How More Clearly Could He Have Made This To Us?

             It started when Jesus entered Jerusalem for the third time in two days. The chief priests and the scribes and the elders came to Him....in other words those of the council of the Sanhedrin came to Him....and wanted to know where His authority came from from to do and say the things He was doing and saying. Jesus as you know....turned the tables on His questioners....and asked them a question. He would answer if they answered. They said they did not know the answer....but Jesus in effect told them that they just were not going to give Him an answer....so neither was He.
             Jesus then gave a parable essentially stating that they were as God's vinedressers....who rebelled against God....and that God was going to destroy them. Not surprisingly they did not like that....but were thwarted in getting at Jesus....so they sent the Pharisees and the Herodians to see if they could do any better in tricking Jesus. You are familiar with this also....they used flattery in their question on taxes to Caesar. Well Jesus shut down that attempt also....so next came the Sadducees with their question on whose wife a woman would be in this so-called....resurrection? Again....Jesus outclassed all of these supposed experts.
             OK...next came another scribe....possibly a new scribe....(by the way the scribes were kind of like the seminary professors of the day)....and he asked an honest question on the most important commandment....kind of like Nicodemus the Pharisee did....and gave an honest response to Jesus answer....and Jesus said something remarkable to him...."You are not far from the kingdom of God." That is a good description today for those of us who genuinely do believe that they are Christian....and they sincerely want to be believers....hey....they are good people....believe in Jesus....go to church....and they are not Democrats....what more could possibly be needed to be a Christian....but they have not as of yet been....born again! 
             So there is a multitude around Jesus....some translate them as...."the common people"....but other translations simply say a large crowd....many of them had heard this interrogation from the chief priests and the scribes and the elders and the Sadducees....and Jesus addresses them....the people....or the common people with...."Beware of the scribes, who desire to go around in long robes, love greetings in the marketplaces, the best seats in 'church', and the best places at feasts".....beware of them! Their judgment is going to be greater because they claimed to be the teachers. 
             These were the last parables that Jesus gave before he sat down with His disciples in what we know as....The Olivet Discourse. This passage on the end times was so important that Matthew writes of it in chapter 24....Luke in chapter 21....and Mark in chapter 13!
             In that Olivet Discourse Jesus talks about a generation that is going to experience all the things that he is describing. They were going to see these things happening....and know that Jesus was at the very door. He told them...."take heed"....and emphasized that He is warning them beforehand! He told them to learn the parable of the fig true that when the leaves came....summer was near...."So you also, when you see these things happening, know that it is near, at the very doors." 
             Folks....Jesus said all this in the final fifteen verses of the Olivet Discourse....(I'm using Mark 13 here)....He said that no one knows the day and the hour....which we today take as....so don't worry about it.....but He then told them that since they do not know the day or the hour...."Take heed, watch and pray; for you do not know when the time is." Read this for yourselves...."Watch therefore, for you do not know when the master of the house is coming" He concludes all of this by warning them not to go to sleep...."And what I say to you, I say to all: Watch!"