Preparing For The Future Series

Introduction

A. One day there was an airplane that was having engine trouble, so the pilot instructed the cabin crew to have the passengers take their seats and get prepared for an emergency landing.

1. A few minutes later, the pilot asked the flight attendants if everyone was buckled in and ready.

2. The flight attendant replied, “All set back here, Captain, except the lawyers, they are still going around passing out business cards.”

3. A good lawyer is always preparing for the future by drumming up new clients. Right?

B. But let me ask you this question: How do you prepare for the future when you don’t know what the future holds?

1. Where will you be 5 years from today – October 22, 2028?

2. Where will you be living? Or better yet, will you be living?

3. If you are living, will you be healthy or sick? Will you be rich or poor?

4. Those questions reveal how little we know about the future and even our personal futures.

C. In our text for today from Mark 13, we will find Jesus talking to His disciples about the future.

1. We will see Him preparing them for two specific events that will take place in the future.

a. Most of the chapter is focuses on Jesus’ prediction of the fall of the great city of Jerusalem.

b. At the end of the chapter, Jesus gave a brief prophesy concerning His second coming.

2. Through the things Jesus shared with them, He was trying to prepare them for the future.

3. Even though we don’t know many specifics about our future, we can still prepare ourselves.

4. And I know this for sure, if we are not preparing for the future, then we will certainly not be ready when it arrives.

I. The Setting (Mark 13:1-2)

A. In our recent sermons from the Gospel of Mark, we have seen Jesus come into Jerusalem and cleanse the temple.

1. Then we have seen Him return to the temple each day and answer the questions of both His opponents and those with sincere hearts and honest questions.

2. Both Matthew and Luke conclude their record of these temple incidents with Jesus uttering these words: “See! Your house is left to you desolate.” (Mt. 23:38; Lk. 13:35)

3. Jesus’ disciples must have felt the weight and despair of those words as they exited the temple and began ascending the Mount of Olives.

B. Mark wrote: 1 As he was going out of the temple, one of his disciples said to him, “Teacher, look! What massive stones! What impressive buildings!” 2 Jesus said to him, “Do you see these great buildings? Not one stone will be left upon another—all will be thrown down.” (Mk. 13:1-2)

1. The Jews saw their temple as having eternal significance.

2. Ancient historians tells us that the southwestern view of the temple was amazing as it rose 200 feet over Jerusalem and cast a brilliant image from the white marble and gold accents.

3. The temple was the very summit of art and achievement and was vast and solid.

4. King Herod had kept his builders working on the temple for over 40 years having begun construction about 20 B.C. and hoping it would bring favor with the Jewish people.

5. Part of the greatness of the temple was the size of the stones, particularly those that made up the outer wall and the foundation of the temple mount.

a. Some of the stones weighed 100 tons and were 40 ft. long, 18 ft high, and 12 ft. wide.

b. It was the massiveness of those stones that prompted the disciples to say, “Teacher, look! What massive stones!”

6. But then Jesus made the astonishing statement: A day is coming when not one stone of the temple would be left in its’ proper place.

a. The temple construction was not finished until A.D. 64 and six years later, in 70 A.D. it was destroyed by the Romans.

b. That destruction would take place about 40 years after Jesus made this prediction.

7. We can only imagine how shocked Jesus’ disciples must have been by that prediction, after all, the temple was God’s temple, and Jerusalem was God’s city, and yet God had allowed both to be destroyed in the past because of the unfaithfulness of God’s people.

8. And we can imagine that Jesus’ prediction would prompt many questions in the minds of His disciples, some of which Scripture records.

9. Jesus and His apostles left Jerusalem and made their way to the Mount of Olives.

II. The Signs of the Fall of Jerusalem (Mark 13:3-31)

A. Mark wrote: 3 While he was sitting on the Mount of Olives across from the temple, Peter, James, John, and Andrew asked him privately, 4 “Tell us, when will these things happen? And what will be the sign when all these things are about to be accomplished?” (Mk. 13:3-4)