Sermon Tone Analysis

*“The Signs of the Times” \\ **Mark 13.1-13*

 

            From the past couple of weeks, you recall that we are in the midst of the Passion Week in the life of Jesus Christ.

We saw how much of Mark’s gospel moves quickly through much of the life and ministry of Christ.

The pace moves rather quickly as Mark gives us highlights of the significant things leading up to this point.

But as we approach the cross, he slows the pace down as it were.

He wants to emphasize the events that happen in this time.

In this more immediate section, Jesus has begun to condemn the current religious system because of its inability to save and because of its abuses.

He has overturned the tables of the money-changers.

And he has spoken against the religious leaders in very strong terms.

In Mark’s gospel, he points out that they misunderstood and misrepresented the Messiah and that they misrepresented true godliness.

And this was evidenced in their lack of care for the most needy – the widows.

We find ourselves entering chapter 13 of Mark.

So please turn in your Bibles to Mark 13 as we get underway.

If you are acquainted with your Bible, you know that this section contains what is known as the Olivet Discourse – because much of Jesus’ teaching takes place on the Mount of Olives outside the city of Jerusalem.

The passage contains interesting language dealing with wars, calamities, tribulations, and apocalyptic language.

This chapter has often been cited in the pursuit of constructing elaborate charts on end time events.

What I hope to show you is that this understanding is not the emphasis in our passage this morning.

Let’s read our text and get started.

Mark 13.1-13.

*READ.*

The first point from our passage is *Judgment on External Religion.

*After warning his listeners of the scribes teaching and lifestyle, Jesus and the disciples vacate the premises.

They come out of the temple area and gaze back upon it.

One of the disciples (who Mark graciously leaves unnamed) points out the beauty that is contained the structure of the temple and its courts.

He notes that it is crafted with wonderful stones.

And he is right!

The beauty and size of Herod the Great's Temple Mount exceeded that of most of the seven wonders of the world.

It was more than twice the size of the Acropolis in Athens.

Its perimeter was 1.55 km and enclosed a space equivalent to one-sixth of the entire city.

The area could hold somewhere in the neighbourhood of 12 football fields.

It was one of the most impressive structures in the world.

It was made of massive blocks of stone adorned with gold ornamentation.

It is recorded that some of the stones measured 40x12x12 ft. and were expertly quarried to fit perfectly against one another.

John MacArthur includes that “The temple buildings were made of gleaming white marble, and the whole eastern wall of the large main structure was covered with gold plates that reflected the morning sun, making a spectacle that was visible for miles.”

So when one of the disciples remarked, he probably did not expect the response that he gets from Jesus.

Jesus wheels around and says, “Do you see these great buildings?

There will not be left here one stone upon another that will not be thrown down.”

Can you imagine the tension?

Perhaps the disciples were thinking, “Jesus, take it easy.

Like everybody else, we’re just appreciating the buildings.”

Perhaps Jesus was still reflecting on the abuses of the religious system that devoured widow’s houses and accepted all they had to live on.

Perhaps it was these abuses that allowed them to build and amass wealth – not unlike the times of Martin Luther where the Roman Church would manipulate the people to pay indulgences in order to fund their building project of St. Peter’s Basillica.

In any event, Jesus now pronounces final judgment on the temple.

As we saw earlier when he overturned the tables, he does not seek to purify its practice, but to eradicate it.

Jesus is going to the cross and there would no longer be a need for this physical temple.

Here he openly prophecies its complete destruction.

What we have seen in Jesus’ pronouncements against the religious leaders is directed to their superficiality and their hypocrisy.

They were externally “clean” and internally corrupt.

He pointed that out throughout his ministry and most notably in the events just prior to this.

Matthew’s gospel includes more of these judgments and identifies some of their inconsistencies.

In chapter 23, Matthew also calls them on their desire for the greetings in the marketplaces and their titles.

He pronounces woes on the scribes and Pharisees for they “shut the kingdom of heaven in people’s faces.”

Jesus indicates that they (the religious leaders) would not enter the kingdom and hinder others from entering.

Jesus condemns them because they tithe and yet neglect justice, mercy, and faithfulness.

He pinpoints the issue to that of hypocrisy.

Jesus repeatedly judges them because they appear to be holy, but their hearts are corrupt.

Listen to Matthew 23:25–29 “*25* “Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites!

For you clean the outside of the cup and the plate, but inside they are full of greed and self-indulgence.

*26* You blind Pharisee!

First clean the inside of the cup and the plate, that the outside also may be clean.

*27* “Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites!

For you are like whitewashed tombs, which outwardly appear beautiful, but within are full of dead people’s bones and all uncleanness.

*28* So you also outwardly appear righteous to others, but within you are full of hypocrisy and lawlessness.

*29* “Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites!

For you build the tombs of the prophets and decorate the monuments of the righteous.”

And with this fresh on his lips, he looks back at the structures and pronounces judgment on the whole thing.

How can Jesus be impressed with something that is beautiful on the outside and filthy and corrupt through and through?

Some years ago, I went to Paris on a mission’s trip.

I know, I know.

I was really suffering for the Lord on that one!

As a seminary class, we went on a visionary trip to talk to the missionaries serving there to glean insight to their mission – including their challenges and successes.

Perhaps I may have initially questioned one’s motivation to choose Paris for career missions.

This quickly vanished as I gained a greater understanding of the nature of their work there.

They were immersed in a post-Christian environment where converts to Christ were extremely rare.

I should mention that this had little to do with their efforts.

One of the exercises we did while we were there was to go on the streets and accumulate information through interviews.

This was a valuable lesson for me.

Individually, we constructed a questionnaire with which to engage people in public places.

We attempted to enter into spiritual discussions in order to get a sense of the spiritual climate in France.

If you’ve been to Europe, you know that there are some magnificent buildings throughout – namely churches and cathedrals.

One of my favourites is Notre Dame.

The building is characterized by its intricate carvings, colourful stained glass, sounds of a magnificent pipe organ.

The thing that stuck out to me the most in my conversations with people was the fact that these beautiful cathedrals held no spiritual value for them.

They were the places for weddings and special events.

They did not see much connection to the One True God.

Physically beautiful, but spiritually bankrupt.

The temple embodies the spiritual climate of its religious leaders.

And the church faces the same danger.

If the Pharisees, Sadducees and scribes were guilty of terrible hypocrisy because their inward lives did not match their external appearances, aren’t we susceptible to the same things?

What does this look like?

Do we come to Sunday worship and pretend that our spiritual lives are thriving when in reality we just had a conflict in the car ride here?

Or do we say to others that we really want to grow in our faith and serve more in the church without any action behind our words?

Say one thing and do another… This is hypocrisy.

And the religious system of Jesus’ day was characterized by hypocrisy.

When Jesus says, “there will not be left here one stone upon another that will not be thrown down,” his words will be literally fulfilled in a.d.

70.

Titus, the Roman general, built large wooden scaffolds around the walls of the temple buildings, piled them high with wood and other flammable items, and set them ablaze.

The heat from the fires was so intense that the stones crumbled.

The rubble was then sifted to retrieve the melted gold, and the remaining ruins were “thrown down” into the Kidron Valley.

But Jesus’ words were ringing in the ears of his disciples.

Jesus departs the temple and, with his disciples, head east to the Mount of Olives.