151. The Parables of Destruction

The Olivet Discourse as an Introduction to Revelation

Do not be pessimistic and do not fall into the trap of believing that evil is somehow stronger than Christ. The gates of hell cannot win will not win will not prevail and his church will move forward.

The future is not dark. The future is as bright as the promises of God and his promises are always true. Hello everyone, and welcome back to the broadcast where we prod the sheep and beat the wolf. This is episode 151 the parables of.

Destruction everyone and welcome back to the broadcast.

My name is Kendall and I'm so excited to continue our series on the Olivet discourse. Which we are using as our introduction to the book of Revelation but Before we jump in and before we jump back into our series I want to tell you about two awesome updates that have been happening on this show this week.

We launched our brand new merch store at www .prodthesheep .com. That's a brand new website for us and that's a brand new merch store. And it's our mission in that merch store to prod God's sheep to beat down the enemies Wolves with post-millennial snarky Reformed Christian merchandise on the store.

You can find broadcast branded gear you can find shirts that will mark you safe from the Darby invented rapture and So much more stuff than that that not only looks great. And it's not only made out of the best quality materials and print-on-demand that I could find.

But when you purchase things from the prod ducks store haha, you help us get the word out about this channel and You get to help us spread the message the message that Jesus wins and that of course is the entire point.

For why this channel exists, that's the reason that we plunder the scriptures to see how Jesus will have Dominion. That's the reason why we viciously and unapologetically attack any system of thinking that buys into a loser.

Mindset and that is the reason why we spend every ounce of our energy and our effort Building that's why we build the store. That's but that's why we built this channel because I want to get the message out to more people.

One podcast episode at a time one coffee cup at a time one t-shirt at a time. You get the point. So if you want to rep post millennial hope and if you want to help support this great channel, then go check out the store www .prodthesheep .com and let me know what you think in the comment section below.

I would love your feedback now. Also for our second update I'm gonna be beginning a members only after-hour show called for what it's worth. Where I'm gonna be responding to some of the best and the craziest.

Comments that I receive on the YouTube channel each and every week comments like the one that I recently received that I was told that I was Both simultaneously a witch and a warlock for believing the post millennial message.

So we'll talk about comments like that. Also, I will address things like how there was a woman in the comments recently who truly believes that Donald Trump Trump Was the is the Antichrist so I want to look at things like that.

Now another aspect of this show that we're gonna do every single week is I want to look at some of the goofy in times Predictions that have been made all throughout church history and also ones that are being made in the modern day.

Listen, there are tens of thousands of failed Eschatological in time predictions, so there's plenty of material but I want to look at them and I want to show how over and over and over again, they're funny, but but they're they point out the fact that this brand of Eschatological doom and gloom this this we're living in the last generation kind of mindset.

It's just wrong and it is something that we should laugh about. It is something that we should mock. It is something that we should inform people about and it's gonna be a ton of fun. This show is gonna be so much fun.

It's not gonna be like the main show where I'm gonna have the lights and the microphones and the cameras and all the fancy tech Equipment it's gonna be a kind of a behind-the-scenes kind of show where I let my proverbial hair down.

Where we can laugh together where maybe we even cry together where we can continue our goal of making Eschatology joyful again, and you can only gain access to that if you join as a member, which I'll explain now.

Because if you're not aware and we've had a lot of new subscribers since we began the membership tab. We have three levels of membership on this show. Then now obviously you can support this show by liking it by sharing it by subscribing by all the normal ways.

But if you want to go above and beyond and you want to help us in a deeper way to keep this show going. To get it out to more people and all of that. We've three tiers of membership the first is called the Insiders level where you get a priority badge on the side of your name so that I can make sure that when you ask questions, you're gonna get an answer because basically I get a lot of comments and if you're reading through them, some of them are a little wild and My goal is actually to give a detailed answer to everyone's question in the comment section to anyone who wants to learn and has a genuine interest in these topics, but as the channel has grown and As the channel continues to grow and as the demands on me as a pastor in a wonderful Christian Church in New England Called the Shepherd's Church.

I'm not gonna be able to keep up with the demand. So for literally less than a cup of coffee per month, just $2 and 99 cents per month. You get my attention. You can ask me anything you want about eschatology theology.

My views on literally anything and I will prioritize you. I will give you a thoughtful answer to your question. Even if I don't have time to answer everyone. I'm gonna answer you. So that's the first tier and it's called the insiders tier.

Now the second tier of membership is called the defenders tier which is $6 and 99 cent a month. Still less than a cup of coffee. If you go to Starbucks in this tier you get everything that I just mentioned in the insiders level.

But you also get access to my new after-hour show called for what it's worth. Which as I said before it's gonna be a lot of fun. It's gonna be super informative. It's gonna be wildly entertaining to say the least so just for clarity.

Let me say that once more if you are a defenders level member or higher you get access to the new show and to be honest Why wouldn't you want to because it's gonna be great. So that's the second tier.

Then if you want to reach for the eschatological sun and the moon and the stars and you want to literally Ascend the pinnacle of YouTube membership classes then join the prod squad. Which is our third level membership in addition to the perks that I've mentioned in the access to the new after-hours show.

For what it's worth. You're also gonna get a 10 discount on the products merged store. Which means any new and any current gear that we have available in the store. You're gonna get it at a discounted rate plus.

You're also gonna get the ability to ask me directly for special designs. Maybe you want to see something in the store. That's not there great. Ask me like take for instance Let's say that I have a t-shirt that you like.

But it's winter and you'd rather have it in a hoodie if you're in the prod squad you ask I deliver. Bingo bingo. I will design it and make it and ship it and it's good to go. Or let's say that you have a particular funny quote from Martin Luther or you want to see something Designed that like you have an idea for it.

Or maybe you've drawn something up if you have a cool idea of a new design that we can put on the product store. If you're in the prod squad you get to help me bring those new concepts to life so that everyone can enjoy them and as an added benefit if You're the one who has the idea if you're responsible for giving me a design or giving me an idea That I put on a shirt or a coffee cup or a hoodie or whatever.

I'm gonna give it to you at cost. That means whatever it cost me to make it. That's what you're gonna get it for. The show is not gonna benefit from that at all. We're not gonna make any resources off of that.

You're gonna get it at an incredibly discounted rate. Which is what it cost me to make it and that means That there is a lot of power that you hold as a prod squad member and I pray that you steward it.

Well now if that were not enough you're also gonna get mentioned in every single episode at the beginning and At the end of every episode as being one of the coolest humans on planet Earth and you get mentioned every week.

You also get the unique pleasure and satisfaction of knowing that you are helping this message and this channel reach more people at the highest level so every week I'm gonna I want to encourage you to my to all the members and all the ones who support the show and everyone who watches and everything in between.

Every week I get emails text messages and comments that people are being convinced of Post-millennialism from this show they're being convinced that futurism is not the proper hermeneutic for biblical eschatology from this show.

Which I think is absolutely incredible. I I I get messages all the time saying Thank you so much for putting out this content. This has helped me see the Bible in a new way. This is opening up my eyes to the truth.

I've never seen this before. I don't feel afraid anymore. I have conversations all the time. So I am thankful for you and thankful yours for your support and I want to do everything that I can To keep this momentum going that's why every dollar that comes into the show into the store or even through the Memberships or whatever else every dollar that comes in goes right back into Advertising and paying the bills for this channel because I don't care about the money.

I don't. I don't do this for the money. If I did then I would not have chosen to do Post-millennial eschatology on YouTube. I would have probably filmed myself getting hurt like on jackass videos or I would have Done something else that tickled the ears of the world like the rest of the crap that you see on this platform.

But what I'm doing, I'm doing it because I want to see this message get out to more people. I want to see the church Invigorated with joy. I want to see the kingdom of Jesus advance in New England and United States of America and beyond.

I want to see that so I'm doing this To change the world. I'm doing this I'm putting forth my effort and all of us have to figure out how to do that in our own life. But I'm doing this to defeat eschatological defeatism.

I'm doing this to bring hope and joy back into the Christian life and to reinvigorate once more a Protestant work ethic that builds Christendom again that that rips it back out of the hands of the Joe Bidens and AOC's and the Chuck Schumer's and the deep state swamp rats who've been in charge for far too long.

Now is the time for this Country. Now is the time for Christians to take this country back To implement biblical law biblical morality again to get rid of the insanity that we've been seeing in our country.

So with that Every dollar that's been on the store, which is prod the sheep calm and every dollar spent on Memberships are going to be used to make the glorious gospel of Jesus More famous to increase the reach of this channel to help make more men and women Post-millennial in this country and to retake America and the world with a hopeful glorious vision of Jesus's kingdom.

So with that Check out the store join as a member to get those Added benefits and to get to be subscribed to my new after-hours show also. Continue to like subscribe comment share and send this out via carrier pigeon or whatever else.

Matthew, the True Israel, and the Final Showdown in Jerusalem

And now with all of that Let's dive in today's show by giving a little bit of a all of that recap and all of that recap now if you've been with us throughout this entire series then Congratulations because you've received the kind of eschatological training that should be mandatory for every pastor and seminary professor and Christian who's wanting to not be duped by the end times grift that's been running amok for a hundred years.

You now have the tools to see what Jesus was actually saying in the text in order to dismantle the lies of dispensationalism. Shatter the eschatological defeatism and to walk in the victorious confidence that Christ is reigning now.

That his kingdom is actually advancing that his enemies are being crushed beneath his feet. Psalm 110 1 1st Corinthians 15 25, but Before we move forward in this series. We need to take a step back. We need to see the whole battlefield before we can land the kill shot.

And that means that if we're gonna properly understand Matthew 24. Then we need to understand where it fits inside of Matthew's gospel as a whole how it functions within the final days of Jesus's earthly ministry and how it indisputably fulfilled the events in the first century leading up to 80 70 now as we've seen from the previous weeks Matthew's gospel is not just a random collection of Jesus's stories and and little events that happened in his life.

It's not a diary. It is a theological masterpiece. It is structured. It is intentional. It is eschatologically loaded and it Demonstrates how Jesus is the true Israel the true son of God the true king the true prophet the true priest the true sacrifice the one who will bring judgment on the old covenant world and establish his unshakable kingdom forever.

Matthew builds his case from the very first chapter of the book for instance Matthew chapter 1. We see how Jesus is the true King the true and greater David who's gonna rule over all the nations. We see how he's the true Moses who's delivered from the homicidal maniac Emperor who tried to kill him in his in it as an infant Matthew 2 how like Moses He passed through the waters in Matthew 3 how like Moses in the wilderness people He succeeded in the wilderness where they failed Matthew 4 and we saw how he stood upon a new mountain and taught God's people the new law like Moses in Matthew 5.

We've seen how he's the new temple in Matthew 12. And he's replacing the old covenant world with a new covenant blessings in Matthew 21 through 23. Everything in Matthew's gospel is pointing to a transition that is happening.

All of the old types and shadows are waning and the new the glorious the better the truth the the good all of it is. Coming the end of one world is happening right before our very eyes in the book of Matthew and the dawning of a new world is Coming a new world with a new kingdom built on better promises Hebrew 8 6 governed by a better King Hebrews 8 13 ruled by a better ruler Revelation 19 16 and one of the ways Jesus will accomplish This is by making war with the Old Covenant world and giving it the final blow.

If he's gonna usher in a new covenant world a new temple a better sacrifice a new Jerusalem a new priesthood then he's going to have to resoundingly draw the Old Covenant world to a complete and total close and Nowhere, is that more apparent in Matthew's gospel than in Matthew 21 through 23.

And it is of course apparent all throughout the gospel, but it really drives the point home in Matthew 21 through 23. And it's that context that we need before we get started today, and it is to that context that we now turn Matthew 21 through 24 the final showdown in Jerusalem.

The Triumphal Entry and the Temple Judgment

Now when we get to Matthew 21 things have changed the streets of Jerusalem. We're now choked out with pilgrims thousands upon thousands of people who traveled to the city who are now pressing into the city for the Passover feast and Thinking that this year was just like any other year.

The hopes were high. There was jubilation in the air. The air was also however thick with tension because Number one Rome's presence was suffocating. There was armed soldiers lurking on every rooftop.

There were standing guards and strategic points throughout the city in the streets the Pharisees and the Sadducees who were those self-righteous wolves. Were prowling around the city with their long flowing robes and fancy tassels and phylacteries and they were also whispering conspiracies and Looking in every direction ready in a moment to find Jesus so that they could destroy him.

So there was tension in the air. You had Rome and you had the Pharisees on a war path to destroy the Lord of Glory. So it was in some ways like every other Passover, but in many other ways it was completely different.

Now.

Just at that moment When the tension seemed to be rising Jesus came riding into the city on a donkey. Which is not a small thing because that's exactly how Solomon rode into the city of Jerusalem on a donkey with people Celebrating and singing and praising God.

That's how Jesus rose in the road into the city. He came like Solomon riding. Why because he's a king who was coming into the city to take dominion Over his kingdom and the people at that point erupted.

They were singing Hosanna Hosanna to the Son of David. They threw their cloaks in the street. They tore off branches from local trees. They were waving them like victory banners. They bought their voices were thundering throughout the Kidron Valley Shaking the very foundations of the city and in their minds a Messiah had arrived one who was going to lead them to throw off the shackles of Roman oppression imperialism and lead them into national autonomy and local dominion, but very soon.

They probably noticed that Jesus didn't have any trumpets. He didn't have any armies. He didn't have any drawn swords. He was just a carpenter a rabbi a king. Yes. But a prophet riding humbly into the city that was notorious for killing the prophets.

The Sanhedrin as they were watching these events occur. They felt the power dynamic shifting. They felt the crowds Abandoning them and turning to Jesus and the priest and the scribes. They knew it. They sensed it, too.

They knew that this was not just some man on a donkey this was an invasion. They knew that if they didn't squash this that if they didn't get this under control. That Rome was gonna come in and they were gonna look at this and view this as a revolution and they were going to Squash it and they were gonna eliminate whatever national sovereignty that Judah had left.

John 11 48 is their confession.

Now.

During the spectacle Jesus made it abundantly clear where the war was actually aimed at. He didn't go to Herod's Palace to take on the Itamian King. He didn't go to Antonia's fortress to challenge Caesar and his local governors.

No. And he also didn't assemble a brigade of revolutionaries to reclaim the city from occupation. No. Jesus brought the war straight to the city and Specifically straight to the temple and he demonstrated to everyone in that city Who the real enemies were?

You see at that time according to the Thoroughgoing Jew of the day the enemy would have been the Gentile vermin. It would have been Rome it would have been those who were holding their nation captive taking and taxing the life out of them and Polluting their sacred spaces with their Gentile filth.

And yet When God himself came in the flesh, he didn't condemn the Romans and he didn't condemn the Gentiles. He ate with them Luke 7 36. He healed their sick children Matthew 8 5 through 13. He saved their entire city like those in Samaria and John 4 39 through 42.

And it was crystal clear what God was communicating here. The enemies of God Were not the pagans. It wasn't the Romans wasn't the Samaritans. It was the Jews. The Jewish leadership was the ones who were breaking covenant with God the Jewish aristocracy the ones who were leading the city and its temple to become a fruitless institution and from the moment God in human flesh stepped inside the temple He brought war and he brought chaos.

Tables began overturning coins began scattering greedy merchants were driven out with a hand-braided whip the stinging of the crack of the leather against the flesh the cries of the protest the thundering of Jesus's voice in Matthew 21 12 through 13.

Calling out to the people saying it is written My house shall be called a house of prayer, but you have made it a den of robbers, of course. Jesus running them out of the temple like this. Messing up their entire industry like that left the leaders furious their faces were burning with rage.

They Could not believe that he had the gall to do such a thing even after they were already wanting to kill him. Now on the other side of the equation the people loved it. The people cheered the blind and the lame they came to Jesus.

They rushed at him and he healed them right there in the temple precinct. Why what is he doing? He's showing them the Pharisees and the Sadducees and the scribes what the temple was supposed to be all along.

It was supposed to be a place where the people could come and get healed and yet they had weaponized it. It used it to extract money from people through their wicked Currency exchange program that they had there.

They had used it to ostracize the Gentiles stuffing so many animals in the court of the Gentiles that the Gentiles couldn't even come in and Pray, so Jesus welcomed them and he healed them right then and there in front of the priest.

Which was a direct slap in their faces and a direct challenge to their authority and a direct statement from Christ You have not done your job. Now I'm gonna be the true priest and I'm gonna heal God's people right here at the steps of the temple and naturally As you might assume that didn't go over well for the Pharisees, but for the rest of the city the entire night was was Was vivid it was it was lively.

Jerusalem was buzzing with speculation of who was this man? Like why are the priest angry at him? He's sitting here at the temple. He's healing us. He's caring for us. He's loving us. Why would the priest be trying to arrest him?

What was this man really the Messiah or Had everybody Fallen for some sort of clever trick that there was all sorts of speculation that would have been Swirling around the city as the Sun went down that night.

Now the next morning they would have gotten even more clarity on the question because early in the morning Jesus rose. And he was at Lazarus's house. So he rose up and he heads right for the city again.

And he comes he comes back with a bang on his way to the city. The disciples saw him stopped by a local fig tree where the branches were thick with leaves lush and promising. But as Jesus went closer, he noticed that there was no fruit on its branches and What does Jesus do?

Well, just like the city of Jerusalem and its temple the night before that gave him no fruit. With the same rage and intensity and righteous anger that caused him to chase the rebels out of the courts of the Gentiles.

Now he turned to the rebellious plant. He said this May no one ever eat fruit from you again. Now at that point the tree withered right before their very eyes the disciples were stunned. They had no idea at the time that Jesus was talking about more than the tree.

They didn't understand that he was talking about the city of Jerusalem a city that on the outside had all of this glory and outward Splendor, but on the inside was it was like dead men's bones. It was a town Jerusalem that had promised to bear fruit for God.

But when God came in the flesh, but when God came walking into the city and looking it had nothing to give him but a few songs and leaves. Jerusalem was a city that was just as withered as that fig tree and it would likewise Be just as cut down and thrown into the fire a mere 40 years later as that tree would in Jesus's day the disciples.

They're not gonna understand this till later, but the sign had been given and It pointed to 80 70 now back inside the temple. The air was thick with hostility. Jesus walks from the fig tree back into the city and he goes right back to the temple and he goes right back to the chief priest and the Pharisees who are still angry over what happened the night before and he He comes where ready to engage and by the way over the night I guess the Pharisees and the elders and the scribes and all of them had put their heads together in a little think-tank of sorts.

To try to trap Jesus in their questioning. This is what they said to try to trap The king of kings and the Lord of Lords they said by what authority are you doing these things? Who gave you this authority they protested now the crowd fell silent.

Because they're waiting to hear what Jesus was gonna say. No one had ever challenged the Pharisees like this before and because of that the tension was sharp. It was so sharp and so thick that you could cut it with a knife but Jesus calm as ever Turned the trap right back on them saying this.

I Will ask you one question and if you tell me the answer then I will tell you by what authority I do these things. John's baptism was it from heaven or from men. Now the Sadducees stood there frozen and no one ever wanted to challenge the status of John because if they said his Baptism was from heaven and they were gonna condemn themselves for rejecting John.

But if they said that it was for men then the people were gonna turn on them because the people believed that John was a prophet and that he was so they had a little huddle and In their wicked cloister, they whispered they probably argued among themselves.

They stalled for time and then out of cowardice realizing that they had to give an answer. They simply said we do not know. And I think I don't know. I wasn't there obviously neither were you. But I think at that point Jesus might have smiled his last smile that he smiled for a while.

And he looked right at them and he said well. Then neither will I tell you by what authority I do these things. The crowd must have roared with laughter the Pharisees the Sadducees those smug Self-righteous know-it-alls who look down their nose at everyone who are constantly Weaponizing the Mosaic Covenant to wound the common man.

We're now standing Humiliated. Jesus had done it, but he wasn't finished. Because with the gathered crowds hanging on his every word Jesus unleashed now. Because they refused to answer him three scathing parables that tell us precisely what he meant.

The first parable that he tells them is about two sons. There's a father and the father says to the sons go and do such-and-such and and the one son said that he would obey the father but he didn't and Then the other son said that he was not going to obey the father, but he ended up obeying him.

Jesus told the Pharisees he explained it to them. He told them what he meant. He said that they were the children who promised obedience to God and yet In fact spat in the face of God by never doing it and the prostitutes the tax collectors.

The the real vermin of the earth that the Pharisees hated so much. The ones who had made their living out of sinning. They were gonna be the ones who initially refused obedience to God. But who would enter the kingdom before the Pharisees the scribes and the Sadducees.

I can't imagine I Can't imagine how much more of an infuriating story that you could tell but Jesus does it he goes now to a second parable and It was even more scathing because when comparing the Jewish leaders to the wicked men Who killed the vineyards owners son?

Jesus told them that they were the ones who were gonna kill God's Son and they were the ones who were gonna have the kingdom Of God taken away from them and given to a people who bear fruit for God. Did you see it?

Did you see it? The city that offered him no fruit when he rode in on a donkey. The temple that offered him no fruit when he drove out the money changers. The fig tree that offered him no fruit when he came to it that morning and now he's telling them That because of all that fruitlessness They are gonna be destroyed the kingdom is gonna be taken away from them and given to a people who would bear fruit for God.

This is not Random angry Jesus. This is covenant indictment. This is covenant. Whoa, this is Long-standing you have not done what you said you were gonna do you've not fulfilled the Obligations of the covenant.

The covenant was that you would obey God and you would bear fruit for God and you have become utterly totally fruitless and the Pharisees Were picking up on the fact that he was talking about them. But the last parable is the most scathing of them all and that Parable Jesus compares them to people who refuse to go to a wedding feast.

But it wasn't just any old wedding feast. It was a wedding feast for the marriage of the king his crown prince the crown prince of heaven Jesus. And Jesus told them that the king who was God invited them to celebrate in the marriage of his son.

Which is Jesus and they refused to come but even more than that. They were the ones who were gonna kill the heralds that God sent out to invite them they were the ones who were gonna kill the disciples who were sent out to invite them and because of that because they killed the prophets in the Old Testament because they killed Jesus's disciples in the New Testament and because they refused to come to The marriage supper of the lamb where Christ and his church would be married forever.

Because of that the king was going to send his armies and set their city on fire. Until no one was left among them, which is Jesus's way of saying you. Are the ones who are about to be destroyed by God when God?

Brings his armies from Rome and brings them into the city and sets your city on fire. How much more obvious could Jesus have been and while many today? Fail to see the connection Jesus is making they think it's a good story.

That if Jesus gives you an invitation you ought to come. Because if you don't come then you will go to hell where there's fire. And if you do come then you'll enter into the marriage feast and that's heaven.

But could it be? That we've actually missed the primary point. Yeah, of course. There's a spiritual point there. There's an application there, but could it be? That we've missed the primary point that Jesus is talking to the Jews.

The ones who actually killed the prophets you and I haven't killed the prophets. The ones who actually stoned murdered and martyred the disciples, you know, I haven't done that. And while there's a spiritual application the actual Application that the Pharisees would have gotten there was that wait a minute.

He's saying we killed the prophets and our ancestors killed the prophets. He's saying that we're gonna kill the disciples. He's saying that God is gonna send his armies and set our city on fire and that is precisely what he was saying and They seem to understand that they knew that that was that Jesus was talking about them because in Matthew 21 45 It says that that they understood he was talking about them.

So if you are reading these parables and you think that oh, this is about me. This is about I need to respond to Jesus. I need to make sure that I attend the wedding feast and all of that is future. That's heaven.

That's me with Jesus and he turned you've missed it because the Pharisees said no, he's not talking about you. He's talking about us. That's why we killed him. Because he was talking about us because he was embarrassing us in front of our people in front of our sitting in front of our Town, we're the power brokers.

We're the ones who are in control. We're the religious leaders not this messianic upstart and because of that they knew that he was talking about them. They weren't dim-witted dispensational types who accuse everyone of spiritualizing the text they saw it loud and clear.

Jesus believed that they were in the covenantal crosshairs and they were about to die.

And.

If that weren't if that were all that we had to prove the point then it would certainly be enough. I mean all of 21 and all of 22 proves the point but when you get to 23 Where Jesus pronounces seven covenant woes upon the city he curses the city and he announces that his temple is gonna be left desolate Matthew 23 38 and then privately With his disciples on the Mount of Olives.

He lays out the timeline for all of these things and he tells them when it's gonna happen What's gonna be the signs at the end of the age and all of that any he tells them that false messiahs are gonna come.

Matthew 24 5 which we've seen has happened earthquakes and famines are gonna come. Matthew 24 7 wars and ruins. Rumors of wars are gonna happen. Matthew 24 6 lawlessness is gonna break out in Judah. Matthew 24 12 Tribulations are gonna come upon the church.