Click here for the Luke 21:5-7 PODCAST
5 Some of his disciples were remarking about how the temple was adorned with beautiful stones and with gifts dedicated to God. But Jesus said, 6 “As for what you see here, the time will come when not one stone will be left on another; every one of them will be thrown down.” 7 “Teacher,” they asked, “when will these things happen? And what will be the sign that they are about to take place?” ~ Luke 21:5-7
Today, we come to a section of Scripture that has as its topic the Second Coming of Jesus Christ and His coming millennial reign on the earth. Of course, that is not in these three verses, it is the subject of the passage at large. At this point in the narrative, the Lord Jesus directs His disciples attention to the end. And, He teaches these things in the context of what appears to be the wrong ending of His story. He appears to be on the brink of losing all control when in reality He is gaining complete control through His victory over sin and death.
In this narrative, it is now Wednesday evening. This is the last week of the Lord Jesus' life on earth before His crucifixion. All day long He has been in the temple teaching the Gospel. As He taught, there was no question in the minds of His followers that He knew the Jewish religious system was corrupt. He had just finished a lengthy sermon against the religious leaders of Israel in which He pronounced repeated judgment and damnation upon their heads for using their religion to take advantage of the people.
In v.5-6 we read, "5 Some of his disciples were remarking about how the temple was adorned with beautiful stones and with gifts dedicated to God. But Jesus said, 6 “As for what you see here, the time will come when not one stone will be left on another; every one of them will be thrown down."
In Matthew 24:3, a parallel passage to today's text, the disciples asked, "What is the sign of Your coming and the end of the age?" The Greek word used here is parousia, which means presence. The disciples understood it to mean the king had arrived and would continue to dwell among His people. So they're really asking, "Now that You are here, what are we looking for that will inaugurate the work that You've come to do?" They can't foresee that He was going to die, go away and then come back several thousand years later.
The disciples knew, as the Messiah, the Lord Jesus came to judge the sinful, but they also knew there would be salvation, restoration, forgiveness and the establishment of His kingdom for the righteous. They thought it would all happen at one time.
The Jewish religious leaders, of course, had tried to discredit the Lord Jesus publicly because they wanted Him dead. They had been unsuccessful in trying to trap Him in His words publicly so they could bring some just accusation against Him and force the Romans to execute Him. So when they did finally bring Him before Pilate, they lied and fabricated things about Him in order to get the Romans to execute Him.
The Temple in Jerusalem was one of the great wonders of the ancient world. To the Jews it was the most important place in the world because it was the place where they thought God dwelt. It was also the place of the sacrifices procuring the forgiveness of God for the sins of the people.
On August 29, 70 A.D., Titus Vespasian, the great Roman general, came in after a long siege and torched it. At that time, there were about 6,000 people, Josephus says, trying to seek refuge in the temple who were consumed in the flames and died and there were tens of thousands more that were massacred by the Romans throughout the city of Jerusalem.
Not only had the place that embodied the presence of God for the Jews been leveled, the whole city was demolished. The disciples did not expect these events to happen. The disciples believed the Lord Jesus was going to destroy their enemies and so they asked, "Teacher,” they asked, “when will these things happen? And what will be the sign that they are about to take place?"
Tomorrow, we will consider the answer of the Lord Jesus to this question. But, allow me to return to the most subtle message in today's text. The disciples were focused on the establishment of the physical, earthly kingdom of God, yet, there is a far more important kingdom being established here. It is the internal establishment of His unseen kingdom in our hearts. The Lord Jesus had to deal, once and for all, with mankind's greatest enemy, sin and it's companion death.
The gospel teaches us that the most important things that will happen in our lives today will be the most unwanted things. We must learn to value those unwanted for they serve to enable us to know this One who came to rescue us from our greatest enemy. We did all we could do to damn ourselves but He loved us enough to come and seek us when we were His enemies. Now, that's a story to be enamored with, that's the story of all stories. I'm honored to be defined by such a story!
