9
Mark 13:14-23
What is the Abomination of Desolation and how should we feel about error in the church?
I. Anyone want to help me start my own cult?
More than 900 people died. It was 1978 and according to their pastor, “it was time.” The Peoples Temple in Guyana South America in a settlement known as Jonestown was the site of a mass suicide as a beloved California Pastor led nearly a thousand people to their grave.
Sergey Torop, known by his followers as Vissarion claimed to be a reincarnation of Jesus. Teaching that the religions should all be united into the Church of the Last Testament with no vices, a commitment to veganism and a good mix of Buddhism, Russian Orthodoxism, apocalypticism, collectivism and ecology, he now leads up to 50,000 followers from his City of the Sun or Abode of the Dawn in Siberia.
A group of nearly 200 people moved fro Taiwan to Garland TX, claiming that it was Gods land (Gar land = God’s land) to wait for God to return to earth in his flying saucer, March 31, 1998. Hengmin Chen, the leader of “God saves the earth Flying Saucer Association, claims to talk to God through his hand. He offered to surender his life to his followers if his prophecies didn’t come true. To this day, we don’t know what happened to him, but most of his followers, who bought round trip plane tickets, went back home.
False teachers abound. I doubt any of you have any plans to make your way to Guyana or Siberia or God-forbid—Texas :) to wait for the coming of the Lord. I think most of you are intelligent enough to dismiss these morons.
If any of you were mildly enamored by any of the above stories and wonder if any of these guys could have been right, please talk to me afterwards. I have always had this special dream to start my own cult, we could all have secret names, and elaborate ceremonies and I could talk for hours and you could all just sit in awe of me and the revelation that God has given to me alone. In my vision, God will talk to me on my shoe, like Maxwell Smart, he will endow me with certain miraculous powers that all of you will believe even without my proving it, and you will all bring me gifts and do my bidding incessantly. So, we are meeting in the café after the worship service if anyone is interested. Please strike that from the recording.
This week we are in Mark 13, right in the middle of a talk about the end times.
II. Anyone with an interest in the end of time?
How many of you have some kind of interest in end times stuff? Show of hands.
A few of you either don’t care or don’t understand. They say you might be End Times insensitive if…
· You think the apocalypse is a car manufactured by Toyota.
· When you hear talk about the Doomsday event, you are confused about why people are making such a big fuss about the WWF wrestling match
· You ignore conversations about political turmoil in the Middle east, because you didn’t vote in NY.
My guess is most of you have at least a mild interest in all of this and some of you are daily keeping up with the goings on in Israel and Iran and Iraq because you think they have something to do with the end of the world.
If you know me at all by now, you know I am not persuaded. But I am convinced that the passage before us today deals heavily with Israel.
Just to remind you of where we are, since you may have forgotten with all the feasting during thanksgiving, and stressful family and the fact that it has been two weeks since we were in Mark.
The last time I preached the disciples asked Jesus about the close of the age. They were asking about the destruction of the temple and the destruction of the world. Jesus has begun to answer the first part of their question. He wont answer part 2 till next week, although feel free to look ahead. He has told us that what we expect will not be taking place. All the signs that are coming, are just that…signs. They are not the end. When they happen, don’t expect the end. When false teachers come, don’t believe them—its not the end. When wars and rumors of wars and people get beaten, this is not the end. Persecution will happen, and that is not the end.
But there is more to the story—even more to answer part 1 of the disciples question—when is the end of the temple?
III. What in the world is “the Abomination of Desolation?”
This brings us to verses 14-23. The time when the abomination of desolation sets himself up in the temple. What they heard about in verse 7…hear of wars and rumors of wars…they now see in verse 14…when you see the abomination of desolation standing where he ought not to be…
…let the reader understand-- then let those who are in Judea flee to the mountains.
This abomination of desolation has brought much controversy, but there is no question in the context that it is referring to something unlawful being set up in the temple.
But let’s read the whole thing, then I will show you what it means.
15 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-- and never to be equaled again.
This is cataclysmic language saying how terrible something is.
20 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.
21 At that time if anyone says to you, 'Look, here is the Christ!' or, 'Look, there he is!' do not believe it.
22 For false Christs and false prophets will appear and perform signs and miracles to deceive the elect-- if that were possible.
23 So be on your guard; I have told you everything ahead of time.
So what is the abomination of desolation?
Well we know that when it comes, that is their cue to run. So it must not be a good thing. But our confusion over this is only because of our biblical ignorance. The people at that time would have immediately harkened to the book of Daniel and perhaps even Maccabees
The term itself is probably meant to remind them of Daniel 11:31 (also in Daniel 9 and 12) which says,
“His armed forces will rise up to desecrate the temple fortress and will abolish the daily sacrifice. Then they will set up the abomination of desolation.”
I Maccabees 1:54-56 (apocryphal) identifies an abomination of desolation, under the tyranny of Antiochus Ephiphanes
Now of the fifteenth day of Chislev, in the one hundred fourty-fifth year, they erected a desolating sacrilege (abomination of desolation) on the altar of burnt offering. They also built altars in the surrounding towns of Judah, and offered incense at the doors of the houses and in the streets. The books of the law that they found they tore to pieces and burned with fire (NRSV)
So the abomination of desolation refers to something happening near or in the temple (the place that it does not belong) and causing great offense. Antiochus (IV) Ephiphanes was well known at that time as the Syrian General who outraged the Jews in 168 by making a statue of Zeus on the burnt offering in the temple and sacrificing a sow on it.
This was an abomination to the Jews. The worst sacrilege that could be imagined.
So the abomination is a coming great offense in the temple like that of 200 years earlier. Someone will come into the temple and do things only God does. And when this happens, you aren’t to think its God, you aren’t to think it’s the end of time. In fact, all Jesus can say is “RUN!” Another way of saying, that life will be very bad for you.
And the people of that time were to understand the hint. Verse 14 says “let the reader understand.” Some scholars suggest this parenthetical note is a note to the public reader of scripture to emphasize that which makes this understandable. That is, the little participle, standing is masculine. The abomination of desolation (neuter) is standing (masculine) which may be a hint that this is an individual and not something that is put there. So some suggest that this is exactly what happened in 70 AD when the Roman, Titus entered the temple. And disaster fell upon them. Eusebius says this was the beginning of the great flight.
Now, we should be careful. We don’t know for sure what this refers to. My guess is it is the general time around the destruction. We don’t need to be tied to a specific time. But when the armies are surrounding and when you think its all going down. RUN!
This isn’t a cry for everyone to run when things get tough. Even the disciples are told in verse 13 that only those who persevere to the end will be saved. But there is no reason to be killed or hurt for the sake of the temple. The temple is nothing. It has been fulfilled in Jesus. Stand strong for Jesus, but not for the temple.
So lets read this passage again with this understanding in mind
15 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.
When the bad stuff happens, don’t waste time going back for anything. You have to get out. Its going to be bad. So bad in fact…
17 How dreadful it will be in those days for pregnant women and nursing mothers!
It’s not easy to Run like mad when you are carrying an extra 50 pounds either in your belly or in your snuggly.
18 Pray that this will not take place in winter,
Crossing Wadis will not be easy when it is freezing.
19 because those will be days of distress unequaled from the beginning, when God created the world, until now-- and never to be equaled again.
This is cataclysmic language saying how terrible something is. It’s not necessarily saying literally that nothing has ever been this bad before. My guess is that the flood was pretty bad. It is just a way of saying, this is going to a time of great tribulation.
20 If the Lord had not cut short those days, no one would survive.
The time is so bad, that people will be dying everywhere. In fact, all of Jerusalem will be laid waste if God didn’t have his hand on it. After all, this is all preordained by God. He is using these Romans to end the time of the temple and cause people to focus on this new age.
But for the sake of the elect, whom he has chosen, he has shortened them.
But he does love his people. He will shorten the time so that he will still have a remnant
21 At that time if anyone says to you, 'Look, here is the Christ!' or, 'Look, there he is!' do not believe it.
22 For false Christs and false prophets will appear and perform signs and miracles to deceive the elect-- if that were possible.
It’s going to be so bad, that you are going to think it is the end of time. Its not, but you will think it is. And you will be looking for Jesus to appear and save you from this hell. And some people will come and say, “Here I am,” or “there he is”, but it’s not me.
23 So be on your guard; I have told you everything ahead of time.
The key to this whole chapter—be on your guard. Don’t believe everything you hear. Be alert. You have the information about what will happen, now be ready.
The next verse will usher us into the end of the world as you think of it.
You know what I mean by that? Just want to clarify again. It is the end of the world in 70 AD. The end of the world as they know it. An age is past, a new one is beginning. It’s not the end of time, but it’s the end of the age.
But verse 24 will begin even more cosmic language and will speak of Jesus himself coming back.
That’s why it’s so important to see two different things going on here. The main theme—don’t believe people who say they are Jesus. Why not? Because there will be no question as to who Jesus really is. He isn’t going to come back and do a few cool magic tricks. When he comes back, there will be no doubt. It won’t be a secret. He will come as a thief in the night but that doesn’t mean quietly, it means when people don’t expect it.
And people wont disappear for 7 years, there will be a trumpet sound and they will see the Son of Man coming in clouds with great power and glory.
Okay I am getting excited, but that is next week’s sermon.
IV. If it all refers to something in the past, is it at all relevant for today?
So does this text have anything to say to people now? You have said, pastor, that this all culminates in 70 AD, so who really cares? But lest we be completely stuck in the past, this is a type or a figure of what is presently around us.
2 Thessalonians speaks of a man of lawlessness, who will trigger the coming of the Lord. But then Paul does just what Mark does here. He warns against mistaken eschatological (end times) assumptions like all these signs and wonders.
Yes, this is speaking about the generation of the disciples (verse 30 will clear that up next week), but it is also looking to the future. To every generation of false teacher and every generation of persecution that is coming. Revelation denounces churches whose lights are growing dim because they listen to Jezebel—she is a symbol of false teaching.
V. What is the theme of this entire chapter?
This passage has one big theme broken into two major pieces.
The big theme is GET READY! Be alert, don’t be caught napping. This is true for them and it is true for us as we look at the big picture. And what are we alert for and against?