Mark 13:1-8 As he was leaving the temple, one of his disciples said to him, “Look, Teacher! What massive stones! What magnificent buildings!” “Do you see all these great buildings?” replied Jesus. “Not one stone here will be left on another; every one will be thrown down.” As Jesus was sitting on the Mount of Olives opposite the temple, Peter, James, John and Andrew asked him privately, “Tell us, when will these things happen? And what will be the sign that they are all about to be fulfilled?” Jesus said to them: “Watch out that no one deceives you. Many will come in my name, claiming, ‘I am he,’ and will deceive many. When you hear of wars and rumors of wars, do not be alarmed. Such things must happen, but the end is still to come. Nation will rise against nation, and kingdom against kingdom. There will be earthquakes in various places, and famines. These are the beginning of birth pains."
The beginning of birth pains has been going on since the beginning of man's existence and fall into sin. Nothing men and women can see is permanent, nothing is eternal, and sadly nothing temporal will gain God's pleasure as long as sin and decay rule the Earth. Jesus was not impressed with the magnificence of the temple. People are impressed by man's creations, but God is not. All manmade structures are destined for destruction and rubble. There had been two temples up to the time of Jesus. The first one, built by Solomon, was the most beautiful and perfect in presenting God and his magnificence to the world. The decorations and the implements within the temple were made with precious metals and the most beautiful materials. The temple and its contents were worth billions of dollars, all of it dedicated to God, all for God's glory and honor. But, because of the sinfulness and the errors of the Jewish kings and their subjects, the temple was destroyed and the valuable contents of the temple were carried off to foreign lands. The second temple was built by Zerubbabel in 520 BC. This temple was renovated and expanded by Herod in 19 BC. This temple that the disciple so much admired, as Jesus predicted, was destroyed by the Romans in 70AD. Disturbed by the lack of permanency of this temple that Jesus mentions, the disciples asked him when this catastrophe would take place and how they would know when it was going to occur: Tell us, when will these things happen? And what will be the sign that they are all about to be fulfilled? These followers of Christ express the curiosity common to human beings as we long to know and understand what lies ahead.
Jesus does not reply with a specific answer. Ever since Jesus' teaching on the end times, teachers and Bible scholars have been speculating on what He meant by the signs of the end times. Many books have been written over the centuries about the last days. These predictions and conjectures have mostly ended up massively wrong. But we do know, men are still presenting themselves as the answer to the world's problems, we do know nature is still acting up, and we do know men love wars and conflicts. The birth pains of existence are still present in our time. Paul writes of this in his epistle to the Romans: We know that the whole creation has been groaning as in the pains of childbirth right up to the present time. (Romans 8:22) Why is the earth groaning? The earth groans about the presentation of new life that will be birthed from this caldron of sin and degradation, groans as it awaits the coming of the King of Glory. This new life will come from unadulterated faith in the God of Heaven. This faith in and through Christ will open up eternity to all who believe, known forever after as children of the eternal God. The creation waits in eager expectation for the sons of God to be revealed. For the creation was subjected to frustration, not by its own choice, but by the will of the one who subjected it, in hope that the creation itself will be liberated from its bondage to decay and brought into the glorious freedom of the children of God. (Romans 8:19-21) Someday a new heaven and Earth will be created, liberated from sin and decay, just as we who are children of God are liberated. If heaven and Earth were destroyed today, and if there was no new heaven and Earth, we who are in Christ would live on, for we are alive IN CHRIST. We have been liberated, we have been placed in the eternal now, in fellowship with our Father forever. A new heaven and Earth will come, but we who are IN CHRIST ARE FOREVER HOME IN HIS SIGHT, never more to face the trails and struggles of this existence.
The disciples wanted to understand the fate of the temple, but a better question would have been to understand their own fate. This is the question we must all ask. Where am I in God's economy? Where do I fit in? What is God's will for my life in an unstable world? If manmade kingdoms crumble, what does that mean for me? Do I need to know the time when the temple will fall or do I need to know the One who holds the temple and all things in his hands? We know this because the Bible says, The Father loves the Son and has placed everything in his hands. (John 3:35) We often ask God the wrong questions. When the disciples asked Jesus how they would know when He would return. He told them, "No one knows about that day or hour, not even the angels in heaven, nor the Son, but only the Father." (Matthew 24:36) Even Jesus did not have that information. They did not ask him the right question. Sometimes our prayers are like these questions because we pray only for the things we need and want, selfish prayers for things to make us feel better. James said, Ye ask, and receive not, because ye ask amiss, that ye may consume it upon your lusts. . . (James 4:3 KJV) Jesus waits for us to ask the right questions, to pray the right prayers, to have ears to hear what the Holy Spirit is saying to us. Jesus was preparing his disciples to go out into the world to spread the gospel, not to worry about the temple. They obviously were not ready for their appointed task. Sometimes we are not ready for the work God is calling us to do for him. When Jesus sent out the 72, He said, "The harvest is plentiful, but the workers are few." (Luke 10:2) Today, we have the opportunity, no matter where we are or what we are doing, to ask the Lord to use us for his glory. We can say, "Send me, Lord!" When we go to work, or to the grocery store, or to visit a friend: every place is an opportunity. We may hear of earthquakes, deceivers, wars, and famines; but these signs will encourage us all the more to be about our Father's business. The temple may stand or fall, we will work while it is yet day!
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