{"id":204,"date":"2013-03-17T18:32:20","date_gmt":"2013-03-17T17:32:20","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/pbthomas.com\/blog\/?p=204"},"modified":"2013-03-17T18:32:20","modified_gmt":"2013-03-17T17:32:20","slug":"keep-watch-mark-13","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/pbthomas.com\/blog\/?p=204","title":{"rendered":"Keep Watch Mark 13"},"content":{"rendered":"

\u201cDays were filled with guns and war and everyone got trampled on the floor \u2013
\nI wish we\u2019d all been ready.
\nChildren died, the days grew cold, A piece of bread could buy a bag of gold.
\nI wish we\u2019d all been ready.\u201d (Larry Norman)
\nThere is one truth which the first Christians believed but which the church over the centuries have mostly lost sight of. That is the happy certainty the Jesus Christ is going to return. Jesus is coming back to earth, not this time as a baby in a manger but as King of Kings and Lord of Lords, surrounded by armies of angels in the glory and splendour of Almighty God. And Jesus himself warns us all to be ready for his return.
\nMark 13:32-33 32 \u201cNo one knows about that day or hour, not even the angels in heaven, nor the Son, but only the Father. 33 Be on guard! Be alert! You do not know when that time will come.<\/p>\n

KEEP WATCH
\nHere is a challenge to stay spiritually awake, spiritually \u201con the ball.\u201d None of us can afford to be spiritually asleep. We might as well be sleeping the sleep of the dead. What we are meant to be is like
\nServants waiting for the Master to return.
\n34 It\u2019s like a man going away: He leaves his house and puts his servants in charge, each with his assigned task, and tells the one at the door to keep watch.
\n35 \u201cTherefore keep watch because you do not know when the owner of the house will come back\u2014whether in the evening, or at midnight, or when the rooster crows, or at dawn. 36 If he comes suddenly, do not let him find you sleeping. 37 What I say to you, I say to everyone: \u2018Watch!\u2019 \u201d <\/p>\n

Decades ago when I was a schoolteacher I occasionally had to leave the laboratory momentarily to collect something from the prep room. It was always amusing when I went back into the classroom to see which pupils were ready for my return, and which were not. Woe betide the servant who is not awake and doing his job when the Master returns.
\nEach has his assigned task. God has given every Christian duties and responsibilities as we wait for Jesus to return. Responsibilities of service and witness and holiness and growth in grace. There\u2019s no time for sitting back and putting our feet up. We each have to play our part in God\u2019s church preparing the house for the Master\u2019s return. We must not let Him find us asleep on the job! As in the parable of the talents or the parable of the ten gold coins, we must be using everything we have for God\u2019s glory. We must live our lives now in the light of eternity. Jesus Christ is coming back and our greatest desire should be to be found not idle or sleeping but working for Him.
\nIn Mark 13 Jesus points forward to TWO future events. The first is the fall of Jerusalem, the second is His return. The warnings and commands Jesus gives apply just as much to Christians today as they did to his first disciples in the days before Jerusalem fell to the Romans in 70 AD.
\nWATCH OUT THAT NO-ONE DECEIVES YOU
\nWe should take that warning seriously. Jesus would not warn his disciples about being deceived if that was not a genuine danger. People don\u2019t usually put up a sign saying \u201cBeware of the dog\u201d if all they have is two goldfish and a budgie. Jesus is warning us just as much as He was warning the first disciples about the real dangers which the church will always face until Jesus returns in glory.
\n5 Jesus said to them: \u201cWatch out that no one deceives you. 6 Many will come in my name, claiming, \u2018I am he,\u2019 and will deceive many.
\n21 At that time if anyone says to you, \u2018Look, here is the Christ!\u2019 or, \u2018Look, there he is!\u2019 do not believe it. 22 For false Christs and false prophets will appear and perform signs and miracles to deceive the elect\u2014if that were possible. 23 So be on your guard; I have told you everything ahead of time. <\/p>\n

God is light and truth. The enemy the devil is all darkness and lies and deception. Lies like, \u201cevangelism is unnecessary,\u201d says the devil, \u201cprayer is a waste of time,\u201d says the devil, \u201cthere\u2019s nothing wrong with being lukewarm: it isn\u2019t good to go over the top,\u201d says the devil, \u201cit doesn\u2019t matter what you believe as long as you are nice to people\u201d says the devil. We must be on our guard against all these lies the devil tells.
\nWe must guard the truth in the church. I find myself increasingly troubled by the number of preachers who keep Christians entertained for three quarters of an hour without putting any Bible truth in their sermons. I am even more troubled by the number of Christians and the number of churches which are happy with that diet. Bible teaching is important. Theology is important. What we believe does matter \u2013 it is a matter of life and death!
\nAnd we must also proclaim that truth in the world. With all the other religions and cults there are a hundred and one false saviours out there. And then there are the atheists and secularists who just assume that God doesn\u2019t exist. We must be a church which believes what it preaches and which preaches what it believes. We must preach the truth in love \u2013 Jesus commands it.
\nPREACH THE GOSPEL
\n10 And the gospel must first be preached to all nations.
\nWycliffe Bible Translators have as their motto, \u201cEvery person in every nation, in each succeeding generation, has the right to hear the news that Christ can save.\u201d Jesus is coming back soon. Today could be the last opportunity that our neighbours and our friends will have to hear the gospel and repent and believe and be saved. \u201cI wish we\u2019d all been ready.\u201d
\n9 \u201cYou 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.
\nIt won\u2019t be easy to be known as Christians. It will get us into trouble. Always has \u2013 always will! But we are not alone!
\n11 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. <\/p>\n

God gives each Christian the power of the Holy Spirit living inside us and the words to say to being glory to Jesus. Here is a great reassurance for ordinary people who may still find themselves defending their faith and proclaiming Jesus in courts or in councils or in front of kings.Those early Christians spoke up boldly for Jesus in the face of horrible persecution and torture and even death. The blood of the martyrs was the seed of the church. Our brothers and sisters around the world are still doing so even today. We don\u2019t face the kind of opposition they do \u2013 so how dare the church in Britain stay silent. The gospel must be preached!
\nRomans 10 9 That if you confess with your mouth, \u201cJesus is Lord,\u201d and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved. 10 For it is with your heart that you believe and are justified, and it is with your mouth that you confess and are saved. \u2026. 12 For there is no difference between Jew and Gentile\u2014the same Lord is Lord of all and richly blesses all who call on him, 13 for, \u201cEveryone who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved.\u201d
\n14 How, then, can they call on the one they have not believed in? And how can they believe in the one of whom they have not heard? And how can they hear without someone preaching to them?<\/p>\n

The gospel must be preached!! And then we must
\nSTAND FIRM IN YOUR FAITH
\nHe who stands firm to the end will be saved!
\nIt isn\u2019t going to be easy. We must show that we are true Christians by our steadfast perseverance.
\n12 \u201cBrother will betray brother to death, and a father his child. Children will rebel against their parents and have them put to death. 13 All men will hate you because of me, but he who stands firm to the end will be saved. <\/p>\n

The parable of the sower reminds us that not all seed produces fruit. Some seed falls on the path and is snatched away by the birds of the air. Sometimes the devil snatches the truth out of the hearts of new believers. Some seed falls on shallow soil and rocky ground so it has no roots, and some fall away when the going gets tough. Some seed falls among thorns \u2013 some fall by the wayside because of the worries of this life and the deceitfulness of wealth, Jesus warns us. We need to stand firm, and prove to be those who produce fruit.
\nIt will be tough. There will not be any easy time for the church until Jesus returns. There will be all kinds of vast disasters.
\n7 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
\nof birth pains. <\/p>\n

There will be opposition from rulers and nations.
\n9 \u201cYou 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.
\nChristians will sometimes even experience opposition from their own families.
\n12 \u201cBrother will betray brother to death, and a father his child. Children will rebel against their parents and have them put to death. 13 All men will hate you because of me, but he who stands firm to the end will be saved. <\/p>\n

We must stand firm to the end! Some people think that being a Christian is meant to be easy. They think that if problems come along they have somehow done something wrong. But that is not the case. The Christian life is NOT meant to be easy. If our Christian life IS easy, something is wrong. It has always been hard to be a Christian in a world which is running away from God and it always will be hard. We must stand firm to the end.
\nTimes of great distress are on the way, Jesus said.
\n15 Let no one on the roof of his house go down or enter the house to take anything out. 16 Let no one in the field go back to get his 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\u2014and never to be equaled again.
\nThis warning was initially for Jesus\u2019s followers who would still be alive at the fall of Jerusalem. But it applies to the \u201clast days\u201d, the whole of the period between the first coming and the second coming of Christ. Hard times are still to come. But in it all, God is in control.
\n20 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.
\nGod WILL look after his children. And the sufferings of the church simply follow the sufferings of Jesus Himself.
\nMark 10 33 \u201cWe are going up to Jerusalem,\u201d he said, \u201cand the Son of Man will be betrayed to the chief priests and teachers of the law. They will condemn him to death and will hand him over to the Gentiles, 34 who will mock him and spit on him, flog him and kill him. Three days later he will rise.\u201d
\nJohn 15 and 16 tells us that Jesus warned his disciples in the Upper Room on the night before He died that they would face persecution.
\nJohn 15 18 \u201cIf the world hates you, keep in mind that it hated me first. 19 If you belonged to the world, it would love you as its own. As it is, you do not belong to the world, but I have chosen you out of the world. That is why the world hates you. 20 Remember the words I spoke to you: \u2018No servant is greater than his master.\u2019 If they persecuted me, they will persecute you also.
\n16:1 \u201cAll this I have told you so that you will not go astray. 2 They will put you out of the synagogue; in fact, a time is coming when anyone who kills you will think he is offering a service to God. 3 They will do such things because they have not known the Father or me. <\/p>\n

If you will not bear a cross you can\u2019t wear a crown. We cannot avoid the inevitable opposition of a fallen world. Only He who stands firm to the end will be saved.
\n32 \u201cNo one knows about that day or hour, not even the angels in heaven, nor the Son, but only the Father.
\nWe don\u2019t know when Jesus is coming back \u2013 but he is definitely coming!
\n31 Heaven and earth will pass away, but my words will never pass away. <\/p>\n

So we have to be ready!<\/p>\n

33 Be on guard! Be alert! You do not know when that time will come.<\/p>\n

35 \u201cTherefore keep watch because you do not know when the owner of the house will come back\u2014whether in the evening, or at midnight, or when the rooster crows, or at dawn. 36 If he comes suddenly, do not let him find you sleeping. 37 What I say to you, I say to everyone: \u2018Watch!\u2019 \u201d <\/p>\n

\u201cHe is coming for the ones, Who is ready to meet Him.
\nHe is coming for the ones, Who are ready to greet Him.
\nHe is coming for the ones, Whose lamps are burning bright.<\/p>\n

He is coming for the ones, Who are watching and waiting.
\nHe is coming for the ones, Who are separating,
\nThemselves from the world, And walking in the light.<\/p>\n

Moving in the stream of the Spirit’s leading,
\nLiving of the love of the Lord and feeding,
\nOn the Holy Word that can purify the soul.
\nRunning in the race for the crown of glory,
\nTaking up the cross and telling the story.
\nWaiting for the One who has saved.
\nAnd made them whole.<\/p>\n

He is coming for the ones, Who await His appearing.
\nHe is coming for the ones, Who are persevering.
\nHe is coming for these
\nIs He coming for the you?\u201d (Jimmy and Carol Owens from \u201cCome Together\u201d)<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

\u201cDays were filled with guns and war and everyone got trampled on the floor \u2013 I wish we\u2019d all been ready. Children died, the…<\/span><\/p>\n

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