Introduction to the New Testament: Gospel and Acts - Lesson 33

Dr. Craig Blomberg
Introduction to the New Testament: Gospel and Acts
nt511-33
Jericho to Jerusalem (Part 2)
Lesson Transcript

As we proceed to Jesus last week of his life, we see the slide that enables us to put the material from the Gospels in chronological sequence. Although Matthew and Mark have an account of the woman whom D'identifier says Mary of Destiny anointing Jesus with costly perfume in preparation for his death in the context of other events of the last night of his life, a careful reading of the pregnancy will show that in Greek there is nothing that necessarily ties it chronologically to that last night. And John, who explicitly tells us at the beginning of time 12 that this event occurs in Bethany with Mary six days before the Passover or the Saturday before Good Friday, counting exclusively. Mark, then followed by Matthew, has doubtless thematically moved the text to where it now appears due to the meaning that Jesus subscribes to Mary's actions as preparation for his death, a theme that unites all of the other events described in Mark 14 in Parallels and all of the other events that do in fact occur chronologically on the Thursday night of Jesus arrest. The four Gospels presumed to be an agreement that on what we today have come to call on Sunday, Jesus entered into Jerusalem to the acclamation of crowds. No doubt about it. Last he was revealing himself as the Messiah that allowed themselves to hope that he was the end. John explicitly point out that this was in fulfillment of Zacharias 99. Behold your king comes to you mounted on a donkey and called the offspring of the donkey. But the crowd failed to grasp the significance of the donkey, a humble beast of burden and not the triumphant parts of the conquering team or military. General Jesus lowly turn from heaven as Revelation 19 discloses in such fashion that on this occasion He has come as a servant to die for the sins of the world. 

On Monday, after rising again overnight at Bethany, Jesus and the disciples heading to Jerusalem and to the Temple and the episode of The Living Fig Tree, which we have already discussed in the context of nature. Miracles takes place. Then Jesus closed the temple. Temple cleansing being the common 15 term, but a bit of a misnomer since in fact he created a mass and the juxtaposition of the two events just the right and symbolic coming destruction of Israel, or at least of the culture and leadership of Israel. Mathew, tell us that the two events together that Mark gives a fuller account in which two parts, the first and the subsequent observation of the aftermath of the withered fig tree are sandwiched around the trips to Jerusalem. So it is not. And so Tuesday, a disciple comments on the lettering of the secretary and additional appendices teaching about even small amounts of faith, leading the disciples to see this mountain being passed into the sea. First 2013, where rabbinic teaching about faith moving mountains as opposed to raised in part accomplishing great things that are part of God's will. But in the context of faith, moving this mountain or helping others would appear to be correct in proposing that it is either the Temple Mount, Mt. Zion, or Mount Olive for us to be. Wayne when the Messiah reappeared since Zacharias 44, that Jesus has in mind, and it is the coming apocalyptic upheavals of the New age, which He is predicting is. Either on March seven, Tuesday or a combination of Tuesday and Wednesday, we find Jesus kissing in the temple. There are comments early on in this lecture series about the significance of understanding the different groups of Jewish leaders pays rich dividends, as we have already described. 

We understand why each particular question leading to the debates and dialogs of March 12 occur the way they do either on Tuesday or on Wednesday. Jesus finally departs the temple for the last time, and with language such as the old house is too desolate, the not the leader of the Old Testament will recall a similar scene in Ezekiel where the glory of the Lord departs covered no more glory as God withdraws His sustaining hand of grace from the people of Israel. The disciples then follow Jesus through the steps of the mountain. At this point, He delivers the brothers publicly known as the Olivet discourse, or the scatological discourse of a sermon on events surrounding the coming destruction of the temple and his return and the end of all things to which topic we will return Thursday to the preparation for Passover, the Last Supper. And yet so many, with all of the announcements of Jesus as well as suffering servants, ultimately culminating in his substitution Mary death on the cross, a sufficient substitute because he is a human life, all the rest of us, but an infinite atonement because he is the infinite and infinite Holy God. Overnight are these various trials. But the morning of Friday comes this final sentence, and by 3:00 in the afternoon he has died on the cross. But hallelujah. Sunday morning will bring resurrection and the vindication of his previous claims. The next slide shows the layout of first century Jerusalem and over one to trace the various paths Jesus cross during these events of his last week as students may pass to examine those locations and routes to capture the details of this rapidly surveyed. The next slide illustrates the final controversy story of Jesus teaching in the temple. 

After all of the questions that have been posed to him and the traps that he has successfully evaded, he turns tables on his listeners and quoting Psalm 110 one traditionally ascribed to David suspicion, with which he agrees, asks the question Why do the Jewish leaders say the steps of my life sit at my right hand? And so I make your enemies your footstool? If David is the speaker, then now, as it were, to Lord above the King, and I assume Lord our master in Israel, one is clearly God who is the other unless it is Messiah, the Hebrew term Adonai allowing for numerous possible masters in principle. But as long as the speaker is David, there are no other humans, other merely human beings. About David, if indeed the implication is correct that Messiah is divine as well as human then is. That's the follow up question. How can Jewish leaders say that that Christ is the Son of David and that is merely the human descendants, military ruler and family leader over Israel without recognizing a more than human element? Probably no one has any answers, and the conversation ends at that point as Jesus then sits down with his disciples on the Mount of Olives and delivers what has come to be known as the all of that discourse. It will be hard pressed to have a synopsis in front of one and compare the versions that one sees in Matthew, Mark and Luke. All three of the Gnostic Gospels. Run closely parallel at the outset. The first version which we follow as our baseline counts is found in March 13 with parallels in Matthew 24 and 21. We read that as Jesus sat on the temple. Several of his disciples asked him privately, Tell us, when will this be? That is the destruction of the temple so dramatic that no stone will be left on. 

Another just described in verses one and two of mark 13. And what will be the sign when these things are all to be accomplished? Matthew, in what perhaps is an explanatory paraphrase of this type of question, where just how often will this be and what will be the sign of your coming of the close of the age? It's quite possible that. He recognized that the disciples at that stage could not have envisioned the destruction of the temple, not including the end of the age. And hence so coming. Jesus begins his reply by. Warning that the disciples might be read astray. In other words, he begins his answer by. Telling them things that must happen that do not necessarily portend the end. Returning to March counts be read to heed that no one lead you astray. For many will come in my name saying I am here and they will lead many astray. And when you hear of wars and rumors of wars, do not be alarmed. This must take place that the end is not yet. Our nation will rise against nation and kingdom against kingdom, and there will be earthquakes in various places and famines. And this is just the beginning of the birth pangs. It's interesting how so often in the history of apocalyptic expectation and fervor when there are particular rash of natural disasters or. Manmade traumas on a widespread scale on this earth, that people begin to think that this shows that the end of the age and Christ's coming is very year. Jesus, in fact, said exactly the opposite. When you see these things, the end is not yet. If that's the beginning of birth pangs, is any woman who has gone through labor and delivery knows. Labor pains demonstrate that there is indeed a child the body is trying to push out. 

But especially in the case of forced labor, labor pains or birth pangs are notoriously unreliable in terms of helping the mother predict when the actual delivery will occur. They do point to the fact that we are drawing closer. But that is true simply with every passing day, hence the first bar that spans our wide. Q For all three versions of this sermon, signs that do not portend the end. And as we continue in Mark's column, it would appear that he goes on to describe several others in this category. Delivering up to the council, beaten in the synagogues, testifying before governors and kings and the like. All of these details from the beginning of Christ answer I have in fact occurred repeatedly throughout history, and all of them occurred during the first Christian generation prior to the destruction of the temple in Jerusalem. Most are recorded in the Book of Acts. Others appear in accounts of Josephus, and several are in both. With March 1310. The issue becomes a bit more complex because here Christ goes on to say the Gospel must first be preached to all nations. Matthew 2514. Says slightly more fully. That. Spicer apologized. This gospel of the kingdom will be preached throughout the whole world as a testimony to all nations, and then the end will come. Many commentators and readers understandably associate this prediction with Christ's so-called Grace Commission found at the end of Matthew's Gospel in chapter 28. Verses 18 to 19. Here, Jesus tells the 12. If they are to make disciples of all nations. Going to ask for help. Yes. Jesus implies. That universal mandate here. Then it would appear that we do have at least one quote unquote, sign in this early part of the alphabet discourse. 

That is a pointer to the timing of the end. There are several things that should be said in place, in his view, even if it is correct. The wording in Matthew 2414, at the end of the verse says simply. Okay. And then the end will come without using any language to suggest how soon it will come after the completion of this commission. But there is a theological problem associated with. The interpretation that we have just described. Without much difficulty. It could be taken as implying that God's people through disobedience or. Nearly apathetic neglect of. His commission. His evangelistic mandate could sort. The second coming could forever be less. Simply to their disobedience and hence compromised God's sovereignty and indeed contradicting what we all read later in the sermon, when Jesus says that no one knows the day or hour, the idea of the imminence of Christ's return, that he could come back at any time. And this approach to Matthew 2414, it says human disobedience could guarantee that for an indefinitely, prolonged period of time, Christ could not come back. And that does not seem to be a conclusion that is consistent with the dominant teaching of the New Testament. What else might we do with this text? Then it is probably significant that the whole world here is not the cosmos as so often in the New Testament, but the quite so many the inhabited world, the known world, often more or less synonymous in first century parlance with the Roman Empire. And. Preaching throughout. This. No. In the world of the Roman Empire, that's exactly what happened in the first Christian generation between 80, 30 and 8070. Not every person heard the gospel. Not every small regional location had a church planted in it. 

But if Christian tradition is correct that Paul and himself made it to Spain, then he reversed the. Entire empire from the Western boundaries all the way to the eastern end of the Mediterranean and other. Reasonably reliable, early Christian traditions have the other disciples, many of them even before 1870, going throughout the rest of the Roman Empire and even beyond. As with the Apostle Thomas preaching in India, perhaps as early as the fifties of the first century. In the context in which this verse appears, then whether in a market or somebody in arms, it would seem more likely that it should be understood as. Yet one more thing that was filled. But didn't first generation. This allows us to. Segway naturally to transition to Mark 13. 14 and following the next correct copy and synopsis. In which he advances the chronology further by declaring, when you see the desecrating sacrilege, that upward ought not to be quite to be to understand then like those who are insidiously to the mountains and like the one who is. On the housetop not go down. Our answer has to take anything away and let the one who is in the field not come back to take their mantle and allow for those who are with child or who get stuck. That is to say, I have never seen infants in those days that it may not happen in winter, Matthew adds. Or on a Sabbath when it was difficult to travel or for bidden to travel long distances. Our watch language recalls the language of the desecrating sacrilege. Also, translation translated the abomination desolation in. Samuel, Chapter nine probably if we are to understand this as. Maccabees understood the desecrating sacrilege had granted 50 persons to refer to an event involving the Jerusalem temple as unprecedented horror, and the Roman invasion and slaughter and raising of the temple to the ground in 1870. 

Certainly this those criteria. The question I hear, however, comes from Luke, whose parallel text at this point. This text reads, beginning in chapter 21. Verse. 23. Alas, for those who are with child and for those who get back in those days for great divisions excuse me, great distress upon error and wrath upon this people, it will fall by the age of the sword of the red carpet among our nations. And Jerusalem will be trodden down by the Gentiles until the times of the Gentiles are fulfilled. And of course, this is exactly what happened in 8070. And it was not until the mid 20th century when Jerusalem or indeed any part of Israel was once again inhabited by Jews in possession of their own independent nation state. The biggest problem with this interpretation, however, is posed at. The beginning of. The complexity. With Matthew's account is comprised of chapter 24 versus 29 to 31. The period described as the escalating sacrilege or the abomination of desolation was in Matthew 2421, and parallels described as a time when there will be great tribulation, such as it has not been from the beginning of the world and. Until now. And no, never will be. At first blush, one might imagine that an event like the destruction of Jerusalem by around 8070, however awful, could not qualify for such unprecedented tribulation. Although John Carson points out in his commentary that never in the history of the world has so high a percentage of so great and powerful, a city received such extensive suffering. But then upon a bit further examination. If this is referring solely to events immediately preceding crisis turn, it would be bordering on the trite to say that never will there again be such unprecedented horror because. 

Jesus had already explained in Old Testament prophecy had already read Jews to the conviction that when the Messianic age came and all of his famous, that would indeed be the end of their suffering, it is more appropriate for some. Horror in the middle of history to be described as the worst that will ever be, so as to give hope to the people that live after it. But what do we do with the statement in Matthew 2429 that immediately after the tribulation of those days, the sun will be dark and the moon will not get it right. Stars will fall from heaven. Marks wording, except the omission of immediately is almost identical. And then both accounts, Luke as well, proceeded to describe the policy as the return of Christ, the coming of the son of man on clouds with great power and glory. Surely that. Requires that this great tribulation immediately precede Christ's return. Perhaps it does. But if it also embraces the destruction of the temple in 1870, it's with the perspective of prophetic foreshortening in which Jesus speaking to the disciples who could scarcely imagine the destruction of the temple, not also portending the end of the world does not consciously spell out a prolonged period of time in between those two events, while nevertheless clearly separating them. Perhaps we'll misunderstand again with the casting in his Matthew commentary and a broad cross-section of other commentators. So admittedly, this is a very vexed and debated issue. That the Great Tribulation is a description of the entire period from A.D. 70 until the Return of Christ, roughly contiguous with what they often call the church age. And corresponding to what we have already read in Luke is the times of the Gentiles in which Jerusalem remains trodden down. 

From a Jewish perspective, including a Jewish Christian perspective, from the perspective of those whose hearts are focused on and centered in Jerusalem, such a period of remaining devastation of. The once Holy Land would certainly qualify as a period of great tribulation. And even more generally, we recall that second Timothy 312 by Paul Thomas saying that those who want to live godly lives in Christ will be persecuted. It's not that the church age experience is nothing but great tribulation. There are many blessings of it as well. But that is one legitimate aspect. But the revelation will come along at the end of the first century and speak of not merely great tribulation, but the great tribulation, and indeed will appear to be depicting a period of time immediately prior to Christ's return. But that is John in the nineties in Revelation. This is Jesus in the late twenties in Jerusalem, as reported by the Synoptic Evangelists. And just as Jesus has built on the Maccabean understanding of Daniel but advanced it substantially further. It is arguable that that is precisely what revelation does to the Synoptic Gospels on any interpretation or simply there is a grievance that he carries that comes next, almost universally agreeing to be the return of Christ. But then we have another puzzling passage the last of the three that we promised to return to many lectures ago when we introduced texts that have led some scholars and may have led some of Jesus first disciples to believe that He was predicting his return within some of their lifetimes. By the time we get to mark 1330 in parallel, as we read truly, I say to you, this generation will not pass away before all these things take place. Heaven and earth will pass away, but my words will not pass away. 

But of that day or that hour, no one knows. Not even the angels in heaven, nor the sun, but only the Father. But what specifically is it that Jesus has said? Will happen before this generation passes away. If we read backwards from verse 32, verse 29, we read. So also when you see these things taking place, you know that he is near at the very least. The same word appears for these things in verse 29, as appears for these things in verse 30. Soundtrack. But in verse 29, these things taking place cannot include Christ's return. They have to refer to everything else that has been described leading up to but not including Christ in turn for verse 29 ends by saying, When you see these things, you know that he is near. Not that he has actually already come back, as would be the case if they included the powers here. If our understanding of the early part of this, this crisis is correct, then all of the previously narrated events did in fact occur by A.D. 70. The time to the Gentiles were inaugurated and therefore everything was in place for Christ to come back at any time. All of the preliminary events did indeed occur during the lifetime of at least some of Jesus followers. But those things do not include the policy of proper. That will occur some time in the future. It remains in the future, even today. And we are not to attempt to guess the time. Not even a generation. Not even a century. Hear the words day and hour. I used that in the opening verses of Acts one. Jesus after his resurrection uses much more general language for. His return. And the establishment of his kingdom in all of its fullness. 

Including the restoration of Israel. And he says, you do not know the times or seasons. The two greatest words in the Greek language for any unspecified period of time. But if the point is rather that this quest is not for us to write, that's selling paperbacks and movies about the scenarios surrounding the end, even if in class as fictional garb, then what in the world are we to do with all of this information? Something much more prosaic, I'm afraid, but much more important. The rest of the. This course comparatively brief in Mark and Luke's accounts, but narrated in much fuller detail. In Matthew's version upends a series of parables, all of which command alerts. Thanks for watching good life stewardship and obedience so that we are not caught by surprise or unprepared for Christ's return. Whether you're. Whether it be sa. Whether it be. That's at the right period of time that. That's our hopes or dreams or expectations. With that. Message out of the way. We may proceed to sign chapters 12 to 17. Again, John has considerable material that overlaps in time with the synoptic accounts of the events leading up to the passion offer, but with only a minority of details that are actually paralleled in the Synaptics. Chapter 12 includes the anointing. The triumphant entry that in fact is a non or sample entry, but then attends substantial dialog and discourse by Jesus on the theme of. Renewed cause of death, the shame that will precede his grave, the suffering that will come before his triumph as a model for what disciples can expect to experience as well from. Chapter 13 begins. The five chapters of Jesus time in the upper room on Thursday night. Narrating just about everything except the actual words of institutions spoken over the bread and wine on which the Synoptic Focus recall our comments surrounding John's similar omission of Jesus baptism while narrating all of the other events events immediately surrounding that interaction between Jesus and John. 

Perhaps this is because of an overly sacramental, ized understanding of regeneration or an overly institutionalized ecclesiology that John is trying to combat at the end of the first century. Be that, as it may sounds distinctive in Chapter 13 of what he does include surrounding the meal at the table is Jesus taking up the towel and demonstrating the role of a meal and watching his disciples speak? Here is the equivalent to Mark 1045 and surrounding materials equivalence, at least conceptually of servant leadership as a charismatic. Counterpoint to the prevailing authoritarianism of most Jewish and Greco-Roman structures these apolitical or. Religious. The message has only a little been learned by the Christian church in the centuries intervening chapters 14 to 16 altogether, as what has often been called the farewell discourse. Here, a cluster of themes repeat surrounding Christ's self-giving allows as the ultimate expression of his sustaining presence through the spirit uniquely called apparently five times in these chapters as the Comforter advocates helper counselor. Sees her all wrapped up in the one who will be Jesus personal and spiritual replacement once he is no longer on earth in the flesh. In the interim, between his first and second adverse. And then in chapter 17, Jesus turns to His Heavenly Father and praise what has often been called his high priestly prayer. He might simply call it the Lord's Prayer. But that title has already been given to. What probably should have been called the disciples prayer since they're the disciples asked Jesus how they should pray. Here we hear Jesus making unique statements in His prayers that the disciples could not always echo. The recurring themes as Jesus prays first for himself and then for the 12, and then for all those who would become believers throughout history, directly and indirectly through the Ministry of the 12. 

He prays for unity. Unity with the traveling dad and with each other. Another thing that has. Barely scratched the surface, at least in most Protestant or even skeletal contexts. It seems likely that John 1416 in fact forms a large chaotic structure. C especially the Brooke by Wayne Brower, which is a revision of his doctoral dissertation dealing with the classic structure of the stairwell discourse. This slide can present just a skeletal. Sketch of what all is potentially involved in that tiresome. Son. 14 verse one begins with a reminder that they are trusting God, but they need to trust in Jesus so that their hearts will not be trouble. Proceeded to discuss how Jesus is going to return to the Father and to prepare a place for his followers because he is the way to the Father. Since the father resides in him. His promises, the Paris police explicitly. He was also called the Spirit of the Truth, and he has been with God to people throughout history. But now we'll be doing them in this new state as a permanent indwelling of the spirit and the covenant. Jesus proceeds to discuss how He has revealed God to the disciples. Though not in the same way to the world. As the experience teaching. Affects one group of people differently than another. Conversely, so does the Ministry of Satan or the Prince of Darkness. In chapter 15. The focus switches to the recurring theme of a fighting in Christ in the. Twin metaphors of the vine and the branches. First showing how disciples must remain attached to the vine so that they must produce much fruit. And secondly, focusing on loving life. Jesus, greater love has no one than this that a person lay down their lives for their friends. 

Sacrificial self-giving, then it would appear, at least conceptually and in broad strokes, that the four clusters of themes that comprise Chiron 14 are repeated in 1518, 16, 3314 in verse sequence. The world's hatred and rejection of the disciples. Farms a counterpart to. The Ministry of the Prince of Darkness to the world and their rejection of the Spirit versus the spirits, enabling true disciples to witness or testify to Him just as Jesus has revealed himself to the disciples earlier. Apparently a passage in like Jesus promises again the spirit of truth, this time primarily to convince the world. And to lead disciples into all truth. Next, a reprise of Jesus going to the Father. Initially causing grief, but eventually the grief will be turned away and people will be able to ask in Jesus name to the Father. And we that refuse in Concord with his will. And then finally we come full circle as Jesus promises peace despite the trouble from the world peace not as the world does it, not necessarily the cessation of that external hostility, but an inner walk with the Lord that enables believers to persevere. And overcome how difficult circumstances may be. This is on target, then the climactic center of this casting structure appears in the two halves of John 15 117. The metaphors and the vine and the branches. And this indeed is an appropriate center, not only structurally, but theologically, as it is the place in all of John's gospel where the theme of love recurs in the greatest cluster of references. As we draw ever closer to Jesus. Final hours. We need to comment on. But the synoptic stress regarding Thursday night, The Last Supper. A Passover video given me significance by Jesus, an act of symbolism and teaching on this occasion. 

It has become the model for what Christians nearly universally have celebrated in one form or another, though under various title The Last Supper, Holy Communion and Eucharist perhaps being the three most common. Its significance can perhaps thus be succinctly summarized in terms of the three tenses of past, present and future. It is indeed a memorial service looking back to the. Atoning sacrifice Christ accomplished for us just as the original Passover setting looks back. Commemorating the liberation provided. For Israel at the time of the exodus. The meal also has present significance. Jesus remains with his people as host with his guests. Seemingly endless debate has. Centered around such issues as the nature of space presents. But. None of that is discussed in Scripture, and so we may bypass it here. But merely affirm that Christ is in a special and symbolic and very real, albeit invisible way present in the celebration of communion. Finally, and what is perhaps least referred to in typical Christian teaching on the topic, there is a future tense to the Last Supper. Jesus will not eat this Passover, partake of this bread and cup again until he does something new in the Kingdom of God. The eschatological banquet of 25. The Wedding Feast of the LAMB of Revelation 19. So we can look forward to a grand future feast of reenacting of the intimate fellowship with God and humanity. He picked it by this first Last supper, or perhaps stayed by this first Lord's Supper. It's simply his last supper as a human being on earth prior to the cross, that there will. Create bookends around the church age and be one of the great highlights of his second coming as well. Eventually the time in the upper room is over and the little band departs for gas seven and the agony, the price begins to suffer already there. 

If we try to succinctly summarize the significance of this summary, we find ourselves forced to talk about his humanity and its remarkable balance. On the one hand, there can be no greater proof of. The reality of his genuine humanity. Then in his fervent repeated prayer, that if there be any way possible. He Price, whose father left his cut past firmly that he would not have to undergo what he knew would be agonizing, cruel, torturing death beyond description. But yes, amazingly, he can simultaneously pray that not my will be done so in his perfectly intimate relationship with the father in Concord, with his will.