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I. THE JOURNEY TO JERUSALEM.
A.
Luke 9:51 "Now when the time had come that He should be received up, He steadfastly set His face to go to Jerusalem."
B. In 9:53 we are told that the Samaritans would not receive Him because His face was as though He would go to Jerusalem.
C. In verse 22 "And He went through the cities and villages, teaching and journeying toward Jerusalem."
LUK 17:11 And it came to pass, as he went to Jerusalem, that he passed through the midst of Samaria and Galilee.
LUK 18:31 Then he took [unto him] the twelve, and said unto them, Behold, we go up to Jerusalem, and all things that are written by the prophets concerning the Son of man shall be accomplished.
LUK 19:11 And as they heard these things, he added and spake a parable, because he was nigh to Jerusalem, and because they thought that the kingdom of God should immediately appear.
LUK 19:28 And when he had thus spoken, he went before, ascending up to Jerusalem.
1. He knows that when He comes to Jerusalem that He will be put to death, as He gives His life as a sacrifice for man's sin.
2. He knows the pain and torture that He will endure as He gives His back to the smiters.
3. He knows the shame and the humiliation that awaits Him as they spit in His face, and beat His face until He is unrecognizable as a human being, for all of these were predicted of Him.
4. Thus He goes to Jerusalem according to the determinate councils in obedience to the will of the Father.
5. Later the disciples recognized that His death was all a part of God's plan for the redemption of man.
a. Peter said to the crowd, "And you, according to the determinate counsel and foreknowledge of God with your wicked hands have crucified and slain."
b. When the disciples prayed they said concerning His death, "The people have done whatsoever Thy hand and Thy counsel have determined to be done."
6. So He goes to Jerusalem to be despised and rejected by man.
D. In verse 31 we are told that certain of the Pharisee's had come to Him threatening Him to get out of the area, for Herod was going to kill Him. Jesus answered you go tell that fox that I have work to do today and tomorrow, and on the third day I will be perfected.
1. Herod was not in control of the timing or His destiny, He was in perfect control.
2. He has a little more work to be done as He moves on to Jerusalem.
3. Herod was ruler over the area of the Galilee region, and Jesus was still in the area that was under Herod's jurisdiction. But Jesus is not to be killed by Herod, His death must be accomplished in Jerusalem. "It cannot be that a prophet should perish outside of Jerusalem."
4. He will not die by the hand of Herod, or in the territory that is under Herod's jurisdiction.
II. O JERUSALEM, JERUSALEM, WHO KILLEST THE PROPHETS AND STONEST THOSE WHO ARE SENT TO THEE."
A. Jesus gave a parable of the Lord who went to a far country and left His vineyard in the care of the husbandmen. When the time came to receive the fruit of the vineyard, He sent His servant to collect, but the wicked husbandmen beat the servant and sent Him away empty. He sent other servants and some they beat and others they killed, finally He said, "I will send My own Son, surely they will reverence Him," but they plotted to put Him to death, hoping to have the vineyard all to themselves.
1. The vineyard is the nation of Israel.
2. The husbandmen are the religious leaders.
3. The servants are the prophets.
4. The Son is Jesus Christ.
5. Concerning the prophets He said that they stoned some and killed others.
B. When Stephen was giving his defense before the counsel, he showed them how their illustrious fathers had rejected Joseph from ruling over them and sought to get rid of him by selling him to the slave traders going to Egypt, but later in Egypt they bowed before him begging forgiveness. Also how the first time their fathers rejected Moses saying who made you to be a ruler over us, but how that he came back to lead them to the promised land. Stephen finally asked them, "Which of the prophets have not your fathers persecuted? and they have slain them which shewed before of the coming of the Just One; of whom ye have been now the betrayers and murderers:
C. How did Jesus see Jerusalem?
1. Blind, and resistant to the purposes of God.
2. Worse, rebelling against the purposes of God and seeking to destroy all who would correct them.
D. What was His desire toward these stubborn rebellious people?
1. I know what my reaction would be. I would be ready to draw the sword of justice and destroy them. I would have called for the legion of angels at my disposal to wipe them out.
2. I can understand the words of David when he said, "Do not I hate them that hate Thee, O Lord, I hate them with a complete hatred."
3. I get so riled up when I hear men speak blasphemous things against God. I pray curses upon them. Like James and John I want to call down fire from heaven and consume them.
4. What a far cry that is from the spirit of Jesus who said, "How often would I have gathered thy children together as a hen does gather her brood under her wings but you would not."
5. Perhaps Jesus was thinking of
Psalm 17 where David said, "Keep me as the apple of Your eye, hide me under the shadow of your wings."
6. Or maybe
Psalm 91 "He shall cover thee with His feathers, and under His wings shalt thou trust."
7. Here is love and grace manifested, for in spite of their stubborn rebellion, He was still desiring to draw them to the protection that only He could give to them.
8. He was willing to give them one more chance. The parable of the barren fig tree in the vineyard verse 6 where the master orders it to be cut down, but the dresser of the vineyard plea's for one more year to cultivate it and fertilize it to see if it will produce fruit, and if not then cut it down.
9. One more chance, the problem is that you do not know if you are on the last chance. Someday you will hear God's final call to you to accept His offer of salvation. To reject that final call is to seal your eternal destiny.
III. THE TRAGIC CONSEQUENCES FOR THOSE WHO REFUSE THE SHELTER THAT HE OFFERS.
A. "Your house is left unto you desolate." You are going to be driven from the land that God gave to your father Abraham.
1. You will experience what it is to be despised and rejected by man.
2. This city will be laid to the ground.
3. The temple will be so thoroughly destroyed that not one stone will be left standing upon another.
4. When Daniel predicted that the Messiah would be cut off, he declared for the Jews that they would be dispersed, and unto the end desolations are determined.
5. The Jews have experienced the bloody inquisition, the holocaust, and even today are being threatened by the fanatic Moslems who vow their utter destruction.
6. Jeremiah speaks of the last days when there shall come a time of Jacob's trouble.
7. Daniel tells that they are going to experience a time of trouble worse than anything in the history of the nation.
8. Jesus also made reference to this in the context of the signs of His return to the earth.
MAT 24:21 For then shall be great tribulation, such as was not since the beginning of the world to this time, no, nor ever shall be.
MAT 24:22 And except those days should be shortened, there should no flesh be saved: but for the elect's sake those days shall be shortened.
9. Jesus said, "You will not see Me again until you say, Blessed is He that comes in the name of the Lord. For their very survival they will have to say, "Blessed is He who comes in the name of the Lord."
10. We are told that they shall look on Him whom they have pierced, and they shall mourn for Him as one mourns for an only son.
B. God is very patient and longsuffering.
1. Do not mistake His patience for weakness.
2. Do not mistake His patience as not caring about what you do, of worse yet approving of what you do.
C. In spite of all that you have done, He desires to gather you under the protection of His wings. To wash you from the defilement of your sin, to set your feet on the right path, to help your life to be fruitful and worthwhile. Won't you come to Him?
Verse-Reference
Square — [Jhn 1:1 KJV]
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