This is the Baymont podcast with Marty Solomon. I'm his co-host, Brent Billings. Today, we look at one of the most perplexing passages of Jesus' ministry, asking if this is about the end times or ancient times.

Matthew 24, what are we talking about?

What are we talking about?

So, I'm really excited about this podcast. I have tried to figure out how to teach this. This is one of those passages that I think we just approach so wrong.

And I have tried to improve upon it. And I think I may be close. I don't know if I've gotten it in the past.

But I may be close. And so we're going to try to put it together. I'm going to try to present this in a way.

So we're going to go through a lot of material. And we're going to cover two chapters of Matthew today. 24 and 25.

We're going to try to put it all together and present it in a way that helps us understand this passage in context.

I feel like we pull it out of its context. We read it, particularly, Matthew 24 in a vacuum. And it totally screws up what we're trying.

What Jesus is doing in his rabbinical teaching. So we're going to try to teach it all at once.

So let's set the stage. Read us the first three verses, Brent, of Matthew 24.

Jesus left the temple and was walking away when his disciples came up to him to call his attention to its buildings.

Do you see all these things? He asked, truly, I tell you, not one stone here will be left on another.

Everyone will be thrown down as Jesus was sitting on the Mount of Olives. The disciples came to him privately.

Tell us, they said, when will this happen? And what will be the sign of your coming and of the end of the age?

All right. So they want to know, and we've talked about this age before. We talked about what John the Baptist, we've talked about this a few times.

This Jewish eschatology. They have this age, which is the age of this world, and then the age to come.

So they're still trying to figure out three years into Jesus' teaching. Like, how are these ages interacting here?

When is the age to come going to show up? When is this age going to be done away with? And they've got some really logical, reasonable questions based on what Jesus has said.

On their way at a Jerusalem, they notice, and they make comment about the amazing building project of King Herod the Great.

And it was pretty impressive. So one of Herod the Great's greatest building projects was the construction of the Temple Mount.

The Temple Mount was essentially a gigantic box. And we have a picture of that gigantic box that will show you kind of an artist's rendition of what that must have looked like in the ancient world.

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