The following 10 messages were given
by Pastor David Curtis of :
Berean Bible Church,
2000 Centerville Turnpike,
Chesapeake, VA 23322
USA
" 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