Luke 19:28–48 | Hearing God's Voice and Honouring His House

In this episode of Jim Cantelon Today Podcast, Jim Cantelon explores Luke 19:28–48, explaining that God doesn't always speak through dramatic signs or an audible voice. Sometimes He speaks through a growing awareness that He is drawing us to Himself. Through Jesus' triumphal entry into Jerusalem, His lament over the city, and the cleansing of the temple, discover how to recognize God's leading and respond with worship, obedience, and reverence for His presence.

Jim Cantelon Today Podcast brings trusted, verse-by-verse Bible teaching from Jim Cantelon. Each episode explores God's Word with practical insight, historical context, and a focus on applying biblical truth to everyday life.

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Stacey 0:00

You're listening to Jim Cantelon from Jim Cantelon Today. Today's message comes from Luke 19: 28 - 48.

Jim Cantelon 0:09

Now, friends, I'm going to deal with something that requires a lot more time than I'm able to do here. It's the triumphal entry of Jesus into Jerusalem. And whole books have been written about it. You've heard sermons about it if you're a churchgoer. You've probably read it several times if you read your Bible. But in verses 28 to 48, we have this remarkable instance. Let's read it and then I'll get at it. Verse 28 of Luke 19. After Jesus had said this, he went on ahead, going up to Jerusalem. As he approached Bethphage and Bethany at the hill called the Mount of Olives, he sent two of his disciples saying to them, Go to the village ahead of you, and as you enter it, you'll find a colt tied there, which no one has ever ridden. Untie it and bring it here. If anyone asks you, Why are you untying it? say, The Lord needs it. Those who were sent ahead went and found it, just as he had told them. And as they were untying the colt, its owners asked them, Why are you untying the colt? They replied, The Lord needs it. They brought it to Jesus, threw their cloaks on the colt, and put Jesus on it. And as he went along, people spread their cloaks on the road. When he came near the place where the road goes down the Mount of Olives, the whole crowd of disciples began joyfully to praise God in loud voices for all the miracles they had seen. Blessed is the king who comes in the name of the Lord, peace in heaven and glory in the highest. Some of the Pharisees in the crowd said to Jesus, Teacher, rebuke your disciples. I tell you, he replied, If they keep quiet, the stones will cry out. As he approached Jerusalem and saw the city, he wept over it, and said, If you, even you, had only known on this day what would bring you peace, but now it is hidden from your eyes. The days will come upon you when your enemies will build as an embankment against you, encircle you, hem you in on every side. They will dash you to the ground, you and the children within your walls. They will not leave one stone on another, because you did not recognize the time of God's coming to you. When Jesus entered the temple courts, he began to drive out those who were selling. It's written, he said to them, My house will be a house of prayer. You've made it a den of robbers. Every day he was teaching at the temple. But the chief priests, the teachers of the law, the leaders among the people, were trying to kill him. Yet they couldn't find any way to do it because all the people hung on his words. Now, time and time again in the Old Testament, there is reference to the fulfillment of prophecy in the life and teachings of Jesus. And this passage, which I've just read here, is a case in point. And I want to set a kind of a context for you. Zechariah 9: 9. Rejoice greatly, O daughter of Zion. Shout, O daughter of Jerusalem, behold, thy king cometh unto thee. He is just in having salvation, lowly and riding upon an ass, and upon a colt the foal of an ass. And there's this from 2 Kings chapter 8: 12. Then the man of God began to weep. Why is my lord weeping? asked Hazael. Because I know the harm you will do to the Israelites, he answered. Yikes. That's 2 Kings chapter 8. Isaiah chapter 29, verses 1 to 4. Woe to Ariel, to Ariel. Ariel is another word for Jerusalem, the city where David dwelt. Yet I will distress Ariel, and there shall be heaviness and sorrow. I will camp against thee roundabout, and will lay siege against thee with a mount, and I will raise forts against thee, and thou shalt be brought down, and thy speech shall be low out of the dust. Whoa, Isaiah 29, 1 to 4. How about this from Isaiah chapter 56, verse 7? Even them will I bring to my holy mountain and make them joyful in my house of prayer, for my house shall be called a house of prayer for all people. Here's Jeremiah 7, verse 11. Is this house which is called by my name become a den of robbers in your eyes? And then one more, Psalm 69, verse 9. For the zeal of thine house hath eaten me up. Now, in Luke's account, which we've just read, we find a kind of a melange of prophetic and historical material. I read Isaiah, Jeremiah, Zachariah, Psalms, and Kings. And it's material that blends with at least two agendas, Jesus' agenda and the people's agenda. Incorporating a parade, an unexpected purging of the temple, a lament over Jerusalem, and the initiation of a plot to kill Jesus. And so these passages that I've just read, they provide a context, if you will, for the triumphal entry in three dimensions, past, present, and future. So a few quotes from the narrative, which we read, are intriguing. The Lord has need of it. Lord has need of what? Of the cult. Never been written. Blessed is the king who comes in the name of the Lord. In another passage, Hosanna, you know, save now. You know, the Messiah has arrived. The kingdom is about to be established. How about, teacher, rebuke your disciples? Jesus, if you keep quiet, if they keep quiet, the stones will cry out. The days will come upon you when your enemies will build an embankment against you and encircle you and hem you in on every side. They will dash you to the ground because you do not recognize the time of God's coming to you. My house will be called a house of prayer, but you've made it a den of robbers. In verse 31 of Luke 19, Jesus refers to himself as Lord. In verse 38, the people call him king. In verse 39, the Pharisees call him teacher. Interestingly, they would even use that term. In verse 40, Jesus states that the natural world, stones, will actually recognize and endorse his kingship if the people don't. In verses 43 and 44, his prophetic lament over Jerusalem, oh Jerusalem, O Jerusalem, foreshadows the siege of Jerusalem in 70 AD by Titus, which was only a few years after Jesus' resurrection. And in verse 46, he stresses the significance of the temple as the touchstone of interaction between heaven and earth. But most intriguing, most intriguing in my view, is the reason he gives for Jerusalem's future demolition under the Romans. The reason he says to these detractors, because you did not recognize the time of God's coming to you. Because you did not recognize the time of God's coming to you. Now Jesus had a very high view of himself, obviously, because he is God's coming. He was God's visitation in the Greek. And little wonder the Sanhedrin wanted to kill him. In rejecting him as they would in just a few days, the people would be rejecting him as well. Not just the Son of Man, but the Son of God. But at this point, in verse 48, all the people hung on his words. Indeed, all history hangs on his words. But getting back to what I find most intriguing being Jesus' words, giving the reason for Jerusalem's future demolition under the Romans, quote, because you did not recognize the time of God's coming to you, unquote. Whoa. You know, God's as much a work today as he was in Jesus' time. His spirit is moving all over the earth. It's remarkable when you look at our stricken world to see how many millions and millions and millions and millions of believers are out there, many of them in oppressed countries, some in war zones, secretly loving Jesus and being loved by Jesus. The question for you and for me is do we recognize the time of God's coming to us? Is God speaking to you? And you say, Well, well, what, Jim, in a in a some kind of a thunderous voice? No, no, I'm not talking about that at all. I'm talking about a thought, an impression, a conviction, an intuition that just emerges out of the very depths of your soul. Maybe in response to a crisis, or in response to a blessing, or in response to a need, or in response to something you've seen in a movie, or something one of your kids has said, or something one of your neighbors has done. But in reflecting on it, there is something here that suggests to hear that maybe the Lord is in this. You see, we've been made in the image of God. So we have the capacity to respond to the voice of God, even though we may not claim to be followers of God. You may claim to be an unbeliever, but if there is even a hint, even the idea that God is in this or God is speaking to me, what that tells me is God is at work in your life. And your response is evidence of his spirit at work in your life. Is this the time of God's coming to you? That's the question. You don't want to miss it. Jesus says, You miss it. He says, I weep over you. Don't miss it. God be merciful to me, a sinner.

Stacey 10:55

You've been listening to Jim Cantelon from Jim Cantelon Today. This episode first aired on July 12, 2026, on Jim Cantelon Today.

Jim Cantelon 11:06

Hi, Jim Cantelon here from Jim Cantelon Today. I'm the founder of Working for Orphans and Widows. I'm committed to being the hands and feet of Jesus to dying and at-risk orphans and widows in Africa and India.

Stacey 11:18

To learn more about Jim Cantelon and WOW - Working for Orphans and Widows, visit WOWMission.com.