Sermon Tone Analysis

Intro:

Good morning church familY

If you have your Bibles let me invite you to open with Me to the book of Mark chapter 13.

We are in the middle of what is the largest collected body of Jesus’ teaching in the Gospel of Mark.

At this point in the story…, Jesus is making his way to the day of his crucifixion.

We are now just two days before his betrayal and arrest.…

and Jesus is preparing his disciples for what is to come.

In verses 1-3, Jesus predicts a very historical event… the destruction of the temple in Jerusalem which occurred about 40 years later.

In verses 4-13.…

Jesus prepares his disciples for what life will look like in the days following his resurrection.

by way of recap, here are the truths from that text we studied last week.

These are 5 expectations that Jesus wants to instill in his disciples.

#1 Expect False Teachers

#2 Expect a Hostile World

#3 Expect Persecution

#4 Expect Spiritual Empowerment

#5 Expect Endurance.

Everything in verses 5-13 were somewhat general and we see each of Jesus’ warnings actually taking place in the book of Acts and throughout the epistles and throughout church history and the world today.

but verse 14 takes a turn that appears a bit more specific.

And the language shifts from what they are to expect in “these days” to what the disciples should expect in “those days”

Jesus begins to discuss not just what the disciples will experience in their lives…

But what God’s people will experience as the end of the world draws near.

So we are discussing the end of the world this morning.

and let me warn you on the front in… you will likely be left with more questions then answers.

The point of Mark chapter 13 is not to provide the disciples with answers regarding when these things will happen… but rather…

how they should be prepared to endure as the last day draws near.

so with that in mind lets read and then lets pray together.

Lets pray.

There is a word in verse 14 that signals to the reader that Jesus is prophesying something big.

Beyond Mark’s editorial note, “let the reader understand”

There is a phrase which would have packed a big punch.

its the phrase, “abomination of desolation.”

The word “abomination” means something detestable… something appropriately abhorred.

It or he is an abomination that makes desolate.

He brings destruction.

its a word pair that appears several times in the prophecies of Daniel.

In fact Matthew explicitly identifies the term with Daniel.

So in order to get at what in the world Jesus is talking about…

We need to get at what in the world Daniel is talking about and how the disciples would have understood this prophecy.

The book of Daniel is very much about the Kingdom of Man verses the Kingdom of God.

Its a book about Kings like Nebuchadnezzar and his son Balthazar and their arrogance.…

their desire to be worshipped as King of Kings.

Daniel living in exile under these kings perseveres in faithfulness under their rule…

We are familiar with the stories of shadrack, meshak, and abednago, refusing to bow at the King’s command.

They were thrown into a firey furnace yet protected by God so that everyone would see who the true God was.

Likewise Daniel was thrown into the Lion’s Den at the King’s command because Daniel refused to stop praying to the one true God.

Daniel was preserved from the Lion’s so that everyone would see who the true God was.

Daniel is a story about Kingdom of God Citizens remaining faithful and persevering even in the midst of exile in the hostile Kingdom of Man.

and later in the book…, God begins to speak to Daniel in visions.

In these visions Daniel sees symbolic beasts representing powerful Kingdoms like the Persian Empire and the Greek Empire...

Each vision depicts these kingdoms by a grotesque beast which would be ultimately destroyed by God…

In Daniel chapter 11… it is prophesied that one of those beastly kingdoms will in fact set up an abomination in the temple itself.

This prophecy states that their would be an evil kingdom to come who would destroy Israel’s place of worship, but not before they set up an abomination within the temple.

Most Jews by Jesus’ day actually believed that this particular prophecy had already been fulfilled.

The same phrase is used In 1 Maccabees 1:54 To describe the action of a Syrian general named Antiochus.

In 168 B.C. Antiochus erected an altar to Zeus on the altar of burnt offering in the temple.

He also sacrificed pigs, spread their blood in the temple, and banned any offerings to Israel’s God.

To say the least, this enraged the Jews so much that it is actually what led to the Maccabean Revolt and a century of political self-rule before Roman occupation.

that was the moment that most Jews saw at least some fulfillment of Daniel’s prophecy…

but now Jesus highjacks the phrase… abomination of desolation and says that there is something even bigger coming that will more fully fulfill Daniel’s prophecy.

And there is a lot of debate to exactly what “abomination of desolation” that Jesus is referring to.

There Are a few historical options.

Just a few years after this prophecy from Jesus… the Roman emperor Caligula attempted to resurrect a statue of himself in the temple so that the Jews were forced to worship Caesar But he was assassinated before he was successful And the Jews did not have to flee to the mountains at that time… though it would have been a good idea.

Later in A.D. 70, as we discussed a couple weeks ago… The Roman general Titus laid siege to the city of Jerusalem and he himself entered the temple before having it completely destroyed.

some have thought that he was the abomination standing in the temple which led to desolation.

and perhaps he was partial fulfillment…, Just as Antiochus had been a partial fulfillment of Daniel in previous history…

The disciples certainly would have understood these prophecies to be at least partially fulfilled in their lifetimes.

but the passage seems to indicate that these historical moments are simply prequels to an even larger moment yet to come.

“Those days” to come that Jesus speaks of here seem to be bigger then even the moment of Jerusalem and the temple’s destruction.

Jesus describes those days as days the listener should take very seriously.

When the disciples saw the abomination of desolation standing where he ought not ….

They should flee to the mountains.

They should not take anything with them.

It will be especially hard for anyone who is pregnant in those days or nursing infants in those days.

It will be especially hard if you have to flee your home in winter according to verse 18.

In one sense, the disciples should really take note of Jesus’ words here… If they were to have been stuck in Jerusalem when Titus entered the temple and the destruction of Jerusalem began… they may not have made it out alive.

Titus set up a perimeter of his armies around the entire city of Jerusalem so as to trap everyone inside as he began his destruction of the city.

Fleeing to the mountains likely saved many of the disciple’s lives in that very real historical moment.

There is certainly a historical element to this that has already passed…..

But I think there is also a cyclical nature to this...

Daniel spoke of an abomination of desolation… The Kings that Daniel served under constantly tried to set themselves up as the object of worship… later in history Antiochus fits the bill perfectly In his desolation of the temple.

Now Jesus spoke of the abomination of desolation… and within a generation we had one Roman Caesar attempt to fulfill this but fail, and yet another truly fulfill it…

But, I want to pause and just observe something here about what John calls the Spirit of the Antichrist.

There is something cyclical about the way the Bible portrays human history and the impending end of the world.

If your a note-taker write this down.

Truth #1 The Spirit of Abomination is at Work in Our World

There is a very real evil in our world and in humanity that seems to be constantly striving against the Kingdom of God And for the wicked kingdom of Man.

Many Roman Emperors throughout their history set themselves up as the one to be worshipped and persecuted Christians terribly.

But consider how this has played out in many nations over the course of many generations.

There are always evil men attempting to set themselves up as the center of human worship and who will kill anyone who stands in their way.

There is a spiritual principle here about the human condition.

We are sinful people with the capacity to commit great atrocities to build our own kingdom.

We should be on guard for this kind of Spirit of the antichrist is one that we can find in our own hearts.

There is also a general principle here for Christians who find themselves living in Kingdoms when such abominations rise to power…

Flee to the mountains… because the abomination of desolation will not spare you.

Jesus’ teaching speaks to a very real historical moment that was coming in 70 A.D.

It speaks to very real historical moments that I think have and will continue to repeat themselves until the end.

But I think that Jesus is also describing something even bigger then that.

verse 19 tells me that Jesus is describing something even bigger then the fall of Jerusalem That will occur In the last days before his return.

Look at verse 19.