One Temple Falls and a Better Temple Rises

Joshua Kirstine (0:00)

If you open your Bibles with me this morning and turn to Luke's Gospel towards the back of your Bible, we're blessed to continue in this great series through this remarkable testimony of Jesus' life, death, and resurrection. We're finding ourselves here in chapter 19, preparing to close this chapter and move to 20 As we continue our time in chapter 19 and pick up where we left off last week at verse 41, we see that Jesus is riding on a colt, a triumphal entrance to the city of Jerusalem, with shouts of Hosanna, blessed is the king who comes in the name of the Lord, shouts of peace in heaven and glory in the highest all around him. And as he rides, Jesus' eyes begin to fill with tears. Luke 19, 41, when he drew near and saw the city, he wept over it. The city, Jerusalem's name means the city of peace. Jesus begins to cry because the city of peace would not come to know true peace, but only destruction. This is not the first time that Jesus has lamented over the city and the people it represents in the world. Jesus says in Luke 13, 34, Jerusalem, Jerusalem, the city that kills the prophets and stones those who are sent to it. How often would I have gathered your children together? As a hen gathers her brood under her wings, and you were not willing. Next, Jesus shares heartfelt lament over the coming destruction of Jerusalem. The reality is ethnic Israel personified by Jerusalem here will not all be saved. God's old covenant people often disobediently rejected the offer of God to be put under his wing with their sinful disobedience. And so rather than being gathered under his wings, the tree is being cut down as Jesus alluded to in his parable earlier in chapter 13, 6-9. He told this parable, a man had a fig tree planted in his vineyard. He came seeking fruit on it and found none. He said to the vine dresser, look, for three years now I've come seeking fruit of this fig tree, and I find none, cut it down. Why should it use up the ground? And he answered him, sir, let it alone this year also until I dig around it and put in manure. Then if it should bear fruit next year, well, and good, but if not, you can cut it down.

In Christ's grief, for lost sinners, rejecting God's call to obedience, Christ's grief reflects God's grief, as shown in the Old Testament passages, for errant people. We see this in places like Ezekiel, Jeremiah. Ezekiel 33, 11 says, I take no pleasure in the death of the wicked, God declared, but rather that the wicked turn from his way and live, turn back, turn back from your evil ways. Why then you will die, O house of Israel? I think we relate to a heart that mourns for unbelief, rebellion against God. Parents, siblings, even our own kids, can find themselves rebelling and standing against God. His word, his gospel, this is so hard. Like Christ expresses here, there is a real lament for those who stand against him that we experience. We long to put them under our wing, but they run away because their heart is hard, and they're unwilling to repent and believe. I pray for you who are in this position, I pray that you would trust God, your faith would trust him completely, you would trust in his good and righteous providence, whether they are in the end vessels of wrath, prepared for destruction in order to make known the power of his justice and wrath, or their vessels of mercy, which he's prepared beforehand for glory in order to make known the riches of his grace and glory. We, who belong to God, trust God fully, for salvation belongs to the Lord. We rest in him. As we consider our Lord weeping over the rejection of his old covenant people, see that God is not only sovereign and holy, but just in his wrath do sin, but also compassionate. John Calvin, late reformer, known for his emphasis of God's absolute holiness and sovereignty, studied a lot of that this last Wednesday. Doctrines of grace, Calvinism. Even though known for such hold on God's holiness and sovereignty, in his Institutes, he wrote, Your idea of God's nature is not clear unless you acknowledge him to be the origin and the fountain of all goodness.

Compassion is a part of God's essential goodness. He proclaimed himself to Moses on Mount Sinai that he is compassionate and gracious, slow to anger, abounding in loving kindness and truth. Exodus 34, 6 Psalm 116, 5 The psalmist declared as gracious as the Lord. Righteous, yes, our God is compassionate. The New Testament, James reminds his suffering readers, the Lord is full of compassion and is merciful. James 5, 11 See, God's compassion, not in any man-contrived way.