h ile t h e disciples wanted to take the Lord on a tour of their beloved temple He rather rebuked them and pointed out that this mar velous structure, in which they had such great pride, was about to be destroyed. No doubt they were taken aback. But yet, of the eleven disci ples present, four had courage. Ac cording to Mark, they came together and posed certain questions to the Lord. In the. four we have two sets of brothers: James and John, and Peter and Andrew. We read, “And as he sat upon the mount of Olives the disciples came unto him privately, say ing, Tell us, when shall these things be? and what shall be the sign of thy coming, and of the end of the world?” (Matthew 24:3). (In Mark and Luke there is only the time of the temple’s destruction that is men tioned. Matthew goes on to quote these two other questions.) In Greek there are two translations for our English word “world.” There is “cosmos,” which has to do with the universe and our world of nature and existence. But the other is better translated “age.” From the Greek we get such words as “era” and “eon.” It is a certain period of time. Peter raises the question, “What will be the sign of the end of this age.” In this verse we are introduced to four terms with which we must become familiar. In our study of this discourse these words will occur again and again. We might refer to them as the vocabulary of eschatology. Eschatology is the Greek word for “last things.” The four words are “sign,” “coming,” “end,” and “age.” The word “coming” is very inter esting. It not only speaks of someone who is in the process of approaching,- but also it puts the emphasis on his actually being present. Peter was real ly saying, “When will be the time when you will be beside us?” The dis
ciples knew He was coming, but they wanted to know how they would real ize that He had actually arrived. We do need to define our terms. For ex ample, what is the meaning of the word “grace?” What is the meaning of the word “salvation ?” What is the meaning of the word “sin?” I have been impressed by the fact that as we turn to the Word of God many of the key words in the vocabulary of grace are defined very very clearly. Take the word “faith.” In Hebrews 11:1, “Now faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen.” “ IN SECRET"
Go tell God "in secret/' The burdens you bear. He heareth you gladly And He answers prayer. He seeth "in secret,"
The pain in your heart, The struggle and anguish And teardrops that start. He worketh "in secret," And sendeth release. His love soothes like heart-balm And He giveth peace.
—Marie Nyquist What a very succinct definition. It is tjlear and precise. But someone may say, “It isn’t very clear to me. How can faith have a substance?” This desk, from which I am writ ing, is hard in substance. I may lean upon it. But how can you lean upon faith? This could become quite a problem. But the reason is that we limit the term to that which we can see and feel. Suppose we go out hunt ing. We see a footprint of an animal. But because the animal itself is not there does that mean it doesn’t exist? The hunter picks up the trail for the footprint which is the substance of the animal he hoped for.
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