Book of Luke - Ch. 21, Vs. 1-28 (09/05/2004)

Good afternoon. I think we're ready to get started. And I believe we're going to begin with Luke chapter 21 and verse 1.

Is that about right? That's good. I didn't want to have to change to something

I hadn't studied. Luke 21 verse 1. We will start there this afternoon and really all we'll have time to do is sort of set the scene for understanding this passage.

So we're going to read through quite a number of the verses and then just kind of show how to divide this passage up and make a few comments.

But really the real study of it will probably come next Sunday afternoon and maybe the one after that.

So let's have a word of prayer and then we'll begin. Father, thank you so much for ordaining that we would have a time to assemble together in your presence and to also be strengthened by our mutual faith.

Lord, we thank you for your word as we go into it again this afternoon. We pray that your

Holy Spirit would guide us and teach us and give us the sense of it as you gave it. And also we know that you reveal certain parts of it to us when we're ready.

So Lord, whatever you have for us this afternoon, we are open to it and excited about it and we ask you to teach us in Jesus name.

Amen. Okay, let's start with verse 1 and just kind of follow along with me.

Today I'm going to read, I'm going to read the passage all the way through to verse 28 before we stop and discuss it.

Luke, Luke 21 verse 1. And he looked up and saw the rich man casting, rich men casting their gifts into the treasury.

And he saw also a certain poor widow casting in thither two mites.

And he said of a truth I say unto you that this poor widow hath cast in more than they all.

For all these have of the abundance of their abundance cast in and to the offerings of God.

But she of her penury hath cast in all the living that she had.

And as some spake of the temple, how it was adorned with goodly stones and gifts.

He said, as for these things which he behold, the days will come in the which there shall not be left one stone upon another that shall not be thrown down.

And they asked him saying, Master, but when shall these things be? And what sign will there be when these things shall come to pass?

And he said, take heed that you be not deceived or many shall come in my name saying

I am Christ and the time draweth near. Go ye not therefore after them.

But when ye shall hear of wars and commotions be not terrified for these things must first come to pass but the end is not by and by.

Then said he unto them, nations shall rise against nation and kingdom against kingdom and great earthquakes shall be in diverse places and famines and pestilences and fearful sites and great signs shall there be from heaven.

But before all these they shall lay their hands on you and persecute you delivering you up to the synagogues and into prisons being brought before kings and rulers for my name's sake.

And it shall turn to you for a testimony. Settle it therefore in your hearts not to meditate before what you shall answer.

For I will give you a mouth of and wisdom which all your adversaries shall not be able to gain say nor resist.

And ye shall be betrayed both by parents and brethren and kin's folks and friends and some of you shall they cause to be put to death.

And ye shall be hated of all men for my name's sake. But there shall not a hair of your head perish.

In your patience possess ye your souls. And when ye shall see

Jerusalem compassed with armies then know that the desolation thereof is nigh.

Then let them which are in Judea flee to the mountains and let them which are in the midst of it depart out and let not them that are in the countries enter there into.

For these be the days of vengeance that all things which are written may be fulfilled. But woe unto them that are with child and to them that have sucked indeed in those days for there shall be great distress in the land and wrath upon this people.

And they shall fall by the edge of the sword and shall be led away captive into all nations.

Jerusalem shall be trodden down of the Gentiles until the times the Gentiles be fulfilled.

And there shall be signs in the sun and in the moon and in the stars and upon earth distress of nations with perplexity.

The sea and the waves roaring men's hearts failing them for fear and for looking after those things which are coming on the earth.

For the powers of heaven shall be shaken and then shall they see the Son of Man coming in a cloud with power and great glory.

And when these things begin to come to pass then look up and lift up your heads for your redemption draweth nigh.

So let's stop there. Now let's go back to the first and talk about a few things that will help us to understand this passage.

The first four verses, the only way in which these directly relate is because they were standing right here at the temple, in the presence of the temple, and it was at this place where the observation was made of the rich men putting money into the treasury and the poor widow.

And while they were standing there someone began to make observations about the temple and based upon that Jesus used that to teach them these things of the last days.

So the first four verses we see the story of the poor widow who gave out of her poverty.

And the lesson that is taught is so clear that Jesus said that she gave, everyone else gave out of their excess, and that she gave out of her poverty all of her living and put that in there by faith.

And so he said she gave more than all the others even though really the amount of money she put in was far less than what they were putting in.

The point being she gave out of what she needed seemingly in her own life.

She did not just give out of her excess. And after this lesson was taught maybe the person who changed the subject was a person who was feeling a little uneasy about this lesson, do you suppose?

But it's kind of striking to me that verse 5 just seems like someone just changed the subject. Well that was probably a pretty good time to do it because everybody's feeling uneasy about this lesson.

It's a hard lesson. Jesus taught it just like it is didn't he? And everybody could sense that he could see right straight into their hearts and know what they would do in this situation.

So somebody changes the subject here and begins to speak about how beautiful the temple is.

And you don't know the motive but perhaps they were trying to change the subject.

Well in the light of this Jesus in verse 6 begins a teaching that was far more stern and serious even than the one he just taught.

And he says as for these things which he behold the days will come in the which there shall not be left one stone upon another that shall not be thrown down.

These Jewish people found that hard to believe. They were very prideful. They were very in love with their temple and their temple worship.

In fact men today are in love with any form of physical worship that you can devise because it's far easier than to have a real relationship with the

Lord seemingly to some people. And so they want to focus on the outward things just like the

Jewish people wanted to. And even before this time period

Jesus had had his time of witnessing to the woman at the well.

You find that in the book of John. And do you remember what he told her? She was a person who liked to change the subject from time to time as well.

And she began to talk about the Messiah that was coming and Jesus said well we the

Jews know about worship. But he said there's coming a time when you will not worship in Jerusalem but God seeks men who will worship in spirit for God is spirit.

And the point of that lesson was that Jesus prophesied that there was coming a time when the

Old Testament, the theologians call it the economy just the way it was, the

Old Testament way of doing things was going to come to an abrupt halt. And they would not worship in a physical place with physical worship that emphasized the physical things.

The body, whether the hands were raised or whether you were on your face before God.

All the physical aspect of this temple worship would be totally done away with.

And the Jews found that particularly difficult to believe but no one liked the idea. And really the same is true today.

If you took most of Christendom and you told them you can't have your steepled churches anymore, you can't have your stained glass, you can't have all the beautiful things that you have because none of that is what

God is interested in. He just wants your heart. He wants you on a day -to -day basis as you walk.

He wants you to walk with him and he wants your spirit to be in unity with his spirit.

And that is true worship and it is the only worship God will accept. Now that's what

Jesus taught. And now he comes and they find it hard to believe. So he comes in this point and as they're pointing out to him, the great master, they're going, it's like they're giving him a tour of the temple and say look how beautiful it is.

He just says it's not going to be there. It's going to be destroyed along with the entire outward religion and you're only going to worship in spirit.

Another very difficult lesson for them to learn. Now in verse 7 they ask him saying,

Master but when shall these things be and what sign will there be when these things shall come to pass?

The Jews always wanted a sign. Always. They wanted signs for him to prove he was who he claimed to be.

If you are the son of God come down from that cross they said. Jesus said you adulterous wicked and adulterous generation you will get no sign.

He said the only sign you'll get is the sign of Jonas. Three days later I'm going to come out of this grave.

Wow that's a pretty good sign. But that's the only sign he would give them in that generation.

But they wanted a sign to know when this beautiful building was going to be torn down and that's a great key into interpreting the following passage properly.

You have to understand that starting with verse 8 going all the way through verse 24 and there is a transition period that begins to take place somewhere around verse oh 21, 22, 23 right in there you start to see a little transition.

But predominantly those verses are not a reference to the second coming in in our future.

They are a reference to what happened in Jerusalem in the year 70 AD when

Titus and the Roman legions came through and destroyed Jerusalem. And a lot of people don't understand that they take the whole passage from verse 5 through verse 24 to be talking about the second coming a future event and it's not.

There's a transition in the discussion and it's very subtle but it is very

Jewish and by that I mean this almost any prophecy that you study in the

Old Testament always has a near view and a far view. It will have a near view where the prophet is talking about something that may happen in the next 5, 10, 15, 20, 25 or 100 years and it'll have a far view where it alludes to the second coming and the time of God setting up his kingdom on this earth which is in our future.

You have a near view and a far view even in the Old Testament prophecies. As you come into the life of Jesus you have to understand that Jesus and John the

Baptist and all of those people really were Old Testament people. The New Testament as we know it does not start until after the death burial and resurrection of Jesus and the coming of the

Holy Spirit at Pentecost. The church age begins at that time so while they were living in the time of Jesus the apostles and Jesus they really were under the

Old Testament economy and there so there had to be a transition. The book of Acts records much of this transition between the

Old Testament and the New Testament and the way God dealt with people in the Old Testament. God didn't change but the way that he deals with man did change.

It had to change because the cross made a huge difference. That point was the focal point of all history going back and going into the future.

It all comes to that point on the cross. It had to change things. It changed the way

God dealt with man in a way in many ways. So they are living in the

Old Testament economy. They're thinking as Jews think and that's very difficult for us as Gentiles to think this way.

So we miss a lot of what the Bible is teaching unless we can kind of think of it through the

Jewish mind. Now with that said we have to understand what they have asked

Jesus is when is this building going to be destroyed. We know looking back it was destroyed in the year 70

AD and Jesus begins to prophesy from his viewpoint it was still 40 years out in the future give or take a few years.

So he's prophesying a near prophecy 40 years out but there's also a far prophecy that has to do with the end of time as nearly all of the

Old Testament prophets prophesied. They did that and near prophecy is what's going to happen in the next 25 years to you but it also will have a transition.

It will begin to allude to things that didn't happen way out there in their future and even in ours at the second coming and the rapture and the setting up of the thousand -year millennial kingdom.

Prophecy was that way among the Jews. So Jesus is prophesying in the same method in the same model as all of the

Old Testament prophets did. So he begins to give the near prophecy and verses 7 through 24 deal with these very people and they lived through this time and they saw the fulfillment of this prophecy.

If you go and you read Josephus and you read about the destruction of Jerusalem it is unbelievable to read what happened.

The Romans besieged the city for a long time period I don't know more than a year

I don't remember exactly the details and it got to be such a famine in that city because they stopped all the food from coming in.

They tried to stop the water. Women were eating their own children. It was just horrible and all of it had been prophesied for hundreds of years prior to that as the people of Israel had turned away from their

God and become evil and idolatrous and so forth. The prophet said this is what's going to happen and it all came to a head there in the year 70

AD when this destruction took place and this these parts where it talks about well it's where it says it's best if you're bearing a child you know would be best if you're not bearing a child when this happens.

Well he's talking about 40 years out in the future he says when this comes to pass it will be better if you're not bearing a child or if you don't have a new baby and if you study the history of it you find that what happened was that everyone there were some

Jewish people who fled the city and went out into the mountains and they survived this event but everyone who stayed within the walls of that city was destroyed by the

Romans. Man, woman, baby, old person, animals they came in there and annihilated that place and destroyed the temple and the temple worship and they've never had it since.

They then scattered the Jewish people all over the world and that's what exactly what this passage Jesus said this would happen you'll be scattered.

Now these little passages where it says that they will take you and parents, brethren, kinsfolks, friends will betray you some of you they'll put to death that's specifically talking to that group of people that lived in Jerusalem at that time.

Now a lot of people use these to say this is talking about what's going to happen to us in the last days but specifically the primary interpretation it is not us it's them.

However as you look at the manner of the Jewish prophet he always gives a near prophecy and a far prophecy and the transition from the near into the far is so subtle that certain parts of what he says to this group also are meant to be true of the other group and it can even be magnified and be in a greater more horrible way out here in the future in the end of time than it was in the first part and the first part eventually looking back will be like a small model of the wrath of God that comes at the end of time when he judges the nations.

So all of that is working in this passage. So I'll say the primary interpretation at least through verse 24 was to those people he was talking to.

The secondary interpretation is but there are little bits and pieces of it that will apply out in the end of time.

Now as you move more into verse 25 however there is a an abrupt change where the far prophecy is the main prophecy.

Now let's look at that it'll become obvious look at verse 25. And there shall be signs in the sun and in the moon and in the stars and upon earth distress of nations with perplexity the sea and the waves roaring that means the waves in the sea is a picture of the masses of humanity.

In the Bible that's always a symbol. So when it talks about the waves in the sea roaring it's not literally it's talking about masses of humanity.

The nations are so they'll be so overpopulated so many problems. Notice how it says the nations will have perplexity.

That means that the leaders of the nations will not know how to take care of all the problems that their societies have.

The sea and the waves roaring that's the people. Men's hearts failing them because of fear and because of having to look after just the things that are happening around them.

Doesn't that kind of strike a resemblance after 9 -11? We're in a totally different mode of living now.

Gentlemen when you let your wife and your daughters go to the mall in a big city in the back of your mind you're thinking well it is possible then that an

Arab terrorist could blow that up with my wife and my children inside. You didn't used to think that before 9 -11.

The nation's this entire presidential campaign has been concerning the perplexities of taking care of these diverse and perplexing problems not only here but abroad.

And this obviously speaks of now but the thing that proves it is the part that says the signs in the sun and the moon that has not happened yet.

That did not happen in the day of Titus and the Roman legions. So that is the far view of this prophecy.

You can go into Joel and it talks about your sons and daughters prophesying and all this and some of the same gifts that appeared at the first coming of Jesus are going to be given again in the second coming.

And it says but here's how you know when it is the sun will darken and the moon will be red and it gives these signs that are happening in the heavens.

That has not happened yet so that's all future. So that proves it from verse 25 and following is the far view.

So it's kind of interesting to read through this passage and realize some of this was a prophecy that was a shorter view going out 40 years from the time

Jesus said it. That was all fulfilled to the to the letter. And then in the same breath he comes out in verse 25 and says now here's how it's going to be in the end days before my second coming and liberal theologians they said well that part's not going to happen.

Now why why is it that verses 1 through 24 have already happened and been recorded and Jesus hit it right on the money just like any true prophet of God would.

The Roman legions did come in and annihilate the city and not one stone was left upon another in that temple and destroyed all the men, women, boys, girls, and old people and all of it exactly like Jesus said was going to happen.

The ones that fled to the mountains survived it and were scattered into all the earth. That's why you have Jews everywhere that and everything happened exactly as he said and yet they'll say yeah but this last part that he said it won't come to pass.

There's not going to really be a second coming when he comes to the earth. I mean that's ridiculous. How could that happen?

Well how can you be sitting here? I mean you're sitting on a pew and there's more space in the molecules than there is stuff.

You should just fall right through it. I mean nothing that you see in science and in this world should be happening.

It's all a miracle. Have you ever thought about how you think? Do you just bring up that thought or how does that happen?

What makes it happen in the first place? Or does it come from somewhere else and initiates it and then you can think?

Where did love come from? Rocks don't have that. None of it's without God.

And so it's beyond me how a liberal theologian can say well part of this book's true, the other part won't happen.

He prophesied this part and it did happen. We can look back and see that but probably the future part is just an allegory.

Now ladies and gentlemen there is coming a time and I believe you've seen the beginnings of it just in the last few years.

There is coming a time though when the nations will be so perplexed that they will not know how to handle the myriad problems of the people.

The people then just as these waves will begin to roar and there will be rioting in the streets, there will be anarchy, there'll be disorder everywhere and the nations will not know how to take care of it.

And then there will come one who will say hey if you follow me I'll provide peace and security throughout the world and we will have a one world government and a one world economy and everything will be fine.

And the world's will follow him and he will be the Antichrist. He will lead them into the most bloody annihilation that's ever happened in war and in Jerusalem the blood will be as high as the bridles on the horses with men's blood in the

Battle of Armageddon. And all of this Jesus prophesied in the same breath with what he said would happen in the year 40,

I mean 70 AD which happened to the absolute letter. So this just sets up the kind of gives us a fore view of this little passage.

We'll go back through and we'll talk about it verse by verse and learn things about what's the difference between a nation rising against a nation and a kingdom rising against a kingdom and so forth.

The word nation is interesting. It's the word ethnos. It's an ethnic group. Races will rise against races.

There's going to be race warfare in the world in the end times. And then kingdoms have to do more with nations like we think of a nation.

So you won't just have America fighting Iraq. You will have blacks fighting whites.

And you'll have Islamics fighting Christians. And you'll have races and ethnic groups fighting.

And there's going to be great and terrible anarchy. And all of that is coming.

And just as Jesus warned his people in that day, he told them some things they could do.

He said, but if you flee the mountain, you'll be okay. If you stay in the city, you're going to die.

There are things all through this Bible in both Old Testament and New where he tells us little clues and little things to do to see these things coming.

He says, you won't be in the dark concerning these things. If you walk with me, if you read the scriptures and study, you won't be in the dark concerning these things.

And the thing that he promises us is he will be with us at all times, no matter what we go through, no matter how much of it we go through.

His presence will be with us and we are his children. And much of the world is not.

You do have the separating of the sheep and the goats when he comes back and he will say to them, depart from me.

I never knew you. So isn't it wonderful that your hearts yearn for him?

You know, you're not one of those people. If your heart yearns for him, because your heart couldn't do that if he hadn't known you already and brought you to himself.

So brother Otis, I'm going to leave it there for you to start out there in verse one and hit the details starting next

Sunday. Let's stand and have prayer together. Father, we thank you for your word.

We thank you that it hits to the specific details of everything in our lives and gives us your heart and mind and instruction for us.

So we're not left without your wisdom and your knowledge. Thank you that it is a light to our paths.

And Lord, we ask you to that your Holy Spirit might move in our hearts to cause us to have a renewed interest in study and meditation upon your word, especially in these last days.

And Lord be with us, especially be with our children who are growing up in times that are vastly different than the days in which we grew up in this world.

Give them great wisdom, but great faith as well and strength. We pray for our leaders, our president and all of our leaders in this nation that you'd give them great wisdom to know how to protect this nation and to give you the credit for it all that no protection could come without your hand being upon our nation.

We pray for our nation as it seems that we move further and further away from your truths in the scriptures and we move more and more towards hedonism and heathenism and all of the things that come with it.

The lewdness, the language, the irreverence, the murders and all that come with that.

We see it in our country and Lord we pray for our nation. We pray that Father, preachers would stand up across this nation and preach the

Word of God in power. We pray that you would give people ears to hear and we pray

Father that you'd be with our leaders. Lord go with us as we go home to our families today.

May our discussions be upon you and our hearts be joyful that we can leave here even in the face of a future that you tell us in the scriptures will be very perplexing that we know that we don't go through it without being hand -in -hand with you.