Despite the increasingly chaotic global landscape and a growing sense of doom and even an impending apocalypse… I suspect relatively few are associating an apocalypse with the Second Coming of Christ. Few are living prepared for that event which II Peter 3:10 says will be like a thief coming in the night.
Title: Meanwhile…
Text: Mark 13:1-8 and 24-27; II Peter 3
Thesis: Meanwhile, as we live in between what was and what will be, we live good and peaceful lives.
Introduction
Few things are forever. We were all shocked to hear that Wonder Bread, which produces Hostess Twinkies has closed its doors. I’m sure it felt like something of an apocalyptic moment when 18,500 employees learned they were losing their jobs. And if that were not enough cause for panic, how about the doomsday scenario all those customers who stood in line Friday to buy up the last remaining packages of Twinkies at area outlet stores? But then, they say, “Nothing lasts forever,” not even Twinkies.
But one can hardly compare the untimely demise of the Hostess Twinkie to the unsettling of the Washington Monument… that 555 feet tower constructed of 36,000 marble, granite and gneiss blocks of stone after the earthquake that struck nearby Virginia in 2011. Following the quake a large crack was discovered near the top allowing light to stream into the tower. Engineers discovered mortar and stone debris strewn around the base and determined the structure was unsafe. It is unthinkable that the Washington Monument, which symbolizes the genius and strength of a nation brave enough to design and build it, should come crashing down into a pile of rubble. But it could.
In our text today we hear another unthinkable prediction… the total and complete destruction of the nation of Israel’s symbol of architectural genius, strength and hope.
Realizing the temporal nature of even our most magnificent human creations gives way to the observation of the cynical mind:
I. So much for monuments of human achievement, Mark 13:1-2
“Jesus replied, “Yes, look at these great buildings. But they will be completely demolished. Not one stone will be left on top of another!”
This text is within the setting of Passion Week and cites how Jesus visited the temple on three occasions in just a couple of days. The story unfolds as Jesus and his disciples arrived in Jerusalem where and when Jesus made what we refer to as “The Triumphal Entry.” In Mark 11:11, after the Triumphal Entry, he made his first visit to the Temple. “He looked around carefully at everything and left because it was late afternoon.”
The next day he returned to the Temple according to Mark 11:15-17 and drove out the merchants who were selling sacrificial offerings and overturned the moneychangers’ tables and stopped the use of the Temple as a marketplace. Verse 19 tells us that Jesus and his disciples left the city that evening.
In Mark 11:20 and 27 we read that Jesus returned to Jerusalem the next morning and went to the Temple. Our text picks up following that third visit as Jesus was leaving the Temple.
One of his disciples said, “Teacher, look at these magnificent buildings! Look at the impressive stones in the walls.” Then Jesus responded to his friend’s comment, “Yes, look at these great buildings. But they will be completely demolished. Not one stone will be left on top of another!”
I’ve been keeping track of some automobiles over the years. It’s not that I obsess over them but I have noticed that one particular make of car and pickup truck look absolutely fabulous when they come off the showroom floor. But I have also noticed that particular make tends to rust out earlier than other makes. So if you were to drive up in that make of vehicle I might not say it but I would be thinking, “Yep, it looks good today but wait a few years… it’ll be a rusted out piece of junk.” (Probably not what you would expect or want to hear…) I suspect the disciples were a bit taken-aback by Jesus comment as well. “Yep, it looks great today but before long that Temple is going to be a pile of rubble.”
They did not immediately react but later in the day four of his disciples came to him privately and asked, “So Jesus, when will this demolishing of the temple happen? What will be the sign that the demolition is about to begin?”
The thing that makes this chapter so difficult is that it is a story within a story. Jesus was predicting the destruction of the Herod’s palace, the center of government and the Temple. And 70 years later, there was a Jewish rebellion against the Roman government in which Rome laid siege to Jerusalem under the army of Titus, the Roman Emperor.
It was a siege of which Jewish historian Josephus reported that 97,000 people were taken captive and over a million people died mostly of slow starvation. A widespread famine devoured the Jewish community. Eventually the remaining survivors were too sick and weak to even bury their dead. He recorded stories of people eating out of the sewer, people gnawing on leather straps and shoes, and worse.
In 70 A.D. the Roman army took down the Temple… a 15 story, marble stone structure covered in gold plate and leveled most of the city of Jerusalem as well.
What Jesus was making was a prediction of a mini-apocalypse, which is now history, within a maxi-apocalypse which is yet to come. The demolishing of the Temple area was within the larger story of what we speak of as “the end times” before the return of Jesus Christ.
It was a timeline within a timeline… the Jewish people had their own timeline about the return of the Messiah and how the Messiah would trample their Roman oppressors and establish forever the Kingdom of God there in Jerusalem. However Jesus spoke of a larger and longer timeline that reached well beyond their timeline and welcomed and embraced Jews and Gentiles into the Kingdom of God.
In the larger picture Jesus said in Mark 13:24-27, “At that time, after the anguish of those days, the sun will be darkened, the moon will give no light, the stars will fall from the sky, and the powers of heaven will be shaken. Then everyone will see the Son of Man coming in the clouds with great power and glory. And he will send his angels to gather his chosen ones from all over the world – from the farthest ends of the earth and heaven.”
The reason we believe what Jesus spoke of was an apocalypse within a much larger apocalypse is that the destruction of that Temple was part of the unfolding of the larger story. The return of the Messiah is yet to come and Jesus indicates that the events leading up to the return of Christ will be majorly apocalyptic in nature… you might want to jot in your margin a note to read Matthew 24 and Luke 21 for a more expansive reading of this text.
As I thought about this text I think there is something in what Jesus said to his disciples and is saying to us about the Temples in our lives.
Temples topple, Titanics sink. Empires collapse. What hurricanes do not fuel fires that burn up or blow away – they wash away. Civilizations disappear beneath jungle undergrowth.
When the disciples looked at that structure atop Mt. Moriah they saw not only a magnificent place of worship, they saw a citadel of power. They saw their manifest destiny in the plan of God to rescue them and establish their nation as God’s chosen people.
Jesus saw it as something pretty much temporary…
Our country is a relatively young nation but we have our own magnificent structures and seats of power. The White House. The Capital Building. The Supreme Court Building. And we even have Washington National Cathedral. We like to think we can look to Washington D.C. for governance and protection… one nation under God. We like to think of Washington as a place of hope not only the American people but for the world. Some even believe it is our manifest destiny to convert the world to democracy.
When Katrinas wash over New Orleans and much of the gulf area in Mississippi and Louisiana, when a tornado blows Joplin, Missouri off the map, when Sandys inundate the eastern coastline and wreak destruction over a thousand mile swath… we like to think these United States will be a source of hope and help.
Maybe one takeaway today is the realization that ultimately, our hope really is not in Washington D.C. or anywhere other than the Lord.
The Psalmist asked in the well-worn text, “I look to the mountains and ask, ‘does my help come from there?’ No… my help comes from the Lord, who made heaven and earth.” Psalm 121:1-2
A second takeaway from our text is that Christ is coming.
II. Ultimately our hope is in the Lord… Christ will come again!
When it is all said and done, “everyone will see the Son of Man coming in the clouds with great power and glory. And he will send out his angels to gather his chosen ones from all over the world – from the farthest ends of the earth and heaven.” Mark 13:26-27
A. The Second Coming of Christ is our only ultimate hope…
This is no idle hope for followers of Christ. It’s woven throughout the New Testament: Matthew 24, Mark 13, Luke 21, John 14, Acts I, I Corinthians 15, I Thessalonians 4, II Peter 3 and the Revelation.
B. (However) The passing time and ongoing circumstances cause some people to lose their hope.
In the early church there were people who had lost their hope. The bible says, In the last days scoffers will come, mocking the truth and following their own desires. They will say, “What happened to the promise that Jesus is coming again? From before the times of our ancestors, everything has remained the same since the world was first created.” II Peter 3:3-4
And Peter responded, “The Lord really isn’t slow or running a bit late or tardy or procrastinating his return… God is being patient giving as many people as possible the opportunity to come to Christ. But be assured and never doubt for a moment that the Second Coming is coming!
“The Day of the Lord will come as an unexpected thief!” II Peter 3:8-10
A third takeaway is this:
III. Meanwhile, don’t panic!
Jesus said, “You will hear of wars and rumors of wars, but don’t panic.” Mark 13:7
It is interesting to me that as Jesus unfolds what we would call an apocalypse, he says, “Don’t panic.” (And he doesn’t even say it with an exclamation point…)
Chicken Little by Merri Beth Stephens
One day Chicken Little was walking in the woods
When - KERPLUNK – an acorn fell on her head
“Oh my goodness!” said Chicken Little.
“The sky is falling! I must go tell the king.”
It would seem that Chicken Little, though an adorable chicken, had a propensity to blow things out of proportion.
This is not to say that earthquakes and famines and wars can be blown out of proportion… but it is to say, Jesus said, “Don’t panic.”
So if we are not to panic in the face of what we see unfolding in our world in regard to social issues and concerns, the political landscape, the bitterness, divisiveness and incivility of our culture, the rise of terrorism and fanatical religion, global turmoil, the global economy, the weather, pollution, corruption and so on… then what?
Over the years I’ve read that Christians are pretty much undistinguished from non-Christians. We are just as materialistic. Our divorce rate is no better than those who make no profession of faith. We are just as, if not more politically motivated, angry and intent on power as those who are non-Christians. And it would seem that Christians are at least as panicky, if not more so, than those who do not follow Christ and live without hope.
So what then does the bible say about what is to distinguish us from others… even in and especially in the face of an apocalypse?
Look long and hard at II Peter 3:14.
“And so dear friends, while you are waiting for these things to happen, make every effort to be found living peaceful lives that are pure and blameless in the Lord’s sight.” II Peter 3:14
A. We are to be found living peaceful lives… not panicky lives.
There are those who have no hope and the end times are fearsome to them. They cling desperately to this life and the stuff of this life because this is all there is… The Apostle Paul, writing of our hope in I Corinthians 15 said, “If our hope in Christ is only for this life, we are more to be pitied than anyone else in the world.
B. We are to be found living pure and blameless lives…
Those who live without hope and basically believe this is all there is, have no good reason to live good and blameless lives. In fact they are motivated otherwise to experience it all, get it all, feel it all, see it all and do it all because when it’s over this is all there is.
It is not that we are indifferent to the world around us… it is that we are not fazed by it. My mother used to remind me, “You are in the world but not of the world!” We are in the world but the peace of God that defies our understanding or that is beyond our intellectual grasp, keeps or guards our hearts and minds as we live in Christ. Philippians 4:7
So we do not live in panic and we do not live as if there were no reckoning for the next life because Christ is coming and we want to be found faithful when he comes.
The mark that distinguishes the Christian in the midst of an impending apocalypse is that we are found to be living peaceful lives that are pure and blameless in God’s sight.
Conclusion
Rob Robins was an Air Force pilot during the first Iraq war. After his 300th mission, he was surprised to be given permission to pull his crew together and fly his plane home. They flew across the ocean to Massachusetts and then began the long drive to western Pennsylvania. They drove all night and when his buddies dropped him off at his driveway at sun-up, there was a big banner across the garage – “Welcome Home Dad!”
When he walked into the house, the kids were getting ready for school. They raced down the hallway screaming, “Daddy! Daddy!” His wife, Susan came running down the hall… she looked terrific. Her hair was fixed, she had her make-up on, and was wearing a beautiful yellow dress. “How did you know?” he asked.
“We didn’t,” she said, “but once the war was over, we knew you’d be home one of these days. We knew you would try to surprise us, so we were ready every day.” (Lee Eclov, “Heaven,” PreachingToday.com)
The best way to be prepared for the Second Coming of Christ is to be good and ready everyday.
“And so dear friends, meanwhile as you are waiting for these things to happen, make every effort to be found living peaceful lives that are pure and blameless in the Lord’s sight.” II Peter 3:1
