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Mark 13 32-37, Not Even The “But concerning that day… no one knows, 36:30 “But concerning that day or that hour, no one knows, not even the angels in heaven, nor the Son, but only the Father.” Mark 13:32 not even the Son” // Mark 13:32–37 // The Difficult Sayings of Jesus #6 He doesn’t know when he’s coming back? Uhhh… Isn’t he the Son of God? How could the Son of God not know something—especially something important like his own schedule for returning? Maybe this Compassion week shows he really wasn’t God… • Gotten my whole family involved • Compassion is an amazing organization Well, first, realize that this is not the only time Jesus is described like o Over 400 kids a day last year accepted Christ at this, with limitations: Compassion projects around the world. That's 164,000 • Luke 2:52 tells us, for example, that Jesus “increased in wisdom children! and stature.” How does Jesus “increase in wisdom? Can the all- o Local church knowing God get wiser? • Hebrews tells he “learned obedience”… which means he had to This is our 2nd to last week in our series The Difficult Sayings of Jesus be trained to do certain things, like eat his vegetables… just because “mom and dad said so.” (You think, “Well, shouldn’t God These are statements that put the real Jesus front and center. (As I’ve have known that vegetables were superior to Twizzlers? Didn’t he explained… The real Jesus caused one of two reactions: devoted love invent anti-oxidants?”) or extreme hatred—people either fell at his feet and offered him their whole lives or they tried to kill him.) It appears that Jesus had to learn some things, on earth, just like you and me learn them. The irony today is that many people feel bored with Jesus. But that • (Most of us, you see, think of Jesus as a baby savant, sitting just shows they’ve never really taken him seriously. No one in the around in the nursery at 3 years old lecturing the other toddlers Gospels was ever bored with Jesus... fraud, phony, yes. People who about the Christological implications of Leviticus 13 and waxing know Jesus tend to cause division, not because their jerks… but eloquent about the end of the world.) Baby thoughts. because they believe he is who he says he is and take him seriously… • Can I have another fruit snack? He got more goldfish than me. My toy. Well, these “difficult sayings” bring us face to face with the real Jesus. Our next to last difficult saying comes from Mark 13:32, so if How can that be, if he’s God? Let’s do a little theology lesson: From you have a Bible, open it there… the beginning, Christians have believed that the “incarnate” Jesus was both fully God and fully man. That means 100% man; 100% God (not In Mark 13, Jesus is prophesying about the end of the world—he tells 50/50) his disciples about all these ominous things that are going to happen (sun darkened; moon turned to blood)… and then he says: The Council of Chalcedon one of the early church councils, clarified it like this: “Jesus was perfect in Godhead and also perfect in manhood; truly • (By the way, this is one way I know that the Bible was not forged (or, fully) God and truly man. One person… acknowledged in two by people who were trying to create Jesus into this supernatural natures, inconfusedly, unchangeably, indivisibly, inseparably; the figure that he actually wasn’t. Think about it: If you were trying to distinction of natures being by no means taken away by the re-cast a guy who was really just a religious hippie as the SON of union, but rather the property of each nature being preserved.” GOD, why wouldn’t you have edited this statement out? The writers included it not because it advanced their theories, but 33:00 In other words, that he was fully God did not take away from because Jesus actually said it and they were committed to telling him from being fully man; that he was fully man did not take away the truth even when what he said created a lot of problems for from him being fully God. their doctrines.) You see, in order for Jesus to save us, he had to be fully both. Had OK, so, the reason he didn’t know was because he, as a man, had he not been man, he could not have died in our place as a “emptied himself” of access to that knowledge. substitute; had he not been God, he could never have defeated the powers of sin and the grave. 30:00 But… what Jesus says next is really difficult, too: [33] Be on guard, keep awake. For you do not know when the time (of his He was both. And because he was both, during his life we see flashes return) will come. [34] It is like a man going on a journey, when he of either nature. For example: leaves home and puts his servants in charge, each with his work, and • Because he was the son of man, he could become hungry; but commands the doorkeeper to stay awake. [35] Therefore stay because he was the Son of God he fed 5000. awake—for you do not know when the master of the house will • Because he was the son of man, he would get thirsty; but because come, in the evening, or at midnight, or when the rooster crows, or in he was the Son of God, he could turn water into wine; the morning—[36] lest he come suddenly and find you asleep. • Because he was the son of man, he grew weary; but because he [37] And what I say to you I say to all: Stay awake. Be ready, because I was the Son of God, he raised the dead. could return at any moment. • As the son of man, he counted his birthdays; but as the Son of God, he would say, “I am the Alpha and Omega, the beginning and Now, here’s why that’s difficult… Did Jesus really think the end of the end.” world was close? It sounds like it… but that was 2000 years ago, and • Because he was the son of man, he did not know the day or the he still has not yet returned. hour of his return; but because he was the Son of God, he promised he would return on the clouds with power and great So some have concluded that Jesus was wrong here… (Jesus was a glory. product of his time… many people in his day were expecting the end of the world soon, and Jesus went along with that, but he was wrong. While Jesus was on earth, Jesus voluntarily emptied himself of access to a lot of his divine powers. That’s called the kenosis (which means, In fact, they point out that Jesus in this same passage said (vs. 30), literally, the “emptying”), and that’s what’s at work here. In his “Truly, I say to you, this generation will not pass away until all these humanity he doesn’t know, and he’s not accessing his divine powers. things take place.” (Mark 13:30) Well, that generation did pass away and the end had not come, so clearly Jesus was wrong. • C.S. Lewis thought this. But—brace yourself—C.S. Lewis was • He uses the example of Noah. wrong about it. Yes, let that sink in for a minute… those words o God told the world through Russell Crowe that he would actually just came out of my mouth. C.S. Lewis. Was. Wrong. (It’s send a flood and then waited for 120 years before he did important to me that you know that I think C.S. Lewis was wrong it. After Noah said that, maybe the people on earth were sometimes! You’re not going to believe what we heard at church nervous… for the first few months; but after 10 years they today.) were pretty skeptical. After 30 years, would anyone have remembered? 30 years ago was the beginning of the 80’s. Was Jesus wrong? I don’t think so. If some crazy country guy said God was going to destroy • You see, the bigger context of what Jesus is talking about in vs. 30 the world, would you remember it? After 120 years? is the destruction of the Temple (vs. 2). That to him would be a o It was so far out of their minds… So they partied, got milestone in the commencement of the last days… The Messiah drunk… and then it came. And only the Gladiator and would be killed; the Temple would be destroyed, and God would Hermione Granger were saved. begin to gather in the Gentiles from the four corners of the world • Then he tells the story of the master who gave 3 servants large (vs. 27). sums of money. Two of them got busy and invested the money so • And that all took place by 70 A.D., which was in in their lifetime. that the master would have a good profit when he returned, but the 3rd guy must have thought… “He’s not coming back anytime But, it’s clear that not all of it has been completed… for example, vs. soon. I don’t need to invest it.” 26, he has not yet come with power and glory (that hasn’t happened • But the master returns when the servant is not expecting it and yet; he’s risen from the dead with power and glory—so it has begun, casts the servant into outer darkness.
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