The Clarity, Immediacy, Difficulty, and Eternity of Christ’s Words (Mark Sermon 75)

In this world that we’re living in, it’s right for us to ask what is permanent and what is temporary. This is a world of constant change. The older you get, the more you see that. Things just fade away, pass away. We’ve had significant events even in our culture with 9/11 in which the Twin Towers just melted away in a matter of hours and gone forever, or we also saw in the pandemic a number of businesses or patterns of life that ended, and we had a sense of the fragility of our life and of our society. I feel the older I get, the more I see how temporal is everything around me. What is permanent? One answer commonly given is the ground beneath our feet is permanent. It says in Psalm 104:5, “God set the earth on its foundations. It can never be moved.” But my family and I had the experience when we were missionaries in Japan of an earthquake. It’s something most people don’t actually live through, but I felt the ground beneath my feet shaking. I felt the entire house we were living in shaking.  We were not at the epicenter, but we weren’t far from it. The epicenter was in Awaji Island just off the coast of the major city of Kobe, 7.3 on the Richter scale, resulting in over 6,000 deaths in the city of Kobe. It was a devastating earthquake. The elevated Hanshin Expressway, which is a technological marvel, toppled over. Reinforced concrete and all that just fell over because the ground on which it was supported, cracked open. A number of months later, my family and I went to Kobe and we saw the rift or one of the rifts in the ground.  There were still some tremors and aftershocks months later. We also saw some very sobering sites. As I walked around with my brother-in-law, Bill, we saw huge piles of rubble that, of course, still hadn’t been cleared away.  I saw one particular office building, a six-story, very modern office building, a steel and glass structure in which one of the floors had collapsed, the fourth floor; it went from three to five and that floor just collapsed. It was gone, some kind of structural weakness there. It was strange because you could see the Venetian blind sticking out, straight out from that now missing floor, and the entire building was slanted over about 20 degrees.

Earthquakes are terrifying because they’re a sign of impermanence of even the ground beneath our feet. In our text today, Jesus spoke of the impermanence of every created thing in the universe, but He also spoke of the one permanent thing on which we can build our lives and our souls. Look at verse 31, Jesus said, “Heaven and earth will pass away, but my words will never pass away.” That’s an incredible statement. What is a word? What is that?  It seems like the most evanescent temporary thing they could ever be. It’s a sound that goes out into the air like the whisper of the wind that floats through the air and then it disappears like faint echo in a cavern. It seems like nothing could be more fleeting, more temporary, more of a shadow of reality, more like nothing than a word. For many of us, words are the very picture of impermanent, something that lasts only as long as it causes the eardrum to vibrate. But Jesus said His words will last forever and heaven and earth won’t.

The context of this statement couldn’t be more dramatic and more powerful. Jesus has predicted the destruction of the temple in Jerusalem to His disciples. Verse 2, “Do you see all these great buildings? Not one stone here will be left on another. Every one of them will be thrown down.” But Jesus is saying in Verse 31, “Not just the temple, not just the city of Jerusalem, everything you see with your eyes is temporary.”  The disciples when they heard of the prediction of the destruction came to Him on the Mount of Olives and asked Him that three-part question. “Tell us when will this happen? What will be the sign of your coming and of the end of the age? What are the signs by which we can see that final day approaching?”

By this time in Mark as we’re walking through Mark 13, Jesus has already traced out some amazing aspects of the future. In verses 5-13 of Mark 13, He describes in general, but striking terms, how life in this sin-cursed world will progress between the First and Second Comings of Christ, “There will be wars and rumors or wars,” and He said, “famines and indeed earthquakes in various places.” There would also be the special and ongoing vicious persecution of the church. They’ll be brought before tribunals and they would suffer in their witness concerning Him. There would also be a constant and escalating apostasy of believers, of people that claim to be believers, under the pressure of that persecution. Therefore, the call, he who stands firm to the end will be saved, the need for perseverance.

But more than anything, the measurable sign of the progress between the First and Second Coming is the preaching of the gospel in all nations, a testimony in all nations. We can see measurable progress being made between the First and Second Coming of the spread of the gospel from Jerusalem through Judea and Samaria, even to the ends of the earth. Then He turns the corner in Mark 13 and gives us the special “abomination of desolation” teaching. That’s something that’s unique to that specific generation. Indeed, I argued, to the final generation as well, “abomination of desolation.” First the destruction of the temple in Jerusalem in the year 70 AD. Then I believe the foretelling “as it was, so it will be.” As it was, so it’ll be at the end of the antichrist setting himself up in God’s temple, proclaiming himself to be God [2 Thessalonians 2]. At that time, both in the year, but then again, at the end of the world, the need to run for your lives, the tremendous urgency of Christians who run for their lives.

Then as we saw last week, the description of the actual Second Coming. Look at verses 24-27, “In those days following that distress, the sun will be darkened, the moon will not give its light. The stars will fall from the sky and the heavenly bodies will be shaken. At that time, men will see the sun 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.” We looked at that last week. Now the sending out of the angels to gather the Elect is what’s commonly known as the Rapture, the rescue of the Elect from the surface of the earth to be caught up in the clouds, to meet the Lord in the air. 1 Thessalonians 1 teases that very, very plainly. The things that the Jews thought were permanent, the Temple, the city of Jerusalem, Jesus revealed actually were going to be destroyed, “Not one stone left on another.”

Jesus’s disciples were stunned and they wanted to ask more questions. When would it happen and what signs can we see as it approaches? That’s what we’re going to look at today. Then deeper, I think the question is, “If all of this is impermanent, what is permanent? What can I build my life on that won’t move? What can I establish my life and my soul on that will not be cast away?” He answers that, and He gives the sense of when this will happen. The answer He gives for the rest of this discourse, both in Mark 13, but even in more detail in Matthew 24:25, “Look for the signs for these things that happen.” Add up those signs. “Know that the Lord will come,” it says, “like a thief in the night, suddenly and unexpectedly.” So you need to be ready at any moment. You need to be ready and be faithful.

But concerning what’s permanent, what can I build my life upon? The unifying theme of this sermon today is the word of Christ. The word of Christ, the trustworthiness of Christ’s words.  We’re going to look at aspects of the words of Christ. It’s clarity, it’s immediacy, it’s difficulty, and then it’s permanence. In the end, all we have as we look ahead to the Second Coming of Christ is this. We have the words of scripture and no other source of information. It’s going to come from here, it’ll come from nowhere else. Everything comes down in the end to Christ’s word.

I. Clarity: The Parable of the Fig Tree

Let’s start initially with clarity, the clarity of Christ’s words, and the fact that we will be able to perceive certain things if we understand both the Scripture and the signs of the times. With eschatology, it’s a combination of the two. We’re going to see in the Scripture specific things laid out. We’ve already seen them, but we’re going to keep seeing them, and then we’re going to see current events. He said, “When you see the ‘abomination of desolation’, when you see that, put it together, you’ll know what to do.” To get at this clarity, He gives a parable, the parable of the fig tree.

Look at verse 28-29 and 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.” Jesus gives this parable of the fig tree. A parable is a common everyday story that has a spiritual lesson, a spiritual point in which you take common things that we’re used to seeing, frequently agricultural, but not always. If you have the interpretive key, the insider information, it makes everything clear. If you don’t, it makes things worse. Jesus told His disciples that they were the insiders, and He said in Mark 4:11, “The secret of the kingdom of God has been given to you, but not to them. To those on the outside, they get everything in parables.” What He means there is unexplained parables, parables don’t make any sense if you don’t get the interpretive key if you don’t have them.  I’ve said before, all you have to do is just go to some public place, like a mall, whatever, and go up and just tell them one of Jesus’ parables with no explanation and see what they say. If they’re not a church person, not a Christian, they will look at you like you’re nuts, and that’s the way it is with parables. It doesn’t make anything clear if you don’t understand it. But if you understand it, it makes everything clear.

So we have this parable of the fig tree. The thing with all of Jesus’s agricultural parables in particular is it takes time to develop. You get a seed planted and then it springs up and grows and develops. You got this idea of patience and of things developing and growing. We’re familiar with that. The point Jesus makes here with eschatology and end times things, the lesson of the fig tree is just like what happens with the seasons, if you’re trying to understand the seasons, you can look at the trees. There’s certain trees that bud at certain times and you look at that, and until you see that, you don’t think that summer is near, even though you have ridiculous 68 degree weather in the middle of January. What in the world? I came out on Wednesday night, and it was 68, but I didn’t think summer was near because I was looking at the trees. I knew I was going to preach this parable, so I figured I’d give that illustration. No, summer’s not near, even though it’s 68 degrees, just weather’s weird because it was 17 degrees a few days before that. But you know as soon as the twigs get tender and its leaves come out, that summer is near. When you see these things, you know that the coming of Christ is imminent. So despite the fact that there’s an essential mystery to the timing of the Second Coming, the signs leading up to it mean that we’re not in the dark. We can see things developing. We can see things coming.

There needs to be, as I’ve been saying, a combination of the word of God rightly understood and current events rightly understood when you see those things come together. Jesus says, “When you see all these things, the signs that I’ve been giving…” Now, of course, there are those vague, nondescript signs. By that I mean they’re not unique to any generation or any era such as wars, rumors of wars, famines and earthquakes. That’s just a sign that we’re not in the new heaven and new earth yet. We’re still in the sin era. We’re in the misery era. It’s just good to know that. Wars, rumors of wars, famines and earthquakes just shows we’re in convulsions now, and that’s good to know. But then you’ve got, as I said, that measurable progress of the gospel in Mark 13:10, “The gospel preached in the whole world as a testament in all nations.” That wasn’t true a week after Jesus ascended to heaven or a year after Jesus sent to heaven. It had only begun, that process had only begun. But now we’ve had 20 centuries of progress of the gospel.

Then we’ve got the teaching and the “abomination of desolation”, which we’ll walk through what that is, Gentile power—taking a holy space, a sacred space, taking it over, blaspheming, claiming that he’s God, demanding the worship as God, all of that stuff predicted in the Book of Daniel — the “abomination of desolation”, and then that whole running for your life, the great tribulation. If those days have not been cut short, no one would survive. We have much more information about this, not just in Matthew 24. There’s more detail in Matthew, but even more in the Book of Revelation. If you look at the Book of Revelation, we have the seven seals,  the seven trumpets, and the seven bowls. The Holy Spirit knew very well He was going to give His people subsequent to the time of the apostles, based on their testimony, 66 books, indeed, 27 books in the New Testament, and so there’s a division of labor. There’s more information than just in Mark 13 here. There’s more signs that we can look at in the Book of Revelation.

He knew very well that He was going to inspire John to give us that information. If you go to Revelation 8 and you look at the ecological disasters that are described there that I think, and when I preach through the Book of Revelation, cannot be symbolic of anything. A third of the sea turning to blood and a third of the living creatures in the sea dying and a third of the drinking water on earth, undrinkable, what is that? The green grass burning up, the trees burning up, a third of the trees, burning all that. What is that? Ecological disaster such as the world has never seen. We’ve never seen anything like that. If you were to argue, “Well, Revelation’s a apocalyptic, symbolic book,” I can find it. What’s it a symbol of? What is a third of the sea turning into blood and a third of the living creatures in the sea dying a symbol of? I think it’s going to happen.  I think it’s the consummation of the terrible effect of human sin on the ecology of earth, just like happened with Adam’s sin and the ground was cursed because of him and it produced thorns and thistles. That’s just the end of that journey. So when you see those ecological disasters happening and you see people unable to drink water where they live and you see forming a one-world government and you start seeing a particular leader rising, when you see those things, you know the end is near. I think that’s what He’s saying.

Now, the fig tree, some people say the fig tree is Israel. Maybe you’ve heard that, maybe you haven’t. I’m going to spend a lot of time on this. But I remember back in 1988 a former missionary wrote a book, 88 Reasons Why The Rapture Will Be in 1988. I sure hope it wasn’t, because I definitely was left behind at that point.  One of his reasons had to do with the formation of the nation of Israel in 1948, May 14, 1948, and that within one generation 40 years after that, the end would come. Pastor Chuck Smith preached this kind of thing as well, so there’s a number of people. I don’t look at that it’s been a lot more than one generation since Israel was formed in 1948. It’s been 76 years. However, I do think it is right for us to combine current events and scripture and look at that. That’s what I think the idea is of the budding of the fig tree.

II. Immediacy: Near…Right at the Door

Secondly, the immediacy of the word of God. He says “it’s right at the door, it’s near, right at the door.” Verse 29, “Even so when you see these things happening, you know that it is near, right at the door.” What is near? His coming. The Second Coming is near.  There will be believers on earth, Bible believers filled with the Spirit who will know that the end is near, it’s imminent because they see these things, but it hasn’t happened yet. That’s the sense of immediacy of something that hasn’t happened yet because we believe that the Bible is a supernatural book and does, in fact, predict the future. We believe in the predictions of the future. We’ve seen the track record of prophecy, things that were predicted and have now been fulfilled, and we’re waiting for unfulfilled things yet to come, such as the Second Coming. There is a sense of the immediacy of an event that hasn’t come yet, but based on the word of God, for us, it’s immediate. We know it’s coming. As it says in another place, we’re not in the dark, so this day shouldn’t surprise us, we’ve been instructed. You’re being instructed right now. You’ve been instructed before, and so you hear this. It’s a sense of immediacy, and that’s important.  But I want to say something more than this. I don’t think I’m spiritualizing by saying this. There’s another sense of immediacy which is important for me. There is by faith in the Word of God the ability to have an immediate encounter with invisible spiritual realities by faith. We are able to come right into the presence of an invisible God by the ministry of the Word. We are able to have a sense of an invisible God speaking directly to us by the Word of God. This is vital. This is the immediacy of the word. It’s how we have a relationship with Jesus Christ.  It is by His Word, by His Spirit that we have that relational immediacy. I thought about verses that teach, probably the strongest for me, that teach us is in Hebrews 3 where the author to Hebrews in verse 9, quoting a very old scripture, Psalm 95, introduces it with these words: “So as the Holy Spirit says, today, if you hear His voice, don’t harden your hearts.”

“We believe that the Bible is a supernatural book and does, in fact, predict the future. We believe in the predictions of the future. We’ve seen the track record of prophecy, things that were predicted and have now been fulfilled, and we’re waiting for unfulfilled things yet to come, such as the Second Coming.”

Do you realize the importance of that statement? Let me intensify the present tense. As the Holy Spirit is saying right now in Psalm 95, “Today, if you hear His voice, don’t harden your hearts.” That makes even the most ancient Psalm written 1000 years before Christ, alive, it’s living and active for us. The Holy Spirit is saying something to us right now, and what is He saying? “If you hear Me speaking in the word, don’t harden your heart.” Speaking about what? Anything the Spirit is speaking in the Word. Don’t harden your heart but yield to it. That’s a sense of the immediacy of the Word of God.

Then with the idea of a door, look at verse 29, “Even so when you see these things happening, you know that it is near right at the door,” meaning the door hasn’t opened yet. Christ hasn’t come yet, but He’s at the door. It made me think about Revelation 3:20, which is a very powerful verse. In Revelation 3:20, Christ says this, “Behold, I stand at the door and knock. If anyone hears My voice and opens the door, I will come in and eat with him and he with Me.”  O. Hallesby, in his book Prayer, made that the central text of a healthy prayer life. We frequently hear Revelation 3:20 connected with evangelism; Christ knocking on the door of your heart and that’s fine. I don’t have a problem with that, but I think it would be wrong for even mature Christians to cast aside the power of that verse. Jesus is knocking at the door, He wants you to open it and He wants to have a meal with you. He wants to sit down and eat with you and you with Him. The redoubling of the language says this is an intense, intimate relationship we have with Christ through the ministry of the word. What I get, putting all this together is, I can and should experience the Second Coming day now by faith, even though I know it can’t come imminently. I’ll tell you more about that in a second. But I should experience now by faith, reading the word of God, rightly dividing it, what that day will be like. The final day of human history, and I should experience that right now. That’s the immediacy of the word of God.

Now what do I mean by saying it can’t happen today? You’ve been listening to what I’ve said about Revelation 8. Do you see the ocean, a third of the ocean turning to blood and a third of the living creatures dying? No. Let’s get very specific. Let’s go to 2 Thessalonians 2. In 2 Thessalonians, Paul’s writing to the Thessalonians who had a very aggressive and even realized eschatology. They had been lied to. They had been told that they had missed the day of the Lord. Furthermore, reading between the lines with Thessalonians, it seems like some of them weren’t working and they had quit their jobs. There wasn’t a need to hold down a job because Jesus is coming, like today, and he’s pumping the brakes and all that in 2 Thessalonians 2 saying, “Stop! That day cannot occur until X happens.” If you rightly divide that, you’re like, “All right, I can’t think the Second Coming can happen until the events listed in 2 Thessalonians to occur,” and that’s all the stuff in the “abomination of desolation” sermon. I already preached that.  When you see all that, then you know that box has been checked where it’s imminent. You’re like, “Pastor, am I supposed to expect the Second Coming any day or not?” Well, yes and no. I told you the word’s complex. I’m trying to feel the weight of 2 Thessalonians 2, the “pump the brakes” passage to say it can’t happen until the Man of Sin sets himself up in God’s temple proclaiming himself to be God. However, I’m not going to trust my own view of Jesus and deny the clear repeated teaching by Jesus that I need to be ready anytime for the Second Coming. Like the five wise and five foolish virgins, I need to be ready now. I need to buy my own now. I need to be ready now. So this much I do know, there is a personal eschatology for you called the day of your death. That’s when it all ends for you. Do you know when that day is? You don’t.

The same preparation you do for the Second Coming, you have to do for your own death, and since you don’t know that day it’s going to end up the same. In the end, I’m not going to steal the thunder of sermons yet to come, but it basically comes down to two things with the Second Coming: be ready and be faithful. Be faithful means do the work God has entrusted you to do. Don’t quit your jobs. Don’t whatever. Farmers need to keep sowing and reaping and they need to keep doing things. We need to keep doing work. We need to keep doing evangelism and church work and all that until that day comes. To be faithful with the job given to us, we also need to be ready. For me as a Bible teacher, I’m already thinking, “I’m not so sure about my eschatology, but I’m sure Jesus is coming back and I’m sure He told me to be ready anytime. That much I do know.” That’s how I put all of that together. We need to keep watch and be ready at any hour. That’s the immediacy of Christ’s word.

III. Difficulty: Who Is “This Generation” That Will Not Pass Away?

Thirdly, the difficulty. We already covered some of the difficulty. That was difficult, and there’s more difficulty yet to come. Verse 30, “I tell you the truth, this generation will certainly not pass away until all these things have happened.” Let me read it again. “I tell you the truth, this generation will certainly not pass away until all these things have happened.” Do you see any difficulty in that verse? It’s like, “that’s why I’m glad you’re the pastor and I’m not.” Many of Christ’s words are difficult. The scripture’s difficult. We don’t expect all of it to be easy. Many times He taught, and they didn’t understand what He was saying, it happened a lot. Mark 9:32, “they did not understand.” Luke 18:34, “they did not understand.” This is a hotly-debated passage. This is a solemn declaration Jesus gives. The way I approach difficult passages is I talk about things that cannot be the answer. I actually identify them and say, “It can’t be this, it can’t be this, it can’t be this.” I think it’s helpful.

The word “generation” in this verse cannot refer to the human race generally. In other words, “The human race will not be extinct before I come back.” What’s the point in saying that? That’s good to know. It tells you nothing. Neither does it mean that the church would not be extinct before He comes back. We’ll set that aside. Here’s another thing that it seems like it does mean, but it doesn’t. The generation of people who are alive right now when I’m speaking these words will still be alive when all of the events I’ve just described such as the sun, the moon and the stars ending, and Jesus coming in the clouds with power and great glory and all the angels sent out, that is not what that means. How do I know that? Because it didn’t happen. That would mean that Jesus was wrong. So can we all agree to not do that because if Jesus is wrong about that, there’s no point in guessing at where He is wrong somewhere else. This is the doctrine of an errancy. There’s no mistake here.

Now what do we do? We try to come up with the best description of what this could mean. Even though you don’t feel great about it, you end up saying, “I’m going to move on,” and I’ve done my best to explain this verse. I’m not throwing out an errancy, and I’m certainly not throwing out the Bible, just because I can’t fully understand every aspect of it. There are some reasonable explanations. The first is that Jesus is really only speaking about the fall of Jerusalem at this point and saying at this point in verse 30, “The not one stone left on another, the destruction of the temple and indeed of the city of Jerusalem will happen within one generation of this present moment,” and that is true. That is a significant prophecy actually if you think about it. It is a significant prophecy. Jerusalem went centuries between being sacked, so that validates you as a prophet if that’s what He meant, that the destruction of Jerusalem would be within one generation, and it was.

In support of that approach, that’s the most common use of the word “generation,” like the people alive today, people alive within this room. That makes you feel good about the word “generation”, and then you’re like, “All right.” The problem is the full statement. Look again at verse 30, “I tell you the truth, this generation will not pass away until,” what? “All these things have happened.” All what things? We’ll go back a few verses or remember last week’s sermon, it’s like, all that? That didn’t happen. That’s the very thing that didn’t happen. What do you do with the phrase all these things? That’s a challenge. “The sun will be dark and the moon will not give its light. The stars will fall from the sky and the heavenly bodies will be shaken, and at that time, men will see the Son of Man coming in the clouds with great power and glory.” That’s hard.

Another possibility is that the word “generation” is mistranslated and it could refer to this race.  He’s specifically talking about the Jewish people, and that’s another conservative interpretation of this, that the Jews will not become extinct before the end of the world. It fits the context because obviously the Romans came in with a great intention of slaughter and they killed, Josephus tells us, over a million-and-a half Jews by the edge of the sword. There was a rage that went to heaven when they pulled down every stone one from another. They would’ve loved to obliterate the Jewish race at that point, and this is actually no small promise on Jesus’ part. The Jews have been consistently hated in every generation. Again and again, there has been anti-Semitism and genocidal attacks on the Jewish people, right in the Bible, the Book of Esther, remember? Haman, that was a plot of genocide to exterminate the Jews entirely from the Persian Empire, and God averted it. There’s long history, and I’ve laid out here in my sermon, the crusaders that were anti-Semitic and sought to wipe out the Jews, first crusade, 1096.

During Black Death, the Jews were blamed for the Black Death, and there were tremendous reprisals on the Jewish people. Muslims consistently wiped out communities of Jews in various lands, in Morocco in the 8th century, in North Africa in the 12th century, Tunisia, Libya, other place in the 16th, 17th century. Moorish Spain saw a terrible massacre of Jews in Grenada, 1066. In Czarist Russia in the 19th century, there were terrible attempts at genocide in Russia. The story “Fiddler on the Roof” has that as one of its significant themes. The 20th century, of course, saw the greatest most organized attack on the Jews of all time under the Nazis, and then later, again, under the Communists, the Holocaust from the Nazis, and then the Communists. Therefore, Jesus’ prediction that Jews would not be exterminated is amazing, and also that they would not be absorbed into the surrounding Gentile world as many peoples have.

People become extinct, like the Last of the Mohicans, they’re out. Moabites and Amorites, they’re gone. We don’t know where they are, maybe some people who have great, great, great ancestors who were Ammonites or Moabites, but we don’t know them as such. Those peoples are gone, but the Jews are still here. I believe Romans 9 through 11 teaches why, because God’s gifts and his purposes toward them are irrevocable. He has a final chapter to tell. I believe when it says in Romans 11, “All Israel will be saved,” He’s talking about that final generation of Jews. There’s going to be a mass revival. The deliverable will come from Zion. He will turn godlessness away from Jacob, “And this is my covenant with them when I take away their sins.” That’s going to be a tremendous final act of redemptive history, so I think that’s what it means.

IV. Eternity: Christ’s Words More Permanent Than the Universe

Let’s move on to eternity.  In verse 31-32 Jesus said, “Heaven and earth will pass away, but My words will never pass away.” First of all, Jesus asserts that this physical universe itself is temporary. The physical universe is temporary and many verses assert this. Hebrews 1:10-12 says, “In the beginning, O Lord, You laid the foundations of the earth and the heavens of the work of Your hands. They will perish, but you remain. They will all wear out like a garment. You will roll them up like a robe, like a garment, they will be changed, but you’ll remain the same and your years will never end.” 2 Peter 3:10 says, “The day the Lord will come like a thief, the heavens will disappear with a roar. The elements will be destroyed by fire and the earth and everything in it will be laid bare.” There is nothing you see with your eyes or hear with your ears, you touch with your hands, nothing physical in the universe is eternal. The physical universe will someday pass away.

But the second half of the statement, even more amazing, “Christ’s words will never pass away.” Christ’s words are eternal. They will last forever. In the new heavens and the new earth, Christ’s words will be established and will be delighted in and celebrated and studied forever. We’ll be feeding on them and resting on them and relying on them and pondering them, probing their depths forever. You must see this as a claim to deity. Only God, Almighty God could make such a statement, “Heaven and earth will pass away, but my words, the words I speak will last forever.” This is the very statement Jesus had made about the Old Testament, the laws of Moses and the prophets. He said in Matthew 5, “Do not think that I’ve come to abolish the law of the prophets. I’ve not come to abolish them, but fulfill them. I tell you the truth, until heaven and earth disappear, not the smallest letter, not the least stroke of a pen will by any means disappear from the law until everything is accomplished.”

God’s Word, the Old Testament and New Testament, is eternal. It’s eternal. He’s equating His own words to the words of the Bible. This assertion has proven true so far, and it reaches beyond the end of the world. Christ’s word will stand forever as Isaiah 40:8 says, “The grass withers and the flowers fall, but the word of our God stands forever.” Let me say something, it’s not in my sermon, but I want to mention it. About the earth, I do not believe that the new earth will be created “ex nihilo”, “out of nothing”. I believe it will be this present earth, but in some sense, resurrected. I think there must be a continuity between the present earth and the new earth or else the promise made to Abraham in Genesis 13, “Walk through the land, go through the breadth of it. Look and see, I will give this land to you, Abraham, and to your descendants forever.” That promise would be null and void. It didn’t happen.  Hebrews 11 said they died not having received the promise. There’s an outstanding promise of the land still made to the patriarchs. I believe that the new earth will be this earth resurrected, just like Abraham’s new body will be his old body resurrected, so there’s continuity and difference. That’s what I believe about the earth.

“God’s Word, the Old Testament and New Testament, is eternal. It’s eternal. He’s equating His own words to the words of the Bible. This assertion has proven true so far, and it reaches beyond the end of the world.”

The purpose of Jesus’ assertion is our faith and confidence. The most intensely wrenching circumstances in human history are described in this chapter, horrendous suffering, famines, earthquakes, wars, rumors of wars, attacks on the church, destruction of Jerusalem, a tribulation so great that no one would survive if those days that not been cut short. The events are so immense and so stupendous even to the shaking of the heavenly beings at the return of Christ, all of this tends to make us say, “Where can I stand? Where can I put my feet that won’t move?” The answer is the word of God. Trust in the words of Christ. Rest securely on the foundation.

V. Application

That’s the application I’m taking from this. Let’s rest securely on the word of God, first and foremost, for your own salvation. In John 5:24 Jesus said, “Whoever hears my words and believes him who sent Me has eternal life and will not be condemned. He’s crossed over from death to life.” What a beautiful statement that is. Has that happened to you? Have you heard Christ’s words about your sinfulness, your violation of the laws of God, the corruption that comes up from your inner nature that defiles you and all of us, the ways you violated God’s commands, the fact that there is no remedy, no works that could ever be done, but that Jesus came to give His life as a ransom for many and that if we believe our sins will be forgiven, like the paralyzed man?  When He saw their faith, He said, “Take heart, son, your sins are forgiven.” Has that happened to you? If Jesus declares, your sins are forgiven, they are forgiven. The question is, has that happened to you? The foundation of your life, the word of God.

Concerning the clarity, immediacy, difficulty, and eternity of God’s word, first clarity. Come to Christ, trust in Him and then He will give you the Holy Spirit to illuminate the word of God, and it will become increasingly clear to you by the power of the Spirit as you study it, clarity.

What about immediacy? Go back to Revelation 3:20, “Behold, I stand at the door and knock.” He does that by the word of God and by the Spirit. Open the door, and He’ll come in and eat with you and you with Him.  Intimate fellowship with Christ is available, immediacy. Again, Hebrews 3, as the Holy Spirit is saying to you right now, “Today, if you hear His voice, don’t harden your heart.” What does that go to? Anything covered in the Bible, any topic in the Bible. If He’s telling you what sin is and you’re convicted, repent and make changes in your life. If He’s giving you wisdom or promises or giving you guidance, follow it. Today, if you hear his word, if you hear him speak, don’t harden your heart. That’s immediacy.

Concerning the difficulty of the word of God, there are always going to be passages where you’re not quite sure what it means. Doesn’t that show you that the Bible came from a mind so infinitely greater than any of ours?  “As the heavens are higher than the earth, so are God’s ways higher than our ways,” and God’s words higher than our words,” so expect difficulty.

Finally, eternality. I think it’s exciting to think that when we get to heaven, we will still be learning, studying and probing the extent and the dimensions of the words of Christ. To me, that’s exciting.

Close with me in prayer. Father, thank You for giving us a sure and certain foundation of our souls. We thank You that this foundation, the word of God, cannot be shaken. As Jesus said at the end of the Sermon of the Mount, “Everyone who hears these words of mine and puts him into practice is like a wise man who built his house on the rock, and the rains came down and the streams rose, and the winds blew and beat against that house; yet it did not fall because it had its foundation on the rock.” Help us to build on the unshakeable foundation of the Word of God. We pray in Jesus’ name, Amen.

What is permanent, and what is temporary?

Wildflowers are temporary… their beauty lasts a few days and they wither.

The morning mist is temporary… as soon as the sun comes up, the heat dissipates the mist

A layer of frost is temporary… again, the warmth of the sun melts it quickly

The movement of the wind is temporary… the gust blows, the leaves flutter and then it is gone… the moment has passed

All these things are temporary…

The real question seems to be WHAT IS PERMANENT?

Is the ground beneath our feet permanent?  Is the Atlantic Ocean permanent?  Are the Rocky Mountains permanent?  Are the sun, moon, and stars permanent?

The striking events of history have stunned us to wonder about permanence!  In one stunning morning, on September 11, 2001, the twin towers of the World Trade Center melted before our eyes and disappeared forever from the face of the earth. So also the pandemic of 2020-2021 ended forever certain cherished habits, exposed the weakness of our supply chain, closed certain businesses, and gave us all a sense of the fragility of our way of life.

Could it be that the most permanent thing in this universe is something invisible… a WORD!  Actually many words… Jesus’ words:

Mark 13:31 Heaven and earth will pass away, but my words will never pass away.

What is a “word”?  Is it an invisible thing?  A sound like the whisper of the wind that floats through the air and then disappears like a faint echo in a cavern?  Is a word anything more than a fleeting shadow of reality, something like a nothing…

For many of us, words are the very picture of impermanence… something that lasts only as long as it causes the eardrum to vibrate.  But Jesus said His words will last forever, and heaven and earth won’t.

The context couldn’t be more powerful…

Jesus predicts the destruction of the Temple and of Jerusalem:

Mark 13:2  “Do you see all these great buildings?” replied Jesus. “Not one stone here will be left on another; every one will be thrown down.”

The disciples ask Jesus a three-part question in private while sitting on the Mount of Olives:

Matthew 24:3  “Tell us,” they said, “when will this happen, and what will be the sign of your coming and of the end of the age?”

By this time, Jesus has traced out the future in amazing terms

·       Mark 13:5-13 describes in general but striking terms how life in this sin-cursed world will progress between the first and second comings of Christ

o   Wars, rumors of wars, famines, earthquakes

o   The special and vicious persecution of the church

o   The consistent and escalating apostasy of believers under the pressure of that persecution

o   The need to stand firm to the end to be saved

o   The preaching of the gospel to every nation

·       Mark 13:14:  the Abomination of Desolation and the terrors that follow

o   The destruction of Jerusalem in AD 70

o   The final trial under the Antichrist at the end of the world

o   The tremendous urgency, the need for Christ’s followers living in Jerusalem to RUN FOR THEIR LIVES!!

o   A time of massive tribulation

·       Mark 13:24-27 the Second Coming of Christ

Mark 13:24-27  “But in those days, following that distress, “‘the sun will be darkened, and the moon will not give its light;  25 the stars will fall from the sky, and the heavenly bodies will be shaken.’  26 “At that time men will see the Son of Man coming in clouds with great power and glory.  27 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.

o   The Rapture… the rescue of the elect from the earth

The things the Jews thought were permanent—the temple and the city of Jerusalem—Jesus revealed were actually going to be destroyed…

What a SHOCK!  Jesus’ disciples were stunned.  Now they almost certainly wanted to ask two more questions… 1)  When will this happen? 2)  If this is impermanent, then WHAT IS PERMANENT?  What can I stand on that won’t move beneath my feet?

Concerning WHEN WILL THIS HAPPEN?

The answer He gives for the rest of his discourse (both in Mark 13 and Matthew 24-25) is two-fold:

Look for the signs: look for these things to happen, add up the signs

AND: The Lord will come like a thief in the night…suddenly and unexpectedly, SO BE READY AT ANY MOMENT!!

Concerning WHAT IS PERMANENT… WHAT CAN I BUILD MY LIFE UPON?

The unifying theme of today’s sermon, however, is not so much the TIMING of Christ’s coming but the TRUSTWORTHINESS of Christ’s words

We will look at the word of Christ: its clarity… its immediacy… its difficulty… its permanence

In the end, all we have as we look ahead to the second coming of Christ is this:  the Words of Christ as recorded in the Scripture

I. Clarity:  The Parable of the Fig Tree
Mark 13:28-29  “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.  29 Even so, when you see these things happening, you know that it is near, right at the door.

A. The “Parable” of the Fig Tree

1. The “Parables”:  Difficult Until Christ Makes them Clear

Mark 4:11  He told them, “The secret of the kingdom of God has been given to you. But to those on the outside everything is said in parables”

This parable of the fig tree was told to make things clear to His disciples

B. Agricultural Parables:  Things Take Time to Develop

1. Jesus’ point:  you know what happens when the fig tree develops

As soon as its twigs get tender and its leaves come out, you know that summer is near.

2. When you see some simple things happen in the spring, you know what is coming next… summer is on its way

3. So also when you see all these signs, you know that Christ’s coming is IMMINENT

4. There must be a COMBINING of the Word of God (rightly understood) with CURRENT EVENTS… unfolding history

C.  “All These Things”: The Signs Christ Has Already Given

1. Wars, rumors of wars, famines, earthquakes…

2. This gospel preached in the whole world as a testimony to all nations (Mark 13:10)

3. Abomination of Desolation

4. Running for your life; the “Great Tribulation”

5. AND Revelation 8… ecological disasters, sea turned to blood

6. Especially the celestial portents… the sun and moon darkened

7. Those signs point to the imminent return of Christ

D. The Fig Tree:  Is It Israel?

1. Some scholars: When the modern state of Israel was established in Palestine in 1948, it began a ticking clock to the end of the world

2. They say this is the budding of the fig tree; represents Israel

3. Dispensational Premillenialists and Christian Zionists

4. It may well be, but it has now been almost 76 years since that happened

5. More certain:  the progress of the gospel and the stunning events described at the end

AGAIN: There must be a COMBINING of the Word of God (rightly understood) with CURRENT EVENTS… unfolding history

II. Immediacy:  Near… Right at the Door
Mark 13:29 Even so, when you see these things happening, you know that it is near, right at the door.

A. “Right at the Door”:  A Sense of Immediacy

1. Jesus’ return would be imminent after all these things occurred

2. So also we should have a constant sense of the immediacy of the Second Coming of Christ… so we must be prepared at ALL TIMES

B. An Immediate Encounter with Christ BY FAITH in the WORD

1. This is the power of the word of God; by this we are escorted right into the presence of God

2. The word gives us immediacy with Christ… we can close our eyes as we listen to the word and spiritually SEE the Lord return with the clouds of the air; “it is NEAR, RIGHT AT THE DOOR!”

3. So also in general, we encounter God IMMEDIATELY through the Scripture, whenever we read it by the power of the Holy Spirit

Hebrews 3:7-8  So, as the Holy Spirit says: “Today, if you hear his voice,  8 do not harden your hearts

Revelation 3:20  Behold! I stand at the door and knock. If anyone hears my voice and opens the door, I will come in and eat with him, and he with me.

C. Balance Between Prophesied Events and Immediacy

1. Could Christ Come Back Today?

2. If the Antichrist hasn’t come yet, can Christ really come back TONIGHT?

3. 2 Thessalonians 2 implies certain things have to happen first

4.

2 Thessalonians 2:1-3  Concerning the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ and our being gathered to him, we ask you, brothers,  2 not to become easily unsettled or alarmed by some prophecy, report or letter supposed to have come from us, saying that the day of the Lord has already come.  3 Don’t let anyone deceive you in any way, for that day will not come until the rebellion occurs and the man of lawlessness is revealed, the man doomed to destruction.

a. Reading between the lines, the Thessalonian Christians had their eschatology all wrong… some false teachers had taught them that the Second Coming had already occurred and they had MISSED IT

b. Paul clearly teaches the overeager Thessalonians that the end WILL NOT COME until the “man of lawlessness is revealed”

c. This is the antichrist, whom we discussed in the sermons on the “abomination of desolation”

d. So, the key question is, the day they got Paul’s letter and read that, were the Thessalonians supposed to believe that the Lord could return THAT VERY NIGHT?

e. The implication is NO…

5. So also Jesus gives some very specific prophecies in Mark 13… if those things haven’t happened yet, the Lord cannot return

a. The gospel preached throughout the world, to every nation

b. The abomination of desolation and the sacrilege of the Antichrist, coupled with the great tribulation

6. YET Matthew 24-25 and in the parable of the Ten Virgins tells us to be ready at every moment, while implying a long delay

Matthew 24:42-44   “Therefore keep watch, because you do not know on what day your Lord will come.  43 But understand this: If the owner of the house had known at what time of night the thief was coming, he would have kept watch and would not have let his house be broken into.  44 So you also must be ready, because the Son of Man will come at an hour when you do not expect him.

Matthew 25:13  “Therefore keep watch, because you do not know the day or the hour.

7. There is a mysterious balance here… looking at the SIGNS OF THE TIMES as directed by Matthew 24 and knowing that certain things have to happen first, coupled with CONSTANT VIGILANCE, awaiting the imminent return of Christ

8. The IMMEDIACY of Christ’s words enable you to keep that intensity up throughout your life

III. Difficulty:  Who Is “This Generation” that Will Not Pass Away?
Mark 13:30 I tell you the truth, this generation will certainly not pass away until all these things have happened.

A. Many of Christ’s Words Are DIFFICULT!

Mark 9:32  But they did not understand what he meant and were afraid to ask him about it.

Luke 18:34  The disciples did not understand any of this. Its meaning was hidden from them, and they did not know what he was talking about.

B. A Hotly Debated Saying of Christ

C. A “Solemn Declaration”: Truly I say to you…

D. Various Interpretive Options to Reject

1. The word “generation” cannot refer to the human race generally, or to believers generally… we can reject that interpretation out of hand, because it would teach us nothing!  Obviously, the human race will not become extinct before the Second Coming, and neither will the church

2. It is impossible for Jesus to mean “Before they die, this present generation that is alive today will experience my Second Coming in the clouds with the angels…”… for then Jesus would have been MISTAKEN… and that is impossible; furthermore, Jesus already said the gospel of the Kingdom would be preached in the whole world as a testimony to ALL NATIONS… clearly Jesus didn’t forget that

E. Various Interpretive Options to Consider

1. He is only speaking of the Fall of Jerusalem in AD 70;  in effect He is saying “Some who are alive today will still be alive when the Temple is destroyed”… that aspect of the prediction will be coming true in this lifetime

a. In support of that theory, the word “generation” usually means “the people living today” or “the people all living at the same time”

b. In that case, Jesus is referring to “all these things” connected with the destruction of Jerusalem

c. Many sound interpreters have taken this approach

d. BUT some difficulties!

i) Jesus has just described the events surrounding the Second Coming… not merely the destruction of Jerusalem

ii) Look again at Mark 13:24-26

Mark 13:24-26  “But in those days, following that distress, “‘the sun will be darkened, and the moon will not give its light;  25 the stars will fall from the sky, and the heavenly bodies will be shaken.’  26 “At that time men will see the Son of Man coming in clouds with great power and glory.

iii) This statement from Jesus comes AFTER those verses:  the heavenly bodies shaken, the Lord returning with glory, the rapture by the angels

2. Option #2: The words “this generation” refers to “this RACE”, meaning the Jewish nation as a whole… in effect Jesus is saying that, despite all the persecution of the Jews and the slaughter that will attend BOTH the destruction of Jerusalem by the Romans and the later reign of the Antichrist, yet somehow, by the sovereign hand of God the Jewish race will not become extinct, nor will it melt into the Gentile nations and become indistinguishable from them

F. The Ramifications of the Jews’ Preservation

1. This is NO SMALL PROMISE on Jesus’ part

2. Throughout the history of the world since Jesus’ time, the Jews have been the focus of one persecution or genocide after another

a. There were terrible persecutions during the Crusades in Europe;  during the First Crusade, in 1096, flourishing communities of Jews on the Rhine and Danube were completely destroyed… this began a regular pattern followed by all the crusades

b. During the period of the Black Death in the 14th century, Jews were blamed all across Europe for the bubonic plague and were slaughtered in reprisals

c. Muslims also regularly wiped out communities of Jews in various lands… Morocco in the 8th century;  North Africa in the 12th century; Tunisia, Libya and other places in the 16th and 17th centuries… Moorish Spain saw a terrible massacre of Jews in Granada in 1066

d. In Tsarist Russia in the 19th century, there were terrible pogroms, state-funded uprisings and riots against the Jews

e. The 20th century of course saw the worst attack on the Jews in all of history, under both the Nazis and later the Communists… the effort was to utterly exterminate the Jews from the face of the earth

f. Therefore, Jesus’ prediction that the Jews would 1) not be exterminated, and 2) not be absorbed into the Gentile world is frankly UTTERLY AMAZING

3. Why?  Because GOD STILL HAS A PLAN for the Jews, despite their shameful rejection of Christ

IV. Eternity:  Christ’s Words More Permanent than the Universe
Mark 13:31 Heaven and earth will pass away, but my words will never pass away.

A. This Temporary Universe

1. Jesus here asserts that “heaven and earth will PASS AWAY”

2. Many verses testify to the temporary nature of this present universe

Hebrews 1:10-12  “In the beginning, O Lord, you laid the foundations of the earth, and the heavens are the work of your hands.  11 They will perish, but you remain; they will all wear out like a garment.  12 You will roll them up like a robe; like a garment they will be changed. But you remain the same, and your years will never end.”

2 Peter 3:10   But the day of the Lord will come like a thief. The heavens will disappear with a roar; the elements will be destroyed by fire, and the earth and everything in it will be laid bare.

3. There is nothing you can see with your eyes, hear with your ears, touch with your hands that is ETERNAL… the physical universe will someday PASS AWAY

B. Astonishing Statement:  Christ’s Words More Permanent than the Universe!

1. Christ is here asserting that His words are eternal… they will last forever

2. In the New Heavens and New Earth, Christ’s words will still stand firm, established, be honored

3. We will still be feeding on them, resting on them, relying on them, pondering them, probing their depths, and feeding on them

C. Christ’s Assertion:  Yet Another Claim to Deity!!

1. Who but God Almighty could make such an assertion:

Mark 13:31 Heaven and earth will pass away, but my words will never pass away.

2. This is very similar to Christ’s earlier statement about the Law and the Prophets:

Matthew 5:17-18  “Do not think that I have come to abolish the Law or the Prophets; I have not come to abolish them but to fulfill them.  18 I tell you the truth, until heaven and earth disappear, not the smallest letter, not the least stroke of a pen, will by any means disappear from the Law until everything is accomplished.

3. Christ is EQUATING His own words to all the words of the OT

4. And this assertion has proven to be true so far!!  And it reaches BEYOND the end of this world… Christ’s word will stand forever

D. What Scripture Says About the Permanence of God’s Word

Isaiah 40:8  The grass withers and the flowers fall, but the word of our God stands forever.

E. The Purpose of this Assertion:  Our Faith and Confidence

1. The most intensely wrenching circumstances in human history are described in this chapter

a. Horrendous suffering… famines, earthquakes, wars, rumors of wars, attacks on the church, destruction of Jerusalem, a tribulation so great that no one would survive if those days had not been cut short

b. The events are so immense and stupendous… even to the shaking of the heavenly beings at the return of Christ

2. Through this and all other trials… one sure and certain foundation:  the Word of God

3. Jesus wants us to REST SECURELY ON A FOUNDATION that can never be shaken, and it is HIS WORD

V. Applications
A. Marvel at the Living Word of God

Clarity… Immediacy… Difficulty… Eternity

B. Clarity:  Come to Christ to Make the Word Clear

1. Christ is the central message of Scripture

2. Christ is the best interpreter of Scripture

3. Christ holds interpretation in His hand

4. Not everything is equally clear in Scripture… but some things are abundantly clear

5. The GOSPEL is CLEAR!!! Therefore come to Christ for salvation!!!

C. Immediacy:  Read the Word of God for an Immediate Encounter with God through Christ

1. God wants to have an IMMEDIATE ENCOUNTER with you TODAY… He wants to be the central part of your day, the central part of everything you do

2. God has given the BIBLE, the written word of God, to minister His presence to you TODAY

3. God has given the HOLY SPIRIT to explain the word to us and minister its truths DIRECTLY to our hearts

4. God means for His church to live by “every word that proceeds from the mouth of God”… to live moment by moment by this or that passage of Scripture directly applied to us by the indwelling Spirit

5. There is IMMEDIACY in the word of God… He is IMMINENT in your hearts by the Word

D. Immediacy:  Be Ready Constantly for the Second Coming of Christ…and for your own Death

1. Understand the “Signs of the Times” Concerning the Return of Christ

2. Christ will come when He will come… and our mis-interpretation of these passages will not hinder Him

3. We are clearly told to be ready at ANY TIME for the Second Coming of Christ

Matthew 24:44  So you also must be ready, because the Son of Man will come at an hour when you do not expect him.

4. Jonathan Edwards’ resolution:

Resolution #19:  “Resolved:  Never to do anything which I should be ashamed to do if I expected it would not be above an hour before I should hear the last trumpet.”

5. So also we must be ready at ANY TIME for our own death

Resolution #7:  “Resolved:  Never to do anything which I should be afraid to do if it were the last hour of my life.”

IMMINENT:  Second Coming of Christ and/or OUR OWN LAST HOUR ON EARTH…

Don’t live such as you would be ashamed to do right in front of Jesus… with Him looking on with those eyes of blazing fire.

E. Difficulty

1. There is MILK in God’s word, and there is also MEAT

2. Do not expect everything in God’s word to be equally clear, equally easy to understand

3. Be ready to WORK HARD on the Word and on doctrine

4. Synthesizing the end times teachings of the Bible is HARD WORK… but it is work not just for professional theologians or pastors… it is beneficial for all Christians to labor hard on the word

5. God ordains difficult things in His word to stretch us and humble us and admit that God’s mind soars infinitely high above ours

F. Eternity

1. Meditate deeply on Jesus’ amazing statement:

Matthew 24:35  Heaven and earth will pass away, but my words will never pass away.

2. The image here is of the UNSHAKEABLE nature of Jesus’ words… therefore they are a sure and certain FOUNDATION for your life

Matthew 7:24-25  “Therefore everyone who hears these words of mine and puts them into practice is like a wise man who built his house on the rock.  25 The rain came down, the streams rose, and the winds blew and beat against that house; yet it did not fall, because it had its foundation on the rock.

3. Jesus’ words then are a sure and certain basis for your life

a. Trust His words with every area of your life

b. Trust His words with your financial life

Hebrews 13:5-6  Keep your lives free from the love of money and be content with what you have, because God has said, “Never will I leave you; never will I forsake you.”  6 So we say with confidence, “The Lord is my helper; I will not be afraid.

c. Trust His words when it comes to your marriage…

Matthew 19:5-6  ‘For this reason a man will leave his father and mother and be united to his wife, and the two will become one flesh’?  6 So they are no longer two, but one. Therefore what God has joined together, let man not separate.”

d. Trust His words when it comes to your prayer life…

Matthew 21:22  If you believe, you will receive whatever you ask for in prayer.

e. Trust His words when it comes to fighting lusts and temptations

Matthew 5:29 If your right eye causes you to sin, gouge it out and throw it away. It is better for you to lose one part of your body than for your whole body to be thrown into hell.

f. Trust His words concerning His Second Coming

g. And especially trust these words from Jesus

John 5:24  “I tell you the truth, whoever hears my word and believes him who sent me has eternal life and will not be condemned; he has crossed over from death to life.

Heaven and earth will pass away… but Jesus’ words will NEVER pass away!