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

Think for a minute about items that are stamped with an expiration date, things like milk or eggs. Today on Truth for Life, Alistair Begg explains that the heavens, the earth, even you and I have a shelf life as well. We're beginning a study in Mark's Gospel in chapter 13. We're continuing a message titled, The Coming of the Son of Man. The patience of God is not infinite.

It is finite. And there will be an end to his patience. And on that day when his patience ends, then these things that are portending this drama will be seen in all of their fullness. Without the restraining hand of common grace, we couldn't manage to live for a nanosecond in contemporary America. For it is the restraining hand of grace which prevents it from absolutely decaying to the point of extinction.

Mattia. The Creator has so constituted humankind that sin progressively makes people less human and therefore less humane. Sin makes people less human and therefore less humane.

The process, however, is not allowed to run its logical course in the logical way, or else the race would have perished as soon as sin entered into the world. The Lord remains sovereign, operating his own rules, directing, restraining, prompting, but the time will come—the day of the Lord—when, in a climactic way, sin will take the stage as the total destroyer it always is, and sinful human beings who for so long have determined their own destiny without God will be left and indeed directed to do so. Then, he says, then the Son of Man will be seen coming in the clouds with great power and glory. 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. 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'm not convinced of that. You might be.

I'm not. I think that even if there is that foreshadowing of it in the notion of the ascension, or the typifying of it, if you like, that we still have to see in this the return of Jesus Christ. Even just the phraseology, coming in the clouds with great glory. I know it fits Daniel 7, but it also fits, why are you folks standing looking up into heaven? Don't you realize that he will come in the same way that he was taken from you up into heaven? And what did they just witness? They had witnessed the fact that he was caught up into the clouds. And now he returns. But then, how do the angels gather his elect from the four winds and from the ends of the earth to the ends of heaven?

You ever just look at that? That's why I chose that hymn. 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 already… 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 could 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—a 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 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 29 and 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 gonna 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 gonna freak out and get out of control, and we don't know what's gonna happen to us next. So we have to go to earthworks 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 gonna 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 gonna 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 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 mother's 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 sixties 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 what we tried to say last week—namely, 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 of the Lord endures forever. When the Son of Man returns, all that's wrong will be made right. What a great promise to look forward to as we study Mark's gospel with Alistair Begg on Truth for Life. Alistair will be back in just a minute to close with prayer, so please keep listening. The promise that all will be made right, that's the hope we want to share with people through this daily program.

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Our address is post office box 398000, Cleveland, Ohio 44139. Now, here's Alistair to close in prayer. 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. I'm Bob Lapine and I want to remind you, if you have been enjoying our study together in the Gospel According to Mark, you can own Alistair's entire series on the Gospel According to Mark. It's available on a USB drive.

It's a comprehensive study. It includes 87 messages and it's a perfect way to draw nearer to Jesus in the months ahead as you listen at your own pace, maybe even as a part of your daily commute. You can order your Gospel According to Mark USB drive at truthforlife.org or tap the image you see on your mobile app.

The USB is just $5 and the shipping is free. Tomorrow we'll conclude our series in Mark's Gospel with a message titled A Wake-Up Call. We'll be looking at what Scripture says about preparing for Jesus' return. The Bible teaching of Alistair Begg is furnished by Truth for Life where the Learning is for Living.