In the sermon titled 'The Last Days' by Peter Allison, the speaker addresses the difficult passage from Luke 21, known as the Olivet Discourse, which discusses the destruction of the temple in Jerusalem and the 'last days.' The sermon delves into the historical context of Jesus' prophecy about the temple's destruction, comparing its significance to modern landmarks like the World Trade Towers. The speaker explains that Jesus' prediction was fulfilled with the destruction of the temple in 70 AD, which marked the end of the Old Testament age and the Mosaic Dispensation. The sermon also explores the distinction between the 'last days' as a period marking the end of the Old Covenant and the 'last day,' a singular event referring to the final judgment at the end of the New Testament age. By examining parallel passages in Matthew 24 and other New Testament references, the speaker illustrates how these events are part of God's sovereign plan. The message encourages believers to trust in God's sovereignty amidst chaos and to find refuge and strength in Him.

Please turn to Luke 21. Our passage text this morning is a little bit long, but it is necessary to read this entire passage as it is one theme and one point. So we'll begin reading at verse 5. So they asked Him, saying, sorry, that's not verse 5. Then as some spoke of the temple, how it was adorned with beautiful stones and donations.

He said these things which you see the days will come in which not one stone shall be left upon another that shall not be thrown down. So they asked him, saying, Teacher, but when will these things be? And what sign will there be when these things are about to take place? And he said, Take heed that you do not be deceived, for many will come in my name, saying, I am he, and the time is drawn near. Therefore do not go after them.

But when you hear of wars and commotions, do not be terrified. For these things must come to pass first, but the end will not come immediately. And he said to them, Nation will rise against nation and kingdom against kingdom, and there will be great earthquakes in various places and famines and pestilences, and there will be fearful sights and great signs from heaven. But before all these things they will lay their hands on you and persecute you, delivering you up to the synagogues and prisons. And you will be brought before kings and rulers for my name's sake.

But it will turn out for you as an occasion for testimony. Therefore, settle it in your hearts not to meditate beforehand on what you will answer for. I will give you a mouth and wisdom which all your adversaries will not be able to contradict or resist. And you will be betrayed even by parents and brothers and relatives and friends, and they will put some of you to death. And you will be hated by all for My name's sake.

But not a hair of your head will be lost. By your patience possess your souls. But when you see Jerusalem surrounded by armies then know that its desolation is near. Then let those who are in Judea flee to the mountains. Let those who are in the midst of her depart, and let not those who are in the country enter her.

For these are the days of vengeance, that all things which are written may be fulfilled. But woe to those who are pregnant, and to those who are nursing babies in those days, for there will be great distress in the land and wrath upon this people. And they will fall by the edge of the sword, and be led away captive into all nations. And Jerusalem will be trampled by Gentiles until the times of the Gentiles are fulfilled. And there will be signs in the sun, in the moon, and in the stars, and on the earth, distress of nations with perplexity, the sea, and the waves roaring, men's hearts failing them from fear and the expectation of these things which are coming on the earth.

For the powers of the heavens will be shaken. And then they will see the Son of Man coming in a cloud with power and great glory. Now when these things begin to happen, look up and lift up your heads, because your redemption draws near. And then he spoke to them a parable. Look at the fig tree and all the trees.

When they are already budding, you see and know for yourselves that summer is now near. So you also, when you see these things happening, know that the kingdom of God is near. Assuredly, I say to you, this generation will by no means pass away till all things take place. Heaven and earth will pass away, but my words will by no means pass away. But take heed to yourselves, lest your hearts be weighed down with carousing drunkenness in the cares of this life.

And that day come on you unexpectedly, for it will come as a snare on all those who dwell on the face of the whole earth. Watch therefore and pray always that you may be counterworthy to escape all these things that will come to pass and to stand before the Son of Man. And in the daytime he was teaching in the temple, but at night he went out and stayed on the mountain called Olivet. Then early in the morning all the people came to him in the temple to hear him. May our tongues speak of his word for all of his commandments are righteousness.

Heavenly Father, we ask that you would give to us your Holy Spirit that we may understand those things that are spiritually discerned. We ask that this word that we have heard might be mixed with faith and I ask that you would sanctify my sinful lips to proclaim what is true and holy in Jesus name. Amen. Well, this passage is called the Olivet Discourse and is certainly one of the more challenging passages in the Scriptures. Challenging to understand and certainly challenging to preach.

And so this morning we're not going to get through this whole passage. We'll really just look at that first verse, first two verses. But I wanted to spend probably the bulk of time this morning looking at The bigger question of what is this time referring to that Jesus is talking about here? When is this time? Is this something that is yet future?

Is it something that has already happened? There are many different understandings and views on this passage. And so I'd like to spend some time looking at the clues in this text and also in the rest of the New Testament that I think can tell us what time this passage is referring to. And there's actually, To make it more confusing, I believe there's actually two different times that are being addressed or spoken in this passage. We'll be also looking at the sister passage, parallel passage in Matthew 24, that speaks about this same event.

It's Matthew's discussion of it, and it's very similar and just as long, if not even longer. So just to set the context of this discussion, I think it's helpful and necessary to really understand something of the significance of what's happening. Jesus has been in the temple observing, he stationed himself off at the treasury, remember from a few weeks ago, and he's observing as people are putting their offerings into the offering boxes, there's 13 different offering boxes for their different ties. And he made the comment about the widow's mite that she had put in, or two mites. And then some people were talking to Jesus about the temple and how beautiful it was, adorned with stones and donations.

Now, this building was a glorious and magnificent building. Just to show you how significant, how magnificent this building is, I haven't seen it, and probably most of you haven't either, though I've been to the land of Israel. But Josephus tells us that in his 18th year of Herod's reign, Herod the Great, He wanted to build a magnificent temple to a majestic height to serve as an everlasting memorial to Him. He wanted to be remembered as people do. And he thought that he could build, as the Bible speaks about the pagans, the wicked, He thought that he could build a memorial to himself, a lasting memorial, if he built a great and magnificent temple.

That would be the wonder of all who saw it. And so he actually wanted to expand and renovate the existing temple that had been built under Nehemiah. And he came up with a plan to do that. But first, he wanted to expand the thing. It needed to be bigger.

Majestic things often have to be big. He wanted this to be huge. And so he built four enormous retaining walls around the Temple Mount in Jerusalem. They were about a hundred feet high. And the foundations went down over 60 feet below ground.

And then that whole area was filled in to make a big level plateau on top of the temple mount. It formed an area of about 36 acres. If you don't have acreage, maybe an area of about a quarter mile by a quarter mile. In dimension. It wasn't square, but that gives you a rough idea of what 36 acres is like.

Josephus says that the stones, some of the stones that were used to build this structure were 12 feet high, 18 feet wide, thick, and over 40 feet long, or nearly 40 feet long, Josephus says. One of the stones that's been found in the many excavations over there measures 45 feet by 15 feet by 11 feet, and it weighs over 570 tons. That's significantly more than an entire locomotive, and that's kind of the heaviest thing that we might be able to think about. That's certainly way more weight than even a train car could carry. I don't know what would happen, but I imagine it would bend it.

This was a magnificent building. Josephus says in his Wars of the Jews, the outward face of the temple in its front wanted nothing that was likely to surprise either men's minds or their eyes. It lacked nothing that would astound and amaze people. For it was covered all over the plates of gold of great weight, and at the first rising of the sun, reflected back a very fiery splendor, and made those who forced themselves to look upon it, to turn their eyes away just as they would have done at the sun's own rays. So this was brilliant, reflective, reflected the light of the sun.

It was splendid, having great weights of gold on it. The temple, he says, was visible for a great many furlongs. A furlong is about an eighth of a mile. A great many furlongs to those who lived in the country. You can think of the World Trade Towers.

If you want something that might be equivalent in our culture, something that forms the skyline. I don't know what the buildings are in Houston, but there's some that you see when you get near Houston. He goes on to say, this temple appeared to strangers when they were at a distance like a mountain covered with snow, for as those parts of it that were not gilded, covered with gold, they were exceedingly white." This was a marble building. It was beautiful. By Jesus' time, work on this building had been going on for some 40 years.

Remember, Jesus said He would destroy the temple and rebuild it in three days, and they're astounded at Him. It's taken 40 years to build this. Now most of the work was done in a much shorter time frame, but by Jesus' day, they'd been building on it for 40-some years, and they continued to do work on it almost until it was destroyed by Titus in 70 AD, up until into the 60s. And so this is the building that the people are commenting on in this text. This is their pride and joy.

And they were just pointing out to Jesus the beautiful stones and the donations, the jewelry, if you will, of the building. But Jesus doesn't share in their enthusiasm over the glory of this building. Quite the opposite, He tells them what's going to be destroyed. It's all going away. And not only is it going to be destroyed or it's going to be ruined, but He says, these things which you see, this glorious, majestic building, The days will come in which not one stone will be left upon another that shall not be thrown down.

You can destroy a building. You can go look at the Parthenon or all these other ancient ruins and there are many stones that are still left standing on another stone. Even now, even today. But Jesus is saying this building, this magnificent building that's your pride and joy, your world trade towers, It's going to be destroyed and there won't even be one stone left on top of another stone. That's how completely this building will be destroyed, eradicated, cease to be visible in any way.

Nothing left of it. Now imagine that this would have been a greater shock to the Jewish people that Jesus was addressing than if you had told some New Yorker in the year 2000 that the towers, the World Trade Towers in New York would be destroyed, crumble down on their own, be demolished onto their own footprint. And so the disciples are quite curious about this answer, short little answer. And so they ask them teacher, ask them these two questions teacher, when is this going to happen? And how are we going to know when it's happening?

What are the signs that will happen that will indicate these things are about to take place? When is this going to happen? And how are we going to know? What are the signs that will tell us this is what's happening? And Jesus' answer to those two questions, and in Matthew 24, it's three questions, Jesus' answer is the longest answer to any question that's recorded in the gospels.

In other words, Jesus considered this a very important question. Now, what is his answer? Well, I think to be able to rightly know what times he's talking about here, we need to understand a couple of terms that Jesus uses in this passage. And one of those terms that we want to look at in a little bit of detail is this term, the last days and the end. The last days.

What does that mean? What are the last days? Are they the last days before the second coming when Jesus, when at the great white throne of judgment and the resurrection, the general resurrection of the dead, is that the last days? Or are there some other time that's being referred to by the last days? And the way to answer this question is to look in the New Testament to see how does the New Testament elsewhere use those words.

Because if we can know clearly what they're referring to elsewhere, then that will give us some insight as to what they might be referring to here. And so the New Testament uses the term Last Days, there's two different words. Well, Last Days is, Last Days and End, I guess we want to look at, we want to look at both of those. But Last Days, it uses the term six times in Matthew 13, Matthew 24, and Matthew 28. It talks about the end of the age.

What does it mean when it talks about the end of the age? The end is coming. He says in verse 9 there, but when you hear wars and rumors of wars, you don't be terrified, for these things must come to pass first, but the end will not come immediately. The end. What's he talking about there?

The end. Well, here's what it can refer to the end of the Old Testament age. In Hebrews 9.26, It refers to the end of the Old Testament age. It says, he then, that's referring to Christ, would have had to suffer often since the foundation of the world, but now Once at the end of the ages he has appeared to put away sin by the sacrifice of himself. There is no question there that the end of the ages is referring to Christ's crucifixion.

And that and so that's being used there to refer to the end of the Old Testament age very clear unambiguous use but it's also used to refer to the end of the New Testament age it's it's used in the parable about parables about the Kingdom of Heaven, a kingdom which Jesus announced was at hand in Matthew 13, in the parable of the tares, in verse 39 and 40. The enemy who sowed them is the devil the harvest is the end of the age and the reapers are the angels therefore as the tears are gathered and burned in the fire so it will be at the end of this age so there he's not talking about the end of the Old Testament Age when Christ was sacrificed and the temple destroyed. He's talking about the end of the New Testament Age before the general resurrection. Or in Matthew 24, he sat in verse 3, remember in this parallel passage, where they sat on the Mount of Olives, the disciples came to him privately saying, tell us when will these things be and what will be the sign of your coming? Those are the same two questions we just looked at that are in Luke.

Then there's a third question added, and of the end of the age. Now that will be important as we look at this passage that there's actually three questions that Jesus is addressing. When will these things be? What will be the sign when these things happen, referring to the destruction of the temple? And then, what is the end of the age?

Matthew 28 and 20 in the Great Commission says, Jesus said, teach the people to observe, teach the nations, disciple the nations, teaching them to observe all things that I have commanded you and lo I am with you always even to the end of the age Jesus is saying I am with you until I come again. He's not saying I'm with you until the end of the Old Testament age, but no, I am with you until time ends. So this word end or telos or suntelia is referring to fulfillment often in the New Testament. Telos and suntelia, two words that are used for end. We've looked at some of the words that are used for suntalia, but it's the same thing for this word telos.

It can refer to the end of the Old Testament age, right? 1 Peter 4.7. But the end of all things is at hand therefore be serious and watchful in your prayers the end of all things is at hand if he was referring if he was referring to the end of the New Testament age went at the great at the general resurrection and the second resurrection and the Great White Throne judgment, then it couldn't be said that it's at hand, because that's been 2, 000 years and it still hasn't happened yet. So it certainly, what Peter was talking about was at hand, it was there, It was eminent. This word at hand is the word that Jesus used in the garden to say that his betrayer, Judas, was present in the temple.

He was in the garden. He was at hand. This is the word that Jesus used to describe the kingdom of God being present, being at hand. Jesus wasn't saying the kingdom was coming in thousands of years, but he says the kingdom of heaven is now. It's at hand.

He says the kingdom of heaven is now in your midst, and it's also at hand. So it's something that's near. So it can, this word end can refer to the end of the Old Testament age. It can also refer to the end of our life. Right?

For example, Hebrews 3, 6, but as Christ, as Son over His own house, whose house we are, if we hold fast the confidence and rejoicing of the hope, firm to the end. He's not talking about the end of the Old Testament age, then we don't have to hold that fast. And he's not talking about to the end of the New Testament age because most people wouldn't be living that long. He's talking about the hold fast to the end of our life. Or it can refer, this word end can refer to the Gospel Age in 1 Corinthians 15, 24.

Paul is discussing the resurrection at the end of history. And he says, then comes the end when he delivers the kingdom to God the Father, when he puts an end to all rule and all authority and power. So that's clearly referring to the end of the New Testament age. So this word end can mean both the end of the Old Testament age or the end of the New Testament age. And we need to understand from the context which of those two events times it's referring to.

And this is where we come to this the use of the word last days plural and last day. And we'll look at this a minute because when last days is used in the plural it refers to the days to a period of time such as what happened at the end of the Old Testament age, but when it's singular, the last day, it refers to a specific day. It might be the last day of a feast, or the last day of history at the end of time when the final judgment and general resurrection of the dead occurs. And we saw this before when we were looking at Luke 17, this reference to the last days, plural, versus last day singular. So when it's Singular, it's referring to the end of the Gospel age.

For example, John 6, 39 and 40. This is the will of the Father who sent me that of all he has given me, I should lose nothing but should raise it up at the last day. See, it's singular. It's referring to a specific day in history. The resurrection of the living and the dead will occur at a specific time and on a specific day in history.

It's not something that happens over many days, and so it is singular. He would raise it up at the last day. And this is the will of Him who sent Me, that everyone who sees the Son and believes in Him may have everlasting life, and I will raise Him up at the last day." Or John 6, 44 and 54. No one can come unto me unless the Father who sent me draws him and I will raise him up at the last day or whoever eats my flesh and drinks my blood has eternal life and I will raise him up at the last day." It's not raising him up in the last days, the last day. Or John 11, 24, Martha said to him, I know that he will rise again at the resurrection at the last day.

Referring to Lazarus her brother. Error John 12, 48, He who rejects me and does not receive my words has that which judges him. The word that I have spoken will judge him in the last day. There it's referring to The last day of history. It can refer though to a specific day, not at the end of history.

On the last day that great... On the last day, that great day of the feast, Jesus stood and cried out, saying, if anyone thirsts. On the last day of the feast, again, it's a specific day. But it can also refer, this same word, last days, can refer to the end of the Old Testament age, when it's plural. And there's two very clear and unambiguous passages that prove this.

Beyond any doubt, in the Apostle Peter's sermon on the day of Pentecost, he said in Acts 2, verses 14 and 17, that the prophecy in Joel 2 regarding the last days was being fulfilled in their midst that very day. In other words, the last days that are spoken of in Joel 2 was referring to the end of the Old Testament age. So Peter's words in Acts 2 were, men of Judah and all who dwell in Jerusalem, let this be known to you and heed my word, for these are not drunk as you suppose, since it is only the third hour of the day. But this, what you are seeing in front of you, is what was spoken by the prophet Joel. And this is what Joel said, and it shall come to pass in the last days, says God, that I will pour out My Spirit on all flesh.

Your sons and your daughters will prophesy. Your men shall see visions. Your old men shall dream dreams." That Acts 2.17 says is the last days. Because it wasn't a specific day in which this happened. It was a period of time spread over 40 years that these things happened.

Hebrews 1 verse 2 identifies the last days with the incarnation at the end of the Old Testament age God who at various times and in various ways Spoke in time past to the fathers by the prophets has in these last days Spoken to us by his son whom he has appointed heir of all things through whom also he made the worlds Hebrews is the writer to Hebrews is very clearly saying That the last days are the days of the incarnation when Jesus Christ Came in the flesh and spoke Second Timothy 3 ones talks about but know this that in the last days perilous times will come. Well we know that 2 Timothy is a letter written by Paul at the end of his life to instruct Timothy how to deal with the apostasy of that day, the great apostasy that Romans 11 speaks of where the Jews had turned away from the faith and rejected it and were cut off. And there was a great apostasy in the land. In those last days perilous times will come. Or in those are the days that he warned the Ephesian elders about when he said wolves would come among them.

Or in James, the brother of Christ, identifies the days in which he was writing as the last days. It says in James 5.3, Your gold and silver are corroded, and Their corrosion will be a witness against you and will eat your flesh like fire You have heaped up treasure in the last days He wasn't saying that to these people that thousands of years in the future they were going to heap up treasure. He's saying you, in these last days, you have heaped up treasure and it will be a witness against you. Your gold and silver are corroded. He was saying that to the people that received his letter.

2 Peter 3 says, Knowing this, that scoffers will come in the last days, walking according to their own lusts. Again, Peter is addressing what will happen in that day. So if we apply this paradigm that we see consistently throughout the New Testament, If we bring that back to this chapter, which understandably is more difficult, and not as unambiguous, then we see it actually fits very consistently. The disciples ask, according to Matthew 24, they ask those three questions. When are these things that you just talked about going to happen regarding the not one stone being left on another?

When are they going to happen? How are we going to know? What are the signs? And When is the end of the age? So if we look in Luke 21, 6, it says, These things which you see, the days will come in which not one stone will be left upon another that will not be thrown down.

The days will come. This is a period of time, not just an event that happened on one day. The days are coming. Luke 21, 22. For these are the days of Vengeance that all things which are written may be fulfilled this wasn't a day At the end in a specific day in history like the last Second second coming would be this was a days.

This was a period of time Luke 21 23 But woe to those who are pregnant and to those who are nursing babies in those days. For there will be great distress in the land and wrath upon this people. Now, when we get to verse 34, there's this big contrast, but, and I think Jesus is here answering this third question that Matthew 24 records about the end of the age, but he says, but, now there's a contrast From what I've been talking about, there's a contrast now. But take heed to yourself, lest your hearts be weighed down with carousing drunkenness and cares of this life, and that day come upon you unexpectedly. That day is referring to the second coming.

It's not as fleshed out in this passage as it is in Matthew 24 and 25 and we'll take a look at that in time. But what is the significance of the last days? What is he talking about? Well he's speaking about the end of the Old Testament age and the end of the Mosaic Dispensation. This is a huge, huge event that takes up much of the New Testament.

It's spent dealing with this big, big change. The complete end and eradication of the ceremonial system, the mosaic ceremonial law. The complete end of this whole Old Testament age of sacrifices pointing forward to Christ that for 4, 000 years had been the practice of God's people. It's a big change. It's a huge change and it doesn't happen overnight.

That's the way God works often. God didn't create the world in a moment, in a minute. He didn't create it in a day. He created it over a week, six days of work and resting on the seventh day. When God brought Israel out of Egypt, It took them 40 years to get from slavery in Egypt to occupying the land of Canaan.

You see, and that's how long this change happens in the New Testament, this transition from the Old Covenant to the New Covenant. It took 40 years from the time that Jesus died on the cross and the veil in the temple was torn in two. To the complete end, cessation of all the Old Testament sacrifices by the destruction of the temple. That took 40 years and it was a process. It was a growing process, it was a learning process, It was a difficult process.

It caused confusion and conflict in the church as people were trying to understand the significance of this great change. In fact, the very first ecumenical council of the Christian church is recorded in Acts 15 dealt with this issue, this very question related to this change. Do Christians have to become Jews And keep the ceremonial law in order to come to Christ? Or not? And the answer of the ecumenical council, remember there was a matter of great dispute.

It was such a big dispute that they had a global council of the churches to discuss this. And the elders and the apostles of that church of that age gathered together and discussed this. And there was much debate. And they concluded that no, Christians don't have to keep the ceremonial laws because that was passing away. But see, it was a question.

It's a huge change in thinking for the Jewish Christians that people would no longer have to be circumcised in order to be a Christian, in order to be a follower of Christ, in order to be in the church and part of the covenant. You can recall Peter's vision in Acts 10 When God in a vision had this sheet descend in front of Him filled with unclean animals, and God said, Peter, kill and eat. And Peter said, no, I can't do that. I've nothing unclean ever crossed my lips before. And three times God did that.

Peter, kill and eat. Until Peter understood that what God had cleansed was no longer unclean. That this great wall of separation between the Jews and Gentiles is now broken down. See, that's the significance of the passing away of this old order. And that, I think, is why Jesus spent so long addressing it and why there was such confusion in it.

Now, in closing, I'd like to quickly give a couple of other exegetical reasons for Matthew 24 why I believe this passage is referring to the destruction of Jerusalem in 70 AD. Matthew 24 is a completely parallel passage. It uses much of the same language, and yet there are a few other things that are added in that I think can be very helpful. And so the first thing we'll note though is in this text in Luke 21 verse 33 and verse 32, it's that Jesus says, assuredly I say to you this generation will by no means pass away till all these things take place. That was a very clear and unambiguous statement that all the things that Jesus has been discussing and talking about that we read this morning.

All these incredible things. Amazing, astounding signs and wonders. Jesus says, assuredly, I say to you, this generation, the people that I'm talking to right here, this generation will not pass away until all these things take place. Paul would have been there hearing that. His generation would not pass away until they saw the fulfillment of these things.

That's the clear statement. Heaven and earth will pass away, but my words will by no means pass away. If we go over To Matthew 24, I'd like to point out that, first of all, there's the exact same verse in Matthew 24. In this case, it's in verse 34, where Jesus says the exact same words. Assuredly, I say to you, this generation will by no means pass away till All these things take place.

Heaven and earth will pass away, but My words will by no means pass away." Very clear that everything Jesus is saying, He says, is going to happen to you, to this generation. Now, again, we see the same change. The next verse immediately says, but of that day or hour, no one knows. There's a big contrast here. And so that's one of the points I want to point out.

Jesus in Luke 21 and in Matthew 24 prior to verse 34 is talking about things that were going to happen and how you're going to know when they happen. How you're going to know when they are about to happen. What are the signs that these things are going to happen? And he even tells a parable about a fig tree. He says, when the branch is tender and put forth leaves, you know that summer is near.

So also, he says, when you see these things, know that what I'm talking about is near. When you see the signs I've been describing to you, then you know that this destruction of the temple is near. And he says the same parable in Luke 21. But then there's this immediate contrast in verse 36. But of that day or hour, no one knows, not even the angels of heaven, but my Father only.

Big contrast between you're going to know when this end of the age, end of the temple is coming, but you're not going to know anything about when the second coming is coming. Big difference. Huge difference. One's predictable. One, you should know these signs and you should take action.

And the other, there won't be any sign. No one's going to know. Huge difference. They can't be talking about the same event. There is a change in the nature of the times.

What he's discussing prior to the destruction of the temple is a period of great wars, rumors of wars, chaos, famines, earthquakes, great upheaval. But what's He described in the time before the second coming? Will they're eating and drinking, marrying and giving in marriage until the day that Noah entered the ark and they didn't know until the flood came and took them all away, so will the coming of the Son of Man be. There's a very big difference. One is going to be life like normal.

The other is going to be war and destruction. There is also a different word that is used for coming. There are two different words. One is the word the Perusia, that's what's used to refer to the second coming and The other is Erhomai, which is used to refer to this coming and the destruction of Jerusalem So So in Matthew 24, it says, well there are several, there are a couple places, verse 5, Matthew 24 verse 5 and 30 both speak about coming. And that uses the word Erchemae, but in verse 27 and after verse 36 it uses the word Perusia.

Now if you look in verse 27 of Matthew 24, for as the lightning comes from the east and flashes to the west, so also will the coming of the Son of Man be. In other words, he's talking there about the second coming. You're not going to miss it. And it's not like there's going to be anybody deceived about it. So that's another difference.

Before, people are going to be deceived possibly. But after there's there's no deception. Also notice in this passage, and we don't have time to read it, But the repeated use of then. Then and when this happens and then that's going to happen. There's there's temporal language throughout there talking of a progression of events.

But after verse 36 or verse 35, it's not that way. There isn't this progression of time. There are not these repeated temporal connections. And so these are a number of reasons now some people have said what number reasons why I think this passage is referring to the destruction of Jerusalem now a number of people who don't see this have said, well, but you can go over to the Temple Mount today and you still see the stones of the retaining walls and other structures that had been built. And so Jesus' prophecy hasn't been fulfilled yet because there are still some stones standing on top of other stones.

And I think this is where we need to make a clear distinction between what is pertaining to the ceremonial system of the temple proper and what was external structures that were built by the Romans and the Greeks that weren't related to the temple. And in Revelation 11, and we don't have time to fully develop this whole thing, but Revelation 11 is speaking about this same event. The whole book of Revelation is about, predominantly about this great destruction that's coming. And in chapter 11, John is given a reed like a measuring rod, And an angel stood saying, Rise and measure the temple of God, the altar and those who worship there, but leave out the court which is outside the temple and do not measure it. Measure the temple.

But. Leave out the court that is outside. Measure the temple and the altar and the people, but leave out the court which is outside. This measuring is referring to being measured off in judgment. And this measuring is specifically the temple, the altar, and the people.

How do you measure people? Speaking about who is being marked for judgment versus the temple, the court which is outside the temple, it was not to measure that. It wasn't marked for judgment. It was given over to the Gentiles. There's also a word that's a Greek word that's used there in that passage that is specific to the ceremonies of the temple.

And so we have to point out that retaining wall and there were other structures around the temple that were not completely destroyed one stone upon another but the temple itself and the altar and the people were now what do we have what can we learn from this passage? Well we can we learn that we can trust God's sovereignty Even in the extreme chaos and destruction of war, every detail, every detail in this entire last days of the horrific destruction of Jerusalem and the great wrath that was poured upon Jerusalem that's described here every detail is known by God is ordained by God Jesus knows He's able to tell them everything that will happen to them. And in these times, you see, he's preserving some things and destroying others very carefully. He controlled the rage of the Roman army that it destroyed every stone associated with the Old Testament age, but did not destroy every stone associated with the other buildings and structures around it. So when we see the world today being shaken by false flag operations like COVID-19 that destroyed the global economy, making cars scarce and grocery store shelves empty or the January 6 uprising that resulted in hundreds of patriots being tortured as political prisoners today.

Or as we see the mega droughts in the western United States where the levels on both dams on the Colorado River are at their lowest in 60 years. And dead bodies are being exposed that the mafia and other nefarious people had thought were long buried. We can say with the psalmist, come, behold the works of the Lord who has wrought destructions in the earth. God is in the midst of her. She shall not be moved.

God is in the midst of us as people and we won't be moved. God shall Help her at the break of dawn. The nations rage, the kingdoms were moved. He uttered His voice, the earth melted. But the Lord of hosts is with us.

The God of Jacob is our refuge. Come, behold the works of the Lord, who has made desolations in the earth. He makes the wars to cease. He breaks the bow and cuts the spear in two. He burns the chariots in fire.

Be still. Be still and know that I am God. I will be exalted among the nations. I will be exalted in the earth. The Lord of hosts is with us.

The God of Jacob is our refuge. The eternal God is our refuge and underneath are his everlasting arms. And in all these events that happen, He knows every detail. And exactly what happens, He knows. And He's determined beforehand.

We can praise the Lord, and we can rest in His everlasting arms that are underneath us. Let us pray. Our Heavenly Father, we do thank You that You are our refuge, that Your name is a strong tower to which the righteous can run and are safe. We thank You that You hide us in the secret of Your pavilion. And that what You hide no one can uncover, and what You uncover and expose for destruction none can save.

We thank you that you know us, that you take pleasure in your people. We Thank you for your promise to those who have made you their refuge, that no evil shall come upon our dwellings, for you will give your angels charge over us to keep us in all our ways. Father, may we walk through these days in faith and not in fear, in hope and not in despair. For, Lord, you are ever strong. You are the hope of Israel.

You are our hope. You are our strength. You are our salvation. And we exalt and glory in your work. It is wonderful, it is marvelous, it is beyond our comprehension.

But we know that it is your good work. We know, Lord, that your people are precious to you and we thank you and we rest in in your arms and we rest in your word and in Your promises that You have for Your people a future and a hope. Through Jesus Christ, Amen.