Standing Strong

I want you all to think back with me as we begin this morning. Many of us looked forward to leaving high school behind with all of its challenges. Then we began to experience a whole new set of challenges in college or in the workplace. We began wondering what direction we were going to take in life.

When I was a student at Texas Tech University in Lubbock Texas, I took part in a Bible group each Wednesday night. I saw a lot of my friends come in and get involved but then begin to fade out. I see some of that in the church setting today. Individuals will come in and get on fire for the Lord, accept Him as their Savior, be baptized in His name, and are fairly active for a while. Then they begin to fade out.

Some of us have probably been in the same situation and in the same frame of mind at one time or another. The trials of life tend to turn our attention to other things rather than worshiping God. The covid virus of 2020 shut down a lot of the churches for a while. People became accustomed to staying home and not going to church. But now the churches are open, and many people have yet to return to the church to worship God. They've become accustomed to sitting in their pajamas and drinking coffee and watching it on Facebook. Which is okay to a certain extent.

So we are all involved in yet another trial of life. But God is reminding us today that trials are a part of the Christian life. Jesus has warned us as recently as last week that difficulties don't leave us when we choose to follow Christ. Jesus never glossed over the challenges we face as His children. When He spoke about His return, Jesus also spoke of the hardships we will face, difficulties that would even increase. Thankfully, we will not face them alone. God reminds us today that whatever trial we face, He is there waiting for us to turn it over to Him and stand strong. Prayer

We will be looking at Matthew 24. Our story today takes place near the temple in Jerusalem. The temple in Jerusalem was quite impressive. It was considered an architectural marvel in the middle east. Even though the disciples had just been in the temple, they were wowed by the structure. Mark recorded in his gospel that one of Jesus’ disciples said to Him, teacher, “Look! What massive stones! What impressive buildings!” We begin our story.

Matthew 24:1-3 – “As Jesus left and was going out of the temple, his disciples came up and called his attention to its buildings. 2 He replied to them, “Do you see all these things? Truly I tell you, not one stone will be left here on another that will not be thrown down.”

*******3 While he was sitting on the Mount of Olives, the disciples approached him privately and said, “Tell us, when will these things happen? And what is the sign of your coming and of the end of the age?”

Jesus responded to the disciples’ with words that no one was expecting. “Do you see all these things? Truly I tell you, not one stone will be left here on another that will not be thrown down.” This couldn't have been an easy thing for the disciples to hear. Because the temple was the center of political and religious life for Israel, the disciples couldn't imagine such a catastrophe. That is probably why they mentioned “the end of time” in verse 3.

In the disciples’ minds, they were asking one question. They figured that the Temple's destruction and the coming of Christ would trigger the end of the age. In their way of thinking, if the temple were ever destroyed, it surely must signal that the world was ending quickly.

Jesus’ teaching in these verses was two-fold. He was preparing the disciples for the destruction of the temple and for his second coming. He offered comfort for the difficult time ahead, but he also looked far beyond the temple to the end of the age.

What is challenging to understand for all of us is that Jesus doesn't distinguish between when He was talking about the destruction of Jerusalem and when He was referring to the end times. With that in mind, notice that Jesus didn't answer the “when” part of their question. If we were to know the exact timing, it would cut off any sense of urgency and any need to depend on Christ in our lives. In responding this way, Jesus wants our focus to be solely on Him. Jesus's knowledge of these events reminds us that God knows all. We can live at peace as the world approaches its end because God has a perfect knowledge of the end of the age, and Jesus has promised, “I am with you always, to the end of the age.”