Mark Chapter 13 Verse 1

• The temple built by Herod was magnificent! The first temple, the crowning achievement of King Solomon (King David’s son), stood for some 400 years before being destroyed by King Nebuchadnezzar and that one was fantastic! Its highest point being 20 stories! Built with the finest of materials and by as many as 10,000 men with over 20 tons of gold! And to top it off, King Solomon finished this wondrous work in only 7 years! In today’s money the first temple would cost somewhere around 150 billion dollars!!
• King Herod the Great was ambitious, cruel, shrewd and utterly paranoid. There was no way he would be out done! And so the second temple, the one Jesus is passing by here in verse 1, was so extravagant that it was one of the great wonders of the ancient world! Josephus, a Jewish historian, records for us the precision that went into the architecture alone, not to mention the carvings, paintings, tapestries and vessels. The stones that made up the wall were so perfectly precise that you couldn’t fit a knife between them! And we’re not talking about table size stones!
• Some of them measured up to 47 feet long, 8 feet high and 12 feet thick! All overlaid with pure gold! Gates 130 feet high leading into the courtyard and inner sanctuary! Herod’s temple in today’s money would be valued at over 1 trillion dollars! (32,000 years to count that dollar for dollar!) Certainly magnificent! Absolutely impressive! Wondrous to behold…the best of this world…Jesus’ response…

Mark Chapter 13 Verse 2

• Don’t be so impressed with it Judas…(could’ve been him don’t you think?) It’s all perishable! Not one stone, the ones you’re gawking at, will be left upon another! He’s absolutely right by the way! Some 40 years later, 79AD, the Roman General Titus sacked Jerusalem! And when he did, the temple was the last stronghold to be taken. It was so awesome to behold that history tells us Titus actually ordered for it to remain…maybe turn it into an arcade or something! Awesome!!
• But a couple of drunken soldiers set it on fire. And you’re thinking, stone doesn’t burn. You’re right. But gold melts. The intense heat melted the gold which settled where? Between the stones and into every knife blade size sliver and so in order to get the gold, Titus ordered that the temple be systematically dismantled, piece by piece, stone by stone…

• The things of this world, no matter the awe of them…man they’re on the way down…they won’t last. And it’s interesting the mental effect it has on your thinking…this thing called, “perspective.” I used to have an ’07 Yamaha R6. Beautiful…utterly flawless and one night the kids were playing in the garage and I hear, “tink.” My little Link had nailed the gas tank with a 3 wood. And the smallest, tiniest, I mean you had to squint to see it dent…and that was it…perspective change…I didn’t want the bike anymore! HA! It’s all going down, the things of this world. Jesus says, see all this? Don’t get lost in it man…

Mark Chapter 13 Verses 3 – 4

• Speaking of verse 2 as, “These things.” This section of scripture is what is referred to as the Olivet Discourse which we also find in Matthew 24 and Luke 21. This scripture set is where Jesus gives the most details and longest answers regarding end times and future events. (Pretty exciting!) The Olivet discourse deals with the Great Tribulation. Verses 5 through 13 deal with the beginning or even right before the rapture of the church. Verses 14 through 18 speak of the middle and verses 19 through 27 deal with the end.
• We as a church are well prepared to tread appropriately and confidently through this verse set. Why? Because we recently studied verse by verse through the Book of Revelation and man it is so important to interpret scripture with scripture! We must consider the Olivet Discourse comparatively with the entirety of scripture and especially with the Book of Revelation because it is entirely dangerous and exceedingly foolish to isolate any passage of scripture from other scriptures that offer additional details and information regarding the same topic.
• In order to rightly study the Olivet Discourse we need to consider this contextually as well. The scene is four Jewish men asking their Jewish Rabbi when all things would come to an end. That’s important and we will come back to that…probably next week…
• We also must certainly consider the Olivet Discourse eschatologically because it deals with future end-times events. But I think personally most important for myself today and for us corporately as a church is that we should study this practically! Four times in these verses, beginning with the beginning, right out of the gates, Jesus says, “Take Heed.”
• Therefore the purpose of even going into this was not to stimulate controversy or to ignite curiosity and endless discussion and debate concerning interpretation! The purpose primarily was to awaken them and is to awaken us! Because there is no doubt, no shadow of a doubt that we are living in the final countdown of this world!!! And understand this! You are living out dead men’s dreams! We have history at our disposal. Excellent sound and proven Bible expositors. Tools like the internet and interlinear Bibles! We are uniquely fit to get this right!!   We are uniquely fit to get life right by the way! So it is our responsibility to do so!

Mark Chapter 13 Verses 5 – 6

• History shows that in the first one hundred years after Jesus spoke these words, no less than 64 men came on the scene claiming to the Messiah. Who knows how many more as we march forward through time to modern day! And even today so many out there leading millions astray unashamedly professing to be Jesus Himself! There’s even a more subtle form of this prevalent today. It’s called New Age or the New Age movement or the Emergent Church. Which teaches that we all have a, “God consciousness” within us and are all, therefore, deity. Jesus says all of that is a lie because those that buy into it are, as He says here, deceived.

Mark Chapter 13 Verses 7 - 8

• There will never be peace until the Prince of Peace is on the scene. Don’t be fooled by the politicians that promise peace. I don’t want to hear that promise. I want to hear how they will handle war. Why? Because peace is identity suicide for nations. War is the very origination point and stabilizing element of factions or divisions or nations in this fallen existence. (Can you imagine the Broncos without a schedule? Who would wear their jerseys?) I don’t have time to fully develop that thought this morning but it is what it is…war is economically favorable to the leaders of our nations and war is culturally favorable as well…this world is not designed for peace and there is no real peace in it apart from Jesus Christ dwelling within you and governing yours and my lives!
• How many wars are going on right now? International Relations .com reports 18…18 wars causing serious casualties…so what should we do? Run to a hole and wait for the Lord return? Doomsday preppers!? NO! We fight, man! Christianity is not passive! I’m sorry to break this to you but the peace that we have in Christ, Jesus said is not like the definition of peace that is in the world…it is peace IN the storm. Stillness and surety IN the battle!
• No pacifism here man. Was David a pacifist with Goliath? How about Gideon? Samson? Joshua? Moses? Paul? Peter? Not a chance! Fight evil until the Prince calls us home! Jesus says when you see all of these things, nation against nation, kingdom against kingdom, earthquakes, famines, troubles or pestilences…this is the beginning. And according to the first chapter of the Book of Revelation, when it begins, it takes off!

That’s all the time we have this morning but next week you will see just how immediate the rapture of the church is today. How there is nothing left…not one event is left before the church is taken off the scene and we will develop that further next week…