A Compliment, a Prediction, and a Question... (Mk 13:1-4)
SPOILER ALERT:
Three ways Jesus describes the world until He returns...
- There will be great D ECEPTION . (Mk 13:5-6)
- There will be global D EVASTATION . (Mk 13:7-8)
- There will be gospel D IVISION . (Mk 13:9-13)
Three Glorious Realities
- The gospel is proclaimed! (Mk 13:10)
- The Holy Spirit reigns! (Mk 13:11)
- There is a finish line! (Mk 13:13b)
Sermon Notes (PDF): BLANK
Hint: Highlight blanks above with your cursor for answers!
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00:00-00:04
Turn to the Gospel According to Mark and chapter 13.
00:05-00:10
And we're going to be doing a mini-series just on chapter 13.
00:12-00:23
And our little series within a series I've entitled "Spoiler Alert." You know what a spoiler alert is?
00:23-00:24
Do you know what that is?
00:26-00:35
I'm not 20 anymore, so I have to try to stay up to speed on the lingo that the kids are using.
00:36-00:38
But do you know what a spoiler alert is?
00:41-00:46
If you don't know what a spoiler alert is, I'm sure everyone here does, because you're way much cooler than me.
00:49-00:51
This is what a spoiler alert is.
00:51-01:01
If you go online to look up a movie or a television program, you're going to find thousands of pages reviewing the movie or the TV show.
01:02-01:05
Maybe you're thinking about, you see a preview for a movie on TV.
01:05-01:08
I'd like to know more about that movie and you want to look it up online.
01:09-01:25
Well, if that website is about to reveal a key part of the plot of the movie, it's a courtesy for them to write spoiler alert, so that you can stop reading if you don't wanna know ahead of time.
01:26-01:27
Okay, does that make sense?
01:28-01:37
So if you're like, I don't wanna know how the movie ends, they put spoiler alert, like, okay, I'm gonna stop reading now.
01:38-01:41
And so why did we call this series spoiler alert?
01:42-01:49
Because Jesus in Mark chapter 13 talks about how the world is going to end.
01:51-02:00
So if there's anyone here who is not interested in what the Son of God says about the end of the world, I have something to tell you.
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Spoiler alert.
02:04-02:05
Okay, go wait in your car.
02:07-02:08
And do not listen online.
02:10-02:16
But if like me, you would like to know, then let's see what God's Word has to say.
02:17-02:17
All in favor?
02:18-02:20
All right, the post.
02:21-02:22
All right, motion carried.
02:23-02:23
Let's pray.
02:24-02:33
Father in heaven, we so often turn to your word for edification, and today is no exception.
02:34-02:38
But perhaps more than usual today we turn to your word for education.
02:38-02:45
And I pray, Father, that we would all be Bible students.
02:47-02:59
This is a tough passage because a lot of us come with things that we've been told or preconceived notions and I'm sure for some here, this is all brand new information.
03:01-03:12
So I pray that you would open our hearts and our minds to what your word actually says, not what we thought it said, not what somebody else maybe told us it said, but let us look and see what your word actually teaches.
03:14-03:15
Help us to be Bible students.
03:19-03:23
We pray in Jesus' name, and all of God's people said, Amen.
03:24-03:25
Mark chapter 13.
03:26-03:33
I encourage you to take notes if you have a bulletin and an outline with it.
03:33-03:35
I encourage you to take some notes.
03:35-03:41
But first of all, at the top of your outline, a compliment, a prediction, and a question.
03:44-03:49
to sort of set the stage for this extended teaching that Jesus gives in Mark 13.
03:50-03:53
Recall that Jesus made His triumphal entry into Jerusalem.
03:54-04:03
And we spent a lot of time on Wednesday of Passion Week where Jesus was in the temple and people were challenging Jesus.
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And Jesus was teaching the people.
04:06-04:07
And look at verse 1.
04:07-04:17
It says, "And as He came out of the temple, One of his disciples said to him, you're like, "Well, which disciple?
04:18-04:25
If God wanted us to know, He would have told us." So, my conclusion is it doesn't matter, right?
04:25-04:26
It just doesn't matter.
04:27-05:07
One of his disciples said to him, "Look, teacher, what wonderful stones and what wonderful buildings!" This temple is even more glorious it is. This was actually the third temple that was built. It's known as Herod's Temple and it was built over a period of decades. And it was overlaid with pure gold. And I read this week from a couple sources. They said when the Sun was reflecting off of the wall, it would blind you. It was so dazzling.
05:08-05:39
So I imagine this is what this disciple was referencing when they came out and turned around and, "Look teacher, what wonderful stones and what wonderful buildings." I don't know, I kind of laughed to myself because Wednesday in the temple, I would have thought that the disciples might have left with maybe a little bit of a bad taste in their mouth because everybody was attacking Jesus.
05:39-05:53
where they just kept coming in waves, attacking Jesus, attacking Jesus, attacking Jesus, and then Jesus condemns the religious leaders, and then they walk out the door, and they say, "It's a pretty nice building though, isn't it?"
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(sigh)
05:57-05:58
Look what Jesus said in verse 2.
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Jesus said to him, "Do you see these great buildings?
06:06-06:13
will not be left here one stone upon another that will not be thrown down." Wow!
06:14-06:19
This glorious, magnificent building in Jesus' response is it's all coming down.
06:20-06:23
Actually, this was fulfilled in 70 A.D.
06:24-06:34
There was a Jewish rebellion and the Romans came in and stamped it out quite handily.
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actually destroyed the temple, leveling it.
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I read this week that they actually burned the temple, and they burned it so that that gold that was overlaid the stones actually melted and went in between the bricks, so that when the looters came after the fact, what do you think they did?
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Let's break these bricks apart and get the gold that melted inside.
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And I believe Jesus' choice of words was very intentional.
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There's not going to be one stone on top of another.
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That was literally fulfilled as people came in and even stole the gold that coated the temple after it was burnt and destroyed.
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So they're heading east back towards Bethany.
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Remember, Passion Week?
07:25-07:31
Jesus and the disciples stayed in Bethany and then went down into Jerusalem during the day.
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It says, "And as He sat on the Mount of Olives opposite the temple, Peter and James and John and Andrew asked Him privately, 'Tell us, when will these things be?
07:47-08:01
And what will be the sign when all these things are about to be accomplished?' Peter, James, John, and Andrew are understandably confused.
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How's this stuff going down?
08:06-08:13
You know, the Old Testament says that the Messiah was going to come, and the Messiah was going to suffer, and the Messiah was going to reign.
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That's throughout the Old Testament.
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But there's a chunk of time that the Old Testament never talks about.
08:20-08:22
Do you know what chunk of time that is?
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It's the time that you're sitting in right now.
08:26-08:30
You see, if you just read the Old Testament, the Messiah comes, the Messiah suffers, the Messiah reigns over all the earth.
08:30-08:35
The Messiah comes, the Messiah suffers, the Messiah has a kingdom all over the earth.
08:36-08:39
What happens in between His suffering and His reigning?
08:41-08:47
I mean, the disciples knew that Jesus was the Messiah, so the question is, when are you going to establish your kingdom?
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Jesus already told them that He was going to be crucified, Now he's telling them that the temple is about to be completely destroyed.
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None of it makes sense to the disciples.
09:00-09:09
Like, wait a minute, you're the Christ, so you're going to be killed and God's building is going to be destroyed?
09:10-09:12
This just doesn't make any sense.
09:14-09:20
But Jesus sits down and tells them how the rest of history is going to play out.
09:21-09:32
As we look at verses 1-13, this is very important for us because we live in the time that He's describing in verses 1-13.
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I want you to listen very carefully.
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These verses that we're about to look at - before 70 A.D.
09:48-09:51
Like, well, Jesus was talking about the destruction of the temple.
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So all of these things that He's saying in these verses all happened before 70 A.D.
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And I don't believe that at all.
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I'm going to tell you why in a second.
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But some people want to put these verses - verses 1-13 - some people want to put them with the tribulation.
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Meaning, oh, He's talking about the last seven years - It's a book of revelation type stuff.
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That's what he's talking about and I don't believe that either.
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I believe that verses 1-13, Jesus is talking about the time that you're sitting in right now.
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You're like, well, can you give me three good reasons why you believe that?
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Absolutely.
10:36-10:37
Here's three reasons.
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Number one, the other Gospel accounts.
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When you harmonize the Gospels, When you look at Matthew's account and Luke's account, and you put them all together, understand that each of these Gospel writers were giving their perspective of a story.
10:53-10:57
So if you want the full story, it helps to harmonize the accounts.
10:59-11:06
And in Matthew's account, the disciples asked Jesus for the signs accompanying His return and the close of the age.
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Ok?
11:08-11:10
So they were very specific.
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We want to know what's going to happen before you return.
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So I don't believe that Jesus was just talking about something that was going to happen over the next couple of decades here.
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The second reason is the end can't just be talking about the temple because we're going to see here in a second with these verses that Jesus is talking about things on a global, not on a local scale.
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Ok?
11:40-11:48
The third reason I believe that verses 1-13 describes the day that we live in now is just simply this.
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You're going to see as we walk through these verses that Jesus describes the last 2,000 years.
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In verse 7, Jesus said, "This must take place, but the end is not yet." Meaning, the end of the world isn't going to happen all at once.
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If you study your Old Testament, you see a lot of times when there's prophecy, the prophet would give a prophecy that dealt with the immediate context of what was happening, but also give a prophecy with what was going to come at the end.
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And I believe that that's exactly what Jesus is doing here.
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He talks about the destruction of the temple as an immediate thing that's happening.
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And from there, like the Old Testament prophets, He launches into talking about the future.
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All through the Old Testament.
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So I believe that the period that Jesus is talking about, and I understand that while you're doing what you do throughout the week, what I'm doing is studying this passage and studying and studying and reading and cross-referencing and studying, I'm thoroughly convinced that in these verses Jesus is talking about the time that we live in right now.
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So if you're not there yet, just hang on.
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We have a graphic, sort of a timeline.
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And Darren actually made this one because I was looking them up online and I wanted something very simple and they were kind of a mess.
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But if you just look at this timeline, if you look at history, so like creation's back here, right?
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Old Testament era leading up to the incarnation, the death, burial, and resurrection of Jesus Christ.
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Then after Christ ascended, there's the church age.
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This is the big black box.
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Like I said earlier, that's not foreseen in the Old Testament.
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And after the church age, The Bible says there's going to be a seven year period of tribulation.
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Or Daniel's 70th week.
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There's going to be a period of seven years of hell on earth.
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And then after those seven years, Jesus Christ returns and He establishes a literal thousand year reign on the earth.
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And I believe that it's a literal thousand years because in Revelation 20, six times, It says a thousand years.
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Six times.
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A thousand years.
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A thousand years.
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A thousand years.
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It's not spoken of as metaphorical.
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It's spoken of as being very literal.
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I believe that the rapture actually happens before the tribulation.
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And that was actually one of the questions that came in for Questions & Answers Sunday.
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So, I'm going to be addressing that on Q&A day.
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I believe the rapture happens before the tribulation.
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What I want you to see with this chart is this section that we're going to look at today.
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Jesus talked about the destruction of the temple which was 70 A.D.
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And then from there, launches into talking about what we call the church age.
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This is the period of time that He's dealing with here.
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In other words, verses 1-13, Jesus describes the time between His first coming and the tribulation in general terms.
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In verses 14-27 that we'll talk about next week, Jesus describes the future seven-year tribulation and His Second Coming, and He uses specific terms for that.
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And then verses 28-37, Jesus gives the application of this sermon when He says, I believe it's four times in that passage, "Stay awake." "Stay awake." That's where we're heading the next three weeks.
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Okay?
15:58-16:05
So if you're taking notes, first of all, spoiler alert, three ways Jesus describes the world until he returns.
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Number one, there will be great deception.
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There will be great deception.
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Look at verses five through six.
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The disciples ask the question, when are these things about to be accomplished?
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What are the, Matthew, what are the signs of the end of the age?
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What's going to happen before you return, Jesus?
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"Jesus began to say to them, 'See that no one leads you astray.
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Many will come in My name, saying, 'I am He!' And they will lead many astray.'" First of all, there will be great deception.
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Twice Jesus warns that there are going to be people coming saying that they are Jesus, saying that they're God in the flesh, saying that they are some kind of deity incarnate, and they're going to lead people astray.
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And you're like, "Oh, Pastor Jeff, who would fall for that?" The answer is many people all over the world right this minute.
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See, this is one reason people are like, "Yeah, this is the future." You're like, "This is happening now, man. This is happening now." All this false Christs and people saying they're Jesus, wow, that's going to be really something someday when that happens, right?
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That's happening right now.
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You're like, "Can you give me an example?" I'm going to give you a few. This is just a few, ok?
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Because I could keep you here until next Thanksgiving, giving you examples of this stuff.
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Let me start off with one of my favorites here.
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How many people have heard of Silvio Gissel?
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A couple of you have heard of Silvio Gissel?
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I've never heard of this guy.
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Where my wife works - today's her birthday by the way - but where my wife works, she has this customer that he always talks about - Silvio Gissel.
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Who is this guy?
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Well, he was born in 1862 and he died in 1930.
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And you can look him up.
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He was a German merchant.
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He was a theoretical economist, and interestingly enough, he was an anarchist.
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But there are many people that believe that he was the return of Jesus Christ.
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You said his name was Silvio.
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Yeah, well, Jesus took up a new name when he came back.
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I guess, you know, the name that he'd been using, you know, let's freshen things up a bit I guess.
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The Silvio Gissel was the return of Jesus.
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Look him up.
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There are people that still believe that.
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How many people have heard of Jose Luis de Jesus?
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How many people have heard of this guy?
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I see Taylor smiling.
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You've heard of this guy.
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I actually years ago saw a documentary about this guy.
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Have you heard of this guy?
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He actually died last year.
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Did you know that?
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His church denies it.
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Like he, seriously, like he died August 8th of last year in his 60's and his church says "Oh no, no, no, no, he is alive and well." His life was just a reckless, immoral mess.
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Listen, I'm going to tell you something, and I don't want you to ask me to explain it, because I can't.
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He claimed to be both the return of Jesus and the Antichrist both.
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And you're like, well, how does that work?
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I don't know.
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He had this thing about and then there was like the Pauline teaching and the Pauline teaching.
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It's just, it's wacky.
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And I read this and I don't think I'm a complete idiot, but I was reading this stuff and I'm like, I can't follow his logic.
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Because he's crazy.
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He claimed to be both the return of Jesus and the Antichrist.
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And you remember what he was famous for, right?
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All of his followers got what?
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Did you hear this?
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666 tattooed on themselves, because he's Jesus and the Antichrist.
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And I think it was January of 2013, a video went viral, I think that's what it was, of a parent holding their three-year-old down to get a 666 tattoo on the three-year-old.
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But they believe that that was their sign of identifying with this Christ.
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This guy has countless followers.
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His church has purchased houses and land and stuff for him all over the place.
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Huge following in his circles.
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Jose Luis De Jesus, look him up.
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I read this article, this was just last month.
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Came out September 18th, 2014.
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There's false Christs all over the world.
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People are following them.
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A.J. Miller in Australia.
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Write this down, no relation.
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AJ Miller and his partner, Mary Luck, he is in Australia and he preaches that he is the reincarnation of Jesus Christ and she is the reincarnation of Mary Magdalene.
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That yeah, when they were Jesus and Mary, they had kids together and all this stuff and now Jesus and Mary Magdalene are reincarnated and people are buying this.
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If you heard of Sergei Anatolyevich Turok, if you heard of this guy, he's in Siberia.
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He also teaches that he is Jesus reincarnated.
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About Alvaro Thies in Brazil.
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Yet another person that teaches that he is Jesus reincarnated.
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And there's all these people following him.
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I was reading this and I was thinking to myself, I would love to get these three guys in the same room.
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Wouldn't that be interesting?
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Reincarnation of Jesus I would like you to meet.
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Reincarnation of Jesus.
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Hold on a second, reincarnation of Jesus is gonna be here any moment.
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I just love to see that conversation.
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False Christs.
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Those are just a few.
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Those are just a few.
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Who falls for this?
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Here's who falls for this.
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People who don't know their Bibles.
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That's who falls for it.
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That's why at Harvest Bible Chapel, that's why we walk in the Word.
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That's why we go through the Bible verse by verse trying to understand here's what God says, here's what it means, here's how I apply this.
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This is why we walk through the Word of God together.
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Because Jesus said there are going to be people And there are people that stand up and say, "Hey, I'm Jesus." They have people throwing millions of dollars at them.
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And thousands of followers.
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And living on their own compounds.
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Exactly like Jesus said it was going to happen, there's going to be false Christs.
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Many will come in My name saying, "I am He." Many people are being led astray.
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So there will be great deception.
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Secondly, Jesus says there will be global devastation.
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There will be global devastation.
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Look at verses 7 and 8.
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It says, "And when you hear of wars and rumors of wars, do not be alarmed.
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This must take place, but the end is not yet.
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For nation will rise against nation, and kingdom against kingdom.
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There will be earthquakes in various places.
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There will be famines.
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These are but the beginning of birth pains.
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So for the post-millennialist that believes that the church is going to usher in utopia, and then Jesus returns.
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For the evolutionist that says that things are getting better and better and better and better, that's not what Jesus said, and that's not what history has shown, has it?
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But we see instead that things are getting worse.
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Things are getting worse.
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First of all, Jesus said, "Proceeding His return is going to be a period of time where there are wars." Wow.
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You can look this stuff up.
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I'm not going to read the whole list to you.
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You can look it up.
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Just do a search on world wars, or wars all over the world.
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Just Google wars throughout history.
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184-280 was the Three Kingdoms War.
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Killed 36-40 million people.
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755-763, the An Lushan Rebellion killed 13 million people.
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The Mongol conquests, 1206-1324, killed 40-70 million people.
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1562-1598, the French Wars of Religion killed somewhere between 2 and 4 million people.
25:47-25:55
1616-1662, the Qing Dynasty conquered the Ming Dynasty, killing 25 million people.
25:57-26:05
The Napoleonic Wars in 1803-1815 killed somewhere between 3.5 to 6 million people.
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1850 to 1864, the Taiping Rebellion killed 20 million people.
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1914 to 1918, World War I killed 17 million people.
26:21-26:25
1939 to 1945, World War II, do you know how many people died in World War II?
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Somewhere between 60 and 85 million people.
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There's a war going on right now.
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The war on terror.
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2001 to present.
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Some people estimate that already upwards of 1.2 million people have died in the war on terror.
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Now listen, these are just some.
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I had an entire page of lists.
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I was trying to sort them by century.
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And there was just so much.
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What I see every century in history has been marked by millions upon millions of people being killed in war.
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So when Jesus says there's going to be wars and rumors of wars, I'm like, why does that have to be future?
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I see that happening right now.
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He said there's going to be wars.
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Notice next he talks about earthquakes.
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Earthquakes.
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You know how many earthquakes there are a year?
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Take a guess.
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How many earthquakes do you think there are every year?
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Bit of a trick question, because they don't really know.
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Do you know what they estimate?
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You think it's in the thousands?
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You think it's in the tens of thousands?
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What do you think?
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How many earthquakes do you think there are every year?
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The millions.
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They estimate that there are in the millions every year.
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You're like, "Well, why don't we hear about it?" Because most of them are small and most of them are in remote areas where they're not being tracked.
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I kind of chuckled.
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It says, "Here's how many earthquakes we catch and measure every year." I'm like, "You catch?" I just wondered what that looked like when you catch an earthquake.
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But do you know how many earthquakes they catch and measure?
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About 20,000 a year.
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Of course, we usually hear about the big ones, don't we?
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The earthquake in Haiti in 2010 killed somewhere between 100,000 and 160,000 people.
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Remember the tsunami in Thailand in 2004 killed a quarter of a million people in one day.
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So Jesus said there's going to be natural disasters, earthquakes in various places.
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He says there will be famines.
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There will be famines.
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Actually, in Luke's account, in Luke 21, Jesus added the word "pestilences." There will be famines and pestilences.
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Every time a natural disaster hits, you get people like Pat Robertson speaking up and saying, "that's the judgment of God on homosexuality." There it is.
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And I don't think that it is.
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I think it's just a manifestation of exactly what Jesus described was going to happen in these days that we live in.
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Famines and pestilences like the wars countless throughout the centuries.
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541 - the Justinian plague in Constantinople.
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some rats got on an Egyptian grain boat and killed 25 million people.
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40% of the population of Constantinople wiped out by one plague.
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1347 to 1351.
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How many people have heard of the Black Death?
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Heard of the Black Death?
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The Black Death killed 75 - somewhere between 75 and 200 million people of Europe. The death toll was unbelievable.
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Historians estimate that it killed about 60% of the population of Europe at the time. Think about that. 60% of the population wiped out by one plague. 1918, the Spanish flu killed 50 million people. It was a worldwide epidemic. I could go on and on. We could talk about fever, polio, the Asian flu, botulism, whooping cough, mumps.
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You know, we live in a day of such advanced medicine, don't we?
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The medical procedures we can do today are just absolutely incredible.
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Doesn't it seem like every year there's a new disease that's like the thing to be scared to death of?
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You know what I'm talking about?
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You know, remember in the 80's it was AIDS.
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and it's still an issue.
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But just think back to the last few years, SARS, the West Nile virus, the bird flu, the swine flu, H1N1, what's the newest one?
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Ebola, right?
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Write this down, next year, people are going to forget about Ebola and there's going to be something else.
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There's gonna be a new one.
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People are gonna be like, "You remember Ebola?" I'm just like, "Oh yeah, didn't that affect a couple people in our country, it's going to be like famines and pestilences.
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Notice Jesus said, "These are but the beginning of birth pains." What does that mean?
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I have not yet had the pleasure of experiencing birth pains.
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It is not on my bucket list.
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So this is one of those things to wean from other people.
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And they say with birth pains, "Moms, can you testify to this?
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The closer you get to delivery, the more frequent and the more intense the pains are, right?" Is that how it goes?
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I see some heads nodding.
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Is that how it goes?
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All right, like I said, I can't really speak from experience here or share a funny story about this at all.
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This is just what I'm told.
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The closer you get to the time, the more frequent and the more intense the pains are.
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Now listen, Jesus said this is what's going to happen on a global scale.
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The closer we get to His return, the more frequent and the more intense these pains are going to be.
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You're like, what pains?
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Wars, earthquakes, and famines and pestilences.
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It's not going to get better.
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It's not.
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There's not going to be peace on earth.
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They're not going to eradicate disease.
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It's not going to happen.
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What is going to happen is it's going to get worse, and it's going to get worse.
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And it's going to happen more and it's going to happen more.
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And it's all building up to the big day.
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There will be global devastation.
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Again, as I was studying this this week, I thought I just can't see this passage taking place during the seven year tribulation because I'm seeing these things happen right now.
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Like I said, here's a partial list of the things Jesus is describing.
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Finally, there will be gospel division.
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There will be gospel division.
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There will be great deception.
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There will be global devastation.
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But there will be gospel division.
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Jesus said, "But be on your guard.
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For they will deliver you over to councils.
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And you will be beaten in synagogues.
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And you will stand before governors and kings for My sake to bear witness before them.
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And the gospel must first be proclaimed to all nations.
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And when they bring you to trial deliver you over?
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Do not be anxious beforehand what you are to say, but say whatever is given you in that hour, for it is not you who speak, but the Holy Spirit.
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And brother will deliver brother over to death, and the father, his child, and children will rise against parents and have them put to death.
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And you will be hated by all for my name's sake.
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The one who endures to the end will be saved.
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Gospel division.
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So there will be people led astray.
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There's going to be wars.
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There's going to be natural disasters.
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And in the midst of all of this, the people who identify with Jesus Christ are going to be sharing His love and His Word in a hostile world.
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A couple things I want to point out as we're about to wrap up.
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In verse 9, Jesus talked about being delivered over to councils, being beaten in synagogues.
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The Jews held their court in the synagogues.
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That's where trials happened.
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You notice, Tom, more and more and more Christianity is on trial.
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And I don't mean that metaphorically.
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issues of morality, issues of God's Word are being argued in our courts.
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Have you ever been taken to court because of what you believe about Jesus Christ?
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My wife and I have.
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I'll tell you that story sometime, not today.
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We were taken to court because of what we believe.
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But you know, it's sad, but you kind of expect it a hostile, sinful world, right?
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Look at what Jesus says in verse 12.
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Look at that again.
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"Brother will deliver brother over to death, father against children, children against parents, having them put to death." It's bad enough when it's people you don't know or it's enemies of the Gospel.
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But when those enemies are revealed to be people closest to you...
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happening right now. This stuff is happening right now. When I was in Chicago we had a baptism service at one of the Harvest Bible chapels in the Niles campus and there was a girl from a Muslim family that stepped up to get baptized and she said if my family finds out, if my uncles find out that I got baptized today, they will kill me." Now young people, she didn't mean if my parents found out that I lost my cell phone they're going to kill me like we say.
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She didn't mean it like that.
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Because I asked her, I said, "Is your life in danger?" She was trembling.
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Her hands were shaking and I could see the tears welling up in her eyes.
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"My family will kill me if they find out that I've been baptized in Jesus.
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They will kill me." So the stuff that Jesus is talking about, "Yet future, yes, but is it happening right now?" It certainly is.
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But the point that here's a teenage girl, scared of her own family.
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Why?
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Because she loves Jesus.
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Those days are here.
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Those days are here!
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But as I close, I do got to tell you this.
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It's not all doom and gloom.
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If I just said, "Let's sing the last song and go." We could walk out of here like, "Church was a bummer." I want you to look again, because this is not all doom and gloom.
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Because there are three glorious realities.
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I want you to write these down.
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Yes, there's going to be apostasy and global devastation and people killing their own family members because of Jesus.
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Three glorious realities.
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And I'll tell you, this is the stuff that keeps me going.
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Number one, the gospel is proclaimed.
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Did you see that in verse 10?
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Jesus said the gospel must first be proclaimed to all nations.
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Isn't that awesome?
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Because what happens when the gospel is proclaimed?
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What happens when the gospel is proclaimed?
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happens. People come alive, amen. Lives are changed, marriages are healed, relationships are healed, the Holy Spirit comes in and dwells someone and changes someone from the inside out, manifesting God's love through them. That's what happens when the gospel is proclaimed. So in the midst of this world crumbling apart around us, God's glorious gospel is going forward and it's going forward you. In the Pittsburgh area, in Zambia, or Kentucky, or wherever you are, the God of the Gospel is going forth through you. And that is a glorious thing. That is a glorious thing. The Gospel is proclaimed. The second glorious reality is this, the Holy Spirit reigns. Did you see that in verse 11? Like, "Well, Pastor Jeff, I don't know what I should What do I do if I get arrested?
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Jesus said don't be anxious about it.
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He says the Holy Spirit is going to speak through you.
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God at work gloriously in the face of hostility.
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As I said, I was on trial because of my beliefs.
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But you know another way of looking at that is I had an opportunity to share what I believe about the Gospel of Jesus Christ The Holy Spirit reigns.
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The Gospel is proclaimed and the Holy Spirit reigns.
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We're not on our own.
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God didn't leave us to say, you know, figure it out.
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Figure it out.
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I took care of your salvation.
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Now figure the rest out.
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His Holy Spirit is alive and reigning through you.
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There's nothing to be afraid of.
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And finally, There's deception, there's devastation, there's gospel division, but do you know what else there is?
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There's a finish line.
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There's a finish line.
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Look at the last statement that Jesus makes.
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"But the one who endures to the end will be saved." That's good news.
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Why is that good news?
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Because it's not going to be like this forever.
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You see this little list and this history and all these wars and false Christs and pestilences that I kind of researched and wrote down.
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If I preached this sermon next year, I'd have to update.
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Here's the ones that have been added since.
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And someday, all this stuff is just simply going to be history.
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It's like done.
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Done.
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Because there's a finish line.
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It's not going to be like this forever.
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There's going to come a day Wars - done.
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Disease and death - done.
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Earthquakes - done.
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People that hate God - done.
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There is a finish line.
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That's why Jesus said the one who endures to the end will be saved.
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The faith that God gives you is an enduring faith.
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Ok?
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And that's how we know who is real from who is fake.
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Because the fakers, when the going gets tough, they're done.
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They bail.
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But the true born-again people will endure to the end.
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And I'd like to encourage you church, there is a finish line.
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It is not going to be like this forever.
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It is not.
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Next week, we're going to pick up in v. 14 because Jesus is going to shift from some general things about life during what we call the church age.
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And then he focuses to specific things about the seven-year tribulation that leads up to His glorious return.
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Let's pray.
Small Group Questions (Whole Group):
Read Mark 13:1-13
Have you ever been hated by someone because of Jesus? Share with the group how it made you feel and how you handled it.
List the things that Jesus describes in this passage. Does this change your expectations about the world? Why or why not?
"But the one who endures to the end will be saved." (Mk 13:13). What did Jesus mean by this statement? Do you lose your salvation by running out of endurance? Does this mean only saved people have endurance? Explain what this statement means - and what endurance looks like.
Breakout Questions:
What is one thing you have a hard time understanding concerning the Bible's teaching on End Times?