Sermon Tone Analysis

November 29, 2015

*Read Lu 13:31-35 *– I’ve told before of the rowdy little boy, running home after his 1st day of school, bursting thru the door shouting, “Mom, Mom! Guess what?

They want me back!” That’s the message of our text today.

God loves His rebellious creation and wants us back.

Tragically, many of us are not nearly as excited about that as the little boy was.

Here Jesus draws a sharp contrast between human will and God’s will.

Mid v. 34, “How often would I have (literally, I willed to) gathered your children together as a hen gathers her brood under her wings, and you were not willing (literally you will not)!”

I will; you will not.

Human history is the story of man’s will vs.

God’s will.

The paradise of Eden was the result of God’s will and man’s will being in perfect harmony.

The Lord’s prayer calls for a return: “Your will be done on earth as it is in heaven” (Mt 6:10).

That’s perfection!

The question for all of us is whose will are we operating under?

To move us God’s direction, Jesus gives us a glimpse into the very heart of God here.

Then He shows us Israel’s “I won’t” response to God’s “I will”.

The results are challenging.

*I.

God’s Will -- Redemption*

When Jesus says, “How often would I have gathered your children together as a hen gathers her brood under her wings,” He is giving expression to God’s perfect will.

What does He will?

Redemption for His creation.

Gathering chicks under the wings of the hen is a beautiful picture of God’s great, loving heart.

Ever been in barnyard when danger approaches?

Chicks are wandering all over the place, seeking food and doing whatever baby chicks do.

Then a snake slithers in.

Mom signals and all the chicks come running – seeking shelter under the wings of the mother hen.

And Jesus is saying, “That’s just how I feel about rebellious Israel.”

Does He hate them for refusing?

No.

It breaks His heart to see them reject.

No one will ever be able to stand before God and say, “You didn’t care!”

It will not happen.

God’s heart has always reached out to His fallen creation.

Even John Calvin, who emphasized election and God’s holiness said this: "Your idea of God's nature is not clear unless you acknowledge him to be the origin and fountain of all goodness".

Scripture is filled with declarations of God’s patient desire that all men everywhere would be saved.

II Chron 30:9, “For the Lord your God is gracious and merciful and will not turn away his face from you, if you return to him.”

Mt 9:36, “When he saw the crowds, he had compassion for them, because they were harassed and helpless, like sheep without a shepherd.”

Ezek 33:11: “As I live, declares the Lord GOD, I have no pleasure in the death of the wicked, but that the wicked turn from his way and live; turn back, turn back from your evil ways, for why will you die, O house of Israel?” Ezek 18:32: “For I have no pleasure in the death of anyone, declares the Lord GOD; so turn, and live.”

God’s will is crystal clear, isn’t it?

Turn and live.

Repent and be renewed.

The problem isn’t God.

The problem is we who “will not” – who set our will against His.

And His reaction is in Jer 13:17: “But if you will not listen, my soul will weep in secret for your pride; my eyes will weep bitterly and run down with tears.”

Listen, make no mistake, it is devastating to God to see people set their will against His.

God’s will is clear in I Tim 2:4, “3 This is good, and it is pleasing in the sight of God our Savior, 4 who desires all people to be saved and to come to the knowledge of the truth.”

II Pet 3:9 adds: “The Lord is not slow to fulfill his promise as some count slowness, but is patient toward you, not wishing [literally “willing”] that any should perish, but that all should reach repentance.”

God wills the repentance of everyone because He wills the redemption of everyone.

God sees us as we really are and wills our cleansing.

Chuck Swindoll tells of performing with a Marine band at a leprosarium while serving in the Marines in Okinawa in 1958.

He says that nothing prepared him for what he saw.

“I saw stumps instead of hands.

I saw clumps instead of fingers.

I saw half faces.

I saw one ear instead of two.

I saw the dregs of humanity unable even to applaud our performance.

I saw in the faces of men, women, and even some teenagers and anguish crying out.

We could play music for them, but we could not cleanse them of the disease.”

Then he goes on: “In Scripture leprosy is a picture of sin.

And we see that it is cleansed rather than healed.

Only Jesus’s blood has the power to cleanse us from our condition of sinful corruption.

Now I understand what Scripture says, "He was moved with compassion."

Beloved, God’s middle name is compassion.

No one will ever be able to stand before God having rejected Jesus and say, “You didn’t care.”

All the Father will have to do is point to the nail prints in the hands of His Son and say, “I beg your pardon.

I loved you; you didn’t care for me.”

God wills all people, everywhere to be saved.

*II.

Israel’s Will -- Rejection*

V. 34: “How often would I have gathered your children together as a hen gathers her brood under her wings, and you were not willing!”

What a tragic ending to the gracious will of Jesus.

“I willed to gather you under my wings, to forgive, redeem and cleanse you; but you willed not.”

The sentence ought to read, “I willed, and you willed, too.”

Instead it reads, “You willed not.”

Incredibly, they rejected their own Messiah.

It’s a fatal rejection.

“He came to His own and His own and His own people did not receive Him” (Jn 1:11).

God came from heaven, became a man to live and die for the salvation of these people, and they rejected Him.

Amazing.

How could that happen?

Jesus knew.

He says in Jn 3:19, “And this is the judgment: the light has come into the world (in the person of Jesus), and people loved the darkness rather than the light because their works were evil.”

Why did these highly religious, devout, moral people reject the Savior?

Because they loved their sin more than they love Jesus.

Paul described it similarly in Eph 4:18, “They are darkened in their understanding, alienated from the life of God because of the ignorance that is in them, due to their hardness of heart.”

Rejecters are blind to spiritual truth – preferring their way to God’s.

They are like the man who sent $100 to enroll in a correspondence course on mental telepathy.

A month went by and nothing arrived, so he called to inquire.

He was told, “We don’t send that course by mail.

We send it by mental telepathy.”

He said, “Well, I haven’t received anything yet.”

To which the receptionist replied, “I know.

So far, you’re flunking the course.”

Rejecters are flunking!

The things of God are “spiritually discerned” (I Cor 2:14).

Those who set their will against the will of God are flunking the course.

They turn a blind eye to His truth; they do not want to be accountable.

So they reject their only hope of salvation.

God allows us to use our human will to do that – but there are consequences, Beloved.