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Advent HOPE Sabbath School

Jonathan Zirkle

Let’s Go Home

I'd like to turn your attention to Matthew chapter 23.

This is right at the end of Christ's ministry here on earth.

He's leaving the temple for the last time.

He says this, O Jerusalem, Jerusalem, thou that killest the prophets and stones them which are sent unto thee, how often would I have gathered thy children together, even as a hen gathereth her chickens under her wings, and ye would not.

Behold, your house is left unto you desolate, for I say unto you, ye shall not see me henceforth till ye shall say, blessed is he that cometh in the name of the Lord." These are really sobering words.

Christ loved his people and he loved Jerusalem And yet he was coming now to the end and he knew what was going to happen.

And he knew that this curse would come upon Jerusalem.

There's a time, it's got to be a real time of mixed feelings.

Because Christ knew what his mission was here for on earth, and he knew he was here to complete that mission, but at the same time this was going to be a horrible experience for Jerusalem.

And so he looked out and he looked at Jerusalem and he gives this lament, O Jerusalem, Jerusalem, thou that killest the prophets.

In Matthew 24 verse 1, and Jesus went out and departed from the temple and his disciples came unto him for to show him the buildings of the temple.

It's interesting that disciples would do that.

I'm not quite sure exactly why they decided to do this at this point, but maybe it was just their way of leading into the question that they wanted to ask.

But here we are, and it says, And Jesus said unto them, See ye not all these things?

Verily I say unto you, there shall not be left here 1 stone upon another that shall not be thrown down.

So they've just looked now at the temple.

The disciples have said, look, look at this temple.

1 stone is gonna be thrown down off another until they're all gone.

There had been so much money and expense put in to this temple and this is the crowning structure in Jerusalem.

I think we have a tendency to think of Jerusalem as being a little bit of a backwater place.

It just doesn't seem like all that important.

And California is as big as all of Israel.

Yet Jerusalem was powerful enough at this point in time that it was going to give Rome a run for its money.

And Rome had to come and eventually clean it up.

This is not super small and inconsequential.

This is their most important building in A city that could rival Rome.

Not in that it could have perhaps empire, but independence.

Moving on to verse 3, And it says, and he sat upon the Mount of Olives, and the disciples came unto him privately saying, tell us, when shall these things be?

What shall be the sign of thy coming and of the end of the world?

You see, The world was really interested in this question.

Just as we are today, the world was interested in it then.

And it's not just the Israelites, not just the Jews that are interested in this question, the world.

Turn with me, well actually don't turn with me, I have to turn because I have some notes written in my Bible.

I want to read you something that I think is very very interesting about this time.

I think about this a lot in terms of Christ's coming.

And so I keep my notes there in that portion of the Bible.

But Looking at this time and what people were thinking, what were they looking for?

There's an ancient historian, his name is Suetonius, he's a Roman historian and he has this comment to say on this.

This guy is not a Christian, has nothing to do with Judaism, just not.

He says this, an ancient and subtle persuasion prevailed throughout the East that the faiths had decreed someone to proceed from Judea who should obtain universal empire.

This persuasion, which the event proved to respect the Roman emperor, the Jews applied to themselves and therefore rebelled." OK, we've got to unpack this.

There's this persuasion that prevails throughout the East that the Fates, this is the Roman religion, right?

They believe in the Fates, had decreed that someone would come from Judea and have universal empire.

The Jews applied that to themselves, but it turned out to be wrong.

It turned out it was Titus, because Titus came in and sacked the place, and he gets to then march into Rome, because at the time he comes in and sacks the place, he's not emperor yet.

And he goes in to march into Rome and guess what?

Here's another 1, another Roman historian, Tacitus.

Many were persuaded that it was contained in the ancient books of their priests, that at that very time the East should prevail, and that some should proceed from Judea and possess the Dominion.

It was Vespasian and Titus that these ambiguous prophecies predicted.

I can walk down the street and I can ask people, who's Titus?

These guys were Roman emperors and sure that's a big deal but in the really big scheme of things even the Roman Emperor is not a big deal.

And so you have Christ sitting with his disciples looking at the temple and he's saying, Jerusalem, Jerusalem, O thou that killest the prophets.

And he talks about how not 1 stone would be left upon another.

I don't know how important it is, but for some reason I believe it's important or the Bible and the great converse, he wouldn't have included this.

We know what happened when Jerusalem was destroyed because Josephus was there, and he's a historian, a big historian of the Jewish people, and he records what happened.

And I want to read a passage out of Josephus.

Caesar has besieged the city and it's time to go in.

It's finally time to breach the walls and go into Jerusalem and take it.

And when that happens, Caesar gave orders that they should now demolish the whole city and temple Except the 3 towers Thessalius Hippocas and Mary Mary Manning or something like that.

I can't pronounce these they would name their forts You know, we kind of do that sometimes too We have Fort was it Fort Henry and in Baltimore and stuff like that And a part of the Western Walls, these were spared.

But for all the rest of the wall, it was laid so completely even with the ground by those who dug it up to the foundation that there was left nothing to make those that came thither believe that it had ever been inhabited." Now, I'm not quite sure exactly how Josephus is recording this.

I mean in the heat of the battle you're not writing a history.

But, because Caesar initially didn't want to destroy the temple, because it was a beautiful building.

But the time came when it was done, and he gave the order, destroy Jerusalem, tear it down, except for these 3 towers.

And then here we have a Jewish rabbi, his name is, oh boy, all these names, I should have figured out how to pronounce them before I came this morning.

Maimonides, a Jewish rabbi, he says this about the temple, that the very foundations of the temple were digged up according to the Roman custom.

His words are these, on the ninth day of the month, Ab, fatal for vengeance, the wicked, ternius Rufus of the children of Edom plowed up the temple and the places round about it, that the saying might be fulfilled, Zion shall be plowed as a field." Great Controversy tells us that both the city and the temple were razed to the foundations, and the ground upon which the Holy House had stood was plowed like a field.

If you study the descriptions, Basically what happens, the temple is lit on fire.

They blame a Roman soldier for doing this.

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