In Control Series

ESSENTIAL KING JESUS: IN CONTROL

MARK 13:13

#kingjesus

USE AUDIO BIBLE: Mark Chapter 13:1-37 [5:08]

https://www.biblegateway.com/audio/mclean/esv/Mark.13

INTRODUCTION… https://academicinfluence.com/inflection/influence/most-controversial-topics-today [adapted]

Controversy is a prolonged public dispute or debate. (Around here, it is also a hamburger at Happy Matt’s, but I digress). Controversy is typically played out through public channels like news media or political circles and especially on social media. There can even be sharp disagreements about religious beliefs. What perhaps most distinguishes controversy from mere disagreement is the heated, sometimes emotional, and often diametrically opposed viewpoints that frame an issue.

Right now, America is sharply divided along lines of debate that feel very personal, very emotional, and indeed, extremely heated. Controversy, as a concept, can refer to any number of issues that either impact large cross-sections of the American population or else move large populations to align along rigidly-defined ideological lines. When we hear the word controversy, we may automatically think about topics like: abortion, the death penalty, or gun control. These types of topics generate organizations and sometimes political action and then other times legislation on the government level.

There are big debates and controversies going on right now that are impacting families, schools, businesses, and jobs.

I am thinking about the mask wearing that is either required or suggested in many areas. We live in a community where many do not wear masks, but go to Bloomington and every restaurant and store requires them most of the time. Protests happen at high school football games because people do not want to wear masks and don’t want their children to wear masks. This controversy and debate impacts the church! We have people who don’t come to church because they believe their personal freedom is more important than worship and we have people who don’t come to church because the freedom of others not to wear a mask impacts their health. It is a controversy. It makes us feel uncomfortable and emotions run high.

I am thinking especially about the vaccine mandates that are coming out in government circles and in businesses and schools and other organizations. This issue is very very heated and very divisive. Jobs and livelihoods are on the line. People are free with their comments on social media on how others should behave and how laws should be either followed or not followed. We have a mix of health and laws and freedoms and government and at times also religious beliefs. It is going to be a big mess in our area very soon given that we have three major employers in the area who will have to deal with vaccine mandates and that impacts a whole lot of people.

By the way, if you are thinking about masks or vaccines and mandates and the high emotions and you would like to chat with someone about what you believe on these issues, I would love to sit down with you and talk about what the Bible says about these issues. We will not study the Constitution and the Bible… we will talk about the Bible and how that relates to your life and health and your family. We can chat and pray and hopefully get you on a firm footing about what you believe and why. Open invitation.

I bring up controversies and debates because Mark 13, the chapter we are in today, lays out a topic that is often debated among Christians. The topic is the End of Days, the End of the Age, Judgment Day, the Day of the Lord, the Book of Revelation, or any other way you want to term it. ‘What happens at the End of Time’ is a debated controversy because we get snapshot polaroid of the End Times in different passages and we desperately want to see the whole picture. We don’t get the whole picture, but some folks think and believe as though we do have the full picture. It creates tension.

Mark 13 is one of those snapshots that fuels our wonder about the End of the Age and what will happen and who will be where and what will be happening in the world. Mark 13 is complicated. In Mark 13, half of the time Jesus is speaking about an event that would happen 40 years later in 70 AD and the other half of the time He is speaking about the Day of the Lord in which He clearly says much about it is unknown and not shared. The complicated nature of Mark 13 gives us controversy and debate!

NATURE OF BIBLE PROPHECY

Before we dig too far into Mark 13, we need to mention a few things about Bible prophecy because Bible prophecy is complicated. If we think that Bible prophecy is only about predicting the future, we would be incorrect and we miss most of what God does with prophecies. There is an element of predicting the future, but that is not all Biblical Prophecy entails. Many times the prophecies in the Bible have three points of truth. Think of it as a stone skipping along the surface of the water in three distinct places making ripples, but also the ripples overlap.