Introduction to the Olivet Discourse

The point: Be prepared to wrestle through and overcome the difficulties of Mark 13, approaching it with confidence that the demands will be amply rewarded.

Martin uses the analogy of the Bible becoming a 'blanket upon our feet and path' instead of a 'lamp to our feet and a light to our path' to describe what happens if God's Word is deliberately confusing, contrasting it with clear passages that allow for 'sanctified dogmatism.'

It is the most difficult portion in all of Mark's Gospel to interpret with certainty, and to expound with sanctified dogmatism. I have known that sooner or later we would come to chapter 13, and that sooner or later the moment of truth would arrive for me as an experience, as an expounder and preacher of the Word, and the more I've studied, the more I'm convinced that in many portions of this chapter I will have to say it appears to me, according to my present light, that this is most likely what the passage is saying. Now, thankfully, you're not fed on a diet of that week after week and month...

8:19 - 9:43 Read in full sermon

The point: Be prepared to wrestle through and overcome the difficulties of Mark 13, approaching it with confidence that the demands will be amply rewarded.

He mentions reading a technical book on Mark 13 with footnotes in multiple foreign languages (French, German, Latin) to illustrate the extensive and complex scholarly literature surrounding the interpretation of this difficult passage.

That's the exposition of the Word of God. But, because this chapter is the most difficult portion, then there will not be the same degree of that. One man who has carefully studied the book and written a commentary upon it, wrote as follows, In the Gospel of Mark there is no passage more problematic than the prophetic discourse on the destruction of the temple. The questions, posed by the form and the content of the chapter, and by its relationship to the Gospel as a whole, are complex and difficult, and have been the occasion of extensive literature. And one of the men loaned me a rather tech...

9:43 - 11:08 Read in full sermon

In this part of the sermon: The disciples, overwhelmed by the temple's magnificent stones and buildings, exclaim their awe, prompting Jesus's stunning and graphic prophecy that 'not one stone upon another'…

Martin describes the massive size of the temple stones (36x18x8 feet) and their beauty, comparing them to the platform of the church, to help the congregation visualize the disciples' awe and the seeming impossibility of Jesus's prophecy.

it's indestructible look at this temple behold what manner of stones and in that temple that was still in the process of being rebuilt by Herod we are told that the stones were made of solid marble in cubits 25 by 8 by 12 which converted into feet would be approximately 36 feet in length longer than this platform from edge to edge 36 feet in length 18 feet across that would go from the baptism front of the baptismal tank to the at least to the edge of the platform and then 8 feet thick I'm 6 feet tall so right up to here now can you imagine a solid slab of granite a marble white marble we are ...

35:33 - 37:02 Read in full sermon

The point: Do not be preoccupied with 'when' and 'what sign' regarding prophetic issues, but rather seek to know what is necessary to take heed to yourselves, persevere unto the end, and be watchful and prayerful.

He recounts receiving a 'personal and confidential' letter from someone in South Jersey who had calculated the exact dates for the Great Tribulation and Christ's return, using this as a contemporary example of the carnal preoccupation with prophetic timetables that he warns against.

I almost thought of bringing the materials, but I said, no, it's so ludicrous it would introduce laughter that might be undefitting to our worship service. When I pulled it out, there were two sheets of paper this long, longer than the standard legal size, this wide, written in very fine hand. The whole paper was almost completely covered. How the person did it, I don't know, but written in hand, and this was a Xerox copy, both sides of two sheets, a lengthy letter to President Reagan, and then a smaller letter, one side of a sheet this size, written in very fine handwriting, appealing to me t...

48:37 - 49:28 Read in full sermon

The point: Do not be preoccupied with 'when' and 'what sign' regarding prophetic issues, but rather seek to know what is necessary to take heed to yourselves, persevere unto the end, and be watchful and prayerful.

Martin uses the metaphor of turning the Bible into a 'jigsaw puzzle' to describe the 'horrible, carnal desire' of people who are always trying to fit prophetic schemes together while neglecting vital religion and a perishing world around them.

Dear people, listen. That itch, that horrible, carnal desire that so masters people that they turn the Bible into some kind of a jigsaw puzzle, always trying to fit the prophetic scheme together, while their own hearts are bereft of the most elementary facets of vital religion, a world can be perishing all around them while they play with their jigsaw puzzle. Our great concern in coming to this discourse must not be when and what sign, so that we feel we've got it all in hand, but that we shall know as much as is necessary to cause us to take heed to ourselves, to take heed that no man lead us...

49:58 - 51:19 Read in full sermon