We are currently taking a break from our verse-by-verse study through the Gospel ofMark, in order to bolster up our understanding of what the Bible teaches about events that willtake place in the future. The purpose of this topical series of teachings, is to provide a helpfuloverview of the doctrine of last things, so that we can better understand what Jesus teaches, when we get back to Mark chapter 13. Last Sunday, we moved onto the second broad catego-ry of eschatology, which we can call, “Comic Eschatology”, where we considered the central, overarching theme of the Bible, which is the Kingdom of God. In this week’s study, buildingon the subject of the kingdom of God, and the Biblical Covenants, by looking at God’s futureplans for both Israel and the Church.

In this week’s passage, we will considering the truth about our old selves, beforeGod stepped in and saved us by His grace. Although most of us would agreethat we are far from perfect, we can sometimes fail to see how desperate our situationwas, before God converted us. In this study, we will see that before Christ, wewere spiritually dead, in that our inner man was unresponsive to things of a spiritualnature. Not only that, but we were also enslaved by the world, living for its pleasures,while being enslaved by the devil himself. As we look to see what the Bible saysabout our pre-converted state, we come to realise that there’s no way that we wouldhave responded to God, unless God first initiated a work of grace in our lives.

We are currently taking a break from our verse-by-verse study through the Gospel ofMark, in order to bolster up our understanding of what the Bible teaches about events that willtake place in the future. The purpose of this topical series of teachings, is to provide a helpfuloverview of the doctrine of last things, so that we can better understand what Jesus teaches,when we get back to Mark chapter 13. Last Sunday, we moved onto the second broad categoryof eschatology, which we can call, “Comic Eschatology”, where we considered the central,overarching theme of the Bible, which is the Kingdom of God. In this week’s study, buildingon the subject of the kingdom of God, we will be looking at the Biblical Covenants, which arethe vehicles through which God has chosen to fulfil His kingdom purposes.

We are currently taking a break from our verse-by-verse study through the Gospel of Mark, in order to bolster up our understanding of what the Bible teaches about events that will take place in the future. The purpose of this topical series of teachings, is to provide a helpful overview of the doctrine of last things, so that we can better understand what Jesus teaches, when we get back to Mark chapter 13. Over the past two weeks, we have looked at the first broad category of eschatology, ‘Personal Eschatology’, which covered areas such as death, the intermediate state, resurrection, hell and heaven. Whereas this coming Sunday, we are moving onto the second broad category of eschatology, which we can call, “Comic Eschatology”. The first topic of ‘Cosmic Eschatology’ which we will be considering this Sunday, is the subject of the Kingdom.

We are currently taking a break from our verse-by-verse study through the Gospelof Mark, in order to bolster up our understanding of what the Bible teaches aboutevents that will take place in the future. The purpose of this topical series of teachings, isto provide a helpful overview of the doctrine of last things, so that we can better understandwhat Jesus teaches, when we get back to Mark chapter 13. Last week, we beganour study by looking at “Personal Eschatology” - what the Bible teaches about what willhappen to us personally when we die - where we covered the subjects of death and theintermediate state. In this week’s study, we will be concluding the division of “personaleschatology”, by looking at the subjects of the resurrection, hell and heaven.

As we come to chapter 13 in our study of the Gospel of Mark, we come to a point in the passionweek of Jesus, in which He spends the entire chapter explaining events which would take place at afuture time. The disciples of Jesus, along with most other Jews, were very familiar with what the OldTestament Scriptures said about God’s plans for the future. They knew that God would send the Messiah,who would save His people, and who would establish a literal kingdom from which He would reign,all in fulfilment of Old Testament prophecy. They were also familiar with what the Old Testament referredto as “The Day of the Lord” - a time when God would judge the nations. It’s on the basis of theirfamiliarity, that Jesus launches into His teaching in Mark 13. However, among Christians today, thereoften isn’t the same prophetic understanding. It’s with this in mind, beginning this coming Sunday, wewill be starting a topical teaching series called, “Things To Come”, in which we will be studying what theBible teaches about future events. In doing so, the aim is to better prepare us for studying Mark 13.

On this particular Wednesday of Christ’s passion week, two days before His death byway of crucifixion, Jesus has silenced the religious Jewish leaders following their four attempts totry and undermine & discredit Him. Jesus then questioned them about what the Scriptures teachabout the true identity of the Messiah - that He would not only be a man, but that He would alsobe God. Which brings us right up to this week’s passage, where we are given the final account ofJesus teaching the crowd publicly, before His attention is then focused on His disciples, up untilHis arrest. What Jesus teaches in this passage, is that He points out to the people, thehypocritical example of the Jewish leaders, and He points them to a true example of humility,through the giving of a poor widow.

There hasn’t been a shortage of activity on the Wednesday of Jesus’ passion week, twodays prior to His crucifixion. Up until this point, Jesus has been approached by four differentgroups of Jewish religious leaders, who have sought to discredit Him through their sly questions.Yet each and every one of their attempts have failed to succeed. If anything, the tables haveeven turned, with a scribe even agreeing wholeheartedly with Jesus’ answer to him. Havingtaught on the defensive for the first part of the day, in this week’s passage, Jesus now beginsteaching on the offensive. He does so by asking the religious leaders about a specific portion ofOld Testament Scripture, which actually points to His Sonship, and His Deity. In this passage,Jesus demonstrates once again that the Scriptures bear witness of who He really is.

It has been an incredibly busy day, on the final Wednesday before Jesus’ crucifixion.As He has sat there in the temple, there have already been three attempts to undermine Jesusby the various Jewish religious leaders. The first attempt involved the chief priests, scribes andelders who sought to undermine the credentials and the authority of Jesus (11:27-33). The secondattempt was by the Pharisees who sought to get Jesus in trouble politically (12:13-17). Andthen the third attempt was by the Sadducees who sought to embarrass Jesus intellectually(12:18-27). But as we’ve seen, Jesus outsmarts every group that has opposed with the truth ofGod’s Word, and by exposing the truth of their heart condition. In this week’s passage, Jesus isconfronted by a scribe, who challenges Jesus with a question about which is the greatest commandment.The answer from Jesus is profoundly simple, yet simply profound.

It has been a day of opposition on the Wednesday leading up to Jesus’ arrest andcrucifixion. The Sanhedrin is working overtime to try and find an accusation against Jesusthat will stick, but up until this point, they have been unsuccessful. Firstly, they sent thechief priests, scribes and elders to try and trap Jesus theologically. When that didn’t work,they sent some Pharisees and Herodians, to try and trap Jesus politically. But when thatdidn’t work, we get to this week’s passage, where the Sadducees decide to now approachJesus with question. This time, the question relates to the resurrection, a belief which theSadducees were strongly against. As it turns out, the answer that Jesus provides actuallygives us some insight as to what heaven will be like in relation to marriage.