Mark 13
1Jesus and his followers left the Temple, and one of the followers said, “Teacher, look at these lovely buildings, and see how big those stones are.”
2Jesus said, “Yes, take a good look at this big building. Later on, it will not be here, it will be just a pile of broken stones on the ground.”
3Then Jesus and his followers went out of Jerusalem, and they sat down on the hill called the Mount of Olives. They could see the Temple from there, and so, as they looked at it, Peter, James, John and Andrew asked Jesus quietly,
4“When will that building be just a pile of stones? Will there be a sign to show us when it is going to happen?”
5Jesus said, “Yes, these are the signs to look out for, but people will try to trick you and so you have to be careful.
6A lot of people will come and say, ‘I am the man sent from God called The Christ’, and a lot of people will get tricked up.
7You will hear stories about wars that are happening now, and you might hear stories about wars that will happen later. Do not let those stories make you frightened, it is not the right time for the world to finish up yet.
8I am telling you straight. People from different countries are going to fight each other and people from different tribes are going to fight each other too. There will be earthquakes everywhere. There will not be much food and everybody will be really hungry. You know how a woman starts to have pain when she is going to have a baby, it is a sign that the baby will be born. Like that again, when all these bad things start to happen, they are the signs to look out for. And you will know that there will be even bigger trouble coming.
9Be careful how you live. You have followed me, and so people are going to arrest you and take you to court. They will flog you in their meeting houses. You will have to stand in front of kings and government leaders. And when that happens, you can tell them about me and what I did.
10Before the world finishes up, people in every country and every tribe must be told the good news about me. And you can tell people how they can be made right with God.
11Yes, you will be arrested, but when you go to court do not worry about what to say. At the right time, the Holy Spirit will tell you what to say to the judge.
12The trouble will get so bad that some men will get their brothers arrested and killed. Some fathers will do the same to their children, and some children will turn against their parents and have them killed.
13You follow me and that is why everyone will hate you. But if you stay strong and do not give up, God will keep you safe in his family.”
14And then he said, “Later on, you people who live in Judea will see a really bad thing that someone put in the wrong place. That thing will make a lot of trouble. When that happens, run away to the high hills! Anyone reading this story should take notice of my warning.
15You might be outside your house, or you might even be up on your roof. Do not try to save anything from inside your house.
16You might be working in a paddock, but do not go back into your house to get your coat, just run away quickly.
17At that time it will be really hard for women that are waiting for babies to be born, and it will be just as hard for mothers that are still feeding their babies with their milk.
18You should pray and ask God not to let this trouble happen in winter time when it's hard to travel in the country.
19Right from the beginning when God made everything, there has always been trouble, but the trouble that is coming will be the worst kind. And it will never be this bad again!
20If God lets that trouble keep on going, everyone will die. But God has picked some people to be in his family and so he wants them to stay alive. That is why he will not let that trouble keep on going.
21Like I said before, do not believe people that say, ‘We have found The Christ, the special man from God. Here he is.’ Or if they say, ‘There he is over there,’ do not believe them.
22There will be a lot of people that will tell lies and try to trick you. Some will say that they are The Christ, the special man from God. Other people will say they are talking for God, and they might do all kinds of clever things. Yes, they will try and trick the people that God has picked to be in his family.
23So be careful. I am telling you about it now so that later on, when it happens, you can be ready.
24When that time of trouble finishes, more things will happen that God tells us about in his book. He said, ‘The sun will go dark, and the moon will stop shining.
25The stars and the other powerful things in the sky will all shake and fall down.’
26Then everybody will see God's special man come back from heaven in the clouds. People will see that he is really strong, and powerful, and he will be just like God.
27He will send God's angels out to every place all over the world. Those angels will get all the people that God picked to be in his family and bring them to God.
28Think about this. Whenever you see new leaves on a fruit tree, you know that the weather is going to change soon.
29It's the same with all these things that I am telling you about now, they will show you that something is about to happen. You will see these things happen and you will know that I will come soon.
30Listen, there are some people alive now that will still be alive when these things happen.
31One day the sky and the ground will both finish up, but my words will never finish up.” And you can read this story in Matthew 24:36-44
32Then Jesus said, “Be careful, nobody knows the time or the day when God will do these things. God's angels in heaven do not know. I don't even know. My father in heaven is the only one that knows. You do not know when God will do these things, and so you have to be ready all the time.
34Listen to this story. A man wanted to go and stay in another place for a while. So he told his workmen to look after everything at his house while he was away. He told each one of them to do their own jobs. And he told the man that opens and closes the gate, to keep watching the road for when he would come back.”
35Then Jesus said, “You do not know what time the owner of the house is going to come home. He might come after the sun goes down, or in the middle of the night. He might come back after the sun comes up or in the middle of the day. Do not let him come back and find you sleeping when you should be watching.
37And so, I am telling you all to be careful, just like I tell everybody else. Keep watching! You have to be ready for me to come.”