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KINGDOM
BIBLE STUDIES
“Teaching the things
concerning the
THE OLIVET
DISCOURSE
An exposition of
Matthew chapter twenty-four and Luke chapter twenty-one
Part 1
THE
TEMPLE OF GOD
Originally
published in October, 1973
“And Jesus went out, and departed
from the temple: and His disciples came to Him for to show Him the buildings of
the temple. And Jesus said unto them, See ye not all these things? Verily I say
unto you, There shall not be left here one stone upon another, that shall not
be thrown down.” Matthew 24:1-2.
The King had come to His own, and
they had not received Him. After three and one half years of ministry among the
people to whom He had been sent, Jesus has now closed His last public discourse
(Matt. 23), and has left the temple for the last time. “Jesus went out, and
departed from the temple,” never again to re-enter or open His mouth in public
teaching. With this act ended His public ministry. The last supper and
But the disciples, still concerned
with the natural, had other thoughts. The Master had just made the statement,
“Behold, your house is left unto you desolate.” Matt. 23:38. But these
men, in their then unspiritual state, could not be expected to understand that
declaration fully. That Christ had come to completely destroy and bring an end
to an old order and would establish in the earth an entirely new order was yet
foreign to their minds. They were more concerned about the passing than the
permanent. But the Master was now completing the work He had been given to do.
The time had come for the greatest event of the ages to be enacted. So He had
little interest now in that which represented a fallen order, devoid of God’s
presence and power and majesty. And while our Authorized version reads, “See ye
not all these things?” yet it is apparent that this is a mistranslation. The
Greek really says, “And the Jesus said to them; Not you regard (or look to, or
take heed to) all these.” Most certainly He was saying in essence, “Now we are
through with all that is natural. This has all been only a type and shadow of
greater reality and glory to come. Don’t cling to this! We have matters of much
greater import to attend to. So, get your eyes off this which is passing, for,
verily I say unto you, There shall not be left here one stone upon another,
that shall not be thrown down.” The account in Luke 21:6 reads, “As for these
things which ye behold.” “Behold” here carries the meaning of earnest and
continued inspection: that is, they were prone to continue looking in fondness
on the natural magnificence. “As for these things which ye behold, the days
will come, in the which there shall not be left one stone upon another, that
shall not be thrown down.”
This was a new revelation, a
shocking blow to the inborn hope which still held a prominent place in the
hearts of these men. They had been brought up to believe that their Messiah was
to come and restore
GOD HAS ONLY ONE
It is important to note that
throughout the New Testament God only has ONE TEMPLE, or tabernacle; not
two or three or one hundred. You can search this out in your Bible Concordance.
This one temple is always referred to in the singular, as THE TEMPLE
of God, or THE TRUE TABERNACLE. There is only one such temple or
tabernacle. The Word nowhere tells us of two, one away off in space somewhere
where Jesus is ministering in heaven, and another one on earth. There is but
one temple, one great High Priest, and one Priesthood! So when the priests of
old served “unto the example and shadow of heavenly things,” those HEAVENLY
THINGS were the SAME heavenly (spiritual) things that Moses saw in
the mount. And, furthermore, they are the SAME heavenly things to which WE
HAVE NOW COME! For Heb. 12:18, 22 declares, “For ye are not come unto the
mount that might be touched… But YE ARE COME unto
IDENTIFYING THE
Now let us identify this heavenly
temple to which we are come. For a beginning point in this identification, let
us consider seven verses of scripture from John chapter fourteen. To suit our
purpose of emphasizing just what Jesus is REALLY saying, in contrast
with what most people THINK He was saying, we shall first paraphrase all
seven verses in keeping with the popular teaching of the churches of our day.
To hear the average Christian expounding the things of God, it would go
something like this:
“Let not your heart be
troubled: ye believe in hell, believe also in heaven. In heaven there are many
mansions: you know I have told you this and have described its beautiful golden
streets many, many times. I am going to heaven to prepare a mansion just over
the hilltop for you, and if I go and prepare a mansion for you, I will come
again and take you to heaven, that where I will be you may be also. And you all
know well that I am going to heaven, and you know the way to heaven. And Thomas
saith unto Him, Lord, we didn’t know you were going to heaven and how can we
know the way? Jesus saith unto him, I am the way, the truth, and the life: no
man shall ever get to heaven but by Me. If ye had known Me, ye should have
known My Father also: but when you get to heaven you shall know Him and you
shall see Him”
Strange as it may seem, the subject
of the fourteenth chapter of John is not heaven! Jesus rarely spoke of heaven in
the orthodox sense during His teaching ministry. For Jesus came, not as a
revelation of a geographical or celestial location, but as the
revelation of a PERSON. And that person is the FATHER. The
word “heaven” is not mentioned even once in this chapter, but the word “Father”
appears twenty-three times! Said Christ, “All things are delivered unto
Me of My Father: and no man knoweth the Son, but the
Father; neither knoweth any man the Father, save the
Son, and he to whomsoever the Son will REVEAL HIM.” Matt. 11:27.
Understanding that the key word in John chapter fourteen is “Father” and not
“heaven,” let us proceed to examine some of the profound truth that Jesus the SON
is revealing to those who are called unto Sonship in this important portion of
scripture.
To begin, Jesus says, “Let not your
heart be troubled: ye believe in God, believe also in ME.” Christ here
identifies Himself with God. Christ is setting forth the great revelation of
His Sonship to the Father, thus establishing a relationship with God that man
had never understood before. This revelation of Sonship was the revelation that
was so difficult for the Jews to accept. They reasoned that if Jesus was the
Son of God, then that made Him ONE with God, EQUAL with God – GOD!
We read in John 5:17-18: “But Jesus answered them, My Father worketh hitherto,
and I work. Therefore the Jews sought the more to kill Him, because… He said
also that God was His Father, making Himself equal with God.” But what we want
to note in this study is, that after establishing in verse one His relationship
to God, Jesus then proceeds to introduce another, but connected, thought when
He says, “In My Father’s House are many mansions: if it were not so I would
have told you. I go to prepare a place for you…”
When we come to this phrase, “My
Father’s House,” many of us carry our immature, childish understanding of “The
Father's House” over into our adult thinking. We have automatically, due to
former false teaching, conjured up a picture of a park-like place with golden
streets and beautiful mansions, with saints fliting about in white night gowns,
playing harps. We can readily picture our mansion over the hilltop where we
shall reside in magnificent splendor with nothing to do and all eternity to do
it in! But let us look into the Word of the Lord, and let us not partake of the
folly of another group of religionists who displayed their ignorance on one
occasion when Jesus stood in the temple in Jerusalem and said to them, “Destroy
THIS TEMPLE, and in three days I will raise it up again.” Those Jews
became indignant and replied that it had taken forty-six long years to
construct that temple, and would He rebuild it in three days? With carnal minds
darkened, able only to see the natural, not comprehending the revelation of His
words by the Spirit, they “perceived not that He spake
of the
Jesus here states that HIS BODY is
the
When King David desired to build a
house (temple) for the Lord, God sent Nathan the prophet to him who delivered
this message: “Thus saith the Lord, Thou shalt not build Me a house to dwell
in: It shall come to pass, when thy days be expired… that I will raise up thy
seed after thee, which shall be of thy sons; and I will establish his kingdom.
HE shall build Me a house, and I will stablish his throne forever.” Now
while it is true that Solomon, David’s son, did build a house for God in
Jesus was the first man on the earth
realm to ever build God a habitation where He could live, dwell and reveal
Himself in His fulness. He did this by possessing His vessel (body) in honor
and holiness, in obedience and submission, in love, humility and perfection.
This was a place where God could fully live. For the first time since the
creation God had a TRUE habitation on earth – a temple which was WHOLLY
His – nothing reserved. Hebrews 1:8-9 says of Jesus, “But unto the Son He
saith, Thy Throne, oh God, is for ever and ever: a scepter of righteousness is
the scepter of Thy kingdom. Thou has loved righteousness, and hated iniquity;
therefore God, even Thy God, hath anointed Thee with the oil of gladness above
Thy fellows.” Jesus did not receive the Spirit of God by measure, but was
filled with ALL the fulness of God. “For He whom God hath sent speaketh the words of God: for God giveth not the Spirit by
measure unto Him.” John 3:34. “For in Him dwelleth ALL THE FULNESS of
the Godhead bodily.” Col. 2:9. II Cor. 5:19 states: “It was God personally
present in Christ, reconciling and restoring the world to favor with Himself…”
Amplified Bible. Again, “Behold, a virgin shall be with child, and shall bring
forth a son, and they shall call His name Emmanuel,” which being interpreted
is, GOD WITH US. In John 14:7-10 Jesus declares, “If you had known Me –
had learned to recognize Me – you would also have known My Father. From now on
you know Him and have seen Him. Phillip said to Him, Lord show us the Father –
cause us to see the Father, that is all we ask; then we shall be satisfied.
Jesus replied, Have I been with all of you for so long a time and do you not
recognize and know Me yet, Phillip? Any one who has
seen Me has seen the Father. How can you say, Show us the Father? Do you not
believe that I am in the Father and that the Father is in Me? … The Father Who
lives continually in Me does the works…” Amplified Bible. So Jesus built the
Father a house to live in. He became the beginning of the TRUE TABERNACLE
which the LORD PITCHED, and not man!
But it is not sufficient to know
only that Jesus was and is the temple – the dwelling place of God. For Paul
asks this pertinent question: “Know ye not that YE ARE THE TEMPLE OF GOD,
and that the Spirit of God dwells in you? If any man defile the
The writer to the Hebrews makes this
even plainer still. “Wherefore… consider the apostle… of our profession, Christ
Jesus; Who was faithful to Him that appointed Him, as also Moses was faithful
in all his house… For every house is builded
by some man; but He that built all things is God. And Moses verily was faithful
in all his house, as a servant, for a testimony of those things which
were to be spoken after; BUT CHRIST as a Son over HIS OWN HOUSE;
whose house WE ARE.” Heb. 3:1-6. It is important that we UNDERSTAND
that WE ARE the house of the Lord. We have become so accustomed
to calling church buildings made of brick and stone the “house of God” that we
are amazed when we are shown that these are NOTHING BUT BUILDINGS made
with men’s hands. The fact is, NO EARTHLY BUILDING is sacred or holy.
Men reverence buildings when they should reverence GOD. No building made
with man’s hands can ever be the “house of God.” All of these carnal,
Babylonian buildings that men erroneously call “churches” and the “house of the
Lord” shall meet the same fate as the temple of old. Not one stone shall be
left standing upon another!
This true building, this TRUE
TABERNACLE of God is being built. Peter says, “To whom coming, as
unto a living stone, disallowed indeed of men, but chosen of God, and precious,
YE ALSO, as living stones, ARE BUILT UP A SPIRITUAL (heavenly) HOUSE…
acceptable to God by Jesus Christ.” I Peter 2:4-5. Again we read, “Now
therefore ye are no more strangers and foreigners, but fellow citizens with the
saints, and of the household of God; And are built upon the foundation of the
apostles and prophets, Jesus Christ Himself being the chief cornerstone;
In whom ALL THE BUILDING fitly framed together groweth
unto an HOLY TEMPLE in the Lord: In whom ye also are builded
together for an HABITATION OF GOD through the Spirit.” Eph. 2:19-22.
Wonderful as these words are, their meaning comes with even greater force when
we read from the less familiar words of
God will never vacate this
heavenly, spiritual temple to return to a temple made with hands. THE BODY
of Christ IS the
MANY MANSIONS
The word “mansions” in John 14:2 is
obviously a mistranslation. The Amplified Bible says: “In My Father’s house are
many dwelling places.” The New English Bible and Wuest’s translation says the
same. The Revised Standard Version, Phillips translation, Goodspeed, and the
Jerusalem Bible all say, “There are many rooms in My Father’s house.”
What would happen to a building if
the roof were to say, “I’m tired of being up here, exposed to the heat of the
sun, the beating of the rain, the cold of the winter. I am coming inside and
abide on the floor!” Or, what if the doors said, “We’re tired of hanging here
on the wall, being pushed and pulled all the time. Let’s go up and lie on the
roof.” Or, suppose the walls were to say, “We don’t like to abide here in this
position. We’re going out and lie on the lawn!” Or if the carpet crawled into
the bathtub, or the electric range stationed itself in the center of the living
room. Ridiculous! In every house – each stone, each board, each nail, each
furnishing has its specific abiding place. And all together, in perfect order,
each fulfilling its place and function for which the architect designed it,
they all form the complete, perfect BUILDING; a PLACE OF HABITATION for
those worthy of it.
We are being given the transcendent
and glorious privilege of entering into The Father’s House! Not as a guest, or
occupant, but as part of the very substance of the building itself – to be DWELT
IN, FULLY INHABITED, by the Father Himself! Jesus says
that if this were not true, He would have told us otherwise. But because it IS
true, He has prepared a place for us in this glorious habitation of God –
raising us up into the same eternal realm of Sonship to God – that we also
might be filled with ALL the fulness of God. And so, in the first
reference we have to the
So, my dear friends, if you are looking
for a mansion over the hilltop or a cabin in the corner of glory land you are
going to be disappointed. Christ has prepared a place for us alright – a place IN
HIM – which is far more glorious and exciting than some physical, carnal
possession. He has raised us up to sit with Him, and in Him, in the higher than
all heavens. The place He has been preparing for each one of us is not only a
world to come, or a heaven somewhere, but a position, a place of eminence, a
place of glory in Him – to there reveal all
the magnificence of the indwelling Father to all the endlessness of the
unbounded heavens!
If the disciples could only have
understood this great truth that day in
To be continued… J. PRESTON EBY
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