The Time of Your Visitation

The title of my sermon today, I've taken it from Scripture. The title is, The Time of Your Visitation. Do we recognize the time of visitation in our lives? What that can mean is, do we recognize the coming of God in our lives as we should? I look at us here and I recognize that we've been called. God has reached out to us in our lives. The Father calls us. He's touched us and we've heard. We've welcomed Him when He came to us, when He visited us.

But do we continue to welcome God? Do we continue to welcome Him when He visits us? Do we allow God to work with our hearts and minds to change us? To make us better? To make us even more as He is? And do we always strive to hear, then, and welcome God's presence in our lives? I connect these questions with the purpose of fasting. Fasting is not to make God do what we want Him to do. That won't happen. So just quit trying to do that. But what we can do is to try harder to make sure there's nothing between us and God. Nothing interfering so that God will hear us. And God will then answer our prayer according to His will. So in today's sermon, to help address these questions of God's visitation in our lives, I'd like for us to consider a group of people who did not recognize their visitation. A group of people who even rejected the time of their visitation from God. I'm going to pick up the story thread several days before Passover.

We believe that was in 31 A.D. And Jesus Christ was on the road. He was on the road from the village of Bethany to Jerusalem. It was not a long journey. It's only about one and a half miles. They're pretty sure between Bethany and Jerusalem. You have to go through a little village of Bethphage. And then over the Mount of Olives, and there right in front of you, is Jerusalem. So you may have been on that Mount of Olives. I was there once many years ago as a student. Well, Jesus and His disciples were accompanied by a multitude of people that day. It was an increasing crowd of people, it seems, and they were all making their way from Bethany to Jerusalem. He had already sent two disciples ahead to the village of Bethphage to bring him a cult that he would ride to Jerusalem. And you could be turning with me. I should have mentioned it sooner. If you turn with me to Matthew 21, and we'll be reading a bit from there. In Matthew 21, verse 1, we have the disciples, of course, accompanying him as usual. But again, there's this multitude of people with him. And I can imagine they made up a rather interesting procession to see.

Let's read about it then in Matthew 21, verse 1. Now when they drew near Jerusalem and came to Bethphage at the Mount of Olives, then Jesus sent two disciples, saying to them, Go into the village opposite you, and immediately you will find a donkey tied and a cult with her. Loose them and bring them to me, and if anyone says anything to you, you shall say, The Lord has need of them, and immediately he will send them. In verse 4, we read, All this was done that it might be fulfilled, which was spoken by the prophet, saying, Tell the daughter of Zion, behold, your king is coming to you, lowly and sitting on a donkey, a cult, the foal of a donkey. And so the disciples went and did as Jesus commanded. And just like that, just like he said, it happened. They brought the donkey and the cult, laid close upon them, both of them, and set him on them. Now, immediately, what do you mean? He's riding two donkeys at the same time. That's the way it reads. There's a cult with its mama, and perhaps he brought the old the mother along for an easier ride. And it reads as if he threw cloaks across both of them. Maybe he was riding just on the cult and leaning on them. I don't know. The point is, the point is, they asked for a donkey, and they brought two, and he's sitting on them. And the significance is in the prophecy. But I do like to know the details. I'd like to see how that would work. Jesus is riding the donkey, and it's cult with cloaks for a saddle. And the disciples are all about him, and I'm sure they're helping him along the way, keeping him upright, maybe, and making sure his feet don't drag. And in the midst, and they're in the midst of this rather boisterous multitude, many people. The road over and down the Mount of Olives might have been a especially festive, I think, that day. Maybe even more green and spring-like, too. And it would have been an interesting ride. Alfred Eidersheim riding the 19th century makes this note about Mount of Olives. Sometimes we may think it was just an old dried-out desert-like place. Well, that wasn't the way it was on the side of the Mount of Olives facing Jerusalem. He said, all that was always fresh and green, even in the earliest spring and or during part summer. The stone he rode down all of it, which Christ would have taken, would have wound along terraces covered with olive trees, whose silver and dark green leaves rustled in the breeze. And here gigantic, gnarled fig trees, like we heard about in the sermonette, these giant gnarled fig trees twisted themselves out of the rocky soil. And their clusters of palms raised their naughty stems high up into waving pluffed tombs. And there were groves of myrtle pines, tall stately cypresses, and on the summit itself, gigantic cedar trees. And to these shady retreats, inhabitants would often come from Jerusalem to take pleasure there and to meditate. And of course, we know Christ and his disciples often went there in the Garden of Gethsemane. Reading again, Matthew 21, verse 8, they're making their progress through all this greenery now, these trees. And a very great multitude spread out their clothes on the road. And others cut down branches from the trees and spread them on the road. And then the multitudes went before him, and those who followed cried out, saying, Hosanna to the Son of David, Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord. Hosanna in the highest. Very stirring words. Who were these multitudes? Where did they come from?

And where did they get this information about Jesus Christ, Him coming? Let's turn to John, chapter 12. John has a similar account that we're reading here in Matthew. Of course, each account gives a little bit different information. What we learn in John's account is that there are many pilgrims at Jerusalem at this time of year. They were there to observe the Passover in the days of Unleavened Bread. And in John 12, verse 12 through 13, we'll look here for a while, John 12 reads, The next day a great multitude that had come to the feast. When they heard that Jesus was coming to Jerusalem, they took branches of palm trees and went out to meet Him.

There's a historian, Shelley Conay, notes that Jerusalem, during this time period, and even throughout the first century, Jerusalem was the city of over 100,000 to 200,000 people. That's quite a bit. Tyler is about ready to, well, probably already is, 100,000 people, kind of giving a sense of how many people that could be. That's how big Jerusalem was, 100 to 200,000. But this historian writes that three times a year in the pilgrim festivals of Passover, Pentecost, and Tabernacles, Tabernacles, Jerusalem's population swelled to 1 million souls. Could you imagine? 1 million souls, both in and outside of the city confines of Jerusalem. Also, that explains one part of the question, where these multitudes come from. Also, let's look at verse 17.

John 12, 17. We learn that many of these same people had heard how Jesus had raised Lazarus from the dead. Therefore, the people who were with him when he called Lazarus out of the tomb and raised him from the dead bore witness. So they are spreading the word. Good news travels real fast. And this is certainly good news. For this reason, the people also met him. So they got a lot of people there because of the Feast of Unleavened Bread. Excuse me, we pass over. And also, they heard news specifically about Christ raising Lazarus. That caused a great amount of excitement. People were coming from everywhere to see this man. Many had probably seen him before over the previous three and a half years. Now they're wanting to see him again, perhaps. And so perhaps many wondered, perhaps he is the Messiah. Perhaps this man, this Jesus of Nazareth, is the Messiah. And so, as we saw in John 12, John 12, 13, they came out. And again, they used the words from Psalm 1826. From Psalm 1826, Hosanna, blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord, the King of Israel. They were acknowledging in their own way their belief, their own simple belief, that he was a Messiah. They believed he was the King of Israel. According to Adam Clarke's commentary in the Bible, this word hosanna is very special. This word hosanna. When persons applied to the King for help in ancient times, or for a redress of grievances, they used the word hosanna. Hosanna means save now. It means save now. Save. We beseech thee. We dress our grievances and give us the help we need from oppression. Thus, Clarke says, both the words and the actions of the people prove in this story, this account, not a story, this account, their words and actions prove that they acknowledge Christ as their King. They were looking to Him for deliverance. For deliverance.

But of course, we also know when you read other parts of the Scripture, not everybody felt quite the same way about Jesus Christ. Not everybody thought He was the Messiah. And that's especially true of the Pharisees. The Pharisees, if we go back to... let's go back to... let's see, make sure... Yeah, let's look right here. Just stay put. Let's look at verse 19, John 12-19. Notice the Pharisees, while all these people are yelling hosanna and praising Him and all their excitement, the Pharisees weren't quite feeling it. Notice what they said in verse 19. The Pharisees, therefore, said among themselves, and they're talking to each other, you see that you are accomplishing nothing. Look, the world has gone after Him. A little more clarity here. The New Living Translation puts their words this way. Then the Pharisees said to each other, they said, there's nothing we can do. Look, everyone has gone after Him. Well, what they're concerned about is the masses are following this man. He's not of our club. He's not of our group. He's not of our party.

This isn't good. Let's turn now to Luke 19. Let's turn to Luke 19. We're following how this story line develops here. In Luke 19, we're going to see again how some Pharisees were deeply disturbed by the people's behavior. They really irked that Jesus didn't correct or rebuke them. Let's see, Luke 19, verse 39. We'll pick it up there. Luke 19.39. Again, we capture some of the discomfort of the Pharisees watching this and hearing this. Luke 19.39. And some of the Pharisees called to Him, called to Jesus from the crowd, and they said, Teacher, rebuke your disciples. Correct them. Don't let them say that about you. But Jesus answered, said to them, I tell you that if these should keep silent, the stones would immediately cry out. What does He mean by that? The stones would cry out and say the same thing. Now, that's not the response they wanted to hear from Jesus.

In essence, Jesus was telling these Pharisees that even the stones would cheer His coming. Because the stones, perhaps symbolic of a creation, of all the creation, they recognized that something very important and something very wonderful was happening. They understood something, these stones, He's suggesting. He's suggesting that dumb stones, you Pharisees, understand what's going on. Why don't you? Dumb stones are a little bit smarter in more understanding of you right now. Why don't you understand? We're going to get back to this address. Excuse me. We're going to get back an address. Get my enunciation correctly. We're going to address this question of lack of understanding just a bit. The Pharisees didn't understand. They didn't get it. Jesus continues on His way to Jerusalem. Perhaps He had gone a few more yards after confronting the Pharisees. Perhaps He had passed one more rise, and then before His eyes, He would have seen Jerusalem.

And I don't know, but perhaps Jerusalem, when He saw it that day, it was a morning. Perhaps He caught it in the morning light of a spring day. Perhaps the sun's light was just cresting over the Mount of Olives. And if so, the sunlight would have been shining brightly upon the city and reflecting off the white stone of Temple Mount in front of the temple itself, off its front. The temple faced eastwards. And it would have been beautiful. It would have been a beautiful sight. Jerusalem was the city of palaces, writes Alfred Adersheim again, and right royally enthroned as none other. He says it was placed on an eminence higher than the immediate neighborhood. It was cut off and isolated by deep valleys on all sides but one, and it gave it an appearance of an immense natural fortress.

All around it, he writes, on three sides, there is this natural moat, these deep ravines, ran alongside the city, one the valley in Hinnen and the other, the Kidron Valley, we call it. And they merged together right at the southern point of the city. Only on the northwest was the city as it were bound to the mainland. There it was broad, a broad expanse. The city naturally was growing that way in Christ's time. But cheer up from these encircling ravines, he writes, rose to the city of Marble, in cedar covered palaces. Sounds very beautiful. And up that middle cleft down in the valley, along the slopes of the hills, crept the busy town, its many streets, markets, and bazaars. That's what Christ was looking at. And at one glance, he would have seen before him the whole city, its valleys and hills, its walls and towers, its palaces, its streets, and its magnificent temple, almost like a vision from another world, he writes. And indeed, Jerusalem's focus, its main reason people wanted to see it, even those who were not Jews, they were attracted to the city, was because of the jewel that was the temple.

Again, Shelley Conay, a historian, in her description of Jerusalem, she writes, her states that despite the magnificence of the city, and it truly would have been beautiful, undoubtedly, she says, the centerpiece of the city was the temple itself. It was a building of shiny white marble and gold, with bronze entrance doors. And it was commonly said back then that you could not look at the temple in daylight. It was so dazzling, it would blind you. There's that bright stone, gold, bronze. And she even notes here, there's so much attention to the detail of the construction of the temple, only the finest materials and the finest workmanship, that they even placed gold spikes on the roof line, all along the edge of the roof, to keep the birds from sitting up there and soiling it, dirtying it. That's attention to detail. That's attention to detail, in their sense of their honor to God. And no doubt, Jesus then saw this. He's looking down upon Jerusalem, from his vantage point there on the Mount of Olives. He'd seen it many times, but this time was different. Remember, Passover and the culmination of his life on earth was only a few days away. And notice what happens next in Luke 19.41. We're still here in Luke. Now, after he has talked to the Pharisees, he's looked upon the city. And notice what he says. He weeps in verse 41.

And now, as he drew near, he saw this city, this beautiful city, and he wept over it. I thought that was rather strange. You know, I've read this over and over again through the years, and it just strikes me as odd that he'd stopped the city he's seen so many times.

And this time, it's different. And it's also odd. He's surrounded by this loud and boisterous procession of people, probably old and young children, singing hosanna, they're rejoicing about him. But at that moment, he's weeping. In essence, he laments as he pauses to consider the city there that stretched out before him. And he must have paused a while because somebody wrote down, remembered what he said, verse 42, 44, and he wept over it, saying, if you had known, he's speaking to the city, if you had known, even you, especially in your day, the things that make for your peace, but now they are hidden from your eyes.

Now they are hidden from your eyes. This word here, hidden, is a Greek word. It's crypto. K-R-Y-P-T-O. Crypto. I remember that as a kid from something else. It was the name of Superman's dog. But crypto means hidden. It actually means not understanding, a lack of understanding. So that may help us understand this, too. He's saying, if you had known, but the things that make for your peace, they are hidden. You lack the understanding with your eyes. You don't see it. You don't understand it. Then he continues, verse 43. He says, four days will come upon you when your enemies will build an embankment around you.

They're going to surround you and close you in on every side and level you and your children within you to the ground. They will not leave in you one stone upon another because you did not know the time of your visitation. You did not know the time of your visitation. And so Jesus is speaking directly and compassionately, I would say, with great emotion, to the city of Jerusalem. He addresses her as if she were a mother with children.

And he laments because he knows that Jerusalem will be destroyed and leveled because she and her children, the Jews, did not know the time of their visitation. In verse 42, I think we can perhaps understand here a little more thought that there's a little bit of wordplay upon the word peace.

The name Jerusalem, you know, means city of peace. Or it can mean the abode of peace. Peace dwells here is the idea. So when Jesus said, if you had known even you, emphasizing that Jerusalem, whose name means city of peace, even you then should have recognized the Prince of Peace, the Messiah, right there in her midst.

And more than that, Jerusalem should have recognized her special time. Her special time that he called this your day. This is your day, Jerusalem. What day was he speaking of? Well, it was that very day or this time of his coming. We find a clue to this meaning back in Luke 4. If you turn back a few pages with me. Let's go back to Luke 4. And we're going to be reading verses 16 through 21. Luke 4. When Jesus Christ began his public ministry three and a half years earlier, he announced as it were his arrival. He announced his arrival as in the Messiah in so many words.

In Luke 4, 16 through 21, let's read here. And so he, Jesus, came to Nazareth. This is his hometown. Where he had been brought up. And as his custom was, he went into the synagogue on the Sabbath day and stood up to read. And he was handed the book of the prophet Isaiah. And when he had opened the book, he found the place where it was written.

And then he read, The Spirit of the Eternal, the Lord is upon me, because He has anointed me to preach the gospel to the poor. He has sent me to heal the brokenhearted, to proclaim liberty to the captives, and recovery of sight to the blind, to set at liberty those who are oppressed, to proclaim the acceptable year of the Lord. Then he closed the book, and he gave it back to the attendant and sat down. And the eyes of all who were in the synagogue were fixed.

They were fixed intensely on him. And he began to say to them, Today, today, this Scripture is fulfilled in your hearing. Jesus had read from Isaiah 61, 1-2, and He thereby publicly declared the day or the time of His coming. He Himself was the fulfillment of these words from the prophet Isaiah.

Now, there were those there, of course, that knew Jesus since He was a little boy. I almost said a little kid, but He's a little boy, right? They knew Him. They knew Him as the carpenter's son. And they were taken aback by His bold declaration, as you can imagine. We see that here in verse 22. And so they looked at Him, and then they all bore witness to Him, and marveled at the gracious words which proceeded from His mouth. And so it seems their immediate response is that they're really oppressed with the authority of His words. But notice, then they said almost immediately, Is this not Joseph's son? No, they could say, Wow, this is Joseph's son. But you read a little farther, it's more like, this is Joseph's son. The response indicates, although they may have been taken by His words at first, they immediately begin to question the authority of Him who spoke them. In other words, they seem to be asking, well, who does He think He is? Who is this? Of course, shortly thereafter, Jesus draws out with His comments, He draws out some of their secret attitudes about Him. He gets them to open up about what they really think about what He said. You see, what we discover is that they actually don't like what He said. They actually reject Him. And if you... I'll let you read this on your own. If you read on down through verse 23 through 30, what they actually try to do then is throw Him off a cliff. These are the people from His hometown. His little hometown. Yeah. Throughout His three and a half years of ministry, people would question who He was. This was just the start. People did not understand. He had come. They're a Messiah. And they did not understand. Let's briefly trace some of these responses here in the book of Luke.

Let's turn to Luke 5.21 over a page or so. 5.21 in Capernaum. Luke 5.21 in Capernaum. And the scribes and the Pharisees began to reason among themselves. And they said, Who is this? Speaking of Jesus. Who is this who blasphemies? Who can forgive sins but God alone? They didn't get it. Luke 7.49. Another few pages. Luke 7.49. Somewhere later in Galilee, someplace in Galilee, and those who sat at the table with Him began to say to themselves, Who is this who even forgives sins? In Luke 9.9.

Even in His palace, from low to high, people are asking the same question. Luke 9.9. In His palace, Herod said, John I have beheaded, but who is this of whom I hear such things? And so, he sought to see Him. He wanted to meet this man, Jesus of Nazareth. Who is He? Who is this?

Let's also turn to Luke 22.66. Luke 22.66. Who is this? Of course, Jesus knew just how little Jerusalem knew of Him. He knew their ignorance of who He was. And the leadership especially did not understand who He was, and perhaps rightly refused to accept who He was. Christ knew that in a few days He would be judged by the Jewish leaders, and He knew that they would reject Him. Let's read then, Luke 22.66. Luke 22.66. We'll go through verse 71. As soon as it was day, the elders of the people, both chief priests and scribes, came together and led Him into the council. This is after His arrest, and they're bringing Him in. This is fast forward. And even at that time, when they finally have Jesus before them, and they get a chance to interrogate Him, they're still trying to figure out who He really is. Verse 67, if you are the Christ, tell us. Just lay it out. But He said to them, if I tell you, you will by no means believe. He knew it didn't matter. He didn't matter if they knew who He was. They wouldn't have believed Him anyway. And then He continues, and if I also ask you a question, you will by no means answer me or let me go. Hereafter, the Son of Man will sit on the right hand of the power of God. And then they all said of Him, are you then the Son of God? He finally hasn't stolen. And so He said to them, you rightly say, yes, you rightly say that I am. And then they said, what further testimony do we need? For we have heard it ourselves and from His very own mouth.

They heard it and they rejected it. They finally found out who He is and they rejected it. And wherever Jesus had gone, to the very end, He faced disbelief, reproof, people trying to kill Him, stone Him, plot out murder. They outright rejected Him.

Now, let's turn to Matthew 21, verse 9. You can imagine, everywhere He went, people not knowing exactly who He was, or afraid to believe who He was.

Matthew 21, verse 9-10. And yet, there's a little multitude. Some people, some few people, you know, mainly we learned this watching His, who He talked to, His progress, the accounts of His teaching of His ministry during those years. We know that the people that mainly knew Him and accepted Him were the humble. They were the poor, the oppressed. They believed enough to know that He was more than just any man. He was not just a man. And yet, the more powerful majority, those in control, who wanted to stay in control, they rejected Him. And we see this contrast even at the moment, that moment when He finally arrived in Jerusalem on the donkey. Matthew 21 and verse 8, I guess it is. I'll start there. And that very great multitude spread their clothes on the road. Others cut branches down from the trees and spread them out on the road. And then the multitudes that went before Him and those who followed cried out again, Hosanna, the son of David, blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord, announcing this is the Messiah, Hosanna in the highest. And when He had come into Jerusalem, all the city was moved. They were very agitated. Who is this? What's going on? What's up?

And they're all saying, who is this? Who is this? This is the city Jesus wept over. This is Jerusalem. Surely, they should have known who Jesus was. He had given clues to His identity. He had done accomplished great signs and miracles, healings, casting out of demons. He fed the multitude several times. And most recently, He raised Lazarus from the dead, who had been in the tomb for four days. His corpse was even decomposing. And yet, Jesus raised him from the dead. Surely, He was the Messiah. Surely, He was the Son of God. But to so, so very many, to this time, He was nothing but a consternation. He was confounding to them. See, some still claimed He had a demon. Some still said He was a sinner, a sinner of all sinners, a great lawbreaker. He surely was not the prophet, not the Messiah. You see, many who disagreed that Jesus was the Messiah, they knew who the Messiah was. They knew who He would be because they knew what was written.

The Pharisees and the scribes especially prided themselves in knowing God's Word. They knew the truth. They had superior knowledge, not the masses, not those who had been fooled by Him. They had the superior understanding. They knew who the Prince of Peace the Messiah would be. They knew He would be a mighty warrior king like His ancestor, King David. They knew that He would re-establish the King of Israel and expel the Roman forces from the land. They knew His time was coming. They knew it was soon. He would be their deliverer and savior from the Roman oppression. Hold your place here. Let's look at a few Scriptures they would have been very familiar with. 2 Samuel 7. 2 Samuel 7. They were confident that they knew who the Savior would be. 2 Samuel 7, verses 16 through 17. I've got to get in the right place. Here we read, In your house, in your kingdom, this is Nathan, prophet Nathan, speaking to David centuries before. In your house, in your kingdom shall be established forever before me. In Septuagid, it says, before me. Your throne shall be established forever. And according to all these words and according to all this vision, so Nathan, the prophet, spoke to David. Let's go forward a little bit to Psalm 89, verses 3 through 4. So they expected this kingdom, this throne. They expected a king, like unto David. Psalm 89, verses 3 through 4. Here, the psalmist writes, inspired of God, I have made a covenant with My chosen. I have sworn to My servant David. Your seed I will establish forever and build up your throne to all generations. And now, let's go to Isaiah 9, chapter 9. These are the Scriptures, the Pharisees, and so many others knew, and expected to be fulfilled very soon. But not by this man, Jesus of Nazareth. Isaiah 9, verses 6 through 7. For unto us a child is born, unto us a son is given, and the government will be upon his shoulder, and his name will be called Wonderful, Counselor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace. Of the increase of his government and peace, there will be no end. Upon the throne of David and over his kingdom, to order it and establish it with judgment and justice from that time forward, even forever, the zeal of the Lord of Hosts will perform this. The Jews knew their Scripture, so they awaited a descendant of King David who would deliver them from Rome.

Jesus of Nazareth couldn't be the Messiah. They knew that because he didn't fit the prophecies. He didn't fit. Of course, not everyone agreed with these Pharisees and scribes. And that's part of the problem. That's why there's great disagreement about him.

Too many times, the Pharisees relied on their own narrow understanding, their own narrow glimpse of God's Word. They lacked true humility. You might say they needed to consider the evidence of what Jesus of Nazareth was doing. They needed to investigate a little more closely before they made their final call. Let's look at John 7, verse 25. John 7, verse 25 through 27.

Some among them struggled. They wrestled. They saw what Christ was doing. They recognized this is unheard of. This has never happened before. A man raised from the dead, four days dead. They saw these things. They knew something was very unusual and strange. And in John 7, verse 25 through 27, people were really concerned. The Pharisees said, this is not the Messiah. Others are saying it must be. John 7, verse 25. Now some of them from Jerusalem said, is this not he whom they seek to kill? They recognized, well, this man that's doing this, this is the one the Pharisees are wanting to kill. And they said, but look, verse 26, look, he speaks boldly. And they say nothing to him. He kept catching them on their questions. He kept showing them a better way. It wasn't their way, but it made them. It stumped them, I guess we would say. Do the rulers know, indeed, that this is truly the Christ? Perhaps they know something they're not telling us. And another said, however, we know where this man is from. But when the Christ comes, no one will know where he is from. They're suggesting that they know the descendant of David would be from Bethlehem. Christ didn't come from Bethlehem. Jesus, the man they knew, Jesus was of Nazareth. They didn't know where he was born. They thought they knew all they needed to know about Jesus, but it seems they never really sought out the truth of his origins. They never investigated deeply enough.

Notice verse 41 here in chapter 7.

Oh, that's not right.

Well. My eye doesn't land on it now. I put the wrong scripture down. I'll read to you what I put in my notes, though. Others said about Christ. Others said, this is the Christ, but some said, will the Christ come out of Galilee? And now, if I can find it.

Which is it?

Oh, you know what I've done. I'm in the wrong book.

See, a little... not having water, just a little bit of water keeps the brain fleshy and pumping. There you go. Thank you so much. I was in I was in the right place all the time. My notes not in my Bible. Okay, right. Verse 41. Others said, this is the Christ, but some said, but will the Christ come out of Galilee? Has not the Scripture said that the Christ comes from the seat of David, from the town of Bethlehem, where David was? And again, this is that division. There's a division among the people because of him. They assumed to know, we would say, they assumed to know much more about him than they truly did. This is part of their arrogance. This is part of their pride, part of their blindness. These things were hidden from them because they did not have the humility to try to listen, to really humble themselves and hear what Christ was saying, what the Bible said, or Scripture would say had it said. And they're making the same mistake and assuming that they knew all about the Messiah, what he would be like when he came. Take, for example, this moment we've been reading about when Jesus rode into Jerusalem on that lowly donkey. Matthew 21, 4 through 5, we read how this was done. Jesus said that it might be fulfilled which is spoken by the prophet, saying, tell the daughter of Zion, behold your king is coming. Let's be turning to Zechariah 9-9.

Christ said, Matthew 21, 4 and 5, tell the daughter of Zion, behold your king is coming to you lowly and sitting on a donkey, a colt, full of a donkey. We read that. But now let's go back to Zechariah 9-9 and actually read it there. There are more words.

There are more words, important words.

In Zechariah 9-9, we read it in its entirety. It says, Rejoice greatly, O daughter of Zion, shout, O daughter of Jerusalem, behold your king is coming to you. He is just and having salvation, lowly and riding on a donkey, a colt, the full of a donkey. Notice that word salvation. He's bringing salvation.

Jesus Christ fulfilled this very prophecy that day, that particular day, that particular visitation to Jerusalem on that donkey, just days before He would be crucified. He brought with Him of His very self salvation to Israel and to all people. His very death would save them from sin and hopelessness and death. He was going to save them from their very selves.

But they didn't want Him. They didn't want His bread. They didn't want His blood. They rejected it. Remember when He was talking about drink my blood and they all said that many people left Him at that point.

Jerusalem and her children did not know their Savior. And this perplexing and somewhat dangerous fellow riding on the donkey, they did not really know who He was. Who is this? They kept saying.

Now let's turn back to Luke 19 again. Luke 19, verse 42 through 44.

Jesus, you see, was not offering them the sort of salvation or the type of peace they thought that they needed. They had in their own minds the salvation they wanted. They had in their own minds the peace they wanted. Luke 19, again 42, we'll be reading there and here in a bit. They wanted salvation from the Romans. They wanted to be saved from them. They wanted peace in their time. We hear that. Peace in our time. They wanted peace in their time. And as far as peace with God goes, they thought they already had peace with God. After all, they had this most magnificent temple of His in their very midst. And they made sacrifices every day to God. They were at peace with God, they assumed. Their temple was the envy of all the world. Even the Romans didn't really want to destroy the temple. It was such a beautiful thing. When you read, you find out they didn't really want to destroy it. But events got out of hand and it was. The Jews of Jerusalem, they thought they had peace with God. Now back in Luke 19, 42, again, Jesus wept over Jerusalem. If you had known, even you, your city of peace, especially on this day of my coming, the Messiah's coming, the things that make for your peace, but now you lacked understanding. You did not know the time of your visitation. The NIV, the New International Version, translates that phrase this way. You did not recognize the time of God's coming to you. You did not recognize the time of God's coming to you. Now the result of their rejection of Christ, of His message of salvation and peace, is predicted here in these verses. Verse 42, For days will come upon you when your enemies will build an embankment. It's actually 43, it will build an embankment around you, and surround you and close you in on every side. And they will level you, speaking of the city and your children within you, to the ground.

And they will not leave in you one stone upon another. This destruction of Jerusalem occurred in 7 AD. From history, we know that the Jews eventually would try to deliver themselves from the Romans. They would try to hammer out their own peace, and salvation apart from the Messiah, apart from God. And in the Jewish wars of 66 to 70 AD, they battled ferociously against the Romans for control of the Holy Land. But month by month, they lost. They were defeated by the overwhelming power of the Romans. By 68 AD, the Romans had gained control of all the areas surrounding Jerusalem. Galilee, Edomia, all around.

And by the end of that year, 68 going on 69, we think that was the year, that was the time the Christians that were still living in Jerusalem fled, possibly fled, to Pella across the Jordan River.

Of course, with the Christians in their midst all those years, the Christians would have been giving them witness of Christ's power. They would have heard the teaching about Jesus Christ the Messiah.

But it doesn't seem to have made much difference to the people who lived in Jerusalem at that time.

And so by the end of 68, perhaps into 69, the Christians had fled, we believe.

And then during Passover, to start a Passover in 70 AD, Titus, whose father Vespasian was emperor, and Titus himself would become emperor, he was the commander of the Roman armies in 70 AD.

And he set up four camps, four legions around Jerusalem.

Two legions were to the north, one to the west, and one legion of the the oldest veterans and the most highly trained. He encamped them east of the city, right on top of the Mount of Olives, where Jesus had been coming that day of his visitation.

In an article from the Jewish Virtual Library, this is a Jewish organization, an article called The Great Revolt, they offer contemporary Jewish view about what events within Jerusalem, what happened at those months in 70 AD within Jerusalem as the siege began.

In that article, it reads like this, it says, the scene was now set for the Revolt's final catastrophe. Outside Jerusalem, Roman troops prepared to besiege the city, and inside the city, the Jews were engaged in a suicidal civil war. There were three main factions, and they're all trying to control each other. They're having civil war while the Romans were encircling them to take over. In later generations, the article continues, the rabbis hyperbolically declared that the Revolt's failure in the Temple's destruction was due not to Roman military superiority, but to causeless hatred among the Jews. It is their hatred for each other, their lack of humility, their excessive pride.

While the Romans would have won the war in any case, the rabbis noted the Jewish civil war both hastened their victory and immensely increased the casualty. The article offers this, they call it one horrendous example. An expectation of a Roman siege, Jerusalem's Jews had stockpiled a supply of dry food that would have fit the city for many years. But one of the warring zealot factions burned the entire supply, apparently hoping that destroying this security blanket would compel everyone to participate in the Revolt. The starvation resulting from this mad act caused suffering as great as any the Romans inflicted. This is from the Jewish Virtual Library Pretty incredible. I didn't know that's what was going on until I read about it.

Over the next five months and ending on September 7th, Romans and Jews continued to fight ferociously.

Titus by then had wiped out the whole suburbs in the northwestern part of Jerusalem in preparation for siege ramps and machines. Catapults were set up on the Mount of Olives near a lobbying 75 pound stones into Jerusalem. At first they were white and the Jewish defenders could see them coming and warn people to get out of the way. Very quickly, the Romans made a stealth weapon. They painted the stones black so they couldn't see them coming and it would cause more destruction.

And as the construction of the encircling embankments, they had to build a wall all around Jerusalem. As those embankments were built, the Romans captured escapees from the city. As many as 500 today, prisoners were then tortured and killed and crucified before the walls to intimidate the populace. So great was the number Josephus writes that space could not be found for the crosses, nor crosses for the bodies. And apparently they put them on all the mountain ridges all the way around Jerusalem. They were running out of wood. They ran out of wood. They needed the wood not only for crucifixion, but for the war machines, for the ramparts, for fuel. It became so dire that the land was stripped of trees for over 10 miles surrounding Jerusalem in all directions.

Those great big old olive trees you see in the Garden of Gethsemane now, those weren't there right after the siege. Those have been planted since then. Even those are still one or two thousand years old, scholars tell us, but the original trees were burned or taken out, that beautiful scene that Christ had walked through. At the end of August, the temple had been burned to the ground and thousands of Jews had been slain upon it and around it.

And after several more weeks, the siege ended. According to Josephus, and Josephus is not scripture. We don't know how much of what he says we can trust. So take it with a grain of salt.

Josephus adds this about the siege as it was ending. He said, now as soon as the army had no more people to slay or to plunder, Titus gave orders that they should now demolish the entire city and temple, but should leave as many of the towers standing as there were the great eminence. That is, faceless three towers. They had names, faceless, hippacus, and marium. And so much of the wall and clothes of the city on the west side was spared as well for encampment. Scholars speculate parts of those towers are never taken down because they're so well built, the Romans couldn't tear them down. But every other building in Jerusalem, especially the temple and the complex there and the city, those stones weighed tons and they were just so carefully carved, they were just stacked on one another.

They were just stacked on top of each other. The weight and the way they built them held them together. And so it was quite simple for the Romans in to topple them over. There was no mortar. There was nothing holding them together.

And it said that Titus spared those towers and part of the far western wall. This is not the whaling wall. But he spared those walls to demonstrate to posterity what kind of city it was and how well fortified which the Roman valor had subdued. He wanted physical evidence of what a great city this had once been and what they had destroyed. But for all the rest of the wall surrounding Jerusalem, everything else, it was so thoroughly laid even with the ground by those that dug it up to the foundation that there was left nothing to make those that came thither believe Jerusalem had ever been inhabited. It was that much annihilated.

And truly, the very view itself, Josephus says, was a melancholy thing.

For those places which were adorned with trees and pleasant gardens were now become desolate country every way and its trees were all cut down. Nor could any foreigner that had formerly seen Judea and the most beautiful suburbs of the city now saw it as desert but lament and mourn sadly. No wonder like Christ had done. But they would lament and mourn sadly at so great a change. For the war had laid all signs of beauty quite waste.

And so within 40 years after Christ entered Jerusalem on a donkey's colt, Jerusalem had been raised to the ground.

An article called in Weapons and Warfare website, it states that the numbers of people killed during the siege were incredible to believe. Josephus claimed 1.1 million people, probably meaning the entire war. While the Roman historian Suetonius numbered the casualties at 600,000, and certainly thousands were killed, sold into slavery, or kept prisoner to be sacrificed at the games for Roman sport. But on his return in Rome in 71 AD, this will be 40 years after Christ's crucifixion, Vespasian, Titus, and their soldiers celebrated a triumphant parade in Rome.

They paraded through the streets of their capital in a beautiful procession, the witnesses said, which culminated in the punishment of the Jewish leaders. Simon, son of Giora, was executed, and John of Geshe-la was sentenced to life in prison. He had died within two years.

The sacred vessels, the table on which the bread of God's presence had been put, the menorah, the curtain, three inches thick, the curtain, the trumpets, which announced the year of Jubilee, the vessel of incense, the rolls of the law, and all the other objects that nobody except the high priest was allowed to see, they were carried through the Roman streets.

And it's told that Vespasian himself kept the veil in his own palace, along with the scrolls of the Torah. He kept them in his own home. Trophies, I guess.

So that was the destruction of Jerusalem. Jesus wept over Jerusalem. Jesus knew what would befall that city, that beautiful city that he loved. He foresaw the destruction vividly in his mind.

He saw what would happen to the temple, and especially he saw what would happen to his own people. Jerusalem and her children, he said, he had told them they had a lack of understanding.

They did not understand their need for God's peace, for God's salvation. They did not recognize the time of his visitation, the time of his coming to them. Of course, we know God is most compassionate, and those people all will have a chance to finally understand what true peace is and what true salvation is. Traditional Christianity would have us place all these people in a hellfire forever for the rejection of the Christ. But that is not what Scripture says. What about us? What is a lesson we can take from Scripture and from history together? I think a lesson for us would be to always recognize God's visitation. Not only when he first called us and first visited us, but as God visits us every day when we pray to him, when we fast, when we humble ourselves before him, when we ask him to come to us, and we ask to come to him. And so it is we must strive to hear God. We must strive to let His words and His Holy Spirit guide and move us to even greater works of compassion and of service. The lesson we can take from this is that we must always seek to be humble and obedient and faithful to our most loving God. Each day, then, in its own way, is our time of visitation.

Now is our time to respond to God. Today, perhaps more than most days, on the Sabbath, we're more humbled if you've been fasting. We're more humbled and more contrite. We recognize our need for God so much in our lives. And in our weakness, I think we can also be very grateful and very grateful for God, thankful to Him. And so, let us all remember that this is our time of visitation each and every day. And now is our time to respond to God with love and humility before God and towards one another. So, we might always live according to His will in the example set by His Son, Jesus Christ our Savior.