Mark 13 serves as the culmination of everything Jesus said and did in the Temple during chapters 11-12. After exposing the corruption within the Temple’s system and leadership in the previous two chapters, Jesus concluded His public ministry by warning the people about the hypocritical scribes who devour widows’ houses. As chapter 13 begins, Jesus leaves Jerusalem and predicts the Temple’s complete destruction—an event that would happen within forty years during the Roman-Jewish War (66 to 70 AD). This passage, known as the Olivet Discourse and paralleled in Matthew and Luke, forecasts Jerusalem’s fall and offers a glimpse of Christ’s second coming in glory. However, where Jesus is speaking specifically about the Temple’s destruction and the end of history has been a subject of interpretive debate among scholars. We will address a small part of this, but it is important to remember that biblical prophecy—while fascinating and evidence of the Bible’s divine inspiration—is not primarily intended to create timelines or uncover secret insights. Like all Scripture, prophecy is given to instruct, reprove, correct, and train us in righteousness for today. The disciples ask for a sign, and Jesus does not give them one until verse 14. The main point Jesus first emphasizes is not satisfying their curiosity with a detailed map of the future but teaching them (and us) how to live faithfully no matter what—being watchful against deception, not panicking amid the world’s turmoil, relying on the Spirit during persecution, and enduring to the end, whether the end comes today or a thousand years from now.

I. Judgment & The Disciples’ Question (1-2)

II. Don’t Be Deceived By False Christs (5-6)

III. Don’t Be Alarmed By False Signs (7-8)

IV. Be Ready To Endure Persecution (9-13)

After a month away from our study in Mark, we’re returning to the middle of chapter 12, where Jesus faces a series of challenges from religious leaders in Jerusalem during his final week. After Jesus entered Jerusalem to shouts of Hosanna and cleansed the temple, a delegation from the Sanhedrin questioned his authority. Pharisees and Herodians attempt to trap him with a question about taxes to Caesar, and Sadducees pose a hypothetical about marriage, hoping to prove there is no resurrection. This Sunday, we’ll examine the final question from a scribe—a legal expert on God’s law—regarding the greatest commandment (Mark 12:28-37). This leads to a discussion that highlights how someone can be remarkably close to God’s kingdom without actually entering it. The main point is that true entry into the kingdom requires more than intellectual agreement with God’s truths or admiration for Jesus; it demands recognizing, trusting, and submitting to Jesus as Lord, the divine Son of God, who alone has kept God’s commandments in our place and, in the new birth, enables us to love God and others.

I. The Foundational Truth of God’s Law (v. 28-31)

II. The Full Agreement Of A Lost Sinner (v. 32-34)

III. The Faith That Enters The Kingdom (v. 35-37)

As we come to the end of 2025, we can look back and see God’s wonderful goodness to us at FBC. We are a blessed fellowship, and God has moved in so many ways among us. As we look forward to 2026, I thought about what our prayer should be. What would we ask God to do among us and within us, as disciples and as a body? When I think on this question, I am often brought back to Paul’s prayer for the Ephesians. In Ephesians 1-3, Paul lays out the doctrinal foundation of gospel truths. He teaches the Ephesians who they are "in Him" and who they are as a body of both Jews and Gentiles, united as the people of God. Then, in chapters 4-6, He teaches them how to live these truths out within the body and out in the world. Sandwiched right between these two sections, at the end of chapter 3, Paul prays that God would empower and strengthen them by the Spirit that they would be able to live out all that he teaches in chapters 4-6. This Sunday, we will study this prayer in Ephesians 3:14-21, and make it our prayer as disciples of Jesus and the body at FBC. Paul prays they would be strengthened in their inner being, to know Christ’s unknowable love, and be filled with the fullness of God. Sounds wonderful, but that is much easier said than done. Many of us have set our hearts to live for Christ and been repeatedly disappointed, knowing we cannot be what we desire. Yet, Paul shows us that God is able to fulfill this impossible prayer. It is not striving harder that brings our strengthening about...it is becoming more dependent. 

I. Paul’s Prayer To The Father (14-15) 

II. Strengthened By The Spirit As Christ’s Dwelling (16-17a) 

III. Strengthened To Know Christ’s Love (17b-19) 

IV. Pray Because God Is Able (20-21)