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[0:00] And we're making our way through the Gospel of Luke and coming towards the end of it. And we're really seeing Jesus now. He is moving towards Jerusalem at a rapid pace. And he knows! He knows what's ahead of him. And we're really seeing kind of some insights into the life of our Lord Jesus Christ. And we're really going to kind of peel back the curtain a little bit and see his heart today. Because we saw the King is coming, and he's been reminding him of this truth. And we saw this triumphant entry. And yet we come to verses 41 through 48, and we see that Jesus is brokenhearted.

[0:32] What broke his heart? And that's what we're going to look at this morning. So you found your place and your copy of God's Word. You can follow along the screen. Verse 41 says this, And when he was come near, he beheld the city and wept over it, saying, If thou hadst known even thou, at least in this thy day, the things which belong unto thy peace, but now they are hid from thine eyes.

[0:57] For the day shall come upon thee that thine enemies shall cast a trench about thee, encompass thee round, and keep thee in on every side, and shall lay thee even with the ground, and thy children within thee, and they shall not leave in thee one stone upon another, because thou knewest not the time of thy visitation. Verse 45, And he went into the temple, and he began to cast them out that sold therein, and them that bought, saying unto them, It is written, My house is the house of prayer, but ye have made it a den of thieves. And he taught daily in the temple. But the chief priests and the scribes and the chief of the people sought to destroy him, and could not find what they might do, for all the people were very attentive to hear him. Let's go to the Lord in prayer this morning. Father, we're so thankful for the songs this morning that remind us of your goodness to us. Lord, I pray that last chorus we sung would be our mindset going into this message, Lord, that you would just open our eyes and open our ears, Lord, that we wouldn't just hear the Word of God, but we would apply it to our life. Lord, I pray that as we have looked over these past few weeks and seen you as the King of

[2:14] Kings and the Lord of Lords, that maybe there's somebody here that hasn't really made that a reality in their own life. Lord, I pray that needs to be taken care of today, that they would find salvation in you as you promised. Lord, I pray that you would be with me now as I open up your Word and speak to these people this morning, and that it would be a help. Lord, I pray you'd empty me of self.

[2:35] You would cleanse me of sin, Lord. You would fill me with your Spirit, that I could be a help to the hearers. And we ask all these things in Christ's name. Amen. Thank you so much for standing. You may be seated. I'm sure all of us have watched somebody that we've cared about make a decision we knew was probably not the best decision. We saw it coming, you know, from a million miles away, and we're thinking to ourselves, don't do it. And we go to them, and we let them know. We maybe go and warn them.

[3:03] We try to help. We try to insert ourself into the situation. We try to reason with them. But sometimes they're just determined to go their own way. Any stubborn people in here?

[3:18] Some of you are so stubborn you won't even raise your hand. Nobody tells me what to do. But the reality is we've probably been in a situation like that, either on the helping end or on the other end where somebody was trying to reach into our life.

[3:31] And I think we understand this truth, that there's a strange kind of pain that comes with that. Because when you really love somebody, you don't just shrug and say, well, that's their problem.

[3:44] No, you try to stop it maybe from happening, but when it does happen, you hurt with them, you grieve with them, you know maybe what's coming, and you try to everything you could to get them to avoid it. And because you love them, because you care deeply, there's times in life where we have to confront things that are maybe uncomfortable to confront.

[4:05] And really, that's kind of the tension we see as we are closing out Luke chapter 19. That Jesus is in this situation, and we saw last week, if you were with us in verses 28 through 40, that He has made it to Jerusalem.

[4:18] The week of the Passover is here, and they have this triumphant entry. And we saw that Jesus was in control of all the details. He told the disciples where they would find the donkey, and what they would say to the owner of it. And then they laid their garments, and Jesus rode into Jerusalem to the triumphant rejoicing of the crowd. And they were saying, blessed be he that comes in the name of the Lord. Blessed be the king.

[4:47] Excuse me. But now we see it's a drastic difference in the atmosphere. It's almost like Jesus has come to a little lull in the crowd, and He's kind of coming around the corner, so to speak. And the rejoicing and the cries of the people are kind of fading out. And now we see Jesus weeping. Not only is He weeping, we are going to see here in a moment that He goes to the temple, the place, the house of God.

[5:16] And when He gets there, He has to confront the corruption that has infiltrated the worship of Him. And even as the opposition grows, Jesus keeps teaching the truth. He keeps faithfully proclaiming it. And really, these short verses that we look at is a wonderful way the Lord just kind of peels back the curtain a little bit and lets us see His heart.

[5:41] Let's just see what really moves Jesus. And what does it show us here? I think kind of the big idea that we see in verses 41 through 48 is this, is that Jesus loves sinners deeply.

[5:54] We've really seen that throughout the gospel of Luke, and especially since Luke chapter 9, as He's making His way, knowing what's coming, He is still there loving them deeply.

[6:06] And because He loves sinners deeply, He confronts and He takes sin seriously. And that sin that He takes seriously, it allows Him and compels Him to keep faithfully preaching the truth.

[6:20] Listen, I'm so thankful that Jesus didn't come and sugarcoat it. That He didn't say, hey, y'all are all doing really good. No, the Bible says in John chapter 1 that He was full of grace and truth. We understand the illustration when it comes to a doctor's office.

[6:34] If something is wrong with me, something is... I was making sure you weren't going to say anything there. But I don't want the doctor to say, hey, he looks at the test, something's real bad wrong, he says, you're doing great.

[6:45] That doesn't help me. It's going to turn out real bad down the road. I want somebody that's able to tell me the truth. Sometimes you may not like it. And I love that Jesus does that for us.

[6:56] That He comes and tells us the hard truth that we're sinners. But He also comes and shows us that He's going to make a way. That's why He's going to Jerusalem. That's why the King came.

[7:07] So as we walk through these verses, I just want us to ask one simple question that we're going to answer throughout. What do we learn about the heart of the King? We've seen His entry, but now let's look at His heart and see what it shows us.

[7:20] Number one, we see this. The King weeps over rejection. I mean, verse 41 is such a contrast to the preceding verses.

[7:31] Verse 40 says that Jesus is having a conversation with a religious crowd. He said, listen, if these people wouldn't rejoice and cry out, the rocks would cry out. But in verse 41, we don't see the rocks crying.

[7:44] We see Jesus weeping. We see Him crying. He was welcomed as the King, and He still was, but the King's heart was breaking.

[7:55] And I think sometimes we may read over that phrase when it says, He wept over it. This is more than a quiet tear. This is not just Him sitting there, maybe solemnly, and a single tear is running down His cheek.

[8:11] Now, when you really get into the original language, and I'm not going to bore you with it, but the idea, the word that Luke uses is this. It is grief. It is deep mourning. It is audible weeping.

[8:23] This wasn't just a little sob. No, Jesus' heart was broken. And we have probably been in situations like that in our own life where we can't even keep it within.

[8:34] You know, anybody like, I don't like to cry in public. Because anybody else an ugly crier? And there's snot everywhere. Sometimes we try to hold it in. Listen, Jesus couldn't hold this in.

[8:46] His heart was absolutely shattered. Because He looks at Jerusalem. He looks at this city that was kind of the center. It was the apple of God's eye.

[8:57] And the temple was there. And it was to be the center of worship. It wasn't just a political capital. It wasn't just a strategically placed city. No, these were God's people. And this was God's house.

[9:08] And yet, it is completely kind of gone astray from that. But the very city that should have welcomed Him, that should have recognized the King, the Messiah is here, is completely missing Him.

[9:21] And when we think about it, maybe I know some of you in this room have been to Israel. You've been to Jerusalem. And when you get there and it looks at it, it's a beautiful place. I've seen pictures of it. I was like, wow, man.

[9:32] The scenery is breathtaking. The buildings and the structures. And as the travelers would have approached Jerusalem at this time and the Passover, the buzz was there, the city would have been an impressive sight.

[9:45] The walls and the building and the temple really rising above the city. Others would see Jerusalem and they would see the beauty. And they would see the history. And they would see the religion and the temple.

[9:56] They would swell up with national pride. I mean, I've been to Washington, D.C. a couple times. And when you go there and you see all these monuments, I mean, it just makes you proud of being an American.

[10:08] You know, it has that sense when you get in the city, like, this is an amazing place. But Jesus looks at Jerusalem and He sees what's coming.

[10:21] The crowd that just said, blessed be the King, is in a week's time or so going to say, crucify Him. They're not going to just dismiss Him.

[10:32] They're going to completely reject Him. And He knows because of that rejection and because of those things, the judgment that is ahead. You say, why is He weeping so dramatically?

[10:45] Because He knows where their unbelief is heading. And it breaks His heart. Because remember, He just told us not that long ago, the Son of Man has come to seek and to save that which was lost.

[10:57] That was His goal. That was His aim. That's the only reason that He came. And the King is coming. And the King is going to judge Jerusalem. But the same King who judges is the same King who weeps over them.

[11:13] See, here's what the heart of Jesus shows us in these first few verses, in verses 41 through 44, is that Jesus in no way delights in their destruction.

[11:24] Our world has a weird picture of God. They think that He's sometimes up on His throne or in His rocking chair with lightning bolts and He's just throwing them down and destroying people. There's nowhere in Scripture that's God.

[11:36] No, actually, here's what we see in Scripture. For God so loved the world. He doesn't delight in anybody's destruction. No, He's not willing that any should perish, but that all should come to repentance.

[11:49] That's the heart of God. And that's why Jesus is so broken. He is grieving over their rejection. He's willing to give them what they're really looking for.

[12:00] He wanted them to bring them in. We already saw in Luke 13, I believe. He wanted to bring them in like a hen brings their chicks under the wing. And to care for them. And to protect them. And to give them what they needed.

[12:12] Verse 42, He says this, If thou hadst known even thou, at least in this day, the things which belong unto thy peace, but now they are hid from their eyes. The inhabitants, the nation of Israel, the leaders of Jerusalem, they wanted peace.

[12:34] They wanted freedom. They wanted deliverance from Rome. They wanted their circumstances to change. And that's why they were crying out to Jesus earlier, Hey, save us, Hosanna.

[12:46] That means save now. But they were looking for a different type of king. That's not the king they wanted. They wanted somebody that could take care of their immediate problems.

[12:58] And that's why Jesus' heart is so broken. Because he is the one person who can truly give them the peace they are seeking for.

[13:09] He's standing right in front of them, and they don't recognize him. They're saying, well, this isn't who we thought he was. This is not the king that we need right now.

[13:19] I don't know if he knows this, but Rome's kind of a big deal. See, the real issue is they were looking for temporary peace. I think sometimes we look for that in our own life, don't we?

[13:31] Like, what can I do right now to make this stop? I mean, you're looking for it at work. Sometimes you're looking for it at home. Sometimes you're looking for it in a car ride with your kids. Like, what do we need to do just to get along?

[13:43] Okay, maybe that's just me. But so many times in our life, we look for just temporary solutions. Listen, Jesus didn't come to give you a temporary solution.

[13:55] No, his heart broke because people, that's what they wanted. But Jesus knew what they needed. And he's showing him, he said, if you could have just seen, if you would just open your eyes, I have everything you're looking for.

[14:07] They're running to and fro trying to find it. And Jesus has been saying over and over and over again, I'm here. I'm the way. I'm the truth. I'm the life. He's been teaching these truths throughout his whole public ministry.

[14:22] But the sad part is at the end of verse 42, he says, but now they're hid from thine eyes. And sometimes we can reject and reject and reject. And sometimes Jesus says, okay, you know what the worst thing that God can do for you sometimes?

[14:36] Give you exactly what you want. And that's kind of what they've been saying. They've been pushing him out. They've been seeking to destroy him. We're going to see it again here in a minute. They're trying to find any way they can to destroy him.

[14:48] And at some point, God says, okay, they can have what they want. And it breaks his heart. He weeps over that. He does not want them to reject him.

[15:01] He knows what they need. And we see in verse 43 and verse 44, we kind of think, what's going on here? Jesus knows what's coming down the road too. And we're going to really get into this.

[15:12] He's going to talk about the end times, but he's also going to talk about the destruction of Jerusalem. This city they love so greatly. This temple that was everything about their life. I mean, their life centered around this temple.

[15:24] And they would talk about it. They would give money towards it. And they would do that. Here's what Jesus says. It's going to be destroyed. It's going to be devastated by Rome. And you study history around AD 70.

[15:35] This exact thing happened. And we look at it today. The temple is still not there. They're trying to get it there. They're looking for an opportunity. But it's been completely destroyed. The city would fall and the temple would be no more.

[15:48] And they couldn't even imagine that. And Jesus is saying, you're worried so much about this building. And you're missing me standing right in front of you. And he's broken from it.

[16:01] And here's why Jesus says this judgment is coming. At the end of verse number 44. Because thou knewest not the time of thy visitation. I mean, that's a really sad statement here in this portion of scripture.

[16:17] God had come near. We saw it there in verse number 38. When they said, blessed be the king that cometh in the name of the Lord. Peace in heaven and glory in the highest.

[16:30] It echoed the angels there at the birth of Christ. Glory to God. Peace on earth. And glory to all men. And yet he had come.

[16:42] And they missed it. I mean, think about that. God in the flesh was here. And they had no idea. They didn't care. Because it wasn't the kind of savior they were looking for.

[16:55] The Messiah was standing before them. He had taught them. He had healed them. He had fed their bellies. He had worked miracles. I mean, just not long before this, maybe a few days, he called Lazarus out of a grave.

[17:09] And they saw this. He had fulfilled prophecy time and time and time again. I mean, these were people that claimed to know the word of God. And yet the word of God is walking amongst them.

[17:22] And they're like, well, that can't be. No, it was. And he just entered as the king of kings and the Lord of lords, the Messiah, the chosen one.

[17:32] And yet they missed him. Not because Jesus had failed to reveal himself. Over and over again, Jesus told them exactly who he was.

[17:45] And I just want to mention this. If somebody says to you, well, Jesus never claimed to be God in the Bible. Not true. Over and over and over. I don't have time to go through all the verses.

[17:56] But he says, yes, yes, I am he. I am he. He tells Pilate, yes, thou sayest. He's saying, I'm exactly who I say I am to be. Here's why they missed him.

[18:07] Because they refused to receive him for who he was. And he broke his heart. He's saying, I'm right here in front of you. And you're missing it.

[18:20] See, Jesus never takes sin lightly. But neither does he take sinners lightly. He's not coming and reveling in the fact that he's about to judge them.

[18:32] No, that his judgment is real. And it will be real again one day. But here's the beautiful thing about this passage. So is his compassion. He loves us.

[18:45] See, sometimes we can become so frustrated with the condition of our world. Anybody ever feel that? Like, I'm sick of all these political things. I'm just ready for all that to be done. I'm tired of our world sometimes.

[18:57] I'm frustrated with it. Maybe like you are. We get frustrated with people that reject the truth. We get frustrated with people who make sinful choices. And we can begin to talk about sinners with anger instead of brokenness.

[19:12] I think we need to take some cues from Jesus here. Yes, they're indignant. They're defiant. They're sinful. But you know, we find out that Jesus still loves them.

[19:26] I'm pretty sure we read it in Romans 5, verse 8. But God commended his love toward us. And that while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us. We've got to be very careful once we get on that side of salvation, once we know Christ is our Savior, that we think, what's wrong with these people?

[19:43] Here's what's wrong with them. The same thing that's wrong with us. We're sinners. We need a Savior. And instead of being frustrated by it, we need to look at the life of Christ and realize, maybe I should weep over it.

[19:54] When's the last time your heart was broken over sinners? That you weeped over somebody that didn't know Jesus Christ as their Savior? We should because here's the reality. Judgment's coming.

[20:06] They were going to experience it in a physical sense in AD 70. But it is also coming a day where every person is going to stand before God and give an account. And that's why Jesus is going to the cross.

[20:16] So everybody has an opportunity to not have to go to that great right throne judgment. So Jesus looks at these people who reject him and he weeps. Let me just bring it where we live for just a second.

[20:32] I'm so thankful for the heart of the King. But if he's our father and he's our Savior, do we have his heart for people that are far from him?

[20:44] Don't forget where God found you. He found you in the pit. He found you in the clay. He found you lost in sin, dead in your trespasses, and he still loved you.

[20:56] Do lost people frustrate you or burden you? They shouldn't. They need what you have. If you know Christ is your Savior, why don't you love them?

[21:07] Why don't you show them the truth? Do I simply look at people and what they're doing wrong? Or do I see where a life without Christ is taking them? Because maybe you need to look at the world and say, hey, I was on that road, but thankfully Jesus Christ showed up.

[21:22] See, everybody else sees this great coronation. This wonderful week of Passover. And yet Jesus is just broken by it. Because they're missing the whole reason of why they're doing what they're doing.

[21:34] Listen, the Passover was a picture of the coming lamb. That's what it was about. It wasn't a ceremony. But they had turned everything into just this ceremony and this religious facade. But see, Jesus' compassion does not cause him from ignoring what's wrong.

[21:51] Yes, he weeps over the city. But in these next few verses, in verse 45 through 46, he goes into the temple. And he confronts what he sees. See, not only does he weep, the king weep for sinners.

[22:04] The king confronts corrupted worship. Look at verse 45 with me. And he went to the temple and began to cast out them that sold therein and them that bought, saying unto them, It is written, My house is the house of prayer, but ye have made it a den of thieves.

[22:27] I mean, we talk about a dramatic change in tone here. Jesus at one moment is weeping and now he's made his way into the city and he's at the temple and we see him cleansing the temple.

[22:40] And at first glance, it seems like these two versions of Jesus, they don't go together. But they do. They absolutely belong together. Why?

[22:50] Because his compassion does not compromise his holiness. And his holiness does not diminish his compassion. They are compatible. And Jesus shows us that here.

[23:02] He loves Jerusalem. And because he loves Jerusalem, because he loves the house of God, he confronts what's wrong with it. There in verse 46, he gives us his contrast.

[23:14] Jesus says, This is what God intends for it to be. And this is what you've made the house of God. See, the temple, this beautiful building, this beautiful complex, was a place meant where people could come near to God.

[23:30] A place of prayer. A place of worship. A place where sinners could seek mercy. A place where God could be found. And Jesus says, You've made it a den of thieves.

[23:43] You're using this system. You're using this building. You're using religion to get what you want. And Jesus is not happy about that.

[23:54] He's angered. We see other times in his ministry, he takes a whip and he turns over the tables. You ever seen somebody turn over a table with a smile on their face? It's like, usually if somebody's turning over a table, they're not happy.

[24:07] Now, in those cases, it's usually out of anger. What we see here in the life of Christ, this is righteous anger. He's angry at the right things. He's angry at things that break the heart of God.

[24:20] And that's what he is doing. See, the phrase, the den of thieves, it's stronger than just saying, Hey, there's some dishonest people here. There's some hypocrites here.

[24:31] No, here's what a den is. It's a hiding place. It's a place where thieves retreat after they do bad things. It's their hideout. And he's saying, That's what you've turned this religion into.

[24:47] That's what you've turned this place into. See, Jesus was exposing a much deeper problem than price gouging the worshipers. Because that was a serious thing, too. You know, Brother Garrett and the teens are going to go to Six Flags in a few weeks.

[25:00] We're going to make an announcement about that later. But you know what? Once they have you in the park, a hot dog costs like $55. Where else are you going to get a hot dog? You know, and you've got to have a funnel cake because you can't go to Six Flags without a funnel cake.

[25:13] That's biblical. And you're thinking, This is a ripoff. Listen, that's what they were doing to the house of God. You couldn't bring any sacrifice in unless you bought a temple-approved sacrifice.

[25:26] And so not only are they taking advantage of these people that are just struggling to make it, they're just doing what God has asked them to do and come to the Passover week and to offer a sacrifice. Now they're getting gouged on the prices.

[25:37] But it's much more than that. Here's what Jesus is showing us. That religion had become a hiding place instead of a place where repentance could be found. He was showing the people around them and really exposing the religious establishment that they were living corruptly.

[25:56] And then they were retreating into religious activity and feeling secure because, Hey, we're just doing this in the name of God. And that's still alive and well today, by the way. That people use the Word of God for their own gain.

[26:09] And Jesus says, There's no place for that. That should not be found in the house of God. Let me just remind you that being around holy things does not make you holy.

[26:20] They were around all the things. They were following the law to a T. But religious activity cannot cover an unchanged heart.

[26:31] That's what Jesus is exposing. And that can be alive and well even at Central Baptist Church. Say, Preacher. You know how it can be a while?

[26:43] Because it's right here in our heart. See, they had the temple. They had the sacrifices. They had worship. They had religious activity everywhere you went. And Jesus saw beneath that.

[26:58] Listen, our religious activity, it can sometimes look impressive. But our heart can be so far from God. And here's what Jesus says, That shouldn't be.

[27:10] You can't ignore that. And Jesus will not ignore that. There in verse number 46, really what he's doing, he's quoting from Isaiah chapter 56.

[27:23] Because not only was the house of God there for the Jewish people, but it would also be a place for everybody to come and find them. Because when you study the temple complex, there was a court of the Gentiles. You know what the Gentiles knew?

[27:35] The only thing they knew about the word of God and the worship of God? You had to pay a lot of money just to be accepted in anything. And Jesus says, That's not what this place is supposed to be. You're missing the point.

[27:47] Something that was intended to bring people near to God had become so corrupted. And that's why Jesus did what he did. That's why he turned over the tables. That's why he drove them out.

[27:59] Listen, he isn't irritated because it's noisy. He isn't irritated because kids are running around. He isn't upset because somebody put the table in the wrong place. No, that's not why he's upset.

[28:10] Here's why it was such a great response. Because true worship had lost its purpose. They weren't there to see God. They were there to check a box off. Well, because that's what they say we have to do is we have to check a box off.

[28:22] Listen, Jesus isn't interested in you checking boxes off. No, he's interested in a relationship with you. True worship. And we see that throughout his ministry.

[28:32] He is confronting worship that no longer worships God. You know what they're worshiping? Themselves. Well, I did my religious thing today. I'm good to go. Listen, that's not how we should treat church either.

[28:43] Say, well, I'm here on Sunday. I'm good to go. No, that's not why we gather. We gather to worship God because he's worthy. And to remind us that we can go out and we can be on his mission as we live our life. I just want to slow down here for just a second.

[28:58] Because I think it can be very easy for us to just read these passages and read, especially verse 45 and 46, and say, man, those are some terrible people. How dare they do that?

[29:11] What does Jesus see when he looks at our worship? How sincerely are we seeking Jesus? Are we just going through the motions?

[29:23] I mean, what is church to you? Has church become a place where we just can meet with God or is it a place we just kind of hide behind something?

[29:33] Jesus says, I know your heart. He shows us his heart and how he feels about that. He wants us to worship him in spirit and in truth and out of a heart of love.

[29:48] I mean, it's very easy. We can come in here and we can sing the songs and we can hear the sermon and we can serve in the ministry and we can carry our Bible. And we can still have areas of our heart that we refuse to surrender and say, that's mine, Lord.

[30:01] You can't touch that. No, I think we should take what that song said. Take my life and let it be. Consecrated, Lord, to thee. Everything about us, Jesus is saying, hey, give it all.

[30:12] But their worship was, I'm going to give what I want. I'm going to get what I want. And then we'll call it a day. That's not how we worship the Lord. It's not what he's called us to do. See, that's the danger of religion without repentance.

[30:27] We can become very good at looking right while something very wrong is underneath. Because that's what was going on here. An outsider, somebody coming in for the first time, they said, wow, this is impressive.

[30:41] Look at this temple. Look at all these sacrifices. I mean, how many sheep are here? This is crazy. And yet Jesus goes in and turns the tables over. Because he saw the heart of the issue.

[30:54] See, he doesn't confront sin because he lacks compassion. He confronts sin because he's holy and he's full of compassion. And he wants us to move forward. Listen, we need a Jesus who weeps with us.

[31:05] But sometimes we need a Jesus who turns over a table in our life. We may not like it. But sometimes there's some things in our life that Jesus needs to turn the table and say, hey, you're missing it right here. Like, this is not helping you.

[31:17] I can still see your heart. So we see the heart of the king. It weeps over rejection. It confronts what is corrupted. But as we close this chapter in the last couple of verses, 47 and 48, we see one more thing.

[31:31] That the king remains faithful to the truth. We read the first line there in verse 47. And he taught daily in the temple.

[31:43] Okay. No big deal. I mean, that's just what he does. Well, that's an easy phrase to run past. But we've got to remember what's going on here. We see at the end of this verse, they're trying to kill him.

[31:55] Him standing up and speaking the truth, preaching the word of God faithfully is going to put him in a very difficult position. But you notice what we do about, we notice about Jesus every time.

[32:08] He doesn't retreat. He doesn't soften the message. He didn't change the mission because people are starting to resist him. No, he continues to press forward. He knows what is coming, and yet he's not trying to avoid it.

[32:22] There at the end of the verse, but the chief priests and the scribes and the chief of the people sought to destroy him. This was common knowledge. I mean, there's multiple times when you go back when we just talked about them raising Lazarus.

[32:35] He says, hey, we're going to go and see Lazarus. The disciples didn't want to go because they know the tension's building. And he said, wait, if Lazarus is sleeping, we don't need to go wake him up because we're probably going to die if we do that.

[32:47] And Jesus finally says, okay, he's not sleeping. He's dead. Remember what Thomas said? Let us go with him that we may die also. Everybody knows this is coming. You can feel it in the air, and yet Jesus continues to press forward.

[33:04] The tension is palpable. The leaders want him dead, and the people are hanging on every word. And through it all, Jesus keeps pressing forward. I'm so thankful for that. I'm so thankful Jesus was committed to the truth.

[33:17] He was committed to me. He was committed to you. He was committed to the mission, and it changed my life. He knows the opposition is not going away. But he does not spend his final days trying to protect himself.

[33:34] You know what he spends his final days doing? Preaching the word. Telling the truth. Calling sinners to repentance. Exposing what needs to be exposed. And let me just remind us that faithfulness does not mean the absence of opposition.

[33:49] In fact, we find the opposite to be true in much of Scripture. That many times faithfulness in our life produces opposition. Why? Because we have an enemy. We have an enemy that's not interested in the truth.

[34:01] That's not interested in the gospel. That's not excited that everybody in the world would get an opportunity to hear the word of God. I'm sure you found this out in your life. Truth is not always popular.

[34:12] Obedience. Obedience. A lot of times in our life is not really celebrated. People aren't applauding faithfulness all the time. But we have to ask ourselves.

[34:26] If this is the heart of our king. If he was committed to the truth, will we remain faithful to what God has said? Are we just as committed to the truth as Jesus was?

[34:37] Because Jesus was committed to it all the way to the cross. And in fact, while he was on the cross, he was still preaching the truth. He was still calling sinners to repentance.

[34:49] And one of them on the cross said, Lord, I want that. He said, today you'll be with me in paradise. That's the heart of our king. See, as we come to the end of Luke chapter 19, we step back and we really look at Jesus.

[35:03] Jesus, we saw him going to people that nobody wanted anything to do with. He said, Zacchaeus, I'm coming to your house today. You know what he's saying? Zacchaeus, I love you.

[35:14] I have exactly what you've been looking for your whole life. He was willing to go to people. He was willing to take those steps. He was compassionate enough to weep for these people.

[35:25] He wanted all of them to come to him. But he also confronted them, and a lot of people didn't like it. The Pharisees, they didn't like when Jesus said things because they'd have to change their lifestyle a little bit.

[35:39] They'd have to lose some of their power. They'd lose some of their pride. And Jesus said, that has no place in a relationship with me. But he was faithful to keep teaching even when it cost him.

[35:51] And that's the heart of the king. See, his compassion doesn't mean he ignores sin. His holiness doesn't mean he stops loving sinners. I'm thankful for that. He's so holy, we can't even understand it.

[36:04] And he loves me. And he loves you. I'm glad opposition didn't deter him from going all the way to the cross.

[36:15] So how should his heart shape my heart? We've already said it a couple times, but we should probably weep about things that God weeps about.

[36:27] I think sometimes we throw a hissy fit and whining complaint about things that really have no eternal value in our life whatsoever. When's the last time we thought about that person at work or that person in our family or that person at school that doesn't know Jesus and we actually do cried about it?

[36:41] Because you know why we should be broken? Because hell is just as real as heaven is. And judgment is real and it's coming. And Jesus knew that. And that's why he came.

[36:54] If Jesus confronted what was corrupt in his day, shouldn't I be willing to let him confront what is wrong in me? Because I've learned this in my life. There's a lot of things that God's still working on.

[37:06] Sometimes we say, well, I'm doing better than so and so. But listen, God's not caring about what they're doing opposed to what he cares about you. And when God speaks to your heart, here's what we need to do. Respond to it. If Jesus remained faithful when it was costly, shouldn't we do as well?

[37:25] When's the last time you just prayed, Lord, would you help me be faithful? Would you help me to be faithful to this or to that? To the call you've placed in my life?

[37:35] See, because following Jesus means more than admiring the heart of Christ. We can do that. But we should allow his heart to shape our heart.

[37:46] To shape our life. To shape our priorities. I'll leave you with this. The heart of the king, it loves deeply. It confronts honestly. And it remains faithful to the truth. The same should be true about our heart as well.

[38:00]  Would you stand with your heads bowed?