Setting The Stage In Luke

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You're listening to Heed the Word with our pastor and teacher Ken Davis. Pastor Ken is the senior pastor of Calvary Chapel Southwest Metro in Burleson, Texas. Please join us as we study the Gospel of Luke verse by verse.

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As Jesus is drawing near to Jerusalem, he is intimately aware of everything that he is going to face. He is walking in with his eyes open, knowing what he's gonna have to do, knowing what he's going to have to suffer, and willing to do it for the love of you and me. And that is an awesome thing.

Daniel’s Timeline Explained

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The Gospel of Luke is the third account in the Gospels of the life and teachings of our Savior, Jesus Christ. As believers, there are few studies that will benefit us more spiritually than studying the life and teachings of the Master. Jesus, our Savior, knows the end from the beginning. He knew that he would be rejected. He knew that he would be beaten and bruised. But even in knowing these things, he still chose to lay down his life for you, for me. That's how much he loves us. The Bible tells us that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us. Don't forget to stay with us after today's message to hear more information about He the Word, specifically how you can get a free copy of this teaching. But for now, please open your Bibles to the book of Daniel, chapter 9, verse 25. So we join Pastor Kent.

Dating The Decree And Countdown

Nehemiah, Zechariah, And Fulfillment

Securing The Colt And Divine Knowledge

Royal Signs And Creation’s Obedience

Hosanna’s Meaning And Misplaced Hopes

Jesus Weeps And Foretells Destruction

Siege Of A.D. 70 And Josephus

The Unknown Day And Our Vigilance

A Personal Wake-Up And New Birth

Today Is The Day Of Salvation

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Know and understand this. From the issuing of the decree to restore and rebuild Jerusalem. Now we just saw that in Nehemiah, didn't we? Okay? From that time until the anointed one, the ruler, comes, there will be seven sevens and sixty-two sevens. It will be rebuilt with streets and a trench or wall, but in times of trouble. After the sixty-two sevens, the anointed one will be cut off and will have nothing. The people of the ruler who will come will destroy the city and the sanctuary. Now remember, at the time of Daniel's writing there was no sanctuary to be destroyed. So not only is there the prophecy that there's going to be a sanctuary, but that that sanctuary, which would later be built also, will eventually be destroyed. The end will come like a flood, not as a flood, but like a flood. War will continue until the end, and desolations have been decreed. He will confirm a covenant with many for one seven. But in the middle of that seven he will put an end to sacrifice and offering, and one who causes desolation will place abominations on a wing of the temple until the end that is decreed is poured out upon him. Now that last seven is referring to a time that is yet to come. It is referring to the time of the great tribulation and of the tribulation period as we discussed that. And that is in the future yet. But the previous times that were described here by Daniel have already come to pass, as we're going to see. Now, Sir Robert took each statement of Scripture and sorted out the dates involved. Weeks. The word is Shabuah and literally means sevens. The Jews used this term for weeks and also for a Sabbath of years, or seven years. Using the Hebrew religious year, Anderson determined that a period of four hundred and ninety years was divided into two separate time periods, sixty-nine weeks, or one hundred and seventy-three thousand eight hundred and eighty days, and one week, or two thousand five hundred and twenty days. When the question, and this is an important question, is when did that countdown of those days begin? There were three decrees that were made that allowed the Jews to return to Palestine. The first was issued by Sirius in 538 BC and had nothing to do with the rebuilding of the walls, but specifically had to do with the rebuilding of the temple. The second was issued by Darius in 521 BC, and that also related to the temple. We can read about that in Ezra chapter 6, verses 3 through 8, but for the sake of time, we're not going to go there today. The only decree that was concerned with the rebuilding of Jerusalem itself was issued in the 20th year of Artaxerxius in 445 BC, which we just read about in Nehemiah chapter 2, verse 1. So that is the beginning of that countdown, according to Daniel 9. What is more, we know the month Anderson proceeds to assign a day. The Persian edict, which restored the autonomy of Judah, was issued in the Jewish month of Nisan. Now, computing carefully, Sir Robert concluded that 69 weeks of years would have ended on April 6th of A.D. 32. And that is the day that we refer to as the triumphal entry that we read about in our text today, which is Luke chapter 19. I'd like you to go ahead and turn there now. I know that that took a long time to get there, but I went through all of that understanding that many of you may have heard it before and may have heard it delivered in a manner that was much more understandable than what I just gave you. If that was hard to follow, I sincerely apologize. Suffice it to say this God told Daniel that from the decree to rebuild Jerusalem, a set amount of time would transpire before the coming of Messiah the Prince. According to the calculations that have been done, that time period ended on the day that Jesus entered Jerusalem on the back of that donkey. And so it was prophesied by Daniel, the date was indicated in Nehemiah, and we see the fulfillment to the day in the Gospels. And that is the significance of what we see in the following verses. Now Nehemiah and Daniel told us when Messiah would come. Zechariah told us how he would come. In Zechariah 9:9, we read, Rejoice greatly, O daughter of Zion, shout, O daughter of Jerusalem, behold, your king is coming to you. He is just in having salvation lowly and riding on a donkey, a colt, the foal of a donkey. Let's take a closer look at the fulfillment of all these prophecies. Luke 19, starting in verse 28. When he had said this, speaking of the parable of the Minas, which we studied last week, he went on ahead, going up to Jerusalem. And it came to pass when he drew near to Bethpage and Bethany at the mountain called Olivet, that he sent two of his disciples, saying, Go into the village opposite you, whereas you enter you will find a colt tied on which no one has ever sat. Loose it and bring it here. And if any one asks you, Why are you loosing it? Thus you shall say to him, Because the Lord has need of it. So those who were sent went their way and found it just as he had said to them. But as they were loosing the colt, the owners of it said to them, Why are you loosing the colt? And they said, The Lord has need of him. Then they brought him to Jesus. I'm going to stop right there in the middle of verse 35 for a moment to say one or two things about what we've just read. One of two things is occurring here. Either Jesus, in his divine power and through the power of the Holy Spirit, is exercising one of the gifts of the Spirit that is called a word of knowledge. How many of you have heard of the gift of the Spirit, word of knowledge? How many of you heard that? A word of knowledge is when through supernatural means, through the Holy Spirit, you receive information that you had no other way of knowing except that God revealed it to you. How many of you know that that gift, as well as the other gifts of the Spirit, are still in operation in the world today? Amen. They are. Now, it is entirely possible that Jesus was exercising in this instance a word of knowledge. God revealed to him through the Spirit that the situation at hand was such that if he sent these two disciples, they were going to find that cult, and someone was going to ask them that question, and that was the response that they were to give, and the cult would be sent with them. Now, the other possibility is that Jesus had pre-arranged with the owners of the cult that at a set time, knowing that he was coming to Jerusalem, that he would have need of it, and this was perhaps a password that he had established with them. Now, I'm sad to say that's the view that most of the commentaries I've read take, and I completely and utterly disagree with it. I think the Lord was operating in the power of the Spirit in this moment, and we see it transpiring just as he said. And this says to me something that's important for us to understand, and that is that as Jesus is drawing near to Jerusalem, he is intimately aware of everything that he is going to face. He is walking in with his eyes open, knowing what he's gonna have to do, knowing what he's going to have to suffer, and willing to do it for the love of you and me. And that is an awesome thing. Picking up in verse 35. Then they brought him to Jesus, the cult that is, and they threw their own clothes on the cult, and they set Jesus on him, and as he went, many spread their clothes on the road. Now, lest you think that that's really a strange thing to do, understand that this was something that they would traditionally do for royalty, kind of a red carpet, sort of an experience. And so they're they're throwing their clothing across the donkey for him to sit on, this cult, the foal of a donkey. And Jesus here is riding upon a beast upon which no man has ever sat. Now, if any of you know anything about horses or donkeys or things like that, you know how unusual it is for someone to be able to so easily ride upon an animal upon which no one has ever sat. This is no small miracle, but it indicates to us the fact that all creation is subject to God, except for man. We refuse to submit. The wind and the wave, they submit. The loaves and the fish, they submit. The donkey, he submits. Even the demons submit, and yet man won't submit. Kind of crazy if you think about it. And as he went, many spread their clothes on the road. We also know from the other gospels that they were also spreading out palm leaves. That's why we often hear this referred to as Palm Sunday. I guess that's kind of cool that they called it Palm Sunday instead of throw your clothes in the road Sunday. Either one would have been accurate, but they like Palm Sunday better, and I can understand why. Then they brought him to Jesus and they threw their clothes on the colt and they set Jesus on him. And as he went, many spread their clothes on the road. Then, as he was now drawing near the descent of the Mount of Olives, the whole multitude of the disciples began to rejoice and praise God with a loud voice for all the mighty works that they had seen. Now, many of those in the crowd are those that had been traveling along the roads with Jesus. Don't fall into the misunderstanding that these were all the people of Jerusalem that were celebrating and worshiping God at this point. But many of these were those that had traveled along the same roads, coming to Jerusalem for the Passover and for the feast. And they had seen the miraculous and the wonderful signs that Jesus had been doing all along the way. And so they're worshiping him and they're praising God for him. I mean, it was just a little while ago that some of these very people saw him raise Lazarus from the dead. This is the Messiah. They know it, they're certain of it. And they're singing out to him these messianic psalms. And they were saying, verse 38, Blessed is the king who comes in the name of the Lord, peace in heaven and glory in the highest. And that's not all they said. Each of the gospels gives us a picture of this triumphal entry, and each records just a slightly different phrase from the others. That doesn't mean one's right and one's wrong. It means one of them heard one of the people say this thing, and one of them heard another one of the people say that thing. And so when we put them all together, we get an idea of what that must have been like. And if I could orchestrate it right now, and if I were smart enough and technologically advanced enough and savvy enough to have things flashing up on the screen, maybe I would. But we could each take one of these and just shout it out, and we would have maybe a small idea of what it was like in that moment. But here's what we find: John 12, 13, Hosanna, blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord, the king of Israel. Matthew 21, 9. Hosanna to the Son of David, blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord. Hosanna in the highest. And Luke 19, 38. Blessed is the king who comes in the name of the Lord. Peace in heaven and glory in the highest. Hosanna. What does it mean? We hear it all the time. We sing it all the time. Hosanna, right? Hosanna. Hosanna in the highest. What does it mean? It means save us, please. That's what it means. It means save us now. Redeem us. Save us. That should be our prayer. And these people cried out for him to save them from Rome. From Rome. Not from their sin, not from hell, not from their rebellion in their heart or from the hatred that they felt for their fellow man, not from adultery or backbiting or substance abuse or any other list of things that people are in bondage and need saving from. But from Rome. Hosanna, save us. Verse 41 of Luke 19. Now as he drew near, he saw the city and wept over it, saying, If you had known even you, especially in this your day, the things that make for your peace, but now they are hidden from your eyes. For days will come upon you when your enemies will build an embankment around you, surround you, and close you in on every side and level you and your children within you to the ground. And they will not leave in you one stone upon another because you did not know the time of your visitation. You didn't know. You should have known. I told you I was coming. But you didn't know. And he wept for them. He didn't weep for himself because they were going to crucify him. He didn't weep for himself because his feelings were hurt by their rejection of him. He didn't weep for the fear of the pain and the agony that he was about to suffer, knowing full well what was in store for him. But he wept for them because he knew that a short forty years later their lives would come to an end. The prophecy given by both Daniel and Jesus was fulfilled in AD seventy when the Roman general Titus came with the Roman army and lay siege to the city of Jerusalem. The Jewish historian Josephus gives a vivid description of the events that took place at that time. The Roman general Titus and his armies encamped around the city and laid it under siege, and a great famine resulted in the city. There were tens of thousands of people that were gathered there, well over a hundred thousand people that were gathered there for the celebration of the Passover when that army encamped around Jerusalem. Josephus tells us, among other things, and I quote, that the number of those that were carried captive during this whole war was collected to be ninety-seven thousand. As was the number of those that perished during the whole siege, eleven hundred thousand. Most of them from starvation. No wonder. In Luke 23, 26, as we see Jesus being led away to be crucified, and the women of Jerusalem were mourning and lamenting him, Jesus turns to them and says, Daughters of Jerusalem, do not weep for me, but weep for yourselves and for your children. For indeed the days are coming in which they will say, Blessed are the barren wombs that never bore, and breasts which never nursed. Then they will begin to say to the mountains, Fall on us, and to the hills cover us. For if they do these things in the green wood, what will be done in the dry? If they do the things they're doing to me now, in the midst of prosperity, yes, they're under Roman rule, but they have peace in a sense. If they're doing this now, what will they do in times of starvation? And if I were to account for you some of the stories we have of the siege of Jerusalem, your stomachs would turn. Horrific things that do not bear mentioning sin revealed in the lives of a suffering people. And so the triumphal entry brings us through the 69th week of Daniel. What about the 70th week? What about the tribulation and the great tribulation? Because Daniel prophesied of that too. We could know when Messiah the Prince would come. Can we know when the last days will be? They're upon us. Certainly, many people, myself included, believe that they are upon us. But can we know in the same manner that we knew then? Can we calculate the day? No, we can't. And I thank God that we can't. Because in his mercy, God has given us an undefined amount of time to share the good news of the gospel message with any and all that will hear it, so that many may come to repentance rather than be destroyed. When the disciples had asked Jesus about this, he responded to them in Mark 13, starting in verse 32 But of that day and hour no one knows, not even the angels in heaven, nor the Son, but only the Father. Take heed. Watch and pray, for you do not know when the time is. It is like a man going to a far country who left his house and gave authority to his servants, and to each his work. And he commanded the doorkeeper to watch. Watch therefore, for you do not know when the master of the house is coming, in the evening, at midnight, at the crowing of the rooster, or in the morning, lest coming suddenly he find you sleeping. And what I say to you, I say to all, watch. You say, Oh, he was just talking to the disciples. No, he wasn't. He said, What I say to you, disciples, I say to everybody, watch, be aware, be vigilant, for you don't know when Jesus is coming back. Can I tell you, a long time ago, I read a book called 88 Reasons Why the Rapture will be in 1988 by a guy named Joseph Wisnot. His last name should include me in. But it didn't. A very attractive young woman gave me the book and said, Why don't you read this? And that's when I started getting into the habit of listening to my wife so well. And I read the book, and I was not really a believer at that time. I knew about God, and I had had some experiences with church as a young boy, but I wasn't walking in. Fellowship with God. I didn't have any real relationship with him. I knew a lot about him, but I really didn't know him. And so when I read this book, I knew enough to know that no man knows the day nor the hour. But then again, this guy wasn't saying the day or the hour. He was kind of saying the year. So there was enough wiggle room there to make me think that maybe he might have an idea. Now, needless to say, he was wrong. Because we're all still here. But when I read his book, it got me to thinking about the fact that there was a day, be it 1988 or not, when Jesus was going to be coming back. And that I didn't know what that day was. And that honestly, it didn't really matter. Because I could step off of a curb tomorrow, get hit by a bus, and that's my rapture. I'm gone. And it begged the question: was I really ready to give an account to God for my life? Was I really ready to stand before the creator of all the universe and answer the question, why should I let you into my heaven? I didn't have a good answer for that. And so I went to church. Couldn't tell you what he preached on, but all I know is that the Spirit touched my heart. And I was born again that day. Not because Jesus was coming back in 1988, but because Jesus was coming back. And he is. He is coming. We don't know when, but we do know how. Quickly. I don't know if today is the day that Jesus will come back or not, but I do know what today is. He says, In an acceptable time I have heard you, and in the day of salvation I have helped you. Behold, now is the accepted time. Behold, now is the day of salvation. What's today? Today is the day of salvation. Today is a day that God has given you either to be born again or to be instrumental in seeing someone else be born again. Today's the day of salvation. It could also be the day he returns. Wouldn't that be awesome? And yet there are so many more that need to hear about him and know about what he offers them, to know about the grace and the mercy. So many more that need to know it that I almost hesitate to say, even so, come, Lord Jesus. I have to admit, perhaps it's just the foolishness of not really knowing what it'll be like to be in his presence, but I long for more time because I think more people need to know. And I think that we need to be about the business of letting them know. The one that entered into Jerusalem that day, riding on a donkey, was our king. He was our Savior. He was the one that would be the sacrifice for our sin. He came to them and they gave him lip service, but they wouldn't receive him as Lord. They wanted an earthly king and he offered a heavenly one. They wanted victory over Rome and He offered victory over sin. They turned on him. Will you turn to him? He's ready to receive you today. He's ready to wash away all of your sin. There's nothing you've done that he can't and won't and doesn't long to forgive. Cry out to him. The Bible says in Romans 10 that if we believe in our hearts and confess with our mouths that Jesus Christ is Lord, we shall be saved. A lot of people in their minds change the word Lord to Savior. That's not what it says. If we believe in our hearts and confess with our mouths that Jesus Christ is Savior, we're not necessarily going to be saved. It doesn't say savior. It says Lord. The word for Lord in the Greek is kurios, and it means master and owner. And so what that's saying is if I believe in my heart and confess with my mouth that Jesus Christ is my master and my owner, meaning I belong to Jesus, then I shall be saved.

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Do you belong to Jesus today? You can. All you gotta do is ask.

Lordship, Surrender, And Invitation

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Truly, these are some of the most difficult times that many of us have ever seen. The economy is bad, work is sparse, and there's no shortage of strife throughout the world. But as believers in Jesus, we've been given many great and precious promises. For instance, listen to this verse, taken from our current study. But the very hairs of your head are all numbered. Do not fear, therefore, you are of more value than many sparrows. You see, it doesn't matter how bad things get, God has promised to take care of us. Today's teaching was only part of a full-length message taught by Pastor Ken Davis on a Sunday morning at Calvary Chapel Southwest Metro in Burleson, Texas. To hear this message in its entirety, log on to heedheword.org. That's heedtheword.org. Once you're there, select the listen online page. Or if computers aren't your thing, that's okay, you can always call us. That number to call is 817-447-5675. That's 817-447-5675. Even if you're not ordering a copy of today's study, we'd love to hear from you. Knowing that God is using He, the Word for His glory, and to encourage His saints is one of our greatest joys. So call us today. This study through the Gospel of Luke has been a real eye-opener. Maybe you've been challenged in some areas in your walk with Jesus. Well, we want to exhort you not to just hear God's word, but to do it. Begin to walk in obedience to the things you're learning. From all of us here at Heather Word, we want to say thank you for tuning in, and may God richly bless you as you seek his face.