Kingdom Disciples

According to the Apostle John, “ life ” is found in the “ Word ” or ' Logos ', and this life is the “ Light of men .” It is “ shining in the darkness ,” and the darkness “ cannot seize ” or suppress it. This same “ Word ” has become the Living Word in Jesus of Nazareth. In him, the glory and life of God are fully manifested - (John 1:1).

Jesus compared the final years before his return to the days leading up to the Great Flood. “ Just as it was in the days of Noah, so shall it be ” when the “ Son of Man ” returns. Some commentators take this as a prediction of the return of the same conditions existing in Noah’s day, the repetition of the moral anarchy and violence that prompted God to send the floodwaters.

In his ‘Olivet Discourse,’ Jesus provided his disciples with a chronological key – they would know the time of the demise of the Temple when they saw all “ these things ” coming to pass - Before “ this generation ” reached its inevitable end. That was his definitive answer to the question, “ When will THESE THINGS come to pass? ” Within one generation, Jerusalem and its Temple would be destroyed, and some of his followers would live to see it.

The  Gospel of Mark  divides the story of the barren fig tree into two sections and places the “cleansing” of the Temple between them. The two incidents are closely linked. The fruitlessness of the fig tree and its cursing highlighted the failure and fate of the Temple, and the actions of Jesus foreshadowed its destruction. After his arrival in the city of Jerusalem, he first visited the Temple and “ looked around on all things .”

Did Jesus command his followers to know end-time chronologies, the “ times and seasons ”? Must they decipher key “signs” and use them to calculate the time of his return so they may prepare in the nick of time for that day’s arrival? Did he and his apostles leave us with a comprehensive list of signs whereby we can decode God’s prophetic timetables?