The chiasm of Mark 13

This week we read Mark 13 by its shape. The body of the chapter is built like a set of nested steps: each line on the way in is answered by a matching line on the way out, and at the center stands the gospel going to all the nations (v. 10). Then comes the conclusion, our text this week, which has a small shape of its own, with the doorkeeper commanded to stay awake at its center (v. 34).

Coda — the day, the watch, the doorkeeper

Be ready

Where I’m personally at

There were lots of signs leading up to the fall of Jerusalem that the church was to notice, and then get out of the city. But this event, even Jesus says He doesn’t know when it will happen. The only warning we have is to be ready, and that when it comes, it will come quickly. So, simply: be ready.

So let me conclude our time by thinking about the return of the Lord, and I’ll begin with my personal view. When is Jesus going to return? I don’t know! Because Jesus says no one knows the day or the hour, and that’s enough for me.

Now, does that mean the church can’t have a systematic understanding of His return, an order of events? No. But if we look at the Olivet Discourse, it’s clear the return of the Lord is going to happen after the fig tree, after the destruction of Jerusalem. And there were lots of signs leading up to the destruction of Jerusalem, but when it comes time for Jesus to describe that day, He doesn’t give us any signs. And when we go to Matthew, it’s almost all spoken of as a surprise. So personally, again, I don’t think being dogmatic about the order of events leading up to the return of the Lord is helpful either.

And please hear me. When I was a teenager, I was pre-trib, pre-wrath, pre-pre-pre, die on that hill. I had time charts and graphs memorized; “Christ would never bloody His bride” was tattooed on the inside of my eyelids, and I was terrified of getting “left behind.” But as I started studying history, I realized that what I had believed is largely a modern movement. And then I started reading the positions of other people who deeply love the Lord like I do, and realized that a lot of godly people are using the Scriptures and coming to very different conclusions.

And so, before we go any further: if Jesus is so insistent that nobody knows the day or the hour, that even He, in His humanity, didn’t know, then I believe it’s OK to pick a position on what you think is going to happen, and when and how the Lord will return, but hold that position with a spirit of charity toward others, because really godly people are all over the map on this, and many of them are faithfully using their Bibles.

Now, let me give you some thoughts on the return of the Lord, and then why these things matter. (If you’re interested in the history of the end times and the different beliefs held through church history, see “What the church has believed,” further down this page.)

What the text says

Today, let’s look at the Bible. Here are the facts. The order of the Olivet Discourse leans post-tribulational: that Jesus is coming after the great tribulation described in the book of Revelation. All throughout the book of Revelation, believers are described as being in the tribulation, and chronologically, in the early chapters of Revelation, the church is called seven times to conquer, to endure, before the great tribulation is introduced; the order implies we will be there. Pre-tribulationists would say the believers in the great tribulation are those converted after the rapture (a separate event from His full return), and honestly, maybe. I believe the most plausible version of that is this: if the harpazō (the “catching up” of 1 Thessalonians 4:17), the rapture, comes before the tribulation, it may conclude the times of the Gentiles that both Luke and Paul (Romans 11:25) describe, ushering in a time for the Jewish church and a national revival and awakening out of Judaism, culminating in the Lord’s return at the end of the seven years, saving Jerusalem from the Antichrist’s armies.

That’s possible. But if we just look at the facts, there are going to be Christians in the tribulation. The order of the Olivet Discourse describes Jesus coming last. In Revelation 2 and 3, the church is called to endure to the end. And a big one for me is John 17:15, where Jesus says to the Father before the cross, “I do not ask that you take them out of the world, but that you keep them from the evil one.” Jesus asked that we would not be taken out of here, but that we would endure, or be kept from the evil one, which implies coming suffering.

Now, am I saying I’m a post-tribulationist? No. I don’t know when the Lord is going to return. And the reason I’m not a post-tribulationist, and what I believe to be the problem with demanding a post-tribulational return, are all the texts in Scripture that speak of the return of the Lord as a surprise, or a mystery. And to be clear, the surprise of the Lord’s return does mean a surprise to the unbelieving world, but there are many passages that speak of it as a mystery to the believing world, too:

In the parable of the ten virgins in Matthew 25, they had no idea when He was coming; they just knew they needed to be ready. In the parable of the talents, also in Matthew 25, a man goes on a journey and his servants do not know when he will return. In James 5, the Judge is standing at the door. And in Revelation 16:15: “Behold, I am coming like a thief!”

Jesus describes many signs and tribulations leading up to the destruction of the temple, but the Scriptures seem to describe something different for His return. According to Matthew’s extended account of the Olivet Discourse, Jesus says this:

³⁶“But concerning that day and hour no one knows, not even the angels of heaven, nor the Son, but the Father only. ³⁷For as were the days of Noah, so will be the coming of the Son of Man. ³⁸For as in those days before the flood they were eating and drinking, marrying and giving in marriage, until the day when Noah entered the ark, ³⁹and they were unaware until the flood came and swept them all away, so will be the coming of the Son of Man. ⁴⁰Then two men will be in the field; one will be taken and one left. ⁴¹Two women will be grinding at the mill; one will be taken and one left. ⁴²Therefore, stay awake, for you do not know on what day your Lord is coming.

Matthew 24:36–42

Who’s “you”? He’s talking to the church. Jesus goes on to say:

⁴³But know this, that if the master of the house had known in what part of the night the thief was coming, he would have stayed awake and would not have let his house be broken into. ⁴⁴Therefore you also must be ready, for the Son of Man is coming at an hour you do not expect.

Matthew 24:43–44

In the Greek, that “you” is emphatic. He’s speaking to the disciples. So when He returns like the days of Noah, like a thief, Jesus is describing a day with no warning, no sign. It will be a beautiful day, and then God will gather His people into the ark, and all hell will break loose.

So if the stars start falling from the sky, and the moon turns to blood, and the Antichrist shows up and sets up the abomination of desolation at the temple, I don’t think anybody who has ever owned a Bible is going to be taken by surprise at the Lord’s return. If all these things must take place first, in a literal seven-year succession of events, I don’t know how this is a surprise. However, my even bigger confession is this: if we insist that the Lord is definitely coming post-tribulation, it makes no sense to me why we need to stay awake, be ready, and stand on guard for the master’s return. And let’s be clear: according to today’s text, the parable of the talents, and many others, the master returning isn’t about being ready for our death, and it isn’t describing any signs to be ready for. It’s His return. And if the Lord can only come after the events described in Revelation, then there’s no reason for you and me to live in a state of preparedness for the master to return, for the sudden return of the Lord, because A, B, and C haven’t happened yet.

So this is where I am personally (and feel free to disagree; again, we’re talking about things that haven’t happened yet). To me, the Bible clearly seems to describe a church that is going to face a lot of suffering; we must be prepared to walk through the great tribulation, or whatever hardships we may face. But at the same time, Jesus tells us to live in a state of preparedness, that He could show up at any moment. Now, I don’t know what else to do with that other than to prepare for Him to be here at any moment.

So, as I taught when I went through the book of Revelation, this is my eschatology: prepare for the worst, and hope for the best. The Lord can come back whenever He wants. And He has described His return in such a way that godly men and women all throughout church history have prepared themselves to walk through unimaginable horrors, and yet lived every day prepared and ready for their Master to return.

Ready in every age

The Didache. One of the earliest Christian documents outside the New Testament is the Didache, likely written in the first century. Its last chapter opens: “Watch for your life’s sake. Let not your lamps be quenched, nor your loins unloosed; but be ready, for you know not the hour in which our Lord will come.”

John Calvin, the captain of the Reformed ship. It is reported that on his deathbed he was still working vigorously, and his friends came and pleaded with him just to rest. He replied, “Would you that the Lord, when He comes, should find me idle!” He still believed the Lord could return whenever He wanted.

Jonathan Edwards, arguably the captain of the postmillennialists, in his Resolution 19: “Resolved, never to do anything, which I should be afraid to do, if I expected it would not be above an hour, before I should hear the last trump.” Edwards firmly believed in a coming golden age for the church, and yet he lived as if the trumpet could sound at any moment and the Lord could gather him.

Charles Haddon Spurgeon, the prince of preachers. In an 1889 sermon he tells of a minister who asked him whether the millennium had to come first. He replied, “I cannot tell whether there will be the millennium, first, but this I know, the Scripture has left the whole matter, as far as I can see, with an intentional indistinctness, that we may be always expecting Christ to come, and that we may be watching for His coming at any hour and every hour.” In the same sermon he said, “He may not come for a thousand years. He may come tonight.”

And I like what Spurgeon said: an intentional indistinctness. Quite frankly, if we just take today’s passage of Scripture at face value, Jesus could not be any more clear. Nobody knows, and when He comes, it will be suddenly.

Socks on, shoes on

So here’s how we should apply Jesus’ teaching in the Olivet Discourse. I have two one-year-olds and three older kids. Before we have to go somewhere, my wife and I often tell our older kids: we’re leaving soon. Everyone get ready. Socks on, shoes on, go to the bathroom if you need to. Now, we may leave in three minutes; we may leave in thirty. The kids don’t need to know when we’re leaving. What they need to do is be ready.

And this is like the return of the Lord. I believe it’s a very biblical position to take that we don’t know when we’re getting out of here. God will gather us to Himself whenever He is ready; whenever His perfect will decides it is time to go, we go. Our job, His children’s job, is not to know precisely when we are leaving. Our job is simply to be ready.

Not saved by staying awake

And I want to address something before we go. When I was growing up, I saw those Left Behind movies and was traumatized. I was terrified, and every day I was trying not to upset God lest I be left behind.

Please hear me. The Olivet Discourse is a very serious teaching from our Lord. This is about the end of things, about cosmic upheaval, about the hope of the believer and the destruction of the wicked. These are heavy things. Christians are called to stay awake, to live prepared, to be vigilant, to endure to the end, and this is a real kick in the pants to live for the glory of God. If you are a sleeper, wake up. If Jesus returned today, this very hour, how would you be found? Are you harboring bitterness or jealousy? Are you full of pride, lust, anger? Are you clinging to the things of this world? Don’t be a fool. Stay awake, be on guard, keep watch. You do not know the hour our Lord returns, and may you not be found a wicked servant when He does, completely unalarmed and unbothered by the possibility of His return and the wrath of God.

Today’s text is a call to press on toward the upward call, for the glory of the triune God and for the advance of the gospel. Yes and amen. With all that you are and all that you have, live for the Lord. One minute inside of eternity, you are going to wish you had prayed more, wept more, cared more, shared more. Nothing you give to the Lord will be wasted. So be all in. Again, yes and amen.

However, let me tell you what I don’t want to happen today. What I don’t want is for this serious watchfulness to slip into works-based righteousness, so that my faithfulness and watchfulness, my ability to remain pure and faithful, becomes a work leading to my salvation. Does this make sense? So often this teaching on the return of the Lord easily becomes a Trojan horse for legalism and works-based righteousness, because, quite frankly, many pastors teach the return of the Lord like the Jehovah’s Witnesses, who believe they have to achieve a certain level of faithful excellence in order to be saved and to be spared on that day.

So let me be clear here. Jesus is not returning on that day to see who is righteous enough to be spared. Think of the parable of the ten virgins: they were all pure. The difference between the five who were saved and the five who were not was preparedness. Five of them really believed the bridegroom could return at any moment; they really believed in his return. And five of them didn’t take it seriously. Does this make sense?

So please hear me. We don’t want to look at Jesus’ call to remain awake and alert and on guard for His return and think, “OK, if I’m good enough, then I will have earned salvation.” No. No one is, or ever will be, in heaven because of their works and what they have done. No one in heaven will be allowed to boast in their own works and righteousness. Every single person in heaven is a sinner saved by grace. Loved ones, there is only one reason why you, or I, or anyone will be allowed into heaven, and that is because their sins have been washed by the blood of the Lamb. So here’s the trap, loved ones. You are not saved because of your efforts. You are saved because of the grace of our good and loving God.

Hebrews 11:1 tells us, “Now faith is the assurance of things hoped for, the conviction of things not seen.” Faithful believers have the assurance of things hoped for, that Jesus is going to return, even though they haven’t seen it. And because they believe it, their behavior follows. So they stand at the door; they stand ready. Not because they are more moral or righteous than anybody else, but because they believe. Faith: those who are saved have faith.

Please hear me. Christians are to be very serious about their salvation, very serious about their calling, seriously living every day for the glory of God. But the difference between a faithful and a wicked servant is faith. In Matthew’s parable of the faithful and the wicked servant, which was also given at the Olivet Discourse, the servant who was rewarded was called faithful and wise. He believed the word of his master; he had the assurance of things hoped for. His master went on a long journey and said he was coming back, so he believed he was coming back. He had faith, assurance that what his master said was true. But the wicked servant didn’t believe the master was really coming home. He abandoned his faith, and the evidence of this is that he began to keep bad company, gave himself to drunkenness and substance abuse, and mistreated people.

So do you see? It’s not that Jesus is going to return and save people on the basis of their righteousness. No. Their righteousness, their faithfulness, their wickedness will demonstrate where their faith is. What does Jesus say? You will know a tree by its fruits. Your behavior follows your convictions and beliefs. This is Matthew 7: don’t tell Jesus you believe and belong to Him when you live like you don’t. And so, loved ones, we do not have to do good works in order to be saved; no one is saved because of their good works. The only thing we can contribute to our salvation is to receive it.

Two closing thoughts

First, if you are a believer: live for Christ. Study the Word, to live the Word, to share the Word. Ask the Holy Spirit to deepen your convictions. Seek the Lord in prayer and in study, and as you grow in the knowledge of the glory of God, so will your convictions. And as your conviction grows that Jesus Christ is Lord, your life will follow. And in the event that the Lord Jesus Christ returns in our lifetime, you will be found awake, faithful, and standing watch.

Second, if you are not a believer: I would urge you to come to the Lord Jesus. “For God so loved the world, that he gave his only Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life.” Right now, the hand of friendship is extended to you. But there will come a day when the offer is off the table. Of course, it is appointed for man to die, and at some point you will stand before your Maker; those who rejected Him will not belong to Him on that day. But also, the Lord Jesus could come back at any moment, at an hour you do not expect. And when that day comes, you do not want to be His enemy. You do not want to be found like the wicked servant, who threw away his blessing and his belonging for the things of this world. And so I would encourage you to seek the Lord while He may be found: come to Him, ask for forgiveness, and live your life for Him from this day forward.

From the B-Side: three more thoughts

First, a question. Does the reality that one day Jesus is going to tear open the sky, gather His people, and slaughter the wicked terrify you, or does it bring you hope? Or worse: does it leave you unaffected? If you are unaffected by the reality of the return of the Lord, and you are a Christian, wake up. Jesus is coming. No one knows the day or the hour, and it could be today. You need to live, and I need to live, every day as if I am moments away from meeting my Maker. Whether I die of a brain aneurysm or the Lord calls me up, every single one of us could meet the Lord today. Be ready.

⁴⁴Therefore you also must be ready, for the Son of Man is coming at an hour you do not expect.

Matthew 24:44

And if you are living in sin, if you’re clinging to the stupid, sinful things of this world, start thinking about this. Wake up. Be on guard; keep looking. Choose Christ; cast away the things of Satan, that you may inherit the things of glory. Be ready: ready to meet the Lord, ready for His return, ready to step into glory, and ready to tell the world the good news of Jesus Christ, that Jesus died and rose and ascended into heaven. Right now the Master is away. But He will return, at an hour we do not expect. So we must be ready.

I normally don’t put the squeeze on anybody. But please, if you are concerned about the state of your soul, if you are not ready to meet the Lord because you have not given yourself to Him, because you have been holding back, please hear me: this may be your last chance. It’s not just that the Lord may come today, or that you may drop dead. Salvation is a work of the Holy Spirit, and the Holy Spirit may be pressing on you right now, stronger than He ever has, maybe stronger than He ever will. That’s the thing about opportunities: sometimes you don’t realize what was in front of you until it’s gone. I fear there will be many people standing at the judgment whom God will remind of countless sermons and countless promptings to finally accept the Lord Jesus, but they never quite committed. And so they will hear those words: “I never knew you; depart from me.” The text of Scripture before us today could not be more plain: no one knows the day they will meet the Lord. All you can do is decide, while you can, to be a faithful servant and follower, so that when that unexpected day comes, you are ready. Be ready, loved ones. Be ready.

Second: what the church has believed. The church universally agrees, the ABCs of Christianity according to the earliest creeds: a Christian believes and holds that Jesus is going to return and judge the living and the dead. So Jesus is coming back. Great. It’s not if He will return that we are confused about; it’s when.

Now, history (and I’ve spent a lot of time here over the years). Many of the earliest church fathers believed in a literal millennial kingdom, and that Jesus would return at some point during or after the tribulation described in the book of Revelation. (And to be fair, that is the order of the Olivet Discourse in Matthew, Mark, and Luke. So the early fathers were largely premillennial and post-tribulational.)

Eventually the church began to overtake Rome, as Rome was becoming Christian, and the church, through scholars like Augustine, settled into amillennialism. Amillennialism means “no millennium,” meaning they don’t believe a millennial kingdom is coming; they believe it is here and now, in this church age, and that at the very end of the millennial age Satan will be released for a brief period, and then Jesus will return. This has been the long-held position of the church.

When Martin Luther reformed the church in the 1500s, the Reformers brought the church’s ecclesiology and soteriology, among many other “-ologies,” back to the biblical standard. But when it came to eschatology, the study of the end times, Luther was an Augustinian friar, and like most of the Reformers he kept Augustine’s eschatology, which was amillennial. So much of Protestantism kept amillennialism.

Then, in the 1830s, a man named John Darby systematized something called dispensationalism. In this system the rapture is a separate event from the Second Coming. The idea of a pre-tribulational rapture is that the Lord returns, gathers His elect in the air, leaves, and comes back again after the great tribulation to judge the living and the dead. Darby made several trips to North America, and the Americans gobbled it up. D. L. Moody, from whom I have gleaned such blessings, sincerely believed in the imminent return of the Lord and preached it regularly as a tool, laying it before people to make a decision. Billy Graham and many others did the same. To believe in the imminent return of the Lord Jesus is to put the pressure on: I’d better not be found in sin when the Lord returns. So it was very effective in getting people to make decisions for Christ.

And now, today, there has been a resurgence of postmillennialism: that the Lord is going to return at the end of all things, but the church is going to establish order in the world first, and many who hold it also believe that much of Revelation was fulfilled in AD 70.

So, in summary: the early church largely expected a post-tribulation return of the Lord before the millennium. Then for around 1,400 years the church believed there would be no future millennium at all. Then in the 1800s, much of the church was postmillennial, with a rising tide of dispensational theology that believed the Lord would come both before and after the great tribulation. And now there is a resurgence of postmillennialism, often alongside preterism: the belief that the millennium began with Christ’s first coming and will continue until the Lord returns, eventually blossoming into a future golden age of the church. Many of the Puritans believed this, and though I don’t believe this is the system, it does create quite an effective church, because then you’re always building toward the future.

Third, and finally. The disciples wanted precise timelines. Jesus responds by telling them not when it would happen, but that when the time comes, it will happen quickly. And what do we do between now and then? We stay awake. We remain on guard. Now, the church has been waiting for two thousand years for the return of the Lord. Why? Because every day that the Lord tarries, more souls are added to the church. If the Lord Jesus had come back a hundred years ago, I’m guessing none of us would be in heaven. And if the Lord came back today, I’m guessing the future, not-yet-conceived babies of this church would not be in heaven. That’s God’s business. But there will come a point when God sees fit to return and gather His elect, when every soul that is to be added to the kingdom before He returns will have reached its number.

And so we wait. And because we wait, it is our sign that the Lord is still adding to His church. We’ve been waiting for two thousand years, and every day that the Lord waits in His return is an act of mercy to the unsaved. And what is the church to do in this waiting period? To proclaim the gospel to all the nations.