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1 Then Jesus went out and departed from the temple, and His disciples came up to show Him the buildings of the temple. 2 And Jesus said to them, "Do you not see all these things? Assuredly, I say to you, not one stone shall be left here upon another, that shall not be thrown down." ~ Matthew 24:1-2
Today, we transition into Matthew 24. 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 courts 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 today's passage we read, "1 Then Jesus went out and departed from the temple, and His disciples came up to show Him the buildings of the temple. 2 And Jesus said to them, 'Do you not see all these things? Assuredly, I say to you, not one stone shall be left here upon another, that shall not be thrown down.'"
As they exited the Temple His disciples were in awe of the massive building. It was then that one of the disciples spoke of how big and beautiful was the temple. The temple complex was one-fifth of the total landmass of the city of ancient Jerusalem. It covered thirty-six acres. It took eighty thousand laborers over eighty years to build it. The pinnacle of the temple or the southeast corner down to the Kidron Valley was 158 feet tall. It 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 had known the presence of God but that changed when God came to dwell among them.
We sometimes hear believers in the Lord Jesus wrongfully refer to the building where the church meets as "God's House." Nowhere in the Bible do we find this. In fact, we are told over and over in the New Testament that the church is the people and God dwells within each believer. In 1 Corinthians 3:16 we read, "Do you not know that you are the temple of God and that the Spirit of God dwells in you?" This means that the people whom God calls "the church" is the dwelling place of God. We are in error when we refer to the church as a building. The church is the dwelling place of God.
I find it most interesting to discover that the Lord Jesus Himself never entered the temple, He only went into the outer court. According to the Law of Moses, only selected priests were allowed into the temple sanctuary. And only the High Priest, once a year on the Day of Atonement, could go into the Holy of Holies in the inner sanctuary of the temple. But according to the book of Hebrews the Temple on earth was a picture of the real Temple in heaven where God resides. In Hebrews 9:12 we read, "He did not enter by means of the blood of goats and calves; but he entered the Most Holy Place once for all by his own blood, thus obtaining eternal redemption." The Lord Jesus has taken those who believe in Him into the very presence of God through the shedding of His own blood. He accomplished this with His own sinless blood, not the blood of any animal. And, He entered once into the Holy of Holies to wipe our sin slate clean before God in heaven. And, He did this once and for eternity, never to be repeated again.
In response to the disciples statement about the temple, the Lord Jesus gave His prediction of the destruction of the temple which happened in 70 AD. The Jews believed that the existence of the temple in Jerusalem was the evidence of God's blessing upon the nation. But, the Lord Jesus said these stones, as great as they were, will be cast down, and the temple would be destroyed. These words from the Lord Jesus drew forth the poor theology of the disciples. They didn't understand what religion had done to God's original purpose of the temple.
Like the religious leaders of Israel, the disciples were wrongly focused on the establishment of the physical, earthly kingdom of God. It was Mike Yaconelli, the late president of Youth Specialties who once said, "Spirituality is a mixed-up, topsy-turvy, helter-skelter godliness that turns our lives into an upside-down toboggan ride of unexpected turns, surprise bumps and bone shattering crashes ... a life ruined by a Jesus who loves us right into his arms." The Lord Jesus came to make possible the internal establishment of His unseen kingdom in our hearts. Before that could become a reality, He had to deal a death blow, once and for all, to mankind's greatest enemy, sin and its companion death. Once we have believed on the Lord Jesus as our Savior, we are indwelled by His Spirit.
The indwelling Holy Spirit makes this intimate personal relationship with God possible for you and me right now. As we learn to hear Him and obey Him from our hearts, we will grow in our intimacy with Him. The gospel teaches us that the most important things that will happen in our lives today will be realized through the most unwanted things and unwanted moments that come at us. As we learn to value those unwanted things and moments, we will be enabled by the Lord to know Him experientially as the 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 even while 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 and I trust you are, too!
Finally, I close this blog and podcast out with the words of Mike Yaconelli one again who said, "Spirituality is a mixed-up, topsy-turvy, helter-skelter godliness that turns our lives into an upside-down toboggan ride of unexpected turns, surprise bumps and bone shattering crashes ... a life ruined by a Jesus who loves us right into his arms."
