Luke (Session 19) Chapter 19

luke chapter 19 okay now this shifts our emphasis because the last five chapters 1456 and 17 were in this interval between the galilean ministry and the climax which is going to occur in jerusalem chapter 14 you may recall we had discipleship discussions then we had the lost coin lost sheep prodigal son and then chapter 16 we had the unrighteous steward and the rich man and lazarus very pivotal chapter in the book of luke chapter 17 position of the servant in chapter 18 we had a lot about persistence of prayer and we had two key events there the rich young ruler and the blind man healed but now we're entering the final section of the book 19 to the end we're going to encounter the triumphal entry and the final week we're going to we closed last time in jericho where we had several incidents occur in jericho the rich young ruler was encountered and the blind man was healed among other things now in chapter 19 we're still in jericho but we're going to encounter zacchaeus and uh interesting guy because he was attract a tax collector both the blind men and uh zacchaeus were really in the fringes of their society blind man because he was blind in the in zacchaeus because he was a very unpopular guy a tax collector he happened to be a very rich tax collector which is going to catch our attention for a couple of reasons he was very wealthy yet he knew he was a sinner and that's a contradiction from what we talked about a little bit last time in the sense usually the wealthy are self-reliant and and so forth so zacchaeus response was just the opposite of the rich young ruler was rich and thought he had everything zacchaeus was conscious of his sin and his need for a for a savior and so that's an interesting uh rebuttal to the idea that with you know it's harder for a camel to go through an eye of a needle and so forth and not only that zacchaeus responded with greater enthusiasm than jesus even asked for so let's take a look at it remember jesus said in the last chapter with god he in response to the going through an eye of a needle it says with men that's impossible but with god all things are possible and it's almost as if zacchaeus is a demonstration of that here's a wealthy person who found salvation a rare event indeed so in luke chapter 19 verse 1 jesus entered and passed through jericho now by the way his trip to jerusalem was six days before passover we learned that from john chapter one i did chapter 12 verse one it was more than a sabbath day journeys about 20 miles which proves by the way that the crucifixion could not have happened on a friday because he made this trip you see and it it it was six days before passover and so it turns out when you work that on a calendar it's one of them three different passages that point out that jesus could not have been crucified on friday incidental to our purpose at the moment but didn't want that to go by unnoticed verse two and behold there was a man named zacchaeus who was the chief among publicans and he was rich he was only a tax collector he was the chief tax collector popular guy can you imagine especially if you understand how they did tax farming in that community you bought the franchise and you charge what you like you collect all you wanted the part you collected more was yours talk about a built-in corrupt system it's pretty interesting but any case zacchaeus name means the righteous one that doesn't mean he was righteous but that was his name and he was a renegade in the eyes of the jews he was a you know conspirator with herodias and so forth and so uh disparaged excluded and yet even though he's excluded by society he was precious in the eyes of jesus jesus sought him out which is kind of interesting and he sought to see jesus who he was and he could not for the press because he was little of stature in other words he wasn't very tall you know then david kind of guy i assume and so he ran and climbed up a tree a sycamore tree to see him for he was to pass that way so he knew the path climbed up a tree so he could be seen he's being childlike he's enthusiastic and when jesus came to the place he looked up and saw him and said unto him zacchaeus make haste come down for today i must abide at thy house man what a score he not only wonder sieges he was he had jesus the celebrity and the crowd there uh single him out that's pretty cool this is the only instance in the four gospels where jesus invited himself into somebody else's home and i think that's provocative contrast that with revelation 3 20. behold i stand but not door and knock if any man open the door and come in i will come into him and slept with him and he with me so the seeking man here had became found because jesus was seeking him he was seeking jesus but jesus also singled him out and i think that's that's that's pretty cool you know it's interesting when adam and eve sinned they of course hid from god just the opposite and it's interesting that most people uh when they encounter god there's usually the first thing that hits them is the consciousness of their own lack of worth before the throne of god remember isaiah chapter five or six after six when he encounters the uh god he says woe is me for i'm undone because i'm a man of unclean lips and that's the same reaction peter had back in luke chapter five depart from me for i'm a sinful man as they realize who he is they get hit with how worthless we are before him and so it's interesting that but in any case zacchaeus followed instructions that made haste came down and received him joyfully and when they saw it they all murmured saying that he was gone to be a guest with a man that is a sinner see zacchaeus was not a popular guy and jesus insisted on going with him that's pretty cool notices zacchaeus's response zacchaeus stood and said unto the lord behold lord the half of my goods i give to the poor and if i have taken anything from any man by false accusation i restore him fourfold now see under the mosaic law if a thief voluntarily confessed his crime he had to restore what he took and add one-fifth to it and bring it also a trespass offering that was specified leviticus 6. if he stole something that he could not restore he would have to repay four times and that's what zacchaeus chose to do he didn't have to do that much if he was caught with the goods he had to pay double so those are the different rules from from the torah so zacchaeus offered to pay the highest price why because his heart had been truly changed phenomenally he is partying with his wealth doing voluntarily what the rich young ruler declined to do we assume he declined that's the spirit of we don't really know whether he did or not but that seems to be the spirit of that chapter 18 encounter so jesus said unto him this day is salvation come to this house for as much he also is a son of abraham he's rebutting the crowd's reaction that he's a fringe kind of guy no jesus is endorsing him here he's a child of faith this is he the son of abraham is used here in the sense that he's a child of faith and so that's that's an accolade obviously now understand he was not saved because he promised to do good works don't misunderstand that he was saved because he responded by faith to christ's gracious word to him the response that was a response to faith to it to his salvation it wasn't the reason he was saved having trusted the savior he gave evidence of his faith by committing to make restitution to those he had wronged and it's interesting here the son of man has come to seek and to save that's which is lost this again it's still the spirit of rebuttal to the crowd who are shocked with the implied companionship here now the next parable closes jesus teaching in response to rejection we started that in chapter 12 and now in chapter 19 verse 27 we're through with all what teaching as we the instruction to the disciples and it concludes jesus teaching about the coming kingdom and the attitudes of his disciples this is a wrap up chapter in a sense now here's the wrap-up jesus disciples should be like the grateful ex-leper remember that in chapter 17 10 lepers healed only one came and was grateful the persistence and prayer theme that we developed in chapter 18 the need that the disciples should be childlike they should be like the former blind man they should be like zacchaeus in opposition to the attitude of the the young ruler as they heard these things he added and spake a parable because he was nigh to jerusalem and because they thought that the kingdom of god should immediately appear see there was an expectation in those days we saw that in a number of events even even as a baby there was an attitude of expectation among some and uh so now we're approaching passover season and the emotions were high because they celebrate passover anyway but especially there because they celebrate their deliverance from egypt and they're parallel in their minds to be delivered from rome see so passover is very symbolic of for many reasons the annual observance aggravated the misery of the bondage to rome and made them yearn for a deliverer so you can visualize the the tension in the crowds now there's two kinds of people that you encounter one of the zealots and they actually were militant they used commando techniques against rome they they were a major target of the romans because they're troublemakers in contrast to that there's another group called the herodians and they're the politicians they look to adopting greek ways and so forth they were compromises if you will compromise with rome now most of the jews just wanted the old testament prophecies fulfilled and received their promised king these are two sub-groups if you will from the crowd you understand when herod the great died about four bc he left the third part of his kingdom idiomae that's the the edomite part where hebron was the capital uh judea and samaria to his son archuleas who had to go to rome to get his inheritance approved and not wanting archelaus as a ruler the jews sent 50 men to to argue the case before caesar augustus and uh who didn't ratify the inheritance but without giving archelaus the title of king so he's ruled and he was part of the herodian line of course verse 12 he said therefore a certain nobleman went into a far country to receive for himself a kingdom in return jesus is painting a parable here if you will of who one who received the kingdom and he went to a far country to receive it and he's going to come back okay and this is this turns out this will try to be the what they call the parable of the ten pounds it'll have many similarities to the very familiar parable of ten talents but it's got some subtle differences in this parable each disciple had duties given to him by jesus and each was to carry out his assuming that it's the parallel is jesus the one getting the kingdom so each was to carry out his responsibilities now the nation at large also had responsibilities and uh if the nation did not turn to jesus it would be punished is the point that's the pattern in the old testament and he called his ten servants and delivered them ten pounds and said to them occupy till i come whenever i read this i'm reminded of the guide at the garden tomb british uh guy he always uh when he ever got talking about the sister and being in 250 000 gallons he'd love to make this crack he says if god wanted us on the metric system he would have had 10 disciples if whenever i see the 10 servants there i think of that guy anyway so he called his 10 servants delivered them 10 pounds instead of them occupy till i come now that echoes familiar to us because that's exactly the instruction that jesus gave when he left if you will now pounds here the word is mina in the greek and in the old testament it the term was equivalent to about 300 shekels or about a pound in the new testament the minor was about three months wages just to give you a flavor of it the word occupy the word actually means to do business to put funds to work in other words endeavor see but he goes on with his parable and he says in the in the case of the the master of the lord in the parable he says but his citizens hated them and sent a message after him saying we will not have this man to reign over us you know this fascinates me because this is jesus presenting a parable on their way to jerusalem and yet as we hear those words they echo in our ears because that's exactly what the crowd yelled when pilate says behold the man and uh in john 19 15 we will have no king but caesar and anyway it came to pass that when he was returned having received the kingdom then he commanded these servants to be called unto him to whom he had given the money that he might know how much every man had gained by trading interesting see this is a very crisp clear trading kind of model here then came the first saying lord thy pound hath gained ten pounds wow that's ten times return but he said and he said to him well thou good servant because thou has been faithful and very little have thou authority over 10 cities this is often overlooked by many people the reward here is authority over a region in this case it's described as 10 cities but because he was faithful and did a good job his reward is more authority let's go follow this through a little bit the second came saying lord thy pound hath gained five pounds that's not bad he said likewise to him be thou also over five cities so he gets rewarded in proportion of what he of his faithfulness so to speak okay and another came saying lord behold here is thy pound which i have kept laid up in a napkin for i feared thee because thou art in austere man thou taketh up that thou layest not down and reapest without it's not so very similar to the ten talents thing and uh the error here by the way isn't just the lack of yield the error is the perception of god that he had or the perception he had of his of his lord and he saith in him out of thine own mouth i will i judge thee thou wicked servant thou knewest that i was in a steerman taking up that which i laid not down and reaping that i did not sow wherefore then gave us not thou my money into the bank that it might coming i might have required mine own with usury in other words could have got at least interest on the money and uh see it's isn't that lack of yield it's this his attitude about his boss is the problem here and it's interesting that tauser points out uw tozer says nothing twists and deforms the soul more than a lower unworthy conception of god that's the real that's the real underlying issue here isn't just the the return on investment and he said to them it stood by take from him the pound and give it to him that hath ten pounds now that's interesting he picked out the guy that i have the most they said and he said to him lord he hath ten pounds for i say unto you that unto every one which hath shall be given and from him that hath not even that he hath shall be taken away from him now that in in the rhetoric there it sounds a little double talky but the idea is is that that the ones that are uh producing will get more and the ones that don't what little they have will be taken away it's not simple really aside from the grammatical problem but those mine enemies which would not that i should reign over them bring hither and slay them before me wow well it's just a parable but he certainly is making his point he doesn't mess around god takes himself seriously i think he should those that those mine enemies which would not that i should reign over them bring hither and slay them before me chilling chilling result you know it's interesting let me just pause here for a minute there's an attitude to a number of people among a number of people that everybody in heaven is going to be equal and it's interesting how the scripture teaches just the opposite not just the opposite um i've often threatened to do to make a presentation at a church some evening on why most christians when they get to heaven will be disappointed and i titled that way just to stir up trouble because they want to come what are we talking about and what i'll harp on is the fact that most christians believe that by being saved they'll rule they'll rule with christ and if you examine the scriptures carefully you'll notice that when those promises are made they always have a condition if so be that you suffer with them if so be that you're a medicoy a participant hebrews 3 14 and so forth my wife and i published a book recently called the kingdom power and glory which among other things is a call to accountability and uh it happens to also lean on some exegetical discoveries and the net of it is though there's been in some quarters a huge reaction to this whole idea of accountability that there's it stems from a presumption that when we all get to heaven we're all going to be equal when the scripture teaches just the opposite this is an example here one guy is ruling over 10 cities another over 5 and so on and so the point is there is a concept of inheritance and rewards you can't earn your salvation your salvation was paid for 100 by jesus christ on a cross 2000 years ago but your faithfulness will be rewarded your faithfulness will result in inheritance that you can lose if you're not faithful you'll still be saved but there's there's a there's a whole spectrum of possibilities that you can aspire to and that's what the judgment seat of christ is all about and it's amazing how many people just can't handle that and making all kinds of false assumptions from a book they haven't read they've just heard about and so i encourage you to read it yourself and come to your own conclusions but let's move on here the good news is we're we've gotten mail from all over the world saying it's one of the most important books that the person writing had read so we're feeling very encouraged at this point and so let's move on here this parable concerns the nation israel like the citizens the nation rejected him not just the individuals but the nation and that's going to come to come to terms when we get uh in the next few chapters back in the history of the nation israel at kadesh the children of israel rejected god's command and as a result of that they wandered for 38 years in the wilderness what the writer to the book of hebrews highlights is they were forgiven but they still didn't inherit because god had sworn an oath and so they wandered for 38 years in the wilderness and the writer to hebrews makes a big point of that in several applications now the jews in jerusalem that we're going to encounter next three chapters rejected jerusalem rejected jesus in 32 a.d and 38 years later the romans leveled the temple it's interesting that the nation rejected god's command at cades barnea and wandered suffered 38 years for a result of that it's interesting that jesus will in chapter 21 present make a presentation that in effect warns them that within 38 years the city is going to be destroyed and many people think that's the alpha discourse no luke 21 is in the daytime in the temple to to a believing group not to just the disciples that's we'll get into that all then but essentially the 38 years fascinates me because it was a 38-year judgment in cage bernie and it was a 38-year judgment that when when the jerusalem fell to the romans okay you and i are living between verses 14 and 15 when our master will return from his absence for our reckoning our master's gone and in hosea 5 15 he says i will return to my place which means he must have left it until they acknowledge their offense in their affliction they will seek me earnestly and that last verse of hosea 5 gives you the whole purpose of the great tribulation it's a second chance so to speak of the nation in which they will receive them and and be restored first corinthians 4 2 always reminds us that it is required in stewards that a man to be found faithful if you and i are going to be ambassadors of christ we need to be able to represent them not only commonly but faithfully that's the requirement the parable of the 10 minus which is the one we just read here in in luke 19 is similar to but slightly different than the parable of the ten talents in matthew 25. in the 10th nine is the servants received all the servants services saved received the same amount to work with but they earned different rewards in the parable ten talents each of the servants received different amounts but earned the same reward namely the joy of the lord so the two are very similar so much so they might overlook their differences at the same time there's much to be learned from each of them they're quite distinctive and i'll leave that to you to to mine that for its value see the pounds can be likened like the talents to opportunities to share the gospel it may be much more than that but let's just focus on that one and let's see what happened there in acts chapter 1 and chapter 2 and pentecost 120 believers met and over three thousand more were added think about that for a minute 120 just getting started in acts and yield yielded 3 000 converts and soon and by chapter 4 there's 5 000 more boy was that fruitful in fact acts 5 says they soon filled jerusalem with their message now a wasted opportunity results of course in a loss of reward and i as i think back um i think the thing that i'll look back on see when i'm at the before the judgment seat of christ my sin will not be an issue that was paid for on a cross two thousand years earlier but i think the thing is going to startle me as i put that all in perspective is the time i wasted when my life is unfolded before me and brought for reckoning i think the thing that's going to shock me is to realize the opportunities i've wasted and the loss of reward is a result anyway and when he had thus spoken he went before ascending up to jerusalem so this was on the this is out of jericho on the way up to jerusalem earlier during jesus ministry they tried to take him and present him as a king you may recall that he refused several times john 6 or several times with the enthusiasm of the crowd they wanted they got really excited to take him as a king and he said mine hour has not yet come he doesn't let it happen until an event that's about to unfold here and one example that is john 6 is a couple of others then one day jesus not only permits it he actually arranges it and that's what we're going to encounter here with what we call the triangle entry i want you to notice that this every detail from this point on is conspicuously clearly under jesus's personal control the timing of it even the crucifix every detail from here on out gethsemane all those things jesus is in charge of every detail and much have transpired was not is to what they were they actually plan to avoid and we'll touch on some of that as we go they plotted to kill him but it's interesting when you study matthew 26 verses 3 to 5 for example they had not planned on doing it on a feast day in fact what they hoped to do was entrap him and take him quietly so the crowd would not be involved they were terrified of creating a disturbance that would result in reactions by the romans the romans almost didn't care what happened as long as it was peaceful but they were very very uptight about the idea of an insurrection so the conspirators had planned to do this last of all on the feast day specifically and now it happens it's going to occur on the biggest feast day of the year on passover not because he planted because jesus made it happen when he gathered at the upper room he says one of you is going to betray me so the cat's out of the bag and judas is in the spot he planned to be the the helper here except now everybody knows that it's going to happen so he's he's in a spot he's either got a fish or cut bait as we would say and that's what jesus says but you do do quickly so he leaves because he's got to pull it off tonight they hadn't planned to do it that night that's why they're in gethsemane so long because he's running around trying to get it set up you didn't just go to pilot yet arrange that in advance and so forth a lot of arrangements but jesus is controlling it but see god had ordained that his son would be slain on passover how as the lamb of god that taketh away this in the world john the baptist when he first introduces jesus to the public twice he says behold the lamb of god that taketh away the sin of the world that's a very jewish title in john 1 29 it's also acted in first corinthians first californians 5 7. his hour had not yet come no no it had come it came to pass verse 29 it came to pass when he was come nigh to bethphage and bethany at the mount called the mount of olives he sent two of his disciples now the the bethany and beth are just on the other side of the hill the mount of olives on the other side of jerusalem and if you look at jerusalem bethany is just eastward over the rise if you will saying go ye into the village over against you in the witch at your entering ye shall find a cult tied whereon yet never man sat loose him and bring him hither so that's his instruction okay and if any man ask you why do you loose him thus shall ye say unto him because the lord hath need of him now this could be just an institut because he was popular to the crowd or something i don't think so i personally suspect that was a password that was pre-arranged but in any case they that went were sent uh there went their way and found even as he had said unto them and as they were losing the cult the owners thereof said to them why lucy the colt and they said the lord hath need of him like that was enough apparently so i i personally suspect rearrangement here and they brought him to jesus and they cast their garments upon the colt and they set jesus thereon so he's riding a donkey and he's going to ride it from this area of bethany and so we're up over the hill mount of olives down through on a road that you can walk when you visit there by the way down through the the eastern gate jesus was deliberately fulfilling a prophecy from the old testament zechariah 9 verse 9. in zechariah 9 9 it says rejoice greatly o daughter of zion shout o daughter of jerusalem behold thy king cometh unto thee he is just and having salvation lowly and riding upon an ass and upon a cult the full of an ass behold thy king cometh and he interesting prophecy but he was doing it on the precise day that gabriel had told daniel some five centuries earlier and we'll take a look at that daniel 9 chapter 9 verse 25 in my mind daniel chapter 9 verse 25 is the most phenomenal passage in the entire bible but we'll go on here for now and as he went they spread their clothes in the way and when he was come nigh even now at the descent of the mount of olives the whole multitude of the disciples began to rejoice and praise god with a loud voice for all the mighty works that they had seen jerusalem has overrun over a million people this once once a year this is this is a big time of year every able-bodied jew had to be in jerusalem for the celebration that was in the torah and we'll take a look at that in a minute but um these are people that heard about lazarus these are the popularity of him had been obviously uh the buzz was everywhere but in deuteronomy 16 16 there are three feasts of the seven there are seven feasts of moses but three of them were compulsory for every able-bodied male jew to celebrate in jerusalem and that's why this was a time of crowds the time of of a pilgrimage if you will now the the jewish years in a civil sense starts at nissan that's rosh hashanah the head of the year and that's the first month of the civil year but in exodus 12 when he institutes the passover god tells moses i want you to make this month the month of nassan the beginning of months so the jews have two calendars one that starts at tishri which is the civil calendar and one that starts at nissan which is the religious calendar now of the seven feasts of moses there are three that are in the spring passover feast of unleavened bread and the feast of first fruits and feasts the first the the the feast of first fruits is the celebrate the morning after shabbat after passover the point being though these three feasts are always bunched together and the the term passover connotatively embraces all three the one that's actually required is the feast of unleavened bread in deuteronomy 16 16 but it implies the whole group obviously now these in the fall we have three feasts feast of trumpets day of atonement yom kippur and the feast of tabernacles now each of these feasts commemorate historical aspects of the nation's history but they also anticipate a prophecy and the three spring feasts in some way each one of them points to the first advent of jesus christ the three the three feasts in the fall each point to the second advect of advent of jesus christ and uh it's really worth your study if you haven't done it yet you want to dig into that you really want to grasp that and understand it they're fabulous aspects as you get into all that god's deliberate planning of every detail between these two groups of three each there's a weird one right in the middle so to speak not exactly in the middle but between them the feast of shavuot sometimes called the feast of weeks also called pentecost and that's the feast that is perhaps the most provocative of them all because it's the only feast in the entire bible that uses leavened bread it's a feast that has gentile overtones and it has uh it it becomes idiomatically prophetically the feast at which the church is launched in acts chapter two the church is empowered and launched in at the feast of shabbat and that may have huge prophetic implications yet to be fully appreciated but that's another study let's move on jesus enters the donkey while they're singing psalm 118 and that's recorded in matthew 21 and you want to take a look at psalm 118 to understand what's going on here psalm 118 let's be about verse 24 to 26 this is the day which the lord hath made and we will rejoice and be glad in it now you and i use this often i think in our christian walk to celebrate this day whatever day it might be this is the day which the lord hath made praise god that's exciting it's a very positive thing except except that's fine denotatively it's referring to a specific day the day that the king comes this is the day which the lord hath made and we shall rejoice and be glad in it save now save now i beseech the lord and the savior is writing this donkey here i beseech you and send now prosperity blessed be he that come blessed be he that cometh in the name of the lord we have blessed you out of the house of the lord this is the day it's referring to a specific day and i'll prove it to you before through here and blessed is he that cometh in the name of the lord so this is an announcement psalm now notice in luke 19 38 they're singing blessed be the king that cometh in the name of the lord peace in heaven and glory in the highest now you and i especially as gentiles would miss the point here whenever we miss the point the pharisees come to our rescue because when they get upset that's an indicator that something significant is going on and so they're seeing psalm 118 declaring jesus the messiah in this context singing psalm 118 is tantamount to the the the crowd proclaiming him as the mashiach nageed the messiah the king the leader well some of the pharisees from among the multitude said unto master rebuke your disciples see they assume clearly in their enthusiasm he doesn't want that his disciples blaspheming declaring that he's the messiah well so they assume he's gonna correct that verse 40 he answered and said to them i tell you that if these should hold their peace the stones would immediately cry out and i've always had this notion that if they would have just shut up i would have loved to see is that just a figure of speech or that literally would be true but but actually if you've ever traveled to jerusalem with one of our uh one of our particular tours we usually go when we're up on the mount of olives we go through this whole program talk about it to set the stage for the best bargain in israel you know the way to take a small fortune out of israel bring a large fortune in yeah right exactly well the best bargain in israel as you when usually when we're up in the mount of olives we go through all of this and it's because it's a fantastic photo op because the whole city spreads out across you're on the other side of the valley and the whole cities there so everybody's taking pictures and then what we do we usually go from there to gethsemane which is right at the base of the mount of olives so we mark we walked down that very road that he wrote uh to have a devotional service at the garden of gethsemane and i tell the group before we go what you do is we walk down there find a stone that is laying around and put in your pocket or a couple if you like it's free israel is not short of stones you're not going to defraud anybody that way when you get home you take that stone and have a trophy shop or somebody mounted on a plaque for your for your family room or your den or your study or your office and uh as a as a as a trophy and when somebody in your office says gee what's that you can point out that's one of those that's one of the stones that didn't cry out and what you can do then you go through the whole story you go into daniel 9 explain the 70-week prophecy explain what happened at the tribal entry why it's so significant and they brought it up by asking you about that stone so we we've done that for years and it's one of our it's it's best bargain has cost you nothing it's going to be one of your most treasured positions well anyway as we go further he says when he was come near he beheld the city and what did jesus do he's writing the donkey this is his time of of exultation he's presenting himself the as the as the messiah come to bring the kingdom and he bailed the city and he wept over it he wept over it wow just as jeremiah did jeremiah 9 and so forth and as he cries as jesus christ what does he say if thou hatched known even thou at least in this thy day the things which belong to thy peace but now they're hid from that eyes several points here he's make he's establishing that this day is unique in all of history because it's the fulfillment of of the prophecies of zechariah 9 9 as the trigger of the 70th week prophecy of daniel the thing is belonging to peace and then he declares blindness upon the nation forever no paul will correct our understanding that but at least in this idea once you get the significance of this this very specific day but now they're hid from thine eyes and then to understand this we'll take a quick review i assume you've already been through this but if not uh it'll be a refresher in any case in daniel chapter 9 the angel gabriel visits daniel after an intensive prayer session and announces a little four verse prophecy that's probably the most in fact jesus points this his disciples to this as the key to all end time prophecy so you really want to master these last four verses of daniel 9. we're going to take one of the four the introduction is in verse 24 it's the scope of the thing 77s which in jewish parents says seven can be a it can be a week of days a week of weeks a week of months or weeks of years but implicitly here it's a week of years 77s are determined upon thy people and upon thy holy city know who's the focus of this is not the church it's thy people nation israel and thy holy city jerusalem to do what six things to finish the transgression to make an end of sins to make reconciliation for iniquity to bring in everlasting righteousness and to seal up the vision of prophecy and anoint the most holy place now we don't we won't go through all of these but it's clear they haven't been completed yet has there been an end of sins i don't think so pick up any newspaper and there's a lot of other things here we won't take the time to go swallow that but the point is it's certainly comprehensive so then gabriel instructs daniel no therefore and understand that from the going forth of the commandment restore unto jerusalem unto the mashiach nageed shall be seven weeks and three score in two weeks seven plus 60 plus twos there were 69 weeks the street shall be built again in the wall even in troubled times now this all taken place today when daniel is getting this from gabriel he's in captivity in babylon but he knows from reading jeremiah that that's about up and that they're going there's going to be a commandment that'll release them to go home from the for going forth commandment to restore and build jerusalem rebuild the city and that doesn't occur until nehemiah chapter two but in any case unto the messiah the prince shall be in effect 69 weeks of years and so you don't get confused about the temple which is separate from the city this the focus here is to build jerusalem and so you don't miss the holy spirit adds the street shall be built again and the wall even in trouble times so we're focusing on the city because there's four different decrees that could fit three of them have to do with the temple only one deals with the city from the commandment to restoring to jerusalem until there's a a trigger and a climax term is the commandment to restore bill jerusalem onto mazaya will be 69 weeks of years and for reasons we won't try to develop here the lord always uses in both genesis and revelation 30 day months 12 30 day months to be a year 69 times 7 times 360 turns out to mean 173 880 days okay so what well let's watch we know this decree was the decree of arctic xerxes longimanus which is uh march occurred on march 14th at 445 bc the question is when did the messiah present himself as king on only one occasion at the triumphal entry which was april 6 of 3280 and all this is developed in our commentaries if you want to get in the detail but the net of it is if you go through all of this by the way this is in the septuagint translation of the old testament when you see quotes in the new testament made by paul or whoever they're usually quoting from the greek document called the septuagint and so that was virtually 300 years earlier from 445 bc to 32 a.d is a 173 740 days from march 14th april 6 is 24. if you go through the leap year thing it turns out that gabriel pinned down the exact day with a margin of error of zero the triumphal entry that's why jesus said at least in this thy day it's a very very pivotal point see if thou is known even thou at least in this thy day the things which belong unto thy peace but now they are hidden from their eyes this thy day but now see from this point on is you're going to be blinded to this but not forever paul tells you in romans 11 25 that they'll be blinded in part until the fullness of the gentiles become in the fact that blindness is being relieved in israel it used to be a few now many years ago if you were a believer a jewish believer and you immigrated to israel you were advised by your friends don't let anyone know you're a christian because you get on don't get on any lists it was it was an underground thing not today there are 360 messianic fellowships openly worshipping in israel so if you have any grasp here this tells you that we're getting close to the end that's exciting now jesus goes on to say in verse 43 and verse 44 he says for the day shall come upon me that's why he's weeping the day shall come upon thee that thine enemy shall cast the trench about thee compass they round and keep thee in on every side and shall lay thee even with the ground and thy children within thee and they shall not leave in the one stone upon another jesus is predicting the fall of jerusalem some 38 years later now and it is 38 you see the suspicion and the 5th 10th 12th and 15th roman legions lay seeds to jerusalem in 143 days 600 000 jews were killed historians estimate that over a million and a half men women and children died from the siege and from the famine and disease that followed so that raises the question why was jerusalem destroyed in 86 one of the biggest milestones on the jewish calendar is when jerusalem fell and the temple was destroyed that chain that ended judaism in the in the biblical sense the mosaic judaism had nowhere to go without the setting of blood there's no remission of sins and there's no temple within which to shed blood so they end up having a council within 20 years to try to figure out what to do about it they redefine judaism and what in in the form that you know to the talmudic jerusalem which is a creature of a different kind for the day shall come upon thee the enemy shall cast the trench about thee encompass the round and keep the end on every side and shall lay thee even with the ground and thy children within thee and they shall not leave in the one stone left because thy newest not the time of thy visitation there are many answers you give just why jerusalem was leveled but jesus answers here in verse 44 jerusalem was destroyed why because thou knewest not the time of thy visitation when you think this through the reality is that jesus held them accountable to know the prophecies of daniel chapter nine heavy stuff heavy stuff love knew it's not the time of that hesitation and he went to the temple and began to cast them out that soul therein and them that bought saying to them it is written my house is the house of prayer but ye have made it a den of thieves now don't get confused this happened twice it happened once early in this ministry and it's happening again here at the climax if you will instead of praying with an a they were praying with an e praying on the people with all their chicaneries the high priests were corrupted and what they got they got a piece of the action jesus cleansed the temple twice at the beginning of his ministry in john 2 at the end of his ministry record matthew mark and luke record the latter one but say nothing about the former one by the way now as messiah he's bringing ceremonial cleanliness to the nation it was logical at both the beginning and the end so that's the concept here in both cases his teaching in the temple was disregarded by the religious leaders jesus quoted from isaiah 56 and jeremiah 7 as he was driving the people who were selling out of the temple mark mark adds in his account that the buyers and money changes were also driven out obviously okay see the leaders had led the people to a mere formalism and impersonalization of the sacrifice they weren't really sacrificing at all just a ceremony you've got to be careful about ceremonies they can become very vacuous very empty and counterproductive they set up the whole thing in the count of gentiles which among other things disrupted their witness to the world it's a form of compromise how often do we do that in church in some equivalent form and he taught daily in the temple but the chief priest he taught daily in the temple we're going to talk about in chapter 21 it's going to be very important but the chief priests and scribes and the chief of the people sought to destroy him but not on a feast day matthew tells us matthew 26 5. they could not find what they might do why for all the people were very attentive to hear them i could not resist adding a little addendum to this study i thought it'd be interesting to hear from the donkey there's a very famous poem by gk chesterton i couldn't resist adding to our package here when fishes flew and forests walked and figs grew upon thorn some moment when the moon was blood then surely i was born with monstrous head and sickening cry and ears like errant wings the devil's walking parody on all four-footed things the tattered outlaw of the earth of ancient crooked will starve scourge deride me i am dumb i keep my secret still fools for i also had my hour one far fierce hour and sweet there was a shout about my ears and palms before my feet and i want you to study for next time luke chapter 20. and as you do that you might also review your notes on isaiah chapter 5 the vineyard thing we're going to pull we're going to draw jesus is going to drop on that again i said the first seven verses at least of isaiah 5. and so with that let you and i stand for a closing word of prayer

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Length: 53min 2sec (3182 seconds)

Published: Thu Oct 15 2020