Luke 13:34-35

Luke chapter 13 and verses 34 and 35. O Jerusalem, Jerusalem, which kill us the prophets and stonest them that are sent unto thee. How often would I have gathered thy children together as a hen doth gather her brood under her wings and he would not. Behold your house is left unto you desolate. Verily I say unto you, you shall not see me till the time come when you shall say blessed is he that cometh in the name of the Lord. May God bless to us, His sacred and God. and holy word this morning. This text of scripture is constantly appealed to by Armenians and modified Calvinist. And the common interpretation given to this passage is that God desires the salvation of salvation of every individual of mankind. In Christ’s attitude, we’re told, toward the city of Jerusalem, reflects this principle. You were told that God’s will is not irresistible. Supposedly, Christ bemoans the fact that he cannot carry out his desire and save the people. So you find this text being used against election and reprobation, against particular redemption, against God’s irresistible power in the salvation of men. So a proper interpretation of this text, I think, is essential. Scripture is not contradictory. It perfectly agrees with various, with each other verse. If there seems to be a contradiction, then we have somehow misinterpreted the passage. And so we need to weigh that. Now, you shouldn’t pit one passage against another. There are not what we call Armenian verses and Calvinistic verses in the Bible. It’s all one unit whose author is actually the Holy Spirit. And so there shouldn’t be any contradiction whatsoever. And you know, you can’t say, well, I’m going to use these verses, but I’m not going to touch this one. And that often happens when we’re talking about subjects. We don’t look at these carefully. That’s why I want to take the time to do that this morning. So that you don’t feel like, well, I have to stay away from this verse because it seems to lean in the Armenian area or something of that nature. I hope when we’re done today, you’ll say, oh, it had nothing to do with Armenianism at all. Now, is it really true that God desires the salvation of all mankind, but he cannot accomplish it because of man’s opposition to divine will? Is that true? Is the omnipotent Christ frustrated here? Because he cannot carry out his saving design. Is that how we should look at this? Well, let me begin by saying this. The Christ’s words in this passage of scripture are addressed to the religious leaders of the Jews, Israel. There is a distinction, and this I think is very vital. There’s a distinction to be made between Jerusalem and her children. People misinterpret this text because they fail to see there are two groups of people in it. And they frequently misquote the passage, and they say something like this. how often I would have gathered you together as a hen doth gather her brood under her wings, and ye would not. Now, I want you to look carefully at what Jesus says here. Jesus makes a clear distinction between Jerusalem and her children. It’s not the children who are said to oppose the gathering. It is Jerusalem that opposes the gathering in this passage of scripture and ye would not. Suppose there’s some parents in Pittsburgh who are neglecting their children, maybe they’re abusive to their children. They are neglecting them. They are neglecting them in a way that’s so bad that you’re not being regularly fed or bathed or properly clothed. And one day a police officer shows up and he comes with the intention of removing the children from the home. He is going to take them out from underneath the authority of the parents. Now, the parents adamantly oppose the parents. police officer. But the policeman has a court order, and so he prevails and secures custody for the children. He is going to accomplish his mission even though the parents would not let him do it. It is this type of idea that we find here in this text this morning. And failure to understand this vital judgment. And failure to understand this vital distinction will lead to a faulty interpretation of the text. Now obviously you can’t just substitute mankind for Jerusalem here. Jerusalem in this passage doesn’t even refer to all the Jews, let it on all the people of the world. There is no divine desire then for the salvation of all men that’s taught in this passage of scripture. So there’s a distinction between Jerusalem and her children. Now, the identification of Jerusalem, look with me to Matthew’s Gospel, which Russell, which Russell, was kind enough to read beforehand, chapter 23 and verses 37 to 39. Let’s look at that carefully. He says here, O Jerusalem, Jerusalem, thou that killest the prophets, and stonest them which are sent under thee, how often would I have gathered thy children together, even as a hand gathers her chickens under her wings, and ye would not. Behold, your house is left unto you desolate. for I say unto you, ye shall not see me henceforth. Do you say, blessed is he that cometh in the name of the Lord. Now, we have to understand here the identification of Jerusalem. Matthew’s gospel is very clear. If you read this whole chapter, he carefully identifies who he carefully identifies who he means by Jerusalem. Christ has been warning his disciples, and in a secondary sense, is the multitude in verse one of this chapter, about the abusive behavior of the scribes and the Pharisees, verses 2 through 12 and following. And beginning with verse 13 until the end of the chapter, he keeps using this phrase, woe unto you scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites. You know, you’re familiar with this passage, I’m pretty sure. But you notice how he keeps telling you who he’s speaking of. Thus, when Jesus speaks of Jerusalem in verse 37, opposing his efforts to gather their children, he still berating the scribes and the Pharisees. Notice the negative character. of the scribes and fairs. They’re guilty of killing the prophets and stoning God’s servants. They’re the instigators. They’re the ones that are taking the lead in this situation. They’re guilty of trying to prevent the gathering of the children in verse 37 also. And then he says, your house is left under you desolate. it’s no longer God’s house because they have made it a den of thieves. It’s their house. They have it the way they want it. And so he says, your house, you scribes and Pharisees, the left under you desolate. And there is, according to verse 39 here, I think a refusal to acknowledge that Jesus Christ is the Messiah. Jesus specifically condemns the scribes and the Pharisees for killing the prophets and persecuting God’s servants. You look at verses 29 to 35 here in chapter 23. He says, won’t you scribes and Pharisees because ye build the tombs of the prophets and garnish the sepulchers of the righteous and say, If I had been there in the days of our fathers, we would not have been partakers with them in the blood of the prophets. Wherefore, ye be witnesses under yourselves that ye are the children of them which kill the prophets. Fill ye up then the measure of your fathers. Ye serpents, e generation of vipers, how can you escape the dams? nation of hell. Wherefore, behold, I send unto you prophets and wise men and scribes, and some of them ye shall kill and crucify, and some of them shall ye scourge in your synagogues and persecute them from city to city. That upon you may come all the righteous blood shed upon the earth from the blood of righteous abel under the blood of Zacharias, the son of Barakias, whom ye slew between the temple and the altar. He is saying here that the scribes and the Pharisees are the ones that killed the prophets. So when he says here in verse 37 that Jerusalem is the one who’s guilty, he’s still referring to the scribes and the Pharisees. in that passage. That should be clear enough. He expects them to intensify their efforts in the future, as verse 34 indicates. Jesus condemns them the religious leaders for attempting to turn those entering the kingdom of God away from him. Notice verse 13 of this same chapter. woe unto you scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites, for you shut up the kingdom of heaven against men. For you neither go in yourselves, neither suffer ye them that are entering to go in. They’re the ones that are guilty. They’re the ones that are trying to prevent the gathering of the chicks, so to speak here in this passage of scripture. Just as common today, the youths. the term Washington to speak of the political leadership of our country. So here, Jerusalem speaks of the religious leaders of the country. So the identification of Jerusalem, it should be easy if we actually pay attention to the context, both in Matthew and Luke. thirdly, notice this, the identification of thy children. In Christ’s day, it was customary. The say of those who were disciples of someone, that they were the children of them. In other words, those who were disciples of them. were considered the children. The scribes and the Pharisees were called by Christ, blind guides, because they were the leaders of the people. And they held a position of authority over the common people. We could look at a lot of different references this morning, but time, of course, is against us. But just look at Galatians chapter 4 and verse 25, if you would. You can go through the, in the Old Testament, you find this as well as in the new. But look at Galatians 425 with me. Where this Agar is Mount Sinai in Arabia, and answers to Jerusalem, which now is, and is in bondage with her children. You see this separation between Jerusalem and the children here? This is what I’m trying to get across. You can look at this. at Matthew like 1227 and Mark 10, 23, and 24. Second John one forward. John writes to the people of God, and he says, I see that your children are walking in accordance to the ways of the Lord. And that was of the church, so to speak. And he’s talking about, of course, those who are disciple there. And I won’t belabor the point, but if you look through scripture, you’re going to find this phraseology being used. So Christ’s words are addressed to the religious leaders of Israel. Secondly, Christ’s words do not preclude the gathering of Jerusalem’s children. It’s a spiritual gathering. He says, how often would I have gathered thy children together? The Greek word for gathered is episunago, which is commonly associated with a physical gathering of people. In its noun form, it literally means to synagogue, to synagogue. It is used of associating or assembling, if you would, for the church. In Hebrews 1025, not forsaking the assembling yourselves together, it’s that term here that we’re using. Since the mission of the prophets, especially John the Baptist, was the gather of people for Christ’s namesake, then we will have to say that it is a spiritual gathering, really, that he’s talking about in this passage of Scripture. After all, there are people coming and listening to Jesus preach. But it’s the spiritual gathering that we’re talking about. Christ’s desire is to gather the synagogue, Jerusalem’s children, into his church, into his kingdom. It is an opposed gathering. How often I would have done this, but ye, ye, Jerusalem, would not. The common people, as I said, came in great most. to hear Christ. Yet the scribes of the Pharisees were envious of Christ. They hated him because he exposed their hypocrisy. And we find that they vigorously oppose Christ in his gospel at every return. It was, there was a continuous effort was made that to turn people away from the truth. They had gone so far as to say, and that if any man did confess that Jesus was the Christ, that would be put out of the synagogue. And remember the man born blind in John chapter 9, he actually gets put out of the synagogue. For he will not say Christ as a sinner. He will not say that there’s something wrong about Christ. He believes that he’s the Messiah. And think about this, unless you confess that. that Christ was the Messiah, how could you possibly be saved? So the scribes and the Pharisees did everything humanly possible to paint Christ as a blasphemer, as demon possessed, a false prophet, and so forth, or to turn people away from the kingdom of God. So it was an opposed gathering, but it was an accomplished gathering. As a hand doth gatherer her brood under her wing. Now our Lord portrays a barnyard scene. We can picture this in our mind. There’s a hen and about her or her chicks, and probably there’s other hens and their chicks, and probably there’s other hens and their chicks too out there. But picture the chicks scattered about the barnyard, scratching the dirt for maybe a piece of grain of some sort. And everything appears calm and tranquil for the moment. It’s an everyday room. routine. Perhaps a fox approaches. And all of a sudden, the mother hand gets excited and begins to gather under her wings, her chicks, because she perceives the danger. In order to protect them, she does this. The hand doesn’t seek to gather every chick in the barnyard. but her own brood. She knows those which are hers, and she shields them. So Jesus here is portraying himself in the sense of a mother hen. Notice the chicks are said to be her brood. So under the general heading of thy children are in common. encompassed all the chicks which belong to the mother hen, Jesus Christ. There’s all kinds of chicks that are, you know, the common people in Israel were under the authority of the scribes and the Pharisees, but this is a special group of chicks. This is Christ chicks, so to speak. So some chicks do not belong to this group of leaders. So some chicks do not belong to this group of the scribes and the Pharisees, but they actually belong to Jesus Christ. So the symbolism here has direct reference to the elect of God, who have been given to Christ by God the Father, as we read in the book of John 6. All that the Father giveth me shall come to me. And him that cometh to me, I will no wise cast out. For I came down from heaven. not to do my own will, but the will of him who sent me. And this is the father’s will, which has sent me. That of all which he hath given me, I should lose nothing. So Jesus could say, of his brood, these are the children which God hath given me. So Jesus did indeed gather Jerusalem’s children there’s no reason to think otherwise. Because not one of God’s elect ever fails to come to Jesus Christ. Some of the chicks had already been gathered. He had disciples them, despite the opposition of the scribes and the Pharisees. The man born blind, the impotent man, the woman taken an adultery, Mary and Martha, and Martha, Lazarus, the woman with the issue of the blood, Zacchaeus, the maniac of Gatora, Bartimaeus, we could go on and on and on and on. But let it be remembered that many Jews did believe on Christ to the great dismay of the religious leaders of the day. Consider the vast multitude of Jerusalem’s children that were gathered after Christ’s resurrection, by 8,000 of them, as we see. So Jesus never intended to gather every one of Jerusalem’s children, all those under the scribes and the Pharisees here. But his brood, he certainly intends to put under his wings, protect them, and save them. He had been given. power over all flesh, according to John 17, that he should give eternal life to as many as the Father had given him. So all Christ’s chicks will be safely gathered under his wings. It’s an absolute certainty. Thirdly, Christ’s words include a warning here for the Jewish religious leaders in verse 35 of Luke. here in our text. Jesus speaks of the impending judgment coming upon the Jewish religious leaders in particular. This is closely connected with the temple being destroyed. And we know that this is the 70 AD destruction. What was once the house of God is, I said, is now your house. And it’s a den of thieves, not a house of prayer. The temple was the place with the scribes and the Pharisees often gathered. And they ministered. And they taught. Now their pride and joy is going to be left desolate. Remember how the disciples were so enthralled by the beautiful building of the temple? You know, that it was so, look at these, look at this place. It’s magnificent. And then Jesus. and the all of that discourse explains to them it’s all coming down to every stone of it. And so we find also in the parable the wedding feast in Matthew 22, all the discourse, Matthew 24. God is portrayed in that parable as the king who sent forth his armies and destroyed those murderers and burned up their city. Matthew 22, 6, and 7, because they mistreated God’s servants. So you can look at that on your own. So Jesus here is promising, I believe. He’s not going to have any more to do with these religious leaders unless they acknowledge him as the Messiah. If by Jerusalem is meant not the religious leaders, but all the inhabitants of the city, Christ’s words here don’t make much sense. After all, the multitude cried out these very words during Christ’s triumphal entry into the city. They were proclaiming, at least some from the northern area of Galilee, that Christ was the Messiah. They were saying that. This phrase is a quotation. Actually, it comes from Psalm. 118. And where you find this stone which the builders rejected, they are the religious leaders, the builders, is enabled by God to be the headstone of the spiritual temple. Those who say, blessed is he that cometh in the name of the Lord, are recognizing Christ as the Messiah and Savior. So I believe that Jesus is saying to the scribes and Pharisees the only way I’ll have any further dealings with you is if you trust in me as the Messiah. Let me close with two thoughts. The first is this. Don’t have a low view of God. So many people, Armenians, modified Calvites and so forth, have a low view of who God is. Supposedly, God’s hands are tied and he is dependent upon man’s will for a person to be. saved, we’re told. Supposedly Christ’s will can be thwarted and he fails in his purpose. Give me the sovereign, omnipotent God of the Bible who does according to his own good pleasure in all things. He has no unfulfilled desires. Can you imagine God having unfulfilled desires which would leave him throughout all eternity? unhappy. Miserable. Think about it. If God wants to save someone and he doesn’t change, then we’d have to say that those in hell he still wants to say. That’s ridiculous. It doesn’t make any sense at all. Our God doesn’t sadly meet out his righteous judgments. He does as he pleases. Does God have remorse? Does he regret regarding his own decrees in reference to the reprobate? Does he say I wish I hadn’t done that? I’m saddened by it? This is not the God of the Bible, my friends. God does whatsoever he pleases in heaven and earth. He has no regrets. There is no divine remorse. God is eternally happy in all his work. Secondly, don’t forget that Christ is God manifested in the flesh. Don’t come to this passage and think, well, he can’t carry out his will. He’s God. You shouldn’t think Christ’s weak. You shouldn’t think his will is impotent. That his desires can be frustrated by man. If it is his purpose to gather Jerusalem’s children, you must realize that this is in total agreement with the father’s will. His brood out of there is going to be gathered. The father’s will can’t be thwarted. Christ’s will is in agreement with the father’s will. It cannot be thwarted. He never works at cross purposes with God the Father. Christ is an omnipotent Savior. And he saves all those he purposes to say. As John 172 has said, thou hast given him power over all flesh. Is anybody going to be able to stop him? He has power over all flesh. That he should give eternal life to as many as the Father had given him. That’s the clear teaching of Scripture. So I hope as we come to this passage this morning that we have a better understanding of it and that we will not put it at odds with the rest of Scripture. It all fits together properly if we understand the scriptures in the right way. So bless, I pray the Lord will bless us as we ponder this this morning. Let’s close. with a word of prayer.