In 1969, the music group ChicagoŽ came out with a song that began:
As I was walking down the street one day,
A man came up to me and asked me what the time was that
was on my watch.
And I said,
Does anybody really know what time it is?
Does anybody really care?
If so I can’t imagine why!
We’ve all got time enough to cry.
Now, I know the late Robert Lamm never intended this to be a commentary on theological issues, but it
is a commentary of the times. Does anybody really care what time it is not just
during the day or during this hour --- but do we care about where we may be in the timeline of history? Where are we? In the middle?
Near the end?
Over the next four or five weeks, I urge you to ponder this question and walk away saying, “Yes,
we can have an idea of what time it really is!” How? Through none other than the teaching of our Lord Jesus Himself in Mark 13.
In fact, let’s read Mark 13:1-8:
And as he came out of
the temple, one of his disciples said to him, "Look, Teacher, what wonderful stones and what wonderful buildings!" [2] And Jesus said to him, "Do you see these great buildings? There will not be left here one stone upon
another that will not be thrown down."
[3] And as he sat on
the Mount of Olives
opposite the temple, Peter and James and John and Andrew asked him privately, [4]
"Tell us, when will these things be, and what will be the sign when all these things are about to be accomplished?" [5] And Jesus began to say to them, "See that no one leads you astray.
[6] Many will come in my name, saying, 'I am he!' and they will lead many astray.
[7] And when you hear of wars and rumors of wars, do not be alarmed. This must take place, but the end is not yet. [8] For nation will rise against nation, and kingdom against kingdom. There will be
earthquakes in various places; there will be famines. These are but the beginning of the birth pains.
The disciples stood in awe as they beheld the Temple. “Look, Teacher, what wonderful stones and what wonderful buildings!” This temple was known as “Herod’s Temple.” Herod I built this temple in 20 or 19 B.C. and sought to make it a splendid edifice
indeed.
These stones took up a great amount of space. Josephus, the
famous historian, noted that they were 37 ˝ inches high by 12 inches long and 18 inches wide!
And when one looks at pictures of this expansive building, thousands upon thousands of these stones were used. They were quite decorative and ornate, made out of marble and covered with gold. When the sun hit that right as it looked over the Kidron
Valley, the Temple
literally sparkled. It was an architectural wonder!
To give credit to the disciples, it is easy for us to be amazed at great pieces of architecture. The works of Frank Lloyd Wright leave me as amazed as amazed can be. For our first Christmas, Cindy purchased a collection of picture of Lloyd Wright’s structures. Structures such as the J.P. Johnson building, or the _____________ in Pennsylvania…
or the Guggenheim museum in New York City ---- all these works
stagger the mind.
The interesting thing, though, about Frank Lloyd Wright was that you did not have to convince him
of how great and talented he was. In fact, he would be the first one to tell
you. Herod evaluated himself the same way --- he liked everything big, he knew
they were architectural wonders, and he knew firsthand how talented he was.
But as all of us knew from 9/11, buildings are not bullet-proof.
Just as easily as they were built, so too can they be destroyed. And Jesus
warned them not to be impressed with outward structures, but to be concerned about the condition of the Temple of their heart. “Do you see these
great buildings?” Jesus says. “There will not be left here one stone
upon another that will not be thrown down” (Mark 13:2).
Naturally, this made the disciples curious! The very center
of their religious and civic life --- and an edifice that seemed indestructible --- suddenly found its days numbered. “You mean this structure --- this one --- is on borrowed time?” They had to know when. And Jesus tells them.
What Jesus is about to tell them in verses 5-13 are labeled by Him as ‘birth pains’
or ‘labor pains.’ This is self-explanatory. All you who have had children, you know about labor pains. The
labor pains are signals that the your unborn child is coming into the world. The
muscles begin to compress and contract to move your baby outward and into the world for all to see. And just as we pay attention to those pains and signals, so we too must know the signals for when the end
is coming.
- False
Christs will come (Mark 13:5; cf. Mark 13:22)
In verse 5, Jesus says, “See that no one leads you astray.
Many will come in my name, saying, “I am he!’ and they will lead many astray.” There will be those who come, claiming to have the dignity and power and authority of the true Son of God. When they preach, they will be persuasive. They
remind us of 2 Tim. 4:2-5 where Paul begs Timothy to:
preach the word; be ready in season and out of season; reprove, rebuke, and exhort, with complete patience
and teaching. [3] For the time is coming when people will not endure sound teaching,
but having itching ears they will accumulate for themselves teachers to suit their own passions, [4] and will turn away from listening to the truth and wander off into myths. [5] As for you, always be sober-minded, endure suffering, do the work of an evangelist, fulfill your ministry.
And their persuasive powers of speech are bolstered by what verse 22 tells us: “False christs and false prophets will arise and perform signs
and wonders.”
In the immediate context of their situation, the people of Israel
were longing for the Christ, the Messiah, to deliver them from the political tyranny of Rome. Their leaders were backed by Rome, they were heavily
taxed by Rome --- they began to hate Rome. As their hatred for Rome’s
presence grew, their desire and expectation for the Messiah (or at least their idea of what they thought the Messiah should
be) grew as well.
The problem is, any one who came along that somewhat demonstrated those characteristics led a number astray. They didn’t know the Scriptures and what they had to say about the traits of
the Messiah --- and thus were easily duped. And Jesus warns them, “Don’t
you be numbered among the deceived.”
We see this in our day. There are those who are rising up
now claiming to be a Messiah-figure. The Jim Jones, the David Koreshs, and other
cults with leaders having these delusions lead so many astray --- even to their deaths.
They are led astray by their persuasive and charismatic personalities. Some
may even demonstrate some miraculous powers. Others may ‘feel a presence’
or an experience to show how their religion is. They deny there is a devil, so
any power or any experience they feel that borders on spirituality, they assume it is from God. They forget 1 John 4:1-3 which says,
Beloved, do not believe every spirit but test the spirits
to see whether they are from God, for many false prophets have gone into the world.
By this you know the Spirit of God: every spirit that confesses that Jesus
Christ has come in the flesh is from God, and every spirit that does not confess Jesus is not from God. This is the spirit of the antichrist, which you heard was coming and now is in the world already.
This is the basis of all false religions: they are backed
by the spirit of antichrist which says, “This is from God --- you don’t need the Christ of the Bible --- you don’t
need your sins forgiven. You can stay lord of your life and be all right. God will respect your sincerity and good works.
This is the spirit of the antichrist --- and it has no place amongst the people of God.
- Fighting
amongst the nations (Mark 13:7-8)
And when you hear of wars and rumors of wars, do not be
alarmed. This must take place, but the end is not yet. For nation will rise against
nation, and kingdom against kingdom.
Wars are prevalent. In 1992, a group of academics and historians
has compiled this startling information: Since 3600 B.C., the world has known only 292 years of peace! During this period
there have been 14,351 wars large and small, in which 3.64 billion people have been killed. The value of the property destroyed
is equal to a golden belt around the world 97.2 miles wide and 33 feet thick. Since 650 B.C., there have also been 1,656 arms
races, only 16 of which have not ended in war. The remainder ended in the economic collapse of the countries involved.
Wars are scary. All we have to do is think back on the conflicts
in our lifetime: the World Wars, the wars in Asia, the recent unpleasantness
in the Middle East --- not to mention all the images we see of the news networks pour those
images into our living rooms on a nightly --- sometimes hourly basis. We see
the casualty rates daily and weekly and see the horrors of this Truth be told, there have been thousands of wars that have
taken place in that region. In fact, we see it everyday with terror bombings,
then counterattacks, then other terrorist bombings and skirmishes. Many over
there talk about it as if it were commonplace.
Wars are expensive. A few years ago, a Dutch professor took
time to calculate the cost of an enemy soldier's death at different epochs in history. He estimated that during the
reign of Julius Caesar, to kill an enemy soldier cost less than one dollar. At the time of Napoleon, it had considerably inflated--to
more than $2,000. At the end of the First World War, it had multiplied several times to reach the figure of some $17,000.
During the Second World War, it was about $40,000. And in Vietnam, in 1970,
to kill an enemy soldier cost the United States
$200,000.
It’s amazing when wars (and, yes, rumors of war) take place, especially in the Middle East,
scholars and even those around the water coolers begin to debate whether this is the beginning of the end. I believe this comes up for two reasons: one, it comes up
based on fear. Will this or any war spread to our land? If not, will it affect how we live.
Another reason I believe the debate comes up is that there is something deep down in the heart of
man that longs for and desires there to be more to this life than … this life!
Ecclesiastes 3:11 tells us that: “He has put eternity into man's
heart, yet so that he cannot find out what God has done from the beginning to the end.”
What does Jesus tells them? He says, “You know, these things are going to happen --- they must
take place. Do not be alarmed.” You
may remember from a few weeks ago when we talked about giving unto Caesar the things that are Caesar’s, and giving to
God’s what it God’s and how God has installed every leader for His purpose.
God holds all the nations in the palm of His hand, Isaiah 40 tells us. Wars
are seen in Scripture as a way of God’s sovereign purpose to be put forth --- but
they do not signify the end.
Some will come along and tell those who know little of spiritual issues that this does mean the
end is coming. In 2 Thes. 2:2, we see how the Thessalonian church dealt with
deceivers who said that the end had already come. But Paul told them “not
to be quickly shaken in mind or alarmed, either by a spirit or a spoken word, or a letter seeming to be from us, to the effect
that the day of the Lord has come.”
- Famines and earthquakes
(Mark 13:8b)
There will be earthquakes in various places; there will
be famines. These are but the beginning of the birth pains.
According to the U.S. Geological Survey, the National
Earthquake Information Center
locates approximately 50 earthquakes each day, to the tune of 20,000 per year. Many
others may occur in remote locations or have small magnitudes. Yet, in a chart
on their website, we notice that there is very little difference from year to year from the earthquakes with a 5.0 magnitude
or greater. But from the 3.0 – 5.0 range, each year these size earthquakes
creep up and up. In 2000, there were 8,045 earthquakes in the 4.0-4.9 range…
in 2005, there were 11,747 (and the year is not over). In the 3.0-3.9 ranges,
there were 4,784 earthquakes in 2000. In 2004, there were 7,937. Those are pretty significant increases.
On December 26, 2005, we read with amazement about the tsunami that engulfed so much of Southeast Asia. The tsunami, we found out later, was the
result of a large earthquake just off the west coast of Singapore that cause the ocean floor to move and shake, thus causing
mammoth waves to develop and move outwardly to the ocean’s edges. The result? Loss of live to the tune of well over 200,000 people with millions of others homeless.
Daily, we receive letters from World Vision and other groups asking for contributions to feed the hungry
in Third World countries. Growing up, I remember
seeing commercial after commercial about the famine that enveloped Ethiopia
and much of Eastern Africa. It would be easy
to ask, “Lord, how long? Surely the end is coming soon!”
Jesus tells us again that, no, this does not indicate the end.
We may think, “Whew! OK --- that’s a relief! He’s telling us the end is a long way away.” Uh
… no! He says, “These are but the beginning of the birth pains.” There it is again, birth pains.
Conclusion
Jesus over and over seems to tell us that these false teachers, these fightings among the nations,
these famines and earthquakes are not clear indicators that the end is imminent. But
like labor pains that increase in intensity and frequency the closer the time of the birth comes, so to will these issues.
As we close, I want you to ponder this just for one moment. Think
of these images of the false religions and cults being promoted: Islam (1.2 billion
followers), Hinduism (762 million followers), Jehovah’s Witnesses (6 million followers), and Mormons (over 5 million
in the US alone). So many who have set themselves up against the true Gospel of Jesus Christ already.
This of these images of the wars, the earthquakes, the famines --- how prevalent they are now. It’s mind-boggling --- but these are just the labor pains, dear friends. This is just the beginning.
My question for you is this: the case has been made of the nature of the world in which we live.
Many in this world are without Christ! Some of you are without Christ. Do you want to wait until things get worse? Christ has provided warning signals
--- please heed their warning and come to Christ today!
