Outline:

Who is this man?

Mark 1 - He is the Son of God.

Mark 2 - He is Lord of the Sabbath.

Mark 3 - He is the King of the Church.

Mark 4 - He is God Over All.

Mark 5 - He is the Potentate of Life.

Mark 6 - He is the Sovereign Judge.

Mark 7 - He is the Searcher of Hearts.

Mark 8 - He is the Christ.

Why has He come?

Mark 9 - He Came to Teach Us to See the Kingdom Rightly.

Mark 10 - He Came to Give His Life as a Ransom for Many.

Mark 11 - He Came to Announce Judgment as Anointed of God.

Mark 12 - He Came to Be the Cornerstone.

Mark 13 - He Came to Inaugurate the New Covenant Era.

Mark 14 - He Came to be Betrayed and to Suffer.

Mark 15 - He Came to be Crucified.

Mark 16 - He Came to Win.

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“Christ Crucified”

Sixteen Sermons on Mark's Gospel

Message Thirteen:

“He Came to Inaugurate the New Covenant Era”

August 10, 2003

by Rev. Stephen C. Magee

Exeter Presbyterian Church

Sermon: “He Came to Inaugurate the New Covenant Era”

TEXT: Mark 13 (Page 684 of Pew Bibles)

Introduction: Fig Tree, Vineyard, and Temple

In Mark 11 and Mark 12 we have been learning of something that is going away, and something new that is beginning. The thing that is going away is Israel, Jerusalem, the temple there, and the whole Old Testament Administration of the Covenant of Grace. We have seen this in the cursing of the fig tree and in the cleansing of the temple, and then in the parable that Jesus told regarding the vineyard.

The thing that is new is the new Israel of God, the new city of God, and the new temple of God in His church – which will be comprised now of the elect from all the nations. What is new is the whole New Testament Administration of the Covenant of Grace.

Make no mistake about it. This is a big change. While the Covenant of Grace is still in place, and has been since the fall of Adam, it is entering a new phase – a new administration. The people of the covenant will be different now. Certain aspects of the law of the covenant will be completely fulfilled in Christ, and a new commandment will soon be displayed in the sacrificial love of the cross. The worship of the covenant community will be different now. This will not merely be a matter of a new list of things for worshipers to do or to avoid doing. It will be more than that. The very nature of worship will be changed, as New Testament worshipers will actually enter into heavenly worship. Their Old Testament counterparts were performing pictures of heavenly worship. We, in the simple things that we do in faith, are actually partaking of the true worship of the heavenly kingdom.

The changing of administrations will not be an easy thing. It will begin with the suffering and death of the Son of God. The controversy will not end with the cross. That will only be the beginning of the conflict. The New Testament is full of the story of many difficulties and disagreements associated with this turning point between the Old Testament Administration and the New Testament Administration.

Even beyond the first century, this would continue to be one of the most difficult issues of biblical interpretation – the relationship between the Old Testament way and the New Testament way. This conflict has even continued down to this day. In fact, some of the news stories that have entered upon our state and local papers in recent days are actually about this most important issue, though the participants in the stories may not realize it.

Jesus did realize it. In Mark 13, He warns the disciples about the coming times of conflict and difficulty that they would see in their lifetime. The Old Testament Administration would be, beyond the shadow of a doubt, utterly completed with the destruction of the temple in AD 70. The New Testament Administration would be, beyond the shadow of a doubt, certainly inaugurated with the death of Jesus Christ, very soon after the words of our Savior in Mark 13 were uttered. Jesus, in the words that I now read to you, wanted the disciples to be aware of the turbulence that would accompany the great gift from God of the New Testament church.

THE PASSAGE:

When? What will be the sign?

The occasion for these words is a conversation between Jesus and His disciples. They are admiring the temple, and He prophesies concerning its destruction. They then respond with a question in two parts. When will the temple be destroyed, and what will be the sign that would tell us that it is about to happen?

Not signs, just birth pangs

Jesus immediately warns of false deceivers who would even claim to be Him or claim to come in His name. Immediately we see that He is touching upon issues that are going to be very controversial and disturbing. He then proceeds to give a list of things that should NOT be considered a sign of the immediate destruction of the temple, or of the changing of the era. It is amazing how this last has been so completely misunderstood in our day. First, people regularly ignore the fact that Jesus is speaking of something that would happen in the lifetime of the disciples. Second, people regularly quote this list of things that are not to be signs of the imminent judgment of God, and quote them as signs that the world is about to end.

Notice the words in verse seven, in the beginning of this lengthy list. He says, “do not be troubled,” and “the end is not yet.” These are things that are simply common grace warnings of the coming judgment of God. They do NOT provide a particular answer to the question of the disciples, or to the speculations of modern Christians wondering about the timing of the bodily return of Christ.

Wars, rumors of wars, earthquakes, famines, persecution from religious and political authorities, preaching the gospel to the Gentiles, Spirit-inspired messages by those facing death, family divisions over the faith… These things are NOT the final signs of anything. What are they then? Jesus calls them birth pains. Now as some of the women here could testify, not every birth pain means that delivery is going to come in the next twenty-four hours. And these sorrows are characteristic of the entire New Covenant era in a world of common curse. They are indications of something to come, but they do not tell us when it will all be over. The important thing that we are told concerning these sorrows is not when they will end, but that we must endure through them to the end.

Something major and new is going to happen in their lifetime.

With this said, it is also quite clear that Jesus is indicating that something big is about to happen. He tells the disciples that it will most definitely happen in their lifetime, and it is somehow associated with the destruction of the temple in Jerusalem. There will be events connected with the complete decimation of the place of Old Testament sacrifice which will require that the faithful Christian church flee from the city in order for her members to survive, and to live on for God.

In order to know when to flee Jerusalem, there is a sign that they must be looking for, something called “the abomination of desolation” or the sacrilege that brings destruction. These words come from the prophet Daniel, and had already had something of a fulfillment before Jesus was born. In the year 168 BC, a pagan ruler took over the temple, and sacrificed a pig there, and performed other actions that defiled the holy place. But Jesus here is clearly referring to an imminent future event, when Titus the Roman would lay siege to the city, and utterly destroy the temple in AD 70.

People who lived in that day described those events of AD 70 as they occurred. They were horrific and dreadful, as had been prophesied. But it is absolutely essential that we see here today that Jesus is not just talking about the destruction of an awe-inspiring place of worship. He is talking about the end of the Old Testament Administration of the Covenant of Grace. That end would very clearly begin with the sacrifice of the Lamb of God, Jesus, who would soon save His people from their sins. With the coming of the final sacrifice, of what use are the preparatory sacrifices? With the coming of the great Passover Lamb, of what use is the celebration of the old Passover festival? With the coming of the One who had fulfilled all the Law of God, of what use is the teaching and practicing of the Old Testament ceremonial law, which was designed to prepare for the coming of the Messiah? The spiritual reality of the termination of the Old Testament ways would come with the cross and the resurrection. But this would be much more evident to all some thirty to forty years later when not one of the enormous temple stones was left upon another. The Old Testament Administration of the Covenant of Grace would be completely over.

In its place came the New Testament Administration. Within that same period, most, if not all, of the New Testament documents would be written, and the pathway of the church stretching into the Gentile world would be clear. The reality of this new world began with the cross, the empty tomb, and the apostolic preaching of the good news of redemption.

That new thing will one day be completed with the bodily return of Jesus Christ. No one but the Father knows when that will take place.

There is something very important for us to see here from Mark 13. Perhaps the thing that is most puzzling to us in this passage is the question of the bodily return of Christ being spoken of in the same breath as the destruction of the old temple. The one event took place in AD 70, but the other may yet be far in the future. Why is Jesus Christ connecting these things in this passage?

It will help us to consider something about the nature of the New Testament Administration. The Old Testament Administration was progressive. The revelation was given little by little and in various ways over a very long period of time. It was explicitly partial. The New Testament Administration, with the coming of the Son of God, was not at all partial. It was the genuine article of the full kingdom. The word of the New Testament should never be thought of as progressive or partial. It is complete. It has all the directives that we need. The words of Jesus, Paul, James, and the others will never need to be corrected or modernized. They are the final word for us, because they are the Word of the Son who is Himself the Final Word. The way of faithful living for this final kingdom is given to us. It is not to be modernized or superceded. The ethics of this way of life are final. They need no further expert testimony of later ages, dreaming themselves to be more enlightened than God. The government and message of this kingdom is complete. It is final.

When Christ inaugurates this new kingdom with the shedding of His precious blood, and with His taking up of an immortal resurrection body, the new and final era of covenant life has actually commenced. The culminating event of that era – the grand finale – will come with the bodily return of Christ described in this passage. But in these events at the beginning of the New Testament Administration, the people of God have the whole of the final period of covenant life given to them. Our worship is no longer a picture of heavenly worship, it is now a participation in heavenly worship. Christ is our King now. We are seated in the heavenlies in Him now. Though we face earthly sufferings, our participation in New Covenant life is full and real in our union with the Lord Jesus Christ.

This is why Jesus says that the generation of the disciples that He is speaking with “will by no means pass away till all these things take place.” In fact, the word translated “take place” also means “appear”. In the cross, resurrection, and ascension of Jesus Christ – in the preaching of the gospel to the nations – in the establishment and suffering of the church – and even in the destruction of the temple in Jerusalem, New Covenant life has appeared. No one knows when the grand finale will come with the return of Christ and the resurrection of the dead. But make no mistake about it. The final time has appeared and we are participants in this great final time through faith in Christ. This is what He came to do, and He has done it perfectly. The Old Administration is gone. The New is here.

He Came to Inaugurate the New Covenant Era.

APPLICATION:

Know what you should know.

It may not be immediately apparent to you how relevant this doctrine is to you. Your understanding of the radical completeness of this New Testament age makes an enormous difference. This morning I call you to embrace the New Testament life as the life for Peter, James, John and the others – and just as surely for you, and for all of your future descendants. There is no further time of future revelation. This is the final time. This you must know, and you must receive.

You may shake your head and wonder about what is going on in the Episcopal Church in our state and throughout the world in our day. It is because some segments of the church have rejected the finality of New Testament revelation that V. Gene Robinson was approved as a bishop in the Episcopal Church. If the New Testament life described in the Bible is just another era in a series of eras of God’s revelation, then I suppose we might think that a new ethic of life could supercede the message of Romans 1. If that were the case, then in our great wisdom and modern enlightenment we could decide that portions of this poor old document were waiting for further revelations of God, so we would now know that it is actually alright for a man to lie with a man.

This is but one example of how people calling themselves by the name of Christ, and standing as officers in His church, today insult the Holy Spirit who has explicitly revealed that the New Testament Word is the final Word in Jesus Christ (Hebrews 1:1-2). This attitude of necessary modernization of the New Testament after twenty centuries of waiting for the return of Christ leads liberal churches to overturn the ethics of the Bible, and leads many conservative churches to overturn the worship and work of the church described in the Bible.

Know what you should know from Mark 13. Something old is clearly gone. We should not return to Old Testament ceremonial and civil laws, thinking that nothing has changed. The temple is gone. I know that there is something in the Middle East called “Israel” today, but the Old Covenant people organized as a civil nation no longer exist. They have not existed for a long, long time. Something new has come that has replaced that old Israel. It is the church.

The church today does not need a new revelation, for nothing new could possibly be an improvement upon the final and perfect revelation that she has already been given. She does not need new means of grace for the 21^st century. She does not need a different government for the 21^st century. She does not need a new ethic for the 21^st century. Her life in essence is the same as it was with the death and resurrection of Jesus, and with the destruction of the temple in Jerusalem. What has changed in these last twenty centuries are not the essentials. The essentials are the same. What has changed are some details.

Twenty centuries ago there was no USA, no TV and no e-mail. I grant you that. These are details. Twenty centuries ago there was the essence of following of Christ and there were the means that God provided for our Christian growth – preaching, sacraments, and prayer. Do not fall for those who would woo you away from the essence of the New Testament era by clinging to the details of modern life, as if those details were the essence. Through such wrong thinking, the Episcopal Church has become a body that can no longer be thought of as a true Christian church. It selects as leaders those who do not believe the Christian faith, and who reject the authority of New Testament ethics.

This is not to say that the church is not to make progress over the centuries. Hear this carefully: the church is to make progress. But that progress is to come through reformation by the perfect Scriptures, not through rejection of those writings. We must always be reforming back to that completed perfect standard. This is what we mean when we say that we are “Reformed.” This is what you can know, and you must know. This is what has been revealed.

Don’t be distracted by what you cannot know.

But not all things have been revealed. Some things are not to be known by us. Explicitly from this passage, we do not know, and we cannot know when the cosmic signs will appear, with Jesus coming on the clouds, and the angels gathering the elect people of God from all of heaven and earth. No one can tell you that, so do not listen to people who think that they know.

You can know that we are right in the neighborhood of such a thing today, and that the generation of the disciples who saw the destruction of the temple were in that same neighborhood. They were in the New Testament Era. We are in the New Testament Era. Israel was the old fig tree that was cursed in Mark 11. We are the new fig tree in Mark 13. We have tender branches and leaves. Something new is most definitely here. Summer is near, the text says. At just the right time, known only to God, the essence that we now enjoy and participate in by faith will be seen with the eyes.

Conclusion: How to watch and how to pray

Until that time you and I have something to do. We are to watch and pray. We are to watch as those who have been entrusted with a final deposit in the Word of God, delivered once for all to the saints in the New Testament preaching of the gospel. We are to watch as those who earnestly desire that our own lives would be more perfectly conformed to that good and final Word. We are to work as those who know that we serve a Master who cares that His people not lie to Him on their spiritual time cards. We are to be working for the good of His Kingdom.

And we are to pray according to that final Word entrusted to us. We are to be guided by that great Word in prayers of faith, knowing that the Son will return at just the right time. We are not to waste our time in foolish idleness.

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