Exploring My Strange Bible - Signs of the Times - Gospel of Matthew Part 30

Episode Date: December 3, 2018

We go over Matthew Chapter 24 today, which in modern, especially American Protestantism, has become a very controversial text related to biblical discussions about “the end times”. The longer I’ve gone on to learn more about the bible and how symbolism works and apocalyptic texts in Jewish writing, my understanding has really depended. That being said, they still remain controversial because of the symbolism. Let's dive in together.

Tim Mackey, Jr. utterly amazing and worth following with everything that you have. On this podcast, I'm putting together the last 10 years worth of lectures and sermons where I've been exploring the strange and wonderful story of the Bible and how it invites us into the mission of Jesus and the journey of faith. And I hope this can be helpful for you too. I also help start this thing called The Bible Project. We make animated videos and podcasts about all kinds of topics in Bible and theology. You can find those resources at thebibleproject.com. With all that said, let's dive into the episode for this week. All right. Well, in this episode, we're going to be continuing to explore the gospel according to Matthew. We have gotten well into Jesus' final week, his Passion Week in Jerusalem during the week of Passover.

And we're to the point, we're going to explore Matthew chapter 24 today, which in modern, especially American Protestantism, has become a really controversial text related to biblical discussions about the end times. That's what some communities call the set of ideas in Matthew chapter 24. This is controversial territory. And, you know, I was introduced to all of this, like many of you, when I was new at following Jesus in my early 20s, and I was introduced to the whole package deal about, you know, the end of days and rapture stuff. And so, the longer I've gone on to learn more about the Bible, learn more about how Jewish apocalyptic literature works, and how symbolism works in apocalyptic texts and in Jewish writings. My understanding of all of this literature in the Bible has really deepened.

These passages have actually become really more profound than they already were to me. But they still remain controversial because the primary vehicle of this kind of language about end times things in the Jewish biblical tradition. It's symbolic language, which means that it's going to be interpreted in lots of different ways by different communities through different periods of time. And so, you know, I humbly offer my own reading of Matthew chapter 24, what Jesus is trying to get across in its historical context, what Jesus meant in light of sitting there in those realities, but also how he read and understood the Hebrew scriptures and how they pointed to the great day of the Lord and God's divine justice being brought on the nations and their evil.

So how does Jesus sort all this out? We're going to explore together in Matthew chapter 24. You may find that you disagree, and that's totally fine. I expect that we're all going to keep on learning and developing our views on these things as long as we're alive. I think that's just the nature of the case. But let's at least start somewhere, and I'll offer my thoughts here. All right, let's dive in. I invite you to grab a Bible and to turn with me to the New Testament, to the Gospel according to Matthew, chapter 24. We're on the home stretch, you guys. We'll be in Matthew for a couple more months.

We'll finish at Easter. We're going to finish Matthew at Easter. It's really exciting. Happy New Year. Now, I know it's like a week-ish late, but I wasn't here in the morning last week. I was at the Southeast Parish last week, which didn't have a gathering because of the snowstorm. So, Happy New Year to you guys. I haven't seen a lot, lots of you. I don't know, you know, the new year for some of us, it doesn't matter. You're just like, it's just life and you just go through and it just doesn't feel like anything changed. There are others of us for whom it's a meaningful thing, you know, the shift into the new year. And some of us,

we reevaluate, you know, patterns or habits that we have, some things we don't want to do anymore, and new things that we want to do. For me, and I'm guessing for at least some of you, one of the things I, I am a headline junkie. I'm a confessed news headline junkie in this 24 hours a day media circus that we live in here in America. Any other headline junkies? This has to change for us.

I have a little cluster of different news apps, you know, and this is one of my things for the year is to eliminate those down to just a few. through the year is to eliminate those down to just a few. And, you know, it's like, what major world headlines happened in the last hour and a half, you know? And that's kind of, I find myself doing that, and I don't want to do that anymore. I'm just kind of, that's just how I'm wired. I just am really interested in world scene and what's happening, current events. And many of you are too. But a whole bunch of you aren't. That's true also. And so some of you, but if you, you know, are newsline, headline, whatever, if you pay attention, at the end of

the year, this always happens. They do the year in review. And man, you guys, 2015, what a whopper, right? You know? And that's kind of being silly about it. But I mean, really think about what, we had no idea what happened when we were all sitting here a year ago. Think of the continuation of mass shootings that just went crazy last year. Think about everything that's happening with violence,

either perpetrated by police officers or against police officers. Think of what's happening with one of the largest human migrations in recent history out of the Middle East because of war. Think of what's happening with the Islamic State. Think of the craziness of 2015 because of the election momentum that's all going to culminate. I mean, there's just a lot, and that's just like the tip of the iceberg. The world's a crazy place.

That's my point right now, is the world's crazy. And it's kind of out of control. Anybody? Now, here's where some of us go with that. Some of us, we can't handle it. And so you don't have headline news apps on your phone or whatever. Like that would just, so what, you know, ignorance is bliss. And you know that, and so you choose it.

And so things are fine in your neighborhood or whatever, and you're just trying to manage your world, and so you just don't pay attention to it. And that's one way that people respond. That's one way many Christians respond, and I understand that. If you have that on one end, then on another extreme would be another way that many Christians respond, and that's obsession. And I might be somewhere towards this end, but then there's a whole other degree, and I might be somewhere towards this end,

but then there's a whole other degree, and you know what I'm talking about. This is the same crowd for whom the new year means the new prophecy newsletter, right? And this is about people who read the events and current events and try and arrange it into a puzzle and signs so that we can figure out that Jesus will return on May 17th this year. You know what I'm saying, right? How many of you guys know what I'm talking about? Right, that's

people's approach, many Christians' approach toward world events is it's a code, a symbol system. I need to figure out how, because it's, you know, the Bible is all precisely predicting all of this, and you get the forwarded emails that if you really love Jesus, you'll pass this on to everybody you know. Have you gotten those before? Right? And the crown jewel of that whole extreme are the TV shows. Big hair, right? Noisy clothes, and we're doing it on air, live, you know? And if you're really faithful, you'll, you know, submit your credit card number and support this ministry. Right? You guys know what I'm talking about. So these are our extremes, like apathy or ignorance is bliss,

and then obsession, and then weird kind of obsession about the end of the world. And so I don't know where you find yourself anywhere on that spectrum, but for me it raises the question, and for some reason the new year kind of puts it to me at least, is what? The world's crazy. The world's a crazy place and out of control. And I can respond these ways, but what does it look like to be a faithful follower of Jesus in the midst of a crazy world? Like, what does Jesus want me to be and do in the midst of the craziness and the crises that just keep happening? Like, what mindset am I supposed to cultivate? How am I supposed to be intentional so that I don't slide into extremes?

And lucky for us, Jesus spoke precisely to the question. And he does it in what we're looking at today, which is in the context of his prediction of the downfall of the city of Jerusalem. But for him, this isn't even so much about the craziness of the event, though he talks about that. At the core is that he actually does care how his disciples behave in a world that's out of control, and he gives us specific guidance for how to do it. That's what we're looking at here today. How you guys doing? You with me? Okay. So we're looking at Matthew chapter 24, but actually, if you turned there, turn back, we're going to look at the sentences right before it

and just kind of we'll lead into it here. The story is we've been following Jesus. He's announcing this upside-down kingdom of God. He is its king. He came to Jerusalem, the city of David and the messianic kingdom and so on. It's where the temple is. And you remember, he rode into Jerusalem like a king. He asserted himself in the temple. He pulled that stunt, you know, turning the tables over and so on.

He's been teaching there. And what is the verdict of the leaders of Jerusalem towards Jesus of Nazareth? What do they think about him? He's a punk. He's a false prophet. They think he's leading the people astray, that he's crazy, and that he has to be eliminated. They have set in motion a plan to kill him. And so, Jesus, at the end of his accusation against the leaders of Jerusalem, look at verse 37, the very last sentences of chapter 23. He says, and we know from the other Gospels, with tears in his eyes, he says, Jerusalem, Jerusalem, you who kill the prophets

and stone those who are sent to you, how often I've longed to gather your children together So this is really a very tender image. He's been describing his whole mission to the people of Israel as like a mama hen, trying to gather the chicks. And there's wolves out there, all these dangers. And so mama's gathering the chicks under her wings. Jesus says that's what he's been doing by calling Israel to a new, different way to be the people of God in the world. And in their context, under Roman oppression, like under military occupation of a really, really oppressive regime in their times. And Jesus called the people of Israel not to respond with violence, not to respond with revolt or hate, but with just

ridiculous acts of generosity and forgiveness and kindness and peacemaking. And he said that's how the kingdom of God will come. And they've rejected him. And so Jesus makes this prediction, like you weren't willing. Nobody accepted, excuse me, not nobody, lots of Jews accepted Jesus' offer. The leaders of Jerusalem did not. And so he goes on to say, verse 38, look, your house is left to you des hey, I offered you the kingdom, but you didn't like me. So, rah, destruction, you know. So it's like he's hurt feelings or something like that. That's not what's happening here. He's calling Israel, he's calling the people of Israel back from the road that they're on right now, which is a collusion towards Rome. Because Jerusalem is going to become like all the rest of

the kingdoms of this world, which says, oh, here's what we do with our enemies, we annihilate them. That's just what humans do. And Jesus is calling Israel to respond differently, the way of the kingdom, according to Jesus, loving your enemies and praying for those who persecute you. It's just totally upside down. And so for them to reject Jesus is to embrace the road towards conflict and revolt with Rome. And so he predicts it. He says, you weren't willing to listen. And so he predicts it. He says, you weren't willing to listen. You're going to be destroyed. Matthew chapter 24. Now Jesus, he left the temple and he was walking away when his disciples came up to him and they called to his attention all of its buildings. I've showed you this picture before, but you know, it's just a great reminder of how incredible Jerusalem and

this whole temper structure was. You'll see it appear here in a minute. So, sorry, I'm so sorry, this is awkward. It's not, it's not, there we go. All right, all right, thank you. Sorry, but it's not not his fault. There's always some problem with our computer. Anyway, so here we go. So I've shown you this before. It's a large, half a football size, reconstructed model of Jerusalem in Jesus' day. And that's just the temple structure. You can see the large outlines of the city beyond it. It's magnificent. It was one of the wonders of the ancient world, architected by Herod the Great. It took decades to build it. And so the temple is that structure in the middle of the courtyard, and then the courts. Jesus pulled his stunt, turning over the tables and so on under the red roof right there.

And so a week of conflict and rejection. Here, Jesus has been there. And so he's leaving. He's walking away. And the disciples said they're pointing out all of the buildings. Jesus, look at the architecture. Isn't that amazing? I mean, look at it. Look at it. Even if it's still today, if you were to see something of this size and scale, it's incredible. Anybody. It's a magnificent structure. and scale. It's incredible. Anybody. It's a magnificent structure. And what is Jesus' response when they're like, oh, look at the stones. They're so big, Jesus. Look how impressive it is.

What does Jesus say? You see all this? He asked. And they're like, yeah, it's great. It's great. Truly, I tell you, not one stone here will be left on another. Every one, every stone will be thrown down. This kind of killed the party. But we know this is what he just said. You've rejected the way of the kingdom, which is the way of peace. The temple treasuries, which is the buildings right around the temple there, so it's both the national monument and the national cathedral and the treasury,

all in one building. And that treasury will be depleted, funding the war against Rome that's going to start in just decades. And that's even boiling right now in Jesus' day that we know from other historical sources. And so it's even boiling right now in Jesus' day that we know from other historical sources. And so it's with grief that Jesus says, you guys, no. No, the Jerusalem, the temple, what people think is God's dwelling place, it's a sham and it's going to be destroyed.

That's a major, major thing to say for a Jewish man to say, a Jewish prophet. It's treasonous, even. And so naturally, the disciples have questions. Verse 3. As Jesus was sitting on the Mount of Olives, the disciples came to him privately. Tell us, they said, when will this happen? And what will be the sign of

your coming and of the end of the age? How many questions is that? Two questions. Did you see it? Look at verse 3, and if you're a Bible nerd, and even if you're not a Bible nerd, look at verse 3. How many questions are there? Two. What's the first one? When will this happen? Or some of you have, when will these things happen? A little more literal. So what are they asking about? When will what happen? The destruction of the temple. He just said twice, the temple's going to be desolated or destroyed. And it's a natural question. The first thing they ask is, well, when?

When's that going to happen? It doesn't look like it's very bad off right now. It looks incredible. When's that going to happen? That's their first question. What's their second question? What's the sign of your coming and of the end of the age? So in their mind, these two events are connected here. Jesus just predicted the fall of Jerusalem because they've rejected God's kingdom.

But then closely connected with that is the event that's all of their hopes, which is the coming of the messianic kingdom to confront evil in the world and to bring justice and peace and the rebirth of the universe and hope and the new creation. I mean, that's their ultimate hope. And so these events are tied together for them, right? If Jesus is the king, he's been rejected by Jerusalem, he's predicted the city's going to be destroyed, and so when's that going to happen, Jesus. He's predicted the city is going to be destroyed. And so when's that going to happen, Jesus? And also, when are you going to take up your kingdom and become king of the world? They're just the two events are so closely tied together for them. They ask

two questions. And lucky for us, Jesus answers their questions. And he gives two answers. Which question do you think he answers first? He answers the first one first, as you would hope he would, as a clear communicator, which he's not always. I'll grant you that. So, just watch what he's going to do. He's going to answer the first question first. What's the first question again? When's this? Starting in verse 4, he's going to go on for, we're going to read it through today and explore it. He's going to answer this question. When will these things happen? When will the fall of Jerusalem take place? It goes through verse 35. Now go down, just kind of skim, go down. We're going to read it through. We'll have to do it fairly quickly,

but read through. Go to the end of the answer to this first question, verse 33. Even so, when you see all these things, you know that it, or some of your translations have he, oh boy, here you go. Welcome, welcome to the debate. Anyway, something is near, right at the door. Truly I tell you, this generation will certainly not pass away until all these things have happened. What are these things? What are these things? What was the question that he was asked?

When will these things or this happen? Namely, the fall of Jerusalem, he just responded. He gives an answer, and then he concludes his answer by giving a timeline, doesn't he? These things are going to happen within how long? What does he say? Well, within this generation. So who wants to give a good biblical number to the passing of a generation? Think of the Israelites in the wilderness. Well, 40. There you go, 40. 40 is the biblical round, round number for a generation. Within 40 years, Jesus says, these things will take place, the fall of Jerusalem.

He was very close. It was 37 years. 37 years. So that's the answer to his first question. Then he's going to take up the response to the second question. What's the second question? What's the sign of your coming and of the conclusion, the end of the age, right? When the kingdom of God becomes the kingdom of this whole, when heaven and earth meet and the kingdom

of God comes. He takes up the answer to that question in verse 36, and look how he begins. But about that day or hour, nobody knows. Not the angels in heaven, not even the Son. Who knows the timing of that one? The Father. That might raise a whole bunch of interesting questions for you that we're not going to talk about right now. But what does Jesus essentially say? He says, I don't know. The timing, right? So he's very clear about this one, but about his return, the second question, and the end of the age and so on,

he's like, yeah, I don't know. I don't know. And he goes on then to give an answer to that that we'll explore next week and over the next couple weeks. So there you go. Now here we enter in this passage has been one of these passages in Jesus' teachings that's attracted enormous debate and conversation. And so I'm just going to do my best

to keep it simple, to help us understand why people come to the different conclusions that they do. But ultimately, this is not about creating timelines or speculation. Jesus is giving pastoral wisdom and guidance to his disciples about what on earth are you, how are you supposed to live when the world gets out of control? Like, what mindset should I have as a follower of Jesus if it's not apathy or obsession? What do I do? That's what he cares about, and that's what he's going to move towards in this answer. Now, the way he goes about answering it is going to feel strange to us, and it's going to feel strange to most of us because most of us in the room here aren't ethnically Jewish. You didn't grow up going to synagogue every week, and you didn't grow up immersed in the language of the prophets

and the poetry of the prophets. And the way that Jesus is going about answering this question, it's like a good Jewish prophet, so we're going to give him a beard. So think of it like this. Some of you have seen me draw this drawing before. Think about if you've ever gone up to the Rose Gardens or Piddock Mansion or something like that. You get up on Skyline Boulevard and you can look at the Willamette Valley looking up at Mount Hood. And so in the foreground,

what you'll see in front of you is the River Valley and then you'll see like Mount Tabor. You'll see Rocky Butte over here. And then behind that, you'll see like Mount Tabor. You'll see Rocky Butte over here, you know, and then behind that you'll see like Powell Butte and Mount Scott over here. And then you start to see the hills that kind of go out to Sandy, you know, and then the foothills and then, right? Mount Hood, Mount Hood. You guys know the viewpoint I'm talking about? It's great. Mount Hood. Mount Hood.

You guys know the viewpoint I'm talking about? It's great. It's Grand View. So you'll quickly track with what I'm doing right here. There's something about your perspective when you're viewing such huge distances that, you know, Mount Tabor, which overlooks just the most wonderful part of Portland, in my humble opinion, right? So, you know, you can see, like, oh, that's very close. You know, I've been there before. which overlooks just the most wonderful part of Portland in my humble opinion. So you can see like, oh, that's very close. I've been there before.

And so Rocky Butte's a little further out and like Powell Butte and so on. But then you look at Sandy and you're like, well, this is the hill and the hill's there. And it's so difficult to tell the distance between them from this angle. Do you guys know what I'm talking about? And if you guys ever had the feeling when you're up on the West Hills looking at Mount Hood and you guys know what I'm talking about? And if you guys ever

had the feeling when you're up on the West Hills looking at Mount Hood and you're like, I could jog there right now. It just looks so, it looks so close. And you have no sense of depth that like this is actually a full-on like hour and a half drive, you know, like through this. And that Sandy itself is a half hour from this and kind of, and you get the, what you have to do is get in a helicopter, get up and get the whole thing and go, and you realize the vast distances between these two things. This is how the prophets and how Jesus goes about talking. He's going to enter into a mode of talking that,

the nerdy name scholars give it is the language of apocalyptic literature, which doesn't mean the end of the world. It's a way of talking that the prophets wrote and spoke, full of imagery, full of symbolism. And what they would do is they would look at events close to them in history, the fall of Jerusalem, the fall of Babylon, or the fall of the Edomites or something, and they would paint it,

but then paint it within a poem that paints it within God's cosmic purposes in the world to judge evil and to bring peace to all nations. And they do it all within one poem. And you're left going like, well, wait, what's this about? Is this about the fall of Jerusalem or the end of the world? Exactly. You're reading Jewish apocalyptic poetry, right? And it's just a different culture. You just have to check your assumptions. Are you guys with me here? So let's just pretend you don't know anything. And we're just trying to read and learn and let's see where we get. Tour begins. Verse four. watch out jesus says that no one deceives you for many will come in my name claiming i'm the messiah and they'll deceive many you're going to hear about wars and rumors of wars but see to it

that you are not alarmed such things must happen but it's not the end the end is still to come Now remember, what question is he answering? What question is he answering? What question is he answering? When will the fall of Jerusalem take place? And we know this is part of his answer, that these things will happen within how long? Remember? 40 years. So first of all, he says, yeah, it's going to get really bad. It's going to get bad. There's going to come people who will say, Jesus of Nazareth, he's clearly the failed Messiah. He got crucified. He's a loser. No, it's me.

It's me. It's some new leader. And we know from historical records there were other people claiming to be God's anointed deliverer of the people of Israel that came after Jesus. There's some even referenced in the book of Acts that took place after Jesus. And Jesus says, watch it. They're going to be the wrong kind of leader. And you're going to see war at home, war abroad, famine, earthquakes.

And what is Jesus' advice to his disciples? What does he say? Don't, don't let it throw you off the rails. You should just expect that the world is crazy. You're going to think that it's the end of the world, but I'm telling you it's not. It's not. He says it not only is not the end,

but he tells you, he gives this vivid metaphor of what it is. It's in verse 8. He says these are the birth pains. He describes the world as a woman in labor. And that the way that human beings work and the way human kingdoms rise and fall and war and famine and natural disasters, it's like our world is writhing in the pain of labor.

And labor pains, of course, all build up towards a moment of new birth, of birth, right, and of new life. And this is how the prophets think about the history of the world, that we live in a world wracked with human evil and sin and death. It's like the pains of labor, but it's

building up towards the moment of Jesus' return. And so Jesus says, like, listen, we're just in the foothills for the next 40 years. We're in the foothills, like Rome, Greece, Persia, right? Battle of Carthage, like all these crazy events. It's all going to go down, and don't be alarmed. It's just the world. It's just the way things work here. Verse 9. Then you'll be handed over and persecuted, put to death.

You'll be hated by all nations because of me. At that time, many are going to turn away from the faith and betray and hate one another. Many false prophets will appear and deceive many people. Because of the increase of wickedness, the love of most will grow cold. of most will grow cold. So he's saying, what question is he answering? It's going to get annoying, but it'll help us in a few minutes here, right? So what question is he answering? He's answering this question. So just think through the book of Acts, right? The disciples are going to go out and begin announcing that Jesus is the risen king of the world. going to go out and begin announcing that Jesus is the risen king of the world. And how are people going to respond to this announcement? Some people think it's great news, and other people think it's ridiculous, right? The strange idea that the Jewish prophet is the Messiah, and that he was executed

and raised from the dead, and is the king of the world. I mean, come on. That's strange. That's strange, you guys. And if you don't think it's kind of odd that you believe that, then you've become too domesticated to the whole thing, right? Like, talk with your neighbors about what they think you believe. You know what I'm saying? And you realize it's quite odd. And so you have these followers of Jesus going out into the world with this message. And look at what it is.

There's three things, he says, that are going to happen and all kinds of people are going to bail on following me. First of all, there'll be pressure from without, persecution, mockery. It's the strange Christians that live in these strange different ways and believe this. So there's persecution. But not only that, there's rot from within. So he says false prophets, so people who claim to speak on behalf of God and behalf of Jesus, and they get a following. But actually, actually what they've done is they have a religious or political agenda, and they've just hijacked Jesus and are trying to get people on their team to whatever, to give them their credit card numbers or do, you know, like people on their team to whatever, to give them their credit card numbers,

or be on their team. It actually has nothing to do with Jesus, but it's all done in Jesus' name. Watch out, Jesus says. Lots of that coming down the road. And that if it's not persecution, or giving in to bad false leaders or teachers, then it's going to be apathy due to wickedness, Jesus says,

lawlessness. The way of Jesus' kingdom is so counterintuitive. Human kingdoms, just it's natural, humans and human societies, us, right? We reshape right and wrong, we turn wrong into right and right into wrong. And as that happens, our own moral compasses get distorted and our love grows cold. It's a very vivid image. So for Jesus, what's the meaning of human life? What's the meaning of life? What are humans supposed to be about? What are we made for? Love. Love who? Love God. Love neighbor. There's something, the purpose of humans gets extinguished in the course of the rise and fall of human kingdoms. So is Jesus describing something unique to the 40 years after he said these words. Like, somehow, does anyone see the last 100 years in these words? Does anyone see the 100 years after Jesus in these words?

Does anyone see the basic human condition of every century, says Jesus, in these words? Exactly. That's exactly right. He's talking like a prophet. He's talking specifically about an event leading up to Mount Tabor, right? But actually we know, and the reason Matthew's preserved this for us is he knows that actually what Jesus was doing, he's telling, this is going to be a, because this is going to continue on after the fall of Jerusalem, and you're going to reach Sandy and then Welches and Rhododendron, and it's all going to be the same. It's not going to be any different.

Somehow every generation we tend to think of our crises as the most significant one, that nothing's like, no one's ever lived through this before. Surely this is the end. And Jesus is like, don't be alarmed. The world's screwed up. You with me? So what should his disciples do? And he has two recommendations. They're very simple. Verse 13. He says, the one who stands firm to the end will be saved. So it's about intentional being an intentional disciple of jesus and recognizing there are all

kinds of social forces and movements there's all kinds of fears that are going to try and distract me right and pull me towards apathy or they're going to pull me towards a weird form of religious extremism, you're right, an obsession, and it's just, no, the one who stands firm and just follows me and follows my teachings. Love God, love your neighbor as yourself. That's just mission number one. And endurance.

He doesn't even say, like, remarkable success. The one who succeeds and, like, wins all their neighbors to Jesus. He just says, just the ones who hang on. All right? It's so encouraging because it's like he knows that that's about all we're capable of a lot of the time, right? The one who stands firm. Just today, this year, holy cow, what just happened? What just did I read on the news? Love God, love your neighbor. That's number one. And number two, and this gospel of the kingdom will be preached in the whole world as a testimony to all nations. Then the end will come. Jesus is acknowledging here that the fall of Jerusalem is not the end of the world, that there is a whole worldwide mission of his disciples

to live through their words, through their actions, loving God, loving neighbor, that the good news about the risen King Jesus needs to go out to all of the nations. And how long is that going to take? Well, apparently 2,000, right? At least, right? And when is it all going to culminate? When he returns. He says, I don't know. You know, I don't know how long that's going to take. But at least he gives us like marching orders. Marching orders. But at least he gives us like marching orders, marching orders. Apparently, like all the stuff about, well, maybe like this person, the Antichrist, perhaps, you know, and like the weird prophecy charts and so on, like that's giving into speculation and fear. But also withdrawal and not caring about what's happening in the world is also abdicating our responsibility.

Because Jesus cares about this world. The whole point of the story of the Bible is that God cares and is going to redeem and restore it. And so by standing firm and by bearing witness to the good news of Jesus, that's the mindset I'm to cultivate every day, every day I wake up. You with me? Let's keep going. So, when you see standing in the holy place

the, quote, abomination that causes desolation, end quote, spoken of by the prophet Daniel, dear reader, please understand. What? Did you guys look at, if you have a Bible open, look at verse 15. It's just like such, it's the worst sentence in the world in terms of proper sentence structure. It's like, you're going to see this thing happening in the temple,

the holy place, and then he quotes from the book of Daniel. And then it's like, let the reader understand. What? So this is super interesting, and I can't nerd out on this for you. But it's a cue, perhaps from Jesus. I think more likely it should be in parentheses. It's Matthew saying, dear reader, go read the book of Daniel, and what Jesus is going to say will make sense to you. But until you are immersed in the prophets you're going to be lost. I think that's what this means. So what's he talking about here?

Remember what was Jesus' prediction that spurred this question? What was the prediction? Fall of Jerusalem. And what was the question that they asked? First question? When's it going to happen? So Jesus predicted that not one stone would be left on another.

And now he's describing the downfall of the city as the abomination that causes desolation. So here's what happened. I'll show you another picture. I showed you the model of Jerusalem. We can actually see the evidence today of the very event that Jesus predicted and that happened. So you're looking at one of these tall walls, the remains of the walls of Jerusalem, and you're looking at the stones that Jesus said not one would be left on another. This has all been excavated. This was all buried for centuries. So right there on the right is pavement

like it was the main street. Jesus walked on that street to go into the temple. These stones, so think what, when the Romans came to squash the revolt, it was a military revolt that was boiling in Jesus' day. They rejected Jesus' call to a different way and full steam ahead. The battle started in 66 AD. It concluded in 70 AD when Jerusalem fell. Now, just like the, I don't know if you can see a tiny person right there on the right, just to get a scope of how huge these stones are. And so think when the Romans invaded the city and they plundered everything, like think, these stones are the size of large cars. So like for weeks, what they did was like lever off the stones to topple this whole structure.

And then the destruction caused even more desolation. Go to the next slide. Today in Rome, still today, you can go see a monument called the Arch of Titus. And Titus was the Roman general who led the siege and battle against Jerusalem. And it's a monument describing all of his great victories and how he's awesome. And inside of the arch is a depiction of some of his greatest victories. And what you're seeing there is inside the arch is a depiction of Roman soldiers plundering the temple in Jerusalem.

And what they did is they won the city, they burned everything to the ground, they plundered the temple of all the gold and the jewels and menorah, right, the candle stand that was right inside the temple. And then we're told that they began to offer sacrifices on the altar of the God of Israel, but to the gods of Rome, as a statement that, of course, their God's much more powerful than the God of Israel,

because look, they won. And Jesus says, when you see this happening, what should your response be? He's talking to his disciples. What should they do? What should they do? Run. Run. Let those who are in Judea flee to the mountains. Let no one on the housetop go down and take anything out of the house. There's no time. and take anything out of the house. There's no time. The Roman soldiers are coming. Let those who are in the field,

excuse me, let no one in the field go back and get their cloak. How dreadful it will be in those days for pregnant women and nursing mothers. Imagine having to flee the city with maybe just a few of your belongings and you have a baby. Pray that it doesn't happen during winter or on the Sabbath.

For then there will be a great distress unequaled from the beginning of the world until now, never to be equaled again. If those days hadn't been cut short, no one would survive. But for the sake of the elect, the days will be shortened. Now, how are you doing? How are you guys doing on the tour so far? Interesting. Interesting. Now, how you doing? How you guys doing on the tour so far? Interesting, because you were like, for sure, he was just describing the fall of Jerusalem,

like he just referred to it, and let the people who are in Judea, any of his disciples who are in the region, flee, because that's going to be bad news. But then all of a sudden, he started talking about how this is the greatest distress in the world. You with me? Did you feel like something changed there?

It feels like he was talking about Mount Tabor, and then he just started talking about Mount Hood, right? So what's happening? Well, he's a Jewish prophet. And there are a couple views. So here are the two main camps here. You've seen the basic point of the debate. Here are the two main camps here.

You've seen the basic point of the debate. Some people think that Jesus is essentially talking about both events, the end of Jerusalem and the events leading up to the end of the world. And without giving any cues or indications, he's just kind of floating back and forth, talking about both of them at the same time. That's possible. There are people that I think are way smarter than me and that I really respect who hold that view.

I don't think that view's right, though. And here's why. If you go look up this very phrase right here, there was something that was never like it ever before in the world and never was like it after again. That's a fixed phrase in the Hebrew Bible. It occurs about 12 times. And if you look at it, how it's used, it doesn't mean what it seems to mean. If I were to say to you, man, I caught a huge fish, it's bigger than any fish that anybody's ever caught. You give me grace because you know what I'm doing is exaggerating. But somehow,

when the biblical authors talk, we don't give them the ability to exaggerate to make a point. Although Jesus did say, tear out your eye if you want to follow me and hate your mom and your dad. Although Jesus did say, tear out your eye if you want to follow me and hate your mom and your dad. And I'm pretty sure, are you guys with me here? Like Jesus was known to use heightened exaggeration to make a point. There are all kinds of kings mentioned in the Old Testament. And it said like, Josiah, no king was like him ever before and no king was ever like him afterwards. That is, until Hezekiah. He was the no king before him and no king after him like him afterwards. That is, until Hezekiah, he was the no king before him and no king after him, and you get like all these kings, and this is all said

about them, and you're like, oh, I think the point is they were really great kings, right? So I think that's what's going on, and so from a Jewish person's point of view up to that point, that Jerusalem is the center of everything. It's God's house. And the siege of Jerusalem and the destruction that God would let foreign armies conquer his own temple, it's just, for them, it is the center of the world. And it is the greatest catastrophe in world history. And in terms of God's purposes in the world, the fall of Jerusalem was one event in history

that fits into the trail of what God's doing to confront evil in his world. I could be wrong about that, but I don't think that I am, but I could be. Verse 23. Let's keep going. The tour begins again. At that time, if anyone says to you, look, here's the Messiah. Oh, look, there he is. Don't believe it. False messiahs and false prophets will appear and do signs and wonders. They'll deceive even, it's possible, the elect, my disciples. I'm telling you ahead of time so that you don't give your credit card number to somebody who says, please fund this ministry and you too will get in on the, are you with me here? It's just like, he's saying, he knows. People are afraid. We get afraid

when the world falls apart, and we give in to fear, we give in to speculation, and Jesus says, don't give in. The future is in the Father's hands. Stand firm. Bear witness to the good news about Jesus. Don't let people prey on your fears. If I'm in a place of fear, it shows that I'm in a place where I don't think that history is in Jesus' hands. And I will grant to you, because I go there myself too, that for all purposes, it looks like history is out of control half the time.

And so we call to wake up that morning, stand firm, just follow Jesus, love God, love my neighbor, and bear witness to the hope that Jesus, he knows what he's doing, and that he's the king of history. I'm telling you this ahead of time, Jesus says. Verse 29. in heaven. And all the peoples of the earth will mourn when they see the Son of Man coming on the clouds of heaven with power and great glory. And he'll send his angels with a loud trumpet call, and they'll gather his elect from the four corners, from the four winds, and from one end of the heavens to another. Whoa. Which mountain are we talking about right here? Like, which mountain does it seem like we're talking about? Mount Tabor? No. It seems like he just started talking about Mount Hood.

The sign of your coming and the end of the age. So here you go. Okay, perfect. All right. I went too long last time. These two passages are where it all comes down to it. It could be that Jesus just decided without giving any indication, shifted and started talking about the end of the world and his return.

That's possible. Even though right after this sentence, he's going to say, now this is all going to happen in the next 40 years, you know. So he's just shifting topics, and I guess he can do that. He's Jesus. There are some people who would say, no, he did think that it was all going to come to a close at the fall of Jerusalem, and he was wrong. That's a view that some people hold.

Or there's a view where I go back and I say, maybe these two poems that Jesus quotes from Isaiah and Daniel don't mean what I think they mean, because they were, after all, not written in English to 21st century modern Americans. So let's just try out this option, right? Jesus is quoting from a prophet about the sun and the moon and the stars and so on. And what prophet is he quoting from? You should have a little note. You with me? Do you have a little note that tells you where he's quoting from? You ought to. You ought to. It's a direct quotation from the book of Isaiah, chapter 13. And let's just read it in context and you come to your own conclusion.

Listen, a noise on the mountains, like that of a great multitude. Listen, an uproar among the kingdoms, an army for war coming from faraway lands. The stars of heaven and their constellations will not show their light. The rising sun will be darkened, and the moon will not give its light. See, I will stir up the Medes against Babylon, who don't care about silver, don't delight in gold. Their bows will strike down the young men. Babylon, the jewel of kingdoms, the pride and the glory of the Babylonians will be overthrown. What's this poem about?

This poem's about the downfall of what city? Babylon. Babylon? Babylon. Babylon. Babylon. Babylon was the capital city of the largest and most brutal world empire that people had ever seen in the ancient world. had ever seen in the ancient world. And Isaiah wrote a poem depicting how God was going to level Babylon to the ground.

And what other nation is God going to use to bring about the downfall of Babylon? Medes. And in the course of describing the downfall of Babylon, Isaiah says, the stars, sun and moon. Did the sun get extinguished in 586, or excuse me, 539 BC when Babylon fell? Did the sun go dark? Not that I, okay. It's poetry. It's poetry. Are we going to... Be more literal, right? Why don't you just speak clearly, Isaiah?

He's a poet, for goodness sakes. You know what I'm saying? So, the world as they know it came to an end. The largest empire of the known world came crashing down. It's remarkable. Like in the course of two weeks, just debt reduced to nothing.

The world as they knew it came to an end, and the only language strong enough that Isaiah can describe it is that the cosmos itself dissolved and ceased working. And this is the very line that Jesus quotes to talk about the downfall of Jerusalem. Anybody? Anybody? Jesus? In Jesus' eyes, Jerusalem has become Babylon. Jerusalem has become indistinguishable from the great, violent, arrogant nations of the world. And so he predicts its downfall the same way Isaiah did.

Then he goes on to talk about the Son of Man. I know that two-thirds of you don't care about this, right? You're bored. I don't care, right? Because there's a third of you that really do care, and this has been a real issue for you. Three more minutes. So he's quoting from a vision that Daniel has, Daniel chapter 7. And I don't have the Bible project video to show you yet, but I have the artwork. So this will make all of us tune back in again because it's cartoons in the church. So Daniel is up there in the upper left having a dream. And he ate something really spicy that night because he has a dream about these crazy, crazy mutant

creatures rising up out of the sea. And it so disturbs him that he can't make sense of it. And so a young man is there, appears to him in his dream to explain the meaning of the vision. And what the young man says is that these beasts are symbols of kingdoms. And kingdoms that, as you go read through the book, symbolize Babylon and Persia and Greece and so on. But there is coming a great super beast. It's the big gnarly one that doesn't fit like any zoological categorization. And he has this huge horn coming up out of his head. And then the young

man says, oh yeah, that's a symbol of a king. And this super beast kingdoms, it's like an archetype of all the bad kingdoms of the world, are going to trample on this figure called the son of man, who's the silhouette figure there. And then the young man says, yeah, the son of man you saw in your dream, that's a symbol for God's people and their king. But then what Daniel sees in his dream is that God comes with fire and light, and God sets up a throne, and he judges the beastly kingdom, and he sentences it to destruction for its violence and arrogance. And then we read this line. You see it at the bottom there. Daniel says, I saw in the night visions there was before me one like the Son of Man who had been trampled and so on. He came on the clouds of heaven. He came to the ancient of days

and to him was given dominion, glory, and a kingdom that all peoples, nations, and languages should serve him. So just stop right here. The Son of Man is in Daniel's vision, riding on clouds, from where to where? Well, from death and destruction up into heaven to be seated at God's right hand and to take up his kingdom over the world. So in other words, once you read this passage in context, you see Jesus is not quoting a passage talking about his return to earth on a cloud.

What he's talking is in the language of Daniel's vision of his being exalted from persecution and death up to the right hand of God to become the king of the world. Are you with me here? So can I think of an event where Jesus was trampled and destroyed even unto death, but that God reversed that decision by exalting the Son of Man up to life to declare him to be king of the nations. Oh yes, I feel like that's going to happen to Jesus, like not in 40 years, but like within days. And that Jesus is going to send out his messengers to all of the nations and to gather together his disciples from all of the nations who will bear witness to the kingdom by standing firm and by enduring. How you guys doing? So that's my view of what's happening here. Other people who

I think are smarter than me disagree with me, and they think Jesus is shifting and talking about Mount Hood and his return to earth right here, even though he says it was happened within 40 years. I think there's problems with that view, but people who hold that view think there's problems with my view, which means that in the end, it's okay. It's okay. Like, secondary issue, we both love Jesus. We all want to stand firm and follow him.

How are you guys doing? The tour's over. All right, the tour's over. All right. Tour's over. The tour's over. How does Jesus want his followers to live in a world that is constantly on the verge of crisis

and that constantly feels like it's falling apart? And for those of us here who are prone to fear or we're prone to speculation and it seems like things are out of control. And I know, you know, I know there's a lot of us who live in this space. And Jesus, the bottom line is that Jesus wants us to trust that history is in his hands, and that his death and his resurrection mean that the most powerful forces of evil don't get the last word in his world, and that things have always been bad

and that life is probably going to continue on about as horribly as the last 2,000 years of human history have shown us. And that one day Jesus will return and confront evil and bring his kingdom. Amen? That's what he's gonna talk about next week. And so I'm gonna close in a word of prayer and here's what I's going to talk about next week. And so I'm going to close in a word of prayer.

And here's what I would just encourage you to do as we take the bread in the cup, is to just ask yourself where on the spectrum you might be, apathy, extremism, who are people in your life that you know are given to fear and speculation? And what does it mean for your love not to grow cold, but to come alongside them, to help them stand firm and bear witness to the good news of Jesus? We are a people of hope as followers of Jesus, no matter how bad it gets. And that's the enduring hope of the good news of risen King Jesus. Thank you for listening to Exploring My Strange Bible podcast. We're going to keep exploring Matthew in future episodes, so we'll see you next time. Thank you.