Two phrases, the abomination of desolation and great tribulation, are sometimes used to refer to events shortly before the second coming of Jesus. But what if those events shouldn't be located at the end of that timeline? I want to put forward a different understanding of these phrases in the context of the chapter. What if the two phrases, abomination of desolation and the great tribulation were future events for Jesus's disciples, but are now past events for us. Last week, I argued that verses one to 14 should be understood in the context of Jesus's words against the Jerusalem temple, which would be destroyed in the generation of his contemporaries. 70 A.D. by the Romans. In verse 34, the chapter tells us, truly I say to you, this generation will not pass away until all these things take place. I think referring to the things in the previous 33 verses. And we spent some time last week looking at that phrase, this generation, and we've noted that throughout Matthew's Gospel, he has used it consistently without exception to refer to the current generation that is rejecting him. in his day. They were going to be judged. And in Matthew 23, 36, Jesus tells them, truly, I say to you, all these things will come upon this generation. And he's been talking to the scribes and the Pharisees who have acted in hypocrisy, not practiced what they preached. They have wrongly understood the law of Moses. They are leading people astray like the blind leading the blind. And Jesus calls judgment upon that generation. And in verse 38, he uses the word desolate. which is important because the same idea will be carried in Matthew 24's passage today. In Matthew 23, 38, he says, See, your house is left to you desolate. And at the beginning of our chapter, he leaves the temple. This occurs on Tuesday of Passion Week. And prior to this, Jesus has not only spoken words of judgment, He has symbolically acted against the temple. He cursed a fig tree and then went to the temple and overthrew tables and chairs and drove out buyers and sellers because the day of the temple had come to an end. Jesus is the temple that will be destroyed and in three days be built back up. When Jesus dies on the cross, that is the temple's destruction and resurrection from the dead on the third day, because Jesus came to fulfill what the temple could not do on its own. No sacrificial system, no animal sacrifices for all of those thousands of years ever atoned for sin fully and finally. They needed continual sacrifices and high priest after high priest. Jesus comes to declare that this temple is now going to be under God's judgment. And Jesus himself will die on the cross. And at his death, the temple veil will be rent from top to bottom, a foreshadowing of the destruction to come decades later. In Matthew 24, then, Jesus is still speaking about this destruction of the temple, and he tells his disciples in Matthew 24 too, truly, I say to you, there will not be left here one stone upon another that won't be thrown down. And he can't be referring to any other building but the temple they just left, and his disciples are pointing to the buildings. And in Mark 13, they're specifically saying how beautiful the buildings are. And Jesus says they're not going to stand here for long. Not one stone is going to be left on another. They're going to be thrown down in judgment because this generation would witness that judgment. And they did so in A.D. 70, almost 40 years later. from Jesus speaking these words. When he leaves the temple, here in Matthew 24, he leaves not to return, because just days later he will be crucified, the veil will be torn, and decades later judgment will come with the Roman army. This is not any different from the kind of reality we see in the Old Testament, where prophecy was directed against Jerusalem and the temple, and a foreign army was raised up to execute it. The Babylonians were the ones in 586 BC to do it. In the 6th century BC, they came, led by Nebuchadnezzar, and they exiled people, and they broke down the city walls after breaching it, and they destroyed the temple, and they ransacked its contents and took many precious things to Babylon, along with the people. Here we are hundreds of years later. In Matthew 24, Jesus is predicting a destruction of the temple. And what's different is in the Old Testament was going to be rebuilt because the Messiah had not yet come. And in 515 BC, decades after its destruction, it was rebuilt, known as a second temple. And that was the one standing in Jesus's day. Jesus told them in the hearing of Matthew 24, that not one stone is going to be left upon another and his death will bring to fulfillment what that temple had always pointed to. sacrifice and atonement for sins. There was a Jewish revolt and Roman war. in A.D. 66 to A.D. 70. Those four years were tumultuous. They were filled with civil war and they were filled with destruction and slaughter. And Josephus, a historian who was alive during those years, writes in his book, The Jewish Wars and in the Antiquity of the Jews, what took place during those revolts and civil wars. In A.D. 68, Emperor Nero dies and he's And the whole Roman Empire becomes unstable. We talked about this last week in an eighty sixty nine Vespasian becomes emperor and this emperor of Rome will be the one under whose authority the temple is destroyed. Emperor Vespasian seemed to be the one raised up by God for such a time as this to fulfill the prophecy here in Matthew 24 and other places in the gospel where the destruction was prophesied. Now, Matthew 24 does not only talk about the destruction of the temple. I think later on in the chapter, he will talk about the second coming. And in our passage this morning, I think there's a verse that even prepares us for that. But I think in the context, we must see that his disciples in their hearing are being told what they would see in their generation. Vespasian's own son was the general who for five terrible months prior to 70 A.D. had the city under siege until its destruction. Jerusalem was destroyed in September of A.D. 70. We should think about these events as we consider the passage this morning. The Old Testament records the destruction of the temple years and centuries earlier. And it is understood to be a very important event. However, my concern is that Bible readers looking in the New Testament don't see how the destruction of the temple that Jesus predicted is also massively important. It was important in the Old Testament and certainly important when it was predicted in the New in Jesus. We need to know two things of significance. Then the temple was indeed destroyed, just as Jesus predicted it would be. And secondly, He predicted it with His words and His actions on Passion Week. Our passage this morning falls nicely into three parts. In verses 15 to 18, there's an urgency of escape. Because as these events are coming to a head, and as the destruction of the temple is drawing near, the people will have a limited window of time to flee, and they need to run for their lives. He gives them this urgency of escape in verses 15 to 18. In verses 19 to 22, we find out that there is difficulty of circumstances that several of them will face depending on what they have in responsibility in life at that point. Difficulty of circumstances in verses 19 to 22. And lastly, verses 23 to 28, there is a problem of deception because people will look at the kind of alarm and hysteria that's created socially and politically, and they will use those as opportunities to talk about what they believe to be the coming of Christ. And Jesus will talk about how that is not yet and will be far more visible and clear than this destruction of the temple. An urgency of escape, difficult circumstances, and an ongoing problem of deception. With all of this in mind, in verse 15, Jesus says, so when you see the abomination of desolation spoken of by the prophet Daniel standing in the holy place, let the reader understand, then let those who are in Judea flee to the mountains. We come immediately to one of the most controversial phrases of the chapter. This phrase, abomination of desolation, it comes from the book of Daniel. There are two places, Daniel 11.31 and Daniel 12.11. We won't look at those together, but those are two references for you. In Daniel 11 and in Daniel 12, there are prophecies about an upcoming Greek empire. And those who were known as the Maccabees in the second century BC, maybe you've heard that name before, The Maccabees believed that they were living in the time when Daniel 11 was being fulfilled, and that a very vile ruler had done something in the temple that fulfilled this abomination of desolation that Daniel spoke of. Here's what happened. In AD 168, Antiochus IV came into the Promised Land, and into Jerusalem in particular. In 167 BC he committed one of the most vile acts that's known in Jewish history up to that point. He took a pig and he sacrificed it on an altar to Zeus right there in the Jerusalem temple. And pigs were unclean animals and so this was immediately defilement and blasphemous on top of that. This created a lot of difficulty within the community there because the people had to rise up in rebellion to retake their temple. This was known as the Maccabean Revolt, the Maccabean Rebellion. They did purify and retake the temple in 164 BC and that dedication of the temple is what people remember when they celebrate Hanukkah. in December of every year. Hanukkah is known as the Feast of Dedication and it remembers that time in the second century B.C. when the temple was retaken and cleansed after this vile ruler Antiochus IV Epiphanes defiled it, committed blasphemy and massacred not hundreds but thousands of Jews in his tyrannical raids. It was a very difficult time. But it unfolded just as Daniel predicted. It was an abomination of desolation there in the temple. And the historian Josephus records that this fulfilled Daniel as well. When we look to Matthew 24-15, Jesus seems to think that there is a future abomination of desolation that his generation would refer to. It's a way, I think, of him saying, you're going to see Antiochus IV Epiphanes all over again, in a way. And that's why I think he's referring to this abomination of desolation. I think he's recalling a past event that will be a kind of pattern or mold for them to understand what's coming. So Daniel talked about this. And they're going to see another version of it or another edition of it. Let's imagine the language in our day sounding something like this. Let's say there's something terrible in the world going on. Not hard to imagine. All right. And so let's say there's this ruler who's rising and someone says to you, maybe you see it in the papers or maybe you see it online or see it in the news. Someone says Hitler's rising all over again. We would know exactly what that means. What we wouldn't conclude is, well, it's actually some sort of reincarnation of Adolf Hitler. We would understand, though, by that reference to a past figure, that what we are expecting and seeing unfold is ominous and horrific and should fill us with rightful concern. This is what Jesus is doing. He's telling them they're going to see the abomination of desolation, which is a way of referring to this terrible past event and showing that what's coming will also be horrible and destructive and blasphemous. Jesus is saying they're going to see Antiochus IV all over again in a way. Now what happened in Jesus' generation that would remind them of that former ruler? The temple was again desolated defiled and destroyed. The temple in 70 AD, the generation of Jesus's disciples would sense this and see the horror of that previous episode playing out again in real time, live before their eyes, before they saw death. I think that's what is going on here. And Matthew seems to record a phrase for us as gospel readers. Notice the phrase here. It might even be in parenthesis in your translation. It says, let the reader understand. Jesus probably didn't say, let the reader understand, because they were listening, right? Matthew includes this statement here because Jesus' words warrant reflection and wisdom in order to see what he's doing by referring to something they knew had already happened, an abomination of desolation. So Matthew's saying, let the reader understand. In other words, the gospel readers that are going to see this in the preserved gospel in the decades to come are to see these words and to think about the meaning here. So I'm not locating this right before the second coming of Jesus. I'm locating this as something that the disciples of Jesus would see in their generation that would remind them of a previous terrible ruler who brought desolation and destruction and death. And that is what happened on a very large and grand scale in 70 A.D. With this in mind, he says to them in verse 16, then when you see this, let those who are in Judea flee to the mountains. Notice how local this is, first of all. Let those in Judea. I don't think he's imagining here a global cosmic event. I think he's having in mind here the land. Those in Judea. And they're going to flee to the mountains because something is happening in Jerusalem in 70 A.D. and in the months and years prior, especially the five month period of siege, right before the destruction, where people will flee. And they did, friends, they did. History confirms what the Bible predicts here. They fled outside the land. They fled east of the Jordan to Pella. They fled to the Judean hill country. They fled because they were alarm for their lives. Let those who are in Judea flee to the mountains. Now, how quickly should they go? Jesus is going to up the urgency here in verses 17 and 18. He says in verse 17, let the one who's on the housetop not go down to take what is in his house, and let the one who's in the field not turn back to take his cloak. Let's meditate for a moment on the language here of how urgent Jesus's statement is. First of all, why would anybody be on their rooftops? You probably don't spend much time on your roof relaxing, probably. I mean, maybe you have the kind of house and roof where that would be more conducive. But in the ancient world, it was very common for everyone to have a flat roof. And people would go up there because it would be cool in the evenings. People would go up there and they would relax and they would celebrate. It was very common to have flat roofs where you would spend significant amounts of time not fixing things on your roof, just hanging out. Right? And so this is the scene in view, and you would have stairs that were on the outside of your house that would lead you right up to the roof. So let's say something alarming started to happen, and you're completely unprepared because you haven't taken all of your stuff onto the roof with you. You're just doing what you do on the roof, and all of a sudden, you've got to leave. You've got to flee. Well, several things might be going through your mind. What kinds of things would you and I want to go back into our house to get in a time of emergency? First of all, our minds might immediately think of special or sentimental items. Maybe things that have been passed down from one generation to another that you could not replace. These kinds of things you might want to take. I'm talking about in addition to the family that's there. Talking about in addition to that, other things in the house, maybe something that is especially expensive that would be very difficult to buy again or that you would be able to use to sell. Maybe items again that were irreplaceable. Jesus is saying that the urgency of the time means you don't have time to go after these things. He says in verse 17, let the one on the housetop not go down to take what's in his house. They're to go down and go. That's how urgent it is. It seems that what would be instinctual for us to go down and get precious, sentimental, irreplaceable. Jesus says, don't go in the house. You don't even have that time. That's how quickly they should move. In verse 18, he gives another example. of the same principle. He says, let the one who's in the field not turn back to get his cloak. Why might someone be in the field? Probably not for relaxation in this example, but for work. for work, someone who's working in the field who may have non work attire and cloaks, maybe at their house, or maybe they've left it somewhere and they need to go back to retrieve it. Jesus says, don't waste one second. That's the idea. They need to be able to go from zero to 60 as fast as possible. And I think the reason is that their very lives depend on it. And this is the case because Josephus records that in the period leading up to 70 A.D., a million people died. That's an extraordinary amount. That's an extraordinary amount. Some modern scholars doubt the number, others confirm the number and insist on it. I'm just telling you what one first century Jewish historian who lived through the events recorded. There's reason to trust the number. If not, some opt for more hundreds of thousands, but a million people is not an unreasonable number. Um, it's an extraordinary amount of people, million, even if it's hundreds of thousands, you see the reason for Jesus's urgency that he wants them to flee, not to waste one second. Look in verse 18, verse 19. In verses 19 through 22, there's a difficulty of circumstances that are going to make this very trying for some people. For example, what about the women who are pregnant and nursing infants? Why might that create some difficult circumstances? Let's just think through this reasonably together. Pregnant women and new mothers are going to be very vulnerable and unable to move as quickly as they would want, especially if they're more pregnant than less pregnant with regard to the months. The closer they are to the birth, the greater vulnerability. They're carrying a life inside of them. The mothers who are nursing their infants will certainly be slown down. Not only that, infants, baby infants who are being nursed and traveling at these kinds of rates and these kinds of conditions, this would be very, very hazardous and dangerous. The word, alas, literally means woe. And Jesus isn't pronouncing judgment with this woe. It's a woe of concern and sorrow. They should they should not want these circumstances to be the case, because if they're pregnant and nursing and have to flee, it's going to be very difficult. We do know that because of historical records that report the conditions of that time, people who couldn't escape did terrible things to one another for food. including consuming animals and including consuming children. It was a very dark and vile and wicked time. Jesus says in verse 20, pray that your flight may not be in winter or on a Sabbath. Think about these conditions for a moment. Traveling in the winter in that land, had, correlating with that, rising waters and cold. Frequent rains in the winter would make it very difficult to cross bodies of water because they would be higher than usual. And not only that, the Judean hillside in the wintertime was very, very cold. And if we're talking about not just adults, but young children and even nursing infants, he says, pray that your flight may not be in winter. Or on a Sabbath. He's not saying because nobody would run on the Sabbath. He's saying that on the Sabbath here, these conditions like the following might make it more difficult. City gates were often shut during Sabbath time. There were stores that were open during the week that were closed on the Sabbath. Various other services and forms of transportation would not be so readily available on the Sabbath day as they would be on other days. So there would be some days where fleeing would be more difficult than others and some seasons in which fleeing would be more difficult than others. So they need to consider the time and they need to not dolly and they need to not lollygag, as my mom used to say. They need to move and they need to not waste one minute. He says, because in verse 21, then there will be great tribulation, such as has not been from the beginning of the world until now. No one never will be. The language here is very strong, and I think the tribulation he's speaking of is what they are going to go through in these decades to come. especially the months and years prior, immediately prior, to the destruction in AD 70. What about this language, though, that has not been from the beginning of the world now and never will be? This language is strong and it seems to call for something so unprecedented that how could it possibly have referred to something in AD 70? But hold on. This is something that I've thought through because this seems like a very reasonable objection to seeing it in the first century. This language seems so outlandish. Surely this has to refer to something completely future and not something past. But then I've seen scholars point to Old Testament use of this kind of language. And we'll see after I cite a few of these, how this language is used in stock form when events are very horrific and terrifying and destructive. For example, I want to point to a few places here. You don't have to turn to these, but I'll just read a few. In Exodus 9, Listen to the language about the seventh plague, which was hail. Exodus 9, 18. Behold, about this time tomorrow, I will cause very heavy hail to fall, such as has never been in Egypt from the day it was founded until now. In Exodus 10, 14, about the locusts, it says, the locusts came all over the land of Egypt and settled on the whole country. Such a dense swarm of locusts as had never been before, nor will ever be again. In Exodus chapter 11 verse six, there shall be, this is regarding the death of the firstborn, there shall be a great cry throughout all the land of Egypt, such as there has never been, nor will ever be again. In Jeremiah chapter 30, it tells us in verse seven, Jeremiah 30 verse seven, Alas, that day is so great, there is none like it. It is a time of distress for Jacob, yet he shall be saved out of it. He's talking about the coming judgment upon Jerusalem by the Babylonians. And he says in verse 7 there, that day is so great, there is none like that day of destruction. In Ezekiel chapter 5, it says in verse 9, Ezekiel 5, 9. And because of all your abominations, I will do with you what I have never yet done and the like of which I will never do again. And in Ezekiel 5, he's talking about the Babylonian destruction of Jerusalem in 586 BC. I'll give you a couple more examples. In Daniel chapter 12, it says in Daniel 12, 1, at that time shall arise Michael, the great prince who has charge of your people. And there shall be a time of trouble such as has never been since there was a nation. And then in chapter In Joel chapter 2 verse 2, the last one, Joel chapter 2 verse 2 says, a day of darkness and gloom, a day of clouds and thick darkness like blackness there is spread upon the mountains of great and powerful people there like has never been before nor will ever be again. This language of never been before up to this time and will never be again is used multiple times of judgments historically. Historic judgments. None of those statements in the Old Testament that I read to you were about the end of the world. They were only about those particular historical judgments. Plagues on those in Egypt, the Babylonian destruction of Jerusalem. So when we see language like this in Matthew 24, I read those in the Old Testament to make this point. In Matthew 24, the language in verse 21, that this tribulation will be such that it's not been until now, nor ever will be, is the kind of language you see for historical judgments in the Old Testament. So I don't think this violates or compromises the context I'm wanting us to see this in. I'm wanting us to see a coming destruction of Jerusalem. And it was a great, devastating, horrific destruction. And this language, like that language in the Old Testament, communicates that in the phrasing. Look at the last section of the passage in verses 23 to 28. The problem of deception will be great. Because when there is alarm and when there is unrest, there are always people, Jesus says, in their day, and it seems to be in our day as well, who are calling for something apocalyptic in the end of things. And Jesus says in verse 22, If those days had not been cut short, no human being would be saved. But for the sake of the elect, those days will be cut short. He's talking about those days of tribulation. In other words, they will not be prolonged. They are a set temporary judgment that God will stop. And there in verse 22, he's also talking about how for the sake of God's people, it seems that's what he means there by the elect. For the sake of the elect, those days will be cut. In verse 23 through 28, what kinds of things are being said in these days that will come to an end, this tribulation leading up to AD 70, I think. In verse 23, he says, if anyone says to you, look, here's the Christ, or there he is, don't believe it. There are some who would think that this destruction would be the coming of the Messiah. And he's saying, no, if they're saying, look, here's the Christ, or there he is, don't believe that. They're claiming maybe special knowledge about where the deliverer would be found. He says nonsense. Don't believe that. And then in verse 24, he explains why. For false Christs and false prophets will arise and perform great signs and wonders so as to lead astray, if possible, even the elect. The phrase, if possible, is key there because I don't think that these people of God, those who truly are the people of God, will actually be led astray by the false Christ and the false prophets. Jesus says in John 10, my sheep, hear my voice. They know me and they follow me. They don't go after other strangers in their voices in John 10. And these would certainly be strange voices that are calling to the masses who are saying, here's the Christ. There he is. Jesus says they're going to even try to lead astray the elect if that were possible. And the way it is in the original language, it's to say to us, if possible, hypothetically, but not actually possible. And this is comforting because it speaks of the security of the people of God and the surety that the people of God are faithfully led by their shepherd and will never be led astray into false worship, false prophecy and false Christs. And he says this to them in the first century. Jesus says to them in verse 25, see, I have told you beforehand. Why does he say I have told you beforehand? I think it's so that when these things unfold, no one's going to be surprised. Why didn't Jesus tell us about this? Look at these terrible events unfolding and the destruction of the temple. Jesus has told them ahead of time, he has warned his followers about all these things in advance so that they will be prepared. So that as these months and years get closer and closer to this destruction, where one stone is not going to be left upon another, Jesus is wanting them to flee. Even though the time will be cut short, it will be great tribulation for them. In verse 26, he's continuing to speak about what could be said by these false prophets. For if they say to you, look, he's in the wilderness, don't go out. If they say, look, he's in the inner rooms, don't believe it. Jesus quotes the kinds of things that were popular in Israel. Prophets like to appear in the wilderness. You know, Moses had a ministry in the wilderness. Elijah had a ministry in the wilderness. John Baptist had ministry there. Jesus was tempted in the wilderness. You have this idea of biblical characters connected to wilderness. And it is the case that in the first century and afterward, false Christ did beckon people to come into the wilderness because they felt that geographical area to be an advantage to their scheme. They also may say, look, he's in the inner rooms. There seemed to be a Jewish tradition that the Messiah would be hidden somewhere in the land until he's just manifested. So somebody's like got him in a secret place and he's just going to be unveiled suddenly, right? This idea seems to be what's invoked here. Look, he's in the inner rooms. He says if someone says they've got the Messiah and they know where he is, or if they say he's out there, let's go to the wilderness. He says, don't believe that. Even if their book is a bestseller, don't believe that. Even if they've got a radio and TV ministry, don't believe that. Right? Even if they pastor a church, even if they've got a big following, even if they're invited to the White House, don't believe that. Amen. You know, because we still we still suffer from these kinds of leading astray declarations and pronouncements. false prophecies, on and on. It's because in Jesus's day, when people are in a situation of fear, people's guards are lower. And Jesus doesn't want His disciples sort of stumbling all over the place in this constant fear and alarm over things. They can flee for their lives, but they're not to be led astray spiritually. They're to be grounded spiritually. Notice that just because they are believers doesn't mean unrest doesn't come to their land. Unrest is coming to their land. Socially, political upheaval coming to their land, and there are believers in that land. But God's going to be with them God's going to be with them. They're not going to be lost. They certainly don't need to hear every alarming voice who's wanting them to look to this or look to that. They need to be stable and firmly rooted. This is always the case. All of a sudden we see ways of extending application of this passage that had a first century meaning, but still has a 21st century application. We should be those who are not easily unraveled by the times. We should be those who know in discerning the times how to pray about them and what we're hoping the Lord will do and working all things for the good of those who love Him and are called according to His purpose. But as our brother Bob read in the scripture reading from Proverbs 16, God is prepared and is over and guiding all things providentially, preparing even the wicked for the day of trouble. And we have this sovereign God, Jesus, who is declaring what is to come. And when the soldiers come, and when the emperor rises, they're all going to be doing what they want to do. But none of them operate outside of the sovereign will of God Almighty. This is His world, and it is judgment. Just as He raised up the Babylonians, He will raise up the Romans to do it. What Jesus doesn't want them to conflate seem to be these two ideas. That the coming judgment on the temple is His second coming, this promise of the Messiah. He says in verse 17, here's why you shouldn't believe I'm in the wilderness or I'm in the inner rooms. Because in verse 27, for as lightning comes from the east and shines as far as the west, so will be the coming of the Son of Man. In other words, everyone will know it when it happens. Because if you were looking outside and you didn't see just some little small strike of lightning, but you saw this massive lightning that shot across the sky, your eyes would not be the only ones that witnessed that. The picture here, the analogy seems to say that the judgment in Jerusalem is not the same thing as the second coming of Jesus. Because when that happens, when that happens, that's not a local event in Judea. That's not something that just that land's got to be thinking about so that they can flee. This is as bold and clear as lightning from east to west. There's no, maybe he's in the inner rooms, maybe he's in the wilderness. It will be clear. It will be clear. Not only this, we see that later on in Matthew 24 and in Matthew 25, while there are signs and birth pains that lead up to the destruction of Jerusalem in 70 AD, no one knows the day or hour of the coming of the Son of Man. And they are to remain vigilant and they are to remain watchful, but he will not give them any signs like he is giving them here. I think in verse 28, it's a gruesome analogy, I know, wherever the corpse is, there the vultures will gather. But I think it's also to make the same point in verse 27, there's something very obvious and clear will be going on. For example, if you're driving by in your car and you see a bunch of vultures in a field circling above, you know what's happened. In other words, it's clear, it's evident to you. I think it's making the same point in verse 27. So I think 27 and 28 just give you two analogies about something that's clear and evident. You're not going to be wondering, okay, maybe he's in the wilderness. I've got to go see cause I don't really know. Or my, he might be in the inner rooms. Maybe someone has him and I need to go to that. It will be clear. Just as if you saw vultures surrounding, um, uh, area on the ground, you know, it's a carcass. And just as in verse 27, lightning going from east to west across the sky would be clear. This is what the church throughout history has believed. They believe that Jesus Christ had a first century ministry and made promises, not merely of a first century judgment, but of his return, his bodily return. And the reason it has to be a bodily return is because he will no longer, after being raised from the dead, be separated from his body. We're not talking about a spiritual return. He was raised from the dead physically. The tomb was empty. He did not appear in some sort of apparition to people spiritually. He was physically raised and physically ascended and this means his return will not be divorced from his body either. It will be a physical bodily return. He is in a glorified bodily existence. Paul says it's the first fruits of all who will be raised. So that when he returns, we would expect the dead in Christ to be raised and to be made like him. So the bodily emphasis here is important. When Christ returns, he returns to raise the dead. He returns for judgment. We see this in Matthew 25, so I don't want to get too ahead. But I want to emphasize this has been the historic position of the church. For instance, the Nicene Creed from the fourth century, he shall come again with glory to judge the quick and the dead whose kingdom shall have no end. Later in the Athanasian Creed, he ascended into heaven. He sits at the right hand of the Father God Almighty. From this he shall come to judge the quick and the dead. We're not talking about the temple destruction. We're talking about his coming, where judgment and resurrection and all things new are taking place. That's what all this is heading for. So that first century judgment on the temple was still in itself forward pointing. There's no final judgment there. It was a historical judgment in Judea. That's not how our passage this morning ends, though it's talking about something much more clear and evident. From our 1689 Baptist confession, it says, as Christ would have us to be certainly persuaded, there shall be a day of judgment, both to deter all men from sin and for the greater consolation of the godly in their adversity. So will he have the day unknown to men that they may shake off all carnal security and be always watchful. Because they know not at what hour the Lord may come, and may they ever be prepared to say, Come, Lord Jesus, come quickly. Amen. When we think about a passage like this and consider historically the fulfillment of Jesus's words, it's important that we see those two things, that he predicted it and that it happened. Because what if he predicted that this generation would see all these things and then it didn't happen? He'd be one of the false prophets he was warning about. It's very, very important that when Jesus is declaring what is going to happen, that it does take place. Jesus was no false prophet, nor was he one of these false Christs in verse 24. No messianic pretender. Jesus was the Deliverer and the Redeemer. He was the Promised One. And incoming fulfilled the promises and types and shadows and patterns from the Old Testament. You know what that includes? The whole sacrificial system and temple and all that jazz. It includes all of that so that when He dies, His fulfilling sacrifice atones in a way those animal sacrifices could only foreshadow. So the destruction of the temple is not bad news with regard to the Gospel. The day of the temple was done. And we look now to Christ who is the destroyed and raised temple, who on the cross was broken down and on the third day rebuilt, if you will. We look to him not only as temple, but we look to him as sacrifice. We look to him not only as temple and sacrifice, but as high priest. You see, in the Old Testament, these were all separate. You had a high priest who was offering a sacrifice in a temple. And in Jesus, all of these things come swelling and culminating together in his single, successful, full, atoning work. This is the gospel. Friend, you should trust in Christ. There is none with greater wisdom, none of greater virtue, but more than that. There is no other Savior. We need rescue from sin and we need rescue from judgment of which the 70 A.D. destruction in the first century was still one more foreshadowing. Jesus will teach in Matthew 24 and 25 that there is a coming of the Son of Man and a final judgment and the nations will be gathered before Him. Behold the warning in that day and listen to the reports of history as I described to you how things were fulfilled throughout this message. We should trust in Christ because we need Savior. We should look to him. We should look to him in faith. We should turn from our sin and repentance and we should want to follow him in worship. He is no mere man. No mere man. Though as a man would die and God and as God do it perfectly for us as our perfect temple, high priest and sacrifice.