Allen Jackson - Jesus and the Second Temple - Part 1
We've been doing a study on the Gospel of Luke and I've invited you to a little extra reading assignment, for which I know you're just thrilled beyond all measure, beyond our normal Bible reading. Once a year, as a congregation, we read through our Bible systematically together. If you're not joining us, come on. It will change your faith. It will deliver you from deception and it will prepare you for whatever is before us. But in addition to that, that's about a 15 minute a day commitment, depending on your reading style and speed. But beyond that, I've invited you for the last couple of weeks to read the Gospel of Luke with me.
There's only 24 chapters. You can read the entire Gospel in a single sitting in about less time than it takes to watch a ball game, so it's not like an enormous ask. We're just not accustomed to reading our Bible that way. In fact, one of my objectives was to introduce you to a different way to interact with your Bible. Rather than a little 15 minute block, where we kind of read through it and check the block, it's an appropriate way, it gets us through our Bible. But to go back and forth through the Gospel of Luke over a period of time changes your familiarity with the text in a very profound way. If your schedule will allow, read it once a day.
Some of you don't have that kind of bandwidth, I understand. Maybe once a week would be a stretch. Maybe you could read it twice a week. You know, whatever would fit into your schedule, but make a sacrifice to give some time that you would normally spend to doing something else in reading the Gospel of Luke. I've been walking back and forth through Luke now for several weeks and I can tell you that has had a significant impact upon me. In this session, we're about done with it, I'm gonna have to move on for a while.
But in this session, I wanna talk about Jesus and the Second Temple of the New Testament. When we open our Gospels, it's the second temple that's standing in Jerusalem. It will be destroyed after Jesus ascends back to heaven in 70 AD. There's a third temple on the horizon that will be built in Jerusalem. The Bible tells us about that, but we're gonna focus on Jesus's activity in the Second Temple today, as presented to us in the Gospel of Luke. In fact, we're going to temple with Jesus. It's kind of fun. I've been to synagogues.
You know, the synagogue, in the New Testament, was the local place of worship. There were synagogues in all the little communities and villages. You had a dozen Jewish men, you could have a synagogue. And so you find synagogues in Nazareth and Capernaum and Bethsaida and all the little towns that Jesus would visit and minister in. There was a single temple in Jerusalem. It was the center of national life. It was the center of national pride in the first century. It was the most beautiful structure in all the nation. Herod the Great had remodeled it, and in such an extravagant way that it was a centerpiece of the Roman world.
In fact, visitors came from all over the Roman world, non-Jews, to see Herod's temple in Jerusalem. It was probably the single greatest structure and certainly the point of national pride. It was the center of their religious life, it was the center of their political life, it was their national bank, it was an important place. For the temple to be destroyed would be roughly analogous, I think, to Washington, D.C., being destroyed for us. Imagine if you saw pictures of Washington, D.C., and all the buildings and monuments were just piles of rubble. You would understand something horrific had happened, that the power and the authority of our nation had somehow shifted, and that's what the temple represented to the people.
And it's not insignificant that the last days and weeks of Jesus's ministry was centered almost exclusively in that temple in Jerusalem. He began his public ministry in Galilee, in the remote rural parts of the nation, ministering in the synagogues. They were small, they would hold dozens of people. But the conclusion of his ministry, the real conflict of his ministry, takes place in Jerusalem. So Luke is telling us a story. It's a narrative with an objective.
Now, our familiarity with the Gospels is principally in the Jesus story, the circumstances of his birth, the uniqueness of that virgin birth. Luke gives us a very clear window into that. The visit from the angel Gabriel to a teenager in Nazareth, and we follow Jesus through and there's some miracle stories and there's some healings and we're kind of familiar with those and then we get to the conclusion, the music builds, it's the crescendo. He's arrested, betrayed, tried, executed, buried, and raised to life again. It's the redemptive story of Jesus. I believe it, but it's not the only story in the Gospel of Luke.
And I think, unless you have a bit more time and you read with a bit more intentionality, it's very easy to read past that. Luke's Gospel certainly presents a narrative about Jesus's arrival and his redemptive work, but it also reflects an opportunity for the people that Jesus walked amongst. The Messiah was there. Luke tells us a timeless story and an account of what happens when we ignore God's truth. We need both lessons. The people to whom Jesus spoke, the people to whom he ministered, the synagogues he entered, the people that listened to him on the Temple Mount had a choice, and because of their choices, their lives took a dramatic turn. Jesus warned them. It's throughout the Gospel of Luke. It's beyond this session.
I'm not going to bring you those passages now, perhaps in the later session, but Jesus told them there would be an interruption of their life patterns, that the plans they were familiar with, the habits they had, the routines they have were going to be dramatically disrupted. He told them there would be the complete removal of their annual plans. In the same way we have annual holiday cycles and we know what we do and we have family traditions and personal choices, so did that first century audience.
And Jesus said, "You'll not continue them". He told them that the generational progress they have enjoyed would be stopped. In the same way we have hopes that our children and grandchildren will have lives that exceed the opportunities we have, Jesus said, "That will no longer be the case". He warned them that chaotic forces would be focused on disrupting and diminishing their lives, that they would forfeit stability and security, that lawlessness would increase. The deception would flourish, that there would be tremendous financial loss and even displacement. All of that is in the Gospel of Luke. We don't listen to it very carefully. We think it's old, it's historical, it's not particularly relevant to us.
I would submit to you that we too are at a crossroads. I think it's highly improbable that our future looks like our past. I don't know the outcome, to be quite candid, yet. It isn't clear to me. But I can tell you that we are at a junction and I believe that the future has far more to do with the people of God and our hearts and our choices than any other factor. I'm convinced of that. If you'll tolerate with me just a brief historical review, I think it'll help with the Gospel of Luke. For more than a thousand years, the Jewish people lived in the land God promised Abraham with Jerusalem as their capital city, for more than one thousand years.
There was one brief interlude, about 70 years. God sent them away. It's a Babel and you know the portions of your Bible that come from that window. The prophet Jeremiah was the one that had the challenge of making the announcement, but it's where you meet Daniel and Esther and Nehemiah and Ezra. Those characters all step into the story in that little brief window of time when the Jewish people, God said, "You can't stay in your inheritance". Jesus's arrival signals a rescue mission for the audience of the first century, every bit as much as for us. They needed a Messiah, they needed a Savior, and Jesus came with a message for his generation. He said, "I came to seek and to save those which were lost".
And we've extrapolated that out to the 21st century. It's not inappropriate, but he came to the audience in that first century. They weren't quite prepared for the Messiah that Jesus represented. They imagined a political solution. They preferred freedom from Roman oppression. By the time Jesus arrived, the Romans were the overlords of the land which was humiliating for the people. They were subjugated to the Roman soldiers, to Roman authority. They paid excessive taxes, they endured abusive treatment. They were not equal before the law and therefore their imagination was a Messiah, when he came, would remove the political restraints.
Jesus's arrival fulfilled the promises of the prophets, the location of Jesus's birth, the place where he would grow up, the lineage from which he would emerge, dozens and dozens of prophecies, and Jesus fulfilled them all, but he didn't fulfill the expectations of the people. Jesus's message was directed at the behavior of the covenant people of God. They wanted someone to talk to the Romans and he talked to them. He said, "You're not reading the scriptures right. You have much religious activity and lots of religious language and you have religious rules for what to eat and when to worship and how to worship, but your hearts are far from God".
He didn't avoid the reality of secular authority and power. He clearly imagined that it was secondary to a greater authority, the kingdom of God. He freely acknowledged the boundaries that Rome brought, but he was trying to capture the people's attention that there was a power greater than that. He spoke about obedience to kingdom principles and reminded his listeners that ignoring God's principles would bring consequences. They didn't like the message. He frequently demonstrated the power of God's kingdom over demons, over sicknesses, even over death. He showed the people a power greater than the wind or the waves, a power which transcended financial matters.
You can find tax money in the mouth of a fish. He wanted the people to see and understand the magnitude of the invitation which was before them. It wasn't even close, if we were going to talk of power and authority. All of that is in Luke's narrative: Jesus pleading with the people, demonstrating the power of a kingdom of Almighty God. And in the midst of that is Jesus's redemptive work, his death, his burial and his resurrection, which changes the narrative of Scripture in the most dramatic way, enabling people from every nation, race, language, and tribe to become a part of the covenant people of God.
It was no longer a matter of descent or lineage or genealogy. Access to this eternal kingdom of God is freely available to any person who will choose Jesus as Lord and repent of their sins, their ungodly behavior. But just as Jesus said to that first century Jewish audience, you can't worship God on your terms and imagine that you will receive all of his mercy and grace and blessings. I believe that message is still relevant for his people in the 21st century, and I believe we have drifted greatly.
I put a passage in your notes. It's the first verse I've used in weeks. It's not from the Gospel of Luke, for a moment. It's 1 Peter chapter 2. It says, "You're a chosen people, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people belonging to God, that you may declare the praises of him who called you out of darkness into his wonderful light. Once you were not a people, but now you're the people of God; once you had not received mercy, but now you have received mercy".
The book of Romans says we've been grafted in, that the covenant God made with Abram is relevant to us. So I would submit to you that Jesus's words to his audience in the Gospel of Luke are very relevant to those of us in the 21st century. We have lived with great freedom and great liberty and great abundance and great opportunities to worship God, to gather in our churches, to read our Bibles, and I think in some very similar ways, we have drifted. And if we take the words of the Gospel of Luke seriously at all, I would submit to you that we are confronted with almost identical choices to the audience that Jesus addressed, that if we don't engage God in a more meaningful way, with humility and repentance and seek him, I think we will face the interruption of our life patterns.
I believe we'll see the removal of our annual plans. I believe generational progress will be stopped in our own families. I believe there are chaotic forces focused on disruption and diminishment, that we very well could face the forfeiture of stability and security. Well, I believe we are at a crossroads. And as I said, I'm not certain of the outcome, but I do know the character of God and that humility and repentance are powerful factors in eliciting God's engagement. I would also remind us that pride, indifference, and stubborn unbelief will attract God's judgment every time. The message of personal salvation, where we imagine because we've recited a prayer and been dipped in a pool has guaranteed us uninterruptible provision from God, is an incomplete gospel.
I believe in conversion, I believe in salvation, I believe in the new birth. I understand them to be essential. And there's only one way. Jesus is the way, the truth, and the life. There are not many paths that lead to the same outcome. But the point of that new birth, the point of conversion, is that we might grow up in serving the Lord and I don't think we've been nearly as interested in that. Well, if you wanna bear the label of Jesus, you'll have to be willing to bear the labels that his enemies would affix to you. I don't believe we have choices on those things.
The biblical view of male and female is being set aside while our children are being abandoned to mutilation. And the hospitals and the medical practitioners that see it as a profit center we say very little to. We'll work alongside of them, we'll work under their umbrellas, we'll just turn a blind eye. The biblical view of boundaries and borders have been set aside, the biblical views of sexual morality have been set aside. We don't even hold those in our own families any longer. We'll point accusing fingers at someone in a leadership position or someone, but amongst our own, amongst those that we're doing life with, we don't wanna introduce those hard conversations. We'll talk about grace and mercy and we'll show baptism pictures.
Well, I'm an advocate for grace and mercy. I'm a poster child for grace and mercy, but it doesn't suspend the holiness, the righteousness, and the purity of God. We do not have the freedom and the liberty to practice ungodliness and imagine we can be included amongst the godly. We don't, so we're going to temple with Jesus. We're gonna listen to what he has to say. I didn't forget where I said we were headed. In Luke chapter 2, it's very near the beginning of his story, Jesus is just 12. He's been taken to Jerusalem for the holiday the first time. It's a signal of his recognition that he's entered manhood. And Mary and Joseph lost him.
Awkward, so they go back, "When they didn't find him, they went back to Jerusalem to look, and after three days they found him in the temple courts, sitting among the teachers, listening to them and asking them questions. And everyone who heard him was amazed at his understanding and his answers. When his parents saw him, they were astonished. And his mother said to him, 'Son, why have you treated us like this? Your father and I have been anxiously searching for you.'" And I think what's not written but probably understood that "it's better that I found you than your dad did". And Jesus answered, "'Why were you searching for me?'"
And we've all been coached, almost ad nauseam, that Jesus is always kind, that everything he had to say was just like about a group hug and a handshake. He handed out candy and everybody was happy. But even at 12 years old, his answer to his mom... they left to go home and he didn't go with them intentionally. He didn't tell them, he didn't send them a text, he apparently didn't even tell any of his friends, he just quietly stayed behind. So after several days of anxiety and disrupted plans and searching for him, Mary finds Jesus and he said, "'Well, didn't you know I had to be here?'"
I'm pretty sure, when I was 12, if I'd have caused that mass disruption and that had been my answer, it would not have gone well with me. And Luke simply reports in verse 50 that "they didn't understand what he was saying". So we meet Jesus at 12, really at the beginning of his public ministry. I mean, it isn't gonna take place for almost another 20 years, but he's in the temple, talking to the leaders. Luke chapter 4, Jesus has been baptized and he's ready now to step into the public. He's an adult, 30 years of age, and it says in Luke 4 in verse 9, "The devil led Jesus to Jerusalem and had him stand on the highest point of the temple, and he said, 'If you're the Son of God, throw yourself down from here.'"
The devil knew very well who he was. He knew him before the earth was created. He knew him in all of his glory and his majesty. We know that because the demons know who he is. When he steps into the synagogue in Capernaum, the demons cries out, "I know who you are". So I promise you the devil knew who he was. He's tempted him. The frailty of the human condition makes him vulnerable in a way that Satan has never known him. And he stands him on the pinnacle of the temple, the highest point of the temple, which is quite an elevated place, and said, "'If you're the Son of God...'"
I don't think it's accidental or incidental that Satan begins the temptation at the temple and Jesus quotes Scripture to him. In Luke 19, Jesus is approaching Jerusalem. It's the last of his trips there. This trip is going to end with some horrible things, betrayal and arrest and crucifixion. Yes, we celebrate the Resurrection, but the path between his entry into the city and that resurrection is brutal beyond consideration. And as Jesus approaches the city, he's approaching from the east and you come down the Mount of Olives and there's the Kidron Valley and then before you, the city of Jerusalem. Because, although it's built on a hill, the Mount of Olives is taller.
So as you crest the Mount of Olives, the whole city spreads before you and immediately in front of you is the temple, Herod's temple, the Second Temple. It's this amazing, beautiful structure, one of the wonders of the ancient world. And as Jesus comes into Jerusalem, Luke writes for us that, "As he approached Jerusalem and saw the city, he wept". It's a triumphal entry. The children are saying, "Hosanna to the King!" but Jesus's emotions are very different. He's not basking in the celebratory attitude of his arrival.
And then Jesus as prophet said, "'If you'd only known on this day what would bring you peace- but now it's hidden from your eyes. The days will come upon you when your enemies will build an embankment against you and encircle you and hem you in on every side.'" He's describing a war, a siege built against Jerusalem. If you stand on that same Mount of Olives today against the the wall of Herod's Temple Mount, it's still there, it's the dirt that was piled up as a part of that Romans's siege ramp. What Jesus said in Luke 19 you can see with your eyes on the Mount of Olives today. "'They'll dash you to the ground, you and the children within your walls. They'll not leave one stone on another, because you didn't recognize the time of God's coming to you.'"
For people that say Jesus wasn't political, that he didn't engage current events, you need to listen to what he's saying. He said, "The Romans are coming for you and there's nothing you can do. You didn't choose the kingdom and now you'll get something else". See, the choices of our lives have consequences. God's covenant with the Jewish people is not interrupted. It's as much enforced today. He's established the Jewish people in that little strip of land that he promised them, much to the consternation of the world. There are missiles launched their way on a daily basis in tiny Israel, about 99.6% of the land in the Middle East belongs to the Muslims, and that little tiny percentage that is Israel flourishes. God's keeping his covenant.
We're not the first generation who turned our backs on God to have taken his blessings and imagine that we deserve them or even earned them, but we can be one of those generations that turns back to God in humility and repentance. Our challenge isn't the depravity of the wicked, it's the condition of our heart. Let's pray:
Father, forgive us. Forgive us for having been co-opted by the world, by having our dreams and goals and aspirations be defined apart from you. Give us a love for your Word and a love for your truth that will write a new future for us. In Jesus's name, amen.