Dear Family at Christ Community,

This Sunday we will continue in Jesus’s Olivet Discourse in Mark 13. It serves as the prologue to Mark’s Final Act. Despite the mysterious nature of many of Jesus’s statements, He makes clear what He expects of His disciples as the shadow of the cross looms over them: they must remain faithful and obedient to Him despite the various historical convulsions coming as a result. This includes the destruction of the temple and the end of the sacrificial system. To this end, Jesus makes 13 imperative (or command) statements throughout the chapter!

Peter, present at the Olivet Discourse, counsels in the same way those who will endure persecution and suffering as they await the New Heavens and Earth. They, too, had no way of determining the exact time of Christ’s return, but Peter calls them to wait in faith and obedience to the Lord of history. In 2 Peter 3:14-18, he encourages:

14 Therefore, beloved, since you are waiting for these, be diligent to be found by him without spot or blemish, and at peace. 15 And count the patience of our Lord as salvation, just as our beloved brother Paul also wrote to you according to the wisdom given him, 16 as he does in all his letters when he speaks in them of these matters. There are some things in them that are hard to understand, which the ignorant and unstable twist to their own destruction, as they do the other Scriptures. 17 You therefore, beloved, knowing this beforehand, take care that you are not carried away with the error of lawless people and lose your own stability. 18 But grow in the grace and knowledge of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. To him be the glory both now and to the day of eternity. Amen.

Just as Jesus warned, Peter cautions against listening to those who claim to know more than what God reveals. The focus should be on growing in faith in and obedience to the Lord Jesus.

Thankfully, the Lord’s Table nourishes us in our faith in and obedience to Jesus the Christ! Please come expecting to taste and see the Lord’s goodness. Ask the Spirit to help you grow in endurance in your salvation for God’s glory, your joy, and the life of the world.

In Christ,
Cameron