Sermon Tone Analysis

TITLE:     Live Ready! \\ \\ \\ SERMON IN A SENTENCE:   Christ calls us to live faithfully so that we are ready for whatever and whenever -- the Second Coming, our death, or just the ups and downs of life.

\\ \\ \\ SCRIPTURE:    Mark 13:24-37 \\ \\ \\ EXEGESIS:      \\ \\ CHAPTER 13:  \\ This chapter is often called The Little Apocalypse, based on its similarity to the Great Apocalypse of the Revelation of John.

\\ \\

Apocalypse means an unveiling or a revelation

 

Chapter 13 begins with a comment by one of the disciples about the temple:  "Look, teacher, what large stones and what large buildings!"

(v.

1).

Jesus responds by predicting the destruction of the temple (v.

2).

The temple has been the center of Jewish worship and life, but it will not be so for long.

The new center of worship and life will be the Son of Man.  \\ \\ Peter, James, John and Andrew (the inner circle plus Andrew) ask, "When this will be and what will be the sign that all these things are about to be accomplished?"

Jesus responds with a lengthy discourse.

He deals with the "when" question by saying, "But about that day or hour no one knows, neither the angels in heaven, nor the Son, but only the Father.

Beware, keep alert; for you do not know when the time will come" (vv.

32-33).

He deals with the "signs" question by telling of false messiahs and false prophets (v.

6, 22) wars and rumors of wars (v.

7), earthquakes and famines (v.

8), persecution (v.

9), betrayal by family members (v.

12), the desolating sacrilege (v.

14), the darkening of the sun and moon (v.

24), and the falling of the stars (v.

25).

\\ \\ Jesus will mention the destruction of the temple twice again -- at his trial (13:2) and at the cross (15:29).

The prediction of the temple's destruction marks "the end of the Jerusalem ministry and the final disqualification of the Temple as focal point of the Kingdom of God" (Williamson, 236).

\\ \\ At the time of the writing of this Gospel, Christians were experiencing persecution.

"Jerusalem and the temple lay in ruins.

Civil strife had outlived Roman patience, and the threats begun by Emperor Caligula (AD 39-40) are now (AD 70) carried out.

(Christians were estranged from their families by faith issues.

False messiahs were sowing confusion.)

The faithful are torn between giving themselves up to despair or reaching for any flicker of hope" (Craddock, 7).

\\ \\ In response, chapter 13 presents Jesus' promise that time is moving toward the coming of the Son of Man, who will gather all the people together and make all things right.

\\ \\ The church today is divided between Christians who await expectantly the return of the Son of Man and Christians who ignore this aspect of Jesus' teaching altogether.

Christians are often embarrassed by bumper stickers that warn that a car will be driverless in the event of the Rapture.

We are also embarrassed by cartoon images of wacko men (they always seem to be men) carrying signs that proclaim, "REPENT!"

Nevertheless, we need to take Jesus' words in Mark 13 as seriously as we take Jesus' words anywhere else.

The promise is that God has prepared something wonderful beyond our world and time.

Is that any more difficult to believe than the resurrection?

\\ \\ Christians who ignore the coming of Christ "have allowed the buoyancy to drop out of their religion....  (Mankind) has exchanged his august faith in God's coming action for a faith in the kind of plastic heaven that comes out of a factory....  What a trade!

Heaven for earth!

God for gadgets, the coming of Christ in the life of the world for the coming of a salesman's paradise!"

(Luccock, 863-864).

\\ \\ \\ VERSES 24-27:  THEN THEY WILL SEE THE SON OF MAN \\ \\ 24"But in those days, after that suffering, \\ the sun will be darkened, \\ and the moon will not give its light, \\ 25and the stars will be falling from heaven, \\ and the powers in the heavens will be shaken.

\\ 26Then they will see 'the Son of Man coming in clouds' with great power and glory.

27Then 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.

\\ \\ The Old Testament provides much of the imagery for these verses.

Examples include: \\ \\ "The earth quakes before them, \\      the heavens tremble.

\\ The sun and the moon are darkened, \\      and the stars withdraw their shining"  (Joel 2:10).

\\ \\ ".then the Lord your God will restore your fortunes and have compassion on you, gathering you again from all the peoples among whom the Lord your God has scattered you"  (Deut.

30:3) \\ \\ "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" (Isaiah 13:10).

\\ \\ "All the host of heaven shall rot away, \\         and the skies roll up like a scroll.

\\     All their host shall wither \\         like a leaf withering on a vine, \\         or fruit withering on a fig tree" (Isaiah 34:4).

\\   \\ "As I watched in the night visions, \\     I saw one like a human being (Aramaic:  like a Son of man) \\         coming with the clouds of heaven.

\\     And he came to the Ancient One \\         and was presented before him"  (Daniel 7:13).

\\ \\ "The reason for this density of biblical references is not hard to locate:  the author draws on traditional apocalyptic imagery to underscore the crisis that impends when the Son of Man returns..  The Son of Man prophecy itself comes from Dan. 7:13, and is repeated in Mark 14:62, in Jesus' trial before the chief priest" (Brueggemann, 8-9).

\\ \\ "In Mark's day... stars were thought to be heavenly powers that influenced human affairs.

At the end of time all such powers, real and imagined, will be obliterated.

The picture is one of total cosmic collapse.

Darkness and chaos will envelop everything, just as before time (Gen 1:2)" (Edwards 403).

"Then they will see 'the Son of Man coming in clouds' with great power and glory" (v.

27).

The cosmic powers will be gone, and Godly power will reign.

\\ \\ While the imagery is frightening, it is intended to be encouraging to Christians who are living in frightening times.

It acknowledges the reality of their suffering and sacrifice, and promises that: \\ \\ -- The Holy Spirit will give them the right words to say (v.

11).

\\ \\ -- "The one who endures to the end will be saved" (v.

13).

\\ \\ -- The Son of Man will "gather the elect from the four winds, from the ends of the earth to the ends of heaven" (v.

27).

Jews believed that God would gather the faithful to Jerusalem from the nations to which they had dispersed (see Deut 30:4; Isa 11:11; 43:6).

Their scattering represents "the loss of national unity...as a consequence of their infidelity to God; (their being gathered together again) announces the salvation of Israel through a return to spiritual and national unity" (Lane, 476).

Now, with Jerusalem and the temple gone, the Son of Man gathers the faithful to himself -- becomes the new temple of God.

\\ \\ While this is encouraging, it is also demanding.

Jesus places a high premium on faithful discipleship in the midst of terrible trials.

He calls for us endure and to be watchful.

\\ \\ \\ VERSES 28-31:  MY WORDS WILL NOT PASS AWAY \\ \\ 28"From the fig tree learn its lesson: as soon as its branch becomes tender and puts forth its leaves, you know that summer is near.

29So also, when you see these things taking place, you know that he is near, at the very gates.

30Truly I tell you, this generation will not pass away until all these things have taken place.

31Heaven and earth will pass away, but my words will not pass away.

\\ \\ This is the first of two mini-parables included in our Gospel lesson.

The second mini-parable is the man going on a journey (vv.

34-36).

\\ \\ The disciples asked for a sign (v.

4), and Jesus finally answers their request.

Most of the trees in that part of the world are evergreen, but the olive and the fig are deciduous.

The olive tree blossoms early, so it is not a trustworthy harbinger of summer.

The fig tree, however, blossoms late, so its blossoms promise that summer is just around the corner.

If this scene takes place near Passover, as seems likely, Jesus could be pointing to a blossoming fig as he says these words.

\\ \\ Earlier, Jesus cursed a fig tree (11:12-14), cleansed the temple (11:15-19), and gave the disciples a lesson about the power of faith from the withered fig tree (11:20-24).

The fig tree in chapter 13, however, does not wither, but blossoms -- a hopeful sign.

We might think of the withered tree as the withered temple religion that will soon be destroyed, but the blossoming fig is the Son of Man, who brings new life to the faithful (Jensen).

\\ \\ While Jesus' comments about the fig tree sound cryptic, he simply assures us that, as we see these signs taking place, "we are assured that the day of salvation for the elect is near" (Perkins, 693).

\\ \\ V. 30 has generated a great deal of discussion.

"For truly I tell you" indicates the seriousness of the words that follow.

"...this generation will not pass away until all these things have taken place."

It seems that Jesus is saying that the Son of Man will return within the next few years or, at most, the next few decades.

That is troubling, because the Son of Man did not come in the expected way and time, and has still not come two thousand years later.

There have been a number of attempts to resolve this problem: \\ \\ -- Some scholars suggest that "this generation" means Jewish people or humanity in general, but most reject this proposition.

For one thing, it stretches "this generation" beyond its apparent meaning.

For another, it leads to a trite conclusion -- that humanity will still be present when the Son of Man comes.

\\ \\ -- Some scholars suggest that "all these things" refers to the destruction of the temple rather than the coming of the Son of Man.

If so, the prophecy was fulfilled.

The temple was destroyed in 70 A.D. \\ \\ -- Geddert says that we should read v. 30 as follows:  "Within the present generation, all the events that are guaranteed to precede the arrival of the Son of Man (including the desecration and destruction of the temple) will be fulfilled.

If ordinary history should go on after that (and of this there is no guarantee), then at every minute we must reckon with the possible arrival of the Son of Man.

He is at the very gates."

In other words, he accepts the idea that "all these things" refers to the fall of Jerusalem and the temple.

He then suggests that, once the temple was destroyed, the Second Coming became imminent, in the sense that there would be no further cues or warnings.

Christ can come anytime.

\\ \\ -- Hare comments, "The nonfulfillment of the prophecy... must be taken as a sign of grace.