Jesus’ Final Week in Jerusalem

Mark 11:1–16:20

Teaching (11:1–13:37)

King (11:1-11)

  1. Sunday: Triumphal Entry (11:1-11).

Lawgiver (11:12–12:44)

  1. Monday (11:12-19).

  2. Tuesday (11:20–14:11).

    1. Lesson from Fig Tree (11:20-26).

    2. Jesus’ Authority Questioned (11:27-33).

    3. Parable of Wicked Vinedressers (12:1-12).

    4. On Taxes (12:13-17).

    5. On Resurrection (12:18-27).

    6. The Greatest Commandment (12:28-34).

    7. An Unanswerable Question (12:35-37).

    8. Warning About the Scribes (12:38-40).

    9. Widow’s mites (12:41-44).

Prophet (13:1-37)

    1. On Temple’s Destruction (13:1-30).

      1. Difficulties in interpretation.

      2. Setting the stage (13:1-4).

      3. Leading up to the destruction (13:5-13).

        1. Deceptions.

        2. Signs of the end?

          1. The things listed in 13:7-8 are often cited as things that would happen before Jesus comes.

          2. We might hear of all the terrible things going on in the world today and someone else says the rapture must be happening soon.

          3. But that’s not what this is saying at all!

          4. Is this not a common state of the world throughout time?

          5. Jesus is assuring His followers that wars, earthquakes, and famines are not “signs of the times.”

          6. In fact, the prophet Agabus prophesied of a famine that would occur, and did occur, in the reign of Claudius Caesar (Acts 11:28).

          7. Claudius reigned from AD 41 – 54 which was around the time of Acts 18 (Acts 18:2)—the sane emperor between two insane ones, Caligula and Nero.

          8. Given all the terrible things that have happened in the world, all the earthquakes, wars, and famines, what makes our time so special?

          9. Here is a graph showing the earthquakes greater than 8.0 on the Richter scale recorded since 1900, when they first started recording these things.

          10. I know it’s hard to see, but the year is on the vertical axis while the magnitude is on the horizontal axis. Loss of life is indicated by the size of the circle. Continent is indicated by color.

          11. You might recall the earthquakes in the Indian Ocean that caused the tsunamis that struck south Asia back in 2005—huge loss of life.

          12. But of course, the world is more populated, our ability to measure them and report them is greater.

          13. You always wonder, is there a real increase or is it only because I’m hearing about it more? Have we defined it differently? What do you think?

          14. There are similar questions regarding wars and famine.

          15. Ultimately, Jesus is saying, “Yeah, you’ll hear about these things, but they’re going to happen. Don’t let it bother you.”

          16. And that strangely gives me more peace. What about you?

          17. It means our eschatology is not derived from the headlines.

        3. Image and data courtesy of Open Doors USA.

          Persecutions.

          1. Persecutions seem to come in waves when we examine history.

          2. Sam has talked about the various persecutions that have come up, particularly in the first few centuries of the church before Christianity became legal in the Roman Empire.

          3. There was Jewish persecution and Roman persecution of emperors such as Nero, Domitian, Decius, Valerian, and Diocletian.

          4. And there are plenty and have been plenty throughout the world, even now—particularly in the Middle East, parts of India, China, and other parts of Asia along with many places in Africa.

          5. We see specifically that Peter and the other Apostles were delivered up to councils and beaten (e.g. Acts 5:17ff).

          6. Paul was brought before rulers and kings (Felix, Festus, and Agrippa plus having appealed to Caesar – Acts 23–26).

          7. There is no biblical record of family betraying family, but Paul does warn the Corinthians about familial attachments during the “present distress” (1 Cor. 7:26-28).

          8. Also, Jesus tells of how blessed we are when we are persecuted for the sake of Christ (Matt. 5:11-12).

          9. Such persecutions were already briefly touched on earlier in Mark (10:29-30), but imagine how encouraging this would be for the persecuted people in Rome at this time!

        4. Gospel to all nations.

          1. There are a few objections to the idea that this has already occurred.

          2. One is to say that it would be impossible for the gospel to have gone to all nations by AD 70.

          3. After all this was a command of Jesus to His Apostles (Matt. 28:19).

          4. But it couldn’t have happened in the first century, could it? What about the Americas or Australia or the farthest reaches of east Asia or southern Africa?

          5. I don’t know, but what I do know what Paul states in Colossians 1:23.

          6. The parallel command to preach to every nation in Matt. 28:19 is stated in Mark 16:15, that they are to preach the gospel to every creature.

          7. Paul states that’s exactly what happened by the time Colossians was written, about AD 62.

        5. No premeditation.

          1. Jesus states that His disciples don’t have to worry about what they are going to say beforehand.

          2. Do I worry? Oh yes, it is often difficult to come up with topics and to study and spend all this time preparing to preach.

          3. Any of you who has taught a class or preach have likely felt this concern.

          4. Why do we feel that when Jesus makes this promise?

          5. Well, He is promising that His Spirit will guide His Apostles, which is what we see in Acts 2 and any other passage where we see a divinely inspired speech or sermon.

          6. Jesus explicitly tells His Apostles this in John 14:26; 16:13.

          7. We only know what to say through study of the words they wrote by inspiration of the Holy Spirit.

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