Matthew 24:1-3; 34 The Great Tribulation Pt. 1

But there are still some things that I have questions about. I have answers but I wouldn’t necessarily die on those hills. And I’ll make sure to point those parts out along the way.

But I do think the overall message is clear. Matthew 24 is not talking about some future Great Tribulation. It is talking about the Great Tribulation that was experienced by the Jews when Rome destroyed Jerusalem and the Temple in AD 70.

Now most of you, if you have ever been taught this passage, have been taught that these things are still future.

So for this sermon, and for future sermons, I really need you to lock in and engage.

Because of how difficult this passage is...

And because most people read Matthew 24 and think that this passage is still in our future and there is just no other way it can be otherwise...

I feel like its really important to slow down and show you why I think Matthew 24 says, what I think it says.

Now I don’t want this feel super academic, and I’ll do my best not to but there’s no way around these sermons feeling a little more teach-y than usual.

And I will tell you. Some of you will be challenged.

There are some things I’m going to say that will challenge some of your traditions.

But here’s what I ask you to do. Test the Scriptures and let the Word speak for itself.

Let the Bible tell us what it is saying instead of us just thinking we know what the Bible says.

But I also want to teach this with humility.

When it comes to difficult passages like this We should being gracious with other people who might disagree on how to interpret this passage.

There are other godly, Bible believing Christians and pastors who would disagree with what I say about this passage.

And that’s ok because on issues of salvation, we are all brothers and sisters in the faith.

All of us stand on the Word together that Jesus is the way, the truth and the life.

So having said that, let’s get into it.

Overall Context

Cleansing Temple

Now any time you study a passage of the Bible, especially a difficult passage of the Bible, you can just parachute in and think you’re going to figure it out.

You need to understand the context that the passage is in. What was the author talking about before? What’s He talking about after.

And to understand the context of Matthew 24, we need to go all the way back to Matthew 21.

In Matthew 21:12 Jesus cleanses the Temple.

You remember the story. Jesus came to the Temple and he found money changers and people selling animals.

God’s worship became a business of lifeless religion.

And in the Temple, zeal for His Father’s house consumed Him and He started flipping over tables and driving out everyone polluting the Temple and making it unclean.

Now here’s what’s interesting. Matthew 21 is the second time Jesus cleansed the Temple. This was the week before His crucifixion.

But in John 2, Jesus cleanses the Temple for the first time just a little while after His very first miracle of turning water into wine.

Now critics of the Bible will look at this and say, See! The Bible contradicts itself. But they don’t understand that by cleansing the Temple twice, Jesus was doing His job as our Great High Priest.

Under the Law in Leviticus 14 if a house had leprosy or mold, something that made it unclean, the house would be emptied and the priest would come to inspect it and clean the house.

Then if the disease came back, the priest would go and look. And if it was unclean the house would be torn down and carried off to an unclean place.

When Jesus came to God’s House in John 2 it was contaminated. He cleaned it out. And when He came back in Matthew 21 it was unclean again.

There was no choice. The Law required Him to tear it down brick by brick which, spoiler alert, is exactly what we are going to see in Matthew 24.

Tenants

Then you come to the Parable of the tenants. In that parable there is a man that planted a vineyard, something that God used in the Old Testament to talk about how He planted Israel.

And when it was time to harvest the fruit, he sent his servants to get them.

But the tenants beat one, killed another, and stoned another.

So the man sent more servants. And the tenants did the same to them.

Finally the man, sent His Son. Obviously pointing to Christ.

But when the tenants saw the son, they said to themselves, ‘This is the heir. Come, let us kill him and have his inheritance.’ And they took him and threw him out of the vineyard and killed him (Matthew 21:38-39).

And Jesus asks “When the owner of the vineyard comes, what will he do to those tenants? And they said to him, “He will put those wretches to a miserable death and let out the vineyard to other tenants who will give him the fruits in their seasons” (Matthew 21:40-41).

And Jesus says exactly right. The kingdom of God will be taken away from you and given to a people producing its fruits (Matthew 21:43).

Jesus was talking to the chief priests and Pharisees. The religious leaders of Israel.

And He was saying because you aren’t producing any spiritual fruit, because you are a barren fig tree, and because you have killed the prophets and you are going to kill me, the Son....

the Kingdom of God is going to be taken away from you and given to a new people. A new nation.

The Kingdom and the blessings of the New Covenant would be taken from the Jews and given to people who trust the gospel.

Jerusalem would be destroyed and the Kingdom would be opened to the Gentiles.

Matthew 23

That takes us to Matthew 23.

Jesus pronounces woes on the scribes and Pharisees.

Woes are curses. They are the opposite of blessing.

And Jesus basically curses them saying they pretend to be religious, they pretend to love God, but they are hypocrites. Children of hell. blind guides. Blind fools. White washed tombs.

Clean on the outside, but inside rotting corpses.

Then Jesus says...

Matthew 23:32-36 “Fill up, then, the measure of your fathers. You serpents, you brood of vipers, how are you to escape being sentenced to hell? Therefore I send you prophets and wise men and scribes, some of whom you will kill and crucify, and some you will flog in your synagogues and persecute from town to town, so that on you may come all the righteous blood shed on earth, from the blood of righteous Abel to the blood of Zechariah the son of Barachiah, whom you murdered between the sanctuary and the altar. Truly, I say to you, all these things will come upon this generation.

The religious leaders of Jesus’ day said to themselves if we had lived in Israel’s history we would not have killed the prophets. We would have followed God.

And Jesus says, You’re wrong. You will kill prophets, You will even Kill the Son. Remember the Parable of the Tenants?

And by doing so you will fill up the measure of your sins.

Your sins will overflow and on you will fall the judgment of all the righteous blood shed on earth.

Then Jesus said...

Matthew 23:37-39 O Jerusalem, Jerusalem, the city that kills the prophets and stones those who are sent to it! How often would I have gathered your children together as a hen gathers her brood under her wings, and you were not willing! See, your house is left to you desolate. For I tell you, you will not see me again, until you say, "Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord.”

The last words of Jesus’ public ministry to anyone outside of His disciples was that He came to save Jerusalem. He came to gather them under his wings, but they were not willing.

And so because Jerusalem rejected and killed the prophets, even the very Son of God, Jesus said, See your house, the temple, is left to you desolate.

Abandoned. Dead.

So the context leading up to Matthew 24 is that Jesus has cleansed the Temple two times. And now, according to the Law, it needed to be destroyed.

On top of that, Israel, under the chief priests and the Pharisees had rejected and killed God’s prophets. And now they had rejected and were about to kill God’s Son.

Because of that the Kingdom was going to be taken away from them and given to a people producing the fruits of it.

And because Israel rejected God and trusted in the dead religion of their Temple instead of Jesus Christ the One the temple pointed to, Jesus was leaving their house desolate.

Matthew 24

And that takes us to Matthew 24, where we read some amazing and fantastic things.

The gospel will be proclaimed throughout the whole world as a testimony to all nations (Mt. 24:14).

That the sun will be darkened and the moon will not give its light, and that the stars will fall from heaven and the powers of the heavens will be shaken (Mt. 24:29).

And here’s what happens. We read those things and we think this has to be talking about the future. I mean look outside the Sun is still there.

But there’s just one problem with that. That completely ignores the context of Matthew 24, and it also ignores what Jesus, Himself, explicitly says about the Great Tribulation.

Matthew 24:1-3 Jesus left the temple and was going away, when his disciples came to point out to him the buildings of the temple. But he answered them, “You see all these, do you not? Truly, I say to you, there will not be left here one stone upon another that will not be thrown down.” As he sat on the Mount of Olives, the disciples came to him privately, saying, “Tell us, when will these things be, and what will be the sign of your coming and of the end of the age?”

So after pronouncing woes condemning Jerusalem for their dead religion and refusal to trust in the only the Son of God,Jesus said your house is left to you desolate and he left the temple and went to the Mount of Olives.

This is exactly what God did the first time the Temple was destroyed in in Ezekiel 11:22-23.

Because of Israel’s idolatry, the glory of the Lord abandoned the Temple, left it desolate, and rested on the Mount of Olives.

Now Jesus, the radiance of the glory of God and the exact imprint of his nature (Heb 1:3), is abandoning the Temple all over again because of Israel’s faithlessness.

But this time for good.

And while He’s walking away, the disciples come to Him to point out all the buildings of the temple and say, “Jesus, are you blind? How can you say the Temple going to be left desolate?”

You see the Temple was being rebuilt and by this point had been under construction for 46 years. It wouldn’t even be finished until the mid 60s.

But this Temple was glorious. It was one of the ancient wonders of the world.

Not only that, it was the center of the Jewish world and religion.

The Temple was the epitome, the absolute pinnacle of God’s Old Covenant Promises.

Throughout all the covenants, God was really driving at main purpose.

I will be their God. They will be my people. And I will dwell with them as their God.

And under the Old Covenant, The Temple was how God did that.

Its where the glory of the Lord dwelt in the midst of His people and where God’s people and all the nations could come and worship Him and offer sacrifices for their sins.

It was the center of life for the Jew, and for the Jew that believed that God was the One True God of the whole world, you could say that the Temple was the center of the World.

So without the Temple how would God’s people and all the nations come to worship the One True God? Where else would God be glorified and worshiped on earth with the glory due to His Name?

And here Jesus is saying is left to you desolate. Its abandoned. Dead.

And look how Jesus answers the disciples, “You see all these, do you not? All these buildings. All these glorious parts of the Temple. Truly I say to you, there will not be left here one stone upon another that will not be thrown down” (Mt. 24:2).

Jesus is talking about the Temple that was there in His day and He prophesied that it would be destroyed and not one stone would be left on another.

That’s what Matthew 24 is all about.

Its talking about the destruction of Jerusalem and the Temple in AD 70 at the hands of the Romans who destroyed Jerusalem under the providence of Christ because Israel rejected Jesus and crucified the Messiah.

So here’s what I’m arguing, Matthew 24 and the Great Tribulation is not in our future, its in our past. It was the destruction of Jerusalem.

And when Jesus said that there will not be left here one stone upon another, that’s exactly what happened.

During the Jewish Wars, Roman soldiers captured the city and destroyed the Temple.

They ploughed over it like a field so that Josephus a Jewish historian alive at that time and who was on the side of the Romans said “there was nothing left” (Kik, An Eschatology of Victory, 83).

Against Futurism

Double Fulfillment

Now here’s what will happen. People that believe that Matthew 24 is still in our future, will say, “Yes! Jerusalem was destroyed.”

But there is a double fulfillment to this passage. Matthew 24 is talking about a future temple. One that will be rebuilt in the End Times.

But here’s some problems with that. If there can be a double fulfillment of this prophecy, why not a third, or a fourth or a hundredth.

Of course there are some prophecies in Scripture that have a double fulfillment. For example, Isaac was Abraham’s offspring, but so was Christ. Same with Solomon being the promised Son of David who would build God a house and give the people of God rest.

Those examples, those prophecies ultimately point to Christ. How do we know, because the NT tells us so.

They take those passages and apply them directly to Jesus.

But I’m personally not comfortable with saying a certain prophecy has a double fulfillment unless the Bible actually tells us so because then it would because we would never know, beyond a shadow of a doubt, if or when that prophecy was ever fulfilled without Scripture explicitly telling us so.

Future Temple

Plus, in regards to a rebuilt Temple, there is nothing in Matthew 24 to give you any indication that there will be another, future Temple.

In fact there is nothing in the entire New Testament that says there will be a future rebuilt Temple.

The only new Temple the New Testament ever talks about is Jesus Christ and the Church. John 2:19-21 Jesus said, “Destroy this temple, and in three days I will raise it up.”… and he was speaking about the temple of his body.

1 Peter 2:5 You yourselves like living stones are being built up as a spiritual house, to be a holy priesthood, to offer spiritual sacrifices acceptable to God through Jesus Christ.

All the Old Testament promises about a rebuilt Temple were talking about either the rebuilt Temple of Jesus’ day after the first one was destroyed by the Babylonians in 586 BC or the Church.

Israel

Well what about Israel? A lot of people’s eschatologies focus on Israel as a nation, but according to the Bible the Church is New Covenant Israel.

Paul calls the Galatians, who were definitively not Jewish, the Israel of God (Gal. 6:16).

He says in Romans 2, a Jew is not one outwardly, but is are one inwardly who is circumcised in heart by the grace of God (Rom 2:28-29).

Spiritually everyone that trusts in Christ, Jew and Gentile now belong to Israel and are the heirs of the Promises made to Israel (Eph. 3:6).

But what about all the promises God made to the Jews? Well, the Bible says God answered all of the promises He made to Israel in the the Old Covenant.

Joshua 21:45 Not one word of all the good promises that the Lord had made to the house of Israel had failed; all came to pass.

Solomon Said 1 Kings 8:56 Blessed be the Lord who has given rest to his people Israel, according to all that he promised. Not one word has failed of all his good promise, which he spoke by Moses his servant.

But that doesn’t mean that God is done with ethnic Israel. He will bring them back, graft them in again, to the people of God through the New Covenant.

Rom. 11 says that the natural branches, Israel, will be grafted back into the True Vine, the people of God with the wild branches, Gentiles, through Jesus Christ the Greater and True Israel.

One day, Israel will be provoked to jealousy by God’s salvation blessings on the Gentiles and they will return to Christ, and Paul promises that, in that day, all Israel will be saved.

So no. God is not done with Israel, and the church does not replace Israel. The New Covenant Israel is the spiritual fulfillment of Old Covenant Israel.

There is one tree, there is one people of God, and Jew and Gentile alike are grafted into the people of God through faith, and faith alone, in the Messiah, Jesus Christ.

Context

But more important than all that, the text explicitly says that Jesus was talking about that Temple. Not some future one.

The Disciples were asking about that Temple.

And Jesus’ answer says Do you see all these things? All these buildings that we are looking at right now. Not one stone left here.

The disciples understood that Jesus was talking about the destruction of that Temple, and if Jesus had been talking about another future Temple, He would have told them instead of explicitly talking about the Temple that was standing in that day.

So if we just take Matthew 24 at face value, its clear Jesus is talking about the destruction of the Temple that was standing in His day.

Disciples’ Question

And that takes us to the disciples’ question. Tell us, when will these things be, and what will be the sign of your coming and of the end of the age?

And this is one of those spots where I told you I’m pretty confident what this says, but this question has given me fits over the last year.

Parousia

First, lets talk about His coming.

This is the Greek word Parousia, and it is usually associated the glorious second coming of Christ.

Which I whole heartedly agree with. That is how the Bible uses it time and time again.

But more literally, you can translate Parousia as “presence” and in the Roman world it was used to talk about Emperors or high-ranking government officials coming to visit a city.

(Walter Riggans, “The Parousia: Getting Our Terms Right,” Themelios 21, no. 1 (1995): 16).

And in the Greek translation of the Old Testament it is also used for when God visits or comes to His people

(France, Matthew TOTC, 340).

So technically speaking, the Parousia of Christ is a Kingly coming of Christ with Kingly glory which is why it is most commonly used for Christ’s second and glorious return.

But it does not necessarily need to be limited to that.

It can also be any Kingly coming where Christ comes to the World as King.

And one of the things Kings do is Judge.

So when Christ judges Jerusalem for rejecting Him as Messiah and King, that could properly be called a Parousia. It is a judgment coming of King Jesus to judge those as King who refuse to worship Him.

I think that’s what’s going on here. Because look how the two parallel accounts in Mark 13 and Luke 21 record the disciple’s question.

Mark 13:4 “Tell us, when will these things be, and what will be the sign when all these things are about to be accomplished?”

Luke 21:7 Teacher, when will these things be, and what will be the sign when these things are about to take place?

So where Matthew says the disciples ask When will these things be and what will be the sign of your coming?, Mark and Luke What will be the sign these things are about to take place?. meaning I think the disciples understood all these things taking place, in other words the destruction of the Temple, would be a Kingly coming, a Kingly work of Christ the Messiah.

It is a Parousia, a coming, of judgment by Christ the King although it is not the ultimate Parousia of Jesus Christ.

We are still waiting on Christ to return in the fullness of His glory for the Final Judgment and the eternal new heavens and new earth.

End of the Age

But then Matthew records another part of the question that Luke and Mark both omit. And of the end of the age.

This has been what’s given me the most problems.

There’s basically two options for what’s happening here, but either way, however you interpret the end of the age it doesn’t change the meaning of the passage over all. Its not the controlling verse.

Option 1

Option one is that the end of the age refers to the end of the Old Covenant or Jewish age.

This is a good option.

Hebrews is all about the Old Covenant passing away to make room for the New Covenant age that was ratified with the blood of Christ.

Paul even says in 1 Corinthians 10:11 that what happened to Israel in the Old Testament was written down for our instruction, on whom the end of the ages has come.

Paul is saying to the Corinthians, the end of the ages has come upon us.

And in Luke’s Olivet Discourse he talks about how Jerusalem will be trampled underfoot until the times of the Gentiles are fulfilled (Luke 21:24).

So there’s this Jewish age that gives way to something called the times of the Gentiles where the gospel goes to all the nations until the times of the Gentiles are fulfilled after which God will bring Israel back into New Covenant relationship with Him.

Like I said. I like it. I’m good with it. I think its clean. But here’s what holds me back, and this is option two.

Option 2

Matthew uses that phrase, the end of the age, three other times in His gospel.

Two are in the Parable of the Weeds and the Parable of the Net from Matthew 13, and the other is in the Great Commission.

Both parables describe the end of the age as Judgment Day.

Matthew 13:39-43 The harvest is the end of the age, and the reapers are angels. Just as the weeds are gathered and burned with fire, so will it be at the end of the age. The Son of Man will send his angels, and they will gather out of his kingdom all causes of sin and all law-breakers, and throw them into the fiery furnace. In that place there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth. Then the righteous will shine like the sun in the kingdom of their Father.

And Matthew 13:49-50 So it will be at the end of the age. The angels will come out and separate the evil from the righteous and throw them into the fiery furnace. In that place there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth.

So I think if we let the Bible interpret the Bible the end of the age is another way of saying the Judgment of all nations.

This is why some of your translations might say that the disciples ask Jesus about the end of the world in Matthew 24.

That’s a bad translation because the word is age, but I at least see where they get it.

After all, I don’t think the Great Commission would make much sense if Jesus’ promise was that He would be with us to see the discipleship of the nations through until the destruction of the temple and the end of the Jewish age in AD 70.

Christ is with us to carry out the Great Commission until He returns to judge the nations.

So in the disciples’ mind, the end of the age, according to Jesus’ own definition is the judgment of the nations.

Now given that, here’s what I think is happening in the disciples’ question.

I think they come to Jesus and they think, if Jesus is going to judge the temple, if he’s going to judge Israel, then that must mean He’s going to judge all the nations.

There’s no way the Messiah would judge God’s covenant people without judging everybody else.

If He destroys the Temple, the place the Old Testament says all the nations are supposed to come to to worship God, then what can that mean if not the end of the world?

So Calvin said when the disciples come and ask this question its filled with false assumptions.

They are tying together the destruction of Jerusalem and the Final Judgment.

So when Christ answers the disciples question in the rest of the chapter, He unties those two things and says, they don’t happen at the same time.

My coming at the destruction of Jerusalem and My coming at the Final Judgment are two separate things.

That’s why a lot of commentators, and I lot of commentators I agree with put a break in Jesus answer at verse 36 where Jesus says But concerning that day and hour no one knows.

And they say that from that point on Jesus is answering the disciples question about the end of the age.

Now or a variety of reasons that we will eventually get into I don’t think the break goes there.

But I do think Jesus answers their question about the end of the age in Matthew 25:31-46 where Jesus says When the Son of Man comes in his glory, and all the angels with him, then he will sit on his glorious throne. Before him will be gathered all the nations, and he will separate people one from another.

Do you hear all of the end of the age language we heard early in those parables. Son of man coming in glory. Angels with him.

So Jesus’ answer in Matthew 24 and 25 basically says You guys don’t get it. The destruction of the Temple is not the end of the world because after the Great Tribulation there is an after.

Verse 29 says Immediately after the tribulation of those days…

And then one of the things that happens after the tribulation is that Christ will send out his messengers to gather his elect from one end of heaven to the other.

That’s the church and the Great Commission. That’s the gospel age. The age we are in right now.

But after the end of the age is eternity.

When the Son of Man comes in His glory and sits on His glorious throne, these will go away into eternal punishment, but the righteous into eternal life.

So when Jesus answers the disciples question about when these things will be, and He makes it clear to them that these things, the destruction of Jerusalem, does not mean the end of the world.

Its the end of the Old Covenant Jewish age.

If I’m right this would help explain why Mark and Luke don’t include the disciples asking about the end of the age and why they don’t include that picture of Christ judging the nations on His glorious throne.

So I probably lean option two but either way you get to the same place and ultimately no matter however you choose to interpret that particular phrase the overall meaning of the passage doesn’t change.

The passage, and its parallels in Mark 13 and Luke 21, are not talking about the end of the world, but are without a doubt talking about the destruction of the Temple in AD 70 because all of them say...

This Generation

Matthew 24:34-35 Truly, I say to you, this generation will not pass away until all these things take place. Heaven and earth will pass away, but my words will not pass away.

This is absolutely critical for understanding the Olivet Discourse.

Look at what Jesus says. This generation will not pass away until all these things take place.

This connects back to Matthew 23:36 when Jesus said Truly, I say to you, all these things, all the righteous blood of the prophets that filled up the measure Israel’s sins, will come upon this generation.

So do you see what’s happening here. This sandwiches everything in between as talking about that generation.

The generation then living in Jesus’ day.

And Jesus says all of these things, everything Jesus says in Matthew 24 would take place before that generation passed away.

Like He told the disciples in Matthew 10:23 Truly, I say to you, you will not have gone through all the towns of Israel before the Son of Man comes.

And Matthew 16:28 Truly, I say to you, there are some standing here who will not taste death until they see the Son of Man coming in his kingdom.

Jesus was promising to come, and I would say come in judgment in that generation.

And before you think Matthew 16 is talking about the Mount of Transfiguration, the mount of Transfiguration was just 6 days after Jesus said this.

it wouldn’t make no sense for Jesus to say some of you won’t die in 6 days. The sentence implies most of them will.

And then Jesus guarantees he will come in that generation because He said Heaven and earth will pass away, but my words will not pass away.

Now this puts us in a dilemma.

Either Jesus was 100% right and everything He talks about in Matthew 24 took place in that generation, took place within about 40 years, or else He was a false prophet.

Either everything Jesus said in Matthew 24 happened or He’s not the Son of God.

We know the answer don’t we? Jesus was the Son of God. He was True Prophet. Of course He was right.

But here’s why that causes so much problem. If you assume that Matthew 24 is future and talking about the second coming of Christ, then He didn’t come in that generation.

Sin is still here and we have not been resurrected. We are still waiting for Christ to return.

Now some people try to get around this by saying that this generation doesn’t mean the generation then living.

They’ll say that word means race. So Jesus is saying that the Jewish race will not pass away before He returns.

The problem is, every time that Greek word is used in Matthew always refers to a contemporaneous group of people living together at the same time.

It always means what we usually mean when we say a generation.

So they’ll say well, maybe it means the generation that sees these signs. The generation that sees these things, that’s the generation that won’t pass away.

But all throughout the Olivet Discourse Jesus is talking to them.

When you see the abomination of desolation.

They will deliver you up to Tribulation and put you to death.

See that no one leads you astray.

On top of that, if Jesus was talking about some future generation, they weren’t the ones that crucified the Messiah.

Jesus was talking to the people alive then.

The plain interpretation of the text is that this generation will not pass away until all these things take place.

And you know what? They didn’t. A generation is about 40 years. And Jesus gave the Olivet Discourse in the early 30s AD.

When did Rome destroy Jerusalem and tear down the Temple. AD 70. Around 40 years after Jesus gave this sermon.

The Olivet Discourse is prophesying how the Parable of the Vineyard will play out.

Matthew 21:43-46 “Therefore I tell you, the kingdom of God will be taken away from you and given to a people producing its fruits.

Because Israel rejected Christ and crucified the Son of God the Temple was over. The Old Covenant was done. The New Covenant was here and it was going to be opened to the Gentiles.

And over the next few weeks we are going to work through this passage and let Scripture interpret Scripture and see how all these things really did take place and fall on that generation.

Conclusion - True Prophet/Temple

Now what about us today? This is a sermon after all and we should know how to bring the Word to bear on our life.

What does the destruction of the Temple and Jesus prophecy about the destruction of the Temple have to do with us today?

Well the reason why Christ judged Israel is because they rejected Him as the True Prophet that God promised through Moses.

Jesus is the True Prophet

Deuteronomy 18:18-19 I will raise up for them a prophet like you from among their brothers. And I will put my words in his mouth, and he shall speak to them all that I command him. And whoever will not listen to my words that he shall speak in my name, I myself will require it of him.

Every single thing Jesus said came to past. He was a true Prophet of the living God.

And Israel ignored Jesus, the True and ultimate Prophet to their own destruction.

They rejected Him, and thereby rejected God’s grace and forgiveness and so came under judgment.

What that tells us is that if Jesus Christ really is the Son of God, if he is the True Prophet, then we should listen to Him.

We should listen to everything He has to say and obey His commandments.

So when Jesus said He is the way the truth and the life, and the only way we can be saved and forgiven from our sins is in Him we should listen to Him.

He is the Lamb of God that takes away the sin of the world, and if we reject Him, we will be destroyed under eternal judgment like Israel was destroyed in AD 70.

Jesus is the True Temple

Not only is Jesus the True Prophet, He is also the True Temple.

Remember what made the Temple so important to Israel.

I will be their God. They will be my people. And I will dwell with them as their God

The Temple was where God dwelt with His people. It was where he forgave their sins, reconciled them to Himself and brought His people out of the curse and fall and sin into life, blessing, and relationship with Him.

And what did Jesus say?

John 2:19-21 Jesus said, “Destroy this temple, and in three days I will raise it up.”… and he was speaking about the temple of his body.

And Matthew 12:6 I tell you, something greater than the temple is here.

Jesus is the True and Greater Temple.

Now we can breeze over that, but that statement really is the glory of the gospel.

In Christ, God doesn’t just dwell with us, He dwells in us by His Holy Spirit.

And as His body, we, the church, are built up as living stones where together we worship God and glorify Him for bringing us out of slavery to sin and death, and making us free in Christ.

Free from drinking from broken cisterns that hold no water to drink the water of life from the fount of living water Himself!

But most of all, Jesus is the greater Temple because He is our Great High Priest who forgives our sins once and for all, not with the blood of bulls and goats, but the true sacrifice of His own blood.

Hebrews 9:12 He entered once for all into the holy places, not by means of the blood of goats and calves but by means of his own blood, thus securing an eternal redemption.

Because of Jesus, the True Temple, we are eternally forgiven of all our sin and brought near to the Holy of Holies washed by His blood to worship God who because of Christ makes us His people and becomes our God who will dwell with us forever and ever and ever.

Let’s Pray

Scripture Reading

Psalm 30:2-4; 11-12 A Song David at the dedication of the Temple

O Lord my God, I cried to you for help, and you have healed me. O Lord, you have brought up my soul from Sheol; you restored me to life from among those who go down to the pit. Sing praises to the Lord, O you his saints, and give thanks to his holy name…You have turned for me my mourning into dancing; you have loosed my sackcloth and clothed me with gladness, that my glory may sing your praise and not be silent. O Lord my God, I will give thanks to you forever!

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