We come now to the time in which we turn to the Word of the living God. It’s Luke chapter 21…Luke chapter 21 and we’re going to be looking this morning at what is really introductory to the rest of this very important chapter. Starting in verse 5, we come to a section of Scripture that runs nearly to the end of the chapter, all the way to verse 36, in which our Lord speaks concerning His return…His Second Coming…His coming to judge and His coming to reign on the earth. This is our Lord’s own sermon on His Second Coming. And it comes at a very, very appropriate time because from the human viewpoint, it looks as if His coming has been a total disaster and abysmal failure, a massive disappointment. It is, when we come to verse 5, still Wednesday…Wednesday of what is known as Passion Week, the week in which our Lord is crucified. On Thursday the betrayal will take place. And on Friday He will be crucified by the Romans. It is Wednesday. It is only going to get worse, a lot worse from the human viewpoint. In fact, from the human viewpoint, His life is worse than a failure, it is a disaster. And so it is on the brink of what appears, from a human viewpoint, to be a tragic end that our Lord gives to us the real story of the end bound up in His return to earth in the future.
The world has not seen the last of Jesus Christ. He is coming back. And he speaks of it in this chapter. It is a very important chapter. It is a powerful chapter, as we shall see, experiencing its unfolding in the weeks to come. But as we approach this text, let’s read at least the introduction to it in verses 5, 6 and 7. “And while some were talking about the temple, that it was adorned with beautiful stones and votive gifts, He said, ‘As for these things which you’re looking at, the days will come in which there will not be left one stone upon another which will not be torn down.’ And they questioned Him saying, ‘Teacher, when therefore will these things be? And what will be the sign when these things are about to take place?’” And verse 8 begins, “And He said…” and then comes the longest answer ever given by our Lord to a question, and it runs all the way, as I said, into verse 36. It is an answer to the questions about when will divine judgment fall and what are the signs that it is about to take place? Jesus answers those questions.
In the parallel account in Matthew, there are a couple of other components added to the question. Matthew 24:3, the disciples also added, “What is the sign of Your coming and the end of the age?” They associated Messiah with the end of the age. His coming would mean judgment on the ungodly. It would mean salvation for Israel. The Kingdom in which He would reign over the whole world signaling the end of the age, the age of man’s rule and the oppression of the people of God and the establishment of God’s rule and the exaltation of the people of God.
They weren’t waiting for the Messiah to come, He was present. In fact, in Matthew 24:3 where it says, “What will be the sign of Your coming? “Coming” is really a little bit of a misleading translation. The word in the Greek is parousia, it means presence…presence. And it really was used of a king who had arrived and would continue to dwell among his people. So what they’re really asking is this, “Now that You are here, what are we looking for that will inaugurate the work that You’ve come to do?” They don’t see Him there and going away and coming back several thousand years later. They see His parousia, His presence, and they want to know You’re here, what sign are we looking for that’s going to inaugurate all our Messianic expectations? That’s their question and it comes in response to His statement about the tearing down of the temple in verse 6, that not one stone will be left upon another that will not be torn down.
Now let me set the scene for you a little bit, put you in the context. It is Wednesday of Passion Week, it is Wednesday evening. This is the last week of our Lord’s life before His crucifixion, as I said, followed Sunday by His resurrection, followed by 40 days of teaching and appearing to His own, followed by His ascension. But this is Wednesday, all day long He has been in the temple which He had cleansed the day before, throwing out the buyers and the sellers, the corrupt money changers and those who were extorting money at exorbitant prices out of people by disqualifying the sacrifices they brought and making them buy sacrifices from them. Jesus had done that at the beginning of His ministry and He had to do it again. There was no question in the minds of His followers that the system was corrupt. They knew it was corrupt because they had grown up in it. They knew it was corrupt because they had been saved out of it. Of course, His disciples, for the most part, affirmed Him as Messiah, they had come to believe in Him as Messiah, they had been taught by Him and He had taught them plenty about the corruption of the Jewish religious system. He had spoken very strong words about the Sadducees, Pharisees, the scribes, the religious leaders. They knew exactly how He felt. He had cleansed the temple the day before, cleansed it at the beginning of His ministry. He had just finished a prolonged speech or sermon against the leaders of Israel in which He pronounced repeated judgment and damnation curses upon their heads. And He made very clear that Jerusalem was cursed, the religious system cursed. And because its effect had reached the nation as well as the city, the whole nation would bear the curse. And, in fact, He had told them on a couple of occasions that the land and the people and the temple was desolate and was falling under the judgment of God. Now He gets very specific and says, “This judgment is going to mean the dismantling of the temple itself.”
So they knew how He felt about the system. They knew also that Messiah had come to judge, that there was judgment in the coming of Messiah. But they knew also there would be salvation, restoration, forgiveness and the establishment of a Kingdom. They thought it would all happen at one time. It would all be one big event. And He’s there…they’re not expecting Him to go away and stay away until long after their life times have ended and thousands of years later still not return. They’re assuming You’re here, what sign are we looking for that’s going to launch all the events that we expect to take place?
The leaders, of course, had tried to discredit Jesus publicly because they want Him dead. Those who normally hated each other agreed to work together for the execution of Jesus, namely the scribes, the Pharisees working with the Sadducees, and both of them working with the Herodians. They all came together top get rid of Jesus who was a problem to each and all of them. They were unsuccessful in trying to trap Him in His words publicly so they could bring some just accusation against Him and force the Romans to execute Him. So when they did finally bring Him before Pilate in chapter 23, they lied and fabricated things about Him in order to get the Romans to execute Him. They have finished their attacks by now. The end of Wednesday, they have nothing more to say. Chapter 20 verse 40, they didn’t have the courage to question Him any longer about anything. The crowd is still unconvinced. The crowd is still waiting to see what they expect the Messiah to do if He’s the real Messiah. And that is put on a power display and overthrow Rome and do all the things they expected their Messiah to do. So they remain in neutral with mounting disappointment that finally ends up in the crowd crying, “Crucify Him, crucify Him, we will not have this man to reign over us.”
Well Jesus has completed all His sermons to the crowd. He has preached the last sermon to the crowd which was a warning against the scribes and the Pharisees who were their spiritual leaders. The full text of that sermon is recorded in Matthew 23 and it’s one of the most blistering maledictions on the pages of Scripture, if not THE most blistering of all judgment sermons. And that’s how He ends. He warns the people about the direction their false leaders are taking them and He warns the false leaders about damnation. He has nothing more to say to the crowds. He has told them the truth. He’s given them the gospel. He’s declared Himself to be the Messiah, Son of David, and David’s Lord at the same time, God and Man. He has preached His last message, His last warning. He’s had His last discussion, His last dialogue confrontation with the leaders. It’s over. The last thing that we know that He did in the temple was sit down because He was drained and weary. And as He sat down in the Court of the Women, He looked across opposite Him to the treasury and He watched the people putting money in and He saw the widow come by in the first four verses of chapter 21, and He watched the widow put in her last two cents to go home to die. And He hated the kind of religious system that would take the last two cents out of the hand of a defenseless, destitute widow. And that was the final scene with Jesus in the temple, so corrupt…so corrupt that those whom He had accused of devouring widows’ houses are doing just that and He watches a widow give up her last two cents because that’s what that religious, legalistic system required of her if she was to buy her salvation, and blessing from God. And He has had all that He can take of this system.
And so, He leaves the temple. We know this from the parallel passage in Matthew, the parallel passage in Matthew, the end of chapter 23. He closes the sermon against the false leaders with these words, verse 37, “O Jerusalem, Jerusalem, who kills the prophets and stones those who were sent to her. How often I wanted to gather your children together the way a hen gathers her chicks under her wings and you were unwilling. Behold, your house, that is your temple and your city and your nation all encompassed in your house is being left to you desolate. For I say to you, from now on you shall not see Me until you say, ‘Blessed is He who comes in the name of the Lord.’” And He implies there that there’s going to be a long time of desolation. Desolation upon your house, destruction and emptiness upon your house for a long time until you acknowledge Me.
“This article originally appeared here at Bible Bulletin Board.”
