Kelly Kinder: Good morning, how's everyone.
Kelly Kinder: My name is Kelly, i'm one of the pastors here And it's just so great to get to see you guys and get to share with you this morning.
Kelly Kinder: I want to kind of start with a little story and kind of going back to my childhood, when I was five years old And that time in my life I was really wanting to learn how to swim And I had not learned that yet.
Kelly Kinder: And our neighbor up the street, mr James, had a pool, a neighborhood pool.
Kelly Kinder: He just let all the kids come.
Kelly Kinder: And so one Saturday morning I had just been talking about it and talking I want to learn how to swim And my older brother, who was about, i think, 12, and my sister, who was 14 at the time, said OK, we'll teach you, so let's go before everybody gets there.
Kelly Kinder: So we got up that Saturday morning, went up the street, went to the pool and they walked to the edge and they grabbed my hand and said are you ready to learn to swim?
Kelly Kinder: And they tossed me into the deep end, five years old, and in the middle of my anger and fear.
Kelly Kinder: And getting to the other side, i got.
Kelly Kinder: You would never have seen a more angry five year old kid in your life, but I just I learned to swim And this is a little bit like what it's like when we come to Mark, chapter 13.
Kelly Kinder: We've been in the series on Mark and we're in chapter 13 now, and so it's just a little bit deep and not a little a lot complex passage, and it's the words of Jesus, a prophetic word about the end times, and it just as an introduction to you.
Kelly Kinder: I want to read this from from another preacher, which I'll comment on later in the passage.
Kelly Kinder: But you ready, here we go.
Kelly Kinder: Ladies and gentlemen, brothers and sisters in Christ, today we gather to explore the profound teachings found in Mark, chapter 13.
Kelly Kinder: This chapter provides a unique perspective on the end times, encouraging us to remain faithful in our faith, prepared for trials and watchful for the signs of Jesus return.
Kelly Kinder: In a world filled with uncertainties and challenges, this passage holds timeless truths that will inspire and equip us to navigate the storms of life.
Kelly Kinder: So let us delve into the rich tapestry of Mark 13 and discover the wisdom it offers for our journey of faith.
Kelly Kinder: And that's really true.
Kelly Kinder: So let's pray and ask God to help us open our ears and hearts and minds.
Kelly Kinder: Father, we're just thankful for your word this morning as we get ready to read it.
Kelly Kinder: Father, i pray that you would apply it.
Kelly Kinder: Let us hear every word of Lord and let it go deep into our souls and our spirits.
Kelly Kinder: Help us to understand, lord And Lord, we ask you to change us.
Kelly Kinder: As we even read through the passage, lord, we ask these things in Jesus' name, amen.
Kelly Kinder: So, if you're there, mark 13, we're just going to begin in verse one.
Kelly Kinder: This is a pretty extensive passage, but follow along as I read.
Kelly Kinder: And it says and as he came out of the temple, he, being Jesus, one of his disciples said to him look, teacher, what wonderful stones and what wonderful buildings.
Kelly Kinder: And Jesus said to him do you see these great buildings that will not be left here, one stone upon another that will not be thrown down?
Kelly Kinder: And as he said, on the Mount of Olives, opposite the temple, peter and James and John and Andrew asked him privately tell us when will these things be And what will be the sign when all these things are about to be accomplished?
Kelly Kinder: And Jesus began to say to them see that no one leads you astray.
Kelly Kinder: Many will come in my name saying I am he, and they will lead many astray.
Kelly Kinder: And when you hear of wars and rumors of wars, do not be alarmed.
Kelly Kinder: This must take place, but the end is not yet, for nation will rise against nation and kingdom against kingdom.
Kelly Kinder: There will be earthquakes in various places, there will be famines.
Kelly Kinder: These are but the beginning of the birth pangs.
Kelly Kinder: But be on your guard, for they will deliver you over to councils and you will be beaten in synagogues and you will stand before governors and kings for my sake, to bear witness before them.
Kelly Kinder: And the gospel must first be proclaimed to all nations.
Kelly Kinder: And when they bring you to trial and deliver you over, do not be anxious beforehand what you're to say, but say whatever is given you in that hour, for it is not you who speak, but the Holy Spirit.
Kelly Kinder: And brother will deliver brother over to death, and the father, his child and children will rise against parents and have them put to death, and you will be hated by all for my name's sake.
Kelly Kinder: But the one who endures to the end will be saved.
Kelly Kinder: But when you see the abomination of desolation standing where he ought not to be, let the reader understand.
Kelly Kinder: Then let those who are in Judea flee to the mountains.
Kelly Kinder: Let the one who is in the house top not go down nor enter his house to take anything out, and let the one who is in the field not turn back to take his cloak.
Kelly Kinder: And, alas, for women who are pregnant and for those who are nursing infants in those days, pray that it may not happen winter, for in those days there will be such tribulation as has not been from the beginning of the creation that God created until now and never will be.
Kelly Kinder: And if the Lord had not cut short the days, no human being would be saved.
Kelly Kinder: But for the sake of the elect whom he chose, he shortened the days.
Kelly Kinder: And then, if anyone says, do you look, here is the Christ, or look there he is, do not believe it, for false Christ and false prophets will arise and perform signs and wonders to lead astray, if possible, the elect.
Kelly Kinder: But be on guard.
Kelly Kinder: I have told you all these things beforehand.
Kelly Kinder: But in those days after that tribulation, the sun will be darkened and the moon will not give its light And the stars will be falling from heaven and the powers in the heavens will be shaken.
Kelly Kinder: And then they will see the Son of Man coming in clouds with great power and glory, and then he will send out the angels and gather his elect, from the four winds, from the ends of the earth to the ends of heaven, from the fig tree, learn its lesson.
Kelly Kinder: As soon as its branch becomes tender and puts out its leaves, you know that summer is near.
Kelly Kinder: So also, when you see these things taking place, you know that he is near, at the very gates.
Kelly Kinder: Truly, i say to you this generation will not pass away until all these things take place.
Kelly Kinder: Heaven and earth will pass away, but my words will not pass away.
Kelly Kinder: But concerning that day or that hour, no one knows, not even the angels in heaven, nor the Son, but only the Father.
Kelly Kinder: Be on guard, keep awake, for you do not know when the time will come.
Kelly Kinder: It is like a man going on a journey, when he leaves home and puts his servants in charge, each with his work, and commands the doorkeepers to stay, doorkeepers to stay awake.
Kelly Kinder: Therefore, stay awake, for you do not know when the master of the house will come, in the evening or at midnight, or when the rooster crows, or in the morning, lest he comes suddenly and finds you asleep.
Kelly Kinder: And what I say to you, i say to all stay awake.
Kelly Kinder: And by the look on your faces this morning, those last few verses were pretty appropriate because you look like you're about to fade out right now.
Kelly Kinder: So, as I said, a long passage, complex passage.
Kelly Kinder: Let me just kind of give you a few observations for the text before we get into it.
Kelly Kinder: And this is now day three of Passion Week and Jesus has been going through and discussing and talking with you know, the people in the temple, including those who were opposing to him, and this will be his final extended teaching in the gospel, this gospel of Mark.
Kelly Kinder: It's by far, as I said, the longest block of teaching we find here in the gospel And it really highlights, i think, because it's the longest, that it may be the most important.
Kelly Kinder: All three synoptic gospels Matthew, mark and Luke include it, and so I think the Lord wants us to pay attention to this.
Kelly Kinder: Traditionally it was known as the Olivet Discourse because it's staged up on the top of Mount Olive, the Olive Mountains in there.
Kelly Kinder: It was given by the Lord.
Kelly Kinder: So what we have here is a prophetic, i guess a prophetic teaching Unveiling the Future by the Lord Jesus.
Kelly Kinder: And I want you to understand he doesn't go into all the details that you could find in the scriptures.
Kelly Kinder: There's so many things that connect to this.
Kelly Kinder: He gives basically a big picture for us And it's important.
Kelly Kinder: These are the last things Jesus teaches And that's the subject of eschatology.
Kelly Kinder: Eschatology is the teaching about last things And it's important for us to know because the church, if it's going to be pure in the early church, what made the church was pure is because they were looking forward to Jesus coming again.
Kelly Kinder: So this is our hope, and when you have this hope that Jesus comes, then guess what You want to be ready for it.
Kelly Kinder: And that's really what this passage is all about.
Kelly Kinder: You know, i was just thinking about our culture, and anytime you kind of mention things about end times, messages or last days subjects, everybody is interested, everybody's interested.
Kelly Kinder: It's kind of uncanny.
Kelly Kinder: They'll ignore other things, but this subject seems to catch the attention of even non-Christians.
Kelly Kinder: So we all want to know.
Kelly Kinder: We all want to know about the end.
Kelly Kinder: Just thinking back to scriptures, the prophet Daniel gives a prophecy of the end times.
Kelly Kinder: When we went through that book of Daniel and at the end of it God told Daniel Daniel, seal up the book until the end of time, when many will rush here and there and knowledge will increase.
Kelly Kinder: Well, that's certainly true, isn't it?
Kelly Kinder: And we see there that the angels want to know, because it says how long will it be until these shocking events are over.
Kelly Kinder: One of the angels says that, asks that Daniel wants to know.
Kelly Kinder: He asks how will all this finally end?
Kelly Kinder: And God says to him go your way, daniel, shut the book, you can go your way.
Kelly Kinder: But history is kind of littered with this idea.
Kelly Kinder: Church setters, date setters, i mean everybody wants to find out what the date of the end times is.
Kelly Kinder: And we get this verse in the end of this passage and Jesus himself says it.
Kelly Kinder: But concerning that day or that hour, no one knows.
Kelly Kinder: No one knows, not even the angels in heaven, nor the son, but only the father.
Kelly Kinder: I Don't know, you don't know, only the father knows.
Kelly Kinder: So don't set dates, don't set dates.
Kelly Kinder: I remember back a few years ago, back in 1988, i got this thing in the mail called 88 reasons why the Lord will return, in 1988, by Ed Wison.
Kelly Kinder: I still remember his name.
Kelly Kinder: I kept the book for a long time.
Kelly Kinder: You know it's just kind of like okay, yeah.
Kelly Kinder: But you know people will go to great leagues to find out these things and I want you to understand what Jesus is telling us.
Kelly Kinder: He wants to, wants to move us off of this.
Kelly Kinder: I don't know wrong focus to something else.
Kelly Kinder: We're gonna see what it is.
Kelly Kinder: But even after his resurrection We find an ax 1, verse 7, right before his ascension, and his disciples come to him a final time and they ask these things and he replies The father alone has the authority to set those dates and times.
Kelly Kinder: They are not for you to know And you see, there are some things we're just not meant to know.
Kelly Kinder: So the Bible says the secret things belong to the Lord, our God.
Kelly Kinder: There's children forever.
Kelly Kinder: So it's it's something that we need to to think about, but it's not something we need to make it a right Right off as a hobby horse or something we focus on all the time.
Kelly Kinder: Here's the thing Jesus doesn't dodge this question by these disciples, but he asked us to consider a vastly, vastly more important question and that is are you living fully and Faithfully for Jesus in the here and now?
Kelly Kinder: Because we don't know, we don't know the end date of human history and guess what we should be ready for Christ coming all the time, today and every day.
Kelly Kinder: So let me give you this kind of and kind of just want to go through it, and seven what I just call movements, then they're in just the order as Jesus gives them.
Kelly Kinder: They're concerning the future as they're given to us by him and I've just kind of numbered these To give some thoughts, put some thoughts, hang your thoughts on.
Kelly Kinder: And the first, let's begin with the occasion for these words of Jesus, what I call a disturbing prediction.
Kelly Kinder: A disturbing prediction.
Kelly Kinder: This is in Mark, chapter 1, verse 1.
Kelly Kinder: Mark begins this chapter with Jesus Guess what walking out of the temple for the final time.
Kelly Kinder: And it says, as he came out of the temple and if you recall When Jesus had been, he had come into the temple on Tuesday of the, the other day, the prior day, a Jewish Temple there that morning.
Kelly Kinder: And 11 chapter, chapter 11 or 27, if you want to reference and see when he's walking around in there the false teachers come up to Jesus and they basically try to challenge his authority.
Kelly Kinder: And And Jesus receives after that to tell a story about them and he ends up calling them a tenant farmers Over a failed vineyard.
Kelly Kinder: He goes on to say you don't know the power of the scriptures, and then he also talks about how much of a hypocrite they all are, and he actually gives examples.
Kelly Kinder: He names names if you will.
Kelly Kinder: And So he has a scathing rebuke for these.
Kelly Kinder: He's mentioned, and you can read about it more fully in Matthew 23,.
Kelly Kinder: But as I read that, i see Jesus was bold, wasn't he?
Kelly Kinder: he didn't meant words and he told truth as it needed to be told.
Kelly Kinder: And so, following this rebuke, jesus, as it says here, he comes out of the temple, he makes his exit from the temple and this is the end of his public ministry.
Kelly Kinder: He's walking out, he's leaving it for the last time and And we should see, i think, in this short phrase, more than simply a physical walking out, what he's doing, he's, it's a metaphor for for God departing a failed religious system.
Kelly Kinder: He's acting that out.
Kelly Kinder: So don't miss that.
Kelly Kinder: This is Jesus is making a statement here that God has left the building, Along with the glory that was formerly there.
Kelly Kinder: So if you want to see a fascinating parallel to this, i give you another couple of places.
Kelly Kinder: Under Ezekiel, chapters 10 and 11, it talks about the departed glory of the temple.
Kelly Kinder: Under Solomon's temple, you see, there were two temples Solomon's temple, which was destroyed, and this is the second temple, and Jesus is walking out of it Saying good, god's glory is out of here, I'm out of here and he's walking out.
Kelly Kinder: So just as Jesus is walking out, some of his disciples walk up to him and and it's almost like And it's almost like I just kind of see it as a, as a naive, a little coming.
Kelly Kinder: It's like they're on a field trip or something and say they, they walk up to him and say, do you see how beautiful these buildings are?
Kelly Kinder: and Look, teacher, what wonderful store stones and what wonderful buildings.
Kelly Kinder: And I guess outwardly, the, the temple must have been a Pretty awe-inspiring.
Kelly Kinder: I don't think we have any idea what disappeared to be, because it was really admired.
Kelly Kinder: It was admired in the ancient world, around the world.
Kelly Kinder: Jesus, josephus Compared it to a beautiful snow-capped mountain.
Kelly Kinder: Antacitus, the Jewish historian, a Roman historian, called it immensely opulent.
Kelly Kinder: So this was a.
Kelly Kinder: This was an incredible, incredible place.
Kelly Kinder: According to Josephus, it had stones that were them formed the temple that were Measuring 37 and a half feet long, 12 feet high and 18 feet deep.
Kelly Kinder: Some of the stones weighed more than a 100 tons.
Kelly Kinder: And if you've ever had the chance to go to to Jerusalem and stand at the wailing wall, they have some of these massive Stones which are really not the, the original temple, but it's the, the superstructure, but they're still incredibly large.
Kelly Kinder: This must have been an amazing place.
Kelly Kinder: And While they're owing in over, eyeing over it his disciples, jesus turns around and he makes a startling prediction Do you see, these great buildings, there's not gonna be one stone Left upon one another that will not be thrown down.
Kelly Kinder: And, as Matthew 23, 38 ads, see, your house is left to you desolate.
Kelly Kinder: God has walked out And there's a judgment on what was, what was there?
Kelly Kinder: So Jesus?
Kelly Kinder: and then, at this point, jesus and his disciples make their way, they come away from the temple Mount, they walk down the the incline to the Kidron Valley and they go up the other side, which is on to the Mount of Olives, and There they have a commanding view of the temple, there, sitting themselves down right across from it, 300 feet higher, and so they have a panoramic view of the temple complex, the whole thing.
Kelly Kinder: And this is where Jesus sits down, and, as you know when, when a teacher sits in that day It was it was a sign that he was getting ready to teach, and this is what he does.
Kelly Kinder: Josephus, the Jewish historian, said that from such a vantage point one could look across the Kidron Valley and could see Directly into the entrance of the holy of Holies.
Kelly Kinder: What a, what an incredible view.
Kelly Kinder: So they have this big picture of it.
Kelly Kinder: And so Jesus, disturbing prediction, has left the disciples with a second thing, a burning question, and that is in verses three through thirteen.
Kelly Kinder: Says there, and, as he said, on the Mount of Olives, the opposite the temple, peter and James and John and Andrew Ask him privately, tell us when these things will be and what will be the sign when all these things are about to be accomplished, these things referring back to when is the temple going to be destroyed?
Kelly Kinder: when is the the thing gonna fall to pieces and Everything fall apart?
Kelly Kinder: so it's a two-fold question.
Kelly Kinder: Think about it.
Kelly Kinder: When, in other words, jesus give us a timetable?
Kelly Kinder: and He also asked, they ask what?
Kelly Kinder: give us a sign so that we'll know that we're close to the end?
Kelly Kinder: It's the same question everybody asked today when and what.
Kelly Kinder: And, by the way, to me the odd thing is that they didn't ask why.
Kelly Kinder: Why it was the temple even being destroyed in the first place, because they had failed to carry out and be obedient to the, to the mission that God had called the Jewish people to, he called Israel to, and so that's why it's a judgment.
Kelly Kinder: And Jesus responds to the prophetic, to their question, with this prophetic answer describing Signs that all begin to occur even in their own lifetimes, especially in verses three through four, thirteen all of these things, these things Underline, those words, indicate maybe just the opposite of what you might expect, but he says at the very end of that the end is not yet.
Kelly Kinder: The end is not yet.
Kelly Kinder: So it's interesting me.
Kelly Kinder: A lot of times we'll point out things in the world around us and we'll go hmm, i've heard people say to me Do you think this?
Kelly Kinder: we're close to the end?
Kelly Kinder: all these things going on around us, all this chaos and and Violence and everything in the world, do you think this is the end?
Kelly Kinder: Well, let me just Bring us back to what he told these disciples.
Kelly Kinder: In verses four through eight, he mentions Several things that were going on.
Kelly Kinder: Number one, spiritual deception.
Kelly Kinder: Number two, global conflict.
Kelly Kinder: Number three, natural disasters.
Kelly Kinder: And number four, social disorder Any different than now.
Kelly Kinder: And so he's trying to get them to see, you know, to get their focus on some other things.
Kelly Kinder: These are all going on, these are gonna happen.
Kelly Kinder: And in verses nine through thirteen, jesus predicts persecution and even martyrdom for one's faith.
Kelly Kinder: Still going on.
Kelly Kinder: Yeah, so this has been going on from the time he predicted it to even our day, and describing these things as what he calls them, the beginning of birth, pangs, and and I think this is a really helpful picture, a Word picture here for us for several reasons.
Kelly Kinder: First, is that when you talk about the beginning of the pains at the beginning, it implies that the, the famine, the war, the earthquakes they do have some connection to the end, but they don't necessarily mean that we're at the end, right?
Kelly Kinder: so You know, it made me think back to our days when we had, you know, we had five children, and those times when My wife was pregnant and there were things that that were called False labor pains, false labor pains.
Kelly Kinder: And when things start out, you think, okay, we're gonna have a baby.
Kelly Kinder: Well, it could be two or three days later.
Kelly Kinder: I mean, you know, it could be a long time.
Kelly Kinder: The pains are not always indicative of the timing, right?
Kelly Kinder: So this is kind of what Jesus is getting at.
Kelly Kinder: The second thing that the labor pains analogy gives us is birth.
Kelly Kinder: It is one of the most painful experiences that I think women can go through, i will say, unless you've had a kidney stone, and although that's another story, no one to talk about that.
Kelly Kinder: But here's the thing when that, when the end does come, it will be very painful for all of humanity.
Kelly Kinder: And These sorrows that he talks about are experienced all through history.
Kelly Kinder: They just get more frequent and more painful, and that's true with the birth, birth process.
Kelly Kinder: The pains increase in frequency and intensity, until Jesus returns in his power in glory.
Kelly Kinder: Well, there's a third thing I want you to see from these this analogy of the birth pains, the fruit that comes from it, the fruit of all that labor pain Guess what?
Kelly Kinder: It's something beautiful, isn't it?
Kelly Kinder: All that pain culminates in joy and just celebration of a new life.
Kelly Kinder: And so this picture that Jesus gives us here, it looks beyond the pain that we experience in the world that those disciples were going to see to a kingdom that was going to come out of it, and the kingdom of Christ.
Kelly Kinder: And here's the thing about waiting for birth.
Kelly Kinder: You know, unless you get a C-section or something like that, you don't know when that birth is going to be.
Kelly Kinder: No doctor can predict that, no man can predict that, only God.
Kelly Kinder: There's a time to be born, he says.
Kelly Kinder: And so this is the same thing.
Kelly Kinder: When Jesus looks at the end, he's talking about this as an analogy to the birth pain.
Kelly Kinder: So Jesus is teaching that the destruction of the temple is a paradigm of something bigger.
Kelly Kinder: It says something that is future and a pattern.
Kelly Kinder: The way we should think about the end of the age is it illustrates the same thing.
Kelly Kinder: This is what he's getting at in these verses.
Kelly Kinder: So what am I saying?
Kelly Kinder: The destruction of the temple is a turning point in the history of salvation.
Kelly Kinder: Don't miss this.
Kelly Kinder: Don't dismiss or make light of the fact that the temple is going away.
Kelly Kinder: You say, what does that have to do with me?
Kelly Kinder: Well, everything, if you want to be a follower of Christ, because it means the kingdom has come to you, because something else has gone away.
Kelly Kinder: That's old and he's brought something new.
Kelly Kinder: And guess what?
Kelly Kinder: God does not dwell in temples made of hands that people made.
Kelly Kinder: Bible says that.
Kelly Kinder: Where does he dwell?
Kelly Kinder: He now dwells in us, and that's a wonderful thing, right?
Kelly Kinder: So this is a good thing, he says, don't?
Kelly Kinder: he just kind of warns his disciples then, when you see all these things around you and going around you, don't be let astray, don't be alarmed, don't be anxious, but be on your guard and endure to the very end.
Kelly Kinder: So, which means Christians?
Kelly Kinder: Christians should be the most stable people in all the world.
Kelly Kinder: When you see all your friends and family and neighbors talking about these things, you should be the person who carries the peace, because you have Jesus and you know where this is headed and where it's going.
Kelly Kinder: When everything seems to be falling apart, when everyone is stressed out, you know the believer should carry that testimony within them, and this is what Jesus is getting at Everybody.
Kelly Kinder: Everybody wants to know the future so they can prepare for it.
Kelly Kinder: You know why?
Kelly Kinder: I think that is.
Kelly Kinder: I thought about this this week.
Kelly Kinder: Everybody wants to know.
Kelly Kinder: I want to know this.
Kelly Kinder: It's because I mean, you think about it.
Kelly Kinder: Whole ministries are based on the subject of the end times, whole websites are devoted to it, books, reams of books, have been written about it, books are being given about it, and there's this wild numbers of speculations, many of them that don't even don't even consult the Bible.
Kelly Kinder: But here's the thing Why do we want to know the end?
Kelly Kinder: Because we fear.
Kelly Kinder: We fear what may come our way, and if we can control it, then we won't have to fear it, and I think that's what's driving so many of these initiatives like I mean you think about some things in the world, like climate change and Bill Gates and all those things he's doing, gender issues.
Kelly Kinder: It's fear.
Kelly Kinder: If I can control it, then I won't have to fear it.
Kelly Kinder: But the Christian has nothing to fear.
Kelly Kinder: He has nothing to fear.
Kelly Kinder: The fact is, i would say, we are living in terrible times.
Kelly Kinder: We are Second Timothy 3 says it like this where men and women love themselves, love themselves most, love money, are boastful, arrogant, abusive, disobedient to their parents, ungrateful, unholy, unloving, unforgiving, slanderous, without self-control, lovers of pleasure rather than lovers of God, and much, much more.
Kelly Kinder: And you probably see that, just like I do.
Kelly Kinder: The birth pains are getting stronger and more frequent, stronger and more frequent.
Kelly Kinder: Jesus is basically saying to these followers, as he is to us in verse 7, stop whining in fear.
Kelly Kinder: Literally, that's what it says Stop whining in fear, don't get sidetracked by these things.
Kelly Kinder: Keep your wits about you, you of all people, christian, because you're the witness to this world in a terrible, in terrible times, and I think it's easy for us to get sidetracked and to misinterpret the turbulent affairs of history, because it can get confusing confusing for all of us, in fact.
Kelly Kinder: The signs of the times, though, may be the greatest time for you and me to share Christ, since even non-Christians are paying attention to these things.
Kelly Kinder: So now we move from a disturbing prediction by Jesus regarding the destruction of the temple, and then he goes on to make these prophetic statements about the times as something more specific, because it's, thirdly, the trigger for the end.
Kelly Kinder: The trigger for the end in verses 14 through 18.
Kelly Kinder: He says but when you see the abomination of desolation standing where he ought not to be, let the reader understand.
Kelly Kinder: Then let those who are in Judea flee, and this kind of pulls together how Jesus' prophetic word functions in this passage.
Kelly Kinder: And whenever you see and interpret the Bible, here's the thing the Holy Spirit.
Kelly Kinder: Through the Bible, the biblical text, he has a message that is meant for that context, in other words of those disciples in that day, as he always does, and he also has a message for us, in our context, and so he's speaking a word to us, and this is true in every passage of the Bible.
Kelly Kinder: When you try to understand the Bible, so to approach this correctly, we first need to see what it meant to them, to see how it applies to us.
Kelly Kinder: Does that make sense?
Kelly Kinder: So who or what in the world is this abomination of desolation?
Kelly Kinder: You heard the phrase, i'm sure, and he puts in parentheses there let the reader understand And Jesus didn't write that.
Kelly Kinder: This is an editor who is rewriting the words of Mark and he inserts this phrase let the reader understand.
Kelly Kinder: What is that?
Kelly Kinder: Well, it's a cryptic statement and it kind of is a way of communicating about something or someone without naming names.
Kelly Kinder: You put it that way.
Kelly Kinder: If you said you know, i don't know, do you kind of get what I'm saying?
Kelly Kinder: You kind of know what somebody's talking about, because they know the situation as well as you and you don't want to say too much, and this was likely intended to give the reader just enough information to help them put together what's going on.
Kelly Kinder: So, do you get this?
Kelly Kinder: You know what I'm talking about?
Kelly Kinder: And you think about.
Kelly Kinder: This was a time when believers were literally living in holes in the ground because they feared for the life because of the persecution that was occurring.
Kelly Kinder: And so if, really, if I name names, i might put my life at risk, and so I'm just kind of going to give you a hint.
Kelly Kinder: So the editor here is like a spiritual whistleblower, if you will.
Kelly Kinder: He's trying to give them hints without giving himself away.
Kelly Kinder: So, and here's where it helps to compare scripture with scripture, which gives us some clues, and let me give you just a couple of these, which will hopefully point us in the right direction.
Kelly Kinder: One of these is Matthew 24, 15 and 16.
Kelly Kinder: You want to write that reference.
Kelly Kinder: It says so when you see the abomination of desolation spoken of by the prophet Daniel standing the holy place, let the reader understand and let those who were in Judea flee to the mountain.
Kelly Kinder: And so what we're reading here is about the same as Mark's, except he adds this one important piece of information that it was spoken of by the prophet Daniel.
Kelly Kinder: So what do we do?
Kelly Kinder: We go back and look at the prophet Daniel.
Kelly Kinder: Daniel And I'll give you some more references Daniel 927, 1131, 1211, as well as Jewish history, all speak of a person who would ultimately defile and profane the Jewish temple.
Kelly Kinder: And this was literally fulfilled in 167 BC, when the Syrian general Antiochus came in and he erected an altar of Zeus on the altar of burnt offering And he sacrificed a pig on it, which led to the Jewish Maccabean revolt.
Kelly Kinder: And you go back in history and you see all this that happened.
Kelly Kinder: This was a famous event that happened, but that person in that event was called the Abomination of Desolation.
Kelly Kinder: And then I'll just read it to you from Maccabean It says now, on the 15th day of Chislev, in the 145th year, they erected a desolating sacrilege on the altar of burnt offering.
Kelly Kinder: They also built altars in the surrounding towns of Judah.
Kelly Kinder: This is what happened back in 167 BC.
Kelly Kinder: Abomination of Desolation.
Kelly Kinder: And the point that Jesus is making, he's hinting at this, is that this, what he's just described to these disciples, is like that.
Kelly Kinder: So in the context, for these first readers, this is sort of like a sign that need to be watching for.
Kelly Kinder: The question is, who is this person who is just really leads up to the destruction of the temple, who is called the abomination of desolation?
Kelly Kinder: Now, who is this?
Kelly Kinder: now Jesus.
Kelly Kinder: And again we compare scripture with scripture.
Kelly Kinder: The Luke's Gospel helps us here.
Kelly Kinder: Luke 20, 21,.
Kelly Kinder: It says but when you see Jerusalem surrounded by armies, then know that its desolation has come near.
Kelly Kinder: Then let those who were in Judea flee to the mountains.
Kelly Kinder: And then in Luke 19, verse 43, for the days will come upon you when your enemies will set up a barricade around you and surround you, and then and him you in on every side.
Kelly Kinder: And so what we know?
Kelly Kinder: we have the benefit of looking back from our side, back to Jesus day, and we know this is exactly what happened.
Kelly Kinder: In 70 AD, the Roman armies surrounded Jerusalem and leveled Jerusalem and the temple to the ground.
Kelly Kinder: So, as one writer put it, jesus words would be fulfilled when the Romans, the human means of divine wrath, erected scaffolds around the walls of the temple And its buildings, fill them with wood and other flammable material and set them on fire.
Kelly Kinder: The intense heat from the fires caused the stones to crumble.
Kelly Kinder: After it was further dismantled and sifted to find all the melted gold, the rubble.
Kelly Kinder: The gold was from the temple.
Kelly Kinder: The rubble was thrown down into the Kidron Valley.
Kelly Kinder: Only the huge foundation stones remained largely intact.
Kelly Kinder: Those stones, however, were not part of the temple itself, but supports for the retaining wall.
Kelly Kinder: So he's given this second.
Kelly Kinder: This is the abomination of desolation.
Kelly Kinder: And who was it?
Kelly Kinder: Well, we know now that it was the Roman general, emperor Titus, and that's a historical fact just like the other.
Kelly Kinder: So Jesus is building for us a pattern for the next one.
Kelly Kinder: Here's where the passage gets difficult to follow, because he's still talking about the abomination of desolation, and even though the destruction under Titus fits in some ways.
Kelly Kinder: In other ways you look at this passage and it just doesn't fit.
Kelly Kinder: It doesn't fit Jesus' teaching about the destruction of the temple that he's just told the disciples about 70 AD sort of morphs.
Kelly Kinder: It transitions, it moves into something about the future, and sometimes we can't detect it so easily when he's talking about their day and a future day.
Kelly Kinder: So it functions sort of as a symbol of something that's still coming.
Kelly Kinder: It's still coming.
Kelly Kinder: It's still coming for us.
Kelly Kinder: The destruction of the temple in AD didn't totally fulfill Jesus' prophecies on all of it discourse.
Kelly Kinder: Rather, they're almost like a spurgeon said, they're like a rehearsal for what's to come.
Kelly Kinder: That's what's going on.
Kelly Kinder: So who then is this future abomination of desolation?
Kelly Kinder: I don't know.
Kelly Kinder: I think I can tell you maybe at least a little bit of a hint.
Kelly Kinder: To do that we have to see it in 2 Thessalonians 2, 3 and 4.
Kelly Kinder: And this is why I say you have to compare scripture with scripture to understand scripture, a real important principle.
Kelly Kinder: We have our description of the person, and he's someone you may have heard the name of.
Kelly Kinder: He's called the man of lawlessness.
Kelly Kinder: The man of lawlessness, and this is a description of his character, because he openly what Defies the law.
Kelly Kinder: And so here it is in 2 Thessalonians, 2, 3 and 4.
Kelly Kinder: No one deceive you in any way, for that day will not come unless the rebellion comes first And the man of lawlessness is revealed, the son of destruction, who opposes and exalts himself against every so-called God or object of worship, so that he takes his seat in the temple of God, proclaiming himself to be God.
Kelly Kinder: He's like all the others in some ways, but this is the abomination of desolation, the end times.
Kelly Kinder: The man of lawlessness is none other than the Antichrist And, as you know, through history we've had many people who could be termed, many who are called Antichrist.
Kelly Kinder: But this is the Antichrist.
Kelly Kinder: This is the Antichrist because he is literally controlled by Satan.
Kelly Kinder: And you think about this person's coming on the scene and he's going to be coming in the future.
Kelly Kinder: He's slick, he's charismatic, he's brilliant, he's arrogant.
Kelly Kinder: And the most amazing thing is that the world will pay attention to him.
Kelly Kinder: They will demand he will demand it to be worshiped.
Kelly Kinder: He'll crave that.
Kelly Kinder: He will displace all the others who oppose him to make himself preeminent.
Kelly Kinder: And this is really amazing because you think of the whole world and all of its religions.
Kelly Kinder: They all come together to kind of welcome this man to his new position, because he promotes what He promotes peace in the midst of chaos, something the world at that time will be desperate for, and here will be a person who says I have the answer And they're all going to listen to him.
Kelly Kinder: What a powerful delusion.
Kelly Kinder: Well, you know the vast capability to be deceived for us.
Kelly Kinder: It seems to be easier and easier for us to be deceived, and I think it couldn't be better illustrated than with the advent of the sophisticated what you know as artificial intelligence.
Kelly Kinder: I was looking last night and saw last night for the first time.
Kelly Kinder: Hundreds of people attended a church service near Nuremberg, germany, and it was generated almost entirely by artificial intelligence.
Kelly Kinder: So what they had?
Kelly Kinder: they had this screen up at the front.
Kelly Kinder: They had a church service with about 300 people And the artificial intelligence service, which is called ChatGPT, was put on display.
Kelly Kinder: Chatgpt, if you're unfamiliar, is a software application that sort of mimics human thought and conversation And even voice, so that it can do it.
Kelly Kinder: But it's normally online And this place it was in a live setting with a screen up in front, and this ChatGPT has functioned instead of the preacher And so they're listening to a sermon that had come up 98% of it by this artificial intelligence service.
Kelly Kinder: So they displayed that had 40 minutes of prayer, music, sermons and blessings.
Kelly Kinder: And most notably I thought it was interesting this was during the week of a religious week And this was one of the emphasis And it was the week was entitled Now is the Time.
Kelly Kinder: Now is the Time.
Kelly Kinder: So I just think you know it's so easy for us to be deceived.
Kelly Kinder: We are deceived just by ourselves and the enemy's devices and schemes to get us off track and not know the truth.
Kelly Kinder: But it's going to be very difficult, he says.
Kelly Kinder: Even the elect could be deceived And I think it could be anything like this.
Kelly Kinder: So I actually.
Kelly Kinder: This is why I said I wanted to give you an introduction from another preacher.
Kelly Kinder: This morning I read that That was from ChatGPT.
Kelly Kinder: I didn't use it for my sermon, i just want to let you know that.
Kelly Kinder: But I asked my son last night.
Kelly Kinder: I said would you do me a favor and would you have ChatGPT write the message from Mark 13?
Kelly Kinder: He sent it back in like a minute.
Kelly Kinder: It took the ChatGPT about 15 seconds to write the full message And I was amazed and shocked, depressed because it was better than mine.
Kelly Kinder: Well, you know, i'm really teasing.
Kelly Kinder: It really was well done and it kind of gives new meaning to how should they hear without a preacher?
Kelly Kinder: you know, there's something about this technology that that is devoid of one thing the Spirit of God.
Kelly Kinder: So it's important.
Kelly Kinder: Here's the thing the man of lawlessness will coincide, coincide with some things that we should be looking for.
Kelly Kinder: Number one you could say you can write these down and this is all in second Thessalonians.
Kelly Kinder: Number one unchecked lawlessness.
Kelly Kinder: What does that exactly mean?
Kelly Kinder: Well, i don't know.
Kelly Kinder: It says it's a mystery, the mystery of lawlessness.
Kelly Kinder: In other words, why is all this lawlessness occurring?
Kelly Kinder: because of the man of lawlessness getting ready to be on the scene.
Kelly Kinder: It may not be now, but the precursors could be coming, could be here.
Kelly Kinder: Number two the time what he calls of the rebellion, or, your version may say, the apostasy, which is a notable departure from the biblical gospel by those who we might have thought were Christians but have proved not to be at all.
Kelly Kinder: In fact, they've left the faith.
Kelly Kinder: People that you admired, people you listened to and heard preach, great sermons who've walked away from the faith and no longer preach the gospel.
Kelly Kinder: D Edmund Hebert describes this as a worldwide anti-God movement that will be so universal as to earn for itself a special designation.
Kelly Kinder: The apostasy, lawlessness, rebellion.
Kelly Kinder: And then the third thing false signs and wonders.
Kelly Kinder: And the caution there for us folks is that we want to see something so bad that will ignore truth for the experience.
Kelly Kinder: Be careful, be careful.
Kelly Kinder: Jesus prophecy moves us now from this evil human figure to the fourth thing, an unparalleled time of terror, in verses 19 through 23.
Kelly Kinder: He says, for in those days there will be such tribulation as it has not been from the beginning of the creation that God created until now and never will be.
Kelly Kinder: And if the Lord did not cut short the days, no human being would be saved.
Kelly Kinder: But for the sake of the elect whom he chose, he shortened the days.
Kelly Kinder: The reference in verses 19 and 20 is to what The great tribulation, he says, in those days.
Kelly Kinder: And so you have this this time that the disciples are talking about, to those days, which is the future into the world.
Kelly Kinder: Jesus is obviously describing something that's a.
Kelly Kinder: It's on an unbelievably larger and more horrific scale than what he started out with, just the destruction of Jerusalem in the temple.
Kelly Kinder: Look at that word tribulation, the word there in Greek phthipsis, a word which means to crush, to press together, to him in or squeeze.
Kelly Kinder: This will be a time of incredible pressure.
Kelly Kinder: You live in that day.
Kelly Kinder: You talk about pressure now.
Kelly Kinder: You can't imagine what pressure is going to be Time of incredible pressure and difficulty, a time of judgment.
Kelly Kinder: Why this is pressure?
Kelly Kinder: because a judgment of God in the earth and it's a time of incredible terror And it will be so bad.
Kelly Kinder: Here it says that God will cut it off.
Kelly Kinder: The word is the word for amputate.
Kelly Kinder: He just cuts it off because if he, if he didn't, no one will survive it.
Kelly Kinder: So he'll limit that.
Kelly Kinder: And as you look from other scriptures, it's this tribulation period.
Kelly Kinder: He'll cut it off at three and a half years.
Kelly Kinder: And then, following that tribulation, as I say, i'm giving you big picture stuff.
Kelly Kinder: There's so much in the scriptures that point to this.
Kelly Kinder: He's giving us the big picture he gives to the greatest thing He's coming in the clouds.
Kelly Kinder: He's coming in the clouds verses 24 through 27.
Kelly Kinder: He's, but in those days after that tribulation that is the great tribulation the sun will be dark and the moon will not give its light and the stars will be falling from heaven and the powers in the heavens will be shaken and then they will see the Son of Man coming in clouds with great power and glory, and then he will send out the angels and gather his elect from the forewinds, from the ends of the earth to the ends of heaven.
Kelly Kinder: This first part of these verses, i think, is more than just mere metaphor or apocalyptic language, last day's language.
Kelly Kinder: His coming is gonna be preceded by frightening cosmic events.
Kelly Kinder: And you think about what he's saying here.
Kelly Kinder: The lights that God created sun, moon, stars will all go dark, be complete darkness.
Kelly Kinder: God's created order, which is held together by His Word, according to Colossians, it will begin to all begin to fall apart.
Kelly Kinder: Can you imagine gravity ceasing to exist and planets flying through and just all kinds of chaos?
Kelly Kinder: You can read more about that in Revelation 6 through 18.
Kelly Kinder: Describes it there.
Kelly Kinder: We can hardly.
Kelly Kinder: We can hardly imagine how terrible this will be.
Kelly Kinder: But I want you to circle some words there on your notes.
Kelly Kinder: But but aren't you glad that this is there?
Kelly Kinder: The supreme sign is the coming of the Son of Man.
Kelly Kinder: This is the grand finale, grand finale of the gospel that's preached by Jesus, because it is our future hope.
Kelly Kinder: So we could get really discouraged when we see all these things coming, but if our hope and our eyes are on Jesus, we know where this is going.
Kelly Kinder: So don't be discouraged when you hear these things.
Kelly Kinder: Listen.
Kelly Kinder: When He comes, humanity will no longer lord it over one another.
Kelly Kinder: All the authorities, the kings of the earth will fall and they'll bow down at the feet of the Lord Jesus.
Kelly Kinder: All the authorities in the heavenlies will have to acknowledge that Jesus is Lord of all.
Kelly Kinder: They'll all be shaken.
Kelly Kinder: Every eye will see Him.
Kelly Kinder: And when He comes, guess what else?
Kelly Kinder: He's gonna gather every one of us who belong to Him from the four corners of the earth and bring us all together to be with Him.
Kelly Kinder: Yeah, thank you, lord Jesus.
Kelly Kinder: He then goes on.
Kelly Kinder: Has two other things He tells the disciples that are important for us to hear this morning.
Kelly Kinder: He brings an analogy to this prophetic timeline in the lesson of the fig tree, in verses 28 through 31.
Kelly Kinder: He says from the fig tree learn its lesson as soon as its branch becomes tender and puts out its leaves.
Kelly Kinder: You know that summer is near.
Kelly Kinder: So consider this analogy here.
Kelly Kinder: We know, for example, that fig trees, they lose their leaves in winter and when things warm up in late spring only in late spring, the buds pop out on the branches and leaves begin to form.
Kelly Kinder: So Jesus is using the fig tree, really, as an illustration to tell His disciples to do what?
Kelly Kinder: Get ready, get ready.
Kelly Kinder: When the leaves come out on the fig tree He says you know that summer is near And, jesus, i am right at the door.
Kelly Kinder: So the lesson that Jesus is telling applies to those disciples and it applies to us as well.
Kelly Kinder: What's the lesson?
Kelly Kinder: Summer is coming, summer is coming, summer is coming, summer is coming.
Kelly Kinder: And we learned that lesson.
Kelly Kinder: See, the Bible says at the end of days, it will be just like it was in the days of Noah People will be eating, drinking, marrying and getting married.
Kelly Kinder: They'll be all caught up in their own stuff, so caught up, in fact, that they lose sight of the one they're waiting for and the one that they want to be prepared for, whose name is Jesus.
Kelly Kinder: But then it will be too late when Jesus comes.
Kelly Kinder: If you haven't prepared beforehand, if you don't know Christ, today, it'll be too late.
Kelly Kinder: Just like it was in the days of Noah, when the Ark, the doors were closed.
Kelly Kinder: They never paid any attention to the, the eight little people, noah's family, who got inside the Ark because of God's promise and they ignored it.
Kelly Kinder: They were drowned by the flood and only eight people were saved.
Kelly Kinder: And that's the way it'll be at the end of days.
Kelly Kinder: If you don't know Jesus, you'll be out and no way in.
Kelly Kinder: You'll be drowned by what's coming.
Kelly Kinder: But if you know Christ, you prepare for Christ, you're ready for His coming, you prepare for it, you want to be ready.
Kelly Kinder: Jesus makes a final point in this prophecy No one knows that day, verses 32 through 37.
Kelly Kinder: But concerning that day or that hour, no one knows, not even the angels in heaven, nor the Son, but only the Father.
Kelly Kinder: And drop down to verse 37.
Kelly Kinder: And what I say to you, i say to all stay awake, stay awake.
Kelly Kinder: Back when I was gosh, i was still around five or six years old.
Kelly Kinder: I still remember this.
Kelly Kinder: I admired my older brother, who was 12 or 13 at the time, and my dad, who was in the refrigeration business.
Kelly Kinder: He had a place over off of Western Avenue, where the original Trinity really was right next door and on Deedrick Avenue, and that summer he had asked.
Kelly Kinder: As my older brother got out of school, he said you want to come over and work for us, work with me and learn what I do.
Kelly Kinder: And so he went over that day and I think my brother had been really just tired out and tuckered out from the from this, i guess, the school year, but he decided to go.
Kelly Kinder: He said, yeah, i'll work.
Kelly Kinder: And so the day went on and about lunchtime they decided they calling out and they think he's back.
Kelly Kinder: My brother has been back working on his job they had given him to do.
Kelly Kinder: And they said where's?
Kelly Kinder: where's David?
Kelly Kinder: And my uncle, who worked with my dad, says I don't know, i haven't seen him.
Kelly Kinder: So they began to call out David, david, where are you?
Kelly Kinder: And this went on for a little bit and they were starting to look around and a little getting a little worried, until my uncle went over.
Kelly Kinder: His name was Herm.
Kelly Kinder: He walked over and he looked and there was a box in the corner and it had old, i guess, materials that were covering this box.
Kelly Kinder: He happened to pick it up and there was my brother in the bottom of the box asleep.
Kelly Kinder: Here he is, and he was just so tired he had kind of wandered over there and laid down in the box and went to sleep.
Kelly Kinder: We still laugh about that, folks.
Kelly Kinder: I think it's a time for us to, in analogy to get up, to not sleep, to pay attention.
Kelly Kinder: This is what matters right now to be found in him, to be doing the work he's called us to do, and 1 John, 2, 28 says it like this.
Kelly Kinder: And now, little children abide in him so that when he appears, we may have confidence and not shrink from him in shame at his coming.
Kelly Kinder: If he were to return in the next moment, just want to ask if he were to return the next moment, in what state would he find each of us?
Kelly Kinder: It's a sobering question, and so I want to leave you with these questions as we go, and I want to pray for us.
Kelly Kinder: So we ask ourselves these questions, think about these each of us.
Kelly Kinder: Am I abiding right now in fellowship with Christ?
Kelly Kinder: Second thing am I living fully obedient, in everything that I know, to Christ?
Kelly Kinder: Am I living in obedience to Christ right now?
Kelly Kinder: Third thing am I living for Christ?
Kelly Kinder: Is Christ my passion or do I have other side issues, side passions?
Kelly Kinder: Jesus is he number one in my life?
Kelly Kinder: And then the last one am I waiting for Christ?
Kelly Kinder: Do you look forward to his coming or do you?
Kelly Kinder: do you think about the end times and Jesus coming and go.
Kelly Kinder: I'm not ready for that.
Kelly Kinder: And if you say no, if not, why not?
Kelly Kinder: If you look at your life and your lifestyle and all the things that you answer these questions by, and you need to make changes, i need to make changes.
Kelly Kinder: Let's think about doing that, because this is not.
Kelly Kinder: This is real stuff, folks.
Kelly Kinder: We don't want to be ashamed that his coming, because he is coming back and it's going to be wonderful.
Kelly Kinder: Let me pray for us, father.
Kelly Kinder: We're so thankful for your coming and just to know that, lord, we're not left.
Kelly Kinder: We're not left behind, lord, we're in our relationship with you, we're going to be with you and we look forward to that day.
Kelly Kinder: But, lord, we live in a world that's difficult and the things we see around us concern us greatly.
Kelly Kinder: Lord, help us to put our trust in you and everything and every day.
Kelly Kinder: Help us to live one day at a time, knowing that we can put our trust in you and you.
Kelly Kinder: We don't have to fear, because you've got us.
Kelly Kinder: You hold us in your hand, lord, and I pray for every one of us and including myself, lord, that we will be ready, prepared to meet you when you come, making the changes, the adjustments we need to make, and so, holy Spirit, even right now, i pray for every person in this room that you would speak to our hearts.
Kelly Kinder: The things that need to be changed, need to be adjusted to be in right relationship with you.
Kelly Kinder: In Jesus name, we ask amen.