Stay Awake

Good morning, church.

This is the first Sunday of Advent, the Sunday of Hope.

Paul writes in Romans 15, 13, May the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace and believing, so that by the power of the Holy Spirit you may abound in hope.

We'll light this candle in hope of Christ's return.

And now for our scripture reading, we're going to read from Mark chapter 13, verses 32 through 37.

Mark 13:32–37

But concerning that day or that hour no one knows, not even the angels in heaven, nor the Son, but only the Father.

Be on guard, keep awake, for you do not know when the time will come.

It is like a man going on a journey.

When he leaves home and puts his servants in charge, each with his work, and commands the doorkeeper to stay awake.

Therefore, stay awake, for you do not know when the master of the house will come, in the evening or at midnight, when the rooster crows or in the morning, unless he comes and find you asleep.

And what I say to you, I say to all, stay awake.

This is the word of the Lord.

Please be seated.

Good morning.

Thanks for joining us this morning.

My name is James Rathman.

I'm the pastor here at Redemption Church Denver.

And I hope you all had a wonderful Thanksgiving week.

I hope you got a lot of deals on Friday.

I hope you get more deals on Monday.

And uh we we are here to wish you deals.

That's what the season's all about.

Um thanks for joining us this morning.

Uh I I think uh after a week like this, I'm sort of like, where what day is it?

When are we?

Well, we're we're on another Sunday.

Uh the Sabbath came around at the same steady clip of every seventh day that's been coming around for a long time.

Uh, this is the Lord's Day, and we can gather together uh with the saints to celebrate him and remember once again, orient ourselves once again towards his wonderful promises.

And we get to do that particularly this season.

Uh, this is the first Sunday of Advent, as Brandon was sharing.

We have a it's a weighen morning this morning.

They're a power couple just reading scripture and singing and playing violin for us.

And uh we are um remembering uh hope this morning.

And today's text actually fits perfectly with that because we are concluding the Olivet Discourse, which we've been in now, I think, forever.

And here at the conclusion of the Olivet Discourse in Mark 13, uh we are Jesus switches the topic and he answers another one of the questions that the disciples had asked long ago at the beginning of this discourse.

And uh Jesus begins speaking about his second coming.

And so it actually ends up being the perfect bridge into the Advent season.

I didn't plan this, it just providentially worked out.

Um, I guess it's just luck, right?

And there's uh uh that was a providence joke.

When you call things luck.

So there's a um uh this is a uh a look at the what it is that we're looking forward to in hope, which is the second coming of Christ.

And that's that's exactly what he begins talking about here at the end of the discourse.

Christ will come again, and he will make all things new.

There will be no more false worship, there will be no more sin or corruption remaining in us or in the world.

At his second coming, he will judge all things, and when he judges them, he will set them all right.

Now, that's a terrifying thing to consider, but not for those of us who know about his first coming.

When we remember that he came, well, we remember in the Christmas season that he came as as an infant and he was born so that he might die to pardon the sins of those who come to him.

And this is our hope that because he has died on our behalf, when we look forward to this judgment day, we look forward to it with a joyful expectation that we will be spared from that judgment because he bore the judgment that is due to our sins on our behalf on the cross.

Because he came the first time, the second coming is something we look forward to with a joyful hope.

So let's pray, and then we'll move into our text for today and try and orient ourselves here at the end of this long discourse.

Holy Father, we praise you that you have placed us at this part of your story of redemption that you are writing, that the angels long to look into and glory in when they see the depth of your grace and love shown towards us who were your enemies when you showed us that grace.

Lord, we pray that we would be rightly oriented, that we would consider where we are, standing here in this in-between stage where you have come before, and the promises that you showed us before proved faithful, Lord.

Let us remember that you've proven faithful over and over again, so that when you promise to get when you promise to come again, we know that it will be true, that you will arrive one day, and that our lives that are oriented towards you and your kingdom, although they might look foolish in the present to those who do not believe you will come again, Lord, that we will be vindicated, and that those who hope in you will not be put to shame.

But it will prove the right way to live.

That living with an undying hope in you, Lord, is the right orientation because you are faithful.

Pray that you would give us that in our hearts.

Lift this up in Jesus' name, amen.

So the past four weeks we've covered Jesus' final major discourse before he is crucified.

And this discourse takes place on the Mount of Olives and is therefore called the Olivet Discourse.

It's between Jesus and a close group of his disciples.

And as we've looked at it, we've seen that the main topic of the discourse, the topic of the majority of the discourse, is regarding the question that the disciples asked, spurred on by something Jesus said.

Jesus explains to them that the beautiful temple, which they are overlooking when they sit upon the Mount of Olives, will be destroyed.

And he says, you look at this beautiful temple and these beautiful stones, not one stone will be left remaining upon another.

And the majority of the discourse then becomes about when this will take place and what will be the time for the disciples looking forward to the destruction of the temple.

Now it's a hard thing for us to see that this is the main topic of his discourse because the destruction of the temple is an event that has basically just been memory hold.

We have forgotten the importance of one of the most uh cataclysmic events in world history.

Jesus is referring to and describing throughout the majority of this discourse, which we've already looked at in the previous weeks, a prophecy regarding the Jewish wars, which took place between 66 and 70 A.D., which is about 40 years after Jesus is prophesying it.

And the Jewish wars are when there's a revolt of the Jews in Jerusalem and the Romans respond with an incredible harshness.

And we've we've forgotten this event.

We've forgotten that a million Jews were killed during the sack of Jerusalem.

We've forgotten that the plunder which the Romans gained from Jerusalem and from the sack of Jerusalem, and the remaining Jews who were enslaved were uh transported to Rome.

And do you know, yeah, I think I've shared this before, but I learned this um actually in Rome, not to flex, but we took one of those guided tours outside of the Coliseum and uh from some like grad student, and I I you know think they were telling the truth.

And they explain uh this grad student explained that uh the Coliseum was built by the Jewish slaves from this war, and the money that was gained from that war is what was used to build uh the Coliseum.

It was like this great work of uh showing their showing the fruits of them conquering during this war.

That's pretty wild.

But isn't it I think what's weirder is that we don't remember that.

It's sort of like uh it's sort of like if we were reading a prophecy that was written in the 1350s about the the sack of the Byzantine Empire by the Ottomans.

And now this is something that we're all very familiar with.

No, I'm kidding.

This is probably this is probably uh the the Byzantine Empire uh lasts longer than the Roman Empire, is more probably more influential and more important to our lives, our our lives in the West, than the Roman Empire was.

And we don't remember it.

It it's just been lost to history.

So if we were reading this prophecy of the fall of Byzantium and uh Constantinople having its name changed to Istanbul, why do we know that?

Because of the song, because there's a song that says that.

But there's a uh uh but we don't really know anything about that.

Um it's just like, oh, interesting, a name change.

Like what like what Prince did, you know?

And that's about all of that's about all it takes up in our mind.

And so if we were to read a prophecy written in the 1350s that describes this cosmic fall of something that we thought must be eternal.

And you know, for the Byzantine Empire, especially in the Christian consciousness, it's the first truly Christian empire from its origin.

And then it fell.

And we think, for Christianity in particular, we'd think, what does this mean?

How could this be?

How could this wonderful uh attempt at a Christian civilization collapse under the Ottomans, be destroyed by another faith?

But if we didn't know that happened, then we would read this prophecy written in the 1350s about what would happen only 50 years later.

And if we didn't know the referent of what was taking place, then we might think, okay, this cosmic falling of this unimaginable destruction that's taking place, this must refer to the end times.

And that becomes the way that we read the Olivet discourse.

It's because we have forgotten the million Jews who were killed, because we've forgotten the importance of the temple of God, which was destroyed in Jerusalem.

And because we we don't understand what that would mean for that temple to be destroyed, then when we read the Olivet Discourse, we think that it must be referring to the end times.

But as we've seen, the discourse itself, for the majority of Christ's description, has a direct referent, which is the destruction of the temple.

That is precisely what Jesus is prophesying about for the majority of the discourse.

And we know this is true because, first of all, it is what the discourse is about.

The question that sparks the discourse is regarding when will the destruction of the temple of the temple take place.

And likewise we understand that this prophecy is given a timestamp by Jesus, where he says in Mark 13, 30, which we looked at last week, he says, Truly I say to you, talking to his disciples, this generation will not pass away until all these things take place.

And so he gives this temporal boundary, which is that about 40 years, which is about a generation throughout the scriptures, that this generation will not pass away until all that I've said will take place.

And then he emphasizes it even more because right after this, he says the heavens and the earth may pass away, but my word will not pass away, saying, You can believe me when I say that this generation will not pass away until all that I have said will take place.

But here at the end of the discourse, Jesus changes the topic, where he's no longer talking about the destruction of the temple, but he's to but he begins talking about the end of all things, which takes place at his second coming, when he will come again, that great day of the Lord, and he will judge the living and the dead.

And we know that he changes topics because this event, he removes any possibility of a timestamp.

He doesn't allow anyone to consider, okay, I'll be able to piece together current events and I'll be able to understand precisely when the second coming will happen.

He removes that possibility from their thinking.

You can hear it because this is the first verse that we'll look at today in Mark 13, 32.

He says, but concerning that day or that hour, no one knows, not even the angels in heaven, nor the Son, but only the Father.

So Jesus is switching topics now.

He's switching from the topic of the destruction of the temple, which will take place in the lifetime of the disciples who he's speaking to, and then he says, but considering that day or that hour, you can't know.

You don't know when this will happen.

So why is it that Jesus in this same discourse discusses the destruction of the temple and his second coming?

Why are these related to one another?

Well, it's been a while since our first sermons on the Olivet discourse.

But we have to remember what it is that spurred the discourse to begin with.

And that was, as I already mentioned, Jesus saying that the temple will be destroyed.

And then what frames the discourse is the disciples hearing and being surprised that the temple will be destroyed.

Jesus, the disciples ask him two questions.

And the the nature of the two questions, I think, is most explicitly laid out in Matthew's gospel.

So we'll look at these two questions as they're relayed to us in Matthew's Gospel.

In Matthew 24, 3, it says, As he sat on the Mount of Olives, the disciples came to him privately, saying, Tell us, when will these things be?

Question one, and what will be the sign of your coming at the end of the age?

Question 2.

So they hear Jesus say, The temple will be destroyed.

Okay.

When?

When is that going to happen?

Because the temple being destroyed, well, the temple is the dwelling place of God with his people.

It is the residence of the Spirit of God.

It is the place in which the atonement for the people of God has been enacted and taken place by the blood of bulls and goats at in the Holy of Holies.

It is what they are gathered there to remember this Passover week.

So if the temple is destroyed, how is it that God will dwell among his people?

And is this not our hope as the people of God that he will be our God, that we will be his people, that by the atonement which takes place within the temple, that we, sinful though we are, might be able to draw close to our God and know him?

So they ask, they of course are wondering why.

And then they ask, well, what will be the sign of your coming at the end of the age?

They understand Jesus as the Messiah is the one who is the promised king, and so he will bring the ultimate and final judgment.

And how could the temple being destroyed mean anything other than the ultimate and final judgment of God against the world?

Because, in a sense, it's God saying, I will no longer dwell among you.

That's what the destruction of the temple must mean.

And so we see that these are two questions.

When will the temple be destroyed?

And what will be the sign of your coming at the end of the age?

But to the disciples asking it, they're not really two questions.

They're one question.

Because they cannot imagine that the destruction of the temple would mean anything other than the end of the age, the absolute end of all things, the final and complete judgment of God.

But Jesus, throughout his discourse, explains that the destruction of the temple is not the end of all things.

Now the disciples must be wondering, well, how could that possibly be?

And it isn't quite revealed to them yet.

It will be revealed to them more completely once Jesus himself is crucified, once he rises from the dead, once he ascends into the heavens and takes his place at the right hand of the Father, and all authority in heaven and on earth is given to them, they will begin to see by the power of the Holy Spirit that the destruction of the temple meant the end of the old covenant.

But what Jesus establishes is a new covenant.

And what he promises is that a new temple will be built, a temple of which he himself will be the cornerstone.

But this will not be a temple made of stones, not of stones like that old temple was built out of.

But it will be a temple of living stones, of believers in Christ who are made new and become a temple themselves, his church, which becomes the dwelling place of God.

The dwelling place of God after Christ will no longer be somewhere that you go visit once a year to celebrate the Passover.

The temple will become the hearts of God's people, because they themselves will be made holy by the eternal sacrifice of Jesus.

And so that old temple will be destroyed, but it will be destroyed so that the new one will be built.

A new temple which goes out to all nations and all peoples, no longer a covenant just with this particular people, the Israelites, but now a covenant which is extended to all people and all nations by the once and for all sacrifice of Jesus.

And so Jesus breaks apart these two questions as he's showing them that temple will be destroyed.

This old covenant will come to an end, but its end will be a glorious fulfillment beyond your imagination.

And it will be the establishment of a new covenant which will spread.

Spread out into the church age of which we're a part of.

I can tell just by being in church.

It's still happening.

Proof.

The church age will continue on, but that too will come to an end.

Because Christ will come again, and all things will be made new.

You can see this in the pattern of Jesus' parables throughout his teaching.

They are things that take place in process, but then they have an end.

You know, a pinch of leaven that goes into a lump of dough.

Well, the point of that is that you then bake the dough.

And you don't just bake it forever.

The point of baking bread is not the baking.

It's eventually it will be done.

And then you take it out and then you eat it.

That's the point.

And our time is like that.

This is the leaven pinch time.

And then the leaven is expanding.

And then there's sort of like this baking time that we're in, but but if but one day it will be done.

And Christ will come again when it is done at just the right time.

His time.

I don't know when it is.

He will come again at just the right time.

And then it will be time for his people to feast with him and joy and glory as we realize what it is, and it will take an eternity to realize this: what it is that Christ accomplished for us on the cross.

What it means that we are made new by his sacrifice, and what it will mean to dwell with God and to know him.

That's why heaven, that's why eternal life, that's why it takes so long.

It's because it will take that long to know and enjoy and to savor what it is that Christ has accomplished for us.

Oh, the depth of his grace towards us.

It will take a long time to be able to understand.

So now Jesus switches the topic for the disciples, switches the topic from the destruction of the old temple, of that old covenant, and then he begins to talk about what the real end will look like and how we are to live, knowing that the true end is coming, that Christ will come again.

Christ has died.

Christ is risen.

Christ will come again.

Do you even know how you know that?

Some of you are like, yeah, I said it in church.

It's a great way to know things.

So this is perfect timing because this is our first week of Advent.

And Advent has this sort of double feature.

Advent is a remembering that God had promised that Christ would come.

And the whole Old Testament can be read as that promise.

Christ will come to redeem his people.

And it happened.

And at Advent we remember Christ came.

He was born of the Virgin Mary in a manger.

We know the town.

Bethlehem.

We know when it happened.

It was during that census, you know.

The census?

Remember?

And during that time, Christ came.

It really happened.

He died.

He was buried.

He really rose again from the dead.

House to you explain this.

House to you explain Christianity.

You know it.

Friends, I know you.

I know you all.

You believe this along with me.

He really rose from the dead.

It's in him that we hope.

You remember what it was like when you first heard the depth of his grace towards us.

You remembered you remember what it was like when you first started to grasp.

And you understood the depth of your sin, and then you heard something like, therefore, there is now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus.

And the freedom that just your your heart sang when it heard that tune.

We know it happened.

So we remember that, that it really has happened.

But Advent isn't just about remembering that it really has happened.

Advent is also about looking forward to this other promise that Christ gave us, that he will come again.

And so this Advent season, we remember that he has come and that he has been faithful before.

And we look forward to this culmination of all things, that he will come again and set all things right and make all things new.

You know, uh this week when you see people, you say, How was your thanksgiving?

And what I've noticed is you you often get uh this answer.

Oh, you know.

It was you know, my I was with my family.

My family was there.

So it was, you know.

It happened.

Now this is a this is uh this is a telling sign.

Some of you weren't with family, you were with friends.

And the answer that I've gotten from those people is great.

People that weren't with family.

Gosh, cowards.

I'm just kidding.

Now this is a sign because Thanksgiving, we know, is just supposed to be great.

And it is.

Time to gather together with your family should just be great.

But right now it isn't yet.

It isn't yet.

But Christ will come again, and he will make all things new.

And that feast that he calls us to will be perfect.

When you're asked about it later that heavenly week, how was Thanksgiving?

Everyone will say it was great.

It was great.

I was gathered together with my brothers and sisters in the Lord.

It was perfect.

So this time of Advent is not just a looking back, it is a looking forward to when all is made new, to when all things are set right.

Not just with your family, it's easy to pick on, but with you.

Because you know that family dynamic that is so frustrating to you.

You're a part of it.

So we look forward to this, this Advent season, especially this Sunday.

We look forward in hope.

Okay, so let's look at this pivot in the text where Jesus describes how it is that we are to live knowing He will come again.

It's great, he will come again, but how do I live now knowing that he will come again?

All right, let's look at it.

In Mark 13, 32, Jesus begins talking about the second coming.

He says, But concerning that day or that hour, no one knows, not even the angels in heaven, nor the Son, but only the Father.

And just want to uh do a little Bible study now just to prove my case.

We know that Jesus is changing the topic here.

He's no longer discussing the destruction of the temple, but he's switching to talk about that great day of the Lord, the final culmination and the end of all things.

We know this because he says that there is no possibility of predicting when this will happen.

Concerning that day or that hour, no one knows.

Well, maybe there's some possibility of predicting it, the disciples might have thought for half a beat, not even the angels in heaven, and the disciples might have thought, well, maybe they don't know, but maybe we could piece it together on this end, nor the sun, nor the sun.

Jesus saying, I don't know.

That's weird.

That's a weird one.

He says, but only the Father.

Now that means you can't predict when the end of all things will come.

Many of you are thinking, sure, sure.

Yes, of course, of course.

We can't predict when the end of all things will come.

But I've been following the war in Israel.

And did you know that this happens to line up with no?

If Jesus in his humiliated state, the uh this is what this is, by the way, when Jesus says, I don't know, this is this shows just the utter humility and humiliation which the incarnation entailed.

That in his humanity, there are things which he did not grasp, although he was entitled to them.

He did not grasp them.

And you would say, yes, um uh there's no possibility of predicting it, but uh there's a blood moon coming, and it's only nine months away.

No, you can't predict it.

You don't get to piece these things together.

You don't get to know when his second coming will take place.

Now we know this is a change of topic because what he spent the whole end of this prior part of the discourse saying was you know the lesson of the fig tree, how when it goes into leaf, then you know that the summer is coming.

Well, these events, which I am telling you, will lead up to the war with Rome and the destruction of the temple.

You can read those like they're the signs of the fig leaf.

And I'm telling you, this generation will not pass away until you see those things come.

So Jesus has had been instructing them, saying, look out for when this is coming.

He even says, when you see this happening in Jerusalem, run to the hills.

If you're in Judea, don't go back to get your coat.

Don't come down off the roof, just run across the roofs like Jason Bourne and get out of here.

Because you'll be able to see this, these events, the abomination of desolation.

We went into what all those things meant, and you'll be able to read exactly what's happening and then react to them as though that's what's because now I've told you and you can know what's happening.

So now he switches and he's saying, but the the real end, when I come back that day, that great day of the Lord, you can't know when that's happening.

This must be a change of topic because it would be strange for Jesus to say, here's all the signs of uh the end coming.

You can't know when the end will come.

That's then you're a man with two watches.

Because a man with one watch always knows what time it is.

A man with two watches is never quite sure.

Tom, you just cringed out of your body when I did that.

You are a new creation, no longer tied down by the flesh because you've cringed out of it completely.

Now, when Jesus comes again, although we don't have signs, we don't know when this will happen, you cannot read the tea leaves of when this will happen, you cannot piece together current events of when the second coming will take place.

It is knowledge that is too high for us, it is off limits to us.

But when it happens, there will be no confusion as to what's happening.

No one in the world will wonder what's going on.

They will know.

In Matthew's uh telling in Matthew's version of this own discourse, as he relays what Jesus says, he says this in Matthew 24, 26-27, so if they say to you, look, he is in the wilderness, do not go out.

If they say, Look, he is in the inner rooms, do not believe it.

For as the lightning comes from the east and shines as far as the west, so will be the coming of the Son of Man.

He's saying, Throughout this time, many people will come and say, I'm the Christ, don't listen to them.

Others will say that they've pieced together that the Christ has come, don't listen to them either.

Because when the Son of Man comes, you will not have to wonder.

It will be like when lightning uh flashes across the sky and lights up the whole sky from the east to the west, it will be so plain and so evident, no one will be able to miss it.

And then after this, it has this strange verse, which is where where the body is, the the birds or the eagles or the crows, depends on your translation, will gather.

And his his point there is that just as the birds know exactly where the body is, and you don't wonder, is and they for some reason don't wonder, is it dead?

But they gather precisely to where it is.

They can interpret plainly exactly what's going on.

He's saying, when the Son of Man comes, everyone will know Jesus is back.

It was real.

All that was said was true.

He's here.

And those who have lived with the knowledge of Christ will see it, and they will know Judgment Day is here.

And they will have a sigh of relief and wonder and joy, and they will know it is time to feast.

And those who have lived outside of Christ and have denied him will look and see Jesus is here, and they'll be filled with an unthinkable terror as they realize all that I thought was a lie, it turns out was true.

He was coming back, and now he is.

So how are we to act?

Not knowing when the end is, but knowing that Christ will return.

Well, Jesus tells us in Mark 13, 33, he says, be on guard.

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

So this is our task now.

It's to be on guard.

On guard against the sin which so easily encroaches into our hearts, so easily entangles us.

Be on guard against it.

Keep awake.

That means remember.

Don't forget he has come again.

This redemption that has taken place in your heart, it is real.

Do not forget it.

Do not forget what he has accomplished.

Do not go back to sleep as though you're living in a time before you had heard the good news.

Stay awake.

Remember, he will come again.

You don't know when that time is.

So that means now is the time to be on guard.

Now is the time to stay awake.

In Mark 13, 34, Jesus says, here's it, Jesus is great because, well, a number of reasons, but what one of them is that he uh he puts things in terms where it's like, okay, I think I can understand that.

Uh sometimes the terms are too grounded, they're too low for us to recognize the reality of them.

But he tells it to us like this he says, here's what it's like.

Because Jesus is coming again, the end of all things.

That's a little hard for me to wrap my mind around.

I've got other things on my mind, what Christmas gifts to buy, how to budget them.

Like my wife is asking me, like, what do you want?

And I'm like, what do I want?

This is the hardest question I've ever been asked in my life.

And so socks, I landed on socks.

Which I never understood when my dad said it.

But now I think it is one of the most wonderful things.

Can you imagine a sock drawer where they all match and you can just reach in like a king and pull it out every time and never search?

Again, that is what I see on the other side of Christmas for me.

So Jesus explains to us what it will be like.

He says, it's like a man going on a journey.

I can get that.

When he leaves home and puts his servants in charge, each with his work, and he commands the doorkeeper to stay awake.

Okay, so it's like the there's the master of the house, like the song in La Miz.

And he uh the master of the house says, Okay, you stay here, and I'm going away.

Okay.

We're the ones that stay here, he's the one that goes away.

He's not physically present.

But when he's not physically present, does that mean that he's not the master of the house anymore?

Of course it doesn't mean that.

So his commands and who he is is still binding and on us, the servants who remain.

And we don't know when he'll return.

And so that means that all of our actions are still ordered by him being the master, because at any moment he could show up.

And if the doorkeeper was asked to stay awake and the man shows up at his own home and he's knocking on the door, or he's knocking on the gate to be let in, and he's like, I can't even get into my own home.

Did they forget I was the master?

Did they forget that this was actually all mine and they were just the servants?

I asked them to stay awake.

That would be an uncomfortable thing.

Jesus puts it in these terms that are almost so ordinary we could miss it.

The truth is they're so ordinary you can't miss it.

So all of the actions of the servants and the doorkeepers would be oriented towards the return of their master.

So too, all of the actions of our lives here in this church age in which we live are to be oriented towards the return of our master.

Because we don't know when it will happen.

Verses 35 and 36, he says, Therefore, stay awake, for you do not know when the master of the house will come, in the evening or at midnight, or when the rooster crows, or in the more or in the morning, lest he come suddenly and find you asleep.

If you are found asleep, it is evidence that you did not trust your master to return.

Or it is evidence that when your master was away, no longer physically present with you, you no longer considered him to be your master.

And you thought, well, I can just structure my life in the way that I would like it to be structured.

It would not be oriented towards the commands of my master anymore, but it would just be oriented towards myself and my own pleasures.

So I'm going to take a nap because I don't care when he's coming back.

He's not even here anyway.

But if because you don't know when he will return, you maintain in yourself and in your heart this orientation that he is still the master.

This is still his house.

We are under his orders, and because we don't know when he will return, then we want all of what we do here to be oriented towards his arrival.

So practically, I guess, what might that mean?

Well, in in Matthew's telling of this, right after in Mark's gospel, what we'll get to next fall, he goes right into the story of the crucifixion and the planning of the scribes and Pharisees of how it is that they're going to kill Jesus.

But Matthew actually adds more.

Matthew's a bit more discourse heavy than any of the other gospels.

And in Matthew's gospel, this discourse goes on, and he shares several familiar parables in order to drive this point home.

And one of them, you'll know, it's the parable of the talents.

In the parable of the talents, Jesus tells a story of a man who goes on a journey like this one.

And when he goes on this journey, he gives to his servants, he delegates to them areas of responsibility that have values assigned to them.

Now to one of his servants, he gives an area of responsibility which is worth five talents.

And he says, this is the amount that you are responsible for.

Here's five talents.

And to another man, he gives two talents.

He says, This is the amount that you are responsible for while I'm away on my journey.

And to another one of them, he gives one talent.

And he says, This is the amount that you are responsible for while I go on my journey.

Well, the journey happens.

He has a wonderful time.

We don't know how his time is.

And he finally returns.

And when he returns, he uh meets with his managers, the ones who he has put in charge.

And he meets with the one who had who was given five talents.

And the one who was given five talents, he explains, I took your five talents and I was able to uh invest them over here, and I started this little, you know, we finally put the money back into the all of press, and now we're getting twice as much production out of it.

And I turned your five talents into ten talents.

And the master says, Well done, good and faithful servant.

Come rest with me.

Enjoy the fruit of your spoils.

And to the one who he gave two talents, he says, Well, with your two talents, I took it.

And you know how the millstone wasn't grinding like we'd had expected to previously, and how he got kind of put together by that millstone salesman who was traveling through town.

Well, I took it and I bought a new millstone from a more reputable millstonesman.

And he uh we've installed it, and our wheat grain production has been uh through the roof.

I I took your two talents, and now from it's we've got four talents from that.

And the uh master of the house says, Well done, good and faithful servant.

Come enjoy the fruit of these spoils with me.

And then he goes to the one with the one talent, and the man who was given one talent says, Okay, I still have your one talent.

I I know that you're a harsh master.

And because you're a harsh master, I was so terrified that when you finally came back that I might have lost your one talent.

So I hid it and I've still got it here.

And the owner of the house, he says to the man with the one talent, Well, why didn't you, if you thought I was a harsh master, why didn't you just invest it?

Just put it in the bank.

And then at least when I came back, I would have gotten some interest on the talent that I have given you, but instead I received nothing for this potential and this opportunity for fruitfulness that I have given to you.

And then the master will cast out that man into a place where there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth, full of regret.

So, what does this teach us about this present age?

It teaches us several things.

Our responsibility here on this side of Christ's return is just to be faithful with what he has given us for the sake of his kingdom.

That's your responsibility, Christian.

That's our responsibility.

To be faithful with what God has given us for the sake of his kingdom.

Because we know our master is not a harsh master.

He's not a hard man.

He's gracious, merciful, slow to anger, abounding in steadfast love.

That's what he's like.

And so that means this life, with the potential for fruitfulness that he has given to each one of us, it can be risked for the sake of his kingdom.

And in it being risked for the sake of his kingdom, because we know that even more than the master in the story, that he is good, he is caring, that he providentially guides all things, that when we risk our lives for the sake of his kingdom and what he has given us, it will be fruitful for him.

To the man who was only given two talents, he did not require ten at his return.

He required four.

To the man who was given one talent, he would not have required the four that the man who was given two was able to produce.

He does not distribute them equally, and he does not require the same amount from each of them.

This is true of us.

The fruitfulness that God requires of you is just what he requires of you.

He has suited you for it.

He has given you the opportunity to prayerfully pursue it.

And so be faithful with that.

He is not a hard master.

In this church age, our job is to stay awake, to consider that he has given us all of these areas of our lives and all of these, he's delegated to us all of these responsibilities so that we might be able to demonstrate fruitfulness to him throughout this age, that his kingdom might be able to grow and spread and show more and more fruitfulness before he comes again.

And all that he requires of you, he precisely gives to you to be able to return it to him.

So in Mark 13, 37, he says, and what I say to you, I say to all, stay awake.

This means it's worth noticing, and what I say to you, I say to all.

Remember, he's just talking with the disciples here.

And the things that would take place within that generation, it really was particularly for them.

There are principles and things which we see which of course benefit us.

But they were really for them.

Your responsibility is not to read the signs of Jerusalem and then flee from Judea.

If your responsibility was to flee from Judea, congratulations.

You've done it.

We'll just go grab lunch after this.

Your responsibility is to, this one, it says, and what I say to you, I say to all.

This is for us.

This is for the whole church age, and it is stay awake.

So I want you to think about your life.

How did you come to arrive in Denver?

This is where you live.

Some of you by strange circuitous routes, you wound up here in Denver.

You're married, or you're not married.

Well, then what has God delegated to you?

Well, he's delegated to you a spouse to care for, a wife to lead, a husband to submit to.

And don't fall asleep on that.

Stay awake.

He's delegated to you in this singleness this opportunity to not be distracted by the cares of your spouse, but instead to be able to stay single-mindedly focused on these other areas of your life in which Jesus has delegated to you.

He's given you more time, he's given you greater ability to be free from that.

And so, how are you going to use that for him?

He has given this to you.

He's given you children or not.

And the children that you have, how is it that you will be faithful to them?

Will they be covered in prayers?

Because they've been deposited to you.

How many talents is it is a child worth?

They've been delegated to you?

Will you raise them up in the in the admonition of the Lord?

Will they know the stories of their people?

Will they understand that they are the ones who have been rescued through the waters?

That they are the ones for whom Christ died, that they take up his promises by faith, that they might hold fast to the Lord.

Will they know him because they grew up in your house?

It's been delegated to you.

You don't have children.

You've got all the time in the world.

How will it be spent?

You have friends who are going through incredible difficulties and they don't know the Lord.

Have you shared with them?

Have you prayed with them?

Have you given them the opportunity to know this wonder of what you know?

He's coming back.

It could be any time.

You don't know when it's going to happen.

Think of the love that he has shown you, the risk that he has shown you, even unto death.

Might you show that very same risk?

There's sin that is plaguing you.

Have you treated it with a severity?

A gouging your eye out, cutting your arm off, severity, so that when he comes again, you are not found asleep and entangled, but you are free and liberated.

We have this amazing trick in our faith, which we can do with sin, and it is like a dagger through the heart of sin.

It renders it useless.

You can confess and repent.

You can just re you really can.

You can repent your sin away.

Come to the ones you've sinned against, repent to them.

You can do that today.

Share it, bring it into the light.

It's an incredible risk.

It's extremely dangerous.

But you don't have a harsh master.

You can risk this life and know that it will be fruitful for him.

He's promised you it would be.

What he asks of you, uh, Moses says in Deuteronomy, Israel, what does the Lord your God require of you?

But to fear the Lord your God, to walk in all his ways, to love him, to serve the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul, and to keep the commandments and statutes of the Lord, which I am commanding you today for your good.

What the Lord requires of us is not far off.

It is not across the sea that we might wonder who will send to get it.

It is not up in the heavens that we'll wonder who could bring it down.

It's right in front of us.

Look at your life.

He's not asking you to change the world.

He can do that.

He's asking you to be faithful over what he has given to you.

That's what it means to stay awake.

You don't know when he's coming back.

Now, shortly after this, Jesus will be with his disciples in a garden.

And he'll be praying that the cup might be passed from him.

That prayer will receive an answer, and it will be no.

The only way that we might be redeemed is for Jesus to go through with the cross and be sacrificed on our behalf, and he does it.

So we are freed.

And he asks his disciples to stay awake with him, and they're unable to stay awake.

In your flesh, you like them are unable to stay awake for this life.

But Christ stays awake.

He stayed awake on our behalf to go to the cross where he would be put to death, our sins might be covered, we might be freed, we might be adopted into his kingdom.

And so in your own strength, you can't stay awake.

But by the strength of Christ in you, you can stay awake for all that he requires of you.

You are able to be faithful for all that he requires of you by the work of his spirit within you.

So this is what Christ says to us.

And what I say to you, I say to all, stay awake.

He will come again.

We don't know when it will happen.

Your job now is to stay awake.

Be faithful for what he's given to you.

For some of you, as you reflect on this, I hope what some of you discover is that there are things which you are chasing and which you are attempting fruitfulness in, which have not been delegated to you.

Lay them down.

Look again at your life.

What has he given to you?

That's what he requires of you.

Be faithful there.

It will be multiplied, and you will be welcomed into the glory of his kingdom.

Are there any questions today?

What do you want us to hold in our hearts most after five weeks of all of that discourse?

That there's a thread that is run throughout the whole scriptures, which is in this pattern, which the scriptures describe as the old covenant.

And in this old covenant thread, there's this demonstration that is made, which is that in your own works, in your own efforts, you are not able to satisfy the requirements of the covenant.

And if you live in that old covenant, then you are living in a place under the coming wrath of God.

But Jesus Christ has made a new covenant.

And the new covenant is in his blood.

And so that by faith in him you can know that your sins are completely forgiven.

You have been made new.

You are the new temple.

If you don't see the destruction of the old temple, then this thread throughout the text is just left dangling there, and you end up telling these strange stories about how another temple will be built, and about how there's these separate promises for the Jews that aren't for God's people.

And you won't understand the whole narrative of the text that's going on.

You need to see that that thread is tied up.

That temple is destroyed.

Now the only hope of salvation is Christ.

He has accomplished it.

He will come again.

That's where you live.

Something like that is what I'd want you to see.

The new covenant.

Speaking of the new covenant, uh, it was uh, we have a great representative of it, which is the cup of Christ's blood.

And in 1 Corinthians 11, verse 22, Paul writes, For I received from the Lord what I also delivered to you.

1 Corinthians 11:22

That the Lord Jesus on the night when he was betrayed took bread, and when he had given thanks, he broke it and said, This is my body which is for you.

Do this in remembrance of me.

In the same way also he took the cup after supper, saying, This cup is the new covenant in my blood.

Do you hear it?

You hear it?

There's a new promise.

The new promise is that you are in Christ.

And if you are in Christ, then all of the promises of the old covenant have been purchased for you by Christ's obedience.

That means they're given to you freely.

This takes place later when he describes the destruction of that symbol of the old covenant, the temple.

Then he says, This cup is the new covenant in Jesus' blood.

This cup is the new covenant in my blood.

Do this as often as you drink it in remembrance of me.

For as often as you eat this bread and drink the cup, you proclaim the Lord's death until he comes.

Whoever therefore eats the bread or drinks the cup of the Lord in an unworthy manner will be guilty concerning the body and blood of the Lord.

Let a person examine himself then, and so eat of the bread and drink of the cup.

For any one who eats and drinks without discerning the body, eats and drinks judgment on himself.

So on the night before he was betrayed, Christ took the bread and he broke it, and he said, This is my body which is broken for you.

Now, if his body was not broken, then it is your body which must be justly broken, because it is in your body that you have committed these sins of treason against God.

And he took the cup, and he said, This is the cup of the new covenant in my blood.

If Jesus did not satisfy the requirements of the old covenant on our behalf, then we would have no hope, because no one is able to.

But Jesus has satisfied the requirements of the old covenant in his blood.

The wages of sin is death, but the free gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord.

He took on the death that we deserved, so that he might give to us the life that he deserved.

We are invited freely to that feast.

He'll come back at any moment.

He's still the master of the house.

So stay awake.

Remember what he has accomplished on your behalf.

Be fruitful in this life with what he has given to you.

No more is required.

Holy Father, I pray that you would bless this meal, that as we come together this morning to partake of this communion, that we would recognize what it means that you have satisfied all of the requirements of the old covenant, and that all of the sin of the old covenant has been punished in you, that you have cleansed us of our sins, and that you have given us your spirit, who by your strength we might stay awake in this life.

Lord, we look forward to the progress which you intend for your kingdom in this age, and that we might see it culminated and crowned with glory at your return.

Lord, let us stay awake in all these parts of our lives.

Let us stay awake, Lord.

In Jesus' name.

Amen.