41 As he approached Jerusalem and saw the city, he wept over it 42 and said, “If you, even you, had only known on this day what would bring you peace—but now it is hidden from your eyes. 43 The days will come upon you when your enemies will build an embankment against you and encircle you and hem you in on every side. 44 They will dash you to the ground, you and the children within your walls. They will not leave one stone on another, because you did not recognize the time of God’s coming to you.”
This passage is a prophecy of Jesus as he came to Jerusalem for the Passover celebration.
I had a little understanding of this passage. Knowing the Bible, knowing the history of Jerusalem, I could piece together pretty well what was going on here.
I skim read MacArthur's sermon, because I knew the break down had to be deeper than I was going!
MacArthur says this....(for a quicker read through, I've made bold the points that stood out to me)
(Jesus is) Not talking about peace with Rome, not talking about political peace, not talking about internal social peace, He’s talking about peace with God. “If you had only known, if you had only known the things that make for peace.” What makes for peace? Repentance, faith in Christ, believing the message of the Kingdom. He had preached it from the very beginning, He preached repentance and the Kingdom. How to come into the Kingdom through faith in Him, repentance from sin. He had preached it all along. I’m not going to take you back through the gospel of Luke, but you can go all the way back to chapter 4, chapter 5, chapter 6, chapter 7, chapter 8, all the way through and see Jesus offering them again and again and again and again, the good news of peace with God.
If you had known...if you had understood...if you had embraced and believed this day...what day is He talking about? He’s not talking about Monday, that day...this day, the time of My presence in your nation, if you had only understood and believed in this incredible hour in which I have moved among you, if you had only believed the things that make for peace, the salvation message...that’s salvation language, peace with God, reconciliation, the gospel. But unbelief had blinded them all the way along. They chose to be unbelieving, hard-hearted, self-righteous rejecters of Christ. He gave invitation after invitation after invitation, they rejected them all and therefore they rejected peace...peace with God.
He had already pronounced doom on them at the end of chapter 13. “O Jerusalem, Jerusalem, the city that kills the prophets, stones those sent to her, how often I wanted to gather your children together just as a hen gathers her brood under her wings...you wouldn’t have it. Behold, your house is left to you desolate.” Then He added, “You’ll not see Me until the time comes when you say, ‘Blessed is He who comes in the name of the Lord.’” You’re never going to see Me until you finally turn and believe. That hasn’t happened yet. The judgment pronounced here is still in place. Israel today currently is under divine judgment. Are they God’s chosen people for a future salvation? Yes. Will He preserve them as a people unto that salvation? Yes. But currently they are under the same judgment that launched against them by God in the pronunciation of Jesus here and began in its powerful expression in 70 A.D., forty years later with the destruction of Jerusalem. Since that time, Jerusalem has been trodden underfoot to one degree or another by the Gentiles, until the times of the Gentiles ends. And we’ll learn about that in Luke chapter 21.
They made their choice. The celebration was superficial and He knew it. In fact, He even says, “But now they have been hidden from your eyes.” Whatever this celebration means, whatever is going on here, however you may be emotionally caught up in this thing, the truth is, you have rejected Me, you continue to reject Me, and it is hidden from your eyes, the truth is hidden from your eyes. The gospel of peace, the only way of reconciliation with God. This is not just a statement of divine judgment, though it is an affirmation, it is a statement of their own self-imposed blindness. In fact, now they have been hidden from your eyes. Right now here and now, you’re in the dark. In the future, they will not believe. For what was a chosen blindness becomes a judicial blindness. They never believe. Read the record of Acts 2 through 7, Jerusalem never believers. They don’t believe now, they never have. They will not until the end time when they look on Him whom they pierced, as Zechariah said, mourn for Him as an only Son, a fountain of cleansing is open, then they receive their Kingdom...that’s in the future.
And Jesus then describes the judgment that is coming, verse 43, “For the days shall come upon you when your enemies will throw up a bank before you, surround you, hem you in on every side, level you to the ground and your children within you, and they will not leave in you one stone upon another.”
We all know what happens to Jerusalem. In 70 AD the Romans lay siege to the city and it is destroyed. It is never fully rebuilt. The Israelites have yet to regain a homeland, have yet to rebuild Jerusalem.
MacArthur brings it home with this statement:
But it’s not just Israel’s history. Can I make it very practical for you? Rejection of Jesus Christ as Lord is catastrophic for you, too. It’s no less catastrophic for you than it was for them. What about your day of opportunity? What about the time when you’ve heard the gospel, when the gospel’s been presented to you? The time when you’ve been told how you can be reconciled to God? What have you done with your visitation? Have you recognized the time of your spiritual opportunity or is the end going to be as catastrophic for you as it was for them? What are you doing about God’s gracious visitation in your life with the truth of the gospel?
That’s the question you have to answer. It’s history but it’s a monumental lesson to the catastrophe of rejecting Christ. Don’t follow that path. Become one of Him, embrace Him as your Savior.
That’s the question you have to answer. It’s history but it’s a monumental lesson to the catastrophe of rejecting Christ. Don’t follow that path. Become one of Him, embrace Him as your Savior.
Tomorrow's scripture focus: Luke 19:45-48
1 comment:
Rejecting Christ is catastrophic indeed! What I love about this passage is that Jesus gets no pleasure from this thought. To the contrary - he weeps! For the very people who will betray and reject Him. Amazing.
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