Sermon for Lord's Day January 29, 2023 Luke 21:5-9

Our Heavenly Father, as we come before your throne today, I come with both our heads and our hearts bowed unto you. Lord, we come with hands lifted high in praise, giving you honor and glory for your goodness, for your mercy, for your kindness, for your steadfastness.

We praise you, that you are God and besides you there is no other. Lord, my prayer this morning for us as a congregation is this, that as we enter into this, the pinnacle of our worship, Lord, that entering into your holy word, that you would guide us, that you would lead us, that you would instruct us in all truth and in all righteousness, which you have promised to do.

We pray, O God, that you would, I pray, O God, that you would help me speak with clarity and communicate the truth and the word of God in a plain forthright sense, that we would go away from this place knowing more about you according to your word, knowing what your word says when it says what it says, dear God, and that we might rightly apply the truths of your word to our lives.

And above all, God, my prayer is this, that as we attempt to magnify your blessing in your holy name, Lord, as you are lifted high, that men and women, boys and girls alike, will be drawn to salvation, the lost would be saved, the saints would be encouraged and edified through the preaching of your word, for it's in Jesus' name I pray.

Amen. Turn in Luke chapter 21 and stand with us, if you would, to honor the reading of God's word. Will and Tam, I guess in a sense, I lied to you again. We're not going to go through all 38 verses like we said in reference to you all.

We are going to be looking at verse, primarily verses 5 through 8 this morning, because there's just, again, so much in the text. Luke chapter 21, verses 5 through 8, these are the words of the living God.

And while some were speaking of the temple, how it was adorned with noble stones and offerings, he said, as for these things that you see, the days will come when there will not be left here one stone upon another that will not be thrown down.

And they asked him and said, teacher, when will these things be? And what will be the sign when these things are about to take place? And he said, see that you are not led astray, for many will come in my name, saying, I am he, and the time is at hand.

Do not go after them. Thus far as the reading of God's holy word this morning, by point of reference, again, by way of refreshing our minds of the purpose of Luke's gospel itself, he writes in the first chapter in verses 1 through 4, he says this, inasmuch as many have undertaken to compile a narrative of the things that have been accomplished among us, just as those who from the beginning were eyewitnesses and ministers of the word have delivered them to us, Luke writes this, it seemed good to me also, having followed all things closely for some time, for some time past, to write an orderly account for you, O most excellent Theophilus, that you may have certainty concerning the things that you have been taught.

That has been the premise since we started in Luke's gospel years ago, that we might have certainty about God's word, that we may go into God's word and are able, by and through the Holy Spirit's teaching and guidance, to understand the word of God, even the texts that many times are seemingly so hard to understand, because we try to pluck them from their contract text, we try to pull them, just sections of scripture out, and we want to try to understand a particular section of scripture without understanding the whole of the book itself.

And so as we enter into our text today, this is one of those texts that for many seems so cloudy, seems so gray, seems so confusing, but when we look at it in the context up to where we are in Luke's gospel, it is amazingly clear what is taking place.

So as we look at this, let's ask ourselves just a few questions, as we should always ask ourselves when reading and studying the text of scripture, to understand what's going on. So last week, you'll remember, we read verses 1 through 4, which was a connecting text, right?

We see Jesus, after rebuking the scribes and Pharisees, making a point to point out the widow giving in the treasury in the temple, and then here in verse 5, we see what Luke writes, and while some were speaking of the temple, the question that we want to ask ourselves is, what is being spoken of here?

What is being spoken of here in verse 5? And the text gives us a clear answer, right? They were speaking of the temple. And how were they speaking of the temple? They were speaking of how the temple was adorned, how it was decorated, how it was built, how it was adorned with noble stones and offerings.

And the scripture says, he said. Another question for us to ask ourselves here for clarity is, who is the he that is speaking? It is Jesus. He said, as for these things that you see, Jesus is speaking to those who ask the question, to those who are marveling at how goodly and how grand and how great the temple was adorned and how it was built.

He said to them, the days will come when there will not be left here one stone upon another that will not be thrown down. Just two verses, and there is so much in this. Let's take a look and let's think about for just a couple of minutes here the temple itself, right?

So as we enter into this text, let's consider and kind of glean, I guess from history, we glean from the scriptures primarily. Here we're going to glean from the history as well, a knowledge of the construction of the temple.

So when Jesus said what he said, Jesus, first and foremost, Jesus was not talking here about the end of the world. He was not talking about his second coming when the world and all things will come to an end.

He is speaking here about the immediate and the immediate context is that destruction that was coming on Jerusalem, which we know because we've got hindsight in the year AD 70, but Jesus was very clear repeatedly throughout the scriptures to say, to use this term, in this generation.

Within this span of 30 to 40 years, destruction was going to come upon Jerusalem. And so Jesus says, as these people are marveling at the temple, mark it down, there will not be one stone left upon another here.

So Jesus was talking about the destruction that was to come upon Jerusalem within that generation, within that 30 to 40 year time frame. It's important for us to keep in mind that as we are reading, that when we read texts like this, that there is both a near fulfillment insight, which was fulfilled in the destruction of Jerusalem, and there's a far fulfillment insight in light and in view of the faithfulness of God throughout history.

Every time the Lord made a promise, every time the Lord said something, it came to be. Because he is true and in him there is no lie. God is not able to lie. God is not able to fib. God will not change.

God remains faithful through the ages, world without end. So keeping that in mind, as we look at this, hear what John Calvin said. He said this concerning this text, there is no reason to wonder what a spectacle so imposing held, why a spectacle so opposing held the disciples of Christ in astonishment.

For how great expense that building cost Harry may be concluded from the single fact that he kept 10 ,000 workmen employed on it for successive years. Now we're going to get into that here in just a second.

Nor is it without reason that they admire the stones, which Josephus the historian tells us were superlatively beautiful and were in length. I did a little bit of conversion here from cubits to feet. So they were in length, 22 feet in length, the stones of the temple, 18 feet in height, and 12 feet in breadth.

Besides, so great was the reverence entertained for the temple even in the remote districts that scarcely any person would venture to suppose that it could ever be destroyed. So here, just contextually, we have a little bit of an idea of what was going through the people's mind.

We're talking about stones that were 22 feet long, 18 feet high, 12 feet thick, and these people, Jesus says to these people that are staring at these stones, it's going to come a day when not one of these stones will be left upon another.

Now that's hard to believe. Reasonably and rationally, that is hard to conceive of. It's hard to consider. It's hard to think about, but that is what Jesus, that is the context, that's what that is what Jesus is addressing to these individuals who are marveling at the grandiosity of the temple.

The temple itself is a marvel of engineering. The Jerusalem Temple, historically, was built originally by King Solomon, we have it in the Old Testament, originally by King Solomon in the 10th century BC, before Christ, so likely somewhere between in the 900 BC, the temple was built.

The first structure, the first temple that was built by Solomon was destroyed around 586, so around four to five hundred years later, the temple was destroyed when, guess what, God told the children of Israel that they, because of their sin, they were going to be taken into Babylonian captivity and God was faithful to his word.

The children of Israel were taken into Babylonian captivity. The temple that Solomon built, this grand temple, was destroyed. The scripture says about 70 years later, according to the word of God, because God told Israel, 70 years they would be in bondage, in captivity to the Babylonians.

70 years they were delivered out of Babylonian captivity, brought back to Jerusalem by the sovereign and providential hand of Almighty God, and they began at that time again to rebuild the temple of God.

Now, between that time and the time of Christ, there was, during the time of Herod being the king, he decided, as I'm going to read to you here a little bit, Herod, King Herod decided that he would renovate and he was going to make this a even more massive and more grand place than it already was.

And what King Herod did was he renovated the second temple and he turned it into the largest sacred site in the Roman Empire. In order to vastly expand the existing precinct, he had his workers build four enormous restraining walls around the temple mount in Jerusalem and one of those is the western wall.

Keep in mind, again, the geography here, we hear the term temple mount used. If we were to go to Jerusalem, I've never been, some of you may have been, I've only seen pictures, but it's literally the temple and the plaza and everything is literally built up on a little mountain.

That's right why it's called the mountain, the temple mount. So what he did, he had restraining walls put in all around. He filled the space between the walls and the mountain to create a level area in which he built vaults to support a vast paved plaza.

So the temple mount plaza was the equivalent of 29 football fields. We're not talking about the temple itself, we're just talking about the plaza that surrounded it. So he made it a place like a mecca, so to speak, no pun intended, but for people to come and to gather.

So a feat like this, without the benefit of modern machinery, seems almost impossible. And how did he do this? Herod employed a thousand priests, a thousand priests and ten thousand laborers. And even with that kind of manpower, the results are amazing at what was accomplished.

The dimensions for the temple of Jerusalem were staggering. Again, some more numbers here, you'll have to do your own math if you want to take the numbers down. 460 meters to the east, 350 meters to the north, 280 meters to the south, and the western wall was 485 meters long.

The walls above ground rose 30 meters, so a meter is three feet. So 90 feet the walls rose above the ground and their foundations were as fit as as deep as 60 feet in some places in order to reach bedrock.

The smallest stone, the smallest stones used to build and construct the temple was two to five tons, and the largest stone of them all, possibly the largest building stone in antiquity, is 13 .6 meters long, 4 .6 meters thick, and 3 .3 meters high, and it's estimated to weigh 570 tons.

This is the temple that Jesus remarks to these individuals and says, there is coming a day when not one stone will be left upon another. How can this be? Matthew Poole said, our Lord, to take off his disciples' eyes from those gay and stately things, prophesied the utter ruin of the temple, and to that degree that one stone should not be left upon another, which is how it was afterwards fulfilled within 40 years.

Our God is faithful. Our God is true. Practically speaking, and this is still on verse five and six here, practically speaking, it would do us all good, every single adult and child in this place, to lay these verses to heart this morning, to recognize this one simple fact, that this world is passing away.

This world is passing away. What we see with our eyes, what we touch with our hands is temporary, and we should not set our hearts and our affections on the things of this world, but as the apostle Paul wrote to the Colossian church, set your affections on things above, not on things on the earth.

Jesus said, don't set your affections on things of the earth where moth and rust does corrupt it, where a thief can break in and steal it. Friends, if a thief can break in and steal it, it's as good as gone, but thanks be unto God that salvation in Jesus Christ cannot be attacked, cannot be touched, cannot be stolen, cannot be taken by anybody.

Thanks be unto the Lord. So the disciples and those hearing Jesus words had in a very real sense, practically, applicably speaking here, they had in a very real sense, and sometimes it creeps up on us, they had in a very real sense set their affections on the temple.

People were swearing by the temple. People were going by and admiring and thinking, this is going to be here forever. Oh, this is so grand. Oh, this is so great. They placed their confidence in this magnificent building, but Christ reminded them previously that one greater than Solomon, one greater than the one who originally, or whose father architected it, and who Solomon himself had undergone and oversaw the construction of this temple, that one greater than Solomon was standing before them, one who was greater than the gold that the temple was adorned with, one who was greater than the stones that the temple was built up and made of, the one who is the chief cornerstone himself, Jesus Christ, the Lord of glory.

So Jesus said this concerning himself over in John's gospel, John chapter 2, verse 13 through 21, this is what the Word of God says. And this, keep in mind, this John chapter 2 passage, this is the first time that Jesus took care of business, so to speak, in the temple.

This was the first time that Jesus had gone into the temple and drove them out with cords and whips. And John chapter 2 states this, the Passover of the Jews was at hand and Jesus went up to Jerusalem.

In the temple he found those who were selling oxen, sheep, and pigeons, and the money changers sitting there. And making a whip of cords, he drove them all out of the temple with the sheep and the oxen, and he poured out the coins of the money changers, and he overturned their tables, and he told those who sold the pigeons, take these things away, do not make my father's house a house of trade.

His disciples remembered that it was written, zeal for your house has eaten me up, or zeal for your house has consumed me, which was written about the Messiah. And the Messiah, whose zeal for his house consumed him, and he went in and he drove these money changers out of the temple.

So the Jews said to him, what sign do you show us for doing these things? What kind of argument are you going to make? What kind of presentation are you going to set before us that will authorize you to take the action that you're taking at this very moment by driving them out of the temple?

And what does Jesus say? Jesus said these words, destroy this temple, and in three days I will raise it up. Then the Jews said, it's taken 46 years to build this temple, and will you raise it up in three days?

But he was speaking about the temple of his body. What Jesus was doing there, again, was another, another identification, another setting forth of himself as the true and the living God. For it was in the temple where they just worshiped the presence of God, but the kingdom of God had come to the earth and was standing before them now.

And so Jesus himself is the greater temple. He is greater than anything that man has ever set out to accomplish. The temple was originally rebuilt by Zerubbabel and by Ezra. If you want to read Ezra in your time this week, I encourage you to do that.

But it was greatly expanded and improved by Herod, as we mentioned earlier. It was the center of Jewish life for almost a thousand years, and the temple was so revered, according to David Yuzek in his commentary, the temple was so revered that it was customary to swear by the temple.

And it was held in such high esteem that speaking against the temple could be considered blasphemy. King Herod had more than doubled the temple mount area, increasing it to 36 acres. As great as the temple was, Jesus never hesitated to claim that he himself was greater than that temple.

For many of the Jews that day, the temple had become an idol. It began to mean more to people than God himself did, which is true for us. Good things can become the worst of our idols. And sometimes God sours or takes away even the good things that we make our idols to remind us that nothing in this life deserves worship, honor, and glory but the Lord Jesus Christ.

Anything else is idolatry. Moving forward to verse 7, the scripture states this, and they asked him, so remember what's happened, they were admiring the stones, Jesus says not one stone is going to be left upon another, and they asked him, the disciples, those around, they asked him, teacher, when will these things be and what will be the sign when these things are about to take place?

Next week we're going to get into those, but again, let's remember, even today, even now, that its immediate context is the destruction of Jerusalem. And so they asked, when will these things be and what will be the sign or how are we going to know that these things are about to take place?

And so what does Jesus say? And he said, verse 8, Jesus said, see that you are not led astray. Again, applicable immediate context, also very applicable to us today. For many are led astray. How are people led astray?

What did Jesus say here? He said this, see that you are not led astray, for many will come in my name saying, I am he, and saying, the time is at hand. Jesus is speaking that at some point within that next 30 to 40 years, that even after his resurrection, there were going to come some who will proclaim that I am he.

Follow me, come after me, and it's no wonder, as we'll see in just a moment, it's no wonder we see, and this is, again, this is another one of those things that just where the cloud is just, the fog is just removed, and we can see why the epistles are written as they are written concerning false teachers, concerning being led astray in the faith, because this is exactly what the apostles were taught by Jesus Christ.

This is why that we say that the scriptures, the word of God, are built upon the foundations of the apostles and prophets, and upon Jesus Christ himself as the chief cornerstone. So what did Jesus warn them of?

False teachers. And what was his last words in that, after saying they'll say I am he, and the time is at hand? He said this, do not go after them. Pretty clear, right? Do not go after them. So this happened, and it was abundantly fulfilled before the destruction of the temple.

Probably it'll receive further fulfilling, as Matthew Poole wrote in his commentary, it'll receive further fulfillment at the latter end of the world, but before the destruction of Jerusalem, it was, just as Josephus assured in his history, it was fulfilled particularly, particularly we have in Josephus's history, a number of individuals who arose during that time between Christ and the destruction of Jerusalem who did just exactly what Jesus said.

They came saying, I am the promised Messiah. I am the one who was to come. Follow me. And even in our day and in our time, again, for our fulfillment, we see these things take place. We see movements come about where people will say, sell everything that you have, take nothing but a white robe and come up on this as a reality.

And scripturally, biblically speaking, as people of God, we need not follow anyone who would say anything like that because Christ has already come. Christ has already paid the price for our sins. And when he comes the second time, well, nobody has to wonder, is he the Christ?

Historically, there was one named Theodos. Maybe even the same Theodos mentioned by Gamaliel in Acts chapter 5 verse 36. Another instance of one trying to draw followers off to himself was an Egyptian sorcerer mentioned in Acts chapter 21 verse 38.

Historically, there was another one, Dosateus, a Samaritan who called people to follow him because he was the promised Messiah. There was another in the time of King Festus' government. And then we had probably one of the most recognizable instances of someone calling themselves and proclaiming and pretending themselves to be the great power of God, Simon Magus in Acts chapter 8.

If we turn over to Acts chapter 8 very quickly here and look there, Acts chapter 8, beginning in verse 4, the scripture states this,. Now those who were scattered went about preaching the word. Philip went down to the city of Samaria and proclaimed to them the Christ.

He preached Christ. And the crowds with one accord paid attention to what was being said by Philip. When they heard him and they saw the signs that he did, for unclean spirits crying out with a loud voice came out of many who had them and many who were paralyzed or lame were healed so that there was much joy in that city.

But there was a man named Simon who had previously practiced magic in the city and amazed the people of Samaria, saying this, that he himself was somebody great. They all paid attention to him from the least to the greatest, saying, this man is the great power of God that is called great.

My friend, there is one great, one mighty, one wonderful, one counselor, one prince of peace, one God, one father, one Lord of all who's in you all and through you all, and that ain't Simon Magus. It is the Lord Jesus Christ.

So we see these things actually taking place historically, biblically, historically in the text of scripture. And this is exactly what Jesus said would take place. So last of all, it is certain that there were many who irrigated to themselves or who gave to themselves the name of Messiah to put a face on their faction, to put a face on their following.

But there have been many also since the destruction of Jerusalem, and there will be many more before the end of the world as we know it, as Matthew Paul said. So all that, just in verse 5 through 8, it's so important.

This lays the context. And I can just imagine, personally, if you put yourself in the place of these individuals, you're looking at this monumental temple, these stones that, it's a miracle that they were where they were stacked.

They didn't use concrete. They literally just stacked the stones one upon another, dry setting the stones, where it was the weight of the stones that held the others up. This is why the foundation had to be so large, had to be so strong.

But if this temple, if this temple could be destroyed, it could be wiped out, it could be raised to the ground, these people were unable to even fathom where would they go or what would they do. But the greater temple, the greater stone stood before them, and he was giving them insight.

He was pointing them to the right and the true way. So I'm stopping there today. Next week, or no, I'm sorry, yes, week after next, actually, we're going to pick back up in here at verse 9. Next week, Brother Bradley Martin will be preaching.

I want to encourage all of you to pray for him as he comes to preach. The young man that came and preached a couple of months, a few months back, he's going to be coming to preach. But we'll pick back up in this week after next, and we're going, as we continue to go through it, as you continue to study over the next couple of weeks on on this particular passage, I encourage you, look at the parallel accounts, look at the synoptic accounts, look at Matthew's account, and look at Mark's account.

Because what we're going to see here as he goes further, Jesus Christ is preparing them. He's giving them a plain picture of what to expect, both before destruction comes, and when destruction comes. Stand with us, if you would, this morning.

Above all else, before we do anything else, before we sing the doxology this morning, I want to make a clear gospel presentation so that every heart, every mind in this place knows beyond any shadow of any doubt and cannot go away guiltless, saying that you have not heard the proclamation of the gospel of Jesus Christ.

The gospel of Jesus Christ is this, that Christ died for our sins, that we are born in sin, as we learned in the catechism again this morning, we're born in sin, shaped in iniquity, unable to recover ourselves from the snare of sin.

But Christ came. Christ perfectly fulfilled God's law to the jot and to the tittle, walked it out, to the cross, was hung, became the propitiation of for our sins, taking upon him the wrath of almighty God upon himself, gave up the ghost, cried, it is finished, was taken down from the cross, put in the grave, and on the third day Jesus arose from the grave, ascended to the Father where he ever lives.

So what? What do I do with that preacher? Believe the gospel of Jesus Christ. Believe that Christ died for your sin, that he was crucified for your sin, that he was buried, that he arose again on the third day, and you will be saved today.