The Gospel of Luke 13:18-35, O, Jerusalem, Jerusalem!
Luke 13:18-35 · Vern Peterman · Jan 10, 2016
Gospel of Luke, No. 55
Holly Hills Bible Church
https://hollyhillsbiblechurch.org/teaching/messages/4926525547857

Transcribed from the recording by SermonAudio, so expect the occasional misheard word.

Good morning. We're going to move into this passage, Luke 13, 18-35. Now, I need to let you know this passage starts with two parables. In fact, we could put that with a pair of parables. Sorry about that. Luke 13, 18, so he was saying, What is the kingdom of God like, and to what shall I compare it? He has a rhetorical question here to introduce his telling of these parables. As a matter of fact, he does it twice. From his question, however, we come to understand that his parables were to present something like the kingdom of God. So here's something to be compared. It's a key point.

Jesus could see the kingdom of God as if it were the present. This is how God sees time. Christ was stepping into time, into the time tunnel like we live in. But in fact, his saying, before Abraham was born, I am, that illustrates and makes clear how God sees time. And so he could already see it in place and happening.

He was making illustrations, however, to bring understanding to those who were listening. Let's talk about the Kingdom. Though some have viewed the terms Kingdom of God and Kingdom of Heaven as having different meanings, we see them as having the same meaning.

And rather than go into all the detail for that, the term Kingdom of Heaven is only used in Matthew, written to the Jews. The Jews would hesitate to say the name of God for fear that they might use the name of God in vain at some point. Even now you'll find Jews often in their writings will put G-D in order to keep that separate. We actually will use heaven as a substitute for God even in our own English speaking and writing. And so, for example, someone, rather than saying, oh God, would say, oh heavens, or instead of God knows, will say heaven knows.

So that expression is even carried over into our modern English. So we have a supplement on the cabinet to the right if you are interested in pursuing that a little bit further. When we say the kingdom, we're talking about the future kingdom, sometimes called the millennial kingdom. That means a thousand years. Revelation 20 has the thousand year figure six times. Kingdom of God, Kingdom of Heaven, or sometimes just Kingdom. Those are all equivalent and looking to that future time that will begin as soon as seven years from now. So here's Luke 13, 19.

It is like a mustard seed which a man took and threw into his own garden, and it grew and became a tree, and the birds of the air nested in its branches. The Jews had a cultural expression, small as a mustard seed. Whenever something was small, that would be the point of comparison. Small as a mustard seed.

So Jesus used that cultural expression to talk about the start of the kingdom. Here they were having 12 disciples, one of whom would betrayed Jesus, had 12 disciples, they didn't get that many followers. There were other rabbis, by the way, who had far more disciples. And so a very small start, and eventually the kingdom would be great and global and actually cosmic in its significance.

There are several Old Testament passages. We give them here out of Judges, Psalms, and Ezekiel. that used the symbol of a tree for a kingdom, sometimes with birds in it, sometimes not. So he was drawing upon an Old Testament picture, as well as a Jewish expression, small as a mustard seed. The mustard seed is small. You can see that little tiny, almost a dot there, pinched between the fingers. But it grows into a tree much, much larger than one would expect of that tiny seed.

The beginnings of the kingdom at the time of Christ's first coming were small, with little apparent significance. The Romans made minimal note of Jesus. Other historians and whatnot outside of the Bible did record things about Jesus, but it was often in a sort of a third-class kingdom at the far end of the Roman Empire, and even the region itself was not something that was thought of much at the time.

The Kingdom of God on Earth, however, will grow to global and cosmic significance by the start of the Millennial Kingdom, and then calling it the Kingdom of Heaven means Heaven essentially empties in order to bring all those who are going to be in the Kingdom.

To give a kind of a broad sense here, Ephesians 1, 9, and 10, I've done sort of an expanded and explained to bring out the context and the meaning there. He, the Father, made known to us in the church, through the apostles and prophets, the previously unrevealed mystery of his will, according to his kind intention which he, the Father, purposed in Christ. from the plan and perspective of God's administration of all things, which we now know includes the church, toward the full completion and final stage of the earthly times, that is, the summing up and bringing into submission of all things in Christ in the Millennial Kingdom, including all the things in the heavens and the things on the earth. Here's Luke 13, 20 and 21, and again he said, to what shall I compare the kingdom of God?

Another rhetorical question. It is like leaven, which a woman took and hid in three pecks of flour until it was all leavened. Now, take a look at this. Leaven can be a symbol of evil sometimes in Jewish thinking, but that's not always the case. Leviticus has got a couple of places where leaven is actually looked upon as a good thing. It does seem to have a good connotation here in this context. A peck is about two gallons. Not too many of us go around measuring things by pecks anymore. But a peck is about two gallons. And so if you're talking about three peck, this is six gallons of flour. That's a fair amount.

Matter of fact, that'd probably take over your kitchen when you put yeast in it, right? So that's quite a bit. So just like the yeast in the dough makes the bread rise, the developing of the kingdom happens as an unseen process. It's not noticed except that it happens gradually. Eventually it has visible results. And so you would have this fairly large mass of flour once it's all raised.

So God's process in us is not visible either. We're not Israel and our hope is not in the land of Israel. What God has done in us when we first believed, and the processes that He is carrying out in us are invisible as well. God's doing a great work, and you can't see any of it. There are some invisible things that do not change once we're saved, and also there are things that God does over time. There are processes of growth and being conformed and being transformed. Those are all things that God does over time, and they're all things that are invisible things.

We understand them by faith alone. One of the things for us to realize in this whole thing, everything will be summed up in Christ. This comes out of Ephesians 1, 9 and 10. It's easy for us to look at the world and say, boy, things are just getting crazier and crazier, when it seems like evil is getting the upper hand. It's important for us to keep in mind that God's ultimate purposes will not be thwarted. You will be conformed to the image of Christ. The right time Christ died for us, God saw that that would happen.

Now, was it a crazy time when Christ was born and when Christ died for us? Yes, it was a crazy time. Here it was. Israel was under the Romans, you know. Here is Jesus, and as He is born, Joseph and Mary have to keep moving around in order to avoid the troubles, right?

But at the right time, Christ died for us. At the right time, the Father will tell the Son, go get your bride and we'll be out of here. At the right time. At the right time, Christ will come again with us. All these things are going to happen. And this next election that we've got going on in our country, there's nothing that's going to happen in that election that's going to stop any of this. Nothing will be thwarted that are God's purposes. And everything in the end will be summed up in Christ. But right before then, it's going to look even crazier, right? Crazier than it is now. We will be conformed to the image of the Son. God's going to make that happen. Here's Luke 13, 22.

And he was passing through from one city and village to another, teaching and proceeding on his way to Jerusalem. Jesus was going about from town to town and city to city. telling people what they needed to hear, even to those who would not respond favorably to his message. Jesus would give the gospel to people that he knew would not receive it. Jesus would teach to those who would not listen. So Jesus continues to carry on his ministry all the way to the cross and beyond.

He's going to do that regardless of what people say or do. He takes the time to visit small towns and even talk to individuals and even small groups. And He heads intentionally toward Jerusalem. You know what amazes me as I ponder, here's our Lord and He's about to bear the sins of all of us from Adam to the last person born. He's about to go through unimaginable agony. And in the worst part of it, breaking fellowship with the Father.

But he takes the time to tell the guy next to him, today you'll be with me in paradise. Isn't that amazing? I mean, you might think, oh, he's really going to be distracted. Well, you would think that. But he takes the time to talk to this one guy who didn't deserve anything. the criminal next to him, who believed at the last minute.

Christ is keeping an appointment. He heads towards Jerusalem on purpose, even though, and he knows, that there he will be crucified. He's not a victim. He chose. As a matter of fact, he chose an eternity past before he said, let there be light. He has an appointment to keep. He has an appointment to keep there in Jerusalem, just outside of the city walls. Jesus will keep His appointment because He loves you, and He loves me, and everyone on the planet from Adam to the last one born. He's going to keep that appointment.

And we see that here in this passage. The believer is in Christ in these five events. being crucified, buried, raised, ascended, and seated with Him. He's going to start that with being crucified. He's going to keep that appointment so that we can be identified with Him in that crucifixion. There are multiple purposes for Christ dying on the cross, and this is one of them, that we in the body of Christ would be identified with Him in that death.

So in Luke 13, 23 and 24, and someone said to him, Lord, are there just a few who are being saved? And he said to them, strive to enter through the narrow door. For many, I tell you, will seek to enter and will not be able. So Jesus says, Directly as to you the question was here was about Whether just a few would be saved as opposed to the common Jewish idea the nerds in the Jewish culture the idea was that Abraham is Going to stand at the gates of hell to make sure no Jew ever gets in Okay, that was the Jewish mythology and Jesus says no Okay, that Jewish mythology is not true. I He says, strive to enter this narrow door. So Jesus answered with a yes with personal application. And so instead of just saying yes and then moving on, he says, you strive to enter through the narrow door. He told them they should strive to enter the narrow door, implying that, yes, only a few would be saved.

And this narrow door here at Nazareth Village would be an example. What was often done, especially since you lived in a place where Roman soldiers could easily get in, someone who had ill intent could easily get in, you actually have a smaller door put in the doorway to constrain the doorway. And you'd have to be very intentional about going through that narrow door, maybe even going sideways to get in. Over in Uganda, one of the things I noticed is some of the houses, even larger houses, you have to stoop all the way over to get in. They'll do something similar to that.

One of the key points to see in this, Christ is the narrow door. He personally is the narrow door. The focus was often in Christ's earthly ministry on the kingdom, an entrance to God's kingdom. Christ is always the narrow door. He is the narrow door into the kingdom. He is the narrow door for us to be saved, and not the wide entrance that so many would take. The wide door looks like a lot of other things, a lot of other things, but all of them are something or someone other than Christ. Christ is the only way in. Here's Luke 13, 25 through 27.

Once the head of the house gets up and shuts the door and you begin to stand outside and knock on the door saying, Lord, open up to us. Then he will answer and say to you, I do not know where you are from. Then you will begin to say, we ate and drank in your presence and you taught in our streets. And he will say, I tell you, I do not know where you are from. Depart from me, all you evildoers.

Now, what's interesting here is I look for pictures of Jesus knocking at the door, lots of pictures, but they all have a mistake. Jesus has got his mouth shut while he's knocking. I couldn't find one. And what the custom was, was to knock and say, Hello, this is Vern. I'm here for a loaf of bread. It has to be wheat-free. So at any rate, you would announce who you were. You would even announce what your purpose was in the visit and knock at the same time. That was the custom.

So that is why you'd see that pattern in Revelation 3.20, the, you know, behold, I stand at the door and knock. And so it says, behold, I stand at the door and knock, and if anyone hears my voice, which is, you know, I'm calling out the same time I'm knocking, that was the custom, and opens the door, I will come in to him and dine with him, and he with me. So that would have been the custom, you know, here as well.

One of the things Jesus is saying here is hanging out with Him doesn't count. You notice that Jesus had done things with them, but just hanging out with them doesn't count. Hanging around. It didn't count then and it won't count now. People continue to make this mistake.

Oh, I go to church, or I hang out with Christians, or whatever. Nancy and I knew a gal some years ago who liked to hang out with Christians. She enjoyed hanging out with Christians. And she even knew the gospel, but she said, I would stand just outside the door. That's a scary thought. That gal has passed. I hope she changed her mind.

Hanging around with other Christians won't do it, nor will just coming into a church building, nor trying to behave like a Christian. You know Him, and He knows you by faith, and that's it. No other way. We who believe and are in Christ, and notice that Jesus says, I don't know where you're from, we're from heaven. Just so you know. That's our address.

Luke 13 28 in that place there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth when you see Abraham and Isaac and Jacob and all the prophets in the kingdom of God, but yourselves being thrown out Those are pretty strong words Here is a similar passage Jesus speaks to the centurion this is in Capernaum the centurion is asking that Jesus heal his servant and So Matthew 8, 10-13, Now when Jesus heard this, he marveled and said to those who were following, Truly I say to you, I have not found such great faith with anyone in Israel. I say to you that many will come from east and west and recline at the table with Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob in the kingdom of heaven, but the sons of the kingdom, that is, those who should be the ones who are in the kingdom, The sons of the kingdom will be cast out into the outer darkness, in that place there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth.

And Jesus said to the centurion, Go, and it shall be done for you as you have believed. And the servant was healed that very moment." So here's Luke 13, 29 and 30. And they will come from east and west, from north and south, and will recline at table in the kingdom of God. And behold, some are last who will be first, and some are first who will be last.

Christ, in these words, is talking about what is the Messiah's banquet. There will be the marriage supper of the Lamb in heaven, right? That's chapter 19 of Revelation. And then at the beginning of the Millennial Kingdom on Earth, then will be the Messiah's banquet. So I'm not sure exactly what the food will be. It might not include pork. But nonetheless, the Messiah's banquet is what he's referring to there. It's talked about in Isaiah in a couple passages and also in Matthew 8-11.

Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob will be there as men of faith. But just being in their genealogical line won't guarantee presence there or rank. And that's one of the messages that Jesus brought around consistently. Just because you're descended from Abraham doesn't mean you're going to be there, right?

So the Sadducees didn't even believe in a Messiah, so they couldn't embrace the Messiah, and they really didn't embrace the kingdom idea either. Though they had a great ranking in Israel. So their ranking would go from top to zero. The Pharisees did believe in the Messiah, a descendant of David. But the Pharisees assumed that the Messiah was going to give them the highest rank of all.

Oh, the Pharisees thought, oh, the Messiah is going to love us. That's not how it turned out. Jesus did not speak well of the Pharisees, sometimes even very pointedly and directly, even after the Pharisee had given a dinner invitation. Jesus would speak very harshly about the Pharisees and their hypocrisy. And so they thought, oh, this can't possibly be the Messiah, because the Messiah is just going to love us.

So Jesus was saying the present order and ranking may not be the same order and ranking. Some would be lower and some higher in the kingdom to come. So being well-regarded now and being publicly regarded as spiritual won't guarantee a great ranking and reward in heaven, or that one will even go there. After examining carefully some of the high-profile, and I'll use this in quotes, Christians, I think some of the people who are well-known out there in kind of the televangelist category, actually are not saved. They don't seem to understand the gospel message.

So now, in Luke 13.31, just at that time, some Pharisees approached, saying to him, Go away, leave here, for Herod wants to kill you! Woo! Okay? Go away, leave here.

Herod wants to kill you. That's pretty intense. Now, just so we get the Herods right, there are several Herods even in the Book of Luke and other passages include other Herods. Herod the Great had, they debate, nine or ten wives. Not sure which. Lots of offspring. He killed some of them. A pretty cruel guy. He was not so great. But it's this Herod Antipas is the one that we're talking about here in this passage. And so you have him mentioned several times in Luke, and this is the last time here.

The Pharisees, sad to say, were lying. They were breaking the Ten Commandments. They were lying. Earlier in Jesus' ministry, Herod Antipas wanted to see Jesus. This is Luke 9.9. So, that's an indication he actually wanted to see them, not to see them killed. Later, here at Antipas, same guy.

Hoped Jesus would perform a miracle for him, but Jesus did not. But, though he mocked Jesus, he didn't, when he had the opportunity with Jesus standing right in front of him, he did not have him killed. So all the evidence says that the Pharisees are lying. What they really want to do is just kind of get them out of their area or make Jesus back down.

And Jesus' response makes it clear He's not backing down. So Luke 13, 32 and 33, And He said to them, Go and tell that fox, Behold, I cast out demons and perform cures today and tomorrow, and the third day I reach my goal. Nevertheless, I must journey on today and tomorrow and the next day, for it cannot be that a prophet would perish outside of Jerusalem." So Jesus spoke to the Pharisees as if they were the message carriers, as if they were in communication with Herod Antipas.

Now, a fox was a predator. In our culture, We typically say that the fox displays cunning or a sly behavior. That's what we typically think. However, the culture in Jesus' day was considered an insignificant animal of no particular consequence. Jesus walked in the light, but foxes hunted in the dark. So Jesus was actually saying, you know, what this guy is doing, according to what you're telling me, doesn't matter all that much, and I'm going to keep doing what I'm doing. I'm walking in the light, he's in the dark.

So Jesus said this threat from the Pharisees was not going to thwart or stop his plans, or make him change his plans to go to Jerusalem, after doing some more miracles first, right? Let's talk about perishing in Jerusalem. Jesus is telling me he would die upon reaching Jerusalem. That's the place to die, right? So he refers to himself in this passage as a prophet, and he was indeed prophesying his death. Was he not?

When we, a couple chapters back in Luke 11, 45 through 52, we saw the pattern of the Jews always persecuting the prophets. and especially in and around the city of Jerusalem, and then upgrading their tombs afterwards. This was the pattern that the Jews tended to have. Here's Luke 13, 34 and 35. O Jerusalem, Jerusalem, the city that kills the prophets and stones and those sent to her, how often I wanted to gather your children together, just as a hen gathers her brood under her wings, and you would not have it.

Behold, your house is left to you desolate, and I say to you, you will not see me until the time comes when you say, Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord." Now, double names and saying a full name, any child knows that's trouble, right? So, double names here is not a good sign. Oh, Jerusalem, Jerusalem is, oh boy, okay? So, Jesus speaks.

Using kind of a picture there of a mother hen on threat of danger to her chicks would gather them under her wings for protection And I noticed that on the farm. We had a number of chickens. I spent more time around chickens than you care to hear about anyway But I would see the hens gathering the chicks like this and that's time to look up because there's a hawk in the sky, right? And so that's the behavior and they pull them under their wings and into their feathers and they kind of puff the feathers up so that the chicks can easily fit in and be protected. So Jesus here uses that hen protecting the chicks picture regarding Jerusalem.

So he's speaking from his deity because he talks about how often I wanted to over the centuries, right? It talks about his desire over the centuries to protect Jerusalem. But the people would not come under his divine protection. And so Jerusalem was attacked. Jerusalem has since this time been attacked numerous times. We'll talk about that shortly. As a matter of fact, Jerusalem has been torn down and rebuilt something around 40 times. So he says, your house is left to you desolate. Your house is left to you desolate means they would lose everything that they had in the land of Israel.

Centered in the city of Jerusalem and that indeed they did the temple would be gone in 70 AD the the Jews rebelled they broke into the Antonia Fortress and killed all the Roman soldiers the Romans retaliated by killing all the Jews over in Caesarea and And then there were a few different waves of attack of the Romans finally in 70 AD The Romans came in With a huge number of soldiers soldiers brought from as far away as Britain Huge number of soldiers. They actually had a large number of soldiers in reserve just in case and so July 1st 70 AD they started with the battering the gates and they broke in about a month and a half later and It just went on a killing spree But the Jews had already killed many of their own those who refused to fight were killed The Sadducees were no more the Essenes were no more the court of Shammai Gone was also That event was the last of any identifiable descendants of Esau because a group of them went in to help the Jews fight but never came out.

Many thousands of Jews in Jerusalem and Israel killed. In northern Israel, Magdala was the last holdout. When the Romans finally broke through at Magdala, they killed everyone. It was a brutal, horrible time. Those not killed in this great tragedy were scattered away from Jerusalem. Some of them got to remain in Israel, but not in Jerusalem. The Romans made Jerusalem a Gentile city, named it Aeolia Capitolina, and gave it a different name. Jews were not allowed to live there.

Jesus says, Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord, at the end of this passage. This is from Psalm 118.26. they were actually said this word here was actually said shortly thereafter upon Jesus triumphal entry into Jerusalem and I put triumphal entry in quotes because it wasn't all that triumphal as we'll see eventually here chapter 19 Psalm 113 through 118 was known as the Hallel and you might recognize in that hallelujah okay praise God so this is praise these words were sung as a Jewish people ascended towards Jerusalem at feast times coming up out of Jericho and the long steep windy road that came up and they would sing the Hallel including blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord which they did sing, as Jesus wrote in on the donkey colt.

The words were sung at feast times in anticipation of the coming of the Messiah, and so this will actually have a double fulfillment, fulfillment at the time of his triumphal entry, but also a fulfillment when he comes again. As for us, however, we're to look for Christ coming for us. The Jews were to look for Christ coming to earth as the Messiah, but for us, what we're anticipating is Christ coming for us. Here's how it's going to happen at Christ's second coming.

Here's the Mount of Olives where He ascended from. He's going to come again. You see the Garden of Gethsemane there in the foreground. And Zechariah 14, describes Christ's second coming when he comes to the Mount of Olives and comes again. Here is looking up at the eastern gate on the eastern wall of the Temple Mount and it was an open gate when Jesus went through on his so-called triumphal entry.

It was closed by the Muslims as prophesied in Ezekiel chapter 44 And it will not be opened until Christ goes through it again. Around the World War I era, the Muslims were planning on opening that gate up. But the Bible says, no, Messiah is going to be the one to go through that gate next, after it's shut. The Muslims planned to open that gate up The next day, the British attacked. Plans ended. When the British came in and took Jerusalem, General Allenby talked about opening that gate up.

And one of the rabbis told him, oh, no, you won't. And it's not because I'll stop you. God will stop you. So General Allenby thought, oh, OK, we won't do that. And so then in 1967, the Israelis talked about attacking by opening up that gate and driving out the Jordanians who had control of old Jerusalem. And then a rabbi said, oh, no, you won't. You won't do that. So they said, I guess we won't. And they moved to the Lion's Gate and came in that way and surprised the Jordanians and drove them out.

But this is where Christ will come again. On that valley right in the foreground, that will be where the Antichrist and his armies will die. Right there. But we're looking for Christ coming for us. At the time Christ comes again with us, we will have been with Him in the heavenlies in new bodies for seven years, and perhaps longer. So we're not looking for his second coming, but for his coming for us, to take us to be with him. That is our blessed hope.

In Titus 2.13, here's the entire passage here, and we'll close with this. For the grace of God has appeared, bringing salvation to all men, instructing us to deny ungodliness and worldly desires, and to live sensibly, righteously, and godly in the present age, looking for the blessed hope and the appearing of the glory of our great God and Savior Christ Jesus. By the way, this is a great passage to show his deity, right? Who gave himself for us to redeem us from every lawless deed and to purify for himself a people for his own possession, zealous for good deeds, looking for the blessed hope.

Let's pray. Lord, we do pray that our hearts would be centered on looking for your coming for us and We just would even pray that today is the day and we do look for your coming. We do Look to the day when we will see you face to face We just pray this in Jesus name. Amen