Just before 3 p.m. and it's either STILL SNOWING or stopped and started again. IDK, but we're expected to get an additional 2-4 inches beyond whatever fell already.* I actually didn't see anyone post totals this morning on FB, but I'm sure there will be later.

No other updates, as I posted yesterday, so let's get right into it, shall we??

I honestly don't have anything for a typical Message Intro paragraph today because this message is closely connected to yesterday's. Or maybe it fits better to say that it's almost a continuation of it. As you will see, the common thread here is that the traditions of man are being uprooted by the Kingdom of God.

Turn with me to Mark 13 --

Mark 13:1-31

New International Version

The Destruction of the Temple and Signs of the End Times

13 As Jesus was leaving the temple, one of his disciples said to him, “Look, Teacher! What massive stones! What magnificent buildings!”

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.”

³ As Jesus was sitting on the Mount of Olives opposite the temple, Peter, James, John and Andrew asked him privately, ⁴ “Tell us, when will these things happen? And what will be the sign that they are all about to be fulfilled?”

⁵ Jesus said to them: “Watch out that no one deceives you. ⁶ Many will come in my name, claiming, ‘I am he,’ and will deceive many. ⁷ When you hear of wars and rumors of wars, do not be alarmed. Such things must happen, but the end is still to come. ⁸ 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.

⁹ “You must be on your guard. You will be handed over to the local councils and flogged in the synagogues. On account of me you will stand before governors and kings as witnesses to them. ¹⁰ And the gospel must first be preached to all nations. ¹¹ Whenever you are arrested and brought to trial, do not worry beforehand about what to say. Just say whatever is given you at the time, for it is not you speaking, but the Holy Spirit.

¹² “Brother will betray brother to death, and a father his child. Children will rebel against their parents and have them put to death. ¹³ Everyone will hate you because of me, but the one who stands firm to the end will be saved.

¹⁴ “When you see ‘the abomination that causes desolation’^[a] standing where it^[b] does not belong—let the reader understand—then let those who are in Judea flee to the mountains. ¹⁵ Let no one on the housetop go down or enter the house to take anything out. ¹⁶ Let no one in the field go back to get their cloak. ¹⁷ How dreadful it will be in those days for pregnant women and nursing mothers! ¹⁸ Pray that this will not take place in winter, ¹⁹ because those will be days of distress unequaled from the beginning, when God created the world, until now—and never to be equaled again.

²⁰ “If the Lord had not cut short those days, no one would survive. But for the sake of the elect, whom he has chosen, he has shortened them. ²¹ At that time if anyone says to you, ‘Look, here is the Messiah!’ or, ‘Look, there he is!’ do not believe it. ²² For false messiahs and false prophets will appear and perform signs and wonders to deceive, if possible, even the elect. ²³ So be on your guard; I have told you everything ahead of time.

²⁴ “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.’^[c]

²⁶ “At that time people 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.

²⁸ “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^[d] is near, right at the door. ³⁰ Truly I tell you, this generation will certainly not pass away until all these things have happened. ³¹ Heaven and earth will pass away, but my words will never pass away.

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Don't worry, as per usual with longer passages, this will just be an overview, highlighting key points.

In opening his message that morning, Pastor Matt brought out the point that it's not about how God gets us out. The more important thing is how He comes into our lives today. He also explained that the word "apocolypsis" is simply about revealing truth. It's not a futuristic dystopia narrative like "The Giver", by Lois Lowry, or any number of other YA fiction novels that have come out over the last 30+ years or so.* Mark's author is simply revealing what Jesus has said about Himself here and the signs that would come ahead of His Second Coming.* We see the same ideas shared in Matthew 24.

It's important to understand here that, as with all prophetic passages in the Bible, there are 2 fulfillments. One is either immediate or not far off. The other may be centuries, or even millennia later.* In this case, the Temple Destruction would happen about 40 years after Jesus is speaking here. That is the more distant vision. Jesus' Ascension would happen in just about 6 weeks. This is supported by the timeline of Biblical events. As Pastor Matt pointed out, this story provides more than a geography lesson. This was the LAST TIME Jesus would leave the Temple.

In our passage above, Jesus is having His audience appreciate the grandeur of the Temple while they could, as it would later be leveled. (Minus the Western Wall, obviously, but the point was made.) The destruction of the Temple in 70 AD marked the end of Judaic Law in Israel. While there are still Rabbis and synagogues wherever Judaism is observed, no Temple currently exists as it's core center of leadership. Jesus was warning them that the very thing they anchored their faith on would fall. Not God, but the buildings and laws on which they had dependent on for worship and obedience. (See also Acts 17:24-28 and 2 Cor. 6:16-17)*

We can take hope from this today just as Jesus was inviting them to do then. Although the world around us continues to fall apart, our faith in Him keeps us strong. As Jesus said in chapter 16:33 of John's Gospel, "In this world, you will have troubles. But fear not, for I have overcome the world."

In verse 14 of Mark 13, we read where Jesus is speaking of the "abomination of desolation". This was taken from Daniel 11. While the phrase doesn't specifically appear in that chapter, the theme is abundantly clear. God's purpose in allowing the Temple to be destroyed was partly due to the fact that it had stopped serving as a light to those around. This was because the Pharisees and Sadducees were too caught up in their laws and traditions to see anything new in Jesus' words as relating to the Hebrew Scriptures. Another aspect of this was the fact that recognizing these truths publicly would mean the end of their influence, status, and control. By these actions, God was serving judgment on Israel for not having obeyed His original assignment to share His love to the world.* By sending Jesus as the Light of the World to take over, He was taking away this purpose among His Chosen People. Messiah had come to do the job they had refused by their elitism in seeing themselves as being above everyone else due to their blessing from God.

Throughout His ministry, Jesus made every effort to make it ABUNDANTLY CLEAR to these people that God's Salvation, through Him, would be the ONLY safety by the time of the End. A brief search just now reveals that Jews have a wide range of beliefs about the afterlife. I'll have to look into that more later. In any case, Pastor Matt brought out the point that this was the cosmic effect of Jesus' Sacrifice where the destruction of the Temple would be the physical. At the same time, he mentioned that talk of the sun, moon, and stars was often metaphorical as referencing various levels of light. This provides us with physical evidence to this day of God's goodness, as well as the spiritual truths Jesus spoke of.

Pastor Matt went on to say that verse 26 is actually more about Jesus' vindication as opposed to a specific reference to the 2nd Coming. (I'm honestly not sure about this, but I have more pressing things to concern myself with for now.) The main thing here is that the idea of Jesus' Authority here comes from another vision from the book of Daniel. Chapter 7, verses 9-14 give us an image of the Throne Room of Heaven --

Daniel 7:9-14

New International Version

⁹ “As I looked,

“thrones were set in place,    and the Ancient of Days took his seat. His clothing was as white as snow;    the hair of his head was white like wool. His throne was flaming with fire,    and its wheels were all ablaze.¹⁰ A river of fire was flowing,    coming out from before him. Thousands upon thousands attended him;    ten thousand times ten thousand stood before him. The court was seated,    and the books were opened.

¹¹ “Then I continued to watch because of the boastful words the horn was speaking. I kept looking until the beast was slain and its body destroyed and thrown into the blazing fire. ¹² (The other beasts had been stripped of their authority, but were allowed to live for a period of time.)

¹³ “In my vision at night I looked, and there before me was one like a son of man,^[a] coming with the clouds of heaven. He approached the Ancient of Days and was led into his presence. ¹⁴ He was given authority, glory and sovereign power; all nations and peoples of every language worshiped him. His dominion is an everlasting dominion that will not pass away, and his kingdom is one that will never be destroyed.

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Jesus' words at the end of our passage in Mark echo Daniel's in the idea that the Kingdom of God is eternally stable. (Or unshakeable, as our message title suggests)* The events following this led to Jesus ascending to the throne in Daniel's vision.

We understand from all of this that their hope, as well as our own, doesn't lie in God's timing but in Jesus' Authority. While many people today are grasping for truth in the study of Eschatology*, the following quote from Theologian NT Wright resonates God's position on the matter -- (it took me a bit to find it, but here it is) -- "That's Hollywood talk. It means earthquakes, cosmic collapses, giant meteorites, interplanetary warfare. Special effects to die for. The sense of the whole world going into great convulsions so that a new world can be born."— Apocalypse Now? (NT Wright Page)

In closing, Pastor Matt reminded us that following Christ, NOT the Church*, may cost us relationships. We need to stand firm in the guidance of the Holy Spirit. Amen??

-- God Bless!!

Footnotes:

1. Update as I'm "nearing the finish line" here. It's now 4:40, and the snow continues!!

2. The reference to YA dystopian novels is mine. Pastor Matt simply mentioned that revealing the truth of Jesus was not presenting a dystopian society, at least not in literal terms.

3. I phrase it as "Mark's author" because it's not clear that each of the Gospels were actually written by the men they are named for. As you will find in many Bibles, the titles are "The Gospel According to...". The facts that not all of these men were literate, combined with the time frames in which the Gospels were written, support the idea of "ghostwriters" or possibly even 2nd hand witnesses with knowledge borne of Oral Tradition.

4. Among those I've encountered in online discussions of religion, are a group called Preterists. These people take Jesus' words literally here when He said, "This generation will certainly not pass away until all these things have happened." This means they believe that Jesus' Second Coming happened at the Destruction of the Temple in 70 AD. Uuuuuuuuuummmm... no. The point they are missing here is that Jesus wasn't referring to the physical generation of those present. He was talking about the Church Age. Revelation 21:4 talks about how there will be no more crying or pain, etc... in the New Heaven and New Earth. I don't know about you, but I still see plenty of those things, both in my own life and that of others. This proves that the Preterists are wrong. Besides which, the Gospel had to be spread "to all nations" (vs 10) This means every ethnic group, not just Israelites.

5. Cross references are mine.

6. Two things here. One, the fact that God removed His assignment of sharing His love to the world doesn't mean that He had removed His blessing. This is something my ex-husband, Rich, and I were discussing a few weeks ago. Support for God's continued blessing on Israel includes the success of Jewish business people and artists as well as their victory in the 6 Days War. He has since sent me a video about how the current administration and citizens of Israel are not of Hebrew lineage, but I haven't dug more deeply into that as yet. Two, the fact that it was God's original assignment to have the Hebrew people share His love to the world proves that Jesus did NOT only come for them. It just occurs to me to think that His ministry having been focused on the Jews FIRST, was a "last ditch effort" in getting their cooperation in that goal. As He continued around the region, He saw that they were not agreeable to that, so He began going through areas like Samaria in order to show that His mercy extended beyond them.

7. For me, the phrase "unshakeable kingdom" brings to mind the classic Sandy Patti song of that name. (I'll include it in the music line-up)

8. In talking about Eschatology and how many people grasp for truth in it, I actually have 3 things to say. 1) I once attended a series of meetings that lasted for 5 nights at one of my former churches. It went through Revelation verse by verse, bringing out this man's views. I had notes on it, but lent it out and never got it back. 2) The pastor from my last church held similar views to those of NT Wright, as well as another Christian author, John White, who basically says that Acts 1:7 proves that it's really none of our business how God fulfills Scripture. He has therefore taken a disinterest in studying it. (I have come to agree) 3) Pastor Scott, at Brattleboro Centre Church has the perspective that the book of Revelation is really more of a subversive protest against the Roman Empire as opposed to distant prophecy. (It's most likely both, if you consider the pattern of immediate and later fulfillments)

9. The fact that both Pastors Matt and Joe consistently focus on following God as opposed to men is something I truly appreciate about attending CenterPoint. While they take their jobs seriously in spreading the Gospel, they are humble enough to realize that it's not about them. Speaking of which, I haven't reminded you about their "Diving In with Matt and Joe" podcast in a bit. Be sure to watch for more on this series!!

Music -- no rights!!