When the World Quakes

Morning. My name is Coram on the pastoral staff here at Hope. And if you're listening back to this on our podcast, it was just asked in the community moment time, what's filling you up? And I got, I started making a list just in my mind after that question was asked. One of which was we hosted a couple services next door for the runners of the marathon. We had some people come in and worship Jesus before getting out and running far, running really far, all the way over to St. Paul, but starting out going the opposite direction. And so that was super fun to host them. Many of them were raising money for clean drinking water over in Africa. So that's exciting to support that. Yes. Whistle from the... I fell asleep, but it looked like our Minnesota Wild were winning, undefeated. Local Vikings team, undefeated. Top of the division. And then the Little Brown Jug. Some of you are like, no idea what we're talking about. No idea what's going on. There's this little brown jug that travels between Michigan and Minnesota one out of four times. We get to keep it. I was like, okay, it's 100 times. How many wins do we have? It's like 24 out of 100 times we've won and got to keep that. I think not in my lifetime we've beaten them at home. It's something crazy. 49 years. I am 48, and a half. So it really, it's like, it hasn't happened in my lifetime. This is big deal, big deal. So if you feel the urge to crowd surf like PJ Fleck, do so. Be safe. Be safe out there, kids, as you're celebrating the big win. This morning, we're going to turn our attention to the Gospel of Mark. And so if you have been tuning in, you know that we've looked at this series called Jesus First during the month of September and just how do we engage the political realities of our world. Before that was summer and we had kind of one-off sermons with the Psalms. We had a lot of different preachers coming and going and so we got the chance to look at the Psalms. But we're back to the Gospel of Mark, which we started a ways back historically. And we will finish this up before Christmas. So we're going to finish out our study of the Gospel of Mark. What are we doing during this time? What are we looking for? What are we hoping for? This is not an educational talk in hopes that you learn something. You might learn something, but that's ultimately not our main goal. It's not that you would walk away feeling like, I have Christian responsibilities, a to-do list that I must carry out over the course of the week, as if our works and our good behavior is the thing that Jesus needs. Rather, we herald the gospel, which is a way of we sing the gospel, or we kind of, as a banner, unfurl this thing called the good news of Jesus Christ so that you might sit under that, and feel rescued. And feel helped, that your soul might be quickened, refreshed, come alive, that dead souls would come alive because of this good news of Jesus, that his death and his resurrection, is the hope of our church. It is the foundation underneath our feet. And that is true of you, no matter what your background is, no matter where you come from, your lineage, no matter what you might know or not know about the Bible, no matter what you're experiencing in life, whether you feel like you are crushing it or you're taking a bunch of L's, at the end of the day, we say this, this is the good news that Jesus lived, died, and was raised, that he has sent his spirit into the church, into Christian people, that we might gather together on a Sunday and be reminded of what is true and foundational, that our rescue comes from God. And so we are going to continue on that front. I want to remind you with one slide, one slide of where we've been in this gospel. Too much to recap. Brian, one of the pastors at our St. Paul location, he spent all of last Sunday doing a recap. I give you one slide this morning, friends. All right, what is that one slide? It's a picture I drew. Okay. It's a little note card that I drew on my own. I'm not an artist. You might be able to tell that. But essentially the entire first half of this gospel, Jesus is revealing himself. He is teaching. He's healing. He's gathering some followers together. He's engaging the world. He's engaging religious leaders. And it culminates in chapter eight with the question, who do people say that I am? And they throw out some different options that sound like prophets of olden day. And then he ultimately turns to the captive audience, his disciples, and says, okay, enough of what the crowd might say about me. Who do you say that I am? And Peter, in a moment of clarity, brilliance, or just a gift from God, accurately estimates and says, you are the Christ. You're the Messiah. you're the one we've been promised and you're the one we've been waiting for and you're the fulfillment of all of this Old Testament. You are the victor, you're the savior, you're our rescuer. And kind of that's a triumphant moment. But the whole second half of the book where we've been in recent months in May and June and others, we have been looking at kind of what is the meaning of that? What comes with that? And so much of their understanding, their impression was warped. A miniaturized version of what Jesus was going to bring about and bring forth. And chiefly among them, they did not understand how his suffering, how the Messiah suffering, a servant who is victorious, a king with a kingdom, that somehow suffering, would be a part of that, would be included with that, that he would not just suffer in kind of an abstract way or an internal way, but he would physically suffer and he would suffer unto death. He would go to the cross and die. That just wasn't a part of their paradigm. It wasn't part of their messianic expectation, their expectations for the Messiah. It's like, no, we want the victor. We want the king, the power, the authority. And Jesus had to continue to help them to see, I'm going to suffer and I'm going to die. What this looked like back in May and June, I was on sabbatical, but Davis and Steve preached a number of messages. And I put these up here just to show that on average, they got through about 14 and a half verses, but who's counting? Today, I'm tasked with 37 verses. You guys preaching on average, 14 and a half verses while I'm out there on sabbatical. And I come back and just like 37 verses. So most of the marathon runners are going to be done before we actually finish today's message. So if you can't poke fun at your friends, then what's the point of being a preacher? So here we go. Buckle up, 37 verses, beginning in Mark 13, verse 1. As Jesus was leaving the temple, one of his disciples said to him, look, teacher, what massive stones, what magnificent buildings. Do you see all these great buildings, replied Jesus? Not one stone here will be left on another. Everyone will be thrown down. As Jesus was sitting on the Mount of Olives opposite the temple, Peter, James, John, and Andrew asked him privately, tell us, when will these things happen? And what will be the sign that they are all about to be fulfilled? Jesus said to them, watch out that no one deceives you. Many will come in my name, claiming I am he, and will deceive many. When you hear of wars and rumors of wars, do not be alarmed. Such things must happen, but the end is still to come. Nation will rise against nation, and kingdom against kingdom. There will be earthquakes in various places and famines. These are the beginning of birth pains.". You must be on your guard. You will be handed over to the local councils and flogged in the synagogues. On account of me, you will stand before governors and kings as witnesses to them. And the gospel must first be preached to all nations. Whenever you are arrested and brought to trial, do not worry beforehand about what to say. Just say whatever is given you at the time. For it is not you speaking, but the Holy Spirit. Brother will betray brother to death and a father his child. Children will rebel against their parents and have them put to death. Everyone will hate you because of me. But the one who stands firm to the end will be saved. When you see the abomination that causes desolation, standing where it does not belong, let the reader understand, then let those who are in Judea flee to the mountains. Let no one on the housetop go down or enter the house to take anything out. Let no one in the field go back to get their cloak. How dreadful it will be in those days for pregnant women and nursing mothers. Pray that this will not take place in winter, because those will be days of distress, unequaled from the beginning, when God created the world until now, and never to be equaled again. If the Lord had not cut short those days, no one would survive. But for the sake of the elect whom he has chosen, he has shortened them. At that time, if anyone says to you, look, here's the Messiah, or look, there he is, do not believe it. For false messiahs and false prophets will appear and perform signs and wonders to deceive, if possible, even the elect. So be on your guard. I have told you everything ahead of time. Thank you. But in those days, following that distress, the sun will be darkened and the moon will not give its light. The stars will fall from the sky and the heavenly bodies will be shaken. At that time, people will see the Son of Man coming in clouds with great power and glory. And he will send his angels and gather his elect from the four winds, from the ends of the earth to the ends of the heavens, now learn this lesson from the fig tree. As soon as its twigs get tender and its leaves come out, you know that summer is near. Even so, when you see these things happening, you know that it is near right at the door. Truly, I tell you, this generation will certainly not pass away until all these things have happened. Heaven and earth will pass away, but my words will never pass away. But about that day or hour, no one knows, not even the angels in heaven or the son, but only the father. Be on your guard. Be alert. You do not know when that time will come. It's like a man going away. He leaves his house and puts his servants in charge, each with their assigned task and tells the one at the door to keep watch. Therefore, keep watch because you do not know when the owner of the house will come back, whether in the evening or at midnight or when the rooster crows or at dawn. If he comes suddenly, do not let him find you sleeping. What I say to you, I say to everyone, watch. That's our passage for this morning. Not going to comment on everything, but going to make a comment on a few different things. This is a sermon I'm titling, When the World Quakes. When the World Quakes. Going to look at three different items. In unidentifiable shaking, this kind of abomination that causes desolation or abomination of desolation. Gonna talk a little bit about that. We're gonna find some steadiness amid the shaking. And then how are we kept? How are we kept through the quake? There are anxiety-producing realities in the text that are not dissimilar, friends, from anxiety-producing realities that we live with in the midst of everyday life. And so we're just gonna look for where is the hope? Where's the foundation? Where's the security that we might have? Specifically because at Hope Downtown, we're trying to point ordinary people to an extraordinary savior. What is one of the earmarks of an ordinary person? Struggles with anxiety. Looking at this great big world and not finding comfort, but finding stress. Going through your life and being challenged at every turn. And so we want to, amidst a quaking world, say, Jesus, how would you have us respond? How would you be security and foundation for us in the midst of that? So going back to a very specific verse, when you see the abomination that causes desolation, standing where it does not belong, then flee. And there's kind of all this subsequent explanation of what you should do in the midst of that. And then the writer gives a little parenthetical, a little comment to the reader of like, hey, I'm going to identify this thing, the abomination of desolation. I'm just, I want to make clear that you should understand that. You need to understand that. Like that's an important part of a point I'm making. And friends, I've read. I read this week. I read a lot. I don't know how many pages, a lot. I wanted to stand up here and be like hundreds of pages. Probably not, probably not hundreds. I just read a lot of pages. And a lot of commentators and a lot of theologians did. Don't know what this means. Don't know how to identify it. So let me walk you through some options briefly, and then we're just going to move on. That's kind of my plan, okay? So where does this come from? It comes from an Old Testament prophet named Daniel. And if you remember Daniel in the lion's den and those little childhood stories, same book. Later in the book, there's all these apocalyptic visions, all these kind of just otherworldly, end-of-the-world kind the visions that are put forward. And in the midst of that, we read this, his armed forces will rise up to desecrate the temple fortress. This would be the bad guy, the bad guy in the story. His armed forces will rise up to desecrate the temple fortress and will abolish the daily sacrifice. Then they will set up the abomination that causes desolation. With flattery, he will corrupt those who have violated the covenant, but the people who know their God will firmly resist them. Okay, so there's this bad person who's gonna come into the temple and, tear down certain things and put up other things in its place and bring this kind of sacrilegious presence to God's temple that he had constructed. So what are some options for this abomination or desolation? I'm gonna give you a bunch here. This is my best work with Canva. Thank you. First one is Antiochus Epiphanes. And you're like, I've read through the Bible. I've read through the Bible multiple times. I've never seen that name. Yeah, he's between Old and New Testament. There's a period of 400 years. Where's Antiochus Epiphanes? In between, in what we call the intertestamental period, the time between the Testament. And so in a book of that generation, it says that in 167 BC, this person, Antiochus and his group, erected a desolating sacrilege on the altar of burnt offering. On the burnt offering altar where previously God had ordained that his sacrifices would take place. Sacrifices to him and worship in honor of him. But this is clearly a different type of altar being put forward with different sacrifices. And these actions were offensive to the Jewish people. And so there was a revolt. There was a Maccabean revolt. And so this abomination of desolation is, you know, kind of this Antiochus Epiphanes bringing forth a different type of worship into the temple. So that's option number one. Option number two looks at, you know, what's being discussed here is an illusion, an inference that this is going to be the religious leaders. The religious leaders that Jesus, in present tense, in our story, in this part of Mark, Jesus is going toe-to-toe with the religious leaders. They're the ones who are creating this abomination. It's their rebellion, epitomized in the idolatry of the leaders, that Jesus is citing. That's why he, if you kind of double-click on some of the verses in our text for today, he references a sermon by Jeremiah. Jeremiah is speaking about the temple. Jesus is also speaking about the temple. It kind of links the sanctuary's looming desolation with Israel's abomination. The Daniel connection arises through this kind of reinterpretation as it was with Antiochus, this evil non-Jewish leader. It is with the Jewish religious leaders. They're acting in similar fashion. They're offering up sacrifices and forms of worship that because of idolatry, God is kind of spurning. And so we have this religious leader, this cosmic chaos that we see, right? These stars falling from the sky, all of that could be a consequence of Israel's failure to obey. A lot of cosmic chaos comes as a result of the religious leaders failing to follow God. Third one, you don't have to cast your vote. It's okay. We're just throwing options against the wall. Third one, Caligula. We got any Caligula fans in the house? The Roman emperor, he ordered a colossal gilded statue of himself. To be placed inside the Holy of Holies. It's bold. It's bold. It's just like, it's him. And it's like, oh no, in this place of worship, go put this statue of me. I don't know if it's for better or for worse. It's just reality. He was assassinated before this could actually take place. And so maybe that's a reason for it not to be the abomination of desolation. It was only a planned attempt to. To put forward a statue. Fourth one, the religious zealots. Josephus is a Jewish historian. He lived through a war which would take place between 66 and 73 AD. So Jesus coming on the scene around the turn, right? And so dying about 30, 33 AD, go forward another 30, 35 years, and you get an abomination of desolation. What does that mean? Zealots come into the temple, shed blood, shed blood of Jewish priests, of their own people, of their own priests. And so these zealots defiled, according to Josephus, this is where he puts his cards down. They defiled and polluted the sacred precincts through this violence during this time of zealous religious fervor. They're part of a Jewish political movement. And yeah, they're willing to incite people to violence against the Roman Empire and against clearly what they felt like wasn't a proper form of worship. It's possible, it's possible that Paul would count himself amongst these zealots, right? If you look in Philippians chapter three, verse six, as for zeal, as for my religious zeal, What did I do? I persecuted the church. I had Christians kill for my zealous love of God. So could be. I think the majority, a grand number of people would say this is really about when the temple is destroyed in AD 70. The Jerusalemites had considered it a sacrilege for the Roman standards, statues and others to be kind of put up in this place. In the year 70, when the temple was destroyed. Romans erected all sorts of standard statues over the site of the temple. Now I'll have you lock in your boat. Which one? Which one is it? Because there's people that are super smart. Like this is their PhD work. They look at these things. They study these things. They try to figure this out. They disagree with one another. And then Mark in his gospel is like, let the reader understand this. Okay, I'll throw one more at you. Could it be? Could it be that essentially Jesus is in some way referencing himself himself, his own actions, his cross, his resurrection, and his second coming. That this kind of like Christ event that begins with incarnation and God the Son becoming a man and dying on a cross and being raised and then coming again, this whole event is depicted. There's certainly evidence throughout chapter 13 of that and just kind of this, what's going to happen? Jesus is like, the temple is going to be destroyed and you're going to have a new temple. Me. You're going to orient yourself no longer around Jerusalem, this religious city, no longer around the temple within Jerusalem, which would be the hub, the center. People would pilgrimage there for worship. And he says, I'm the center. I am the new temple. He goes to the cross. The veil within the temple is torn as a way of symbolizing. It's coming to an end. And then by AD 70, the physical building is torn down. And so could it be that Jesus is saying, look to me, no longer look to these, other things for worship. Rick Watts has written on these things. He says, this demise marks God's eschatological cosmic intervention. That's why he gets letters after his name. He puts together God's eschatological cosmic intervention, essentially just this kind of otherworldly breaking into our world to bring forth intervention against the earth, against other forms of worship. Okay, that was a lot. Where do we want to conclude this section? I think this is a helpful thing. All agree that Jesus warns of a Daniel-like sacrilege in the temple that signals the disciples' last chance to flee. Exactly what the sacrilege is is far less clear. Numerous solutions have been proposed. I gave you several. All these suggestions fail because the events did not take place or were too soon or too late and or did not result in the temple's desolation. Let the reader understand. Let the person hearing the message at Hope Downtown understand. What? We don't know for sure. That's, I think, all that just to say we don't know for sure. Some sort of sacrilegious and in its place, something else, something altogether different. So where do we go with the rest of our time? Hopefully the next two points give us a little stronger foundation, a little something a little bit more sturdy under our feet. So let's look at some of the steady amidst the shaking that's put forward here. So back to the beginning, Jesus was sitting in the Mount of Olives opposite the temple. And they're like, hey, tell us, when are these things going to happen? And Jesus says, watch out that no one deceives you. No one misleads you. Many are going to come in my name, claiming I am he and will deceive many. And then verse seven begins like many verses, right? When you hear of wars, rumor of wars, do not be alarmed. So he just starts laying out all of these, catastrophic realities. False prophets, wars, earthquakes, famines, persecution, family betrayal. Within the family, betrayal unto death, tribulations of all kinds. And then it says this. After that, after all these catastrophes, there's going to be tribulation that has not been known from the beginning. And if that's not enough, there's going to be these celestial reverberations, just the stars falling from the sky, moon being darkened. And this is supposed to be encouraging to you and to me as followers of Christ. So catastrophic realities. It reminded me of this school meme that comes out every fall. You've probably seen it. Asking the little kids, what are you afraid of, Jimmy? What are you afraid of, Tori? In this case, what scares you the most? Mike said werewolves. What scares you the most? Nikki said lions. What scares you the most? Connor says the constant drift of time pulling us slowly towards an inevitable death. Has to be made up, right? No kid says that. I hope for Connor's sake, that's made up. Mark has asked, what scares you the most? Connor. Connor. You know, Connor sits behind me. So if he's having a bad day, I'm going to receive it, sit in front of him. But there's, it's like, we don't really need help. Like, catastrophizing, right? We all have this experience in life, kind of when we overestimate the consequences of our worst fears. Some examples you might be wondering, like what? How do I catastrophize? What would it sound like? What would it look like? In the digital text space, right, you send a text and you see that they read it and they didn't respond, right? What's your next natural thought? It's like, they hate me. Why do we do that? Some of you are like comforting the person next to you. You're just like, it's okay. Sometimes I read it and I don't respond. I'm in a meeting. I need some time, right? But we can catastrophize. were being abandoned by our friend because they read it and didn't reply to it. What about getting a message from your manager, your boss, your supervisor, which says, do you have a quick minute to hop on a call and just sweat, right? Just panic. I'm getting fired. This is it. It's over. Social media, you put a post out there and you're like, all right. Let the accolades, let the likes, let the love just, come on, serenade me here. And it's just nothing, just crickets. You're like, oh, okay, I'll go do something. I'll go fold the laundry, come back in an hour. Still nothing, not a comment, not a like. You're like, oh my goodness. Okay. I mean, safe space. How many of us, you know, feel something and we're like, well, WebMD, I got to go online. I got to figure out what is happening within me. And we just go like, it's got to be something that's going to take me out. I just, I'm not going to see tomorrow. This is it. I went on WebMD and it told me it's over. Right? And we do that. The last thing we need is Jesus catastrophizing and sharing all of the tribulation. He's like, yeah, it's gonna be bad. And right when you think it can't get any worse, I'm telling you, that's the beginning of birth pains. It's gonna get way worse. The tribulation is gonna be so bad as has never happened since the beginning of time. And probably never again. Like Jesus is taking us to 11. If you guys know this 1984 documentary, Spinal Tap, right? As if we need any help with this, Jesus himself seems to be turning this up, to 11 for us. So what do we see? What do we hear in his words that might provide a little steadying influence for the disciples then and there? Like, how are they doing? Like, they don't have the cross and resurrection of Jesus, right? They're still getting to know this Messiah. He's gonna be the victory. He's gonna be the king. but he's talking about suffering. He's talking about pain. He's talking about tribulation. I thought, we're the victor. Are we not the victor? If we're the victor, don't we get spared that tribulation? Where might they go for a little bit of help? How do they get steadied amidst all this shaking and catastrophizing? He says, whenever you're arrested and brought to trial, do not worry beforehand about what to say. Just say what is ever given you at the time for it is not you speaking, but the Holy Spirit. I don't know the feeling of being arrested. I do know the feeling of being put in the back of a police squad car. It's happened a couple times in my life. And so one was, it was Father's Day. And I had got my father nothing in honor of his love and kindness toward me throughout my life to that point. And I was like, oh, is that today? So then I go, I just get in the car. I got to find something. And I end up pushing through a green, yellow light. I claimed it was green, yellow. He thought it was more yellow, red or emphasis on the red. And so he pulls me over. I got no license on me. I ran out of the house. I just got some cash, my keys, no license. I get thrown in the back of this squad car. That, I, don't worry. Worry was, it was like a solo emotion in that moment. I'm 16 years of age in the back of a squad car. I'm like, I can't think of anything but worry in the midst of that. And for the disciples and for us, Jesus is like, well, do you have the Holy Spirit? If you believe in me, I will give you my spirit. Spirit. You don't have to worry about being an orphan. I will give you my spirit. He will be with you in any circumstance that you encounter. And so you don't need to worry. That's Jesus trying to steady his disciples, trying to steady you and me by extension. Do you have his spirit? Well, then the circumstances are kind of, it doesn't really matter. It doesn't really matter where you're going. Like you have the spirit of almighty God. A second one here. Heaven and earth will pass away, but my words will never pass away. However you might think of the end of the age and the end of the world and the world dissolving or Jesus coming to this world and renewing, it's just like, he says, heaven and earth will pass away. That's a worrying concept, right? That's an anxiety producing. That which I depended on, relied on every day for my life, I might wake up and it's gone. Like, what do you? He says, yeah, but my words will never pass away. My words are a steadier. In the midst of a shaking world that might be passing away, you can trust my word. My word is enough to be a foundation underneath your feet. In Matthew 10, 28, Jesus says, do not be afraid of those who kill the body. What? What? Like that sounds mad. Like that's madness to not fear those who can kill the body. He says, do not be afraid of them who can kill the body, but cannot kill the soul. There's something about Jesus being a steadying force for his disciples to say, no, no, no. Trust in me. Don't be deceived with other messiahs, other saviors, other rescuers. Trust in me, who is the overseer of your soul. I've got you. My words will never pass away. You're safe. You can endure. Why? Because I got you. In the midst of an anxious world, you can say, I'm okay. Why? Because I got you. How does this look? Jesus is gonna keep us through the quake, through the end, till the end. What does that look like? What does that sound like? Back way to the beginning of our passage. One of his disciples said, look, teacher, what massive stones, what magnificent buildings. I'm sorry, I didn't get a picture. If I had a picture, you'd notice it's magnificent and the stones are quite large. Do you see all these great buildings, replied Jesus? not one stone here will be left on another. Everyone will be thrown down. The temple will lie in ruins. And there's something of that destruction. Within that destruction, that's grace. Why? Because Jesus is saying, I don't want you to look to the temple. I don't want you to look to the Old Testament, the Old Covenant, these Old Testament rituals and sacrifices and ceremonies. You do not need to go to Jerusalem physically. You don't need to turn to Jerusalem. look to me. Turn to me. And anything that would be built in a similar fashion that would draw our attention away from the simple worship of Jesus needs to be torn down. That's why we spent four weeks going after politics and just saying, you're going to be tempted to trust in a false savior called politics. The American democracy experiment. You're going to be trusted. You're going to be told this is the most important thing. And we tried to dispel that. Four weeks in a row just saying, no, it's not. No, it's not. Week three, no, it's not. Week four, it's not. Like that's essentially what we said four different ways through September. What is our hope? What is our boast? What is our foundation? Jesus, Jesus first. Don't miss that. Okay, maybe a personal one. Don't trust in your sports teams. It's a little bit tongue in cheek, but there is a way by which people go to entertainment, go to sports. Could be your fantasy football team, living and dying with your fantasy football team. Sadly, there are gambling realities that have just skyrocketed recently. There's ways of people losing their livelihood, in the midst of just trying to bet on a bunch of 18 and 19-year-olds who are cramming for finals, maybe broke up with their significant other, and they're going on the football field. They don't care about you and where you put money down, right? It's a terrible foundation. Davis introduced us to a guy named Brian Johnson, the don't-die guy, the live-forever guy. This kind of desire to figure out health, to hack health and to extend life. And then he shares that he's been diagnosed with an autoimmune disease, right? Do you just see the fragility of all these things that we could put our hope in? And as the temples pull down, it's like, God, pull down any other temples that we have built for worship to put our hope in. And let it just be a simple worship of you. Robert Capon says this, the only test of the church's fidelity is whether it is being true or false to the good news of his death and resurrection. That was its first and only apostolic proclamation. The only proclamation we've been given from the beginning. If the church preaches faith in anything other than the resurrection, if it gives so much as the impression that anything else, be it political action, moral achievement or spiritual proficiency can save the world. It becomes just one more false parochial prophet leading the world away from the Catholic or universal parousia, the universal rival presence coming of Jesus. We beat the same drum every week. Why? Because it's the only one which saves. Only Jesus. is able to save. This is captured in our chapter where it says, at that time, people will see the son of man coming in clouds with great power and glory. What will that look like? I don't know. I'm excited. I don't know for sure. And he will send his angels and gather his elect from the four winds, essentially just the ends of the earth, right? He will gather his believing family together. And here we have this son of man title introduced, which if you go back through your Old Testament, you would associate with power, strength, this glorified figure, this Messiah. And yet, Craig Keener says, look at that term in depth. It says, the Son of Man within Jewish literature usually reserved for God coming in glory, sending angels. The text clearly alludes to that part of Daniel, right? In which a human being receives the kingdom of God. This is a powerful figure, but the son of man functions as a representative on behalf of God's people who in the same context suffers and also receives the right to rule the world. That juxtaposition or those two held in tension within our Messiah Jesus, that he is strong and authoritative, powerful, capable. And yet we'll go to the cross, we'll suffer and die and usher in his kingdom through that cross, through that resurrection. What does this mean for us perhaps isaiah 26 sums up best you will keep in perfect peace, those whose minds are steadfast because they trust in you, trust in the lord forever for the lord the lord himself is the rock eternally hope you will come across this week this month this year in your life anxiety producing realities. You will get on social media and they will try to feed anxiety. You'll go into our world and politicians will try to feed you anxiety. But this promise of God through Christ, right? We can know because of what Jesus has done that we are kept in perfect peace as we trust in him. He is the rock, the rock eternal, the rock underneath our feet. He is our hope. With that, I wanna invite the worship team for, We're gonna worship this rock with a couple more songs. We're gonna open the communion table. If you want to acknowledge Jesus as Savior, the cracker is there as his body broken for you and the cup is reflective, symbolize his blood shed for you. We take this meal as a way of remembering him. If you need prayer, we'll have people down front. And if you wanna give, you can do so online. Let me just throw a couple of questions at you for reflection. Where are you running to for peace and has it held has it actually produced the peace that you seek, or has it become a mirage and you realize there's not a sustained peace there and secondly, for us as a church as hope downtown how might we at age 30 friends we're this month we celebrate 30 years as a church, how might we offer hope to the anxious, to one another who are anxious in our midst, but to the world? Not because we've mastered it, not because we've hacked it, not because we've figured out the solution to anxiety, but because Jesus keeps us in perfect peace. Let's pray together. Heavenly Father, we thank you that though the world may quake, you don't. You are our rock. Jesus, thank you for being our true temple. We just pray, God, against any false temples, any altars that stand in our hearts. God, maybe where we've trusted our own certainty, our own strength, our health, our politics, our newsfeeds, our finances. Lord, tear down any other altars and renew our trust in you, knowing that you keep us in perfect peace as we fix our minds and eyes on you. And Lord Jesus, come again. Come again that all pain and suffering Injustice and impression Anxiety and isolation might end Once and for all Come again, It's in your name we pray Amen.

Mark 13:1