Are We Entering The Great Tribulation? New Discussion!

In Matthew 16 Jesus chastised the Pharisees who could interpret the appearance of the sky but failed to interpret the signs of the time in which they lived.

Who are the Pharisees of our day? This strong hold of sort of whiteness and white identity and pristineness is really part of what keeps us from making progress.

We need to do better. The church rich in theological scholarship has lingered in academic sanctuaries and ivory towers failing to translate its lofty doctrines into a tangible and practical cultural apologetic.

At the Worldview Youth Academy we bridge this critical gap. Here theological depth is not an end in itself but a means to engage with contemporary cultural issues for the glory of God and the expansion of his kingdom.

Our mission is to cultivate thinkers who can articulate and apply Christian truths within contemporary societal challenges.

So embrace this call to worship God with all your heart all your soul and with all your mind.

We will do better as this next generation tears down the idols of our modern culture and works to build a brighter future toward Christendom 2 .0.

Non -rocker boaters must stop. I don't want to rock the boat I want to sink it.

Are you going to bark all day little doggie or are you going to bite? Delusional is okay in your worldview.

I'm an animal. You don't chastise chickens for being delusional. You don't chastise pigs for being delusional. So you calling me delusional using your worldview is perfectly okay.

It doesn't really hurt. Desperate times call for faithful men and not for careful men.

The careful men come later and write the biographies of the faithful men lauding them for their courage.

Go into all the world and make disciples. Not go into the world and make buddies. Not to make brosives.

Right. Don't go into the world and make homies. Right. Disciples. I got a bit of a jiggle neck.

That's a joke pastor. When we have the real message of truth we cannot let somebody say they're speaking truth when they're not.

Behold the day of the Lord comes cruel with wrath and fierce anger to make the land a desolation and to destroy its sinners from it.

For the stars of the heavens and their constellations will not give their light. The sun will be dark at its rising and the moon will not shed its light.

I will punish the world for its evil and the wicked for their iniquity. That's Isaiah chapter 13 everybody.

What's up? Welcome back to another episode of Apologia Radio. This is the gospel heard around the world. Today we are talking about the

Great Tribulation. Are we about to enter into it? Is it in our future? Let me whet your appetite and tell you no, it already happened.

Giving it away up front. I'm gonna go ahead and just tell you that. Why are we even doing the show right? Great. I'm just gonna also we'll see you guys later.

I'm so excited. I feel so let down. The answer is no, it already happened. Jesus promised it to the generation he was speaking to.

He said that it was gonna happen before they all died. And today we're gonna extend the discussion we've been having the last couple of weeks.

We did an episode called End Times Made Easy. We did an episode called Something Like the

Great Tribulation. Is it about to happen or something like that? And so this is now part three of this discussion.

I think it's an important discussion to have right now in light of all the conversation taking place. Just do a search on YouTube.

End Times Rapture is about to happen. And you will just see you go down a rabbit hole of videos that are always fresh every morning.

New ones being made talking about the Great Tribulation. And the problem is as he goes back as it's as old as the internet.

You just go back and it's as old as time actually. But you just go back and people are saying it's gonna happen in a week.

It's gonna happen in six months. People are trying to figure out like the dating and the timing and all those things. And they talk about the

Great Tribulation as though it's something that we should anticipate in our future. And we want to argue biblically from the

Bible that the Great Tribulation promised by the Lord Jesus on the Mount of Olives is something that already occurred in history, on time, and as planned.

Or Jesus is a false prophet. And that is not a possibility. And so we're here to talk about that today.

Very excited about today's show. I'm Jeff. They call me the Ninja. That's Luke the Bear. What up? That's Zachary Conover. Hey. Director of Communications for End Abortion Now.

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You can ask questions with Ask Me Anything and we have some new stuff in the works right now that's coming. And so just be prepared for that.

Some really cool stuff we have to bless you guys with. And so actually very exciting announcement to make right now.

We're gonna make it. I think we might have sort of hinted towards it a little bit before. I think we announced it last week. The cat's out of the bag. Did we?

It's up publicly. Or two weeks ago. Two weeks ago. Guess what? The most awesome Christian conference that has ever existed.

On planet Earth? Ever. Anywhere. In history. At any time. Are we using like apocalyptic hyperbole here or are we speaking for literal terms?

Literalistically. The last ReformCon was amazing. We had so much great feedback and people were truly blessed by it.

The teaching was awesome. The fellowship was awesome. The time together. The time to relax together. The fun time we had together.

It was just a different kind of experience and you've experienced from many Christian conferences. Especially that ridiculous

Fight, Laugh, Feast one. This is better. We're Fight, Laugh, Feast without the middle finger. See?

That really does need to be. No, we're gonna do an ad. I don't require live or I don't recall live martial arts demonstrations either at the other ones.

Martial arts demonstrations. Things like that. Meals together and it was great.

People were out having cigars out together. It was just fantastic. It was really a great thing. So ReformCon 2025 is official.

It's gonna be in Tucson, Arizona and I'll let Pastor Luke give all the details of ReformCon 2025.

Yeah, it is in Tucson. He did not sound excited about it.

He said yeah, it is in Tucson. I'm trying to be excited about it. Yeah.

I'm not a fan of Tucson but it's gonna be great seriously and it'll be like a little mini vacay. Can any good thing come from Tucson?

No. ReformCon is gonna make

Tucson amazing. I'm not doing a good job of selling this. It's gonna be great and we're partnering with the

Ezra Institute hopefully forever for the rest of time. That's right. So April 24th to 26th in Tucson and we just put ticket sales up today so you can go to reformcon .org.

We're up on the Facebook page as well. Tickets the early bird are up right now so if you get in now it can save you some some skrilla.

And we do have some speakers that we've announced so obviously Pastor Jeff, Dr. White, Doug and Nancy Wilson will be there.

Toby Sumpter, Andrew Sandlin, of course Joe Boot. That's a lineup. More to come.

If I ever heard one. All right so ReformCon 2025 get your tickets soon as you can.

Let's get your ticket before it fills up and there you go. Very excited to be doing that and I'll just tell you and I think they would tell you themselves

Ezra Institute was with us at that last ReformCon and they were so impressed with the quality of everything just the experience itself that they wanted to be a part of this whole thing with us because they think that's how

Christian conferences should be done and so they're a part of this with us now because of the last experience of ReformCon.

It was really really a blast and it was something so unique and so different and so it's coming again

ReformCon 2025. We're excited about it. Hope to see you all there. Put my hand in your hands and let's get right to it.

We're gonna talk today about the Great Tribulation. So what I tried to do is do this discussion in as coherent a way as possible.

One that would be edifying for someone who's just getting into this discussion and for somebody who has been studying this for many many years and so I wanted to to make this something that everybody can get something out of and so the first thing that I did talking about End Times Made Easy is

I talked about the major overarching thematic issue and that is the issue of the

Kingdom of God. The rule of God in history. I made the argument as something that is said from the

Old Testament through the New Testament. It is a heartbeat theme throughout the entire scriptures.

All of God's revelation emphasizes the rule and reign of the Messianic King and I made the argument that the

Old Testament has specific prophecy about when that Kingdom was gonna arrive in history, what the nature of it was going to be, how it would unfold into the world, and I made the argument that the

New Testament authors are arguing that Christ in fact has brought that Messianic Kingdom into history, that he is ruling and reigning on the

Davidic throne right now, 1st Corinthians 15, and that he must reign as the Apostle Paul says until all of his enemies are made a footstool for his feet, quoting

Psalm 110 1, and then he says, and then the very last enemy to be defeated after all other enemies are defeated is death itself.

And so we focused on that. Last week I made the argument that if we're gonna do

Christian eschatology right, if we're gonna be faithful to the Bible, we cannot do what many people have done, and that's newspaper exegesis, or we look at our current circumstances and we impose those things upon the scriptures and we proof text the

Bible, we proof text verses from the book of Revelation, which is highly dangerous to do, and that is

I think a failure in terms of how we properly handle the scriptures, Christian exegesis. The question always should be, what does the text say?

Not what do I want it to say, what does my tradition teach me to impose upon it, but we need to go to the

Bible and do exegesis, draw out of the text its meaning, and not eisegesis, not put something into the text and read it through the text.

And so what I argued was is if we're gonna do Christian eschatology right, and we're going to talk about what

Jesus says on the Mount of Olives, the Olivet Discourse, if we're going to talk about the Great Tribulation passages that are in the

Synoptic Gospels, Matthew 24, Mark 13, Luke 21, if we're going to look at those passages,

I argued that we actually have to start the discussion further back in the Revelation of God, further back in history, and I argued that what you see unfolding in the

Synoptic Gospels with the Olivet Discourse and the Great Tribulation, and of course this is elsewhere through the New Testament, what you see unfolding is what that story had already been and what had already been stated.

And so what I argued was just from a few passages, I think literally a few, I was just, it was

Isaiah 65, I did Joel 2, and Malachi, the last chapters of Malachi, and so what

I argued was is that what was anticipated in the prophetic writings from the Old Testament is when the

New Covenant came in, when the Messianic King came into history, there would be salvation and judgment.

Salvation and judgment. Salvation, atonement, purification, and judgment, and that judgment is specific upon the covenant breakers of God.

And so there's a lot of like law of God violations mentioned when it's promised that there is judgment coming.

Salvation and judgment at the coming of the Messianic King. And so I mentioned those passages, you can go,

I'm not gonna rehearse them all today, Isaiah 65, Joel chapter 2, which is quoted by the Apostle Peter at the outpouring of the

Spirit of God at Pentecost, and I argued that you have to keep reading in Joel the quotation.

Keep reading. After the outpouring of the Spirit of God, which Peter says this, what you're seeing at Pentecost is that which is spoken of by the prophet

Joel. In Joel 2, after the outpouring of the Spirit, it's immediately going to dramatic judgment language.

There's gonna be judgment associated with the outpouring of the Spirit of God. And then I mentioned that in Malachi chapter 3, when it talks about the messenger who's coming before the

Messiah, it then says that the Lord whom you seek will come to his temple. So Yahweh himself is gonna come to his own temple.

There's the God -man. There's the incarnation. God himself, the Lord, coming to his own temple. But then it says that Elijah the prophet's gonna come first, and then there's gonna be this great and awesome day of the

Lord. There's gonna be judgment. But that's specifically what you see when you enter into Matthew immediately. Matthew chapter 3.

John the Baptist, the forerunner, the messenger that's promised. Elijah. Jesus says he's the

Elijah who is to come. That's the incarnate one telling you, identifying. Yeah, when

I wrote that, when I spoke that back then, I was talking about John. That's what

Jesus says. As soon as John enters in Matthew chapter 3, what's he saying? Well, the thematic issue.

Repent for the kingdom of heaven is in hand. Repent for the kingdom of God. The rule of God is at hand. And then it immediately goes into John the

Baptist, that Elijah, that messenger, before the Lord's coming, indicting the

Jewish leadership of his day. Calling them to repentance and saying, judgment is coming.

And he says it's this close. He says, axe to the tree, baby. The axe is laid at the root of the tree. He says his winnowing fork is already in his hand.

The work is getting ready to be done. Like, that's how close they were to judgment. And what's amazing about that is that's precisely what the

Old Testament said was gonna happen. Messenger, Elijah, judgment. Outpouring of the Holy Spirit, judgment.

Isaiah 65, judgment upon the covenant breaking people of God. And God giving his people a new name.

That's what was anticipated. So now the story's unfolding. Matthew knows his Bible. He knows the story.

This is divine revelation. John the Baptist comes in and he says the one who's coming in after me, I'm not even worthy to mess with his sandals.

And then he says he will, I baptize you with water, John says. But he will baptize you with the

Holy Spirit. Oh, that's interesting. That's salvation. That's the purification, right?

That's all the way anticipated. And then he says, and with fire. Salvation, judgment. That was the story.

Is that when Messiah comes, salvation and judgment. Holy Spirit and fire. And by the way, anybody who thinks that baptism of the fire is a good thing, like God baptize me with fire.

Don't do that. Don't do that. Don't ask for that. And if you have any question about like exegetically, like is that a good thing, fire there?

Just keep reading literally what he says after about unquenchable fire in terms of judgment.

It's clearly judgment, but it's salvation and judgment. That was the theme. And John the Baptist comes in, as anticipated, the

Elijah who was to come, the messenger, the forerunner, and he says Holy Spirit and fire, salvation and judgment.

So that's what I argued last week, was that in order to understand the Olivet Discourse and that whole setup and scene itself from Matthew 20 through 24, you have to understand the

Old Testament and what was anticipated. And the glory of that, and I'll let you guys speak here to this right after this, the glory of that is it shows the fundamental unity of the

Scriptures. That this isn't a hodgepodge of different things happening. I mean the Bible was written over a long span of history.

You know, depending on where you date Job and all those things, you're looking at somewhere around 2 ,000 years of composition.

You have, you know, over like three dozen authors.

You've got 66 different books of Revelation coming, different geographical locations, and amazingly, amazingly, it looks like there's only really one author to the thing.

Right? Like there's a lot of human authors, but it looks like actually there's only one author because this story is just the same all the way through.

And the point I'm making there is that actually the study of the Great Tribulation as something that already occurred vindicates

Jesus as Messiah. That's the point of this. When we argue that the

Great Tribulation that Jesus gave in the Olivet Discourse is something that is in our past, we are making the point that it vindicates

Christ as Messiah. It vindicates the Scriptures as divine in origin, because God told this story as a thread and everything happened on time and as promised.

So it's not a matter of saying, I want to take something amazing, I want to take something amazing away from you.

The Great Tribulation is not in your future. How sad. You know what I'm saying? How sad.

No, I'm not trying to take anything good away from you. I'm actually presenting, as many Christians have done throughout church history, that Jesus actually is vindicated as the

Messiah, because what he promised in the Olivet Discourse actually happened on time and as planned.

That's the argument. I also think he's vindicated in his prophetic ministry, of course both in his denunciation of the covenant breakers, but also in the telling of what is going to occur, right?

He's vindicated in that office. He's vindicated in his kingly role as the ruler of all things. He's also vindicated as a priest.

Like you mentioned the unified story of God's Revelation and Scripture. It's amazing.

I was just reading Leviticus, where it talks about the role of the high priest in inspecting a house that has been filled with leprosy.

Yep. Leviticus 14. The job of the high priest is to go in and inspect, and if there is an infection, you know, leprosy within the walls, he waits, then he comes back and inspects that house.

If it's still there, then what's the ultimate destiny of that house? It's to be torn down brick by brick, stone by stone, and intersect that with the temple.

This is all part of the discussion. This is the amazing part, is that when we say it's one unified story,

I mean down to the role of the high priest under the Old Covenant, and that points to the office of Christ that he brings in vivid color, like visibly for us to see, in inspecting the house of God, and then executing judgment upon that house.

Yeah, and let's do that, because that gets us into the Mount of Olives and the Olivet Discourse, and this unified story.

It's in Leviticus chapter 14, verse 33. It says, "...the Lord spoke to Moses and Aaron, saying, when you come into the land of Canaan, which

I give you for a possession, and I put a case of leprous disease in a house in the land of your possession, then he who owns the house shall come and tell the priest, there seems to me to be some case of disease in my house.

Then the priest shall command that they empty the house before the priest goes to examine the disease, lest all that in the house be declared unclean."

That's an interesting point. Everyone's got to get out. Yeah. I love that. Pronounced it unclean. I love how everybody's driven out.

Right. Did you get it? So to go, everyone has to get out of the house.

Mm -hmm. When Jesus goes into the temple, what's he doing? Yeah, he's driving out. He's driving everyone out of the house. I never saw that before.

That's pretty sweet. "...then the priest shall command that they empty the house before the priest goes to examine the disease, lest all that is in the house be declared unclean, and afterward the priest shall go in to see the house, and he shall examine the disease, and if the disease is in the walls of the house with greenish or reddish spots, and if it appears to be deeper than the surface, then the priest shall go out of the house to the door of the house and shut up the house seven days.

And the priest shall come again on the seventh day and look. If the disease has spread in the walls of the house, then the priest shall command that they take out the stones in which is the disease and throw them into an unclean place outside the city."

So this is powerful, and I'm so glad you brought this up. It's one of the first things I thought about. And I knew you would, because I already had it up here on my screen.

Oh, did you? Oh, I didn't even see it! I swear! No, I had it up there all day. Oh, wow. I knew it was gonna come up.

It's a wavelength. It has to come up, exactly. So did everyone catch that? So what's interesting here is that ignorant atheists and skeptics and critics of the

Bible have oftentimes tried their darndest to show discrepancies in the biblical narrative and in the ministry of Christ.

And so in John, the beginning of John, John chapter 2, you have cleansing of the temple.

But that's at the beginning of Jesus' ministry. He comes in, drives everybody out, you know, and of course you have this the famous scene of Jesus saying, destroy this temple, speaking of the temple of his body, and in three days

I'll raise it up again. But you have Jesus coming into the temple, driving people out, cleansing the temple, and that's at the beginning of the ministry for John.

But then you have Jesus in Matthew at the end of his ministry.

He now says, I'm going into Jerusalem, they're gonna kill me, and I'll rise again. And then he goes, and of course everybody knows that that next section there is like the

Hosanna, the Hosanna, like, oh, you know, Hosanna, he's here. And then Jesus goes to the temple and drives people out of the temple, cleanses the temple.

And so again, skeptics and critics of the Bible have tried to use that as like, ha ha, see, they don't even know when

Jesus did that. No. Thank God we have those two things, because that was the role of the priest. Jesus comes in the beginning of his ministry, first cleansing in the temple.

He comes in, drives everybody out as the true priest, and he examines the house, right?

At the end of his ministry, when he's going to be killed and he's gonna rise again, he goes in and drives everybody out again, and he comes for the next inspection.

And interestingly, soon after that inspection, after there's a lot more indictments given by Jesus and the seven woes, then he says, behold, your house is left to you desolate.

There should not be left one stone standing upon another. That is the true priest.

And what they were rehearsing in the Old Testament with leprous houses, that rehearsal that God gave to them to rehearse this thing, to practice this thing with the priest, was in reality pointing to this greater fulfillment and true story of God coming to examine his people in the

And Jesus comes as the true priest, cleanses the temple, at the end of his ministry, comes in, checks it again, and then says what?

Your house is left to you desolate. There should not be left one stone standing upon another. Literally taken apart, stone off of stone.

That's the story. And all of that indicates, too, the displacement of the center of worship for God's people post old

Judaic aeon, because he is the center of worship now. He says, destroy this temple, and I will raise it again in three days.

Yes. Speaking of the fact that, you know, he tells the woman in John chapter 4,

God is spirit, right? And you must worship him in spirit and truth. A time is coming, and now is, when you're not gonna say, let's go to this mountain to worship, or this mountain, right?

What's he saying, Jerry? He's saying that the center of worship, the gravitational pull of God meeting with man is in me, right?

He's the tabernacle. Right. And so he's the center of worship now, and of course all those who are filled with his presence,

God dwells therein. That's right. I don't know if you're gonna get this later or not, but for those that don't understand this, explain historically how this temple was literally torn apart, one stone from another.

Yeah. When I learned this, my mind kind of exploded a bit. So the interesting thing that I think we should all praise

God for, whether you guys are, whether you're historic pre -mill, dispensational pre -mill, ah -mill, post -mill, or whatever the case may be, is that we should all rejoice in the vindication of Jesus as Messiah in this point of the

Olivet Discourse, where Jesus tells them there should not be left one stone standing upon another, and he says that this generation will not pass away till all these things take place.

He says that, you know, throughout the Olivet Discourse, things like that. Before that generation had all died, of course,

Rome turned on the Jews. There was a period of time where they were sort of working in tandem in terms of persecution of the

Christian Church. It was Jews and Rome really trying to destroy the

Christian Church. It was, of course, Nero that was really just sold out to the idea of slaughtering the

Christians. They wouldn't say Caesar is Lord. They were saying Jesus is Lord. Nero was responsible for the deaths of many

Christians, including some of the high -ranking ones, the Apostles, and just a violent, vile, disgusting beast.

And so there was a time where there was sort of a union in terms of persecution, but then at a certain point before the war against the

Romans and the Jews, before the full destruction of the temple in 70 AD, Rome turns on the Jews, and we'll probably get into some more extended discussion of this, but they actually come to surround the temple and the city, and then because Rome was falling apart, the

Roman armies then, after surrounding the city, they turn back around and they head away. And then all of a sudden, they turn back around, they come and they re -sack the city again, and it was the three -and -a -half -year war between the

Romans and the Jews, and it was a horrible, horrible, horrible slaughter. The accounts, you can read

Josephus was a general in the Jewish army. He was found hiding under the bodies of the dead people, and somehow, in the providence of God, he was allowed to survive, and he wrote a history of the

Jews and of the Roman -Jewish war. And so we know about the accounts of blood just, like, river going through the street.

We know about the account of, like, people cannibalizing and the famine being so bad, they're eating dung and children.

One woman was recorded as cooking and eating her baby and offering it to passers -by.

It was a very, very horrible experience. And by the way, the only people who escaped that war were the

Christians. They were told to flee. Because Jesus told them to flee. It's in the Olivet Discourse.

He said, when you see Jerusalem surrounded by armies, flee. Don't go back and get your cloak.

Don't do any of those things. Flee. And it's a matter of historic record that the Christians, after Rome surrounded the city and then went away, the

Christians, because they were warned by Jesus, fled the city to a place called Pella. And as soon as they fled, and they were saved from that,

Rome turns back around and re -sacks the city. But after this horrific slaughter and this long, long war and famine and all kinds of disgusting, evil things happened, they come in, sack the city, set fire to the temple, and as...

Titus, right? Yes. And as the story goes, there was gold melting between the cracks of the temple, and the

Roman armies were trying to get to all this stuff. And they took off the stones from the temple, and there wasn't left one stone upon another in terms of temple proper.

It was taken completely apart, exactly as Jesus said, before that generation all passed away. It was a thorough decimation.

It was a thorough, thorough decimation. And it was a horrific, horrific scene. And again, the only people who were able to escape it were the

Christians, because they were warned by Jesus to do so. And so, anyway, we're getting, I think, way ahead of ourselves, because there's so much information.

But what's interesting is this point. None of us can avoid, and we shouldn't even want to, the soon -coming judgment that is prophesied throughout the

New Testament revelation. It is over and over and over again. Soon -coming judgment,

Christ coming in judgment, and we're not talking, by the way, about the final resurrection, final judgment.

It's a judgment coming of Yahweh. That happens, the day of the Lord happens in the Old Testament, over and over again.

You have the judgment coming of Yahweh. You have Isaiah 19, Yahweh coming against Egypt. Yahweh comes riding on a swift cloud against Egypt, and the hearts of the

Egyptians will melt within them, and all the idols of Egypt totter, and all those things.

Well, Yahweh never literally came and rode on a cloud. They weren't looking up at the sky going, oh, here it comes. That was judgment language that God used often in the

Old Testament. I just read to you some of it at the beginning of the show today. That was from Isaiah 13. That was

God talking about the destruction of Egypt, when he talks about the constellations, stars falling from heaven.

That's what Jesus was quoting, quoting from, by the way, and that didn't happen literally, but God literally did destroy their world. That's what it was referring to.

But the day of the Lord happens in the Old Testament, that judgment coming of Yahweh. But you see this in a

New Testament, this promise of soon coming judgment. It's throughout the Gospels. One example, can

I show here? Matthew chapter 10. In Matthew 10, Jesus is sending out his disciples out as sheep in the midst of wolves.

That's in Matthew 10 16. So be wise as serpents and innocent as doves. Beware of men, for they will deliver you over to the courts and flog you in their synagogues.

That's very specific. I don't think any of us are being planned to be beaten in any local Jewish synagogues. Think about it.

That's very specific. And you will be dragged before governors and kings for my sake to bear witness before them and the

Gentiles when they deliver you over. Do not be anxious how you are to speak or what you are to say, for what you are to say will be given to you in that hour.

For it is not you who speak, but the spirit of your father speaking through you. Brother will be delivered, brother will deliver brother over to death, and the father his child, and children rise up against parents and have them put to death.

And you will be hated by all for my name's sake, but the one who endures to the end will be saved. When they persecute you in one town, flee to the next.

For truly I say to you, you will not have gone through the towns of Israel before the Son of Man comes.

That's Matthew 10. That's Jesus speaking to the disciples who were in front of him.

And what's important to note here is that not only do you have the promised coming of judgment from John the

Baptist, the Elijah, the the forerunner, but then Matthew has already started to amplify that coming judgment in Matthew chapter 10, where Jesus says to his disciples, you will not finish going through the towns of Israel before the

Son of Man comes. Well wait a second, we're talking about the second coming? No. Yahweh came in judgment many times.

Jesus is Yahweh, and this is a judgment coming of Yahweh. That was anticipated, by the way,

Isaiah 65, Joel 2, Malachi chapter 3, Malachi chapter 4, it's all there. But here he tells his disciples, you're not even gonna finish going through the towns of Israel before I come in judgment.

And then it just gets worse in terms of that soon -coming judgment. You can go to Revelation, these things soon to take place, all those different things, but let's just stick with Matthew, because that's what we're trying to open up here.

Matthew chapter 16, famous scene, people have really struggled with this one in terms of if you don't just let the text speak, and you have a tradition that conflicts with it, you're gonna struggle with it.

But in Matthew chapter 16, verse 24, here's what the Lord says. Says, then

Jesus told his disciples, if anyone would come after me, let him deny himself and take up his cross and follow me.

For whoever would save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for my sake will find it. For what will it profit a man if he gains the whole world and forfeits his soul?

Or what shall a man give in return for his soul? Famous words of Jesus. One of my favorite sections.

But then it says this, for the Son of Man is going to come with his angels in the glory of his Father, and then he will repay each person according to what he has done.

Truly, that's Jesus saying amen, verily, amen, truly,

I say to you, who is he talking to? Is he talking to me?

Nope. Jesus is talking to those disciples. And he says, truly I say to you, they're standing there, there are some standing here who will not taste death until they see the

Son of Man coming in his kingdom. And so there's the promise some of you guys aren't gonna die before this coming, this judgment coming.

Then, here's where it gets more interesting. In Matthew chapter 20, this is where it starts to get amplified.

Matthew 20 17 is where Jesus then sets his face towards Jerusalem, and he says in verse 18, see we are going up to Jerusalem and the

Son of Man will be delivered over to the chief priests and scribes and they will condemn him to death and deliver him over to the

Gentiles to be mocked and flogged and crucified and he will be raised on the third day. So now

Jesus is going to that destination that he came for, to the cross.

And so now his disciples are being told, alright we're there now, we're going to Jerusalem, they're gonna kill me and I'm gonna rise again from the dead.

And then Jesus then enters into Jerusalem, everyone knows about the triumphal entry and that beautiful moment where everybody is hailing him as king and excited.

Hosanna to the Son of David, blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord. Hosanna in the highest. And then

Jesus, verse 12 of 21, enters the temple and drives out all who sold and bought in the temple.

And the money changers in the seats of those who sold pigeons. He said to them, it is written, my house should be called a house of prayer, but you make it a den of robbers.

Now this then is followed by Jesus cursing the fig tree.

A highly symbolic move, a highly symbolic move representative of the nation of Israel.

We'll talk about that, can you talk about that? Well I was just saying it's, I mean it's a symbol, essentially. The fig tree is symbolic of national

Israel and Jesus speaking to it and saying, curse it be you, may no fruit ever come from you again.

And there's a reason why, there's a reason why. Because listen, listen to this, I'm going, they're gonna kill me.

He comes in and think about the scene. They invite a man, Hosanna, Hosanna, they're so, they're so excited. Son of David, and immediately goes beeline temple, drives everybody out.

Huge scene, huge scene. Like they're even wanting to know like, on what authority do you think you can do this?

You can't just do that. And we of course know from the Word of God, Leviticus 14, we know what authority, because he's the true priest and he's coming to examine and it's diseased.

He's coming to check again. But then Jesus now has this moment where there's a fig tree. Don't think this is an accident, this is what's important.

You know, it's not just like you're reading the text and you're going, oh interesting, this is just how it unfolded. He goes to the temple, he cleanses the temple, and then he happens to see a fig tree and he wants some fruit and there's nothing there.

So he curses it. He's like stupid fig tree, only leaves. It's not like Jesus is just angry, you know, he's like oh stupid fig tree, no fruit.

No, there's a whole thing happening here. The symbolism is embedded in real time.

Even the thing about the priest. Like, did you know that before you just learned it? How many of us knew that?

How many of us read Leviticus to even understand that? Or even if you've read Leviticus and you go, oh okay, I know how that works.

Did you put it together with what's taking place clearly in Matthew's mind? But then

Jesus leaves the temple, he's just done this massive, massive disruption and scene. And then look what it says in verse 19, and seeing a fig tree by the wayside, he went to it and found nothing on it but only leaves.

And he said to it, may no fruit ever come from you again. Now we could do an episode on all the symbolism of fruit and tree and branch from the

Old Testament revelation and God coming and expecting his people to produce fruit for him.

And matter of fact, the next indictment he makes on the Jewish leadership here when he talks about the vineyard owner and he comes to, he sends people to get the crop, to get what the vineyard produced.

And he's been telling parables about producing return essentially, right? 30, 60, 90 fold.

He's given imagery earlier on in Matthew about making the tree good and its fruit will be good or the tree bad and its fruit will be bad.

You know, it's already there. It's present within the Gospels. And if you have the biblical worldview,

Jewish mindset, you understand there's something deeper going on here than Jesus just passing by a tree and just, oh, you know, it just happens to him, and he goes, oh, stupid tree, die.

You know, that's not what happened. Jesus comes to get fruit from it, and when he comes to examine it and there's no fruit on it, he goes, no fruit's ever going to come from you again.

Now what happens immediately after, the disciples marvel, how did the fig tree wither at once?

Probably because Jesus makes fig trees and he could take them away. And Jesus answered them, truly

I say to you, if you have faith and do not doubt, you will not only do what has been done to the fig tree, but even if you say to this mountain, be taken up and thrown into the sea, it'll happen.

Whatever you ask in prayer, you will receive if you have faith. I wonder what mountain he was referring to. I did a sermon on that.

You might want to go look it up. It's not Jesus literally saying, go talk to Papago Peak or Camelback and saying, throw yourself into the

Pacific. There's a reason he's calling it a mountain, and he's talking about trusting in God that this can actually be cast into the sea.

I won't go into all that right now because we're gonna miss everything in all of a discourse, but all of this is embedded with symbolism.

Jewish symbolism, biblical symbolism, but what's interesting is the next thing is the authority of Jesus is challenged, obviously.

He comes into the temple making a wreck of things. And so when he entered the temple, the chief priests and the elders and the people came up to him as he was teaching and said, by what authority are you doing these things, and who gave you this authority?

Now, by the way, can I just do this for a second? We'll excursus. Do it. Because it's not necessarily like big point on the

Great Tribulation, but I do think it's stinking awesome. Jesus answered them, I also will ask you one question, and if you tell me the answer, then

I also will tell you by what authority I do these things. All right, so like we're gonna ask a question. What's the authority? So let me ask a question first.

If you answer me, I'll answer you. I love it because Jesus knows their hearts, and he wants them to have an honest answer, and he's only willing to give them an honest answer if they're willing to be honest with him.

And he's not gonna play games. That's wisdom. I'm not playing your game. So you want to know by what authority? Great.

I'll ask you a question, you answer me, I'll tell you too. And he says this, the baptism of John, from where did it come?

From heaven or from man? Now, I think people many times have seen that and gone, what kind of question is that?

Like, what's that got to do with anything? Like, what's John the Baptist have to do with that moment of saying, by what authority?

And I think it's just missed many of us. I confess to it, it missed me for many, many years. He's asked, by what authority are you coming to this temple and doing all this stuff?

Right? You're cleansing the temple, and you're driving people out and all the rest, like you've got some authority in this place.

By what authority? He's like, okay, I'll tell you. But I'm gonna ask you a question first, and you answer me, I'll answer you. And he says, here's my question.

John the Baptist, the baptism of John, where did it come from?

Heaven or man? Is that from God or man? Is John just some guy, or did God send

John the Baptist? Now, this is where it gets sticky for them. This is where they have trouble.

It says, they discussed it among themselves, saying, if we say from heaven, he'll say to us, then why did you not believe him?

But if we say from man, we're afraid of the crowd, for they all hold that John was a prophet.

So they answered Jesus, we do not know. Liars. And he said to them, neither will

I tell you by what authority I do these things. I'm not gonna answer you. I'm not gonna answer you, but here's what's amazing. Why is

Jesus bringing up John the Baptist's baptism? Why is he doing that? Here's why.

This is what I'm convinced of, and I think it's powerful. John the

Baptist is the son of a priest. As a matter of fact, you know the story. When the angel comes, and John's dad is made mute for a period of time.

Zachariah. Yeah, exactly. What's he doing? What's Zachariah doing? He's ministering where? In the temple.

So your average Joe does not minister in the temple. You're not allowed to just come in there like willy -nilly and just start ministering in the temple.

That's not how it works. You have to be a priest to minister in the temple. And so John the Baptist is the son of a bona fide priest.

That makes John able to be part of that priestly line. Now when

John the Baptist comes into his ministry, he's doing baptism. And I want to just argue here, I'm not gonna make a big thing about this right now, that the baptism of John was not

Christian baptism. Christian baptism comes later. There are all kinds of washings in the Old Testament, and baptisms, immersions, all those things.

The text highlights that it was a baptism of repentance. Yes, exactly. Symbolic of what was to come, but also there's more in the baptism of Jesus, which he says this was done to fulfill all righteousness.

Yes, yeah, and so John the Baptist's baptism was not Christian baptism. It was a baptism of repentance.

I want to argue also that people have oftentimes talked about Jesus being baptized by John the Baptist in some ways that make me cringe.

You know, like I think where they'll say like, you know, well Jesus was sinless, but he's doing a baptism of repentance.

So he was just giving us the model of what it looks like to repent of sin, and it's like, that would mean he'd be lying.

Because if Jesus was sinless, he can't pretend to be, he can't pretend to repent. You see what

I'm saying? That goes, well it speaks to what the point that you've been making this whole time is that the Old Testament has to inform these things.

Exactly. So is there another period that we can think of where someone, an office bearer, was anointed with water to perform their role?

Yeah. And what office was that? Yeah, yeah, of a priest. So I'm arguing, and I think the text is clear, and I think it makes sense of Jesus' argument here, if we're saying, they're saying, by what authority?

You've got to prove to us you can't just do this. You can't just do this. You're gonna have some sort of authority. By the way, I think it kind of works with church planting too.

If you're the guy that's like, hey, I'm really zealous, love Jesus, love to preach the gospel, I think I'll plant a church. And you just plant a church?

Don't do that. Don't do that. Scripture says, have men lay hands on you.

They qualify you. They are passing on this, we qualify him. We are saying that this man has proved himself, that he is worthy of this call.

We're laying hands on him. There's like this laying on of hands. There's this pointing to, saying, by my authority,

I'm saying he's worthy. Well, that's a biblical thing. And when Jesus says, or he's asked, by what authority, he says,

John the Baptist, what do you think? Baptism? God or man? Which one? What do you think? And they're like, oh shoot, can't answer that, honestly, because we'd be in trouble.

So we'll say, I don't know. And Jesus says, I'm not answering you either. And here's why I believe that is, is because Jesus would have said to them, he would have said to them, if they had said, well, his baptism was from heaven, he would have said, great.

John the Baptist is the one who anointed me. John the Baptist is the one who baptized me.

And so, if you believe that John's baptism was from heaven, then that's how you know

I have authority to do these things. And so, I think that's why Jesus is asking the question, because it was

John the Baptist, the son of a priest, who actually anointed Jesus in the baptism for his priestly role.

I believe that's what was going on there. And, of course, that's the famous scene where the Holy Spirit of God descends like a dove, and the

Father speaks from heaven, and says, this is my son. Right? So that declaration is made from God in heaven in this priestly ceremony between John the

Baptist and Jesus, and that's why Jesus is saying, John, what do you think? And if they would have said from heaven, he would have said, exactly.

And that's precisely what took place that day in the baptism. That's interesting. It kind of reminds me of Psalm 110.

You know, we always focus on he must reign until all of his enemies are made a footstool for his feet, but also that portion in there in verse 4, the

Lord has sworn forever and will not change his mind. You are a priest forever, after the order of Melchizedek.

So, that declaration in there, too, is the Father's vindication of that office, but also that recognition of authority.

Is that in response to that screenshot I sent? No, but I think that deals with it, what we just said.

Yeah. Yeah, the challenge that somehow Jesus wasn't a priest until after he died and rose again.

Yeah, that was a claim in the chat, yeah. It just doesn't follow, and I don't think it holds, because someone has to be a priest to make the sacrifice.

Right. And that's what Christ was. Right. That was an office that he held prior to the offering up of himself.

That's why he was authorized to offer himself up as the once -for -all sacrifice that was without spot or blemish.

So, next. We're gonna have to do another episode. It's like we're...

There's so much to talk about, but I'm so excited about it, because the lead -up to all this is... This is context.

This is how you do biblical interpretation, I believe, faithfully. All of us, I think, want to do this, is we want to do biblical interpretation faithfully, not just come and rip the

Great Tribulation passage out of the Bible and start saying, are there wars and rumors and wars happening around us right now? Yes.

Any famines, pestilence, plagues? Yes. Okay, that must mean that it's happening to me. It's like, no, this is a story.

This is a narrative. There are real people here listening to Jesus, and this is a lead -up to the

Olivet Discourse. Now, Jesus is Notice the problem, though. This is what you have to get.

The problem immediately is Jesus comes in, and he's roughing up the leadership of Jerusalem. And they're immediately saying, by what authority?

And then Jesus goes into the first parable of the two sons. This is a famous one. You're probably familiar with this one.

And he said, a man had two sons, and he went to the first and said, son, go and work in the vineyard today. And he answered,

I will not. But afterward, he changed his mind and went. And he went to the other son and said the same. And he answered,

I go, sir, but did not go. Which of the two did the will of his father? They said, the first. Jesus said to them, truly

I say to you, the tax collectors and the prostitutes go into the kingdom of God before you. In your face,

Jewish leadership. This is not a nice moment between Jesus and the

Jewish leadership. This is a fight. It truly is. They're challenging his authority. He's roughing up Jerusalem, and now he's indicting them.

He's saying to people who think that they're holier than you. I'm so holy. I'm holier than you.

Isaiah 65, like smoke in his nostrils. I'm too holy to be touched. Jesus is saying, yeah, these whores, these tax collectors, they're getting into the kingdom of God before you.

That sounds like Isaiah 65. It truly, truly does. It truly, truly does.

You know, it's interesting about that. I never, well, maybe I have. Maybe I just haven't vocalized it, but the parable of the two sons.

It's interesting how Paul puts that in Galatians, too, talking about Abraham having two sons. Yeah. One by a slave woman and one by a free woman, right?

But the son of the slave was born according to the flesh, while a son of the free one was born through the promise, and that's whose children we are.

Like, we are of the Jerusalem from above. That's right. So that's Galatians 4, 22. And can we, let's do one more thing, because I was mentioning,

I was mentioning, yeah, we're never getting over this. We're gonna do this for the next two years. But I mentioned that throughout the

New Testament, there's this promise of impending judgment. Like, it's everywhere. It's not just Matthew, Mark, Luke, John.

It's throughout the New Testament, all the way through to the Book of Revelation. But in that point here, in Galatians chapter 4, it says that this is written before the destruction of Jerusalem.

So, like, imagine now, they're in the generation that was promised the destruction of Jerusalem. And in what

Zach is talking about, the example of Hagar and Sarah, the son of the free woman.

Isaac and Ishmael. Yeah, exactly. Isaac is the child of promise. He makes the point before the destruction of Jerusalem.

Now, this may be interpreted allegorically. These two women are two covenants. One is from Mount Sinai, bearing children for slavery.

She is Hagar. Now, Hagar is the Mount Sinai in Arabia. She corresponds to the present Jerusalem, for she is in slavery with her children.

But the Jerusalem above is free. And she is our mother. Huh. There seems to be a heavenly

Jerusalem above. And in Revelation, it comes down out of heaven and hits the earth. That's just a...

Yeah. That's just a side note there. Just a side note there, in terms of where that heavenly Jerusalem comes from. He says this, now you brothers like Isaac are children of promise.

But just as at that time, he who was born according to the flesh persecuted him who was born according to the Spirit. So also it is now the

Jews persecuting the Christians. He's like, just like it happened then, that's what's happening now.

Right? And he says this, cast... What does the scripture say? Cast out the slave woman and her son for the son of the slave woman shall not inherit with the son of the free woman.

So brothers, we are not children of the slave, but of the free woman. And the same language you see in the parable of the two sons, this language of inheritance.

Yeah. Right? It's going to be taken away from you and given to a generation or a people or children that will actually produce the fruit.

Just two things everyone I think can get from this. This is before the destruction of Jerusalem. In Galatians, he's explaining that the son of the slave woman is about to be cast out.

We have the heavenly Jerusalem. We're sons of the free. But the son of the slave, right now, yeah, it's persecuting right now, but not for long.

It's about to be cast out. Now, that's not long before the destruction of Jerusalem. And I mean not long before.

I'm not talking about a couple of years. I'm saying in terms of time. It wasn't... It was within a generation close to the destruction of Jerusalem.

Now, this is what's interesting. He's indicting the Jewish leadership. It's all getting worse.

And then he gets into the parable of the tenants. Now, everyone knows that parable.

This is the parable where Jesus is saying there's a master of a house. He plants a vineyard, and he digs a winepress, and he builds a tower, and leases the tenants, and went into another country.

When the season for fruit drew near, he sent his servants to the tenants to get his fruit. And let's see, he's coming for fruit, just like Jesus went to the tree, the fig tree, to get fruit, and he found nothing.

Now, in the parable, he's expanding it. And he says he sends people, and it says the tenants took his servants, and beat one, killed one other, and stoned another.

Again, he sent other servants, more than the first, and they did the same to them. Finally, he sent his son to them, saying, they will respect my son.

But when the tenants saw the son, they said to themselves, this is the heir. Come, let us kill him, and have his inheritance.

And they took him, and threw him out of the vineyard, and killed him. Jesus goes, when therefore the owner of the vineyard comes, what will you do to those tenants?

And they said to him, he will put those wretches to a miserable death, and let out the vineyard to other tenants, who will give him the fruits in their seasons.

Jesus said to them, have you never read in the scriptures, the stone that the builders rejected has become the cornerstone? This was the

Lord's doing, and it is marvelous in our eyes. Therefore, I tell you, who's he talking to? Who's he talking to?

He's talking to the people right in front of him, that he's indicting. He's already been indicting. He says, therefore, I tell you, the kingdom of God will be taken away from you, and given to a people, producing its fruits, and the one who falls on this stone will be broken to pieces, and when it falls on anyone, it will crush him.

When the chief priests and the Pharisees, I love this, heard his parables, they perceived that he was speaking about them.

I don't know why that makes me laugh. Like, you know, it's in other words, they got through. Yeah, they found the mark.

They were like, hey guys, I think he's talking about us. Hey, uh, that's us.

And that sounds a lot like Isaiah 65 as well. Yeah, he's talking about us. I swear he's talking about us.

It's almost like a sarcastic shot at them. He's like, and these dumb -dumbs over here finally realized he was talking about them.

They go, are you talking about me? That's what you would expect. Again, going back to the

Unified Revelation of God, that's what you would expect the prophet to do, right? When David confronts David in his sin after Bathsheba, you're the man.

Right. Let me tell a story real fast. Let me tell you a story about this guy who came in and took this little lamb.

Ugh, I hate him already. And he's like, yeah, you're that guy. You like movies? Yeah. You like stories?

Let me tell you a story. Let me tell you one. You like books? I've got a story for you.

I love how Jesus does that. He'll get the point across through a story more powerfully than just even just a word.

Yeah, and then they perceived he was talking about them. I don't think that guy's talking about me. But it says, although they were seeking to arrest him, they feared the crowds because they held him to be a prophet.

So it's getting worse. Situation is being amplified. Jesus is not pulling punches. He just said, whores and tax collectors are getting to heaven before you do.

No, there's no punches being pulled. People who thought that they were too holy and God loved them because they were so holy and so separate.

Then the next parable gets worse. This is where I'm saying the story just continues to increase.

And the great tribulation, all of it, discourse portion is where Jesus gives the climax. This is where the climax is.

This is where you guys are going. This is your destination. But he's still telling them more parables. And this is the next of the wedding feast.

And I'm not going to read the entire thing. But in the parable of the wedding feast, clearly it's about them.

Clearly it's about them. And the invitation goes out. They're not coming. They're supposed to come. They won't come.

So the invitation goes out elsewhere. You guys aren't going to come? Fine. I'm going to send the invitations out elsewhere.

And it says this in verse 5. That's precisely where this is all headed.

The desolation of the temple. These are the days of vengeance so that all that is written might be fulfilled. Your house is left to you desolate.

There should not be left one stone upon another. And in the parable itself, Jesus is clearly talking about them.

And they're beating the servants. They're doing the killing. And that's what they did throughout the Old Testament is God sends prophets and messengers and they kill them and they beat them and they mistreat them.

And now he sends his son and so he's going to destroy them. And they said he should destroy them. He'll destroy those miserable wretches and give it to other people that will come and actually bear the fruit of it.

And now Jesus is saying the king is going to be angry. He sends his armies to destroy their city.

And that is precisely what took place within a generation of these very words. And so then what takes place next is them trying to catch

Jesus in some contradiction or some conflict with Rome.

And that's what takes place in the famous scene where the Pharisees are plotting how to entangle Jesus and to get him caught in trouble with Caesar.

And so the famous thing about whose image is on this coin? Render to Caesar what's

Caesar's, to God what's God's. But then you start asking questions about the resurrection. And then Matthew 23.

And I'm trying to think of the time here today. We got about six minutes left. Okay.

For an hour. This is really good. Again, Old Testament here. Jesus shows up to enforce the sanctions of God's covenant on an unfaithful bride.

This is how God related to Israel in the Old Testament, right? I'm a husband and I'm jealous. I've committed myself to you in covenant.

And now the piper needs to be paid. For the violations of the covenant here, this is really, like we've said before, other people have said it much smarter, like God divorcing

Israel. Yeah, God divorcing Israel. This is about to be final. Exactly. I just want to say before you go any further, do you know who understands what

Jesus was saying when it comes to the timing of things? Mormons and famous atheists.

Yeah. They understood what Jesus was saying because they're accusing Jesus of being a false prophet. I was going to say, Jesus had a false prophecy.

Yeah. And that's why this is important. And we've discovered this time and time again out at the Mormon temple. Because when you accuse

Joseph Smith of being a false prophet, they say, well, Jesus was to the law. Not to chase that rabbit hole down too far.

But I just don't understand how that helps their perspective and their position. Because if Jesus is a false prophet, then really there's nothing to restore for Joseph.

Exactly. He's restoring a lie. Yeah. The entire restoration is a lie. Like if the Bible is like the only way that Mormonism can be true is if the

Bible is true. But if the Bible is true, then Mormonism is false. Exactly. Very good. Good job.

So I'm not going to read through the entire Matthew 23 section or section of Matthew 23. There's seven woes there.

That's curses, judgment upon the Jewish leadership of the day.

They've just had all this nonsense interaction with Jesus, trying to trip him up, trying to entangle him, trying to get him in trouble with Rome or the people.

And Jesus is indicting them. He's given them parables that like you're about to be destroyed. God's going to send his armies to destroy your city.

God's going to give the kingdom to other people. Whores and tax collectors are getting into heaven before you do.

He's just cleansed the temple. But now he goes to the indictments now and the cursing. And so Jesus says, woe to you, woe to you.

There's seven woes in Matthew 23. But I wanted to point something out to make a connecting point. If you listened to last week's episode,

I hope this connecting point will bless you. There's a lot of indictments here that Jesus says.

He calls them hypocrites. Jesus then tells them, woe to you, verse 16 of 23.

Woe to you blind guys who say if anyone swears by the temple, it's nothing. But if anyone swears by the gold of the temple, he's bound by his oath.

He says you blind fools. For which is greater the gold of the temple that has made the gold sacred?

The gold or the temple that has made the gold sacred. And you say if anyone swears by the altar, it's nothing. But if anyone swears by the gift that is on the altar, he's bound by the oath.

He says you blind men, for which is greater the gift or the altar that makes the gift sacred? For whoever swears by the altar swears by it and everything on it.

And whoever swears by the temple swears by it and by him who dwells in it. And whoever swears by heaven swears by the throne of God and by him who sits upon it.

He says, woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites. For you tithe mint and dill and cumin and have neglected the weightier matters of the law, justice and mercy and faithfulness.

These you ought to have done without neglecting the others. You blind guides straining out a gnat and swallowing a camel.

And so think about the indictment there. The swearing falsely. The maneuvering themselves away from the true heart of the law of God.

Those standards of mercy, justice, faithfulness. All those things that are connected to what?

To what? Caring for widows, orphans, doing justice for others.

That's the indictment. You swear falsely. You ignored the real valuable parts of the law of God in terms of what it really speaks to.

Malachi chapter 3. Messenger, the Lord whom you seek comes to his temple. Purification.

They bring forth offerings in righteousness now. But listen.

The promise was after the purification. It says verse 5 of chapter 3 of Malachi.

Then I will draw near to you for judgment. I'll be a swift witness against the sorcerers, against the adulterers, against those who swear falsely, and those who oppress the hired worker and his wages, the widow and the fatherless, against those who thrust aside the sojourner and do not fear me, says the

Lord of hosts. Hey, those are the same indictments that Jesus is making right there in Matthew 23.

The woes he's saying to them are the same violations that Malachi said

God was going to judge the covenant people for. And now Jesus enters after the forerunner, after the

Elijah. He enters. He's now in conflict with them, and he says, you swear falsely and you abandon mercy, justice, faithfulness.

You ought to have done these things. These are the weightier matters of the law. Those are the things that entail like caring for widows, caring for orphans, and all those things.

He's like, you don't do those things. He said, you clean the outside of the cup. You look good on the outside, but the inside of the cup is nasty.

It's filthy. So then, here's where we're going to leave you hanging.

We're going to whet your appetite for the next episode. Part four. Then, there's just so much here.

He says in verse 34. No, no,

I'll start. Yeah, okay, I'll do it. I'll start verse 30 of chapter 23.

He says, saying, if we had lived in the days of our fathers, we would not have taken part with them in the shedding of the blood of the prophets. He says, thus you witness against yourselves that you are the sons of those who murdered the prophets.

Fill up then the measure of your fathers, you serpents, you brood of vipers. How are you to escape being sentenced to hell?

Therefore, I send you prophets and wise men and scribes, some of whom you will kill and crucify, and some you will flog in your synagogues and persecute from town to town, so that, here it is, on you may come all the righteous blood shed on earth, from the blood of the righteous

Abel to the blood of Zechariah, the son of Berechiah, whom you murdered between the sanctuary and the altar.

Ready? Who is he talking to? That's what we have to get right. Who is

Jesus talking to? He's talking to the Jewish leadership of his day that he is in conflict with. He is telling them they're going to experience this.

And in Luke's account here, Luke says, these are the days of vengeance, in order that all that is written be fulfilled.

He says in verse 36, truly I say to you, all these things will come upon this generation.

He uses the near demonstrative. Who is he talking to? Let's grapple with that.

Because we can't then jump into Matthew 24, and when he's saying this generation, say, oh, that relates to some other generation.

The generation that views these things. Right here, the text says, truly I say to you, all these things will come upon this generation.

This generation. Who is he talking to? Which generation? The generation he's then speaking to. And then it says, oh,

Jerusalem, Jerusalem, the city that kills the prophets and stones those who are sent to it, how often I would have gathered your children together as a hen gathers her brood under her wings, and you were not willing.

Who's not willing? The Jewish leadership. You were not willing. And he says, see, your house is left to you desolate.

There's the indictment. And there's the priest doing his duty. That's it. Judgment has been pronounced.

Your house is left to you desolate. He came to examine as the priest. He cleared the temple.

He drove them out. He came to examine it. And now he's been in conflict with them, and now he gives the pronouncement as the priest.

What's he say? Your house is left to you desolate. And he says this, for I tell you, you will not see me again until you say, blessed is he who comes in the name of the

Lord. Jesus left the temple and was going away when his disciples came to point out to him the buildings of the temple.

But he answered them, do you see all these things? Do you not? Truly I say to you, there will not be left here one stone upon another that will not be thrown down.

Watch this, verse three. As he sat on the Mount of Olives, the disciples came to him privately saying, tell us, when will these things be?

What will be the sign of your coming in the end of the age? Not the end of the world, the end of the age.

Now, let's all stop for a second and let's make sure that we do our best to be faithful and let the

Bible do the talking. What's the context thus far of everything that's occurred from Matthew 23 all the way into 24?

Is it talking about global issues? Is it talking about things out there?

Or is it talking specifically about Jewish issues, Jewish leadership, Jewish violations of the law of God, house of God left to you desolate?

What's the context? Is it my context today? Nope. He's talking to them.

The whole context is covenant failure, covenant violations. And here is

Yahweh as a man, the true priest coming to examine his people. And now he indicts and he says, here's the judgment.

Here's the pronouncement as a priest. Your house has left you desolate. There should not be left one stone upon another. But something happened here just now in the text that we should all notice that is huge.

Jesus pronounces judgment upon people of God. Your house has left you desolate. And it's just like interesting how it talks about him departing and sitting on the

Mount of Olives. Well, that's interesting because if we know our Bibles, if we know our

Bibles, then we should actually find that very interesting that God becomes a man, comes to examine his people, and then when he pronounces judgment upon them and the temple, he departs from the temple complex.

And where does he go? He goes and he sits on the Mount of Olives to talk about the destruction of the temple and the soon coming judgment.

That is powerful because in Ezekiel chapter 11, before the temple was destroyed, it's a long section, go read it, 11 and 12 actually.

But in Ezekiel 11, 22, it says this. After God is promising all of these things to come, the promise of the new covenant blessing, all that.

It says in verse 22, then the cherubim lifted up their wings with the wheels beside them and the glory of the

God of Israel was over them and the glory of the Lord, the glory of Yahweh went up from the midst of the city and stood on the mountain that is on the east side of the city.

Which mountain is that? Mount of Olives. Don't you find it fascinating?

I do. That in the Old Testament, when the temple was about to be destroyed,

God speaks to the issues and then God departs from the city and the temple and the glory of Yahweh rests on the

Mount of Olives. And then after this whole scene, the temple is destroyed ultimately.

And Jesus now comes as Yahweh in the flesh. He comes, examines the city, he pronounces judgment and then he departs from it and he goes to give this great tribulation passage on the

Mount of Olives. Old Testament, Yahweh, His glory leaves Mount of Olives, temple destroyed.

New Testament, Yahweh, as a man, temple leaves Mount of Olives, temple destroyed.

Is that just some cosmic accident? Well, yeah, the glory of the

Lord departing, right? And the destruction is coming. But even that passage, you already pointed it out, but the promises of the new covenant, putting the law on your heart, a new heart, and even the language about the son of man, pack a bag, prepare exile's baggage, right?

This is an exile, a spiritual exile, really. I mean, he's calling them to separate himself, to be separate, right?

This is gonna be an exile, but then I'm gonna bring you back to your inheritance. And I think new covenant wise, there's a lot of overlap in the book of Hebrews about what's taking place in the new covenant.

The old Israel's being cast out, the new Israel is here, and that exile was going on during the time that they were living, but we have been brought into our inheritance, and our inheritance is no longer a geographical location.

It's the whole earth, right? It's everything under the sun belongs to the people of God.

This new Israel, this Jerusalem from above. Heavenly Jerusalem. I don't think you like puzzles.

I love puzzles, right? For me, it's like... I didn't expect this turn.

Well, you like to build things. My parents like to give me puzzles sometimes for Christmas, and my wife gets mad because then

I will just sit there until I finish the puzzle. But it's like when you have a weird piece you can't figure out, and then it's like all of a sudden you find the missing piece, and it's like...

Like you can't figure out what you're looking at the whole time, and then all of a sudden you get those last pieces in, and you're like, oh my gosh.

It was there the whole time. It makes sense. It fits together perfectly and beautifully like it's supposed to.

That comment was a missing puzzle piece, but then when you explained it, it brought the picture together. Just as I planned.

That's a good analogy. I'm really enjoying this. I hope you guys are enjoying this.

I hope that it's a help to everybody. And we're going to do more and walk a bit through the actual section of Matthew 24 because there's a lot that needs to be said.

If you're going to make the claim that what's said there about all these things happening in their generation, you've got to demonstrate it and demonstrate it biblically.

And I don't really want to rush through that. I think there's just too many amazing aspects to this story and connection points that I just wish we would all know because when

I learned them, it's just blessed me tremendously. Like even that part right there of that story in Ezekiel, before the destruction of the temple,

Yahweh's glory, leaving and departing and resting on the Mount of Olives, and then Jesus taking that exact course before the destruction of the temple,

I think that's lovely. I do. We'll pick up the pieces soon and get into Matthew 24.

The puzzle pieces. We'll add another piece to the puzzle. Lock it all together.

And before we go, I'd like to talk to you guys very personally about what you can pray about for us or with us.

And I hope you stick around right now to listen because it is vitally important that you do. We need the prayers of the people of God.

We need your participation. We are working right now with legislators across the country and helping other brothers and sisters who are part of other organizations who are getting bills of equal protection in around the country.

Numerous states are coming. We need your prayers. And brothers and sisters, it is a huge task.

It is a monstrous, massive task to accomplish these things. And somehow the Lord is doing it through ministries like ours and other brothers and sisters who don't have a lot of money and don't have a lot.

Well, I'll give you one example. There's one organization that put $15 million in. They funded a $15 million 30 -second commercial so that Proposition 139 would pass in Arizona, which is basically what's going to happen, and this is happening across many states in this nation, they're trying to make abortion from fertilization through nine months as a part of the state constitution.

It's happening in our state right now. We have out -of -state organizations and in -state organizations that are funding this thing to the tune of tens and tens of millions.

We don't have that. These organizations that are getting, like us, who are getting bills of equal protection across the country that are happening, that I believe with all my heart, it's going to happen very, very soon.

We're going to get one state to finally, finally get courageous enough to do it. I'm trusting God for that. We're organizations that are small with nothing like that kind of funding.

My goodness, if we had that kind of funding, the damage that we could do. But we don't.

And to fight these battles, we are coming against organizations that have, like, $15 million to drop on a 30 -second commercial to make sure they can kill babies.

In one state. In one state. And so we need help. We need your financial help. So if you can give, give at endabortionnow .com.

Not only are they saving babies outside of mills across the country and around the world because of your work with us through End Abortion Now, but we're getting bills in across the country.

I'm actually going back to Kentucky and Ohio next week to meet with legislators and to meet with our team out there to get some work done out there.

The guys just came back from North Dakota recently. We have bills that are going in across the country we're helping with.

We're looking at 22 possibly this year. So we need help. Endabortionnow .com to give financially. We need you to partner with us, guys.

I don't ever want to talk about this anymore, but it's not over yet, and so we're not going to stop until justice is established.

And so in the meantime, pray with us, participate with us, and if you would, give financially because we do need help to do these things.

And so that's that. I wanted to show that I'm actually...

You're wearing yours. I forgot mine. How is yours on you right now? Because yours is like flopping around.

He does his vertically. Oh, but it's kind of coming off. But yeah, vertically. If I do it horizontally, it stretches on my skin.

Yeah, I guess, yeah. I got my Ion Layer patch on. IonLayer .com,

I -O -N -Layer .com. Ion Layer, great, great, amazing company. If you're wanting, like me, as you're getting older, to invest in your health and longevity and your well -being, you can look into NAD.

Look into NAD Benefits. Just Google NAD Benefits. It's going to blow your mind. These guys figured out a way to do

NAD without the IV, which is extremely painful and very expensive. They figured out a way to do it through a medical patch where you're going to get a high dose of NAD.

It's an amazing thing for your system. Just look into it and then go to IonLayer .com,

I -O -N -Layer .com. Put in APOLOGY in all caps in the coupon code. You'll get a discount, and they'll support the ministry and mission of APOLOGY Studios.

And also, we have more. What else? Speaking of axes at the root, you can see those sweet battle axes there.

That was a really good transition. I really tied that one in. From AmtechBlades, you can go to AmtechBlades .com.

Bill Rapier, one of our heroes. We're actually going to be taking a shooting course from him here in December. But you can go to AmtechBlades .com,

put APOLOGY in the coupon code, get 5 % off your order, and they will donate 5 % matching to an abortion.

That would help save babies. And also, speaking of saving babies and who you're going to see this week, this next week is

Bradley Pierce. That's right. He'll be speaking at his conference. He runs Heritage Defense, so if you are homeschooling your children, please go to HeritageDefense .org,

put APOLOGY in the coupon code, and get your first month free. Legal advocacy in case any three -letter agencies show up at your door.

Amazing. Very affordable and needed. And then, of course, we get all the sweet swag. You can get it at APOLOGYstudios .com.

I got a new shirt. We got new hats and all kinds of stuff. Don't forget, pre -sip coffee. And this.

The best part of waking up. It's pre -sipping your cup. Pre -sipping your cup. Is that it?

That's it. That's it. Don't forget, guys, ReformCon .org. Sign up for ReformCon 2025.

Go check it out. Very excited. Be excited to meet you there and to experience ReformCon once again.

It's a lot of work to put these things on, but it ends up being just a tremendous, tremendous blessing. So I'm very excited for it.

Thank you, guys, for joining us. If you don't mind, today we actually are not going to do the after show because we had an extra long show today.

Extra, extra long. If you don't mind, I do have twins to get back home to and a wife who's actually sick right now.

And I got a birthday girl. I don't want to leave her hanging. And so if you guys don't mind, a little mercy today. We're not going to do the after show today, but we're going to give you a lot more next time.

So that's Luke the Bear. Peace out. That's Conover. See you, guys. Director of Communications for EAN. And I'm Jeff with Coleman &