Three Questions

Three Questions 

Matthew 24:1 Jesus left the temple and was walking away when his disciples came up to him to call his attention to its buildings.

Can you imagine for a moment how the disciples must have felt?  Have you ever been to just a huge building?  My wife and I love to visit New York City.  One of the things that my wife and I were able to do while we were first there, was that we took a morning and visited Ground Zero.  For days we walked by these massive buildings…  And there once was a day in our nation when no one would have thought that those buildings would have ever crumbled, there once was a day when America thought we were invincible.  But as I stood there on Ground Zero looking in those massive holes where the twin towers once stood and as I walked by thousands of names who lost their life it was an incredible reminder to me of what these disciples must have felt like when Jesus looked at them and said, “Do you see these buildings there is coming a day when one stone will not be left upon another.”  READ at V 2…

As I stood there on ground Zero looking in those massive holes where the twin Towers once stood and as I walked by thousands of names who lost their life it was an incredible reminder to me of what these disciples must have felt like when Jesus looked at them and said, “Do you see these buildings there is coming a day when one stone will not be left upon another.”  READ at V 2…

Can you imagine as a disciple, walking by this massive building of the Temple, I mean it was one of the wonders of their world!  In that moment the disciples are talking about the beautiful stones, the structure and how wonderful this all was; And Jesus looks at them straight in the eye and says, “I want to tell you something:  soon very soon this place will be destroyed.”  

In order to understand these things you have to understand what the disciples would have seen as they were walking by.  

Try to imagine the beautiful temple they would have seen!    After Jesus and his disciples left the temple he set them down, and the disciples said to him what we would have said, “Lord, when will this happen?”  READ v 3…  

What they meant was, “when is the Temple going to be destroyed?”  Now, this whole passage is in reference to the future, but you have to understand the direct fulfillment of this wasn’t far away, it was close at hand - 70 AD.  

And they asked the Lord to try to explain this to them.  They could not imagine in their minds how in the world this place was going to be devastated.  If any place in the world was secure, this place was.  Or, at least so they thought.

The prophecy that was made concerning that great building shocked the disciples that day.   

However, this prophecy concerning the destruction of Jerusalem and the leveling of the Temple was fulfilled in detail in 70 A.D. Titus came and took Jerusalem by force. And at that time the Temple was destroyed. It wasn’t very long before Julius came and he took the stones apart… Julius and his men devastated the city dismantled the Temple and carried many of the stones away, so that not one was left upon another.  And Jesus’s words were fulfilled to the very letter of his prophecy.

I have noticed that in the Scriptures and it is often the case, that there is a prophecy, either by the Lord Jesus, or by one of his prophets that has both a short-term and a long-term fulfillment.  Usually the significance of a prophecy is realized in a relatively short amount of time.  So that the validation of the prophets words usually come to pass in a short amount of time.  So that we can see the accuracy of all.  

But there is often also a long-term significance.  In this long-term significance is often stretched out over years to come, perhaps even beyond our lifetime.  It is almost as if the Lord is saying to us:  now see I know how to fulfill my prophecy and so I give you a short-term fulfillment to the prophecy for you to see, and to remind you that I’m a God who keeps my promises.  

I am sure that when those disciples were confronted by the Lord Jesus Christ with the prophecy concerning the Temple, they did not separate the two prophecies as we are now able to do given the advantage point of time that we enjoy, I am convinced they saw it all as one. You see they were like a lot of people of that generation, they were looking for the coming Messiah, and they were not looking for the Messiah to come for spiritual reasons.  They only wanted freedom from Rome, and they wanted the Lord Jesus to come and set up his kingdom.

When they asked these questions about the signs of his coming it’s important to keep in mind that they were not asking questions concerning the Second Coming as we talk about it, or have come to understand it.  They were hoping that it was going to be just like the destruction of the Temple very close at hand. Perhaps that he would come immediately following the destruction of the Temple.  That way, they would be finished forever with the Roman dominion and they would be able to serve under King Jesus. 

The disciples ask three questions {1} “When shall these happen”   I told you over in Luke 21 we read another account of this conversation.  Take time this week to read it… .  But he never answered the question of when, in fact he says no man knows the hour, day or time…  

the Second two questions they asked are related.  Look down at your Bible and see what those questions are:  {2} What about the sign of your coming, Lord?  and {3}  What shall be the sign of the end of the Age?  The Third question: what shall be the sign of the end of the age?  Jesus did take time to answer that question, a lot of time really…  

Although it was not clearly spelled out the second question was answered…  The answer to the first question: YOU CANNOT KNOW…  

THE ANSWER TO THE SECOND question is what?  Do you see it? 

 Well, I would think the answer to the second question is pretty simple:  

The sign of our Lord’s coming is our Lord’s coming.  

Now, the disciples use the word, which means to be around or to be present.  The question there really is this:  

What shall be the sign of your full presence?   The disciples were asking the Lord when he was going to permanently come and be with them.  They understood that he was going away, but they wanted to know when he was going to come back and be with them for good…  

That remains a question on our minds, today!  One we are going to look into, as the days unfold.