A Blossom Bible Podcast
A Blossom Bible Podcast
Mark 13:28-37 Signs of His Return
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Jesus explains the significance of recognizing the signs of the times as He continues the Olivet Discourse, teaching His disciples about the end of the age and His eventual return.
• The parable of the fig tree teaches us to recognize when the season of Christ's return is near
• Jesus emphasizes that while we can discern the times, no one knows the exact day or hour
• The rebirth of Israel in 1948 stands as a significant prophetic fulfillment and sign of the last days
• Daniel's prophecy of increased travel and knowledge perfectly describes our modern world
• Jesus instructs believers to "watch and pray" - living in constant readiness for His return
• Being ready doesn't mean living in fear but maintaining faithful service like attentive servants
• Christ's return should be anticipated with hopeful expectation rather than dread
Let's be found watching and working when Jesus returns, not sleeping or distracted by the things of this world.
Mark, chapter 13. We are going through the book of Mark and we are in the middle of the final week before the cross and we are finishing today what is known as the Olivet Discourse. You remember the story there? Jesus goes out of the temple after facing off with the religious leaders and sitting on the hillside across from the temple, area known as the Mount of Olives. He's facing the temple, it seems, and he's teaching his disciples about the last days. Now they asked the question about when these things would be. And Jesus? He takes a good amount of time, more than even what we have here at Mark. There is Matthew 24 and Luke 21. He takes time just to explain this idea of the last days, and Jesus we saw last time there in verse 14, zooms into the future, a time yet to come, and begins to explain some events that happen in the final seven years of human history. It's a time detailed in the book of Daniel and most significantly in the book of Revelation, for some extra reading there Now.
Speaker 1:Last week I mentioned a couple of disclaimers here. Number one is that the topic of the last days eschatology is a word you might use for that study of the last days is one that's not without controversy. There is a lot of difference of opinion on how and when things go down in the last days. Churches, believers differ on the goings on of the last days, believers differ on the goings on of the last days, and it has led to a lot of controversy. And I just wanted to point out we can differ on those kinds of issues. These are not salvation issues. Good people, good Christian people, have a difference of opinion and that's okay and we can agree to disagree. It's not a salvation issue. I also mentioned last week that I think a better way to hit this, rather than me standing up here lecturing, would be to just sit across the table from y'all and just discuss it over lunch or coffee or something. And it was kind of cool after last week's study, you know, we're able to just kind of do that, just sit with some folks and just kind of discuss and ask questions and discuss different ideas, and I think that would be a better way to do it. So if you guys, anyone wants to do that, stick around, let's just talk. But I think it's a better way to go about this.
Speaker 1:But going through the book of Mark, we hit this and things. Jesus again goes to the future, things that haven't happened yet. But we pick up in verse 28. He says this Now learn the parable from the fig tree. When its branches already become tender, it puts forth leaves and you know that summer is near. So you also, when you see these things happening, know that it's near at the doors. Assuredly, I say to you, this generation will by no means pass away. Till all these things take place, heaven and earth will pass away, but my words will by no means pass away. Till all these things take place, heaven and earth will pass away, but my words will by no means pass away. So, jesus, after sharing some pretty pointed things on the future, he shares a parable. He calls it a parable, a parable of the fig tree. It's an illustration. It's not much of a story. He calls it a parable, a parable of the fig tree. It's an illustration. It's not much of a story, it's more encyclopedic, I think, botanical truth.
Speaker 1:Here Jesus says the fig tree reacts to the changing of the seasons, like here in northeast Texasxas. Things uh somewhat die off. Uh, there in the wintertime and you know how it is right everything turns brown and we're okay with that because it means we don't have to cut the grass. But there comes that week in what april maybe, depending on what the weather's like where, uh, you start to see kind of this green haze on all of the trees. Isn't it kind of special? It's almost, you know, exciting. And you start to see kind of a green tint to everything. Then you go away for the weekend or something. It never fails. You go away for a day and you come back and it's a jungle, right? You know, your grass is about three feet tall and the changing of the seasons, it does something to the plants. That's obvious, right? There's basic truth.
Speaker 1:And Jesus here does a little bit of a lesson, a little bit of a parable on the fig tree and he says when you start to see some leaves on it and fruit on it and things change, you know the seasons are changing. That's a basic truth. Now, much has been made of this parable. Plenty of books, I'm sure, have been written on this. But in verse 30, notice, he adds this to his account. Assuredly, I say to you this generation will by no means pass away until all these things take place. And so what's the fig tree? Well, what's a generation? Because Jesus is saying something very specific here about a time period of people, a generation of people, and he says all these things are going to come to pass before this generation passes away.
Speaker 1:Now, one of the most notable theories that you've probably heard on this is that the fig tree represents Israel. It wasn't that long before this. Remember that Jesus cursed a fig tree there in the temple area. And they came back the next day and the fig tree was dead. And we saw the obvious truth there that there was a parallel between the state of this fig tree and the people of Israel who were not having faith, who did not believe in him, and Jesus kind of works that visual picture there. So a lot of people have taken this to mean the fig tree is a picture of Israel.
Speaker 1:In the Old Testament Israel is seen as a fig tree and so many have in recent times put forward on this that the generation that sees Israel blossom and bloom, become a nation won't pass away until all of these things of the last days take place. And that's exciting, right. And you start to ask well, what's a generation? 40 years, 70 years? 1948 is when Israel became a nation, so perhaps we'll see something going down in our lifetimes. I think that could be true, but the problem perhaps is in Luke's account.
Speaker 1:In Luke 21, 29, jesus makes a statement and this is added look at the fig tree and all the trees. So in Luke's account, jesus actually says it happens this way with all the trees. So in Luke's account, jesus actually says it happens this way with all the trees. Is it specific with this fig tree? And maybe he was pointing at a fig tree because there's plenty of them in Israel. Yeah, it's significant with a fig tree, but it's also significant with all trees. So maybe a better thought on this is that Jesus is just saying look at the evidence around you, look at what's going on in the world.
Speaker 1:Even better, verse 14, we see Jesus has said some pretty specific things about the last days. He says when you see the abomination of desolation spoken up by Daniel, the prophet and you'll remember that was a specific thing a specific thing that's going to happen in the final seven years of human history that this one that we typically call the Antichrist we talked about this last week will come into a temple of sorts and will consider himself and demand worship as God. The abomination of desolation happens in the center of the last seven years of human history. And Jesus then is saying well, if you see this, when you see these things, that generation will not pass away. Why is that? Well, because there's only three and a half years left of the process until God sets up his kingdom on earth. So what he's likely saying there is all these things are going to happen. When you see it all go down, when you see the stuff that's talked about a little later that the stars of heaven will fall, the powers of the heavens will be shaken, the sun will be darkened and the moon, the revelation kind of stuff when you see that begin to fall apart, realize it's all going. This generation will not pass away until all of it happens.
Speaker 1:Now, interesting, it's even more detailed than that. When you look at it, as we looked at this seven-year tribulation and the Antichrist and the abomination of desolation last week we talked too much about it maybe. Daniel, chapter 12, verse 11, says this and from the time that the daily sacrifice is taken away and the abomination of desolation is set up, there shall be 1,290 days. Blessed is he who waits and comes to the 1,335 days. Blessed is he who waits and comes to the 1,335 days. So here in Daniel, we're given the exact day count between this abomination of desolation and when God essentially sets up his literal kingdom on earth. So that's how detailed this prophecy is, um. Now, last week we also talked about the idea that believers won't be here, uh, and, and this is all just a sign of the season for us, um, so perhaps this passage is not so much for us, uh, but it is for those that will be here.
Speaker 1:Now, one thing though as we look at prophecy, we understand that lots of books are written, right, current events. It's fun to talk about current events and what's going on in the world and how that might play into the last days in the world and how that might play into the last days. Speculation is a lot of fun, it's interesting, right, and yet sometimes I think we write a lot into it. I'm all for it, I'm all for knowing the signs and the times and what's going on in the news and such, but sometimes I think we do kind of stumble people a little bit, because, if you'll remember back to like the 70s, right, it was the new barcodes that were on all the products, right, those barcode scans and movies were made where that could be. That might be. It probably is the mark of the beast, and some of us remember watching movies with the barcodes on the forehead and everything, and we were terrified when we were eight years old. But you know, we look back at that and we go well, it's interesting and all, but we do look a little silly grasping at these things Interesting stuff. But I do think we need to be careful. Maybe of you know how much weight we put on this speculation Now. I don't think now come back. I don't think at the same time we're not with, I don't think we're without signs of the times, and I want to just throw out three signs that I think are pretty critical to where we are in human history, things that I think are a little more stable. Number one is the rebirth of Israel. This is something I think to consider the rebirth of Israel.
Speaker 1:Now, following the destruction of the temple in AD 70, the Jews were scattered around the planet, everywhere, right Through Europe and Asia. The Jews just were scattered, but they were definitely not in Israel. That was one place you really didn't want to be and there was no real Jewish homeland. The children of Israel were wanderers, yet Bible prophecy still had plans for the nation of Israel. In Ezekiel 38, we see there described a conflict that will happen between Israel and some nations that are around. That may include Russia and Iran, and and, and that's there in the book of Ezekiel. Uh, fascinating, but but check it out the people of Israel weren't in the land, so how could they be surrounded and attacked and how could God deliver them? And people would write commentaries on those sections of scripture and they would start to spiritualize it. Well, you see, israel's no longer Israel. We know that the church is now Israel. And there was this kind of replacement theology going on, and a lot of it was just because nobody could see it ever happening that Israel would become a nation again.
Speaker 1:Ezekiel 37, the Valley of the Dry Bones vision there from Ezekiel shows that the nation of Israel is like dry bones, dead dry bones in the land, and they're brought back together there in that vision, ezekiel 37. They're brought back together and they're given muscle but still aren't alive. Well, ezekiel 37, god has Ezekiel prophesied to the spirit, to the wind, and tells it to fill those dry bones. And you know the story right. Those dry bones become an army, become a living army. Now again, before 1948, before May 14th of 1948, people spiritualized that, well, it can't be Israel, because they're just long dead. Yeah right, ezekiel 37, long dead. And everyone was blown away when, may 14th 1948, israel was reborn as a nation, not just in term, but in reality. So in our lifetimes, so to speak, israel has become a real, honest to goodness nation, again Dead for 2,000 years just about, and we see this as a miracle. Years just about, and we see this as a miracle. But because there's so much prophecy that includes the nation of Israel, stuff that hasn't been fulfilled, a work that God's going to do, this is intense sign of the times that Israel is once again a nation. File that away. I think it's significant. Another one that I think is pretty solid.
Speaker 1:Let's turn to Daniel, chapter 12. I like this one. I mean, I don't have to like it, but Daniel, chapter 12, verse 4. Now critics have trouble with the book of Daniel because his prophecies are so specific. Chapters 10 and 11 are so specific that it reads like a history book, and most critics can't handle the fact that a guy named Daniel, who lived way before all these things happened, wrote it. So they actually give it to a guy that goes by Daniel that lived after the fact of these historical things in Daniel, chapter 10 and 11 were done. So people have a problem with the book of Daniel, but God doesn't have a problem with the book of Daniel.
Speaker 1:But notice the last chapter, book of Daniel, daniel 12, verse four. God tells Daniel this, but you, daniel, shut up the words and seal the book until the time of the end. Many shall run to and fro and knowledge shall increase. Now, this is one little verse, but I think it's pretty significant, as we really just stop and look at our world today. Two things are said about the world when the book of Daniel starts to make more sense, these parts of the book of Daniel that haven't been fulfilled yet. Two things specifically are said about the world of that day Many shall run to and fro here and there, and knowledge shall increase. There are few ways that you could describe the world we live in better than people run to and fro and knowledge has increased. Think about it For the last thousands of years. I don't even know. I mean look at 5,000, 6,000 years, right? I don't even know. I mean look at five, six thousand years, whatever. Most people have not ever left their village that they were born in. That's the way most human history went.
Speaker 1:You traveled as fast as your feet could carry you. If you were lucky, you had a horse, right, how much did you travel? Not much. You look at people that sailed off to distant lands and you go wow, the explorers. You know, you looked at people who, who traveled across the prairie as pioneers, and you go those people were amazing. And you do, right.
Speaker 1:Well, now, of course, we travel by car, and a five hour road trip is hard to handle. We travel by car and a five hour road trip is hard to handle, right, if you're in the middle of all those road trips where you're going like I'm ready to stop, this is too much for me, you know. And then you think about the pioneers. It's almost like you can like visualize in their horses and their you know wagons passing by and you go. Ok, you know it's like months, right, they travel like months, you know, and you know half of them died on the way there. You know it's like months, right, they travel like months, you know, and you know half of them died on the way there. You know and, and, and you look at it and you go. We live in a different time period. Right, we travel at the speed of sound, if you want. Right, probably in our lifetime, if good old Elon has his way, we'll be touching down on Mars or something you know, and you look and you go.
Speaker 1:Do people travel to and fro now? Yes, like never, ever, ever before. Right, and that is a good way to describe the way life is today very unique. Life is today very unique. Now, knowledge. Notice to Daniel. Here it says knowledge shall increase. So, along with travel, knowledge has increased.
Speaker 1:Think about it. My mom I got to mention her at least once a study, right? My mom claims and I think she's telling the truth that she had an outhouse when she was growing up. No, but picture that, the truth, that she had an outhouse when she was growing up. Picture that Someone in this room had an outhouse off to the side of their house and most of us in this room were born before the invention of cell phones. Some of you gasp. You can't understand it. If you broke down on the side of the road, you were probably knocking on someone's door to use their phone. What that's crazy, you know, but that was not all that long ago. Now I did a little bit of AI research, which is another point of knowledge increasing. But it was fascinating.
Speaker 1:Think of the developments. Just try to track with this, the developments in the last hundred years. In 1920, there was an estimated 100,000 patents. Now, in 1920, we were already doing pretty good on inventions, right, there were some crazy things going on in 1920 with light bulbs and electricity and all that kind of stuff. 100,000 patents were issued in 1920. In 2020, over 3 million were issued patents.
Speaker 1:In 1925, 10,000 to 20,000 scientific papers were published. So picture it 10 to 20,000, big number, right? Scientific papers Today, in one year, we exceed 2.5 million scientific papers published, scientific papers published. Of the scientific research in the last 100 years, 80% has been done since 1975. A couple more big numbers. You got to listen. This is great.
Speaker 1:In 1920, the Library of Congress held 5 million items estimated one terabyte of information. So that's 1920, estimated one terabyte of information. In 2024, the global estimate was 147 zettabytes. I don't even know what a zettabyte is, but apparently it's one with 21 zeros after it. 21 zeros after it. A trillion-fold increase in the Library of Congress and globally, right of information, a trillion-fold increase. So when you think about this, all these big numbers that are so big they don't even make sense.
Speaker 1:You consider this and what we're capable of, it's hard not to think of an original issue that we had in the book of Genesis, the Tower of Babel, right, where God came down and frustrated their languages and God said to himself if we don't stop them, they're going to be capable of anything. What would we be capable of? Likely, destroying ourselves, right. And God says this is not good. And knowledge has been increasing exponentially over the last hundred years. Now, this isn't technological paranoia. Our world is changing very quickly, right. But check it out. Daniel says this is the way the world is going to be in the end times. People will go to and fro that's us and knowledge will increase a little bit. Oh, a lot of it, right, it has definitely happened.
Speaker 1:So the signs that we're living in the last days are evident. These are not a stretch, right. The world seems to resemble the one that's required for the return of Jesus. So we look at Mark 13, and we realize, as we look at the signs of the times, the fig tree, the way things look, we go, summer is on its way. The return of Jesus may not be very far at all Now, verse 33, verse 32, jesus takes a little turn here for us and he says but of that day and hour no one knows, not even the angels in heaven, nor the son, but only the father.
Speaker 1:Take heed, watch and pray, for you do not know when the time is. It's like a man going to a far country. We'll get to that in a second. But Jesus here says, here says a principle for us no one knows the day or the hour, nobody knows the day when the rapture is going to happen, where things are just going to fully come down and notice. He says there interesting, in verse 32, that not even the sun knows.
Speaker 1:Now, this is kind of a trip, right, because Jesus the son is 100% God, 100% man, and we look at this and go as God. He had to have known everything. He's omniscient, that's what God is. He's omnipotent, he can do whatever he wants. Well then, how is it that the son didn't know? And I think it's just this dynamic we see, with this humanity and his deity, that Jesus humbled himself. John 1, verse 14, jesus, the word, became flesh, 100 percent flesh, and dwelt among us. He lived among us like an actual human being. So some things we can take with that is that he humbled himself and he really did take on the form of a bondservant, real human blood. Jesus was not born, you know, with this massive knowledge, you know able to speak. As he came out of the womb, you know, he grew and he grew in his learning and his stature and all these things. He grew up like a normal human being.
Speaker 1:When we see Jesus healing people, I think it's important to realize he's not working in his all-powerfulness, his omnipotence right Now. I suppose he could have, but I believe that he depended on the Spirit, on the Father, as much as any other person ever did. So when Jesus heals someone, he's depending upon the spirit for that ability. As he knows different things. He's in tune with the spirit to know those things. And here, just as an aside, he says look, I don't even know. Right now, as a human being, I don't have the direct answer of when this is going to go down. The Father hasn't revealed that to me and I think that's what we see here in verse 32. But he says not knowing.
Speaker 1:Watch and pray. In Matthew 24, 44, he says this the Son of man is coming in an hour when you do not expect. Right? There's this tension there, in these things of the last days, where we just have to be ready. Now, we can know the times and the seasons, as with the fig tree, but the specifics? We just have to be ready. Now, we can know the times and the seasons, as with the fig tree, but the specifics we just have to trust. So our response in verse 34 is to always be ready.
Speaker 1:Something we talked about before, it's this idea of eminence. Notice verse 34, it's a parable again. It's like a man going to a far country who's left his house and gave authority to his servants and to each his work, and commanded a doorkeeper to watch. Watch, therefore, for you do not know when the master of the house is coming, an evening or a midnight, at the crowing of the rooster in the morning, lest coming. Suddenly he find you sleeping and I say to you and what I say to you? I say to all watch.
Speaker 1:So a parable here is given to us, and it's a simple one. It's a man who has a job. It's a good picture of life, isn't it? We are all servants in God's world and our time is his time right, and because he saved us, everything we have belongs to him. He's the master, right? He's the Lord, and we all can look at this and go I get it, I get it.
Speaker 1:I've had a job before and you know you have your times where you do a really good job and you have other times where you just don't feel like I mean, none of you would do that. But you know you don't feel like doing your job, you don't feel like doing it with so much energy. Um, but here the picture god gives is like work, don't just serve when your boss is watching, serve, serve all the time. But since we're talking about God, realize, come back. He's always watching, right. And so this picture is here, that you wanna live in such a way that you're not ashamed Verse 36,. You don't want him to come and find you sleeping, like I love naps, but when it's job time it's not a good time to sleep.
Speaker 1:So we do these things unto the Lord. We want to watch, we want to be ready, we want to pray, we want to be connected to him, watching as we look at ancient servants. Psalm 123, verse one, says this I lift my eyes to you, to you who sit enthroned in heaven as the eyes of slaves look to hand of their master. As the eyes of a female slave look to the hand of her mistress, so our eyes look to the Lord, our God, till he shows us his mercy. So here we're, given this idea of working and it says you watch, a servant would watch, and the master would? You know that over there? You know, go, do that. I need that, you know, and you know that's just what it is to be a master, I guess. But you know, we want to be in tune with what God is telling us, right? We want to be in tune with what he's instructing us to do Always be ready, always be watching. He says watch and pray.
Speaker 1:Prayer is just connection to God, fellowship with God. I think about communication and fellowship. I think about going for a walk with my wife, right, it's a great time, right, those moments that you have where you just take a walk and you just talk and you walk, and you walk and you talk and you go. It's this connection, you know, it's an opportunity. Everything else kind of aside, what's going on in your life? What's going on in your life? And yet the most beautiful thing is when our relationship with God is like that, where we just are in tune with him. God, what do you want, god? What do you want to show me today? God, what do you want me to do? What do you want my time to look like? So watching and praying.
Speaker 1:And we see this last thing here, this tension Again. Do we know when the Lord is coming back? We don't. Could it be today? It could be today and we'd be okay with that, right, we'd all be okay with that. But it might not. We might have to endure and keep going, and that's one thing of life. But at the other hand, we're ready for him to come back at any time. We're waiting, we're watching, we're working, we're walking with him and when he comes, we be found ready. That's the punchline. Now, check it out.
Speaker 1:I don't think that has to be a scary thing, unless you're just totally off in left field and doing your own thing, and I don't know what. You're just totally off in left field and like doing your own thing and I don't know what you're doing here. Anyways, you know, that didn't have to be a scary thing. We look forward to his coming to get us. It doesn't have to be a scary thing because he loves us. Now, of course, if we're goofing off. Yeah, whatever, we should be scared, but, but, but no, just looking and waiting, wanting him to come.
Speaker 1:Um, that, I think, is the attitude that god would have us to have. So, god, uh, so easy to just look at these things in a technical way, and yet we really look at the world. Uh, we live in a crazy time where so much more than even what we talked about today I think, points to the fact that you could come back at any time. God, I pray you'd be ready. Not that our heart would be in order, our mind would be given to you, god, that we would be good servants, doing the things that you tell us to do. God, thank you that you do love us. Thank you that you will us to do. God, thank you that you do love us. Thank you that you will, as you promised, come that where you are, that we will be also God. So good, I just pray that you would help these things to be in our heart. In Jesus' name, we pray Amen, thank you.