Blessed Is He Who Comes in the Name of the Lord
September 13, 2026 · Brian Hunter
Scripture referenced
The passage this message was preached from, in full, with every other passage it reached for.
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Matthew 23:37-39 primary passage read aloud and expounded throughout the sermon
37 “Jerusalem, Jerusalem, who kills the prophets, and stones those who are sent to her! How often I would have gathered your children together, even as a hen gathers her chicks under her wings, and you would not!
38 Behold, your house is left to you desolate.
39 For I tell you, you will not see me from now on, until you say, ‘Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord!’”
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Keep this verse
Matthew 22
identified as Jesus's final address to the general public
1 Jesus answered and spoke to them again in parables, saying,
2 “The Kingdom of Heaven is like a certain king, who made a marriage feast for his son,
3 and sent out his servants to call those who were invited to the marriage feast, but they would not come.
4 Again he sent out other servants, saying, ‘Tell those who are invited, “Behold, I have prepared my dinner. My cattle and my fatlings are killed, and all things are ready. Come to the marriage feast!”’
5 But they made light of it, and went their ways, one to his own farm, another to his merchandise,
6 and the rest grabbed his servants, and treated them shamefully, and killed them.
7 When the king heard that, he was angry, and sent his armies, destroyed those murderers, and burned their city.
8 “Then he said to his servants, ‘The wedding is ready, but those who were invited weren’t worthy.
9 Go therefore to the intersections of the highways, and as many as you may find, invite to the marriage feast.’
10 Those servants went out into the highways, and gathered together as many as they found, both bad and good. The wedding was filled with guests.
11 But when the king came in to see the guests, he saw there a man who didn’t have on wedding clothing,
12 and he said to him, ‘Friend, how did you come in here not wearing wedding clothing?’ He was speechless.
13 Then the king said to the servants, ‘Bind him hand and foot, take him away, and throw him into the outer darkness. That is where the weeping and grinding of teeth will be.’
14 For many are called, but few chosen.”
15 Then the Pharisees went and took counsel how they might entrap him in his talk.
16 They sent their disciples to him, along with the Herodians, saying, “Teacher, we know that you are honest, and teach the way of God in truth, no matter whom you teach, for you aren’t partial to anyone.
17 Tell us therefore, what do you think? Is it lawful to pay taxes to Caesar, or not?”
18 But Jesus perceived their wickedness, and said, “Why do you test me, you hypocrites?
19 Show me the tax money.” They brought to him a denarius.
20 He asked them, “Whose is this image and inscription?”
21 They said to him, “Caesar’s.” Then he said to them, “Give therefore to Caesar the things that are Caesar’s, and to God the things that are God’s.”
22 When they heard it, they marveled, and left him, and went away.
23 On that day Sadducees (those who say that there is no resurrection) came to him. They asked him,
24 saying, “Teacher, Moses said, ‘If a man dies, having no children, his brother shall marry his wife, and raise up offspring for his brother.’
25 Now there were with us seven brothers. The first married and died, and having no offspring left his wife to his brother.
26 In the same way, the second also, and the third, to the seventh.
27 After them all, the woman died.
28 In the resurrection therefore, whose wife will she be of the seven? For they all had her.”
29 But Jesus answered them, “You are mistaken, not knowing the Scriptures, nor the power of God.
30 For in the resurrection they neither marry, nor are given in marriage, but are like God’s angels in heaven.
31 But concerning the resurrection of the dead, haven’t you read that which was spoken to you by God, saying,
32 ‘I am the God of Abraham, and the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob?’ God is not the God of the dead, but of the living.”
33 When the multitudes heard it, they were astonished at his teaching.
34 But the Pharisees, when they heard that he had silenced the Sadducees, gathered themselves together.
35 One of them, a lawyer, asked him a question, testing him.
36 “Teacher, which is the greatest commandment in the law?”
37 Jesus said to him, “‘You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your mind.’
38 This is the first and great commandment.
39 A second likewise is this, ‘You shall love your neighbor as yourself.’
40 The whole law and the prophets depend on these two commandments.”
41 Now while the Pharisees were gathered together, Jesus asked them a question,
42 saying, “What do you think of the Christ? Whose son is he?” They said to him, “Of David.”
43 He said to them, “How then does David in the Spirit call him Lord, saying,
44 ‘The Lord said to my Lord, sit on my right hand, until I make your enemies a footstool for your feet?’
45 “If then David calls him Lord, how is he his son?”
46 No one was able to answer him a word, neither did any man dare ask him any more questions from that day forward.
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Matthew 24
identified as Jesus's final message to his disciples
1 Jesus went out from the temple, and was going on his way. His disciples came to him to show him the buildings of the temple.
2 But he answered them, “You see all of these things, don’t you? Most certainly I tell you, there will not be left here one stone on another, that will not be thrown down.”
3 As he sat on the Mount of Olives, the disciples came to him privately, saying, “Tell us, when will these things be? What is the sign of your coming, and of the end of the age?”
4 Jesus answered them, “Be careful that no one leads you astray.
5 For many will come in my name, saying, ‘I am the Christ,’ and will lead many astray.
6 You will hear of wars and rumors of wars. See that you aren’t troubled, for all this must happen, but the end is not yet.
7 For nation will rise against nation, and kingdom against kingdom; and there will be famines, plagues, and earthquakes in various places.
8 But all these things are the beginning of birth pains.
9 Then they will deliver you up to oppression, and will kill you. You will be hated by all of the nations for my name’s sake.
10 Then many will stumble, and will deliver up one another, and will hate one another.
11 Many false prophets will arise, and will lead many astray.
12 Because iniquity will be multiplied, the love of many will grow cold.
13 But he who endures to the end, the same will be saved.
14 This Good News of the Kingdom will be preached in the whole world for a testimony to all the nations, and then the end will come.
15 “When, therefore, you see the abomination of desolation, which was spoken of through Daniel the prophet, standing in the holy place (let the reader understand),
16 then let those who are in Judea flee to the mountains.
17 Let him who is on the housetop not go down to take out the things that are in his house.
18 Let him who is in the field not return back to get his clothes.
19 But woe to those who are with child and to nursing mothers in those days!
20 Pray that your flight will not be in the winter, nor on a Sabbath,
21 for then there will be great oppression, such as has not been from the beginning of the world until now, no, nor ever will be.
22 Unless those days had been shortened, no flesh would have been saved. But for the sake of the chosen ones, those days will be shortened.
23 “Then if any man tells you, ‘Behold, here is the Christ,’ or, ‘There,’ don’t believe it.
24 For there will arise false christs, and false prophets, and they will show great signs and wonders, so as to lead astray, if possible, even the chosen ones.
25 “Behold, I have told you beforehand.
26 If therefore they tell you, ‘Behold, he is in the wilderness,’ don’t go out; ‘Behold, he is in the inner rooms,’ don’t believe it.
27 For as the lightning flashes from the east, and is seen even to the west, so will be the coming of the Son of Man.
28 For wherever the carcass is, that is where the vultures gather together.
29 But immediately after the oppression of those days, the sun will be darkened, the moon will not give its light, the stars will fall from the sky, and the powers of the heavens will be shaken;
30 and then the sign of the Son of Man will appear in the sky. Then all the tribes of the earth will mourn, and they will see the Son of Man coming on the clouds of the sky with power and great glory.
31 He will send out his angels with a great sound of a trumpet, and they will gather together his chosen ones from the four winds, from one end of the sky to the other.
32 “Now from the fig tree learn this parable. When its branch has now become tender, and produces its leaves, you know that the summer is near.
33 Even so you also, when you see all these things, know that it is near, even at the doors.
34 Most certainly I tell you, this generation will not pass away, until all these things are accomplished.
35 Heaven and earth will pass away, but my words will not pass away.
36 But no one knows of that day and hour, not even the angels of heaven, but my Father only.
37 “As the days of Noah were, so will be the coming of the Son of Man.
38 For as in those days which were before the flood they were eating and drinking, marrying and giving in marriage, until the day that Noah entered into the ship,
39 and they didn’t know until the flood came, and took them all away, so will be the coming of the Son of Man.
40 Then two men will be in the field: one will be taken and one will be left.
41 Two women will be grinding at the mill: one will be taken and one will be left.
42 Watch therefore, for you don’t know in what hour your Lord comes.
43 But know this, that if the master of the house had known in what watch of the night the thief was coming, he would have watched, and would not have allowed his house to be broken into.
44 Therefore also be ready, for in an hour that you don’t expect, the Son of Man will come.
45 “Who then is the faithful and wise servant, whom his lord has set over his household, to give them their food in due season?
46 Blessed is that servant whom his lord finds doing so when he comes.
47 Most certainly I tell you that he will set him over all that he has.
48 But if that evil servant should say in his heart, ‘My lord is delaying his coming,’
49 and begins to beat his fellow servants, and eat and drink with the drunkards,
50 the lord of that servant will come in a day when he doesn’t expect it, and in an hour when he doesn’t know it,
51 and will cut him in pieces, and appoint his portion with the hypocrites. That is where the weeping and grinding of teeth will be.
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Matthew 23
identified as Jesus's final address to the religious leaders
1 Then Jesus spoke to the multitudes and to his disciples,
2 saying, “The scribes and the Pharisees sat on Moses’ seat.
3 All things therefore whatever they tell you to observe, observe and do, but don’t do their works; for they say, and don’t do.
4 For they bind heavy burdens that are grievous to be borne, and lay them on men’s shoulders; but they themselves will not lift a finger to help them.
5 But all their works they do to be seen by men. They make their phylacteries broad, enlarge the fringes of their garments,
6 and love the place of honor at feasts, the best seats in the synagogues,
7 the salutations in the marketplaces, and to be called ‘Rabbi, Rabbi’ by men.
8 But don’t you be called ‘Rabbi,’ for one is your teacher, the Christ, and all of you are brothers.
9 Call no man on the earth your father, for one is your Father, he who is in heaven.
10 Neither be called masters, for one is your master, the Christ.
11 But he who is greatest among you will be your servant.
12 Whoever exalts himself will be humbled, and whoever humbles himself will be exalted.
13 “Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! For you devour widows’ houses, and as a pretense you make long prayers. Therefore you will receive greater condemnation.
14 “But woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! Because you shut up the Kingdom of Heaven against men; for you don’t enter in yourselves, neither do you allow those who are entering in to enter.
15 Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! For you travel around by sea and land to make one proselyte; and when he becomes one, you make him twice as much a son of Gehenna as yourselves.
16 “Woe to you, you blind guides, who say, ‘Whoever swears by the temple, it is nothing; but whoever swears by the gold of the temple, he is obligated.’
17 You blind fools! For which is greater, the gold, or the temple that sanctifies the gold?
18 ‘Whoever swears by the altar, it is nothing; but whoever swears by the gift that is on it, he is obligated?’
19 You blind fools! For which is greater, the gift, or the altar that sanctifies the gift?
20 He therefore who swears by the altar, swears by it, and by everything on it.
21 He who swears by the temple, swears by it, and by him who has been living in it.
22 He who swears by heaven, swears by the throne of God, and by him who sits on it.
23 “Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! For you tithe mint, dill, and cumin, and have left undone the weightier matters of the law: justice, mercy, and faith. But you ought to have done these, and not to have left the other undone.
24 You blind guides, who strain out a gnat, and swallow a camel!
25 “Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! For you clean the outside of the cup and of the platter, but within they are full of extortion and unrighteousness.
26 You blind Pharisee, first clean the inside of the cup and of the platter, that its outside may become clean also.
27 “Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! For you are like whitened tombs, which outwardly appear beautiful, but inwardly are full of dead men’s bones, and of all uncleanness.
28 Even so you also outwardly appear righteous to men, but inwardly you are full of hypocrisy and iniquity.
29 “Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! For you build the tombs of the prophets, and decorate the tombs of the righteous,
30 and say, ‘If we had lived in the days of our fathers, we wouldn’t have been partakers with them in the blood of the prophets.’
31 Therefore you testify to yourselves that you are children of those who killed the prophets.
32 Fill up, then, the measure of your fathers.
33 You serpents, you offspring of vipers, how will you escape the judgment of Gehenna?
34 Therefore behold, I send to you prophets, wise men, and scribes. Some of them you will kill and crucify; and some of them you will scourge in your synagogues, and persecute from city to city;
35 that on you may come all the righteous blood shed on the earth, from the blood of righteous Abel to the blood of Zachariah son of Barachiah, whom you killed between the sanctuary and the altar.
36 Most certainly I tell you, all these things will come upon this generation.
37 “Jerusalem, Jerusalem, who kills the prophets, and stones those who are sent to her! How often I would have gathered your children together, even as a hen gathers her chicks under her wings, and you would not!
38 Behold, your house is left to you desolate.
39 For I tell you, you will not see me from now on, until you say, ‘Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord!’”
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Psalm 118:22
the stone the builders rejected has become the cornerstone, linked to Jesus as the rejected cornerstone
22 The stone which the builders rejected has become the cornerstone.
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Psalm 118:24
this is the day the Lord has made, quoted as familiar camp song
24 This is the day that Yahweh has made. We will rejoice and be glad in it!
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Psalm 118:25
please Lord please save us, please Lord please give us success
25 Save us now, we beg you, Yahweh! Yahweh, we beg you, send prosperity now.
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Psalm 118:26
blessed is the one who comes in the name of the Lord, identified as the source Jesus was quoting in Matthew 23:39
26 Blessed is he who comes in Yahweh’s name! We have blessed you out of Yahweh’s house.
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Recap
The message in order, in a few minutes of reading.
Pastor Brian opened Matthew 23:37-39 with a group of IDF reservists in the room for the second Sunday in a row, and used Jesus's lament over Jerusalem to work toward a personal question: where have you been treating Jesus as a secondary option rather than the cornerstone of your life?
What was said
Jesus's words in Matthew 23 come at a specific moment. Chapter 22 was his final address to the general public, chapter 24 would be his private words to his disciples, and chapter 23 is his final address to the religious leaders. That context matters, because the things he says there are blunt in a way that would have felt offensive to the people he was speaking to, and Brian said that was intentional.
The emotion behind "O Jerusalem, Jerusalem" was where the message started. Whether Jesus said it once with overwhelming feeling or literally twice, the literary repetition in the text is there to carry weight. Brian pointed to the gospel accounts where Jesus wept over the city, and suggested the tears are audible in the words. What followed was not condemnation but longing, the image of a hen wanting to gather her chicks, and the grief of being refused.
Verse 38, "your house is left to you desolate," would have sounded absurd to anyone standing in the crowded temple courts during Passover week. Brian described it as a deliberate provocation, Jesus saying something so ironic that people would stop and think. Spiritually, the temple was already empty. Prophetically, he was describing what the Romans would do to Jerusalem roughly forty years later.
Verse 39 sets a condition on Jesus's return. He will not be seen again until the words "blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord" are spoken. That phrase is not something Jesus invented. He was quoting Psalm 118, and Brian walked through how a rabbi's listeners would have instantly recognized the reference and filled in the surrounding text themselves, including verse 22: "the stone that the builders rejected has now become the cornerstone." By quoting that psalm, Jesus was pointing directly at what the religious leaders had done to him and telling them plainly who he was.
What will it take for Israel to say those words and fulfill the condition Jesus placed on his return? Brian said he would answer that next week. For the remaining time, he turned the cornerstone image toward the people in the room.
The Hebrew word for "rejected" in Psalm 118:22, Brian explained, does not only mean to throw something away outright. It also means to treat something casually, to esteem it lightly, to use it as an addition rather than a foundation. He asked whether anyone in the room had been doing that, not rejecting Jesus as Savior but quietly making him a secondary or tertiary option while trying to handle a difficult situation on their own. He invited people to put up their hands, prayed over those who did, and closed with the image of Jesus saying "get in here" to anyone willing to come back under his wings.
Touch points
Things you could actually do this week.
- Think about one area of your life where you have been trying to figure things out on your own and have not made Jesus your first option, and bring it to Him in prayer this week.
- Read Psalm 118 in full so you can see the passage Brian was drawing from and sit with what verse 22 says about the cornerstone.
- Read all of Matthew 23 to understand who Jesus was speaking to and why his words there were so pointed.
- If you have been bumping your head against a hard situation, take a moment this week to stop scheming and specifically ask Jesus into that situation by name.
- Come to the closing prayer and worship evening at the TMC when Tribe announces it, and be part of marking what God did there before that chapter closes.
Doing a Bible study?
Here is a guide we have prepared for you: the passages in order, questions for the group, and room to write.
- Brian described Jesus weeping over Jerusalem and then saying 'your house is abandoned and desolate' to a crowd in a packed, bustling temple. What does it tell you about Jesus that his words came from grief rather than contempt?
- Brian said Jesus 'loves to afflict the comfortable' and that if you have never been offended by Jesus you probably have not walked with him very long. Has there been a moment when something Jesus said genuinely offended or unsettled you, and what happened when you sat with that?
and 3 more questions in the guide
Resumen en español
El mensaje resumido, en español.
Brian tomó como punto de partida las palabras de Jesús en Mateo 23:37-39, donde Jesús llora sobre Jerusalén con una mezcla de angustia, lamento y frustración, porque quiso reunir a su pueblo como una gallina reúne a sus polluelos, pero ellos no quisieron. Brian explicó que estas palabras fueron el último mensaje de Jesús a los líderes religiosos de su tiempo, y que aunque el templo estaba lleno de gente en esos días previos a la Pascua, Jesús declaró que la casa estaba espiritualmente abandonada y desolada, una afirmación que también resultó ser profética: cuarenta años después, Roma destruyó Jerusalén y el templo.
El pasaje central de la noche fue el versículo 39, donde Jesús dice que no será visto de nuevo hasta que Israel diga "bendito el que viene en el nombre del Señor." Brian señaló que Jesús estaba citando el Salmo 118, y que los líderes religiosos habrían reconocido de inmediato la conexión con el versículo 22 de ese mismo salmo: "la piedra que los constructores rechazaron se ha convertido en la piedra angular." Con eso, Jesús les estaba diciendo sin rodeos que ellos eran los constructores que habían rechazado la piedra más importante. Las condiciones para el regreso de Jesús, y lo que llevará a Israel a decir esas palabras, serán el tema de la semana siguiente.
Para cerrar, Brian dirigió la conversación hacia cada persona presente. Explicó que la palabra "rechazar" en hebreo no solo significa desechar por completo, sino también tratar algo con indiferencia o darle un lugar secundario. La pregunta que dejó fue personal: ¿hay algún área de tu vida donde has estado tratando a Jesús como una opción más, en lugar de como la piedra angular? Invitó a quienes se identificaran con eso a reconocerlo ante Dios y a volver a hacer de Jesús su primera opción, y varios en la congregación respondieron levantando la mano para recibir oración.
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Pasajes bíblicos usados
- Mateo 22 (mensaje final de Jesús al público general, mencionado como contexto)
- Mateo 23:37-39 (texto principal de la noche)
- Mateo 24 (mensaje final de Jesús a sus discípulos, mencionado como contexto)
- Salmos 118:22, 24-26
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