LUKE 16-20 WHERE JESUS WALKED PART 42014 Teaching by Jerry B Simmons

Teaching Transcript: Luke 16-20 Where Jesus Walked Part 4

You are listening to FerventWord, an online Bible study ministry with teachings and tools to help you grow deeper in your relationship with God. The following message was taught by Jerry Simmons in 2014.

We are here in Luke chapter 16. We'll be looking at 16 through 20 this week. Looking at the chapters we read this week going through the Bible in three years. Now as we're in the gospel of Luke we're working our way through the gospels as we began the New Testament this year.

And we'll be working our way through the rest of the New Testament. We are almost through with the Gospels. We have one more to go. We'll be heading into the book of John in about a week and looking at the life of Christ from a slightly different perspective as John shares his account of the life of Jesus. But here we are in Luke this evening, continuing our journey through the chapters of Luke. And we'll be looking at the Gospel... I just lost control, sorry. Okay.

We'll be looking at this Gospel of Luke, which was written probably around 55 through 60 AD, somewhere in that time frame, about 20 to 30 years after the life of Christ. And in that, we see that Luke is recording these things not from his own life,

eyewitness account, but he's interviewed the people who were involved and those who were there. And so he's given us kind of an accumulation of many different testimonies about the life of Christ and what he did. And so Luke was a physician, probably a servant to the man he mentions named Theophilus.

And he writes this gospel account for Theophilus and then also the book of Acts for Theophilus. Now as Luke was writing, he was really focusing on the humanity of Jesus. Really focusing on the fact that Jesus, yes he is God, but he also became man. That he was indeed human like you and I except for he was without sin.

But he really did have a physical body. He really did experience human emotions and frailties. He experienced what it means to be tired. He relied upon the Holy Spirit. He spent much time in prayer, we see in the Gospel of Luke. And so we see all of these different elements and aspects of the life of Christ through the lens that Luke gives us of who Jesus is and the reality that he became a man like you and I.

The geography of Luke we've been paying extra close attention to because looking at Jesus as a man and seeing the places he actually went to and he actually set foot in these places. And so here just a quick overview of the life of Christ on the map of Israel.

Of course, we start in Bethlehem where Jesus was born. And there, you know, of course, Mary and Joseph traveled to there. There was no room in the inn. And so he was born there in Bethlehem. Then he was raised up in Nazareth. And so that's where he grew up. And then when he became an adult, he moved to Capernaum, which is a city right on the shore of the Sea of Galilee.

And then, of course, Jerusalem being the capital of Israel and where the temple was. Jesus visited there many times. And that's where it was there that he spent that final week. And then was crucified just outside the city walls. And so we'll be looking at that more closely over the next couple of weeks. We're right now, though, as we pick up our chapters this evening, we're looking at the things that happened in Jesus' final trip there.

to Jerusalem. So we're looking at this final journey to Jerusalem where he's going to spend the week there in Jerusalem and then ultimately be crucified. We began in chapter 9 looking at Jesus as he was beginning his journey from Galilee and he was kind of going through Galilee and Samaria back and forth through a variety of cities and

and towns ministering on his way down to Jerusalem and that'll continue through chapter 17 and then as we head into chapter 18 we'll see him cross over the Jordan and then he's ministering in the region called Perea just across the Jordan and then he'll come back across the Jordan to hit Jericho and then head into Jerusalem in Luke chapter 19.

So we pick it up this evening in chapter 16 and verse 31 is the key verse. Here's what it says. But he said to him, if they do not hear Moses and the prophets, neither will they be persuaded, though one rise from the dead. In verses 1 through 13, Jesus tells the parable of the unjust steward.

He says in verse 1, So in this parable that Jesus is telling, he's talking about a master who has a servant...

And the accusation is, hey, this servant isn't being faithful and he's wasting your goods. And so you better check out what's going on. And so the master says to the servant, hey, you know, bring all the books. Let's go through them. You're going to have to give an account for all of my stuff that you've been managing. And we need to find out where it's all been going and how you've been using it.

And so in this parable, in this, you know, illustration that Jesus gives, the unjust steward then is like freaked out because he's like, well, I haven't been doing good. My master is going to find out as soon as we go through the books together. What am I going to do? And so he comes up with a plan. He calls in the creditors.

Of his master. And he says hey. How much do you owe? Oh you owe you know $80. Okay take your bill. Write down $40. And he does this several times. With a few different of the credit. Or the debtors to the master. And it says at the end. That the master commends the unjust steward. There in verse 8. Because he had dealt shrewdly.

And so the idea here in this illustration, Jesus is saying, this guy, you know, he was doing what he could to prepare for the future with patience.

the responsibility, the authority, and the resources that he had at the time. Of course, Jesus is not condoning, you know, this kind of thievery. But the idea here, Jesus goes on in verse 8 to say, "...the sons of this world are more shrewd in their generation than the sons of light."

And so he goes on to say, this is an illustration to point out that those who are believers need to be shrewd in their dealings with their resources, their positions of authority, the resources that they have. They need to be diligent and shrewd with those things, not to rip people off, but to prepare for the future with what you have right now. And Jesus points that out in verse 9. He says...

I say to you, make friends for yourselves by unrighteous mammon, that when you fail, they may receive you into an everlasting home.

This idea of unrighteous mammon is the idea of wealth or finances, of money. And so Jesus is saying, do what you can with the resources that you have today so that when you enter into eternity, you have people who will welcome you into eternity because you used your resources to help them enter into eternity.

Warren Wiersbe says it this way. Will people welcome you to heaven because your stewardship made it possible for them to hear the gospel and be saved?

Jesus is challenging his followers to say, hey, how are you using your resources and is it impacting the kingdom of God? Will you have a welcoming party in heaven? Because the way that you used your resources allowed other people to hear the gospel and be saved.

Then he challenges us in verse 11. He says, therefore, if you've not been faithful in the unrighteous mammon, who will commit to your trust the true riches? I point out this verse because we often get caught up with this idea of money and sometimes we overemphasize it and sometimes we de-emphasize it. And Jesus says, if you're not faithful with the money that you have,

then who's going to trust you with real riches, with things that are really meaningful and things that really matter? And so the Lord wants you to be faithful and diligent in your finances. He wants you to pay your bills. He wants you to, you know, be faithful in the stewardship that you have of the resources that he's given to you.

And if you're not faithful in the resources that he's given to you, then you probably shouldn't expect him to entrust you with true riches and responsibilities and opportunities that would have much more eternal value.

Verses 14 through 18 now, Jesus says, Here Jesus is dealing with the religious leaders, the Pharisees, and they were lovers of money. And so when they heard Jesus talk about money in this way, they were pretty upset. And they, you know, of course wanted to harm him as they always did. And so Jesus explains to them, listen guys,

What men esteem highly, that's an abomination in the sight of God. This is a general principle that we kind of need to just kind of get through our heads, but it's hard for us and we often forget. What the world highly esteems, generally speaking, is abominations in the sight of God. What the world thinks is great and awesome and perfect and aspires to and dreams about is

Those are things that are ungodly. Those are things that are against God. Now, it's not saying that, you know, God calls it an abomination because the people of this world like it. What he's saying is that the things that God calls an abomination are the things that the world in general pursue after. They pursue after things that are sinful and ungodly, and it's an abomination. And so,

This is why it's dangerous for us to try to compromise and fit in with the world because it kind of causes us then to seek after things that are abominations in the sight of God. And so, you know, hey, if we can seek after this and be like this so we can be like them and there's not much difference between us and the world.

what ends up happening is we get involved with things that are an abomination in the sight of God in order to try to please the world or try to fit in with the world. And so Jesus wants us to remember the way that God views things is radically different than the way that the world views things and the way that we naturally view things. And so we need to have God's perspective and God's heart in regards to the things going on around us.

Well then finally in verses 19 through 31 he talks about a rich man and Lazarus. The rich man of course is wealthy and well off and has great provisions and this man Lazarus is poor. He's a beggar. He sits at the gate of the rich man begging for some bread or some crumbs from the table.

Now Jesus tells this account. He says they both die and Lazarus is carried to Abraham's bosom

The rich man died and he is tormented in Hades. Now this is a good thing for us to consider because we need to talk about where people go when they die and how that has changed over history. And so there is this place that the Bible refers to as Sheol in the Old Testament or Hades in the New Testament.

Sheol and Hades are the same place. It's a holding place, temporary holding place for those who have died. And this...

holding place basically has two compartments. On the one side you have a place of torment and we can see this here in verse 23 of Luke 16 that it says the rich man he was in torment in Hades. And so he is in torment in this temporary holding place while Lazarus

who was not wicked but righteous, he was in the place of comfort, and it's referred to here by Jesus as Abraham's bosom.

And so this holding place for the dead, which is a temporary place, seems to have these two compartments. A place of comfort and a place of torment. And so the righteous who died would go to this place of comfort. And that's where Lazarus went. And then the unrighteous who died would go to this place of torment.

But this is a temporary place. It's not the eternal place. It's not hell like we think of as the eternal judgment or eternal place of judgment. And so here's how that works. The unrighteous who die throughout all history from today all the way back to Adam and Eve, the unrighteous who die go to this place of torment.

They will be brought out of that place of torment in Hades on the judgment day. It's referred to as the great white throne judgment. And you can read about it in the end of the book of Revelation. Revelation chapter 20.

And there on the day of judgment, it tells us that whoever is not written in the book of life will be cast into the lake of fire. And the lake of fire is that eternal judgment place for those who refuse to believe in God, who refuse to believe in Jesus Christ. And so the unrighteous, currently when they die, they go to a place of torment. It's temporary until the judgment day. And then they will be cast into the lake of fire.

Now the righteous who die have a different story. They go to this place of comfort. Now we're talking here about before Christ died upon the cross. It changes after that. And so people like Abraham, people like David, King David, those who were righteous in the Old Testament, like this man Lazarus that Jesus talks about, they would go to Hades, but they would go to this place of comfort, Abraham's bosom there within Hades,

And then when Christ died, you can check out Ephesians chapter 4. It talks about Jesus taking captivity captive and setting the captives free. And so what we understand from the scriptures is that this compartment of Hades was emptied out when Christ resurrected.

And he brought them out of this temporary place and then into the presence of God. And so they are now in heaven. And so today when there are righteous who die, because of what Christ has accomplished upon the cross, they go straight into the presence of God. And so Paul tells us in 2 Corinthians chapter 5, to be absent from the body is to be present with the Lord.

So today, when people die, they are either righteous or unrighteous. The unrighteous go to the temporary holding place called Hades.

to a place of torment until the judgment day, until they're cast into the lake of fire. The righteous who die because of what Christ has done for us upon the cross, our sin has been paid for. And so we are taken right into the presence of God according to Paul in 2 Corinthians chapter 5.

So this account of the rich man and Lazarus here in Luke chapter 16 gives us insight into this place called Hades or Sheol and how that works. All right, chapter 17 now, verse 24 is the key verse. It says, for as the lightning that flashes out of one part under heaven shines to the other part under heaven, so also the Son of Man will be in his day.

In verses 1 through 4, Jesus instructs us to rebuke and forgive your brother. I think verse 3 is important to look at. It says, Here Jesus is instructing us that it is important for us to maintain our relationships with other believers.

He is saying, look, this is your responsibility. You have a responsibility to make sure that you maintain your relationship with other believers. Now, this relationship that we have with one another requires maintenance because there's always problems when people get together.

I don't care how long you've been a Christian. I don't care how long you've been coming to church or how long you've known each other. Whenever we get together, there's going to be some problems. And I'm going to offend you. You might offend me. We're going to bump into each other. Some things will be accidental. Some things will be on purpose. We are sinful and we still have sin issues. And so there's going to be conflicts. There's going to be personality clashes. There's going to be things that...

Well, it just caused us to be hurt and offended. There's always going to be those kinds of things as we gather together. And so Jesus says, take heed to yourselves. This is going to require some maintenance. And so here's what you need to do. When you're upset and you're offended because someone has sinned against you,

then the solution isn't, so just don't attend the church functions that they attend, or go to a different service than they attend, or let's, you know, uproot our family and move to a different church because, you know, this person offended me. That's not what Jesus says. No, instead he says, take heed to yourselves, and if someone sins against you, then bring rebuke.

It's kind of a condensed version of what Jesus gives us in Matthew chapter 18. He says, if your brother sins against you, then go tell him his fault between you and him alone. And just start there. Just you two privately, personally, and address the issue. And if it continues on, then you have to, you know, take some further steps. But the point is, you can't just...

Well, you know, that person's dead to me now. That person will just sever that relationship, will just end that. Jesus says, no, maintain that relationship. And so when there is sin against you, then make sure that you bring the correction. That is necessary. It's an important part of us continuing on in the body of Christ. Now,

He says, if they repent, then forgive him. And so that's the second part of this. So you have to take the step to rebuke. And sometimes we can be really good at that step, but then really bad at the next step, which is then you need to forgive. If there's repentance, then you need to forgive and you need to let it go. And you need to allow them to have that relationship with you once again.

And so rebuke if there's sin and forgive if there's repentance. Then verse 4, he answers an important question. He says, Remember Peter asks,

Hey, Lord, how many times should I forgive my brother? Up to seven times? Jesus here says, hey, if it happens seven times in a day that he comes back and says, I repent, I'm sorry, please forgive me, then you should forgive him, even if it's seven times a day. Now, we would grow weary of forgiving seven times a day, right? I mean, that would be like, come on, dude, are you serious? I don't know if you're really repentant or not.

But we need to remember how gracious God is to us. And he never wearies of forgiving us. No matter how many times we come to him.

Even if it's the same thing that we're continuing to bring to him. He never wearies of forgiving us. If there's repentance, there's forgiveness. And so the same way that God treats us, he says, that's how you need to treat one another. So take heed to yourselves. And I want to encourage you, take heed to yourselves. If there's issues between you and another brother or sister in the Lord, then take heed to it and address it. Don't just let it go. Don't just let it build up until there's an explosion later on.

If there's sin, rebuke. And if there's repentance, then forgive. Well, in verses 5 through 10, Jesus instructs us to say, we are unprofitable servants and have done what was our duty to do. This kind of hurts our pride a little bit, but Jesus here relates to us as servants of

And he talks to the people. He says, hey, those of you who have servants, which of you, you know, serve your servants? After they've been working in the field, then they come in and you're like, hey, I've prepared you a great meal. Have a seat and I'm going to feed you. That's not something that they would do. In the same way, you know, your boss at work doesn't

tell you, hey, why don't you kick back? You know, here's a meal I've prepared for you and just enjoy yourself at your, you know, desk and I'm going to go do all of your work for you. That's not what your boss does, right? Your boss makes sure that you do the work that you're supposed to do. And Jesus says in the same way, hey, when you've been serving, you've been diligent, you've been working hard. In verse 10 he says...

When you've done all those things which you are commanded, say, we are unprofitable servants. We have done what was our duty to do. And here's the thing that we must acknowledge as believers. We are unprofitable servants. Sometimes we think very highly of all the amazing things we do for God.

But you know, it never makes up for what God has done for us. He has created us. He gives us life. He gives us breath. And then ultimately, he gave his only begotten son to die upon the cross for our sin, to receive the judgment that we deserved for our sinfulness. There's nothing that we could do that would ever pay God back.

And so we will always be unprofitable because we could never cover the debt that we owe to God. It's a permanent debt. And so when he gives us commands, it's not, you know, some favor. Okay, God, you know, I'll do you a favor and I'll obey your command and, you know, you can thank me for it later. No, no, you owe God your obedience. You owe God your faithfulness to him.

You must obey his commands because of all that he has done for you. And then don't expect some, you know, great gratitude from God. You know, I'm just so grateful that, you know, Harvey is so faithful. I mean, I just don't know, you know, what I would do. The devil might win, you know, if Harvey wasn't so faithful. That's not what God's saying. He's saying, yeah, with or without Harvey, you know, I got this.

I got this. He's got this. No, we're unprofitable servants. Now that doesn't mean he doesn't love us. It doesn't mean that we're not valuable to him. But we're not as valuable to him as we think we are because of what we do. We're valuable to him because he has chosen to love us. He has chosen to give us life. He has chosen to die upon the cross for our sins. So it's a hard truth

But it's the reality. We can never earn what it costs for God to save us. And so don't pity yourself because you're so faithful to obey the commands. No, just recognize I'm just doing what's my duty to do. That's what God's called me to do.

Verses 11 through 19, we see 10 lepers are cleansed. And Jesus tells them to go to the temple and show themselves to the priest. And one returns to glorify God and give thanks to God for the miracle. And Jesus says, hey, where's the other nine? And so make sure that you give thanks to God as he does those works in your life. Then finally, verses 20 through 37, he says, the kingdom does not come with observation.

In verse 20, the Pharisees are asking Jesus about when the kingdom of God is going to come. And they were expecting, just like all the rest of the Jewish people of the day, they were expecting the Messiah to come and set up an earthly kingdom right then and there to throw out, you know, the Romans and to establish the nation of Israel once again in their freedom. And so they're asking, when's that going to happen? And Jesus goes on to explain to them, hey, that will come

But verse 25, he says, first, the son of man, that's a reference to himself. He says, I'm going to have to suffer many things. And then later on, I'll come back and establish my kingdom. And so he's telling them, it's not with observation. You're not going to see this happen. What I came to do, it's a spiritual work. It's a spiritual kingdom. The physical kingdom will come later on. We call it the millennium.

He says in verse 26, And as it was in the days of Noah, so it will be also in the days of the Son of Man. And so he's talking about when he does return and establish his kingdom, that leading up to it, the days leading up to his return, will be like the days leading up to the flood in the days of Noah. Now, I think this is something interesting to consider because

The point that Jesus is making here, and I know a lot of times you hear it kind of shared a different way. That, you know, well, as it was in the days of Noah, there was all this wickedness and homosexuality and all these things. And so that's what we should expect in the last days as well. And there's, of course, truth in that. There's some parallels there. But that's not the point that Jesus is making here. As you read the next couple verses, as he even, you know, also relates it to the days of Lot.

The point that Jesus is making is that the world missed the warnings and kept living life as if it would continue on. So they kept on doing business, they kept on getting married, they kept on giving their children in marriage because they were just living life as usual, not expecting the world to change, not expecting the flood to happen.

In Sodom and Gomorrah, not expecting the cities to be destroyed. And in the last days, they will continue on, not expecting the tribulation to occur and this wrath of God to be poured out upon the earth. And so the point is to be ready because it's going to happen and it's going to catch people off guard. And so people are going to continue to live their lives as if they're going to continue on forever. But

The Lord's going to interrupt that when he returns with the rapture of the church and then the judgment of the tribulation period. And so be ready is the point. Be ready for the Lord's return.

So here in chapter 17 we finish up this section where Jesus has been teaching throughout the region of Galilee and Samaria. And now as we head into chapter 18 he's crossing over the Jordan River and these things are going to be happening in the region of Perea.

And so this is a region that was also part of Israel, but was separated by the Jordan River. And so there was a lot of Jewish people and cities and villages there. And so Jesus is ministering to them now on his way to Jerusalem. So chapter 18, verse 27 is the key verse.

It says, We start out in verses 1 through 8 where Jesus gives a parable meant to teach us to pray and not lose heart. It's the parable about a persistent widow. And she brings her case to an unjust judge. Now this unjust judge says,

didn't care about justice that's why he's unjust he didn't care about this widow he didn't know her she wasn't important to him but as she continued daily to bring her request before the judge he finally decided i gotta answer this i gotta deal with this because she's gonna wear me out with her persistence and jesus then goes on to say how much more will god respond

If this unjust judge responds to persistence, how much more will God respond to your persistence? The unjust judge didn't care for people and he didn't care about righteousness.

But God cares about justice. He cares for people. He chose you as a believer in Jesus Christ. You're chosen. And so how much more will God answer your prayers as you are persistent in bringing your requests to him?

And so Jesus encourages us here to be persistent, to not lose heart, but to keep on praying. Don't give up because God loves you. He cares for you and he wants to do what is best for you. Verses 9 through 14, he gives another parable speaking to those who trusted in themselves.

And here he talks about a Pharisee and a tax collector. And these two guys go to the temple to pray. And Jesus compares their prayers. Now the Pharisees, we would refer to them as self-righteous. They trusted in themselves that they were righteous.

The tax collectors, the whole population, considered them to be the worst of the worst of sinners. They were the worst of the worst, and so in their opinion, you know, they couldn't do anything to ever be pleasing to God or right with God. But Jesus compares these two prayers. The Pharisee was trusting in himself and his righteousness, and basically he

You know, telling God how awesome he is. And the tax collector just says, God have mercy on me. I'm a sinner. And Jesus says, the tax collector is the one who's justified. Because he's trusting in God and asking God for mercy. The Pharisee is saying, I don't need mercy. I'm righteous. Right?

So God, I just come in here to let you know I'm righteous. Now listen, if you're coming to church to tell God how righteous you are, that's not very effective and you're not going to leave justified. But if you come to the Lord and say, I need mercy. I'm not righteous. I fall short. I mess up.

then, well, God says you have forgiveness. He says in verse 14, I tell you this man, the tax collector, went down to his house justified rather than the other, the Pharisee, for everyone who exalts himself will be humbled and he who humbles himself will be exalted. And so he says, if you humble yourself and admit, yes, I am sinful,

and I need mercy because I don't deserve anything good from God, then, well, you'll be exalted and God will meet your needs. But if you come to God exalting yourself and saying how great you are, then you're going to be humbled. You're going to be humbled if you exalt yourself, but you will be exalted if you humble yourself. In verses 15 through 17, we see Jesus receiving the little children. The disciples were trying to keep them away. He says, no, let them come.

He says, whoever does not receive the kingdom of God as a child, they're not going to enter into it. You know, children are important. And he says, you need to receive the kingdom of God like a child. And by that, he means you need to receive it. You don't have to earn it. You can't deserve it. There's nothing you can do to obtain it. You just need, like a little child, like a little baby infant, to receive it.

You just need to receive what God has done for you. And so Jesus is using this as an illustration like the Pharisee and the tax collector. Don't try to earn God's favor. Don't try to earn heaven. Just receive it. Receive what God has done for you because he has completed the work necessary for you to be saved there upon the cross. Well then in verses 18 through 30 we see the account of a rich young ruler who comes to Jesus.

And he comes in verse 18. He says, hey good teacher, what must I do to inherit the kingdom of God? He wants to go to heaven. So he says, what must I do? And Jesus tells him, hey you know the commandments. Keep the commandments. And he says, oh yeah I've been keeping the commandments, you know, since I was a child. So what else is there? What am I lacking? What is that? What else is there? Because

I'm not saved. I don't have the hope and the assurance that I'll be in heaven, but I'm keeping the commandments, so there's something missing. What else is there? And Jesus tells him, well, verse 22, sell everything you have. Give it to the poor and then come follow me. He tells him, you'll have great treasure in heaven and then you can follow me. But he went away sad because it tells us that he had great possessions.

He was very rich and he couldn't let it go. And so although he thought he was keeping the commandments, he wasn't actually. He had another God before the true and living God. It was his money. He was very rich. He couldn't let it go. And so he held on to that and went away sorrowful.

And so Jesus comments on this to his disciples in verse 25. And he says, you know, it's easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than for a rich man to enter the kingdom of God. Jesus says, it's hard for rich people to enter into the kingdom because, well, they love their riches. They love their stuff. They have great attachments to it. And it often becomes too important to them. So they're not willing to put God first.

And so it's easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle. Now the disciples are shocked by this because their thinking was incorrect. They thought rich people were rich because they were righteous. And because they're so righteous and God's so pleased with them, he gives them lots of money. But that's not the way that things work.

riches is not an indication of how righteous a person is and often riches hold back and hinder people from being uh you know who god wants them to be or doing what god wants them to do again it's not riches are bad or that all rich people are not saved but it can be an issue and it's very difficult for rich people to enter into the kingdom of god

In verses 31 through 34, Jesus announced his death and resurrection. He's been warning his disciples. This is the third time now he warns them about what is going to happen. Because the disciples, like the rest of the Jews, were expecting Jesus as the Messiah to set up his kingdom and overthrow Rome. And they were expecting all that to happen right then and there. And Jesus says, you need to adjust your thinking.

God's plan isn't the way that you're thinking it's going to work out. In verse 33, he says they're going to scourge him, that's me, he says, and kill me. And the third day I will rise again. And so he's warning them. But in verse 34, it says this saying was hidden from them. And so they didn't quite get it yet. They still didn't understand what Jesus was saying until after these things were fulfilled.

Well, then in verses 35 through 43, Jesus heals a blind man near Jericho. So as we look at our map again, so as we head into chapter 19, Jesus now has crossed back

across the Jordan and now is heading into Jericho and this is where he encounters the blind man. So the rich young ruler, he ministers to him in the region of Perea across the Jordan. He does some teaching there but it's kind of a quick trip as far as Luke is concerned. He spends a lot of time in Galilee and Samaria and

Kind of goes straight through Perea, now has crossed the Jordan, and he's on his final, you know, final stretch to Jerusalem. And we'll see that happen in chapter 19. But first he stops at Jericho.

Now Jericho is there. It's a very low spot. It's negative 820 feet or 820 feet below sea level. Remember the Dead Sea is the lowest point on the face of the earth as far as land is concerned. There's lower points in water of course. But the Dead Sea itself is about 1300 or 1400 feet below sea level.

And so Jericho being kind of in that region is very low. So it's negative 820 feet. And it's known as the city of palms. And so it's kind of like a little bit of an oasis there in the wilderness.

this Jericho that Jesus is going through is actually kind of right next to the old Jericho, the one that Joshua and the children of Israel marched around and was destroyed. In the Old Testament, you know, that was destroyed. The New Testament Jericho is like right next door to that. And so that's where he was. It continues to exist today with a population of about 18,000. And many scholars consider this to be the

oldest continually populated city because of course it existed you know a long time ago and has continued to exist in various forms throughout the years and so here's Jesus in Jericho and now he's heading his final stretch to Jerusalem which is about 13 miles away

All right, chapter 19, verse 41 is the key verse. It says, now as he drew near, he saw the city and wept over it. And we'll get to that in just a moment as Jesus sees Jerusalem and weeps for it.

But in verses 1 through 10, Jesus goes to Zacchaeus' house. In verses 1 through 10, we see he walks up and Zacchaeus, he's a short guy, and he wanted to see Jesus and he couldn't because he was short and the crowd was around him. And so he decides, I'm going to climb up into this sycamore tree. And here's a glimpse at what a sycamore tree looks like. They're kind of like oak trees in that the trunk is short and

And then the branches go out wide. And so he was able to climb up and kind of, you know, lean over on this branch to where Jesus was going to walk under. And so that he could see, you know, Jesus as he went by.

And so he climbs up into the sycamore tree to see Jesus. And Jesus sees Zacchaeus and says, hey, come down. I'm going to go to your house. Now this caused the people to complain because Zacchaeus was a tax collector. And as I mentioned earlier, they thought these guys are the worst of the worst as far as sinners are concerned. And so they complained and said, hey, he's going to the house of

of a sinner. But then we see in verse 9, Jesus declares, salvation has come to this house. And so Zacchaeus, in seeking out Jesus, repents and turns from his sin to follow Jesus. And Jesus says, today salvation has come.

Well, continuing on in verses 11 through 27, we see the parable of the minas. Here Jesus gives a parable and he talks about this mina. Now, the mina was a sum of money. It was about three months wages, which if you kind of figure it based on, you know, kind of the average annual income and stuff for people today, it'd be about $10,000 a month.

of money that he gave to his servants. So he had 10 servants in this parable. He had 10 minas and so he gave one mina to each servant or $10,000 to each servant. And he says, I want you guys to put this to work and then I'm going to come back and you're going to have to give an account for what you did with the money I gave you.

So when he comes back, the first servant comes and says, hey, you gave me $10,000 and here's 10 times more. I have for you $100,000 that I've earned with the $10,000 you gave me. The second said, hey, you gave me one minor. I turned it into five. So five times more, $50,000. That's what I earned with the $10,000 that you gave me. And then the third servant comes and says, hey, um,

I was afraid of you and I didn't know what to do. And so I just hid my, you know, this bag of money that you gave me. And so here's your $10,000 back. I didn't do anything with it. And that servant, of course, is rebuked. And so here Jesus is teaching the point that, like we talked about earlier, he has given us resources. God has entrusted us with resources and he wants us to do something with them.

Something to further his kingdom. He wants us to invest those resources and multiply those resources to accomplish things for him.

And we're going to have to give an account. We'll stand before him just like these servants did. And God's going to say, okay, here's the resources I gave you. I gave you this time. I gave you this, you know, these funds. I gave you this home. I gave you that car. I gave you whatever. I gave you all of these things. Now, what did you do with those things to impact the kingdom of God? You know, what's your return? What kind of investment did you make?

with those things. And he says, look, if you're just hiding those things, well, that's not good. That's not going to be rewarded. Warren Wiersbe summarizes it this way. You can reject his rule and be an enemy

And that leads to judgment. We see that there in the parable of the minors. Those who say, hey, we're not going to let this guy rule over us. And so you can reject Jesus Christ and get judgment. Or he says, you can accept his rule but be unfaithful. And that leads to loss of reward. Or thirdly, you can accept his rule and do his will faithfully. And then you will be rewarded. And so that's the choice that we have to make. Reject him as Lord.

Receive him as Lord but refuse to do his will or receive him and do his will and then he has great reward for us. In verses 28 through 40, we see here Jesus entering into Jerusalem. We call it the triumphal entry.

He sends the disciples to get a donkey, fulfilling Zechariah chapter 9 verse 9, telling them that the king, the Messiah, would ride into Jerusalem on a donkey. And so he does this and the multitude begins to shout praises and saying, blessed is the one who comes in the name of the Lord. The Pharisees are upset by this because they realize the crowds are saying, hey, this is the Messiah. And they say, tell them to be quiet.

And Jesus in verse 40 says, I tell you that if these should keep silent, the stones would immediately cry out. Jesus is saying this day is so important. If they're silent, then the stones will cry out because this is the day that the Messiah is being presented to the nation of Israel and to the city of Jerusalem.

Well then in verses 41 through 44, Jesus weeps over Jerusalem. He's on his way to Jerusalem. He gets on the donkey on the Mount of Olives. And so he can't see Jerusalem just yet. As he comes over the top of the Mount of Olives, then he's able to look down on Jerusalem. And at that point, as he sees Jerusalem, he begins to weep over it saying, if only you had known, especially in this your day,

the day that the Messiah is being presented to Israel, he says, the things that make for your peace, if only you had known those things, but they're hidden from your eyes. You don't see it. You don't realize what's going on. I have great peace for you, but you were not willing to receive it.

Well, then in verses 45 through 48, Jesus goes into the temple area and drives out the merchants. They were buying and selling and ripping off the people. And so Jesus cleanses the temple and drives out those who are doing the buying and the selling. Now, a couple of things as far as the geography is concerned about chapter 19. First of all, he's traveling from Jericho to Jerusalem.

which is about 13 miles, you know, just straight across. The road might have been a little bit different, so 13 to 15 miles or so. But the big change from Jericho to Jerusalem is the altitude. And so he's going from negative 800 feet, 800 feet below sea level, to Jerusalem, which is 24, 2500 feet above sea level. So climbing about 3600 feet as he makes this journey. So it was an uphill climb. And

In this final stretch to Jerusalem. And as he's going. He gets to the Mount of Olives. And he sends a couple disciples ahead. To a city or a town called Bethany. Bethany was on the Mount of Olives. About 2600 feet. So again he's climbing up this steep incline.

to get to Jerusalem. And it was the home of Mary, Martha, and Lazarus. You're probably familiar with them. Remember, Lazarus died and then was raised again in John chapter 11. Mary and Martha, we read about, you know, before where Martha is upset, you know, because she's preparing the meal and Mary's not helping. She's just sitting there at Jesus' feet. And

Well, this is where they lived. And so Jesus spent a lot of time there and we'll be seeing him spend some more time there over the next couple chapters as he's staying in Bethany during his final week leading up to his crucifixion and resurrection.

But I wanted to kind of give you a sense too of the different elevation changes as Jesus was spending some time in Jerusalem. So he's coming from the, I guess that's the east, and heading up the Mount of Olives, which peaks at 2,700 feet high.

Then he would descend the Mount of Olives into the Kidron Valley, dropping about 600 feet in elevation, and then go back up to Mount Moriah, which is where the temple was built. And so you had the Temple Mount, which is basically like a foundation or a platform, and then the temple itself was built on top of that. And I'll show you a diagram after the next chapter.

And so you have Mount of Olives, Mount Moriah, and then Mount Zion was kind of the peak. And so then if you went further on into the city, then you would keep climbing up to the top of Mount Zion.

And then the Hinnom Valley was beyond that. And so Jesus, as he's making this journey, he gets the donkey, finishes the climb to the top of the Mount of Olives, goes down into the valley, and then back up into the Temple Mount. There he kind of checks out what's going on. He comes back the next morning and cleanses the temple. And so as Jesus is, you know, spending this last week in Jerusalem, he's staying on the Mount of Olives and

And he's ministering each day at the temple. And so he's going back and forth each day between these two places to minister to the people.

Here's a picture of what that looks like today. And so this is a picture from the Mount of Olives. So standing on top of the Mount of Olives and then overlooking Jerusalem. And so you can see, it's kind of hard to see in the picture, but this area here is the Kidron Valley. You see where that bus is? There's a road that goes through the valley now. And so this is the Kidron Valley. And then you go back up and then here's Mount Moriah. And this is the Temple Mount right there. And right now, you know, the Dome of the Rock is there. But

At one time, the temple was there. And then you can see also it continues to incline. And so this ridge up here, that's the top of Mount Zion. And so you could see, you know, from the Mount of Olives, you could overlook all of Jerusalem. And that's what Jesus sees as he's riding the donkey into Jerusalem. He comes over the top. He's able to overlook Jerusalem.

The temple area, the city of Jerusalem, he weeps for it because they're missing, you know, the importance of this day as he is presenting himself as the Messiah to them. So hopefully that gives you a little bit of a sense of, you know, this important area of Jerusalem, the temple area, and then the Mount of Olives. Jesus spends a lot of time here in his final days. All right, our final chapter this evening is chapter 20, verse 19 is the key verse.

It says, and the chief priests and the scribes that very hour sought to lay hands on him, but they feared the people for they knew he had spoken this parable against them. In verses one through eight, the religious leaders and elders questioned Jesus's authority. In verse two, they say, hey, by what authority are you doing these things? Who gave you this authority to teach in the temple, to drive out the merchants, to do all the things that you're doing?

And Jesus says, well, I'll answer that if you answer one question for me. The baptism of John the Baptist, was it from God or was it from men? Now, this question that Jesus asked them reveals that they really didn't care about the truth. They weren't really interested in whether or not it really was from God or man. They cared about their reputation. They cared about their position. And so as they

negotiated how to answer Jesus they're like well if we say it was from God then Jesus will say well why didn't you believe it and if we say it was from men well the people really believe that John the Baptist was from God and so then they're not going to respect us anymore because they believe that John the Baptist was from God and if we say he's not then they're going to be upset with us and so they came back to Jesus and said we don't know where it was from

Again, it just shows that they didn't really care about the truth. They weren't interested in the truth. They were interested in keeping their position. They were interested in keeping their reputation. Verses 9 through 19, Jesus goes on then to give a parable of the vine dressers. Now, this is a parable that is...

Kind of directed to, directed at the religious leaders. In verse 19, it tells us that they desired to lay hands on Jesus, but they feared the people. But they desired to lay hands on Jesus because they knew that he had spoken this parable against them.

And the parable of this wicked vine dressers talks about these people who had responsibility, but they were wicked. And they tried to keep that responsibility instead of giving the fruit to the owner. They kept it themselves. They beat the servants. They killed the son and tried to take the inheritance for themselves. And Jesus is basically saying the religious leaders are basically doing that.

They're beating the servants, killing the servants, the prophets that have been sent. They kill the son that was sent and try to hold on to their position and their authority. And so they get that. They understand that Jesus is speaking against them. And so they try to put him to death just like he said they would in the parable.

In verses 20 through 26, now they send in some spies to try to trap Jesus. And so they ask him about paying taxes. Is it lawful to pay taxes to Caesar or not? And they think, yes, we've got him here. Because if he says, yes, you should pay your taxes, the people will be upset. They didn't like to pay this tax because it meant that they were servants to Rome.

And if he says, no, don't pay your tax, well, then we can turn him over to Rome and, you know, they'll deal with him. He'll be, you know, judged as a criminal. And so, you know, we've got him trapped with this question. But I'm sure you know the account. He says, give me the coin whose inscription is on here. It's Caesar's. And so he says, give to Caesar what belongs to Caesar and give to God what belongs to God.

Then in verses 27 through 40, the Sadducees ask Jesus about the resurrection. Now the Sadducees were religious leaders like the Pharisees, except for they did not believe in the supernatural. They didn't believe in the resurrection from the dead.

And so they set up this scenario with this man and, you know, six brothers and one wife. And according to the law of Moses, if the brother dies and doesn't have any kids, that the, you know, the brother should then marry the widow and raise up a child in his name. And so then all six die. None of them have children. So whose wife is she going to be in the resurrection? Because she was married to all seven of them.

And Jesus corrects them and says, hey, you're mistaken because you don't know the scriptures nor the power of God. Then in verses 41 through 44, Jesus challenges them with a quotation from Psalm 110 verse 1 saying, how can they say that the Christ is the son of David? And he points out here that David calls the Messiah Lord, which is unusual because the Messiah would be a descendant of David.

And well, ancestors or the elders would not call the descendants Lord. That was a title of respect for older people. And so that wouldn't happen. But David says, the Lord said to my Lord, speaking about the Messiah, and so indicating that David is declaring that the Messiah, Jesus, would be God.

And he finishes up with a warning in verse 45 through 47. He says, beware of the scribes. Watch out for them. They love the greetings. They love the best seats, but they devour widows' houses. For pretense, they make long prayers, Jesus says, and they will receive great condemnation. So watch out for them because they're just pretending. They're pretending to be righteous, but they're not really.

Well, here's a quick look at the city of Jerusalem. And we'll see this more next week as we finish up the book of Luke. But this is an artist's diagram or rendering of what it would have looked like in Jesus' day. And so you have the wall all around Jerusalem. You have the temple mount there. And then you have all of the houses and places where people would live, the palaces and such. And then you have the city of Jerusalem.

And so here's a couple labels for you to look at. So Mount of Olives is there on the far right. And they would cross over. Perhaps there was that bridge there. We don't know for sure. But then there was the temple established on the Temple Mount. The Antonia Fortress right on the edge of the temple. That was where like Pilate would be. Golgotha right outside the city walls. That's where Jesus will ultimately be crucified. You have Herod's Palace.

there on the left and that's where Jesus was taken to Herod remember you know Pilate hears that he's from Galilee and so he sends him to Herod and Herod sends him back to Pilate and then ultimately he's crucified so this is kind of the the scene for this last week of Jesus he's in Jerusalem teaching ministering to the people he goes back to the Mount of Olives each evening spends the night there then goes back the next morning and spends the day in Jerusalem

And so that's just a quick look at the city as it probably was or might have been in the time of Christ. And that wraps up our time this evening. Let's pray. Heavenly Father, thank you for your word. And Lord, thank you for the reality of these things, Lord, that we can look at these places and understand exactly what was going on and the areas that you walked, Lord, and the reminder that you are real and that you really did exist.

become man and walk this earth to die upon the cross for our sins. And so Lord, thank you for these reminders. Help us to remember and to grasp hold of the truth, the reality of these things. These aren't fables or myths or legends.

But Lord, these are actual events that took place. You being God became man, visited Bethany and Jerusalem and Jericho and Galilee and Samaria. You walked through these places and ultimately you went to the cross.

Lord, because you loved us so much. And so, Lord, thank you for that. We pray that you would help us to live with the reality that you are real, that you have resurrected, and that you are returning again soon. So help us, God, not to be caught off guard like they were in the flood, not to be caught off guard like they were in Sodom and Gomorrah, but help us, Lord, to be prepared and ready for your return as you are coming quickly.

In Jesus' name we pray. Amen.