Are You Still Weeping Jesus?

Pastor Stan Mons

---

Sermon Transcription:

This sermon today is really a word to the church of the Lord Jesus Christ. It's not always like that, but in this particular case, it is not just towards you, Safe House Church. From time to time, the Lord gives us a word that is to His church in general. You're invited to share it, to pray about if there's anyone that is not here, but that does need to hear it. It's a kingdom word. You can share this word anywhere. I can share it anywhere. And it's a word to those that have heard the Lord's gospel already. They have heard that Jesus, the Son of Almighty God, has been sent from heaven to bear the consequences of mine and your sin. This is to a people that understands that that sacrifice was made just for them because God has decided to love them. And God did not want them to be blamed for all of their wrong. God rather took the blame all on Himself—and the consequences, even to the point of death, all on Himself—so that you and I could go free from those consequences of sin.

That is the kind of person—you could call them a church person—that this word is really to.

Now, if that is not you and you say, "I don't know the Lord yet," I believe with all my heart that when you pray a very simple, small prayer quietly from your heart—no one needs to hear it with me at this time—"Lord, would you show me what you're speaking to me?" If you would speak that quietly in your heart, I believe with all my heart that the Holy Spirit will show you something today that will kick off a journey with you and God that you could have never imagined—a way that He would lead you and speak to you, and you would get to know Him personally. And He would lead you into freedoms you could have never dreamed of, and even a purpose in this life that you could have never imagined. But as we get into this word, the title is: "Are You Still Weeping, Jesus?" Are you still weeping, Jesus? I want to ask the Holy Spirit for one more thing before we go into this word.

Holy Spirit, it is your job to glorify Christ in our midst. It is your job, Holy Spirit, to convict the world of sin, and to convict the world of righteousness, and to convict the world of judgment. Holy Spirit, without you opening the eyes of our heart, we can learn so many things and never understand and never truly see them. Never see God the way that He is. We will always have a wrong image of Him until, Holy Spirit, you show us what Jesus has done for us—and how urgent it was, how difficult it was for Him to fulfill everything that was needed for us to come home. Holy Spirit, would you teach us the fear of the Lord this morning? Holy Spirit, we have such a hard time choosing to fear the Lord—where to start, how it even works. But Holy Spirit, would you use the Word of God this morning? And would you install a healthy, reverential fear of the Lord, that by the fear of the Lord we may depart from evil and enter into everything that Christ has for us? Lord, I pray that you overshadow my weakness and that you have your way this morning. In Jesus' name, I pray. Amen.

Are you still weeping, Jesus? Are you still weeping, Jesus? I want to read to you Matthew 23:37, where Jesus is speaking and weeping over 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 chicks under her wings, but you were not willing." Luke also tells us about this account—that Jesus is weeping over the city: "Now, as He drew near, He saw the city and wept over it." All of this is talking about the same timeline, the same time frame—just days before the Passover, just days before Jesus would die on the cross, days before He would be betrayed. And He shares what you could argue are possibly the most important things to His heart in that last week that He walks with His disciples and that He is on this earth.

This is one of those things that He cries out over Jerusalem: "Oh, how many times did I try? How many times—how often—I wanted to gather your children, the children of Jerusalem, together as a hen gathers her chicks under her wings, but you were not willing." And here we see Jesus weep over a people that didn't know how God was feeling about them. They were visiting their house of worship regularly.They were approaching the altar of reconciliation regularly. They were seeking continually to live a half-decent life because they believed God was real. To their own understanding, they were the people of God. They were the definition of what it is like to walk with God in their generation. They're rejoicing on this very same day that Jesus does the triumphant entry into Jerusalem. And Jesus Himself feels very different. And everybody had missed it.

Jesus weeps over that people that thought they were fine. They were the people of God. And in the account of Luke, He says: "You missed it. If you would only know the riches if you would only know what I was willing to give to you..." And He says: "How many times? How many times did I have the desire? How many times was I willing? How many times did I pursue you? How many times did I try to gather you—but you didn’t want to. You were not willing." The Word tells us in 2 Corinthians, chapter 13, to every single person that lives in the age of the church: “Test yourselves whether you are in the faith.” Now, I've seen people get all offended with this—when you question: "Are you truly saved? Are you truly restored? Do you know Jesus truly yourself? Do you follow Him? Is your eternity settled? And there’s nothing I, as a pastor, have to worry about?" I've seen people get all offended about it.

I don't think there's a more loving thing that anybody can do but question your salvation—making sure that you are absolutely confident that you have biblical reason and biblical evidence to have peace, and to believe that Christ has washed away your sins, that Christ has made you a new creation, that you know His voice, as He said, “My sheep will know My voice.” That there's absolutely no doubt whether or not you have deception on your mind, or some kind of a false peace that the people of God had in this time. A false peace that said, “What do you mean? I'm showing up in the temple daily. I'm showing up with my little sacrifice. I'm showing up with my effort. I'm trying to do what is right. Look at the nations around us—they do not care about God. They do not care about entering into His temple. They don't care about serving Him. We are the people of God. Of course I have peace that I am with God, that I am on the right side of things. Look how they are living.” And there's this false peace that settles on the people of God in that time. And even though Jesus has drawn near, they don't recognize Him.

Even though Jesus is ready to give them things they could never muster up in their own strength or their own works for God, they're missing out on it. And Jesus weeps over a people that thought that God was happy with them. Jesus, are you still weeping? For the last couple of weeks in my own private prayer life—and I believe the Holy Spirit led me to pray this—I've been praying just for myself: “Jesus, how do you feel when you look at me? Jesus, how do you feel when you look at Stan? Jesus, how do you feel when you look at your church in this generation? Jesus, how do you feel?” I don't believe I'd ever prayed that. And I kept on asking Him. And He began to lead me to this story. And I began to ask Him, “Jesus, do you weep when you look at me? Do you weep still when you look at your church? Is there a people that is just as oblivious, just as blind as in that time when everyone thought, ‘God is happy with me. God is grateful that we are His people’? And yet, when God the Son came on the scene, all He could do was weep and lament over that city.” “You’re not seeing it. You’re not letting Me work. You’re not allowing Me to even gather you unto Myself.” And this stirring began to happen in my heart as I was just spending time in prayer and in worship with the Lord.

“Lord, does there exist this special intimacy between You and the Church—individually, but also as a whole? Do You have that intimacy that Jesus bled and died for?” “Father, is that intimacy alive and well? Do people hear from You? Do they love You? Do they seek You? Do they live what Jesus died for?” Does God share His heart with you?Does God share the brokenness that is in His heart for a generation? Or are you able to look at a generation and feel absolutely fine—while Jesus, in the background, is weeping over a people and in some cases, even people that are a part of His church? Can you, as the Church of Jesus Christ—can you hear the end of all things?Is your heart able to hear?Is your heart able to see that things are slowly, but so surely, coming to a close? Can you say, in awareness and clarity together with Paul, that: “The return of the Lord is closer at hand now than when I first came to Jesus... than when I first believed”? Do you see these things? Can you, in your heart as a person and as a church, hear the cry of the Holy Spirit?

“Make ready for the King.” Do you hear it? Or is it a situation where you've grown cold, and a little deaf, and a little complacent, and a little comfortable to just be here in this world? To just be here, and struggle through your struggles, and attend church? “And God is probably happy because I'm a Christian... it's all okay.”

Or is Jesus still weeping over His people, as He did back then? Is Jesus still saying: “How many times was I willing to bring you so close to Myself—and you were not willing?” Matthew 25 tells us the story of the five wise and the five foolish virgins. Starting in verse 1: “Then the kingdom of heaven shall be likened to ten virgins who took their lamps and went out to meet the bridegroom.” Here we have—all in one breath—possibly (as scholars agree) on the same day that Jesus wept, He goes into all of these parables. They are stacked all the way. He’s filling up all this time—these last few days He has with His disciples, who He knows are going to be instrumental in planting churches all over the place. He begins to share parable after parable after parable with them. And then He comes to this parable where He talks about the last days. And He’s going to reveal to the Church—He’s going to reveal to all who would believe on Him—what it's going to be like in the Church in the last days. He says: “Then the kingdom of heaven shall be likened to this...”

In other words, He’s saying: “What God is seeking to do on earth—as it is in heaven—what God is seeking to do on the earth through the blood of Christ, through the power of His Holy Spirit, in people that don’t deserve it but that have been brought into the grace by the blood of Jesus Christ...”

In that Church environment—that ‘kingdom of heaven’—shall be likened to ten virgins who took their lamps and went out to meet the bridegroom. In other words: Everybody agreed the bridegroom is coming.Nobody questioned it.Nobody was against it. But then He explains this in verse 2: “Now five of them were wise, and five of them were foolish. Those who were foolish took their lamps and took no oil with them. But the wise took oil in their vessels with their lamps. But while the bridegroom was delayed, they all slumbered and slept. And at midnight a cry was heard: ‘Behold, the bridegroom is coming; go out to meet him!’” Here we see this story unfold—Jesus making this parable to help us understand what to expect in God’s kingdom in the last days.

And He says, “There’s going to be five wise, five foolish.”He doesn’t say, “Well, it’s going to be the few.” He cuts it right down the middle. It’s 50/50. He says five of them were foolish. They believe I’m coming. They’re in the right place at the right time, if you want to argue that. But something is different. It’s not easy to notice. Something small is different in their life. And all of a sudden—it’s going to come suddenly for every part of the body of Christ. Suddenly, there’s going to be a call:

“Behold, the Bridegroom is coming. It’s time now. Go out to meet Him.”

Verse 7: “Then all those virgins arose and trimmed their lamps. And the foolish said to the wise, ‘Give us some of your oil, for our lamps are going out.’” It wasn’t until that cry came forth—“Behold, He’s here—the Bridegroom!”—It wasn’t until that cry came forward that we see something deeply disturbing happen. Jesus says half of the church—that He qualifies as foolish and without oil—All of a sudden, a realization hits the heart: “Something is missing. Help. I can’t meet Him like this yet. I’m not ready.” The realization only sets in at that moment—That they were not actually ready to meet Him. Again—they were in the right place.They were among the right company.They were seemingly having the right habits, doing the right things, even believing some of the correct stuff. “But the wise answered, saying, ‘No, lest there should not be enough for us and you; but go rather to those who sell, and buy for yourselves.’” All of a sudden, there’s a realization: I can’t share anymore with you what I have.I can’t give out anymore what I’ve been carrying. There’s something that changes the moment that call comes forth: “Behold, the Bridegroom.”

All of a sudden—unexpected for everyone, while they were sleeping—And in the instant that that happens, there’s nothing I can give away anymore, spiritually speaking, out of my life to yours, or out of your life to your neighbor. There’s nothing you can give anymore. But that realization only shows up in that very moment. Verse 10: “And while they went to buy, the Bridegroom came, and those who were ready went in with Him to the wedding; and the door was shut. Afterward, the other virgins came also, saying, ‘Lord, Lord, open to us!’ But He answered and said, ‘Assuredly, I say to you, I do not know you.’” “Watch therefore, for you know neither the day nor the hour in which the Son of Man is coming.” Church, this is what the kingdom of heaven, what the Church of the Living God will be like in the last days—At least according to Jesus Christ Himself. There is a part of the Church of Jesus Christ that He calls foolish. They will not enter in with Him. They believe some of the same stuff. And I’m not talking about specific churches that have buildings. We’re talking about a mixture in the Bride of Christ, possibly anywhere and everywhere. They believe in measure. They are mixed in with the true Bride of Christ.Yet—they are on track to miss it.

That is Jesus’s message to the last-day Church.

There is a mixture of people that are going to miss it. But it’s hard to notice. They all look like they fit exactly in. There will be a portion—and according to Christ, a great percentage—of what believes itself to be the Church, what believes itself to be a born-again believer, mixed with the crowd. Their spiritual habits make them blend in very, very well. There appears to be so little difference. And they fully believe they are going with Him. They’ll even knock on the door. They’ll be surprised that they didn’t go in. And they never realized while there was time. That’s the terrifying truth that Jesus shares in this parable: The realization will not come until it is too late. They never realized—until they heard His voice. They didn’t know His voice before that moment. They didn’t have that oil in their heart, in their life. All they had was right place, right time, right people, right habit, right dogma, right doctrine. But when they heard Jesus speak to them for the first time, He said, “I never knew you.” That word knowing is the same word you and I would use for dating. “We—we didn’t do this before. This is the first time we officially meet. This is the first time you’re officially hearing My voice.”

They were never gathered unto Himself. They would have been blending in in the houses of worship in Jerusalem.You’d never know it. They would have believed that God was happy with them—or at least happier with them than with other people—not seeing that Jesus weeps over them, that Jesus desires to gather them so often to Himself, to bring them to the intimate knowledge of Christ, the redemption, the forgiveness, the purpose, even the heavenly call on this side of eternity. And His cry is: “But you were not willing. You didn’t want to.” And so the question today that comes forth is: Does Jesus still weep over you, Church of the Living God? Whatever church you are a part of, whatever nation you are from, from wherever you are watching—Does Jesus still weep over you as He did over Jerusalem, ignorant as she was to it? “How many times have I desired—have I wanted—to gather you unto Myself? How many times did you feel it in your heart that I was willing to do something? How many times did you recognize in your spirit something’s wrong, but you simply left the service? Or you simply left from the place of prayer at home? Or you closed the Bible and put it away because you got busy with life?” “How many times have I desired to gather you to Myself—but you were not willing? And how many more times are you going to have that opportunity? How many more times is it going to take?”

He’s been trying to get you home—with all of your soul, all of your household.He’s been trying to get you peace, so that you would never struggle with fear or anxiety, as the prophetic word continually points forward to in the last days: “Men’s hearts will be failing them for fear.” Go look up what the number one growing mental health challenge is that people face in our generation: anxiety and fear. And the Lord tells us that this cup will pass from His people—that a peace, a heavenly peace unexplainable, will settle on His own people. He’s been trying to get you that heavenly peace that He speaks of over His own people. And here we have believers in churches saying, “Of course I’m a Christian. I even got baptized. I even serve on a team in my church.” And yet they struggle with things that God said, “My children will never be touched by these things.” And nobody goes, “Well, maybe I should do a test—whether or not I’m in the faith. Maybe I should question my neighbor’s salvation. Because if I am wrong about them, and God is not yet dancing over him with singing—but actually Christ is still weeping, because Christ is inviting and inviting, and he’s not hearing, he’s not willing.”

It looks so good on the outside though.He fits in so well. The habits seem to all be there. But what if I’m wrong about my neighbor? What if he has not heard the voice of Christ in his heart yet?What if Jesus has never shown him personally—through the ministry of the Holy Spirit—that God already dances over him with singing? He knows the Scripture but has he heard it in his heart from the Spirit of the Living God? He’s been trying to satisfy your heart so that there’s nothing in this world that easily becomes a distraction to you or catches your desires. He’s been seeking, time after time, to get you to walk away from things that are not even sinful—but they need to go so you can walk into your heavenly call. “How many times have I desired to gather you unto Myself—but you were not willing?” Yet you can blend in with the other believers. Churches—whole churches—can blend in with other churches. And a false sense of peace can settle when we abandon the Scriptures and when we come up with our own standards of what it means to be forgiven and saved. “Oh, just pray a little prayer at an altar.”“Oh, just if you are sorry for your sin, it’s all going to be well.”

When the Bible teaches us that if a man or a woman comes with all of their heart to Christ Jesus, they go from death to life. They are filled with the presence of the Eternal Almighty God. He will never leave them nor forsake them. You’re going to see the difference. You’re going to notice when God takes up residence in the heart of a man that never knew Him, always lived without Him, never had the power to walk away from sin and to stand against the devil—you’re going to notice the difference. You can blend in all you want.But if there’s no difference, if God is not treating you as His Bride—He’s not coming for you. Do you understand, Church of the Living God,that when the trumpet sounds—the instant that the trumpet sounds—there is no more reaction for you? There’s no reaction time. There’s no quick repentance. There’s no quick move. There’s no quick turning of the heart. “Oh, He’s coming!” There’s no chance anymore to respond to that trumpet. There’s no reaction you will have to that trumpet. That moment is it.

You will be as you are,and you will stand before Him—spiritually speaking—in the spiritual condition in which He found you.

No more moment to begin to fear the Lord. No moment to forgive those who have wronged you.Not a moment to call to mind any Scripture. Not a moment to make things right between you and between God. Not a second to make any adjustment at all. You will stand before Him in the spiritual state that He found you—in that very moment. 1 Corinthians 15, verses 51 and 52: “Behold, I tell you a mystery: We shall not all sleep, but we shall all be changed—in a moment, in the twinkling of an eye, at the last trumpet. For the trumpet will sound, and the dead will be raised incorruptible,and we shall be changed.” A word to those that knew Jesus—those that had oil, those that were ready—those that did not merely behave as a Christian.They lived in the nearness of Christ. You can make every mistake in the book living in the nearness of Christ, and the peace will not change. The intimacy will not change.The nearness of God will not be lifted off your life.

But if there are still things in your heart that are unsurrendered to God, He’s not made Lord yet—you have not bowed down with all of your life and said, “Lord, would You take all that I have—my sin, my life, my time, my everything? Lord, would You take all of me, and would You wash it all away? And Lord, would You live through me?Lord, would You give me a new life?It can all be Yours. I’ll lay it all down, Lord God.Would You give me a new life, Lord?’Cause I desire to know You. I desire to know Your voice.”

“I can hear the Holy Spirit knock on my heart,and I don’t know, Jesus, if You still weep over me,or if You already dance over me with singing.I believe all kinds of things about that—but I cannot say that I’ve heard from You.” In a moment—in the twinkling of an eye—when the trumpet sounds,there will not be an opportunity to respond or react. There is nothing anymore to do. No obedience to quickly kick in.No chance to turn away from something the Lord has been nagging at you about.Nothing you can turn towards of His kingdom that you’ve known you’re called to—that He’s asked you to look into, to believe. Today is the time.Today is where you give Him all of your life. “Today, if you seek Him with all of your heart, you will find Him.” Today, if you lay down your life that He may lead you into your call, He will gladly hand you a completely new life, nearness of His Spirit,childship in His kingdom. But in a moment, in the twinkling of an eye,there’s no more time to respond,no more chance to react ever again to what God is doing. Jesus, are You still weeping? “How many times have I desired to gather you—but you were not willing?”

Oh Church, I pray that you respond to Jesus while you can.I pray that you surrender with all of your heart, not holding a thing back—while you can.I pray that you will never hear these words spoken over your life.

I pray that you will never hear from Christ: “How many times did I want to gather you, but you didn’t want to.You didn’t want to follow Me with all of your life.You didn’t want to only live for the things of eternity.You didn’t want to have a call that would cost you too much on this earth.You didn’t want to make time for Me and get to know Me daily.” Church, react to the Word of God with all of your heart, never holding back.Respond to Jesus Christ with all of your heart while you still have the time. Revelation 22:12–17 “And behold, I am coming quickly, and My reward is with Me,to give to everyone according to his work.I am the Alpha and the Omega, the Beginning and the End, the First and the Last.Blessed are those who do His commandments,that they may have the right to the tree of life,and may enter through the gates into the city. But outside are dogs and sorcerers and sexually immoral and murderers and idolaters,and whoever loves and practices a lie. I, Jesus, have sent My angel to testify to you these things in the churches. I am the Root and the Offspring of David, the Bright and Morning Star.” “And the Spirit and the Bride say, ‘Come!’And let him who hears say, ‘Come!’And let him who thirsts come. Whoever desires, let him take the water of life freely.”

The Spirit and the Bride say, Come. Come home. Live always—every day of your life—as if you are consciously aware that Jesus is coming tomorrow. Make decisions consciously like Jesus is coming tomorrow. Don’t think you have the time. Don’t think you have the time to respond to Christ later. Don’t think you have the time to go in wholeheartedly later—when the trumpet sounds, there is no more reaction time. One day, you will hear the trumpet,and you will realize, “I never had a later time, some other time, to get it right later.” Don’t delay responding with all of your soul to God every single day. I have to practice this myself, church—every single day to go all in with Jesus, to seek Him intimately every day, to walk with Him, to get to know Him, to learn from Him, to receive from Him the very things He believes are important for my day. Don’t delay responding with all of your soul to God every single day. Church, you cannot afford the risk of missing it.

The altar call is simply this: “Are you still weeping over me, Jesus?” Jesus, how do you feel when You look at me?Lord, would You reveal to my heart — how do You feel when You look at me?Are You still weeping? Would You show me, Lord? I don’t ever want to be deceived.I don’t ever want to walk with some false peace that is not based on the Scriptures. Jesus, I want to be a man — I want to be a woman — wholeheartedly given to You and to Your cause. Would You reveal to me, Jesus, what You revealed to me? Anything in my life that still makes You weep, Jesus — anything that still hurts You —I don’t ever want to cause You to weep and still weep over me individually, or over us as a church in this nation. Lord God, would You show me? Lord God, would You reveal anything in my life that makes You weep, Jesus? If you want to pray that prayer with me, I’m going to invite you to come forward: “Lord Jesus, would You reveal to me anything in my life that still makes You weep — that still hurts You?”

If you want to pray that prayer and ask the Lord to reveal to your heart how He feels, so that you have heard from Him —so that you may know for certain in your own life that Jesus no longer weeps over you and that you are not oblivious to it —but that you may know because the Spirit of God revealed it to your heart: “Jesus dances over me with singing.” Don’t ever settle for anything less than the promises of God. He promised you would hear from Him for yourself. He promised He would come and live in your heart. He promised that He would guide you into all truth by His Holy Spirit —and the truth would set you free. If that’s not been your Christian experience, there is no reason to believe that you are saved and forgiven. Only the Word of Christ — when we come face to face with it —either gives us evidence, and the Spirit bears witness to the proof that we have been made right with Almighty God, because He treats us just like He said He would treat His bride. When that’s not what you’re living,you need to grab on with all of your soul and say:

“Jesus, what is it? What are You trying to do in my life and I’m not willing? What are You asking me to lay down and I’m not willing? What are You trying to tell me and I don’t want to hear it? Lord Jesus, I don’t want You to weep over my life. I don’t want to hurt You any longer. I want to see You dance with the eyes of my heart. I want to see You rejoice over me coming home.”

-Pastor Stan Mons