The Visitation - Part B

Here's the principle. God is not seeking for ecstatic worshipers or frantic worshipers or frenetic worshipers, but authentic worshipers. What kind of worshiper are you? Today on Connect with Skip Heitzig, Pastor Skip examines scripture to show you that God is really looking for authentic worship. We're glad you've joined us today. Connect with Skip Heitzig is here to connect listeners like you to God's unchanging truth and bring more people into His family. That's why we make teachings like this one today available to you and so many others on air and online.

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That's connectwithskip.com slash donate. Thank you. Okay, now let's go to Luke 19 and hear what Skip has for us today. Notice in verse 39 there are some others who aren't into celebration but consternation. Verse 39, some of the Pharisees called to Him from the crowd, Teacher, rebuke your disciples, they shouted. But He answered and said to them, I tell you that if these should keep silent, the stones would immediately cry out. Now why do you think the Pharisees were shouting that the disciples should be quiet? It's because they knew what this overture of sitting on the donkey was all about. They knew Zechariah chapter 9 verse 9. They knew the prediction of the Messiah coming on a donkey. They knew Psalm 118, the Hosanna Psalm. And they know that this crowd thinks that man on the donkey is the Messiah, which he was. But they didn't. So they said, tell them to be quiet. Which brings up something else. One of the reasons that Jesus presents Himself in the manner in which He does at this time this overture, this overt demonstration that He is their Messiah, their King, is to force the Jewish leaders to act. To force them to have some response.

And here's why. We're told in Matthew 26 that the Jewish leaders wanted to arrest Jesus, but they wanted to wait until after the Passover. Once the Passover's done, once the crowds leave, things die down around here, then we'll arrest Him, lay hold of Him, try Him, and get rid of Him. But let's wait until after the Passover.

But that was not God's plan. God's plan is that His Son, the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world, would die on Passover. Because Jesus is the fulfillment of the Passover, so just as the Lamb is presented on the 10th of Nisan, Jesus the Lamb of God is presented to the city on that date. And just as Passover takes place a few days later, Jesus will die on the Passover.

So it is again precise timing. But I love verse 40, it's one of my favorites in the Bible. But He answered and said to them, this is Jesus' response, I tell you that if these should keep silent, the stones would immediately cry out.

Listen to it in the Phillips translation of the New Testament. The very stones in the road would burst out cheering. Now if Jesus would have told them to hold their peace, hey disciples, be quiet.

It would have literally been the first rock concert in history. You knew that was coming. Whenever we take tours to Israel, we always stand on the Mount of Olives. One of the commanding views is to bring our group to the Mount of Olives overlooking the city of Jerusalem. It's a breathtaking view, right?

It's amazing. So you see that and you go wow. And I always like to say, okay guys, one of the best souvenirs that you could take home is right under your feet. Bend down and pick up a rock, a stone. Take it home and tell people this is a stone from the Mount of Olives. Take that stone, put it on your desk or take it on your desk or table or somewhere in your house prominently. And when people say, what's with this rock here? That's when you can say, this is one of those stones that didn't cry out. And they're going to look at you and go, huh? What? And you'll be able to give a witness to them and tell them this story. And it's free. You don't have to pay for it like you have to pay for a menorah in the city of Jerusalem.

Just pick up a rock and take it home. Now a word about this crowd. This crowd that is celebrating the Lord Jesus saying, Hosanna in the highest. When we read through this at first blush, we think, now that would be an exciting worship service to be a part of. They're singing in a loud voice. They're singing the scriptures.

Jesus is right there. What an electric crowd. What an ecstatic crowd. What an ecstatic crowd. What a frantic crowd. However, in a few days, some of those very people will be part of the crowd that will shout out, crucify him.

Crucify him. Because not everybody in that crowd on this Mount of Olives is a true disciple of Jesus. Oh, they're following him now. They're crying out for deliverance. They're bringing out the palm leaves because they want him to be their physical deliverer. But when they discover he is not going to do what Judas Maccabees did, but that he's going to die for their sins, they just get rid of them.

Here's the principle. God is not seeking for ecstatic worshipers or frantic worshipers or frenetic worshipers, but authentic worshipers. Jesus said the Father is looking for those who will worship him in spirit and in truth.

You're in it all the way, in good times or bad times. A true disciple is one who worships at all times. Charles Spurgeon put it this way, I believe a large majority of churchgoers are merely unthinking, slumbering worshipers of an unknown God. A large majority of churchgoers are unthinking, slumbering worshipers of an unknown God.

Don't let that be true in your case. So the presentation, he comes into Jerusalem on a donkey. The celebration, everybody's all excited, Hosanna. The consternation of the Pharisees, the leaders. It leads to the fourth phase of this story and that is Jesus himself will speak, but his is a lamentation. Verse 41, Now as he 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 the days will come upon you when your enemies will build an embankment around you, surround you, 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. What a contrast. The crowd is rejoicing while Jesus is weeping. The crowd is singing. Jesus is sobbing. And when it says that he wept over it, saying in verse 42, the word is klyo, which means to cry loudly or to lament loudly. One translation puts it, he burst into tears, weeping audibly over it. Now, you know, this is only the second time we find Jesus weeping in public. The first was at the grave of Lazarus. Shortest verse in the New Testament. Jesus wept.

Second time is here. The first time he wept privately. This second time, he weeps loudly, publicly, audibly. Why is he weeping?

Two reasons. He looks around and he looks ahead. He looks around and there's spiritual blindness all around him. He looks ahead and he sees what's coming to that city in a few short years. In 70 A.D., the Romans will surround the city.

And after 143 straight days of a Roman siege, they will leave 600,000 people dead in the streets and the temple destroyed, the city destroyed. Jesus sees that. He knows that. He sees their blindness. He looks into the future and he begins to weep. He says, if you would have only known. And notice why the weeping. The end of verse 44, because, here's the reason for it all, because you did not know the time of your visitation. What does that mean? You didn't know the time of your visitation.

You didn't know the time of your visitation. It's as though he is holding them accountable as a nation for knowing this day, this time, this visitation. In my Bible, in my margin, I have a note next to this verse that says Daniel 9 verses 24 through 26. In other words, the writers, the compilers of the Bible want me, at this point, to turn back to Daniel 9. Because there's something in Daniel 9 that will explain what Jesus said in verse 44 of Luke 19. And if you know your Bible, and some of you know it well, you know that Daniel chapter 9 gives us the very countdown of the coming of the Messiah. So, you may want to turn to Daniel 9 just now, or if not, I'll just read it to you. This is the prophet Daniel, in captivity, in Babylon, when an angel comes and tells him the future.

The angel's name is Gabriel. And he says in verse 24 to Daniel these words, 70 weeks are determined for your people and for the holy city. Do you know this text of scripture in Daniel 9?

Have you read it before? 70 weeks are determined for your people and for your holy city to finish the transgression, to make an end of sins, to make reconciliation for iniquity, to bring in everlasting righteousness, to seal up vision and prophecy, and to anoint the most holy. Know therefore and understand that from the going forth of the command to restore and build Jerusalem, until Messiah the Prince, there shall be seven weeks and 62 weeks, the street shall be built again and the wall, even in troublesome times. And after the 62 weeks, Messiah shall be cut off, but not for himself. Now stop right there.

Now stop right there. A couple of important things about that prophecy. Number one, it concerns the Jews. 70 weeks are determined for your people, Daniel was Jewish, and for your holy city, that's the city of Jerusalem. The second thing to make a note of, it's a set period of time. Now at this point, if you have not paid attention at all to this message, and I hope you have, I really need you to zero in on the next portion, because it is a set period of time. 70 weeks are determined. The word determined means set aside or divided or cut off from.

In other words, out of all of Jewish history, God has marked a specific period of time to accomplish these purposes. So what is the time? 70? 70 weeks. 70 weeks. Literally 77s.

It says 70 weeks, but the Hebrew is Shebuim Shebim or 77s. It could be seven days, it could be seven weeks, it could be seven years, but it's seven sets, 70 sets of seven. Now we here in the West, we think in terms of 10 decades.

We talk about what happened in the 60s or the 70s, or can you believe my hair in the 80s? And we think of in terms of decades. In Jewish thought, they thought in terms of sevens, not tens. Seven is very prominent in the Bible. And so you work for six days, on the seventh day you rest, that's the Sabbath. They would work the land, plow the land for six years, on the seventh year, a week of years, they would then rest. Now according to some of the Jewish commentaries I consulted, also according to the Mishnah, remember the Mishnah in previous studies?

That redacted oral law that was codified, written down. Also the Revised Standard Version of the Bible and others will translate by saying 70 weeks of years are determined for your people and for the city. 70 weeks of years or 490 years.

Okay, still with me? In chapter 9 of Daniel, Daniel has been reading the prophet Jeremiah. And in reading the prophet Jeremiah, he understands that Jeremiah predicted that they would be in captivity for 70 years. And he realizes 70 years is almost over.

We're going back home soon. He also realizes that the 70 years in Babylonian captivity was due to 490 years of disobedience by the Jewish nation. That's found in 2 Chronicles 36. God says, you didn't keep the Sabbath year letting the land rest every seventh year. For 490 years, I'm now taking 70 years out of you by removing you from the land for 70 years to give the land 70 years of rest. So the 70 was because of 490 years of disobedience. So the angel Gabriel comes and says, Daniel, I know that you're thinking about 490 years of disobedience and 70 years of captivity.

Let me tell you about another set of 490 years divided out of all of history where God is going to accomplish these purposes. Okay, what is the starting point? The starting point is in Daniel 9 verse 25, know therefore and understand that from the going forth of the command to restore and build Jerusalem until Messiah the Prince.

That's the starting point. A commandment to restore and build Jerusalem. Okay, I'm going to throw a verse up on the screen and it is Daniel 9 verse 25 in the new century version because it makes it easy to understand. Let's read it.

Learn and understand these things. A command will come to rebuild Jerusalem. The time from this command until the appointed leader comes will be 49 years and 434 years, a combined total of 483 years. Jerusalem will be rebuilt with streets and a trench filled with water around it, but it will be built in times of trouble. After the 434 years, the appointed leader will be killed. Simply put, there's going to be a commandment at some point to restore and build the city of Jerusalem that lay in ruins at the time Daniel got this vision. From that commandment, you can count 483 years into the future and the Messiah will show up. Now if you're a history buff, you know that there were four different edicts to restore and build Jerusalem, but only one that fits the details of this text. It's found, by the way, in Nehemiah chapter 2 and it was given by Artaxerxes Longimonus on March 14, 445 BC.

It's attested to by Encyclopedia Britannica and others. March 14, 445 BC, Artaxerxes Longimonus gave the commandment to restore and build Jerusalem with its walls and its streets specifically. And guess how long it took to do that? 49 years. Seven sevens were fulfilled. So it means that from the day that commandment was given, March 14, 445 BC, you count 483 years and you should arrive at the time of Messiah.

This so intrigued the head of Scotland Yard's criminal investigation at one time called Sir Robert Anderson that he decided to compute this. And he took the 483 years and he put it into days. 483 years in days is 176,880 days. So he began on March 14, 445 BC and counted 173,880 days and came to a very interesting day in history, April 6, 32 AD. The 10th of Nisan. The time Jesus stood on the Mount of Olives and said, boys bring me that donkey.

I'm going on a donkey ride. Now we understand what he meant when he wept and he said, because you did not know the time of your visitation. He showed up on the exact day as predicted by Daniel the prophet 483 years after the commandment to restore and build Jerusalem. Oh and by the way, Daniel also said after that Messiah will be cut off, right?

But not for himself. The word cut off, karat in Hebrew, means to get killed because of the death penalty, to have your life ended because of the death penalty, right? Because of the death penalty.

Life ended because of the death penalty. So there's two things I want to ask you. Number one, it's a question I've asked you through this whole series. When are we believers going to just trust the Lord for our future? If a God this accurate, this detailed, this precise, can engineer this donkey ride on the 173,880th day after the commandment to restore and build Jerusalem, don't you think he can handle your tomorrow? So listen, yes, thank you Lord. All of the promises that God made that he made that he has already kept is the track record that lets us know all the promises he makes to me today he's going to keep in the future.

The second question is simple. How will you respond in your day of opportunity, your day of visitation? Will you be like the fickle crowd?

I trust him one day but not the next. Will you be like the Pharisees? Stop, I've had enough. Or will you be like the donkey? Go, the donkey? Yeah, you know the donkey is the most compliant one in the entire story. You know it's not what donkeys usually do. You don't take an unwritten donkey and sit on it and expect it to go any place.

That was a miracle in and of itself. In this story the donkey is the compliant one. There was a preacher who went to his church campus on a Monday morning to find a dead donkey. So he immediately called the police department said I've got a dead donkey on the premises of my church you guys got to do something.

Well there was no evidence of foul play so the police said don't call us you need to call the health department. So preacher called the health department, health department said it doesn't sound like it's a real health risk you need to call the sanitation department to have the donkey removed. So preacher calls the sanitation department, sanitation department says well you need to call the mayor of the city because we can't move a dead carcass unless the mayor gives authorization. So the preacher knew the mayor, knew the mayor was obstinate, stubborn, kind of a nasty guy but he called him anyway and said Mr. Mayor I need authorization for the sanitation department to pick up this dead donkey and the mayor just laid into him. What are you calling me for?

It's not my responsibility. You're the you're the preacher it's your job to bury the dead. After a long pause the preacher said you're right Mr. Mayor it is my responsibility to bury the dead but I always like to notify the next of kin first.

Don't be like that mayor who acted like most donkeys act. Be like the one in this story who's Lord I'm yours wherever however you want me to move and go I'm in. That concludes Skip Heitzig's message from the series Against All Odds. Find the full message as well as books, booklets and full teaching series at connectwithskip.com. Right now we want to share about a special resource that will help you answer tough questions about Jesus life ministry and divinity. Josh McDowell has written books that rank among the best-selling Christian works of all time. Now with his son Sean, Josh has released Evidence for Jesus. God gave us our mind and our heart to work in unity.

To what? To glorify him. The Bible I call a fact fiction or fallacy. I want to answer two questions about the Bible.

This is what I struggle with as a non-believer. One, is what we have written down the same as what was written down 2,000 years ago or has it been changed? Second, was what was written down true? In Evidence for Jesus, Josh and Sean McDowell have adapted and updated the Evidence for Jesus section from their classic apologetics book Evidence That Demands a Verdict into a concise readable and accessible resource for those seeking answers about Jesus. This powerful new resource is our thanks for your gift of $50 or more to support the broadcast ministry of Connect with Skip Heitzig.

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Give online securely at connectwithskip.com slash offer or call 800-922-1888. Did you know that you can now connect with Pastor Skip and this ministry via text messaging? Simply text connect to 74759 to join the group. When you do, you'll receive a free digital booklet called Are We Living in the Last Days? Get a glimpse into the last days and how you can be ready for them. So text connect to 74759 today. We hope you'll join us again tomorrow for a powerful message from Skip about the place Jesus wants to have in your life.

I do know this for certain. John is right where Jesus wants us to be, leaning toward him, toward his heart, being able to just talk to him so intimately. Jesus does not just want to be in your midst. He wants to be in your heart. He wants to be in the center of your life. Connect with Skip Hyten is a presentation of Connection Communications. Connecting you to God's never changing truth in ever-changing times.