Jesus’ Heart For The Lost
Text: Lk. 19:41-44
Introduction
1. Illustration: Charles Spurgeon may have been the most evangelistic preachers to ever walk the earth. His heart hurt for lost people like no other preacher that I have read. Listen to what he said about hell: "If sinners be damned, at least let them leap to hell over our bodies. And if they perish, let them perish with our arms about their knees, imploring them to stay. If hell must be filled, at least let it be filled in the teeth of our exertions and let not one go there unwarned or unprayed for."
2. Charles Spurgeon got his heart for the lost from Jesus. You see, it was more than Jesus’ mission to save the lost, it was also his passion.
3. In our text this morning we see that when it comes to lost people Jesus’…
a. Heart Breaks
b. Sees Their Future
4. Read Lk. 19:41-44
Proposition: Like Jesus, we need to have a passion to reach the lost.
Transition: When it comes to the lost, Jesus’…
I. Heart Breaks (41-42).
A. Began to Weep
1. As Jesus continues his journey to the cross, Luke tells us, “But as he came closer to Jerusalem and saw the city ahead, he began to weep.”
a. As Jesus got within sight of Jerusalem Luke tells us he began to weep.
b. The reason that he wept was not because of what was about to happen to him.
c. No, when we look at the different times that Jesus wept in the Gospels it was never for himself, but rather because of his concern for others.
d. In fact, as Jesus was going to the crucifixion, he tells the women weeping for him, “Daughters of Jerusalem, don’t weep for me, but weep for yourselves and for your children.” (Lk. 23:28).
e. He was like the OT prophets whose hearts broke for the people. Like the prophet Jeremiah, the weeping prophet, who said, “My grief is beyond healing; my heart is broken.” (Jer. 8:18).
2. As he gazed into Jerusalem, his heart broke because he knew what was coming for Jerusalem. In v. 42 Jesus says, “How I wish today that you of all people would understand the way to peace. But now it is too late, and peace is hidden from your eyes.”
a. It’s ironic that Jesus says that he wished they understand the way of peace, because the name Jerusalem means “peace.”
b. It was a city whose identity was all about peace, but they were rejecting the very means of their peace, Jesus himself.
c. The city of peace was rejecting the Prince of Peace.
d. If they had only realized that the way to peace was right in front of them.
e. If they had only understood that the way to peace, the Messiah, was right in front of them and all they had to do was embrace and accept him.
f. But the Jewish leaders rejected their long-awaited Messiah: they rejected God’s offer of salvation in Jesus Christ even though God came to earth and became like them.
g. But now it was too late, and the truth was hidden from their eyes.
B. Sheep Without a Shepherd
1. Illustration: “If your heart does not bleed for the unsaved, chances are you are not saved yourself” (Michael Boadi Nyamekye)
2. Our hearts need to be so broken for the lost that we would storm the gates of hell itself to reach them.
a. “When he saw the crowds, he had compassion on them because they were confused and helpless, like sheep without a shepherd.” (Matt. 9:36)
b. Story about my time in Amsterdam
c. We need to ask God to cause our hearts to break for the lost the way his does.
d. We need to ask God to put a burden on our hearts for our unsaved loved ones.
e. We need to ask God to put a burden on our hearts for the unsaved that live next door to us.
f. We need to ask God to put a burden on our hears for those we meet every day.
g. Then we need to ask God to open the door for us to share the Gospel with them.
h. Oh God, let our hearts bleed for the lost today.
Transition: The reason that Jesus’ heart is broken for the lost is because he…
II. Sees Their Future (43-44).
A. Before Long
1. The reason for Jesus’ grief was he knew that judgement is soon to come upon Jerusalem. Just as in the OT when the Israelites rejected the Lord and sinned against him, soon disaster would come upon them.
2. In v. 43, Jesus says, “Before long your enemies will build ramparts against your walls and encircle you and close in on you from every side.”
a. About forty years after Jesus uttered these words, they came true.
b. In AD 66 the Jews revolted against their Roman occupiers.
c. Three years later Titus, son of the Roman Emperor, was sent to crush the rebellion and that’s exactly what he did.
d. In all about 600,000 Jews died during Titus’s campaign.
e. This judgement came because they had rejected the Lord’s Anointed.
f. Jesus declared that their enemies would build ramparts against your walls and enclose you in on every side.
g. History tells us that this is exactly what happened. In fact, the Romans built walls around Jerusalem so that no one could get in or out.
h. They literally began dying of hunger and thirst.
3. In v. 44, Jesus continued his pronouncement of judgement saying, “They will crush you into the ground, and your children with you. Your enemies will not leave a single stone in place, because you did not recognize it when God visited you.”
a. Once they Romans weakened the people in the city from starvation and thirst, they attacked them without mercy.
b. As Jesus predicted they crushed the city and killed men, women and children.
c. They leveled the city walls and destroyed the Temple.
d. Again, as Jesus predicted, not one stone was left standing upon another.
e. Then Jesus gives the reason why all of this took place, “because you did not recognize when God visited you.”
f. God sent them the Messiah they had long anticipated, but instead of embracing him with joy and excitement the way that Zacchaeus did, they instead shouted “Crucify him!”
g. By rejecting him they chose judgement rather than salvation.
B. Here I am Lord
1. Illustration: My Friend My friend, I stand in judgment now. And I feel that you are to blame somehow. On earth I walked with you day by day. But never did you point the way. You knew the Lord, In His truth and His glory. But never did you share the story! My knowledge then was very dim. You could have lead me safely to Him. You taught me many things, This is true. I called you friend, And I trusted you. But I have learned, And now it is too late. You could have kept me from this fate, We walked by day, And talked by night, And yet you showed me not the light. You let me live and love, and die. You knew I would never live on high. Yes, I called you friend in life, I trusted you through joy and strife. And yet on coming to this end, I see you really weren’t my friend. --D. J. Higgins
2. We need our hearts to bleed for the lost because we know what their future holds if they do not come to Jesus.
a. “Then I heard the Lord asking, “Whom should I send as a messenger to this people? Who will go for us?” I said, “Here I am. Send me.” (Is. 6:8)
b. Our hearts need to bleed for the lost because we know what the Scriptures say.
c. “For this is how God loved the world: He gave his one and only Son, so that everyone who believes in him will not perish but have eternal life. 17 God sent his Son into the world not to judge the world, but to save the world through him. 18 “There is no judgment against anyone who believes in him. But anyone who does not believe in him has already been judged for not believing in God’s one and only Son. 19 And the judgment is based on this fact: God’s light came into the world, but people loved the darkness more than the light, for their actions were evil.” ((Jn. 3:16-19).
d. Our hearts need to bleed for the lost because we know that Jesus is the only way to heaven.
e. “There is salvation in no one else! God has given no other name under heaven by which we must be saved.” (Acts 4:12)
f. Our hearts need to bleed for the lost because we do not want them to face eternity in hell.
g. Most of all, our hearts need to bleed for the lost because we want them to experience the joy that we have found in the Lord.
h. Does your heart bleed for the lost today?
Conclusion
1. Charles Spurgeon got his heart for the lost from Jesus. You see, it was more than Jesus’ mission to save the lost, it was also his passion.
2. In our text this morning we see that when it comes to lost people Jesus’…
a. Heart Breaks
b. Sees Their Future
3. What’s the point? Jesus’ heart bled for the lost so much that he was willing to go the cross for them. What are you willing to do for them?
