One of the things my four boys love most about summer time is watching fireworks. Whether it’s at a fourth of July show, or a show after a baseball game, my kids love watching fireworks. But when we’re watching a fireworks show, I can just about guarantee that my younger boys will keep asking me one question over and over again. They’ll keep asking me, "Is this the grand finale, Dad?" In fact, they’ll ask me that three or four different times. Whenever they see a burst of several impressive fireworks all together, they get all excited and think that it’s the grand finale, that the show has come to an end. But each burst of intense fireworks only foreshadows the grand finale. They ask until the real grand finale finally comes, and then once the finale comes, they’ll wonder how they ever could’ve mistaken the earlier fireworks for the grand finale.
The concept of a finale was actually originally a musical concept for the final movement in a symphony. Usually the finale of a musical piece is foreshadowed several times throughout the piece. Only the finale is grander, louder, more complex and more impressive. The grand finale is designed to leave the audience in awe, whether it’s in a musical piece or a fireworks show.
Well Christians believe that world history is heading toward a grand finale. And like the grand finale of a symphony or a fireworks show, history’s grand finale is foreshadowed by certain events around us. These foreshadowing events that remind us that history is following a pattern, and heading toward a final goal. Sometimes as Christians we get so excited that we mistake the foreshadowing for the finale itself, just like my kids do during a fireworks show. But when history’s grand finale finally comes, we’ll wonder how we could ever have confused the foreshadowing with the finale itself.
Now we’ve been in a series through the New Testament book of Mark for the last twenty eight weeks. After today, we’re going to be taking a break from the book of Mark for six weeks. Next weekend is Palm Sunday, where we’ll celebrate Jesus entering Jerusalem as Israel’s rightful king. That will lead us into our church’s celebration of holy week. On Thursday, April 17 we’ll be celebrating a Maundy Thursday communion service here at the church. Then on Friday, April 18 we’ll be having a special event produced by our drama ministry called "The Betrayal." Finally, on Saturday April 19 and Sunday April 20, we’ll be celebrating Easter weekend. We’ll be having one Saturday night service, and four Sunday morning services. In fact, I want to really encourage you to consider going to the Saturday night or one of the earlier two Sunday morning services on Easter, because we always have severe overcrowding at our later two morning services. It always grieves my heart when a person pulls into our parking lot to come to a service, and then pull out because they couldn’t find a place to park. Also be praying about who God wants you to invite to our Easter services, because all five of our Easter services are great places to share the good news of Christ with unchurched friends and neighbors. We have some flyers in the lobby for you to use to invite people to our Easter services.
Then after Easter weekend, we’re going to have a four week series called "Jesus and the Religions of the World." In this series we’re going to look at four major world religions: Islam, Hinduism, Judaism, and Buddhism. We’re going to compare and contrast the belief systems of each of these ancient religions with the life and teachings of Jesus Christ. Finally in May we’ll come back to Mark and finish our series.
But today in Mark we’re going to see four expectations we can have as Christians as we approach the grand finale of world history.
1. Expecting Evil to Assault (Mark 13:14-23)
Look at vv. 14-23 of Mark chapter 13. Last week we looked at the first half of this sermon Jesus gave on the Mount of Olives. I shared with you last week that Christians differ on how to best understand what this sermon is talking about. Some Christians think that all the events Jesus talks about in this chapter of Mark refer to the Jewish rebellion against Rome in 70 AD. This would mean that the entire chapter is talking about things that for us are in the distant past. In fact, last Sunday we had a guest in our church who goes to a church that teaches that. Others Christians feel that the entire chapter refers to the future second coming of Jesus Christ, which would make the entire chapter still in the future for us.
I suggested last week that I think some parts of the chapter refer to the events of 70 AD, some parts refer to both, and that some parts refer exclusively to the second coming of Jesus Christ. As we looked at vv. 1-13, I told you that I thought those verses were primarily describing the events of 70 AD.
Determining what these verses I just read today are describing really hinges on what we make of this "abomination that causes desolation." What exactly is this "abomination that causes desolation" Jesus is speaking about here. Clearly this phrase is important, because Mark interrupts his account of the sermon to say, "let the reader understand." That’s Mark’s way of saying, "Listen up!"
An "abomination" is something that creates horror or disgust in a person; so it’s something that’s horribly offensive. And this particular abomination causes "desolation." The word "desolation" describes a condition of spiritual devastation and disaster. So whatever this abomination is, it’s something that creates devastation in people’s spiritual lives.
A hint is found in the phrase, "standing where it does not belong." Since Jesus has been speaking about the Jewish temple in Jerusalem since chapter 11 of Mark, it’s a good guess that this abomination will stand in the Jewish temple. So the temple is probably the place it doesn’t belong.
Now Matthew’s account of this sermon adds the phrase "spoken of by the prophet Daniel" to the description here, which gives us another clue. By using this phrase, Jesus is alluding back to the words of an ancient Hebrew prophet named Daniel.
Now if you go back 500 years before Jesus to the book of Daniel, this phrase "abomination that causes desolation" seems to describe a Syrian King named Antiochus IV.
Five hundred years before Jesus was born, the prophet Daniel predicted a horrible abomination in the Jewish temple. And then in 166 BC, about 130 years before Jesus said this and 300 years after Daniel made his prediction, a Syrian king named Antiochus came to Jerusalem and built an altar to the Greek god Zeus in the most holy place of the temple. Antiochus IV then sacrificed a pig on the altar, because he knew that pigs were unclean to the Jewish people. When that happened about 300 years after Daniel’s prophecy, all Jewish people alive at the time believed that the "abomination that causes desolation" had come and gone. It was a done deal, a prophecy fulfilled, because the actions of Antiochus IV corresponded so closely to Daniel’s prophecy.
But here Jesus says that there’s going to be ANOTHER abomination, which causes some people to think that Jesus is describing the destruction of the Jewish temple by Titus in 70 AD. Jesus seems to be saying that the full extent of the abomination predicted by Daniel hasn’t yet been fully fulfilled, not even by Antiochus IV. When the Jewish people rose up in rebellion against Rome in the decades following Jesus’ death, the Roman armies crushed their resistance. In 70 AD, Titus and his armies marched into Jerusalem and destroyed the Jewish temple. As we’ve seen since chapter 11 of Mark, this would be a fulfillment of Jesus’ judgment on the temple. And many of the things described in these verses happened in 70 AD. People had to flee from Jerusalem, running for their lives as the Roman armies marched into town. Many false messiahs rose up trying to rally the Jewish rebels to persevere in their battle against the Romans.
However, this period of time wasn’t a time of distress unequaled from the beginning of creation. The events of 70 AD didn’t threaten to cut off all human life, as suggested by Jesus in v. 20. And this is why it’s possible that these verses are describing a future person who’s yet to be revealed.
In the New Testament book of 2 Thessalonians, the apostle Paul predicts the coming of a future figure he calls "the man of lawlessness." This future figure will perform miracles and set himself up in the temple of God, declaring himself to be God. According to Paul, the second coming of Jesus Christ will follow this event, as Jesus brings God’s judgment on this anti-Christ figure, this man who will exalt himself above everything that’s called God (2 Thess 2:4). Paul says the second coming of Christ won’t come "until the man of lawlessness is revealed" (2 Thess 2:3). This is why many Christians believe that the temple destroyed by Titus in 70 AD will eventually be rebuilt at some point in the future.
Now I think "the abomination that causes desolation" is actually describing ALL of these events. Last week I used the phrase "the day that lived in infamy." I mentioned last week that that phrase originally was used to describe the day the Japanese attacked Pearl Harbor back on December 7, 1941. But the same phrase has also been used to describe the terrorist attacks of September 11, because they’re similar events. So the phrase "the day that lives in infamy" can legitimately be applied to both events. I think this "abomination that causes desecration" is much the same, that it describes what Antiochus IV did in about 160 BC, what Titus did in 70 AD, and what other world leaders do when they try to desecrate the Christian faith. Like the foreshadowing of a grand finale, these events foreshadow the final man of lawlessness who will set up a final abomination of desecration.
So we learn here our first expectation. AS WE APPROACH THE GRAND FINALE OF HISTORY, WE CAN EXPECT EVIL TO INCREASE ITS ASSAULT ON OUR FAITH.
Every generation of the Christians faces assaults on our faith. This comes whenever a person in authority desecrates something that’s holy. I think of the burning of Bibles in China during the cultural revolution. I think of the desecration of churches in Turkey by government leaders in the 1990s. I think of Christians meeting in church for worship in Pakistan when someone walks in and throws a grenade into the sanctuary of worship. I think of the epidemic of church fires set by arsonists just a few years ago here in the U.S.
And I believe that these events foreshadow something will reach a final culmination of a man of lawlessness. Now I don’t spend my time wondering who this person is or whether he’s alive, because God has told me not to sweat it. It’s not my job to wonder whether what I see is foreshadowing or the grand finale itself. I’m to stand firm in my faith, so the power of evil can’t extinguish my faith.
But we can expect the power of evil to relentlessly try to destroy our faith in Christ.
2. The Vindication of Jesus (Mark 13:24-27)
That brings us to vv. 24-27. Now at this point I believe Jesus is no longer describing the events of 70 AD. I think Jesus starting talking about the Jewish rebellion against Rome in 70 AD in vv. 1-13, that vv. 14-23 was talking about both, but from this point forward he’s talking about his future second coming. I simply can’t imagine that the "coming" of the Son of Man with power and glory described here has already been fulfilled.
The picture from the prophet Isaiah of the sun being darkened, the moon failing to give light, and stars falling is picturing cosmic disruption. The picture is telling us that the coming of Jesus will interrupt the entire universe, that it will be so awesome and climactic that it will interrupt the functioning of the galaxy. By calling himself the Son of Man coming with the clouds, Jesus is alluding back to the book of Daniel’s prediction of the coming of God’s Kingdom. Listen to the words of the prophet Daniel:
"In my vision at night I looked, and there before me was one like a son of man, coming with the clouds of heaven…He was given authority, glory and sovereign power; all peoples, nations and men of every language worshiped him. His dominion is an everlasting dominion that will not pass away, and his kingdom is one that will never be destroyed" (Daniel 7:13-14 NIV).
Jesus is saying that when he comes again, it will fulfill that vision of Daniel. As Jesus returns to our earth in glory, he sends his angels to gather his elect from the world.
Now the word "elect" simply means "chosen ones." In the Old Testament it describes Israel, but in the New Testament it describes Christians. So as Jesus returns, he gathers his people, men and women who’ve trusted in his name. I think this is describing Jesus gathering his church at the second coming, though others would differ with me and think it’s describing the nation of Israel or people who’ve come to Christ during the great tribulation. But the point here is that Jesus returns to the earth in glory and greatness.
Here we find our second expectation. AS WE APPROACH THE GRAND FINALE, WE CAN EXPECT JESUS TO BE FULLY VINDICATED.
Christ’s second coming will vindicate his identity as God’s chosen Messiah, the eternal Son of God. No one will doubt, no one will wonder, no one will debate it. The brightness of his glory will silence all critics and persuade all doubters, as every person on the face of the earth witnesses the vindication of Jesus Christ.
3. The Words of Jesus Stand (Mark 13:28-31)
Now let’s look at vv. 28-31. Jesus tells us to learn a lesson from fig trees, that when the fig tree twigs get tender and fig leaves sprout, that’s a sign that summer is near. In a similar fashion, as these various signs increase in intensity each generation, we can know that we’re drawing closer to Christ’s second coming.
The generation of people who are alive when these signs take place will live to see the end. In other words, the generation of Christians alive to see the final abomination that causes desecration will also live to see the second coming of Jesus Christ.
Now I should mention that some Bible teachers think that the generation Jesus is describing here is Israel becoming a nation again. The people of Israel became a nation in 1948. And if a generation is about 40 years long, you can see how this interpretation led to a lot of speculation and predictions about Jesus returning in the 1980s. I think it makes much better sense to understand "this generation" as that generation of people who are alive to witness the final abomination that causes desecration.
Once that happens, the people alive at that time will be within a generation of Christ’s second coming. We find here a third expectation. AS WE APPROACH THE GRAND FINALE, WE CAN EXPECT THE WORDS OF JESUS TO STAND THE TEST OF TIME.
When Jesus says that his words will outlast even heaven and earth, he’s making a remarkable claim. For Jesus to say that, he’s claiming to speak the very words of God, eternal words that will never lose their relevance and truthfulness.
Some people think that Jesus believed that the world would end within his lifetime. The famous medical missionary Albert Schweitzer wrote a book on the search for the historical Jesus. In that book, Schweitzer claimed that Jesus believed that by dying, he would force God to bring about the end of the world. And obviously the end of the world didn’t come when Jesus died, so these people think Jesus was wrong.
And I believe this notion stems from people’s failure to see the intertwining of the events of 70 AD and the second coming of Christ in this section. Clearly Jesus did expect the temple to be destroyed, he did expect an abomination to occur in the first century. And clearly Jesus saw the destruction of the temple as God’s judgment on the religious leaders in Israel for their refusal to believe in him. And these things occurred just as Jesus predicted that the would. But Jesus didn’t believe that this would bring about the end of the age.
Jesus had a vision for creating a new community of people who would live out the realities of Jesus’ message. Jesus expected this community to share the message of Jesus, so that message went to every nation, every language, every people. Jesus viewed the destruction of the temple in 70 AD as a foreshadowing of the grand finale, not the grand finale itself.
But Jesus’ words have stood the test of time. And that means we can continue to trust his words today. We can continue believing what he says about life and about death, about how to live and where to set our priorities and our values.
4. The Day Unexpected (Mark 13:32-37)
That brings us to vv. 32-37. These words are important, because if we ended in v. 31 we’d be tempted to think that by reading the signs we could predict the timing of Jesus’ second coming. So Jesus balances out his saying about the fig tree by warning us that no one knows when it will occur. Not Bible scholars, not theologians, not the authors of the Left Behind books, not even angels. Not even Jesus himself knows.
That’s has caused some people trouble, because if Jesus was God himself in human form, how could he not know when he’d come again? But I think this is easily explained by the fact that when God the Son took on human form, the Bible says that he limited himself. The Son of God surrendered his divine attributes to God the Father. So although he possessed omniscience--knowledge of all things--he surrendered the right to use his omniscience to God the Father. So I don’t think this saying should cause us to doubt the reality that Jesus is fully God as well as fully human.
Then Jesus tells a little story about a guy who goes on a journey and leaves his servants in charge of the house. I’ve got to tell you that when I read this story, I immediately thought of something that happened when I was a sophomore in high school. My parents went away for Memorial Day weekend, and left me at home alone. And I threw the party to end all parties at our house. Throughout the weekend, people came through our doors I’d never seen before, and I haven’t seen since. The house was a disaster, beer bottles all over the rooms, filled with cigarette smoke. And them my parents came home a day early. Boy was I in big trouble.
Well that’s similar to this story, that if a homeowner leaves his home in charge of servants, they’d better be sure to be faithful to do what the homeowner wants them to do. They can’t throw a party for their friends, or act like the home belongs to them. Instead of speculating about the day or the hour of the homeowners return, they need to live as faithful servants, so regardless of when he comes home, they’ll be about his business.
Here we find a final expectation. AS WE APPROACH THE GRAND FINALE, WE CAN EXPECT IT TO BE UNEXPECTED.
Jesus clearly says that it’s impossible for us to know when he’s coming again. But of course that hasn’t stopped Christians from speculating. In the second century, a Christian pastor named Ignatius said, "The last times are come upon us. Weigh carefully the times. Look for him who is above all time, eternal and invisible" (Kyle, The Last Days Are Here Again, p. 27). In 375 AD, a Christian named Martin of Tours said, "There is no doubt that the Antichrist has already been born. Firmly established in his early years, he will, after reaching maturity, achieve supreme power" (Abanes, Last Days Visions, p. 337). In 798 AD a Spanish monk named Beatus said that he would live to see the Antichrist and the end of the world by 800 AD (Abanes 337). Christopher Columbus said that the world would end by 1656 (Abanes 338). The Protestant Reformer Martin Luther said in the 1500s, "We have reached the time of the while (pale) horse of the Apocalypse. This world will not last any more, if God wills it, than another hundred years" (Kyle 55). American Puritan theologian Jonathan Edwards thought that the antichrist would be defeated by 1866, and this would eventually usher in the millennium (Kyle 80). In the early 1800s, a guy named William Miller said, "I am fully convinced that somewhere between March 21, 1843 and March 21st, 1844…Christ will come" (Kyle 87). The American evangelist Charles Finney thought the millennium would begin within three years of his lifetime (Kyle 87). A former NASA engineer named Edgar Wisenant gave us 88 reasons why the rapture would occur in 1988.
A few years ago I read a book by a church historian named David Kyle called The Last Days Are Here Again. That’s where I got many of these examples. Listen to Kyle’s conclusion:
"Through two thousand years of Western history millions of people have believed that they were living in the last days….Many sincere, devout, and knowledgeable people have seen the end as imminent…But they have all been wrong" (Kyle, p. 11).
This historical perspective makes me extremely skeptical about any modern day speculation about the second coming of Jesus Christ. When we speculate in this way we hurt the credibility of our message. We resemble Chicken Little who kept saying, "The sky is falling," until no one took him seriously anymore. And many non-Christians I talk to have been driven away from the gospel by this kind of thing.
I remember back in 1988 when Edgar Wisenant sent every pastor in American his booklet "88 Reasons Why the Rapture will be in 1988." A theologian I know was debating with him on the radio, and she brought up this text here in Mark 13:32. Wisenant’s response was, "We can’t know the day or the hour, but we can know the month and the year."
We can trust Jesus’ words, that he will return again. But we need to also trust his words that it will be unexpected. Instead of being like Chicken Little crying out, "The sky is falling," Jesus wants us to live as his faithful servants. He wants us to live lives of devotion for him in the ordinary details of everyday life. He wants us to be a church community that embodies his gospel, that demonstrates the reality of Christ in our relationships with each other, our worship together, and our decisions in life. He wants us to follow him in the real world of our lives.
Conclusion
Following Jesus means looking forward to the grand finale. It also means looking for foreshadowing of that grand finale in our own generation. And as we live for Jesus in the now, we can expect evil to continue it’s assault on our faith, Jesus to be eventually vindicated, his words to stand, and his second coming to be unexpected.
The reason a composer foreshadows the grand finale of a musical piece is to build suspense. When we hear measures that look forward to the grand finale, it fills us with joy and exuberance, so we yearn for the final movement. And the music builds and builds, until the finale is finally upon us, and we close our eyes and enjoy the final crescendo of the music. When we experience the foreshadowing of history’s grand finale in our lives, it should build our faith in Jesus, so we keep striving to live lives of faithfulness and passion for him.
