A HOUSE LEFT IN DESOLATION
A few years ago my father called to
tell me that the old home place—where we as a family had gone for reunions all
through my childhood—had been struck by lightning and burned to the
ground. It had been built by my
great-grandfather and was the birthplace of my grandmother and my father. For over a century, it had been the center
of family life in a small farm community, the symbol of my family’s roots—and
now it was laid waste by the ravages of fire.
It was a house
left in desolation—a place no longer able to provide a home, offer shelter
under its old tin roof, give a sense of history and heritage to each new
generation introduced to life within its walls. Frankly, that loss saddened me in an unusual way as I realized
that my grandchildren will not know that place and will be unlikely to hear its
tales and know about its inhabitants.
Although I was
nowhere near the family line to inherit such a place, imagine how deep my sense
of loss would have been if my inheritance had been left desolate—and what if it
had been laid waste not by lightning but by the foolish choice of someone who
had acted with malice? I believe I
would want to let such a person know what a high price was to be paid for his
belligerence, a lasting cost for his calloused indifference to the consequences
of his actions.
Jesus had seen
the desolation of the house of Israel, a ravaging of the spiritual roots of His
people. And it was willfully and
maliciously being done in full view while the destruction was disguised as
religious progress.
THESIS: Christ offers hope even to those who have left desolate what He holds dear by making His invitation to choose life in His name available to anyone who turns to Him.
In this last
section of Matthew, Jesus concludes His public discourses with a strong word of
rebuke for those who were destroying the house of faith God intended to be a
safe place for His people. Yet after
His words of renunciation, He brings a word of hope, faith in a God-given
promise, that there is still time to turn to Him and away from the defiance
which was leaving a house of desolation
where once there had been a home of
delight!
I. A PROPHECY AIMED AT PEOPLE WHO ARE UNWILLING TO BELIEVE.
A. THE
MESSAGE WILL KEEP COMING
Matthew 23:34a Therefore, behold, I am sending you prophets and wise men and
scribes…
Matthew 23:34b Some of them you will kill and
crucify, and some of them you will scourge in your synagogues, and persecute
from city to city…
Matthew 23:35 So
that upon you may fall the guilt of all the righteous blood shed on earth, from
the blood of righteous Abel to the blood of Zechariah…
D. THE
MASSES WILL KEEP SUFFERING
Matthew 23:36, 38 Truly
I say to you, all these things will come upon this generation… Behold your
house is being left to you desolate…
What kind of
Desolation and Suffering?
“All these
things…” speaks of the same
kind of atrocities that had been committed by them upon others were now going
to fall upon them—and that for generations to come!
1. The Destruction of Jerusalem by the Romans
(70 AD) The Roman general Titus conquered Jerusalem
and in the process killed 1,100,000 Jews, as well as thousands of others all
over Palestine.
--Jesus spoke of this in Luke 21:22 “These are days of vengeance, so that all
things which are written will be fulfilled.”
2. Declaration of Roman Emperor Theodosius II
(408-450 AD) Blatantly anti-Semitic, Theodosius
officially declared that Jews were ‘inherently inferior and did not deserve the
same legal protection and privileges of other people.’ (from MacArthur, p.
395).
3. Byzantine Emperor Heraclitus (630 AD) Banned all Jews from Jerusalem as anti-Semitism began to
shape the development of western culture.
4. Crusades (first began in 1096) On
their way to rid the Holy Land of Muslims, took the opportunity to kill the
Jews they met along the way to keep them from re-occupying Jerusalem after the
Muslims were conquered and banished.
5. Medieval Germany (esp. 1400’s) Jews were falsely accused of using the blood of Christian
children to perform sacrifices and other absurd lies to justify torturing and
killing them in various cruel ways; expelled and exiled over and over.
6. King Ferdinand and Queen Isabella of Spain
(1490’s) Jews were severely persecuted, proselytes
had property confiscated, were forced to wear symbol of burning cross and in
the year of Columbus’ voyage, most were expelled from the country.
7. France (late 1890’s) All high-ranking
Jews were removed from the French army after a Jewish army officer named Alfred
Dreyfus was convicted of treason in the French army simply because he was
Jewish.
8. Europe (outbreak of WWII) In spite of all the
persecution, 20 million Jews still lived in Europe at the start of WWII as
Hitler implemented his vicious annihilation program in which over 6 million
Jews were murdered in the Holocaust.
9. Palestine (1948-present) Thousands of
Israelis (and even more Palestinians) have died because of the animosity
between Jews and Arabs that dates back centuries, with acts of terrorism on the
rise killing hundreds more year after year.
--Such incredible atrocities, horrifying efforts at
exterminating a people, have not been successful because God is not finished
with Israel!
--Jesus presses home the point that there can be no excuse
for their unbelief, their hostility toward the truth of God, their violent
treatment of bearers of a message of hope—and they have long suffered as a
people for the devastating refusal of their leaders to believe.
--Knowing what would result from these “blind guides”
leading Israel astray—not just for their generation but for generations to
come—Jesus spoke with passion and firmness calling them to see the error of
their ways and follow Him.
II. A HEART BROKEN FOR PEOPLE WHO ARE DEFIANT IN THEIR
HARD-HEARTEDNESS.
--As Jesus concludes His denunciation of the scribes and
Pharisees, He turns His attention to the plight of those who were locking in on
a course of devastation and desolation.
--Knowing how deeply the people would suffer and how
horrible their future would be apart from faith in His name, Jesus expresses
the tenderness of His heart toward the hardness of their hearts.
A. HIS HEART
POURS OUT IN TEARS OF SORROW.
Luke 19:41 When
He approached Jerusalem, He saw the city and wept over it…
--Jesus took no pleasure in having to speak such grievous
words to Israel and her leaders.
--In fact, we see that His heart was breaking as He poured
out tears of sorrow for what their sin of unbelief would bring upon them and
their descendents after them.
Jeremiah 13:15, 17
Listen and give heed, do not be haughty…But if you will not listen to
it, my soul will sob in secret for such pride; and my eyes will bitterly weep
and flow down with tears, because the flock of the LORD has been taken captive.
--Their proud and defiant hearts were so hard that they
would not listen, wanting instead to argue and debate instead of listen and
believe.
--Did Jesus denounce such hardness with a cynical
satisfaction of knowing the He would be proved right and they would suffer for
their prideful resistance?
--No, the prophet Jeremiah spoke of the tender heart of God
sobbing, bitterly weeping through eyes flowing down with tears because they had
no idea how costly their stubbornness would be!
B. HIS ARMS
REACH OUT AS WINGS OF PROTECTION.
Psalm 36:7 How
precious is your lovingkindness, O God!
And the children of men take refuge in the shadow of Your wings.
--God has always extended His care to even the most
rebellious of His children and offered to bring them close and keep them safe.
Matthew 23:37 Jerusalem,
Jerusalem…how often I wanted to gather your children together, the way a hen
gathers her chicks under her wings, but you were unwilling.
--Like a protective parent reaching out to shield a child
from harm, Jesus wanted to take all of Jerusalem and all of Israel under His
arms and keep them from the awful consequences of their foolish choice to
reject Him.
--Those painful words describe their reaction to His offer
of protection—“…but you were unwilling!”
--Even as the words of denunciation were spoken, Jesus
longed for any indication that there were any who would repent of their foolish
and dangerous course and be kept safe by coming under His care.
III. A PROMISE OFFERED TO PEOPLE WHO COME BACK TO
A GENUINE FAITH.
--This is the last public message Jesus gives and even
though it contains a sharp rebuke against the hypocritical brand of religion of
the scribes and Pharisee, the religious leaders of Israel, He will not end
without a note of hope.
--There is a promise—an ancient promise given by the Lord to
Abraham—a promise to Israel that speaks of life to all who will trust in the
Lord.
A. YOUR DARKNESS WILL CONTINUE UNTIL YOU FINALLY BELIEVE IN HIS
NAME.
Matthew 23:39 For I
say to you, from now on you will not see Me until...
--Presently, the patterns of unbelief that have kept Israel
from enjoying the blessings of God for most of their existence as a people
continue to keep them from the blessing He has promised to them.
--God had warned Israel in the giving of the Law to Moses
that there would be grave consequences if they turned and walked away from Him.
Deut. 30:19-20
“I call heaven and earth to witness against you today, that I have set before
you life and death, the blessing and the curse. So choose life in order that
you may live, you and your descendants, 20 by loving the LORD your
God, by obeying His voice, and by holding fast to Him; for this is your life
and the length of your days, that you may live in the land which the LORD swore
to your fathers, to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, to give them.”
--Until they choose life and blessing, they live with the
alternative consequences of death and curse—darkness instead of light, bondage
instead of freedom, desolation instead of hope.
--Never again would they see Jesus until…their darkness
would overpower them until…their desolation would persist until…
B. YOUr VISION WILL CLEAR WHEN YOU FINALLY BLESS HIS NAME.
--But hear the word of hope Jesus offers at the conclusion
of this message:
Matthew 23:39 …you
will not see Me until you say, ‘Blessed is He who comes in the name of the
LORD!’
--In summary, Jesus reminds Israel—and her leaders with
her—that the covenant promises of God remain sure and certain, forever and
always!
--One day, Jesus says, true Israel will say those words
willingly and honestly and gladly:
‘Blessed is He who comes in the name of the LORD!’
--From our limited frame of reference, there seems to be
little chance of the Jewish people ever coming in large numbers to confess that
Jesus Christ is Lord.
--But Jesus reaffirms the truth of the promise of God in
this simple statement—not negatively
stated as “unless you say” making it
a remote possibility.
--He says “until
you say” indicating that there will indeed come a day when there will be
glorious return of Israel, the true Israel to faith in Jesus as the Messiah and
Lord of heaven and earth.
--Many Jews were unwilling to believe even with the Messiah
standing there before them—and for that they have suffered in “a house left
desolate” that will bring much heartache and sorrow upon them—until true Israel
stands up and confesses the name of the Lord!
--Paul goes to great lengths to explain this further in
Romans 9-11, but the summary of what he says is this:
1. The covenant and
the promises have given Israel every advantage to know and believe (Rom 9:4).
2. But not all who
are descended from Abraham’s physical lineage are true Israel (Rom 9:6-7).
3. Many are being
called by God to enter into the promises by faith who are descended from
Gentiles, but He has not rejected His people forever (Rom 11:1).
4. Israel will still
be saved…the true Israel willing to trust in the name of the Lord, willing to
believe God and be a people who live by faith in His name (Rom 11:26).
--Jesus offers an affirmation of hope in these promises of
God first given to Abraham and now confirmed as steadfast and true even in the
face of this hard-hearted group of faithless religionists—those who are willing
to confess that Jesus Christ is Lord and Savior will indeed see Jesus again and
join the mighty throng declaring,
‘Blessed is He who comes in the
name of the LORD!’
--All the darkness, all the lack of focus, all the sense of lostness and hopelessness—all disappear once we finally come to Him and bless the name which gives life and hope and forgiveness and freedom!
In a few days after this encounter, Jesus was
crucified. The hatred and defiance and
viciousness of His antagonists culminated in yet another murder of God’s
messenger—this time an act of violence filled with eternal significance unlike
any other ever enacted on earth.
The mean and cruel methods and the cold
and calculating men who crucified Christ were designed to still His voice once
for all. Instead, even from the cross
came words of hope—a message of grace—an invitation to come for forgiveness.
“Father, forgive them, for they know not what they do!”
Even after all they had seen and heard,
they still did not get it. The words of
Jesus denouncing their hypocrisy and hardness of heart echo across the ages
into our ears this morning.
Anyone who will believe, anyone who will
turn away from their unwilling spirit, anyone who will stop arguing long enough
to hear the Savior say, “Come to Me, all who are weary and heavy laden, and I
will give you rest,’ –anyone can embrace His promises and be transformed by the
love of Christ into a new creature.
One day Israel will declare her faith in
Jesus as the Messiah—yes, Israel and a host of that nation known as the
Jews—they will proclaim their confidence in the covenant promises God gave
Abraham and embrace Jesus as Lord.
Will your voice join theirs on that
glorious day when all will say together with great joy, Blessed is He who comes in the name of the LORD?
© David
Horner 2004
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