This transcript was generated by whisper.ai. I want to welcome you to Day 3 of our look together through Mark 13, verses 9-23 today. As we look through these verses, we're going to look at two major signs that these disciples of Jesus Christ were going to experience very soon that showed them and show us that this world will not last, that Jesus is coming again, and we've got to be grateful that He is coming again. One of the signs is the fall of Jerusalem. We're going to look at that in a few moments, but the other sign is a sign that they'll experience even sooner, the persecution of believers. And as Jesus talks about these two major signs, beginning-of-birth-paying signs, His focus again is on our attitude. "Be on your guard," He says. Yesterday He said, "Don't be deceived. " Today He says to us, "Be on our guard. " Listen to verses 9-13. 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. And the gospel must first be preached to all nations. 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. Brother will betray brother to death and a father his child. Children will rebel against their parents and have them put to death. All men will hate you because of me, but he who stands firm to the end will be saved. " This is a warning about suffering that will come before the end. It's a warning to the disciples in that day, but it's a warning to you and I also. Be on your guard, Jesus says. The scripture makes no guarantees that we will not suffer because we're believers in Jesus Christ. If you think that it does make such a guarantee, you're going to end up hating God for breaking a contract that He never signed. In fact, the Bible tells us that those who love Jesus Christ will suffer persecution in some measure. In these verses, Jesus focuses on the persecution of Christians and He tells us that this is one of the signs that this world will not last. And these predictions that Jesus gives in these verses, this prophecy, it did not have to wait very long to be fulfilled. The prophecies of verse 9 are fulfilled in the book of Acts. You're going to be handed over to local councils, you're going to be flogged in the synagogues, you're going to stand before kings as witnesses to me. These are all fulfilled in the book of Acts. What's interesting, as you look at these verses, there are actually two specific sources of persecution that are talked about here. The first one is easier for us to encounter, as difficult as it is. The first is that we'll be persecuted by governments and authorities. The gospel of Jesus Christ seems like such a simple thing. It's just good news. But it is good news that radically changes everything. And governments many times are about the status quo, they're about the majority. When everything begins to radically change and the majority doesn't want it to change, then governments stand for things not changing. And so many times over the years, Christians have been persecuted by governments. Sometimes because they didn't want to change, sometimes because they wanted somebody to blame for the wrong things that were going on in their government. And Christians just seem to be an easy target. Christians are persecuted by governments. Why is that? Because people's hearts are turned from God. What makes a person think, hey, I'll persecute these Christ followers? Their hearts are turned from God. And Jesus says that's one of the signs that this world will not last. Persecuted by governments and authorities, but there's even a deeper sign of persecution here. He talks about being persecuted by our own families. Verse 12, "Brother will betray brother and father his child. " That's the deepest kind of persecution. That's the most hurtful kind of persecution. And I've seen it happen many, many times. I've seen it in our own country when a mom or a dad or a brother or a sister turns away from somebody in their family simply because they've begun to follow Christ. And there's no more contact. They just cut them off. But even worse than that, I've seen it in other countries where people are disowned by their own family because they follow Christ. Our people are given up to the authorities to be killed by their own family because they follow Christ. They do this because of their fear. They do this because they think they're going to be identified with their family member who's following Christ. So whether it's in this nation and they're afraid they'll be identified and also branded as a Christian, or in another nation they're afraid they'll be identified and maybe also killed as a Christian, the fear of the family causes them to persecute somebody that they love. That's the kind of persecution that hurts them most deeply. And Jesus talks about it. He says, "You'll be hated because you love Christ. " Now, in one sense, does that make sense? Why would people hate just because you love Jesus Christ? Jesus stood for love. This is why this is one of the signs that this world will not last. There is good in this world, but there is also evil. And God is going to do away with evil. And Jesus says the fact of persecution is a sign that there is a second coming, that this world will not last. And there's a couple of phrases in these verses that are worth taking a look at before we go on. Jesus talks in these verses about those who stand firm to the end being the ones who will be saved. Because when we read this verse, we read it as a threat. If you don't endure, you're going to be lost. That is not what Jesus means at all here. It's a promise of hope. Jesus is saying here, all who know Christ will endure. That's his assumption. We see that in other verses. And he's telling us, when you endure at the end, you're going to be saved. That's what's at the end of this. There is a brighter future, he's telling us. You're going to go through tough times. But as you endure through this, at the end, there is salvation, there is glory. So in the endurance, you and I can have hope. There's another phrase in these verses, in verse 13, that's very important. Jesus says the gospel must first be preached to all nations, and then he'll return again. And I believe that. I think it's when all people have heard that Jesus is going to return. That just makes sense to me, that he wants to make sure everybody hears the message. And so our job, as we look forward to the return of Christ, is not to just sit by ourselves and look up to heaven and hope he's going to come soon. Our job is to let everybody know. Somebody asked me just recently, hasn't the gospel already been preached to all of the nations? I mean, it's been 2,000 years. Well, if you look at the statistics, over 6,000 people groups have still been pretty much unreached. There are statistically no followers of Jesus Christ in these people groups. Now, of these 6,000 groups, many of them are small tribes and language groups, but they also include 13 million Bedouins, 26 million Bani in India. There are still over 2,000 languages without a Bible translation. There's still a lot of work to be done to let everyone know in everyone's language who Jesus is. There are still millions of people in this world who do not know the name Jesus, who do not know he died on a cross and was resurrected for them. The gospel has to first be preached. Jesus is teaching us here about the signs of the fact that he is going to return, and he says one of the beginning of birth pangs signs for these disciples is persecution. We still have it today. And then he talks about a second sign. He talks about the sign of the destruction of Jerusalem, a second major beginning of birth pangs sign that these disciples were going to experience in their lifetime. Listen to what he talks about in verses 14 to 23. When you see the abomination that causes desolation, standing where it does not belong, let the reader understand. Then let those who were in Judea flee to the mountains. Let no one on the roof of his house go down or enter the house to take anything out. Let no one in the field go back to get his cloak. How dreadful it will be in those days for pregnant women and nursing mothers. Pray that this will not take place in winter, because those will be days of distress, unequaled from the beginning, when God created the world until now and never to be equaled again. 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. At that time, if someone says to you, look, here is the Christ, or look, there he is, do not believe it. For false Christs and false prophets will appear and perform signs and miracles to deceive the elect, if that were possible. So be on your guard. I have told you everything ahead of time. Jesus is talking here about a specific event, the destruction of Jerusalem in 70 AD. Now this is the way in the past to us, but it was in the future to them. Jesus has told them about the signs of what is to come, the birth pangs, the suffering of Christians, and now he talks about the abomination of desolation. What a phrase. What does that mean? Well, Luke 21. 20 tells us what it means. Luke says this means that Jerusalem is going to be surrounded by the Roman armies and invaded by the Romans. This helps us to understand this phrase, but it also helps us to understand that it is Jerusalem that Jesus is talking about here. The Roman army attacking Jerusalem, entering the temple, the abomination of desolation. And Jesus' advice is very clear, and it shows us this is a localized event. Flee to the mountains, don't turn back, woe to those who are with child, woe to the possibility of winter. Remember that by the time that Jerusalem fell in 70 AD, Jerusalem was the center of the church. The church had taken over the city, and all of a sudden this city is destroyed, it's brought down by the Romans. And you would think that that would mean the church was brought down. It was not. God used this destruction and the persecution of Christians to scatter the church to the four corners of the world so that the church exploded, the gospel message exploded across the world in the first century. And Jesus ends this passage where he talks about the destruction of Jerusalem, where he talks about persecution in our lives, the same way that he began this passage, with the phrase, "Be on your guard. " Watch out. Be on your guard. I need to be on my guard against thinking that the circumstances of this world are something I can hang on to for hope. I need to be on my guard and recognize I hang on to him for hope. I need to be aware of the fact that God's doing something in my heart that no one else can do, and that my hope is found in him alone. If you feel nervous about the events of the future, like these disciples must have felt in that day, Jesus said, "You don't have to be worried. You don't have to be afraid. But I do want you to be aware. I do want you to be on your guard. I want you to live in an attitude of spiritual anticipation of what I'm about to do. " So let's pray together right now that he put that attitude into our hearts. Jesus Christ, if I'm going to live in spiritual anticipation of your return, it's just way too easy for me to just get used to the way things are. Just get into a routine of life, expecting tomorrow to be like yesterday, or do something in my heart. Put an anticipation of who you are and being present with you into my heart so that I can live daily in a different kind of way. I can't conjure up that feeling on my own. Jesus Christ, I need you through your spirit to put this anticipation into my heart, looking forward to the kind of life that you have, the forever life that you have. Put that into my heart today, I pray. In your name. Amen. And we'll see you back tomorrow. Jesus is going to talk about end times that we haven't yet experienced.