Be Alert!

Read: Mark 13:14-37

Last Sunday Pastor Jeremy preached from Mark 13:1-13 on the return of Christ and how it should drive us to proclaim the gospel to all people for God’s glory. This Sunday Pastor Ken will continue with this important subject in Mark 13:14-37. As you prepare your heart for our corporate gathering, let these words from Dr. Akin encourage you and move you to further consider the state of your heart before God.

Heart Preparation

Jesus is clearly speaking of His coming again (vv. 26-27). He plainly states that “no one knows” when it will happen, “neither the angels in heaven nor the Son— except the Father.” It is that phrase “nor the Son” that gives us pause. As orthodox, Bible-believing Christians, we affirm the full and undiminished deity of God the Son. As God, He possesses all the attributes of deity, including omniscience. Yet here He clearly states there is a body of knowledge of which He is, dare I say, ignorant: the day and hour of His own second coming. This statement makes no sense apart from the incarnation. In taking on a human nature and entering into the time-space reality, the Son of God did not surrender His deity, but He did lay aside His glory (John 17: 5; see also Phil 2: 6-11). In doing so, our Lord for a time relinquished the free exercise of His divine attributes such as omniscience. In the mystery and beauty of the incarnation, the all-knowing sovereign Son could temporarily lay aside or suspend the free exercise of His “God attributes” so that He might live an authentic human life in submission to His Father and in dependence on the Holy Spirit. This also explains why our Lord could be hungry, experience thirst, grow tired, and be killed. And here lies another indictment for those caught up in prophetic speculation and date setting. NO ONE KNOWS BUT GOD!

We may not know when Jesus will return. However, we do know what we should be doing until He does. “Watch! Be alert!” Why? “For you don’t know when the time will come.” Three times our Lord affirms what I like to call “human eschatological agnosticism” (vv. 32,33,35). Like a man on a journey, our Lord has left the house, but only for a while. We, His servants, have been put in charge with a task: proclaim the gospel “to all nations” (v. 10). We each have our work (v. 34). So be faithful, be ready, and “be alert.”

Stay awake! Stay awake! It could be in the evening.

Stay awake! Stay awake! It could be at midnight.

Stay awake! Stay awake! It could be when the rooster crows.

Stay awake! Stay awake! It could be in the morning.

Bottom line, “He might come suddenly.” His coming is imminent. It could happen at any time, including today. You don’t want Him to find you asleep, unprepared. Not doing the work He has given you. Oh, how tragic it would be for our Lord to return and find His church asleep at the wheel, neglecting her assignment, squandering her resources, deceiving herself into thinking He won’t come today. How tragic to say, “Tomorrow, I will get busy serving Him,” only to discover tomorrow is never coming. So again Jesus sounds the warning “to everyone: Be alert!” If He said it once, that should be sufficient. That He says it four times should really get our attention. “Be alert” and serve Him today. Tomorrow may never arrive!


Excerpt from Christ-Centered Exposition: Exalting Jesus in Mark, by Daniel L. Akin, pp. 317-318.


Song List for Sunday

  1. Even So Come, by Chris Tomlin
  2. O Church Arise, by Keith and Kristyn Getty
  3. Before the Throne, by Shane and Shane
  4. When the Stars Burn Down, Shane and Shane Arrangement
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