Shema Living During End Times
Watch & Pray #1: Jesus Knows the Future (Matthew 24:1-2)
There have been a few times in my life in which I guess you would say I had a dream or vision. The pictures would be vivid and remain in my mind. Then, later, I would live out what I saw in the vision weeks or months prior. The same place and people I saw in the dream had become real. Making the connection from the real-time earthly moment and past dream, honestly, created a strange and freaky feeling to come over me. Yet, at the same time, a real sense of peace and framework was prompted in my heart as God would enable me to remember how Jesus spoke of telling the disciples what would happen before it would actually occur. (John 13:19; 14:29; 16:4; Matt. 24:25) This spiritual reality has been my experience upon rare but memorable occasions.
The opening two verses of Matthew 24 “sets the table” for Jesus to be asked about the end times. His detailed answer dominates the chapter. Additionally, this most immediate prophesy Jesus spoke regarding the Temple in verse 2 was fulfilled in AD 70. The fulfillment of the prophecy would happen during the lifetime of the disciples who heard Him speak it. Thus, the memory I am sure provided another testimony to boost tremendous trust in what Jesus always said was always true and would always happen. This reality reverberates down to us today…and should provide tremendous trust and confidence in what Jesus spoke in Matthew 24:3-51, about His second coming, that we are still anticipating to be fulfilled, should be believed and received.
Verse 1 declares with emphasis, “Jesus was going out of the temple courts and walking away…” This would be the last time Jesus is recorded to have left the Temple. The teachings, discussions, and disagreements with the Pharisees are done!
So, perhaps, as an attempt for a discussion and mood-changer the disciples, looking at the Temple and all its beauty encourage Jesus to do the same. This first-century Temple is not the initial Solomon-built Temple. It is the Ezra-Zerubbabel Temple built in the 5th-century BC. Now, in first-century AD, the structure was amid an 80-year facelift in which the structure received major expansion modifications and beautification updates under Herod the Great. Thus, past written accounts from the historian Josephus indicate a tremendous and marvelous building existed.
In verse 2, Jesus’ response does not harmonize with the disciples’ hope and interest. Instead, Jesus speaks of an upcoming moment in which what they are beholding will be utterly destroyed. The Temple, the heart and glory of the Jewish people would be completely burnt to the ground by the Romans—to the point that knowing the exact foundation cannot be clearly determined. (David Guzik, Enduring Word Commentary) Historically, Jesus’ detail of “not one stone left on another” is indeed an accurate and graphic description of what occurred to the massive building stones from the Roman devastation.
Jesus was a true Prophet! Yes, He was a Healer and a Teacher but when He spoke of realities that were going to transpire concerning His death, burial, and resurrection Jesus was a 100%!
They were on the way, going up to Jerusalem. Jesus was going ahead of them, and they were amazed, but those who followed were afraid. He took the twelve aside again and began to tell them what was going to happen to him. “Look, we are going up to Jerusalem, and the Son of Man will be handed over to the chief priests and experts in the law. They will condemn him to death and will turn him over to the Gentiles. They will mock him, spit on him, flog him severely, and kill him. Yet after three days, he will rise again.” (Mark 10:32-34)
Perhaps more than we realize, Jesus wants to tell us where He is headed. Through Scripture and the Spirit, the Father and the Son wants you and I to be truthfully and rightfully guided into what we don’t know about the future. First, this can be true for our daily lives. Jesus spoke to the disciples of getting Him a donkey to ride into Jerusalem (Matt. 21:1-6) as well as how to know where to prepare for the Passover (Luke 22:7-13). Each future moment happened just as Jesus said! The Spirit of Christ seeks to guide you and I with such love and detail. But an intimate relationship with each of His children/disciples is required so He can tell the listening servant, and they will readily hear and adjust to Him. Such personal conversation will allow any follower to know what God is doing, where He is going, and how best to follow Him.
Second, is regarding Jesus’ victorious return. Again, this topic is the primary teachings of Matthew 24. Jesus provides true end times indicators that will greatly assist any Shema disciple who is watching and praying. Presenting and seeking spiritual understanding into Jesus’ words will be our journey in upcoming articles. We will work to highlight Jesus’ prophetic teachings within a biblical-theological framework to guide us well to know Christ and His end times prophecies for daily living.
In closing a personal thought for application: Is the future the most dominating mindset for you as a follower of Christ? For many, the past—its hurts, its wrong turns, and or perhaps its joyous memories—is the primary guide in life. If so, let us pray for each other to abide in the place so God allows the past to become a helpful part of our lives but not a haunting hindrance or an outdated wish. May the Lord work in us as He did the apostle Paul—who had a lot of bad choices, wrong turns to overcome as well as many past accolades he could highlight—to arrive at the place to eagerly yearn and physically anticipate what His Lord was about to do to become his heart-focus and daily desire.
Not that I have already attained this – that is, I have not already been perfected – but I strive to lay hold of that for which Christ Jesus also laid hold of me. Brothers and sisters, I do not consider myself to have attained this. Instead, I am single-minded: Forgetting the things that are behind and reaching out for the things that are ahead, with this goal in mind, I strive toward the prize of the upward call of God in Christ Jesus. (Phil. 3:12-14)
Our Father, thanks for knowing the future. Enable us to live with You in that realm into the adventurous unknown that is wonderfully secure because we know You and You know us. In Jesus, amen.
