The following sermon was delivered on October 13th, 2024 at Free Grace Baptist Church in Paulsville, Washington. The speaker is Roy Linberry and the title of the message is The Indictment of Israel. Now turn our hearts to the worship of God through the reading of scripture. So if you would, open with me in your Bibles to the book of Malachi. I'll be reading chapters three and four this morning. Malachi chapters three and four. And this particular Old Testament reading ties very much into our New Testament passage from Matthew 23 this morning. So hopefully you'll be picking up on some of those. I definitely will be bringing many of them out as we go through. So let's read the Word of God, Malachi chapter 3, beginning in verse 1. Behold, I am going to send my messenger, and he will clear the way before me. And the Lord whom you seek will suddenly come to his temple, and the messenger of the covenant in whom you delight. Behold, he is coming, says the Lord of hosts. But who can endure the day of his coming, and who can stand when he appears? For he is like a refiner's fire and a fuller's soap. He will sit as a smelter and purifier of silver. He will purify the sons of Levi, and refine them like gold and silver, so that they may present to the Lord offerings in righteousness. And then the offering of Judah and Jerusalem will be pleasing to the Lord as in the days of old and as in former years. And then I will draw near to you for judgment, and I will be a swift witness against the sorcerers, and against the adulterers, and against those who swear falsely, and against those who oppress the wage earner in his wages, and the widow, and the orphan, and those who turn aside the alien, and who do not fear me, says the Lord of hosts. For I, the Lord, do not change, therefore you, O sons of Jacob, are not consumed. From the days of your fathers you have turned aside from My statutes and have not kept them. Return to Me, and I will return to you, says the Lord of hosts. But you say, how shall we return? Will a man rob God? Yet you are robbing Me. But you say, how have we robbed you? In tithes and offerings. You are cursed with a curse, for you are robbing me, the whole nation of you. Bring the whole tithe into the storehouse, so that there may be food in my house. And test me now in this, says the Lord of hosts, if I will not open for you the windows of heaven and pour out for you blessing until it overflows. And then I will rebuke the devourer for you, so that it will not destroy the fruits of the ground, nor will your vine in the field cast its grapes, says the Lord of hosts. And all the nations will call you blessed, for you shall be a delightful land, says the Lord of hosts. Your words have been arrogant against me, says the Lord. Yet you say, what have we spoken against you? You have said it is vain to serve God. And what profit is it that we have kept His charge and that we have walked in mourning before the Lord of hosts? So now we call the arrogant blessed. And not only are the doers of wickedness built up, but they also test God and escape. Then those who feared the Lord spoke to one another, and the Lord gave attention and heard it, and a book of remembrance was written before him for those who fear the Lord and who esteem his name. They will be mine, says the Lord of hosts, on the day that I prepare my own possession, and I will spare them as a man spares his own son who serves him. So you will distinguish between the righteous and the wicked, between the one who serves God and the one who does not serve him. For behold, the day is coming, burning like a furnace, and all the arrogant and every evildoer will be chaff, and the day that is coming will set them ablaze, says the Lord of hosts, so that it will leave them neither root nor branch. But for you who fear my name, the sun of righteousness will rise with healing in its wings, and you will go forth and skip about like calves from the stall. You will tread down the wicked, and they will be ashes under the soles of your feet on the day which I am preparing, says the Lord of hosts. Remember the law of Moses, my servants, even the statutes and ordinances which I commanded him in Horeb for all Israel. Behold, I'm going to send you Elijah the prophet before the coming of the great and terrible day of the Lord. And he will restore the hearts of the fathers to their children and the hearts of the children to their fathers so that I will not come and smite the land with a curse. Amen. I pray that the Lord would add His blessing to the reading of His Word, all creation, that He rules over all things as the King of kings and the Lord of lords. Father, we thank You that You have enthroned Him, that He rules and that He reigns even now from heaven. and that he rules and reigns over his kingdom here on earth. We pray that you would give us insight and wisdom as we sit under the teaching of the word. May we grow in our knowledge and our understanding of Christ and his kingdom and that which you have done. in the bringing of Jesus Christ, in His death, burial, resurrection, in His ascension. And Father, we thank you for the reminders that we continually have that you have taken the gospel outside of Jerusalem to all the ends of the earth, even where those like us have heard and have been saved, having come to Christ in faith and repented of our sins. Father, we ask now your blessing on this service. May Christ be honored and glorified in our midst. We pray that you would strengthen us for the work of the gospel and that you would give us a deeper relationship with you and your son, Jesus Christ, even as we study your word. May it be a blessing to our souls and may this morning be a blessing to you as well. Father, we thank You for this time. We ask these things in the name of Christ Jesus, our Savior. Amen. Well, I'm going to give you a moment to turn in your Bibles to Matthew 23. Matthew 23. I'm going to pick up where we left off last week in verse 13. I'll read through the end of the chapter this morning. Excuse me. Matthew 23. beginning in verse 13. But woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites, because you shut off the kingdom of heaven from people, for you do not enter in yourselves, nor do you allow those who are entering to go in. Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites, because you devour widows' houses, and for a pretense you make long prayers, therefore you will receive greater condemnation. Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites, because you travel around on sea and land to make one proselyte, and when he becomes one, you make him twice as much a son of hell as yourselves. Woe to you, blind guides, who say, Whoever swears by the temple, that is nothing, but whoever swears by the gold of the temple is obligated. You fools and blind men! Which is more important, the gold or the temple that sanctified the gold? And whoever swears by the altar, that is nothing, but whoever swears by the offering on it, he is obligated. You blind men! Which is more important, the offering or the altar that sanctifies the offering? Therefore, whoever swears by the altar, swears both by the altar and by everything on it. And whoever swears by the temple, swears both by the temple and by him who dwells in it. And whoever swears by heaven swears both by the throne of God and by Him who sits upon it. Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! For you tithe mint and dill and cumin and have neglected the weightier provisions of the law, justice and mercy and faithfulness. But these are the things you should have done without neglecting the others, you blind guides who strain out a gnat and swallow a camel. Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites, for you clean the outside of the cup and of the dish, but inside they're full of robbery and self-indulgence. You blind Pharisee, first clean the inside of the cup and of the dish, so that the outside of it may become clean also. Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites, for you are like whitewashed tombs, which on the outside appear beautiful, but inside they're full of dead men's bones and all uncleanness. So you, too, outwardly appear righteous to men, but inwardly you are full of hypocrisy and lawlessness. Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites, for you build the tombs of the prophets and adorn the monuments of the righteous. And you say, if we had been living in the days of our fathers, we would not have been partners with them in shedding the blood of the prophets. And so you testify against yourselves that you are the sons of those who murdered the prophets. Fill up then the measure of the guilt of your fathers, you serpents, you brood of vipers. How will you escape the sentence of hell?" Therefore, behold, I am sending you prophets and wise men and scribes, and some of them you will kill and crucify, and some of them you will scourge in your synagogues and persecute from city to city, so that upon you may fall the guilt of all the righteous blood shed on earth, from the blood of righteous Abel to the blood of Zechariah, the son of Berechiah, whom you murdered between the temple and the altar. Truly I say to you, all these things will come upon this generation. Jerusalem, Jerusalem, who kills the prophets and stones those who were sent to her. How often I wanted to gather your children together the way a hen gathers her chicks under her wings, but you were unwilling. Behold, your house is being left to you desolate. For I say to you, from now on you will not see Me until you say, Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord. Amen. Well, I pray that the Lord would add his blessing to the reading of his word and the preaching of it. This is a lengthy passage of scripture, but it's important really that we look at it here as a whole. There are themes here that I'm continuing to really harp upon and the reason why will become very clear in the coming weeks as we move into Matthew chapter 24. I think I talked about this a little bit last week. Matthew chapter 24 is a place full of references to what we would call the eschaton, or the study of last things, eschatology, where people have taken many things from Matthew chapter 24 and completely misapplied them, and it's led very much to a time now where people are looking around constantly for these things to be fulfilled and try to apply everything that they see around them in the world today into the scriptures here. But that's not the way that we do exegesis. We must understand the context of the passage. And that's why we're continuing to just slowly march through and get up to chapter 24 so that we don't pull it out of its context, but rather when we get there, we will understand it in its context. Last week, we saw these themes progressing through Matthew's Gospel, if you remember. We saw that Christ is the King of the Jews. We saw that Israel, particularly her leadership, was rejecting that King, and that there was a judgment coming. And finally, we saw that the Gospel would go forth to the nations. Those themes have been progressing through the Gospel of Matthew. And because of the rejection of her king, as we said, Israel is now coming under judgment. Now, we've seen this over and over again. We see it coming about in very specific denunciations of the Jewish leadership. And here in our passage this morning, specifically the scribes and the Pharisees. Now, this should not surprise any of us because judgment of the rebellious covenant breakers was prophesied as a part of Messiah's ministry. This was already something that was spoken of in the Old Testament. This judgment that was coming upon the covenant breakers. You see, we can't think of the incarnation solely as salvation for believers. Certainly that was accomplished. Certainly that was a wonder that God worked in the incarnation as Christ entered into a creation in the person of Jesus. But there was more to it than that. There was more than just the salvation of believers. There was also judgment on the breakers of the covenant that was happening. There was the fulfillment of all of the types and the shadows coming to completion and therefore a disestablishment of the Old Testament sacrificial system. And then there was judgment on those who were breaking the covenant. What I find interesting as I read through this passage is the misconception that so many people have of Jesus as just being this sweet, lovey-dovey sort of character. There is such a misunderstanding of who Jesus is. Thinking that somehow, you've probably heard this before. The God of the Old Testament is just this mean God who wants nothing but blood and judgment and all of this. But then Jesus comes and it's just so wonderful because he's so nice. this gentle Jesus meek and mild kind of thought that people come up with. And yet you hear him here excoriating the scribes and the Pharisees for their disobedience. Jesus preached on hell more than he preached on heaven. And he's bringing not only salvation, but judgment. Both of those things were roles of the Messiah, as we will see in the Old Testament. So we have the prophecy of John the Baptist and Jesus in Malachi. We read that earlier this morning. Malachi chapter three, verse one. Behold, I'm going to send my messenger and he will clear the way before me. And again, in chapter four, as it closed, what did we say? What did we read? I'm going to send Elijah the prophet, which Jesus tells us is John the Baptist, that was fulfilled in John the Baptist. So we see that these things spoken of in Malachi three and four are fulfilled here in the New Testament era. I'm gonna send my messenger, he'll clear the way before me, and the Lord whom you seek will suddenly, what? come to his temple. Didn't we just see that in the book of Matthew? Didn't we see Jesus coming in to the temple and driving people out? He will come to his temple. And the messenger of the covenant in whom you delight, behold, he is coming, says the Lord of hosts. We often think of that in pleasant terms. The Lord's coming to his temple. Like this is something that is, again, a really pleasant coming. Like, oh, look, he's coming to inhabit the temple. He's coming to worship here. He's coming, the Lord is here. But if we continue reading, we see that it's a time of purification for the people of God and even judgment for those who continue in wickedness. What do we continue reading? Malachi chapter three, verse two through verse five. But who can endure the day of his coming? You see, oftentimes we try to separate these two things out. And we think of the Lord coming to his temple in the incarnation. And then this idea of nobody being able to endure the time of his coming gets cast way out into the future. But this is here all together, again, bracketed by this idea of the messenger who is coming, John the Baptist, the one who would clear the way before him, the one who would come in the spirit and power of Elijah. So let's back into the scripture here. For who can endure the day of his coming? And who can stand when he appears? He is like a refiner's fire and a fuller's soap. He will sit as a smelter and purifier of silver and he will purify the sons of Levi and refine them like gold and silver so that they may present to the Lord offerings in righteousness. And then the offering of Judah and Jerusalem will be pleasing to the Lord. will be pleasing to the Lord as in the days of old and as in former years. And then I will draw near to you for judgment, he says. And I will be a swift witness against the sorcerers and against the adulterers and against those who swear falsely and against those who oppress the wage earner in his wages, the widow and the orphan and those who turn aside the alien and do not fear me, says the Lord of hosts. salvation and judgment together. Another instance of that would be in Isaiah 61 verse 1. And you recognize this because Jesus quoted it at the beginning of his ministry. The Spirit of the Lord God is upon me, because the Lord has anointed me to bring good news to the afflicted. He sent me to bind up the brokenhearted, to proclaim liberty to the captives and freedom to the prisoners, to proclaim the favorable year of the Lord. And we often stop right there. Jesus stopped there. But the Jews who were hearing him speak know the entire passage. And all we have to do is read a little further. "...to proclaim the favorable year of the Lord and the day of vengeance of our God." There is salvation and there is judgment. And Jesus said this is happening in the presence of His audience. This was happening while He was here on earth. He's coming not just for the salvation, not just for the former part of the verse, but the latter to proclaim not only the favorable year of the Lord, but also the day of vengeance of our God. What we've been seeing in the triumphal entry is this concept beginning to work itself out in real time. We already talked about from Deuteronomy 14, or excuse me, from Leviticus 14, the idea of the priest coming to inspect the house for disease. That he comes once, and he inspects it, and then he leaves it for a time, and then he comes back, and he inspects it a second time, and if it's still there, everybody has to leave the house, and then the house gets torn down. The priest, as we saw, comes first. John records it in the book of John early in his ministry. The very beginning of his ministry, he inspects the temple, and he drives people out of the temple. And then here now, after the triumphal entry, at the very end of his ministry, he comes back to his house, comes back into the temple. He drives them out again, finds that the disease is still there, and he drives them out. He's found that it is still riddled with disease. And so Matthew 23, the chapter here in front of us, stands really as the indictment and the pronouncement of judgment upon Israel for her unfaithfulness. I'm going to look at this under the following headings. The sevenfold indictment. Judgment on the people. and judgment on their house." The sevenfold indictment, judgment on the people, and judgment on their house. And in this judgment, notice that we see really all of these offices of Christ here. We see them as prophet, priest, and king. There is the prophetic element here as he pronounces this judgment, as he speaks to them about what is about to come upon them. We see his priestly nature as he is the one that comes and inspects the house for disease, and he's now preparing for the destruction of that house. We see that he is the king, the one who rode in to Jerusalem to that cry, Hosanna, blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord. The declaration that he is the Messiah, the king. And this passage even ends with Jesus saying the same, that you will not see me until that day when you say, blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord. He's the lawgiver, he's the judge. And so he brings the sevenfold indictment. This is seen in these woes pronounced over and over again. You'll notice I've called it the sevenfold indictment. He pronounces seven woes on the scribes and the Pharisees. If the astute reader will notice that in some translations there is an eighth woe in verse 14. Verse 14 presents this eighth woe. Now, I don't want to spend a lot of time on this, but there is a textual variant here. It's a parallel variant. It comes from Mark chapter 12 verse 40 or Luke chapter 20 verse 47. really word for word, and we dealt with that particular verse in those passages. It fits the context here of judgment. It's easy to see how it made its way into this particular portion of Matthew. Again, it's not in the oldest manuscripts, and you'll see that the manuscripts that have it, it comes in different places, sometimes directly after verse 12, sometimes after verse 13, it kind of floats around. Now, I don't want to spend too much time. If you want more on textual issues and questions, you can look up the series that we did in our second hour. But there's a significance to this judgment being a sevenfold judgment. What do we know about the number seven? It's the number of completion or perfection. In essence, what's happening here? Jesus is declaring that the unfaithfulness of the Jews has reached its peak, that they have filled up their cup of God's judgment, which will be poured out on them. In fact, if you go back to Leviticus chapter 26, you will find this, you can take this for homework, but you will find four times over and over again, where God says that he will punish their disobedience seven times over. He will punish it sevenfold. This idea of a perfect and a complete punishment. And now here he's indicting them with this sevenfold indictment. They filled up their cup of God's judgment. It's ready to be poured out. There is a little time yet left for them, but that time is running out. And that's why we see here at the end of our passage where he says, fill up then the measure of the guilt of your fathers. You serpents, you brood of vipers, how will you escape the sentence of hell? Fill it up, finish it up. That cup is getting full. It's almost to the brim. And then He tells them, fill up then the measure of the guilt of your fathers. Now, I want you to look at these indictments, these woes. Verse 13, He indicts them for keeping others out of the kingdom. They made it their mission to keep people from listening to Jesus. They made it their mission to discount the words that Jesus was saying. To oppose Him at every turn. And in fact, He's going to pronounce judgment on them for that. But they were keeping others out of the kingdom. He says, you don't go in yourselves, and you prevent others from going in. In verse 15, He indicts them because when they make proselytes, they pull them into the same rebellious state that they themselves are in. Very much related to that first one. You travel land and sea to make one proselyte, and when you do, he says, they become twice the son of hell as yourselves. You're looking for people to make them just like you. And you are hypocrites, he says. So he indicts them for pulling people into the same rebellious state that they themselves are in. And then in the longest portion of this section, verses 16-22, we see him indicting them because they swear falsely. making distinctions between the temple and the gold, or the altar and the gold, and he corrects them, and he simply says, which one is more important? The gold or the temple that sanctifies the gold? The offering or the altar that sanctifies the offering? You swear by one, you swear by the other. There is, and this goes back to his own teaching on let your yes be yes and your no be no. If we live in constant accountability before God, we don't need a way to give an oath that we don't have to uphold. We don't need something that we can swear by, but then not be held accountable to it. Rather, we're held accountable to everything. If we swear, if we give an oath on something, then we are accountable to it. But he indicts them for swearing falsely. And then he indicts them for their neglect of justice, mercy, and faithfulness for the sake of little things. Their neglect of the big, the important things for the sake of the little things. Verse 23, you tithe mint and dill and cumin, have neglected the weightier provisions of the law, justice and mercy and faithfulness. But these are the things you should have done without neglecting the others. So busy trying to prove how righteous they were by tithing from even the smallest garden herb, but neglecting justice and mercy and righteousness. The fifth and sixth indictments are very much the same, which is that they focus on the externals while their hearts are sinful. First, he says they clean the outside of the cup and the dish, but inside they're full of robbery and self-indulgence. Secondly, he says that they're like whitewashed tombs, which on the outside appear beautiful, but inside they're full of dead men's bones and all uncleanness. So he indicts them for their hypocrisy, for their focus on externals. And finally, he indicts them because they pretend to follow the prophets. when they are in reality the sons of those who kill the prophets. Now, all of that will take us right back to Malachi chapter 3. Takes us right back there. Malachi chapter 3, we read the messenger is coming, who can endure the day of his coming, he is like a refiner's fire, a fuller soap, he's going to refine as a smelter, refine silver, he's going to refine them like gold, so that they may present to the Lord righteousness, and then when we get to verse 5, I will draw near to you for judgment, I will be a swift witness against the sorcerers, against the adulterers, against those who swear falsely, against those who oppress, the wage earner and his wages, the widow and the orphan, those who turn aside the alien and who do not fear me, says the Lord of hosts. In this passage, from verses one to five, is really a summary of Matthew's gospel. John the Baptist comes preaching that message of repentance, The Lord Jesus comes to His temple as a messenger of the covenants, and not only does He refine and purify His people to make their offerings pleasing to Him, but He then draws near to them in judgment. but I want you to see how the charges against the unfaithful here in Malachi and how that sort of stacks up against the very indictment that Jesus is making. It's not word for word, but understand these people that God says he's gonna judge through Malachi, he calls them sorcerers. and adulterers. Sorcerers and adulterers. This speaks of the Pharisees who were focusing on the externals, that were hypocrites. They were unrighteous. They were full of all uncleanness, like dead men's bones. They were dirty on the inside. Malachi says that God will come and judge them who swear falsely. We saw that again. That was the biggest portion of the indictments here in Matthew 23. He says he will come in judgments against those who oppress, the worker, the widow, and the orphan. Oppressing these people. Think of the charge again, the indictment against the Pharisees. They're keeping people out of the kingdom of heaven. They're making them a proselyte and making them twice the son of hell as themselves. They're neglecting justice, mercy, and faithfulness. Had they been doing those things, they would not be oppressing the worker, the widow, and the orphan. And finally, he speaks of judgment to those who turn aside from the fear of God. And we see that indictment against the Pharisees who pretend that they follow the prophets, pretend that they would be on God's side, on the side of the prophets, not on the side of their fathers. And yet Jesus says that they testify against themselves. That's the sevenfold indictment that God is now bringing against the leaders of Israel. And now with that indictment in place, as the judge, he's going to pronounce judgment. So we start now with judgment on the people. Excuse me. Judgment on the people, this comes from verses 33 to 36. He's laid into them with all of these charges. I'm charging you with this. I'm charging you with that. I'm charging you with this. And now in verse 33, you serpents, you brood of vipers, how will you escape the sentence of hell? Therefore, behold, I'm sending you prophets and wise men and scribes, and some of them you will kill and crucify, some of them you will scourge in your synagogues and persecute from city to city, so that upon you may fall the guilt of all the righteous blood shed on earth from the blood of righteous Abel to the blood of Zechariah, the son of Berechiah, whom you murdered between the temple and the altar. Truly I say to you, All these things will come upon this generation." It's a direct follow-on from the final indictment. Religious leaders, as we saw, would claim to be on the side of the prophets against their fathers. So they recognize that their ancestors killed the prophets, stoned those who were sent. They recognize that. But they sit there and say, but we wouldn't have been partakers in that. That wouldn't have been us. We would have been on the side of the prophets. Jesus says they would fall right in line with their fathers, and because of that, they will not escape the sentence of hell. Notice the legal language. Again, this is a legal proceeding that's happening here. He is indicting them, and he's pronouncing judgment upon them for their breaking of the covenant, for their unfaithfulness, for their disobedience. How will you escape the sentence of hell? Now, if there's any doubt that Jesus maybe misread the situation with the Pharisees, if there's any thought that maybe, well, maybe the Pharisees would have been on the side of the prophets and wouldn't have followed the acts and the actions of their fathers, Jesus is doing something amazing here. He's given them a chance to prove it. He's giving them the opportunity to prove Him wrong. First, they're going to be seeking His death. At that point, they have already proven His point. They have already proven that His judgment is righteous. That His judgment is just. But not only that. Not only that, if that wasn't enough, he says he's going to send prophets and wise men in the form of the apostles they're going to be coming. And what's going to happen when he sends them? When the apostles go out to be preaching the gospel, what are the Jews going to do? What is the Jewish leadership going to do? He tells them, I'm sending you prophets and scribes and wise men. I'm sending all of these things and some of them you will kill and crucify. Some of them you will scourge in your synagogues and persecute from city to city. Here's your opportunity. You could prove right now that my judgment is unjust. You could prove by not persecuting those who I'm sending. But you're going to persecute them and there's a purpose behind it. Verse 35, so that, for the purpose of, so that upon you may fall the guilt of all the righteous blood shed on earth from the blood of righteous Abel to the blood of Zechariah, the son of Berechiah, whom you murdered between the temple and the altar. That's their sentence. And upon them will fall all of the righteous blood shed on earth, from Abel to Zechariah." Now, Abel was the first prophet who was killed. Genesis 4, verse 8, "...Cain told Abel his brother, and it came about, that when they were in the field, that Cain rose up against Abel his brother, and killed him." Very early on. Now, we don't normally think of Abel as a prophet. But it's interesting, the book of Hebrews tells us that he still speaks. Hebrews chapter 11, verse 4. By faith Abel offered to God a better sacrifice than Cain, through which he obtained the testimony that he was righteous, God testifying about his gifts, and through faith, though he is dead, he still speaks. Jesus calls him a prophet, considers him a prophet. The author of the book of Hebrews says that he still speaks. He is a prophet in that he was martyred for his righteousness and how it exposed the unrighteousness of Cain who killed him. His righteousness spoke out against the unrighteous. And then we see the prophet Zechariah. Now, this is a little bit confusing. Zechariah could be, the one that Jesus is naming here, could be the Zechariah that is spoken of in 2 Chronicles chapter 24 verses 20 through 22. This was a man who prophesied against the sin of the people and who was stoned in the court of the temple. Most people believe that that's who this is referring to, particularly because 2 Chronicles was the last book of the Hebrew Bible. So you have Abel in Genesis, and you have this Zechariah in the end of the Old Testament. And so basically Jesus is saying, hey, on you will fall all the blood from the beginning to the end. He was murdered in the court of the temple. It seems to fit. There's a little issue. He was not named as the son of Berechiah. So it might also refer to the prophet Zechariah, who also is late in the chronology. The prophet Zechariah, he was the son of Berechiah, and his prophecies are recorded in the book that bears his name. Scripture does not record for us his death, but he may have been similarly martyred in the temple, because he is also in the priestly line. If you look at his lineage, his dad was a priest. It really doesn't matter to us exactly which Zechariah was in view here. Because regardless of who it is, Jesus' point stands. His point is that they are filling up the measure of their fathers who killed the prophets. And that they will likewise kill those who were sent to them, and they will bear the guilt of the same crimes as their fathers. Understand why it's so important that we see in the incarnation and in the ministry of Jesus both salvation and judgment. Because that's what's happening here. Now here's what's ironic about this particular sentence, this particular judgment on the people, the leaders of Israel. The people who say, we would never do that. That wouldn't have been us. That was our fathers. We're much better than that. Stephen accused them of the very same thing, and their reaction to being accused of murdering the prophets was to turn around and stone him. Do you see the irony there? Acts chapter 7 verses 52 through 58, Stephen says, which one of the prophets did your fathers not persecute? Again, he's pointing to the actions of their fathers. Says, they killed those who had previously announced the coming of the righteous one, whose betrayers and murderers you have now become. You who received the law as ordained by angels and yet you did not keep it. Verse 54, And now when they heard this, they were cut to the quick, and they began gnashing their teeth at him. But being full of the Holy Spirit, he gazed intently into heaven and saw the glory of God and Jesus standing at the right hand of God. And he said, Behold, I see the heavens open up and the Son of Man standing at the right hand of God. But they cried out with a loud voice, and they covered their ears and rushed at him with one impulse. And when they had driven him out of the city, they began stoning him. And the witnesses laid aside their robes at the feet of a young man named Saul." Stephen reiterates what Jesus said. Which one of the prophets did your fathers not prosecute? Or did they not persecute? Excuse me. They killed those who had previously announced the coming of the Righteous One, whose betrayers and murderers you have now become. Your fathers killed those who announced His coming, and now these here, you have killed Him. Those who follow in the line of the ones who kill the prophets will by no means, Jesus says, escape the sentence of hell. And I don't want you to miss what he says in verse 36. In verse 36, he says this, truly, I say to you, all these things will come upon this generation. Recognize he's not speaking about something far off. He's speaking about the people who are guilty of these things, who are guilty of murdering those that Jesus is sending, the apostles, or persecuting them from city to city and flogging them. Truly I say to you, all these things will come upon this generation. Now we've seen this language before in the gospel of Matthew, and it tells us, this is very important as we move into chapter 24, so please lay hold of this. It tells us that there is a coming of Jesus that would happen in the first century, not His incarnation, but another coming of Jesus that will happen in the first century. Not the second coming. Please don't misunderstand that. Not what we call the second coming where He comes in final judgment and the resurrection of the dead. But look at Matthew 10, verse 23. And just some context here. There's a very specific commission Jesus gives to his disciples. He tells them not to go to the Gentiles or to the Samaritans, but only to the lost sheep of the house of Israel. So he's sending the disciples out so that they might preach only to the people of Israel. And what does he say in verse 23? He says, whenever they persecute you in one city, flee to the next. For truly I say to you, you will not finish going through the cities of Israel, until the Son of Man comes." Meaning there's something then that's going to happen before you can even get through all the cities of Israel. There will be some sort of coming of the Son of Man. Again, it's not the second coming. It's not the coming that is accompanied by the final judgment and the resurrection of the dead, but it's rather, it is Jesus coming in judgment to Israel. There's a similar statement in chapter 16. Matthew chapter 16, verses 26 through 28. Very famous passage. For what will it profit a man if he gains the whole world and forfeits his soul? Or what will a man give in exchange for his soul? And then we read this, for the Son of Man is going to come in the glory of His Father with His angels and will then repay every man according to his deeds. Truly I say to you, there are some of those who are standing here who will not taste death until they see the Son of Man coming in His kingdom. Jesus is telling His disciples that there is a coming, the Son of Man coming in His kingdom that will happen very shortly to the point that there are some who are standing there in earshot of His voice who would not die before it happens. Now we already understand from the scripture that Christ reigns, that his kingdom has been established. I mean, we read in Matthew when he's casting out demons, and what does he say? If I cast out demons by the spirit of God, then the kingdom of God has come upon you. We know from 1 Corinthians 15, we know that he rules and reigns, he's been exalted, and that he must reign until he's put all his enemies as a footstool for his feet. And then the last enemy that will be defeated is death. He is ruling. He has come in His kingdom. And yet, so many people will take this particular verse, verse 27 and 28, and try to cast it forward to the point where there are theories out there that some of His hearers are actually literally still walking around today and haven't died because Jesus has not come again in the second coming. It brings us to the point of absurdity on so many things. If we would just let the Bible speak to us, if we just let scripture explain to us what's happening, and he says that the son of man is going to come in the glory of his father with his angels, and he will then repay every man according to his deeds. Truly I say to you that there are some of you who are standing here who will not taste death until they see the son of man coming in his kingdom. It's another reminder that the kingdom of God is not some future reign. It's not something where we're waiting and waiting and waiting and waiting for Christ to first return and then to set up His millennial kingdom that then happens prior to the final judgment. The King has come. He's ascended to the right hand of God where He is enthroned. And as we already said, He must reign until all His enemies are made a footstool for His feet. Don't mistake this, as I said, for the second coming. Christ is coming as King to judge the unfaithful covenant breakers. That's what's in view here. Not the second coming of Christ. And we'll see that as we move into chapter 24. But when we read that all these things will come upon this generation, there is no need for some of the verbal and intellectual gymnastics that so often come into play when people are trying to figure out how these things, how Jesus could say that, and then yet, well, these things haven't happened yet, and it's 2,000 years later. No, they have happened. Jesus didn't lie. Jesus didn't lie, and we don't need to make him, we don't need to turn his words into some sort of absurdity in order to understand it. As I said, this is gonna be very important into chapter 24, because we're gonna read again, something very, very similar. And this is where people really get the mental gymnastics out, because he's gonna talk about all of these things, the sun being dark and the moon being turned to blood and all of these other things. And then he's gonna say, this generation will not pass away until all these things take place. But we've already got the pattern established in the book of Matthew. All right, so judgment on their people. Now there's judgment on their house, verses 37 to 39. Judgment on their house. Jerusalem, Jerusalem, who kills the prophets and stones those who were sent to her. How often I wanted to gather your children together, the way a hen gathers her chicks under her wings. and you were unwilling. Behold, your house is being left to you desolate. For I say to you from now on, you will not see me until you say, blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord. He's pronouncing judgment on their house. We see the judgment won't just come on the people of Israel, but will extend to their house. Now in the most specific sense, he's speaking of the temple. but it could also be applied to Jerusalem as a whole. Jesus is telling them, really, that there is no efficacy in their sacrifices, and that the temple will be destroyed. That the work of the temple is defunct, and eventually it will be destroyed. Why? Upon the death of Christ, what happened? There was something very significant that happened in the temple. I know you know what it is. The veil was torn from top to bottom. Top to bottom is significant because there's something that no man could do. It didn't just happen. It was torn from top to bottom, and what that means is that there is no longer any sanctity in the most holy place, that which was considered the holy of holies. And Jesus had already indicated that this would be the case. You remember his interaction with the woman at the well in John chapter four, when she says to him, our fathers worshiped on this mountain, and you people, because she was a Samaritan, he was a Jew, and you people say that in Jerusalem is the place where men ought to worship. And what did Jesus say to her? He says, woman, believe me, an hour is coming when neither in this mountain nor in Jerusalem will you worship the Father. You worship what you do not know. We worship what we know. For salvation is from the Jews, but an hour is coming and now is. He's speaking of it, it's close. An hour is coming, and now is, when the true worshippers will worship the Father in spirit and in truth. For such people the Father seeks to be His worshippers. God is spirit, and those who worship Him must worship in spirit and in truth. Jesus is telling them that they're about to experience the fulfillment of Ezekiel's prophecy. of the glory of the Lord leaving the temple. I'll give you a high-level view, but here's some homework for you. Ezekiel chapters 9 through 11. Go read those in light of what we're hearing today. But I'll give you just the high-level view. God marks those who detest the abominations in order to preserve them. That happens in chapter 9 verse 4. He marks them on their foreheads. Marks those who detest the abominations in order that he might preserve those ones. And in chapter 9 verses 5 through 11, he destroys those who committed the abominations. In chapter 10, the glory of the Lord leaves the temple, hovering over the east gate. In chapter 11 verses 1 through 12, there's more judgment pronounced. And Ezekiel, in chapter 11, verse 13, Ezekiel asks... Now, this is the second time this question gets asked. Ezekiel asks if God is going to spare anybody. That's how thorough this judgment is. Ezekiel asks, are you going to destroy all of the remnant? Will there be any left? And in response, verses 19 through 20, God speaks of really the new covenant. He speaks of the act of regeneration, one of our more famous passages of taking the heart of stone out and replacing it with a heart of flesh. And then what happens in verse 23 of chapter 11, the glory of the Lord then leaves the city and rests on the Mount of Olives. In Ezekiel, it's not named by name, the Mount of Olives, it's the mount that is east of the city. It's the Mount of Olives. That's what's happening here in real time, that Jesus is prophesying and he's giving another depiction of it. We're gonna read as we start in chapter 24 exactly what happens, but Jesus goes to sit now on the Mount of Olives after he pronounces this judgment, after he pronounces the sentence on Jerusalem, and he goes and sits upon the Mount of Olives. Behold, he says, your house is being left to you desolate. Now this is the meaning of the house being left desolate. It's not saying that people wouldn't continue to come to it and go through the motions because they did for several years, but rather that God would no longer reside there, that his glory is left. So everything that they're doing is an empty exercise in futility, because the glory of God has left that temple. Now eventually it will come to ruins as well, and we'll be looking at that in coming weeks. But Jesus lays this solidly at the feet of the Jewish leadership. It's what he means when he says, Jerusalem, Jerusalem. It's like the capital city, the leaders of Israel, the hub of the religious practice where the priests were. Jerusalem, Jerusalem. How often I've wanted to gather your children together as a hen gathers her chicks under her wings, but you are unwilling. He came to minister to the children of Israel. He came to minister to them, longing to gather them, and he's indicting now the leadership. Why? Because they stood against him at every turn. Understand, this is not saying that he wanted to save this person and they prevented him, that they somehow thwarted his will. What he's saying is, I came to do this and you couldn't get on board. I came to do this and you stood against me. You weren't willing that I would minister to them. You put up roadblocks at every opportunity. And so he says that they've brought this judgment upon themselves. And I'll leave you with this, because as excoriating as this diatribe has been, he's really laid into them. This isn't necessarily even fun stuff to preach about. But as excoriating as it's been, it ends on a note of hope. As he says, you will not see me until you say, blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord. It comes out of Psalm 118. You'll recognize it as a recognition that he is King, the Messiah. You remember, he rode into Jerusalem on the colt. That was the cry of the people, even though the joy for many was very short-lived. but here's what He's giving them. To the people that He has just pronounced this judgment on, He's telling them that this is their only hope, to recognize Jesus as their Messiah and King. They must stop their rebellion and submit to His rule and reign because He is their King. And if they would escape judgment, They must worship Him in spirit and in truth. Must repent of their evil deeds, just like any sinner must do. They must recognize that Christ is Lord, that He is King, that He is the Messiah, and cast themselves on the mercy of God in Christ Jesus. Must trust in His sacrifice as the one perfect sacrifice, the one that is better than everything that ever happened in that temple. the one sacrifice that will never, ever have to be repeated, that was offered by that great and faithful high priest, the priest who is a priest forever according to the order of Melchizedek. You must recognize that he is the king, the one who fulfills all of this Old Testament prophecy. Otherwise, you would never see, you would never recognize him. truly, lest you recognize him by saying, blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord. The messianic recognition. Excuse me. If they were to do that, if they were to repent of their sin, if they were to cast themselves on Christ, just like you and I, they would find Him to be a perfect Savior. And this would be the way that the branches that have been broken off could be grafted back in again. Recognize the picture from Romans 11, 23, 24, we read, and they also, if they do not continue in their unbelief, will be grafted in. for God is able to graft them in again. For if you were cut off from what is by nature a wild olive tree, and were grafted contrary to nature into a cultivated olive tree, how much more will those who are natural branches be grafted into their own olive tree?" While that judgment was spoken specifically, It's a first century Jewish leadership, this judgment of Matthew 23. I think it's appropriate in closing that we would heed the words of Paul again from Romans 11 verses 17 through 22. But if some of the branches were broken off, and you being a wild olive, were grafted in among them and became partaker with them of the rich root of the olive tree, do not be arrogant toward the branches. But if you were arrogant, remember that it is not you who supports the root, but the root supports you. And you will say, but branches were broken off so that I might be grafted in. Quite right. They were broken off for their unbelief, but you stand by your faith. Do not be conceited, but fear. For if God did not spare the natural branches, He will not spare you either. Behold then the kindness and severity of God to those who fell severity, but to you God's kindness. If you continue in his kindness, otherwise you also will be cut off." Again, the juxtaposition of salvation and judgment. Let's take a moment to pray together. Our God and Father, we thank you again for this day. We thank you for this time that you've gathered us here. We thank you for the opportunity to sit under the teaching of your word, to have it open in front of us. I pray that we would all be good and faithful Bereans, searching the scriptures to see if these things are so. We pray, Father, that you would speak to us in your word, that we would have open ears and open hearts, that we would be listening and hearing, and that through this you would conform us to the image of your Son, Jesus Christ. May we not exult in the judgment of the Jews. but rather may we humbly seek their repentance. May we humbly seek their conversion. May we humbly seek for the conversion of all who are lost in this world. May we take the message and the news of your kingdom out to people who need to hear. May we be faithful witnesses and faithful stewards of this great gospel. Father, we thank you that we are able to worship you in spirit and in truth, that we can worship you here on another continent from where the temple once stood. We thank you that we have the perfect and faithful high priests, Jesus Christ the righteous. We thank you that he has offered the better and perfect sacrifice, the sacrifice that never needs to be repeated. And we pray that the glories of this gospel would be ever on our lips, that we would encourage one another with these words. Father, we pray that you would prepare us each for the ministry that you have for us this week. And may you and your son, Jesus Christ, be glorified in our midst. Amen.