Luke 13:31-35, What Did He Know and When Did He Know It?

Luke chapter 13, starting in verse 31 to verse 35, hear 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 finished 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 would not.

Behold, your house is forsaken, and I tell you, you will not see me again until you say, blessed is he who comes in the name of the

Lord. The Lord had his blessings, the reading of his holy word. I believe

I added him again there. Sorry about that. This is I'll not see you until. Anyway, during the

Watergate scandal of the early 70s, the big question that Congress and investigators and really everyone wanted to know was what did he know and when did he know it?

In other words, what did President Nixon know about this break -in into the Democratic headquarters at the

Watergate building, and did he know about it before it happened?

I don't know, but was he in on everything from the beginning, or did he just kind of learn about it like the rest of us as it was revealed in the media, or kind of in between?

Was he in on everything from the beginning? No, excuse me, no, let me go back, or as it appears to be the case, did he learn about the break -in after it happened, and then after it happened, he was just afraid that people would assume he knew about it beforehand, so he then was in on the cover -up after it happened.

You know, he just didn't want to suffer the political damage of being suspected of being behind it, so he concocted this cover -up.

Was he simply trying to avoid the pain of being associated with it? Now, we all want to avoid pain, don't we?

So, put yourself in his place. Imagine you're president, and you have some overzealous supporters who break into the

Democratic headquarters, hoping to plant some bugs there, hoping to help you. That's what they're there for, to help you, but being clumsy and stupid, that's got to be the stupidest thing anyone ever thought of, they get caught.

I mean, it was also a stupid burglary. I mean, talk about badly done, but you know, with flashlights as though you couldn't see them in a glass building.

I mean, this is absolutely idiotic, but now put yourself in Nixon's place, assuming this is what happened, assuming he didn't really conspire from the beginning.

Your followers do this idiotic thing for you. Now, what do you do?

Maybe you cover it up. Sure, it's illegal. You got to pay off people, so they'll be quiet, so they won't cooperate with investigators, but you're hoping it'll all go away, because that's easier, you think, than explaining, hey,

I got some crazy supporters, I admit it, and I couldn't control them, and you want to avoid the questions, you want to avoid the controversy, and you want to take the easy way out, especially with an election coming soon, as it was.

You don't want to suffer the disgrace of losing, you know, the sting of rejection, because we all do all kinds of things, you know, to avoid losing.

We hate to lose, hate to suffer loss of any kind. Athletes work long and hard, not only because they want to win, but the flip side, they don't want to be the ones, you know, slinking off the court like Gonzaga, defeated, or off the field, like a college football team

I can think of last January, when they lose. People will work hard at business, not only because they want to be rich, but also because they don't want to suffer having to put up, going out of business, sign, you know, declaring bank, they don't want to have to go declare bankruptcy, they don't want to have to tell their families,

I'm unemployed now, you know, we're gonna have, we're suffering. We'll exercise, some of us, stop eating some of our favorite desserts, take vitamins and medicines, and go through therapies and annoying medical procedures, not only because we want to be healthy, but because we want to avoid the suffering of disease, of weakness, even of old age.

Many of us think we can keep that off forever. You'll be surprised that you won't be able to do it, but we'll try because we're all determined to avoid suffering and death at all costs.

That's why it's illegal, you know, it's illegal. You think you can say everything, anything in America? No, you can't. You cannot yell fire in a crowded movie theater just because you feel like it.

No, because the reason, because everyone will instinctively run to flee, even trampling each other at the exodus, people could die being stampeded to death because others are just, you know, want to get away from the threat of death.

That's just like an instinct we have. So because of that, that's why we celebrate the heroism of the few who will knowingly go toward danger, like the police, firefighters, soldiers.

But of course, they're highly trained, and they hope, and we all hope for them, that they'll be able to handle the situation and come out safe.

But what are the few who knowingly go where they will die?

You know, the soldier who throws himself on a hand grenade because, you know, in order to save the life of his friends.

But, you know, in that situation, it's an emergency. It's a situation thrust onto the hero suddenly, and he acts like that is heroic, but he does that, he gives his life because of the urgency, because there's no other way.

But who will knowingly plan to go into a death trap with no emergency forcing him to do it, nothing forcing him to do it except for his love for his friends?

Who would do that? Well, we see him right here at the end of Luke 13.

He's Jesus. And here we see two things about him, his determination and his lamentation.

This passage breaks into those two parts, determination, lamentation. And within these two things, we see five versus six other things, his audacity.

We see pity, we see necessity, we see difficulty, we see quality, six things,

I guess. And then finally, destiny. We began this section of Luke in chapter nine, verse 51, where we were told that Jesus set his face determined to go to Jerusalem.

Now, that determination immediately cost him the rejection of some Pharisees on the way, excuse me, not

Pharisees, Samaritans on the way. We've heard him say as he's on his way that he is in distress until he, quote, sets the fire that he's come to set until he is baptized into this baptism, immersed into this immersion that he's come for.

But some could take all that and interpret it differently, that he merely sees he sees controversy.

Sure, there's going to be opposition ahead, and he just can't wait until he gets all that behind him. Maybe he really thought that going to Jerusalem would result in him being catapulted into the leadership of Israel.

You know, that it would be tough for a while, there would be suffering for a while. Like we would say, someone's got to go through a baptism of fire, but they'll come out stronger at the end.

Maybe he thought that's what would happen. Some people could interpret those verses. It's like working out, you know, to lose weight.

People understand if they're overweight, they're going to have to go through some suffering to get slimmer. Or there's people studying hard to graduate, they understand.

There's going to be a few old, you know, it's going to be late nights studying, hitting the books, but they're going to get the reward at the end. Or maybe working long hours to make a business succeed, they understand it's going to take, you know, 18 hours, 16, 18 hours a day for a while, but at the end, they think they can succeed.

And so maybe they would say, sure, Jesus says all that because he sees some opposition, he's going to have to go through some fire, he's going to have to go through.

But at the end, he will be acclaimed the king, the messiah, there will be a reward here and now worth that suffering for.

Did he really know as he set his face to go to Jerusalem that every step of the way from Galilee in the north, where he's from, to the capital city,

Jerusalem in the south, that that was, that that was every step was a step toward his death?

Did he really know that? Determination to succeed, go through suffering for success, even at great cost, we can understand that.

But determination to die, that's almost unimaginable. I mean, I don't know if I can even think of anything to compare it to in our lives that we experience.

What do we compare that to? So what did he know? And when did he know it?

First, there's the determination, and we see that in two parts,

I guess, at least. First is his audacity. Some Pharisees come to him and warn him that Jesus, more

Jesus, that Herod is looking to kill him. Get away from here, Herod's going to kill you. Now, this would be

Herod Antipas, who was the ruler over Galilee, where Jesus was from, and that suggests to us, that tells us that Jesus is still in the north and he's making his way south, but he's still up in Herod's jurisdiction, in his territory.

Now, does that mean then, because Herod isn't on his way to leave, he's going to Jerusalem, does that mean that he leaves

Galilee precisely to do what these men suggest he should do?

You know, you need to get out of here, because Herod's trying to kill you. Is he trying to save his own skin by going to Jerusalem?

Is that what the trip to Jerusalem is about? Get away from Herod, get away from his life being threatened?

Well, no. He responds with audacity. He responds not at all like a man who's intimidated by the threat of death, does he?

You know, go tell that fox, and a fox is kind of a, especially in the way they viewed it, a worthless, you know, destructive, contemptuous animal.

It's kind of small, scrawny thing, it eats your crops. It's, you know, it's not a, it's not like a lion you can respect.

You know, you can fear it, but respect a fox. Just, ah. Now, keep in mind here, there's no

First Amendment here, okay, because we Americans read this, and we think, what's the big deal?

Because we shoot off our mouth all the time about our leaders, and, you know, we think this is the way people are, it's the way life is.

But remember, there's no First Amendment protecting him. We do it because, not because we're brave or audacious, but because we know there's no penalty for us.

We can say whatever we want and get away with it. Here, where Jesus was, people could be killed for talking about a king like that, if you're under his, in his territory.

Go tell that fox, this unchecked king of his territory. And she said,

Jesus says that I cast out demons and perform cures today and tomorrow. In other words, for now, for now, today, tomorrow, that's what

I'm going to be doing for the short term. I'm going to continue doing what I've always been doing.

My ministry goes on, no matter what he says, that fox. That's audacity. And then he says, on the third day,

I finish my course. In other words, the third day is not now, but it's soon.

It's coming very soon. The end is coming soon, but not because of his threats, not because of Herod.

Notice the end of verse 32. He says, he, he says, I finish my course.

His ministry ends when he ends it. Not, not, you know, it's not, well,

I better stop. Herod doesn't like it. Okay, I'm stopping this. No, when he reaches his goal,

Jesus reaches his goal, then he stops his ministry. Herod, king or not, can't stop it short of his goal.

Now that's audacity. Next, the necessity starting in verse 33. Now, so far, he could sound like, sounds like an

American, doesn't he? Kind of willful, loud talker, like we have a lot of in our culture. Nobody's going to tell me what to do.

Who's that Herod think he is? Um, so, you know, people like that, our culture, they won't wear their seatbelts just, you know, sometimes just because the government tells them to wear them.

They won't do it just to show them, show the man. They won't recycle their plastics or they won't get permits for their buildings and, you know, on their property.

They're going to say whatever they want about the president or whoever, just because they can show you.

If they're Christian, they'll boast of being independent. They don't need oversight. They don't need accountability.

They don't need membership. They're audacious, but they're audacious because, because they're willful, because they're arrogant.

They're just full of themselves. They're unsubmissive. Jesus isn't like that at all.

He's the opposite of all those things. It's not because he's self -willed. He's just independent. He's a lone ranger.

He's a rebel without a cause or whatever, because he's under authority. He's under necessity.

Notice in verse 33, nevertheless, I don't care what that guy says,

Herod, not because of what he says, but he says, I must. I must.

It's a necessity for me. It's a requirement. I have to. I'm obligated to.

I'm bound to go my way today and tomorrow, continue this ministry for the time being, then soon in the day following, what he said earlier, finish my course.

Something mysterious about the third day here, isn't it? He doesn't explain it. Just like a hint, dropped it. It's a foreshadowing, something special going to happen on the third day.

What did Jesus know about what's coming for him in Jerusalem? And when did he know it?

Did Jesus know before he arrived that he would die there? If so, why go?

Remember, chapter 12 said that thousands were flocking to him. He's like at this peak of popularity.

Crowds got so big they would trample over people as they're trying to get trying to get near him to hear him.

So if they're so successful here, why not stay here? Stay with their success.

In John chapter 11, where we'll be Friday night, Jesus tells his disciples that they're going back to Judea near Jerusalem and the disciples protest.

Don't you remember? They tried to kill you. They did stone you before. They can't believe he'd want to go back there.

You know, he is. In other words, Jesus knew that his life was under threat in Jerusalem and that surrounding area.

And so the self -seeking thing to do, you know, the way we almost normally think almost by instinct, the way of putting ourselves first, our love for what's good for us, for our money, our houses, our cars, our comforts.

You avoid what endangers us, don't we? Isn't that the way we always think?

If it makes us suffer, it must be bad. That's how we think, isn't it?

We just assume that. I mean, who's going to be crazy enough to go to Africa as a missionary if you could die for lack of good medical treatment?

Who would do that? Who would give to a church if it meant now that you can't afford to go on an expensive vacation?

If God loves us, surely we think he wants to give us luxuries and comforts and health and wealth, doesn't he?

I mean, you realize that's not just the health and wealth of prosperity gospel people. I think they've just taken logically what probably the vast majority of evangelical

Christians today assume. They, the prosperity preachers, have just taken that to its logical conclusion.

But most evangelical Christians think that way about God. He wants to give me a nice, my comfortable life, my best life now, the nice stuff, the pleasure.

That's just what we assume, right? But here Jesus says he's going there to Jerusalem, says

I must do it, I have to do it, I have no other choice than to do it because he's under authority.

He goes where the Father leads. He might be audacious to corrupt kings who are threatening him, but that's only because he submits to the

Father. But what did he know and when did he know it?

Now, is he going to Jerusalem just because that's what the Father is leading him, that's what the Father's leading him to do, but maybe the

Father has it revealed to him what is coming for him there. Now, if there if there was any doubt whether Jesus knew his trek to Jerusalem was a trek to death, well, he clears it up here.

He shows absolutely clear as he can be because he says for, this is for means like because, this explains why he's under necessity.

He has to go to Jerusalem because, this is the reason, it cannot be, it is not possible, he says, that a prophet should perish away from Jerusalem.

In other words, he's going, he says, I'm going to Jerusalem because that's the place where prophets go to die.

He's not going to go there to hit the big time like you might think. I mean, if you want to hit the, you want to make it big in the religion business and every day in Israelite, you go to Jerusalem, right?

It's where the people are, it's where the crowds are. It's like today, you know, you want to hit it big in country music, you want to go out, you want to make it out of these small little clubs and fairs and, you know, things like that, right?

You want to make, you want to go, you want to go to Nashville, get invited to the Grand Ole Opry, or maybe actors, you want to, you don't want to be stuck in places like the

North Main Street Theater in Danville, do you? Playing little dinky plays there to small crowds. You want to go to Broadway, New York City.

Yeah, that's where you want to be. And so, baby, you think here, maybe Jesus wants to make it out, you know, wants to make it out of the backwoods, just being a phenom of this remote place,

Galilee. You want to make it out of that. You want to go to big city, Jerusalem. Is that what it's about?

No, not at all. This isn't career advancement, you know, like the way preachers today often go from church to church, always saying they're called, they always say they're called by the

Lord, but nearly always, always the Lord is calling them, seems like, to bigger churches with bigger salaries.

He wasn't doing that with Jesus here, was he? Okay, here's Jesus. He's at the height of his worldly popularity, you know, thousands flocking to him, sometimes clamoring him for him to become the king, and yet he purposefully, knowingly goes to his death.

Why? He says it's necessary. Sure, it's necessary because that's where the

Father is leading him, but he also says he wants to go.

He wants to go for a reason that we find in the next part, in his lamentation, starting in verse 34.

You can hear that reason, just in the tone of his voice. Oh, Jerusalem, Jerusalem, how often would

I have gathered your children together as a hen gathers her brood under her wings?

The reason? Pity. He's going because he loves people, particularly his people, and he laments that he would have gathered people, you know, the children of Jerusalem, he would have gathered them together, he would have healed them, he would have taught them, he would have offered to them the kingdom of God, he would have ministered to them over and over again.

How often? I wanted to do this so many times, he says. It's like a hen caring for and attending to her chicks.

He would have cared for and attended to the people of Jerusalem.

Now, who does that for a city that he knows is going to kill him? Was it for crimes that I had done?

He groaned upon the tree. Amazing pity, grace unknown, and love beyond degree.

He went for pity. He had wanted, he says, he wanted to minister to Jerusalem because he cared for them.

Well, then why didn't he, you ask? Why didn't he go there and have rallies? What do you want to call them? Crusades, our modern language.

Well, he says many times he wanted to gather people in Jerusalem, he wanted to minister there. Why didn't he do it?

What's the problem? What's the difficulty? It's getting in his way. I mean, he was able to do it in Galilee.

In Galilee, large crowds, huge amounts of people, sometimes stampeding each other to try to get to him.

What's the difficulty in Jerusalem to keep that from happening? Well, he says, you, plural, talking to the leaders, to the priests, to the

Pharisees. You would not. You didn't want it.

I wanted it. You didn't want it. The leaders, you didn't want it. They are the ones who in Palm Sunday who would tell the crowds, you know, they're shouting

Hosanna at him. They told Jesus, you know, tell these crowds came with you.

Tell them to shut up. They don't do that here in Jerusalem. They're the ones who picked up stones to stone him with when he said before Abraham was,

I am. That happened in Jerusalem. They're the same ones who told people that Jesus was, quote, a sinner when he healed a man born blind.

That happened in Jerusalem. They're the same ones, the same leaders who would expel people from the synagogue if they believed

Jesus was the Messiah in Jerusalem. The leaders of synagogues there throw the people out if they said that.

They were the ones who were conspiring to arrest him already in Jerusalem. They would not not allow him in Jerusalem to have large meetings that followed him like they did in Galilee.

The leaders were the difficulty. You know, many churches today there are probably

I would I would suspect that almost in every church you'll find some at least some sincere people who's and often at the church is dysfunctional, no real ministry going on.

They kind of sense something's wrong. I don't maybe they can't put their finger on it but they know something's missing.

They don't know exactly what it is and some of them they find out what it is and then they try to bring reform.

You know, they say, hey, we need to preach the whole counsel of God. That's picking verses here and there. Preach the whole word of God. We need to practice church discipline.

Jesus said to do it. We need membership to be meaningful. We need to saturate our services in the word of God. We need to be truly evangelistic, you know, not just running programs for our kids and then calling in evangelism.

You know, there's not just an easter egg hunt once a year. Call that evangelism. We need to clearly declare the gospel that we're saved by grace only through faith only in Christ only and you and if you you believe that you're truly converted it will show you'll be a disciple.

You show that with baptism and a changed life, right? Baptism is for disciples.

You make disciples and baptize them. You'll have a hungering and thirsting for God's word and for God himself and if someone brings that kind of reform tries to bring it well often the leaders some of the real leaders and sometimes you may not know who they really are until their religion is challenged then they'll come out of the woodwork.

They will leap to the defense of the status quo. The leaders are the difficulty.

Now, why? Because of their quality, what they are made of, their nature.

In other words, here what's the quality of Jerusalem?

Well, it should be excellent. You think about it, shouldn't it? Any city should be excellent.

It should be Jerusalem at this time. It's the city that the Lord chose, you know, in the words of Deuteronomy, for his name to dwell there.

It is the place where the Lord is supposed to be worshiped. No other place, just Jerusalem, at least in the Old Testament way of thinking.

It was the home of the temple. It was full of priests and pharisees and pilgrims coming to serve the

Lord. You're stuffed full of religious people who know the word of God. Sometimes they wear it on their forehead.

Man, it should be the highest quality place on earth. But here Jesus says, you don't know their quality.

This is their quality. The city that kills the prophets and stones those who are sent to them.

It's full of religion, but it's hostile to the Lord. Now, how did it get to be of such a satanic quality?

You know, the word of God will either soften your heart or stiffen your neck.

If you submit to it, you believe it, you allow it to show you your sins and your imperfections, to break the hardness of your heart like a hammer breaks a rock.

It will make you like clay in God's hands, contrite and broken and trembling at his word.

But if you just congratulate yourself for how much of it you think you've obeyed, you make excuses for the rest that you're not really obeying.

You make excuses for not doing that, you know, for serving money. We've got to have it.

For putting the relationship ahead of the Lord, make excuses for being infected with hypocrisy. You do that.

You'll be stiff necked and eventually angry at anyone who challenges your religion.

And that's their quality. So the question for you then is, how have you been responding to the word of God?

You know, we've heard some challenging teaching from Jesus over the last few months, in case you haven't noticed.

You know, love your neighbor, even if your culture tells you to hate them. You hate

Samaritans, but who's your neighbor? Choose to listen to the word of God and attend to it like Mary instead of being distracted like Martha.

By the way, how's your Bible reading going? Your Sunday school or midweek attendance, are you paying attention right now?

How's your praying? Is it making you dependent on the Lord so dependent that you know you rely on him for even your food today?

Or do you kind of think, you know, if he's not going to do for me what I want him to do, I'll skip praying today.

Do you easily say one thing and do another? Are you so used to the fact that people publicize their ministries and then quietly quit them, or of preachers dropping out of going to church when they aren't preaching anymore, or telling others to be members of a church they can't be members of a church they don't attend, but then they do that very thing?

Are you so used to that? You think that's the way life is, so accustomed to it, it doesn't offend you anymore?

Does it shock you? Are you infected with hypocrisy? Are you more concerned about how your cool friends think of you than how

God does? You're not concerned at all then about the one who can actually throw you into hell.

Are you still laying up treasure for yourself here on earth? Are you focus? How can

I make a little more money skimping on giving because you can't imagine sacrificing that car or that trip or that new gadget just to do what?

To give to the cause of the kingdom of God? What's that? Are you really watching out for all kinds of greed?

All kinds of greed? Or have you surrendered to some kinds of it? What does your offering show about that?

Are you really seeking first God's kingdom? Is that what you're seeking? His rule over your life? Or maybe you just can't wait for church to be over so you can go seek lunch.

Are you seeking repentance and fruitfulness? Striving to enter through that narrow door?

Or are you comfortably strolling through a mildly religious life? We've heard some strong challenges from the

Lord Jesus himself since the beginning of the year. Have they softened your heart or stiffened your neck?

Be careful because your quality determines your destiny. What then is their destiny?

Well, he says in verse 35, behold, look at this, otherwise pay attention, you who are so easily distracted by everything else, your house, this is their destiny, your house is forsaken.

Maybe here literally, their house they thought of as the temple, what they were so proud of, where God, where they thought

God lives, surrounded and fed by their religion. But he says it's empty.

Thought God was in it. He's saying, no, God's not gone. He's not there anymore.

Like Elvis, God has left the building. So Jerusalem, the center of worship on earth, so proud of being chosen by God.

Jerusalem, you're empty. It's like much religion today is desolate.

God isn't there. It's about egos, about motivational speaking.

It's about tradition, about socializing, maybe a place where you can be the big man. You can show off, look,

I can preach, I can sing, I can do this or that, where you can hear the theology. Maybe it's if you're reformed, you can hear the theology you like to hear while being made, feel comfortable as you are, stay as you are, just hear those words you like to hear.

Today it offers assurance of salvation to people responding to an invitation instead of actually being a disciple who's baptized, like Jesus told us to make.

Or today it promises acceptance with God now and heaven later.

No matter how you live, no repentance necessary. It's not about the Lord. It's about us.

And so it's forsaken, Jesus says. God left a long time ago and they didn't even know it.

What's the destiny of forsaken religion? At the end of verse 35,

Jesus says, I tell you, but this is my word, Jesus says, pay attention to this, by no means, it's literally in Greek what he says, by no means will you see me until you say, blessed is he who comes in the name of the

Lord. Jerusalem, the proud of itself, with a temple, with priests and Pharisees full of religious people,

Jerusalem, religion, forsaken by God, even that sinner of religion first selected by the

Lord himself, forsaken religion, once blessed with his presence, but now abandoned by God because they weren't real worshippers.

They didn't know God and they didn't know that they didn't know him. Forsaken religion will not see

Jesus again until he returns, until every knee bows and everyone's, everyone says because they have no other choice than to say, blessed is he who comes in the name of the

Lord. So his, his disciples, these crowds, these followers that were following him from Galilee, flocking to him in the countryside, followed him all the way into Jerusalem and there, as he entered the city, they, they hailed him as he entered

Jerusalem, waving palm branches, saying, Hosanna, quoting

Psalm 118, blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord. His followers from Galilee said this, but Jerusalem, the local

Pharisees, the leaders, the priest, they sniffed, they barked and told

Jesus, rebuke these unruly crowds. Jesus said, if they remain silent, the rocks would take their place, crying out.

Nature itself demanded that he be recognized, demanded that he be praised, that he be blessed.

The followers from Galilee knew this. The rocks knew this.

Only Jerusalem didn't. Forsaken religion is dead to God, is blind to the

Lord. It is less capable of recognizing and praising the

Lord than rocks are. It sees, it knows only one thing.

It is right. I am right. My religion, my God, says so, and it will destroy anyone who questions that.

So its destiny is to be forsaken. Its destiny is not even be allowed to see.

Jesus said, by no means will you see the Lord, me, until there's nothing else to see, until there is no other choice about what to see.

That's then you'll see, but not before then. And there's no other way. That's why one of the most fearful things that could happen to you, it's not that you've got to throw yourself into a life of sin, come to party animal, chasing every thrill.

That's not the worst thing that could happen by any means. At least if you do that, you probably know, you know, you're sinning.

Maybe you think, so my, while these oats for a while, you think something like that, but you know, you've walked away from the

Lord and you'll know to come back. If the Holy Spirit shows you your sin and his righteousness and your destiny of judgment, what he may do.

But that's not the most fearful thing. Then the most fearful thing that could happen to you is if you're stuck in forsaken religion, you're convinced that you have

God, you have him under contract. I came forward.

I said the prayer I'm right. And don't ever question it. You don't need to repent because you're so sure of yourself.

You'll be harder to God than rocks. And you will be disturbed by anyone who dares question whether God is with you.

The old time religion exists to dispense assurance of salvation and hates anyone who challenges that they have got under contract.

Such people, Jesus says here, by no means will they see the Lord until that last day, never before then.

So there's no way this is their destiny that they will see the

Lord until he comes in judgment. So what did they know?

And when did they know it? They knew nothing, really. And they didn't know that they knew nothing.

They didn't know the Lord until it was too late, until they are sinners in the hands of an angry

God. But what about Jesus? What did he know?

And when did he know it? Now, you might think, well, he's God. He knows everything. Nothing catches him by surprise.

But he lived as a man. He's fully human with our weaknesses, not our sins, but our limitations.

So it would have been possible. You know, Jesus said he didn't know he didn't even he didn't know when he's returning.

So it would have been possible that the father led him to Jerusalem without letting him know what was coming.

But we see here that Jesus did know. He knew clearly. He knew exactly what was coming.

He knew, at least in part, he knew, I think, because he knew what forsaken religion is like, that it doesn't seek

God except to kill him. And now when he comes into Jerusalem, they will have their opportunity.

Finally, it will be God in the hands of angry sinners.

And so Jesus knew from the moment he set his face to go to Jerusalem, from when he challenged his disciples to take up their crosses and follow him on his cross, from before he was even warned that Herod was out to kill him.

He knew all along. He wasn't fleeing that fox to save his life.

He was going to Jerusalem to give it. Who does that?

Who knowingly goes away from success, you know, from the crowds, from celebrity, from the hosannas?

Who goes away from all that to betrayal, abandonment, beatings, and lashings, and thorns stuck in the scalp, nails driven through feet and hands, and then hoisted up to be humiliated under excruciating torture?

Who does that? Only the one who wants to gather his people under his wings to give us refuge from the storms of destruction.

Was it for crimes that I have done? He groaned upon the tree.

Amazing pity, grace unknown, and love beyond degree.