Holy Week Devotional - Tuesday (Authority On Display)

Welcome back to day two of our Easter week study.

Today we'll be looking at what is Jesus up to on Tuesday. We'll be looking at Mark 13.

We have a lot of information about what Jesus is doing on Tuesday.

And a reminder from yesterday that Jesus is kind of giving his manifesto as

he's getting ready to head to the cross on Friday and ultimately resurrect on Sunday.

He's giving his last bit of teaching

on some of the most important things that he can lay out for them.

And specifically today, I would say this is a lot and really all about his authority.

Jesus has always astounded people with the way that he speaks with authority.

They say that multiple times in the gospel, that they were astounded by the

authority that Jesus spoke with.

And verse 13 starts like this. 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 one here, one stone upon another that will not be thrown down.

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?

Now, I think a lot of people will read this and they immediately get caught

up in trying to interpret exactly when Jesus is going to come back,

exactly when some of these end times things will take place.

And while I'm not opposed to that in any way,

and no one should be opposed to studying the Bible, I think we can also miss

the forest for the trees and that what Jesus is really laying out for them here

from 10,000 feet is that he has the authority to say these things.

No one else in the history of mankind has been able to sit down with people

there teaching and discipling and say, this is how it will end.

This is exactly how it's going to go.

Don't get caught up. He says that in verse five, see that no one leads you astray.

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

In other words, Many are going to come preaching Jesus, and they're going to

actually lead people astray.

Why? Because they're going to try and speak with the same authority that Jesus has here.

They're going to try and speak in such a way that says, I know when these things are going to come.

I know how this is going to happen. You need to listen to me,

because I'm the authority on these things.

And Jesus is making it clear, this is not true.

This is not true. Jesus alone is the one who has authority.

Jesus alone is the one who has the ability to say some of the things he's going to say.

He says in verse 7, 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 beginning of birth pains.

Again, Jesus is laying out all of these things that are going to take place.

For the purposes of our study, we won't go into the details of what he's saying,

But what I really want you to see, what I really want to drive home is that

Jesus speaks with an authority that, again, no one else can speak with.

He's saying, this is what is going to happen.

This is what is going to happen. He says to them specifically,

he's talked about the world now, he says in verse 9,

but be on your guard for they will deliver you over to councils and you will

be beaten in synagogues and you will stand before governors and kings for my

sake to bear witness before them.

Imagine someone telling you, this is what your life is going to look like.

This is what's going to happen to you.

Remember, these same men that he's talking to will be huddled up in fear for

their lives in the days after his crucifixion.

But Jesus knows it's not up to you. You don't get to set the agenda for your life.

You don't get to decide where you go and what you do. Sure, you make decisions.

Of course, we all make decisions.

What Jesus is saying is, I know exactly what decision you're going to make.

I know exactly what's going to happen. I've known exactly what's going to happen.

In fact, I've set a plan in place to achieve what is going to happen.

He says in verse 10, a great verse, and the gospel must first be proclaimed to all nations.

We talked yesterday at length about how Jesus has come to be a fulfillment of

the promise that God gave to Abraham, that the nation of Israel would be a blessing

to the nations. And Jesus is true Israel.

He is the perfect representation of what Israel was supposed to be.

He is the perfect law follower.

He does everything to the glory of God. He does everything the way that God asked him to do.

He says multiple times, I haven't come to do my will, his fleshly will.

I've come to do the will of the Father.

This is what Jesus is saying. The gospel is going to be proclaimed in all the

nations. It will happen.

Not maybe, not kind of, not, you know, I'm going to leave you guys with some

really good tools. I'm going to give you every advantage that you can.

I'm going to be with you. But man, please make sure the gospel gets out.

Please make sure it happens. Jesus says, no, this is what is going to happen.

We see this even now as you look at the nations, the gospel is going out to all the nations.

If you'll move down, if you're following with me in Mark 13,

it's down to 14. He says, no one knows the day or the hour.

No one knows. Do you find yourself trying to figure out when Jesus is coming back?

Maybe you've followed some teachers that say things like, this is when it's

going to happen. It's getting real close.

The truth is, no one knows. No one knows.

I would imagine that there's been people throughout history.

In fact, I know there is. We still have a lot of their writings that have tried

to predict when Jesus is coming back.

This has been going on for thousands of years.

If you read the book of 1 Peter, Peter is under the assumption that it could

happen any day. That was 2,000 years ago.

I would imagine that as people are going through famines and wars,

that they're reading this and thinking, man, this must be the time.

During World War I and World War II, you had a plethora of writings coming out

of people saying, this is the end of the world.

During the Cold War, you had people writing books. This is it.

You may have read a book if you're of a certain age. 88 reasons.

Jesus is coming back in 88.

But again, none of these teachers, none of these people have authority to speak

this way. But Jesus does.

So what does he say to them to do? What is his message to them?

It's his message to us. Be on guard. Verse 33.

Keep awake, for you do not know when the time will come.

He says, it is like a man going on a journey when he leaves home,

puts his servants in charge, each with his work, and commands the doorkeeper

to stay awake. Therefore, stay awake.

There's some irony in this phrase because not long after this,

Jesus will be praying in the Garden of Gethsemane and his disciples can't even stay awake.

They can't keep their eyes open even at night for Jesus, they get tired and they're weak.

Jesus knows this, but he says, listen, you do not know when the master of the house will come.

So he leaves them in verse 37 at the end of chapter 13. And I say to you,

I say to you all, stay awake.

You know, it's easy to get in a pattern of spiritual sleepiness,

especially if you're from the area of the country that most of us are from,

that are listening to this, where our church is.

Jesus is kind of everywhere. There's churches everywhere. People talk about Jesus.

They still pray in schools. They still talk openly about who Jesus is and what

he's done, but it can also lead to a spiritual laziness,

a spiritual sleepiness that says, well, I know who Jesus is and I know what he's about and I get it.

I understand that. My kids got baptized. I've been to church.

I go to church sometimes. I'm even a member at a church somewhere and maybe you go a lot.

None of this is a guarantee that we're awake. It's so easy to get into the physical.

Religious motions of the day Pray at meals Go to church, sing some songs,

listen to a sermon Make sure your kids are at camp in VBS,

Maybe give a little here Do a little work here and there for somebody And listen,

none of those are bad things Those are glorious things But they're no substitute

for staying awake to keeping our eyes focused on Jesus Christ and his death,

burial, and resurrection and the things that he has called us to.

There is no substitute to keeping

our spirits and our souls aligned with what Jesus has asked us to be.

That's where he leaves his disciples on Tuesday. He says, listen,

stay awake. Now, again, the irony here is they will not do that. They will not do that.

Even Peter, one of the ones mentioned that asked him these questions privately

is he's holding around Jesus.

He's hearing Jesus say, listen, stay awake. This is what they're going to do.

This is what's going to happen.

And Peter, of course, famously denies Jesus three times, wants to a slave girl

that has no authority over him, has no ability to say anything negatively about

him. Even Jesus is denied by Peter in front of her.

So what does Jesus do? What is his response? Well, his response,

of course, is what we celebrate on Easter.

His sacrifice on the cross, his burial, his resurrection from the dead,

seated at the right hand of God.

And what does he do when he's seated? He intercedes for us.

He intercedes for people like Peter who deny him and who are weak and who don't

stay awake the way they should, and they're spiritually lazy at times.

Or as we see about Peter in Galatians, he commits a very heinous sin by favoring

certain people over others.

What is Jesus' response?

It is to love them. It is to pursue them.

He comes to reach the lost. He comes to save his sheep. He comes to get his

kids and adopt them into the family.

Let me leave you with two things. Number one, stay awake. Stay awake. Are you awake?

Are you looking to Jesus? Are you going through religious motions?

Number two, remember, Christ has come to get you. He didn't wait on you to do something.

He's not sitting around trying to figure out what he's going to do or how he's going to do it.

He has authority to do and to say whatever he wants to do and say.

And he has promised that those who seek him, those who come to him in repentance,

those who would believe and trust on him, that he will save them to the uttermost.

Thank you guys for joining us today. We'll be with you tomorrow.