LUKE 13:31-35 A SUMMARY OF THE LIFE OF JESUS2013 Teaching by Jerry B Simmons

Teaching Transcript: Luke 13:31-35 A Summary Of The Life Of Jesus

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This morning we're finishing up chapter 13 here in the Gospel of Luke and we're looking at an encounter that Jesus has with some particular Pharisees.

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And through this encounter, well, what we have is what I call a summary of the life of Jesus. And we'll see three things here, three elements of this encounter that really are the same as the highlights or the important parts of

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of the life and ministry of Jesus Christ. And so we kind of have it, you know, capsulated here for us, the summary of the life of Jesus. I was thinking about ahead of time, and I wanted to put together a little graphic, you know, with kind of like a walnut shell and a cross coming out of it and Jesus there. It'd be Jesus in a nutshell. But I didn't get to that. So it's just a summary of the life of Jesus. To give us a quick snapshot and a reminder of

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of who Jesus is and what his life and ministry was all about. And so we begin that with the first point, the first highlight of Jesus's life there in verse 31. And the point is that Jesus was rejected by mankind. Look with me again at verse 31. It says, on that very day, some Pharisees came saying to him, get out and depart from here for Herod wants to kill you.

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As we begin looking at this passage this morning, we're...

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to these Pharisees and Herod, who is, through these Pharisees, communicating with Jesus. And so we have this encounter that takes place. Now the Pharisees, of course, I'm sure you're familiar with that, that the Pharisees were the religious leaders for the Jewish people. And as such, they were looked up to, they were esteemed by the people, and they were

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But although they were the religious leaders, they were not really faithful to the Lord. They were faithful to their own traditions that they had developed, their own laws and regulations. And so even though the people looked up to them and they were influential and highly esteemed, they were not representatives of God. And we see some encounters with the Pharisees that Jesus has throughout his ministry that are very...

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or strong. I mean, there's strong aggression that they had against Jesus. And throughout his ministry, they've been plotting on how they could take his life, how they could get rid of him. Because what we learn in the scriptures is that they were jealous of Jesus. And we can see that they were threatened by Jesus. And so as these Pharisees come to Jesus, they

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It's probably not that they're looking out for his good. It's probably not that they're thinking, hey, you know, we heard about a situation and so we wanted to give you a little bit of a warning so you could escape. They have some other plans in mind they are not excited about or taking care of Jesus. But here they come with a message from Herod or a warning about Herod. Now Herod that they are referring to here is Herod Antipas.

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As you start looking at the history of the Herods, you kind of get confused really quickly because it started out with Herod the Great, but then all of his sons take that name Herod too. And so you start losing who's who in the midst of that. Let me back up. And so Herod the Great, he was the one who, remember when the babies in Bethlehem were put to death?

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because the Messiah had been born and he was frightened by it. That was Herod the Great. He's the one who is responsible for a great deal of buildings and construction. The magnificent temple that was standing at that time was the product of Herod the Great. But this is not that Herod. This is his son, Herod Antipas. And you probably are familiar with Herod Antipas because he is the one who had some contact and dealings with John the Baptist.

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Remember John the Baptist came against him and spoke out against him because of his improper relationship with his brother's wife. And so he had John the Baptist imprisoned and then ultimately he had John the Baptist beheaded. That's Herod Antipas and that's who is being referred to here. It's that Herod who beheaded John

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Who the Pharisees are saying, he wants to kill you, so you should probably get out of here. Now, it's not exactly clear what is really going on here. Because we don't know if what the Pharisees said was actually true. It's not clear if Herod wanted to kill Jesus because, well, he does get to meet Jesus a little bit later on. We'll see in the Gospel of Luke, I think it's around chapter 20.

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When Jesus is on trial and he is sent to Herod, Pilate sends him to Herod. And Herod, it tells us, is excited to see Jesus because he wanted to see some kind of miracle. He'd heard about Jesus. He wanted him to kind of put on a show and impress him. And so he was excited to meet Jesus. So later on, Herod's excited to meet Jesus. So it doesn't really...

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It's not clear. It doesn't make sense that he would want to kill Jesus at this point. At least it's not explained if he did, why he did. And so it could be that it wasn't true and the Pharisees were just making this up to get Jesus out of the area because they didn't want him around. Or it could be that it actually was true and for whatever reason, Herod did want to kill Jesus. And so he sends the Pharisees to, you know, get him out of the area or get him out of the region.

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And so through this, as they are, whether it's Herod or the Pharisees, as they are pushing Jesus out, I made it this title or this point, Rejected by Mankind, because really these guys here are representing humanity at this point. That it's a picture of what humanity has done with Jesus in pushing him out, in ushering him away, in rejecting him,

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And who he proclaimed himself to be. They really are our representatives here at this point. This is a concept we see throughout the scriptures. That it really begins with Adam and Eve in the garden. They are our representatives.

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Sometimes people look at the account there in the book of Genesis and they see Adam, they see Eve, the great glorious creation that God, you know, made and the Garden of Eden and the beauty there and just the incredible opportunities, you know, to walk with God in the evening. And people look at that and often we would come up with the conclusion of, well, if I had been there, you know, I wouldn't have eaten that food.

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forbidden fruit. I wouldn't have eaten of the tree of knowledge and good and evil. And if it only had been me there instead of Adam and Eve, well, you know, the world and history would have been very different because I would not have partaken of that fruit. But the reality is, is that Adam and Eve had the best potential to stay faithful to the Lord. If anybody was ever going to stay faithful to the Lord, it was going to be Adam and Eve. They were his creation.

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They had that opportunity to walk with God in the evenings. They were right there in a perfect environment. No sin had been introduced yet. If anybody was going to be faithful to the Lord, it was going to be Adam and Eve. And so we might think that we would not have made the same mistake. But we can understand that they were in a far better condition than we were. And they still made it. So if we were in their shoes, we would have made that same mistake. And so Adam and Eve...

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Are our representatives. In that they represented us there in the garden. And when they fell. Well that sinful nature. Has been passed down from them. To us. Generation after generation after generation. You and I. Have that sinful condition. That sin issue. As a result of our representatives. Falling into sin there in the garden of Eden.

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But when mankind fell, when sin was introduced and we began to have this sinful nature, God's plan was introduced and he began to share right away about his plan of redemption, his plan of salvation, his plan to redeem us from sin and from the sin condition.

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And God chose Abraham to be the father of God's people, the nation of Israel. That this was going to be his people, the ones who would bring forth the Savior and be the shining light and bring people to salvation and back into right relationship with God. And so God chose the Jewish people to be his representatives to the world, to reach the world.

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And he gave them great privilege. He gave them great honor. He gave them the words of God. He gave them the tabernacle. He gave them later on the temple. He gave them, you know, the Ark of the Covenant where his presence would dwell and he would meet with them. He gave them the opportunity to be forgiven. I mean, God gave them so much as his people to be the light of the world.

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And so as we look here at this encounter that Jesus has with the Pharisees and perhaps Herod, we are seeing here really representatives of humanity. That is, this is the best chance for people to receive Jesus, the Messiah, for people to believe in him. If anybody's going to believe...

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It's going to be God's people, the nation of Israel. And their leaders, the religious leaders, the political leaders, which that's who the Pharisees were. These are the ones who, well, they have the best opportunity to believe in Jesus because they had the word of God. They had the understanding of the word of God. They studied it. They had the best opportunity to receive Jesus. But what we see happening is instead they reject Jesus.

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They rejected him. Jesus was rejected by mankind as represented by these Pharisees. The Greeks were not going to receive Jesus and believe in him. None of the other surrounding nations were going to. The people that most likely that had the best opportunity to receive Jesus was the Jewish people. And specifically the religious leaders who knew the word of God. The prophet Isaiah tells us in Isaiah 53 verse 3.

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He's speaking prophetically about Jesus and it says, He is despised and rejected by men. A man of sorrows and acquainted with grief. And we hid, as it were, our faces from him. He was despised and we did not esteem him. Here the prophet Isaiah tells us that Jesus is despised and rejected by men. He says, we hid our faces from him.

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Now you can read that and you can think, well, how was it that we, talking about those of us in this room, how did we hide our faces from him? When, you know, we weren't even born yet. Our parents weren't born yet. Our grandparents weren't even born yet. Well, maybe except for George, you know, he's a little bit older. So maybe his grandparents were there, but the rest of us, we weren't there. How did we hide our faces from him? Well, again, it's this idea of representation.

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We collectively as humanity, represented by all those who were there when Jesus walked the earth, we hid our faces. We rejected Jesus. We rejected the Savior. We rejected the one that had been promised. So we're represented by Adam and Eve, and by that we have the fallen nature. We're also represented by these religious leaders, the Jewish people,

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humanity as a whole we rejected the savior but there's another representative that is also important and that is jesus you might think well that's not so fair for adam to represent me you know i didn't elect him i didn't choose him uh he didn't represent me well again i don't think i would have fallen there in the garden of eden but if you think that that is unfair well the lord takes care of the supposed unfairness by sending jesus as our representative

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Paul tells us in 2 Corinthians chapter 5 verse 21 that he made him who knew no sin, that's Jesus, he was sinless, he was perfect. He made him who knew no sin to be sin for us that we might become the righteousness of God in him. You see, Adam was our representative in the garden. Jesus was our representative on the cross and he bore our sin. He made him who knew no sin to be sin for us.

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That because Jesus is our representative, by believing in Jesus, by receiving the offer of forgiveness that he gives to us, we're saying, yes, Jesus, I elect you. You be my representative. And by him, we are the righteousness of God in him. But through this encounter here, we see with the religious leaders, with Herod and Jesus, we see this rejection, this pushing away. And it's...

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A really good picture of the life and ministry of Jesus. He is rejected by mankind. Our representatives, the religious leaders, the people of that day, rejected Jesus. And if they would not accept Jesus, no people would. Oh sure, there was a few individuals who believed. We understand that. We saw that last week, right? The narrow gate, the narrow way. There's a few who find it. There's a few who...

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They were Jesus' disciples. They followed him. There was a few. But as a whole, collectively, mankind rejected Jesus, the Savior. And so that's the first element of the life and ministry of Jesus that we see kind of summed up here in this passage. But the next thing we find as we go in verses 32 and 33 is that Jesus was still determined to die for mankind.

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Even though we collectively, humanity, rejected Jesus, the amazing and glorious thing about our Lord is that He still was determined to die for us. That He didn't say, hey, you're not receiving me. You're not believing that I'm the Redeemer. You're not being nice to me. So forget it. You're on your own. Come up with your own salvation then. Jesus didn't do that. He was determined to die for mankind. First of all, because Jesus

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It was the only way of salvation. The only chance that we have to be saved is through Jesus. It was the only way for him to die for humanity. So because of his great love for us, he determined to stay the course even though he was despised and rejected. Check out verse 32.

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So here Jesus responds. The Pharisees say, hey, Herod wants to kill you. You should probably get out of here. And Jesus says, let me send you a message back to Herod.

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Now the way that Jesus responds here, kind of redirecting it right back to Herod, makes me think that this really was a threat from Herod and the Pharisees were being accurate in their report. Again, it's not exactly stated and so it might not be the case, but Jesus answers as though Herod really did threaten. And so he responds to Herod and he says, you go tell that fox. Now when Jesus calls Herod a fox, he's not saying that he was really good looking. He's

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He's like, hey, that's a foxy man. Go tell him something for me. No, no, no. Calling him a fox was an insult.

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A fox, well, we have a saying, you know, someone is as sly as a fox. It's describing someone who is cunning, who's able to kind of work and get what they want in a sneaky or an underhanded way. It was the same type of thing, and that's what they would have understood, that he didn't call him like a lion, you know, a majestic animal, something powerful. He wasn't like an elegant or regal leader. He was a fox. He was a crafty,

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crafty, sneaky leader. He wasn't a good leader. He was sly. He was cunning, but in a weak way. It was used to describe someone who is weak, and so they were cunning instead. And so he says, go tell that fox. He's dealing with Herod not in a really good way in the sense that he's calling him someone who is sneaky or underhanded, but

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But then he goes on to say, I cast out demons and perform cures today and tomorrow and the third day I shall be perfected. Now remember that Jesus is journeying toward Jerusalem.

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And we've been following along that journey. He was there in the northern part of Israel known as Galilee. And that was Herod's jurisdiction. But down in the southern part of Israel where Jerusalem was, that was under the authority of Pilate. And so...

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As he's up in the area of Galilee, he's in Herod's territory. He's in Herod's region. And he's been going from town to town, place to place, journeying towards Jerusalem. But he's not making a straight line there and getting there as soon as possible. He is kind of winding down, going from place to place, zigzagging back and forth, and hitting a bunch of different towns and areas as he's on his way to Jerusalem.

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And here is this threat comes from Herod. He's in Herod's territory. Jesus is responding saying, I'm not going to be swayed. You're not going to frighten me away. You're not going to pressure me away from what I'm called to do. He's determined here to go to the cross.

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And he's saying here, in the meantime, I'm going to keep on ministering to people. I'm going to keep on casting out demons. I'm going to keep on performing cures or healing people. I'm going to continue to minister to people as I'm on the way to Jerusalem. The part of this response, though, that Jesus gives that is not exactly clear is what timing Jesus is actually referring to. Because he says, today and tomorrow...

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It's a little bit unclear what Jesus means by these references to time that he is giving. Because, well, some have suggested, you know, him being perfected, it could be the resurrection.

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And so that's possible. But he's farther away than three days from the resurrection. He's at least a week away from the resurrection it seems. And so that's not quite there yet. But maybe he's speaking figuratively and talking about the third day.

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you know, up ahead and on the third day he's going to rise again. And that is the completion or perfection of his ministry and his call. And so that's a possibility. Others look at this and say, well, you know, it's probably that Jesus was three days away from Jerusalem. And that's something that John Corson points out, that perhaps he's three days away from that time when he rides into Jerusalem on the donkey, that triumphal entry when he presents himself to Israel as the Messiah.

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And that's possible. But there's some difficulties with that as well. And I'll mention that a little bit later. Or it could just be just a general figurative reference. In other words, he could be saying, look, I'm on my way. And for right now and for the next few days or for the next, you know, little bit, I'm going to be working and continuing to minister to people. And then...

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I'm going to bring, you know, the completion of my ministry through the crucifixion and then the resurrection. So it's not exactly clear the timing that Jesus is referring to here. And so you can kind of wrestle with that and come up with your own thoughts on exactly what Jesus means. And if you figure it out, make sure you tell Dave Byrne afterwards, okay? So...

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regardless the point is Jesus will not be swayed he's not going to run from Herod he's going to keep on the path that the father has set before him and he's going to be faithful to that now verse 33 nevertheless I must journey today tomorrow and the day following for it cannot be that a prophet should perish outside of Jerusalem

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So you see this kind of similar pattern, right? Jesus says, I'm going to journey, I must journey today, tomorrow, and the day following. And so it's the same type of thing. Today, tomorrow, the third day, same pattern as we saw there in verse 32. Now, the way he words it here, it really seems to indicate that he's saying he's three days away from Jerusalem, which would be then Jerusalem.

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Well, Luke chapter 19 is that triumphal entry. As you look at the next couple chapters, you can see that primarily it's filled with teachings of Jesus. And so, that's not really a problem. To see the next couple of chapters happening over the next three days...

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That's easy. You could fit that into three days no problem. I'd have a hard time fitting it into one service. But if we would spend time together for three days. You know we could cover that amount of chapters. So that would be no problem. The one difficulty with this is Luke chapter 14. Deals with Jesus healing a man on the Sabbath.

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And so because the, you know, very next chapter he's dealing with healing a man on the Sabbath, which is a Saturday, the triumphal entry is on a Sunday. And there's more than three days between a Saturday and the next Sunday. That's where the complication is. And so then people start to wonder, so what does he mean? And what is he talking about? You know, again, it's one of those things you can wrestle with. But it's not exactly clear the timing that Jesus is referring to here.

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Here's what is clear. His point is, I'm going to keep on going. Again, I'm not going to be swayed from my path. I'm determined to do what God has called me to do. And he says, it cannot be that a prophet should perish outside of Jerusalem. And so here we understand Jesus knew exactly what was going on. He knew exactly where he was headed. He was headed towards Jerusalem and he knew what was going to happen there.

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He was going to perish. He knew that he was headed towards his death. That he would be crucified at Jerusalem. And that's exactly why he was determined to do so. He was determined to go and fulfill the role of Savior while receiving the penalty for your sin and my sin. Jesus was determined to die for mankind because it was the only way.

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The only way of salvation. He wasn't swayed by rejection. If people rejected him, that didn't stop him. It didn't make him say, well forget it. I'm not going to die for you then. No, even though people rejected him, humanity rejected him, he was going to be faithful. Even though people might threaten him, he was going to be faithful to fulfill his call. To demonstrate his love and to die upon the cross for us.

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Jesus died for us. Speaking of humanity collectively. He died for us while we were enemies of God. While we were against God. While we despised and rejected him. He was determined to die for us. That's one of the things that makes Jesus so incredible. Even though we rejected him, he was determined to die for us. Well, the final part that we see in the summary of the life of Jesus is

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Is in verse 34 and 35. And here the point is that he longs to gather mankind. In these three things. Kind of sums up the life and ministry of Jesus. Jesus being God became man. With a purpose. To be our savior. But he was rejected by mankind. And although we were his creation. Were created by him. But we rejected our creator.

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Still, he was determined to die for us, to go to the cross on our behalf. Why? Well, I'm sure you are familiar with John 3.16. For God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten son. In Romans 5, we also learn that God demonstrates his love in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us. Why is Jesus determined to die for mankind? Because he loves us.

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And we see that here. He longs to gather mankind to himself. He longs to gather us to him. Verse 34 says, O Jerusalem, Jerusalem, the one who kills the prophets and stones those who are sent to her. How often I wanted to gather your children together as a hen gathers her brood under her wings, but you were not willing."

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Jesus, as he's responding to Herod, he says, you tell that guy, I'm going to keep on going because a prophet is not going to perish outside of Jerusalem. And as he says that, I'm going to Jerusalem. I'm not going to perish outside of Jerusalem. He's thinking about Jerusalem. He's thinking about where he's going, the death he's about to die. And he's now lamenting

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He's crying out in sorrow. He says, oh Jerusalem, Jerusalem. It's kind of like he reminded himself about their condition, their situation. And what's interesting here is that Jesus is not angry with the people. He's not angry with the people. He's crying out here in anguish and sorrow. Even though they're rejecting him, he's not angry with them.

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And you can see that by the repetition of Jerusalem. He said, oh Jerusalem, Jerusalem. It was a common thing for them that they would have this repetition of a name when they're reaching out in compassion and sorrow to somebody. And you can kind of relate, maybe you kind of think back to your childhood a little bit. You know when your parents are angry with you when they use your full name, right? Gerald Bradley Simmons, you know you're in trouble at that point, right? It's like, oh no.

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What I do or uh-oh, I got caught, you know, depending on which situation you're in. But if your mom, your dad was to say, oh, Jerry, Jerry, okay, I'm not in trouble. It's not in anger that they're calling out to me, but there's something else going on. And Jesus, he says, oh, Jerusalem, Jerusalem. And you see this compassion within Jesus as he's crying out for this people that he loves so greatly. He's saddened for them.

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Because of what they're about to endure. Because of their rejection of him. But he says, oh Jerusalem, Jerusalem. And notice he says, the one who kills the prophets and stones those who are sent to her. He's remembering, I'm about to die. That's where I'm going. Tell Herod that. And he's thinking about, oh Jerusalem, you always put to death the people that God sends to you. Jerusalem had a long history of

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Of killing the people that God sent. Again, God, he wasn't angry with them in the sense that he was trying to get rid of them. He was sending people to them to bring them back. Stephen points this out in the book of Acts chapter 7. Remember Stephen, he was the first martyr of the church. And as he is about to be put to death, he comes against the Jewish leaders pretty strongly as he reminds them

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About their ancestors or their fathers. Now the Jewish leaders were really proud of their fathers. And they would bring that up often. But Stephen says in Acts chapter 7 verse 52. He says to them, which of the prophets did your fathers not persecute? In other words, you're so proud of your fathers. But your fathers persecuted every single one of the prophets.

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And that's what Jesus says here. Jerusalem, Jerusalem. The one who kills the prophets and stones those who are sent to her. Later on in Luke chapter 20, Jesus will tell the parable of the wicked vinedressers. Where there is the master of the vineyard and he hires people to work the vineyard. And then when the time is right, the harvest is happening, he sends a servant to go and collect some of the fruit from the harvest.

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And the vine dressers see the servant coming and they determine they're going to take advantage of him. And so they take the servant and put him to death. So the master sends another servant. And once again, they despise that servant. They abuse that servant. They put him to death. And so Jesus goes on in the parable to say, so the master of the vineyard then sends his only son and says, surely they'll respect my son.

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But once again, the vine dressers, they're wicked. They see the son coming and they say, here's our chance. We can get his inheritance. Let's kill him. And so they put him to death. And Jesus goes on to explain, the master of that vineyard will come and will throw out those wicked vine dressers. Will entrust that vineyard to someone else who will be faithful to deliver the fruit in the due season. Now Jesus wasn't just telling a story about a vineyard. He was illustrating the issue of the nation of Israel.

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That God gave so much to the nation of Israel. They were his people. He was expecting fruit. There wasn't fruit. He's sending the servants, the prophets, the messengers, calling the people back to God. And those wicked vine dressers, the leaders of the nation of Israel throughout their history, were putting to death the messengers that God was sending. So then finally God says, I'm going to send my only son. And what do they do? They do the same thing that they have done with the previous prophets.

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They put him to death. And so Jesus here is lamenting over Jerusalem and their continued rejection of God and all those that God sends to them. But you can see that he's not fed up in a way like, I want nothing to do with you. But as he goes on, he gives us this beautiful picture. He says, how often I wanted to gather your children together as a hen gathers her brood under her wings.

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You see this beautiful picture that Jesus is painting here. This image for us to see. This great longing that he has to be with the people he has created. His great love for them. Now this is such an important contrast, especially as we look back to last week. Last week, I mean that was a heavy, heavy message. Heavy passage as we consider the narrow gate. And there's few that find it.

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And if you only see that, if you're only focusing on that, you could begin to think that God made it hard to be saved because he didn't want many people to get through. You can kind of begin to think that, well, God had the mentality like, oh man, those people drive me nuts. I don't want them with me for eternity. So let me make it really narrow so only a couple people will make it through, but most of the people won't find it. Let me make it really hard because I don't want them to be saved. That's...

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That's not what God has done. That's not his plan. That narrow gate is narrow because there is only one way of salvation. Because the only way is Jesus. He is the way, the truth, and the life. It's not so that it would be hard. It's really so that it would be easy. But it's also so that it would be possible. Because it would not be possible apart from Christ. Understand that there is not one person that Jesus does not want to gather to himself.

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There's not one person that he would say, yeah, it's okay if he doesn't make it. No big deal. I wasn't really wanting to be with him anyways. Yeah, if she doesn't come, oh well, you know, no sweat off my back. It's like, that's fine. No, no, that's, Jesus does not feel that way about any single person. Now, now you think about that for a second. Because I think for you and I, we could think about some people that we would not mind if they didn't make it to eternity. It's like, yeah, well,

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Maybe you say, if I never saw them again, it would be too soon, right? Well, that's not how God feels. God's love for us is so incredible. And this is important for us so that we love other people around us. But it's also important for us so that we respond as we understand the heart of Christ here. God says that he's not willing that any should perish. There's not one person. You go to the worst prison, you go to the worst area of town, whatever. Right?

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Whoever you might be thinking of like, no, surely not that. Yes, God wants them to be saved. He loves them. He's longing to gather them to himself. And Jesus gives us a picture of this here as he talks about this hen gathering her brood under her wings.

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Now, I didn't grow up on a farm and I didn't have much experience with that. So I thought, well, let me see what that looks like. And I pulled up this picture. Maybe you've never seen it. So here you can see a hen gathering her brood or her chicks under her wings. Isn't that a nice picture? I mean, that's just beautiful, right? You have the chick here and then the other one there. I don't know if you can see it, but right here under the wing, there's another pair of legs. There's another one hidden completely underneath the

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The wings of the hen. Now this is the picture Jesus says, look at this and think about this. This is how I want to relate to you. This is the relationship that I want to have with you. How many times are we off running out all by ourself, running around, you know, chirping like a little baby chick when there's the frightening things and the stressful things and the difficult things and

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When where we need to be is under the shelter of his wings. Jesus says, I long to gather you together like a hen gathers her brood. This is how I want it to be with us. I want to gather you to myself. I want to protect you. I want to preserve you. I want to take care of you. But notice what he says there at the end of the verse. He says, but you were not willing.

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Here's the thing about Jesus and his love for us and his longing to gather us together to himself. It's dependent upon one thing. You have to be perfect. No, no. That's not what it's dependent upon. It's dependent upon one thing. What is that one thing? That you would be willing. That you would be willing. God's been sending messengers to Jerusalem, calling them back, but they refused. They were unwilling. Jesus has been there in Jerusalem. He's been ministering there in the region. He's been there in the

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And they've been rejecting him. They're unwilling. And that's why he's lamenting. Because he loves them. He longs to gather them like this. He so wants to protect them and be with them. But they're not willing. Have you ever experienced that? Where you've loved somebody, but they would not let you help them? And that agony that you feel like, oh, I love...

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I so want to gather and I want to protect them and I want to take care of them and they're just, they won't let me help. You know those times where you love them and you see, oh my goodness, if you're going down that path, I mean, I know where that leads and I know you know where that leads too, but you're still, if only you would let me make your decisions for you, it'd be so much better. I wish I could make your decisions for, and some parents try that, right? I'm imposing my will on your life.

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And you're going to do what I want you to do. And that works for a little bit. But then there comes the point where it's like, no. I'm sorry, mom. I'm sorry, dad. You're not living my life. I'm going to do what I want to do, the kid says. That's how we are as people. Jesus longs to redeem us, to preserve us, to protect us. But he's not going to force himself upon us. He's not going to impose his will on us.

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We must be willing. This is how he wants you to be. He wants you to be close. Why are you off running around doing whatever you want to do without the protection of your savior? He wants us to be close. He longs for us to be gathered to him like a hen gathers her brood. Verse 35. He says, See, your house is left to you desolate. And assuredly I say to you, you shall not see me until the time comes when you say, Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord.

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Jesus understands what's about to happen to Jerusalem. As Jerusalem is rejecting Jesus, about to put Jesus to death, in the near future, Rome is going to come in and wipe Jerusalem out. And the house, the temple is going to be desolate. The land is going to be desolate. The Jews will be dispersed throughout the world for about 2,000 years until they're regathered. In 1948, they were regathered and reestablished as a nation. But there was a long time of desolation.

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And Jesus knew what was coming. He said, your house is left desolate. Not just because of the physical things, but the spiritual implications of rejecting the Savior. Your house is left desolate, he says. We also see here, Jesus is saying, this is kind of your last chance. After this, you're not going to see me again. You're not going to have an opportunity to receive me again. He's speaking to them as a nation, collectively, until they come to the point where they say, blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord.

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Now in the very near future from this, there will be people who say, blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord. It's a quotation from Psalm 118. And when Jesus rides into Jerusalem on a donkey, introducing himself and announcing himself to the nation as the Savior, there are people who are lined up on the road saying, Hosanna, save now. Blessed is the one who comes in the name of the Lord. And so there are a few people who say that very soon in Jesus' ministry.

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But it's only a couple days after that that he's crucified. The people that said that very likely are also the ones who just a few days later were saying crucify him. So it wasn't, although they said it, it wasn't real. And what Jesus is saying is when I come again, what we would refer to as the second coming, when the nation of Israel will finally accept him as the savior that God has sent.

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In Zechariah chapter 12 it talks about that. That they'll finally look to him. The one that they pierced. They'll call on him. And that's something that's yet to come prophetically. But in between the crucifixion and that second coming. There's a lot of desolation. And Jesus is saying. If only you let me gather you. If only you would be willing. I would love to spare you from that desolation. From that hurt. From all of the things that are going on. I would love to bring salvation to you.

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He longs to gather mankind. Jesus went to the cross because he loves us and he wants relationship with us. When we reject him, when we rebel against him, he mourns over it. But he's not angry with us and saying, get out of here. I don't want to see you again. But he mourns, he agonizes over it because he knows the destruction that it brings. The wages of sin is death.

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And so he mourns over those agonies and those pains and that destruction that we will experience. But he will not force anyone. He does warn us about rejecting him. Because like a little baby chick, as we're off all on our own, we're very vulnerable. There's going to be lots of destruction. Physically, spiritually, emotionally, all of the above. But if we're willing, he says, I long to gather you to myself.

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to protect you, to preserve you. And I think that that's worthy of some thought on our part. We need to just meditate on that thought. Jesus longs to gather you to himself. And so to help us kind of just meditate on that thought, the worship team is going to come up and lead us in a song. And as they do, I would just ask you to just consider the love that Christ has for you, the longing that he has for you.

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The desire to gather you to Himself. That you would be near Him. That you would know Him. That He would be close to you. That you would be close to Him. The requirement, His part is already done. It was through the cross. But the requirement for us is just that we'd be willing. He loves you so much. Why are you fighting it? Why are you resisting Him? Why are you running from Him?

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Why are you running out from the wing and trying to do your own thing and handle things on your own? There's great agony there. Great desolation. But he says, come near to me. I'll give you rest. I'll protect you. I'll forgive you. I'll redeem you. Let's meditate on that thought as we worship the Lord together.

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Come as you are. Come and drink from the living water. Close from His hands, close from His side. Come as you are.

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Come and bathe in the healing water. Cleansing from sin. Be seen. Draw near to Him. And He'll draw near to you. He's been warned you to call on His name. So come now you.

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♪♪♪ ♪♪♪

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Oh

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♪ To call on His name ♪ So come, draw near to Him ♪ And He'll draw near ♪ He's been waiting for you ♪ To call on His name ♪ So come, come as you are ♪

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Come as you are. As you think about the amazing grace that God bestows upon us and His call for us to come and His longing to be with us, what should our response be? What response can there be except to come?

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To draw near. To be willing to be gathered to Him. In our society today, we see Jesus being pushed out. It's not much different than what Jesus experienced in the portion we studied today. People are pushing the Lord away. Pushing Him out. For some, it's a little bit surprising. It's like, I can't believe what's happening in our nation. But we've been pushing the Lord away for a long time as a nation collectively.

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And it really starts individually. We've been pushing the Lord away for a long time. And so this morning, the call for us, our response should be to stop running. Be willing to be gathered together to Him. The author of Hebrews in Hebrews 3.15 says, Today, if you will hear His voice, do not harden your hearts as in the rebellion. We have an option this morning.

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As we see the love of Christ, summarizing His life with the rejection of Christ by humanity, by our own selves. We see His determination because of His love for us to die upon the cross for us. And His desire to draw us near to Him. We have an option as we consider that. You can harden your heart. You can try to make it on your own as a little baby chick in that cold, scary world.

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And you're going to be overwhelmed. You're going to be in great danger. You're going to ultimately perish. Or you could be willing to surrender. Maybe you don't like that picture. I don't want to be, you know, some baby chick under his wing. You know, that's kind of girly. You know, I want to be something manly. You know what? You got to be willing to be broken. You got to be willing to surrender. He'll fight for you. He'll protect you. He'll preserve you. He'll comfort you. He'll take care of it. He'll forgive you. No matter what.

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But you got to be willing to let him gather you to himself. So once again, they're going to lead us in a song. And during this song, please, Jesus would be here saying, oh, living water, living water. How often I've wanted to gather you. Don't resist. Don't run from it. Surrender to him. Whatever's happening in your life. I don't know where you're at. Whatever it might be, but it's hard to do it on your own. And the end result is desolation.

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Stop going down that path and surrender to the Lord. Whatever that means for you, you can do that right in your heart. As we worship the Lord together, just come to Him. Call out to Him. Draw near to Him. And so let's take this time, closing the service, to just make sure that we're under the shelter of His wings.

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We pray you have been blessed by this Bible teaching. The power of God to change a life is found in the daily reading of His Word. Visit ferventword.com to find more teachings and Bible study resources.