The Coming of the King Luke 19 Vs 28 44

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Hey, good morning, everyone. Welcome to Faith Bible Church. Hope you all had a blessed week.

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Just want to go through some quick announcements really quick. We have our missionaries of the month,

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Jack and Bev McMahon. They serve in New Zealand. Just pray for them and all the students they work with.

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Just pray that the Lord could work in their lives and through the people that they serve. And also, we have our

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Bible study on Wednesday, July 3rd at 530 p .m. That's also streamed via YouTube.

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Mr. Ilgen does that guy. They go through a series called Praying with Paul. It's a book, actually.

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So that's really enriching. So if you can join for that, that'd be awesome. Dear Lord, we thank you for today,

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Lord. Thank you for getting us all here safely today. We thank you, Lord, that we're able to gather like this amongst other

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Christians, Lord, and worship you through song and through your word. And we just pray,

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Lord, that you would just prepare our hearts for the word and help us to absorb what you have to tell us,

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Lord, through the word that you gave to us. We thank you, Lord.

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We praise you in Jesus' name. Amen. Before we get started, I wanted to just make one comment.

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You'll notice in our songs today, there's—we have a—we're supposed to have a high, exalted view of God, and we actually went over this in this morning's

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Bible study in Psalm 99. And it's the focus of what we do here, of course, as believers, we have to have a high view of God.

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And I thought, well, what are the ramifications of having a low view of God? And thank you to the

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Internet, of course, but it's all backed by Scripture. If you have a low view of God, here's the downside.

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Misplaced worship. Lack of reverence and fear. Moral and spiritual decline. Lack of trust and obedience.

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Distorted understanding of sin and salvation. Inadequate worship and service. Spiritual apathy.

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It's quite a bit, isn't it? And so, I just encourage all of you, and I encourage myself, to have that high view of God, because He is worthy of all our adoration, all of our praise, anything we can offer up to give

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Him. And we are fellowshipping with the Lord this morning. So, let's stand together.

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Our first song is Behold Our God. Who can tell us all things?

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Who can dress us? Behold our

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God. Seated on His throne. Come, let us adore

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Him. Behold Him.

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Let us adore Him. Our next song is

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Rejoice! The Lord is King. And this was another one of those wonderful hymns that was written several hundred years ago, but it's still just as true today.

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Rejoice! The Lord is King. Your Lord and King adore.

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Rejoice! Give thanks and sing and triumph evermore.

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Lift up your voice.

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Rejoice! Our King, our Saviour King. Today's reading is taken from the

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Book of Zechariah, chapter 9, verses from 9 to 13.

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Rejoice greatly, O daughter of Zion. Shout aloud, O daughter of Jerusalem.

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Behold, your King is coming to you. Righteous and having salvation is He. Humble and mounted on a donkey.

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On a colt, the foal of a donkey. I will cut off the chariot from Ephraim and the wheel of the chariot.

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The war horse from Jerusalem. And the battle bow shall be cut off.

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And He shall speak pieces to the nations. His rule shall be from sea to sea and from the river to the ends of the earth.

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As for you also, because of the blood of my covenant with you, I will set your prisoners free from the waterless pit.

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Return to your stronghold, O prisoners of hope. Today I declare that I will restore to you double, for I have bent

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Judah as my bow. I have made Ephraim its arrow.

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I will stir up sons, O Zion, against your sons, O Greece, and wield you like a warrior's sword.

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May God add blessings to this reading. Our next song, Only a

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Holy God. Who else commands all the hosts of heaven? Who else could make every king bow down?

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Who else can whisper and darkness trembles? Only a holy

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God. Let's stand together. Who else commands all the hosts of heaven?

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Who else could make every king bow down? Who else can whisper and darkness trembles?

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Only other beauty demands such praises.

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What other splendor outshines the sun? What other majesty rules with justice?

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Only a holy God. Come, sing holy, forever a holy

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God. Come and worship the holy God.

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Consumes like fire. What a praise the dead.

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What other name remains undefeated? Only a holy, holy cry out.

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Sing holy, forever a holy God. Come and worship the holy

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God. Sing holy, forever a holy

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God. In our last song is

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Crown Him With Many Crowns. And one line in a few verses down it's,

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I don't know if you could define this, ineffably sublime. That's not some words we normally use.

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Ineffably sublime. And what it means is impossible to sum up how excellent

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God is. Inexpressibly supreme. And that's what God is. Words cannot really describe how great

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God is. Crown Him With Many Crowns. Luke chapter 19 verses 28 through 44.

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Luke chapter 19 verses 28 through 44. When He had said this,

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He went on ahead going up to Jerusalem. And it came to pass when

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He drew near to Bethphage and Bethany at the mountain called Olivet, that He sent two of His disciples saying,

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Go into the village opposite you, where as you enter you will find a colt tied, on which no one has ever sat.

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Loose it and bring it here. And if anyone asks you, Why are you loosing it? Thus you shall say to him,

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Because the Lord has need of it. So those who were sent went their way and found it just as He said to them.

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But as they were loosing the colt, the owners of it said to them, Why are you loosing the colt? And they said,

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The Lord has need of it. Then they brought Him to Jesus and they threw their own clothes on the colt and they set

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Jesus on Him. And as He went, many spread their clothes on the road.

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Then as He was now drawing near the descent of the Mount of Olives, the whole multitude of the disciples began to rejoice and praise

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God with a loud voice for all the mighty works they had seen, saying,

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Blessed is the King who comes in the name of the Lord. Peace in heaven and glory in the highest.

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And some of the Pharisees called to Him from the crowd, Teacher, rebuke your disciples. But He answered and said to them,

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I tell you that if these should keep silent, the stones would immediately cry out.

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Now as He drew near, He saw the city and wept over it, saying, If you had known, even you, especially in this your day, the things that make for your peace, but now they are hidden from your eyes.

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For days will come upon you when your enemies will build an embankment around you, surround you, and close you in on every side and level you and your children within you to the ground.

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And they will not leave in you one stone upon another because you did not know the time of your visitation.

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This is the word of the Lord. Let us pray. Father, we are grateful that Lord Jesus Christ came to Jerusalem and He knew that He won't be crowned by the citizens there, yet He went there because He came to die for our sin.

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And Father, we pray that this morning we would recognize the atoning sacrifice that He was on the cross so that we would be forgiven and adopted into Your family.

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Help us to rejoice in that this morning. Help us to praise

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Him for what He's done and who He is. Help us to have an open heart to receive

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Your word. In Jesus' name, amen. This passage is the last passage before we actually get to Jerusalem.

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And remember, the gospel according to Luke is structured so that the climax is the crucifixion and the resurrection.

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After all, we've been heading to Jerusalem since the end of chapter 9.

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Since the end of chapter 9, Luke told us that Jesus faced Jerusalem and headed there.

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The journey to Jerusalem is at its end. And right before this, we've had multiple parables and multiple miracles to teach the reality of the importance of responding to Jesus in faith.

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And we had some negative examples and we had some positive examples. Just previous to this was the parable of the

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Minas where the servants were told to invest before the kingdom comes.

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Some of them did invest faithfully because they believed the king would come back while others didn't and some rejected.

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And we're going to see the test case of this as Jesus nears

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Jerusalem this morning. There are two sections to this passage.

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Verses 28 -40 and verses 41 -44. The reason why

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I combine them together is because in both texts, they are responses as Jesus is drawing closer to Jerusalem.

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He is not quite in Jerusalem yet. The first section, verses 28 -40, tells us the two distinct responses as Jesus draws near.

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One of joyful praise and the other of rejection.

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And then verses 41 -44, we see Jesus' lament and pronouncement of judgment on the city that will reject him.

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Now both of these sections highlight the fact that Jesus is drawing near.

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Verses 29 and 41 tell us that he is drawing near. And both of these sections end with what will happen to the stones.

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While the stones would have cried out if the praises had stopped upon the king's entry, the next part is that the stones would be leveled out as the consequence of Jerusalem's rejection to Christ.

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One is that of a faithful response and the other one is the result of the unfaithful response.

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The reason why this passage is so important for us this morning is that responding to Christ is necessary.

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And in fact, there are two different ways to respond to Christ. One of faith and the other of rejection.

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In our culture, the more prominent one of the two is that of rejection.

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In fact, we have such a light view of rejecting Christ in our culture that we make fun of Christianity.

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We make fun of Christ. We use his name in vain. And many of you may have experienced, many of your friends, neighbors, and family just flippantly reject

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Christ. They don't really care for Jesus. They will tell you just, don't bring

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Jesus into this. Yet, this morning, Jesus makes clear the consequence of not responding to him in faith.

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In the end, rejecting Jesus ultimately will lead to the full wrath of God.

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And that is another unpopular concept to consider.

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Yet, popularity has nothing to do with the word of God.

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We need to consider the fact that Jesus is a person and what we do in response to him has an eternal significance.

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And no matter how much we don't want the judgment to be true, it is coming to those who don't respond in faith.

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And it does not help these people if we shy away from that reality. Oftentimes, people will criticize you, blame you for being unloving, quote -unquote unloving, to share the reality of hell and eternal condemnation if you don't receive

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Jesus Christ in faith. However, I would say the opposite. It's true. The most loving thing to do is to tell them that the judgment of God is coming and you still have time to respond.

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We need to truly believe that. Because when we do, the urgency of sharing the full gospel that Jesus had come to save you from that eternal condemnation by dying on this cross for our sin becomes real and urgent.

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We cannot lose this urgency. People's lives are at stake. The main point of today's text is that what is the significance of our response to Christ's coming?

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What is the significance of our response to Christ's coming? First, when the promised king enters the city to redeem, the proper response is that of a joyful praise.

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When the promised king enters the city to redeem, the proper response is that of joyful praise.

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Now, after the parable about the kingdom of God, Jesus draws near to Jerusalem, the capital city, the city of the great king

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David. Verses 28 through 29 set the background. When he had said this, he went on ahead going up to Jerusalem.

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And it came to pass when he drew near to Bethphage and Bethany at the mountain called Olivet. And remember, ever since Luke 9, 51,

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Jesus had been journeying toward Jerusalem. Jerusalem is the destination. Jerusalem is the goal.

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And as we will find now, Jerusalem will be the site of his execution. And note that Jesus was not dragged to be crucified.

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Jesus did not accidentally end up being crucified. He chose this path in order to save his people.

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Now, Luke mentions some significant regions here. And it is important to note that Jerusalem is on the higher ground.

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It's on a hill. That's why Zion, Jerusalem, Temple Mount, they're all interchangeable.

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Right? Hence, Jesus goes up to Jerusalem and he draws near Bethphage and Bethany, which are towns east of Jerusalem.

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The Mount of Olives is the middle mountain of the mountain range, which faces

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Jerusalem. And this mountain has an eschatological significance from Zechariah 14, 4 through 5.

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Because it tells us that Messiah will appear on the Mount of Olives to fight against his enemies.

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The ground will be shaking. This time, however, the Messiah comes to this mountain in peace.

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To be killed by his enemies in order to save his own.

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The divine orchestration does not stop with just a destination. But it expands to the method of transport.

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Verses 30 to 31 show Jesus' instruction to the two disciples. He is sending out,

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Go into the village opposite you, where, as you enter, you will find a colt tied, on which no one has ever sat.

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Loose it and bring it here. And if anyone asks you, Why are you loosing it? Thou shalt say to him,

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Because the Lord has need of it. From this instruction, Jesus has the full control and knowledge of the location of the colt, the state of the colt, and how to procure the colt.

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When Jesus marches toward his death, he does so with purpose and design.

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He is sovereignly in control. Even the method of transport has been planned to a

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T. And Jesus did not passively lose his life. He gave his life as a ransom for many.

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He actively gave his life in order to save. And just as Jesus instructed the disciples, procure the colt for him in verse 32.

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And this confirms Jesus' authority and his foreknowledge. As Jesus predicted in verse 31, the owners of the colt try to stop the disciples.

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Yet in verse 33, they do answer back, The Lord has need of it. And they do get the colt, which has not been ridden.

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Of course, the significance of that is the colt's purpose.

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The main purpose of that colt existing is to transport the king into the city.

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That's the main purpose. Jesus didn't borrow a used car. He didn't rent a car that's been ridden and driven by who knows what.

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He had a specific goal for this entry. Now, verse 35 shows that Jesus' instruction was fully sufficient and fulfilled.

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Then they brought him to Jesus, and they threw their own clothes on the colt, and they set Jesus on him.

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Instead of a saddle, they put their outer garment for the colt to seat

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Jesus there. What this shows us is there is no part in this journey to Jerusalem in which

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Jesus is not in control. He has sovereignly planned each detail to enter the city to be crucified.

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And from spreading the outer garments on the colt, they start spreading their outer garments on the road.

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And as he went, many spread their clothes on the road. And this action may seem a bit bizarre to us, but it has a historical significance.

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In 2 Kings 9 .13, after the Lord chose Jehu to be king of Israel, the royal servants took off their outer garments and placed them along Jehu's walkway.

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This is what it says in verse 13 of 2 Kings. Then in haste every man of them took his garment and put it under him on the bare steps, and they blew the trumpet and proclaimed,

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Jehu is king. So when the Jesus followers, when

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Jesus followers spread the clothes on the road, they knew the significance of this entry.

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He is the messianic king who has come to save. And they provided Jesus with the regal red carpet entry.

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Now, how did they know? Although the other gospel writers directly quote

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Zechariah 9, which was read to us by Carlix this morning, Luke only alludes to it.

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Zechariah 9, which was read this morning, prophesies the coming of the messianic king from God, and he would write a colt into Jerusalem to restore peace.

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The king has come to restore peace. Of course, the type of peace that they're going to get is far more significant than just mere ending of wars.

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Now, how did they respond to their king? First, they rejoiced at and praised Jesus for his mighty works.

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Then, as he was drawing near to the descent of the Mount Olives, the whole multitude of the disciples began to rejoice and praise

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God with a loud voice for all the mighty works they had seen. All the miracles that Jesus performed are the mighty works that they had seen.

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The deaf heard, the blind saw, the lame walked, the poor heard the gospel. These miracles that Jesus performed were the signs of the

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Messiah. It was the main miracles that pointed to the fact that the

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Messiah is here just as Scripture fulfilled, as Scripture promised.

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Second, the fact that Jesus was coming down from the Mount of Olives was an eschatological sign.

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It's an important location. Third, in the whole

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New Testament, this word for praise that they gave to Jesus takes only

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God as the object of praise. In fact, Luke uses this word the most.

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We have seen this word for praise used by the angels and the shepherds in Luke 2 when they praised

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God for the birth of Christ. The common folks recognize this regal significance of Jesus' entry into Jerusalem.

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Now, verse 38 shows us the glimpse of their praise. Blessed is the king who comes in the name of the

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Lord. Peace in heaven and glory in the highest. The first line is actually from Psalm 118, verse 26.

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It's an allusion to it. The original context of Psalm 118 is a king leading his pilgrims to the temple to receive praise.

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This psalm is ultimately, although written by David, is ultimately fulfilled by his greater son,

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Jesus Christ, who enters God's city. Jesus is explicitly the king here who is blessed.

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And with this allusion in Zechariah 9's eschatological allusion, we undeniably see

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Jesus as the messianic king entering Jerusalem to fulfill God's redemptive plan.

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Blessed is the king who comes in the name of the Lord means this king enters with the purpose and plan and the characteristic and nature and the essence of God's plan in mind.

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There have been many kings who entered Jerusalem in their own name. Emperor Alexander, various Roman generals,

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King Antiochus Epiphanes, who sacrificed a pig in the temple. None of them came in the name of the

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Lord. But this king, he will fully represent the

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Lord when he comes. And what does he accomplish? Peace in heaven and glory in the highest.

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It's the similar praise that we heard at the birth of Christ. Peace here is not just the absence of conflict.

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We often say, yeah, that was a peaceful dinner. As opposed to arguing.

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Rather, peace is actually the presence of something good. It's the presence of restoration.

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It's the presence of wholeness, completeness, what it was meant to be all along.

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The coming of Christ, whether as an infant or an adult, signifies the long -awaited reconciliation between God and the world.

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The messianic king Jesus, when he comes, he accomplishes peace and establishes

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God's reign once again. That reign in which it was lost.

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That peace in which it was lost since Genesis 3, when

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Adam and Eve rebelled against the Lord. Unfortunately, the response to Jesus' regal entry was not received well by all.

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Verse 39, and some of the Pharisees called him from the crowd, Teacher, rebuke your disciples.

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Some of the religious elites do not find it appropriate how the crowd's responding to Christ.

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They're offended because they do not see Jesus as the Messiah. Hence, the messianic welcome is highly inappropriate to them.

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In fact, this is a real -life application of the parable of the Minas, which we heard last week.

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The king's people reject the king in Luke in 1914. The religious elites do not want

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Jesus to be king over them. The religious elites, who know their scriptures like the back of their hand, although they see and have witnessed the fulfillment of all these miracles and signs, they don't want the king when he's finally here.

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To their rejection, Jesus responds with a gut punch of irony. I tell you, if these were silent, the very stones would cry out.

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Without going over how do stones cry out, what he's saying is if these praises stopped, then the inanimate objects will praise.

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Translation, even these lifeless rocks know the giver of life, yet the living religious elites of Israel cannot recognize their king.

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These illiterate stones, who have never opened the scrolls, scripture, in their lives, will rejoice at the king who came to restore the world, more so than the

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Pharisees who are steeped in scripture. The irony is just palpable.

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What we need to consider this morning as Jesus enters into Jerusalem is that he restores that cosmic peace that we've been waiting for, not through a sword, but through his own death.

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Oftentimes, you hear on the news where there are major world conflicts. They claim this is for peace, this is for peace.

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Yes, we're sending these missiles for peace. Yes, we're sending the troops for peace. And we all know that that leads to a lot more death.

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And I'm not saying there are no righteous wars. I believe there are righteous wars, and I just don't have much time to comment on that ethics.

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But the point is, there's only one king who has come for peace and didn't murder, but rather was murdered himself, and that's

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King Jesus. He's the only king who restores peace through his own death.

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And what we see here this morning was not, that was not a cosmic calamity.

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That was not a big heavenly oopsie. Uh -oh. Yikes, they put him on the cross.

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That's not the conversation in heaven. But rather, every part of it, even the entry into the city,

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Jerusalem, was divinely designed. Jesus did not enter Jerusalem thinking he would be crowned by the crowd.

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He entered the city precisely knowing that he will have to endure suffering in order to save his people from their sin.

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He was the reigning king when he was precisely lifted up, not on a golden throne, but on a wooden cross.

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He was the redemptive royalty when he suffered the wrath of God for our sake. That's what he came to do.

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And every step leading up to that climax has been divinely ordained.

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This morning, how we respond to this king is, therefore, of utmost importance.

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As we see here, there's no neutral way of responding to Jesus. Is he the messianic king who has come to save, or is he just like you and me, average?

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There's no third option here. Jesus is either the promised king who came to redeem the world, or he is the biggest fraud in world history.

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In our pluralistic society, where you get to pick and choose how many deities you worship, like a plate at a buffet, this is a huge problem.

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You don't get that choice. You either get to choose to praise him, or you choose to reject him.

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You follow the path of the crowd, or you follow the path of the Pharisees, who say, stop talking about that.

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Stop praising Jesus. Now, if Jesus truly is the king from God that the crowd recognized and the disciples praised,

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Jesus cannot be one of many. And in fact, he cannot be the best of many, right?

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Like Greek deities, there are many, but there's some of the top best out there.

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King Jesus has to be the one and only. It is impossible to be a

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Buddhist who worships Christ. It is impossible to dabble in New Age mysticism and worship the

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Lord who has created this world in order and logic.

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It is inappropriate to be a Muslim who respects Christ. You can't respect

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Christ unless you take Christ for who he says he is.

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He's the way and the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me. That means not

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Muhammad. He's the way and the truth and the life. No one comes to the

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Father except through me. Sorry, Mary. Are we going to receive him the way

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Scripture presents him? The only king, the only way to salvation.

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And by believing in the fact that he died for your sin on the cross and he rose from the dead, you have life.

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You have peace with God. God is no longer against you, but you are on his side.

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When King Jesus comes, there lie only two choices. Receive him with praise and honor as king or reject him in unbelief.

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It's not a spectrum. Now, what are the consequences of rejecting

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God's redemptive visit? Those who reject God's redemption through Jesus Christ will face a devastating judgment.

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Those who reject God's redemption through Jesus Christ will face a devastating judgment.

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As Jesus draws near the city, we see Jesus' immediate response to seeing

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Jerusalem from a distance. Remember, Jesus knew what his people will do to him before he even entered the city.

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Jesus knew the rejection and humiliation that he will face because of Jerusalem's rejection of the messianic king.

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Now, what is his immediate reaction? Now, as he drew near, he saw the city and wept over it.

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Jesus' immediate response to seeing the city that will kill him is that of lament.

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His response to seeing the city that will reject and kill him is not of self -righteous judgment.

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You deserved it. It serves you right. You're going to be destroyed in a couple decades.

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That's not it. Jesus' immediate reaction to seeing the city that will reject and kill is also not that of an uncontrolled wrath.

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How dare you reject your king? Face the wrath. Jesus' immediate response is that he weeps over the very people who will reject him.

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Oftentimes, we misunderstand who

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God is by thinking of God as some angry figure in heaven who just doesn't care about all the unbelievers.

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He's just waiting to send them to hell. Yet, we see

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God incarnate who weeps over the very people who will publicly humiliate and execute him.

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And if you know who Jesus is, if you know he is God who became man, and you know that he represents

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God perfectly, he exudes the full effulgence of God.

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And he shows us God's tender, compassionate heart. You can see his mercy in weeping.

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As he is weeping, we get to see Jesus' heart, God's heart, that exudes compassion even for his enemies.

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And this is the type of response we often see in the Old Testament prophets God sent his prophets to his stiff -necked, stubborn people who decided to keep rebelling against God despite the warnings and promises of blessing.

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Jeremiah 9 -1 is a great example. Oh, that my head were waters and my ears a fountain of tears, that I might weep day and night for the slain of the daughter of my people.

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Jeremiah, despite being rejected by his people left and right, he will weep for those who will be slain and those who have been slain.

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He's not holding a grudge. He wants them saved desperately, and we see that in Jesus.

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This is the proper posture for all who proclaim God's judgment and salvation. Jesus' heart for the sinners is never rigid or frigid, and neither should our hearts be.

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This does not mean you don't preach the judgment to come. You preach the judgment to come.

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You proclaim the judgment to come with a grieving, lamenting heart for those who will not respond, not in a self -righteous way.

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You're all going to hell, but in a lamenting posture, knowing what they will experience if they don't respond.

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It is purely other -focused, and that reflects God's heart. Now, Jesus tells us the reason for his weeping, if you had known, even you, especially in this your day, the things that make for your peace.

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Remember what city Jesus is talking to. He's not talking to San Francisco. He's not talking to New York.

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He's talking to the city of God. It is the city. It's Jerusalem.

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It's the very city in which God chose to build his temple. Now, if Jerusalem had responded to the coming of this king in faith, there would have been peace, and you got to remember, if you know world history at all,

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Jerusalem does not have a great track record with peace. Like, peace in the

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Middle East is something we pray for. It's often not much experienced.

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Remember, ever since Jerusalem was destroyed by Nebuchadnezzar in 586 B .C., they never really were restored back to the former glory, right?

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Israel was subjugated from one empire to the next empire, even when they came back from the exile.

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And when they built the temple, oh, man, it didn't look like the temple that was when

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Solomon built it. And people weep over that, not because it's beautiful, but because it's just, that glory's not there.

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And peace was what they craved. They craved peace because they had one ruler to the next, oftentimes pagans and foreigners.

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Peace would have been the answer to their prayer. Yet, these people reject the very person who has come to restore peace in Jerusalem.

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Now, what's the consequence of rejecting Christ? But now they're hidden from your eyes.

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Blindness is the result of their unfaithfulness. They will miss what they longed for the most because they will not trust their king.

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The prince of peace came, yet they did not know him.

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The consequence of rejecting the prince of peace will be darkness. And verses 43 to 44 tell us the consequences in detail.

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For days will come upon you when your enemies will build an embankment around you, surround you, and close you in on every side.

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Verse 43 shows a siege, and it unfolds in multiple very graphic verbs.

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They build around you, and they surround you, and they will push back, push, push, push.

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They're tightly, tightly, tightly getting choked out of life. That's the city.

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And remember, this is not Jerusalem's first rodeo of facing a siege. Yet, this siege will be even more devastating than ever.

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Verse 44 shows us the complete destruction and level you and your children within you to the ground, and they will not leave in you one stone upon another.

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The judgment will be indiscriminate. No one will survive this judgment against Jerusalem.

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Even the weakest and the most vulnerable. While the stones would have praised and cried out in worship in the last paragraph, this time the stones will be totally leveled for Jerusalem's rejection of the king.

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What that means is there's no building that's standing. They're built with stones. They're not just built up on each other, right?

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When you have little kids and you build something up, they come and just destroy it.

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There are no blocks on top of each other after they come. That's the picture.

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There are no stones built up on each other. There's no remnant of civilization that's left.

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In fact, Jesus is prophesying what will occur in A .D. 70, just a couple decades after this, around four decades, when the future emperor

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Titus, he's a general here, but he's going to be the emperor of Rome. He besieged Jerusalem and completely razed it to the ground.

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And the result of this judgment was shocking to even the foreigners, as in the foreigners who weren't even living in Jerusalem, but visited

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Jerusalem, right? It's as if San Francisco, right, the biggest city that's nearby,

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San Francisco, if we've all been, if it just got totally destroyed and we visited, that would be the kind of eyewitness experience, just a total shock.

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There used to be the Golden Gate Bridge here. There used to be the market center, right?

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The bar station was here. It's gone. That's the type of reaction they had.

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This is the eyewitness account of Josephus, a Jewish historian who actually served as an envoy to get a peace deal between Rome and Jerusalem, yet it failed.

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This is what he says. There was left nothing to make those that came thither believe

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Jerusalem had ever been inhabited. There was nothing that signified that this land was ever inhabited before.

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A city otherwise of great magnificence and of mighty fame among all mankind.

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And truly the very view itself was a melancholy thing. For those places which were adorned with trees and pleasant gardens were now become desolate country every way and its trees were all cut down.

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Nor could any foreigner that had formerly seen Judea and the most beautiful suburbs of that city and now saw it as a desert, but lament and mourn sadly at so great a change.

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Even the foreigners who didn't live in Jerusalem, when they came back to see it, they started lamenting.

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They're not even Jews and they're lamenting to what happened to Jerusalem as a judgment to rejecting

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Christ. The judgment was so great

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Jerusalem became unrecognizable. And the question is, why such a great judgment? Jesus says, because you did not know the time of your visitation.

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The time of your visitation signifies the visit from God to restore his people.

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This phrase is used in the Old Testament. Remember in Genesis 50, 24,

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Joseph, the patriarch promised that his people that are now living in Egypt, I am about to die, but God will visit you and bring you up out of this land to the land that he swore to Abraham, to Isaac and to Jacob.

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Don't worry, you're not going to be stuck in the foreign land. God will visit you to restore you back to his promised land.

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God's visit to his people was meant to be redemptive. When Jesus came to Jerusalem, he came to redeem his people.

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Yet, the city will cry the very next week, crucify him.

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When the Davidic king entered Jerusalem to bring peace, his people rejected him in favor of Caesar.

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And ironically, the judgment against the city for her rejection of her true king will be carried by a

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Caesar himself, Titus. Because they rejected the prince of peace and chose to serve the pagan emperor, they will be destroyed by their future pagan emperor.

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This serves as a warning for us this morning. Just as Jerusalem failed to receive her king with faith, those who reject

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King Jesus in their lives now will face the most devastating judgment of all.

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The coming judgment will be far worse than what the eyewitnesses in AD 70 have seen.

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The total collapse of civilization is the least of our worries.

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The judgment day will be the most frightening experience in the history of mankind.

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This is because rejecting the son of God who came to save is nothing less than committing idolatry.

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It is akin to serving a different God. After hearing the gospel of Jesus, how he suffered the judgment that you deserved on the cross and rose from the dead so that you can be forgiven and reconciled with God, yet you shrug your shoulders and say,

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I don't really need him. That may sound really not too bad because we've heard it so many times, right?

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We're just like, we're not cursed out today. So we're in relief. But what's behind that statement?

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I don't really need him. Well, the other side of that coin is I can save myself.

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I can do better than God's gracious plan of redemption through Jesus Christ. Ultimately, I am better than God.

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That's what it's saying. Don't let the soft -spoken tone and politeness fool you.

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To say you don't need Jesus is nothing less than committing idolatry. You have deified yourself and de -godded

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Christ. Consider how the author of Hebrews states it.

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The book of Hebrews 10 .29. How much worse punishment do you think will be deserved by the one who has trampled underfoot the

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Son of God and has profaned the blood of the covenant by which he was sanctified and has outraged the spirit of grace?

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Those are strong words. When you ultimately reject

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Christ, ultimately and at the end of your life, you still say,

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I don't really need Christ. It is a flagrant contempt of Christ, and he's the only source of redemption.

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Instead of Christ who faced the full judgment on your behalf, you're choosing to face

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God's full wrath yourself. That's what it means to become your own savior.

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To say I don't really need Jesus is to say I can save myself. Thank you very much. Rejecting God's only way to salvation means fully receiving

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God's wrath on your own. And the key point is

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God does not have a plan B for salvation. It's always been through Christ.

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And he does not have another man because Jesus is the only way. And when you reject

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Jesus, you reject God. And all the judgments that this world has ever seen will only be a drop in a bucket compared to what is coming to those who reject

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Jesus ultimately. And that is why we need to urgently share the gospel, urgently plead with people who are so nonchalantly rejecting

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Christ. That is why we need to actually share in detail what kind of judgment is coming.

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Oftentimes we want to skip that step or just summarize it, paraphrase it. You know, bad things happen to you when you don't, you know, believe in Jesus.

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No, you got to illustrate that. You're rebelling against none other than the king himself.

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You're committing a treason. What do you think traitors face at the end when the king comes back?

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Right? You don't even have to get all... You don't even have to illustrate all the blood that's going to happen, although the

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Bible does. The blood will fill up to the horse's bridle.

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I don't think anyone's ever seen that happen. But we have to be crystal clear in the judgment that's coming because that is the most loving thing to do because there are only two ways to respond to this king.

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Receive him with joyful praise or reject him and face the judgment like Jerusalem did in A .D.

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70. There are the only two options. May we choose wisely this morning.

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Let us pray. Father, we're grateful that you even give us an option, that you even give us a way to salvation, not dependent on our works, but through believing, trusting in Jesus alone for our redemption.

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Help us to believe in him. Help our unbelief. Help the unbelief of our family members and friends and neighbors.

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Let us not get so complacent with those who want nothing to do with Christ.

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Let us pray fervently for them. Plead. Continue to share the gospel, even if they don't want to hear it over and over again, for your king is coming back.

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Help us to respond in faith. In Jesus' name. Stand together with me, if you would.

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Let us consciously respond to our king in unison as a church as we sing

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Praise God, from whom all blessings flow. Praise God, from whom all blessings flow.

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Praise him, all creatures. Praise him above ye.

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Praise Father, Son, and Holy Ghost.