#169 Lu. 21:5-6  A TIME OF DESTRUCTION AHEAD

Introduction:

    In our text today Jesus predicts a time of great destruction
ahead for the nation of Israel, for the city of Jerusalem and for
the temple of God at Jerusalem.

I.  The setting

    He had just spent a hard day in the main courtyard of the
Jewish temple.  He had spent the day in controversy with the
Jewish leaders.  He had first been approached by the scribes and
Pharisees who had a trick question for Him.  They thought that
either way He answered their question, they would be able to use
His answer as an excuse to arrest Him and put Him to death.
    Later in the day He was approached by the Sadducees who also
had a trick question.  They asked their question about the
resurrection and they thought that either way He would answer they
would use His answer to show that there really will not be any
resurrection.
    Finally, the Jewish leaders dared ask Jesus any more questions
for fear of being further embarrassed before the crows of people.
So Jesus asked them a question.  The question Jesus asked was
designed to show the crowds of people that the scribes and
Pharisees did not know enough about the Old Testament Scriptures
about the Christ to be able to properly identify the Christ.  The
scribes and Pharisees could not be trusted to identify the Christ.
The scribes and Pharisees were doing their very best to convince
the people that Jesus is not the Christ, but they did not know
enough about the Old Testament Scriptures to know who is the
Christ and who is not.
    To put it mildly, Jesus had a great victory over the Jewish
leaders in each conflict with them.  He thoroughly defeated them.
But there was one thing He was not able to do.  He was not able to
convince them that He is the Christ, the Son of God and the Savior
of the world.

II.  Jesus leaving the temple

    In our text last Sunday Jesus began His departure from the
temple.  It was evening time and even from that point of view it
was time for Him to leave.  On previous evenings when He would
leave He would come back the next day.  This time was different.
He was leaving never to return.  That is, He would never return to
the temple building which existed in that day.  He would leave the
temple and He would leave the city of Jerusalem.  He would not
even return to the city of His own accord.  The next time He would
enter the city of Jerusalem, He could come as a prisoner of the
Jewish leaders.  He would be brought back to the city to be tried
and to be put to death.
    However, after leaving the main courtyard of the temple where
all the conflict with the Jewish leaders had take place, Jesus had
stopped in the outer courtyard long enough to teach His disciples
a lesson about giving to support God's work.  He had stopped under
a large porch just inside the main entrance to the temple grounds.
Just inside the temple gate there were thirteen offering boxes.
Jesus sat down near the offering boxes so that He could watch the
people as they put their offerings in the boxes.  He watched as
rich men put in huge sums of money.  Then He watched as a poor
widow woman approached to put her money in and He called His
disciples to watch this also.  The poor widow put in two mites,
which in money value, did not compare with the huge offerings of
the rich.  But Jesus praised this woman highly to His disciples
and told them that she had given more than all the others.  They
all had plenty left after they gave, but Jesus said that this poor
widow gave all her living into the offering box.

III.  The beauty of the temple

    Apparently before Jesus called for the disciples to give their
attention to the widow woman and her offering, they had been
pre-occupied in observing the beauty of the temple.  We can
understand why they would.  It was, indeed a magnificent place.
Just inside the outside wall of the temple there was a walkway
which went all the way around just inside the wall.  The walkway
was paved with marble blocks of various colors arranged in very
decorative patterns.  The walkway had a cedar roof over it which
was supported by white marble columns 37 1/2 feet in height.  The
underside of the cedar roof was decorated with colorful pieces of
stone in the form of Mosaic artwork.
    At various intervals the covered walkway would suddenly widen
into a large covered area which would serve as a meeting place for
people to worship.  There were several such meeting places so that
a number of different groups could be meeting at the same time.
The columns of these porches which supported the roof were very
tall.  In one porch called "The Royal Porch" the marble columns
were 100 feet tall.  Each of these porches was very impressive and
very beautiful.
    Toward the center of this outer courtyard were located other
courtyards and finally at the very center of all the courtyard was
located the temple structure containing the Holy Place and The
Holy of Holies.  Each inner courtyard was terraced and built on a
higher elevation than the one outside it.  Then the temple
structure was at the center and was the at the very highest
elevation.  To stand at the lower level and look upward toward the
top was an extremely impressive sight.
    There were eight gates in the outer wall of the temple.  Each
gate had a stone structure or portico to house the gate itself.
The portico was very tall and had rooms built above the gate.
All of the gates were very beautiful, but the Eastern Gate was the
most beautiful.  This was the gate where Jesus stopped to watch
the people put their money in the offering box.
    This is the gate which in Acts chapter 3 is called "The Gate
Beautiful."  It is no wonder that it was given this name.  It was
indeed very beautiful.  The portico which housed the gate reached
a height of 75 feet.  The gate itself consisted of double-doors
which were made of brass the finest.  It took 20 men to open or
close one of the sections of the double-door.  This gate and
portico were richly ornamented with gold and silver.
    On the inside of the outer wall there were numerous displays
or exhibits of rich gifts which had been donated to the temple.
The most fabulous of these gifts were on display there near the
main entrance were Jesus and His disciples had stopped.  Among
those displays were the golden crowns of kings and other fabulous
gifts.  Herod the Great had given a fabulous decorative vine made
of gold.  This vine decorated the wall near the place where the
disciples stood with Jesus.

IV.  The disciples' admiration of the temple's beauty

    I get the impression that the disciples had been deeply
absorbed in all this beauty while Jesus was watching the rich men
put their offering into the offering box.  They came, of course,
when Jesus called them to watch the widow woman give her two
mites.  They watched her and they listened Jesus speak about her.
    But they were so completely enraptured by the beauty of this
place that as soon as Jesus had finished what He was saying about
the widow and her offering, they immediately called His attention
to all this beauty around them.
    Both Matthew and Mark tell us that they were still inside the
temple when they called His attention the beauty of the temple.
That is, they were still inside, but they were in the process of
leaving.
    Let us now take a look at our text and see what Luke tells us
about this event.  V. 5, "And as some spake of the temple, how it
was adorned with goodly stones and gifts..."  Mark says that they
called to His attention both the beauty and the size of the
stones.  The stones were of white marble, as I have already
mentioned.  As to their beauty, they had a different kind of
beauty depending on the what distance they were from the stones.
The stones which were close looked like what they were---very
beautiful white stone.  But those which were viewed at a distance
looked like snow.
    As to the size of the stones, they were very massive.  The
largest was said to weigh over 100 tons.  It must have been a
monumental job to cut those stones to the proper size, haul them
to the location and put them in place.

V.  The reaction of Jesus to the beauty of the place

    I think the disciples expected Jesus to say, "Oooooh, aren't
they beautiful!"  smile and say, "That's right.  They are very
beautiful."  But Jesus was not all that impressed with their
beauty.  That stands to reason, once you think about it.  Jesus
had been in heaven.  He had been in the very throne-room of God in
heaven.  He had sat upon the very throne of God.  Jesus had seen
such beauty that this temple would seem drab in comparison.
    Besides all that, He was about to go to the cross to suffer
for the sins of men.  He really was not concerned with the beauty
of these stone or the beauty of the silver or gold.  What Jesus
was concerned about was the well-being of this city and this
nation and the lost souls of mankind.  Jesus knew what lay ahead
for the temple.  He knew what lay ahead for the city of Jerusalem.
He knew what lay ahead for the whole nation of Israel.  Jesus knew
the great need of those who are lost in sin.  Jesus was going to
the cross to die on the cross for those who are lost in sin.
    Yet concerning the beautiful stones of the temple, Jesus
foresaw a terrible destruction ahead.  V. 6, "As for these things
which ye behold, the days will come, in the which there shall not
be left one stone upon another, that shall not be thrown down."
Jesus did not say when the destruction would come.  He did not say
how it would come.  He just said that not one stone of this whole
big beautiful temple would be left upon another.  The destruction
would be devastating.  It would be terrible.

VI.  The fulfillment of the predicted destruction

    We can say now that the destruction would come about forty
years from that time it was made.  It was fulfilled in 70 A. D.
Just before the destruction would come the Jewish nation would
rebel against the Roman authority and drive the Romans out of
their land.  But the Romans would return and they would return in
force.  The Roman general, Titus, would overpower the nation of
Israel.  He would destroy the city of Jerusalem.  He would destroy
the temple of God and would tear down the stones of the buildings
so that not one stone would be left upon another just as Jesus had
predicted.

VII. An even greater destruction ahead

    There is a time of even greater destruction ahead of us today.
The time will come in the Great Tribulation period when the
destruction will be so great that it is said that there was never
anything as bad in all the history of the world.  It would be so
bad that there would never be anything like it ever again as long
as the world would stand.
    But even that is not the worst.  The time will come when the
world itself will stand no longer.  The time will come when the
elements will melt with fervent heat and this whole wide world
will be destroyed by fire .
    Yet not everything is lost.  God will take those melted
elements and make a whole new world.  Then God will bring down
from Heaven the Holy City New Jerusalem and will set up His throne
in this new earth.  Then all of the saved of all of the ages will
live forever with God in the glory of God in this new earth.  But
those who have never repented of their sin and never trusted in
Jesus Christ as Savior will suffer the worst kind of suffering in
the Lake of Fire and Brimstone.  Yet if Jesus Christ had not come
to this world and died on the cross of Calvary then everybody who
was ever born in all the ages would be in the Lake of Fire.
    Thank God for Jesus Christ.  Thank God for the blessed gospel
of Jesus Christ.  Thank God that I am saved by the grace of God.
I thank God that I will never go into the fires of Hell.  Thank
God that I can preach the gospel to men, women, boys and girl
today and be sure that if they will put their faith and trust in
Jesus Christ, they will be saved.

Conclusion:

    If you have never been saved and you are still lost in your
sin and headed for the fires of Hell then I beg of you to turn
today and call upon the Lord Jesus Christ and ask Him to save your
soul.
    If you are saved, then I am asking you to show the Lord your
love for Him by living for Him.  If you need a church home and you
wish to join here at Pleasant Hill, we invite you to come.