Luke 19:41-48
Know Him
Our goal is to know God. Do we? Many here have been saved for years,
decades, but what do we know God. Let’s see if what we know stacks up
with what Jesus did in one day.
I. One
A. Let’s remember what was happening.
1. Jesus was about to make His Triumphant Entry into
Jerusalem.
a. This is the official beginning of the Passion Week,
the seven days before His resurrection.
b. Last week, we looked at John 12 to discover that
these events likely happened on the first day of the
week, Sunday.
c. Exactly seven days later, Jesus would be rising from
the dead and appearing to His grieved disciples.
2. But as Jesus was heading for a cross, the people thought
He was heading for a crown.
a. They were putting down palm branches and asking Jesus
to save them, probably not as much from their sin as
from their oppressors, the Romans.
b. The people were looking for a military coup, for Jesus
to go to the palace and remove Pilate and then Herod
and then the emperor himself.
B. But Luke emphasized two events that happened on that day.
1. \\#41-44\\ Luke described Jesus’ tears as He came down the
Mount of Olives.
2. \\#45-48\\ Luke described Jesus’ temper as He cast the
money changers out of the temple.
C. Let’s consider two ones.
1. One day
a. Jesus went from shedding tears to showing a temper in
a short period of time, and interestingly, both the
tears and the temper were directed at the same people,
the Jews.
b. These are pretty diverse actions.
c. In one day, we are seeing two sides of Jesus.
2. One God
a. Does God have schizophrenia?
b. No. What we are seeing here is One God who both cares
and is just, who loves but will judge, who shed tears
but has a temper against unrighteousness.
b. While many attempt to divide the God of the Bible into
two separate gods, the Old Testament god of wrath and
the New Testament god of grace, Luke showed us in
this Bible passage that wrath and grace are two sides
of one God.
II. Tears
A. As Jesus came down the Mount of Olives, He stopped and wept
over the city of Jerusalem.
1. What does that mean?
a. Tears mean the same thing when the Son of Man sheds
them that they mean when an ordinary man sheds them.
b. It means His heart was hurting.
2. The valley that separates Jerusalem from the Mount of
Olives is very narrow, only a few hundred feet.
3. It is very easy to see the city, its walls, and even the
high structures within the city of Jerusalem from Mount
Olivet.
4. As Jesus was coming down the mountain, He stopped and
wept.
a. These would be tears of compassion, of pity, of
sorrow.
b. For whom? For the Jews and this beloved city,
beloved by the Jews but even more, beloved by God!
B. Why was Jesus weeping?
1. They were tears for Jewish ignorance.
Luke 19:42 Saying, If thou hadst known, even
thou, at least in this thy day, the things which
belong unto thy peace! but now they are hid from
thine eyes.
Luke 19:44 …thou knewest not the time of thy
visitation.
a. The Jews did not know that this was their visitation
from God.
(1) Theirs was a willful ignorance.
(a) Their Bible, our Old Testament, taught them
how to recognize the Messiah. Although it
was wrapped in mystery, Daniel even gave
the year that Messiah would come.
(b) Jesus had certainly done all He could do to
demonstrate that He was more than just a
"man." John wrote that if all the works
Jesus had done were written into books,
all the world would not be able to contain
them.
(c) Plenty of people DID and DO recognize Jesus
as the Jewish Messiah.
(d) But the people Jesus wept for were being
stubborn.
(2) But for some, theirs was a deliberate ignorance.
(a) This is more an opinion than a fact, but I
do not see how all of the religious leaders
could have been so blind.
(b) It seems to me that at least some must have
know who Jesus was but chose to reject Him
anyone.
(c) I have witnessed that happen many times.
b. For these Jesus wept.
2. They were tears for Gentile violence.
a. Jesus wept because of what would happen to the city
and the people.
(1) Most believe the year was around 36 AD (they
believe there were some errors in converting the
Jewish calendar to the one we use.)
(2) They also believe it was 70 AD when Titus came to
destroy Jerusalem, fulfilling much of this
prophetic statement.
(3) As I mentioned recently, by 135 AD, Hadrian would
destroy Israel, plow Jerusalem, kill many, sell
many into slavery, and give the land to others
people.
(4) Then for 1800 years, the Jews would be scattered
and often persecuted.
b. I understand that today’s Jews have a difficult time
living with judgment for their ancestors’ sins.
(1) Many think God to be cruel and unmerciful.
(2) But remember, God did not make this decision in
haste.
(a) God spend 2,000 years (from Abraham to
Christ) working with the Jews.
(b) He send His Word, His priests, His prophets,
His blessing when they did right and His
judgments when they did wrong.
(c) What more could He have done?
(d) The truth about some Jews today is they are
just like their ancient ancestors.
i. They think they are right and God is
wrong.
ii. The truth is that if God had never
scattered the Jews, they would still be
disobeying Him.
(3) But these tears are for them.
(a) God wept for every Jew scorned, ridiculed,
and laughed at.
(b) God wept for every cruel act done against His
people.
(c) God wept for every barbaric murder, for every
fear they experienced, for every anxiety,
for every hour they fled.
(d) God wept.
III. Temper
A. \\#45\\ Yet once inside the city, the tears did not stop Jesus
from angrily dealing with the people’s sin.
1. I often speak of the disappointment the people felt over
Jesus that day.
a. The people wanted Jesus to go the palace, but He went
to temple.
b. The people wanted Jesus to overthrow Rome, but He
overthrow the money changers.
c. The people wanted Jesus to rebuke the nations, but He
rebuked them.
2. However, what we should consider is the disappointment
that Jesus had with the Jews.
B. What caused Jesus to overthrow the money changes tables and
run them out of the temple?
1. It wasn’t the buying and selling of sacrifices.
a. \\#Deut 14:24-26\\
b. That was a provision of the Law for those who lived
too far away.
2. \\#46\\ Jesus was angry that a "den of thieves" were
selling the sacrifices to those who came to worship. I
take it that they were selling inferior sacrifices for
an inflated price.
3. What did that do?
a. It corrupted God’s worship. You cannot worship a
worthy God with an unworthy sacrifice.
b. It stole the joy of worship from the worshippers.
(1) Worship was supposed to be right and righteous,
but it is also supposed to be joyous to the
worshippers.
(2) That is not as much for the benefit of the
worshippers as it is for the delight of God.
c. And those two mean they stole God’s glory.
(1) The most important thing people can do is to
glorify God.
(2) The money changes had robbed God of His glory and
Jesus dealt with it.
What do we see here? We see our God, in compassion and in anger, in
love and in justice, with tears and with a temper. Not two gods, but
one God.
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