The following 10 messages were given by Pastor David Curtis of :

Berean Bible Church,
2000 Centerville Turnpike,
Chesapeake, VA  23322
USA
www.bereanbiblechurch.org

 " We are beginning a study of Mark 13, which is the longest discourse in Mark's Gospel.  It is called the "Olivet Discourse" because it is a discourse that takes place on the Mount of Olives. Few chapters of the Bible have called forth more disagreement among interpreters than Mark 13 and its parallels in Matthew 24 and Luke 21."

" Whenever Jesus spoke about the future, He did so with complete accuracy....I'm here to tell you that you should believe Jesus, all He said about the future took place. The judgment that came upon the temple confirmed the truth of His prophesy. ... The sign confirms the word. He looks at the temple with His disciples; "Do you see these great buildings?" replied Jesus. "Not one stone shall be left upon another which will not be torn down." And this is exactly what happened in the exact time frame that He said it would. That sign confirms the truth of Jesus' words. I am asking you to think of what Christ claimed and taught and how His words were confirmed by His mighty works. The temple was comprehensively demolished. There wasn't just an accidental fire caused by an oil lamp falling onto the curtain and starting a blaze. There was a pervasive destruction of the whole edifice so that, as Jesus says here, not one stone was left on another. What happened was this: About thirty years after these words were spoken, the Jews rose up and attempted to throw the Romans out of the land. The Romans took their time in responding, and then in A.D. 66 the Roman General Titus, who was to become emperor of Rome, led an army into Judah and besieged Jerusalem.

Titus had to starve the city into subjection. The Jews inside the walls were divided into different parties, some wanting surrender, others demanding wholesale suicide. Jerusalem was torn without and within. More Jews were killed by fellow Jews than by the Roman army.

On August in the year A.D.70, Jerusalem fell and the temple was entered. Titus led in his generals; he pulled aside the curtain before the Holy of Holies and walked in and looked around. There was nothing there. The Ark of the Covenant had disappeared at the time of the exile to Babylon 500 years earlier. It was simply an empty room ­much to Titus' disappointment. What an anticlimax to him. Then the army brought its standards into the great temple area and filled that vast plaza of stone pavement with ranks of soldiers. They sacrificed to their standards praising their gods for giving them the victory and hailing Titus as the Imperator. Then the soldiers looted the temple, but Titus was impressed with the building, and he ordered that it shouldn't be destroyed. But God had said not a stone would be left on another, and so what happened was this: As the soldiers attempted to melt the gold on its walls, the temple caught fire. There was a huge conflagration and the temple was gutted. Titus then ordered that the whole city, temple and all, be razed to the ground. The soldiers, hunting for hidden gold, levered stones apart one by one and pushed them down to the ground. Titus ended the horrors of those months by ordering the crucifixion of thousands of Jews. Josephus sums up the consequences for Jerusalem in one sentence: "There was left nothing to make those who had come thither believe it had ever been inhabited." The Lord Jesus speaks these somber words:"

"For those days will be a time of tribulation such as has not occurred since the beginning of the creation which God created, until now, and never shall.  (Mark 13:19 NASB)

Signs of The End of The Age

A Prophecy of Judgment   Mark 13:1-2      05/06/07

The Disciples Questions    Mark 13:3-4         05/13/07

All Nations Hear the Gospel by A.D. 70  Mark 13:5-10   05/20/07

The Abomination of Desolation  Mark 13:11-18  06/03/07

The Great Tribulation  Mark 13:19  06/10/07

The Sun, Moon and Stars Go Out  Mark 13:20-25  06/17/07

Christ's Cloud Coming  Mark 13:26-27  06/24/07

This Generation  Mark 13:28-30  07/01/07

The Passing Away of Heaven and Earth  Mark 13:31  07/08/07

A Future Coming of Christ?  Mark 13:32-37  07/22/07