Badenoch Free Church

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Sunday Morning 6th Jan 2008
 
Matthew 23:37-39
37 "O Jerusalem, Jerusalem, you who kill the prophets and stone those sent to you, how often I have longed to gather your children together, as a hen gathers her chicks under her wings, but you were not willing.
Context: v1-36.
Jesus pronounces seven warnings upon the teacher of the law and Pharisees. Their behaviour will lead to terrible condemnation in the end - v33.
Their big fault was that they did all they did for the praise of man - v5. They were not interested in Gods approval only their fellow mans. It was all about the outward appearance.
After this comprehensive condemnation you would think that Jesus would simply wash his hands of the people and leave them to their deserved judgment.
But no, after his words of condemnation he reveals how he would far rather treat them.
The verse comes like a flash of light after a dark storm.V37:
 
1) The compassion of Christ - the compassion of Christ is seen in the picture image he makes. He compares himself to a mother hen, longing to protect her children.
    Note that his love for them is unconditional. He knows who they are and what they have done “you who killed the prophets…”
The divine love of Jesus. How can he love those who have continually rejected his loving call?
Holy love - different from human love.
If you were continually knocked back, your love would grow cold.
Yet Jesus laments the lose of Jerusalem - Jerusalem as a symbol of the people of Israel, and at this point especially the leaders whom he has just condemned.
How does Jesus lament over them? Like a mother over a lost son!
Often we think of God in male images. And rightly so.
We call God Father as Jesus taught us and Jesus came as a Man.
Yet here we have a far more famine image of God. Very tender, full of compassion.
All the instincts of a mother who wants to care for her children are brought out in this image of the hen caring for her chicks.
A mother has to sacrifice a lot to bring up children. Time (time alone, time to pray, time to relax), health, careers etc.
But a mother is willing to do that, that is the price to pay for the blessing of having children. She loves her children, no sacrifice is too great.
Jesus mourns the loss of Jerusalem; all he ever wanted to do was take care of them! Love them, protect them, feed them, cloth them, help them grow, set them free to live!
This is Jesus. He has not changed today: still full of compassion, love.
2) The desire of Christ - what does Jesus want above all things? “I have longed to gather your children together”, to save the lost.
Today Jesus has not changed, he is still the compassionate Christ, his desire has not changed! He still wants to “gather”.
Now, as always, Jesus wants to gather the lost.
He wanted to gather Jerusalem who had killed all his messengers and envoys, who were about to kill him.
He knew all that yet he still wanted to gather them.
This is not surprising because throughout all of scripture the longing of God is to gather his children to himself.
the Divine longing of God:
Deuteronomy 30:3-4 3 then the LORD your God will restore your fortunes {Or will bring you back from captivity} and have compassion on you and gather you again from all the nations where he scattered you. 4 Even if you have been banished to the most distant land under the heavens, from there the LORD your God will gather you and bring you back.”
This was the promise given to the OT people if they simply were to turn their hearts again to the LORD after times of backsliding.
Gods desire is to gather, not scatter. To save not destroy.
1 Timothy 2:3-4 3 This is good, and pleases God our Saviour, 4 who wants all men to be saved and to come to a knowledge of the truth.
 
In the end there will be a final gathering.
Mat 13v30 - gather the wheat into my barn.
Mat 24v31 - there will be a gathering together of the children of God one day.
 
3) The powerlessness of Christ. He cannot save you if you are not willing!
“but you were not willing.”
We have just seen that Gods greatest desire is to gather you to himself.
He is full of compassion, he loves you, he wants to gather you to himself.
Yet he is powerless to act without your say so!
Jesus longed for the people he was with simply to accept him for who he was.
He loved the Pharisees, the scribes, the outcasts, the average etc.
But if they did not desire him then there was nothing he could do!
What does this show us about Jesus?
It shows He is no dictator or tyrant.
He does not force his desires on anyone else even though it be the very best thing for them. Why? Because he does not want to violate the very essence of our humanity: the freedom to decide for ourselves. Without that we would be mere animal.
Because we have the power to chose we will be held responsible for the decision we make!
So if after seeing the great compassion of Jesus, how he longs to care for us and help us in every way, and if after seeing His great desire to gather you to himself, you decide not to follow Him, then you will be accountable for that choice.
But Jesus wants you to follow. He wants you to see his great love for you. He wants you to love him as the natural consequence of seeing such a lovely Person.
 
 
 
evening service jan 6 2008
 
 
V1-36
In the New Year we have a chance to start again. To look at the way ahead and to aim for greatness. This morning we saw the compassion of Jesus and his desire to gather the whole world to himself. If we are to make his desire come true in our own lives how best can we follow him?
As we noted this morning the context is that the Pharisees are judged severely because of the way they were living and the things they taught. Tonight I want to turn the negatives into positives and learn from the Pharisees mistakes. So that we can better follow Jesus this new year.
1: practice what you believe v1-4
How:
  • if we really believe we will do all we can to win followers to Jesus v15
  • make sure you worship God, not tradition. v29-32. Be open to what God is doing.
     
2: live for Gods glory v5-7 be worried about what God thinks not man!
How:
  • focus on the main things that God is interested in. v23-24 - “the more important matters”v23
  • work on your heart first - the outside will take care of itself. V25-28
3: seek to serve rather than be served v8-12.
How:
  • always seek to help people into the kingdom, not hinder v13-(14)
  • priorities; Focus on what is real and lasting / important / not secondary. Keep in mind the big picture v16-22.
The Pharisees focused on the gold instead of the temple and the presence of God that made it all holy. They looked only at the intrinsic value of a thing. Thus gold was valuable. In our service of others we need to view not the value of the individual but the God who loves and cherishes that individual. If we look to the person that we are serving then our service will be judgmental and conditional upon them and their character etc. If we look to God and his love for the person our service will be gracious and unconditional.