Amen now if you have a Bible let me invite you to with me to Luke chapter 23 as we continue working our way through the gospel According to Luke Chapter 23 tonight over 26 through 31 we hear this evening the last recorded words of Jesus before his crucifixion his words on the cross Are famous and very way perhaps you remember some of them Luke will tell us very shortly that he will pray father forgive them For they do not know what they do he'll tell a repentant criminal on that cross today You will be with me in paradise very gracious words, but tonight we hear his last words before he's nailed to that cross only Luke Records them for us. They are a short sermon and I wonder if you know them in the passage before us Jesus shows himself to be a faithful pastor and a faithful preacher faithful in his calling as Messiah as Prophet priest and King right to the very end. We've already seen him in his office as King just lately just recently before pilot He confesses. I am the king you have said so now to be sure he endures humiliation for the claim to be king He allows himself to be mocked, but he is king very shortly He will be upon that crosses our great high priest offering the one final sacrifice that takes away sin He's our priest, but he's also a prophet and he preaches a sermon and in it he foretells danger to Israel and he warns them of judgment and he calls others to repentance Let us hear him as he does so Luke 23 beginning at verse 26 and as they led him away They seized one Simon of Cyrene who was coming in from the country and laid on him the cross to carry it behind Jesus And there followed him a great multitude of the people and of women who were mourning and lamenting for him But turning to them Jesus said Daughters of Jerusalem do not weep for me, but weep for yourselves and for your children For behold the days are coming when they will say blessed are the barren and the wounds that never bore and the breasts that never nursed Then they will begin to say to the mountains fall on us and to the hills cover us For if they do these things when the wood is green What will happen when it is dry?
This is God's word Let's look at him in prayer and our father in heaven This is your word and the sermon of your great son We pray he would be a prophet to us tonight that he would give us ears to hear and eyes to see Grant that you would enlighten the eyes of our minds that we would behold Jesus and wonderful things in your word that you would do Good to our souls through this and glorify him in his name. I pray amen during the War between Britain and Argentina the Falkland Islands the British Navy guided missile destroyer HMS Sheffield was sunk by a single exoset or flying fish Missile so when you say fired certainly updated. I'm sure fired from an Argentine Argentinian fighter jet It was the first British Navy vessel sunk in 37 years since World War II the missile hit about eight feet above the water line It blasted through it broke the fire water main And so a fire was set that couldn't be put out it caused the ship to have to be abandoned some 20 died and dozens also were injured the Sheffield had about one minute before the missile hit they picked up on radar It's incoming the Argentinian fighter jet that hit it had flown so low in the ocean under the radar And only popped up briefly on a few occasions to get its bearing in the bearing of the British vessel that it was barely seen and not by the Sheffield On the Sheffield preparations to evade or disable the missile in flight would have taken four minutes Time which they did not have but time they might have had had they been properly warned now 30 years later There's still some controversy about exactly what happened and who should get the blame for it if any among the officers Officers agree with the Sheffield but it is known that the British Navy was aware that two giant fighter jets had flown off land and come their way and a British Aircraft carrier the invincible not far away had picked up on its radar incoming planes from 180 miles away 19 minutes away Planes which in their procedure had simply popped up on very random occasions to take their bearings and then flown below radar level Well, they had been spotted multiple times But the series of spotings were dismissed by senior officers on the invincible as quote spurious And so they did not report them to the rest of the fleet and so the Sheffield had no idea of the danger ahead and therefore They were unready and unprotected when destruction was upon them Why do I tell you that story? I think it's obvious in this final sermon Jesus does not leave the inhabitants of Israel Ignorant or unworn of coming destruction at the hand of the Roman army He doesn't leave them unaware that they will face the judgment of God by means of the Roman Empire But he tells them the truth in love and I want to pause and say anytime that we have an occasion to contemplate Judgment and it is not this pastor's favorite subject to preach But anytime we have an occasion an occasion from the Bible to consider it We ought to receive the warning of judgment as a mercy from God because he doesn't want his people to be ignorant He doesn't want the world to be unaware or unprepared from what is inescapable Except by his mercy in Jesus it has later events prove some in Jerusalem believed Jesus and were spared and some many Remain ignorant and unbelieving and suffered on account of it So I want you to consider this sermon its context its content and its closing parable the context in a proverb the context in verse 26 is given where it tells us about Jesus and it points to the great pain that he was In as he preaches the sermon then at verse 27 to 30 you actually have the content of the preaching and then it verse 30 He closes with a proverb so there's his pain There's the preaching and there's the proverb those three things this evening at verse 26 You get the details about what is going on in the context of which Jesus preaches and we learn about his pain and his weakness and his suffering 26 as they led him away says they seized one Simon of Cyrene it was coming in from the country and lay on him the cross To carry it behind Jesus now why is he carrying the cross for Jesus?
John tells us Jesus started out with the cross on his back usually a condemned man would have done so doing so down the busy paths and Streets served as a warning to others they paraded them in public and it would have been a kind of mercy to the condemned criminal at least to this end that they would have had time to contemplate their end as they carried that cross and they Would have been more worn out That their suffering might end that much more quickly once nailed upon the cross But Jesus we find out so he started with it was too weak to continue with it He simply could not you remember that just the evening before he had swept great great drops of blood in anguish of soul Perhaps he was a bit dehydrated He'd been betrayed and arrested and tortured and beaten he'd been dragged from from the the Jewish chiefs to the Roman governors to pilot Then back to Herod and then back to pilot he'd been lied about he'd been interrogated. He'd been mocked He'd been declared innocent but then condemned to death and the crowds had shouted crucified him Everybody had seen those against him and his immediate circle before he was crucified We know as the other gospel writers point out the loot doesn't mention it that he was flawed This is where they took the whip and on the strips of leather They tied the stones and bits of bone into the ends of them to tear the flesh much more severely And we also know that though the Jews had a limit of 39 lashes to any man The Romans did not have such restraint and many who suffered a Roman flogging did not survive that flogging It would have torn not just the flesh of his back, but it would have torn muscle away from bone It would have perhaps exposed internal organs. This is a severely beaten Torture crushed man falling to the ground here too weak to carry the cross being that will be attached to the post and needing another to carry it for him And perhaps sometimes as you ponder the love of Christ for you You imagine Jesus walking to the cross steadfastly with chin held high and full-stride powerfully doing what needs to be done for us in the strength of his deity sort of Un touched by all and that is not the case He is fully human as well a true body in a reasonable soul and he was torn up physically Emotionally and mentally crushed and spiritually he knows what's coming. He's not just bearing the cross beam He's bearing on his shoulders the sins of his people and he knows he's going to suffer the judgment of God against sinners Upon that cross he is worn out and so the Romans constrict a passerby to carry the cross on his behalf Luke tells you his name is Simon of sirene now.
Why does he tell you who he is? Where is he from? Who is this guy? Sirene is North Africa Tripoli is its most famous city.
It's now where Libya and what we call Libya is He's likely Simon of sirene likely one of the Jews of that city who's come to Jerusalem to celebrate the Passover If that's the case Perhaps more than a thousand or even fifteen hundred miles from home likely having saved his whole life to come celebrate the Passover in Jerusalem Now we do know that in Jerusalem there were synagogues of sireneans if that's how you say it There were many from sirene in Jerusalem perhaps he lived there But he's coming out of the mountains and he's passing by perhaps and very ironically thinking that he's coming to eat in Jerusalem The Passover meal and by turn of event he's actually carrying the instrument of death of the Passover lamb the true lamb of God Now why does Luke say he's Simon of sirene because he isn't some man who's a nobody and remains a nobody But this is a man who may have been a nobody But but they make somebody carry the cross and Luke doesn't just say they made somebody else do it Luke tells you his name Why well his name is known to this day in part because Luke gave it to us But because of his boys his children we know as Mark tells us and Luke new Mark that he's the father of Alexander and Rufus Just one of those little facts thrown into the gospel story Why would you put that in there except that Alexander and Rufus are known to the church in that day? And if you wanted to know who carried that cross and did Jesus really go from Pilate to the cross or whereas our Muslim friends believe Was somebody substituted at least that's one of their theories because they don't believe Christ Jesus was crucified upon the cross You wanted to know did this really happen is this mythology or is this history they could have said well you asked Simon He's the father of Rufus and Alexander Paul will even mention Rufus in Romans 16 if it's the same Rufus And it's not a very well-known name well Then Paul says not only greet Rufus who's chosen in the Lord But in Romans 16 he says and also his mother who was also like a mother to me Could it just be that Simon perhaps a faithful Jew met the Passover lamb was brought to faith and brought No, well, not only his boys to faith in Jesus, but his own life as well It may just be that but Luke wants you to know who did this It's Simon and why he did it and notice in the midst of all this notice that Jesus in the midst of tremendous weakness and tremendous physical agony still has on his mind Not just what he suffered or what he's about to suffer, but he has others and their well-being on his mind He turns to these daughters of Jerusalem these women who are mourning behind him and he speaks to them He wants them to understand and he wants to warn them Called them to repentance. He wants them to know how to escape because he loves them no hardship in Jesus experience could keep him from caring for others Or speaking the truth in love to them and in that he is a faithful pastor So that's the first thing you see and then he preaches his sermon to them at verse 27 and 30 through 30 And it is the content of it is a warning about coming judgment Verse 27 they followed a great multitude of people and the women who were mourning and lamenting for him This is who he preaches to there were many women daughters of Jerusalem citizens of Israel mourning and following We know that culturally this would have been very typical as it is even today in Middle Eastern cultures in some places There's such a thing as professional mourners Part of what this would have been is a recognition that death is a reason for mourning It ought to be mourned and in some reasons in some cultures that is reason enough to guarantee That there will be mourning at a death even to pay people to mourn and to pay those people to help provoke in others The right response to death which is to mourn But so here they are this crowd of mourners Maybe some of them truly in their own heart are genuinely grieving for Jesus as well And he preaches to them as certain looking at them at verse 29 and saying daughters of Jerusalem Do not weep for me But weep for yourselves and for your children now what is Jesus saying? Well, he's saying don't pity me.
I Don't need your tears. I have come to do just exactly what I came to do And I am doing it and I know exactly what lies ahead and I will not be denied it And I don't need your sympathy as I go through it, but weep for yourselves. I'm sympathetic for you I pity you why verse 29 for the days are coming he says when they will say blessed Are the barren in the wounds that never bore and the breast that never nursed there's coming a day for Jerusalem? He says a terrible time so horrible people will wish they didn't have families mothers will wish they didn't Have offspring only to see them suffer People will even long for a quick death by natural disaster verse 30 calling on the mountains perhaps a supernatural disaster Asking for the mountains to fall on them and the hills to cover them longing to escape from this suffering What's suffering?
What's the judgment of God against Israel by and through the army of Rome on many occasions? Jesus actually foretold this judgment about the Jewish nation in Luke 21 if you just live back to 21 24 He said very recently But when you see Jerusalem surrounded by armies then know that its desolation has come near then let those who are in Judea Fleeve the mountains and let those who are inside the city he part and let not those who are out in the country enter it for These days are days of vengeance to fulfill all that is written and alas he says verse 23 For women who are pregnant for those who are nursing infants in those days for there will be great distress upon the earth and wrath Against this people and they will fall by the edge of the sword and be led captive among all nations in Jerusalem will be trampled under foot by the gentiles Until the times of the Gentiles are fulfilled and here Jesus is now at his end and he warns them a vicious Assault under the hands of the Roman army is coming against you for you have rejected God If you have rejected God's Messiah and you are going to taste sorrow We for yourselves And we know that this came true in the late 1960s culminating in the Roman siege of Jerusalem in 70 AD when Titus destroyed the city and its temple Josephus who was a personal witness to the events He was a Jewish man serving the government of Titus sent actually as an emissary of Titus to the Jews in the city And he's not always to be counted thoroughly reliable on everything He says he was known to exaggerate and others will disagree with the numbers here But he says 1 million 100,000 people perished in the siege and a hundred thousand were captured and enslaved During the siege the Roman governor let Jewish pilgrims outside the city come in to celebrate the Passover But then to put pressure on the city against its water reserves and its food supply He wouldn't let them back out And so the city was inundated with Passover celebrants and over the course of months there was mass starvation The people took to eating their belts and their shoes and leather stripped off their shields and he says and he says others can bear witness That even cannibalism was practiced in Jerusalem and even by mothers against their own young This is what Jesus this event is what Jesus is warning them of and this is why he tells them to weep for themselves And you may say to yourself Where is the good gospel? In a message about this I mean he's going to the cross to save people why this you may ask but isn't it part of the Gospel that we are to repent and isn't part of the good news of the gospel that there is the bad news of judgment against sin and sinners From which we are saved and we can rejoice in his salvation Isn't this not the message that Jonah brought to Nineveh when he when he said to them get 40 days in Nineveh Well, she'll be overthrown it was a message designed to bring repentance That's gospel and unless you flee you will you will endure this he says and so Jesus is calling this ground the women to believe him That's a repent of their sins certainly that they might not adore the spiritual judgment of God for sin But also that they would listen to him and not endure the Roman temporal judgments And then he closes his sermon with a proverb at verse 31 for if they do these things when the wood is green What will happen when it is dry? Now if you've been a boy scout or been camping this fall and built yourself a fire to cook your s'mores or hot dogs You know exactly what Jesus is saying dry old sticks burn faster than new fresh wet green sticks when you want to have a good fire You pick up the old dried out wood and you burn that first and you can throw some green wood on top But you don't start the other way and Jesus is comparing himself to the green branch and the people of Israel or Jerusalem to the old dry wood He is innocent, but he's going to the cross about to be thrown in the fire And and he's saying to them if they do these things when the wood is green What will happen when it is dry?
Notice he's reminding them of the reality of their deserved judgment if the Romans treated he's saying the holy and innocent one Which is what I am like this having already declared me innocent and they're gonna do this to me What exactly do you think they're gonna do to you you who are spiritually dead and rebellious against road? Which is what they became and we could end the sermon there Sobered perhaps thinking of that judgment which came about in the year 80 70 just as Jesus said it would Which for two thousand years has left the Jewish nation without a temple without a line of kings without a line of priests without a place of sacrifice Even to this day and we could also pause and reflect and not only be sobered by this event But rejoice with our fellow believers and others who escaped Jerusalem having believed Jesus works and in 80 66 four years before its final destruction when the armies of Rome were advancing under another leader and heads surrounded the city they escaped The Pella there was a mass of people who left the advancing Roman army believing the Savior's war We could rejoice with them and we could say you can trust Jesus and you can trust the Bible because the things that he says are going to happen Happen but I don't believe that we should end just there we should think about ourselves for a moment We should remember that the judgment on Israel by Rome is but a fortaste of another and greater final judgment The Bible makes clear will come and our radar antenna should go up when we hear of judgments throughout the Bible whether it's in the days of Noah Or in the days of of Israel as they cross over the Jordan and God uses them as an instrument against the other nations Or whether it's the Gentile nations God uses them as an instrument against the Jews whenever we hear of these things We should see them like little fighter jets popping up captured on radar for a moment warning us of yet more danger to come one That will come upon the Bible says all mankind and like the daughters of Jerusalem when that judgment comes people will wish For safety when it is too late You can read about this in many places in the book of Revelation if you want to turn to Rome a revelation chapter 6 Let me point in just one passage to you when Jesus opens the sixth seal in Revelation chapter 6 beginning verse 12 It's the scroll of the seals that are unfolded the force for horsemen and other Seals it is the unfolding of history Jesus is worthy to take the seal of the scroll and and break it seal and unroll because he's the Lord of history It says the verse 12 chapter 6 Well, hold there was a great earthquake and the sun became black a sackcloth the full moon became like blood and the stars of The sky fell to the earth and verse 14 the sky vanished like a scroll being rolled up every mountain and island was removed from its place this is a vision of physical elements disintegrating turning again the chaos a picture of what happens in final judgment notice at verse 15 how the people react Then the kings of the earth and the great ones and the generals and the rich and the powerful and everyone slave and free Hit themselves in the caves and among the rocks of the mountains calling to the mountains and rocks fall on us That is just what the daughters of Israel are warned that they will wish for But notice that the people in John's vision are not afraid of a Roman general and his wrath But they are afraid of a much more terrifying figure as the revelation continues for 16 calling on the mountain rocks fall on us and hide us from the face of him who is seated on the throne and from the wrath of the lamb For the great day of their wrath has come and who can stand? One day the whole world will face the wrath of the lamb of God and be held accountable for sins their sins But today is not the day of that wrath at this very moment as I say these words today is the day of salvation The Bible says for God did not send his son into the world that the world might be condemned by him But that the world might be saved through him and Jesus says I am your way of escape I am going to the cross to be destroyed by judgment on your behalf And you will be spared that destruction if you are in me just trust in me and be sheltered dear friends There is no safety in running away from Jesus, but running into Jesus and being found in him covered and clothed and safe in him and when you are sheltered in him you have nothing else to fear And that is good news Let's look to him in prayer Father have mercy upon us all grants that we would believe and trust in Jesus the savior of all who look to him save us Lord Jesus and grant us the joy of your salvation in your name I pray Amen Let's stand and sing and prepare ourselves to come to the table of the Lord