A Look at What's Coming: Hupomone
A Look at What's Coming • Sermon • Submitted
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A Look at What’s Coming: Hupomone
Mark 13:3-13
I. A Look at What’s Coming
A. Two Questions
1. How will we know when the destruction of the temple and the reordering of our world is upon us?
2. How will we know when you are establishing your final kingdom once and for all?
B. Jesus begins to answer the questions
1. He does not avoid the questions because they are too hard or too emotionally charged
2. He does not misdirect to make God look good
a. Christian Rapper renounces Christianity after 30 years because he could not find answers to the hard questions
b. God is not afraid of the hard questions
(1) Isaiah 1:18 (ESV) “Come now, let us reason together, says the LORD: though your sins are like scarlet, they shall be as white as snow; though they are red like crimson, they shall become like wool.
(2) Though everything in the natural and spiritual world is against you, you can still come and sit down with me and have an honest conversation and I will reveal my life-changing, soul-saving, destiny-altering, heart-directing Truth to you!
3. Describes His Coming through the Flow of Human History
a. The beginning of labor
b. The application of tribulation
c. The exaltation of arrogance
d. The return of the King
e. The lesson of the fig tree
f. The altar call to faith
II. The Conditions Mark 3:5-13
A. Labor Pains
1. Religious Deceit - “I am He”
a. Religion vs Theology
(1) Theology is the study of the person and work of God
(2) Religion is the study of the practice and human behavior
b. “I am he.”
(1) Particular individuals proclaiming themselves to be Christ
(2) An attitude of arrogance that exalts an individual or system of thinking (religion) as being a better expression of Christ than others, especially when biblical revelation is avoided
c. This is what Paul meant when he warned that a time was coming when men would not endure sound doctrine but would gather around themselves teachers who would tell them what their itching ears want to hear.
2. Social Uproar
3. Natural disasters - like the Tonga volcano and resulting tsunami
4. Economic depravation - people lacking food and the ability to get food
B. Targeted Opposition
1. Arrests, beatings, and hearings
a. “To bear witness to them”
b. To proclaim the gospel to all nations -
(1) the context is not a massive missionary drive, the context is the divine purpose for persecution
(2) God sends persecution to get the all important gospel where it needs to go
(a) For the sake of His glory
(b) For the joy of the church, those who will be saved by the grace of God from the wrath of God through the mercy of God announced in the gospel of God about the Son of God
c. A major indicator of God’s timing in history are persecutions that result in revival.
2. Spiritual Empowerment
3. Social animosity - you will be hated by all for my name’s sake
a. Luke 14:26 (ESV) 26 “If anyone comes to me and does not hate his own father and mother and wife and children and brothers and sisters, yes, and even his own life, he cannot be my disciple.
b. Discipleship is a call to a singular devotion to Jesus Christ above anyone and anything else.
(1) That level of devotion to Christ will put you at odds with the world
(2) Most Christians today try to get along with the world as much as they can
(3) Jesus points out a day when you will have no choice,
(a) Luke 16:13 (ESV) 13 No servant can serve two masters, for either he will hate the one and love the other, or he will be devoted to the one and despise the other. You cannot serve God and money.”
(b) For those of you who make the choice for Jesus, you make the choice to leave the world, to live are variance to the world, to treasure Christ more than the treasures of this world, and they will hate you for it.
III. The Call: Hupomone
A. Call for Endurance
1. Mark 13:13 (ESV) And you will be hated by all for my name’s sake. But the one who endures to the end will be saved.
2. Endure, persevere, hupomone
B. Hupomone
1. “Don’t overdrive your headlights.”
2. Isaiah 2:5 (ESV) O house of Jacob, come, let us walk in the light of the LORD.
a. Hupomone means living life in the light of God’s person and purpose when all the world goes dark
b. Hupomone means letting who God is and what God does guide our intent and actions.
c. Hupomone means not giving up, not surrendering, not resigning in the face of opposition, tribulation, or persecution.
d. Hupomone means giving no place to anxiety, fear, panic, or unbelief!
3. Hebrews 12:1-3 (ESV) 1 Therefore, since we are surrounded by so great a cloud of witnesses, let us also lay aside every weight, and sin which clings so closely, and let us run with endurance the race that is set before us, 2 looking to Jesus, the founder and perfecter of our faith, who for the joy that was set before him endured the cross, despising the shame, and is seated at the right hand of the throne of God. 3 Consider him who endured from sinners such hostility against himself, so that you may not grow weary or fainthearted.
a. Jesus is the best possible example of hupomone.
b. Keeping on His focus firmly on the glory of God and the joy of fulfilling the Father’s will, He persevered even through the cross and death because there was something of greater worth to be gained through faith and obedience.
4. Colossians 1:11 (ESV) May you be strengthened with all power, according to his glorious might, for all endurance and patience with joy,
a. Hupomone is not self-derived.
b. Perseverance is the divine empowerment of the Spirit of God for the people of God to hold fast to faith in God for the glory of God.
IV. A Look at What’s Coming: Hupomone
A. Hard days ahead
1. Great tribulation
2. Great power for perseverance
B. Be on your guard.
1. Stay awake
2. Stay alert
3. Walk in the light of God