Ten Minute Bible Talks Devotional Bible Study - What Will Happen Before Jesus Returns | New Testament | Mark 13

Episode Date: October 17, 2023

How do you make sense of violence, natural disasters and war? Will Christians really be persecuted? When will Jesus come back? In today's episode, Tanya looks to Mark 13 to discuss how Jesus tells his people to wait for his return. Your support makes TMBT possible. Ten Minute Bible Talks is a crowd-funded project. Join the TMBTeam to reach more people with the Bible. Give now. Join the TMBT community in reading the entire New Testament in one year. Get your FREE reading plan here. Like this content? Make sure to leave us a rating and share it with others, so others can find it too. Use #asktmbt to connect with us, ask questions, and suggest topics. We'd love to hear from you! To learn more, visit our website and follow us on Instagram, Facebook, and Twitter@TenMinuteBibleTalks. Don't forget to subscribe to the TMBT Newsletter here. Passages: Mark 13

Welcome to 10-minute Bible Talks, where we connect the Bible to your life in the time it takes to get to work. I'm Tanya Wilmuth. Hi, friends. I have a question for you. Was the Grand Canyon carved into the earth, or did the earth rise up around it to form the walls? The answer is both. On one hand, the shifting titanic plates caused the earth to rise around the canyon, and on the other hand, the flow of water caused the canyon to carve. between the rising earth. And the really cool thing about this phenomenon is that you can visit the Green Canyon

and see the unseen world beneath us. Now we know that the earth beneath our houses and streets has layers that reveal its age and its wonder, but in the Grand Canyon, you can actually see those layers stacked one on top of another. And when you do, you can't help but contemplate the mystery and the history. The age of the earth as compared to our incredibly finite timeline is on full demonstration in the canyon. You look out and you see with your own eyes millennia of wind and water and sediment and consider the vastness and magnitude of a world that existed long before we were here

and will likely continue to exist long after we depart. And yet the whole experience is not foreboding, it's not disheartening, but it's inspiring, contemplative, even exciting. Who could have imagined something so brilliantly beautiful? Who could know exactly when and how it happened? There are things we see or witness that inform our view about God. For me, the Grand Canyon is one of those. For the disciples, the temple was one of the ways they related to and understood God. See, in Mark chapter 13, the disciples were with Jesus on a hill that had an excellent view of the temple in Jerusalem. Now, of course, unlike the canyon, the temple was made by human hands, but this temple was massive. It was twice the size of the Parthenon, for example. It could have

rivaled the seven wonders of the world. Herod basically doubled the size of the temple that Solomon had built, so that when the disciples gazed upon this temple, they were looking at a structure with a perimeter of almost one mile. It had individual stones as long as 45 feet long. Today, there's a stone that remains and it's estimated to weigh over 570 tons. So to look at the temple, this temple through the disciples' eyes was to look at strength and longevity and timelessness. It was a fixture of human existence by the time the disciples worshipped and sacrificed there. They couldn't imagine a world without it. But Jesus used the temple to replace their trust in something with their trust in him.

follow me into Jerusalem for a minute. Jesus has preached in the temple. He's cleared the temple. Now he's walking out of the temple with his disciples. So the disciples walk out of the courtyard and they look back at this magnificent structure and they make a remark about how beautiful the temple is. Like, look Jesus, the building is amazing. And Jesus is like, yeah, well, it's going to come down.

And then the next thing we read is that Jesus has taken them over to the Mount of Olives, which sits opposite the temple, and offers an incredible view of this vast and beautiful structure. The disciples can't imagine a world without it. And they say, when? When will this happen, Jesus? We, as humans, well, we don't hold mystery in our minds very well, do we? We want answers. We want to know about our future.

Essentially, the disciples wanted to know when, specifically, when would the temple come down? And Jesus does way more than answer a question about when the temple will fall. Yes, fall it will and fall it does about 40 years later. But Jesus doesn't talk about when. Jesus talks about what will happen to them, to the world, to God's people, to his message, not just in the in between from this day on the Mount of Olives to the time when the temple, falls, but also to the in-between we live in today, the time between Jesus' death and resurrection and his ascension and his return to rule one day as king on earth. Okay, pause for a second

for a thought experiment, because we want to know when, too. We want to know when Jesus is returning. It's obvious because of all the money people have made trying to predict it. But what if Jesus would have told the disciples win. What if he said 10 days, 10 years, 10,000 decades from now? What would that have done to their purpose? Jesus answers them, but he answers with a what instead of a win. Jesus tells them what will happen to the world collectively. Jesus tells them what will happen to them specifically. Jesus tells them what will happen to God's people. And Jesus tells them what will happen to God's message. Let's start with what Jesus says will happen to the world.

This includes people who are Christians and people who are not. He says there will be wars and fighting all around us in this time. He says there will be rumors of wars. He says nations will rise against nations and kingdom against kingdom. He says there will be earthquakes and famines. But he said, all of these things will just be the beginning of birth pains. Now, we understand this to be true because these things are part of daily life, fighting, poverty, conflict. These are things we experience in each generation. Natural disasters or national tragedies

are things every generation experiences. So Jesus is building our understanding of what is called the now and the not yet. Jesus' kingdom has come to earth in the form of a Savior and the Holy Spirit dwells within God's people, but the fullness of his kingdom is not here yet. So in this, not yet, we experience the birth pains of labor. Now this helps us avoid the alarmist mentality. When we see tornadoes rip through towns and fires burn down our neighbor's farm or business, we shouldn't assume it's the end of the world, but we should get busy loving people and helping them move forward. Jesus also told them what would happen to them specifically, the disciples. He was with Peter, James, John, and Andrew, and Jesus prepared them to be beaten and accused

for spreading his message, but he told them not to be anxious beforehand because they would have the Holy Spirit with them to tell them what to say, when to say it, and how to say it. This helps us avoid the what-if mentality. We don't know that we will physically suffer for Jesus, but if we do, we can trust the Holy Spirit will be with us to get us through it. And it's not just martyrdom by anything. The Holy Spirit will always be with us. The Holy Spirit will always give us what we need.

If we need patience, strength, courage, forgiveness, we can always count on the Holy Spirit. Jesus also talked about what would happen to all of God's people before he returns. He says there will be people who want to lead you astray. They will probably claim to know things that you want to know and offer ways to get around the mysteries of Jesus without having to trust and wait on Jesus. There will be people who dislike you and leave you out

because of your love and allegiance to Jesus. And yet, you will endure to the end if you are in Christ. Jesus says, and you will be hated by all for my name's sake, but the one who endures to the end will be saved. Finally, Jesus told them what would happen to God's message, the gospel. The disciples will charge to carry it out, and so are we. Jesus said, the gospel must first be proclaimed to all nations. Isn't it really fabulous that instead of a ticking timeline,

and Jesus gives us purpose and encouragement and security. You have the purpose of carrying forth the gospel. It could be with words, but it could also be in the way that you love the people around you. You have the comfort of knowing the Holy Spirit will be with you in every moment of your life, from grief to uncertainty. The Holy Spirit is always providing what you need.

Do you have these things, the security that nothing will separate you from the love of Jesus? You have the purpose of carrying forth the gospel. It could be with words, but it could also be in the way you love people around you. You have the comfort of knowing the Holy Spirit will be with you in every moment of your life. From grief to uncertainty, the Holy Spirit is always providing what you need. One of the reasons we know all this is true is because Jesus was right. The temple came down about 40 years after that conversation with the disciples.

So whether Jesus was talking about the temple or his temple, his imminent return, we can believe everything he says. We don't know when, but we know Jesus, and that is even better. If you want certainty about your future, look to Jesus. And in the end, when he returns, there is no doubt you will be grateful for a life lived in faithful surrender to him.