Transcript
Will you turn with me to the Gospel of Luke chapter 13. Luke chapter 13. Luke chapter 13. We’d like to begin reading at verse 31. Luke chapter 13 verse 31.
On that very day some Pharisees came, saying to Him, ‘Get out and depart from here, for Herod wants to kill You.’ And He said to them, ‘Go, tell that fox, “Behold, I cast out demons and perform cures today and tomorrow, and the third day I shall be perfected.” Nevertheless I must journey today, tomorrow, and the following day, for it cannot be that a prophet should perish outside of Jerusalem.
‘O Jerusalem, Jerusalem, the one who kills the prophets and stones those who are sent to her! How often I wanted to gather your children together, as a hen gathers her brood under her wings, but you were not willing! See! Your house is left to you desolate; and assuredly, I say to you, you shall not see Me until the time comes when you say, “Blessed is He who comes in the name of the Lord!”’
Matthew Heik was only six months old when he was adopted by Richard and Dawn Heik who live in Bernards Township, New Jersey. Nine months later the Heiks had their own natural son whom they named Joshua.
Richard Heik was a leading researcher in Parkinson’s disease and Dawn Heik was known as a successful real estate agent in their wooded upscale suburb in northern New Jersey. Both of them were active in their church and in the community.
But by the time that Matthew Heik had reached the age of 20 they realized that they had a young man on their hands with problems. This was especially evident when on one occasion in 1989 he said to his father, “Be quiet or I’ll put a bullet through your head.”
The police warned the Heiks that they needed to do something about their adopted son. The sheriff of the township, whose name was Moore, said later that they were warned by members of this department that you have to follow through. You have to do something about the kid or he’ll end up killing you both.
But the Heiks did nothing. And then came January the 29th, 1991, the day that Matthew Heik got hold of a sawed-off shotgun. He shot and killed his mother when she came home from work. About a half hour later he shot and killed his father.
After the double murder he went and picked up his girlfriend and took her to dinner in New York City. The next day he was on an airplane headed for Jamaica. But five days later he was arrested and brought back to New Jersey.
Before his first appearance in court he was interviewed by telephone by the Associated Press and he told them by telephone that he was absolutely devastated by what had happened. That he wished he could talk to his parents. He said, “I wanted to call my mother and I realized that I can’t.” He says, “Whenever I sit down and really think about it I freak out. My emotions run wild.”
Well regardless of how his emotions were running, when he was brought into Somerset County Superior Court the prosecutor requested the death penalty and the judge set Matthew Heik’s bail at two million five hundred thousand dollars.
Susan Fritica, a friend of Dawn the adoptive mother, said that the only mistake she made, if she made any, was that she loved her son too much, even to the point of being willing to give her life for him. There is a sense in which that is exactly what both of the Heiks did.
Now I probably do not need to tell you a story like that in order to remind you that we are living in an extremely violent society. You probably already know that among the industrialized nations of the world the United States of America has the highest per capita murder rate of any. Which simply means that you and I who are in this auditorium this morning have a greater risk of being murdered than if we were living in Great Britain or in Germany or in Japan.
And you probably don’t need to be told, do you, that the figures show that a majority of murder victims already know their murderer and they in fact may even be killed by someone with whom they are living.
Now I’m not trying to get you to rise up out of your seats this morning in fear. I’m just pointing out a simple fact that the shadow of death is cast very long across the culture and the society in which you and I are living today in the 1990s.
And because that is true I want you to think with me for a few moments this morning about the following topic: Living in the Shadow of Death. That happens to be the title of my message to you this morning, Living in the Shadow of Death.
Now I’m willing to bet that almost everybody in this audience has watched a television movie that contained a scene like this. A convicted murderer was being led away to execution in the electric chair and as he walked that final route he was accompanied by a priest or a minister who was reading from the Bible. And almost always in movies like this the passage that the minister or priest is reading is, “Yea, though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death I will fear no evil.”
But we also know, don’t we, even if we’ve seen few movies like that, that that kind of a scene is relatively rare in the penitentiaries of America. We realize that the percentage of murderers who are executed in the United States of America is only a small fraction of the total number of murderers who are behind bars and the total number who are out on our streets this very morning.
So I don’t think that the penitentiary is the place where we ought to talk about the valley of the shadow of death. You want me to suggest where the shadow of death hangs deepest? I want to suggest that it hangs deepest over the streets of cities like Dallas and Houston, Texas, over the streets of New York City and Chicago, Illinois, and Los Angeles, California, and over all of our great metropolitan centers.
Because in all of these cities of America innocent people are at risk for becoming murder victims. That’s why I would like to introduce you this morning to a murder victim. That’s right, you heard me correctly. I want to introduce you to a murder victim and this person’s murder is the most famous murder in all of human history.
Oh yes, they tried to cover it with a thin coat of legality. But nothing can hide the fact that it was a gross miscarriage of justice, that it was totally unfair, that it was politically and religiously motivated, that it was nothing in fact but murder. And of course I’m talking to you about the Lord Jesus Christ Himself.
Did you notice that in the passage that we read a few moments ago the Lord Jesus Christ receives a death threat? Remember that in this chapter Jesus is taking a trip to Jerusalem and He is traveling through the various towns and villages along the route to Jerusalem preaching and teaching the Word of God as He normally did.
And somewhere along that route a group of Pharisees encounter Him and this is what they have to say. They say to Jesus, “Go and depart from here, for Herod wishes to kill You.” Put it in more colloquial English, “You better get out of Galilee because Herod is after your life.”
Now folks let me be honest with you. If a distinguished delegation of Dallas citizens were calling me tomorrow morning in my Redeemer Bible Church office and they were to say to me, “Zane, you better get out of Texas because Governor Ann Richards has put out a contract on your life,” I can guarantee you I would be very deeply shaken.
Now bless her heart, Governor Ann Richards would never put out a contract on it. After all I voted for her in the last election and I’m sure she doesn’t want to rub out any of her voters. And just by the way I think that she’s not gotten nearly enough credit for the fact that she’s a recovering alcoholic and has been free of the bottle for years. So this is all fantasy folks. Governor Richards is not going to put a contract out on my life. I’m just imagining.
And suppose that among the delegation that waited on me there was Police Chief Rathburn and he said to me that this information had come to him through his police intelligence network. I guarantee that I would have a ticket to somewhere, to anywhere, faster than you could say Jack Robinson. And my theme song would probably be “California Here I Come” or “Pennsylvania Here I Come” or whatever it was I had decided to head for.
So I have to be impressed with the way that Jesus reacted to this death threat. He didn’t say to these people, “Okay I’ll be gone by tomorrow morning,” or “All right give me a couple hours and I’ll be out of here.” He didn’t say that.
Instead Jesus said to these Pharisees, “Go tell that fox, ‘Behold I cast out demons and perform cures today and tomorrow, and the third day I shall be perfected.’” Or to put it another way He is saying, “I’m going to go right on with my plan. I’m going to go right on with all of my plans.”
Now I think that was pretty bold. I think that was pretty courageous. And I want to tell you something. Foxes have had bad reputations for centuries and even back in Jesus’ day they were kind of thought of as being sneaky. You’ve heard “sly as a fox” or “coming as a fox” and that’s the way it was.
And let’s face it, that Herod was just foxy enough, he was just sneaky enough to hire an assassin to do away with Jesus if that’s what he had wanted to do. Or maybe this was a bluff. Maybe he wanted Jesus out of this territory by trying to scare Him away.
But Jesus is saying, “I’m not scared. I’m going to go right ahead with my work.”
May I suggest that right here is the first principle for living in the shadow of death? A first and basic principle for walking the streets of Dallas, Texas or any other great metropolitan city of our country. It is that we do not give in to fear and we go right ahead with whatever it is that God wants us to do. We refuse to give in to fear.
Some years ago in Tokyo the police were called because it was reported that a box lunch that had been delivered from a restaurant apparently contained a bomb. They went down to the downtown building and the caller told them that the box was making a strange noise, click, click.
So the police evacuated the building and about a hundred anti-bomb experts managed to freeze the box with liquid nitrogen. After about one and a half hours of careful anti-bomb precautions they decided to take an x-ray of the box. The box did not contain a bomb. It contained a cold pork cutlet. And the delivery boy said, “I told the police again and again that hot pork cutlets often make strange noises and this had been delivered oven fresh.”
Now that is a classic example of overreaction to fear if I don’t know what one is. And frankly my friends there are lots of times when our fears turn out to be nothing more than a cold pork cutlet. They don’t amount to a hill of beans. And even when the fears have some basis in fact they are oftentimes not nearly as gigantic or threatening as we imagine that they are.
A woman by the name of Rosario Valencia saved for 12 years to buy the thing she always dreamed about: a sailboat. And once she bought her sailboat she stationed it in the backyard and that’s where it stayed. And people began to ask her why she kept her sailboat in the backyard and her reply was this, “I’m terrified by water.”
And may I suggest that sometimes we stow our Christian sailboat in the backyard. Sometimes we give in to fear and we may not go somewhere or we may not see someone because we’re afraid.
Just a little bit of fun here’s one that all of us mystery lovers can really relate to. A man walked into a police station one time to pay a three dollar parking fine. That must be a long time ago if the parking fine was only three dollars. And when he walked in he saw a woman in front of him who was trembling all over. After he paid his fine He saw a woman sitting over in a corner on a bench absorbed in a book. So he went over to her and he said to her, “What’s the trouble? Can I be of any help?”
She replied, “No thank you sir.” She said, “You see I was home alone and I was reading this mystery and I got so scared that I decided to come down here and finish it under police protection.”
Well let me give the police their due. They have a hard job to do and sometimes we’re grateful for their protection. But the police cannot hold a candle to divine protection, to the kind of protection that is available to us through God and through our Savior the Lord Jesus Christ.
Yea, though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death I will fear no evil for Thou art with me. Thou art with me.
The Lord is my shepherd. And the key to not giving in to fear is to trust deeply in the presence and power and protection of our great and mighty Shepherd.
So obviously Jesus wasn’t scared away by Herod. He didn’t change His plans out of fear or timidity. But notice this carefully. He didn’t make the mistake that so many Christians make. He didn’t make the mistake of thinking that because He was walking with God, because He was serving the Lord, because He was depending on the power of His heavenly Father, He did not make the mistake of thinking that nothing bad can happen to Him.
An enormous number of Christians make that mistake. “If I just do the right thing, if I just seek God, if I just trust God, no calamity will ever occur to me.” That’s not the way Jesus looked at it for Himself.
In fact Jesus knew that even though He had nothing to fear from Herod His pathway was in the direction of Jerusalem. And I want you to observe His words in verse 33. Speaking still to the Pharisees He says, “Nevertheless I must journey today and tomorrow and the day following, for it cannot be that a prophet should perish outside of Jerusalem.”
May I suggest that Jerusalem is the religious murder capital of the world? Notice what I said. When it comes to major religious murders Jerusalem is the capital of the world. Way back in the book of Kings we read about King Manasseh who filled Jerusalem with innocent blood from one end of it to the other because he pushed idolatry. And unquestionably many of his victims were the loyal servants of God. That’s only a small slice of Jerusalem’s bloody history.
And when the future comes we all know that Jerusalem is not finished with religious murders. And two mighty prophets of God that God will raise up in the tribulation period to testify for Him for three and a half years will be murdered on the streets of Jerusalem and their bodies will lie unburied in Jerusalem while the world rejoices over their death.
This city has blood on its hands. It’s the religious murder capital of the world. And Jesus is indicating that and He as much as reveals to these men that He knows, and surely He did know as we know, that He is headed there to die.
And that’s why I’m so surprised. That’s why I’m really kind of shocked by the next words in our text. You know I could easily see Jesus in this context saying, “O Jerusalem, Jerusalem, the one who stones the prophets and kills those who have been sent to you. I’ve had it with you. I’ve had it with your rebellion and your murderous instincts and now the judgment of God is coming on you Jerusalem and you deserve it. You deserve every last ounce of judgment.”
But hey that’s not what we get from His lips. “O Jerusalem, Jerusalem, the one who kills the prophets and stones those who are sent to you! How often I wanted to gather your children together as a hen gathers her brood under her wings, but you were not willing! See! Your house is left to you desolate.”
You will not see Me until you say, “Blessed is He who comes in the name of the Lord!”
Do you hear what Jesus is saying here? He’s opening His heart about Jerusalem and we discover that His instincts toward Jerusalem are not those of a potential victim of their murder. His instincts are those of a mother hen who wants to gather her chickens under her wings to protect them from all harm.
He wished He could gather the nation of Israel and the city of Jerusalem under His protective wings that they might not experience the judgment of God. But that judgment was coming. The house of which Jerusalem was so proud, the temple of God, would be devastated.
But notice something else. That’s not the end of the story. For after the destruction of Jerusalem we now know a long time afterward Jesus says in effect, “You’ll see Me again. And when you see Me again you will say, ‘Blessed is He who comes in the name of the Lord.’”
Now I guess most of you know that I do a lot of traveling to Fort Worth. I used to go to a barber over in Fort Worth that I liked very well. So every time I wanted my haircut I would go over there. But now he’s either out of business or moved to a location that I don’t know about. But I still go over a great deal and I have a friend who likes to go over with me to Cattlemen’s Steakhouse down in the stockyard area.
And just for the record let me say I think Cattlemen’s Steakhouse serves the best T-bone steak in the Metroplex and puts the best blue cheese dressing on its salad. And my friend agrees with me. We love to go over there and eat.
But now suppose folks that God were to reveal to me that one of these days I would have to take a trip to Fort Worth to fulfill an important mission that He would send me on. And then when I was over there in Fort Worth I would encounter a gunman who would shoot and kill me. Suppose I knew for a fact that that was the case. Do you think that would affect my feeling about Fort Worth?
Hey suddenly Fort Worth would become death city. I hope I would have the courage to go over there when the time for my mission arrived. But go over to Fort Worth for just a T-bone steak? Forget it. Dallas has plenty of T-bone steaks. I’ll stay over here.
Suddenly my whole reaction to that city would be negative.
Now folks I know that Jesus was the Son of God but He was also truly human apart from sin. He had all of the natural instincts that we have as human beings. He might easily have been revolted by even the thought of Jerusalem. Yet He still cared for that city, the city that would kill Him. He still has compassion and grace.
And listen, one of the dangers that we face living in a violent society such as we know today is that in our instinct for self-preservation we may lose our compassion for the people of our city. We may withdraw to our suburban fortresses. We may even put up burglar bars and install alarms. We’re very, very careful where we go at night and when we go and see. And before long we don’t care. We don’t care that all over the city there are people who do not know Jesus Christ and who are dying in their sins.
So one of the secrets of living in the valley of the shadow of death is not only not to be scared off by fear but to continue to have compassion for men and to reach out to them with the gospel of Christ.
Way back in the days of the Revolutionary War there was a pastor named Peter Miller who pastored a church in Ephrata, Pennsylvania. He was very much beloved by the community. But next to him lived a man who hated his church and hated the pastor and he never missed an opportunity to heap verbal abuse on that pastor.
Well it turned out that he not only hated the church, he was a traitor to his own country. He betrayed the infant United States and he was arrested and tried and sentenced to death by hanging. The trial was held in the city of Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.
When Peter Miller heard that this man who had lived next door to him had been sentenced to hang he started out walking to Philadelphia which was 60 miles. He was finally ushered into the presence of General George Washington. He pleaded with General Washington for a pardon for his neighbor.
And General Washington replied, “I’m sorry but I cannot grant this request for your friend.” “Friend?” said Peter Miller. “Why he’s the worst enemy I have.” “What?” said General Washington. “You mean you’ve walked 60 miles to get a pardon for your enemy?” “In that case,” he said, “that casts it in a different light. I will grant the pardon.”
As soon as the pardon was written up and signed by General Washington it was put in the hands of Peter Miller. Now he had 15 miles to go folks to the site where the execution was scheduled to take place. But he walked that distance and as he arrived at the place of execution he saw that neighbor of his being led up on the scaffold just about to be executed.
And the man looked off in his direction and saw Pastor Miller and the neighbor remarked, “There’s old Peter Miller. He’s walked all the way from Ephrata to satisfy his vengeance by seeing me hang.”
A few minutes later Miller made his way up to the prisoner and handed him the pardon that saved his life.
Do I need to remind you that the gospel of Jesus Christ is a pardon which is desperately needed all around us? And not just by your friends and relatives. We were talking about that last time. Not just by your next door neighbors but by people all over the city.
Don’t be afraid to carry that pardon wherever God leads you to carry it. Don’t get the wrong idea. I’m not suggesting we all get up out of this auditorium and go to the most crime-infested and drug-stricken area of the neighborhood and do door-to-door visitation. I’m not talking about doing anything stupid or foolish.
What I am talking about is being willing to take a chance under the guidance of God to get the gospel to men. We need to be followers of our bold, brave and compassionate Savior.
Onward Christian soldiers marching as to war with the cross of Jesus going on before. Christ the royal master leads against the foe. Forward into battle see His banner go. Onward Christian soldiers marching as to war with the cross of Jesus going on before.
Yea, though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death I will fear no evil for Thou art with me.
Shall we pray?
Father give us compassion. Give us courage. Make us followers of Jesus Christ who loved Jerusalem and died for her sins. We ask this in Christ’s name. Amen.