your copy of God's Word. Turn in your Bibles to Mark chapter 13. Mark chapter 13. I lost my bookmark, so now I gotta find it myself. We are continuing our look at the Olivet Discourse. Last week, I reread from the beginning of the chapter to reorient us back to this passage. I hadn't been here in the pulpit for a few weeks. Today, for the sake of time, we're going to be jumping in the middle of this from verse 24. After I got home last week, I realized that I had burdened you guys with a 56-minute sermon. That is not my intent. Although some of you felt like you were finally satisfied that you had received something, I purpose to preach for about 40, 45 minutes or so is my goal. So if you're in your Bibles, Mark 13, let's pray. Father in heaven, we thank you for this opportunity again to hear from your word. We pray, Lord, that this passage, which is often confused for us, Lord, we don't know how to understand stuff like this, Lord. We pray, God, for your help. We need your help to understand your word. Lord, give us the right understanding, Lord, as we want to submit ourselves and as we contemplate the possibility, Lord, that judgment awaits. Lord, that we would humble our hearts before you, that we would submit our lives to you, Lord, and that the judgment that we do deserve, Lord, would fall upon your son, that he would be sacrificed in our place so that we do not face the wrath of the Lamb. We ask God for your help, in Jesus' name, amen. So Mark chapter 13, I'm gonna read through the end of the chapter, although we're only gonna be looking at verses 24 through 27 today. 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 that are in the heavens will be shaken. Then they will see the Son of Man coming in clouds with great power and glory. And then he will send forth the angels and will gather together his elect from the four winds, from the farthest end of the earth to the farthest end of the heaven. Now learn the parable from the fig tree. When its branch has already become tender and puts forth its leaves, you know that summer is near. Even so, you too, when you see these things happening, recognize that he is near right at the door. Truly, I say to you, this generation will not pass away until all these things take place. Heaven and earth will pass away, but my words will not pass away. But of that day or hour, no one knows, not even the angels in heaven, nor the Son, but the Father alone. Take heed, keep on the alert, for you do not know when the appointed time will come. It is like a man away on a journey, who upon leaving his house and putting his slaves in charge, assigning to each one his task, also commanded the doorkeeper to stay on the alert. Therefore, be on the alert. For you do not know when the master of the house is coming, whether in the evening, at midnight, or when the rooster crows, or in the morning, in case he should come suddenly and find you asleep. What I say to you, I say to all, be on the alert." And this is God's word. Well, today it was my goal to finish this chapter. But as I began to unpack this, I realized that we needed to stay with verses 24 through 27. And I am deferring that until next week. So if you're coming next week, we're gonna be looking at verses 28 through 37 and the inescapable timing that is presented there when Jesus talks about this generation and all of these things happening at a certain timestamp. we are considering a different perspective on the Olivet Discourse today. And perhaps like me, you have grown up being taught that most, if not all of this chapter, this final message, as it were, is yet future to us. That it pertains to cataclysmic events unlike the world has seen or will ever see. that it foretells the second coming of Jesus and the gathering of the elect of Israel and those converted during the Great Tribulation. There are some that hold that this is a passage about the rapture that is to come. And certainly the language that we see in this passage of the sun and the moon being darkened and the son of man riding the clouds lends itself to a yet future apocalyptic perspective to our modern ears. We all agree that it sounds that way. But the truth be told, when we overlay, remember our illustration last week of the projector machine, when we overlay our futurist perspective on this text, it comes alive. It comes alive and it excites us and it gives us a sense of expectancy for the soon return of Jesus, right? And I don't wanna deny you that. I don't wanna take that away from you. Because we should have a sense of expectancy that Jesus is coming back. And we should look at these scriptures and they should just leap off the page for us. So that's not my intent. I don't wanna rob you of that this morning. But the different perspective that we have been considering on this passage places the emphasis on the validation of the prophethood of the Lord Jesus Christ. Because rather than thinking these words are unfulfilled, as some would say, or that Jesus is perhaps a false prophet because these things have not happened, we are boldly asserting that every word uttered by Jesus has been fulfilled in the past. And that gives us a confidence, a validation in the prophethood of Jesus. He has spoken as only he could speak as the Son of God. And because he was right about all of these things, we've gotta sit up straight and we need to listen to every word that Jesus says. Let me repeat some caveats to you today. We are deep into the Olivet Discourse. We are over halfway through. If this is, there's some people I see, this is the first time they're probably hearing us talk about this topic here unless you've been listening online. Those other messages are prerequisite because I'm just not gonna go over some of those things. So I just recommend that you listen to them and to not dismiss this past fulfillment premise before hearing what was said before. The other caveat that I want to give is the same one that I keep giving every time, and that is open-handed, even-handed. I hold to a position that I didn't hold to, and I've changed my positions on these things. And if you had met me 10 years ago and told me, well, you're wrong, and you could have crushed me because I didn't know about these kind of things. And this is a lot like listening to or drinking from a fire hydrant here when you hear that these are past fulfillments for the first time. And I recognize that. But let's be open-handed and think about these things. We do not divide over the issues of eschatology. We do not divide over these things. We are open handed and we're even handed. So I'm going to be presenting a futurist view. I want to read from Dr. MacArthur out of your study Bible. Many of you have this study Bible, and that's probably the best place because it's all something that we've all looked at. Verse 24 says, But in those days, Let's identify those days. Those days, if we go back to the prior sermons, those days are when they, the apostles, that's who his audience is, the apostles must expect deception, verses five through eight. This is where they secondly must expect opposition, nine through 13. I'm giving you the outline of prior sermons. Last week we saw that in verses 14 and 16, these apostles, they must expect to run. This was where we heard about the abomination of desolation. They must expect to suffer, number four. That was in verses 17 through 20. And finally we saw that they must expect opportunists, verses 21 through 23. These are those that are gonna rise up and take advantage of the upheaval that was happening. We found, both scriptural and historical support to demonstrate that all of these things, which include the gospel being preached to all the nations and the abomination of desolation, were fulfilled in the 70 A.D. destruction of Jerusalem where the entire leadership structure and the Jewish priestly class and the Jewish temple were utterly destroyed, not a stone left upon another. Today we are purposing to consider verses 24 through 27 that divides this way, if you're taking notes, into three unmistakable events. These are, one, unmistakable cosmic events. Two, an unmistakable coming event. And three, an unmistakable gathering event. Now I use the word unmistakable in the sense that our futurist brothers have understood them. These are seen as big visuals of the greatest proportion. I mean, you can't get any bigger than the sun going dark, right? They mean that these will be unmistakable for us as we view this. This is unmistakable. If this was yet future, we would recognize that these events had occurred. My contention here this morning is that these were in fact unmistakable, but unmistakable to his audience, which is who? The apostles. The irony here is that what is unmistakable to them has proven most confusing to us. And when we look at this passage, when we attempt to reconcile what we read here with the only imagery that we can imagine, stars colliding, dropping out of the sky, the moon becoming dark, Jesus splitting the clouds and descending to the earth. These are the imageries that we have envisioned. Let's consider first the unmistakable cosmic events. Look at verses 24 through 25. 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 that are in heaven will be shaken. So we want to be fair, we want to be open or even-handed with our futurist brothers. This is reading from the John MacArthur Study Bible. These are the things that he has said concerning this particular passage. He says, everything here occurs immediately after the future Great Tribulation. The sun will go black as the universe begins to disintegrate prior to the return of Christ. Heavenly bodies will careen at random through space. All the forces of energy that hold everything in space constant and which Christ himself controls, he will allow to become random and chaotic. This is the futurist view. Let's consider how we interpret language. If I said this phrase to you, I am in the fight of my life right now, what does that mean? Is that to be taken literally? I'm in the fight of my life right now. What if I told you that my business is failing because my competitors are out to destroy me? The fight now is a business fight, right? My life is my financial life. I'm not concerned about my very life, although sometimes it feels that way, right? I literally mean it feels like I am in a fight for my life, but I've employed figurative language to convey the weight of the situation. Do you see what I've done? Let me change it up. Let me add some words to this. I'm in the fight of my life right now, but I like a good fight. It's the eye of the tiger. It's the thrill of the fight. Rising up to the challenge of our rival. What now do I mean? Anybody know what I'm quoting from? That's a Rocky theme song, right? I like a good fight. I'm in the fight of my life right now, but you know what? I like a good fight, and I like being the underdog, and I'm gonna push through right now. And I've quoted poetic words that illustrate to everybody in this room what it means to be the underdog going against somebody bigger and stronger than them. A strictly literal interpretation of my phrase would become unhelpful pretty quickly, right? As you try to interpret the eye of the tiger, what does that mean? I'm fighting with a tiger, you know, somehow there's a tiger unleashed in my, if you were to interpret what I was saying to you literally. Friends, this is why in Bible interpretation we employ what is called the literal, grammatical, historical, and even theological hermeneutic. We don't just come at a text with literal glasses on and read it that way. That's unhelpful for us. Meaning, we consider the intent of the author, the type of wording employed, and its historical context with the theological boundaries that the author would intend. Okay? That is, if an author is using colloquial sayings or language to illustrate that, or commonly understood phrases, let's say, we want to understand what he literally means to convey using illustrative language, right? We want to understand what he literally says, and we don't want to interpret the illustration as literal. We just want to get the meaning behind it. In Mark 13, Jesus is using poetic, cosmic language to illustrate that God is the one acting in judgment against the apostate Jews. Let's look at a few passages to see that this is actually common for apocalyptic language. Turn in your Bibles to Isaiah 13. Isaiah 13. Notice from verse 1, what Isaiah tells you he is talking about. So we get our proper context. In verse 1 it says, So we know, contextually here, that Isaiah is talking about what's to He's talking about Babylon. His intent is confirmed through this message. Look at verses 17 and 19. In verse 17, he says, behold, I'm going to stir up the Medes against them, which is Babylon. I'm gonna stir up the Medes against Babylon, who will not value silver or take pleasure in gold. Skip 18, look at 19. And Babylon, the beauty of kingdoms, the glory of the Chaldeans pride, will be as when God overthrew Sodom and Gomorrah. So we're not unclear as to what Isaiah is talking about here in chapter 13. Even though the Oracle is about the earthly fall of Babylon, let's notice how Isaiah describes it now in verses 10 and 13. Look at this. Verse 10 it says, For the stars of heaven and the constellations will not flash forth their light. The sun will be dark when it rises and the moon will not shed its light. Skip a couple verses, looking for 13. Therefore I will make the heavens tremble and the earth will be shaken from its place at the fury of the Lord of hosts in the day of his burning anger. What we see here is that when God is moving in judgment against nations upon the earth, those earthly destructions are described with cosmic language. We see it, right? Okay. Isaiah 34, feel free to turn, but I'm gonna read some passages to you. Isaiah 34 offers another example of how the prophet describes the earthly destruction of Edom with cosmic significance. In Isaiah 34, we see in verses one through six, it says, draw near, O nations. O hear and listen, O peoples. Let the earth and all her contents hear, and the world and all that springs from it. For the Lord's indignation is against all the nations, and His wrath against all their armies. He has utterly destroyed them. he has given them over to slaughter. So their slain will be thrown out, and their corpses will give off their stench, and the mountains will be drenched with their blood, and all the hosts of heaven will wear away, and the sky will be rolled up like a scroll. All their hosts will also wither away as a leaf withers from the vine, or as one withers from the fig tree. For my sword is satiated in heaven, Behold, it shall descend for judgment upon Edom and upon the people whom I have devoted to destruction. The sword of the Lord is filled with blood. It is sated with fat, with the blood of lambs and goats, with the fat of the kidneys of rams. For the Lord has sacrificed in Basra and great slaughter in the land of Edom. You see what's happening here? Do you see what he's doing? Using cosmic language, using these big things to talk about things that only, this is God acting. What do they see? They see bloodshed, they see defeat. And God is declaring in the heavens by saying that this is what is happening. This is how you poetically demonstrate that God himself is the one who has covered your heels with blood. I'm working my way through the book of Ezekiel in my private study. Why don't you listen to how Ezekiel describes the fall of Egypt in history. Ezekiel 32, in verse two it says, son of man, take up a lamentation over Pharaoh, king of Egypt, and say to him, you compared yourself to a young lion of the nations, yet you are like the monster in the seas and you burst forth in your rivers and muddied the waters with your feet and fouled their rivers. Verse two, it sets us to tell us who we're talking about. He's talking to Pharaoh, he's talking to Egypt there. Verse seven says, and when I extinguish you, I will cover the heavens and darken the stars. I will cover the sun with a cloud and the moon will not give its light. Do you see what he's doing here? Verse eight, all the shining lights in the heavens, I will darken over you and will set darkness on your land, declares the Lord God. This is common poetic apocalyptic language to describe the movements of God against people on earth. You get the point. In Mark 13, Jesus is saying that God is moving against the apostate Jewish people. The destruction of Jerusalem is viewed as God's judgment against them. the significance of Jesus's poetic employment of cosmic language would be unmistakable to the apostles. These are words they've heard before in reference to Babylon, in reference to Edom, in reference to Egypt. They would take as literal that God was acting in judgment when they heard the figurative language of cosmic upheaval. You see it? Let's look now at verse 26 and consider this unmistakable coming event. Verse 26 says, Then they will see the Son of Man coming in clouds with great power and glory. Again, we want to be fair to our future brothers. We want to give what their position is. Again, quoting from John MacArthur, he says, Jesus will return to earth in the same manner in which he left. And that's meant for you to recall Jesus ascending into the heavens, into the clouds. So when it talks about clouds, he's coming back in the clouds. Jesus will come to redeem the elect, restore the devastated earth, and establish his rule on earth. Now here again, the past fulfillment view wants you to see this phraseology in a literal, grammatical, historical context, and not merely from a literal standpoint. What does the language of coming in the clouds mean? What is He talking about when that happens? Simply, it means He Jesus is the one orchestrating the divine judgment against them. Jesus, the Christ, the Son of God, will come in judgment as he prophesies, he will, when he speaks to the Sanhedrin, do you remember, call this, this private meeting that happens in Caiaphas' private residence where the Sanhedrin gathers. And it's in that place, Matthew 26, you hear these words, It says, but Jesus kept silent. The high priest said to him, I adjure you by the living God that you tell us whether you are the Christ, the son of God. Jesus said to him, you have said it yourself. Nevertheless, I tell you hereafter, you will see the son of man sitting at the right hand of power and coming on the clouds of heaven. Then the high priest tore his robes and said, he's blaspheming. What further need do we have of witnesses? Behold, you have now heard the blasphemy. What say you? What do you think? They said, he deserves death. This is this passage. Jesus tells them. not some distant group, 2,000 years into the future, that they will see him coming in the clouds of heaven. Don't skip over the audience. Don't skip over who he's talking to. When he says that Caiaphas, you're gonna see the Son of Man come in the clouds, they're gonna see this, and how are they gonna understand this? They understand instinctively that Jesus claims the right, the divine right of judgment. His words are blasphemy. He's claimed that they're gonna witness him coming in clouds of judgment, which is a divine right. That's what's blasphemous to them. That's why they think he should be deserving of death, is because he utters these phrases to them. They think it's blasphemy because they know enough of their scriptures to hear riding the clouds to mean this metaphorical divine judgment. They know this from the book of Isaiah. And Isaiah 19, 1, just like last time, guys, I'm giving you tons of verses here, and I hope you're writing this all down, but, and you're doing a good job, right, of putting these all up there, so. Isaiah 19, 1, listen to this, listen to the words that they are accustomed to when concerning the judgment of God. God comes in judgment upon the clouds. No one thinks that the Lord himself is being visibly seen there, right? That's not what's in picture here. It's a recognition of God moving. God is the one who is bringing all the things that are happening to Egypt. He is the one who is doing this, and how do they recognize that? He's moving in the clouds. Here's another passage. Nahum, chapter one, verse three. Gotta have that on the board, because you'll never find the book of Nahum, right? It's too hard to find. Nobody quotes from Nahum. It says, His punishment against the guilty is seen in a whirlwind, in a storm. God is in the clouds as the heavenly judge is the picture that we see from Nahum. This is common vernacular for them when they think about apocalyptic situations. Jesus, when he employs these words for them, he's giving them things that they understand, that they know that this is God moving against them. In Mark 13, 26, who's gonna see the Son of Man coming in the clouds? Who's gonna see Him? It says they. They will recognize that Christ, the Christ whom they have crucified, has left their house desolate. The Jews who will crucify Jesus will see the blood in the streets, they're gonna see the fire in the buildings, they're gonna see the smoke building up from the temple, and they're gonna know that this was the judgment against them. That's what he's saying to them. Is it any wonder that at Pentecost, Peter quotes Joel as being fulfilled, as though all these things were imminent? And if you're honest with yourself, if you go ahead and turn over there, Acts chapter two, we'll look from verse 19, and we're used to quoting about, well, your sons and daughters will prophesy, you know, all this stuff is gonna happen in terms of the Spirit coming, but Peter does more. Peter quotes more in this passage as though these things are imminent. These things are happening right now. And what does he say from verse 19? He says, blood, and fire, and vapor of smoke. The sun will be turned into darkness and the moon into blood before the great and glorious day of the Lord shall come. And it shall be that everyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved. Why does Peter quote in this moment of all of that passage? Could he not have just stopped with the prophecy of fulfillment and the Spirit being poured out? But Peter sees this all happening right there in his purview. He's witnessing all of this happening. The meaning of Mark 13, 26 is fulfilled in the 70 A.D. destruction of Jerusalem when we consider the poetic language of swift divine judgment against the Jews. Peter has the expectation that all of these things are right now being fulfilled in his presence. Let's look at this last thing, the unmistakable gathering event. The unmistakable gathering event, verse 27. It says, then he will send forth the angels and will gather together his elect from the four winds from the farthest end of the earth to the farthest end of heaven. Again, in fairness to our futurists, we want to point out what they would hold to. And from the MacArthur Study Bible, it says, when Christ returns, he will bring with him a number of angels. They will gather the elect, including the 144,000 Jewish witnesses, their converts, and the converts of angelic preachers. This will also include the Old Testament saints gathered out of the graves and united with their redeemed spirits. That's the position, that this is a gathering of all the elect from all over the world in this regard. Arguably one of the greatest hindrances to the gospel advancing during the New Testament period was the temptation to return to or synthesize with Judaism. This is something that we encounter a lot. You see it in Acts chapter 10, you see it in Acts chapter 11, Acts chapter 15, this is coming up again. There are two whole books of your Bible that are devoted to answering the issue of Judaizers. You have the book of Hebrews and you have the book of Galatians. This is a huge hindrance to the advance of the gospel amongst the lifetime of the apostles. The question before us, as we consider a past fulfillment of the Olivet Discourse, is what gospel effect would the removal of the temple and the sacrificial system have on the advance of the gospel? We need to ask that question. Let's interpret this passage. What does it mean when it says, he, this son of man, Jesus, will send forth the angels to gather the elect? Listen to Reformed Baptist commentator John Gill, who holds to this past view perspective. He says that the ministers of the gospel, to preach it and plant more churches among the Gentiles since that, since that at Jerusalem was entirely broken up. That's who he considers, this is what's happening. I missed a word that made that clearer. I apologize to you. He's talking about these angels that are going out into the lake. They are the ministers of the gospel to preach it, and plant more churches among the Gentiles, since that in Jerusalem had been entirely broken up. So in your Bibles, you see the word angels. It's actually a transliterate word. When you see the word angels. Angels in Greek means messenger. Here are several passages that help us know this would often refer to human messengers. Matthew 11, 9 and 10, it says, but what did you go out to see, a prophet? Yes, I tell you, and one who is more than a prophet. This is the one of whom it is written, behold, I will send my angel or messenger ahead of you who will prepare your way. who will prepare the way before you. Mark 1, chapter 2 through 4, verses 2 through 4, it says, As it is written in Isaiah the prophet, Behold, I send my messenger ahead of you who will prepare your way, the voice of one crying in the wilderness, make ready the way of the Lord, make his path straight. John the Baptist appeared in the wilderness preaching a baptism of repentance for the forgiveness of sins. The word messenger, instead of it being transliterate angels in that place, because it was referring to a human messenger, they call it a messenger instead of saying the word angel. Here's another example. In Luke 7, 24, it says, when the messengers of John had left, so these are the messengers, those are these angels that John himself has sent. These are his disciples, as it were. He began to speak to the crowds about John. What did you go out in the wilderness to see? A reed shaken by the wind? And we won't go there, but later in verse 27, John, again, is referred to as this messenger, this angel. So this word angel means messenger. We wanna be clear about that. Let me give you one more. That's in Luke 9, verse 51 and 52. It says, when the days were approaching for his ascension, he was determined to go to Jerusalem, and he sent messengers, angels, on ahead of him and they went and they entered a village of the Samaritans to make arrangements for him. I point that out to you because you need to understand that your Bible translators, they're making a judgment call as to whether they should do a transliterate word angel or should do the word messenger. It always means messenger. It's only in context that we understand whether or not it's a human messenger or if it's a heavenly messenger. Listen here to. Listen to this. So after God moves in judgment against the apostate Israel, and they see Jesus as the one taking vengeance upon them, they will go on here. I want you to hear what John Gill says about this particular passage again. He says the phrase, shall gather together his elect, means that he, the son of man or Christ, shall gather them by the ministry of his servants, These ministers shall be the means of gathering such whom God has chosen from all eternity to obtain salvation by Christ out of the world and unto Christ. Now John Gill's not the authoritative position here, but it does help us to understand when it says in this passage, and then he will send forth his messengers and they will gather together his elect from the four winds from the farthest ends of the earth to the farthest ends of heaven. It helps us to understand that maybe a little differently than perhaps we have if we hold to a futurist view or we overlay this with a futurist view. Dear friend, We stand today right now in Shelbyville, Kentucky as a fulfillment of this verse. We are literally at the farthest end of the earth from where Jesus was standing at the time. His messengers have gone forth and gathered us from the four winds. We have heard the gospel news of His completed work on the cross, that He was crucified to bear the penalty of His church, and by nature of who He is and all that He has done, He supplies the righteousness needed to stand before a holy God for all that turn away from their sin and turn to trust in Him. And whatever view you have of this passage, that's still true. Whether it's fulfilled, or in the past, or if it's yet future, the question before you is, have you trusted in Him? Are you among the elect that have been gathered by the preaching of the gospel? Or will you be of the elect that are gathered from the preaching of the gospel? We still come to Him by faith. We still come to Him trusting. Whether this is a past fulfillment or yet a future fulfillment, you must turn from your sin and you must trust in Christ. Now I'm presenting to you that the destruction of Jerusalem validates the prophethood of the Lord Jesus Christ. That He is a vindicated prophet. that he has spoken as only he can speak. And as I said before, if he's spoken with such clarity here, and these things have come true, we need to take notice of what he says. And we read it in our call to worship, but Jesus is coming back to judge. He is coming back in judgment. You know, whether your view is that this is past fulfillment or yet a future fulfillment, we all agree that judgment awaits us. And it says in 2 Corinthians 5.10, it says, For we must all stand before the judgment seat of Christ, so that each one may be recompensed for his deeds in the body, according to what he has done, whether good or bad. If Jesus is willing to clearly tell his apostles that in your lifetime I will come in judgment against this house and leave this house desolate, and that is true and that has happened, friend, what hope is there for you? What hope is there for you that you will escape judgment if his own people didn't escape it? And if that hasn't yet happened and is yet future, you still have the same dilemma. You must turn from your sin and turn to Christ and face Him as one covered and clothed in His righteousness or naked before Him and judged because we all must stand before the judgment seat of Christ. So I implore you this morning. You know, as we go through this, and this feels like a lecture, you feel like, well, is it past or future? Do you know Christ? Are you covered in His righteousness? Or will you stand naked before Him, with all your deeds exposed, and receive the reward, the punishment for your sin, or the reward of righteousness, having turned to Him by faith? Let's pray. Father, thank you for your word. I pray God for your help today as we push through this what can be an overwhelming and hard topic. I pray, Lord Jesus, that we would come to an end of ourselves, that we would confess our sins before you, God, that we would come to your throne, repentant and humbled, with bowed knees, Lord, to receive you as Lord, to receive your command, to obey you, to follow you, to seek after you, Lord. I pray, God, that you would humble hearts today in our midst. In Jesus' name, amen.