The following message by Alistair
Begg is made available by Truth For Life. For more information visit
us online at truthforlife.org. I invite you to turn to Mark and chapter
13. We’ve begun to study this chapter; I think this is our third study. And
I’m reading from verse 1 to verse 13: “And as he came out of the temple, one of his
disciples said to him, ‘Look, Teacher, what wonderful stones and what wonderful buildings!’
And Jesus said to him, ‘Do you see these great buildings? There will not be left here one stone
upon another that will not be thrown down.’ “And as he sat on the Mount of Olives opposite
the temple, Peter and James and John and Andrew asked him privately, ‘Tell us, when will these
things be, and what will be the sign when all these things are about to be accomplished?’ And
Jesus began to say to them, ‘See that no one leads you astray. Many will come in my name, saying,
“I am he!” and they will lead many astray. And when you hear of wars and rumors of wars, do not
be alarmed. This must take place, but the end is not yet. For nation will rise against nation, and
kingdom against kingdom. There will be earthquakes in various places; there will be famines.
These are but the beginning of the birth pains. “‘But be on your guard. For they will deliver
you over to councils, and you will be beaten in synagogues, and you will stand before governors
and kings for my sake, to bear witness before them. And the gospel must first be proclaimed to
all nations. And when they bring you to trial and deliver you over, do not be anxious beforehand
what you[’re] to say, but say whatever is given you in that hour, for it is not you who speak,
but the Holy Spirit. And brother will deliver brother over to death, and the father his child,
and children will rise against parents and have them put to death. And you will be hated by all
for my name’s sake. But the one who endures to the end will be saved.’”
Amen. Father, help us now as we turn to the Bible.
We always need you. We need you. Holy Spirit, illumine the page to us, and conduct that
dialogue within us, in the very core of our being, so that we might hear—beyond the voice of a mere
man, that we might hear from you, the living God. So give us to think clearly, to feel deeply,
to respond properly. For Christ’s sake. Amen. Well, I don’t know if you have heard this, but
the latest date that I have heard now for the end of the world is the twenty-first of December
this year. December 21, 2012. I came across this when I met someone in San Francisco in the last
couple of weeks. This individual had been at a celebration out in the desert called a “festival.”
The more I researched it, it sounded really dreadful to me. But part and parcel of it was a
preoccupation with Mayan civilization—which is, of course, an ancient civilization—and
the Mayan people developed calendars, as you know. The Mayan calendar could
only run for so long, and of course, now you know when it ran out. And it ran out, or
runs out, on 12/21/12. It’s funny how all of these numbers always just seem to have a pictorial
dimension to them as well. So you have 12, and then you reverse the 12, and then you put
the 12 back again: 12/21/12. And apparently, a number of people are already getting pretty
stirred up about this. And the good news for us, of course, is that we will be able to have our
Christmas concerts before this finally hits. It’s nice to know that other people, other than
crazy Christians, are predicting the end of the universe. But whether it is some kind of biblical
prophetic interpretation or unbiblical prediction, what they both have in common is an attempt
to disprove what Jesus says clearly in the thirty-second verse of this chapter—namely,
that “concerning that day or that hour, no one knows.” And the fanciful notions that
surround the question of the return of Jesus and the end of civilization as we know it
continue unabated. And clearly that was the case in the context in which Jesus was speaking.
It’s very, very important that we do not allow, however, any kind of skepticism to creep
into our own thinking concerning the return of Jesus Christ itself. The fact that there are
fanciful interpretations and that there are all kinds of academic and theoretical predictions
mustn’t dim in our thinking, in our hearts, in our expectation, the fact of the return of
Jesus Christ. We have sung of it in that little song that we hadn’t sung for some time, affirming
the fact that Jesus promised his disciples that he was returning. Remember, he says to them in
the Upper Room Discourse, “Don’t let your hearts be troubled. You believe in God; believe also in
me. In my Father’s house were many mansions. If it weren’t so, I would have told you. I go to prepare
a place for you. And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again and receive you unto
myself so that where I am, there you may be also.” And the disciples paid attention to that. And
on the occasion when Jesus ascended into heaven, as Luke records it for us in the Acts of the
Apostles—at the beginning of the Acts of the Apostles—you may recall that when Jesus was taken
up into heaven and a cloud covered him from the sight of those who had gathered with him, God
dispatched two messengers, just to drive home the significance of what was taking place. And those
two individuals said to the gathered company, “This very Jesus”—this very Jesus; not another
Jesus or a different Jesus or a different kind of Jesus, but “this very Jesus”—“who has been taken
up from you into heaven will come back in just the same way as you have seen him go.” In other words,
Jesus left physically, and he left visibly. And he will return both physically and visibly. And the
Bible tells us that on that occasion, “Every eye will see him.” It’s quite a remarkable thought.
But it is a cornerstone of Christian doctrine. And this I want you just to understand. You will
see that there are four individuals with Jesus that are engaged in this dialogue. Two of them
wrote letters: Peter and John. And when John wrote—and the reason I mention this is because one
of the questions that inevitably comes to mind is: these fellows were there to ask the question,
Jesus gave them the answers to their question; how then did they apply it when they,
in turn, were the teachers of others? Did they get off on sidetracks with this
material, or did they stay, if you like, straight down the middle of the thoroughfare?
Well, the answer is, in 1 John chapter 3, “See what kind of love the Father has given to us,”
writes John, “that we should be called children of God; and so we are. The reason why the world does
not know us is that it did not know him. Beloved, we[’re] God’s children now, and what we will be
has not yet appeared; but we know that when he appears we shall be like him, because we shall
see him as he is.” There’s not any doubt in his mind. This is not theoretical; this is absolutely
practical. And he drives home the implications of it on this occasion: “And everyone who thus
hopes in him purifies himself as he is pure.” When Peter writes his first letter to
the scattered Christians of his day, his introduction to his letter is along the
same lines. First Peter 1:3: “Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ!” he
says—begins with this great exclamation of praise. According to his great mercy, he has caused us
to be born again to a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead, to
an inheritance that is imperishable, undefiled, and unfading, kept in heaven for you, who by
God’s power are being guarded through faith for a salvation ready to be revealed in the last time.
And then he goes on to say, “And in this you rejoice, even though for a little while you may
face trials of various kinds, in the fact that you know that these trials have come to test
your faith so as to prove how genuine it is, and you may be in no doubt that this same
God who is bringing you through this is guarding you and keeping you and will bring
everything to fulfillment and to fruition.” In other words, the return of Jesus Christ
is not a piece of theological lumber. It’s not extraneous. It’s not tangential in any
way. And it comes across clearly, then, in the way Peter writes. He starts from the fact
that God the Father has displayed his mercy in the atoning death of his Son. This has been applied
to the lives of those who have believed. They have been born again to a living hope. That
living hope is on account of the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead. If he was still
in a Palestinian tomb, there is no living hope. There is no hope. But he is not. He is risen.
He is the ascended King. Therefore, there is an inheritance—an inheritance that is not like your
401b or whatever those things are. It’s not like your retirement package. It’s not like your stock
portfolio. It’s not like your house, which will eventually crumble. It’s not like all your stuff
that will eventually go in a garage sale. It is not like that at all. It is “imperishable,” it is
“undefiled” and is “kept in heaven for you.” For who? For those who are awaiting the return of
Jesus Christ—the absolute, visible, physical, glorious, definite return of Jesus of Nazareth.
So don’t let’s any of us be in any, any, any confusion concerning this. Nobody is standing
back from that which is main and that which is plain. Jesus has promised he will return, and
the Christian lives in expectation of the return of Jesus. Either he will come for us first or
we will go to meet him. But see him we will, and return he will, even as he’s promised.
Now, not everybody believes this. Not even some people who apparently profess themselves
to be Christians believe this. I hear people telling me that the return of Jesus Christ was
a spiritual return, and that he returned in the hearts and minds of his followers, and that’s
what stirred them up post-resurrection, and so on. It’s a kind of futile notion. And liberal
scholarship just dismisses Mark chapter 13, just wholesale—and the equivalent passages
in Matthew 24 and Luke 21. It just says, “Jesus didn’t say any of this stuff.” But that’s
the standard by which liberal scholarship works. We are not starting from there at all. No.
Jesus, in this discourse on the Mount of Olives, is pastoral in his concern, strengthening and
sustaining the faith of his followers. And the request, which we’ve noted a couple of times
now, is there in verse 4: “Tell us, when will these things be, and what will be the sign when
all these things are about to be accomplished?” The mind of the disciples cannot conceive
of a time without the temple in Jerusalem, and therefore, they collate two things: one,
the destruction of the temple, and the end of the age. “When is all this going to unfold?”
And that kind of twofold dimension then runs, as we’ve said, in a telescopic fashion
all the way through the reply of Jesus. So the request is straightforward, and the
response, you will notice, begins in verse 5. Mark tells us that at that point, “Jesus began
to say to them…” He “began to say to them.” That little phrase should just remind us, incidentally,
of the fact that we do not have everything that Jesus ever said about every subject written
down for us in the Gospels. John tells us that; he said, “There were many more things that Jesus
did and said that could have been written down. If they’d been written down, there aren’t
really enough books to be able to contain them all. But these are the things that have
been written in order that you might believe that Jesus is the Christ, and that by believing
you might have life in his name.” In other words, we have everything there that is necessary for us
to understand who Jesus is and why Jesus came and what it means to trust unreservedly in Jesus.
I find it quite helpful to realize that some of the things that we might struggle with between
one verse and another, if we had been present on that occasion, we might have had a greater
degree of clarity. Having said that, however, the Holy Spirit has preserved everything exactly
as he intended, and so we rest content in that. And so, verse 5, “He began to say to them,” first
of all, “Do not be led astray.” “See that no one leads you astray.” Or, if you like, “See to it
that no one leads you astray.” In other words, what he’s saying is, “There’s a real possibility
that you could be led astray.” There’s no reason to say “See that you’re not led astray” if there’s
no chance of being led astray. In other words, there are things that need to be done to make sure
that we don’t wander away. The means of grace that God has given to us in the reading of the Bible,
in prayer, in the fellowship of his people, in the sacraments of baptism and the Lord’s
Supper, in the issues of church discipline, and so on—all of these things are to be attended
upon, so as to ensure that we are not led astray. You neglect your Bible, you may be led astray.
You neglect the worship of God’s people, you may be led astray. One coal taken out of
the fire, put over by itself, will very quickly go out. Pick it back up and put it in amongst the
rest of the coals, and it will be illuminated and give warmth to the house along with the others.
So this is not theoretical here on the part of Jesus. He is pastorally concerned for his
followers. Remember, one of them is going to go astray—one who would have heard this
discourse as it was rereported. And they didn’t do a particularly good job, did they,
when everything began to turn against Christ? No, this is an important word, isn’t it?
“See that no one leads you astray.” And then he explains why this is pressingly important.
Because, verse 6, “many will come in my name, saying, ‘I am he!’ and they will lead many
astray.” “They will lead many astray.” Now, Roman and Jewish historians record
the fact of the presence of all kinds of charlatans in this time period—while Jesus
existed, certainly after his ascension, and in the period of time that is represented in
the early decades of the first century. You can read that for yourselves. It’s not my purpose
here to give history lessons from Roman and Jewish historians. But he is pointing out that the
reason that they need to pay particular attention is because of the influence of these individuals.
“People will come and lead people astray.” Now, obviously, that is true of that time, but it
is not limited to that time. Because the whole of human history is full of charlatans,
arising generation after generation, either mismanaging the words of Jesus, attempting
to portray themselves as Jesus, or explaining that Jesus means very little without their explanation,
because they actually are the prophet that was the one who needed to explain the prophecies that were
contained in the Bible. For example, Joseph Smith, who was a flat-out liar and a charlatan—and
the founder of Mormonism. Can’t say that today, because it’s politically incorrect. Just
read history. If you want to sleep with, like, twelve women, either you have to do
that—twelve other than your wife—either you have to do that and admit that it is
flat-out wrong and violates the law of God, or you invent a religion that includes that.
Many will be led astray. Many will be led astray. Because they never paid attention to who Jesus is,
how Jesus came, the eternal nature of his sonship, the fact that the doctrine of the Trinity
is not a piece of theological nonsense—that it is foundational, that there is a radical
difference between the coeternity of Father, Son, and Holy Spirit and a Jesus who is a product
of a relationship. It’s vastly different! “Well, we’d like to know about the end of the temple
and the world and everything else.” “Well, let me just say one thing to you: make sure you’re
not led astray, for people will come saying all kinds of things, and many will be led astray.
Many will be led astray.” Here’s a situation where there’s no safety in numbers, loved ones.
No safety in numbers. That’s his first directive. Secondly, he says, “And I do not want you to be
led astray, and I do not want you to be alarmed. I don’t want you to be alarmed. When you hear of
wars and rumors of wars, do not be alarmed.” Why does he say, “Do not be alarmed”? Because wars
and rumors of wars are a basis for alarm. And if you throw in famines and earthquakes and the
movement of nations against one another, these are all the kinds of things that can unsettle a
person. Now, again, these characteristics were present in the decades leading to AD 70. But the
decades leading to AD 70 clearly don’t exhaust the application of wars, rumors of wars, and
so on. But again, what is Jesus saying when he refers to these things? “I don’t want you to be
alarmed.” He’s already said it, John 14: “Let not your heart be troubled.” “Don’t be alarmed.”
And then he explains why. “When you hear of wars and rumors of wars, do not be alarmed. This must
take place.” Why shouldn’t you be particularly perturbed? Because “the end is not yet.” And at
the end of verse 8: “These are but the beginning of birth pains.” See what Jesus is saying?
“Many of the things that’re gonna happen to you fellows will appear to be signs of the end
of the age. But they may not actually even be signs of the imminence of the end of the temple.”
And once again, if you read history, you discover that of course there were wars and rumors of
wars. Of course there were all these kinds of things. There were earthquakes, and there were
famines. But why would we think there wouldn’t be? Because we all have a kind of “end of the
universe” mindset. I never met anybody who thought that the end of the age was actually—I shouldn’t
say I’ve never met anybody—most of the people that talk about the end of the world, they always
talk about, “The end of the world, it’s coming, like, next Tuesday.” I don’t ever hear very many
people explaining that they think the universe is going to go on for two and a half thousand
more years. I mean, you can’t write a book on that. Nobody cares. What possible relevance does
it have? No, everybody’s always on the now, now, now, now, now. As if this is the first time in
the universe there were famines, or earthquakes, or wars, or rumors of wars, or international
peace conferences. I have lived sixty years; I never lived a year yet without war. Never lived a
year yet without earthquakes, or without famines, or without international crises. So why would you
imagine that in the decades that led up to AD 70, all these things would be missing? Do you
think this is just a comment about 2012? Course it’s not! Does it exhaust it prior to 70?
Course not. Once again, you got the telescope. You got the interweaving of these things.
Instead of being troubled or preoccupied by them, the believer is to recognize that these are
just—and the metaphor he uses is a good one—the birth pains. The birth pains. I’ve never had
birth pains. But my wife has, and so has yours, presumably. And when they first come, you think,
“Here we go!” Especially if it’s your first baby, you don’t really know what’s going on at all,
and whatever these things are called—I forget what they have; they have a name for them—but
you find the people running off to the hospital immediately, only to be sent home with a kind of
embarrassed look on your face. Because they were just the beginning of the birth pains. There
was no guarantee. I met somebody this week; I said, “When’s the baby due?” She said,
“Well, such and such a date, but,” she said, “we’re not sure.” Of course you’re not sure!
May come early, may come a little late; we don’t know. He’s kicking—we understand
that—she’s kicking, or they’re doing the “Branson-Hicks” or whatever those things they do.
But they’re just the beginning of the birth pains. Now, that’s what Jesus is saying. The metaphor is
a great metaphor, because, you see, for a Jewish woman, without giving birth her life was robbed
of meaning. If she didn’t give birth, she had no goal. So the beginning of the travail for a
Jewish woman meant that now the significance of her life was going to be there for all to see in
the fulfillment of her desire. It began with the pains, and the pains are the promise that she’s
going to have what she waits for with longing. And so Jesus says, “When these pains come, the
sufferings that come along with them will be an indication of the fact that there is a day coming
that will give meaning to your lives as well.” Thirdly, verse 9: “I want you to be on your
guard.” See the way he does this? “See that no one leads you astray, and let me tell you why: because
many people will be involved as charlatans. Then, when you hear about wars and rumors of wars
and stuff, do not be alarmed, because it’s not the end; it’s just the beginning of the birth
pains. And there’s no guarantee, then, about the time that there is that exists between all of
that movement and stuff and the actual arrival. Thirdly, be on your guard.” Why? “Well, because
they’re going to deliver you over to councils and beat you in the synagogues, and you’ll
stand before governors and kings for my sake.” Well, the immediate application of
that is clearly not Cleveland 2012, is it? Not the immediate application of it. I
mean, when’s the last time you had any thought of being taken into a synagogue and given a
jolly good beating? And there hasn’t been a king around here for a couple of hundred years
at least, and even if he showed up, we’d probably give him a beating rather than he gave us a
beating. So, there’s little application there, is there? Not immediately. Not immediately.
And you will notice that the reason for the suffering that they’re going to face is—according
to just three words, there at the end of verse 9—“for my sake.” “For my sake.” And then
down again in verse 13: “You will be hated by all for my name’s sake.” “For my name’s sake.”
It’s not that these people are disruptive in the culture—they’re standing out in the street
with signs and whatnot. Not necessarily. No, no. No, the Jews hated them because of what
they said concerning the messiahship of Jesus, and the gentiles hated them as well—these
strange people who were cannibalistic, so they thought. Why else would they be
gathering in places and eating the body and blood of their Messiah, Jesus of Nazareth?
Now, you don’t have to read into the Acts of the Apostles for very long before you realize
that what Jesus says here takes place. Peter and John are imprisoned. They’re released. They’re
arrested. They’re beaten. Stephen is stoned. James is killed by King Herod. And so Jesus says,
“This is what is going to unfold for you. It’s going to give you an opportunity to tell the
truth about who I am and about what I have done.” And interestingly, you will see that verse 10,
just one little sentence, nestles in there between verse 9 and verse 11—which I recognize is where
you would expect verse 10. But the point that I’m making is that the phrase—over which there’s a lot
of ink spilt, and a lot of coffee spilt as well, and a lot of hot air used—sits in between the
bearing of witness for the name of Jesus and suffering before governors and so on, and
then, “When they bring you to trial and deliver you over,” in the prospect of that
and in the middle of that, and “the gospel must be first proclaimed to all the nations.” So
what do you think that’s really about? I mean, in that context. What do you think he’s saying
there? I mean, if this was class, we would have interaction. It’s not—well, it is, but without…
What does he tell them? How did this start? “This is quite a place, Jesus. Did you see
these buildings?” Jesus says, “You see those buildings? They’re going.” What did that mean?
It meant this: that no longer were people going to encounter God in a dark room of an ancient
building in the Middle East. Because he was no longer inhabiting that temple. His followers are
now the dwelling place of God. Those followers are going out into all the ends of the earth with this
good news. They’re gonna get a hammering for this, in Jerusalem and in Judea and when they go to
the ends of the earth. And as soon as they go out there with that news, it will become apparent
that this message that has been conveyed through the Jewish people has come to an end, and
that this message now is for all the nations: for the Jews and for the gentiles, for those
from Macedonia, for those from Greece, and so on. And in the post-Pentecost experience, you have
this very thing taking place: the gospel is being proclaimed to all the nations. Isn’t that what
they say on the day of Pentecost? “We can hear the gospel being proclaimed in our own tongue.”
Now, does that exhaust the notion of the gospel being proclaimed to all the nations? No. There
is every indication that the expansive dimension of that speaks to the fact that God’s patience—and
we’ll come to this tonight—but that God’s patience is such that he is allowing his voice to go out
to the ends of the earth so that all the nations of the world will have the opportunity to hear
the gospel. But think about what “all nations” meant in the minds of Peter, James, and Andrew,
and John. Do you think they thought about United States? They couldn’t; it didn’t exist. About New
Zealand? No. Great Britain? No. These nations did not exist. So when he says, “The gospel’s
gonna go out to all the nations,” remember, he’s not speaking this for 2012. He’s speaking to
a group of fellows who said to him, “Tell us when this’ll happen and what will the signs be?” Says,
“This is what’s gonna happen. They’ll haul you in, they’ll give you a doing. Remember that the gospel
has to go out to all the nations, and when they do, make sure that you are on your guard.”
In fact, he says—look in verse 12, and with this we’ll have to stop—you’ll look in verse
12: “Brother will deliver brother over to death, and the father his child, and [the] children
will rise against [their] parents and have them put to death.” In other words, the familial
relationships that tie men and women to one another will eventually be broken down under the
impact of the gospel. What this means for us today is different from what it means to our brothers
and sisters in the Sudan, and in Afghanistan, and in Pakistan, and in many other places.
But why would this strike us, when Jesus has already said, “If anyone
wants to become my follower, he should take up his cross and follow me.”
“But let me first go and bury my father.” “Let the dead bury the dead.”
“But I have got a business. I’ve got a field.” “Forget your field.”
“Yeah, but I’ve got family ties.” “Forget your family.”
“What?” You see, unless those umbilical cords
are severed in the core of a person, however would we ever be able, then, to
face the challenge that is represented here? “But,” he says, “I want you to know that the
one who endures to the end will be saved.” “The one who endures to the end will be saved.”
It’s what you have in the book of Revelation: “Be thou faithful unto death, and I
will give [you the] crown of life.” You see the cohesion of the chapter,
then. “Tell us, what will these things be, and what will happen?” He says, “Don’t be
led astray. Because if you’re led astray, you won’t continue to the end. And if you don’t
continue to the end, you won’t be saved. Don’t allow these things to alarm you and unsettle you
and knock you off your horse, ’cause if you get knocked off your horse, you won’t continue to
the end. And if you don’t continue to the end, you won’t be saved. And be on your guard, because
you’re gonna be brought under the persecuting gaze of those who hate you for my name’s sake.
And if you allow that to disestablish you, then you won’t continue to the end. And if you
don’t continue to the end, you won’t be saved. It is the one who endures to the end will be saved.”
“Well,” you say, “but I know. But, I mean, you just endure to the end. If you’re saved,
you endure to the end.” How do you endure to the end if you’re saved? By enduring to the end.
By keeping yourself in the love of God. It’s the very same thing you have in the same few verses
of Jude: “Now unto him [who] is able to keep you from falling … to present you faultless before the
presence of his glory with exceeding joy,” so on. God does this; he’s the one who keeps you from
falling. In the same few verses, he says, “Keep [yourself] in the love of God.” So the one who is
kept keeps. And if he’s not kept, he doesn’t keep. And the ground of our salvation is in what Christ
has accomplished. By his first advent, he has come and dealt with everything that was necessary in
our lives. The triumphant victory of his first advent will be brought out in all of its fullness
in his second advent. So he says, “Make sure that you endure to the end. Don’t throw the towel in.
Don’t lie down in the grass. Don’t allow all the unsettling factors of the universe to knock
you off your stride. Keep going. Keep going!” And then, fascinatingly, you go from verse 13
to verse 14, and he says, “Let those who are in Judea flee to the mountains.” So in
verse 13, you’re supposed to endure it, and in verse 14, you’re supposed to run away
from it! I’m so glad that we’ve run out of time. Let’s pray together:
O God our Father, thank you. Thank you that the clarity of your
Word is clear in all the places you expect it to be clear, and where it seems a little tenuous
for us, it’s in order that we might be humbled, and also that we might realize that the things
that you want us to really lay hold of are the things that you’ve made so perfectly plain.
So help us, then, to heed your exhortation, given to these men on that day and written down
for us so that we might read them today and apply them, as is right. Help us not to be led
astray. Save us from foolishness and silliness. Help us not to be alarmed as we see the nations
of the world in turmoil, as we see famine and earthquakes. Help us to learn from that metaphor
that these are the beginnings of the birth pains, and they don’t give us an announcement of the day
of arrival. And help us, Lord, always to be on our guard. Help us not to let our guard down. Help us
not to yield to temptation. Help us to exhort and encourage one another. Help us to be the very
embodiment of the song, to be able to say as we look on one another, “We are watching, we are
praying, we’re hoping, we’re looking for you.” And so, may the grace of the Lord Jesus Christ,
and the love of God, and the fellowship of the Holy Spirit be the portion of all who
believe, today and forevermore. Amen. This message was brought to you from Truth For
Life where the learning is for living. To learn more about Truth For Life with Alistair
Begg visit us online at truthforlife.org
