Sermon Tone Analysis

Well, good morning.

LINCOLN PARK!  My name’s Dan Osborn, the campus pastor for the Saturday Night community here at Park.

We’re going to be doing texting this morning.

like we’ve been doing for the past several weeks.

So if you have any questions that come up from the message—and I’m assuming there will be a few this morning.—or

even about anything else, maybe a question that’s come up in your small group or in a conversation at work, this is a great place to ask.

The way to text in is in your texting app you write ‘Ask LP’ and then your question, and you send that to the number 62953.

Introduction:

A couple weeks ago, Courtney was away on vacation visiting her parents for a couple of days in Springfield.

And on the day she was coming home, she sent me a text that sent me in to a bit of a panic.

Now you have to understand that I got married a couple weeks after I finished undergrad, so I never really had a long bachelor season in my life.

So when Courtney’s away for a couple days, it’s not that I’m a different person or anything like that…but more like some of the cleanliness standards and ‘best-practices’ I adopted when I got married……slip….a

little.

Normally, I love cooking dinner for Courtney, it’s actually something that’s really enjoyable for me and even a bit of a creative outlet.

But when Courtney’s gone…I’ll make like an entire bag of frozen chicken tenders on the first day…and then eat it for lunch and dinner everyday for the week.

I’m normally fairly quick get the dishes done after dinner when she’s home because I know Court doesn’t like to leave dishes sitting out very long—and it’s not that she’ll get mad if I don’t do them, it’s just that she’ll get up and do them if I don’t…so it’s just one of the ways that I can serve her when I’m home…But when when she’s gone…if I’m honest…the dishes sit out…for most of the time she’s gone!

I mean, why wash the plate if I’ve got 7 more I can use before I run out…

And so by the time it was Friday, let’s just say that the state of our apartment was not at what it should have been in anticipation of her arrival.

So, back to the text that sent me into a panic.

It was two words long.

“Almost home.”

‘Almost Home.’

I didn’t know what that meant…i didn’t know if almost home meant, ‘I’m down the street….a

couple miles away…or something more like, ‘just under and hour now’.

And I can’t ask her to clarify because that’ll give it away…she knows me too well.

And so I respond with an ‘Okay great—smiley face’….

And then jump in to get done mode, right?

I’m running to make the bed…light a candle…fold the blankets on the couch…fluff the pillows on the couch—because I’m pretty sure I wasn’t supposed to sleep (or nap) on them…SCRUB the dishes…like really scrub the dishes…turn on some light background music…so that it smells nice, looks nice, and sounds nice when she walks in…

Why am I telling you this.

When we believe the one we’re waiting for is coming back, it creates an urgency in what we are doing…it builds an anticipation for their arrival…it actually changes what we do, and even the way we live when we believe their on their way.

We live differently when we know the one we’re waiting for is coming back.

Friends, the reason I bring this story up tonight is because in the text we’re looking at, Jesus tells his followers:

Be ready…because I’m coming back.

.

{PAUSE…LOOK AROUND}

What does that make you think about?

I’m just curious…what pops into your mind first when you think about that idea of Jesus returning?

Does it sound absurd?

A bit too si-fi?

Is it something to be afraid of?

Friends, in our text this morning, Jesus begins to explain what His return means for us…why it’s important…what difference it makes for the way we live.

So if you you have a bible with you, you can open up to .

It’s on page 849 in the house bibles.

Let me pray and we’ll get started.

[PRAY]

Alright, let’s get started.

Look with me starting at v. 1, “And as he [Jesus] came out of the temple, one of his disciples said to him, ‘Look, Teacher, what wonderful stones and what wonderful buildings!’”

It’s an understandable thing for this disciple to say…I mean the Temple was a beautiful building!

The leadership in Israel at the time was pouring resources into a massive renovation project on the temples and so it was an incredibly building at this point.

Let me show you a picture of what it would have looked like [SLIDE].

people do this kinda thing all the time.

If you’re ever in the Loop, you know there’s always an easy way to spot the tourists who are visiting our city—they’re the one’s walking around, looking up!

And that’s the same amazement the disciples have in v. 1!  But look at Jesus’ response in v. 2, “ And Jesus said to him, “Do you see these great buildings?

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

let’s put that in our time frame for a moment, imagine Jesus had said this to you while you were walking through the Loop with him and he said, ‘do you see these great buildings?

The day is coming when you won't see anything left here that’s not in a pile of rubble.’

Just picture what that would look like…what it would feel like to walk through the city like that, seeing the Willis, the Hancock, Merch Mart…all in rubble, right?

I mean it naturally begs the question, ‘what would have to happen to make that a reality.’

And that’s exactly what the disciples want to know.

And when they get up to the mount of Olives in v.3, we’re told that 4 of the disciples come up to Jesus and want Him to give them a few more details about what’s going to happen.

Look with me at v. 4 “[and they said to him] Tell us, when will these things be and what will be the signs that these things are about to be accomplished?”

Fair questions, right?

The same ones you and I would have had!  ‘Jesus, when will this happen and what will be the signs of them!’ Now, these two questions seem a little redundant at first, because if Jesus just tells them when this will happen, it doesn’t much matter what the signs leading up to it are, right?

But we’ve got to read between the lines a little bit and see that that in asking about the signs, the disciples are asking, ‘when do we need get ready for this?’  Right?

When’s this gonna happen, and when do we need to start getting prepared?

And, so typical of Jesus, he doesn’t directly answer the questions the disciples are asking, but instead, he answers the question they NEED TO BE asking!

And in , Jesus hints at something much more than just the destruction of the Temple.

He begins to tell them about the the Last Days…Jesus actually begins to tell them about his Return…

Now, the disciples already have a couple things they believe about the last days.

So when Jesus begins to talk about his return, he doesn’t need to fill in as many gaps for them as he would for us…if He were talking directly to us.

So at this point, I think it will be helpful for us to pause in the story a little and clarify a few things to help us understand what Jesus is teaching here because we don’t get a chance to talk about this stuff very often as a church!

So we’re gonna look at this from 30,000 feet and spend the rest of our time together answering a couple questions from that point of view that come up from the text.

And as we do that, we will begin to see why it’s important for Jesus to tell us these things and how we’re supposed to live differently because He says he’s coming back.

Sound good?

Okay.

Jut to get us started The word theologians use to talk about Jesus’ return is Eschatology.

So the first question is this:

What is Eschatology?

Here’s what it means: Eschatology is made up of two greek words; eschatos meaning ‘end’ or ‘last things’ and the word logos meaning ‘study’ of.

And so when you put it together it means the Study of the End….or the study of last things.

Now, like I said a second ago, the disciples already have a framework for what they believe about the last days.

They already had an eschatology before Jesus said any of these things to them.

Based on the Old Testament, they believed two big things.

1.

that in the last days, God would set up an everlasting kingdom that would bring universal Peace over all the whole world!

And 2. they believe

God would bring his final judgment over Sin—that he would punish those who were disobedient to Him and

reward for those who were in right relationship with Him.

So they were waiting for a Kingdom and a Judgment.

The thing is, the disciples were expecting Jesus to do all this while He was with them.

Remember what we’ve talked about already in the book of Mark, that Jesus has been going around showing that He is the King!

And so it makes sense that they’d expect Him to do these things…But what they didn’t understand is that these things wouldn’t FULLY happen until the Jesus would return again…

Now, to be fair, there are a lot of different opinions and disagreement on what exactly the Bible teaches says about eschatology…so this naturally leads to the second question for us tonight…

What do we know for sure?

What are those things that the bible is ABSOLUTELY clear on in regards to eschatology…what are those things that all followers of Jesus really agree on?

What do we know for sure?

Three things.

These aren’t the ONLY three things but these are big ones.

Look with me starting at v. 24, “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.”

This is the first thing Jesus says we can bank on…that the Jesus, the Son of Man, will return…that he will be seen coming in the clouds with great power and glory.

And what will he do when he Returns?