Visitation of Judgment • Luke 19:28-48
1:21:15 Teaching begins
Notes
Jesus makes a triumphant entry into Jerusalem with cheers and cries of “Blessed is He who comes in the name of the Lord!” It’s the time of their visitation, of blessing by God Himself drawing near.
No one understands it’s a visitation of God, not Jesus’ disciples, nor the crowd, nor Jesus’ enemies.
Without understanding a visitation of blessing becomes a visitation of judgment.
I’m reading in Luke 19 from verse 28
1. Before Jesus gets to Jerusalem He borrows a colt.
A. He sends two disciples into a nearby village, either Bethphage or Bethany, on the eastern side of the Mount of Olives, on the eastern approach to Jerusalem.
B. He says you’ll find a colt upon which no one has ever sat. Untie it and bring it here. If anyone stops you, say, “The Lord has need of it.”
C. This would be the only time in Jesus’ life that we see Him ride anything. But there’s more to it than this.
2. Jesus has need of the colt because He is fulfilling prophecy, covenants, and promises of God.
A. Specifically, He’s fulfilling Zechariah 9:9 Rejoice greatly, O daughter of Zion! Shout in triumph, O daughter of Jerusalem! Behold, your king is coming to you; He is just and endowed with salvation, humble, and mounted on a donkey, even on a colt, the foal of a donkey.
1. This Scripture says the King of Israel has to come on a colt! This is how you know it’s Him.
2. You could say anyone could do that, but would they think of it? No one ever did, if you look in history. A king would come on some horse more majestic, more impressive.
3. But this is important about the King of Israel: He is just, endowed with salvation, and humble. He’s not a conqueror. He comes with salvation, to make people whole and to bring them back to God.
B. There’s more scripture to be fulfilled because the King comes to Jerusalem. This fulfils the covenant God made with David. 2 Samuel 7:12-13 When your days are complete and you lie down with your fathers, I will raise up your descendant after you, who will come forth from you, and I will establish his kingdom. He shall build a house for My name, and I will establish the throne of his kingdom forever.”
C. This fulfils the covenant God made with Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. Genesis 12:1-3 And in you all the families of the earth will be blessed.”
D. The fulfils the promise made to Adam. Genesis 3:15 And I will put enmity between you and the woman, and between your seed and her seed; He shall bruise you on the head, and you shall bruise him on the heel.”
E. Jesus is also going to fulfil Passover, where the lamb’s blood saves all those who stay in the house while the destroyer goes out to kill the firstborn.
F. He’s going to fulfil Yom Kippur, the Day of Atonement, where the high priest acting alone offers the sacrifice that cleanses God’s people of all sin even done unknowingly.
G. For all these reasons, Jesus has to ride into Jerusalem on a colt. He needs a colt.
3. The colt is unusually peaceful, and so are its owners.
A. This colt has never been sat on. It is new and unused.
1. The principle is that you never give God something used by someone else. Remember that when Jesus is buried, it’s in a new tomb that has never been used. He never gets sloppy seconds, the dregs, the things that are not important. You never sacrifice a blemished animal, with skin disease or broken limb, or lame, or blind. Everything you offer to God has to be perfect, without blemish. You honour God from the first fruits of your income, not the leftovers, if any.
2. The point is, this new colt is for Jesus, and Jesus is God. You might think, “I don’t care what I ride, so long as I get there.” God says, “I am God, the Creator and the Redeemer, and I am to be honoured as God.” So Jesus says, “I’ll ride a new colt that has never been ridden upon.”
B. The owners see the disciples untying the colt and they ask, “Why are you untying the colt?” They’ve never seen these men before, and they are untying the colt. Isn’t that a natural question?
C. “The Lord has need of it.” That’s all they have to say, and the owners are satisfied with that. They trust the Lord with their colt.
D. They set their coats on the colt and Jesus rides it. That’s a problem, though.
1. Donkeys are known for natural unreasonableness, their stubbornness. Don’t be a mule, we say. This colt has never been sat on, which means it is unbroken. It has not been made tractable, submissive to its master, to do his will. “Um, I wouldn’t do that if I were You, Lord.”
2. But look what happens: the colt is meek, gentle, bears Jesus without bucking, without rebuke, anywhere He wants to go.
E. For those with eyes that see and ears that hear, here comes the King of Israel of Zechariah 9, the Prince of peace of Isaiah 9, the Son of David, the Son of Man, the Son of God.
4. The significance of Jesus riding into Jerusalem on a colt is lost on everyone. No one gets it.
A. Not Jesus’ disciples. John 12:16 These things His disciples did not understand at the first; but when Jesus was glorified, then they remembered that these things were written of Him, and that they had done these things to Him.
B. The Pharisees don’t get it. The actually rebuke Jesus in the procession and tell Him to shut up His disciples, as if to say, “You’re no Messiah, You know You’re wrong! Stop this!” And Jesus replies, “If these were to be silent the very stones would cry out!” This is right, this is fitting; it’s a momentous, significant day, when God is fulfilling promises, covenants, prophecies, made over thousands of years. It’s happening today.
C. The very crowd cheering Jesus doesn’t understand what’s going on.
1. It looks successful, like people understand. They’re quoting Psalm 118, “Blessed is He who comes in the name of the Lord! Save now!” And as Jesus teaches in the temple they hang on His words. They are captivated by His teaching. How scriptural!
2. These are the same people who at the end of the week will cry out to the Roman governor Pilate, “We have no king but Caesar! Crucify Him!”
5. Jesus isn’t encouraged by this joyful reception. He weeps over Jerusalem because He knows the truth: “You did not recognise the time of your visitation.”
A. When God visits His people it means He blesses them with His nearness.
1. Ruth 1:6 Then she arose with her daughters-in-law that she might return from the land of Moab, for she had heard in the land of Moab that the LORD had visited His people in giving them food.
2. People said these things about Jesus. Luke 7:15-16 The dead man sat up and began to speak. And Jesus gave him back to his mother. Fear gripped them all, and they began glorifying God, saying, “A great prophet has arisen among us!” and, “God has visited His people!”
B. This is the time when God really has come near.
1. Realise that John the Baptist preached repentance to prepare Israel for the coming of the Messiah.
2. And for three and a half years Jesus has taught in synagogues, preached in the open air, sent his disciples, sent the seventy other disciples, to proclaim the kingdom of God. He has healed the blind, raised the dead, set captives free, preached the gospel to the afflicted. He fulfilled the Scriptures right down to riding on a colt.
C. The people are also fulfilling scriptures: John 12:37-43
But though He had performed so many signs before them, yet they were not believing in Him. This was to fulfill the word of Isaiah the prophet which he spoke: “LORD, WHO HAS BELIEVED OUR REPORT? AND TO WHOM HAS THE ARM OF THE LORD BEEN REVEALED?” For this reason they could not believe, for Isaiah said again, “HE HAS BLINDED THEIR EYES AND HE HARDENED THEIR HEART, SO THAT THEY WOULD NOT SEE WITH THEIR EYES AND PERCEIVE WITH THEIR HEART, AND BE CONVERTED AND I HEAL THEM.” These things Isaiah said because he saw His glory, and he spoke of Him. Nevertheless many even of the rulers believed in Him, but because of the Pharisees they were not confessing Him, for fear that they would be put out of the synagogue; for they loved the approval of men rather than the approval of God.
6. Upon Jesus’ entry to Jerusalem He goes into the temple and finds all the machinery of religion.
A. That temple is meant by God to be a house of prayer, where anyone in the world could come and seek God and find Him through prayer.
B. But a corrupt priesthood has made the worship of God a money-making racket focused on sacrifice. You have to buy an expensive pre-approved animal from them.
C. Jesus knew these corrupt priests were there because He did this at the beginning of His ministry, in John 2. He does the same thing again: He is angry and throws out all the business men. He teaches in the Temple and people hang on His every word.
D. Yet He is not what they would like, and they are not what He would like.
E. It’s still the visitation, but a visitation works two ways. If the visitation for blessing is rejected, it becomes a visitation of judgment.
7. So what?
A. Jesus visited His people, He presented Himself as the King of Israel, the Messiah, and no one saw it.
B. People kept on thinking they knew what they were doing, but all that they did only hastened their own destruction.
C. All people everywhere are born with spiritual blindness.
1. The Apostle Paul wrote in 1 Corinthians 2:14 But a natural man does not accept the things of the Spirit of God, for they are foolishness to him; and he cannot understand them, because they are spiritually appraised.
2. Proverbs 14:12 There is a way which seems right to a man, but its end is the way of death.
3. Jesus said, John 3:3 “Truly, truly, I say to you, unless one is born again he cannot see the kingdom of God.” Jesus proved that, as He taught, preached, and healed for three and a half years, yet no one saw the kingdom of God in their midst.
D. You have to be amazed at Jesus continuing to go forward, obeying the Father, knowing He would be crucified. He understood that He would die for our sins and remove our guilt and satisfy the wrath of God against sin.
E. He understood that He would rise from the dead to new life, and that He would give that life to everyone who comes to Him.
F. He and the Father kept pursuing our salvation, not worrying about themselves, to save people who don’t know what they’re doing. God loves you and wants to give you eternal life.
G. You need that new life. You need that understanding to live with Jesus.
H. If all that I’ve said makes no sense, you need to be concerned. You are in the same position as those people who saw Jesus for three years and still didn’t understand as they went on their own way to destruction. You can turn to Jesus and ask Him to be born again. Ask Him to give you understanding so you can live.
I. This is your visitation from God. You don’t get many visitations. He’s talking to you and calling to you. Will you receive Him?
Let’s pray.