It is Palm Sunday . . . Then Why is Jesus Weeping?

Palm Sunday. It's a day of Jesus coronation and entry into Jerusalem as the conquering king.

But why he was weeping on the day of his coronation. That's the question I'm going to answer in this message today. Don't miss it. Call somebody.

Tell them to tune in. This is going to bless you and encourage you on your way. Welcome to a very special Leading the Way with Dr. Michael Youssef. This weekend marks Palm Sunday and the beginning of Holy Week around the world. Although Jesus initially entered Jerusalem in a procession of victory, it was seasoned with the Son of God's tears. Today on Leading the Way, join Dr. Michael Youssef for a look at weeping that led to joy and a deeper understanding of the week that changed the world and eternity.

So listen with me now to Dr. Michael Youssef and Leading the Way. It was the first Palm Sunday and Jesus is weeping. You say, how can that be? We all have known Palm Sunday to be a day of Jesus triumphantly entering into Jerusalem. We know it as a day when the crowd rejoiced and celebrated. We know it as a day when the King riding on a donkey entering into Jerusalem. We know it as a day of pomp and circumstance. In fact, we know it as the day when they all shouted Hosanna, which means save now. But then there's another side to Palm Sunday.

Another side that we don't often think about. That other side of Palm Sunday is more relevant today on this Palm Sunday than any other Palm Sunday in my lifetime or in your lifetime. This other side of Palm Sunday is about tears.

It's about weeping our beloved Savior, the Lord Jesus Christ, who created us. He created the universe and he knows the importance of weeping, whether it would be aloud or in silence. For the Bible tells us that the Lord Jesus Christ had done both. He wept silently and he sobbed loudly. Both of them. And in fact, both within a matter of days of each other.

I'm going to explain this. Another Bible only tells us or records at least in the records twice that Jesus wept. But we don't know whether he had wept other times or not. We just know these are the two times recorded.

The two times that I want to talk to you about happen within days of each other. Once he was choked up and being choked up, he had tears streaming down his cheeks and wept silently. And he did this when he saw his friends, Mary and Martha, and the Jews who came with her to the tomb of Lazarus, her brother, when they were grieving and mourning over his death.

The second time was Palm Sunday. A few days later, these two different times, we have two different Greek words for the different kinds of weeping. One meant, as I said, Jesus just being choked up and then weeping in tears. The other indicates that he was sobbing, possibly uncontrollably. On Palm Sunday, he most likely sobbed over sin and the consequences of sin and the blindness to sin. In John chapter 11, verse 33, 34, and 35, with the record of him going to Lazarus' tomb and raising him from the dead, he says, therefore, when Jesus saw her, talking about Mary, weeping, and the Jews who came with her weeping, he groaned in the Spirit. Then it says, Jesus wept. In Luke chapter 19, verse 41, now he drew near to the city, talking about Jerusalem, of course, and there he sobbed.

That's really what the word means. I know I mentioned that was only a few days from the time he wept outside of Lazarus' tomb. He weeps, this time uncontrollably, sobbing. It is Palm Sunday, and Jesus is weeping.

At Lazarus' tomb, he was weeping silently. His tears were streaming down his cheeks, but not on Palm Sunday, not on Palm Sunday. As I said, the Greek words, two different words here, but the Greek word that is used on the occasion of Palm Sunday is not the same word used at Lazarus' tomb. The word of crying on Palm Sunday is kleiau. Kleiau means deep sobs, uncontrollable sobs.

I think most of you know what I'm talking about. It means loud, possibly wailing, and groaning. It's the same word, by the way, that's used of Peter after denying the Lord, and he walked out and he wept bitterly.

Same word. But this was Palm Sunday. People were cheering. Children were singing. The crowd was celebrating. The city was in a carnival-like atmosphere. There were waving of palm branches, but Jesus was weeping.

Why? Over their blindness to their sin, over their failing to recognize their Savior, Messiah, of whom the whole Bible, their Bible, their Old Testament prophesied, over their wanting a Messiah as Savior that suits them over them rejecting of God's only plan for salvation. Here's what he said in Luke 13, 34, talking to inhabitants of Jerusalem, because that's the epicenter. How often I wanted to gather your children as a hen gathers her brood under her wings, but you would not. My beloved friends, we do not weep over our sin anymore. In the 21st century church, we do not weep over sin. We actually take pride in sin. We parade sin. We take pride parades for sin and celebrating sin.

We sweep sin under the cup and say, well everybody's doing it. We don't condemn sin anymore, whether it's a sin in our lives or a sin in the church, but if we view the cities the way the Lord views the cities, if we view the churches the way the Lord view the churches, we would weep too. Sadly, we've lost our tears.

Oh yeah, we get soggy and tearful when we watch an emotional movie. We even weep when our pet dies. But we don't weep over sin.

Sin that put Jesus on that cross. The departure from biblical truth in many a church ought to make us weep. It's Palm Sunday, but Jesus is weeping.

But there's another reason why Jesus sobbed. He sobbed over their disastrous future, their disastrous future. They were living for the moment. They couldn't think of the future.

They were a consummate me generation. They were not thinking about the future, what the future is bringing. But being God of very God, who became man of very man, the Lord Jesus Christ knows the future. And make no mistake about it, only God knows the future. And because he knew the future, he predicted the future of Jerusalem, what is going to happen to it. And that is because he's aware of what's going to happen, what is going to take place, and therefore he wept over their future. And his prophecy was fulfilled merely less than 40 years later with meticulous details. In Luke 19 44 it says, not one stone is going to be staying on top of the other.

And sure enough, 70 AD the Romans came and raised the city of Jerusalem to the ground, destroyed it completely. Think about this, Jesus is sobbing knowing that probably 37, 38 years from now that city is going to be totally destroyed and he was sobbing over their future. I wonder if Jesus is not sobbing over our lack of understanding of the times and the future judgment that is coming. No doubt his tears today would be over the blindness to sin, over the blindness of the future of those who have rejected his salvation, over those who have modified or changed his gospel, over those who watered down the message of salvation, over those who doubt the claims of Jesus, over those who take him along with many other gods in the journey of life, over those who made him equal to all these so-called founders of other religions. It's Palm Sunday and Jesus is weeping. As you look around you and you see these global events are taking place and I'm telling you just take it from me, not in this proportion, I know history.

Never third of the world population is under quarantine, it's never happened in history before. As you look around and you see these global events that have been prophesied, global events that as I said never happened before, global events and I'm wondering, I'm wondering, I'm just wondering if we should not be weeping just like Jesus over those who are going to spend eternity in the torment of hell where the fire will not die down and the worms will not die. Jesus in words that express deep, deep, deep disappointment he said to the inhabitants of Jerusalem and he's saying to us, had you recognized the time you lived in, you would have repented and turned to me as your only Savior, Lord, Messiah, King.

Question, what causes Jesus to sob like that? It's over the people who missed the opportunity, over the people who were so blinded that they could not see the desperation over the people who could not heed his warning. Beloved, today we stand at a crossroads in every way, trust me, in every way we stand at a crossroad. Will we wake up in time and change our priorities? May it be so please, Lord. May it be so please, Lord.

May you wake us up in time, Lord. I don't have to tell you that the masses are always fickle, they follow the trends, they go with the flow, they follow public opinion polls, they were up on one thing today, down on the same thing tomorrow. What they love today, they hate tomorrow. The same was back then in the time of Jesus. They were saying, Hosanna, on Palm Sunday. Five days later, they were saying, crucify him, crucify him. People can praise you one day and damn you the next.

They're fickle. It's Palm Sunday and Jesus is weeping. Think about many moments in history when people missed opportunities.

There are so many, I won't have time to go through them but I'll tell you one example. In 1917, just think about this, 1917, when the Bolshevik Revolution was raging in the streets of Moscow, the Synod of the Russian Orthodox Church was meeting. Oh, not to pray, no. Not to discern the times in which they were living, no. Not looking into the word of God and say, what can we do? No, no, no, the Synod was debating the color of the vestments.

This is the robes they wear. My beloved, we're no better than they are. I'm not condemning them, I'm just saying, here's an example. Let's not be like that. The coronavirus has changed our world and changed it permanently. Make no mistake about it, it's changed the world.

The world as we know it is no longer going to exist. Yet many people feeding themselves on false hope, many people are oblivious to God's loving call, alarm bells, wake up call. Many are just waiting to, oh, when things get back to normal, when things get back to normal, things will not get back to normal.

Many are blinded by their own selfish political ambitions instead of caring for the people. Breaks my heart. It's Palm Sunday and Jesus is weeping. Our precious Savior still weeps today. He weeps over those who have rejected him as their only Savior and Lord, over those who have placed their hope in a church or a denomination, over those who have placed their faith and hope on a dead religion, whatever religion it may be, over those who are hoping that their philanthropy is going to save them. Oh yes, it's Palm Sunday and Jesus is weeping. He's also weeping over his children's sorrow, those who love Jesus. Whatever you're going through, whatever pain you're experiencing, whatever fear you're going through, whatever situation you're in, he's weeping in sympathy with you. He's weeping over the believer's broken hearts, over those who have experienced physical, emotional, or psychological pain.

Oh yes, he's there with you and he is saying, had you known the times, had you discerned the seriousness of your visitation, had you realized the shortness of time, even today, even today, it was Palm Sunday and Jesus is weeping. I want to conclude by good news. The bad news is judgment is coming.

Sooner or later judgment is coming. The bad news is that we who love Jesus, the children of the living God, suffer with the rest of the world. But here's the good news for the believers. Here's the good news for the believers. The very last time in the Bible, the word tears is mentioned, is found in Revelation chapter 21 verse 4.

The very last time you hear the word tears mentioned. This scene in heaven as described by John the Revelator, it's an amazing scene, it's an exciting scene and every time I read it I can't wait to be part of it. Imagine that scenario in heaven that John saw with his own eyes, saw the future.

And here's what he said in verse 4 chapter 21 of the book of Revelation. God shall wipe away all of the tears. On this Palm Sunday of all those who have placed their hope and trust totally, completely, fully, holy upon the death and the resurrection of Jesus Christ. They can rejoice.

They can rejoice. For he personally is going to wipe every one of our tears, every one of those tears that have been bottled in heaven. He's going to wipe away all of our sorrow, all of our pain, all of our suffering, all of our heartache. Beloved that is truly the greatest hope that is worthy of the name on this Palm Sunday. He shall wipe away all our tears. In your days of darkness and sorrow, in your days of disappointment and suffering, in your days of grief and even in the morning, all of your tears are bottled up in heaven.

Why? So that one day he will wipe them all away. He will wipe them all away. David said it best.

Let me repeat what I said earlier in the message. In Psalm 30 verse 5, weeping may endure for the night but joy comes in the morning. Don't ever forget, don't ever forget that all of Jesus's tears, all of his agony, all of his suffering, all of his agonizing days on earth gave way to Resurrection Sunday, Resurrection Sunday.

Oh yes, it may be Good Friday but Sunday is coming, Sunday is coming. I don't think I can conclude this message without speaking to that person who is maybe curious about the Christian faith, maybe curious about Jesus, maybe read something about Jesus and admires Jesus. That person who have been resisting the loving invitation and the loving call of Jesus to come to him, those who know deep down that God has been calling them, has been using people in their lives to call them to come to him, to confess their sins, repent of their sins, receive his eternal forgiveness as a gift from his hand. That person who is reluctant to surrender his or her life to the Lord Jesus Christ, I want to tell you, I want to tell you this on the authority of God himself and his word and I can tell you on the authority of the testimony of millions of believers that you will never know more loving person than Jesus.

You will never experience more kindness than will come from Jesus. You will never receive true and lasting forgiveness, everlasting forgiveness as you receive from Jesus and ultimately whatever days we have on this earth, you'll never know perfect peace, deep peace, peace that doesn't make sense to the world as you would receive when you come to Jesus. Come, confess, confess to him.

He already knows, confess to him, repent, come to him now before it's too late. There is such a thing as too late. When Jesus returns to the earth, it will be too late. The word of God said today, today is the day of salvation.

Therefore, harden not your heart. I'm going to pray with you and if you want to give your life to Christ, pray with me. Father, I thank you for giving us your son, the Lord Jesus Christ, for him leaving heaven, coming to earth, dying for us, rising again with power to demonstrate his victory over death.

I pray for that person who may be reluctant and maybe unsure and maybe uncertain. This day be the day of their salvation and for those of us who love you, we trust you completely. Our very lives are in your hands. Our very breath is in your hands.

Whether we live or die, we live for Christ, die in Christ. So Father, I pray, give us a confidence to trust you even more. In Jesus name.

Amen. Thank you for joining Dr. Michael Yusef for this very special Leading the Way. Hey, perhaps today's words have awakened some faith questions that are deep within you. Well, let me encourage you to have a conversation with the Leading the Way pastor. You can begin by filling out a quick form at ltw.org slash Jesus. That's ltw.org slash Jesus. You know, many people around the world have connected to Jesus through the ministry of Leading the Way.

And so we want to share one of those stories with you. You see, it is through your prayerful support that these eternity changing connections are even possible. A man living in the challenging part of the Middle East contacted Leading the Way to learn about the Christian life. The Leading the Way team shared the gospel and this man eagerly embraced Jesus. The team was able to connect him with a discipleship group through which he will soon be baptized. Isn't that encouraging?

God is using Leading the Way to encourage people, encouraging them to begin their faith journey and to grow deeper in the truth. So I hope that you'll learn more about what's happening in all areas of the world and partner with Dr. Yousef today. Here's how to do that. Give us a call. 866-626-4356. That's 866-626-4356 and online at ltw.org. You can also write to us at Leading the Way, Post Office, Box 201100, Atlanta, Georgia, 30325.

Again, that's Post Office, Box 201100, Atlanta, Georgia, 30325. Well, that's it for today. Do remember though to make plans to join Dr. Michael Yousef right here for more Leading the Way audio. This program is furnished by Leading the Way with Dr. Michael Yousef.