Dakota Community Church
April 17, 2011
Hour of Visitation
Luke 19:37-44
When he came near the place where the road goes down the Mount of Olives, the whole crowd of disciples began joyfully to praise God in loud voices for all the miracles they had seen:
38 “Blessed is the king who comes in the name of the Lord!”
“Peace in heaven and glory in the highest!”
39 Some of the Pharisees in the crowd said to Jesus, “Teacher, rebuke your disciples!”
40 “I tell you,” he replied, “if they keep quiet, the stones will cry out.”
41 As he approached Jerusalem and saw the city, he wept over it 42 and said, “If you, even you, had only known on this day what would bring you peace—but now it is hidden from your eyes. 43 The days will come upon you when your enemies will build an embankment against you and encircle you and hem you in on every side. 44 They will dash you to the ground, you and the children within your walls. They will not leave one stone on another, because you did not recognize the time of God’s coming to you.”
So here he stands before the city as a king who in a matter of days will be crucified by his rebel subjects. What will he do? What will he say?
As he approached Jerusalem and saw the city, he wept over it and said, “If you, even you, had only known on this day what would bring you peace—but now it is hidden from your eyes. The days will come upon you when your enemies will build an embankment against you and encircle you and hem you in on every side. They will dash you to the ground, you and the children within your walls. They will not leave one stone on another, because you did not recognize the time of God’s coming to you.”
Three truths we can glean from the words of Jesus at this pivotal moment in His life:
1. A visiting God with ignorant people.
The term “visitation” is used to describe God’s coming to His people for the purpose of either saving or judging.
Genesis 50:24 (Saving)
And Joseph said to his brothers, "I am about to die, but God will visit you and bring you up out of this land to the land that he swore to Abraham, to Isaac, and to Jacob."
Isaiah 29:5-6 (Judging)
But the multitude of your foreign foes shall be like small dust, and the multitude of the ruthless like passing chaff. And in an instant, suddenly, you will be visited by the LORD of hosts with thunder and with earthquake and great noise, with whirlwind and tempest, and the flame of a devouring fire.
Visitation appears two other times in this same book and helps to define what Luke is saying:
Luke 1:67-69
And his father Zechariah was filled with the Holy Spirit and prophesied, saying, "Blessed be the Lord God of Israel, for he has visited and redeemed his people and has raised up a horn of salvation for us in the house of his servant David…
Luke 7:15-16
And the dead man sat up and began to speak, and Jesus gave him to his mother. Fear seized them all, and they glorified God, saying, "A great prophet has arisen among us!" and "God has visited his people!"
When Jesus says, "You did not know the time of your visitation," he means, "You did not know that my coming to you is the coming of God for your redemption, your salvation."
They were ignorant concerning the time in which they lived.
God, in Jesus Christ, had come into the world in a way that He never had before. The time was unique, and the chosen people were mostly oblivious.
Luke 12:54-56
"When you see a cloud rising in the west, you say at once, 'A shower is coming.' And so it happens. And when you see the south wind blowing, you say, 'There will be scorching heat,' and it happens. You hypocrites! You know how to interpret the appearance of earth and sky, but why do you not know how to interpret the present time?
This raises the question as to why they were so unaware of the monumental time in which they lived. How did they miss this? God living amoung them, feeding the hungry, healing the sick, raising the dead, forgiving sin – rescuing the lost sheep.
Another great question is how can God judge these people; especially in the harsh way Jesus describes, for NOT knowing something?
2. Judgment for not knowing what may be known.
These people are not facing judgment for something they have no way of knowing – God has made it clear to them – they have chosen not to know.
Luke 13:34
“O Jerusalem, Jerusalem, you who kill the prophets and stone those sent to you, how often I have longed to gather your children together, as a hen gathers her chicks under her wings, but you were not willing!
Jesus went a long way to clarify that the current expectations for a political, warrior Messiah were misguided.
Luke 11:19-20
Now if I drive out demons by Beelzebub, by whom do your followers drive them out? So then, they will be your judges. 20 But if I drive out demons by the finger of God, then the kingdom of God has come to you.
He told them the terms of peace repeatedly and demonstrated with power that He was who He claimed to be.
“If you, even you, had only known on this day what would bring you peace—but now it is hidden from your eyes.
Luke 14:25-32
25Now great crowds accompanied him, and he turned and said to them, "If anyone comes to me and does not hate his own father and mother and wife and children and brothers and sisters, yes, and even his own life, he cannot be my disciple. 27 Whoever does not bear his own cross and come after me cannot be my disciple. 28 For which of you, desiring to build a tower, does not first sit down and count the cost, whether he has enough to complete it? 29 Otherwise, when he has laid a foundation and is not able to finish, all who see it begin to mock him, 30 saying, 'This man began to build and was not able to finish.' 31 Or what king, going out to encounter another king in war, will not sit down first and deliberate whether he is able with ten thousand to meet him who comes against him with twenty thousand? 32 And if not, while the other is yet a great way off, he sends a delegation and asks for terms of peace. 33 So therefore, any one of you who does not renounce all that he has cannot be my disciple.
Jesus approaches Jerusalem for the last time - a king coming to a rebellious city, a hotbed of resistance against his rightful authority. The king is willing to make peace, but only on his own terms.
3. Peace on God’s terms alone.
We too – every man – must accept peace on Gods terms alone!
2 Corinthians 5:16-21
So from now on we regard no one from a worldly point of view. Though we once regarded Christ in this way, we do so no longer. 17 Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; the old has gone, the new has come! 18 All this is from God, who reconciled us to himself through Christ and gave us the ministry of reconciliation: 19 that God was reconciling the world to himself in Christ, not counting men’s sins against them. And he has committed to us the message of reconciliation. 20 We are therefore Christ’s ambassadors, as though God were making his appeal through us. We implore you on Christ’s behalf: Be reconciled to God. 21 God made him who had no sin to be sin for us, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God.
Acts 4:12
Salvation is found in no one else, for there is no other name under heaven given to men by which we must be saved.”
PowerPoint available (Free of charge) on request dcormie@mts.net
