Mark 13:10-23 :: “Understanding the End Times”

[Music] good morning hi guys it's good to be with you this morning do me a favor if you haven't already let's turn to the gospel of mark chapter 13. we are talking about the end times or eschatology and there is a tendency when talking about the end times or eschatology to produce a lot of speculation along with curiosity in other words if i wanted to have more clicks on our content i could just title this message who is the antichrist and people would be clicking all over the place oh my gosh what is going on i want to know and really the purpose of god predicting events that are to come is to not only comfort his people but to encourage us to be prepared for the events that are certainly going to come and as we study today my encouragement and i believe god's desire is that we would understand the end times and that we would be prepared so in mark chapter 13 i'm going to begin reading at verse 10 just through verse 13 to get us started this morning and the gospel must be first preached to all the nations but when they arrest you and deliver you up do not worry beforehand or premeditate what you will speak but whatever is given you in that hour speak for it is not you who speak but the holy spirit but brother will betray brother to death and a father his child and children will rise up against parents and cause them to be put to death and you'll be hated by all for my name's sake but he who endures to the end shall be saved let's pray father as we open up the scriptures we ask that you would teach us by your holy spirit that we would take to heart that we would take heed that we would be careful that we would be prepared for the events that are coming and father we pray that you would be glorified in this place by our lives we thank you now and praise you in jesus name amen so as you're taking notes the subject we're going to talk about today is the great tribulation the great tribulation and i believe the objective that god intends for us today is that we would understand the end times and be ready we'd understand the end times and be ready there's a lot of content we're going to cover this morning so i want to encourage you to be prepared to take notes but before we get into the text i just want to remind you guys of the context so jesus has entered into jerusalem we're now a few days from the cross as he and his disciples are on the temple mount they are marveling at the grandeur and the glory of the temple and jesus makes a comment that not one stone will be left upon another when you contemplate the grandeur of the construction of the temple mount during herod's expansion this is this incredibly marvelous prediction something that seems so certain so sure so stable that literally not one stone would be left upon another just sounds completely remarkable so as they exit jerusalem they go down the kidron valley to the east they ascend up the mount of olives where you see that picture postcard view from the east overlooking the temple mount what currently is adorned with the al-aqsa mosque a muslim place of worship and at that time would be herod's temple and as mark records it the disciples say to jesus when will these things happen in other words when is the destruction of the temple going to happen but matthew's recording is more oriented to the jewish audience that matthew is writing to and matthew has a fuller description of the question of the disciples when will the end of the age come and what will the sign of the end of the age or the sign of your coming be in other words as jews the disciples are understanding that the destruction of the temple must be significant and how does that connect with the end times and in response to that jesus gives a discourse that we find ourselves embarking on now it is called the olivet discourse because he is talking from the mount of olives regarding the end times so he begins at verse six and he gives a list of events that are going to occur before these things he talks about wars he talks about rumors of wars talks about famines talks about earthquakes talks about pestilences or troubles and he says that those things are not the sign but at verse 8 he gives us a hint he says this is the beginning of sorrows now as austin taught us last week and just did a great job unpacking this for us the term beginning of sorrows is a hebrew idiom it is referring to birth pains now i've never experienced that personally but i saw karen go through that experience twice and what you discover with birth planes is they increase with intensity and frequency and that increase with intensity and frequency is telling you that the end is coming the end is near so when we see famines and earthquakes and pestilence and wars and now world wars increasing with intensity this should get our attention there's going to be a latency between the destruction of the temple and his coming and these things will continue but they'll move with intensity it's in that context that we find ourselves but before we go any further i want you to see this with me in 70 a.d as austin shared with us the temple is destroyed exactly as jesus foretold not one stone left upon another as the romans sought to get the gold that adorned literally the wall ceiling and floor of that temple and to get that gold to bring back to rome they dismantled the temple so that literally not one stone was left upon another if you are blessed to visit israel and to go to jerusalem there at the southern steps of the temple mount you will find the stones that were tossed off the temple mount as part of this effort to reclaim the gold the stones are still there as a testament to what jesus predicted what he foretold came true exactly as he said it was and the reason i mention that is everything else that we're going to discuss this week and next oh teaser come back next week right everything everything we're going to talk about is going to be fulfilled just as foretold now when we get to verse 19 we're going to see that jesus uses this term that there has not been such tribulation on this planet in all of the history of this planet nor will ever come and that's why we term this the great tribulation as matthew records in his account so we're going to distinguish the tribulation from the great tribulation so first we want to consider some events related to the tribulation events related to the tribulation and the distinction that i'm making is the second half of this period of time is referred to as the great tribulation first half is referred to as the tribulation so first of all what is the purpose of the great tribulation what is the purpose of the great tribulation in revelation chapter 6 through verse 18 we see that the tribulation is a period of god's judgment upon those who are opposed to god also we see from jeremiah chapter 30 verse 7 other places this is a time of preparation of the jewish people to receive christ as their messiah it's referred to by jeremiah as the time of jacob's trouble the jewish people and their suffering these are the purposes of the great tribulation so you might want to consider this when does the great tribulation begin when does this tribulation begin daniel chapter 9 verse 27 tells us that there is going to be a seven year peace treaty involving the middle east and dealing with israel and its neighbors in the middle east and it is brokered by a person who is later revealed to be the antichrist and if you're expecting me to tell you who that person is today we're not going there let me just make it abundantly clear that until this peace treaty is signed i say it's reasonable to assume that none of us is going to know who the antichrist is furthermore i'd suggest to you that this person will be heralded as a person of gravity i mean someone who could actually broker peace in the middle east a seemingly lasting peace in the middle east that would allow the hebrews to rebuild their temple on the temple mount the site of the original temple during the time of solomon that later was expanded by the time of herod that person is going to be herald they will be the person of the year on every magazine everywhere receiving nobel peace prize and the like and ultimately it will be discovered that that person is in fact the antichrist but alas i'm getting ahead of myself we'll get there third we want to distinguish a couple of events the rapture from the second coming now we'll be talking a lot about the second coming next week but we need to distinguish these two events so the rapture is talked about extensively through the old new testament we see the rapture described by paul in first thessalonians chapter 4 verses 13 through 18 first thessalonians chapter 5 verses 1 through 9 paul describes in first corinthians 15 verses 50 through 54. the raptures comes our english word the rapture comes from a latin word speaking of being caught up because there in those texts it describes the church being caught up to meet christ in the air and instantly the church those who from the time of pentecost to the time of the rapture whether they have preceded us in passing from this life or we are alive at that time we are all caught up to meet christ in the air and instantly we get resurrected glorified bodies ideal to spend eternity with christ and that's what the rapture is it is distinct from the second coming where christ will set foot on earth he will do battle with forces opposed to god and he will vanquish evil and bring forth justice and enter in the kingdom age where he will rule and reign eternally ah amen amen so we're talking about two events and so the big issue related to those two events is the timing of the rapture and there are many good scholars who have differing views regarding the timing of the rapture but the dominant views are pre-tribulation mid-tribulation and at the end or post-tribulation now we believe that the rapture of the church the timing of the rapture occurs prior to the tribulation some of the reasons for that is that we are told that christ comes at a day an hour that we didn't expect so if we knew the timing of the midpoint or the end point it might mean that we knew exactly when he was coming we're also told in 1st thessalonians chapter 5 thessalonians chapter 1 that the church is not appointed to wrath the church is not experiencing god's judgment so we believe that we will be gone before god's judgment is poured out and in addition to that that pre-trib rapture gives us this sense of the imminent return to christ we're supposed to live in expectation jesus says that he comes at a day or an hour that we did not expect and i'm assuming most of us did not wake up today thinking like today's the day i know he's coming i'm not even gonna bother doing my hair today right and so we're to live in this imminent sense of his return not that we stop caring about life in this world as paul would say to the church at thessalonica but we're living life in this world with an expectation that christ could come at any time and we need to be ready so that's a relationship with the rapture and the second coming now before the tribulation one of the events that needs to unfold we're told in verse 10 is the worldwide proclamation to the gospel it says this gospel will be proclaimed to all the nations and then the end will come in other words the gospel is going to be proclaimed we read the phrase to all the nations and our tendency is to think of our globe or a map and think of nation-states the greek term that is translated nations there is ethnos ethnos speaks of people groups those with a distinct custom a distinct language a distinct culture and what what jesus is making clear here is before judgment comes every single people group on the planet will have been engaged with the gospel will have had an opportunity to come to faith it is a testament that god is just you see that with me okay so where are we in that process to give you a sense the joshua project joshuaproject.net or joshuaproject.org there are estimated 17 000 distinct people groups on the planet that's a lot of people groups certainly a lot more than the number of nation states of that approximately 7 000 have yet to be reached with the gospel most of those are in hindu and muslim nations many if not most of them are geographically isolated and many people in those nations are facing persecution or would face persecution for the gospel despite those obstacles because of the advances of technology and the advances of communication the advances of travel that exist in our world today it is estimated that the gospel shall be proclaimed to all people groups before the end of this decade these are very interesting times that we live in the next event that jesus described is persecution of god's people persecution god's people so at verses 11 and 12 he talks about this division that is going to be taking place that parents and children brothers and sisters siblings that there is going to be this conflict within a family between believers and unbelievers and this persecution would increase to such an extent that even families shall become intensely divided and this persecution we're told that verse 11 is for my name's sake this persecution of believers in christ not only jews but also non-jew believers in christ who are being persecuted at verse 9 earlier as austin shared with us jesus spoke of persecution of jewish christians they would be brought before councils and synagogues councils and synagogues are jewish things now it's everyone who identifies as a believer of christ for my name sake and he gives us this encouragement in verse 12 that that those that endure to the end shall be saved in other words a commitment to faithfully follow jesus regardless of what his experience demonstrates true saving faith but he's predicting this increase in not only anti-christian but anti-semitic thought and action anti-christian anti-semitic persecution of god's people so open doors usa in their 2021 report that documents the global trends of 2020. one in eight 340 million christians live in places where they are highly persecuted the incidence of christians losing their life because of their commitment to jesus increased 64 percent last year now the rise of anti-semitism the israeli department of ministry addressing the diaspora the dispersant of jews around the globe does an annual report on anti-semitism this report documents an increase in anti-semitism in six continents every continent effectively that is inhabited people jews are targeted uniquely and persecuted my brother seth who's just like the nicest guy he's like single-handedly keeping hallmark in business now um my brother and sister-in-law were visiting a friend of ours who who lives outside of las vegas and and we were talking and my sister is bragging on my brother now my my brother was not the most athletic guy uh growing up and loved sports but wasn't great like jewish people like our sports hall of fame is like a closet in brooklyn somewhere with a picture of sandy kofax okay it's just not a lot of great jewish athletes so it's not a genetic thing i don't know okay so anyways my sister-in-law is bragging on my brother that he went to the shooting range and had this incredibly tight target pattern that he was getting the bullseye and my brother is like the ultimate pacifist and this just seemed so unusual not only the spray pattern but like what in god's good name are you doing at a shooting range that just seems so uncharacteristic he said i'm thinking about getting a gun i said really he goes yeah with the rise of anti-semitism that's going on in our world i want to protect my family now that kind of of thinking is just indicative of what is going on in our world right now and the persecution of god's people let's move from events related to the first half of the tribulation to events related to now the great tribulation beginning in verse 14 so when you see the abomination of desolation spoken of by daniel the prophet standing where it ought not let the reader understand let those who are in judea flee to the mountains let those who are on the housetop not go down into the house nor enter to take anything out of his house let him who is in the field not go back to get his clothes but woe to those who are pregnant and those who are nursing babies in those days and pray that your flight may not be in winter for in those days see this verse 19 there will be tribulations such as has not been since the beginning of the creation which god created until this time nor shall ever be and unless the lord had shortened those days no flesh would be saved but for the elect's sake whom he chose he shortened the days then if anyone says to you look here is the christ or look he's there do not believe it for false christs and false prophets will rise and show signs and wonders to deceive if possible even the elect but take heed see i've told you all these things beforehand so the the first thought that i want to encourage you to write down here as we're continuing into the second half the great generation when does the second half of the great tribulation begin when does the second half of the great tribulation begin so in daniel chapter 12 at verse 11 and in daniel chapter 9 verse 27 we see at the midway point three and a half years into this seven year peace treaty the antichrist is revealed and an event occurs which is called the abomination of desolation which brings us to the next question what is the abomination of desolation so jesus says verse 14 when you see the abomination of desolation spoken of by daniel the prophet standing where it ought not so again in daniel chapter 9 and and in daniel chapter 12 we see this event foretold just so you guys understand daniel was written in the 6th century bc before christ daniel is predicting an event that is going to be a precursor that is going to give us a hint of what is going to happen during the great tribulation it is fulfilled by antiochus epiphanes a greek king in 167 bc 167 years before christ during the greek occupation of israel what antiochus does is he slaughters a pig in the altar of sacrifice the the holy altar that jews made sacrifice to the true and living god slaughtering a pig to say the least is not kosher this is the seemingly the the worst thing that could have happened but it got worse this guy was such a madman that he erected an altar a statue an idol of zeus the premier god in the greek pantheon in the holy of holies where the ark of the covenant would be where god's people are uniquely comforted and met by the very presence of god this is the abomination of desolation spoken of by daniel when antiochus then commanded jews to worship him and to fall down before this idol of zeus bringing about the maccabean revolt and then this uprising that pushed the greeks out of israel temporarily until the romans came jesus is saying that there is going to be an event like this of what daniel spoke and that the reader you and i should understand what is going on here paul connects that in 2 thessalonians chapter 2 beginning of verse 3 through verse 10. there he tells us that the antichrist in the middle of the this tribulation period the three and a half year mark the antichrist now declares himself to be god commands to be worshipped establishes and sets up an idol of himself in the holy of holies and anyone who will not worship its punishable by death that is the event this abomination of desolation that shifts the change from the antichrist being seen as this great man of peace who has now consolidated power and declares himself to be god what comes next is sudden intense persecution sudden intense persecution it says in verse 14 those who are in judea flee so where's judea judea is the southern part of israel that's where jerusalem the capital and the temple are they're told to flee so you can assume this has some special relevance for jewish people in other words if he was talking to gentiles about this are you in paris you and zurich you in london no this this is especially significant for jewish people but see the urgency here see the intensity here it says if you're on the housetop don't run in to grab supplies if you're outside don't go in to get clothes don't go in to get supplies get out flee to the mountains said woe to you if you are pregnant if you are nursing a child in other words this is going to be intense this isn't going to be something where you're going to have time to you know got to grab the diaper bag gotta this is going to be intense verse 15 pray that it doesn't happen in winter and matthew again writing to a jewish audience record jesus saying and pray that it doesn't happen on the sabbath why because jews will limit the amount of distance that they travel on the sabbath he's saying flee with this urgency now there is a precursor to this event that happens in 70 a.d we talked about the destruction of the temple when titus the roman general and his legion besieged jerusalem when they surrounded the city of jerusalem laid siege to it many christians in jerusalem at 70 a.d seeing this prophecy by jesus saw it as a warning and they fled the city and went to the mountains and escaped the romans on the other hand jewish people who did not heed the warning as the romans are approaching come into jerusalem seeing it as a fortress to protect against the roman conquest and as the romans beseeds the city they were slaughtered now this warning speaking of the intensity jesus alludes to verse 9 or 19 he says there is never going to be such tribulation that has ever occurred since the creation of the creation by god nor will ever happen now when you hear that that should get your attention especially if you have that understanding of the persecution of jews and jerusalem historically this is a city that was besieged by assyrians then the babylonians conquered it and people were reduced to cannibalism before they were slaughtered and then deported by the babylonians then the greeks conquered then the romans conquered and as if that wasn't enough there was the spanish inquisition and the attempted genocide and then hitler and the nazis and world war ii in the attempted genocide and what she is saying here is if you have an understanding of all of those historical incidents and all the intense suffering for the jewish people that what is going to happen as a result of the antichrist persecution it will pale in comparison in its intensity and its frequency that would be pretty dismal news to hear and by the grace of god the next thing that jesus tells us is that he is going to protect a remnant look with me at verse 20 and unless the lord had shortened those days no flesh will be saved but for the elect's sake whom he chose he shortened the days here we see that god is going to limit the scope of the judgment that takes place upon the jewish people as well as limiting the scope of the judgment of the forces opposed to god because of those who are going to be caught up in that destruction god is going to preserve a remnant and that remnant is described as two words chosen and elect and so if you've been around a church for a period of time you've heard terms like chosen and elect so i want to understand here that those two terms are referred to three groups in the bible so isaiah uses the terms chosen and elect to speak of the jewish people they are uniquely chosen by god they they're called god's chosen people so they're uniquely called there's a second group that's called the chosen and elect and that's the big c church first peter chapter one that you are the elect chosen by god whether jew or gentile if you are a follower of christ you are part of the universal big c church part of the family of god chosen and elect and then there's a third group that jesus is alluding to here those who would come to faith during the tribulation so whether they are jews or those who came to faith during the tribulation we believe that the church will have already been raptured during this time those people are going to be preserved god will preserve a remnant yay this is good all right so jesus has given all of this teaching regarding the great tribulation and its sandwiched there's these birth pangs and then we're going to talk about the second coming and a new heaven and earth the eternal kingdom that god's going to get set up and so in between he's now just been talking about this judgment the great tribulation and he concludes this part of this discourse before he ever talks about the second coming by telling us to get ready so look with me begin in verse 21 then if anyone says to you look here is the christ or look he is there do not believe it for false christs and false prophets will rise and show signs and wonders to deceive if possible even the elect but take heed see i have told you all these things before him so it starts off with the warning of false christs false prophets verses 21-23 this would be incredibly helpful to protect god's people from the cults whether it was jehovah's witnesses the latter-day saints or any other cults it would have protected countless people from false messiahs like jim jones or sung young moon who just caused people in the thousands of thousands to lose their life and following a false christ a false prophet but it's incredibly relevant in terms of a warning against the antichrist and against the false prophet in acts chapter 13. jesus is saying take heed in other words be careful wake up understand do you know who are the primary victim for false religions those who profess to be followers of jesus who don't understand who are apathetic who are looking at events without an understanding of their significance as it relates to the bible who are reacting to some headline reacting to something on social media reacting to some crazy news resource that isn't news that's simply propaganda and they don't have a biblical framework to filter it nor are they being led by the holy spirit to be prepared that presumably if we thought that jesus could come today and that our loved ones would be separated from christ and they would experience hardship because the church had been taken out and then all sorts of horrible things were going to take place we would obviously be more motivated than most of us are presently motivated and there's some sense of this that we're really reluctant to wake up i had a really close friend of mine and dude was the king of the snooze alarm this guy could hit the snooze like multiple times and he recognized that he had a problem so he got the alarm and put it on the other side of the room figuring problem solved all he did was get up hit the snooze and get back into bed he didn't wake up that's not what god wants us to do he wants us to wake up to understand the times and be ready so how do we do that how do we do it here are some practical steps to be ready one commit to christ luke 9 23 said if anyone wants to be my disciple in other words if you want to bear the name christian if you want to bear the name follower of christ to be his disciple take up your cross deny yourself and follow him that that you got to get past this experience of walking around the pool and saying i'm not sure if the water is okay and you put like your toe in it's like okay and you get in on the first step and now maybe you're taking your foot and you've gone down to the next step and you're in up to your knees and you're thinking like i'm getting into my waist pretty soon and then i'm gonna walk in up to my neck and for me that's a pretty shallow point and i'm not suggesting dive into the deep end before you find out that there's water in the pool but some of you have not committed you're not all in and i'm not casting stones at anyone i'm just telling you if you want to be ready you have to commit when my older brother seth who i've alluded to previously was about six seven years old he got behind the wheel of my dad's big chevy impala and got the car out of park on the driveway and it started to roll down the driveway and my dad being in the front yard of our apartment and there was a white picket fence in the front of the garden of the apartment went to rescue my brother and sought to run across and jump across this picket fence of which he did not make it jewish people aren't great athletes generally and so i don't want to belabor this imagery but as you can imagine being stuck on one side of the picket fence with one leg and one side with the other it would be suffice it to say uncomfortable and some of you have gotten a little too comfortable in something that should be very uncomfortable you need to decide before all of this happens whether you're in or out to prepare and help others to prepare that decision needs to take place so you need to be committed second you need to learn and obey his word matthew 28 begin verse 18 jesus says all authority has been given to me in heaven and on earth now go therefore make disciples baptize in the name of the father name the son name of the holy spirit teaching them to observe all things i have commanded you and lo i am with you always to the end of the age i hear a lot of nonsense not from you guys per se when somebody bless you when somebody says to me you know that this vaccine is the mark of the beast and dr fauci is the antichrist nonsense and they say well how do you know because i've read my bible revelation 13 tells you that the mark of the beast cannot occur until the antichrist has been revealed there's a revelation of the antichrist before the mark of the beast we'll talk more about the mark of the beast next week teaser this is nonsense because someone has exploited a headline a false prophet someone has exploited social media and people who should know better don't now this is not an indictment i'm not intending to throw stones what i'm saying to you is we got to spend more time reading our bibles and learning our bibles than we do regarding our hulu our netflix our tick tock our youtube if you know more about craft beers then you know about the 66 books of the bible there's a problem it's time to get ready third a robust prayer life jesus in the garden of gethsemane gathers with his disciples to pray takes his three closest friends on earth peter james and john a further distance into the garden and urges them to pray with him as he is praying he looks and they've fallen asleep it happens repeatedly and finally he says to them watch in other words be spiritually alert and pray the spirit is indeed willing but the flesh is weak but the warning as recorded there is watch and pray lest you fall into temptation we will deny jesus proper place in our lives if we are not engaged in a life that reflects solitude with god communication with god recognizing the still small voice of god making our requests known to see his will done interceding on behalf of others the community of faith is to be a house of prayer this is not simply hey fill out a prayer request for five seconds on a sunday morning and praise god for all those that come in and i wish that more of us did our prayer life we should be people of prayer like fish swim and birds fly followers of jesus are people of prayer because jesus is a person of prayer and if you're going to be prepared to deal with persecution to deal with any sort of hardship and represent god well you've got to be a person of prayer fourth the power of the holy spirit in acts chapter 1 at verse eight it says to his disciples wait here until in jerusalem until you've received the filling the baptism of the holy spirit then you'll be my witnesses in judea in jerusalem judea samara out of most parts of the world he's saying to them look no amount of bible learning no amount of discipling and mentoring is going to be sufficient without the power of holy spirit this isn't just a gathering for us to be more moral people we're to have the boldness the power of the holy spirit to live like jesus lived when the disciples were in the garden they fled in fear they gathered in an upper room locked all the windows locked all the doors because they were afraid of persecution when the holy spirit came upon the church and at pentecost they were bold and continued in their boldness until the gospel had transformed their world and nothing has changed god desires to reach this community or wherever your community might be god's desire is to use his people to represent him to bear witness of his goodness to bear witness of the gospel so that when the fullness of the church comes when that last person who by the way is going to be a gentile it's not me might be one of you if you're here and you're not saved when that person comes to faith this is not going to be like a supermarket millionth customer in confetti and balloons this is going to be christ coming for us and us going up to meet him we get to play a part in god's great redemptive plan let's live on mission the pandemic doesn't end the mission it changes the way that we engage in the mission the mission is to love god supremely love neighbors like we love ourselves and make other disciples who do likewise if that's what you're doing you're prepared for christ's coming if you're not doing that jesus is urging you for the benefit of you your loved ones your community to understand the times and decide to be ready let's pray father i thank you for your grace and warning us of these things to come and they're certain just like the temple's destruction and i pray that we would heed this warning that is given to us at such a time as this that you would use us mightily lord to impact our loved ones to influence our communities to reach our world for jesus pray lord that you sustain our effort help us to have a long view in mind and yet help us to anticipate that you could return today and i pray for anyone here who hasn't received jesus yet that he's standing at the door of your heart he's knocking and if you are ready to follow him he's just waiting for you to open the door and let him know and he's promised to give you spiritual life to forgive you of all the sin that separates you from god and to give you the power of the holy spirit to live with him and for him forever so right now in the quiet of your heart let god know you're ready and for the rest of us lord prepare us that we might represent you well in jesus name amen god bless you guys you

Channel: Calvary Nexus

Views: 138

Rating: 5 out of 5

Keywords: Jesus, God, Bible, Book of Mark, gospel, resurrection, end times, rapture, persecution, be ready, God’s protection, God’s warning, love God, love neighbors, great tribulation, offering, Calvary Nexus

Id: k0vBWG7N25M

Length: 44min 56sec (2696 seconds)

Published: Sun Aug 08 2021