God has left the building, Luke 21: 5-7

Today in our popular culture there seems to be a fascination with apocalyptic themes.  Movies and books like Hunger Games or Maze Runner are set in a post apocalyptic world.  All sorts of movies have been made which feature an end of the world scenario, where atomic blasts, or great floods or swarms of zombies end life on earth as we know it.  It’s a popular topic right now.

And it’s happening on the religious front as well.  Harold Kamping of Family Radio caught the world’s attention with his prophecy that the rapture would happen on May 21, 2011.  Some of the biggest religious themed book sales have been from the Left Behind series.  A new version of the movie is out now featuring Nicholas Cage.  According to an article I saw on Fox News the other day, Hollywood now sees the rapture as  viable subject matter that has found it’s way into several new offerings.  The world seems to be fixated on end of the world scenarios.  And a lot of things in the world have contributed to that, such as the Middle East conflict, the AIDS epidemic, the birth of the atomic bomb, and various epidemics such as the ebola virus that has so many people worried today.  And not the least of all these reasons is the rebirth of the nation of Israel in 1948, and then their takeover of part of Jerusalem in 1967.  What makes this astonishing is that for 2000 years the nation of Israel did not exist.  And now within most of our lifetimes, we have witnessed it’s rebirth which seems directly tied to end time theology.

The most often requested book of the Bible that people want me to study through is the book of Revelation.  I could probably pack our Wednesday night Bible study at my house if I would just announce that I was going to study Revelation.  I will tell you right now that I have no plans on doing that any time in the near future.  However, I am going to start to teach today the Olivet Discourse which is Christ’s direct teaching on the end of the age, His final message.  We will just present an overview or introduction of this today, and we will probably take another couple of weeks or so to go through it.  So perhaps if you will make a point of being here it will help you to develop a Biblical context of eschatology.  We are not going to answer every question.  I personally don’t think we can answer every question.  Paul himself called it a mystery.  But I do intend on doing my best to exegete Christ’s message that He gave in response to the disciples questions concerning the end of the age. The question of when will these things be, and what will be the signs of the end of the age?

For today though, I want to start by putting this in context by reminding you of my message last week.  Last week we looked at the end of chapter 20 through the first four verses of chapter 21.  And if you will recall, the main point of my message was Christ’s rebuke against mindless religion.  He had challenged the priests and religious leaders to answer a question concerning the Messiah, who they all claimed to believe in, by contrasting certain passages in the Bible with their theology.  And they couldn’t do it.  They didn’t want to consider what the Bible said if it countered what they practiced.  They had built a religion that they were comfortable with, that gave them a certain measure of power, that provided them with money and prestige, and they were content with that.  In fact, more than that, they fiercely protected their position and all the religious trappings that went along with their doctrine.  So much so that they were ready and willing to kill the Son of God because He threatened their religion.  So I proposed last week that they had a mindless religion.  It wasn’t based on the authority of scripture, it was based on a long tradition of rituals and teachings and interpretations that had over time corrupted their religion.  It no longer saved.  It no longer had the power to deliver.  It was an empty, false, mindless religion. 

Then if you remember the scene changes as Jesus sees the rich people coming into the outer court of the temple and giving their offerings.  They gave them in such a way as to be noticed.  It was done with fanfare.  But Jesus noticed a poor woman who only had two cents to her name and she gave all that she had to live on to the temple.  She gave her entire financial worth to a religious system that was false, that was empty, that could not do anything other than rob the poor people that were coming there hoping for some sort of deliverance. 

Now that is the setting for our passage today.  Jesus declares judgment against this mindless, false religion that dupes and takes advantage of people, and He declares judgment against the Godless temple and all that it represents.  As Jesus and the disciples are walking out of the temple, the disciples point out the beautiful architecture and the gifts and so forth that adorned it, Jesus says to them in vs. 6, “As for these things which you are looking at, the days will come in which there will not be left one stone upon another which will not be torn down.” 

Now for the disciples, this must have been a shocking statement.  It must have been almost impossible for them to comprehend what He was talking about.  And to illustrate that I need to give you  a brief description of the temple.  The temple was a massive building that dominated the skyline of Jerusalem.  It was 500 yards wide by 400 yards wide.  Some of the huge stones used in the construction were as long as 67’ and 7.5’ tall by 9’ thick.  So it was a massive building, 5 football fields long, built upon the temple mount which was known as Mount Moriah, or Mount Zion.  As you entered Jerusalem you ascended up to the temple.  And as you ascended the sun would reflect with a blinding glare off of the temple which was made of  white stones and covered in gold plates.   

So the disciples, these simple Galilean fishermen,  were obviously awestruck by the grandeur and magnificence of the temple.  But to really understand the significance of the temple you also need to know a little of the history of it.  As I said, it was constructed on what was believed to be Mount Moriah.  This was the mountain where Abraham took Isaac to offer him on the altar.  This was the location of the great first temple which King Solomon had built over a 1000 years earlier.  It had been destroyed by the Babylonians but then had been rebuilt by Zerubbabel 500 years before Christ.  Then Herod the Great had begun a major renovation of the temple which lasted 80 years and which was almost finished at the time Jesus and the disciples are there.  So there was a thousand year history associated with it.

So not only was it important architecturally, and historically, but also socially.  The temple was the religious epicenter for all of Israel, and for all the Jews scattered throughout the Middle East in various countries. It was the Mecca which Jews would travel to from all the Gentile nations at certain feast times.  It was the only place where sacrifices could be offered.  It was the headquarters of the Levitical priesthood and the high priest.  It was in every way, the center of Jewish life, religious, judicial, governmental, social and economic.  But more importantly than that, it was considered the house of God. I remember well when I was a kid being rebuked by some church lady that I shouldn’t run or make loud noises or whatever because I was in the house of God.  I never quite understood that.  I lived right next to the church in the parsonage, and so I was quite familiar with the building.  And I knew that God was too big to be confined to that building, or that the physical elements were somehow sacred.

But for the Israelites,  the temple literally was the house of God. It’s Biblical name in the Hebrew language meant house of God.  The temple was the architectural equivalent to the tabernacle that Moses built which traveled with the Jews as they went to the Promised Land.  It was comprised of various courtyards, starting with the court of the Gentiles, then the court of women, then the sanctuary, and inside that the Holy of Holies which was where the presence of God was. 

So in every respect the temple represented so much to the average Jew that he could not imagine Jewish life without it.  He could not imagine that God would allow the temple to be destroyed.  It was just incomprehensible.  So we have to understand the significance of the temple, to understand the significance of what Jesus is saying.  When Jesus declares that there will not be one stone left upon another, it is not just the destruction of a religious edifice, but the destruction of an entire religious system, an entire way of life.   

See, Jesus is pronouncing the judgment of God upon the temple as a symbol of all that Judaism represented. Judaism, as I have said, was a mindless religion.  They had replaced the true meaning of the scriptures with the Talmud, which was their interpretation and application of principles and rituals which governed their religion.  It was never inspired by God.  And yet it had replaced the authority of God’s word.  The Talmud was the authority.  It was the traditions of the rabbis and religious leaders.   So their religion was mindless, false and empty. 

And not only was their religion empty, but their temple was empty.  God had left the building a long time before.  I don’t know when the Holy of Holies stopped being filled with the presence of God.  But I would suspect that it was around the time that Herod the Great took over the renovation of the temple.  In the Old Testament law, the prescription had been to tie a bell around the ankle of the high priest when he went into the Holy of Holies once a year so that if he was sinful in the presence of God, then when God struck him dead they would hear that the bell was no longer tinkling.  They used to tie a rope around the high priest so if that happened they could pull him out by the rope.  Because no one could go in there to get him out without being killed.  But some historians say that when Herod rebuilt the temple he defied the Holy of Holies.  But in any case, the priests themselves had become corrupt.  By this time, the office of the high priest was a political appointment of Rome.  And so these corrupt, sinful priests officiated at the temple, even to the high priest going through the rituals in the Holy of Holies, and yet none of them are stuck dead.  Why?  The answer is that God had left the building long before. 

I can’t help but make the association with many churches today.  Many denominations in America were founded in times of true revival by true believers.  And certainly the Spirit of God was present.  They taught the Word of God.  They were sanctified, holy people worshipping God in Spirit and in truth.  But through the years, as godly men died off and new ministers were hired according to popular vote, by how entertaining of a speaker they were, and how nice their personality was, regardless of their doctrine or lack of it, at some point in many of our churches today in America God left the building.    They are still going through the motions, they still have plenty of people attending, still have plenty of religious activity, but God has left the building.   All that’s left is just mindless religion and Godless temples of religious enthusiasm.  And I would suggest that God’s judgment is coming upon the apostate church in a similar fashion as it came upon the temple. I would remind you of Peter’s warning in 1Pet. 4:17  “For it is time for judgment to begin with the household of God; and if it begins with us first, what will be the outcome for those who do not obey the gospel of God?”

So we must understand that Jesus is declaring that not only will the temple be destroyed, but that the system of Judaism is coming to an end. Jerusalem was destroyed in 70 AD as Jesus prophesied by Titus who sacked Jerusalem and destroyed the temple.  One of his soldiers set fire to the Holy of Holies and it spread to all of the temple.  Josephus records that the gold plates which covered the outside of the building melted and so they pried apart all the stones in order to get at the gold, leaving not one stone upon another as Jesus had said. Without the temple there can be no sacrifices.  The sacrifices and offerings ended in 70AD.  The system of Judaism ended in 70 AD.  The Levitical priesthood ended in 70 AD.

We’re going to look in the next couple of weeks at more detail in regards to this prophecy and the destruction of Jerusalem.  But what I want you to understand today is something that the disciples could not understand at this point.  And that is that as Jesus was pronouncing doom upon the temple He was also announcing deliverance.  Jeremiah 31:31-34 says,  "Behold, days are coming," declares the LORD, "when I will make a new covenant with the house of Israel and with the house of Judah,  not like the covenant which I made with their fathers in the day I took them by the hand to bring them out of the land of Egypt, My covenant which they broke, although I was a husband to them," declares the LORD.  "But this is the covenant which I will make with the house of Israel after those days," declares the LORD, "I will put My law within them and on their heart I will write it; and I will be their God, and they shall be My people.  "They will not teach again, each man his neighbor and each man his brother, saying, 'Know the LORD,' for they will all know Me, from the least of them to the greatest of them," declares the LORD, "for I will forgive their iniquity, and their sin I will remember no more."

Jeremiah was talking about  a new day that will come when God will not be worshipped externally in rituals and symbols and temples, but inwardly.  God will dwell not in temples made with hands, but in the temples of our bodies, in our hearts.  When Jesus offered Himself as the final sacrifice on the cross, old things passed away, and all things became new.  The temple and sacrifices and priesthood were done away with.  What had only been  pictured in the old covenant was now  realized in Jesus Christ, and so the old picture was no longer necessary because the reality was present.  Jesus was now the high priest, eternal in the heavens, ever living to make intercession for us.  Jesus was the Lamb of God, offered as the final sacrifice for the sins of the world.  And by faith in Him, faith that He was the Son of God, faith in His efficacy to be the atonement for sin, we are forgiven for our sins. And because we are forgiven of our sins we are holy, whereby we are made holy temples of His Spirit who dwells in us. 

That is the essence of the new covenant that does away with the symbolism and ritual of the old.  Having been forgiven, made holy and made temples of the Spirit of Christ, who has written the law of God upon our hearts.  That is, we have new desires, new appetites, new life through the Spirit who lives in us.  That is how we are able to know the Lord, to have communion with God.  We no longer need a high priest to intercede for us with daily sacrifices.  Our high priest was the perfect, final sacrifice and now lives to make intercession for us.  His Spirit dwells in us so that we have perfect communion with God because the indwelling Holy Spirit intercedes for us with groanings too deep for words.

Listen, this is a simple message today. I want you to be fully cognizant of the great privilege that we have in Christ Jesus.  We who were outside of the covenant, Gentiles who were unable to enter the temple, now have access to the Holy Spirit, because we have the Holy of Holies in us.  On the day that Jesus was crucified, just two days from the Olivet Discourse, the veil which separated the Holy of Holies from the sanctuary was rent in two, from the top to the bottom, signifying that a new way was opened up to God.  It was opened up to every race, every people of every nation.  God opened up salvation from being the provenance of the Jews, to being available to all who would call upon the name of Jesus and believe in Him.  The plan of salvation was given not just to a nation, but to the church, made up of people from every nation and every tongue.

But not only do we have a great privilege as the old temple system is done away, we also have a great responsibility as we are the recipients of the new covenant.  1Cor. 6:19-20 says,  “Or do you not know that your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit who is in you, whom you have from God, and that you are not your own?  For you have been bought with a price: therefore glorify God in your body.”  See, just as the presence of God dwelt in the old temple, so the presence of God dwells in our temple.  We are the body of Christ.  The church is the body of Christ.  His Spirit dwells in us that we might do His will. 

Heb. 10:5-7 says, “Therefore, when He comes into the world, He says, "SACRIFICE AND OFFERING YOU HAVE NOT DESIRED, BUT A BODY YOU HAVE PREPARED FOR ME; IN WHOLE BURNT OFFERINGS AND sacrifices FOR SIN YOU HAVE TAKEN NO PLEASURE.  "THEN I SAID, 'BEHOLD, I HAVE COME (IN THE SCROLL OF THE BOOK IT IS WRITTEN OF ME) TO DO YOUR WILL, O GOD.'"

That is the purpose of our salvation.  That is why we are here on this earth.  To be the body of Jesus Christ. To be the physical manifestation of Christ to the world. To do the will of Jesus Christ.  He has saved us.  He has forgiven us.  He has purchased us.  He has sanctified us by His precious blood.  So that we might be holy, temples of God, guided by His Spirit, to do the will of God, to live out the law of God, to bring glory to God, and to cause men to glorify God when they see our good works. 

I would just ask you a question in closing today.  Are you going through the motions in a mindless religion?  Are you worshipping God in some church building that God left a long time ago, simply because it is tradition, it’s something you are comfortable with, something that you have grown accustomed to and don’t want to break away from?  Every week I quote Jesus who said, “God is Spirit, and they that worship Him must worship Him in Spirit and in truth.” 

In light of what we talked about this morning, I hope you realize that verse means that if you do not have the Spirit of God living in your temple, then you can’t worship God.  If you don’t worship Him according to His truth, then you can’t worship God.  God is not mindless.  God has given us His word, and for those that are saved, He has given us His Spirit.  And now the Spirit leads us by His word, and directs our hearts that we might obey Him and do His will. 

Do you have the Holy Spirit living inside you?  I’m not asking if you have had some sort of spiritual experience that you think might be attributed to the Holy Spirit.  I’m asking if you have received the promise of the Holy Spirit as a result of becoming a holy temple of the Lord.  Does your life, your interests, your desires, your actions reflect that He has written His laws upon your heart?  Listen, the way to God has been opened up by the blood of Jesus Christ?  Forgiveness from sin is available for all that will trust in Him.  God will transfer your sins to Jesus and His righteousness to you so that you may be holy.  And having been made holy, we are then a temple of the Holy Spirit who will guide and control our lives.  If you believe that and want forgiveness, then it’s available to all who will call upon the Lord.  He is ready and able to save all those who come to Him in faith.

I’m going to close by reading Heb. 10:16-25 as both an encouragement  and an invitation to be the temple of the Holy Spirit.   "THIS IS THE COVENANT THAT I WILL MAKE WITH THEM AFTER THOSE DAYS, SAYS THE LORD: I WILL PUT MY LAWS UPON THEIR HEART, AND ON THEIR MIND I WILL WRITE THEM," He then says,  "AND THEIR SINS AND THEIR LAWLESS DEEDS I WILL REMEMBER NO MORE."  Now where there is forgiveness of these things, there is no longer any offering for sin.  Therefore, brethren, since we have confidence to enter the holy place by the blood of Jesus,  by a new and living way which He inaugurated for us through the veil, that is, His flesh,  and since we have a great priest over the house of God,  let us draw near with a sincere heart in full assurance of faith, having our hearts sprinkled clean from an evil conscience and our bodies washed with pure water.  Let us hold fast the confession of our hope without wavering, for He who promised is faithful;  and let us consider how to stimulate one another to love and good deeds,  not forsaking our own assembling together, as is the habit of some, but encouraging one another; and all the more as you see the day drawing near.”