Preached 3 December 2023 10:00 at Christ Church, Billericay
Reading Isaiah 64v1-9; Mark 13v24-37Old Testament
Like the writer of Isaiah, do you long for God to come?
Do you want Him to sort out the world?
To put an end to the wars, the violence, the destruction, the oppression, the greed, the selfishness?
Do you remember when God did awesome things?
Our Sin
Think about it, as Isaiah did. God won’t come – because of our sin – it makes Him angry. Everything we do is like filthy rags (only good for throwing away – being burnt in the fire?)
No one strives to lay hold of Him, no-one calls on His name. So He stays away.
What are we?
Thinks about us, what are we that we could do something about our failures, our sins are a part of us, as much as our heart and lungs. We can’t rip them out and expect to live. We can’t re-model ourselves and start again.
Only God can ...
We are just the clay in the potters hands. If this version of us doesn’t work properly, it can just be turned into something else – something better, something that will function the way that God wants it to.
Isaiah recognises that ONLY God can do anything about the situation.
Only God can re-make us, improve us, so that we can be His people, so that our sins will not stay with us, so that He will no longer have cause to be angry with us, so that we can do His bidding, and constantly remember His ways.
Hope
That is our hope, although hope is a word with a watered down meaning, so perhaps we should say, that is our expectation. That is where we are at the start of Advent.
Advent
Advent is a time when we remember that God and His promises that He will do something about the problems we have caused. It is 4 weeks of preparation, but it used to be 40 days, like lent. It's a time for us to get ourselves ready for the big event – which, when it happened about 2000 years ago, would go unnoticed by all but a very few.
Today (Advent 1) we look at our hope (our expectation) that God will finally bring an end to this mess. Not just by being born as a baby, which is just the start of the process, but by returning in all His glory and majesty to finally finish of the redemption of mankind.
Get ready
If we hope for something, we get ready for it, depending on what we hope for there are different things we need to do.
- the supermarket delivery – clear space in the freezer.
- we look for signs
– back in my day, if you were planning a holiday, you would receive tickets, or booking confirmations and instructions in the post - waiting for the postman – running down the stairs to see if they’ve come yet.
- delivery man is on his 5th delivery, you are number 86, he will be with you between 15:03 and 16:03.
-Man standing in the road to greet his visitors – goes back in, comes out again.
Olivet discourse
Let's turn to the New Testament reading.
Mark chapter 13 is known as the Olivet discourse and is the longest discourse in the book. The first half deals with the destruction of the temple. That occurred in AD 70. The second half is about the return of Jesus, this is where our reading starts today.
First half
The destruction of the temple put an end to the temple worship. In many ways, it changed the Jewish faith forever. Their life and worship was built around the temple, and it had been that way for generations. The destruction and the ferocity with which it was delivered have few parallels. There was starvation and even cannibalism amongst the survivors. For in its day it was worse than what is happening in Gazza today, partly because there were no outside agencies providing any sort of assistance.
After the destruction, the Jews re-built their faith around the Law, but that contains many references to the temple and became a constant reminder of the disaster.
Let's have a look at the passage that was read today. It splits into 3 parts:
vv24-27 – Signs in the heavens
“In those days”, for us, means “In these days”, because the distress of the destruction of the temple that I have already spoken about has happened.
Jesus is letting us know that there will be signs in the heavens. This does not have to be the literal destruction of the universe. Remember, He is describing something that will happen that his hearers cannot possibly visualise with their limited understanding of how the cosmos works. He may also be describing something that maybe we cannot possibly visualise with our limited understanding of the cosmos. But something will happen in the heavens that will be the final sign that Jesus is returning. We are given a bit of a picture of how it might look.
Return is the reverse of leaving
After those signs, the Son of Man will appear, returning in the same way he left after the ascension. (That is in Acts chapter 1) It will be unmistakeable and will show great power and glory – just the thing that Isaiah longed for. At this stage, I’m sure there will still be a few arguing that God does not exist – after all, there are still people who believe the earth is flat, despite video of it spinning in space. Their denials of God will not be sustainable.
Gathering the elect
Somehow, and you can try to use your imagination to work out how this might happen, the angels will gather the elect – the true believers – from the ends of the earth to the ends of the heavens. This is, for me, the most difficult part of the passage when I try to think about how it will happen.
Like ‘Close Encounter of the third kind’ ?
‘How’ is not what Jesus is about at the moment. He is just giving them the facts – telling them what will happen.
28-31 – The fig tree
In the next 4 verses (28-31) Jesus talks about the fig tree. My commentary tells me, it is one of the very few trees in Israel that drops its leaves in the winter and grows them again when the weather, and the daylight hours improve. It is also a tree that provides food, so it would have been familiar to the disciples – and everyone else. As the new leaves start to grow, it provides a sign that summer is on its way. It doesn’t tell you what exactly will happen, the summer may be good or bad, but it is definitely coming.
Verse 30 which says
“I tell you the truth,
this generation will certainly not pass away until all these things
have happened.|”
causes endless debate. Some believe that Jesus got it wrong, and that He really had no clue at all about the timings as it says in Matthew 24:36, and in verse 32, which we will look at in a minute.
“But about that day or
hour no one knows, not even the angels in heaven, nor the Son, but
only the Father.
Jesus getting it wrong is not likely. There are two other possibilities, one is that Jesus is referring back to the destruction of Jerusalem. Some of the disciples were still alive when that took place. - possible, but the more likely possibility is that our translation of the word that became ‘generation’ is flawed. An alternative translation is mentioned in the footnotes – where it says it can also mean ‘race’. That could easily be Jesus’ meaning. So, “The Jews will not pass away until these things have happened.” That sounds more likely.
Then in verse 31 we find out how fragile the universe is. All material things – heaven and earth, will pass away. But God’s words, which are not fragile at all, will never pass away.
vv32-37
In the final section of the reading, we get to the main point that Jesus is trying to teach the disciples. First he tells them that he cannot give them a date, that it is withheld. That is for the very good reason that we and they are to live by faith. How many would have been living for God in the 1st century, if he’d told them 31 December 2023 (No, that’s not my guess – I don’t have a guess!)
Faithfully wait
So, while we faithfully wait we must be on our Guard, we must be alert. All sorts of things are going to come at us between now and then. So, just like a doorkeeper of a big house, we must stay awake – you can never know when the Lord will arrive.
Apparently, evening, midnight, rooster crows, and dawn are the four nighttime watches of the Roman army, so as usual Jesus is speaking to them in language they will easily understand.
Watch!
The simple message of this passage is watch, as in keep watch.
Watch yourselves, so that we do not drift from the faith, so that we do not follow the latest trendy ideas, but we stay true to the message that we are given in scripture. Peter, when he’s talking about the end times, tells his readers in his second letter:
11b You ought to
live holy and godly lives 12 as you look forward to the
day of God and speed its coming.
Our watchfulness can speed God’s return, so if that is what you long for, keep watching.
Watch the society around us. So that we may see their needs, speak the truth to them and show them the love of God that rescues us from sin and death – and speeds His return.
Watch the signs, and know that some things must happen, like the destruction of the temple, but those things are not signs of the imminent end. Watch the signs, so that when the signs of the imminent end arrive, we know what to expect.
Preparing for Christmas
As we prepare for Christmas, we must do so as we do everything else – by staying watchful of our behaviour – that we are still living Godly and holy lives.
That is my prayer this morning, that we may all stay alert and watchful, looking forward to the second coming, while we enjoy the celebration of the first coming.
Amen.
Recording is available here at 24:20 – 41:56
References
https://sermonwriter.com/sermons/mark-13-24-37-preparing-for-his-coming-mclarty/
https://www.fbcthomson.org/post/promises-jesus-is-coming-back-a-study-of-mark-13-24-37
https://cepreaching.org/commentary/2020-11-23/mark-1324-37-3/
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