Don't Miss Your Moment
by Darrell W. Johns
2023 · Atlanta West Pentecostal Church (Lithia Springs, GA)
Kind: sermon
Scripture: Luke 19:41-44, Daniel 9:24-27, Matthew 21:37-39, Isaiah 6:9-10, Matthew 13:13, Matthew 13:15, Acts 7:51-57, Isaiah 53, John 7:40-43, Acts 17:10-11, Mark 12:24, John 11:47-50, John 15:22, Matthew 13:16-17, John 1:11-12, Acts 28:23-28

Source: https://acts238.life/repository/sermons/darrell-w-johns--don-t-miss-your-moment
Published by Acts 2:38 Life from the sermon transcript on that page.
Free to copy and share with attribution.

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amen Luke 19 41. this is the new King James 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 the 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 and Jesus then gave the reason because you did not know the time of your visitation I want to speak to you tonight from this passage and this theme in the Bible an encouragement to you don't miss your moment amen God bless you please be seated don't miss your moment several years ago I was talking to a pastor friend of mine and uh one of my teenage years friends attends that church and I asked him I'm leaving the names out of this intentionally I said how's my friend doing my pastor friend jokingly said asleep at the wheel and we both laughed and I hoped it wasn't true and he was asleep at the wheel so I thought a lot about that through the years in the natural and in the spiritual I I did fall asleep at the wheel one time and God was good to me I've almost fallen asleep but I did fall asleep on a road trip I've driven all night I was by myself and I ran into a reflector on the side of the road it hit my mirror into the passenger side glass and I was wide awake from there to Bellman GMC where I had my window replaced just several years ago that you should always be awake and alert at the wheel however if you're on a long road trip on the interstate the traffic is light you can probably get by with being in a little bit of a road dazed not focused totally on the road before you you might be able to get by if you're not at an interchange or an intersection that's a terrible time to be asleep at the wheel my best friend and I made a trip to Colorado from Miami Florida to Denver Colorado when we graduated from high school we both took a one-month leave of absence from our jobs and went out to stay with my aunt and uncle there and did odd jobs with him learned how to hang wallpaper and pain and hunted and hung out there and went to a general conference in Salt Lake City on the way home we decided we were going to drive straight through from Denver to Panama City Florida where my my aunt and uncle lived my grandparents lived there and Google Maps today says it's 24 hours if you drive straight through and if you left at about seven o'clock this evening then it seemed like it was about 30 hours I drove first as long as I could drive we might have changed off once but I remember somewhere in a deep desert that we swapped drivers and I fell sound asleep my buddy Bruce tried to wake me up when he got into Dallas Texas but I was so tired he couldn't wake me up but he did wake me up we were in Downtown Dallas staring at a lot of tall buildings you may realize that in 1973 there were no cell phones unless you were rich or you were a spy and uh there was no Google Maps no ways no Apple Maps it was a physical map and so I woke up and we had no idea where we were we eventually found our way back to the interstate and got home safe and sound I was not at the wheel but I was sound asleep and that's not a good place to be in the road of life so tonight I want to give us all a friendly wake-up call that this is a terrible time to be spiritually dull or asleep or on cruise control we're at a wonderful intersection in the history of our church and while we voted unanimously to proceed with the building program this is more than a building this is about the purpose of the church this is about people this is about our mission and I felt led to the Lord to encourage you not just us as a corporate body but you as a part of this body to not miss your moment don't be asleep at the wheel Luke 19 is the final week of the life of Jesus Christ before his crucifixion their various opinions of the chronology but mind that I would like to share goes like this when Jesus arrived at Bethany on Saturday Jade white Pentecost says he believes it was March 28th there are crowds at Bethany on Sunday the triumphal entry some people say Sunday he puts it on Monday then he cursed the Fig Tree on Tuesday wept over the city of Jerusalem on Wednesday he cleansed the temple that day on Wednesday was the Olivet discourse and Temple controversies on Thursday he ate the Passover with his disciples arrested and tried and tried again on Friday morning April 3rd perhaps and then crucified that day Luke 19 discusses this Luke 19 41. and when he was come near he beheld the city and wept over it one of the classic writers on the Life of Christ as Alfred ettersheim he writes in some archaic language but very colorful he describes what would have happened as Jesus was on the other side of the Mount of Olives he came over that mountain and began to descend the trail toward the city of Jerusalem for a while you might have been able to peek at the city then it would have been obscured by the brow of the Hill he describes a place that still exists on the rugged Ascent again a rock outcropping where you could look out and behold the city of Jerusalem this was early in the morning and Jesus is looking out over the city that he loved the city that was established the city of God they would say over the city of Jerusalem between the Mount of Olives and some of you have been there most of us have seen pictures the Mount of Olives The Garden of Gethsemane is the most moving place in the holy land that I have ever been and there is the valley of him this Valley and then the city rises up from that deep valley and Jesus sees the city again and from that Vantage Point overlooking the city Jesus began to weep it was more than the Weeping that we read about when he wept at the tomb of Lazarus at the grief of people that he breaks out in size and cries he is broken at this and he is weeping over the city I've wondered how many cities have never been wept over how many people have never had someone intercede for them in prayer I've known of a minister years ago was passing through a city and just stopped and said I don't know if anyone has ever wept over this city and they stopped and prayed that's what Jesus did it's a significant thing that it is probable that this day that Jesus wept over Jerusalem and pronounced his curse over them was the precise day that Daniel the Prophet wrote about and Jesus said of them in Luke 19 42 this is what he said 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 Jesus says this day as if yesterday was an okay day yesterday was a different day yesterday you could have repented yesterday you could have changed your mind but this day is a different day this may have been the day that Daniel described when everything would change for Israel and the Lord would change his program to the Gentiles Daniel 9 24 speaks about this 70 days are determined upon my people and upon thy Holy City to finish the transgression and to make an end of sins and to make reconciliation for iniquity and to bring in Everlasting righteousness and to seal of the vision and prophecy and to anoint the most holy know therefore and understand that from the going forth of the Commandment to restore and to build Jerusalem unto Messiah the prince shall be seven weeks and three score in two weeks the street shall be built again in the walls even in trouble as times and after three score in two weeks shall Messiah be cut off but not for himself and the people of the prince that shall come shall destroy the city and the sanctuary and the end thereof shall be with the flood and unto the end of the war declarations are determined hundreds of years before you years before this day Daniel Saul I learned in Bible College through the telescope of Prophecy that this day would come that Jesus would stand on the brow of all of it looking down over the city he loved and say if you would have known if you could have been awake if you could have not missed your moment but Jesus said but now in this instant they are hidden from your eyes what an amazing time frame what a terrible time to be asleep at the wheel and miss your moment now Jesus will go into Jerusalem he will cleanse the temple this prophetic backdrop paints a picture of a Nation who not individually but nationally the collection of people rejected Jesus Christ Luke 19 42 the pronouncement of judgment went like this if you had known even you especially in this your day Jesus is telling them this day this season of time has been your opportunity if you would have known the things that make for your peace but now they are hidden from your eyes for the days will come upon you when your enemies will build an embankment we read this in our texts 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 to you one stone upon another because you did not know the time of your visitation these statements are very stunning the first century Jewish historian Josephus wrote in graphic detail about what took place when the Roman general Titus invaded Jerusalem in 70 A.D there was a great Siege at the end of this that Jesus summarized he prophetically told them what would happen to them in just a few decades we know from history what Rome would do when they besieged and crushed a city and Jesus saw this that was just a few years down the road that Jerusalem would be leveled the temple would be destroyed there would be not one stone left upon another Jesus had prophesied this before this time that Jerusalem would be destroyed and when Titus and the Roman armies invaded Jerusalem they slaughtered every living person they left no one alive and Jesus said if you would have known if you would have known at least in this your day the things that belong to your peace but now that window of opportunity is closed there's nothing you can do to change it now blindness happens to Israel and Jesus will be crucified at their hands now the the historic rejection of God's Prophet prophets is is in the Bible everywhere and I know this particular part of my message is pretty heavy right but I want you to think about this because it is in the Bible and my mission tonight is not to talk about gloom and doom but to teach about the importance of knowing where you are in your life and knowing where we are as a local church and also as God's Church in the earth we are at a time when we cannot afford to be asleep at the wheel Matthew 21 Jesus said I'm not going to show all these verses they're quite a few stories but I'll give you the reference for all the note takers and this is always archived online Jesus said I want to tell you another Parable it's of a certain householder he planted a Vineyard hedged it round about digged a wine press in it built a tower and he rented it out he let it out to husband and he went into a far country now this is a depiction of national Israel and when the time of fruit Drew near this would have been when Jesus came to this earth he sent his servants the husbandman that they might receive the fruits thereof but his husbands took his servants and beat one and killed another and stoned yet another again he sent forth other servants this is the history of the prophets that had come to Israel and they did likewise to them Matthew 21 37 but last of all he sent unto them his son and he said they will reverence my son but when the husbandman saw the son they said among themselves this is the heir come let us kill him and let us seize upon his inheritance and they caught him and cast him out of the vineyard and slew him that is how Jesus saw what would happen in National Israel Isaiah in chapter 6 wrote about the nature of the people of Israel he said go to this people and tell them here you indeed and understand not and see indeed but perceive not make the heart of his people fat and make their ears heavy and shut their eyes lest they see with their eyes and hear with their ears and understand with their heart and be converted and he healed Jesus quoted Isaiah in Matthew 13 Matthew 13 is a number of Parables of the kingdom of God in Matthew 13 13 Jesus said I speak to these people in Parables because they seeing see not they've got good eyes but not good perception they have the ability to see but they don't have the will to see so it's not a lack of ability it's a lack of Desire they hear but they don't understand and in them Jesus said is fulfill the prophecy of Isaias when he said now he quotes Isaiah that I just read to you by hearing you shall hear and shall not understand and by seeing you shall see and not perceive for this people's heart is wax gross and their ears are dull of hearing and their eyes have they closed lest at any time they should see with their eyes and hearth their ears and should understand with their heart and should be converted and I should heal them when Stephen was called before the council and Stephen this first martyr of the church he preaches a very long sermon in Acts chapter 7. and if I thought I was about to die I would probably preach a very long sermon Stephen in verse 51 of Acts chapter 7 describes the nature of the people of Israel you stiff-necked and uncircumcised in heart and ears you do always resist the Holy Ghost as your fathers did so do you now I don't believe that you can scripturally document a generational cursed theology but certainly sometimes children imitate their parents that's why it's so important that every parent be sincere in their faith the Bible describes the unleavened bread of sincerity and Truth we should hold the truth in sincerity we should protect our attitude because our kids see what we do hear what we say but they feel our attitudes as well and Stephen said you've got the same attitude as National Israel and he said which of the prophets have not your fathers persecuted doesn't this sound like the parable Jesus told and they have slain them which show before of the coming of the just one of whom you have been now the betrayers and murderers who have received the law by the disposition of angels and have not kept it now Jesus said that of all the times that people could not afford to be asleep at the wheel it was in his day Stephen described just before he was martyred the nature of these people I want to read Again Luke 19 42 but Jesus said if thou had's known I'm back in the King James now even thou at least in this thy day the things which belong unto thy peace and now they're hid from thine eyes now what Jesus is saying here that you you people have a history of rejecting God Isaiah wrote about it Jesus told a parable about it Jesus quoted Isaiah Stephen rehearsed the history of Israel but Jesus said even though for Generations you have rejected the Lord if now of all the past failures of your fathers if you would wake up you would not have to miss your moment you could have failed for generations for hundreds and hundreds of years but now with all of that in the rear view mirror you have a moment that you could have repented and you could have received me and not perished now I don't try to predict that I know every reason Israel rejected the Lord I could postulate a few biblical examples and say this is how I believe but I want to show you three reasons that I believe Israel missed it and they're sure I'm sure that there are more for the first reason for rejection is that they willfully close their eyes to the evidence they chose ignorance over revelation Matthew 13 15. this people's heart is wax gross and their ears of duller hearing of hearing and their eyes had they closed I emphasize this verse a while ago because I wanted you to see that that God did not do this to them this was not the curse on them but in hearing truth they chose to say no they closed their eyes to evidence they chose ignorance in the face of evidence Jesus came to them and he fulfilled the prophecies he said if you don't believe me believe me for the work's sake the words of Jesus Christ and the works of Jesus Christ authenticated him proved that he was their Messiah and in spite of all that evidence they shut their eyes they covered their ears and their hearts were just shut down to God calloused hard in their hearts Isaiah spoke about a time when judgment is turned away backward and Justice stands afar off and Truth is falling in the street and Equity cannot enter that was so much like the people of Israel the actions of the people who stoned Stephen depicted the attitude of many people in Israel toward the lord I'm back in Stevens sermon and the consequences in Acts 7 57. so Stephen is preaching they are cut to the heart and the Bible said then they cried out with the loud voice and stopped their ears and ran upon him with one Accord and cast them out of the city and stoned him and the witnesses laid down their clothes at a young man's feet whose name was Saul they are hearing their history rehearsed and when they get to a place of so much conviction that they're cut to the heart instead of repenting they literally cover their ears and stone him to death so I believe the first reason is that they chose ignorance in the face of evidence with who Jesus was with every prophecy that he fulfilled they decided in spite of that to reject Jesus Christ the second reason I would like to mention is that ignorance of the scriptures now the Bible the Old Testament prophecies spoke about a messiah who would ride a white horse who would deliver them from their enemies but there is also Isaiah 53 that he would be rejected and despise a Man of Sorrows acquainted with grief and he would be he would be crucified right there's so many prophecies about that but they picked the scriptures that they wanted and rejected the ones they did not like now I should have put this in my nose but John chapter 7 verse 40. now Jesus is teaching and many of the people therefore when they heard this saying said of a truth this is the prophet they're listening to Jesus teach and some of the people are saying wow this has got to be the Messiah others said thus is the Christ this is the Christ but some said shall Christ come out of Galilee has the scripture said that Christ cometh of the seed of David and out of the town of Bethlehem where David was so there was a division among the people because of him now you think about what just happened they're saying Jesus is a Galilean he's from the city of Nazareth but the Bible says their Old Testament Bible says that the Messiah was to be was supposed to be born in the city of Bethlehem so without ever checking without ever asking without ever comparing scripture with scripture that he will be called in Nazarene but he's born in Bethlehem the city of David nobody got a birth certificate I don't know if there is a birth certificate here was something that they could have known here was something that if they compared scripture with scripture they could have found but they ignored the truth of scriptures the prophet said all of this but they concluded that Jesus could not be the Messiah but information they could have readily found all they had to do was examine the truth and many people today missed their moment missed their Messiah Miss salvation simply because they said well I never saw that in the Bible what about this speaking in tongues and what about this or what about that and they rely on tradition and what they've heard instead of searching the scriptures to find out whether or not that is true how many people could know God if they would just see what the bible really says and see that the evidence is clear they were prejudiced against the true refused to give it a fair hearing or to examine it for themselves Acts chapter 17 speaks of Paul going to thessalonica and then to the city of Berea and acts 17 10 says that they went to Berea and those were more Noble in Berea than those of thessalonica and that they received the word with all Readiness of mine or with an open mind and they searched the Scriptures Daily whether those things were so thank God for people who will not see truth and look the other way because it is inconvenient whether it is about forgiveness or about salvation there should never be a time in our lives when we turn our backs on the light of Truth and ignore what the saith the word of God we can say that we have the truth but if we walk in the light as he is in the light amen we'll have fellowship with one another and the blood of Jesus Christ will cleanse us from all unrighteousness amen some people chose ignorance over evidence and some people having access to the truth chose to ignore what the Bible said unbelievable questions in Mark chapter 12 Jesus spoke about those who were questioning the resurrection this is in Mark chapter 12 verse 24. and Jesus answering said unto them do you not heir because you know not the scriptures neither power of God this is you know the question whose wife will she be in the resurrection that's that story and Jesus said you're airing because you have a Bible but you don't know your Bible you say you love the Bible but you don't read your Bible you say you believe the Bible but you don't obey the Bible amen we see this so much in traditional religion today that people ignore the truth choosing to cling to their traditions or what they choose to see in the word of God the third reason I want to point out and again you might find five more later but there are people who rejected Jesus Christ because of their selfish interests there are people in the days of Jesus who were in power they were in a coalition with the Romans they had a lot to lose by accepting Jesus Christ and so in God's Sovereign plan you know Jesus would come to die but those who rejected him were culpable for his death and bore their guilt they said rightly let his sins be upon us and on let his blood be upon us and on our children but it's a fascinating verse of scripture John 11 once again not on the screens John 11 47. then gather the chief priests and the Pharisees the council and they said what what do we for this man doeth many miracles so behind closed doors they acknowledged that Jesus was a miracle worker now there was a lot more they could have acknowledged that Jesus was the Messiah then they said if we let him alone all men will believe on him and the Romans shall come and take away both our place and our nation if we believe in Jesus we're going to lose power if we believe in Jesus we might be persecuted if we believe in Jesus we're going to identify with him and it may not be popular in 2023. they're going to take away our place a position of power of wealth that they had especially among many in the Sanhedrin the ruling body of the Jews who were really working with the Roman government and one of them named Caiaphas being the high priest that year said unto them you know nothing at all nor consider that it is expedient for us that one man should die for the people and that the whole nation perished not what he said was what he meant was Jesus is expendable if we let him live we'll lose power but it would be better to let this good man this miracle worker die that the whole nation won't perish now John goes on to tell us that he didn't say this knowing what he was saying but prophetically because he was the high priest God used a man in a religious office to prophesy something when he he intended something completely different sometimes God uses people because of their position not because of their right relationship with him if you ought to have a right relationship with him and use our positions in working with God right so I'm telling you that there are people who Miss Jesus Christ because of selfish interest if we follow Jesus we're going to be put out of our positions of power if you follow Jesus this may not go well for us selfish interest still motivates people to stay in churches where truth is not taught because of family friends business popularity Acceptance in the culture Jesus said in math in John 15 22 if I had not come and spoken to him to them they had not had sin but now they have no cloak they have no cover-up from their sin I have ripped their cover up off to reveal their real motives so we need to learn lessons from those who rejected Jesus Christ and I'll give you these three reasons again there were some people who willfully close their eyes to the evidence was right in front of them they chose ignorance over evidence there are others and some of the same people who rejected Jesus Christ by a basic ignorance of the scripture it was there in writing but they failed to search to find out the truth there were others who missed their Messiah because of selfish interests it was not in their best interest to follow Jesus Christ and while there are other reasons why people may miss their moment when Jesus spoke over the city of Jerusalem instead of all the times you blew it for all the times you were asleep at the wheel if right now yesterday if just now you would have opened your eyes been awake then everything could have changed and all the failures of the past could have been erase and forgiveness but now prophecy of Daniel and others that curtain comes down and things change completely but but I want to tell you that not everybody missed their moment that while the history of Israel is a history of the rejection of the Lord there are some who are contrasted by that I spoke to you about Matthew 13 what Jesus said about The Parables that he spoke and how their eyes were closed and all of that but in Matthew 13 16 Jesus spoke to his disciples and he said but blessed are your eyes for they see and your ears for they hear for verily I say unto you that many prophets and righteous men have desired to see those things which you see and have not seen them and to hear those things which you hear and have not heard them so not everybody missed their moment amen was it all gloom and doom the people of the land sincere people received the Lord Jesus Christ they did not miss their moment righteous leaders religious leaders like Nicodemus received him the the writer John said he came to his own and his own received him not but as many as received him to them gave me power to become the sons of God even as many that believe on his name the self-exclusion of the Jews opened the way for Gentiles to embrace their moment and then there is the end of the book of Acts let me quickly summarize and go to acts 28 23 in just a moment so the book of Acts is a story of going to synagogues first giving Jews the first opportunity to receive the Gospel but throughout the Book of Acts Acts chapter 8 Samaritans are saved Acts chapter 10 Gentiles are saved synagogues and in preaching other places and there are thousands and thousands of Gentiles coming into the church acts 15 is the Jerusalem Council where the leaders of the church try to figure out what to do with the thousands of Gentiles who are being saved so you have this this kind of conflict going on in the book of Acts where the Jews are gradually closing their eyes these are Jewish people who had a chance and the Gentiles are opening their eyes Paul at the end of Acts acts 28 23. tells a story and when they had appointed him a day and Paul is now in Rome he's probably in a private house house arrest and he invites Jewish people to come to him for him to give them a chance to hear the gospel Jews that are in Rome whom he expounded and Testify the kingdom of God persuading them concerning Jesus both out of the law of Moses and out of the prophets from morning till evening he used their Bible the Old Testament to prove Jesus to them verse 24 and some believe the things which were spoken and some believe not and when they had agreed not among themselves they Departed after that Paul had spoken this one word well spanked the Holy Ghost by Isaiah's the prophet unto our fathers does this sound familiar saying go into this people and say hearing you shall hear and shall not understand and seeing ye shall see and not perceive for the heart of his people is wax gross and their eyes are dull of hearing and their eyes have they closed lest they should see with their eyes and hear with their ears and understand with their heart and should be converted and I should heal them be it known therefore unto you that the salvation of God is sent unto the Gentiles and they will hear it I'm glad that we have a moment to embrace the truth and follow Jesus Christ if you're able would you stand right now and lift your hands to the Lord and say Lord my eyes are open and my ears are attentive and my heart is receptive Lord and I will hear what you were saying and I will not miss what you are speaking to your church in this hour