Luke Chapter 21:  The Widow’s Mite, Destruction of the Temple and Time of Trouble

Luke 21:1 And he looked up, and saw the rich men casting their gifts into the treasury.
Luke 21:2 And he saw also a certain poor widow casting in thither two mites.
Luke 21:3 And he said, Of a truth I say unto [...]

In the good or favorable sense, there are various planes of existence, or strata of society, in the heavenly realm: angels, principalities, and powers. In fact, there are five planes of spiritual being, and in each plane, the Father has many mansions, houses, and dwelling places. However, at the time of Jesus’ crucifixion, a place had not yet been prepared for the Church in glory.

The last mention of Saul was in connection with witnessing the death of Stephen. From his prejudiced standpoint, Saul could not recognize the saintly character of Stephen, even though he heard the long, bold sermon to the priesthood and the authorities and witnessed the stoning and Stephen’s kneeling down with a radiant face. Saul thought Christianity was a false religion, and although he could see that stamping it out would be very difficult, he felt that something had to be done to stop those who, like Stephen, spoke so boldly and so confidently and were willing to die in a resigned fashion for their beliefs. Feeling a personal responsibility to do everything in his power to stop this new interpretation of the Old Testament Scriptures, he got letters (plural) of authority from the high priest. This meant that the high priest wrote to the one in charge of each synagogue Saul would be visiting en route to Damascus, his destination.

Brethren in the early Church began to go out with a chip on their shoulder. In criticizing the emperor, idol worship, etc., they precipitated persecutions unnecessarily, thinking that was suffering affliction for Christ, but they were producing the suffering by foolish reasoning. Some were even put to death for castigating rulers at a public ceremony. However, that is not the type of suffering the Lord is looking for in His people. The suffering is by grace and must be received with a humble attitude at all times.

This principle is true, for the more one entangles himself with the affairs of this life, the less he can be a warrior of the gospel. Paul was not saying that those who were married should leave their spouses to preach the gospel to other nations. Rather, each Christian was to soberly consider his present status and not further entangle himself in the affairs of this life. Attention was to be focused on the Christian warfare.

The Book of Job is a gripping, dramatic story, but the lessons derived from it are more valuable than the story itself. Many who have read the Book of Job know little about it because of the complexity of detail, the type of language, and the thinking that was employed by the wise men of the East. These “comforters” were all wise in this world’s thinking; they were known for their apparent innate, natural wisdom in matters of everyday life, as is evident from the way they talked. Job, too, was a wise person along these lines, but far superior in his thinking.

Hence, the doctrine of the resurrection of the dead, from its first announcement in the Scriptures, has called for the strongest faith on the part of believers and has excited the general resentment of unbelievers, who seem to find it easier to believe anything else respecting the dead.

Apparently, Jesus decided to return to Judea when Lazarus died. Thus Jesus’ initial delay, which John observed, was very significant. The other disciples were probably preoccupied with other matters, and hence they missed this observation. Jesus’ delay was the same principle as “Let the dead bury their dead” (Matt. 8:22). Our minds should be on the more important matters. There are two ways of viewing Jesus’ statement in verses 9 and 10, namely, from his standpoint and from the apostles’ standpoint. All of them had responsibilities, and there are practical lessons either way. Jesus was saying that he would not waste his time by traveling during the daylight hours. He used the daytime to minister to others as he made his way to Judea. And the disciples should have realized the importance of, and capitalized on, his preaching—on all the fragments of opportunity.

The “Comforter,” or Helper (Greek parakletos), is the Holy Spirit. Why was it expedient for Jesus to go away in order that the Comforter might come? It was like his saying, “It is absolutely necessary that I go away. Otherwise, the Comforter will not come.” Why? Jesus had nurtured wonderful hopes in the disciples, but they could not be adopted as sons of God or even be eligible for the high calling unless he did go away. The technical recognition of them as sons of God—the spirit of adoption, of sonship—could not take place until the sacrifice of Christ had been completed and accepted.

After a quick review of the scriptures quoted above. We will give our reasoning: First is that Elijah did not go to heaven. He is part of what we call the Ancient Worthies, a class of Godly men or women, who followed after God. John the Baptist being the last of this group. Jesus opened up a “new and living way.” which by implication of that statement it was not opened up before his death, therefore none had the opportunity of entering in. We are told two things in the scriptures quoted above, 1) King David, a man after God’s own heart, was still in his tomb, he hadn’t gone anywhere in the hundreds of years that had elapsed. 2) we are told that who ever is least in the Kingdom of Heaven was greater than John the Baptist, meaning John was not of the Kingdom of Heaven.

As we examine the Book of Hebrews, we see more and more that it was addressed primarily to Jewish Christians. In early chapters, almost from the beginning, Paul warned how easy it is to go out of the truth by letting things slip or by forsaking the assembling of ourselves together. Now, near the end of the book, he reverted back to his concern for converted Jews and the problems in maintaining their faith and in resisting sin in others as well as in their own fallen nature. Our three enemies are categorized as the world, the flesh, and the devil.