Trinity Baptist Church

The Book of Mark

The Final Generation, Part 1

Mark 13:28-37

 

Tonight we’ll be studying Mark 13:28-37 and while it’s not a long passage, it’s loaded. And in order to cover all the ground, we’ll need to jump right in.   

 

Mark 13:28-37

 

I want to offer just a quick reminder that we are in the final day of Jesus teaching on the earth.  He is sitting on the Mount of Olives with His disciples and they’ve asked Him about how to know the coing of the Kingdom of God is near. 

 

So in great detail, He tells them about the coming destruction of the temple in Jerusalem and what’s going to happen after that.  And it was nothing like what they imagined.  What Jesus foretells is all about destruction and deception and difficulties that will eventually see something that is so terrible it is unlike anything the world has ever experienced.  . 

 

And at a bare minimum, it means it will be a long time before the Kingdom comes.  But eventually, as we saw last week, Messiah will return and His coming will be the sign they should be looking for. 

And even though the church will have been removed from the earth, the generation that is alive and sees all this happening should be on the alert and looking for His coming.

 

 

And then, after all this detailed prophecy of what will happen, Jesus introduces this parable for emphasis, followed by an explanation of the lesson it teaches.

 

He begins with  

 

 

verse 28

 

This isn’t the first time Jesus has drawn their attention to a fig tree.  Jus the day before, as we saw in chapter 11, He had the fig tree as an illustration of Israel. He went to the fig tree because He was hungry. Expecting to find fruit because the tree had leaves, He found none and it was a symbol of Israel, nothing but leaves. He pronounced a curse on that fig tree and it died on the spot. It is the only destructive miracle recorded in the New Testament done by Jesus.

 

And here, Jesus mentions the fig tree again and this time, it’s not a real fig tree, but it’s a parable about a fig tree that provides a very simple illustration.  If the tree has leaves, you know summer is near.  

 

That makes all kinds of sense because trees put on leaves in the springtime and summer follows spring.  It’s not complicated.   And when Jesus says, “Learn this” it means believers can understand what He’s teaching. No believer needs to be in the dark on these matters. In fact, we don’t have to be in the dark on anything revealed in Scripture. God has given us the privilege of understanding what He gave us in the Bible. 

 

When the fig tree puts forth its leaves, you know that summer is near. It will be a time in the early spring. In fact, it was happening around them as He spoke.  The branches were becoming tender as the sap began to flow. There would have been evidence of it all around them. Spring is here.  The trees are leafing out and summer can’t be far behind. That’s exactly what He says.  So what’s the point?  Well, let’s go from the analogy to

 

 

Verse 29

 

The link between the parable the teaching is the phrase “So you also”.  So who is the “you” in the verse? 

 

Well, again, it’s pretty clear.  He says, “when you see these things happening”, so the ‘you” is the people who see “these things happening”. 

 

So what things are they seeing happen?  The things just described in verses 14 to 23.  He’s talking about the birth pains of anticipation leading up to the return of Christ, all the signs prior to the final sign which is Christ coming out from heaven. 

 

And the message is whoever is alive to see these things happening and is aware of what is recorded here in the Bible can know that the coming of Christ is near.

 

 

 

 

So if you’re alive in the future, in that generation, and you see the ABOMINATION OF DESOLATION, and all the rest of the things that begin to happen when the Antichrist establishes the worship of himself and starts the slaughter of the Jews and the believers and you’re told to run and flee for your life, then you can know that His coming is near. The Kingdom is near. The King is near. In fact, He is right at the door.

 

And this is really the answer to the question they asked earlier.  Their question was, “When will these things happen?”   His answer is, “Here’s how you can know.  When you see these preliminary events taking place, then the end will happen. Then will be the coming or the presence of the Lord, and the end of the age.

 

Then verse 30 adds another component that is often misunderstood. 

 

Verse 30

 

The clearest and best way to understand that verse is that Jesus is talking about the same people He was talkinga bout in verse 29.  Whoever it is who is alive and sees these things happening, that generation will see it all from start to finish. 

 

And yet, there are all kinds of ideas out there about who Jesus is talking about.  Some say He’s talking about the disciples and Jesus would return before they died.  Obviously, that wasn’t right.

 

There are still people around today who believe that Jesus returned in AD 70 when the Romans destroyed Jerusalem.  They are called preterists.

I noticed in the paper the other day that Don Preston, who used to pastor the Ardmore Church of Christ out on North Mount Washington, was going to have a debate with somebody.  He’s one of those who believe that way.   

 

The only way you come up with that view is if you just totally ignored the Bible.  If nothing else, just the description of the events that happen in the Tribulation that are recorded in the Revelation would lead you to discard that theory. 

 

The killing and destruction and bloodshed that covers the earth during that time certainly didn’t occur in the tiny little piece of earth called Jerusalem in AD 70!  That’s an absolutely idiotic view.

 

Others say Jesus was talking about the disciples, but He was wrong. And you can get by with saying Jesus was wrong because of what we read in

 

verse 32. 

 

Jesus didn’t know, so He just took a guess. I can admit that Jesus may have voluntarily limited His attributes while He was in an earthly body.  But to say that is one thing.  To say He was wrong is something entirely different.  My Savior may have lived in a human body and had self-imposed limits, but He was absolutely perfect and never sinned and never made a mistake and never made an error.  

 

Still others say the generation Jesus references here is the Jews are going to survive. Well that’s true.  The Jews are going to survive. But I don’t think that was the issue.

He wasn’t talking to people who even had any doubt about that.  That wasn’t even a question.

 

Others say this “generation” refers to sinners.  And Jesus was saying there will always be an evil generation.  Well, duh!  That’s obvious, but why say that? 

 

And then there are those who say it refers to those who see the birth of the nation of Israel. Well where does it say that? It doesn’t. But that’s a very popular view.  It was embraced by Hal Lindsey who wrote “The Late Great Planet Earth”. 

 

His teaching was because the fig tree in chapter 11 is Israel, the fig tree in chapter 13 is also Israel. Well, Israel became a nation in 1948 and a generation is generally understood to be 40 years which means Jesus had to return by 1988.  I think we’ve been on that road before and it didn’t work out so well!

 

Why not just let the text say what it says?  It means what it obviously means.  The generation that sees the signs leading up to the event will see the event because it will happen quickly.  It’s not going to be drawn out. The one who sees the leaves will see the summer. The generation that experiences the birth pains will see the birth of the Kingdom. The generation that sees the leaves will see the judgment that begins the Kingdom.

 

So that’s the analogy and the application.  Next, let’s look at

 

 

 

 

Verse 31a

 

Heaven and earth as we know it will pass away. That is absolutely true. This universe will be devastated in judgment. You can read about that in Revelation 6-19. 

 

The earth will be devastated. The planets, the stars, the heavenly bodies completely disoriented and everything that we know in this world that is stable will become shaken. Heaven and earth will pass away.

 

Verse 31b

 

That is authority.  There is coming a day when everything we see and understand will be annihilated except for the Word of God.  And notice, this time Jesus doesn’t reference the Scripture or the Word of God as He does in other places.  Here He simply says, “My words”.  This is a testimony from Jesus as to, not only how He feels about God’s Word, but it elevates His Word to the same level.

 

And Jesus says, “I’m telling you how it is and this is the truth and just as sure as the Word of God is what I’m speaking.

 

There is one other thing I want you to see int his text and that is

 

 

verses 32-37

 

Four times, Jesus says to be on the alert. He says it once as an illustration and three times as a command.

 

Now remember, this is still speaking to the future generation that sees the signs. This is similar to what Jesus said in Luke 12:40, “Be ready for the Son of Man is coming at an hour you do not expect,” or Matthew 25:13 version of this, “Be on the alert, you don’t know the day or the hour.”

 

Here it is specifically to those alive during the Tribulation and He says to them, “If you are a part of that generation that sees the trigger of the ABOMINATION OF DESOLATIONS, then you can know you’re the generation that is going to see His return. So be on the alert because what you don’t know is the exact day or the exact hour. So this is a very specific warning to a future generation.

 

You say, “Well what about all the generations between now and then?” Well there are plenty of warnings in Scripture to go around and we find plenty of those in other places.  We’re all warned to put our trust in Christ so that we don’t die in unbelief and go to hell forever.

 

But this message is answering a specific question and what He says is for those people alive then who see those signs.  And what He tells them is you’re not going to know the exact time. You can’t play fast and loose and then try to slide in at the end because you don’t know the day and you don’t know the hour.

 

 

In fact, verse 32 says, “Not even those in Heaven, including the angels and the Son of God Himself know when it will happen.  Only God knows.”

 

I find it interesting that Jesus said He didn’t know and yet we’ve had people for centuries try to convince us they do.  They started as early as 90 A.D. with a guy named Clement.  Then in the second century there was a group called The Montanists who made a prediction of the coming of the Lord. Then there was Joseph Smith of Mormon fame who predicted the Lord would come in 1832, then in 1890, or maybe 1891. Then there were the Millerites who said the Lord was coming March 21st, 1843, then changed it to October 22, 1844. That didn’t work out either.

 

Then there’s Ellen G. White, Seventh Day Adventism, who said the Lord would come in 1850. Guess not, 1856. Then there are the Jehovah’s Witnesses who said the Lord would come in 1914, 1915, 1918, 1920, 1925, ’41, ’75, 1990 and they’re still making dates.

 

So if you’re in that movement, get out. They don’t know, no one knows. And that is a dead giveaway of a false system. They don’t know. The angels don’t even know and they’re hanging around the throne. The angels don’t know, but we in our group, we know. Oh really!

 

Guess what?  Jesus said, “Nobody knows, not even Me” and nobody knows!  By the way, He know now!

When He was on earth, He laid aside His divine prerogatives, not His divine nature or His attributes but the prerogative to use them to the will of the Father and did only what the Father told Him to do. But after His resurrection, He resumed full knowledge. Listen to Acts 1, “So when they had come together, they were asking Him, ‘Lord, is it at this time You are restoring the Kingdom to Israel?’” Listen to what He said. “It is not for you to know.” He didn’t say, “It’s not for Me to know anymore.”

 

Once He rose from the dead, the incarnation and the restrictions were behind Him.  His humiliation had ended and He was given back the full prerogatives of deity.

 

So the warnings specifically in this passage are an answer to the question about the final generation.

 

So what’s the message to the rest of us?  The message is you’re going to die and you don’t know when and you better be ready. Isn’t that the message?  The message is everybody is going to die and you aren’t in control of when.

 

And to illustrate the significance of that, He then gives another very simple, easy-to-understand analogy. 

 

Verse 34

 

The owner of an estate leaves. He puts his slaves in charge of all their responsibility and he identifies one to be a doorkeeper who stays on the alert to let the master in when he returns. They would take that very, very seriously, that duty, and He is saying to that generation in the future that sees these things happen, “You better be on the alert. You don’t know when the master is coming back.”

 

And then He repeats it again in

verses 35-36

 

Now all of that imagery would have been familiar to those listening.  In the Roman way of keeping time, there was always a 12-hour watch from six in the evening, sundown, to six in the morning, sunrise.

 

Then, in that twelve hours, there were four three-hour periods. That’s what we find in verse 35.  The first was from sundown until nine, the second from nine to midnight followed by midnight to three and three to six. 

 

And the necessity of the watchman being awake and on the job was due to the fact that the master could return at any time. Therefore, be on the alert.  Be watching. 

 

The Lord, in His graciousness is warning those in the future Tribulation to be alert and watchful.  much more vigilant than the disciples were in this situation.

 

And then He repeats it again in

 

verse 37

 

Everyone needs to be alert and those of you who will be on earth during the Tribulation especially need to be watchful. 

 

To close, I want you to turn to Luke 21 and see Luke’s parallel account of the Lord’s sermon.

 

Verses 34-36

 

Now we know he’s not talking about the Rapture.  What we have here is not an encouragement to believers.  It is an invitation to sinners to come to God. 

 

And so the Lord tells the disciples, in the future, after a long period of history, when a time of Tribulation comes, those alive will know they’re in the final generation by the appearance of the ABOMINATION OF DESOLATION.  And when they see that, they’ll know the coming of Christ and the Kingdom of God is just around the corner. 

 

And to those who will be on earth, He says, “When you see the signs, you’ll know He’s near. He’s at the door. And the generation that sees the beginning of it, will certainly see the end of it. All of this is written down on the pages of Scripture for the warning of that generation.

 

And it applies to us as well because we want to do everything we can to proclaim the glorious gospel of Christ now so that non-believers won’t have to go into that horrific time of judgment. We’re in a rescue operation. We aren’t going to be in the Tribulation and we want to take as many people as we can with us to glory before it happens.

 

Let’s pray.