The Terms of Peace
Text: Luke 19:39-44
Happy St. Patty’s Day everyone! It’s a week before Palm Sunday… two weeks before Resurrection Sunday, and I’m super excited. I love celebrating the Resurrection! I’m glad you’re here with us. I’m thankful. And I want to encourage you to invite someone for Palm Sunday services next Sunday, and for our Resurrection Sunday service in two weeks.
And so, today, we’re going to tune our hearts toward the final week that Jesus was on earth. We’re going to be looking at one event in particular that took place during that final week, and I pray that God encourages you, takes hold of your heart, and deepens your faith as we do that.
If you have your Bibles, please open them up to Luke 19:39-44 (READ).
Ok… so this section of Scripture that we just read, is part of the Triumphal Entry. Jesus is traveling toward Jerusalem, from Bethpage and Bethany. The Disciples have already gotten the young donkey and Jesus is riding it. The crowds – some who have been traveling with Jesus, and some who have come out to meet Him… they’ve thrown their cloaks down as Jesus rides toward Jerusalem. And as they are coming down the Mt. of Olives, the people were shouting Hosanna! They were singing. They were celebrating. The Pharisees have already told Jesus to make them be quiet, and He said, if they were silent, the stones would cry out. And as all of that is going on, Jesus stops and looks out at the city of Jerusalem, and He begins to weep.
And look at what He says here, “If only you knew, the things that make for peace.” And what we need to understand here is that all of Israel, all of these people, all of the crowds shouting Hosana! Hosana, Blessed is He who comes in the Name of the Lord…. They were ignorant. Not innocently ignorant, WILLFULLY IGNORANT! Judgment was coming upon them. And according to verse 44 its coming on them because they did not know the time of their visitation.
Now that term “visitation” has to do with God coming to His people, either to judge them, or to save them. Luke consistently uses that term in reference to the Lord bringing salvation to His people. So when Jesus says this, He was meaning that they did not recognize that His coming was for their redemption and salvation from sin. They were looking for an earthly, political leader, who was going to liberate them from Roman rule.
We’ve actually been seeing that in our study of John’s Gospel… These people aren’t interested in getting right with God. They don’t want freedom from sin… they want freedom from Roman rule.
Look again at what Jesus says in verse 42 (READ).
Luke uses the same Greek words earlier… in Luke chapter 14. Let’s turn there, because I really want you all to see what’s being said here: (READ Luke 14:31-32):
“Terms of peace” or “Conditions of peace”… “The things that make for peace.” It’s the same phrase in the Greek that’s used in both passages. So, the picture we get is that of the King of Kings and Lord of Lords coming to a rebellious people, and He’s willing to make peace, but only on HIS terms. And His terms were told time and time again. In the Old Testament through the Law and Prophets. Remember Jesus said, “If you believed Moses you would believe in Me, for Moses wrote about Me.” He said, “Abraham looked forward to My day and he rejoiced.” The terms were given in the Gospels by John the Baptist and Jesus Himself. And even the angels announced that God desired to make peace with rebellious, sinful man – Remember the Christmas narrative in Luke 2:13-14, when the angels shout out, “Glory to God in the highest, and on earth – peace to those with whom He is pleased.”
These people should have known the terms of peace – but they rejected them. They should’ve known their time of visitation.
There are more than 300 Old Testament prophecies fulfilled in Jesus, but they rejected Him. They were looking for a political, earthly king to deliver them from Roman rule and bring them back to Israel’s glory days, when David and Solomon sat on the throne. But time and time again Jesus went a long way to show them that they were mistaken. The promised Messiah was coming to crush the head of the serpent! He had come to redeem fallen man from sin and death. He came to fulfill the Law and to be a sacrifice for sin. Not to be some political, earthly, king. Jesus even would tell Pilate about a week later, “My Kingdom is not of this world.”
So during His first Advent, Jesus’ plan wasn’t to set up an earthly kingdom – His plan was to fulfill the terms that God required in order to make peace with sinful man. His plan was to go to the cross, and die for man’s sin. Now granted, the day is coming, when Jesus will come again, and He will rule and reign in the New Heavens and New Earth.
And so, the terms of peace were given, but they were refused and rejected.
In Luke 13:34 Jesus described this rejection… He says, “O Jerusalem, Jerusalem, the city that kills the prophets and stones those who are sent to it! How often I would have gathered your children together as a hen gathers her brood under her wings, and you were not willing.”
And so… as Jesus approaches the city, and He looks upon it… He pronounces judgment. And when that announcement was made, it was all over. God had given them over to their own sin. That’s what Romans 1:18-32 tells us happens when people continually reject God. God gives them over. Judgment is declared and ordained by God Himself upon rebellious people, and it comes suddenly!
The people of Jerusalem thought they could go on doing what they were doing, rejecting the terms of peace offered by Christ, rejecting the salvation offered by Christ, rejecting Christ Himself. And so they went about doing what they had always done. Living life as if there was no God. God is an after-thought. Oh sure, on the Sabbath, they’ll think about God… but during the rest of the week, He is far from their thoughts. They profess Him with their mouths, but their hearts are far from Him.
But judgment has been proclaimed… And in 70 A.D. Rome surrounded and attacked the city of Jerusalem. The Christians fled to the hills and amazingly escaped – because they had remembered the words of Jesus from Matthew 24… but the Jewish people – those who had not believed – they were slaughtered. Historians tell us that over 1 million were killed or starved to death. They city was ransacked, the temple was torn down and completely destroyed… and all of that occurred less than 40 years from the time Jesus stood on the Mount and wept, less than 40 years since He said these words.
ONE GENERATION. One generation until the judgment of God fell.
I want you to go back up to the beginning of our text. Verses 39 & 40 (READ).
See this was all during the Triumphal Entry. The crowds were shouting Hosanna! SAVE US LORD! That’s what they were shouting… in five days they were shouting “CRUCIFY HIM!” And they were on the Mt. of Olives, probably pretty close to the temple… and the Pharisees said, “Make your disciples be quiet!” And Jesus said, “If they are silent, these stones would cry out.” Do you think maybe Jesus might have pointed to the stones of the temple? And a week later, they were silent. No one was crying “SAVE US LORD!” They had been effectively silenced. Silenced by fear. Silenced by their own sinful desires. And the stones… the stones, were torn down, not one left standing. All that’s left is one area of the western Temple wall… interestingly enough it’s called the “Wailing Wall”… the stones are crying out! Not in lament of the loss of temple, but in lament at the rejection of the Savior. And the Romans weren’t done after they destroyed the temple and the city… they then went through the land and devastated 985 towns and villages – just a total rampage of death and destruction.
Church, do you understand why we must be so serious about sharing the Gospel with the lost? Why I’m always urging you to do that? Why we are always looking for those opportunities to be intentional about sharing the Good News? Do you understand why it’s important that we examine our hearts and see whether or not our faith is genuine?
I can’t help but wonder how long we have here in the U.S? Where people name the Name of Christ, yet live like the world? Where the blood of 60 million + aborted babies cry out to the Lord daily? Where immorality and perversion grows more and more accepted every day? Corruption, lawlessness, wickedness. Harming children. It's disgusting! We’re probably worse than Jerusalem was… we may be worse than Nineveh was! We may be worse than Sodom was!
When you see the immorality, and perversion, and filth that you see in our world today, you have to understand that we are already under judgment. Our nation has already been turned over. I hope you understand that God judges individuals, He judges cities, He judges regions, and He judges nations.
And the more access to the knowledge of the truth, the more sever the judgment.
Make sure you get that. It’s like I said earlier – these people were ignorant. But they were ignorant because they refused to learn and study. They hated truth, and loved darkness, and so they would not come to the light. They are not innocently ignorant – they were willfully ignorant!
I’m going to say something, and I hope it doesn’t upset anyone… but it’s true… and it’s like a friend of mine used to say, “If the truth makes you uncomfortable, don’t blame the truth, blame the lie that made you comfortable.”
So here’s the truth – It’s 232 days until the election… and your political candidate, and my political candidate, even if they get elected – they CANNOT save this nation. At best we get a sort of reprieve… but the only Savior is Jesus Christ!
Now some of you might be sitting here this morning, or watching online, and you’re saying, “Oh my goodness – this is depressing.”
BUT THERE’S SOMETHING IMPORTANT THAT I DON’T WANT YOU TO MISS.
The terms of peace that God offers to sinful, rebellious man, are still being extended to this very day.
Our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ is always eager, and willing to make peace – Remember, that’s why He came – to make peace between God and man, to take our sin upon Himself as He hung on that cross and pay for them in full. To redeem us back to God.
You see; Jesus didn’t just pay for our sin – He paid for you! You are bought with a price; you are not your own. Our new life is found in Him, and we are the purchase of God!
He longs to make peace - - - but it has to be on His terms.
Turn from your sins and turn to Jesus Christ in faith.
He is our only hope.
CLOSING
