The Whole Story
Luke 23:26-31 Now as they led Him away, they laid hold of a certain man, Simon a Cyrenian, who was coming from the country, and on him they laid the cross that he might bear it after Jesus. And a great multitude of the people followed Him, and women who also mourned and lamented Him. But Jesus, turning to them, said, “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?”
Sometimes it is tempting to isolate the stories in the Bible. We are often tempted to see the life of Jesus as a series of scenes with a clear "cut" between each episode. Talking with a friend yesterday who had just returned from Israel, he was explaining to me that one of the most dramatic revelations he had while walking where Jesus walked was the clear plan of the Father Jesus was very purposefully executing. Jesus wasted no time and no words while executing His public ministry over the course of 3.5 years.
The passage above is from the crucifixion of Jesus. As I picture Him walking through the streets of Jerusalem beaten and bloodied, it is tempting to see that as His most low time. It wasn't. In that moment, He was with the the Father and the Father was with Him. Some of the sweetest encounters people relate of God's manifest presence are when they are in the middle of persecution. No doubt Jesus, for as bad as it looked on the outside, was still in sweet fellowship with His Father. That awful moment of separation, the price for our sin, had not yet come.
In THIS moment above, Jesus wasn't focused on His suffering, but looking forward to greater suffering. He was telling those crying for Him, "you have no idea what I am doing, if you did, you would cry for your own offspring."
There is a cost for the rejection of Jesus. Jesus had this in mind as He walked beaten and bloodied through Jerusalem. Jesus endured the cost of our sin in perfect fellowship with the Father. He knew there was a time coming when many would attempt to walk through the most intense time earth has seen without the fellowship of God. Tribulation with God is great, tribulation without God is terrible.
There is a time when the "spiritual reality" of Jesus' rescue plan will become a "physical reality." Jesus said that is the time when people will ask the "mountains to fall on them." This is a very specific time Jesus was prophesying. Jesus repeated the prophecy of Hosea speaking of the judgment to come. Jesus was prophesying about our generation. 60 years later, John the Beloved was told how that day would come:
Revelation 6:12-17 I looked when He opened the sixth seal, and behold, there was a great earthquake; and the sun became black as sackcloth of hair, and the moon became like blood. And the stars of heaven fell to the earth, as a fig tree drops its late figs when it is shaken by a mighty wind. Then the sky receded as a scroll when it is rolled up, and every mountain and island was moved out of its place. And the kings of the earth, the great men, the rich men, the commanders, the mighty men, every slave and every free man, hid themselves in the caves and in the rocks of the mountains, and said to the mountains and rocks, “Fall on us and hide us from the face of Him who sits on the throne and from the wrath of the Lamb! For the great day of His wrath has come, and who is able to stand?”
When Jesus walked beaten through Jerusalem, He was still executing the plan of the Father. He was paying the price for all those who would be counted as taking part in His death, burial, and resurrection. Everyone has a choice to make about death: count Jesus' death as my death, and then enter into His death wholeheartedly, in order to be resurrected in glory now, or hold that death that Jesus promised to all His disciples at "arms length" now, and suffer more of the actual cost of death later. The more you weep now with the spiritual death of self, the less you will weep when the time comes that men and women will cry out to the mountains to fall on them. Jesus said either way, everyone must enter into a death...His or your own...and you get as much of either as you want:
Matthew 16:24-27 Then Jesus said to His disciples, “If anyone desires to come after Me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross, and follow Me. For whoever desires to save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for My sake will find it. For what profit is it to a man if he gains the whole world, and loses his own soul? Or what will a man give in exchange for his soul? For the Son of Man will come in the glory of His Father with His angels, and then He will reward each according to his works.
The process Jesus was executing that Friday afternoon didn't stop with His resurrection on Sunday. That process is intensifying and accelerating even as each day passes. Jesus said the wood was "still green" when He walked through Jerusalem. But, there was a day Jesus had His eye on when the wood would be dry. We live in the day of the dry wood. Those who chosen to enter into Jesus' death are supposed to understand the time like Jesus...we are supposed to recognize the day when the wood is dry and know what to do...we are supposed to know, like Jesus, the time of greatest weeping is before us. Even going to the cross, Jesus told those who didn't know Him "weep not for this day, but for the day to come." Jesus even in His intense suffering, kept His eye on the day when the most intense suffering would come...when the wood was dry. The earth has never cried out for the mountains to fall on them, but it will happen.
After the resurrection, Jesus gave a great responsibility, called the great commission, to those who chose His death as their own. Jesus never intended to prepare the earth for the day of dry wood on His own. He never promised to release the messages supernaturally with signs in the sky BEFORE the earth would cry out to the mountains to fall on them. No! He appointed His friends, those that knew Him, to keep their eye on that day as well. If you study their writings, you will quickly see, just like the prophets of old, they clearly had their eye on the days of greater weeping. The intensity of bringing that day about was promised to start in Jerusalem, but would travel to the ends of the earth eventually...resulting in the preaching of the gospel just before the end came and Jesus returned, after the fire had burned the dry wood:
Luke 24:46-49 Then He said to them, “Thus it is written, and thus it was necessary for the Christ to suffer and to rise from the dead the third day, and that repentance and remission of sins should be preached in His name to all nations, beginning at Jerusalem. And you are witnesses of these things. Behold, I send the Promise of My Father upon you; but tarry in the city of Jerusalem until you are endued with power from on high.”
The Bride's responsibility WILL be accomplished, but as we enter the day when the wood is dry, the weeping WILL also increase. Many haven't entered fully into Jesus' death, trying to simply add Him to their life. But it doesn't work that way. In one generation...the generation of greater weeping...the generation of dry wood...the degree you have entered into His death will be directly proportional to the amount of "life endurance" you have. Jesus warned His disciples privately...His Bride...that endurance would be necessary for them in the day the wood was dry, for they would need to endure tribulation until the great commission was complete:
Matthew 24:3-14 Now as He sat on the Mount of Olives, the disciples came to Him privately, saying, “Tell us, when will these things be? And what will be the sign of Your coming, and of the end of the age?” And Jesus answered and said to them: “Take heed that no one deceives you. For many will come in My name, saying, ‘I am the Christ,’ and will deceive many. And you will hear of wars and rumors of wars. See that you are not troubled; for all these things must come to pass, but the end is not yet. For nation will rise against nation, and kingdom against kingdom. And there will be famines, pestilences, and earthquakes in various places. All these are the beginning of sorrows. “Then they will deliver you up to tribulation and kill you, and you will be hated by all nations for My name’s sake. And then many will be offended, will betray one another, and will hate one another. Then many false prophets will rise up and deceive many. And because lawlessness will abound, the love of many will grow cold. But he who endures to the end shall be saved. And this gospel of the kingdom will be preached in all the world as a witness to all the nations, and then the end will come.
Jesus gave it all for me to live in the time of death, but everyone MUST choose a death. Jesus offers His own death freely, so that I can live, even while the wood is dry, but, if I put off fully entering into His death now, I will feel more and more of the weeping as spiritual death becomes manifest in physical death on the earth. Look around and see: the wood is certainly dry. This is who can stand in this hour:
Joel 2:11-13 ...The day of the lord is an awesome, terrible thing. Who can possibly survive? That is why the lord says, “Turn to me now, while there is time. Give me your hearts. Come with fasting, weeping, and mourning. Don’t tear your clothing in your grief, but tear your hearts instead.” Return to the lord your God, for he is merciful and compassionate, slow to get angry and filled with unfailing love. He is eager to relent and not punish.
If I haven't settled my full death, Jesus would say "don't weep for me, weep for you."
Sometimes it is tempting to isolate the stories in the Bible. We are often tempted to see the life of Jesus as a series of scenes with a clear "cut" between each episode. Talking with a friend yesterday who had just returned from Israel, he was explaining to me that one of the most dramatic revelations he had while walking where Jesus walked was the clear plan of the Father Jesus was very purposefully executing. Jesus wasted no time and no words while executing His public ministry over the course of 3.5 years.
The passage above is from the crucifixion of Jesus. As I picture Him walking through the streets of Jerusalem beaten and bloodied, it is tempting to see that as His most low time. It wasn't. In that moment, He was with the the Father and the Father was with Him. Some of the sweetest encounters people relate of God's manifest presence are when they are in the middle of persecution. No doubt Jesus, for as bad as it looked on the outside, was still in sweet fellowship with His Father. That awful moment of separation, the price for our sin, had not yet come.
In THIS moment above, Jesus wasn't focused on His suffering, but looking forward to greater suffering. He was telling those crying for Him, "you have no idea what I am doing, if you did, you would cry for your own offspring."
There is a cost for the rejection of Jesus. Jesus had this in mind as He walked beaten and bloodied through Jerusalem. Jesus endured the cost of our sin in perfect fellowship with the Father. He knew there was a time coming when many would attempt to walk through the most intense time earth has seen without the fellowship of God. Tribulation with God is great, tribulation without God is terrible.
There is a time when the "spiritual reality" of Jesus' rescue plan will become a "physical reality." Jesus said that is the time when people will ask the "mountains to fall on them." This is a very specific time Jesus was prophesying. Jesus repeated the prophecy of Hosea speaking of the judgment to come. Jesus was prophesying about our generation. 60 years later, John the Beloved was told how that day would come:
Revelation 6:12-17 I looked when He opened the sixth seal, and behold, there was a great earthquake; and the sun became black as sackcloth of hair, and the moon became like blood. And the stars of heaven fell to the earth, as a fig tree drops its late figs when it is shaken by a mighty wind. Then the sky receded as a scroll when it is rolled up, and every mountain and island was moved out of its place. And the kings of the earth, the great men, the rich men, the commanders, the mighty men, every slave and every free man, hid themselves in the caves and in the rocks of the mountains, and said to the mountains and rocks, “Fall on us and hide us from the face of Him who sits on the throne and from the wrath of the Lamb! For the great day of His wrath has come, and who is able to stand?”
When Jesus walked beaten through Jerusalem, He was still executing the plan of the Father. He was paying the price for all those who would be counted as taking part in His death, burial, and resurrection. Everyone has a choice to make about death: count Jesus' death as my death, and then enter into His death wholeheartedly, in order to be resurrected in glory now, or hold that death that Jesus promised to all His disciples at "arms length" now, and suffer more of the actual cost of death later. The more you weep now with the spiritual death of self, the less you will weep when the time comes that men and women will cry out to the mountains to fall on them. Jesus said either way, everyone must enter into a death...His or your own...and you get as much of either as you want:
Matthew 16:24-27 Then Jesus said to His disciples, “If anyone desires to come after Me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross, and follow Me. For whoever desires to save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for My sake will find it. For what profit is it to a man if he gains the whole world, and loses his own soul? Or what will a man give in exchange for his soul? For the Son of Man will come in the glory of His Father with His angels, and then He will reward each according to his works.
The process Jesus was executing that Friday afternoon didn't stop with His resurrection on Sunday. That process is intensifying and accelerating even as each day passes. Jesus said the wood was "still green" when He walked through Jerusalem. But, there was a day Jesus had His eye on when the wood would be dry. We live in the day of the dry wood. Those who chosen to enter into Jesus' death are supposed to understand the time like Jesus...we are supposed to recognize the day when the wood is dry and know what to do...we are supposed to know, like Jesus, the time of greatest weeping is before us. Even going to the cross, Jesus told those who didn't know Him "weep not for this day, but for the day to come." Jesus even in His intense suffering, kept His eye on the day when the most intense suffering would come...when the wood was dry. The earth has never cried out for the mountains to fall on them, but it will happen.
After the resurrection, Jesus gave a great responsibility, called the great commission, to those who chose His death as their own. Jesus never intended to prepare the earth for the day of dry wood on His own. He never promised to release the messages supernaturally with signs in the sky BEFORE the earth would cry out to the mountains to fall on them. No! He appointed His friends, those that knew Him, to keep their eye on that day as well. If you study their writings, you will quickly see, just like the prophets of old, they clearly had their eye on the days of greater weeping. The intensity of bringing that day about was promised to start in Jerusalem, but would travel to the ends of the earth eventually...resulting in the preaching of the gospel just before the end came and Jesus returned, after the fire had burned the dry wood:
Luke 24:46-49 Then He said to them, “Thus it is written, and thus it was necessary for the Christ to suffer and to rise from the dead the third day, and that repentance and remission of sins should be preached in His name to all nations, beginning at Jerusalem. And you are witnesses of these things. Behold, I send the Promise of My Father upon you; but tarry in the city of Jerusalem until you are endued with power from on high.”
The Bride's responsibility WILL be accomplished, but as we enter the day when the wood is dry, the weeping WILL also increase. Many haven't entered fully into Jesus' death, trying to simply add Him to their life. But it doesn't work that way. In one generation...the generation of greater weeping...the generation of dry wood...the degree you have entered into His death will be directly proportional to the amount of "life endurance" you have. Jesus warned His disciples privately...His Bride...that endurance would be necessary for them in the day the wood was dry, for they would need to endure tribulation until the great commission was complete:
Matthew 24:3-14 Now as He sat on the Mount of Olives, the disciples came to Him privately, saying, “Tell us, when will these things be? And what will be the sign of Your coming, and of the end of the age?” And Jesus answered and said to them: “Take heed that no one deceives you. For many will come in My name, saying, ‘I am the Christ,’ and will deceive many. And you will hear of wars and rumors of wars. See that you are not troubled; for all these things must come to pass, but the end is not yet. For nation will rise against nation, and kingdom against kingdom. And there will be famines, pestilences, and earthquakes in various places. All these are the beginning of sorrows. “Then they will deliver you up to tribulation and kill you, and you will be hated by all nations for My name’s sake. And then many will be offended, will betray one another, and will hate one another. Then many false prophets will rise up and deceive many. And because lawlessness will abound, the love of many will grow cold. But he who endures to the end shall be saved. And this gospel of the kingdom will be preached in all the world as a witness to all the nations, and then the end will come.
Jesus gave it all for me to live in the time of death, but everyone MUST choose a death. Jesus offers His own death freely, so that I can live, even while the wood is dry, but, if I put off fully entering into His death now, I will feel more and more of the weeping as spiritual death becomes manifest in physical death on the earth. Look around and see: the wood is certainly dry. This is who can stand in this hour:
Joel 2:11-13 ...The day of the lord is an awesome, terrible thing. Who can possibly survive? That is why the lord says, “Turn to me now, while there is time. Give me your hearts. Come with fasting, weeping, and mourning. Don’t tear your clothing in your grief, but tear your hearts instead.” Return to the lord your God, for he is merciful and compassionate, slow to get angry and filled with unfailing love. He is eager to relent and not punish.
If I haven't settled my full death, Jesus would say "don't weep for me, weep for you."
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