Trinity Baptist Church

The Book of Mark

The Grim Reality of the Last Days

Mark 13:1-6

 

I don’t think anyone would argue that our planet has become a very dangerous place to live.  Whereas terrorist attacks and suicide bombings used to be primarily something that happened in the Middle East, it is not uncommon to live with that danger here. 

 

School shootings, road rage, food contamination, race riots, tornadoes, earthquakes, beheadings, wars, tsunamis, famines, fires, floods and a myriad of other tragedies have become everyday threats and occurrences in our world.  It is a very dangerous place to live.

 

And to any student of the Bible, this should come as no surprise.  In fact, things are destined to get a lot worse before they get better.  If you go to Mark chapter 13, you find Jesus on the last day of His public ministry in Jerusalem.  Tomorrow He will celebrate the Passover with His disciples, the following day He will be crucified and three days later He will be raised from the dead. 

 

He has now brought His public ministry to an end and is now giving His disciples the final instructions and warnings they will need.  And of such import are these closing words, they are recorded by Matthew, Mark and Luke.  And in the particular section before us, He gives them a history lesson by looking to the future.    

 

And  I find it very compelling and familiar because what He says to them 2,000 years ago about the future is exactly what we see as we look back through history. 

 

Now while it is very familiar to us, it will be an absolute shock to the disciples. Remember, they are anticipating the coming of the Kingdom of God.  They are absolutely convinced Jesus is God’s promised Messiah.  They’ve seen it in His power over disease and death and nature and sin.  They have taken note of the authority in His voice.  And they believe that they are about to experience the establishment of that glorious Kingdom.

 

In fact, a few days ago, He was greeted as the Messiah as He entered Jerusalem.  Everything is coming together just as it should.  So the most obvious question that would have been on the mind of the disciples is what we hear them asking in Mark 13:3.

 

They know, Jesus has been talking about being arrested and being beaten and dying and ultimately rising from the dead.  They have been told that repeatedly.  But I think they must assume it will just be another way for Jesus to demonstrate His power.  And after this little incidental of rising from the dead is out of the way, then they’ll be back on schedule with the Kingdom. 

 

So they rush by those details and concentrate on the timing of the establishment of the Kingdom.  That’s what they expect and it’s that expectation that’s behind His words in chapter 13.

 

While we won’t cover the whole thing at once tonight, I want to read the entire chapter so we get the full picture then we’ll come back and take a closer look at the first section.

 

Mark 1:1-37

 

It must have been a stunning moment to hear what Jesus said because immediately, this meant there was going to be a period of time that passed before He established His kingdom. 

 

After all, if you have wars and then rumors of wars and more wars, it was clear that a rather significant amount of time would have to pass to fulfill these things. And He went on to say there would be famines and natural disasters and all of this would just be the beginning of sorrows. 

 

And during that time believers will be subjected to persecution and even martyrdom. False Christs, false prophets will fill up history with their deception before He comes.

 

So between the first coming of our Lord and the Second Coming, history will be marked by all kinds of trouble that will eventually escalate into the period of time known as the Tribulation when reaches absolutely epoch proportions.

 

Notice how this passage outlines history. The first two verses talk about the destruction of the temple. Verses 3 through 13, which we’ll look at tonight, talk about present history until the rapture of the church. Verses 14 through 23 talk about the future Tribulation time. And then from verse 24 on, it speaks of His Second Coming.

So in between the first and Second Coming, life on this planet will be marked by relentless trouble for believers and non-believers.  Verses 5-13 address the specific problems believers will encounter and verses 14-23 address the Tribulation after the removal of the church.  And keep in mind, this has a very Jewish flavor to it.  They didn’t think in terms of the rapture.  They thoughts in terms of a coming Kingdom.  In fact, exactly what they asked. 

 

verses 3 and 4 

 

So here we find Jesus’ answer to that question.   and that period of time . First of all, He talks about

 

 

verses 1-2

 

You will remember, a few days ago he drove the moneychangers out of the temple.  He then takes the opportunity to teach one final time int eh temple.  For one day, it was used as God intended. 

 

That leads to the confrontations with the Saducees, Pharisees and Scribes that we studied and the final words He says about how corrupt the system was, illustrated by this poor widow who gives everything she has because she’s been told to do that. 

 

And now His disciples and He are leaving the temple.   And as they leave, someone comments on this beautiful building, perhaps the most strikingly beautiful building in the ancient world. They’re impressed. What wonderful stones and what a wonderful set of buildings.

But Jesus responds by saying, “Not one stone will be left upon another which will not be torn down.”

 

The first thing He predicts is destruction.  The temple will be destroyed and they system of religion housed int hat building would be destroyed and history records that’s precisely what happened.  In A.D. 70, that building came down, just as Jesus prophesied.

 

At that moment, we come to verse 3. They’ve now reached the Mount of Olives and they sit down there with the Lord, but in my mind’s eye, they’re still looking at that building. They have a perfect vantage point sitting on the Mount of Olives. They would have seen the temple rising above that eastern wall.

 

And as they sit and look, having just heard from the lips of Christ that the whole thing is going to come down, their gaze must have been even intensified. 

 

And I don’t want to read too much into the text, but it is possible we find there a silent illustration of the New Covenant?  On the one hand, there is the Law and all that Judaism embraces and opposite that we find Jesus and grace.  And again we are reminded, that a destruction is coming.  And their question provides the perfect opportunity for Jesus to talk about that. 

 

Now while they were asking about the temple itself, there was much more to it than that. They want to know when the end of apostate Judaism is coming, but they also want to know when the establishment of the divine messianic kingdom is coming.

 

 

 

So the Lord gives them in this passage of Scripture the full answer. This is the longest answer recorded in Scripture to any question asked of our Lord and it’s very important for us to understand the future.

 

And it is the destruction of the temple that prompts the question and provides the setting fo the answer. 

 

The second thing He talks about as He discusses this period of time is that it will be marked by

 

 

verse 5

 

I find it very insightful that Jesus said, “When you begin to examine the future, make sure you don’t get connected to people who don’t know what they are talking about.”

 

There are many deceivers and Jesus warned us about them.  We could go all the way back to Nostradamus and those of his ilk that follow that particular genre. Don’t follow deceivers, there will be many who will fill up the centuries and they will make false prophecies about all kinds of things, so don’t be deceived. 

 

And according to verse 6, some will be so bold as to claim to be Christ Himself.

 

Verse 6

 

Modern names would be Charles Manson and Jim Jones.  They are simple illustrations of the myriad of these false Christs who mislead people and lead them to destruction.

Notice how they are described in verse 22

 

They can’t lead the elect astray but if they could, they would and they do lead those who are not true believers to follow them.

 

I want to take must a moment and expand that thought and how we see it being fulfilled through the amazing popularity and protection that the Muslim faith is receiving. 

 

Most people tend think of Islam as having no connection to Christianity, that it is separate and distinct and part from Christianity.  Now while that is true of many other religions such as Hinduism and Buddhism, it is not true of Islam. 

 

Islam is very closely connected, not only to Christianity, but also to Judaism because Satan wants to counterfeit and deceive and get as close to the truth as he can. 

 

And the Islamic faith is monotheistic.  With Judaism, they confess there is One God and only One.  And with Christians, they believe in Jesus.  And because of those two things, there are a lot of evangelical Christians who think Islam must be okay. 

 

In fact,  Brian McClaren an Emerging Church heretic writes in his book, The Secret Message of Jesus,  “All Muslims regard Jesus as a great prophet. A shared reappraisal of Jesus’ message could provide a common ground for urgently needed religious dialogue. This reappraisal of Jesus may be our own way of saving a number of religions, including Christianity.”

 

So if we want to save Christianity and save other religions,  we need to all get together and that should be easy for us to do because we can start with the Muslims because they already believe in Jesus.

 

A popular Southern Baptist speaker and author named Tony Campolo, says, “When we listen to the Muslim mystics as they talk about Jesus and their love for Jesus, I must say it’s a lot closer to New Testament Christianity than a lot of Christians.” Really! So the Muslim Jesus and the Christian Jesus must be the same Jesus! Right? 

 

Well, Muslim doctrine helps us know the truth.  According to Muslim eschatology, their view of the last days, the Muslim Jesus plays a crucial role in how things will ultimately unfold. 

 

Muslim doctrine actually roots back to two sources, the Koran and the Hadith.  The Koran is their “scripture” and the Hadith is their tradition.  Just as the Jews have the Old Testament and the teaching of the Rabbis and Roman Catholics have the Bible and their traditions, so do the Muslims. 

 

And their theology is a combination of The Koran the the traditions and teachings of Muhammed.  And their teaching regarding Jesus is He was a man, and not God.  He did not die, but went to heaven like Elijah. Now if He did not die, then He did not rise.  If He did not die, there was no atonement.  He was a man who went to heaven and is there now, standing alongside Allah, waiting for Allah to send him back to earth.

 

For what purpose?  Why will Allah send Jesus to earth?  After all, he has a lot of prophets to pick from, why does he send Jesus back to earth?

 

He will return to correct all the Christians who have misunderstood who he is. And again, this is Muslim teaching based on their Holy Writings.  They believe Jesus will return to earth, but He is returning to straighten out the misdirected, misguided Christians who think He was God who died and rose again and provided atonement. 

 

None of that is accurate and it must be corrected.  And by the way, after he gets here, he’ll get married, have children and die and be buried next to Mohammed. That’s the Muslim Jesus.

 

Also, in Islamic eschatology, there are three great signs of the end of history and each of them involves a particular man. 

 

First, there is Mahdi...M-a-h-d-i. Sometimes he’s called the Twelfth Imam. Listen to the Muslims leaders give a speech and almost without exception they will give glory to Mahdi.  They are waiting for the coming of the Mahdi.

 

So what’s he coming to do? He’s coming to establish the everlasting world dominating kingdom of Islam by slaughtering all who do not worship Allah, identified in their writings as pigs and dogs.

 

He is their long-awaited savior. And the world must follow him as he takes over or he will destroy all enemies of Islam. He will come to carry on holy war and either you convert or you’re killed by the Mahdi.

He will lead a massive army that will go from nation to nation to punish unbelievers. The holy writings of Islam say that this army will carry black flags and on those black flags there will be one word and that one word will be the word Punishment. By the way, the Iranian army today carries black flags. They want to be ready for the coming of the Mahdi.

 

He will lead the army of black flags first to Israel, slaughter all the Jews, and then he will establish his rule in Jerusalem on the temple mount. That’s what their literature says.

 

According to their holy writings, the Mahdi will bring rain and wind and crops and wealth and happiness so that all will love him and no one will speak of anyone but him. Their writings say the Mahdi will come and make, at first, a peace agreement with the Jews and the west for seven years. The reign of Mahdi will last seven years in which he establishes Islam on the earth.

 

Their holy writings say this, the Mahdi will come riding on a white horse, carrying a sword to kill the infidels.

 

When the Mahdi arrives, he will discover hidden scriptures and hidden gospel and even a hidden Torah and they will be the true scriptures which will be used by the Mahdi to show the Jews and the Christians they were wrong and that their scriptures were the false scriptures.

 

Now, just so we are clear, let me summarize their teaching.  The Mahdi will be a messianic figure. He will be a descendant of Mohammed. He will be an unparalleled, unequaled leader.

He will come out of a crisis of turmoil. He will take control of the world. He will establish a new world order. He will destroy all who resist him. He will invade many nations. He will make a seven-year peace treaty with the Jews. He will conquer Israel and massacre the Jews. He will establish Islamic world headquarters at Jerusalem. He will rule for seven years, establish Islam as the only religion. He will come on a white horse with supernatural power. He will be loved by all people on earth.

 

Now if that sounds familiar, it should because it is a precise description of the biblical Antichrist.  The Bible’s antichrist is their Mahdi, described in Revelation 6 by making his entrance on a white horse.  The Bible’s Antichrist is Islam’s Savior and world conqueror who establishes a universal Islamic kingdom.

 

The second sign and person in Muslim eschatology is Jesus. 

 

Now understand, their Savior, the Mahdi is not Jesus. The Mahdi is greater than Jesus, and that’s important to their system because if all the Christians were wrong.  They’ve got somebody greater than Jesus.  Jesus takes a lesser role. 

 

They do believe Jesus will return to earth.  The Jesus of Islam, didn’t die, didn’t rise, didn’t provide a sacrifice for sin, but he does return and he returns to assist and aid the Mahdi. He returns as a radical Muslim. He will arrive near Damascus, holding the wings of two angels who flew him down to meet the gathering army of the Mahdi.

 

 

When he comes back,, he will acknowledge the Mahdi as his lord, then make a pilgrimage to Mecca to worship Allah and lead all Christians who will follow him to reject their notion of Jesus and acknowledge that he was nothing more than a prophet and a man.

 

He will establish worldwide Sharia law and become a great Muslim evangelist leading Christians everywhere to affirm that they were wrong and the gospel is wrong and the New Testament is wrong.  Jesus didn’t die, He didn’t rise, He isn’t God, He isn’t the Son of God.

 

So He returns, primarily to tell the world He was a liar who misled people and how they need to follow Him in following Allah. 

 

He comes, according to their writings, to “shatter crosses.” That means He will destroy the church.  He will kill pigs. He will abolish the tax on non-Muslims because there won’t be any living non-Muslims.  And finally, He will kill the Islamic Antichrist.  And after destroying Christianity, he will then die and be buried by Mohammed.

 

So who does this sond like?  He sounds amazing like the false prophet described in Revelation 13, 16, 19, 20 who is right hand man to the Antichrist.

 

The third person in Islamic doctrine is called Dajjal.  He is the great deceiver. He comes to earth on a mule and he’s blind in one eye. He is an infidel. He is a false miracle worker and he is the Islamic Antichrist.

 

And guess who he claims to be?  He claims to be Jesus, the son of God. He claims to be deity. He will attempt to stop the Mahdi and the true Jesus but the true Jesus will slaughter him.

 

This is their view of the true Christ. Our Jesus is their Antichrist. Our Antichrist is their redeemer. It is a satanic counterfeit that is in complete reverse.

 

“The army” and this is a quote from them, “The army of Satan will be led by a person who will claim to be Jesus Christ.” There will be a battle. The Muslim Jesus will fight the false Jesus and kill him and establish Islam forever.”

 

The truth is, as the Bible declares, the true Jesus will destroy the Antichrist and the false prophet and establish His Kingdom forever. This is Satan’s complete counterfeit, Muslim world domination.

 

That helps us to understand what we are seeing happen across the world, even as I speak.  Without going into the details, let me remind you that when people talk about the end times and the coming world order, everyone thinks in terms of a revived Roman Empire.  But remember, Daniel was given a vision of what that would look like and it was a picture of a man with two legs. 

 

The Roman Empire stood upon the two legs of the e west and the east? If you know your history, you’ll remember that the western part of the Roman Empire basically dissolved and the east survived for a thousand years or more.  At the time of the New Testament, more than sixty percent of the Roman Empire was land that is now under Muslim control.

The vast majority of the Roman Empire in New Testament times is today under Muslim control and Islam is moving across the west rapidly in Europe.

 

Then, in Ezekiel 38, we are given a picture of the Antichrist, Gog and you have the listing of eight nations, that will be a coalition for the Antichrist. All eight of those are Muslim nations today. 

 

Anyway, Jesus says to be forewarned abot the last days when there will be those claiming to be Him and who are you going to believe? 

 

That’s just one form of this deception that will show up at the end, and even now it’s deceiving people. There is a whole world of Muslims who think Jesus is someone He is not and consequently reject the true Jesus. Do not be deceived. And it is foolish to run around saying, “Oh, isn’t that wonderful?  They love Jesus too.” They don’t. Any “Jesus” other than the Jesus we find in the Bible is not Jesus.  Don’t be deceived. 

 

So destruction and deception.  There are at least two more characteristics of the last days Jesus gives us here, and we’ll save those for another day.