Luke The Orderly Account of Truth - Can't Stop Won't Stop - Luke 13:31-35

Grab your Bibles. You're gonna need it today. We're gonna

be finishing Luke chapter thirteen. And if you don't have

a Bible, we have a bunch of them at the

resource desk in the lobby, so please grab one. We'd

love for you to have that as a gift and

keep it because we want you to be in your word.

We are in a series called Luke The Orderly Account

of Truth. Luke the Orderly Account of Truth, and we've

been going verse by verse the whole Gospel of Luke,

which is amazing. We're learning about the life and ministry

of Jesus all from a guy who investigated it. It's

not just some random person. No, it's someone who said,

I want to investigate this and show you everything that

Jesus taught and did and proved you it's real, so

you can have certainty or know the exact truth about

who Jesus is and what he did. And it's been

amazing going through that. Through the whole book, we're learning

a ton. We know that jesus ministry on Earth was short.

It wasn't very long, and most scholars would agree that

it's just over three years or three and a half

years somewhere around there. But in just that three short years,

he flipped the whole world upside down. He changed everything.

He corrected a lot of thoughts right, He set straight

a lot of things that were crooked or broken. He

flipped the whole world upside down. In just the first

thirteen chapters of Luke, we've seen Jesus do some amazing miracles,

like giving sight to the blind. He made the lame

or the crippled walk. People who were paralyzed, which means

you can't move certain things, all of a sudden could

move certain things. It's amazing. Leprosy was cleansed, skin conditions

just evaporate in an instant, or even like the shriveled hand.

I didn't even think about that. That technical count is

lame or crippled, but instantly made well. Demons have been

cast out. He even healed someone just because they touched

his cloak. It's amazing. And then he sent out his

disciples to perform the same types of miracles. And you

know what happened those same types of miracles. Jesus sent

them out and they did it. He gave him his

power to go do these amazing, miraculous things and they

went out and did it. But all the while Jesus

out here preaching the Kingdom of Heaven is near. And

why was he saying that. It's because the king of

that kingdom was right there in front of them. Jesus

is the king of that kingdom. He is the king,

and he is here. He would speak the truth about

the Kingdom of God, which is something that people hadn't

always heard because they were being taught certain things that

didn't line up with the truth. So Jesus would teach

the truth. He'd also rebuke those false teachings and the

false teachers, those religious leaders of the day. He'd rebuke

them and correct them and challenge them. But everything that

he said and everything he did just flip the whole

world upside down. It's crazy. And just last week we

talked about if you guys were here, we talked about

how Jesus told the people to make every effort to

do something, to strive to do something, and that was

to strive to enter through the narrow door. That there

will be some who would not enter the Kingdom of God,

that they would see all the other people enjoying the

feast in the Kingdom of God. But them, they themselves

will be thrown out. They think they're good, they think

they're the first, but the truth is they were actually

the last. This is what Jesus is saying, straight to

their face. So if you could imagine the religious leaders

didn't like hearing that very much. If I was the

one in charge and I was being told I'm doing

it wrong, there might be a little something inside me

that would raise up and not like that news that

I'm hearing. Well, that's where our text today is gonna

pick up right after Jesus said that, straight to the

people's face. So we're gonna be in Luke chapter thirteen,

verses thirty one through thirty five. It's only five verses,

so we're gonna read through those verses. I'm gonna pray,

and they're gonna dive into it. Sound good, awesome Luke,

Chapter thirteen, verses thirty one through thirty five. At that time,

some Pharisees came to Jesus and said to him, leave

this place and go somewhere else. Herod wants to kill you.

He replied, go tell that fox. I will keep on

driving out demons and healing people today and tomorrow and

the third day I will reach my goal. In any case,

I must press on today and tomorrow and the next day,

For surely no prophet can die outside Jerusalem. Jerusalem, Jerusalem,

you who kill the prophets and stone those sent to you.

How often I have longed to gather your children together

as a hen gathers her chicks under her wings, and

you were not willing. Look, your house is left to you. Desolate,

I tell you you will not see me again until

you say, Blessed is he who comes in the name

of the Lord's God's Word. Let's pray. God, we thank

you right now for your word as we've just read it. God,

I pray that your message rings true in our hearts. God,

that we hear your word and what you would teach

us today, and we take that and we seal that

in our hearts so that it comes out in the

time we need it most. But God, lets it do

its work in us. Let it conform, Let us be

conformed more into your image as we grow in our

knowledge of who you are. God, we thank you for

the gift that is your word that has been written

down that we can freely open it up and read

it without fear of actual persecution. God, we thank you

that we don't have any fear of being thrown in

prison or or beaten to death or killed or whatever

it is, just because we have your word. God, we

thank you that you've given it to us and we

have the freedom to read it and learn from it.

So God, we are excited to dive into it. And again,

I pray that your message rings true in our hearts

and that we just seal it inside of us. And

Gesu's name, everybody said a men. The day was January eighth,

twenty eleven. There's a group of scientists who all gather

together and they're all scratching their head because something weird

just happened. So these scientists are all standing around and

in sure a device, and this device is a seismometer.

Do you guys know what a seismometer is. It measures

vibration in the ground, right, And the reason they're all

scratching their heads is something this weird thing happened. There

was a magnitude one or two earthquake. Well, it's not

that weird. Seismometers measure ground vibration, so it makes sense

they're measuring for earthquakes. What was weird is the location

of the source of this earthquake. They're scratching their head

because the source was the middle of Seattle, the city

of Seattle. So volcanoes or mountains in the middle of Seattle.

There's obviously Mount Rainier and Mount Saint Helens are close by, right,

But the source of this magnitude one or two earthquake

was the middle of the city. The fault lines aren't

underneath the underneath the city, Rob nos where this is going.

The fault line's not underneath the city. It's closer to

the coast, right. So it didn't take long for the

scientists to figure out what caused this kind of magnitude

one or two earthquake. It's not a very big earthquake,

but it's an earthquake out a place earthquake. And they

found out it came from over sixty six thousand screaming, cheering,

and stomping sports fans when they watched Marshawn Lynch make

the greatest running touchdown in the history of Seahawks football,

and they all cheered loud enough to create an earthquake,

the Beast Quake. January eight, twenty eleven. They watched a

man who was determined to stop at nothing beyond to

get him to the goal. Right. He didn't break just

one or two tackles, which is an amazing thing for

running back to do, especially in a wild card game.

He didn't break just one or two. He broke seven tackles.

And you could see when you watch this seismometer, each

time one more tackle happened, there was another spike in

the earthquake. It's nuts. I looked this up. It's crazy. Right.

So you see the crowd cheering for a man who

breaks seven tacks. Some people who have rose colored glasses

will say he broke eight tackles, but at least seven

if you watch it and count him. But there was

nothing that was going to stop this man from achieving

his goal. He was going to be He was determined

to complete his goal no matter what opposition came his way. Well,

if you remember back to Luke nine, p. Fifty one,

Jesus resolutely set his mind towards Jerusalem. He's going to

accomplish a mission. He set his face steadfastly. That's what

it means to be resolute, steadfastly in the direction of Jerusalem.

He's on a mission, and he's going to accomplish that mission.

No matter what, no matter who tries to stop him,

He's going to reach his goal. So I called today's

message can't stop, won't stop. Can't stop, won't stop, because

there is nothing, say, nothing, that can stop Jesus from

accomplishing his mission. There's absolutely nothing that can stop him.

There was nothing that could stop him then, and there's

nothing that can stop him now. There's no opposition from

the religious elites or the rulers. There's no amount of

lies deception, there's no death threats or threats of murder

that can stop him. There's not even a lack of

willingness in others that will stop Jesus from accomplishing his mission.

Nothing can stop Jesus from accomplishing his omission. He will

bring to completion all that he sets out to do.

Kind of an interesting intro to the text, but my

hope is as we dive into it, you're gonna see

it very clearly. You guys ready, We're gonna look at

the first verse, verse thirty one. At that time, some

pharisees came to Jesus and said to him, leave this

place and go somewhere else. Herod wants to kill you. Huh. Oh,

nice Pharisees were concerned about Jesus. I mean, maybe maybe

they were concerned about him. The Pharisees in almost every

situation when you read them in scripture, they're not actually

looking out for the best interests of Jesus. What they're

trying to do is get rid of Jesus. They want

Jesus to get out of here. They've tried to argue

with them. We've seen that a bunch. They've tried to

trap him. They try to catch him doing things that

they consider breaking the law of Moses. Why so they

could lawfully kill him. They're against Jesus. They hated Jesus

and the fact that he was challenging them. He would

challenge their leadership, he would challenge their teaching, He would

challenge their lifestyle, what they chose to do, all while

they're calling it holy. He would even attack that their

entire way of life, which was all built on false

teaching and a false understanding of the truth about God's

law and what God meant when he wrote that law.

You got to remember that they would add things on

to the law. God said this is what the truth is,

and they would say, okay, well, I like to think

about it as a line in the sand. God says,

don't cross that line over there, and they're like, Pharis

is like cool, then we'll never cross this line. Might

have started in a pure place, but it turned into

if you cross this line, you're no longer holy, you're

no longer righteous. So they set these extra laws into

God's law, and they said, if you didn't follow our

man made laws, then you weren't righteous. The only way

to be holy was to follow what we teach you,

even if those things that they taught reached farther than

God's law did. And also they also made up crazy

things to make it so they weren't breaking the law,

like these weird extra rules like, oh, we're not breaking

the law. Was it weld carry something on the back

of your hand. I'm not working, I'm not carrying something

because you're holding on the back of your hand instead

of the palm of your hand. It's just weird things

like that. They would come up with things like if

you drag a chair and it's kicks up dust, that's

considered plowing, so you can't drag a chair on the

Sabbath day, right, It's just weird rules. And they say

if you do these things, are you break our man

made laws, then you are no longer holy. All the while,

they found ways and loopholes for them to break the

laws and still maintain their holy status or their righteous status.

So these are the people that Jesus is warning. This

is who Jesus is talking to right now, the ones

who've been trying to trap Jesus, the ones who want

to kill him, the ones who are trying to kill

Jesus to get rid of him by any means necessary.

So you can get like a sense for why I'm

a little hesitant to think that the pharisees motives were

pure in warning him about Herod. Not only that, but

Jesus just got done tell it. We just read it

in the beginning. But Jesus just finished telling them. You're

gonna see others feasting in the Kingdom of God, but

you yourselves will be thrown out. That's what Jesus is

telling them. And the Pharisees might have been wrong about

a lot, but they're not stupid. They knew that Jesus

was talking about them. We know that because of their response.

How many times they pick up stones to stow them

and kill him, walk them to the edge of a cliff,

trying to push him off of it. They weren't stupid,

they knew so after Jesus said these things straight to

their faces. Now all of a sudden, they're concerned about

Jesus' safety. Now they're concerned and want to warn them

that Herod wants to murder him or kill him. I say, yeah, right,

there's no way. I mean, and going back to the

cliff example, the uh, that's the same thing as like

pushing someone off the cliff and being like, hey, why

don't you make sure you look both ways for across

the street. Doesn't make sense. You're actively trying to kill somebody,

Why would you warn them about crossing the streets? Just

doesn't make sense. So I'm not convinced this is a

nice thing that the Pharisees are doing by warning Jesus

about Herod. But speaking of Herod, this is another name,

So we're gonna talk about who this Harod guy is.

This is not the same Herod that tried to kill

Jesus when he was a baby. You guys, remember that Herod.

That was Herod the Great. He killed all the boys

in Bethlehem and the surrounding region who were two years

old and younger trying to kill Jesus because the wise

man said the king is here, and he's like, goh,

there's no king but me. So Herod the Great killed

all these two year olds and younger, all these boys

to try to kill Jesus. So that's not this Herod,

that's Herod the Great. That's this Herod's dad. This is

Herod Antipas, who is one of the three sons of

Herod the Great, and he's in charge of this area.

This is the same Herod that beheaded John the Baptist. Guys,

remember John the Baptist what we've talked about in the

beginning of Luke. He's the one who came to prepare

the way for the Lord. Herod Antipas is the one

who beheaded John the Baptist. And once he heard about

what Jesus was doing, because word got around when Jesus

is doing these amazing miracles, when Herod got worried about

what Jesus was doing, he thought maybe John had risen

from the dead, or maybe that they said, maybe it's

the prophet Elijah who's been raised. But either way, since

that time, he wanted to meet Jesus. Herod was like,

I want to get in front of this Jesus guy

and see what's going on. But Herod antipass actually wouldn't

meet Jesus until later on when he was arrested and

when pilots sent Jesus to him, and that's even then.

In Luke twenty three, it tells us when Herod saw Jesus,

he was greatly pleased because he had a because for

a long time he had been waiting to see him

from what he had heard about him. He hoped to

see him perform a sign of some sort. So Herod's like,

I want to see this Jesus guy do some crazy

tricks in front of me, So he was excited to

see him. But Jesus, when he was brought before Herod,

he didn't say or do anything, so they just made

fun of him and sent him back to the pilot

Jesus kept his mouth shut. So yes, it's possible that

Herod truly did want to kill Jesus. But based on

Herod's response to seeing Jesus and his curiosity about him

from before when he beheaded John, I'm wondering if the

Pharisees weren't just lying to get rid of him. It's

a lot to say in this first and at that

time some Pharisis came to Jesus and said to him

this whole first verse. It's a lot kind of to

talk about in that little short verse. But I'm not

convinced that they had pure motives in this. But Jesus'

response is baller, and we're gonna see that in the

next two verses. Let's look at verse thirty two and

thirty three. He replied, Go tell bad Fox. I will

keep on driving out demons and healing people today and tomorrow,

and on the third day, I'll reach my goal. In

any case, I must press on today and tomorrow and

the next day, for surely no prophet can die outside Jerusalem.

Go tell that Fox. You tell him, Jesus, You tell

that sly crafty man. You tell that immoral and murderous

man not to preach through what we've already preached through,

but the reason he beheaded John. If you guys remember

that he's an immoral and murderous man, you tell that Fox.

Can't stop, won't stop. That's what Jesus is saying here.

I'm not gonna stop. Or Andy Minio right, you can't

stop me. You should look that song up. It's great.

But even if this death threat is real, Jesus doesn't

fear death. He does not fear death. But why other

than being God, why does he not fear death? And

we read from this passage last week. It was John

ten when Jesus is talking about being the good shepherd, right,

he is the gait that the sheep come through. Right.

What do you say about him laying down his life?

You guys? Remember he said, no one takes it from me,

but I lay it down of my own accord. I

have the authority to lay it down and authority to

take it up again. That's some authority. That's the authority

that Jesus has. And in Matthew twenty six, when Jesus

is getting arrested, when Peter cut off that dude's ear,

you guys, remember that, Jesus says, do you think I

cannot call on my father? And he will at once

put at my disposal more than twelve legions of angels.

I forgot to look up how many people are in

a legion? The lot though twelve legion of angels. If

Jesus calls for that, the Father would gladly have sent

him twelve legions of angels. Jesus has the authority over

his own life. No one and takes it from him.

No one takes jesus life. He lays it down. And

if he's the one who willingly chooses to lay his

life down, and he has the authority over it, he

chooses when he lays it down. Jesus holds his own

life in his hands like we hold anything else. Guy's

got your cell phones somewhere nearby? Minds in my bag?

Look at that, Lindsay's holding her cell phone. Jesus holds

his own life like Lindsay holds her cell phone. She

chooses when to pick it up. She can put it

down when she wants. She chooses what she uses it for.

She wants to make a phone call, she wants to

listen to music, she wants to play solitaire. That might

be me. Only Jesus holds his own life in his

hands like we hold a cell phone. The only difference

is I could run up there and take Lindsay's ce phone. Obviously,

no one can take Jesus' life out of his own hands.

But he holds his own life and chooses when he

lays it down when he is willing to lay it down.

There is a plan that has been set in motion.

Jesus knows where he's going, and he knows what he's

going to do. He's already predicted or prophesied about his

death at least two times in the Book of Luke alone.

He's already said what he's going to do. He's told

the people, this is what I'm going to do. And

Hebrews twelve says it was for the joy set before him.

He endured the cross, scorning its shame and sat down

at the right hand of the throne, which we just

sang a song right talks about the joy set before him.

He endured the cross, that there was joy in his

determination to accomplish the goal. It's nothing that was going

to stop him. So Jesus is saying very clearly to

the people, I do not fear death. I don't fear

the threat of death. I am going to continue this mission.

Look at these verses again, thirty two and thirty three.

Go tell that fox. I will keep on driving out

demons and healing people today and tomorrow, and on the

third day will reach my goal. In any case, I

must press on today and tomorrow and the next day,

for surely no prophet can die outside Jerusalem. Jesus is

going to keep on delivering and healing the oppressed people. Remember,

it's not the healthy who need a doctor, who needs

a doctor, say aloud, the sick. The sick need a doctor.

Jesus didn't come to call the righteous, came to call

sinners to repentance. He came to deliver the oppressed through

his death and resurrection. He's still doing that now. He's

still doing it, even now, he is still calling sinners

to repentance. But Jesus tells these Pharisees and Herod if

he really was trying to kill Jesus, he's telling them

both it doesn't matter. I'm gonna keep doing these things today,

tomorrow and the third day, which is just a common

saying of the day. It's just saying that, day in

and day out, this is what I'm gonna do. Even

though I think there's some pretty cool like I think

about the three days, right Jesus in the two acted,

the month, third Day, some other cool connections there. But

Jesus saying I'm gonna keep doing what I've been doing

every single day. I can't stop. I won't stop. In

verse thirty three, it kind of shifts almost to where

he's saying like, well, don't worry. I'm like, I'm gonna

get You're gonna get what you want. I'm gonna keep

moving on, right, So Jesus almost like telling them you're

getting what you want. But then he says something super sarcastic,

and I kind of like it. So we're gonna read

verse the end of verse thirty three for surely no

prophet can die outside Jerusalem, Like, well, how is that

a sarcastic remark? It's what a terrible thing to be

known as as or known for as a city. It's

a terrible thing to be known for. I'd much rather

be known for cheering so a lot. I created an earthquake.

It's kind of a cool thing to be known for

as a city. But the history of Jerusalem, and more

specifically the Jews as a whole, their history was so

littered with the killing of the prophets. Jesus is like,

he's like overemphasizing the point, surely no one can die outside,

no prophet can that side of Jerusalem, because you kill

so many of them. Now, Obviously there were prophets who

died outside of Jerusalem, but this is a rebuke. This

is an indictment against the Jews, and Jesus continues this

indictment in the last section of our text for today.

So let's read verses thirty four and thirty five. Jerusalem, Jerusalem,

you who kill the prophets and stone those sent to you.

How often I've longed to gather your children together as

a hen gathers her chicks under her wings, and you

were not willing. Look, your house is left to you. Desolate.

I tell you you will not see me again until

you say, Blessed is he who comes in the name

of the Lord. Even though Jesus probably just said something

super sarcassic, you can see his tone change a little bit,

can't you? His tone changed. Jesus is broken hearted. He's

broken hearted over Jerusalem and their constant murdering and killing

of the prophets. He's full of sorrow over their rebellion,

over their stubbornnesses, the people of God, Jerusalem, Jerusalem. Is

your mom ever said her name twice in a row

means some different? That much she says it wants, doesn't it?

Greg greg My Mom's right here. Can just hear the

disappointment in that, Greg, Greg. It's thatad emphasis to show

intense emotion, to say someone's name twice. It's a very

regular thing in the language Jerusalem, Jerusalem. It's adding weight

to what Jesus is trying to communicate, this intense emotion

that he's feeling. They are the ones who would kill

the prophets that God sent to them. And I don't

know if you remember the parable of the talents. Excuse

me the tenants from Mark twelve. There's a man who

plants a vineyard and he rents it out to some tenants.

And when it came time to collect payment, he sent

servants to collect from the tenants. And what do they do.

They beat him and send them away. They didn't pay.

They just beat the servant and send them away. So

the owner keeps sending more and more servants to go collect,

but the tenants keep beating them, and they step it

up and even kill them. They kill the servants that

were sent to collect. So I want to look at

what happens next, and this is in Mark chapter twelve,

verses six through eight. He had one left to send

a son, whom he loved. He sent him last of all,

saying they will respect my son. But the tenants said

to one another, this is the heir, come, Let's kill

him and the inheritance will be ours. So they took

him and killed him and threw him out of the vineyard.

Do you guys understand what Jesus talking about here? And

I'm kind of connecting some dots. He's talking about God's

people continually rejecting him. They're rejecting and beating and killing

God's messengers, the ones God sent to him to them.

And when God finally sends his son, what did the

people do, Like, Well, we haven't gotten there yet. We're

in Luke still early. They're doing it to him right now.

They're rejecting Jesus right now, God's son. Not only that,

but they're going to as we keep finding out in Luke,

and if you've read through any of the gospels, they're

going to brutally beat him beyond recognition and kill him.

That's what they're going to do to the owner's son,

to God's son. God owns the vineyard and the people

continue to reject God, and they reject everyone that God sent,

even his own son. So Jerusalem is doing what Jerusalem does.

Surely no prophet dialside Jerusalem. That's what they do. They

kill prophets, they stone the ones that are sent to them.

And this parable ends with the judgment of the wicked tenants.

And it's the same end for all who continue to

reject the Lord Jesus as king. Their sin will remain

on them. It's not wiped away, washed away, or removed

from them. That weight of sin still rests on them.

They will be judged as one who is not forgiven.

They will need to pay the full debt of sin

that they owe. And this debt is eternal. Why because

God's eternal, The one that trespasses against is eternal. It's

an eternal weight, it's an eternal debt. So if you

consider that, doesn't it make sense why Jesus gets so

broken hearted over Jerusalem? Makes sense because God's own people

continue to reject God and the reason we like. And

Jesus is trying to make it really clear by the

illustration he uses. Look at those verses again, thirty four

and thirty five. You kill the prophets, and still in

those just any how often I have longed to gather

your children together as a hen gathers her chicks under

her wings, and you were not willing, You were not willing.

A hen gathers her chicks under her wings to protect them,

provide warmth, safety and security, so that they know they're hers,

so they have a place to belong, so they know

whose family they're a part of. Jesus has compassion on

the people, and he wants to give them all these

same things he wants to get. Jerusalem, how I've longed

to gather your children to me, to gather your children together.

Jesus felt this compassion. Do I feel the same compassion

for those who are still in the rebellion against God?

Does it break my heart to know that there are

those whose sin still rest on them? Do I feel

like Jesus did when he saw the crowds. It says

he had compassion on them because they were harassed and helpless,

like sheep without a shepherd? Is that how I feel

when I see lost people. We've been given a job

and it's about those lost people. And I think part

of that first step is us feeling the same way

Jesus feels when he sees them harassed, helpless like sheep

without a shepherd to feel this compassion, this broken heartedness

over their rebellion, and to go do something about it.

He wanted to gather them to him like a hen

gathers her chicks, but they hated him. John one to

eleven says, his own people reject him. That's what's happening

right now. His own people are rejecting him. And Paul

quotes Isaiah sixty five in Romans ten by saying, but

concerning Israel, he says, all day long, I've held out

my hands to a disobedient and obstinate people. That's what

God's doing, holding out his hands to a disobedient and

obstinate people, just stiff necked. Is the way the Bible

puts it. And this is what the people of God

God have done over and over again to a God

who loves them. And I hate to break it to you,

but we need to pull out our mirrors because we

do the same thing all the time, even as believers.

Sometimes we want to kind of push back and reject

against what God has clearly told us. So when you

pull out our mirror, like, where do I reject the Lord?

Reject his message, reject his word, reject his commands. Where

do I do that. I oftentimes find myself kind of

making fun of the people in the Bible. So they

totally didn't get it. There's no way I would have

got it either if I lived in that time. So

I just need to calm down a little bit. I

wouldn't have got it either. Why Because I know I'm

human and if God doesn't do something, I would have

continued to reject him. So thank God for your grace

that you have removed the scales from our eyes. Even

though Jesus wants to bless God's people, they continue to

reject him. They are unwilling. They reject God's plans, his messages,

his messengers, even his own son. They're king. But my

question is, does this mean that God's plans were stopped?

Does this mean that Jesus can't accomplish its mission because

they're so unwilling and they continue to reject. No, absolutely not.

Let's look at the verse again. Look at verse thirty five.

Look your house is left to you, desolate. I tell

you will not see me again until you say, blessed

is he who comes in the name of the Lord.

God's like, my plan's still gonna happen. There's nothing that's

gonna stop my plans. Jerusalem, your house is left to you.

Desolate is condemned, Your house is condemned, or I love

how the ESV translation puts it. Your house is forsaken, Jerusalem.

Your house will be left with no one in it?

What is the I mean back then, but I even

think still now? What is like a sign of great

blessing Having a big litter of kids run around the house, right,

complete litter because cats, right, children just running around screaming.

It's all chaos, but you got what arrows in your quiver? Right,

this is a sign of just general blessing. Is you

have a big family. Everyone's together. So what's Jesus literally

condemning them with desolate? Your house will be empty. He's saying,

I longed to gather the children together, Jerusalem, your children together.

You are unwilling. So this is these are some strong

words from Jesus to Jerusalem. Your house is forsaken, There

will be no one in it. You have no children

left if you remain in your unwillingness, in your stiff

necked rebellion. And then Jesus says, you won't see me

again until you say Blessed is he who comes in

the name of the Lord. Everyone will know that Jesus

is the Holy One of God. He will accomplish, accomplish

his mission. He will reach the goal at the name

of Jesus. Every knee will bow at the name of Jesus.

Every tongue will confess that Jesus Christ is Lord all

to the glory of God the Father. Every single knee,

every single tongue. Oh, he's gonna finish. He's gonna meet

his goal. He's gonna accomplish what he set out to do.

Everyone will say, blessed is he who comes in the

name of the Lord. If not when Jesus returns, then

at some point before, by his grace. And that made

me think of the centurion who watched Jesus take his

last breath in Mark fifteen, and he just said, surely

this man was the son of God. After he saw

what happened, his response was, surely this man was the

son of God. Every single person will know that Jesus

is Lord. So not even the rebellion of people, God's

own people can stop the plans that Jesus has set

out to accomplish. And this is what Paul was talking

about in Romans eleven, which is a fun chapter to

study all of Romans. It's great chapter eleven to really

study God's plan and human humans just doing what humans do.

It's amazing. But Roman's eleven that the people of Israel's

rejection brought reconciliation to the world. That the people of

God were the branches that were broken off. They're broken off.

Now the Gentiles receive the Gospel and they're grafted into

the vine. Thank you Jesus for anyone who's not Jewish

by blood. Were the Gentiles who got grafted in. That's amazing.

So God used the rebellion and the rejection of his

own people to bring in the Gentiles. But it doesn't

stop there, right, because his purpose in bringing the gentiles

was to do what make Israel jealous, to bring them

back and regraft them in. It's amazing. God had this

really cool plan of saving as many people as he wanted,

and the way he went about it was nuts, using

the rebellion of people and their own stiff neck rebellion

to cast them out, to bring in the gentiles, to

make them jealous to bring them back. It's just amazing.

God used their rebellion and their unwillingness for his plans

of redemption that went far beyond them. And I don't

know if this sounds familiar to you, but what you

meant for evil, God meant for good. What you meant

for evil, God meant for good. There's nothing that will

stop Jesus from accomplishing his mission. Like we said, there's

no amount of opposition that can stop him. The Pharisees,

the religious leaders, the sadducees, the haters, none of them.

No opposition can stop him. No amount of lies or

deceit you want, it's not going to stop Jesus. I'm

not telling you to lie. I'm saying them they were lying.

No death threats or even attempts on his life could

stop Jesus, and no unwilling or stubborn people can stop him.

He's going to reach his goal. He will make it

to Jerusalem. He will. I'm giving you spoilers here from

the Bible. He will make it to Jerusalem. He will

be crucified on the cross, and he will receive the

full wrath of God on sin. And he will do

all of that as a sinless and perfect sacrifice that

fully satisfies God's wrath on sin, and he will raise

to life, defeating death. And this gospel message is going

to go out, This gospel message of reconciliation and redemption

is going to go out to the ends of the earth,

so that you have heard that message here today. We're

not in Jerusalem, we're not in Galilee right here, and

the gospel message made it all the way to us.

So I need the band to come up to if

you guys are available. If you're available, please thank you.

And I feel like we've given sufficient evidence today for

me to convince you that you should have full assurance

that Jesus will accomplish whatever he sets out to do.

I feel like we have sufficient evidence. But if you're

still not convinced, I have three verses I want to

look at, and so we're gonna look at the first

one with Psalm in Psalm one fifteen, and this is

verse three says our God is in heaven, he does

whatever pleases him. Our God is in heaven, and he

does what whatever pleases him. What's the next verse? Psalm

thirty three? I think yeah, ten and eleven. The Lord

foils the plan of the nations. He thwarts the purposes

of the peoples. But the plans of the Lord stand

firm forever, the purposes of his heart through all generations,

and the last verses in Proverbs twenty one. In the

Lord's hand, the king's heart is a stream of water

that he channels towards all who please him. Our God

is in heaven, and he does as he pleases. Does

that say that there's something else that he needs in

order to do what he pleases. No, that's a statement

of fact. Our God is in heaven and he does

what he pleases. There are no plans that can thwart

the plans of God. In fact, it's very much the opposite.

We just read. That's his plans that thwart the plans

of men or of people. Nothing could stop his plans.

And even the king's heart or I put a note here,

even the president's heart, because that's what we call king

in our USA, And even the king's heart is a

stream of water in the Lord's hands that God directs

the king's heart. Does that imagery make sense. There's a

stream of water going straight, and the Lord's like, I

don't want it to go that way, and he moves

the stream. The king's heart is in the Lord's hands,

and he directs it. He directs it going back to

that first verse as he pleases. So if all of

that is true, which it is, then I have a

very important question. Do you believe that there's nothing that

can stop Jesus from accomplishing his mission? And as a

follow up question, do you trust him? Do you trust

and believe that he can't stop, that he won't stop.

You trust and believe that that he will finish the

work that he's started in you. Do you believe and

trust him? Do you believe that he will hold you

firmly until the end? Do you believe that? Do you

believe that he will break seven or eight tackles to

get the touchdown? If your life is a football, do

you trust the Lord? I'm gonna come on, Pete Carroll

trusted Marshaun Lynch to run it and get a touchdown,

so he gave him the ball. Do you trust your

life in the Lord's hands like that? Do you believe

that Jesus is going to hold your life in that

kind of way? It's silly example, I get it, but

I believe the truth. When God speaks, and if he

said that all who are in the Father's hands. No

one can snatch them away. I believe that no one

can take that football out of his hands. And if

you do believe that, then we should create an earthquake

with the amount of praise we give him for that.

There should be nothing that we cheer for more than that.

There is nothing that should spring up joy and satisfaction

and great graciousness and thankfulness in our hearts more than

that fact should lift up a voice of praise for

His goodness in our lives. And maybe this is why

God gave me that note for the beginning of service.

If you're like, there's nothing good in life to thank

him for now, number one, thank him for one more breath.

If you've got nothing else, thank him for the next

breath you took because you weren't promised that. But all

that aside, you need to look towards eternity. You need

to look at what your eternal destination is as one

who has put faith in Jesus Christ, and let that

bring you joy. Now it's undeserved forgiveness of our sins.

We didn't deserve it while we were still at enmity

with him, while we were shaking our fist in stubborn

stif necked rebellion against God. He chose to do something.

He chose to save us. He chose to save us

from the wrath of God on our sin in the

final judgment, the forever wreath of God. Like I don't know,

I mean, I just keep saying this because I don't know.

Maybe I feel like I'm not catching it. Maybe I'm

feeling like you're not catching it. Forever is a long time?

How long is life? Life already feels really long, doesn't it.

Life is nothing compared to eternity. What's really real? Then

I say this all the time. It just feels real

because I can touch it, I can smell it, I

can see it. But if life is this long compared

to eternity, eternity is forever never stops, and I get

to experience peace forever, I get to experience comfort and

joy forever, pleasures forever more. I'm obsessed with John Piper

at the moment, and he talks about this a lot.

The most pleasure and enjoy you can ever experience, forever,

pleasures forevermore, forever, like never ending. What's the happiest you've

ever been in your life? Not happy enough? More happy

than that? And never ending. That's the future we get

to look forward to. Man, I love Jesus that he

would do that for me. When I shook my fist

at him to lift up this voice of praise for

the goodness of God in our lives. It's amazing news.

This should bring incredible joy, inexpressible joy. And our joy

is not complete until it's been expressed. And you know

this to be true, and I'm gonna prove it to

you right now. The last awesome movie you saw when

you got out of the theater was the first thing

you thought, I gotta tell somebody about this movie. You don't.

Your joy is not complete until you've expressed it. You're like,

I just saw the most incredible movie and you to

go see it. I just had the best steak in

my life, and I need to tell you about it,

right or for my vegetarians, are the best bristles sprouts

I've ever had in my life. You gotta get these

Brussels sprouts. And if you love Brussels sprouts that much,

that ain't my bag, baby, You have to tell somebody

about it. That's what completes our joy. And if the

thing that should bring us the most joy in our

life is our salvation, our eternal receiving of God's grace

and his love and not experiencing his wrath for all eternity.

If that should bring us the most joy, we got

to tell somebody about it. We got to tell somebody

about this. We got to contemplate our own salvation more, contemplate, meditate,

just sit and think about it. Think about what God

has done for you when we didn't deserve it, and

let that grow your affections and your expression of gratitude,

let it grow. Express it. That's what completes our joy.

And that's going to look different for everybody. But the

point is the intensity of our feelings, the intensity of

our emotions should be growing. I mean, we were talking

about this this week somebody, I don't know if it

is Jordan or Duncan or whatever. We were talking about

this week. Like during worship, some of us throw our

hands up nice and eye. Some of us feel comfortable

sitting down. Some of us just we just worship God differently.

It's fine, worship the Lord how you want to. However,

the intensity of that feeling, that emotion should ever be growing.

We should feel more intense of our love for the Lord.

Do things like contemplate your own salvation, think about what

you've received in Christ Jesus, and let that grow. Your affections,

grow the intensity of your love for him. That's all

that means, to grow your affections, grow your love for

the Lord, remembering what he's done. So knowing that Jesus

finishes his missions every time, he will always finish the job.

Trust him that he who trust in, that he who

began a good work in you, will bring it to completion. Amen.

And I have one last challenge for us today, the

definition of Christian. Well, does anybody know what the definition

of Christian is? It's I mean people like I'm afraid

to say the wrong answer. That's okay, I won't make

fun of you. It's to be christ Like. So Christian

means be christ like. So it means the word, the

definition of it. And a huge part of us being

Christians and being followers of Christ is that we are

imitators of him. That we imitate Christ. We do what

he did and what did he model. He modeled steadfast,

unwavering resolve to a complish his mission. So I think

we should be driven in the exact same way. That's

the kind of drive we should have when we are

trying to accomplish the mission. There's no amount of opposition,

there's no amount of lies and deceit, there's no amount

of death threats, there's no amount of unwillingness in other people.

There's no amount of persecution that should stop us, that

would hinder us or prevent us from accomplishing the mission

or task that God gave us. Nothing at all say

this way. We should let nothing stop us from loving

Him with everything we have. Love the Lord, your God

with all your heart, soul, mind, and strength, and loving

him more than anything or anyone else. He's over it all.

We should let nothing stop us from loving our neighbors

as ourself. Nothing let nothing stop you from loving your

neighbor as yourself. That we live and breathe obedience to

all that God commanded, we desire to walk in alignment

what He command with what He commanded us to do.

That nothing would stop us from telling the world the

good news of Jesus. Nothing would stop us the gospel

message that brings life and eternal peace, eternal peace with

God the Creator. Let nothing stop us from making disciples

to teach people to obey all that Jesus had commanded.

And we teach them by our imitation of Jesus. So

us imitating Jesus, by inviting others to join us on

this journey, and by instructing with God's word. And for

those who are curious, I just went through our mission.

And our mission comes from two places in the Bible,

the greatest commandment and the greatest commission. The greatest commandment

is love the Lord your God with all your heart, soul, mind,

and strength, and to love your neighbor as yourself. And

the great commission right gone to all the earth, baptizing

them the Father's on the Holy Spirit, and teach him

to bay all I've commanded you. That's where our mission

comes from. Let nothing stop you from accomplishing that mission,

because Jesus gave it to us. And if we model

what he modeled, which is there's nothing that's going to

stop me from creating an earthquake through the praise of

me accomplishing this mission, then we should be driven with

that same kind of drive. And I have one more

slide to show here. I like wrestled over. You can

put it up there. I just wrestle over how I

wanted to say it, But no matter the circumstances, Jesus

always finishes his mission. He can't stop. He won't stop.

So this is what I want us to do. It's

the clearest way I can put it. I want us

to trust he will finish his mission in you, that

he who began a good work will bring it to completion.

Trust he will finish his mission in you. And then

I want you to praise him as he does. So

let your joy be complete by expressing that praise to others.

Tell the whole world what Jesus Christ has done for you.

And if you're nervous, just grabb him by the hand

and bring him a church on Sunday. We'll tell him

and grow in your confidence to let your praise. Let

your joy be complete by praising him out loud to others.

And the last one is imitate his drive to accomplish

the mission he gave you. And a lot of us

get kind of like twisted about the he gave you part.

He gave us all the same mission. We all have

a different context, same mission. Just do it. People want

this burning bush experience right where God spoke to Moses

out of the burning bush, Well, God, where do you

want me to live? What school do you want me

to go to? Who do you mean to marry? Like,

tell me all these specifics of the life. And sometimes

he's in heaven saying, I don't care, just give me

glory while you do it. He his clear commands of the

scriptures will follow them. But he gave us a mission,

and we know what it is. It's the greatest commandment

and the great commission. Start there. So trust he will

finish his mission in you. Praise him as he does so,

and imitate his drive to accomplish the mission he gave you. Amen.

Can you please stand on your feet