Matthew Sermon 82 — What’s the Big Deal About the Destruction of Jerusalem?

One of the challenges to understanding New Testament prophecy is a prejudice we moderns bring to the subject: If the prophecies of the New Testament pertain to the return of Christ on the Last Day, and especially if we believe they may come true in our own day, it is easy to see why that is a big deal. But if we are shown evidence that many New Testament prophecies actually pertain to the destruction of Jerusalem in 70AD, that it seems to trivialize them. To say that many of the New Testament prophecies pertain to the destruction of an ancient city—even if it was Jerusalem—seems to rob them of their significance and relevance. Actually, nothing could be further from the truth, for the New Testament presents the destruction of Jerusalem in the first century as proof of three vital truths : (1) that Jesus was a true prophet, (2) that Jesus ascended to the right hand of the Father, and (3) that Jesus rules the nations with the word of the gospel and a rod of iron. Are those three things significant and relevant today? Just a little bit.