The four men were concerned. Jesus had been saying some dreadful things - or were they perhaps hopeful things? - and the four disciples, Peter and Andrew, James and John, wanted to know when it would all happen. They saw Jesus sitting looking across at the great Temple in Jerusalem, and they came quietly to him, and asked him, When?

The four had been the first disciples, chosen by Jesus at the lakeside in Galilee. Jesus had come into Galilee preaching the gospel of God and saying, "The time is fulfilled and the kingdom of God is at hand. Repent and believe in the gospel" (Mark 1.15). They had felt that this was the time their ancestors had prayed for. Micah had said "Many nations shall come, and say 'Come, let us go up to the mountain of the Lord.... that he may teach us his ways.... Out of Zion shall go forth the law, and the word of the Lord from Jerusalem. He shall judge between many peoples.... they shall beat their swords into ploughshares.... they shall sit every man under his vine and his fig tree, and none shall make them afraid" (4.1‑5). Was this the time? Jesus had set about his task. He said, "The Spirit of the Lord is upon me, because he has anointed me to preach good news to the poor.... release to the captives.... recovering of sight to the blind.... to proclaim the acceptable year of the Lord" (Luke 4.18‑19). Everybody was wondering if he was the 'One who is to come', and he sent word to John the Baptist in prison, "....the blind receive their sight, the lame walk, lepers are cleansed, and the deaf hear, the dead are raised up, the poor have good news preached to them. And blessed is he who takes no offence at me" (Luke 7.22‑3). It was all true.

In the midst of all this excitement the Pharisees had come to Jesus and asked him to say when the kingdom of God was coming. Jesus had replied that the kingdom was already in their midst. A safe answer, perhaps, since it avoided ranging himself alongside the zealots whom the Romans were so regularly putting down But it was true. It made them all think about what they understood by the kingdom of God. How did they react to what Jesus was teaching and doing? The kingdom was in the hearts of those who were ready to obey him, and in the powerful activity of the Spirit at work.

But to the disciples Jesus had been saying a different thing. The 'days of the Son of Man' are future - they knew the words of the Scripture in Daniel 7.13‑14, "With the clouds of heaven there came one like a son of man, and he came to the Ancient of Days and was presented before him. And to him was given dominion and glory and kingdom, that all peoples, nations and languages should serve him; his dominion is an everlasting dominion which shall not pass away, and his kingdom one that shall not be destroyed." This was an experience for the future, something they would long for. As for the present moment, Peter and Andrew, James and John and all the others were perplexed. Jesus was telling them that first he must suffer many things and be rejected (Luke 17.25). So what was next?

There was a day of glory and excitement when the people welcomed Jesus into Jerusalem with palm branches, but Jesus' mood included a grief that did not match the occasion. Then, in the days that followed came challenge after challenge. It was not just the leaders who felt their position threatened (he did weigh into the scribes and pharisees). It was the ingrained habits and emotions of the people. He dealt with the animals for sale in the courtyard of God's House, but that did not take away the insidious greed that put them there. He used crowd psychology to frustrate those who were questioning his authority, but how could self - assertion and self - glory be part of the Kingdom? The disciples themselves had learned a lesson about that - that child he set among them.

Jesus was well aware of the hatred that some felt toward him. They wanted to murder him. He confronted his enemies with a story which linked them with those who had killed God's prophets in the past. This could only stir them to action against him. Some were trying to turn the people against him because he was not anti - Roman, or to turn the Romans against him as a dissident. He dealt with their trickery, but did the way to the kingdom of God consist of avoiding political traps? And there were the clever - clever Sadducees with a trick question of another kind. While the disciples watched, money was flooding into the temple treasury from the rich who could well afford it, as a way to show their religion and their importance.

The situation boiled up. Jesus left the temple. He told the people they would not see him again until they were ready to accept and not reject One whom God had sent. As he went, someone remarked on the temple building. It was a magnificent construction at the centre of national life. Jesus said, it would be destroyed.

We may not know exactly what the four disciples were thinking. Their hopes that their nation would be redeemed and God's kingdom set up among them were fading. Jesus himself was expecting to suffer: death? But then he would come as the Son of Man in glory. But he said that their great Temple would be demolished, stone after stone. Must everything be broken before the new age could come? And when? when?

When Jesus spoke the words we find in Matthew 24, Mark 13 and Luke 21, he was encouraging some distressed and puzzled men, the four who asked him, and the others too. It may not have been one long spiel, a conversation rather, and perhaps the answers he gave to the various questions have been recorded together. Although his words have been subjected to the ingenuity of prophetic students, and read by Christians for almost two thousand years, they were first addressed to the needs of these beloved four disciples who would soon be left on their own.

First, they must not be taken in by the self - proclaimed Messiahs that were apt to set themselves up in that era. They should expect there to be a full ration of wars, riots and rumours of war - these were inevitable, but did not mark the end of the present order. Neither did international conflicts, famines, earthquakes, epidemics, fearful happenings in the sky. These things were a beginning, not the end. Don't be rushed into thinking the end has come.

Second, before these world troubles, they themselves could expect trouble as his followers. He would not be there with them. Jewish council and synagogue would call them to account, and also the Roman authorities. They should use all this as an opportunity to tell about Him and his message, not in a pre - planned way but trusting the Holy Spirit to give them the right words at the time. Even the 'good news' would have the effect of dividing families. They must endure what came, trusting God for ultimate salvation.

Jesus did not answer their 'when' question directly. They must settle down to endure for a long time - right to the very end. And they would be saved.

They wanted to know about the Temple being raised. In this, there were signs to be looked for, notably when the temple - holy to the Lord - would be abused, the 'abomination of desolation' in the Holy Place. And when foreign armies come, get out. It will be very bad. The foreigners will have their time of domination. The end will not come until the gospel has spread into all the non - Jewish world.

Jesus repeated the warnings he had given not to be taken in by false Messiahs. The day of the Son of Man would have nothing hole and corner about it, it would be as universal as lightning. There would be a time of terrible suffering. Astronomical disturbances should not terrify them, but inspire them with hope that the end was coming. Even if the whole world is shattered by meteor or tsunami and people live in fear, they will see 'the Son of Man coming with power and great glory'.

Don't be terrified of any of this. The troubles you see may be just the beginning, like the first leaves of spring. The kingdom of God is as certain as the harvest. It is only a lifetime away.

When? When? No one knows, only the Father. So that means you must always be ready, just like servants waiting for their master to come back from a journey. Everything prepared, doing their job, looking out for him.

There is such a lot you will have to endure. Pray, pray that you will have the strength to come through. Then you will stand before me in the kingdom.

The Book of Acts and the reports of history tell how the future worked out in the lives of these four men. In their immediate future, Jesus was captured, killed - and rose to life again. His visible disappearance into the skies marked the end of his time with them, but the Holy Spirit took His place. And the troubles of which He spoke began to occur, and also the opportunities.

So are there lessons for us? Readers may have their thoughts, but here are two suggestions:

(1) When the Pharisees 'asked when', concerning the kingdom of God as they conceived it, they failed to appreciate the kingdom in their midst, shown by Jesus working in people's lives. Let us be aware of the kingdom wherever it is already under our noses.

(2) When the disciples 'asked when', they could not be told a date Instead their Lord looked on them in love, and encouraged them to settle down to a life of faithful endurance as they waited for Him to come back. Does He ask anything different of us?

GC