Word of Salvation – Vol.42 No.27 – July 1997
What Awaits Christ’s Disciples Then and Now
A Sermon by Rev D Van Garderen on Mark 13:9-13
Scripture Readings: Mark 13:1-13; Matthew 10:1, 5-31
Suggested Hymns:
PsH: 14:1-3; 424:1-3, 5; 18; 135; 187:5-6
Dear Congregation,
When you look at the history of the church, both ancient and modern, it soon becomes clear that time and time again God’s children, faithful communities of believers who really love and look to Jesus, have been abused, attacked, beaten, scattered, and even murdered. Suffering and persecution has been a part of the essence of God’s church from the very beginning.
What history also shows is that, in times of great stress and suffering, Christians and churches often seem to let their guard down and allow self-appointed (self-anointed) false shepherds, teachers, prophets and messiahs, lead them astray by false interpretations and insights. Deceivers use these crises to worm their way into the heart and life of God’s people to control and deceive them!
It is this scenario that the Lord Jesus instructs and warns us about in Mark 13:9-13. He knew that crises would become a part of the experience of his church after his departure, in these ‘last days.’
In Mark 13:5-8 Jesus began his urgent warning. Watch out that no one deceives you!!’ False shepherds, false prophets, false teachers, self-appointed ‘messiahs’ who claim the anointing of Jesus will come in Jesus’ name and deceive many. They will claim great authority, power and insights. They will claim to be able to interpret the signs of the times and make prophecies about the future. They will claim wisdom from heaven! Be warned!
How will these deceivers operate? They will point to the signs of the times’ in order to unsettle and distract Jesus’ disciples from the work they are called to do. They will convince many that the end’ is about to come. They will use these ‘signs’ and give them their own interpretations to suit their own agendas. ‘Watch out!’ says Jesus. Sure, these ‘signs’ must happen, but the end is yet to come! Because, says Jesus, ‘these are the beginning of birth pains.’
In Mark 13:9-13 the warning and instruction continues. ‘Be on your guard!’ Another ploy that these false, self-appointed leaders/shepherds use is to draw attention to the strife, suffering, set-backs and persecution the church experiences and claim that these, too, are sure signs of the end of birth pains. They will use these events to further their own wickedness! Don’t be distracted by them.
In Mark 13:5-8 Jesus points out just as the ‘signs of the times’ are signs of the beginning of birth pains; now in Mark 13:9-13, he also reminds us that suffering and persecution for being a Christian belongs in the same category. That is what he sets out to teach and explain in these verses.
WHAT AWAITS CHRIST’S CHURCH
Anyone and everyone who wants to be linked to Jesus as his disciple or a living member of his body must expect to experience the same kind of treatment He did. Jesus himself was handed over to both Jewish authorities (the Sanhedrin) and Roman authorities (Pontius Pilate). You who are linked to him must, because of him, be ready and willing to travel the same path.
Note well how Jesus emphasises this. In 13:9 he says, ‘on account of me you will stand before governors.’ Again, in 13:13, ‘All men will hate you because of me.’
Jesus knew what he himself would experience a few days after he spoke this final message. He also knew that, like him, his disciples would be persecuted by their fellow Jews. The ‘local councils’ (Sanhedrins) were local Jewish courts dealing with religious issues. These councils had authority to exercise discipline to those whom they believed were ‘heretics’ and they did this by flogging — 39 lashes or strokes. You will recall that Paul, before he became a disciple, used to inflict this on Christians if he caught them, and that he himself, afterwards, experienced this no less than five times at the hands of the Jews! (2 Cor 11:24).
Civil authorities would also become involved. Just like Jesus was dragged before Pontius Pilate (representing Rome), so the disciples would appear before Jewish kings and Roman governors (think of Paul appearing before Herod Agrippa, Felix and Festus). Just like Jesus before them, his disciples would also be regarded as a threat to the political as well as the religious stability of the land!
Keep in mind that these things happened from the very beginning of the existence of the church. Within days of beginning to witness to Jesus in Jerusalem, Peter and John and the rest of the disciples found themselves being hauled before the authorities!
It is also noteworthy that Jesus issued these warnings in other settings as well. For example, the very first time he sent the Twelve out to preach, his warnings, instructions and words of comfort were identical with those found here in Mark 13. The kind of persecution Jesus describes certainly came to a head and was terrible during the final years leading up to the destruction of the temple in AD 70. Jewish persecution of Christians was very real and it was at this time that Rome (via Nero) became involved, too. Those years set a pattern that arose again and again during the first 300 years of the church’s history. It was in this era that the ancient church father Tertullian, wrote:
”Go on, rack, torture, grind us to powder: our numbers increase in proportion as you mow us down. The blood of the Christians is their harvest seed.”
The fact is, that persecution, being tortured for Christ, has always been a part of the Church’s experience, it comes in waves with periods of relative peace and quiet followed by times of great turmoil and violence.
That is still true today. No century has seen more persecution and martyrs than this one. It has been observed many times that, in spite of our experience in places like New Zealand (Australia), there has been more persecution and have been more martyrs for Christ in this century than the sum of all who have suffered this in the previous nineteen!
The point? Jesus wants his disciples then and now to be on their guard – to be ready for and in fact expect these things to happen. He points out that if you are going to be his disciple, a part of his body, you will be hated, persecuted just like, and, above all, because of him. That is the unavoidable cost of discipleship.
Scary? Absolutely! After all, no normal person goes looking for suffering and persecution. Furthermore, there is nothing as discouraging as really getting into the work of proclaiming and building the Kingdom, starting to see positive results, seeing spiritual growth and progress – and then, wham, bang-out comes Satan, guns blazing! Despair, wanting to give up, losing hope and the belief that Christ will ever have dominion over land and sea, overwhelm you with all the force of a tidal wave.
How to cope?
- First and foremost, remember Jesus’ own example! He conquered through suffering. Just at that point when the enemy thought he had triumphed as Jesus was nailed to a cross – Jesus conquered!
- Second, in this passage and in others, Jesus teaches us to expect this as the cost of genuine discipleship.
- Jesus also reminds us to look beyond the moment, beyond the set-back, the suffering and even death. Yes, Satan and his ilk may win occasional battles… but the war?
How to look beyond the moment? Jesus does this in vss.10-11. First look at vs 10. ‘And the gospel must first be preached to all nations.’ This is a notoriously difficult verse which, according to many Bible scholars, is a misfit within this context. They say that 9 & 11 belong together and 10 interrupts the flow. Even conservative scholars seem to agree that all the sayings in VSS.9-13 are ‘floating’ ones – that is, probably gathered together by Mark from different contexts.
Whilst Jesus probably said the same things in other contexts, he certainly said it as described here in Mark 13. It does fit. What Jesus is in fact saying here is that, before he returns, the gospel must and will most certainly first be preached to all nations. This prophecy is especially important for Christians who are being persecuted, who are only seeing set-backs and a church on the defensive rather than offensive!
Why? For several reasons:
It is extremely easy to judge the church and its mission through the eyes and ears of your own experience and thus to lose sight of the whole picture. For example, the picture of the church in New Zealand (Australia) is one of a church community shrinking, having less and less impact. We speak and think easily of Christianity having had its day, of this being a post-Christian era. You wonder what the future holds. The gospel is failing. It’s is being smothered to death by the spirit of this age. You lose heart.
For a long time, anyone serving and loving the Lord Jesus in the former USSR must have thought that there was no future there. The communist government virtually destroyed the church.
When Mark wrote his Gospel in about 66 AD, the Christians in Rome had just experienced terrible persecution under Nero. Both Peter and Paul had been killed. The church went underground into the catacombs and sewers of the city. It seemed like the end! No hope. No future! Satan and his minions are like a conquering, roaring lion undoing the work of Christ!
Worried? OK! But don’t let anyone try to use a period of persecution and suffering to tell you that the Great Commission is finished. Don’t let them use these experiences to tell you to give up working for the Lord and start getting ready for Judgement Day! Why? Because the Gospel will reach the uttermost ends of the earth! Nothing and no one will ultimately stop God’s purpose and plans from being accomplished!
What God says must happen, will! Don’t be alarmed by these alarmists! Don’t be taken in! Be on your guard, especially when the going gets tough! Because, no matter what, before that Day, the gospel must first be preached to all nations!
Who will be up to that? Who will be able to keep on fighting even when the battle seems hopeless… when you stand as a defenceless lamb, an innocent dove, before the roaring lion, the powers of this present darkness, the poison of satanic vipers? God himself will be. Notice, in vs 11 how God will do that! 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.
Never on your own! Never reliant on your own experiences! God, through the Holy Spirit will speak. Proof? Just look at the testimony of the book of the Acts of the Apostles: to Peter, John and Peter, and Paul.
Brothers and sisters, prophets of doom, claiming with piety to have the Spirit of Christ by anointing to their so-called “holy calling’ will come upon you and point to suffering, to setbacks, to disappointments – and use them to unsettle you! They will use these events to ‘prove’ that their prophecies are true and will use them to divert you from the goal and purpose of your calling in Christ! Be on your guard!
DON’T BE MISLED – EVEN BY PERSECUTION FROM WITHIN!
It is said that the most effective and damaging ways in which the powers of this present darkness undermine Christ’s disciples is through betrayal and deceit from within the ‘household’. The Judas Iscariots of this world – fifth columnists – those who were once with you – are the hardest to face.
Remember Jesus returning to Nazareth and the reception he got there? Remember Judas? When members of God’s household – even worse, when members of your own family — brother to brother, parents to children, children to parents – turn to each other and betray – the world really looks ready to collapse! How often haven’t we heard Christians cry, ‘I can take it when unbelievers, those who are not of our household, stick in the knife by lying and cheating and deceiving, but when a fellow believer does it – that’s too much! When believers turn on each other – that’s the end!’
When those you trust and look for to support you turn against you, the going gets tough. In that context you can hear the father of lies crowing: ‘Give up! Go on, give up!’ He wants you to crawl into your corner and withdraw from the battle. He’ll often attack you through those you really thought you could trust. A spirit of inertia, of despair, of being disappointed in and because of each other really works as far as making the church lose its focus and breaking it’s concern. And then opportunists will step in, create their little breakaway groups and split the church’s effectiveness into pieces!
CONCLUDING COMMENTS
How well the Lord knew the trials and tribulations that would continue to surge through the church in never ceasing, ever recurring waves! How vulnerable the church would become. How easily distracted, discouraged and disappointed! How tempting to give up.
See now the purpose of the Lord’s words in Mark 13:9-13? Stand firm!! Don’t be distracted! Disciple, congregation, the future is secure! The gospel must first be preached to all nations. When God says must, it will happen! You will be given the strength of the Holy Spirit to endure – even when you stand before authorities and even if they kill you and destroy your church! You will experience attacks – also from within.
But keep on! Jesus is Lord! Christ shall have dominion! True, all men will hate you because of Jesus – but, as Jesus said: ‘he/she who stands firm to the end will be saved!’ (13:13). Hallelujah!
Amen,