I want you to take your copy of God's Word and turn to Mark 13. And let me just say, this is— some mark this as Reformation Sunday, the day, as it were, that the Reformation began in the 1500s. And one of the things that God did through that movement in the church, through that change in the church, was what you hold in your hand. Pre-Reformation, it would have been unusual or impossible for you to have a copy, a personal copy of the living, breathing word of God in your home. And now we walk around it with on our— walk around with it in our phones, or in our car, or on our kitchen table, the living, breathing word of God in our language.
Let's never forget how precious that is. Would you stand for the reading of God's word then with me?
This is the word of the Lord, Mark 13, verse 24. But in those days, after that tribulation, the sun will be darkened and the moon will not give its light, and the stars will be falling from heaven, and the powers in the heavens will be shaken. And then they will see the Son of Man coming in the clouds with great power and glory.
And then he will send out the angels and gather his elect from the four winds, from the ends of the earth to the ends of heaven. This is God's word.
Father, we pray you give us ears to hear and eyes to see. Help us to behold that day. Amen.
German reformer Martin Luther once famously said, I have two days on my calendar: this day and that day.
I bet it made it easy for him at the beginning of the year. He didn't have to buy a planner. He just had two days on his calendar: this day and that day.
Last week we covered the first part of Jesus' address, his final address in the Gospel of Mark, as Jesus described the turmoil, the craziness, the persecution, the false teachers, all of this stuff that is happening and swirling around the Christian. And he said that this will happen, and he used the metaphor of birth pains, that it will begin to happen and keep happening.
And I think we're meant to understand more frequently until the very end, until that day. And today we finally arrive at that day in the text.
What will that day be? It will be what we just heard. My encouragement today is that we as Christians should live just like Luther in that respect, that we— there's other things from Luther I wouldn't necessarily recommend, but this one we got.
We live this day to that day. And so the sermon today, you will not need to take notes for because the first point is that day, and the second point is— you probably can guess.
6 · The pastor expounds Mark 13:24-25, explaining that cosmic upheaval—sun darkened, moon without light, stars falling—precedes Christ's return
The first point, "that day." Why is the whole address oriented to this, this kind of 3-verse, 4-verse section? Why does it build up to this as the climax, the culmination? Well, we're about to see.
Now, before we arrive at "that day," we find that something will precede it. We find in verse 24, "In those days," after that tribulation, "the sun "will be darkened and the moon will not give its light and the stars will be falling from heaven and the powers in the heavens will be shaken." This is a picture of the most fixed things in the universe being unmade, right? You could trust the ground underneath your feet, but what about an earthquake, right? So they're using the metaphor here is, and it may not be a metaphor, this may be very well literal according to the language, that the most fixed things in our sky, the things that we can't affect, that it would be impossible, you think, for the sun to suddenly give out its light or for the stars to fall from the sky would mean a galactic, a universal unmaking. And that is exactly what is described here.
It's meant to build anticipation that this will precede that day. This will be what happens on that day.
7 · The pastor tells a personal story about watching Jurassic Park as a kid against his parents' wishes
When I was a kid, I— this is true life confessions— I watched Jurassic Park at my friend's house when my parents told me I wasn't supposed to. And I remember halfway through the movie, one of my friends' mom came in and she looked at me. And my parents were relatively strict.
And because I also did concerning things, I made into guns and things like that. So they were trying to limit my intake of violence and things. And so the mom comes in and goes, "Ricki, are you supposed to be watching this? Are you allowed to watch this?" And I said something like, "Oh, oh, of course, of course. We watch this all the time." You know, and they're like, "OK, well." So I watched Jurassic Park.
And I will never forget sitting— I think we watched it in my friend's, like, brother's room on a little TV to try to conceal it from other people. We're in this little TV and there's that famous scene in Jurassic Park where they're in the vehicles and they hear this like thump, thump, thump, right? And there's the famous image of the cup of water. They look down at the cup of water and it ripples, boom, boom, boom. And it's almost like Spielberg is a master.
He could just show you the T-Rex and be like, look how big it is. No, but he's like, I'm gonna show you how big the T-Rex is by not showing you the T-Rex. I'm going to show you that every footfall is making the ground shake. And as a kid, I was like, oh man, oh man, you're doing the halfway through the eye thing.
8 · The pastor asserts that the cosmic upheaval in Mark 13:24-25 functions to reveal the overwhelming power of Christ's coming—the universe shakes at his very approach
In a similar way, verses 24 and 25 are really not about the stars being unmade. That's not the point of the verses. The point is this: when the Son of Man comes, creation with each footfall will be unmade and remade. When the Son of Man comes, the universe itself will shake at his coming.
Christians may have felt powerless at the turmoil and the disaster around them as they read this in the first century. We may today feel powerless at the turmoil and the disaster around us and think, man, you know, everything around us is shaking and breaking. And yet we get this picture. No, no, no, no, no. It is being shaken by the approach of the Son of Man.
9 · The pastor expounds Mark 13:26 by tracing Jesus' self-designation 'Son of Man' to Daniel 7:13-14
Look at verse 26. And then they will see the Son of Man coming in the clouds with great power and glory. Oh man, if you want to read more, I encourage you to read the Book of Revelation. Some pastors are saying like, stay away from Revelation. I'm like, read it, man.
What you'll find in that book is the Son of Man unveiled in all of his power and glory. This phrase, Son of Man, is the most common way that Jesus refers to himself through the Gospels. And it can mean— there's a way it can mean just a human, but Jesus is using it as a title according to Daniel chapter 7. This is what we read in Daniel chapter 7: And behold, with the clouds of heaven there came one like a Son of Man. And he came to the Ancient of Days and was presented before him.
And to him was given dominion and glory and a kingdom, that all peoples, nations, and languages should serve him. His dominion is an everlasting dominion which shall not pass away, and his kingdom one that shall not be destroyed. Jesus is using this title not just because it's a title of great power, but because Son of Man is a title of of kingship. Jesus is saying the King, the one who is human and yet eternally divine, that King.
10 · The pastor articulates three attributes of Christ as King drawn from Daniel 7 and Mark 13:26: (1) He is divine—coming from heaven, not earth; (2) He is King for all people—universal dominion; (3) He is King forever—everlasting reign
So we see 3 quick things about this King. He's a divine King. Notice where he comes from. He comes with the clouds of heaven. In other words, he's not coming from the earth. He's coming from the celestial plane down to claim his kingdom.
He is a divine King. Jesus is not just gonna be like another one of the Maccabees. And push the Romans back a little bit. No, he is the King of all. He's the divine King.
The second thing we see briefly is that he is a King for all people. It's not some people, it's not a limited geographic area. He is a King for all people. And then third, we see that he is a King forever. It's not as though his reign will be temporary, his reign will be cut short.
His reign will be truncated. No, it will last forever.
11 · The pastor applies the theological claim about Christ's kingship to the first-century context
Now, think about what this would have meant to the first Christians reading this gospel in that first century. They would have been pushed and pulled by all of the kings and rulers above them, right? King Herod causing trouble out in Judea, the Roman governors of the provinces of Rome deciding moment to moment whether to allow Christians or to get rid of them.
Caesar himself. Probably at this time was beginning to turn against the church. And so Jesus wants his disciples to remember something. Jesus wants them to know something, that above Herod, above the governor, above Caesar was the King of Kings, the King of all kings, the King of all power, and the King forever. Look, can you imagine how encouraging this would have been?
I mean, think, it says he sat with Peter and James and John and Andrew. 3 out of those 4 men would die martyrs' deaths. Do you not think that Peter, on his way to be crucified just like his Lord, did not remember this? That the king may have ordered his execution, but the King of all would order his resurrection. This is who Jesus is.
12 · The pastor traces the canonical logic of Mark: Jesus' miracles (calming storms, freeing demoniacs, raising the dead) are veiled glimpses of his divine power
And I want you to note, in the Gospel of Mark, it's not as though Jesus somehow becomes something he's never been in the Gospel of Mark. What we see in the Gospel of Mark is flashes and glimpses of this, right? Where he comes and all of a sudden with a word stops a storm. He comes with a word, frees a demoniac who's bound and shackled by demons. With a word brings a girl back from the dead.
The dead, right? Essentially what it's saying is the Jesus that we get in the Gospel of Mark is veiled in a sense, is filtered in a sense through his humanity, and yet one day he will appear unveiled, unfiltered, and every eye will see him. And this, this is what Jesus wants his disciples to remember. This is why that day should define the imagination and trajectory of every single disciple.
13 · The pastor expounds Mark 13:27, emphasizing that Christ's task on that day is to gather his elect from every corner of creation
And then I love verse 27. He could have just given us that and we're like, cool, that's awesome. Jesus is coming back, amazing. But look at what the Son of Man, the King of Kings, uses his power and kingship to do. Look at verse 27. And then he will send out the angels and gather his elect from the four winds, from the ends of the earth to the ends of heaven.
Jesus returns on that day unveiled unfiltered, and his task, his task is to gather his people. Meaning this: his power comes not so his people will tremble and be afraid, but so his people will cheer. Right? If Jesus wasn't coming for his people, he was coming against his people, if he was just coming to destroy humanity and leave no survivors, his coming would be a fearful and terrifying thing, but rather because he comes for his people. With every boom, boom that comes through the ages as the Son of Man approaches, the Christians rejoice.
They rejoice. He comes for us. That is amazing. And it says, from the four winds, from the ends of the earth to the ends of heaven. This is every Christian who has ever lived, ever believed in Christ.
Far-flung nations from the Amazon, as we're just talking about, Craig, those believers that we have never met will be gathered with us. The generations before us will be gathered to us. Brian and others will be gathered to us on that day. On that day.
John Calvin says this. I've got to get another reformer in there today. "For," he says, "though the church be now tormented by the malice of men, or even broken by the violence of the billows, and miserably torn in pieces so as to have no stability in the world, yet we ought always to cherish our confident hope because it will not be by human means but by heavenly power far superior to every obstacle that the Lord will gather his church. Whether or not the saints make it to that day is not up to the saints ultimately. Whether or not you and I make it to that day is not even ultimately up to us.
So we may be battered and billowed and torn in pieces and having no stability, but the Son of Man comes, and when he comes, Everyone will be gathered. No one will splinter his church into a million pieces. He will gather it to himself.
14 · The pastor articulates the soteriological logic connecting Christ's gathering mission to his cross work
And think of how significant this phrase is as Jesus is on his way to the cross, that the Son of Man will gather his people. Jesus says in Mark that the Son of Man came to seek and save the lost. Jesus came on a mission to gather his people and his road to gather his people must lead through The cross is the doorway through which Jesus can bring sinners into the presence of God. That is what Jesus is going to do. He goes, the only righteous one, the only perfectly spotless one, to die in place of the unrighteous. He goes as the most powerful Son of Man, as the King of all creation, humbling himself even to the point of death. And he does this for his people.
15 · The pastor asserts that the delay between Christ's ascension and return serves a missional purpose: that more may be gathered
People. And here's the glorious good news, church. Jesus continues— the delay between Jesus' death and resurrection and ascension and his return, that delay is a delay to gather his people. In every nation, in every age, Jesus tarries that where the gospel goes forward, more may be gathered. May be gathered in your neighborhood, in this neighborhood.
Who knows, church, whether a neighbor could come today and be gathered, whether somebody in here today who does not know Christ could be gathered. When Craig goes on his trip to the Amazon, more may be gathered. That is why there's a delay, that more may be gathered.
16 · The pastor signals a shift by stating that Jesus wants his disciples to remember 'that day' and keep it at the forefront of their minds
So Jesus, Jesus wants them to remember that day, to keep that day at the forefront of their minds. And And here's one of the reasons I think Jesus gives us this glimpse of that day, so that we would remember the end of the story.
17 · The pastor tells a personal story about watching a terrifying Star Trek episode as a kid, having his mom turn it off before the ending, and being haunted for years by not knowing how the story resolved
When I was like 10 years old, I— this is kind of a pattern with me, I'm realizing, in this message. I watched an episode of Star Trek I probably shouldn't have. And so I'm watching Star Trek, and it's like, you know, it's safe, you know, they're just silly aliens with prosthetics. For some reason, all the aliens look like humans, they just have like a weird rubber face on them. I guess that's whatever.
So I'm watching this episode of Star Trek, and I remember this episode was like uniquely terrifying. Here's what the concept was. Two of the guys from the ship get captured and thrown down a giant chute to this like prison, you know, colony thing below. And basically once a day, they would drop prisoners and food down the chute, but it was never enough food for everybody. So you can guess what happened.
It was like Lord of the Flies down there, right? People are killing each other. And even eventually the two crew members start to go crazy and start to attack each other 'cause they're starving. And you're thinking, oh my gosh, what's gonna happen? And I'm thinking, man, this is really intense.
And at that moment, my mom walks in and sees what is happening and goes, I don't think you should be watching this. It's too much, and turns it off. And so I'm left with like, but what happens? And so the episode wasn't as terrifying as laying in bed that night thinking about the episode and thinking, they never get out. Do they get out?
I don't understand. They make multiple escape attempts. None of them work. And they can't get out. They're stuck down there.
They're stuck there. They're going to die. And I remember— and I'm not exaggerating when I say, for years, I thought about the end of that episode. For years, I was like, what happened? Did they ever get off the planet?
And I saw the guys in a future episode. So obviously, they got off the planet. But it just kept me— in turmoil, and then eventually with the advent of streaming services, I finally found the episode, watched it, and spoiler, they get off the planet, right? Their ship eventually finds them, beams them up, and they're like, "Wow, I can't believe we went crazy." And that's the end of the episode, because end of those Star Trek episodes, that area was like, "Ah, something crazy, everything's fine." It always ends with like, "We're cool, we're hanging out at the bar having Star Trek drinks," or whatever. That's what I needed.
I needed that, guys. I just want you to know, I needed to see the end of that episode, so rudely interrupted by my mom who's trying to care for me and ended up traumatizing me. And I needed the end of the episode. I needed to see the end.
18 · The pastor applies the Star Trek illustration to Christian eschatology
And in the same way, Christians need to see the end. We must remember in the middle of the story when we are down the chute and there is Lord of the Flies anarchy all around us, we must remember that is not where the story ends. It doesn't end in the turmoil. It doesn't end in persecution. It doesn't end with an abomination. It ends with the Son of Man returning victorious to claim his people.
That's how it ends.
That is how it ends. So Christian, today, are you remembering how it ends? In those moments you feel anxious or unsettled or alarmed or frustrated, Fast forward to the end. Remember the end. Look at the end.
That day must be on our calendar. That day.
19 · The pastor announces the second point—'this day'—and signals that Jesus concludes Mark 13 with two parables/illustrations showing how Christians should live today in light of 'that day
Second point, you can guess what it is. This day. This day.
Jesus ends not actually with just the coming of the Son of Man, he ends with two parables or illustrations. Meant to reinforce how we're supposed to live today in light of that day.
20 · The pastor reads and introduces the fig tree parable from Mark 13:28-31
The first illustration is in verse 28. "From the fig tree learn its lesson. As soon as its branch becomes tender and puts out its leaves, you know the summer is near. So also, when you see these things taking place, you know that he is near, at the very gates." Truly I say to you, this generation will not pass away until all these things take place. Heaven and earth may— will pass away, but my words will not pass away.
21 · The pastor addresses potential confusion over 'this generation will not pass away' in Mark 13:30
All right, so Jesus uses an illustration to tell— this illustration to tell us what we already know about Jesus' return. And the point is, Jesus will return soon. He will return soon. Now, I know some folks are going to get tripped up by verse 30 saying, "This generation will not pass away until all these things take place." And you're thinking, if he's talking to James and John, he didn't come back, so where does that leave us? Okay. Well, I'm not going to lie, that is a source of different interpretations, none of which actually change the main message of the parable.
But I want to help you with the possible interpretations. So some scholars think that these things refers to the beginning of the birth pains, not the entire return of Christ. So meaning Jesus is saying, you won't pass away, James and John, until you see these things beginning to take place. In other words, not referring to the final thing, but referring all the way back to the beginning of the sermon. That's one interpretation.
Second one is that this generation doesn't refer to what we think it does. This generation could refer to the disciples who see Christ's return, meaning that the greatest tribulation and the return of Christ will happen within one generation. It won't be spread out. That's another one. Or the other option is, as Vince convinced me this week, this generation could also refer to Christians, meaning the generation of Christians in the last days, as opposed to pre-Christ generation, this generation.
All right. All those are possible, but none of them change the main point, which is this: Jesus will return when? Soon. He will return soon.
22 · The pastor illustrates the fig tree parable with the El Paso desert rain
Think about this. The fig tree's about to bloom. When they see it, see it tender, see the shoots coming out, they know summer is here. What I think about is in El Paso, in the monsoon season, do you guys know the smell of the desert rain? From what I could tell is that I think it's the creosote bush. Is that right?
Does anybody know? Okay. So it's the creosote bush. And so before it rains, this is what I love, before it rains, the plant knows it will rain. And this smell is released, this fresh smell.
I used to think rain smelled like that everywhere, and then I lived in D.C., and I would look forward to when it rained. It was like raining, and I'm like, oh, here comes the smell, and it just smelled like mud. It smelled gross. It smelled like asphalt and mud, and I'm like, ew, you know, this is not the rain. Where's my rain?
I like the desert rain. And so you live through the monsoon season, and I love to go into my backyard when that smell is in the air, In that moment where you see the rain coming, you feel it, you smell it, but it's not here yet. But you know that it soon will be. That's what Jesus is saying. We live, Christians live in that moment between the smell in the air, the cloud in the distance, but the rainfall hasn't fallen yet.
But what do you know? If you smell that, if you see the cloud, Soon, very, very soon.
23 · The pastor uses El Paso cultural humor about the phrase 'right now' to illustrate Jesus' promise of imminent return
Christy Corpus, who, the family moved here to El Paso, and she said, this is quintessentially El Paso, this phrase, right now. If you're from El Paso, you know when your friend says, hey man, like, hey, when are you gonna drop that table off at my house? And the guy says, oh, I'm gonna drop it off right now, man. He does not mean right now. Like within the next 10 minutes. Just, if you're new to El Paso, like say it's Saturday morning at 10:00 AM, and he's like, yeah, I'm gonna drop that table off right now, bro, and you're like, all right, man. It could be any time. It could be 11, it could be 4.
It could be, I mean, it could be, like, no joke, I've had people be like, yeah, I'm gonna come over right now and drop this off, and it's like 7:00 PM. It's like 7 hours from when they said they were coming, the thing arrives at my doorstep, right? And Christy's like, El Pasoans more than anybody else in redemptive history should know what Jesus is saying. Because listen, Jesus is saying, don't worry, church, I'm coming right now. Right?
You're— don't worry, man. And you know, and here's the thing, El Pasoans will show up. It's not like they'll ghost you. We're not like those other parts of the country where you're like, man, you never showed up on my table. They will get there.
Eventually, right there. But you know, like, you can't leave the house. Like, if somebody is waiting to drop off a table, you can't leave because they could, you know, it's coming right now. And so the metaphor Jesus is using is this: he is coming either soon or sooner, right? It's not like he might not come.
It's not like, oh, well, forever, you know, he is on his way. Way, right? That the smell is in the air, the rain is advancing, Jesus will come soon.
24 · The pastor introduces the second parable by reading Mark 13:32-33
All right, second illustration that he uses that, that works into this is an illustration of what we don't know. So we do know Jesus is coming soon, but what we don't know is exactly when. Verse 32: But concerning that day or that hour, no one knows, not even the angels in heaven, nor the Son but only the Father. Be on guard, keep awake, for you do not know when the time will come.
25 · The pastor makes an exegetical and pastoral point: Jesus explicitly states we cannot know the day or hour of his return—yet Christians persist in trying to calculate it
Now pause there. Here, this is very explicit. Jesus helps us out with this, okay? Jesus, knowing our predilection as human beings for trying to determine precisely when he will come, out of which whole books and industries in the church have birthed, Jesus, like, literally says, "You don't know when he's coming," okay? I don't know why Christians read that and they're like, "But I know." You're like, "No, you do not know." And Jesus knows something. Jesus knows that trying to be like, "Okay, this day, this time, this hour," will actually keep us from doing the work he's called us to do. He could have told us. You guys realize that?
He could have told us. The Father, the Son could have told us exactly when he's gonna return. They, for our good, did not do that. And you'll see why in a second.
26 · The pastor addresses a potential stumbling block: how can Jesus not know the day or hour (v
Now, the other thing that can trip you up is, okay, Jesus doesn't know? What in the world does that mean? Okay, remember this. Jesus, we talked about, we essentially get the divine King, the Son of Man filtered in Jesus' ministry. He's fully God, fully man. And in his humanity, he gives up some of the aspects of himself outside of his time on the earth.
And so at this time, you know, somebody asked me after church, "Well, does Jesus know when he's going to return?" I'm like, of course Jesus knows when he's going to return. He planned redemption with the Father and the Spirit from the foundation of the world. But on the earth, he limited himself in some capacities. And so does Jesus right now know when he's coming? Absolutely.
27 · The pastor reads the parable of the master and servants from Mark 13:34-37
So what's his illustration? Look at verse 34. It is like a man going on a journey when he leaves home and puts his servants in charge, each with his work. And commands the doorkeeper to stay awake. Therefore, stay awake, for you do not know when the master of the house will come, in the evening or at midnight or when the rooster crows or in the morning, lest he come suddenly and find you asleep.
And what I say to you, I say to all: Stay awake. Stay awake.
28 · The pastor unpacks the logic of the parable using familiar examples: kids procrastinating until the last minute before a deadline, students printing papers at 4:58 PM for a 5:00 deadline
This is the illustration Jesus uses. Uses. Now, every parent is familiar with this dynamic, right? Here's what will happen. If you say, kids, the playroom needs to be finished by 5:00 PM tonight, they will wait until 4:55, right? Like 1 to 5, they're like, yeah, whatever, you know? And then, or what we do sometimes is like, hey, you gotta have this done before mom comes home. Right?
And they're like, cool, cool, yeah, yeah, yeah, we got it. And then the garage door will like rumble and all of a sudden these kids are moving faster than they've ever moved in their life. They're like, oh, you know, trying to clean the room between the garage door opening and it closing and their mom emerging, right? And Jesus knows his disciples and this is in the plan of God. He knows that there may be a temptation.
So rather than continuing to work hard Every day there could be— well, it's not been— Jesus is not coming back till 2024. So cool, we got 10 years or whatever. And then we'll spend a few years really buckling down. I know some of you guys are students, all right? I know some of you, your professor says, hey, it's got to be here by 5:00.
You're out in the hallway at 4:58 trying to print the thing. And Jesus knows that about us. And he knows we need to stay awake. We need to stay active. We need to stay engaged in what the Lord has us do.
29 · The pastor draws out the stewardship theology implicit in the parable
Now, notice an important part of the metaphor. The metaphor is not an ownership metaphor for the servants, meaning like we— our lives, our time, our houses, our possessions, our gifts, our skills, our abilities, they're not ultimately ours, they're ultimately the Lord's. The church is not ultimately ours, it's ultimately the Lord's. He is the master of the house. And so each person has a job, and especially the doorkeeper has a unique job.
To stay awake until the master returns. Now what we're left to understand is that sometime in the next 24 hours, it's not like 2 weeks from now, sometime in the next 24 hours, the master will return. He has business elsewhere. It might be midnight, it might be 10:00 PM, it might be 6:00 AM, but sometime it's gonna return. Stay awake so the master can enter the home.
30 · The pastor shifts to personal testimony, revealing how he wrestles with the difference between 'what would I do if I had a year to live' (which produces a self-focused bucket list: Italy, climbing a 14er, seeing a rocket launch) versus 'what would I do if Jesus returned in a year' (which reorients him toward kingdom stewardship—potentially going to Afghanistan to share the gospel)
Now I've noticed an interesting thing going on in my heart related to this. I've noticed that If you ever think about your bucket list, you often start with the question of, man, what would I do if I only had a year to live? Right, I think there's a country song about that, I don't wanna know, I don't like country, so don't tell me about it. But there's, I'm just kidding, hey, hey, hey, hey, some of you guys are like getting uppity, no, that's okay, I like some country, all right.
But there's that question of what would you do if you only had a year to live? What would you put on your bucket list? And so my mind immediately goes to, oh man, I'd love to take Jen on a trip to Italy where her family's from, her grandfather is from Italy, came over post-World War II. I'd love to take her back to that town. That'd be so cool.
I'd love to climb a mountain, like a 14er in Colorado. That would be awesome. I would love to see a rocket take off, like a rocket go into space, to like feel the rocket. I've always wanted to do that. So if I had a year to live, this is stuff that starts pop, pop, pop, popping on my bucket list.
But I've noticed if I ask a slightly different question, I get a really different response in my heart. The different question according to this passage is, what would you do if Jesus would return in a year? Because the first question kind of lines me up to what do I like, what do I want to experience, what am I doing? And the second question all of a sudden introduces a master, an owner, into the equation. And all of a sudden I'm thinking, you know, like literally, if I knew Jesus was returning in one year, Maybe I take my wife to Italy and then book a one-way ticket to Afghanistan and tell as many people as I could about Jesus until either he comes back or I come to him.
Right? That, like, if I— in other words, you start thinking stewardship, you start thinking, well, my life is actually God's. And so how would I— I mean, he's going to return. How would I want to steward what he's given me in light of that fact? This element of stewardship is helpful and it gives us urgency because we know he's coming soon, but we don't know when so that we're The drive is that at each moment we wanna be busy with kingdom work, stewarding well what the master has given us.
That's the metaphor.
31 · The pastor applies Mark 13:33, 37 ('be on guard, keep awake, what I say to you I say to all: stay awake') and introduces a handout for the congregation to work through
So, this day and that day. Here's the application here at the end. The application is verses 33 and 37. Be on guard, it says. Keep awake, verse 33. Verse 37, and what I say to you, I say to all.
Meaning, I love that, it means this isn't just for Peter and James, this is for every Christian. This is for all. Stay awake. Jesus is encouraging us to have an active posture toward life. Jesus is coming soon.
Stay awake. Now look, this, Christian, this should be at the forefront of our minds. I really love Luther's, illustration. The more I've thought about it, the more I'm like, that is how we should live. Each day, Lord, this is— I'm stewarding this day, and I don't know when you're going to return, so I'm going to steward every day for this.
But I want you to do something for me. I want you to take out— there's a little piece of paper that you should have gotten in your announcements. If you don't have one, the ushers can hand some out. If you don't have one, throw a hand up and we'll give it to you. It's just— you don't have to fill this whole thing out.
I'm more giving it to you to take and think about. All right, so leave your hand up, somebody will get to y'all. And at the top of the paper, it just says the, like, it's funny, I was trying to summarize, we always try to summarize what's the big idea of this? What's the main point of this message, of this passage? And I felt so silly this morning, 'cause sometimes I'll try to come up with a cool phrase, and I realized the main point of this passage is at the top of that paper, Jesus will return.
Like, this isn't rocket science. What's the main thing Jesus is trying to say here? That he will return, so live like it. Live like Jesus will return because he will. There was an evangelist, John Wesley.
Somebody once asked him, "Mr. Wesley, what would you do if you knew Jesus would return tomorrow evening?" And without hesitation, Mr. Wesley got out his planner, opened it to the next day of all of his appointments, and said this, "I would do this." What he meant was that I wouldn't change anything. What he meant was that every day he lived, he lived like Jesus could return that evening. And that's what we want to do, Christians. That's how we want to lean in. We want to lean in and live like, okay, if Jesus comes tomorrow, or in a week, or in a month, or in a decade, this is what we're going to do.
This is what we're going to do.
32 · The pastor walks the congregation through the handout, which asks: What would you do if Jesus returned in a week? A month? A year? A decade? He gives concrete examples: reconciling with an offended family member, evangelizing a neighbor who blocks your driveway, building relationships with coworkers for gospel opportunity, reconsidering career trajectory
So look at that sheet for a second. I put week on there, but you could just put day. This is where I want us to think, is there something that you have been putting off that you know the Lord's calling you to do, that you just think, you know what, if I knew Jesus was coming back next week, I would probably do it. Maybe it's an unbelieving family member that you would get with and intentionally talk about Jesus with. Maybe it's an offense that needs to be reconciled or a conflict that needs to be, you know, fixed. Maybe if you knew Jesus was coming back, it was going to ask, hey, let me have an account of how things went. You'd say, you know what, I gotta go to that person, I gotta make this right. Whatever it would be, maybe today, you know, even, your neighbors are gonna be out there, and if you knew Jesus was coming back next week, if you didn't think Jesus was coming back, you're just holed up trying to hide, not interact with neighbors, maybe if you knew Jesus is coming back, all of a sudden, you're like, you know what, that one guy who always parks in front of my house and blocks the driveway, I'm gonna go say hi and be nice to him. I'm gonna go try to build a relationship with him.
And then that's that second category of month and year, month and year. So say you had a year, maybe you have that one coworker, that one neighbor that you wouldn't immediately want to hang out with, but you know, if Jesus is coming back in a year, okay, I'm going to start inviting them out to lunch. I'm going to build a relationship. I want to see if through that relationship, God would provide an opportunity to share the gospel or a project or something that God's called you to do that if you only had a year, you would say, man, I want to do this for kingdom. And then I put a decade at the end because decade gets at your life and career trajectory.
It gets at, if you're in high school, college, it gets at what you study. It gets at what job you take, where you live, whether you marry, what you do as a parent. It's a longer-term shaping. And I actually, so you have all 4 questions, but I would especially focus on the week one and the decade one. If this is the week Jesus is returning, what would I wanna do?
Let me just encourage you, take one or two of those things and do 'em this week. Guys, nothing is stopping you. I'm not exaggerating when I say Jesus may return next week. I mean, this isn't like theologically crazy.
Jesus will return right now. Sometime. Okay.
33 · The pastor addresses the first category of listener: those who feel passive, reactive, just trying to survive or stay comfortable
Now there's two categories of application here I want to encourage folks with. First is, is maybe you feel, as you look at that paper, you feel like, man, I don't really do a lot of this. I don't proactively plan out. I'm just trying to get through life. Like life is something that happens to me and I just try to keep my head above water and I'm kind of floating downstream trying to grab branches and stuff, or I'm just trying to stay comfortable. Right? Like, I don't want to think about that.
I don't want to think about that. I'm just trying to have a good life. I want to watch the game. Thank God the Cowboys are doing okay this year. You know, I'm just— give me that.
Just give me some peace. Let me enjoy that. And here's what I think. I think Jesus would gently say, oh, Christian, there's so much more.
There's coming a day when everything you invest in the kingdom of God will be multiplied for eternity. There's coming a day when all of the sorrow and fear and anguish will be wiped away along with every tear. And you'll be perfected in glory. Don't just exist, live for that day, live toward that day.
34 · The pastor addresses the second category: ambitious, driven, planners—med students, career climbers, artists, builders
The second category would be people who, you are planners, you have things you wanna do in life. You're going to med school, you're doing this, you've got this in your career trajectory, you're moving this way, you're trying to move your way up the ranks, or maybe you're ambitious for art, you wanna create great works, or you're ambitious for building something and you feel that desire to build. Here's the question. Will what you build stand the test of time on that day? Will you stand on that day and say, man, this is what I really wanted to give my heart to? Because a lot of times in life, it's so much easier to be ambitious for ourselves or for our own comfort or for our own success than it is to be ambitious for the kingdom.
And I'm not saying— don't hear what I'm not saying. I'm not saying you can't build a business or you can't become a doctor or you can't become a great welder or whatever. What I'm saying is, the way you approach your life is different. For example, if you're a doctor, there's a way to look at that and just be like, I'm a doctor 'cause I like being respected and having a decent income. And there's another way to be a doctor that you're like, man, I love that I have these skills, who can I serve?
How can I help? Right, you see a way it changes that.
35 · The pastor issues a specific pastoral charge to men who may sense a call to vocational ministry (pastor, church planter, missionary)
And one specific category I'm gonna go out on a limb for, I really, I was like, every week I pray, Lord, help me, Help me speak what you want me to speak. So this is just open hand. I don't know if this is for anybody.
But I think God put one specific group on my heart this week, which is, if you're looking at that sheet, some men feel the call to be a pastor, or a church planter, or a missionary. And I'm not, like, trying to exclude ladies. I know you can be ambitious and do awesome kingdom work. But I feel like, specifically with men, there's a burden I have here. When I was a teenager, right, a number of guys wanted, people I knew wanted to be in ministry in some way.
Where, because at that time I think the church was relatively cool. The church was kind of embracing some of the trends of the culture and multi-site was a thing and building big impressive churches was a thing. And, you know, having pastors write things that end up in the New York Times or other publications. And there's kind of a friendliness from the culture to the church in some ways. And so, you know, being a pastor, church planter would be, It sounded cool.
It sounded like, yeah, I could do that. And in the last 10 years of church scandal and difficulty, and especially after 2020, nobody wants to be a pastor anymore. And people, it's kind of fated that the secular culture has turned against the church, not toward the church. No one's clapping when you're an evangelical pastor. And I mean that in the theological, not political sense, right?
Nobody's like, oh, great. I'm so glad you're here. No, it's like, okay, well, we'll see. And here's what I want to encourage you with. I don't think we have too many men that want to be serving the church in these ways.
I think we have too few now. And brothers, I would encourage you, if you have ever felt the Lord place on your heart a desire for ministry, it may be full-time, it may not be full-time, but giving yourself to the ministry in one of those ways, maybe, brothers, maybe the Lord is calling you to leave a comfortable salary, for the uncertainty of planting a church for the sake of Jesus. Maybe the Lord is calling you to leave your house with beautiful refrigerated air conditioning, and you and your wife pray and move the family to Africa where there is no air conditioning and it's even hotter, right? Maybe the Lord would be calling you as a high schooler or college per— you know, college kid, to change your trajectory and see where the Lord would take you in terms of ministry. Maybe you're retiring And you're like, "Okay, cool." Maybe the Lord would take that season and use it for ministry.
Just pray, pray about it is all I'm saying.
36 · The pastor signals a final transition by noting the cultural context—Halloween season—before launching into the closing illustration and doxological climax
And let me end with this, okay? This is Halloween time, you know, in our culture.
37 · The pastor introduces a cultural commentary on slasher films, referencing an interview where a cultural critic suggested that the slasher represents 'the never-ending, never-ceasing wall of death that will come for all of us
And I was listening to or reading an interview with some guys discussing the popularity of these slasher movies. I'm not recommending slasher movies, referencing them, okay? And one of the things the guy was saying is they were asking the question, what does this unseen killer represent? You know, it could represent, some people were like, the puritanical attitude of America, or this person is, oh, it represents racial strife. And they were trying to interpret, why are we afraid? Why do we keep watching movies where a guy's chasing, you know, people and killing them and whatever? And the guy, literally, this is not a Christian guy, and I had to remove some profanity from this quote.
So I did. This is the doctored quote. He said this. He was throwing out all these ideas that it could be— it could be this is why we have slashers and why we're doing this stuff. And he said, "Oh, or the slasher also could be the never-ending, never-ceasing wall of death that will come for all of us." And I was like, "Oh, he's got it." See, every year, once a year, our humanity, our Americanness that hates to think about death, thinks about it and tries to make it funny and fun.
Because deep down, every person in America is afraid. Because deep down, every person in America is being stalked by death. And they're watching friends and family fall. And they don't know what's next. And so what we do is we have these movies where we're like, "Ah, look," and you're trying to work it out, you know, watching that, or be like, "Oh, hey, death, it's not bad.
We're cool, right? Everything's fun." And then inwardly, we're screaming. Like inwardly, there is something in every human heart that's like, I feel the never-ending, never-ceasing wall of death that will come for all of us.
38 · The pastor articulates the gospel contrast: the culture believes death comes for us, but Christians believe life comes for us in the person of the Son of Man
And here is why this message matters, church. Our culture believes death comes for us, but the Christian believes life comes for us. That on that day, at the end of our lives or at the end of history, for the Christian, they will not be met ultimately by death, but by life in the person of the Son of Man. That through our history, where the people around us fear every loss, every death, every sting, Right, the Christian is resolute. The Christian is unbothered. The Christian grieves the death around them, but with an eye to that day when life will come. On that day, Jesus will finally break the neck of death and throw it down forever.
On that day, the last moment of the last piece of film in this first age of humanity, is not gonna be death triumphing, but life triumphing through the person of Jesus Christ. And so when we think about, church, when we think about this day and about that day, think about Mark 13. Think about this, that, you know, people always joke, there's only two inevitable things in the world, death and taxes. The Christian says, I don't buy that. Because one day taxes will end as every human government is dissolved, and one day death will end as death itself is killed.
The only sure thing is the triumph of the Son of God and the gathering of His people. What did Jesus say? Heaven and earth may pass away, they will pass away, but His word will never pass away.
39 · The pastor closes in prayer, acknowledging the personal sting of death—his own pastoral experience of grief at bedsides, funerals, and memorials
Would you stand? Let's pray.
Oh, Father, I thank you for your word.
Lord, for so many of us, this is— this is a personal thing.
That even as we think about the hope of Jesus and the triumph of the Son of Man, God, we feel the sting of death around us.
God, after 2020, even for me, Lord, standing at people's bedsides, standing on a grassy knoll with the casket, standing in a parking lot, remembering the life of a little girl, God, I feel the sting of death. I feel the grief around us, Lord. I feel so much of the turmoil. We feel so much of the turmoil that you describe in Mark 13, but, Lord, let us, as we leave, let us not end the story there. The ending matters.
The ending is what redefines everything. Lord, the coming of the Son of Man turns all loss into gain. The coming of the Son of Man turns all tears into joy. The coming of the Son of Man turns all hurt to healing. Lord, may we look forward and live toward that day.
And, Lord, I also pray for anyone who's not a Christian, Lord, that may fear that day, that they fear being stalked by death, they fear the inevitability of standing at death. Lord, I pray that through your Spirit you would breathe life into their heart and they would see that the door of the cross is open. May they see that when you went to the cross, You went with your people on your heart. May you even today gather them. You're still here, you're still seeking, you're still saving.
So we pray for it today, Lord, seek and save.
Oh Lord, you're so good. You're so good. May we, as we sing, turn our eyes to that day. Amen.