly in the eruption of mount vesuvius this happened in the lifetime of some of the apostles like we're talking john hasn't even written first second and third john yet when pompey goes off can you imagine the speculation of christians talking about uh do you see that whole city get mummified yeah you don't think that god's coming back you don't think that was his vengeance on rome for the temple i'm sure every time any event happens oh that fire as jesus coming back that earthquake that's jesus coming back if you track earthquakes you'll quickly find out there are hundreds of earthquakes all over the world every single day there's nothing about earthquakes that indicate that god's like right there but it means that the conditions for jesus to come back have been met pretty much since his ascension like you read the early church fathers and you you read some of the letters in the new testament and the writers and the early church fathers had this understanding that jesus was coming back any day now and they were completely correct in assuming so because all the conditions for him to come back were met he is going to come back like a thief in the night it will be in the blink of an eye but no one knows the day or the time and it's in a way i can't really wrap my brain around jesus said not even the son knows at least during his incarnation and earthly ministry jesus didn't even know when he was going to return and he says look there's going to be wars there's gonna be world wars nation against nation and kingdom against kingdoms there's gonna be earthquakes the earthquakes and pompei lasted for days after the eruption the entire world all over the world there were historians in china going and then the sky got dark and this happened in the mediterranean like this was insane the scope of this it literally darkened the world but jesus hadn't come back yet he says these are the beginnings of sorrows jesus is saying this is just the start the sufferings of this world 2000 years later we're still going we're still experiencing things like pandemics it doesn't mean that jesus is coming back because of a pandemic he's coming back in his wisdom he's allowing more people to come into the family of god i know a lot of us want him to come back today but if he had come back the day before i came to know him i wouldn't be going with you so i'm glad for my sake and probably everybody else's sake who got saved after me i think we're really grateful that he's patient but it is imminent in a sense because he'd come back at any time especially just as a cursory glance at what's going on the middle east the fact that israel exists as a nation the fact that they're always getting ready to rebuild the temple again like any day now guys that's really the sense we should have the sense we should have is honestly maybe today and if that's thought scares you it doesn't have to you i think a lot of believers think like i've got to be killing it in my walk the moment jesus comes back or i'm not gonna go i'm not going with him salvation from sin and death from the wrath of god is by grace completely undeserved unmerited through faith that is it once you have placed your faith in jesus nothing can separate you from the love of god neither height nor death nor crazy spiritual demonic beings nothing can separate you from the love of god and so if you have placed your faith in jesus you can have full assurance that you're going with him now it doesn't mean that we should just disconnect from people doesn't mean like well this world's going anyway so i don't really care how many people die because of the pandemic i don't really care how many people die because of wars because i'm going with jesus we're still supposed to be healing hands and feet we're still supposed to bring the gospel to people we're still supposed to make the world right side up through acts of love and acts of service which is what we're trying to do through these backpacks i know it might seem like a really trivial thing but it's just wrong for kids to have to go to school without these supplies and instead of going well jesus could you imagine if the school approached us and they were like hey could you guys help us out with backpacks and we're like i mean jesus is coming back any day now so just believe in him that's all you gotta do no jesus saying don't be troubled but he's saying to lift other people out of those troubles as well and in verse 9 he finishes but watch out for yourselves for they will deliver you up to councils and you will be beaten in the synagogues you will be brought before rulers and kings for my sake as a testimony to them again i think i've heard a lot of christians immediately apply this like persecution church is going to persecution right now a lot of people were crying persecution throughout the last year and a half and some of it was merited and some of it was not merited i will say this though we live in a country where our right to assemble is now protected and cannot be taken away from us no matter what happens with this pandemic the rest of the world can't even do this on a good day without it being a crime we have such a privilege as believers living in this country and the weight of the privilege almost crushes me sometimes like my standard of life in this country my freedom of worship my accessibility to the word in any translation i want it can be read to me by a ugandan man or it can be read to me by a british woman if i wanted to and i can pick any other kind of background music i want to go along with it we are living at such a crazy point in church history and i'm i personally am wasting it on entertainment i am i'm wasting it on my phone doing nothing i have the word on my phone i have several bible apps on my phone and i'm looking at the same 12 guitars i always look at and now it's drums now i've just that's a whole nother world so now i've got more things that just like online window shop for forever pray for my wife it's bad but jesus first is speaking to the four disciples in front of him he's saying watch out for yourselves i love that watch out he knows how these guys are gonna die and for the exception of john peter and andrew are crucified and james is beheaded like the persecution in the early church inarguably the world the church was most universally persecuted in its first 350 years of existence like i know that the church in china the church in india the church in a lot of places in the middle east suffers greatly but universally the church was so persecuted in its first 350 years and if they had recanted their faith if they weren't faithful to continue to preach the gospel they were being torn to bits by lions in the coliseum we wouldn't be here the message would have died out and so we owe it to the early church we owe it to our predecessors in a sense first to god but that god used them to bring the word to us even through persecution and yes god says through paul in his letter to timothy look you're if whoever wants to live a godly life is going to be persecuted some of us feel like we're never persecuted i'm like how am i being persecuted how is me placing my faith in jesus nothing but a privilege to me at this point i feel very little persecution but there is persecution i have experienced it it might not be on the same level as having my life threatened it may never be that intense but it still is there it can be not getting opportunities at jobs it could be not being able to vibe with people in the break room because they're talking about stuff that is just completely against god not being able to join in on sinful conversation and then being ostracized for it there is real persecution and it's because persecution preaches that jesus allows it when we're persecuted for our faith not for being a jerk i think a lot of people are jerks and go that guy persecuted me it's like no you were just not being very nice and just kind of like you put your foot really far into your mouth there that had nothing to do with jesus don't don't bring jesus into this okay but he says it's for my sake as a testimony like it's one thing to tell people about jesus but you prove the gospel you live the gospel you display the gospel which is even more important than simply the words when we are persecuted and we remain faithful the early church peter the disciples would praise god whenever they were persecuted i feel like a lot of american believers today cry and wail and take people to court i mean we really don't handle persecution very well a lot of times some not all believers some believers really raise a fuss about it and it's like look jesus promised you that you were going to be persecuted your life isn't being threatened like the it was for the disciples so all that to say don't be troubled or turn aside by the things going on in this world yes jesus is coming back any moment that condition has been met since basically the church's inception but don't disconnect from the world we still have to seek to bring the love of god into the world we don't just peace out and say i'm just waiting for the jesus train have good luck everybody else we have to unplug from the noise too the 24-hour news cycle that's extremely biased the amount of misinformation going back to not being deceived we got we have to limit our exposure to things sometimes like pretty much every source of information now is a source of propaganda from some party or another it's crazy it's so hard to just get facts and truth nowadays and he's saying don't be deceived seek understanding and follow jesus and you'll be all right we have to know the true voice of our true shepherd by hearing and hearing by the word of god it's how it happens we've got to know his voice and we've got to follow his voice i'm going to invite the worship band to come on up i'm gonna invite the ushers to distribute the elements of communion in just a couple days from this point from this conversation that jesus is having with the disciples he's gonna institute the lord's supper he's going to institute communion for the first time and gosh the church has all over the world the church does this differently i'm going to be completely honest with you guys all over the world the church has different views about what this is some believers some churches literally believe that this is the blood and the literal body of jesus which i don't know how they stomach that i don't know how that works logically in my head but our understanding and my understanding is that jesus instituted this as a symbol like look partake of me that's all you got to worry about seek understanding and follow him and partake of his life and his death in his resurrection his body represented in the bread that was broken for us his blood that was spilled represented in the fruit of the vine and he says we have we enjoy this cup in this communion now and the next time we'll do it together in the heavenly kingdom like what we're doing is just a speck of a shadow of the communion that we are going to experience with god forever and glorified perfect bodies conformed to his image we're going to behold him for who he truly is with all the blinders off and when we behold him for who he truly is we're going to become like him i'm very excited to get a new body some of you are too some of you are like i just kind of want a little bit of an upgrade from what i got going on right now and praise god for that i do not feel the same way i'm way too young to be feeling these things again don't be troubled seek understanding follow jesus and we'll be all right let me pray and then we'll partake lord thank you so much for what you've done thank you that through you we don't have to be troubled we don't have to be deceived or your words are true and you you promise us when we seek truth that we'll find it and i love that promise we don't have to be geniuses to figure out truth lord we just have to look for it and you'll bring it to us god thank you so much for your sacrifice in jesus name amen let's partake of the bread and let's partake of the fruit of the vine representative of his blood [Music] you

Channel: Calvary Nexus

Views: 95

Rating: 5 out of 5

Keywords: Jesus, God, Bible, Book of Mark, gospel, resurrection, Jesus Ascension, Temple, follow Jesus, seek understanding, Jesus is King, love God, love neighbors, false teachers, don't be decieved, don't be troubled, prophecy

Id: LTh3vMKw-Qw

Length: 45min 0sec (2700 seconds)

Published: Sun Aug 01 2021