Here Comes the Son Mark 13: 24-27
Notes
Transcript
One of, if not THE most classic kids game of all time has to be hide and go seek. I mean, does it really get any better than that? What kid doesn’t love going to hide some place and hoping they don’t get found, but also sorta hoping they do get found?
Then there is always the thrill of the seeker, trying to find everyone. I know some people like seeking better than hiding. Show of hands, How many of you preferred seeking to hiding? and how many hiding to seeking?
For my part, I always preferred hiding, because my greatest joy was never being found and the seeking giving up.
I learned pretty early on that the key to victory is to the find absolute smallest space you can fit in and still be hidden. You want a space that looks so small that the seeker might be tempted to overlook it altogether because they would think, there is no way someone could fit in there, and so they don’t even both to look.
As a child I was an excellent hide and seek player because I found so many places that were just so small and that I just barely even fit myself. But as I got older, the game got harder because I got bigger and even now have lost so much of the flexibility of my youth, so there are fewer and fewer places where I can successfully hide as the years go on.
For those who prefer seeking, there is the great moment where you go from counting to seeking. You might be counting to 10 or 100, but when you hit that final moment you call out in a loud voice “Ready or not, here I come!” and then you commence the search.
There is sense in which our passage today is the moment when our great God and Savior Jesus Christ is going to announce His presence upon the earth with the mighty call “Ready or not, here I come” as he returns.
While the game hide and seek has a very definite beginning to the game as the seeker counts to the predetermined number, Jesus has made it clear that all the things that people typically point to as signs of the end aren’t actually signs. They may be birth pangs that tell us that an end is indeed on its way, but they do not signal the precise moment that Christ makes his appearance.
As we will see from our passage today, the only real signs that the end of the age has come is the end of the age itself!
Let’s read our text.
“But in those days, after that tribulation, the sun will be darkened, and the moon will not give its light, and the stars will be falling from heaven, and the powers in the heavens will be shaken. 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.
I’ve broken this passage down under three headings today.
Cosmic Signs Anticipate the Return
Power and Glory Accompany the Return
Tribulation Saints Assemble at the Return
First, cosmic signs anticipate the return
Cosmic Signs Anticipate the Return
Cosmic Signs Anticipate the Return
Verse 24 begins with the word but. What you may not know is that there are two different words in the Greek that are usually translated as “but” into English. One of those words is a softer word that usually signals progression of thought or the storyline more than it signals contrast.
The other word is a stronger word that signals contrast.
It is the stronger word for contrast that is used here.
In our passage last week we say that there will be false christs and false prophets during the tribulation whose goal is to deceive God’s elect. Those are lying prophets, they are false, they do not bring the truth.
But the presence of false christs does not mean the true Christ is never coming!
We are all familiar with the story boy who cried wolf. If you cry wolf often enough it doesn’t take long before people don’t believe you any more.
I think this may be one of the most pernicious lies of the enemy. One of the most insidious tactics. Flood the world with false christs and false prophets so much so that people start disbelieving the real ones too.
I think this is at least part of the issue with the deconstruction trend that has been occurring over the last several years. There are people who are genuinely reacting against real hurt and really damaging situations, but rather than having the discerning to say that may not have been a true church or a good church or a good pastor, or whatever else is going on, they conclude that all of Christianity is false and there are no good churches and no good pastors and they abandon the faith altogether!
This certainly doesn’t account for all deconstruction movements, but from my observation it’s not an insignificant part of the pie chart.
Jesus warns. Do not believe the false christs.
But don’t let that stop you from believing that that the real Christ will one day return.
So verse 24 begins with that strong contrastive “but”. Those false Christs are not to be believed, BUT! in those days. What days? the days of the tribuation. after that tribulation. Which tribulation? a very specific one! The great tribulation that Jesus just referred to, the one that is so severe that there never has been nor will be anything worse, one that is so great that if not for the mercy of God no human being would survive! THAT tribulation.
Again, I believe this is another reason why these events simply cannot be referring to AD70. These cosmic signs are said to be immediately following the great tribulation and the return of Christ follows. That simply has not happened, so we are clearly awaiting a future fulfillment.
After the triublation, what occurs?
The sun will be darkened, the moon will not give its light, the stars will fall from heaven, and the power in the heavens will be shaken.
Readers who are familiar with their Old Testmanets would be familiar with language like this. Here’s a few that have similar themes:
Behold, the day of the Lord comes, cruel, with wrath and fierce anger, to make the land a desolation and to destroy its sinners from it.
For the stars of the heavens and their constellations will not give their light; the sun will be dark at its rising, and the moon will not shed its light.
I will punish the world for its evil, and the wicked for their iniquity; I will put an end to the pomp of the arrogant, and lay low the pompous pride of the ruthless.
“And on that day,” declares the Lord God, “I will make the sun go down at noon and darken the earth in broad daylight.
Similar passages are found in Ezekiel, Joel, and Zephaniah, and then also in the book of Revelation as well.
Cosmic Signs Anticipate the Return
Cosmic Signs Anticipate the Return
Many people attempt to interpret these cosmic signs as metaphorical or figurative. They would say they refer to great upheaval, governmental instability, etc.
If that’s the case I do have to wonder why Jesus would say that such instability in the world are NOT signs of the end back 5-8, but then figuratively speak of the same things and say that ARE signs here.
It seems much more likely that we ought to take this in a more literal sense. There will be a day when the the light of the sun no longer shines.
The reason some doubt that this could be literal is on scientific grounds. How could the sun and moon and stars just stop shining and fall out of the sky? That’s not how it works.
Questions like that always puzzle me a little. We are talking about almighty God and a period of the most intense judgment that has ever befallen the earth. I think God can manage the sun.
One commentator wrote this and I love it: “When the sign of His coming is given, it will defy scientists, pseudo-scientists, astronomers, and astrologers, but there will be no way to misread its purpose.”—David McKenna, Communicators Bible Commentary, 273,
This whole section began with the disciples asking for a sign, and up to this point Jesus has not given one. He spoke of things that people said would be signs but arnen’t. they are merely birth pains. He spoke of a necessary event that must precede the end with the abomination of desolation, but that isn’t itself a sign of the end. Each of these things in Mark’s account are about strict chronology, only to indicate that things will indeed progress.
But now. Here. At the very end. At the moment when the Son of Man is about to return. Here are some true signs that really answer your question. What will be the sign of your coming?
You’ll know! It will be unmistakable!
This was something we saw as we were walking through 2 thess on Wed nights a few months ago. That church was afraid they missed the rapture and were in the day of the Lord. Paul assured them. No, you’ll know when it hits.
Such is the case with the return of the Son of Man.
This marks the climatic end of the great tribulation.
And then. Ready or not. Here he comes.
Vs 26.
And then you will see the Son of Man coming in clouds with great power and glory.
Power and Glory Accompany the Return
Power and Glory Accompany the Return
Last week we spent considerable time in the book of Daniel and I need to take us there again.
The title, “son of Man” is one of Jesus’ favorite titles for Himself, and it has profound Old Testament roots.
In Daniel 7 Daniel has a vision about successive kingdoms that will come and go on the earth.
We don’t have time to consider all the details, but I want us to see vs 13-14
“I saw in the night visions, and behold, with the clouds of heaven there came one like a son of man, and he came to the Ancient of Days and was presented before him.
And to him was given dominion and glory and a kingdom, that all peoples, nations, and languages should serve him; his dominion is an everlasting dominion, which shall not pass away, and his kingdom one that shall not be destroyed.
Jesus picks up this language from Daniel 7 to speak of the return of the Son of Man. He will come with great power and glory.
John describes the coming in this way in Rev 19:11-16
Then I saw heaven opened, and behold, a white horse! The one sitting on it is called Faithful and True, and in righteousness he judges and makes war.
His eyes are like a flame of fire, and on his head are many diadems, and he has a name written that no one knows but himself.
He is clothed in a robe dipped in blood, and the name by which he is called is The Word of God.
And the armies of heaven, arrayed in fine linen, white and pure, were following him on white horses.
From his mouth comes a sharp sword with which to strike down the nations, and he will rule them with a rod of iron. He will tread the winepress of the fury of the wrath of God the Almighty.
On his robe and on his thigh he has a name written, King of kings and Lord of lords.
The Son of man comes on a cloud. This is likely a reference to the shekinah glory. In the Old Testament whenever the presence of God would fill the temple or the tabernacle, there was the cloud of the glory of God.
He comes with great power and glory.
Another author wrote that him coming
“with great power and glory means not only that the returning one possesses power and glory, but that He comes accompanied by a visible display of great power and glory, exercising divine authority and clothed with heavenly glory”
When Jesus returns he will return with power. We see that in the passage from Revelation that we read. We comes with a sword and will rule with a rod of iron.
Zech 14 says that when the Lord returns, his feet shall stand on the Mount of Olives, which is the very mount where Jesus is giving this sermon, and the Mount of Olives shall be split in two from east to west.
And verse 9 of that same passage reads this
And the Lord will be king over all the earth. On that day the Lord will be one and his name one.
Power and Glory Accompany the Return
Power and Glory Accompany the Return
He comes with power.
He comes with glory. There will be no mistaking him. These false Christs may be able to put on a show, but only the Son of Man comes with divine heavenly glory.
Recently there was a minor dust up online with people reacting to a sermon that was delivered at the Shepherds conference in California. The preacher talked about what Christ will do when he returns. How he comes as a conquering King. He comes with a sword in His hand. And he will cut down all who willfully persist in their rejection of Him.
It’s a picture that most people do not like to think when they think about who Jesus is. We want to think about Jesus as our guide and friend, as He is! We want to think of him as the loving lamb of God, and He is! We want to think of him as forgiving, and he is!
But all that can only be true if this other reality is also true. We can only know the love of Jesus if we recognize that his wrath extends to those in rejection. We can only rejoice in the mercy of our savior when we consider that he is the righteous judge!
We can only rest in our great shepherd because he wields the staff against those who hate him and seek to destroy his people!
Jesus Christ will return and return with power and glory. And it will be either the most terrifying day on the face of the earth or the most joyous day. And it all depends on whether or not you are his or not.
Jesus will come as conquering king. I don’t know about you, but I’d rather be hind him than before Him on that day. And the only way that can happen is if we come humbly before him by faith trusting in the finished work of Christ upon the cross.
For those that respond to the Gospel in faith, the return of Christ will be a glorious day. Look at verse 27
Tribulation Saints Assemble at the Return
Tribulation Saints Assemble at the Return
Mark 13:27 “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.”
Those who have trusted in Christ during the tribulation period will then be gathered together to receive their Christ and enter into the Messianic Kingdom.
I love the expansiveness of the gathering that is laid out here. There will not be a single believer on the face of the earth that will not be gathered together to see the returned Christ. North, south, east, west, upwards, downwards, all God’s people will come.
Revelation 20 teaches us that at that time there will be a resurrection and those who died in Christ will be resurrected to reign with Christ for 1000 years. Those who endured to the end and survived the tribulation will enter the kingdom and will reign with Christ.
In this we continue to see the love and care of God for his people. No one will be forgotten. No one will be missed.
As terrible of a day it will be for those in rebellion, it will be a glorious day when he returns.
Just when the world seemed to be at its darkest moment. When all hope seemed lost. When the battle seemed to be decided in favor of the forces of darkness....light has come.
Ready or not. Here he comes.
Are you ready to see the Messiah? Here we are reminded of the sobering reality of the return of the Son in power and glory. We see the same themes throughout Scripture of the conquering king. The Gospel of Jesus Christ is a glorious Gospel. That we might be called sons and daughters of the this King of kings and Lord of lords, that we might be welcomed into his family, that we may not have to endure the judgment that righteously and justly will befall the earth!
In a few chapters we will see Jesus Christ die on a cross for the sins of the world. The gospel call goes out. repent and believe in Jesus Christ and him alone as the only means of your salvation!
The times of ignorance God overlooked, but now he commands all people everywhere to repent,
because he has fixed a day on which he will judge the world in righteousness by a man whom he has appointed; and of this he has given assurance to all by raising him from the dead.”
The second coming of Christ is a sure reality. I want you and everyone that I know to be ready to reign with Christ in that day, and not be ruined by His righteous wrath. Trust him. Proclaim this Gospel. And live as though he were returning tomorrow.
Let’s pray.