Nepaug Bible Church - http://www.nepaugchurch.org - Pastor's Prayer Meeting Lesson Notes - http://www.nepaugchurch.org/pm/pm19990217.htm

LUKE: GOSPEL OF CERTIFYING THE CHRISTIAN FAITH
Part LXXI: Certifying The Christian Faith By Its Messiah's Verifiably Accurate End Time Prophecies
(Luke 21:5-38)
  1. Introduction
    1. Jesus came as Messiah, meaning He fulfilled the three prophesied offices of the Messiah's Prophet, Priest and King roles, cf. John F. Walvoord, Jesus Christ, Our Lord, p. 136-137.
    2. Thus, if Jesus is the true Messiah, we should be able to discern from His prophecies and those of the Old Testament whether or not He was the true Messiah prophet predicted by Moses in Deut. 18:18-22.
    3. Luke's Gospel reveals the end time prophecies of Jesus which we can use to test for His validity as follows:
  2. Certifying The Christian Faith By Its Messiah's Accurate End Time Prophecies, Luke 21:5-38.
    1. Luke's Gospel was written to give Theophilus insight on the credibility of the Christian faith, Lk. 1:3-4.
    2. He evidences this through recording Christ's end time prophecies so that we can use them today to test against how history has unfolded. These show Jesus is the Prophet Moses predicted in Dt. 18:18-22:
      1. When the disciples remarked about the adornment of the temple stones, Jesus replied that the days would come when not a single stone of the temple would be left on top of another, Lk. 21:5-6. This would be a remarkable prediction in view of the fact that these stones were so large that they would fill up most of a bedroom in a typical home today! Jesus spoke of an ENORMOUS destruction that implied an UNUSUAL degree of divine wrath!
      2. The disciples were shocked over such terrible news, so they asked Jesus to elaborate on it, Luke 21:7.
      3. Jesus' response does not develop a timeline, for Acts 1:6-7 shoed God did not then want the timeline revealed. Yet, His answer does reveal what the future signs of destruction would mean. In His doing so, we can test today the accuracy of His predictions to see He is the One Moses predicted to come:
        1. First, in Luke 21:8-19, Jesus stated that there would be great apostasy and trouble, some of which has already occurred and some of which is yet to occur in the Tribulation. In Luke 21:8-19, Jesus was apparently giving a general feel for what history would be like between His rejection as Messiah and the Tribulation: (a) As a sample of what has happened, Jesus predicted false messiahs would arise (21:8) and that there would be wars (21:9). This is a very accurate generalization of A. D. history! (b) Then, in Luke 21:10-19, Jesus spoke of events in the Great Tribulation yet to come.
        2. Second, in Luke 21:20-24, Jesus predicted the fall of Jerusalem to be a fierce judgment to fulfill Old Testament prophecy. If Jesus is the true Messiah Prophet, this event would have to occur with ferocity to fit Moses' prediction of God's wrath on those who rejected that true Prophet, Dt. 18:19! Well, this just happens to describe Jerusalem's fall under Rome's Titus in A. D. 70, Luke 21:20-24a: Josephus wrote that though Emperor, Titus wanted to save the temple, it was destroyed under unwanted but uncontrollable ferocity by his own men, Josephus, Wars of the Jews, III-IV.
        3. Third, Jesus predicted Jerusalem would then be trodden down by Gentiles throughout the times of the Gentiles. Since the fall of the temple under Titus, epitomized in the current Islamic Dome of the Rock sitting on the temple site, we see this prophecy precisely being fulfilled today, 21:24b.
        4. Fourth, Jesus gave predictions about massive changes in the stellar universe and other events that can fit only into the Tribulation Period to come, Luke 21:25-36, 37-38.
Lesson: Jesus is the Prophet predicted by Moses in Dt. 18:18-22 for these reasons: (a) what Jesus predicted that we KNOW occurred HAS been and IS BEING PRECISELY fulfilled in accord with Moses' test of a true prophet in Deut. 18:21-22. Also, (b) the FEROCITY with which Jerusalem fell in keeping with prophecy was UNCANNILY GREAT (seen in the razing of all the huge temple stones a gainst Titus' will) as we would expect it to be were it typical of God's workings to exact vengeance on Israel for rejecting the true Messiah predicted in Luke 21:22 with Deut. 18:19! Thus, that uncanny ferocity of the temple's fall, in accord with Moses' and Jesus' predictions and testified by the record of secular historian, Josephus means God was angry with Israel, and reveals that the rejected Jesus was Messiah after all!