Mark 13:23-32

Watch Out - Part 4

Watch

Listen

AI Generated Transcript

 Will you open in your Bibles

with me to the book of Mark chapter 13, Mark chapter 13. Mark chapter 13 and this morning

we're going to be reading verses 23 through 32. Mark chapter 13 beginning at

verse 23 and ending at verse 32. If you're using your QBibles,

you'll find that on page 898. You might scratch your head,

why is he starting at the last sentence or last verse of a paragraph

and ending at the first sentence of a paragraph? And the reason

for that is because in verse 23 it says, but take heed, watch

out! And then again in verse 32. Or

sorry, verse 33, it's going to start anew, take heed. So we're

taking this next watch out section. So we'll look at verses 23 through

32, this third watch out section of Mark 13. Let's go to the Lord's

Word now. But take heed. See, I have told

you all things beforehand. But in those days, after that

tribulation, the sun will be darkened and the moon will not

give its light. The stars of heaven will fall

and the powers of the heavens will be shaken. Then they will

see the Son of Man coming in the clouds with great power and

glory. And then He will send His angels and gather together

His elect from the four winds, from the furthest part of the

earth to the furthest part of heaven. Now learn this parable

from the fig tree. When its branches have already

become tender and put forth its leaves, you know that summer

is near. So you also, when you see these

things happening, know that it is near at the doors. Assuredly,

I say to you that this generation will by no means pass away till

all these things take place. Heaven and earth will pass away. but my words will by no means

pass away. But of that day and hour, no

one knows, not even the angels in heaven, nor the Son, but only

the Father. Let's pray. Father, we come to

one of the most difficult passages that you give us in the whole

Word, and so we pray now that you would please help us to understand

it. Help us, Lord, we pray, that we would have it applied to our

hearts that we might know That your words never pass away and

you are returning again. In Jesus' name we pray. Amen. Have you ever met someone that

you watch a movie with and they just can't wait till the end?

I mean, I'm talking about that person you watch a movie with

and it's like they want to know the end of the story, what's

going to happen, and you're only in like scene number one. And

they just sit next to you and they want to talk to you like,

why is he doing that? Why is she doing that? When's this going to happen?

And you're just like, shhh. Just watch the movie, you'll find

out. I have a feeling that's what's happening here in this

type of passage. When we come to Mark chapter

13, the disciples, remember, they were walking in the temple

and they said, look at these great stones, Jesus. Look at

the amazing temple. And Jesus says, I'm going to

tell you what, boys, not one stone is going to be left on

another. And we have four apostles, at that time disciples, come

to Jesus and they ask him on the Mount of Olives, when's this

going to happen? When is this going to happen,

Lord? They want to know the end of the story. And so Jesus has

had to walk them through, but there's still a certain amount

of suspense that we have to live through, that Jesus doesn't answer

all of our questions. And so maybe one of the things

I'm going to tell you is that as we come through this passage,

I'm just going to tell you, I'm watching the story too. And anybody

else who thinks they have the entire plot figured out, They're

not the director of the story, and they've not watched how the

story unfolds. There's only one who knows that. And so we must

be humble as we come to a passage like this. But there are things

that we can know and we can learn. And so what we're going to do

this morning is we're just going to walk through the text together. And

I'm going to point out things as we look through it as we go.

And the applications and the illustrations are just going

to be buried in there, all right? So I'm hoping you just glean

as you go, right? So we're walking through a field

together. There's going to be food for you to eat. Don't worry

about it. Just go along. Pick it up. It's

a Sabbath day. You're fine. Eat it. Pick it up as we go. So, verse 23. Jesus says, but

you all take heed, right? The you all is not there in English,

but it is in the Greek, blepete. Watch out, y'all. Right, you

guys need to watch out, boys. See, I've told you all things

beforehand. Jesus had told them specific

answers about what was going to happen to the temple. Not

one stone was going to be left upon another. And there were

going to be signs that this was going to happen. There would

be an embankment or a siege of Jerusalem. And He told them,

when that happens and you see the abomination that causes desolation,

get out of town. He told them. You can see that

it's going to happen. So He told them that. Right? But Jesus also

warned them That the horror of what was going to happen to Jerusalem

and the temple was just a foretaste. It was just a dress rehearsal

of what the last great day was going to be. And what a display

of Jesus' knowledge this is. He's told them all things beforehand,

and history teaches us that Jesus knew what He was talking about.

We've spent a number of weeks looking at that. So now we come

to verse 24 and Jesus changes the subject. In the Greek, this

word but, there's a few different words that mean but in Greek.

One is just like a, there's conjunctions, right? Have you ever seen Schoolhouse,

right? Conjunction, junction, what's your function, right?

And they link together, right? And words like that. But this

is a disjunction, something that puts things apart. There are

weak disjunctions and there are strong disjunctions. A weak one

is the word de, right? D-E, de. It just means like a

soft butt. I'd like to have dinner, but

if I get dessert, that's okay. But there's strong disjunctions

in Greek, and one of the strongest is the word Allah. A-L-L-A, Allah. And here is the strong disjunction

saying, I was talking about this, but now I need to talk to you

about something else. Now he's getting to their second

question. The end of the times. What's going to happen? And so

Jesus changes the subject, and now we get to that big scary

word you get to have your parents spell, eschatology. Eschatology. I mean, look at the kids, and

you can just shake your heads like this, you don't remember,

or you can nod your heads like this, you do remember. Do you

remember what eschatology is? Mixed responses. Good. Alright,

so eschatology is the study of last things. Study of last things. So Jesus now talks about not

just the temple, but the last things. And He picks up on this

in verses 24-27. So He's talking about His coming

again. The day of the Lord. The end

of things as they are. And notice, in those days, Verse

24, but in, what does it say? It doesn't say in that day. But

it says, in those days. There's a lot of grammar here

that's very important. There's a difference between

a singular and a plural. It's not just one day. What we

find out from Jesus is that the last day, the day of the Lord,

it seems like this is going to somehow be stretching over days. But in those days, after that

tribulation, meaning after the temple is destroyed, after all

these things have happened, there's going to be a lot of stuff. That

goes on, and Calvin comments on this, and he says, Jesus wrote

this to confirm His disciples in good hope, that they may not

be dismayed on account of the troubles and confusions that

were about to arise. Right? The disciples were about

to live their lives, and it was going to be a mess. And He wanted

them to still have hope. So after these trials and tribulations,

know that there's still going to come the last great day. And so we come to verses 24 and

25, and we come to this last great day. We come to this eschatological

end, and we get cosmic things going on. Notice some of the

things that this says. Verse 24, the sun will be darkened. The moon will not give its light. The stars of heaven will fall. Powers in heaven will be shaken. Again, Calvin notes on this passage,

Jesus does not necessarily intend to mean that the stars are actually

going to fall, but according to the apprehension of men, and

according to Luke, It only predicts that there will be signs in the

sun, and in the moon, and in the stars. The meaning, therefore,

is that there will be such violent commotion of the firmament of

heaven, that the stars themselves will be supposed to fall. I'm

going to summarize Calvin here, right? What's he saying? Stuff's

going to happen up there that we can't imagine. I need to put

this into context. There's a lot of pictures in

the Bible about future things, about stuff that's going to happen.

And as you read through a number of these passages, by the way,

I think verses 24, 25, 26, these are basically the only apocalyptic

type language in this passage so far. And when we come to language

like this, We need to be careful that we don't just read it like

a wooden translation. Right? This is going to happen,

so the sun is going to be darkened, and then, immediately after that,

the moon is going to stop giving its glory, and immediately after

that, the stars are going to fall from the sky, and then,

like, where are the stars going to go? The stars are in space. Are they going to fall to earth?

Is it all going to collapse in? What's... The point isn't that

we read this literalistically, but we see that this has been

a pattern of prophetic language. If we went back to Joel chapter

2, we're able to see that the Old Testament prophets spoke

like this regularly. Joel chapter 2, beginning at

verse 30. This is how the prophet Joel

spoke. But I will remove far from you

the northern army and will drive him away into it. Nope, that's

the wrong verse. Must be chapter 3. Oh, there's nothing more embarrassing

than writing down the wrong passage and not being able to find it.

There we go. Verse 14 of chapter 3. Multitudes, multitudes in the

valley of decision, for the day of the Lord is near in the valley

of decision. The sun and moon will grow dark and the stars

will diminish their brightness. The Lord also will roar from

Zion and utter His voice from Jerusalem that heavens and earth

will shake. But the Lord will be a shelter

for His people and the strength for the children of Israel. So

here's my question, when we read something like Joel, do you think

that people imagined that God would come to the temple and

take on a form like Chronicles of Narnia with Aslan, and literally

roar from Jerusalem? I don't think that that's what

it's saying. I think the Lord is going to make some type of huge

loud commotion, and so everyone's able to hear him, right? So the

point isn't also, this is one thing that R.C. Sproul was very

helpful about one time when I was listening to him on the Doctrine

of Hell. When the scripture uses symbolic language, there's one

sense in which unbelieving people go, good, I'm glad that's not

to be taken literally. The thing is, it's not to be

taken less lightly. It's that it's so real and so

deep and so severe, that language is just trying to grasp at the

reality of it. And I think that's what it's

saying here. The only thing that the last great day of the Lord

is going to be like, it's going to be like the sun stopped giving

its light. The moon stopped displaying its glory. Like the stars which

the Lord put in the heavens aren't even going to matter anymore.

It's going to be like they're falling from the sky and the

powers in heaven that are there are going to be shaken. It's

this cosmic language grasping at a weightier reality. But then

we get to one of the most powerful passages in this section, verse

26. Then they will see the Son of

Man coming in the clouds with great power and glory. This is specifically hearkening

back to what we read in Daniel chapter 7. This is what I'm going

to say again. When you read Daniel chapter

7, when we read that together, did you sit there and did you

think that there was an actual lion with two wings? Or that

there was another beast who had ribs in its mouth? Or that there

was another beast and it had ten horns, and then another horn,

and it ripped up three horns, and then the horn all of a sudden

had eyes and mouth, and do you think that beast is actually

real? That there's some physical creature that you can touch and

be like, okay, that's this creature. No, it's symbolic language to

get at the absolute pride and arrogance of some human ruler

who had tried to usurp the authority of Jesus Christ, the Ancient

of Days. But this is telling us, just

like Daniel was absolutely sure and it troubled him, we can be

absolutely sure that the Ancient of Days, the Son of Man, is Jesus

Christ Himself. And that even though He died

on a cross and was humiliated, He's not going to return in that

same humiliated state. But He's going to crush that

pompous horn. And He's going to have an everlasting

kingdom. The nations have been given to

Him as His inheritance as Psalm chapter 2 tells us. But Jesus

will someday return, the Ancient of Days, and He will receive

the obedience of the kingdoms. And this picture that Jesus uses

here from Daniel chapter 7, then they will see the Son of Man

coming in the clouds with great power and glory. This idea of

clouds piqued my interest as I was just thinking biblically.

It's this picture of clouds. And we see that there is a...

God appears in ways with clouds quite regularly, doesn't he?

When we go to the Mount of Sinai, how does God reveal himself?

In the mountain. When the tabernacle is built,

what happens? The fire comes down and it lights

up the altar and the smoke fills the tabernacle. When Solomon

builds his temple, what happens? The cloud of the glory of the

Lord fills the temple so much that the priest can't even go

in there. And then we come to Jesus Himself. As we saw just

a few months ago at the Mount of Transfiguration and the cloud

of glory surrounding Jesus Christ and He was revealed in all of

His splendor, I think the disciples just got a taste of the vision

of what the Son of Man really was as He glowed in His radiance

and holiness. What they got in just a glimmer

of light, Jesus will come back forever as He truly is. Jesus,

though, did ascend up into heaven. And Acts chapter 11 tells us

that when Jesus ascended up into heaven, what happens? The clouds

covered over where He left, and then two angels appear, and they

say to the apostles, this Jesus, who has taken up from you into

heaven, will so come in like manner as you saw Him go into

heaven. That's history, that's no longer

apocalyptic language. Luke is writing a history in

chapter 1 of the book of Acts, and he says that the angel said,

hey, you know as you looked up into heaven, your heads were

up, your chins were up, you saw with your own eyes the clouds

covered behind him, because Jesus ascended up into heaven, those

same clouds, he's coming back the same way. He's coming back

the same way. But notice something interesting

in verse 26. Notice that the verb form has changed. I told

you that in verse 23 it said, but you all take heed. But now

in verse 26, what does it say? Then they will see. Third person plural. He's no longer speaking just

to the disciples. But he's saying they. Who is

the they? I think it's speaking of those who are elect who are

at the time of Jesus' return. Not just the disciples. I think

this is just a hint, a taste, that it would not be the apostles

who would see this. But as Matthew chapter 24 verse

30 says, and this is a parallel account of this, in Matthew chapter

24's account of this, Jesus says, the signs of the Son of Man will

appear in heaven, and then all the tribes of the earth will

mourn. And they will see the Son of

Man coming on the clouds of heaven with power and great glory. Do

you see? It's not the disciples who will see Jesus come on the

clouds, but it's the tribes, or the nations of the world who

will see Jesus come in the clouds. It's no longer a group of twelve

men standing outside of Jerusalem, but it's the whole world who

will see this. But notice what Matthew says.

He says the tribes will mourn. Because there are going to be

all sorts of nations, people, groups, languages, cultures,

customs, who will have refused Jesus Christ even to the day

of His return. And at that last great day when

Jesus returns, they will mourn. Because they'll realize that

they've played the fool in their disbelief. Refusing to believe

in Jesus Christ. The tribes will see. The nations

will first hear the gospel. The elect will hear, believe,

and follow Christ. Tribes and nations who have rejected

Him will weep. Because they've rejected Jesus

and His humiliation, and because of that, these disbelieving nations

will groan with despair, remorse, and some of them even hatred,

because the King of Glory has arrived. This implies, at least

a little bit, that the Great Commission must have time to

work, and that Jesus wasn't thinking that this was just going to be

to the people of His Pacific Apostles. who wouldn't see this

great day, but it had to have time to go throughout the world. It would not be an immediate

return. And then Jesus continues on in

verse 27. And then He will send His angels

and gather together His elect from the four winds, from the

furthest parts of the earth to the furthest parts of heaven.

Matthew chapter 24, the parallel of this, tells us that when the

angels come, they're not just going to come and whisper in

people's ears, Jesus is coming, Jesus is coming, Jesus is coming.

No, Matthew tells us that they come with trumpets. The angels

come with trumpets blowing. Now, I don't know if they're

going to have literal trumpets, if they're going to look like

jazz band members, or they're going to have the long type of

trumpets that we see on the Arch of Titus. I don't know what type

of trumpets they're going to have. I don't know if these are

literal trumpets. I don't know if angels have lips to play trumpets.

I don't know, but they're going to come, and it's going to be

loud, and everybody's going to hear it. Everybody's going to

know that Jesus has returned. So some observations from verse

27. Jesus commands, The army of the angels. It's

when the king comes, the army blows their horns, and Jesus

is coming, so the angels blow their horns. Observation number

two from verse 27, Jesus and angels know who God's people

are. Jesus and his angels know who

the elect are. Third observation from verse

27 is that there is a geographic spread of the gospel. Right,

what does it say? And he will send his angels and

gather together his elect from the four winds, from the furthest

part of the earth to the furthest part of heaven. The gospel is

going to spread geographically, that's the picture that it gives

here. Observation number four from

verse 27 is though that the elect are also cosmically separated. Notice they're not just bringing

together the elect on earth from the four winds, but where else

are they gathering the elect from? Where will you go when

you die? Is he the God of the living or

of the dead? If you die before the resurrection, where will

the angels get you? I think Jesus gives us a picture

here. Notice, the angels from the furthest

parts of the earth to the furthest part of the heaven, they are

gathering the elect. Fifth observation for verse 27,

and this is one that many Oh, there's a whole bunch of

heretics who run around and will tell you that there has already

been a resurrection. Jesus has already returned. Some

fool preterists will say, this all happened in 70 AD when the

temple was destroyed. This is all past tense. None

of this is going to happen anymore because Jesus already returned,

but it was a secret. And then other cults will tell

you now, right, they'll predict, oh, Jesus is going to return

on a specific year. And then when Jesus doesn't return

that specific year, they say, well, he did return. But it was

a secret. That's not true! That's not true! The angels didn't blow their

trumpets. Go read 1 Thessalonians 4.16 and it's not true. The world

is going to know. All humanity will know when Jesus

Christ comes back again. And 2 Peter 3.10 specifically

tells us to be on our guard about such silly things. 2 Peter chapter...

3, beginning at verse 10. Let's

hope I got the right reference written down. But the day of the Lord will

come as a thief in the night, in which the heavens will pass

away with a great noise, and the elements will melt with fervent

heat. Both the earth and the works

that are in it will be burned up. I'm sorry, Jehovah's Witnesses,

but the elements have not been burned up. Jesus has not returned

yet, and so you need to know that when these things happen,

and I can't tell you all the details of how it's going to

happen, but we're going to know that the end has come. It's not

going to be some secret. We'll know. The whole world will

know. I've got to say, as I've just kind of been a little bit

harsh though, right, the fun of this is, man, can you imagine

what that day is going to be like? What a reunion that's going

to be like when all the number of God's elect are gathered together

again. I had never thought about this

before until I was at a cemetery after a funeral of one of our

elders. Actually, some of you know him, Mr. McMillan. We were

at his graveside, and Gordon Keddie, who's now with the Lord,

we were standing there in this cemetery, and Gordon just looked

around and started reading the names on the headstones of the

cemetery, and he said, can you imagine what a reunion this is

going to be on Resurrection Day? Man, it's going to be amazing.

But we need to have humility that we don't know all the how

and how this will happen or what it's going to look like. But

we do know it's going to happen. And that's what Jesus gets at

in verses 28 and 29. Verses 28 and 29, Jesus says, Now learn

this parable from the fig tree. When its branch, that's the fig

tree, right? If you look at any fig tree, when its branch has

already become tender and put forth its leaves, you know that

summer is near. So you also, when you see these

things happening, know that it is near at the doors. This is just common horticulture,

and I'm not good with trees and plants. You can go look at our

garden. Mom had to move in to make sure we could actually have

a productive garden. But one of the things I've noticed since

living in Iowa is I try to look at the farmers and be like them.

I'm not very good, but you look at trees, and in the spring,

I'd never noticed. This is dummy Brian. I'm 32 years

old. I look at a tree for the first

time in the spring, and you could tell the difference between the

old twigs and the new twigs. I didn't know that. I'd never

taken my time to actually look at a tree in the spring and watch

it come out of dormancy. And you could see the different

colors as the tree is starting to grow. And Jesus says, just

look at any fig tree and you're able to tell when summer's about

to come. He says, so we should also be

able to look at the world and tell, the end's going to come

someday. This is not the way it's supposed

to be. We are not total dafts. We do have eyes to see the world

for what it is. We do have minds enlightened

by the Holy Spirit to understand what's going on in a certain

sense in the world. But I gotta tell you, growing

up in a dispensationalist church, I was always looking for signs,

there was always talk about what was going on here, and maybe

this rumor of war was the beginning of end times, and maybe this

earthquake over here meant that the Lord was finally going to

come, or maybe that Israel was finally getting in this war with

Egypt, or had this problem with some other nation, or maybe the

EU was coming together and they were doing this, or maybe now

is the last times. And it never came true. See,

the end is going to happen soon, but we don't know when it's going

to happen. Like I said a few weeks ago, if you really want

to be busy about the end of the Lord coming, I would encourage

you to go join mission fields or go talk to your neighbors

rather than speculating about what's going on with different

wars and rumors of wars, earthquakes, and famines. Be careful of anyone

who can tell you the exact how all this is going to happen and

will tell you exactly how it will happen and will tell you

exactly when it will happen. That person is a liar and a charlatan.

Walk away. But we do come to a very difficult

problem. Mark chapter 13 verse 30. I know I'm moving fast. I

know this is long. I pray that you'll bear with

me. We come to Mark chapter 13 verse 30 and we come to a very

difficult passage and here I want to read it to you slowly. Assuredly

I say to you this generation will by no means pass away till

all these things take place. Heaven and earth will pass away

but my words will by no means pass away. Here we have a problem

if we're intellectually honest with ourselves. How can Jesus

be true? He says right here, "...Assuredly,

I say to you, this generation will by no means pass away."

But the apostles did die. And Jesus didn't return. So,

how do we reconcile this? Well, the first option is Jesus

was an idiot. He was a liar, he was a false prophet, he didn't

know what he was doing. So he's not to be believed. He was just

like us. He had fallible knowledge. Because

the natural way of reading this generation is the people standing

in front of Jesus. There are many good Christians

who obviously don't want to go down that route, and rightly

so. They don't want to disbelieve

Jesus' words, and so option number two comes with six different

ways that people have tried to redefine to redefine this generation. What does that phrase, this generation,

mean? Some people who want to put this all in the past will

say, this generation means the temple and its destruction. This

generation has never been meant to refer to the temple, so I

don't think that's right. Some people, again, who think

this is all in the past, will say, this generation, Jesus isn't

talking about all these things, but he's talking about his crucifixion

and his resurrection. But that's moving this to later

chapters and not this chapter. I don't think that that's what's

going on either. And then other well-meaning Christians who see

these things as more in the future will say this generation just

means mankind generally. Well, maybe if you're talking

about this sinful generation of men, right? But that's not

what Jesus says, right? He says this generation. There's

not more qualifiers to give a broader scope. And some people will say,

this generation means this sort of people. Sometimes the scriptures

use it that way, but it doesn't seem to fit in the context here. Some people will say, this generation

means it's a race of people, or a kind of people, and generation

is used that way in the Bible sometimes. This generation meaning

like the Jewish people as a whole. And that could possibly be the

case. The problem is most of the people

who hold to this will say what Jesus is really talking about

is 1960s when Israel became a state and this is tied into the Zionistic

movement and within that generation then Jesus would return. The

issue with that is again most of the theologians will say this

generation. They'll say a generation is about 30 years. Well I hate

to tell you we're past 30 years when the nation of Israel was

established. So that doesn't seem to fit either. Others will

say this generation just means an age. Luke chapter 1 speaks

that way, a period of time. And His mercy is on those who

fear Him from generation to generation. Or Ephesians 3.21. By the way,

this is one that I think of all these six, seven different options,

whatever it is, I think this one is maybe the closest, I still

don't agree with it, but Ephesians 3.21 says, "...to him be the

glory and the church by Christ Jesus to all generations forever

and ever." Acts chapter 15 verse 21 says, "...for Moses has throughout

many generations those who preach him in every city." So maybe

generation just means a period of time. My issue with that is

every time they reference another one, it's met with a preposition

with it. Jesus doesn't have that here. He just says, this generation. Not this generation to the next

generation. Not this generation forever and ever. Jesus says,

this generation. That's it. Jesus is very specific. That I think it is the generation

that Jesus was talking about. So how do we get around this?

Well, I don't think we get around it. I think we read closely.

And by that I mean, when he says, assuredly I say to you, this

generation will by no means pass away. Till all these things take

place, my question is, what is all these things that he's talking

about? Because of what he's about to speak about next, I think

he's referring back to verses 5 through 21, about the destruction

of the temple. that this generation by no means

will pass away until the destruction of the temple, the foretaste

of the last day happens. I think that's what Jesus is

getting at. Remember the disciples came and

they asked him to describe two things. When is the temple going

to be destroyed? And what are the signs of the

last things? That's how they ask it in the book of Matthew.

I think Jesus is answering both those questions, even the disciples

in their mind want to think that they're one thing. Destruction

of temple equals end of world. And Jesus is separating those

things and putting them over each other. That the destruction

of temple is a foretaste, a dress rehearsal of the end of the world. And so verses 24 through 27 are

about the final judgment day. But when we get to verse 30 and

he talks about all these things, I think he's getting to verses

5 through 22. not regarding His coming again. So until Jesus

returns, we are on guard. We see the temple destruction,

we know that Jesus' words are true. We need to be ready for

Jesus to return. And Jesus makes an absolutely

clear statement, heaven and earth will pass away, but my words

will by no means pass away. Jesus is so confident in what

He said that He stakes His whole reputation on it. That this generation

will not pass away. Jesus' words worked as a divine

oath and promise. The heavens and the earth may

fluctuate, they may change, they may morph, they may even fail

and melt away, but Jesus' words will endure forever. And then we have to take a humility

pill. In verse 32. Before you start throwing rocks

at me downstairs because you think I've disagreed with your

favorite study bible or something, I could be wrong. And you could

be wrong. And we're most likely, all of

us, wrong about little points in how we understand this. And

Jesus gives us the biggest humility pill of all. But of that day

and hour, no one knows, not even the angels in heaven nor the

Son, but only the Father. Our exact details of eschatology

could be wrong. And we have to be humble enough

to say that. And to have extreme pride And

thinking that the exact details of what you think you understand

the scriptures to say is the only way to understand end-time

theology is probably coming more from our adversary than from

the King. There are things that we can hold on to that we can

uncompromisingly say, no, we're going to take a stand here and

we're not going to move. Things like we can say, Jesus is our

King. And He's a King of power and

glory. We can stand our ground and say the Son of Man, Jesus

Christ, will return. He hasn't returned yet, because

the biblical evidence we have shows us He has not returned

yet. The overwhelming evidence says that. We can say that affliction

has already happened, and we can say, yet there's going to

be more that will happen. We can say that Jesus has been

resurrected from the dead, And yet we can say with confidence

that the resurrection of the dead has not happened for His

people. He promised that He would raise

us up again from the dead and that has not happened. How do

I know it? Look next door. Jesus died in humiliation. Jesus was

raised in power and Jesus will return in power and glory. The Son of Man has come to earth,

yet His Kingdom is not finished. The elect will be gathered. The

coming of Jesus will happen openly and dramatically. So what do we do? Well, you live your life. You

live your life knowing that your King reigns. You live your life

knowing that the King can demand of you your life even this day.

That He has a kingdom that will endure forever and ever, and

you live your life in light of that kingdom and of that King.

And here's a wonderful thing, I love how the Lord's providence

works. When the Lord instituted the supper, one of the things

He tells us is that as often as we eat this bread and drink

this cup, we do so proclaiming His death

until He comes again. This is a common thread that

we hold with the ancient church, that Jesus Christ is returning

again, and that our Lord is real. Let's pray. Father, we thank You for telling

us of things that we don't quite fully understand, things that

are difficult, And yet, Lord, we pray that you

would give us humility and love for one another as we may have

disagreements with some of these things. Lord, we pray that each

one of us would sharpen each other as iron sharpens iron,

but that we would also live with each other in gentleness and

humility. And that we would hold on to

that same common hope that our Lord Jesus Christ will come again

to judge the living and the dead and establish his kingdom forever

and ever. Lord, we pray these things in Jesus'