This is Your Day

Luke chapter 19, Luke chapter 19, as we continue our study in the Gospel of Luke, we've now come to the final seven days of Jesus's life before his crucifixion and the passage we deal with this morning deals with a triumphal entry or what is commonly known as Palm Sunday. So let's read verses 28, that's Luke 19 verses 28 through 44. Luke chapter 19, 28 through 44. When he had thus said he went on ahead going up to Jerusalem and it came to pass when he drew near to Bethpage and Bethany at the mountain called Olivet that he sent two of his disciples saying go into the village opposite you where as you enter you will find a colt tied on which no one has ever sat loose and bring it here and if anyone asks you why are you loosing it thus you shall say to him because the Lord has need of it. So those who were sent went their way and found it just as he had said to them but as they were loosing the colt the owners of it said to them why are you loosing the colt and they said the Lord has need of him then they brought him to Jesus and they threw their own clothes on the colt and they said Jesus on him and as he went many spread their clothes on the road then as he was now drawing near 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 saying blessed is the king who comes in the name of the Lord peace in heaven and glory in the highest and some of the Pharisees called to him from the crowd teacher rebuke your disciples but he answered and said to them I tell you that if these should keep silent the stones would immediately cry out now as they drew near he saw the city and wept over it saying if you had known even you especially in this your day the things that make for your peace but now they are hidden from your eyes for days will come upon you when your enemies will build an embankment around you surround you and close you in on every side and level you and your children within you to the ground and they will not leave in you one stone upon another because you did not know the time of your visitation Jesus is now coming into Jerusalem to fulfill the requirement that a sacrificial lamb for the Passover had to be examined for a period of seven days so if you were to bring an animal to sacrifice it would have to be examined by the priest to make sure that it was without blemish remember the law is very specific that you could not present to the Lord a sacrifice that is that is blemished in any way that's crippled or blind or sick now the possibility with an animal of course is that it may have some I guess what today we would call a latent defect so it has some kind of sickness that is not evident at first view and so you leave it for a few days and then you see how things develop I guess we have quarantine for animals today for the same sort of reason and so the priest would then at the end of that time declare the animal to be healthy and the animal would then be able to be sacrificed now we'll see next week the money changes in the temple and they're selling sacrifices in the temple so if you were coming from a far away the easiest way would be to to just buy a certified animal and this is what they were doing they were selling these animals they were not necessarily without blemish they were not necessarily what they were supposed to be but the priests that signed off on them and obviously the priests were getting their their cut off the sale of these certified animals animals that they declared were were good but Jesus is now coming and he's going to spend the next seven days in Jerusalem so that he may be examined as to the fact that he is perfect and that he is without blame and so the next several chapters in the book of Luke we're going to see his time in Jerusalem how that he is living very much in the public eye he is being examined by the Pharisees and the scribes so that at the end of the day while they would not find him blameless because they had preconceived ideas as to who he was in the eyes of God and in the eyes of the law that he would have been he would have been blameless so he now comes into Jerusalem from from Jericho and so when he had said this verse 28 he went on ahead going up to Jerusalem so he is going ahead the crowd is following and obviously there is a quite a large crowd that are following Jesus and it came to pass when he drew near to Bethpage and Bethany at the Mount called Olivet that he sent two of his disciples now Bethany and Bethpage are two little villages on the outskirts of Jerusalem very very close and in fact Bethany is probably the place that he would be living for these seven days and so he would commute into the city not a long walk maybe an hour at most and he would go back and he was it seems be staying with Martha and Mary and Lazarus whom he had raised from the dead they lived in Bethany and so he is going past these two area these two little towns and he is about to to enter in Jerusalem and he passes by the Mount of Olives Mount Olivet the Mount of Olives and of course the Mount of Olives is very significant and it's significant that Luke mentions the Mount of Olives in this context why doesn't he just say well he passed by Bethany and Bethpage and he is on his way to Jerusalem why does he say well he passes by Bethany and Bethpage and the Mount of Olives because the Mount of Olives was a prophetic statement I remember that Jesus would ascend after 40 days after the crucifixion and the resurrection and then 40 days and he would ascend from the Mount of Olives and then he will come again and when he comes again he's going to come to the Mount of Olives he's going to land if you will on the Mount of Olives when he comes again so not the Mount of Olives is very very significant and what Luke is saying is that this is now one of the one of the highlights if you will one of the the peaks in the ministry of the Lord Jesus so you you have the the crucifixion so he's getting ready for the crucifixion you have the ascension and you have the return all of these at the Mount of Olives so he sends in two disciples into the village and he says go into the village opposite you so either Bethany or Bethpage we're not sure which one go into the village opposite where as you enter you will find a cult tide which no one has ever set loose it and bring it here and so Jesus is speaking by the revelation of the Holy Spirit because he is God for the Father has revealed this to him he can see it very clearly that as they go in there's going to be this this donkey and it's tied just right in the beginning of the town just as you get into the town and they are to loose the donkey and there are to bring it to him of course a cult is a young donkey and so this one is very specific that no one had ever sat on it so in our language it had never been broken in so you can understand that this is very it's impossible humanly speaking just to climb on a donkey that had not been ridden before that probably not even had a saddle of any kind on it before it needs to be it needs to be trained to be able to accept a burden and so loose it and bring it here and if anyone asks you why are you losing it so Jesus even knows that someone's going to ask this question why are you losing it thus you shall say to them because the Lord has need of it the Lord has need of it now there are a few things I want to say about that the first is does the Lord need anything and of course the answer is he doesn't really need anything he doesn't need anyone but he wants to use people that Jesus could Jesus not have walked into Jerusalem of course he could have he's been walking for all of these years 33 years he's walked wherever he's gone there's no record of him ever riding on a donkey or anything else before his mode of transport was to walk he's a few miles from the city he can easily walk here's his from a human perspective he is not old he is in the prime of his youth he's 33 years old he's fit he's strong he can walk but obviously God has another plan and I believe that this tells us an important story it tells us that God uses weak things remember Paul speaks about this that God doesn't use the powerful and the mighty but he uses the weak the things that are not to bring to nothing the things that are that is God's purpose and so he uses this donkey he needs this donkey and because it's part of God's plan and we'll see what God's plan is in a moment and so God needs us in a sense now we want to be careful because there are those who teach a doctrine that God really is dependent on us God is not dependent on us and in fact one of the points we're going to see in this lesson this morning is that God is not dependent on anyone God does not need anyone but he wants to use us and he wants to use us for our blessing now the donkey obviously doesn't communicate but but can you imagine when this donkey gets old and it's it's sitting on the on the porch with its grandchildren and what what would be its story oh the Lord Jesus rode on me um this this donkey and even if the donkey would never speak uh and I'm going to speak about the donkey that spoke but the the this donkey never spoke but those who owned it um I think the donkey became pretty famous because this was the donkey that Jesus rode on what a blessing for the poor donkey um and and God uses donkeys um you remember the donkey that spoke to the prophet when the prophet and here's one of the principles we're going to see in this passage is that when when those that God chooses to use first don't do what they should be doing God has alternatives and God wanted to speak through the prophet Balaam but he would not speak for God so God uses the donkey to speak to the prophet so so nobody is dispensable Balaam could have said well I'm I'm the prophet around here um God has to use me and I'm going to go and do this thing that I have in my own mind to do never mind what God wants to do God says no I I don't I'm not dependent on you and if you will not speak the truth then the donkey will speak the truth and we see that later on Jesus speaks about the fact that if they will not cry out the stones will cry out so so God let's never get a uh a big head and say well God needs me if I'm not in this church then the church is going to fall apart or uh you know if I don't do this thing then it's not going to get done no God will find someone else to do it even if he has to find a donkey to do it the problem the difference the only issue is that you're going to lose out on the blessing and the poor donkey is going to get the blessing as in the case of of Balaam and so and so God will do his will God's will will be done the question is just who will fit in with God who will be available to him to be used by him that his will and his purpose may be fulfilled and obviously in that is a tremendous blessing so so the Lord has need of him and and the Lord has need of us in that sense he he wants to use us the question is simply am I going to be available to be used by him or do I have my own plans my own agenda like Nathan the Balaam the prophet who who had his own idea he was driven by money uh he was not driven by a desire to do the will of God the Lord needs us the Lord wants to use us but the question is will we be available he will use us to the extent that we make ourselves available to him if we only make ourselves available a little then he will only use us a little if we make ourselves totally surrendered and submitted to him he will use us 100 percent it's up to us God says I want to use you I have need of you and I believe that applies to everyone if the Lord needed the donkey if the Lord wanted to use the donkey then he wants to use every one of us here the question is simply am I willing to be surrendered am I willing to be used by him now the other question of course is why does the Lord need to have the donkey why couldn't he just walk because there is a prophetic statement and I'm going to look at the prophet in a in a few verses time there is a prophetic statement that needs to be fulfilled but I want you to think a little about what's going on here Jesus up to now had tried to be as discrete as possible remember many times he says don't don't go and tell anyone he heals them he says don't don't go and tell anyone Jesus is operating in Galilee in the back side of the country in the in the rural area where he's not in Jerusalem he goes to Jerusalem for the feasts but then he retreats again to the to the areas where where things are not really going on with it where the news media isn't and where the the learned people are not he's amongst the rural folk and he's living a life of semi-obscurity but now he's coming into Jerusalem and he's coming with fanfare for for the first time in Jesus's whole life he is now making a a show of coming of Jesus never made a show of anything he just did things very quietly and and obviously while his fame spread and people followed him he he never sought for publicity but here is something different and I want you to think about that as we as we move on so verse 32 so those who were sent went their way and found it just as he said to them for the word of God is true and if we will just go and do what he tells us to do we will find it is just as he said the the problem is we want to be armchair critics and we say well you know I don't think that this is true in the bible I don't think this is this is can happen this way well you'll never know until you do what he tells you to do now can you can you imagine these disciples if they had unbelief um that and he sends them and he says go into the town and there's going to be a a young donkey no one has ever ridden on the on the thing it's tied up the owners are going to ask you uh what do you want to what you're doing why you're undoing the donkey and you're going to say the master has use of it and they're going to let you take the donkey I mean what what an unlikely scenario and and how many things need to fit together in terms of chance to happen exactly the way it is and so they could easily say well that's that's a long story that's that's just that's just not going to happen but they trust him and we spoke about this at great length on thursday trust and obey faith results in obedience so they believed him and because they believed him they did what he told them to do and they saw the results and folk many times we don't see the results we don't see the fulfilling of god's word because we don't obey and we don't do what he says we say well lord first show me then i'll obey no he says you obey first and then i'll show you it's always that way first do and then you will see because otherwise it's not faith if we say well lord you know you you you need to show me your whole plan and then you know i need to see things happening and then i'll follow no the lord says i'm telling you do this and as we do it we see the fulfillment of his will in our lives and many christians miss out on god's best in their lives because they're simply not willing to step out in faith now i'm not talking about stupid faith where people say well you know i need to do something uh unrealistic in a sense um many people uh say well you know i've been called to the ministry because mainly because i lost my job and so you know i'm going to go into the ministry so now i'll sell everything and i'm going to buy a trailer or a or an rv and i'm going to tour the country i'm going to preach in all the churches all over well you've never preached a sermon in your life um so how's this oh no i i have faith no that's that's stupid um god's god is not foolish while at the same time miracles are real miracles and they are the uh the unexpected at the same time god works within the confines of um of possibility in that sense that now that doesn't remove the miracle the this donkey could it carry the weight of a man well clearly it could um what was it ready to be written yeah it was ready to be written but it was still untamed it was not broken it was not uh it had never done this before and in that lies the miracle the whole the whole process going there finding the donkey it was nothing strange about a donkey tied up um they were in every village um it wasn't you know these were ordinary things but the way jesus puts them together is what makes the miracle and god uses ordinary things in our lives sometimes we're looking for the supernatural and we're looking for a voice from heaven or thunder and lightning or something but but god uses ordinary things but the way he arranges them is the miracle the fact that certain things fit together in a supernatural way uh which we which is far beyond just chance that is what makes it a miracle so they found it just as he said to them and if we trust god and if we obey his word we will find just as he tells us if he tells us to order our families in a particular way you will find that it works as he says when he tells you to deal in your relationship with your boss in a particular way you'll find it just as he says when he speaks about your relationship in the context of marriage you will find it just as he says he doesn't he doesn't speak for the sake of speaking he doesn't speak and it's you know there's a you know 50 50 chance that it's going to it's going to happen no when god speaks it is truth and it works the way he says and as we obey him we will find it to be true and so verse 33 but as they were losing the cult the owners interesting it says owners uh so maybe it was a husband and wife don't know um the owners of it said to them why are you losing the cult exactly as jesus said and they said the lord has need of him just as jesus said then they brought him to jesus the the cult and they threw their own clothes on the cult and they set jesus on him now this obviously fulfills the scripture in zechariah chapter 9 verse 9 which says rejoice greatly o daughter of zion shout o daughter of jerusalem behold your king is coming to you he is just and having salvation lowly and riding on a donkey a cult the foal of a donkey so this is fulfilled in exact detail as jesus rides in now now i know skeptics will say well jesus knew this prophecy and so he now finds a donkey to ride on so that he can fulfill the prophecy but remember that that jesus did not see the donkey jesus didn't go and find a donkey he knew where the donkey was he sends the disciples to the exact place and in exact circumstances and so this fulfills this scripture now when we when we speak about riding on a donkey uh to us that doesn't seem to be a big deal we we're inclined to horses particularly here in shadow hills people ride horses all the time horses are majestic animals burros are well quite despised they they're really nothing no big deal but remember that up to david's time kings rode on donkeys kings rode on donkeys up to david's time but when solomon came it changed and kings began to ride on horses so what does jesus do why does jesus not get a horse because there are horses in israel the romans certainly have have cavalry they have they have horsemen who ride and fight from horses and there are other horses why doesn't he get a horse because there is a prophetic significance to this he is he's saying i'm a king not after solomon and the other kings but i am the fulfillment of david the one who would sit in david's throne the one who would fulfill the prophecies concerning david so he is aligning by taking a donkey he is aligning himself with david rather than with the other kings but there is another point that he is making and that is that and you'll see that zachariah says that he is lowly and riding on a donkey a colt the foal of a donkey so times have changed and so at this time kings rode on horses kings rode on horses and he is coming as the king remember this is what i what zachariah says rejoice greatly daughters behold your king is coming to you and the crowd say he is the king so he's coming as the king so why is he not riding on a horse because his time has not yet come he is coming humbly to die not to rule when he comes again the book of revelation says he will ride on a white horse when he comes again he's not going to ride on a donkey again he's going to ride on a white horse and he's coming to conquer and on his thigh is a name written king of kings and lord of lords and so the fact that he's coming on a donkey he fulfills the he is saying i am a king after david not after the other kings he is saying this is my time of humiliation i'm not coming as a king as a roman ruler or as another king i'm coming as a servant to die on the cross but when i come again i'm going to come on that white horse and i'm going to rule and i'm going to reign so now the question then is why does he come with spectacle why does he come with fanfare because as he went many spread their clothes on the road and we know the other gospel writers speak about the palm branches and of course that has significance but luke is sticking to certain basics because he wants us to not get too lost in the details because there are there's an important point that is being made and then as he now drew near 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 they had seen so so here's yet here's quite the spectacle jesus is leading remember it says that he goes before them he's riding on a donkey uh he their clothes are used as a saddle uh they have clothes all over the street that the clouds the crowds are are cheering and they're shouting and they're they're rejoicing and praising god for everything that jesus had done and then they're making some prophetic statements blessed is the king who comes in the name of the lord blessed is the king that comes this is a statement that declares the messiah now remember jesus said that you will that there will be another time when they will say blessed is he who comes in the name of the lord and that will be at his second coming when israel recognizes him as their king formally so this is a prophetic statement we recognize he is our king not after the roman kinds of kings not after herod that we spoke about last week but he is the true king of israel he is the messiah and then peace in heaven and glory in the highest where did we hear that at his birth this is what the angel said uh peace in heaven and glory in the highest and so they're tying his birth or lucas tying his birth with his death we're going to see next week the same connection jesus cleanses the temple at the beginning of his ministry and at the end of his ministry so these are bookends to jesus's ministry this statement is a statement at the close of his ministry which was a statement at his birth and so you can see the the pattern so so why is jesus making this uh doing this performance thing um clearly it's it's something that the against uh modern preachers who like to make a show of things and like to be seen um and like the drama and all of the the fanfare that is just not biblical uh the prophets the apostles the disciples they ministered in quietness and in obscurity they never sought the limelight but clearly jesus is now seeking the limelight so why is he doing this because it's part of the plan and the plan is for him to be crucified in seven days now remember when he is crucified why do the jews and remember there were two main parties involved the jews and the romans why do the jews want him crucified because they see him as a threat to the peace in israel remember that that that the high priest said it's better that one man die for the nation in other words if we let jesus live we're going to have a riot and then the romans are going to come and beat us up and we're going to have serious trouble remember we spoke about archulas last week who killed three thousand jews in the in the temple this was in these people's lifetime they said we don't want this to happen again jesus is a threat so we better get him out of the way and hand him over to the romans why did the romans kill him because pilots saw jesus as a threat are you the king remember herod when jesus was born when he heard that there was a king born he had the babies killed so another king is a threat to the peace both for the jews and to the romans and what jesus is doing in a sense is provocative he is saying i'm the king and that would force them to crucify him if you understand what i mean by because because this is this is god remember at the end of the day we we argue we say well was it the jews was it the romans no it was god's will for him to die that he might die in our place and god is setting the stage for jesus's death that we might be saved that we might be saved and so so they they bringing him in and and he is he is making a public statement here i am i'm coming i'm not hiding anymore i'm not preaching in the backwoods anymore i'm here and i've come to fulfill the will of god and to die on that cross verse 39 and some of the pharisees called to him from the crowd teacher rebuke your disciples now i don't know why they said this it may be because they were afraid of exactly what i was saying they were afraid that the romans if they saw this uh this demonstration if you will um this um a protest in a sense because it was a protest in a sense because the jews uh wanted another king other than caesar um that the romans would come in and beat them up um and they would many would die that may have been part of the problem part of the problem would have been that jesus was the center of attention now and they were not uh whatever it was that they want jesus to quieten the crowd but he answered and said to them i tell you that if these should keep silent the stones will immediately cry out you see we spoke earlier about the fact that god's will will be done and if you will not do his will he will find someone else to do it and this is what jesus is saying he's saying first of all who should have been singing his praises the pharisees they knew the scriptures they knew that jesus had come and had fulfilled all of the scriptures they knew he was the messiah they just didn't want to know they should have been in the front row they should have been in the choir they should have been singing the praises they should have been heralding jesus in but they failed and so god now uses the ordinary people the lay people and they declare his praises and they say well keep them quiet he says if they won't then the stones will so so god will find someone to do his will the only thing we can pray for is that we are the ones that are being used but i want you to see also the comparison to the passages we've been looking at recently and remember the blind man that jesus healed he saw what the scribes and the pharisees could not see jesus son of david the stones jesus is saying have more sense than you learned people now i mean think of that about that what what sort of what iq does a stone have absolutely zero in in in the economy of things you have the mineral kingdom right at the bottom you have the vegetable kingdom and you have the animal kingdom and and and vegetables have seem to have some kind of sense they wilt when it's when it's hot and they flourish when there's enough water they but but rocks they just lie there they have no sense at all but he says god can even use the rocks god can even use the rocks if we fail to do his will now that's a that's a powerful statement because you know many christians are are not being used by god they're not doing what god wants them to do and others are holding god at ransom and saying well god you know you you i'm i'm your man i'm all you got no you're not all he's got i'm not all he's got he's got many others and even if he has to use a donkey he will use a donkey to speak and if he has to use the stones he will use the stones now we get into the next section um and i want to deal with this because it's connected to the triumphal entry as they drew near so they're now getting closer into jerusalem he saw the city and he wept over it so in the previous verses we see that he's coming down the hill uh next to the mount of olives and the and the city then disappears from your sight according to those i've never been there but according to those who've been there and then you come out the other side of the little dip and you begin to see the city in all of its glory a magnificent city um huge huge walls massive walls built on on stone some of those stones 30 feet long um some of those stones are still visible you can still go down into the foundations of the walls of the city one of the most beautiful cities that the world has has ever seen and as jesus comes up and he sees the city in front of him he wept over it he wept over it and of course it's not over the architecture but it's over the people that the city represents remember jerusalem is not anything special as far as the city goes it represents the people of god represents israel the same way as washington represents america and london represents the united kingdom and so he he sees the city and he weeps the word here is a different word to the one you find in the shortest verse you remember the shortest verses that at lazarus's grave as jesus sees the unbelief and it says jesus wept the what we don't see in the english is that there are two very different greek words when jesus wept at lazarus's graveside it was a silent weeping it was an inward weeping and in fact another part of the text says that he groaned within himself and so there there is a and and both of these words appear in different parts of the gospels and so there is a there is a weeping which is which is internal there may be some tears but but it is it is it is largely silent but the word here literally is wailing if you understand that term this is a loud crying out you find the same word there'll be weeping and wailing and gnashing of teeth in hell and so he is he is he is he is not just he is not just discouraged he's not just despondent he is not just within himself sad but he is crying out in a public way in a loud way over jerusalem he is he is so moved by what he sees and what is it that he sees he sees a city in ruin a city in ruin and folk i i wonder what he sees when he looks at the church today i wonder what he sees when he looks at our church today and i'm not making any statements to what he sees but i wonder what what does he see when he looks at your life today folk there are there are people that i have ministered to in my lifetime that i weep over because they have come to ruin or they're heading to ruin and yes jerusalem is there in all of its spectacular beauty and glory and the temple is there and and the temple is magnificent on the top of this of this platform where the the mosque of of omar is now but it's not about those things jesus sees beyond the magnificence of the city and he sees the destruction and folk as he looks at the church in america today i believe jesus is weeping because he sees the destruction on its way not far off i wonder what he sees about our church and if jesus came in the doors and of course we know he's here but if he was physically on the earth today and he came to to our church he came in by the gates what would his reaction be would it be rejoicing and joy would it be weeping as he comes to your life this morning what is he seeing reason for rejoicing or reason for despair he wept over it saying if you had known even you especially in this your day now those who are with us in the book of hebrews will remember the emphasis on today while it is yet today here's exactly the same idea this is your day what day the day of their salvation the day of their salvation the day that the messiah came to israel and and and this was the in in all of the long history of israel up to then in the 2000 years since then there has never been a day like that day when jesus came as the savior of israel and of the world if you had known if you had understood the other gospels say that he also spoke about the fact that the prophets had come and yet they took those prophets and they killed them and so had you known the things that make for your peace if you just understood what you really needed jesus is saying because these guys want peace and they think they that peace means to get rid of the romans to have a king a legitimate king from the house of david on the that's what they think they need but in fact what they need is a savior and so what christians in the world and particularly christians in america today think they need is they need a savior in the white house we don't need a savior in the white house we need jesus this has got nothing to do with politics this has to do with where is our confidence what is it that we're looking for and they were looking for the wrong thing and i believe that the majority of christians in america today are looking for the wrong thing they're not looking for jesus they want something else and these people wanted israel to be great again and that wasn't where it's at it was about the salvation of their souls which is far greater and far more important than anything else and of course he speaks about the things that make for your peace and of course israel would would suffer for many for hundreds of years still the church would suffer for another 250 years from then until until constantine would really mess things up but there would be peace in the hearts now folk we're looking for political peace and i think most of us are sick and tired of the fighting between democrats and republicans we're tired of the left and the right fighting we want peace but there won't be peace but we can have peace in our hearts that's where the peace is if we put jesus as the king of our lives and so the things that make for your peace he says you don't understand where the peace is at the peace is not about who is ruling over jerusalem the peace is who's ruling in your hearts but now they are hidden from your eyes remember there wasn't a it was a few days before this that jesus opened the eyes of the blind man while the pharisees stood there and they could not see they did not understand and folk i wonder today how many christians really understand what's going on in the world really understand where where things are really at really understand the context of scripture and where we fit into things as christians as the church and when i listen to preachers and when i look at christians i have to come to the conclusion that many things are hidden from the eyes of of those who claim to be believers they don't have a clue what's going on they don't have a clue as to what's what's happening to the church the church is falling apart literally i'm not saying the church will fail because jesus said the church will not the true church will not fail but the visible church is in a mess and yet everybody's speaking about revival but there is no survey there is no study that shows that there is a revival there's a there's a decline in fact i just read this last week that the that the average church in the last few years and so i'm sorry i didn't bring the the numbers but in the last few years the the average size or the median size of a church in america has dropped from over 100 to about 60 in five or so years and i i need to check my numbers but i think it's in the last five years folks that is that is dramatic small churches are closing down one after the other churches that used to be 150 200 people are now 15 20 30 people you say oh well you know the the numbers are still good yeah the numbers in the mega churches are good and i'm not going to go there but these things are hidden people don't understand what's going on what's happening for the days will come upon you when your enemies will build an embankment around you surround you and close you in on every side jesus speaking to israel and specifically of jerusalem and level you and your children within you to the ground and they will not leave in you one stone upon the other because you did not know the time of your visitation that time would be 35 years 36 years from this moment when rome would come titus would come with his armies and level jerusalem jerusalem rebelled against rome rome had had enough of their nonsense and sent in the armies and they literally leveled the stones are still there today if you go on google earth or google maps and you have a look and tour the city which is a wonderful exercise to do look at the mount of others look at these but you'll see all around the city are piles heaps of huge rocks that have been broken down the only thing that is left is the western wall or what we call the waiting wall where you see the jews go and pray and they put their prayers in the cracks of the wall that is the foundation of the actual wall that's not the wall itself that's the foundation and on top of that is the platform where the mosque is that's where the temple used to be it's all gone it's it was so serious the destruction was so complete that titus the the famous roman warrior who destroyed the city and carried with him the the stuff from the temple and there's a there's a freeze that you can see a carving in a wall of them carrying the the menorah the lamp stand and carrying the other furniture and the other items from the from the from the temple away to rome the destruction was so complete that titus wept over it such a glorious city raised to the ground nothing of it left again jesus is giving them and he's saying you've got you've got time today is the day of salvation because you did not know the time of your visitation the time that god met with you and folk god meets with us and god may be this may be your time of visitation this morning or whenever you're watching the video maybe your time of visitation that god is meeting and speaking to you but if you don't recognize and say this is today is the day of salvation today if you will hear his voice harden not your hearts as in the provocation but if we don't recognize and understand we say well mañana tomorrow some other day god will speak again but today is the day of salvation because you don't recognize this is the one he's saying to israel and saying to us this is the one shot you have this is the one time the messiah will come into jerusalem and i'm not suggesting that they should have made him the king and put him on the throne of course that wasn't god's plan but they were to accept him as their messiah and as their savior because you did not know the time you did not know the time folk we live in desperate times jesus is coming soon the church is falling apart the immorality in the world has come into the church wholesale there's sin and evil and wickedness on every hand do we understand the time do we understand the time now it is high time that we be saved folk we don't have i don't believe we have 35 years like they had or 36 years like they had we don't have that much and it's time for us to wake up it's time for us to understand the time of our visitation it's time for us to understand this is the one shot we have there is nothing beyond this other than judgment when jesus comes father we pray that you'd help us understand lord these are difficult things to accept and to understand lord because everything seems to be great and lord jerusalem looked beautiful and it was filled with thousands and thousands of worshipers on that time who had come to the feast and there was celebration and there was jesus was being brought in and it was great rejoicing and everybody was rejoicing and seeing friends and family that they hadn't seen since the last feast there seemed to be no cloud on the horizon and yet it was there and this fate was sealed lord i pray that you would help us to understand the day of our visitation individually and as a church lord that we may understand that today is the day we don't have tomorrow lord that we may elevate you to your proper place in our hearts and in our lives lord that as the like the donkey just made himself available and submitted surrendered to the weight of the lord jesus being placed upon him lord i pray that we would just be those who make ourselves available to you that you might use us in whatever small way you choose whatever big way you choose to use us but lord we don't want to be passed over we don't want to be like the pharisees who've missed the point and lord we don't want to hear the stones right cry out and worshiping you because we have failed and so lord i pray that you'd help us to understand the the enormity of this moment the enormity of this passage and lord that we may understand that it speaks to us forgive us lord for just looking at israel and saying well it's israel and they failed and they messed up and they didn't make it but lord we are living in in similar times we are living in momentous times we're living at the cusp of change in the world and we're living near your coming and so lord help us to understand and help us lord to be those who who know our king and who receive him not just as our king but as our master and as our lord and as our savior and so lord we pray help us understand help us live these things we pray in jesus name i pray that you'd go with us now lord keep us protect us and bring us together again safely on sunday we pray in jesus name amen do