Scripture: Mark 13:24-37
It’s the First Sunday of Advent. In our church, as we follow the traditional church calendar, this means focusing on the Second Coming of Christ. In our house, however, I’m afraid to say that the First Sunday of Advent also means focusing on the two little feline monsters that we own, and trying in vain to keep them out of the Christmas tree! We are well-armed with spray bottles and water pistols—and we are not afraid to use them!
But oh my goodness! It’s a full-time job. We have to remain vigilant. We have to be on guard. We have to stay awake. And when we’re sleeping, of course, the cats do whatever they want!
But… As Jesus tells us in four places in today’s scripture, when it comes to the Second Coming, we must “keep awake” or “stay awake.” What does that mean? That’s what this sermon is about… And I want to make three main points. Point Number One: I want to clear up a misunderstanding. Point Number Two: I want to talk about this mindset of alertness that Jesus describes. And Point Number Three: I want to talk about the meaning of the Second Coming for us today.
But Point Number One…
Today’s scripture includes one of the most difficult verses in the whole Bible, verse 30: Speaking to his closest disciples, Jesus says, “Truly, I say to you, this generation will not pass away until all these things take place.”
This generation will not pass away… When Jesus says this, is he talking about the Second Coming? Because it’s clear that that generation, the people standing there who heard Jesus speak these words, did pass away. And there have been about 70 generations since that time. And the Second Coming still hasn’t happened.
So… Was Jesus wrong?
Skeptics and atheists and people who refuse to submit to the lordship of Christ certainly think so… But not only them! I hate to say it, but one of my intellectual heroes, C.S. Lewis, thought so, too. Lewis said that Jesus was simply wrong in verse 30… but it’s O.K. that he was wrong, Lewis said, because Jesus goes on to say, in verse 32, that even the Son of God—at least when he became flesh and dwelt among us—didn’t know the day or the hour—only the Father knows.
But here’s the problem: If Jesus was wrong, he was spectacularly wrong: He doesn’t just say, “It might happen in your lifetime,” or “It will probably happen,” or “It seems likely to happen.” He introduces his words by saying, “Very truly I say to you.” In other words, “You can take what I’m about to say to the bank, because it’s going to happen. It’s a rock-solid guarantee.” Therefore it defies logic and sense that Jesus would say that and then turn right around and say, “But I really don’t know for sure if what I just said is true.” See what I mean?
Whatever Jesus was talking about when he said, “This generation will not pass away,” he clearly wasn’t talking about the Second Coming—because he said that his Father hadn’t revealed the time to him.
So what is Jesus talking about?
Well, if you go back to the beginning of the chapter you see that Jesus begins this conversation with Peter, James, John, and Andrew as they are standing on the Mount of Olives—with a terrific view of Jerusalem and the Temple. The context of Jesus’ words is that the disciples are remarking on how beautiful and impressive the Temple is.
That’s when Jesus says—as impressive as it is—that the Temple is going to be completely destroyed. And his disciples say, “Tell us, when will these things be, and what will be the sign when all these things are about to be accomplished?”
Notice their question is not, “When will the Second Coming take place,” but rather, when will these things take place—that is, the events leading up to the destruction of the Temple—and how will we know it’s about to happen? And so, in the verses preceding today’s text, verses 5 through 23, Jesus literally gives the disciples signs to look for regarding the destruction of the Temple.
Notice the disciples ask about “these things”in verse 4. And notice Jesus makes reference to “these things” twice… in verses 29 and 30. All of the references to “these things” refer not to the Second Coming but to the destruction of the Temple, which took place in A.D. 70, when the Roman army completely destroyed the temple and conquered Jerusalem, which was between 37 and 40 years after Jesus spoke these words. So it’s absolutely true that that generation didn’t pass away before the events took place.
And not only that: we know from history—from documented evidence—that the early Christians did heed Jesus’ warning about the destruction of the Temple and the siege of Jerusalem. They did see the signs that Jesus described, they heeded his warnings, and they did leave the city before all this destruction took place. 1
Maybe that seems clear enough… But look at verses 24 to 27. Because here, in these verses, Jesus switches gears and talks about the Second Coming. His words about the fall of Jerusalem sort of blend together with his words about the Second Coming. Why does he do that? Because he’s speaking the same way that prophets in the Bible often speak. He’s saying that the events associated with the fall of Jerusalem and the destruction of the temple are going to be a foreshadowing of the events related to the Second Coming. There was tribulation and suffering in the year 70, there will be greater tribulation and suffering before Christ returns. There were Christians falling away from the faith in the year 70; there will be more Christians falling away before Christ returns.
In other words, what happens on a small scale before the fall of Jerusalem in the year 70 will happen on a much larger scale before the Second Coming.
So that’s Point Number One, the misunderstanding…
Point Number Two… the new mindset of alertness that we’re supposed to have…
Most of us remember the days, weeks, and months following 9/11. We remember how easy it was, for a little while at least, to be vigilant, to be on guard, against the threat of terrorist attack. All of us who were alive back then were in a heightened state of readiness… We were waiting for the other shoe to drop. We just knew that there was going to be another World Trade Center-like attack, or at least an attempt, and we were all ready, willing, and able to do our part to make sure it didn’t happen.
And for a while, at least, we didn’t mind the new inconveniences associate with going through airport security, for instance. For a while, our attitude was, “Whatever we must do to be safe… to be ready… to be vigilant… to be alert…to be awake…”
Why? Because we had a war-time mindset. Nothing was more urgent and more important at that moment than preventing another attack and saving the lives of innocent people.
I want to suggest that we, as the church and as individuals, should have a war-time mindset today.
When it comes to the Second Coming of Christ, I’m not about to argue that we should live in fear, like we did back when we were worried that another terrorist attack could happen at any moment, or that we should constantly be thinking about it. I mean, we all know that there are Christians, including more than a few best-selling Christian authors, who seem obsessed with the Second Coming. But let’s face it: that’s not our Methodist temptation: our Methodist temptation is to not think about it enough—aside from reciting words about it in the creed each week: I mean, literally every Sunday we say, “I believe… in Jesus Christ [God’s] only Son our Lord… who sitteth at the right hand of God the Father Almighty; from thence he shall come to judge the quick and the dead.” That’s a reference to the Second Coming.
We say we believe in it, but does our life reflect that belief? We tend to ignore the doctrine of the Second Coming, or minimize it, or spiritualize it… I had a Sunday school teacher one time, for instance, who said that the Second Coming was just a “symbolic” way of describing how Jesus comes and lives in our hearts spiritually when we believe in him. [make gagging motion]
I mean, where do you find that in scripture?
So in Point Number Three, let’s look at what this war-time mindset means for us Christians in our everyday lives…
One thing it means is, we don’t need to pay attention to the latest bestselling Christian book, or YouTube video, or late-night cable TV show about when the Second Coming is going to occur.
If God the Father chose not to reveal the date or time of the Second Coming to his only Son Jesus, when Jesus was incarnate here on earth, he certainly didn’t reveal the date or time to this author, Bible teacher, or preacher? I can say with certainty that God didn’t reveal the date or time to that person! No ifs, ands, or buts. Jesus couldn’t be clearer than he is in verse 32: “But concerning that day or that hour, no one knows, not even the angels in heaven, nor the Son, but only the Father.” Verse 33: “Be on guard, keep awake. For you do not know when the time will come.”
In fact, Jesus warns us—in Matthew 24:43, Luke 12:39, and Revelation 3:3—and Paul warns us, in 1 Thessalonians 5:2, and Peter warns us, in 2 Peter 3:10, that in the Second Coming, Jesus will be like “a thief in the night.”
This image implies two important truths—and I confess that, for most of my life, when I contemplated the image of a “thief in the night,” I considered only one aspect of the image: that Jesus’ return will be unpredictable, unknowable… it will be a surprise to everyone.
But… Let’s turn our attention now to the other part of that image… the “thief” part: How and for whom will Jesus, in his Second Coming, be like a thief?
He’ll be like a thief for those people who find their treasure in anything other than God and his kingdom and his glory; he’ll be like a thief for anyone who treasures earthly things above heavenly things; he’ll be like a thief for anyone who tries to find their meaning and purpose in life outside of a saving relationship with God through his Son Jesus.
Why?
Because everything in your life that isn’t of God, and of his Son Jesus; everything that isn’t of his kingdom; everything that isn’t for his glory—in the end—will be “destroyed by fire,” the apostle Peter says. 2 It is passing away and it will be gone. Jesus says: “Sell your possessions, and give to the needy. Provide yourselves with moneybags that do not grow old, with a treasure in the heavens that does not fail, where no thief approaches and no moth destroys. For where your treasure is, there will your heart be also.” 3
So the most important thing that we can do to be ready for the return of Jesus Christ is to do what our church’s vision statement says we must do: “To treasure Christ above all.” If we learn to do that, Christ will not return to us as a thief—because there’s nothing that he can take from us—there’s literally nothing we can lose—that will have any ultimate value. In fact, when Christ returns, we who are in Christ, we who have believed in him, we who have received his gift of eternal life, we who are adopted into his family and have become God’s beloved sons and daughters… we lose nothing; we gain everything!
In Luke chapter 14, Jesus teaches about the cost of discipleship. He says that our love for him should be so great that, in comparison, our love everything and everyone else will seem like hatred. He talks about the importance of counting the cost before we become his disciples—because Jesus knows how difficult following him and keeping faith can be. And he even says these challenging words in verse 33: “So you cannot be my disciple without giving up everything you own.”
“Giving up everything you own.” Is this possibly true? Does Jesus really mean what he says here?
You better believe he does! Now, we must interpret this verse in light of other scripture—for example, the Book of Acts, Paul’s letters, and the gospels themselves describe plenty of Christians who have money and possessions and then use these resources for the cause of Christ, to support the church, and bless others with the wealth that God gave them.
But… Jesus’ words, “You cannot be my disciple without giving up everything you own,” applied to them, too… Just as it applies to us!
How?
If we are disciples, it’s not that we don’t have money, possessions, and worldly wealth… what changes is our relationship to these things. Because these things are no longer our treasure. Christ alone is our treasure. Psalm 73:25-26: “Whom have I in heaven but you? And there is nothing on earth that I desire besides you. My flesh and my heart may fail, but God is the strength of my heart and my portion forever.” To speak of one’s “portion” is just another word for treasure. Our treasure is in God alone. Our treasure is in Christ.
“Keeping awake,” as Jesus commands us to do, means living a life of discipleship. Discipleship means living in such a way that when Christ returns, we will not feel as if we’ve lost anything. Because we’ve learned that our ultimate treasure is in Christ. And Christ’s return, far from being a threat, is the fulfillment of our heart’s deepest desire: We get to see Christ face to face! 4 We get to enjoy even more of our greatest treasure in life! How can that be a threat?
What else does living with a war-time mindset mean for us?
To illustrate this, I want to turn our attention to a very serious sin that King David committed in chapter 21 of 1 Chronicles. In verse 1, we’re told, “Satan rose up against Israel and caused David to take a census of the people of Israel.” We modern readers may have a hard time seeing the problem with this decision—because the Chronicler doesn’t come right out and tell us—so let me try to fill in the blanks.
First, David doesn’t bother inquiring of the Lord to determine if this course of action is wise or righteous. But even more, it’s also easy to see David’s pride at work in his decision: The purpose of the census, in part, is to determine how many soldiers will serve in David’s army. And David likely believes that the numbers counted in the census are a tangible measure of just how powerful David is! “All of these mighty warriors belong to me!”
But do you see the problem? It’s a lack of trust in God. David doesn’t have a mere army of soldiers at his disposal: he has nothing less than almighty God and his army of angels fighting for him. What are even hundreds of thousands of merely human soldiers compared to the hand of almighty God? David’s power doesn’t come from mere mortals and mere worldly circumstances; his power comes from God alone!
Why doesn’t David believe that?
In putting his misplaced faith in a mere human army, David is settling for so much less than what God has for him. And when we humans put our faith merely in what we can see, and hear, and touch—when we put our faith in worldly circumstances—we are failing to exercise faith!
In the first chapter of Luke—the beginning of the Christmas story—Zechariah, the father of John the Baptist, does the same thing. Zechariah is serving by himself in the sanctuary of the Temple… when suddenly the angel Gabriel shows up and tells him that his prayers have been answered, that after years of trying to get pregnant with his wife, Elizabeth, finally God is giving him a son.
That should be good news, but Zechariah doesn’t believe Gabriel: “How shall I know this,” he asks. In that moment, despite the fact that Zechariah had been praying for decades for a child, despite the fact that he was witnessing an indisputable supernatural event—an angel appearing out of nowhere—Zechariah had more faith in the way things appeared than he had in almighty God.
Even in Mark 13, these large stones of the temple, which were so impressive to Jesus’ disciples, they appeared to be impenetrable… they appeared to be impervious to enemy attack. But Jesus says, “Don’t trust in what you can see. Not one stone will be left on top of another.”
And even in our day, we may believe that the future—including our personal future—is mostly bleak… hopeless… unchangeable… After all, consider the Middle East… consider Russia… consider global warming… consider the economy… consider this politician… consider this upcoming election.
Or closer to home, consider my family crisis… or my marriage crisis… or the loss of my job… or my financial situation… or my failing grades… or my failing health… or my struggle with addiction or alcoholism… “This is just the way things are,” we think. “I’m just stuck here, and there’s nothing I can do. I see this given set of circumstances, and I feel depressed. I feel powerless to change my life or change my future.”
But when we fall victim to that kind of pessimistic thinking, what are we doing? The same thing David does, the same thing Zechariah does, the same thing the disciples do in Mark 13… We’re judging our life, our circumstances, and our future based only on what we see, what we perceive, what we think… and we forget about God.
Jesus says in verse 31, “Heaven and earth will pass away, but my words will not pass away.”
Because we believe in the Second Coming, we’re supposed to trust in the word of the Lord far more than we trust in people or circumstances or events… because all these things are passing away.
The Lord says he’s on your side. The Lord says he’s always working for your good. The Lord says that he’s always working in your best interest. The Lord says he’s redeeming even bad things and transforming them into something good. The Lord says he wants to answer your prayers. The Lord says he wants to fill you with his Spirit. The Lord says he wants to give you power.
Are we going to believe what the Lord says to us? Or are we going to look around, at circumstances, and feel afraid?
This wartime mindset I’m talking about means seeing beyond appearances… and entrusting our future to God.
And finally, the Second Coming affects our mission. It reminds us that we have only a finite amount of time to accomplish what God has set before us to accomplish. We have only a limited amount of time, for instance, to convince family, friends, neighbors, co-workers, and classmates that we are currently living in a season of mercy, which God has graciously given us. And we don’t know how much time is left… but we do know it’s running out.
Listen… I mentioned earlier that we must have a “war-time mindset.” A part of that mindset means remembering that we have a real Enemy, the devil, who is working to ensure that people we know and love—not mention strangers… but our Enemy is working to ensure that people we know and love will never receive the gift of eternal life that God offers to our world.
One important means that God uses to fight this Enemy is his Church, including even the Toccoa First Methodist Church.
Like it or not, the Bible says that when we become Christians, we are enlisted to fight in a spiritual war. And the stakes couldn’t be higher—because nothing less than heaven and hell hang in the balance.
As soon as, God willing, our church becomes part of the Global Methodist Church, and I pray that we will, we’re going to have a Charter Member Sunday… Or maybe multiple Sundays. But we will ask you, again, to unite with our new Toccoa First Methodist Church. But make no mistake: It’s far more than re-joining a church. It’s re-enlisting to fight in a war.
And you can be sure that Pastor April and myself, brother Ken White, our new music minister, our new youth pastor, Dr. Rich Griffith… we are of one accord… And when we hire a new children’s director, you can be certain that that person will be of one accord with us: Everything we do will be directed toward “treasuring Christ above all and helping others do the same.”
The people at the new Toccoa First Methodist will preach and teach with that goal in mind… We will show up for worship on Sunday, if physically possible, with that goal in mind… We will give our time and talent with that goal in mind… We will give our financial gifts—all of us will give, not just a small percentage of us, but all of us who are financially able—we will give and tithe our financial gifts, sacrificially, with that goal in mind… And all of us will witness to others with that goal in mind.
And we will do so with the understanding that everything we do… going forward… will not necessarily look exactly like what we’ve done in the past… Because we need to do better than we’ve done in the past… What’s worked for us in the past isn’t necessarily working very well now. You know this, right?
Surely we didn’t come this far, through this difficult season of disaffiliation, only to stumble a few yards from the finish line. Even if get a new church name and a new church sign and a new church logo, we have much left to do.
Let’s finish running this race of faithfulness to our Lord Jesus Christ! Let’s run until we reach the finish line, and we hear our Lord tell us, “Well done, good and faithful servant!”
And if you choose to re-enlist here—in fighting in the spiritual war of which you are already a part by virtue of following Jesus… but if you re-enlist here at the new Toccoa First Methodist… then you are saying that you agree with these points that I’m making in this sermon.
Otherwise… I love you… but please… don’t sign up. Don’t re-enlist.
Or… you can always hire a new senior pastor who doesn’t share this goal… who doesn’t care about the souls of men and women, and boys and girls who haven’t yet received the gift of eternal life that’s available through faith in his Son Jesus.
But this is who I am. And this is where I stand. And this is where I want to lead us at the new Toccoa First Methodist.
We may no longer be United Methodists here at Toccoa First, but can we please be more united than ever in accomplishing our church’s mission… and fulfilling our Great Commission.
Because Jesus warns us that time is running out.