This time I want you to take your Bible out and turn with me to Mark chapter 13. Mark chapter 13. And today we're going to take a closer look. A closer look. There in Mark chapter 13, we're just gonna focus on, from Mark, just two verses. And if you want to, you can even hold your finger there, and we're gonna be in Matthew 23 also, and come back to Mark 13. But these two verses in Mark 13, it says, then as he went out of the temple, one of his disciples said to him, teacher, See what manner of stones and what buildings are here. And Jesus answered and said to him, do you see these great buildings? Not one stone shall be left upon another. that shall not be thrown down. May the Lord add his blessing upon the reading of his word. As I was preparing the message this week and just thinking about how Jesus has been ministering and how in the last few weeks he's been revealing to us through his word even how he has a way of taking a closer look at things. He looks at things differently than the way we look at it. Matter of fact, I was thinking about this, and this brought back memories of me of my favorite magazine as a kid. Anybody ever look at these magazines called Highlights? To this day, I still love Highlights. And I remember as a kid, even in elementary school, going to the library looking for the highlights, and I'd get upset because I'd find the book, and I'd check out the latest one that came out every month, and it was fun with a purpose. And so you learned as you had fun. But there was one thing in there that I loved above everything else, and that was the hidden pictures. You find a page, it looked like a picture, and it had within that picture a bunch of hidden things. So as you took a closer look, you would see these things. I hate it when other children would have it encircled, those things, right? And then I got to thinking about today and thinking about, as you take a closer look at yourself, as I take a closer look at myself, End my or your blank. And you can go through every category of your life. And I don't know if you do this like I do, but when I evaluate, when I step back and I take a look, what do you notice? We go through life and we could look at things on the surface and it all looks well. And then what happens as you take a closer look? What's going well? Isn't that true? No matter what it is you examine, you start to see things. And you know, it's biblical to examine. And so as you look at your family, what do you notice? You look at your job. You even look at your house. Yesterday was Saturday. I just went around. There's just projects everywhere, right? What do you notice? Spiritually, as you step back in your own life, what do you notice? Are you happy where you're at? I will tell you this, Wednesday night, we had such a large group here. It was an indication to me, people aren't happy where they're at. They want to grow. They're starving for the Word and looking for someone to help them learn. But here's another question. And here's what Jesus has been doing through the gospel. Mark, as you take a closer look, it's your Savior and His will, His work, His way. What do you notice about him? About what he's doing? You see, we can get so caught up on what we got going on and forget all about his work and his will and his way. And Rachel, you were spot on as far as, yeah, he doesn't call those who are, what, equipped and empowered. No, he calls you, and then he's going to give you what you need. And I'm proof of that. But he does have a work, he has a will, he has a way. Actually yesterday morning in the men's breakfast, that's what we talked about yesterday. Working out our salvation. But what do you notice about Jesus? Even in this passage, he's been meeting with the Pharisees and the scribes and these spiritual leaders. And what has he, as he stepped back, and if you looked at the, you know, Judaism in Jesus's day, their religion, they had it down to a well-oiled machine. And so he comes in and what does he do? He looks at it from his perspective and just one thing after the next. Now, turn with me. I'm gonna take you through, turn with me. I'm gonna put Matthew 13, one and two in context, but you need to turn back with me to Matthew 23. Matthew 23. I don't know if this has something to do with that ringing or not. I'm gonna move that over there just in case there's a little feedback, see if that helps. But Matthew 23, and I want to just, and I don't have time to dissect all of it, but I just want to kind of put Mark 13 in context by showing you what's happening leading into Matthew to Mark 13. And the first thing I want you to notice, look with me, because as Jesus takes a closer look, I want you to notice what he does. He has a way of looking, you know, he was looking at their system, their machine, and they're like, well, there's nothing to see here. And he's like, oh, yeah, there is. And I'm going to show you what it is. If you look at that picture there, you see right in the dead center, there's the eyes of a wolf blooded in with those sheep. And that's what Jesus is warning us about. And I want you to notice this confrontation in Matthew 23, starting at verse 15. I'm just going to glance over this, but I want you to see these woes that he's given to the scribes and the Pharisees. And he calls them hypocrites. You know, let me just pause here and get a little bit of, You know, yesterday, my email and even my, you know, people were sharing, what do you think about what happened with the Olympics sideshow on Friday? I didn't watch it, but people were, you know, making comments, and I saw these news clips started coming on my phone. And here's what some people who are criticizing, the Christians who were criticizing. The Christians were being critical, and even some well-known believers were posting, saying, this is blasphemous. Here we go. And other people were saying, what are you criticizing them for? They're not attacking Christianity. And then you had some of these folks saying, hey, why don't you be like Jesus? Jesus never confronted people. He just loved doing them. Is that true? I saw that everywhere. Jesus never acted like you got. Let me read this passage to you. Let's see how Jesus confronted his culture, and in particular, those who were blasphemous, who were hypocrites. Verse 15, what are you scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites? For you travel land and sea to win one proselyte, one follower. And when He is one, you make Him twice as much a son of hell as yourselves. Wow. Woe to you blind guides who say, whoever swears by the temple, it is nothing, but whoever swears by the gold of the temple, he is obliged to perform it. Fools and blind, for which is greater, the gold or the temple that sanctifies the gold? And whoever swears by the altar, it is nothing. But whoever swears by the gift that is on it, he is obliged to perform it, fools and blind. For which is greater, the gift or the altar that sanctifies the gift? Therefore, he who swears by the altar swears by it and by all things on it. He who swears by the temple swears by it and by him who dwells in it. And he who swears by heaven swears by the throne of God and by him who sits on it. Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, you hypocrites! For you pay tithe and mint and anise and cumin and have neglected the weightier matters of the law, justice and mercy and faith. These you ought to have done without leaving the others undone. Blind guides who strain out a gnat and you swallow a camel. Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, you hypocrites! For you cleanse the outside of the cup and dish, but inside they're full of extortion and self-indulgence. Blind Pharisees first cleanse the inside of the cup and dish, that the outside of them may be clean also. Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, you hypocrites! For you are like the whitewashed tombs, which indeed appear beautifully outwardly, but inside are full of dead man's bones. and uncleanness. Even so, you also outwardly appear righteous to men, but inside you are full of hypocrisy and lawlessness. Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! Because you build the tombs of the prophets and adorn the monuments of the righteous, and say, If we had lived in the days of our fathers, we would not have been partakers with them in the blood of the prophets. Therefore you are witnesses against yourselves. that you are sons of those who murdered the prophets. Fill up then the measure of your father's guilt. Serpents, brood of vipers, how can you escape the condemnation of hell? Therefore, indeed, I send you prophets. Wise men, scribes, some of them you will kill and crucify. Some of them you will scourge in your synagogues and persecute from city to city that, oh, you may come. All the righteous blood shed on the earth from the blood of the righteous Abel, who was the first one murdered in the Old Testament, by the way. to the blood of Zechariah, the last prophet murdered in the Old Testament, son of Baraka, whom you murdered between the temple and the altar. Assuredly, I say to you, all these things will come upon this generation." And there, I want you to notice just quickly, as you look at the screen, we just witnessed how he was, Jesus was pointing out, he stepped back and said, let's take a close look at your convincing people to follow you. You're leading them to hell. And folks, that's why ministries like Youth for Christ, if you read the purpose statement, how they have a mission of sharing the gospel with young people, 11 to 19, because in our culture, I'm telling you right now, who's leading them? Who are they following? It's not the church. Should be. We do our best. It's not Christ for many of them, but praise God for those who do. But I'm telling you, and even some well-intended people still are not leading them to Christ or leading them to something else, and they're still on their way to condemnation. And then the contents, the contents was a bunch of dead man's, right? Inside, it's like a vessel, it's dirty. You're filthy on the inside. You're nothing but a bunch of corpses. That's all your dead man's bones. You're on the outside, you look one way, on the inside, you're a dead, stinking corpse. And you're condemned for this. There's a condemnation for this. And there's consequences for this. And when you get to the consequences, this is what happens in the next verse there in verse 37, because Jesus says, Oh, Jerusalem, Jerusalem, the one who kills the prophets and the stones that are sent to her. Now, Jesus had just pointed out in verse 34, he said, Therefore, indeed, send you the prophets." What? I send you the prophets. Shown as deity. Jesus himself had part in sending the prophets in the Old Testament, and John the Baptizer in the New Testament. Oh, Jerusalem, Jerusalem, one who kills the prophets and stones who are sent to her, how often I wanted to gather your children together as a hen gathers her chicks under her wings, but you were not willing. See, your house is left to you desolate. For I say to you, you shall see me no more till you say, blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord. And there we see, we see the deep sadness. There we see the desire that Jesus had. He wanted to be the one to gather them under his wings and protect them, and they were not willing. They denied it. They denied him as their Messiah. And therefore he says, see, your house is left to you, what? Now, this is very important. Now, this is why this is so important to put this in context, because what happens next in chapter 24 and Mark chapter 13, if you don't get this, you're going to miss a very important thing. So we're going to step back, and we're going to take a closer look this morning, because see your house. Now, it says your house. Where's he at when he's saying this? He's in the temple. He's in Jerusalem. So he's stepping back, pointing to the temple. He's pointing to Jerusalem. He's talking about being at your house. Guess what? It was their house. But it was not to be their house. Whose house should it have been? My house shall be a house of prayer, right? They had taken over, and therefore, see, your house is left to whom? Therefore, I'm gonna leave this house to you. Now it's yours. But it's desolate. Why is it desolate? Because we're gonna see, he says, for I say to you, you shall what? See me no more till you say, Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord. And folks, when you study Matthew, this is one of the key verses of Matthew, because he's going to go right into the Olivet Discourse, and he's going to lay out something. We're going to be studying the Olivet Discourse, but we're going to start that next week. It's one of the most difficult passages in all the New Testament to interpret, is the Olivet Discourse. There's so much detail that points to the future, past, present, and future. But he says, you shall see me no more. And this is a fulfillment, a prophecy of the Messiah. He came, he was rejected. They would not come to him. And so folks, this is yet future. When Jesus comes back, he's going to enter Jerusalem when they're crying out what? Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord. That's going to happen. It hasn't happened yet. That's what we're waiting for. God's at work in Israel even today, stirring them, waking them up, their eyes this week. What a sad testimony of our country this week, that Benjamin Netanyahu came here, the one leader in the Middle East that's holding things together, and he was shunned. And then when he stood before our leaders, many leaders didn't have the guts or courage to even sit and listen to his plea. After all this happened, but there's nothing new under the sun, because we're even gonna see in today's message here in just a few minutes, I'm gonna show you something that they, God's people, because Satan hates the seed of Abraham. And he's been using people from the very beginning, ever since Abraham came on the scene, to destroy that family, and he's still up to his dirty deeds today, and he's using our neighbors. And just right down the road, D.C. is not that far away, this week they tore down American flags and burnt them and raised up a Hamas flag in our capital. And who did anything about it? Where was the National Guard? One of our leaders, somebody's gotta have the guts, right? But where are they? God have mercy on us. How dare we sing God Bless America? Now let's take a closer look. Before I turn to Mark 13, let's just look at the first two verses of Matthew 24, because they line up. Look at this. Then Jesus went out and departed from the temple. And his disciples came up to show him the buildings of the temple. And Jesus said to them, do you not see all these things? And shortly I say to you, not one stone shall be left upon another that shall not be thrown down here. That's Matthew 24. And I turn over with me to Mark 13. And the very first statement there in chapter 13. And you know, when the Bible was written, there were no verses and no chapter breaks. So this just runs together. Then as he went out of the temple, one of his disciples said to him, Teacher, see what manner of stones and what buildings are here. Do you understand what Jesus just said? I'm out of here. It's now your house. It's desolate. It's empty. And what did they point to? He's departing. And here's what this is equivalent to. When you read the Old Testament, back when Ezekiel, when Nebuchadnezzar was coming to take over Jerusalem, the last thing that was destroyed in Jerusalem was the temple. And before God allowed Nebuchadnezzar to destroy the temple, Ezekiel 10.18 says this, then the glory of the Lord departed from the threshold of the temple and stood over the cherubim. And the cherubim lifted their wings and mounted up from the earth in my sight. And when they went out, the wheels were beside them, and they stood at the door of the east gate of the Lord's house, and the glory of God of Israel was above them. And Ezekiel wrote down as he witnessed God leaving the temple. That's exactly what's happening in Mark chapter 13, verse one. He says, you're not going to see me anymore. And he departs the temple. He never goes back. This is God in the flesh. Same thing taking place in Ezekiel. The glory of God has left the temple. The disciples missed it. They heard it, and we're gonna see evidence of that, because they're gonna ask a couple questions, based on what he had just said. They didn't know what to do, so what, you don't know what to do, what do you do? You say something like, hey, look at this, Jesus, look at, look at this. What did they point to? Jesus, look at this. They just heard. about this desolation. Teacher, see what manner of stones and what buildings are here. Do you know anything about the temple in Jesus's day? This is Herod's temple. If you know the history of the temple, you had Solomon's temple that was destroyed. And that's the one Nebuchadnezzar destroyed. And then after the captivity, Zerubbabel went back and he rebuilt the temple. Well, when Herod was on the scene, many years before Christ, he started to add to Zerubbabel's temple, because it was just a plain old temple, and he wanted to make it magnificent. And that's why it's called Herod's temple, because it was about Herod, not about God. And he used these beautiful, big, ginormous white stones for the foundation and for the building. And then he layered it with gold. And they said, when you come over the hill and you came up to, or came up the hill and you saw Jerusalem, the sun hitting those white stones and that gold, it just lit up. And the glory of the temple was one of the wonders of the world. It was still under construction even during Jesus's time. It was 10 years after Jesus resurrected that the temple was even finished. It was started 30 years before Christ is when they started building, reconstructing this temple. Man, it is a display and there's looking at this, but look at this, look at, look how beautiful this is. Well, Jesus has just been talking to the disciples and the leaders about not looking at what's on the outside, but looking at what's on the inside. And so what does Jesus do? He says, guys, let's step back here and take another look at this. Look at this. Look at verse two. Do you see these great buildings? Question mark. Matthew says, do you not see these things? That's what Matthew says. Do you not see this? They're looking at the stone. He says, get back and look at these buildings. What's the purpose of these buildings? And then he says this to them. He goes, guys, there's not one, the destruction here, there's not one stone that you're looking at. that's going to remain here. They're all going to be thrown down. They're going to be turned over. And you know what? It was AD 70 when Titus came in and totally destroyed Jerusalem. And I want to share some things with you about the destruction of the temple. Jesus said this was gonna happen. Now, God knew this. Even at that moment, Jesus, standing as he departed the temple, he knew what it was gonna look like in not so many years. But even as you study, even here, this is the Wikipedia, just their summarization of the destruction of the temple. A lot of good information here, and you can read the sources there, and I like how they actually source Josephus. Josephus is the Jewish historian that wrote about the destruction of the temple, who was back in Jesus's day. He was a Jewish historian, then he also had a Roman historian that also wrote about it in Jesus's day. But did you know that when the temple was destroyed, Titus was the emperor, A.D. 70. And Titus, when he came in, first he said that he was going to destroy Jerusalem because there was an uprising in Jerusalem. The Jews, they got so fed up with what was going on, and there was a rebellion taking place. So it started with one fire that spread to something else, and next thing you know, they are actually taking over Jerusalem. But this is what he said at first. He goes, we can destroy it, but don't touch the temple. That's how it first started, but don't touch the temple. But when he came in, he changed his mind and said, go ahead and take the temple also. And Josephus said this, Josephus wrote that 1.1 million people, the majority of them Jewish, were killed during the siege. Well, it was during the Passover when this happened. That's why so many people were in Jerusalem. Josephus goes on to report that after the Romans killed the armed and the elderly people, 97,000 were enslaved. Josephus records that many people were sold into slavery and that the inhabitants of Jerusalem, 40,000 individuals survived, but the emperor let them to go wherever they chose. Before and during the siege, according to Josephus' account, there were multiple waves of desertions from the city. The Roman historian Tacticus wrote later, the number of the besieged of every age, and here's what the Roman historian said when Jerusalem was conquered. Listen to this. The total number of the besieged of every age and both sexes, see back then there were only two sexes, which is still true today by the way, were 600,000. There were arms for all who could use them. And the number ready to fight was larger than could have anticipated from the total population. Now listen to this. When it got to the point. Listen very closely. Both men and women showed the same determination. And if they were to be forced to change their home, they feared life more than death. And you can read where even men, women, and children took up arms and fought, because they cared more about living than dying. They cared more about living than dying. I'd rather die a free man than to live as a slave. That used to be the motto of our country. And you can read more, but to triumph, I'm going to show you some pictures. They came in, they destroyed, there's a painting, an old well-known painting of the destruction of Jerusalem. But you know also later, Domitian, he built this monument in honor of his brother. See, Titus was emperor. He has now died. His brother takes the throne. And so there in Rome, his brother Domitian built that monument in honor of his brother for conquering Jerusalem. And when you study that part of the world, do you know that Jerusalem was one of the most important cities in the world at that time? That's why it was such a big deal. Because if you went from north to south, south to north, guess what you went through? Jerusalem was a main route. And that building, the temple, was one of the wonders of the world. That's why this was such a remarkable defeat. They defeated Jerusalem. And let me show you what's engraved on that monument. You can see it today. You know what that is? That's a picture of when Titus conquered Jerusalem and the temple. They are carrying away what? the menorah, and the table of showbread. And they said, you know, up to that point, before the Romans came in and carried those artifacts out of the temple, you know, the average person never saw those things, only the priests, because they were sacred. And this took place, folks. And here's the question, because when you look at the temple and you look at everything, that's just the temple complex in Herod's day. That's an old picture from an old Bible that lays out every part of the temple complex, you know, from the court of the women where they would take collections, where we talked about that last week. all the way up to the court, and even the big altar they built so they could sacrifice on, and the water, the labor there of water where they would wash themselves, and then they'd go into the holy place, and then the most holy place. All of that was destroyed, all of it. But here's what you gotta remember today, as we mourn, as you read this, and your heart hurts reading this, if you're like me anyway, We need to remember that Paul says, or do you not know that your body, now, when you study the Jewish people in the New Testament, the apostle Paul was a Pharisee of the Pharisees. Man, even in the book of Acts, he's always trying to make it back to the temple, still celebrating their feasts, going back to Jerusalem. He loved Jerusalem. He loved his people. But he also understood what it all meant. He stepped back after he was saved. He went away into the desert for three years, and he studied, and all the things that he thought he knew, he discovered the real meaning of it, and it all pointed to Jesus. And so, that's why he wrote to the church in Corinth, don't you know that your body is the temple of the Holy Spirit who's in you? You have from God and you're not your own? You've been bought with a price. Therefore do what in your temple? Don't make the same mistakes. Give God the glory in your body and in your spirit which are God's. Because one day this old body here is getting older, getting worn out. I'm getting a new one one day. The Holy Spirit's not remaining in this temple. Us together, we actually are building a temple as believers, as the church, that the Holy Spirit indwells. But he did all this, allowed this to happen, to teach you and I some valuable lessons, and listen. This is interesting, in Uruguay today, we have missionaries in Uruguay that some of us support. We pray for them, we love them. The Terran family with IPM, they are serving in Uruguay. And if you know anything about Uruguay, let me just read you something. It was called the Skeleton Project. And ABWE, they sent some missionaries there, and here's what they discovered. First of all, Uruguay, it says, overlooking the town of Peropolis, It serves as a profound visual reminder of a nation, now listen to this, in which more than a hundred years have passed since religion was removed from the country's constitution. We're totally isolating ourselves from any kind of religion, including Christianity. With older generations distancing themselves from religion, younger Uruguayans are raised without acknowledging the existence of their creator God. Say perhaps when the Bible was mentioned during Greek class, or Greek mythology class. As a result, Uruguay, now listen to this, And if you remember when Juan was here in Andrea, they shared these same statistics with us. They had the highest percentage of atheists and non-religious citizens in Latin America. This fact, coupled with Uruguay's distinction of having the highest suicide rate in Latin America, paints a dark picture of their future. Sharing the gospel in this context is challenging in many conversations, and abruptly when the person realizes they are talking to a believer. Other people show signs of curiosity, yet end up accepting any and every belief they hear, resulting in a syncretistic worldview mess. But where there is a witness, there is hope. Amen. Our missionary team is developing counseling ministries, youth outreach, impactful relationships to demonstrate the hope through a preserving, persevering presence. It will take time and commitment, but we believe the future is bright as we prove the love of Christ in face of skepticism. And that is a church, a literal church they took a picture of, and what it looks like, it's called the Skeleton Church. Because that's a picture of the nation. What does the United States look like if we were to show an image of a church? But let me tell you something. Yesterday, a Steven lay in his hospital bed. He just shared with me that he never had Chick-fil-A, and we're going to pray about that. I said, Stephen, I need to ask you a question. I said, can you tell me one step back here and take a closer look at what you've learned at church? What can I leave this little seven-year-old boy as I leave the hospital room and he lays there with oxygen tubes? And by the way, I just got a report sitting here that he is not doing well today. He is not doing well at all. A pulmonologist came in and was very upset because he should have been receiving treatments every four hours and he has not been receiving them. So he's in bad shape this morning. So we're gonna pray for little Steve, but here's what he told me yesterday. I said, Stephen, can you tell me one thing that you know about Jesus that you learned at church. Tell me just one thing that you know about Jesus. And the very first thing he said, I know that Jesus made everything. Well, guess what? Little Stephen was here the first night of what? And what was our lesson? I know that. So Stephen, let's take a closer look at this. If He has the power, in the beginning there was the Word, the Word was with God, and the Word was God, and all things were what, right? Made by Him, without Him was not anything made that was made. If that's true about Jesus, and by the way, if Jesus got in a fight with Superman, who would win? Well, Jesus, right? And if that's the truth, what can Jesus do for you, Stephen? Let's take a closer look at Jesus. Well, He can make me better. Stephen, you really believe that? Yes, I do. What if Cross Like Bywood Church wasn't driving up to Tonytown with a bus every week and bringing Stephen to church? He wouldn't be going to church. If the bus didn't go up for VBS, Stephen would not have been at VBS. The reason why he's never had Chick-fil-A, because they can't afford Chick-fil-A. Let's take a closer look at what we do here. And you keep hanging in there and keep doing the right thing. You keep sharing the gospel. And every person you have an opportunity to be part of, invest in their lives, look at them from Jesus's perspective and say, Lord, let me see what you see. I know it's not ever convenient. It's not convenient, but it's necessary. Bill Neal, we need to pray for Bill Neal. Spent Friday with Bill. Sit there in his living room, we talked about some hard things. He's at the stage of life where there's no cure, we can only comfort. We don't know Bill's listening right now, so Bill knows. He watches every service. He even sang a song to me before I left on Friday. We said goodbye, I hugged him, told him I loved him, And you know how big Bill has been? Bill's skin and bone right now. Look at Bill from Jesus' eyes. What does Jesus see? Take a closer look. A faithful servant who invested in this pastor. One of my heroes of the faith is Bill Mill. So let's take a look at ourselves, look at everything from Jesus' perspective, and it will make all the difference in this crazy world we live in.