Mark 13:31

Heaven and earth shall pass away: but my words shall not pass away. HEAVEN AND EARTH SHALL PASS AWAY; BUT MY WORDS SHALL NOT PASS AWAY - the strongest possible expression of the divine authority by which He spake; not as Moses or Paul might have said of their own inspiration, for such language would be unsuitable in any merely human mouth. It will be observed that, in the foregoing prophecy, as our Lord approaches the crisis of the day of vengeance on Jerusalem, and redemption for the Church-at which stage the analogy between that and the day of final vengeance end redemption waxes more striking-His language rises and swells beyond all temporal and partial vengeance, beyond all earthly deliverances and enlargements, and ushers us resistlessly into the scenes of the final day. Accordingly, in these six concluding verses it is manifest that preparation for "THAT DAY" is what our Lord...

28-37 We have the application of this prophetic sermon. As to the destruction of Jerusalem, expect it to come very shortly. As to the end of the world, do not inquire when it will come, for of that day and that hour knoweth no man. Christ, as God, could not be ignorant of anything; but the Divine wisdom which dwelt in our Saviour, communicated itself to his human soul according to the Divine pleasure. As to both, our duty is to watch and pray. Our Lord Jesus, when he ascended on high, left something for all his servants to do. We ought to be always upon our watch, in expectation of his return. This applies to Christ's coming to us at our death, as well as to the general judgment. We know not whether our Master will come in the days of youth, or middle age, or old age; but, as soon as we are born, we begin to die, and therefore we must expect death. Our great care must be, that, whenever...

EXPOSITION MARK 13:1 AND AS HE WENT FORTH OUT OF THE TEMPLE, ONE OF HIS DISCIPLES SAITH UNTO HIM MASTER, BEHOLD, WHAT MANNER, OF STONES AND WHAT MANNER OF BUILDINGS! This would be in the evening. According to St. Luke (Luke 21:37), our Lord, during the early part of this _week_,_ _passed his nights upon the Mount of Olives, taking his food at Bethany with Martha and Mary, and spending his days in the temple at Jerusalem, teaching the people. It is most probable that he left the temple by the golden gate on the east, from whence the view of the temple would be particularly striking. We learn from St. Matthew (Matthew 24:1.) that our Lord had just been predicting

HEAVEN AND EARTH SHALL PASS AWAY,.... Which may be understood either affirmatively, as what will be at the second coming of Christ; or comparatively, rather than any thing said by Christ should; and so shows the certainty and irreversibleness of his predictions, as it follows: BUT MY WORDS SHALL NOT PASS AWAY; which is true of all the words of Christ he ever spake, and here particularly relates to those he had just delivered, concerning the calamities that should come upon the Jewish nation; Matthew 24:35....

CHAPTER 13 _ 1. The Destruction of the Temple Predicted. (Mark 13:1 .Matthew 24:1; Luke 21:5)_ 2. The Questions of the Disciples. (Mark 13:3 .Matthew 24:3; Luke 21:7) 3. The Olivet Discourse. (Mark 13:5. Matthew 24:4; Luke 21

THE ESCHATOLOGIEAL DISCOURSE. The first two verses contain our Lord's prediction of the fall of Jerusalem. To the Jews, such an anticipation would seem blasphemous (_cf._ Acts 6:14). The discourse that follows does not explicitly develop this prophecy. For the abomination of desolation (Mark 13:14) is only a vague reference to the laying waste of Jerusalem, though it does foreshadow some signal profanation of the Temple. (The phrase comes from Daniel 9:27; Daniel 11:31 *, and means a profanation that provokes horror; _cf._ also 1Ma_1:54; 1Ma_6:7.) The subject of this, the longest speech attributed to Jesus in Mk., is the signs of the end, rat

THE THINGS TO COME (Mark 13:1-37) Mark 13:1-37 is one of the most difficult Chapter s in the New Testament for a modern reader to understand. That is because it is one of the most Jewish Chapter s in the Bible. From beginning to end it is thinking in terms of Jewish history and Jewish ideas. All through it Jesus is using categories and pictures which were very familiar to the Jews of his day, but which are very strange, and indeed, unknown, to many modern readers. Even so, it is not possible to disregard this chapter because it is the source of many ideas about the second coming of Jesus. The difficulty about the doctrine of the second coming is that nowadays people are apt either completely to disregard it or to be so completely unbalanced about it that it becomes for them practically the only d

HEAVEN. the heaven. Singular. See note on Matthew 6:9; Matthew 6:10....

_but my words shall not pass away_ Never did the Speaker seem to stand more utterly alone than when He uttered this majestic utterance. Never did it seem more improbable that it should be fulfilled. But as we look across the centuries we see how it has been realised. His words have passed into laws, they have passed into doctrines, they have passed into proverbs, they have passed into consolations, but they have never "passed away." What human teacher ever dared to claim an eternity for his words?...

30–32. CERTAINTY OF THE EVENT; UNCERTAINTY OF THE TIME Matthew 24:34-36; Luke 21:32-33...