Read Matthew 23:34–39
Questions from the Scripture text: What will Jesus send to the multitudes (v34)? What will they do o them? In what places? For what purpose (v35)? Whose blood will come upon them? How much of this will come upon whom (v36)? Whom does Jesus address in v37? What do they do? But what had Jesus desired? Why did I not occur? With what command does v38 begin? What does He promise them would not happen (v39)? Until they say what?
Why does Jesus send us preachers? Matthew 23:34–39 looks forward to the evening sermon on the coming Lord’s Day. In these six verses of Holy Scripture, the Holy Spirit teaches us that Jesus sends us preachers out of loving desire to save our soul.
The Lord Jesus has just warned the multitudes against the external form of religion that belongs to sons of hell, brood of vipers, the offspring of those who murdered the prophets. The answer to His question, “How can you escape the condemnation of hell?” (v33), is Himself.
And now Jesus declares just how much He is the One Who can deliver them: He is YHWH. YHWH is the speaker in Jeremiah 7, where He says, “I have even sent to you all My servants the prophets […] yet they did not obey Me or incline their ear, but stiffened their neck. They did worse than their fathers […] YHWH has rejected and forsaken the generation of His wrath” (cf. Jer 7:25, 26, 29). Now, Jesus adapts and applies that speech, but quite obviously putting Himself in the place of YHWH in v34–36.
This is both a call to vigilance (from within the church are many who resist Christ’s Word on His servants’ mouths) and encouragement (such people, like the apostle Paul, are precisely the sort of person that the Lord loves to save). Even though He knew that Jerusalem was like this (v37a), He loved her and desired to spare her from the destruction that was coming upon her (v37b).
v38 is a command, a charge: “See!” Behold. Consider. This is what you need to do, dear reader. Consider that Jesus’s next public appearance after the week in which He spoke this (v39a) will be His second coming, in which every knee bows, and every tongue confesses, that He is the Lord to Whom Ps 118:26 refers (v39b). Your knee will bow, and your tongue will confess, on that day.
How you respond to Christ’s Word, in His preachers’ mouths, will determine whether you make that confession unto your everlasting joy, or whether unto your everlasting destruction.
How are you interacting with the Bible as a response to Jesus? How are you interacting with the Word preached as a response to Jesus? What response are you making to the encouragement that Jesus saves even the chief of sinners?
Sample prayer: Lord, thank You for giving us Your Son as both our Savior, and the One Whose Word welcomes us into that salvation. Please grant that we would repent and believe, so that His return in glory will be a prospect of ultimate joy for us, we ask in His Name, AMEN!
Suggested songs: ARP118D “Now Open Wide the Gates” or TPH172 “Speak, O Lord”
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