“O Jerusalem!”

(Matthew 23:37-24:8)

Series: God’s Fulfilled Promise [on screen]

Rev. Matthew C. McCraw, EdD

First Baptist Church, Bartow, Florida

August 23, 2020

The Passage

Matthew 23:37-24:8

23:37 “Jerusalem, Jerusalem, who kills the prophets and stones those who are sent to her. How often I wanted to gather your children together, as a hen gathers her chicks under her wings, but you were not willing! 38 See, your house is left to you desolate. 39 For I tell you, you will not see me again until you say, ‘Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord’!”

24:1 As Jesus left and was going out of the temple, his disciples came up and called his attention to its buildings. 2 He replied to them, “Do you see all these things? Truly I tell you, not one stone will be left here on another that will not be thrown down.”

3 While he was sitting on the Mount of Olives, the disciples approached him privately and said, “Tell us, when will these things happen? And what is the sign of your coming and of the end of the age?”

4 Jesus replied to them, “Watch out that no one deceives you. 5 For many will come in my name, saying, ‘I am the Messiah,’ and they will deceive many. 6 You are going to hear of wars and rumors of wars. See that you are not alarmed, because these things must take place, but the end is not yet. 7 For nation will rise up against nation, and kingdom against kingdom. There will be famines and earthquakes in various places. 8 All these events are the beginning of labor pains.

Introductory Comments:

We’re continuing our series in the Gospel of Matthew called, “God’s Fulfilled Promise.” The last time we were in Matthew we covered a marathon 36 verses and we saw Jesus’ tone shift towards the religious leaders. 

In today’s passage, we’ll see Jesus’ tone shift again to a more somber tone. He’s going to open our eyes to two outcomes of sin in our world: sorrow and judgment.

Before we get into this passage, let’s pray together and ask God to speak to us. 

(prayer)

When you lead an organization, team, classroom, or family you sometimes experience this situation where you want the organization to experience joy, fun, and positivity but you know that you have to deal with something that is more serious, somber, and perhaps negative because of something the organization has gone through. Perhaps you want to give your classroom a fun break but you can’t because they’re behind on their work due to their goofing off. Perhaps you want to take your kids to go get ice cream, but you don’t want to reinforce their bad behavior. Perhaps you want to buy new cars for your church members but they didn’t read their Bible enough this week. 

In any case, there are times when you have to face the difficult outcomes that result from that which has transpired. Well, this is one of those times for Jesus in the Gospel of Matthew. 

In Matthew 23:37-24:8, we’re going to see Jesus speak about three specific realities concerning the presence of sin among the people of Israel and the realities are certainly present in our world as well.  

First, . . .

I. Jesus spoke of sorrow (23:37-39) [on screen]

Look at Matthew 23:37-39. 

37 “Jerusalem, Jerusalem, who kills the prophets and stones those who are sent to her. How often I wanted to gather your children together, as a hen gathers her chicks under her wings, but you were not willing! 38 See, your house is left to you desolate. 39 For I tell you, you will not see me again until you say, ‘Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord’!”

We see from Jesus that there is sorrow that results from sin. Jesus is burdened towards the people of Israel because of their sin and the consequences it will bring in their lives. 

As Jesus speaks of this, He centers in on the city of Jerusalem which was the heart of the people of Israel. 

Jesus had just finished addressing the scribes and Pharisees in terms of their persecution of God’s chosen messenger