Mark 13:5-11 - October 30, 2005
REFORMATION SUNDAY / FIRST SUNDAY OF END TIME
Dearest Fellow-Redeemed and Saints in the Lord:
In the words of today’s text there is a great sense of urgency. These words of Jesus are very important words, because it was just a few days or not many hours before he would be crucified on the cross. When Jesus was crucified on the cross, the disciples would struggle with what to do next. In these words in our text this morning the Lord Jesus wanted them to focus their attention: not on the things around them that they had seen, but on the spiritual things that would give them strength. Jesus wanted the disciples to focus on the power of God’s holy word.
Today we also celebrate the fact that God’s word is still powerful in our hearts and our lives. It is truly by grace, as we sang in our hymns (Christian Worship, hymns 200, 204). Paul writes in Colossians: "Let the word of Christ dwell in you richly as you teach and admonish one another with all wisdom, and as you sing psalms, hymns and spiritual songs with gratitude in your hearts to God" (Colossians 3:16). So we do that gathering on Sunday that we might let God’s word once again dwell in us richly, that we might sing the psalms and hymns of praise that God truly deserves. In the middle of our text we are reminded: God’s gospel must be preached. That was exactly what Jesus wanted his disciples to realize. No matter what he (Jesus) was going to face, no matter what the disciples would face, God’s gospel must be preached. That gospel message hasn’t changed from the thousands of years ago of the disciples to you and I as Jesus’ modern-day disciples. Our theme is:
GOD’S GOSPEL MUST BE PREACHED, and Jesus tells us why:
I. There will be deceivers
II. There will many signs
III. There will be deliverance
I. THERE WILL BE DECEIVERS
Jesus and his disciples had left the temple and went up to the Mount of Olives. On the Mount of Olives they were by themselves in order that Jesus might speak very personally and closely with all of the disciples. Jesus tells them with a warning: "Jesus said to them: ’Watch out that no one deceives you.’" You can imagine the people, after Jesus was put to death on Good Friday, how they would come and try to plant doubt in the disciples’ minds. You may remember doubting Thomas. When he did not see Jesus on that first Easter Sunday, he would not believe until he put his fingers in the prints in Jesus’ hands and feet. Jesus says, "Let no one deceive you."
Worse than that, Jesus adds what is going to happen: "Many will come in my name claiming, ’I am He,’ and will deceive many." Yes, there would be false christs. There would be false messiahs. There would be false teachers, and they would put themselves in the place of Christ and claim they could offer salvation. Many would follow. In verse 9, Jesus says: "You must be on your guard." There will be many deceivers Jesus told his disciples, thousands of years ago.
Today, God’s message is the same. His gospel must be preached, because there are many deceivers. Over the course of history we have seen many deceivers come and go. Yet, what happens? God’s Word still stands. Some have detracted from the glory of God. Some have put themselves up in the place of Christ. Many are deceived. Jim Jones had people follow him even out of the country to South America -- where they died. David Koresh led people to Texas -- where they died. The list goes on. In our day and age we still have Rev. Sun Myung Moon who calls himself Christ. He says, "I am the Messiah." He has been convicted of tax. He has left the country. Moon still has thousands of followers who look to him as the messiah. They look to him as one who can provide salvation. Many are deceived. How / why does this happen? We are told in Scripture: "For such men are false apostles, deceitful workmen, masquerading as apostles of Christ. And no wonder, for Satan himself masquerades as an angel of light" (1 Corinthians 11:13,14). There are many other deceivers.
Sometimes we might forget the fact that God tells us: "Where two or three are gathered together, there am I in the midst of them." We hear a lot about today the mega churches. These are churches with thousands and thousands of members. Often these churches take no doctrinal stand because they are too controversial. So the Bible is watered down. Yet, for some of these church leaders, because they have thousands of people following after them and flocking to them, declare, "Here is God’s kingdom. Here is the Word of God." It may be there but only part of it. God’s kingdom is not seen in the buildings or in large numbers. Simply, God’s kingdom is inside of you and me and every believer in Christ, every Christian. There are many deceivers who deceive others. Jesus himself says: "The kingdom of God does not come with your careful observation, nor will people say, ’Here it is,’ or ’There it is,’ because the kingdom of God is within you" (Luke 17:20b, 21).
God’s gospel must be preached, because the deceivers in this world today still lead many astray. We are not without warning. Our Lord continues that there are many signs. (For the next few weeks, as we come to the end of the church, we focus on the end of the world. We are going to look at the signs next week and the week after, too.)
II. THERE WILL BE MANY SIGNS
Listen again to the words of Jesus. He was trying to prepare his disciples, not for the long-distant future, but for the future that was soon to come. Jesus said to them: "Nation will rise against nation, and kingdom against kingdom." They probably had no idea exactly what that meant. This was spoken about the year 30-35 AD, and by the year 70 AD Jerusalem was destroyed. The temple was torn down, and there was nothing left of it. So in the lifetime of most of these disciples, they saw kingdom against kingdom, nation against nation. God’s prophecy was fulfilled. Those were the signs Jesus told the disciples to look for.
Jesus has more signs: "There will be earthquakes in various places, and famines. These are the beginning of birth pains." Jesus says it is only the beginning, the signs of nature. Jesus speaks to these warnings to the disciples, not to scare them, but to prepare them. "When you hear of wars and rumors of wars, do not be alarmed. Such things must happen, but the end is still to come." Certainly, once Jerusalem was destroyed, once the temple was torn down, they began to understand more clearly Jesus’ words. They heard about wars and rumors of wars. There were earthquakes, famine. In the time of the apostles, there were many signs that they saw. Jesus says this because, when the disciples came out of the temple at the beginning of Mark 13, one of the disciples said, "How beautiful this temple is and look at the massive stones." Jesus said, "They are not going to last." God’s word would last, but the destruction of the temple was only one of the signs that judgment was coming.
There are many signs today, aren’t there? We might be tempted to look at the signs of nature concerning the end times. The end time’s signs are clearly evident. Our Lord also wants us to look even more closely at the spiritual signs, the signs of people themselves, our nation and country as a whole, and our relationships with one another. Scripture says this world is always going to be groaning until the Lord returns (Romans 8:22). Scripture also describes the people who live in this world. You, myself, and society and the world in general are where sin and wickedness increase. So the encouragement we have is to stand firm. We heard it in our lessons today--to stand firm. Matthew says: "Many false prophets will appear and deceive many people. Because of the increase of wickedness, the love of most will grow cold" (Matthew 24:11,12). The Lord puts those two things together – increase of wickedness and love growing cold – and it happens.
Again consider churches that water down the gospel. Such churches add the fact that people in order to get in God’s good grace have to obey. What happens? We don’t obey. We sin and disobey and feel we can’t earn God’s blessings. Therefore the love of most grows cold. It happens time and again in our society. Many are deceived by these false teachings. Today, we are reminded that God raised up Luther that he might restore to the church the gospel’s simply saving truth. The gospel truth is that we are saved by grace alone; we are saved by faith alone; and Scripture alone saves us. We are saved not by what we can do, but by what God has done for us. When people try to save themselves they cannot. They give up because their love grows cold. Here is the result of a society that does not trust in God: "But mark this: There will be terrible times in the last days. People will be lovers of themselves, lovers of money, boastful, proud, abusive, disobedient to their parents, ungrateful, unholy, without love, unforgiving, slanderous, without self-control, brutal, not lovers of the good" (2 Timothy 3:1,2,3). There is more to that list if you want to read the rest. These verses accurately describe our society, our media today. They are slanderous and brutal.
There are many signs today that remind us the gospel must be preached. The gospel must be preached because there are deceivers and many signs. Then also our Lord adds that there will be deliverance.
III. THERE WILL BE DELIVERANCE
The Lord Jesus was not trying to scare his disciples, was he? The Lord Jesus wanted the disciples to be ready and prepared. In the next few days Jesus would die on the cross. The disciples would feel all was lost. Yet, it wasn’t. Jesus encourages them: "You must be on your guard." They had to be ready for the fact that Jesus was not liked. That is what it basically came down to, isn’t it? Jesus was not liked, so the leaders of the church condemned him to death. Jesus suffered and died on the cross outwardly. The truth of Scripture is that Jesus gave up his life so that we would have eternity. Jesus died for our sins and the sins of the world. But to the world that looked from the outside at the Savior on the cross, they saw a man who was not liked.
If Jesus was disliked so much that he was put to death. Jesus wanted his disciples to realize they, too, because they are going to follow him, would not be liked. Jesus says to them: "You must be on your guard. You will be handed over to the local councils and flogged in the synagogues." Church tradition says only one disciple died a natural death. The rest were handed over to councils and beaten by government and flogged in the synagogues. Is that a bad thing? We might say, "Yes." God says that there was a purpose. Jesus adds: "On account of me you will stand before governors and kings as witnesses to them." Yes, the disciples’ lives were given up for the sake of the Savior. Yet, what happened? Jesus’ disciples got to be before kings and governors and councils and testify, "I will die for the sake of Christ Jesus the Lord who died for your sins. We also think of the Apostle Paul who ended up his life in Rome in prison. Yet, he too had the opportunity to testify to governors, rulers and Caesar himself that Christ is the Savior of the world. Paul and the disciples came to realize the gospel must be preached, because God had delivered them to deliver that message.
Jesus’ disciples need not worry. Listen to the assurance Jesus gives them in the last verse: "Whenever you are arrested and brought to trial, do not worry beforehand about what to say." Jesus tells them to not worry when they get arrested or what they might say. They should not worry about their defense. Don’t worry about hiring a lawyer in other words. Jesus reminds them that God is with them. Jesus says to them: "Just say whatever is given you at the time, for it is not you speaking, but the Holy Spirit." God would deliver them. It is true God delivered Paul into the hands of his enemies and that he eventually died for the sake of God’s gospel. God delivered 11 of the 12 apostles into the hands of those who did not like Jesus, and therefore didn’t like them, Jesus’ followers. These followers were put to death for the sake of God’s gospel. But God had delivered them to deliver a message.
We think of Martin Luther. He stood before the Holy Roman Church that ruled the whole world at that time. They wanted him to give in admitting the errors of his writings. Luther said, "I can’t; unless it is wrong: unless you can show me from the Scriptures my writings are wrong." God had delivered Luther before his enemies. But God also delivered Martin Luther from his enemies to deliver God’s word back to the people of his day and eventually our day. We sang Psalm 46. It was an inspiration for Luther. Psalm 46: "God is our refuge and strength, an ever-present help in trouble…. The LORD Almighty is with us; the God of Jacob is our fortress" (Psalm 46:1,7).
God delivered Luther. He was considered an outlaw. Anyone in the world could put him to death with no questions asked. Did he quit? No, he ended up translating the Bible into German and writing the Catechisms, hymns that we sang this morning, "A Mighty Fortress." Martin Luther knew the gospel must be preached. He knew that if God is for him, who could stand against him -- not necessarily him, but who could stand against God’s word? At times we might feel, what is the use? We are so small and so few. The other churches are so big and so this and that. But where is God’s word? When the word of God is taken away, they have to have meetings together to figure out how to handle grief and address other spiritual problems. It is the power of God’s word that is forgotten. Paul writes in Romans that God is for his church and his word, because God loves his church. God loves his believers. God’s word declares: "He who did not spare his own Son, but gave him up for us all--how will he not also, along with him, graciously give us all things?" (Romans 8:33).
It is truly amazing that by grace we gather together to hear God’s word. It’s truly amazing that by grace that we gather together to grow in God’s word. And it is truly amazing that God uses his word to strengthen us. And it is most amazing that God says to you and I that his gospel must be preached to the end of the world. Today, we are reminded once again why God’s gospel must be preached. It is because there are many deceivers who have twisted and distorted God’s word of truth. As we look around us, we see many signs that the Lord will return quickly. As we have heard, there is deliverance. God’s deliverance first of all, is from the depths of hell. There is also divine deliverance of us to be deliverers of God’s message. Today God has delivered us to deliver his powerful message.
God’s gospel must be preached. We are the ones to do it, because God has given us, by grace, his saving message. In Acts when the early church started, the first believers became witnesses to the truth. Today, we are still witnesses of the truth of the saving message of Christ our Lord. "The God of our fathers has chosen you to know his will and to see the Righteous One and to hear words from his mouth. You will be his witness(es) to all men of what you have seen and heard"(Acts 22,14,15). God’s gospel must be preached! Amen. Pastor Timm O. Meyer
Sunday radio broadcast @ 9:05am on KQNK 106.7FM or 1530AM + www.kqnk.com
Reformation (ILCW-A): DANIEL 6:10-12,16-23; GALATIANS 5:1-6; MATTHEW 10:16-23
