A Blueprint for Destruction
Matthew 23:37-39
October 14, 2012
As you know we have entered the Passion Week,
And what an appropriate name that has been.
• On Monday we saw the passion of the crowds as the proclaimed Jesus the Messiah.
• On Tuesday we saw the passion of Jesus as He cleared the temple.
• On Wednesday we first saw the passion of the Pharisees and chief priests as they sought to condemn Him.
• And later on Wednesday we again saw the passion of Jesus as confronted the hypocrites of Israel.
It has been a passionate journey.
One almost gets the feeling that the hypocritical parade
That was called the Triumphal Entry fired Jesus up.
And I think there is evidence in our text this morning
That the event was truly burned into His mind.
For here He references what the people said on that day.
(39) “For I say to you, from now on you will not see me until you say, ‘Blessed is He who comes in the name of the Lord!’”
In other words, “You won’t see Me as your Deliverer until you say it for real.
On Monday you said it for show, but until you say it from the heart you will get no deliverance.”
That statement helps us see that
Their hypocrisy on that day greatly troubled Jesus
And He has been on a war against that hypocrisy ever since.
• We saw Him clearing the temple…
• We saw Him cursing a fig tree…
• We heard Him giving condemning parables…
Disobedient son
Disobedient Tenants of the vineyard
• We have heard absolutely obliterate the Pharisees…
Their hypocrisy fired Jesus up and in our text today He reiterates that.
Now as we study this text, DON’T MAKE THE MISTAKE of assuming this is the same event as when Jesus wept over Jerusalem, it is not.
That event happened
Immediately after the triumphal entry back on Monday.
Luke 19:41-44 “When He approached Jerusalem, He saw the city and wept over it, saying, “If you had known in this day, even you, the things which make for peace! But now they have been hidden from your eyes. “For the days will come upon you when your enemies will throw up a barricade against you, and surround you and hem you in on every side, and they will level you to the ground and your children within you, and they will not leave in you one stone upon another, because you did not recognize the time of your visitation.”
There Jesus is heart-broken.
This is a different event.
Here Jesus is frustrated.
And what we get is the final public address
Jesus ever made to the nation of Israel.
He would deliver a short message to the weeping women
As He traveled to Golgotha, but this is the final public address.
And in this sermon Jesus explain ahead of time
For all the horror that has become Jewish history.
Many have wondered over the years
How God could let such tragedy come upon His chosen people.
If Israel is indeed the apple of His eye…
If Israel is indeed His chosen people…
If Israel is indeed His bride…
Then how could God let them endure such hardship and persecution
As they have endured.
And all one has to do to find the answer to that question
Is read the final sermon Jesus ever preached to them.
For in our text this morning Jesus fully explains
Why Israel has walked such a difficult road.
In these words culminate all the frustration that God has had for Israel
Since their conception,
And in these words you and I find the simplest of warnings.
For Israel has literally given us the blueprint for destruction.
If you want the judgment of God upon your life
All you have to do is follow this blueprint.
There are four things we see here.
#1 THEIR REBELLION
Matthew 23:37a
“Jerusalem, Jerusalem, who kills the prophets and stones those who are sent to her!”
It really is, quite the revealing statement.
We recognize first the fact that Jesus repeats Jerusalem twice,
And we understand this.
It speaks to His tone.
Let me show you a couple of other times He does this.
Luke 10:41 “But the Lord answered and said to her, “Martha, Martha, you are worried and bothered about so many things;”
Acts 9:4 “and he fell to the ground and heard a voice saying to him, “Saul, Saul, why are you persecuting Me?”
When Jesus called you twice, it was a way of communication
So as to sort of confront an inconsistency in your life.
A way to get your attention and call you to listen to the truth about yourself.
• Martha needed to see that she was off-base with her serve first, love later
mentality.
• Saul obviously needed to see that he was off-base with his determination to kill
the church.
That is the same thing Jesus is doing here.
“Jerusalem, Jerusalem…” He is trying to get their attention to reveal they are off-base in their thinking.
And here was the first way they were off-base.
“who kills the prophets and stones those who are sent to her!”
In the previous verses Jesus has just condemned the Pharisees for adorning the tombs of the righteous while yet plotting to kill them.
The main difference is that there Jesus became specific, actually naming Abel and Zechariah.
Here Jesus speaks in general terms.
The Pharisees were condemned for specific murder,
All Israel is condemned for general rebellion.
Jesus wasn’t confronting them for the murder of some specific prophet, but rather for the fact that they resist every prophet.
If God sends them a prophet, Israel “kills” them.
If God sends someone else, Israel “stones” them.
What we have here is a general and yet consistent rebellion
Against the word of God.
And to hear that certainly doesn’t surprise us.
We remember Israel from the beginning.
• God had brought them out of Egypt and carried them to Sinai where He began to speak to them and give them the Law.
• In fact Moses told the people to consecrate themselves because on the next day God was going to speak directly to them.
And this was Israel’s response.
Exodus 19:7-9 “So Moses came and called the elders of the people, and set before them all these words which the LORD had commanded him. All the people answered together and said, “All that the LORD has spoken we will do!” And Moses brought back the words of the people to the LORD. The LORD said to Moses, “Behold, I will come to you in a thick cloud, so that the people may hear when I speak with you and may also believe in you forever.” Then Moses told the words of the people to the LORD.”
What a statement! We will do everything the Lord says!
Just speak, we’ll listen.
And if you read on, God does speak, He gives the Ten Commandments.
(I know in the movie that is just between God and Charleton Heston, but in real life, all of Israel heard God speak those commandments)
And then came a glimpse of things to come.
Exodus 20:18-21 “All the people perceived the thunder and the lightning flashes and the sound of the trumpet and the mountain smoking; and when the people saw it, they trembled and stood at a distance. Then they said to Moses, “Speak to us yourself and we will listen; but let not God speak to us, or we will die.” Moses said to the people, “Do not be afraid; for God has come in order to test you, and in order that the fear of Him may remain with you, so that you may not sin.” So the people stood at a distance, while Moses approached the thick cloud where God was.”
So the people didn’t like hearing directly from God, that was too terrifying.
Instead they wanted an intermediary; they wanted a go-between.
That was really the start.
It’s hard to listen directly to the voice of God and ignore it,
But we have a better chance ignoring a human that he sends.
That was Israel’s first step in the wrong direction.
And by the time we reach Exodus 32,
They are already ignoring those initial commands.
They build a golden calf and worship it.
But on that day Israel set herself up that instead of hearing God,
They only wanted to hear a messenger from Him.
And you will remember how they responded to those messengers.
Isaiah 30:9-11 “For this is a rebellious people, false sons, Sons who refuse to listen To the instruction of the LORD; Who say to the seers, “You must not see visions”; And to the prophets, “You must not prophesy to us what is right, Speak to us pleasant words, Prophesy illusions. “Get out of the way, turn aside from the path, Let us hear no more about the Holy One of Israel.”
• FIRST it was let a prophet speak, not God.
• NOW it is don’t even let the prophet speak.
Ezekiel 33:30-33 “But as for you, son of man, your fellow citizens who talk about you by the walls and in the doorways of the houses, speak to one another, each to his brother, saying, ‘Come now and hear what the message is which comes forth from the LORD.’ “They come to you as people come, and sit before you as My people and hear your words, but they do not do them, for they do the lustful desires expressed by their mouth, and their heart goes after their gain. “Behold, you are to them like a sensual song by one who has a beautiful voice and plays well on an instrument; for they hear your words but they do not practice them. “So when it comes to pass — as surely it will — then they will know that a prophet has been in their midst.”
And that reveals that at times they would tolerate the prophet,
But they still didn’t listen to him.
And this was always characteristic of Israel.
They rebelled against the word of God.
Jeremiah 13:8-10 “Then the word of the LORD came to me, saying, “Thus says the LORD, ‘Just so will I destroy the pride of Judah and the great pride of Jerusalem. ‘This wicked people, who refuse to listen to My words, who walk in the stubbornness of their hearts and have gone after other gods to serve them and to bow down to them, let them be just like this waistband which is totally worthless.”
And this rebellion ultimately led to her destruction.
Remember Pentecost?
• What happened at Pentecost?
The Holy Spirit came and the original believers
Began to speak in other languages.
You will remember this astounded all of Jerusalem.
Acts 2:12 “And they all continued in amazement and great perplexity, saying to one another, “What does this mean?”
I can tell you what it meant.
Paul explained this for us quite clearly.
1 Corinthians 14:20-22 “Brethren, do not be children in your thinking; yet in evil be infants, but in your thinking be mature. In the Law it is written, “BY MEN OF STRANGE TONGUES AND BY THE LIPS OF STRANGERS I WILL SPEAK TO THIS PEOPLE, AND EVEN SO THEY WILL NOT LISTEN TO ME,” says the Lord. So then tongues are for a sign, not to those who believe but to unbelievers; but prophecy is for a sign, not to unbelievers but to those who believe.”
Now Paul there gives the doctrinal explanation for tongues.
Corinth had quite a few mystical explanations for tongues,
But Paul gives the doctrinal explanation.
Tongues are for a sign for non-believers.
What kind of sign?
Is it a powerful sign convincing them of the presence of the Holy Spirit so that they will be saved? No.
That is what prophecy is.
1 Corinthians 14:23-25 “Therefore if the whole church assembles together and all speak in tongues, and ungifted men or unbelievers enter, will they not say that you are mad? But if all prophesy, and an unbeliever or an ungifted man enters, he is convicted by all, he is called to account by all; the secrets of his heart are disclosed; and so he will fall on his face and worship God, declaring that God is certainly among you.”
Tongues is NOT a sign leading the lost to salvation.
Proclamation of the word of God is what convicts a sinner and reveals to Him that God is among you and leads him to worship.
So what kind of a sign is tongues?
All you have to do is read the Old Testament passage that Paul quoted.
TURN TO: ISAIAH 28:1-13
God told those people, since you won’t listen in your own language,
I’ll start speaking in a language you can’t understand.
Tongues was the ultimate sign of condemnation.
It was an indication that God is about to stop trying to get through to you.
It indicated a loss of the word of God.
Remember what Amos said?
Amos 8:11-12 “Behold, days are coming,” declares the Lord GOD, “When I will send a famine on the land, Not a famine for bread or a thirst for water, But rather for hearing the words of the LORD. “People will stagger from sea to sea And from the north even to the east; They will go to and fro to seek the word of the LORD, But they will not find it.”
It is a loss of the word of God.
That is what Pentecost was.
• It was the ultimate condemnation on Israel.
• They had rejected God’s word for so long that God was about to speak it in a language they didn’t understand.
WHY?
Because Israel continually rebelled against the word of God.
They killed prophets and they stoned those sent to her.
And friend that is step one on the blueprint for destruction,
Just refuse to listen to God’s word.
If you want to be destroyed,
You can start off by ignoring all that God has to say to you.
That is how Israel started.
Their Rebellion
#2 THEIR RELUCTANCE
Matthew 23:37b
“How often I wanted to gather your children together the way a hen gathers her chicks under her wings, and you were unwilling.”
And there is another tragic statement.
We are reminded again of the heart of God.
Paul says it is God:
1 Timothy 2:4 “who desires all men to be saved and to come to the knowledge of the truth.”
Peter gives the flip-side to that reality.
2 Peter 3:9 “The Lord is not slow about His promise, as some count slowness, but is patient toward you, not wishing for any to perish but for all to come to repentance.”
On a negative side God doesn’t want anyone to be destroyed.
And a positive side He wants all to be saved.
That is true of the nature of God.
He does not delight in judging sinners.
(That, after all, is why He sent His Son into the world –
“that the world might be saved through Him.”)
I mean we have never been confused about God’s plan for Israel.
Jeremiah 29:11 “For I know the plans that I have for you,’ declares the LORD, ‘plans for welfare and not for calamity to give you a future and a hope.”
We know this about God, and it is certainly true about Christ.
“How often I wanted to gather your children together the way a hen gathers her chicks under her wings”
Jesus here pulls from a couple of Old Testament passages.
Psalms 36:7 “How precious is Your lovingkindness, O God! And the children of men take refuge in the shadow of Your wings.”
Psalms 91:4 “He will cover you with His pinions, And under His wings you may seek refuge; His faithfulness is a shield and bulwark.”
You’ve probably received emails or heard various stories about the remains of a fire, in which someone will come across a burned chicken or other mother bird, and when the bird is moved they find under her wings her surviving young.
The mother bird literally protecting her chicks under her wings, costing her life.
Jesus said, that is what I wanted to do.
• I wanted to draw you to Myself.
• I wanted to protect you.
• I wanted to save you.
Is that not what Jesus said back in chapter 11?
Matthew 11:28-30 “Come to Me, all who are weary and heavy-laden, and I will give you rest. “Take My yoke upon you and learn from Me, for I am gentle and humble in heart, and YOU WILL FIND REST FOR YOUR SOULS. “For My yoke is easy and My burden is light.”
There it was again.
If you’ll just come to Me, I’ll take care of you.
BUT WHAT DID WE LEARN OF ISRAEL OVER AND OVER?
They “were unwilling”
Instead of coming to the Messiah to find comfort and protection and deliverance and salvation, they refused.
• They loved their sin…
• They loved their hypocritical religion…
• They loved their own self-styled manner of worship…
And so they rejected Him.
They were reluctant to follow.
WANT TO KNOW HOW TO BE DESTROYED?
Just ignore the word of God every time it comes to you,
And resist the calling of the Holy Spirit to come to the One who can save.
God’s word is meant to expose your sin.
God’s Savior is the One who can deliver you from it.
Israel rejected both.
That is a blueprint for destruction.
Their Rebellion, Their Reluctance
#3 THEIR RUIN
Matthew 23:38
And what a horrifying statement.
Jesus was in effect saying, Since you ignored the prophets, since you ignored the Savior, there is only one thing left for you and that is destruction.
Remember what the writer of Hebrews told us?
Hebrews 10:26-27 “For if we go on sinning willfully after receiving the knowledge of the truth, there no longer remains a sacrifice for sins, but a terrifying expectation of judgment and THE FURY OF A FIRE WHICH WILL CONSUME THE ADVERSARIES.”
The writer was reminding that if you reject the only sacrifice for sin,
Which is Christ, then salvation is impossible.
All you really have to look forward to is destruction.
And that is the predicament here.
• You won’t listen to the prophets…
• You won’t respond to the Savior…
You really only have one fate, and that is destruction.
“Behold, your house is being left to you desolate.”
And this was certainly true in a literal, physical, and historical sense.
In A.D. 66 a Jewish revolt broke out against Rome
• Rome struck back and killed thousands of Jews in northern Galilee.
• Eventually Titus came to Jerusalem with an army of 80,000 and demanded surrender.
• The Jews responded with laughter and mocking.
• In A.D. 70 Titus slaughtered them. (Josephus gives account)
The building [The Temple at Jerusalem], however, God long ago had sentenced to the flames; but now in the revolution of the time periods the fateful day had arrived, the tenth of the month Lous, the very day on which previously it had been burned by the king of Babylon…One of the soldiers, neither awaiting orders nor filled with horror of so dread an undertaking, but moved by some supernatural impulse, snatched a brand from the blazing timber and, hoisted up by one of his fellow soldiers, flung the fiery missile through the golden window…When the flame arose, a scream, as poignant as the tragedy, went up from the Jews…now that the object which before they had guarded so closely was going to ruin…While the sanctuary was burning…neither pity for age nor respect for rank was shown; on the contrary, children and old people, laity and priests alike were massacred…The emperor ordered the entire city and sanctuary to be razed to the ground, except only the highest towers, Phasael, Hippicus, and Mariamne, and part of the wall that enclosed the city on the west.”
(MacArthur, pg. 308-309)
And so the temple and the city were burned.
• About the same time, the Gentiles in Damascus were said to have slit the throats of 10,000 Jews.
• In A.D. 630 emperor Heraclitus banished all Jews from Jerusalem.
• During the first crusade as Europe tried to deliver the Holy Land from Muslim Turks, they feared Jews would want to resettle there and as they marched through Palestine they slaughtered Jews. They executed them in brutal ways including trampling them under horse foot. The horrors were so great many Jews committed suicide.
• Throughout the years in England Jews faced various other persecutions, including false accusations and imprisonment.
• In London a group of Jews had their arms and legs tied to separate horses which were driven away ripping the people apart, and then their dead bodies were put on display.
• When the black plague of the 14th century swept across Europe many blamed the Jews.
• In France they were accused of poisoning water wells, and in one town a synagogue was burned to the ground filled with worshipers.
• Some Jews fled to Russia where thousands were massacred.
• In Spain Ferdinand and Isabella dug up the bodies of Jewish converts and desecrated them. They then seized the property of other converts to warn people against converting. In 1492 most Jews were expelled from the country.
And stories of anti-Semitism continue throughout the ages.
We are all familiar with “The Holocaust”
Where 6 million Jews were exterminated.
And Israel has endured persecution after persecution to this very day.
Israel’s house has been left desolate.
They rebelled against the word of God and they refused to follow their Savior, what did they expect to get?
Now that is their physical and historical judgment,
But their spiritual judgment has been even more severe.
TURN TO: ROMANS 9
Read 9:30-33
Read 10:1-4
Read 10:18-21
Read 11:7-10
What a tragedy!
Because of their rebellion and reluctance,
Israel has been brought to both physical and spiritual ruin.
It is not hard to understand friends.
If you ignore God’s Word and resist God’s Savior,
There is really only one option for you.
Their Rebellion, Their Reluctance, Their Ruin
#4 THEIR REQUIREMENT
Matthew 23:39
Now, there is no doubt that this is a dark text for the nation of Israel,
But Jesus does leave it with a glimmer of hope.
In fact He spells out for them how to reverse their fortunes.
He was their deliverer, but since they rejected Him, He was now leaving.
But here was His final instruction.
“For I say to you, from now on you will not see Me until you say, ‘Blessed is He who comes in the name of the Lord!”
But I thought they already said that at the triumphal entry?
They said it with their mouth, but not their heart.
They wanted a deliverer from Rome,
But they didn’t want to submit their lives to Christ.
Jesus was saying that their desolation was coming,
And it would be real until they submit to and truly worship Him.
Acts 3:19-21 “Therefore repent and return, so that your sins may be wiped away, in order that times of refreshing may come from the presence of the Lord; and that He may send Jesus, the Christ appointed for you, whom heaven must receive until the period of restoration of all things about which God spoke by the mouth of His holy prophets from ancient time.”
Peter was saying that Christ has now done all He ever had to do
To bring about salvation and deliverance.
He died upon the cross, and said, “It is finished!”
The ball is now in Israel’s court.
Before He will return and wipe away their sin and deliver them
And usher in the times of refreshing (the Millinnium)
They must repent and return to Him.
Simply put, Jesus is waiting to return until Israel returns to Him.
But notice the confidence of His statement.
He doesn’t say, “you will not see Me UNLESS you say…”
He says, “you will not see Me UNTIL you say…”
In other words their confession is coming.
We’ve all read Zechariah 12 and know that Israel will one day look on Him whom they have pierced and mourn for Him and thus be saved.
Even in Romans 11 Paul says:
Romans 11:25-29 “For I do not want you, brethren, to be uninformed of this mystery — so that you will not be wise in your own estimation — that a partial hardening has happened to Israel until the fullness of the Gentiles has come in; and so all Israel will be saved; just as it is written, “THE DELIVERER WILL COME FROM ZION, HE WILL REMOVE UNGODLINESS FROM JACOB.” “THIS IS MY COVENANT WITH THEM, WHEN I TAKE AWAY THEIR SINS.” From the standpoint of the gospel they are enemies for your sake, but from the standpoint of God’s choice they are beloved for the sake of the fathers; for the gifts and the calling of God are irrevocable.”
Israel will come back to Christ one day,
And it will usher in His return and millennial reign.
That means that not only do we have a blueprint for judgment,
But we also have a blueprint for redemption.
• If you want to be judged…
• If you want your house to be desolate…
Simply ignore God’s Word and reject His Savior.
• If you are currently under the heavy hand of God and see the effects of His judgment in your life…
Then repent and return.
Confess your sins to God,
Turn from those sins and call on the name of the Lord.
It couldn’t get any clearer from the lips of Jesus.
• If you won’t listen to the prophets who confront your sin…
• And if you won’t follow the Savior who can forgive your sin…
• Then you will die in your sin.
But if you will confess your sin, and turn from your sin,
And trust in the Savior, He will save you and deliver you.
So this morning I simply ask you to learn from the lesson of Israel.
• Open your heart to the conviction of God’s Word.
• See the salvation of Jesus Christ.
• Deny yourself, take up your cross, and follow Him.
Hebrews 10:26-27 “For if we go on sinning willfully after receiving the knowledge of the truth, there no longer remains a sacrifice for sins, but a terrifying expectation of judgment and THE FURY OF A FIRE WHICH WILL CONSUME THE ADVERSARIES.”
