Mark 13:31 Heaven and earth shall pass away: but my words shall not pass away
People are always curious about the future. We all want to know what will happen in the future. We all wish we knew what would happen tomorrow, but we do not. Imagine the curiosity of the followers of Jesus when Jesus indicated something about the future. Jesus had come out of the temple and His disciples had said, “Master, see what manner of stones and what buildings are here!” This was a magnificent temple with massive stones, beautiful artwork, and so on. Nothing could be closer to eternal in their minds than the magnificent, well-built temple.
Jesus had replied by saying, “Seest thou these great buildings? there shall not be left one stone upon another, that shall not be thrown down.” Well, Peter, James, John, and Andrew later asked Him privately, “Tell us, when shall these things be? and what shall be the sign when all these things shall be fulfilled?” They are asking about the future. By the way, they are making an assumption that the destruction of the temple was the end of the world. To them it would have been. It is hard for us as moderns to consider how permanently they would have considered the temple. It would be like considering an America without the White House, a building that has always been around in the memory of anyone living. It is an eternal thing in our minds. But there is a difference between things that are temporary, permanent, and eternal.
What do we think of as permanent? You think of a permanent marker. You get a black permanent marker stain on your shirt and you think that is permanent. Well, it is permanent, but where will the marker or shirt be in a thousand years? The answer is that it is not that permanent. Permanent is a relative term. Sometimes a lady will get a permanent hairdo. Does that mean it lasts for forty years? No, it is not permanent in that sense. And permanent needs to be distinguished from eternal.
These men are asking Jesus about things in the future and what Jesus talks about was all future at the time. Some of this is actually past for us. Josephus talks about the destruction of the temple in AD 70, and it went down exactly like Jesus said it would. So, the only eternal thing in this room where I am is the book on my lap, the Bible. Jesus says in verse 31, as an answer to the question of the disciples, “Heaven and earth shall pass away: but my words shall not pass away.” That temple was not eternal and you can argue that it was not even permanent, but Jesus’ Words are eternal.
We can learn something important here: never base your eternal on the temporary. We are very prone to focus on what is right in front of our face right now, and the far-seeing people we know think about permanent things like their lifetime or the lifetime of the person who comes after them. Neither of those things are eternal. Eternal decisions need to be made on the Lord’s eternal Word.
Your feelings are temporary. Someone says, “I just feel like something good is about to happen.” That is fine. Other people might feel like something ominous is going to happen, but my feelings are temporary at best. They can be influenced by what is happening inside my body, this world, or circumstances. Feelings are temporary but Jesus’ Words are eternal.
Circumstances are temporary. Look at the lot of the Jewish people in 1938, today, and in Jesus’ day. There has always been something of consequence going on with the Jewish people. If that is true with them, then I would say there are circumstances in our lives that are temporary. So many times we make eternal decisions based on what is going on around us at the moment. Some people have rejected the Lord Jesus because of what they saw in a particular day in their life.
Trends and the majority are temporary. Sometimes we are really stringent against certain sins and almost everyone agrees with us, but the devil can make a virtue of a sin which is closest to us of which we are guilty. So, I can very easily think of the sins of other people, other times, and other places, yet can make a virtue of something that is a sin to which I fall prey. Evangelist Bob Jones Sr. used to say, “You and God make a majority.” The trends you see today are temporary at best.
So, Jesus is asked about the future, and what He said is largely past for us. So, whatever the future may hold, know that Jesus holds the future. Never base your eternal on the temporary because Jesus said, “Heaven and earth shall pass away: but my words shall not pass away.”