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s2ndlast03
Countdown to Eternity:
Clouds of Judgment
Text:
Mark 13:24-31
Date: The Second-Last Sunday in the Church Year
11/16/03 nude 3gpp videos
In our “Countdown to Eternity” series on the Olivet
Discourse in this literally pivotal thirteenth chapter of Mark’s
Gospel—the bridge chapter between the account of our Lord’s earthly
ministry and his passion, death and resurrection—Jesus is responding
to the question of his disciples, "Tell us, when will these
things be, and what will be the sign when all these things are about
to be accomplished?" [Mark 13:4 (ESV)]. “These things” the
disciples had in mind concerned Jesus’ prediction of the destruction
of the Jerusalem temple. But “these things” of which Jesus now speaks
take into view not only that event but also everything related to
God’s breaking in to our world and our lives to save us. To limit
what Jesus here says either just to the Jerusalem temple prediction
on the one hand or only to the eschatological Last Day of his final
coming in judgment and glory on the other hand is to miss the gospel,
the good news, the Divine message of grace and salvation which is
for all people of all time and every place, not the least important
being you and me, here and now. For the “clouds of judgment” we
are speaking of today appear on many horizons—in Jesus’ earthly
ministry, in his cross and passion, in the preaching of his apostles,
in the destruction of Jerusalem in 70 a.d. , and in your baptism,
in sermon and sacrament as well as on the Last Day. The “Countdown
to Eternity” has already happened, will happen on a final day in
the future, and is happening right here, right now in your hearing.
Those who are old enough may remember the constant,
relentless, echoing drumbeat that accompanied the burial cortege
of President John F. Kennedy who was assassinated forty years ago
this coming Saturday, the twenty-second of November. I was fourteen
years old and recorded the entire thing on my first reel-to-reel
tape recorder running at one-and-seven-eighths inches-per-second,
quarter-track, monaural on all four “sides” of the seven-inch reel
of tape. I’ll never forget that funereal dirge echoing through the
canyons of Washington D.C. and the airwaves of a stunned and silent
country. Well, there is a constant, relentless drumbeat throughout
St. Mark’s gospel: the phrase, “in those days.” “In those days”
is a signal to arouse our attention to God breaking in and acting
“for us men and for our salvation.” “In those days Jesus came from
Nazareth of Galilee and was baptized by John in the Jordan” [Mark
1:9 (ESV)]. “In those days, when again a great crowd had gathered,
and they had nothing to eat,” Jesus fed the 4,000 [Mark 8:1 (ESV)].
“In those days, after that tribulation, the sun will be darkened,
and the moon will not give its light” [Mark 13:24 (ESV)]. “In those
days” points us to God arising and acting in the Person of his Son,
Jesus.
John the Baptist saw the clouds of judgment gather
as Jesus came to be baptized by him in the Jordan River. He preached
words of judgment, “Bear fruit in keeping with repentance…. Even
now the axe is laid to the root of the trees” [Matthew 3:8, 10 (ESV)].
He would have prevented Jesus, saying, “I need to be baptized by
you,” but Jesus came to take his place along side of sinners to
fulfill all righteousness, to bear our sin and to be our Savior.
John called him “the Lamb of God, who takes away the sin of the
world!” [John 1:29 (ESV)].
“In those days, after that tribulation, the sun will be darkened,
and the moon will not give its light.” After the scourging and spitting
and slapping and mocking, the Lamb of God became the cursed of God
as he was hung on a cross. Though he came as the Light shining in
our darkness, he took the darkness of our sin into himself, the
clouds of judgment gathered and “there was darkness over the whole
land” from the sixth to the ninth hour [Mark 15:33 (ESV)]. This
was no radical rabbi, no deluded religious lunatic. “When the centurion
and those who were with him, keeping watch over Jesus, saw the earthquake
and what took place, they were filled with awe and said, ‘Truly
this was the Son of God!’" [Matthew 27:54 (ESV)]. “In Christ
God was reconciling the world to himself, not counting their trespasses
against them” [2 Cor. 5:19 (ESV)].
Truly, truly that generation did not pass away until
the clouds of judgment came “in those days” at the hand of the Roman
Empire and Jerusalem and the temple were laid waste in 70 a.d. Indeed,
in the revolt of the 130s Jerusalem became a Roman city and the
Jews were evicted, not even allowed to go into it. It seemed that
heaven and earth were passing away. What had actually passed away
were the shadows of the things to come in the substance of Jesus
Christ crucified and risen again, the Lord to whom was given the
keys of the kingdom of heaven.
“In those days,” “he will send out the angels and gather his elect.”
The angels are the messengers. “Every day, in the temple and from
house to house, [the apostles] did not cease teaching and preaching
Jesus as the Christ” [Acts 5:42 (ESV)]. “In those days” there arose
“a great persecution against the church in Jerusalem,” and “those
who were scattered went about preaching the word” [Acts 8:1, 4 (ESV)].
This is how the elect are gathered, through the preaching of the
gospel. Sunday after Sunday in places like this all around the world
the good news is preached and the clouds of judgment gather. For
today is the day of salvation, now is the judgment depending on
whether you receive Christ or reject him.
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