When will these things be and what will be the sign when all these things will be fulfilled? I should pause here to say if you don't really have an end times perspective and you're going to be getting one, don't worry about what you're not getting from the first session. We've got all the way to the end of this chapter, several weeks of going over the end times.
I would encourage you to try to build a timeline if you don't know where things are. This is Cross Reference Radio with our pastor and teacher Rick Gaston. Rick is the pastor of Calvary Chapel Mechanicsville. Pastor Rick is currently teaching through the Book of Mark. Please stay with us after today's message to hear more information about Cross Reference Radio, specifically how you can get a free copy of this teaching.
Today we join Pastor Rick for part two of his study called Hated for Christ as he teaches through Mark chapter 13. We are all human, humanistic in the sense we look out for, we have this human experience together and we don't want to harm others. But secular humanism has blocked God out of that and tends to want to manage humanity according to their own ways, their own knowledge. As the prophet said, it's not in man to govern himself.
He cannot do a good job. Well, who is ready to believe that the skyscrapers of the world now, and they're all over the world. I mean in China, in Southeast Asia, Indonesia, in the Arab world, in the Middle East, skyscrapers are everywhere. These giant cities, they've got these large swimming pools that are way up there.
They even have rollercoaster worlds, amusement rides on them. Who is ready to believe that the bulk of them, if not all of them, are going to end in rubble? Revelation 18 verse 10, standing at a distance for fear of her torment, saying, Alas, alas, that great city Babylon, that mighty city, for in one hour your judgment has come. I lean more and more to believing that such a verse has not only to deal with the city of Babylon, but the great centers of humanity against God. The point is, if you take this to say there's going to be this tremendous city on earth that God is going to flatten in an hour, whether you take it literally or with the symbols, either way you end up with the hand of God saying to man, If I don't want it to stand, it won't.
And there's a reason why. It's not random. Nothing's random with God. When God executes judgments, he is totally justified and man is not.
And we are hated by God defying demons and humans for daring to share and to repeat the prophecies and the teachings of Jesus Christ. What I like about this section when Jesus says, You see these buildings, these large stones? And they were enormous. How they got them in there is incredible.
They didn't have a monotonic crane to bring these things in. How they got them in place is incredible. Anyway, when they hear him say, They're not going to remain, they don't scoff. They believe him. They just want to know more information. You have to be impressed with that because so often, you know, they were not the smartest guys around in the earlier stages, but they're developing.
They know that he knows what he's talking about. And so today, any undisturbed stones from this original work are foundational stones. One of them 40 feet by 12 feet by 12 feet.
40 feet long, 12 feet high, 12 feet wide. I mean, what's the tonnage on that? And how did they quarry this thing and move it from the quarry to Jerusalem uphill?
It's just quite remarkable, as I've mentioned, and all of this to be in piles. Verse 3 now, Now as he sat on the Mount of Olives opposite the temple, Peter, James, John, and Andrew asked him privately. So the disciples moved to the Mount of Olives just outside the city, and he's going to turn it into his pulpit. Here are two sets of brothers. Peter and Andrew are brothers, and John and James are brothers. The other disciples aren't part of the initial conversation, but Matthew gives us more information than Mark and Luke as an eyewitness, and you have to believe at some point the others came in. It wasn't that Jesus wouldn't say, get away, this is just for these four guys.
It would expand. So Zechariah, this Mount of Olives that he is now sitting on, Zechariah says that this is going to be the sandals on the ground for Christ when he returns. When he returns with the armies of heaven and will be with him, here's where he is going to touch down. I believe he's going to dispatch us to different places. Maui is where I've already submitted my application. So only at the restaurants are still operating.
Other than that, it just kind of, this beach is everywhere else. Anyway, it's good theology. Lap it up. Zechariah 14 four, and in that day his feet will stand on the Mount of Olives, which faces Jerusalem on the east, and the Mount of Olives shall be split in two from east to west, making a very large valley. Half of the mountain shall move toward the north and half of it toward the south.
So that's going to be quite a dramatic return for everyone. Verse four, tell us when will these things be and what will be the sign when all these things will be fulfilled? I should pause here to say if you don't really have an end times perspective and you're going to be getting one, don't worry about what you're not getting from the first session. We've got several, we've got all the way to the end of this chapter, several weeks of going over the end times.
I would encourage you to try to build a timeline if you don't know where things are. Most of what Christ is going to tell them has to do with after the rapture of the church, and for good reason. There was no such thing as the church at this point. The church was not yet birthed.
There were synagogues, assembly places, but it was not the church as we understand it. That will come later, and so will the teachings on that from the Apostle Paul. We'll get to one in a little bit. But tell us, when will these things be? You have to applaud that they want to know. They didn't just say, wow, that's going to be something, but as they crossed the Kidron Valley, their wheels were turning.
You know, what is he talking about? This place is going to be wiped out. So they did ask, how could they not?
Not one stone left, thrown down. I'm glad, as they said, they asked, and they asked, when and what? When is it going to happen, and what are going to be the signs?
That's a good question. These lessons that come from him will come with warnings. Take heed, watch out.
And you can't miss it when you read this. If you are one to highlight in your Bible, and especially if you're now with tablets and electronic devices, you can highlight without making a mess. You just highlight, take heed, watch, and you understand the Holy Spirit is saying to you, I am emphasizing this, and he does not waste an emphasis. Verse 5, And Jesus answering them began to say, Take heed that no one deceive you.
So he begins his lesson on the end time with a warning about being deceived, tricked. That Satan is working. You know, if you have a problem with someone, another Christian in particular, and you know, you can maybe feel resentment coming up. Maybe it would help.
This has helped me. Maybe it will help to recognize that Satan is messing with this situation. That either he is getting the upper hand on the other one, or he's getting it on you, or both.
He's certainly trying on both. And when you begin to see it that way, then some of the, maybe the resentment and the hurt feelings begin to move down to the bottom, and the spirit gets up over the flesh. Why do Christians do some of the stuff they do? Well, Satan is targeting them. And now I can look at them with love and say, you know, they're victims, no matter what they've done to me. It's something I, again, practice and have found it helpful.
Otherwise, after years of serving, you can become jaded and just, you know, bitter and confused, and that's not what God wants. Anyway, he begins with a warning that will automatically make them pay attention. Watch out, take heed.
It sounds so, you know, academic reading it in the English, take heed, but really, if I translated it, it would have been something like, you better watch out. Anyway, that no one deceives you. So foremost, again, there it is. Paul will write to the church about the end times, and he says, in 2 Thessalonians chapter 2, speaking about when Antichrist, there is coming a central figure, that unlike all the other people who have been against Jesus Christ, this one's going to be just an exaggerated figure against Christ. He will be empowered by Satan, unlike any other human being we've ever heard of. And when the lawless one will be revealed, whom the Lord will consume with the breath of his mouth and destroy with the brightness of his coming.
Well, I like that. Paul is saying, look, before you panic, understand he loses. But before he loses, there are going to be other losers, those who side with him. And he continues, Paul does in 2 Thessalonians chapter 2 verse 9, the coming of the lawless one is according to the working of Satan with all power, signs, and lying wonders.
When John sees him in the revelation, he doesn't call him the lawless one. He says, this guy's a beast. He's a monster. It's not a compliment. We can say that about somebody who may be very strong, but the guy is a beast.
Well, that's flattering. This is not. Humans are not supposed to behave as beast animals in the presence of God or humanity, not like this. And he continues, he says, and with all unrighteous deception, that's how they'll know this is the antichrist.
He'll be doing dirt. He will not be clean like Jesus was. He says, among those who perish, because they like it, they're lapping this up, because they did not receive the love of the truth that they might be saved, which is a constant part of our theology to the lost souls today. And for this reason, God will send them strong delusion that they should believe in the lie that they all may be condemned who did not believe the truth, but had pleasure in unrighteousness.
When you, the believer, you commit some act of sin, some act of unrighteousness, your flesh has pleasure in that, but your spirit hates it. That is a distinction between a lost soul, one who is happily lost for now, and the one who is saved. And so Paul is saying, when he gets the power, deception is going to characterize his work. And Christ is saying here, don't let anybody deceive you. Now he's speaking beyond his disciples, because they're not going to be alive when these things start to really take place. For some of it, a small part of the persecution they'll be here for, but not for what's really coming.
And they've asked for signs and he's going to give it to them. Now just recently, well before I get to that, I think it's important we remember we are not obligated to identify with a deceived culture. We don't have to line up with them. We do not have to apologize for abstaining from the deception that they are gobbling up. We don't identify with the Christ hating culture.
We stand outside of it, not as better people, but certainly as better off people. And we choose to defy the culture by disagreeing with it. And that's how they take it. Now they're trying of course to silence any opposition. You can't even disagree with them. They are determined to force themselves on us and call us rude for not being violated. You just want to say, Lord, can I just have just a few minutes alone with them my way? We can settle this.
And of course the answer is no, not at all. Anyhow, we are here to offer them God and the love of Christ. With truth and love, don't let that become old to you. We are being persecuted.
With this COVID outbreak has come not only, listen, there's a bad virus out there that can kill you. That part is true. But what about all the falsities that came with it, the lies? Okay, I expect that from a world that has an agenda and those who have power now, the upper hand, they are just, they lie every time they talk and they say anything.
You can never tell when they're telling the truth. Well, one thing that has been revealed is how easy Bible-believing Christians can be deceived. I mean deceived into, cave into a panic as the facts begin to come out.
They're not letting it go. This church has lost people because we wouldn't mandate masks. And you're just going to say, okay fine, if you're nervous about it, with a good reason, then watch online. But why turn on the pastor? Why turn on the church? Why not give the benefit of the doubt to the righteous? I mean, you're listening to the news media. When have they ever been honest about anything? For me, in the early stages, I thought, well, there's something to this. Well, there was.
It is a deadly disease or virus that's out there. But then I saw all the leftists really pushing us and I said, you know what? Any team Satan roots for, I'm against.
Anytime Satan gets the ball, now you've got to watch out. And it's just troubling to see that Christians were turning on the church for not sharing the level of fear they had. It's not a reason to turn on your brothers and sisters. So what is my point? My point is this.
This was a dress rehearsal for what's coming. It was global. I don't know of any time in human history where the globe was put under a mandate and it was pulled off.
Everybody, everywhere. I mean, fish were wearing masks. And I mean, Alexander the Great could not do it. The Caesars could not do it. Napoleon could. No one could bring Genghis Khan.
None of the people who were conquerors could get the entire world to do what they wanted. Until now. We're in a global age and that fits into the end time scenario. So beware. Take heed. Don't be gullible.
Don't give in so quickly. When you see the fear meter in your heart going up, that does not give you the right to collapse, to panic. Fear is fear. It's going to do what it's going to do and we are who we are and we're going to fight it with faith. You can't fault anyone for being afraid. But you can begin to raise an eyebrow when they give into that fear and logic is gone.
That becomes panic. And anyway, I hope my point in bringing that up is to say, don't think the warnings Jesus is giving about deception is for some far-off group of believers in the future. It's right now. And we should be telling people this. Verse 6, For many will come in my name, saying, I am he, and will deceive many.
Interesting. He is presupposing his disciples know that the I am he means they're saying they're Messiah. He's admitting he is the Messiah.
And all that goes with it from the Old Testament prophets and what he has expounded on. This is particularly for the Jews. Once the church is gone, this is when it's really going to happen for them. And a lot of them will be converted. A lot of them will be slaughtered. The Jews never had a false Messiah until they rejected the true Messiah.
It's amazing. All the false messiahs came after Calvary and the resurrection. You think that alone would waken them to say, hey, something's spiritual going on here that I'm missing. After Christ, they've had a rash of them. They even had a woman, Eva Frank, claim to be the Messiah, and some of the Jews in those circles accepted that. 2 Timothy 3, Paul putting it to the church, Evil men and imposters will grow worse and worse, deceiving and being deceived.
You read what Paul says, men will be lovers of themselves. And he goes on to itemize what they're going to be. Well, they've always been this way, but during the end times, the end of the end times is all going to be amplified.
Greatly so. The apostate churches are false churches. They will increase. That means there will be no gospel coming from churches because the true church will be raptured, taken out of here, and Christians will not be able to form assemblies because they will be killed for their belief.
Well, how will they be found? Well, now they can track if you get a vaccination. Well, they're going to be able to track if you get the chip or not. And if you do not have it, you are going to get it.
Not the chip. Death. This is promised and elaborated on in Revelation. And so when he says, For many will come in my name, saying, I am he, and will deceive many, this is mainly for the Jews.
The church, of course, it applies, but we continue verse 7. But when you hear of wars and rumors of wars, do not be troubled, for such things must happen, but the end is not yet. Man cannot have lasting peace on earth. He's going to mess it up. War alone is not a signal that the end of human rule on earth is about to stop.
That's what he's telling them. There's going to be wars. That doesn't mean the end is coming. They ask, When will it be?
What is the sign? He's starting off by saying, Well, watch out, and here's some things that's not going to be a sign the end is near. You ask, Well, with all of these earthquakes and pestilence and the horror that's coming, and what has already been as a matter of fact, why does God permit this stuff? Among other reasons, he's providing believers with an opportunity to act out what we profess.
We say that we're going to believe God no matter what, even to the point of death. What about to the point of being fired? What about to the point of being divorced?
What about to the point of being sick? What about to the point of being betrayed? Are you still going to believe him? If you say, Yes, I am, well, you may get a chance to act that out, to prove it. God is not a statistician.
He just sits down and says, Well, these are the statistics. No, this game's going to be played. Truth must be expressed. And when we think, when the world thinks about the end of the world, they think about annihilation of the planet. Well, that will get to, God will get to that, but not first. The first phase is the ending of human rule for a thousand years, thereabout.
And then, not too long after it would seem, then comes the annihilation of the created universe as we know it and the beginning of a new universe, planets that have not even been formed yet by God. Well, and verse 8, For nation will rise against nation and kingdom against kingdom, and there will be earthquakes in various places, and there will be famines and troubles. These are the beginning of sorrows. It's just warming up.
All of this stuff is, these are birth pangs. I'll get to that in a minute, but such is human history. For nation will rise against nation and kingdom against kingdom. 2 Timothy chapter 3, Know this, that in the last days perilous times will come. That's emphatic when he says, Know this, Timothy, perilous times will come.
Still answering the signs. This verse 8 is an expansion of Isaiah 19 verse 2. And there in Isaiah 19, it had local application, in a sense, mainly to Egypt. Here, the Lord picks up the verse and he expands it and gives it end time significance.
And he's saying, that was just sort of a, you know, a dress rehearsal. What's coming is going to match that prophecy in Isaiah that was local, but this one's going to be global. He's going to do the same thing when we get to verse 12 with a verse from Micah. He's going to take a prophecy from Micah that was applicable to the time Micah lived in the prophet, and he's going to say, just like it was in Micah's day, it's going to be worse in the end. And if we get to verse 12, we'll point that out. And there will be earthquakes in various places, so natural occurrences will continue to be natural.
Luke adds this. He says, Pestilences, fearful sights and great signs from heaven. That's as you begin to enter deeper into this. And there will be famines and there will be troubles, which are always the outcome of wars and earthquakes on some level. These are the beginning of sorrows. Not a good start, but sorrows here in the Greek, that word sorrows in the Greek is birth pangs, sudden pains from the contractions going on, the woman experiences in childbirth. It actually is signaling that the pregnancy phase is ending, that the birth is coming. And that is what it is here, too, what Jesus means. This is the beginning of sorrows. It's signaling to you that the end is coming. It begins infrequent and it intensifies. Now, I know, ladies, my understanding is a lot of ladies don't want to hear men talk about pregnancy and birth, because, like, what do we know, right?
Well, I happened to be there when I was born, and I was not impressed with what my mother had to go through. So I am a bit of an expert, too. There you go.
I will have someone else start my truck after service, because I know you women are that serious about that stuff. Thanks for tuning in to Cross-Reference Radio for this study in the book of Mark. Cross-Reference Radio is the teaching ministry of Pastor Rick Gaston of Calvary Chapel Mechanicsville in Virginia. To learn more information about this ministry, visit our website, crossreferenceradio.com. Once you're there, you'll find additional teachings from Pastor Rick. We encourage you to subscribe to our podcast. When you subscribe, you'll be notified of each new edition of Cross-Reference Radio. You can search for Cross-Reference Radio on your favorite podcast app. That's all we have time for today, but we hope you'll join us next time as Pastor Rick continues to teach through the book of Mark, right here on Cross-Reference Radio.
Whisper: medium.en / 2023-08-13 01:23:43 / 2023-08-13 01:33:17 / 10