Watch Out! (Part 4)

Scripture Reading

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.

Prayer for Illumination

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.

Sermon

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 Point

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 Point

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.

Closing Prayer

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'