The Sermon on the Mount of Olives & the Call to Apocalyptic-Discipleship

The Mount of Olives Viewed from the Eastern Wall of Jerusalem in the 21st Century. Jesus would have taught about His Second Coming from this mountain two days before He was rejected and crucified in Jerusalem.(Mark 13) 

       “3 And as He was sitting on the Mount of Olives, the disciples came to Him privately, saying, “Tell us, when will these things happen, and what will be the sign of Your coming, and of the end of the age?” Matthew 24:3

Today is Ash Wednesday.  Ash Wednesday is built on the tradition of imposing ashes on the forehead of the Christian as a sign of repentance and faith in God through Jesus Christ. I remember as a young minister my responsibility was to gather the ‘Palm branches’ our congregation waived on Palm Sunday and place them in a bag for storage. Nearly a year later,  the night before Ash Wednesday, I would burn those branches (if I could find the bag) and prepare the ashes to wipe across the foreheads of our congregation as they took Holy Communion. 

The ashes were symbolic of the confessed sins of omission and commission that we had committed the previous year. Like Peter, our boastings often become the basis of our confession of falling short. Ash Wednesday became the gate of entering into a 40-day season of recentering my life upon the life, ministry and person of Jesus. Lent, in its truest sense, is both commemoration and a  participation in the 40 days that Jesus spent in the wilderness overcoming the world, the flesh and the devil in order to prepare for the public phase of His ministry inaugurated in the Galilee.  Lent ends on Palm Sunday with the beginning of Holy Week.

The Lenten season is never to be a lifeless tradition to replace a lifestyle of repentance and confession. When we confess our sins to God He is faithful to cleanse us and forgive us on any day of the year. The value is found in the “intentionality” of a protracted season of focus on the transformative power of Jesus by His Holy Spirit in us. “Specificity” in our spiritual growth adds focus to His particular work in our heart, mind, will, emotions and body. For example, if we have identified a stronghold of timidity in our soul, we can ‘intentionally’ and ‘specifically’ ask for the help of the Spirit of Jesus to drive this ‘cowardice’ from us to be replaced with bold-love!

I have chosen the Mark 13:1-37 to serve as a Lenten backdrop, spiritual stair-master or template of transformative fellowship with Jesus  for Lent 2021. This Olivet Discourse was given while Jesus sat privately on the western slope Mount of Olives overlooking the ancient city of Jerusalem’s eastern wall. This teaching likely happened at Sunset or in the early evening.

Please read Mark 13 silently, audibly and in various translations over the next several days and weeks. His words are spirit and life to the soul.  You can also read Matthew 24-25 and Luke 21 which are parallel passages which give details Mark does not include and vice versa. Read the events leading up to the Olivet Discourse beginning in Mark 10-16.  You will notice the Sermon on the Mount of Olives is the Last Great Discourse of Jesus other than John 14-17 (which took place likely between during or shortly after the Lord’s Supper and before Gethsamane).  

Therefore, figuratively, over the next 40 days we will climb the Mount of Olives, step by step, stone by stone, verse by verse from the 13th chapter of Mark. There are thirty-seven verses in this chapter that Jesus taught which unfold a kingdom culture and a  lifestyle which we can initiate as citizens of heaven on earth!  The Chief Cornerstone, Jesus, is the firm foundation that provides the immovable and eternal nature of the kingdom of God in a ‘shakeable’ world. The more we internalize this teaching in obedience the more stable and productive we will be for His kingdom in the difficult days unfolding in our world today. 

We must build discernment of the times, be found as faithful servants and stewards when Jesus returns at the end of the age!  This is the simply purpose of the Sermon on the Mount of Olives.

Our goal will be to build on the high ground of the  ‘unshakeable’ kingdom of God.  We will ask the Holy Spirit each day to “ create in us a clean heart”…to “restore the joy of our salvation” and to “renew an upright spirit in us” in the midst of crooked, dark and  crumbling civilization. 

At the end of each biblical devotion, I will suggest one simple prayer-action and ask two questions to facilitate intentional and specific interaction with our Lord Jesus Christ:

1. Shake-down/up: Find a place of solitude each day and pray your life will be marked with the unshakeable characteristics of the  kingdom of God in Jesus Christ revealed in each verse. For example, “the kingdom of God is righteousness, peace and joy in the Holy Spirit” (Rom.14:17).  Pray you will yield to the Holy Spirit to cultivate and build “joy” into your spirit and responses to life challenges. 

2. Shake-off: During this season of Lent, what habit(s) can I shed or starve or crucify to redirect my time, my talent and my treasure toward the things of God? For example, ‘shake-off’ the spirit of heaviness and put on the garment of praise!

3.  Shake-out: (Like a salt-shaker)…Today, help me to speak a word or do a good deed that will strengthen someone to consider Jesus and release  His unshakeable kingdom into their lives?

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Author: swimmingmonk1980

Follower of Jesus for 40 years; Married 35 years; Father of 5; a continual recipient of God's saving grace; a contemplative; enjoy nature; eventually I overcome reluctance and take risks; the greatest joy is strengthening others by helping them become fully aware of the presence, power, purpose and purity of Jesus on their behalf View all posts by swimmingmonk1980