The Olivet Discourse: Part One

Matthew 23:37-38 – “The Love of God for Sinners”

A sermon by Pastor Joe Haynes

Preached on August 18, 2024 at Beacon Church

When God came down and spoke to Moses on Mount Sinai, 3500 years ago, God said He is the God who brought Israel out of Egypt, He is the God who freed them from slavery so, He said, “You shall have no other gods before me,” (Ex 20:3). He told them not to make any statue, idol, or image to worship—"for I the LORD your God am a jealous God, visiting the iniquity of the fathers on the children to the third and the fourth generation of those who hate me, but showing steadfast love to thousands of those who love me and keep my commandments.”  (Exod. 20:5-6) You must know God by the way He saves; not by how you picture Him, or imagine Him, or invent Him but by how He makes Himself known in salvation.

Now 1500 years later, an angel from God appeared to a man named Joseph and told that astonished man that he was to take his pregnant fiancée, marry her, adopt her child and name Him, “Jesus.” Yeshua in Hebrew. It sounds like the word “he will save”—yoshia.[i] Because He will save His people from their sins. And then as Matthew tells about the birth of Jesus, he explains, “this took place to fulfill what the Lord had spoken by the prophet, ‘Behold the virgin shall conceive and bear a son, and they shall call his name Immanuel, (which means God with us),” (Mt 1:22-23).

You are not to worship a god you imagine, or an image, or a picture, but the God who is. The God who makes Himself known in great acts of salvation. The greatest thing that has ever happened was that God became a man, God lowered Himself, entered our world in mortal flesh, being born a human child, to die for the sins of everyone who believes in Him, to redeem, to ransom, to rescue: Emmanuel. God with us. Yeshua, Jesus, “He will save.” This great theme of Matthew’s Gospel becomes very important to understand when we come to the words said by the Lord Jesus in Mat 23:37-39. Because in these words God is revealed. God is made known here by what Jesus says. Not in the third person but in the first person. Not abstractly but personally. I want you to look at the Lord Jesus here and see the love of God. In these words, the Lord gives a prophetic view of Jerusalem’s past, present, and future that urge you to embrace Jesus Christ as Saviour and God. I’m saying that in Jesus we see God’s love for Israel so that in Israel we can see God’s love for sinners. But let’s start by looking at these three verses. What are they about? In verse 37, Jesus is talking about Jerusalem’s past; then in verse 38, about Jerusalem’s present; then in verse 39, about Jerusalem’s future. What Jesus says here about Jerusalem’s past, about Jerusalem’s present, and about Jerusalem’s future is written to make you realize who Jesus is so that you worship Him as your God and Saviour. First then, look at verse 37 and see…

How God loved Jerusalem in the past (37)

See three things here: what Jesus says about Jerusalem, what Jesus says He did for Jerusalem, and what Jesus wants for Jerusalem. First, He says “Jerusalem, Jerusalem, the city that kills the prophets and stones those who are sent to it!” He cries for the city. He laments over her. This is grief. But look what He says about Jerusalem: He says she murders the messengers God has sent. He emphasizes that prophets and messengers were sent. That leads to the second thing you need to see: what Jesus did for Jerusalem. He says, How often I wanted to gather your children…! What is Jesus talking about? What events does He have in mind? He is talking about all the prophets and messengers sent to Jerusalem in the history of the nation of Israel. And He is saying that every time a prophet went, every time a messenger preached God’s message, the one who sent them was none other than Himself. It was because the Son of God wanted to gather Jerusalem’s children that for 1500 years He sent prophets and messengers to preach His Word to that city. But generation after generation after generation, they killed the men He sent until finally He came Himself. God the Father sent His Son, the second Person of the Trinity, Emmanuel.

Now this is agrees with what Jesus has just said three verses before this: "Therefore I send you prophets and wise men and scribes, some of whom you will kill and crucify, and some you will flog in your synagogues and persecute from town to town..." (Matt. 23:34 ESV). But the point I’m making is that when God sends prophets and when God’s Word is preached faithfully, the Lord Jesus is making Himself known as God and Saviour. So the third thing you need to see in verse 37 is what Jesus wants for Jerusalem. Have you ever seen a bird shelter her young in her nest? Have you ever seen a hen with wings outstretched over her chicks? Have you ever understood you need to take refuge under the wings of the God of Israel, as Boaz said to Ruth long before Christ was born (Ruth 2:12)? Have you come to see how desperately you need God to be your Saviour? Well I want you to look here and see how the Lord Jesus Christ wanted to be such a Saviour to the people of Jerusalem—not just in the 33 years of His first coming, but throughout the 1500 years of the history of the nation of Israel up to that time. "How often would I have gathered your children together as a hen gathers her brood under her wings, and you were not willing!" (Matt. 23:37 ESV). He was willing, this is what God wanted—but they were not willing. So they killed God’s prophets and stoned the Lord’s messengers.

“[They] suffered mocking and flogging, and even chains and imprisonment. They were stoned, they were sawn in two, they were killed with the sword. They went about in skins of sheep and goats, destitute, afflicted, mistreated--of whom the world was not worthy…” (Heb. 11:36-38). Why? Jesus says, “You were not willing.” Unwilling to come to God. Unwilling to listen to His messengers. Unwilling to respond to His Word. It’s not just them, not just Jerusalem though is it? "The heavens declare the glory of God, and the sky above proclaims his handiwork. Day to day pours out speech, and night to night reveals knowledge. There is no speech, nor are there words, whose voice is not heard. Their voice goes out through all the earth, and their words to the end of the world," (Ps. 19:1-4 ESV). God’s Creation speaks to every human being saying, “See what God has made! Seek the One who did this!” As Paul says it, “For what can be known about God is plain to them, because God has shown it to them.  For his invisible attributes, namely, his eternal power and divine nature, have been clearly perceived, ever since the creation of the world, in the things that have been made. So they are without excuse,” (Rom. 1:19-20). The world doesn’t listen because the world doesn’t want to know. No wonder then they laugh at this Gospel. No wonder they mock whoever preaches the Bible. In Jesus we see God’s love for Israel, love most people don’t want.

First then, the Lord gives a prophetic view of Jerusalem’s past that urges you to embrace Jesus Christ as Saviour and God. Are you willing? Next see…

How God loves Jerusalem in the present (38)

Look now at the words of verse 38 and see a prophetic picture of Jerusalem that’s still true today: "See, your house is left to you desolate," (Matt. 23:38 ESV). This is very easy to interpret but it is hard to hear. First, Jesus says “See” “behold!” and He points the people of Jerusalem to look at the Temple that had stood in that city for 500 years. That Temple was itself a replacement for the Temple King Solomon had built, that had stood on the same spot for nearly 400 years before the Babylonian’s destroyed it. Two different temple buildings had stood on that mount, in that city, for almost 1000 years before Jesus said this. Now He says it is being left to them “desolate.” Emptied. Abandoned. Vacant. Deserted.

That means God would no longer be found there. Very soon after Jesus said this, people who wanted to know God would not be able to seek Him there. What Jesus says here is prophetic. It didn’t all happen right away. But you can see in Jesus’ actions what was about to happen. If you’re paying attention. For example, in Mat 21:23, Matthew carefully notes that Jesus arrived at the Temple and entered it, and was teaching there. But look at the next verse after our passage, at Mat 24:1—"Jesus left the temple and was going away, when his disciples came to point out to him the buildings of the temple," (Matt. 24:1 ESV). Jesus left the Temple. He tells Jerusalem, therefore, as He is leaving that place, to mark His departure and to understand what it means: God has left the building. As we’ve read Matthew’s Gospel, you know we’ve seen this coming.

Remember what Jesus said in His wrath as He drove out the moneychangers and merchants from that Temple? “He said to them, "It is written, 'My house shall be called a house of prayer,' but you make it a den of robbers.”” (Matt. 21:13) Then Jesus cursed the fig tree that had no fruit and it withered at once. Now we see He was talking about the Temple. But no one can say God didn’t warn them. You can’t buy any appliance or piece of equipment today without seeing the pages of warnings that come with it about the dangers of using it improperly. Well right after the first temple was finished, God warned Israel: 

But if you turn aside from following me, you or your children, and do not keep my commandments and my statutes that I have set before you, but go and serve other gods and worship them,  7 then I will cut off Israel from the land that I have given them, and the house that I have consecrated for my name I will cast out of my sight, and Israel will become a proverb and a byword among all peoples.  8 And this house will become a heap of ruins. Everyone passing by it will be astonished and will hiss, and they will say, 'Why has the LORD done thus to this land and to this house?'  9 Then they will say, 'Because they abandoned the LORD their God who brought their fathers out of the land of Egypt and laid hold on other gods and worshiped them and served them. Therefore the LORD has brought all this disaster on them.'"  (1 Ki. 9:6-9 ESV)

Centuries later, God sent Jeremiah to warn them again, of what He would do to Jerusalem and the Temple, if they reject their God: 

 5 But if you will not obey these words, I swear by myself, declares the LORD, that this house shall become a desolation...

 8 "'And many nations will pass by this city, and every man will say to his neighbor, "Why has the LORD dealt thus with this great city?"  9 And they will answer, "Because they have forsaken the covenant of the LORD their God and worshiped other gods and served them."'" (Jer. 22:5, 8-9 ESV)

Jesus said “but you were not willing,” so God did exactly what He warned He would do. Forty years after Jesus said this, the Temple was burned to the ground. Jerusalem was destroyed. For over 1800 years the Jews were homeless, scattered, refugees. So what? What does this have to do with you?

In Jesus we see God’s love for Israel so that in Israel we can see God’s love for sinners. Do you know you are a sinner? Israel is on stage so that the world will watch and see what God does. Jesus shows God wanted to protect and gather Israel; but they were not willing. So God scattered Israel. Just as He said He would. If you will not turn to God when He gives you good things, maybe you will turn to Him when He takes the good things away? See in Israel how God patiently, and persistently loves Israel, in blessing or in punishment, urging them to believe in Christ. And in Israel see a picture of how God loves unbelievers the same way. JC Ryle said, “He knocks at the door of their hearts by sicknesses and afflictions; he assails their consciences by sermons, or by the advice of friends; he calls them to consider their ways by opening the grave under their eyes, and taking away from them their idols.”[ii] Paul asks, in Rom 2:4, “…Do you presume on the riches of [God’s] kindness and forbearance and patience, not knowing that God's kindness is meant to lead you to repentance?” If you do not listen to God’s kindness, will you listen now? C.S. Lewis said, “…pain insists upon being attended to. God whispers to us in our pleasures, speaks in our conscience, but shouts in our pains: it is His megaphone to rouse a deaf world.”[iii] How patiently God calls those who want nothing to do with Him. But still He calls. He leaves you to struggle on your own; He removes your strength; your health; your resources; your happiness; and your false hopes. How often Jesus wanted to gather you to Himself, but you were not willing.

So first, the Lord gives a prophetic view of Jerusalem’s past, and then of Jerusalem’s present, that urges you to embrace Jesus Christ as Saviour and God. Next see…

How God will love Jerusalem in the future (39)

Look at verse 39, at the last words Jesus spoke in public to Jerusalem and notice three things: the cause of Jerusalem’s desolation, the duration of Jerusalem’s desolation, and the end of Jerusalem’s desolation. "For I tell you, you will not see me again, until you say, 'Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord.'" (Matt. 23:39 ESV) First, the Lord Jesus says “your house is left to you desolate. For I tell you, you will not see me…” The reason for Jerusalem’s desolation is that when the people of that city refused Jesus, He left them. Second notice the duration of their desolation. “You will not see me again until…” Until tells us there is a limit to the desolation, to the Lord’s long absence and abandonment of that city. IS Jesus Christ widely accepted and worshiped as God in the city of Jerusalem today? No He is not. Of the 580,000 Jews living in Jerusalem today, the vast majority are like they were then—“but you were not willing” (37). 1800 years of desolation and tribulation for the Jewish people did not change their hearts toward God. But Jesus prophetically says that is going to change. Third then, notice what will change and bring Jerusalem’s desolation to an end: "For I tell you, you will not see me again, until you say, 'Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord.'" (Matt. 23:39 ESV)

The words Jesus quotes here from Psa 118:26 point to something that will be true in the future, and they remind us of something that has always been true. In the future, Jews in the city of Jerusalem will say that the Lord Jesus Christ is from God, that HE comes in the name of Yahweh God. But more than that, they will rejoice because of it. The whole verse says, “Blessed is he who comes in the name of the LORD! We bless you from the house of the LORD.” (Ps. 118:26 ESV) The people who will say this are happy that Christ has come. This will be true one day—maybe very soon—I pray that day comes soon. It is hard to know for sure but events in the world today seem to suggest this day is coming very soon. But there is one other thing to see from Psalm 118, from the psalm Jesus quotes here as a prophecy (39). The psalm teaches us that God’s love lasts forever. That God’s love endures.

·         Oh give thanks to the LORD, for he is good; for his steadfast love endures forever!  Let Israel say, "His steadfast love endures forever."  (Ps. 118:1-2)

·         I shall not die, but I shall live, and recount the deeds of the LORD. (Ps. 118:17)

·         I thank you that you have answered me and have become my salvation. The stone that the builders rejected has become the cornerstone. This is the LORD's doing; it is marvelous in our eyes. This is the day that the LORD has made; let us rejoice and be glad in it.  (Ps. 118:21-24 ESV)

·         Blessed is he who comes in the name of the LORD! We bless you from the house of the LORD. (Ps. 118:26 ESV)

·         You are my God, and I will give thanks to you; you are my God; I will extol you. Oh give thanks to the LORD, for he is good; for his steadfast love endures forever!  (Ps. 118:28-29 ESV)

I do not believe for a second that it was just coincidence that Jesus quoted Psalm 118 here. I don’t think it is coincidence that Jesus quoted Psalm 118 a bit before this in Mat 21:42, when He asked the Pharisees, “Have you never read in the Scriptures, the stone the builders rejected has become the cornerstone; this was the Lord’s doing and it is marvelous in our eyes’?” Those words are from Psalm 118:22; Jesus’ prophetic quote in v39 comes from Psalm 118:26. But the theme of the whole Psalm is the enduring love of God! And I don’t think that’s a coincidence. I believe Jesus points to the everlasting love of God, that Jesus reveals the everlasting love of God, that the love of Jesus is the love of God, and that there is nothing you need more today that to embrace the love of God. How?

Think about what we see in these words Jesus says in these three verses. In Jesus we see the love of God for Israel so that in Israel we can see the love of God for sinners. God is willing to save, but you were not willing. Oh but look and see the love of God, His steadfast love endures forever! When God sends messengers who preach this Good News, the Lord Jesus is making Himself known as God and Saviour. When God sends desolation, and pain, and sickness, Jesus is making Himself known as God and Saviour. Until. Finally. A day comes according to the sovereign, free, grace of God; a day He chooses when grace changes the stubborn heart; a day when love breaks through the clouds of unbelief. There is a day coming when the Bible says the Spirit of God will fall upon the people of Israel, when grace will open their blind eyes to who Jesus is—as Paul testifies, “in this way all Israel will be saved,” (Rom. 11:26). And this is how it is whenever a sinner is converted. The love of God makes blind men see. The grace of the Lord makes deaf ears hear. The Word of God gives faith to unbelievers. The Spirit of God gives life to the dead.

Joseph named his son, “Jesus,” because God told him, “He will save His people from their sins.” How beautiful that name becomes to sinners who know they need a Saviour! And when your eyes are open, and you see that Jesus is Emmanuel, God with us, how glorious He is! Jerusalem’s past, present, and future, testify to the glorious grace of God in Jesus Christ.  Can you see the love of God that endures, that speaks, that reaches out and calls you to come? Can you see how patiently God holds out His arms and says come to me, Here is my Son who died to save you from your sins? Come take refuge under the wings of the God of Israel? The love of God compels you to come. He whispers in your pleasure and shouts in your pain, turn to Him today and say, “Blessed is He who comes in the name of the LORD!”