Before I get into the text, Mark chapter 13, the entire chapter, is what we would call the Olivet Discourse. And before I get into that text and start to look at it at sort of a bite at a time, I just want to get a little bit of an introduction into this subject. God willing, we'll look at it again next week and maybe even a third week. It's a lot of material there as we go through it. There's a lot of different interpretations of eschatology in general, which is the study of end things or end times. And there's certainly a lot of different interpretations of the Olivet Discourse. And we have to have a lot of grace with one another when it comes to eschatology. I don't get too dogmatic with my view of things. I try not to major on the minors, if that's a good thing to say. I try to major on the majors and the general point that Jesus is trying to convey to his disciples and then, of course, to us as his church. If I ever misrepresent somebody else's position, Please come to me after a service and say, I think you misunderstand where that position is. Because sometimes when I don't hold a particular position, I don't want to malign somebody else's view of that. We can do that easily talking about Catholicism. I did that one time to the Church of the Brethren and I had a pastor who said, that's not what we believe. I did not know. I apologized to the brother, and I had my own view corrected. So I'm open to correction. The Bible tells us to be open to correction with these things. Some of the issues that we're going to look at as we begin looking at the text is, and this is where some of the differences of opinion come, is we're going to see Jesus at the temple, and then he's going to leave the temple after he makes a few comments. And his disciples have some questions for him. And it's going to come down to, are they asking one question about one thing? Or are they asking two questions about two different events? And different interpreters take that in different directions. And we have to look at Jesus' response to these questions. Is Jesus talking about things that would happen as they came to the year 70, when the temple would be destroyed? Or is Jesus looking beyond that to the end times that are even future for us? Or is it a combination of both? And that's where you find different schools of thought landing in different places with this. And I'll touch on a little bit of that as we move through. I do want to say that because there are so many interpretations of the passages. And we have to understand that hopefully everybody who's in Christ who has a different view, they really want to have the correct view of these things. It's not like somebody's out there saying, well, I know what the Bible says, but I'd rather believe this. They really do, for various reasons, have their particular view on these. So we have to have some grace. So give me some grace if you have a different view than what I'll be putting forth. If you look at the creeds of the Church over time, the Apostles' Creed, the Nicene Creed, the 1689 London Confession, which is a Baptist confession, even our own Baptist Faith and Message 2000, you'll see that the creeds of the Church are a fairly large umbrella. They're accurate, they're true, they're scriptural, but they don't get into the details. And they kind of leave that for us. So, you know, a lot of the creeds will say something along the lines of, you know, he will come again with glory to judge both the living and the dead, whose kingdom will have no end. That's the Nicene Creed. And that's a big umbrella, a lot of details within that umbrella. With that little bit of an introduction, let's begin in verses 1 and 2 of Mark 13. It says, Then as he went out of the temple, one of his disciples said to him, Teacher, see what manner of stones and what buildings are here. And Jesus answered and said to him, Do you see these great buildings? Not one stone shall be left upon another that shall not be thrown down. Now where they are at the temple at that moment is Herod's Temple. There's been different versions of the temple built. But this is Herod's Temple. They tell me that that temple began to be constructed in 20 BC and it would not end its construction. They're continuing to work on it all the way until it's destroyed in 70 AD. It's an immense structure. Some of the stones, they tell me, measured 40 feet by 12 foot by 12 foot. And they were so perfectly cut. And you can imagine, they didn't have the power saws we have today. They were so perfectly hewn that you couldn't even slip a piece of paper between the stones. That's how immaculate this thing was. It was built out of the main temple structure out of white marble, glistening. It was decorated with gold. One of the walls was solid. Gold would reflect the sun in the morning. They say you could see it for miles. This is a spectacular structure. And I remember when I was in Chicago years ago, I went to the Sears building. And I stood at the bottom of the Sears building and looked up, which is a dangerous thing to do if you get vertigo. And I was just in awe at the size of that Sears building. And then I went up the elevator to the observation deck. But there, it's sort of an awe over what this place looks like. It says in Luke 21.5, some spoke of the temple, how it was adorned with beautiful stones and donations. And the rich people would donate things like gold or decorations that they would actually adorn the temple with. So this is an incredible structure. And not only is it just awesome to look at, which it certainly would have been, but it's also the center hub of their Jewish life. You know, the Jews had to return to the temple three times a year to praise the Lord and give worship at the festivals. And as they came up into Jerusalem, it was always upward into Jerusalem, they would sing the songs of ascent that are in your book of Psalms. So this had a cultural significance. So when one of the disciples points out to Jesus, like, look at this place. For Jesus to then say, almost a matter of factly, oh, you impressed with all this? There's not gonna be a stone left upon a stone. They're all gonna be tossed down. It floored the disciples. So when Jesus leaves the temple with his disciples in verse three, and let me read verse three and four, they have questions. So it says, now, as he sat on the Mount of Olives opposite the temple, Peter, James, John, and Andrew asked him privately, Tell us, when will these things be? And what will be the sign when all these things will be fulfilled? Now, is that one question or is that two different questions about two different things? Matthew 24.3, that same text or same passage of Matthew, says, now as he sat on the Mount of Olives, the disciples came to him privately saying, tell us, when will these things be? And what will be the sign of your coming and the end of the age? So they're asking about signs. And I thought about that a little bit, because as we look at these first 13 verses in Mark, Jesus is going to give us some signposts, but he's saying, but this isn't it yet. Here's a signpost on the way there, but we're not there yet. And I was thinking, Karen and I, because we're traveling down to Georgia, we do the same thing. We travel down. We might see one of the signs we see is the Virginia little rest area. The first little spot we can stop if we need to take a break. We get a little farther down, you see signs that welcome to North Carolina. And then you finally get down there and there's actually signs in nature. We get down, if you go so far south, the trees don't lose their leaves. And Karen always goes, oh look out, the leaves are still on the trees. And so we know we're getting closer and getting closer. There's even cultural signs. I might stop for gas somewhere down there in South Carolina and somebody, the gas attendant, has a southern draw to them. I'm thinking, I'm getting close to Georgia. I'm not there yet, but these are all signs on my journey getting to Georgia. And that's the way Jesus is going to respond here. So we're going to look at five signposts on the way as they're looking to see, well, when are these things going to happen? Because when Jesus answered this, he didn't say, well, the temple, that's going to be 70 AD. And if you're asking about another event, which is my parousia, my second coming in glory, that'll be in any day. He doesn't give us dates. He gives us these signposts on the way. So the first signpost he gives us is false messiahs, false Christs. And that's in verses 5 to 6. The thing I want you to underscore, if you're taking notes, is that when he talks about this, he teaches his disciples and us to not be deceived. Don't be deceived. Know Jesus' teaching, know Jesus' truth, and then you'll know the deception when it comes. And so he says in verses 5 and 6, it says, And Jesus answering them began to say, Take heed that no one deceives you, for many will come in my name saying, I am he, and will deceive many. That same teaching in Luke 21.8 says, Take heed that you not be deceived. For many will come in my name saying, I am he, and the time has drawn near. That's the other thing they're going to say. He says, therefore do not go after them. So when you hear somebody, you know, at least the disciples in their time, but us also in our time, claiming to be the Christ, claiming the time has come. We all have to go to Brownsville, Florida, because the Christ has arrived. Jesus says, don't you go. The Bible tells elsewhere that we'll be gathered to Him. We'll know. He'll come to gather His people. But we don't have to go flocking after false messiahs. So keep your eye out for that and your ear open for that. False messiahs will come. Don't be deceived. The second signpost he gives is wars and rumors of wars. And in that context, if we're not to be deceived with false messiahs when it comes to wars and rumors of wars, we're not to be troubled by it. And it's in verse seven, in the first part of verse eight, he says, but when you hear of wars and rumors of wars, do not be troubled, for such things must happen. But the end is not yet, for nation will rise against nation and kingdom against kingdom. Now, in the sense of Jesus teaching his people not to be troubled, it doesn't mean the war doesn't bother us. I was deeply struck when Putin invaded Ukraine. As a matter of fact, Karen and I just got back from Key West. And I always talk to the cab drivers. And so we get in the cab. The guy had a thick accent. And he asked us, how long have you been in Key West? Have you ever been here before? And I said, well, how long have you been in Key West? He said, 14 years. So I said, where are you from originally? Because I knew he wasn't from Key West. He said, I'm from Ukraine. And I said, do you have family back in Ukraine? He says, we do. I said, well, you know, the American people are great supporters of the Ukrainian plight here. And we talked a little bit about that. He says, my whole family, they have no electricity. They've knocked out the power grid. And so he's driving, a typical cab driver, he gets his phone out, he's driving like crazy and getting his phone out, he's doing something with his phone. And he hands the phone back to us and this video from his family. Back in Ukraine, I pull up the video, I'm watching it, and a missile goes flying into a building, blows the building up. He goes, that was an apartment. No military there. That was an apartment. He gets thrown back. He does another video. Boom. He hands it back to us. Two missiles. Boom. Boom. Blows up two buildings. No military there. That's an apartment. He told me how many people died when those missile strikes hit. They're just taking these videos off their balconies. I haven't had to live through that. My heart went out to this person. Then he turned to us and said, very seriously, this is no war. This is terrorism, as we said. And I thought, that troubled me in a sense of humanitarianism. But it didn't unnerve me that, oh no, Satan has taken over. Where is Jesus? I guess he's never coming back. And that's what Jesus is saying. Don't let that rattle your faith. These things, Jesus said, must come to pass. The Lord knows sovereignly that these things will happen. Nations will rise against nation. Don't let that rattle your faith. Doesn't mean we don't reach out to try to see that justice is done, but don't let it rattle your faith. The third thing that Jesus talks about as a signpost is natural disaster. He says, and with natural disaster, He says, these are just the beginning. He says in Mark 13, 8b, says, and there will be earthquakes in various places, and there will be famines and troubles. These are the beginnings of sorrows. Now that word in Mark, the beginning of sorrows, is really literally the beginning of birth pangs. And if anybody's gone through birthing or has been there to watch, you know that the birth pangs come at first very infrequently. And your first birth pang, you know, it's time to get in the car and get to the hospital. And by the time you're in there for a while, they become quicker and quicker and more frequently and more frequently. And some would look at that and say, well, maybe Jesus is saying that of all these things that have always been around because of the fall, We're going to see this heighten up to become more frequent and more frequent and more frequent as we await the coming of our Lord. And that very well could be a proper interpretation of this, but he says it's just the beginning. These are birth pangs. So when I hear, and I'm in the business of natural disasters, so I hear about all kinds of natural disasters, whether it be hurricanes or tornadoes or earthquakes or wildfires. They are certainly on the rise. I can tell you that because I'm privy to a lot of information because of what I do. But it's not to alarm us. Jesus says, don't let it rattle your faith. These things must come to pass. The end will come. Jesus will return. He's still sovereign. Somebody gave a testimony today. God is still on his throne. And Jesus doesn't want our faith to be rattled as we see these things. The fourth thing that Jesus points out is the persecution of the church. And when it comes to the persecution of the church, the admonition of scripture is, don't be surprised. Don't let this surprise you. And I'll read you a couple passages that support that. But Mark chapter 13, 9 to 11 says, Jesus, continuing to teach, says, But watch out for yourselves, for they will deliver you up to the councils, and you will be beaten in the synagogues. You will be brought before rulers and kings for my sake, for a testimony to them. And the gospel must first be 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 that. For it is not you who speak, but the Holy Spirit." Now I think primarily Jesus is talking to his disciples, and this almost reads like the introduction to the book of Acts, doesn't it? Because they went through that, and they weren't to be shaken when they were arrested by the synagogue and beaten. And they counted it a joy that they were counted worthy to suffer for the cause of Christ. Because Jesus had prepared them. He doesn't say if you get arrested, he says when you get arrested. But there is a good teaching for us as people as well, if we should have to pay that cost at some point. There's been a couple of points, I believe, in this country where I could certainly become, under the eyeglass, if you will, the microscope of the government because of what I preach, which is the truth of the Word of God, which is counterculture. now, especially when it comes to the gay movement, the identity movement. And to preach the truth against that eventually is going to be called hate speech. And I could be gathered up and arrested for that, which I'll continue to preach truth. And Jesus doesn't leave us without any indication of what we're to do when that happens. Now when I said that, you know, we're not to be surprised. For instance, 1 John, the letter 1 John 3.13, John writes, Do not marvel, my brethren, if the world hates you. Don't marvel at that. Don't be shocked by that. 1 Peter 4 says in verse 12, Beloved, do not think it's a strange thing concerning the fiery trial, which is to try you as though some strange thing happened to you. Our Lord clearly told us that we might have to pay that kind of a cost if we're to hold our faith in Christ and proclaim the truth of who He is and what His truth really is in Scripture. He points out here two different things. He says, when you're brought to the synagogue and beaten before the councils, that's the same word as the Sanhedrin. So he talks about Jewish persecution of the early church, which we see in the Book of Acts. But then he also mentions rulers and kings. He's talking about Gentile authorities that we might be brought before. And of course, we see that in the Book of Acts as well. Jesus tells them, if you look at the very beginning of verse 9, but watch out for yourselves. Watch out for yourselves. Another translation would say, take heed of yourself. J.D. Jones on that says, How would a man rather be found than just doing the work which his Lord had committed to him? Talking about when Christ returns. Was it not John Wesley who, when asked how he would spend the day if he knew it was his last, and he replied that he would just go through the program of preaching and visiting, traveling that had been arranged for him, and then quietly lay himself down to rest that night? That is the best way to prepare for the judgment. Leave your stargazing and your date fixing. Take heed to yourself. In other words, let's do the work that God called us to do faithfully until he returns, regardless of wars, regardless of persecution, regardless of all these outside circumstances. Let us determine in our own souls to do what God called us to do until he returns. I think I'll skip that. And then the fifth one, family betrayal. Family betrayal. And in that he says, do not falter. Do not falter. He told us in advance that these things could come to pass and will come to pass. Verse 12 says, now 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 will be hated by all for my name's sake. But he who endures to the end shall be saved." Matthew 24.10 Jesus says, and then many will be offended and will betray one another and will hate one another. And he's talking about within the family unit. That translation in Matthew 24.10 which says that many will be offended literally means many shall be stumbled. And some commentators believe that what Jesus had in mind there was a family that seemed to come together, they worshiped together, and then something happened, and maybe through persecution in the church, some family member actually was not saved. They were not grounded in Christ, and when persecution hit, That brother, that child, shook out of the church, shook out of the body. And then when pressure came by the government to turn people in, it's that very family member that turns and turns in a father, or a brother, or a cousin, to get their own freedom with the government. And you can see if you do any history study at all, this has happened throughout church history. It certainly happened in the early church, but it happened in the Reformation. There's instances where family members turned over family members. In the early church, when you had to say that Caesar was Lord, and people refused to do it, family members were turning in family members over that. Because they wanted to seek their own safety, because they feared men and not God. And Jesus says, this will happen. Many will be offended. Many will come to stumble. Many will apostate themselves and they'll turn on you. There's nothing more painful in the world that I know than to be turned on by your own family. That is a painful thing for the cause of Christ. That is a painful, painful thing, and I've gone through it. And it is not fun. But Jesus is saying, don't falter. These things must come to pass. Don't falter. Cling to Christ. He says, those who endure to the end shall be saved. The Bible Knowledge Commentary on that says, "...to save yourselves by standing firm means that believers show that they are members of the believing community in opposition to those who turn away from the faith. During times of persecution, the ones who are saved are those who are preserved by God's sovereign power." And I tell you, today, beloved, while we still are not under the persecution, we need to be prayer warriors. We need to be seeking God's face. Just admit to Him our weakness, our frailty. The fact that I would fall away in a second if God wasn't holding on to me. And when I pray to God, I ask that He might restrain my own evil. that I might do, and that He would keep me, that He would keep me, that He would build up my faith, because at times it's weak. That when this persecution does break out, we know to instantly fly to Jesus in prayer, and say, Lord, many may fall to the left, many may fall to the right, but preserve me, Lord. Lord, preserve me. Give me the ability to stand up against this persecution, against these wars that are going on, against all these things, the storms that blow, the hurricanes, the tornadoes. Lord, help me to hold firm to the end. Hendrickson said in his commentary, in spite of this clear warning which our Lord gave to his disciples, many present day church members are filled with admiration for the minister or the evangelist who speaks learnedly about the signs of the times and strives to show his audience that this or that terrible battle, serious earthquake, devastating famine, or threatening comet on the basis of prophecy is the infallible sign of Christ's imminent return. Beloved, that's not what He's teaching here. He's teaching us to be ready and prepared to go through a tribulation. Praise God if He pulls us out and we're raptured out of here before any tribulation hits. I don't see that in Scripture. And beloved, my old pastor used to say, if I was wrong, I'll apologize to you on the way up. But I think we need to be prepared to go through some tough times, because Jesus lays it forth to his disciples that they might go through some tough times. So in conclusion, just a recap of what I was speaking about, I think to keep the main emphasis of what Jesus is conveying to his church here, what is the Christian to do as we wait for our Lord's return? One, we're to not be deceived. We need to know the valid, we need to know the truth, we need to know the authentic, that when we see the false, when we see the counterfeit, we know right away, that's counterfeit, that's not true. Secondly, we're to be untroubled spiritually by world events. It goes on all around us. We could get invaded as a country ourselves. You never know what's going to happen in our lifetime. I was born in 1966. I was born in a time of war. As a child I remember us not talking about war. That was the first war in Vietnam where it was on TV every night. You know, my uncle was in Vietnam. I remember when my uncle came back from Vietnam. I remember when all the vets came back from Vietnam, because they lived in my park. Because we lived right outside of DC, and they just dropped them there. They didn't know what to do. They had mental issues, and they just lived in the park. So I grew up, and my wife did too. They were right down the park. We used to go down and talk to them all the time. They'd tell you all the stories of the horrors of war in Vietnam. And some of you have gone through many more wars than I have. You were born before I was. These things are not to shake us at the core of our faith in Jesus Christ. Third, take heed of yourself. In other words, take watch. Matthew Henry says, they must take heed that they must not be drawn away from Christ and from their duty to Him by the suffering that they should meet with because of Christ. We don't want to be shaken from that. Fourth, take away from this text, Preach the gospel. Jesus said the gospel must be preached to all the nations. That's the mandate. We don't turn from that. We don't say, well, the war broke out, we're going to preach on something else. No, it's going to be the gospel. It's going to be the gospel. We go forth, it's going to be the gospel. The fifth thing, be ready to defend the gospel. Defend the faith. He said, you don't have to worry. Now he's not saying, don't be in the word. He's not saying, well Larry, you don't have to prepare for your sermons. Just show up, the Holy Spirit will give you words. That's not what he's saying. What he's saying is, if I get rustled out of my bed in the middle of the night, because somebody heard one of my sermons, and they called the local magistrate, and they decided that that's hate speech, and I'm shaking out of my bed, I don't have time to grab a Bible, I don't have time to grab anything, and they drag me into the courthouse, I know that God's going to give me the words. When they say, do you want to give an account for what you said in that sermon? I say, I'd love to give an account for it. And the Holy Ghost is going to bring to my mind text, scriptures, truth, and that will be conveyed. And he actually says that it's going to be conveyed in such a way that they can't argue against it. That's what he says. It's irrefutable. There's no way they can argue. They might denounce it and hate it and try to silence you, but it's irrefutable. They can't really combat the logic and the truth of scripture. That's what he says. So don't worry if it ever happens to you. God will give you the words, but you have to know the word of God. You have to have it tucked away in your heart. Lastly, the last takeaway is that we're to endure to the end. to endure to the end. And I pray, you know, that maybe the Lord will allow us to live out the rest of our life here without war, without turmoil, without persecution, without hurricanes and tornadoes blowing through Great Cacapin. But maybe He will permit that to happen. As it was said here today, that does not mean that God is not on His throne. He's working out His perfect purposes through all of that, bringing all of creation to its proper end. And we have to believe that and endure all the way to the end. And I'll close with this passage from Hebrews chapter 11, beginning in verse 13. And remember Hebrews 13 is the hall of faith, right? And it says, these all died in faith. not having received the promises, but having seen them afar off, were assured of them, embraced them, and confessed that they were strangers and pilgrims on the earth. For those who say such things declare plainly that they seek a homeland. And truly, if they had called to mind that country from which they had come out, They would have had opportunity to return, but now they desire a better, that is, a heavenly country. Therefore, God is not ashamed to be called their God, for he has prepared a city for them." Beloved, let's be those, when we breathe our last in this life, that somebody could say, he died in the faith. He died in the faith. He held onto the faith through the hurricanes, through the persecution, through the families that turned on him. He held to the faith. He died in the faith because our Lord has built a heavenly city for us. Let's pray. Our Father and our God, we thank you so much for your word, how helpful this is. And Father, I pray that you'd tuck these truths away in our minds, Lord, and your word in our hearts, that, Lord, if we ever do come to it, that you, by a work of your Holy Spirit, can bring back to remembrance those words that we can use to defend the faith, Lord, even if that leads to our ultimate incarceration or even demise. Lord, may we all, by your grace, keep the faith. In Jesus' name, amen. The Lord bless you and keep you. The Lord make his face to shine upon you and be gracious to you. The Lord lift up his confidence upon you and give you peace. Go in the peace of Christ