A sermon on Mark 13. This sermon was preached at Lebanon Valley Presbyterian Church (PCA) in Lebanon, Pennsylvania. For more information, visit www.lebanonvalleypca.com
It’s a long passage. Actually, we’re not going to read every single verse here in Mark 13, but I wanted you to have it as we intend, Lord willing, to work through this chapter over the next couple of weeks. And so as we continue in our preaching through the Gospel of Mark, we are here in Mark 13, and let’s read to verse 13, and then I’ll read verse 26 just to give some sense of reference as we begin in this chapter. Let us give careful attention to God’s holy word. May we yield to it, seek to understand, and hear the words that are inspired of the Holy Spirit. Mark 13, verse one:
“And as he came out of the temple, one of his disciples said to him, ‘Look, Teacher, what wonderful stones and what wonderful buildings.’ And Jesus said to him, ‘Do you see these great buildings? There will not be left here one stone upon another that will not be thrown down.’ And as he sat on the Mount of Olives opposite the temple, Peter and James and John and Andrew asked him privately, ‘Tell us, when will these things be, and what will be the sign when all these things are about to be accomplished?’ And Jesus began to say to them, ‘See that no one leads you astray. Many will come in my name, saying, “I am he,” and they will lead many astray. And when you hear of wars and rumors of wars, 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. These are but the beginning of the birth pains. But be on your 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. And the gospel must first be proclaimed to all nations. And when they bring you to trial and deliver you over, do not be anxious beforehand what you are to say, but say whatever is given you in that hour, for it is not you who speak, but the Holy Spirit. And brother will deliver brother over to death, and the father his child, and children will rise against their parents and have them put to death. And you will be hated by all for my name’s sake, but the one who endures to the end will be saved.’”
Then verse 26: “And then they will see the Son of Man coming in clouds with great power and glory. And then he will send out the angels and gather his elect from the four winds, from the ends of the earth to the ends of heaven.”
This is the word of the Lord. You may be seated.
Mark 13 is, as you may infer, one of the most challenging passages in the whole gospel, not only because of its prophetic content, but also where it’s placed. It is the longest private teaching Jesus gives in this gospel. It’s the only extended speech of Jesus that Mark records. It’s this lengthy discussion—we read a part of it—about the future destruction of the temple, the destruction of Jerusalem, and then his coming glory at the end of the age. It is positioned between Jesus’ public ministry and then his passion, which will follow here after Mark 13. It, in a sense, acts as a farewell address to his disciples, preparing them for what is to come. And you also may note that this discourse is recorded in all three of the Synoptic Gospels: Matthew in chapter 24, Mark here in 13, and Luke in chapter 21.
Now, as we seek to work through this challenging text, there’s just a few things we should note upfront. And first is just that the challenge and mystery here of Jesus’ prophecy that is given. This is a very challenging and in many ways complex text. That doesn’t mean we should not attempt to understand it or solve the riddles that it presents us. We should do that. It’s not a non-essential, if you will. All of Scripture is essential. But we also should acknowledge that Christians look at this text and come away with vastly different ideas of what it means. And so today, we’re, in a sense, being introduced to this text. Not that this is the first time you’ve heard of it or read it or studied it, but we are being introduced to it in the sense that much more discussion is needed, much more study is needed. And we could do that not only here in the Lord’s gathering, Lord’s Day, preaching of the word, but in conversation and talking through some of these things, because there’s going to be a lot of things still need to be said.
And on that note, there’s many things in this passage I don’t understand. I should note that I’ve been persuaded by some of the arguments of the late theologian R.C. Sproul, as well as author Sam Storms, concerning this chapter, but so much still remains a mystery. And again, that’s not a reason why we should ignore it, but we should approach it humbly. I was thinking about when I was a young boy. I was telling someone recently, I was in what was called Royal Rangers. That was the church alternative to Boy Scouts. The one thing I always struggled with was knots—tying knots, untying knots, certain kinds of knots. I really struggled with that. Well, there’s a lot of knots in this chapter, and by the time we finish it, we may not have untied all those knots. We can look at some ideas here and again, begin to study even more.
And then, thirdly, these difficulties in this text should not cause us to miss the validity of Jesus in his predictions. The accuracy of Jesus’ predictions are front and center right away. As I noted, R.C. Sproul says that some of the complexity and cloudiness of this chapter should not take away from the fact that this text represents the most amazing prediction of future events, in his opinion, that we find in the New Testament. Is there any text that should prove the divine claims of Jesus as this text? For he predicts, without any doubt, the destruction of Jerusalem and the temple years before the event took place. This is a predictive prophecy at the highest magnitude. And so you would think that this text, more than any other, would vindicate and authenticate Jesus’ claims, not only what we’ve seen so far in the Gospel of Mark, but his claims to be the Son of God who speaks only those things that the Father has authorized. What he does here bears dramatic witness to the inspiration of sacred Scripture, the uncanny accuracy for predicting the future about the destruction of the temple and Jerusalem before it takes place. So all the cloudiness should not cause us to miss that great apologetic of Jesus and who he is and what he says here.
Nevertheless, we also must acknowledge that this chapter that we just read not only is complex, in some ways cloudy, it’s also the most contested of texts in the New Testament, often used by skeptics to question both Jesus and the Bible. So we have to acknowledge the disputed nature of this text. Mark 13 is the go-to text for higher critics, skeptics, all those who deny Jesus, that he’s the Messiah, all those who would deny that the New Testament is trustworthy. This is often the text they pull out right away. When Bertrand Russell, who was known as a world-class philosopher and mathematician, when he wrote his book Why I Am Not a Christian, he cited this discourse that we just read as being one of the chief reasons for his rejection of Christianity. Now, he also considered all religions to be harmful, but his target was specifically aimed at Christianity, and his chief criticism of Jesus was that Jesus was wrong with respect to the timing of his future return. The issue for Russell was the time frame reference of these prophecies, and he charged that Jesus failed to return during the time frame he had predicted.
So you see the tension here in Mark 13, giving some of the clear support for our belief in Christ and in the Bible, yet also one of the most attacked is this chapter by those who don’t believe. And skeptics say, “Well, how can that be, that Jesus accurately predicts there in the first few verses of Mark 13 the destruction of the temple in Jerusalem decades before it happened?” But the tension, of course, arises because in the same passage, Jesus speaks of his future coming in glory. We read there at the last verse we read, that which has not yet been fulfilled, and so critics will use it to cast doubt on the whole.
Now, there have been many attempts to deal with this difficulty. Some redefine the meaning of the word “generation.” The generation does not mean 40 years, as some would think of it. Others suggest that what we have here is similar to what we see often in the Old Testament, when a prophecy has a short-term application, but then a fuller application later in history, that this entire present age between the two comings of Christ are being mentioned here, so perhaps that’s what’s in view. Still another attempt is to interpret the Olivet Discourse to say that Jesus was not talking about his final coming at the end of time, but his judgment coming at the end of the Jewish age, which would have been fulfilled in AD 70.
Now, all that being said, we need to remind ourselves that this is not a fringe issue, as I mentioned. This is not a non-essential. This issue strikes at the center of our faith. All Scripture is profitable. Mark 13 is profitable. And the historic creeds of the church, both the Apostles’ and what we read this morning, the Nicene Creed, what do they declare? They declare not only that Christ died and Christ rose, but that he will come again in glory to finish what he has begun. And so let’s be very clear about this as we attempt to work through this chapter: the future, personal, physical, visible coming of Christ to consummate the redemptive purpose of God is still to come.
Now, that’s probably the longest introduction. Someone said, “This is going to be the longest sermon ever.” It won’t. It won’t. But let’s look where this starts, verse one and two. As he’s coming out of the temple, one of his disciples said to him, “Look, Teacher, what wonderful stones, what wonderful buildings.” Now, this wasn’t Solomon’s temple that the disciple was looking at. It was the temple built by Herod the Great. It was truly one of the wonders of the ancient world. Rita Meyer notes that it was made of enormous stone blocks. Archaeologists have come up with rather close estimation, some 40 feet in length, weighing as much as 100 tons, all of that necessary to fill the material needed to support the weight of the structures to be erected on the surface. A northern wall, which was 1,035 feet. The southern wall, 912 feet. Eastern wall measured 1,590 feet. This was Herod’s temple complex, largest building site in the ancient world, twice the size of the Roman Forum. Outer court measured 500 by 300 yards. That’s like five football fields by three football fields. The temple itself took up approximately 35 acres of ground, and Josephus tells us some of the stones making up the temple were 60 feet long. Some historians of antiquity have said the Temple of Herod in Jerusalem looked like a mountain of marble decorated with gold.
I remember standing outside of MetLife Stadium in New Jersey when that was just built, and I just stood in amazement. That was nothing compared to this. And the occasion of Jesus’ prophecy of the impending destruction of the temple starts with this awe with which the disciples regarded this spectacle. They were astonished. “Look, Jesus, the magnificence, the adornment, the courts, the porches, the balconies, the buildings!” And that one disciple stood there and he marveled at the massive size of stones. But you note, that’s what he marveled at. “Look at this, the stones, the wonderful buildings,” perhaps weighing just one stone, millions of pounds. And what does Jesus say? “Do you see these great buildings? Not one stone shall be left upon another that shall not be thrown down.” You see these stones weighing a million pounds? They’ll be turned to dust.
Again, this is one of the most important proofs of Christ’s character and the Bible’s divine inspiration, the astonishing, accurate prediction of the destruction of the temple and the fall of Jerusalem. It’s almost now universally acknowledged that the gospels of Matthew, Mark, and Luke were written well before AD 70, when this happened in history. So Jesus gives this prediction before the events happened. Now, I don’t know if we really feel the weight of that, because we have so many people claiming to be prophets and those who guess and those who estimate. You know, there’s people trying to make predictions based on trends, right? They’re looking at the final NBA game, who’s going to win, the Pacers or the Thunder from Oklahoma City. Well, note the trends, note the statistics of each player. This is who’s going to win. And people do that with the markets. What are the trends of this stock going up or this fund going down? But friend, there were no trends to make such a prediction in the ancient world that something so catastrophic was about to happen. But Jesus says it, and we know now it happened exactly as he said. There will not be one stone left upon another.
And so then, as they go and sit on the Mount of Olives—why it’s called the Olivet Discourse—opposite the temple, Peter, James, and John and Andrew asked him privately. You know, it’s always the curious ones. I wonder why all the disciples didn’t ask. So I guess it blew their mind. But Peter, James, and John and Andrew come and they asked him. They said, “Tell us, when will these things be, and what will be the sign when all these things are about to be accomplished?” Now, in all three gospels, the disciples asked these two questions: when will these things be, and what will be the sign of their fulfillment? Matthew adds, “When will be the end of the age?” When will be the end of the age? When will these things be, and what will be the sign?
Now, one question to ponder here as we begin to move through this passage is, were the disciples asking about the end of the world or about the end of the age? Was the end in view the end of all time, or the end of the Jewish age? Well, certainly, if you just follow the trajectory of where Mark is going, it seems Jesus has been more than hinting at the end of the Jewish age in this gospel. He’s been very much focusing how the experience of Israel, symbolized in the temple, symbolized in the city of Jerusalem, has been proven to be futile. You go back to the fig tree. Jesus looked for fruit. There was no fruit. There was appearance of life in those religious leaders, but not the reality of life. There was the appearance of production, but in reality, there was no fruitfulness. You go back to the parable of the tenants. Remember, what will the owner of the vineyard do? He will come and destroy the tenants and give the vineyard to others, speaking of a reconstituted Israel. Jesus says things like, “Therefore I tell you, the kingdom of God will be taken away from you and given to a people producing its fruits.” He comes into the temple, and the temple has been made a place, a marketplace. It’s become a temple of futility. So it seems that there’s coming an end. There’s coming an end to all that as Jesus is leaving out of his public ministry and going now the last steps towards the cross, that there is a judgment coming.
Now, as we look here at Mark 13 in light of today’s headlines—literally today, yesterday, bombs falling in Iran, the fresh upheaval in the Middle East, rising tensions around Israel and Jerusalem, America now involved in some way—it’s no surprise that many Christians are asking, “Is this it? Could we be approaching the final fulfillment of Jesus’ words in Mark 13?” And there’s a growing sense among believers that with the turmoil unfolding in that particular part of the world, perhaps his return is near. The prophecies of the Olivet Discourse are about to come to pass. But we look at this text, don’t just speculate on timelines, but the highlight that’s the dominant view among evangelicals today, the tendency to appeal to Jesus’ words in the Olivet Discourse as the clearest and most compelling evidence that his return is soon. As Sam Storms observes, the appeal to the Olivet Discourse as confirmation of Christ’s imminent coming is commonplace among evangelical believers.
But what was Jesus describing here in Mark 13 in response to his disciples’ question? The fall of Jerusalem and the destruction of the temple in AD 70. And the majority of what we read here in Mark 13 is a description of events prior to and inclusive of the destruction of that temple, perhaps having nothing directly to say about the second coming of Christ, but a symbolic description of the fall of Jerusalem in AD 70, the inauguration of the church age in which the gospel will be proclaimed and the elect of God are saved, in fact. And I encourage you to just read this and ponder it yourself. In the first 13 or so verses that we read with the opening of this, it sounds like an outline of the book of Acts.
Let’s look at Jesus’ answer to the disciples’ very straightforward question. The text says Jesus answered them and began to say, “Take heed that no one deceives you.” So the two questions they asked, Jesus responds, “Take heed that no one deceives you.” The first thing he warns them about is deception. They asked, “What are these things going to take place? When?” He answered, “First of all, you must be careful, because there will be attempts to deceive you about these matters.” And then he continues, “For many will come in my name, saying, ‘I am he,’ and will deceive many.” So the first sign of the fulfillment of Jesus’ prophecy was what? That false messiahs will come, religious impostors, and messianic pretenders.
And don’t we see that in Acts, the book of Acts? Acts 5: “Before these days Theudas rose up, claiming to be somebody. A number of men, about 400, joined him. He was killed. All of those that followed him were dispersed and came to nothing. After him, Judas the Galilean rose up in the days of the census and drew some people after him. He too perished, and those who followed him were scattered.” Acts 8: “There was a man named Simon, who had practiced magic in the city. He amazed the people of Samaria, saying that he was somebody great. They all paid attention to him. They said, ‘This man is the power of God, called the Great.’” Pretenders, false messiahs. Acts 13: “When they had gone through the whole island as far as Paphos, they came upon a certain magician, a Jewish false prophet named Bar-Jesus.” Acts 21: “Are you not the Egyptian who stirred up a revolt and led the 4,000 men of the assassins out into the wilderness?” So Acts is saying what Josephus reports, that during the reign of Nero, the land was flooded with deceivers and false prophets, and these kinds of people arrested on a daily basis. Josephus says, during the government of Felix in AD 53 to 60, Josephus tells us the country was full of robbers, magicians, false prophets, false messiahs, impostors, who deluded the people with promises of great events. So there was a prevalence of false messiahs in this period that we have to keep in front of us, as this first century was filled with all of these pretenders of Christ.
Then what does Jesus say? “When you hear of wars and rumors of wars,” verse 7, “do not be alarmed. This must take place, but the end is not yet. For nation will rise up against nation, and kingdom against kingdom.” And then he speaks of natural disasters, such as earthquakes and famines. “These are but the beginning of birth pains. The end is not yet.” Again, whenever we hear of what’s happening—I was telling my son, he said, “How is the sermon preparation going?” I said, “Tough. It’s going tough.” He said, “Well, you could just get up and say, you know, there’s war happening in the Middle East, and Mark 13 is coming to pass.” So that really wasn’t much of a joke. There’s many preachers doing that today. You could find a lot of that in social media as war is breaking out in Iran and Israel, America is now involved, and there’s the clamoring, “See, this is the sign of the times. Jesus’ coming is right around the corner,” because we’re hearing of all these wars and rumors of wars. But, of course, wars and rumors of wars have happened in every generation.
Then you look at AD 33 to 70, there were so many wars and rumors of wars and military disturbances in that time. An uprising in Caesarea took 20,000 Jewish lives. In Alexandria, 50,000 were slain. 10,000 were killed in Damascus. The land was in upheaval with wars and rumors of wars, political upheaval and turmoil, and as well, natural disasters. We can look at AD 41 to 54, there were several serious famines that affected the Near Eastern communities. A tremendous earthquake at AD 61—Pompeii was leveled in AD 63—that first generation, terrible famines, wars, rumors of wars, earthquakes, all taking place during the lifetime of the disciples and the apostles. And you can look at Acts 11 and Acts 16 that speak of some of those harsh famines and earthquakes. It would seem that this could lead us to conclude that Jesus’ words about the signs before the end, just are the beginning of birth pains, that he was pointing to the first century, and what will be fulfilled during that time. He’s looking at his disciples and saying, “You will experience this. You will hear of this. You will be faced with the pretenders and the false messiahs. But do not be alarmed. Be on guard.”
And that’s one thing we can note through this chapter. There’s a pastoral tone to it. “Watch out. Be on guard.” He’s speaking to his disciples, and then verse 9 may be the clearest evidence of what we’re considering: “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,” seemingly the clearest evidence that Jesus is talking specifically to his disciples of what would unfold to them. The reference to courts, councils, synagogues seems to indicate that Jesus has in mind a first-century fulfillment. Of course, after AD 70, the Jewish religious and political system ceased to exist, and there were not those kinds of councils or synagogues. But we will see that the disciples will spread the gospel in the midst of that persecution, in the Jewish community, persecution from the Jewish community, but then we also see persecution from the Roman government. And we’ll read of Paul, right, who was beaten and stoned and imprisoned. And where did he stand? He stood trial before kings. He stood and was persecuted in synagogues. He boldly testified, even though he was in chains. That early church had the power of the Holy Spirit to give them the words and deliverance in the face of such strong persecution. And so Jesus’ warnings are initially to these early leaders of his church, nearly all who would be martyred for their faith, except John.
We might ask ourselves, as we land this plane this morning—someone says it’s a rough landing. We may ask ourselves, the reason why we push these disasters into the future to try to find ourselves in them is verse 26. Jesus hasn’t yet returned in the clouds, as he said, and this creates a tension in our minds as we try to make sense of it. But if we’re going to look for the sign of the times, we should start by looking at what happened there in that first generation. And secondly, I think another reason we tend to project these events into the future, where we try to locate them in our own day, is because we, too, without any doubt, live in a world marked by instability, don’t we? We heard it prayed in the time of prayer, praying for those in Iran, praying for those in the military. Tremendous instability, tremendous sense of uncertainty. We feel the weight, perhaps not—we’re not there with those initial disciples standing in the synagogues before councils, we’re not there with the false messiahs, but we feel all that today: the suffering, the conflict, the deception, the uncertainty in our own lives. And so it’s natural to wonder if what Jesus described might be unfolding right now.
I was listening to Chris Larson and a church historian talk about the themes of Mark. And Larson said, “I think the theme of the Gospel of Mark is, ‘What’s wrong with you people?’” Now, I’ve read a lot of themes of the Gospel of Mark. I never heard that one. But he said that because all throughout Mark, we’ve seen this: the disciples don’t get it. They’re struggling to get it. They’re not seeing completely. That may sound harsh, but it’s really encouraging, because we struggle too, don’t we? We struggle to understand. We particularly struggle to understand when we read hard texts like this. So it’s natural to wonder, what is going on?
I want to close with this, and it may be a bit inapplicable. Perhaps you’ll find it somewhat applicable. But it really struck me when I read it. It was written by a preacher named Alexander Stewart, who was a preacher in Scotland in the 1800s. He’s probably someone no one knows. Very few know who he is. But the remarkable part of his story is he was converted as a preacher. He was converted when he was a pastor in Scotland. He was a pastor who was not converted to Christ, and he gets converted, and a revival happens in Scotland that was mighty, and he was part of that. He’s writing a letter. He’s writing a letter to a dear friend, and I’m going to read it to you. It’s a little bit lengthy, but I want you to catch something he says in it. He writes:
“My dear friend, you have been disciplined in the school of sickness and suffering. Well, I know that he who appointed you the trial would take care that it should not be unprofitable to your soul. He loves his children too well to afflict them willingly or chasten them for his own pleasure, and he is too wise to throw away his chastisement or waste it unprofitably. You may not yet perceive what benefit has resulted from it. It is very natural for you to wish earnestly to know it in order to be satisfied that the trial has not been wholly misimproved or lost, but this, like many other of the Lord’s doings, you may not know now, but you shall know it hereafter. We must not say, like Thomas, ‘Except I shall see and feel, I will not believe.’ I, your friend, should like also you to see and understand how you will be refined like gold tried in the fire. But I must be contented to know, in general, what I cannot doubt, that every branch in Christ that beareth fruit, when it is purged and pruned, it is that it may bring forth more fruit, and so it will now.”
This is what I wanted to read to you. This is in his letter: “I remember an old, pious, very recluse minister whom I used to meet with once a year. He scarcely ever looked at the newspaper. When others were talking about the French Revolution, he showed no concern or curiosity about it at all. He said he knew from the Bible how it would all end, better than the most sagacious politician.” I had to look up the word “sagacious.” It means brilliant, sharp, wise. “He knew better than the most sagacious politician, that the Lord reigns, that the earth will be filled with his glory, that the gospel will be preached to all nations, and that all supported events are working out these great ends. That was enough for him, and he gave himself no concern about the news or the events of the day, only saying, ‘It shall be well with the righteous.’”
Now, that struck me. Perhaps that’s kind of extreme. I know some of you got to read the newspaper. Your job requires it. You’ve got to be in tune with what’s going on in the world. But I think we could learn something from this unnamed pious recluse minister that nobody even knows. He trusted in the Lord no matter what was going on in the world. He trusted in the Lord, and the call in the Gospel of Mark, you get to the end, what is it? Stay awake. Be watchful. Don’t be distracted. And this does pertain to us. Don’t be distracted by false hopes. Don’t be disoriented by fear. Christ has told us what we need to know, not so that we can chart out every event in advance, but that we can remain faithful through the trials, trust his word when the world is shaking around us, and live with an unshakable hope in his final return and know, it shall be well with the righteous.
Let’s pray. Our Lord and our God, we thank you for the words of your Son, words that are hard to understand but also bring comfort. They confront, and they call us to watchfulness and faith. As we continue to read your word, specifically this chapter, we ask that you would seal its truth in our hearts. Guard us from speculation that distracts and fear that paralyzes. Help us to live wisely in these days that you’ve given us, with our eyes fixed not so much on the signs, but on the Savior. Strengthen our faith, deepen our hope, stir our love, as we wait for his return. We ask all this in Jesus’ name, amen.