When you read about Jesus last night on earth one of the things you find is that he spends much of the time comforting his disciples. But who comforted Jesus? As he prepared to drink the bitter cup of God’s wrath against our sin who was thinking about his suffering and offering him words of encouragement? I think Mark gives us a hint in this verse. The last thing Jesus did before he left the upper room was sing a song with his disciples. Wouldn’t it be amazing to know what song Jesus sang and see if God might have used that song to encourage his Son when he felt all alone? Well because it was the Passover we actually do know what song Jesus sang that night and in this message we will see how God ordained this specific song for this special night to comfort his Son when no one else would.

In Mark 13:32-37 Jesus tells his disciples that he is going to come again and he calls them to stay awake. Part of staying awake means longing for Jesus return. In this sermon, we will consider why it is that we often find ourselves longing more for the temporary things of this world than for Jesus return. We will also see why it is that we can know with absolute certainty that Jesus is truly going to come again and when he does it will be the greatest thing that has ever happened for all those who have put their trust in him.

In Mark 13, Jesus is preparing his disciples to be ready for coming persecution. While there were implications specific to Jesus' disciples, he also calls the reader of Mark to understand that they need to be ready for the Second Coming of Jesus. Listen and hear how the gospel encourages us to be ready for the return of Jesus.

In Mark 13 Jesus alerts His disciples to the persecution that is coming for those who have chosen to follow Him and he warns them about seeking to escape it by following false Messiahs. Instead, Jesus calls His disciples to rely on the Holy Spirit and to endure all the way to the end. Instead of being alarmed by persecution Jesus tells his disciples that God intends to use persecution to be the very means by which the Gospel goes out into the world. In this sermon we will see how God has used persecution to spread the Gospel both in the book of Acts and throughout church history. My prayers is that God would use this sermon to lead all of us to become more dependent upon his Spirit and more bold in our proclamation of the Gospel to others.