Sunday, August 5, 2018

End Times - Mathew 24:1 - The Temple


By Odon Bulamba

We praise God that today is another day.  April is the month where many people think about the death of Jesus.  Many people on earth around this time think about the resurrection of Jesus but once April is gone, people often forget completely about the Saviour and go about their business.

Mathew 24: to prepare your soul to see what is coming.  Last time we talked about whoever wants to follow Christ must carry his own cross and we all understand that the cross is your soul and your soul is the most important thing that God has given you.  What would be worthy to be given the whole world and lose your soul?  I’ve read the Bible from beginning to the end and I saw that the one time that there is joy in heaven is when someone is saved.  There is a party because our souls are important.

For that reason we have to prepare our souls to go back to Our Creator.  Jesus being so good, He showed us the signs so we can’t say we didn’t know He was coming.  When it’s 5pm, we know it’s dinner, when it’s 7pm we know it’s time to get ready for bed.  Even if you go Europe now and it’s night time, you will go to bed even though it’s day time in New Zealand.  Time is the time you live presently.  God is a God of time and insisted to give us signs to know when the end is arriving.

Mathew 24:1, Jesus was at the temple with His disciples.  The temple is the church.  In the church they were in the presence of the Lord reading their Bible, praying, worshiping, and sharing their time with their Creator like we are doing here now.  That specific time was kept aside for their Creator.  That temple had a program and every person was committed to be at the temple in order to spend time with their Creator and it was a good time and people were happy to sacrifice 2, 3, even 5 hours for their Lord.

It was a time of concentration, prayer, opening their hearts for Jesus to dwell in them.  It wasn’t a time of just being there to socialise or sit in your chair.  It wasn’t a time to say, “I go so others can’t judge me for not being there”. It was a time for all Jewish to spend time and count their sins and blessings and present themselves to God.

Jesus being God was also going to the temple and He walked in like any other person.  Maybe people didn’t recognise that God was present in the temple.  They walked inside, worshipped and prayed and Jesus was doing the same.  Maybe God and the angels are here from the Kingdom of God now.  We should remember that we are in the presence of God when we are in church and His army of angels follow Him.  We often don’t notice His presence.

Jesus was in the temple with the disciples and when it was time to leave as Jesus and disciples were walking away from the temple, Jesus said, “all the stones of the temple will be thrown down”.  Inside the temple they didn’t talk to Jesus but when they left the door of the temple one of the disciples said, “Look there is a construction of building here”.  Inside the temple they didn’t want to attract the Lord to things that were inside the temple but once they left the building that’s when they want to impress him, “look at what people have been doing”.

When there is construction, when someone is building a house, what normally happens?  The person will have money and hire experts and choose among the architects, builders, engineers whoever they want on their building sites.  They choose the building they want and the materials they want.  The engineers will come with their knowledge and propose, “we can build here, fix here” etc.  Although you are the owner of the house, you can’t fight against the engineer because they know better than you.  You can tell them what you would like to see but it’s up to the engineer how it will happen you will just pay.

Often we build houses to compete with others and make them unique and we want to be proud of what we earn and how we can change the environment and we believe the house we build is so beautiful.  We believe by having a nice house our hearts will be satisfied but believe me, you won’t be satisfied.  2 years later you will see a better house and you will wish to build again.

I’ve seen people sell their house because they are not happy anymore, they want a better one.  The disciples wanted to impress Jesus with the construction.  For Jesus, that was not something important at all.  He said, “that is good but what I tell you is that none of those stones will stay on top of another one,” which means, “what you are building is in vain, all the stones will be thrown down, you are wasting your time.  We were in the temple where we were supposed to look at our inside construction but we are outside now and you can show it to me”.

Our bodies are the temple of the Holy Spirit and Jesus lives in us and he wants us to look inside and see what we can improve.  This building is old now, I should bring someone in to fix it.  We often want to take Jesus outside the door, o lord look at my hand, they are not strong anymore, please do something.  All our concerns are the things that happen outside.  If today we could have a machine that would take our years bac, the creator would be a multimillionaire. 

We want to look young and nice and flash on the outside but when we are doing things for God, what is happening inside.  Don’t we see that our way of living doesn’t give a good taste for Jesus, our building is becoming older.  Jesus said I will destroy the temple, nothing on my body will remain, no bone will stay on top of another bone.  When you die, your flesh disappears and bones that were together will be spread and vains will be gone.  That was the first sign of Jesus.

What you look at and think is pleasant is not what Jesus is looking at.  Let us think, if this is the first sign of Jesus to us the church of his return of his coming back, what does it mean to me?  When we are inside the temple together, we worship and glorify God and He is happy and then He says, “let’s look outside to see your way of living in society”.  Instead of saying, “this is a sin, this is a danger for my sin”, we tell God, “this is the way my temple should look at”.  I want to be vain.

The big mistake that the church does today when we pray is to pray for the outside not the inside.  Listen to prayers.  People will consistently pray for things that belong to this earth.  I need blessing in my job, more money, to be successful in my business, school.  All is about your well-being and things that are material.  I’ve seen someone kneel down because it will rain on Saturday and he was supposed to go to a wedding, “please stop the rain because it will destroy the event”.  How vain are we sometimes.

God is thinking those farmers will be happy for rain and the product of the rain will feed that man and others and be a blessing for others.  We don’t think about the nation but only ourselves.  Jesus told His disciples, “that is the first problem you look at outside things but I look at the inside”.

The temple is divided in three.  The first part is where all can enter without problem.  The second part is the holy place.  Only things that are holy can reach that second part.  The third part is the holy of holies which is the holiest place where only the holiest will go.  When Aaron was walking into that place, they would attach a rope to his leg or hip because if he didn’t come out, they would pull him out.  It was not a place of joke.  It was either you came back alive or dead.

Manna was kept there and the arc of the Lord and in that place, when you walk inside you will tell everyone, “I have to go to the holiest place, if we don’t see each other, I say goodbye now”.  It was a dangerous place.  God lives in you.  Do you believe that if you don’t respect the rules, it could lead you to death?  Your spirit is the holy place and your body is like the first part of the temple.  When you go closer to your soul where God is sitting, looking at you and observing you going in and out, you are between death and life.

What is death?  The end of our life, everything stops and we can’t talk, we can’t move and we are seperated from our friends and family and our body will be thrown away and we will only be remembered in the memories of others.  For God, that is not it.  When you die, your life starts, the true life.  What we have now is just a part of life that God has lent to us and we live on earth for a short time but come back to Him forever. 

Life on earth is not life but a temporary life but the true life is Jesus himself.  He told His disciples, “you are invited now to think twice.  What do you appreciate, what is in the temple or outside temple?  What is the most important for me?”  What is inside me or outside of me?  When you read your Bible, you will see Mathew 22:37, you have to love your God with all mind, heart, soul and strength.  That is the first commandment.  Secondly, you have to love your neighbours as you love yourself.

It’s not only about loving yourself but God and then your neighbours.  If you do those two things then you will start to think about your inside.  How much do I love my neighbours?  We judge our neighbours and mock them and let them down every time.  Imagine if your neighbours knew all that you said or think about them.  I’m sure you will have a few people who will fight against you and hate you because we think badly about others.

After loving your God and thinking about others, now love yourself as much as you like.  Whoever humbles himself is the person who will raise up by God.  If I love myself and buy a burger, how will I eat it in front of others?  If I love others I will share my burger with others that are there. 

Next time we will go to the next verse where Jesus will go up to the Mount of Olives and the disciples wanted to understand.  Don’t build something that will be destroyed, where your work is just a waste of time and money.  Jesus told Peter, on you (which means stone) on you Peter I will build the church.  He didn’t talk about many stones, just one stone.  We are stones, is Jesus building a church on top of us?  Are we ready for Jesus to build a church on top of us?  Jesus has prepared you to build his church on you.

Not the church of denomination but the church of Jesus.  Are you going to accept that?  Regardless of Peter denying Jesus and doing all his foolishness, Jesus wanted to build His church on him.  Are you ready? 

I will tell Jesus to help us to look what is inside us and be focused when we spend time with Him rather than being distracted with what’s around us.


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