How To Watch For Christ’s Return - Mark 13:32-37 Series

Mark 13:32 “But concerning that day or hour, no one knows. Not even the angels in heaven, nor the Son, but only the Father. 33 Keep watch! Stay alert! You do not know when that time will come. 34 It's like a man going away: He leaves his house and puts his servants in charge, each with his work, and tells the one at the door to stay awake. 35 "Therefore stay awake because you do not know when the owner of the house will come back-- whether in the evening, or at midnight, or when the rooster crows, or at dawn--36 lest he come suddenly and find you sleeping. 37 What I say to you, I say to everyone: 'Stay awake!' "

Introduction

The very last line in the Olivet Discourse in Mark is this:

Mark 13:37 What I say to you, I say to everyone: 'Keep watch!'

If you’re not an expert on eschatology, and you don’t really know what to make of all this com-plicated end times prophecy stuff, Jesus boils it all down and gives us the bottom line: Keep watch. That’s the command Jesus repeats over and over in this closing paragraph. Verse 33: Keep watch! Stay alert! Verse 34: He tells the one at the door to keep watch, therefore keep watch. Verse 36: If he comes suddenly do not let him find you sleeping. What I say to you, I say to everyone: 'Keep watch!'" Have you been doing that? Yesterday—were you keeping watch for Christ’s return? What does keeping watch mean? Are we supposed to go outside and check the eastern sky to see if Jesus is there every ten minutes? Or does keeping watch mean we’re supposed to watch for the signs and try to figure out when it’s about to happen?

You Don’t Know Therefore Watch

You Don’t Know

It definitely doesn’t mean that, because his whole argument in this closing paragraph is that the whole reason why you need to keep watch is because you can’t figure out the time.

But

The first word in this paragraph (in the Greek) is “but.”

Mark 13:32 But concerning that day or hour, no one knows.

That “but” points us back to the previous paragraph, where he was talking about what we can know.

28 Now learn this lesson from the fig tree: As soon as its twigs get tender and its leaves come out, you know that summer is near. 29 Even so, when you see these things happening, you know that it is near, right at the door. … 32 But concerning that day or hour, no one knows.

You can know that’s it’s near, but don’t take that the wrong way. Don’t think I’m talking about nearness in time because no one can know that. That’s the force of the word, “but.” You can and should know that Jesus’ coming is near in the sense of being close by, right at the door, looming, ready to burst upon on us, close enough to be a factor in your decision making. But don’t think you can know when it’s near in time. That part’s not for us to know.

The parable of the fig tree (that says when you see the leaves come out then you know summer is near)—that parable is for comfort, not calculation. The point isn’t that we should keep an eye out for the signs so that we can get an idea of when it will happen. It’s simply to say that just as sure as there are leaves in the springtime, we can be reassured that the progression of human history is moving to its conclusion. Just as surely as April showers bring May flowers, just as surely as spring gives way to summer , so human history will progress from “all these things” that Jesus described to the coming of Christ and the consummation of history.

Strong Statement

So be reassured that it’s going to happen, but don’t think you can figure out when. And it’s so important to Jesus that we get this, listen to how strongly he makes the point.

32 But concerning that day or hour, no one knows. Not even the angels in heaven, nor the Son, but only the Father.

That is a really strong statement—not even Jesus knew. Jesus knew everything in the Olivet Dis-course—all that end times information, how everything is going to happen , he knew all about judg-ment day and how that’s going to go down, all those details, but he didn’t know this one bit of infor-mation? That is the most top-secret information in the universe. It’s classified even above the securi-ty clearance level of the Son of God!

Can’t Make This Up

That’s a really strong way to make the point that no one knows the day or hour. It almost seems a little too strong. If Jesus is God, how could he not know something? There have been a lot of Chris-tians who see this as a problem passage because they’re afraid it hurts our case when we want to prove the deity of Christ.