Watch! Be on Your Guard! Part 1

We come now to Jesus’ prophetic unveiling of the future, spoken to his disciples, as found in Mark 13. Jesus’ specific purpose is to warn and exhort and encourage his disciples, and you and me, to faith and obedience to him while we await Christ’s second coming—his coming in unchallenged power and great glory. This morning we will examine, first, Jesus’ predictive prophecy; second, human pretension plummeting; and, third, peace constantly threatened. At a later time we will deal with several other topics.

Jesus’ Predictive Prophecy

Mark 13 contains Jesus’ lengthy prophecy about the then-coming destruction of the temple and of Jerusalem, and also of his future coming in glory at the end of the age. It has been a tense time for Jesus and his disciples. They are leaving the temple after having observed the widow put her two small mites in the offering box, an act greatly honored by Jesus.

It is also the end of a day filled with Jesus having to verbally fence with the temple authorities. They are angry with Jesus for accusing them of spiritual malfeasance and corruption in how they are running the temple’s business. After all, who gave him such authority to question them?

The religious leaders had also spent the day quizzing Jesus about various theological conundrums in an attempt to trap him into misspeaking, and thus putting himself in a cross with the Roman government or the Jewish people. Now, as the shadows are lengthening, and evening is approaching, Jesus leaves the temple complex for the last time, apparently leaving by the eastern gate on his way to Bethany. His departure is itself a judgment on the temple. It is a symbol parallel to God’s shekinah glory leaving the first temple, as written about in Ezekiel 10:19 and following. In each case, sometime after God’s manifest presence leaving it, the temple was destroyed.

The author of the book of Hebrews, especially in chapters 8 through 10, will later write that the death and resurrection of Jesus would spell the end of the temple sacrificial system and would mark the dawn of a new covenant. It was a world-changing event if there ever was one. Redemption promised was about to give way to redemption accomplished.

As they are leaving the temple, an unnamed disciple bursts out in wonderment: “Look, Teacher! What massive stones! What magnificent buildings!” This disciple is rightly impressed with the massive size and architectural splendor of the temple. Jesus plays off of this. He says to his disciples: “Do you see these great buildings?” And in the parallel text in Matthew 24:2 he then says, “I say to you.” Those words mark what is about to be spoken with all Christ’s authority: “I say to you, they will all be destroyed.”

Because the disciples had walked with Jesus for three years, we can only imagine that when Jesus said, “Truly, truly, I say unto you,” their ears must have perked up. Jesus was acknowledging that, in earthly terms, these grandiose buildings will be utterly torn down. This was a most astonishing prediction. He essentially was saying, “They are nothing! They are all going to be torn down and leveled to the ground. The time when God will meet with his people through this edifice is coming to a close.” Jesus is predicting complete destruction of the temple. He does not set a precise date, but he does give a definitive prophecy of the temple’s destruction which will be perfectly fulfilled in the disciples’ generation.

Jesus and the disciples then begin to ascend up the Mount of Olives which rises opposite the Temple Mount. Near the top, Jesus sits down and looks out on the view of the city of Jerusalem below. Peter, James, John, and Andrew sit down with him and begin to question him about his surprising statement: “Tell us, when will these things happen? And what will be the time that they are about to be fulfilled?” Matthew 24:3 tells us that the disciples put their questions this way: “‘Tell us,’ they said, ‘when will this happen, and what will be the sign of your coming and the sign of the end of the age?’” Note, the disciples were wrongly conflating these events. They mistakenly were viewing the destruction of the temple, the revealing of the Messiah, and the end of the present age as occurring simultaneously. They have no concept of the gap of time that would separate the temple’s destruction from the coming and final judgment, and Jesus’ fulfillment of his messianic kingdom.

So Jesus takes this occasion to instruct his twelve disciples about what to expect after his impending death, resurrection, and ascension. Like an Old Testament prophet, Jesus answers the disciples’ questions and mixes together images of events surrounding a more immediate event, the destruction of the temple, with another later event, his second advent.

As they sit with him, he conveys the grim reality that an ominous black cloud is hanging over the entire city of Jerusalem, the temple, and the Jewish people living in Palestine. God’s covenant curses were soon to fall upon them. The temple would be destroyed, the city would be sacked, and the surviving Jewish people would be dispersed to the four corners of the earth. The unthinkable was about to happen in their generation.

Interestingly, the Romans never intended to destroy the temple in AD 70. But God did. During the upcoming siege of Jerusalem, the Roman general Titus would order that the temple was to be spared, not because he was a nice guy, but because he wanted to seize the temple and turn it into a temple dedicated to the Roman emperor and the Roman pantheon of gods.

Thus, his command will run counter to the word of Jesus, who had decreed the temple’s utter destruction. However, it would be Jesus’ word that prevails, not Titus’, proving the veracity of Jesus’ statement in verse 31: “Heaven and earth will pass away, but my word will never pass away.” During the later stages of the terrible battle of the temple precincts, a drunken Roman soldier will set torch to the temple, and its dry timbers will go up in flames. Its vast treasure of gold and silver will melt in the flames. Much of these precious metals will then run down into the cracks and crevices between and in the massive stones, caused by the fire’s intense heat, as well as down into the temple drains. The Roman soldiers, hungry for booty, will tear the stones apart with iron bars, leveling the Temple Mount.

The fulfillment of this prophecy about the destruction of the temple, coupled with Jesus’ other predictions elsewhere in the Scriptures of his then soon coming arrest, death, burial, resurrection, authenticates Jesus’ claims to being the Son of God, who alone can divinely and accurately speak about what is to occur in the future.

Jesus, in his divinity, is the same God who in the Old Testament demonstrated his supremacy over time, people, and events. He raised up Gideon and others to deliver his people. He made ravens carry food to Elijah and caused the iron axehead to float on the water at Elisha’s command. He shut the mouths of lions when Daniel was cast into the lions’ den, and he prevented the red-hot fire from burning the three young Hebrews, Hananiah, Mishael, and Azariah, when they were thrown into the flames. He caused the giant fish to swallow Jonah. And once Jonah had repented, he made the fish to vomit Jonah safely out onto the beach. For as Psalm 135:6 says, “The Lord does whatever pleases him in the heavens and on the earth, in the seas and all their depths.” This should give us pause to pay more careful attention to the lessons we learn from Jesus’ Olivet discourse.

This chapter in Mark, along with the book of Revelation, is one of the most difficult passages to interpret in the entire canon of Scripture. It has been the focus of much debate throughout the centuries by theologians of far greater ability than me. So I will not pretend to even begin to resolve all the issues that it generates but will stick to what I believe is clear from the text.

Jesus is speaking of two major events: one imminent and one distant in the future. This is similar to Revelation 1:1, 3, where Jesus describes things that “must soon take place” “because the time is near.” These words “soon” and “near” are relative terms, for this is God’s timetable, not man’s. Yet in two thousand years, history has been on the brink of the end of all things, running parallel to the edge, not necessarily toward a distant point.

The destruction of the temple in AD 70 and the events surrounding it appear to fulfill many of Jesus’ prophecies given in this, the Olivet discourse. But not necessarily everything, as some scholars (the Preterists) claim. In addition to Jesus’ revelation of the destruction of Jerusalem and of the temple, this passage also gives Jesus’ prediction about his own visible coming in clouds of glory at the end of the age. Clearly this event has not yet come. But always keep in mind, God’s word is established and fixed, and no one can thwart it.

Pretension Plummets

So in verse 1 we read, “As Jesus was leaving the temple, one of the disciples said to him, ‘Look, Teacher! What massive stones! What magnificent buildings!’” Now, worldly people, especially worldly leaders and their followers, love to create monuments to themselves. The idea is this: Name something after him or sculpt an actual monument for him, and you preserve that person’s memory beyond his death. The more colossal the monument, supposedly the greater the person.

Herod the Great was a superb builder. Throughout present-day Israel and Palestine, you can see the ruins of colossal building projects carried out to Herod’s glory during his reign. They include his winter palaces at Jericho and high up on Masada, the Herodium fortress just southeast of Bethlehem, the amphitheater and aqueduct at Caesarea on the coast, as well as the ruins of that city’s breakwater.

However, it was Herod’s ambition to make the temple’s reconstruction his grandest building project, one that would forever placard his greatness throughout history. The original temple, constructed by King Solomon, had been truly a magnificent building. It had taken about seven years to build and many millions of dollars. But it was completely destroyed by Nebuchadnezzar and the Babylonians about 587 or 586 BC. When the Jews returned to their homeland seventy years after they were exiled, they reconstructed the second temple under the direction of Zerubbabel. It would serve the Jewish people for nearly five hundred years.

However, by this time, just prior to the New Testament era, the temple was in great need of repair, due to the passage of time. Ethnically a non-Jew, Herod the Great wanted to curry favor with the Jewish population when the Romans made him ruler of the region. It would be his pièce de résistance, a great monument to himself.

The Jewish leaders accepted Herod’s offer to completely rebuild the temple, and work began in 20 BC, about fifty years or so before this event with Jesus sitting up on the Mount of Olives looking out and down on the still-unfinished temple. Construction would still be going on forty years later when it was utterly destroyed.

Consider for a moment the magnificence of Herod’s temple at this time. It was truly colossal in its construction and architectural beauty. Herod doubled the Temple Mount to about 35.5 acres, surrounding it by massive retaining walls, a portion of which, known as the Wailing Wall, remains and can still be visited today.

He built this retaining wall using massive stones. Josephus tells us that some of the stones were about 41–44 feet long, 11.5 feet high, and some 8–11.5 feet thick. They were cut by hand and so tightly fitted together that it was said that not even a sheet of paper could not be inserted between them. Herod then built large courtyards, colonnades, and buildings on top of the Temple Mount. The most important building was the temple itself.

Behind the walls of the Temple Mount area were porticos that were about 45 feet deep, supported by two columns of marble columns, each being 37.5 feet high. The southernmost of these porches was even larger and was known as Solomon’s porch. We read about it in Acts 3:11. The height of the previous main temple building, built by Zerubbabel, is said to have been 90 feet high, limited by the instructions given by the then-Persian king. According to some, Herod doubled this. This means his temple was upwards of 180 feet high, about as tall as a sixteen-story building. Thus, it literally dominated the skyline of Jerusalem and could be seen from anywhere in the city as well as from miles away.

Herod clad the temple and other buildings with white Jerusalem stone, which was then highly polished so that it glistened in the sunlight. The doors, the walls, and even the floors of the temple building itself were overlaid with pure gold. It is said that when the sun rose over Jerusalem, you could not stand to look at the temple because of the brilliance of the light reflecting off its white and golden walls.

No wonder, then, the disciples’ jaw-dropping awe of the place and their great dismay at hearing Jesus’ comment about its coming destruction. However, if they had really at that moment properly understood who Jesus is, they would have been in far greater awe of Jesus than the temple.

Now, in one sense, the temple’s grandeur testifies to God’s greatness, for he is worshiped there. But in another sense, it witnesses to Herod the Great’s self-pride and self-perceived greatness. Perhaps this is in part why Jesus tells the disciples that the temple they so loved so dearly would be totally destroyed, for God will never share his glory with another, a lesson we all must learn.

This was the second time within a week that Jesus prophesied the temple’s destruction. On Palm Sunday, he had wept as he approached Jerusalem, exclaiming, “The days will come upon you when your enemies will build an embankment against you and encircle you and hem you in on every side. They will dash you to the ground, you and the children within your walls. They will not leave one stone on another, because you did not recognize the time of God’s coming to you” (Luke 19:43–44).

God had visibly come to the temple in the person of Jesus, and the priests and the people rejected him, and they would soon crucify him in the next few days following this event. Jesus’ words were a complete shock to the disciples. Those of us who were eight years or older in 2001 may have a little understanding of the disciples’ incredulity as Jesus foretells the temple and Jerusalem’s coming destruction, especially those of us who may have seen the World Trade Center’s twin towers in person. Those towers were, in a sense, a symbol of America, and the temple had a similar place in the hearts of the Jewish people. The temple was Israel. The temple was Judaism.

And its place in their minds was not merely symbolic. To them, it was the holiest ground in all the world. This was the earthly dwelling of God. This was the only place in all the world where a Jew was authorized to offer sacrifices to God. But the temple became a stumbling block. Jesus’ condemnation of the temple in Jerusalem teaches us this mighty truth, that the true glory of a place of worship does not consist in its outward adornments. “The Lord does not see as man sees” (1 Sam. 16:7). Man looks at the outward appearance of a church building and the quality of the entertainment conducted within it. The Lord looks, however, for spiritual worship and the presence of the Holy Spirit. In the temple at Jerusalem, these things were utterly lacking, and therefore Jesus takes no pleasure in it.

So be warned. The best architecture and the fanciest stage and lightshow are worthless in God’s sight unless there is truth in the pulpit and grace in the congregation.

According to Matthew’s gospel, Jesus had already declared, “I tell you that one greater than the temple is here” (Matt. 12:6). The temple and its sacrifices were intended to point the people of Israel to the coming Messiah and his redemptive work. Now that Jesus had come to the temple, it was being rendered obsolete because Jesus is eternal God who took on humanity to make his once-for-all sacrifice for the sins of all God’s people who put their trust in him as Lord and Savior. The physical temple had served its purpose and needed to go away.

Still, even though Jesus’ prophecy about the temple’s coming destruction within one generation seemed unlikely when he spoke it, it was to be literally fulfilled in AD 70 when Titus and his army surrounded and conquered Jerusalem and completely razed the temple to the ground. All this displays the absolute and universal supremacy of Jesus. This is his unalterable decree. Who then can thwart his will? No one!

All the architectural beauty that the disciples see as they leave the temple that day is a symbol of a corrupt, apostate religion. The house of Israel, Jesus said in Matthew 23:38–39, is left desolate. The cup of God’s fury is full, and it will come down, just as Jesus tells his disciples.

Truly, Jesus is the Lord, and God over history. Here we see that Jesus’ supremacy as God demonstrated in his perfect rule over the wills of men, even over that of ordinary Roman soldiers. What he purposes, he does. What he predicts comes to pass, for he effectively “works out everything in conformity with the purpose of his will” (Eph. 1:11).

This should be a great comfort to those of us who have entrusted ourselves to Jesus’ saving grace, for by his unalterable decree, he promises that “whoever believes and is baptized will be saved” (Mark 16:16).  God’s will is not arbitrary or capricious. Rather, it flows from the goodness and integrity of his divine nature. (GJB) Otherwise, what security would we enjoy if it was not his unalterable will to save and eternally keep each of his elect and redeemed people? Praise God that it is his will that none of his people should be lost (John 17:12). In Ephesians 1:13–14 we read, “Having believed, you were marked in him [in Christ] with a seal, the promised Holy Spirit, who is a deposit guaranteeing our inheritance until the redemption of those who are God’s possession—to the praise of his glory.”

Additionally, the coming destruction of Herod’s greatest monument proves that it does not “profit a man if he gains the whole world and loses his soul,” for that is precisely what happened to Herod the Great. A true politician, Herod gave lip service to Judaism and biblical faith, but was never truly converted. A notoriously cruel ruler and a notorious sinner, he never repented of his sins and turned to God. He is damned to all eternity.

May this never be said of any of us! I urge you to confess your sins, repent of them, and turn to Jesus as your Savior while you still have time.

Pretenders Abound

But Herod is not the only pretender out there. In Mark 13:9–13, we see that implicit in what Jesus is saying is that he will soon go away but will come back after some undefined period of time. Meanwhile, there will be false prophets and false teachers abounding, wars and rumors of wars will proliferate, and natural catastrophes of various kinds will occur.

The disciples, however, are not getting it. They are not looking for a second coming, as we think of it today. They are still firmly convinced that Jesus, as the long-expected Jewish Messiah, will, in their lifetime, defeat the Romans and set up his earthly kingdom in which Israel will once again be the most prominent nation in the world. It will be, in essence, in their own minds a revival of the “good old days” of Kings David and Solomon.

Jesus warns them, and us, “Watch out that no one deceives you. Many will come in my name, claiming, ‘I am he,’ and will deceive many” (Mark 13:5–6). Here Jesus is saying that in the time leading up to the temple’s destruction, and also leading up to his return, there will be many false messiahs who will go around proclaiming themselves to be Jesus. Jesus is warning his disciples, both those then and those of us here, that we are not to fall for them. In verse 22 Jesus calls these frauds “fake Christs” and “false prophets.” In Acts 5:36–37 we learn that the famous rabbi Gamaliel spoke of two such pseudo-messiahs, Theudas and Judas the Galilean. We also learn from 1 John 2:18–19 and 4:1–4 that there were already “many antichrists” at the time when the apostle John writes that letter.

Such false messianic pretenders have continued over the centuries and even up to the present day. The follow list is only a very, very small sampling of such frauds.

• An early such messianic pretender was Simon Bar Kokhba. He was a Jewish military leader who led a revolt against the Roman empire, fought between AD 132 and 136. During the insurrection, Rabbi Akiva presented Simon as the Jewish messiah and gave him the surname “Bar Kokhba,” meaning, “Son of the Star,” from the messianic “star prophecy” of Numbers 24:17, which says, “A star will come out of Jacob, a scepter will rise out of Israel.” The Roman army, however, killed him.
• Much later, in the eighteenth century, there was Ann Lee (1736–1784), a central figure to the American Shakers, who came to believe that she “embodied the perfections of God” in female form and who in 1772 disclosed that she was Christ’s female counterpart. However, she too died, not to be resurrected.
• Consider also Jim Jones, who in the 1970s proclaimed himself to be the Messiah. He promised his gullible followers a utopia in the jungles of Guyana in South America. On November 18, 1978, he led most of them into a mass suicide, which left more than 900 dead. It came to be known as the Jonestown Massacre.
• Perhaps more familiar, depending on your age, is David Koresh, the cult leader of the Branch Davidians, who were located just outside of Waco, Texas. He claimed to be Jesus Christ. He prophesied a final battle with the government, during which he would be killed and then resurrected as Christ, as Christ’s second coming. On April 19, 1993, he and many of his followers were killed after a botched FBI and ATF raid and siege, but Koresh has yet to resurrect.
• And it is not just Americans who fall for the fake. Sun Myung Moon (1020–2012), the Korean founder and leader of the Unification Church, was generally believed by church members to be the Messiah and the Second Coming of Christ. He too died and will be resurrected to see the real Jesus Christ at the last judgment.

Additionally, there are many arrogant preachers who make false claims about Jesus and about the date of his second coming, despite our Lord’s emphatic words: “No one knows about that day or hour, not even the angels in heaven, nor the Son, but only the Father. Be on guard! Be alert!” (Mark 13:32–33).

We are to be watchful for those who, like a certain radio preacher within our lifetimes, while he did not claim to be the Messiah, claimed to know exactly when Jesus is returning. He first predicted that the judgment day would occur on September 6, 1994. When that failed to occur, he revised the date to September 29 and then to October 2. In 2005, this same broadcaster then predicted the second coming of Christ to be on May 21, 2011, whereupon the saved would be taken up to heaven in the rapture.

After May 21 passed without the predicted happenings, he then took a page from the Jehovah’s Witnesses and said that a “spiritual” judgment had occurred on that date, and that a physical rapture would occur on October 21, 2011, simultaneously with the final destruction of the universe by God. After October 21, 2011, passed without the predicted apocalypse, the mainstream secular media correctly labeled the man a false prophet.

We are not to set dates and then try to explain away our failed predictions. It is a source of great embarrassment to the church, and it damages the cause of Christianity. No wonder, as Peter wrote, “In the last days, scoffers will come, scoffing and following their own evil desires. They will say, ‘Where is this “coming” he promised? Ever since our fathers died, everything goes on as it has since the beginning of creation’” (2 Pet. 3:3). But history is going to end. Of that, we can be certain. We just don’t know when.

Jesus says in verse 32, “No one knows [not even he] about that day,” meaning the day of the coming of the Lord, the day of judgment, the day when this world will be brought to its end and the elect will be gathered to be with him.

Now, if Jesus in his human nature does not know the date of the second coming, do you think that it is even remotely possible that you or I or anyone else can know it? Not likely. Instead, be watchful. Be careful. Don’t be deceived by crazy, conniving, cash-hungry preachers, especially those who assert that they are Jesus come again, or those who claim to have everything figured out about the end of the world and have a book to sell you.

Jesus’ exhortation to watch out in this context means to exercise careful discernment concerning spiritual realities. Unfortunately, in our day, there is a huge number of people who call themselves Christians, who allow themselves to be drawn away from Bible truth into worshiping a false Jesus, who is different from the person of Jesus given us in the Scriptures.

There are many false preachers who stand in the pulpits of so-called Christian churches of today, corrupting people with their heretical teachings and practices. They teach that:

1. Jesus was simply a good man and a fine example to us. His moral teachings are exemplary, and he shows us how to love one another. Such people usually deny original sin and go so far as to say that those people who sincerely try to live a life of self-defined love belong to Jesus, regardless of who they actually believe Jesus to be or how they otherwise live. But this teaching is false. The Jesus of the Bible is not merely a glorified role model. None of us lives up to the morality we claim. None of us has or can ever come close to living Jesus’ lifestyle perfectly. We are each unholy before God, and the unholy can never enter God’s holy presence, for “Without holiness no one shall see God.” Unless we embrace the Jesus of the Bible, who alone is the Savior and Redeemer, and then only of those who willingly come under his lordship, we are lost, damned for all eternity.
2. Equally false is the inclusivistic notion that Jesus is “a” savior, that is, one among many, and that believing in him offers us “a” way, not the only way to God. Such false preachers say, “God will honor all those sincere believers in other religions who bring themselves on their own basis to God.” So you do not have to actually know Jesus Christ personally as Savior and Lord to be saved. But Jesus himself said, “I am the way and the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father but through me” (John 14:6).
3. Equally tragic is the deadly teaching that you can be saved so long as you believe in Jesus as Savior but that it is unnecessary to repent or come under him as your Lord. This popular claim This however is also heresy that damns such people to hell. Simply put, Jesus is not your Savior if he is not your Lord.

So we must see how important it is to be careful about who and in whom we believe. Each of these claims includes some truth, but then twists and undercuts the full and correct gospel. The deviation may seem minor at first, but in the end the variance is the difference between heaven and hell. No wonder Jesus warns us, “Take heed. Don’t be naïve. Don’t be stupid. Don’t be led astray by such false preachers and teachers.”

Next time, in part two, we will look at “Peace Constantly Threatened” and other following topics. But I think we need to ask, in bringing up the topic of peace, if you are not in Christ, you are not at peace with God. It is impossible. And the question arises, how can you be at peace in this world? In a world of turmoil and war and riots on the streets, how can you be at peace? The answer is, Jesus is our peace. All mankind has been estranged from God by sin and is at war with him and hates him. Compounding this is the fact that people love themselves supremely and despise and hate each other.

But do not despair. Jesus has come, that we might have life and peace, and have them more abundantly. So repent, turn, and surrender to him and his lordship, and he will give you peace—peace with God, peace with yourself, and peace with others in Christ. If we are his people, we can have peace and be at rest, knowing that Jesus is in control. For Jesus is God in fact and not just in title. He is the Sovereign over all things. He foreordains whatever comes to pass. He is on the throne of the universe, directing all things and working all things after the counsel of his will. Because of this, we can say with confidence, “We know that in all things God works for the good of those who love him, who have been called according to his purpose” (Rom. 8:28).

Jesus promises to be with us always and he will see us through whatever comes to pass. For no trial, no temptation will seize you except what is common to man. And God is faithful; he will not let you be tempted beyond what you can bear, God helping (1 Cor. 10:13).

Should we not then exclaim, “Oh, the depth of the riches of the wisdom and knowledge of God! How unsearchable his judgments, and how inscrutable his ways! . . . For from him and through him and to him are all things. To him be the glory forever! Amen” (Rom. 11:33, 36).