Signs of the Times

Mark 13:1-32

A Sunday School teacher was trying to make a point in his class. “If I sold my house and my car, had a big garage sale, and gave all my money to the church, would that get me into heaven?” “NO!” the children all answered. “If I cleaned the church every day, mowed the yard, and kept everything neat and tidy, would that get me into heaven?” Again the answer was, “NO!” “Well, then, if I was kind to animals and gave candy to all the children and loved my wife, would that get me into heaven?” Once more they all answered, “NO!” “Well,” he continued, thinking they were a good bit more theologically sophisticated than he had given them credit for, “then how can I get into heaven?”

A five-year-old boy shouted out, “YOU GOTTA BE DEAD!”

There are times we get too caught up in complexity and need to look at a situation more simply.

We are at the end of a series of sermons from Mark’s gospel and as I read through the rest of Mark, I decided to end by preaching from Jesus’s teaching on the end times and on his return. To be honest, I have avoided preaching on this topic and approached it this time with reservations. Too many people know too much about the end times. There is no end to the books that declare once and for all time what the teachings of the end times mean. The problem is that the passing of time reveals these predictions to be wrong.

But because people misuse these teachings does not mean they are to be avoided and I have enjoyed researching these sermons. I will not be talking about millenniums and tribulations and raptures but I will address what I understand as the primary teaching Jesus had in mind for us when he answered a question his disciples asked him.

The question came as Jesus and his disciples left the Temple and were impressed with what they saw.

In our modern world, we are familiar with tall, impressive buildings. But 2000 years ago, an impressive building like the Temple was not one of many buildings to look at, it was the only one to look at. Nebudchadnezzar’s walls and gate are impressive even today when you see them in the Pergamon Museum in Berlin but to walk out of the desert and to see such magnificence took your breath away.

The Temple was built by Solomon and was so magnificent that when the Queen of Sheba came to visit, that and the rest of the wealth of Solomon took her breath away. That temple was destroyed when the Babylonians in 581 BC destroyed Jerusalem and took prominent Jews plus family members and servants captive. Seventy years later as prophesied by Jeremiah, the exiles returned and began to rebuild the temple. They did so on a smaller scale but when Herod became king, he made the restoration of the temple a priority for political reasons and it was impressive. The rabbis who had little respect for Herod said, “he who has not seen Jerusalem in her splendor has never seen a desirable city in his life. He who has not seen the Temple in its full construction has never seen a glorious building in his life.”

The Temple buildings were constructed of huge white stones which Josephus said were 8 meters long, 3 ½ meters high and 5 ½ meters wide. Josephus also mentioned that they were engraved or carved and that the Temple was decorated with gold. To look down on Jerusalem from the Mount of Olives, the spot where Jesus sat with his disciples when he answered their question, was to see this immense Temple sparkling in the sun with it’s white and gold trim. It was truly a magnificent building, regarded as an architectural achievement and one of the most impressive sights in the world.

As the disciples left the Temple, one of them looked back and was struck with its beauty and exclaimed, “Look, Teacher! What massive stones! What magnificent buildings!”

There was nothing wrong in his observation. It is a mistake to take from this incident any message that we are not to appreciate the works of man. When we visit a particularly beautiful cathedral or the mosque in Casablanca, it is appropriate to marvel at the beauty of what has been built. We are not being unspiritual when we appreciate what mankind has been able to do with the gifts and talents God has given.

But Jesus had other things on his mind. He had recently been in the doorway of heaven when he appeared with Moses and Elijah on the Mount of Transfiguration. He had seen the beauty of heaven and this was, in comparison, small change. He had received his marching orders and turned his face toward Jerusalem. Jesus was now facing the end. This world was becoming less real to him and his heavenly existence was becoming more real to him.

So when the disciple marveled at the Temple, Jesus spoke of the reality of all things in this created world.
“Do you see all these great buildings?” replied Jesus. “Not one stone here will be left on another; every one will be thrown down.”

That got their attention. Let’s say you are walking with a group through the royal palace here in Rabat and someone says how beautiful it is. Another person in the group says, “Do you see all these great buildings? Not one stone here will be left on another; every one will be thrown down.”

You are walking by the White House in the US or the Palace of Versailles in France or the Taj Mahal in India or any other impressive building and someone says, “Do you see all these great buildings? Not one stone here will be left on another; every one will be thrown down.”

That’s a statement that can not be left hanging, unexplained. The disciples were too stunned to ask Jesus what he meant on the spot. They were often surprised by what he said and I imagine they often sat around in groups discussing what Jesus had said. As they climbed the Mount of Olives they discussed this statement of Jesus. Was he speaking in a metaphor again like the time he told them to beware of the yeast of the Pharisees? Did he mean this literally? And so the disciples closest to him: Peter, James and John and this time Andrew, the brother of Peter, came to Jesus and asked him what he meant.
“Tell us, when will these things happen? And what will be the sign that they are all about to be fulfilled?”

And Jesus launched into a teaching that did not directly answer their question until verse 14. The disciples wanted to know what would be the sign that the Temple would be destroyed and when that would happen. Jesus began to talk to them about when the heavenly world would become a reality.

He talked about false Messiahs who would deceive many, wars and earthquakes, persecution and “the abomination that causes desolation.”

I want, this morning, to talk about one emphasis Jesus did not make and then two emphases Jesus did make. First of all, the emphasis in Jesus’ teaching is not on figuring out when all this will happen.

That’s what the disciples wanted to know isn’t it? This magnificent temple would be destroyed. When would that happen? Jesus talked for ten verses before answering their question and when he did answer it, he did not tell them when it would happen, only that it would be terrible.

In fact Jesus said directly that they would not know when it was coming. He concluded his teaching with this:
“No one knows about that day or hour, not even the angels in heaven, nor the Son, but only the Father.  33 Be on guard! Be alert! You do not know when that time will come.  34 It’s like a man going away: He leaves his house and puts his servants in charge, each with his assigned task, and tells the one at the door to keep watch.
35 “Therefore keep watch because you do not know when the owner of the house will come back—whether in the evening, or at midnight, or when the rooster crows, or at dawn.  36 If he comes suddenly, do not let him find you sleeping.  37 What I say to you, I say to everyone: ‘Watch!’”`

Jesus was very explicit about this and this was not an aberrant teaching. This was no slip of his tongue. He was very intentional about telling his disciples that they would not know when he would return.

Here’s my question: why is it that when Christians read that Jesus said we are to forgive each other and pray for healing, we seek to be obedient and forgive and pray for healing; but when we read that Jesus said we will not know when he will return, Christians ignore his teaching and spend enormous amounts of time trying to figure out when he will return? Books are written, lectures are delivered, TV and radio time is filled with discussions about when Jesus will return.

William Miller in the middle 1800s predicted that Jesus would return between March 21, 1843 and March 21, 1844. When this did not happen, he reset the date for October 22, 1844. Jehovah’s Witnesses came out of the ashes of the disappointed masses who followed Miller as did some other sects.

Miller was not the first to predict when Jesus would return and he was not the last. One of the hot books to read when I became a Christian in 1971 was The Late Great Planet Earth by Hal Lindsay. Thirty plus years after that book was written, the USSR which figured so prominently in his book has been dismantled. The Russian invasion of Israel does not seem so likely anymore. On the other hand, China is projected to be the most powerful nation in the world in this century and China is given passing notice in this book.

If you study books that predict end times events, what becomes apparent is that they project not what will be but what is already happening. Now that the Cold War is over and it is becoming clear that the tensions in the world are between civilizations rather than countries, there are books like The Last of the Giants which focus more on clashes between Islam and the west than they do on the Cold War antagonists.

A study of books written about the end times reveals more about the culture of the moment than it does of the end times. It is much simpler to predict the past or even the present than the future.

Jesus told us we would not know the time when he would return and we need to take him at his word and not think we are more clever than he thought or that perhaps the Holy Spirit will work behind his back and slip us the inside information.

Jesus said:
You do not know when that time will come.

On the other hand there is a reason Jesus talked about the end times. Listen to these admonitions from Mark 13:
Watch out that no one deceives you.
You must be on your guard.
So be on your guard; I have told you everything ahead of time.
Be on guard! Be alert!
Therefore keep watch
What I say to you, I say to everyone: ‘Watch!’

There are two dominant emphases in Jesus’ teaching on end times and this is one of them. We are to be vigilant. We are to be alert. We are to watch out. We are to be on guard.

Why?

Jesus began his response to the disciples’ question about when these things would happen and what would be the signs of its coming by saying:
Watch out that no one deceives you.

We are to be vigilant so we will not be deceived. Jesus said:
Many will come in my name, claiming, ‘I am he,’ and will deceive many.

That is a prophecy that was right on target. In fact from the beginning of the church, false teachers came along trying to steal from Jesus’s flock. Paul attacked these false teachers in letter after letter that he wrote. There were the “super apostles” in the church at Corinth. In 130 AD, Bar Cochba was a messiah who led a revolt in Rome at the time of Hadrian. Moses of Crete in 440 AD convinced people he would, like Moses, lead his people through the waters of the Mediterranean Sea. His followers jumped off a cliff into the sea and were killed when they hit rocks below or drowned in the water. Some of his followers who jumped were saved by some Christian fishermen, others did not jump when they saw what had happened to those who had gone before them.

In 1750 Jacob Frank announced his messiahship and took the place of  Jesus in the trinity. In 1787 Ann Lee had a vision while in prison that she was to establish a perfect society on earth and so began the Shakers. The last Shaker died a decade or so ago. The problem was that Shakers believed sex was a sin and when you depend on the sin of others to fill your church, you are in trouble.

Joseph Smith had his vision in 1820 and began the Mormon church. It is not a good idea to trust someone who says an angel dictated to them what to write. Bahá’u’lláh broke off from Islam and founded the Bahá’í’s in 1844. He called himself the “glory of God;” after he died his followers said he was the fulfillment of the second coming of Christ.

In more recent years there has been David Koresh in 1994 and Jim Jones of the People’s Temple in Guyana, 1978. And in 1992 Sung Myung Moon declared himself as the Lord of the 2nd advent, the Messiah.

The list goes on and on and on. And the list will continue to go on. There will never be an end to the false prophets who come along to deceive the church.

Even in the small church in Morocco there is a group who teach that we are to be baptized in the name of Jesus only, not in the name of Father, Son and Holy Spirit.

How can you be vigilant? How can you protect yourself from being deceived by false prophets?

In Mark 8 Jesus taught
“If anyone would come after me, he must deny himself and take up his cross and follow me.  35 For whoever wants to save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for me and for the gospel will save it.

It is a lot easier and a lot more fun to speculate about end times than it is to get up in the morning and to live that day for Christ. It is hard work to be open to opportunities God gives you to serve him, to forgive someone who offends you or hurts you, to give up what you want to do for the sake of helping someone else.

Daily living for Christ is what keeps us vigilant.

We don’t know when Jesus will return. We don’t really know how it will happen. There are hints but beyond Jesus appearing in a way that will leave no doubt it is him, we really don’t know. We don’t know what it will be like when it happens. We really don’t know much except that we do know he will return.

There is no cramming for this exam. We will not have a week’s notice to get ready. We must be ready and so each day we decide to deny ourselves, take up our cross and follow Jesus.

C.S. Lewis makes the point in his essay The World’s Last Night that it is difficult to use fear or hope to sustain us until Christ returns. Our emotions go up and down and are impossible to sustain for any length of time. To be afraid of what will happen if I am unprepared when Christ returns is not going to work for the long-term. So Lewis advises that it is not important that we fear or hope about the end but that we take it into account.

He uses this analogy. A man of seventy does not need to always be feeling or talking about his death, but he would be foolish if he did not take it into account. It would be foolish if he did not make out a will. It would be foolish for him to take on a responsibility that required the next twenty years of his life if he did not also have in mind a person who could take that responsibility over for him if he died before then.

We know that Jesus will return and so the wise Christian takes into account that this may be the day he returns and lives accordingly. He denies himself, takes up his cross and follows Jesus and thereby is able to be vigilant, on guard and ready for the return of Christ.

The second emphasis in Jesus’ teaching is that despite what we see around us or experience, we are not to be worried or anxious.

When you hear of wars and rumors of wars, do not be alarmed. Such things must happen, but the end is still to come.  8 Nation will rise against nation, and kingdom against kingdom. There will be earthquakes in various places, and famines. These are the beginning of birth pains.
9 “You must be on your guard. You will be handed over to the local councils and flogged in the synagogues. On account of me you will stand before governors and kings as witnesses to them.  10 And the gospel must first be preached to all nations.  11 Whenever you are arrested and brought to trial, do not worry beforehand about what to say. Just say whatever is given you at the time, for it is not you speaking, but the Holy Spirit.

There are many who mistake this part of the teaching of Jesus. In a list of wars I found on the internet, there have been, since the time of Jesus, 487 wars with 26 of them ongoing. As I read through this list, I did not see listed conflicts that took place in cultures that did not record their history. There were Indian wars in North America, tribal wars in Africa and South America and wars in North Africa. If these were included, the list would be much longer.

Wars have been a constant in history, as have earthquakes. There are those who say the incidence of earthquakes has increased in recent decades. This is simply not true.

Charles F. Richter, former President of the Seismological Society of America and the originator of the “Richter scale,” in an article published in the December 1969 issue of Natural History magazine said: “One notices with some amusement that certain religious groups have picked this rather unfortunate time to insist that the number of earthquakes is increasing. In part they are misled by the increasing number of small earthquakes that are being catalogued and listed by newer, more sensitive stations throughout the world”.

Japan has kept track of major earthquakes going back to the 9th century and there has been no increase in the number of earthquakes they have experienced.

The overwhelming scientific evidence indicates that earthquakes have been, like wars, a constant in our history.

You don’t need scientific evidence or historians to make this point. Jesus said wars and earthquakes were just the beginning of birth pains. The reason, I believe, Jesus mentioned wars and earthquakes at all was to make the point that there would be some time between his prophecy that the Temple would be destroyed and the actual destruction of the Temple. In the long-term understanding of his prophecy, he wanted us to know that terrible things would happen and that when terrible things like wars and earthquakes happen (and he could have gone on to talk about hurricanes and typhoons and floods), we are not to be alarmed; we are not to worry.

Even when we are persecuted, as has happened to Christians from the beginning of the church, another constant in history, we are not to worry.

The underlying message is to trust in the sovereignty of God even in the midst of terrible events.

When you read accounts of people who have suffered in a war or some natural disaster, the accounts are terrifying. Picture what happens in a war. Innocents are killed, raped and tortured. In the Congo, people are forced to eat parts of the bodies of their relatives and even themselves. In Sierra Leone hands and feet were chopped off. In the Sudan, rape is being used as a weapon.

Earthquakes, tornados, floods and other natural disasters destroy life indiscriminately.

Christians are today, as we speak, suffering from persecution in parts of the world.

Jesus taught about the end times, telling how terrible it would be and letting us know that we do not need to worry. Even in the worst of circumstances, Jesus teaches us that we are not to be alarmed, not to worry. He is coming back and as impossible as it seems to those who are suffering or who are aware of the suffering, God is still in control.

We will come back to this text either next week or the week after. There is much more to say from this passage and not enough time today.

For this week, take with you these words of comfort wrapped around a prophecy of discomfort and suffering.

Don’t worry about when the end will come. Be vigilant. Be on your guard. Take up your cross daily and follow Jesus. Never take your eyes off him. Put your trust in Jesus.

It doesn’t matter what you experience, be it war or earthquakes or some other natural disaster or persecution. Hold on to him. Walk with him and he will lead you through whatever comes. He is sovereign. He is in control. He will lead you safely to your heavenly existence.

Imagine yourself sitting with Jesus on the Mount of Olives overlooking Jerusalem and the Temple. Why did Jesus say what he did to his disciples? He loved them. He knew what they would face and he wanted to assure them and comfort them.

As you sit there with Jesus, know that he loves you. You do not know your future but Jesus does know your future and he wants you to know that he will be with you and that whatever happens, you will be alright because he is in control. As you sit there with Jesus, listen to him speak these words from Isaiah to you:
“Fear not, for I have redeemed you;
I have summoned you by name; you are mine.
2 When you pass through the waters,
I will be with you;
and when you pass through the rivers,
they will not sweep over you.
When you walk through the fire,
you will not be burned;
the flames will not set you ablaze.
3 For I am the LORD, your God,
the Holy One of Israel, your Savior;