Jerusalem, Jerusalem Mt, 23:37-39

Good morning. We're in Matthew 23, 37-39. This morning and over the next several weeks, we're going to be taking a brief but important detour from the book of Revelation into the book of Matthew, starting with the passage we're looking at here in chapter 23, continuing on through chapter 24, and we won't go into it, but actually 25 continues Similarly, on the same subject with some parables, that passage is a very good supplement to the Revelation series. It is the longest singular passage speaking prophetically, and therefore it's very parallel with Revelation. Longest singular passage in the New Testament outside of the book of Revelation. And furthermore, It is given by our Lord Himself, and it's given from a slightly different time perspective, and it's given from a different perspective and culture and location. And we'll be taking a look at those in a bit here.

But I think you'll find that there's some real valuable insights that are gained from kind of stepping away from Revelation briefly and getting this stereoptic view. And I say that as one who has one eye that doesn't work, but a stereoptic view It gives us the ability to look at this and get some additional insights that come from this passage. Then, the first thing we want to take a look at is there is a time difference. Now let's take a look.

You also have something very similar on your handout on page 1. This is the first century AD. Our Lord, of course, carrying on His ministry about this period of time. What is spoken here is in the last week, just prior to our Lord's crucifixion, burial, and resurrection. So we're talking just days before. John, however, in this book of Revelation that we've been studying for a number of months, was writing here some decades later, about 96 AD. So a number of decades later, In the meantime, you have the ministry of the apostles, and towards the end of that, primarily John.

And so there is a time difference between these two periods of time, and one major historical event that takes place in there that will point out, and that's 70 AD where Rome attacks Jerusalem. Now that wasn't an unprovoked attack, I should point out. The Jews had sort of a boiling rebellion that had been coming about, and finally it came to a head. And so Rome basically responded to the rebellion. Now, as we take a zoom lens, we'll look at this particular period of time here. So this timeline gives us that insight.

Here's the last week of our Lord on earth prior to this time of the resurrection. And we have what is traditionally called Palm Sunday here. Just a couple of days later, is the time frame for the passage we're looking at here in Matthew 23 and 24. Basically a Tuesday. And then on Thursday the Last Supper, Friday the Crucifixion, and then Sunday morning the Resurrection. That's the kind of general sweep of that week as it's laid out. And what's happening up until the middle of this week is Jesus is involved, as a great many other Jews are, with this Passover celebration that's taking place.

And what was the pattern is people who lived in Jerusalem were expected to host family and friends and acquaintances, and there were so many in fact that came that people who lived outside of the city of Jerusalem also hosted people. So the pattern that we see is that Jesus would go in and out of Jerusalem. He'd go over to Bethany and stay with friends there and then come back into Jerusalem, typically coming around the temple during this period of time. Now, during the last half of this week, our Lord stayed in Bethany, just east of the Mount of Olives. returning to Jerusalem daily for the Passover.

Let's look at the location context. Here's John, writing from Patmos here, and addressing the churches in what is now the western end of Turkey. Jesus, however, was specifically in and speaking to those in Jerusalem. So there was a difference in location. Not just time now, but also location.

Here, the majority of the audience is Gentile, with some definite Jewish percentage to it. Here, Jesus' audience is virtually entirely Jewish, with perhaps a few converted Gentiles in the area, but basically he's speaking to those who are Jews and who are there at this Passover celebration. Now, just to kind of get a little sense locationally where this is, this is modern Jerusalem, of course, still being there. And here's the nation of Israel.

And just so you get a sense of scale, from Jerusalem over to the Mediterranean coastline, it's about 33 miles. Not a big country. Really a rather small little country. Okay. Then I think the last thing to point out to get some context, here's Looking at Jerusalem, this is right now that the Dome of the Rock is here, but this was the Temple Mount. So Jesus would have spent a good deal of time and was likely right there in that area in the Jewish Temple buildings. Here was the Mount of Olives, and Bethany was off in the distance off over here. So that kind of gives you a spatial idea of where this is taking place.

Now with that, let's turn to Matthew 23, verse 37, okay? In verse 37, he starts off, Jerusalem, Jerusalem, who kills the prophets and stones those who are sent to her. How often I wanted to gather your children together, the way a hen gathers her chicks under her wings, and you were unwilling. Now, we can begin by focusing on the way this verse starts off. Jerusalem. Jesus says twice, Jerusalem, Jerusalem.

And it's interesting, this is a city that is ancient. It is still, and here's 2000 years have gone by, it is still on the news every day. It is still a focal point. And basically the scripture's layout is going to continue to be a focal point. We can count on it. It has a history of several different names. Let's take a look at some of these.

One of them is just simply Salem. Obviously the modern name Jerusalem is stemming from that. Salem, the Hebrew is Shalom. It means peace. It's the way that the Jews would greet one another in those days and today as well I understand. They would say Shalom. And that's the name of the city or one of the early names of the city. It's the name associated with Melchizedek.

He is the priest and king of Salem mentioned in Genesis Psalms and in Hebrews 7. Another name is Jebus, which is trodden, and the idea is that it was a threshing place. As a matter of fact, one of the first Chronicles talks about the Jebusites using this area as a threshing place, a place to thresh out the wheat. From the time of the judges to David's capture of the city, that was its use. Next, there's Zion, and that's a name that's obviously caught on a lot. People talk about Zionism. The UN has officially taken the position that Zionism is racism.

How about that? It means a wilderness. It's also known as a name for the City of David. It's an alternate name for Bethlehem. Now, that's not all. Another name Ariel means Lion of God. This is a name, interestingly, it's warning Jerusalem of attack. It principally comes out in Isaiah 29. And finally, Jerusalem, the modern name, Habitation of Peace, which is almost ironic because it's not.

But Habitation of Peace, from the time of judges until the present. That's been a name that is held. So it's interesting. Here's a major city, still a city with international consequence, very metropolitan, and yet that name has stuck now for over 3,000 years.

Now if our Lord was saying these things in verse 37, see, He's looking at Jerusalem. He's there. He is in it. And He's not just looking at Jerusalem as it was, He was looking at Jerusalem as it represents, here's all these things that have happened, and the people in it, and the place where the temple was. And so, there's a great deal of background. Jesus didn't just come out of the blue and start saying this about Jerusalem, right? He had instead some things that He had in mind and a background that He was speaking of.

Let's take a look at that. Here is a modern model of the temple as it would have looked in Jesus' time. This model is in Jerusalem. They would have a large temple courtyard, and these temple courtyards around the outside here were a part of it. And then in here, where this building is, this is the Naas that we've talked about in the past, the holy place. And in the very deepest part of that, the Holy of Holies. This was the temple that was kind of the focus of concern.

The way Scripture speaks of it, and the way the Jews thought of it, this is the place where God dwells. That was their understanding of it. So that's why it's especially critical when Paul tells the church at Corinth, you are the temple of God. You are the place where God dwells. But just to understand, this is the background that they come up with.

This was the second temple. because the Babylonians had come in and destroyed the first one built by Solomon. Right above that temple, and off to the right of the picture we just looked at, was the Roman fortress Antonia. This was a fortress that had been set up and finally inhabited under Pilate's rule.

Pilate came in and he positioned Roman soldiers up here looking, oh boy, this really got the Jews' blood boiling, looking down on them as they were in the temple. Can you imagine that? So here's these Jews, and now they're seeing Roman soldiers looking from these spires at the top, down upon the Jews, examining their every move, watching their every step. The Jews would look up at that and be furious, livid, but there was little that they could do.

Inside this fortress was where a few days from the time our Lord speaks. The Lord is, I'm sure, looking ahead. Inside this fortress are these stones that you can see today. And on the floor, in these stones where Jesus stood, you can still see scratch lines where the Roman soldiers would scratch games in the floor that they would play. That's what those lines are on the stones. The Roman soldiers would play games while they were waiting for the next person that they would torture and kill. And so that's what these little circles and lines and markings are on the stones. This is their games playing, and so when they would, in a few days from this time, take our Lord and play games with Him, it was just an extension of what they already had marked on the floor.

Then, from there, a few days from then, just outside of Jerusalem, they would lead our Lord up to a rock, a place of the skull, Galgatha in the Hebrew, Calvary in the Latin. And at this place they would crucify our Lord. There they would apply the nails, having forced the thorns upon his head. Just outside of Jerusalem, this place this place that was so special in his own heart because he cared for the people that were there. At the hand of the Romans, by the insistence of the Jews, he would be crucified. From there, they would take his body and lay it in a tomb just outside Jerusalem.

See, this Jerusalem is getting to be a pretty critical place, isn't it? A lot of things going on there. And from that tomb, the end of this week, just a few days after these words we just read, Jesus would be resurrected. So here's, amazingly, He's saying words that would proceed by only a few days, His crucifixion, burial, and resurrection. Events in which we were identified by God's doing. So here's Christ when He thinks of Jerusalem, He is not just thinking of a place He just kind of stepped into, but it's a place of huge significance. Now, let's look at some things in verse 37 a little bit closer. First of all, He says of Jerusalem, you persecuted the prophets. You killed the prophets. You stoned those who were sent.

And it so happens that that's been a long-term pattern. What we find is that there are a number of Old Testament passages that talk about this dealing with prophets and other messengers besides the prophets. And that story continues on in the New Testament. And by the way, this list is not exhaustive.

This is just a few samplings of the ways in which those in Jerusalem and the Jews in general dealt with the people that God sent. And so those that God sent, these messengers, would be stoned, mocked, beaten, imprisoned, sometimes imprisoned by just laying a rock over the top of them, sometimes imprisoned by dumping them down a well. We read of Isaiah being sawn in two. And other horrible treatments were done as well to those who were sent, to these prophets.

But here the Lord kept trying to send messages to these people. And what was the Lord's intent? What would be His preference? You would think His treatment of these people, heavens, long ago, He would have just done away with them. Instead, how does Jesus respond? He says instead, He comes away with a picture. He says, I would have done with you as a hen does with her chicks.

Now as I mentioned before, I have a particular background and in some years past I spent some time on the farm and I can't exactly say I was raised by chickens but one of the things that I do recall is that we'd have the hens that would hatch these little chicks out Most of the time the chicks would just kind of wander about and you really couldn't tell which chick was connected with which hen.

It was a tough call. They all just ran about and scattered amongst each other. But there was one instance when it became very clear and this particular behavior that Jesus talks about came out real boldly. Occasionally I would get a little sound warning.

I would hear a chicken hawk overhead. When I would hear that, sometimes even before I heard it, I would look out and there would be the hens, all behaving in a way I knew a chicken hawk was overhead. Because the hens would start letting out a clucking sound that they never made otherwise, and they would put their wings out. And you would see them running around with their wings out, and they would gather the chicks underneath their wings. And I can tell with that behavior that the chicken hawk is coming. Typically I'm running out and I'm trying to get rid of the chicken hawk. But the thing is that very behavior that Jesus talks about was evident sometimes several times a day if the hawk was persistent. And what we see as we look in scripture is that very same picture is used of God speaking of the Jews repeatedly in Exodus, Deuteronomy, Ruth, and several places in Psalms.

That same picture is where the Lord is spoken of as a bird protecting the young, offering that wing of protection so that the young would not be plucked away and taken off. That protection was a natural outcome and a natural behavior from the desire of that mother to protect.

That's the figure, the picture that the Lord uses here now. And we have the example there from Psalm. He will cover you with his pinions, and under his wings you may seek refuge. The very picture that I saw in the barnyard. And it's just a classical behavior of that mother bird to protect the young. But what's amazing as we look at this passage here, every one of these Old Testament passages It is God who is in this role of acting like this protective bird.

And here, who is it that's making the statement? It's Christ. So what is Christ doing? Here he is making a claim to his deity. He's making a claim to deity, a clear claim to deity. To do so otherwise would be blasphemous. that he is not God himself. Something else immediately jumps out at us as we start reading this verse, and that's this. There's these double names. He doesn't say Jerusalem and then start on. He says Jerusalem, Jerusalem.

And what we find is that the frequent pattern in scripture shows up in several different and key places. Here's David, for example, weeping, lamenting, just terribly grieved over the death of his son Absalom. Even though Absalom was rebellious and there was a great deal of disappointment, part of his weeping seems to even reflect that disappointment. So here is Absalom, having died, and David's response, Absalom my son, Absalom my son.

This double statement. Jesus again speaking to Peter. Simon Peter says, Simon, Simon. Not just once, twice. Or remember, here's Acts 9, the Lord is confronting Saul, who is to become Paul. And what does he say? Saul, Saul, why do you persecute me? That double name is a pattern statement.

And notice the conditions. It means that what's being said after that is serious. It means that what's being said is deep and ponderous. It means that it isn't just used in casual conversation. Something of significance and depth is to be said. The other reason for saying something like this is just for emphasis. You particularly. Kids are very, you know, clued in on the idea when they hear their parents say their full name, that means them. Okay?

The Lord is kind of using a similar kind of thing by doing this repetition. He doesn't just say, hey Jerusalem, I've got something to tell you. He says, Jerusalem, Jerusalem. This is a ponderous statement He is going to make. Okay? It's pivotal. Then, notice something else. After He says, Jerusalem, you who, and then He talks about killing the prophets. killing the prophets and stones those sent to her. It's an example of what's called Jewish parallelism.

Frequently what the Jews would do, and we've brought this up before, but just to underscore it here, the Jews would not rhyme sounds. Say, we'll come up with little ditties, you know, roses are red and violets are blue, and things like that, and we rhyme the sounds, okay? The Jews rhyme meanings. They don't care if the sounds rhyme, they rhyme meanings.

And so here is a kind of a poetic statement kills the prophets and stones those sent to her. Yes, it isn't precisely the same, but there is a certain rhyming of ideas. And we see that, for example, Psalms chapter 6 has several examples of that, and we have just a few of them on the overhead here. But the idea is make a statement and then restate it with maybe some slightly different insights here. So Jesus is emphasizing and restating, I've sent the prophets and I've also had others sent. but you treat them both the same.

Everyone I sent, of every category, you treat them the same. You persecute them, you kill them, you stone them. Something else about that little phrase, kills the prophets and stones those sent, both those verbs are in the customary present. They are stated this way, who are killing the prophets, who are stoning, those who sent."

So it's not just all past tense, it's not as if this is all a done deal. He speaks as if these are a continuing action, ongoing and even to the present. Now, something else to take a look at, these words here, this prophet, this prophetes, this is one who speaks forth. Now it's not just simply predicting into the future, it's one who speaks for God. A frequent statement of the Old Testament prophets is, thus saith the Lord. The Lord says this. They're speaking for the Lord.

Furthermore, those who are sent in this verse there, that's apostello. You can get the obvious connection to apostle, looking at that. It's one who's sent on a mission with the authority of the one sending. When the Lord sent people to the Jews, They weren't just ones who casually happened to stumble along the way, and they weren't just saying, gee, I think God won't like that. When He sent those that He sent, they were sent on a particular mission. They were sent with the intent that they had the authority of the one sending.

Now, there's something else that comes out of this, and we sure don't want to lose track of it. There is also This word would, or wanted, or it says in some versions unwilling, but it's not willing. This word in the Greek is thelo. It refers to, it's an exercise of the will. Now what's interesting is it shows up two places in this verse. And here's Jesus' statement, how often I wanted, that's the use of that word thelo, to gather your children together the way a hen gathers her chicks under her wings and you were unwilling." It's basically a negation of that same willingness. It's the same word for willing in both places.

And here's the import of this. I think we don't want to go past this without looking at it. The Lord was willing. He had a will. Did He not? He just stated it. since what he was doing was as God. In other words, he was saying, I wanted to protect you, right?

And using the same picture as the Lord in the Old Testament. And yet here are these chicks, using the analogy, and you were unwilling. You were not willing. So here God has a will, and man has a will, but God did not impose His will over the top of theirs.

Isn't that interesting? Same will, same word. Not only that, it's the same verb tense, the same voice. So this comes across, this is real interesting in terms of what it communicates here. The Lord is not simply moving us around like little pawns. He's saying, you have a will, and I have a will, and this is what I would desire to do, but I will not superimpose my will upon yours. Interesting.

Okay, now, let's move on there. It's appropriate, of course, to ask a question here. Let's look at verse 38. Verse 38, simple. It says, Behold, your house is being left to you desolate. And the first thing, this word behold, in the Greek, we've run across this word numerous times in Revelation, right?

And what does it mean? It means to look intently, to pause a minute, and we've used kind of the modern vernacular, take a mental picture. Take a mental picture. That's how we would kind of use it. Pause a minute. Don't skip over this. Don't let this just fly past you and get lost. Take a mental picture. Look intently at what I'm about to tell you.

So he prefaces this statement with, Behold. Now, then he says, Your house is being left to you desolate. Simple statement, right? Boy, what a big statement. First question we have is, what does your house mean? So, if you're thinking some of these questions, that's appropriate. Is your house meaning Jerusalem, the city? Does it mean the nation of Israel, kind of a big umbrella there? Does it mean specifically the temple, or does it mean the house of David? Which one? Or is it all four? Any answer? Okay, I didn't either. Let's take a look here.

Here's one of the things in examining this, I looked up, okay, let's look for the phrase, your house, in the Old Testament. And what we find is, your house, as applying to the temple, every time it mentions the temple, it's God's temple. Okay? And it shows up multiple times in the book of Psalms here, as we see listed. then it turns around from your house to the phrase my house and in the Old Testament whenever the Lord says my house it relates to the temple in all these passages from 1 Chronicles to Malachi so notice we've got that but we also have this other event Just a couple chapters before in Matthew, what has taken place? The Lord has gone in and He drove out all the people who were doing the money changing. And what did He do? He said to them, It is written, My house shall be called a house of prayer. Whose house? The Lord's house.

Okay? That was referring to the temple building. So, as we look at that, Now we see a shift. All of a sudden he turns around, and who's he talking to? To those people here in Jerusalem. There is your house. Okay? This has been my house, the Lord says. If you want it, you've got it.

It's going to be left to you desolate. And look what he's saying in there. This word, left, Afiemi. It means to abandon, to let remain. It is even used in the New Testament, Paul uses it, in the sense of abandoning to divorce. So this is a serious word. He couples that with another word there, this word translated desolate, the Greek word eramos. It means alone and solitary as a wilderness or uninhabited place. Your place is left to you uninhabited. Your house is now desolate.

And what we see there is when Christ is saying this, He is not just saying it as some Jewish observer. He is not just saying it as a prophet. He is saying, He's saying this, having told them clearly by the picture of the bird offering his wings for protection, that's God. He says, I'm leaving it. I'm gone. Well, there's not only that, because not only is the Lord leaving it, it won't be long, a few decades would come, and the house would not only be a place where they would just be carrying on just empty rituals. Rituals that God was long ago not interested in.

But it would also be a place that the Romans would totally ruin. The Romans came in 70 AD, and believe it or not, the initial slaughter of Jews inside of Jerusalem in this event was not by the Romans. The Jews who wanted to fight the Romans slaughtered the Jews who did not want to fight the Romans by the thousands. They slaughtered their own people and then turned around and fought the Romans and died anyway in the battle. And at that point, the Romans went in and set Jerusalem, anything that would burn, they set it on fire, the temple included. And we'll see a little bit later the Romans would go in and light it on fire and melt all the gold that was in the temple. And the Romans would come in and pry the stones apart to get the gold out.

We'll look more at that later. Today, centuries later, the Jews gather by night and by day by the Wailing Wall. It's a wall on the western side of the Temple Mount. All it is is a retaining wall left from that Temple Mount area. None of the Temple is left. This is just a retaining wall on the side of the Mount. And they go and insert little prayers hoping for that Temple to be rebuilt. They keep looking back for what was lost, but looking for the building instead of the Lord. looking for the building instead of the Lord Himself, not having recognized the Lord in His first coming.

Now let's take a look at verse 39. For I say to you, he says, from now on you will not see me until you say, blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord. Now the phrase, I say to you, is one that is in three of the four occurrences in the Old Testament, God speaking to the Jews. Our Lord says, I say to you many dozens of times in the Gospels. But one of the things to take a look here, it doesn't come out as strongly in the English as it might.

And that's, He says, from now on you will not see me. That Greek that's translated, will not, it sounds simple. It's umē. It means, will not in the remotest chance. It's the Greek way of saying, it is impossible. There is no way that you are going to see me until you say, blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord. Not going to happen.

There is not the slightest chance. This is it. He is telling us it is simply not possible for there to be any other outcome at this point than to wait until the point in time when he returns again. That's it. There's no other outcome possible. When I return again, then it'll happen, but it's done now. We can't turn this around. There's no changing it.

But, there's another word, and it's the most hopeful word in this verse. The most hopeful word. You see it? Until. First he tells them, you will not and he makes it definite not even the slightest chance but then he turns around and says until that's the most hopeful word until chaos in the Greek up to that point anticipated as its beginning when in other words now is a starting time now is a new beginning now is a new start that's the hopeful word in this.

The Jews are not rejected forever. And that's a critical point. You will hear many among Christendom these days say the Jews are rejected forever. I've even heard some say God hates the Jews. One fellow told me he took frequent trips over to Jerusalem and he got to talking to one of the tour bus leaders and he said, I can tell those who believe that Jesus is coming again and has not rejected the Jews because they care for the people who are Jewish. The ones who think that God has rejected the Jews come on here on this bus and I can tell them right away because they don't care for these Jewish people. The Jews are not rejected forever.

God still has them in His plan. As a matter of fact, He has a promise to keep with them. And it doesn't matter that they've been unfaithful. God is a God who keeps His promises. And He will. Now, we look at this passage here. Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord. You know, the Lord just heard that, blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord, just two days before He said this.

What was that? We call it Palm Sunday or the Triumphal Entry. I call it the not quite so Triumphal Entry. Because really what had happened, he had walked down, as best we can tell, probably this very path, coming over the Mount of Olives and looking towards Jerusalem. And as he was doing so, the crowds would say this, the Hallel, they would recite Psalms 113 through 118, and that was taking place here. But it was not truly a welcome of he as the Messiah, wholeheartedly from the mass of the Jews, a very small percentage. So this view is something on the order of what he saw.

It was actually, in those days, used to be a bridge that went across the valley and has since been destroyed. But what the Lord is looking forward to is looking forward to a time when coming across this view and seeing, see up in the corner here, this little gate?

Let me give you a little better view of that gate. This is the Eastern Gate and since the 1400s, the 15th century, it's been sealed up. The Moslems sealed it up and put a bunch of Moslem graves in front of it, figuring that that would keep the Jewish Messiah from coming through there. And they built this Dome of the Rock.

But what the Lord is saying is, a time will come, and you notice He says until, not if. A time will come when I will come to you and you will say, blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord. And this scene will look a little different. The Lord is here saying, look, you right now have been unfaithful, you have refused me, but there will be a time when you will welcome me. It will come after a terrible time, a time of purification. But you will welcome me, He says.

And He will fulfill His promises to the Jews. At that point in time, When He comes through this gate and comes into the temple area, we will be with Him. Okay? We will be with Him. And so the Lord, even in these words to the Jews, is anticipating that time. It says, until you say, blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord. As desperate as this little brief three verses sounds, He ends with hope, and that hope includes us. Because He will share that entry with us. And Scripture actually uses the word reign for His reign, and the same Greek word He used for our reign with Him. Isn't that amazing? We will be with Him.

Let's pray. Lord, as we look at the pivotal events, even today in Jerusalem, There are certainly things that draw our hearts, and Lord, at the same time, they should also draw our hope. And Lord, we put our hope and trust in You, and as we look forward indeed for Your coming, we also ask that You would teach us that daily walk, Lord, that as we sang earlier this morning, we would be beholding You up until that day when we behold You face to face. We just pray this in Jesus' name. Amen.