Jesus Wept . . . Again!

The Gentile court has been converted into a county fair, a flea market, a mall, a cattle stockyard, all rolled up into one. And behind it all is a religious mafia in full-blown operation, extorting, misleading the worshippers. Jesus, he just has one expression for it. He summarizes it all.

He calls it here a den of thieves. Have you ever thought about the emotional depths of Jesus' ministry? Today, you'll witness Jesus' profound sorrow as he weeps over Jerusalem. You'll also learn the significance behind his tears, from the excitement of his triumphal entry to the tragic realization of rejection. This message reveals the compassionate heart of our Savior and his righteous zeal for God's house.

This is Wisdom for the Heart, the Bible-teaching ministry of Stephen Davey. Keep listening as Stephen continues through this section of Luke in a message called Jesus Wept Again. Now, if we put the gospel accounts together, Jesus is making his royal appearance.

He's accepting the acknowledgement that he's king, even though up until this point he's told people to pipe down, quiet down, don't say that, but now it's time. He rides into town. He dismounts. He goes into the temple.

He looks around. It's late toward evening and he leaves and goes to Bethany, the home of more than likely Lazarus and his sisters Mary and Martha, which has always been a retreat for him. Mark's gospel puts it this way. He entered Jerusalem and went into the temple. When he had looked around at everything, as it was already late, he went out to Bethany with the 12. Now, we're going to pick it up on the next day.

The next day is Monday. Mark's gospel informs us that Jesus is now walking with his disciples back toward Jerusalem, just a few miles away. There's no cult this time. There's no crowd this time. There are no hosannas.

It's fairly quiet. Along the way, Jesus curses a fig tree that looks like it ought to have fruit, and it doesn't. This is symbolic in his judgment of the nation Israel, who is barren spiritually. No fruit.

Spiritual fruit. Then he descends the Mount of Olives. As he's descending, he comes into a clear view of the city just below and across the valley. With that, let's pick up the narrative. We're back in Luke's gospel account, chapter 19, and we left off at verse 41.

Here's what happens next. When he drew near and saw the city, he wept over it, saying, would that you, even you, had known on this day the things that made for peace, but now they're hidden from your eyes. Jesus is saying, if only you knew that on this day, this Monday, this very day, your Prince of Peace is arriving and he's bringing with him the terms of peace where you can settle with God the Father and you're not interested. Jesus is weeping over the knowledge that that will be the narrative. Only recently Jesus had wept at the tomb of Lazarus, weeping the suffering and death were in the world because of sin. Now, here Jesus is weeping over the unbelief of the nation Israel. Frankly, over everyone who rejects him for that matter.

All the Charles Templetons of the world. He's weeping. You could translate that. Literally, he burst into tears. Beloved, he is sobbing here as he walks. He's grieving specifically over Israel's rejection.

They want to crown him king, but only if he turns out to be the king they want and he's not going to turn out to be the king they wanted. What are you wanting, by the way, from Jesus? Do you respect him? Adore him? Sing to him? You've come to worship him?

So long as he makes it worth it? What are you wanting from Jesus? I believe there are thousands of so-called Christians, if not more, who say they're following Jesus, but it's only because they believe Jesus is going to be their good luck charm and if good luck turns into a difficult life, we're not going to sing anymore. Jesus is weeping with compassion for the nation who will reject him. He's also weeping because he knows as omniscient God the devastation that's coming and with that now he delivers this prophecy. Notice verse 43, for the days will come upon you when your enemies will set up a barricade around you and surround you and hem you in on every side and tear you down to the ground, you and your children within you and they will not leave one stone upon another because you did not know the time of your visitation.

You didn't get the time where I'm now visiting you. See, Jesus doesn't just see Jerusalem there before him. As he's walking down that Mount of Olives sobbing as omniscient God, he sees the future devastation of Jerusalem. He knows the Jewish people are going to continue sowing the seeds of revolt.

They believe that they need to overthrow Rome and Jesus sees what's going to happen. Eventually, the Roman Empire will pick up the sword and lay it low. In fact, we know in A.D. 70 that occurred, the Roman Emperor's son, General Titus, is sent to Jerusalem to put down only one more revolt and Josephus says that it was brutal. The first century Jewish historian writes this, while the temple was burning, neither pity for age nor respect for rank was shown. On the contrary, the people were massacred. The emperor ordered the entire city and the temple to be razed to the ground, leaving only the loftiest of the towers and the western wall, by the way, which still exists today.

The rest of the city was so destroyed as to leave future visitors no reason to believe that the city had ever been inhabited. They wanted a revolution. Jesus was offering redemption. Jesus says here, if only you had known what today means.

Today. Luke writes again in verse 31, would that you had known on this day the things that made for peace. Jesus' particular mention and focus on this day, later on the day of visitation, those aren't throw away lines, beloved. They're prophetic clues that give evidence of who he is.

And I'll point that out in a moment. The problem is the religious leaders don't really care about prophecy. They only care about their power. They're not really looking for a king to take over. They're happy with their role. You might remember how they ignored the Magi.

Remember that? These Persian king makers arrive. They saw the Shekinah glory of God appearing. They and their forefathers, all of them having descended from that Magi, the prophet Daniel.

They'd been well instructed. And here you have the spiritual descendants of Daniel arriving in Jerusalem. Where's the king of the Jews? We're here to worship him. The religious leaders didn't care enough to accompany the Magi to Bethlehem.

You remember that? To check out what the Scriptures had said. They even quickly quoted the prophecy of the Old Testament that, yes, his address where he's going to be born is little Bethlehem about six and a half miles away and off go the Magi and no religious leader went with him. They knew the prophetic interpretation.

They had no desire for a personal application. This is happening again now at the end of the Lord's ministry in Luke 19. Frankly, they don't care about another prophecy, ironically, from Daniel. Well, I'll give you the 30,000 foot view before we carry on. If you'd like to dig deeper, Harold Honer, long time New Testament professor from Dallas Seminary put it together so well in his book called The Chronological Aspects of the Life of Christ, including what's happening here in Luke 19.

He's not alone. There are conservative theologians who would agree with him, and I certainly do. You have the prophecy in Daniel chapter 9 where Daniel is told by Gabriel that a decree will be given to rebuild Jerusalem. Then centuries later, Daniel is told the anointed prince will arrive and be killed. Then Daniel offers this rather mystifying math formula.

For those of us who aren't math scholars, we just put our pencils down and read. But math scholars have sharpened their pencils, like Dr. Honer and other Bible scholars. They believe that Daniel's prophecy indicated that the anointed prince, according to the text of Scripture, will arrive in Jerusalem 476 years and 25 days after this decree is delivered. Now we know from biblical history that the decree to rebuild Jerusalem was given by the king to Nehemiah. We even know the date, March 5, 444 B.C., and that starts this countdown. We have no reason to doubt that Jewish leaders were aware of this prophecy, and perhaps some of them had been counting down the years.

Here's where it gets interesting, even though your head might be spinning. If you add 476 years and 25 days to the decree given to Nehemiah on March 5, 444 B.C., you land on Monday, March 30, 33 A.D. What do you know? This day, this Monday, when Jesus arrives and now stays, he's the anointed prince. He's come to be killed, just like Daniel prophesied, which is why Jesus is saying here, don't you know what day it is? Don't you know about this particular day, the day of your visitation?

Is anybody awake? By the way, this could be, among other reasons, why the prophecies of Daniel are discounted by Jewish scholarship to this day. In fact, Daniel is not even included in their prophets.

A little too specific, perhaps. After Jesus delivers this prophecy, he once again moves into the temple. You remember, we read earlier that he'd already scouted it out, but it was late, so he leaves.

He knows what he's going to do. Now he returns, and he's going to clean it out. Now, the first time he cleansed the temple is at the beginning of his ministry recorded for us in John chapter 2. He's going to do it again now here at the end of his ministry, and it's going to have significant meaning. Now, Luke describes what happens next here in verse 45. And he entered the temple and began to drive out those who sold saying to them, and he combines two Old Testament prophecies, it is written, my house, note that, my house shall be a house of prayer, but you've made it a den of robbers. Now Jesus has entered the outer court, the Gentile court. By the way, that court is open to the nations. It was supposed to be a place of worship, if not discovery. Anybody could enter.

Any Gentile could come this far, but it has become anything but a place of worship. And Jesus moves in, and he starts to clean it out. Now think about this for a moment. You would never barge into your neighbor's home and say, get out of the way, I'm going to vacuum everything. If somebody did that to you, you might shout hallelujah, I don't know.

You might say you're my best friend from here on out. But if you went to somebody's house you didn't know, and you said, get out of the way, I'm going to clean it, they would call for help, wouldn't they? See, you really don't have the right to clean somebody else's home. In fact, you don't have the right to tell somebody their home needs cleaning.

That could be offensive. But Jesus is going into his house. This is his house. He's the master of this house. He has the right to say, we've got to clean this up.

It's not what it ought to be. Now if you're new to our study, you might be reminded or be taught for the first time that the core of Gentiles is the only place in the temple precinct where they could come. They could come as unbelievers. They could come interested. They could come curious. In fact, Warren Wiersby, one of my favorite authors, makes a really interesting point here that this was the place where faithful Jews could witness to unbelieving Gentiles.

Isn't that a great thought? They could tell these Gentiles about the only true and living God, instead of being, he writes, devoted to evangelism. It was devoted to turning a profit and business was booming. Now we know that there were four markets on the Mount of Olives that sold everything. So that whenever a worshiper arrived at the temple, they would have everything they needed in order to present their sacrifices. But the priesthood had turned this into a money making scam and we've looked at it briefly before. The priests were declining the suitability of any animals bought in those markets or brought along so that they had to purchase animals inside that Gentile courtyard. They were also charging a fee to enter, but all the currencies of the day then were rather conveniently rejected, declared unclean. So coins made by Greeks, Romans, Syrians, Egyptians, whatever. I'm sorry, that's dirty money. You got to exchange it for shekels minted in Israel.

That's pure. Then they charged these exorbitant rates of exchange. All of this is owned and operated by the high priest, this corrupt godfather whose five sons had all served as high priest. The current high priest is his son-in-law.

They're corrupt. They're skimming off the top, padding their pockets. Now I want you to get this picture in your mind. The Gentile court was a marble paved area, walled. It was as long as three football fields in length.

Been watching football lately? That's how long, and nearly as wide. This is massive. However, when Jesus shows up here, it's lined with stalls and shops. They're selling cattle and sheep and oil and wine and flour and salt and birds. This is this massive farmer's market. All the merchants are shouting for attention and the people are bargaining. It's chaos. People everywhere, thousands of people in line.

It's probably just as bad as Costco on a Friday afternoon when you don't want to go there. Think of the noise. It's marble pavement. It's echoing.

It's been deafening. The Gentile court has been converted into a county fair, a flea market, a mall, a cattle stockyard, all rolled up into one. Behind it all is the religious headquarters of organized religious corruption. A religious mafia in full-blown operation, extorting, deceiving, misleading the worshippers. Jesus, he just has one expression for it. He summarizes it all. He calls it here a den of thieves.

It's an expression that means it's a cave full of robbers who are counting their loot, their stolen goods. Let me tell you, Jesus isn't weeping now. He feels, by the way, the same righteous anger toward false prophets who will mislead the people and on into this generation who turn religion into a scam. Instead of leading the flock and feeding the flock, they are fleecing the flock.

So no more tears. Hang on to your hat. Now Mark's Gospel account is especially vivid. Let me read you what he writes in chapter 11. And he entered the temple and began to drive out those who sold and those who bought in the temple and he overturned the tables of the money changers.

Now stop. Have you ever seen or heard a table flipped over violently? That's what he's doing here. And on that marble pavement, can you imagine those wooden tables flipped over? They're all lined up.

He just went after another wham. You know, I hadn't thought of bringing a table in here. I knew the elders would charge me for breaking it, so I decided not to do it. But imagine the sound of all those coins just clanging all over the marble floor. Mark adds the seats. He also turned those over of those who sold pigeons. Now you've got these loose pigeons flying everywhere. He adds a phrase that I had not noticed until my study this week here in verse 16. And he would not allow anyone to carry anything through the temple.

Did a little research on this. Evidently, in addition to everything else, the courtyard of the Gentiles had been turned into a shortcut for people wanting to get their merchandise from one side of town to the other. They're cutting through the courtyard.

They got their wagons and their cattle and their stuff and they're just cutting through it. Never mind the worshippers. Never mind the sacred precinct.

This wasn't supposed to be a shortcut. This is supposed to be a sanctuary where a Gentile could come in and learn about God and pray, meditate if they know the Lord and a place to worship. This is a circus.

Let me tell you, the Master has just arrived. The Lord of the temple is declaring his ownership. He's cleaning out his house. When he finishes, Jesus turns the courtyard into a school room. Notice here in verse 47, and he was teaching daily in the temple.

Can you imagine slipping over there and sitting in on that? He's got three days he's going to teach at different times. The chief priests and scribes and principal men of the people were seeking to destroy him, but they could not find anything they could do for all the people were hanging on his words. They just got to stand there and watch Jesus teach.

This is courageous defiance. Jesus knows there's a price on his head. He knows the leaders want to kill him.

Jesus has already chosen the day. The merchants, imagine how upset they are. They're losing money every day he's in there teaching. The traffic patterns, they're all turned upside down.

I used to cut through there. I've got to walk the long way now. People are crowding in to hear him. I believe the crowd is still hopeful, no doubt among them some who believe. But right on schedule, Jesus has arrived to the very day and look at him here now teaching the nations as if it were the beginning of the Great Commission teaching the nations.

And they are hanging on to every word. No doubt some will believe, some will never forget this day. Where do you see yourself in this Jerusalem scene as chaotic as it is and wild, shocking?

Where do you see yourself? Are you excited about Jesus today but only if he meets your expectations? If not, the excitement dims.

Is your satisfaction in Jesus based on conditions that he needs to meet? Are you a little upset today that he's messed up your schedule? You've got to walk the long way around. I mean life has gotten slow and difficult.

He's making you wait. Maybe you're following today the majority opinion about Jesus right now but he's excited in a few days we're all going to be chanting for his death. However the crowd's moving, I'm one of them. In fact, in my world today, nobody knows I'm a Christian. I kind of keep that to myself. Are you interested in his teaching for a period of time? Or are you even to this day hanging on to every word? Let me ask you, would Jesus be weeping over you today? Would he be weeping over your unbelief today? Today, today, this day, I would invite you to acknowledge him as your Savior and King.

That was Stephen Davey and this is Wisdom for the Heart. Between now and our next broadcast, please accept our offer and claim your free membership in Friends of Wisdom. Our Friends of Wisdom receive additional insight and encouragement from God's Word. Each week, Stephen sends articles, answers to Bible questions and at least once a month, a free resource. As I said, membership in Friends of Wisdom is free and it's easy to join. Simply visit wisdomonline.org forward slash friends. Then join us again next time to discover more wisdom for the heart.