Watch Out! - Mark 13:5-6 Series

Mark 13:1 As he was leaving the temple, one of his disciples said to him, "Look, Teacher! What massive stones! What magnificent buildings!" 2 "Do you see all these great buildings?" replied Je-sus. "Not one stone here will be left on another; every one will be thrown down." 3 As Jesus was sitting on the Mount of Olives opposite the temple, Peter, James, John and Andrew asked him pri-vately, 4 "Tell us, when will these things happen? And what will be the sign that they are all about to be fulfilled?"5 Jesus said to them: "Watch out that no one deceives you. 6 Many will come in my name, claiming, 'I am he,' and will deceive many.

Introduction

Review

When Jesus was leaving the Temple, he prophesied that the building would be demolished. That was a shocking prophecy, because for the Temple to be destroyed, Jerusalem would have to be de-stroyed. Think about how that would hit the disciples. Israel was already controlled by Rome. So what Jesus was talking about was something far worse. The people of God, the city of David, the Holy Land, and the Temple itself would all be wiped out. So it’s no wonder that the disciples took this as a prophe-cy of the end of the world. And they ask Jesus, “When? And what will be the signs?” And those ques-tions kicked off the Olivet Discourse.

19 Commandments

They asked for times and signs about future events. What they get instead is a sermon on how to live while they’re waiting for those future events. They want information to fill in the blanks of their knowledge of the future. But instead of giving them information, Jesus gives them commands. 19 im-peratives in 33 verses.

I mention that because it’s not really the way most people think of the Olivet Discourse. Most of the time this sermon is treated as if it were what the disciples hoped it would be—information filling in the gaps in our knowledge of the future and revealing when things will happen. That’s what they want-ed, it’s not what Jesus gave them, but it’s also what we want and so we tend to pretend it is what Jesus gave them—a clear, detailed explanation of exactly what’s going to happen in the future. And when we treat it that way, we miss the purpose of it which is to teach us how to live. There are a lot of chapters in the Bible with no commands—all information. All doctrine. But this isn’t one of those chapters.

If someone walked up to you and asked about the Olivet Discourse, you might say, “Oh, that’s Je-sus’ sermon about the end times,” or “That’s Jesus’ sermon about 70 A.D.,” but what if someone walked up to you and said, “Are you obeying the 19 commands in the Olivet Discourse?” What would you say?

Farewell

Before we get to those commands, it will help to first understand what kind of literature the Olivet Discourse is. Sometimes people refer to this sermon as “the Little Apocalypse.” They call it that be-cause it’s kind of like a mini-book of Revelation. In one sense that’s true. Revelation does expand on the themes of the Olivet Discourse. Jesus talked about wars and famines and earthquakes, and Revela-tion expands those out in detail. But the Olivet Discourse and the book of Revelation are not the same kind of literary genre. Revelation is the “apocalyptic” genre, where you have lots of symbolism and real-ly strange imagery like a crazy dream. Ezekiel is like that too. But the Olivet Discourse isn’t. It doesn’t have the characteristics of apocalyptic literature.

So what is the literary form? The form it fits most closely is a farewell address. In Deuteronomy 33 we read Moses’ farewell address he delivered right before he died. In 2 Samuel we read King David’s farewell address at the end of his life. Scripture also records farewell addresses from Jacob, Joshua, Samuel, and Paul. And the Olivet Discourse here in Mark 13 is Jesus’ farewell address. This is Jesus giving private instructions to his disciples on how to live after he’s gone. That’s why there are so many commands.

When It Won’t Happen

Now, remember the question that kicked this whole thing off. When will the end come? Jesus re-sponds with a long section on when it won’t come. They say, “Give us the signs,” and Jesus says, “Let me warn you about non-signs.” You want to know what points to the end; I need you to know what doesn’t point to the end. Why? Because the non-signs that don’t point to the end are the very things the false teachers will tell you are signs pointing to the end, and that’s how they deceive people.

Jesus’ first words are, “Watch out.” When we hear the words, “watch out” in relationship to the Second Coming, or a coming judgment, we tend to think in terms of, “Watch out because it could hap-pen at any moment and you need to be ready when it does.” But in this opening section, Jesus says, “The thing I want you to watch out for is a delay. Watch out for it not happening right away. Watch out for a dangerous delay—dangerous because the longer the delay, the more at risk you’ll be of being deceived.” In Luke’s account, we find that one way the false Christ’s will deceive is by saying the end is near. Luke 21:8 … many will come in my name, claiming, 'I am he,' and, 'The time is near.' Do not follow them.