The Last Days According To Jesus - The Temple (Mt 24:1-2)

The Last Days According To Jesus - The Temple (Mt 24:1-2)

Jesus and His disciples had just spent some time in the temple. Here’s what they experienced: Pharisees and Sadducees plotting against Him, religious leaders trying to turn the Romans and the crowds against Him, lawyers trying to trap Him and priests and scribes who were fake and corrupt.

Jesus watched the horrific hypocrisy of this broken religion. The pretentious and false leaders were more concerned about their own wealth than the spiritual needs of the people.

Jesus loved the temple but this was heartbreaking. He had lingered here as a 12 year old, teaching the truths about God. He traveled here for feasts and festivals with His family. He worshiped here with His disciples. He loved being here but He had seen enough.

Just a few days earlier, He cleaned the place out with a whip, overturning the money-changers tables. He accused them of turning His Father’s house into a den of thieves. He then pronounced the temple to be under God’s judgement:

Matthew 23:38

“Behold, your house is being left to you desolate!”

Jesus took on the entire religious system, calling them blind guides, a brood of vipers, whitewashed tombs who are righteous on the outside but full of hypocrisy and lawlessness on the inside.

As He left the temple, He pointed out the beauty of that building to His disciples and told them that God was going to to tear it all down because it had become such a pit of evil.

Matthew 24:2

“Do you not see all these things? Truly I say to you, not one stone here will be left upon another, which will not be torn down.”

God hates evil. He will destroy every evil thing and there will come a day when God will bring this entire world to an end. Over the next two chapters, Jesus describes just what that day will look like.

Tomorrow: the disciples ask Jesus to tell them what to look for. He does.