Joey Sampaga: The Courageous Compassion of Christ, Luke 13:31-35

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Good morning. Maybe it’s not so good the way you all sound. Good morning. Good morning. Thank you. That’s a good one. A couple things before we get started. Let’s, well… That I missed you. There’s no Sunday school to be determined is when we’re going to start up again. We just finished up how we got the Bible, and we’re going to do another one soon, and that will be announced. Aki Lani will let you know when and what we will be studying. And let’s keep Pastor David in prayer. He’s going to be Keep them in prayer for the surgeons, the doctors, and for his healing and his recovery.

All right, so we are in the book of Luke, as we have been for over a year, and we are in chapter 13, and we’re going to be focused on 31 to 35 today. So if you have your Bibles, go ahead and get there. And while you’re getting there, last week, just to give you a little summary, we looked at Luke 13, 22 to 30, which is a passage where Jesus delivered a devastating reality check. Someone in the crowd asked him, Lord, will those who are saved be few? So remember, he was preaching, and then someone kind of just yelled it out. Or he was teaching, and instead of giving them a mathematical percentage or answering them directly, Jesus turned the question directly on the hearts of the listeners. He told them to strive to enter through the narrow door. It seems a little weird that they ask, how many is going to be saved? Is it just going to be few? And he said, well, you need to strive to enter the narrow door. And then he then goes into it. And basically, it’s a warning that that day is going to come when the master and the owner of the home comes home and shuts that door down.

Happens, it’s too late for you to put your faith and trust in Jesus Christ as Lord and Savior. So many people who assumed they were saved just because they had a casual proximity to Jesus will find themselves cast out, weeping, and gnashing their teeth. Meaning that just because your family are a Christian, just because doesn’t mean that you truly put your faith and trust in the Lord, because you could just be coming just to go. I mean, is there a change in your life? Has your lifestyle changed? Are you living obedient to the Lord most of the time, right? And the longer you start to mature in your faith, the more you tend to be in obedience with Christ, in Christ.

So as we move into our passage today, the attention is mounting. Jesus is continuing his slow, deliberate march toward Jerusalem to the cross, and he’s well aware that he’s walking into the epicenter of hatred against him. As he’s walking and getting closer to Jerusalem, the more people, the more the Pharisees and the Sadducees and the religious leaders and even some of the people are starting to demonstrate and show more of their hate towards Jesus. But in these final verses of Luke 13, we’re going to see a breathtaking contrast. We’re going to see the absolute fearless sovereignty of the King Jesus, who refuses to be intimidated by human politicians, perfectly paired with the weeping, tender compassion of our Savior, whose heart breaks for the very people who are about to murder him.

So just to give you a little context and background to this, geographically, Jesus was lightly teaching in the region of Paria. And this is just east of the Jordan River. Politically, this territory was under the jurisdiction of Herod Antipas. And if that name sounds familiar, which it should, this is the same wicked, paranoid puppet king who arrested and killed this person. Does anyone know who that is? Cut his head off because of his stepdaughter who requested that. John the Baptist. John the Baptist, yes. So this puppet king, this antipas, or this guy, Herod, he had his daughter, his stepdaughter, do a sensual dance. I don’t know if this looks sensual to you. That’s not going to be looking sensual. She was doing a sensual dance for him and he was like, “Yay, good job, daughter!” Right in front of all the people. And he says, “Because your dance was so nice and sensual and it turned everyone on in here, I’ll give you anything you want.” And what does she request? Well, she got the request from her mom to behead John the Baptist. Of course, this didn’t want to, I mean, he announced it in front of everybody, and he didn’t want to really kill John the Baptist, but he didn’t also want to turn his back on what the request was, because he said, whatever you want, I’ll give it to you. And so John the Baptist’s head was then given to the mother of the stepmother.

So the Pharisees, who are the religious elite, they hated Jesus. They wanted him dead just as much as anyone else does. But right now, they don’t have the authority to kill him in Perea, so they decided to use Herod’s reputation as a violent tyrant to try and scare Jesus. And we’re going to talk about that. They wanted to intimidate him into leaving Perea and heading straight to Jerusalem, where they were trying to push him out of Perea. Because the Pharisees really didn’t have power there, so they said, Just go, because Herod wants to kill you. And so they were pushing him to a place that they did have jurisdiction, which was in Jerusalem in Judea, where the powerful Jewish Supreme Court of Sanhedrin has a political leverage to get rid of him. So they were trying to push him off. To Jerusalem so that they can then attack him there.

So what we’re about to read and study and talk about today is a beautiful demonstration of the fact that Jesus Christ cannot be bullied. Okay? He can’t be bullied, he can’t be hurried, or even stopped. He’s operating on a divine schedule drawn up in eternity past. He’s on his own timeline. He’s on the Father’s timeline to do 13, verse 31. It says, 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 finish my course. Nevertheless, I must go on my way today and tomorrow and the following day, for it cannot be that a prophet should perish away from Jerusalem. Oh, Jerusalem, Jerusalem, city of How often would I have gathered your children together as a hen gathers her brood under her wings, and you were not willing. Behold, your house is forsaken, and I tell you, you will not see me until you see me. This is the holy word of God.

Let’s pray. Lord God, Heavenly Father, look at the life of your son Jesus. We’re humbled by his majesty. Father, we thank you for a Savior who did not flinch in the face of death and who loved with the compassion that we can barely comprehend. Father, Holy Spirit, Fill us with your spirit. Strip away our pride. Open our ears, our spiritual ears and eyes, to help us see the danger of rejecting your grace and draw us into the safety of your wings. Father, reveal to us what you would like us to learn and teach us and allow us to take what we’ve Alright, so let’s start off with verse 31.

Luke tells us, at that very hour some Pharisees came and said to him, get away from here, for Herod wants to kill you. Now, do you hear the fake concern in their voices? Of course, you’re not hearing their voices, you’re reading their voices. You’re hearing me, right? So, do you hear this fakeness coming from them? Well, Jesus, you better get out of here, because Herod wants to kill you. What are they really trying to do? They’re trying to get him to go on to Jerusalem so they can go and kill him. Okay, so they’re faking it. So the Pharisees are pretending to be his friends, acting as if they care about saving him. But, of course, they’re hypocrites. They don’t want to save Jesus. They just want him out of Herod’s territory and delivered into their own trap in Jerusalem. Now notice how Jesus responds in verse 32.

Is a fox, you’re known as a fox, you’re usually complimenting them for being clever or sly. But in ancient Jewish culture, calling a man a fox was a massive insult. The Greek word is alopex, which is, the rabbis used this term to describe an animal that was destructive, worthless, and insignificant. In contrast to, let’s say, a majestic lion. So this fox was a deceitful little scavenger. Whenever I think of that, I think of a hyena or something like that. So Jesus is looking at the political ruler of the region, a man. Compared to Jesus himself, who was God, creator, who was all powerful, well, he was pretty insignificant. He was like an insignificant pest to them. So Jesus is saying, Herod is a nuisance, not a threat. You will tell that little fox that he does not dictate my schedule. That’s what he was telling the Pharisees. Go tell that little fox. That I am here to do my father’s business. I will leave when I leave. I’m not on his timeline, I’m on my father’s timeline, which is a divine timeline.

And if you look at verse 32, Jesus says, behold, I cast out demons and perform cures today and tomorrow and the third day I finish my course. So Jesus is speaking idiomatically here. So today, tomorrow, and the third day was a Jewish figure of speech, meaning a short, divinely appointed period of time. So he was on God’s time. He’s telling the Pharisees, I have work to do. I’m here to do a work. And it was planned from the very beginning. God the Father has given me a mission to push back. And I will continue to do it right here under Herod’s nose until my work is done. That little insignificant pest is not gonna get in my way. Now he didn’t actually say that, but that’s probably what he was thinking. Now notice the phrase, I finished my course. The Greek word is teleo, which means to bring something to its purpose. Or to accomplish his goal perfectly.

So Jesus isn’t talking about retiring or finishing his work right there and then. He’s talking about the cross. That’s what he had to finish. He had to go to the cross, he had to die for our sins, he had to be buried, he had to be resurrected, he had to be sent into heaven or into hell to get the people in paradise, to then lift them up or say to the other people over there in Hades or Gehenna, see, I’m the Jesus that was prophesied, so now you know I’m real, and then he went into heaven with the souls of paradise. And he’s now seated at the right hand, and he will come again to judge the living and the dead, and that’s going to happen right after the seven-year tribulation. All of this has been This has been already planned out from the very, very, very, very beginning. It’s been talked about, it’s been prophesied, and all these prophecies that have been told in the Old Testament and the ones that have been told in the New Testament, a lot of them. There’s a few of them, a lot of them that have already been fulfilled, and they’re So Jesus, he’s saying, I’m marching toward a perfect, predetermined finish line. Okay, and again, that’s a cross.

In verse 33, he adds, 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. All right, so after Jesus said all that to the Pharisees, he says, but you’re not going to go anywhere. Because I dictate when I’m going to go. And that’s what he did. So the word must, I must go, indicates divine necessity. Jesus is invincible until the hour his father has appointed for his death. He’s on the divine timeline and it’s going to be followed exactly to the father’s will. So Jesus, now keep appointed for his death. Meaning that Jesus isn’t going to die no matter what anyone does until God the Father says it’s time. But notice the heartbreaking irony at the end of the verse. Jesus says a prophet can’t die outside of Jerusalem.

So throughout the Old Testament, Jerusalem, the city of David, the holy city, the place where the temple stood, had become the very place Zechariah, who was stoned to death, to Uriah, who died by the sword, to Isaiah, who was sown into. Now that wasn’t in the Bible, but that’s according to historical tradition, that Isaiah the prophet was cut with a saw into. And that occurred in Jerusalem. And then later on in the New Testament, you had Stephen, the first Christian martyr, who was stoned to death, and then James, the apostle, executed with the sword, and Jesus Christ, later on, well, not later, but he was crucified also in Jerusalem. So in verse 34, as Jesus mentions Jerusalem, the tone of the passage, it shifts dramatically. Fearless, authoritative king who just dismissed Herod as a fox suddenly breaks down in a moment of intense emotional glory. And I want you to pay attention to this compassion and this sadness that he has in verse 34.

He says, 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, as a hen gathers her brood under her you were not willing. Do you hear his compassion for his people, for God’s people? Whenever a name is repeated twice in scripture like that, when it says Jerusalem, Jerusalem, it expresses deep, agonizing affection. It’s the same way David, King David, cried out, oh my son, Jesus is looking at a city that’s about to whip him, mock him, and nail him to the wood or to the cross, to the tree, and his heart is shattering with love for them. Can you imagine that? These people who are set out to kill him, Remember, when he was nailed on that cross, he says, what does he say? He says, Father, forgive them. Please forgive them. Because they don’t know what they’re doing.

He uses this beautiful maternal imagery of a mother hen. I’m sure you’ve seen pictures of that when it’s raining or something’s going on, and you see the mother hen or the bird doing this, and then you see a bunch of babies, the baby chicks underneath the wings. And he uses imagery of the mother hen. So when danger approaches, let’s say like a fox or a coyote or a hawk or a prairie or a prairie fire or a fire, the mother hen will cause her chicks to herself and then she protects them with her wings. She’ll literally allow herself to be burned in a fire to save her own Chicks or babies. Right? And that’s what most mothers would do today, right? That’s why we call you mother bears, mama bear, to protect your kids. You’re going to do whatever it takes to protect them, no matter what. Right? And that’s the imagery that Jesus gave them. This is exactly what God offered Israel. And we see this imagery in Psalm 91-4 where it says, He will cover you with his pinions, and under his wings you will find refuge.

But look at the end of verse 34. It’s one of the most tragic phrases in the entire Bible. And you were not milled. I’m saving you. Come here. Which refers to the deliberate stubborn choice of the will Jesus wanted to save them he stood with arms wide open he says please come but they aggressively stubbornly refused him to the point they wanted to even kill him which eventually they did so God is absolutely sovereign over salvation So you are sent to hell, you are walking towards hell, and Jesus was wanting to save you, but you didn’t want to be saved yourself, so you continue going on your way. And so you will reap the consequences of your actions. And because they refused the shelter of his wings, there are severe consequences.

Verse 35 begins, Behold, your house is forsaken. What house is he talking about here? He’s talking about the magnificent temple in Jerusalem. For centuries, the temple was known as the house of God. But Jesus doesn’t call it God’s house anymore. He says, your house. Because of what they’ve done to it. Remember, he’s on his way to Jerusalem, and remember what he does in the temple when he gets It’s because it’s no longer the house of God. It’s their house. He calls it that. He says, your house. The glory has imparted. It’s now just an empty building of dead religion. There are a lot of churches today that are doing nothing but dead religion, practicing dead religion. They come in. They do their thing. I say something, then you reply, and we just kind of do this liturgy-style worship to when I say something, you say something. And we all just say it.

When I used to go to Catholic church, I used to know everything you said. Peace be with you. And I forget some of the other things, but if I were in Catholic church right now and you say something, I would be able to just respond without even thinking. It’s something you do over and over again. Yes. Yes. I mean, you just do it. You know, that’s why in a true Bible teaching church, we don’t do that. We learn God’s word. We explain it. We tell you about it. Now it’s up to you to then take it. Because I can only be here and I can share it with you. Now it’s up to you to take it and use it practically in your own lives and then to be obedient to the Lord. I can share the gospel until I’m blue in the face, but if you don’t put your faith and trust in Jesus Christ, fully that is, well, that’s on you, not me. I can wash the blood off my hands and say, Lord, I did what you asked me to do.

So it’s the… And what I’m telling each and every one of you is, yes, if I were to bet money, I would say every single one of you here are probably Christians. But I probably wouldn’t do that because I would probably lose my money. And I’m saying that because I love you, number one. And then secondly, you just made me come in here to say I went to church. And then go, after you leave, maybe Monday you’re all right, Tuesday you’re still a little holy, Wednesday all that holiness and righteousness is washed away. And then you start to live your regular life until someday when you can hit the reset button. You don’t want to do that because then really is God’s word in your heart? Or are you just going to hand me the book and be a Christian? So the glory has departed from the house, the temple. It’s now just an empty building of dead religion. And I pray to God that this church never becomes a dead religion. We’re here to worship the true God and the only God, through His Word and only His Word. Okay?

And historically, we know exactly what happened because they rejected their Messiah. The one that was prophesied to them, the one And we saw that happen in history, AD 70 specifically. Just 40 years after Jesus said these words, the Roman army surrounded Jerusalem, slaughtered hundreds of thousands of Jews, and burned the temple to the ground until not one stone was left upon another. Jesus prophesied it, and it happened. And even to this day. But Jesus doesn’t end on a note of total hopelessness. Look at the end of verse 35. And I tell you, you will not see me until you say, blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord. Now he’s quoting Psalm 118.26. You know that. He’s quoting that same exact psalm. It’s amazing how Jesus speaks his own words.

Well, this would be partially fulfilled just a few weeks later during the triumphal entry when the crowd shouted, Hosanna, points to a much greater future reality. And Jesus is promising that there’s a coming day, and that’s a second coming, by the way, when the nation of Israel will finally look upon the one they pierced. And God’s sovereign plan of redemption will have a final word. And I can’t wait for that to happen. Because everyone who’s rejecting Christ right now, we can just, I mean, God is just going to throw it back in their face. Right? Have you ever tried to tell the truth about something and no one would pay attention? You’re like, come on, just listen. This is real. I’ve seen it with my own eyes. They were just mocking you, and then the truth comes out and you’re like, see? In your face. I mean, of course we wouldn’t say that, it’s Christmas. Maybe we might have made it. So judgment is coming. God’s sovereign plan of redemption will have final words.

So what does this text demand of us today? I’m going to give you three practical takeaways that you can take with you in practicing your own love. First, do not fear man. Trust God’s time table. You are here because God is not done with you yet. He has a plan live an obedient life and to share the gospel of Jesus with the lost. Ultimately, that’s what we’re here for. We’re here to love others. We do that by loving God and serving God and we immediately or we just automatically love people and we serve people. And we do it in the name of the Lord. We share the gospel. To your family, your friends, your neighbors, your coworkers, your classmates, Joey, I can share the gospel just by living it out. My actions will show the gospel. You know, you’re a Christian. You ought to be living that way anyway. He will have to hear it, and he will have to read it, and he will have to understand it. And then they put their dependence on them to put their faith and trust in Jesus.

So Jesus was completely unfazed by the threats of Herod because he knew he was living on his father’s timeline. We are living on our father’s timeline, our heavenly father’s timeline as well. And if you belong to Jesus Christ, your life is in the hands of a sovereign God. You’re immortal, meaning you’re not going to die until God’s purpose for your life is finished. Right? And for those who have been thinking about or praying and feel the call to go out on missions, well, if you were meant to go out on missions, God’s going to be there to protect you. And if for some reason you die while you’re You don’t need to panic at, let’s say, the political headlines and the governments and the wars that are going on. You don’t need to fear those who can only kill the body. You need to go out there and you need to be bold to proclaim the gospel of Jesus Christ.

Secondly, We need to be able to discern, we need to be able to recognize the danger of a stubborn will. So the most terrifying thing God can do to a human being is to simply give them what they want. Jesus stood weeping over Jerusalem, offering them safety, but they were not willing. If you’re sitting in a church week after week, hearing the gospel, and you’re You’re stiff-arming the Holy Spirit. You ever played football before? Anyone here? You know one person? Okay, you know what stiff-arming is. You’re pushing the Holy Spirit away. You’re playing a deadly game. Don’t let your pride turn you into an empty, forsaken house. Don’t think to yourself, oh, I believe in God. That’s enough. I am a Christian. You are so solid in that. But then there are some people who are deceived thinking that they are. Right? Again, I always turn it back to look at your mind. How are you living your life? Are you living like you were prior to when you thought you were saved? Or do you have a lifestyle of a person that’s not obedient to the Lord? Right? Are you watching movies that you should not be watching? Are you reading things you shouldn’t be reading? Are you saying words that you should not be saying?

Now, I’m not saying that we’re going to clean up right after we say. No, but we have the sanctification process, meaning the Lord, the Holy Spirit is working within us to clean us up to be more like the Savior Jesus. So don’t let your pride turn you into an empty, forsaken house. And then thirdly, marvel at the compassion of your Savior. So first, do not fear man. Trust God’s timetable. Secondly, recognize the danger of a stubborn will. And then thirdly, marvel at the compassion of your Savior. Jesus didn’t look If you ever doubt whether God cares about lost people, look at verse 34. His heart is full of tender mercy. And as Christians, we need to have that same weeping compassion for a lost and dying world. We should boldly preach the truth, but we should do it with tears in our eyes. When we’re out here, I have this, and we know that maybe not everyone here isn’t saved. There are true Bible preaching pastors up here. And we have, and I didn’t develop this, I didn’t develop it, well God put it into my heart, until just recently. Before I would just come up here and preach the Bible word and thought I was done. But now I understand what it means to have that desire for the lost, to share it with the congregation that God has made me an under-shepherd of. I am concerned about them.

If I don’t do my job as a pastor, as an under-shepherd, to share God’s truth the way it ought to be shared, the way we’re instructed to share it, partial of you aren’t saying, well, God is going to take it over with me. But if I do what he asked me to do, if pastors in general preach the way they ought to preach, then they can wash the blood off their hands and say, Lord, I did what you asked me to do. God is going to say, well done, my good faithful servants. And those are the words that I long to hear from our heavenly Father. You all should be yearning for that desire as well.

So ultimately, this passage, verses 31 to 35, is a glorious portrait of the gospel. Jesus Christ knew exactly what awaited him in Jerusalem. Betrayal, scourging, the crown of thorns, the agonizing nails, and most terrifying of all, unmitigated wrath of the Almighty God poured out upon him for the sins of his people. Right? Yes, being nailed, being whipped, being spat on, yes, that’s horrible things, but even infinitely more horrible than that is God’s wrath being poured out on him. We need to understand that it was God the Father who killed his own son for us. For those who took their faith and trusted him. Because if God didn’t do that to Jesus, now, God didn’t hold back either. He used the Germans to our sins to kill his son Jesus. He did not hold back. And he did because he loved us. That much. And that, brothers and sisters, we need to really grasp and understand that he did all that for us.

We celebrate heroes today. Pat Tillman is celebrated because he decided not to receive the millions of dollars but instead go to war. We celebrate him every year. We celebrate the people who saved other people. And they shouldn’t celebrate it because of what they did. But do we celebrate Christ in that manner? We ought to. Because he not only saved just a few people, he saved millions and millions and millions and millions. Saved the world. Jesus knew. He knew what he was walking into. He knew that he was walking into a slaughterhouse. Yet he didn’t flinch. He said, I finished my course. He willingly went to the cross because it was the only way to satisfy the justice of a perfect, righteous, holy God and secure redemption for sinners. Us. The arms that he longed to wrap around rebellious Jerusalem were the very arms that were stretched trusting him you need to hear the warning of this text do not remain unwilling do not let your life be left desolate under the judgment of God flee to the Savior run to the Savior bow to his sovereign Lordship today and find refuge because he took the fire of judgment on himself and will find absolute, eternal shelter.

Repent means to turn away from your sins, to turn away from the world, and to turn to Him. And best your sins to the Lord, and let Him know that you are sincerely sorry for what you have done in the new gospel of Jesus Christ. In the words of the Apostle Paul, Romans 8, 1, when we do this, there is therefore now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus. So run under the wings.