The Church Encouraged to Leave Jerusalem

15“So when you see standing in the holy place ‘the abomination that causes desolation,’^a spoken of through the prophet Daniel—let the reader understand— 16then let those who are in Judea flee to the mountains. 17Let no one on the housetop go down to take anything out of the house. 18Let no one in the field go back to get their cloak. 19How dreadful it will be in those days for pregnant women and nursing mothers! 20Pray that your flight will not take place in winter or on the Sabbath. 21For then there will be great distress, unequaled from the beginning of the world until now—and never to be equaled again.(Matthew 24:15-21)

Thoughts: Jesus was emphasizing that His disciples should seek to escape Jerusalem when they see the Temple desolated and the foreign armies surrounding Jerusalem.  Jesus was trying to give them a sense of urgency- don't go back, go in a hurry- flee to the mountains. 
     Historically, many believe this prophecy helped save the church.  For the most part the Christian church was encapsulated in Jerusalem. But Jesus had asked them to be witnesses to the ends of the earth (Acts 1:8; Mt. 28:19-20).  They left Jerusalem about 64 AD according to the church historian Eusebius (see below 3,5). 

Prayer: Lord, give me ears to hear you and respond to you.  

“The whole body, however, of the Church at Jerusalem, having been commanded by a divine revelation, given to men of approved piety there before the war, removed from the city, and dwelt at a certain town beyond the Jordan, called Pella. Here those that believed in Christ, having removed from Jerusalem, as if holy men had entirely abandoned the royal city itself, and the whole land of Judea; the divine justice, for their crimes against Christ and his Apostles finally overtook them, totally destroying the whole generation of these evildoers form the earth.

– Eusebius, History of the Church 3, 5