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Mar 16, 2025

Dramatic Endings

Passage: Mark 13:1-23

Preacher: John Repsold

Series: Mark

Keywords: persecution, future, end times, difficulties, return of christ, disasters, permanency

Summary:

Jesus gives his disciples a reality check about what lasts and what doesn't. In the process, He gives a very clear treatment on what we as his followers can expect as human history moves towards the goal of God's Kingdom. Those who embrace His truth on that matter will never find themselves disillusioned or distracted by the realities of life.

Detail:

Dramatic Endings

Mark 13;1-23

March 16, 2025

Fellowship Question:  What is the most impressive building or man-made edifice you have ever seen in person? 

INTRO:  Ask people to name some of the most impressive buildings/ monuments/edifices they have seen.

Truly, human beings are capable of constructing some very amazing structures.  (Show examples—Dubai, Cathedrals, Manhattan, Great Wall of China, etc.)

But as 9/11 taught us, even the best of our constructive genius can implode in a matter of minutes or seconds. 

There is a tendency in all of us to be drawn to beauty and grandeur, whether God-made or man-made.  The Disciples were not immune from that temptation.  In today’s text, we have a record of just how attractive they found it…and how clearly Jesus warned them against pinning their hopes or affection on the illusion material things can be.  We pick it up late in Jesus’ final week of life, in Jerusalem, in His last few moments in the Temple. 

            Just for context, remember that, if you were one of Jesus’ disciples watching the unfolding of this week in Jerusalem, it would have appeared to you that Jesus was on the cusp of being crowned Messiah.  The impressive Temple Herod was still constructing would have been your future Capitol Building and office space.  Finally everything seemed to be falling into place with the crowds, with Jesus’ silencing his critics, and with Jesus’ rise to public prominence.  So we pick it up in….

Mark 13—The Olivet Discourse

As Jesus was leaving the temple, one of his disciples said to him, “Look, Teacher! What massive stones! What magnificent buildings!”

2 “Do you see all these great buildings?” replied Jesus. “Not one stone here will be left on another; every one will be thrown down.”

This temple was one of the great wonders of the Roman world.  It had been under construction for 46 years (Jn. 2:20).  It wouldn’t be completed for another 3 decades (A.D. 63), a mere 7 years before it was completely destroyed. 

            From a distance it looked like a mountain of gold.  It had nine massive gates and much of its exterior was plated with gold and silver along with jeweled sculptures.  The Jewish historian Josephus wrote about it this way:

            “The exterior of the building wanted nothing that could astound either mind or eye.  For, being covered on all sides with massive plates of gold, the sun was no sooner up than it radiated so fiery a flash that person straining to look at it were compelled to avert their eyes, as from the solar rays.  To approaching strangers it appeared from a distance like a snow-clad mountain; for all that was not overlaid with gold was of purest white.  From its summit protruded sharp golden spikes to prevent birds from settling upon and polluting the roof.  Some of the stones in the building were forty-five cubits in length, five in height and six in breadth.”  [Josephus, War, V.5.3.]

For those of you not up on your ‘cubits’ that’s about the size of a stone boxcar!  Talk about a sense of permanence! 

            Jesus acknowledges that they are “great buildings.”  But when you’re the one who spoke billions of galaxies into existence and you’ve come from a glory in the presence of God the Father greater than that, I’m pretty sure that even the best mankind has to offer looks a lot like a Lincoln-log set in comparison to, say, our nation’s capital building or the Notre Dame Cathedral…or much more.

            Jesus’ perspective is always the reality check we need in this life. 

  • Is it just me or do you ever look at some beautiful house or mansion or hotel and think, “Wow, I wonder what it’s like to live in that!”?

Not only will everything we see that makes us go “WOW” now someday be torn down; it will completely cease to exist at some point, perhaps even in our lifetimes.  Just ask those 12,000 homeowners in S. California who lost their homes/mansions this past summer…or the hundreds here in Spokane and Medical Lake who experienced the same two summers ago.  

            Jesus doesn’t want us impressed or fixing our focus on any man-made entity.  To do so will both waste our affections now and rob us of real wealth in eternity.  That doesn’t mean building things from businesses to homes in this life is pointless.  It just should not be something that wows and woes us away from building a life captivated by Jesus and His eternal kingdom. 

            From the Temple, Jesus and the Disciples walked over to the Mt. of Olives opposite the Temple.  It had a rather dramatic view of the Temple, sitting some 150 feet higher than the city.  Mark continues:

3 As Jesus was sitting on the Mount of Olives opposite the temple, Peter, James, John and Andrew asked him privately, 4 “Tell us, when will these things happen? And what will be the sign that they are all about to be fulfilled?”

            The disciples, like us, want to be able to know what’s ahead.  We all live with this illusion that if we somehow just knew what was coming around the corner, life would be a lot easier.  We seem to think that predictability equals peace.  It never has and never will.  What Jesus was about to tell them was not going to make the present or future easier.  It was simply designed to make their trust in God who holds the future more unshakeable. 

            The Disciples are asking a couple of questions here:

  • about WHEN the Temple is going to be destroyed, and
  • WHAT will be the indicators it’s close?

Before Jesus answers their questions, He issues a warning:

5 Jesus said to them: “Watch out that no one deceives you. 

6 Many will come in my name, claiming, ‘I am he,’ and will deceive many.

Jesus is talking about the nut jobs who populate the streets and mental institutions of the world who tell you you, “I’m Jesus Christ.”  There is never a shortage of those. 

But what he is warning us about is the crowd of counterfeits to come who will claim they are from God or have a message from God.  They will deceive a whole lot of people as they claim to be God’s prophet or representative or answer to your longing for something genuine spiritually.  They may come in the name of “god” and promote an entirely different understanding of the true God such as other major religions of the world like Islam that came over 600 years after Jesus spoke these words and now holds 2 billion people in its deceptive grip.  (Just stating that in today’s world may make me the target of an assassin’s bullet or jihadist beheading.)

APP:  I think the point of Jesus preface statement here for all of us is the same:  Recognize that we are all susceptible to deception and don’t let anyone replace your trust and affection for Jesus in this life.

  • Not a church, pastor or Bible teacher.
  • Not a book, author or podcaster.
  • Not anyone or anything that pulls you away from a sincere love for Jesus Christ alone.

Frankly, it can be very subtle.  I’ve had people I deeply love and respect get slowly sucked into the orbit of very convincing, sincere and nice people who, from my vantage point, appear to be far too interested in gathering a following than in making followers of Jesus.  “Watch out that NO ONE deceive you!” 

            Jesus continues:   7 When you hear of wars and rumors of wars, do not be alarmed. Such things must happen, but the end is still to come. 8 Nation will rise against nation, and kingdom against kingdom. There will be earthquakes in various places, and famines. These are the beginning of birth pains.

            Tell me, what are “birth pains” supposed to produce?  A BIRTH!  And a birth is one of the most amazing, beautiful thing anyone will ever experience in life.  So while the delivery process is brutal, ugly, painful and even, sadly, sometimes deadly to the one delivering the baby, the baby is what it’s all about. 

            I think Jesus is telling us that His return is the “baby.”  His kingdom to come is what all this painful human history is driving towards.  It’s not pain without gain.  It’s pain with a purpose.  And here’s what that pain will look like.  It will involve…

1.) Human-caused disasters:  war, rumors of war, everything that flows out of the evils of war—famine, death, PTSD, destruction of cities and nations, maimed bodies, souls and minds, hatred and bitterness…everything we see unfolding today in Israel, in the Ukraine, in Africa, in Syria, etc.  It’s everything about human hatred that should sicken all of us with a heart of more than stone. 

Jesus told them that war would happen to them before the Temple was destroyed…and it did.  When the end finally came in 70 A.D. under the Roman General Titus, Jerusalem would  experience 6 months of war and starvation that, according to Josephus, would claim over 1 million Jewish lives. 

Jesus’ prophecy here is, as we will see in a moment, not limited to the destruction of the Temple.  He’s also going to talk about His return and some of the signs for that.  This brings us to a common reality about prophecy:  biblical prophecy may have multiple fulfillments.  What does that mean?

  • EX: Isaiah 7:14—Isaiah is sent to King Ahaz, king of Israel, who was aligned against Judah at the time.  God gave a prophecy that He would deliver Judah from both Israel and its allies, the kings of Syria.  The sign was that “The virgin will conceive and give birth to a son and will call him Immanuel.” (“Virgin” in the Hebrew means “a young woman of marriageable age” and also connotes the idea of virginity.  The prophecy goes on to say that “before the Child shall know to refuse the evil and choose the good, the land that you dread will be forsaken by both her kings” and “the Lord will bring the king of Assyria upon you….” 

This prophecy was fulfilled for King Ahaz.  But the most complete fulfillment of it happened hundreds of years later with the birth of Jesus.

So, first, Jesus tells us, life is going to increasingly be impacted by human-caused disasters…leading to the destruction of the Temple in 70 A.D. AND leading to the coming of the Lord. 

APP:   Human disasters, specifically war, have plagued humanity for thousands of years.  By the estimate of historian Will Durant, of the past 3,500 years of recorded human history, only 268 have seen no war.  And that doesn’t account for unrecorded history!  Jesus is telling us that, while He knows war is devastating, it should not be devastating to our faith. 

If any of us live to experience WWIII and if our city ends up looking like Dresden, Germany after WWII, we need to remember and remind those around us:  God predicted this.  He told us it would happen.  Don’t be angry at Him.  Cry out for His mercy and grace. 

2.) Natural disasters:  Jesus mentions earthquakes and famines, but we could put any natural disaster in that list—hurricanes, tornados, droughts, climate change, fires, floods, pandemics, etc. 

            Next time someone complains about natural disasters seeming to increase, you might want to use it as a witnessing opportunity:  “You know, it does appear to be happening more frequently and more severely.  Did you know Jesus told us that would happen the closer we get to His return?”  I’ll bet they won’t be expecting that reply!

            Paul picks up this reality in Romans 8:22-23 when he says, “22 We know that the whole creation has been groaning as in the pains of childbirth right up to the present time. 23 Not only so, but we ourselves, who have the firstfruits of the Spirit, groan 

inwardly as we wait eagerly for our adoption to sonship, the redemption of our bodies.”

APP:  Jesus doesn’t exempt His followers from disasters, natural or personal; He prepares us for them.  Until His millennial kingdom comes, we right along with people outside of Christ are going to fall prey to “accidents” of nature, natural disasters and more.  We must not let that turn us away from Jesus.  Instead, we must thank Him that he warned us about them, told us to prepare for them and passes through them with us.  Being spared these kinds of things is the exception, not the rule.  The rule, says Jesus, is that these things will happen more and more.  So don’t be troubled, defeated, disillusioned or dissuaded by them. 

3.) Next Jesus moves to personal attacks that will happen to followers of Jesus before the Temple is destroyed AND before He returns.  Mark 13:9-13

9 “You must be on your guard. You will be handed over to the local councils and flogged in the synagogues. On account of me you will stand before governors and kings as witnesses to them. 10 And the gospel must first be preached to all nations. 11 Whenever you are arrested and brought to trial, do not worry beforehand about what to say. Just say whatever is given you at the time, for it is not you speaking, but the Holy Spirit.

12 “Brother will betray brother to death, and a father his child. Children will rebel against their parents and have them put to death. 13 Everyone will hate you because of me, but the one who stands firm to the end will be saved.

Natural and human disasters are hard to handle.  But there is a different level of discouragement and disillusionment that we must grapple with when friends and family betray us.  Jesus points out just a few of the possibilities:

  • Spiritual leaders/churches. Jesus spoke about the local synagogue councils.  We could substitute pastors, church leaders, other church members.  It is disillusioning when churches fail us.  But Jesus told us it would happen.  If you are part of a church long enough, you’ll probably get hurt by one.  But have any of us been literally flogged by pastors or elders?    So you really haven’t had it that bad yet.  But the Apostles would experience that before the year was out. 
  • Political/governmental/civil leaders: Jesus mentions “governors and kings,” police (“arrested”) and judges (“trial”). Those charged with enforcing justice are often the ones responsible for the greatest injustices.  Much of the world’s Christians from China to India, North Korea to Nigeria, find themselves being thrown into jail, hauled unjustly before courts, abused and often tortured for their faith in Jesus. 

EVERY one of the Apostles experienced these things and the majority of the Church has throughout history.  And it is increasing in frequency and intensity, just like birth pains.  More Christians have been killed in the last century than in the previous 19 put together.    

APP:  Jesus wants us to be well prepared for persecution.  We must not think it strange when it comes.  It is actually one of the things he most frequently predicted we would experience if we chose to be His followers. 

  • Family—siblings, parents, children…to the point of death. I know that some of you are felling some measure of pushback and pressure from your family members right now.  I don’t know of any of us that have been betrayed by them to such a degree that we’re going to be killed.  But IF that day ever comes, we must remember that Jesus tried to prepare us for it. He included a discussion of death here because He wants us to know that, if that day comes, He will be there in the moment, giving us grace we’ve never yet known, so that we will stand firm.  Family may leave, forsake and betray us; Jesus will always stand by us, especially in death.

“Everyone will hate you because of me….”  That pretty well covers any other possible class of persecutors. 

            There is a thread running through Jesus’ teaching, multiple times in this passage.  It is the power of our WITNESS under the pressure of opposition. 

“…you will stand before governors and kings as witnesses [marturion] to them. 10 And the gospel must first be preached to all nations. 11 Whenever you are arrested and brought to trial, do not worry beforehand about what to say. Just say whatever is given you at the time, for it is not you speaking, but the Holy Spirit.” 

APP:  Clearly this speaks to any of us who may too often avoid speaking boldly about Jesus for fear of what people will think.  That’s flat out fearing men and not fearing God.  We are called to be “witnesses” to others of the Gospel of Christ.  If we never push through the uncomfortability of sharing Christ, we will not be ready to surrender our life for Jesus when that time comes. 

ILL:  Polycarp of Smyrna was not such a man.

Polycarp was killed between 155 and 168 A.D. According to The Martyrdom of Polycarp, he was betrayed by members of his own household, captured, and taken to the Colosseum, where the local proconsul attempted to coax him into offering sacrifices to Caesar.

“So the proconsul said to Polycarp, ‘Take the oath. I will let you go. Just revile Christ.’ Polycarp answered, ‘For eighty and six years I have been his servant, and he has done me no wrong. And how can I now blaspheme my king who saved me?’”

The proconsul proceeded to threaten the elderly man with lions and fire. In response to these torments, Polycarp replied.

“You threaten me with fire which burns for an hour at most; you must not know about the fire of the coming judgment and of eternal punishment, reserved for the ungodly. Why are you wasting time? Kill me in whatever way you see fit.”

Realizing he could not be persuaded, the proconsul sentenced Polycarp to death by fire. The soldiers tied him to a stake and covered him in oil. But, just before the executioner ignited his funeral pyre, Polycarp uttered his last words as a prayer, praising God.

“O Lord God Almighty, the Father of Your beloved and blessed Son Jesus Christ… I give thanks that You have counted me, worthy of this day and this hour, that I should have a part in the number of Thy martyrs, in the cup of thy Christ, to the resurrection of eternal life, both of soul and body, through the incorruption imparted by the Holy Ghost.

Because of this I also praise You for all things, I bless You, I glorify Thee, along with the everlasting and heavenly Jesus Christ, Your beloved Son, with whom, to You, and the Holy Ghost, be glory both now and to all coming ages. Amen.”  [Found at https://learningfromchrist.com/polycarp-last-words/ on 3.15.2025]

Few if any of us will have that kind of death.  But all of us will have opportunities and decisions about witnessing that will, at some point, cost us something.  It may be a promotion.  It may be a friendship.  It may be our fear of rejection. Every witness has to pay something.  Jesus told us so.  It’s up to us to embrace that truth.

            Jesus now, I think, shifts his attention from the impending destruction of the Temple to come in their lifetimes to the Great Tribulation destruction to happen at the end of the church age. 

14 “When you see ‘the abomination that causes desolation’ 

standing where it does not belong—let the reader understand—

This phrase, “the abomination that causes desolation” comes from a quotation of Daniel 9:27 & 11:31.  In that prophetic O.T. passage, Daniel describes a coming figure who would desecrate the temple and abolish the daily sacrifices there.  It meant an abomination so detestable that it would cause the temple to be abandoned by the people of God. 

            Some hold that this happened under the reign of the Seleucid King Antiochus IV Epiphanes who conquered Jerusalem (167 B.C.), forbad Jews to circumcise their children or offer Levitical sacrifices, installed a statue of Zeus in the temple and sacrificed pigs instead.  The problem with that is that Jesus talks about this as being an event yet future for his disciples around 30 A.D. 

Others called Preterists contend that this was fulfilled in 70 A.D. when the Temple and Jerusalem was destroyed.  Without going too much into that theological belief, they also hold that all N.T. prophecy including Revelation was fulfilled by that 70 A.D. event.  There are some very serious problems, in my opinion, with that belief, not the least of which is that what Jesus says here doesn’t fit in any literal sense what he is prophesying.  But it does seem to clearly fit what is prophesied of what happens when the anti-Christ defiles what we think will be a reconstructed temple in Jerusalem by calling for worship of himself at the half-way point (3.5 years) into the 7 year Great Tribulation prophesied in Daniel 9:27, Matthew 24 and Revelation 13:14.  This theological position is called “futurist” in that it sees most of these prophecies, Revelation and others about the return of Jesus, resurrection, judgment and more as yet future. 

            If that interpretation is correct, Jesus is now warning those who find themselves in the first 3.5 years of the Tribulation (when Israel will have a peace treaty with the anti-Christ) that it’s going to be broken by what the anti-Christ does do set himself up to be worshiped.  When that happens, these warnings should be taken very seriously, immediately and literally.

(Vs. 14ff)…then let those who are in Judea flee to the mountains. 15 Let no one on the housetop go down or enter the house to take anything out. 16 Let no one in the field go back to get their cloak. 17 How dreadful it will be in those days for pregnant women and nursing mothers! 18 Pray that this will not take place in winter, 19 because those will be days of distress unequaled from the beginning, when God created the world, until now—and never to be equaled again.

20 “If the Lord had not cut short those days, no one would survive. But for the sake of the elect, whom he has chosen, he has shortened them.

            It’s at this point that we should read Revelation 13 in its entirety…but we don’t have time.  Go home and read it today for it describes what will happen during the last 3.5 years of the Great Tribulation in which thousands of God’s elect children will be martyred for their faith in Jesus.  John’s vision simply echoes what Jesus is speaking about here. 

            Mark continues.  21 At that time if anyone says to you, ‘Look, here is the Messiah!’ or, ‘Look, there he is!’ do not believe it. 22 For false messiahs and false prophets will appear and perform signs and wonders to deceive, if possible, even the elect. 

BTW, Rev. 13 speaks about the “beast”/anti-Christ and his prophet as having power to come back from a mortal wound, call down fire from heaven and infuse a statue of the anti-Christ with life and breath itself, among other signs and wonders.  Miracles are not proof that God is in something. 

23 So be on your guard; I have told you everything ahead of time.

Then Jesus talks about celestial signs that will happen at that time as well:

24 “But in those days, following that distress,

“‘the sun will be darkened,
    and the moon will not give its light;
25 the stars will fall from the sky,
    and the heavenly bodies will be shaken.’

26 “At that time people will see the Son of Man coming in clouds with great power and glory. 27 And he will send his angels and gather his elect from the four winds, from the ends of the earth to the ends of the heavens.

This ushers in the millennial reign of Jesus Christ when He will show heaven and earth what divine rule over what will then be a virtually destroyed world looks like. He will take the world humans have destroyed, bind Satan and his forces for 1,000 years, renew the world, rule and complete all those prophecies we have about a conquering, reigning Messiah.  (See Rev. 20:1-7.)  Amazingly, at the end of all that, Satan will be unbound again to deceive people…and many will turn from the rule of Christ and chose evil once again.  Then God will wrap up human history and this world, ushering in the new heaven and earth. 

            Jesus concludes with this challenge.

28 “Now learn this lesson from the fig tree: As soon as its twigs get tender and its leaves come out, you know that summer is near. 29 Even so, when you see these things happening, you know that it is near, right at the door. 30 Truly I tell you, this generation will certainly not pass away until all these things have happened. 31 Heaven and earth will pass away, but my words will never pass away.

            The reference to “this generation” that will not pass away is, in my opinion, the generation that begins to see all these Tribulation events unfold (not the generation Jesus was speaking to). 

Conclusion:

#1.  The Lord’s words clearly spelled out “hard times” ahead for those who would follow Him.  Lesson:  Don’t fall prey to the “happy days are here to stay” mentality of some preachers.  Jesus never promised that and to believe He did will set you up for nothing but massive disillusionment and unnecessary disappointment. Those who would follow Jesus should expect the path of adversity and persecution. That is just what Jesus promised.

#2. Jesus here teaches us that times of adversity, chaos, and opposition are days of opportunity for the proclamation of the gospel. We do not need “good times” to preach the gospel. The gospel is “light” to those in “darkness,” and it offers hope to those in despair. That is why Jesus can say that that the gospel is cause for rejoicing for those who weep, who hunger, and who are persecuted for His name’s sake (cf. Luke 6:20-26; Matthew 5:1-12).  We’ve been given a time in which to share the Gospel more boldly than ever.  We MUST do so…or our own country will become a place of growing hostility towards us. 

#3.  We must not be preoccupied with that which God says will be destroyed (like the Temple of their day, so many material things today). 

#4.  We must prepare ourselves for increasingly  hard and hostile days yet to come, whether in our lifetime or that of our children and grandchildren. 

BENEDICTION

Romans 8:35-39

35 Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? Shall trouble or hardship or persecution or famine or nakedness or danger or sword? 36 As it is written:

“For your sake we face death all day long;
    we are considered as sheep to be slaughtered.”

37 No, in all these things we are more than conquerors through him who loved us. 38 For I am convinced that neither death nor life, neither angels nor demons, neither the present nor the future, nor any powers, 39 neither height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus our Lord.