[0:00] The sky is falling? Why would Chicken Little think such a thing? You all right? An acorn had fell on his head while he was napping.
[0:14] He interpreted that as the part of the sky falling. Dramatic language. We use it all the time. We say things like, what happened is earth shattering.
[0:30] We don't mean by that that the earth literally shattered. But that what happened was indeed huge and a major disturbance.
[0:47] This family that has suffered a loss of a child. Another family being faced with possible loss of a child.
[0:58] That's earth shattering. That's the sky is falling for them. Right? So we use that kind of language. We don't mean it in a literal sense. We mean it in a big sense.
[1:10] It's a way of communicating something major is happening. It's hyperbole. It's hyperbole. Your world is turned upside down.
[1:21] It's momentous. It's traumatic. It's devastating. It's happening. It's happening. It happens on a personal level and it can happen on a national level.
[1:32] It's life changing. It's life changing. It's life changing. And in those cases it's historic. Literally life changing. is this what Jesus is saying?
[1:48] Is this what Jesus is doing when he's predicting the end? When he says the sun will turn dark and the moon will not give its light and the stars will fall from the heavens and the powers in the heavens will be shaken.
[2:04] Is he saying that's the end of the world? Or is he being dramatic? What does this mean?
[2:17] And you can imagine there's all kinds of views on this. So we've seen in Mark 13 Jesus is making a series of predictions.
[2:30] In verse 2 he predicted that the temple, that beautiful building that was there in 30 AD, all covered in gold, magnificent building, would be destroyed.
[2:46] That within one generation it would be knocked down, not one stone left on another. And of course within 40 years, 70 AD, that happened. Rome came and burned the temple and the city down and then came in and removed every rock so that there was literally not one rock left on another.
[3:09] Fulfilled to the letter what Jesus predicted. He then, the disciples then ask him, when is this going to happen? This is life changing.
[3:20] This is earth shattering. Our temple, gone. That's the center of their life. It's how they approach God. It's how they worship. It's how they deal with their sin.
[3:32] If the temple is gone, what do they have? If you go to Israel today, where will you find the Jews? What is the most sacred place for them?
[3:44] Where can they get the closest to God they can get? The Wailing Wall. The Wailing Wall. It is still part of the foundation that was Herod's temple.
[3:56] Where Herod's temple was, it was leveled. There's now a mosque there built literally over where the Holy of Holies is because I was able to go into that mosque and look in the center and see the footprints of the temple.
[4:09] So today, the closest a Jew can get to God from their mindset. Remember, they have a physical mindset.
[4:21] God lived in their temple. So the closest they can get is that Wailing Wall. That's why it's so sacred to them. It's so precious to them. They can actually touch the wall that was once the foundation for that temple.
[4:35] An archaeologist said that, of course, wasn't there in 70 AD. That was level. And, of course, the archaeologist dug down, found the wall. They dug even deeper. They found actually the foundation of Solomon's temple.
[4:48] They dug down deeper. You can actually go there and look down a hole. Oh, I see those big stones. Yeah, that's Solomon's wall. Back then, when they leveled things, they didn't remove the rubble and then rebuild.
[4:59] They just built on top of the rubble. That's why archaeologists can dig and find things because ancient civilizations just kept building, building, building. So you dig down. You can find one civilization. Dig deeper. Find an earlier one.
[5:11] So on and so on. But a Jew who reads his Torah, his Old Testament, how does he draw near to God?
[5:23] He draws near to God by going to the tabernacle or to the temple. They no longer have a tabernacle or a temple. The closest they can get is to that wall. And you go to that wall.
[5:35] You go in there. Of course, there's guards. You can't go in if you're a Gentile until you put on a thing. I call it a coffee filter because it looks just like a little paper coffee filter. So you cover your head.
[5:47] So you're respecting that space. And you go in there. And in between all the stones of that wall, you can find these little pieces of paper. The Jews have written out prayers and they put them in there. And they go to that wall today and they're praying.
[6:02] They're praying from Scripture. They're praying like Daniel, forgive us, O Lord, restore us again. They're praying. And in 1950 years, God has not heard that prayer.
[6:16] He has not rebuilt that temple. Life changing. Jesus predicted that. So the disciples asked when. And so Jesus begins to give other predictions.
[6:27] Verses 5 to 8, he predicts things that will not be the end. They will be devastating. Earthquakes, wars and rumors of war and famines. All these horrible tragedies.
[6:38] But they're not the end, he said. And then in verse 9, he talked about how the disciples themselves would suffer for preaching the gospel. That the gospel must be preached, but they will suffer for that.
[6:50] Beginning in verse 14, the first significant thing would happen that was specific. Up to this point, it's all been general. But now in verse 14, he says, you will see something in Judea.
[7:00] In a specific place, you will see an abomination of desolation. And when we studied that, we saw that that comes from the prophet Daniel. Referring to a specific thing that happens within the temple.
[7:12] That the temple is itself defiled in some way or destroyed. And that the sacrifices cease. That had happened previously in Israel's history. Jesus saying it would happen again.
[7:22] And he says, when you see that happen, when the sacrifices stop and when the temple is profaned in some way, that's your signal to run.
[7:33] Because you won't have much time. When that happens, that means it's coming to an end. And in 67 AD, when the zealots, the Jewish zealots, raided the temple and took over the temple precincts, they established, they brought in criminals with them, by the way, and murdered and killed within the temple.
[7:54] And they also brought in this false high priest who was not qualified and who was a phony. They set him up as the high priest. And the former high priest is quoted by Josephus saying that was the abomination.
[8:10] That was the signal that all things are going down from here. And within three and a half years, Jerusalem was surrounded by armies and then was destroyed in 70 AD.
[8:24] But that was their warning. Once you see that run, because the armies are already there, they're letting people escape, but soon they wouldn't let people escape. So there was a time of, you know, the siege of Jerusalem was a long time thing.
[8:39] It wasn't like happening within a week. It was years. So they surround them and they build their ramps to come in. And during that time, people are imprisoned and they're in famine and they're in distress.
[8:50] And they can't get out and they can't get supplies. And they're dying and they're killing each other. And the Romans wait for them to pretty much total themselves. And then they come in and finish it off. That's what happened in 70 AD.
[9:02] We have details historically written of that. So then in verse 19, Jesus says, well, there's more. So there's that time when you see the abomination. Get out of town.
[9:13] And then in verse 19, he says, in those same days, there will be a tribulation. So he's talking about this time period, which turned out to be about three and a half years of tribulations, of stuff that would happen within those Jerusalem walls that have not happened since the beginning of creation and will never happen again.
[9:30] Josephus records some barbaric acts that happened. Just unimaginable stuff.
[9:42] And his clue there at the end of verse 19 is that this wasn't the last tribulation.
[9:52] He says, in those days, there will be such tribulation as has not been from the beginning of creation that God created until now and then never will be. So in other words, implying there will be more future tribulations, but they won't be as bad as this one.
[10:07] So in other words, he's implying this isn't the final, last, ultimate tribulation. This is just an unparalleled one. So within that, Jesus says that even though that's a horrible tribulation, God will actually spare people because of his elect.
[10:28] He will cut those days short. If he had not saved the elect, if he had not saved those, his chosen ones, then no one would have survived. But for the sake of the elect, he spared people and cut short the timing because God is merciful.
[10:47] God is just and he will bring consequences on those who continue to not repent, but he spares people. He puts it off so that people might be saved.
[11:01] And he does it again. So there's always that promise that he saves his elect from, not from tribulation, but through tribulation. And then in verse 21, Jesus talks about these false deceivers that arise.
[11:13] And what he marks as a note here is that they will use signs and wonders to deceive you. There are false prophets who can imitate miracles for the sole purpose of deceiving you.
[11:33] So what he's saying is watch particularly those who do signs and wonders. Watch them. Watch them. If they're doing signs and wonders, and he doesn't say they're not real.
[11:46] Watch them because they're going to use that to bait you in. That's how he says it. False, verse 22, false. Christ and false prophets will arise and perform signs and wonders.
[11:58] Why? To lead astray, if possible, even the elect. They appeal to Christians. These are so-called Christian prophets. And they use signs and wonders.
[12:12] And so Jesus is saying watch. Be very, very careful. Don't just be naive and drawn in. Okay? That's our vigilance.
[12:25] There's false ones out there. And they can do amazing things. That doesn't mean they're real. Okay? Okay? The devil can... Remember in Egypt, right?
[12:37] Moses, throw down your staff, right? Becomes a serpent. What'd the magicians do? Threw down their staffs. Became, you know. They could copy all of Moses' miracles, right?
[12:49] Until it got to certain ones. And then they said, sorry, Pharaoh. That's God. We can't do that one. So, don't be surprised.
[13:01] Just because there's miracles, it's not false. So now we come to verse 24, and we have this contrast.
[13:12] Notice the first word in verse 24 is but. It's just a contrast word. And in the Greek, it's a... I was going to say a big but. It's a strong contrast.
[13:27] Sorry. It's saying there's a major change coming here. Everything before has kind of been prelude in contrast to what's going to happen next.
[13:38] What happens in verse 24 is a difference in scope of events. Everything happening before, serious and tragic as it was, was prelude.
[13:52] Now is the main event. Because now he's going to use language that is into the world language. Into the world language, right?
[14:05] So we come to the finale. You know, you watch the 4th of July, you watch the fireworks, and then you have the big conclusion at the finale, right? And they let them all go.
[14:16] And we all go, yeah. So this is that. It's kind of that big, huge finale. Big finisher. When the stars fall from heaven.
[14:28] How are we to understand Jesus' language? So let's just make a couple observations. Let's be careful. Let's just make some observations.
[14:40] I want to make two observations. One is that Jesus borrows or repeats the language from the Old Testament prophets. These words have been used before.
[14:52] And Jesus is using them again and applying it to this new situation. Secondly, I want to apply these words to what happened in that first century.
[15:06] But we still must leave the door open that this may not have been totally done yet. Okay? We always have to leave that door open. We can't be, this is prophecy.
[15:16] This is hard. But be careful. Okay, so first of all, first observation. These words Jesus uses, verse 24. In those days after that tribulation, the sun will be darkened.
[15:31] The moon will not give its light. The stars will be falling from heaven. And the powers in the heavens will be shaken. Dramatic words. Those words are words from the Old Testament prophets.
[15:43] They were used historically against specific nations God was judging. Now first, I want you to notice in the context, when does this happen?
[15:55] Verse 24. In those days. What days? The days he's already been talking about. The days of that tribulation. You see that same phrase in verse 17.
[16:07] Alas for the women who are pregnant, for those who are nursing infants, in those days. Again, verse 19. In those days there will be such tribulation as has never happened before.
[16:19] So the same days, that same time period in other words. And at least on some level that was fulfilled and literally happened in 67 AD to 70 AD.
[16:33] That period of tribulation. That may not be the ultimate fulfillment of that prediction, but it was an initial fulfillment of it. Because the details matched too closely to just say, oh, that didn't happen then.
[16:50] Certainly did. At least as a foreshadowing of the ultimate. So same time period. And then the other thing I want you to notice is the quotation. These words that he uses.
[17:01] The sun will be darkened. The moon will not give its light. Stars will be full. Powers in the heavens will be shaken. Those are all words from the prophets of Israel. They're poetic language.
[17:18] Now, my translation, which is the English Standard Version, doesn't set those words apart any different than any other words. If you have a new international version.
[17:29] I like to pick on the NIV. But here they get it right. They set those words apart as poetry. They're centered in the text.
[17:41] The New American Standard. The New American Standard highlights those words by putting them in all caps. That's the way the New American Standard is telling the reader that those are words that have been said before in the Old Testament.
[17:59] Okay? So I'm reading my ESV. It doesn't give me any clue. Until I start looking, you know. So just to know that. So it's poetic. And so all prophecy, you read Isaiah, you read Ezekiel, you read these.
[18:13] You'll notice it's not written like a narrative. There are narrative parts. But then when he says, thus saith the Lord, blah, blah, blah, it's in poetry. It's poetic language.
[18:24] It's dramatic language. Prophecy is about making a pow impact on you more than giving you an exact timeline. And so these words are poetic.
[18:37] And there's three parallel lines. So the sun will be darkened. The moon will not give its light. The stars will be falling from heaven. And then the fourth line is like a summary. The powers of the heavens.
[18:49] In other words, the sun, moon, and stars. The powers of the heavens will be shaken. So he's saying something earth-shattering is happening. The sky is falling. This is big.
[19:05] So do the stars literally fall? What do you mean by star? Okay.
[19:15] So it's difficult. So I came from a tradition, and I respect my tradition where I came from, where I was taught in seminary, that you read the Bible literally. And I agree with that.
[19:25] You read the Bible literally. Take it literal that these things really happen. But when you come to metaphors, you don't take those literally. Where Jesus says, poke your eye out if it causes you to sin it.
[19:38] I don't think he really meant that. I think he meant, because that's not going to get rid of lust, by the way. You poke an eye out. It's still lust. Or cut your hand off. It's hyperbole. So you don't take that literal.
[19:51] But you get that he's being dramatic. So where do you do that? So let me just do this. I want to take you through three scriptures where these words are used in the Old Testament.
[20:06] And I want scripture to interpret scripture. One of our best guides for interpreting what does the Bible mean is by looking at other scriptures that speak about the same thing. So instead of me trying to just reading into, oh, what it means to me, I think of Smoon like this.
[20:23] And it's like, who cares what you think? It's probably wrong. So the only thing that matters is what did God mean? Okay. And then we can say, okay, now I know what it means.
[20:35] And how does that apply to me? Okay. So let's go back and look at other ways God has used these words and see how he used them. That will help us understand what it may mean here. So you have in your outline some of these texts.
[20:50] Isaiah 13. In Isaiah 13, Isaiah uses this kind of language to describe God's judgment of the nation Babylon.
[21:03] Babylon was a real historic nation. It existed at the time of Daniel. In fact, Babylon was the empire that came and conquered Jerusalem, destroyed the temple the first time, and then carried away all of those who were still alive to Babylon.
[21:20] Okay. And Daniel was one of those captives who went and he served the king. Remember? And then Daniel was kind of like the old Joseph who had a lot of dreams, who had a lot of visions, wrote them down.
[21:31] God revealed a lot of stuff to Daniel. So, Isaiah is speaking about Babylon. An oracle concerning Babylon, which Isaiah the son of Amoz saw, verse 1.
[21:46] Verse 3 in Isaiah 13 talks about he'll be gathering to invade Babylon. Down to verse 9 in Isaiah 13. The Lord says, Behold, the day of the Lord comes, cruel with wrath and fierce anger, to make the land a desolation and to destroy its sinners from it.
[22:08] So, in other words, you see, judgment's coming. And it's God's judgment on this nation. And then watch the words that explain it. For the stars of the heavens and their constellations will not give their light.
[22:22] The sun will be dark at its rising and the moon will not shed its light. The exact phrases as we have in Mark 13 regarding the sun and the moon.
[22:35] So, this language is describing God intervening into history and bringing the end of a certain nation who will be replaced by another nation.
[22:49] God is saying, For you, the sun is going dark. For you, the moon is going without light. For you, the stars are falling from the sky.
[23:01] The sky is falling for you. And later in Isaiah 13, he reveals that it's the nation of the Medes who will come.
[23:13] And historically, that's exactly what happened. Babylon was overrun by the Medes. And the Medes set up. And then the Persians came. Then Alexander the Greek came. Right? And then the Romans come. Right? God sets those timetables.
[23:27] God says when it's over. Who's prophesying today about America? When's our time out? We're on the same trend as many of these other nations.
[23:40] Who went down. That's why we prayed today. Right? God have mercy. God sets that timetable. So, Isaiah.
[23:54] We see that language in Isaiah. Ezekiel 32. We have the same language used in God's judgment of Pharaoh in the nation of Egypt. He says in Ezekiel 32. 2.
[24:04] Son of man, raise a lamentation over Pharaoh, king of Egypt, and say to him. Skip down to verse 7. When I blot you out.
[24:17] See, God always had a thing with Pharaoh. Right? This is a different Pharaoh. Remember, there was an earlier Pharaoh. Pharaoh says, I'm going to blot you out, too. And here he goes again. I'm going to blot you out.
[24:28] Okay. Whoa. When I blot you out, I will cover the heavens and make their stars dark. I will cover the sun with a cloud, and the moon shall not give its light.
[24:40] All the bright lights of heaven will I make dark over you. And put darkness on your land, declares the Lord God.
[24:52] So notice that he uses this language, but he's applying it in a specific local nation. That this will happen in their land. This will be dark over them.
[25:07] It's specific to Egypt. Egypt, even though it's end of the world language, it's end of the world language, yes, but just for Egypt at that time. It was end of the world language for Babylon at that time.
[25:20] Remember, God did the same thing back in the Exodus. Remember we read in Exodus? Remember all the plagues? Remember one of the plagues was darkness? And do you remember how the darkness was manifested?
[25:33] It wasn't over all the land. It was just over Egypt. Remember how Moses said that, but the people of God over in Goshen were not in darkness. Just the people in Egypt.
[25:46] God specified the darkness, which he said was so thick you could feel it, was only localized in Egypt. And so through all the plagues, remember Israel was protected from all the plagues.
[25:57] They just happened to Egypt. God was judging Egypt. I will make Pharaoh know. I exist and I will not be ignored.
[26:10] Boom, boom, boom, boom, boom, boom. Okay, fine, let him go. Right? Still wouldn't let him go. Then God had to drown him to get rid of the guy. The guy isn't... Okay, one more text from Joel.
[26:25] And I'm going to actually use the quote from Acts 2. Because Peter quotes Joel as being fulfilled at Pentecost in Acts chapter 2.
[26:41] Now Pentecost, remember Pentecost? This was after the Passover, 50 days after the Passover. So Jesus died on the Passover of that year.
[26:52] And then he, remember, raised. 40 days. He was hanging around, right? He had ascended. He was still teaching for 40 days before he ascended. He ascends into heaven 10 days later.
[27:04] So Pentecost, 40 days. 10 days makes 50. So Pentecost is 50 days after Passover. So at Passover, what happened? All the disciples are praying in the upper room, right?
[27:18] What happened? God poured out his Holy Spirit, right? The Spirit came on them. There were tongues of fire. They were preaching in other languages, right? They're speaking in tongues.
[27:30] And they went out and they spoke in tongues to all these crowds at Pentecost, which there were millions of Jews. They estimated at least 2 million Jews there on 38. They're hearing.
[27:43] And what the people are hearing, of course, if they don't know that they're speaking in other languages, they're speaking in a blah, blah, blah, blah. These people are drunk. They're crazy. They're nuts. And so Acts 2 tells us Peter stood up and said, no, no, no.
[27:55] These people are not drunk as you suppose. Well, they're drunk on the Spirit, but they're not drunk as you suppose. This. This. This. This.
[28:06] And then he begins to say, this is what the prophet Joel was talking about. In other words, what's happening now is a fulfillment of Joel chapter 2.
[28:17] And then he said, this is what was uttered through the prophet Joel. And in the last days it shall be, God declares, that I will pour out my Spirit on all flesh, and your sons and your daughters shall prophesy.
[28:28] Your young men shall see dreams. Your old men shall dream dreams. Even on my male servants and female servants in those days, I will pour out my Spirit, and they shall prophesy.
[28:40] And then he says, Peter's still quoting Joel, and I will show wonders in the heavens above, and signs on the earth below, blood and fire and vapor of smoke.
[28:51] The sun shall be turned to darkness, and the moon to blood. Before the day of the Lord comes, the great and magnificent day. Peter said, all of that happened at Pentecost.
[29:04] Say, well, wait a minute. Where was the fire and the blood and the vapor of smoke? Peter didn't, Acts doesn't describe any of that. The Acts doesn't describe the moon turning to blood, or the sun turning to darkness.
[29:18] Peter didn't mean those verses too, did he? Well, that's what he quoted. And he said, this is what has happened. He understood the language of Scripture, that prophetic language, to be dramatic language.
[29:36] A major change is happening. Somebody's stars are falling. Somebody's sky is coming down. It's earth shattering.
[29:49] We see the same kind of language in Joel 3 as well, and Haggai and other places. I'm just giving you a few. When God refers to the sun, the moon, the stars that are having disturbances, it is God's judgment of a fundamental change that is happening to a specific nation.
[30:09] There's going to be a change. There's going to be new management. There's going to be a new king. You know, restaurants sometimes say, under new management, right? Come back, there's new management.
[30:22] It's another way of saying something earth shattering, something catastrophic is happening for the nation. God is redrawing the lines on the map.
[30:34] Here, this country's in control. Not anymore. Now this country's redrawing the map. And we see that all through history. The map keeps getting redrawn.
[30:45] God is changing. God gives each nation so much time. And then when time is up, we're moving on. You have not heard me.
[30:56] You have not responded to me. So you are now done. So, Jesus is repeating the words of the Old Testament prophets.
[31:08] So what does that mean here in Mark 13? How is he applying those words now when he speaks them to the disciples? In the context, he's already talked about the temple being destroyed.
[31:22] He's talking about these false Christs and false prophets who will come. He's talked about the tribulation and the abomination and desolation.
[31:32] We see those things. This great tribulation time. After that time, the sun, the moon, the stars. Something big happens after the abomination and after that tribulation.
[31:45] Something world-changing. Something world-ending at least for some.
[31:57] This is what I believe. With these words, Jesus predicts the end of Israel's administration. I say administration, I can't find a better word.
[32:10] He's taking their lampstand out. He's removing their light. Their stewardship. In Romans 11, Paul talks about how there's an olive tree.
[32:23] Remember? And at the time of Christ, he cut off. Because the Jews rejected Jesus, he cut off the Jewish branches. And he grafted in these Gentile, you know, all these mangy, you know, us.
[32:36] Strange branches into the tree. And then he says, hey, you Gentiles don't think you're all that. So I can cut those off and put the Jews back in. So. I believe that's what he did in 70 AD.
[32:51] When he destroyed the temple, he ended Israel's administration. That doesn't mean it's the end forever for Israel. God says, I still have a future for Israel.
[33:03] Okay. Okay. But as far as them leading the light show, as far as them being the stars who show for me, they're done.
[33:17] They have failed. They have got it wrong. They're following the law. And now, look, in the temple, they're even keeping sinners out of the temple because they're selling their stuff.
[33:29] Right? Which really upset Jesus because he casts all that out. Right? They got it real wrong. And they're not going to get it right. They rejected Christ when he came.
[33:40] They rejected what the prophets had to say. They rejected what Jesus himself had to say. So they're done. So notice Jesus says this language is saying your lights are out.
[33:54] The party's over. The sky has fallen. New management coming in. God is judging Israel saying your end has come. Your light has been removed.
[34:06] And notice again in verse 24 he says it's in those days. It's after that tribulation. It's during the same time period. So this at least applies initially to the end of Israel in 70 AD.
[34:21] As I talked about earlier, the Jew today who follows the scriptures, who reads the Torah, who wants to follow God, he reads Leviticus and he can't apply a page of Leviticus.
[34:35] Because it's about how he brings his offerings. He can't bring his offerings. He can't worship God the way it's prescribed. He can't keep half of the laws of the Torah.
[34:46] Because there's no temple. There's no place to go. Isn't that speaking loudly to them? How can they not hear it?
[35:01] The temple had been destroyed before, but it had been rebuilt within 400 years. Three times it had been destroyed and rebuilt. Now we're talking 1950 years. Now you go to Jerusalem, you can find the little temple workshop where they're building that furniture.
[35:17] There are Jews planning to rebuild that temple. Maybe they will. Maybe God will do that. I don't know. It doesn't make any sense to me. Maybe.
[35:30] That's up to God. It's not my business. So, this is also a foreshadowing I want you to know.
[35:42] This sun, moon, stars falling was the end of Israel's light, but it was not the end of the world. But I believe it foreshadows the end of the world.
[35:55] I believe the end of the world will be like that's just a little picture of what the big end will be like. Yeah, that was the end for them. Just like it was for Babylon, for Egypt.
[36:06] That was the end for them as a nation. The very end will be, there's no talk of when you see this run, because when the very end comes, there's no time to run.
[36:19] When you read Revelation 6, when you read Revelation at the end, when you read 2 Peter 3, talking about the real final end will be an absolute burning and melting of all the elements, and then God brings a new heaven and a new earth.
[36:40] So, there is another ultimate end. And this is foreshadowing what that's like. But it's like this is little compared to the biggie. And like I said, 2 Peter does say there will be a final end that will come.
[36:57] And it will come like a thief. There will be no sign to warn you when the end end comes. It will come sudden. There won't be any warning.
[37:09] It will be like lightning, like what happened in the time of Noah. It just comes, boom. No warning. And then there will be no time.
[37:24] So, we see what happens in history, and we should take notice and say, okay, God means what he says. God gives a lot of time, a lot of grace, a lot of mercy, but at some point he says, no, that's it.
[37:40] That's it. How much grace did he show Israel? Over and over. More grace, more grace, more grace. Brought them back, brought them back, brought them back. And that doesn't mean all of them were bad, because among them there was a remnant of holy people who trusted in God, like David, who was far from perfect, but who did truly trust in God.
[38:02] There were those, you know. There's always a remnant. And even in the first century, when he said, this is the end, that wasn't the end of all the Jews, because who did the first church, who made up the first church?
[38:15] Jews. All his disciples were Jews. The first 3,000 of Pentecost, all Jews. Two chapters later in Acts, the 5,000, still Jews.
[38:28] God had to bring a persecution to get them out of Jerusalem to finally preach to the Gentiles. Dudes. It's not just for you.
[38:40] Right? So, we see in Acts 8, they get out, and then they all start preaching. And then it really starts coming, because the Gentiles, man, that's good news. We know all about judgment. We know all about sin.
[38:52] God's going to forgive it. Okay, give me some of that. Right? They were just swallowing it up. They didn't come from this legalistic background. Okay?
[39:02] So, how does this language relate to Israel? Let me show you one other text in the book of Revelation. Yeah, we're going there. Revelation. Chapter 12.
[39:15] Not everything in the book of Revelation is about the future. Some of it's about visions of the past. In Revelation 12, we come to one of those. What are the stars that fall from the sky?
[39:29] Which stars fall? Listen to Revelation 12, and hear how these words are used. The same kind of language. So, John says, a great sign appeared in heaven.
[39:44] A woman clothed with the sun, with the moon under her feet, and on her head a crown of 12 stars?
[39:58] 12. Is that significant? Does 12 ever get used before the Bible? 12. 12? 12 what? Okay, okay. 12 stars.
[40:09] He goes on. She was pregnant, and was crying out in birth pains, and in agony, and giving birth. And another sign appeared in heaven. Now, these are signs. He's seeing a vision.
[40:20] Appeared in heaven. Behold, a great red dragon, with seven heads, and ten horns, and on his head seven diadems. And his tail swept down a third of the stars of heaven.
[40:33] Wait a minute. There's more stars. There's more stars. There's stars on the woman's head, and there's stars that the dragons... Okay?
[40:44] More stars. And cast them to the earth. And the dragon stood before the woman who was about to give birth, so that when she bore her child, he might devour it. She did give birth to a male child.
[40:59] By the way, here's a hint to who he is. One who is to rule all the nations with a rod of iron. But her child was caught up to God and to his throne to bat dragon.
[41:14] Who's this child? Jesus. This child, Jesus is the one to rule all the nations with a rod of iron. Jesus is the one who is caught up to God and to his throne.
[41:28] So who's the woman? Who's the sun? Who's the moon? Who are the stars? Let me give you one more hint.
[41:39] You remember way back in Genesis 37 when Joseph had his dream? Remember Joseph with the fancy coat? He had his dream. He made a mistake. He told his dream to his brothers.
[41:50] He ended up getting them, you know, transferred. He had a dream. He says, I had a dream.
[42:01] Daddy, I had a dream. I was a great star. And the sun and the moon and the 11 stars were bowing down to me. Cool, huh?
[42:13] Ezekiel 37, verse 10. His father Jacob said, you mean to tell me, boy, that your mother and I and your brothers are bound down to you?
[42:32] Don't think. Of course, Jacob, you know. You know Jacob. He got a little self-oriented. Interesting.
[42:42] So back then, Joseph had a dream about the 12 sons of Jacob being stars. And their father and their mother being the sun and the moon.
[42:54] Here we have in Revelation 12 that same picture. Sun, moon, star. Sun, moon, star. My wife brought up another one this morning in class. Remember when God took Abraham out and he gave him a vision and showed him the stars?
[43:13] He said, Abraham, count the stars if you can. So shall your descendants be. Oh, the descendants of Abraham, stars.
[43:25] Which stars are falling in Revelation? Or in Mark 13? Could it be that the stars falling are the descendants of Abraham? Could it be that they're the 12 tribes of Israel?
[43:38] Falling? Could it be, in other words, representative that the nation of Israel has fallen? No, God is not done with the Jews.
[43:50] But as a nation, he's done. In fact, God is done doing things with nations, period. He doesn't work through nations anymore. He works through a people made up of all kinds of nations and races and languages and tribes.
[44:11] Right? That's why Acts 8 was get out of here. Get out there and tell my people. Because my people are all people.
[44:26] Hear how Luke's parallel passage has this. Luke is describing in Luke 21 the same prediction Jesus is giving here in Mark 13. But Luke uses different words.
[44:38] I wonder how they might give us some insight into this. So Luke 21, 25. Luke says, or he quotes Jesus saying, There will be signs in sun and moon and stars.
[44:49] So he doesn't say, you know, the sun darkened, the moon darkened, and the stars. He just says there will be signs in sun and moon and star. In other words, signs. Something significant.
[45:00] And on earth, distress of nations and perplexity because of the roaring of the sea and the waves. People fainting with fear and with foreboding of what is coming on the world.
[45:12] In other words, something is big, earth-shattering change. For the powers of the heavens will be shaken. Now that's an exact quote that we have from Mark 13.
[45:25] And then they will see the Son of Man coming in a cloud with power and great glory. Now watch what he says. Now when you see these things begin to take place. When you see the sun, moon, stars.
[45:39] You see the sun coming on the cloud. When you see these things begin to take place, what do you do? Straighten up. Raise your heads.
[45:52] Because your redemption is drawing near. It's close. Your redemption. He's not talking about your spiritual redemption from sin.
[46:03] Because Christ said already, when you see these future things happen, know that your redemption. What redemption? The redemption of my body from this world. My new body.
[46:14] My final redemption is coming near. Luke presents it like this isn't the end of the world.
[46:29] It's simply an end. The language of sun, moon, stars. Luke calls signs that signify, point beyond something to deeper meaning.
[46:42] He's using the Old Testament prophets language to point to the end of a nation. God's judgment. God's change. And it is a foreshadowing of the ultimate final end.
[46:55] Okay. Okay. So how is that significant to us? So what? Right? It's all interesting. Blah, blah, blah, whatever. I'm a pan-millennialist.
[47:07] I just believe it will all pan out. I don't care what the events go. Give me something I can live on today. Right? How is it significant? Well, for one, that the temple was destroyed and this was the end is God's stamp saying there's a new temple.
[47:25] There is a new temple. There is a new people. There is a new light in the world. The old way is gone and done.
[47:40] New way is much more powerful. Much more significant. Much more inclusive. Jesus is the real temple.
[47:54] The old temple would never really get you to God. It would only get you kind of close and then you had to stop. And it didn't really deal with your sins. It just reminded you that you're a sinner.
[48:06] It never dealt with the sins that you committed intentionally. It only covered the sins that were accidental.
[48:16] But in Jesus, your sins, all of them, the intentional, the rebellious, the crooked, the really twisted ones.
[48:30] You know the words like iniquity? That means the twisted up, perverted stuff. That gets forgiven. In Christ. The Old Testament isn't touching that.
[48:42] Jesus covers that. Jesus understands that. He covers that. That's how we approach God.
[48:53] That's how we have direct... We don't have to go to the wailing wall and just kind of... And I'm not making fun of Jews here. It's just like, can you imagine? That's the closest they can get to God. How sad.
[49:06] I'm not making fun of them. Imagine being in that state where you can't see and that's all you got. May God open their eyes. May they see this Messiah that actually did come who promised all.
[49:24] So there's a new temple. There's a new people in town. It's not limited to one nation. It includes all on an equal basis. Jesus. We all come before the cross.
[49:35] It's not leveled. It's not staggered. And we all have the good news. We all who call upon the Lord are saved.
[49:46] Any who are willing to turn and repent and believe become God's people. And there's a new light. It's no longer the Jews. It's no longer the temple. It's the church.
[49:58] God is banking everything on the church. As scary as that sounds. With all of its weaknesses and all of its hypocrisy.
[50:17] God is banking. It's always been plan A. It's not, okay, when the church fails, now we're going to start us some other thing. No, well, God may lead other people to start other things.
[50:28] That's fine. But he's banking everything on the church. It's how people relate to one another and love one another. And it's how we show the real power of God by we're together, not because we all have the same likes and we all dress alike.
[50:42] We all go to the same shows and we all have the same background. But you go to big churches. That's what you'll find. We're homogeneous. We're all the same. Where do I fit?
[50:53] Where do I fit? Because I'm not like that. Where do you fit? So we come to a church where God says, no, I want some of these guys.
[51:06] I want some of these guys. I want some of that guy. Right? I want that guy. And these rocks, they're not all shaped the same. I'm just going to push them all together. And they're going to reflect me.
[51:17] Because it's not natural for people from all these different backgrounds and all these different interests and all these different concerns to actually love each other and care for each other.
[51:27] That's supernatural. And that shows the love of God. That's my prayer for us. More and more we become that light.
[51:40] We're the light. We point others to Christ. As a church. Not just individually. Individually we may have opportunities. But my individual witness is weak.
[51:52] It's built up by Randy, David, James, Rick, David, Ron. I mean, put all those together. Chris.
[52:03] It's like, whoa, okay. That's not just one little shadow of like, oh, that's getting color now. I can see some life to it. It's a dynamic. Okay.
[52:18] The only issue is time. See, the other thing that this text makes us think about is time. The end of the world has come for a certain nation. What's next?
[52:31] What's left on God's timeline? Are we waiting for something to happen and then the end will come? Do we think that, oh, this still has to happen.
[52:45] So, you know, I know we're not near the end of the world because we still have got to rebuild that temple. Do they? Or can God simply come right now?
[52:57] I believe he could come at any moment. After lunch. After lunch. Bless you, brother. All right. That's it. That's it.
[53:07] Okay. We need to close so we can go eat. All right. That's fine. Father, thank you. Thank you for your word. We thank you, Lord, for the word that even confuses us. Because at the end of the day, we have to say, okay, you.
[53:20] I don't fully get it all. I don't know how to put all those pieces together. It's too complicated. But I can see a little bit. And I can see a little bit that says, you're in charge and you say when.
[53:34] And Father, we're so grateful that you have actually brought us who are Gentiles in. We're so grateful for that. May we share that gratefulness of good news with those around us.
[53:47] We pray this in Christ's name. Amen. Amen. Amen.