“Perpetual Preparedness - Be on Alert” Mark 13

Intro

ɫ Tue: Jesus faced 4 questions
1.Whose authority to clean the temple?
2.Can we pay taxes to Rome?
3.Is there a resurrection (wife with 7 brothers)?
4.What is the greatest commandment?
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ɫ Christ calls out the religious leaders and the widows offering

Mark 13: 1-2 Temple: wonder of the world

•Herod the Great 20 BC started remodeling, finished 64 AD
•Support rocks: 40ft long, 12ft high, 18 ft wide, weighing 100 ton
•Solid Marble pillars, 37ft high 3 men's arms around

•Mt of Olives look down valley to East side of temple with 225 ft drop
•Covered with gold, dazzling in morning sun

Mark 13: 3-8 Watch out---not be deceived

• Prophesy present and future
• Looking at Rocky Mt range from a distance

• 70 AD: Titus besieges Jerusalem
• Temple destroyed Christ’s words (some say Titus ordered NOT to destroy it)
• People came to walled city for protection, but 1.1 Jews died

• “Birth pains”: OT teaching about the coming of the Messiah

False Messiahs / Wars / Earthquakes

• Simon bar Kokhba: 132 CE, establishing an independent Jewish state, called the Jewish messiah, or "Son of the Star"

(1) Sun Myung Moon
(2) Jim Jones
(3) Marshall Applewhite
(4) David Koresh

Wars / Earthquakes

Mark 13: 9-13 Family against family

• Sold out by religious leaders
• House of worship turned into a house of “whippings”
• Stoning of Stephen, Paul, Jewish Leaders

• Sold out by families

• Sold out by Govt
• Nero, Domitian, Decius 249 AD empire wide- till 312 AD; carry evidence of Sacrifice to Emperor or loss of property, persecution and death
• Persia continued persecution

• Estimates: “Voice of the Martyr” more Christians martyred past 100 years around world then 1900 yrs. earlier

Mark 13: 14- 25 ‘the abomination that causes desolation’

• Antiochus IV in 167 B.C. Sacrificed a pig is the temple, set up a statue of Zeus and religious prostitution

• 40 AD Emperor Caligula set up own image in temple

• A-mil, Pre-Mil, Pre-Tri, Mid-Trib, Post-Trib; others

• Matt 24: 37“As it was in the days of Noah, so it will be at the coming of the Son of Man.”

Mark 13: 26-31 Fact: Christ will Return

• O.T prophet Ezekiel saw the Glory of God (Shekinah) leave Solomon's temple

• This day / Tue Holy Week the Shekinah (Glory of God) left the temple

• “This generation will not pass away”---what generation?

Mark 13: 32-37 Two Key Takeaways

1. V7 Do not worry beforehand / do not be alarmed

2. Perpetual Preparedness - Be on Alert 24 / 7 / 365

• Hebrew Weddings: Father of groom was key: said when the wedding time was