King Jesus - Stay Awake! - Mark 13

So so don't listen to anybody telling you they know when Jesus is gonna return. They don't. Okay? So, like, if anyone tells you that certain things must happen first, the temple's gotta be rebuilt or some ceremony needs to be performed. Nope. He could come back. He could return even before I finish this. You hear a trumpet? Verse 33, be on guard. Keep awake for you do not know when the times will come. It's 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. [00:39:08] (55 seconds)  #StayAlertJesusReturn

And look. Don't just wake up. Stay awake. How do we do that? We hope in the Lord, not in the things of this earth. Listen to me. If there's anything in your life that you're like, man, I don't want Jesus to come back because I still have to get I have to accomplish this. I I I I got that deadline at work that I gotta accomplish. I've got I wanna have kids. I wanna get married. God, just don't come back until I listen to me. You're holding to whatever that is too tightly. None of it is better than the return of Christ. If you hear these words and you're like, oh, no. The master's gonna get me. It's because you're clinging to the things of this earth too tightly. This is the beloved king. He's not some just meanie who's coming to get you. He's coming to rescue. This is our hope. [00:40:10] (59 seconds)  #HopeInTheLord

So Jesus doesn't sugarcoat it. Right? He's like, things are gonna get hard. And in the hard, people are gonna prey on your fear and your hunger for security and your desire to feed egos. Your desire to lean into comfort. Your desire to lean into tribes. Jesus says, look to me. Trust in me. Don't trust in your tribe. Trust in Christ. Even and especially in the difficult or confusing because he says it's gonna get difficult, and it's gonna get confusing. [00:17:13] (36 seconds)  #TrustChristNotTribe

In fact, we see the wealthy pouring out large sums into the offering, and and then you see a poor widow dropping 2 copper coins, and that's what grabs his attention. And he calls his disciples over in Mark 12 verse 42, and he says, truly, this widow has put in more than all of them. They gave out of abundance. She, out of her poverty, gave everything. A 100%. All that she had to live on. And it grabbed his attention. Why? Because of some, like, rule that she hit? No. Because her heart it belonged to the Lord. [00:11:52] (40 seconds)  #WidowGaveEverything

Because their point their whole goal was just that he died. I didn't care which side he chose. That's what they were after. But Jesus is obviously Jesus. And so in his wisdom, he asks for a coin and he says, whose image is on this coin? And the answer was Caesar. Caesar's image was on the coin. And then he says, then render unto Caesar what's Caesar's, and to God, what's God's? And they marveled. Think of the implication. Whose image is on the coin? Caesar's. Whose image is on you? [00:09:16] (40 seconds)  #WhoseImageDoYouBear

And so living during this time, like just after the cross, it would have felt like the world was ending. Like, it's no wonder the early church expected Christ to return at any moment. It would have absolutely felt like this is like the apocalypse. Jesus told them ahead of time, it's not the end. It's not the end. It's the beginning of the end. It's the beginning of the last days. It's the first contractions that kick off the last days like a woman going into labor, groaning in the pains of childbirth for deliverance. [00:20:50] (44 seconds)  #BeginningOfTheLastDays

And so here, I wanna note here, when he says, the one who endures will be saved. I want you to understand, first of all, he's not talking about being saved from sin or hell here. Context matters. Right? That kind of salvation from your own self and sin and the eternal condemnation in hell, that kind of salvation comes by grace alone through faith alone and Christ alone, not just pressing through and sucking it up. Okay? So the context that he's talking about here when he says salvation is that he's he's this is rescue from earthly persecution comes through hopeful endurance to the end. In other words, you're not just gonna stop it. Does that make sense? You go through it. [00:26:44] (47 seconds)  #EndureThroughPersecution

But that's not the heart of God in this. Now when you read this, you see Christ's heart isn't in hidden codes for some elite crew. It's a straightforward, very clear, very plain warning and a call for those who would indeed endure the end times. It's this warning that in the last days, don't lose sight of God's priorities. Stay awake when the world tries to lull you to sleep. And if you know anything about this world, it is going to try to lull you to sleep, to put you in this hypnotic, distracted trance that takes your eyes off of the gospel however it can, whatever the cost. [00:03:56] (52 seconds)  #KeepGodsPriorities