The Coming of the Son of Man (Part 2 of 2)

Jesus taught that there were certain signs that would precede his full and final return to earth. So what should we as Christians in the 21st century do with that information? How do we live by faith until he returns?

Today on Truth for Life, Alistair Begg answers those questions. He's teaching from Mark's Gospel chapter 13. We're looking at verses 24 through 31. Now, in this little section before us this morning—and none of these sections get easier than the previous one—I want us to notice, first of all, a picture to be understood, which is what we're given here, and then a lesson to be learned, and then, thirdly, a word to be trusted.

First of all, then, a picture to be understood. It's the picture that is there for us in verse 24 and 25. But the early readers of this Gospel would immediately, in reading this verse concerning the darkening of the sun and the moon not giving its light, they would immediately be able to connect it to the day of the Lord prophesied in the Old Testament. And once again, I'm going to ask you to trust me on this, and then I'm going to ask you to be Berean about it and go away and examine the Scriptures and see if these things are so. But if your Bible is there in front of you, I encourage you to turn to Isaiah chapter 13. And there in Isaiah 13, under the heading of the judgment of Babylon, which is the immediate historical application of this chapter, we read of the day of the Lord. And the exhortation comes in verse 6—"Wail, for the day of the Lord is near, as destruction from the Almighty it will come." Verse 9—"Behold, the day of the Lord comes, cruel with wrath and fierce anger, to make the land a desolation and to destroy its sinners from it.

For the stars of the heavens and their constellations will not give their light." Daniel chapter 7 and verse 13—"I saw in the night visions, and behold, with the clouds of heaven there came one like a Son of Man." This is the prophecy of Daniel. He's looking forward in the night vision.

He sees this. And he came to the Ancient of Days and was presented before him. And to him was given dominion and glory and a kingdom that all peoples, nations, and languages should serve him. His dominion is an everlasting dominion which shall not pass away, and his kingdom is one that shall not be destroyed.

It's fantastic, isn't it? Now, you see, the people in Jesus' day lived with this prospect of this Son of Man. Son of Man is used as a description just of humanity in a general sense in the Old Testament, but it is used specifically, peculiarly, in relationship to the One as described here in Daniel chapter 7.

Now, if you think about it, you've already got part of the picture on this, because you will remember that when we began to study Mark a hundred years ago, and we got to chapter 2, and the men came bringing the paralyzed man, and they dropped him down through the roof. Jesus had already announced what? The time is fulfilled, the kingdom of God is near, repent and believe the good news.

What was he saying there? He was saying that all the things that the Old Testament has been prophesying, they're all fulfilled in me, they're fulfilled now. There's nothing really that is going to take place in the second coming that hasn't been actualized in its first.

That's why we're able to say that the end has come, is coming, will come. And on that occasion, when they dropped the man down through the roof, and he said to the man, Son, your sins are forgiven you, the scribes responded by saying, This man's a blasphemer. How can he blaspheme in this way? Because only God is able to forgive sins.

Remember that? And Jesus says to them, Well, wait a minute. Knowing what they were saying, he said, Let me ask you a question. Which is easier, to say to the fellow, Pick up your bed and walk, or Your sins are forgiven? Well, from one perspective, it's easier to say, Your sins are forgiven, because how would anybody know whether they were or whether they weren't?

But if you say, Pick up your bed and walk, and he stays on the bed, then you know it hasn't worked. So Jesus says, Well, let me just point this out. In order that you might know—here's the phrase—in order that you might know that the Son of Man has authority on earth to forgive sins, hey, take up your bed and walk. So his physical healing was a testimony to the reality of the spiritual transformation which was the real need of the man's life. He didn't need his legs. Better to have no legs and go to heaven than have four legs and go to hell.

That's the point that is being made. It is this Son of Man that is prophesied in Daniel, that is expressed in the Gospels, that is now the one who will come in clouds with power and great glory. Now, some of my best friends want to see in this the ascension—that they say that Daniel 7.14 fits far better the giving of the kingdom to Jesus in terms of now he has ascended, he has led captivity captive, and so on. And so now, from his position as the ascended Lord, he pours out his gifts upon the church, and his messengers go around the world—and that is verse 27, according to that view—the messengers go around the world and collect his elect from the four corners of the earth. I cannot tell how he will win the nations, how he will gain his earthly heritage.

I mean, if you could tell, then you'd be… Well, you couldn't tell. But this is a promise. There'll be no empty seats in heaven. None whom he has purchased will be missing. No one will be missing. No one will say, Well, where are the rest of the people that fill up the seats?

How is he going to do this? Listen to Calvin. Whenever we perceive the church scattered by the wiles of Satan, or torn in pieces by the cruelty of the ungodly, or disturbed by false doctrines, or tossed about by storms, let us learn to turn our eyes to this gathering of the elect. And if it appears to us a thing difficult to be believed, let us call to remembrance the power of the angels, which Christ hold out to us for the express purpose of raising our views above human means. Above human means.

How are you going to bring all the people that died in the titanic? He's going to send his angels. For though the church be now tormented by the malice of men, or even broken by the violence of the billows, and miserably torn in pieces so as to have no stability in the world, yet we ought always to cherish confident hope, because it will not be by human means but by heavenly power, which will be far superior to every obstacle that the Lord will gather his church. You see, this is lift your eyes and look up, for your redemption draws nigh.

This does not get all freaked out by dramatic signs in the heavens or trying to tie the signs in the heavens to contemporary events. No, the purpose remains always moral. It remains always evangelistic, if you like. These things are to teach you. That brings us to the lesson. Straightforward, verse 28, from the fig tree, learn its lesson. Just as leaves appearing on the fig tree are a sign of the approach of summer, so these things are signs of the approach of Christ.

Then you will know, he says, when these things take place, you will know that he is near. He's at the very gates. At the very gates.

It's a picture, isn't it? It's not at the gates. There's no gates.

It's a metaphor to try and help us. You know what it's like to be at the gates. The watchman is on the gates. He's going to finish the chapter by saying, Watch! He's told the stories of the five wise and the five foolish virgins, who both had the same information, but only five were ready for what was about to take place. When you see these things, he says, then you will know that he is near.

He's at the very gates. You say, Well, that's fine, but look at verse 30. Truly I say to you, this generation will not pass away until all these things take place. Do you know that that verse has singularly been used by more people than I can count to say, You see, the Bible's a bunch of bunk?

Because clearly that couldn't possibly take place. And so they say, Look at this. Jesus was clearly wrong. How can he say that the generation wouldn't pass away until he came back? Well, I don't think that's what Jesus is saying, is it?

I don't think that's what he said. Now, for those of you who like to fiddle around with verse 30, let me give you a few things to fiddle with in the week to come. First of all, you can fiddle around with the silly idea, the untenable notion, that Jesus got it wrong.

Jesus cannot get it wrong. Secondly, you can explain this generation as the Jewish people, as some commentators do—thoroughly unconvincing perspective from where I'm sitting. Or that this generation is not a reference to a particular group of people in the timeframe of these events, but this generation is being used, say, these commentators, to describe the objectionable mentality that was part of the generation that resisted Christ. So, for example—and you can go through and look for it, it comes out clearest in Luke—this is a stiff-necked generation. So the commentators are saying that that stiff-necked generation is not limited to the immediate historical moment, and so the stiff-necked, objectionable people will still be around when finally Jesus comes.

Well, there's no doubt about that, because there are a few of us here this morning who fit the category very nicely—objectionable people and stiff-necked to boot. All right? But it seems like special pleading to me. I hope you're wriggling in your seat going, I don't know if I get that. I don't know if I buy that. Well, that's good, because I don't either.

So what do you do with it? I think I have the answer, but I only think. Verse 23, verse 29, and verse 30, I take as referring to the same thing in every instance. So, in verse 23, be on guard, I have told you all things beforehand. So you have all things. Verse 29, when you see these things, and in verse 30, this generation will not pass away until all these things take place.

So what are these signs? I've told you all these things. Back up in verse 23.

He's already told them, hasn't he? He began by saying, Don't let anybody lead you astray. You'll hear of wars, rumors of wars. The end isn't yet. Nation will rise against nation, kingdom against kingdom, earthquakes in various places, famines. They're about the beginning of the birth pains.

He goes on to expand on that as he goes through. Even now we have these dramatic cosmic pictures. But what are they all describing? These are all signs leading to the second coming. They're not signs of the second coming. If he is near, he can't be here.

Right? That's what he's saying. When you see these signs, you will know that he is near, that he is at the gate. He doesn't say, When you see these signs, you'll know that he's present. So these signs are signs of what is yet to come. And the generation that saw these signs lived to see all the signs. They didn't live to see Christ return. And I think that is what Jesus is pointing out. You're sensible people.

Figure it out. Finally, a word to be trusted. There in verse 31, Heaven and earth will pass away, but my words will not pass away. Once again, echoes of the Old Testament and the Old Testament prophets.

Here's Isaiah 51.6. Lift up your eyes to the heavens and look at the earth beneath. Everything that represents stability to us, right? Eyes up to the heavens, the movement of the planets, the spheres.

Look at the earth beneath on this solid firmament. And then the prophet says, For the heavens vanish like smoke, and the earth will wear out like a garment, and they who dwell in it will die in like manner. But my salvation will be forever, and my righteousness will never be dismayed. Surely Jesus has this in mind.

We'll have to check later on. But probably he knew the whole Old Testament off by heart. So when he says, Heaven and earth will pass away, but my words will not pass away, perhaps he had Isaiah 51 in mind. Do you see what is being said here as we draw this to a close? How unbelievably durable the heavens look. And yet they're obsolete.

They're obsolete. The earth will succumb to its own transience. Now, that's not the final statement on the Christian involved in ecology and whether you put in all your plastic boxes in one bag and your other ones in another bag and another one in another bag.

You know, if you're going to be a good citizen, you have to do what you've got to do. But I'm not putting all that stuff wherever it needs to go, because I'm desperately concerned that if I don't, you know, somehow or another, the earth is just going to freak out and get out of control, and we don't know what's going to happen to us next. So we have to go to earth works for earth food for the earth store for the earth day for the earth earth earth earth earth. No, the earth will vanish, will be absorbed into its own transience. The earth will crumble. There will be a new heaven and a new earth in which dwells righteousness.

We're not going to some airy-fairy planet up who knows where to play harps for an interminable Sunday afternoon. We are going to live on a new heaven and on a new earth. But the present heaven and the present earth are going to pass away.

That's the point. Heaven and earth will pass away. And, he says, you will pass away. You have a shelf life. You have a shelf life.

The watch on your wrist tells you you're passing away. So in all of the disruption of the cosmos, in those days after the tribulation, in all of the madness of our times, in all of the chaos of a life without God, how in the world are we going to figure things out? If this is true, if this is true, that all the explorations of science as significant and wonderful as they have been, all of our ability to get to the moon, all of the penetration of Mars and everything else that's going on, as wonderful and as significant as it is, it's not the issue. Because those heavens will be dissolved. And to consume myself with saving the earth?

No. But here's the question. I understand why people are doing that. Because they want to have something worth living for. Something worth living for. There's got to be something worth living for, hasn't there? When I was in Glasgow in June, a lady stopped me in the street, a young girl, a nice Scottish girl, and she had a clipboard, and I knew, oh brother, here we go. I have to buy something or whatever else it is. And I can't go into all the details now, but she wanted me to know, and she was earnestly committed to it, she wanted me to know that the elephants were running out of space.

Not that the elephants were in outer space, that they were running out of space. And she needed my help to make sure, you know, that that didn't happen. And I said to her, you know, I'd like to give you money right now, because I admire your commitment. I admire your courage.

I admire the fact that you stand out in the middle of Buchanan Street on an afternoon like this because of this concern. But I can't do it. And I won't do it. Because I've only got so much money.

And I actually think it's more important that I give money to prevent the unmitigated slaughter of babies in their mothers' wombs than I give money to make sure that the elephants have enough space to run around. She didn't like my answer. I didn't treat her unkindly.

But that's a Christian perspective, isn't it? Why is she doing that? She wants something to live for. You probably want something to live for. The Kinks in the 60s wanted something to live for.

They asked the question, didn't they? What am I living for? Two-roomed apartment on the second floor. And then the refrain, remember, we're living on Dead End Street. We're living on Dead End Street. We're living on Dead End Street. It fades out with that refrain. We're living on Dead End Street.

And eventually, they just take the volume down on the recording, and that's the last thing you hear. We're living on Dead End Street. I got news for you this morning. Without Jesus Christ, you are living on Dead End Street. I don't care how nice your street is. It's a Dead End Street. And that is the significant aspect of what is going on here. Because what this passage is telling us is that the gospel will outlast every brilliant human project. The gospel will outlast every brilliant human project.

That's not to denigrate brilliant human projects. It's just to say that the best of them will finally be outlasted by the gospel. And it is the gospel which is able to answer the basic human predicament. So you see, it is the gospel.

It is this strange story about Jesus Christ, who bears sin on the cross in order that God, who is perfect in his holiness, may look on man without displeasure, and man, who's a horrible wreck of a mess, may look on God without fear. How can I, then, look at the Creator God who made me and whom I have disregarded and just been indifferent to and have no concern for at all? I'm more concerned about his creation than I am about his existence. How could I ever look on him without fear?

And how would it ever be that he could look on me without displeasure? And the answer is, in the cross of the Lord Jesus Christ. Because there the execution of divine justice has entered into time in a moment, and heaven's love and heaven's justice meet at the cross. No, the heavens and the earth, and we with them, endure just for a moment. The Lord, little Lord, endures forever.

You're listening to Truth for Life. That is, Alistair Begg with a timeless message in a time-bound world. Alistair returns in just a moment. I trust you are benefiting from Alistair's teaching on the parables and stories Jesus told in Mark's Gospel. If so, this series has a study guide, and you can download it for free.

There are 10 sessions that correspond with each of Alistair's messages. It makes for a great Bible study you can do on your own or do with a small group. The series is titled Stories of the Kingdom.

You can download the free study guide online at truthforlife.org slash kingdom. And if you'd like to try your hand at leading this Bible study, we've got a book to recommend to you. It's titled, Sowable Word, Helping Ordinary People Learn to Lead Bible Studies. Maybe you're a seasoned Bible study group leader, or maybe you're new in this role. In either case, you'll benefit from this practical book.

It guides you through identifying objectives, helps you assess your group's commitment level. You'll also learn how to effectively lead a discussion that engages the whole group while you stay focused on the key points of the scripture you're studying. Sowable Word was written by an author who's been teaching the Bible for nearly 20 years.

I think you'll find his tips and insights are helpful, even if you also have years of experience. Ask for your copy of the book Sowable Word when you give a donation through the Truth for Life mobile app or online at truthforlife.org slash donate or call us at 888-588-7884. Now here is Alistair. See how easy it is for us to be distracted from the main thing by all kinds of theoretical preoccupations that do us no service whatsoever. O Lord Jesus Christ, help us to hear your voice. Help us to get this picture, to learn this lesson, to believe your Word. That when you said, I am come, that you might have life, that we might come to you and discover life. That when you said, Come to me, all you who are weary and heavy laden, and I will give you rest, that you promised that to all who come. That when you said that you would go and prepare a place and come back for us, that you meant exactly what you said, and you will.

O Lord Jesus Christ, help us now to believe you. Help us to know that if we end up separated from you from all of eternity, it is because we've had to step over your offer of mercy, do an end run around your cross, turn our backs on a love that drew the plan of salvation. Remind us of how frail we are, how brief life is. Teach us to number our days that we may gain a heart of wisdom. For we pray in Jesus' name. Amen. Thanks for joining us today. I hope you can join us again tomorrow when we'll find out how Jesus' message to his disciples serves as a wake-up call for us today. The Bible teaching of Alistair Begg is furnished by Truth for Life where the Learning is for Living.