You Did Not Recognize The Time Of Your Visitation

It was an interesting thing to me to realize when Jesus was weeping and that he wasn't alone when he wept. Our whole sermon is not going to be about crying today. But I want you to see that at the very beginning, his grief was not something that he hid. And there are many times in Scripture that we're taught about Jesus' grief and about his trial and his struggle. Not often are we taught about him laughing, but often about him weeping and crying and being upset, burdened. And no place is it more obvious than as he comes into Jerusalem. When he saw the city, he wept over it. And then he says this. He says, And so what's he saying about them? Except that they don't know what it makes for peace. Which is not to say they don't think they know. If you had known this day, even you, the things which make for peace, but now they've been hidden from your eyes. Now, It may seem kind of strange that as he looks at a city, he starts weeping. Why would he weep when he's looking at Jerusalem? Well, we have to understand what Jerusalem is, what it represented. And our view, 2,000 years downstream of this, is different than their view would have been of what Jerusalem was. To us, Jerusalem is just a city over in Israel that was prominent in Scripture.

But at this time, what Jerusalem represented was God's people. It was the epicenter of what it meant to follow the true and living God. It's where they came up to worship. And so if you were to think of our nation, just as an example, what is the place that represents, in your mind, the United States of America? What is the place, the thing, that you, when you go, that is... That is our country. Maybe it's New York City. Maybe it's the Statue of Liberty. Maybe it's Mount Rushmore. Maybe it's something else. But when you look at it, you think, that's the place. Now, when you think of that, consider having the knowledge that that place is about to be leveled and destroyed. Not one stone left on another. And not just the place, but the people. They're all going to be destroyed.

This is what Jesus sees and understands when he looks at Jerusalem. He sees God's people, the Jews, about to be consumed. And remember, these are the people who are going to kill him. And he weeps over their destruction. They'd had lots of time, hundreds and hundreds of years of prophecy and prophets coming to them and teaching, all pointed toward the time when the Messiah would come. And so they looked for that time. And then, but yet when Jesus comes, the one who's the fulfillment of all of these things, what do they do? Well, they don't recognize it. There's been all of this teaching. There's been all this instruction. And yet when it comes, there's a season, there's a time where they should have recognized who he was and they didn't. And because they didn't, that destruction is going to be leveled against them and against their city with their children.

Now, it's interesting construction at the end of our passage that, you know, the explanation for why all this destruction is coming, it says, you didn't recognize the time of your visitation. And it implies ignorance on their behalf, not rejection. And it's true that they do reject, but it's also true that they're ignorant. Now, when we do something, you or I, in ignorance, does it change the consequence of our action? Oftentimes it doesn't. Most of the time it doesn't. You do something, you know, kids are throwing a ball in the house. They shouldn't be throwing the ball in the house, but they're not thinking about it, right? Ball hits the picture, knocks the picture down, glass breaks, right? And then the kid has a look on their face, and the look is the look of both terror and ignorance. I didn't know that was going to happen. But now it's too late because the picture's broken. And so I want us to see at the very beginning of our text this morning that ignorance is a danger to us.

It wasn't just a danger to them. It's a danger to us because we, like them, are God's people. And if they're able to miss and to be ignorant of things that come with very bad consequences for them, the same is true of us. We're able to miss stuff, not know it, not put it all together. And when we don't put together the things that we need to put together and understand, we may end up facing consequence for those, things that are very difficult. No one would have wanted to live in Jerusalem at this time when it was being destroyed. And so we have to be on guard against ignorance. It's our business to know what's going on. And we have to be careful not to limit what we're supposed to know. Do you ever get in a situation where you know something difficult is about to happen and you go, I'd rather just not know? Just keep that information to yourself. You can bear that burden. I don't want that mess.

I don't want that knowledge. And the reason is because with that knowledge comes responsibility potentially to do something about it, right? If I know there's a problem and it comes out and I don't do anything about it and we find out later that I knew about the problem and I didn't do anything about it, then I've become what? Culpable or responsible in some way for what happened if I have knowledge and I don't act on it. So our response often is to say, plug my ears, stick my head in the ground. I don't want to know. Don't tell me. I don't want to understand. And it's a very foolish thing to do. So Jesus sees the ignorance of Jerusalem and the people. And he knows what's coming to them. As a result, you know, sometimes you don't know why difficult things happen to you or you wonder what the consequences are going to be. But this text makes it clear that the reason that they were destroyed was because of their ignorance. The straight line between the two. You didn't know this. That's why you got destroyed.

Now, there are times in your life where you look and look at a situation or look at people and you can go, I see this and it's like a math equation. It's going to produce this. I can see it. It hasn't happened yet, but this is what's going to happen. I think at varying levels of maturity, we're all capable of that. Each one of us has some level of discernment. I think we're often afraid to say it, but I do think we see it. I think you can look at something and go, that is going to not end well. It's kind of like this. Now, when you see that in people or in situations, what are some of the responses you might have to that knowledge? One is, you can ignore it. I don't see it. I don't know about it. Not my problem. That could be one response. What other responses might you have? You see a friend or a family member doing something foolish, making an unwise decision, kind of unwise decision they've made before, they've made many times.

What do you do? Ignore it? Cut your teeth at them? Tell them they've made their bed? They're going to lay in it? Should have listened to me? Told you so. You have to clean that mess up. I've cleaned up enough of them. This sort of stuff? What was Jesus' response to it? Because those, I think, are the familiar responses to us. We see people being foolish, being ignorant, rejecting what's good for them, and we go, you're an idiot. And you can be an idiot by yourself. I'm done. Well, what does Jesus do? When he sees this knowledge, when he sees what's about to happen to Jerusalem, he weeps. So why does Jesus weep? Well, because he knows what's going to happen. The people are going to be destroyed. Days will come when your enemies will throw up a barricade around you, which means you're not going to be able to escape. They're going to surround you and hem you in on every side, and they will level you to the ground and your children within you. So they're not just going to destroy your city. They're going to kill you and all the people you love.

And they're not going to leave one stone upon another. So did what Jesus say was going to happen, happen. It did happen. And it wasn't long after this that it happened. Jesus is speaking, you know, 33 AD or so. They're occupied by the Romans. In about 70 AD, the Romans did exactly what Jesus said. They absolutely leveled the city. They destroyed it. And this judgment, as I've said already, was a direct result of the people's failure to recognize the time of their visitation. They didn't see who Jesus was. They rejected him. They put him to death. And as a result, their life, their home was destroyed. Now, there are a couple of lessons we can learn just from this. The first is that our actions have consequences. When we do things, things happen in return. If you have a child and you teach them not to punch somebody, What is one of the things you tell them about punching other people? What's likely to happen if you punch somebody? They're going to punch you back. And that doesn't make it right, but that is how it works. And so our actions have consequences. Their ignorance, their rejection of Jesus had very dire consequence for them. Another thing that we learn is that there's a season for repentance. There was a season where they...

could have recognized Jesus. But earlier in the text, it says, these things have been hidden from your eyes. If you had known the things which made for peace, but now they've been hidden from you. And so the question to us is, do we believe that one of the consequences of unbelief is a further hardening of sin such that you can't repent? It's too late to repent. I think too often we want to say, oh, there'll always be more time later. I'll get to it. It's hard right now. And yet there's a season for repentance. There's a season for turning to Jesus. And there's a season when that time's over. The third thing that we can learn from this destruction is that God's judgments are terrible to endure. Jerusalem was not the kind of place you would want to be when this was going on in 70 AD. It was a terribly painful, difficult place.

Miserable time. All the people tried to scatter and get away, and they couldn't. And they were killed. This is why Jesus wept. He knew what was coming to these people, to God's people. And he knew why it was coming to them. While we don't have the perfect knowledge of times and places like Jesus, if we were to write out and say, you see a bad situation, and you go, this is how that's going to turn out. We can't say, and it's going to turn out like this, and this is what it's going to be like. And we couldn't describe it with the sort of accuracy that Jesus has.

And yet, we aren't left without any direction. We have God's word, and it teaches us everything we need to know about how to avoid this type of destruction, which I assume is what we would all want to do. If we face the proposition of, do you want everything that you know and love to be destroyed and leveled to the ground with you in it, we would all say, no, I don't want that. Please, no. What do I have to do to prevent that? Is there anything I can do? And the answer is yes, there is. Another way of asking that question is, what are the terms of peace? What does it take for there to be peace instead of destruction? Because in our text, these are the things that are set up in opposition to one another. If you had known the things which make for peace, since you don't, destruction is yours. And so what are the peace terms? What does it take to make peace? So what did the people of this time think it took to make peace? What kind of peace did they want?

We have to ask this question because they might think something different than we do. Well, this time, as I've mentioned in our study of Luke, as they're coming in with Jesus into the city, they're expecting peace to be established. That's why they're so excited. They think when Jesus comes into Jerusalem, all of the turmoil and all of the difficulties going to be reconciled and it's going to be done away with, it's going to stop. The Romans are going to go and we're going to get our stuff back. There's going to be peace. So they thought they knew, but they didn't. What they thought they needed was political freedom or national freedom. They needed the Romans to go away. They thought that's what they needed, but it's not what they needed. It's not what Jesus came to give them. What they needed was to recognize who Jesus was. That's what they needed. That's why they were destroyed, because they didn't recognize who he was. And because they didn't recognize who he was, they didn't find peace.

And they were destroyed. And so when Jesus speaks of their peace, and he says, if you had known this day, even you, the things which make for peace, he's lamenting to themselves their ignorance. They don't know what kind of peace they need. And I don't think that we're that different than them in terms of our priority. In our heads, I think we can say, yes, I need, above all else, I need peace with the Lord. I need reconciliation between him and me. Because here I am a sinner, and there he is a holy God. I need to fix that. That needs to be fixed because it doesn't end well for me. It ends in destruction that's worse and longer lasting than what they experienced. The Israelites, they didn't know that's what they needed. We know that's what we need, at least in our heads. But do we have it? Do we pursue it? When we read this text, it's meant to be a warning to us. There are different types of scriptures. Some are warnings. Some are encouragement. Some are teaching.

There's morals to the story. The moral of this story is that these people are going to be destroyed because of their ignorance. And that's sad to Jesus. That's it. In a nutshell, that's it. These people are going to die for lack of knowledge, and it grieves him. This is why he weeps. In 2 Peter 3, 9-11, Peter says, not wishing for any to perish, but for all to come to repentance. But the day of the Lord will come like a thief, in which the heavens will pass away with a roar, and the elements will be destroyed with intense heat, and the earth and its works will be burned up. Since all these things are to be destroyed in this way, what sort of people ought we to be then in holy conduct and godliness? If we know that there's a destruction coming, there's a judgment coming, which is what Jerusalem was going to face, what sort of people ought we to be then?

How ought we to live then? This is the question to us. We can say, well, I don't want to be the kind of person that gets destroyed. And I say, good. Who would want to? You ever talk to people and that's what they say? I don't care. I'm going to go to hell. I don't care. It's really a terrifying thing. I've had people say these sorts of things in conversation. I'm like, you don't know what you're talking about. You don't know what you're talking about. That's not something to say or thought to entertain. That's a very dangerous thing. So what sort of people ought we to be? Well, I could say we're supposed to be the kind of people who flee destruction and run to Jesus. And it would be the right answer. A right answer. But what I want to focus on this morning is something different. Which is, I want you to realize that your sin grieves the Lord. That's what I want you to realize. My sin grieves the Lord. He's not indifferent about it. And there's consequence for it.

But it's a grief to him. And I think too often in our lives, we do whatever we want because we think that it doesn't affect anybody. And we're wrong even in thinking that, even with regard to the people around us. But more importantly, we're wrong in thinking that God is indifferent. Because to think that no one is affected by our sin is to think that God is indifferent toward it. He doesn't care. He's either made provision for it and he's like, well, you know, sinners are going to sin. What else are you going to do? But that's not Jesus' disposition toward it. 2 Peter says that the Lord is patient toward us, not wishing that any would perish, but that all will come to repentance. And when Jesus looks at the city and sees their ignorance and sees their rebellion and their rejection of him, he weeps over it. And what else can you conclude except that he doesn't want them to be destroyed? If you've been around a while, you may remember me saying that God will glorify himself. In every situation, he will glorify himself. And so he's...

righteous and he's just when he judges people or judges lands. And he receives the glory of it, but he's glorified more and it's his desire to be glorified through repentance. Would he rather judge and destroy or see us repent and believe? Which way has he received more glory? Which way is delightful to him? Does he delight when the wicked perish in their way? In one sense, you could say, yeah, he does, because they're being wicked. But would he receive more glory if they repented, if they turned from their way, if they believed in him? The answer is yes, they would. And so this morning, I want you to see simply that when Jesus went into the city, he looked on their ignorance and their foolishness and their sin, and it was a grief to him. He didn't ignore it. He didn't go, well, they're on their own. He didn't turn around and go back up the mountain. He continued on his way down into the city to save those.

To save his people. If you were in Sunday school, I asked you a question. I said, what would you do if you ran into Jesus on the street? How would you respond to him? And toward the beginning of the class, we were talking like, well, I don't know that I'd go near him. I don't know that I'd feel like, you know, I'd feel like there was a distance or a gap. What would he say to me if I saw him? And I think the sentiment was, he'd tell me I'm a sinner and I need to straighten up. And the point I made then was, What should you say to him? If you saw Jesus in the street, how should you respond to him? You're a sinner. How should you respond to Jesus if you saw him in the street? Should we stay away? Should we get ourselves cleaned up? No, we should come to him. We should repent. We should hug him and kiss him and praise him, just like we are as sinners. And so there's all kinds of things that can keep us away from Jesus, that could keep us from repenting, that can make us believe we actually deserve

and ought to get what he says is going to happen to Jerusalem. But what kind of person sees their destruction and sees what they deserve and just goes, well, I guess I'll just have to have that then. In every other area of our life, if we have a problem, we seek to fix it. You have a headache? You want your headache to go away, you try to fix it. You break your arm? You don't just go, well, you know, I just got a broken arm now. I just have a broken arm and it'll hurt and it'll be miserable and I won't be able to use my hand or my arm and it's going to get all, it's going to get worse. I guess it's just, no, you go right to the doctor and you say, please put my arm back together. He says, how'd you break your arm? And you say, I jumped off of my roof. You just did something stupid, right? What do you say? You say, yeah, I did something stupid. Please, please, please fix it. It hurts. And so why is it that our sin would keep us away from Jesus? Why would we not go to him?

The only answer is, you don't want to. You don't want to. I want my sin. I want to keep it. And even to that person, as represented by Jerusalem, it's a grief to him. That they would be so foolish as to love their sin and forsake their Savior. And too often among us, that's what we do. We see our sin. There it is. We don't have perfect knowledge of it, but we see enough of it, and we're not making an excuse for it. That's the mess I've made. Okay, now what? You're feeling the consequences of it. Your disobedience, your sin has contributed to it. Now what are you going to do? Now what are you going to do? Are you going to stay in it or are you going to move out of it? Are you going to repent? Are you going to seek what makes for peace? In that moment, you see the division between you and God, the chasm between the two of you. Now what will you do? Will you live with no peace with God?

Is that what you want? You say, no, no, no, that's not what I want. And I say, good. I could tell you that's not true. And while that, you know, maybe it's not true. It's not true entirely. But if you don't want to live at odds with the Lord, then praise him for his kindness that you don't, because many people do. And then repent and turn away from your sin and pursue the things that make for peace, which is first believing what he has said and done. He's come to save sinners. And so if you're a sinner, you're a prime candidate. People come to church and go, well, I'm not like the people at church. I don't have my life all put together. Well, it'd be my desire that people who come through our doors wouldn't think that of us. Oh, they're those people who all have it all put together. Maybe more so than them because we've loved Jesus and are a little further down the road of cleaning up those messes. But not because we don't understand those messes and haven't made them in our own lives. Because we all have.

So first we believe what he's done. We believe that we would accept the terms of peace that God has offered to us, which is his son. And it seems so simple, but accepting a free gift from somebody, a really, really, really valuable gift, I think many of us wouldn't want to do it. You'd be much more likely to take $20 than $10,000. Someone said, hey, you need 20 bucks? Yeah, here you go, thanks. Hey, you need $10,000? No, no, I don't know. Am I the only one who's like that? I can take a little bit of kindness, but not a bunch. No, no, I don't need it. And because what you're saying is, I'm not that messed up. I can't take $10,000 because if I admit that I'm that much of an idiot, you might have a thought about me that doesn't reflect well on me. But with regard to our sin, we need far more than $10,000. And so the first thing along the way is to accept the terms of peace, which are that you're a sinner that doesn't deserve anything good from God.

Anything. And that he's offered it to you for free. But you have to acknowledge your need of it or you'll never accept it. It'll be too much. You'll have to admit too much about yourself that you don't want to own up to. You remember when Jesus was on trial and Pilate wouldn't kill Jesus. I haven't found anything wrong with this, but you kill him. And what did the Jews say at that time? Let his blood be on us and on our children. Remember? That's what they say to him. So then they take Jesus off and they kill him. And then after Jesus is resurrected and all of that, Peter's preaching. And what do the Pharisees have to say? You mean for us to bear this man's blood? It's like, uh-huh. Yeah, you killed him. And if you're to have peace with God, you have to accept the terms of peace, which are this. So it really is the first step. You believe that you're a sinner and you believe that God can't have anything to do with that.

and that he's made provision for you through his son and his blood so you can have peace with him. And if you reject it, the consequences are awful. There really is only one way to peace, and it's through Jesus Christ. And as Christians, you can't be ashamed of saying that or believing it, even if the world denies it. The world faces the destruction that Jerusalem faced. If you don't want to be a part of it, you can't believe what they believe or say what they say or live like they live. You have to live and think and speak like a Christian. And Jesus is the only way to have peace with God. And so the call to you this morning is simply to believe what God has said regarding your own sin. Some of you guys have, over the years, confessed particular sins, grievous sins. Some of you haven't had that sort of thing happen where there's some big, huge thing in your life that you've never admitted. Some of you have that in your life and you haven't admitted it yet to anybody.

And I can tell you that if you hold on to your sin, it will destroy you. And that's not God's intention or desire to have you destroyed. How do you know that, Dave? Well, because he wept over these people, and he either delights in the destruction of sinners, and that's what he gets his jollies from, or he delights in their salvation. And I'm persuaded that he delights far more in their salvation than their destruction. But for them to be saved, they have to repent. You and I have to repent. And not just once. Because we don't just sin once. You don't just repent when you become a Christian. The Christian life is a life of repentance. So long as you sin, you have to repent. So don't grieve the Lord with your sin, especially not by staying away when you commit a sin. If you've sinned, it's not news to anybody but you. And so come to the Lord in repentance and in faith and trust that he'll receive you. And that through his kindness and his mercy, you'll avoid the destruction that they faced.

This is our hope and this is our desire that we would not be destroyed. There are benefits to us as Christians that the rest of the world don't enjoy. Communion with God, peace with him through the blood of his son. And so come to him. How can I come? What about this sin? No one else in the world might know about it, but I promise you that the Lord already knows. He hasn't missed it. You haven't fooled him. And there's no reason for it to keep you from him. So confess your sins. Trust in what he's said. And be a Christian. Live like a Christian. Be freed from the destruction that they faced and that everyone will face who doesn't bow their knee before Jesus. Come to him. That's the call to you this morning. Let's pray.