Stay Awake

Transcript

Bob Marley, many people’s favorite reggae musician, not my favorite, my favorite is Desmond Decker, if you were curious, by the way. But Bob Marley popularized a movement called Rastafarianism that many of us don’t know very much about, but in fact it’s a movement started by a guy named Leonard Howell in 1930, when the then emperor of Ethiopia is enthroned, claiming to be a descendant of King Solomon and Queen Sheba, and Leonard Howell claimed that Halle Selassie, then the emperor of Ethiopia, was the reincarnate Christ, a messiah who had come, showing us, by the way, that Jesus’ words are timely, that Jesus knew what was going to happen, and he warns us even here. We’re going to look at this just magisterial, wonderful, and fantastic text about the future, but I would just encourage us for a moment as Christian people, we need to keep in mind

that the New Testament and the Bible in general has a lot to say about the future. Not just in places like the book of Revelation, or places just like here, but all throughout the Bible. There are phrases that sort of pull on the reality of the future. Words like kingdom, and messiah, and Christ. And even the gospel itself has a future focus to it. If you’re in here today and you’re not a Christian, the gospel is the central thing that we believe as a church, and that all Christians throughout history have believed. And it’s the good news about Jesus. And sometimes, unfortunately, we only think about the good news that Jesus has come to save sinners from death to life, which he has. This is good news. But we miss that’s not just about our lives being better today, but that he’s going

to come and fix the world that we live in. He’s calling people unto himself, the church, to live in his grace and mercy, in his power, to live with him in a world that’s put back right, as people who are put back the way we’re supposed to be. It doesn’t take much observationally when you live in Portland to look around and know that the world is not the way it ought to be. You probably felt that, whether you’re a Christian or not, when you drove in here today. And if we’re being honest with ourselves, we’re not the way we’re supposed to be, apart from Christ. And even in Christ, we’re still being changed and transformed, and Jesus is still working on us. And we need to keep this in the forefront of our mind, A, that it’s Jesus who does it, that Jesus saves sinners from death to life, that Jesus is the one who comes down and gets

Jesus Saves and Transforms

to us, because every other plan to make this world or ourselves better has to do with us trying harder and reducing carbon. I’m not against reducing carbon. But creating some utopian world where we’ve tried harder as a society, and we’ve tried harder as individuals, and the reality is when you’ve tried harder, you realize that at some point in time, that actually runs out. We actually need someone outside of ourselves, Jesus, to not just make us right, but to make the world right. And the Bible has a lot to say about that future, whereby His grace and His work and His mercy, we in this world are made right. As we dig in here, we need a couple quick interpretive rules. Rules? Rules sounds so rule-y. We’re Portlanders. We don’t like rules, right? But a couple principles as we dig in. Realistically, if we’re all being honest, some of us don’t want to talk about the future.

We don’t want to talk about the end times. We don’t want to talk about the rapture. We don’t want to talk about the return of Christ. And much of this has to do with the fact that in the 20th century, it felt like a lot of people obsessed about these things, to the exclusion of being obsessed about Jesus. Here’s what I mean by that. You know, the giant billboard, He’s coming back. The tribulation is coming, June 1st, 1987. Y’all get right or buy some canned food or something. And it missed Jesus. He’s going to wipe all the tears from all the eyes. He’s going to make this world our perfect home again. He’s going to redo it. Mikhail Gorbachev, he’s got that mark on his forehead. It’s the mark of the beasts, Apache helicopters, late great planet Earth, to the point that some of us have simply said, I don’t want to talk about this stuff.

It’ll all pan out in the end, and that’ll be fine. The issue there, of course, is that the Bible talks about the future a lot, a lot. And the thing that I want us to remember that this isn’t for, you know, wingnuts, and this isn’t for scholars. This is for disciples of King Jesus. And I want nothing more than for you to feel like you own this book, in that sense that it is God’s Word to you. And so my hope is that we can pick this up, that one of the problems that’s happened in the past is we start with the most complex, and then we take the complexity and impose it upon that which is simple, when I would argue it would be really helpful for us is to start with that which is most simple, and then use the simple to understand the complex.

So we often start with the book of Revelation when we talk about the future, and we sort of start talking about these things that are very, very complicated, and we impose those on things that are very simple. First Thessalonians, First Corinthians, Romans 8, Second Thessalonians, these books that are actually very clear on it. And this thing we’re going to look at today, Jesus’ discourse, here in Mark 13, kind of sits in between on the complex and the simple. But it is wonderful and fantastic, and I hope it changes the way we see these things, because the focus, the focus isn’t you need to know he’s coming back on June 1st, 1987. The focus is Jesus wins. So we’re going to see three things hopefully from this text today, one, Jesus wins, two, Jesus’ people win, and three, Jesus is coming back, dot, dot, dot, stay awake.

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The Temple’s Destruction

So here we are in Mark 13, starting in verse 1. And he came out of the temple, as he came out of the temple, one of his disciples said to him, look teacher, what wonderful stones and what wonderful buildings, and it would be wonderful, by the way, have you ever even seen an aerial picture of even what’s left in the Temple Mount in Jerusalem, from an architectural stance, we are talking about fantastic things. And in fact, they would have had not just sort of the foundation that’s left, but this is the second temple, it’s been gilded by Herod the Great. It was a fantastic feat of architecture, and in fact, it was the center of worship for Hebrew people. This building is so important, they make replicas of other places out in Egypt in places. Elephantine, which is a fun place to say that I hope I pronounced right.

And Jesus said to him, Jesus is amazing. I think it’s just so great when I’m working on a sermon text to stop and act like I’ve never read it before. Like the fact that he’s saying this thing that he’s about to say to them should like blow our minds, by the way, it’s certainly blow theirs. And he said to them, do you see these great buildings? There will not be left here one stone upon another that will not be thrown down. Thank you, good night. The thing that we sometimes miss is that the temple in Jerusalem wasn’t just the center of worship for God’s people at this point in time, but in the sort of, for lack of a better word, the imagination. I don’t mean to fiction, but in the imagination of the Old Testament, it’s also the center of the future. Jerusalem, Zion, the temple where the Messiah is going to be, and these mighty things are

going to happen. And Jesus, this disciple, believes is that Messiah who’s going to rule in Zion where the temple is going to be, which is Jerusalem forever and ever. And all of a sudden he’s saying, huh? This would have short-circuited his sensibilities. And as he sat on the Mount of Olives opposite the temple, Peter and James and John and Andrew asked him privately, it’s interesting to me that they don’t ask him right then, but I’m sure it would have been suddenly the question that was messing with them. The thing that they were eager to ask Jesus about as soon as they had this private moment. Tell us when will these things be and what will be the sign when all these things are about to be accomplished? And especially when we look at Matthew’s account of this, he even kind of teases this out for

us a little bit. They’re actually asking two questions here. One is about the temple and one is about the future. This word sign is our eh, eh, eh. This is a future question, but Jesus, tell us about Messiah, tell us about Zion, tell us about this stuff. And it’s also a temple question. What do you mean the temple’s going to be destroyed? And I think the second one is actually a question sort of about the future, and I would argue Jesus mostly skips the first question and jumps right to the second. So what do you mean, Jesus? Verse five, and Jesus began to say to them, see that no one leads you astray. That’s where he starts. He skips, he skips much of their temple question and moves right to what is most important to him. Many will come in my name saying I am he.

Haile Selassie, Haile Selassie technically, by the way, never actually claimed to be Jesus, but he also never said I’m not Jesus. Pro tip, if someone says to you, I think this guy is Jesus, that’s your moment in time when you say not Jesus. Many will come in my name saying I am he, Joseph Smith, Haile Selassie, so many others. And they will lead many astray. And when you hear of wars and rumors of war, 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. Our broken world because of sin is in a state of entropy, and so are humans. Humans put themselves first, that makes war. The world is not as it’s supposed to be, that makes natural disasters. The ground is cursed at the moment.

And then Jesus says this very interesting thing. These are but the beginnings of the birth pains. We’re going to look at a couple of texts of Paul today, and I think Paul has this discourse in mind as he’s writing them. If you would go with me to Romans chapter 8, starting in verse 18, let’s remember this idea of the birth pains, and go there starting in verse 18. Romans 8, starting in verse 18. This is what Paul says to us. For I consider that the sufferings of this present time are not worth comparing with the glory that is to be revealed to us. Remember that brothers and sisters. As Cosanus said, life is hard on planet earth. It is complicated to be a human being. But Jesus, who we can trust, has promised that whatever complication and hardship we experience in this world will actually pale in comparison to the world that we will inherit

in Christ. For I consider that the sufferings of this present time are not worth comparing to the glory that is to be revealed to us. For the creation waits with eager longing for the revealing of the sons of God. For the creation was subjected to futility not willingly, but because of Him who subjected it in hope that the creation itself will be set free from the bondage of corruption to obtain the freedom of the glory of the children of God. For we know that the whole creation has been groaning together in the pains of childbirth until now. And not only the creation, but we ourselves are the firstfruits of the Spirit grown inwardly as we eagerly await for the adoption of sons, the redemption of our bodies. For in this hope we were saved. The hope that is seen is not hope. For who hopes for what he sees?

But if we hope for what we do not see, we wait for it with patience. Now Paul is picking up on the same idea of these birth pains. Simply put, and this is funny for us I think, I think in Paul’s day things like childbirth and things like that are more common in the lives of more people and we kind of tuck these things away in our life now and so we miss the gravity of some of these metaphors, but the reality of childbirth is there are contractions and then there’s a baby. And the contractions, believe it or not, if you’re unfamiliar with this process, they get worse and worse and worse and in between there’s a break, you get a contraction and there’s a break and you have a contraction, there’s a break, the contractions get more and more intense and then there’s a baby.

There it is. That’s what I learned from 1980s sitcoms by the way, except for the paper bag thing and the Lamaze breathing, that I don’t know where that came from. It’s being raised by television. Now what we see here then is the kind of description of what we’re actually experiencing on planet earth and have experienced for the last 2,000 years. There are high notes and low notes. The Visigoth sack Rome, Augustine, thinks that Jesus’ return is imminent because Rome gets sacked and how could Rome get sacked and the world keep going? World War II, people thought this is it. Hitler must be the abomination of desolation. How could something be worse than this? And then for some, there’s a time of prosperity that follows that and through earth, on earth, on the planet, there are times of woe and there are good times and there are bad times.

Birth Pains of History

Now Mark, and well Jesus really here, in an amazing, I think, literary move, actually walks us through some good times and some bad times in the next paragraph. So there are these birth pains, this is what’s going to happen, but there’s going to be a baby at the end. But be on 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. Hard. But, our ESV says and, but that word can also be translated but really easily, I think but’s better here, but the gospel must be first proclaimed to all nations. High note. The gospel will go to all nations. Revelation chapter 7, every tribe, every tongue, period. High note. Low note, high note. And when they bring you to trial, low note, and deliver you over, do not be anxious beforehand,

do not be concerned beforehand what you are to say, but say whatever is given to you in that hour, for it is not you who speaks but the Holy Spirit. High note. Brothers and sisters, trust God. Trust God. We can worry about what it would look like if we suffer persecution, trust Jesus. Remember that He’s King. And it’s just like a way we might actually work that out, I would encourage you be people, let us be a church that spends time not just reading but also memorizing God’s Word. The memorized Word of God is a powerful tool in the hand of the Holy Spirit. There’s something special when you spend time with saints who spend so much time in God’s Word or memorizing God’s Word that when they pray, they pray the Word, when they speak,

they speak the Word, when they encourage, they encourage with the Word. In trials and tribulations, the Word is that which comes out. Spend $3.99 on the Fighter Verse app for your smartphone telephone. It will help you actually memorize the Word of God. Or spend $2 on a note card and write down the verse from your Bible and walk around with it and look at it a couple of times a day. I think for us sometimes these habits can feel so far and so pushed out and what you have to do is actually start doing it. You actually have to start doing it. If you want to be a person who’s got a bunch of scripture memorized, you need to start by memorizing a verse. It becomes two verses, it becomes ten verses, and so on and so forth. But the Holy Spirit, for it is not you who speaks but the Holy Spirit.

I think about Paul and says, it’s not only I who lives but Christ who lives through me. Verse 12, low note, and brother will deliver brother over to death, and father his child and children will rise against parents and have them put to death. And you will be hated for all for my name’s sake. If anyone has ever told you, just try Jesus, he’ll fix your life and everything’s going to be awesome, there’s some truth to that and there’s some false advertising to that. You might lose your job because you love Jesus. You might lose your family because you love Jesus. You might lose your stuff. You might lose your life, but in Jesus you have absolutely everything. And as we see here, Jesus will vindicate the righteous. Jesus will put the world back the way it’s supposed to be. Low note, high note, I suppose there.

But listen, here’s our high note. For the one who endures to the end will be saved. Jesus is better than your friends and your family and your house and your life. And if we endure to the end, we will be saved, and this is a promise. This is durable and this is good news. Verse 14, but when you see the abomination of desolation standing where he ought not be, let the reader understand, or to read it differently, but when you see the abomination of desolation standing where he ought not to be, I know you can’t read it differently, but it’s there, I’ll come back to that in a minute. Then let those who are in Judea flee to the mountains, but the one who is in the housetop not go down, nor enter his house to take anything out, and let the one who is in the

field not turn back to take his cloak, alas for women who are pregnant and those who are nursing infants in those days. Pray that it may not happen in winter. For in those days there will be such a tribulation as not been from the beginning of creation that God created until now and never will be. He’s talking about this tribulation that is arguably forthcoming. I think we have in our Bibles, it usually has this parenthetical statement that says let the reader understand, which has led people to think this parenthesis means we need to tag somebody as this person in history, that Mark’s saying, hey, let the reader understand this person. I think most of the usual suspects don’t actually line up that well with this text and the person that’s there. I think what he’s actually saying is the thing he’s been saying in Mark’s gospel the whole

time. Have you not read what it said about David? Have you not read the books of Moses? I think it’s better. We typically, like here in the ESV that we have, which is a very wonderful and good translation that I like a lot, but you need to remember in Greek there’s no parentheses, not like this anyways. In fact, if you’re reading the original manuscripts, they’re all uppercase letters and they’re all jammed together and it’s total pain. Total pain. I think what we actually have is Jesus’ direct discourse like we’ve seen in these other places. I think Jesus stops to say, when you see the abomination of desolation, let the reader understand. And in part that’s because it’s hard for us to imagine sometimes because we have Bibles, in the first century the reader would have been the one cat who was literate who was reading the scroll.

Let him understand? Wait, what do you mean? I don’t understand. That guy needs to understand. That’s the reader. I think it’s better to say let the one who reads the Old Testament understand. Let the one who knows. But I think we can come to a little clarity when it comes to this here in a second. So the thing that I think he has in mind is the book of Daniel, which he’s been reaching into his favorite title, him, that’s Jesus, his favorite title for himself of course is the son of man, which is the title he gets from Daniel. I think he’s reaching into Daniel, in chapter 11, verse 31 through 35, have you ever had someone preach through, we haven’t done that here, I hope I’m not, I realize I’m about to say this and I’m like, am I putting my own fellow pastors on the spot?

Oftentimes when your pastor has preached through the book of Daniel, if you’re at a different church, because we haven’t done that, I’m looking to Thomas and I’m going to keep going. As I put my foot in my mouth, I got the okay. Often what people do with the book of Daniel is they preach the stuff I love, not just we love, I love. Meshach, Shadrach, Abednego, yes, I’m in. Daniel and the lion’s den, yes, I’m in. The ancient of days, what are you talking about Daniel? Moving on, right? You preach the first seven chapters and say, oh look, it’s Christmas, let’s take a break. And then you never talk about it ever again. And that is how you handle that. But here in that material, in chapter 11, in verse 31, it says this, forces from him shall appear and profane the temple and fortress and shall take away the regular burnt offering

and they shall set up the abomination that makes desolate, that’s where Jesus is getting those words, he shall seduce the flattery, those who violate the covenant, but the people who know their God shall stand firm and take action and the wise among the people shall make many understand, though for some days they shall stumble by sword and flame, by captivity and plunder, when they stumble they shall receive a little help and many shall join themselves to them with flattery and some of the wise shall stumble so that they may be refined, purified and made white until the time of the end, for it still awaits the appointed time. Now it’s likely that Daniel’s pointing to something that was going to happen in the near term, this guy named Antiochus Epiphanes IV and the event that would bring about Hanukkah, but I think it’s also pointing in what’s called pattern prophecy is the fang-dangled word

for it, past that to the abomination of desolation beyond there. Now someday we’ll come back and preach the book of Daniel, I hope, and we can cover that more there, but I think Jesus is reaching into Daniel and he’s saying let the reader understand he’s saying think about this, and then if you go forward with me to one of those more simple passages on these things, 2 Thessalonians 2, starting in verse 1, Paul says this, now concerning our Lord Jesus Christ and our being gathered together to him we ask you brothers not to be quickly shaken in mind or alarmed. Can you hear an echo here, I think, I think, I have to say it that way, I think there’s an echo here, that Paul is looking at something like the Olivet Discourse and saying be awake, be awake, this wouldn’t have been a foreign teaching to him of course, either by spirit

or spoken word or letter seeming to be from us to the effect that the day of the Lord has come, that someone like a false messiah has already arrived. But no one deceive you in this way, for that day will not come unless the rebellion comes first. There’s going to be something, this rebellion that’s going to precede the return of Christ and the man of lawlessness, which I think is, you know, fill in, abomination of desolation, John chapter 4, 1 John chapter 4 calls him the antichrist, is revealed the son of destruction who opposes and exalts himself against every so-called god or object of worship so that he takes his seat in the temple of God, proclaiming himself to be God, do not remember that when I was still with you, I told you of these things, and you know what is restraining him now so that he may be revealed in his time, for the mystery of lawlessness is already

at work, the birth pangs, the ups and the downs, only he who now restrains it will do so until he is out of the way, and then the lawlessness one will be revealed, whom the Lord Jesus will kill with the breath of his mouth and bring to nothing by the appearance of his coming, the coming of the lawless one is by the activity of Satan, with all power and false signs and wonders, there’s actual spiritual power involved in there, and with all wicked deception for those who are perishing because they refuse to love the truth and be saved. We can all be saved from this. Now, here’s what I want to be careful of, church, this is both some interesting stuff, this is some scary stuff, and this is some stuff that people have dedicated hours and hours of Hollywood film to, and honestly a thing that we need to be careful not to be

too distracted about. It seems that this tribulation we are talking about will be sort of that last, again following the birth metaphor, the last contraction before the baby comes is the most intense, and I think the world is headed, according to scripture, to sort of whatever that will be, and Satan will be involved. Surprise, surprise, the snake who was involved in the beginning will be involved in the end. But Jesus doesn’t actually spend that much time here, even in this text, because he actually has something more important to talk about. Verse 20, and if the Lord had not, pardon me, so whatever that thing is, the last push, so to speak, will be the most intense, and if the Lord had not cut short the days, no human being would be saved, but for the sake of the elect, the people of God, whom he chose,

The Final Tribulation

he shortened the days, meaning there will be a time when God calls the game, it will be over, and then if anyone says to you, look, here is the Christ, or look, here he is, don’t believe it. For false Christs and false prophets will arise and perform, again, signs and wonders to lead astray, if possible, the elect. Be on guard, you’ve got to be awake. How do you test if something is from God? What is the number one way, church, we can determine if a word is from God or not? Whether or not it contradicts the Bible, we have to know our Bibles, if we’re able to discern false teaching, false messiahs. So there’s the final push, and verse 24 says this, but in those days, after that tribulation, the sun will be darkened, and the moon will not give its light, that’s also fulfilling

Old Testament prophecy, and the stars will be falling from heaven, and the powers of heaven will be shaken, and then they will see the son of man, there’s that phrase again, the son of man coming with clouds, clouds in Daniel, this is enthronement language, this is Jesus sitting on his throne, this is Jesus mighty in control, with great power and glory, and then he will send out his angels, and gather his elect from the four winds, from the ends of the earth, and to the ends of heaven. The church will make it. Jesus will build his church, and the gates of hell will not prevail against it. Jesus has it. What’s our job? It’s not to spend our time like building cool, though they were cool, cool graphs, you know, worrying if barcodes are going to be the mark of the beast, and we’ll see why in a second.

It’s not because these things actually aren’t important. It’s not that these things aren’t important. We’re to keep our eyes on Jesus, not the abomination of desolation. That’s how you stay awake. Go with me to 1 Thessalonians 5, pardon me, 4, verse 13. You’re going to hear Paul use more of this kind of a wakey kind of language, inventing words, that’s what I like to do. But we do not want you to be uninformed, brothers and sisters, about those who are asleep, those people who have died, and have gone home to be with Jesus, apart from the body, at home with the Lord, that you may not grieve as others do, and have no hope. Pastor Thomas prayed for grieving people. It is not as Christians that we are detached, and it’s not that we don’t grieve, but we don’t grieve as those who don’t understand the story.

We don’t grieve as those who have no hope. For since we believe that Jesus died and rose again, even so, through Jesus, God will bring with him those who have fallen asleep. For those we declare to you by word from the Lord, that we who are alive, who are left until the coming of the Lord, will not precede those who have fallen asleep. For with a cry of command, with a voice of an archangel, and with the sound of the trumpet of God, and the dead in Christ will rise first. So their material form is reunited with their immaterial form. And we who are alive, who are left, will be caught up together with them in the clouds to meet them. This is simple text. This is not coded language. This is not metaphor. This is us flying to meet the King of Kings when he returns on the clouds of glory.

Sometimes, some of us, I don’t know why, I have looked into it. I have not gotten the answer, but I remember the first time I watched Left Behind with Kirk Cameron, I was confused as to why everybody’s clothes were left on the airplane. I don’t know. I don’t know. I don’t know. I have no idea where that came from, but it’s a common understanding. It didn’t come from here. There is valid reason to believe there will be this quiet rapture and that everyone will disappear. But some of us have started to say, I don’t believe in a rapture. The word rapturo comes from this text, 1 Thessalonians 4 and 5, brothers and sisters. I would say, regardless of whatever we believe about a lot of the intricacies of this thing, the thing we can celebrate is that when he comes ripping through the sky, we are going

to join him literally and physically in the air. And this is good news. This should give us confidence when we’re being persecuted. This should give us comfort when things are difficult and hard. I don’t know what it’s like to fly, but I will. I will. And so will you, if you’re in him. So be careful when you say, I don’t believe in the rapture. By that you mean, I’m not so sure about the Kirk Cameron version of the rapture. Fair? Fair? Especially the clothes thing. I would also say there are several good verses, by the way, for those who hold this view. We don’t have time to dig in and turn this into, the point of this is not to turn this into a lecture. The point is to preach the text. And so I can’t go down that rabbit hole right now, but I would say that is a valid,

that is a valid view, and if you hold that view, there are some good verses that back it up. I think it’s better to understand the church is going through this tribulation, through the last push, and that the thief and the knight thing that he says here in 1 Thessalonians is not a quiet disappearance, but people are going to be caught off guard. Because the trumpet shall sound, and Christ shall arrive, and those of us who are in Christ are going to say, thank you, Jesus. And some will say, I’m really, really, really sorry I made fun of my friend who tried telling me about Jesus yesterday. I’m really sorry. That was wrong. You know, we can have just a very serious moment. It will, in fact, be too late. It will be too late for you in that moment if you do not know Christ.

Be saved. He comes to save you and make you whole and give you life and save you from yourself and from your sin and from death and from judgment. My favorite old time hymn has this great line. Where shall I be when the first trumpet sounds? Where shall I be when it sounds so loud? When it sounds so loud as to wake up the dead, where shall I be when it sounds? And the author of this piece goes on to say, when the works of man shall try, God shall try, where shall I be? He is going to judge. And if he hasn’t paid the price for your sins, you’re going to have to. And the good news is if he has, that’s why we can do confession every week with such joy. We’re free. We belong to the King. I have nothing to fear.

And the dead in Christ will rise first and we who are alive, who are left, will be caught together with them in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air so that we’ll always be with the Lord. Therefore, encourage one another with these words. Don’t make movies to scare people into heaven. Encourage people. He’s coming back. Now concerning the times and seasons, brothers, you have no need to have anything written to you for you yourselves are fully aware the day of the Lord will come like a thief in the night. It will come quick. And Jesus will tell us what we need to know about it here in just a second. So we have the last contraction in the baby. The metaphor sort of falls short because just so you know, he’s not coming back as baby Jesus. He’s coming back as conquering King, Lord of Lords, King of Kings.

Christ’s Glorious Return

Sword in his mouth, that Jesus. And Jesus, just a little more intimidating than the baby. And then he will send out the angels and gather his elect from the four winds and from the ends of the earth to the ends of heaven. Okay, now listen, verse 28. So how do we know? From the fig tree, learn this lesson, as soon as its branches become tender and put out its leaves, you know that summer is near. So also when you see these things taking place, you know that the end is near. At the very gates, truly I say to you, this generation will not pass away until these things take place. Heaven and earth will pass away, but my words will not pass away. So this word generation is tricky, right? We think like the who, talking my generation, you know. Thomas is older than I am.

He’s generation X. I’m a millennial. I’m assuming he was in high school when Nevermind came out. I wasn’t. Right? That’s why we don’t understand each other. That’s why we don’t get along. Not that generation. This word, the word in the original is actually where we get the word genus from, like genus and species, kind. And the most common in the classic use of the language and in the biblical use actually means two kinds. And the pattern we’ve seen in Mark again and again and again and again and again is there’s not Jesus versus the Pharisees and Jesus versus the Herodians and Jesus versus the Sadducees. It’s actually the kingdom of God versus the kingdom of darkness, right? It’s Jesus and his people and his kingdom and the Pharisees, Herodians, Sadducees, so on and so forth. And the Romans who are aligned against the kingdom of God.

What he’s saying is here on planet earth, the church will continue and so will the lost. That means you and I have work to do to the end. But concerning the day or the hour, so we have to hold this, verse 32 with 28 to 31, but concerning that day or the hour, no one knows, not even the angels nor in heaven nor the sun. That’s a whole other sermon. The really quick version is I think he means here on earth prior to the resurrection. But actually Jesus doesn’t give that clarity to us. So does Jesus know right now when he’s coming? I believe he does. I believe he does. But honestly, that’s just one of those questions the Bible doesn’t really spend any time answering for us. That’s a great question over coffee. That’s not actually the important part, but don’t get distracted by the things that aren’t

most important, but only the father be on guard, keep awake church. For you do not know when the time will come like a thief in the night. It is like a man going on a journey when he leaves home and puts his servants in charge each with his work and commands the doorkeeper to stay awake. Therefore stay awake. How many times is Jesus going to say that? By the way, Jesus said like be on guard, stay awake, stay awake, be on guard, don’t sleep. Don’t. It’s serious. It’s for real. Therefore stay awake. For you do not know when the master of the house will come in the evening or at midnight or when the rooster crows in the morning, least he comes suddenly and find you asleep. And what I say to you, I say to all. Stay awake. Stay awake. So these two things are together.

He’s saying you’ll know the season, but you won’t know the day. I think that means we can know the things in our world that are pointing to the end, the sort of the birth pains, right? When I think about things like Romans chapter 11 where it seems to indicate there will be a great revival amongst the Jews, I think that means that you and I may be sitting here talking and saying, have you noticed we’ve actually baptized less Gentiles lately? Have you noticed that a lot of Jewish people are coming to see that Jesus is Messiah right now? And I’m talking with my brother pastor across town, and he’s seeing the same thing. And I think we look at each other and say, huh, that’s very fascinating. I hope that means he’s coming very soon, right? But we won’t know the day or the hour.

And I think the reality is we can freak out about what do I do about the mark of the beast and whatever, whatever, whatever, whatever. We stand in the confidence that Jesus knows what he’s doing, that he’s got you, and that be faithful and know his word, and you’ll know what to do and not do. There’s not going to be something that doesn’t clearly contradict God’s will and God’s word in your life that we all look around and say, whoops, I guess I missed that one. I didn’t know eating ice cream was the mark. We’re all in trouble. I think it’ll be very clear. Jesus loves me, this I know, right? He seems to be indicating that if I stay awake and I stay in his word and I stay with his people, I’ll know, and so will you, okay? This can really be something that messes with people pretty deeply and pretty dearly, but

I would just remind you, God’s not trying to trick you on this one. He’s actually giving you everything you need. Stay awake. So our three points then. Jesus wins. Jesus’ people win. Jesus is coming. Stay awake. Yeah, I get it. Sometimes you don’t like what the government you live under does. You don’t like politicians or corporations in control. I get that you don’t like your boss. I get that sometimes things are very hard. We’re very insulated in Portland, in the Pacific Northwest. We feel like this is like the state and times in which we live. Sometimes we can panic and feel like everything’s falling apart, and you spend like two minutes in a different country where things are a lot harder, and you’re like, man, I kind of miss Portland all of a sudden, right? There are brothers and sisters in Ukraine wondering what’s going to happen.

It’s hard, right? There’s Christian people being persecuted in India right now in ways that are bananas, that are very underreported. I’m hearing from friends who are there, super underreported persecution. Yeah, I get it. People don’t like us. People don’t like that we love Jesus. Big surprise. You’ll be hated for my name. So our response is not to double down. Our response is to be charitable and kind and winsome and loving, gospel-centered and evangelistic in the midst of it. It’s an opportunity. But we can do that because we know He wins. We can do this. We don’t need to freak out. We don’t need to panic. Jesus wins. But not only that, Jesus’ people win, and if you’re in Christ today, that’s you. If you are God’s people, we’re going to make it. That’s different when you understand that you’ve already won the game. You play a little different if you go into a foot, I don’t know, a football, whatever,

right? Whatever game you’re playing. I like baseball. But I think if you were to go in and you’re playing baseball, we’ll use baseball because I like baseball, and someone said, no matter what happens, you’re going to win this game. I would do some banana stuff playing baseball. I’d be like, no matter what, your team wins. Bring it. You come out with a confidence. You come out doing crazy stuff. I’m swinging for the fences. I’m doing bunts. I’m doing everything. Friends, we’ve won. Victory in Jesus. Bring the good news of the gospel to Portland. Bring it to the Pacific Northwest. Bring it to your friends and to your jobs and to your neighbors because we’ve actually already won. We should approach this crazy town as a result. You win. But finally, Jesus is coming. Stay awake. Well, how do I do that? That’s the question I’d be asking right now if I were you because the question I’m asking

Stay Awake

myself right now, how do I stay awake? My concern for us friends, to use someone else’s words, is not that we’re going to drink the bottle of poison, but that we’re busy nibbling at the table of the world. I’m busy that we’re just sort of so hopped up on convenience and stuff and possessions and the pursuit of wealth and iPhones and Androids, if you’re that kind of a person, and computers and video games and Disney Plus and whatever, whatever, whatever, that we’re just numb to the fact that we actually have a transcendent God who’s come into history that we can know Him personally and speak to Him every day, to know Him every day and to know Him more deeply. Now, does that mean that you cannot enjoy good food or a Mickey Mouse cartoon? By no means. But don’t let it deaden your senses.

Don’t let it deaden your senses. Use it for God’s glory. God’s common grace has made people creative and wonderful. Enjoy it, but keep it in its right place. The way we stay awake is being in God’s Word, by knowing the truth, by reading it not just for information, but for transformation, and if I say that and you’re like, I have no idea what you’re talking about, the pastors of this church would love to sit with you and show you what it’s like to read the Bible devotionally, to meet with the God of the universe. That’s what we do. That is our job, if nothing else. Please, please don’t not reach out and get some help if that doesn’t make sense. And also, this is why we have membership. The point of membership is not so that like you can get a discount at a Christian car

dealership and say, oh yeah, I’m a member of a church or whatever, and it’s not just something we simply acknowledge, and it’s not even a contract just between you and the elders. It’s none of those things. Identifying these people, like these people who you are sitting with and meeting with, if you’re part of our covenant community, and saying, I know who these people are, and I belong to them and they belong to me. We are a body together, and it’s my responsibility to help them stay awake, and it’s their responsibility to help me stay awake. Which means that, brothers and sisters, if this is your church, like this is a beautiful thing we do, and perhaps one of the most important things we do as we gather as the people. But life as Trinity Church is not one meeting on Sunday. It’s certainly not one meeting on Sunday once a month.

It’s people getting in each other’s lives. It’s being the kind of people that I can knock on your door at 11 at night and say, I need some prayer, I need some help, and you open the door and say, come on in, brother. Come on in, sit down, I’ll put the coffee on. And we don’t just do that so we feel better, we do that because he’s coming back. We do that because he saved us and made us his own. So if you’re here today and you’re not a Christian, this is the good news. Jesus will save you, he’ll redeem you, he’ll love you, he’ll make you his own, and it’s not by you putting on your Sunday best, but him reaching down into your life and saving you and making you his own. He’s the one that crosses the gap, receive his love, become a Christian today.

For those of us who claim Christ but are not quite awake, it’s time to wake up. What do you have to do today? What’s the thing you have to do today to actually get in someone’s life who’s going to help you be awake? Get in God’s word and be awake. What’s like one thing you could do? Taking the piece of paper and writing down Romans chapter 8 verse 1, there is therefore now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus, sticking it in your pocket and looking at it three times a day next week. I guarantee you, if you keep the reality of Romans 8 1 at the forefront of your mind next week, it will change your week. And for those of us who are members of this church who are awake most of the time, man, what are we going to do to help each other and encourage each other and bring joy to

each other as the day draws near, to help each other live in union with Jesus and in communion with the church and on God’s mission to the lost in Portland? Let’s pray. King Jesus, we thank you for today. We thank you that you’re coming. Jesus, you win, we win, and you’re coming back. Help us to be awake. Help us to be alive to the truth. Fill us with your spirit. Light up your word for us. May we choose those things that stoke our hearts for you this week, and may we enjoy those things, those things that could, those good things that could dull our senses. Help us enjoy those things in a way that brings you glory, and help us just to get rid of absolutely everything in our lives, every weight or hindrance that gets in our way of our pursuit of you. So Jesus, help us to pursue you well this week with the confidence that you’re returning.

Jesus, we love you and pray these things for your glory and for our joy in your name. Jesus Christ, amen.