Be Alert (1 of 4)
Series: Advent
Patrick. Edwards
Mark 13:24-37
Introduction: Just outside my kitchen window, there in the middle of my side yard, we have a beautiful, tall, mature walnut tree. This past summer, with the help of a friend, I hung a tire swing from it, which became a hit with the kids and quickly made our home the magnet of the neighborhood. Despite all the technology and new things that kids have today, turns out a tire and some rope is really all they need.
But, really, you ought to see the walnuts this tree produces. I mean starting in August they began dropping and they were huge, the size of racquet balls, some of them close to the size of a baseball! And I remember as they began to fall hearing from others who have been in the community longer than I, that such large walnuts were a sign of a bad, cold and snowy winter to come. I felt like this was confirmed throughout the autumn as my wife and I then watched squirrels feast on these walnuts. Seriously, I've never seen squirrels get so fat. It was as if they were stocking up for what was to come.
Likewise, this morning, Jesus warns us to read the signs and be prepared for what is to come. However, He also tells us that some things just cannot be known; that the precise details which we normally crave are not for us to know. And so, we see Jesus here in Mark 13 call us to both readiness and alertness for His return and the consummation of the Kingdom of God.
As we've seen over the last three months in the Book of the Twelve God has sworn by Himself to send an anointed King to set the world to rights and redeem any soul who would call on His name for salvation. We saw each and every week how Jesus is that anointed King and how the Gospels and the rest of the New Testament show Jesus to be the fulfillment of the Book of the Twelve. At the same time we also saw each week how though the Kingdom has begun according to the first coming of Christ that Creation still awaits His second ...
Series: Advent
Patrick. Edwards
Mark 13:24-37
Introduction: Just outside my kitchen window, there in the middle of my side yard, we have a beautiful, tall, mature walnut tree. This past summer, with the help of a friend, I hung a tire swing from it, which became a hit with the kids and quickly made our home the magnet of the neighborhood. Despite all the technology and new things that kids have today, turns out a tire and some rope is really all they need.
But, really, you ought to see the walnuts this tree produces. I mean starting in August they began dropping and they were huge, the size of racquet balls, some of them close to the size of a baseball! And I remember as they began to fall hearing from others who have been in the community longer than I, that such large walnuts were a sign of a bad, cold and snowy winter to come. I felt like this was confirmed throughout the autumn as my wife and I then watched squirrels feast on these walnuts. Seriously, I've never seen squirrels get so fat. It was as if they were stocking up for what was to come.
Likewise, this morning, Jesus warns us to read the signs and be prepared for what is to come. However, He also tells us that some things just cannot be known; that the precise details which we normally crave are not for us to know. And so, we see Jesus here in Mark 13 call us to both readiness and alertness for His return and the consummation of the Kingdom of God.
As we've seen over the last three months in the Book of the Twelve God has sworn by Himself to send an anointed King to set the world to rights and redeem any soul who would call on His name for salvation. We saw each and every week how Jesus is that anointed King and how the Gospels and the rest of the New Testament show Jesus to be the fulfillment of the Book of the Twelve. At the same time we also saw each week how though the Kingdom has begun according to the first coming of Christ that Creation still awaits His second ...
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