Mark 13:3-27
Date: May 28th 2023
Speaker: Samuel Crites
Scripture: Mark 13:3-27
Exegetical Outline
Main Idea of Text: Jesus teaches his disciples the signs of the destruction of the temple, the end of the world, and his second coming in order to make them watchful so that they may live righteously.
3:3-4: The disciples ask Jesus when the temple will be destroyed.
3:5-8: The beginning of the end will be evidenced by rumors of wars, actual wars, and earthquakes.
3:9-13: During this time, the Apostles must endure suffering to the end as they preach the gospel by the power of the Spirit.
3:14-23: The destruction of the temple will come when the abomination of desolation stands in the temple. This is your sign to flee.
3:24-27: After the tribulation, the world will end and Jesus will come again.
Homiletical Outline
Main Idea of Sermon: The Church must be on guard against the fear that can rob us of our hope.
Be on guard.
Against being led astray by false Christs.
Against fear of what must take place.
Against the surprise of suffering.
Against anxiety and the fear of man.
Against unpreparedness.
Against the false hope of false christs.
Introduction:
In our family, as our kids have gotten older, Molly and I thought it would be a good idea to celebrate milestone birthdays, special birthdays that allow us to focus individual time with that child and let them know we love and appreciate them. It has been especially helpful in a big family, because it allows us to individual time with each child at a major turning point in their lives.
The first milestone birthday is 10 years old. Last Friday, we took Jacob to Austin for his 10 birthday. I only bring this up because in God’s providence, as we were driving back, Jake and I began listening to the Last Battle, the final book in the Chronicles of Narnia. It is called the Last Battle, because it is a book about the end of Narnia. By the time the book is over, Narnia has been destroyed and Aslan has taken all the Narnians to his Father’s true country.
As we were listening to the book, it struck me how trivial and insignificant all the efforts of the main characters were. In all the other books, the story follows the basic formula: there is a big problem in Narnia, children from our world travel to Narnia, and the Narnians and the children team up to save the day. However, in the Last Battle, this is not the case. You might think that the last battle is some cosmic fight between good and evil, but it is actually a skirmish outside a stable that the good guys lose. In the end all the heroes die. As they are fighting this last battle, the last king of Narnia makes a final stand before the doors into Aslan’s kingdom, and he loses the fight. All of his allies are pulled down and he falls through the door into Aslan’s country. Now, this is a children’s book, so Lewis is really careful and clever in how he tells the story. It is not until later that Aslan tells all the characters how they actually met their ultimate end.
It is actually at that point that, as I reflected on the story, it became very clear that the Narnians were never going to win. All the king’s men in Cair Paravel had been slain by the Tisroc. His reinforcements never arrived because they were ambushed on the road. The dwarves betrayed him. And by the time he is making his final stand, all his allies have fallen in battle. In short, in the end, the good guys lose.
One of the reasons that I love reading C.S. Lewis is that he has the peculiar ability to open our eyes to the spiritual realities around us. Through fiction, he brings to light spiritual truths that we otherwise may not see, because we bombarded with physical reality constantly. If you have ever read the Last Battle, you know what I am talking about. Because all throughout the story, as things are going from bad to worse for our heroes, there is a constant hope that Aslan will come and when he arrives everything will be set to right. And this is exactly what happens. When Aslan finally arrives, you realize the last battle was no battle at all. The side that had no hope was not the Narnians, but the invading force of the Calormen. The enemy is defeated, the world comes to an end, and the people enter the real world. But it is the hope that struck me. They never gave into despair. They never lost hope that Aslan was coming for them. They were certain, to the bitter end, that everything would be set right.
What Lewis communicates in this children’s story is the essence of the Christian perspective on the future: hope. Hope that in the end, regardless of what we must face, we will win. Not because the victory is ours, but because the victory already belongs to Christ.
Today in our sermon text, we are going to see the reasonableness of that hope and how it should change how we live our lives today. Read with me Mark 13:3-27:
Mark 13:3-27
3 And as he sat on the Mount of Olives opposite the temple, Peter and James and John and Andrew asked him privately, 4 “Tell us, when will these things be, and what will be the sign when all these things are about to be accomplished?” 5 And Jesus began to say to them, “See that no one leads you astray. 6 Many will come in my name, saying, ‘I am he!’ and they will lead many astray. 7 And when you hear of wars and rumors of wars, do not be alarmed. This must take place, but the end is not yet. 8 For nation will rise against nation, and kingdom against kingdom. There will be earthquakes in various places; there will be famines. These are but the beginning of the birth pains.
9 “But be on your guard. For they will deliver you over to councils, and you will be beaten in synagogues, and you will stand before governors and kings for my sake, to bear witness before them. 10 And the gospel must first be proclaimed to all nations. 11 And when they bring you to trial and deliver you over, do not be anxious beforehand what you are to say, but say whatever is given you in that hour, for it is not you who speak, but the Holy Spirit. 12 And brother will deliver brother over to death, and the father his child, and children will rise against parents and have them put to death. 13 And you will be hated by all for my name’s sake. But the one who endures to the end will be saved.
14 “But when you see the abomination of desolation standing where he ought not to be (let the reader understand), then let those who are in Judea flee to the mountains. 15 Let the one who is on the housetop not go down, nor enter his house, to take anything out, 16 and let the one who is in the field not turn back to take his cloak. 17 And alas for women who are pregnant and for those who are nursing infants in those days! 18 Pray that it may not happen in winter. 19 For in those days there will be such tribulation as has not been from the beginning of the creation that God created until now, and never will be. 20 And if the Lord had not cut short the days, no human being would be saved. But for the sake of the elect, whom he chose, he shortened the days. 21 And then if anyone says to you, ‘Look, here is the Christ!’ or ‘Look, there he is!’ do not believe it. 22 For false christs and false prophets will arise and perform signs and wonders, to lead astray, if possible, the elect. 23 But be on guard; I have told you all things beforehand.
24 “But in those days, after that tribulation, the sun will be darkened, and the moon will not give its light, 25 and the stars will be falling from heaven, and the powers in the heavens will be shaken. 26 And then they will see the Son of Man coming in clouds with great power and glory. 27 And then 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.
This is the second time in our study of the Gospel of Mark that I have planned to much text for one sermon. Originally, we had planned that Chapter 13 would be one sermon, but we will be splitting it into two sermons. The sermon text for this week will take us through verse 27, and the sermon for next week will be verses 28-37.
Mark Chapter 13 is known as the Olivet Discourse. It is paralleled in Matthew 24 and Luke 21, and is the moment that Jesus sits down on the Mount of Olives to teach his disciples about what is going to come in the future. As we can see in verse 4, the disciples are still reeling from Jesus’s prophecy in verse 2. They can’t imagine that the temple will actually be destroyed, so, on their way home, they stop Jesus to ask him when this will happen. The future that Jesus has said will take place made them fearful. Everything that Jesus teaches them in Mark 13 is meant to counter that fear with hope. Hope that in the end, he is coming back for them.
Jesus does two things in the Olivet Discourse to preserve his disciple’s hope. He warns them against things that will steal their hope and he encourages them to live such holy live that they are prepared to enjoy their hope when it becomes reality. This week’s sermon will deal with the first, and next week’s sermon will deal with the second. Which brings us to the main idea of our sermon: The Church must be on guard against the fear that can rob us of our hope.
Jesus is going to give the disciples six warnings against things that will rob them of their future hope. First, they are to be on guard against being led astray by false teachers. Second, they are to be on guard against difficult circumstances in the world. Third, they are to be on guard against the surprise of suffering. Fourth, they are to be on guard against anxiety and the fear of man. Fifth, they are to be on guard against unpreparedness. And, finally, they are to be on guard against the false hope of false christs. We will see each of these warnings independently in the text and consider how Jesus prescribes that they can guard against the fear that can rob them of their hope.
Beware against being led astray.
As we have already said, Jesus is doing two things in this passage to give his disciples hope. He is warning them, and encouraging them. Our first sermon focuses on the warnings. In light of everything that is going to happen in the future, Jesus wants his disciples to be on guard against fear. He warns his disciples about six different dangers or errors that they are going to face in the future that might rob them of their hope.
Before I give you the six warnings, let me say a quick word about prophecy. Prophecy is telescopic by nature. It is like flying in an airplane. Have you ever been flying in an airplane, looking out the window at the ground and been struck by how flat it appears. The higher you get the more the ground loses its contour. It is especially disconcerting when flying over an area that you are familiar with. The details that you know exist, like the boundary of a city or the details of the highway that you are so familiar with, become much harder to enforce on the land that you are perceiving from such a high altitude. Everything flattens.
This is how prophecy is. In the immediate context that the prophecy is given, everything appears flat. It is like the prophet is speaking with a perception we do not possess. He speak both at 40,000 feet and as if he is walking on the ground at the same time. Details that seem like they are part of the landscape end up being details that only makes sense when you are on ground. Things that we thought would happen immediately are actually a long way away. Clarity in prophecy is dependent on proximity to the events prophesied, and the ability to perceive the depth of the prophecy that is not immediately apparent. It is like walking up to a mountain range that appears flat from a distance but is actually made up of several rows of mountains one behind the other when you get close.
This makes the interpretation of prophecy very difficult and requires the interpreter to hold their expected fulfillment of prophecy loosely in their hands. Almost all of eschatology, the study of last things, is in the realm of charity. Meaning, we can agree to disagree, because no one can be certain of exactly how things will turn out. There are very few things we can say about the future: Judgment is certain, Jesus is coming again, we will be raised to eternal life, and there will be a New Heaven and a New Earth. Just about everything else makes for good discussion, but we have to approach those discussion willing to agree to disagree.
So, as Jesus is teaching his disciples, he is speaking on two registers. Some of the things he is speaking about only refer to what is about to happen in AD 70, some of the things refer to events that are still in the future for Christians reading this text today. Which means the warnings of Christ in this text are so relevant for us to listen to and consider.
The first warning comes from verses 5 and 6. Jesus warns the disciples not to be led astray by those that claim to be him. This is a different warning than will come later in the Olivet Discourse. The later warning is more serious and seems to come from outside the Church. Notice in verse 6, that this imposter is coming in the name of Christ. It gives the impression that there will be false-christs that arise from among the Church in the wake of Christ’s death, resurrection, and ascension. The disciples are to be on guard against such false teachers because they know the true teacher. It is in knowing the original that we can discern the counterfeit.
I am reminded of the seemingly harsh way that Peter dealt with Simon the Magician in Acts 8:14-25. After Simon made a profession of faith, he saw Peter imparting the Holy Spirit to the Samaritans by laying his hands upon them. Simon attempts to purchase this power from the disciples and Peter says this, beginning in verse 20:
Acts 8:20-23
May your silver perish with you, because you thought you could obtain the gift of God with money! 21 You have neither part nor lot in this matter, for your heart is not right before God. 22 Repent, therefore, of this wickedness of yours, and pray to the Lord that, if possible, the intent of your heart may be forgiven you. 23 For I see that you are in the gall of bitterness and in the bond of iniquity.
Perhaps, Peter was thinking of this warning; remembering how Jesus himself had warned against men just like Simon, men who were supposedly Christians, but showed that their true love was not for Christ, but for their own personal gain.
The Church has to be careful. We have to have to constantly be on the lookout for false teaching. Which means that we must know the Gospel. We must be so familiar with the message that we have been given that when we hear a false message, we see it as a clever counterfeit.
Many of you might think that this is the elder’s job. They are the ones that are supposed to protect the sheep from wolves. This is true, but they are not the first line of defense for the Church. The first line of defense is the individual Church member.
Our college men just finished a book written by Jonathan Leeman called Don’t Fire Your Church Members. We have it for free in the office if anyone would like a copy. The book’s title is clever, because Leeman argues that Christ himself has employed every single Member of the Church in the office of the priest-king. This office is the vocation of every Christian and is responsible for recognizing the what and the who of the Gospel.
According to Leeman, the what of the Gospel is how closely the content of someone’s confession matches the truth of the Gospel. In this way, the Church defends the message of the Gospel when they decide how correctly it has been proclaimed. Right now, you are to be listening to the message that I am preaching and assessing how accurately my words reflect the truthfulness of the text.
The Church defends the who of the Gospel by recognizing who is a true preacher of the Gospel. That is, they are to recognize when the life of a preacher matches the message they preach. This is not the job of the elders, but primarily the job of the members. We do this every time we accept someone into Church Membership. We are to assess whether the fruit of someone’s life matches what Scripture says it means to be a Christian. That means you need to spend time with prospective members and get to know them; it is your Christ given duty to protect the Gospel by only allowing those into the Church whose give evidence that they have been changed by the Gospel.
So Christ warns the disciples to be vigilant in this regard. Be careful of false teachers that come in his name and arise from within their own body. Always be assessing everything you hear for faithfulness to what you already know to be true from God’s word. If they don’t, the hope of the Gospel will be corrupted by false teachers that lead people away from the assurance that can only be found in the true Gospel of Jesus Christ.
Beware against the alarm of external circumstances.
Second, in verses 7 and 8, Jesus warns his disciples about difficult circumstances that they will face in the world that might cause alarm among them. These external circumstances, such as war, famine, earthquakes, are outside of the disciple’s control. It is terrifying to feel like you are not in control. In the time leading up to the destruction of Jerusalem, the disciples will be especially vulnerable to hope quenching fear that comes from helplessness.
This is a fear that many of us can relate to. It was not too long ago that all the world was thought to be under the threat of a global pandemic. Forget what your opinion is of how it was handled, or how serious the threat was in retrospect. Think about the fear you felt in the first week that everything shut down. Think how the pandemic interrupted every person’s life. Remember how the fear was infectious and we were all shrouded in uncertainty. Even if, at that time, you were skeptical about the virus, you feared for your business or the elderly members in your family. Our lives became defined by fear.
Now what if that threat was not a virus, but a real invading army or an earthquake that had just wiped out half the city? What if it had been a famine that prevented us from harvesting that year or dried up our water supply? The fear of what we cannot control can become a terror that quietly overshadows our entire lives; that creeps into our every waking moment.
Jesus warns his disciples against such fear by reminding them that these terrible, external events are not accidental. Look at Jesus’s warning closely in verse 7:
Mark 13:7
And when you hear of wars and rumors of wars, do not be alarmed. This must take place, but the end is not yet.
If these tragedies must take place, then they are for a purpose. There is a plan.
The way to fight the irrational fear of alarm is to expand your view of who God is and what he is doing. Turn with me to Isaiah 46, verse 4 through 7. For context, understand that God is speaking to Cyrus, king of Medo-Persia, through the prophet Isaiah. What is remarkable about this prophecy is that Isaiah is speaking to Cyrus 150 years before Cyrus was born. God is going to call Cyrus by name in order to demonstrate his sovereignty over all the terrible things that are taking place to Israel. Let’s read Isaiah 46, beginning in verse 4:
Isaiah 46:4-7
4 For the sake of my servant Jacob,
and Israel my chosen,
I call you by your name,
I name you, though you do not know me.
5 I am the LORD, and there is no other,
besides me there is no God;
I equip you, though you do not know me,
6 that people may know, from the rising of the sun
and from the west, that there is none besides me;
I am the LORD, and there is no other.
7 I form light and create darkness;
I make well-being and create calamity;
I am the LORD, who does all these things.
How do you fight the fear of alarm? Faith in a God that is bigger than your fears. A God that is sovereignly ordaining all things: both well-being and calamity. Nothing takes place outside of his active control and purposeful plan. When the uncertainty of life is crashing over the deck of your ship, it is the ballast of the sovereignty of God that is going to keep you from tipping over and being lost in the waves. We should not shy away from the big God theology of Isaiah; we should embrace it as the weighty foundation of our hope. We can endure the external difficulties of this life, because nothing happens in this world apart from our God’s sovereign, perfect plan.
Beware against the surprise of suffering.
The third warning comes in verses 9 and 10. Christ warns the disciples not to be surprised when suffering comes, in fact, they should expect it.
Mark 13:9-10
“But be on your guard. For they will deliver you over to councils, and you will be beaten in synagogues, and you will stand before governors and kings for my sake, to bear witness before them. 10 And the gospel must first be proclaimed to all nations.
Notice, Jesus doesn’t merely warn them that they must endure this suffering. They should endure this suffering with joy because this is the means by which the Gospel will be proclaimed to all nations.
Few of us have experienced anything close to what the disciples would consider suffering. They were beaten, falsely accused, fed to lions, and run down by chariots in the circus. The closest thing that we have experienced to persecution for our faith is a friend that no longer wants to talk to us or a family member that thinks we are a bible thumping bigot.
Although, I am sure some of us have wondered why bad things happen to good people. I know I have. Perhaps God has denied me some comfort, or he has put me in a difficult situation to test me. Jesus knows that when we are facing such difficulties, we will be tempted to indulge ourselves with self-pity. My mind does not wonder what God is doing to further the Gospel, my mind goes to how unfair the situation is for me.
We must not be surprised by suffering. We will be tempted to take pity on ourselves, but self-pity is the enemy of the Gospel. Self-pity robs us of our hope and replaces it with arrogance and selfishness. Christ’s wants us to be prepared to suffer so that we are not deceived by self-pity. If we know that suffering is coming, we will be ready to pounce on our sorrows, taking the opportunity to demonstrate to the watching world that Jesus is more savory than our comforts; He is sweeter to us than any earthly pleasure. The Gospel will be shown to be bright and beautiful against the backdrop of our pain and sorrow if we expectantly await the suffering that Jesus has promised will come.
Beware against anxiety and the fear of man.
The fourth warning is closely tied to the third warning and comes to us from verses 11-13. Jesus warns the disciples to beware of anxiety and the fear of man. When they are put to the trial and when they are turned over to be tortured, they are not to be anxious about what they will say or to fear the authorities to whom they must speak, because in that moment, they will not be alone. In their hour of need, they will have help from the Great Helper, the Holy Spirit.
One of the names for the Holy Spirit is the Paraclete, the Helper. This name is used for the Spirit three times from John 14 to John 16. John 14:26
John 14:26
26 But the Helper, the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in my name, he will teach you all things and bring to your remembrance all that I have said to you.
John 15:26
26 “But when the Helper comes, whom I will send to you from the Father, the Spirit of truth, who proceeds from the Father, he will bear witness about me.
John 16:7
7 Nevertheless, I tell you the truth: it is to your advantage that I go away, for if I do not go away, the Helper will not come to you. But if I go, I will send him to you.
The Holy Spirit is the gift from the Father and from the Son that is meant to help us. He is the source of all teaching and right thinking and he is the one that bears witness to Jesus Christ in the message of the Gospel. So, Jesus says to his disciples, to not fear in that moment. Do not be anxious or worry. I will be with you when you need me because my Spirit will be with you.
Brothers and Sisters, be encouraged; we are never alone. Take comfort that in all of life’s circumstances, you have the Spirit of Christ with you in the Person of the Holy Spirit; He is with you. He will be your confidence and caretaker in those moments of your greatest need, an ever-present help in any time of trouble.
Beware against unpreparedness.
Our fifth warning comes from verses 14-20. Everything Jesus has been saying up to this point has been focused on events that led up to this climactic moment. It is in verse 14 that Jesus answers their initial question, “When will these things take place, that is, when will the temple be destroyed?” He says in verse 14:
Mark 13:14-18
14 “But when you see the abomination of desolation standing where he ought not to be (let the reader understand), then let those who are in Judea flee to the mountains. 15 Let the one who is on the housetop not go down, nor enter his house, to take anything out, 16 and let the one who is in the field not turn back to take his cloak. 17 And alas for women who are pregnant and for those who are nursing infants in those days! 18 Pray that it may not happen in winter.
Jesus’s warning is this: Beware of unpreparedness. They clue to knowing when the temple is going to be destroyed is when they see the abomination of desolation where he ought not to be.
The first thing that we can say about the abomination of desolation is that Jesus intends for the reader to connect it to the abomination of desolation from the prophecies of Daniel. An abomination of desolation is an egregiously horrific event that brings desolation to temple, specifically the desolation that puts an end to worship and sacrifice. We can see this in Daniel 11:31:
Daniel 11:31
31 Forces from him shall appear and profane the temple and fortress, and shall take away the regular burnt offering. And they shall set up the abomination that makes desolate.
Daniel is prophesying about a real historical event that is going to take place that will bring an end to worship in the temple. It will make the temple desolate. That historical event happened in 168 BC when Antiochus Epiphanes sacrificed a pig on the altar of God, sprinkled the Old Testament with the broth of its flesh and forced the high priests to eat the meat. He attempted to wipe out the Jewish religion and he put an end to the worship of the Temple. His rule was so offensive and egregious to the Jews that it led to the Maccabean Revolution.
Jesus is saying that something just as heinous and cataclysmic is about to happen. Namely, Titus of Rome is going to raise the city to the ground in AD 70. We know from Josephus that the invading Roman army penetrated the wall of the city in the district of the Temple. Josephus says that Titus tried to stop the army, but they immediately set the Temple on fire, and as it is burning, Titus, a gentile, walked into the Holy of Holies to see the Most Holy Place of the Jews. The conquest was merciless. Josephus says that the blood of innocents was like a waterfall that poured down the steps of the Temple as Jerusalem burned.
For the third time in history, the judgment of God had fallen on the Temple. The massacre was so horrific because the Jews ran toward the Temple for sanctuary and protection. Jesus does not want his disciples to be caught in that judgment. Instead of running to the temple, he warns them to run away. Flee to the mountains; do not turn back, do not grab your cloak, simply flee. Jesus warns his disciples so they have a hope of escaping the wrath of God in the destruction of the temple.
Beginning in verses 19-20, I think we start to see a blurring of the lines between what is referring to the present and what is referring to the future. The tribulation that is being discussed I think refers both to the immanent tribulation that will come when the Romans invade and the greater, future tribulation that will come at the end of the age. Jesus says in verse 19 and 20
Mark 13:19-20
19 For in those days there will be such tribulation as has not been from the beginning of the creation that God created until now, and never will be. 20 And if the Lord had not cut short the days, no human being would be saved. But for the sake of the elect, whom he chose, he shortened the days.
Given the immediate context, you have to see some of what Jesus is saying as necessary for the disciples to understand the warning from Jesus to be prepared, but also, Jesus says that this will be the greatest tribulation that ever was or ever will be. It is so bad, that it must be limited in its timeframe, otherwise, no one would survive, not even the Elect.
Now, I could be satisfied to interpret this as hyperbolic language if it wasn’t for what Jesus says in verse 24. Jump down to verse 24, and read with me:
Mark 13:24-27
24 “But in those days, after that tribulation, the sun will be darkened, and the moon will not give its light, 25 and the stars will be falling from heaven, and the powers in the heavens will be shaken. 26 And then they will see the Son of Man coming in clouds with great power and glory. 27 And then 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.
So, not only will this be the worst tribulation in the history of the world, but after it is over, the end will come. Jesus returns, and he gathers the Elect from the ends of the earth.
So it seems that somewhere between verse 19 and verse 27, the scope of the prophecy shifts from the present discussion of the destruction of the temple to the future tribulation that will precede the second coming of Christ. The difficulty is that I can point you to that exact shift. This is the difficulty of interpreting prophecy. Our first assumption, given the context is that Jesus must be speaking of the destruction of Jerusalem, but there are things that he says about that little tribulation that can only be true of the Great Tribulation.
So I have to say that Jesus is doing two things at once: he is warning his disciples to be prepared for the tribulation that they will face, but he is also warning us of the Great Tribulation that is in our future, the time of Jacob’s Trouble (Jeremiah 30), the Great Day of the Lord (Joel 3). Jesus does not want us to be unaware of what is coming in the future.
And, in a way, that knowledge is a source of hope. If we were totally left in the dark, then when that horrific day came, we would be tempted to doubt that God was truly in control. We might think that our hope was unfounded or that God had changed his mind about us. But the fact that Jesus tells us that we will endure this hard and difficult thing allows us to trust in him and hope in the great day of deliverance that comes when we get through that dark night of difficulty. Jesus does not want us to be unprepared because he wants us to hope in his immanent return that follows the Great Tribulation.
Beware of False Christs
Finally, in verses 21-23, Jesus warns the disciples to be on guard against false christs and false prophets. The danger of these false christs and false prophets seem to be greater than our first warning for two reasons. First, they are more prevalent than our first warning. There are many of them and they seem to be rising everywhere. The sheer number of them means that they will have a greater exposure to God’s people and a greater influence on the world.
The second reason that they seem to be a more dangerous threat is that they will be able to perform signs and wonders that will convince people. We are to be on guard against them because they will present the most serious threat to the hope we have in Christ, namely false hope. They will peddle a false hope, founded on Messiahs and false teaching that is supported by real signs and wonders.
The only defense we have against such a formidable foe is that Jesus has already told us that they will come. He has devised to protect his people from these false teachers with all that he has been saying up to this point.
In this way, Christians are to be skeptics. Too many of our evangelical brothers are seeking signs and wonders. There is an insatiable appetite in the charismatic movement for extra-ordinary actions of the Spirit. This does not mean that we do not want the active power of the Spirit in our lives, in fact, we are dependent on the Spirit to move among us. We have no hope to grow in holiness and Christlikeness if the Spirit is not at work among us. Rather, the extra-ordinary work of the Spirit comes from the ordinary means of studying the word of God, self-examination, self-denial, watchfulness, and prayer. A true movement of the Holy Spirit is not going to come through a new message accompanied by new signs, but the old message of the good news of Jesus Christ, who gave himself up as a ransom for sinners.
The message that says that if you just trust him, if you would just put your hope in him, his sacrifice on the cross will count as your payment for sin and his righteousness will become your confidence to approach the throne of grace. You can be forgiven today if you would just admit that you cannot save yourself and believe that he is able and willing to save you. The good news is not something new. It is something very old. We should be skeptical of anything that is new, because Jesus warned us against false christs and false prophets that promise a false hope.
Conclusion:
The future is a scary thing. We look into its uncertainty, and we are tempted to be afraid of what we do not know and what we cannot control. The Church cannot fear the future. Christ commands us to be on guard against this kind of fear that can rob of us of our hope. Our future is not uncertain. Jesus is coming again, and when he comes, he will right every wrong and settle every difference. He will deal with the wicked and he will usher the righteous into a new Heaven and a new Earth.
That is the essence of our hope. This is not our home. We were not meant for this life. We were meant for something far greater and more real than we could ever experience here.
Again, I think of C.S. Lewis and the Last Battle. After the end has come and the old Narnia is no more, the Narnians were exploring this new Narnia that they found themselves in. Listen to how Lewis describes it:
C.S. Lewis, The Last Battle
“It was as hard to explain how this sunlit land was different from the old Narnia as it would be to tell you how the fruits of that country taste. Perhaps you will get some idea of it if you think like this. You may have been in a room in which there was a window that looked out on a lovely bay of the sea or a green valley that wound away among mountains. And in the wall of that room opposite to the window there may have been a looking-glass. And as you turned away from the window you suddenly caught sight of that sea or valley, all over again, in the looking-glass. And the sea in the mirror, or the valley in the mirror, were in one sense just the same as the real ones: yet at the same time they were somehow different – deeper, more wonderful, more like places in a story: in a story you have never heard but very much want to know. The difference between the old Narnia and the new Narnia was like that. The new one was a deeper country: every rock and flower and blade of grass looked as if it meant more. I can’t describe it any better than that: If you ever get there you will know what I mean.
It was the Unicorn who summed up what everyone was feeling. He stamped his right fore-hoof on the ground and neighed, and then cried:
‘I have come home at last! This is my real country! I belong here. This is the land I have been looking for all my life, though I never knew it till now. The reason why we loved the Old Narnia is that it sometimes looked a little like this [one]!” [He neighed] “Come further up, come further in!’”
Further up and Further in. What a beautiful thought. We will never exhaust the wonder and beauty of that far distant country. We will never grow tired of the fruit of that land. The flower will always be in its prime. The grass will never fade.
And we will be with him. He will be like the sun shining at full brilliance and we will look on him and be satisfied.
Let’s pray.