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Michigan Conference of Seventh-day Adventists

Talking Points 3rd Quarter 2024: The Book of Mark

Kameron DeVasher

Mark Howard

01 The Beginning of the Gospel

02 A Day in the Ministry of Jesus

03 Controversies

04 Parables

05 Miracles Around the Lake

06 Inside Out

07 Teaching Disciples Part 1

08 Teaching Disciples Part 2

09 Jerusalem Controversies

10 The Last Days

11 Taken and Tried

12 Tried and Crucified

13 The Risen Lord

I'm Cameron DeVasier and I'm Mark Howard and this is Talking Points.

We're now on lesson 10 of our Book of Mark series of studies here.

This particular lesson is titled, The Last Days.

We're looking at Mark 13, particularly a little bit of Mark 12, but mostly from Mark chapter 13, which parallels other prophetic, well, synoptic gospel accounts of the same story.

Matthew 24 is probably the most well-known of those.

Why don't I have a word of prayer and then you can tell us what our talking points are.

Heavenly Father, we're thankful for the gospel of Mark and the privilege we've had of studying it together.

We pray for the world field as we're going through this lesson together and all of our classes, Lord, that you would bless us with a clear understanding of our faith in Jesus and what he means to us, Lord, and we would be ready for his soon return.

I did put the talking point outlines together, and as you've noted, we're really just moving chronologically through the life of Jesus as recorded in the Gospel of Mark.

And so this week, a little intro note says, this week's study focuses on the prophecy of Jesus recorded in Mark 13 about the destruction of Jerusalem and end-time events.

Now it's interesting to me, just a preview into our next quarter, Our next quarter is entitled Themes from John and our contributor is also Pastor Shepard, along with, I forget who the co-contributor is, but so I'm wondering how themes from is gonna, gonna, it was gonna be a chronological or maybe a different way.

Contextual, but we go from the gospel of Mark to the gospel of John, so that's exciting.

All right, well, thank you for that little foreshadowing preview, that's very nice.

Well, in this week's lesson, I've drawn out 3 talking points from this section of Scripture.

And number 1 is Jesus addressed 2 questions with 1 answer.

We're familiar with that, but we're going to see it even once again here that in the question about the destruction of Jerusalem, Jesus not only addresses that, but bigger picture issues, and we'll see that.

Talk point number 2, the abomination of desolation ushers in tribulation.

I tried to put every shun word in there and make it make sense, but Jesus refers to this abomination of desolation, and what did it mean for the people then and what does it mean even in a bigger picture scale later on.

And finally talk point number 3, the return of Jesus is our blessed hope.

That comes primarily from Thursday's lesson that after all this abomination and desolation and tribulation talk, the great thing is.

Not to be confused with illiterate, all right.

All right, let's go to talk point number 1.

Jesus addressed 2 questions with 1 answer.

And what I'd like to highlight, and let's do a quick little study here.

In Mark chapter 11, verse 11, if you read that for us real quick.

Mark 11 11 says and Jesus went into the temple into Jerusalem and into the temple so when he had looked around at all things as the hour was already late he went out to Bethany with the 12 so this is a triumphal entry he walks in Jerusalem but just not generically and generally he goes specifically to him but he goes back out to Bethany verse 15 so they came to Jerusalem then Jesus went into the temple and began to drive out those who bought and sold in the temple." Right?

Verse 27 says, "...then they came again to Jerusalem.

And as he was walking in the temple, the chief priests, the scribes, and the elders came to him." Right.

And in chapter 12, verse 35, we have this experience again.

Then Jesus answered and said, while he taught in the temple, how is it the scribe say?

So everything you notice that the temple, it's not just he's in the region or he's even in town.

He's in the temple courts over and over and that's where the story of the widow and her 2 mites comes in and Jesus was sat opposite the treasury verse 41 and saw how the people put money into the treasury this is the treasury of the temple and many who were rich put in much and then the story of her the woman who gave all her 2 mites and she gave out of the out of her poverty all that she had and Jesus commends it again this gift to the temple this offering to the temple so my point of bringing all that out is as you talked about last week the triumphal entry Jesus comes into town of Jerusalem but he's not just here just kind of hanging around talking to people haphazardly he keeps going back into the temple back into the temple and That's when we get that discussion about the woes of the Pharisees right that happens in the temple And then he leaves saying your house is left to you desolate right All of this context is temple language, right?

Why don't you read verses 13, chapter 13, verses 1 and 2.

Then as he went out of the temple, 1 of his disciples said to him, Teacher, see what manner of stones and what buildings are here.

And Jesus answered and said to him, Do you see these great buildings?

Not 1 stone shall be left upon another that shall not be thrown down." So notice that Jesus, to your point from last week, the triumphal entry, everyone's expecting this great inauguration of the king, who's gonna, obviously the temple's gonna be central to that.

The national hopes of the Jewish people are in the temple.

Even the Romans love the temple, they regarded the temple, everybody's attention's on the temple, and Jesus is drawing their attention here, and then the disciples, after he says, your house is left to you desolate, he's like, but, calm down on that strong desolate word, I mean, look, look at the temple.

And Jesus said, you look at the temple, you see these stones?

Not 1 is gonna be left on another and he's foretelling the destruction of Jerusalem here Now the disciples follow up that statement in verse 3 and 4 once you read that Now as he sat on the Temple of, on the Mount of Olives, rather, opposite the Temple, Peter, James, John, and Andrew asked him privately, tell us, when will these things be?

And what will be the sign when all these things will be fulfilled?

Now if you just took Mark's reading of it, you could think that they were talking about, well, you just talked about the destruction of the temple, tell it, and in their minds, that's clearly what's, you know, this destruction of the temple.

But they also, as Matthew 24, verse 3 says, and what will be the sign of your coming and of the end of the age?

In their minds, they're thinking, they're talking about the end of the world.

The only thing that could bring the destruction of Jerusalem would be a whole new kingdom when your kingdom comes at the end of the world and what will be the sign of your coming?

Jesus of course understands that though they think they're asking 1 question they're really talking about 2 different events.

He can't tell them they're talking about 2 different events because they would be so thrown by that they wouldn't hear anything that he's saying.

So he has to speak to them as though in the context of their own thinking it's 1 event.

Right, so he meets them where they are and he knows that they're talking about in their minds 1 thing but he also understands they don't recognize there are 2 events that are being touched on.

So instead of saying, guys listen, first of all you're wrong, there's 2 different events, there's a massive destruction, they're like, what?

And by the way, there's gonna be 2, 000 years, and then there's gonna be a time of tribulation.

What he does is he crafts an answer that addresses what would work for their local situation, but also speak to the larger end-time context that he understands is coming.

And you know, my mind is drawn to the parable of the rich man and Lazarus.

And people say, why did Jesus not just, you know, if we say, he wasn't talking about internally burning hell.

And so we say, If he wasn't talking about hell, why didn't he address it right there?

It's in the same reason that here he didn't correct their misunderstandings because it would have put a barrier there and they wouldn't have gotten the point he was trying to make.

Instead, He answered it in such a way as as they studied it out.

The truth would come clear later desire of ages page 648 628 I'm sorry speaks to this it says Jesus did not answer his disciples by taking up separately the destruction of Jerusalem and The great day of his coming He mingled the description of these 2 events.

In mercy to them, he blended the description of the 2 great crises, leaving the disciples to study out the meaning for themselves.

As you were alluding to, that as they saw the events unfold, they would see the immediate local parallel in their own circumstances, but they would also begin to compare scripture to scripture and see that there's a greater overarching picture than just what's happening here and now.

It's also a neat point that, you know, how many things are there that Jesus is waiting for us to discover for ourselves?

Like it's in there, but there's there's a a not just a benefit, but there's a Incentive is not what I want, but there's actually an intentional Jesus is is is wanting them to be studying for themselves.

That is 1 of the reasons for Sabbath school.

Let's put a plug in for Sabbath school right there.

Now, as Jesus begins to give this answer that would work both for their local circumstance and immediate time and the more global end time perspective, for both of them, he walks through just like we've been walking through in these lessons, chronologically from 1 chapter to another, 1 sequence in Christ's life unbroken from another.

He does the same thing now when he looks forward into prophecy.

He does not do some separate futuristic type of interpretation that launches things way into some apocalyptic end time scenario detached from this flow of history.

He actually says, you know, here we are in the temple and the next thing that's gonna come is this and the next thing is gonna come in this.

If you want to go to the second paragraph of Sabbath afternoon it talks about this what mark 13 makes quite clear is that the prophecy goes from the time of the Prophet Jesus to the time of the end his second coming this pattern follows what is known as the historicist interpretation of end-time prophecy as opposed to the attempt to put these prophecies in the past or way off into the future, which would be preterism or futurism.

So Jesus, just like the prophecies of Daniel, by the way, which Jesus in this description is going to refer people to Daniel.

Daniel's prophecy started in the time of Daniel and moved in sequence from Babylon, Medo-Persia, Greece, Rome, divided Rome, and then Jesus does the same thing when he talks about prophecies that here we are standing now and the next thing is gonna see, then you're gonna see this and then you and then the end will come.

That not only Jesus but also in endorsement of Daniel, he exemplifies this historicist interpretation of prophecy which is going to be very important to understand how to understand prophecy as we sit and try to address some of the things that Jesus touches on in his explanation, which leads us to talking point number 2, about this abomination of desolation, which ushers in tribulation.

Now, in Jesus' example, and we don't have time to study it all out, and we've had lessons on the signs of Christ's coming.

We've talked about, you know, the wars and rumors of wars and earthquakes and famines and then even the love of many growing cold and how all of those things that would happen it would be signs ever increasing in intensity in frequency leading up to the coming of Jesus.

Jesus overviews that in Mark 13 starting with verse 3 and all the way with the question and it culminates there in verse 13.

It says in verse 13, and you will be hated by all for my name's sake, but he who endures till the end shall be saved.

So he gives in a few sentences an overview, again both the things that would apply locally and immediately in the time of the early church, but also globally and more apocalypticly up to leading to the coming of Jesus, the end time events.

Series

Talking Points 3rd Quarter 2024: The Book of Mark

10 The Last Days

Transcript

Parent Series

Sponsor

Recorded

Christ Over Crisis: The October Dilemma Pt.1

51m

FYI 2009 Seminar by Dwayne Lemon

How Close is Close?

1h

Talking Points 2nd Quarter 2023: Three Cosmic Messages

13 Ablaze With God’s Glory

30m

Watchmen What of the Night

1h 4m

Talking Points 2nd Quarter 2023: Three Cosmic Messages

06 The Hour of His Judgment

30m

Unlock Revelation

1. Our Day in Bible Prophecy

1h

Plenary

The End in Sight

52m

Alistair Huong and Norman McNulty: The Book Of Revelation

Revelation 13: The Image To The Beast

37m

Last Day Events Explained

11. Last Day Events Q&A Session

1h 5m

Prophecies of Hope

08 God’s Great Judgment

47m

Even at the Doors

55m

Order of Last Day Events

57m

Sound Doctrine