“When [Jesus] drew near and saw the city, he wept over it, saying, ‘Would that you, even you, had known on this day the things that make for peace! But now they are hidden from your eyes. For the days will come upon you, when your enemies will set up a barricade around you and surround you and hem you in on every side and tear you down to the ground, you and your children within you. And they will not leave one stone upon another in you, because you did not know the time of your visitation.’” [1]
Have you ever found yourself moved to tears as you looked down on our community? I recognise that I have aged and that I have become just another emotionally labile old man. Consequently, I find that as I approach my home having visited in the countryside, as I top the last hill before dropping down toward Pouce Coupe or beginning the descent leading to the west side of town where we live, I often pause to look over the scene as our town first comes into view. Dawson Creek is not a large community, but it is a lovely town and a pleasant place to live. It is a community filled with great people who are noted for friendliness as well as being an industrious people.
For me, approaching the town proves to be a moving experience that often touches my emotions. The sense of home combined with the thought of the lost people living about me cannot help but stir my emotions. While the people living here are good people, truly salt-of-the-earth sort of people, those who are openly followers of Christ by no means constitute a majority. I am well aware that I’m turning into a rheumy-eyed old man, easily moved to tears at the plight of those among whom I live. Still, I am aware that many of my neighbours, dear friends though they are, make no pretense of serving the Lord, and that knowledge weighs on my heart. You see, I realise the consequences of passing into eternity without the security of the new birth into God’s Family.
Jesus, approaching Jerusalem, looked down on the city and He wept. Jesus was adamant that knowing what was coming upon the city moved Him to weep. We might well ask what specifically moved Jesus to tears. When we do ask that question, I suggest that the things that moved Jesus to tears still moves to tears those in whom the Spirit of Christ resides. Let’s think about those issues now. My prayer is that some who hear the message may come to the realisation that God seeks to do everything possible to redeem lost souls. And that includes lost people even today.
JESUS WEPT BECAUSE PEOPLE ARE PRECIOUS TO GOD — It is perhaps insightful to recognise that though Jesus is noted for His compassion, He is not depicted as weeping frequently. In fact, I can find only two instances in the Gospel records of Jesus being moved to tears. Thus, it is significant to note the occasions Jesus did weep. The Gospel writers speak of Jesus being moved with compassion on several significant occasions. Two blind men pleading to be released from the enveloping darkness moved the Master to compassion [see MATTHEW 20:29-34 NET 2nd], as did the plea of a leper [see MARK 1:40-41].
The sight of a friend weeping in grief at the death of her brother moved Jesus deeply, leaving Him troubled in His Spirit. In fact, He was so troubled that He was moved to tears. Here is the account that is provided by the Apostle John. “Now when Mary came to where Jesus was and saw him, she fell at his feet, saying to him, ‘Lord, if you had been here, my brother would not have died.’ When Jesus saw her weeping, and the Jews who had come with her also weeping, he was deeply moved in his spirit and greatly troubled. And he said, ‘Where have you laid him?’ They said to him, ‘Lord, come and see.’ Jesus wept” [JOHN 11:32-35].
This occasion and the time Jesus wept that is recorded in our text are the only record we have of the tears of Jesus. So, what can we say about the tears of Jesus from these two times? According to the event recorded in John’s Gospel, Jesus’ tears were preceded by the evident grief expressed by Mary. Perhaps a deeper review of this incident will assist us in discovering what would move the Lord to tears.
Informed that His friend Lazarus was desperately ill, Jesus gave no evidence of being especially concerned. He did say to His disciples, “This illness does not lead to death. It is for the glory of God, so that the Son of God may be glorified through it” [JOHN 11:4]. After receiving the message from Lazarus’ two sisters, Jesus did nothing about responding for two days.
Suddenly on the third day, Jesus said, “Let us go to Judea again” [JOHN 11:7]. The disciples were confused because the reaction seemed strange considering His lack of response for the previous time. They had thought that He wasn’t going out of fear for the Jewish authorities who had sought to stone Him. Jesus, however, had a mission, a mission encapsulated by His statement, “Our friend Lazarus has fallen asleep, but I go to awaken him” [JOHN 11:11]. The disciples were even more confused because they thought the Master was saying that Lazarus was getting much needed rest that would lead to a recovery. However, Jesus really blew them away when He said, “Lazarus has died, and for your sake I am glad that I was not there, so that you may believe. But let us go to him” [JOHN 11:14-15].
By this time, Lazarus had been wrapped for burial and entombed for four days. When the sisters heard that Jesus had come, Martha rushed to meet Him, but Mary remained in the home. How pathetic was Martha’s words when she at last saw the Master. “Lord, if you had been here, my brother would not have died. But even now I know that whatever you ask from God, God will give you” [JOHN 11:21-22]. When Jesus assured her, “Your brother will rise again” [JOHN 11:23], Marthas’ response revealed her faith. This woman asserted, “I know that he will rise again in the resurrection on the last day” [JOHN 11:24].
It was at this point that Jesus uttered one of the greatest and most comforting statements recorded in all the Gospels. Jesus said, “I am the resurrection and the life. Whoever believes in me, though he die, yet shall he live, and everyone who lives and believes in me shall never die. Do you believe this” [JOHN 11:25-26]? And responded as believers have responded since that time, “Yes, Lord; I believe that you are the Christ, the Son of God, who is coming into the world” [JOHN 11:27]. Her testimony looked at that present time, and thus she spoke of Him coming at that time into the world. We, in this present day, understand that the Son of God has come into the world, and that He will come again, and thus we look back to His first coming and testify that He has come into the world.
Martha sent for Mary, informing her, “The Teacher is here and is calling for you” [JOHN 11:28].’ Receiving this message, Mary rushed to meet the Master. Seeing Jesus, Mary fell at His feet, crying out, “Lord, if you had been here, my brother would not have died” [JOHN 11:32]. Seeing Mary weeping, as were those who had come with her, the Master was deeply moved in his spirit and greatly troubled. Overcome by the deep grief displayed before Him, Jesus asked, “Where have you laid him” [JOHN 11:34]? It was at this point that His emotions were stirred so deeply that we are told that Jesus could no longer be unmoved. Therefore, we read, “Jesus wept” [JOHN 11:35]!
People matter to Jesus. How else can we understand the justly notable testimony, “God so loved the world, that he gave his only Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life” [JOHN 3:16]?
That the Son of God loves us is emphasised when the Apostle of Love writes, “This is how God’s love was revealed among us: God sent his unique Son into the world so that we might live through him. This is love: not that we have loved God, but that he loved us and sent his Son to be the atoning sacrifice for our sins” [1 JOHN 4:9-10 ISV].
Perhaps someone listens at this hour who thinks, “Jesus doesn’t care about me.” Such a one must encourage herself or himself by clinging to the words of the Big Fisherman, who has written, “Humble yourselves, therefore, under the mighty hand of God so that at the proper time he may exalt you, casting all your anxieties on him, because he cares for you” [1 PETER 5:6-7].
Jesus Himself has promised, “All things have been handed over to me by my Father, and no one knows the Son except the Father, and no one knows the Father except the Son and anyone to whom the Son chooses to reveal him. Come to me, all who labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you, and learn from me, for I am gentle and lowly in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. For my yoke is easy, and my burden is light” [MATTHEW 11:27-30].
People are precious to God, and the Son of God will receive you because you are precious to Him. He calls you, inviting you to receive the life that He offers, life that is lived without condemnation, life free of guilt, life that is offered freely to you even now. God offers you the forgiveness of sin when He says, “Now, apart from the Law, God’s righteousness is revealed and is attested by the Law and the Prophets—God’s righteousness through the faithfulness of Jesus the Messiah—for all who believe. For there is no distinction among people, since all have sinned and continue to fall short of God’s glory. By his grace they are justified freely through the redemption that is in the Messiah Jesus, whom God offered as a place where atonement by the Messiah’s blood would occur through faith. He did this to demonstrate his righteousness, because he had waited patiently to deal with sins committed in the past” [ROMANS 3:21-25 ISV].
Christ the Lord promises everyone, “While we were still helpless, at the right time Christ died for the ungodly. (For rarely will anyone die for a righteous person, though for a good person perhaps someone might possibly dare to die.) But God demonstrates his own love for us, in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us. Much more then, because we have now been declared righteous by his blood, we will be saved through him from God’s wrath. For if while we were enemies we were reconciled to God through the death of his Son, how much more, since we have been reconciled, will we be saved by his life? Not only this, but we also rejoice in God through our Lord Jesus Christ, through whom we have now received this reconciliation” [ROMANS 5:6-11 NET 2ND].
JESUS WEPT BECAUSE PEOPLE DID NOT KNOW GOD — Jesus presented Himself to the people as the Anointed One Who was promised, and they would not accept Him. John writes, “The true light, which gives light to everyone, was coming into the world. He was in the world, and the world was made through him, yet the world did not know him. He came to his own, and his own people did not receive him. But to all who did receive him, who believed in his name, he gave the right to become children of God, who were born, not of blood nor of the will of the flesh nor of the will of man, but of God.
“And the Word became flesh and dwelt among us, and we have seen his glory, glory as of the only Son from the Father, full of grace and truth” [JOHN 1:9-14].
It is mindboggling to realise how many people know about God though they do not know God! Jeremiah penned the LORD’s complaint against the people who should have served Him. The Weeping Prophet wrote,
“I brought you into a plentiful land
to enjoy its fruits and its good things.
But when you came in, you defiled my land
and made my heritage an abomination.
The priests did not say, ‘Where is the LORD?’
Those who handle the law did not know me;
the shepherds transgressed against me;
the prophets prophesied by Baal
and went after things that do not profit.”
[JEREMIAH 2:7-8]
Jesus had declared Himself to be the light of the world only to be derisively dismissed as a fraud by the Pharisees. When He cited the Law in support of His claims, these religious leaders again dismissed His claim, saying, “Where is your Father?” Take careful note of Jesus’ answer. “You know neither me nor my Father. If you knew me, you would know my Father also” [JOHN 8:19]. These religious leaders knew neither the Father nor the Son; they were ignorant of the God they claimed to serve! This is astounding! Religious leaders who were experts in ritualistic minutiae were ignorant of the God they professed to worship.
In the opening words of the First Letter to the Church of God in Corinth, Paul writes, “The word of the cross is folly to those who are perishing, but to us who are being saved it is the power of God. For it is written,
‘I will destroy the wisdom of the wise,
and the discernment of the discerning I will thwart.’
Where is the one who is wise? Where is the scribe? Where is the debater of this age? Has not God made foolish the wisdom of the world? For since, in the wisdom of God, the world did not know God through wisdom, it pleased God through the folly of what we preach to save those who believe” [1 CORINTHIANS 1:20-21]. Neither wisdom nor religion could reveal God to the inhabitants of the world. In fact, the religious leaders continually veered into the ditch and misled those seeking God.
The great tragedy is that the inhabitants of this world are ignorant of God and of His mercy. The professed worshippers of the Lord God are too often indistinguishable from the lost souls about them. That this is the case becomes evident when the Apostle is compelled to urge followers of the Christ to follow the Saviour rather than adopting the attitude of this dying world. Thus, Paul writes, “Finally, then, brothers, we ask and urge you in the Lord Jesus, that as you received from us how you ought to walk and to please God, just as you are doing, that you do so more and more. For you know what instructions we gave you through the Lord Jesus. For this is the will of God, your sanctification: that you abstain from sexual immorality; that each one of you know how to control his own body in holiness and honor, not in the passion of lust like the Gentiles who do not know God; that no one transgress and wrong his brother in this matter, because the Lord is an avenger in all these things, as we told you beforehand and solemnly warned you. For God has not called us for impurity, but in holiness. Therefore whoever disregards this, disregards not man but God, who gives his Holy Spirit to you” [1 THESSALONIANS 4:1-8].
Later, writing this same congregation, Paul would remind the Thessalonians, “[The steadfastness and faith in the face of persecution and affliction] is evidence of the righteous judgment of God, that [followers of Christ] may be considered worthy of the kingdom of God, for which you are also suffering— since indeed God considers it just to repay with affliction those who afflict you, and to grant relief to you who are afflicted as well as to us, when the Lord Jesus is revealed from heaven with his mighty angels in flaming fire, inflicting vengeance on those who do not know God and on those who do not obey the gospel of our Lord Jesus. They will suffer the punishment of eternal destruction, away from the presence of the Lord and from the glory of his might, when he comes on that day to be glorified in his saints, and to be marveled at among all who have believed, because our testimony to you was believed” [2 THESSALONIANS 1:5-10].
Nothing much has changed in the ensuing two millennia. To this day, too many of our fellow occupants of this terrestrial orb still live as though there is no tomorrow. However, as I frequently remind people, the statistics of death are pretty solid and so very amazing—one out of one die. The issue before each person is not “if,” it is “when.”
Among the sayings of the Wise is one proverb that is unsettling for each of us who name the Name of the Saviour.
“If you faint in the day of adversity,
your strength is small.
Rescue those who are being taken away to death;
hold back those who are stumbling to the slaughter.
If you say, ‘Behold, we did not know this,’
does not he who weighs the heart perceive it?
Does not he who keeps watch over your soul know it,
and will he not repay man according to his work?”
[PROVERBS 24:10-12]
We know that most people do not know Christ nor do they know the freedom He extends. Do we who know Him have an obligation to tell others? Assuredly, we are responsible to tell the lost of the life we have found in Him.
JESUS WEPT BECAUSE JUDGEMENT WAS COMING — We know that Jesus wept over Jerusalem because He knew that an awful judgement was coming upon the city. We read, “Would that you, even you, had known on this day the things that make for peace! But now they are hidden from your eyes. For the days will come upon you, when your enemies will set up a barricade around you and surround you and hem you in on every side and tear you down to the ground, you and your children within you. And they will not leave one stone upon another in you, because you did not know the time of your visitation” [LUKE 19:42-44].
The prophecy delivered at this time is not to be equated with that recorded in Mark’s Gospel. In Mark’s Gospel, we read of another similar prophecy, but one which looks much farther into the future. Mark records this account which is important if only to distinguish it from the one in our text. “As [Jesus] sat on the Mount of Olives opposite the temple, Peter and James and John and Andrew asked him privately, ‘Tell us, when will [the destruction of the Temple] be, and what will be the sign when all these things are about to be accomplished?’ And Jesus began to say to them, ‘See that no one leads you astray. Many will come in my name, saying, “I am he!” and they will lead many astray. And when you hear of wars and rumors of wars, do not be alarmed. This must take place, but the end is not yet. For nation will rise against nation, and kingdom against kingdom. There will be earthquakes in various places; there will be famines. These are but the beginning of the birth pains.
“But be on your guard. For they will deliver you over to councils, and you will be beaten in synagogues, and you will stand before governors and kings for my sake, to bear witness before them. And the gospel must first be proclaimed to all nations. And when they bring you to trial and deliver you over, do not be anxious beforehand what you are to say, but say whatever is given you in that hour, for it is not you who speak, but the Holy Spirit. And brother will deliver brother over to death, and the father his child, and children will rise against parents and have them put to death. And you will be hated by all for my name’s sake. But the one who endures to the end will be saved.
“But when you see the abomination of desolation standing where he ought not to be (let the reader understand), then let those who are in Judea flee to the mountains” [MARK 13:3-14].
That Jesus was looking far into the future, perhaps even to these present days, becomes evident when we read, “In those days, after that tribulation, the sun will be darkened, and the moon will not give its light, and the stars will be falling from heaven, and the powers in the heavens will be shaken. And then they will see the Son of Man coming in clouds with great power and glory. And then he will send out the angels and gather his elect from the four winds, from the ends of the earth to the ends of heaven.
“From the fig tree learn its lesson: as soon as its branch becomes tender and puts out its leaves, you know that summer is near. So also, when you see these things taking place, you know that he is near, at the very gates. Truly, I say to you, this generation will not pass away until all these things take place. Heaven and earth will pass away, but my words will not pass away” [MARK 13:24-31].
Clearly, the account given by Mark was looking to those days when the world would be moving rapidly toward the Great Tribulation. The Saviour was giving a glimpse of what was coming on all the earth.
In the account given in our text, Jesus is focused on the destruction of the Temple, a sad event when Jerusalem would be invaded and the people sent again into captivity. It would but a few short decades after this divine lament that Titus ransacked the city. His soldiers invaded the Temple precincts, setting the Temple itself ablaze. The gold that adorned the walls melted and flowed into and between the stones. The soldiers tore down the walls in an effort to retrieve the gold. Indeed, the Temple was destroyed, the city razed, and the people were sent into captivity by the Romans.
Here is what I would have you consider at this time: If the Master was moved by the knowledge of pending judgement on this city, do you suppose that He is grieved at the knowledge of pending doom on the lost of this world? Our Lord knows that judgement is coming, and He is the One Who will be seated on the judgement throne. Jesus speaks of this when He warns, “Truly, truly, I say to you, an hour is coming, and is now here, when the dead will hear the voice of the Son of God, and those who hear will live. For as the Father has life in himself, so he has granted the Son also to have life in himself. And he has given him authority to execute judgment, because he is the Son of Man” [JOHN 5:25-27].
That awful day when the lost will be judged is described by John, who has written, “I saw a great white throne and him who was seated on it. From his presence earth and sky fled away, and no place was found for them. And I saw the dead, great and small, standing before the throne, and books were opened. Then another book was opened, which is the book of life. And the dead were judged by what was written in the books, according to what they had done. And the sea gave up the dead who were in it, Death and Hades gave up the dead who were in them, and they were judged, each one of them, according to what they had done. Then Death and Hades were thrown into the lake of fire. This is the second death, the lake of fire. And if anyone’s name was not found written in the book of life, he was thrown into the lake of fire” [REVELATION 20:11-15].
Paul spoke of the motivation that drove him to warn outsiders of the consequences of unbelief calling the lost to life in the Beloved Son of God when he wrote, “Knowing the fear of the Lord, we persuade others” [2 CORINTHIANS 5:11a]. The Apostle to the Gentiles would continue by testifying in 2 CORINTHIANS 5:16-6:2: “From now on, therefore, we regard no one according to the flesh. Even though we once regarded Christ according to the flesh, we regard him thus no longer. Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation. The old has passed away; behold, the new has come. All this is from God, who through Christ reconciled us to himself and gave us the ministry of reconciliation; that is, in Christ God was reconciling the world to himself, not counting their trespasses against them, and entrusting to us the message of reconciliation. Therefore, we are ambassadors for Christ, God making his appeal through us. We implore you on behalf of Christ, be reconciled to God. For our sake he made him to be sin who knew no sin, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God.
“Working together with him, then, we appeal to you not to receive the grace of God in vain. For he says,
‘In a favorable time I listened to you,
and in a day of salvation I have helped you.’
Behold, now is the favorable time; behold, now is the day of salvation.”
When it comes to speaking to others concerning faith in the Saviour, it is tragically true that many professing Christians are silent; they have never attempted to turn a lost child, or an unsaved parent, or a colleague at their workplace, or a friend to faith in the Risen Son of God. Why should this be? Why are so many who profess faith in Christ afflicted with what appears to be a form of spiritual lockjaw? Paul confessed, “Knowing the fear of the Lord, we persuade others” [2 CORINTHIANS 5:11a]. He claimed that fear of the Lord motivated Him to attempt to persuade others to receive the grace of God. It would appear that not only the Apostle, but those who laboured with him, sought opportunity to tell others of Christ and the free gift of life offered through faith in Him as the Risen Saviour.
The Apostle to the Gentiles compiled a series of biblical statements exposing the characteristics of lost people. Paul wrote,
“‘None is righteous, no, not one;
no one understands;
no one seeks for God.
All have turned aside; together they have become worthless;
no one does good,
not even one.’
‘Their throat is an open grave;
they use their tongues to deceive.’
‘The venom of asps is under their lips.’
‘Their mouth is full of curses and bitterness.’
‘Their feet are swift to shed blood;
in their paths are ruin and misery,
and the way of peace they have not known.’”
[ROMANS 3:10-17]
Then, the Apostle appends the most horrifying statement imaginable when he writes,
“There is no fear of God before their eyes.”
[ROMANS 3:18]
The lost do not fear God, and yet we who are redeemed are charged to fear the Lord. We are taught, “Beloved, let us cleanse ourselves from every defilement of body and spirit, bringing holiness to completion in the fear of God” [2 CORINTHIANS 7:1]. Does this seem confusing to you? It shouldn’t be, but for some I suppose it could appear contradictory.
Is it possible that modern Christians do not know what it is to fear the Lord? Is it possible that the reason we do not risk the relationship with our child or with our grandchild by warning them that their lack of faith in the Saviour is endangering their eternal wellbeing because you don’t really fear God? Is our mouth shut tightly because we don’t believe Christ will hold the lost to account? Do we fear a fracture in our relationship with others more than we fear dishonouring the One Whom we profess as Lord and as Saviour? Let’s be honest and admit that if attempting to initiate a conversation about our faith in the Christ is sufficient to fracture what we believe to be a relationship, there wasn’t much of a relationship to begin with.
Perhaps our unrecognised problem is that we are unclear on what is meant when we speak of the fear of the Lord. To fear God is not to cringe in terror before Him. There will be abject terror in the presence of Christ when lost people hear those awful words, “I never knew you; depart from me, you workers of lawlessness” [MATTHEW 7:23]. To be turned away from Him in that awful day when the lost are called to account will be terrifying. Those awful words will undoubtedly ring in the memory of lost people throughout the endless night of eternity to which they will be consigned.
Do not imagine that anyone can presume against divine grace. There is coming a dreadful time when the lost will hear the final words of the Christ as He banishes them from His presence forever. The lost will hear Jesus as Judge saying, “Depart from me, you cursed, into the eternal fire prepared for the devil and his angels” [MATTHEW 25:41]. That will be terrifying for those who hear that awful pronouncement. They had no desire to know the Saviour during their days in the flesh, now they will never know His grace throughout the endless ages as they are forever turned away from Him and His mercy.
But for us who know the Saviour, we speak of the fear of the Lord. When we speak in this manner are speaking of holding Him in awe. We witness His majesty; His grace overwhelms us and His mercy astonishes us. Like the Revelator on Patmos, we come into the presence of the Risen Lord in His unveiled glory we fall at His feet as though dead. There is no strength in our legs. We dare not open our eyes to look at Him. Then, He lays His right hand on us and says, “Fear not, I am the first and the last, and the living one. I died, and behold I am alive forevermore, and I have the keys of Death and Hades” [REVELATION 1:17-18].
JESUS WEPT BECAUSE JUDGEMENT WAS UNNECESSARY — I realise there is a final reason I can say that the Saviour wept as He gazed down on the city. Judgement was unnecessary. There was no reason judgement should be pronounced on the city if the people would only receive their Messiah, the Anointed One Whom they claimed to desire. The message that delivers from judgement is “Believe in the Lord Jesus, and you will be saved” [ACTS 16:31].
Just as we saw earlier in the message: “The true light, which gives light to everyone, was coming into the world. He was in the world, and the world was made through him, yet the world did not know him. He came to his own, and his own people did not receive him. But to all who did receive him, who believed in his name, he gave the right to become children of God, who were born, not of blood nor of the will of the flesh nor of the will of man, but of God” [JOHN 1:9-13]. We’re talking about Jesus!
Jesus gave His promise that faith in Him delivers from judgement. The Master promised, “Truly, truly, I say to you, whoever hears my word and believes him who sent me has eternal life. He does not come into judgment, but has passed from death to life” [JOHN 5:24].
This is but an iteration of the promise delivered earlier in the Gospel of John: “God so loved the world, that he gave his only Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life. For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but in order that the world might be saved through him. Whoever believes in him is not condemned, but whoever does not believe is condemned already, because he has not believed in the name of the only Son of God” [JOHN 3:16-18].
The Gospel of John then promises, “Whoever believes in the Son has eternal life; whoever does not obey the Son shall not see life, but the wrath of God remains on him” [JOHN 3:36].
I know that it is easy for many Christians to speak casually of the judgement of the lost. That should never be the case for any of us. We must not speak of the end of the wicked harshly, flippantly or smugly. There should be holy grief. We should learn to weep as Jesus wept. Bible teacher Paul Rees tells of two ministers who were living in London at the height of the blitz when German war planes were wreaking destruction on the city every night. The bombing was frightful. Thousands of innocent people were being killed. One minister looked at the crater left by a bomb blast, a place where a house had once stood, and said, “Oh, how I hate Hitler. I wish I could be God for just ten minutes.”
The other replied, “Friend, if you were God for ten minutes, I wouldn't want to be in your universe for ten seconds.”
The second minister revealed the Sprit of Jesus. And that should be the goal for each of us who name the Name of the Saviour.
As I move toward a conclusion of this message, allow me to relate a story that may find lodging in your heart as one who follows the Lord. The story is related by Reverend Fernando Vangioni, an Associate Evangelist who works with the Billy Graham Evangelistic Team. Reverend Vangioni tells the story of an incident which occurred near the conclusion of a crusade he conducted in South America. A woman came up to him and asked for his help the following night.
She said, “Tomorrow night I am bringing a girl with me whom I would like you to talk to. She is very young, but she has gone through some terrible things. About two years ago she went to New York City because people told her it would mean a beautiful new life. But it wasn't that for her. She fell in with bad company, particularly immoral men who used her shamefully. They passed her around. Her dreams were shattered. Not long ago she came home, and she is very bitter. I have been trying to get her to come to the meetings, but she has refused. Finally, she said, ‘All right, I'll go once on the condition that you won't ask me again.’ So, I am bringing her tomorrow. It may be the only chance she will have to hear the gospel. Will you speak to her after the service?”
Mr. Vangioni said he would, and on the next evening he was looking for her as he preached. He saw her in the back, next to the woman who had brought her. After the service ended he went to the back, was introduced and began to talk to the girl about the gospel.
She was hostile. “Don't preach to me,” she said.
There is not a great deal anybody can do in a situation like that. So Mr. Vangioni stopped talking and sad, “Well, do you mind if I pray for you?”
“You can pray all you like,” she said, “but I won't listen.”
He began to pray. And, as he prayed, there was something about the girl's sad life revealed in her hard, hard face that touched him deeply. Tears began to run down his cheeks and he became quite chocked up. At last he stopped. There was nothing he could add. “All right, you can go now,” he said finally.
Her reply was marvelous. “No,” the girl said, “I won't go. You can preach to me now. No man has ever cried for me before.”
Are you a Christian? Are you concerned for others? Do you know they are perishing? How can you not be moved for them? Jesus wept for Jerusalem. He wept because people are precious to Him. God loves even the lost. Jesus wept for Jerusalem because the people of the city did not know God. They were religious, but they were unsaved. They were good people, but they were lost. Jesus wept because He knew judgement was coming, and He wept because judgement could have been avoided.
Should we not weep for our cities? Is there nothing about Vancouver that might cause us to weep? Or Edmonton? Or Winnipeg? Or Saskatoon? Or Toronto? Or Montreal? Or Halifax? Or any of our great cities? Is there nothing about Dawson Creek that might cause us to weep? Even if your conformity to Christ is not sufficiently advanced to cause you to weep for a city, as a follower of the Risen Saviour, can you not weep for just one someone—someone who is perishing? A parent? A child? A neighbour?
I dare not neglect you who hear me though you never put faith in the Son of God. You may be a church member, one who submitted to a ritual you called baptism, but you have never received Christ Jesus as Master over your life. Perhaps you thought you were good enough to satisfy God’s righteous demands, but now you realise you are lost, having never been born again through faith in the Son of God. Stop pretending; put your faith in Christ today. “Everyone who calls on the Name of the Lord will be saved” [ROMANS 10:13]. Amen.
[1] Unless otherwise indicated, all Scripture quotations are from The Holy Bible: English Standard Version. Wheaton: Standard Bible Society, 2016. Used by permission. All rights reserved.
