Matthew 23 Jerusalem

I. Matthew 23:37, 20 evidences of Total Inability are shown.
Evidences of a wicked heart, wicked mind, wicked nature, man's natural choice and response:

Matthew 23:37 "O Jerusalem, Jerusalem, the city that kills the prophets and stones those who are sent to it! How often would I have gathered YOUR CHILDREN together as a hen gathers her brood under her wings, and you would not! >>Arminians reword "your Children" to "you".

1. Mat 23:4 They tie up heavy burdens, hard to bear, and lay them on people's shoulders, but they themselves are not willing to move them with their finger.
2. Mat 23:5 They do all their deeds to be seen by others. For they make their phylacteries broad and their fringes long,
3. Mat 23:6 and they love the place of honor at feasts and the best seats in the synagogues
4. Mat 23:7 and greetings in the marketplaces and being called rabbi by others. (both errors of v.12 exalting self)
5. Mat 23:13 "But woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! For you shut the kingdom of heaven in people's faces.
6. For you neither enter yourselves nor allow those who would enter to go in.
7. v.15 you make him twice as much a child of hell as yourselves.
8. Mat 23:16 "Woe to you, blind guides
9. Mat 23:19 You blind men!
10. Mat 23:24 You blind guides
11. but inside they are full of greed and self-indulgence.
12. Mat 23:26 You blind Pharisee!
13. within are full of dead people's bones and all uncleanness.
14. Mat 23:28 but within you are full of hypocrisy and lawlessness.

15. v.30 saying, 'If we had lived in the days of our fathers, we would not have taken part with them in shedding the blood of the prophets.' v. 31 Thus you witness against yourselves that you are sons of those who murdered the prophets.

16. v.33 how are you to escape being sentenced to hell?
17. Mat 23:34 Therefore I send you prophets and wise men and scribes, some of whom you will kill and crucify, and some you will flog in your synagogues and persecute from town to town,

18. the son of Barachiah, whom you murdered between the sanctuary and the altar.
19. v.37 "O Jerusalem, Jerusalem, the city that kills the prophets and stones those who are sent to it!

20. v.37 ....and you would not!


This is 20 things in one chapter, how much more exists in all of Matthew itself of man's rebellion, and this by the elite minds of Hebrew and OT, the Tiger Woods of OT, the Bill Gates, the Michael Jordan of the OT. To yet not recognize, love, trust, or understand Jesus, but Kill Him? and to think that Todd a gentile like evil Gentile Goliath, or evil Gentile Pharaoh is going to make a better response to the Holy Spirit than they? (???)


II. Matthew 23:37.
A. Jesus states a moral prescription, Jerusalem fails the moral prescription. Romans 9-11 makes it clear God purposed the jews to be blinded and stumble so the gentiles could be engrafted, even as Isaiah 6:9-11 state. Jesus makes it clear that the Father "has hidden" these things from the wise and prudent.. The Father could have said, "I would take every sinless person to heaven, but you would not be sinless." Jesus says, "I would have taken your children in like a hen, but you would not." We both have moral prescriptions, but you will not keep them. I would buy the meal for Abraham Lincoln if he comes and sees me today, but he is not coming.

If the Father gives John the Baptist the Holy Spirit in the womb, the Father can give all of Jerusalem the same thing in the womb, it wasn't John's choice, John could have been another son of Korah bor 2000 years earlier instead, and God could have used Balaam's donkey or a donkey of Jesus' generation to speak and be the forerunner of the Lord. God could have given all of Jerusalem a burning bush to be the forerunner of the Lord.

It is telling that Jesus speaks to Jerusalem, why not travel to Egypt, Babylon, and Assyria and tell them that, is Jesus being selective? So much for universal equality; This verse simply denotes what God said in Deut 7-8-9, you jews are no better than other pagans, you are just as bad. The Jews murmured 10x (Numb 14:22) ironically just like Pagan pharaoh rejected Moses 10x. 14:23 says they will die in the wilderness, just like Pharaoh died too.

John 15:16 you did not choose me, but I choose you; Peter, unlearned fisherman, said "Depart from me! For i am sinful man. " He did not say I will follow, trust, and love you. All Jesus had to do with choose all of Jerusalem just like he choose Peter who said depart. An entire city told Jesus to "Leave" Matthew 8:34, yet Peter alone is chosen and the city shunned. Jesus prayed for Peter despite Satan wanting to sift him like wheat. John 17:9 Jesus does not pray for the world; If He would have prayed for the world, like He prayed for Peter, His prayer would have been answered.

Joh 6:44 and 6:65 And he said, "This is why I told you that no one can come to me unless it is granted him by the Father." All the Father has to do is grant everyone to come to Jesus.
Mat 16:17 And Jesus answered him, "Blessed are you, Simon Bar-Jonah! For flesh and blood has not revealed this to you, but my Father who is in heaven. All the Father has to do is reveal it unto all Jerusalem.

All Jesus has to do is give a blinding light to all of Jerusalem just like he did Saul of Tarsus, or give all of doubting Jerusalem a nail scared hand like he did for Doubting Thomas.

Luk 24:11 but these words seemed to them an idle tale, and they did not believe them. If Jesus is going to be merciful and later Luk 24:45 Then he opened their minds to understand the Scriptures; Jesus can then go to all of Jerusalem who likewise thought it was an idle tale and disbelieve and likewise "open their minds to understand" the Scriptures via one on one lesson.