Mark 13:24-37
I want to start this morning by recapping where we’ve been the last couple of weeks, but this time I want us to visualize what Jesus is saying in the form of a timeline:
33 AD - Jesus giving the Olivet Discourse
33 AD - 2024 (---> ?) - Birth Pains (Wars, Earthquakes, Famines
At some point, the Tribulation period will begin, and will last 7 years
Halfway through, the Antichrist will walk into the temple and take a seat on the throne, demanding to be worshiped as god
At this point all sacrifices and offerings will be done away with
At this point, the Great Tribulation will begin, and will last 3.5 years
And that brings us to our passage this morning. There is a whole lot that happens during this time. Some people believe that the rapture happens at the beginning, some at the middle, and some that it is the same moment as the 2nd Coming that Jesus addresses today. But Jesus doesn’t address the rapture in Mark 13, and we are really trying to focus on what He does make clear, of course using correlating passages as needed. So all of this happens, and Jesus continues in Mark 13 verse 24.
Read Mark 13:24-25
Celestial Devastation
We can’t even imagine what this means. Somehow the sun will cease to shine. This will eliminate the reflection from the moon. The stars falling most likely refers to meteors crashing to the Earth. The heavens are shaking with the and intense celestial earthquake. It’s this massive moment of supernatural cosmic chaos in which the created natural order has been dismantled and thrown into a frenzy. One commentator imagined it like this:
“But when the Lord withdraws the least of His power from the universe, nothing in it will function normally, and every aspect of the physical world will be disrupted beyond imagination. All the forces of energy, here called powers of the heavens, which hold everything in space constant, will be in dysfunction. The heavenly bodies will careen helter-skelter through space, and all navigation, whether stellar, solar, magnetic, or gyroscopic, will be futile because all stable reference points and uniform natural forces will have ceased to exist or else become unreliable.”
And when this happens, the moment that all of creation has been groaning towards has finally arrived!
Read Mark 13:26-27
The 2nd Coming of Christ
Jesus, in all of His power and glory as God breaks through from the spiritual realm into the physical. Listen to what Revelation 19:11-16 says about this moment:
“Then I saw heaven opened, and behold, a white horse! The one sitting on it is called Faithful and True, and in righteousness he judges and makes war. His eyes are like a flame of fire, and on his head are many diadems, and he has a name written that no one knows but himself. He is clothed in a robe dipped in blood, and the name by which he is called is The Word of God. And the armies of heaven, arrayed in fine linen, white and pure, were following him on white horses. From his mouth comes a sharp sword with which to strike down the nations, and he will rule them with a rod of iron. He will tread the winepress of the fury of the wrath of God the Almighty. On his robe and on his thigh he has a name written, King of kings and Lord of lords.”
Angels will be sent out to every inch of the Earth to gather the elect, the chosen, those who have professed Christ. In 1 Thessalonians Paul tells us that the elect are in fact everyone who has ever professed Christ.
1 Thessalonians 4:16-17 says, “For the Lord himself will descend from heaven with a cry of command, with the voice of an archangel, and with the sound of the trumpet of God. And the dead in Christ will rise first. Then we who are alive, who are left, will be caught up together with them in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air, and so we will always be with the Lord.”
Those who have died and those who live will all be gathered together in the air with Jesus, and it’s in this moment that we receive our glorified bodies. Paul also tells us in 1 Corinthians 15:52-53, “in a moment, in the twinkling of an eye, at the last trumpet. For the trumpet will sound, and the dead will be raised imperishable, and we shall be changed. For this perishable body must put on the imperishable, and this mortal body must put on immortality.”
What a moment this will be! I mean imagine being the disciples listening to Jesus, and He’s like, “You guys asked! You wanted to know how you would know that the end was near? Well there you have it.”
Read Mark 13:28-29
Jesus circles back to the disciples original question: “How will we know?” When a fig tree grows tender and the leaves begin to stretch, Summer is coming. When these things that I tell you begin to happen, the Son of Man is coming.
Read Mark 13:30-31 Who is “this generation?”
It sounds at first pass like Jesus is saying that the generation that he was speaking to would be alive when all of this happened. We know that this can’t be true because they did pass away, and the things that He talked about have not happened yet. Have we found an error? Did Jesus misspeak? A careful consideration of the language that Jesus uses will provide some clarity for us.
The Greek words behind “this generation” are found in many places in the book of Matthew. In all such instances, the phrase is referring to “ungodly people united in their opposition to God's messengers.” You might have heard Jesus say, “this evil generation.” Because of the continuity of language in Matthew, we can understand “this generation” in Mark to be those who are considered wicked who are alive during the Tribulation period and who witness the things that Jesus is talking about.
Jesus continues…Read Mark 13:32-37
This is one of those difficult theological questions about how the Incarnation worked. Jesus, fully God, masked His glory to become fully man. It would appear that He also gave up His complete and absolute knowledge to experience fullness of humanity. However this worked, Jesus did not know when the end would be. I do believe that He does now that He is back in fullness of glory. But here is the final word on the matter. Jesus looks at His disciples who are listening so intently, and He tells them, in light of all of these things, stay awake, be on guard.
And then Jesus tells them this parable, illustrating what’s about to happen. Jesus of course is the homeowner who is going on a journey. Those He leaves behind are first His disciples, and then extends out to the global church, the Christians. The Master has gone away for a time, but we don’t know when He is coming back. Imagine if He does and we are caught sleeping. Imagine if He comes back and we haven’t been taking care of the things that we’ve been tasked with doing!
“Stay awake!” Jesus says. Be alert, keep watch, be on guard. Protect that which you have been entrusted with, the gospel. Work hard at that which you have been called to, to “go therefore and make disciples. We labor, not in vain but for the furtherance of the kingdom of God. And while we live for Jesus now, we look forward to that day when He will finally return. And when He does, man I can’t just leave everyone hanging.
Read Revelation 19:19-21 (the Beast is the collective Empire of the Antichrist)
Victory! And then it gets better! Read Revelation 20:1-3 Satan is bound and cast into a pit for 1000 years, which we call the millennium, and during this time Jesus will sit on His throne and reign. After those thousand years, Satan will be released for a short time to gather an army, but before the battle wages, he and all that are with him will be finally and forever cast into the lake of fire with the beast and the antichrist. And after THAT, Revelation 21 tells us that the old earth is gone, but He will create a new heaven and a new Earth on which God will come down and dwell with His people and reign for all of eternity.
Paradise is coming! Victory is coming! Eternity is coming! Jesus is coming!
Application of the whole chapter of Mark 13.
So what do we do with chapters like this? What do we do with prophecy about the End Times? I have a few suggestions for us:
1.. Stand on truth
election season
Social media/news
Hard seasons of life
2.. Live with urgency
if this is true…
Priorities in life
Co-workers, neighbors, family
3..Stay awake
do not become complacent
Live in the moment but with your eyes set on the hope that is to come
Like Paul: “For I fully expect and hope that I will never be ashamed, but that I will continue to be bold for Christ, as I have been in the past. And I trust that my life will bring honor to Christ, whether I live or die. For to me, living means living for Christ, and dying is even better. But if I live, I can do more fruitful work for Christ. So I really don’t know which is better. I’m torn between two desires: I long to go and be with Christ, which would be far better for me. But for your sakes, it is better that I continue to live.”
We have the strength to continue fighting forward because of the hope that we have in Jesus.
