December 3 Sermon: Keep Awake
Advent serves as a time of anticipation, alertness, and assurance as we look forward to the second coming of Jesus. As believers in the Lord Jesus Christ we are called to keep awake and focus on our call to a holy life and prioritize eternal matters over worldly distractions.
Consider these questions as you listen to this week's message:
1. Have you ever experienced a moment where you were caught unaware, perhaps like a last-minute request or obligation? How did that make you feel?
2. How does the concept of staying alert and being prepared, as discussed in the context of Jesus' return, differ from simply being ready so that you're not caught doing something wrong?
3. How do you reconcile the anxiety or apprehension often associated with anticipating Jesus' second coming with the assurance of God's sovereignty?
Transcript:
It's really no fun to be caught unaware, and I'm not talking about someone jumping out and scaring you. I'm talking about some event or activity where you were supposed to know that it was going to happen and then suddenly, maybe you forgot, maybe you thought it was further off, but suddenly there it is, it's upon you. Now. Those parents among us can probably think about a point in time when a child didn't let you know about something until the last minute. Maybe you didn't hear about a project or an assignment, or maybe you needed to make snacks until the night before after the store had closed. I think this is a relatively common experience. In fact, I know television shows have frequently used that plot device to create tension in the story. Because it is a common thing. That's a rather convenient example that I give you, because then it's easy to blame the child. It's easy to say, well, kids are kids. It's not my fault. We can pass the blame off right. But what happens when it's us who pulls up to the event and we think, oh no, I was supposed to bring bars, or oh no, I was supposed to bring a bag of chips, whatever it is? It's a lot easier when we can pass the blame off on kids. But when us, the ones who are supposed to be responsible, get caught unaware, we have all kinds of thoughts that go through our head. What are people going to think of us? They're going to think I'm irresponsible. What if people don't get food? All of these things can happen when we're caught unaware.
Now, as we land in the first Sunday of Advent, we have a passage from the Gospel of Mark that reminds us of the purpose of Advent. It's to remind us of the second coming of Jesus, so that you and I are not caught unaware Now because of the sentimentality surrounding Christmas a great sentimentality. But it can often cause us to lose sight of the purpose of Advent, because we end up seeing it as a countdown to seeing our family and friends and celebrating Christmas. We see it as a time in which we have parties to celebrate Christmas with family, friends, coworkers, etc. We sort of forget this idea of preparing for Christ's second coming. But still, this is the purpose of Advent.
As I said, we do not want to be caught unaware at the coming of the Lord Jesus Christ. So as we look at the passage that we saw today from Mark's Gospel, we're gonna be looking at three points that come out to us from the text and I thought I'd be helpful. Once again this morning, I'm gonna be extra helpful. Not only are all they're gonna start with the same letter, to help you remember them, they're all gonna start with A for Advent. Aren't I helpful?
So, first, we're gonna see the idea of anticipation. Just as we anticipate the first coming of Christ as we celebrate Christmas, as believers we're called to anticipate the return of the Lord Jesus Christ. Secondly, we are to be alert. We must be prepared for the return of Christ by living in such a way that we are spiritually faithful, that we are vigilant as we desire to conform our lives to God's will. And finally, we get the idea of assurance. Let's be honest, the idea of the second coming of Jesus can cause great anxiety among believers, because we fear what we may have to endure and we don't know what the process will look like. But we have great assurance in the fact that God is sovereign over history and he is the one who's in control. So those are the three things we're going to be looking at in the text today, and so let's move on to this first part of what we read this morning in Mark 13, 24 through 27.
And as we come to these words today, it's really important that we understand the context in which Jesus is speaking here. It's always important, but in order to understand what is being said here, we really have to know what comes before. This is Mark's telling us of what is known as the Olivet Discourse. Jesus is speaking of the coming destruction of the temple. Now, earlier in Mark 13, Jesus says the temple is going to be destroyed. And these prophetic words of Jesus take place. They have taken place.
The temple was destroyed in the year 70, less than 40 years after Jesus spoke them, just as he said they would. The Lord spoke these words and they came to pass. The Romans served as Christ's instrument of judgment and the temple was destroyed to the point that not one stone was left upon another. The destruction of the temple was absolute when the Romans came in in the year 70. Jesus said this was going to happen. Why did this need to happen? Well, what took place in the temple was no longer necessary.
Christ fulfilled the temple's purpose and, as I often remind you, the temple wasn't a building where the people gathered to worship like we do. There weren't pews in the temple. They didn't stand up, sit down, sing, listen to a sermon. That's what took place in the synagogue. I don't think there were pews, but that's what took place in synagogues. What happened in the temple, we have to remember, was a parade of blood. It was sacrifices. It was this sacrificial system pointing forward to what the Messiah was going to do. And so the destruction of the temple that Jesus was prophesying here was not knocking down a venue where people gathered to sing, pray and have fellowship. The temple being obliterated was about God coming and putting an end to the Old Testament economy of sacrifice. Why? Because Jesus fulfilled all of that in his death and resurrection and ascension.
What took place in the temple was no longer needed, and so it's important for us to note that the Gospel of Mark was written before the destruction of the temple. So these words are a powerful demonstration of the authority that the New Testament has. Matthew, mark and Luke all have the words of Jesus about this event, the destruction of the temple. And then it came to pass. And so this gives authority to the words of Jesus, but it also shows us the inspiration of the New Testament. It shows us that the New Testament has authority, that when it speaks. It speaks the truth. Now you might be thinking oh this is great, mark, that's great to hear. I'm glad you've reminded us of this historical event. It's an important one and it has prophetic significance. But you just said the first point we're looking at today is anticipation. Why are you talking about the destruction of the temple? That was a long time ago, and so what we're looking at here is the nature of the words of Jesus.
He gave these prophetic words to his disciples for a reason he was telling them to pay attention. There was nothing that they could do to prevent these things from happening. There were no activities that they could do that would usher in this event. What were they to do? They were to anticipate. They were to be aware that it was coming. And Jesus also warns his disciples here about something very important that his disciples will experience persecution. It wasn't going to be easy. They knew who he was and he was going to win victory over sin, death and hell, and they would see this. But this did not mean their lives were going to be all roses and happy. They were to anticipate persecution. They anticipate not only the good but the bad, and we also see in these first few verses that we looked at today that when judgment comes, it is world shaking.
Prophetic language here often speaks of things at a cosmic level. It shakes everything, it changes the world in the way we know it. In other words, we know when judgment is coming, and so we're called to anticipate, to live ready to see these things. The warnings prepare us for persecution. They prepare us to live our lives ready for the coming of Jesus, and we see Jesus stressing the importance of all of this idea of anticipation with his fig tree illustration. As always, getting an image of something helps us to understand this. This is really good, because you and I can really appreciate this illustration that Jesus used here.
We know what it's like to see the signs of summer and to be excited, whether it's a robin jumping in a snow bank, whether it's a tulip unearthing itself, or maybe just trees giving us a few green buds. We look forward in anticipation of summer when we see these things, and it's natural for us to read a passage like this one and consider these visible signs, the things that are to be seen, but let's not forget the sense of anticipation that we have that they would have had as well. There's hope, a deep sense of hope in looking for summer isn't there. We really understood that last year, when we had a snowpile that was still taller than all of us in May, we knew the summer was coming and every time we had a sign it felt good to know that it was on the way. And notice the sense of anticipation and hope that we're to have here with the type of fig tree that Jesus talks about. He talks about a fig tree. We're not talking about an oak or a cottonwood tree budding and we're happy to see green leaves because summer is coming. It's more than that. The tree Jesus uses as an illustration bears fruit. It is harvested.
The idea here is that something is growing out of this, that something bigger is happening, and the anticipation is not only that a better season is coming, but that a harvest takes place. And so, as they anticipate the coming of judgment there to be hopeful even though it's judgment there is hope. They're told to anticipate this, and we see some time-sensitive statements in here from Jesus. Jesus tells them that their generation will not pass away before these things happen, in other words, the people that he's talking to. They're going to be alive when the destruction of the temple occurs. And then, he puts an exclamation point on these words by saying that everything that we know might pass away, but his words will not. He's telling his disciples to take his words to the bank. This prophecy is true what he has spoken will come to pass. And there's a lot more that I could say about this important statement, about the authority of Jesus and about the authority of the New Testament that is in our point today. Jesus is telling his disciples to anticipate what he has prophesied, because it's a sure thing, and as we consider this idea of anticipation in the context of Advent this morning, you and I should take this idea to heart.
The word of God is trustworthy and authoritative, the prophetic word given for the coming of the Messiah. It came to pass why? Because heaven and earth will pass away, but the word of the Lord does not. The promise one came because God spoke the promise, and God cannot lie. And we see here the Messiah speaking of the destruction of Jerusalem and the destruction of the temple. And it came to pass why? Because heaven and earth will pass away, but the words of the Lord Jesus do not. And so an essential application for us today is to live with the hope and anticipation of the second coming of Jesus Christ, because the same word of God spoken regarding his first coming is the same word of God that tells us he's coming a second time. As surely as Jesus comes at Christmas, he will come at the end of history to deliver his kingdom to his Father, that is sure. So may we live in anticipation and hope of this great truth that Christ will return.
And so our first point was to live in anticipation. Our second point, then, from the text is to remain alert. So the disciples received the information that no one knows the day or the hour when judgment comes, not the angels nor the sun. So they have to stay awake, they need to be on guard. Now this can be a complex idea for you and I to wrap our heads around. What do we mean by keeping awake? Now I know what happens when I try to stay awake. I can't be the only one who finds it harder to stay awake when you're trying to stay awake.
Whenever I read these passages telling us to keep awake, I have a memory of a billboard that I saw in 1999. Now, is that a good memory, or what Right? We lived in Sioux City at the time I was manager at the Toys R Us there and the airport in Sioux City was trying to get people to stop driving the 100 miles to the Omaha airport to save a little money, and what the billboards had to say was not hey, we'll give you a discount to make it worth your while. It was nothing like that. It wasn't a financial reason. Instead, the billboard was a close up of someone behind a steering wheel of a car with bloodshot eyes and toothpicks holding their eyes open. Now I think we can relate to that. I really think we can, because I think we've all had a moment where we've been on the road and felt like that person on the billboard, whether it was pushing through to get home from a long trip or thinking you know what? I can make it another 30 miles, I'll stop at a hotel 30 miles down the road, and then you find out there is a hotel 30 miles down the road.
I think we've all pushed the limits of keeping awake and, because that's common to the human experience, that might be how we see the idea of keeping awake here, that we need to fight through it and stay awake, and this idea of staying awake can be fatiguing when we think about it that way and we think you know what we'll eventually succumb. You can only stay awake so long. But let's look at how Jesus describes this. The context here is more than just staying awake for the sake of staying awake. This isn't a middle school student at their first lock in staying awake so they can tell everybody they stayed awake 24 hours. That's not the point of staying awake.
The illustration Jesus uses here is that there is a task to do, there is a job to be done. What we see is there's a man who's going on a journey and he tells the doorkeeper to stay awake. That's his job. He must know who is coming to the gate. He has to let them in. The master doesn't tell the doorkeeper when he'll be back. He just says to stay awake. And as we look at this, Jesus uses the four watches of the night in the way that the Romans identified them. There was the evening, there was midnight, there was the rooster's crow and then there was morning. And so, in other words, Jesus is saying you don't know when the master is going to return. You need to stay on task. You need to be prepared to be the one who keeps the gate. You need to be awake, you need to be ready, you need to be prepared to do this important job of opening the door when the master returns. Why? Because he can return suddenly, and this is different from the idea of quickness. Here, when we think about suddenly, it's about the unexpected nature of the return. It could be in the first watch of the night or it could be the last. You need to keep awake Because when it happens, it will be sudden.
Now, I think our natural inclination to think about this being alert is to go back to that old bumper sticker that used to say Jesus is coming back, look busy. Maybe I'm the only one who remembers that, but I always remember that bumper sticker. The calling that we have on us to be alert is not one of being ready so that we aren't caught unfaithful. And if Jesus catches us doing a sin, we'll get sent to hell. We know that we're saved by grace, through faith, but if we get caught doing a sin when Jesus comes back, we think maybe we could be in really big trouble and all that grace might go out the window. Let's be honest, we think that way. Now, of course, we desire to be holy, we desire to live holy lives. But the purpose behind staying alert is different than we'll be heaven ready, that will have enough works built up or we won't be doing something bad so that we can get to heaven.
The objective here is to be a faithful servant all the time, to be doing the tasks that sets before us, to be at the door doing the job that the Master has called us to do. Why? Because we're his servants, because we love the Master, we want to do the job that he set before us. We're alert because he's called us to be holy, to strive to live a holy life. We are alert when we're worshiping him. We keep awake as we disciple our children. All these things are how we avoid slumber, and these are the tasks that God sets before us.
Now, sometimes we act like the things of the world are better, the things of the world are more fun and Jesus is coming back. So we have to stop doing those things. We'd like to look at it that way, but the call to alertness here is a reminder to us that the things of God are the things that really matter. Holiness matters, faithfulness matters. Being a disciple of Jesus is more important than all the other things that the world sets out before us. The call to anticipate the return of Christ and to be alert is a reminder to keep awake by dwelling on the things of God and not the things of the world, because when the Lord returns at the end of history to deliver His kingdom to His Father, none of the stuff that we strive after is going to matter. The kingdom work that we do matters for eternity, and as I contemplated this topic this week, an old song I used to listen to in high school came up on Shuffle on Spotify.
It was a song called the Strength by a band called the Crucified, and the chorus goes like this. It says then He'll come and all will be lost. You'll be swept with the tide, your shelter of clay and I was thinking about these words and that just hit me more than it ever had. The song has always stuck with me, but that chorus captures what I'm trying to say. Staying awake means we concern ourselves more with the things of God than the shelters of clay that we make in this world. We keep awake by worrying about what God has called us to instead of the stuff that's going to end up in a landfill. So we stay alert. That is the call on us to anticipate, to be alert.
And finally, as we close up, I want us to think of this assurance that we have in Jesus. And I know what some of you are probably thinking, mark, you can't keep preaching. Those are the last verses that we read this morning. You have to be done. Well, I'm going to do something I don't do very often. I'm going to go back to a few verses, as you see here, to verse 32, to give us our final application of hope and assurance here today. See, I've been encouraging you to spend this Advent season using our celebration of the coming of Jesus at Christmas to focus our thoughts on the second coming and of the truths.
We confess the second coming is most likely to make us a little anxious. We confess that Jesus will return to judge the living and the dead, but we struggle with what that's going to look like. We struggle with the idea of judgment. We struggle with the fact that Scripture teaches that it happens suddenly, like a thief in the night. And then you add in statements like the one that Jesus makes here in Mark 13, 32, that even Jesus doesn't know when this is going to occur. Well, that's a formula that makes us apprehensive, to say the least, and what I want to do is to focus on the three final words up here that Jesus has to say when we think about the words of Jesus regarding the return, only the Father. Because when we think about the return of Jesus, I think the first thing that maybe comes to mind for us is the idea of chaos, confusion. The idea of Jesus not even knowing when it will occur adds to this for us. Add in the fact that the interpretation of Bible prophecy that developed over the last 200 years focuses heavily on the idea of chaos and selling the idea of chaos to us, we're bound to be nervous and decide to avoid thinking about the return of Jesus, and that is why I want us to think about these last three words Only the Father.
God is sovereign. Even if no one else knows what will happen, the Father knows. The one we confess is the maker of heaven and earth; he is in control and he is so good that he sent his son to suffer the wrath that we deserve for our sin. Jesus rose from the dead and we're united to Jesus in His death and resurrection, so we can boldly call this powerful and sovereign one. Father. We have a good heavenly Father, and we have the full assurance of faith, knowing that Jesus, the one who will return to judge the living and the dead, he is the one who assures us that, because we are in Him, we will not face the wrath of God, because Jesus has already taken that on for us. And so, as we anticipate and we remain alert this Advent season, we can also find assurance in the goodness of the Father.
The God who ordained the child born in Bethlehem as our Savior is the same God who ordains the second coming of Jesus. Whether the return of the Lord Jesus Christ, is today or whether it's 500 years from now, we know that the result is that the kingdom of this world has become the kingdom of our Lord and of His Christ, and our good Father will reign forever and ever. So may we anticipate the second coming of Christ, being alert at His coming, but may we have assurance that our good Father is in control. Amen, let us pray. Gracious Father, we thank you for the gift of your word, that in it we hear the story of salvation in Christ, and because of that we can have full assurance of faith that, as we anticipate your second coming, we can know that we have salvation and that you are the one who is in control. As we prepare for Christmas, prepare our hearts for your second coming as well, that we might be found faithful as your servants. In the name of Jesus that we pray, amen.
