On the Way to Calvary, Part 2

Hallelujah for the cross. The apex of redemptive history is summed up in one verse in Luke's gospel, when it says, and when they came to the place called the skull there, they crucified him. Everything up to that verse is leading to that place, to that situation, to that sacrifice. Everything in the old Testament, that which was predetermined in eternity, that which was prophesied by the prophets, that which was predicted and preached by Jesus himself, is now presented in all of its fullness. Once presented in all of its fullness, as they make their way to Calvary's cross, and there he'll be crucified, it will be preached on by the apostles.

First Corinthians 2, Paul says, we desire to know nothing among you except Jesus Christ and him crucified.

And that which is preached by the apostles will be praised in revelation and beyond as the lamb of God, worthy as the lamb that was slain to receive glory and honor and praise. We are following Christ in his footsteps, those last few steps he makes before he is crucified. And as we follow him in those footsteps, we realize John 1 11, he came into his own and his own received him not. This is their rejection. And yet, the Bible says in John 1 12, but as many as received him, to them gave he power to become the sons of God, even to them that believe in his name.

And there will be a few that believe in his name. There will be the Cyrenian who believes in his name. There will be one of the criminals that believes in his name. And there will be a centurion that believes in his name. But there is no one else who believes in his name on this day because the Bible is so true. And that is what there's only a few who will ever believe. It's never the many. It's never the multitudes. It's only a few. And in the footsteps of following Jesus to Calvary, you're going to understand why it's only a few.

And it's the same thing that Jesus has always said, for there will be many who will say to me on that day, but Lord, did we not prophesy in your name, cast out demons in your name? Lord, did we not do many marvelous deeds in your name? And he will say to them, depart from me. I never knew you. Many will say, not a few will say, many will say on that day, because many think they believe. Many think they're saved, but only a few will ever be saved. Yes, there is great multitudes in heaven. Yes, there are many souls saved in heaven, and we see them around the throne of God, but that's over the history of the world.

There's always only a few. That are saved at a time. And this, this story, this Via Dolorosa, this road of sorrows teaches us two main lessons. It teaches us number one, the way of redemption for the way of redemption is seen.

And then it teaches us about the warning of retribution for the warning of retribution is spoken. And so those two things you need to understand about why there's only a few that believe and the many reject him. Let me read to you once again, the story as Luke presents it, because Luke gives us the story in its entirety.

He is the only writer who does. And when they led him away, they laid hold of the of one Simon of Cyrene coming in from the country and placed on him the cross to carry behind Jesus. And there were following him a great multitude of the people and of women who were mourning and lamenting him. But Jesus turned to them, said daughters of Jerusalem, stop weeping for me, but weep for yourselves and for your children. For behold, the days are coming when they will say, blessed are the barren and the wombs that never bore and the breasts that never nursed.

Then they will begin to say to the mountains, fallen us into the hills, cover us for if they do these things in the green tree, what will happen in the dry? And two others also who are criminals were being led away to be put to death with him. And when they came to the place called the skull there, they crucified him. We showed you last week the Christ. He is the main character. He is the main subject. Everything is about the Christ. We showed you the Christ and how beaten he was and how broken he was at this time as a prisoner of Rome.

And everything surrounding his beatings from the night he was taken on Thursday night or early Friday morning until this time around Friday before 9 a.m., because we know he's crucified at 9 a.m. in the morning. And so Christ is the central figure of all that takes place. And then we took you from Christ to the conspirators, the Sanhedrin, the Pharisees, the Sadducees, those who had conspired against him to say that he had blasphemed God. But in reality, they were the ones who had blasphemed God.

We talked to you about them last week. So we moved from the Christ to the conspirators to the Cyrenian, Simon of Cyrene, and told you that this is one of the most remarkable stories in all of Scripture. And we talked to you, number one, about his situation, for his situation truly is remarkable.

Luke tells us he is coming from a far country. In Mark's gospel, it tells us that he was passing by. For all practical purposes, Simon had just showed up in Jerusalem. He was from Cyrene. He was from modern day Libya. That's where he's from. And so he had to travel to Jerusalem for the Passover. And we told you that there was a Cyrenian synagogue in Jerusalem, according to Acts chapter 2, because there were a lot of Jews, devout Jews from Cyrene who had come to Jerusalem at Passover. Simon is one of them.

And he is there. He's passing by. And so we look at his situation as one who's just coming into the city, and he sees what's happening with Jesus.

He might not even know Jesus' name. He might not even know who he is. He might not have ever heard of Jesus, who was called the Christ. He is coming to offer sacrifices. He is coming like every devout Jew would come to Jerusalem at Passover. He's passing by. His situation is absolutely remarkable. And his compulsion, because the Bible tells us he is compelled out of the crowd. His compulsion is that which is seemingly random, but in all reality, righteous. He's compelled out of the crowd. It's not like the Roman soldier said, is there anyone here who would like to step up and carry the cross of Jesus?

Do we have a volunteer in the crowd? We know there are a lot of you who love him. Would you like to carry his cross? That wasn't what was asked. The Roman soldiers compelled him. They grabbed him. They brought him out of the crowd. This compulsion, while it might seem random to us, is truly the righteousness of God at work in the heart of a man. He is compelled. He has to carry the cross. Here he was coming to Jerusalem to offer sacrifices. He's coming to Jerusalem as a devout Jew to do the Jewish thing.

The next thing you know, the Roman soldiers grab him and they compel him to carry the cross of the Christ. And so his situation, yes, quite remarkable. His compulsion, while seemingly random in all reality, is extremely righteous because God is at work. God is at work. This man wasn't thinking about giving his life to Jesus, but Jesus was calling him to himself. And that leads us to the third thing we told you about last week, his redemption, his redemption.

For his redemption is quite rewarding because this man is saved. And how do we know he's saved? How do we know this man gets saved? Now, whether he's saved by the time he's compelled out of the crowd to carry the cross, by the time they get to the place called the skull, maybe somewhere along the line, he believes in Jesus. Maybe it's at the day of Pentecost because we know that the apostles would speak in the tongue of the Cyrenians and he would hear the gospel. Then we don't know, but we do know this, that Mark tells us he had two boys, one named Rufus, the other named?

Oh, there was somebody who listened last week. Alexander, Rufus and Alexander. And they now are believers. You remember, he's named the criminal. His name is not given. The centurion, his name is not given. But Simon of Cyrene, his name is given. His country is given. His family is named, right? And so Alexander and Rufus are two individuals who are his boys who come to Christ. And when you read Romans 16, you realize that his wife had come to Christ because she was like a mother to the apostle Paul.

And Rufus is a prominent figure in Rome. And so they know about this man. He is well known in the community because this father was redeemed. He came to saving faith. And because of that redemption, he had a mission. And that mission is rich. It's rich because he takes the message to his family. He tells it to his boys. He tells it to his wife. And the repercussions of that are so reinvigorating because he tells it to the people in Cyrene. And there comes this church that's established in Cyrene that sends out missionaries to Antioch.

We read it in Acts 11 last week where they went to Antioch and they preached the Lord Jesus Christ. And then in Acts chapter 13, Lucius of Cyrene is there. And he was part of commissioning the apostle Paul and Barnabas to go out and preach the gospel to the Gentile world. So the repercussions are enormous. But all of that pales in comparison to the illustration that's given. And the illustration is the reality of what it means to be a believer. And this is how you know that the way of redemption is seen on the Via Dolorosa.

I'm sure that Jesus in his humanity was beaten so severely. We told you last week, beaten beyond recognition. Filleted in such a way that Psalm 24 prophesied that you could count his bones. But this is the Son of God. This is the Son of Man. Okay. Jesus was an incredible individual. And I'm sure his Father in heaven could have given him the strength to carry his own cross to the skull. But he didn't. Because there was something that needed to be seen by everybody. There had to be a living illustration that would be given to everybody there to know what it means to be a follower of Jesus.

They had to know. Because he had spent his whole life ministering the gospel. His three-year ministry was all about presenting the gospel. And so after one of the occasions in which he predicts his death, he says these words. He talks about how the Son of Man is going to die, but he's going to rise again. He says these words in Luke 9 verse number 23. 23. That is Jesus's gospel invitation. If anyone desires to come after me, let him deny himself. Let him take up his cross daily and follow me. Because you see, the gospel is about following Jesus.

That's the gospel. Following in the footsteps of Jesus. And we have followed Jesus in his footsteps all through Luke's gospel. And now we are following in his footsteps all the way to the place called the skull, to the place called Calvary, to Mount Moriah. We are following him there. And he's going to give one last opportunity for every Jew that's there. And for anyone who reads the story to know this is what it means to be a follower of me. You got to take up your cross daily. You got to be willing to sacrifice your ambitions, your dreams, your desires.

You got to be willing to put them all aside and give your life completely to me. You must be sold out to me. You must deny yourself. You must take up your cross daily. You must follow me. And if it requires death, you follow me to your death. That is the gospel that Jesus preached. And that's the gospel he wanted to give out. And that's why he goes on to say these words. For whoever wishes to save his life is going to lose his life. But whoever loses his life for my sake, he is the one who will save it.

For what is a man profited if he gains the whole world and loses or forfeits himself? What does it profit you to gain the whole world but lose your own soul? Follow me. Give your life to me. And this was the message he preached. You go on to Luke chapter 9. It says this in verse number 57. And as they were going along the road, someone said to him, I will follow you wherever you go. Now they've heard the sermon. Deny yourself. Take up your cross and follow me. And someone says, oh, oh, I'll follow you, Jesus.

Wherever you're going to go, I will follow you. And Jesus says, the foxes have holes and the birds of the air have nests.

But the son of man has nowhere to lay his head. You follow me. You might be homeless. You follow me. You might be penniless. You follow me. You might not have anything. You still want to follow? You still want to follow? And he said to another, how about you? You follow me. But he said, permit me first to go and bury my father.

But he said to him, allow the dead to bury their own dead. But as for you, go and proclaim everywhere the kingdom of God. Wait a minute. I got to first bury my father.

In other words, his father is not yet dead. He's going to die. If he dies, he will gain the inheritance. And even though the son of man has no place to lay his head, because he gains his inheritance, he'll have a place to lay his head. And Jesus said, wait, time out. Let the dead bury the dead. You follow me. You preach the kingdom. You do what I ask. You do what I demand. You do what I command. Because if any man come after me, let him deny himself, take up his cross daily and follow me. Then it says, another also said, I will follow you, Lord.

But first permit me to say goodbye. To those at home. But Jesus said to him, no one after putting his hand to the plow and looking back is fit for the kingdom of God. Jesus made the requirements of following him so strict, so stringent that very few ever desired to do that. In fact, you don't want to do that. Unless, of course, you've been called by God. Then you do. See that? If you're sitting here today and saying, well, I don't want to do that. That's probably a good indication you haven't been called by God.

Because if you've been called by God, you'll do that. Because he who believes in me, 1 Peter 2, 6, will never, ever be disappointed. But it doesn't end there. This is the ministry of Jesus. Luke 14. Remember Luke 14? Now, great multitudes are going along with him. And he turned and said to them, it's so good that you're here. I'm glad that you're with me. I'm glad there are so many of you following me. That's not what he said. He said, if anyone comes to me and does not hate his own father and mother and wife and children and brothers and sisters, yes, and even his own life, he cannot be my disciple.

Your love for me must be so supreme. Your love for me must be so over the top that your love for those dearest to you looks like hate to everybody else because you're so consumed with me. If not, you can't be a follower of me. That means you have a higher priority than me. You have somebody that overrides me. You have a relationship that's more important to you than me. You can't come to Jesus and have an earthly relationship that's more important to you than Jesus. Because if you do, you cannot be his disciple.

It's not like you might be able to be his disciple. He says, you cannot be my disciple. I must be the supreme relationship that you have. I must be over everyone. I must be over your wife, your husband, your son, your daughter, your brother, your sister, your dearest friend. I must be number one, or you cannot be my disciple.

Can't. So he says, whoever does not carry his own cross, there it is again, and come after me cannot be my disciple. And cross is always a symbol of death. For which one of you, when he wants to build a tower, does not first sit down and calculate the cost to see if he has enough to complete it?

Otherwise, when he has laid a foundation and is not able to finish, all who observe it begin to ridicule him, saying, this man began to build and was not able to finish. He got on the Jesus bandwagon, but he jumped off so quick because he couldn't finish. Couldn't finish. Why? Because it was too stringent. It's too hard. Or what king, when he sets out to meet another king in battle, will not first sit down and take counsel whether he is strong enough with 10,000 men to encounter the one coming against him with 20,000?

Or else, while the other is still far away, he sends a delegation and asks terms of peace. So therefore, no one of you can be my disciple who does not give up all his possessions. You can't have people over me. And you can't have possessions over me. Because I'm everything to you. Or you can't be mine. That's the message that Jesus preached. And so in Luke chapter 13, someone said, oh, gee, is there only a few being saved? Is there only a few being saved? Because there's a lot of people here. But for the most part, they don't show a deep commitment to you.

And so what did Jesus do? He made sure that on this day, the last day he was on earth, that he would let everybody see this is what I've been talking about. If you want to follow me, you got to take up your cross daily, deny yourself, and follow. And that's the remarkable. That's the most real aspect of this journey. Because everybody watching would say to themselves, this is what he's been saying. This is what he's spoken. This is what he's been telling us for these last three years. And there was Simon of Cyrene compelled out of the crowd.

And in that compulsion, there was a call by God. Because God was orchestrating the events to bring this person to saving faith in Christ. For Simon of Cyrene would know what it means to be a cross bearer. And although he was bearing the cross of Jesus, it was a sermon that had been preached all throughout the ministry of Christ. And that's why there are only a few being saved. Because you see, you can't go to a huge assembly and preach that message and people respond happily, joyously. They just don't want to hear that.

That doesn't help us in our society that's so built on our own special self need. You got to deny yourself. And that's what it means to be a follower of Christ. So Simon of Cyrene, in spite of his situation, just passing by, in spite of the compulsion that brought him to carry the cross, there was his redemption. That redemption led him to a mission to his family. And the repercussions of that have gone on to this very day because of the apostle Paul and Barnabas going to the Gentile world with the gospel.

But the illustration, that's what rings true. Jesus wanted everybody to know, this is what I've been talking about. Are you willing to follow me? And very few were or did. So you move from the Christ to the conspirators, to the Cyrenian, to the crowd. The crowd, look what it says, it says, and they were following him a great multitude, a great multitude. And remember, it's Passover. The streets are teeming with people. They're all over the place. Everybody, by now, everybody's awake. They didn't sleep in back in those days.

It was Passover time. And so they had to get up, they had to prepare, they had to get things going. And people were up and they were awake and they would hear and the word would begin to spread all throughout the city of Jerusalem. And there was a great multitude, not just a multitude, but a great multitude. This is thousands of people. A lot of them were with him on Monday. Remember, this is Friday. And what happened on Monday? That was the true Palm Monday. Okay. There's no Palm Sunday. It's only Palm Monday for Jesus came into the city on Monday of that week.

And we have gone through this over with you many times over the last year that we've been covering the last five days of the life of Jesus. All right. So they came and he came in on Monday and there was a great multitude there. And what did that multitude do? They took off their garments. They laid their garments down in front of the donkey and they would praise the son of David. Hosanna to the King. And they would praise him on Monday. This is Friday. This is Monday. They would praise him and they would, they would lay their garments down.

And that was a symbol. Listen, laying your garments down in front of the King was symbolic of take all of me. I'm yours. That's what it meant. And so they would take off their outer garments, they would lay them down. And that donkey carrying Jesus would ride over those garments. At the same time, they took palm branches. Remember that? And they would begin to wave the palm branches. And this is what got the Pharisees so angry because the palm branches were used at the Feast of Tabernacles, not the Feast of Passover.

And the Feast of Tabernacles celebrated the arrival of the King, right? Or living in anticipation of the King. And they would take those palm branches and they would live under those palm branches in the backyards of their homes because they would reminisce about their wilderness wanderings and how God would provide for them and how one day the Messiah would come. And when he would arrive, all their needs would be taken care of. And so they lived in anticipation of the arrival of the Messiah. So when they took the palm branches and began to wave them, what they were saying was, this is the Feast of Tabernacles.

This is the Messiah. He has come to meet all of our needs, to protect us, to watch over us. This is our King, Hosanna to the Son of David. And they began to praise his name. This was the crowd on Monday. What changed by Friday? How did it change so fast? Remember, what they wanted, he did not give them. And what they needed, they did not want. That's why he came to give his life away. And they would be thinking, wait a minute, he's coming into the city. And then he came to the city. He wept over the city.

He turned around and went back to Bethany. He came back then on Tuesday. And there were still scores of people in the temple courtyard. And they're thinking now he's going to overtake Rome. Now he's going to set up his kingdom. And now the Son of David is going to rule. But he didn't. Instead, he cleansed the temple. He cleansed the temple. He ran out the money changers. And Matthew's account says he healed the blind. He healed the lame on that Tuesday. He took care of them. And he began to preach and teach.

And he came back on Wednesday. And he began to condemn the religious establishment. And indict them for their phoniness, their hypocrisy. He wasn't doing anything they imagined him to do. He wasn't doing anything they wanted him to do. Instead, he was doing what he needed to do. Because he was going to the cross. And they didn't want a dead Messiah. They wanted a kingly Messiah. A live Messiah. A Messiah that would take care of them and minister to their needs. And what they wanted, he did not give them.

And what they needed, they did not want. And that's why there's only a few who believe. Because they come to Jesus because they want a better marriage, or a better financial situation, better relationships, better health. They come for all the wrong reasons. Jesus came to save you from your sin. He did not come to save your marriage. He did not come to save your financial stress. He came to save you from your sin. Better yet, he came to save you from himself. God and his mercy would save you from God as judge.

He came to save you from himself. That's what he came to do. That's not what they wanted. This large crowd would assemble on this Via Doloroso, this way of sorrows. And there they would be. In some way still hoping at the depths of their being that maybe he'll turn it all around. That's why they said, if you're the Messiah, if you're the king, come down off the cross. Come on down and show us. But he came to die. And that's why there was that great multitude of verse 48 of chapter 23. And all the multitudes who came together for this spectacle, when they observed what had happened, began to return, beating their breasts in sorrow.

Because they were so disillusioned. They were so disappointed. They were so discouraged because they were still so dark in sin, steeped in sin. You see, people come to Jesus aren't disillusioned and discouraged and depressed because they're not dark in sin. They live in the light of life. And so they have Jesus. They didn't have Jesus. They could see him, but they did not have Jesus. Remember what Luke 19 tells us. Remember Luke 19? The day he entered Jerusalem, it says these words. Luke chapter 19.

It says, as he was approaching near the center of the Mount of Olives, the whole multitude of disciples began to praise God joyfully with a loud voice for all the miracles which they had seen. They praised him not for his message, but for his miracles. They praised him because he healed the blind. He healed the lame. He raised the dead. Remember, Bethany is not too far from Jerusalem, just on the other side of the Mount of Olives. Everybody knew about Lazarus. He had raised Lazarus from the dead.

On his journey to Jerusalem during Passover season, he went through Jericho. And at that time, there were so many people following him and he healed two blind men. Remember that? One's name was Bartimaeus. Don't know the other man's name, but they were healed of their blindness. And that just caused the crowd to erupt all the more for his miracle working power. And Lazarus had been raised from the dead, and all this was surrounding his arrival into Jerusalem. And on Monday, they praised him and yelled and screamed, Hosanna to the son of David.

They praised him for who he was, but they did not know who he was. They did not know. So you have a crowd, a crowd of people, a lot like there is in churches today. A crowd of people who are disillusioned. They are disenchanted. They are discouraged over the fact that Jesus doesn't do what they expected him to do. This was the crowd. They were easily swayed by the religious establishment because they were not committed to taking up the cross and following Christ, to denying themselves. See? And you move from the crowd to the crying, those who cried.

It says, and there were following him a great multitude of people and of women who were mourning and lamenting him. These are the criers. Okay? Now, there was some measure of sympathy and sensitivity to Jesus because he had been beaten beyond recognition. But these were not people who were sad for Jesus. These people were hired mourners. You see, at a Jewish funeral, they always hired mourners, those who would lament the death of a loved one. Because in Judaism, they never believed that someone should die without someone weeping for their loss.

And so they would gather together and begin to mourn and to weep and lament. Okay? And they would cry even aloud. It was more of a show than it was anything else. Remember back in Luke chapter 8? Luke chapter 8, they had the same thing. Luke 8, now one of the Pharisees, I'm sorry. Verse 49, while he was still speaking, someone came from the house of the synagogue official saying, your daughter has died. Do not trouble the teacher anymore. But when Jesus heard this, he answered him, do not be afraid any longer.

Only believe and she will be made well. And when he had come to the house, he did not allow anyone to enter with him except Peter and John and James and the girl's father and mother. Now they were all weeping and lamenting for her. They were hiring mourners there to lament and to weep the death of the synagogue official's daughter. And Jesus, of course, would raise her from the dead. And there he said, stop weeping. He gave a command, stop weeping. Why? Because Jesus knew what he was going to do.

See? And so you realize that these criers were going along with Jesus. All right. And they were weeping and they were mourning. It was more of a show than anything else. But there had to be some sort of sympathy because Jesus was beaten so severely. They had to at least feel bad for Jesus. There was an emotional attachment to Jesus. A lot like people in the church today. People have an emotional attachment to Jesus. OK, for his suffering and for his death and for those kinds of things. They had this attachment to him emotionally.

But there is no volitional, rational commitment that says, I'm yours. Take me. I will follow you no matter what. Here they were crying. And now Jesus is going to speak. This is the only time he speaks on the road of sorrows. And what he has to say, listen, is not an invitation. You'd think one more opportunity, give an invitation. But see, the invitation is in the illustration behind him with Simon Cyrene. The invitation is in the illustration. So what's he going to do? He's going to give them a warning.

Remember, we told you on the Via Dolorosa, you see the way of redemption. And you hear the warning of retribution. This is what he says, daughters of Jerusalem. Now, that's a phrase sometimes the Old Testament called daughters of Zion. It's a phrase that just means the Jewish people. That's it. It refers to the nation. At large, that's all it means daughters of Jerusalem. So he's speaking not only to the mourners, but everybody else who's in the crowd. He says these words, stop weeping for me. That's a command.

Stop weeping for me. Now, this is remarkable because we would think that if we were suffering, somebody would at least shed a tear for our suffering, right? We would think that somebody would love us enough to shed a tear that we are going through a very difficult predicament that we have been flayed. We are bleeding all over the place. We are on our way to die that someone there would shed a tear for me. But remember, Jesus isn't self-absorbed like we are. So what does Jesus say? Stop weeping for me because he knows the future.

See, he knows what he's going to do. He knows he's going to die for the sins of man. He knows that the only way possible for men to be saved would to die as a substitutionary sacrifice on their behalf. He knows that. And he also knows what's going to happen in the future. And so he warns them. He says, weep for yourselves and for your children. Don't weep for me. Instead, turn it around and weep for yourself. Why? For behold, stand amazed. Now think about this. Jesus is bleeding profusely. The robe on his back has somehow stopped the bleeding to some degree.

And that garment is soaked in blood. His face has been beaten so severely he's beyond recognition. And yet he's going to speak the truth. He's going to give them a warning. The last thing he says to the people is the warning of the coming retribution upon them. Beware. Beware. It wasn't, God loves you so much. God loves you. Wasn't that? Behold, the days are coming and you better be aware. It was like in Luke 13, when they came to Jesus, because Pilate had mingled the blood of some of the Jewish people or some of the Galileans with their sacrifices.

And Jesus said, well, better be careful, better repent. Same thing might happen to you. And somebody came and said, well, the Tower of Siloam had fallen over and had killed 13 different people. And they had died a horrible death because of a tragedy that occurred. And Jesus said, you know what? You better repent or the same thing might happen to you. Jesus couldn't preach that sermon today after a tragedy because no one would come. No one would listen to that. They don't want to hear that. You better repent.

These are warning signs. Death is inevitable. You're going to die. Make sure you're right with God, because if you're not, when you die, you're going to burn in hell. So make sure you repent. You get right with God. That was the message that Jesus preached. That's why there were so few being saved. They didn't want to hear that message. They wanted that soft, subtle, candy-soaked sermon that would somehow make me feel good when I left church. That's what they wanted to hear when they left the synagogue, when they left his presence.

That's what they wanted to hear. They wanted to know that they were okay just the way they are. They wanted to know that, you know what? Everything's going to be okay. Don't worry about it. That's not what Jesus ever said. So he said, stop weeping for me. Instead, you better start weeping for yourselves and for your children. Now, can you imagine? Jesus is saying this. Maybe he stops. We don't know if he stops or not, but he stops and looks at them and says, are you really weeping for me? Stop it.

Stop. You better start weeping for yourselves and for your children. Can you imagine the crowd's reaction to that? What are you talking about? Weeping for ourselves? We're not beaten and bloodied. We're not going to go to the cross to die. He says, stop weeping for me. He says, the days are coming when they will say blessed are the barren and the wombs that never bore and the breasts that never nourished. Wow. You see, you have to realize that not having children as a Jewish woman was the worst thing that could ever happen to you.

It's the worst disgrace a woman could ever have. Today, things have changed so drastically, but in those days and in Jewish communities today, it was the word. That's why, that's why over Luke one, Elizabeth, who was barren, said these words. This is the way of the Lord has dealt with me in the days when he looked with favor upon me to take away my disgrace among men. Elizabeth said she was disgraced among men. She was the wife of a priest and she was barren and men would look at her in disgrace because God had not opened her womb.

God had not blessed her because there was some sin in her life. And so she was looked at with eyes of disgrace, but she says, now the Lord has wiped all that away. He's given me a son, not just any son, but the full one unto the Messiah. And so now Jesus says, listen, it would be better for you not to have children in the days ahead.

And people are going to say, this is a weird kind of beatitude. Blessed are those who never had any children, whose wombs are barren and blessed are those whose breasts never nursed their children. There's going to come a day where you're going to be blessed because you didn't have children. And they would think, how can that possibly be? That's the worst curse a woman could ever have. And Jesus says these words, then they will begin to say to the mountains, fallen us to the hills, cover us.

Wow. It's coming to day of judgment, a day of retribution. And the phrase he uses is a quotation for the book of Hosea. When Hosea had warned the people with the exact same phrase, when they will say to the mountains, fallen us and to the hills, cover us. Why? Because he would warn the 10 northern kingdoms of the coming retribution that Assyria was coming to invoke retribution upon them for the rebellion against God. Happened 722 BC. And they would cry. The death and the slaughtering of innocent people would be so severe that they would cry for the mountains to fall on them, for them to be crushed by the rocks, then to go through such a horrible torture.

That happened in 722. So they would know the verse. Okay. They would know the verse because it's from the prophet Hosea. And he applies it to what's going to happen to them in 70 AD at the destruction of Jerusalem. When Rome would come and plunder the city and 1.1 million Jews would be crucified and die a horrible death. And this same phrase is used because whatever a prophet would prophesy, he would prophesy about a near event and then a future event. And sure enough, in the book of Revelation, the sixth chapter, these words are spoken when the sixth seal is broken.

It says, and the sky was split apart, verse 14, like a scroll when it is rolled up and every mountain and island were moved out of their places and the kings of the earth and the great men and the commanders and the rich and the strong and every slave and every free man hid themselves in the caves and among the rocks of the mountains. And they said to the mountains and to the rocks, fall on us and hide us from the presence of him who sits on the throne and from the wrath of the land for the great day of their wrath has come and who is able to stand.

There's going to come a day in the future where the commanders of this world, where the rich people of this world, where the poor people of this world, where the kings of this world will all say in unison that, boy, we wish the mountains have fallen on us because we want to be spared from the wrath of the lamb of God, not knowing that their death will only lead them to their eternal damnation. So Jesus, speaking to these criers, these crying women for all to hear, says, stop weeping for me. Stop.

But you better weep for yourselves and for your children because it's coming today when it will be a blessing for you not to have any because of what's going to happen. And Jesus in Luke chapter 21 would speak about this same principle of barren women in the womb, in the breast that never nursed because they're going to have to flee in the night. They're going to have to run. And if you've got a child, it's going to slow you down, but you're going to run because you don't want to die. It's coming.

Judgment is coming. And this is what Jesus says to the crowd, to the criers, for everybody to hear. No glorious invitation about the love of God and loving one another. Nothing about the mercy of God. Nothing about the grace of God. It's all about the judgment of God upon a nation who rejects their Messiah, who rejects their King. It's going to come. That's why Paul would say, knowing the terror of the Lord, we persuade men. Judgment is coming. People need to know about the seriousness of impending judgment.

And Jesus would tell them because all great preachers tell the truth. He told them the truth. This is going to happen. And it did happen in 70 AD. It's going to happen in the book of Revelation. There's breaking of the sixth seal during the time of Jacob's trouble. It's going to happen again. And so you move from the Christ to the conspirators, to the Cyrenian, to the crowd, to the criers, to the criminals, the convicts, the thieves. It says, and two others also were criminals were being led away to be put to death with him.

Two criminals, two thieves, possibly two murderers, two of which were deserving of death. For the wages of sin is death. They were deserving of death. Jesus, he had no sin. He is a spotless, sinless lamb of God. He did not deserve to die, but they, oh yes, they deserve to die because they had broken not only the law of the land, but they had broken God's law and the wages of sin is death. But, but the gift of God is eternal life. And one of them would be a recipient of the gift of God. One of them would die in their sins.

The other would be released from the sins. One would die as an unbeliever. One would die as a believer, but those two criminals represent everybody. Either you believe or you don't. You either give your life to Christ or you don't. You either subject yourself to Christ as Lord or you don't. And one did and one did not. And whether you're among the, the weepers, the criers who have a sensitivity or a sympathetic side to Jesus, or whether you're a part of the crowd who is disillusioned and discouraged because Jesus didn't do what you wanted him to do.

Unless you give your life to Christ, you'll die in your sins and you'll perish forever outside of his presence. Or you give your life to Jesus and live forever with him in his presence. The road of sorrows, by way of illustration, the way of redemption. If any man come after me, let him deny himself, take up his cross daily and follow me. That was the gospel message as Jesus himself preached it in Matthew, Mark, and Luke. The way of redemption is the illustration, but the proclamation is the warning of retribution upon all those who will not follow Jesus on his terms.

Let's pray. Father God, we thank you for today. We thank you for a chance to, to study the life of Christ, to understand more and more about who he is and what he did. For truly Lord, the road of sorrows is the road that leads to Calvary, which is the road that leads to our salvation. And we are grateful for those of us who believe and understand and have given our life to Christ. We are able to see the glory of our King. And we are grateful for the saving work of Christ because we are born again, not of the will of the flesh, nor the will of man, but of the will of God.

And for that, we are grateful. We pray for those who do not know you and for those in our families who do not know you, that your word would go forth. They would hear the gospel and give their life to Jesus, the Savior of the world. We pray in Jesus name. Amen.