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Joel and Mary Nadel, Covenant Church
From: The Holy Bible and J.C. Ryle’s “Expository Comments on the Gospels - Mark”
House Rules: Phones, Respect, Stay on the Text
Pray
Background
The last week of Jesus earthly ministry
Preaching, teaching, performing miracles for three years
Now He is in Jerusalem, to finish His work on the Cross.
Introduction
Our recent lessons have focused on a single day in the life of the Lord Jesus, during His last week on earth
He has been in the temple, where He has been confronted by Scribes, Pharisees, and Sadducees, trying to get Him to make a statement that will get Him condemned.
He has blessed them, and us, with wonderful wisdom and direction in His answers.
In this lesson, as He and His followers exit the Temple, He begins to tell them what they can expect after His death and resurrection.
These lessons apply to not only them, but us as well.
His prophecy at this time focuses on two things: 1) the destruction of Jerusalem and 2) His second coming, where He will come to conclude the end of this age.
The second coming of Christ is an event which has not come yet, but we might live to see it with our own eyes
This chapter should be very interesting to all true Christians
No history should get more of our attention as the past and future history of Christ’s church
Worldly empires are not of much importance to God - they come and go: Babylon, Greece, Rome, France, England, Germany, the USA, are not much to God compared to the body of Christ
The march of mighty armies and victories of conquerors mean little compared to the progress of the Gospel and the final triumph of the Prince of peace.
Rev 1:3 “Blessed is he who reads and those who hear the words of the prophecy, and heed the things which are written in it; for the time is near.”
Opulent church buildings
Firstly, The Lord’s prediction concerning the temple at Jerusalem
The disciples were of course Jews, and took great pride in the majesty and beauty of the temple
“Teacher, behold what wonderful stones and what wonderful buildings!”
They got an answer from the LOrd that was very different from what they expected - it was a heartbreaking answer, but also designed to make them curious
Jesus did not voice any admirations; He didn’t commen the design or workmanship of the beautiful building before Him
He lost sight of the beauty of the physical building out of His concern for the wickedness of the nation it belonged to.
“Do you see these great buildings?
Not one stone will be left upon another which will not be torn down”
An serious saying: the true glory of a Church does not come from its buildings, but from the faith and godliness of its members
Jesus took no pleasure in looking at this very temple, with its holy of holies, the golden candlestick, the altar of burn offering
It likely that He will find less pleasure in the beautiful places of worship of professing Christians, if His word and Spirit are not honored there
We need to remember, we all tend to judge things by outward appearance, like children who like beautiful flowers more than vegetables
We are too likely too expect that where there is a beautiful church building and a majestic ceremony, with czrved stone and painted glass, beautiful music and finely dressed ministers, that there must be real religion there
But there may be no religion there at all - it may be all show, designed to appeal to our eyes, and ears.
There may be nothing there to prick our consciences or cleanse our hearts.
It may be that Christ is not preached there at all - that the Bible is not preached
The ministers/preachers may be completely ignorant of the Word of God and the people dead in their trespasses and sins
The beautiful shrines in Israel and Rome have no more glory in God’s eyes than the caves where the early Christians worshipped.
On the other hand, it does matter what kind of building we set aside for God’s service
There is nothing wrong with making a church building appealing
A dirty, shabby, disorderly place of worship shames the cause of Christ (1 Cor 14:40 “But all things must be done properly and in an orderly manner.”)
Having said that, pure teaching and holy practice are more pleasing to God than expensive churches.
Without these things, the most beautiful church is radically defective - it has no glory if God is not there.
Pure teaching and holy practice make the most basic building where the Gospel is preached, beautiful.
It is consecrated by Christ’s own presence and the blessing of the Holy Spirit
Secondly, the remarkable way that the Lord begins the great prophecy in this chapter
Four of His disciples, concerned about His warning about the temple, seek Him out for more information.
Mark 13:4 ““Tell us, when will these things be, and what will be the sign when all these things are going to be fulfilled?””
The Lord answers immediately with predictions of false teaching and coming wars
If the disciples thought He was going to promise immediate success and worldly prosperity, He soon corrected that notion - so much for expecting a quick victory for the truth of the Gospel
He tells them to be ready for the rise of errors.
Mark 13:5-6 “And Jesus began to say to them, “See to it that no one misleads you.
“Many will come in My name, saying, ‘I am He!’ and will mislead many.”
Rather than a coming period of peace and quiet, He tells them to prepare for wars and trouble.
Mark 13:7-8 ““When you hear of wars and rumors of wars, do not be frightened; those things must take place; but that is not yet the end.
“For nation will rise up against nation, and kingdom against kingdom; there will be earthquakes in various places; there will also be famines.
These things are merely the beginning of birth pangs.”
We can learn much from this opening of the Lord’s prophecy - the key of what His Church should expect is between His first and second comings
He is correcting the mistaken views of not only His apostles, but most professing Christians in every age, up ‘til the present
The Lord knew us so well, that we would always be looking to better times ahead - He is warning that there will be no “better times” until He returns
None of us really want to hear such things, but its very much like what the prophet Jeremiah predicted 600 years before.
Jer.
28:8-9 ““The prophets who were before me and before you from ancient times prophesied against many lands and against great kingdoms, of war and of calamity and of pestilence.
“The prophet who prophesies of peace, when the word of the prophet comes to pass, then that prophet will be known as one whom the Lord has truly sent.””
This lesson should teach us not to be too optimistic in our expectations
The history of the NT church is full of false prophesies of “better times ahead” only to result in terrible disappointment when the prophesies failed
We can’t be fooled by the common idea that all the world will come to know Jesus before He returns.
Nothing in the Bible justifies this.
We cannot expect a reign of peace.
We should rather look for wars and troubles
We cannot expect schools, missions, preaching or internet blogs to bring ALL people to Christ
We need to look for Antichrist
We need to understand that we live in a day where God calls out His followers and there is no universal salvation
There will be no global peace until the Prince of Peace returns
There will be no universal goodness or holiness, until Satan is bound
These are not popular opinions but we can see in churches all over the world the truth of the statement: “Many are called and few are chosen.”
We will likely take criticism and heat for speaking these things and many will judge us unfavorably - but in the end we will see who is right or wrong
We need to wait patiently for that end, we need to work, teach and pray
But we should not be surprised to find the Lord’s word exactly true: Matt 7:14 ““For the gate is small and the way is narrow that leads to life, and there are few who find it.”
The Gospel
1 Corinthians 15:3–4 (ESV)
For I delivered to you as of first importance what I also received: that Christ died for our sins in accordance with the Scriptures, that he was buried, that he was raised on the third day in accordance with the Scriptures,
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