“And what I say unto you I say unto all, Watch.” — Mark 13:37
Image Credit: Karsten Winegeart via Unsplash
The Olivet discourse begins and ends with an exhortation to alertness. Take heed…Watch. Despite the expectations of the early church and the assumptions of both Futurists and Preterists, the teaching of the gospels indicates that we must expect a long and protracted warfare against the world, the flesh and the devil. We must run this race with patience,[1] bearing ample oil for our lamps[2].
The Lord gave Peter a glorious promise: “Verily I say unto you, That ye which have followed me, in the regeneration when the Son of man shall sit in the throne of his glory, ye also shall sit upon twelve thrones, judging the twelve tribes of Israel.[3]” Yet the Lord never once answered the apostles repeated inquiries as to when he would give them the kingdom. “But of that day and hour knoweth no man, no, not the angels of heaven, but my Father only.[4]” and again after his resurrection when he had let the disciples eat with him and touch his wounds he said, “It is not for you to know the times or the seasons, which the Father hat put in his own power.[5]”
This is what it means to live by faith. We do not know when the Lord is coming but we persevere in the faith and let our lives be regulated by the scriptures knowing that his will for us is good. Peter was ultimately crucified by the Romans as Christ was. Like the prophets before him, he “died in faith, not having received the promises, but having seen them afar off, and were persuaded of them, and embraced them, and confessed that they were strangers and pilgrims on the earth.[6]”
“The secret things belong unto the LORD our God: but those things which are revealed belong unto us and to our children for ever, that we may do all the words of this law.”
Watch.
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