Books: The Jerusalem Sinner Saved
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John Bunyan >> The Jerusalem Sinner Saved
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8 This etext was produced from the 1845 Thomas Nelson edition by David
Price, email ccx074@coventry.ac.uk
THE JERUSALEM SINNER SAVED;
or,
GOOD NEWS FOR THE VILEST OF MEN
by John Bunyan
BEGINNING AT JERUSALEM.--Luke xxiv. 47.
The whole verse runs thus: "And that repentance and remission of
sins should be preached in his name among all nations, beginning at
Jerusalem."
The words were spoken by Christ, after he rose from the dead, and
they are here rehearsed after an historical manner, but do contain in
them a formal commission, with a special clause therein. The
commission is, as you see, for the preaching of the gospel, and is
very distinctly inserted in the holy record by Matthew and Mark. "Go
teach all nations," &c. "Go ye into all the world, and preach the
gospel unto every creature." Matt. xxviii. 19; Mark xvi. 15. Only
this cause is in special mentioned by Luke, who saith, That as Christ
would have the doctrine of repentance and remission of sins preached
in his name among all nations, so he would have the people of
Jerusalem to have the first proffer thereof. Preach it, saith
Christ, in all nations, but begin at Jerusalem.
The apostles then, though they had a commission so large as to give
them warrant to go and preach the gospel in all the world, yet by
this clause they were limited as to the beginning of their ministry:
they were to begin this work at Jerusalem. "Beginning at Jerusalem."
Before I proceed to an observation upon the words, I must (but
briefly) touch upon two things: namely,
I. Show you what Jerusalem now was.
II. Show you what it was to preach the gospel to them.
I. For the first, Jerusalem is to be considered, either,
1. With respect to the descent of her people: or,
2. With respect to her preference and exaltation: or,
3. With respect to her present state, as to her decays.
First, As to her descent: she was from Abraham, the sons of Jacob, a
people that God singled out from the rest of the nations to set his
love upon them.
Secondly, As to her preference or exaltation, she was the place of
God's worship, and that which had in and with her the special tokens
and signs of God's favour and presence, above any other people in the
world. Hence the tribes went up to Jerusalem to worship; there was
God's house, God's high-priest, God's sacrifices accepted, and God's
eye, and God's heart perpetually; Psalm lxxvi. 1, 2; Psalm cxxii.; 1
Kings ix. 3. But,
Thirdly, We are to consider Jerusalem also in her decays; for as she
is so considered, she is the proper object of our text, as will be
further showed by and by.
Jerusalem, as I told you, was the place and seat of God's worship,
but now decayed, degenerated, and apostatized. The word, the rule of
worship, was rejected of them, and in its place they had put and set
up their own traditions; they had rejected also the most weighty
ordinances, and put in the room thereof their own little things,
Matt. xv.; Mark vii. Jerusalem was therefore now greatly
backsliding, and become the place where truth and true religion were
much defaced.
It was also now become the very sink of sin and seat of hypocrisy,
and gulf where true religion was drowned. Here also now reigned
presumption, and groundless confidence in God, which is the bane of
souls. Amongst its rulers, doctors, and leaders, envy, malice, and
blasphemy vented itself against the power of godliness, in all places
where it was espied; as also against the promoters of it; yea, their
Lord and Maker could not escape them.
In a word, Jerusalem was now become the shambles, the very slaughter-
shop for saints. This was the place wherein the prophets, Christ,
and his people, were most horribly persecuted and murdered. Yea, so
hardened at this time was this Jerusalem in her sins, that she feared
not to commit the biggest, and to bind herself by wish under the
guilt and damning evil of it; saying, when she had murdered the Son
of God, "His blood be upon us and our children."
And though Jesus Christ did, both by doctrine, miracles, and holiness
of life, seek to put a stop to their villanies, yet they shut their
eyes, stopped their ears, and rested not, till, as was hinted before,
they had driven him out of the world. Yea, that they might, if
possible, have extinguished his name, and exploded his doctrine out
of the world, they, against all argument, and in despite of Heaven,
its mighty hand, and undeniable proof of his resurrection, did hire
soldiers to invent a lie, saying, his disciples stole him away from
the grave; on purpose that men might not count him the Saviour of the
world, nor trust in him for the remission of sins.
They were, saith Paul, contrary to all men: for they did not only
shut up the door of life against themselves, but forbade that it
should be opened to any else. "Forbidding us," saith he, "to preach
to the Gentiles, that they might be saved, to fill up their sins
alway;" Matt. xxiii. 35; chap. xv. 7-9; Mark vii. 6-8; Matt. iii. 7-
9; John viii. 33, 41; Matt. xxvii. 18; Mark iii. 30; Matt. xxiii. 37;
Luke xiii. 33, 34; Matt. xxvii. 25; chap. xx. 11-16; 1 Thess. ii. 14-
16.
This is the city, and these are the people; this is their character,
and these are their sins: nor can there be produced their parallel
in all this world. Nay, what world, what people, what nation, for
sin and transgression, could, or can be compared to Jerusalem!
especially if you join to the matter of fact the light they sinned
against, and the patience which they abused. Infinite was the
wickedness upon this account which they committed.
After all their abusings of wise men, and prophets, God sent unto
them John Baptist, to reduce them, and then his Son to redeem them;
but they would be neither reduced nor redeemed, but persecuted both
to the death. Nor did they, as I said, stop here; the holy apostles
they afterwards persecuted also to death, even so many as they could;
the rest they drove from them unto the utmost corners.
II. I come now to show you what it was to preach the gospel to them.
It was, saith Luke, "to preach to them repentance and remission of
sins" in Christ's name; or, as Mark has it, to bid them "repent and
believe the gospel," Mark i. 15; not that repentance is a cause of
remission, but a sign of our hearty reception thereof. Repentance is
therefore here put to intimate, that no pretended faith of the gospel
is good that is not accompanied with it: and this he doth on
purpose, because he would not have them deceive themselves: for with
what faith can he expect remission of sins in the name of Christ,
that is not heartily sorry for them? Or how shall a man be able to
give to others a satisfactory account of his unfeigned subjection to
the gospel, that yet abides in his impenitency?
Wherefore repentance is here joined with faith in the way of
receiving the gospel. Faith is that without which it cannot be
received at all; and repentance that without which it cannot be
received unfeignedly. When therefore Christ says, he would have
repentance and remission of sins preached in his name among all
nations, it is as much as to say, I will that all men every where be
sorry for their sins, and accept of mercy at God's hand through me,
lest they fall under his wrath in the judgment. For as I had said,
without repentance, what pretence soever men have of faith, they
cannot escape the wrath to come. Wherefore Paul saith, God commands
"all men every where to repent," (in order to their salvation),
"because he hath appointed a day in the which he will judge the world
in righteousness by that man whom he hath ordained;" Acts xvii. 31.
And now to come to this clause, "Beginning at Jerusalem;" that is,
that Christ would have Jerusalem have the first offer of the gospel.
1. This cannot be so commanded, because they had now any more right
of themselves thereto than had any of the nations of the world; for
their sins had divested them of all self-deservings.
2. Nor yet, because they stood upon the advance-ground with the
worst of the sinners of the nations; nay, rather, the sinners of the
nations had the advance-ground of them: for Jerusalem was, long
before she had added this iniquity to her sin, worse than the very
nations that God cast out before the children of Israel; 2 Chron.
xxxiii.
3. It must therefore follow, that this clause, Begin at Jerusalem,
was put into this commission of mere grace and compassion, even from
the overflowings of the bowels of mercy; for indeed they were the
worst, and so in the most deplorable condition of any people under
the heavens.
Whatever, therefore, their relation was to Abraham, Isaac, or Jacob,
however they formerly had been the people among whom God had placed
his name and worship, they were now degenerated from God, more than
the nations were from their idols, and were become guilty of the
highest sins which the people of the world were capable of
committing. Nay, none can be capable of committing of such
pardonable sins as they committed against their God, when they slew
his Son, and persecuted his name and word.
From these words, therefore, thus explained, we gain this
observation:
That Jesus Christ would have mercy offered in the first place to the
biggest sinners.
That these Jerusalem sinners were the biggest sinners that ever were
in the world, I think none will deny, that believes that Christ was
the best man that ever was in the world, and also was their Lord God.
And that they were to have the first offer of his grace, the text is
as clear as the sun; for it saith, "Begin at Jerusalem." "Preach,"
saith he, "repentance and remission of sins" to the Jerusalem
sinners: to the Jerusalem sinners in the first place.
One would a-thought, since the Jerusalem sinners were the worst and
greatest sinners, Christ's greatest enemies, and those that not only
despised his person, doctrine, and miracles, but that a little before
had had their hands up to the elbows in his heart-blood, that he
should rather have said, Go into all the world, and preach repentance
and remission of sins among all nations; and after that offer the
same to Jerusalem; yea, it had been infinite grace, if he had said
so. But what grace is this, or what name shall we give it, when he
commands that this repentance and remission of sins, which is
designed to be preached in all nations, should first be offered to
Jerusalem, in the first place to the worst of sinners!
Nor was this the first time that the grace which was in the heart of
Christ thus shewed itself to the world. For while he was yet alive,
even while he was yet in Jerusalem, and perceived even among these
Jerusalem sinners, which was the most vile amongst them, he still in
his preaching did signify that he had a desire that the worst of
these worst should in the first place come unto him. The which he
showeth, where he saith to the better sort of them, "The publicans
and harlots enter into the kingdom of God before you;" Matt. xxi. 31.
Also when he compared Jerusalem with the sinners of the nations, then
he commands that the Jerusalem sinners should have the gospel at
present confined to them. "Go not," saith he, "into the way of the
Gentiles, and into any of the cities of the Samaritans enter ye not;
but go rather to the lost sheep of the house of Israel;" Matt. x. 5,
6; chap. xxiii. 37; but go rather to them, for they were in the most
fearful plight.
These therefore must have the cream of the gospel, namely, the first
offer thereof in his lifetime: yea, when he departed out of the
world, he left this as part of his last will with his preachers, that
they also should offer it first to Jerusalem. He had a mind, a
careful mind, as it seems, to privilege the worst of sinners with the
first offer of mercy, and to take from among them a people to be the
first fruits unto God and to the Lamb.
The 15th of Luke also is famous for this, where the Lord Jesus takes
more care, as appears there by three parables, for the lost sheep,
lost groat, and the prodigal son, than for the other sheep, the other
pence, or for the son that said he had never transgressed, yea, he
shows that there is joy in heaven, among the angels of God, at the
repentance of one sinner, more than over ninety and nine just
persons, which need no repentance; Luke xv.
After this manner therefore the mind of Christ was set on the
salvation of the biggest sinners in his lifetime. But join to this,
this clause, which he carefully put into the apostles' commission to
preach, when he departed hence to the Father, and then you shall see
that his heart was vehemently set upon it; for these were part of his
last words with them, Preach my gospel to all nations, but see that
you begin at Jerusalem.
Nor did the apostles overlook this clause when their Lord was gone
into heaven: they went first to them of Jerusalem, and preached
Christ's gospel to them: they abode also there for a season and
time, and preached it to no body else, for they had regard to the
commandment of their Lord.
And it is to be observed, namely, that the first sermon which they
preached after the ascension of Christ, it was preached to the very
worst of these Jerusalem sinners, even to these that were the
murderers of Jesus Christ, Acts ii. 23, for these are part of the
sermon: "Ye took him, and by wicked hands have crucified and slain
him." Yea, the next sermon, and the next, and also the next to that,
was preached to the self-same murderers, to the end they might be
saved; Acts iii. 14-16; chap. iv. 10, 11; chap. v. 30; chap. vii. 52.
But we will return to the first sermon that was preached to these
Jerusalem sinners, by which will be manifest more than great grace,
if it be duly considered.
For after that Peter, and the rest of the apostles, had, in their
exhortation, persuaded these wretches to believe that they had killed
the Prince of life, and after they had duly fallen under the guilt of
their murder, saying, "Men and brethren, what shall we do?" he
replies, by an universal tender to them all in general, considering
them as Christ's killers, that if they were sorry for what they had
done, and would be baptized for the remission of their sins in his
name, they should receive the gift of the Holy Ghost; Acts ii. 37,
38.
This he said to them all, though he knew that they were such sinners.
Yea, he said it without the least stick or stop, or pause of spirit,
as to whether he had best to say so or no. Nay, so far off was Peter
from making an objection against one of them, that by a particular
clause in his exhortation, he endeavours, that not one of them may
escape the salvation offered. "Repent," saith he, "and be baptized
every one of you." I shut out never a one of you; for I am commanded
by my Lord to deal with you, as it were, one by one, by the word of
his salvation. But why speaks he so particularly? Oh! there were
reasons for it. The people with whom the apostles were now to deal,
as they were murderers of our Lord, and to be charged in the general
with his blood, so they had their various and particular acts of
villany in the guilt thereof, now lying upon their consciences. And
the guilt of these their various and particular acts of wickedness,
could not perhaps be reached to a removal thereof, but by this
particular application. Repent every one of you; be baptized every
one of you, in his name, for the remission of sins, and you shall,
every one of you, receive the gift of the Holy Ghost.
Object. But I was one of them that plotted to take away his life.
May I be saved by him?
Peter. Every one of you.
Object. But I was one of them that bare false witness against him.
Is there grace for me?
Peter. For every one of you.
Object. But I was one of them that cried out, Crucify him, crucify
him; and desired that Barabbas the murderer might live, rather than
him. What will become of me, think you?
Peter. I am to preach repentance and remission of sins to every one
of you, says Peter.
Object. But I was one of them that did spit in his face when he
stood before his accusers. I also was one that mocked him, when in
anguish he hanged bleeding on the tree. Is there room for me?
Peter. For every one of you, says Peter.
Object. But I was one of them that in his extremity said, give him
gall and vinegar to drink. Why may not I expect the same when
anguish and guilt is upon me?
Peter. Repent of these your wickednesses, and here is remission of
sins for every one of you.
Object. But I railed on him, I reviled him, I hated him, I rejoiced
to see him mocked at by others. Can there be hopes for me?
Peter. There is for every one of you. "Repent and be baptised every
one of you in the name of Jesus Christ, for the remission of sins,
and ye shall receive the gift of the Holy Ghost." Oh! what a blessed
"Every one of you," is here! How willing was Peter, and the Lord
Jesus, by his ministry, to catch these murderers with the word of the
gospel, that they might be made monuments of the grace of God! How
unwilling, I say, was he, that any of these should escape the hand of
mercy! Yea, what an amazing wonder it is to think, that above all
the world, and above every body in it, these should have the first
offer of mercy! "Beginning at Jerusalem."
But was there not something of moment in this clause of the
commission? Did not Peter, think you, see a great deal in it, that
he should thus begin with these men, and thus offer, so particularly,
this grace to each particular man of them?
But, as I told you, this is not all; these Jerusalem sinners must
have this offer again and again; every one of them must be offered it
over and over. Christ would not take their first rejection for a
denial, nor their second repulse for a denial; but he will have grace
offered once, and twice, and thrice, to these Jerusalem sinners. Is
not this amazing grace? Christ will not be put off. These are the
sinners that are sinners indeed. They are sinners of the biggest
sort; consequently such as Christ can, if they convert and be saved,
best serve his ends and designs upon. Of which more anon.
But what a pitch of grace is this! Christ is minded to amaze the
world, and to shew, that he acteth not like the children of men.
This is that which he said of old. "I will not execute the
fierceness of my wrath, I will not return to destroy Ephraim; for I
am God and not man;" Hos. xi. 9. This is not the manner of men; men
are shorter winded; men are soon moved to take vengeance, and to
right themselves in a way of wrath and indignation. But God is full
of grace, full of patience, ready to forgive, and one that delights
in mercy. All this is seen in our text. The biggest sinners must
first be offered mercy; they must, I say, have the cream of the
gospel offered unto them.
But we will a little proceed. In the third chapter we find, that
they who escaped converting by the first sermon, are called upon
again, to accept of grace and forgiveness, for their murder committed
upon the Son of God. You have killed, yea, "you have denied, the
holy one and the just, and desired a murderer to be granted unto you;
and killed the Prince of life." Mark, he falls again upon the very
men that actually were, as you have it in the chapters following, his
very betrayers and murderers, Acts iii. 14, 15; as being loath that
they should escape the mercy of forgiveness; and exhorts them again
to repent, that their sins might "be blotted out;" verses 19, 20.
Again, in the fourth chapter, he charges them afresh with this
murder, ver. 10; but withal tells them, salvation is in no other.
Then, like a heavenly decoy, he puts himself also among them, to draw
them the better under the net of the gospel; saying, "There is none
other name under heaven given among men, whereby we must be saved;"
ver. 12.
In the fifth chapter you find them railing at him, because he
continued preaching among them salvation in the name of Jesus. But
he tells them, that that very Jesus whom they had slain and hanged on
a tree, him God had raised up, and exalted to be a Prince and a
Saviour, to give repentance to Israel, and forgiveness of sins: ver.
29-31. Still insinuating, that though they had killed him, and to
this day rejected him, yet his business was to bestow upon them
repentance and forgiveness of sins.
'Tis true, after they began to kill again, and when nothing but
killing would serve their turn, then they that were scattered abroad
went every where preaching the word. Yet even some of them so
hankered after the conversion of the Jews, that they preached the
gospel only to them. Also the apostles still made their abode at
Jerusalem, in hopes that they might yet let down their net for
another draught of these Jerusalem sinners. Neither did Paul and
Barnabas, who were the ministers of God to the Gentiles, but offer
the gospel, in the first place, to those of them that for their
wickedness were scattered like vagabonds among the nations; yea, and
when they rendered rebellion and blasphemy for their service and
love, they replied, it was necessary that the word of God should
first have been spoken to them; Acts i. 8; chap. xiii. 46, 47.
Nor was this their preaching unsuccessful among these people: but
the Lord Jesus so wrought with the word thus spoken, that thousands
of them came flocking to him for mercy. Three thousand of them
closed with him at the first; and afterwards two thousand more; for
now they were in number about five thousand; whereas before sermons
were preached to these murderers, the number of the disciples was not
above "a hundred and twenty;" Acts i. 15; chap. ii. 41; chap. iv. 4.
Also among these people that thus flocked to him for mercy, there was
a "great company of the priests;" chap. vi. 7. Now the priests were
they that were the greatest of these biggest sinners; they were the
ringleaders, they were the inventors and ringleaders in the mischief.
It was they that set the people against the Lord Jesus, and that were
the cause why the uproar increased, until Pilate had given sentence
upon him. "The chief priests and elders," says the text, "persuaded
(the people) the multitude," that they should ask Barabbas, and
destroy Jesus; Matt. xxvii. 20. And yet behold the priests, yea, a
great company of the priests, became obedient to the faith.
Oh the greatness of the grace of Christ, that he should be thus in
love with the souls of Jerusalem sinners! that he should be thus
delighted with the salvation of the Jerusalem sinners! that he should
not only will that his gospel should be offered them, but that it
should be offered unto them first, and before other sinners were
admitted to a hearing of it. "Begin at Jerusalem."
Were this doctrine well believed, where would there be a place for a
doubt, or a fear of the damnation of the soul, if the sinner be
penitent, how bad a life soever he has lived, how many soever in
number are his sins?
But this grace is hid from the eyes of men; the devil hides it from
them; for he knows it is alluring, he knows it has an attracting
virtue in it: for this is it that above all arguments can draw the
soul to God.
I cannot help it, but must let drop another word. The first church,
the Jerusalem church, from whence the gospel was to be sent into all
the world, was a church made up of Jerusalem sinners. These great
sinners were here the most shining monuments of the exceeding grace
of God.
Thus you see I have proved the doctrine; and that not only by showing
you that this was the practice of the Lord Jesus Christ in his
lifetime, but his last will when he went up to God; saying, Begin to
preach at Jerusalem.
Yea, it is yet further manifested, in that when his ministers first
began to preach there, he joined his power to the word, to the
converting of thousands of his betrayers and murderers, and also many
of the ringleading priests to the faith.
I shall now proceed, and shall show you,
1. The reasons of the point:
2. And then make some application of the whole.
The observation, you know, is this: Jesus Christ would have mercy
offered, in the first place, to the biggest sinners, to the Jerusalem
sinners: "Preach repentance, and remission of sins, in my name,
among all nations, beginning at Jerusalem."
The reasons of the point are:
First, Because the biggest sinners have most need thereof. He that
has most need, reason says, should be helped first. I mean, when a
helping hand is offered, and now it is: for the gospel of the grace
of God is sent to help the world; Acts xvi. 9. But the biggest
sinner has most need. Therefore, in reason, when mercy is sent down
from heaven to men, the worst of men should have the first offer of
it. "Begin at Jerusalem." This is the reason which the Lord Christ
himself renders, why in his lifetime he left the best, and turned him
to the worst; why he sat so loose from the righteous, and stuck so
close to the wicked. "The whole," saith he, "have no need of the
physician, but the sick. I came not to call the righteous, but
sinners to repentance;" Mark ii. 15-47.
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