26. The Downfall Of The Fruitless City (End-Times Series Part 7)

Welcome back to the podcast where we prod the sheep and beat the wolf. This is episode 26, the downfall of the fruitless city.

For any of you that seen any movie, I want to talk about context for just a moment. And I'm going to use one of my favorite movies, the

Princess Bride to illustrate. When the revenge seeking Spaniard from Princess Bride uttered the most famous lines in the movie, to my opinion,

I will go up to the six finger men and I will say, hello, my name is Inigo Montoya. You killed my father, prepare to die.

When he uttered those words, there was more than an hour and 20 minutes of storyline that was underpinning that scene from his motive for revenge that he tells

Wesley on top of the cliffs of insanity to his rants and flailing about with a, with his father's sword and a drunken stupor in the thieves forest.

Much happens in Inigo's life that makes his most significant scene all the more important without all of that critical context, killing count

Rugen may appear like nothing more than a frivolous crime of passion. Now if you don't know the Princess Bride, you obviously don't know at all what

I'm talking about, but if you do know the Princess Bride, then you'll understand that the context is important.

If you've never seen the Princess Bride, watch it. One of the greatest movies of all time. But if you're just adamantly opposed to watching it, you understand the point.

Context matters. And the same is true when we're considering the topic of eschatology. Before we can understand these prickly end times concepts that come out of chapters like Matthew 24, things like the great tribulation or the rapture, the end of the age.

Before we can understand those things, we have to first go back and understand the context that's underpinning all of those statements.

And to do that, we must understand that Matthew is telling the story of the long awaited

Jewish king who, as Malachi foretold 400 years before, would come and set up his never -ending empire here on earth.

Those who would accept his rule would live forever in his kingdom, and those who would oppose him, beginning with Jerusalem, would be put under his feet and crushed.

If we don't understand that that's the story that Matthew is telling, then we're going to miss every eschatological point that Matthew is trying to make.

So with that, let us continue in our journey in Matthew as we seek to understand the end times, and as we try to understand the final week of Jesus' life.

The final week. Nearly a thousand years before the events that are recorded in Matthew, the city awoke to the sounds of laughter, worship, and joy.

The nations, as God intended, were coming. They were streaming into the city of Jerusalem to see if what they had heard was true.

They were coming to see the radiance and the power of Israel's God. They wanted to see this magnificent temple where he visibly reigned.

They wanted to see the city that was his footstool. They wanted to see the vice regent that God had appointed to sit upon his throne in Jerusalem, and that was the son of David, King Solomon.

Now, a thousand years later, when Matthew's writing, the Davidic king has been completely snuffed out.

The temple, which has already been destroyed once before this, has become a whitewashed tomb of dead Pharisaical religion.

The people who were called to announce the inauguration of God's kingdom have been beheaded by the puppet king, that's

Herod. And as Malachi warned, the love of God was at an all -time low among this increasingly paganized nation.

By the time that you and I arrive at Matthew's gospel, the rot has sunk in so deep into the soul of Judah that the wound was incurable.

Josephus, the Jewish historian, describes this era of history and its people, highlighting the inevitability of God's judgment soon to come.

He writes this shortly after the destruction of Jerusalem. And as you read it, as you listen to it, you can just sense the agony in this man's heart for the people who refused to repent.

This is what Josephus says. And here I cannot refrain from expressing what my feelings suggest.

I am of the opinion that had the Romans deferred the punishment of these wretches, then either the earth would have opened up and swallowed the city, or it would have been swept away by a deluge, or have shared the thunderbolts of the land of Sodom, for it produced a race far more ungodly than those who were thus visited.

He's saying that this people was far more ungodly than Sodom. And then he continues, for through the desperate madness of these men, the whole nation was involved in their ruin.

By the time of the New Testament, the city of Jerusalem was so noxious and odious to God that she could not even detect her own moral stench.

With lying lips and hearts that were far from God, Matthew 15, 8 through 9, she not only persisted in her murderous rage,

Matthew 14, 1 through 12, 23, 29 through 33, but she was increasingly opposed to God's only

Son. As a result, Jesus tells his disciples that the keys of God's kingdom are going to be removed from the people of Israel, Matthew 16, 13 through 20, and that some of them, some of the disciples, were going to be alive to witness her downfall.

That's Matthew 16, 28. When Jesus entered the city of Jerusalem during his triumphal entry in the year

A .D. 30 or A .D. 33, it was surely for the salvation of his people, yes, and amen.

But as Malachi rightly predicted, he not only came for the salvation of his people, but he came for the judgment and the destruction of Jerusalem, and when he entered the city, it was also for judgment.

Now in the weeks ahead, we're going to narrow our focus onto the final week of Jesus's life, and we're going to look at the context so that when we get to chapter 24, we're going to be able to understand all of the beautiful eschatology that's there, and we're not going to get confused about what the last days mean or what the rapture means or the great tribulation or anything like that.

We're going to understand what that passage means in its context. So for the weeks ahead, we're going to be looking at Matthew 21, 22, and 23.

Today we're going to focus on Matthew 21, and we're going to see how everything in this chapter has to do with Jerusalem as the cursed and fruitless city.

Day one, a procession of joy and judgment. Matthew 21 opens with Jesus, the true

Davidic king, preparing to ride into the royal city on the back of a donkey for the final time.

At that time, kings would not only ride upon—they would only ride upon horses if they were going out to war. But if they approached a city in peace, they would ride on a far less threatening mode of transportation, which in their day was a mule or a donkey.

This is especially true during what we would call an Israelite changing of the guard ceremony or a coronation event, which became tradition at the time of David.

Per David's explicit command on his deathbed, Solomon, his son, would be anointed for the office of king with oil by the high priest of Israel.

And then, once he was anointed king of Israel, he would ride into the capital city on the back of a donkey, and as he rode, a procession of important people would follow with him, singing and chanting,

Long live the king. And by the time that they finally arrived in the city of Jerusalem, Solomon would sit on his father's throne.

The entire city was in a joyful uproar, and you can read about it in 1 Kings 1, verses 38 through 40.

Now, John, since John tells us that Jesus was anointed with oil just before his triumphal entry,

John 12, and since Luke tells us that he rode into the city with a crowd of important people who were singing,

Blessed is the king who comes in the name of the Lord, Luke 19, and since Matthew tells us that the city was stirred up upon his arrival,

Matthew 21, there can be no doubt that Jesus was coming as king to set up his kingdom in the

Solomonic way. Whether the people understood the ramifications of his coming or not matters very little to actually what

Jesus is trying to communicate. Jesus saw himself as the true Solomon, the true son of David, who was coming to establish his kingdom.

If there's any doubt about that interpretation at all, Matthew himself clears it up for us by quoting from Zechariah 9, 9, which says,

Rejoice greatly, O daughter of Zion! Shout in triumph, O daughter of Jerusalem!

Behold, your king is coming to you, and he is just and endowed with salvation, humble and mounted on a donkey, even on a coal, the foal of a donkey.

From the quotation alone, from that quotation in Zechariah, we can see how Jesus is the long -awaited messianic king.

He's the one who came to Jerusalem that day in order to provide salvation for his people and to bring them into his kingdom of peace.

But, as Malachi has taught us, we must not miss the fact that Jesus is not only coming for blessing but for judgment, and we see that in the context of Zechariah 9.

When you look up this passage, you see verse 9. Verse 9 looks all about the blessing, but when you read the surrounding context, you actually see that, really, it's couched in the middle of extreme judgment against the people.

For instance, in that same passage in Zechariah 9, the same one that Matthew quotes in Matthew 21, the prophet speaks of a rebellious nation that's going to be dispossessed from her land, her wealth is going to be cast into the sea, and her city is going to be consumed with fire,

Zechariah 9, 4. The Lord then promises to bring an army to encamp around his house, that's the

Jerusalem temple, in judgment, that's Zechariah 9, 8. And after the remnant of his people are saved, that's

Zechariah 9, 9, that's the passage that Matthew quotes, then this humble king is going to remove the weapons and the might and the power of defeated

Jerusalem, and he's going to create a global kingdom of peace that will eventually blanket the entire world with his dominion,

Zechariah 9, 10. When we consider how Matthew identifies Zechariah 9, 9 as being fulfilled in Christ, we should not be surprised that the rest of these verses also are going to be fulfilled in Christ.

Let me show you what I mean. Jerusalem really was dispossessed by the Romans. Her wealth was cast into the sea on ships that were heading back to Rome.

Her city was burned into a smoldering ash heap. All of that in fulfillment of Zechariah 9, 4.

Her temple was surrounded by armies in judgment for her rebellion, that's Zechariah 9, 8.

A remnant of people, the Christians, were spared before these events happened in A .D. 70, that's

Zechariah 9, 9. God did remove Jerusalem from her favored status and from her religious power and prominence, and Jesus really did begin a brand new kingdom with him as its king.

That's going to continue along until the entire world is under his dominion, that's Zechariah 9, 10.

Everything in Zechariah 9, 1 through 10, all of it, not just his triumphal entry, was accomplished by Christ.

That includes the joy for the people of God, but it also includes the judgment against feckless

Jerusalem. Later that evening, the God who visits his temple, after Jesus' kingly ride into the city and after the crowds sort of dispersed, he doesn't go to the palace as the anointed king, as Solomon did.

His throne was going to await him in heaven after his ascension, so he didn't need to do that. Instead, Jesus goes to the

Jerusalem temple in order to pronounce judgment upon its leaders and upon the barren, empty building.

In true Malachi -like fashion, Jesus came to the temple with tremendous fury and covenantal zeal, overturning its tables, chasing out the wicked vendors, and pronouncing judgment upon the house that bore no fruit for God, Matthew 21, 12 through 13.

This was how Jesus ended his first full day in the city on the last week of his life. The judgment tones are there, but as we see, they're gonna continue to grow even more strongly as we turn the page over into day two.

So Jesus, he leaves the temple after he cleanses, and I'm sure he didn't make any friends on that night. He goes home, goes back to Bethany, goes to sleep.

He wakes up early in the morning. That's the beginning of day two, a morning of mountain moving.

Now, if you've been a Christian for any length of time at all, you've probably heard the phrase, or you've been encouraged to have a faith that can move mountains.

That comes from Matthew 21, 21. But unfortunately, that is not at all what the passage is talking about, not even remotely.

Matthew is not haphazardly breaking away from this narrative of judgment, where Christ rides into the city of Jerusalem for judgment, then he goes to the

Jerusalem temple for judgment. He's not interrupting that narrative so that he can give you a pep talk about how to have a better life, better health, or a better car.

That would be absurd. When we say things like, you know, if I just had enough faith,

I could move a mountain in my life, or if you believe it, then you can see it, sort of this R. Kelly theology, we expose how little we understand about the narrative and of how shallow we are when we approach the

Bible. The text is not about you. It's about the judgment that Jesus is bringing to Jerusalem.

This passage has nothing at all to do with you having big faith. This passage has everything with Jesus bringing a big judgment.

Remember the context. Jesus comes to the fruitless city that offered him only leaves, no fruit,

Matthew 21 .8. That point should shock us. Then the next day, he curses a leaves -only tree, a tree that would not bear fruit,

Matthew 21 .18 -19. Listen to this. He comes to the leaves -only city, and then the next day, he encounters a leaves -only tree.

The metaphor and the comparison could not be more striking. Jerusalem was supposed to be

God's city where he dwelled in this beautiful, magnificent temple that was decorated like the Garden of Eden.

And the city was supposed to be this paradise city where people could come and they could meet with the one true God and be nourished by his temple.

Imagine, think about the Edenic nature of the city of Jerusalem. The tree of life was in the middle of the garden.

So too Jerusalem had this glorious temple in the middle of the city where pilgrims were supposed to come and experience life, healing, nourishment, and blessings.

But by the time that Jesus came to the city, the whole thing had become stale, withered, and fruitless.

Jerusalem was no longer the garden city, but a religious wasteland. No longer a place where pilgrims could be nourished and healed, but a place set apart for the curse,

Matthew 21, 14 through 16. That is the context that Matthew is giving us so that we can understand that the cursing of the fig tree is not about a faith that can move mountains.

It's about Jesus who's going to remove the mountain city. According to Matthew 21, that kind of faith belongs to Jesus.

And we must remember, this is why I say that Jesus is going to remove the mountain city, we must remember

Jesus is traveling to Jerusalem that morning. He's facing Jerusalem, the fruitless city, when he was encountered by the fruitless tree.

By cursing this tree, Jesus is pronouncing doom upon the city as well. Look at how he answers his befuddled disciples.

Jesus answered and said to them, truly I say to you, if you have faith and you do not doubt, you will not only do what was done to the fig tree, but even if you were to say to this mountain, be taken up and cast in the sea, it will happen.

From the context of what's going on, we know that Jesus is not sneaking in a word of faith passage so that Bill Johnson, Kenneth Copeland, and Benny Hinn can abuse the

Scriptures. Jesus is heading towards Jerusalem, a mountain city, the city that sits literally on top of a mountain.

So when he says, if you say to this mountain, it would be clear to his disciples what he's talking about.

He didn't say if you say to a mountain, some mountain somewhere, or that mountain, a mountain that's really far away, he was not referring to any old problem in your life metaphorically that's looming over your life like a mountain of Everest in Nepal.

He is using a near demonstrative pronoun, this, to point to a specific mountain that all of them could see right in front of their faces, that was standing there looming over them.

It was that cursed mountain with Jerusalem on top of it that Jesus intended to cast into the sea.

Do you remember when Zechariah said in chapter 9 verse 4 that all of their wealth would be cast into the sea?

History tells us that is exactly what happened to the city of Jerusalem, and I believe that's exactly what

Jesus meant when he said, say to this mountain, Jerusalem, be cast into the sea, because that's what happened.

As we've said before, the Romans not only destroyed the mountain city of Jerusalem in the 70th year AD, but they also killed about a million

Jews. They took nearly 100 ,000 of them hostage into slavery. They plundered the city and all of its treasures, and after taking everything that they possibly could, packing everything up onto their ships, they bound back for the city of Rome with all of their spoils and all of their victory, and they cast off into the sea.

Jesus and Zechariah both prophesied that this rebellious mountain city called

Jerusalem, the fruitless city, would be upended and thrown into the sea, and in 70

AD it was so. Day two continued, a noontime showdown.

After parabolically cursing the city of Jerusalem and promising that the mountain city would be cast into the sea,

Jesus enters the city once more, and he goes back to the temple mount for a confrontation with its cursed religious leaders.

Instead of repenting for their sin and their own moral stupidity and blindness, they accosted

Jesus, and they challenged his authority to do the kinds of things that he was doing, Matthew 21 -23.

Jesus simply responds to them with a question, which exposed their ignorance of John the

Baptist, and it proved that they really did not know the Malachi -like judgment that John the

Baptist's ministry was going to pave the way for, Matthew 21 -23 -27. Afternoon storytelling.

Jesus' second day in Jerusalem continued after this temple event, as reported in Matthew 21, and it's starting to come to a close as he pronounces a litany of judgments through parables on the temple mount.

The very first one of those parables that he proclaims or that he pronounces over the rebellious

Jews is when he compares them to a child who responded to their father, who told them to do something, and they responded as if they were going to obey the father, but then later they ended up rebelling against the father.

It was that group that Jesus said was the rebellious child, and it's to that group that Jesus reminded them that the prophecy of Malachi and the ministry of John would not bring them salvation but would bring them judgment.

This is what he says in verses 31 -32, "'Truly I say to you that the tax collectors and prostitutes will get into the kingdom of God before you.

For John came to you in the way of righteousness," he's appealing to John here, "'and you did not believe him.

But the tax collectors and the prostitutes did believe him, and you seeing this did not even feel remorse afterwards so as to believe him.'"

I think Jesus is appealing to Malachi chapter 3. You saw the messenger who came.

You saw the people who repented. You saw them, just like Malachi says, and you hardened your heart, and now it's time for me to come,

Malachi 4, in judgment. The second and final parable ratchets up the intensity of this even higher and makes it explicitly clear who

Jesus is talking about. He's talking about the downfall of Jerusalem and its leaders. Now, to tell this story,

Jesus uses a very popular Old Testament parable from the book of Isaiah that every single person in his audience would have understood where it came from and they would have been familiar with it.

In that Isaiah parable, God compares the city of Jerusalem to a choice vineyard that he planted for himself, and he planted it so that it would bear fruit.

But the irony of Isaiah 5, which is where we find this parable, is that the vineyard,

Jerusalem, ended up producing worthless fruit and needed to be removed by God, Isaiah 5 1 through 7.

By retelling that specific parable, Jesus is again reminding the city that they were made to produce fruit, but they haven't produced the kind of fruit that God intended, and likewise, they would be removed.

But he doesn't stop there. He crafts the story in such a way that places the lion's share of the blame for why the city is not producing fruit on top of the

Jewish leaders' heads. He describes them as vine growers who the father, who the owner, put in charge, and they were supposed to tend the vineyard, keeping it from falling into disrepute.

But every time the owner would send his slaves to gather his assets, they would kill his slaves and they would kill his servants.

And even the parable shockingly says that the owner sends his one and only son, and they kill the son too.

Then the owner in fury comes personally to deal with the situation, and he brings awful judgment.

By telling the story this way, Jesus is not only reminding them that they were made by God to bear fruit, but he's reminding them that their cursed leaders are the ones that's polluting their streets.

Their cursed leaders are the ones who are keeping them from bearing fruit. Their cursed leaders are the one who killed the prophets of old.

Their leaders are the ones who killed God's messengers who came to deliver messages of repentance. And it was that awful city that was going to kill

God's one and only son and infuriate the owner of that vineyard as a punishment for such an outrageous crime.

God, like the vineyard owner, would come and rain down judgment on these people's heads.

And he was going to give their, his assets to a different people, the church.

We know this because verse 43 through 45, this is what it says, Therefore, Jesus speaking,

I say to you, the kingdom of God will be taken away from you and be given to a people producing the fruit of it.

And he who falls on this stone will be broken to pieces. But on whoever it falls, it will scatter him like the dust.

And then the chief priests and the Pharisees heard his parables, and they understood that he was speaking about them.

Conclusion. Matthew 21 is about the fruitless city that would soon be brought under the terrifying judgment of God.

In Jesus's final week, he enters the fruitless city and they offer him only leaves. He enters the fruitless temple that lies rotten in rebellion.

On the second day, he curses the fruitless tree as a demonstration of what's soon going to happen to the fruitless city. And then as Jesus ends his day, he tells the story of the fruitless vineyard, fruitless city, fruitless temple, fruitless tree, fruitless vineyard.

All of Matthew 21 is about the corruption and fruitlessness of Jerusalem.

And just like that vineyard, that city was going to be torn down. Instead of old

Jerusalem, you're going to have new Jerusalem replanted for the people of God and given to a people who would care after it.

Again, this whole chapter is talking about the downfall of Jerusalem. Join us next week as we dive into Matthew 22 and we see how this chapter as well is going to continue this judgment theme that God has been working in the book of Matthew.

And in just a couple of weeks, we're going to be ready to dive into some of the most difficult topics of eschatology that can be found in the

New Testament, and we're going to understand them more clearly than we ever dared dream, all because we've put in the work to build a proper foundation.

I hope you have a blessed week contemplating these things in Matthew 22. And until next time, may