Matthew 24:1-2
New International Version 1984 (NIV1984)
24 Jesus left the temple and was walking away when his disciples came
up to him to call his attention to its buildings. 2 “Do you see all these things?” he asked. “I
tell you the truth, not one stone here will be left on another; every one
will be thrown down.”
Many
people view Christ as a gentle, caring, forgiving, patient, and kind. They also believe that is how they too should
live their lives. Yesterday and today we
see another side of Christ. This is the
Christ who is the King of kings and Lord of lords. Many times as Christians we are told to be
Christ like. For many it is easier for
them to be the type of Christ that is gentle, caring, forgiving, patient, and
kind. After all the fruit of the Spirit
is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, gentleness and self-control,
right? True, however, I also believe we
need to be like the Christ who is bold, straight forward, and to the
point. Yes, we need to share the love of
Christ but we also need to tell about the judgment that is to come. We ourselves are not the judge and we should
be thankful but when we see destruction, wrong thinking, false prophesy, we
need to be bold and share our faith and our beliefs about the One True
God. Will this get us in trouble
sometimes, yes, possibly with man; but as we look at the next Chapter of
Matthew 24 we are going to see why this is so very important. We are going to see what Christ says about
the last days. We cannot live a fulfilling
Christian life and avoid conflict, keep our beliefs to ourselves, and only
speak to those who agree with us.
Really? As we read these scriptures
let’s imagine what life and everlasting life would be like if we just followed
the status quo, did as the world does, and avoided any type of conflict.
Jesus was
blunt and to the point with the Pharisees.
Jesus is just as blunt with the disciples. I have
a tendency to think that these men avoided conflict. Jesus had just handed out seven woes in the
temple to the religious leaders and the disciples try to change the
subject. They begin talking about the
beautiful building that man built.
Wow! Have you ever been in a
situation where you witnessed the truth being spoken in a bold and forceful
way? Have you ever been in a situation where
you spoke the truth in a bold and forceful way?
It is interesting to look at the reactions of others in that
situation. Some will sit quietly and say
nothing for or against these truths.
Others will try to ice it over with words that are meaningless, more
diplomatic than true to the Word of God.
Still others will go away and talk amongst themselves and to others
twisting the story to be something that it was not. This happened with Jesus, the disciples didn’t
want to face what the Master was saying, they wanted to just change the subject
and hope that they wouldn’t ever have to talk about it again but Jesus goes on
to tell them just how things are and how things will be.
In the
scripture verse today, He tells them how important man-made buildings and
things are. They are nothing compared to
the greatness of God. Are there things
in your life that are important to you?
Maybe you have a car, a house, a job, a way of life, or even a family
that you think is so wonderful and great.
Maybe you have built a business from the ground up or inherited wealth
and kept it growing. Maybe you are an
artist who paints beautiful pictures or a mechanic that can fix a vehicle
better than anyone else. Whatever it is
that we cling to, let’s take that and put it in the place of the buildings that
the disciples were pointing out. Say to
Jesus, “See what a beautiful this is?
He will say to us, just like He said to the disciples, “I tell you the
truth, not one of these things will be left, every one of them will be thrown
down.” Think about that for a little
while. Nothing that we have built up will stand
forever without the Father’s hand in it.
We may think we are great on this earth but it is only through the power
of Christ Jesus our Lord that anything, including ourselves will remain
standing at the end of this time on earth without the power of our Lord and
Savior who is Jesus Christ.
As you
seek Him may you remember that He is a God who is bold, who speaks the truth,
and who wants you to see Him above and beyond what you have on this earth.
Seeking Him
with all my heart,
Sheila
No comments:
Post a Comment