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November 9, 2020 3:00 am
As they were leaving the temple one day Jesus disciples made a comment to him about its beauty. That prompted a response from Jesus about the temples coming destruction and the end of the age today on Truth for Life. Alistair Begg helps us unravel some of the mysterious comments Jesus made Alister's teaching from the Gospel of Mark chapter 13, so the chapter opens with a passing comment and Jesus gives a word of instruction. This temple is actually going to be destroyed when you get to verse three, Mark tells us that there was a private question when they were on the Mount of olives office of the temple, Peter, James, John and Andrew asked him privately know what struck me as I studied it again this week was another question to be asked to which we are going to come mainly when but the question that he didn't ask mainly why why didn't ask him why is it going to be destroyed wasn't that they understood perfectly over the Old Testament prophets and said I think is probably that they were just preoccupied with the plan far more intriguing to ask questions about when and to understand the significance of why we need to understand the short answer to the why question why is the temple going to be destroyed. The short answer is because it's no longer going to be needed and the destruction of the temple is actually judgment on the spiritual blindness of those to whom Jesus came. Remember he came to his own and his own received him not. Here he is seeing these things. The Pharisees are immediately opposed to them saying we must destroy now. Jesus explains to his disciples a very temple which is the epicenter of everything you regard about knowing God is going to be brought down if you read this morning part of the reading through the New Testament. You will now is as you hear my voice be saying your cell phone that ties in a little bit with what we saw this morning in John chapter 9 and you would have read this morning.
They encounter Jesus with the boy who was blind.
He heals him. Remember, they said to him, that is, to the fellow.
What did he do to you. How did you open your eyes.
He answer them. I told you are ready and you wouldn't listen why you want to hear it again. Do you also want to become his disciples and they reviled him say you are his disciple, but we are the disciples of Moses. We know that God has spoken to Moses. But as for this man. We do not know where it comes from the man answered why this is an amazing thing. You do not know what he comes from and yet he opened my eyes. We know that God does not listen to sinners, but if anyone is a worshiper of God and does his will, God listens to him. Never since the world began has been here that anyone opened the eyes of a man born blind. If this man were not from God. He could do nothing. They answered him, you were born in archer sin and you would teach us and he cast them. That's what was unfolding in this great drama that is leading to the death of Jesus Christ upon the cross. Indeed, the next point in the calendar for the temple was what it was the drama that unfolded when the curtain in the temple was torn in two, and suddenly all that had been represented as a barrier to God, particularly to the known Jews, for they were only allowed into the court of the Gentiles. They could not go into the court of the Jews. Only the high priest couldn't go into the holy of holies in order to represent them as having made sacrifice for his own sins and all of a sudden being the curtain is torn into and now the gospel, that is to be preached to all the nations is about to unfold. For those of you look at this and say that the gospel has to be preached to all the nations before he returns an image of the sink and that means before the return of Jesus Christ.
It surely means before the return of Jesus Christ. But it actually also means before before the events of 1870 the gospel was going to go out. The disciples were going to stand up in Jerusalem and say there is no other name under heaven by which you must be saved is the name of Jesus. So the question they don't ask is a significant question and what Jesus is pointing out is that it is easy for them.
Even then, to be distracted by the magnificence of externalized religion of all the things that have been put in place. They were there for sad if you like pointing to the reality they were the present that was pointing to the future.
Calvin says of the disciples, the vast size and wealth of the temple hung like a veil for the eyes of the disciples preventing them from elevating their faith to the true reign of Christ wasn't simply that those who were stuck. If you like with the law of Moses didn't get the disciples themselves were in danger of missing until they recognized all that this Jesus whom they had committed themselves to follow had come to do you see it is only when we come to terms with the ultimate emptiness of externalized religious endeavor that the story of a of a person who has lived a perfect life. The life that we should live. But can the story of a person who is dying in our place at death that we deserve, but could never pay. It is only when if you like the temple structures of our religious orthodoxy of crime will that we will and say well only in Christ only in the Savior. Only in this sacrifice is the answer to my said and some of us are there this morning. I would be an unusual Sunday with another case there are people who come here every Sunday and you still have not made the transition. The transition from what represents religious endeavor in the hopes of acceptance with God.
As a result of all that you are seeking to do. You have still not given up on that and cast yourself entirely on the mercy and grace and provision of God in the Lord Jesus Christ. You are if you like. Still saying this is a magnificent structure. This is a terrific building and I'm glad that I can be caught there. There is no special place to meet God anymore. Jesus is no more present in the via Delarosa in Jerusalem that he is on the via Patty bone in Bainbridge and she there are no special rooms and there are no special buildings and there is no sanctuary to understand that how many times I have to tell you that there is no such thing as a sanctuary that is Roman Catholicism. That is not the Bible. Jesus is no more present in this room that is in the men's toilets out there that doesn't make the point. Nothing will or the ladies for that matter. That's okay I'm not saying they are throwing the gents. The fact is that the destruction of that notion has to take place before person leasehold of Christ the poster boy for this is Saul of Tarsus is neat Saul of Tarsus when the people come to Saul and Paul and their and their claiming their their their benefits and their religious heritage in their demanding of the people in Philippi that they do all of these things for acceptance with God.
He says guys, there's no point in you playing the skin because I understand perfectly if ever there was a person. He says who understood what it meant to try and get acceptance with God on the basis of externals. I am your main man listen to the paraphrase of what he says you know my pedigree a legitimate birth circumcised on the eighth day, an Israelite from the elite elite tribe of Benjamin strict and devoted herein to God's law, a fiery defender of the purity of my religion even to the point of persecuting Christians a meticulous observer of everything set down in God's law book. In other words, he is like the fellow in the story told by Jesus about the two men who went to the temple to pray, he is the guy who stood up and prayed to himself and he said I thank you father that I'm not as other men are uncertain like this character who's here who want even leftist eyes up to help solve less religious religion says do this and you'll be accepted by God. So I'm going to do it as best I possibly can Hopewell do enough to be exact when you want to stop doing when you discover that it doesn't work when you discover that you can't. And when you discover that you don't need to. But until you do, you will keep doing that's the transformation that brought about in Saul's life. This is what he said. These people are waiving these credentials around.
He said I'm tearing them up and throwing them out along with everything else I used to take credit for, and why, because of Christ.
Yes, all the things I thought once thought were so important, or gone from my life compared to the high privilege of knowing Jesus Christ is my master first hand everything I once thought I had going for me is insignificant.
I don't I don't do so that I can embrace Christ and be embraced by him.
I didn't want some petty inferior brand of righteousness that comes from keeping a list of rules when I can get the robust kind that comes from trusting Christ because righteousness I gave up all that inferior stuff so I could know Christ personally take the conversion of Luther Koester Roman great anguish of soul seeking somehow or another to discover just how he could be righteous enough before God up and down the Skala center doing everything he can find himself even more depressed than when he went on his vacation in the first place and then suddenly the light goes on and he realizes that this righteousness is of righteousness, not that we produce in order to be accepted by God but a righteousness that has been granted in the person of the Lord Jesus Christ as a free gift, why could Paul give up on all of that heritage because of the surpassing worth of knowing Christ. Why would the temple be no longer necessary for the very same reason. Well, that's the question the don't ask, but what about the question they do ask we should say something about that consuming again really ticked off now because this is two weeks and we still haven't started but anyway what is the question they do ask verse four. Tell us, when will these things be and what will be the sign when all these things are about to be accomplished. In Matthew, he adds, what is implicit here in Mark and Luke don't take my word for it. Just think about it. Listen to Matthews question or the question is Matthew records.
It because remember, these fellas are like journalists their writing down at events is that taken place, not the journalist for the daily telegraph doesn't instantly put the same exact detail as you find in the times there covering the same event.
This is Matthew tell as they said, when will these things be and what will be the sign of your coming and the close of the age. Tell us, when will these things be and what will be the sign of your coming, the closing very close of the age because the disciples could not imagine a world without the temple if the temple came down it was over.
So when Jesus says this whole thing is coming down.
He said the end of the world. So tell us what the words will happen now and when is this going to happen. Sorry some indication in the same way summonses were here. There's a McDonald's insurgency and McDonald's is two streets after that give us something like that so that we got an idea. Note there are two elements that are two motifs and with this I have to finish but there to significant notions run entirely through this text you understand motif you understanding is word motif right and will TIF there is the destruction of the temple and the dreadful sacking of Jerusalem, and there is also the ultimate destruction that is going to come at the end of the age. Both these motifs are present in the text and it is imperative that we read the text with those with those two notions in mind and in recognition of the fact that there are a few like to stages of fulfillment and is not always easy to fit one into the other.
Those of us who do the landlord like Lando and I I'm going back into my childhood again. I just bought another level thing the other day I was horribly embarrassing and going in there like a big baby and buying Lego but nevertheless you want to get all those little pieces and put them on. Make sure all your absolutely fit. If you are obsessively composing in anywhere probably drive you and say if anybody loses one is under the dining room table so if you come to Mark chapter 13 like that. Like putting together I Lando said you will not's. If you haven't already gone crazy because the great future.
The great future the end of all things is described from the point of view of Judea and Jerusalem right, but the application to Judea and Jerusalem implies that the ultimate significance of what is being taught breaks the boundaries of that immediate historical context. Now let me illustrate it for you if I if I made because they can see that that went over really well. Verse 14 for example doing enough to go to verse 14.
Let's go to verse seven and when you hear of wars and rumors of wars, do not be alarmed.
This must take place by the end is not yet somebody says what is clearly the end of the age because there were no wars and rumors of wars, what you don't know any history it on any history Jewish history.
It's all there were all kinds of wars and rumors of wars before the sacking of the temple in A.D. 70. Yeah, but there's really wars and rumors of wars, ultimately the end true and find it is wars and rumors of wars every day of the week. That's also true. So what we know that the two stages of fulfillment coalesce with one another. So, for example, verse 14, the abomination of desolation cannot be restricted to the temple because if you read the Old Testament phraseology in relation to the abomination of desolation in Daniel points far beyond anything that might take place there and it points forward to the reality of the antichrist that we shouldn't be alarmed by this and fight we should rejoice in this, because what this actually is is the comprehensive nature of prophetic teaching.
That's why when you read the Old Testament and you read either prophetic passages in the Psalms. Or you read in the profits themselves. You frequently discover that future events which, in their fulfillment are separated from one another by centuries. Okay so future events which, when fulfilled, are separated by centuries you will discover then sat side-by-side in the text or you will discover them sat down in a way that is linear, but is clearly not the case and the challenges that they can ultimately be separated from one another and when you find somebody who tells you that they know exactly how to do it.
You should be a little more afraid of him and you want to be of me because the final desecration of the temple and the great final distress at the end of the age. They coalesce with one another what you have in the destruction of the temple is a type what you have in the end of the ages, the antitype was what you have in the destruction of the temple is a foreshadowing of that which will ultimately be the case and the challenge in going through this is in being prepared to say you know this is like hill walking in the Lake District of England or in the Cairngorm mountains of Scotland. If you and I go walking in those hills and we said this before, as we make our way up the side of the hill. We look to what we think is the son, and maybe 450 yards ahead of us. We get up to it, what it will discover were not at the summit. There is another summit be on this and we may proceed to do that to the height in Scotland of some 4000 feet before we actually finally get to the summit, but from the perspective of 700 feet above sea level. If it appears that within just 1/4 of a mile. We have seen it all and we are there for the view we set off and we discover were not when you read through the prophecies of Isaiah you find the exact same thing and therefore the explanation of Mark chapter 13 is not that it is an aberration from the from the comprehensive view of prophecy which is given to us in the entire Bible, but rather it fits in with it entirely. So I want you to know that so that you keep it in mind as we study it, and before you throw your hands up in despair. Keep in mind where we began.
The purpose of Mark chapter 13 is pastoral and it is practical. Jesus is providing instruction to equip his followers in the immediate context of Judea and Jerusalem, and to encrypt all of his followers in every age in relationship to the prospect of that which will be at the end of the age so whatever we do with this passage we walk away from it and we say we're watching and waiting were hoping we pray were saying let your kingdom come. Let your will be done so that the world might know the Lord Jesus Christ, that you are the king that you are not some remote figure of history buried away in a Palestinian to but you are the risen Lord, you are the ascended king you are the returning Christ that is the important and one of the greatest tragedies of study and passages like this is that that has largely failed to be the important because people want to study it like a Lando said, rather than allow it to be what it is, namely a mathematical Venn diagram where the circles coalesce with one and at the epicenter of it all. When one day in that grade Christ appeared the things that we can see only dimly now will become apparent to us… Pray for God how we need your help how it humbles us to be students of the Bible in a passage like this how it forces us to advance to the reality of the practical, not theoretical nature of this instruction help us so to read. So to study so to believe so to behave in the light of your truth for Jesus sake on it is our hope that this study in Mark's gospel is giving you a clearer picture of Jesus ministry was like to be one of his disciples.
Your listing to Truth for Life. Alastair Begg has titled today's message a question for Jesus. It's one thing to imagine a first century conversation between Jesus and his followers. It's another thing to imagine the same kind of relationship with him today. Can we truly know Jesus the way his disciples did and if so how do we follow his direction for our family for our personal choices, even things like our career. John Stott wrote a classic book that helps answer these questions and others. It's a book we'd love to send you called the disciple God's word for today and it's yours. When you requested, along with a donation to support Truth for Life in this brief book, Stott helps fine tune how we listen to God. He reminds us that God is still speaking and communicating with us through his word.
He offers practical help on craning our minds so that our emotions don't divert us from clear biblical thinking to give a donation and request the book titled the disciple call 888-588-7884 or tap the book image in the mobile app you can also give a donation and request the book online at truthforlife.org/donate keep in mind it's your generous support of truthful I for the brings Alistair's teaching to listers like you through radio and through many other free channels. Thanks for investing so people can hear clear and relevant Bible teaching when you give your helping other listers become disciples of Jesus and grow in their relationship with him to send your contribution along with your request for John Stott's book right to truthfully at PO Box 39, 8000, Cleveland, OH 44139 or again, call 888-588-7884. Jesus warned his disciples that the end of the age was coming. He said to look out for even more signs. So what should we make of this caution. I'm Bob Lapine hoping you'll join us again tomorrow as Alastair provides a biblical answer is message.
Tuesday is titled signs of the end the Bible teaching of Alastair Begg is furnished by truth for like Learning is for Living