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Sermon for Lord's Day May 8, 2021 "The Person and work of Jesus Christ"
Reading of God's Word, Luke chapter 13, and we're gonna read verse 31 through 35 in your hearing today. Luke chapter 13, verses 31 through 35. This is the word of the living God. At that very hour, some Pharisees came and said to him, get away from here, for Herod wants to kill you.
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 would I 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, you will not see me until you say, blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord. May the Lord add his blessings to his holy word. Heavenly Father, as I come before you, I come simply today to praise you and to thank you for the privilege and the honor of gathering together in your house on your day, in your name, with your people, to proclaim what thus says the word of the living God.
And my request today would be this simply, Lord, please help us to fix our hearts and our minds, our gaze, let it be upon you and you alone. And I pray that today, that those souls that are in this place, the souls that will hear the preached word of God today will be convicted of sin, would be comforted in the faith that they would be changed when they leave this place, for it's in Jesus' precious and holy name we pray, amen, and amen.
In verse 31 through 35, a very few verses today, really, that we're gonna be looking at, but it's important today as we enter in upon these verses that we kind of refresh our memory, refresh our minds so that we know exactly what's taking place.
Now, remember, here in Luke's gospel account, we have recorded for us the reporting of eyewitness accounts of the person and the work of Christ. Really, that's what we wanna focus on today is the person and the work of Christ.
Luke, in the first chapter, we are told clearly that Luke is writing to Theophilus. Theophilus is apparently a man of high social rank and a man who has believed in the person and in the work of Jesus Christ.
With that being said, I think now is a good time for us to recall to mind the fact that we as Christians today, we do not believe in an idea. We do not have confidence in a school of thought, but our hope and our faith is in the person and the work.
And the work of Jesus Christ. For in Jesus Christ alone, there is salvation. It is very important for all who hear this message today to take hold of the importance, and I'm gonna say it again, of the person and the work of Jesus Christ.
A right understanding of both who he is and what he has accomplished matters a great deal when it comes to the heart and the mind.
Being renewed and changed.
For a false gospel will not save. A false hope will not help us. A false truth will not lead you to eternal life. Jesus said to Thomas, I am the way, the truth, and the life. No man comes unto the father but by me.
So it is very, very important today that we consider the person and the work of Jesus Christ concerning what we are about to read. Now, in our own confession, the 1689 confession, chapter eight summarizes what we believe about Christ.
Paragraph one of chapter eight states, God was pleased in his eternal purpose to choose and to ordain the Lord Jesus, his only begotten son, according to the covenant made between them to be the mediator between God and humanity.
For the scripture tells us there is one man and there is one mediator between God and man, and that is the man Christ Jesus. The statement goes on to say that God chose him to be a prophet, priest, and a king, and he is the head and the savior of the church.
Who runs the church? Jesus Christ runs the church. He was appointed by God the Father to be the heir of all things, to be the judge of the world, and from all of eternity, God gave to the son a people to be his offspring, and in these people, those who have been saved by grace are referred to as those who have been redeemed, those who have been called, those who have been justified, those who have been sanctified, and those one day who will ultimately be glorified.
Jesus Christ, the person of Jesus Christ, he is the son of God, the second person of the Trinity, truly and eternally God. He is the brightness of the Father's glory. He is the same in substance and equal with him.
He made the world, and he sustains and governs everything that he has made. The scriptures tell us when the fullness of time came, he took upon himself human nature with all the essential properties and common weaknesses of it, but he is without sin.
He was conceived by the Holy Spirit in the womb of the Virgin Mary. The Holy Spirit came down upon her, and the power of the Most High overshadowed her according to the word of God. Thus, as the scripture states, he was born of a woman from the tribe of Judah, a descendant of Abraham and David in fulfillment of the scriptures.
Two whole, perfect, and distinct natures were inseparably joined together in one person without converting one into the other or mixing them to produce a different or a blended nature. That answers the heresies that were raised throughout the centuries.
This person is truly God and truly man, yet but one Christ. He is the only mediator between God and humanity. The third paragraph of the confession states the father was pleased to make all the fullness of God dwell in him so that he, being holy, harmless, and undefiled, this all ought to sound very familiar to us as we go through the catechism, right?
And he was full of grace and truth. He was thoroughly qualified to carry out the office of the mediator and the guarantor of our faith. The Lord Jesus most willingly undertook this office to discharge it.
He was born under the law and he perfectly fulfilled the law. He also experienced the punishment that we deserved and that we should have endured and have suffered because the scripture says he was made a curse for us.
For the scripture states, cursed is everyone who hangs on a tree. He who knew no sin became sin for us that we might be made the righteousness of God in him. The Lord Jesus fully satisfied the justice of God.
He obtained reconciliation and he purchased an everlasting inheritance in the kingdom of heaven for all those given to him by the father. He has accomplished these things by his perfect obedience and the sacrifice of himself, which he wants for all offered up.
Now, this office of mediator between God and humanity is appropriate for Christ alone. This is what the confession states. This is what the scriptures declare. It is only Christ alone. A priest cannot mediate to God for you.
I, the elders here at the church, cannot mediate between you and God. You have the privilege today of being able to come boldly unto the throne of grace to help and find mercy and grace to help you in time of your need based upon the work that Jesus Christ has done.
But he alone is the mediator. Now, the number and the character of these offices is essential, the prophet, priest, and king, three offices. Because we are ignorant, we need his prophetic office. Because we are alienated from God and imperfect in the best of our service, we need his priestly office.
And because we are hostile and utterly unable to come to God, we can be rescued and made secure from our spiritual enemies by his kingly office. And by that kingly office, he convinces, he subdues, he draws, he sustains, he delivers, and he preserves us for his heavenly kingdom.
All this is greatly important for us to be reminded of and to remember that every time we enter in upon reading of the scriptures, to know that it is pointing us to our Lord and our savior, Jesus Christ.
From old to the New Testament, the Puritan Thomas Adam stated it this way. This blessed Christ is the sole paragon of our joy. He's the fountain of life. He's the foundation of all blessedness. He is the sum of the whole Bible, prophesied, typified, prefigured, exhibited, demonstrated to be found in every leaf.
I love how he puts that, to be found in every leaf, almost in every line, the scriptures being, but as it were, the swaddling bands of the child Jesus. This Jesus Christ is the center of the whole of scripture.
This Jesus is the sum or the sum of divinity is scripture. The sum of the scripture is the gospel and the sum of the gospel is Jesus Christ. So when the gospel of Jesus Christ is proclaimed, we are, or when the gospel is proclaimed, we are preaching the person and the work of Jesus Christ because you cannot be saved any other way.
So just for by way of kind of refresher, in verse 22 of this same chapter, what do we read? He went on his way through the towns and villages, teaching and journeying toward Jerusalem. We see this journeying toward Jerusalem.
Now our Lord's aim and our Lord's goal was to finish what he came to do. I am grateful today that the Lord is not like me.
And he's not like you,.
That he begins a great many deal of activities like we do. We start a great many activities, but many times we do not follow through and finish on those activities. We procrastinate, we cast them aside and we see things of more importance and of more value.
But my friend, I want you to know, Christ never set aside the work of salvation. He completed it at the cross, or he said it is finished at the cross, but he continues to work in his sanctifying power in his people through the person and the work of the Holy Spirit.
So what was it Christ came to accomplish? To which our response would be, what says the word of God? To which I found myself replying, that's a great question. What does the word of God say? Why did Jesus come?
We read in Luke 19 chapter 10, Jesus himself states this, the son of man came to seek and to save that which is.
Lost.
Jesus came to accomplish what could not be accomplished by temporal sacrifices of the blood, shedding of blood of bulls and of goats. Jesus came, he came to provide eternal redemption by the sacrifice of himself, by the shedding of his own blood, by the dying of the death only he himself could die and by the raising to life on the third day.
It is one thing, as they say, whoever they are, you know what they say. They say this and they say that. It is one thing to say that I will give my life as a sacrifice, but it is a completely other thing to be raised to life from the dead by your own power.
It is the power of God in which Jesus was raised. Now Pilate, when Jesus stood before Pilate, Jesus stood before Pilate and what an answer Pilate is. Pilate asked him these many questions. Pilate looks to Christ and he says, do you not know that I have power to set you free and that I have power and authority to crucify you?
To which Jesus looks at Pilate and he said, you can have absolutely no power against me unless it has been given you from above. It is important for us to know this. And so as we look further, as a matter of refreshing our minds in verse 23 through 30, notice in verse 23 and 24, what the scripture says, someone said to him, Lord, will those who are saved be few?
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 to. Stephen Cole in a sermon shared a illustration about the missionary, David Brainerd.
David Brainerd, the great missionary to the American Indians was once witnessing to a chief who had come very close, seemingly to trusting in Christ, but he held back. Brainerd took up a stick, walked over to the chief, drew a circle around the chief and he said, chief, you need to decide before you cross this line.
Brainerd knew that if the chief missed that moment, he might never be close again. Cole said, my prayer is that the Lord will use this message to draw that line around you. If you have never entered through the narrow door, which is Christ alone, salvation, again, is not an idea.
It's not just an interesting theological notion to discuss. Salvation is of the utmost importance for every single person. And because the door is narrow, it will one day be shut forever more. But right now, it is still open.
It is open for to him that is joined to all the living, there is hope. Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ today. Turn from your sin and look unto the Savior. Now in verse 25 through 30, when once the master of the house has risen and shut the door and you begin to stand outside and to knock at the door saying, Lord, open to us, then he will answer you.
I do not know where you come from. Then you will begin to say, we ate, we drink in your presence and you talk in our streets. But he will say, I tell you, I do not know where you come from. Depart from me, all you workers of evil, all you workers of iniquity.
And in that place, there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth. When you see Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob and all the prophets in the kingdom of God, but you yourselves are cast out. And people will come from east and west, from north and south, and they will recline at table in the kingdom of God.
And behold, some who are last will be first and some who are first will be last. Spurgeon commented on that section of scripture and he said this, it will very much aggravate the sorrows of the lost to see so many saved whose prospects did not appear to be one half so hopeful as their own.
The least likely to be saved shall be saved. The blackest sinners, the vilest outcasts, the grossest unbelievers shall be brought to repentance and faith and they shall be saved. While those who were first in privilege, they were children of godly parents, they were professors of religion, they were those who appeared in every way likely to be saved at first, but they will be left to the last.
And some will be shut out of the kingdom of God never to enter. Spurgeon said, may God grant in his infinite mercy that nobody in this tabernacle tonight may be of that unhappy number to which I echo that today.
May you not be in the number who is outside of the narrow way. May you not be of the number who has not entered in by the narrow gate. The gate is open today. Enter in that you may have life. So with that being said, with all that being said, we pick up in our exposition of verse 31.
Through 35.
Now in verse 31 and 32, a cursory reading, just giving it a quick glance, it's easy really to miss what's happening here. The scripture says at that very hour after Jesus had just gave this hard speech, this hard saying to the Pharisees, at that very hour, some Pharisees came and they said to him, get away from here for Herod wants to kill you.
Now, if all we read was that one verse and we didn't have the context before and after, we might think to ourselves, there were some Pharisees who were kind toward Jesus. There were some Pharisees who really wanted to help Jesus out here, get him out of town, get him out of harm's way.
But the problem is that the context does not teach us such a thing from the text. For the scripture had told us earlier,.
If you remember,.
In chapter 11 of verse 53 and 54 of Luke. As he went away from there, the scribes and Pharisees began to press him hard and to provoke him and to speak to him about many things, lying in wait to catch him in something he might say.
The Pharisees' purpose toward Christ was never pure. It was never kind. They just wanted him out, as they say, of their hair. But notice, they came, they said, get away from here for Herod wants to kill you.
And Jesus, notice what Jesus did not say, how Jesus did not respond. Jesus did not put his arm around them and say, thank you so much, brothers. Thank you so much for your compassion and your kindness.
Thank you for looking out for me. But no, the scripture says that Jesus in verse 32, he said to them. Now, I don't know if it was a loud announcement or if it was a quiet announcement. But you know, sometimes the quiet warnings are the scariest of all.
And I can almost imagine, as Jesus may say,.
Come here, guys.
You go tell that fox. By the way, that wasn't a term of kindness. He wasn't saying, tell that pretty man, Herod. He was going, he said, you go tell that slimy, sneaky, you go tell that fox, I cast out that behold.
Look, he gave the example, behold, I cast out demons and I perform cures today and tomorrow and the third day. And what did Jesus say? I finish my course. I cast out demons and perform cures. Most writers interpret the triple time reference here as a Hebrew idiom for a short indefinite period of time, right, three days, as a short indefinite period of time.
And what it does, it means that it's going to be immediately followed by an imminent event. What was the imminent event? It was the giving of his life at Calvary. This is what this is leading to. And so it speaks of journeying on.
And Jesus said, I'm going to continue the miraculous signs without interruption or without detour. Quite simply, Jesus is saying that he would continue doing what he set out to do until he was finished.
Regardless of travel recommendations that were given to him by those Pharisees, regardless of the death threats from Herod, he would not be deterred. And thanks be unto God for that. That word finished my course is a Greek word, teliaho, it means the definition, if you want to write the definition of the Greek word for finished my course, what Jesus said there, it means this, it means to make perfect.
It means to complete. So to carry through completely.
It means to accomplish. It means to finish.
It means to bring to an end. It means to add what is yet wanting in order to render a thing full, to bring to the end goal that has been proposed, again, to accomplish, to bring to a close or a fulfillment by an event.
And as Jesus journeyed toward Jerusalem, the great event that he was heading toward was his sacrifice on the cross for our sin. Alexander McLaren wrote concerning Jesus' statement, go tell that fox. He said, even a lamb might be suspicious if wolves were to show themselves tenderly careful of his safety.
Pharisees taking Christ's life under their protection was enough to suggest that this was a trick. These men came to Christ, desirous of posing as counterworking Herod's intention to slay him. McLaren said, our Lord's answer bidding them to go and tell Herod what he immediately communicates to them shows that he regarded them as in a plot with that crafty, capricious kinglet as only 19th century language is so beautifully phrased.
Now concerning verse 32 again, when Jesus said, go tell that fox, Kenny's favorite preacher, the old preacher Vance Havner, he said, when the Pharisees tried to frighten our Lord with a threat from Herod, our Lord gave an amazing answer found only in Luke's gospel.
He said, in effect, I have a lot of work to do and a ministry to perform and I will complete it. And then this little paltry old man, Vance Havner, only he can put it, he said, when a man sets out to do the will of God, he will hear from the Pharisees and the foxes to use our Lord's word for Herod who intend to divert and to destroy it.
But this passage is just another way of saying that when we are in God's work and when we are in God's will, we are immortal until our work is done. Christ knew what he had came to do. When the Pharisees, Havner goes on, when the Pharisees and the foxes try to confuse and discourage us with their predictions and their warnings, let us tell them we are on God's schedule and he who has begun a good work in us will finish it.
The man who has set out to do the will of God in his life is linked up with heaven and nothing that happens on earth can defeat him unless he departs from what God has called him to do and to be. Havner went on, Jesus was often saying, my time is not yet come.
Then on the night of his arrest in the garden of Gethsemane, he said, this is your hour and the power of darkness. His hour and the Jewish leader's hour met in a head-on collision. It looked like Jesus lost, but he won through the death and the resurrection.
Whoever lives for Christ is immortal. He lives until his work is finished on earth and he continues life in heaven. This is our great hope as Christians today. Now concerning verse 31 and 32 as well, I want to mention what J .C. Ryle states.
The subject, Ryle said is a delicate one, and this is by way of personal application really for all of us here concerning what we see, this steadfast resolve, this steadfast dedication and devotion to the father.
Ryle said this, this subject is a delicate one, but one which concerns our happiness so much that it deserves solemn consideration. J .C. Ryle in the 1900s wrote this, we are not intended to be idol fatalists like the Muslims or cold, unfeeling statues like the Stoics.
We are not to neglect the use of means or to omit all prudent provision for the unforeseen future. In other words, we don't just sit on our hands and wait and what happens will happen. That's what he's saying, we don't do that.
To neglect means is a fanaticism and it's not faith, but still when we have done all, we should remember that though the duties are ours, the events belong to God. We should therefore endeavor to leave things to come in God's hands and not to be over anxious about health or family or money or plans.
To cultivate this frame of mind, Ryle said, would add immensely to our peace as Christians. How many of our cares, how many of our fears are about things which never come to pass. But happy is that man who can walk in our Lord's steps and say, I shall have what is good for me.
I shall live on earth until my work is done and not a moment longer. Ryle closed this statement by saying this, I shall be taken when I am right for heaven and not a minute before. All the powers of the world cannot take away my life until God permits.
All the physicians of the earth cannot preserve my life when God calls me home. A firm and a fixed resolve. Spurgeon wrote and moving down to the close here on this. And really we're not going to be able to go much further today because really there is a lot of scripture that we want to focus on for these last two verses, verse 34 and 35, but we will touch on them in closing here.
Verse 34 and 35, Christ continues his speech and he says, 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 hen gathers her brood under her wings and you were not willing.
Spurgeon wrote concerning Jerusalem. Her mountain was illustrious in history. It was on one of her pinnacles that Abraham drew the knife to slay his son. And it was on the spot where the plague was stayed in David's day when the outstretched hand of the angel was arrested at the threshing floor of Arona, the Jebusite.
He was building stone by stone, the temple where God delighted to dwell. It was the source with light with streaming through the land as from the sun. And at the same time, it was the great lake into which the rivers of sacred prayer and praise constantly flowed, gleaming in their fullness.
But on the other hand, Jerusalem was the worst of cities and yet the most religious. It was the most profane because it was the most sanctimonious. Its piety being a mere empty profession in no other city was there so much lip service, so much cringing and so much bowing in offering oblations and burning incense.
She was preeminent. Jerusalem was preeminent. Still, no other city had such renown for stoning the prophets. Let's leave this here today. And I want to ask you to prayerfully this week, to prayerfully read and reread the text here.
And as we come together again next week, we want to take a look just a bit further at this statement that Jesus makes concerning Jerusalem, Jerusalem. And next week, I'll give you the teaser. We're gonna be looking at the great compassion of our Lord and the fact that though this people are so rebellious and so iniquity, so sinful, yet he loves them.
And you today must know this, Christ loves you. Christ died for our sin according to the scriptures. According to the scriptures, he was buried. And according to the scriptures, he arose again on the third day.
According to the scriptures,.
He was seen of above 500 after his resurrection. According to the scriptures, there was dead folks that came out of the grave after his resurrection, after his likeness,.
And were seen in the city.
There is no other like the Lord, our God. Stand with us this morning. Pray.