Not One Stone Mt, 24:1-14

Good morning. We'll be taking a look here at the first 14 verses of Matthew 24, and this is a bit of a purposeful detour from the study that we've been doing in Revelation. And we're doing it because this passage is not only parallel, it's also supplemental. It gives us insights And we're going to find places where it dovetails with Revelation, but we're also going to find places where it adds to our understanding. And so as we go through this, that's the reason we'll be going through this for several weeks now. And one thing that we want to do is just kind of quickly take a look. Last week we looked at the last three verses of chapter 23.

Jesus expressed his great longing for Jerusalem. He longed to protect them. He longed to, as he used the figure, take them under his wing. He in that clearly expressed his deity. He spoke of Jerusalem's willful rejection of him, however. And he spoke of his departure from him at that point. And yet at the very end, remember that word, until? At the very end, he was offering a certain hope. A certain hope. that there would be a day in which he would return and then be received by them as their king. Now as we're turning the corner here into chapter 24, our Lord's discourse takes a kind of a pivot and he starts interacting with his disciples here. So let's turn to verse 1. Read it with me if you would.

Jesus came out from the temple and was going away when his disciples came up to point out the temple buildings to him. Now, I think it's a good idea for us to kind of get a sense of where is this taking place, okay? If we look at it, this is kind of a view from up from the Mount of Olives.

Here's this temple area that is in the middle, in the square area, and most likely what he's talking about is there's these steps leading down to this gate that go across the Kidron Valley there. And he was likely just coming out towards or right at those steps where he could kind of look through the gateway back at the big temple buildings. And at that point there would be, and this is a little higher perspective but at least it'll give us an idea, at that point they'd be looking at these magnificent temple buildings.

And that's what the disciples were pointing out. So he's not, but he's not just leaving this temple holy place, it's kind of the greater temple area. That's the word hiran that shows up here. But the Greek verbs here have a timing sense that comes across about like this, Jesus having gone out from the temple was proceeding on his way.

So his disciples came up to him at this point and begin to point out the impressive features of the temple building. See, they were at a place where they could get a real good perspective on this temple and it was just Here was this magnificent structure. We read about the reconstruction of this building. It had been destroyed by Nebuchadnezzar. Rebuilt, and you can read about that in Ezra and Haggai and Old Testament books like that. About 20 BC, Herod the Great had headed up an effort to add to this temple and to kind of add to its majesty and the size of it and its structure.

And that's what the disciples are pointing out. They were saying this thing was impressive. There were some of the stones that weighed as much as 50 tons. Much of the workmanship was done so that the stonework, in spite of the size of the stones, was very tight. Many of the stones, even today, except where it's weathered, you can't get a sheet of paper between them. Very tight stonework.

Really impressive. But what's interesting is to look at Jesus' reaction. Here, they were impressed with this building. So what does Jesus say? He says to them, do you not see all these things? So here he is at this gateway pointing back to this temple building. Do you not see all these things?

Truly I say to you, not one stone here will be left upon another which will not be torn down. So here's this magnificent temple structure with huge stones, spacious architecture, magnificent workmanship, And the first words out of Jesus' mouth is to declare its destruction. How about that? That's kind of amazing. Well, let's take a look here. What did Jesus say?

In Matthew 24.2, not one stone will be left upon another which will not be torn down.

And that not is in not one stone. That's the Greek oumē. It means not even. It means absolutely not. Jesus is saying, with no exceptions, there's not most of the stones, not a good number of them, not quite a few, absolutely none of these stones will be left upon another. An absolute statement.

The next thing, a lot of our translations say stone upon another, and it's actually literally stone upon stone. You will not find stone upon stone. There will not be one stone on another stone. And then where it says, you know, torn down or thrown down, that Greek root there actually literally comes across. To down destroy. To destroy by putting it down. Okay? To throw it down. That's the idea.

What Jesus was referring to in the destruction of this temple in 70 AD was that the Jews here, they had already been in simmering revolt. As a matter of fact, remember Jesus had 12 disciples. One of them was Simon the Zealot. and the zealots were intent upon revolting against Rome. So it was part of that party that was going to stir up this revolt. So finally it came to a head roughly four decades after Jesus made this short-term prophecy. And he told them, he says, you see these stones? They're all going to be torn down. And roughly four decades later, that's what had happened.

The Romans came up with their siege engines, They would come up with devices like this and they would get soldiers up in here so they could put soldiers up in a higher place and give them a better shot and a place to start mounting the walls. Off in the background there's actually a catapult. They would throw stones that would frequently weigh up to 100 pounds. And if they had a chance they would put bodies on them.

And the Romans were not nice about it. But they went in and attacked. But after all, it was the Jews that started the revolt. So this wasn't a battle that the Romans started off. The Romans were just putting it down. The end result, and this is a picture we showed last week, the Romans finally went in and whether by intent or accident, the temple and much of the rest of Jerusalem got set on fire. And this attack continued.

What it appears is as this fire caught on to the temple, the gold that was used in a lot of the decoration and inlay and implements of the temple got melted down in between the stones. And so the Romans, in order to get to it all, would pry one stone from another, the end result being not one stone was left upon another. The Romans, as you can imagine, were real proud of this, so they set up a memorial arch of the victory of Titus in this battle against Jerusalem. And this victory arch is actually specifically having to do with Titus' battle and victory over Jerusalem. On that arch is even a Jewish candelabra.

They're shown taking the candelabra away from the temple. This is, incidentally, the only known depiction of one of the temple furnishings that we have in existence that's contemporary with that time. So they went in and hauled away the gold and anything valuable. They totally wrecked the temple site.

Now, here's something else that's come about. Here's a picture of the temple site in modern times and one of the things you'll notice Here's now the Dome of the Rock, which is in the general location where the temple was. On this south side, and slightly around the corner here as well, are excavations that went on during the late 60s and into the 70s, and then again into the 1990s, excavating the area just to the west of, around the corner here, and to the south of this temple mount.

And one of the things that they found when they went in there, because they went in and this is a little more detailed view, they went in and excavated piece by piece by piece. And since this was such a unique, and actually you see how large it is, it's quite an area, they had to go in and take years to pull this apart, just little by little and record everything.

What they found, and this is on the west side near the whaling wall, What they found is, here's all these blocks of rubble on the side, and this is after removing some of the rubble already. The Romans did just as Jesus said, they took the stones and dumped them off the edge. And so it was not only not one stone left upon another, but every stone was thrown down, just exactly like Jesus said. Here's another picture of the same general area, more of the stones just having been thrown down, and what they find is that every single one of those stones was cast along the side and dumped off the edge. Now, something interesting, you know, a lot of the stones are just blocks of stone, and it's tough to say exactly where some of them were originally, but there are a few pieces that show some fascinating things.

Here is one. where here you can't see it so much as to read it, but right where that red arrow is, is some lettering engraved on the stone, and it's engraved to the trumpeter's place. And the thought is that that was instructions to the workers, put this up to the place where the priests do their trumpeting. Put that stone there. So little instructions that were found. Here's another interesting point. This is an inscription that warns people who are not Jews, don't go past this point on penalty of death. That's a bit of a paraphrase.

But it agrees perfectly with Acts 21 where the Jews went into riot and were prepared to go after Paul for bringing what they thought was a Gentile into the temple area. And so that particular inscription warning of that consequence was found amongst the rubble. Now, Before we move ahead, though, it's important to recognize something.

The Temple in Jerusalem, magnificent as it was, was destroyed about 1932 years ago. Even while it was still standing, Paul the Apostle wrote in 1 Corinthians chapters 3 and 6, he told them that the believers in the Church were the Temple of God. He said to the Corinthians, you are the Temple of God as believers.

You see, this building place here we have is very convenient. I'm glad we have it. It's much better than being under the sun and the rain and the other things that come. And it's nicely divided with different rooms for us to meet, so I'm thankful for it.

But it's not the temple. Scripture makes it clear that this truth during the church age is such that we are the temple of God, okay? We are the place where God dwells, those who believe. We are the ones who are sanctified and set apart and made holy. We are His temple.

Okay, let's read verse 3. That's the next insight here. We're going to step ahead into a place here where we're going to be in looking at a conversation between the disciples and the Lord. And it's going to start off with the disciples answering a question. Let's read it here. Verse 3. And he was sitting on the Mount of Olives and the disciples came to him privately saying, tell us, when will these things happen and what will be the sign of your coming and of the end of the age?

So it's obvious they've done some moving here. Initially they were at that gate area and then they've moved across and then they've gone across that bridge that you saw across the Kidron Valley and now they've walked up the path and maybe stepped off the side a bit because I'm sure there are other people coming and going. Busy time. as that was, stepped off to the side a bit to take a look, to look back, because if you think of it, this was probably towards the end of the day, and they were headed back to Bethany, which would be over the hill, and the temple area would be out of sight. But now they could sit on the Mount of Olives, and they could look at the temple, and perhaps it was late in the day, and the sort of reddish colors were starting to take over the look of the city, they could look at the ancient walls, they could look at the temple, a lot of the other buildings that were there. And as they had that all in view, this ancient city, and right in front of them off to the left would be the city of David, the city that David had initiated some thousand years before. So as they sat there on the Mount of Olives, the Lord's there with them.

So now, it says privately, they pull them aside. It's like, boy, we've got to get the Lord to answer this one square on We've got to make sure that he sits down and tells us the whole story. So they're going to ask him some questions, very pointed. So they say, tell us, when will these things happen? And what will be the sign of your coming and of the end of the age?

So they're asking him very pointedly, okay, we've got the Lord in a place, we're looking at it. This is the place, by the way, Zechariah 14 says the Messiah will put His feet on. So they're sitting on the place where the Messiah is going to come. They're looking at the temple, that's what he just talked about. Now, here we are, Lord, we're in the perfect spot. Answer our question. You see that? Answer our question. You don't have a better spot than this to answer it, Lord.

Now, in our modern view, this is probably something like what they were looking at in terms of our modern perspective. They're up on the Mount of Olives, looking there. Here's these walls. the temple was there, not the Dome of the Rock, and the city behind was not full of the high buildings. But that was generally the view that they had.

From that view, they began to ask us questions. They asked a set of questions that in fact a great many Jews of that time are already asking. A great many Jews with the Romans having, you know, established themselves there, especially having built the fortress Antonia right there overlooking the Temple Mount. A great many Jews were saying, oh boy, now would be a real good time for the Messiah to come. We'd like to see this thing, you know, turn so that we can get these Romans out of here and we can be a kingdom under the Messiah.

That's what they were asking. A great many of them were thinking this already. And so they had these questions in their mind. These questions look like this. When will these things happen? What will be the sign of your coming? And at the end of the age.

Now in order that we fully understand our Lord's response, we need to understand the questions, don't we? Now, it's important we understand these questions because the truth is Gotta be honest, a lot of people looked at this passage and drawn all sorts of different conclusions. And one of the reasons I believe that they have is they haven't looked at the questions carefully enough. And so we want to make sure we don't make that mistake here this morning.

So, one thing is that, and you'll see it on your handout and I show a little bar here, what will be the sign of your coming and of the end of the age There's a particular construction that shows up in the Greek there, that this and is that Greek word chi, that's what connects the two. And there's a single article and it's focusing on these two and three are really asking the same question. The sign of His coming and of the end of the age are the same thing. And that's one thing for us to take note of. Now there's something else.

The other thing is to get in our minds the Jewish concept of what's going to take place here. See, in other words, here's the disciples and they have, having been raised as Jews, they have this concept in their mind about this is the way things are going to end up.

And so they're trying to fit Jesus' statements and descriptions into this concept. They're trying to say, okay, where does this all fit? So far they're a little puzzled because Jesus doesn't seem to be raising any armies, right? Not doing any military training. So they're a little puzzled by this. But the sequence that they have in mind, they're drawing from basically Zechariah 14.

They're expecting that Jerusalem is going to be surrounded by armies and captured. They are expecting that the Lord will fight against those armies and defeat them. And they're expecting the Messiah will come to the Mount of Olives, right about where they are, right? He will come to the Mount of Olives in victory to reign. Those are kind of the general outline of the sequence that they're imagining, that they're thinking.

And it's interesting, this Luke 21-7 records only the capture of Jerusalem in the question, because basically To them, that was like, I'm summing up the whole thing anyway. The capture of Jerusalem is just the front end and the rest of it is already a given. They weren't making a distinction in their mind between the Roman destruction of Jerusalem, which Jesus had spoken about, and this later attack on Jerusalem, which will take place during the Tribulation period. They weren't making that differentiation, so they were assuming that those two go together.

I already said that a lot of folks look at this passage a lot of different ways, and let's take a look at how some folks look at it and how we're going to look at it. This passage is viewed in these ways. Some folks will say verses 4 through 14 are all in the church age, the time we're living in now, and that's just describing the things that are taking place during the church age. Then there are those who say no, four through eight are in the church age, and then nine through fourteen are during the tribulation period. And then those who see it, four through fourteen are all taking place during the tribulation period. See the distinction there? So we've got folks that are saying it's all in the church age, folks that are splitting it, and then some folks are saying no, it's all tribulation. Okay? So which is it? What we're going to be presenting here this morning is that this is all taking place during the tribulation.

I don't expect you to just take it because I said so. I expect you to instead ask some good questions, and hopefully what we'll present here will answer those. Be sure to ask more questions if I don't. Now, here's one set of reasons. Matthew 24 discourse focuses on the Jews and Israel in its words. We're going to see that as we go through this passage. It keeps talking about the Sabbath, Pray that your flight may not be on the Sabbath. Well, that's not something the church has to worry about, right? There will be other things that we'll see about it. It's specifically very Jewish. The other thing is that we'll find that a parallel can be made between every event listed in this passage and those of the Revelation 6 seal judgments, and we'll see that in a bit.

It also refers to birth pangs here, as well as Paul refers to birth pangs in 1 Thessalonians 5.3, and that's specifically with regards to the tribulation.

Furthermore, the Greek word translated coming is parousia, which indicates not just a coming, but an abiding presence. The idea is it's not just coming and coming and coming and coming, but this is the abiding presence. They're looking for the Lord to come and to continue to be there. Secondly, this Greek word translated into Suntileas, it means an entire coming.

It refers to the very end of this age and not just the centuries and centuries and centuries that transpire from his first coming into a second coming. Now you have on side two of your handout a chart that looks something like this. And what we see is for the sealed judgments in Revelation chapter 6, there is a correlation given either this Matthew 24 passage we'll be looking at, or the parallel passages in Mark 13 and Luke 21. And furthermore, except for the martyrdom, they're all given in the exact same sequence as this Revelation 6 passage. So it's a very fitting description here.

There does not appear to be any good reason for pulling these events into the Church Age. Furthermore, who is he talking to? He's talking to Jews. He's talking in a Jewish context, and that doesn't fit with trying to superimpose that upon the Church Age. Now, with that as an introduction, let's look at verse 4.

And Jesus answered and said to them, See to it that no one misleads you, for many will come in my name, saying, I am the Christ, and will mislead many." Notice that the first thing our Lord says here is, let no one mislead you. Don't be deceived. Don't get led off in the wrong direction.

That's going to be the situation at the outset of the Tribulation period. Remember, there's going to be four horsemen of the Apocalypse. These are the first four seals that are broken open. There are going to be a great many coming, claiming to be the Messiah. The Antichrist will end up aligning these under himself or wiping them out. He is the first horseman of the Apocalypse that comes out. They are not just false teachers, but they are claiming to be the Messiah. They're coming out saying, I'm the guy, follow me.

The disciples are warned that there's going to be many who will be misled. Do you see that in the passage? Many will be misled. Don't be one of them. Support for these false Christs will eventually align behind the Antichrist because he is the first horseman, this first seal of the Apocalypse. Let's look at verses 6 and 7.

You will be hearing of wars and rumors of wars. See to it that you are not frightened, for those things must take place. But that is not yet the end, for nation will rise against nation, and kingdom against kingdom. And in various places there will be famines and earthquakes.

In verse 4, our Lord warns them not to be deceived. Don't be misled. In verse 6, our Lord warns them not to be frightened. The Greek word there is throeo. It comes from a root which means to wail. He's telling them, don't get scared out of your wits. Don't get scared out of your wits.

The wars of the second seal, the Red Horsemen, will then come about. They'll be not just battles. This word there is not just an individual battle here or there. The word is polemos and it means wars, major military campaigns. But that's not the end for these Jews. That's what he's telling you. You're going to see them all over the place, but that's not the end for you. He also tells them that there will be famines. The Lord is saying, as Revelation 6 does, there will be the famines of the third horseman and of the fourth horseman. Okay? So that's exactly what Revelation 6 says. These are just the sealed judgments come to pass, just as John writes in Revelation 6. And then, He tells us that earthquakes will come about, particularly in the Seventh Seal Judgment.

By the way, have any of you heard that there's been an increase in earthquakes in recent years? How many of you have heard that? There's been an increase in earthquakes? You've heard that? Okay. One of the reasons that folks like to say that there's an increase in earthquakes is because they believe that this prophecy has to do with the time of the Church, right, in which we live. Well, a good question is, is that true?

So I did a little checking on it. And the earthquake's magnitude 7 or more. I've never been in a magnitude 7 earthquake, but I figured that's kind of the threshold. So if we say the big earthquake's magnitude 7 or more, this is the way it plots out. And it turns out if you run a, boy, this is called a least squares analysis, okay?

Run a line through that. Guess what? The line is slightly sloping downward. And even as you look at that, let's look at the top. The pattern is a slight decrease, at least. This is up to 1997, so any statistics from then aren't shown. But the reality is, roughly speaking, over the last century, it's not true.

So I think it's important for us to check things out. Check things out. Be careful we don't draw conclusions. That's often been pointed out in order to get people to line up behind you. Oh, the Lord's coming, let's get more hyped up. No, this passage is talking about the tribulation period, not something that we need to start cranking the facts about in this particular time. Anyway, that's just one point I thought would be valuable to point out. Now, verse 8.

But all these things are merely the beginning of birth pangs. And when these things are happening, Jesus is telling them it's not gotten as bad as it's going to get. Birth pangs, and I can't tell you from subjective experience, believe me, but birth pangs increase in intensity. It's going to get more intense before it finally lets up and before this final event, using the birth pang analogy, that this birth takes place and the birth pangs are over, and using the analogy again, that the Messiah comes.

Now, so our Lord is just telling them, this is just the beginning, which makes sense because this is just the start of the tribulation period. The seals, remember we've got seven, I've got the right numbers here, seven seals, seven trumpets, and then seven bowls. So the first seven seals would be just the beginning. Makes sense, doesn't it? Don't get me talking about birth pangs, or I'll get pictures of my granddaughter up here again. Anyway.

Then they will deliver you to tribulation, and will kill you, and you will be hated by all nations because of my name." This verse underscores the martyrdom and persecution that will be typical of the tribulation period. It also shows the universal hatred focused towards those who are believers during this time. It will be a very difficult time, and one of the things you've noticed as we've read through Revelation is periodic mention of these martyrs. They're not brought up just once, but at various times. Martyrdom will be typical of tribulation period. And it's brought up here just the same. So notice in 10 through 12 what the description comes across as.

At that time many will fall away and betray one another and hate one another. Many false prophets will arise and will mislead many. Because lawlessness is increased, most people's love will grow cold. The spiritual and moral character of mankind will become quite evident during the tribulation. See, right now, right now, there is a restraining influence of the Holy Spirit. Right now, there are Christians who have an opportunity to kind of hold back the flood. That will be taken away during this period of time. The world and the flesh and the devil will be shown full force. The flesh will be shown for what it is. Satan will be shown for who he is. The world will be shown for what it is. It'll be no more Mr. Nice Guy. The flesh will be running rampant. No more Judeo-Christian heritage. Forget it.

All humanly based spirituality, it's clear from this passage, will tend to err to the extreme. If somebody wants false teaching, and they will, it's clear, they'll be sure to find it in spades. The world will run amok. If somebody hates somebody, everybody will know it. If somebody wants something somebody else has, they'll take it. There will be murderous, thieving, seducing, abusive drug culture everywhere.

That will be the characteristic. We get the picture from here. We get the picture from Revelation as well. Let's look at what verse 13 tells us. But the one who endures to the end, he will be saved. Now, when some folks read this, and they'll just kind of grab it out of context, they'll say, Aha! You see? Unless you make it to the end, you're just gone. You're going to hell, right? And you've just got to be careful or else you're going to fall out and you won't be saved. But what they're doing is they're taking this verse out of context. This verse is in what context? What time context? It's in the Tribulation Period. That's for one thing. It's not about now, which is the Church Age.

The other thing is that this says those who survive to the end of the Tribulation Period will physically proceed into the Millennium. Those who survive to the end of the Tribulation Period will physically proceed into the Millennium. That's what he's talking about here. It's not talking about, you know, if you make it to the end, you'll be saved and other than that, you'll lose your salvation. That's not what the verse is about. It does point out something else. Survival during this period will be in question. Enduring will be in question.

But those who do make it to the end will physically proceed into the millennium, into the reign of our Lord on earth. Verse 14 says this, This gospel of the kingdom shall be preached in the whole world as a testimony to all the nations, and then the end will come. Now, some folks have taken this to mean that the Lord won't come back until we get to the gospel to every corner of the planet. You heard that? Some folks have said this. That's mistaken, I'm afraid. First of all, this verse is about the tribulation period. That's one thing to clarify again, just like the prior verse.

That means that the 144,000 Jews of Revelation chapter 7 will be spreading the gospel. It means that the two witnesses of Revelation 11 will be witnessing. It means that the gospel angel, remember he speaks basically from mid-heaven, from up in the visible atmosphere, he speaks the gospel from there and broadcasts it. between the 144,000, the two witnesses and the gospel angel, not to speak of the others who are saved, and then proclaim the gospel as well, that the gospel will be spread from one corner to the other of the entire earth during that tribulation time. That's what it's talking about. The Lord will make certain that the gospel gets everywhere, even including the miraculous step of preserving this 144,000 all the way to the end. even including this miraculous step of having the gospel angel who goes and proclaims the gospel everywhere into all these different languages and tribes and tongues. Even to the miraculous step of making sure that these two witnesses survive in their witnessing for the first three and a half years of the tribulation period.

That's what it's talking about. Then, it's important to recognize, this is for then, not for the church age. We the church have blessings that have already been given and are heavenly. That's our stance. Now, we don't want to pass over this without mentioning this. The truth is that spreading the gospel of faith in Jesus Christ is a good thing to do today. I'm not speaking badly of that at all. Don't misunderstand me.

But the Lord's return is not being held up by our failure to spread the gospel. The Lord will return when He is ready on His timing, not on ours. It's not depending upon us. The Lord, the flip side of this coin, the Lord is not suddenly forced to return if we were somehow to spread the gospel to every corner. Either. That's not going to take place. It is the Lord's good pleasure for us to give the gospel of Jesus Christ everywhere. That's the Lord's good pleasure.

Notice as you read of the various giftedness in the church that the Lord has indeed given a gift of evangelism as a specific gift. But also notice that the majority of the gifts are not given for that purpose. Notice that the focus of those gifts, and how Paul describes the gifts, especially as we look in Ephesians 4, 11-16, the focus in those gifts is for the building up of the body of Christ.

So as we look at this verse here, we need to keep in sharp context, what is it talking about, and what does God have in mind now? Scripture has this life of Christ as expressed through the church, building up the body of Christ between ourselves and amongst ourselves, that is God's intent. Not simply adding to it in numbers. Not simply adding to it in numbers, but building up the body of Christ so that each person is presented mature in Christ. That is God's intent. desires and has gifted and enabled the church for that purpose.

So that's one reason why when we're done here, don't leave too fast, okay? So we need to recognize that the ministry is not what I'm doing up here. The ministry is what happens afterwards once Helmut says you're dismissed. Because there's a ministry between one another. It goes far beyond just simply communicating a gospel so we can all go home.

The good news is for the life that we live, for the ministry that you have, not just the ministry that Hal and I have. Thank the Lord for that. He has gifted us. He has provided everything we need, including and especially the very life of Christ. And that's a gospel far beyond this gospel of the kingdom, The gospel of the kingdom was the good news of the coming millennial kingdom on earth.

And we'll be there. We'll be there. But that's not until after the Lord has already taken us to be with Him. And we spend this tribulation time worshipping Him. Worshipping Him and worshipping Him. Laying crowns at His feet again and again and again. Let's pray.

Lord, we give you thanks. Lord, as we look at this passage, certainly you gave a prophecy short term about the Roman destruction of Jerusalem and about the things that are yet to take place. But you've also given us ample instruction and warning as to what is to take place in the future. And we have from the whole of Scripture the distinction, the place that we have as the believing church. We thank you for the giftedness that we have. We thank you for the blessings that we have in Christ. And we thank you for the ministry that we have here and now in anticipation of that time when you will come for us. We thank you, Lord, for every word of truth that you've laid out here for us this morning. Just pray these things in Jesus' name with thanksgiving. Amen.