Amen, please be seated. Now, if you have a Bible, let me invite you to turn with me to Matthew chapter 23. This morning we're in verses 37 to 39 and we've come to the conclusion of the sermon of woe's back at verse 1 of this chapter Jesus began along and public and scathing rebuke of the scribes and Pharisees for their hypocrisy and for leading the people of Israel into spiritual darkness and This in his last public sermon he gives before his crucifixion Well, let me invite you just look over in your Bible to chapter 24 verse 3 It says there that Jesus meets with his disciples privately They come to him privately and he teaches them privately and then of course he'll be arrested and betrayed and and tried and crucified But this is his last public sermon and We hear its conclusion the second part of its conclusion last week We heard the first part and more than just hearing the conclusion of it. We hear his heart That is it is clear that he loves Israel He has heart things to say to them and because he loves them.
He says them we hear his grief Strichen groaning over them as he expresses his heart for those who have turned their hearts against him We hear his heart a heart captivated by the truth of Psalm 36 verse 7 when it says how precious is your steadfast love? Oh God the children of mankind take refuge in the shadow of your wings Well, let's hear our great God and Savior and make we likewise take refuge in the shadow of his wings Let's hear it from Matthew chapter 23 beginning at verse 37. This is the word of God. Oh Jerusalem Jerusalem the city that kills the prophets and stones those who are sent to it How often would I have gathered your children together as a ham gathers her brood under her wings and you were not willing See your house is left to you desolate for I tell you you will not see me again Until you say blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord amen?
This is God's word making right in on our hearts. Let's look to him in prayer Our father opened this word opened wide our hearts to receive this word implanted in us that it would bear much Fruit for your glory and our good Help us to hear our Savior to believe him and so to trust in him in Jesus name. I pray. Amen Jesus here is full of deep sorrow Luke tells us actually that Jesus wept over Jerusalem and the word that he uses not that He really cried tears, but that that he was full of sorrow and was sobbing So that lest we think that Jesus declared any of his woes with stoic dispassion Or that he declared any of his woes in a mean spirit with a hard heart Let's we think any of that unworthy thoughts of him Matthew tells us he lamented or Luke tells us he lamented with sobs and Jesus tells us of course what it is He was in anguished about and let me point you to the four or five things about his anguish of love First and I'll give him to you as we go I want you to see in verse 37 the anguish of love Jesus feels over the city of God the people of God notice this double address verse 37 Oh Jerusalem Jerusalem There's this pattern actually in scripture of a doubling of names and where it occurs It's so often a of a wavy concern perhaps you can call to mind some of these examples You remember Jesus sharing his last meal with his disciples and Peter was full of himself so confident that though all of them deny you Lord I will never deny you and Jesus says to him Simon Simon Satan has asked to sift you as we But I have prayed for you Simon Simon or maybe you remember well Saul who's also called Paul Paul was hunting Christians from City to City to persecute them and imprison them and the risen Lord Jesus stopped him in his tracks appearing to him on the road to Damascus and said Saul Saul why are you persecuting me?
Or maybe you remember those tender words when Jesus was visiting his friends Mary and Martha in their home and Martha was sitting at his feet Hearing him tea soaking it in and Mary was there and but Martha was in the kitchen And she was busy about food preparation for all these guests and she was in a frazzle and she came out and said to Jesus Jesus, don't you care? I mean tell Mary to get in the kitchen with me and and and Jesus said to Martha Martha You are anxious and troubled about many things But one thing is necessary Mary has chosen the good portion which will not be taken from her And some of you will remember even in your Old Testament that very poignant passage when King David learned of the death of his son Absalom and he was deeply moved and in weeping said oh my son Absalom my son my son Absalom would I had died instead of you? Oh, absolutely my son my son These are some of the examples of this doubling of address So often reserved for these moments of deep love and lament as it is here why the repetition of Jerusalem Jerusalem as John Chrysostom the early father This is the manner of one pitying her he says and bemoaning her and greatly loving her Even as he unmasks their hypocrisy and condemns their sin and warns them of the impending judgment of God He pours out his grief over them for their spiritual heart-heartedness Toward him who was full of compassion full of kindness and mercy and grace John Calvin says Here pathos and Christ voice was raised up at Israel rejecting her redeemer It's a wonderful and incomparable proof of his love that he did not mind using endearment to win rebels to his service Maybe you've seen the opposite heard the opposite. Maybe you've met these kinds of folks who speak of judgment with glee Seem almost to relish the chance to talk about hell and the people that deserve it or or those who speak flippantly of hell and its Tormence with without a carer concerned, but Jesus isn't like that at all Jesus grieves and he weeps and he like God is described in Ezekiel It's because he takes no pleasure in the death of the wicked So we see his anguish of love for the city of God the people of God and then secondly We notice his anguish of love lamenting their wicked mistreatment of his messengers verse 37 Oh Jerusalem Jerusalem the city that kills the prophets and stones those who are sent to it Notice how he characterizes this city not as the city of peace Which is the meaning of its name and not as the city of or the holy city of God Which was its calling but but as the city of killers they murdered Zechariah We saw this last week between the sanctuary and the altar They're about to demand the crucifixion of the greatest prophet of all and shortly after that They're gonna stone Stephen to death as he bears witness To them of the true Messiah They are just as Jesus described them in that parable back in Matthew 21 Remember where he spoke of this people like a group of tenant farmers who've come into a vineyard that somebody else owns And and then when the owner sends his own servants to them they kill the servants and then the other things Well, well, they'll listen to my son shortly I'll send them my son and they take the son and they kill the son and throw him out of the vineyard too That's the kind of people you are Jesus says and he's grieving their wicked mistreatment of his messengers And of course he's showing by their wickedness that the judgment of God they will receive is just It's always just when God judges because God is just God is true.
God is faithful He sees and knows every secret thought of your heart as well as the things that you say and do and desire He never gets it wrong But he would not have us remain ignorant of the reasons for his judgments He would not have us imagine his judgments are unfair or are undeserved They raised their murderous hands against his messengers of peace even the prince of peace And justly do they experience the retributive justice of God due to them and in the anguish of love Jesus laments their wickedness And thirdly Jesus in the anguish of love well the love as of a caring mother Rebuffed by her obstinate children would you notice that oh Jerusalem Jerusalem middle verse 37 How often would I have gathered your children together as a hen gathers her brood under her wings And you were not willing How often would I have gathered your children for all these centuries? Jesus is saying even millennia Why did I send you the prophets? To gather you to the Messiah and why now that I've come myself and human flesh And why have I opened wide my arms to you and said to you come to me all you who are weary and heavy laden I will give you rest for your souls Why all this because he loves them and he longed together them into his bosom And he uses this beautiful analogy of a mother hen gathering to herself her chicks under her wings You can picture I suppose these little chicks clueless about the world in which they live Dependent upon their mother's care. I mean is there a hawk circling in the sky the hen hides her chicks For safety out of sight and under the shadow of her wings Is a is a storm coming on and they're frightened by the elements She lifts the wing and they scurry up under her are they cold she warms them?
Are they afraid she comforts them are they in danger she protects them And Jesus says I have longed to provide for you and to comfort you and to protect you Take refuge in me says Jesus from all your enemies I will deliver you Jesus says I'll deliver you from sin and from death and from the devil I will shelter you from the just judgment of God you deserve for your sins I will preserve you and keep you and I will keep you safe all the way home To the happiness of the holiness of heaven with me I mean what warm expression here Jesus uses how very personal and very intimate and very tender I have longed to gather you like a hen gathers her brood under her wings and yet says Jesus what? You would not you were not willing he says You were I suppose like a child who heard a mother call that stuck her fingers in her ears You were like a teenager wearing headphones refusing them to lift to lift them to hear a voice You didn't say yes mother. Yes father. You said Talk to the hand you said you know, I want to I want to hear nothing you have to say I want to receive nothing you have to give I really I really want nothing to do to do with you is what Jesus is saying they were like I longed to gather you and you were unwilling you've been obstinate in rejecting me And so just pause there we ought to see very clearly here that Jesus is telling us that those who are lost Are lost through their own fault and through their own choice All we like sheep have gone astray each to his own way And the only way any of us can ever be saved is if God rescues up if God intervenes if God finds us Far astray and brings us home if he reaches out and grabs hold of us Picks us up and plucks us out of our sin and misery and takes us to himself because left to ourselves We will not have him Just as they would not have him If a person is saved it's holy of God And if a person is lost it is holy of his own doing As jacie rile says let us understand that the ruin of those who are lost Is not because christ was not willing to save them nor yet because they wanted to be saved but could not But because they would not come to christ the saved in the next world will give all the glory to god The lost in the next world will find that they have destroyed themselves If you are saved your boast is christ You have no boast in yourself.
You know that you can't take any credit to yourself He saved sinners But if you are lost The credit is to you so to speak Matthew henry says it's holy owing to the wicked wills of sinners that they are not gathered under the wings of the lord jesus Salvation is all of grace and undeserved damnation is due to our works and jostily deserved So we see his anguish of love as of a caring mother rebuffed by her obstinate children and fourthly We see his anguish of love for a people cast off by god and destroyed by their enemies Notice verse 38 see your house is left to you desolate Now house might here refer to the temple that is god's house among them where god dwelt in their midst yet It may stand in for Jerusalem as a whole for jesus will go on almost immediately to say the city will see him no more It will be desolate of him and Jerusalem then may stand in for the whole nation of Israel as its capital We don't necessarily have to choose dia karson notes that the temple being the spiritual heart of the city was the heart as well of the nation And these three nation and city and temple are so closely aligned and rise and fall Together your house. He says is what it's for psychic. It's desolate It is left to you desolate how well on the one hand by him by god the messiah rejected israel because israel rejected him This is your overture to the gospel of john john chapter one. He came to his own But his own did not receive him So he would not have that Now we should be quick to interject here so that we don't misunderstand that the gospel is still open to individual jesus It is the power of god as paul says in ron is one It is the power of god for salvation to everyone who believes to the jus first and also to the gentiles After all the apostles were jesus and on the day of pentecost three thousand jes were saved later on many thousands more Were saved even any priest became obedient to the faith jesus has has continually saved jewish people of of an ethnic or a religious background Throughout all history and he continues to save them even today Yet israel was forsaken and the house was left desolate and in the very next chapter chapter 24 verse one We read that jesus left the temple and was going away when his disciples came up to him Out to you know they point out to him the buildings of the temple and he answered them you see all these Do you not truly I say to you they will not be left here one stone upon another that will not be thrown down What's he referring to well?
He's actually speaking of the devastation that will come to israel by the Romans in ad 70 When the roman general titus in his army tore down the temple burned the city and killed well according to jesephas a million Jews So then on the one hand they were left desolate by god and on the other hand they were left desolate by their enemies And from that day that the temple has been gone the sacrifices have been ended The priestly line was cut off and the jewish people were scattered to the ends of the earth It is in other words the ruin and judgment they will experience because of their rejection of him That's what he means by your house Will be left to you desolate But again, he preaches the truth in distress And that's how it ought to be Once with andrew bonner And robert meringue Mcchane were conversing Mcchane asked bonner was preaching texted been the previous lord's day and bonner said having preached With the king james saw nine verse 17 the wicked shall be turned into hell All the nations that forget god And bonner said that on hearing this awful text Mcchane said were you able to preach it with tenderness Here what he's asking Were you able to talk about hell? frankly Certainly faithfully and directly but with tenderness of heart For the for the thought that any of your hearers might actually go There Did you did you shed a tear as you were preparing your sermon or or delivering it like jesus and sorrow and sobs This is jesus and all his perfection says another for he doesn't shy from speaking judgment But does so with tears and like the lord god and azihiel as i mentioned he has no pleasure in the death of the wicked How can you want then to rebuff a savior like this So we see his anguish of love for the city of god his anguish of love lamenting their wicked mistreatment of his messengers His anguish of love as of a caring mother rebuffed by her obstinate children and his anguish of love for a people cast off by god And destroyed by her enemies and finally and fiftly we see his anguish of love for them As he holds out to them this hope The hope of salvation verse 39 for i tell you he says you will not see me again. That's left desolate. I am walking away from you Until you say Blessed to see who comes in the name of the lord You will not see me again until and here he quotes on one 18 blessed to see who comes in the name of lord and song one 18 There's this prophetic voice declaring the approach of a victorious king and he is Exstatically welcomed through the city gates and among the people they glory in their king and jesus is saying I am that king I am the one who comes in the name of the lord the messiah comes in the name of the lord and in the song when 18 they are praising him as blessed By god, it's actually that same expression.
We heard back in Matthew 21 When on paulm sunday jesus wrote into the city on the cult of adonky and the crowd went wild shouting hosanna to the son of david Blessed is he who comes in the name of the lord hosanna in the highest and some on that paulm sunday welcomed him as their messiah and king And some more says jesus will yet welcome me Before the end So jesus ends his sermon of woe's on a note of hope When you welcome me as your messiah then you have me as your messiah and then you have god with you And then you are no longer desolate How can that be because jesus is the true temple where god and man meet and jesus is the great high priest Who mediates for us reconciling us to god he is the true sacrifice Which atones for our sins he's the true messiah who saves his people and when you have me You have everything your soul needs for an eternity of joy Jesus holds that hope out to them So let me ask you and we put your name in there just for a moment. It's an interesting exercise. Oh jerusalam Jerusalem Oh Ted you you Are you simon simon full of self-confidence sure you're better than other than all the other believers and have no idea You're about to be sifted like wheat by the enemy of your soul Are you oh martha martha distracted by many other things And so frazzled You aren't sitting at the feet of jesus Or you saw saw persecutor of jesus even as you persecute his people Or are you a Jerusalem Jerusalem obstinately giving or going your own way and unwilling To come to him Or are you one of his chicks who has sheltered yourself under the shadow of his wings? Oh, I implore you Put your hope in him for pardon from god For peace with god and for the coming paradise of god take refuge Under the shadow of his wings.
May the lord grant us all to do so. Let's pray Father, thank you for the gift of your son a great and precious savior We ask that you would bless us in him and that you would draw every heart To trust in him and that he would receive great glory In jesus name we pray amen amen. Let's stand together and sing