Mark 13:1-13

Turn to the gospel according to Mark chapter 13.

Mark 13 · chapter mention

I have enjoyed the way we've restructured the service and done the offering right before the sermon with the music, but

I'm going to read to you verses 1-13.

And as he came out of the temple, one of his disciples said to him,

Look, teacher, what wonderful stones and what wonderful buildings.

And Jesus said to him, Do you see these great buildings?

There will not be left here one stone upon another that will not be thrown down.

And as he sat on the Mount of Olives opposite the temple, Peter and James and John and Andrew asked him privately,

Tell us, when will these things be and what will be the sign when all these things are about to be accomplished?

And Jesus began to say to them, See that no one leads you astray.

Many will come in my name saying, I am he, and they will lead many astray.

And when you hear of wars and rumors of wars, do not be alarmed.

This must take place, but the end is not yet.

For nation will rise against nation, and kingdom against kingdom.

There will be earthquakes in various places.

There will be famines.

These are but the beginnings of the birth pains.

But be on your guard, for they will deliver you over to councils, and you will be beaten in the synagogues,

and you will take stand before governors and kings for my sake to bear witness before them.

And the gospel must first be proclaimed to all nations.

And when they bring you to trial and deliver you over, do not be anxious beforehand what you are to say,

but say whatever is given you in that hour.

For it is not you who speak, but the Holy Spirit.

And brother will deliver brother over to death, and the father his child,

and children will rise against parents and have them put to death.

And you will be hated by all for my name's sake.

But the one who endures to the end will be saved.

This is God's word to us.

It was written for his glory and our good.

We would all do well to listen to it in order to believe its promises and obey its commands.

Let's pray together.

Father God, we need you in this hour.

And we would ask your favor on the preaching of your word today.

It was written by you under the inspiration of the Spirit.

Here, carried along by the pen of Mark.

It was written for us.

That we might know you and know how to better honor and glorify you with our lives.

Exalt Jesus in our hearts and minds today so that he will be exalted in our living this week.

We're dependent on you to accomplish this.

And so we pray this in the name of Christ.

Amen.

Well, we find ourselves still in Wednesday of the Passion Week.

You remember at the beginning of chapter 11, Jesus has entered into Jerusalem.

It's called the Triumphal Entry.

That evening he goes and he visits the temple and he can see that there's been this money-changing activity happening in the temple.

He goes back out of Jerusalem to Bethel, comes back in on Tuesday,

and for the second time in his ministry, goes and flips over tables and runs out money changers,

stops it being used as a thoroughfare, a cut-through for the city,

essentially shuts down all of this apostate swindling that's going on in this day.

And he's immediately then challenged as he sets up camp on Wednesday in the temple by the religious elite of the day.

And we've kind of seen these waves of aggression come at him,

and he quickly shuts them down as they seek to trap him in such a way that he will be killed.

He's not done yet, though.

He still has some time and some things that he wants to teach,

and so he waylays that, and we see him finally now stepping outside, still on Wednesday,

but leaving the temple court, presumably through the east gate,

down a steep path that crossed through the Kidron Valley,

which is where all of the sacrificial blood flowed,

which we'll get to learn more about in a month or so,

to the Mount of Olives, where they observe what's going on from afar.

And we see in this a question asked by an unidentified disciple.

And I can't say for sure, but I want to imagine that it was Mark's kindness that spared

naming the individual who asked the question,

because he's apparently missed the point of Jesus' teaching that week,

all about the spiritual bankruptcy of the system that existed there,

and all that it included as they look back on this building,

which was a rather magnificent building.

It was a building that all of us would have been in awe at.

But he hadn't seen that what Jesus was saying was that this was not where the worship of God take place.

This was not the way in which God was meant to be worshipped.

And so the question we see asked,

look, teacher, what wonderful stones and what wonderful buildings,

this admiration of this.

And it was certainly that.

The Jewish historian Josephus tells us a bit about it in the Wars of the Jews.

We read,

Now the outward face of the temple in its front

wanted nothing that was likely to surprise either men's minds or their eyes,

for it was covered all over with plates of gold of great weight.

And at the first rising of the sun reflected back a very fiery splendor

and made those who forced themselves to look upon it to turn their eyes away

just as they would have done at the sun's own rays.

But this temple appeared to strangers when they were coming to it at a distance

like a mountain covered with snow.

For as to those parts of it that were not gilt or covered in gold,

they were exceeding white.

White rare stone.

It made it look like a mountain of snow as you approached Jerusalem.

This magnificent building.

Jesus gives to us this direct prophecy that it will in fact be torn down.

And he's not just simply referring to the building itself,

although we're going to talk about that in a moment.

But more than that,

the system that the building represents would soon be destroyed.

The building itself was destroyed in 70 A.D.

Jesus says there will not be left here one stone upon another

that will not be thrown down.

There was a revolt that started a movement called the Zealot Movement in A.D. 66,

which eventually led to Rome finally and fully sacking Jerusalem

and destroying almost to the complete rubble,

almost the entire city of Jerusalem.

They saved a bit of the wall to show people how mighty the wall once was

where the garrisons would camp,

but the rest of it was torn down

to the degree that they took the foundation stones of the wall

and flipped them over just to show their power over this.

You remember back in Mark 12, verses 13-17,

Mark 12:13–17

there's this question asked by the Pharisees and Herodians about the tax.

And should we pay this particular tax they're referring to known as the poll tax?

And this was a tax that was instituted

when Joseph and Mary traveled with baby Jesus in the belly

to Bethlehem where he was born.

They were being counted.

And this is the way in which Rome said,

not only is your land ours,

but the people themselves belong to us.

So this tax was a head tax paid as a citizen of Rome.

And it was that that led to this revolt

that eventually saw the temple destroyed.

Again, Josephus in the Wars of the Jews,

Now as soon as the army, the Roman army,

had no more people to slay or to plunder

because there remained none to be the objects of their fury,

for they would not have spared any

had there remained any other such work to be done,

Caesar gave orders that they should now demolish

the entire city and temple.

And so it was brought down,

just as Jesus said that it would be,

not too many years later.

And they go from this place as they're traveling

and they go and sit down on the Mount of Olives,

presumably looking at the temple opposite of it.

And Peter and James and John and Andrew

get into the side and they say,

tell us when will these things be?

And what will be the sign when all these things

are about to be accomplished?

Now there is some debate concerning this text

about what it means for this

to have been fulfilled and accomplished.

Certainly, we know that the temple itself

was destroyed in A.D. 70.

And there are some people that say

that the entirety of this passage is fulfilled.

For example, verse 10,

and the gospel must first be proclaimed to all nations.

That that was in fact fulfilled,

which is why the temple was then destroyed.

And they base this argument off of passages

like Colossians 1.23.

Well, Paul writes,

if indeed you continue in the faith,

stable and steadfast,

not shifting from the hope of the gospel

that you have heard,

which has been proclaimed in all creation under heaven,

and of which I, Paul, became a minister.

So they would say, see, look here,

Paul says that the gospel was in fact

proclaimed amongst the nations,

and this is why we can now then presume

that that's been fulfilled,

and now the temple has been destroyed.

But you get into some Greek issues

with Colossians 1.23

if you don't study it carefully.

This phrase which has been proclaimed,

the word proclaimed there is in the aorist tense,

which denotes no specific time whatsoever,

meaning that Paul is not saying

that it is a completed action done in the past,

but he's defining the gospel and its scope,

and that is that it is global in scope.

So it would be improper to look at Colossians 1.23

and go back then to Mark 13.10

and say, oh, and the gospel has then been preached

to all nations.

We're going to say a bit more about that

towards the end of the sermon.

We'll come back to verse 10,

but I want us at this point to see

that this is not what Jesus is trying

to communicate to them,

simply summing up for them

the things that will happen

before the temple is destroyed.

However, it is the question

that the disciples are asking.

They're saying, tell us all the things

that are going to happen

before the temple is destroyed.

They still were so hungry to know

the practical, the tangible things

that could be known about the kingdom of God.

They still seem to not understand

that the kingdom of God primarily

was going to come and bear in their hearts.

This is the way in which God

meant to establish His people,

spirit and truth, a heart worship.

And so I believe He's correcting

their misconception as He goes on

to tell them the things

that are going to come to pass,

including for us, verse 10,

that all of this, the gospel

must be proclaimed to all nations,

putting a timeline, a way out there,

a far-reaching timeline for them.

Their question itself drew my mind

back to Mark 8, verses 11 and 12,

Mark 8:11

where the Pharisees seek a sign.

And He says to them that a sign

will not be given to this generation.

They wanted to know the tangible.

They wanted to be able to measure it.

They wanted to be able to mark it out

and know when the kingdom of God

would fully arrive.

It's not the way we walk.

We walk by faith.

So Jesus then begins to give them

this prophetic information.

And I think we can really quickly,

in a chapter like chapter 13,

get incredibly distracted

into end-time theology,

really trying to work out all the details

and miss the point altogether.

So we're going to deal with it in brief.

There's a time and a place for it,

and now is not the time,

here is not the place,

this morning.

But we can't neglect it altogether.

We need to look at kind of the driving force

of what He's trying to say to them.

And so in 5 through 9,

He starts out by saying,

see that no one leads you astray,

and that many will come in His name,

claiming to be Him,

and they will lead many astray.

So it's a warning.

Once again,

as we saw back in verse 38 of chapter 12,

a warning against false teachers,

particularly ones that are going to claim

to be the Christ themselves,

but we can certainly broaden it beyond that as well.

Those who are going to take advantage

of the way in which the world is functioning,

the wars and the earthquakes,

all these calamities that we see,

to gather to themselves followers.

People like Margaret Rowan,

the prophetess, quote-unquote,

of the Seventh-day Adventists,

who said the world would come to end in 1925.

Jehovah's Witnesses,

which have been writing and writing

and writing and writing.

1975 was the big year for them.

Not sure what they say now.

Or guys like Pat Robertson,

the chairman of the Christian Broadcasting Network,

a station you should block on your TV,

who first said that the world would come to end in 1982,

and now, 2007,

haven't heard a new proclamation.

I tried to find to see if Pat Robertson's telling us

when the world will end now.

This is a dangerous thing.

It's not for us to know.

The Scriptures even teach us that.

And yet, many men will claim

that they know when the world will end

and lead people astray.

We should know that it is going to end,

and we should see that the signs are here,

that it is coming to an end.

But that doesn't change what we do

and how we live.

We should always live in light of that reality.

Observing the effects of sin on the world.

Look at the things that he says.

Wars.

Rumors of wars.

We live in a day like this, do we not?

Nation rising against nation.

Kingdom against kingdom.

Earthquakes.

Famines.

He says, but these are the beginnings

of the birth pains.

Paul uses a very similar language

in Romans 8.

Verse 19-22, he writes,

For the creation waits with eager longing

for the revealing of what?

The sons of God.

For the creation was subjected to fertility,

not willingly,

but because of him who subjected it

in hope that the creation itself

will be set free from its bondage

to corruption and obtain the freedom

of the glory of the children of God.

For we know that the whole creation

has been groaning together

in the pains of childbirth until now.

And that is that the world itself

is longing for the day when Christ

will come and restore all things.

And Jesus here is saying,

and Paul is later saying,

that the things we are seeing

is the beginning of that process.

Now I have a four-year-old

and a two-year-old,

and so I have, as a faithful husband,

walked beside a labor.

I have not been in labor, praise God.

Nothing I will ever experience.

I can't possibly imagine

exactly what it feels like.

I will not be one of those fools

who puts the electricity

on their stomachs.

Have you seen those guys

that experience the pain of labor?

No thank you.

But certainly in Sam's labor,

they increased in intensity.

It started off at one level of pain,

a talking, even happy time kind of a pain,

to a, if you crack another joke,

I will kill you kind of a pain.

When Sam goes quiet and she's hurting,

leave her alone.

Just leave her alone.

But all of this led up to,

all of the suffering

that my wife experienced,

all led up to a final,

great deal of joy.

I couldn't believe it.

On the day that she had caged,

she said,

I want to have another one.

I went, are you kidding me?

Did you just,

do you have any idea

what you just went through?

But joy filled her heart so much.

And this is the way in which

the creation is groaning

and longing for the returning

of Christ.

For the church to be completed

one day.

For the new heaven

and the new earth

to be established.

And this is what's happening in that.

There will be pain

before this great,

great deal of joy.

And he doesn't simply limit it

to the apostles.

This is expanded to us as well.

The apostles are going to be part of it

in their suffering

for the kingdom.

They're going to be delivered.

They're supposed to be on their guard.

Delivered to councils.

Beaten in synagogues.

Standing before governors and kings.

Verse 12.

Brother will deliver brother over to death

and the father is child.

And children will rise up against parents

and have them put to death.

And you will be hated by all.

For my name's sake.

Look at the breadth of this pain

that will be experienced.

That it's going to go down

into the family unit.

Many of you experience this kind of tension

in your families

as those who claim the name of Christ.

Trying to be around them at mealtimes

and do things

and hear the conversations.

And see that they don't exalt Him

in their words

or in their living at all.

Jesus says here it will get

much more severe than that.

That children will deliver parents

and parents' children

to death.

We will take place in this suffering.

It's recorded in John 15.

Verse 18 and 19.

Jesus says,

If the world hates you,

know that it has hated Me

before it hated you.

If you were of the world,

the world would love you

as its own.

But because you are not of the world,

because I chose you out of the world,

therefore,

the world hates you.

Jesus Christ,

our Lord,

who came to be a servant of all,

has already told us now

in the Gospel of Mark

three times,

He said to the apostles,

this is what's going to happen

when I go to Jerusalem.

I'm going to be delivered up,

I'm going to be killed,

and then I'm going to rise again.

This is the way in which

I'm coming to ransom many

for myself.

And somehow,

we think we're better than Him.

That we ourselves

won't suffer in the same way.

That it won't be given to us

as the same kind of task.

Paul writes to Timothy

in 2 Timothy 3.12,

Indeed,

all who desire to live a godly life

in Christ Jesus

will be persecuted.

It's a reality,

a necessity of Christian living.

Not that we ask for it

or that we invite it upon ourselves,

but He's telling us

that it will happen.

Those of us who are disciples

of Jesus Christ,

those of us who laid down our lives

to pursue Him

with all that we have,

are going to experience suffering

in this world.

But we don't have to be

concerned about this.

We have a hope.

A lasting hope.

An eternal hope.

A hope that helps us

drive through momentary affliction.

And we have a helper.

In verse 11,

When they bring you to trial

and deliver you over,

do be anxious beforehand

what you are to say.

But say,

whatever is giving you that effort

is not you who speak,

but the Holy Spirit.

Jesus said,

promise this to them.

And it comes in Acts 1,

Acts 1:7

verses 7 and 8.

He said to them,

It is not for you to know

times or seasons.

Isn't this a fitting verse?

It is not for you to know

times or seasons

that the Father is fixed

by His own authority.

Verse 8,

But you will receive power

when the Holy Spirit

has come upon you,

and you will be My witnesses

in Jerusalem,

and in all Judea,

and Samaria,

and to the ends of the earth.

And in chapter 2,

the Spirit in fact does come

on them with power.

And Peter preaches

his great sermon

on the day of Pentecost.

And thousands and thousands

are included

in the church's number

on that day.

We don't have to be anxious.

We have a helper in this.

One who will carry us along

and who will speak

on our behalf.

Why are we so afraid

to open our mouths

and share the Gospel?

We have a helper.

A person of the triune God

that Jesus has said

will speak on our behalf.

To what end?

The last half of verse 9,

to bear witness before them.

Verse 10,

And the Gospel,

the good news of Jesus Christ,

must first be proclaimed

to all nations.

In the last half of verse 13,

but the one who endures

to the end.

will be saved.

How are we to function?

How are we to live?

As the apostles are about to be

left behind by Jesus Christ,

they're about to stay where they are,

empowered by the Spirit,

what is their task?

The very mission

that's set before them?

And that is for them

to go into the world

and make disciples

of Jesus Christ.

To proclaim His greatness,

to be a witness

before these councils

that they'll be brought before.

To proclaim the good news

of the Gospel,

not simply to make converts,

but to make those

who will endure

to the end,

which is the necessity

of the Christian life.

If your heart is regenerate,

if God has in fact

changed who you are,

you will not go back on that.

And I would say to you

that it is an impossibility

that you could,

you will in fact,

endure to the end

for His name.

So all of this

will come to pass.

The entire passage

will come to pass

back on verse 10

when the Gospel

is proclaimed

to all nations.

We see a glimpse of heaven

in Revelation 5-9.

John writes,

And they sang a new song

saying,

Worthy are you

to take the scroll

and to open its seals,

for you were slain,

this is Christ,

and by your blood

you ransomed people

for God

from every tribe

and language

and people

and nation.

God has always

been about

His global glory.

And He is still

about that to this day

because the task

is yet to be finished

because the end

is not here.

Now as we look

at the world,

there's a lot of statistics

out there.

I'm just going to give you

a few.

Categorically,

we tend to talk about

peoples in terms

of unreached,

reached,

unreached,

and unengaged.

The definition

of unreached

is typically a group

that has less

than 2%

that claim

to be Christians.

This is a broad

definition of what

Christian even means,

self-professing

Christians.

It is estimated

that of the

7.1 billion people

alive in the world

today,

2.91 billion of them

live in unreached

people groups

with little or no

access to the gospel

of Jesus Christ.

So unreached

being less than

2% of the population

that just says,

just professes

to be

a Christian.

According to

Joshua Project,

which is a great website

if you ever want

to peruse it,

there are approximately

16,500 unique

people groups

in the world

with about

6,900 of them

considered

unreached.

Now,

unengaged

unreached

people groups,

according to

finishing the task,

there are 440

unengaged

unreached

people groups

with populations

over 25,000

together numbering

over 24

million souls

that are still

beyond the reach

of the gospel.

These 440

are perhaps

the neediest

of the needy

as they are

unengaged,

which means

that no church,

no missionary,

no mission agency,

no one has yet

taken responsibility

to tell them

about Jesus Christ.

Nothing has

happened

with an

unengaged

people.

And beloved,

this should break

our hearts.

as you look

back over

this past

year

at your

activity

for the

kingdom,

it should break

our hearts

that we know

that the end

is coming.

We don't know

when,

but it will

come.

Jesus will

someday return

and judge

the world.

Those who

are not in

Christ will

be eternally

damned,

and we do

almost

nothing

about it.

Shame on

us.

The great

aim of our

lives

is to be

given to

the mission

of God

in the

world.

And that

is,

He came

to seek

and save

the lost.

That's why

He came.

And we're

meant to be

part of

that work,

not because

He needs

us.

Hear this,

God doesn't

need you.

Don't begin

to think so

much of

yourself.

But God

loves you.

And God

knows the

best thing

for you

is to have

more of

Him.

And you

know how

you do

that?

You join

Him and

you walk

alongside

Him in

the work

that He's

accomplishing

in the

world.

You get

busy about

the work

of God

and you

experience

Him in

it.

We can,

of course,

argue over

definitions,

talk about

unreached and

unengaged,

but one thing

can't be argued,

the end has

not yet

come,

so the

job is

yet to

be

finished.

And we

should see

this as the

people of

God

as a

great

opportunity

to have

our joy

made

complete

in

advancing

the

gospel

where

we

live

and

beyond.

Look at Paul's

attitude concerning

preaching of the

gospel.

He writes in

1 Corinthians 9.16,

For if I preach

the gospel,

that gives me

no ground

for boasting,

for necessity

is laid

upon me.

Woe to me

if I do not

preach

the gospel.

Woe to me

if I do not

preach

the gospel.

Are we ashamed

of the

gospel?

Paul says in

Romans 1

that he's not

ashamed of it

because it's

the power of

God for

salvation.

salvation.

It's what

snatches people

out of the

fires of hell.

And we

don't warn

them.

How cold

and callous

are we?

Wes reminded

me this week

of a

great sermon

which is

from the

book of

Revelation

by a

pastor I

love

by the

name of

Arturo

Azerdia.

If you ever

want to

peruse his

stuff,

spiritempoweredpreaching.com

maybe.org

I encourage

you to check

it out.

But he

tells

this story

of a

dangerous

sea

coast

where

shipwrecks

often occur

and on

that

sea

coast

was

a

single

crude

life-saving

station

with only

one boat,

a small hut

where people

could come in

and be

warmed

after surviving

a wreck.

And many,

many lives

were saved

by this

little station.

They were

all about

the work

of getting

out into

the sea

and saving

those who

were tossed

overboard

in these

wrecks.

So much

so that it

became famous.

And many

of those

who had

been saved

by the

station

or heard

telling of

the station

wanted to

in some

way become

associated

with it.

And so they

gave of their

money and they

soon became

embarrassed by the

crude nature

of the little

station, the little

hut and the

single boat.

So they

enlarged its size

and they

improved its

interior to the

degree that it

became a place

they desired to

spend their free

hours.

A lot like a

small club, a

bit of a

monument to

life-saving.

Soon the

members were

no longer

interested on

going on

life-saving

missions, having

to be trained,

getting out and

doing the hard

work.

So they hired

life-saving

crews.

They began to

pay some men

who went off

and did that

on their

behalf.

And as many

people were

saved by the

newly hired

life-saving

crew, the

people they

plucked from

the ocean

ruined the

general appeal

of the

club.

After all,

they were

wet and

distraught and

they needed

further assistance.

They needed

people to

come alongside

them and

help them.

And so a

committee was

quickly formed

to address the

issue and a

building outside

of the

life-saving

station was

promptly built

to clean up

these individuals

before they

were permitted

inside the

station.

A meeting

soon was

held where

some of the

members insisted

that the

primary purpose

of the

life-saving

station was

to save

lives.

After all,

they were a

life-saving

station and

they were

simply told

they could

go down

the coast

and begin

another

life-saving

station and

so they

did.

Over some

years, the

process repeated

itself, the

new station

becoming like

the old, and

this repeated

itself again

and again.

If you visit

that coast

today, you

will find

many life-saving

stations.

Shipwrecks are

still common in

those waters,

waters, but

most everyone

drowns.

This is the

place that we

live, right?

People damned

to hell for

eternity because

of their lost

state.

And we get

together in the

niceties of our

club, and we

don't get out

there and get

and brave the

oceans and be

where they are

and share the

good news of

Jesus Christ with

them.

drag them

back onto

shore.

Beloved, if we

are to be

disciples of

Jesus Christ,

even claim

His name, we

are to follow

Him where He

leads.

And what did

He come to

do?

Luke 19.10,

the Son of

Man came to

seek and

save the

lost.

We spend so

much of our

time distracted

by absolute

vanity in

America.

We are

entering one

of the

seasons that

ought to be

so much about

Jesus Christ

and come so

much about the

vanity of this

world.

I absolutely

want to throw

up my

Thanksgiving meal

with this

Black Friday

insanity that

goes on.

Pursuing the

frivolity, the

stuff that fades

away, it means

absolutely nothing.

We take so

much effort to

position ourselves,

to compare

ourselves to

others, to

look good by

what we have

and what we

can do, the

leisure of our

days.

It's a shame.

Let me give you

an insane version

of this, which

is not too

unlike much

of what we

do.

Did you know

that in 18th

century England,

wealthy landowners,

there was a

trend for a

while where they

competed with

one another to

have hermits

living on their

properties in a

hermitage.

they would

build them

tiny little

homes and

they would

hire a guy

to grow a

long white

beard and

wear robes and

not talk to

anybody but

just hang out

in the garden.

This was his

job to do.

The ones who

had the most

money actually

were able to

contract these

guys.

They would

contract them

typically for a

period of seven

years and at

the end of that

time they would

pay them enough

that they would

never have to

work again.

So it was an

appealing draw for

someone with no

skills but a

long white beard.

Because the

emotion of the

day that was

most valued was

melancholy.

So the hermit was

to sit contemplatively.

Those who

couldn't afford the

hermit, the real

life hermit, would

get a mannequin or

sometimes an

animatron, I guess.

A puppet that

would be worked by

a lesser servant,

one that didn't

have a long white

beard, would lay

behind him and

work his hands and

arms.

When people came

walking by on the

streets.

This has been

replaced by the

garden gnome.

This is the

origin of the

garden gnome if

you weren't making

the connection

yourself.

Insane, right?

Competing with

such a stupid

thing.

If you ever get

to visit England,

apparently these

little homes still

exist in these

big fancy house

gardens.

What's your

hermit?

What thing do

you care so

much about that

you wouldn't give

it up to follow

Christ?

Beloved, we have

many of them.

Would you give it

all?

Would you sacrifice

every bit of it to

gain more of

Jesus?

I think we

initially say,

yes, of course,

I would.

Your heart needs

to catch up to

your head.

We would look

different.

We would spend

our days differently.

We would do

different things.

If we loved

Him the way

we should.

If we desired

Him the way

that we should.

Listen to

John's correction

in 1 John

1 John 2 · chapter mention

chapter 2.

Do not love

the world

or the things

in the world.

If anyone

loves the world,

the love of the

Father is not

in him.

For all that is

in the world,

the desires of

the flesh,

and the desires

of the eyes,

and pride of

life is not

from the Father,

but is from

the world.

And the world

is passing away

along with

its desires,

but whoever

does the will

of God

abides

forever.

What is the

will of God?

That we would

seek and save

the lost.

That we would

be disciples

who make

disciples.

You want to

know what it

looks like in

verse 13

to endure

to the end?

It's that in

spite of all

of this activity

going on around

us,

in spite of

the way in

which the world

is going to

hate us,

the way we're

going to

suffer in

this world,

we still

make disciples.

We still

show people

a more

excellent

thing

than all

of the

frivolity

of this

world,

all the

things that

they can

touch,

all the

little

bobs,

and all

the little

whistles of

this world.

We show

them that

Jesus is

better.

And we

do that

in our

own

experience,

and we

do that

in the

way we

live,

in our

display,

and we

do that

in our

proclamation.

We must

go and

show the

world.

Do you

long for

the return

of Christ?

I do.

Is there

anything in

this world

that you

want to

see

accomplished

before

Jesus

comes

back?

It's an

idol.

You just

need to

stop

worshiping

it.

Come,

Lord

Jesus,

come.

It should

be the

cry of

our

hearts

every

single

day.

And we

ought to

be about

the work,

not that

we can

change

the

date,

but we

ought to

be about

the work

of getting

to that

day as

the Gospels

proclaim to

all nations.

The primary

thing,

not just for

your pastor.

It's my

job to do

spiritual

things and

not yours.

It's our

job to do

spiritual

things.

It's our

job to

reach out

and love

this community

and beyond

with the

Gospel of

Jesus Christ.

I just

play a

different role

in that

process.

What is

your role

in that

process?

Submit

yourself to

the Lordship

of Jesus

Christ,

whose son

is the

Christ,

back in

chapter 12.

We talked

about what

it meant

to submit

yourself.

Do you

get up

daily and

do you

say to

God,

you rule

over my

day.

I'm going

to die

to myself

today.

I'm going

to pick

up my

cross.

I'm going

to follow

you wherever

you'll

lead me.

I won't

be anxious.

I'll open

my mouth

and I'll

speak because

I know

that I have

the Spirit.

I know

that the

Gospel is

the power

of God

for salvation.

Do with

me what

you will

this day

and begin

to seek

out the

opportunities.

So many

of us are

so spiritually

fat because

we get

fed and

we get

fed and

we get

fed and

we never

go exercise

our faith

at all.

You combine

those two

things,

you begin

to learn

things,

you learn

doctrine and

you affirm

it by

experience and

your faith

will grow

exponentially.

I promise

you.

Begin to

ask that

God

would put

you in

situations

to work

things out.

Young

people,

you're

in a

stage in

your life

where you're

preparing for

the next

step.

This is

not true

of the

Gospel.

You've

been recruited

as an

ambassador.

You claim

the name

of Christ,

you are

His and

He's got

a mission

for you.

Go get

to the

mission.

You don't

spend years

languishing

getting ready

for the

mission.

The mission

is now.

The mission

is your

roommate and

your classmates

and the

places that

you work.

be active

about this.

When was the

last time you

or someone

you knew

saw someone

come to

faith in

Christ?

Christ?

It's a

piercing

question,

is it

not?

We should

see people

coming in

droves to

know the

one and

only Lord

and Savior,

Jesus Christ.

Do you

believe that

God wants

to do this

in our

communities?

I do.

I think He

has plans

for this

area.

I think He

has people

that He

loves

desperately,

that He

wants to

be part of

the family.

I want to

be a part

of that.

I want to

be involved

in that

process of

bringing people

into the

fold,

bringing them

underneath

the Great

Shepherd.

What is

wrong with

us?

let's pray.

Let's

pray.

Let's

pray.

Let's

pray.