Welcome to the end. We are studying eschatology, the study of the last things, and we have found out that the Greek word for the end is this word, telos. And if you open up your bulletin, there's always a handout there where you could take some notes. I'd love for you to take some notes as we study. Then there are application questions on the back. There are the chapters we're reading from Job. There's a link to the videos about Job, so you can always use this handout and tell us. We want to think about telos a couple of ways.
One, we were introduced to last week, that the telos is: “A time that is coming to us.” We think of 1 Peter 4, where it says, “The end of all things is at hand,” or we think about James 5, where it says, “The coming of the Lord is near.” We get this idea of a time in the future that is drawing near to us, and we don't exactly know when it's coming. It could be here soon, so that's usually the way we refer to the end, but today Jesus is going to talk about the telos in a little bit of a different way. He's going to put the end out there as the goal for us to get to.
Let's get that down for our second way to think about the telos: “It's a goal for us to get to.” It's the finish line, it's the target, it's what you want to do. We don't just want to come to church this morning, we don't just want to believe in Jesus today, but we want to endure in our faith all the way to the end, to the telos, and I hope that's what you're committed to.
I don't think we always do a great job of explaining this when we're talking to people about becoming Christians, because sometimes we're so focused on you need to believe right now, and yes, you need to believe right now, but what you're committing to is you're committing to believing for the rest of your life, you're committing to now all the way to eternity, and that's what Jesus is going to say to his disciples in Mark 13:9-13. So, you've got the verses printed there on your handout. I invite you to open the Bible and turn with me to Mark 13. And out of respect for God's Word, let's all stand up for the public reading of Scripture. And Jesus is on the Mount of Olives, and he's got four of his disciples there with him, and he's teaching them about the end. And this is a part of his teaching in Mark 13:9-13. Please follow along as I read, because this is the Word of God.
“But be on your guard. For they will deliver you over to councils, and you will be beaten in synagogues, and you will stand before governors and kings for my sake, to bear witness before them. And the gospel must first be proclaimed to all nations. And when they bring you to trial and deliver you over, do not be anxious beforehand what you are to say, but say whatever is given you in that hour, for it is not you who speak, but the Holy Spirit. And brother will deliver brother over to death, and the father his child, and children will rise against parents and have them put to death. And you will be hated by all for my name's sake. But the one who endures to the end will be saved.
That's the reading of God's Word. Please go ahead and have your seat. And right there at the beginning of verse 9, where it says, "Be on your guard,” if you're taking notes, can you write the word "see" right above where it says "be on your guard"? It's this Greek word, "blepete". We've seen this as the theme of Jesus’ teaching here. He wants you to see things, and he wants you to see the scribes are not really the religious leaders, they're going to be judged. The temple, though it looks wonderful with all those stones right now, those stones are going to be thrown down in judgment. And if you were here last week, he was wanting you to see in verse 5. If you look back at Mark 13, verse 5, “See that no one leads you astray.” And so, they asked him, when is the end? What is the sign of the end coming? And instead of going straight to answer their question about the end, we found out he started to tell them the things that are going to happen in the short-term future before the end comes. And one of the things is there are going to be many false Christs trying to lead people astray. You need to watch out, because here come the imposters giving you another gospel. Watch out for them. In fact, look at what he said in verse 7. “When you hear of wars and rumors of wars, do not be alarmed. This must take place, but the end is not yet.” So, even though they asked about the end, when is the temple going to be destroyed? When's going to be the sign of all these things coming together in the end? He says, the end is not yet. He says that wars are standard operating procedure for our fallen world. So maybe you've heard people hyping up there's a war that means the end is near. Jesus says the opposite. He says there are going to be wars, nation against nation. There are going to be natural disasters like earthquakes and famines, all those things are going to happen. That's not the end.
Now, he's going to prepare them for some personal things that are going to happen and that they need to endure on their way to the end, so we haven't really got yet to the actual end. He's just equipping them and preparing them for what's going to happen between now and the end, and so he wants them to see that they will be delivered over. Okay, so if you already put “see” over, “Be on your guard,” this is what he wants us to see this week, is we're going to be delivered over. And he's going to say that three times. So, right there in verse 9, underline “deliver you over.” It uses the same Greek word three times in these verses, and so he says, “Deliver you over in verse 9. If you look at verse 11, he says, “When they bring you to trial and deliver you over,” underline “deliver you over” there again. And then in verse 12 it says, 'Even brother will deliver brother over.” So, three times it talks about being delivered over, being betrayed is a way you could translate it. And then, in verse 13 he says, the last sentence, “but the one who endures to the end,” circle the “endure”; that's our word, telos, that is the goal, he wants you to stick with it, to keep going, to persevere all the way to the end. But between now and the end, they're going to deliver you over, he says, not once, not twice, but three times.
So, if you are taking notes, on our handout there are three “expectations to endure to the end.” That's what Jesus is giving us today. Three things we should expect to happen to us between now and the end, and these are personal things, these are painful things. A lot of times in our lives, we might feel like we're going through something, and nobody ever prepared me for this. Nobody ever told me it would be like this. We're so thankful for Jesus. Jesus is such a good shepherd. He's such a merciful Lord. There is no better master than Jesus, and Jesus, he wants to prepare you that you are going to be betrayed, you are going to be handed over, you are going to be mistreated and dehumanized, all because you're following him. And so, he's given you three things that you should expect are going to happen between now and the end.
Go back to Mark 9:31. Turn back to Mark 9:31 because he already told them before we ever got to Jerusalem. He told them what was going to happen to him. So, Jesus, he's always teaching in advance here in the Gospel of Mark. In chapters eight, nine, and ten, he spent a lot of time teaching his disciples what would happen when they got to Jerusalem. Now that he's in Jerusalem, he's teaching what's going to happen between now and the temple being destroyed, between now and the end. And so, he's always preparing his disciples ahead of time. And in Mark 9:31 this is one of the three times that he said, for he was teaching his disciples, saying to them, “the Son of Man is going to be delivered into the hands of men, and they will kill him, and when he is killed, after three days, he will rise.” He's teaching them the gospel. They don't think it sounds like good news, but he's saying, "Hey, I am the Son of Man, and they're going to hand me over, they're going to deliver me over, I will be betrayed.” And then, go over to chapter 10, verse 33 where he says it again, and he's saying to them, "See, this is what's going to happen, look ahead, watch out for this, be prepared. Mark 10:33, “See, we are going up to Jerusalem, and the Son of Man will be delivered over to the chief priests and the scribes, and they will condemn him to death, and they will deliver him over to the Gentiles.
It's a double being delivered over. He's saying he's going to be handed over to the Jewish religious authorities, who will then hand him over to the Roman governing authorities. And who's the one who's going to betray Jesus? Do you know his name? What's his name, everybody? Judas is the one who's going to; one of the twelve is going to turn Jesus into his enemies, so he's been setting them up for this. In fact, when Mark introduced Judas Iscariot back in chapter 3, verse 19, he said, "Judas Iscariot, who betrayed him,” “who,” you could translate it, “delivered him over.” Same word used three times now in our text, in Mark 13. So, maybe you think, well, Jesus got betrayed, Jesus got delivered over, maybe you don't think that's going to happen to you. Three times Jesus says it's going to happen now to his disciples, you are going to be betrayed on your way to the telos, to the end, and so he wants to just like he told them what was going to happen to him, now he wants to prepare them for what's going to happen to them.
So, go back to chapter 13 and look at the first betrayal here in verse 9. The first delivering you over is you're going to go before… notice he says four things here, councils and synagogues, and then he also says governors and kings. And if you've taken notes, you might want to put that the councils and synagogues, that would be going before Jewish authorities, who would be reigning there in the synagogues, or in their council there in Jerusalem, their Sanhedrin; and the governors and the kings, that would be Roman authorities at this time. And who is he talking to? Peter, James, and John, and Andrew. Are Peter and John going to end up in front of the Jewish council in Acts, chapter 4? Is James going to end up dead in Acts chapter 12? So, he's preparing them for real trials. They're going to be put on trial. They will be accused.
So, let's get this down for number one. Here's one of your expectations: “You will be accused,” or you will at least be asked, why are you with Jesus? Why do you believe in Jesus? And that's what's going to happen to them. They're going to be asked, why do you believe? Why do you keep filling Jerusalem with the name of Jesus? Why do you keep following after this way of Jesus? And what are they going to have to do when they're put on trial here, when they stand before these governors or kings for Jesus' sake? They're going to bear witness before them, that's what it says. They're going to testify; they're going to say who Jesus is and why they follow him. They're going to be put in a position where they have to speak his name.
Now, here at our church, we love this thing called evangelism. Evangelism is the idea of sharing good news. It's the idea that we want to spread the gospel, so more people can hear the Word and believe. We want people to know that Jesus, he is the Christ. He's our Savior, and he really did die on the cross to pay for all of our sins. And Jesus rose from the dead, so that you can experience a new quality of life in the power of his resurrection. We want everybody to know that, so they can believe it and be saved. So, we're going to do things like Fourth of July, we're going to have a float going down Main Street, we're going to go invite as many people in our city to church as we possibly can, we're going to go share the gospel, and to some of you that sounds like yes, sign me up for that, and for some of you, you're like, that sounds like I would die. I cannot even imagine doing such a thing. Now, I would encourage you to throw off your fears and throw off your feelings of anxiety, and to go tell people about Jesus, but whether you want to be aggressive and go out or whether you don't want to go out, if you are really a Christian, the question is going to come to you. There is no such thing as an incognito Christian. You can't have an undercover faith; you can't be a secret believer in Jesus. If you are really following Jesus, you will talk about him. If you really love him as your Lord and Savior, you will want to lift his name on high, and people will notice there's something weird about you. There's something different about you when everybody else is cussing, when everybody else is laughing at this other person, when everybody else over here is kissing up to the boss, and then talking bad about the boss, or gossiping about the neighbor, or always taking digs on that family member, and you don't say anything with them, you don't participate in all of that. What's your problem? Why don't you go get drunk with us? Why don't you come watch this show with us? Or why do you spend so much time at church? Are you still reading that Bible? Do you still go to that church? People are going to wonder why you act the way that you act, and so the question, you can't avoid this. The world is going to come and ask you, somebody you know is going to challenge you. Why are you following Jesus, or what is it all about? And maybe they mean it in a way where they're genuinely interested. Maybe they mean it in a way of hostility where they hate it about you, because your light is exposing the darkness and your salt is adding preservative and flavor to this rotten world. And they don't like you acting right, because it makes them feel like they're doing something wrong.
So, why do you believe in him? Turn with me to 1 Peter 3:15. 1 Peter 3:15 makes it clear that this is not just for the apostles, like Peter, who heard this. No, when Peter writes here in 1 Peter, this is his expectation for every single Christian. 1 Peter 3:15. He gives this verse that I think is a verse all of us should know and live by. In 1 Peter 3:15 he says, "In your hearts honor Christ the Lord as holy, set Jesus apart as Lord in your heart, always being prepared to make a defense to anyone who asks you for a reason for the hope that is in you, yet do it with gentleness and respect.” And you can see there in verse 14, the verse right before that, he says, “even if you should suffer for” what? For “righteousness' sake.” Because you're trying to do what is right, you're not complaining when everybody else is complaining. You're working hard when everybody else is slacking off. You're standing up for somebody who's mistreated when everybody else is piling on. All you’ve got to do, and it's becoming more and more clear in America, in California, in Orange County, all you’ve got to do is care about what's right. And that's going to be a problem with somebody, and they're going to say, why are you like that? And you could do what a lot of people do is say, well, I'm just a conservative, or that's just the way my mom raised me, or you could speak his name, and you could say, yeah, well, I learned a way to live, and it's by the teachings of the Lord Jesus Christ. And that's what it says. You’ve got to be prepared to give a reason. Why do you have hope? Why do you have faith? Why do you believe what you believe? Because you will be asked, and it may not be before a governor or a king, it may not be before a council or a synagogue, it may be in the workplace, or when you're walking your dog, or at a family gathering, but you will be asked why, and you need to be ready to give a reason for the hope that is in you.
Go over to chapter 4, verse 16. Look at what it says in 1 Peter. “Yet if anyone suffers as a” what? As a “Christian, let him not be ashamed, but let him glorify God in that name.” You see, that's the choice there. You can be ashamed of Jesus, or you can carry the name of Jesus. Man, and if you are representing Jesus, somebody is going to give you some pushback along the way. Somebody is going to be bringing some hate to your love for Jesus. And what are you going to do? Silence. This is what some Christians have figured out in America. If I just turn the volume down on my Jesus talk, I don't get bothered as much by the world. Is that your approach, to be ashamed of Jesus, or are you boldly ready to let everybody who knows you know that the most important thing in your life is your faith in the Lord Jesus Christ? See, this is a big question, and he's saying to them they're going to hand you over and then put you on trial. It's like, hey, these are my neighbors, my family members, my coworkers. Why can't we just all get along? That's not how it's going to be. It's like they're going to betray you; it's like they're going to turn against you; it's like they're going to deliver you over, like you should get in trouble for following Jesus and doing what is right. It's going to feel twisted to you, and so he's warning them, you will be accused.
Go back to Mark 13 and look at what's happening as they're bearing witness. See, that's the thing they're testifying there in verse 9, and the gospel is going to be proclaimed to all nations. Now we know how the story goes. If you've read the sequel to the Gospels, the book of Acts, Jesus says in Acts 1:8, "You will be my witnesses. You're going to start in Jerusalem, you're going to go to Judea and Samaria, and you're going to go to the ends of the earth.” If anybody's ever read the book of Acts, let me ask you, does the gospel ring out to the nations? Do they end up doing what Jesus says, even though so many people come against them and arrest them and beat them and say stop talking about Jesus. Stop filling the streets of Jerusalem with the name of Jesus. Do they keep representing Jesus anyways? See, this is the kind of commitment we're looking for here at our church, and that immediately is too much of a commitment.
One of the things I've heard about our church for the last 12 years since I moved to Huntington Beach is that this church is a cult. Has anybody else ever heard that before? I've definitely heard it on many occasions. And maybe it's your fault, because some of you are so committed that people just think that's weird you're so committed. All right, I don't know what some of your problem is, being so committed to the church and to Jesus, but people are like that, that looks cultish, and some people think I'm the problem. What I'm saying up here on Sundays; it just requires too much commitment. It's this whole Compass thing, it's like a cult. Well, I've gotten so used to people saying that over the years that I'm starting to feel somewhat offended, because cultists are not the people that we care to be compared to. Cultists are people who, in their own strength, are following someone who's not the real Jesus. The people we're going to be compared to are not cultists; we want to be compared to martyrs.
That's what these men are, men who testify all the way to the end, men who are witnesses, men whose very lives speak the name of Jesus, men who are so committed that if you're going to kill them because they follow Jesus, then they're going to end up dead. That's the level of commitment we're looking for. That's the long history, the long tradition of the Church of Jesus Christ is people are willing to die so that the Bible can be translated into another language, that people are willing to give their lives away as long as the faith can be passed on to more souls. The idea that you could be too committed as a Christian, what exactly are you trying to say? What is your point of comparison when you're saying that you want to be a lukewarm level of commitment, because these people, the expectation that Jesus is putting in them is they're going to put you on trial, they're going to beat you up. Some of these men that he's talking to, we know how they die. James doesn't even make it out of the book of Acts. Peter, remember when Jesus asked Peter three times, do you love me? And then he talked to Peter about how he would go and how he would die, and Peter ended up dying upside down on a cross, and Peter's like, what about John, what's going to happen to him? And Jesus says to Peter, what does it matter what's going to happen to him? You follow me. That's the level of commitment Jesus is most definitely expecting, a level of commitment that would go all the way to death, and that's not cultish, that's real faith, that's what the martyrs have done, that's what the heroes of the faith have shown the way, that's what Jesus did himself. And so, you will be accused, but the gospel will advance.
Let's add that to number one: “You will be accused…But the gospel will advance,” and that is the goal. That's the mission that we have been given. The gospel must first be proclaimed to all nations. Yes, it may cost you, and people may betray you, and they may put you on the spot, and you may feel uncomfortable and stabbed in the back, but as long as the word of the Lord, as long as the good news of Jesus keeps ringing out, keeps echoing from our lives, as long as the name of Jesus is carried, then the primary importance is not what happens to me, it's not what do people think about me, it's not how do people treat me, it's what do people think about him. That's the mission. See, a lot of Christians at churches these days, they're like a basketball player who's in it for their personal stats. Have you ever been on a team with a player like this, a ball hog? Does anybody know who I'm talking about? Right? I don't know if you ever played basketball, but when you're open, wide open, and he doesn't pass you the ball because he wants to get his own shots up, you're like, hey, I'm open, pass me the ball. Hey, when they interview the basketball players at the end of every game, and they're like, hey, wow, you did really good, or.. or I love it when they're like, you just were terrible, what do you have to say about it? And these awkward interviews after the game, right? What are the players? They know what the right answer is. Well, it's not really about me, it's about the team winning. I wish more Christians knew what the right answer was these days, because so many of us are concerned about what's going to happen to me. When the real question is, is the team winning? Is the name of Jesus being exalted? Is he building his church? Are more souls being saved? Is the next generation going to carry on the name of Jesus, because if it's hurting me, but the team's winning, then blessed be the name of the Lord Jesus Christ.
See, that's the idea here, like, yeah, the way you're going to spread the message is people are going to come after you, and they're going to put you on trial, and they're going to beat you up. But guess what? So, the gospel is going to be proclaimed to the nations. Now, notice how it says here in verse 10, “the gospel must first be proclaimed to all nations.” Now, I've heard some people who are saying that this verse means Jesus can't come back until the gospel goes everywhere, to every language, and every place on earth. Here's how it says it in Matthew 24 verse 14. Matthew 24 is a parallel passage. It says, “This gospel of the kingdom will be proclaimed throughout the whole world as a testimony to all nations, and then the end will come.” So, people are saying, oh, see, we've got to get the gospel to everywhere, and only after the gospel is in every language with every people, then can Jesus come back. Now I'm all for everybody who's doing the work of the mission to get the gospel out to the languages, to the nations. Praise God for many committed missionaries who are willing to go out in the name of Jesus, but to now say that everybody all over the world has to hear the gospel before Jesus can return, before the end can come. Is that really what Jesus meant when he said this verse?
And turn with me to Romans 16. Let's just jump ahead to the end of the book of Romans to see a couple of quotes from Paul here that I think prove that that's not what Jesus is saying. Jesus isn't putting up some stipulation that only after we finish the gospel work then can he return. If you jump all the way to the end of the book of Romans and the doxology in Romans 16:25, Paul writes in conclusion of his epic letter, “Now to him who is able to strengthen you according to my gospel and the preaching of Jesus Christ, according to the revelation of the mystery that was kept secret for long ages, but has now been disclosed. This gospel is now made known, and through the prophetic writings has been made known to” who does it say there, everybody? To “All” what? Nations. Now we went through Romans. Some of us were able to go through this book together. Did Paul want to go to Rome and then go to Spain because they hadn't heard the gospel in Spain? Remember that he asked for their help, for their financial support to pay it forward to Spain, but notice what he says here, that “the gospel has already been made known to all nations.” So clearly, Paul thought, even though there's another place to go, we've still broken through the barrier of Jew to Gentile, we're still now going out to all kinds of people.
Go over to Colossians 1, and you can see this same idea that Paul says again, so someday you might meet somebody who really cares about getting the gospel to everybody. That's great, let's get the gospel out to everybody, let's support that, let's pray for that. But to say that Jesus can't come back until the gospel goes to this place or that place, I don't think that's what Jesus meant when he talked about the gospel being proclaimed to all nations. And another example here is Colossians chapter 1, where he's talking to this church, this church he hasn't even been to, but Paul's writing them a letter, and he says of this halfway through verse 5 of Colossians 1, “Of this you have heard before in the word of the truth,” the gospel he's talking about “when they heard the gospel, the gospel which has come to you as indeed in the whole world, it is bearing fruit and increasing as it also does among you since the day you heard it and understood the grace of God and truth.” So, Paul, who's the apostle sent to the Gentiles, to the nations, and even in the book of Acts, it starts in Jerusalem, it goes to Judea and Samaria, then it goes to the ends of the earth to all the different people groups, Paul's acting like the gospel is already going into the whole world, as he writes to the Colossians, and so we want the team goal is to get the gospel out there, but Jesus could still, the end could still come at any time.
Now go back to Mark 13, and let's get to our second way, that's going to the second time it mentions you “will be delivered over,” and this is in verse 11, Mark 13, verse 11. “When they bring you to trial,” okay, so, for some of these apostles, we're talking about real trials before governors and kings, before the Jewish Sanhedrin, or for us, it might just be somebody calling us out and asking us a question. Maybe some of us will end up on trial. I don't know, but notice it says, “When they bring you to trial, and” here it is again, “deliver you over or betray you.” Look at what it says,Do not be anxious beforehand what you are to say.”
So, let's get that down for number two: “You will be anxious.” Yes, he wouldn't be bringing up, do not be anxious if there wasn't a reason that you might be tempted to be anxious when you get called out, when you get put on the spot, when you get accused of being a Christian, and hopefully there's enough evidence in your life for people to accuse you of being a Christian. When people ask you why, why are you like this, or why are you always talking about Jesus, you might feel anxious in how you're going to reply to people. You might feel like, I don't know if I really know exactly what to say in this situation. You might feel anxious about what's this person going to think about me if I tell them what I really think about Jesus, so he's acknowledging when the Bible ever tells you, do not be anxious, what that's implying is there's a reason you could be worried, there's a reason you could be stressed, and don't give in to that worry, don't give into that stress. Don't let your anxiety turn into fear, and determine what you're going to do, even if you feel anxious. Speak up in the name of Jesus, anyways. Now, if your Christian life is so managed that you never feel anxious about what's going to happen, I'm not sure that's really the Christian life, I guarantee you. When I go out to talk to people on the streets of Huntington Beach or Seal Beach or Stanton, which I especially like to go to. When I go out and talk to people, every single time I go out, guess how I feel. I feel like, well, how's this going to go out here talking about Jesus today? I feel anxious. I don't feel like I've done this a whole bunch of times. It's no big deal. Every single time I come up here to preach, I can guarantee you that I am worried and stressed about preaching. There's a real temptation to feel that way, and people say, "Nah, you've done it so many times, you seem so natural up there to me. Well, maybe to you it seems that way, but you're not there when I'm having nightmares about not knowing what to say in front of a group of people, and in these nightmares, one of the common motifs of my nightmares is I'm always turning to a passage, but I can never find it, and the pages are just turning and turning and turning. And then you get up and you walk out and I'm like, no, come back, I'm going to get there in a minute, I’ve just got to be awesome. That's like every week of my life. Even later today, I'll drive home and I'll be like, ah, what a blessing to worship with God's people. And then it'll hit me, next week's already coming. Yeah, there's going to be a real common feeling of, am I going to know what to say, or what are people going to think if I say it how it really is. And look at what he says here in verse 11, he says, “And when they bring you to trial and deliver you over, do not be anxious beforehand what you are to say, but say whatever is given you in that hour, for it is not you who speak, but” who everybody? “The Holy Spirit.” Don't get yourself in God's way.
And let's get that down for the second part of point number two: “You will be anxious, BUT empowered by the spirit.” When was the last time by faith you opened your mouth and you could tell that the Spirit was speaking through you to somebody else? See, if you think that how it works is you have to be educated and you have to be kind of somebody who's totally equipped, you have to be prepared for whatever question they're going to ask, that's not how it really works. In fact, that's not even what the Scripture is holding up as the example. Go over to Acts, chapter 4 and let's look at Peter and John when they were put on trial in front of, remember, the same council that ordered Jesus to be crucified. Well, now Peter and John are in front of that same group of religious leaders, and it says in Acts, chapter 4, verse 8, “Then Peter, filled with the Holy Spirit, said to them, ‘see that last time there was a trial that we know about with this same counsel.’” Where was Peter? Jesus was the one on trial. They're falsely accusing him on the inside. Peter's out in the courts with the servants, or maybe warming his hands by the fire, and three different times Peter is asked, Are you with Jesus? Aren't you one of those from Galilee? Aren't you one of his disciples? Three times Peter denies Jesus: 123, Rooster crows, just like Jesus said. So, all these things, yeah, we know sometimes Peter would just say things we understand that about Peter's personality, but standing up in front of the same council that killed Jesus and boldly calling them out was not something that was natural for Peter. It was something that the Holy Spirit empowered him to do. Last time he was denying Jesus in the outer courts. This time he's speaking his name in front of the same men who killed Jesus. And notice what hits them. Notice the impression that is made. Jump down to verse 13. Hopefully you know this story, and I'm happy to remind you of it. If you've never really thought about this, that the big difference between Peter to the disciple and Peter the apostle is not Peter, it's the power of the Holy Spirit. “And when they saw the boldness of Peter and John,” look at what it says. “They perceived that they were uneducated common men. They were astonished, and they recognized that they had been with” who? “Jesus.”
Do you feel uneducated? Do you feel common? Perfect. You're the kind of person Jesus wants to use. We're here to be vessels. If the point is, look how smart I am. If the point is, look, how educated I am. If the point is, everybody, look at me, I know the right answers. That's missing the point completely. The point of this conversation is, everybody look to him, and we're just here to be vessels that the Holy Spirit can speak through us. It is one of the most exciting things that you will ever experience, is when you're in a conversation with somebody and you're representing Jesus to them, and you're thinking, How did I just remember that? How did I just think to say that? How did I just pull that scripture out. I haven't thought about that scripture for a minute. Where is this power and ability to recall things and speak things coming from? It's not just me, it's God's Spirit in me. I'll tell you what, some of the most exciting moments I've ever had in my life, it was when I was preaching the gospel to somebody else, and I realized halfway through preaching the gospel, I don't know if they're going to believe, but one thing I know is I really believe this, because it wasn't just me talking to them, it's not just me talking to you, it is the Spirit of the living God speaking through his Word, cutting to the thoughts and intents of the person who's hearing you talk, it's a powerful thing when the Spirit is involved. So, if you're like, I can't really do it perfectly, you're the kind of person we're looking for. I'd rather go out with one anxious, sincere Christian than a Bible know-it-all any day of the week. Give me the person who knows we need God to help us, and let's see what God is going to do. If you know enough to be self-reliant, nothing is going to happen, but if you know that you don't know enough, and so you rely on the Holy Spirit, look out for some power.
So, the way that I hear Christians talk about sharing the gospel is fundamentally wrong, because we focus on ourselves knowing what to say. When Jesus literally says, “Don't worry about what you're going to say”; don't even prepare beforehand. The Holy Spirit will give you what to say in that hour, and see, this isn't like you have to go study a passage of the Bible and preach it, or you've got to go study something that you're not sure about. This is the gospel we're talking about. This is what you have already believed to be saved. How can you be saved if you don't know the gospel yourself, if you don't know who Jesus is and what he did for you, how can you be saved? And if you have believed in Jesus, well, guess who taught you that you were a sinner? Guess who opened your eyes to see him as the Savior. Guess who's the one who empowered you to respond in repentance and faith to the gospel? It's the Holy Spirit who saved you, and he now lives in you, and he can speak through you to say what you believe to somebody else. You already know what you believe, and he can have it go out of your mouth, so that someone else can believe it, too. He's literally saying you don't even need to study up or prepare beforehand, you just need to believe that the Spirit will give you the word to say, so when people say that's not for me, that shows me they're not listening to Jesus, because it's not for any of us. There's nobody who's some gifted evangelist, there's nobody if you have a gift. It's the gift of the Spirit, and we all have the same spirit. We have the same spirit that Peter, James, John, and Andrew had. He's living in us, and if it's really all, I guarantee you, if some, if you talk to somebody and they get saved, I don't think you're going to walk around thinking I really talked them into it. No, you're going to be giving the glory to the Lord for saving their soul. You're going to know he did it, and so that's what he's saying is, “You're going to be anxious, BUT you'll be empowered by the Spirit.”
So, don't let that anxiety turn into fear and keep you from speaking. Be bold, because of the spirit speaking through you. You can write down Acts 6:10 where Stephen is speaking with such wisdom and spirit that the only way they can stop Stephen is they have to kill him, the first martyr of the church. You can write down Acts 13:9, where we start calling him Paul instead of Saul, because he's filled with the Spirit, and that's why he has this powerful word to say throughout the book of Acts. It's very clear that the reason they're able to speak with power is not because of themselves, but the power of the Spirit speaking through them. Jesus says from the beginning you will receive power when the spirit comes and throughout acts, it makes it very clear that the power is associated not with the people, but with the Spirit. And if you have the Spirit of the Living God living in you, you come fully equipped to spread the gospel, because he helped you to believe it, and now you can pass it on. And passing on the gospel is the highest thing you can do on this planet. It is the best and most noble purpose to commit your life to. What better legacy could you leave with your brief life on this planet than other people are going to believe in Jesus because you passed it on? And so, he's saying that, yeah, you might feel uncomfortable, and if you never feel uncomfortable, I don't know what kind of Christian life you're living. If you want to manage your life and isolate your life from the world, so that you never get put on the spot for the gospel, that's you got to rethink what it means to be a Christian, because the whole point of being a Christian is Jesus, and I want to carry his name and let others know about him
And so, go back to Mark 13, and you'll see that they're going to deliver you over, and that's going to be tough. You're going to be put on the spot, and you might be tempted to be anxious, but you’ve got the Spirit. And then he talks about how personal this is going to be in verse 12, when he says, “Brother will deliver brother over to death.” See, this is this is my least favorite part of being a Christian, is this this personal betrayal that takes place. He talks about fathers to kids and even children to their parents. See, Jesus is preparing these disciples and the believers for a time of persecution from the Roman Empire. Maybe you've heard of this emperor, Nero, who used to light up his parties by lighting up Christians on fire. That kind of persecution that's coming. It's the Roman Empire, that's going to come and destroy the temple in 70 AD, and Jesus is trying to prepare them, and so, man, if they're persecuting Christians, even members of the family are turning in other men, yeah, they're a Christian, and now they're going to be persecuted because they got betrayed, they got delivered over by one of their own family members. Can you imagine what your own child, your own precious child, that you give your blood and sweat and time and money, you invest your whole life in your child, and then in the end the child rats you out for being a Christian, turns you over to the persecutors, and you get beaten or killed because of your own kid? What kind of pain is that? What kind of heartache is Jesus preparing us for? This, if your heart has never been smashed by a family member who now hates you because you're with Jesus and your loyalty is greater to Jesus than them, that's what it is to be a Christian. It's to have your heart broken by people you love, because your household is now divided by those who are following Jesus and those who are not. And it's not just our physical families. Look at what it says in Matthew 24, verse 10. It says, “And then many will fall away.” In the parallel teaching in the Gospel of Matthew of the Olivet Discourse, it says “many will fall away and betray one another and hate one another.” We're talking about one another's in our church family, people we thought were our brothers or sisters, we've been adopted by God's love, we're his Church of Jesus Christ.
And I've gotten to know people, and I love them like my own brother. I love them. I thought we were striving side by side for the gospel, and I've seen people that I loved for years. I've seen them fall away from the faith. I've seen them go back into their sin. I've even seen some of them go full circle. And this will happen to you, I guarantee you. If you really dare to love people, if you invest your life in making disciples, if you give what you have received and you pass it on to other people, somebody is going to betray you. Somebody that you loved is now going to act like what you did to teach them the truth of Jesus really was a bad thing in their life, and that you were like being abusive to them by telling them that truth. And how dare you say they have to turn from their sin? I mean, people that they seemed like they wanted to hear it at the time, and you gave your heart and soul to them, and now years later, they're calling you out like the problems in their life are because of you. You went from somebody that they look to for spiritual counsel to now someone that they think is their enemy, and they hate you, and they call you out for it. It's brutal to be betrayed. It's what Jesus is preparing you for here is that it's going to cost you some of your closest relationships to really follow Jesus.
Let's get this down for number three: “You will be betrayed.” You will be betrayed, like there will be a point for every single one of us who's really on the mission to make disciples, and it's so hard to make disciples, you're praying for people to get saved, you're sharing the gospel for people to get saved, and then someone seems like they're listening, and so you meet with them, and you talk with them, and you follow up with them, and you care for them, and you become their friend, and you share life together, and it seems like they got saved, and they get baptized, and they're growing, and it seems like, praise the Lord, hallelujah. And then all of a sudden one day, when you didn't expect it, and you never saw it coming, they turn away from the faith, and they act like you are a bad person, and you're going to think, why am I even doing this? What's the point of giving my life away to people who, in the end, don't even care where I'm trying to love them and they're ending up hating me? If you never get to a breaking point in following Jesus, like that's what he's expecting is going to happen, that's why he's telling you about it beforehand. It's going to feel overwhelming when they accuse you or ask you why you believe. You're going to be tempted to be anxious and feel overwhelmed by the situation, and you're going to be heartbroken when people betray you, and you might think I don't even want to keep doing this anymore, and that's when he says, but the one who endures to the end will be saved. See, Jesus knows how intense this is going to get, that you might feel like giving up, and he wants you to think about enduring to the telos.
The word here to endure is this Greek word hupomeno. We'll put it up here on the screen. This is an important word that means “endurance” or “perseverance”. Technically, it really means “to remain under.” Menno is a word that means to abide, to remain, to stay. Hupo is a prefix that means “under”. So, there's a pressure, there's a reason I would grow weary, there's a reason I would give up. It's this hate, it's this betrayal, it's this being delivered over, but I'm going to keep remaining under this pressure to the end, and I want to encourage you today, my brothers and sisters, that I'm on Team Telos, and I want to keep going to the end. In fact, that's my one goal that I have for the rest of my life, is to be the church with you here in Huntington Beach, and I want to keep going till we see Jesus. Can I get an amen from anybody on that? But here's what we’ve got to realize: along the way, there will be heartbreak, and there will be betrayal, and there might be a day where you think, why am I even doing this?
Let me give you two passages to encourage you. Go to Revelation 3:10. Revelation 3:10 is to the church in Philadelphia, a church that was going through a real testing, a real trial, and the synagogue of Satan was coming after them, and they're keeping his word, they're not denying his name, they're still carrying the name of Jesus, and there's a great thing that Jesus says in Revelation 3:10, “Because you have kept my word about patient endurance,” that's hupomeno right here. You’re patient, you keep going, you endure, you remain under the pressure, “Because you have kept my word about patient endurance, I will keep you. The hour of trial that is coming on the whole world to try those who dwell on the earth. What is this hour of trial that's coming on the whole world? This Day of the Lord, this time of tribulation. See, that's the end, the judgment that is coming.
And what a great promise from Jesus to this church, really to all of us in the church, that if we keep his word and patiently endure, he will keep us out of that time of trial that is coming on the whole world, that day of judgment. You keep going for Jesus. He'll keep you from the judgment to come. I know sometimes when I grow weary, when I ask myself, why am I going to keep doing this, when I keep feeling anxious, when people turn away from the faith, and one of the things I have to remind myself is what Peter says in John, chapter 6, when so many of the disciples were going away from following Jesus, and Jesus looks at the twelve and he says, “Are you going to go away also?” And Peter, saying one of his great lines, he says, “Lord, where else shall we go? You have the words of” what, everybody? Eternal life.
Hey, just a reminder to everybody, as hard as it may be to be on mission as a Christian, there's still judgment coming on the whole world, and so if you don't want to follow Christ and trust in him, well, then what are you going to do about the judgment that's coming for your sin? See, even though it may be hard to follow Jesus, there is no real other option except for sin and death and judgment, so I need to remember the judgment that's coming, and that's what Jesus is saving me from, and I'm going to keep enduring for him, because he promises to keep me from that coming judgment. Go over to Hebrews, chapter 12, another passage to encourage you as we prepare to take communion, as we remember who Jesus is. In Hebrews, chapter 12 it says, “Therefore, since we are surrounded by so great a cloud of witnesses,” and that's all these people who had faith in Hebrews 11, and we can add now not every, or not only everybody in Hebrews 11, but we can start with Jesus and the apostles and all of church history, and how many people have gone before us. And they were martyrs, they were witnesses to the end, and so we consider all of those who have gone before us, and he says, “Let us also lay aside every weight, this pressure that we're under, let us lay aside every weight, and let us lay aside the sin which clings so closely, and let us run, let us run with endurance the race that is set before us, looking to Jesus, the founder and perfector of our faith, who, for the joy that was set before him.” What did Jesus do with the cross, everybody? He endured the cross. He remained under the pressure of the cross. You want an example to inspire you to keep going, to endure, to persevere? Look no further than our Lord Jesus himself, the very one we are following. He went all the way to the end. The disciple whom Jesus loved, the apostle John, and his gospel in John 13, verse 1, he said about Jesus, “having loved his own who were in the world, he loved them to the end.” To the bloody, miserable, terrible death that he experienced on the cross.
Look at what Jesus endured for you. That's who you're following. He's your example, and for who, for the joy that was set before him, he endured the cross, despising the shame, and he is seated at the right hand of the throne of God. Consider him who endured from sinners such hostility against Himself, so that you may not grow weary or fainthearted. See, that's the expectation. There will be times when you will get tired. There will be times when you might be tempted to lose heart. This is hard, being delivered over. This is hard, being put on the spot and accused and asked and anxious and betrayed by people I love. But look at what Jesus did that encourages me to keep going. In fact, Jesus is not just your example. Look at what it says there in verse 2, if you can look to Jesus, if you can see him hanging there on the cross, bleeding out from his head and his hands and his feet, offering his body as a sacrifice to atone for your sin, if you look to Jesus, look what it calls him, “the founder and perfector of our” what everybody? Like the whole reason you have faith is Jesus began a good work in you, and he who began a good work in you, he's going to be faithful to complete.
I love this idea, the perfector, the completer. You could say that Jesus is the founder and finisher of our faith. You know what this verb here is related to? It's related to the word telos. Jesus is the ender of your faith. I guarantee you, if you endure to the end, if you're there with me on that day where we're wearing the robes of white and we're worshiping Jesus, not one of us is going to act like I endured to the end, we're going to think that he, Jesus, saved me, that he started it, he finished it, that he's the one who kept me in his hand the entire time. The reason you can endure to the end is Jesus. He's the one who's the finisher of your faith. What did Jesus say when he sent us on this mission to “make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit, teaching them how to keep all the commands that he commanded us, and then he said, 'And lo, I am with you always, even to the end.’”
“You will be betrayed, BUT not alone.” Let's get that for the end of point number three. You will be betrayed, but not alone. You may be delivered over by people in this life, but one of them will not be named Jesus. He will never leave you. He will never forsake you. And the reason you can know Jesus will be with you to the end is, look, he already went to the end for you on the cross.
And so, we want to take a time of communion to remember Jesus, and this is very important for us as believers to consider that it's by his righteous blood that you were redeemed from your sins, and it's by the sacrifice of his body. It's through His death that you can live. It's through his wounds that you are healed. Now, communion is a time for Christians to remember. If you know that you are still living in the sin that Jesus died for you, don't need communion, you need to put your faith in Christ. So, it would be hypocrisy to take communion, which is the way we remember his death on the cross and proclaim his death until he comes. For you to remember that he died for your sins while you know you're still sinning. I would not encourage you to do that. That would be taking communion in an unworthy manner. So, we're going to give you a moment after I pray that you can pray to Jesus, that you can pray to him to confess any sin you may have, to thank him for his sacrifice. And here's what I want you to pray about. I want you to pray for the highest level of commitment, pray to Jesus that you are ready to endure to the end, and that you're going to need His help to be the finisher of your faith, that you're going to need the Spirit to speak through you, that you're going to need his endurance when you grow weary and lose heart. So, this is a chance for us as a church to remember what Jesus has done, and as we're looking to Jesus, who endured the cross, let us commit ourselves afresh, that the one who endures to the telos will be saved. Let me pray for us.
Father, we come before you now in the name of Jesus, and we hear these heavy words that he said to the disciples on the Mount of Olives, outside of Jerusalem, that they would be delivered over to accusations, that they would be delivered over to anxieties, that they would be delivered over by the worst possible betrayals of people that we love and hold dear, and yet he expected them, through it all to endure. God, please let us hear that message. I pray for all my brothers and sisters, as excited as I am to see them here today. God, I pray that I will see them there on that day, on the day we're with you, on the day when the great Telos will come. What joy we will have on that day, when we can look in each other's eyes and say, we made it. Here we are. We've reached the end of our fellowship. God, I pray that everybody here will be there on that day. I pray for those who are still in their sin, that even today they will repent and believe in the gospel of Jesus, and I pray for those who have saved that they will look to Jesus now and commit themselves to the end. So, hear our prayers now as we come before you in the name of Jesus. Amen.