Welcome to episode 84 of Grasp the Bible.  In this episode, we continue our study in the Book of Mark, covering chapter 13:1-23.  The series is called “Get in, buckle up, and hold on!”  Today, we discuss Jesus’ Olivet Discourse: 

• The introduction (vv. 1-4) 
• Signs that do not signal the end (vv. 5–13) 
• Warnings related to Jerusalem’s destruction (vv. 14-23) 

Key takeaways: 

• The Olivet Discourse is one of the most difficult texts in the New Testament.  Studying it requires humility and a willingness to admit that we do not know everything. 
• The central theme is a call for watchfulness, perseverance, and faithfulness in the face of coming crises. 
• Jesus warns his disciples to watch out for false messiahs, catastrophic events, and severe persecutions. 
• Jesus describes events that do not herald the end of time, but instead are part of the normal course of human history. 
• It seems that Mark sees the events Jesus describes as near future (destruction of the Temple in AD 70) and far (the return of Christ). 

Quotable: 

• The Christian life is a marathon, not a sprint. 

Application: 

• Total allegiance to Jesus as Lord and a corresponding unwillingness to worship rulers and ideologies of this world will result in hatred from the general population.   
• False teachers will always be among us.  The focus and center of our faith must be Christ himself, not any human leader. 
• The natural tendency of human beings is to believe that catastrophic events threatening our own lives are also signs of the end of the world.  If my world is falling apart, then the entire world is. 
• Even in a passage full of end times images like this one, the message is not to calculate the end, but always to be alert and ready, living a life of spiritual preparation. 

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