Beware The Fox (Jerusalem’s Judgment)

Amen. Church, as you're standing, please turn to Luke's Gospel, chapter 13 and verse 31. Our text for this afternoon is going to be Luke chapter 13 and verse 31. Hear you this afternoon the word of the Lord.

At that very hour, some pharisees came and said to him, get away from here, for Herod wants to kill you. 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 finish my course.

Nevertheless, I must go on my way today and tomorrow and the day following, for it cannot be that a prophet should perish away from Jerusalem. Oh, Jerusalem, Jerusalem, the city that kills the prophets and stones those who are sent to it.

How often I would have gathered your children together as a hen gathers her brood under her wings, and you were not willing. Behold, your house is forsaken. And I tell you that you will not see me until you say, blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord.

This is the word of the Lord. You may be seated. We're continuing our series through Luke this afternoon. And just as we learned this morning, the call of Jesus Christ to the people of Israel in that day, in that particular time, was that the gate was narrow.

The door of salvation is indeed a narrow door, and in particular for those who do not believe. And we see how in this narrative, Jesus gives a stinging message of judgment against the Jewish people who are unrepentant and who are not accepting and embracing the Messiah as the proper and true King of Israel.

So he says to them that the first shall be last, and last shall be first, a reference to the order of kingdoms being recognized in God's kingdom, and so the Gentiles would be accepted into this new arrangement, and they would be the ones left out should they continue in their unbelief.

And here we see that this is a very stinging political message. So if you doubt it in the context of what was stated this morning, well, this sounds more spiritual than political. No, by no means. Of course, it's a spiritual truth that Jesus is sharing, but it's also a political one, because it says in verse 31, that very hour some Pharisees came and said to him, get away from here, for Herod wants to kill you.

Why would Herod want to do that? Clearly what Jesus is saying is sparking controversy, not just amongst the religious leaders and scholars of his day, but even among the political powers in that time and region.

And so what we see here is that after Jesus calls Israel to repentance, I want you to write this in the next part of your notes here, after Jesus calls Israel to repentance, the Pharisees warn him to flee because of Herod.

Consider this, as Jesus makes his way through Israel, he's bringing a consistent message about the kingdom of God and of repentance. Because looming large over Israel's future in this narrative of Luke is Israel's looming large over Israel's future is this, God's righteous judgment against her for her unfaithfulness in the inevitable rejection of the Messiah.

The Lord consistently throughout scripture provides ample warning and opportunity for repentance to a given people. To turn away from sin and wickedness. God is patient and He's long-suffering. He demonstrates His kindness in the time that He gives us, even people today, the opportunity to repent before calamity strikes.

For the Lord is merciful and it's filled with long-suffering and loving kindness. So before His mighty hand of judgment comes down, He offers His people escape by repentance. And no greater chance did He give Israel than by sending His only Son to be the final prophet and Savior of His people.

The Pharisees were likely not trying to give Jesus any favors here by warning Him. Since in Luke's gospel, any time the Pharisees are mentioned, it's usually in a negative light and connotation. But they were likely demonstrating the scope, not just of the religious and spiritual opposition to Jesus, but also the political powers coupled with the religious opposition to Christ.

You see, Jesus is the great unifier. He's the great unifier in that people either gather under Him by faith and repentance, or they gather against Him. But Jesus always unifies a people, either for Him or against Him.

In other words, Jesus is polarizing. He's a very polarizing figure. No figure in history has been more polarizing than Jesus. So polarizing is He that even today, a mere mention of His name will elicit a number of different reactions.

People will either worship or people will either be detested or ashamed. The reaction of Jesus offers many different, elicits many different responses, but it's usually always either for Him or against Him.

And so again, Jesus calls Israel to repentance, and the Pharisees warn Him to flee because of Herod, seeing the political and the spiritual powers at work at that time were consistently united against Christ and His kingdom.

Interestingly enough, what Jesus goes on to say here in verse 32, He says, "'Go and tell that fox, behold, I cast out demons and perform cures today, and tomorrow on the third day I finish my course.'".

Jesus calls Herod a what? A fox. Now, Jesus isn't trying to be cute here. He's not saying, oh, you're a foxy guy or you're a cool cat or something like that. He's not using that term in any way that is positive.

Jesus calls Herod a fox, and that's an epithet for a sly, I want you to write this in notes, for a sly or crafty person. You see, the Lord Jesus was not deterred by the brazen and veiled threats that came from the Pharisees or came by Herod, the ruler of Galilee.

Jesus knew the religious and the political opponents were in cahoots against Him, but He also knew that their threats were not going to deter His mission to go to Jerusalem and to be the Passover sacrifice for the elect of God's people.

Our Lord goes as far as to use a well-known Jewish idiom, calling Herod a fox, which had two meanings and uses at the time. The first meaning was this, like we asked you to write, someone who is sly or crafty.

Clearly, the Pharisees and Herod thought that they were being slick. They thought they were being crafty. They thought they were being smart in how they were approaching the problem of Jesus Christ. Herod had recently beheaded John the Baptist, and Jesus was now in the crosshairs.

The other way that this common term was used and understood in this context was a fox was also an idiom for someone who thought themselves to be a lion, but were actually a smaller animal than fox. They thought themselves to be something bigger than they actually are.

I think both of these meanings have an appropriate usage here by the Lord Jesus Christ. One, that Herod finds himself or figures himself out to be crafty, sly in some way, but he isn't. He also thinks of himself as something bigger than he actually is.

He might think of himself as a lion, but he is far from it. A small fox was not going to stop Jesus from following and finishing his earthly course. A fox will try and manipulate you with fear to try to keep you from your course.

Brothers and sisters, don't listen to the foxes of life, who have all, to use a common phrase in today's culture, who are all bark but no bite, because a fox is no match for the lion of the tribe of Judah, amen?

Amen. No fox can deter the true lion of God's people, the true champion of God's people. Jesus is that great lion. Jesus is that great champion of his people, and not even the religious or political powers will deter Jesus from going to Jerusalem.

No one was going to stop him, which is why Jesus says in verse 33, nevertheless, I must go on my way today and tomorrow and the day following, for it cannot be that a prophet should perish away from Jerusalem.

Jesus knew where he was heading. Jesus knew what lied ahead in Jerusalem. He says a prophet will not be killed outside of Jerusalem. He knows his end is coming. He knows that his life is coming to an end at the hands of his opponents, and yet he also knew that on the way there, no one will be able to stop him.

No one will be able to deter Jesus from following and finishing his course. Such great confidence Jesus had in the plan of the Father, so we too in life, when we examine our own course, our own life, the own challenges, and the own foxes of our lives, must be determined and steadfast in recognizing that God has the final say in every matter, and so don't be deterred by the foxes of life nor the difficulties and challenges this world throws at you.

Know that God eventually has his way in all things, and Jesus knew this to be the truth, and he said the prophet should not perish away, for it cannot be that a prophet should perish away from Jerusalem.

Jesus knew that Jerusalem was not to be deterred. Now, I want you to write this in your notes, Christ again points to Jerusalem as the center of his mission. He dismisses Herod's threats here in verse 33, because again, as I've mentioned, a fox's threat is no match for the lion's power and the lion's promise.

Jesus is using irony here, as Jerusalem was the place of the murder of many prophets. Most notably, we see in Jeremiah chapter 26, verses 20 to 23, Uriah is a prophet that is murdered in Jerusalem. In 2 Chronicles chapter 24, verse 20 to 22, Zechariah is a prophet that is murdered in Jerusalem.

In the legends of Jewish literature, the prophet Isaiah is spoken of as being murdered in Jerusalem, and so Jerusalem was the place in which the prophets were known to be stoned and put to death, and Jesus knew that his destiny was to be put to death in Jerusalem, not outside.

So no wonder he did not take Herod's threat or the leaders of the Pharisees, their threats, with much concern, because he knew where he would end up. Along that line, we see in verse 34, Jesus laments Jerusalem by saying, O Jerusalem, Jerusalem, the city that kills the prophets and stones those who are sent to it, how often or how often would I have gathered your children together as a hen gathers her bird under her wings, and you were not willing.

This is an interesting text of Scripture for many reasons. Jesus is again heading towards Jerusalem. What does he do? He mourns for it. He mourns for Jerusalem. He says, O Jerusalem, Jerusalem, the city that kills the prophets and stones those who are sent to it.

Christ is declaring Jerusalem's judgment for the violence against the saints and the messengers of God. I want you, if you can, turn to Matthew chapter 23. We're going to look at the synoptic account in Matthew's version, in Matthew chapter 23, and we're going to look at verse 34.

In verse 34 of Matthew 23, notice what it says in Matthew's account of the same story. He says, Therefore I send you prophets and wise men and scribes, some of whom you will kill and crucify, and some of you will flog in your synagogues and persecute from town to town, so that on you may come all the righteous blood shed on earth, and the blood of righteous Abel, and the blood of Zechariah, the son of Berechiah, whom you murdered between the sanctuary and the altar.

Truly I say to you, all these things will come upon this generation. Verse 37, O Jerusalem, Jerusalem, the city that kills the prophets and sows those who are sent to it. How often would I have gathered your children together as a hen gathers her brood under her wings, and you were not willing.

See your house is left to you desolate. This is a forewarning and foreshadowing of Jerusalem's eventual demise and destruction in the year 70 AD. A lot of people debate about the Olivet Discourse, which is Matthew chapter 24, where Jesus says, truly I say to you, all these things will come upon this generation.

So many people have theorized in the evangelical world, in the cults such as the Jehovah's Witnesses and the Mormons, who is that generation? Who is that generation that has been referred to? It must be the pre-tribulation generation.

It must be the post-tribulation generation. It must be all these other generations. Because friends, Jesus answers the question that is raised so often here in chapter 23 of Matthew, when he says, again, in verse 35, so that on you, whom he was speaking to, that generation may come all the righteous blood shed on earth from the blood of the righteous Abel to the blood of Zechariah, the son of Burkiah, who you murdered between the altars.

He says, truly I say to you, all these things will come upon this generation. This generation. If you were listening to Jesus say these words, you would get no comfort in thinking to yourself, oh boy, those people in 2024, they really got it coming.

That's not what they would have been thinking of. They would have been thinking, boy, we're in trouble. But what we do so often, especially when it comes to eschatological expectations, is that we put into the text our own perspective, our own context.

So many people isageth a text instead of exageth a text. They read into rather than reading out or taking out, drawing out from the text, which is why so many churches and denominations fall into eschatological errors when examining the end times.

And so here Jesus answers who and what the mystery of the generation is. It's the generation of judgment that was coming upon that particular people at that particular time. Christ here in Matthew chapter 23 and in Luke chapter 13 is declaring judgment against Jerusalem for the violence that she has shed against the saints and the messengers of God.

She will be held guilty for the bloodshed of all the righteous blood shed on the earth, which is what is also alluded to in many chapters of the book of Revelation. He predicts this disaster will fall upon that generation.

You see, the root cause of bad eschatology is reading into the prophecy with a 21st century mindset. There's a commentary that was produced in the 1800s called The Finnish Mystery, and it was a commentary on the book of Revelation.

This commentary tried to argue that in Revelation chapter 11, I believe, where there is this vision of these locusts with the bodies or the locusts with the face of a man that comes out of the abyss, and the way that this commentary interpreted this passage was that this was a reference to the modern day locomotive.

Yes, friends, the monsters and the locusts that come out of the abyss are locomotives. No, I don't think so. You know what that is? That's bad hermeneutics. That's bad eisegesis of the text. They're reading into the text with their, at that time, 19th century perspective.

And so many times we read the Scriptures in that same way through our lens, through the lens of a newspaper, but friends, the Scripture speaks for itself. Scripture interprets Scripture. And so, friends, we must, for lack of time, we won't be able to examine the account of Jeremiah chapter 26 and 2 Chronicles chapter 24, but I encourage you to look at those passages in your free time so you could see how it is that in times past, we see the martyrdom of the prophet Uriah and the other prophets that were martyred in Jerusalem.

But one of the things I want to draw out of those examples, while we don't have time to examine the particular verses, one of the things that I want us to examine is that things got so bad for the prophet after he prophesied the truth, this is the prophet Uriah, that he had to flee to Egypt.

John Calvin says this, when God wants to judge a nation, He gives them wicked rulers. When God wants to judge a nation, He gives them wicked rulers. And it's the job of the prophet to declare truth, to give an opportunity for repentance, but also warn them of the impending doom.

Jesus is the final prophet of God's people, and He knows He's about to be killed for His message. But He offers repentance, and He calls judgment on these unrepentant people. Like King Jehoiakim, of which it is referenced in the Old Testament, and Herod, both of these men are like a fox, trying to stamp out the Word of God, trying to stamp out His messengers.

Though, for instance, in times past, they had some success, like Herod even with John the Baptist. These men ultimately were unable to stop the preaching work in Jeremiah, they were unable to stop God's judgment of Israel by Nebuchadnezzar, and they were unable to stop Jesus Christ to fulfilling His mission by going to the cross in Jerusalem.

They were not able to stop what God had ordained. Beware of those who would try and deter, either hinder or stop, the proclamation of the gospel of Christ. Beloved, beware of the foxes. Beware of those who would try to keep you from fulfilling your obligation and your ministry.

What do we see at the conclusion of this text in our main text in Luke chapter 13? Similarly, as we saw in chapter 23 of Matthew, Jesus goes on to say how He wanted to gather Jerusalem but she was not willing, therefore, certain calamity and destruction would fall upon her.

And again, that was fulfilled in the year 70 AD. Verse 35 says, behold, your house is forsaken. Matthew's account says your house is desolate, desolate. You know what a desolation looks like? If you've ever gone to an old western town where it was populated heavily during the gold rush, and you can go into these old towns, and you go into these old houses, and the beds are still there.

Maybe the old can of food is still on the old really rinkety-dinky kitchen stove, and it's just desolate. It's all covered with moss, with rust, with spider webs, and it's completely desolate. And that's what will be Jerusalem's reward, desolation.

And this desolation was for the house of Israel, and I want you to write this in the notes. Israel's house was forsaken or desolate. But there's hope. In verse 35, behold, your house is forsaken. I tell you, you will not see me until you say, blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord.

Israel's house was forsaken, desolate, until they bless the Lord Jesus Christ. Israel, though first in the election of God's people, will be last to receive Christ. And I leave hope. I could be wrong in this, but I leave an optimistic eschatological expectation that at the end of the age, God willing, before the coming of the Lord Jesus Christ, that we see a revival with the ancient people of God, with the Israelites and the Jewish people.

That they, just as the Gentiles have received Christ in mass, so they too may hopefully by God's grace receive the gospel in mass. But what that means for us, the elect, made up of Jew and Gentile, is that our mission is clear.

Our proclamation is not simply to the Jew, and it's not simply to the Gentile. It is for the Jew and the Gentile, because the gospel is good news for the Jew and the Gentile, because God has taken the two and making one new man.

That's the hope. And that's what God has done in the church. Here we have a church made up of at least a Jew and Gentiles. We have in our midst the fulfillment of what God has promised. And so, beloved, may you find yourselves even today being among those who bless the name of the Lord even today.

Because there's salvation in no other name given among men by which we might be saved, but the name of Jesus. There are not two classes of salvation, there's not two ways of salvation, there's not multiple ways of salvation.

There's one way to salvation, and it's through Jesus. So should there be revival amongst the Gentiles or amongst the Jews, it will come by faithfully proclaiming the gospel of free grace in Jesus Christ.

That's the only hope for the Jew, and it's the only hope for the Gentile. It's the hope of the world and the hope of the nations. May you come to know this hope, and remember to beware the foxes. Let me pray.

Sovereign Lord, we do thank you for the warning that you have given in times past to a stiff-necked and stubborn people. When in times past your people have not heeded the warning of judgment and certain calamity fell upon them, may we receive your word as you have given us in the New Testament as a word of instruction for our good, for edification, so that we may see the sins and mistakes of people in times past and be able to escape the wrath that is to come upon the sons of disobedience.

Lord, help us in our endeavor to draw closer to you. Lord, help us to resist the calls of the foxes of this world, who though they think of themselves to be lions or sly or crafty, they cannot and will not stop the work that you have ordained for your church.

Lord, help us to be steadfast like Jesus, our eyes pointed toward Jerusalem, our eyes now being pointed toward the true Jerusalem, the heavenly Jerusalem spoken of in Hebrews chapter 12, amongst which we see a throng of the ancient people of God and the modern people of God, the church.

We thank you, Lord, for that.